Hello! Just letting you all know that the next few chapters will be both depressing and negative, but it'll get better, trust me!

I'd also really appreciate some reviews once and a while! Even just little comments or tiny tidbits here and there. :)

I do not own any aspect of Full Metal Alchemist.

"Who sent you?"

Fire rolled forward in a violent rage through the ashen air in Mustang's lofty office as he took shelter behind a transmuted wall. Various documents lay strewn across his office, trampled on from time to time by his steps as well as those belonging to the blonde woman leading offensive blasts of air before him.

"I find it surprising that you don't find this form as something along the lines of a weakness, Fuhrer Mustang." His eyes narrowed. "I was so looking forward to the desperate look upon your face." The voice so identical to his assistant's had been so defiled by the fiend who used it.

"You'll have to try harder to find such a weakness within me!"

Mustang shifted himself against the crafted wall so that he had clear vision of the impostor, snapping his fingers to create a rage of bursting flame aimed towards her. Caught by surprise, she shrieked as his flames enveloped her like a cocoon, tearing and searing her flesh. She soon dropped to the ground, the sickening smell of burning flesh wafted through the air. He watched as her blackened corpse sat there, knelt and immobile, before she began to laugh. Mustang's eyes widened and watcher the scorched corpse rose up, the flesh sliding off of her - no, its body to reveal a black skeletal being with red eyes and external teeth.

"Suprised, no?" its hand raised in front of itself gloatingly displaying its clawed, hand-like appendages, which possessed much longer fingers than a human's. Severely disturbed by the mock humanoid before him his eyes narrowed.

'What the hell is this... A homunculus? No,' he snapped his fingers once again at an incredible speed, but once the homonculus-like humanoid had shed its human skin it seemed to have gained an incredible amount of speed. It dodged his attacks one by one by simply jumping aside and out of the way.

'Homunculi have the body of a human that has the ability to regenerate from any damage, but this one... even if I land a hit, it doesn't even seem like I'm damaging it at all!'

Its voice grew an inhuman echo that grimfully accentuated its female-like tone as it laughed at the futile attempt of Mustang's alchemy. "You'll have to do better than that to evoke a response of physical pain from me," it stopped mid scentence and narrowed its eyes, "but I'm done playing. Roy, we have to talk. Enough of this idle chit chat."

With another blast of air that it protruded from its mouth, it shattered the stone wall Mustang held as his only means of shelter. Before he had a chance to react and escape, it darted towards him and pinned him against the wall left of the only large windown in his room. The Fuhrer cried out in pain as the beast's claws, which had enlarged, pinned his arms and body against the wall like some old doll.

"What the hell could something like you possibly want with me?" It gave him a mock smile through its teeth and eyes. It could feel his desperation to escape and his pain from its tight grip grinding into the stone wall.

"I came to deliver a message... and now you seem like you're in a position to be just too happy to listen."

Falling to her knees in half-dead grass she recognized all too well, suitcase on the ground, Sadie's heart sank at what barely stood before her and the two other teens. Countless buildings, complexes and houses that once stood strong along the old downtown country road of Astet lay either in saddening ashes or in crumpled heaps. Alphonse walked toward her, lifting her back up along with her suitcase and nudged her along in attempt to keep her wits about her. Edward simply stared, mouth slightly agape at the amount of damage that had been done.

The two brothers glanced about the many demolished orcompletely destroyed structures they had known once stood tall, trying to compare their previous memories of the small town as they used to pass by it on their way to Lior. He had remembered a small-scale automail shop somewhere along the lines on the dirt road they tread on, but couldn't differ one scorched or demolished building from another. It concerned him to see such an innocent town to be in such a disgraced state with no trace of life left to tell its tale.

Alphonse left all of the disaster aside and became extremely puzzled by the lack of evidence to support any theory on the cause. The end of the small hamlet had been skillfully executed with little or no evidence to be easily found from those who had disappeared and died. For him, there had been evidence enough in the air hat suffocated his own air. He frowned at the black of the wood of many houses burnt to a crisp, their remaining shadow of a glory even more so faded into black by the dreary, grey sky above. This bloodless massacre seemed all too similar to the ruined disgruntled Xerxes. His disgusted emotions began to release from his system, crushing the small piece of charcoal in his hand.

'This almost seems fresh...'

Sadie watched as it had dirtied his hand so. 'Is he angry?' Shaking her head, she realized what she really needed to investigate.

"Come on, this way. I want for you both to see something."

Looking from the building he had been studying, or lack of one thereof, Ed rose from his kneeling position and nodded towards her. Al held his own squatted position, completely troubled by the scene. Did Sadie leave this all here when she left her hometown, or had she known this had happened?

'No,' he countered himself, 'she looked heartbroken once we entered the village...' His eyes shot up once he heard Sadie call his name, running over towards her and his brother. Al's face bore a disgusted look, and it had pained Sadie, causing her own feelings to grow even more grotesque and unbearable. Could he feel her emotions she had failed to keep locked up within herself? Her throat closing up in hidden agony, she swallowed silently and turned to walk ahead.

"Follow me, please. Both of you."

Ed stared at the half dead grass growing through the dirt road they walked on. The sorry state of the village had stitched his mouth shut. The sight had reinforced his grief for the less unfortunate that had inevitably perished on the ground they tread across. He could feel lit; the same haunting wind blew across the land that had blown across the bloody wastelands of Ishval. He could feel that the girl he teased so tastelessly had witnessed at least as much bloodshed and senseless death as they had. The feeling clawed at his gut and tore at his nerves, but it felt so much more different than the bloodshed he had been used to feeling from underneath central. The sense of bloodshed almost carried a thirst, as well. His forehead wrinkled. Something else was not at ease.

The trio traveled a short distance out of the more used-to-be populated village and towards a valley-like drop in the elevation. The paces of both brothers became stiff and hesitant as they saw a lone house in the middle of the valley carved out like some forgotten faded paradise. Right off the bat Alphonse had recognized the shape and style of the dead vines winding around and through the trees that lined the path to an old, white house. He slid his left hand off of the trees as they passed, feeling the trees' saddened echoes as if they had been calling out to him. Quickly retracting his hand, he saw Sadie shift in her pace to match his slower one.

"My lady had a way with her transmuted plants. They were always so graceful and full of life," she turned slightly to him, "and so happy," not making eye contact but to stare at the trees as they passed them by. "It's no surprise that someone so in touch with their own soul can speak to them in a way that I can."

Negativity aside, Alphonse was thoroughly intrigued by her remark. Ed gave them both a skeptical look. "What do you mean, speak to them? I-"

Sadie smiled sadly towards him. "You felt them, didn't you? Their echoes for help." He exhaled, nodding with an indescribable expression on his face.

"I did feel something, yeah." She walked to his left side and took his hand, making it once again brush along the tree trunks as they passed by. With a second shot he became focused and felt as if the trees and vines evoked sympathy within him. His pace halted as he felt the feelings of one tree. Ed's interest peaked as he saw why.

"This tree, it's mangled. Look at these claw marks," Al stroked his finger across one of the indents, "the cut is strong, just like how Lust's nails cut."

Ed swallowed hard, pointing towards the center of the marks. "Except for this. Look at how they dig in in the middle. Her ultimate spear sliced clean through anything, while these seem a little more dull even though they are still strong." Sadie shook her head, her heart racing. They needed to discover for themselves what had dug its claws into the tree and she needed them to discover it fast. She promptly took his hand, pressing it against the marks once again.

"No, no, Alphonse, feel what the tree says. You need to know what the tree tells you, Al." her voice became distressed as a wash of half paranoia washed over her. Once again she received an undeserved skeptical look from Ed, but he had been so confused as to why both she and his brother were talking to trees. Were they seriously goofing off at a time like this?

Closing his eyes and focusing, he knew that Sadie knew something that they did not. His face tightened as he felt something completely different from the mangled tree. It was almost as if the tree began to lash out towards his intrusion. It cried out, warning him to turn back and run away. It then mixed in another emotion: jealousy. Al felt the tree's envy for his ability to be able to flee from danger. It cursed the fact that it could not have run away from the doom imposed on itself. Retracting his hand, panting from the overexposure to such a strange and alien power. He turned to Sadie with an extremely confused look.

"It... it was afraid, and hurt, and it envied my ability to be able to run away from danger." His eyes carried light bags of stress underneath them as he looked towards his older brother, and then towards the girl beside him. "But how can I be able to..."

"The only thing I can think of is how your body had been sitting in limbo for so long while your soul was still active..." Ed came up with a simple explanation, and then trailed off. His train of thought had some nice tracks, but then derailed. Sadie thought this was the best way to put it.

"Close... It's because of your soul having been attached to something it wasn't supposed to be in control of. Because of the conditions you had to undergo, your soul has adapted to communication of a 'higher sense'." The two brothers couldn't just take this kind of news and be completely okay with it. Their denial had been overcome by awe. Al had evolved, and was able to speak to his biological surroundings with a simple touch. He blinked, staring at his outstretched left hand.

"Wow... cool." Edward's head fell, his mind drifted aside from the emotional/awe-inspiring moment. He pictured himself falling through a mock pit of despair from the light of his dignity from above. His brother's voice matured, he grew taller AND he could talk to trees... and... girls...

Edward's body melted downward towards the ground in a muck of wallowing self-pity, while Sadie and Al picked him back up, nudging him along the path. Shaking his head from all of his inner nonsense, he gave both teens a look of approval of continuing on towards their destination: the white house. Sadie tread in front of them, motioning them to follow.

"Come on, we can discuss this stuff later, after we investigate what we have come here for. This way," her voice was rushed and slightly hushed as the boys answered and followed her down the trail.

Sadie stared up towards the tall, forbidding white house, dominant throughout her childhood memories. The wide window in the attic she had remembered, decorated with light blue curtains and several different vines crawling across the underside of the overhanging roof above was now shattered. What remained of the curtains blew about, tattered, grey and burnt at the edges while several parts of the trim of the window hung, broken, the paint peeling off. The broken glass rested at her feet below, a shadow of what beauty the window held.

Taking in a deep breath, her fists clenched, she studied the rest of the house's condition. The siding seemed untouched in its color save for a few scratches along the left side of the house. The front porch still held countless pots chock full with plants and shoots, yet instead of the thriving, bright green botanical paradise she had remembered, they had long since shriveled. She walked up the stairs, noticing a few broken pots to the left. She had assumed it had taken a tumble from the left side of the house where the window sat.

Turning towards the door, she glanced towards the mailbox hanging next to the entrance. Sadie extended her hand towards the door, moving to grip the doorknob, but flinched. Al began to walk up to where she stood, hesitant, but Ed held him back gently. He gave his younger brother a look as if to say 'let her do it'.

Sadie moved toward both boys and gave them both a look of fear and anticipation. "Well, let's go inside, then." Ed smiled to boost her confidence.

"Yeah."

She turned the doorknob and watched the door slowly creak open. From what they could see through the open door was a dank, opaque scene. Dead leaves and branches crunched underneath Al's shoes as they walked in and down the front hall. Ed was suprised; it had looked so much smaller, despite its already large size, from the outside. The house's architectural planning was immaculate; the house planned immaculately for the maximum amount of space in each room. Or so they would be thinking, were it not for all of the dying, rotting overgrowth throughout the building.

Al covered his mouth and nose from the rotting stench. "Yuck. What in the world happened here?"

"My house has been uninhabited for quite some time now. The plants had no guidance or nuturing care, and so after their desperate attempt to thrive all over the house, they are perishing," she clapped and hovered her hands over layers of vines covering what looked to be like a glass-paned parlour door and Ed and Al watched as the vines drew back, coming back to life. "It's okay though, I'll make sure that they become ingredients for excellent soil." The many vines bloomed tiny white flowers as she walked through the door and into the parlour.

Both boys were lost for words. With her alchemy she had brought segments of rotting plants back to life with little effort. Without turning to them as she walked through, she knew of their surprise.

"My soul is also an adapted one. I transferred some of my soul into those plants and brought them back to life," Al gasped.

"Y-your soul?" Sadie smiled as she crouched down on the dead vegetation to feel around for something.

"Only a tiny portion, yes."

"But that means that you-" Al's voice cut out after he thought of the possible cause of her almost supernatural alchemy.

"Only for a short period of time," she saw the way that Ed and Al had looked at her, and sensed what they were most likely thinking. "Don't even think about it, either of you."

Ed's face tightened. "Do you know how useful that information is? Souls who have evolved like yours and Al's could save peoples' lives!" Al disliked how worked up his brother was getting over the news. Sadie shot him a warning look.

"This isn't something to play around with, Edward. Small transmutations with plants are safe since the soul returns after the plant thrives. Too many transmutations and you're facing the brinks of death." she spat out her words like venom from a snake. Ed flinched from her scolding.

Taken aback by her lashing out on Ed, she lowered her head.

"Nothing is worth dying over... here," she clapped quickly and revived a section of vines for a second time. The section she brought to life slid away towards the wall, revealing what looked to be an old area rug. "An old entrance to the cellar is under here. That's where I think we should be searching..."

Both brothers helped her pull up the rug to reveal a square segment of the hardwood floor cut out. Sadie slid her fingers in between the gap between the hatch and the floor and raised it up. Underneath were a set of old wooden stairs untouched by any vines. Ed and Al silently followed Sadie down the low narrow staircase. Ed coughed from the stench that easily outmatched the one from the main floor and covered his nose and mouth like his brother had been doing.

"Oh, man, it reeks down here. Not to mention I can't see anything. Let's make this quick so that I don't puke anywhere." Al grimaced with his eyes and looked about the darkness they walked through. He remarked at how large the cellar seemed to be.

"It smells really different down here, but I don't see any-" Al gasped as the wits had been scared out of him from what he'd bumped into.

"What, Al? Did you feel something?" Sadie lit a match and immediately dropped it. From the ceiling hung many dead corpses, either in a skeletal state or possessing small amounts of flesh here and there.

"What the hell is this?" Ed spat out his words in a terrible fright. His throat began to close up and his eyes watered from the stench, causing him to cough excessively at risk of throwing up. Sadie stumbled back and whimpered at the horrible sight. Her eyes remained wide open at the atrocity before her.

"Th-they're everywhere! Oh god, I've never seen so many-!" her voiced wrenched a horrified exhalation while the Elrics heard another.

"Wait! What was that?"

"Did you hear that other noise, Sadie, Ed?"

The dirt underneath them began to vibrate very faintly in a rhythm of footsteps.

"Something other than us is down here."

A ear-piercing shriek wreaked havoc of the three teens from afar and the footstep like vibrations grew closer and more frequent.

"We should really get out of here, brother!"

Snarling then filled their ears followed the sound of bones crushing directly in front of them. Sadie whipped her head around and fell to the ground in agonized fear. It survived.