Chapter: 2?

Authoress: Kitsune Kokoro

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me, just this plot.

"Blah" – Talking

'Blah' – Thinking

Last Chapter:

"Is this all due to Fazeworth?" Ed asked with incredulity.

"Yes, no one wants to be here when people keep disappearing." Roy looked around for a bit then decided to get going. "Come on, we won't accomplish anything by standing around here…" He started off towards the continuously emptying town. However, they had barely left the train station before the first weird thing happened.

Chapter Two

As they were leaving, an old homeless man suddenly threw out his arm and grabbed Ed.

"You…you come with me! I'll help you find what you're looking for!"

Ed looked at the man, confused, "Excuse me? What do you mean 'what I'm looking for'? You don't even know me! And let me go!" Ed tried yanking his arm away from the man but he had too tight a grip on Ed, "Let go!"

The homeless man pulled Edward closer until he could talk with only Ed hearing, "Ah, but you're wrong. I know all about you." The man gave Edward a knowing look.

"Oh really? Prove it old man."

"Alright. Your name is Edward Elric, you're 15 years old, and you are the older brother of Alphonse Elric, despite your height. Alphonse is the walking suit of armor over there. You two tried human transmutation on your mother and failed. You lost your left leg and Al lost everything. To save Al you gave up your right arm for his soul which you then sealed to that armor, making a seal with your blood. If the seal is washed away or destroyed Alphonse's soul is lost. You know you need the Philosopher's Stone to restore your bodies to their original state so you joined the military so you could take advantage of their resources. Did I miss anything important?" The man looked at Ed, smiling.

Ed was speechless. How did this guy know all that about him? Only a precious few knew all of that so how did this man, who looked like he hadn't showered in weeks, know all about the secret the brothers kept hidden? The man chuckled at Ed's dumbfounded face, knowing he had thrown the boy for a loop.

"Confused are we? Well, let's add on to it. I also know you're here looking for a Dr. Fazeworth. Try by the abandoned laboratory. Good luck, Fullmetal Alchemist. This is definitely not the last time we'll meet." The man stood up and walked out of the station without looking back.

"Uh…ok…he was a weirdo…" Edward watched the spot he last saw the strange man. "I hope this whole town isn't full of people like that, I might go crazy."

"HEY! Fullmetal! Let's go!" Roy's voice came booming from the other side of the station.

"Don't yell at me, Bastard!" Ed turned to see the colonel standing at the exit, hands on his hips, with Al standing quietly behind him.

Roy frowned at him when he got over to the two. "What took your interest and made you stop walking? Well? I don't want to be here forever so move it!" Roy started walking briskly towards the heart of the town.

"Some guy grabbed me." Ed said simply, following Roy.

Roy gave him a sideways glance and smirked, "He grabbed you? Must've been blind."

"What do you mean by 'must have been blind'?"

"Well he grabbed you. That's just plain ew!" Roy said.

Ed glared at him, "What the hell do you mean 'ew'? I'm not 'ew'! You're 'ew'! Bastard!"

Al shook his head and picked Ed up by the back of his red coat he always wore. "Come on, the colonel didn't mean that, did you Colonel?"

"Of course not Ew-ward…uh…I mean Edward. Hehehe…" Roy smirked again and walked away. Al sighed as Ed started a rant about Roy's 'bastardly bastardness' as he so eloquently put it.

'This mission is going to test us so much. Hopefully one doesn't kill the other.' Al thought as he carried Ed out of the now empty train station.

A man in the shadows grinned at the scene playing out in front of him. 'I wonder if Edward Elric will even survive…' He smiled and turned swiftly towards the back alleys. It was no good to head towards his home the obvious way when the trio he was watching were going there themselves. He couldn't help but smirked when he thought of how smooth his plan was going so far as he headed towards the intimidating hill that overlooked the town along with housing the infamous laboratory.

"So why are we the only ones doing this mission?" Edward asked Roy, about 5 minutes later, while looking around at the deserted shops and alleys, "Normally your 'posse', if you will, follow you around like lost dogs, no pun intended. Or perhaps it was."

Roy glared at him but let the attitude go. "If you must know, the Fuhrer felt that this mission didn't involve many people."

"Then how did we get stuck doing this stupid mission? I wanted to sleep. Why not you, Lieutenant Hawkeye and Major Armstrong go and let Al and me rest?"

"Because…we all felt that because you were going to be at the station it'd be more convenient for us to go."

"In other words, none of the others wanted to go and because we weren't there to defend ourselves we got screwed, right?" Ed asked, giving the Colonel a glare.

"Precisely." Roy smirked when he heard Ed make an irritated noise. "Besides, we all felt you could use the exercise. You're getting flabs."

"You! I-! Can't stand you! Grrrr!" Ed stomped ahead of the two to stop himself from hurting the arrogant colonel and therefore landing himself a court martial.

"Colonel…why do you always do that to him? It really makes him mad." Al asked Roy quietly.

"Why not? If I didn't have Fullmetal to annoy I don't know what I would do to survive the pressure of being Colonel Roy Mustang."

"Um…pressure? What kind of pressure? Isn't it just mostly paperwork?"

"Being State Alchemist Colonel Roy Mustang has many pressures along with it. The colonel part demands people skills along with authoritative skills so I can control my squad. The State Alchemist part demands alchemic skills for obvious reasons. On the other hand the Roy Mustang part requires…other skills. Skills the women like."

If Al had a body he would have been blushing. "O-oh ok." Al turned back to watch Ed as he tried to ignore all the thoughts of Roy and his 'skills'.

Ed kicked at the dirt as he walked. He was a good distance ahead of the other two and was getting very bored very fast. One could only look at broken doors handing off run-down buildings for so long until it became monotonous.

"This…is…ridiculous! The freaking laboratory must be HUGE! From the station it looked like only a 10 minute walk at most. I am so bored!" Ed continued complaining to no one before he shut up and looked down again.

He noticed that, even though the buildings around the train station were falling apart as well, the buildings closer to the lab were even worse. Some weren't even standing anymore, having decomposed into a pile of smelly waste.

"I wonder what happened here…" He turned to look at an alley and noticed a figure sitting down. He stepped closer and winced when he was hit with a horrible smell. The smell of rotting flesh. Even though he could guess what it was in front of him he still crept closer. Ed had to close his eyes when he was able to figure out what exactly was in front of him. A woman, looking no older then 20, sat holding a young child, no older then 3, to her chest. What was strange was the infant's body was just a skeleton while the young woman's had flesh (rotten flesh but still flesh). Roy and Al came up behind him. Al took in a quick breath and let it out shakily. Roy, however, went even closer.

"Ugh, by the looks and smell it would seem she's been dead for maybe 2 or 3 days. I don't know about the baby. I wonder why these two are still here. Why hasn't anyone moved them?"

Al looked at the woman and saw a strange symbol on her right bicep. "I wonder what that means. I've never seen a symbol like that before." He said, pointing out the tattoo. Roy stepped forward and gently grabbed the dead woman's arm so he could see it better.

"It looks like an alchemic array." He called over Ed so he could take a look, "Hey Fullmetal, come over here and look, you know more about this then we do."

Ed grimaced, "Why the hell do I have to? Come on! She's dead!" Nonetheless, he went over next to Roy and slowly grabbed the arm.

"That's odd. This is a modified version of the human transmutation circle I used when I…well…you know." He ran one of his automail fingers over the seal. The seal was of an intricate design. Lines were looping, swirling, and diving all around.

As soon as he touched the symbol it glowed a fierce red. It expanded, heading towards the three while emitting a high pitched siren.

"Brother! Something is strange! I can hear it! I can hear the noise!" Al was screaming to his brother.

"Edward! What the hell did you do?" Roy yelled, covering his ears along with the other two. However it didn't help, it seemed the noise was in their heads.

"N-nothing! I didn't use any alchemy! I don't know why it reacted!" The glow finally reached the hunched over trio and engulfed them while the rest of the world just slipped away.