Okay, so I have some definite apologizing to do. I know, I know, I haven't updated this story in over a year. To be honest, it was writer's block on ALL of my stories, not just this one. I recently started rewatching FMAB, and well, it made me remember this story, and I made myself complete this chapter. If anybody is still with me, I love you for reading, and I am so terribly sorry for this taking such a long time. I'm an idiot, I know. So, here's a summary for everyone...

An explosion "kills" Edward while he was on his way to check up on Winry. Everybody thinks that he's dead except for the homunculi, since they are the ones who arranged the explosion. Ed gets amnesia and believes everything Envy tells him, so he thinks Roy is the one who set the bomb for him. At the funeral, Winry is depressed and gets angry at Al for going back to the military. She decides she wants to learn alchemy to become a State Alchemist to fight for better lives for other people since she feels like happiness is lost in her own life.

*I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.*

The Explosion

Chapter 5

Once Al and Winry returned to Central a week after the funeral, things were a bit chaotic. Winry told him she was actually boarding a train to Dublith to meet Izumi Curtis. When Al heard this, it would be an understatement to say he was surprised. He didn't expect Winry to go to his old teacher for alchemy lessons. After he said goodbye to her, he had the urge to speak with Mustang about the issue with the homunculi before he set out to find a way to restore his body.

After he got out of the train station, he ran into Colonel Mustang. "Alphonse, I need to talk to you."

"Can I ask what this is about?" Al asked, slightly nervous.

"I should have elaborated. I need to speak to you in private."

Al nodded and followed Mustang to the car Lieutenant Hawkeye was driving. "Hello, Alphonse," she greeted. "Get in."

He obliged, and Mustang got in the seat next to Hawkeye. "Alphonse, I've spoken with Fuhrer Bradley. Your orders are to take Ed's watch and claim the title 'Fullmetal Alchemist.' If you don't… he said you'd regret it later."

Al gasped. Take over his own brother's title as a State Alchemist? "Do you know why?" he asked.

"I believe he said it was to keep you close."

"I'll do it. First things first… I need to know why Scar and the girl's alchemy worked when ours didn't."

"Any idea how to find her?" Mustang replied.

"She has a black and white cat with her," Al suggested. "I hope I can find her. I need to get my body back…" Al trailed off. He felt like it was selfish. His goal had always been to restore brother's arm and leg. Edward's goal had always been to get Al's body back. Now, it didn't feel balanced. He felt as if it was wrong to continue the search.

"I heard rumors of a Xingese girl travelling north," Riza said. "I believe Bradley mentioned it. Apparently, she's been travelling with Scar."

Al looked down. He still couldn't believe Scar was the one who killed Winry's parents. "Do you know why they are travelling north?"

"We don't know."

"What happened while I was still in Resembool?" Al asked.

"For one, I was reassigned to work as the Fuhrer's personal assistant, and everyone else was transferred," Hawkeye responded, looking at him through the rearview mirror.

"I'm sorry that happened," Al said, looking out the window.

"It's nothing we can't handle," Mustang said. "Anyway, try going north. Perhaps you should have a talk with Armstrong. His sister is the general posted in Briggs."

"Thank you, sir. So… when do I get brother's watch?"

The car stopped. They were in the middle of nowhere, practically. He saw Hawkeye and Mustang get out, so he did, too.

"Here," Mustang said as he dropped the silver pocket watch into Al's leather hands.

"Good luck, Alphonse. We'll handle the homunculi from now on."

A noise caught Hawkeye's attention. She held a finger to her mouth before putting her hand on her gun. She quietly pulled it out and glanced to the alley. It was insanely dark, and she couldn't see anything. Silently, she moved to the side of the alleyway. Using standard procedure, she pivoted and walked on with her gun ready.

Both Al and Mustang heard her struggling and ran quickly to the alley. How was she taken down so quickly? Mustang adjusted his glove as he pressed his back to the building. He looked to Al as if to give a silent command.

They both turned down the alley. "Who's there?" Mustang yelled.

In the shadows, they couldn't see much. They saw a figure of a person clap and touch the walls. Mustang would have been hit by an alchemic spike had it not been for Al. "Who are you?" he yelled.

The figure ran forward. Mustang snapped his fingers and for a moment as the flames spread, he saw the face of Edward Elric.

"BASTARD!" the person yelled.

"Edward?" Mustang asked.

The flames diminished. "Cut the crap!" It was Ed's voice.

"Brother?" Al asked. He froze as the flame went right by his brother's face. "Wh-what?"

Mustang felt incapacitated. He wasn't sure what to make of this person. He must have been seeing things. An automail hand grabbed Mustang's and broke it. Mustang realized it really was Edward's face. The only difference was that he had black hair.

"Brother! You're okay!" Al shouted, looking at him like he dropped from the sky.

"I'm not your damned brother!" Ed yelled while he kicked Mustang in the stomach. Mustang still stared at Ed in shock as he crumbled to the ground, unable to move or do anything.

Ed turned around and kicked Al. "Brother, why are you fighting me?"

"Shut your mouth, you bastard!" Ed clapped and touched Al's right arm. The armor exploded. "Damn… Envy should have warned me you were nothing but a suit of armor…"

"Envy?"

Al was in too much shock to fight back. Ed made his way closer to Al. "I don't know how to destroy you, but you got to have a weak spot…"

Al barely moved out of the way as Ed almost touched his side. "Brother, it's me, Al!"

"I don't have a brother!" Ed ducked a punch Al threw.

"What happened to you?" Al asked, taking in his appearance. If anything, he looked taller. His hair was a bit shorter than he remembered. His hair was now black. His features were harsher. His arm was a different type of automail. He didn't even dress the same.

"What's it to you?" Ed asked. "Look, I'll make a deal with you. I don't have orders to kill you, Alphonse Elric. I only have orders to capture that pathetic ass over there," Ed said, pointing to Mustang, who looked more shocked than Al.

"Brother, it's me, Al. Why don't you remember me?"

"Shut the hell up and quit wasting my time. Do I need to kill you just to get you to shut up?" he yelled, running towards him. The weird Edward clapped his hands and touched him. The lower half of Al's body exploded, leaving him incapable of walking.

"Why did you do this to me, brother?" Al asked.

Somehow, this caused Mustang to snap out of his daze. "What the hell happened to you, Fullmetal? I get that you're pissed, but what did your brother do to deserve that? How did you even do that, anyway?" The colonel's eyes widened when he realized that Edward was using alchemy like Scar.

"What do you think, bastard? The homunculi wouldn't have sent me here without some proper training," Ed replied, wiping a bit of blood from his cheek.

"What are you doing with the homunculi?"

"Why the hell did you set that bomb that nearly killed me, huh? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?" Ed ran to him and punched his face. Roy retaliated by snapping his fingers and sending the air towards the leg that he thought would be automail.

Ed crumbled to the ground. "DAMN YOU MUSTANG!"

"Ed?" he asked, staring at the burning flesh. "What happened to your leg? What about your arm?"

The man seemed caring. How was Ed supposed to keep hating him? It was frustrating. Apparently, this guy tried to kill him and now was being nice. Envy warned him he would mess with his head. He needed to think clearly. As Mustang bent down to examine his leg, Ed clapped and changed his arm automail to a weapon. Ed sliced his shoulder so deep, he could feel his arm hit bone. "Got you, old man."

"Edward," Mustang said, spitting up blood. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mustang crumbled to the ground next to Ed.

"Mustang!" the suit of armor yelled. "Ed, what are you doing? Did you kill him?" Ed sat up and touched his leg. The burns healed before Al's eyes, and he saw, on Ed's finger, a blood red stone. "You are using a Philosopher's stone! Why? You know they use humans as a sacrifice!"

That got Ed's attention. "What? No, you're lying! Envy warned me that you all were a rogue group ready to make cheap shots to get me off your case. Go away. You're of no use to me!" Ed yelled before he punched the top half of the armor.

He turned his attention to Mustang, who he simply couldn't watch die. "I hate you, you bastard, but I can't let you die."

"Good to see you've still got some humanity, Fullmetal."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Ed clenched his fists. He remembered to clap and tap Mustang's shoulder.

"Because that's who you are."

"Damn you, messing with an amnesiac…" he muttered.

"A what?"

"Brother!"

Edward stood and picked up the suit of armor. "I guess I'll take you, too. I've heard you were a sacrifice or whatever. Maybe they'll thank me for bringing you."

"Put me down!" Al said, struggling against his brother's grip on his upper half.

"I'm not going anywhere with you, Fullmetal," Mustang said, trying to stand up.

"Hell yeah, you are," Ed said, turning the automail into a hammer shape. He slammed it against the colonel's head and watched him crumble to the ground.

"Brother, what's gotten into you? Please, tell me!" Alphonse shouted in both fury and sorrow.

"Damn, Envy was right. You all are a bunch of lying bastards. I'll give you credit, you are pretty good. Too bad I know you're lying, otherwise I might actually believe you," he answered, picking up pieces of Al's armor and tossing it into the car the colonel and them had been in before. He touched the ground and created handcuffs. He put them around the colonel's wrists and pulled out a cloth from his pocket.

He blindfolded and gagged Mustang, who was still out cold. He put him in the backseat after pulling off the colonel's gloves and inspecting his pockets for more.

Al couldn't bring himself to say anything. He just stared at Ed's movements in awe. There was no automail leg. Both his legs were normal, not a scrap of metal on them. That seemed to make him look taller, and his hair… it was so dark. His clothes, too, were very strange. They looked like they came straight from a homunculus' closet, so perhaps they did. Al's brother looked more like an assassin, and his muscles were more defined.

But the number one thing Al couldn't get over was the glowing red ring on his right hand. It stung the most, knowing Ed used that so easily, so… carelessly. He was throwing away people's lives helping the homunculi. It was so wrong, Al wanted to cry. Even if Ed had amnesia, it seemed so hard to accept him as he was now.

He was one of them now. What would it take to reach through to him? Al felt miserable, unable to move, his eyes glued to his sorely confused brother.

"Come on, you stupid suit. Time to get you in there," Ed said as he lifted the suit of armor up over one shoulder and carelessly threw him into the car next to Mustang. "Behave yourself."

Ed slammed the car door before opening the driver's door. Suddenly, a shot rang out and hit Ed in the shoulder.

"Edward!" Riza's voice shouted. Al couldn't see her from here, but he knew it had to be her.

"God damn you people!" Ed shouted as he ducked underneath the car. He wasted no time in healing his shoulder wound and jumping out to attack Riza.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, still standing far enough away to easily dodge one of his attacks. Her gun was aimed towards his heart this time.

"What I was told to do," he replied easily, doing his best to look intimidating. Casually, he took a step closer to the blonde woman. Blood was dripping from the head wound he inflicted on her roughly ten minutes before. "Why are you defending him? He's ruthless. He's a killer. He murdered hundreds of people in Ishval. I'm only doing what's right. He needs to pay for the things he's done."

Riza just stared in horror at Edward. "Let him go, or I'll shoot you."

"No. I can't do that," Ed said fearlessly. "Go ahead and shoot me, it won't do you any good."

"Edward, whatever has happened to you, I promise that the people you serve are lying. I was there the day after you transmuted your mother, I saw you without an arm and a leg. Alphonse was there. Winry was there. Colonel Mustang was, too. Please, Ed, we are not your enemies!"

Ed thought about that. Riza seemed so sincere, so… not manipulative. She looked so sad as she stood there holding a gun at him, like she hated what she was doing right now. The name Winry made him feel like there was something he should remember, but couldn't.

He was so distracted, he realized Riza was walking towards him cautiously, only her gun was at her side. Carefully, Ed pretended to still be distracted and let her get close, but when she did, he jumped to the side and kicked her ribcage. When she fell to the ground, he pulled her hair and slammed it against the side of the car. She was out cold once more, so he dragged her back to the alley and left her there. Once he got into the car, he drove back to the homunculi lair.

I feel like that was awful. Maybe it was... or maybe it's just that today is the first time in over a year that I tried writing this. Let me know what you felt about this chapter. Again, I'm so sorry about not updating for so long. I promise that I'm working on maintaining a proper schedule to update. (For right now, this is the only story I'm updating. If you read any of my other stories, I'm sorry. I'm not working on those right now.)

Forgive me for being so terrible! If you review, I'll give you cookies and a shout out in the next chapter!