prologue

A guttural scream shakes your mind, and you hear a thump. Opening your eyes, you find yourself consumed in yellow light. In front of you were grey steps. Tracing the path with your eyes, you find yourself staring at huge black doors. Behind them were odd sounds, and it felt as though they were calling to you. You stand up.

The doors open by themselves, and behind them, you see eyes pop open pair by pair, a mixture of different colors. The ones that caught your eyes were big and brown, desperate but relieved. The tug of the gate pulls you towards it, and you slowly stumble towards the darkness.

"Come with us." A voice whispers. You oblige, and step into the darkness. Everything falls silent and you fall limp.

~

[October 3, 1917]

You open your eyes to the bright light shaded by trees overhead. Your left arm hurts really badly and feels heavy. Your clothes were soaked with blood, and the area around your heart was sore. You breathe in the quiet air, feeling the rough dirt beneath you.

Sitting up, you gasp for air and cough, covering your mouth with your right hand. A warm stickiness coated your hand, and you drew it away to see dripping blood. You place your hands on the ground and close your eyes, gasping for breath. At the corner of your eye, you see a glint of metal from the left. You turn your head and what you see makes you gasp. Your entire left arm from your shoulder down was made of metal. You open and close your fist. Did you always have this?

The gasp from earlier makes you cough more blood. You stare at the blood on your hand, and frown. Why were you coughing blood?

Suddenly, you remember the gate. The gate and the yellow light, the urging voices calling at you. You feel energy humming through your body, and you feel the flow of knowledge throughout you. Your entire body starts aching, especially your automail left arm. Your head aches and a thumping sound resonates through your ears. Suddenly, a flash of purple causes you to jump back, and where your hand used to be was a patch of smoking and burnt dirt.

You frown. What the-

A rustle in the bushes in front of you causes you to jump to your feet, ignoring the pain in your legs, and look around warily.

Another rustle from behind you makes you turn around quickly. You hold left metallic arm out in front of you to protect you. Suddenly, from all around you, people in black coats jump out and hold out their guns all at once in perfect synchronity. You step back and put your hands up. "I'm not-"

The man in front of you, who appears to be the leader, puts down his gun, and motions all the others to put down theirs too. The click of guns make you flinch.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man in front of you asks. He has a bushy mustache and a thick voice, looking like he was around his 40s or so.

"I-I don't know either." You reply.

The man squints at you suspiciously, narrowing his eyes. His eyes flit down to your cyborg arm. "What do you mean, 'You don't know'?"

You shake your head. "I really don't know. In fact, could you tell me where I am?"

The man takes another step forward, but you stand your place. "Let me ask you again," he says menacingly, "Who are you and where are you from?"

You give the man a glare. "I don't know," you say, annoyed.

He glares back at you for a moment, before he turns around. "Fine. Then we'll have to figure out by ourselves. Come with me."

All the men surrounding you start to march forwards, forcing you along with them. You scowl at the back of the captain's head and move forward.

Before long, the group of people bring you out into a city bordering the edge of the forest. You scan the city with your eyes. People were casting the mass of men escorting you curious looks, which turned even more curious when they saw your left arm. You turn onto a street that read "Hindenburgstrasse."

Up ahead, a huge wooden building with the word "Police" carved into it stood. You frown.

You suddenly stop, causing the "police" behind you to crash into you. This made the captain turn around, glaring at you.

"What is it?" He growls.

You stare straight into his eyes. "I-I just remembered something. Something about.... State Alchemists..."

The man continues glaring at you, before scoffing. "Alchemists. Ha! As if exist."

You look down at the ground. "Whatever. Let's go."

You usher forwards into the building and was brought into a room.

"This will be your room." The captain says. "Until we find out where you come from, you'll be staying here."

You flinch, but nod in agreement. The room is small, only able to fit about 4 medium-sized beds. There's a bed in the left corner of the room and a small wooden desk at the right far corner. At the center of the back of the room, there's a single window where sunlight is streaming through the stringy curtains.

Once you step into the room and collapse on the bed, they finally leave you alone.

~

The moon is full in the night sky, and you stare out the window. The stars were spread out, and you wondered what was up above. The deep-set ache in your chest causes you to curl up. Earlier, you examined the pain and found a sliver of scar tissue right on the place of your chest where your heart was. That made you confused. After a while, you focus back onto your task: getting out.

Wiping your hands on your shorts, you open the window that you were staring out of just moments ago. Behind the window was a thin mesh layer to keep bugs out when the window was open.

Looking back at the mesh, you look around for sharp objects to cut a hole into it. Nothing.

Growling in frustration, you sit down on the bed.

You fall back to the bed, defeated. You hit the wall with your head, forgetting how small the width of the bed was. The pain reminds you of the aches in your arm and the blood on your hand. You suddenly remember your act of alchemy on the forest floor. You look at your metal arm.

You sit up quickly, Taking a deep breath, you place two fingers of your right hand onto the index finger of your left hand. You try to remember the gateway, the yellow light that surrounded you. There was no hum of energy, no feeling of knowledge. You try harder, forcing deep breaths into your aching chest. Something had to be missing. The knowledge, the feeling, your hand. What else?

Without warning, a cough racks through your body on your fourth breath, and you fall forwards off the side of your bed, making horrifying choking sounds. You cover your mouth when you feel the sticky blood, signalizing the end of your cough, muffling up your coughs and irritating your already sore throat, making you feel both terrified and relieved. You stand up.

Outside, you spot a girl walking down the street with a lamp. Behind her, two boys were following her, both with long-ish blonde hair tied back into a ponytail. They looked so alike, you concluded that they must've been twins.

You look back at your blood-covered hand, and realization hits you. you think.

You set your lips into a thin line and look at your left index finger again. Wrapping you sticky hand around the metallic finger, you try to bring forth the energy. This time, it works. You imagine the atoms realigning into a sharp knife, imagine the tip of the knife only one atom wide.

A flash of purple light blinds you, and you fall backwards into the desk behind you. You gasp, making up for the air that you didn't even realize you weren't breathing.

When you catch your breath again, you loom at your finger. It was a sharp knife. You grin and look back at the window again.

"(Y/N), out."

*******

Hey guys, hope you liked this prologue, it got deleted a few times o.O Hopefully it didn't feel too... Idk, bad, I guess. I'll update this every... Week or so, so make sure to stay tuned! I have no idea why the cover's so blurry, but I'll fix it up. Anyways, if you liked this part, don't forget to comment, vote, share, and, of course, ENJOY!!

~Sky-chan

Word count: 1455 words