(Note: Thanks again for the reviews and subs. You all make my day, you know that? Again, I hope this doesn't disappoint. Also again, I don't own FMA. We know this. Moving on. Reviews and concrit are adored, flames will be donated to Mustang or fed to my mini-Balrog, Rosey.)

Summary: "Given: When Electronics glitch, strange things happen. When a virtual reality set glitches, sometimes reality itself can change, for better or for worse. And sometimes, the hardest part is trying to get home again. Lana Hirokan must make her way through a new life in Amestris, while trying to understand exactly why life has thrown her across the Gate. Perhaps, though, our dreams are closer than we ever expect them to be."

Glitch

Chapter Three: Awakening

"Are you awake yet?" a female voice said above me.

"Huh-whammf?" I responded, completely lacking all coherence. I opened my eyes, and was shocked to wakefulness.

A blonde girl sat at the foot of a bed that I had been tucked into, thoughtfully tapping a rhythm on her palm with a wrench.

"What the fuck?" I said, looking around.

"You are awake. That's good," she said, looking me over. "Can you think of where you are?"

"…That's a really good question," I confessed. "Where am I?"

"That's not good," She said. "You're in my home. In Risembool."

I stared at her. "Risembool? As in, Amestris?"

She grinned suddenly. "You know it! Oh, yay! Can you tell me your name?"

"Lana…" I said. "Lana Hirokan," I specified, on a sudden stroke of inspiration. I had to be dreaming, the game had to have snuck into my sleep. So I might as well have made it fun.

"Excellent!" she said. "Auntie will be pleased."

"Who are you?" I asked, looking askew at her. "What am I doing here?"

"I'm Winry," she said, "Winry Rockbell. But why you're here, I don't know. Den found you down by the river, unconscious," she told me. "He brought me to come help you. He saved your life."

"Who is Den?" I asked. I was ninety-five percent sure, but I had to be certain.

"Oh," Winry said, "He's my puppy! Only, he's not really a puppy, but still. DEN! C'MERE!"

I heard the click of dog nails on the hardwood floor as the dog came to his mistress's call.

"Azzagooboy!" Winry said, scratching his ears. He looked up at me with soft eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Den," I said, dropping my hand over the side of the bed. He nosed my fingertips, and I scratched his head. "That's a good boy."

A surprisingly short, older woman stepped into the room, and looked over at us.

"How is the patient, Winry?" she asked, walking over to the side of the bed.

"She's awake, Auntie. Confused, though."

"I'd be surprised if she wasn't," Pinako said. "Where are you from, girl?"

"I…" I tried to decide on what to tell her. "I'm from America…"

Both of them looked at me strangely. "Where's that?" Winry asked.

"It's… Oh, god…" I sat up, and cupped my chin in my hand.

"Can you remember?" Pinako asked.

"I don't know how to tell you," I confessed. "It's… not part of this world."

Winry gave me a hard stare. "What do you mean, not part of this world?"

"You won't find it on any map. I'm from a different universe, I guess. It doesn't make a lot of sense…"

She stood, and looked out a window that opened onto a grassy field. "Did you… Come across a Gate?"

I thought back. "I wasn't awake when I came here, so I don't know."

She sighed. "Ed told me, before he left, that there was another world across the Gate. That he was going back there. And then Al disappeared, too." She turned to look back at me, and I could see the pain in her eyes. "Did they go to your world?"

"There's a story in my world that says they did," I told her, "But that they lived… eighty years before I was even born."

I saw a momentary shock pass across her features. "But… They left six months ago! And you say eighty years passed in your world!?"

"I don't get it either, Winry," I said, "But maybe the Gate doesn't connect by time, or maybe time doesn't really correspond. I don't know."

She nodded. "I guess there's no way to tell," she said. "Do you know… What made you come? What happened before you fell?"

I sighed. "I was playing a virtual reality game, about your world. 'Cause where I'm from, this whole world is seen as fiction. And the game stopped working all of a sudden. And then, I blacked out. And woke up here…"

She turned back to the window. "We should find a way to get you home," she said softly. "Maybe… Maybe you'll go to Ed's time… And get him to come home, too." Her voice broke.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed, and stood, swaying slightly. "Balance would help," I muttered.

Winry looked over at me, hastily drying her eyes. "You okay?" she asked. "You were out for a day…"

"I'm fine," I said, using the nightstand to regain my balance. "Just a little unsteady."

She nodded. "Your clothes are drying outside. They were a mess when we found you, so we washed them as best we could. But you can borrow something of mine in the meantime," she said. "What do you like to wear?"

I shrugged. "Anything's good. Beggars can't be choosers."

She smiled. "I'll be back in a minute."

Five minutes later, I was sitting on the bed, dressed in one of Winry's sundresses.

Winry knocked on the door. "You good?" she asked.

"Yeah, come on in!" I told her, and she opened the door.

"Looks like it fits," she said, giving me a once-over.

I nodded. "Hey, Winry? I have a request."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Slap me." I said, point-blank.

"What?" she looked extremely confused.

"I have to know that this isn't a dream. You can't get hurt in dreams. So try to hurt me."

She nodded, and thwacked my upper arm. "That help?" she asked.

I winced. "Ow. Yeah. Shit."

"…Not a dream, huh?" She asked quietly.

"No," I said, "Not a dream. Which means I need to find a way to go home…"

"Don't worry, Lana," She said, "I'll do what I can to help."

I nodded. "First thing you can do is tell me where I can find some food. I'm hungry!"

She laughed. "Come to the kitchen," she said. "Auntie is making lunch."

I grinned. One benefit to being marooned in an alternate universe? Amestrian food.

I entered the kitchen behind her, looking in thinly-veiled awe at how once-drawn scenery had become a true reality.

"It's not much to be impressed by," Pinako said.

"It's just… I never thought this even existed. I never even expected to be here." I told her. "I'm reveling in simply being here."

She nodded, turning to the stove. "Just don't let the flies in."

I snickered, but closed my mouth obediently. "What are you cooking?" I asked.

"Stew," she said, "Perfect for gaining strength."

I smiled. "Do you mind if I go outside?"

Winry stood up from where she had been sitting at the kitchen table. "Of course," she said. "Let me show you outside."

She opened a door near the table, and morning sunlight streamed in. I could smell the crisp scent of autumn as the fresh air mixed with the homey smell of the kitchen. I ran outside, forgoing sandals.

"It's beautiful here!" I exclaimed, not caring to hide the gigantic grin that I felt spreading across my face. "The air is so clean, I almost feel like it's impossible!"

Winry laughed. "There's only one train that comes through this area, and that's only once a day. So it's pretty quiet here."

I smiled at her. "I love it."

Cara Haneth looked at her husband, and then at the stairwell that led to the second storey of their home. "Did you hear that thunk?"

Warreth nodded. "Probably just Lana. Would you go check?"

Cara sighed, and stood up. "I'll let you know what she's up to."

She climbed the stairs to her daughter's room, as she often did when her husband didn't feel like speaking to the girl. She really didn't blame Lana for her shortness with her parents, but she knew that Warreth would never forgive her if she were to act on that, so she always did as he asked, whether by dropping everything she did to do what he wished not to do himself, or whether it was by telling her daughter what he wanted her to tell, no matter her own opinions.

She opened her daughter's door, steeling herself for the glare that often came from an interruption.

Her daughter wasn't there.

"Lana?" she called, looking around the room. The windows were closed and locked, so she knew her daughter hadn't left that way. You couldn't re-lock the windows from outside.

She walked down the hall, and knocked on all the doors. "Lana? Are you in there?" she repeated a good dozen times. There was no answer. No footfalls. No sound.

"Warreth? Have you seen Lana come downstairs?" she called, leaning over the banister of the steps.

"Is she not up there?" Warreth asked.

"No," Cara said. "And her windows are locked, so she wouldn't have gone out that way."

"I haven't seen her come downstairs," he said. She heard him heave himself up from his easy chair, and come to the bottom of the steps.

"LAAAANAAAA!" he called.

There was no answer.

"Lana?" Cara called. She was starting to worry. "Lana?" She opened all of the upstairs doors, looked in all of the closets.

No window had been opened. Her daughter was nowhere to be found.

"Warreth?" she said, her voice betraying her concern. "She's… gone."