The night was pitch dark with only a spattering of stars to illuminate the path, but neither Alphonse nor I noticed. Our enhanced vision guided us as though there was the brightest moon to light our way.

We were walking the short two miles between Winry's home and the Elric's family home. I was in no hurry to get there, so my strides were slow.

My voice and our footsteps were the only sounds in the quiet night. I told Alphonse everything, from the moment I left him and Edward till the moment Lust pierced me with her spear. I left nothing out, save what I had already told him, and my tale was depressingly dark with only the bad parts to still relate. Only my conversation with Mustang was skipped over. That was between me and him.

Alphonse never interrupted me, although I knew he dearly wanted to analyze everything I said. I'm glad he held back though, because I wasn't sure I wanted to figure anything out just yet, save the one thing I hoped we would find at the top of the next crest.

A few minutes after I told the entirety of my tale, I stopped at a seemingly random spot at the top of a hill. A short ways away, a dark house stood silent, but I ignored it in favor of staring at the ground beneath me.

Alphonse paused in his slow walk as well and looked at me questioningly. When I didn't move, he finally spoke. "You do realize that I will never let you out of my sight again, right?"

I laughed slightly. "That's what you said last time. And the time before that."

"My point exactly. You are a worse trouble magnet than Ed."

"Heh, yeah, I'm starting to think so too…"

"Just what do you hope to find there? You said yourself that you weren't aware of anything until days later."

I shook my head, kneeling down and stroking the ground beneath me. The grass crackled dully under my touch. "I don't know. Maybe going back will help me to remember something."

Alphonse was quiet for a few moments. "…Alex. I don't think you want to remember. You weren't exactly…"

I stood and dusted off my hands. "That's just it, Al. We have no idea if any of this is true. All we've been doing so far is guessing at what I am and taking what our enemies say at face value. First I'm a random soul in your body, then I'm supposedly the creation you made when you were trying to bring back your mother, and now I'm a homunculus? I just…need to know if any of this is true. For myself."

Alphonse sighed deeply. "Okay. But this is not going to be easy. For either of us." I nodded. "Why did we stop here?"

I looked around, taking in the familiar scenery. Pinako's house was exactly where I remembered it, a spot of light in the distance."It was storming that night. I woke up disoriented in this very spot. I didn't know where I was or had any idea how I got here…at first I couldn't move at all…" I closed my eyes, letting the memories wash over me. Flashes of terror and confusion flitted across my dark recollections. I let it play forward, as if watching a disjointed movie, then slowly tried to track myself back to this spot. "I can't remember anything before waking up…"

"Maybe it didn't happen here. Maybe you were just moved here afterwards…"

I opened my eyes, shivering slightly. The images faded. "Come on. Maybe if we go to the house…"

I took a step towards the shadowy building in the distance. Al took a couple of steps to follow me and then stopped. I turned when I could no longer hear his footsteps at my back. "Al?"

"Sorry, I just…"

I looked between the boy and the house. "Al, you don't have to come with me…" I said softly, but even I could hear the tentativeness in my own voice. I would not make him relive his worst memory, I didn't want to…But I also didn't think I could face this on my own.

Alphonse took another step, then started to walk forward slowly. "No. I won't let you go alone…" I sighed inwardly in relief as he came back to my side. We walked forward together.

As we passed the last one hundred yards to the building, I tried to force myself to remember it. But it was no use; it was completely unfamiliar to me. The house was white, only one story. At one time, it might have been homey, cute even, but years of disuse had yellowed the paint and overgrown the yard. Vines crawled up the walls unchecked, as if nature was trying to reclaim it. Beside the house was a large tree, and from one of it's branches hung a small swing, just big enough for a child. It listed to the side, and I could see that one of the ropes was about to snap. It felt haunted to me, and though I didn't remember it, I could imagine a young Ed and Al playing here.

We both paused a few yards from the door, almost unwilling to go any further. "You know," Alphonse said quietly, as if in reverence for the silent house, "Brother wanted to burn this place down…"

"Why," I asked just as quietly, though I thought I knew the answer. This place held so many painful memories for them both, and I could only imagine what it must be like to come back to it.

"He wanted there to be no way out of our chosen path. So that we wouldn't give up and come back here."

"You would never give up, Al."

"I don't know…there are times when I feel like giving up. But even then, I don't think I could ever return here…"

I looked up into the dark windows and shivered at their silence. "What stopped him?"

"I don't know. I never asked."

I nodded and with one last glance at Alphonse, walked to the door and pushed it open. It swung open quietly, though I could clearly see the rust at the hinges. I stepped inside.

"I have no memories of this place…" I mumbled, feeling slightly frustrated. I walked out of the hall and into a kitchen-slash-dining area. Al clanked slowly behind me. I swept my eyes over the dusty space. There was a table and four chairs, along with two buffets and a small kitchen. The walls were decorated with flowers and paintings of fields and horses. A clock hung on the wall, stopped in time. I felt like I was seeing just a small glimpse into Trisha Elric's life.

A series of picture frames caught my eye and I walked over to the small buffet where they sat. There were three. The first one was of a young couple and two small children, no older than one or two. I picked it up and examined it closer, looking at the two boys first. The first boy was held by a large man, and it was obviously Edward. He was smiling innocently at the camera, and he was held awkwardly, as if the man didn't know how to hold a toddler. The second was Alphonse, no more than a baby. He clung to the chest of a young woman who must be Trisha. She was pretty, and her face glowed with happiness. I smiled sadly. They must have been so happy then. I could see from her kind eyes whey my brothers would have wanted to bring her back. I just wish I could have known her.

My eyes shifted to the last figure in the photo, the man. He was large and broad shouldered. His wide jaw was covered lightly with blond hair, and his hair was pulled back in a ponytail. This must be Hohenheim. I squinted in confusion, thinking my eyes may have been playing tricks on me, but it looked like he was crying. Did he know then that he would be leaving them forever? The photo made me slightly unsettled, so shaking my head, I set the frame down and looked to the next.

It was of Trisha, Ed and Al. They looked older in it, around five, and Trisha still glowed with health. Hohenheim wasn't in it, so I guessed that he had already left them, and that Trisha was not yet sick. The next photo was of just Ed and Al, and they looked to be about eight. They still looked so happy…There were no more photos after that, and I had to wonder if that was when the trouble started. I lifted the photo and stroked the tiny image of Edward's face. I had never seen him smile like that, so innocent and full of life. And this was Al, the true Al, not just the fake in my reflection. I hoped that one day, I would see them together like this, when all of this was over. I wanted to see that day…Carefully, I slipped the photo out of its frame and carefully tucked it into my inner pocket. I would see it. Someday.

Al gave a shuddering exhale behind me, and I turned to regard him. "Al…?"

"Let's go. I don't know how long I can stay here…"

"Alright."

We walked down the hall a short ways, past shadowy doors that couldn't bear to be opened, and Alphonse finally stopped at the top of a stair, an open door at the bottom. It was too dark down there for even us to see by. "Do we have light," I asked in a whisper.

Al paused and then nodded, disappearing back down the hallway. When he came back, he held a small candle in his hand. He lit it with a snap of a match, and I squinted as the bright light flooded the area.

"Ok. Let's get this over with." I led the way down the stairs and Alphonse followed closely behind me. The closer we got to the bottom, the more stale the air became, and I was tempted to cover my nose. I pushed the door all the way open and stepped inside. Alphonse stepped in beside me and gave a small gasp as the candle illuminated the room brightly. His armor began to vibrate slightly and I gently took the candle from him, carefully setting it on the floor.

"Are you Okay?"

"...Yeah."

Giving him one last concerned glance, I turned my attention forward. I swept my eyes over the room, taking in everything. There was a desk in the far corner, covered with papers and small lanterns. Stacks of books lined the walls, covered in dust. Two suits of armor rested against the back wall, both slightly different from Alphonse. They stared into the room with imagined eyes, as if waiting for a soul to fill them. I tore my gaze from them and looked at the floor. A large transmutation circle was etched into the floorboards, but I could barely see it anymore. It looked like it had been drawn with chalk, and age seemed to have wiped most of it away. A dark stain sat in the middle, and another at the edge. I crouched down and brought my hand lightly to the spot where Edward must have been injured. Al whimpered softly behind me, but I was too focussed on my task to look back. I took a deep breath…and stepped into the center of the circle.

My body began to shake with tension as memories, not of this place but of another lab beneath Central, assaulted me. I bit the inside of my cheek as the ghost of Tucker reared its ugly head, causing my left hand to suddenly ache fiercely. No. This is not what I came here to remember. I brought my clenched hand to my face and then jerked it to the side, as if physically trying to rid myself of the unwanted playback of one of my worst experiences. The specter of Tucker faded, and I forced myself to relax with a deep sigh.

"Alex?" Al's voice was shaking, and I could hear his armor vibrating slightly. I knew this couldn't be easy for him. I looked over my shoulder at him and gave a weak smile.

"I'm okay, Al…" My smile dropped off my face suddenly. The angle I was looking at…it felt familiar…

"Alex, I don't like this…"

"Wait…" I kept staring, but something didn't feel right. I was too high up. I got to my knees….and then lay on my back. I arched my spine and looked behind me. A shadowy figure appeared in my mind, sitting at the edge of the circle. He was looking at me in horror.

"Alex…"

Was that…Ed? My memories were hazy, so I couldn't make out specifics, like what he was wearing, or just how he sat. I could only see his golden eyes, wide with terror. I shifted to my elbows, still looking at him upside down, my throat exposed to the ceiling.

"Alex…!"

Phantom pain zinged through me, but I ignored it, sweating with the effort of trying to remember. Unbidden, my arm lifted from my side and reached towards the memory of Edward. I grasped, but I couldn't reach him.

"NO!" Alphonse's voice blared through the room, shattering the illusion of Edward and jerking me out of my position in surprise. I looked at him, alarmed, my heart pounding in my throat.

"Al…? Al!" I grunted in protest as he strode over and forcefully lifted me from the center of the circle. In an almost painful influx, I felt his terror seize me and I curled into myself with a startled cry. Without putting me down, he stomped out the candle and fled up the stairs and out of the house, slamming the door behind us. A few jerking strides later, he collapsed onto the hard ground, still holding me to his chest forcefully.

I pushed against him, trying vainly to get away, but I couldn't, not without damaging him. "Al!"

"NO! I won't go through this again! I won't watch you in that circle again!"

"Al-" His emotions were suffocating me.

"I won't! Ed was right, we should have burned this place to the ground!"

Pressure built in my mind as his terror bombarded me, and I tried to get through to him but it was as if there was a barrier blocking me out. "Alphonse…!"

"You're not that horrible thing anymore, I don't want to see you like that, I–"

The pressure was becoming unbearable, and I felt like my brain was going to explode. As it came to a painful peak I finally gasped out, "Alphonse, CALM DOWN."

Suddenly, it was as if the world went a startling pitch black and my mind fell back into blessed silence. I fell limp in relief as the pain faded away. Then my eyes snapped open in alarm. Something was wrong. Alphonse was still holding on to me. "Al? Al!" It was as if his emotions had completely flatlined, and though I was staring directly into his glowing red eyes, I couldn't feel him. "Al!" He didn't answer. "ALPHONSE!"

With a jerk, Alphonse seemed to come to, and his feelings of muddled confusion filtered through me. I sighed in relief and rested my head against his chest, my shoulders shaking. "Alex? What happened?"

"I don't know. One second you were panicking, and the next it felt like you were just…gone."

"Like…I lost consciousness?"

"N-no, it was like you weren't there. Don't ever scare me like that again!"

I made a small noise of distress and Alphonse loosened his grip on me, turning it into an embrace. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened…"

I shook my head and stood, not letting go of his hand. "Let's get out of here."

I pulled him behind me and we strode quickly and wordlessly all the way back to Pinako's house, leaving the ghosts behind us. I sat with him under the tree that we were under earlier that day and let myself be calmed by the warm light emitted by the open windows where Winry and Pinako worked and Edward rested. In it's soft light, the present came back upon us and some of my fears felt a little farther away.

"So," Al said, sounding a bit more like himself. "Let's never do that again."

I chucked in disbelief. "I second that. That was really stupid."

"Did you remember anything?"

"…Yeah. I was definitely there, in the middle of that circle. Lust was telling the truth, at least about that."

"And the rest?"

"For now, I'll have to say that was true too." And that hung over me like a cloud of depression. If this was all true, then the terrible secret of the red stone must be true as well...

"When we get back to Central, I'll do some research and see if I can't find any information about this homunculi business."

"Yeah, good idea." I leaned back against the tree with a sigh, my hand still attached to Alphonse's armor.

"Alex, I'm not going anywhere."

I shook my head and stubbornly held on. He sighed. "Okay, since we have all night, let's talk about the rest of it."

I grimaced, but nodded. We needed to figure all of this out before we went any further, because there were some things she said that unsettled me greatly. It might mean trouble in the future, and we all needed to be ready.

Al and I talked late into the night. I told him about my guesses and he gave me his input, helping me to figure out some of the things I just didn't understand. One thing was for sure, when Edward was finally well again, we had one hell of a conspiracy theory to throw at him.

This chapter was RIDICULOUSLY hard to write. I'm struggling with not repeating events a bunch of times in this story while still trying to make it make sense. It would just be easier if they were all in one room to have some big meeting about it, but that is just not realistic at all. So yeah, a bit frustrated. I can't wait till I'm past this part and they can finally go back to Central, and thusly back to the action. I kind of regret having Lust give him so much information at once, but oh well. We've all been waiting way too long without any explanation, so it had to be done.

Next chapter: they will give Ed the summary, figure some stuff out and then get the hell back on track. Whew, okay I'm done ranting.

Anyway, thanks for continuing to stick with me. This story is like the mother of all slow plots, and I can understand if I've lost some peeps at this point. Is sad. The hazard of writing a fanfiction of a series, I'm afraid.

On another note, can you believe that I've gotten over twelve thousand hits on this story? And a hundred and seventy reviews! Just, wow. I'm so going to hit my goal way before its first year of life. So cool! I never thought it would happen and I'm just thrilled to pieces you all like this story. Rant rant, et cetera et cetera love you guys, bye!