A/N- Suspenseful! Here's chapter 4. This is kinda sad near the end... I hope everyone has a heart for poor Ed AND poor Al! They're so adorable! (Hugs)

Disclaimer- I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters.

Chapter 4- Abuse

How could Ed have ever expected or prepared for something like this to happen? As he stared at his sensei, almost lifelessly, she pulled him into an embrace, probably afraid of what his reaction would be. She knew Edward would want to do something about it, but they couldn't take him away from Al. He would go back to being that... That... Thing. Whatever he was becoming.

"Edward, I'm sorry."

Somehow, his sensei's voice was at least a little bit comforting. Ed felt like he could cry. It was all his fault. He had misjudged how much of a sacrifice he would need to make, and maybe simply going across the gate wasn't enough. "How long has he been like this?"

"Ever since he came back. There hasn't been a day where he hasn't had this problem yet."

That answer would be good enough for right now. Ed knew he would find a way to help his brother. He had to, after all, it was his fault any of this had ever happened in the first place.

---

That night, Ed decided he'd need to confront his little brother on the current situation. Al was laying in the bed across the room, probably trying to fall asleep, and avoid his brother in the process. "Al?" He rolled over, ignoring Ed's request. "Al, you awake?" Still, he ignored him. Ed couldn't take anymore, walking over to where his brother was trying to rest, and laying down in the small space next to him. "I know you're up." Al sighed in defeat, and rolled over to face his elder brother.

"Yeah... What do you want?"

"Well, you're my brother." Ed tried to look happy, but the emotion was quickly fading from his face. "Why didn't you tell me you were sick?" In honesty, Al felt tears come to his eyes. Finally, after all of this time, he actually thought he might cry. But he didn't.

"Am I?" Ed was a little taken aback. The way Al had said that reminded him of one of their fights from all those years ago. In fact, it had been on the exact same day as his sixteenth birthday, when Al had questioned ever even existing at all. "If you really think of me as a brother, and if everyone else really does acknowledge my existance, why do they act like they're hiding something from me?" Now the smile on Ed's face dissapeared completely. He sighed.

"Listen Al, I think the reason they don't tell you anything is because they don't know how to word it. If they had any idea... I'm sure they would..." Ed stopped talking, halted by the sounds of his brother beginning to sob into his pillow. Aside from that, there was silence. "Hey... What's wrong with you?"

"All that time you were gone, Winry told me she would do her best to act like a replacement for you. If she was truly trying to act like you, she'd tell me what was wrong, wouldn't she? Wouldn't you?" For a few moments, Ed had to contemplaite what he would say next. He couldn't just tell Al what was the matter without crying himself, so he stayed silent. "Why won't anyone tell me anything! What's wrong with me! There's no way anyone could be sick for this long with just a cold..."

Inside, Ed felt his heart breaking. He worried about what would happen to his brother if something wasn't done soon. He decided to answer this question with another question.

"If you really wanted me to tell you what I know, you would answer my question. Why did you fall backwards earlier? I know it wasn't just an accident." Al stayed silent, playing on the fact that he knew he didn't have to answer. After waiting a minute, Ed finally spoke, realizing he wasn't going to get the answer anytime soon. He sighed. "Fine then." Edward crawled away slowly, and retreated to the other side of the room, where he depressively laid down in his own bed.

Though Al had stopped crying, Ed silently continued on for him.

---

Morning came, and Al awoke before his older brother, as usual. Things hadn't gone so well the previous night, and he knew he should probably apologize to Ed for being such a jerk, but still, Edward could have at least tried to tell him what was going on. Didn't he have a right to know when he was the one suffering from it?

He shivered as he pushed the door open and stepped out into the cold hallway. Autumn was definately here, which meant Winter would come soon afterward. As Al walked down the hallway, he heard talking coming from one of the rooms. This room belonged to Izumi.

"Something has to be done... We can't just let him suffer like this! Please, Izumi, tell me you know something!" Winry's voice could be heard through the crack in the door. Al slowly peaked his head around the corner, and began to watch the incidents taking place from within his sensei's room. Poor Winry was sitting at a table across from Izumi, practically crying. She looked so miserable.

"I'm sorry, Winry. He can last for a while longer while I do some more reasearch. I just hope he doesn't figure out the reasons I keep returning home..."

"We can't give up! Maybe we just need to go to a larger source of information!" Izumi could be heard sighing, and a chair was pushed in as she stood up.

"The only other place I can think of to do that kind of research is the library in Central, and the only way to get into that library is with..." Winry looked at her, and was about to finish the sentence, when Izumi spoke up. "A state alchemist. And luckily for us, we have one at our disposal." Al didn't like that, how Izumi had said disposal. What were they planning to do with Ed?

"You mean Edward..."

"Precisely. We just need to get him into the library, then back out again. But how we do this is just extremely questionable..." What could be so hard, Al thought. Why couldn't Ed just run into the library, grab whatever book these two were talking about getting, and run back out again? His question was answered within the next few seconds, and Alphonse was very shocked.

"Al can't go into the library with him, can he?" Winry asked.

"No... And if Al leaves him alone he's going to forget what we want him to do. After we find some sort of help for his younger brother, Ed's our next project. And no, Winry, I have no idea where you find information on how to stop sins from taking soul less bodies. It might have been a little easier if I knew what happened to Ed when he came across that gate, but I don't."

Al stepped backwards, away from the door, disbelieving of the words he'd just heard his sensei speaking. Not only was something seriously wrong with him, but Ed was... They couldn't have said his soul was gone. He acted perfectly sane!

These were the beliefs of the younger Elric until he heard screaming coming from the bedroom where his brother was. Before he could get out of the way, the door was flung open, and out stepped Izumi and Winry. Izumi looked a little frightened when she saw him sitting on the ground, after just barely dodging out of the way from the swinging door. "How long have you been here?"

"I was just walking by when I heard Ed screaming," Al lied. Izumi believed it, and within seconds went running for the guest bedroom where Edward had just been slumbering peacefully. Alphonse and winry ran after her. What the younger brother saw, he would never forget. Never.

'Ed' was backed over to the window, clawing at it and trying to push it open while he screamed his lungs out, speaking in some weird language none of the three people watching him could understand. That was about what Al saw before Izumi shoved him out the door, slamming it behind her. Although Alphonse knew he probably shouldn't have, he started pounding on the door. He wanted to know what was going on with his brother.

"Edward!" Winry yelled. He turned and stared, hearing a name he knew inside wasn't his. At least this got him to start speaking in English. "Edward, what's wrong?" 'Ed' shivered, standing next to the now open window. It was cloudy, raining, and windy outside.

"Ed...Ward?" 'Ed' asked, looking at Winry confused. His eyes had no pupils this time around. Winry nodded at him, cautiously getting closer.

"Yes, your name is Edward." She reached her hand out to him, and he examined it, even more confused than before. "Come on." He reached forward just a little. "Yeah, it's okay..." Without warning, 'Ed' grabbed her arm, yanked her forward, and sent her to the ground, screaming. He practically jumped on top of Winry, both screaming and kicking as he tried to punch the living hell out of her. He was scared.

"Winry!" Izumi finally came away from the door, and Al forced it open.

"Eh... Ed?" He asked, in a relatively squeaky and quiet voice. Ed continued ripping and tearing at Winry as Izumi tried to pull him off. Winry already had a cut across her eye, probably had a broken wrist, and maybe even a black eye. "Ed, stop!" Alphonse ran over to his brother, kneeling down and throwing his arms around him, tear stricken again as Edward finally began to stop. The pupils returned to his eyes slowly, and he first looked down to Winry, mouth gaping. He knew.

"I... I... Did I..." He looked at Izumi, who nodded, and pulled him up off the floor, out of Al's grasp. "Winry, I'm..." Winry pushed herself up with one arm.

"It's okay, Ed," She said, holding a few more tears back as she pushed herself to her feet, and left the room quickly to go get some help from Rose.

"What happened to me?" Ed asked.

"Edward, just don't worry about it for right now. I want you to stay here with your brother while I make a call." And with that, Izumi marched out of the room, and could be heard going down the stairs from where the two Elric brothers were standing.

Ed fell to the floor, tears finally able to be seen by his younger brother as he fell to his knees and cried. "Ed..." Al probably wouldn't have shown compassion, but now that he knew what Ed was becoming, he leaned down next to him, brought him into an embrace, which the elder brother returned, and cried with him, both lost in their own problems.

A/N- Oooh, what's gonna happen? Wanna take a guess? lol I think I made it obvious. Please review!