Chapter Twelve: The Way Home

"No!" Ed cried hysterically. That was his way back to Al - back to everything he knew.

"Would you quit?! Look - Jonston said he can store that stuff, right? So he may still have a little left in his body. If you want to get home, you should be trying to save him!"

Ed glanced toward the scene to watch as Scar approached Jonston. The circle on Jonston's left palm lit up as he lifted his hand toward Scar. Scar's eyes seemed to light up for a second and he stopped walking.

"This is your universe - tell me what just happened," Ed said.

"How should I know?!" Edward demanded.

"I'll find you eventually," Scar said as Jonston began to slowly back away.

Edward widened his eyes. "Wait, I think I get it! Scar can't see Jonston. He used alchemy to make himself appear invisible to Scar."

"I guess that could explain how Mustang knew Jonston was behind those robberies... There must have been witnesses who have had their eyes altered. - He could have used that ability to help people with eye problems, but instead, he turned to a life of crime!" Ed said.

Scar began to notice footprints in the dust on the floor - the dust that had settled there after the walls were blown out. He watched as another footprint formed. "There you are," he said as he rushed toward the footprints.

Ed clapped and touched the floor. "You're not going to take away my only chance at getting home," Ed muttered. A wall began to rise up from the ground, but Scar was able to jump over it before it rose too high. He landed on top of Jonston and felt around until he found the man's head.

Ed kicked the Isbellan man as he said, "Why don't you go after me first?!"

"You are not mine to kill," Scar replied. 'That was why I didn't know you were a State Alchemist until you told me,' he thought. Scar activated his arm and killed Jonston. He then left the room with the two Eds unsure of what they could possibly do now.

"...Is there enough of that formula left in the beakers?" Edward asked as he glanced toward the glasses in the next room. Small amounts of red liquid was still in the bottoms of some containers, but not much.

"...I don't know," Ed answered after turning his head to look. After a second, his eyes lit up. He walked into the room and bent down next to the soaked floor as he said, "But maybe I could activate the formula where it is and form a portal on the floor. But, how would I know it leads to the right dimension?"

"Jonston must have had a way to do it. Maybe if you imagine the world you want to go to, the portal will form to that world. I mean, maybe Jonston just opened a random portal when he entered your dimension, but he thought about this world when coming back."

"Well, it's worth a try," Ed said. He clapped and put his hands on the floor. The red liquid in the carpet glowed for a split second, but stopped.

"It didn't work?!" Edward asked in surprise.

"Maybe I should try again..." Ed said.

"Let me help! With both of us together, it might work!" Edward said as he ran toward Ed.

"Hey, wait!" Ed yelled when he realized that Edward was going to step in the formula.

Edward gasped as he stepped on the wet carpet. The formula started to lift out of the carpet and crawl up his legs. He started screaming as it permeated his body.

Ed ran toward Edward, saying, "You idiot! We don't know what this stuff might do to a person! Jonston took a big risk with it!" As Ed stepped onto the wet area of the floor, the red substance began to crawl up his legs as well.

Ed's vision started blurring as he screamed from the feeling of the red substance invading his bloodstream. Everything he saw started turning light pink. His eyes and very other part of his body started burning, but he couldn't move. His thoughts turned to Al. He wanted to see his brother again, and wanted to keep his promise to him - his promise to get him his body back. He wanted to see Winry again, and Mustang, and Hawkeye, and everyone else - and not people who look and act like them, but the real them - his world's them. As he thought about those things, he started to feel numb. Ed then started thinking about the other version of him. He wondered if he would be okay. He wanted to know if Edward would make it through this and be with his mother and brother. Ed knew that Al and his mother would be heartbroken if Edward died, and he didn't want that to happen. It seems like he had been stuck in this red goo for days, but he can't do anything except think. He began to wonder if this world would have been the same as his if Edward's mother had died, like his had. Edward seemed to think their worlds were more different than that, but most things seemed to tie together. Edward didn't have any automail and Al was still flesh and blood, since they didn't try to resurrect their mother. The Tringum brothers worked with Tucker, since Russell didn't have the Fullmetal Alchemist to impersonate, and Tucker didn't turn Nina into a talking chimera because he wasn't around to encourage him, and because the Tringum brothers and him found a unique property of red water. But what about Jonston? He was the only thing that didn't fit...

"Ed! I'm so glad I found you!"

"Ugh..." he uttered as he woke. His head throbbed painfully.

"I can't believe it took us over three days to find you, brother!"

"Three days, huh?" he asked. He glanced around to see that he was in an alley.

--The End--

My original chapter notes:

Well... That's it.

But... I did think of more for the story, it's just that I thought it would be better as a sequel. Hee, hee... I don't really know what the sequel will be about, yet, but I have an interesting beginning... (--What I mean is that I had written more to this chapter when first writing it, but then cut and pasted it to a new document to use it for the beginning of the sequel)

Um... I'm not sure if it's only been three days or longer... Anyone know how long it would take to ride a train from Ed's town to Eastern or Central, or between Eastern and Central? If it takes quite a lot of time, it would be more like five days, instead of three. (--I think it may take awhile to get to Eastern from Risembool, because of all that happened on the way to Risembool in the anime when Ed went to get repaired... But, I still don't know for sure and am saying that it didn't take more than a few hours for any of the trips mentioned in my story)

Ack! I had thought of a really good title for the sequel, and I can't remember it. So... I guess I'll call it... Uh... "The Other Side of Me" (that was the best one I could think of... I wish I could have remembered the much better one, though...) (--After several chapters, I changed the title to "Living In The Mirror" - but I never thought of the very first title I wanted for it.)

Look it up. I have the first chapter done.

(--Extra notes: From the very first chapter, I had thought I'd end this story as it being nothing but a dream that Ed had after that night under the stars, thinking about what could have been. - And then after getting all those plot ideas and things coming together, I wondered if it was possible to make it anything more than a dream. Well... You'd just have to find out in the sequel.)