Chapter Fourteen:

Chapter Fourteen:

Revalations

"Brother! Brother, where are you?!" Al yelped as he frantically ran through the streets of Dublith, holding Annora's limp form in his arms. He had gotten a little lost while trying to find a hospital or something, and so had just settled for trying to go back to Izumi's house instead.

So far, all he had managed to do was scare a few stray dogs, and get even more lost.

"Why does this always happen to me?" he muttered as he looked down at the unconscious girl that he held in his arms. A trickle of blood ran down the side of her pale face from the gash at her hairline that had resulted from Envy throwing her into a wall, and her breathing was harsh and sporadic. Al knew that he had to get Annora some medical treatment soon; otherwise the consequences might be severe.

He'd had enough of people close to him dying to last him a lifetime.

"C'mon Annora, hold on just a little longer," the fifteen-year old prayed as he finally came to a street that he recognized. "You're stronger than this, I know you are!"

Al ran off down the street in a hurry, praying desperately to any possible divine being that might be nearby that his teacher was back at the butcher shop, and not at the local hospital.

--

Annora let out a pained groan as she slowly opened her eyes and saw sky above her. The sixteen-year old lay on her back for a few more moments, staring listlessly at the wispy clouds that drifted across her vision as she mentally played catch-up. The last thing that she remembered was Envy chucking her into a brick wall like she weighed absolutely nothing at all, and after that, everything was a giant blank.

"Okay, this is a little odd," she muttered as she slowly sat up and looked around her. She was lying in the middle of a grassy field, just outside of some farmland and a river. If the teenager squinted a little bit, she could see the rooftops of some houses just over the rise.

"Where am I?" she asked aloud as she whirled around. "Ed? Al? Are you guys here?"

The only answer that she got was the wind whistling through the uncut grass around her, and for the first time in several months, Annora felt the cold chill of being completely and utterly alone.

"Edward? Alphonse? Someone, please answer me!!" she shouted, her voice rising up to a panicked pitch as she looked about her anxiously. The sounds of children talking suddenly reached her ears, and it seemed like they were coming from just beyond the crest of the hill.

"Brother, did you just hear something?" a young, and somewhat familiar voice asked.

"Nah, it was probably a bird or something."

Annora's eyes widened as she immediately dashed over the top of the hill, and skidded to a stop as she took in the strange sight before her.

"No way," she breathed incredulously as she stared at two boys kneeling in the grass in front of her. They were sketching transmutation circles into the dirt, and the slightly older-looking one had long blonde bangs that went down to about his chin, as well as short cropped hair. The other one looked at his older brother with wide smoky gray eyes, and short golden brown hair.

"There, that should do it," the blonde-haired boy said confidently as he rocked back on his heels. Annora couldn't stop staring as she hesitantly took a step back from the two boys, only to let out a startled yelp as the golden-haired boy, who looked suspiciously like a younger Ed, placed his hands on the transmutation circle and caused it to start glowing.

Out of the dirt slowly rose a twisting shape that seemed as though it couldn't decide what it wanted to be, and Annora hesitantly took a step forward to closer inspect what the two boys were doing. Slowly, the formless mass took shape, and finally settled into the form of a small metallic toy horse. Annora stared intently at the newly-formed toy for several moments before she glanced over at the younger boy to see that he too had transmuted a toy horse, only more deformed than his brother's.

"C'mon Al, let's go show Mom!" the blonde-haired boy declared suddenly, and Annora felt her legs go out from underneath her as she stared after the two boys as they ran off in the direction of their house.

"Al?" she whispered hoarsely, her chocolate eyes wide. "Al, as in Alphonse?"

Now officially freaked out, Annora bolted to her feet and started running off towards the village that was a little ways off from her. She needed to find a pay phone, call Ed, and tell him where she was. The sixteen-year old was positive that this was some sick joke that Envy or one of the other homunculi were playing on her, and she had absolutely no intention of letting them know how badly they had managed to get to her.

All of a sudden, Annora tripped and fell, going right through a very solid tree in the process. The teenager slowly pushed herself to her feet and stared at the massive tree in front of her in surprise, her eyes wide. She took a deep breath and slowly reached out with a trembling hand to touch the rough bark, hoping to reassure herself that she had just imagined what had happened. Instead, her hand went right through the trunk.

It was at that moment that she screamed.

--

Sig had just finished bandaging up Izumi's damaged hand when Al burst into the shop, carrying an unconscious Annora in his arms.

"Teacher, Annora's hurt!" the fifteen-year old wailed panickedly, obviously at a loss for what to do. The older woman looked up at her student in surprise before she immediately strode over to asses the situation.

"First of all, Alphonse, take her and put her on the couch in the living room," Izumi ordered sharply. "Sig, call the doctor and tell him that we have a patient with a possible concussion. Al, I want you to get a bowl of cold water and a rag so we can clean off that blood and see how much damage there is. Mason, find some pillows and a blanket that we can use to make her comfortable."

All of the men immediately snapped into action as Izumi set about gently removing Annora's jacket and shoes, expertly feeling over the girl's body for any other possible injuries. Satisfied when she found only a few bruises located on the teenager's ribs and chest, and no broken bones, Izumi accepted the bowl of water and the rag that Alphonse offered to her and dampened the rag before she began to gently blot away the blood that was clotting around the gash on Annora's forehead. The teenager flinched at the contact to her head, but other than that, did not move.

"Teacher, what are we going to do?" Al asked worriedly just as Mason came in with the requested pillow and blanket. "Annora'll be all right, won't she?"

Izumi sighed as she continued to blot away the blood that was still streaming sluggishly from Annora's head wound.

"We'll clean her up as best as we can, and once the doctor gets here, we'll let him do his job," the female alchemist admitted. "After that, all we can do is hope and pray."

"What… what do you mean?" the fifteen-year old asked nervously. Izumi didn't look at him as she methodically wiped away the blood on Annora's face that had dried while Al pulled the blanket over Annora's senseless form.

"Alphonse, it's possible that she may never wake up from this," Izumi finally said. "With head injuries like this, it's hard to tell if someone will survive or not."

Al stared at his old alchemy teacher incredulously for several long moments before the tense silence was broken by the doctor's arrival. As Izumi explained the situation to the man, Al snuck outside into the back yard and sat down, looking up at the night sky.

He really wished that Ed was there.

--

Annora finally managed to get herself under control after several long minutes of hyperventilating, although she freaked out even more when she hit the five-minute mark on hyperventilating and she still hadn't passed out.

"This is a dream, this has got to be a dream!" the sixteen-year old stated anxiously as she took deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. "There's no way that I'm… dead…"

She kicked at the tree trunk to emphasize her point, only to let out a frightened yelp as she foot went right through the solid wooden trunk.

"Gahhh!! It's not a dream!"

It didn't look like she was going to calm down any time soon.

--

Ed stared anxiously at the door in front of him, worry evident in his golden eyes as he held his battered automail arm pensively. He didn't know how long it would take for him to actually work up the nerve to step inside the butcher shop, but he wanted to forestall it for as long as possible.

He had killed someone last night.

It didn't matter that it had been a homunculus, it didn't matter that Greed had deliberately allowed him to deal the lethal blow; all that mattered was that he had killed someone.

The teenager alchemist fought back the bile that rose up in his throat at the thought of what had taken place only a few hours ago, and tried not to gag at the bitter metallic taste that welled up in his mouth. Why had Greed insisted that he fight him, even though Al and Annora had been freed before he had even found the homunculus in Dante's mansion, standing in the same room as the old woman's corpse?

He felt dirty, unclean. He felt like a murderer.

Ed muttered a brief profanity under his breath as he looked around him, not caring about the bright dawn that was slowly becoming overwhelmed by the clouds being blown towards Dublith, bringing with them the promise of rain. As far as he was concerned, he welcomed the gray darkness and gloom that the storm would bring; it matched his mood perfectly at the moment.

Was this part of becoming a State Alchemist? He knew that in the event of a war, he and other State Alchemists would be called up onto the front line to crush their opposition, hopefully to save the lives of other soldiers in the State military.

The bitter metallic taste welled up in his mouth once again at the mere thought, and Ed knew that he would never be able to willingly kill someone just because they weren't on his side. He knew that he had to get rid of the other homunculi though, because something deep inside told him that they wouldn't just leave him be. Especially Envy; something about the green-haired, androgynous homunculus just screamed 'hatred' and 'danger' to him, and he'd have to be a total idiot to miss it.

The older Elric heaved a sigh as he decided that it was now or never, and took a few steps towards the door.

"Brother?"

Ed's eyes widened as he turned around to see Alphonse standing right behind him, the fifteen-year old staring at him curiously. Before he could say anything, he was suddenly swept up into a bone-crushing hug, and the possessed suit of armor started babbling away rapidly about something. All the State Alchemist caught were the words 'Annora', 'Envy', 'Teacher' and 'concussion', before he managed to snap himself out of his shocked state.

"Al, calm down!" he yelped as his younger brother's metal breastplate dug painfully into his jaw. "Just calm down, and then tell me what happened!"

"Brother, when we were on our way back to Teacher's house, Annora and I were attacked by Envy, and he-" Al began before Ed's eyes widened and he cursed before he bolted into Izumi's house, all of his previous hesitation forgotten.

"Teacher, what happened?!" he demanded as he burst into the living room, where he was met with the sight of the local doctor finishing up bandaging up Annora's forehead as the teenager lay there senseless on the couch. Izumi looked up at him and gave the teenage alchemist a sympathetic look before she motioned him over. Ed hesitated for a few moments before he swallowed nervously and approached the couch where Annora was currently lying, completely dead to the world.

"Edward, she has a nasty concussion, so there's no guarantee that she'll wake up… ever," Izumi explained gently as Ed stared in horror at his friend. "Right now it's hard to tell. Annora may pull through, or she may not. It all depends on her for now. There's really nothing that we can do for her."

Ed gritted his teeth as he clenched his right hand tightly, his golden eyes flaring in self-loathing. Once again, he had been too late to keep someone else that he cared about from being hurt.

"Al said that Envy did this, correct?" he asked with forced calm.

"Yes."

"I'm going to kill that bastard!" the sixteen-year old snarled as he spun around and headed for the door, only to have Izumi place an arm in front of him, barring his way.

"And how are you going to accomplish that?" the older woman demanded seriously, her dark eyes narrowed intently. "You've already been through the wringer, and your arm looks like it belongs in the scrap heap."

Ed frowned, but said nothing. Izumi arched an eyebrow before she pointed upstairs.

"I want you to get cleaned up, and then once you're finished, you need to come back downstairs so we can get some of your injuries taken care of," she said in a no-nonsense tone. "Both you and Al are a mess."

"Yes Teacher," Ed muttered as he turned around and headed upstairs, silently plotting different ways that he would kill Envy when he got his hands on him.

"Oh, and Edward?"

The teenage State Alchemist turned around halfway up the stairs and looked down at his teacher.

"Yeah?"

"Don't even think about sneaking out."

Ed swallowed nervously as he nodded wordlessly at his instructor's statement before he turned around and went up the rest of the stairs. Something told him that Izumi would be keeping a very close eye on him for the next few days.

--

Annora frowned darkly as she unconsciously rubbed her right forearm, her chocolate eyes scanning her surroundings intently. Up until a few minutes ago, she had been out in the field where she had woken up. Now, however, she was trapped in this long dark corridor with no way out.

"Well this sucks," she remarked dryly as the hair all along the back of her neck stood up. "What is it with me and somehow ending up in these creepy places?"

A rustling sound echoed behind the teenager, and Annora whirled around to look down the pitch-black corridor, her eyes wide.

"Okay, that was more than a little creepy," she whispered with a shudder as she turned back around, only for the rustling sound to occur again. This time, it was a lot closer.

"Oh shit."

Without even thinking, Annora bolted down the hallway as fast as she could go, muttering every single prayer that she could remember under her breath. Her grandmother had always said "When in doubt, pray", and for some reason praying sounded like a really good idea when she was trapped in some endless dark fortress with God knows what slithering after her.

It was almost like some of the nightmares she used to have when she was very young, the ones that used to send her running into her parents or Ethan's room quaking in fear.

"Please oh please, let there be a door out of here or something!" the sixteen-year old muttered fervently as she skidded around a corner and took off like a shot. Whatever was chasing her was getting closer, and it hit the wall behind her with a loud 'thud'. Annora swore under her breath as she reached out to touch to wall besides her and her hand closed around a doorknob.

"Thank God," the teen whispered as she turned the knob and immediately stepped into the room beyond, not caring about what lay ahead of her. A bright light flashed in her eyes, and Annora flinched as she shielded her face with her arm. Once her eyes finally adjusted to the light, the sixteen-year old saw that she was in a brightly-lit room with several people in it.

"Umm… hi," she said nervously as she gave a sheepish grin and waved at the people, several of which seemed to be staring at her. None of them reacted to her sudden and impromptu arrival, and it took a few seconds for Annora to realize that nobody could see or hear her, just like the two boys on the hill.

The teenager frowned as she let out a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, this is awkward. Nobody can see me or hear me, and apparently I can pass through solid stuff. Why do I get the feeling that I'm nothing more than a ghost?"

A soft gasp coming from the prone form lying on a bed nearby startled her out of her quiet fuming, and Annora looked over at a pale woman staring directly at her.

"I can see you," she whispered faintly, and Annora's eyes widened in shock.

"You can… but how…?"

"Mom, are you okay?"

Annora looked over at the speaker, and realized that it was the blonde-haired boy from the hill earlier. The sixteen-year old looked down into the boy's wide golden eyes, and realized almost instantly who it was.

"Edward…"

The woman's eyes flickered in between Annora and the little Ed before she gave a tired smile and looked down at the boy.

"Edward, would you be a sweetheart and transmute something for your mother? Yes, I know… a ring of flowers would be nice," she muttered faintly as a contented smile fell over her face. "You see… you father used to always… make them for me…"

Annora's eyes widened in shock as the woman's green eyes faded, and her hand fell limp, much to the dismay of Edward and Alphonse, who both started bawling. Was this Ed and Al's mom?

The teenager started to shake violently as she realized that she had just watched the woman die, and her entire body convulsed as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"What… what is this place?" she whispered fearfully. "This can't be real. Ed and Al are my age, not little kids! Their mom died long before I even came here, yet I just saw her die! What the hell is going on?!"

Not surprisingly, nothing answered her. The sixteen-year old felt her throat tighten as she stared at Trisha Elric's unmoving body, and suddenly she couldn't take it anymore. Annora whirled around and bolted out of the room, phasing effortlessly through the front door as she ran out of the house and into the pouring rain outside.

The teenager didn't stop running until she reached the tree that she had fallen through earlier, and paused by it. Hesitantly, she held out her hands facing palms-up into the rain, and gave a startled gasp as the falling water fell through her palms and fingers without hesitation. Annora stared at them for several seconds before she gave a sigh if defeat and lowered her hands, shoving them deep into the pockets of her jacket.

"So… I guess that means I'm a ghost, huh?" she muttered quietly as she looked up at the overcast sky. "The only person who could see or hear me was a dying woman… man, does irony love to screw with me or what?"

The wind blew around her gently, and Annora gave a quiet sigh as she looked out at the rain falling steadily down on the surrounding countryside.

"I didn't want to die. All I was trying to do was help my friends," she whispered softly as she closed her eyes and two tears slowly welled up and fell down to the ground.

"I'm so sorry."

The teen just stood there out in the rain for several minutes, each second seeming like an eternity, completely oblivious to the elements that raged around her, yet they couldn't affect her in the slightest. Finally, Annora heaved a heavy sigh of defeat and opened her eyes just as another warp seized her, and she was flung into the oppressive darkness of the black corridor once again.

--

"Brother, how's she doing?"

Ed, clad in a clean blue long-sleeved shirt and black jeans, looked up from where he had been staring off into space and sighed as Al came into the bedroom where Annora had been placed, holding a tray with a bowl of stew, a small loaf of bread, and a mug of hot tea in his gauntleted hands.

"Well she muttered something about an hour ago, but I didn't exactly catch what she was saying," the older Elric admitted as he shifted about in his chair, which was placed right by Annora's bedside. "It sounded like 'So happy it's Thursday' or something like that."

If he could have, Al would have arched an eyebrow at their friend's odd statement. "Don't worry about it, Brother. You say weird things in your sleep all the time."

"Yeah, but I wasn't in a coma when I said them," Ed retorted grumpily as he eyed the food on the tray in Al's hands. "Who's that for?"

The fifteen-year old gave an amused chuckle as he handed the food over to his older brother. "It's for you. Teacher told me to bring it up to you so you didn't starve yourself. She also told me to tell you that you need to get some sleep once you've eaten so you don't make yourself sick from staying up for two nights in a row."

"Hey, I got plenty of sleep last night!" Ed retorted hotly as he dug into the food, tearing off a hunk of bread and dipping it into his stew before he shoved it into his mouth. Al sighed and rolled his eyes upwards at his brother's lack of manners as he gently sat down on the end of Annora's bed.

"Brother, you're not fooling anyone. We all know that you snuck out of your room last night to keep an eye on Annora," he scolded gently. Ed scowled, but said nothing as he continued to wolf down his food.

Al sighed and shook his head at his older brother's stubbornness. It had been over a day since Annora's encounter with Envy, and the girl still hadn't woken up. Ed had refused to leave her side for all of yesterday, at least until Izumi had brandished a huge butcher knife in his direction and politely told the teenage alchemist in a no-nonsense tone to get his ass to bed.

"So, Al, what have you been up to all day?" Ed finally asked as he finished the last piece of bread and set to work on the remaining stew in the bowl. Al started to reply, only to be interrupted by a loud buzzing noise emanating from Annora's backpack.

"Uhh… what was that?" Ed asked uneasily as he and Al both looked down at the blue-gray canvas bag lying at the foot of the bed. During the entire time that he, Al, and Annora had been living together, neither of them had ever dared to go into the girl's bag based on the very real fear that she'd kill them in a very violent manner if either of them were ever dumb enough to go through it.

"I don't know," the younger Elric admitted. "Ed, we should probably just leave it-"

Al stopped in mid-sentence as Ed stood up and unzipped Annora's backpack, pulling out her buzzing laptop. The teenager sweatdropped as the State Alchemist placed the computer of the bedside table and pressed down on the catch, flipping the lid open.

"Brother, you really should learn to respect people's privacy more," Al scolded, and Ed looked back at him and gave a nonchalant shrug, not noticing the words 'web-cam activated' on the computer screen.

"Al, she's unconscious right now. What more can we do?" he reasoned before a frown crossed his face. "Besides, knowing my luck it's probably that crazy friend of hers who wants to talk to her or something like that."

"Actually, it's her older brother who wants to know what the hell is going on," Ethan stated sharply, and Ed spun around in his seat with a yelp to stare at the soldier. "Why are you messing around with my sister's computer?"

"Uhh…" Ed said nervously, his golden eyes wide as he remembered the last time that he had talked with Ethan. The soldier frowned, and drummed his fingers on the table as he leveled a piercing glare at the teenager through the camera lens.

"Well kid, I'm waiting," he said, the warning tone in his voice blatantly obvious. Ed briefly shuddered at the thought of what would happen if he told the older man that his younger sister had a concussion before he decided to tell the truth… sort of.

"Annora's really sick right now," he offered lamely before he gave a sigh and ran a hand through his bangs. "Actually, she's sleeping because she's been really ill."

Ethan immediately went from 'interrogation mode' to 'concerned older brother' in less than a second as he leaned closer to his own web-cam.

"Why, what happened?" he demanded. "Is she all right?"

"Well, she's been throwing up a lot, and she hasn't woken up almost all day…" Ed half-lied as he cast a glance over his shoulder at the still-unconscious girl, hoping that she would magically wake up and rescue him from being grilled by her older sibling.

"Brother!" Al hissed reprovingly, to which Ed leveled a warning glare at him, and he wisely shut up.

"Who else is there with you?" Ethan demanded suddenly, and Ed quietly cursed Al's interference. "Not to mention where are you guys? It doesn't look like anywhere in our house."

"My younger brother, Al, is here with me right now," the teenage alchemist responded as he nervously rubbed the back of his head. "We're out our teacher's house right now. She's helping us take care of Annora, since there's no one home at her house to keep an eye on her."

"I want to talk to your teacher, right now," Ethan said sternly. "Could you please get her for me?"

"Just a second," Ed said as he stood up and headed for the bedroom door. As he passed his younger brother, he whispered urgently, "Al, stay out of sight of the camera. If Annora's reaction when she first saw you was anything to go by, her family's never seen anything like you before. We don't need him asking more questions than he already is right now."

"Okay, but hurry Brother," the younger boy responded as he cast a nervous glance at the laptop. "I don't think that he'll wait too long before jumping to conclusions."

Edward nodded in agreement as he quickly left the room and went downstairs, heading straight for the kitchen. The steady clinking sound of dishes being washed, and the sound of muttered grievances indicated that Mason had been wrangled into doing the dishes for the night. The alchemist paused in the doorway, and jumped a good foot in the air as someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

"What the-?!" Ed began as he spun around, only to falter when he came face-to-face with his alchemy teacher. "Teacher?"

"What is it, Edward?" Izumi asked calmly. Ed decided that it was best to just get on with it and tell his teacher what was going on before she beat it out of him.

"Well… Annora's brother just contacted us, and Al and I told him that she was sick, and now he wants to talk to you," Ed stammered hastily, and Izumi arched a dark eyebrow delicately.

"Hmm… that's odd. I never heard the telephone ring," she mused thoughtfully, and Ed squirmed slightly at the penetrating stare that he was given.

"Well, he's not on the phone," he admitted reluctantly, and his teacher's eyes narrowed in response.

"Oh? Then how is he communicating with you?" she asked quietly. Ed's eyes widened, and his mind froze. He was in so much trouble.

"Umm… well…" he stammered nervously, and quailed under Izumi's fierce stare.

"Edward…" she said warningly as she cracked her knuckles in a meaningful manner. That was all it took for Ed to spill the story behind his friend… at least part of it.

"Teacher, just please don't tell him about Annora's concussion," Ed muttered hurriedly. "I told her brother that she has the flu, because he's really overprotective and… threatened to… castrate me if I ever got her hurt the last time I talked to him. Actually, he saw me standing behind Annora while she was talking to him and threatened me then."

Izumi arched an eyebrow in surprise at this as she gave her student a thoughtful look.

"Is there anything else that I need to know about this young man, Edward?" she queried as she turned around and headed for the stairs. Ed paled at this, but managed to respond.

"Well, I wouldn't mention anything involving alchemy," he admitted reluctantly, and the female alchemist turned around to stare at him incredulously. "When Al and I first met Annora, she had no clue what alchemy was, and freaked out the first time that she saw someone perform it."

Izumi stared at the teenage State Alchemist for a long time before she finally spoke, her dark eyes narrowed warningly.

"You've been hiding something from me, haven't you?" she said coolly, and Ed shuddered at the icy tone in her voice as he nodded.

"Yes ma'am."

"Once I've spoken to her brother, I expect the entire truth about this whole matter from you and Alphonse, am I clear?"

"Yes Teacher."

"Good."

With that parting statement, Izumi turned around and headed up the stairs with Ed following her, dreading the conversation that he knew was coming once his teacher was done with Ethan Thomas.

"Took you long enough," Ethan remarked curtly when Ed opened the door to Annora's room and entered, followed closely by Izumi. Ed opened his mouth to make a smart remark, only to have his teacher stalk over to the laptop and stare at the soldier on the screen for a few moments before she sat down and fixed the young man with a piercing glare.

"Young man, don't you dare talk to my student that way," she said sternly, and Ethan flinched slightly at the coldness of her tone. "You requested to speak to me, so why don't you tell me what you had to say that was so important before I decide that this is a waste of my time."

"I… I just wanted to make sure that my sister was okay," the twenty-year old said hesitantly, caught off-guard by Izumi's strict manner.

"I believe that Edward already informed you of her condition."

"He did, but it's just that-"

"You don't trust him?" Izumi asked, and Ethan looked distinctly embarrassed at this statement. "I can tell you right now that he and his brother have been keeping watch over your sister around the clock since she became ill, so don't you dare insult their integrity by thinking poorly of them. My husband and I have been taking care of her as well, so you have nothing to worry about."

Ethan was silent for several long moments before he gave a sigh and ran a hand over his short sandy-blonde hair.

"I'm sorry," he finally said as he fiddled with his pistol, which he had been cleaning while he had been waiting for Ed to return. "It's just that… well, I don't want anything to happen to Annora and not be able to do anything about it. She's my only sister… and I've always tried to protect her."

"I can understand the feeling," the female alchemist said as she gave a small smile. "I care for Edward and Alphonse like they are my own children. However, the fact that you care for someone still does not give you the right to be rude to their friends and threaten them. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, ma'am," Ethan said as he straightened up in his seat immediately, only to give an annoyed groan as a shout echoed behind him. "Sorry, but it looks like I have to go. I'll try and get on the web-cam again later to check up on Annora."

With that parting comment, the soldier turned off his camera, and the video screen on Annora's laptop went black. Ed reached over and wordlessly closed the screen before he shut the computer down. He was just about to close the lid when Izumi fixed him and Al with a deadly glare, causing both of them to freeze in their tracks.

"I do believe that you boys have some serious explaining to do," the older woman said quietly, and Ed and Al both shuddered at the deadly calm in their alchemy teacher's voice.

There was no doubt about it; they were doomed.

--

Over in Iraq

--

Ethan frowned as he leaned back in his chair and looked over his shoulder at one of his friends, Private Ben Morado, as he ran over to him with a huge grin on his face.

"Well I'll be damned," Ben said as he slapped Ethan hard on the back and smirked. "I never would have thought that you would've surfed the Internet on your precious free time."

"I have no clue what the hell you're talking about," the young man said stiffly as he glared at Ben. "I was talking to my sister. Actually, I was talking to one of her friends and his teacher to be precise. Apparently she's pretty sick right now, and since there's no one home at my house to keep an eye on her, they moved her to their teacher's house."

"Bullshit," Ben said as he ran a hand over his cropped short black hair. "You my friend have finally been bitten by the anime bug."

"You mean that crap that you keep talking about and reading all the time?" Ethan asked incredulously as he gave a muffled snort of derision. "Get real. I'm being serious though; I was talking with a friend of my little sister, Annora."

"No, you were watching Fullmetal Alchemist," the Hispanic man insisted as he gave Ethan a pitying look. "You can't fool me, amigo; I would know those faces anywhere. You need to stop denying yourself and come out of the closet… wait, that just sounded wrong."

"No shit," Ethan grumbled as he gave his friend a distinctly sour look. "If you're that desperate, there are a couple of camels out by the officers tents that you can have a go at. They might kick your teeth out your ass before you can try, but hey, they're still there."

"Wow, it sounds like somebody is suffering from caffeine depravation," Ben remarked before he turned around and headed towards the mess tent. "I know when I'm not wanted. Enjoy your self-denial."

Ethan frowned at Ben's flippant remark before he returned his attention to the computer screen and checked his watch. He still had about twenty minutes left until his free time was over.

Immediately, the soldier opened up the Internet link and went straight to Google, where he typed Fullmetal Alchemist into the 'search' box and hit 'Enter'. When he saw some of the image results that came up on the topic, Ethan's lower jaw damn near hit the ground in shock.

"No way," he whispered hoarsely as he stared at a picture of a boy around Annora's age, with the words 'Edward Elric; the Fullmetal Alchemist' emblazoned along the bottom, who looked exactly like the one that he had been talking too not fifteen minutes ago. "There is no way that this is even remotely possible."

'Annora said the reason that the video feed I was getting from her web-cam was off was because of the fact that Katie had messed around with her computer and put some kind of program on it,' Ethan thought numbly as he stared wide-eyed at his computed screen, before he went through some of the other images in the gallery. 'That was why everything looked like it was animated, at least according to her.'

As the man proceeded through the folder of pictures, the blood drained from his face more and more. There was the girl Winry, which Annora had introduced to him two days ago as a friend of hers.

"Holy hell," the twenty-year old muttered incredulously as he clicked on another picture. "Annora, what in the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

Suddenly, the next picture popped up, and Ethan almost fell out of his chair with a yell as Izumi Curtis made her appearance on his computer screen. This was the limit to what the soldier could take, and Ethan promptly closed down his viewing window before he stood up and headed for his tent. He needed to do some serious thinking.

--

Wow… I know it took forever, but I finally updated!! Score one for Hitokiri, and zero for the evil writers block! Although, the fact that Envy kept popping over and bugging me when I was trying to write did absolutely NOTHING to help! Although, the fact that he got jumped by Jiraiya via my own insanity probably had something to do with it as well.

Envy: You do realize that I'm going to kill you for that.

Wandering Hitokiri: You keep forgetting that I have your human remains in a cardboard box underneath my desk. Good luck with that one.

Envy: … I hate you.

Anyways, as you can all see, the plot has taken some interesting twists. I would like to thank the wonderful agent000 for her much-appreciated idea of Ethan finding out about where Annora actually is, and giving me a needed kick in the pants with the plot for this story.

Warning: 4/3/08

Okay, I think a lot of you noticed that I had a new fic that was posted, and deleted on April 3rd. Please allow me to set things straight; I did not write that story. A friend of mine who is new to concept of fanfiction asked me if she could use my profile to post a story that she had written, since she didn't have an account of her own on here. Very stupidly, I said yes. The next thing I know, I'm checking my e-mail at school and I see a crapton of reviews, one of which very politely points out that "my" story was stolen from another author.

I was not amused.

And sure enough, when I checked out my friend's story, as well as the one that the reviewer mentioned, they were practically identical, except for a few ideas that my friend stole from me and put in her... Fangirl Guide or something like that. So right now I'm more than a little disappointed in my friend with what she did, and I'm mad at myself for being dumb enough to let her use my account.

Anyways, I deleted the fic as soon as I got home, and changed my password, as well as sent my friend an e-mail telling her that what she did was wrong. Fanfiction is where you create your own ideas, not steal them from others. Please, please don't flame me for this. It's bad enough that I feel like my own integrity was damaged by this little stunt, not to mention the fact that I should have told her to get her own account in the first place.

I offer my apologies to everyone who favorited that story, and really wish that it hadn't happened.

Reviews

Holy crap, I got a lot of reviews for this chapter! A new record of 23 reviews for one chapter! Thanks!!

Lulu Macaroni: As you can see, she didn't die. However, she is in a coma, and experiencing some very… odd things. You'll find out why in the next chapter. By the way, what Annora's experiencing, minus the little flashbacks into Ed and Al's childhood, is a real syndrome called 'Locked In'.

rockleefan: Yeah, I don't ever want to see what's underneath Envy's shorts just because it might make me try and commit seppuku just to get rid of the mental image. And yes, the Homunculi have no fashion sense whatsoever. By the way, I was going for that effect… mostly because I had just watched 'The Mummy Returns' a few days before I wrote that chapter.

Naomi-Yuko: Thanks. I hate really short chapters, because it takes forever for the story to go anywhere with them.

Siacatmesecat: Well, I have to say that your costumes were very well done. I enjoyed getting to see you at the Comicon, and thanks for the advice! Sorry about the swearing sometimes, but that's kind of how I talk a lot. (Blushes) I know I have a foul mouth, although both of my brothers are worse than I am.

Liah Cauthon: Well, I hope you find your Flamel necklace soon. Don't worry too much about Greed… he might be coming back.

Devil-Speaker: Ewwwwwwwww… Envy liking Annora?! Aw man, now I need a box of Mind Soap to get that picture out of my head!! That's just so wrong! Besides, I don't think that Senior Psychopath would actually ever fall for a 'pathetic human'.

Lady of Summer Haze: Well, he does have those weird bike shorts on underneath the skirt, so Annora didn't see too much. Mostly she just said it to piss Envy off. I think she succeeded pretty well too…

richard9311: No problem.

Syldoran: I think we all have days like that.

agent000: Thank you so much for your advice, and I'll keep it in mind. It really helped me get this next chapter out, and get started with the next one. Anyways, I'm really glad that you took the time and effort to give me some constructive criticism on this story; it keeps me from getting a swelled head. Actually, my parents and brothers do a good enough job with that by themselves. (Laughs) I'm probably going to use the other suggestion that you gave me as well, and that will be very interesting.

MyDarkSideHasAWayOfHerOwn: Yeah, Envy is a creep. Go right on ahead in kicking the crap out of him. Just make sure that you let me have a few gos' at him as well before you kill him.

Harue Harlequin: Thank you very much. Never fear though, spring is on the way and summer is almost here! Yeah, it gets pretty cold where I live too sometimes.

anonymousbutharshreviewer: Thanks. I'm glad that you like my stuff. How do I scare you though?

hermionine: Thank you very much.

bLaH: Okay, does this help?

Diminia: I'll tell you right now that I'm an even bigger pyro than Mustang, and Kimbley combined. They shall both fear my L33tness. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read Megatokyo. That should clear a few things up.)

writingdreamer13: I updated. Now excuse me while I go and strangle Ed for telling everyone where I live. (Picks up a wrench and goes off to hunt for a certain alchemist)

jay hanabi: No, I'm not done with it yet. I hope to finish it sometime soon though.

Sanity Overload: Thank you for that courtesy. I hope that this chapter helped you. (Grins) I know that I can understand that feeling, especially when it's a nasty cliffhanger.

Orange in the Gray: Thank you, I'm glad that you liked it.

The Shadow111: You just might get your wish in the next few chapters… ack, spoiler!! You didn't see that!!

anime. storm: Uhh… the last time I checked, Annora's not a queen. Thanks for reading though.

AkatsukiKandaFangirl: And I love to harass Envy… so it works out. Thanks, I'm glad that you like it.