"What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had that flower in your hand?" – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Chapter Nineteen:

Waking Horrors

Out of all the things that he could have possibly expected walking into work the next day, Ethan would never have guessed that he would find Havoc sitting forlornly at his desk, staring at a letter that he held in his hands with an expression of absolute agony on his face, with Falman and Breda clustered around him.

"Hey, Havoc, what's up?" he asked curiously as he set his brown canvas satchel down by his own desk. "You look like someone told you that your dog died."

"It's worse than that," the Second Lieutenant muttered forlornly, his trademark cigarette drooping down. Ethan arched a sandy eyebrow in response before he strolled over to the older man and peered over his shoulder at the letter that he held limply in his hands, quickly scanning the first few lines. After a few moments, the twenty-year old hissed a curse under his breath and took a step back, a disgusted frown on his face as his hazel eyes narrowed slightly.

"Your girlfriend dumped you?" he muttered incredulously before he gave an annoyed groan and shook his head. "She dumped you by sending you a letter? That's harsh, man. Not to mention rude as hell."

"Why though?!" the chain-smoker wailed as he crumpled the letter up in his hands before throwing it down on the ground in obvious frustration. "I thought that Hannah and I had something going on!!"

"Obviously she had other ideas," the Private pointed out dryly as he stooped down and retrieved the mangled note, smoothing it out as best as he could as he gave it a cursory glance. "From what she said here, she's seeing another guy."

"That's not unusual," Breda quipped with a roll of his eyes. "Havoc can never keep a girl, no matter how hard he tries."

"Even when Major Armstrong tried to set him up with his younger sister, he screwed that one up royally," Falman added, causing Havoc to cringe at the memory, while Ethan just looked at the two older officers, his expression one of extreme confusion.

"And who the heck is Major Armstrong?"

"He's one of the State Alchemists here. If you ever see him, run."

"Why?"

"It's safer that you don't know. Anyways, it's common knowledge that Havoc just can't get a girl."

"Shut up, you jerks!!" Havoc raged as he threw a paperweight at Breda, who barely managed to dodge the hastily flung projectile. Ethan watched the ensuing violence with an arched eyebrow before he let out a sigh.

"You know, there is a way of getting back at her for this," he pointed out calmly, causing the shouting to immediately grind to a halt as all three of them men looked at him incredulously.

"What?" Falman asked hesitantly, and the twenty-year old gave the older soldiers a knowing smirk as he held the wrinkled letter up in the air like a beacon.

"There's a really good way of getting back at people who go out of their way to be cruel when they dump you," Ethan said as he gave Havoc an impish grin, his hazel eyes twinkling with mischief. "What you do is you gather up a bunch of pictures, of people's sisters, their girlfriends, wives and such, and you send them all to her in a big envelope, with her own picture mixed up inside with the rest. You also include a letter that says 'I honestly don't remember who the hell you are, so just take your picture out and send the rest back to me'. And make sure that you get the pictures, or at least copies of them, from people here that you actually work with."

Havoc straightened up and blinked as he looked at Ethan, while Falman and Breda just gaped incredulously at him.

"How the heck did you come up with that?" the Second Lieutenant asked slowly, and the younger man gave a wry chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, a friend of mine got dumped by mail by his girlfriend, and he's the one who came up with the idea as a way to get back at her," he admitted with a sheepish grin. "Her response was… very entertaining. It turned out that she had been cheating on him too, so he got double the payback out of it."

"… You're evil."

"Havoc, you have no idea."

Falman and Breda both looked at each other with raised eyebrows before the chunky redhead grinned knowingly and clapped Ethan hard on the back, almost knocking the younger man flat on his face.

"We'll help," he said proudly as he fixed the twenty-year old with an appraising look. "You know, Eric, you're not half bad."

"Thanks," the Private managed to gasp as he straightened up, the wind knocked clean out of him. Falman fixed the three younger men with his usual stern look before a slight smile twitched about his lips.

"I'll go start asking around for pictures from some of the people in the Investigations area," he said. "Breda, you get to ask Armstrong for a picture of his sister."

"WHAT?!"

Unfortunately for Breda, the Warrant Officer had pulled a disappearing act the moment he had made his statement, vanishing around the corner out into the main hallway. Breda glared at the doorway for several seconds before he let out a defeated sigh and strode out, muttering curses and grumbling about being sparkled to death.

Ethan and Havoc stood in the now-empty office area before the older man reached over and ruffled the Private's already messy sandy hair affectionately. Ethan instinctively jerked his head away from the Second Lieutenant's hand and frowned, arching an eyebrow as he ran a hand over his rumpled hair.

"You're a good kid, Eric," the chain-smoker said with a smile, gratitude evident in his blue eyes. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem," the twenty-year old responded with a shrug before he frowned. "I've been dumped before, and it wasn't fun. My last girlfriend was… really nasty when I dumped her, before I left my hometown. She had been cheating on me behind my back, and when I confronted her about it she got really defensive." Ethan paused for a moment as he concentrated on the memory before something came back to him. "My little sister never really liked her. She told me that she was nothing more than a two-faced tramp, and that she would hurt me somehow. When my sister found out about my girlfriend, she didn't say 'I told you so', even though she had every right to. She just told me that Beth hadn't been good enough for me, and then prank-called her at two in the morning as payback for 'hurting her brother'."

Havoc chuckled heartily at this, a grin creeping across his face. "So, what was the prank call about?"

"Something about a horde of flying monkeys peppering her house with rotten eggs and whipping cream, I think. I never did quite get the details on that one."

"… How old is your sister?"

Ethan frowned at this as he came to a halt, frantically trying to dig up anything on the younger sibling that he knew he had, but couldn't remember anything about.

"I'm not quite sure," he admitted finally. "It's been a while since the last time I saw her."

"Is she old enough for you to introduce her to me?" Havoc prodded with a goofy grin, and the Private scowled as he fixed the older man with an incredibly dirty look.

"No way in hell," he growled, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "She's a teenager."

The chain-smoker fell silent and gave a nervous laugh while Ethan shook his head in annoyance. After a few moments of heavy silence, the two men left the office area and headed towards the barracks to ask around for pictures.

--

"Hey Ed, what happened to your arm?"

Ed flinched as he hurriedly yanked on his black jacket, and then pulled on his red trench coat over that, effectively hiding his mangled automail.

"Nothing," he muttered evasively. Annora arched a disbelieving eyebrow at this as she gave him a skeptical look in response, pausing momentarily from repacking her backpack so they could leave the train right when they got to Resembool.

"Ed, it looks like it got stepped on by a rabid elephant. How the hell could that be 'nothing'?" she asked as she looked at her friend. The teenage alchemist just gave an annoyed snort as he turned away from her and looked out the window, giving Annora cause to roll her eyes as she gently slid the paperback book that was in her hands into one of the interior pockets of her backpack.

"Winry's going to kill you for busting up her automail again," the sixteen-year old pointed out quietly. "She just replaced your leg like what, three weeks ago?"

"Annora, I know," Ed grumbled. "Believe me, it's not like I was trying to break my automail on purpose. Fighting with Greed just completely trashed it, but amazingly enough it still works."

"Yeah, you'd better hope so if you want to have a chance in hell of surviving Winry. She's probably going to wrench your ass into a bloody pulp."

"Gee, thanks, I feel so much better about seeing her today now."

"I'm glad that I could help."

The State Alchemist frowned as he watched Annora return to her packing, slipping her headphones over her head and turning on her MP3 player as she did so. She looked so happy and content today, a far cry from last week when she had been sunk deep in depression.

"You're awfully upbeat today," Ed remarked suddenly, and mentally berated himself for saying something so stupid out loud. The sixteen-year old looked over at him and grinned before she slid her spare set of clothing into her bag and zipped it closed.

"Hey, I'm going to be able to see Twilight again," Annora pointed out before a wistful expression crossed her face. "Why shouldn't I be happy?"

"It's a dog," the boy said as a way of explanation as he arched a golden eyebrow. "I don't see what's so great about it."

"Well I like dogs," the teenager stated firmly as she fixed her friend with a scrutinizing look. "They give you unconditional love, they're always there, and all you have to do to make them happy is feed them and take good care of them. In short, dogs are awesome!!"

"You forgot the part where they pee all over the place and shred the trash," Ed muttered sarcastically as he crossed his arms over his chest. Annora stared at him with a deadpan expression for a few seconds before she responded.

"They don't do that if you train them properly," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Seriously Ed, don't you know anything?"

"Hey, I know a lot of things!! I became a State Alchemist at twelve for a good a reason!" the teenage boy snapped.

"Yeah, you've got a mind like a steel trap," Annora muttered dryly as she smirked at the smaller boy. "Rusty and illegal in thirty-seven states."

"Hey!!"

At that moment Al came into the small sleeper room with two breakfast rolls in his hands, only to find Annora scrambling up onto the top bunk in an attempt to get away from Ed's wrath.

"Brother, what are you doing?!" he scolded as he stuck out his foot and tripped his older sibling. The teenage alchemist shot a glare over his shoulder at the younger Elric as he got to his feet.

"She said that I had a mind like a steel trap!!" he protested angrily, jabbing a white-gloved finger accusingly at Annora. Alphonse stared at his older brother like he had lost his mind before he finally trusted himself to speak.

"Isn't that a compliment, Brother?"

"Not when she says it!!"

"I told him that his mind was rusty and illegal in thirty-seven states, Al," Annora piped up with a grin, an impish twinkle in her chocolate eyes. "It's a joke that I used to use a lot, especially with Ethan."

The possessed suit of armor looked at the girl for a few moments before he started to chuckle, much to Ed's dismay.

"It's not funny!!" Ed growled, and Annora joined in with Al as she started laughing uproariously. It took a few minutes for the two to settle down, and by then Ed had turned a very interesting shade of red.

"That was good one, Annora," Al said as he let out a sigh. The sixteen-year old nodded in agreement just as Ed completely lost it.

"You two are against me!! But you won't get me!! I know where you sleep!!" he shouted threateningly before he snatched up his suitcase and exited the sleeper, slamming the door shut behind him. A deafening silence settled over the room as Annora and Alphonse both looked over at each other, the former with a look of extreme unease on her face.

"… Okay, I'm definitely booby-trapping my door tonight," she muttered nervously. Al nodded in agreement as he helped the older girl gather up her bags. For some reason he had a feeling that he was going to staying next to the door of the room that he and Ed usually stayed in that night.

--

To say that Winry was less than pleased when she saw the mangled metal limb that had once been one of her prized automail creations was a vast understatement. The blonde girl had proceeded to beat Ed into a bloody pulp with her wrench out in the front yard the moment she caught sight of the damaged metal, right in front of Al and Annora.

"Al… should we run?" the sixteen-year old asked nervously as she eyeballed the carnage in front of her. The younger Elric shook his head as he and Annora slowly started to creep away from the act of homicide that was taking place in front of them.

"No, not unless we want Winry to come after us too," Al muttered, even though his entire armored body was rattling audibly in fear.

"You know what, I'm going inside to say hi to Granny Pinako and Twilight," Annora said before she bolted towards the relative safety of the house. "You can stay out here if you want, but I'm going inside where it's sane."

The fifteen-year old only hesitated for a few seconds as Winry slowly turned around to face him, blood dripping ominously off of her torque wrench, before he too dashed off into the Rockbell home, babbling something about wanting to talk to his friend's grandmother. When he entered the living room, he found Annora crouched down in front of the black and white puppy that she had rescued almost a month before, a happy smile on her face as she enthusiastically rubbed the dog's white stomach, causing one of the canine's back legs to motor away in midair.

"Someone's happy to see you," Al said knowingly, and the teenager stopped scratching Twilight's belly as she looked over her shoulder at him and arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah, she's my dog," Annora stated matter-of-factly right before she was tackled by the Collie puppy. The girl immediately threw her arms up to shield her face as Twilight jumped up onto her chest and tried her best to giver the teen's face a bath.

"Gah, I'm being licked by a dog!!" the sixteen-year old shouted in mock horror while Al tried his best not to dissolve into laughter. The two teens didn't notice Ed drag himself into the room behind them until they both sensed an ominous presence behind them.

"Some brother you are, Al," the Fullmetal Alchemist said coolly as he gazed at the two with narrowed golden eyes. "Leaving me behind like that. You and Annora are cowards."

"Says the idiot who pissed off Winry," Annora retorted with a grimace as she gave her friend a scrutinizing look, taking in all of the bruises on the boy's body. "You're nuts if you think that I'd stick around when she's in a mood like that."

"When who's in a mood like what?" Winry asked as she came up behind the two Elrics and their friend, causing all three of them to jump as they spun around to look at her. Annora noticed the evil smirk that crossed Ed's face and immediately jumped in before he could say anything that would get her and Al in trouble.

"Just someone that I know back home," she said with a wave of her hand in an attempt to dismiss the subject. The automail mechanic arched an eyebrow curiously as she regarded the other girl, who gave a slightly nervous laugh in response.

"Oh really?"

"Umm… yeah. Hey Winry, is it okay if I use the room that I stayed in last time?" Annora asked suddenly in a desperate attempt to change the subject before she got creamed with a torque wrench. The blonde looked thoughtful for a few moments before she nodded in consent, and the sixteen-year old immediately grabbed her backpack and laptop case before she headed upstairs.

Ed watched her go for a few seconds before a thought struck him, and a slight frown crossed his face.

"She's probably going to talk to that Morado guy, the one who told her about her brother," he commented quietly as he looked over at Al. The animated suit of armor made a soft 'oh' noise as he looked up in the direction that their friend had gone off in. Winry frowned as she looked in between her two childhood friends, arching an eyebrow at their apparent talking in riddles before she decided to get to the bottom of things.

"Alright you two, what's going on?" she asked sternly, receiving a startled 'eeep!' from both of the brothers as they spun around to look at her with wide eyes. "You're hiding something from me, and I want to know what it is. So spill, now."

Ed and Al looked at each other before the former nodded in agreement. They needed to tell Winry what was going on, at least as far as where Annora's current family issues were concerned.

"We might want to take a seat," Ed said quietly as he flopped down on the couch. "This could take a while…"

--

Annora slowly shed her letterman's jacket as she sank down onto the pale blue comforter covering the bed, her hands shaking slightly with unease as she unzipped her laptop case and removed her computer from its confines.

'Do I really want to do this?' she silently wondered, her chocolate eyes wide as she opened up her laptop before she sat back and stared at the dark screen. 'Do I really want to know if they found anything… whether or not I'm just going to be staring at an empty coffin if I ever get home in time to be at Ethan's funeral?'

The sixteen-year old took a deep, shuddering breath as she bit her lip and drew on every ounce of courage that she possessed before she reached forward with a shaking hand and hit the power button on her console. As her laptop started to boot up, Annora quietly took the small computer's power cord and inserted it into the port on the back before she plugged the other end into the socket in the wall by her bed.

"Okay, I can do this," she whispered firmly in an attempt to keep her cool as she clicked on her username and then opened up her web cam. "If I don't ask now, I'll never know what happened, and it'll haunt me for the rest of my life."

Having made up her mind, the teenager typed in the username that Ethan had given her and waited for her web cam to connect with the one that Ethan's unit used. After a few moments her camera screen flickered to life, and the dust-streaked face of Private Ben Morado came into view.

"Hey, kid," the Hispanic man said with a wry grin as he leaned back in the chair that he was seated in, reaching up and wiping off some of the grime that covered his face. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine, I guess…" Annora admitted hesitantly as she ran a hand through her hair. "How are you doing?"

Morado pulled a face at her question before he rolled his eyes upwards.

"I think that we should take Iraq and Iran and combine it all into one country and call it 'Irate'. That way all the pissed off people can just live there in one place and get it over with," he grumbled in obvious annoyance. "I am so sick and tired of getting shot at."

"Oh," the sixteen-year old fell silent for a few moments before she forced herself to ask the question that she had been dreading. "Have you found any of Ethan's… remains… yet?"

Ben frowned as he let out a sigh, drumming his fingers nervously along the tabletop as he stared intently at something off to the side of the computer.

"Nothing much really," he finally said, a touch of annoyance evident in his voice. "According to the guy who saw the whole thing, the IED went off right on top of your brother, so it pretty much vaporized anything that might have been left. And what we have found so far has been charred beyond recognition… I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there's not going to much more than some fragments of charred bone in the coffin that your family gets."

Annora flinched at this as she stared at her web cam in disbelief, hot tears prickling at the corners of her eyes while the color slowly drained from her face.

"So he really is gone then…" she whispered hoarsely, sniffling slightly as she reached up to brush away the tears that clouded her vision. Ben nodded silently in agreement as he gave the sixteen-year old a sympathetic look. The Private waited patiently for Annora to stop crying and take a few deep breaths to steady herself before he continued.

"Ethan's remains are going to be shipped out to the states tomorrow," he stated kindly as he tried to give the teenager an encouraging smile. "That way you'll at least be able to say goodbye."

The sixteen-year old nodded distractedly as she reached up and wiped away her tears on the sleeve of her blue long-sleeved shirt.

"Yeah…" she said hesitantly before a confused frown crossed her face and she looked up at Ben. "You said that there was a witness to the explosion, right?"

"Right."

"What did he say happened?"

Morado arched a dark eyebrow questioningly at the younger girl, who stared right back at him with a determined look in her brown eyes. The Private let out an annoyed sigh as he reached back and ran a hand over his short black hair before he trusted himself to answer.

"One of the lieutenants saw the whole thing, but part of his account doesn't exactly make sense," he stated slowly. "He's being treated for shell-shock right now, but what he told us was that Ethan got hit pretty much full-on by the IED."

"Then what part of that doesn't make sense?" Annora asked as she gave the older man a puzzled look. Ben muttered a low curse in Spanish before he finally forced himself to meet the eyes of his friend's little sister.

"Look, if I tell you this, you have to swear that you won't tell a soul, got it?" he said seriously, his dark eyes stern. "I don't want to sound like a superstitious idiot or anything, and my CO thought that the lieutenant was nuts or something because of what he said. The only reason that I even heard what he said was because of the fact that I was one of the first ones on the scene and heard him babbling everything to the CO when they started questioning him."

"I promise that I won't say a word," the sixteen-year old vowed as she held up her right hand. "Just tell me, please."

"The lieutenant… he said that right before the explosion, like a split second before, he saw… something…"

"Like what?"

"He said that he saw… a huge black stone gate of some kind… and that it opened up and all of these black octopus tentacles streamed out before it pulled Ethan into it," Ben said hesitantly as he looked away from the screen, completely missing the look of stunned horror that crossed Annora's face and her sharp gasp. "Personally, I think that he was hallucinating or something, because he keeps raving about how that gateway leads into the afterlife."

"No… not the afterlife…" Annora muttered softly as a frown crossed her face. "It goes somewhere else entirely."

Morado immediately sensed that he had said something inappropriate as he straightened up in his chair and looked over at the teenager, concern evident on his face.

"Look Annora, we found some of his remains," he said gently. "That's proof that he's dead. I'm sorry, but Ethan's gone, and there's nothing that you can do to bring him back, not matter how much you may want to. People see strange things when they have a brush with death. Hell, I saw what I thought were angels once after I almost got blown up by a mortar. I shouldn't have told you that story anyways."

"It's okay," the girl said quietly as she waved off the older man's apology. "Well, I should probably get going."

"Are you going to be okay?"

The teenager hesitated for a few moments before she gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"I'm staying with some friends right now," she said finally, a sad smile crossing her pale features. "I'll be fine."

Before Morado could offer any protests, Annora quickly reached over and turned off her laptop. The sixteen-year old sat there for a few moments on her bed as she tried to keep a grip on her emotions before she drew her knees up to her chest and started to cry, sobbing brokenly into the rough denim of her jeans.

"He's gone… oh god, he's really gone…"

She didn't notice the door that had been open a crack for the past few minutes of her conversation gently close without a sound as Winry turned around and headed downstairs, a sad look on her face as she felt a pang of sympathy for the other girl. The young automail mechanic knew all too well what it was like to lose a family member, and how hopeless everything felt when your last little spark of hope was finally crushed.

--

Three days later

--

Ed frowned as he crammed his spare set of clothes into his suitcase, slamming the lid down and flipping the metal clips on the top shut to hold it shut firmly. Ever since Annora had talked with Morado she had been slightly detached from everything, even though she had made a very real effort to act as though nothing was wrong.

"Stupid, stubborn girl," the alchemist muttered angrily under his breath as he pulled his gloves on over his hands, silently thanking Winry for her excellent workmanship as he flexed his newly-repaired automail hand before pulling on his jacket. "Why won't she just come out and say what's wrong with her?"

"I don't think she wants to bother us, Brother," Al pointed out as he made a run through of the room to make sure that Ed hadn't missed anything. "Annora's never really been one to just say outright what's bugging her. In a way, she's kind of like you."

Ed gave his younger sibling a dirty look, but didn't say anything due to the fact that Al was right. Not that he'd ever admit it.

"But still…" Ed gave a loud sigh and shook his head, running a hand through his bangs. "I just wish that she'd trust us a little bit."

"Usually Annora's saying that about you," the fifteen-year old remarked knowingly, amusement obvious in his tone. "Now you know how she feels."

"Shut up, Al."

"What? It's true."

"But I still don't need it pointed out to me."

"If I don't do it, who else will? You're only human, Brother."

"I said put a sock in it!" Ed growled as he flung his pillow at Al's head, almost knocking the younger boy's helmet off in the process. This soon dissolved into a full-blown scuffle between the two Elrics, which Al ended up winning. Things only ground to a halt when Annora poked her head into the room and stared at the two brothers with an arched eyebrow.

"Winry told me to come up here and make sure that you two are ready," she said in a tone that indicated that she thought the both of them had lost their minds. "Our train to Central leaves in a little less than an hour, and the next one isn't until next week. I'm telling you guys right now that if we miss this, I am not gonna be happy."

Having said her piece, the sixteen-year old went down the hall and into her room, where she got her stuff ready to go. Ed muttered a few choice phrases under his breath as he stood up and brushed himself off, while Al got ready to take their lone suitcase down to the front door. Suddenly, the State Alchemist hit on an idea, and looked over at his younger brother.

"Hey Al, do you think that there's something we could do to make Annora… a little less… upset?" he ventured hesitantly, frowning slightly. He hated to admit it, but seeing their friend moping around like she had been of late made him feel like a complete jerk for not doing something. He wasn't about to tell Al this though, seeing as his brother would probably only tease him about liking the girl again.

Alphonse looked pensive for a few moments before something came to him, and he couldn't help but grin inwardly. This was the perfect opportunity to bypass his brother's no-pet policy!

"Well… Annora does seem to be really attached to Twilight…" the animated suit of armor suggested offhandedly. Ed froze as he sensed where the conversation was headed, and gave the fifteen-year old a dirty look.

"Why do I have a feeling that I know where this is going?" he asked dryly, arching a golden eyebrow.

"Brother, Annora really likes Twilight, and it wouldn't be fair to leave Winry with a dog that's not hers!" Al protested earnestly. "She told me that Twilight's never really warmed up to anyone except for Annora! Besides, Annora said that she used to have a dog, so it's not like she doesn't know how to take care of one."

"And the fact that you like dogs just as much as cats has absolutely nothing to do with this," the Fullmetal Alchemist commented sarcastically as he gave his younger brother a stern look. "Al, you know that we-"

"-travel around too much to have a pet. Yes Ed, I know. But this isn't ours; Twi belongs to Annora. It's not fair to her for us to make all these decisions for her, it really isn't. Besides, it will give Annora something else to do besides help us with research."

"What about training?"

"Winry told me that she's already gotten Twi housebroken, and she's working on the chewing."

"What happens when we have to leave town again?"

"Then she can bring Twilight with us, or we can ask Lieutenant Hawkeye to watch her."

Ed scowled as he realized that he was outmatched before he gave an annoyed sigh. "Fine. But you have to help her take care of it, since this was all your idea. Why don't you go downstairs and ask Winry for a leash and some food so we can get ready to go?"

The words had hardly left his mouth before Al left the room, leaving behind a cloud of dust and an irritated alchemist who had just become conscious of the fact that he'd been set up.

"Damn it, I can't believe I just said that," the teenager grumbled as he clapped a hand to his forehead. "I must be going nuts."

Muttering some grievances under his breath, Ed slowly made his way downstairs and towards the living room. Right before his foot left the last step, Al suddenly appeared right in front of him, holding a collared and leashed Twilight in his gauntleted hands.

"Here Brother, could you hold her for a few minutes for me?" the fifteen-year old asked before he shoved the puppy into his older sibling's hands. "I forgot something upstairs."

Ed blinked in surprise as Al rushed upstairs to retrieve whatever he had forgotten before he looked down at the happily panting black and white Collie puppy that he now held in his arms. Twilight squirmed around a bit in his arms before she brought her muzzle up to his face and licked the boy's chin, much to his displeasure.

"Stop it," the alchemist grumbled as he moved the dog away from his face before he looked down at it, and was immediately subjected to the infamous puppy-dog eyes. "You are such a pest. Stop acting so damn cute, 'cause you're not."

Twilight whined a little bit before she started to wiggle around slightly, and Ed rolled his eyes as he headed towards the living room, knowing that Annora was already waiting with her bags by the front door for him and Al to show up.

"You know what, why don't I give you to Annora, since you're her dog. That way, she can hold you," Ed muttered as he headed towards the front door. Automatically holding the squirming puppy close to his chest, the State Alchemist approached his friend from behind, and arched an eyebrow in surprise when the girl muttered something under her breath about beating him and Al senseless if they missed the train. Deciding that now was as good a time as any, the boy cleared his throat.

Immediately Annora jumped slightly before she spun around to face him, her mouth opened to issue a retort before it died in her throat as she stared incredulously at the dog in his hands. Ed frowned slightly before he held Twilight out towards the taller girl.

"Here," he said simply, indicating that the sixteen-year old should take the dog. A look of pure bewilderment crossed Annora's face as she slowly lifted Twilight from her friend's hands and cradled her in her arms.

"Why…?" she began hesitantly before another thought crossed her mind. "I thought that you guys didn't have pets because you traveled around too much."

"She's your dog," Ed said with a shrug, attempting to act nonchalant. "You should be the one who makes that call."

Annora stared at him for a few seconds before she gently set Twilight down on the polished wooden floor and straightened up before she suddenly wrapped her arms around the Fullmetal Alchemist as she gave the boy a tight hug.

"Thank you," she whispered gratefully, not noticing the intense red blush that flamed across Ed's face as it dawned upon him that a girl other than Winry was hugging him. The teenage alchemist made a noise of ascent as he was released, and nervously rubbed the back of his head while trying valiantly to control the blushing on his face.

"Well… uh… yeah… umm… you're welcome," he stuttered. Why the hell was it so hard for him to string words together into a single coherent sentence?

FLASH!

Both teenagers flinched as they automatically threw up their arms to shield their eyes from the blinding flash of light. After a few seconds they looked over towards where the light had come from and saw Al standing right by the stairs with a camera in hand just as an undeveloped photograph slid out from the front. Winry stood right next to him with a knowing smirk on her face, a hand out to retrieve the Polaroid.

"I don't know about you, Al, but I think that was a good shot," the automail mechanic said with a chuckle as she started shaking the developing snapshot. "Definite blackmail material for the two lovebirds."

Annora deadpanned as she looked at the blonde girl, her eyes narrowed almost to the point of being slits.

"Ed, if I kill your brother, would you be mad at me?" she asked darkly, cracking her knuckles in a menacing manner. The State Alchemist scowled as he fixed his younger brother with a glare, his fingers flexing in anticipation of smashing the hapless camera.

"Only if you got to him before I did," he said before an evil smirk crossed his face. "How about you take Winry, and I'll take Al?"

"Sounds good to me."

Winry and Al didn't even have time to run before the two irate teens were on them, with Annora going after Winry with one of her own wrenches, and Ed just using his fists on Al. Unfortunately the impending brawl was disrupted by Pinako whapping the offending teenagers upside the head with a broom pole.

"Alright you four, that's enough," she said sternly. "As amusing as this may be, I believe that three of you have a train to catch."

"Oh shiiiittt!!" Annora wailed as she scrambled to her feet and bolted towards the front door, followed closely by Ed. "We're gonna miss it!!"

"Bye Granny Pinako, Winry! We'll be back again sometime!" Ed called out over his shoulder as he snagged his suitcase before running out the door, followed closely by Al, who now clutched Twilight tightly in his arms.

"You'd better!!" the automail mechanics threatened as they watched the three teenagers head for the train station as fast as they could possibly go.

"You idiots!! I swear that if we miss this train, I'll kill you!!" Annora snarled angrily over her shoulder at the two boys' right behind her.

"It's not my fault!" Ed retorted angrily. "Stop shouting at me and save your breath, otherwise we really will miss the train!!"

The three teens were forced to run headlong all the way to the train station, and even then they barely managed to get on just as the train was pulling out of the station. Thoroughly exhausted, Annora and Ed both collapsed in the first empty booth that they found and fell asleep propped up against each other, with a highly amused Alphonse watching them the entire time.

--

"So tired…." Ed groaned as he stumbled out onto the platform of the Central train station the next morning, dark circles underneath his eyes. Annora staggered out after him, her eyes half-open as she held Twilight's leash in her left hand, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with her right.

"I don't know what you're complaining about," she muttered before she let out a jaw-cracking yawn. "I pretty much slept the entire way here, so I feel pretty good. Tired, but good."

"You didn't have some fat old bastard snoring loud enough to wake the dead sitting right behind you," the teenage alchemist grumbled mutinously before he cast a glance over at the girl. "And you look oh-so-awake right now."

Annora didn't even look his way before she reached out and slapped her friend hard upside the head without even changing her expression, ignoring the boy's loud yelp of pain as he jumped away from her as though he had been scalded.

"One thing that you need to learn is that I am not a morning person," she stated simply with roll of her eyes. Ed opened his mouth to issue a very nasty retort, only to stop as Annora tripped over a protruding piece of pavement and fell flat on her face. The State Alchemist blinked in surprise before he pointed a finger at the girl and started to laugh uproariously.

"Way to go, klutz!" he crowed triumphantly, ignoring the death glare that the sixteen-year old sent his way as she pushed herself up off of the ground.

"Screw you, you misguided Munchkin!!" she spat angrily, only to freeze as her brain caught up with what her mouth had just said. "Uh… oh shit."

"Who are you calling a super midget that makes you want to step on him?!" Ed ranted angrily as he tried to lunge at the girl, only for Al to grab him by the back of his trench coat and hold him back. Annora rolled her eyes upwards as she got to her feet and brushed off her jeans, before she allowed what she was thinking to accidentally slip out.

"Put a sock in it, shorty."

The entire world seemed to grind to a halt as an overwhelming silence fell over the little group, and Annora flinched at the sudden murderous surge that welled up behind her, a massive aura of flames suddenly crackling around the small frame of a certain alchemist.

"I. Am. Going. To. Kill. You," the boy ground out menacingly, and Annora paled noticeably as she chanced a glance over her shoulder at her irate friend. If looks could kill, what may have been left of her body would have easily fitted inside of a matchbox, with a good deal of room to spare.

"Oh, crap," the sixteen-year old whispered hoarsely before she let out a nervous chuckle. Before Ed could even think to act, she scooped Twilight up into her arms and broke into a run towards Central HQ.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU COWARD!!" the alchemist shrieked as he tore free of Alphonse's grip and dashed off after the girl. "COME BACK AND FACE ME!!"

"NO WAY IN HELL!!"

"STOP RUNNING!!"

"SORRY, BUT I'D RATHER LIVE TO SEE MY NEXT BIRTHDAY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!"

"NOT AFTER I GET THROUGH WITH YOU, YOU WON'T!!"

--

Fortunately for Annora, by the time she reached Central HQ, Ed was too exhausted from running full-tilt after her to extract revenge in any of the very painful manners that he had threatened her with earlier. Not to mention the fact that Al forced the two teens to apologize to each other before they even entered the front gates, making them promise not to get into any more fights while they were inside the building.

After stopping off at the room that the three of them usually occupied while doing research to drop off their bags (this being Ed's suitcase and Annora's backpack and laptop case), as well as attaching Twilight's leash to the table leg, Ed and Annora left to go and grab some reference books from the library while Al stayed behind to keep an eye on their stuff.

"You know, they should put some of these damn books on shorter shelves," Ed grumbled darkly as he strained to reach a thick leather-bound volume that lay just scant inches from his gloved fingertips. Annora just rolled her eyes and stood on her tiptoes before she easily plucked the alchemy tome out from the shelf and set it down on the floor by her feet on the top an already substantial-sized pile of books, ignoring the boy's sputtered protests.

"If you're having such a hard time with it, then why don't you just use one of the ladders?" she asked dryly, her brown eyes roving over the various titles on the shelf in front of her, looking for one that appeared promising. "They're kind of all over the place if you haven't noticed."

"That's because they're mocking me!!"

"…Ed, they're inanimate pieces of wood. The only way they could possibly be mocking you would be if one of them fell over on top of you. And even then that would be kind of questionable."

"But it is possible," the alchemist prodded, giving the girl cause to look upwards as though asking for divine intervention.

"Only if you're really paranoid. Besides, even I have to use them to get some of the books up on the higher shelves, so it's not like its just you that can't reach stuff," Annora pointed out in obvious exasperation. "The only difference is that you have a Napoleon Complex and I don't."

"Who the hell is Napoleon?" Ed asked suspiciously as he watched the teenager climb up one of the ladders to reach a book on one of the top shelves.

"A really short dead guy from France. He tried to conqueror all of Europe in the mid-1800's, but got his ass kicked in Russia when he tried to invade them during the winter," the sixteen-year old explained calmly as she pulled out a few books that looked useful before tucking them underneath her arm and starting down the ladder. "After that, he kept pulling his troops back from all of the countries that he had conquered because he kept getting the crap beaten out of him, and his final defeat was in Waterloo, where the British kicked the shit out of him."

In spite of himself, the alchemist was intrigued. Even though he had never heard of any of the countries that Annora was talking about, the story itself sounded interesting.

"Did they execute him?"

"Nah. According to my history teacher, Napoleon got exiled to some piss-ant little island in the Atlantic Ocean and ended up dying there. Some people re-examined his body not too long ago and found out that he had died from arsenic poisoning. There was a special on the Discovery Channel about it a few weeks before I came here, and some of the forensic scientists speculated that one of the servants banished with him probably poisoned him slowly over time."

Ed frowned thoughtfully as he looked at Annora with a raised eyebrow before he shrugged and looked down at the pile of books that they two of them had gathered.

"We're probably good with what we've got," he pointed out as he knelt down and stared gathering up a stack of the thick alchemy hardbacks. "There's no use in taking more than what we can carry."

"Good point," the girl agreed with a wry grin. "Al's not here to help us with these this time."

"No, he's making sure that your dog doesn't get into trouble."

"Well, you know… a lot of people say that pets resemble their owners…"

"Oh geez, if that dog is anything like you we're all doomed."

"Hey, I resent that! Besides, Mustang will be the one with problems, not you."

Laughing good-naturedly at the friendly ribbing that was going back and forth between them, the two teenagers slowly made their way through the February snow back towards the main building of Central HQ. Once inside, they let out a sigh of relief at being in out of the cold before continuing towards their room, only to be stopped by a familiar voice.

"Hey Ed, when did you get back?"

The Fullmetal Alchemist glanced over his shoulder to see Havoc poking his head out of the doorway to the room outside of Mustang's office. The teenager gave a slight grin at the older man as he turned around to face him.

"Well, actually I just got into Central on the train a few hours ago," he admitted, shooting a warning look in Annora's direction as she gave an amused snort. Havoc ignored this as he walked up to the younger boy and gave him a conspiratorial smile.

"You've missed quite a bit since you've left," the Second Lieutenant said as he chewed thoughtfully on the end of his cigarette. "We just got a new recruit added on a few weeks ago. He's actually pretty cool, but he's got a slightly warped sense of humor."

"Only slightly warped, Havoc?" a new voice called out from within the office, amusement lacing his tone. "You insult me."

"Since when are you so easily insulted, Eric?" the older man jabbed, missing the shocked look that flashed across Annora's face as her chocolate eyes widened slightly. Ed however, did see it, and frowned slightly just before Havoc placed a hand on the small of the two teens backs and guided them into the office. "Here, why don't I introduce you to him?"

The moment Annora caught sight of the new recruit sitting at one of the desks she went dead white, a sharp gasp jerking its way from her throat. Her entire body went numb with shock, and the heavy load of books fell from her arms with a resounding 'thud' on the floor as her hands lost all feeling in them.

"Ethan…" she managed to mouth wordlessly, her throat constricting as she stared at the young man in front of her as though she was seeing a ghost. Before anyone could react, the sixteen-year old whirled around and bolted from the room.

"Annora!" Ed shouted as he shoved his load of books into Havoc's arms, ignoring the older man's startled 'oof!', before he raced after the girl. "Damn it, wait up!!"

Annora ignored her friend's cries as she ran as fast as she could down the hallway, her breath coming in short, harsh gasps while unshed tears burned at the corners of her eyes. For the first time in her life all she wanted to do was just keep running until she collapsed, removing herself as far as humanly possible from the pain that threatened to rip her apart from the inside out.

'How?!' she wondered as she rounded a corner, the worn tread of her sneakers slipping slightly on the polished stone floor. 'How is it that he looks so much like my brother? Why is he even here?!'

The worst part of seeing the man that Havoc had called 'Eric' hadn't just been the fact that he looked exactly like Ethan, right down to the slight impish glint in his hazel eyes; it had been the blank look of someone meeting a stranger in the Private's eyes when he had looked at her. It was almost as though God had decided to play a cruel practical joke and return her brother to her, but only in body. The things that had made Ethan her goofy, sarcastic, pyromaniac, protective older brother were no longer there in that familiar face, yielding instead to the personality of another.

A shuddering sob tore from the teenager's throat as her knees suddenly gave away, and she crumbled to the floor in a heap, tears streaking down her face. She was so out of it that she didn't even hear the footsteps approaching her until a familiar automail hand gripped her left shoulder gently.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ed asked quietly as he knelt down next to her, concern evident in his golden eyes. Annora stared at him for a few seconds before her body acted all on its own, and she suddenly found herself crying into her friend's shoulder, clutching desperately at his trademark red trench coat.

"Him… did you see…?" she choked out in between sobs. Astonishment flickered through the alchemist's eyes before understanding dawned upon him and he gently pulled the distraught girl close to him.

"The new Private, he looks just like your brother," he said softly. Annora made a low, pained noise is response before she forced herself to speak.

"It's him… his face… but it's not him!!" she moaned. "When he looked at me… I could tell that he was seeing me for the first time. Why does he look so much like my brother when it's not him?! It's like everyone wants to keep reminding me that he's gone and he's never coming back!"

The Fullmetal Alchemist frowned slightly as he held Annora close to him, silently sympathizing with the girl as she struggled between crying her eyes out and calming down. If he had ever seen someone that looked like Al, he didn't know what he would have done.

"You know, I don't think that your brother would want this," he said finally, giving the sixteen-year old an understanding look as she glanced up at him with red eyes. "Just because someone's gone doesn't mean that you need to forget them. You still remember them, and think about how much that you loved them, but you also move on with the rest of your life. I don't think that your brother would want you to spend the rest of your life crying for him."

Ed smiled kindly at the teenager, with just a hint of his usual smirk twitching about his lips, before he reached down and gently rapped his knuckles against one of Annora's knees.

"You've got two good, strong legs, so get up and use them to keep moving forward," he pointed out, eliciting a watery chuckle from the sixteen-year old as she shakily reached up and wiped her tears away with the cuff of her jacket.

"Thanks Ed," she said before she gave a weak laugh as she wiped at her eyes. "Man, you must think I'm such a baby for crying like that."

"Annora, everyone cries, even me. I'm just glad that you think enough of me to let me see you cry."

Annora froze as she looked over at the boy with wide eyes, astonishment evident on her features. Ed arched an eyebrow slightly and gave a wry grin before he got to his feet and held out a hand to her, waiting patiently for her to take it. The sixteen-year old hesitated for a second before she trustingly placed her flesh hand inside his automail one, allowing the cool steel fingers to wrap around her wrist as her friend hauled her to her feet.

"C'mon. Let's go get those books back from Havoc."

--

Well, the moment of truth has finally arrived. Annora has met Ethan in Amestris for the very first time, and reacted badly to the situation. The fact that the Gate currently has possession of all of her brother's memories of her doesn't exactly help matters much either. And yes, I have put in a little EdxAnnora fluff… just a little bit. Some of my ideas for how Ed would act in the situation came from the twelfth volume of the manga, where Winry finds out that Scar killed her parents, and how Ed handles her reaction.

I like both the anime and the manga for Fullmetal Alchemist, but I like the anime a little bit more because it makes the Homunculi and Dante, as well as Hohenheim, a little more human in retrospect, as well as giving them an actual reason for their goals other than the joy of death and destruction.

Envy: I thought that you just liked it because of the fact that you had proof that I was once human and could annoy the hell out of me for it.

Wandering Hitokiri: (Smirks knowingly) Nah, I only do that 'cause you're a dick.

Envy: (Scowls at WH before giving her the finger behind her back) You know, for a college student you're really immature.

Wandering Hitokiri: Says the cross-dressing bastard who's permanently stuck at eighteen. Ahou. And, to quote a certain smart-ass doctor with a Vikidin addiction, I use Japanese because I'm an ass.

Envy: I should kill you right now. (WH doesn't even turn around as she flips him the bird, accompanied by a very rude suggestion in sign language)

Wandering Hitokiri: You can try.

Envy: Bitch.

Wandering Hitokiri: Faggot. (Envy jumps WH with a howl of rage before a massive fistfight ensues, accompanied by much hair-pulling)

Ed: -.-; … why am I not surprised?

Annora: Because they get into it each time she writes a chapter? After twenty chapters, plus five different side-stories, three of which have yet to either be finished or published, you should be used to this.

Mustang: I think what Fullmetal's talking about is the fact that they're currently in one massive catfight. (Pulls out a digital camera and starts taking pictures) Maybe I can put Hitokiri's computer to a better use than writing the tripe that she comes up with. (Snaps another picture) Oh, this is a good shot.

Ed: Pervert… and by a better use I'm assuming you mean porn? Why the hell are you taking pictures anyways?

Mustang: Because I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to have my office booby-trapped in some horrible manner in the next chapter, and I want as much blackmail as possible to keep that from happening. And as for your question on porn, that has nothing to do with you. (Looks around suspiciously before he pulls out a copy of Icha Icha Paradise and starts reading, 'borrowed' from Kakashi)

Annora: Okay, let's go. I have better thing to do than watch the Colonel act like a dirty old man.

Reviews:

anime.storm: Yeah, Annora's going to be evil and keep Ed guessing for a while, but he kind of deserves it for being an ass in the first place. I hope that this chapter answers your other question.

writingdreamer13: Well, I think that if anyone was in a situation like that they'd have some issues, especially if they've never been in intelligence gathering before. Some people just handle different kinds of stress better than others do. As for Ethan's relationship with Annora… you'll see the affects of his memory loss later on.

Mimori Kiryu: Thank you very much; I'm glad that you liked it. Katie is just one of those perky, nutty characters who really doesn't grasp how serious something really is until it happens to her. Alice is just an anime-obsessed brat who fantasizes about fictional characters, namely some very disgusting fantasies if you haven't guessed. Unfortunately I actually knew someone like that, so Alice is based off of a real person.

agent000: The memory loss bit was just a sudden slap of inspiration, accompanied by thinking about what happened to Alphonse after he got his body back. Thank you so much for the help, and I will definitely be asking you about stuff again in the future.

tiggeranddash: Yes it does, which is why I don't worry too much about assassination plots coming from that aspect. Besides, it's too damn funny to watch Ed and Mustang go at it when they're trying to decide how to put a stop to my insanity. As for Annora, she just watched some old NCIS episodes on her MP3 player to get her mind off of the evil yaoi pic that she saw.

Annora: You forgot to mention the bar of mind soap I used.

Lulu4ever: Cool.

MyDarkSideHasAWayOfHerOwn: Keyboarding can be evil, no doubt about that. Have fun killing Envy.

Phantom SunsSong: Nothing's gonna happen to Hughes just yet. He's too important to the storyline… and he drives Ethan bonkers. And Ethan's reaction when he first sees alchemy will be… memorable, to say the least. Any pairing with Ed that isn't heterosexual is just foul, sick, and wrong in my opinion. I don't like yaoi, not one bit, and I hate it when people try and shove it down my throat. That just makes me hate it even more than I already do.

Zilo Sugarpill: (Russell falls back with a stapler stuck to his head) Yes, it is a good thing that Ed and Annora have made up, seeing as it was kind of a dumb argument, caused by the local butthead sticking his nose in where it didn't belong. As for Envy and his close encounters with the trash can kind… it's kind of a running joke among my friends and I, seeing as I once expressed the desire to seal Envy into a trash can after I first saw him in the anime. So he's kind of like a psychotic, gender-confused Oscar the Grouch with a dirty mouth.

Devylle: Wow, I'm very glad that you enjoy my story so much. Thank you for reading it, and taking the time to review. As for what possessed me to do the little side story in the chapter 18, well, it all started with a reviewer suggesting that Envy and Annora get together. I just kind of took the idea and ran with it, turning it into a complete and total spoof while harassing Envy in the process. If you haven't figured out by now, I really enjoy doing that. Maybe I should write a fic solely on how to torture Envy… that would be fun.

Envy: NO!!

ShadowYashi: I'm naturally very sarcastic myself, so I just kind of take how I would react in some of these situations and insert them into the storyline. No, if I ever met Envy and he wanted to kill me, I would make sure that I at least got in some major pot-shots at him to deserve being killed, as well as be a total smart-ass. Even if on the inside I was wetting myself from sheer terror.

richard9311: Thank you very much.

I do not own any of the characters from Fullmetal Alchemist, even though I may wish that I did. I do own Annora, Ethan, and Katie.

Special thanks to my friend SamuraiRin63 for sending me the song Citizen Soldiers by 3 Doors Down, which was my inspirational music for this chapter.