Ninjagirl: Well, here's the long awaited second part of chapter four! …Sorry it took so long, I lost my jump drive with my story on it and looked everywhere for it…only to realize I backed it up on my recovery drive on my laptop. X.x Glad I did, too, cause I would have hated to retype 30 pages of work. But yeah. Enjoy what I worked so hard to find!

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA-Although I really wish I did, I'd be rich as hell if I did-but I DO own Rai, her smartass remarks, and this story.

Chapter Four: Three Years Later-Part Two

The three of them snuck into the church where Rose was polishing the altar, and Ed got Rai to sit in a pew a couple back from him while Al hid in a corner.

"So, you think if you pray and polish the altar enough times, someone who's dead will be brought back to life?" he said finally, startling Rose.

She turned around and smiled at him. "Something like that."

Ed sighed and pulled out a little book, one Rai had seen only once before, and opened it. "Water, 35 liters; carbon, 20 kg; ammonia, 4 liters; lime, 1.5 kg; phosphorus, 800 grams; salt, 250 grams; saltpeter, 100 grams; sulfur, 80 grams; fluorine, 7.5; iron, 5; silicon, 3 grams; and trace amounts of 15 other elements."

Rose looked puzzled. "What is that?"

Ed looked at her. "That's all the ingredients of an average adult human body, down to the last specks of protein in your eyelashes." He snapped the book closed. "And even though science has given us the entire physical breakdown, there's never been a successful attempt at bringing a human to life." He leaned forward. "There's still something missing, something scientists haven't been able to figure out in centuries of research. So what makes you think that hack job priest with his parlor tricks is going to be able to?"

Rose huffed slightly.

"And in case you're wondering," Ed continued, "all those ingredients can be bought on a child's allowance. Humans can be built only cheap-there's no magic to it."

Rai facepalmed despite herself. Great, Ed, scare the living daylights out of her, why don't you?

"Well if there's no magic, then you bring someone back to life!" Rose retorted.

Rai was so tempted to retort to that, but wisely kept her mouth shut.

"It's just a matter of time, Rose," Ed continued. "Science will find a way. Science is the answer to everything. If I were you, I'd drop the scriptures and pick up an alchemy book-we're the closest things to gods there are."

Rai glared at him. Okay, Ed, I am so smacking you later.

"You're not a god," Rose snapped back. "You're nothing close to it."

Rai spotted Al, then spotted a guy sneaking up behind her out of the corner of her eye when she turned to look at him, and she saw the guy behind her put a gun to her head and pull the trigger. She swiftly ducked under it before she leapt up and connected her right boot with the guy's jaw, the guy toppling over backwards as the gun flew out of his hand.

"You'll have to do better than that to kill me," she retorted before running over to Ed.

"Neither is the sun-it's just a mass of hydrogen," Ed continued, not noticing Rai. "Get too close to it as Cornello claims and all you'll do is burn up."

Rai smacked him. "Quit with the damn cynicism, Ed," she growled at him.

Ed rubbed his head. "Ow, Rai, what the hell did you do that for?"

"Cause you're being an idiot in putting it to her that way," Rai retorted.

There was a sudden gunshot and the two State Alchemists turned to see Al's helmet go flying over to them, landing next to Ed, and Al's body toppled out of a door.

Rai looked at the guy who had walked out after Al's body had fallen. "You know, you're a bigger idiot than Cornello is if you think you could beat us."

Ed elbowed her. "Rai."

Rai sighed. "Okay, okay, I get the point."

Rose looked shocked. "Cray! What are you doing?"

"These three are enemies of God-this is his will, Rose, not mine," the guy, apparently named Cray, replied.

Rai snorted. "Oh really? God wants you to kill for him, or is it just Cornello?"

Cray pointed the gun at her. "Shut up, you."

"I don't think so, mister," Al's voice interjected from behind Cray, and, wide-eyed, he turned to see Al's body get up, Rai and Ed both smirking.

Cray backed away from Al's body, pointing the gun at him instead, and Ed tossed Al's helmet into the air and threw it at Cray, hitting him in the back of the head and knocking him out.

"I got it, I got it!" Al exclaimed and caught the helmet.

"Stee-rike!" Ed said with a grin.

"Nice shot," Rai commented.

Ed grinned at her. "Thanks."

They both heard a shriek and turned to see Rose looking completely horrified.

"He doesn't have a head!" she said, her mouth covered.

"That's Al for ya," Rai told her.

"Please don't be scared, Rose," Al told her, bending to show he was entirely empty. "This is how I am."

"Y-You're not there," Rose stammered.

Rai grinned. "He makes a good place to hide, I'll tell you that."

"It's true, I don't have a body," Al told her, Rai going somber at that, and she noticed Ed had his bangs covering his eyes. "But I'm here. This is my punishment for setting foot on holy ground where mortals are forbidden. We made a mistake, Rose, and we're paying for it."

Rose shrieked again and ran off, Rai blinking at her.

"Okay…I admit, I was a little scared when I found out, but she's overreacting," she muttered.

"Rose, wait!" Ed called after her, and the three of them chased after her down a flight of stairs and into a room in the basement, where they lost her.

"I can't see a church social down here, can you?" Ed commented upon looking around.

"I'd be surprised to see a funeral down here," Rai put in. "This place seems more like the place you'd have a cult meeting."

Ed looked at her, then nodded. "Actually, I'd agree with that."

Some lights came on to reveal Rose standing on a platform with stairs leading down to it.

"There she is!" Ed yelled, Rai going into a battle stance.

"Oh look," Rai commented, "here comes the false prophet."

"You wrestled with the darkness and prevailed," Cornello told Rose. "Thank you for bringing them here."

Rai huffed. "Quit the holy man act, you jackass," she snapped at Cornello. "We know you make a perverted priest anyway."

"State Alchemists, brutal enforcers," Cornello continued. "I had a feeling one of you were going to show up someday."

"Well today's your lucky day-you got a two for one deal, and both happen to want to kick your ass to hell where it belongs," Rai retorted.

Ed glanced at Rai. "Chill out already, now's not the time."

Rai growled impatiently. "He tries hurting you I'm frying him," she muttered to Ed.

Ed nodded at her. "Fine with me." He turned to Cornello. "Well let's not chalk that up to pious premonitions, okay? You knew we'd come for the stone."

Cornello smirked. "Do you mean this, young man?" he asked as he held up the hand that had a ring on it.

"HA!" Rai yelled triumphantly. "I knew it! The stone, the Philosopher's Stone!"

Ed smirked as well. "Alchemy without a transmutation circle, completely ignoring the principle of equivalent exchange! It could only mean one thing."

"Yes, the mythical gem, the legendary amplifier…the Philosopher's Stone," Cornello told them.

"That's it, Al, it's ours," Ed said in an undertone to Al, getting a look on his face Rai didn't like too much before saying so Cornello could hear, "Cough it up, Cornello! That stone belongs to me now, and if you hand it over peacefully I won't tell the people here what you've been doing!"

"What's that, restoring their town to peace and prosperity?" Cornello retorted. "Do you know what would happen if my miraculous wonders suddenly stopped? Nobody wants that."

Ed grunted, Rai glaring at the so-called 'prophet'.

"Do they, Rose?" Cornello added, turning to the girl beside him.

"Don't listen to him, Rose, he's just a con man!" Ed yelled at Rose.

"Nonsense, would a con man restore life to a dying town?" Cornello retorted. "When I arrived here this town was full of strife and I brought peace. They came to me with parched throats and I created water. I built buildings for them and even gave them money. They believed that heaven had forsaken them and I became their prophet. Why does the military want to destroy all this?"

"I don't care what the military wants, I'm here for me!" Ed yelled, Rai looking startled-she'd never seen Ed like this before.

Cornello looked startled. "What?"

"I need that stone," Ed retorted. "We need it to make something right again!"

Rose gasped. "So that's it!" she yelled. "This is all about you and what you want! What about us? You don't care."

"Rose, we're only trying to-" Al started to explain, but Ed cut across him.

"It's no use," he told his brother.

Rose sobbed, her bangs covering her eyes.

"Enough, there is no point in arguing," Cornello put in. "If you want the Philosopher's Stone you'll have to take it from me."

Rai smirked. "I have no problem with that," she retorted, bringing up her left hand to snap her fingers and send a bolt at him. "Bring it on, you old coot."

Cornello merely raised the hand with the ring on it and the ring glowed, the floor beneath them turning to sand and taking Al in it with a whoosh, though Rai and Ed leapt over the sudden sand geyser.

"Ahh, dammit," Rai growled. "If he's gonna do that, I won't have time to snap. Guess we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way."

"Al!" Ed called after his brother. "Hold on!"

"You've got more important things to worry about right now, Ed!" Rai called over to him. "Like that wannabe priest!"

Cornello chuckled. "Armor is a disadvantage in soft sand. You can't draw transmutation circles in it either."

Rai shrugged. "Works for me."

Cornello reached behind him and pressed a switch. "Let me introduce you to one of my creations," he continued as Rai head noises coming from nearby. "You two will be able to appreciate this-a chimera."

There was a snarl and they both turned to see a what looked like a lion and snake cross walk over to them.

"You twisted bastard!" Rai yelled. "You sick son of a whore!"

Ed shot her a glare at the cursing, though he, too, looked disgusted at the chimera. "You combined animals…the most depraved kind of alchemy there is."

"Maybe so, but most effective," Cornello retorted.

"Yeah…effectively pissing me off!" Rai retorted, snapping her fingers and catching the chimera off-guard with a lightning bolt, true to her State Alchemist's nickname, the lion roaring in pain then lunging at her, but Rai leapt aside, Ed having clapped his hands and summoned a spear, and he knocked the chimera aside.

Cornello appeared surprised. "Ah…ha-how did you do that without a transmutation circle?"

Rai just smirked before creating a sword of her own with a clap of her own hands, twirling it on her other side and away from Ed.

Cornello looked pissed. "Bring me their heads, my pet!" he yelled, the bird jumping off of his shoulder and morphing with the help of the Stone into a huge deformed parrot, which grabbed Ed's spear with it's talons and snapped it.

Rai leapt and attempted to stab it herself, but the bird caught it in its beak and snapped it as well, it's beak then closing around her left arm, to which she yelled as if in pain, Rose gasping, before Rai instead grinned.

"You missed the real thing, you dumb parakeet," she yelled before snapping her right hand and engulfing the huge parrot in lightning, making it squawk in pain and let her go so that she dropped to land several feet away from the chimera, though it still stayed in the air.

The parrot, giving up on Rai, instead went for Ed, its talons wrapping around his right leg and squeezing, Ed yelling then grinning like Rai had.

"Wrong leg, pal," he told the bird, its talons breaking off and it squawking in pain again. "But this is the right arm!" he yelled before punching it with his right arm, knocking the bird away to land on the sand, not moving.

The chimera had gotten up, and Rai was the first person it ran at. Rai kicked at it with her right leg and it immediately caught her calf in it's mouth, Rai grinning and easily getting her leg loose before it was kicked away, and it went for Ed and chomped down on his right arm, gnawing on it, Ed not even flinching.

"What's the matter, you poor bastard? Can't get a good taste?" Ed mocked before lifting it up and tossing the beast up and kicking it so that it too landed on the sand and didn't move.

Rai dusted off her hands. "Well, that was entertaining."

Ed laughed at her. "Rai, have I ever told you you're insane?"

Rai looked mock thoughtful. "I think you have about 20 times already."

"Well I'm saying it again-Rai, you're insane," Ed told her.

Rai grinned. "Why thank you."

"Th-That's impossible," Cornello commented, looking startled. "Those attacks on your arms and legs…no one could survive that! Unless…" Cornello seemed to realize something. "Your limbs-they're fake."

"Well, well, you're not as stupid as you look," Rai commented, ripping her jacket off though keeping her tank top as Ed ripped off his own jacket and half of his shirt as well, revealing that they both had automail-Rai's being her left arm from the shoulder and Ed's being the right arm from the shoulder.

Rose gasped upon seeing them. "Oh God…"

"Don't look away, Rose," Ed told her. "You need to see what happens when you bring a human back to life, when you cross into God's territory or whatever the hell it is! Is this what you want? Look!"

Rai glanced over at Ed and had to look away to keep from drooling over the image. "I didn't lose my arm from trying to bring someone back to life-that was from something different. But I lost my leg because of it."

"Your arms…your legs…they're machines," Rose said shakily.

Rai nodded, holding up her left arm. "Yes, it's called automail. Believe me when I say you don't want to go through the surgery to get it. It's worse than hell."

Ed nodded in agreement with Rai. "She's right, it's not pretty."

Cornello looked sadistic. "I see…now I understand you, Elric, Kagerai. You crossed the line, you did what is strictly forbidden. You tried to create human life and your bodies were taken to the other side."

Rose gasped.

"I told you, Rose," Ed said to the woman, "get too close to the sun, and you burn."

Rai closed her eyes. "As sadistic as it sounded at first, I can see where it fits in now." She looked at Ed-nearly drooling again as she did-and frowned. "You could have gone easier on her about it, though."

Ed shrugged. "She needed to hear it, so I told it to her straight."

"Apparently you would, but you were crazy enough to try it yourself," Cornello put in, then eyed Ed. "You are the Fullmetal…the Fullmetal Alchemist!"

Rai shook her head. "I was put in because I could transmute things-complicated things-at an early age, and could understand everything of what I had done."

Cornello smirked. "Well, that does answer a riddle-why the military would give a child such a stern name, Fullmetal…but it's literal." Cornello chuckled. "See, Rose, they forbid their own from transforming lead into gold, but there's one practice more taboo, a technique forbidden by man and nature itself." He looked at her. "Alchemy…on human souls."

Rose gasped as Rai averted her eyes, looking over at Ed, who was staring at his feet.

"You poor little boys and girl, dabbling in human alchemy without knowing its limitations! You stepped on the toes of God!" Cornello yelled.

Rai was getting pissed. "Shut up! You don't know anything!" she yelled viciously, startling Ed-Rai knew he'd never heard her say anything with so much venom in her voice.

"You don't know the stories," Al put in, but Ed merely said his brother's name, making him stop, and Al looked down. "But…we just wanted…" Al stopped and started again. "We just wanted to see Mom's face again…see her smile…"

Rai still wasn't looking at anyone as she added, "My brother was the only family I had left…"

"But you failed, didn't you?" Cornello interjected.

Al sighed, Ed adding, "Yeah, I'd label that a failure, all right-Al lost his whole body and I lost an arm and a leg. I ignored every signpost because I was reckless and I wanted it bad enough." He looked at Rose, holding up his automail arm. "Rose, this is what happens when you try to bring back what's dead. Do you really want to go through with that?"

Rai didn't say anything, instead merely watching Ed, her face an expressionless mask, though her eyes belied so many emotions it was hard to discern individual ones.

Cornello walked over to Rose and put a hand on her shoulder, Rose appearing startled and looking at the so-called 'priest'.

"Rose," he told her, "you forget that the great Sun God Leto has blessed me with the Philosopher's Stone. Besides, I have far more experience than these heretic boys and their idiot girlfriend did."

"Don't be stupid," Ed yelled back, "no matter what kind of power you have, some things can't be done!"

"Oh?" Cornello retorted. "Then why are you so anxious to get the Stone? You want to beat the laws of equivalence just as I do and bring your mommy and dear brother back."

Rai growled. "Like I said, you bastard, you don't know anything!" she snapped at him.

Ed gave her a look, which she caught and went silent to, then he turned back to Cornello. "Wrong, 'holy man'," Ed told him, making Cornello start in surprise. "All we want is to get our bodies normal again. See, we don't lie about what's possible-we didn't start a cult."

Cornello growled in frustration.

"We will ask one more time," Al put in. "Please give us the stone."

Rai shot Cornello a look that promised pain-a lot of pain-if he didn't cooperate.

Cornello merely smirked. "You are damned, State Alchemists. May the wrath of God fall upon your heads."

Rai snorted. "More like fall on your ugly head, you jackass," she muttered.

Ed looked mad. "Stop hiding behind that crap. Why don't you get down here and I'll show you some wrath!"

Rai smirked. "He won't come down cause he's just a big chicken," she told Ed, taunting Cornello. "Think of it as a game of kick the can, only it's his can we have to kick!"

Ed laughed at that. "Good one."

Rai spotted Rose looking over at Cornello before looking very scared and backing away, and poked Ed. "Quick, a wall!" she muttered to him urgently, and he transmuted one in front of him and Al, Rai diving behind it not a second before shots rang out, all of them hitting the wall, thankfully.

"Close call," Ed said, Rai sighing in relief.

"Too close for comfort," she agreed. "Way too close for comfort."

"Father Cornello!" Rai heard the man who had attempted to kill Al yell from behind them and the three of them spun around to see the one Rose had called Cray along with several helpers with him, and Ed and Rai exchanged glances.

"Well, guess we'd better make like a banana and split!" Rai yelled as Cray pulled out a gun and shot at Al again. "And you never learn, do you?" she added to Cray. "Bullets don't work on him."

Ed had already taken off running towards a dead end and Rai took off after him.

"Al!" Ed yelled. "C'mon!"

Rai was trying like hell not to nosebleed as she ran behind Ed-she was getting some very vivid images staring at his muscular back. Stop it, Rai, she told herself. Now's not the time to get a nosebleed.

"You idiots, you're running right into a dead end!" Cornello yelled at them.

Ed merely smirked. "Well, like I always say, if you can't find a door, make your own!" he said and clapped his hands before putting them to a wall and creating a door, which the three of them went through.

"We've got company!" Rai warned Ed as the guys followed. "Mind if I slow them down?"

Ed grinned. "Not at all."

Rai turned so she was running backwards and snapped several times, several guys getting zapped and falling over so they tripped others and a domino effect started, then she spun back around. "That should keep them for a while."

Ninjagirl: Well, that's the end of another chapter…er, part of a chapter. God, this one is long… Anywho, review replies time!

Kaelyn the Hedgehog: If there's one thing that I seriously avoid, it's a character that's a Mary-Sue. I make damn sure to NOT make my own characters one. And to the PS: That stinks, I liked the prologue. But it's your story, so I'm not complaining or anything. And you're welcome for the next part. :D

VioletLily2010: OMG! That would be awesome! I would love it if you did fanart, I was hoping at least someone would do some kind of fanart for at least one of my stories. And wow, really? Thanks. :D

The Killing Question: Yeah, I know I need to update more, but I spent like three weeks looking for the jump drive I lost, only to realize it was on my recovery drive on my laptop. So yeah…ironic, right? And yeah, I like smartasses too. I'm actually a smartass myself…the stuff I have Rai say is stuff I actually say when I'm watching the show lol.

Silent Goth Girl: Heh heh heh…you'll see. XD I'm not gonna spoil it. As to what Rai and Mustang's history is… it's kind of a long one. There's gonna be a flashback on it at some point. When, I'm not sure yet, but I know there'll be one.

Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967: Thanks very much! Hope you liked this chapter too, I'm honored. :D

Ninjagirl: That's all of them for now…hope you enjoy, and you know where the review button is! :D!