A/N – Wow! I came home the other day, all worn out and crappy feeling, and checked my reviews and, like, BAM!, everyone loved it. I was honored. Thanks, guys, for the support! Here's my next chapter, as promised! ^_^

Also, I've finally picked up a beta reader, so this story should be a hundred percent mistake free! Yay! Thank you, BlackWolf2Dragoon, your help is much appreciated. :D

Chapter Two – Nightmare

Ed sighed, the soft noise breaking the complete silence in the room as he woke up from another sedative haze. He didn't know how long he'd been here. He closed his eyes again as he did his best to think, his best to remember. It felt like weeks but it couldn't be. It had to be more like days. How many days? Not more than one or two, he was sure. At least he thought he was sure.

He tried to straighten out his thoughts. If he could backtrack, maybe he could have a decent idea as to how long he'd been here. If he could just focus long enough, he'd-

Even with his eyes closed, he suddenly became aware of blinding white light being returned to the room, and he struggled to block it out. He wasn't ready. He held his eyes shut tight, wishing he could place a hand over them and knowing it was impossible. He turned his head to one side.

"Hello, 089."

Ed opened his eyes. The lights were worse to deal with now. At the sound of Kimblee's voice, at the words he chose to use and his terrible god forsaken tone, Ed was furious. He could hide it well. He knew he probably should. He glanced up at the man, wordlessly.

"089." the Major repeated.

That's what they'd been calling him. He'd never been Edward Elric, he wasn't even Fullmetal anymore. He was, according to them, 089, a number. He felt like crap. He swallowed, said, "...Huh?"

Kimblee smirked a little. Ed hated it. He hated everything about this. He struggled to keep thinking, about anything at all. He could feel his mind racing but it never settled on anything for more than a second before he was taken over by something else. Was this how they wanted him to think? He watched a doctor beside him, the man doing something to his IV, injecting something else into it. He wished he knew what the hell it was. He didn't have the energy to do anything anymore...

"You haven't eaten anything since you arrived here." Kimblee stated. Ed noticed the way he said that, how he gave no indication to how long that was. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked.

Ed tried to think again. That meant they wanted him healthy, right? What else could it mean? Just as the idea came, he lost it. He gave up. "No." he said, and it was the truth. Surprising enough, Ed had no appetite.

"Hm."

The reply was short. Ed didn't know if it was good or bad, but he watched Kimblee walk away and as he escaped his sight he continued to listen to the man's footsteps. He hadn't left the room yet. Ed wearily glanced up at the off-white ceiling before closing his eyes. Time passed. His breathing evened out, he could feel himself coming to again, strength slowly returning. He could think. He could wonder if maybe, probably, it was whatever they kept injecting into him that was making him feel like this. So what was he gonna do about it? He remembered Kimblee still in the room.

As strength returned to him he found himself growing more and more restless. Almost without thinking about it, he noticed his arms move, softly attempting to lower themselves, wrists tightly restrained. He didn't have much range of motion at all, and he hated being bound to the bed. Footsteps echoed somewhere across the room, slow and steady. He turned his head again, focused his eyes on Kimblee. "This sudden lack of an appetite you have," the man said, "is not good. In fact, you haven't done much of anything since you got here."

Anything Ed might have been thinking to say fled him. What was he even able to do in a situation like this? He continued to silently listen.

"The others are making much more progress."

There were others? That caught his attention like nothing else had. "What?"

Kimblee wasn't the kind of man that repeated himself. He didn't. Ed watched him approach the bed one more time. He wanted nothing more than to be out of these restraints and punching him right in the face. He was mad. He was scared. He could feel his heart racing and that only made him feel worse.

"This is not going to do." he replied, "I want you to consider that a warning." He crouched down so they were at eye level, his tone never dropping that low, condescending tone it had, the one that made Ed sick. "You have obligations you need to fulfill, 089."

Ed glared.

"You need to quit being so selfish."

"I'm selfish?" Ed demanded. He could feel his words slipping to anger, and he didn't care. He was about to speak his mind, maybe because it was the only thing he could do at that point, and Kimblee was either gonna listen or he was gonna leave. "What about you! Look at what you've done! In case you didn't notice it's not like I came down here of my own free will, but I'm the one who's selfish? I don't even know what you want with me!"

He took a breath, continued, "You're drugging me, for god's sake, and of course I don't know what the hell that is you're giving me, either! I don't even know how long I've been here! I didn't agree to any of this. How does that make me selfish, Kimblee?"

When he was finished, the room was taken over with silence. Kimblee looked down at the floor, paused, and finally he said something. "Are you done, 089?"

"Quit calling me that." the blonde snapped.

Kimblee closed his eyes and sighed. He genuinely seemed frustrated. Slowly, he stood back up. Ed thought he was leaving. He was wrong. The man turned and slapped Ed across the face, hard.

Ed cried out in pain, his head snapping to the side from the force of the blow. His ears started ringing. The pain lingered in the back of his head and he began to feel nauseous, knowing it was probably from a combination of this, drugs, and lack of nutrients. He hoped he wasn't going to get sick. He was already frustrated and exhausted. He didn't want something else to add to the list. He faded out, then back in.

"You obviously can't handle this right now." Kimblee deduced.

Ed looked at him. In his hands, he held another syringe. More drugs. Fear washed over the small blonde, golden eyes widening, heart racing. He didn't even know if he could handle another dose of the stuff. "What are you doing?" he asked, even though they both knew.

"Just putting you to sleep for a while." he replied.

Ed watched him move in with the needle, his hands securing the IV line. "No." he insisted. He tried to struggle. It didn't work.

"You need it."

"No, I don't! Kimblee, stop!"

He didn't. Ed watched in horror as the man gently poked the needle through, his thumb pressing down, allowing whatever was in there into the IV, into Ed's bloodstream to take over his body another time. Ed screamed, frustrated, and Kimblee crossed the room.

He shut off the lights, submerging the room in darkness.

Ed's body snapped back to life with no warning. Golden eyes opened only to close again, desperate to block out the bright lights that must have returned in the middle of his forced sleep. He groaned. He'd never felt worse in his entire life. Suddenly, a thought hit him, and he opened his eyes again. Al. His brother. Was he okay? Immediatley he was panicked and worried all over again. He didn't know how yet, but he had to get out of here. Soon.

He laid there for what felt like forever, until he heard the gentle click of a door opening and glanced over at the source of the noise. Kimblee stepped inside, followed by a pair of his trusted doctors. Ed was terrified. He didn't show it.

"You're awake." Kimblee said. "Good. I'm sure you remember that last time didn't go so well, 089."

Did he? Ed tried to think back. Maybe he remembered part of it. He wasn't sure, so he didn't say anything. It wasn't like he wanted to talk to the man, anyway.

"We're going to try something different now."

Ed didn't want to try anything.

There was a long pause. Kimblee's voice, not even loud, almost shocked the blonde. He was so jumpy. "Talk to me."

Talk to him? That was fucking retarded. "What?"

"You heard me. Just talk."

Ed wondered if this was some kind of trick. Another one of Kimblee's games. The man was definitley twisted to say the least. "What do you want me to say?"

"Anything. What do you want to say?"

Ed didn't understand. What happened to last time he spoke his mind? The rules surely couldn't have changed that much since then. So what did he say? It felt like a lose-lose situation. If he spoke his mind, they drugged him. If he stayed silent and disobeyed, they drugged him. He didn't know what to do.

Kimblee looked at Ed a long while, mentally noting the seventeen year old's refusal, yet again. He thought. Maybe this would be a little harder than he'd expected. He cleared his throat. "How much do you know about the war going on in Drachma?"

There was a short pause. Ed sighed under his breath. "Well," he said, "if I weren't locked up in here with you, I could be assisting in that war." he said.

"You never wanted to." Kimblee pointed out.

Ed glared. "What does that have to do with anything?" he angrily replied.

"Maybe everything or maybe nothing." Kimblee shrugged, "That's not what matters. All I asked is that you talk, and I even gave you a topic. I understand you must be pretty drowsy."

"I don't want to talk to you."

Wrong move. Again. Kimblee nodded to one of the doctors, who wheeled a... a thing over. Ed had no idea what it was. He didn't think he wanted to, either. The doctors began to set it up. Kimblee talked through the process, "I want you to know that this was a last resort." he said, "Not even supposed to be used. You, however, are making it impossible for me to reason with you, 089. I hardly have a choice anymore."

Ed closed his eyes. He was aware of the doctors touching him, quickly arrainging things in the way they needed to be arrainged.

Kimblee reached onto the stand the machine was held on, picking up the control, a simple dial. Ed was going to go under his first round of electroshock therapy. There was no warning, save a slight movement of Kimblee's hand. Pain overwhelmed Ed and the blonde cried out. Kimblee smirked, watching him squirm around on the bed. "Pretty uncomfortable, huh?" he said, almost taunting.

Just as quickly as the pain came it was gone. Ed gasped, opening his eyes.

"Good." Kimblee said, "Now, that was hardly half of what this machine can go up to. Remember that during our conversation."

Ed didn't say anything back.

Kimblee knew he would. "You've been quite a pain, you know, and it's no one's fault but your own. I asked that you talk to me. I said I didn't care about what, just that you do it. So, do it."

Ed sighed. "I don't want to." he insisted, "I don't even know what to say to you."

"Why not?"

He kept going almost on instinct. "Look at what you're doing. You abuse people-!" the statement ended in a sharp, pained cry, Kimblee turning up the frequency yet again. Luckily, it didn't last as long as the first time, and then the pain ceased.

"Now, now, 089, that's hardly the truth." he said. "I gave you a simple set of directions, and you chose not to follow them. I didn't hurt you. You did."

"What?" Ed demanded, "That's rediculous. I'm not the one controlling that machine. You're doing it, with your own hands and your own free will."

Kimblee tapped a finger over the dial.

Ed flinched.

"Are you ready to try again?"

"No."

"I think you are."

"Fine."

"See? There you go. Wasn't so hard, was it?" Kimblee replied, "So, let's continue our discussion. The current war. What do you think about it?"

Ed though for a second. "I don't know that much about it." he replied, "I don't like politics."

"How much did you know about the Amestrian/Drachma Non-Aggression Pact?"

"Just what it's name entails. It's a non-aggression pact. I don't know who signed it, I don't know why it was signed, I don't know how long it lasted." he replied. He couldn't help himself from adding, "I don't see how this is relevant to anything."

Kimblee sighed. He turned the dial again, much higher. Ed tried to block out the pain and failed miserably. It was so intense. He clenched his jaw, told himself not to scream, forcing himself to wait it out. He was relieved as the pain faded a third time. "Those comments of yours are unnessecary."

Ed kept silent.

"You definitley are a hard learner, aren't you?" he observed, then said, "Well, is this a bad topic for you?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do. Do you want to talk about something else or not?"

"I don't know." Ed insisted.

Kimblee paused. Ed was sure he was going to fuck with that dial again, and that it was gonna be a thousand times worse than the last round. But, he didn't. He put it down on the table. "Very well." he said, "I suppose you've done enough for now, 089. I wouldn't want to damage you after all."

They were done. Kimblee stood up, wordlessly taking his leave. It was the first time Ed felt good about something since arriving in this place. All that was left was him and the doctors, and they began to release him from what Ed would forever look at as a torture device. They brought it across the room and left Ed alone.

The blonde sighed. Great. Now he had another horrible reminder to look at, maybe worse than the straps that kept him immobilized on this bed, or the hospital-themed walls and ceiling. He didn't have to look at it for long. He fell asleep shortly after, without the "help" of a sedative.

A/N – I hope it was as good as everyone expected. I've been doing loads of research, so, again, sorry for the long wait! I'm currently feeling very inspired, though, and I've learned a lot. Fascinating stuff, too! ^_^

Also, as for Ed's arms, since I've had the question asked and don't want anyone confused. They aren't, like, up and together over his head. That'd be too easy! XD They're, like, at his sides. His wrists would be right around level with the sides of his head.