"Why did you even have to disconnect the nerves in the first place!?"

"Because Ed replacing your hand while your arm is attached is unnecessarily difficult, this way was much easier and probably quicker too."

"Yeah but now you have to reattach it."

"Are you...are you seriously whining about having your arm reattached?"

"What no!"

"You are! You little baby!"

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE CALLING SMALL ENOUGH DROWN IN A RAINDROP?!"

Snorting and flicking her blonde hair out of her face Winry appeared completely unfazed by my outburst, just lifting the wrench still in her hand as she said "don't shout at me Edward Elric. I didn't think you were such a wimp about a little pain, but if it bothers you that much I can always knock you out."

Wincing I could tell from her face she didn't mean with drugs, shifting my gaze quickly to heavy duty metal monkey wrench in her fist I decided to just accede to her point and not fight about it, I did not want or need any more damage done to my already battered and bandaged skull. Ducking my head slightly I heaved a quiet sigh and said "just attach the nerves already would you?!"

"Fine."

One swift jerk of the spanner and fire raced up my arm, I had to bite my lip to stop a shout escaping me as the nerves were reconnected. No matter how many times I did this, the hot and cold burning sensation running up and down my limb as the nerves got used to being connected to something again still shocked me and always threatened to crack my carefully crafted mask of strength and pride. Breathing slowly through my nose I forced myself to ride through the shockwaves of pain lancing up my arm and focused on where Winry was now wiping some grease off one of her spanners, presumably the one she had just been using, and studiously ignoring me.

As the pain ebbed I started slowly curling my newly restored hand into a fist, testing the flex and give in the metal appendage. Pleased with the results, I shot a brief smirk at Winry where she was stood packing away her tools. "Great job as always Win."

"Yeah well at least try and pretend to let the nerves settle this time won't you? Normal people don't recover from limb reattachment as quickly as you do."

"Yeah yeah sure thing." I could practically see her rolling her eyes despite the fact she was facing away from me, realising this was a good opportunity to bring up my impending growth spurt, I quickly sat up and called out "hey Win?"

"What now Ed?"

"Uh just a heads up, I have a feeling I'm going to be out-growing my leg soon and probably my arm too."

"What do you mean...Oh! Really? Thats great, it took you long enough."

Sticking my tongue out at her back, I ignored Winry's techno babble as she started planning out modification she could make to my limbs while redesigning them, our earlier spat completely forgotten in her excitement.

I was contemplating if it would be worth re-igniting Winry's rage to remind her, with proof now, that I wasn't a baby, however before I could come to a conclusion the door swung open and Al poked his head into the room.

"Brother are you and Winry done in here?"

Rolling my eyes at how Al made it sound like me and Winry had been up to nefarious things I just nodded and replied "yeah Al all done!"

"Oh good because the Colonel wanted to talk to you, about the...dragon. Really brother I am quite intrigued as well, you'll have to tell me everything that happened."

Wincing at the slightly sarcastic lilt to Al's metallic sounding voice, I offered a weak grin and said "dragon? What dragon? I don't remember seeing a dragon."

The sigh Al released was one I was intimately familiar with. It ment 'I am heavily disappointed in you, however you're my older brother and I love you, but sometimes I still want to hit you.'

Lifting my chin I straightened my back as I mentally shrugged and strolled past Al, "well better not keep Colonel Bastard waiting, who knows what other odd delusions he might come up with if left unattended." With that parting comment thrown over my shoulder I quickly left the room, intent on finding Mustang and seeing just how bad the damage was, it would be bad if he started telling everyone about the big gold dragon he saw. Most people would think he's gone nuts but some might believe him and that right there is when we would start having real problems. So it was pretty lucky I had a damn good cover story.

Striding down the hall towards the Colonel's hospital room, I made sure to put my usual cocky mask in place well before I reached the opened doorway, my mouth lifting on one side in a sarcastic smirk and snarked "well hello there Colonel princess. What was it you needed me for?"

"Fullmetal. I want your report on what happened at the warehouse, I was not conscious enough to remember much and the MP's I brought with me are clearly not available to question."

"Sure. You remember when you stormed in and then immediately got soaked and useless?"

"...Yes. I remember Fullmetal." The way he bit out those words made me feel almost smug for needling him so successfully, I got ridiculous amounts of joy from winding him up.

"Well while you were doing that and distracting the guards, I was escaping my cell and setting up some of my absolute favourite kind of delayed arrays inside, the explosive ones...

~FLASHBACK~

Blinking long blond strands of hair, that had escaped from my braid, out of my eyes I listened intently for sounds of guards nearby and when I could hear nothing save the loud pounding of my own heart I decided to make my move. Biting down hard on my thumb till I tasted blood I quickly got to work tracing the first of two arrays, one to create a simple spear and there by arm myself, while the second would be to deconstruct the iron door to my cell.

I always hated working in my own blood, it reminded me far to much of the night I bound Al to the armour, however I didn't exactly have much of a choice here. Its not like I ever carried chalk around anymore anyway, not that the kidnappers would have let me keep it, so it was blood or nothing.

Blue energy still crackling and dissipating I stood up, spear griped in my flesh hand and strode over to the door, a moment later I was stepping over its deconstructed remains and marching down the hallway. Spear swinging lightly at my side, I mentally grouched over the pathetic lack of guards and security present, honestly what would it take for a guy to get a decent fight around here, I was practically itching to break some noses after having my hand sawed off. Although the plus side of not seeing any guards was that I had time to paint a whole bunch of arrays into the walls, the design was rather ingenious as they were only half an array and when the other half was drawn up and activated it activated the other half at the same time, completely irrespective of the distance between the two halves.

Throwing myself back behind the corner I had just stomped around, I winced as the hail of bullets continued to pound into the wall next to me for several long seconds before they slowed to a stop. Back braced against the wall I struggled to get my breathing back under control after the minor heart attack I just had, so much for pathetic security, clearly they all just really loved this hallway. 'Come on Elric get it together!' Pounding a fist against the wall I lifted my spear and gave it a quick spin, the cold feel of iron against my skin helping to ground me in the moment.

Just as I was getting ready to make a run for it and hope for the best, an almost deafening alarm sounded, sirens blaring and a grating female voice screeching -BREACH IN OUTER PERIMETER- over and over.

Taking this as my chance, I peeked around the corner and found all the guards shouting at each other over the alarm and clearly arguing on wether they should go after the intruder or the escapee. Well I was about to solve that problem for them.

Darting around the corner I started running straight towards the shouting halfwits and was almost on top of them before they noticed me. Swinging my spear in a low sweeping motion just above the ground, I managed to knock four of the guards into the wall and two more quickly tripped over their fallen friends. One plus I found to this close quarters fighting was it made getting back up off the floor extremely difficult and on the rare occasion that the bad guys had any morals, they were less inclined to shoot for fear of hitting their allies.

Remaining in motion constantly and tripping as many guards as I could, I found myself actually holding my own, right up until one of the guards fired their gun into the chest of the moron standing next to me. Thats when I decided to just book it and not worry too much about actually fighting these brainless dolts, because while imbeciles they may be, they had guns and Hawkeye had taught me an idiot with a gun was an especially bad combination.

Vaulting over the back of one guard making a decent attempt at getting up, I took off down the hallway, thanking my lucky stars that bad guys always had shit aim, as three bullets pinged off the ground less than an inch from my pounding feet and one grazed my left leg.

Pushing myself harder I practically bounced of the wall as I careened around the next corner, not hesitating in the slightest as I ploughed through a pair of guards loitering outside a door. I was seriously hoping this was an exit, however when I opened the door I only got about two stepped into the room before the sight in front of me registered and then I was spinning around, diving back into the hallway and slamming the door shut behind me. Sliding my spear through the handle and wedging it against the door jam I was backing up slightly and trying very hard to get my heart back into my chest and out of my throat when the two guards I had knocked over made there presence known.

Slamming the blunt and broken end of my automail right arm into the side of idiot no.1's head, I spun away from idiot no.2 before planting my left boot in the middle of his chest and sending him flying into the wall. He didn't get back up. Continuing my mad dash I could seriously feel my energy reserves flagging, it had been a long day before I got kidnapped and now I was escaping and fighting for my life, fortunately it only took three more hallways and a staircase I vaguely remembered from my drugged trip through here on my way in, before I found the little window. I didn't really care much at this point that I was probably going to regret this later, I just charged towards my freedom and smashed straight through the thick double glazed glass.

I relished the wind hitting my face and causing my coat to flap, the cold rain was a bit of a slap in the face, waking me up slightly and giving me the forethought to tuck and roll as I hit the ground so I didn't break any bones on impact. The vibrations were still jarring but at least not too damaging and I was able to spring to my feet as soon as I had solid ground under my feet again.

Swiping wet gold hair out of my eyes I searched for a way out of the warehouse courtyard and industrial estate, only to pause when heard several loud cracks just as I spotted a splash of familiar blue fabric out of the corner of my eye. Turning all the way round I was just in time to watch the MP hit the ground, quickly followed by two more. There was a quiet 'whoosh' and a stuttery pillar of flame flickered to life, only to die out in seconds as it was drowned by the rain pouring from the sky in torrents.

Backing up slightly I ducked under the short overhang, pausing just long enough to paint the second half of my array onto the wall and then bracing myself activated it before running for it. The ominous rumbling from behind me told me I probably should stop to look, instead I just kept running, straight towards where I last saw that small burst of fire.

I spotted Mustang just as a smallish chunk of concrete connected with the back of his skull, staggering he somehow managed to avoid the majority of the bullets flying towards him but still took one in the leg, which sent him to the ground, just as one grazed his shoulder. Putting on another little burst of speed, I grabbed the Colonel's arm and dove for a huge chunk of what must have been wall at some point. Gasping for air as I slumped to the ground I started trying to figure out a way out of this situation because it was looking pretty grim right now.

~END FLASHBACK~

"...then I got up and unleashed my secret weapon." I could feel Al tense up behind me, having wondered in near the beginning of the story, he probably thought I was going to spill the beans, but I had other plans that didn't involve dropping that particular bomb. "I used flame alchemy."

"I saw a split second of panic on Roy's face before it was chased away by doubt. "And how exactly did you manage that? With no clap alchemy and all of that rain I find it hard to believe, let alone the fact no one else had been able to figure out how to work my array and your lack of anything to make a spark with."

Smirking I said "my method is a little different to yours." Clapping my hands together I maintained the circle as I concentrated on forcing two molecules to vibrate so hard against each other that the friction they created caused them to catch fire, which with a little oxygen manipulation quickly formed a controlled fireball. Lifting my head I smirked at everyone shell shocked expressions.

"How did you do that?!"

Flashing my signature smug grin, I said "well I don't know if your tiny brain can comprehend it, but what I did was vibrate two molecule till the friction made fire."

"Thats...thats incredible!"

"I know." Buffing my nails on my coat in my best 'smug bastard' impression I let the fireball dissipate as I added "and incase you were wondering...I painted the array on my chest with blood, it being one of the few arrays I know that doesn't need direct contact with the ground and there fore viable. My blood wouldn't stick on the metal it was too wet, not to mention Winry would kill me if I got blood in the gears of her precious automail, and I couldn't use my automail to paint the array on my other hand as it didn't have a fine enough edge for the lines of the circle."

I had no intention of telling the Colonel that my skin had been far to wet to draw on either, or the fact we had been about a minute from being surrounded and that I wouldn't really have had time to paint the extremely complex array. I knew it usually took me about thirty to forty seconds to draw an array that complex on flat paper with a pencil, the time increased with less favourable conditions and we likely would have been shot to pieces before I could finish it.

"Typical Fullmetal. Just when I think I start to have you figured out, you go and surprise the hell out of all of us. Although I still don't know how you missed seeing the enormous gold dragon."

Shrugging and trying to make it sound natural I said "Yeah I know I'm just that incredible, maybe my awesome fire show is what made you think you saw a dragon, they are sort of known for it. I thought you had passed out by the time I started flinging fire around, but maybe you were still conscious and saw just enough for your brain to make up the rest."

"I didn't make it up! I am very sure it was real, it gave me one of its shed scales. How do you explain us getting separated then? If not a dragon."

For a second I panicked, I had no idea how I could explain it and I could feel Al's burning gaze on my back, I was so going to get lectured later, then inspiration struck. "Well after I incinerated the warehouse I treated your injuries as best I could, then I did a quick search to check for survivors and see if any of the MP's made it and when I came back you were gone. I didn't see any signs a dragon had been there, but maybe I missed them?" I made sure to sound suitably sceptical so they didn't think I actually believed I had somehow missed the appearance of a mythical creature.

Carefully picking up where I left off, I concluded "I thought you might have been snatched by a survivor of the warehouses untimely explosion, but I couldn't find any signs of you to follow so I decided to get here as quick as possible and call for help. As it turns out you didn't even need it."

"Well that is certainly something, I expect a written copy of your report on my desk tomorrow morning. You're dismissed."

Nodding I quickly escaped the hospital room, almost jogging down the hall, as I attempted to flee before a nurse could try and make me stay or..."brother."

Freezing I tried to smooth out my hunched up posture and act nonchalant, I knew it was futile but I tried anyway, "Al! What's up? I was just going to head to the dorms, I'm beat! Honestly I think I could sleep for a week."

"Oh good I'll come with, we need to have a little chat."

Wilting I nodded "yeah okay then."

AN: So how was it? I know it was a bit shorter than the first chapter, but then I wrote this whole chapter in about five hours and the first chapter I tinkered with for about three months before I bothered posting it. So any way I didn't think everyone would want to wait that long for an update, so here it is and I hope you enjoyed it.

-SL xxx

PS. I would love to here what you all think was in the room Ed barricaded shut in the warehouse flashback, leave your ideas in a review.

PPS. Thank you all so much for reading xxxx