Mirage

Chapter Three – Without a Soul, Part Two

Munich 1921

When Alphonse returned home after parting ways with Edward and Greta, he saw that the front door was open. Could they possibly have left it open when they left that morning? He didn't think so. Cautiously, he entered the house. "Hello?" he called.

"Hello brother," came Edward's voice. Alphonse groaned, rolling his eyes. He had no idea how Edward had beaten him home, but he was more irritated by the brother thing than anything else.

"You left the door open, Ed," he said angrily.

Edward appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, holding a knife and grinning maniacally. "That bastard isn't here, and neither is the shrimp. Maybe I should just kill you instead, eh?"

Alphonse glared at him. "I am not in the mood for this," he snapped. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Oh, isn't that sweet. The Fullmetal brat's found another brother to cling to," said Ed, still with that crazy grin, like nothing Alphonse had ever seen. He had always thought Ed was a little mad, with his impossible lies that he himself seemed to believe, but he had never seen him like this.

"Ed, you're scaring me. What's a Fullmetal?"

Without warning Ed lunged at him, his fist colliding solidly with Alphonse's cheek, flinging him back across the room, knocking over the sofa. His vision blurred for a moment, and Al thought he was losing consciousness. When Edward spoke his voice had a weird echo to it.

"We're going to wait for the shrimp to come back, and he can watch me kill you. And then I'll kill him. Slowly. But not before I make him tell me where I can find that bastard Hoheneheim!"

Slowly, Alphonse started to sit up, but Edward was on top of him in an instant, pinning him to the ground with the knife pointed at his throat. Oh God, he thought. He was going to die, right here, tonight.

As he stared into Edwards face, his muddled thoughts began to clear. How could Edward have hit him with so much force as to fling him across the room? That kind of strength was inhuman! Realization suddenly dawned. "You're not Edward," he breathed, half expecting the knife to slice into his flesh as he spoke.

"Sure I am," said the creature who looked like Edward, sounded like Edward, but sure as anything wasn't Edward. "I'm your loving brother Edward," the voice said with sickening sweetness. This thing, whatever it was, had punched him with his right fist. Edward's false hand couldn't even make a fist.

After what seemed an eternity of struggling, he heard Edward's voice calling, "Alphonse, ya left the door open!" and cringed. This was it. Edward had returned, and now this thing was going to kill them both.

Central 1917

Alphonse wandered around the storefronts of Central, supposedly shopping for a present for Winry, but his mind was awash with top secret government information, new alchemical discoveries, and foremost, his conversation with Wrath. With how much he learned from him in such a short conversation, it just confirmed how much more information Wrath, and only Wrath, could give him. These two years since he had been restored Alphonse had accomplished many things, all with the goal of bringing his brother back. But he felt like he was working at a puzzle that was missing half its pieces. If he could only lay all the cards out on the table, maybe then he would be able to make some actual progress.

Al stopped at a picture window, something for Winry catching his eye. When he came out of the store, he had in a nice little box a nice little set of custom made screwdrivers of rare shapes and sizes, something only available in a big city like this. Winry would love it. Stopping at a phone, he spontaneously dialed her number, and waited for her to pick up.

"Rockbell Automail," came her familiar voice.

"Hi Winry," said Alphonse.

"Are you coming home soon?" she asked at once. "Or do they need you to stay?"

"I'm not sure yet, listen, is Wrath still there?" Alphonse had been in Central for four days, and he had a feeling once Wrath's automail was replaced, he wouldn't stick around.

"No, he took off yesterday. He was absolutely terrified of Roze's son, it was very bizarre."

"Well, I bought you something-"

"You did?" came the squeal, just as he expected.

"Yeah, something you'll really like," Alphonse confirmed, "and I'm mailing it to you, because I'm not sure when I'll be able to come back to Rizembool."

Winry was silent on the other end for a moment. "Don't do anything dangerous, Al," she warned him. "Make sure you do come back."

Alphonse took her warning to heart. "I'll be careful, Winry, I promise. I have to go now. Bye."

"Bye," she said, worry clear in her voice.

When Wrath said she, Alphonse reasoned, he was referring to Dante, the one who created the homunculus. He didn't know much about Dante, not having any memories of her, but he knew that she was a powerful alchemist, powerful enough to put Roze into some kind of trance, powerful enough to manipulate an entire city through Roze, and that she was also in search of the Philosopher's Stone.

Izumi had warned Alphonse not to try to create the Philosopher's Stone, and when she realized that he was researching it anyway, she gave in and told him that he and Edward did find out how to create it, and that it was made from human souls, so many humans that an entire nation could be destroyed before the stone would be complete. Alphonse knew that before he had been restored, he and Edward had possession of the Philosopher's Stone. No one said they created it, merely just that they had it. Alphonse hoped they hadn't created it. And Alphonse had no intentions of creating it.

But maybe this Dante person had one. Izumi also told him that Dante had been her teacher, and lived deep in a forest near Dublith, and so after mailing Winry her gift, Alphonse purchased a train ticket to Dublith and sat down on a bench to wait for his train. He knew hoping that Dante had a Philosopher's Stone was a long shot, but he hoped to at least be able to talk with Wrath, to find out exactly what had happened down in the ancient city.

He tried not to think about how his alchemical research would be used by the military as a weapon. He didn't like to think about using alchemy to hurt people, even if the people it hurt were people trying to invade his country.

He tried not to think about what Wrath had told him, how Edward had killed the homunculus that had been born out of their attempt to resurrect their mother. Alphonse didn't remember what happened, didn't really know the situation, and Edward wouldn't have killed it if it had been in any way their mother. He couldn't have. This thing merely had their mother's body, not her soul, homunculus didn't have souls… but it knew it was a mother, didn't it? That was what Wrath had said, she was a mother but Edward didn't want her, just like Wrath was a son.

Alphonse shook his head, choosing instead to focus on the pattern the morning sun made on the station floor, and the sounds of the train whistles as they came and went through the huge station.

Munich

"Greetings, Fullmetal Shortness!"

Rage exploded across Edward's face. "You!" he cried.

Envy pressed the knife harder into Alphonse's skin, and a bit of blood began to trickle out of the wound. "Tell me where that bastard is, or your brother is dead!"

"You let him go, he has nothing to do with us!" Edward ordered.

"He does now," Envy sneered, watching Alphonse's breath quicken as he began to slide the knife. "Where's Hohenheim?" The creature demanded.

"I don't know, the bastard's up and disappeared again!" Edward shouted back.

Releasing Alphonse, Envy lunged at Edward, tackling him to the ground. Al saw the gun Edward had been holding clatter to the floor. "You're lying," Envy screamed. "You stupid brat, don't you get it? I'm going to kill you! And if you don't tell me where Father is, I'll make you watch me kill him!" he said, jerking his head toward Alphonse, who's hand was pressed to his swelling cheek.

"I told you, I don't know!" Edward repeated. "Is it so hard to believe that the old man might run off?"

"Is it so hard to believe that you might be lying to me in a pathetic attempt to save his life?" Envy retorted, violet eyes flashing. "I'll kill you, O Short One, and this time you'll stay dead!" With that, Envy raised the knife, making ready to plunge it into Edward's chest.

"Edward!" he heard Alphonse scream.

"Run away, Alphonse," Edward growled. "Now." Unable to free himself from Envy's inhuman strength, he did the only thing he could think of to defend himself: he raised his right arm to block the descending blow. Pain went ringing through his shoulder and his chest as the prosthetic absorbed the full impact of the attack. Clutching his right arm to his chest, Edward crawled towards the gun he had dropped, but as he reached for it Envy brought his foot down on his good left hand. Edward cringed, but swung his right leg up to try to knock Envy off balance. Envy stepped backward and grabbed Edward's leg with both hands, swinging him by the foot into the wall. Shaking the stars from his eyes, Edward scrambled over to the gun and snatched it up before Envy could stop him, firing every bullet into Envy's chest, watching a gaping, bloody hole open up.

Envy's laughter echoed in the silence after the shots. "Stupid shrimp," he shrieked. "You can't kill me!"

Edward steeled himself, and before Envy realized what he was about to do, he plunged his hand into the homunculus. Envy's eyes widened, and he gasped in shock. Edward's fingers closed around what he was after, and he withdrew the dripping bloody mass from Envy's body.

"You… you…" the thing gasped, blood beginning to pour from its mouth. Envy clutched the bleeding wound, staggering back, and incredibly, steadied himself. "I'll be back for you, Edward Elric, son of Hohenheim," he wheezed, "I'll destroy you both," and, even while dripping blood, managed to run out of the house.

Edward slipped the red stones into his pocket before making his way over to Alphonse. "I told you to run away," he said, eyeing Alphonse's wounds.

Alphonse's blue eyes met his. "I-I couldn't, Ed, I was terrified, I couldn't move. What was that?"

Ed slipped his left arm around his friend's waist, pulling him to his feet. "That was my father's other son that he had with another woman, four hundred years ago."

"Ed…" Alphonse groaned, not wanting to hear another impossible story.

"I told you, if you don't like my answers, then don't ask so many questions," Ed snapped.

"It tried to kill us!"

Ed nodded. "And it almost succeeded. You see what happens to people who get involved with me? It's dangerous. Come on, you're bleeding. Lets get you cleaned up."

Alphonse looked at the blood seeping through Ed's shirt. "So are you," he pointed out.

Ed looked down. "Figures," he muttered.

"What if he comes back?" Alphonse asked as Ed wiped the blood from his throat. It was just a shallow cut, but Edward bandaged it expertly and turned his attention to where Envy had punched him.

"I don't know," Edward said. "Maybe I wounded him enough that he'll just die." He didn't sound like he believed himself.

"But he said he can't die! And you shot him right in the chest, and pulled out his heart, and he still ran away," Alphonse argued, as Edward turned his face in his hand.

"You are going to have a really nasty bruise there," he said. "I'm going to get you some ice." Edward winced at the pain in his own shoulder, but walked into the kitchen to the icebox. "That wasn't his heart," he called to Alphonse from the other room. "He's a homunculus, he doesn't have a heart. Here." He handed Alphonse a towel full of ice cubes.

"What's a homunculus?"

"A failed attempt at human transmutation. Basically, an artificially created body without a soul."

Alphonse looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"I told you-"

"I know, if I don't like your answers, don't ask so many questions," Alphonse finished.

Edward placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, looking intently into his eyes. "I swear to you, Al, I have never lied to you."

"That's what you say every time," Alphonse said softly, and Edward got up and left the room, knowing that Al still didn't believe him, and not even blaming him.

Mansion

"Completely useless!" the woman who was not his mother cried, pacing back and forth in the sunlit hall. "Bring me the other Elric boy, I said, and you come back alone!" she shook her head. "I don't know why I bother with you at all."

Wrath smiled evilly. "But he's coming here, to look for me. Why should I try to kidnap him when I can make friends with him?"

"Friends? He doesn't want to be your friend, you're his enemy!" Dante snapped, spinning around to face him.

The child shrugged. "He doesn't know that. He doesn't remember anything."

The woman began to pace again. "I was so close to getting that Philosopher's Stone, I was this close-"

Wrath smirked. "But you didn't get it. And now you're rotting. You, who say you aren't human, are going to decay away just like any other human, and I, who you call your most inferior creation, will go on living-"

In a rage, Dante clapped her hands together and the floor began to roll under his feet, throwing him backwards into the wall. She turned back to the bright window, saying softly to herself, "Hohenheim's son doesn't know he was the Philosopher's Stone, he doesn't know whether or not he used it all, and he doesn't know that he is still the Philosopher's Stone. And he certainly has no idea to what lengths I will go to get it from him."

Dublith

Even though he felt bad about arguing with Izumi, Alphonse had a feeling that if he told her he was looking for Dante, she would stop him. He didn't want to be stopped. He was tired of everyone stopping him for his own protection. He could more than protect himself. After all, he was a State Alchemist now, just like Ed had been. When Ed was on his quest to get their bodies back, everyone didn't try to stop him.

He stopped in a corner store. "Excuse me," he inquired politely. "I'm looking for a woman named Dante. She's an alchemist-"

The man behind the counter shook his head. "Sorry kid, don't know her."

"She's supposed to live in the forest, outside of town."

"Don't know any alchemists, sorry," the man said again.

A customer interjected, "Isn't Mrs. Curtis an alchemist?"

Alphonse shook his head. "That's not who I'm looking for!" he said forcefully, ready to try another store.

"Hey, aren't you-" the customer started.

The shop owner interrupted. "Hey, you're the Fullmetal Alchemist, aren't you? The State Alchemist who helps the common man?" He looked him up and down. "You must have grown some, I always heard that Fullmetal was somewhat bean-sized."

In his mind's eye, Alphonse saw his brother throwing a fit at the comment, just like he knew he would have, like he always remembered him doing.

"Helps the common man?" scoffed the customer. "The Fullmetal Alchemist destroyed an entire city and an entire military division!"

"No," he said, still polite. "I'm not him. Thank you anyway, Goodbye," he said, leaving the shop and continuing through the town. The next person he inquired of told him Dante had died several years ago, but that perhaps her house was still there. Alphonse was playing with the idea of simply setting out in the forest and wandering until he found what he was looking for when a familiar voice called his name.

"Alphonse!" It was a slightly whiny, childish voice, and Al looked up, startled.

"Wrath?"

"Do you want to come home with me, Alphonse? I've been to your home, don't you want to see mine?" Wrath said innocently.

Alphonse was hesitant. "You mean you want to take me to her house? Dante's house?"

Wrath nodded emphatically. "She wants to talk to you. About the Philosopher's Stone."

At the mention of the stone, his face lit up. "Does she have it?"

Wrath shook his head and said slyly, "no, but she knows where to get it. Come on, this way."

Trying to ignore the feeling that something was not quite right, Alphonse followed the homunculus out of the town and into the forest. After quite some time of walking in silence, Alphonse began to phrase new questions in his mind. "I have some more questions for you, Wrath," he said. "That's why I came to Dublith."

Wrath nodded, walking swiftly through the woods. "Because I'm the only one who knows what happened to your brother. That's right, isn't it?"

"Uh, right," said Alphonse, a bit startled.

"Well, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but you can't tell anyone I told you. I'll get in trouble."

Al raised his eyebrows. "With who?"

"With Winry, the mechanic girl. She said she wouldn't fix my automail. And with your teacher."

What could they possibly have been hiding from him all this time? "That's fine," Al said shortly. "I wont tell them. But why would they all want to hide these things from me?"

He didn't really mean it as a question, and wasn't expecting Wrath to answer, but after a few minutes, the creature said, "Because they care about you. They're your family. They don't want you to be sad."

This startled Alphonse even more, but his resolve to know the truth was heightened. "I'm already sad," he said, as if that would make whatever he heard all right. "What I want to know is, why did Edward die if we had the Philosophers stone?" He turned to face the homunculus, and said, "You were there while we were using it. What happened?"

"Envy killed your brother. You used the Philosopher's Stone to bring him back," Wrath started.

"And how did I die?" Alphonse pressed, trying to prepare himself for the worst. After all, it was his own death everyone wanted to spare him from hearing about, wasn't it?

"You disappeared, because you used the Philosopher's Stone."

Alphonse shook his head. "I don't understand."

"You were the Philosopher's Stone. So when you used it, your body disappeared. And your brother was alive."

"How did I become the Stone?" Alphonse demanded.

Wrath shrugged. "Dunno."

Then Edward had pulled his body out of the gate, and attached his soul, all with his own powers. So he must have used his own body and soul as equivalent trade. I held all those lives? Thousands upon thousands of human lives, in my body. Brother, what did we do? What horrible things did we do for our own gain?

He thought back to the rumors he had heard, not just today, but in Central as well. The Fullmetal Alchemist destroyed the entire city of Lior, and an entire division of the military. All of Lior couldn't have been destroyed, Roze was from Lior, and she survived, there must have been others. But a military division had perished there, and Edward had been involved. Alphonse knew that much from his access to military records.

Shaking his head to clear it, he forced his mind back to the problem at hand. "So Edward's body is inside the gate. Just like mine was." He did not want to think about being a vessel for thousands of murdered souls. He did not want to think about the creature he and Edward created during the transmutation, the one Wrath called his mother. She was gone now, the stone was gone, it wasn't even a memory to him. All he needed was information.

Wrath slid his sly violet eyes onto Al's. "She knows how to call the gate."

Munich

Alone in front of the bathroom sink, Edward removed his shirt, and undid the straps that attached his prosthetic arm. His stump was bleeding from where the arm had cut into him when he blocked Envy's blow. Carefully, biting his lip from the pain, he cleaned the blood off and bandaged it up, wincing as he replaced the arm, which dug into where he had been cut. Experimentally, he tried to lift he arm, and watched it rise a few inches and stop, feeling a strange clicking sensation in the back of his shoulder but getting no more movement out of it. This wasn't good. He tried bending the arm at the elbow and got nothing. Crap.

He left the bathroom and sat down cross-legged on the bed, once again removing the arm, carefully inspecting it to see what might have broken. He could bend it at the elbow manually, so something that connected something somewhere must be damaged. He just had no idea which something it was. "Hey, Alphonse?" he called. "Can you help me with something?"

Alphonse appeared within seconds. "What's wrong, are you okay?" Edward never ever asked him for help with anything. He looked at Edward's empty shirtsleeve, mildly disturbed by his friend's damaged body.

"Something broke in my arm, I can't figure out what it is," Edward said, almost apologetically, handing the prosthetic to Alphonse.

He took it awkwardly, feeling like he was somehow invading Edward's bodily space, although Edward didn't seem to mind at the moment.

"Does anything look broken to you?" he asked after a minute.

Alphonse turned the arm over in his hands. "I don't know, Ed," he said finally. "I don't know a single thing about prosthetics."

Ed frowned, concerned. "Well, I do, but I can't see behind my own back." He shrugged out of his shirt again, revealing a frightening scar on his chest and three more curving across his side. He saw Alphonse staring at his body, and said shortly, "Sorry, I'm not very pretty to look at." He re-attached the arm, and tried lifting it again for Alphonse, feeling that odd clicking against his shoulder blade again instead of the smooth, if not limited, movement he had become accustomed to. "Can you see which part isn't working?" he asked, straining his neck around, trying to see for himself.

"Um," Alphonse said, watching what was left of Ed's shoulder muscles twitching, and the arm rising a few inches and stopping.

"Come on, Al, you're a mechanic. What's going on back there?"

Alphonse peered between the two layered plates that made up the missing part of Ed's shoulder. They began to overlap as Ed tried to raise his arm, then something would click, and the movement would stop. "Can I touch it?' he asked hesitantly, wanting to stick a finger in there to get a better idea of how it worked, or wasn't working.

"Yes!" said Ed, exasperated.

"It wont hurt you?"

"No! It's fine!"

Alphonse felt around inside the shoulder, and Ed tried again to lift the arm. He felt the parts begin to slide, and then disconnect just as the movement stopped, and then fall flat against the plate. "Okay," he said finally. "I think I know what it is. Take it off again."

Ed did as he directed, and Alphonse stuck his finger between the plates again. "There's a pin, or a piston, or whatever, in here, that isn't extending all the way. It starts, but then it comes apart. That's what's broken. I have no idea how to fix it though, Ed, sorry," he said, concerned.

Ed sighed. "I'll figure it out, I guess. Thanks, Alphonse."

Al's brows furrowed together in confusion. "Why don't you just take it to the doctor who made it for you?"

Ed frowned again. "Nah, he's in London. That's an awful long way to travel with only one functioning arm and that Envy after me. Besides, I mostly designed this. The doctor just helped with building it. I should be able to fix it, hopefully."

"You came up with this? No wonder I've never seen anything like it! How come you're not famous or something?"

Ed sighed. "Well, I made a deal with this med student my dad knew. I got to use the lab at the hospital where we worked on this together, and he used it to publish a paper for his doctoral thesis, and I got a working arm out of it. Everyone else said it would be impossible," he added smugly.

"You let this guy take full credit for your invention?" Al asked incredulously.

He just shrugged. "I don't care, I got what I wanted. Besides, I don't need my name floating all over England. And anyway, its not really that advanced of a design. I just have super-advanced muscle control," he said with a smirk.

"Ed, how did you lose your arm in the first place?" Alphonse had already asked Ed this question on two separate occasions, and received two separate and conflicting answers, both of which Edward swore were true. He was about to receive a third.

"In an alchemy accident. It was a long time ago, don't worry about it. Go to sleep, I'm going to stay up in case Envy comes back. I want to try to figure this out, anyway."

Alphonse lay back on the bed, his head spinning. For all he thought Edward was lying about so many things, if he ever told anyone about what had happened to them that night, he was sure he would be dubbed a liar as well.

"Hey Edward," he mumbled after a few minutes.

Edward looked up from his arm. "Hm?"

"How come that thing kept calling me your brother?"

Ed thought for a moment. "He either really thought you were him, or he knew you weren't really him, but he knew I loved you like a brother anyway."

Al was touched, but puzzled. "But how did he know something like that?"

"Didn't I tell you you look exactly like my little brother?"

"I thought you meant I remind you of him."

"You do remind me of him. Because you look exactly like him." Ed sighed. "If you two were to ever meet, which you won't, but anyway, it would be like looking in a mirror. You're his double, or he's yours. Everyone has a double of themselves out there somewhere."

"Where's your double then, Ed? With your brother?"

"No," Ed said shortly. "Mine's dead. I killed him."

Mansion

The child had actually done it. Dante smiled inwardly. Here were Wrath and the son of Hohenheim walking right up to her front door. Who could have thought it would be this easy? "Hello, Alphonse," she said, slowly descending the stairs. The boy seemed nervous, as if he guessed he was somehow in danger. She would have to put him at ease. "You look very much like your father, you know," she said calmly.

His eyes brightened. "You knew my father?" he said, childish delight plain on his face. This would be so easy.

"I knew him very well," she said in that same serene voice. "I hear you are looking for the Philosopher's Stone."

"I'm looking for my brother!" he said hotly. "He's inside the gate."

Dante nodded. "And Wrath has told you, I'm sure, that I can call the gate."

"Is it really possible?" the young boy asked.

Dante laughed to herself. "I can do many things, child. More is possible than what you have been taught. Step into the ballroom with me, a transmutation circle is already drawn."

Alphonse stopped short. "What's in it for you?" he asked, suspicious. "Why should I trust you? You let your other… your other… homunculus… kill my brother!" He glanced at Wrath, suddenly feeling that searching for the homunculus was a good idea, searching for its creator was a bad one.

"He was in the way of something I wanted. You aren't in my way at all," the woman said with a small smile. "I'll send you to the gate, you give me the Philosopher's Stone. Its Equivalent Trade, is it not?"

"But I don't have the Philosopher's Stone!" He protested. This didn't sound right at all.

The woman shrugged lightly. "You'll give me all your information on it, and when you find it, then you'll give it to me."

The mention of the Gate was beginning to trigger shadowy memories for Alphonse, the first he had ever recalled beyond his attempt to resurrect his mother. Slimy arms, little hands, eerie little violet eyes, eyes like… He glanced over to Wrath, who also cringed at the mention of the Gate.

What if I never find the Stone? He wanted to ask. Instead he said, "but where will the Gate get me? My brother is there, but I can't retrieve him from it! I would have to return everything-" The only way Edward could leave the gate was if Alphonse returned to it. That was Equivalent Trade.

Dante threw open the doors behind her, and Alphonse stared into the dusty skylit ballroom. His protests and questions were put on hold as his eyes drank in the huge transmutation circle on the floor.

"There doesn't have to be an exchange," Dante assured him. "You can merely look, at no charge."

Alphonse shook his head. There was always a charge. "I don't want to look, I want to-"

"It doesn't matter what you want!" Dante cried shrilly. "I'll get what I want, at last. You're a powerful alchemist, you may come out of this in one piece yet!" she nodded towards Wrath, who pushed a stunned Alphonse into the circle.

He felt the lines begin to hum, the room began to glow, and he squeezed shut his eyes. Alphonse, he said to himself, this was a very bad idea. Okay, so he had been wrong. The thought came to him that if he had just been told the whole truth from the beginning, he never would have come here looking. Angrily, he pushed those feelings from his mind and forced his eyes open. There's a way out of this, he told himself. I just need to figure out what it is.

Alphonse squinted in the light of the transmutation, taking in every detail of the circle. This wasn't a circle drawn to call the gate, he realized. He had never seen a circle that was said to call the gate, he didn't know if one even existed, but this was one he recognized. This was the circle used to create the Philosopher's Stone.

What was Dante doing? If she was using human souls to create the stone, why was his so important? Why lure him all the way out here? And where were the rest of the components, the red water, all the other humans? Alphonse knew how the stone was created, and it wasn't by trapping a single person in a circle.

Suddenly he felt something warm and thick sliding out of him, right through his skin, and he looked down in horror at his own blood beginning to fill in the grooves of the circle…

Munich

Edward appreciated Alphonse's help, but his friend had only located half of the problem. Ed was going to have to completely disassemble the arm just to be able to see what else was wrong, because the problems were all located on the inside. And once he found the problem, he wasn't sure he was going to be able to manipulate such small, complex parts with just one hand. He knew exactly how the arm was made, but he never said he actually built the thing himself.

He groaned in frustration, shoving the arm to one side, and plopped his chin down on his left hand. He did know exactly how the arm was made, he had a complete understanding of its construction. If only he could just clap his hands together and reconstruct it properly, curse this stupid world!

Edward sat up. Maybe…

He tried not to get his hopes up as he made his way across the room, picking up his discarded vest off the floor, and reaching into the pocket. It wasn't his heart that Ed had pulled out of Envy's chest. It was as many red stones as he could get his fingers around. At the time, it was the only way he could think of to slow Envy down, but now, he fully realized what exactly he had gotten a hold of.

Red stones didn't exist in this world. Alchemy didn't exist in this world. Maybe…

Very slowly, very carefully, his heart beating up in his throat with excitement, Edward drafted a transmutation circle on the surface of his desk. He stared at it for a moment, placed the arm in the center of it, put a red stone on the edge of the circle where he would place his hand to activate the transmutation, and watched in amazement as the circle immediately lit up. Taking a deep breath, Ed placed his left hand over the red stone, and the eerie blue light of a transmutation crackled through the room, and with a bang! his arm was reconstructed according to how Ed recalled the exact plans in his mind.

That handful of red stones just became his most valuable possession.

"Brother!" Alphonse called from the bed.

Edward turned around. Why was Alphonse calling him brother? Was he teasing him or something?

Alphonse scrambled out of the bed, stumbling towards him, his eyes strangely bright. "Brother, its really you, isn't it? This isn't a dream, I'm really here with you?" The words tumbled from his mouth, the voice suddenly younger sounding.

"Alphonse?" Edward said hesitantly. Was it possible?

Alphonse caught him in a hug, crushing him to his chest, and Edward hugged back, to stunned to protest. "Brother, what happened to you? Where have you been? Where are we?" he murmured into his brother's neck, unwilling to loosen his grip.

"You're alive!" Edward exclaimed, letting himself have that moment. "Oh, Al, you're really alive!"

Alphonse held his brother at arms length, staring at him. "I knew you were alive somewhere! But, Ed, where are we?"

Forcing himself to ground with reality, Edward's face fell. "Al, this is the other side of the gate… what happened? How did you get here?"

"Well, Dante caught me in a transmutation circle, and then she clapped her hands together, and the room lit up violet, and… I woke up here-" Suddenly Al's eyes darted from side to side, and his head began to jerk. His hands reached up to clutch at his head. "What's happening? What is that?" he wailed.

Edward grabbed his shoulder, looking into his brother's eyes. "Alphonse, everything is okay," he said, not sure whether he was addressing his brother or Alphonse Heiderich. "It's a voice, isn't it?" he asked gently.

Al nodded.

"Look at yourself," he instructed, and Alphonse looked down.

"I'm so big!" He spread his hands out before him, they were a young man's hands. Then he took a careful look at his brother. Edward looked thin, not much taller, but older, paler, tired, with a strained expression. His eyes flickered to his empty shirt sleeve, then to the arm in the transmutation circle on the desk. "What-"

"That's the other Alphonse," Edward tried to explain, not sure how to start. "Your soul was drawn to his body, because it was most similar to your own. Your body is still in the gate. The Alphonse who's body you're in knows you're here. He's probably frightened."

Al's head jerked to the side again, and Edward guessed he must be struggling internally. "Alphonse! Stay with me!" he directed, unsure he was doing the right thing. After all, his brother hadn't made it here in some alchemy experiment of his own. He just said Dante had trapped him in a transmutation circle. That meant, back at home, his brother was in some kind of danger. "Alphonse. Dad said, that all alchemists have a gate inside themselves-" he wasn't explaining it right, he knew- "and as long as your body is still inside the gate, you can go back. Once your mind, soul, and body cross over, then you'll be stuck here, and-" he choked on the tears he didn't realize were falling "-there's no way to get back, that's what happened to me."

"But brother, I want to be where you are!"

His brother's pleading made his heart wrench, but he forced his brain to be logical. "Alphonse. You can't stay here, you're in someone else's body. He's going to keep fighting you, you can't continue like that. You need to go back home, and tell everyone that I'm alive, that I miss them, and I love you, and I'm so sorry..." Unable to speak any more, Edward gave in to the tears, and his brother hugged him tightly. He could feel Al's body jerking in what might have been sobs, or Al Heiderich fighting for control of his own body, or both.

Suddenly Alphonse threw him back into the desk and backed away, stumbling backward over the bed. He pointed his finger in accusation. "What was that? What are you? You stay away from me, don't you come near me, whatever you are!" his friend shrieked, wild eyed.

"I can explain," Edward started.

"No! Don't explain, I'm sick of your stories and your lies!" Alphonse shouted. "You were using my body to channel the spirit of your brother, who I very well may look like, but I am not him! You stay away from me!" he cried as he edged towards the door.

"Don't leave," Edward warned, his voice dull.

"Or what?" Alphonse said cruelly. "You'll make me stay? Tackle me to the ground, maybe, restrain me in some way, to prevent me from leaving?" Al glowered at him. "I'm stronger than you, you know."

"I could do that," he said, unsure of the truth of that statement. "But if you leave, Envy will be out there. And he'll be looking for you. Because even if I know who you are, he thinks you're Alphonse Elric, Hohenheim's other son."

Alphonse glared at him, folding his arms. "And wasn't I, for a minute there? Who else would have been inside my head, using my voice to call you brother?"

Ed brought his hand to his forehead, rubbing through his bangs. "Alphonse, I can explain everything, really."

Al shook his head. "I don't want to hear it," he said, spinning on his heels and exiting the room.

Edward heard the front door slam.

Mansion

"You didn't say you were going to kill him!" screeched Wrath.

"I don't have to kill him if he would just release the stone willingly!" Dante snapped back, hands clasped in front of her, straining to control the alchemical reaction.

"How do you know he really has it?" Wrath demanded. "You're killing him!" he said again in protest, watching Alphonse's blood seep through the lines of the circle.

"He doesn't have it, he is it, he always has been! And I need it!"

Wrath had never seen the Stone created. But he had heard about it from the others, the ones who were gone now. Envy had seen it happen many times. And he never described anything like this. Suddenly Wrath saw the Gate appear in front of them, and felt his body begin to tremble in fear.

"It's going to get him!" he screamed, "Don't let it get him!"

Dante turned her fiery eyes on the homunculus. "What do you care if it does? He's just a pathetic human!"

Without thought, Wrath ran into the circle, grabbing Alphonse around the waist.

"Get out of there, Wrath, or that Gate is going to take you back where you came from," Dante ordered.

"No it's not," Wrath said from inside the streaks of alchemic light. He could feel something pulling against him, pulling at Alphonse. "It wants him, I can feel it!" He strained in dragging Alphonse out of the circle. If he could just get them both out of the circle, there would be no more transmutation, and the Gate would go away, and all those dark little hands would be gone. With a heave, he dragged Al over the edge of the circle, and looked into his face. The boy was unconscious, Dante was angry, and the Gate might not get him but something else bad was bound to happen. He slapped the boy's cheeks. "Alphonse, wake up, don't be dead yet, you've got to do something about her!"

He stirred, his eyes flickering open. "What…" he mumbled.

"Wake up," Wrath said again, urgently, "Do something to her, she's going to hurt us!"

His eyes seeming to clear, Alphonse sat up and clapped his hands together, the transmutation circles on his gloves meeting. A flash of light shot towards her, seeming to stun her for a moment but she brought her hands down, stopping whatever he tried. Clapping his hands again, this time with more focus, he caused the whole side of the room to light up, and heard her scream.

Wrath couldn't see anything but the bright light when he looked for her, so he took the chance to pick up Alphonse and run out of the house.

He ran all the way through the woods, not feeling tired, and Alphonse never felt heavy. He was a homunculus, he never felt tired. But Alphonse was a human, and was in very big trouble. He took him the only place he knew in Dublith, to Izumi's place.

Sig opened the door when he knocked, recognizing the two immediately and calling for his wife. She took his pale form and laid him down on the couch, trying in vain to wake him up. "What happened," she demanded frighteningly of Wrath.

"He was bleeding," was all he would say.

"From where?" she said darkly, unable to find a wound.

Wrath shrugged. "Everywhere."

Izumi turned to her husband. "Get the doctor," she said shortly.

"Is he going to die?" Wrath asked.

"No!" Izumi snapped. "He's going to be fine!" She put a hand on his cold forehead. "He always is."

Munich

Edward did not sleep that night. He was worried about his brother. How had Al's spirit crossed the gate? What had his brother been doing? He said Dante trapped him in a transmutation circle: there was no way that wasn't dangerous. He was worried about his friend. Alphonse Heiderich was mad at him, and Ed couldn't even blame him. He had been attacked by a homunculus, something that wasn't even supposed to exist here, his body had been invaded by a soul from another world, and he felt deceived. But what if, wherever he went, Envy had gotten a hold of him again?

Ed shook his head. Envy probably couldn't do much, not since Ed's pocket was full of his red stones. And Envy was looking for Hohenheim, not for Alphonse. Als probably in the lab, Ed reasoned. That's where he always goes to clear his head. Grabbing his coat on his way out the door, Edward figured he could use the walk to sort things out in his head, but he found that all he could think about was home.

He passed by dirty street corners, and thought of the bright fields that surrounded the Rockbell's home in Rizembool. He thought of his brother, and himself, and of Winry playing when they were kids. He thought of the time that Winry flashed the lantern at night for them, because he reminded her that's what his mom used to do. He thought he remembered, when he was very very small, playing in the yard with Winry and his father, while his mother held Alphonse and talked with Winry's mother. Was that place even real?

He had spent five years on this side of the gate, and sometimes he was afraid that his memories of home were starting to fade. He smiled, inwardly, knowing that Alphonse was alive, but at the same time thought, was that even real? Was that really Alphonse he talked to last night, or did he imagine the entire thing? There were so many things he would have wanted to say to his brother if he ever had the chance, and once he was faced with it, all he could say was "I love you and I'm sorry."

Before he had thought out anything to say to his friend, he was already at the lab. Using his key, he opened the door, and Alphonse turned sharply at the table.

They stared at each other for a few moments. "You look terrible," Alphonse said finally.

"Thanks," Ed said dryly. "You don't look so great yourself."

Alphonse shrugged. "I didn't get any sleep."

"Neither did I."

Several minutes passed, neither of them saying anything. Finally Alphonse stood up, then sat on the edge of the table. "So that was your brother," he said, to start the conversation.

Edward nodded. "Yes."

"Is he dead?" he asked next.

"No. I thought he might be, for a long time, but he's not."

"Then how did he get in my head?"

"I'm not sure," Edward said honestly. "He's doing something very dangerous, though."

"So where is he?"

Edward stared at the floor, afraid Alphonse would be angry with his answer. "He's in my world. Where he belongs."

Alphonse was silent in thought for a few minutes before he started talking softly. "Once I asked you to tell me about your childhood. You told me a lot of stories about your mother and father and your brother, and your best friend who lived next door. You told me her parents had been killed in the war when you were very young, and I said England wasn't at war when we were young." Alphonse paused. "You just said you didn't grow up in England, and not to ask so many questions."

Edward nodded. He remembered the conversation. "Should I have told you then, that I was from another world?"

"I would have thought you were lying."

"I know."

Alphonse paused again. "So its all true, then. All those things you said, how you were in the military when you were twelve, how you used to have a mechanical hand that you could move just like a real one, how your father is really four hundred years old, all of it."

Edward smiled hesitantly. "I tried to only tell you things you could believe, but… you just asked too many questions, and I didn't want to lie…"

Dublith

Winry sat in Izumi's living room, twisting her hands in her lap. Wrath slumped in the chair opposite her. She had taken the next train to Dublith as soon as she got Izumi's message, that Alphonse had been hurt in some kind of alchemical accident, or fight, no one was certain what exactly had happened. Alphonse was all right, but he had mysteriously lost a very large amount of blood, and his body was exhausted. It was Wrath who brought him to Izumi, and who presumably removed him from whatever dangerous situation he had been in, but Wrath refused to say anything more than "he was bleeding," and that "it was from the alchemy."

Winry glared at the creature from over the coffee table, certain this was somehow his fault. He looked back at her, somewhat fearfully, through his heavy fringe of black hair.

Izumi entered the room, looking exhausted, with a pained expression. "He's sleeping again," she told Winry, before she could ask. Izumi had some health problems as well, Winry knew, and she looked particularly drained that day. She sat down on the couch next to Winry and rubbed her hands over her face. "Alphonse told me some very interesting things while he was awake." She turned her piercing eyes on Wrath. "Dante, for some reason, thought that Alphonse was hiding the Philosopher's Stone in his body somehow."

Wrath tried to sink back in his chair. "I didn't say anything like that!" he protested. "I didn't think she would hurt him!"

Izumi's glare silenced him. She was silent for a moment before she continued, looking Winry straight in the eye. "He also told me he spoke to Ed."

Winry covered her mouth. "How?" she managed to gasp, her voice catching in her throat.

Izumi shook her head. "I don't know. At first it sounded like Alphonse had died, and spoke to Ed, or thought he spoke to Ed, in some kind of after life-"

Wrath jumped up, interrupting. "He went into the Gate!" he told them shrilly. "It tried to get him, but I pulled him away, out of the circle, and it had to let go. It wanted to get him, but it couldn't get his body, I was holding him."

"Sit down and be quiet!" Izumi thundered. After a moment she continued. "It seems Edward has been living on the other side of the gate. And somehow, Alphonse's soul crossed over, briefly, and spoke with him."

"What did he say?" Winry asked, breathless.

"That he's alive, that he misses everyone, that he loves Alphonse, and he's sorry," Izumi said quietly.

Winry stood up. "He had better be sorry!" she cried, before she could think. "Does he know how many nights I cried myself to sleep over him? I thought he was dead!"

"He can't come back you know," Izumi said, looking purposefully away. "No one can cross backward through the gate. Alphonse and I both researched it, we read everything that's ever been recorded about it. No one has ever come back through once their mind, body, and soul were all on the other side."

Winry stared at her, then whisked out of the room towards Alphonse's door.

"He's sleeping, Winry," Izumi called after her.

Winry turned. "I just want to see him," she said, "I just need to know that I have one brother, in one piece, safe and sound where he belongs," and she disappeared into the room.

She stared at Alphonse's sleeping face, still with its child-like roundness. He's really sixteen, she figured, even though his body is twelve. I wonder how old he feels? She brushed a hand through his bronze-blond hair splayed out on the pillow behind his head, reminded of a time she had done the same to Ed's as he slept. That was a time when Alphonse had no hair to speak of, when he had no body at all. Once, when they were young, the brothers had fought over who would marry her, she remembered. Edward had won, but her nine year old self turned him down, on account of her height. Now Edward was gone, and Alphonse was five years her junior, instead of one. Winry sighed heavily.

Alphonse's eyes were open, she realized, and she whispered, "hey."

"Hi Winry," he whispered back.

"You're supposed to be sleeping," she told him, still in a whisper. "Izumi said."

He nodded. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I tried not to do anything dangerous, just like you said. I didn't mean to make everyone worry."

"Oh Alphonse," she said, gently squeezing his hand. "I'm just glad you're okay."

To be continued…

Next week: Chapter Four- Separation