Author's note:

Today is Thanksgiving and I must give thanks to where its due, and that is to all of you, the readers. Its all of you who have been causing this story to be updated. On the day that I had uploaded the first chapter I didn't think it would get much attention, I thought that it would go unnoticed for a long time and then you all began to gravitate to it and I began to continue to write this story. In fact I had gotten a major surprise during the beginning of October. Aylengm (or as they're called on Deviant Art, "AnimeLoves12") had made fan art for this story, which is something that I never expected. I was in shock to think that this story would catch such attention! I thank all of you. All 77 favors and 111 Followers.

I know this chapter isn't much, but I still hope you all enjoy it.

"You learned to run from what you feel, and that's why you have nightmares. To deny is to invite madness. To accept is to control." ― Megan Chance, The Spiritualist

Chapter Fifteen:

Information and Expectation! Ed's Getaway?

"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body."

"Humankind cannot gain without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange."

FullMetal stretched his arms as he yawned - oh what a strange dream that was. He sat up and stretched a second time. He could remember the dream with such clarity - those two people with military uniforms and that girl... Winry - the whole anniversary - it was such a strange dream. But it was what it was: a dream, nothing more, nothing less.

He got out of bed and did the usual morning routine. He knew that he had to go to school - after all it was Friday, he needed a mission so that way he could leave by the end of the day. When he finished he braided his hair and went into the living roo- WHAT IN THE NAME OF DEATH?!

He paused... No... This has to be the biggest amount mouse repellent that he had ever seen... This has to be a dream! He bit his tongue... He swiftly put a hand over his mouth... "Ow..."

Oh he wasn't dreaming. There in the living room were three sleeping forms... Hawkeye, Winry, and Havoc. He quietly wrote a note for the three of the Amestrians then walked out the dorm and left the building. When he was outside he took a long deep breath and sighed. He leaned against a wall and pinched his brow as he thought, "Why is it that my life has to be so crazy?..."

He began to make his way to the DWMA - hoping that he was going to be able to at least be able to leave on a mission while the three Amestrains not being mad about it - or them meeting his moms... that would be a site to see... but it wasn't a like-able one.

When he got to the school he saw his friends waiting there but something about Black Star made him nervous. They all greeted him and smiled but then the blue haired assassin exclaimed "I want a rematch!"

FullMetal blinked. "What?"

"You heard me!" Black Star glared, "I want a rematch! There is no way that you can beat a big 'a guy as I am twice! I'll win this time for sure!"

"Um, are you sure about this?" FullMetal asked, with good reason too. "What if I end up drawing blood? What if I end up-" the thought about what happened to Maka and Soul ran through him like a flood. "I don't want that to happen to anyone!"

"Yeah I'm sure!" Black Star grinned. "And don't worry if you end up being possessed - I can always beat your senses back to ya!"

"Yeah - what are you going to do? Big talk them back to me?" the Mizune thought. "Alright, but remember - you brought this upon yourself..."

Riza woke and found herself in an unfamiliar apartment... wait. She sat up and saw that Winry and Havoc were there with her, they were asleep. Her mind then flashed back to what happened last night. Ed... Edward lived in this apartment... his amnesia, the party. The sniper sighed, she was going to have a long talk with the kid when he wakes up... He hadn't explained everything too well. He had said that he was going to school because he was a weapon, and that he had a strange disease called Maddification - he didn't go in-depth all too well and said that they should talk to Stein about it. It was hard to find the professor at the party and it was hard to pin point everything. When Jean arrived Riza had to take time from the search of the professor to explain what was going on to Havoc.

Riza got up and walked over to the door to the young major's room. She slowly opened it before... oh she was going to shoot the kid, she was going to shoot him, no doubt. She walked in to the room - no one was in it, just herself. She looked around and saw that the bed was fixed and that there was no sign of Ed anywhere. She sighed and walked back into the living room she grabbed one of the three plastic bags that was there - it was filled with spare clothes and a new tooth brush that was given to her by a woman named Nygus. She did the morning ritual. When she finished she walked into the kitchen and found a note on the refrigerator door.

Dear Hawkeye, Winry, and Havoc,

I'm sure you've all noticed that I'm not home - well you see its Friday - so I have school and I'm not going to be home for a few hours, so I'll be at the DWMA and if I'm not home by the time school ends then that's because I'm hanging out with Maka and the others - sorry. If you all need to get a hold of me just head to the DWMA or if its after school just look for a woman by the name of Blair - she works at a place called Chupa-Cabra's. I met her through Maka. If you still cant find me - look for Lord Death's resident two Death Scythes - Spirit Albarn (Maka's dad) or Marie Mjolnir.

I'm really sorry for leaving you all like this - see you all later.

- FMA

Okay... she wasn't going to shoot him, but she still didn't understand why he was going to school. Sure the whole amnesia thing does explain it but it was still hard to process. She sighed and got something to eat. It didn't take long for Havoc and Winry to wake up. When they both got ready they all just sat in the kitchen eating and trying to figure out why Ed would be going to school - not to mention WHO has him going there in the first place.

"Well, Ed said that 'DWMA' stands for 'Death's Weapon Meister Academy'." Winry said, "That at least gives some idea about it."

"And he did call himself a 'Weapon', huh..." Havoc said. "Not to mention several of the students called themselves that as well."

"And Ed's note said that there were people called 'Death Scythes'." Hawkeye said. "In order for us to be able gain any more information is to go to the school itself and get him to explain everything further."

"You're right, but I just hope we don't attract unwanted attention..." Havoc murmured, "I nearly did that with Sid and Nygus..."

"I just hope that the sun isn't as creepy as the moon..." Winry shuddered.

When they got outside... the sun wasn't creepy as the moon, but it was pretty darn close. It was laughing... for god knows what reason.

They began to make their way to the school. As they were walking they heard an all too familiar voice.

"So FullMetal said he has a fear of cats?"

They looked in the direction of the voice only to see Mustang, though instead of wearing his military uniform, he wore dark blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a black jacket that had purple bats on the ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the jacket. He was with a woman with purple hair and... had cat ears. She was a chimera... a cat chimera.

"Yup!" said Blair, "Oh it was so cute the way he kept on running away from me – talk about a true game of Cat and Mouse!"

Mustang was laughing hard.

Riza looked at him in fury, she grabbed one of her guns and shot in Roy's direction three times, startling both him and Blair.

When he saw that is was the Lieutenant he calmed a bit but was still nervous. "R – Riza, I'm glad to see that – ."

Her glare was all it took to shut him up, she grabbed him by his ear and turned toward the magic cat and said, "I'm sorry if he was troubling you, I'll take him off your hands for a while."

Blair still had a smile and said, "Oh, it's alright. See you later Roy!"

"Bye Blair!" Mustang said shakily as he was trying to keep his ear.

Blair? The one Ed mentioned in the note? Well now they knew what she looked like. Riza walked Mustang to where the others were and threw him toward a wall.

"You idiot!" Riza said scornfully, "Where have you been?!"

"With Blair." Mustang said plainly, "She knows where FullMetal is, apparently - ."

"He goes to a school that is called the DWMA and is friends with Blair's friends, Maka, Soul, Tsubaki, Black Star, Liz, Patty, and Death the Kidd?" Riza said completing his sentence.

Roy looked stunned, "H – How did you – ."

"I found Edward last night." Winry stated.

"Oh..." Mustang said, "He must've been very surprised."

"Actually... Colonel, you might want to sit down..." said Havoc.

It took a little explaining but Mustang understood, he was shocked. It took him a while to process. When he finally processed the information he got up and they all began to head to the academy.

"It explains why Truth said that it was hoping that we were going to take a while to figure this out – he wanted Ed to regain his memories before we found him..." Mustang muttered.

Winry nodded, "When Al finds out he'll be devastated."

Before they could continue their conversation, as they were heading near the long staircase there was a loud explosion. Smoke was coming from the top of the stairs. For a brief moment the smoke looked as though there were skulls in it. The Amestrians swiftly ran up the stairs until they reached the top... only to see Ed and Black Star fighting. Professor Stein was watching the fight with great interest, somehow he knew that the Amestrians were behind him because he said "It seems the gang is all here..."

"Professor Stein, what's going on?" Winry asked, glancing at the fight.

Stein merely smiled, "Black Star challenged FullMetal to a fight; he tends to challenge people a lot, especially when they've beaten him a fight at least once - FullMetal has beaten him twice when he first came here, once in a quick fight, the second while he was reading a book."

"That's the chief for you..." Jean muttered.

They were surprised at not only the fight, but at what Ed was wearing which was very close to his usual outfit. He wore a cloak that was like his old one but it had white stripes – most of which didn't connect to the bottom of the cloak – and the emblem that was given to him from Curits was a sterling silver. He also had pants that also had the stripes, a black, long-sleeved, white rimmed shirt, elevator boots that looked like paws, and white gloves that had black fingertips.

The fight was unlike anything that they had seen.

Black Star rushed at FullMetal who dodged it easily, and grabbed him by his blue hair and pushed his head into the ground as he tripped the meister. The ground cracked beneath Black Star's head. FullMetal then backed away watching as the meister slowly got up. FullMetal smirked as Black Star got up, glaring at the Mizune. Continuously, the meister threw punches at the weapon, but FullMetal dodged them with ease, making Black Star's soul force useless.

Hawkeye couldn't help but ask Stein one of the questions that was bothering her, "Franken, Edward told us that he and many students here are Weapons and that you and the rest of the students are Meisters; what does he mean by that?"

Stein smiled, "Well, that is a very intriguing question, but then again, not many people in the world know about Weapons and Meisters. I'll explain it to you to the best of my ability. Weapons are people with the ability to transform their body to that of an actual weapon, take FullMetal for instance, he can turn into a triple-bladed-scythe. Some weapons can even focus their transformation on a single part of their body – that is what we like to call a Partial Transformation, it takes a lot of practice and concentration to do so – for a very few number of people, its second nature. Meisters, on the other hand are people who wield Weapons, we have a variety of abilities – most of which focus on the soul. Some of us can see souls – this trait is shared with very few meisters – Maka Alabarn being one of those few. Another rare trait is the ability to channel the soul's wavelength and use it to attack opponents whilst not needing a Weapon to wield – Black Star is one of these few and – though I can't help but admit – is a genius at wielding this power due to his chaotic soul wavelength."

There was a flash of green lightning around Black Star's arm as he tried to hit FullMetal again, but thanks to the Mizune's petite stature, he easily evaded it by grabbing onto Black Star's shoulders, jumping up, did a temporary handstand on the meister's shoulders before landing behind him and tripping the conceded blue haired boy who used his soul wavelength to make a smokescreen when he had made contact with the ground.

The fight continued in the smoke – the Amestrians wished they could see what was going on in the smoke, Stein however smiled.

"It seems to be another win for FullMetal." Stein said in his usual emotionless drawl.

"How do you know?" Jean asked.

"Simple," Stein said, "You see – I can use my Soul Perception to see the fight. The soul can tell me a lot about someone – FullMetal's soul is strong and is far bigger than Black Star's, it shows that he knows how to hide what he's thinking, feeling, everything – it remains consistent most of the time – but it does show that he is wiser beyond his years. It never shows much, unlike Black Star's which is currently showing that he is being beaten in this fight – he is very hard on himself when he loses a fight – he thinks that with enough work he could surpass god, which seems very unlikely."

The Amestrians felt lost – how could this strange doctor know so much when no one could see past the smoke. Sure FullMetal does seem to be winning but the blue haired meister could turn the fight around, one way or another.

But they were wrong. Stein was correct. Black Star was thrown out of the smoke as it began to dissipate, he landed with a loud thud! FullMetal walked up to him and asked "You give up?"

"For now..." Black Star croaked.

The Mizune sighed and when he looked up, he was shocked to see the Amestrians, he frowned.

"YOU IDIOT!" Winry growled throwing a wrench at the weapon – who once again caught it, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING – GETTING INTO MEANINGLESS FIGHTS?! WHAT WILL ALPHONSE THINK WHEN HE HEARS THIS?!"

"I DIDN'T WANT TO FIGHT BLACK STAR – BUT HE INSISTED! HE WAS GOING TO FORCE ME TO FIGHT HIM ANYWAYS – HE'S DONE THIS MILLIONS OF TIMES BEFORE – EVEN WITH KIDD – AND HE'S THE SON OF LORD DEATH!" FullMetal argued. "AND BESIDEDS – ITS NOT LIKE I HAD A CHOICE – JUST BE GLAD I WAS GOING EASY ON THE GUY!"

"AGAIN?!" Black Star shouted.

"Yes again!" the Mizune stated, "I don't want end up killing you!"

Winry was going to continue the argument but was stopped by Stein.

"Alright, that's enough everyone," Stein said, "Now, all of you head to class and study or something – I have a meeting with FullMetal's old friends, so run along now."

The students looked at the professor with curiosity but did as he said and ran off to class. Professor Stein turned to the Amestrians and gave them a serious look.

"You all want me to answer all the questions that you have about FullMetal, don't you," it was hard for them to tell if Stein was making a statement or a question.

"Is it that easy to tell?" Roy asked.

"You all don't know how to hide anything with your soul," Stein said, "its practically like mind-reading."

Riza sighed, "We want to know why Ed is going to school – there are other questions we have, but lets start off with that."

Stein smiled, he had a feeling that they were going be asking questions that weren't just about FullMetal. With a sigh he said, "Fallow me."

He began to lead them into the D.W.M.A. He began to tell them why FullMetal – or as they called him 'Edward' – was going to the academy.

"I'm sure that you all know what the Academy is called, correct?"

"Yes," Riza and the other Amestrians answered.

"Well then, it should be obvious as to why FullMetal goes to the academy." Stein stated, "He is a Weapon – and as a Weapon, he needs to hunt Pre-Keishin, which are also known as Keishin-Eggs. He needs to hunt them to keep the world in balance."

"What do you mean by that?" Winry asked.

"Yeah," Roy said, "Could you be a bit more specific?"

"Keishin-Eggs are creatures that are humans that had fallen into the Madness." Stein explained, "To be more precise, they're humans who began to eat other humans' souls to gain power." this shocked them, "As a way to counter this, Lord Death founded this school and began training Weapons and Meisters. Weapons eat the souls of the Pre-Keishin, while the Meisters wield the Weapons to fight and kill the Pre-keishins. Weapons and Meisters range from skill and wavelength. I myself am the strongest Meister to graduate from the Academy – I've created two DeathScythes, when most of my peers have yet to even make one."

"Thats another thing," Jean said, "Whats a DeathScythe?"

"A DeathScythe is a Weapon that has reached their full potential," the doctor stated, "To get them to this point you need to have fed them ninety-nine keishin souls and one witch's soul to get them to become a DeathScythe which is to be wielded by Lord Death."

"Okay, but how do you know who is a Keishin-Egg or a witch?" Roy asked, not sure how to take the information.

"Both Pre-Keishin and Witches tend to look a bit like any other human," Stein started, "but for the Pre-Keishin, they hunt at night, so when the night comes they will reveal their true forms – they will look anything but human. They will kill anyone – and will do so with out mercy. Witches, they're mainly female – heck we currently have two young witches being taught here – one by the name Angela and the other is Kim. Not all witches are bad – but the ones who are, are being hunted by the academy as we speak. The ones who are bad are the ones who will increase the rate of production and strength of Pre-Keishin activity and/or killing off humans with out remorse or second thought... The one thing that some witches and Lord Death have in common is that they want to prevent the Keishin from rising."

"So the more Weapons and Meister-" "The better." Stein said finishing Roy's sentence.

They all stopped in front of a large door with a cartoonish skull on it. Stein tuned to the Amestrians, "Listen, right behind this door is the Death Room – this is where Lord Death spends most of his time. He will answer whatever questions you all have – I am the only teacher for the EAT Class – so right when you all are introduced I'll leave."

"When you say 'Lord Death', you mean the Grim Reaper, right?" Winry asked, shocking Roy.

Stein nodded, "Yes." he then opened the door and began to lead them to Lord Death.

Maka watched as FullMetal was reading a little brown booklet that had writing that was in a very strange foreign language. The Mizune was focused and looked to be a bit irritated. As she looked over his shoulder, she saw several doodles, some of which were people, one of which was a knight in terrifying armor.

"FullMetal," she said, trying to snap him out of his daze.

He glanced at her before looking back at his book. "Yeah?"

"Whats wrong?" she asked, "You've been acting strange since those people arrived last night."

He sighed and shut his book, "Its just that... I literally have no memory of those people – not to mention they confirmed that I have a little brother... What is he going to think when he sees me and... I don't even recognize him? How is he going to react. Not to mention – those people don't know what the D.W.M.A does – so the chance of them knowing about Keishin-Eggs and Witches... is very unlikely. What'll they think of me when they find out that I'm a former Pre-Keishin? What will Alphonse think?"

"Oh..." she said. She couldn't think of something to say.

Soul, who had over heard the confession, said, "I don't know what to do either. All I know is that that situation isn't cool at all. Its probably best to just to be straight with them and tell them what you know and try not to worry."

"I don't know about that last part, Soul Eater." Kidd said, who also over heard, "Sure it is best to be honest, but not worrying isn't really something he can help. He has all the right to worry – he doesn't know those people – sure, his soul does, but not himself."

"Point taken." Soul nodded.

FullMetal put his head in his hands and tried to collect everything he knew about himself.

"My name is 'Edward Elric', I'm also known as 'FullMetal Alchemist'

I'm sixteen years old

My hair and Eye color are the same: Gold

My Weapon form is a Triple-bladed Gold Scythe

My soul wavelength is that of Maddification – which mean that it changes sporadically from a normal wavelength to that of a Pre-Keishin's.

I have a little brother that is named 'Alphonse Elric'. I don't know if I have any other family but I am currently adopted by the Mizune Witches.

My IQ... that I don't know...

Professor Stein told me that my blood type is -O

My height is 4' 11"... now that I think about it... I'm pretty short... I'm probably still growing... Yeah thats it...

I'm currently a resident of Death City and I am a student of Death's Weapon Meister Academy. I'm in the EAT class..."

He shook his head. He knew so little about his past, it was disgraceful. He needed some time alone to collect his thoughts and re-read his book.

The Amestrians were surprised to see what the Grim Reaper looked like – it was a shock to see that Death... didn't look scary at all... They stared at the god as he bounced waving a large white hand at Stein.

"Hello! Hello, Stein! Whats up? How's it goin'?" Death said in a cheerful manor.

Stein gave the grim reaper a serious look, "Lord Death, I'd like you to meet FullMetal's old friends."

Death didn't seem diverted from his cheerfulness, but he did seem curious. He looked at the Amestrians with pure curiosity, "Ah, I see. It seems his past is catching up with him more and more, ain't it?"

"I have a class to teach," Stein stated, "May I leave them with you?"

"Sure, go on!" Death said, beaming, "Have fun!"

As Stein left the room Mustang was the first to speak up, "We were wondering if you could explain what happened to FullMetal."

Lord Death have a slight 'hrm' before making up his mind, "I'm guessing that he didn't explain much to all of you."

Winry shook her head, "No... he didn't..."

"I'm not surprised," Lord Death said, "He doesn't look like the type to be straight forward to people in his current situation. So what do you want to know?"

"Lets start from the top," Riza said, "How did FullMetal get amnesia?"

"Ah well that is a very interesting question." the grim reaper said, "Well, do you know what a Pre-Keishin is?"

They nodded. Lord Death knew for a fact that this was going to be a hard pill for them to swallow.

The bell rung signaling that class was over, immediately FullMetal went to the mission board, he scanned the board and grabbed the mission that was furthest from Death City but still close enough that it wasn't so far that it would take a few days to reach. He knew that if he was gone for more than a weekend, his friends from the past would skin him alive.

He then began to leave for the train station, wondering if Virginia City had a place where he could get himself a motorcycle or something. He was starting to get annoyed with the fact that trains made him feel depressed. Thank Death that taking more and more jobs increased the usual school-pay of two-hundred bucks week; but because of this it didn't take long for FullMetal to get a bank account. Seriously, he had almost ten thousand dollars in the account – what in the world is he gonna do with that kind of money?

When he reached the train station he looked back at the school and used his Soul Perception to look for his old friends. Seeing that they were in the location of the Death Room, he got a feeling that when he saw them again, they were going to have a long talk.

Getting aboard the train, he didn't know the amount of luck he had, or how little of it there was. As the train began to slowly but surly take off, his mood began to grow darker, and darker. He began to drift into a deep sleep as he wondered how he could get some memories back without asking his old friends about his past. Fate, luck, which ever it was, it had a funny way of treating people – be it FullMetal or Edward.

Staring at the Gate that Truth was in front of, Alphonse crossed his arms and glared at the deity. Beside the golden haired boy was May, Ling, and Izumi.

Alphonse was the first to speak, "Where is brother, and the others?"