This is probably the only story where every chapter has a name. XD

Big events in this chapter, big events.

When Ed got back to the hotel, Al wasted no time in asking what the Fuhrer had wanted. He seemed excited and nervous at the same time.

Ed shrugged his brother off as he sat down. "He told us we shouldn't be looking for a way to regain our memories right now."

"Why not?"

"I guess he thinks we'll go crazy if we remember."

"Or maybe he's part of this whole deal."

Ed looked up as he tried to pull off his shoe. "What do you mean?"

"Why else would he bother to be the one to tell you to not go after it? It could have been anyone with a higher rank than us. Besides, I don't like that one soldier."

"Me neither, but we can't act like we know anything suspicious, otherwise things will be bad for us."

Al sighed. "So what now?"

"Well, he said we could do whatever we wanted for a while, so maybe we can go visit Winry…"

"But wouldn't that be suspicious?"

"I don't see why it would be. She's our friend, after all."

Al thought about it for a moment. "Wait, she's in Rush Valley now, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Here, look at this," Al said as he took out a map of the country. "The town right after Rush Valley."

"Dublith? You want to go see our teacher?"

"Yeah, why not? We can just visit Winry on the way."

Al thought about it some more. "Yeah, that sounds good. Should we call them?"

Ed scratched his head. "Yeah, it might be nice to give them a warning. I don't know if we saw teacher since we went home from training, but it'd still be good to tell her what happened. It'll give all of us time to prepare, since she probably won't be too happy with us…"

They both shuddered. Ed lay back on his bed. "Well, I guess that's settled. Let's head out tomorrow."

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As the train pulled into the Rush Valley station, Ed could see Winry waiting impatiently for them. She grabbed Ed's suitcase as soon as he got off the train, and began walking away. The two of them ran after Winry as she walked through the town.

"Hey, Winry, why are you going so fast?"

"I have something to talk to you about, but I'm afraid to say it right now."

As they arrived at Winry's small residence, Ed looked around in confusion. Winry had a few pictures on the wall, but one of them caught his attention. It was a picture of the three of them. Ed figured it had to be a recent picture, since he looked about fifteen or so in it.

The brothers sat down at a small table in the middle of the room. Winry joined them after a moment.

"So what is it that you wanted to say, Winry?" Ed asked.

She showed the two of them something she had in her hands. It was a medallion. Ed looked at it. It had an intricate design carved into it. The design looked familiar to Ed, to the point that he could have sworn he had carved it himself. When she flipped it over, Al had the same reaction about the other side.

"This is what Colonel Mustang gave me. He said it was somehow important to getting your memories back."

"Something like this? How?"

"I don't know. You left a note with it, but you didn't say anything other than that it would help get your memories back."

Ed scratched his head. "Well, I have no idea. Can I have it?"

Winry put it in Ed's outstretched palm. "Yeah, here."

Ed looked at it and began tracing the design with his finger. "It looks so familiar… Hey, Winry, do you have a piece of paper?"

Winry blinked. "Yeah." She gave Ed some paper and a pencil. "What do you need it for?"

Ed began tracing the design on the paper. Winry and Al looked on with curiosity as the lines crossed over each other and created what looked like… a larger version of the pattern on the medallion.

"Um, Ed? Was there any point to that?"

"I don't know. I thought it would be easier to figure out if it were bigger. Let me trace Al's side out."

Instead of getting a new piece of paper, Ed traced his brother's pattern over his own. He was rather surprised to see the seemingly random designs turn into something familiar. It looked like a human, but it was incredibly mutilated.

"What is this?" Ed asked. Winry looked at it.

"I think… it's something you made…"

Al looked at Winry in confusion for a moment before clutching his head. An intense pain was making its way from his forehead through to the back of his head.

"Al? You okay?" Ed asked, looking at Al in concern.

"My head… It feels like it's going to explode…"

Winry stood up. "You're probably thinking too hard. Come on, you can sleep on the couch."

Al barely made it to the couch before it got worse. After a while, it overwhelmed him and he lost consciousness.

--------------

Ed sat quietly next to his brother as Winry brought over a blanket. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but it shouldn't be too bad. It's probably just a migraine."

"Yeah, but it came pretty quick, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but that's all I can think of right now. I haven't heard of any sickness where the very first symptom is a bad headache, or at least not any that Al could have gotten."

Ed looked at his brother once again. Al's face hadn't relaxed in unconsciousness. In fact, he seemed to be in even more pain asleep than he was in when he was awake. Then Ed realized something. He looked more closely at Al's face. He breathed a sigh of relief. Al wasn't in pain. He was thinking.

"Hey, Winry…"

"What?"

"I think Al's getting his memories back."

"Huh? How do you know that?"

"Look at his face. That's the one he makes when he's thinking, remember?"

Winry looked at Al. "Well, it's been so long since I actually saw him, but… you're right. So I guess we should just let him be, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'll call teacher and tell her we'll end up being a little late."

As Ed made the call, Winry stood by Al's side. His eyes fluttered open for a brief moment, and he weakly called out his brother's name. Winry kneeled down beside him and took Al's hand in hers. "Ed's calling your teacher right now. He'll be back in a moment."

"Winry… why does it hurt so much? I thought armor didn't feel pain…"

Winry didn't answer. "Just relax, Al. You'll be fine."

Al closed his eyes, and his hand fell out of Winry's grasp. Winry turned around to see Ed standing at the door. "Well, I called her, and she's fine with us being late. Were you talking with Al just now?"

"Yeah, he woke up for a minute. I'm positive it's because he's regaining his memories now."

Ed looked at his brother. "Why is it just him, though?"

Winry sat down at the table. "I don't know. You know, maybe you should get to a hotel. You'd probably be more comfortable, since I don't really have much room here."

"Right…"

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Everything's spinning. I don't know where to look, or what to do. I'm lost. Brother, help me, please. I don't want to go through all of this. It's hard, so incredibly hard… Why did we choose to get rid of our memories? Why did we make sure we'd have a way to regain them? What… what can I do now? I don't even remember making the decision to get rid of our memories.

Al weakly opened his eyes. He could feel his brother nearby. Al looked over to see Ed sleeping on the floor, his head and arms resting on Al's bed. Al had seen Ed asleep many times, but this was the first time since losing their bodies that Ed had looked so peaceful.

It's probably because he doesn't remember anything we went through.

Al closed his eyes again. His mind was still in the process of unlocking all of his memories. It was overwhelming, but at the same time it wasn't. Overall, it was a very confusing process, so Al didn't want to add to the confusion by trying to function as a normal person. The first memories returning, along with the puzzle of what they were looking at, had overwhelmed him enough to give him that headache, and he hadn't liked the pain at all.

Even when he was sleeping, the memories just continued to come. I guess five years of never sleeping will give you more to think about than you want.

He felt Ed's hand brush against his arm, and opened his eyes to see Ed move over to his own bed. "Brother…" he said quietly.

"Al? Are you okay?"

"Somewhat. I'm… really confused. Everything's coming back so quickly that I don't really know what's going on."

Ed smiled. "Well, at least you're remembering."

"Yeah…" Al closed his eyes again. "Maybe you'll remember soon, too…"

---------------

"I just figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

"A way to get out of the military for good, without having to run away."

Al breathed a sigh of relief. His memories had completely returned.

He woke up to a knock on the door. He sat up and watched as Ed stumbled over to see who it was.

The person who had been knocking was none other than Roy Mustang. Ed stepped back to let him inside.

"What are you doing here, Colonel?" Al asked politely.

"I'm on my way to Southern Headquarters on some business. Since I heard you two were staying in Rush Valley for a while, I thought I'd stop by."

Al raised an eyebrow. That story wasn't exactly convincing. Maybe it would convince Ed, but Al knew the Colonel better now. Al laughed inwardly at Roy's poorly hidden concern. The only problem was whether or not this was actually Roy. Al didn't want Envy to find out that he had regained his memories.

"Oh, well, that's good timing, since- OW!" Al had walked over to face Roy, and he had tripped his brother in order to prevent any more speaking on his part.

Roy looked down at Ed. "I thought your bad luck streak ended after you left Central the first time."

Bad luck streak…? Is he talking about all those times Ed tripped at the hotel? Al decided to do one more test, just to be sure. "What kind of business do you have in the south?" he asked innocently.

Roy paused for a moment. "You're testing me, aren't you?"

"Um…"

Roy smiled. "All right, then. Maybe this will convince you that it's me," he continued, pulling up his sleeve and showing a deep cut on his arm. "If I were Envy, that wouldn't be there, would it?"

"Huh?" Ed asked.

"Nothing," Al replied. "You'll understand when you remember it."

Roy looked from Ed to Al. "You mean Fullmetal doesn't remember anything yet?"

"No, just me."

Ed continued to look confused. "Wait, who's Envy? And how the heck did you figure it out so quickly?"

"Maybe because you nearly blurted it out?" Al said in an irritated tone.

"Oh. But wait, how would that have mattered? Is there someone out there who looks like him?"

"Um… sure, let's go with that. Hey, Ed, why don't you go visit Winry?"

"What, right now? Is there something you don't want me to hear?"

Al shoved his brother out the door. "Just go, will you?"

Before Ed could protest, Al pushed some money into Ed's hand, gave him his coat, slammed the door shut and locked it. Roy sat down.

"This is unexpected. I thought that you would regain your memories at the same time."

"Yeah, so did we," Al replied, sitting down on the other bed.

"Of course, this could work to our advantage."

Al blinked. "What, you mean it's a good thing he doesn't remember?"

"Exactly. Since you're not a part of the military, they can't investigate you without drawing suspicion from regular civilians and the lower ranks of the military. You're free to do what you wish. However, your brother, who is still under the surveillance of the military, is blissfully unaware of the truth."

Al caught on pretty quickly to Roy's point. "Yeah, but what can I do? I don't have any authority in the military."

"That's true. Oh well, we'll find some way around that."

Al remembered something he had heard from Scar when Ed had been unconscious. "My brother left me some sort of clue to this mystery, but of course you don't know what I'm talking about, so just forget it."

"What about Scar?" he asked in a low voice.

Roy was caught off guard. "What, you mean ask Scar for help?"

"When we met him in East City last week, he mentioned something about his brother leaving a clue to this mystery. I didn't know what he meant back then, but now…"

"You think Scar knows about this case?"

Al nodded. "When we went to the north after that whole incident under the city, Scar had been somewhere nearby. Only for a short period of time, though, and then he left. When we were there, that's when we found out about the way to regain our bodies, and we left shortly after Major General Armstrong tricked General Raven into giving us information. We were going to report to you, but we felt that we had to regain our bodies first, and then that whole mess happened…"

"You got distracted. It's understandable. So, what is this information?"

Al was silent.

"Alphonse."

"Do you have a map of the country, by any chance?"

"No, not with me. Why?"

"Well, from what we figured out, this country was… it was created in order to be turned into a Philosopher's Stone."

"WHAT?" Roy stared at Al in disbelief.

"That's what I said. Back up north, we had a map, and we connected the points where large amounts of blood have been shed in this country, and it formed a circle not unlike the one in the fifth laboratory."

"That's… they created this country only for that purpose?"

"Yeah."

Roy seemed to be in shock for a moment, and then he shook his head. "It's worse than I thought. In this case, we could use all the help we can get."

Al caught on quickly to what Roy was saying. "That means…"

"Yes. If you can find Scar and get him as an ally, our job will be easier. Are you willing to do it?"

Al looked at the mess his brother had left on his bed. The silver watch stuck out from the folds of his clothes. "If I can find a way to do it without Ed knowing."

Roy thought about it for a moment. "Leave that to me."

-------------------

Ed had spent a moment in the hallway, debating whether or not to listen at the door to the conversation, when Winry had walked up to him. She stopped when she saw him staring at the door.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Colonel Mustang's in there with Al. I think they're talking about me."

"Yeah, probably."

"Damn it, just because he's fifteen again doesn't mean he has to be a jerk."

Winry bit her lip in order to prevent a laugh from coming out. "So he got all his memories back?"

"I guess so."

"Good. Now all we need to do is to get yours back."

"Yeah, and soon. It sucks to be kicked out of my own hotel room."

Just then, the door opened, and Al signaled for the two to come inside. As they sat in the room, Ed noticed a strange look on Al's face.

"What's going on?" Ed asked.

"It seems there's a terrorist organization nearby that's planning on hijacking a train. I need help with capturing the group and preventing any loss of life. Do you think you'd be able to help me?" Roy asked.

Ed looked around. "Um, yeah, I guess…"

"Good. We'll leave in the morning."