In case you were not alerted (i have no idea how this site works with alerts on re-posting a chapter), chapter 7 was re-done and re-posted, as a complete chapter, so I advise you take to reading that before you read this,as it may not make much of any sense!

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or any of the Plot or characters, Arakawa does. I do, however, own any OCs, any plot I create, and any fangirl moments used against Ed.

Chapter 8

A Theory and Some Bonding

"Ugh... Ouh..." His eyes clenched tightly together, and parted multile times in a row, batting his eyelashes to get used to the light. It was shining down in rays of light, through something green...

Leaves...

'A forest..' He concluded. Sunlight streaming through breaks in the leaves on the full and green trees. He sat up and looked down seeing that he was still in one piece. It was then that herealized he wearing pain in his chest was nowhere to be found. "What the..." he checked all over his body, not finding any blood whatsoever.

A constant ringing in his ears finally died off and birds began chirping. Everything looked so bright, like a dream.

But it wasn't.

"I'm... Alive." He said, sending his mind almost reeling when he remembered death. It was horrible, and he got an empty feeling in his stomach. He had been dead. Gone.

What an odd feeling it was to find that death gave life, because as far as he knew, he wasn't dreaming, and he was, in fact, breathing.

Not only that, but when he pinched his arm, he didn't wake up, he only squinted further than his eyes normally were.

He stood and brushed off his yellow clothing, he walked only fifty feet before a barely recognizable house came into view. It was demolished, had holes everywhere, and was completely function-less as a household any longer. He walked to it and paced the perimeter, confirming the suspicion he held.

A large semi-circular looking gorge was in the ground, and it raced along the ground for a mile or more, cutting a hole like space in the trees beyond.

Here was where Gluttony had swallowed him.

The last thing he remembered was Ed activating the circle from xerxes, and transmuting them. Sure, he remembered being on cold, hard cement, but after that all he felt was pain. continuous pain for what felt like a day. then there was a break. and then he felt more pain.

Then he woke up here.

But wait, did that mean-

"Ling?" A meek voice resonated.

He snapped out of his thoughts and whirled around, facing the voice, ready to battle.

"Are you okay?" He relaxed. The voice stepped out of a shadow inside the house. "Where's brother, Ling?"

"Are you alright, though?" I asked, sliding out a chair for Ed at the table in my kitchen. I walked to the fridge and grabbed a cold water bottle for both of us. The walk home was long and quiet after Ed had mentioned Al.

I had only a vague sense of how he might be feeling though, because I have never been separated from someone like my brother for more than a day or two.

"I just wonder where he is, ya know?" He accepted the water and we both sat down. My mom was at work by now, and we had to get inside from the back door, which was still unlocked.

When we had walked into the back yard I felt another presence, it made me feel just a little warmer, until the presence left a little, backing off. Envy must be hanging out on my roof... That little sneak. I still had no idea how long he had been with us, but i hoped it hadn't been for long.

There was still no proof that he wasn't planning something evil for Ed. I had a feeling he was though, because since alchemy was still around here, for whatever reason, that meant that Envy had his powers, and what better time to take down an enemy than attack him when he was in an unfamiliar place?

I had to make sure that Ed didn't get into any situations where he was alone and outside at any given time.

"-isha? Trisha?" A voice repeated. I blinked quickly and looked at Ed simply.

"Uh! Um... Sorry.." I rubbed the back of my neck quietly and looked up at the boy shyly. "I... I was just thinking."

He sensed a bit of lie, I could tell. "About what?"

"Family." I tried lying again, it coming out smoothly. "How I would feel if I went through all that you did.." I took a sip of water.

"Tell me, If you say my life is a T.V. show, like what I saw last night, does that you mean you know what happens to me and Al?" He changed the subject so deliberately I laughed.

"No, actually." Chuckle, "Since you showed up here, I have no idea how your story will turn out now..." I looked up at him. "I'm not sure if Al still gets his body back," Ed tensed, "Or if... You and Winry get together." That struck even more of a nerve.

"W-What?" He blushed, and at the same time I felt a pang in my chest.

"You heard me!" I pretended to smile.

"You're lying."

"Am not."

"Are to.."

"Al so gets his body back, I promise!" I told him like I thought he had been thinking about Al getting his body back, and not about Winry the whole time. Playing dumb was fun to do.

He froze up a little. "Oh." He smiled again. "So he was supposed to?" He covered his slip up quickly, most likely realizing now was no the time to be thinking about girl crushes.

"Yeah." I wasn't sure if I should continue, but I did. "That is, if you had gone to the right side of the gate and time after transmuting yourself."

He took a minute to think about this. "So you're saying that there's a chance he won't get his body back all because I was sent here?"

I answered in all seriousness. "Of course, Ed. Think about it. You shouldn't have come here. Because you came here, who knows what's been going on back in Amestris while you were gone? For all we knew the Homunculi could be taking over. You've been here for two days now. A lot could have happened there already. Time may match up weirdly."

Ed put his head into his left hand, the non-metal one, his thumb on his right temple, and his pointer finger on the left, the other three fingers fanning over his eyes so that I could not see them. A heavy sigh escaped his lips. I drew my eyes away from them, noticing I was staring, and glanced down at his left hand. For some reason I hadn't found his metal hand odd to look at. It lay on the table, fingers urled tgether and down, so I put my hand on it curiously. "It isn't your fault. If anything it's Truth's." It was really cold. It made me feel bad that he had to deal with this every day.

"I will, if it's any consolation, help you get home. A soon as possible, if we could. I'll even let you use my earrings. We can get you out of this hell hole-" It was weird to call my home a hell hole, "-tomorrow afternoon, I bet." I retracted my hand from his unmoving metal one and took out my earrings. I turned over his hand with one of mine and placed the earrings into it with the other. As I closed his hand around them he took his hand away from his face, and looked at me with his golden eyes. "Make sure you keep these hidden. If my theories are correct, Envy and Ling are in this place too."

"it would make sense... I guess." Ed replied.

"Yeah." A good minute of us just sitting there looking at each other passed by before Ed talked again.

"You have no idea how much of a help you have been." He said quietly. I was so intent at listening to what he had to say that I didn't realize the awkwardness of how we were sitting. The room grew quiet and it seemed we both realized it.

I looked down quickly and removed my hands from his. "So, now that we know when you're going home, what should we do until then?"

"I, for one, have had enough of this futuristic stuff. How about we just talk. After all, I know nothing about you, and you happen to know everything about me... Right?"

"Yeah... well everything's a little hazy since I haven't watched the show since 2007.. So I guess I know enough about you..." I said it so nonchalant, but I didn't realize how weird that would have sounded to just happened to be finally taking a drink of his water, so incidentally, it ended up all over me.

"2007?" He stopped talking right there, probably with his eyes wide at me wiping the water that was just spewed at me out of my eyes. What a beautiful spit take.

"Actually," I casually motioned for him to follow me upstairs, trying to contain my anger by creating a humorous moment, "It's 2012. And bring my water upstairs.

"I... I actually don't know, Al." Ling replied to the figure. He looked horrible. And headless.

"Oh.." The disapointment in his voice was enough to even make Roy cry for the poor lad.

"Hey hey now, I didn't say he wasn't alive!"

"But still..."

"Listen, Al." Ling's tone became deadly serious, trying to get the boy to listen seriously.

"What...?"

"Did any of your books... Did any of your alchemy books talk about re-birth? Or possibly having a second life?" Ling looked up shyly at the tall suit of mishapen armour.

"No, not the books." He thought, obviously taken beck by the quick change in topics. Maybe talkign about his would help clear his mind.

"Al."

"What?"

"We should go get something to eat, maybe sit somewhere."

"O- Okay..." Al nodded and walked away with Ling towards wherever civilization was. "Dr. Knox took Lan Fan with him, he said he was going to go to town and see his neice. I refused to leave, hoping that Brother would come back." He seemed choked on words once again, Ling noticed.

"Just calm down. There has to be a reasonable expanation to this. I'm, putting my bets on the fact that your brother is alive." Ling was talking, but not listening. He was ultimately glad that Lan Fan was alright.

"Ha! You really ate a worm?" Ed laughed at Trisha, who happened to be fake-pouting at the moment. "You're so stupid!" He reached over the bed and bonked Trisha over the head.

As his hand came in contact with the top of her head, she burst out into an uncontrollable laughter as well. "Like you wouldn't if Winry was teasing you like that!" She held her abdomen, as she laughed more through her angry replies. "And I only bit it!"

"I don't think she- Well.." More laughter from the two of them "You're right I would bite a worm if she threatened to make me kiss my brother!"

"Now you see why Zaidee is evil?" She looked up at him and Ed listened to the fact that they were laughing at the exact same time. They both seemed to realize it and they stopped laughing to take another sharp breath in a the same time. When this happened they began to fall over, out of breath due to the new set of parallell giggles.

They didn't stop until Trisha fell off the side of her bed, landing on her head, stomach facing the ceiling, legs still on the bed. Her curls were completely askew, all over her face, in her mouth, and on the floor everywhere. She laughed breathlessly, and Ed leaned over to see her reddening face from the blood rushing to her head.

"You alright?"

"Just fine, come join me!" She grabbed his arm and yanked. Instead of falling like Trisha though, his face hit the floor, nose hitting first.

It was about an hour later, Ed and Trisha gave up on keeping things serious, and let loose. Trisha told him just about everything, at least, the embarassing and humorous parts. Ed turned out to be in a half-hystarical state, because he was actually letting loose and laughing with her.

Not that she had a problem with it, but it was odd seeing him this loose. Her deduction was that he was half-hysterical, as mentioned above.

Ed lifted his face off the ground and slid forward like a penguin, holding his nose.

"Make sure you don't stain my carpet with all of your blood, my friend." She slid back as well and looked at him in his golden eyes. They stared right back at her.

"My face." Ed looked at her, "It hurts." He grinned. He had never laughed this much in five or more years. This was crazy.

But then again,

She was crazy too.

"So there're these.. myths?" Ling questioned Al, they both were sitting at a Ramen bar about two miles away.

"Yea, about an afterlife. Like Heaven and Hell." Al told him, watching ina small bit of awe as Ling gulped down endless bowls of ramen. " One myth explains that if you are good in life, you will go to heaven, and have a nice afterlife, possibly even be reborn. The other one suggests that if you e bad in life, you will go to hell, and your afterlife will be long and painful. Of course, this is only one of many theories. This one follows god. Since Brother and I do not believe in god, we do not believe in these things."

"But if you don't believe in god, where do you think you go after you die?"

"Like I said there are many theories."

"But which one do you think is the most likely?"

Al placed his in-tact hand on the table. "I had always believed that there would be another life, although brother believes otherwise, I do believe in re-birth. Re-birth could mean that I could see my mother again. In another place. Maybe it wouldn't be like our world, and maybe it would be an exact replica... Maybe it would be the same time and same world but you wouldn't remember who you were, or yo'd look different..." He paused. "But seeing my mother would mean the world to me, and even if something else happens, something scarier, like maybe you just become nothing, stop existing... I can still hope."

Ling pondered these thoughts. Al could be right. Maybe there would be such thing as re-birth.

"Ling... Why did you want to know?"

Ling stopped short. The question sent him reeling, and he remembered death. He passed through something, and for a breif moment he didn't have any pain. He as spoken to in the back of his mind 'You are being give a second chance, in a different world. Others like you are given the same. You are going to the other side. Do not take it for granted. You only get two chances. This is your last.'

Ling clutched his head in agony, almost leftting out a whipmer while remembering this. Al let a shaky hand reach out and touch Ling's shoulder across the table for a breif second, and then the boy looked up at him. "I was dead, Al. Dead. I died and came back to life. Al, someone told me that I was being 'sent back to the other side like others have been', and I waited in agony, only to wake up here. Someone killed me, and I woke up here."

Al legitametly gasped. "Ling, you mentioned the other side... Where did you go before you died? How did you get out of Gluttony's stomach?"

"Al, Your brother used human transmution to get us out of Gluttony's stomach. He said he didn't know where It would take us... Maybe... Maybe it..."

"Took you to the other side of the gate?"

"Yes..." Ling opened his eyes. "And when the voice told me that others like me were sent 'to the other side' at death... It could possibly mean that-"

"You were sent back to this side of the gate when you died!"

"Al you're a genius." Ling told him, and then stopped, unable to hold in one more thought, " If I deid, that means someone had to kill me. The only person who could have killed me is Envy. He was the only person besides Ed that was with me. If I was sent back through the gate because I died... That means that Ed and Envy are still on the other side."

Hey! here's another chapter for you guys~! So i'm done with my writer's block, and I do know where the story is going! Yes, I'm a fan of plot twists, just as an FYI :D Oh! and sorry my keyboard likes to skip letters! please excuse any spelling errors or caps issues!

So yep.. one more chapter before the Arc ends! I do think the story is going a little too fast, but Arc 2 and 3 will probably be 10 is chapters as well depending on how long i can pull out this story here...

Trisha: And don't forget to vote on the favorite crack (or not) pairing so far on Roku's profile! It's at the very top of his page!

Thanks, Trish!

Trisha Elric: And we would also like to thank our reviewers:

BakuBachiBan

LeFay Strent

yyh-ygo-fma

Cursed Bunny

CamiXElric

Ed'.Kitten

and ShannonElric872!

Dami: Your reviews keep the author writing!

Zaidee: and also all of you who have favorited, out this story on alert/ subscribe, OR favorited Roku! He gives you big glomps!

Trisha's Dad: and if you don't review, I'll come back from the dead and eat your brains.

Envy: I'll help.

ANYWAY! That's all for now, see you next time :D