Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

Chapter Two

Roy kept his eye shut, grimacing at the pain in his head that throbbed with every ka-thump of his heart. His body stayed curled in the fetal position. The wet blood on his clothes pushed up against him, staining the blue fabric of his torso. But oddly enough, the blood didn't feel wet on his skin. He imagined that he was just too numb from the pain to feel it.

He tried to calm his breathing. With every breath he took he could hear the ragged gasp and feel a slight ache in the back of his throat. But he kept taking his deep and painful breaths; the air tasted too good to stop. After what felt like an eternity of experiencing pain, feeling a vigorous pressure pin against you, keeping you from breathing , from moving, feeling like all the bones in your body will shatter, all the while blind to what it was; Roy was happy to have only the headache and the sore throat.

He slowed his breathing and felt his heart slowly reduce speed. The ache in his head stopped pounding with it and faded into a slight migraine. In his hand he felt the open wound of the bullet hole and the wet blood on his uniform. This was all his hand felt. Not even the texture of the surface he was lying on. In fact, he didn't feel anything below him.

"Maybe this is what its like to die…" Roy thought to himself. He felt weak and his heart had slowed. Blood didn't seep through his fingers and he clutched his shoulder. In fact, he didn't feel any pain in his broken hand that had wound tightly against his wounded shoulder. He reminded curled in his position, on top of unknown surface. His eyes stayed shut as the pain started to recede.

While he was still alive, he took a moment to listen. Afraid that he still might be in danger, he listened for the Smiling Man; listened to see if he was still going through the same pain he just went through. Not anything remotely similar to the sound of pain reached Roy's ears. However, he didn't open his eyes to check, he was dying anyways, might as well get used to the darkness. There was no sound of a gun coking or hands clapping together for a transmutation. Nothing too painful to worry about. But he did hear something. He couldn't quite place what it was, but he knew he had heard it before. Behind that sound he heard muffled shouts, but couldn't make out what they said, he didn't care much right now anyways.

He knew the Smiling man didn't come here with him. Now that he thought about it, Roy didn't think that the terrorist even had a full body transmutation. But his hand stood out in Roy's mind. "It deteriorated away, because it had blood on it. My blood…" His thoughts faded again as he thought about it, piecing the parts together. "I had blood everywhere. Is it possible that it went into my wounds and then used the blood that was in me?" He decided that it was possible, but his mind got distracted as he thought about someone else who had something in her body.

Riza and their unborn child.

His heart raced faster, causing more pounding in his head, as he thought about his wife and soon-to-be born child. Fear and anger took over his emotions. Fear that his wife would have to take care of the infant by herself, without help and support from her husband as he lay dying. And anger because he couldn't be there to help her and support her and see their baby. He knew that she could take care of the kid without any problems, but at what cost? For six months she would be out of work, without any income, and only have the money that they saved. The military would probably give some sort of compensation, but being the General of the military, he knew it wouldn't be much. He didn't know 

much about babies, but he knew that they would have an affect on Riza, whether she would admit it or not.

His heart rate started to slow down as those emotions combined and turned into determination. He couldn't die now! He wanted to see his wife, to see his child grow up, and he wanted to keep them both from suffering any pain. And that meant he couldn't die yet!

Not yet; he still had things to do.

He took another deep breath to steady himself, and listened for the muffled shouts that he heard earlier. Maybe they could help him. But as he listened harder, the sound he didn't recognize only grew louder. Roy listened as it repeated itself over and over. He knew he had heard it before, but he couldn't recall. He opened his mind to every possible thing it could be. Slowly, he came to realize what it was.

It was breathing.

Roy sat there, confused. He held his breath, listening. The sound still continued. Exhaling, Roy tried to match the pace as he slowly uncurled from his position, but still kept his eyes shut. He slowed down his breathing to its typical pace, but remained confused with the breathing he was hearing. He knew the sound well, because it sounded like him.

Slowly he opened his eye as he supported himself on all fours. He kept his head down so he could look at whatever it was that he rested on. He opened it, and saw nothing but blackness below him. His heart pounded again, as he thought for sure that he should be falling into this nothingness. But then his eye focused on his white hands, one smooth and whole, the other one broken and twisted at odd angles. Even though one had been broken they supported him without any trouble. He was sturdy. He wasn't falling. Roy released a sigh of relief.

But he still wasn't running.

He knew the breathing he heard was him. He made the same noise when he was exhaled. It wasn't a loud noise, or one very noticeable. But Roy recognized it as his own. He paused to think on how he could be running, but also bent over a large chasm of darkness.

"To your right, Colonel Mustang! I saw him go that way!"

Roy jumped at the sudden sound of a voice. It sounded close enough to touch. He didn't look up to see who was near him; he knew that there was no one else in this blackness. Just like how his breathing wasn't his own. But what caused him the most confusion, was that whoever it was, had called him by name. More importantly, called him by name with a title that didn't belong to him anymore.

"I'm on it!"

Roy froze in place when he heard this voice. The breathing that echoed in Roy's ear sped up, but also became background noise. All of Roy's focus was on that voice. He knew it all to well, because it was his voice.

Roy pushed himself off of his hands and stood up with ease. Even though he had been shot three times, broke his hand, and lost more than half of his blood supply; Roy stood up without any trouble. There were no staggered footsteps or uncertain wobbling. The only pain that bothered him, was the headache. But that pain was slowly residing into the nothingness on which Roy stood.



But right now, Roy wasn't concerned as to why he didn't collapse under what should be weak and unstable joints, or grunt in pain when he moved his broken hand or shoulder. What mattered was why was he speaking, when he wasn't.

He looked around in front of him. He didn't see anything except that ongoing darkness. He turned his head to the left, only to be greeted by more nothingness. Looking up and down only showed the same blackness. It was everywhere.

Roy started to turn to his right, checking to see how much darkness was behind him. However, as he turned, he didn't see darkness. Instead it was a much stranger sight. In front of him stood two gaping holes that were separated by a thin line of blackness. The wholes stood out from the blackness. They were bright and showed passing scenery. The light that was obviously outside these wholes, or inside-Roy didn't know which, didn't stream into the darkness where Roy stood. Or maybe it did, and just showed the empty darkness.

Roy stood transfixed, looking at the floating pools of scenery. Large and stable trees passed by, rattling as they passed out of view. More trees took their place however, some of these were larger, some smaller and some had fallen across the paths of other trees, knocking them down with it. The shrubbery that grew along side the great giants of the woods was overgrown and took over any space available. Wildflowers grew beside the trees and shrubs, politely taking up as little space as possible by growing in great clumps. Poison oak scrambled up the tree trunks, climbing higher and higher with each passing day. Thunder shook the air and caused a rumbling echo to hit Roy as he stood staring at the holes. Powerful gusts of wind shook the nearby greenery and howled into the distance.

Staring at the gaps in the darkness, Roy tried to figure out what they were. The pictures inside the holes moved from left to right and always forward. It was as if whoever was watching this was suppose to be looking for something. But Roy didn't have a clue what to look for, or why these gaps were there. He didn't recognize anything from forest that was being shown. His mind held nothing that could help him with what this anomaly was; just like the nothingness beside him.

In the background, the voices and shouts became muffled again. The only prominent sound was the breathing and the crackling of the sticks and leaves that crunched under the rhythmic footsteps. An idea came to Roy. "Am I watching, me or someone like me, run?" Roy was pretty sure that it wasn't him. But it sounded like him. Maybe he really was dying and this was how you saw your life before your eyes. However, Roy was positive that he has never seen this forest before.

Roy took a sharp intake of breath. He quickly stepped forward and looked into the pools of scenery more closely than before. His one eye scanned over the picture, squinting slightly looking for detail. The tree sudden swerved in the opposite direction of where Roy wanted to look.

"No! Look the other way!" Roy shouted aloud and stepped forward again. Suddenly, the pictures he saw in the holes were now what he saw in his own eyes. Now there was no black line separating the two. Roy gasped again. He saw the pictures from both eyes. His eye patch didn't block the view from his left pupil. He could see from both eyes once more!

Roy barely relished in the fact that he could see once more. For all he knew, it was just a trick from the mysterious pools. But what he really wanted to do, was to look to his right again. He looked to the right, and surprisingly, the view matched the speed in which he turned his own head, and saw exactly where he wanted to look. However, at the same time, a voice rang out in his own head.



"What's going on?"

Roy jumped in surprise, and took a step back and looked around. He found himself back inside the hall of darkness with the large round orbs back into place, separated by a black line. Once more, Roy could only see out of one eye again.

His heart started to race. He recognized the voice that spoke in his head, as his own. But he didn't speak it. And he didn't think it. And so, who did? Was there more than one of him? If so, how did he hear his thoughts if they belong to another one of himself? Before Roy could go on and confuse himself even more, something in the pools caught his eye. It was what he saw earlier, and apparently it was what whoever was controlling these gaps wanted to see too.

Only a glimpse of it was seen again. But it was enough to make Roy want to focus on it entirely. He took another step back from the pools. A sudden realization overtook him, causing his mind to revamp his thought process. His sudden thought explained what was in front of him, and what he had just did in order to see everything with two eyes. The thought unnerved him, and didn't make sense, and was scientifically impossible. But it was the only thing he could think of that could explain this.

He was inside someone else conscious. This someone, however, was in fact him, but different. The two orbs that floated in front of him were the eyes, allowing him to see, what the other person is seeing. Stepping forward into those sockets allow him to take control.

Another movement from the eyes stole his attention. He didn't have time to be thinking about such improvable and impossible notions about being inside someone else. And so for the moment, he chose to ignore it. He wanted to focus on what was being seen from the outside.

"You're mine, you little runt!" Roy winced as he heard the viciousness in his voice that echoed into his ears in the blackness. However, the choice of words that was used only helped confirm what Roy thought he saw in the holes. Outside, a flash of lightening lit the area in a foreboding light. A grunt of thunder came soon after, warning of the storm brewing.

In the scenery, the trees started to thin out. Ahead of him an oblong clearing appeared. Only grass grew in the area. It was short and matted down. The wild animals in the area apparently munch on it frequently to keep it this short. The sky could be seen in the absence of the trees. It showed dark grey and blue masses that moved slowly across the vast sky, even though the wind below pushed with a great force. Another dash of lightening skipped across the sky. At the edge of this clearing the movement stopped.

The pictures in the pools moved slowly, looking over the edges of the area. The breathing slowed down, making the blackness where Roy stood seem even emptier. The dark and foreboding sky reinforced it.

"Come out; come out, wherever you are!" Roy's voice echoed sadistically as the orbs continued to search around the edges, slowly they moved forward. "Your brother didn't run! He didn't even hide!"

Roy's eyes narrowed on hearing this outburst. The malice in his voice that wasn't even his own, didn't please him, but it was how he said that caused him to worry. The scene outside was slowly moving to the left. Out of the corner of the orb, something long and brown came into view. An arm came up and blocked the view of the thrown object, and replaced it with black cloth. On the cloth, there was a patch. It was outlined in white, but the inside was black like the jacket, sky, and the darkness that surrounded Roy. Centered in the black patch, there was a large skull and two large bones crossing behind it. It 

wasn't like the pirate symbols that Roy remembered seeing in the storybooks when he was a kid. Instead these seemed to have more meaning, it held more fear.

The arm shook slightly as it took the hit of whatever was being thrown. The black arm came down in a rush, and the head snapped to whoever threw the object. Roy stood frozen in shock at what he saw; his ears only confirmed this as he listened to the outburst.

"SHUT UP! You didn't know anything about my brother!" Malice dripped off of every word, revulsion thick with every annunciation. The words fell on the deaf ears of the body outside, but they resonated in the darkness where Roy stood.

Roy continued to stare out of the eyes that weren't his own. In front of him, stood a boy he once knew; a boy that was now a man. Roy recognized the man whose face once held many expressions: pain, fear, determination, happiness, depression, outrage, sarcasm, thoughtfulness. But never before had he seen this face with the expression that now seemed a permanent feature.

Hatred. Pure hatred.

Without realizing it, Roy took a few steps closer to view the man. Almost everything was different about him, but yet at the same time, also the same. The same small cowlick stuck up from the middle of his head. However the golden hair that usually accompanied it was shorter, as if it was all cut off and was now starting to grow itself back into its usually length. The hair wasn't its normal color either. Instead of the bright and gentle yellow hair, it was now a stiff and darker, mirroring the posture of the man that held it. He looked taller, but he looked thin as well. The once defined muscles in his arm and leg looked stringy, like he didn't get enough protein to help supplement his body. A tattoo ran across his arm showing a set of random numbers. He wore thin and stained clothing. His pants were ripped and torn showing the bruises and cuts that came with it. The once white shirt, now almost shreds, barely clung to his body. The clothes didn't even try to hide the rusty steel that protruded from his arm and leg.

As if the metal limbs weren't enough, Roy looked into the man's golden eyes, his raging golden eyes, and knew that this was once the boy he knew not to long ago.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones," Roy's voiced mocked as he stifled his laughter. He motioned towards the long brown stick that hit his arm. "But they don't kill me" Roy's voice laughed aloud.

The Roy in the blackness watched in terror as he saw the hatred break the golden eyed man. He barred his teeth at him and rushed towards him with a hefty white stone in his metal hand. Both Roys acted accordingly.

The body outside, reached towards his belt, grasping on something hard and metal. Lightening lit up the sky, as he quickly brought it up showing a metal revolver. The Roy on the inside stepped forward towards the orbs.

"Edward, don't!" Roy shouted he immediately started to lower his gun; thunder drummed again ringing its symphony against the dark sky. Over the thunder, his ears heard the drastic change of tone. Instead of the sneering voice that once occupied this body, Roy now spoke with the authority that he once used on his subordinate. But it also held a kindness to it. Both of them noticed.

Edward stuttered in his stride, shocked by the sudden change in tone and authority. But it didn't last but a second. His golden eyes narrowed and he continued forward at full speed.



"Stop it, Fullmetal!" This time Ed really did stop. His eyes grew wide with shock and confusion, but the hatred still remained. A more prominent emotion came upon him, wariness. However this one only lasted a second as well.

A gunshot interrupted this time. Edward's eyes grew wide; he even jumped with fright. However he only turned around to look at the source.

Roy, on the other hand, didn't have to turn to look. All he had to do was look over Edward's shoulder and see a tall and masked man pointing a gun at him, smoked rolled from the barrel of the revolver. The familiar feel of blood dripped down his arm, the pain in his shoulder, soon followed. Small drips of rain could be heard splashing against the leaves and foliage.

The bullet pushed him against a nearby tree, where he sank against it grasping his right shoulder, covering the wound. "Not again…" Roy thought, as he idly wondered how this one bullet seemed to hurt more than the three that had pierced him earlier that day. Blackness stared to invade his vision as he heard the person in the shadows tell Edward that he can help him get out. Edward turned and ran towards the edge of the clearing. He turned and took one last look at Roy, before he disappeared into the shadow of the trees. Wet streaks were outlined on Edward's face under his eyes, showing how much dirt and grime really covered his face. Roy wasn't sure if it was tears or the rain that started to fall in painful sheets. Roy wondered on it slightly as he fell unconscious from the pain.

Author's Note: Another chapter done! Not quite as long as the last one, but…oh well. Please tell me what you think! I hope it's not too confusing. More will be explained in the upcoming chapters! Again please tell me if any of the characters are out of character!