Of all things, I actually updated this story? Believe it or not, yes. I finally got angsty enough to get through it, since this story gets a lot of angst in spots and I just wasn't able to feel it enough to write it. Been going through some rough spots in my life, but writing is therapeutic, so I'll keep writing so long as the need is there. Hopefully the whole story will come out in that time.

Disclaimer: ((pulls out a gun and shoots disclaimer)) Oops, I missed and hit Ed. Guess that REALLY means I don't own him, huh? Don't worry, he got hit in a good guy place. That's how anime works. Good guys don't get severely hurt, hehe.

Al stomped his way through the brush outside of the freak circus. He didn't care whether anyone knew where he was. He didn't care what his brother thought of him. He didn't care what he did to the terrain and if he scared off all the cute little bunny rabbits. Nothing mattered to him right then. He just didn't freaking care about anything. Not when everything was going so poorly.

"Why did all this nonsense have to fall down on us all at once?" He kicked a bush as he walked past, but the bush didn't react, and he left unsatisfied. "If there really is a God, is He really so cruel and so petty as to leave us alone at a time like this? We need help now more than ever."

Al was sobbing as he said all these words, not caring whether anyone heard him, and wishing the tears would just give up and flow already so he wouldn't feel about ready to burst. He placed a hand on his forehead. A headache was coming on. "Why did Brother turn on me like that? I don't like the situation any more than he does. That freak of a freak show master was the one who did this to us."

Finally, the tears did come. All it took was the mention of someone he loved, and his wall of toughness broke down. Why did he always have to be so darn weak when his brother needed him most? Maybe it was because his brother didn't appreciate anything he did and grumbled about everything that went wrong. Maybe… Well, now he was just grumbling himself, and it wasn't helping the situation any.

"Darn it," said Al, still gripping his forehead as he knelt down and draped himself over a rock so he could rest. "I just want to end the pain. I'd give anything to get away from this awful pain." And he wasn't referring to the migraine.

He lay there crying for what he guessed to be several hours. It was long enough so that he could barely move for all the crying he had done, but he knew he needed to get back so he could check on his brother. He really didn't want to go back, not after all that had happened that morning, but what kind of person would he be if he abandoned his brother during such a time of great need?

He sighed and began his wobbly walk back, putting one foot in front of the other as carefully as he could, though his knees had a tendency to buckle under him. He would need to get a lot of sleep when he got back. Hopefully that horrible man at least had the sense to allow him that.

He didn't see it coming, nor had he heard it or sensed it, but it was like one second he was struggling to get back to the little camp, and the next, a tree branch was flying at him and knocked him to the ground.

As he lay on the ground, panting for breath, and coughing up blood, he wondered if anyone would even find him out here while there was still a chance of saving him. Somehow he knew they wouldn't, as he shed one last tear and gargled the words, "I'm s-sorry, Brother." He took one last labored breath, then closed his eyes and went to sleep. He never woke up.

Edward was panicking when Al didn't return by nightfall. Even if he had been really angry, Al was always mature enough to push through his anger and return home sooner or later. It was Ed who pulled the stunts of trying to stay away until someone found him and apologized. Even though Ed was the older brother, Al had always been the mature one. There had to be a reason why Al wasn't back yet. Al wouldn't do this!

Edward's constant pestering of various people finally got him someone who was willing to go out and look. Ed breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully that guy would be able to find Al, and hopefully Al wouldn't run away from the man. That bumpy head and pointy teeth looked hideous, but the man himself seemed nice enough.

The man came back from looking after about a half hour, shaking his head. "Sorry, buddy, there's no trace of him. I called and called for him, but I got no answer."

Ed scratched his head fiercely. "He could be sleeping… or something. Yeah, sleeping, he's sleeping." He shuddered at the thought of what the "or something" could potentially be. "He might not respond to calling. Someone needs to take a light out and look for him."

"I'm too tired," said the guy whose name he couldn't remember. "I'll see if Bill will go."

The man walked off, and a moment later, Ed heard someone else say, "So what seems to be the problem, Ralph?" Ralph. That was the guy's name. He'd try to remember it next time, if there was a next time.

Ralph and Bill talked for a few minutes, and then Bill agreed to go out and look. But, a little while later, he came back with nothing. Ed pestered for a third time, and so both Ralph and Bill rolled their eyes and agreed to go out one last time, but that was it. They weren't going out again. Edward bit his lip and nodded. He hoped they found Al this time. He really, really hoped.

Finally the two guys came back, Bill holding the lantern, Ralph holding… something else. Ralph looked up at Edward and then lowered his eyes shamefacedly. "I'm afraid," he began, unsure of how to speak of such a subject, "I'm afraid that this isn't exactly what you wanted to see."

Ralph then lay his bundle down gently on the ground, and Edward leaned over the side of his tank to see it clearly. His stomach lurched. It was a boy, wearing all black, and had a horrible mess of blood covering his face. That wasn't Al. No, that wasn't him, that couldn't be him. The real Al would be breathing. Al was going to come back soon, right? Right? Right?

Edward looked frantically between the two guys and the body on the ground. Were they sure they had found the right person? How could there be many people with Al's exact description this far out west? It had to be Al, but no, it couldn't be! There had to be a logical explanation!

He looked back up at the two guys who had helped him, tears teasing at his eyes. "Is he… alive or…"

Ralph and Bill closed their eyes and sighed. Bill held up his hand. "I personally tested his vital signs. I rechecked them three times. I couldn't get a pulse no matter what I tried."

"NO!" Edward shook his head violently. "That's not true! Al is not dead, he's just somewhere else. You found an Al look alike. Al's alive! He's alive!"

Ralph put a hand on his shoulder and held it in a steady grip. "Son, I'm sorry, but your brother is gone."

"No, he's not!" Ed shook his head again, dripping tears into the water of his tank. "If he were gone, wouldn't I have felt it? I have powers you guys don't. Wouldn't I have felt it?"

Ralph sighed. "Not if you're all emotional like that."

Edward then placed his head and arms on the edge of the tank and cried.

As soon as Al tumbled out of his body, he knew that something strange was going on. It wasn't a windy night, so how could he have been hit that hard with a tree branch? It wasn't like he was sprinting back to the circus thing. He had barely been able to walk for all the crying.

And then there was this strange tug on his spirit that was trying to pull him out west somewhere. He didn't understand that at all. Out of all the stories he'd heard about the afterlife, none of them said anything about going west to get to your destination. This was bizarre, and he was going to fight it for as long as possible.

He watched as the strange looking men from the freak show came and gathered his body, and so he followed them as best he could, though the westward tugging made it very difficult to move. One false step and he would be flying off west to wherever it was he was going, but he had to at least see his brother before he found out what was going on with his spirit.

When he saw his brother, and how he reacted to seeing Al's dead body like that, all of his resolve melted and Al began to cry himself. He so wanted to reach out a comforting hand to his brother and tell him that he was okay, but he honestly didn't know whether he was okay. He didn't know where he was going, but he supposed he would know very soon.

There was no more fighting it, he had to go, whether he liked it or not. There's only so far one can stretch a rubber band before it snaps, and this felt like quite a large rubber band at that. He shouted goodbye to his brother just as the force whisked him away.

Winry gasped and sat straight up. She looked around nervously, not sure what she was supposed to be looking for, but she figured she should look at something.

Roy raised an eyebrow and held his head up with his fist propped up against his cheek. "Winry?" he ventured, "Is something the matter?"

"I don't know Col- er, Mr., er, Roy." She coughed, unused to the familiarity they were attempting to share now. Hopefully it didn't take long to get used to it. "I just---I Just had a feeling."

Roy sat up straight and looked the girl in the eye. "What kind of feeling?"

"I don't know," said Winry. "It's like---something's happened to one of the brothers."

"You're sure of this?"

Winry shook her head and then rolled her eyes. For being a Colonel, he could sure be pretty dumb at times. How could one be certain when it pertained to feelings? Feelings were something intangible, simple and complex at the same time, and yet integral to the human experience. It took a lot of work to unravel a feeling and understand it fully, and she didn't have the time to put her life on hold long enough to be certain of feelings.

Still, she ought to answer the Colonel in a polite way. "I'm not certain of anything. I just get these feelings. I can't tell anything else about them."

"Right," said Roy as he nodded, seeming to understand the situation at least. "Did you feel which of the brothers that---whatever---happened to?"

Winry had to shake her head again. "I only know the feelings. There's anger, bereavement, and confusion."

"So we know that someone's grieving then."

Winry nodded sadly. She hated to think about what either of the brothers would be grieving so strongly about. It had to be the other brother, but she hated thinking about that even more. Which brother was---taken? She didn't want to think about death, and definitely didn't want to use the word, but for emotions this strong, it had to be something like that. And she couldn't bear to think about either one of the brothers being the one that was gone. She so hoped she was wrong. She would give anything to just be wrong this once, though Fate had a way with toying with people, and this would probably be the one time she was absolutely right.

She stuck her thumbnail in her mouth and bit at it. The slightly violent action didn't solve the problem, but it relieved the anxiety a bit. Roy grabbed her hand and pulled it out of her mouth. "Winry, please don't mess up your nails. Your hands are too pretty to go around messing them up with worry."

Winry closed her eyes in the hope that the tears pricking her eyes would get the clue that they weren't wanted and leave. "But---But what if…?"

Roy shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We'll find out what happened when we find out. We're in this together, are we not?"

She nodded and a tear slipped out. Stupid tear. She had been trying to hold onto them. She needed to run her tear prison better so she had no more escapee tears.

Roy's facial expression softened, and he held his arms up at her. "Would it bother you if I gave you a hug? It's not a romantic thing or anything, you just look like you could use one right now."

Winry didn't bother to answer. The tears probably would have choked her if she'd tried anyway. But she lowered her head, and Roy seemed to take that as an invitation to go ahead, so he moved over to her seat and sat beside her, extending his arms around her and pulling her face into his shoulder.

"Go ahead, Winry, let it all out."

There's just something about a man pulling your face into his shoulder and telling you to let all your tears out that makes you do just that, and so despite her attempts to be tough and not show her emotions, Winry's tears soon committed a full fledged jailbreak.

Ralph walked up to the circus master. "This was beside the boy, boss." The master took the piece of wood from Ralph and inspected it, nodded a few times, and then turned back to face Edward.

"This branch was cleanly cut from a tree, and has some of your brother's blood on it. That means it was a deliberate act. Do you have anyone following you?"

Edward blanched at the question. Would they turn him in to the military if he answered that question truthfully? Then again, he didn't much care what happened to him anymore, so what would it matter if they did? He sighed and nodded.

"Who? Who is it boy, speak up!"

Edward looked downward, his fishy tail making its way into his view. He hated that thing. If he hadn't sprouted fins and scales, he'd never have run off, and Al wouldn't have come after him, and then he wouldn't have died. It wasn't fair. He should be the one to die, not Al. Merpeople don't belong on land anyway, so he should be a shriveled up mass somewhere.

"We were being chased by the military."

"Simply because you was water folks?" Ed nodded, and the circus master turned around and put a crazy look on his face as he said, "You know the government has gone all kookoo up here if theys chasing after mermaids and unicorns." That earned a snicker from most of the people standing around, except for Ed. He wasn't going to be jovial for a long time, if ever. First he lost someone who had been trying to save him, and now he lost his best friend in the world. Why was all this happening?

The circus master waved at everyone to calm down, and then he set the murder weapon down beside Al's body. Standing back up, he pointed to Al's body and said, "Burn him."

Edward screeched as he leaned forward. "What?! Why? Can't we give him a respectable burial?"

The circus master turned to face Edward and said, "Son, respectable burials leave a trail, and if you're trying to escape the Amestrian military, you don't want to leave a trail behind." He turned and looked at Al's body once more and then back to Ed. "Is there anything you want off of him to remember him by before everything gets burned?"

Edward blinked. This man was actually starting to sound nice, but there was no way he could be a nice man when he had kidnapped Ed and forced the brothers to work for him. Still, he would answer the question. "Um, I-I'd like that bracelet he always wore. And that necklace he's been wearing that he got from somewhere."

"The clamshell one?"

"Yeah, that one." The man looked for the requested items on Al and then handed them to Edward as soon as they were found, the strange clamshell necklace that Al seemed to be so protective of for some reason, and the bracelet that a friend had given him years ago. Al hadn't remembered who the friend was after a while, but he had liked the message. It was a simple chain bracelet with a single plate that read, "Together". He assumed the concept had given Al some comfort during all those trying years.

"Th-thank you," said Edward, though he almost hated to be saying it. Wasn't it somehow this man's fault that Al was dead? He sighed. Al would have died in the water if not here, and this freak show master had no way of knowing that someone was going to come after Al, though that meant that everyone in this show was in danger now.

It seemed that the freak show master realized that too. "Start the fire and pack up your bags. We're leaving under cover of night, and no arguments. The border is only two days away, and I'm sure as hell not going to let them stop me so close to home. Am I right?"

"Right!" the freaks shouted.

The master then dispatched everyone to do their individual tasks, and Edward sighed and rested his chin on the edge of the tank and thought aloud, "And where am I supposed to go?"

That caused the master to turn around and face Ed and put his hands on his hips as he shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Just what kind of people do you think we are? There's a reason none of the others have run away from this place even though they've had ample opportunity. We look out for each other, and we will not leave a comrade behind."

Edward shrugged. It didn't matter what he said to the guy now. The only person who could be hurt was him, and there wasn't much way to hurt him worse than he'd already been hurt. "I suppose you didn't kidnap all those others and force them to join you."

The master stepped forward. "Son, let me lay it to you straight. We've been waiting here for several weeks for you guys to show up. I knew you guys was running, and if you was running, then you probably wouldn't comply with a gentle invitation. You's in danger, kid. If you want to leave once we get across the border and into safe territory, fine, but my conscience won't leave a kid behind to become a victim, human or not."

The man then turned and walked away to perform whatever duties he had to perform. Edward stared on disbelievingly. Did that man mean he had actually been trying to help them? How had he known of their plight, or did everyone know about it these days? He shook his head. He'd been out of the loop so long that there were probably a zillion things he didn't know, but he no longer cared.

Edward let go of the side of the tank and slowly sunk down to the bottom, cradling the last two remembrances he had of Al. His eyes itched. He was probably crying, but the tank water would make the tears not show. That was probably for the best. He hated to think he might end up going to sleep crying.

He gripped his possessions tightly, and then lay his head down and closed his eyes. He prayed that like Al, he would never wake up, and he drifted into a troubled sleep.

Believe it or not, this twist wasn't merely the result of a depressed mind, it's just that the depression finally made me able to write it. I've been planning this twist for I don't know how long but could never write it. I guess I'd better update soon before you guys all yell at me, huh? Don't make me MORE depressed, hehe. I'm kidding. Anyway, check back soon. I'll try to have it out in the near future, as in within the next few days. Thanks for reading, and come back soon!