At that moment, time seemed to stop. Mustang's men gathered around him, their eyes all trained on the small, motionless body on the ground before them. The dark, dank room was dead silent, aside from the dripping of moisture from the ceiling into small puddles below. Mustang tried to speak, but failed to find his voice.

They had found him. After all this time, they had finally found him. Here Ed was. Alive and lying on the ground right in front of them. However, this was hardly cause for celebration.

To say Ed looked beat up would be a serious understatement. His body was nearly covered in scrapes, cuts, bruises, burns, and a multitude of injuries made by methods Roy couldn't even imagine; he wasn't sure he wanted to. The boy's back looked especially bad; it was nothing but a bloody mess of uneven flesh and scar tissue. It looked like the ghastly wound had begun to scab over countless times, but had never been allowed to heal completely before being reopened time and time again.

Blood, both old and new, covered the ground in large sections; the darkest, thickest spots closer to the boy's actual body.

Both of Ed's automail limbs were still missing from before, the wires mangled and poking out of his ports in ways that looked extremely painful. Mustang guessed that the boy also had large number of broken bones in addition to his exterior injuries.

Mustang could see every bone in Ed's fragile body distantly defined under his pale, paper-thin skin. This was made especially obvious by the fact that the child wasn't wearing any clothes. It was undeniably apparent that he was extremely undernourished and dehydrated. Someone might wonder if he was even alive at all, but Roy couldn't miss the subtle rise and fall of the boy's chest. He seemed to be conscious; he was just too weak to make it apparent. His eyes were just slightly cracked open and his breathing sounded ragged and labored.

Finally managing to shake himself out of his state of shock, Roy crouched down beside the boy. As carefully as he could, the colonel picked Ed up and shifted him into a sitting position.

"Fullmetal? Ed… can you hear me? Do you understand what's happening?" He was doing his best to keep his voice steady, regardless of how panicked he was inside.

After a moment, Ed's eyes opened wider and some form of recognition seemed to hit them, but his gaze still appeared clouded. His once bright, golden eyes had now dulled in color; the exuberant flame Roy had come to know so well had been put out, leaving behind nothing but a cold, lifeless gaze.

Ed opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. As if suddenly remembering something, he closed his mouth again, giving up on communication entirely and turning his head away. This puzzled Roy. Perhaps he was too weak to speak? He couldn't even sit up on his own, so it certainly wouldn't be surprising. Still, something didn't quite sit right in Roy's mind. Regardless, there wasn't time to worry about that now. Ed needed immediate help.

It was then that Mustang noticed the restrain around Ed's thin wrist, attached to a chain on the wall behind him. Pulling out a stick of chalk from his uniform pocket, Mustang drew a transmutation circle on the ground.

Roy wasn't the best at mineral alchemy; his expertise were in flame alchemy. Although he wasn't nearly as skilled as Ed in this specific area of alchemy, it was times like these that made Roy thankful for what little he did know.

Once he had broken and removed the restraint, Mustang slipped out of his uniform jacket and wrapped it around the boy's fragile, naked body lifting him into his arms as gently as he could. He was as light as a feather.

Throwing a quick glance at his team, Mustang hurried out the door of the dimly lit room. His team immediately followed their commanding officer as he made his way down the long, dark passageways and back the way they had come.

Once they were out of the tunnels, Mustang and Hawkeye hurried to the colonel's car with Mustang carrying Ed and Hawkeye taking the wheel. The rest of their team got in their own car and followed them out.

The drive to the hospital didn't take long considering that the entrance to the tunnels was just on the edge of Central, but to Mustang it felt like an eternity. Ed had obviously lost a lot of blood already, but even now, he was still bleeding from the many open wounds that littered his body. Mustang tightened his grip on the small boy and held him closer, trying his best to keep him warm. His body felt so cold. Mustang could feel the child's heartbeat fluttering softly in his chest, but just barely. Who knew how long it would last.

Pull yourself together Roy. He survived for a full year in that place, Mustang thought, desperate to reassure himself. He's too stubborn to give up on life, he always has been. He's going to make it.

As soon as they arrived at the hospital, Mustang hurried inside with his team following close behind. He informed the receptionist of the situation and watched as a couple of nurses carried Ed away on a stretcher.

"Please wait here, sir," the receptionist instructed him. "One of our doctors will see you once the patient's condition has been stabilized."

"Alright, thank you." Mustang then turned around to face his team. "I want the rest of you to leave. I'll stay here and wait for the word on how Ed's doing."

"But, sir, with all due respect… we're worried about him to," Fuery protested. The others nodded in agreement.

"I understand that, but there are other pressing matters to attend to." Mustang lowered his voice. "I want you to do some digging around, try to find out more about that underground network of tunnels where we found Ed. I want to know what they're for, who made them, and anything else you can dig up. I'm not letting Ed's captors get away with this. This is an order, I'm counting on you all."

"Yes sir! Leave it to us!" And with that, all of Mustang's men cleared out of the hospital waiting room, except for Hawkeye.

"Lieutenant?" Mustang gave her an inquisitive look.

"I'm staying with you, sir," she said firmly, her expression stern. He was about to protest, but decided against it.

"Very well, the others should be able to do fine on their own. Besides, I could use the company." His face held a smile, but his eyes appeared tired and weary. Riza noticed this, but she didn't mention it. After all, she felt just as uneasy.

After what felt like hours of waiting, a doctor showed up to speak with the two officers. Roy recognized the man as Dr. Grant. It gave him a sense of familiarity, which Roy gratefully welcomed.

"Dr. Grant, you'll be looking after Ed again this time?"

"Yes, it seems that way." The doctor's expression was grim, and Roy was reluctant to hear what he had to say. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it; it doesn't look good, not good at all."

Roy's breath caught in his throat. Truly, the doctor was only stating the obvious, but the colonel couldn't help but feel anxious.

"He'll live. That, we know for sure. The only question is whether or not he'll be able to heal completely. It's safe to say that Edward will never be the same again," he informed them. Grant's eyes softened a bit as he continued, "I'm truly sorry. Me and my staff will do everything we can for him. In the mean time, please go home and get some rest. Worrying over the patient won't make him heal any faster, it will only cause the two of you to distress."

"Wait- go home? You aren't going to let us see him?"

"He's currently in extensive care and we've already given him anesthesia. He's unconscious at the moment, and seeing him will only further your unease. Leave him be for now. I'll take good care of him for the time being, so please don't worry. I'll call you as soon as he shows any signs of improvement."

"Alright… if you insist," Mustang relented, his voice tired and worn. "Let's go, lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, and before I forget," Grand said, calling them back, "I'll make sure there's at least two members of my staff in the room with Edward at all times. I won't allow someone to sneak in and kidnap him again. This time, I will make sure I take every precaution."

Roy gave a small smile. "Thank you doctor, I appreciate your help."

And with that, the two officers left the hospital.

XxXxXxXxX

It had been over two weeks now, and not a second had gone by without Mustang worrying himself to no end. Hawkeye had repeatedly told him to relax and focus on tracking down the culprits, but he could tell she was just as worried as he was.

The rest of his team had been working nonstop since they found Ed to dig up any information they could on the tunnels. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to find much.

It's so strange… a network of tunnels this elaborate right under Central… and there isn't even a scrap of information about it? Surely we couldn't be the first to find out about these passageways. Does the Fuhrer know about this?

Mustang was deep in thought, scribbling down his fragmented thought process on a piece of paper. It was still hard to think straight, knowing so little about the seriousness of Ed's condition. The colonel couldn't help but let his mind think up the worst possible outcomes.

Although he had no proof to back up his suspicion, Mustang was fairly certain he knew who had kidnaped Ed. Judging by the unusual circumstances the found him under, the brutal way he was treated, and considering how he ended up in the hospital in the first place, all signs pointed to the homunculi. The only problem was, they still knew so little about them. Mustang hadn't even seen one face to face before, all he had was the descriptions Ed had given him back when he met the three of them during the laboratory 5 incident. Fullmetal had apparently also met a homunculus named Greed when he left to pay his teacher a visit, but Mustang had been told that this particular homunculus had been killed.

That left them with three homunculi they had intel on: Envy, Lust, and Gluttony. Leaving out Greed who'd already been killed, that left three homunculi they knew nothing about. The seven deadly sins were common knowledge, so the remaining homunculi had to be Sloth, Pride, and Wrath. The only question was, who were they? And even more importantly, which of these homunculi were responsible for Ed's torture?

Just the thought of finding the culprit made Mustang's insides burn with anger. Once he found Ed's captor, they'd be lucky if he didn't burn them to a crisp.

The sudden ringing of the phone jolted Mustang from his thought process, nearly causing him to fall out of his chair.

"Colonel Roy Mustang speaking," he said as he answered the phone.

"Hello colonel, this is Dr. Grant."

"Grant… how's Ed?" Mustang got straight to the point; he knew there was only one reason the doctor would be calling him. Ether Ed's situation had improved, or something had gone wrong.

"I have good news and bad news," Grant told him carefully.

Uh oh.

"The good news is, Edward does seem to be recovering. It's going to take him a long time to heal, and he'll be left with countless scars, but he will recover."

"And the bad news?" Mustang felt a sense of foreboding.

"The bad news is… well… why don't you come see for yourself? I can explain everything to you once you get here. I'll be waiting for you by the front entrance." He hung up.

Mustang set the phone back on the receiver and hurried out of his office. "Lieutenant! Come with me, I'm going to the hospital," he called out as he went past her office door. Hearing him, she immediately got up and followed him out the door.

"Has there been any word from Dr. Grant about Ed's condition, sir?" she asked cautiously.

"Yes, but I'm not sure what to make of it. From what he told me, it sounds like Ed's condition has improved a bit." Riza's expression softened at his words. "The only thing that worries me, is… he said he had something to talk to me about regarding Ed's condition. He was very vague over the phone, and I have a bad feeling about this." As the two of them exited the military compound and headed for the hospital, Riza's expression darkened.

"Try not to worry, sir. I'm sure everything's fine," she reassured him.

"Well, I suppose we'll find out when we get there," he replied.

It was almost comical how often she had to reassure him and give him emotional support. When did he become so reliant on her? What had he ever done for her in return?

It just seemed like she had always been there. Roy couldn't even imagine life without her. How had he survived before he met her? He couldn't even remember. All Roy knew was, she always had his back, and he hoped she always would.

The two officers entered the hospital to find Grant waiting for them just as expected. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. Follow me," he told them as he turned to make his way down the long hallway in front of them. Roy and Riza followed close behind.

Once they arrived at Ed's room, Grant paused in front of the door. "Edward is awake and slowly recovering, but he's still in very bad condition. We previously had him hooked up to several life support systems, but we were able to take him off of them a few days ago. We've tended to all his wounds as best as we could, and I'll give you more information on that later." Mustang nodded, this was more or less what he was expecting. "However…" the doctor continued. "There is also his psychological condition to take into consideration."

"His psychological condition?" Roy asked.

"Torture victims don't just return to normal after being rescued, colonel. You should know this better than anyone. It will take time for him to recover mentally from this experience as well as physically."

"Ah, yes. Of course." Roy should have known. Of course Ed's mind would have been affected too, something like that should have been obvious to Roy considering his line of work. He just didn't want to believe it.

"In addition to that, there's… well, it's what I was trying to tell you over the phone a little while ago. Maybe you should have a look for yourself." The doctor opened the door, allowing the three of them to step inside.

On the small bed on the far side of the room was Ed. He was awake, covered in bandages, and staring right at the three people who had just entered. Roy almost wasn't sure how to react. After a full year of hopeless searching, here he was, alive and awake. He still looked very sickly, like the doctor had warned, and he was almost completely covered in bandages, but he was alive.

Other than the bandages covering his forehead, his face remained uncovered. His eyes were still dull like they were when Mustang found him over two weeks ago, but they had regained some of their previous liveliness. His cheekbones were clearly defined and his skin was extremely pale, further reminding Mustang how thin and sickly the boy was now. He bet that they hardly ever fed him. He probably hadn't even seen sunlight since he was kidnaped a year ago.

His hair fell around him, much longer than before, in tangled, messy waves. Its length reached the mattress and pooled around him as he sat up in the hospital bed, his back resting against the wall, supported by a pillow behind him. The blanket covered him from the waist down, and he was wearing the hospital clothes he had been assigned, but Roy could still clearly see the outline of each rib under the thin shirt and bandages.

Mustang took a few steps closer until he was standing right at Ed's bedside. Hawkeye came to stand right by his side, while the doctor kept his distance.

"Ed?" Roy asked cautiously. No response; Ed just stared at him. "Ed? Fullmetal?" Still no response. "Answer me Fullmetal… can you hear me?" Ed just continued to stare without making a sound. All he did was look up at Roy with sad, pleading eyes.

Roy turned to the doctor with a bewildered expression.

The doctor sighed and took a few steps forward. "This is what I was trying to tell you earlier. My apologies, colonel." He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his lab coat. Placing them back on the bridge of his nose, he looked at Mustang and Hawkeye with a serious expression. "I'm afraid that Edward has lost the ability to speak."

"What did you say…?" Mustang asked with a tone of disbelief.

"You remember the red water that was causing him problems before he was kidnapped?" The doctor asked Roy calmly.

"Yes."

"Because it was never treated, it's done a lot of damage to his system. Specifically, to his brain."

"But what did you mean he's unable to speak?! How is that possible?"

"It's very possible with a chemical as toxic as red water, colonel," Grant informed him. "Although his vocal cords remain perfectly operational, the Broca's area of his brain, an area on the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain which operates speech, has been damaged. Muteness can also be caused by trauma, so I'm sure the circumstances he's been under over the past year haven't helped."

Mustang went rigid. His throat felt tight, but he forced the words out of his mouth anyway. "How… how long will this last?"

"It's permanent, I'm afraid."

Those were the exact words Roy was hoping wouldn't come out of the doctor's mouth.

Roy could feel Hawkeye stiffen beside him. She'd do her best to mask her emotions as usual, but he could tell she was just as troubled by this new discovery as he was.

"I've given him the antidote for the red water to get rid of whatever was left in his system, so it shouldn't cause any new problems at least," the doctor added.

"Wait-" Roy interrupted him. "Even after Ed went missing, you still used the red water we recovered to create an antidote?"

"Of course." Grant looked straight at him, his expression unwavering. "I never give up on my patients, colonel."

Roy nodded, suddenly reminded of the immense respect he held for the man. He hadn't requested him to be Ed's doctor a year ago without good reason.

"And remember," Grant continued, "Although Edward can no longer communicate verbally, that doesn't mean he can't communicate at all. Of course, the traumatic experience he's been through won't leave him unscathed, and you may need to seek other professional help later down the line. However, from what I've been able to gather so far, his mind remains, for the most part, completely operational. The Broca's region seems to be the only area of his brain that was significantly affected by the red water. He can still understand everything just fine, so perhaps he could communicate through writing instead?"

"It sounds like a good alternative, thank you for the suggestion, doctor," Roy replied. He decided that he would try to keep a level head and address this rationally. Throwing a fit over what happened wouldn't help Ed, and Roy knew that.

"Oh, and one more thing," the doctor added, "even though the Broca's area of his brain has been severely damaged, like I said before, his vocal cords are fine. He should still be able to create sounds to express his emotions, although he won't be able to form full words."

The sound of a quiet, high pitched whine caught the attention of the three adults. Roy looked up to see Ed staring at him with an annoyed expression, as if to say, hey! Why are you all ignoring me?!

Roy smiled. Even after all he'd been through, Ed was still Ed.

"Here," the doctor said, handing Roy a notepad and a pencil. "Give this to him."

Roy nodded and handed the writing tools to the boy. Ed placed the notepad in his lap, held the pencil with his only hand, and began immediately scribbling something down. The first question he wanted to ask was, of course, extremely predictable.

Once he'd finished writing, Ed held up the notepad with two hastily written words: Where's Al?

Roy and Riza exchanged a glance. "I'm not sure. He's been traveling all over the place trying to find you ever since he got let out of the hospital. You've been missing for a year, and Al didn't get out of the hospital until several months after your disappearance," Roy told him. "He calls now and then to keep us up to date on his whereabouts, but the last time he called was almost a month ago."

Ed scribbled something else down: I've been gone that long?! Roy nodded his head.

Where's Al now?

"The last time we heard from him, he was in East city," Riza answered. "There's no telling where he is now, though, and we don't have any way to contact him unless he contacts us first."

Ed wrote down his response: Next time he calls, tell him to come to central!

"Trust me, Fullmetal, if he knew we'd found you, he'd already be here," Roy joked. "But don't worry, we'll tell him next time he calls."

Ed smiled at Roy's words. It wasn't the big, bright smile Roy used to see him wear, but it was a smile none the less. Acting normal with the kid, as if everything was fine and none of this had actually happened, it made everything feel a little less real. Even Ed was trying to act like his normal self despite what had happened, but Roy could tell it was forced. In the end, It was only a temporary comfort. After all, both of them would have to face reality at some point, but they welcomed the comforting familiarity nonetheless.

XxXxXxXxX

Mustang sat in his office filling out paperwork a day after Hawkeye and him had gone to see Ed. No matter how much work he did, there was always a limitless supply of paperwork. Thankfully, though, he was almost finished.

Almost as if on cue, Hawkeye came in his office with a new stack of paperwork ready for him to fill out. Roy let his face hit the the desk.

"Where does all this even come from?" Roy mumbled without lifting his head.

"If a certain someone hadn't skipped so many days of work, there might be less paperwork to fill out, sir," Hawkeye replied. Mustang groaned in response.

After visiting Ed the day before, Mustang and Hawkeye had returned to work to continue digging around to find out more about the tunnels and the homunculi. Due to his injuries, Ed would have to stay in the hospital for a long time. The exact amount of time was uncertain, but it wasn't going to be brief, Mustang knew that for sure. He still planned on visiting the kid as often as possible, but there was a lot of work to be done as well. There was still so much they didn't know, and Roy was determined to change that.

Another important thing they needed to figure out, was what exactly Ed had been through. In order to treat any psychological damage appropriately, as the doctor put it, they would need to know the full story of what had been done to him. This was going to be tricky of course, since they faced the risk of damaging Ed's mind further by making him recall the source of his trauma.

Dr. Grant suggested allowing his body more time to heal before tackling his mind. He was still in extremely bad physical condition after all; he wasn't even able to get out of bed yet. Rushing into anything would most likely be a bad idea, and they wanted to avoid doing anything that might make the problem worse.

It had been almost three weeks since they found Ed, and Roy and his team already had plenty to worry about.

Having dropped off a new load of paperwork for her superior officer to avoid filling out, Hawkeye turned to leave his office. Right before she left, however, there was a knock at the door. Hawkeye stepped back, standing by the colonel's desk to allow the newcomer to enter.

"Come in," Roy invited.

The person outside of Roy's office turned the knob and stepped inside. "Long time no see, colonel!"

Roy's eye's widened in surprise, even Riza seemed taken off guard. "Well, isn't this a surprise. I had no idea you were back in central."

The person smiled. "Yeah, sorry about that. I probably should have called first, but I didn't even think about it until I was already here. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," Roy replied. "Welcome back, Alphonse."