Author's Note: So here is the list of realities: Bleach, Naruto, Avatar, Harry Potter, Inuyasha/Yu Yu Hakusho, our reality (so boring :P), Fullmetal Alchemist. So the next chapter will take a bit longer to get up as now I am writing new material. If you guys have an questions please ask them in the reviews! Don't forget to favorite and follow if you like it! I'll be writing all summer before college starts up again!

Truth talking: "blah"

Kyuubi talking: "blah"

Kyuubi mind-speaking: "blah"

Nick under the influence: "blah"

Nick mind-speaking: "blah"

ooo

Chapter Four: The Beginning

"AHHHHHHHHHH" Nick screamed as he was pulled into The Gate. Images flashed pass him as information was crammed into his mind. Spirits all around him grabbed for a piece of the human, fore they haven't eaten in centuries.

"KYUUBI HELP!" Nick couldn't keep up with the pace of the information, his head was about to explode. Attacks from all sides made it even harder to keep his grip on reality. The speed at which he was pulled along with the information overload, he really thought that he wouldn't make it back to his brothers. The brothers who had taken him in and made him a part of their family. A part of their lives and a piece of their hearts. Nick closed his eyes. Mother…mother who made him her son and took care of him, who made him who he is today. Mother, who died slowly from a disease that none of her sons, could cure. Mother…he loved her so much…

'NO DYING IS NOT AN OPTION; I WILL NOT BE HELPLESS AGAIN!'

Nick's eyes bled red as he roared. The Gate shook with its ferocity. His mind took an animalistic edge as he tore through the spirits attacking him.

As he was pulled along, he could hear the faint laughing of Truth.

A laugh that any mortal or god should fear.

ooo

"Brothers?" Al lifted his new metal arm. Metal arm? He looked down at himself to see why.

"What happened to me? Why am I in an armor suit Ed…ward?"

Al looked at his eldest brother, who was nearly passed out from blood loss.

"Edward your arm…and your leg…what happened? What did we do?!" Al reached for Edward as Edward passed out. Grabbing Edward's shirt, Alphonse quickly tied off the stumps to stop the bleeding. After staunching the blood, Al hoisted Edward onto his shoulder while looking for his youngest brother. 'Come on…come on…I have to hurry! I need to get Ed to granny's house before he bleeds out!'

After a quick sweep of the room, Al saw him also unconscious, but thankfully with no missing limbs. He ran towards Nick to make sure everything was okay.

Al shook Nick trying to see if he was still alive.

"Nick…Nick…please, please wake up!"

As he shook him, suddenly Nick's eyes snapped open.

Nick's red eyes.

"Ahhhhhh!" Alphonse jumped back while making sure Ed was secure as Nick started to scream. He was engulfed in a red shroud. Nicholas began to writhing in pain.

After a few life shortening minutes the screaming soon was cut off; the shroud soon after lifted as well.

Alphonse rushed to his little brother's side just as he saw the now red eyes closing with a heart breaking sigh.

Grabbing Nick as well, Alphonse hurried to granny's house in search of help. 'I have to make it! I won't let them die!'

ooo

"Hurry Winry! Get bandages and pain killers! Ed is going into shock…"

With tears streaming down her face, Winry ran to where the medical supplies were. Getting to the office, Winry pulled out all the drawers in search of the supplies. After scooping up all of the bandages and pain killers, she ran back to the boys and granny.

"Granny, here! These are all we have left…"

Slowly opening his eyes, Nick vaguely looked around. It was like seeing a dream. He couldn't focus and blinked tiredly. He saw Granny and leaning over a body that vaguely looked like Edward on the kitchen table. Granny was shouting out orders to Winry who was running around looking for medicines that. The body on the table was mangled with blood covering the bed and floor. He couldn't quite figure out what was causing the blood loss until Granny moved.

Nick gasped in horror when he saw that his beloved big brother was missing an arm and a leg. Blood covered the table and floor. It was clear that granny was trying to stop the bleeding. Tears welled up in his eyes when he finally noticed another moving figure.

A suit of armor.

A moving, talking suit of armor.

A moving, talking suit of armor that sounded just like Alphonse.

'NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONOTHISCANTBEHAPPENING!'

'It's all my fault…my fault' Tears leaked down his face as his body shuttered with silent sobs.

His hand reached out from where he was laying down towards the blood on the floor. Nicholas struggled to stay awake. 'Brothers…'

Nick's eyes closed against his will.

ooo

Three figures sat on a train together. One was a suit of armor sat across from the two golden haired boys. The boys looked to be the same height, one had golden eyes with a red jacket, black leather pants, and combat boots with white gloves on his hands. The other wore had blackout sunglasses on his face. In addition, he had a black jacket, red leather pants, and combat boots as well. They wore their hair in the same style, a single braid at the base of their necks. The only notable difference between the two was that the boy with the sunglasses had three whisker-looking marks on each cheek.

It had taken a long time to get here. A year of rehabilitation, and countless months researching.

Al looked over at his big brother. "Hey Ed do you think it's true? About what the reports are saying about the priest in Liore?" The hope in Alphonse's voice was painfully clear.

Ed sighed. "I don't know Al. He could just be a fake. You know sleight of hand. Things behind the scenes. If you know how to do it, it quite easy to trick people. Especially civilians that have never seen alchemy in action." Resting his hand on his chin, Ed looked out the window, contemplating the authenticity of the claim in Liore.

"But what if it's real?"Ed and Al glanced over at Nick.

Edward regarded Nick's question seriously. "If it really is the real deal, it could only be the Philosopher's Stone! Then we can restore Alphonse's body and your voice!" Edward said with a determined look in his eye.

Ever since the day they attempted Human Transmutation each of the brothers had paid a price. Edward had lost his leg to the Gate, and to bond Alphonse's soul to the suit of armor he had lost his arm. Alphonse lost his entire body. Nick…well Nick was a bit complicated. Nick had lost his voice. When he had woken up he couldn't speak. It was like his vocal cords were never there in the first place. But the most peculiar thing that changed when he had woken up were his eyes.

Nick's eyes had permanently turned red.

Edward and Alphonse still didn't know why. They had theories, sure. However, there was no concrete proof of what had caused this.

But Nick knew why.

ooo

:Flashback:

Waking up in a bed this time, Nicholas sat up immediately. Looking around, he noticed he was in one of the Rockbell guest rooms. Pushing the covers off the bed he got up and pulled on the change of clothes by the side of the bed. His shirt and pants were crusted with Edward's blood. Throwing his clothes in the trash, he opened the door to the hallway that led to the stairs.

He had to make sure they were okay. His brothers had to be. Running down the stairs, Nick searched the house for Edward and Alphonse. Coming to the kitchen he saw granny. She turned to him after getting the tea of the stove and gave him a deep sigh after seeing the frantic look on his face. Pinako gestured for him to sit down.

"Come on, calm down. Your brothers are as fine as they can be. Sit down and have some tea. You have been unconscious for a few days now and I have some things to discuss with you." She said as she poured two cups of honey tea, his favorite.

Seeing that she was serious, he sat down. Picking up his cup, he sipped the warm sweet liquid. When he tried to talk he couldn't. Trying again, all that came out was a strangled breathy sound. He started to panic. 'Why can't I talk?! Kyuubi what is going on!'

Kit calm down. You knew that there would be a price. This is part of your price. Now shut up and listen to the old hag.

Granny grabbed his arm as he started to hyperventilate.

"Stop. Calm down. Here is a pencil and notebook. I know it is hard to comprehend at the moment but Nicholas, you can no longer speak. Last night you were having nightmares and Winry came in during the middle of one. You were screaming without sound, Nick. So I looked into your throat and your vocal cords are just…gone. It's as if they were never there."

Nick took a deep breath. And then another. After a few minutes he picked up the notebook and pencil. After writing down, he slid it towards her.

'So they both are alive then? All I remember is watching Edward bleed out and a suit of armor speaking with Alphonse's voice…what happened granny?' His eyes pleaded with her to tell him that it was all okay, even though in his heart he knew it wasn't.

She looked at him and then looked down at her tea. "Well Nicholas, Edward lost his right arm and his left leg. Alphonse had managed to stop the bleeding enough to get here for me to help. Alphonse…Al is now only the suit of armor. You will have to ask Ed on the specifics but he said that his soul is now bonded to the armor. Ed is sleeping now in the second guest bedroom next to Winry's room upstairs. He hasn't been conscious very long since I managed to stop the bleeding. Nicholas…what did you three do in that house?!" Pinako looked at him with a hard stare that clearly said no bullshit should come out of his mouth.

Nick rubbed the back of his head in shame. Taking back the note book he struggled through his answer and passed it back to her. 'We tried to bring her back. Mother, I mean. In theory it should have worked, we had all of the calculations right. But we didn't count in the basic principle of alchemy. Equivalent exchange. We didn't realize that nothing we could have offered would have been equivalent to a human soul.' Nick covered his eyes, trying not to cry. 'We didn't mean for this to happen granny. Honest. If we had known the outcome, we wouldn't have stepped near human transmutation. It's just…we just wanted to see her smile again you know? She was our whole world.'

Pinako cleared the ashes of her pipe into an ash tray and refilled it. Looking up at him again, she started to speak and stopped. Taking a hit off of her pipe, she started to speak again. "Nicholas, there is something else. Your eyes. They have turned completely red."

ooo

His eyes. Why? He had already lost his voice; his brothers had already paid a terrible price. Why was this happening too?

Brat I'm sorry. Truth wanted to take the things that mattered to you most. You're lucky he even let you come back at all. You have gone through the Gate not once but twice. You couldn't have expected to come out just fine like before, right?

"I didn't expect this! Why did he have to take my voice and my humanity?! Now I really am a monster!" Staring at the bathroom mirror in horror, Nick reached up to touch his eyes. They were red and the pupil was slit in a vertical line. They truly looked monstrous.

Listen. You haven't completely lost your humanity. It will happen slowly. Your connection with your brothers will help anchor you and slow it down farther.

"How am I supposed to communicate? Notebook and pencils aren't exactly fast communication. What if I need to say something crisis?"

I will boost your mental powers by redirecting my chakra to your brain. In a few weeks you should be able to send your thoughts to other people and if you really needed to, you would be able to go into someone's mind. It might speed up the loss of your humanity but this is a necessary evil. You're just going to have to live with it until you find a solution.

Nick looked over at his brothers across the hallway. Alphonse was leaning against the wall next to Edward's bed. Ed was still unconscious from the blood loss a few days ago. This whole situation is his fault too. If only he had remembered the gate in the first place, he could have prevented this entire nightmare. The knowledge that the dead, stay dead would have prevented this. Staring at his brothers, he felt a deep sense of love and understanding. He wanted to interact with them, talk to them, and be able to express himself to them. They were all he had left in the world. He couldn't lose them too.

Nicholas looked back into the mirror and nodded. "OK do it."

Flashback End

ooo

Thankfully Nick could indeed talk mentally to his brothers. It took eleven days and many migraines, but he succeeded in communicating mentally with his brothers.

When Edward found out he researched it for months when he was in rehab for his arm and leg. He made granny and Winry attach automail ports to his stumps as soon as they were healed. During the forced time on bedrest, Edward had Al and Nick fetch him books on the anatomy of the brain and any kind of alchemy that associated with mind speak. To say the amount of reading material was light was generous. Since Amestris was a military state, the alchemy developed was made to be weaponized. Very little had to do with the medical field, let alone with the brain.

Edward made Nick swear to never talk mentally to anyone other than Edward and Alphonse unless it was an emergency. His skill was a useful one and, in the wrong hands, a dangerous one. Nick readily agreed. He could talk to his brothers and they could talk for him. After that fruitless search, they all worked on honing their hand to hand combat skills along with fine tuning their alchemy.

Edward could never find the cause of the mind speak. He theorized that since the Gate gave Edward and Nicholas the ability to transmute by just clapping their hands, that maybe it was another side effect of going through the Gate. Ed and even Al tried to do it, even though Al didn't remember the gate, but never succeeded. Al thought it was because that they had no need to mind speak like Nick had. Or perhaps it was part of the truth given to him when he went through the gate.

Nick never told his brothers about Kyuubi or the chakra reality he came from. And he also never told Ed and Al what his red eyes meant. His brothers thought it was just a freak reaction to the transmutation, only Nick really knew that it was a side effect of losing himself to Kyuubi. His humanity would slowly drain from him. Kyuubi had said that he had an idea of how long it would take to lose his humanity and how it would present, however there was no guarantee. Nicholas was given anywhere from a year and a half to five years before he would completely lose himself. But every time he used Kyuubi's powers, the time it would take would shorten.

Looking over towards Edward, Nick realized that he had fallen asleep on his hand while he was looking out the window. They have been on the train for a good six hours now. Only a half hour to go, by the estimate given by the train conductor.

Nicholas looked at Alphonse. "Alphonse. Are you guys sure this is a good lead? I mean there have been so many dead ends this past year."

Alphonse looked up at Nick. "Don't worry, little brother. If it is then we just keep looking. We will get our bodies back. It will just take time and man power. That's all." Alphonse said with a smile in his voice. He was the most mature one of them all, being the middle child. Nick beamed a smile back at Al. That's right. It would take time. It wasn't like it would fall into their laps.

As the train began to near the next town, Nick looked out the window excitedly. Finally, a semi-credible lead on the Philosopher's Stone. Something that could potentially help them return what they had lost. And losing.

"Hey Kyuubi, what do you think? Is this real or another fake? I can't really tell from the reports; it could be either one. Can you sense something powerful in that town?"

"I'm not sure if it is the Philosopher's stone, but there is something powerful in that town. Something evil, if I'm sensing it correctly. Be careful brat. And stop waking me up for things you should already know how to do. It's annoying as hell."

Nick smirked to himself. Of course the grumpy old fox would say that. "Getting old Kyuubi?"

"Shut up before I squash you brat. I may be old, but I'll never be old enough to kick your ass in a fight."

"Squash me, huh? Well I guess I won't be visiting you anytime soon." Nick smirked.

Alphonse shook Edward awake as they arrived. He sleepily saw Nick pointing excitedly out the window.

"Brothers were are almost there! Look!" Nicholas said to Ed and Al.

Ed looked at the train station ahead. They would have to walk the rest of the way through the desert. Edward's face pulled into an annoyed frown. He hated traveling in the desert. The desert sun made his automail get so hot that it could potentially melt his skin on his ports.

As the train stopped at the station, Ed, Al, and Nick got off the train and gathered their things. Heading off into the desert towards the town of Liore, Ed contemplated this miracle priest. He really hoped this guy wasn't a fake. They needed a lead on the stone.

'Could it really be there? The key to returning my brothers to their former state? The Philosopher's Stone?'

ooo