A/N: Hello all! I'm not dead! It's been a long time since I worked on anything on this site. Almost a year, I think. I haven't done a lot of writing during that time. I really want to thank everyone who reviewed this story the first time around. You guys are the reason I'm back to working on this. I kept thinking I should rewrite it, but I kept putting it off. And then this summer I watched Brotherhood, which gave me a better sense of what I wanted to do with this. And I've been getting email updates almost daily telling me that, even after this has sat for nearly a year, people are still adding this to their watch lists.

This story came about because I was tired of seeing stories where Ed is turned into a cat chimera for no reason other than the ears and tail are cute. So this is intended to be a functional chimera Ed story. It draws on the ideas of chimeras from Brotherhood as well as some ideas from Stray Dog.

Really quickly, I want to explain some things about the rewrite. I'm going to be making some significant changes after watching Brotherhood and deciding to go in a slightly different direction with this. Also, I reread Stray Dog this summer. It's Hiromu Arakawa's first solo piece and you can see the gears turning for FMA when you read it. But that gave me a few ideas as well. I'll explain the story title and chapter title at the end because this author's note is getting too long.

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist and Stray Dog and all their respective characters and concepts belong to Hiromu Arakawa. I am not profiting from this story.

Warning: Nothing yet, except some vague violence.

"Al!"

The piercing, desperate scream rose above the din. A storm seemed to rage around the boy. Blue lightning crackled upward from the floor and a strange, black wind flung things from their places on the shelves that lined the walls.

"AL!" the scream sounded again. A dizzying array of images flashed around him, plunging him into a disconnected world of chaos and blood. He was dimly aware of a searing pain in his left leg, but that didn't matter. The only important thing about it was that, once his vision cleared, the blood gave him something with which to make a circle.

With the last of his strength he harnessed the energy crackling around him and focused everything he had on his goal.

"Give me back my brother, you bastards!"

The last things he was aware of were a blinding pain in his left arm and a vague sense that the room had changed, and then everything went dark.

-one year later-

Golden eyes snapped open at the resounding crash overhead. Something wasn't right. Instantly the creature was on his feet, ears twitching as he strained to hear what was going on. For several seconds that stretched into eternity he could hear nothing, and then the silence overhead exploded into a barrage of deafening noise.

"Theodore Heig, you are under arrest!" proclaimed a loud voice. Below this the creature could hear shouting and the sounds of sirens and booted feet. But it was his master's name that caught his attention.

Suddenly all of his fear was gone and he zeroed in on his directive. Protect the master. That is what he was created to do. Never let any harm come to the master. Even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

In a streak of pale, blotted skin, flashing metal, and golden fur the creature was up the stairs to the main entry hall. He stopped just short of where he could be seen, watching the soldiers and working out how best to complete his objective. More than two dozen people in blue uniforms were milling about the area. While he could only see half of them, he could hear the rest well enough to pinpoint their locations within the house. Of course, having the floor plan memorized didn't hurt, but then he wouldn't have been a very effective defense weapon without knowing the layout of the house he was guarding.

The creature quickly identified the most likely leader and decided to work from there. Kill the leader and perhaps the others would stop their destruction. If that didn't work, then he would simply work his way down the chain of command until either they stopped or he killed them all.

Moving through the shadows at a speed that made him nearly invisible, he focused on the black haired man who stood in the center of the room shouting orders. Once he was in a position to strike he waited, counting the seconds, for his opportunity to come. After all, haste led to sloppiness and sloppiness could get him killed. And if he was dead he could no longer defend the master. Finally the man stepped forward just a bit and the soldiers around him moved just enough that they provided the creature with the opening he needed.

Like an arrow from a bow the creature shot forth from his hiding place, fangs bared and claws held ready. He focused only on the dark haired man. No one else mattered. He realized too late, however, that such intense focus would be his downfall. Time seemed to slow as, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a woman whose steady gaze reminded him chillingly of a raptor raise her hand. There was a sound loud enough to hurt his sensitive ears and then an excruciating pain in his left shoulder and he crashed awkwardly to the ground. He struggled to get to his feet – he had to protect the master – but he could not lift himself from the floor. The effort only made the scene around him dim slightly. Slowly he became aware of the blood matting his fur and made one final effort to rise, managing to drag himself up onto his hands and knees. Again the woman raised her hand and there was another loud sound before a piercing pain in his left arm. The last things he was aware of as the world faded to black were the impact as he hit the floor and the sound of boots against the tile. And then it was all gone.

A/N 2: Alright, story and chapter titles. The story title, Bell the Cat, comes from one of Aesop's fables, called Belling the Cat. It's about a council of mice who decide that in order to keep the cat from sneaking up on them they will put a bell on her, only to realize that there is no way to get close enough without being eaten. The moral is that it's easy to propose impossible solutions.

The chapter title comes from Tarot. The Fool's Journey refers to the journey through life and the major arcana of a Tarot deck. Each of the cards in the major arcana is representative of a necessary part of the human experience. Through the journey through all of these experiences, the fool can become wise.