Half Pain

By Autumn Ivy

Disclaimer - I do not own any of the worlds that I am using in this story sadly.

Note – This story takes place at the end of the series Fullmetal Alchemist and at the beginning of Book 6 of Harry Potter. There are some changes to the basic plotline of Harry Potter, but I am sure that the changes are all within a boundary that everyone can handle. Note that I have a twisted sense of humor.

Chapter one - Finished

It was all finished; he had finally accomplished what he had set out to do, or at least part of it. In his ideal version, after he got Al's body back and he would have gotten his arm and leg back. Then they would proceed to live (slightly) peaceful lives, without Coronal Bastard Face taunting him endlessly about his height. They would never have to see Mustang again and he would never have to put up with that bastard calling him short ever again. Things would be as they were… peaceful and happy.

This was not meant to be.

Everything had a price, and the price for Al's body, for messing with the gate again, was getting stuck at the other side of the gate. Again. The place where alchemy did not exist, the place where both science and technology were extremely advanced. Where his father Hohenheim was living out the rest of his life. If he saw that guy ever again, he was going to force him to tell how he could get back to Al. Then, he would beat the living shit out of him. The least Hohenheim could do for him was help him return home to Alphonse. He would have to know a way, he was Hohenheim, was the man who created the psycho-homunculus Envy. Of course it was not a guaranteed thing that Al had been restored to his body. He could have just made things worse by trying to set things right. What a surprise that would be. After all of this, everything he tried to fix seemed to explode in front of his face.

He landed on the ground with a soft thump. The air around him was cool, and had a slight breeze to it; he didn't bother to move. Unlike the last time he had come through the gate, this time, he hadn't inhabited the body of his alter. He was in his original body on the other side of the gate. Will my automail work here? He thought to himself. Only one way to find out, he opened his eyes and took in the surroundings. There was a whole bunch of people dressed in odd black hoods and capes decorated with skulls. Great, I landed in the middle of a freak show. Adjusting himself so that he was in a kneeling position, he reached his hands towards to sky, towards the pale moon that reflected the light of the sun.

His automail worked.

A smile found its way across his face, this would make things a much easier; and with that, he got to his feet and looked around. He was in a graveyard; fitting he supposed. The gate had a sense of humor, is this that things way of telling me that my brother is dead… no he can't be, I followed the law of equivalent exchange, it had to have worked…we had the Philosophers Stone… after all that we have been through, don't I deserve...

"What have we got here?"

Ed turned around quickly and saw a large bunch of people dressed in black capes and weird hats with skulls as decoration. "What in the world…" this was one of the weirdest things that he had ever seen in his life; an army of people dressed in black capes, witches hats and skull masks. This ranked right up with him and Al; he supposed that from other peoples perspectives, him, and Al looked like a pretty odd pair. Of course, a seven-foot suit of armor walking around anywhere could be considered weird, especially when a person finds out that the armor didn't have anything inside of it. But this, all the people in the black capes and odd hats, just standing there as if waiting for orders. The person that they seemed to be taking orders from looked like he had somehow fused himself with a snake.

So, there is a possibility that you can use alchemy here. But that wouldn't make sense…

Like the others, he wore black, but not a cape. Instead he wore long billowing robes that seemed to have a life of their own. Like there is much of a difference between a robe and a cape, he scoffed. The unusual thing about this is the people seemed to be following the snake – human chimera; definitely odd, considering that the chimeras in his world were looked down upon and feared by the general population that even knew about them. Beside the snake-human-chimera stood a sniveling man that looked as if he like the Gate had somehow messed up and made this man a human instead of a rat. His eyes were nervously darting around.

Hanging around here was not the thing that Ed wanted to do; he had to go and find Hohenheim and get him to tell him how to get back home to Alphonse. There was no way that Ed was going to believe that Hohenheim didn't know a way for him to go back home, no way. Now to get out of this rather awkward situation, "Sorry that I interrupted whatever you were doing here," as an add on he muttered, "have fun wearing the hats." The words had sounded better when he was thinking them admittedly, but they seemed to have done the trick. No one was moving an inch, no one was saying anything. This meant he could go on his way.

It was when he turned his back that something hit him. For some reason he couldn't move his human limbs at all. His automail limbs though, seemed to be unaffected by whatever had hit him. What good could one arm and a leg do him in a situation like this though? Running and other such activities that helped in getting him as far away from a situation like this required that the body be able to move.

"Oh but why leave so soon, you have the honor of being tonight's entertainment. Since you just popped in on us like that. You're so small after all; you probably wouldn't last to long."

Fury clouded Ed senses. He wanted to kill this guy, tear him apart, and transmute his head into a fish. The guy was weird looking already, a fish for a head wouldn't hurt his appearance that much in all consideration. He was NOT SHORT!!!!!!!!!!!!! No matter how much he tried, he could not move. When he could move, he was going to beat this guy into a bloody pulp. No one called him short and got away with it!!!!

One of the people in the black cloaks and weird hats separated from the crowd and walked towards the snake chimera. The snake chimera turned, "perhaps, Master, this boy has been sent to help us with our cause."

"You could be right," the snake chimera turned around and pointed a stick at him. A slight short out of the stick and a tingling sensation was sent through his body. For some reason he could move again. Now he was going to show that thing who was the short person here!!

"Little boy, I will give you one chance to join our noble cause!"

The word join cleared his senses; join… become someone else's dog again. Join… having to bow down and take orders from someone else, and kill people for a cause that you do not understand. Having your freedom taken away from you at less than a moments notice. Having to leave your friends and family behind for seemingly no reason at all.

"OK… so I pop out of nowhere into some weird meeting with people in skull masks and cloaks and I get an invitation to join the club. What the fuck?"
"It is a noble cause boy."

"Noble or not, I am not that much of a team player. Noble causes tend to scare me."

"We are going to rid of the world of all that is wrong with it."
"I am sure that there are many things that are wrong with the world, but I don't think that it is my place to determine what stays and what goes."

"So you are refusing Lord Voldemort's kind invitation to join his army of Death Eaters? You could be my most trusted servant."

"I work alone. I'm not about to become one of your mindless toadies!"

"I can give you whatever you want little boy."

Whatever he wanted. What he wanted was to go home and see Al there again, for everything to be as it was before they had tried to transmute their mother. Save the psycho-teacher… But his brother may not even be alive, he might have failed at the transmutation, he might not have been enough to bring his brother back… if only he had the Philosophers Stone. Then he could go back and find out… then he would be able to bring his brother back… then his dream would be fulfilled. He and his brother could be happy again.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT YOU SHORTIE!! I KNOW AT LEAST FIVE OTHER PEOPLE THAT ARE TALLER AND BETTER LOOKING THAN YOU!!! Not that I am saying that I am short."

He ran straight at the snake like creature and tried to punch him the face. The chimera seemed shocked for a moment that someone would have the guts to do that to him. He pointed a stick at him and muttered "Avada Kedevra." The green light hit his right arm, and so therefore he was unaffected by whatever the green light had been. However, the force threw him back onto the grass. Before he had a chance to transmute his arm into a blade, the chimera pointed the stick thing at him and muttered "Petrificus Totalus." This time, the light did not his either his right arm or his leg, making it so he could not move again.

Anger filled his entire being. That was a cheap shot, pointing some stick at me and making it so I can't move… just like that bastard Mustang…I bet he does that because he couldn't handle a punch in the face.

"I guess that means that you would rather take the torture than join me. Oh well, your mistake." He said in a voice that was one-step a way from a laugh and an inch away from being sing-song. "Oh Bella..."

One of the cloaked figures stepped forward; somehow, Ed knew that she was smiling, even though he could not see her face. "I am honored my Lord," she said as she bowed deeply and raised a long wooden stick and pointed it at his head.

This was one of those moments that he had to buy some more time. He had to think of someway to get out of this … whatever they put on him so he couldn't move anymore. This had to be alchemy, a really weird form of it to be sure, but it had to be. Only their form of alchemy defied the law of equivalent exchange... or did it? In order to do whatever they were doing, they had to have those sticks. If they didn't have them, then they were helpless. Weird.

The woman removed her hat to show her face (yup… she is planning on killing him for sure) she laughed out an incantation. Sparks shot out of the end of the stick and suddenly, he was able to move again. Weird… That was it, he would give them his version of weird, "That is one of the weirder weapons that has been pointed at me."

"Oh really?" The woman said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Yeah, I've had shovels, swords, fists, spears, guns, stones, mobs chasing me, and a hand… arm, but never a stick pointed at me. Now that I think about it, doesn't seem all that terrifying… compared to that guys arm."

"An arm?"
"Yeh, it was a really muscular one," he said thinking of Scar. It wasn't just the hand that freaked him out a about Scar, the guy was quite literally a mountain of muscle and a religious freak (admittedly he had his reasons considering the environment that he grew up in, but his total fanaticism in his beliefs was disturbing and tended to get on Ed's nerves). The woman just stood there, as if expecting him to come out with more information on why this arm had been so scary. He could tell her that Scar had a transmutation circle on his arm that allowed him to destroy just about anything that he touched but…

"I am sure. No matter, the stronger you are the better! It just means that I get to have more fun tonight! Scream, Scream!" She wasted no more time with the talking. She muttered some word and a blast of light was sent out of the stick. Ed quickly dodged the beam of light. She paused for a second, as if planning on what to do next, then the blasts of light started to come at him faster.

Last time he had gone through the gate, he had not been able to use alchemy at all, he wondered if it would be different here; but for some reason, his internal logic said that he shouldn't try to perform any alchemy here. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the snake chimera point his stick at him; artfully he dodged it, only to be hit by one of the blasts that the girl was sending out. He fell over onto the ground, unable to move; his body writhed in pain, it was slightly similar to the pain that he had felt so many times before, when he had gotten his automail reattached. Only it came in short blasts instead of a long continuous process that was "highly advanced."

He didn't scream. He had to be strong, for Al, for himself. "Is this all you got? I've felt more pain than this before!"

The look in the woman's eyes turned to an even more dangerous shade of wildness than they had before, she screamed out "Crucio!" countless times, in a futile effort to make Ed scream. He didn't. He could hear everyone laughing and calling him short… one day they would all pay for that; he would transmute all there heads into blowfish… into raccoons… into melons… into whatever the fuck he felt like at the time.

Needless to say - the annoying pains that his being was experiencing reminded him vaguely of automail surgery. He had been in way more pain in his life… like when he had gotten his arm and leg taken from him. It had been his leg first; getting all that information crammed into his brain from the trip through the gate. Yeh… produced something akin of a migraine. Then the leg… that had been painful.

But he had gone on.

He had lost his brother. So, despite the fact that he was very rapidly loosing blood because of his leg, he had still been able to transmute his brother soul to a suit of armor. Successfully transmute his brother into a suit of armor. That was no small feat. It had come at a cost though. His arm.

Still, he had gone on.

He had been able to explain to his brother (after his brother had come to) about what he had done to him. Then, explain about what happened to their mother. While bleeding profusely from his arm and his leg, (ah, happy memories of childhood). Al had carried him to Winry's house. But, it hadn't ended there. He hadn't conked out and let Winry and Pinako take of him and feed him chicken soup. No. He had stayed awake long enough to hear them talking with Roy Mustang.

Then he had conked out.

The next day, much to the surprise of everyone, he had decided to get automail. The surgery had been a bitch. It had gone on for most of the day and the rehabilitation process was about the most annoying (not to mention painful) thing had gone through in his life. After a year of hard work, he had come out of it, able to use his automail. There had been some little kinks with the automail, like always wearing long pants, long sleeved shirts, and gloves on hot days in order to prevent himself from getting burned from the sun.

People wondered why he hated deserts.

So, in view of all of this, he really couldn't call what was happening now especially painful. Compared to everything else that had happened to him.

"He shouldn't be sane by now my dear Bella"

"I guess, but it was hardly any fun… he didn't scream… like the Longbottoms did." She said in a pouty voice, complete with weirdly cute eyes. "Now those two people were so much fun to torture, I can still hear their screams when I close my eyes." Creepy. Ed's mind began to draw some other, fairly disturbing, images of what else might go on in Bella's mind.

Yup. She is a sadist if he ever saw one. Kind of reminded him of… nah. What disturbed him most about the woman was the way that she talked of how much she missed torturing those people. the tone in her voice… almost like she was dreaming of her last great lay… People called him a freak for wearing a coat and gloves in the desert… they should open their eyes and meet this woman. She was a true freak if he ever saw one.

"Bella, Bella… my most faithful servant. Let us leave."

"Of course my lord."

Then, they just disappeared. He got up, shakily, and looked around with bleary eyes. The moon was still full and bright in the sky; the silence around him brought some comfort, needed peace of mind. Where would he go now? He had no home, no family, no money, no… nothing. All he had were the goals that he had set for himself – that he would never give up and that he would make things right again. The only thing left for him to do was to find a way to get home, but how could he do that? He didn't even know if he could use alchemy in this world or not.

He probably could.

"No time like the present," he said. He was going to transmute his cloths so they looked like they were… well in better condition than they were at the moment. Then, he could make out the figure of a man with an out of place eye, and a woman with VERY pink hair. I guess I will wait until later to find out whether or not I can use my alchemy here… I just don't think I want anyone to know that I have skills in alchemy… I don't want to become someone else's dog.