Okay, I'm using my brother's computer again, so let's see if I can get the HTML right this time, since the dumb thing doesn't like his browser, for some reason. I honestly don't know why it doesn't though, it's a perfectly good browser:(

Anyway, I finally got another chapter written for this story. Yeah! HEHEHEHEHE! Okay, yeah, whatever. Hope you like it.

Oh, and another thing, as soon as I submit this chapter, I'm going to go and turn on anonymous reviews, because I'm just so darn curious about how many reviews I'm actually missing on my stories when I don't allow them. Please, readers, please, please, please don't abuse the priveledge. I'm really putting my neck out on the line here. No flames, okay? Constructive criticism is fine, I can take that, but no flames. Those of you who just want to flame because Ed keeps getting hurt shouldn't read my stories, because I don't protect the protagonist, no matter how much I like him. (That's actually why my stories are so popular. They have a PLOT, more or less.) I don't write a lot of fluff, so if that's what you're looking for, it won't do you any good to look here. This story in particular has a lot of angst in it. Definitely not fluff. Please don't flame me for that.

Disclaimer: Neither one of us owns Ed yet, but we're still trying. Ever tried to catch a greased pig? Ed's even harder to catch than that! (No, don't even go there.)

I tossed around on the tattered blankets that were all I was allowed to use as a cot in the shack. My master kept extending my time because I kept doing things to make him angry. I didn't intend to, but I did it anyway. I guess that's just my nature; trouble always finds me.

I couldn't sleep. Too much had been happening lately. I had to get Al out of here. I had to save Amestris. I had to get my auto-mail repaired so that I could use alchemy. I sighed. How was I supposed to do any of those things? Even the last thing, getting my auto-mail repaired, which should have been the easiest thing on the list was just as hard as the others, since there were no auto-mail mechanics in Drachma.

I sat up. It was no use trying to sleep when I obviously couldn't. The girl that had been here a few days before was back at her old post now, so I was all alone in the shack. I had no one to talk to, not like it was easy to talk anyway, since I couldn't hear what they were saying, nor could I see their face in the dark to read their lips. I thought that I might just as well take a walk and sort my thoughts out. Maybe that would help.

I walked aimlessly for several minutes, not really caring which direction I was going, when I found myself at my master's house. I couldn't say why I had walked that way, but I just shrugged and went up to the door. He always left it locked at night, but I just had a strange feeling that I should try the door anyway. I did so, and strangely enough, it opened. That was unusual. He must've gotten careless from all the events of the past few days frustrating him so much.

I stepped into the house. Stillness, complete stillness. Not a movement anywhere. This could be a good opportunity for me if I knew what to look for. I quietly crept through the hallways, and soon found myself in the master's den. He worked on all his paperwork here. Anything interesting that I would want to know would most likely be kept here.

I quietly shut the door to keep out any noise and light, and then lit a candle. Candles didn't give off as much light as electric bulbs, so I thought that it would be easier to conceal my presence there with the use of a candle. I carefully set the candle on the desk, and then began pawing through the various pieces of paperwork on and around it.

I was ruffling through a bunch of papers when my eyes happened to fall upon one that had my name on it. I pulled it out from the pile and began to read it. My jaw dropped open in shock. It was a correspondence letter to my master trying to convince him to sell me to whoever it was that wrote this letter. Who would want to buy me, anyway? I was a terrible slave.

I turned over the piece of paper to look for the signature. It was a woman's name. Maybe it was the woman from...that day, the woman I had met in the marketplace. If she was trying to buy me, then that would make sense, but I wasn't about to go without Al. How would I be able to explain that to her? How could I even find her for that matter to discuss it with her?

I set the papers back down and looked straight up in front of me. There was no reason why I couldn't just leave right now and go find that secret hideout that she and that other man had shown me. Sure, it was the middle of the night, but if they really were a secret operation helping slaves to freedom, then surely they expected middle-of-the-night occurrences such as this. This was really the only time I could get away.

I quickly put the papers back in the way they were before I'd disturbed them, and then blew out the candle. Then, I quietly left the way I had come.

I returned to the shack, grabbed my cloak, and snuck my way off of the plantation. I soon found the same square I had been in just a few weeks before when all this started occurring. Now if I could just find that alleyway...yes, there it was. I turned down it and soon came to the same door I had stood before at that time. I hoped that the code knock was the same.

I walked up to it and knocked three times hard and two times soft. Then I waited...and waited...and waited. Did anybody hear? Was anybody there? Was that even the right knock? I could only wait and find out.

Finally, the door opened cautiously, and I peered in at the same burly man that had opened the door the last time. I couldn't tell what he said, if he said anything, but I did catch his inquisitive look, so I flashed my auto-mail before him, what was left of it anyway, so that he would catch on that I was an Amestrian. A look of understanding passed over him, and he let me come in.

He quickly ushered me into the house, and then closed and bolted the door behind me. I looked around to make sure that the coast was clear, and then I took off my cloak. He didn't seem as surprised this time about how I looked, but I guessed that he was used to the idea of me now. He just seemed a bit surprised that I had actually shown up again.

He walked over to me, and said something that I didn't quite catch, but I guessed that he was asking me what I was doing there. So, I spoke up and told him my business. He nodded and gestured for me to follow him.

I followed him down the hall that I had walked down last time I was here and was led into a room where I saw the woman I had met previously sitting at a desk writing something. I cleared my throat. She looked up and smiled. She mouthed something, which of course, I didn't quite catch because I wasn't that great of a lip reader, but I guessed that she was asking me what she could do for me.

So, I told her the whole story of what had happened the past few days. She frowned, turned to look at her paperwork, and then turned to look back at me, and then asked, "How is it that you understand me so well if you're deaf?" I explained to her that half of the time I could read her lips, and the other half of the time, I just guessed, and I could still talk because I had always known how to talk and I wasn't ever going to forget that. I just couldn't hear myself speak, so if I was talking too loud, I was sorry for that.

She nodded and turned to look back at her papers. She mumbled something, and then noticing that she didn't get a response from me, looked back up at me and repeated the same thing she had asked. "So, you won't leave unless we save your little brother too?"

I nodded. "He's too sick and weak to be left there. He won't live long if we don't get him out of there soon."

"But I'm having a hard enough time convincing him to give you up," she said, "How will I be able to convince him to give up your little brother too?"

I was a bit surprised that my master would actually have a hard time considering giving me up, since he seemed to hate my guts. I shrugged and said, "Well, he uses my little brother to manipulate me. Maybe you could convince him that you need my little brother for that very same reason."

She sighed and rubbed her eyebrows. If she said anything after that, I didn't catch it. I stood there for a moment, waiting to see if she was going to say anything else, but since she didn't say anything, I turned to leave.

I was walking back down the hall, when I happened to see a boy that appeared to be about my age, but considerably taller, looking at me. He got a somewhat shocked look on his face, and then turned and ran the other way. I called after him, but he didn't stop, so I ran and started chasing him. What was his problem anyway?

Apparently, I knew this building a little bit better than he did, because he soon got himself trapped in a corner. I walked in to him, demanding, "What's the matter with you? Why are you running from me?"

His only response was to point a shaky finger at me and say, "You're...You're him!"

My eyes opened wide. "I'm who?" Suddenly, it was like I heard voices flash through my head as memories returned to me.

i "My brother has visions...something Elric..." /i

A look of understanding dawned on my face. "You're...You're her brother, aren't you?" This was his turn to ask who, so I proceeded to explain about the girl I had met just a few days prior. "So," I said as I stepped closer to him, "Do you really have visions?"

The boy wouldn't say anything, but just gulped and nodded. "Then please," I pleaded, "Please tell me all that you can. I need all the help I can get to save Amestris."

The boy cast his eyes to the ground and wouldn't speak for several moments. Finally, he looked back up at me, and said, "Are you sure you want to know?"

I hesitated for a moment before I nodded in response. Whatever he said, I could take it. I had handled some very difficult things in the past, and I was sure that I could handle them all over again if I had to. I would sacrifice anything to save Amestris. "Yes," I said, "Tell me what you know."

There's the chapter, hope you liked it. Please review, but be nice, okay? I'm going out on the limb by allowing anonymous reviews for once, so the least you could do is be nice to me. Like I said, constructive criticism is okay, I can take it, just no flames. Thanks for reading, and hope to see you around again soon!