It was almost midnight by the time they arrived in a large town. Ed found himself being led into what looked like a mansion. He looked around as they walked down a hallway. Peterson, as the man introduced himself, walked just ahead of him. Finally, they stopped at a door and pushed Ed inside. Peterson stood behind him.

"This is where you'll stay for now. You'll have someone in the room with you at all times, so don't try anything stupid. If you do, then I'll have you sent downstairs to join Dr. Jones, and I doubt you'll like it down there."

He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Next to the door stood a guard with a big gun. He looked at Ed with disinterest, as if guarding a teenager were the most boring job in the world.

Ed looked around the room. There was only one lamp, so he couldn't see very well. From what he could see, though, it was fairly big, and many of the objects looked expensive. Ed walked over to the bed, sat down, and pulled off his shoes. He noticed his foot had been wrapped up as well. Ed looked back over at the guard, who wasn't paying much attention to him, and lay down on the bed. He pulled a blanket over him and closed his eyes. His arm was beginning to cool off.

Early the next morning, Ed woke up to voices. He sat up and looked over. Peterson was talking to a guard. When he saw that Ed was awake, he walked over with a smile.

"I'm glad you're awake. Did you sleep well?"

Ed glared. "Why do you care?"

"Because I don't want whoever it is who'll come after you to think we're treating you poorly."

"So I'm a hostage."

"Something like that, unless you decide you'd rather work for me here."

"Doing what, exactly?" Ed asked.

"Nothing life threatening, I can assure you."

"Does it involve hurting or killing people?"

Peterson's face showed a lot of surprise at this, but he managed to get rid of that emotion quickly. "Possibly. It depends on what you can do. Is there something you're very good at?"

Ed thought back to the day before. The man hadn't believed him about Ishbal, or Amestris, or any other country Ed mentioned. If he didn't believe that, he probably didn't believe in alchemy, either.

"I'm good at surviving," Ed muttered.

"What do you mean by that?" Peterson asked.

"Exactly what I said. I could have died plenty of times by now, but I haven't."

"What about fighting? Do you know how to beat an enemy?"

"Yes."

"Good. Maybe I have a place for you after all."

"Who said I wanted to work for you?" Ed asked, standing up.

"You were implying it."

"There's no way in hell I'd ever do anything for you. And the only person who gives a damn about me is my brother, and he was taken away several days ago."

Peterson looked at Ed with false pity. "I'm sorry. Who took him?"

Ed averted his eyes. "Some guys with a weird symbol everywhere on their stuff."

"Weird symbol? What did it look like?"

The man gave Ed a piece of paper and Ed drew the symbol he had seen the other day. Peterson looked at it for a brief moment before turning back to Ed.

"That's the swastika. Your brother was taken by the Nazis."

-------------

Ed blinked. "The Nazis? Who are they?"

"You don't know about the Nazi Party? They're the ones controlling Germany at the moment, under Adolf Hitler."

"Germany?"

Peterson looked dumbly at Ed. "You've never heard of Germany? Come on now, I could understand that if you were someone else, but you speak English with an American accent and you have the physical characteristics of someone with European descent. You couldn't have not heard about Germany by now."

"Well, you haven't heard any of the names I grew up knowing."

"That's because they DON'T EXIST. Here, I'll even show you a map," Peterson said as he walked to the door. He turned around when he realized Ed hadn't moved. "Well, come on."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not going to let you show me some map that proves that I'm from someplace that doesn't exist. I know who I am, and I know where I'm from. I'm not going to let you say it's not true."

Peterson walked back up to Ed, who stepped back, toward the window. He felt a breeze. The window was open. "Look, you're going to have to admit it sometime. Why not get it over with?"

"Excuse me?" Ed took another step back. The window was wide enough for a small person to get through… he could make it. He just needed to distract them from what he was doing. "Do you have any idea what you're telling me to do?"

"I'm telling you to give up your fantasies. Someone your age shouldn't have too much trouble with that, right?"

"They're not fantasies! This is my entire life we're talking about!" He was almost there. He took another step back, and just as Peterson was about to respond, he jumped. Luckily, he was only on the second story, so he landed with ease, and ran down the alley to a road… and right into a group of Nazis.

------------

He stopped running and apologized for being so clumsy. They waved him away without paying much attention to him. Ed walked away from them, looking back in confusion. Why didn't they react to him? He didn't have much time to think about it, because as he turned away from them and looked at where he was heading, he ran into a man at least twice his size. The man looked at him for a second before grabbing his arms.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked with a smug grin on his face. Ed tried to break away, but the man's grip was strong. He picked Ed up with ease and carried him back to the mansion. Peterson looked down at the tiny alchemist with disdain.

"Didn't I tell you not to do anything stupid? Now I'll have to lock you up with Mr. Jones."

Ed didn't say anything, but that was mostly because the big guy was crushing him. Peterson smirked and walked down a hallway. The big guy set Ed on his feet and grabbed his arms. He forced Ed to follow Peterson down some stairs to what looked like a dungeon. Once down there, two guards took over for the big guy, who walked back up the stairs. Before he disappeared, Ed saw a swastika on his sleeve.

They roughly pushed Ed into a cell and into a corner. One of them kept a gun pointed at Ed's head as the other placed Ed's hands in chains. They left Ed sitting there and closed the door. Ed looked at the chains with little interest. He could still bring his hands together. He grinned. He could escape easily.

It took him a moment to notice the man sitting on the other side of the cell. Ed recognized him as the man from the truck. When he noticed Ed looking at him, the man stood up and walked over. He wasn't chained at all, but he had a gash on his forehead, and one on his arm.

"So you tried to get away?" he asked, sitting next to Ed.

"Yep."

"You got off easy. I've known people who've had bones broken after trying to get out of here."

"So you've dealt with this guy before?"

"Yep."

"What does he do?"

The man sighed and looked up. "He collects rare artifacts and works for the Nazis."

Ed looked at his hands. "So I guess he's probably seen my brother."

"Your brother? Was he captured by Nazis?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Edward Elric."

"Nice to meet you, Ed. I'm Indiana Jones."

"Indiana? That's a weird name."

"It's not my real name, but that's how most people know me."

"What's your real name?"

"I'll tell you some other time. For now, we need to find a way to get out of here."

"Huh?"

"Look, I don't know about you, but they're probably going to kill me if I stay here. They might kill you too, if you end up being worthless to them."

Ed looked at the door, where some light was coming in through a small barred window. "Is this place well guarded?"

Indiana got up and looked through the bars. "Only two of them out there, but there's bound to be more spread out around here. Plus there's a lot of Nazis in town."

"How far is it to the edge of town?"

"It's two hundred feet that way," Indiana said, pointing to Ed's left. "Why?"

"Ever seen someone use alchemy?" Ed asked innocently.

"No, are you kidding me? Alchemy doesn't work."

"I figured you'd say that," Ed said as he brought his hands together. He placed each one on the chains on his wrists. There was a flash of light, and the metal dropped to the floor. Ed stood up, rubbing his left wrist. "How about now? Still think it doesn't work?"

Indiana stood gaping at the small alchemist. "How did…"

"I've been studying alchemy since I was a little kid. Can you make sure nobody's watching?"

"What are you going to do?" Indiana asked, walking to the door and looking outside.

"We're going underground." Ed clapped his hands together again and placed them on the ground. Immediately, a hole appeared. "Go."

Indiana took a moment to check on the guards again before lowering himself into the hole. Ed jumped down after making a couple of dummies. Once down there, he brought his hands together and covered the entrance to the hole.

They made their way through the tunnel, occasionally stopping as Ed lengthened it. Finally, they got to the edge of town. Ed brought his hands together one last time and placed them over his head. There was another flash. Once it died down, Ed saw light streaming in from a hole just above his head. He grinned. They were out.

----------------

Before going back into the town, Ed used the nearby resources to disguise himself. They walked down the streets, avoiding the Nazis whenever they could. Finally, Indiana stopped in front of a building. He knocked on the door and waited for a moment before it opened. On the other side was a man with a beard and a funny hat. He looked at Indiana for a moment before smiling.

"Indy! It's good to see you again! Did you get it?" he asked, shaking Indiana's hand.

"No, but I found something else interesting," Indiana replied, gesturing to Ed. "This is Ed. Ed, this is Sallah. He's a friend of mine."

Ed shook the man's hand briefly, not wanting him to realize that something was wrong. Ed was wearing gloves again, but his arm was getting pretty hot already.

Sallah looked around before ushering the two inside. They sat down in the kitchen.

"So, what happened?" Sallah asked.

"Well, they found this kid out in the middle of nowhere, and I figured bringing him with me would be better than leaving him in their hands."

Ed blinked multiple times to keep himself awake. It was fairly warm in the room, and he was worn out from the day's events. After a while, he was overwhelmed by exhaustion and fell asleep.

--------------

Indy looked over at Ed. "Jeez, he's asleep already?"

Sallah looked at the sleeping boy and laughed. "Well, he is just a boy."

"Yeah, but he was wide awake five minutes ago. I wonder if something's wrong with him," Indy said as he walked over to Ed. He looked at his right hand. Underneath the glove was a bandage. "Looks like he's hurt, too."

Sallah stood up and walked to Ed's other side. "Well, we shouldn't just leave him here." He picked Ed up and set him down on a couch, being careful to avoid touching his right arm. "Wow, he's heavy for his size. He must be strong."

"Well, I don't know about strong, but he definitely is powerful."

"How do you mean?"

"You're not going to believe this, but the kid's an alchemist."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. That's how we got out so quickly. He used alchemy to go underground."

They watched the unconscious teenager in silence for a while. "It's good you found him. If he were to fall into Nazi hands, the results could be disastrous."

Indy kneeled next to Ed and put a hand on his forehead. "Well, he doesn't have a fever, at least. He's probably just not used to the heat. I'll take his coat off." Indy pulled Ed into a sitting position and began pulling off the red coat. As he pulled off the right sleeve, his hand brushed against the bandage. He immediately pulled his hand back. "What the? His arm's absurdly hot."

"Just his arm?"

"Yeah, as if there's metal underneath this."

"Why would he have metal against his skin? Unless they put it there…"

Indy pulled off the other shirt the boy was wearing and swore. There were bandages going all the way from his hand to his shoulder. Indy decided not to risk taking them off and let Ed sleep.

-------------

When Ed woke up, he was on a couch with a blanket over his chest. He looked around. He was in a small room. Indiana was sitting at his feet. Ed sat up. He was slightly embarrassed that he had fallen asleep like that.

"Hey, what happened to your arm?" Indiana asked. Ed looked down at the bandaged automail. He sighed and pulled off the bandages. "I doubt you've seen this before, but my arm and leg are automail."

Indiana stared at the metal arm. "So wait, your arm's made of metal?"

Ed nodded. "I actually lost my real arm a few years ago."

"How did you lose it?"

Ed stared at the ground. "I did something stupid."

"Great. So what are you going to do now?"

"I want to find my brother and get the hell out of here. No offense."

"Nah, none taken. I can see why you'd hate being here. As for your brother, where would he be?"

Ed began pulling on his shoes. "I'm pretty sure he was taken by Nazis."

Indiana shook his head. "Then you're going to have a hard time finding him."

"Yeah, I figured."

Indiana looked at the small alchemist. "Hey, I have to get something from Peterson. If you help me with that, I'll help you find your brother."

Ed looked at the ceiling. "Couldn't I just let myself get caught?"

"Are you kidding? They'll probably kill you!"

"Not if they find out I'm an alchemist."

"Then they'll force you to use alchemy."

"Well, what am I supposed to do then?"

"Hey, I've dealt with these guys before. I can help you get your brother out of there."

Ed looked at his arm. "I hope so."