~.~

-THE OUTSIDER-

by Iland Girl

'for those in search of home.'

A Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfiction

I don't own anybody but Erin... for now...

Chapter Two: When the Door Opened

"The only impossible journey is the one you never begin."
― Tony Robbins.

It's a strange sensation to be somewhere you know you aren't supposed to be.

One second I was in the storage unit; scrambling to escape out the door. The next I was presented with a huge black gate surrounded by a pure white void.

Questions like 'where am I?' 'what's going one?' And 'why me?' Popped into my head a few times. A couple dozen times if I was being completely honest, but who's counting?

"Hello?" I called out. Stupid I know, but some part of me felt completely out of place in the pure white. Not because I had no idea how I got here, but because I felt like I was being watched.

I studied the gate for a while, realizing there was some carvings on it.

"Oh! So you've come to play have you?"

I spun, looking frantically to find the owner of the strange voice. What surprised me was the fact that the owner of the voice was nothing like I had expected them to be. For starters, I expected a human.

Instead I got this…. thing.

"What are you?" I asked the strange creation. A glowing entity that seemed to be made of the same pure white as the voice around us. The only way I could see the thing was because of an almost dark glow that emitted from it, rendering it visible. It looked feminine, about as tall as me with the same build as well. The buck stopped there though, as it lacked any defining features, Yet oddly enough, I felt as though I could see a mouth in the pure white.

"What am I? Well that's different. I always get 'who are you' but never 'what are you'." It laughed as though what it said was a funny joke, snickering to itself. "You humans get more interesting the longer you live."

It sat down crosslegged in front of me, still snickering to itself. I shifted my stance, not sure what exactly to make of those comments. Thankfully it continued.

"To answer your question would take much longer than you have, little human. But to make things simple, I am known as a lot of things. Sometimes God. Sometimes The One. Sometimes Truth. Sometimes I have even been called the End. But what I am is much more complex. I am All, I am One, and so therefore," it raised a hand to point it's index at me.

"I am you."

"Me?" I began, trying to mentally digest the words and understand them. Against better judgement I found myself mimicking the position of the being. Calling it God didn't sit well with me, neither did One, All, or End. Truth stuck in my head, and so that was what I chose.

"If it's not too much, can you explain how I got here?" I asked while also trying to continue my mental digestion. While it didn't look dangerous, it certainly had an air about it that told me not to piss it off.

Truth grunted once, sounding confused at my question.

"Oh? You performed alchemy and you didn't even realize what it was you were doing?" It laughed again. "Shame shame! Little human! Performing human transmutations of all things! It just makes me feel so….."

I felt myself bristle as it leaned towards me, and now the twenty foot gap felt like a third as wide. It lost the giant overbearing smile and suddenly looked so very much like a being who could smite me with just a thought.

"Disappointed."

Well that was my cue to scram.

"I am sorry, I didn't intend to-"

"Intentions often lead us astray. You might intend to save a loved one by pulling them out of a burning building, but you inevitably have sacrificed anything else still trapped inside." It said with a sharpness that had me quieted. It raised a hand to rub it's chin, almost like it was thinking.

"Still, you do have work to do….." It muttered. I partly wondered if I wasn't supposed to hear that, but when I started to ask it cut me off again. "I suppose we shall let this time slide. I'm nothing if not truthful."

Good Lord it was laughing again.

"Um, okay, thank you. Really. Now….. how do I go back?" The moment I asked the question I regretted it. Truth looked up at me then, it's laughter cut, and seemed surprised.

"Go back? You can't go back! Nothing can ever be what it once was. It can only be what it has yet to become!" Truth said with absolute glee. I wasn't sure why it found this so interesting, but I didn't plan to stick around and find out.

"Sure, then could you possibly tell me how to- well… move forward?" I ended on a lilt in question. Truth grinned again and pointed an index to the door behind me. I had almost forgot it's looming presence, and as I stood up to look at it Truth continued.

"Just through there. Open the door, I'm sure you'll find your way through." Truth explained.

No need to tell me twice.

I stepped forward and grasped the doors with both hands and heaved. It was pretty hard to pull open, but once I had enough room to slip through I stopped and looked up.

At first it was just….. just black. But then I could see it.

An eye.

One giant eye stared back at me. It's presence took up the entire gate. I stood in front of it unmoving more from shock than bravery. Part of me was certain if I moved I was collapse and faint. Perhaps then I would wake up on the storage room floor and chalk this all up to hysteria.

Then I heard it.

Faint whispers of half sentences. A comment, laughter, and there weren't just a few. It started out that way, but the more I stood there the more I heard. Thousands upon thousands of voices. Saying anything from facts to random anecdotal tidbits of information.

And they were all talking to me.

"You can hear it can't you." Truth said, but I was still stunned and staring at the eye. It laughed at my lack of comments. "Then go ahead, find out what secrets it holds."

I swallowed and went to take a step back- but realized I couldn't. Looking down, I saw a little black hand grip my leg. A feeling of life burst into me on contact, and images I wasn't fully capable of grasping flashed before my mind. The voices were much louder now, I could hear them now as though we were in a small room.

"Stop…" I whispered, pulling back harshly on my leg and somehow managing to get free.

Only for three more hands to reach out and grab me.

"Stop!" I shouted when the voices began to sound like they were directly in my ear. Images were being thrust into my head, and not in any proper order. Maybe if I had a moment to actually acknowledge them they were, but as it stood they were confusing and lacked substance. Something about a cat, two lovers, something called automail. There was a toy pushed to the forefront of my mind and I watched it get left behind as bombs went off in the background.

Crying, so much crying. A mother crying when he son went off the war, and when he never came home. A wife crying with a stillborn in her arms. A child crying when her mom wouldn't feed her more. A father when he held a new born in his arms. Maybe they would've held impact, but the thoughts and emotions and impressions flashed by too quickly for me to process.

It felt like entire lifetimes of information were being shoved into my head. I tried to cover my ears to block out the screaming but couldn't because two more hands came out to grab those.

"STOP!"

And just like that, it did.

The door slammed shut, dragging all the hands and black arms in with it. I stood there again, absolutely stunned and fried.

"You managed to do well. That was a lot to process." Truth said like it was humouring me. I turned to look at it, and my face must've been priceless since it laughed again.

"Oh don't worry! I was telling the truth! I will send you forward! That was simply a test!" Truth teased. It then settled down again and smirked. "You just have to pay a small fee."

….

"You're serious." I whispered, looking over my shoulder at the gate. "You expect me to pay some sort of toll to go through that again? You must be crazy."

Truth chuckled, but as I turned back around it made a shooing motion with it's hand.

"Oh don't worry! It won't cost you much! You won't even know it's gone."

Won't even know…..

"Just what do you want as a toll?" I asked while pulling my arms in to hug my chest. Truth suddenly had an ear splitting grin, and behind the title snickers it did I could faintly hear something. A rhythmic tick tick tick sound.

"Oh, I know just the thing."

The doors opened so suddenly that I didn't have time to react as dozens of arms wrapped around me and yanked me inside. The last thing I saw was Truth grinning at me.

Then black.

"Do you think this Doctor Eastrin is the real deal?" Alphonse asked. Edward hummed a little, distracted by the train's thrumming as it drove along the tracks.

"Dunno Al, the Colonel just said to go and check up on him. Made a few wise cracks about him having a different type of research we might be interested in." Edward said as he sagged further against the window. A yawn broke from his lips.

"Wait, 'different type'? What do you think he meant by that?" Alphonse asked overtop of his brother's yawns. Edward finished his obnoxiously loud yawn and shrugged.

"No idea, he wouldn't say. But I imagine we'll find out soon enough." Edward said dismissively. He didn't want to play twenty questions, a nap sounded so much more appealing right now. So he snuggled into the seat a bit more before tuning out his younger brother.

Alphonse huffed when he realized he was being ignore before looking out the window to try and pass the time. How typical of his brother to ignore him in favour of a snooze. The younger Elric thought for a while idly about different topics. He had a sneaking suspicion that the Colonel did want to tell Ed more, but his brother had been too short tempered to stick around and gather more information.

Yep, that sounded like his brother.

Alphonse sat quietly until the train slowed to a stop. He rattled his brother from sleep and took a mild joy in how irritated it made Edward to be woken abruptly. Revenge for ignoring him.

They evicted the train, Edward stretching on the station platform before leading there way out. This Doctor Eastrin supposedly lived in a rather small town just outside of East City. About a day's ride. Clemens was the name of the town, and it's platform was no bigger than Resembool's. The thought of Resembool stirred something deep inside of him, but he squashed it down when his brother started talking again.

"So this doctor supposedly lives in the central area of this town. Shouldn't be too hard to find." Edward said while looking at the address on the paper.

"Brother, don't you think this is all a bit strange?" Alphonse pointed out. Edward looked up to him, confused.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Edward furrowed a brow and looked up to his seven foot tall brother. Alphonse glanced down at him. The action wasn't really necessary, since it was more of an awareness of his surroundings than actual sight. He didn't actually have eyes after all.

"Why did the Colonel send us to see this guy? Or is he just trying to get us to do more work for him?" Alphonse asked, remembering a handful of scenarios through the years much like this. Edward shrugged it off though and pushed forwards.

"Come on Al, even if it's true we gotta check it out." Edward lead through the crowds despite his taller brother easily seeing the ways they should navigate. Alphonse let Edward lead him around anyways, it made his older brother feel more important.

He had a point though, Alphonse thought, that they should look anyways. Even if this was a dead lead, they wouldn't sit well unless they investigated it first.

To Alphonse's surprise, he could see a gathering of sorts up ahead. Which seemed to be some sort of demonstration as a circle was formed around something that even he with his monstrous height couldn't see. Edward seemed to have cottoned on to the display as well as he rerouted himself to ebb himself further into the circle. Alphonse would've rolled his eyes, if he had any, as Edward became more anxious to get to the front of the circle. He wedged himself past a teenager and her dog and wormed his way further. Alphonse was unfortunately too much of a gentleman and, quite frankly, too large to scoot through the crowd any further.

He stopped behind the teenager and noted she was wearing some really strange looking pants. Not to mention there seemed to be writing down the arm of her coat. While insignia's weren't uncommon in the slightest, writing that was not in his language confused him greatly. His attention, however, was moved to the dog that was idlly growling next to her. He was a pretty big dog, coming to her waist easily. The girl deftly patted his head, not looking down at him. His growls subsided though, and so Alphonse recalled why they were initially here. He'd somehow lost sight of his brother, but from here he could see what was gaining everyone's attention.

Someone was drawing a transmutation circle in the middle of the street. Halting traffic and people alike to come and see. The guy was older than he and Edward for sure, but not by a lot if Alphonse were to guess. He had a bright smile as he beamed to the crowd.

"Ready everyone?" He called. It was only then that Alphonse saw that there was a broken set of chinaware sitting in the middle of the circle. A simple transmutation had these people freaking out? Weird. Though he supposed people in smaller towns weren't necessarily exposed to the same level of science and he and his brother were. Back home it was considered extraordinary the things he and Edward did.

He felt another pang of longing deep inside him, somehow feeling it despite having no body to feel.

The young man started the transmutation, wowing more people even after the energy settled and the light faded. The china lay perfectly put back together in the centre of the circle once he was complete.

Alphonse realized something was pushing on him and looked down to see the girl in front of him and run straight into his chest guard. He started to make for an apology, but the girl aggressively pushed past him and out of the crowd. He quickly lost track of her in the sea of other people who were leaving; nothing but her back and blonde head were visible from this far away. Then she vanished into the sea of people and he lost her.

The crowd was awed, but soon after they realized the spectacle was over and they too dispersed. All that was left were a few people congratulating the man along with a woman collecting the bowls and thanking him. They too soon left, and all that remained was Edward and Alphonse as they both made their way closer.

"That's some pretty good alchemy there." Edward gushed. Alphonse would've rolled his eyes, again if he had any, at the fact that his brother was hamming it up. Why bother? Then it dawned on him. A boy who knows alchemy in a town unfamiliar with it?

He must know Doctor Eastrin.

The young man looked down at Edward. He grinned a thousand watt smile.

"You think so? I've been studying my old man's notes. It's a pretty interesting science to learn if you ask me." He said while smudging the circle he had made.

"Your old man wouldn't happen to be Doctor John Eastrin, would it?" Edward asked, giving pause to the young man. His eyes were slightly wider, then they narrowed.

"Depends whose asking." He said slowly. Edward studied him for a moment before replying.

"I'm Edward Elric, and this is my brother, Alphonse Elric," Edward jutted a thumb over his shoulder to where he knew his brother would be. "We just wanted to ask the doctor questions about his research."

The guy clicked his tongue, his shoulders tense.

"Yeah, you and every other alchemist out there. Listen pal, I don't know who sent you, but Pops isn't home." He said dismissively before going to walk away. Edward was surprised by the sudden change in attitude and took a step towards him.

"Hey wait a minute!"

"Beat is shortie."

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING AN AMOEBA?!" Was all the young man heard before Edward clapped his hands and sent him flying with a literal fist to his ass end.

This of course attracted more attention.

The young man was absolutely stunned as he flew several feet before tumbling to the ground, meanwhile a crowd was growing again, but this time around Edward. Alphonse panicked, in this state he knew his brother would send half the town flying all the way to East City if they said the wrong word.

So he improvised.

"Whoa! You want real cool alchemy? Come and see!" He said while drawing a transmutation circle into the dirt. He would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the 'oooh's and 'ahhhh's that he got from it while she showboated all around. He started fixing little toys, radios, and other items that people shoved up to his helmet.

Meanwhile the young man laid there stunned for a moment, the only other alchemist was fuming away as he tried to put a lid on his temper. Al was taking one for the team and if he wasn't careful the damn hoard would be back.

"Wait a minute," The young man said before sitting up. "You didn't use a circle."

Edward was still fuming, but he did his best to swallow down the contempt and simply said "Yeah, takes a lot of mistakes to get it right, believe me."

The young man slowly stood.

"You must be the real deal then," he paused, seeming to think himself over. "Look, I don't know what to tell you but, if you can make heads of tails of this stuff then you obviously know what you're doing."

Eventually Alphonse ran out of things to fix, the crowds dispersed once again, thank goodness too! He wouldn't admit it, but he was getting pretty tired there. He wandered back towards his older brother and joined in on their conversation. Didn't sound like much had transpired since he had left.

"We are researching ways of bio-alchemy. Colonel Roy Mustang sent us to talk with your old man about it." Edward explained, still calming down. The young man sighed.

"Well, you're too late then." He said quietly. Edward and Alphonse both flinched at that.

"Did he…..?" Alphonse didn't know whether it would be polite enough to ask. The young man sighed before giving them both a weary smile.

"Why don't you come to my house where we can talk more privately? Mom always makes tea around this time of day." He said before turning around and wandering off.

The Elric brothers had nothing more they could do but follow.

Hi everyone!

Whoop whoop! Look at me go! Updating juuuuust on time! I'm sorry if this is a bit shorter, but I've started some new work and am also working on an original novel right now along with some film! So I'm super pumped about everything right now. Also anyone else just watch your fish swim around and feel at ease?

So please tell me what you think of this chapter! I think a lot of you are going to find this intro to Amestris very different from the original book. See the thing is everytime you have a 'character from our/other world falls into another' stories you go through the saaaaaame 'omg this isn't home' and the saaaaame 'omg I'm panicking' and the SAAAAAAME 'This isn't happening! Omfg IT IS' and I HATE writing that. Look I even underlined the word!

So forgive me for saying, you aren't going to see Erin go through an existential crisis, because those are so boring.

(you know you're an author when falling into another world and freaking out about it is boring)

Now also don't get me wrong, she is going through the motions, but I mean its pretty obvious that she is so I'm not concerned. Besides, less Erin means we met the Elric brothers! Yay! I think I made a huge mistake in the first book not having more Alphonse moments, because he is a gem to write.

So yeah, this is my update of the week! If you have any questions please pm or review and I will answer them! I didn't answer previous questions because they showed up in the first chapter so I figured there was no need! but as I said before, this story will have a mixed storyline between Brotherhood and the 2003 anime, but leaning heavily on the plot of brotherhood for specific reason you will all learn soon enough.

I hope you enjoy it! See you next Friday!

Iland Girl