AN: Hey everybody! I have a small announcement about my answering reviews (for those of you who haven't got the e-mail?) Due to the large amounts of reviews (it's every authors dream to say that) I'm going to be responding to all reviews using the reply thing, however I'm definatly going to keep responding to everyone who favorites or watches my story.

So thank you to Damarikomu, Mizu10, Marshpelt, MatsuriHfan, Seengot, Corn-dono, xXImmortalsxDiceXx, tig tig kitten, Alice Baily, Dancing Spirit, Chrimson fox, and YuuYuu-chan.

So without further delay, enjoy!

Chapter 3

I sat in the dark as I listened to Winry run down the stairs. Thanks to both of the facts that I had sensitive hearing and that the entire house was made of rickety old wooden floorboards, I was able to make out each of her steps. I heard her run, but then her footsteps began to suddenly slow down, as if she were hesitating. I strained to make out the general muffled murmuring that was going on downstairs.

Despite the fact that I couldn't make out who was talking, or who was saying what, I was able to make a pretty good guess. First of all, there was only one small female voice. Her voice was harder to make out then the others, meaning that it had to be a pretty nervous Winry who was talking. The other two voices were pretty hard to figure out. They were both young male, which meant that it had to be Ed and Al. Unfortunately the floor and walls in between us was doing a pretty good job of making it nearly impossible to tell the two voices apart from each other.

The voices were now starting to get louder and louder, as if they were yelling. I began to hear footsteps but then they suddenly stopped. The voices started talking again, only much quieter this time. Finally they stopped talking and someone started to walk back up the stairs, only a lot quieter this time. The footsteps paused outside my room and the silence was soon broken by a knock on the door.

"Molly?" Ed's voice sounded unsure as he softly called out my name.

"Come on in." I said. The door creaked open, softly bathing the room in the glow from the hall outside.

"Do you want me to turn off the lights?" Ed said softly.

I shook my head. "No, I really don't want to wake up Mo. I think that she needs as much sleep as she can get." Ed nodded and walked over to my half of the room where he sat down on the edge of my bed. An awkward silence came over the room as each of us tried to figure out what to say.

Ed was the first to break the silence. "Winry told me about your shoulder. I need to see if it is what I think it is." He said in a soft, almost embarrassed voice.

"Sure." I replied, just as curious as him to see what had caused Winry to react the way that she had. I turned, facing my back to him. I then lifted up my hair and moved it in front of my shoulders, so that the wound on my shoulder was exposed.

Ed let out an audible gasp. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see him trying to keep from touching the spot. "It's ok." I nodded, giving him permission. Realizing what I meant, Ed gingerly touched my shoulder. Blinding pain lit up my sight, and I let out a hiss of pain.

Ed quickly removed his hand as I hissed out, "So what is it?"

Ed looked down in disbelief, talking to himself more then anything. "It…it's not possible. But…"

"Ed." I said firmly, turning to face him. "Tell me what is so bad that both you and Winry are freaking out."

"See for yourself." He said as he handed me two hand mirrors. Angling the mirrors the best that I could, I finally located the wound when I let out a gasp. There on my shoulder was the Flamel's Crest.

I immediately dropped the mirrors, knowing that I would no longer need them. The image of the bright red snake wrapped around the cross would forever be burned into my mind.

"What happened?" Ed asked softly. In a daze I told him everything that happened to me in the Gate. When I finished I looked up at Ed, whose face was hidden by his hair. Unable to read his expression I was surprised when he said, "You lied to me."

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.

"You told me that everything would be ok. And I trusted you. I went against my better judgment and did the transmutation anyway, and now look at both of you." Ed's voice was starting to rise now, filled with anger. "You can barely move your arm, you're in so much pain and Monique…I don't even know if she's going to wake up, much less be able to walk."

"Don't you think I know that?!" I yelled back at him, tears obstructing my vision. "Don't you think that I know that she's hurt and it's all my fault?!"

"Your fault?" Ed interrupted me. "No. It was your idea, but you weren't the one who wrote the circle on the floor, you weren't the one who activated it. So no. It's not your fault. It's mine." An awkward silence spread over the room after his outburst. You're wrong Ed. It is my fault.

"So…ummm." I started lamely, trying to break the silence. "What does the wound on my shoulder mean. I mean, I realize that it means that I've seen the Gate, but what else?"

Ed sighed. "I don't know. Usually anyone who has that mark can also do alchemy without a circle, but since you haven't been able to do alchemy to start off with, I'm not sure what to tell you."

I paused. "Wait a minute. You can do alchemy without a circle, and you've very obviously seen the Gate, then shouldn't you have a mark too?"

Ed halted, his face draining of all color. "Yes, yes in fact I do have a mark." I was about to ask where when he went on answering the question for me. "I have it on my top right shoulder. The automail had to be put on top of it in order to provide a stable base for the port. I honestly think that it was one of the most painful parts of the operation. It hurt so bad just to have anything touch that thing, much less to have metal screwed on top of it."

I automatically winced, just remembering the pain that I had went through when Winry had been cleaning off the wound. There was no way that I could imagine the agony that Ed went through if he had to have his automail put on top of his scar. "And what about Al?" I asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

"I think that you already know the answer to that one." Ed replied.

"I do?" I asked, trying to remember anything.

"Yeah, it's on the same spot now as it was on the armor." A quick glance at my confused face prompted him to continue. "His upper left hand shoulder."

"Oh." I said, suddenly feeling very stupid.

Ed laughed at my bewildered expression. "I'd better go tell Winry that you're ok. She's probably dieing to know what happened, and besides, she has food and some fresh clothes. I have a feeling you're hungry, right?"

"Starving." I answered straight away.

"Plus I have a feeling that you'd like a change of clothes. You look like I do after the majority of my battles." Ed said with a smirk.

"Hey! That is not completely true." I said. I paused for a moment. "Hey Ed."

"Hmm?"

"What should I tell Winry? You know, about who I am and where I come from?"

Ed paused. "Tell her the truth. I trust her, you know that much already. I only hide things from her to keep her safe. I see no reason why telling her where you are from is going to put her in danger. Although I wouldn't go around Central advertising it. I just think that there's no reason to lie to her." Ed stood up and made his way over to the door where he stopped and turned around. "Good night Molly." He said with a small little wave.

"'Night Ed."

I sat in the now dark room as I listened to the sounds of the house around me. Downstairs I could hear Ed talking to Winry, soon followed by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

"Knock knock." A familiar voice said through the wood of the door.

I smiled. "Hey Winry, come on in." The door was pushed open as the blond walked in carrying a tray with a lump of fabric and a steaming bowl.

"I brought you some chicken noodle soup. It's easy on the stomach, but it still tastes just fine." She said as she handed me the bowl.

"Thanks." I said as I accepted it, just a little miffed that it wasn't the stew that had been so famous all throughout the series.

"I also brought you one of my tank tops. I hope it fits." She said, handing me a dark red cammie that in the dark looked almost black. I took it from her, grateful for a change of clothes. A silence filled the room as I ate the soup.

"I'm sorry for freaking out on you earlier." Winry said quietly.

"Nah, it's no big problem." I said as I tried to wave it off between gulps of soup.

"No! It is a problem." She insisted. "I probably scarred you half to death by just leaving you to wonder what was going on. It's just… it's just that… it was like it was happening all over again. Ed shows up on my doorstep out of the middle of nowhere after going missing for 2 years -with the exception of one day where he manages to save the world from massive flying machines- carrying a girl who is basically bleeding to death. Then when this mystery girl finally wakes up, I come to find out that she has the same mark as Ed and Al and Izumi. I'm not stupid. The only way that you can get that mark is by performing a human transmutation. So I need to know, what happened?" She was nearly shouting now, and fearing that she might wake up Mo, I tried to calm her down.

"Winry…winry, it's ok." Winry took a few deep breaths, starting to calm down. "So now, how much did Ed tell you?" I asked.

"Not much," she admitted, " he was too busy freaking out about you two to tell me anything that could be considered remotely useful."

"Ok, so do you know where Ed was during those 2 years when Al was missing his memories?" I asked, trying to figure out how much I was going to have to tell her.

"No, not really. I only saw him come out of that weird circle thing in the underground city, where he promptly jumped back into after he saved Central."

"Ok, so I have a pretty good idea now. Ok, so that weird circle thing in the underground city was a type of the Gate, linking 1920's Germany to Amestis - which is where Ed had been sent to when he brought back Al. So those flying machines were piloted by members of the Thule Society, a fanatical faction of the Nazi party - a political party in Germany which ended up committing some of the worst cases of human rights violations in modern history, and they also started off World War 2. Once Ed had stopped Dietlinde Eckhart - the leader of the Thule Society - Ed steered the ship back in through the Gate and back into Germany in order to break down the Gate so Thule or anyone else couldn't enter and attack again. However, Al jumped in at the last minute making sure that he would stay with his brother. Ed and Al then decided that since they were now apart of Germany and its world, that they should start taking responsibility for it, which meant tracking down a bomb that a scientist from this side of the Gate had sent through. Unfortunately, before they could start tracking it down, members of the now destroyed Thule Society and the severely weakened Nazi party began tracking them down, forcing them to flee."

"How do you know all of this?" Winry asked, interrupting my attempt to sum up the last scenes of the movie.

"I'm getting there." I said, waving her off. "Anyways, they were eventually cornered, and in a last ditch effort to loose them, they summoned up the Gate using this new idea that Ed will have to explain to you. Unfortunately things didn't go exactly as planned, 'cause they woke up in Colorado in 2008." I continued on explaining, describing everything that had happened (minus the concert, of course). When I ended Winry looked at me in pure shock.

"Wow." Was all that she was able to whisper out.

AN: Hope you enjoyed my little attempt to explain everything, which I'm sure I missed something while explaining but hey, I was doing it all off the top of my head. Oh by the way, has anyone seen the new FMA season? I loved it!! Especially in the second episode where Winry and Risa talk. (My favorite scene of all) Well, by for now.

~ Mayanpaw