Gone Forever

An FMA Fanfiction

Prologue

Alphonse Elric sighed. Ed had gone missing just over a week ago. It wasn't the first time the two brothers had been separated, but never before had Al felt quite this worried. At least the other times he had had some idea of where is brother was, that he was alright. But this time, he had no idea. somewhere. But there wasn't, not anywhere. Not a set of footprints, none of the telltale signs of battle alchemy, no (Alphonse gulped) blood was to be found. had kidnapped his brother.

Ed had simply vanished off the face of the planet.

In the past week, Mustang had sent some trusted officers -Falman, Fury, Breda, Havoc, and a few others- all over Amestris: Central, Resembool, Dublith, even Rush Valley and Briggs. Al didn't see how that would help, because he didn't think that Ed had gone anywhere voluntarily. He would have told his younger brother where he was going. No, Al thought, Ed must have been taken.

While the military was busy searching, Al had taken up walking the streets of Central, the city he and his brother had last been. He was looking for something, anything, to lead him to his brother. Surely if his brother had been taken, there would be signs of a struggle

He wondered, over and over again, if it was the homunculi. Though Father and his homunculi had been defeated, they had not been destroyed. They had gone into hiding. After the first few days of Ed's disappearance, Al had convinced himself that somehow the homunculi

Alphonse was walking down a dusty alley when Hawkeye found him.

"Alphonse, I'm glad I finally found you," she said, breathing a little heavily. "I've been running all over Central."

"Lieutenant Hawkeye, what's the matter?" Al asked excitedly. "Have you found Brother?"

"Sorry Al, no, we haven't," she said a little sadly. Her voice was urgent once more. "It's the Colonel. He's chasing someone or something through Central. We think it's a homunculus."

Al's eyes widened. "A homunculus? Really? Where? Can you take me there?"

The lieutenant nodded. "That's what I came to get you for. Right before I found you I contacted HQ. They said he was chasing the homunculus down a nearby alley- we can try to surprise them at the end and stop the homunculus."

Alphonse nodded. "Let's go."

As they both ran down the street, Al wanted to know. "Which one is it? Envy?"

Hawkeye shook her head. "We can't tell yet, it's got its face covered with some kind of cloth, only its eyes out to see ahead, and the rest of its body is covered by a cloak of some sort."

Al continued to charge forward, thinking aloud, "Well, we did manage to destroy Pride and Wrath in our last encounter, and Lust was already dead, as was Gluttony. I think they destroyed Greed cause he wouldn't follow Father.. But Father could have always made more, right?"

"Exactly. We don't know if he has, but there's a pretty good chance that he recreated all of the ones that he lost. This could be any of them."

They reached the end of the alley too late. They were only a few yards away when flames roared out the end of the alley. A lithe figure leaped out of the blaze, racing across the street and down the opposing alley. Colonel Mustang appeared out of the alleyway as well, stopping a brisk moment for breath. Seeing Al and Hawkeye, he panted, "Hurry, go after him!"

Alphonse took one look at the colonel before sprinting after the homunculus. Clapping his hands together, he swiftly touched the ground as he ran, calling up a wall in front of the fleeing homunculus. It didn't have much effect- the homunculus simply jumped over it. Holding back a curse, Al deconstructed the wall when he reached it.

Touching his hands together and to the ground again, Al created a series of pitfalls for the homunculus to get through. He hoped it would at least slow it down- it was fast!

Carefully dodging the pitfalls, he finally got within ten feet of the homunculus- it had only been slowed down a little, but enough for Al. Close enough for him to pick out the ouroboros tattoo on his left hand with his sharp eyes. "Greed," he muttered. "Guess he made a replacement."

Greed then turned around briefly to get a better look at his pursuer. It was to dark in the alley for Alphonse to see anything but the faint light glinting off of his slitted pupils. Greed must have recognized Al, for as he turned back around to better his speed he stuck his middle finger on his tattooed hand up in the air as he ran.

"Oh, come on, Greed," Alphonse shouted, panting a little, "I thought we were kind of friends, at least. Why so unhappy to see me? What are you doing here, and what have you done with Brother?"

"Sorry, kid, just doing a little business in the city," replied the familiar voice.

"I thought you didn't work for your "Father", as there's nothing in it for you! Or is that the old Greed?"

"There isn't, and I do not work for my so called "Father"," came the reply. "As you said, there isn't anything in it for me. I flew the coop once again as soon as I was... reincarnated."

A little confused. Al called back, "Well, do you know what they're gonna do with my brother?"

Greed stopped. So did Al, keeping his distance.

Greed turned. "Yeah, I know what they did with your brother."

Al paled. "'Did'? What's that supposed to mean? You mean they already did something to him? Is he OK?"

Greed chuckled in a way that Al didn't like. "Heh heh.. Trust me, kid, he's better than 'OK'."

Then why does the way you say it make me feel like doing just the opposite of trusting you?"

"Because you can't believe anything without your darling brother to tell you it's true."

With a cry, Al lunged at Greed, clasping his hands together and transmuting a curved dagger from the wall. He slashed as hard and fast as he could, but Greed's Ultimate Shield was always faster. Al leaped back, transmuting a sword from the ground. Still again he slashed, backhanded, and swept his blade in circles, trying desperately to find an opening in Greed's defense, or the Ultimate Shield coming up too slowly. Still, Greed's technique was flawless.

Al discarded the sword and went for hand-to-hand combat, his best method of attack. Not even Edward could beat him hand-to-hand. He threw a quick punch at Greed's throat, which Greed blocked with his palm. Al blocked both of Greed's attacks with his forearms, then flipped backwards. Coming in with a series of kicks and hand jabs, Alphonse beat Greed back a little. Calling up the Ultimate Shield on his hands and lower arms, Greed returned with a double-handed chop. Ducking the blow, Al spotted a minute opening. With a triumphant cry, he threw his fist forward towards Greed's throat. Recovering faster than Al expected, Greed caught him in the ribs with a fast punch before Al's blow could land, and swept the winded Al's feet out from under him with a sweep of his leg.

Gasping, Al, still flat on his back, swiftly clapped his hands together and transmuted a dragon-handled spear from the dirt, a trick he had picked up from his brother. Bringing it up to guard his now-vulnerable self, he accidentally slashed the cloth hiding Greed's face. As the cloth fell, Al realized why Greed's voice had been familiar: it had reminded him not of the old Greed, but of Edward.

The cloth fell to reveal the wickedly grinning face of his brother.

Alphonse sat up in bed, covered in sweat. He sat panting for a few minutes before getting out of his sweat-soaked sheets and going over the the mirror. Splashing his face with icy water, he said quietly, "Thank goodness that was a dream. I thought for sure it was real.."

Looking over at the door out into the hallway of the house he shared with his brother, he narrowed his eyes a slight bit. "Maybe I should check, just in case," he mumbled.

Walking out into the hall, he made his way down to the kitchen. Seeing Ed lounging on a chair by the table, he let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding in relief. "Brother," he began, "I had the strangest dream. You see, first you were missing, and then I was chasing this homunculus, Greed, and it turned out to be you."

Ed's blond head turned. A wicked gleam lit in his slit-pupiled eyes as he absentmindedly scratched his head with a tattooed left hand.

"Really?" said Greed with a grin, "What a strange dream."

Al backed up a step. "What? Greed? But I thought- a dream- Brother?" he said before collapsing onto the floor.

Greed stood. "I would say sorry, but I'm really not. Anyways, I didn't mean to, uh, heh, disturb you. It was your brother, you see, he would stop nagging at me until I came by to check on you. He really can be pretty annoying, can't he?" He said the last line more like a statement than a question, before hopping over Al and walking out the door.

The prologue of a FMA fanfic I hope to write. As in, continue. The big problem with my writing is that I am never able to continue. I usually lose interest, procrastinate too much, and end up not knowing how to continue the story.

I REALLY want to continue this.. I really loved this as soon as I came up with it. It actually started out as a dream last night. Yes, this is a bit strange, but I dreamed that I was made into Greed, among other things. It was a great dream, and very weird! My family was kinda like "Oh no, she's Greed now," and stuff. Like they even know who that is in real life.. Anyways, it was a great dream!

If anyone reads this and likes it, please yell at me if I fall behind, and feel free to give me ideas as the story goes along.

Just so you know, if Al acts a little OOC when chasing/fighting Greed, it's cause he's so dang angry. They kidnapped his brother, after all.

Any other questions, please comment! Please leave your reviews!

Story named after the 3 Days Grace song "Gone Forever"