Another Run of Events
Chapter Nine
Readmittance

- mirage -

In this small town, where they were undercover, the dream girl inside Havoc's mind, the one crafted via combination of the pinup he'd had in his locker since he was a recruit, with a few changes he'd mentally composed including slightly larger breasts, and tightly defined arms, had become a reality. Here this girl was his fiancé.

"She's a real sweet heart," Havoc said. "Long red hair, right to her butt. Butt like you only see in your dreams, breasts that were made for each hand, and she turns to me and says, James, James don't go. I'll miss you!" Havoc impersonated his fiancé in a high pitched tone, and his boss, Coach Greyman, started laughing. The coach, unlike the colonel, did not narrow his eyes into thin skeptical slits the girls in these stories were fictitious, or as the colonel put it, bullshit.

In many ways, the teaching career was beginning to overshadow the military career, and if it wasn't for the fact teachers did not get to carry guns, Havoc knew he would be slightly inclined to feel concerned over his life choice.

"How did you meet her?" Coach Greyman asked. The coach asked follow up questions, the colonel said: get away from my desk this second.

"A blind date."

Together they were coaching a volleyball game, but almost all students in the school were well behaved so it was more like watching a volleyball game.

"Nice ass, huh?"

"Cheeks that are out of this world." Havoc fell silent and looked off towards the game. The boys were playing happily, slamming the ball with their sneakers squeaking against the shinning floor as they chased it. "I am off in fifteen," Havoc said. It was habit to announce how soon he would be leaving, and it was habit for everyone in the office to ignore him.

"They're just going to play," the coach said, gesturing to the court. "Why don't you take off." The man gave an elaborate shrug, and glanced over with a warm crooked smile. "I think I know how to coach a volleyball game."

Havoc didn't need to hear this twice. He left for his office swinging his gym whistle and plopped down at his desk in high spirits. He would phone the colonel and let him know he was off early in case something was needed, since his true boss had not excused him, but in reach to the phone something oddly sharp and hostile jabbed his crotch with enough deliberate strength and precision he stopped all motion. Havoc looked down at the blade poking into the crease of his right thigh and right nut in shock, before realizing he recognized the blade. It was the finely pointed silver arrow head Fullmetal constructed on top of his automail arm. The flattened razor sharp metal extended well over the boy's fist and Havoc had seen Fullmetal use it to slice all sorts of things in battle, one of the most memorable, and most intimidating, had been a piece of braded cable over a foot in diameter used to anchor large artillery weapons in place.

Today, before Havoc could manage one word of fearful shock, Ed's small blonde head peeked out from below the desk. Ed looked up at Havoc with his cheek inches from the blade, and his head inches from Havoc's knees.

Havoc felt his mind fail to produce any type of explanation or reason for this situation to ever occur. For Ed ever to get so close to him in such an awkward position, and surely for any reason the boy would be rude enough to jab him in such a private and im-fucking-portant place! Havoc felt his brief curiosity, concern, and even fear blink away for a blunt and solid anger.

"What the hell are you doing?" Havoc asked, voice frosted with a merciless tone.

"If you want to keep your gems," Ed said softly, sounding hostile himself. "Then you better tell me who you are."

"What?" Havoc asked, lifting a slow eyebrow before glancing at the knife in his sack. "Ed, get that off my nut before I kick you in the face." Havoc told himself to relax, and closed his eyes tightly for the briefest second to reign himself in. There was something very specific about being taken hostage this way that, as he was now learning, made him all sorts of pissed.

With Havoc's order Ed's narrowed his eyes angrily and ignored the desire to look at Havoc's legs. Havoc was a solider, and although he fought with guns instead of alchemy, that didn't mean anything about whether or not he could, and Ed felt his threat level rise the same moment Havoc felt his drop.

Ed wasn't just sitting under his desk, Ed was curled under there, and in the overhead light, Havoc was beginning to notice things he hadn't upon the first knife-to-ball moment. "Ed, why are you under there?" Ed's forehead was shimmering with an unmistakable layer of stressful perspiration, and for some reason Ed was still wearing his gym clothes. "Are you injured under there?" Havoc asked, leaning his top half back to try and see.

Ed gave his blade the tiniest twitch when Havoc moved, and Havoc immediately stopped. "I was attacked," Ed said. If Havoc was an enemy there was no use hiding this information, Havoc would be in cahoots with the attacking party.

"What?" Havoc asked, twisting his expression as if with illness. Attacked how! Wasn't Ed with Mustang? "Chief, I thought you were with the boss."

Havoc looked innocent enough to Ed. Beneath the desk it was small, dark, uncomfortable, and Havoc seemed genuinely surprised with the information Ed had shared. He didn't look like an enemy. He didn't act wrong the way Hawkeye had acted wrong, and Ed felt like a fool for letting Roy realize it sooner when he was the one who let her in. Havoc seemed…dumbly genuine, and when Ed heard the word chief and boss fall so casually and perfectly from Havoc's lips he dropped his blade with a relieved sigh. Havoc did not seem to be an imposter.

Ed withdrew his attack, but Havoc was still a soldier. The minute the knife moved he grabbed Ed by the hair and yanked the boy out from under his desk. Ed wasn't sure what happened until he was face down and bent over it.

"What's the meaning of this Ed!" Havoc demanded, holding the automail arm against Ed's back with his second fisting into Ed's blonde hair and holding Ed's head flush to the desk.

"Ow!" Ed snapped, sounding annoyed until Havoc kicked his ankles apart and he felt the severity of the situation collide. Havoc had locked him into a traditional take down position. "I was attacked! I didn't know if I could trust you!"

"If you could trust me?" Havoc repeated, lifting his tone with insult and anger.

"Something happened to the colonel and the first lieutenant!" Ed let a grunt of discomfort escape him. There was a pencil under his face and with so much pressure on the back of his head, that tiny twig felt like a baseball bat. "They weren't right. They were imposters. They attacked me."

"The colonel attacked you?" Havoc was startled and immediately released Ed's head and reached for the phone.

"Don't call him!" Ed cried, lifting his head in panic. The pencil stuck to his face for a moment before dropping off and rolling away leaving only the intense smell of lead. "Are you really that freaking dumb Havoc!" Ed tried to push up but Havoc wasn't giving him any slack. "Let me up!" Havoc hesitated. "Havoc!" Ed snapped, with a bit of outrage. "What happened to that we're on the same side sap! I order you to let me up!"

Havoc was hesitating with uncertainty, and felt a pang of annoyance with that statement. "You going to keep all your metal to yourself?" he asked, retracting the foot he had in between Ed's legs, and relaxing his grip even as he asked.

"Scouts freaking honor," Ed grumbled miserably, standing up and bending his neck toward either shoulder before cracking it. "What a bust," Ed complained.

Havoc sat back in his desk chair and waited for more information. Ed was rubbing his neck before the cheek which had been forced into the desk. "So what happened?" Havoc asked. "The last time I saw you was in the nurse's office."

"She took me to the principal's office, and Roy came and got me." Ed turned to face Havoc and leaned into the desk. "He was acting odd, not himself, very…." Ed thought the most appropriate description was overprotective, and in a gay sort of way, but that was hard to explain. "Naggy." He decided that would have to do. "And…" Nice. Supportive. Helpful. A Freaking Knight In Shinning Armor! The Person I Was Hoping To All Hope Would Come! "Just…not himself." Ed broke eye contact feeling embarrassed with memory of this afternoon.

First, there was what actually happened in the principal's office and how unbelievably freaking embarrassing that was. Briefly the thought he should have told Roy not to tell anyone and to exclude it from the report, flittered through Ed's mind. He didn't really want that written down, even if it was done politely.

Second, there was leaving the principal's office, and how crazy it was to think of him practically, let's be honest, hugging Roy's waist in some type of frantic desperation, with Roy yelling at the principal and keeping that kind grip on his shoulder.

There was the painful walk of shame outside, where he couldn't get a grip on himself and in humiliation left his face turned into Roy's side for privacy. Roy's comments to him, Roy's un-Roy like nice talk, the not-at-all-like-the-colonel soft tone Roy had used and very un-colonel-like-things Roy said including saying he was proud. Ed felt stung with the memory of Roy saying he was proud of him while he stood sniveling and struggling with a little spanking like a two year old.

"Principal Sallsbury get you?" Havoc asked, ripping Ed from his consuming thoughts and the blank trance he'd slipped into. Havoc was rocking his chair thoughtfully with a serious expression. "She reminds me a little of Hawkeye in the way I wouldn't want to cross her." Ed thought of imposter Hawkeye slapping him and shuddered.

"Yeah," Ed muttered. Roy was probably going to have to put everything in their damn report. "It wasn't anything I couldn't handle," Ed said quickly, hoping his voice sounded more convincing to Havoc than it did to him. Alphonse would have laughed with how outrageously his lie sounded. "She was all pissed off and Roy showed up in the middle, and we let her have it." Havoc wasn't good at reporting things word for word like Hawkeye, so Ed was hopeful this wouldn't get back to Roy the way he was saying it. He didn't need Roy to know how embarrassed he was even if he'd deny it to his grave. "We left and the colonel started getting weirder in the parking lot." Havoc looked confused. "Things he'd say were unlike him, then when we were getting into the car, and I always get in first, there was a fire array on his door handle and I stopped him before he could touch it."

Havoc looked perplexed with this style of fact less reporting until this detail came charging through. "He would have touched it?" Havoc sounded scared for all of them. "How detailed was it? Was it something like the colonel makes?"

"It was powerful." Ed left it at that. "It wasn't the colonel's work, but it was made to fuel on fire. We went back to the house, separated for only a minute and then Hawkeye came. She was worse than him."

"More arrays?"

"She was dead in your face an imposter. They both came at me so I ran, and I ran straight here because I didn't know where else to go." Hawkeye's POA said the market was the fall back, but that was a much farther run than the school.

"Then we should go," Havoc said confidently. "If you came here, it's likely who ever is chasing you might as well. We don't want to cause a commotion here." Havoc stood from his chair and Ed felt a breath of fresh air come over him when a team member still seemed ready and able. "If they really do know what you say they know, enough to draw an array with that type of skill, and to decoy as Hawkeye, then they'll know I am here." Ed gave a fast nod. He had come to that conclusion as well.

"That's why I was hiding!" Ed gestured to the desk and Havoc gave this decision a thumbs up.

"A fire array," Havoc said, grabbing his keys from the desk. Ed kept nodding. Yes! A fire array! A fire array for the fire colonel! "What do they think they're being funny?" Havoc asked. "Think it's ironic or something?"

Ed threw a thumb over his shoulder. "Let's go check out 3G. We know next to nothing on our man and he or they seem to know a lot about us."

Havoc looked worried with that suggestion. "Chief you think that's a good idea with out any backup? It didn't go well last time."

"I think if we don't find out what we need to know we won't be able to find our backup," Ed said irritably. Yes, that was the bigger issue here. On one hand there was the very real and dangerous fact that the colonel and Hawkeye could no longer be trusted and were armed and probably lethal, but there was also the quiet more alarming issue. If Roy and Hawkeye were imposters, than…where were the real ones?

Havoc and Ed snuck down the school hallway, and after the school day the stillness that settled over the place was eerie. Quickly they returned to 3G. It was the locked door with construction tape and warning signs amidst the singed hallway. Orange cones and two saw horses had even been included to properly quarantine the area so no one walked too close while the floor showed the warping ripple effect of heat blasting into it. The last transmutation to go off was no laughing matter, and from this angle it really did look like a bomb.

"I am going to open the door," Ed said, easily fitting in between the saw horses and ripping the construction tape down with his automail. "But I can't go in, you go in." Havoc nodded and watched Ed clear away the yellow vinyl stripes and signs before grasping the doorknob. Ed smirked when it was locked. "From one alchemist to another." Ed gave a small clap and took hold of the knob again. Havoc heard the lock inside fall apart just with Ed's grasp, and Ed ripped open the door and stopped.

They were expecting a damaged version of the room they'd seen earlier. The papers perhaps cleaned out entirely in what would have been large soggy mounds. The desk taken away because it had split into two pieces right down the middle like a fault line giving way. They expected this imposter employee would have tried to tidy up things because that would have been understandable. So part of the blast might have been wiped up, wet belongings wiped down and set to dry, the window marked heavily for students to be aware of the danger, but instead there was none of that. In the place of 3G was a solid brick wall behind the entrance door.

"What?" Ed whispered, reaching up and laying his palm on the wall. "This doesn't make any sense." Havoc watched Ed stroke his palm to the side and noticed none of the mortar even moved. Ed seemed not to notice, and Havoc didn't mention it seemed impossible for the wall to have just been built based on the fact it was dry.

"Ed, let's go," Havoc said, feeling unsettled, incredibly unsettled, as if they were standing in a haunted mansion.

"Would they have done this for construction purposes?" Ed asked, backing up and clapping.

"Ed! Don't!" Havoc reached forward and grabbed Ed's shoulder.

"I want to see what's beyond it Havoc," Ed said, extending his open palms for the wall. "I'll fix it just the way it was after." This wasn't the problem, Havoc wasn't so sure he wanted to see what was beyond it. Somehow it felt as if they were biting off more than they could chew. That there was a very important and strangely specific clue they should have picked up on in order to make sense of this but they had missed it, and so none of it was coming together. Should they have infiltrated differently? Maybe, brought outside help? Looked further into the administration of the school? Deeper into ownership? The military did have secrets, could they have something buried within this school? A test within a test? Something to provoke them to see how they'd perform?

Ed laid his hands on the brick, and it gave way to a gapping hole into the outside landscaping. There was no room, no walls, no floor, no cement outline or providing foundation. Ed cleared away the brick as if he were installing a window and they both looked out into the lawn and mulch with shock.

Havoc staggered back and his right hand dropped to his hip grasping air and wishing he were wearing his gun. "Ed, back up from there," he ordered, glancing up and down the hall. They were leaving. Ed was leaning out the hole he'd made and staring at the lawn. 3G had disappeared as if it had never existed. "Ed!" Havoc barked, closing his fist along side his hip vowing to go and get his gun. "Get over here now!"

Ed's head jerked around when Roy's voice saying the exact same phrase flew threw him. Roy had said this minutes after hugging him the way the colonel never had, and only seconds after Hawkeye had slapped him. Now there was only Havoc, someone Ed was trusting completely, and if jeopardized, could put him in a lot of danger.

Havoc saw a look of uncertain anxiety cross Ed's face and threw up his hands. "Dammit Ed, it's me! It's Havoc, Jean Havoc," Havoc said, giving his chest two fist pounds like an angry ape. "You came to me, remember?"

Ed stepped back from the wall and closed the brick feeling isolated and abandoned. Without Alphonse there was no one he could trust completely, and just as he was deciding to stay on the offense, and trust no one to stay safe, Havoc spoke.

"I like chicks," Havoc said, happily. "I like chicks, all types, all heights." Ed stepped away from the wall feeling blindsided with this new topic. "I like long long legs, legs sky high." Havoc lifted a hand slowly as if caressing the thigh of an invisible woman and smiled. Here Havoc paused, and Ed's mind continued this mantra because he had heard it before.

"I like butts," Ed said, continuing Havoc's speech.

Two days after Ed had joined the military, a day and a half after Roy tossed his alchemist watch to him and welcomed him with a smirk that said: You have no idea what you're getting yourself into, and twenty minutes after Ed had been forced into a locker room filled with soldiers taller, more muscular, and more experienced than him, and expected to disrobe and shower with them because that was normal and what soldiers did after the training run he had been included on, a tall blonde soldier reporting to the colonel he reported to saved him.

Jean Havoc, who stood in a towel smoking inside the steam filled locker room of loud talking, crude joke telling, profanity loving soldiers ,watched the young boy Hawkeye told him passed the state alchemist test with flying colors. The kid would be working under Mustang, his boss, and Havoc wasn't sure how he felt about that.

He wanted the boy strip at the speed of light while huddled next to his locker, wrap a towel around his waist with a grip that said it was a parachute, and then stare with something between a look of horror and paralyzing embarrassment toward the shower room where everyone looked so very different, in a heated debate as to whether or not we could suck it up and do this.

Havoc had decided if the little guy was brave enough to give it a go, then the little guy would be okay in his book, but if the kid chickened out, he didn't want to see him again for a good six to eight years.

While Ed would remember this day slightly differently than Havoc, Havoc would clearly remember that final deciding nod and nervous swallow Ed made before starting toward the showers like a ring leader approaching a foreign lion so he could insert his head.

Havoc stopped Ed after two feet by dropping a large and heavy hand onto a petite and slender shoulder.

"Hey there, where do you think you're going?" Havoc asked kindly. Ed looked up with confusion and something between concern Havoc was going to tease him, and hope Havoc would be nice. Havoc's smile widened and he showed Ed the nearly full water bottle he had been drinking. "Looks like you've already showered." Havoc turned the bottle upside down over Ed's head, and slapped the boy's back when the water plastered Ed's long hair to his skull and sent the boy coughing. "No need to go up there Chief."

That day Havoc gave Ed a get out of jail free card, and Ed forever listed Havoc as A-Okay. Directly after that event, when Havoc tossed the empty water bottle aside and extended his hand he said two things. "My name is Jean Havoc." And the second was the Havoc mantra which started with, I like Chicks.

"Oh god, a good butt," Havoc said continuing from Ed's line flawlessly. "Sometimes that's all you need.

"A little chest isn't so bad either," Ed said, and Havoc laughed.

"Yes! A little chest is not so bad either, a lot of chest, not so bad either. I'll tell you once, and because it's true, a good woman's all you'll need."

Standing in the school hallway Havoc reminded Ed why he ever decided to trust the tall fun-loving, woman-hungry fool, by cleverly confirming he was one of the Good Guys and not the Bad Guys.

"You really don't know what happened to the colonel or Hawkeye?" Havoc asked, abandoning his playful tone for one far more serious.

Ed gave his head a disappointed shake. "No."

"Okay," Havoc said firmly, as if not the least bit bothered. "Than until we do, it's you and me, and don't you forget it." Havoc extended his fist and Ed painlessly punched it with his own. They were now a team. "I don't want anymore threats on Little Jean, got it?" Havoc said, lifting a finger.

Ed smiled. "Got it."


Roy tossed a few bloody dollars onto the market checkout counter and Fuery looked down at them with surprised confusion. "I'd like a pack of cigarettes," Roy said, voice tired and overrun.

Fuery hid the fast look of alarm which swept his feature poorly, and gestured to the back. "We're all out upfront, let me take you to the back." I'd like a pack of cigarettes, this phrase was written into Hawkeye's POA as a code.

Fuery stepped from behind the counter wearing a green polo, brown market apron, and jeans, and led Roy into the back familiar room of produce and canned good pallets. "What happened?" Fuery asked immediately. Roy had kept his posture as straight as possible but he felt achy from the velocity of the blast, and the dash out the window. He hated to admit it but he felt like saying, I am getting too old for this. He wasn't the young guns man he once was, and his frame and muscles now seemed shocked with sudden leaps through glass windows the way they once were not.

"Hawkeye attacked me," Roy said. That was not how he planned to start his report. He planned to start correctly, stating the location and number of his attackers, but instead he blurted this simple phrase because her blank cold stare was burning in his memory. The look of her, the not-her was powerfully unsettling, and it begged the question where was the first lieutenant? Where was his right hand woman who would not have gone down without a fight. Who would have emptied every last shell and left on foot to warn them, before letting this happen. Was she safe? Was she hurt? Was she conscious? Something strong had come forward if its talent was great enough to come close to her for that final blow, for even a weak poorly executed first. Her imposter had walked into their foyer as if it had owned the place, and then there was of course Fullmetal.

Yes, Fullmetal, the bullheaded boy who had been prancing around the military practically in diapers, in full denial he was in diapers, and demanded he be treated equal to the heavy drinking, chain smoking, female fucking soldiers he wanted to work with, because he decided he was now, at his young age, like them. Or not like them, or only like them when Ed approved of what they were doing, and not like them when they were goofing off and busting in on each other and shooting blanks to scare the living daylights out of teammates. Or sabotaging lockers with provocative male porn as practical jokes, or using black sharpie markers to change uniform last names, traditionally printed on the right breast pocket, from Fagool to Faggot, from Duslbar to Dushbag, and laughing when the unsuspecting John was confronted by a higher-up for being Officer Dushbag, or Lieutenant Faggot.

Then, Ed was firmly opposed to being one of them, no in fact then he was an alchemist, and the stupid things Edward did, which included running and yelling in the halls, picking up cafeteria food for scrutiny when he did not know what this speck was, or that speck was, sometimes laughing when he should not laugh, sometimes becoming angry when he should not become angry, often times not understanding forms or state policy and completing all of them with the handwriting of a preteen, all of those did not count. Edward would never understand why snickering during a meeting when someone described the building as remaining erect, was the same as writing Officer Dushbag. Edward did not see these things, no, it was Mustang, it was him who was made to see these things. To sit at his desk and look at the bunch of clowns running about under his reign who could, on demand, snap into some of the most skilled sharp shooters, and grounds men, and alchemists he wanted to say he'd ever seen. It was only in between those periods of skill and grace they acted like the young men they were and threw things at one another, and drew on their sleeping pals, and laughed during meetings, and submitted incomplete paperwork with the penmanship of two year olds.

Since day one Edward had believed he was set apart, and whether appropriate or not, consistently tried to force that to be true. As a young boy he faced generals who were sick of him, adults who felt exhausted and insulted by his presence, people who didn't want to deal with him, female soldiers who wanted to coddle him, and a colonel who made things strict on purpose to whip him into shape. Ed tried to rise to every challenge and never act like the child he was. So, Roy had to consider the very real possibility that although Hawkeye's presence had been a stone cold doll of his first lieutenant who failed to display the compassion Hawkeye could not, as a human, seem to remove from her soul, that Edward, might too be an imposter and simply be blundering in a different way.

Was it possible Edward would become as upset as he did today and do the things he had? Hell, the boy was hanging onto his waist like a toddler on his mother's leg. Ed had started crying, continued crying, and allowed him to take the boy's hand, and then later in the living room, for them to hug. Was that right? Fullmetal crying? Whining? Hugging? On all accounts that didn't sound like the Fullmetal Alchemist, but then what about him? He was the Flame Alchemist. How about his hugging? His leading subordinates who were half his size by the hand friendly like? That didn't sound like the Roy Mustang he knew. Was it possible he was responding to the new situation like Ed was? In a very different, and also very unusual way, because it was so unusual? Or was the Ed clinging to him and crying to him a fake, something to distract him? Hawkeye had revealed her fallacy immediately, because she couldn't fool him, but if he encountered Ed again, the way things panned out, he'd be inclined to immediately trust the boy. So perhaps her piss poor performance was similar to a boxer taking a dive to make Edward more real?

Roy raked his hand over his face. He didn't know what was what anymore. Inside his mind he felt he had lost the entire lobby. There wasn't even ground to stand on.

"Sir?" Fuery was concerned with the silent trance Mustang seemed to have slipped into. "Are you all right? You didn't hit your head did you?" Mustang looked a bit dirty as if maybe he'd decided to weed a garden before dropping by, but nothing appeared to be bleeding. "Sir?"

Mustang turned to Fuery and considered his soldier. Under these circumstances, how was he supposed to know Fuery was in fact still on his side, or really Fuery at all?"

"I set our home base on fire," Roy said, watching carefully for Fuery's response.

Fuery choked, looking shocked. "What in heaven's name for?"

"The first lieutenant is at this time an imposter and not to be trusted." Fuery looked blown away. "Our enemy seems capable of infiltrating us and doing so by disguising their appearance as one of us." This only meant one thing, and he was not happy he was going to have to say it.

"What?" Fuery now looked lost.

"So that being said, how do I know you are actually Lieutenant Fuery?" Roy asked casually. He was still wearing his ammunition glove, so he was not nervous about possibly calling out another one.

Fuery's look of surprised dropped to perplexed confusion. "Well I don't know what to tell you sir."

Roy was not expecting this response.

Of all responses he could have received, well I don't' know what to tell you? Was that even appropriate considering the weight of the discussion. Roy opened his mouth to address this, to coach Fuery into what he should have said if he were in fact his lieutenant, when from the back door, the same back door they had parked in front of when Havoc's jar exploded in Ed's hands, there was a loud sudden banging.

"Fuery! Open up it's Havoc!" Havoc kept banging even as he spoke and Fuery rushed to the door.

Roy stood quickly feeling alarmed with the increase in people outnumbering him. One imposter he could take, but he didn't want to test his luck with two when loosing that fight meant offering an imposter-Roy to the rest of his team, or who knew what else.

Fuery unlocked the back door and Havoc charged in and rested his hands on his knees panting. "Thanks," Havoc said, catching his breath. "I ran all the way here. Our base fell apart."

"I know!" Fuery cried, looking worried. "The colonel just got me up to speed!"

"The colonel?" Havoc's head jerked up and he looked at Roy with an expression of defensive aggression. "That's not the real colonel, the colonel is an imposter," Havoc said firmly. He stood up and snatched the large ice pick sitting precariously at his side on a pallet of peas.

"I am the real colonel," Roy said angrily.

"That's exactly what I'd expect the fake colonel to say!" Havoc snapped, giving the ice pick an angry swipe through the air. Roy considered how that was a rather cliché comment, but he couldn't help his direct honesty sounded a bit silly given the context. "Fuery we have to leave, and we're leaving him here," Havoc said, taking a step back towards the door.

"Havoc don't be stupid," Roy snapped, feeling real agitation come. So now he was being left behind! "Could a real colonel use this glove?" He lifted his fire hand, but Havoc was glaring at him like a rabid dog.

"How should I know? Go ahead, and try it and see. Show me you can. Blow the place if you think you can mimic the colonel's skill at even a fraction of his talent. Then while you're frying I'll rip this up through your stomach and watch you guts sizzle like fat in a pan."

Fuery looked severely disturbed with the darker side of Havoc and was gapping. Roy had to admit, he was impressed and glanced at the intimidating metal hook. Havoc looked like he'd do it.

"O-Okay guys," Fuery said, lifting a hand as if Havoc needed to be calmed down. "Let's just take things a step at a time and talk this out."

Roy pointed irritably at Fuery. "If I am a fake, how do you know he's not one?" he asked. Dumb Havoc. Havoc glanced nervously at Fuery who was gapping with this accusation.

"Colonel you know I am not! We were just talking!"

"If you suspect me you should also suspect him, I might simply be a decoy so you take him along. We might be planning to meet up and take you on together," Roy said angrily. "You need to think your actions through when you're not working off tactical plans Havoc." This had always been Havoc's weakness. They had gone over this a thousand times. "If you applied this much enthusiasm at the office we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

Havoc lowered the ice pick with a bit of surprise. "Colonel?" Havoc asked suspiciously. That sounded like the boss.

"Don't lower that now," Roy said irritably. "I could be a good fake!"

"Colonel!" Havoc cheered happily. "It's great to see you boss. I ran right here from the school, and I brought something." Havoc stepped back and opened the door. He Havoc stepped half out, made a fist, flashed two fingers, pointed toward himself, and made an O with his hand.

"What the heck is that?" Fuery asked. "That's no code I've ever seen."

"It's the bro code," Havoc said, staring out into the thickening evening. With the sun setting the night was sweeping over the town, and the wind was picking up. From the rustling bushes outlining the landscaping of the back parking lot a small form, which became Fullmetal, broke into a run charging toward the door. "My team in boot camp made it and all of us know how to use it," Havoc said, slamming the door behind Ed. "So I showed him one."

Ed charged in under Havoc's arm shivering and staggered to an immediate haut, which almost had him tripping flat on his face, on sight of Roy. "Colonel!" Ed cried, fumbling back and flat into Havoc who, in less than a second, locked Ed's flesh wrist in his grasp and yanked it behind his back while jerking the ice pick up to Ed's neck like captain hook holding Wendy hostage. "Whoa! Easy Havoc!" Ed cried, dropping his wide startled gaze to the sharp hook teasing his jaw line.

"Show me," Havoc ordered, dropping to a cold merciless tone. "Everyone in this room is who they say they are, except for maybe you."

Roy glanced at Fuery. Apparently Havoc felt Fuery was cleared simply because Fuery was with him, and was so convinced with his exasperated office comment his interrogation had stopped. Now watching Havoc poke Ed in the face with a hook large enough to hang a fat seal, Roy was just realizing how serious Havoc was taking this and he was again impressed. Havoc's light hearted nature often down played tough times. This made it hard to tell if Havoc was failing to grasp situation severity, or simply using what seemed to be a natural coping finesse.

"Okay," Ed whispered. This was Havoc's finesse. "But I can't with my arm held behind my back. You have to let my hand go."

"Keep the palms separated," Havoc said firmly, releasing Ed's grasp. Ed lifted his hands slowly as if at gun point. "It won't kill you for this to poke up through your jaw Ed, but it will hurt like a son of a bitch, and you'll bleed just like a fish."

Ed closed his eyes and broke a nervous smile. "I am aware." Ed bent his head forward slowly, and kept his hands perfectly visible. Havoc let this position hang for a moment, before quickly repositioning his right hand to drag Ed's tee shirt up his back so high Mustang though Havoc was taking it off. Then, with Ed's shirt up about his neck, Havoc looked over Ed's back before dropping the ice pick and tossing it to the side.

"Good to have you," Havoc said, giving Ed's back a kind slap. Ed went forward a step and breathed a relieved sigh. "That's the real colonel and lieutenant."

Roy locked eyes with Ed and he could see Ed's skepticism. Ed kept close to Havoc's side. "Until I feel confident you're both not fakes, all of you except for Havoc can kiss my ass," Ed said firmly. "And colonel, it feels great to say that while there are no repercussions."

"Wipe that smirk off your face," Roy snapped. With the excitement he'd risen a bit from his seat, and now he let his weight sink back down for rest.

"Let me get you guys some water, and Ed do you want some…bandages or something?" Fuery asked, glancing at Ed's disheveled appearance and wounded flesh arm and leg. Ed appeared to have hit the lawn outside their false home as forcefully as Roy had and grass stains were evident leading from Ed's knees almost to his ankles. Part of him was also coated in something of cobwebs that seemed more fitting for an old attic. Like Roy Ed looked tired. "Maybe some water?"

"If you leave our sight you're a liability," Havoc said flatly.

"Okay," Fuery said, tossing his hands in a fed up gesture. "Have you all lost it? You're reports are so lackluster you have to understand from where I am standing, you all sound insane."

"We're not idiots, just because no ones saying it doesn't mean we're all not thinking it," Ed said, giving Fuery a quick glance as if to imply all but Fuery were thinking it. " The only way to explain it is to assume there are Homunculi in the area," Ed said, taking a seat on the pallet of peas Havoc had retrieved his weapon from. "They're the only ones capable of imitating a persons likeness to the quality Hawkeye was impersonated."

"But we've all read that report Ed," Fuery said.

Yes, they all knew about the Homunculi. In fact Roy remembered a very clear conversation outside of Edward's hospital room where Hawkeye told him, in a low whisper, how dangerous she believed those things were for a boy who, in his medically induced sleep, had called for his mother.

Roy remembered sympathizing with Hawkeye's concerns in the exact same moment he felt regret and irritation wash over him. He never should have let her in the room to see Ed to begin with. He never should have left her alone with him. After he swept open Ed's hospital room door and found his youngest alchemist unconscious and drooling, he had left angrily to find the doctor. Behind, he left Hawkeye, who had stepped around him with an entranced stare locked on Ed. Surely the tiny little boy sleeping all alone and bandaged was not the one they were sending out on missions. When Roy had returned, not five minutes later after being told Ed was put under and would not wake up for at least an hour, she had been sitting on the side of his bed. The crisp formality of her military uniform screaming against the child print pajamas Fullmetal had been dressed in.

"This isn't good for him," Hawkeye had said, after pulling Roy from the room with a firm point to the door. "Sir, you need to take into account how old Edward actually is and be reasonable."

All Edward had done was twitch in his sleep, jerking his flesh hand enough to curl his fingers and toss his head to the side. In barely an audible whisper he had uttered the word 'mom' and sitting at his side Hawkeye had felt part of her heart break in a moment of overwhelming sadness.

Roy had felt a very different part of him break when she explained this to him. It was caught somewhere between guilt he had left her in a such a sensitive environment knowing something like this could happen when she was already harboring a natural soft spot for the boy, and the sensation of being flat out repulsed with how unfair it was. How overwhelming the relentless demands, both involuntarily and often without Ed's knowledge, Ed's age brought Roy within his command. This was yet again something that would have to be handled differently. He couldn't just strut off and say, "handle it" the way he could with soldiers of soldier age who conducted soldier-age routines which were well known by everyone. Handling that was easy, because it was routine everyone trained for, it was routine everyone had practice with. No, instead he put two guards outside Ed's room, and spent a small fortune in toys he allowed the boy to expense. Then somewhere in between the puzzles, books, and action figures, Ed wrote a report about what he had seen, heard, and witnessed, and they all read it.

So there was only one. Only one shape shifter.

"If there is only one who can morph like that, then there can always only ever be one imposter, right?" Fuery asked, sounding perplexed they were trying to shoot holes in the theory they'd already voted on.

Roy admitted he found this part confusing. Earlier it seemed Hawkeye and Fullmetal were both imposters, but was that true if there could only be one? Hands down she was, but was that really Fullmetal in the parking lot? Really Fullmetal in the school? Was it really possible the events of the day had pushed Ed to that point and allowed him to drop his guard, or perhaps more accurately, be unable to carry it any longer and simply break down? That had been what he was encouraging wasn't it? He had told Ed if he was needed, he would listen, hadn't he?

So maybe it was possible Ed finally had that moment. Maybe it was possible that cooped up like this, where Ed wasn't able to waltz in and out to do whatever he did to remain cocky and badass, that this was what happened. That was possible. Ed had been uprooted and severed from all of his comfort items. Alphonse was back in Central, the town, school, and environment were entirely foreign. They were being forced into close quarters that put them in new and slightly awkward situations. How old was Ed? Was it possible for a fourteen year old boy, no, a fourteen year old Alchemist to loose it after a stressful afternoon and start crying in some form of desperate defeated exhaustion? The same fourteen year old alchemist who typically had a chip as fat and opinionated as their top generals resting on his shoulder?

With Havoc making sarcastic comments about how they'd all read the same report and so you didn't have to ask questions in that type of tone to Fuery, Roy tried to decipher what he would have done as a fourteen year old in Ed's place. He had been fourteen once, and so he knew that fourteen year old boys could cry, but that it was a selective and safe guarded event usually broken into two categories. 1. You are the only person I would ever think of doing this in front of, and 2. I'd die before you see me weak. Wasn't he in group two with Fullmetal? Wouldn't Ed prefer to die before crying in front of the great Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang?

Roy glanced over at Ed. Ed was reciting what he knew about their shape shifting enemy with annoyed hand gestures because Havoc and Fuery were speaking at the same time. One repeating that yes Ed, we've all read the damn report, and one asking again well how is that possible if you're saying there is only one shape shifter!

Ed certainly looked as if he revered everyone in the room to be in class two. But then again, there was the night light, that subtle goodnight Ed muttered to Roy after saying goodnight to Alphonse, and the request to sleep in the same room that particular nightmarish evening. Since last week they had begun holding conversations through the bathroom door if one was showering, and preparing dinners of odd Ed-inspired combinations. Like this they shared a unique and peaceful enjoyment that came only from hollowing out baked potatoes to fill them with honey smoked baked beans and loading the top with cottage cheese to make bean-cheese-porritos. Or making grilled cheese sandwiches and using each sandwich as a top and bottom bun for a hamburger to make grilled-cheese-hamburgers which they simply referred to as monsters. Maybe these things, these very important things, could move someone from class 2 to class 1. Maybe these things allowed you to fill social voids, and so who was to say what was real anymore? Who was to say how many imposters there were, and how many of them were simply loosing their marbles in the afternoon!

"One! One! One!" Ed was holding up a single finger with his voice raised in hopes to silence Fuery and Havoc. "There is only one! Why would I write one in the report if there was more than one!"

"Ed, I think you can safely stop referencing your godly report," Havoc snapped. "Even I read it cover to cover."

"You two don't realize you're agreeing and trying to contradict yourselves at the same time," Fuery said, now arms crossed over his chest with irritation. "I am going to grab us some supplies and then we'll leave."

"No, you can't leave our sight!" Havoc snapped, grabbing Fuery's shoulder when he stepped back. "One or ten imposters, we still have those homunculi running around!" Fuery gave an exasperated sigh and dropped his arms. "Hold still and I'll…" Havoc glanced around before grabbing a pen off the inventory clipboard left on the pallet of canned mushrooms. "I'll draw something on you." Havoc uncapped the pen.

"Really," Fuery said flatly, sounding like a recruit who was used to finding himself and his things drawn on while in boot camp. Officer FurryCrotch, would you mind explaining your nametag!

Having never spent more than a few isolated training exercises within boot camp, Ed was quick with this suggestion and broke a smile. "Draw something stupid like a pony-a unicorn. Draw a pansy unicorn."

Fuery extended his arm when Havoc was bringing the pen to it and sighed again with Ed's suggestion. "Really guys?"

"Oh, come on man," Havoc said cheerfully, tone of someone used to doing the drawing. Havoc drew what Roy assumed was supposed to be a unicorn but looked more like a jellyfish with a broadsword in it's head, and then yanked Fuery's rolled up cuff over it. "Okay, you're good man, go." Havoc gave Fuery's back a slap and Fuery left.

"Is that what he did to you?" Roy asked Ed, recognizing Havoc's concealment of Fuery's new tattoo to mean Havoc was investigation Ed's back for a similar mark when Ed first arrive.

"Yeah," Havoc said, gesturing to Ed who was now sitting slouched on the pallet of Stuffed Mushrooms looking beat. "High up on his back so he couldn't touch it."

"They can imitate us, but not the parts they don't know," Ed said, before rolling his shoulders a bit uncomfortably. "But…instead of pen he used dirt."

"Suck it up man," Havoc teased.

Ed smiled with the kind joke before sending his gaze thoughtfully to Roy. The colonel looked tired and a bit rusty as if his joints and reflexes were slower with so many cogs missing from their team. "I met your fake today Roy," Ed said. Roy looked over and lifted an inquisitive eyebrow. "He was nice."

"I met yours today," Roy said, breaking a wide toothy grin. "He was a baby."

Ed soured and lost eye contact for a brief minute before recovering with a sarcastic hmp of a grunt. "Can't compare to the real deal, what can I say." Ed rubbed his fingernails to his chest in jest, and Roy had to smile. With things calming down he took his fire glove off and peeled his shirt over his head so he could bandage his wounds. The bleeding horizontal stripe on his arm registered on Ed's face immediately. "Hawkeye shot you?" Ed asked, sounding surprised.

Roy set his shirt aside and turned a thoughtful eye to Ed. "She did," he said slowly. "How did you know that?" Was that really Fullmetal in the living room? Did the boy really get so nervous he jumped out the window and ran?

Ed shrugged quickly, lips twitching as he frantically fought for a comeback. "Hawkeye seems trigger happy." Roy visually studied Ed, captivated with the thought of moving from category 2 to category 1, and with that, understanding Ed was with him all afternoon until they accidentally separated. Ed seemed to sense these thoughts and began to squirm under Roy's penetrating gaze. "Stop looking at me like that," Ed snapped.

Fuery returned with everything they'd need but Ed wasn't appeased. "Don't we have a better fall back position or something for a time of crises!" Ed asked angrily.

"You're sitting on the only one." Havoc gestured to Ed's pallet with the ice pick. "We're in our fall back position. Why do you think we left the school and came here."

"Then it's likely Hawkeye will show up here too," Ed said, keeping his tone thoughtful and controlled, but inside it Roy heard something he'd never heard before. He was able to hear Edward's true tone behind the façade. I don't know why I don't like gym, I just don't. Ed was worried about Hawkeye, and not just worried, he missed her.

After speaking Ed lowered his gaze to his left automail knee and rubbed it gently remembering Hawkeye. It was like watching pure metal corrode. Her kind face turned into something else, her touch which had always been soft and almost flighty in that feminine sense, became unyielding and mean. With one grip she had caused a lot of pain, and in her eyes, she did not care. Ed remembered her transformation clearly, it was eerie. "How will we know she's real?" Ed asked, sounding worried. He'd let that fake in once, hadn't he?

"I'll know," Roy said firmly. "I'll know just by looking at her." The same way he knew the moment she stepped over the threshold she was danger. Fuery brought an alcohol soaked wipe to Roy's shoulder and cleaned away the blood. Havoc gave Ed a teasing wiggle of his eyebrows after that statement. It was a real, They Get It On, joke, and Ed looked relieved with his own confidence in Roy's Hawkeye-Meter.

"Sides," Havoc said, chuckling a bit. "Can't exactly ask her to start peeling her clothes off, can we." Havoc chuckled and Ed followed. "So we can draw on her." The snickering increased.

"Havoc," Roy snapped. "Edward." He shot them both disapproving glances of disgust. "That's the first lieutenant you're discussing." Was a time of crisis now a breeding ground for perverted humor! And Ed had been in Havoc's sole presence for what, an hour?

Fuery wrapped Roy's bullet slice and although the wound was rekindled and alive with pain, it was the healthy pain of a clean and bandaged wound instead of one which bled and stuck to your clothing like a wet patch of scalp. Fuery had brought medical supplies in one of the small cheap wicker baskets the market sat bakery items in, and after cleaning Roy's wounds was packing it back together when Havoc interrupted him.

"Just where do you think you're taking that?" Havoc asked kindly, pausing Fuery in his work.

"We got injuries too pal," Ed said, reaching for the basket.

Havoc dropped the windbreaker jacket he wore before his shirt and Ed was rolling up his flesh pant leg to reveal a nice bit of blood.

"How'd you get those?" Fuery asked, looking mildly sympathetic. Fuery had once seen a soldier take a bullet in the neck at an upward angle. Roy was there when the man collapsed into Fuery's arms coughing and spitting up blood like a fountain. It was a quick and fatal wound, and with the soldier's body sputtering and twitching the bullet came flopping up the man's throat and pegged Fuery in the chest. Now everything less significant than choking up your own bullet never moved the man. Although Fuery became concerned Roy appreciated how when the blood started flowing Fuery was a rock.

"Glass," Havoc said. His wounds were older, but the bandaging was still very real.

"I only skinned it," Ed said, flesh leg looking as if he'd wadded through a tomato sauce river.

Roy flexed his bandaged arm and stood up. "All right." He assumed command with voice alone. "We obviously have an enemy here, and I don't plan on sitting around and waiting for it to strike again."

The team looked motivated with this. "Yeah but sir, not waiting around means splitting up," Fuery said.

"Which is something we're going to have to deal with," Roy said, dismissing this concern quickly. "Our first obstacle will require obtaining transportation." All three soldiers looked confused and Roy cleared his throat a bit bashfully. "Hawkeye had the car." All three soldiers gave sour, almost scolding looks. Really colonel? "So since we need one and can't get in touch with Central, we're going to have to steal one."

Ed's expression immediately bled over with confusion. Oh the novis he was. "Isn't that breaking the law?" Ed asked, glancing between them for reassurance he wasn't crazy, and as good guys they didn't break the law.

"Yes," Roy said calmly.

Havoc's hand shot up. "I'll do it!" Havoc gave Ed a playful elbow in the shoulder. "You have to learn to jump at these chances Ed, it's only every so often you get to break the law to keep it."

Roy ignored this. "Good. Havoc, you steal the car. Then I would prefer to attack rather than lay around and wait." Everyone agreed with this. "Then we'll attack."

"The school right?" Havoc asked, dropping his bandages back into the flimsy bagel crumbed basket before picking up his shirt.

"How do we know the school is really it?" Fuery asked, the only soldier kept from the playing field and reading their reports on market scheduled breaks. For all of them, who were walking on it, there was no doubt.

"Oh it's the school all right," Ed said, sharing a fast glance with Havoc. "Tonight we witnessed a room that no longer exists."

"Yes," Roy agreed. There was no doubt. "Havoc you steal the car and Fuery you cover him." Roy picked up a pen.

Havoc paused with his shirt half on and offered his bare shoulder. "Nude girl."

Roy tried to draw a nude girl to the best of his ability. He choose a traditional arms folded behind head, tiny waste, legs pulled together stance, but the head came out too small and it looked very amateur.

Fuery was not impressed with the oddly shaped squiggle containing two large and easily recognizable breasts, and uncovered his shoulder a bit reluctantly. "Do I have to have a nude girl too sir?"

Roy brought the pen to Fuery's shoulder. "Yes." Roy drew the same girl and she came out just as bad. "Stay together, and for goodness sake," he offered the pen and gave them both a serious glance, "don't let your guard down." Havoc took the pen and three minutes later he left with Fuery, a naked sunbathing girl on his stomach and Ed's leg. With Ed's leg covered in quite a bit of dried blood, and still bleeding, this was rather difficult and Havoc had to clean a portion of skin in order to get the pen to work.

"You travel on your own, and this is how poorly you clean wounds?" Roy asked, standing at Ed's side and considering the mess. Ed lifted his gaze with bloody fingers and a bloody cotton ball. His expression sat somewhere between surprise and more surprise. Roy didn't wait for a response. "Give me that," he said, snatching the cotton balls.

Ed was offended with the theft and hopped off the pallet stomping his automail down on Roy's toes. "You jerk!"

"Ow!" Roy cried, stepping back and lifting his foot in pain. It felt as if an anvil were just dropped onto his unsuspecting toes. He looked at the visible automail leg and tiny sneakers Ed wore with perplexed wonder and amazement. Although he didn't want to admit it, that had been painful and impressive. "What the hell?" Roy asked, meeting Ed's gaze. The moment their eyes locked he recognized the angry insulted expression on Ed's face and knew what this was about. "That was you in the parking lot?" He still couldn't hide the surprise from his voice.

"You're damn right it was." Ed was angry.

Roy offered an apologetic smile as a truce for his 'baby' comment.

"Why don't you try having your ass beat by some skinny bitch and see how you come out." Ed stepped up and gave Roy's chest a strong jab with his automail finger.

"I apologize." Roy grasped the pointing digit and pressed it back so Ed stepped flush to his pallet. "Sit down. Let me see your leg."

"My shoes are dirty."

"Do as I say." Ed lifted his bleeding leg and pressed the soul of his sneaker to Roy's chest.

"I skinned that running from you," Ed said. Roy brought the cotton ball to the long gash running under Ed's knee cap and wiped up the fresh dribbling blood before pressing a wad of them there. "And Hawkeye." Ed's tone was drifting, and Roy looked at the boy's thoughtful expression and felt he could relate. Ed's memory of her was stark. Hawkeye had become a twisted mirror trick. For Ed it felt as if it had happened all at once, like a metamorphosis while she was holding his arm. Her kind face eroded over with something dark and vicious. Her eyes became black stones in their sockets, and there was nothing behind them.

Roy deliberately soaked fresh cotton balls with alcohol and replaced the dry ones on Ed's wound so it would sting. Almost at once Ed looked up hissing in painful surprise. The bandaging was careless and Ed looked uneasy until he recognized the focused look in Roy's face.

Roy meant the pain to steal Ed's full attention. He didn't want Ed dwelling on this. "It wasn't really her," Roy said kindly. "She would never slap you." Carefully he began wiping Ed's leg clean. "Or shoot me." It was clear they were both disturbed by her.

"You know Hawkeye's always been really nice to me," Ed said, growing a smile. "Even back when you were mean to me she was nice."

"I was never mean, I was firm." Roy examined the slice in Ed's skin now that the blood was cleared away. It was deep, but he felt confident with some elastic wound closure bandages Ed would heal fine. "I didn't want you waltzing into the military as a child. You needed someone to make you stand on your own two feet."

Ed grunted softly. "Yeah, maybe I did." Ed flexed his leg gently and his expression soured with the sting of it. "She used to do nice things for me when we were at the base. Include me and stuff." Roy ripped open a few butterfly closures and Ed helped press his wound together as he taped them on. "When I was in the hospital she'd come see me." Roy taped five of them in place. "And include Alphonse even…when she probably shouldn't have." Roy smiled, that sounded like Hawkeye. Ed prodded the butterflies holding his cut together before sitting back when Roy laid a fat bandage and taped it down. "If anything's happened to her..." Ed said, giving his head a slow shake of concentrated thought. "I am gonna be a whole world of pissed."

Roy smiled, and laid his hand in Ed's hair. "A whole world of pissed," Roy repeated, marveling at the small expression. Ed looked up and considered Roy's fond smile and swore he saw a bit of pride he'd never admit. "So will I." Ed was quiet when he stroked Ed's head kindly before bringing his hand to the well bandaged knee. It was small, and it worried him. Ed's flesh leg was very slender. He could wrap his hand from front to back. Carefully he took Ed's leg in his grasp and turned it slightly to make sure the blood was fully cleaned before giving it a squeeze. Where ever they were going, it wasn't exactly a place he wanted Fullmetal charging into. Their enemy seemed well equipped to deal with alchemists and had proven to be far more clever than they could have anticipated. Still, at the same time, leaving Ed behind wasn't really an option. There wasn't a safe place to leave the boy, and he only had four men. Of those four it just happened to be that one was missing, and one was a boy.

"Hey," Ed said. He gave his leg a demanding push forward and startled Roy's gaze upward. "Don't start second guessing me cause I have small knees Colonel." Roy smiled. It was like Ed was reading his mind. "You've seen what I can do." Ed locked their gaze and offered a slow convincing nod before gesturing at his wound with the automail. "I just have thin legs." Ed pulled away and hopped off the pallet seemingly as good as new. "It's from the automail." Ed looked down at his legs with a certain level of disgust the automail was so visible and his flesh leg looked more like someone had attached a white bloody wasps nest to the top. "But this is what I have to deal with," Ed said, giving a heavy exasperated sigh. "I am not that proportionate some places anymore." Ed stretched his leg before carefully sitting back to keep the weight off it.

Roy deliberately sat next to the boy. "I want to tell you something Fullmetal, and I don't want you to be offended." Ed looked up with a puzzled expression. Where was this going? "I don't want you to take it the wrong way if when we go into this, I keep you from the front line."

Roy felt this was necessary. He was the adult here. He was the responsible adult. Patient. Friendly. In his mind he stood before a lobby chair, holding hands with a boy half his height.

"I am not sure who is behind this, but it makes sense to assume you may be their target," he said. "They were preparing for an alchemist." This was a logical deduction, and he knew Hawkeye had been thinking this for a while.

"You're an alchemist too Roy." Ed was not convinced. "They could have been preparing for you."

"They lured us here with a unheard of substance Fullmetal. You're the only state alchemist researching random things about Alchemy."

"As a cover so I can get mine and Al's body back!"

"They don't know that," Roy said, turning to the boy. "No one knows that." Ed broke eye contact and looked off into the store room. "I didn't bring us here to rage a war Fullmetal. If we really have encountered something that could be dangerous then we'll get some information and call for back up. There's no reason to rage a small person attack when we can use the resources at hand."

"No one planned it, I know," Ed muttered. "But I am apart of it and I've sacrificed to get this far, so don't be offended when I tell you I might ignore your commands on the field." Ed hopped back off the pallet and gave his leg a couple test stomps. Roy tried to digest what Ed had just said while feeling as if he'd just been slapped.

Ignore his commands? Ignore his commands!Mission or not it was not to be forgotten , HE WAS THE COLONEL! Roy opened his mouth to beat Ed's ears when there was a knock on the door.

Roy was on his feet immediately. He pushed in front of Ed and slipped his fire glove back on.

"Colonel it's us," Havoc whispered.

Roy approached the door and grasped the handle. Ed came to his side but he shook his head and waved the boy back. Ed obeyed and scoot into the corner and almost completely concealed himself before clapping the automail into a blade. Roy opened the door.

"We got one," Havoc said, the minute the door opened. Havoc was quick and was already peeling his sleeve up with Fuery doing the same. They were polite, they didn't advance, they didn't report, they shows the poorly drawn nude women before even making a move. "Good?" Havoc asked, rolling his sleeve back into place. "Now you guys." Havoc glanced around before a look of concerned anger swelled into his face with Ed's absence. "Where the hell is Ed?" Havoc demanded, sounding torn between an accusation and passive rationale it was plausible Ed had separated for a perfectly logical reason.

Ed stepped from his hiding place quickly. "Relax," Ed said, lifting the right side of his shorts. Havoc had drawn Ed's girl on the boy's right thigh where she was hidden. "What type of car did you get Havoc?"

Havoc stepped back and opened the door. In the back of the parking lot was a new black SUV.

"Were you followed?" Roy asked.

"We took a scenic route. I don't think so sir," Fuery said.

They wasted no time with talk and snuck out the back running and ducking. The parking lot behind the market had become a black void outlined with meager landscaping and the towering black figures of the surrounding buildings. Within it there was only a few scattered cars and it gave the vulnerable feeling of an empty arena. The flat plane made them easy to see and gave everything else the element of surprise.

Moving quickly they tried to stay quiet, but half way there Ed stumbled and, while managing his balance, grabbed the back of Roy's shirt like a cat. Roy startled and Fuery responded poorly, jumping with enough fright he nudged Ed before the boy could gain his footing and knocked him into Havoc.

Roy stopped moving at once. "We're men here!" he whispered angrily, throwing a finger into their faces. "Let's act like it!"

They reached the car and Havoc took the wheel and Roy took the passenger's side. "We're going to have to split up when we arrive," Roy said, twisting in his seat to talk to Fuery and Ed who were in back. "If we all infiltrate at once, we're simply stupid." Havoc was driving inconspicuously and had taken the fastest route to the school. "Havoc and Fullmetal cover Fuery and I."

"No way," Havoc said, raising his voice with outrage. "Ed and I are the only ones who know the school."

"And Havoc knows it better than me," Ed confessed. "I basically just know where my classes are. The place is a maze."

"Fine, Havoc you go in with me," Roy said, sitting back and closing his eyes for a moment of rest. He could feel the tension in the car. They did not like that they were splitting up, they did not like that there were only four of them, and those being left in the car did not like the fact they were being left in the car. Roy sat waiting to see if anyone would object, but when Havoc pulled into the school and the car was still silent he felt pleased.

This late at night all class was over and the school building was dark. "I've seen the school before, but after hours in the dark like this it looks like a prison," Fuery said, gazing out the window. Ed gave a barely audible snort with this comment.

Havoc turned the headlights off the moment they entered the drive. They approached the building in darkness and Havoc killed the engine and let them roll silently to the back gym track.

"Don't go in the main doors. Everyone goes in the main doors when they're coming to attack," Ed advised leaning into the front. "Go in the side doors by the missing room." Ed pointed to the small side door and they all looked at it.

"Boss you follow me," Havoc said, beckoning for Roy to follow.

Roy gave a nod and looked into the back of the car where Fuery and Fullmetal sat attentive. "You two sit tight, we'll scout things out and then come back to formulate a plan." Ed looked sour with this news, but Fuery gave a fast solute. "If we're not back in twenty…" Roy paused. If they weren't back, what were the options? There was no back up on site and Hawkeye was still missing. "If we're not back in twenty, Fuery drive both of you to our fall back. From there Fullmetal you call headquarters for backup and Fuery leave to the base and bring soldiers to the school." He lifted a hand and pointed sternly at both of them. "Absolutely under no circumstance are either of you to enter until that is done. If we are not back, then the enemy is a powerful one, and I will be very pissed if these orders aren't followed."

"Yes sir," Fuery said, nodding enthusiastically.

"You really think there is something in there that could take on the Flame Alchemist?" Ed asked, looking to appease Roy's vanity rather than his authority.

Roy was not fooled. "Ed, I mean it."

Ed scowled. "Fine," Ed grumbled miserably.

Roy followed Havoc toward the school and once they approached they threw their backs against it and caught their breath. "Do you know where we're going Havoc?" Roy asked. Outside the night air was picking up to a steady wind rustling the trees and casting movement. The glow of the moon was just starting, and soon a pale white would flicker in and out with the cloud cover.

"No," Havoc whispered, shaking his head and reaching for the outside door. "I only know this is where all the weird stuff has been happening. I'll take you to the missing room," Havoc said, breaking the lock and opening the door with ease. "Maybe you'll see something the chief didn't."

They entered the school and it was like walking into an abandoned museum. The ceilings were high stretching shadows up into them and gracing the floor with long slivers of light from the windows. They kept their steps silent and took the first hall. Leaving the windows meant leaving the light, and the interior halls were caverns of darkness. What bits of light penetrated were bouncing off the shining wood floors and quickly absorbed in the deep wood paneling. There was no mistaking it, the place was creepy, and somehow, without any evidence, there was a very distinct and unmistakable feeling of being watched. Inside the school, they were not alone.


"We're sitting ducks." Ed growled slouched in the backseat with his feet on the back of Roy's vacant chair.

"Edward, try and relax." Fuery smiled but the boy wouldn't have it. Ed began a

soft bounce with his foot before startling when the school lit up for a second and part of the

front corner shot out into an awkward slope.

"Alchemy!" Ed yelled, jumping up in his seat and leaning to the window. "Did you see it?" Ed opened the door and stepped out into the wind.

"That's not the colonel." Fuery exited and struggled to make sense of the dark building up ahead. From a first floor window a brief alchemic flash could just be seen.

"Think it's Havoc?" Ed asked, watching intently for any sign of danger. The only orders were if Mustang and Havoc didn't return. There weren't any orders for what to do while they kicked the enemy's butt. "Fuery, think it's Havoc?" Ed asked, glancing to the man before panicking with Fuery's absence. "Fuery?" Ed whispered, turning in a fast circle, but the man was gone. "Fuery!" Ed yelled a bit louder. He looked in every direction, but all around him the school's immaculate landscaping was blowing in the wind. "Fuery!"

The sound of footsteps began, softly at first, and then running quickly towards the car. Ed backed into the side of it feeling frantic. He had never driven before and now didn't seem the time to learn. That being said, he wasn't the one with the keys, and locking himself in a stationary coffin didn't seem like a good idea either! Trying desperately not to freak out Ed dropped to his knees and scrambled under the car to hide. The footsteps were approaching and laying flat on his stomach in the grass Ed looked at the shadowed pair of feet that came to the car.


Okay everyone that was chapter 9!

THANK YOU soooo much for the awesome reviews to chapter 8! They were great! Really had me smiling and laughing. You all have no idea how happy they make me, since my week has been so insane, I read them all before posting chapter 9 and they made my Friday night!

Chapter 10: Human Inferno will be up next Friday 10/26/12. Then there is only one chapter left!

To those voicing preferences for stories to come – Thank you! I read several interested in The Silent Heart (ah, my baby, lol), but it was exciting to hear many were open minded. Posting and writing at the same time is a challenge, but I will continue unless I think I need a break to wrap a story up. I will make a commitment before I end this piece so you know what story and date it will arrive.

To those OHSHC fans in here – I was thrilled to hear it! I am way more excited to post my OHSHC stuff now! Before I felt kind of alone, a lot of what seems to be going on with OHSHC fics makes me feel like that category is a zoo! It's good to know there are some sane people over there as well.

Okay, that's enough chatting for now – thank you again to everyone! Please share your thoughts with this chapter as well. This story is a bit old, so even though I scrubbed it, it's never ever the same as writing at your current level. When you look at old stuff, all you see is flaws. : ) Tell me what you thought!