I stood slowly as the last of the red sparks faded away. I felt good. Really good. I felt…powerful. My nerves still tingled, and every few seconds another wave of pleasure rushed through me, causing me to twitch. It was nearly enough to knock me out from sensation overload, but not quite.

This time I did not feel that haze that had been plaguing me the past few days. My head was clear as crystal, sharper than normal even. It was like this door had opened and my thoughts ran at one hundred miles an hour, cataloguing every sensation I was experiencing. My vision was sharper. My blood pumped stronger. And I felt like I could take down a building with my bare hands.

Movement to my left caught my attention, and I looked over slowly, still riding on the high of what was quickly becoming my favorite feeling.

A boy stood next to a suit of armor, and he was holding his hand out as if to reach me. Edward, my mind supplied. I looked into the armor's eyes, and he flinched. Alphonse.

"Alex," the suit said, but I ignored him. I looked around the room slowly, taking in everything as if I had been born again, and before I had only been able to see dull shades of sepia. Now I saw in a haze of red, and in incredible detail, although my vision seemed to be narrowed. Two boys were bound on the floor some yards away from me, and they stared at me with wide eyes, but I ignored them also. I observed the tables with science equipment on them, red water and stones gleaming in the florescent light.

Hunger.

I slowly began walking forward to a table, reaching for the first vial of red water.

"Y-you monster!" An annoying voice broke into my mind, and I flicked my eyes over to the disturbance. It was a stout old man old man, and his face was contorted in fury and fear. "Get the hell away from my red stones!"

He held up a globe with some sort of mechanical attachments at me. It was filled with red water as well, and I was compelled to walk towards him. He flinched at my approach and pulled something from his pocket. It was a red stone. He dropped it into the concoction, and the bowl glowed a bright red. A metal plate at the front of it writhed with the reaction, and the barrel of a gun was produced. The man grinned, exposing his canines, and fired.

Desperate shouts rang behind me, but I tuned them out. It was like the entire world had slowed down around me. The bullets came, and I fell to the side. As if under water, I felt the currents as they passed me by. Less than a second later, I was in the old man's face and gripping his arm painfully. It turned to dust under my hand, and the pathetic creature screamed.

"Alex!" As the man fell before me, writhing on the floor, I looked over to the one who had shouted.

"Ed…" I said, my voice sounding loud to my ears. He was standing with his hands out about to clap, but he hesitated, as if not sure what to do. He looked…terrified.

Why is he afraid…? I wondered vaguely.

"Alex," Alphonse said to me calmly, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "Please let go of him."

I looked back down apathetically at the writhing creature before me. His face was covered in tears and slime and a very unpleasant smell came from him, as if he had defecated himself. I let his shattered arm go, slightly disgusted.

The man scrambled back desperately and ran from the room, clutching his arm to his chest and still holding the device he had used against me.

I did not watch him leave. I looked at my empty hands confusedly and looked around. Ah, there they were. I walked over and picked up my tonfa from the floor, marveling how they gleamed in the light.

"Alex?" I could hear Edward coming closer to me, and I looked up. He was walking towards me cautiously, as if to a frightened animal. "Are you okay?" He put a hand on my shoulder, and I wondered what he was talking about. Of course I was okay. I felt great! I smiled, but his expression did not change.

"Elric!" a voice shouted from the other side of the room. Ed jumped badly at the loud noise. "You're letting Mugear get away!" The older boy that was bound up shouted urgently.

"Mugear…" I said to myself slowly. "Mugear…" My voice became tense, and my smile dropped. Ed backed away. "Alex…?"

"The plan is to insert the red water into pregnant women. It permeates their placenta, a factory of biological condensing. Once the process is complete, we take the product and transmute it into a stone."

I grimaced in anger as I heard his obnoxious voice in my head.

"Looks like I won't be needing you boys after all. What do you say, Mr. Elric?"

My teeth ground together, and blood began pumping in my ears erratically.

"You know, there was once another Alchemist who wouldn't do what I told him. He had to be…taken care of. I'll do the same to you and your precious brother if you don't cooperate!"

"Alex!"

I whipped my tonfa to the side, and Edward barely blocked with his automail arm. A rush of wind burst from my weapon, and Edward was blown back. He slammed into the wall across the room and landed on top of the bound boys with a grunt, but I wasn't paying attention.

Fury pooled in my gut like molten lava as I stared after where Mugear had disappeared. "Mugear…" I growled, the name feeling foul on my tongue. Without a backwards glance I ran into the next room, snapping my eyes around and taking in more than I had ever been able to before. I easily tracked him to a trapdoor in the floor and flung it open, tearing the door off the hinge. Below it was a stair leading into darkness I jumped them three at a time. I had no trouble seeing in the dim light.

Again, the annoying voices echoed behind me, but I had focus only for one thing. I sprinted down the tunnel, seeing my quarry stumbling at the end. All I could think was punishment.

My prey looked over his shoulder as I was almost upon him and whimpered in fear. He desperately lifted his device with a shaking hand, and in a flash of red light, a wall was erected, blocking my path. I did not hesitate or slow. I slammed my weapons into the annoying obstruction. The surface of the wall crumbled. I slammed them a second time. The tunnel around me shifted dangerously and another section of the wall came down.

I could hear an obnoxious buzzing behind me. "–going to take the whole tunnel down!"

"Stand back–"

I was about to bring my tonfa down for a third time, but in a flash of blue light the obstacle was suddenly gone. I moved forward, but I was violently pulled back by my coat as a cannon blasted in front of me, hitting the tunnel behind me with a bang.

The sniveling creature was shouting at me from behind the stream of red water and he seemed to be threatening me with a pathetically formed cannon. I grinned under the respiration mask and stepped forward. I had him right where I wanted him. I brought my tonfa above my head, my vision blurred around the edges but focused sharply on my prey before me. I will destroy you!

I tensed, and the man screamed, but with a resounding crack the ground shifted violently under me and I stumbled in surprise. I looked up just in time to see that the ceiling was buckling and jumped back as a ton of rock rained down. When the dust cleared, I realized that the reason for my fury was suddenly gone. I growled in annoyance. Shards of rock began to strike me in the face. The small cuts healed instantly in flashes of red sparks, but I still felt the pain. I spun on my heel and ran back the way I had come.

As I ran, rock rained around me, and I noticed that there were others following me. I glanced behind me to confirm this, and a wave of dizziness suddenly overtook me. My feet slowed and I clutched my abruptly aching head. What the…what was I doing again? The red haze that had been obstructing my vision began to lift, and my strength began to leave me.

I stumbled, and I was lifted bodily from the ground and carried by what felt like a band of steel. I looked up blearily in surprise, but could barely see through the dust."Wha- Alphonse?"

"I've got Alex," he shouted ahead of us. "Go!"

We ran for a few more tense seconds and I clutched onto Al's arm, disoriented and terrified. Al and I burst out of the trapdoor just as the tunnel behind us collapsed completely. The floor buckled beneath us and Al continued to run, carrying me out of the mansion and into the surrounding forest.

"Al, what the hell–"

"Sorry, no time to explain! Brother!" he shouted into the surrounding trees.

"I'm here," I heard Ed call. Al ran to the top of the hill, and Ed was standing there, looking intently at the collapsing mansion. The Tringhams stood beside him, panting for breath with wide eyes.

Edward turned around and strode over to Al and I, a severe expression on his face. He grabbed my chin roughly and I grunted in protest. "Your eyes are still red," he said, and I furrowed my brow, confused. "Can you understand me now?"

"Yeah, Ed, what–"

"Brother, the red water!"

Edward released me and spun around with a curse. Where the mansion once stood there was a geyser of red water coming out and even leaking from the mountain behind it.

"Dammit!" Ed snapped his hands together, and with a great feat of Alchemy, he erected a wall to contain the surging red water. "How are we going to drain this," he said, tense.

"Fletcher!" The older Tringham shouted behind us. I tried to look, but Alphonse was still clutching me tightly. Alphonse turned, and we rushed after the boy who had run into the forest. He stopped at a tree and began drawing on it furiously with chalk. When his transmutation circle was finished, he leaned his forehead into it and closed his eyes. It glowed a gentle green, and then something began happening to the trees around us.

Starting at the base, the trees in the surrounding area began turning the color of blood, growing taller as…

"They are absorbing the red water," Ed said in awe. Indeed, every tree in the surrounding forest within a mile radius was turning red, and the geyser of toxic water was siphoning into the ground. "He's using the trees to purify the water."

Fletcher suddenly collapsed to his knees, and Ed jumped forward in alarm, but the older Tringham beat him to it. The older brother gently stood behind Fletcher and placed his own hand on the transmutation circle, adding his energy to the mix.

"See, Russel," Fletcher said tiredly, "it does work." Russel smiled and then closed his eyes in concentration.

From beside me, Edward suddenly grabbed my hand and placed it on a tree. Instantly, I could feel a slightly painful pull in my body, and I cringed, trying to pull back, but he held me firm. My nerves felt like pins and needles, starting from my toes all the way through my body and to my hands. It was one of the most uncomfortable things I had ever experienced. A few seconds later, it was over, and I sighed in relief as the painful pull stopped. The trees surrounding us strained towards the sky, filled to the brim with red water.

"Sorry trees," I heard Fletcher say, and in a stunning transition, the trees transformed into the clearest blue I had ever seen. They shimmered beautifully in the sun as if they had become faceted with gems, and my brothers and I gazed at them in awe. They stood tall, like the obelisks made of blue sapphire, and then the collapsed into pieces, falling to the ground in waves of glimmering stone and a rush of wind.

Ed picked up one of the gems, and held it up to the sun. "Well, I'd say this town's financial troubles are over…" he mused.

Russel grunted from his position on the ground, collapsed next to his brother, in amusement. Fletcher was asleep on his lap, exhausted from the transmutation, and he pet his hair gently. "Good job, little bro," he whispered.

"Um, this is sweet and all, but can you please put me down now?" I pleaded. Alphonse's emotions were starting to overwhelm me and I was pretty sure he was bruising my sides. Ed ignored me and looked to Al.

"How does he feel?"

"Back to normal, I think. I can't feel any trace of that feeling from earlier."

"Hello, I think I can speak for myself here!"

Ed walked up to me and grabbed my face again, this time more gently. He sighed in relief. "Your eyes are green."

"Well, yeah," I said confused, "been that way since birth."

Alphonse gently put me down and I took a huge lungful of air, grateful to be able to breathe again. "So are you guys going to fill me in? What the hell happened?" Vague images filtered through my head, but I wasn't able to remember much except for being very angry. "What happened to Mugear?" I said with a dark frown.

Ed took off the facemask he had been wearing and glanced over at Al questioningly. Al shrugged his shoulders. I realized then that I was wearing a facemask as well and lifted my hand to take it off, but Al gently stopped me.

"Russel," he said, "is the red water completely gone?"

"It should be," Russel said tiredly. "That Alchemy was something Fletcher had been working on for a while. It would have absorbed all of the red water underground as well as the fumes in the air."

Al nodded and took the mask off for me, and I blinked in confusion. "Guys, you are starting to scare me."

Edward took a deep breath, and with one last glance at Al, told me everything that had happened after we came out of the closet. My mouth fell open in shock about halfway through, and stayed that way until he finished. "We think that due to how you were…born, the red water acted as a catalyst for your body. You went a little crazy for a while," he finished.

"I'll say…" I whispered, looking down at my hands in fear. I didn't remember any of that! Well, that wasn't strictly true. Images of the events flashed before my eyes, but it was as if I was observing them through intense tunnel vision, or through a poor quality television. It was hard to make sense of, but I slowly began to piece the events together in my head. My hands began to shake as with startling clarity, I suddenly remembered how it felt to break Mugear's arm in my grip.

I shook my head vigorously. "There is one thing I want to confirm," Ed said, pulling me out of my thoughts. His expression was dead serious. "That woman who healed your hand. What color was the medicine she gave you?"

I thought back to the small bead she had given me. "It was red. I guess it must have been a red stone." I brought my hand to my face, feeling like an idiot. "She must have known exactly how the stone would have affected me."

"We need to keep you away from anything having to do with the red stone."

"No shit! I could have killed you!" I gripped my arms in panic at the thought. I had wielded so much power, and worse, I was completely out of control! If the red water hadn't been as weak as it was…I shuddered in terror, my teeth clenching painfully.

"No," Al said. "I don't think you would have."

"Al, I attacked Edward! Who knows what will happen next time–"

"There isn't going to be a next time," Ed said strongly, gripping my shoulders. "We won't let you come in contact to any red stone or red water ever again, ok?"

I breathed harshly out of my mouth as panic gripped me. Ed looked into my green eyes with his golden ones, and I slowly began to calm down under his comforting touch. He looked so sure of himself, and so strong, that I couldn't help but believe him. "Promise?" I whispered.

"I promise."

I nodded, and he let go of me. I was still afraid of what would happen to me, and worse, what I would do to those around me if I lost control like that again, but I had to believe that Ed and Al would protect me from that fate. Still something niggled at me, something that had been bothering me since Lior. I put voice to it.

"What about that woman though? First she rescues me from Tucker, then she heals my hand with a red stone, and now we find out that I just happen to have a strange response to it? What does she want with me?"

"She was also probably the one who gave Cornello that red stone. I wonder what her plan is…" Al said.

"No idea," Ed said. "We'll just have to deal with it if she ever shows up again."

"Yeah…" Something a lot bigger than us was going on, and I was starting to get seriously worried that we were right in the middle of it.

o-0-o

It was evening, and the train whistled merrily at the edge of town. Ed, Al and I were finally leaving Xenotime, and Fletcher and Russel were there to see us off. We were already seated and the Tinghams were standing outside of our train window.

"I'm really going to miss you guys," Fletcher said, looking at us with his large eyes.

"Aw," I said at his cute expression. "We'll miss you too, Fletcher."

"Thanks for letting us borrow your names," he continued with a smile. "Here, I have a present for you." He handed Edward one of the gems that had been created by the trees. "I had it faceted for you, and I hear that production of the gems is going to start up next week! Xenotime will be back to normal in no time thanks to you."

Edward took it. "I think you deserve more of the credit than we do, but thanks. So Russel, you think you two are going to make it in this town," he said, looking to the taller teen.

Russel smiled. "Yes, I believe so. The townspeople were so grateful that we created a new means of economy that they gave me and Fletcher a huge share of the gems that we created, so we're basically set for life."

"Heh, nice. Don't go getting too high class on me, your head is already too big as it is," Ed said.

The older Tringham chuckled, and then his expression turned serious. "Are you still going to search for the philosopher's stone?"

Edward glanced at Alphonse and I with a thoughtful frown. He turned back to Russel. "Yeah," he said with a cocky grin.

"Well, I've got a bit of information for you then." Edward leaned forward in interest. "A few years ago a man came through here, and supposedly he was able to heal the sickness caused by the red water. They say he was able to heal people with a flash of red light."

"Really…"

Russel nodded. "I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than that, as he never told anyone what his name was. I hope that helps you, at least a little."

The train whistled again, and the conductor called for all aboard.

"One more thing," Russel continued. "I'm really sorry for giving you so much attitude when you first got here. I'll try to be a better brother to Fletcher, just like you are to yours. I guess you being a year older than me makes all the difference."

"What!" Ed exclaimed. Before he could continue though, the train pulled out of the station and we watched as the two brothers waved goodbye. Xenotime disappeared over the hills, and Edward fumed while Alphonse and I giggled at his expense.

"I can't believe he is a year younger than me and so much taller! Life is so unfair."

"Yeah, well, I kind of feel like a pedophile now for thinking he was so attractive. But alas, he is way too young for me…" I joked.

Ed snorted. He held up the small gem Fletcher had given us and looked at it consideringly. He glanced at me, and then pulled up his sleeve on his automail arm. With a flash, he transmuted a small piece of steel from one of the plates and placed it next to the gem on the bench beside him.

"What are you doing, brother," Al asked as we both watched him curiously. Ed just grinned and continued what he was doing. He clapped his hands together and touched the piece of steel and gem lightly and they began to mold together before our eyes.

"Oh, wow," I whispered as I took in the final product. Sitting on the bench was a perfect replica of Izumi's symbol that both Alphonse and Edward wore on their person, about the size of my thumb. At the T of the cross and nestled in the curve of the winding snake, the blue gem sat and sparkled in the sunset's light.

"It's an earring," Ed said, holding up his creation. "I thought that you should wear the same symbol as us since you're, you know…our brother." He blushed. "And since you like jewelry…"

Gently, I took the earring from him, touched beyond belief that he had remembered that. "Ed, I…"

"Don't mention it," he said avoiding my eyes. Alphonse chuckled and placed a hand on my shoulder. I was comforted by the feeling of protectiveness I felt from him, and it was clear that he felt the same way as Edward. My eyes watered a bit. Even though I had attacked Edward, and even though I might lose control again, they still accepted me. I touched the gleaming metal in my hand, and I felt loved. "Thanks so much guys…just one thing. My ears aren't pierced." I pulled the stub off the pointed needle of the earring and held it in front of my eyes with a manic grin. "Either of you want to help me?" both of them cringed away from me with a shout of panic and I laughed uproariously at their scared expressions. Maybe we were in the middle of something dangerous, and maybe I would one day lose control again, but if there was one thing I hoped would never change, it was that we three would be together till the very end.

And that's the end of the Tringham arch. Hope you guys liked it. Yup, Alex was cured from his red water infusion by the fact that it was a weak concentration and that it was pulled out by Fletcher's transmutation and Ed's quick thinking. Don't think that this is the end of Alex's red water problems, though. Not even close. I'll give you a hint. What's one place in Amestris that has a looooot of red water in it, hm? Well, I'll let you chew on that one for a while. For now, enjoy the warm fuzzies of the end of this arch. We've still got a long ways to go!

Next Chapter: We get to see a certain Colonel, Alex flirts, Ed gets angry, and a certain little girl gets a hug.

Thank you for all of your support, guys! I can't wait to hear from you again. See you next time!