Hey everyone! Has is it really only been a couple of days since I last updated? I guess I just got really into this chapter. That and it was a really boring Saturday. Any way, now I'd like to address my latest reviews:

Synk- I'm actually really glad you mentioned that, because I was thinking about how i"d introduce that, and so I decided to put it in this chapter.

TaIoFoReVeR523-Yeah, we'll be meeting Lin in a couple of chapters. And thanks again for all of your awesome reviews!

DoctorWhotaliaandtheOlympian s- Your reviews always make me so happy!

Dreamer372- Fangirl away! I loved writing that bit so much! :)

Elysenjazz- :) Sometimes you gotta be random in order to get anyone to shut up, you know what I mean?

And here we go!


Chapter 42

It was comfortably silent on the way to Dublith. I finished up some sketches in my book and let my focus go in and out on Ed and Al's conversation.

But as night fell, I found myself still awake. I wasn't sure if I could fall asleep when I was so far from home; I didn't want to alarm everyone else when I woke up screaming. Unfortunately, Alphonse took this opportunity to ask me more about my past.

"EJ, Brother told me about the date inside your watch; he said that you mentioned something about your mother being killed. I understand; our mother died during the epidemic of that summer t—"

"It wasn't the sickness that killed her, Al." I interrupted, my voice shaky. "She was murdered. Mom had shoved us kids into the basement and told us not to come out. Finally we couldn't stand it anymore. When we came up into the living room, Dad was sobbing over Mom, and she was covered in blood." I recalled the horrible memory of that night, along with others: Mom singing me to sleep when I woke up from nightmares, her waking me up with her sweet cotton scent and her voice telling me: "Good morning, my gorgeous girl", and just her smiling at me whenever I accomplished a goal I'd set, whenever I'd made her proud.

I let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know."

"It's fine Al; I'm not mad at you. Just when I think about it I get upset because we still don't know who killed her. And I only wanna find out who did it so I can ask him why he felt the need to kill my mother." I felt my nails pressing crescent shapes into my palms and got a hold of my anger.

"Your grandfather was telling us, back in Amadeus, that you had really bad nightmares as a kid." Al admitted.

"Yeah; but for some reason when I'm with you guys, I don't get them." I looked over at Ed, who was sleeping soundly across from me. "I don't know what it is, but I'm grateful to the both of you. For that at least. You guys are pretty incredible."

"Even though we had to kidnap you?" Al joked. I smiled.

"Even though you had to kidnap me. Thanks for cheering me up, Al. Good night." I laid my head down on Al's cool armor and slowly fell asleep.


I'm in that hallway again, the one that leads me to the room with the two kids, except I can't move to go and save the little girl. Something that feels like ropes hold me down, and when I glance back I can sense that there's something there, but it won't reveal itself. Instead, a bright red symbol began to glow and burn into the shadows behind me. I didn't recognize it until it got bigger and brighter, almost searing my eyes.

"No way. . ." I whispered. The symbol showed a winged snake about to devour its own tail, with a hexagram in the center. "An ouroborus . . .?"


My eyes opened violently to a point where it felt like someone had sliced them open with a dull knife. I rubbed my eyes. You know how you get that nasty, goopy stuff in the corner of your eyes when you wake up? From the way I'd been sleeping, my eyes must've gotten stuck together with that, and hadn't liked it when I'd woken up so suddenly.

Ed jerked awake not two seconds after me.

"We've almost reached the Dublith station. Were you having a dream?" Al directed his question at his older brother instead of me. Ed slumped even further into the seat.

"Yeah; I was dreaming about him." The way Ed said the word made me think that whoever he'd been dreaming about wasn't on his good side. Al faced the window. All I could really do was wonder who he'd been dreaming about.

The train screeched to halt and the three of us disembarked. I was back in shorts, a button up shirt, and my regular shoes, which was a lot more comfortable than the dress I'd been wearing in Rush Valley. Ed and Al were a little hesitant getting off, but I took each of their wrists and hauled them after me.

"What're you so enthusiastic about?" Edward seemed a little skeptic about my happiness.

"I just wanna meet the mastermind that taught you two what you know." I replied, now walking backwards. If you looked closely you could see that Ed's cheeks were a shade brighter than normal. "And you two have to lead me there because I have no idea where I'm going." They didn't respond. I blew a strand of hair out of my face.

"Look you two: I understand if you guys are nervous about seeing your teacher, but you're going to have to face her sooner or later." I reasoned. The Elrics came to a halt outside of a little shop with the word "meat" emblazoned on the sign above the awning.

"Well, we're here." Ed stated, and then hung his head. "It'd be nice if Teacher wasn't home." AL nodded his agreement. I face the two of them, hands on my hips.

"Oh come on you two; she can't be that bad!" The door opened up behind me and I felt the tip of a knife in between my shoulder blades. I stayed perfectly still, only turning my head to stare up into the face of a man. He was about the same size as Jinx (you remember him; big guy, basically a huge teddy bear?), but had darker hair and was a little bit broader in the midsection, if you know what I mean.

"H-hello Sig." Ed whimpered.

"Long time no see." Al said awkwardly. The Elrics seemed to shrink under Sig's gaze. He reached out and slapped a hand on top of Ed's head.

"Good to see you. You've grown up a little huh?" Sig commented. I stepped away from the point of the knife so it wouldn't jab me in the spine if Sig forgot that I was there.

"Uh, you probably don't recognize me, but it's Alphonse." Al pointed to himself and then bowed. "Sorry we've been away so long." Sig stopped and looked at Alphonse with a weird expression, but then began patting the head of the younger Elric.

"Looks like you grew up more than a little." His gaze then found me and I waved awkwardly. "Who's your girlfriend, Ed?"

My face burned. Ed and I began to ramble and protest that neither of us was going steady with the other person.

And yet you want to, the voice in my head sang. Shut up, I told it.

"Anyway, I'm EJ. EJ Samuels."

"Nice to meet you." Sig stuck out his hand and I shook it, getting the horrible sense of paranoia that he was going to snap my wrist if he shook too hard. Sig broke the handshake and went to one of the windows, talking to someone inside.

"Lying down? That's not a good sign." Al commented.

"I guess she hasn't gotten any better since last time." Ed stated.

"What are you two on about now?" I felt myself getting annoyed that they were keeping me in the dark again, when the door opened, a foot came flying out, catching Ed in the face and propelling him into the street. I watched with a horrified fascination, and figured the best place to hide would be behind Al. I peeked around his armor as a tall woman stepped out of the house. She wore dark pants that cut off at the knees, and a long, white sleeveless shirt that showed the navy blue flamel tattooed on her left breast. She also had on backless sandals inscribed with W.C. Her black hair was braided in rows and pulled back into a ponytail.

"Hello my stupid pupil. I heard you've become one of the military's dogs." She glared down at Ed with such ferocity that I was reminded of an old saying my dad used to tell me when Mom got mad: "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn."

Or in this case, a woman's anger, which was directed towards Al. He panicked.

"Uh. . .Teacher, you see. . .it's because. . ." He stuttered, trying to explain to her the fact that he was a suit of armor without putting his life at risk. Her eyes softened.

"Al? Look at you; you've gotten so big!" She exclaimed, sounding just like any proud parent would. Al relaxed and went to shake her hand to say hello, but she grabbed Al's wrist and flipped him over.

"Your skills are rusty." She said blatantly; I must've made a squeaking noise because I suddenly found myself staring up Ed and Al's teacher.

"And who might you be?" She stepped up to me and I tried not to show how freaked out I was. I cleared my throat.

"EJ; EJ Samuels." I straightened up. Now that she was close to me, Ed and Al's teacher had dark eyes that seemed to stare into my soul. She held my gaze down the end of her nose (which when you think about how short I was, made a lot of sense) and then her face split into a small grin.

"It's nice to meet you EJ; I'm Izumi Curtis." Izumi held out her hand and I took it hesitantly.

At that moment I was glad that I did, because Izumi attempted to throw me the same way she had Al. The world went upside down, but I managed to get my feet under me and not land on my back, slipping my hand out of Izumi's grasp before she could flip me the opposite direction. I got into a fighting stance, but Izumi just laughed good naturedly.

"You've got spirit; I like that." She told me, and I'll admit I was surprised to hear her say that phrase in the way she had. Most of the time when I was told I had spirit (spunk, guts, etc.) it wasn't a compliment.

"You've got lots of energy for someone who's not feeling well." Al sounded a little shaken off to my left. Ed came up on my right, rubbing his forehead.

"NOT FEELING WELL?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I'M PERFCETLY—" Izumi began to yell, but then was interrupted by the river of blood that spewed from her mouth.

Now I'm not squeamish about blood, but even that freaked me out. Sig put a hand on Izumi's shoulder. He was holding a little bottle of what I guessed was medicine.

"You shouldn't overexert yourself." He said simply. Izumi turned and gazed adoringly into Sig's face.

My brain hypothetically smacked itself; how did I not get the hint sooner that Izumi and Sig were married. I'd noticed the ring of Izumi's hand, sure, but I guess I was too busy worrying about getting my back broken against the sidewalk.

I have priorities, okay?

Anyhow, the Elrics and I were permitted entry into the Curtis's residence and we sat around the table. When Ed asked Izumi about the Philosopher's Stone, she commented that it really didn't hold much interest for her.

"I see; okay." Ed hid his disappointment really well with a tone of understanding.

"There was that one guy in Central who knew a lot about the Stone, wasn't there?" Sig asked. Just that phrase made me turn to the Elrics with hope in my expression. If there was somebody in Central who knew what they needed to do to get their bodies back, then maybe the quest wasn't totally hopeless after all.

"So who was this guy?" Ed wondered. I could almost hear his excited heartbeat.

"Let me think . . .What was his name? Oh: Hoenheim." Izumi replied. Ed's look of hopefulness turned to shock and then morphed into an expression I'd never seen him wear: rage. Al looked at his brother worriedly. I went to put a hand on Ed's shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

"Then he's alive." Ed's tone made me jump back; I heard anger in it, but I was surprised to hear a slight amount of hurt.

"Someone you know?" Izumi inquired.

Alphonse spoke up: "He's our father." Izumi actually looked surprised.

"The one who ran out on you when you were little?"

The way she phrased her question made me think about all the times Jeremiah would be arguing about Dad.

"He locks himself in his library all day and leaves me to take care of you guys! He practically ran out on us! He's as much a father to me as a dog is."

It'd hurt to hear my own brother say that, because I knew that it was true. That didn't mean I wanted it thrown back in my face whenever I tried to talk about it. I'd been thinking on Jeremiah's anger for a while. I think he blamed Dad for Mom's death: that he was with her in the room and yet he hadn't been able to save her. And if he couldn't be trusted to look after Mom, how could Dad be trusted to make sure nothing happened to me?

"Um, did our dad say anything about the Philosopher's Stone?" Al broke the awkward silence.

"Something about a lifelong dream coming true; he seemed very happy when he said it." Izumi lowered her gaze to the blonde sitting next to me and proceeded to whack him in the head, possibly to knock him out of his sour mood. Whatever the reason, it worked.

"Does she do that often?" I asked Sig, pointing after Izumi, who had announced that we were going to eat.

"Just to them; it was really the best way to keep them in line." He replied.

He shouldn't have told me that. I turned slowly to face the Elrics again, saying: "Oh, really?" with a very evil look on my face.

"Don't be giving me that face." Ed threatened. I dropped the act.

"What face?" Ed spread his hands.

"Every time, Samuels. Every single time!"

"What?" I demanded, utterly confused.

"You make that face and it just—see you're doing it again!"

"I honestly have no idea what you are talking about." I turned away and folded my arms.

"Oh, you so do."

~~3rd person~~

Alphonse watched Brother and EJ going at it again, and thought back to when the two of them had been in the hospital after Lab 5. EJ had rushed into the hallway that Al had been sitting in, her face red. When she'd confessed that she'd kissed Ed, it had almost broken him out of his thought process that he didn't actually exist. Now that he had the solid foundation that yes: Alphonse Elric did in fact exist, he wanted to know EJ more as a person.

She was smart, pretty, and got along easily with everyone. That was a pretty big feat in and of itself when Ed was involved. There were a lot of little things Al had noticed in the time he'd known EJ, like the way her eyes darkened whenever she got angry, or got a little spark in them when she was happy; the way her face arranged itself when she was being sarcastic, and the way the marks on her back lit up when she got annoyed.

Was he beginning to develop a crush on her?

~~EJ~~

I'll admit this right now: Izumi was amazing; I could tell that much from her cooking. As hungry as I was, I ate slowly, not wanting to look like a pig, even though I wanted to shovel as much food as possible into my mouth.

Al was the only one not eating, and he blamed it on having a really big meal on the train ride here. I raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Hey guys: we should tell them about Rush Valley; about the baby, you know?" Ed interrupted, which directed my thoughts to that night.

I hadn't been exposed to that much alchemy since the night when Dad tried to resurrect Mom. Originally the baby wasn't going to be born alive; it'd gotten twisted around somehow and was tangled up. I'd managed to save the baby, but it had taken a lot of energy and concentration to a point where I'd almost collapsed halfway through. Winry had supported me the whole time, telling me about the baby's progress.

Ed and Al told the story about how they helped deliver Ms. Satilla's baby, and I had to chuckle.

"It's kinda generous to call what you guys did 'helping'." I commented, resting my chin on my fist. "You two sat out in the hall while us girls did all the work."

"Even so, the mother was so brave. Everyone's blessed when a baby's born, huh?" Al asked. I couldn't help but notice that Sig turned sadly towards Izumi as we were talking. I wondered if something had happened that concerned giving birth, because I had noticed that there weren't any kids running around the house like I'd expected.

"Yes that's right. That same miracle brings us all into this world. You should always be grateful for the lives you've been given." Izumi told us, and it brought a smile back to my face.

"So has your teacher always been like that?" I asked the Elrics later that evening. The three of us were in the spare bedroom, Ed on one bed and me on the other with Al on the floor. Ed was on his back staring at the ceiling, and I lay on my stomach. It was nice being with them like this, no tension or anything between us.

"Yeah; she hasn't changed in all this time." Ed replied, getting lost in his own thoughts again. He stayed perfectly still. I leaned over to Al and whispered, "Every time he sits still for one second I never have my sketchbook with me."

"You're an artist?"

"A little bit; Ed's kinda the one thing I've been focused on. He's hard to draw because for one thing: he's always moving around, and two: I can never get the color of his eyes just right." My gaze went back to Ed, in the same position.

"What did you mean by your teacher not changing? How did you guys meet Izumi anyway?"

Al went on to tell me that there'd been a really big rainstorm in their village when they were kids, and Izumi had managed to reroute the river and dam it so the flood wouldn't wipe out Risembool. They'd then begged Izumi to take them on as her students, which she did after she was told that Ed and Al were without parents. She'd left them on an island for a month until they could figure out the meaning of "one is all, all is one" (my eyes got big at this; Al assured me that they'd been fine). When the boys had discovered the meaning, they'd continued to train with Izumi for about six months before returning home.

I was even more surprised when Al said that Izumi could perform alchemy without a transmutation circle the same way Ed could. She'd told them "maybe it happens when you see 'the Truth'."

My expression turned to horror; I remembered Truth all too well. It had taken my stomach from me and forced me to watch the payment of someone else's sin.

Ed sat up; he seemed to come to the same conclusion I did.

"Our teacher has seen the Truth too."

I suddenly wrapped my arms around myself; I'd told myself over and over that I would say something to the Elrics when I was ready, and it was now or never.

"Guys, there's something I have to tell you."

"What is it, EJ?" Al asked. I knew that he'd be understanding and willing to listen to me, even if Ed wouldn't.

"I . . . I've seen it too."

"Seen what?" Ed knew what I was talking about, I could tell. He just didn't want to believe it.

"Truth." I whispered. Al gasped as I hung my head.

". . .What was taken from you?" Ed wasn't facing me; I could tell from the distance of his voice. It was low with barely controlled anger, whether at me or at Truth I wasn't sure. Possibly both.

". . . My stomach." I finally answered, and the Elrics whirled on me. I could tell that they were thinking "How did you survive?", but I just undid the first few buttons on my shirt and slid it aside so they could see the metal sheet that called itself my abdomen.

I felt tears gathering under my eyelids and some of them fell down my cheeks as I remembered how much pain I'd been in.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I'd screamed at the top of my lungs, feeling blood pool under my nightgown. The pain was blinding and also numbing; I was in too much shock to really understand what had just happened. All I knew was that my head throbbed and my stomach was gone.

"Who was it?" Ed had one hand on the metal; I hadn't noticed.

"That's the thing; I wasn't the one who performed the transmutation. I just got caught in it."

"Then . . . who did perform it?"

". . .My father. He was trying to bring back my mom." I admitted. "Raising four young kids without her? I'm thinking he lost his mind a little bit."

I left the two of them to think about that until morning, when we confronted Izumi about her having seen the truth. Of course, it wasn't the kind of question you could just randomly ask somebody, so Ed was a little hesitant to ask her.

Before any of us could react, Izumi had pulled a spear out of the wall of the house and was attacking Ed with it. He dodged as she swung it at him, and as if acting on instinct, Ed turned his automail into a blade and sliced off the head of the spear.

"As I suspected: you can transmute without a matrix." She said. Ed reeled backward. "On top of which: Al is now a suit of armor, and two of your limbs are made of automail!"

"Teacher, how did know?" Ed marveled, sounding a little scared.

"Please, I can tell just by sparring with you! You saw it, didn't you Edward?"

Ed didn't say anything, but his shock was easily seen.

"YOU SAW IT?!" Izumi yelled, causing Ed to stutter his affirmation. I realized what she was saying and turned towards Al.

"You guys. . . you didn't tell me what really happened. . . you were lying to me?" Al didn't meet my eyes.

"EJ, have you seen it as well?" Izumi put a hand on my shoulder. I nodded, and told her what happened to me. She then relayed her story: She hadn't been able to conceive for a long time, and then when she was expecting her first child, Izumi had fallen ill, and the baby had died. Izumi then tried to bring her child back to life through human transmutation, but it failed and took some of her internal organs.

Ed gripped his right arm as if remembering what had happened that time. My hand went to my stomach. A small part of me hated my father for doing what he did, because I was now plagued with nightmares about a condescending, faceless, figure that called itself "God".

"Now I realize that I should've told you sooner." Izumi said at the same time I did. I wondered: if I'd told Ed when he'd kicked me that time when we were sparring, would things be different between us?

"It must've been awful." Izumi said, and Ed tried to cover up his emotions.

"Nah; I did it to myself after all. It hasn't been that big a deal really."

"Yeah! And besides, now I've got this long list of things I get to look forward to eating once I get my body back!" Al pulled out his little black notebook to show us.

I on the other hand, let my head drop and felt myself beginning to shake with sobs. I put my head in my hands. I didn't want Ed to see me cry like a little girl, but then again, that's what I was, wasn't it? I was still a little girl, trying to make it in an adult's world and prove to everyone else that they couldn't keep treating me like I was a kid.

I found myself pulled into a hug, recognizing Ed's familiar scent next to me. I buried my face into Izumi's neck and let myself have this moment of weakness. I didn't want to be strong anymore; it was too much for me to handle now.

You can do this EJ; don't be strong for Mom, be strong for them, the voice in my head told me.

You're right; I can be strong for them, but for now, I need to have this moment.

I felt my inner self smile, as if to say "Go right ahead."


So this chapter was a little bit shorter because most of the episode was Ed remembering him and Al's training with Teacher, so that made it kind of easy for me to write. I'm currently working on the next chapter, so expect another update in a few days! Thanks as always for alerting, favoriting, and reviewing! You people get extra awesome brownies!

~~Sady Mordan