Prologue

He had left himself, but he wasn't really gone.

He was everywhere.

He was nowhere.

He was everything and nothing and light and shadow rolled up into one, falling, howling mess of confusion and pain. He heard foreign languages loud as the sea crash against his brain. He saw images of smiling people and dead people and angry people.

He saw and heard everything. He looked into the end of forever and behind forever and before forever.

It tore him to shreds and reconstructed him in the blink of an eye.

No pain matched this. No pleasure matched it.

It was like having the whole of existence perched in the cusp of your hands while slowly tipping over the edge, the information gushing out into the galaxies like lightning and tearing knowledge from your brain.

Nothing and something and everything not at all.

And then he hit the ground with a sickening thud and a yelp.

"Central Command. This is Colonel Mustang speaking."

"Yeah, no shit, Colonel. I didn't call your office to speak to Black Hayate."

The Colonel rolled his eyes and swept the office with a trained eye to see if his underlings were slacking off. He surprised himself by what he saw. He was all by his lonesome, save Hawkeye, as she packed her things neatly and gave a little salute before shutting the door quietly. He had a ton of things to do that he would shove off on other people later, and that wasn't a good excuse to be staying at work late.

Something heavy weighed down on his mind as he zoned out into Mustang-land. The new chimera they'd found, 00Z, was a troubling (and intriguing) case indeed. He needed Fullmetal's help above anyone else's, but pride stood before him as a roadblock.

Make him come to you, it said, a smile creeping on its stubborn face. The Flame Colonel doesn't ask for things. He gets them.

"…and that's why I didn't have my report in on time." Fullmetal finished, sounding satisfied with himself. "That's a plausible excuse, right bastard?"

"Colonel?"

"Are you even listening to me!" He huffed irritably, exhaling sharply into the phone. "The one time I have a cover story and you don't even bother to listen-"

The colonel shook himself from his thoughts. "I'm sorry, Elric, it's just-"

"Colonel!" Hawkeye shouted, busting open the door to the calm office. "You have to come quick, sir. It's 00Z. He...it changed. It's trying to speak."

"Damn it," Mustang growled, snatching his blue jacket from the floor beside his desk. "How long ago was it? Is the boy okay? I need details, Lieutenant!'

"Colonel?" asked Ed through the phone, his confusion and worry growing with each passing second. "What the hell-"

"Infirmary. Meet me there in 10, Fullmetal. That's an order."

"Wha..bu-"

Mustang slammed down the phone, almost running out into the hallway with Hawkeye. "Is he dangerous?"

Hawkeye's frown deepened, creasing her face like a dusty book folded the wrong way. "No, sir, and that's the problem."

"I beg your pardon?"

"It just keeps saying the same word over and over- Hyrule." She paused for a moment, the worry and exasperation seeping into the very pores of her tired face. "We...just don't know what to do. He's barely older than Ed, if that, and he won't open his eyes and he cowers when we come near and they want to test on him but he's a freaking human-"

And from down the hallway, a youthful scream of pain rang out, draining all the color from the Colonel's face.

Unfamiliar sounds and faces blended into the backdrop of swirly white pain and emptiness.

"Zelda?" He called weakly, struggling to sit up in the uncomfortable metal bed. "..Midna?" They never answered.

But he had to call for something.

"Halten sie immer noch da, junge," said a smooth voice with soft, creamy skin, pushing his chest gently back into the bed. The sharp vowels spoken in such a rolling tongue abused his ears, making him cower in even further to his shell of terror. More shouting in the weird, harsh language by the man with creamy skin invaded his space as he curled up tighter and tried to stop the quivering. He could hear the slight melodic tune his hand gave as it began to glow blue.

Hold on to it, Link tried to reassure himself, gasping for air from the effort. Don't change, don't-

"Er kann nicht atmen!" The people around him shouted, running for various people and into different places.

"Er wird sich ändern." Said the gentle man calmly. "Let him change. We need to see this."

Don't open your eyes, he lectured himself. Don't see the blinding whiteness. Stay in the dark-

A hard touch on the shoulder startled Link into throwing his eyes open and yelping. The man-no, a boy- next to him pierced him with analytical golden eyes and a rock-hard facial expression.

"What…are you?" Fullmetal whispered.

And then the world died again. Colors faded into shades of dark whites and light blacks. Thoughts died and sprang forth seeds of pain, of confusion, of homesickness, of sorrow. His limbs broke themselves and reassembled into the body of a monster, a beast with the blue earring, a quivering body lying in a hospital gurney.

Howling.

When a minute ago he was human.

The same hard, demanding touch pressed into his snout, forcing Link to open his eyes again. The golden eyes floated in front of his face, speaking tales of wonderment and bafflement. Pain streaked, blue eyes met tender gold ones and Link let out a tiny whimper.

"Well," Fullmetal whispered to Mustang, not taking his eyes from the blue eyed-beast.

"I think we've found the little lone wolf."

TBC

*The parts in a different language are Amestrian (German).

1st sentence- "Not so fast, kid." Mustang is trying to get Link to settle down and not struggle.

2nd sentence- "He can't breathe!" In reaction to Link's gasping as he tried to keep himself human.

3rd sentence- "Let him transform." Mustang, eager to see this 'chimera.'

To Naruhina7799 for being a wonderful reader and getting me back into my Zelda mindset. :D

~I'll write the next chapter soon. I hope. :S~