Hi!

So I just realised my beta's notes and corrections were still lying around the chapter I posted, so I'm just updating it now ;^^

This story used to be up on FF and AO3 with a slightly different plotline and a majorly different character called Cliona! I took it down after I got really busy, but it's back up again and this time to stay! :3 It's had two names; "Amensiac" and "Agnate" so if it seems familiar, that's probably because you've read my old version.

Enjoy!

A Dash of Dottie

Dorothea "Dottie" Lyons hated her name and anybody who used it. It was an old family name, being passed down through the generations on her mother's side where every so often one unlucky daughter would be blessed with the joy of sounding like a walking teabag commercial for life.

"I'm just saying," Her mother started, "If you really want to change your name, it's best to go down to the Town Hall yourself. None of this online stuff – get it done the proper way."

Dottie nodded absently at the woman that bustled around the kitchen, intent on finding something to stash the leftover potato-bake into before taking off for the night. Her hands finding their way onto her hips as she sighed, openly wondering where the last of her Tupperware had gotten to.

"I think Aunt Mary has one of the red boxes up in her room," Dottie commented, her eyes scanning the form that took up her laptop screen, "It had some leftover pasta in it last I checked."

"Mary," She sighed, "Of course. Leave it to her to never take her dishes down."

The sound of heels dragging themselves up the stairs was how Dottie knew her mother had gone to check. She could hear the floorboards creaking from upstairs and the distinct sound of a victory stomp, followed by a muffled 'ah-ha!.' A high-pitched whistling drew her from her rapid typing and towards the counter where the kettle had steam coming from its mouth.

"I swear," Her mother had come back, "You tell that woman to make herself at home and she really does, so much so that you'd think she'd lived here her whole life!"

"She's still miles better to live with than Todd ever was."

"Todd did his own washing! He even cooked twice a week."

"Yeah but he also threatened to torch the house, so I'm not sure he was the 'perfect' tenant." Dottie used air quotes, watching with amusement as the irritation on the older woman's face came back. Todd had lived in the spare room upstairs before Aunt Mary had asked for a place to stay. He hadn't taken the whole 'move out' thing well, claiming his raging kleptomania wasn't a good enough reason to evict him.

Legally, it was.

"At least he stayed away from my Tupperware." Her mother muttered and sank into one of the kitchen island chairs, claiming the spot where Dottie had been working and lazily pulled the laptop towards her. Her eyes bounced around the screen as she read through what her daughter had left pulled up.

"I still don't understand why you want to change your name."

"My name makes me sound like I should be a teabag," Dottie moaned, "We've been over this."

"A very cute teabag."

"Mum!"

Edward Elric hated sand; it was rough and coarse, and it got everywhere. So, imagine his joy at finding himself in the Liore desert during one of the hottest months of the year. It had only taken ten minutes before his little brother had been claimed by the sand, burying him deeper than Ed would have liked as he had to dig him out by hand.

"I hate the desert," He whined loudly, "There's nothing but sand! At least if there was grass, I could turn it into bread or something!" He lay defeated on the ground for a while, unmoving as he tried to summon up the strength to even get up. Ed frowned at the lack of a response, moving to lean on his arms and legs as he looked around for a certain suit of armour.

"Hey, Al! Where'd you go? Al?"

"Down here!" A metal arm shot through the sand, latching itself onto Ed's shin which made him squeal, "I sunk again."

"Reason number two I hate the desert." He spoke, glaring at where his brother was buried for the second time.

Alphonse was successfully dug out of the sand by his older brother roughly, the activity filled with curses courtesy of Ed. The armour stood upright, glancing down at the State Alchemist who was bent over as he tried to get back his breath.

"I just don't understand how you keep falling in!"

"I get full!"

"Full of what!?" Ed yelled, kicking Al's chest piece which opened to reveal a waterfall of sand that effectively crashed and covered him. Snickers escaped the youngest Elric, sidestepping away from the spluttering Ed that was scraping grains of sand from his tongue. Alphonse couldn't mask his laughter well enough as the eldest Elric sprung up from sand bed and moved to chase him.

"Get back here!"

"What are you gonna do?!"

"Nothing!"

"Then why are you chasing me?!"

"Stop and you'll find out!"

"I promise I won't get buried again!"

"Not unless it's by me!"

Alphonse was about to rush back a reply when he spotted something a few feet away. It was shimmering in the beams of sunlight that were thrown onto the desert plain, glinting an unnatural red. The fragmented light was attached to something that was further buried in the sand, but from what Al could make out it was an arm.

"Brother, look!"

Ed stopped at the tone in his brother's voice, looking over at where the suit of armour was pointing. Raising a hand, he blocked out some of the glare from the sun and spotted the mysterious lump it came from. "So what? Somebody lost some cheap jewellery, it happens all the – Hey!"

The metal suit of armour in question had already started moving towards the light, sinking slightly with every second he stayed too still. Ed watched as his brother went from lightly brushing the sand away from whatever the lump was to vigorously digging it out.

"Brother, it's a person!"

"What!?"

Ed launched himself forwards at that, skidding to a stop next to his brother who had managed to uncover the person's arm and shoulder. There was a bracelet cuff that encircled their wrist, a deep red stone set into the centre of the silver metal.

"At least I was right about it being jewellery," Ed mumbled, fingers digging to try free whatever limb he could from the sand, "Reason number three I hate the desert."

It didn't take long for the two brothers to realise that simply moving the sand wasn't going to work, both groaning in frustration as what they had managed to move off the body started to slide and crash back into place. Grabbing onto the arm that was quickly drowning, Ed pulled in an attempt to get the dead weight to start shifting out of their desert grave. With a final burst of strength, he fell backwards, dragging the body somewhat as its upper body fell onto his legs.

"Brother!"

Opening his eyes that had closed in anticipation for the fall, he ripped off his gloves to start checking for a pulse. Shoving his fingers to their throat, he pocked and prodded as he searched for anything that would say the person was still alive.

"I'm not getting anything, Al!"

"Are they dead!?"

"Well it's not likely that they can survive without a heartbeat!"

Alphonse had already scooped up their maybe-dead passenger before Ed could object, opening up his chest piece to place them inside before they hauled ass to Liore for help.

"Wait Al! Metal heats up in sunlight, you idiot!" The blond didn't need to yell to get across his point, effectively freezing his younger brother's actions, "You'll burn them!"

"Then how are we going to get to Liore!?"

"I'll carry them!" Ed was already unclasping his coat and laying it out on the ground for Al to help wrap them in it. The person was significantly shorter and smaller than either brother had originally thought as they wrestled with the material.

"It's a girl!" Alphonse suddenly yelled, his eyes trained to where most of the dirt had been wiped from her face and onto the coat.

"How the hell did you figure that out!?" Ed glanced down at the girl again, noticing the patches of their face which were now sand-free and distinctly feminine.

There wasn't much said after that as the eldest Elric grabbed the girl's arms and hoisted her up and onto his back, using his coat as a way of tying her limbs together once they were wrapped around his shoulders. Al didn't miss the careful adjustments Ed made so that there was a layer of material between where his hands wrapped around the girl's shins and her bare skin.

Dottie watched as her mother painstakingly drove out of the driveway, making a left as she got to the estate entrance and increased her speed. Apparently, the Town Hall had stopped taking online submissions earlier on that month after a mix-up between a couple asking for permission to bulldoze their house and another couple trying to buy one. It hadn't ended well if the newspapers were anything to go off of.

"I want you to know that even though I don't approve of this, I still want you to be happy," Her mother spoke as she flicked her turning signal on, "Dorothea is such a nice name, but if you dislike it this much then I'll support you."

Dottie grinned at the blonde woman that was currently scanning the road in front of her for wild deer, feeling suddenly like the luckiest daughter in the world. Her mother was always accepting no matter what she told her.

"I know, Mum. It's not that I don't like the name, it's just I don't think it suits me." Dottie lied, knowing fully well her mother already knew the biggest motivation for her to change her name. From the amount of times she had been called into school, it would've been a shock if she hadn't realised at this point.

Sighing at her daughter's decision, the older woman surfed through the radio stations before settling on something generically pop, "So long as you don't do something stupid, like name yourself Abcde."

Dottie laughed openly at that, sliding further down in the passenger seat as a comfortable silence settled between them, the only sound being the song that she could have sworn she had heard already today. The ticking of the indicators was a steady tempo that helped smother the slightly nauseous feeling that had bubbled in her stomach the second her mother had locked the front door behind them. She flicked her eyes up to watch the raindrops that fell fatly on the window screen, smearing the yellow lights of the streetlamps that were beginning to get more and more spaced out with every turn and roundabout they drove through. The car stopped at a red traffic light eventually, disturbing the silent drive enough for conversation to start back up.

"I think I'd make a good Alice," Dottie said finally, "Maybe an even better Charlotte."

Her mother giggled, "For the record, I've always liked the name Sophie."

"I thought your favourite name was Dorothea!"

"What do you care? You're changing it anyway!"

"Yeah, but still! I didn't think my own mum was such an adulterer with names." Dottie grinned at the smile that was spreading across her mother's face. Spotting a half-empty Tic Tac box, she reached into her door's cupholder and fished two dark pink ones out of it and popped it into her mouth.

"C'mon hand it over," Her mother reached across the space between the seats and grabbed the small box, turning it upside down instead to shake out six of the breath mints "The trick is to make sure you let the Tic Tacs know who's really in charge"

The lights turned green, the car already out of gear and into drive. Dottie snorted at her mother, tossing her spare Tic Tac at her and watched as she spared a glance towards her side of the car. Her mother's grin slid off her face as her eyes widened to reflect the headlights that were already too close to the car.

"Dottie!"

Life after death wasn't something that Dottie and her mother spoke about often. It was a topic that always ended with a fight or someone bursting into tears. There weren't many options in reality when she had looked at religion; paradise, reincarnation, or eternal darkness. Dottie hadn't tried to figure out which one was the better option and so coming face to face with a giant door wasn't too much of a stretch for her.

Dottie was dead, and she knew it.

There was a peaceful silence in the expanse of white, unbreakable even from her furiously choked breaths that were either too shallow or too harsh to truly calm herself down. Dottie had tried walking around the giant door at first, convinced the whole thing was a joke; a sick, practical joke her Aunt Mary and Mother had done for hiding Tupperware in her room. The thought died after she realised that no matter what direction she ran from the door, she only seemed to end up running towards it.

The ticking of a clock was felt more than heard, soft with every passing second and slowly helping the girl unfurl herself from the tight ball she had curled up into. It was stuck at 11:11, the exact moment the truck had crashed into her side of the car. She could remember bits of the accident; blood, screaming, and the look on her mother's face before it all happened. Dottie clutched at herself for comfort. She was alone, trapped in whatever purgatory her life deserved.

It just was her, the clock, the door, and the statue now.

"I want to go home," she whispered, jolting herself as her words echoed loudly throughout the expanse of white.

"I wondered when you would speak," A voice behind her chimed in, "You were beginning to bore me."

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the sound of a thousand voices speaking at once, all coming from where she knew the creepy statue had been posed.

"And here I thought you were ignoring me!" Their laughter was worse than she could have imagined, "There's no use staring at the Gate, it isn't going to open unless I tell it to. Now come here."

Dottie could only blink as suddenly her body mobilised itself to stand up and settled itself directly opposite the creature.

"You must have many questions," It crawled on all fours towards her, stopping only when it was an arm-length away from her face, "It's alright. You always do. Ask."

"How – How are you?"

It was a kneejerk reaction. A bubble of panic had risen up her throat and forced the first question that had come into her mind, unfortunately being the standard go-to conversation starter that had been drilled into her by both society and her family.

"How am I?" It repeated her, a smile that could have shattered glass spreading lusciously across their blank face. There was another clashing of screams that meant it was laughing.

Dottie swallowed a lot louder than she had meant to, "I don't… I don't know where I am."

The voices came to a gentle stop, "You're at the Gate; the brink of your subconscious soul."

She nodded stiffly at that, unwilling to argue with the thing which was now moving so it was sitting cross-legged beside the door. It had changed slightly now, morphing from what could have been a Church door to slabs of stone. They were smooth from what she could see and suddenly, she felt compelled to run a hand over them and trace the pattern that was chiselled into the rock surface.

There was a rush of rush of calmness that seemed to lick at her skin as she finally found the courage to meet the creatures gaze. It had no eyes but she somehow knew where it was looking, "Why am I here?"

"Because this is where all dead things go."

Dottie felt her eyes sting at that, "So why are you here? Shouldn't I be by myself for this?"

"That's not a very good question, Dottie."

"Why aren't I alone then?" She bit back, uncomfortable with the teasing tone that had slipped into the conversation. A thrill of fear ran up her spine when the creature disappeared from her sight, and instead stood behind her with a hand curled around her shoulder. Its fingers were longer than she expected.

"Because I'm not done with you."

Dottie felt the atmosphere grow a few degrees colder, goose-bumps beginning to pop up along her arms at the words that had been whispered into her ears, "Who are you?"

She could feel it smile again.

"I am Truth."

Dottie felt like she was floating, her body being jostled up and down occasionally as wind licked at her cheeks. It was hot, she thought as she felt a bead of sweat roll from her temple and disappear into her hairline by her ear Her mouth felt like sandpaper; dry and gritty from what she could only place as sand. There wasn't much else rattling around in her mind besides those discoveries, nothing that jumped out at her and demanded her attention besides the growing need for a glass of cold water and maybe some toothpaste if she was lucky. She could feel something was wrapped around her wrists. The material was soaked with what she hoped was either juice or water and not her sweat like she had a feeling it was.

"I'm serious, Al! What if she doesn't wake up? What if we're just carting around some corpse for all of Liore to see?"

"Then I guess we'll just have to explain that we weren't the ones who killed her."

"Oh yeah that's great," The voice scoffed, "Would that be before or after we're thrown in jail without a trial?"

The voices were familiar, although she couldn't quite place them at the moment. Her eyelids were too heavy to open and check who they were. The numbness that had taken her hostage for the most part had migrated further down slightly, paralysing her toes. Her hands had subconsciously started twisting in their restraints, the material that tied her wrists together coming apart easily thanks to the sweat that had soaked through it. She craned herself into a more comfortable position, moving her arms slightly to help with the pins and needles that were shooting through them.

The feeling of floating stopped, replaced by hushed whispers that she couldn't hear through the ringing in her ears. It felt like somebody had been screaming into them, she thought groggily as something searingly hot touched the side of her neck.

Dottie's eyes popped open with a muted screech of pain, her body kicking into gear as she fell backwards onto the stone street and scampered backwards from whatever had touched her. Clasping a hand to her throat, she winced at the skin as it throbbed against her fingertips. She only noticed the person that had fallen with her when he sat up two feet away from where she was.

"What the hell was that for?" Ed groaned from his spot on the ground with a hand behind his head, rubbing at where he had collided with the ground.

"Brother, she's alive! We won't get arrested!"

The sound of creaking metal drew Dottie's attention from her tender neck, her eyes darting between the brothers. The suit of armour obviously torn between helping her up or the blond boy that had started spitting some rather colourful curses at whatever he could see. She couldn't help the upward twist of her lips when Ed started blaming sand, something about it was like an inside joke.

Al decided to help the girl up first, offering a gloved gauntlet for her to take. She did, balancing herself gracelessly on the cobble street that felt colder than the air did. Frowning, Dottie looked down at her bare feet with disbelief.

Where did my shoes go?

"Hey!" The blond called for her attention, "D'you have any idea how hard it was to lug you out of the desert?!"

Dottie blinked, why was she near the desert?

"How did you even get there? How are you even alive?"

Something white flickered through her mind, attaching itself with a jolt of misdirected fear that seemed to leak into her expression. Ed was watching her now, patiently waiting for her to speak up and answer his questions. He sighed after the stretch of silence had gone on longer than socially acceptable, taking his brother's hand to bring himself to his feet. A sliver of smugness slithered in him as he realised that she was almost the same height as him, if only a centimetre or two taller than him.

He sighed, "Look, we can't help you if you don't talk to us."

Dottie didn't respond, in fact she couldn't. Her hand had gone back up to her throat, squeezing it once in an attempt to reassure herself that it was still there. Her mouth opened and nothing came out. She felt herself choke on the panic that was beginning to pool into her veins. Fingers still wrapped around her neck, she tried again and when nothing happened, she had to force herself not to start crying.

She couldn't speak.

"She's still in shock, brother," Al scolded, "How would you like it if you woke up with a couple of strangers?"

Dottie caught the term of endearment, briefly wondering how two brothers could be so different in personality and height. The shorter of the two was studying her now, taking in the way she seemed to be curling into herself with a hand clutched almost dangerously tight around her throat. Like a lightbulb turning on, his face smoothed out to a look of surprise.

"You can't talk, can you?"

It wasn't really a question and from the way she flinched from it, there wasn't much hope of getting a reply right away. Ed's lips pressed together into a thin line, catching the look his brother was sending him. He was being told to be nice and back away if she didn't want to answer.

"Am I right? Can you not talk?"

Lifting her chin up so her gaze could match his, she made a sharp and jerky nod that seemed to suck away whatever had been colouring the atmosphere around them. Dottie watched the flashes of expressions that Ed filtered through; pity, anger, and regret were the ones she caught before he sighed and pulled on what he hoped was a cheerful grin for her.

"Alright, that makes a bit more sense," He clapped his hands together, "I thought you were ignoring me."

Noticing her look of distress, Al quickly jumped into the conversation, "Don't worry about him. He's just upset about the sand. We're sorry for not realising sooner about your – er – difficulty?"

Dottie smiled weakly at him as her nerves began to settle. He seemed like the kinder brother, she mentally noted to herself. There was an awkward pause between them, each trying to piece together what to say first.

"I'm Ed," The blond motioned to himself, "And this is my younger brother, Al."

Dottie snorted at that, unable to help herself as she started miming what she was thinking; both hands flat out with one higher than the other. It wasn't perfect but it got her point across.

Aren't you a little short to be the 'older' brother?

"You're not exactly tall either!" Ed quipped back, cheeks turning pink from irritation.

I'm still taller than you!

Dottie sat at the outside bar, an Elric on either side as they went between asking her questions to ordering more food. They had bought her a notebook; large enough to write a chunk of her thoughts down, but small enough so her arms didn't go numb from holding it all day. It was bound in a yellowing leather, matching the pages inside.

"So, you really don't know how you got here?" Ed asked, his mouth full of fried eggs and bacon strips. He had gotten her a plate as well after hearing her stomach growl, not even thinking twice about it.

Dottie shook her head and shovelled some food into her mouth. She took the pen that Al held out to her with a grateful smile and started scribbling down what she wanted to say.

'No,' She paused for a moment, 'I don't remember much either.'

Al read what she'd written aloud for his brother who hadn't ceased his merciless attack on his third meal since sitting down, "Well what do you remember?"

Dottie didn't answer, instead deciding to tap the pen on the wooden table to an erratic beat to help piece together what was going on in her head. She had memories; They just slipped through her metaphorical fingers before she could grab onto them. Her basic knowledge was still there but anything personal seemed to be wiped clean from her mind. There wasn't anything she could willingly remember besides the faint sounds of a woman laughing and the sight of a pair of stone doors.

'I remember white.' Dottie finally wrote, feeling slightly snubbed when she realised that the brothers had moved on and were talking with the owner of the bar. She blinkingly owlishly at the man who was switching on the radio and shushing anyone who was talking. The small appliance wasn't much, reflecting dimly whatever the sun decided to throw at it. Her eyebrows scrunched together as a grainy image of it smashed on the ground flashed through her mind's eye. The man shushed her then, frantically twisting the volume dial as the voice on the other end burst through.

I'm pretty sure shushing a mute girl is a hate crime.

"God's children who live upon this land, pray in faith and you shall be saved."

Dottie's eyebrows shot up at that, disturbed from her thoughts by the sudden déjà vu that blew through her head. The phrase had ignited a sense of danger in her, eyes flicking to the Ed who seemed to share the same enthusiasm about the man speaking.

"So, what are you guys, like street performers or somethin'?"

Dottie choked on the bacon that was now half falling from her mouth, caught somewhere between being offended and laughing. She wasn't exactly the most presentable, strutting around with sand acting as a second layer of skin. The lack of shoes was also a problem, she thought, not touching on the fact she couldn't even make out what colour her dress was. Dottie had lifted the edge of the skirt up an inch out of curiosity earlier and had balked at the obvious line that showed just how dirty her legs were.

"Seriously? Do we look like street performers to you?"

"Yeah that's why I asked." The man said, looking the picture of innocence.

Ed put his drink down and jumped down from his seat, earning an amused look from Dottie, "Let's go, Al, Red."

Red?

Dottie looked around for this mysterious person before meeting the expecting gazes of the brothers. She pointed at her chest with a confused expression, wondering why they went with such a strange nickname when they could have asked her name. Her mouth dropped into an 'o' as she realised that they had, and she hadn't answered them.

But why Red?

She never got to write her question down as the sound of something smashing against the floor made her look down, the thought disappearing at the sight of the whatever had fallen. It was beyond repair, she thought, it wouldn't even make good scrap metal with the state it was in. The unmistakeable absence of the preacher's voice was what tipped her off, a blessing in disguise that made her grin.

"Hey, Easy! I didn't mean anything by it!"

A sheepish look crept up Ed's face, "Don't worry, we'll fix it."

"How? It's smashed to hell!"

"Watch and learn, old man."

Dottie reached out to tug at Ed's coat gently enough to be polite, but harsh enough to demand his attention. She had given it back after they decided to go eat lunch together. There had been a flash of light before he had shrugged it back on, the material looking ten times better than it had.

What the hell are you doing?

"Hm?" Ed looked at her, "What? Never seen alchemy before?"

Alchemy!?

Noticing the grip on his coat, Ed pointed at the circle Al had begun drawing on the stone street and said something she didn't quite catch. Dottie watched at the suit of armour placed the broken pieces of the radio into the centre of his pavement art, carefully making sure they hadn't covered any of the intricate lines that were etched in white chalk. Something about the pattern was familiar to her, begging her to get closer.

Al's clapping brought her out of her thoughts as a brilliant pale, blue light burst through the chalk markings, encasing the broken metal pieces that were in the middle. She hadn't even realised the crowd that had been drawn to their strange trio. Dottie blinked and it was all over, and standing in the circle was the same radio that carried the lively preacher's voice.

A hand nudged her side, drawing her attention to Ed who had walked around the crowd to get back to her side, "How was that for your first experience with Alchemy?"

Dottie stared blankly at where broken pieces of metal had been, her mind doing mental loops at what she had just seen.

It was amazing, utterly and completely amazing.

She couldn't help the wide smile that brightened her face as a simmering of excitement began to bubble in her stomach. She nodded vigorously at him, wondering if alchemy was something that they both did or if only Al could. It seemed her mood was contagious as Ed grinned, pleased at her reaction.

"There, see? How's that?" Ed asked the man.

"Incredible! It's a miracle! You've been touched by the Sun God, just like Father Cornello!"

"Touched by who now?"

"It's not a miracle! It's alchemy." Al explained kindly, trying to cover for his brother's obvious deflated attitude.

"Oh, so you two are alchemists. Right, I've heard of them." Someone in the crowd said.

"Then, maybe you've heard of us! We're the Elric Brothers." Ed announced, crossing his arms out of pride.

Dottie winced at the stab of pain that had suddenly shot through her skull, slamming repeatedly somewhere deeper within her mind. A flash of white blinded her momentarily as the crowd started shouting to each other.

"The Elric brothers, you say?"

"Wait, I do know that name!"

"Edward Elric! The Fullmetal Alchemist!"

The throng of people flocked to the wrong brother then, showering him with praise over being the youngest State Alchemist in history. Dottie laughed at the expression on Ed's face, going a shade of red as she tried to muffle herself.

"No! Um, it' not me!" Al's voice cut through the crowd, making them all turned to face the blond.

"What? You mean it's the little guy over there?"

"WHO'S LITTLE!? COME HERE AND SAY THAT TO MY FACE I DARE YA!"