Chapter 1

The 4 strangers

There was a blinding light surrounding them. They looked all around. Everything was white and empty, as if it never existed. "Ed?" Al said, his voice small and afraid as he looking around at his surroundings. But there were none at all. He scratched his head. Was he going crazy? Where was he exactly? He began walking. Where or in what direction, Al did not know. It was hard to tell when everything looked the same. "Ed?" he called again, listening for a response.

"I found it!" Was his response. Al blinked and looked around. "Ed?" He turned to see his elder brother, Edward, standing in front of a stone door. Ed turned and looked at Al, a huge grin on his face. "We found it, Al! We found it!" Al titled his head and walked over to his brother's side, staring at the stone door. "What exactly is it?"

"You don't know, but I've seen this before. This is 'the truth'; this is what we need to get our normal bodies back. The truth lies within the truth. This is it!" Al looked down at his brother, "Are you sure? This'll bring our bodies back?" Ed nodded. "I remember. This has to be it. Now all we need to do is walk on in." Ed stretched out his arm, reaching for the door. Al was a bit cautious and afraid, but did nothing as Ed's hand headed toward the door.

Just then, the surroundings became black. Ed stopped in mid-air, the door was gone. Ed's eyes widened. "NO!" They began to fall with the sudden disappearance of the ground beneath them. They fell into complete darkness. Screaming, yelling.

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"Nii-sama… Nii-sama look, it's waking up."

"Mokuba, move away from there. It might be dangerous." Ed opened his eyes slowly, looking around. He felt an aching pain throughout his body almost immediately after he had woken up. He was cramped in some sort of machine-like thing, almost as big as a photo booth. "It's awake…" Mokuba said with awe with Ed's awakening. "Who… are you calling an 'it'?" Ed asked, slowly crawling out of the machine and onto the concrete floor.

A tall boy walked over, placing his hand firmly on Mokuba. "Mokuba, I want you to keep your distance."

"Nii-sama, will you quit it? Look at him, what's he gonna do? He's down right puny." Ed's eyes shot up, and his arm swung swiftly into Mokuba's legs, causing him to fall over. Ed jumped to his feet, looking down at Mokuba as he stood over him, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING PUNY, SCRIMP!"

"Hey, I'd watch it, kid. Your not exactly in the position to be making threats." Seto said, now standing in front of Ed, looking down upon him. Ed growled, tightening his hands into fists. "Who are you guys anyway? And where are we?" Ed's eyes widen, "Al? Alphonse?"

"Right here, brother." Al stood in the machine, his arm caught on the inside. "Here, let me help you…" Ed said, walking over to him and gently tugging him out. Al's body slipped through, and he stretched his limbs with ease. "Thanks."

"Whoa… a talking robot!" Mokuba said in amazement. "Robot?" Al asked.

"Are you crazy? He's not a robot!" Ed yelled. Mokuba rolled his eyes, "Well, SORRY Mr. Metal Man." Al chuckled. Ed growled. "Al!"

"Sorry brother, but that's the greatest nickname I've heard yet. Beside from Short Stuff."

"AL!"

"As much as I enjoy both of your conversations, I'd like to know who you both are." Seto said, pointing to the both of them. "Oh, well, I'm Edward Elric, and this is my little brother Al."

"I see… so is this genetics or did he drink more milk than you? Cause you do not look like his older brother." Ed sighed. "It's a long story. Now you both have to explain to us how the heck we got here. We were… oh my god! The truth!" he turned to Al, "Al! We were so close! The truth! The door! We were right there!"

"What exactly are you talking about?" Mokuba asked. Ed glared at Mokuba, "Didn't anyone teach you manners? Geez, first you zap us here when we were about to see the truth, then you interrupt our conversation. This is why I hate kids, Al."

"You didn't seem that way with Mr. Hughes daughter."

"Eh, girls are cute and polite, but this one's just plain ugly."

"I AM NOT A GIRL!" Mokuba yelled. "Then we're at an agreement. I'm not short; you're not a girl. Deal?"

"But I'm NOT a girl!"

"Right, and I'm not short." Al shook his head. "Ed, you're acting immature." Mokuba looked up at Al for the longest time. "You both don't seem like bad guys." Al looked down at him, "Of course we're not. Ed is just sensitive when it comes to his height. What would make you think we were bad?"

Mokuba shrugged, and then brought forward his hand, "My name's Mokuba Kaiba, and this is my older brother Seto. I'm sorry about calling you short." Ed laughed, putting his hand behind his head, "Aw, it's alright. You didn't mean any harm. And it's not really your fault we're here anyway… I think." Mokuba looked away. Ed stared at him; his arm went back down to his side, "Was it?"

"Well, you see… ha, there's actually a funny story to that…"

"YOU TRANSPORTED US HERE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE WERE ABOUT TO ACHIEVE!" Ed grabbed Mokuba by the collar, lifting him off his feet; angry eyes looking him in the face. "WE WERE SO CLOSE! SO DAMN CLOSE! AND YOU RUINED IT!" Ed lifted his fist.

"He didn't ruin anything." Ed's gaze broke away; his eyes went from anger to confusion as he looked over at Seto who had been standing to the side of them. He walked over to him; putting his hand on Ed's, lowering his arm and putting Mokuba on his own 2 feet. "It was I. I was the one who brought you here."

"But… how…?"

"I'm an inventor. I had tried to achieve in the making of the first ever time machine, but instead made a machine that appears to have bent the dimensions, allowing you to come here. I had no intention of doing so." Ed let go of Mokuba, looking down with shame. Mokuba ran behind his brother, staring at Ed intently in fear and anxiety. "Sorry…" Ed mumbled to Mokuba, still looking upon the ground in guilt.

"Hey." Ed and Al looked over at Mokuba. His hand was raised in the air, as if he was a student in a classroom. He shrugged, and gave a small smile, "Would you like to explain things over dinner?" Ed and Al looked over at each other, and then grinned. "We'd be happy to."

-Dinner-

"Our father was a alchemist, he was always off on missions and we had never gotten to see him much growing up. Our mother took care of us all on her own, but she was kind and caring, and we loved her." Ed placed down his knife and fork. Looking down at the table. "She was… the greatest woman I had ever met, and we both strived for her approval and happiness."

"Then one day…" Al spoke, "She got sick. The doctor said she had been sick for a long time now, but she hadn't spoken a word about it to us. She had died shortly afterwards, and we couldn't stand the pain of her death."

"That's when we got the idea… to revive our mother using alchemy." Ed looked up, staring Seto straight in the eyes with the most serious face Seto had seen him put on the whole night. "We studied and trained, till our plan was flawless. We knew that human transmutation was forbidden, but we believed we could achieve it without consequences. We only wanted to see our mother's smile…" Ed looked over at Al. "It finally came the day. But just as our transmutation was about to commence, something went wrong.

"We ended up suffering the consequences of the forbidden taboo. I lost my leg, and Al, his body." Mokuba gasped. "That's horrible."

"It was. All I could do was give up my arm for Al's soul, and put it into a suit of armor. The surgery I experienced for my auto-mail was incredibly painful, but I couldn't sit around feeling sorry for myself. I had to do something, I had to change things. I promised Al I would get our original bodies back, and I've been trying to fulfill that promise ever since."

The dinner table was silent. Ed looked down at his untouched platter of food, and merely sighed. Al looked away; trying to hold in the sadness he felt talking about such a powerful subject. Was it even safe to tell these strangers their fears and past?

"That was noble of you." Ed faced Seto. "What you did. I probably would've made the same mistake for my mother." Mokuba blinked, staring at his elder brother with interest. It wasn't often he spoke of their mother, if not at all. It was a painful subject for him, indeed, but this conversation proved to be a painful and emotional one.

"So what happened to you guys? How come you have such a big house, and no family to live in it?" Mokuba sighed now, a wash of sadness swept over his face as it did Ed's. "It all started-"

"When Mokuba was born." Seto said, cutting him off. It appeared that he preferred to tell the story to a bunch of strangers, which confused Mokuba considering he never talked of such subjects, even with his himself. "Our mother was as great as yours was. She was kind and loving, when she got pregnant again, she was happy to have another addition to the family. But she had died giving birth to Mokuba.

"Our mother's death had hit our father the hardest, and 7 years later, he couldn't bear the pain any longer. He then had committed suicide and left us both." Al was the one to gasp now, holding his hand to his mouth. "That's harsh" Ed added.

"No one wanted us ether." Mokuba added, placing his hands on the table. "Our relatives didn't want us, so they just dumped us in an orphanage. A cruel man then adopted us by the name of Gozaburo Kaiba. He was the president of Kaiba corp., a big military company, and trained Seto to be the next heir by beating him and making him cold and distant like himself. He was then murdered and Seto inherited the whole business and changed it into a gaming company." There was another long awkward silence as the 4 strangers sat at the table, looking at one another with sympathy and sorrow. They were all different and unique, but had one similarity that bound them to understanding the other. They were orphaned children whom had grown up without the protection and the guidance of a mother and a father.

A/N: And THAT is where I shall end chapter 1. Ok, so the first chapter kinda sucked, but it's gonna get better, I promise. So what do you do with 2 pairs of brothers? Stick them in the same world, of course, and have them talk like they trusted the other. But the holes in all 4 of their hearts will prove quite valuable; at least they have other's whom can understand where they're coming from.

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