Next chapter… I like putting random things into my stories, so yeah… You'll probably figure that out very soon…

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As they arrived in the North, Ed and Al saw someone waiting nearby. He was wearing a military uniform. Ed looked at the man for a moment, wondering whether this was the man they were supposed to meet.

Upon seeing Ed, the man walked over and greeted Ed. "I'm glad you made it all right. Where's your brother?"

Ed looked at the man with confusion as he pointed to his brother. The man looked at Al for a moment before laughing.

"What's so funny?" Ed asked.

"I didn't think you'd actually be able to do it. Never mind that, though," he continued as Ed opened his mouth. "We should go now before the storm arrives."

Ed and Al followed the man through the town and up a road towards what Ed thought was a monstrous wall. Military workers looked at the three without much curiosity. A few of them even greeted the brothers, but Ed didn't recognize any of them. He just followed the man to an office.

Sitting behind the desk was a woman with blonde hair. She stood up as they entered. "So you came the way you were supposed to. I was worried, since you never really seemed to have any common sense." These last words were clearly directed at Ed, but he didn't react. He was still trying to figure something out.

Al looked nervously at the woman before pulling out a letter. "Um, Colonel Mustang said to give this to you…"

The woman took one look at the letter and tossed it into the fireplace. Al stared at her in shock.

"Don't you remember what I said last time you gave me one of those?" she said, sounding fairly irritated.

"No!" Ed replied. "In fact, we don't remember you at all."

She glared at Ed for a while. "And why is it that I'm so forgettable?"

"It's not just you," Al said. "We don't have any memories from the past five years."

"And why wasn't I informed of this earlier?"

"Probably because it was written on there," Al shot back, pointing at the fireplace.

"I see," the woman said. "So, I suppose I need to introduce myself again."

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Major General Armstrong wasted no time with sending the boys to work. Ed soon found himself carrying a box down a long hallway. Al was right behind him.

"Figures we'd be doing stuff like this," Ed muttered. "Where are we supposed to bring these again?"

"I'm pretty sure she said to bring them to the Medical Room down there," Al replied. "That, and it says medical supplies on the side of your box."

Ed stopped at the door of the medical room and put his box down. Before he had a chance to knock on the door, someone opened it. She looked at Ed for a moment. "Oh, you're here again. Who's this kid?" she asked, pointing at Al.

"That's my brother."

"Oh, so he's like this now, huh? What are you two doing here?"

"Dropping something off," Ed replied, gesturing to the box on the ground.

"Ah, yes, I've been waiting for those. Thanks." The woman grabbed the box on the ground and led the two inside. "So what brings you back here? I thought you had left to do something in Central."

Ed shrugged. "Um, you probably don't know this, but Al and I don't remember anything from the past five years, so…"

"Oh, so that explains it. Are you trying to jog your memory by coming here?"

"No, actually, we were sent here by someone else."

Just then, someone came into the room. Ed looked back to see Major General Armstrong standing right behind him. "They're actually in hiding at the moment, and doing some work so that it's not a waste of time keeping them here."

"Oh, I get it now."

Armstrong looked at the two brothers for a moment. "What are you standing there for? There are still about ten boxes of this stuff that you need to get up here."

"Right," Ed replied as he headed for the door.

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Ed's shoulder was aching as he carried a box through the fortress for the third time. The fourth time was no better, and by the time he began carrying the fifth box up the stairs, his arm just gave out.

Luckily, Al had already set his down, so he managed to prevent a spill of the box's contents. At that moment, however, Major General Armstrong just happened to pass by, and she decided that this particular moment would be the best time to give Ed a lecture. After a minute, Al decided to risk interrupting her to tell her about Ed's little magnet problem. She sighed and had the two follow her into her office for the second time that day.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" she asked.

"I didn't realize that something like this could happen, so I didn't think it was important," Ed replied sheepishly.

"I suppose this means you won't be doing any heavy lifting now. Let's see how good you are at alchemy. I doubt you're as good as when you came last time, so I want to be sure you can at least do something useful with it."

Ed nodded and took the paper and random chunks of metal she handed him. He quickly drew a circle and put his hands on it. Armstrong slowly examined the small object that resulted from the transmutation.

"Not bad. I guess you really did deserve the title of State Alchemist."

Ed was caught off guard. He didn't think that this person was the kind who would praise skill, but here it was, a compliment from someone that Ed found to be fairly frightening. He stood with a blank look on his face for about a minute before he was sent downstairs to an alchemy research lab. He spent the rest of the day learning what they were focusing on while Al continued to carry stuff around.

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The next few days passed fairly peacefully, and Ed's shoulder wasn't acting up nearly as much as it had been. It wasn't until late one night when Ed had a problem. He and Al were walking up to the room they were sleeping in when Ed felt a searing pain in his arm. He stopped walking.

Al walked a few more steps before he noticed his brother wasn't walking with him. He stopped and turned around. "Is it your arm again?" he asked as he walked to Ed's side.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad this time," Ed replied.

"Well, let's get to our room. Maybe it'll be better in the morning."

Ed nodded as they continued walking to the room. He fell onto the bed with a groan and lay there without moving. After a moment, Al began pulling his shoes off.

"I don't see why I'm doing this for you," he muttered.

Ed massaged his shoulder as he spoke. "I don't see why you care about my shoes. It's my arm that hurts."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to fall asleep with your shoes on."

"You're acting like Mom."

"Well, someone has to take care of you. You're obviously not doing a good job of taking care of yourself."

Ed tried to sit up and hit his brother, but he only made it halfway before falling back. "You're lucky I can't move."

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood right now. There's so many things I could do to you right now…"

Ed looked at the ceiling. "Hey, Al, are you trying to be fifteen right now?"

"What do you mean?" Al asked with a question on his face.

"It's just that… I don't really know how to act right now. Are we supposed to act the age we think we are, or the age we really are?"

Al took a few steps back and sat down. "I… I don't know. I've been concentrating more on trying to remember. I think you should concentrate more on that, too. Knowing who we are will be better for us both."

"Yeah, but I don't know what to do anymore. We can't exactly use alchemy to fix this problem, either."

There was a knock on the door, and Miles entered. Ed sat up, putting great efforts into not showing that he was in pain. Miles stood just in front of the door.

"You two are going out on a patrol tomorrow. Someone's coming to inspect this place and Major General Armstrong doesn't want you here when they come."

"O rly?" Ed asked.

"Ya rly."

"No wai."

"Ya wai."

"Srsly?"

"Ya srsly."

"LOL thats awsum."

"I kno rite?"

"WTF why r we talkin like this?"

"No clue man."

"Oh well its kewl."

"Ya ttly."

"Hey lets go bowling."

"No wai there isnt a bowling alley around here."

Al smacked his brother on the head. "Why are you talking in internet lingo when the computer hasn't even been invented yet? Um, Mr. Miles, I don't know how good it would be for brother to go outside. His arm's getting worse."

"It shouldn't be a problem. You're not going to be doing anything strenuous, just walking."

"Right," Al said, but he was still worried.

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They went out early the next morning. Ed's arm was still aching terribly, so they had put it in a sling. As they walked outside, Ed felt something pressing against his back. He looked back to see Al step back. There was a knife on Ed's back. "Just in case," Al said. Ed pulled it off and threw it at his brother. Al ducked with a laugh.

"Will you stop sticking stuff to my back?" Ed yelled at his brother as he pulled a spoon from his shoulder. "And how the hell did this get here?"

"Shut up!" Buccaneer chucked a lawnmower at Ed as the sky began to clear. They walked through the wilderness in silence as the weather went from wonderful to terrible.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch (shoots self for using stupid cliché), someone was speaking with Major General Armstrong. Miles was standing behind his superior as they faced the soldier from Central.

"So who is it that you're looking for again?"

"The Elric brothers."

"And why do you think they would have come up here?"

"The two of them have lost a large portion of their memories. It is believed that they are attempting to regain their memories by traveling to places they visited within the past five years."

"And so you've come here. Well, if they're in the area, they haven't come close to this base. I have someone on patrol at the moment. If they're around, he'll definitely find them. But, I have to wonder. What is it about those boys that makes them so important?"

"Those two know a very large amount of information concerning the military. In the event that they regain their memories, it would be a very bad thing if they were to be captured by the enemy."

Armstrong nodded. "Of course. Miles, go out and find Buccaneer and tell him to keep an eye out for the Elric brothers."

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The two returned late that evening. As Ed walked down the hallway behind his brother, he began massaging his shoulder again. Al looked at him with concern in his eyes.

"Is it still hurting?"

"Yeah, it's not that great at the moment."

"We really need to do something about that. I don't want you to end up not being able to use your arm."

"Me neither, but I can't exactly go to a hospital right now, remember?"

"Yeah, but still…"

"Al, don't worry about it. It's not too bad."

Ed heard someone walking behind them and turned around. It was Armstrong. "Come with me for a moment. Something has come up."

The two exchanged glances and followed her to her office. As they sat down, Ed noticed something strange on Olivier's face.

"So. You've been told about the current situation, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then you realize that it would be unwise for the two of you to stay here. I believe it's time for you to go home. You leave tomorrow."

"R-right. Thank you for your help." The two stood up and headed for the door.

"Edward. Stay here for a moment."

Ed paused and turned around. Al looked back for a moment and left.

"Sit down."

Ed sat back down, unsure of what he had done wrong.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"No."

"Huh?"

"How old is your mind?"

"What…?"

"You've lost a large portion of your memory, as well as the experience and maturity gained from those years. Once again, how old are you?"

Ed pointed at his head. "Well… in here I'm still eleven…"

"Then why are you trying to be sixteen?"

"Huh?"

"You're trying to be something you're not. It's getting annoying. Your mind is only eleven, and that's where you should consider yourself to be. Understood?"

Ed nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Tomorrow someone will take you to the train station. Mustang has sent tickets. Don't come back here until you're capable of acting the way you're supposed to."

With that, Olivier stood up and pointed to the door. Ed took the hint and left the office.