Hmmm… Is this what we call an update? No, it's all a blatant lie. Go jump off a cliff if you want to read more. It won't make the story come out faster, but it'll make me feel good that people actually want to read this. D

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"You understand now, right? We can't afford having you two running loose and getting into so much danger."

"I understand."

"And you also realize that if you attempt to resist again we'll have to act."

"Yes."

"Are you going to try anything if we leave you in here on your own?"

"No. I won't."

"Good."

Ed opened his eyes just as Envy was leaving the room. He looked down to see Al sitting quietly in a chair next to him. "Brother… I'm sorry… Please, don't die…"

Ed smiled as he looked at his younger brother. "Don't worry, Al. I won't."

Al started and almost tackled his brother with a hug before remembering that Ed was injured. "Brother…"

"So I'm in this place again, huh?" Ed looked at the ceiling. His neck stung as he moved it, but it was a lesser pain than the rest of his right side felt. "It's a good thing Scar came when he did."

"What? Brother, he tried to kill you!"

"No he didn't. If he had wanted me dead, I would be dead now."

"Then why did he do this to you?!"

"It threw suspicion away from us. Al, do you think Envy would be letting us talk to each other in private if Scar hadn't done that?"

"No, but…"

"Wounds heal, Al. Maybe it was a little drastic, but at least now I can still move freely. Unless…"

"No, Envy doesn't know about that. It's a family secret."

"Speaking of which, what happened to… him?"

"I don't know. I know they caught him, but I don't know where he is."

"I see." Ed shifted on the bed, wincing slightly as his side ached. "Al… I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Back then, when you were arrested. I… I shouldn't have said any of that. I should have stuck up for you."

"No, it's okay. If you had, we'd both be under suspicion right now. And besides, you weren't really you back then."

"No, I was me, just a different me."

"Even so, it wasn't the right you."

"Al…"

"What?"

"Sorry I worried you," Ed whispered as the door opened. Envy walked up to the two and looked at Al.

"Seems this kid's popular today. Think you can handle letting someone else visit for a while?"

Al nodded and left the room. Envy stood by Ed's side for a moment before speaking. "It's Mustang."

Ed thought very quickly about what this meant. "Isn't he one of those people who are trying to overthrow the military?"

"Yes."

"Then why do I have to talk to him?"

"Because he asked, and because I want you to do something."

"What?"

"He trusts you. See if you can get him to say anything that will help us make a case against him."

Ed watched as Envy left and Roy came in. This'll be interesting.

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The room was silent for a long time. Finally, Roy spoke.

"Fullmetal?"

"Hmm?"

"Never mind."

"What?"

"It's something only your sixteen-year-old self can answer."

"Then ask away."

"No, you can't…" Roy trailed off and began to smile. "You really shouldn't blurt things out like that."

"Oh well. Too late now."

"Of course it is. Anyway, Fullmetal. About Scar."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we can consider him as an ally?"

"Yeah."

Roy started at this easy answer. "But-"

"He didn't try to kill me, Colonel. He just did enough to put me out of action for a while. The enemy will see that as an advantage, won't they?"

"It is an advantage for them."

"Yeah, but it's better that I'm just out of it for a few weeks than both me and Al being out for good."

"What do you mean?"

Ed sighed in aggravation. "Since I was just attacked by Scar, the military now believes two things."

"Which are?"

"One, that I'm still unsure of what I want to do, so much that Envy thinks I can easily spy on you and get information to bring you down."

"And?"

"Two, that Scar won't cooperate with us, which splits their enemies into two groups, which in turn means that we're enemies with each other, which means that we may end up fighting against the wrong people."

Roy stared incredulously at Ed for a moment. Then he laughed. "That… I'm impressed, Fullmetal. You've matured."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So, what now?"

"You need to recover."

"And then?"

"I'll give you some information that you can give to Envy."

Ed smiled and watched as Roy walked to the doorway. Before he got there, the Colonel turned around. "By the way, how did meeting your father go?"

Ed became slightly more serious. "Fine."

"Still hate him?"

Ed stared at the ceiling for a while. "Not so much anymore."

"Good, because we'll need his help too."

"But wait, Al said they caught him."

"That doesn't mean he can't do anything to help." Roy looked over his shoulder before speaking again. "At any rate, it's good that you two worked things out. It'll be good for you to have a father figure in your life again."

"Eh? Wait, what are you getting at?"

"Nothing, nothing. I have to go now, but it's good to see you alive."

"Yeah, sure."

Once Roy was gone, Envy came in again. "Did he say anything?"

"No, not really. He kept asking about my father."

"Why?"

"Don't know."

"That man… It's good we found him. If we hadn't, he could have destroyed everything the military stands for."

Ed decided to test Envy. "Wait a minute. Why is it that everyone I've met in the past couple months is bad? Do I really have that bad of luck?"

"Yeah, I'd say you do. I mean look at you. You just got ripped apart by a serial killer! Speaking of which," Envy continued, sitting down right next to Ed. "Did he say anything to you?"

Ed shook his head. "Why would he?"

"How should I know? I just think it's suspicious that he'd save your life and then try to kill you a few weeks later."

"Well maybe it's because I wasn't a part of the military back then."

"You're an idiot."

"What?"

Envy stood up and walked to the door. "Don't strain yourself."

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Ed had quite a few visitors over the next few days, but he didn't always know they were there. Other than the first day of consciousness, Ed was rarely awake. When he was awake, he barely spoke. He had said what needed to be said to his brother and the Colonel, and that was good enough for him.

During one of these visits, Ed woke up halfway through, but he kept his eyes closed. He heard voices, two voices that belonged to the homunculi he had seen most often. They were talking about him.

"Has he admitted to regaining his memory?"

"No, and from the way he's been acting, it's doubtful that he remembers anything. The problem is we can't know for sure until he's recovered a fair amount. I've checked with some professionals, and they agree that being attacked by someone he once trusted could have had some very negative effects on his mind."

So I'm crazy now? Ed thought.

"Of course it will. He's only a child, after all." There was a pause. "Perhaps it would be better if we kept an eye on him for a while. He also needs to be around people who aren't as involved in this."

"What do you have in mind?"

There was another pause. Ed decided to wait until after the homunculi had revealed their plans for him to wake up, even though he'd figure it out eventually if he didn't.

"He can stay with me for a while. I know my son would be happy to meet his hero again."

Oh, that's not so bad…

Ed waited another moment or two before opening his eyes. Envy looked at him and walked out of the room. Wrath sat down next to him with a smile.

"How's your side today?"

"Okay, I guess…"

"Any improvement?"

"Yeah, some."

"Good, good. Now then, I have something to discuss with you."

"What about?"

King Bradley looked at the window for a moment before speaking. "There are those of us in the military who are greatly concerned about the situation at the moment. You have been severely injured by Scar, and the people whom you trust have all turned against you. Since Scar is still on the loose, there is a high possibility of him coming after you again unless you are placed under military supervision."

Ed nodded, not knowing what else to do. Bradley smiled and continued. "But considering what you've been through in the past few weeks, we've decided that it would be best if you took some time off, away from the military."

"Okay…"

"However, it would be impractical to send you back to your hometown with the country in this situation. We cannot spare very many men at the moment. Because of all this, we have come to the conclusion that it would be best for you to stay with my family once you've recovered sufficiently. Does that sound all right to you?"

Ed paused for a moment before agreeing.

"Good. I'll see you when you've healed."

"Yeah…"

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The next morning, he heard voices nearby. Ed looked cautiously for the source of the voices. He saw Roy speaking with a doctor. Both of them looked concerned. Roy noticed Ed was awake and immediately got rid of his frown, but there was still a worrisome emotion behind his eyes. The doctor left.

"Morning, Fullmetal."

"Hey."

Roy sat down and observed Ed for a moment before speaking. "How's your arm today?"

"It's fine. It hurts some, but not much."

"That's good. Listen…"

"What?"

Roy was silent for a while. He continuously cast nervous glances at Ed's right side. After a moment, Ed had had enough.

"What is it? Did something happen with my side?"

"There's… a chance of that."

"What?"

"Somehow, your arm got infected in the past week or so. There's a chance that it could spread to the rest of your wounds and maybe kill you."

Ed was silent. Roy spoke again. "Of course, that's not a definite fact. There's still a lot they can do to prevent it, but it'll be painful."

"You're nervous, aren't you?"

Roy gave a sad smile. "That's right. Worst-case scenario is that they'd have to amputate your arm. I'd hate to see you have gone through all that just to lose it again."

Ed heard footsteps and became cautious. "Gone through what?" he asked, his eyes giving Roy a warning.

Thankfully, Roy caught on quickly. "Ah, sorry, you don't remember…"

The door opened, and Envy came in. He looked around the room for a moment before walking up to the bedside. He nodded at Roy, who said his farewell to Ed and walked out of the room.

"He say anything yet?"

"No, not really… he did say something about me going through a lot, but I don't remember what he's talking about."

"Damn. He's smarter than I thought. Unless you're lying to me."

"Why would I lie? He's the one who lied first." Please don't say you've figured it out.

Envy laughed. "You know, I think I like you better like this. Much easier to handle."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Damn Envy… well, at least he doesn't know I remember him.

Envy turned to walk out, but turned around before he reached the door. "Oh, by the way, you're going to move in with the Fuhrer after you get surgery on your arm."

"Surgery?"

"To get rid of the infection."

"Yeah, but surgery?"

"It's pretty deep in there."

"But why didn't I know earlier?"

"You're only eleven. It's hard to tell if you'd make the right decision so we're deciding for you."

"I would have made the right decision."

"Then we don't have a problem, unless you'd rather give it up and die."

"No…"

"Good. Now get rest. They planned it for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? That soon?"

"What are you complaining about? The sooner they do it the easier it'll be. I thought even you would know something like that."

Damn, I hate it when he's right. "Oh, right."

Envy looked Ed over once more and left the room, leaving Ed to look at his bandaged body for a while. "Infected, huh? I bet you didn't expect this, Scar."

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Ed was still in a daze from the anesthesia as he arrived at the Fuhrer's home. Luckily, Bradley had the sense to wait to introduce Ed to his family until Ed had recovered enough so that he could actually function as a normal person, or as normal as someone in Ed's situation could possibly act. He led Ed through the house and showed him where he would be staying.

Ed looked around at his new room for several minutes before realizing he needed to sleep. He walked to the bed and saw that there was a neat little pile on his pillow. Ed looked at it for a moment, trying to figure out why this was on his bed. Eventually, the puzzle was too much for him and he placed it on the floor and fell on the bed, not even bothering to shift onto his back to prevent an open wound.

When Ed woke up, it was late afternoon. He hadn't moved an inch from how he fell, and his arm ached. Ed sat up and looked around. His senses had become much sharper, but he was still tired and sore. He vaguely remembered the bundle and picked it up.

Inside the bundle was a note addressed to Ed. It was a welcome note from Selim. Ed read it with a half smile on his face before realizing just how difficult his life would be. Maybe not meeting Selim first thing was a very good thing. Now he'd have time to prepare.

Ed looked at the bundle. It consisted of some clothes and a few books. The books were the kind Ed had read when he was younger, mostly science fiction. He set the books aside and looked around his new room for a while before the door opened and Selim entered with his father.

Bradley did little other than greet Ed and introduce his son before leaving, but Selim stood in the doorway, a mixture of awe and conflict on his face. Finally, he spoke up. "You… don't remember me, right?"

Ed shook his head. "No."

It was quiet in the room for a while. Then Selim smiled and pointed at Ed's hair. "You might want to fix that before dinner."

Ed reached up to his head and found that most of his hair was going in the wrong direction. "Yeah, I probably should."

Ed got ready as he listened to Selim's rambles. Eventually he began speaking about alchemy.

"I want to get as good at alchemy as you are."

"As good as me?" Ed asked, remembering a similar conversation he'd had with the boy during their first meeting.

"Yeah, I want to be able to help father!"

Ed finished dressing and looked at Selim. "That's a good thing to want," he said, realizing that any criticism would lead to suspicion.

The first evening was a pleasant one, but Ed realized that he couldn't let his guard down. If he wanted to keep his secret, he'd have to pay attention to everything anyone said and be sure to avoid saying anything stupid. The fact that Selim began begging him to teach him alchemy didn't help the situation at all.

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yay for updating! D