The Science of Love and Evil
Chapter Two

Genre: Er… is confusion a genre? Uh... mostly action/general for now.
Word Count: 1857
Summary: Ed, Al, and Winry are separated when they fall, and wake up in the middle of the fight between the Senshi and the Cytosi.
Setting: (See chapter title). Time-wise, this is occurring somewhere in between SuperS and Stars for Sailor Moon. They've already defeated Nephrenia, but they are now facing a new enemy – Emperor Kazuhide. For Fullmetal Alchemist, this is a divergence from chapter 56; so, Ed didn't go to visit Riza yet, rather, he and Al went to check on Winry. In the previous moments, Ed tried to open the gate while Winry and Al were there. And yes, I am aware that he wouldn't (willingly) do that with Winry there but heh she's nosy and... well it's kinda explained later. Anyway. He opened the gate, but at the same time Sailor Moon struck the mirror. (When the Senshi battle Nephrenia in SuperS, Sailor Moon strikes the mirror and they fall into this memory of their past lives. It's kind of the same thing that happens here, which is why I said that Kazuhide was sort-of based on Nephrenia). Since both actions generate a transition of worlds, both groups ended up… in the same world. Eh; I get more scientific later, (thank God for brainy-Ami, and Ed; they're my excuses to put some quantum-mechanics in this bitch!).

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. Or FMA. Or their characters. Or their characters' cool powers, attacks, artificial limbs where applicable, etc, etc. And post this chapter there will be no more disclaimers. You all know quite well that I don't own either fandom, there have been three disclaimers already, and there's one on my profile so... yeah. You get it.

AND AGAIN, REMEMBER, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS TO ALL THE FMA MANGA (UP TO CHAPTER 56), THROUGHOUT THIS STORY. You've been warned.

The Space Between Worlds

Edward was the first to regain consciousness after the fall. (Al of course, was conscious throughout the fall and the landing, but had remained dazed and, having landed near Winry, spent his time trying to wake her.) He was confused… and perplexed… What had happened? Where was he? He studied his surroundings as the slowly came into focus, but received no logical answers to his questions. In actuality, when he saw where he was, only more questions came to his mind. He felt as if he was on solid ground, but looking down, he saw no distinction between what was below him and what was to his side… or above him… In fact, he couldn't quite tell where the "ground" began. All of his surroundings looked the same, but not like any place he had been before. Looking at what appeared to be the stars, he wondered if he was in the sky. But how was that possible? Ad if he indeed was in the sky, where was the moon? Everything was so dark… this didn't look like the gate at all. Where was Al's body? Where was that… man/thing who seemed to control the gate?

Whether he could have properly analysed his situation or not was a question not to be answered, however, as at that very moment Ed's thoughts were interrupted by a scream. Snapping out of his confused daze, he looked up at the scene before him instead of its background. What he saw in front of him didn't make sense either… several blue women were jumping over a couple of other women in white with coloured skirts and high heels. Upon a closer look, Ed realised that the blue "women" weren't actually women at all. Although they were mildly shaped like human beings, they had only three fingers on each hand… and only one eye…

'Chimeras…?' Ed thought of them. But who were the women in the skirts? One had a red skirt with dark black hair down past her waist, and the other was very tall with a green skirt and brown hair. They were both struggling to push the numerous blue things off of them. Ed debated what he should do; while he didn't like the sight of the supposed chimeras, he also didn't know who the other women were… And were the blue things really chimeras anyway? 'Hmmm… what animal has blue skin…' he pondered to himself while simultaneously wondering what actions he should take in terms of the fight in front of him. The girls in the skirts did look outnumbered… it certainly didn't seem like a fair fight… But them, the tall girl had just gotten the upper hand on the supposed chimeras.

Ed guessed she was experienced in combat; she kicked with ease and apparently pretty hard – she seemed to send every blue 'chimera' (or whatever they were…) flying off of her. She didn't falter once as she kicked away all of the chimeras around her and then crossed her arms over her chest and brought her legs close to her body. Then she closed her eyes and Ed noticed some sort of antenna extend from the band she was wearing on her head as she shouted "JUPITER… THUNDER… CRASH!" And suddenly, she thrust out what seemed to be a bolt of electricity straight at the chimeras she had kicked away from herself in the moments before.

'What the hell…' Ed thought as he watched. How had she created electricity? He had seen fire created before… But she had created electricity… No, that wasn't right. 'Energy, like matter, can neither be created nor destroyed.' Ed recited in his head, a main point in the teachings of some book he had read long ago that had been burnt into his mind. Electric energy mostly came about from the transformation of kinetic or mechanical energy… There was no wind or sun here, (and this girl certainly didn't look like a windmill, for that matter), so it was obvious that she wasn't harvesting energy from either of those things… no, it had to be generated another way. But, how? There was no water here either, so it definitely wasn't hydroelectric power. But that meant that she had to obtain the energy of the electric shock from mechanical energy, and although she was tall, she was certainly smaller than any mechanical generator Ed had ever seen; and her movements were far too little for kinetic energy… The only way she could have obtained such energy had to be from…

His thoughts were interrupted once more as a shout came from the girl with the long black hair. Apparently during his contemplation of the possible sources of energy the girl with the brown hair was using, the raven-haired woman had gotten free from the chimeras that surrounded her. She clapped her hands together and extended her index fingers as she shouted "Mars fire… IGNITE!"

At that, a spiral of flame shot towards more of the chimeras, destroying them in a single breath. 'She claps… just like me…' Ed thought, although he had noticed that she held her hands differently. This however, again brought about the question that had previously been forming in his head.

'These women…' he thought. 'Could they be…

…Alchemists?'

Winry groaned somewhat as she awoke, her body being reminded of the uncomfortable position it had landed in by Al's shaking of it. "Winry, wake up! There's something strange happening here…" he said to her, still shaking her slightly in order to rouse her. "Up…" she started. "I'm up…"

But when Winry opened her eyes, she became very confused very quickly. "Al?" she asked the suit of armour now pushing her up. "Where… are we? This doesn't sound like the place Ed mentioned at all…" she trailed off, remembering their earlier conversation about the "gate."

"It's kind of like… an eye." Ed had said to her.

"An eye?" she had asked.

"Yeah… Gluttony had a fake one on his stomach –(1)… but when Ling and I were swallowed, I had to create the real doors to get out… and Al is there… well, part of him. His body. Remember, I said he was 'taken,' he didn't die?" At this, he had looked up at her, but then looked away in a strange daze, obviously becoming lost to his thoughts.

'Well, fat lot of good THAT did me.' Winry had thought. She had begged and pleaded with him, used her wrench and everything, just to get him to finally tell her what was going on, what he had wanted to do. And this was what she got? She wondered whether or not she should be angry with herself for even trying, or for not understanding, or whether she should just be angry with him for giving her a really half-ass explanation. What the hell was he talking about anyway?

"He couldn't come with me though…" Ed trailed off. "It's weird, there's nothing there but doors, but then, everything is there… It's kind of cool, but really ugly at the same time… And that man, or whatever it is… the one who took my arm…"

"Edward…" Winry had started to say. "That… you're not making sense…"

She wanted so badly to understand…

"Hmm?" he had said, temporarily snapping out of his own little world to twist around and look at her again.

She had sighed then. Clearly, she wasn't going to get anywhere with him. Not now anyway. "Nothing…" she had said.

"Oh…" he had replied, turning once more away from her, his eyes fixed on something only he could see.

Winry began to sit up fully in order to look around for any doors or anything that could possibly resemble what Ed had been talking about, but the pain in her back had temporarily stalled that particular quest. The right side of her back was propped up by her toolbox, which she had landed on, and Al was currently removing her left arm from where it had folded itself underneath the curve of her back. "Ow…" she said. "Uh, thanks Al." she continued as he removed the toolbox from under her. "You okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah, my back hurts, but…" she then remembered what she had originally wanted to search for. But, looking around, she saw no doors at all… only a bleak picture of the sky.

The landscape was hauntingly beautiful. But then… the darkness had made it ugly and it conveyed a sense of loneliness. There were so many stars to light up the dark sky, and yet, they were covered by clouds. Only the very brightest of them glittered through the smoky mists. There was no moon, only vast, empty space. It was kind of cool, but still ugly. Could this really be what Ed had been mumbling about?

But, there weren't any doors that she could see… then again, she realised, her view was blocked by what appeared to be many people in the middle of a fight. Well… maybe not people… the beings were blue, and only had one eye… -(2) No, they definitely weren't human. But there was someone else there that she could see. It was a woman, who wore a dark blue skirt and white gloves. She had long blond hair tied up in a red bow, and a strange white shirt on with a red band at the bottom and a large red bow right above her chest. She also wore a red mask shaped like a pair of glasses. –(3) Winry was quickly amazed when the woman whipped out a gigantic chain, shouted "Venus Love-me chain… ENCIRCLE!" and lassoed a large group of the blue things which had formerly been trying to attack her. Once she had tied up the blue beings, Winry and Al heard "Pluto… dead SCREAM!" and saw a bright flash of light. When they could finally see again, the blue beings that had previously been in the woman's chain had vanished. "Great job, Pluto!" the woman shouted to someone with long dark hair and a tall sceptre in one hand.

"Are they…" Al started saying to himself. "Al?" Winry asked. "Are we… did you –" she stopped herself. 'Of course he didn't get his body back you idiot!' she scolded herself mentally, 'If he had he wouldn't be armour right now!' What a dumb question...

Al's mood changed a bit as he looked at her, knowing what she had been about to ask. He had his memories of what had happened to his body years ago, but they were new to him and even in memory they were painful. He pushed those thoughts away however, as there seemed to be more pertinent matters. "Winry, we should get out of here… I'm not sure what's going on, but it doesn't seem safe."

"But… where would we go?" Winry asked him. Nothing in this strange world seemed to make sense to either of them; it was dark, and lonely, and although there seemed to be eons of vast empty space ahead of and around them, they felt that there was nowhere to go.

End of Chapter Two

A/N:
Gah, why does that chapter seem so angsty? Ah well… Yes, and forgive me for the physics part at the beginning… I love science… hehe, let's just say that part was a mini tribute to my old physics teacher Dr. Creaven, who's getting married during the holiday! He's so cute and bashful about it too, when I told him congratulations he looked down and blushed and said "Thank you ma'am." Tehee! But anyway…

-(1): Most of this stuff that he's rambling on about is from chapters 51-53 of the manga, except for the part about him determining that Al's body was taken and he hadn't really 'died'… that's in chapter 40-something. 44 Maybe? Eh, it's the one where he gets all embarrassed cause he asks Winry if she remembers when they fought over her hand in marriage:) Teehee, he was sweat-dropping and blushing all over the place!
-(2): Ugh, I'm so sick of describing these stupid things! I guess you all must be too. Sorry, I just wanted to see it through everyone's eyes I guess… eh. I dunno.
-(3): This is Sailor Venus in her Sailor V uniform! There's a reason for it, you'll see. It's all in the name of EdxWin… can't tell you more than that! It IS significant though, I didn't just put that in here so you would think it's Sailor Moon or anything.

By the way… my Dad's Australian, my Mum's from Texas, and my 'stepmum' (my Dad hasn't married her but they have a kid… it's along story) is British - American. So… I have a pretty strange mix of spellings. Mostly I spell things the Aussie way, but the phrases I use are Americanised English because I now live in DC. So, sorry if something I write looks a little odd!

Anywho... sorry for the short chapters and such. The beginning ones are mostly explanatory… including my far-too-long author's notes... but… I need them to be that way for a reason! Sorry if it seemed kind of boring though, things will start moving along soon enough. (Once Winry whips out the wrench next chapter!) The longer this gets, less and less author's notes will appear.

Reviews are helpful and always appreciated!