And lookie here, I actually managed to update again, and within a reasonable time for once! Yeah me!

Ed one pouted and crossed his arms in front of his chest, obviously not quite pleased with me, "Yeah, you did something right for once."

"So," I said, "Why aren't you happy?"

"Because you should've been doing it anyway!"

I rolled my eyes and turned to face Ed two, hoping that I could get him to see reason...supposing that there was any reason to see, but only found him making faces in the mirror, but not getting any reflection back in response. "Darn it all, making faces in the mirror isn't fun without a reflection!" He said.

"Well, aren't you at fault for that?" asked Ed one.

"No, you are!" said Ed two.

"Oh no, now don't start that again you two!" I said.

"He started it!" said Ed two.

"No, you did!" said Ed one.

"Whatever, just say the disclaimer."

"Make him do it," said Ed one.

"No, make him do it!" said Ed two.

Irritably, I stood up and marched over to the two idiots. I picked up Ed two by the scruff of the collar, said, "This nonsense has gone far enough!" and then promptly shoved him back into the mirror, locking it properly so that he wouldn't slip out again.

"Oh, that's how he got out the first time," said Ed one.

"Yeah, and if you don't want to meet the same fate as him, I'd suggest you do the disclaimer now," I said.

Ed one gulped and then quickly shouted out, "Melissadoesn'townuswewouldneverletherownusanddon'taskherifsheownsusbecauseshe'llgetscary."

Well, honestly, I wasn't sure that that was quite a proper disclaimer, but I decided it would do, so I patted Ed one's head, getting a growl from him, then I went and retreated to my room, ignoring Ed two's pleas for freedom all along the way.

Ed rubbed his eyes in a semblance of mock fatigue as he closed the book he was reading and hefted up yet another large volume in its place. There had to be a clue as to how to escape this terrible place somehow. Most of the books he had read were just pure junk thus far, or at least, nothing useful in the slightest. They were mainly just a bunch of ancient myths about heroes and gods and warlords...nothing that bore any relevance to the current situation. Perhaps the ancient demons in this place had had nothing better to do than to write down all the myths they had ever heard from any world, seeing as they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. It was as logical an exaplanation as he could come up with.

"...Then one day, the wife of Orpheus, Eurydice, went out walking with some Naiads," Ed read aloud for the children around to be able to hear, "When a serpent suddenly sprung up from the grass and bit her in the ankle. She died shortly afterward." Ed paused a moment. A lot of these myths talked about violent things and death, and he wasn't sure that they were actually suitable for children, even though all these children WERE dead already, but he wasn't sure about how much their psyches could handle.

"Go on, what happens next?" said one little boy. Ed shrugged. He might as well accept that these children just didn't care about such things anymore, and to them, this was just another story.

"Orpheus grieved deeply over the loss of his wife. So much so, that he decided he was going to get her back." Ed closed his eyes and mouthed "Idiot" under his breath, and then opened them again to continue reading. "He was well known in the land for his spectacular ability to play the lyre, and so, with lyre in hand, he descended to the underworld to plead with Hades to return to him his wife...Heh, sounds kind of like going to the Gate..."

"Come on, keep reading!" shouted another child nearby. They obviously didn't like his little interruptions and wanted to find out what happened. Ed rolled his eyes and continued.

"Now Hades, the god of the underworld, was reluctant to give up anyone that happened to come under his domain, but Orpheus simply whipped out his magic lyre and began to perform a song for the god. Hades was touched, and agreed to allow Orpheus to have his wife back on one condition." Ed paused for emphasis, which just got the children shouting at him further to continue. He chuckled and then did so. "Orpheus would be permitted to leave with his wife only if he would leave the underworld, and not turn around to look until he had returned to his own house."

"Did he make it?" asked an impatient child.

"Well, let's see," said Edward, patiently answering each interruption without spending too much time on any one of them. "So Orpheus began the journey out of the underworld in high spirits that he was to be given his wife back, but he soon began to worry. Was Hades telling him the truth? Was his wife really following him? He tried so hard not to think of such things, but the worry bothered him still. Finally, in desperation, he turned around and looked."

A child gasped. "And then what happened?"

"And then," said Edward, "He beheld his wife once again, faithfully following behind him, but only for a brief moment, as his act of turning around had violated the agreement, and so as soon as he had seen her, she suddenly vanished from his sight, never to be seen again."

"Then what else happened?" asked a frantic child.

"Nothing," said Edward, "That's the end of the story."

"That's the end?"

"Yep."

"But I don't like it!"

"I'm sorry," said Edward, "Why don't you make up the ending you would like and tell it to the rest of us?"

"Okay!" said the little girl eagerly, who then hopped up beside Edward, which she seemed to consider to be the speaker's spot, since everyone was looking at Edward, after all, and then she began her retelling of the last part of the story. "After Orphy talked to the god guy, he left and started going back to his house. He wanted to turn around and see if his wife was there, but he didn't, because he wanted her back. Then, when he finally got back to his house, he turned around and saw his wife, and she didn't disappear, and then they lived happily ever after."

Edward smiled and chuckled. "Did you read a lot of fairy tales when you were alive?"

"No, but my mommy told me a lot of them."

Edward nodded and smiled again. "I'd guessed as much." He slammed the book shut. "Just another dead end, I guess. Someone get me another book."

"Wait," said the little boy that had kicked his shin and had the tendency to always speak his mind, "What if that one's true?"

Edward looked up from his reading to view the little boy. "What if it's true? It's a myth, kid. Myths aren't true."

"Some are," said the little boy.

Well, Ed couldn't deny that. The kid was pretty smart, he had to give him credit. "Okay," he sighed, "Let's suppose this one is true. Why does it matter?"

"Because..." the little boy said like he was explaining a very basic concept to a stubborn first grader, "They got out of Hell...well...almost."

Ed smiled again at the boy and then leaned against the book stand so that he was paying more attention to what the little boy was saying. "I suppose that's true," he said, "But if this myth were real, then there would be a passage to go out of, and I haven't seen any here. No one has ever gotten out of here before."

"Orpheus has!" said the little boy. Ed rolled his eyes.

"We don't even know if he even existed."

"But he might have!"

Ed rubbed his forehead in slight agitation. "Yeah, yeah, he might have, but we don't have any clues to tell us whether that is true or not, do we?"

Silence followed for a few moments, and then that little boy suddenly spoke up again. "I'm gonna go look for a secret passage!" Without giving anyone time to react, he bolted from the room and was gone. After everyone had adjusted to his spontaneous decision, other children began following his example and leaving to seek out secret passages. Before long, barely anyone was left in the chamber.

"Mr. Demon, sir?" said a little girl that was still standing near him.

Edward looked down at her gently and said, "Call me Edward, please."

"Edward..." the girl began again, trying out the new name on her tongue, "Do you think there really is a secret passage out of here?"

The demon shrugged. "I really don't know, but seeing as everyone else is looking for one, and we really don't have a better clue, what say we join the rest in the search?"

"Okay," she said, and without another word, Edward reached down and hoisted the girl up onto his shoulders and sauntered out of the room.

---

"I'm really worried about Al," Winry confessed to what remained of the group she had come with to the demon home world, "He's not acting right. He's not acting quite like the Al I know."

Hughes leaned his back against a nearby tree and crossed his legs into a comfortable standing position, and then brought his hand up to his face to stroke his chin while thinking. "Have you ever seen him get a temper like that? I mean, with him swearing and everything?"

Winry shook her head. "I've seen his temper flare before, and pretty badly too, I might add," she blinked a couple times as tears pricked at her eyes, "But him swearing in anger? Never! The only times I've ever heard him utter a curse word before is if he's either quoting someone or if Ed somehow tricks Al into cussing."

"So this is VERY unusual behavior for him," said Hughes.

"Extremely," said Winry, "That's why I'm so concerned...I understand him being upset about Ed being gone...I am too, but we both know that he's not dead. I don't see what made him go...to that extent."

Hughes straightened up and stood in place for a moment looking at Winry, and then proceeded to pace back and forth for a few steps, muttering, "I don't like this, there's something wrong with this," without bothering to explain what it was that was on his mind.

Winry nervously shifted from one foot to the other, impatiently waiting for someone to do something, anything. When no one budged in that direction, she finally exclaimed, "Well, can't we do anything?" Everyone simply responded by standing in place and staring at her in silence. Okay, that meant they were clueless, right? Positively clueless, just as much as she. It turned out that she didn't have to wait long for something to happen though, because right at that moment, Al came strolling up, head hanging down so that one couldn't see his face.

"Al!" Winry said, turning around to face him and then running up to him, "You had us so worried!"

"Back off!" Al shouted and drew out his hand toward her, a sword magically materializing in his grip. Winry stopped and stared in complete shock just a couple inches from the sword's tip. Any closer and she would have been stabbed. What had gotten into Al?

"Al, what's the matter?" asked Winry.

The boy raised his head and looked into Winry's eyes, the sight of which made Winry gasp and jump back in fright. That was not the face that she had expected to see on sweet, innocent little Al. In its place was a face filled with hate and anger, and worse than that, his eyes had turned to a shade of bright glowing red.

"Mr. Hughes," said Winry, "I think something's going on here."

"I think," said Hughes, "That you're absolutely right."

Okay, feel free to leave me some reviews if you'd like, and I'll try to update soon.

Ed two: Help meeeeeee!!!

Ed one: Nya nya! ((points and laughs))

Me: ((shakes head)) Idiots.