I believe I will make Saturdays official chapter post days.

Feel free to offer constructive criticism. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Not Alone

Edward made his way out of town, shielding his eyes from the nearly-set sun. He wore a simple coat, shirt, and pants; he had reluctantly left behind his favorite red alchemist coat to avoid being overly conspicuous. Once he had reached the edge of town, the sun was just a dull glow on the horizon, soon overcome by the blackness of night. He continued past the outskirts of town and down a long road. The silhouette of a large building could just barely be seen in the darkness: Ed had reached his destination. In the moonlight, the abandoned building ebbed an eerie presence. Ed shuddered involuntarily. There was no room for doubt, however. It was time to break a few laws.

The daunting structure used to be a laboratory: Laboratory 5, to be precise: but had been shut down after an investigation proving its use of illegal alchemy in its research. Edward had had a personal hand in exposing the illegal experiments. In addition, he had discovered—and, well, never reported—the fact that philosopher stones had been made in the lab…and never been found or removed by the investigation team. A couple of curious people were known to have tried to sneak into the lab, but none of them had ever returned, leading many to believe the lab was cursed or haunted. People avoided it as if it didn't exist.

Edward shook his head. The other break-ins had probably been attempted by inexperienced and dumb dimwits. No guard would be able to fend off a state alchemist, however. Ed smiled with pride, then sighed. He had been unwilling to go for the stones before, as his goal was to restore their bodies without using human souls, but those people were already dead, weren't they? It would be a shame that so many innocent victims died to make stones that ended up just sitting in an abandoned building. Yes, he told himself, this was a favor to those who had been sacrificed.

Cautiously, he made his way towards the entrance of the building. The guard was slumped on the wall, snoring softly. The door was already falling off its hinges, so Ed had no trouble getting by it. Soon he was inside the spacious building, surprised at how easy his entrance had been. Not like he expected much resistance from an abandoned building, but still, things were rarely that simple. Once he was satisfied that he was completely alone, Ed pulled out a flashlight and began to survey his surroundings. He was in a fairly large room, bare and cold, with no windows and no furniture. It did, however, have a door, so he proceeded through it.

The rooms he continued to discover were dark and drafty, and he pulled his coat closer to himself. As confident as he had been earlier, there was something about this place that increasingly sent all his senses screaming for him to escape while he could. Pushing these unsettling feelings to the back of his mind, he focused on the task at hand. He just needed to find the lab where the philosopher stones were hidden. Down a dark corridor and towards a small, stone door, he felt that he was very close to the prize. The door was heavy but unlocked. He looked around, feeling a bit restless in the small space and the damp air. He knew from listening to the homunculi that pressing a certain stone opened a cabinet at the far end of the room…and a few minutes of wall-probing later, Ed was staring at a case of several philosopher stones.

The door behind him slammed shut. Edward yelped in surprise and pivoted to face whatever threat had finally discovered him. As an instinct, he simultaneously clicked off his flashlight, throwing the whole room into blackness. Due to the lack of draft, he could tell the door was closed. So. He was trapped in here with whomever or whatever stood before him. Being a skilled Alchemist was useful only when you could see what you were transmuting; Ed wished he had examined the room more closely beforehand...

A few tense moments passed, in which Edward stood still and the other being made no move to attack. Ed was confused at this hesitation but still hardly dared to breathe. The stranger eventually spoke.

"Welcome."

His voice was like half-frozen caramel; like melting glass…Edward didn't know quite how to describe it, but it chilled him to his bones. He decided he had no interest in hearing a speech; he had to make the first move, otherwise his opponent had all advantages. With a clap, bright blue light snaked and writhed around his arms as he prepared to transmute his automail arm into its trademark weapon form. He wasn't given the time. The stranger grabbed his metal arm with unexpected swiftness, and Edward watched in horror and bafflement as the transmutation light stopped its pulsing and absorbed into the other man's arm. It seemed to soak gradually into his skin and then it stopped, its blue light illuminating a large and muscular arm, then without warning shot like a glowing snake back along the path it came—back into Ed's automail. With a startled exclamation, he watched as the metal disfigured and came apart, proceeding to tear itself like silver paper caught in the blades of a fan.

Edward's mouth hung slightly agape, and his wide eyes refused to register the scattered metal that used to be an arm. His arm. Rage coursed through him, but he also felt the beginnings of fear. Without his arm, he could no longer perform alchemy, and that put him at a major disadvantage, especially considering his opponent's unexpected strength. Before he could make any decisions, he found himself unable to move: in the span of just three seconds, he had been bound by thick chords. He heard an icy chuckle.

"As I was saying, before you so rudely interrupted my—"

"It wasn't an interruption; you were at the end of a sentence," Ed said while squirming.

The man shoved a gag in his mouth.

"As I was saying, welcome. I've been waiting a long time for you. People are too scared of this place to go near it; I had run out of resources…you're a little small, but you'll do fine."

Ed grunted in response to the "small" comment. He shoved this anger aside for the moment and loomed over what the man had said. He put together what he knew: this was a laboratory, he was a specimen of sorts, he was unable to fight or use alchemy, and the man in front of him was most likely an Alchemist—with a ready supply of philosopher stones. Well, crap. He didn't really have to do the math to realize that his was not going well.

A prick on his arm. The world went black. It was an oblivion he would learn to long for.