Hi there all you lovely, lovely readers! Are you ready for another chapter? I can't hear you! I said, ARE YOU READY? Don't know why a felt like doing that, but I did. Anybody out there hate me for leaving you all with a cliffhanger like that? (Ed raises hand) See, I knew there'd be at least one! Well, do not worry, because now I am posting!! Haha! The tides have turned!

As you all know, AdventureAddict does not in any way own any part of Fullmetal Alchemist.

On wit' da show!

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Chapter Eighteen – Memories

Ed walked briskly through the streets of Goarhausen, with Al plowing through the crowd behind him. It wasn't extremely crowded, but it was Saturday morning, and Goarhausen was a rather well populated city. Al pushed himself through a few more people to get close enough to his brother to touch his shoulder. He might have had a huge spiky metal body, but he was still scared of getting lost in the crowd like other kids were.

"What's exactly is in this package anyway, Brother?" he asked slowly. Ed looked back at him for a minute and then quickly turned back around to make sure he didn't trip on anyone.

"Itching powder," he told Al simply and then added under his breath, "That bastard colonel won't know what hit him." He would know not to call Ed a pipsqueak after this. Just a little bit of this in his clothes and he would be itching and scratching all day long. Even in front of any girls he might want to impress.

Ed quickly walked through the doors of the Post Office with Al in tow. They walked up to a desk with a teller behind it, who looked up from his paperwork as they approached.

"Edward Elric," Ed told the man curtly, holding up his silver watch for identification. "I have a package here?"

"Yes sir," the man said with a slight bow before running off to get the package. Somehow, things always got done for you more quickly when you were a state alchemist with a huge suit of armor always at your side.

"Brother are you sure that itching powder is the best way to-?" Al asked slowly. Ed turned around and looked at his brother with a slight grin still on his face.

"What, you don't like it?" he asked innocently.

"No, it's not that," Al said quickly. "It just that-" He was interrupted by the teller coming back and placing a reasonably sized package onto the counter. Ed looked at it eagerly, then clapped his hands together and placed them both securely on the package. The tape sealing the package shut fell to the counter with a slight crinkle. He then eagerly tore into the box, throwing any paper used for packaging off to the side.

Then Ed's face fell when he saw that instead of his long-awaited itching powder, the package contained two small vials with red liquid and two larger ones filled with blue liquid. Ed pulled them out and held them up to the light, trying to figure out just what they were. One red vial and one blue vial were both labeled carefully with the word "departure."

Ed looked back into the box for any kind of clue and noticed a plain white envelope into the bottom of the box. He handed the vials to Al then reached in and pulled out the note. After a moment of carefully examining the note, Ed slowly peeled it open.

I'm sure that by now your curiosity is adequate. Come to the docks at 9:30 PM this Saturday if you want to know the meaning behind these potions. Be warned: Not showing up could lead to knowledge of your brother's "little secret" getting out.

Ed could feel the hairs on the back of his neck prickling. Just who did this guy think he was? And did he actually know about Al, or was he bluffing? Everybody had some kind of secret, after all.

But still… Better to be safe than sorry. Saturday. That was tonight. They had plenty of time to find out where they would need to go before 9:30 tonight.

"Well, Al," Ed said, turning around to look at his brother. "I guess we're going to the docks tonight." Ed could feel a slight smirk tugging at the edges of his lips. Even though he knew he should be happy when Al's life could be at stake, he couldn't help but feel a little excited at the prospect of danger.

Who knew where this would lead them next?

T-H-I-S--I-S--A--D-I-V-I-D-I-N-G--L-I-N-E

Ed stood silently behind Robert and Sherry in the hospital, observing all the different machines around him. It was surprising how they could be a completely natural and accepted part of life one minute, and the next they seemed too amazing to possibly be real. If fact, this couldn't be real, Ed thought silently to himself. He would probably wake up in a few minutes on the train with Al sitting in the seat across from him. And then he would quickly forget about Robyn and America and all these crazy machines. This had to be the product of one too many spicy sausages before sleeping. It had to be. There was no possible way someone could break the barriers of time, because if there were, he would have four normal limbs, and Al would be able to do the simple act of smiling.

"Hello, you're Mr. and Mrs. Elliott, right?" asked a nurse in a clean white uniform as she walked up. Robert and Sherry both nodded their heads silently. "And the girl was in your care when she was in the accident?"

"Yes," Sherry told her slowly. "Her father is away on a business trip until tomorrow afternoon." The nurse nodded and wrote something down on the clipboard at her waist.

"And who is the boy?" she asked, motioning at Ed with her pen. Ed scowled and folded his arms. He did not appreciate being referred to as "the boy."

"This is our foster son, Edward," Sherry explained to the nurse.

"He and this girl weren't dating, were they?" the nurse asked, and Ed felt his face flush. What right did she have asking about that?

"No," Ed said quickly. Maybe just a little too quickly, because the nurse looked at him critically and then turned back to Sherry.

"Or just having casual sex?" she added in a hushed whisper.

"What does any of this have to do with Robyn?" Ed asked loudly. "I don't know what business you have here, lady, but we didn't have sex, okay? But Robyn was in a car crash, which – last I heard – has nothing to do with sex!"

The nurse looked at him skeptically and said, "The car crash didn't affect her badly. She has a little internal bleeding, but nothing her body can't handle. The reason I'm asking about all this is that when we ran a few normal tests over her body, we found a virus. None of the doctors here had ever seen or heard of it, so we would normally be sending her to a more technically advanced hospital-" Ed could feel his spirits sink as the nurse said that. Robyn was going to be off in some other state where he and Al wouldn't be able to see her. But that was good, right? He and Al had to get home quickly. Who knew what could have happened while they were gone.

"But any changes in her environment could make her unstable," the nurse finished. "So doctors are coming over here with some equipment. It's a huge ordeal. Everyone's worried that we've found the next Black Plague."

"Is it really that deadly?" Ed asked softly, his hands slowly balling into fists. Dammit! Of all the people who had to get some weird new virus, why did it have to be Robyn?

"Yes," the nurse said slowly, but then quickly added, "But don't you worry about your friend, she'll be all right."

"I thought you said it was the next Black Plague," Ed said darkly, now looking down at the floor.

"Well, people thought that West Nile Virus would wipe out the planet, but we're still here, aren't we?" the nurse asked. "Come on, I'll show you. She's fine,' the nurse assured him and then led them down a hall. "This virus seems to be a combination of other different diseases. That's why I was asking those questions earlier. It seems to enter the body in the same way the HIV virus does – through sexual intercourse or blood mixing together." Ed stopped walking dead in his tracks.

"Holy shit," he muttered under his breath. The nurse stopped and looked back at him, along with Sherry and Robert. "We didn't have sex, but our blood mixed," Ed said softly, more to himself than the benefit of the people in front of him. "She got a cut on her finger, and I-" he stopped slowly as he thoughtfully rubbed his pointer finger with his gloved thumb.

But how had he gotten some weird disease into his bloodstream? And even if that was true, then why wasn't he having the same symptoms as Robyn, if not even worse by now?

"No freakin' way," Ed exhaled under his breath. "That bastard."

T-H-I-S--I-S--A--D-I-V-I-D-I-N-G--L-I-N-E

Ed and Al walked side by side through the darkness, Al's footsteps echoing dully off the wood of the docks. The docks of Goarhausen were actually mainly used for fishermen's boats rather than trading vessels, considering that Goarhausen was on a lake instead of by the ocean.

Ed looked suspiciously around him, unnerved by the stillness that engulfed the docks. It was 9:30, so where was the guy who had sent the mysterious note? It was way too silent. Something was going on.

"Al, be on your guard," Ed muttered out of the corner of his mouth. "I don't know what's going on, but something seems-" he was cut off by the sudden clang of someone attacking Al. Ed spun around just in time to see Al's head drop to the docks, the metal ringing loudly through the unnatural silence.

"Al!" Ed cried out just as the strange attacker slapped something onto the back of Al's blood rune. Al immediately stopped any movement and stood frozen on the spot. "What did you do?!" Ed cried out in horror, clapping his hands together and turning his automail arm into a blade.

"Calm down, Mr. Elric," a melodic voice said from behind him. Ed whirled around to stare angrily at the man in the white suit emerging from the darkness. He had short cropped hair, and a small black goatee. Something about him seemed familiar to Ed. "Your brother is fine. It's just a soundproof container placed around your his blood rune. So he can't hear what we're saying, and you can't hear what he's saying. Almost equivalent to knocking him out."

"You bastard," Ed muttered under his breath. "What do you want?"

"I want to have a little chat with you, Edward," the man said coolly. "I understand that you want the Philosopher's Stone, correct?" Ed was silent, but the man didn't seem to notice and continued, "Those potions I sent you will take you to a woman who will be able to create the Philosopher's Stone – without killing anybody."

"How do you know all this?" Ed asked suspiciously, taking a few tiny steps towards the man.

"Because…She was my girlfriend," the man said slowly, and then continued, "Elizabeth and I had more love for each other than anyone else in this world, but then that Davenport stole her away from me. He blinded my beautiful Elizabeth until she didn't see the love I had for her. He was a chemist – like myself – and he worked for months to make a potion to take them away to another world, away from me. He didn't want to let me uncover Elizabeth's eyes again, to make her see what he had done to her."

"So this…Elizabeth…She can make a Philosopher's Stone without killing anybody?" Ed asked slowly. "But…How?"

The man smirked at Ed. "It's amazing what geniuses come out of the Mustang family, isn't it?" He asked slowly. After no response from Ed, he continued, "The same steady hand as Hawkeye and the same alchemical skill as Mustang himself. The only children I would expect more out of would be yours."

"Mustang…and Hawkeye…" Ed said thoughtfully as he processed the information the man had just said. "But that can't be possible! Roy and Riza aren't even dating, much less having kids together!"

"Not yet, at least," the man said with a knowing smirk. "But they will soon enough." Noticing Ed bewildered expression, he explained, "I used a potion to take me back in time. I wanted you to do this, since you tow are looking for the Philosopher's Stone. We can help each other, Edward."

"But…that's not possible!" Ed cried out in alarm, staring at the man with a new expression.

"Ah, then how am I here?" the man asked, leaning in close to Ed's face. He then walked around Ed. "Use the two potions labeled 'departure' to leave. The blue for your brother and red for you. Spread it evenly over his armor. Your brother's soundproof box will disappear as soon as you say his name. The choice is yours, Edward," he called over his shoulder as he and his assistant disappeared into the darkness. Ed looked up at Al to see the small black box sticking up off his back like some kind of parasite.

He wasn't used to dealing with people like this. Chemistry? Most people in Amestris considered it to be a dead science, not anywhere near as useful as Alchemy. Who wanted to mess with potions when most of the time you could just draw a circle and get the same thing, only quicker? Ed thoughtfully stuck his hands in his pockets, feeling the cool glass of the potions. Could he trust this man to not have poisoned them?

This was going to be one of the biggest gambles of his life.

T-H-I-S--I-S--A--D-I-V-I-D-I-N-G--L-I-N-E

Ed sat silently in the chair by Robyn's bed. He had been through hours of testing to see how bad his version of the mysterious new disease was. The whole time he tried to tell them that he was just a carrier, and that it was specifically programmed to target Robyn's DNA.

Well, her mother's DNA.

And they finally agreed with him, after completely exhausting him from blood test and physicals. They even agreed that he was right about the disease being programmed to Robyn specifically, although they did wonder how he knew that. Ed didn't give a damn. He just hoped that they would find a cure for her disease.

But then they had gone and told Robyn about the whole thing. She had been fine up until she had heard that she could die if they didn't find a cure quickly. It was an awful disease, according to the doctors. They had figured out that the virus was slowly targeting all of Robyn's different organs and tissues. It would slowly "eat away" at one organ until it was completely gone, and then move on to the next one.

And first on the list were her lungs. Which actually explained why she had been coughing so much.

Right now Robyn was wide awake next to Ed, but she just continued to stare silently at the ceiling with wide unblinking eyes. She had been like that ever since the nurses had told her about her disease. Ed looked at her sadly. She didn't even seem like the same Robyn he had known anymore.

'Sir?" a nurse said cautiously, poking her head in the room. "Visiting hours are going to be over in about five minutes." Ed nodded and stood up, stretching his sore limbs. He then bet down next to Robyn, trying to ignore the vacant expression on her face.

"Uh…Robyn?" he said slowly, unsure of just what to say. "I'm going to have to go soon…so…" he stopped as a cough came from Robyn. He then watched in amazement as she turned her head and looked at him – the first movement he had seen her do since she had been put in the hospital.

"Ed?" she said slowly, taking care in her words. "Am I really going to die?"

"No," Ed assured her firmly. "You're not going to die. You hear me, Robyn? You're going to be just fine. Just wait. In a few weeks this will just be a big mess in the past." Robyn smiled slightly and settled back into her pillow.

Ed sighed and walked out the door, leaving her in the care of the nurses for the rest of the night.

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Okay if the thing with Al and the soundproof box seemed a little confusing to some of you, I'm going to do my best to explain it now. Some of you might be thinking, "Hey! Robyn and Ed looked at Al's blood rune before that box-thingy disappeared, and they didn't see anything! What's up with that?" Well, the goon put the box on the back of Al, and Al was in a corner when Ed showed him to Robyn, so therefore, neither of them saw the back of Al. That is, until he stared moving and the box-thingy was gone. Now some of you might wonder how the box-thingy works on the back of Al when his blood rune is on the front. I was sort of going with the idea that his armor is almost acting like veins in a body. Even though our heart is in one place, we still get blood through all of our body. However, this white suit guy has really done his research and created a soundproof box out of the same sort of metal Al's armor is made out of. (Probably using Chemistry, or Alchemy, or something like that) So then the "flow" of Al's soul is kind of cut off, and made into this new container that doesn't let him react with the rest of the world. (And the white suit guy also painted the box-thingy black, so Al can't see a thing either) So that's my long-winded explanation about the box-thingy for anyone who might have been confused. And also – White suit man really does exist in the manga. Look carefully in the crowds and you might see him. I got the idea from the manga profile book – it points him out on page 52. Phew. Loooong author's note this time!