Hour the first:

Once Upon a Midnight Dreary-

Metal was a substance that had been mined to non-existence close to a decade ago. Though it was possible to acquire lead, steel, and other substances of the like for purposes of construction for weaponry, all other substances were mined off the earth years ago.

Gold, Silver, Platinum, and even a small amount of copper cost so much money that it was impossible to obtain. For a piece of gold about the size of a fruit fly, one would have to pay millions of dollars. So it was stated that all precious metals had been found and only the metals that currently existed remained.

That is… until something happened only two years ago inside of Tokyo. A mysterious vender appeared and sold all types of metal for ridiculously affordable prices. RAPT made an appearance one time and were, shockingly enough, defeated.

The reports from RAPT agents went on to say that there were 'Blue flashes of light everywhere' before 'the concrete attacked'. Those involved were given psychiatric evaluations while the metal vender, who quickly rose to fame with an underground black market monopoly of mysteriously-acquired precious metals, thrived and went unhindered by the authorities.

One year into his business, he began to sell affordable prosthetics technology to small hospitals that were trying to help the common man. Even after crime reached an all-time high in Tokyo, the mysterious vender wasn't caught dead or alive. Even while people died, others were saved and were able to make money because of him. In a way, he was a hero.

The vender quickly became known as the "Full Metal Alchemist" because of his apparent ability to change things to how he wanted it. He could take lead and turn it to gold, some said. He was a wizard, he was a scientist, and he was a fraud: These were just a few theories of all sorts spread through the city like wild fire.

Then one day he vanished without a trace. Nobody knew where he went and because nobody ever worked for him or with him, the RAPT police never discovered his whereabouts. All they knew was that he was a young man with a metal right arm and left leg with gold eyes that always wore something to cover his whole face and a red coat on his back.

Soon, the name "Full Metal" vanished into the pages of modern society in favor of the ever-rising crime-rate. The Full Metal Alchemist was favored as having vanished, never to be seen again.

…Yeah, nobody knew who he was or where he was…Nobody…

Edward Elric reached into his jacket pocket on a snowy December evening and pulled out a key. Reaching to the doorknob, he held it steady and prepared to put the key in… only to almost fall over when the door opened suddenly, losing his footing on the icy floor.

'Odd…' he thought, 'I never forget to lock the door…' he shrugged his shoulders, walked through the door, and locked it shut.

It wasn't a large apartment, mind you. But it certainly did its job. Two bedrooms, one kitchen, two bathrooms, a few closets, and a massive living room where he would sometimes experiment with certain elements. Compared to some of the poorer areas of the city, this place was a palace.

There were bookshelves all over the apartment filled completely with old books from libraries that had been shut down a few years ago. Everywhere he looked; there would be a book of some type somewhere.

In a corner of the room there was a small TV on a countertop next to a large window with a view of the streets below. It seemed out of place in a room filled almost entirely with books. Scratch that, it seemed completely out of place in this room not just because of the books, but because there was no other electrical device located in the entire room at all!

No lights, no computers, and no phones. There was nothing. Nothing except for a black and white television that looked like it belonged in a museum for its age. Still, it showed the news and every channel in the city and for that, Ed didn't care it wasn't in color. He always knew what was going on, that's what mattered.

In his life, he had come to realize that knowledge was power no matter where he was. Father needed the know-how to create Homunculi if his plans were ever to come as close as they did to succeeding, Ed needed the information of what he was doing and how to stop him. He got both, though unexpectedly.

Ed was able to kill Father, but he disrupted the Transmutation Circle in the process and accidentally changed it from being one made for creating a Philosopher's Stone, into a Transmutation Circle for dimensional travel. In short, he opened The Gate and was flung to the other side.

The normal reaction from a human being would be death: Instant, painful, horrible death. Sometimes a human would get lucky and only have an internal organ taken from them, but in reality it was quite rare to only lose a limb over something like opening the Gate. But Ed wasn't a human being. He wasn't human from the start of his life and he only confirmed his suspicions recently.

He was the resulting spawn of a human and the Philosopher's Stone. Hohenheim, due to being the Philosopher's Stone, wasn't necessarily human and could therefore bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange and go straight through The Gate.

But Ed had already seen The Gate twice. Though he lost a pair of limbs in doing so, he learned something he never wanted to tell Alphonse. He never wanted to tell his little brother Al something that he feared.

What was the worth of a human soul? Nothing could be equivalent to that, so why did Ed only lose his right arm returning Al's soul to his world from The Gate?

It was because his arm was Equivalent Exchange. Being the son of the Philosopher's Stone made him immune to the more severe backlash of The Gate. His brother, admittedly, was more human than him and suffered a greater cost as a result.

Edward Elric came to a single conclusion. He had no soul. He was alive only in body and mind, but not in soul. He was just energy in a solid form. He was… he was Hohenheim's Homunculus. That was something that sometimes awoke him at night with fear in a cold sweat. He didn't believe in god not because he was an alchemist, but because god would have nothing to do with something that wasn't his.

Ed wouldn't go to heaven or hell; he'd join the Homunculi in whatever they called their afterlife. He fully expected death going into The Gate, and at the same time he thought there was a chance he could survive.

Ed hated doing this to Al. He truly did, but to return would make him believe that he was simply even less human. In a way, he was stopped from doing something for one reason. He was stopped from doing something for a reason he'd never needed before. He was afraid.

There was no other fact than that he was afraid to ever try to go home. Edward Elric was terrified that if he returned, he would be branded as a Homunculus and would die. He needed to give Al the hope that he survived, but he hated himself for leaving Al alone like that.

And so, Ed succumbed to the Homunculi Sin he represented when he made it to the other side. The Ouroboros Tattoo made an appearance running along his left arm. He discovered that he could heal from any injury at a super-natural rate. He realized that, though he could still perform acts of Alchemy, he had a Homunculi Ability unlike any other.

It made him shudder to even think of it…

Ed turned around and walked into the kitchen to turn on the stove. He was going to cook a can of soup and then he was going to go to bed.

He had made millions in the short time he was the Full Metal Alchemist in Tokyo. But, he soon realized he had the money he needed to live a peaceful life. What's more, there was nothing he could contribute to people anymore. He only gave metal to those who needed it most; he only helped those he believed needed it.

And even though he knew Al wasn't around, he sometimes heard his voice in his head. He could almost imagine a suit of armor clunking around the apartment calling him 'Big Brother'. Even though he knew that he'd most likely never see Al again, it was like Al was always there telling him what was and wasn't right.

Edward admitted that he was a little messed up in the head and a tad paranoid, believing that RAPT could track you if you ever used electricity and that cats could talk to him, but he wasn't insane. He was a scientist and a damn good one. There was no way in hell he was going to have a mental breakdown.

The gas on the stove had been turned on for about a minute and there still wasn't fire. He opened a window so he wouldn't fill the apartment with gas and accidentally blow it up. Reaching into the pocket of his black pants, he brought a match up with his gloved hands and struck it against a wall before lighting the gas.

A blue flame made an appearance as it hissed. Ed opened the can of soup and poured its contents into a pan before placing it onto the open flame.

"Chicken Soup… Eh, not my favorite, but it'll do…" muttered Ed with a bored expression on his face.

He'd left his black jacket hanging from the door knob at the entrance of the room. His white shirt had a few stains on it. He wasn't sure whether it was from food, dirt, or blood. He didn't really care either.

Ed didn't have a job. It was something that had bothered him constantly. It wasn't because he couldn't get a job; rather it was because he lacked the ability to get a job. Officially, he didn't exist. He had nothing that identified who he was. He couldn't even get a driver's license.

Information was power, and even he had to admit that he didn't like the idea of having somebody he had no information about working with him. At his home, he was far more trusting. Too trusting, he had to admit. But he had a reason to trust people and they had a reason to trust him.

Here, that form of familiarity was gone and there was a chance that he would never know of it again. Here, he couldn't trust a vast majority of the people and they had no reason to trust him either. That, while it irked him greatly, was unavoidable.

He grabbed an old-fashioned timer he'd made with some Alchemy a day before and wound the clock before setting it down. In about ten minutes, he'd have two bowels of soup and will have had just enough calories to keep him going.

Ed could have gone to the grocery store to buy food products, but he honestly didn't want to hassle with it. He'd go with buying the cheapest, but at the same time healthiest, stuff he could find any day of the week. Ed would eat grass if it meant he'd have some form of nutrition.

If there was one thing he hated and at the same time loved, it was the fact that he could die. It was true that physical blows would heal almost immediately after being inflicted, but his metal limbs couldn't 'heal'. He'd have to repair his auto-mail to prevent them from failing on him from time to time. In addition, if he was killed thoroughly enough, he'd stay dead and wouldn't heal.

But there was something else that could kill him. Two things, really, and they were terrifyingly simple:

He could starve to death, or he could simply meet his end by not having enough energy.

Unlike the other Homunculi, he was powered by vibrations caused by the sounds of everything around him. If he was in a vacuum environment, he'd die from having no energy and not being able to breath. He was further powered by what he ate, like a normal human being. Ed theorized that death by age was another possible way to go, not that he wanted to turn into an old man in less than a day and find out.

The timer rang. That meant his soup was done. Ed got up from the sole couch in front of the old television and snatched a metal spoon to have some soup.

"It's cold this year…" Ed mused as he looked outside the window to watch the snow flakes fall.

He wasn't scared of the cold. His auto-mail had been modified with titanium, lead, carbon, and the best of all sorts of metal in order to ensure maximum proficiency in any given situation. What's more, his body was always kept at a constant temperature. He couldn't die due to increased or decreased temperatures; his skin was fire and ice proof. The fact that he was able to die due to dehydration was a shocker to him that he'd never understand.

"Usually it never snows this early." Ed continued as he took a sip of some of his soup, "It makes me wonder what Nina would be doing right now."

Ah yes, the little girl with the long, brown and braided hair. She was young and innocent. His hands clenched remembering what her father did to her, his eyes turned hard… and suddenly his features softened.

"I guess… you'd just be playing in the snow. You loved the snow almost as much as your dad didn't you?" he questioned aloud.

There was no person or phantom to hear his words, and though he knew it, that didn't mean he couldn't hope that Nina heard him somewhere. His and Al's surrogate little sister… In a way, her death taught them that everybody had a time to die. They thought that they knew that when they tried to bring their mother back to life, but they didn't. They just realized that they couldn't bring back the dead, not that they couldn't save everybody. It was the first time they felt true hopelessness and sorrow, pain and despair… their mother's death hadn't even come close.

Ed's eyes were slowly drawn to the usually white carpet floor of the living room, a stark contrast to the wooden floor for the rest of the apartment, and noticed something that wasn't there when he left. A red stain…

He didn't care about the stains on his shirt simply because it was that, his shirt. He wasn't necessarily trying to get a job so he never had a need to clean it. But Al's habit of cleaning the home they lived in seemed to move onto him, thus it was a surprise to see a stain on the floor like that.

Ed's eyes narrowed.

'While I did have some spaghetti from a can last night, I'm pretty sure I didn't drop any tomato sauce on the floor…' his eyes followed the stain and widened as they reached the door, 'And I'm pretty sure I ate in the kitchen last night.'

He shut his eyes in irritation and sighed.

"Break in…" he trailed in an irritated tone.

He was used to some people thinking they could make it big by breaking into his home. There was always somebody who stole for some cash, and there were some cases that they tried to steal from him… they always ended rather painfully. Ed smirked despite the fury that seemed to appear in his wide open, golden eyes.

He traced the blood from the carpet all the way to one of the bedrooms…

'No wonder I didn't notice it outside. The snow probably covered it up, not to mention the fact that it's hard to see blood on a wooden floor of this color. Damn it! If I wasn't so slow and tired, I'd probably have picked up the smell a little sooner, this place reeks of iron.' he thought as he took one step after another to his bedroom.

He opened the door, preparing to transmute a blade from his arm if he had to, and saw a girl with long red hair. She was fast asleep on the side of his bed.

His eyebrow rose.

'Well, this person was tired and she isn't covered in any of the blood from outside this room. She's covered in sweat, so she must have been doing something that tired her like this, and there's hardly any blood in this room.' His mind raced for answers, quickly searching the room, 'That means… that means that there's somebody else in here. A friend of hers was injured; she carried that person, broke in as silently as possible, and dropped off her friend somewhere in this room. Then she passed out from exhaustion.'

He sighed to himself before walking over to the girl and putting his hands on the sheets… and quickly pulled the sheets off of the bed, taking her with them.

"Ah!" she cried out before unceremoniously crashing against the wooden floor, "What the hell, man?"

"Why are you in my home?" asked Ed as he glared at the red head with blue eyes.

The redhead's scowl and glare suddenly faded as she tried to put on a look of innocence, "Y-Your home…?" she asked as she scratched the back of her head, laughing nervously, "Well, see… um…"

"And where's your friend?" questioned Ed.

"F-Friend? I don't know what you're talking about!" she spoke quickly.

"You're not bleeding and you look tired as hell. You were carrying somebody who was injured and dropped that person off here. Where is your friend? Answer now or I'll call the cops." spoke Ed with a severe glare.

He was, of course, bluffing. There was no way he was going to get the police for three reasons:

One: He had no identification and if he ended up in another situation like this and happened to forget what his previous alias was, if they didn't call him on his bluff, then he'd be in trouble.

Two: He was the Full Metal Alchemist, a known criminal. And although the heat of his situation had died down years ago, there was still a large sum of money on his head. And he didn't feel like leaving this home he'd found to try and find a new one, let alone try and avoid RAPT after they had a face for Full Metal.

Three: He didn't have a phone so calling the police was null unless he wanted to hang out the window and scream for them.

"She's, um…" her eyes darted around frantically and after a moment, her face settled to a smirk, "Right there." her finger went up and pointed behind him.

Ed could hear a dripping sound as a little more blood fell to the wooden floor. His eyes widened when he felt the end of a gun on the back of his head.

Ed narrowed his eyes again, "Who are you people and why did you pick my home to do this shit with?" he asked, well, more like growled actually.

"Meg… is this guy causing you trouble?" asked the person behind Ed.

'Another girl…' he decided after he heard the voice.

The redhead, Meg, suddenly took on a look of concern, "Jo, you really shouldn't be up and about like that. You're hurt."

'So I was right…' Ed's thoughts trailed for a second before he spoke again, "You never answered my question, why are you here? Aside from the fact that your friend is injured…"

Meg's eyes narrowed and she glared at him, "You're not in the position to be asking questions, mister blondie midget."

Ed's face suddenly became dark and shadowed.

"Okay… first, you broke into my home. Second, you and your friend have it set up so that you can kill me at any time. Third, I'm pissed off after a long day of crap. Fourth, I'm not stupid and I know for a fact that the gun pointed at my head isn't loaded." Meg's eyes widened as fear suddenly appeared on her face, "And fifth…"

There was silence for a time.

"…And fifth," he began again, "…WHO'RE YOU CALLING A MIDGET SO SMALL THAT HE NEEDS A LADDER TO SEE EYE TO EYE WITH AN ANT?" he shouted as he kicked the girl behind him, Jo, in the stomach and sent her sprawling to the floor.

He made a point to use his left leg, the metal one, to strike her. He didn't quite know why at the time, but he had the feeling that nothing less than a hit of that magnitude would bring her down quickly and quietly. He rushed forwards and, with his left fist and hit Meg on the side of the head, knocking her out.

Ed turned around to see the other person who broke into his room. This one had silver colored hair and red eyes.

"M-Meg!" she cried out.

Ed quickly knocked her out with a chop to the neck. He mentally thanked Ling for teaching him that move; it was damn useful when it came to knocking people out silently.

It was about an hour later that Meg woke up tied to the ceiling. Her eyes drifted off to her left where she saw Jo, who was also awake, glaring at somebody who stood below them.

"Meg! Are you alright?" shouted Jo.

"I-I'm fine… my head hurts a little…"

"Alright, now that you're both awake, I'd like to inform you that you've both probably broken several laws by now. Give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't send an anonymous tip to RAPT that you two are here and detained."

"I'll shoot you dead before you can even reach the phone!" shouted Jo at him.

"Jo!" Meg almost hissed at her.

"You're unarmed. Not only did I take your guns, but I got rid of the rest of your ammunition." said the young man with blond hair as he held a smirk, "I need a better reason."

"We can claim you're a sick pervert and tell RAPT what your name is." said Meg with a smirk.

"Oh really," he said with wide eyes before looking up at the ceiling, "Then… tell me…" he trailed until his golden eyes suddenly glared full force on her, "Do you even know what my name is? Come on, what's my name? You're going to need to know it if you want to report me to RAPT." he spoke.

Meg seemed to pale before quieting and looking away.

"What the hell do you want with us?" shouted Jo.

"I want to know why you broke into my home." replied the man.

"Jo was injured, Ok! Wouldn't you have gone to the nearest place for help if a friend was injured!" cried Meg at him.

"I would have gone to a hospital! There's one right around the corner from this place, so you breaking into my home with weapons on you only made you suspicious from the start. You had guns, and your friend had a bullet lodged in her arm. You two are criminals and I should get the police right now to have you both taken away."

"Wait!" shouted Jo at him, "You… you can have me. But leave Meg alone!"

He blinked, "Huh?"

"She's innocent in this. Just let her go." She spoke to him in an even tone, unflinching.

"J-Jo! Don't do this for me!" pleaded Meg.

Jo either didn't hear or didn't care about what Meg said and stared evenly at the young man, "Well… let her go and you can call the police for me."

He stared at them both for a few seconds before reaching into his pocket. Jo and Meg tensed. Was he going to pull a gun and shoot them? Was he taking out a cell phone so he could contact RAPT? It would only take a few seconds… He could destroy them with what was in that pocket. It wouldn't even take a minute for a handgun to fire a pair of bullets, one for each of their heads, at them. They would die quickly and horribly. Likewise, he could simply call the police… they knew how shady RAPT was. What they did… they would just kill them in a way worse than this man could ever imagine.

But to their shock and surprise it was a little black book. Jo and Meg couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at its simplicity. It was just a worn, black book with no writing on the outside of it whatsoever. Whatever it was, however, it seemed that this man had something for it. They could almost feel him reminisce about something… he stared at it with dulled, glossed over eyes. Before slowly shaking his head and putting said book away.

"I run on something called Equivalent Exchange. It's a universal law, in my opinion." he spoke to them, "It means, and I quote: 'Humankind cannot gain something without giving something of equal or greater value first'. If I let both of you go what will you do for me in exchange?" asked the man, "What guarantee is there that you won't just run away from me?"

Jo stared hard at him, "What, so keeping me and turning me in for RAPT isn't good enough?" she asked.

"You're a greater threat than this girl. It isn't Equivalent Exchange to offer me a dangerous killer to let a little girl leave. It's like giving a ton of gold covered in arsenic to somebody for a little puppy! No… I want to know, what can you give me? I'm not the greedy type, but I make it a point to have a reason to my actions. What can you two do for me…?" he trailed.

"What? Do you want us to sleep with you or something you dirty, sick perv?" shouted Meg at him, almost forgetting whose home they had broken into.

"I'm not interested in either of you that way. The woman I loved died a while ago…" he paused for a bit and looked away, "Nope. Not interested at all." he looked out the window and saw that it was snowing harder; it was darker than before too, "I'll tell you what… let's make this easier. I've been looking for a job for a while now. Despite everything you see around you, these are just temporary living conditions and they aren't the best living conditions I've ever had. If I let you go, I'm willing to offer you sanctuary here and the time to heal from whatever the hell hit you. In exchange, you two need to find me a suitable job that doesn't require ID of some kind. I'll take any kind of work just as long as it's work." explained the man.

They stared at him like he was some kind of lunatic. Here they were, right where he wanted them, he could do anything he wanted… but he just gave them the offer of a temporary home and food as payment so they could help him! Didn't they just break into his home?

"You're joking…" trailed Meg.

"I'm dead serious." stated the blond man with closed eyes, "Besides… I'm kind of running from the law myself, to turn you two in would be suicidal. If somebody breaks into my apartment for unkind reasons, I usually just break their arms and legs then bury them alive. I can't have them telling people about where I am, now can I?"

Jo and Meg seemed to look at each other for a moment, "You mean to tell us… that this was all just an elaborate bluff?" asked Jo.

"Pretty much… The burying idea still stands if you're not willing…" trialed the man.

"We'll do it!" said Meg.

"Meg, this guy is insane…" trailed Jo.

"He's probably bluffing again about the burying alive thing." said Meg with a smirk.

'Well, I actually did go through with that threat once, but that guy was a raving lunatic… so he had it coming to him!' thought the man, "Yep, you're right… I'm bluffing."

There was a pause for a moment.

"Okay, now I can't really tell. Are you bluffing or not?" asked Meg.

If Jo had a free hand, she would have smacked herself on the forehead, instead, she settled for a groan of irritation.

"I'm just going to let you down…" trailed the man before he paused for a moment, "Almost forgot, I can't have you seeing what I'm about to do."

He clapped his hands and hit them against the floor. Suddenly, blue sparks appeared. There was a strange sound followed by the feeling of being hit in the back of the head… Jo and Meg fell unconscious.

It was one of the many bizarre incidents that would follow in their lives…

End 1-