Chapter 2 - 1943 - Lost?

As promised, this chapter is much longer!

I do not own anything!

1943 - Lost?

What the fuck was that smell?

My nose twitched as the odor assaulted my senses. Oh god… Antiseptics. Hospital. I hate that smell!

I pried my eyes opened, blinking as I tried to focus on my surroundings. Weird… Pretty dark for a hospital. I tried to focus on something but a pounding in my head was making it very difficult at the moment. What happened?

And where the hell was I?

I tried to turn my head but it felt so heavy. I gave up after a moment, sagging onto the bed I was laying on, letting out a tired sigh.

"Oh! Excellent, you're awake!"

My eyes shot open at the voice. The adrenaline helped me finally move my head and I spotted an older man approach, smiling at me.

"How are you feeling?"

I forced my mouth to move but it felt like lead. I frowned, trying some more before groaning.

"Better, I take it. Give me a moment, Fraulein, I'll get you some water."

Water. Just mentioning it made me realise how dry my lips were and how parched I was. The man returned quickly with a glass, setting it on the nearby table before going to help me up. My arms shook as I tried to push myself to a sitting position but the man easily lifted me and arranged the pillows behind me, letting me lean back. He then handed me the glass. Well, tried to hand me the glass. My arms were still shaking and I doubted my hands would be able to grasp anything.

"That's alright, here."

He lifted it to my lips and I hesitated a moment. What was I doing, trusting this man? Who was he? Where was I?

He must have sensed my hesitation. "It's quite alright, Fraulein, it is just water. After that wound you sustained, you need to regain energy."

Wound?

My head shot down, knocking the glass out of the man's hand and onto myself. But I was staring at the top that now clung to my side: my full side, as if the hole Father dealt me was never there.

I shakily reached for it and, the moment my flesh hand touched area, pain shot through me, making me hiss out. Yeah, the hole is patched up but not completely healed it seemed…

"Fraulein, please, do not aggravate your wound. I barely managed to stop the bleeding!"

I stared at him for a moment, breathing deeply. He patched me up? Then…?

"Al…," He – he must be somewhere then! Was he? Dread filled me at the thought. Was he safe or… was it not enough? Why was I still alive? Did that mean that Al wasn't? I turned towards the man again. "Al?" I managed to choke out. "Where's Al?"

He stared at me for a moment before sighing. "Fraulein, do you know how I found you?"

I paused. Fraulein? Fuck… He knows… How did I just now understand that revelation? But, more importantly, if he knew about that, then he saw my limbs and my pocket watch must be somewhere. So… Why hasn't he realized who I was?

"My dear?"

I shook my head and he sat down on a nearby chair.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around it but, there was some sort of cackling electricity from my basement," he began. "I thought it was some form of an attack for a moment until I heard a dull thud and the electricity stopped. When I went to go see what had happened, all I found was you, my dear, sprawled on the ground, bleeding profusely from that wound on your side."

Electricity… Alchemic sparks… But why?

"Fraulein, how did you end up in my basement?"

"Where?" I choked out.

"My basement?"

I shook my head and he thankfully seemed to understand.

"We're in a little village just outside of Freiburg." I blinked, not recognizing the name. "In the country of Germany, close to the border of France[VB1] ."

Fucking shit… Where the fuck was I?

"Fraulein, where did you come from?"

I stared at him for a moment, weighing my options. However, there really wasn't any, not with my wound still healing and having no strength so to speak of at the moment. "I was… in Central. Amestris."

The man nodded slowly. "Is Amestris a region?"

Dread started to pool in my stomach. "No… A country," I whispered. "With Xing, Drachma, Creta and Aerugo as its neighbors." I don't know where this burst of energy came from but I kept spewing out information. "It has cities, like East City and Central, towns: Rush Valley, Dublith, and Resembool. Forts too! Briggs fort, up North!" I kept talking, hoping, praying that something sounded familiar to him, that I wasn't losing my mind.

The man placed a hand on my shoulder, stopping my rambling. I held my breath as he stared at me. "Fraulein, those names are sadly unfamiliar to me…" No… It can't… I can't… "And, add your advanced prosthetics, I do believe that we are not talking about the same world anymore."

I didn't say anything for a while, processing those words.

World. Another world. So… That was the price to save Al? But I was dying anyway. Why…? Why did that fucking gate have to send me someplace I would never be able to call home? My brother, my family and my friends are literally a world away!

Why? Why does the Truth love to play games with me? Haven't I finished paying the price for my sins? Have I not sacrificed enough?

"Here, Fraulein."

The man handed me a handkerchief without another word. I gripped it tightly in my shaking hand but didn't make a move yet to dry the tears.

Al… Was he alright? Was he alive? Was he able to return to Amestris? Was he here, in this world?

But… He was alone…

Alone or gone. I did this to him…

The worst feeling is knowing there was no way of getting those answers. And those questions will just keep eating away at me.

Unless…

I stared at my hands, breathing deeply. Could I go back?

I exhaled, raising them and bringing them together.

A heartbeat later, nothing.

Nothing.

No alchemy.

It – it didn't work here.

If the man found whatever I just did bizarre, he did not mention it. Instead, he offered his hand. "Well, if you are to stay here until you are recovered – which you are, may I add – may I introduce myself. I am Doctor Abraham Erskine."

I reached out, shaking his outstretched hand. "Evelyn Elric. But, I like to go by Ed."

Dr. Erskine just nodded, smiling. "Well, Fraulein, I would say welcome to Germany but, as soon as you are healed, we're leaving."

True to his word, the moment I was able to walk around with grimacing in pain, Dr. Erskine packed a suitcase and announced that we were leaving the next morning.

"It's because of those Nazis you were telling me about, right?"

Dr. Erskine was quickly filling me in on… well, everything: from geography to politics, social constructs to physics and chemistry. That last one was a god send because it resembled alchemy so much, it felt as if I already knew it. However, Dr. Erskine also informed me that alchemy was a dead science here, just like a language call Latin: no one practiced anymore but people still liked to study it.

That wasn't going to help me find a way home though… Not if I can't transmute.

Dr. Erskine nodded to my question, sipping from his drink. "From its elite science division, Hydra, to be exact, and a certain Johann Schmidt."

"True, you were telling me how he wants that serum you have. Which, you still haven't told me what it does."

Dr. Erskine smirked. "All in due time, Fraulein."

"About that." I sat straighter in my chair, catching his attention. "I'd prefer to travel as a male."

He slowly placed his drink down, looking confused. "I do not follow. Why?"

"Honestly, I don't really care whether people see me as male or female though I did realize the convenience of going around as a man offered. Clothes, for example! Travelling is so much easier while not having to worry about dresses or skirts. The way I acted too seemed let others assume I was male and I never felt the need to contradict them. Very few people figured out the truth about my actual gender." That brought the faces of several people to the forefront of my mind and I had to take a deep breath to help push them back. I was not going to start wallowing in self-pity now. "Besides, you won't have to worry about me as much if people think I'm male anyway."

Dr. Erskine looked hesitant, which was a first: he took it quite well that I wasn't even from this world but to finally actively hide that I was female, that's what makes him hesitate?

"I'm already half way there," I added with a smirk, motioning to the borrowed, too large clothes.

The man sighed, nodding. "Alright, I'll agree to this, even though I would prefer the reverse, just so you could show the men to not underestimate their female counterparts."

I shrugged. "I already give them a taste of what it means to underestimate a smaller opponent, I can't very well destroy their ego in one fell swoop, now can I?"

Dr. Erskine chuckled. "Fine. But that hair needs to be cut: men here do not wear their hair that long."

I breathed deeply, playing with the ends. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Where are your scissors?"

Dr. Erskine stood, motioning for me to follow. "This way, Fraulein."

I caught up to him, shaking my head. "Edward, Doctor, it's Edward from now on." Since I knew he refused to use my nickname: it was always Fraulein or Evelyn.

"Hence, Ed, I take it?"

"Edward came afterwards, actually."

"Am I right to assume there is a story behind that?"

I smiled sadly and told him about Al and his inability to pronounce 'Ev' when he was younger as the Doctor cut my hair. Al had been so used to calling me Ed that, when others heard him and then saw me, they automatically assumed I was male and that my name would be Edward. I didn't exactly bother to correct any of them, though.

Thinking back, I didn't bother to correct many things people assumed of me. Except for my height: that I never let slide nor let anyone get away with calling me that horrid 'S' word.

As the strands of hair fell to the floor, I thought about how much – or, in this case, how little – I had shared with Dr. Erskine in the past few days. However, sometimes, like at the moment, I let myself remember home. It did just as much good as bad: happy memories of what was but that I could never reach again.

No. No, I can't think like that… Al wouldn't want me to think like that. There had to be a way of getting back. With or without alchemy, there just had to be a way.

And I was going to find it.

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