CHAPTER 1

AL?

"Al? Hey, Al, you awake?" I hear a voice that I know I've heard recently, but I can't place it. It sounds muffled and far away.

"Mmph?" I reply with a grunt. My voice sounds tinny, as though I'm in something big and metal.

Wait, metal? I look left and right. I can't see anything.

"Al… You have to get up! We're going to see Winry, remember?" The voice says again.

Winry…? Wait, that voice, is that…?

"Edward?" I complete my thoughts out loud.

"Yeah, Al? Why does your voice sound girlier than usual?" Ed replies, laughing and I hear footsteps coming closer to me, wherever I am.

I panic and start to sit up. I bang my head on something, and I hear the footsteps stop. I lie back down, groaning. "Ow… my head…"

"…Al?" Ed's footsteps run towards me. I hear him stop right above my head.

Something opens above my, something metal. I look up and I see Edward, anime-style, red coat and all, looking at me, holding Al's armor helmet, looking confused and angry. "You're not Al."

"Huh?" I ask, also confused. I look left and right, again. This time, I see what looks like armor encasing me.

"Who are you?" Ed roars, pulling on my blonde (that isn't right either) hair, trying to get me out.

"Ow ow ow!" I cry, grabbing his hand and trying to get him to let go. "Let go, that hurts!"

"Answer me first! Who are you?!" He asks again, but his grip loosens a bit.

"My name is Paige Alde…" I look back up at his hand, which is still holding my blonde hair. "Maybe… I'm seventeen?" I add softly.

"Don't even know your own age?" He taunts, a shadow of a smile creeping onto his face.

"Well… I'm not from here… where are we anyways, Ed?" I pull my hair out of his hand and, surprisingly, he doesn't object. He just puts down Al's head and crosses his arms over his chest as though angry.

"Central… Wait, how do you know my name?" Ed counters in a frustrated voice.

"Why wouldn't I? You are Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, aren't you?"

"Oh… that's why…" He shakes his head in disbelief, clearly having forgotten he's a famous alchemist. "To change the subject, what'd you do with my brother, Paige?"

I blush. "I didn't really do anything… I was reading a book, and all of a sudden I'm here, four years younger than I really am."

"I guess that explains your age confusion… How do you know you're four years younger?"

"Well first of all, do I look 21?" I snap, finally having the sense to try to get out of the armor.

"Well… no." Ed admits, stepping back so I can get out.

"Second of all, I died my hair when I was 18, so I can't be older than that. It's neither black nor straightened, which is how I keep it." I manage to get out and I shake my head in disbelief as to where I am.

Wherever that actually is, not a clue.

"So how did you get here again?" Ed's voice is calmer, less angry. I realize he's only a few inches shorter than me.

"I told you… I was reading a book, well a manga really, about you and your brother, and-"

"Wait, there's a manga about me and my brother?"

"Yeah, it's well written, but the anime is way better…"

"We have an anime too?! Aw, man, wait 'til I tell Al!" An obviously-Edward-Elric grin crosses his face until he clues in to his own words. "Hey, where is he, anyways?"

Ed takes a few steps forward to the armor, and sticks his head into the neck hole, gripping the sides. "Al… you in there, brother?"

No reply.

"Al…?" Still no reply. He panics, taking his head out.

Then I notice something. "Edward…" I start, but he clearly can't, or won't, hear me.

"Al?!" He steps to the side of the bed, me following, and shakes the empty armor, and I can see tears forming in his golden eyes.

"Edward-"

"Dammit Al!" He kicks the bed the armor's on and slams his hands down on the mattress beside what used to be his brother.

"Edward…" I put a hand down on his left shoulder.

He smacks it away, surprising me with a hand in front of me in a 'Stop' position. "Don't touch me!"

"But Ed…" I protest, and he turns his head to look at me. I'm not surprised to see tears all down his face, and he looks angry. "I know you're upset, but you have to see this."

I step back and sideways, stopping in front of the neck. I point to a spot on it, that only he would normally know about. He freezes, and I see his already-pale face go literally as white as paper.

He can't speak, and he slinks to his knees and places his face on the bed, and starts to actually cry.

I try to think how this might be from Ed's point of view, how he would feel when he saw that there's no blood seal on Al's neck.