Yo, long time no see. I realize I haven't updated in a while, but my school life has been pretty hectic. In fact, the only reason I have time now is because of a snow day. So, without further ado, I give you unlucky chapter 13.

Time
By Lea Cat
2/13/07

"Edward!"

Dante remembered…Dante knew. Dante…she had to forget some of it every time, otherwise she'd be successful in her plans. So…maybe she just lost a portion of it every time, instead of losing all of it like she was supposed to.

"Edward?"

But that made absolutely no sense. Then again, he remembered a little bit every time…

"Edward!.!" He found himself being shaken by the shoulders. Alphonse stared him in the eye. "Are you okay? You were just standing there and you weren't saying anything or even responding!"

"I'm fine." He muttered, waving his brother off. Wait a moment…his head snapped up, and he looked about for Ed and Ed-chan. He found them trying to hide behind the other. He snorted. Like that would keep him from finding them. "Hey." Both of his younger counter-parts froze as if they were committing a horrible crime. "What--" He took a menacing step towards the frozen boys, "--the hell--" Another step, "--were--" He stopped in front of them. "--you THINKING?.!" He yelled. If possible, they shrunk back further, as if trying to disappear. "I SHOULD KILL YOU, RIP YOU LIMB TO LIMB, GIVE YOU TO SENSEI—" When Ed and Ed-chan flinched at the last, Edward grinned wickedly. "Well, I can give you over to Sensei…"

"No! Don't do it!" Both Ed and Ed-chan nearly threw themselves at his feet. "We're sorry! We won't do it again!.!"

Edward huffed. "Fine." Both boys sighed in relief. "But we're still going." He added.

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Knock, Knock.

A large, burly man answered the door. Edward grinned cheerfully. "Hello Sig, is Sensei in?"

"Edward…?" The large man reached out and rubbed his head "You've grown."

"No time." Edward said, pulling Sig's hand off his head. "We need to see Sensei."

"Sure. Mason, take care of the shop!" Sig began herding them all towards the back. "Izumi, the Elric boys are here to see you." He called into a window.

Ed-chan began to tremble while Ed merely sweated. Edward seemed very calm and composed. "Ed and Al?" A light tenor floated out the window. Sig grunted a confirmative.

Not five minutes later, the door flung open, and Ed-chan was the first to go flying. Ed was promptly punched in the face. Edward, standing to the side, safely out of reach, smirked and waved at Izumi. "Hello, Sensei."

Izumi either didn't notice him or chose to ignore him. "Ed! How dare you show your face around here!.!"

"Sensei…"

"What?.!" She snapped.

Edward sighed, realizing that approach was not working. "Guardian of Blood." He gave a short, curt bow.

Izumi's expression was a mix of surprise, confusion, and barely contained hostility. She bowed back before barking out, "What the hell?"

"Alchemy accident. My younger self brought both me and another younger version to this time. Happened to Al, too." Edward jerked a thumb towards where Al-chan was hiding behind Al. Alphonse, to all appearances, had disappeared. "Alphonse! Get out here!" When there was no reaction, Edward frowned. "Don't make me tell them about the time you mistook my fuel experiment as baking soda—"

"Alright, alright!" Alphonse yelled, jumping out of a tree. "Geez…no need to get spastic…"

Izumi frowned. "So, there's three of each of you, a future, a present, and a past. Right?" Edward nodded a confirmative.

Ed, having pulled himself together, said, "The funny thing is, we have a mental connection and this has apparently happened before."

This time, it was Edward's turn to frown. "I should hope we have a mental connection. We're the same person."

"SHUT UP!"

"Hello, Sensei." Ed-chan tugged on Izumi's sleeve as his older selves bickered.

"Hello, Ed-chan. You haven't joined the military yet, have you?" Izumi asked, her eyes promising death if he answered wrong.

Ed-chan gulped and said, "No, ma'am."

"Good." Izumi brought her attention back to the fight just in time to see Ed crash into a tree.

"Hey! That was a cheap shot!" Ed yelled the moment he righted himself.

Edward scoffed. "You weren't paying attention. Besides, the best way to win an argument is to knock the other person out."

"Why you—"

"Why are you here?"

Edward's fast reflexes were what allowed him to stop Ed's tackle with a hand to his head. "Um…because we kinda need your help?" Misinterpreting her dark look, he hurried to add, "Don't worry; if you're thinking it's a waste of time, you won't even remember it."

"How did it happen?"

"My fault." Time admitted, suddenly sitting by the door. "A long, long time ago, really long ago, my predecessor made a mistake. Since then, all Guardians of Time have been trying to fix it. It's not working."

"A long…long time ago?" Ed-chan asked curiously.

"Hey, do you even know how fast we age? I was born FAR in the future, you know!" Time exclaimed. She suddenly sighed and became somber. "When you're the Guardian of Time, your years are spent in other times…my predecessor was born before I was, did you know that?"

"Then…how would it be a long, long time ago?" Ed-chan asked in a way only a little kid could.

Time nearly smacked herself in the face. "Listen. We measure time in a different way, because we really aren't part of your time flow. I am 17 years old. Add the ages of my predecessors. The predecessor that messed up died around 3000 years ago in OUR TIME. In fact, I think I met him once…"

Edward clapped his hands together. "Moving on, cuz we don't really care." He stated. "Blood, do you think we could room here for a while? Just a bit."

"Just long enough to forget the Armstrongs." Ed added under his breath. Ed-chan nodded in agreement.

"Fine." Izumi sighed after a moment of hesitation. "But if you get in the way, there will be a world of pain to deal with."

"Yes ma'am!" Edward and Ed snapped into a perfect salute while Ed-chan sloppily imitated.

"Get in the house." Izumi ordered. "You're messing up my garden." All of the Elrics hurried to get inside. "And don't break anything!" She yelled, just as a crash resounded from inside. It was suspiciously quiet.

Izumi sighed.

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"So, what are we doing here?" Ed-chan asked.

Ed flopped on the bed. "We're relaxing. At least, that's what he said." He jerked a thumb out the window to where Edward was sitting in a tree.

For a moment, all that could be heard was birds twittering. Then a soft, sad, but familiar melody drifted up to their ears. Both Ed and Ed-chan scurried towards the window where Al and Al-chan were already situated, hoping to get a better hearing. "That's the melody you were humming!" Ed-chan exclaimed. Ed could only nod in agreement.

Edward was singing as he lay in the tree:

How can I repay you, brother mine?

How can I expect you to forgive?

Clinging to the past, I shared our blood,

And shattered your chance to live.

Ed spotted Alphonse walk towards the tree and stand beneath it, simply listening. Ed suspected that Edward knew too, but didn't stop singing.

Though I knew the laws, I paid no heed.

How can I return your wasted breath?

What I did not know has cost you dear,

For there is no cure for…death…

Edward's eyes slowly drifted close and the melody became louder, as if he knew he had an audience.

Beautiful mother, soft and sweet,

Once you were gone, we were not complete.

Back through the years, we reached for you,

Alas, t'was not meant to be.

And how can I make amends

For all that I took from you?

I led you with hopeless dreams,

My brother, I was a fool.

Edward continued humming, although he had stopped singing. Ed's hopes fell a little. There was more to the song, and he had been hoping to learn all the words. And then Alphonse began to sing:

Don't cry for the past now, brother mine,

Neither you nor I are free from blame.

Nothing can erase the things we did,

For the path we took was the same.

Edward bolted up, as if he had been caught doing something wrong, and then stared down at Alphonse in surprise and…relief?

Beautiful mother, soft and sweet,

Once you were gone, we were not complete.

Back through the years, we reached for you,

Alas, t'was not meant to be.

My dreams made me blind in youth,

I long to return to that time.

I followed without a word,

My brother, the fault is mine.

When Alphonse stopped, Edward began the last verse.

So where do we go from here?

And how to forget and forgive?

What's gone is forever lost,

Now all we can do is live…

Alphonse gave Edward a soft smile and said, "Old melody, huh."

"Yeah." Edward nodded down, still in the tree. "I wrote my part, and you wrote yours. I still don't know why I wrote mine that way. Well, I do now, but I didn't back then."

Alphonse's smile turned into a full blown grin. "Well, I knew. I always did subconsciously remember more than you."

Edward laughed freely. After he and Alphonse stopped laughing, he murmured a quiet, "Thanks. I needed to hear that."

Alphonse placed a hand on the trunk of the tree and tilted his head back, staring at Edward. His hair was out of his ponytail for once, and it hung around his head like an aureate halo. "Brother?"

"Hm?"

"How much longer do you think—?"

Edward interrupted him, aware that their audience was absorbing every word. "Not much. I know what I need to do now. I'll shatter the illusion." He closed his eyes, his words ringing with a sense of finality that alarmed the occupants of the upstairs room. "This time, I'll try not to die."

I have this horrible guilt trip every time I think about how slow I am on updating. I know I'm a really slow writer, and I appreciate that all of you have still insisted on reading my story. This humble writer thanks you from the bottom of her heart.

On a side note, the song is Brothers, and I do not own it.

Lea Cat