A/N: We're on the tenth chapter! (Ten and its multiples are my only favourite even numbers) We don't see Edward in this one because Roy and the others have to catch up to his time.

Chapter 10: Of Plans and Remembrance

Knock. Knock.

Roy would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. It was more than likely his lieutenant had retired for the night, and the act of waking her up was not something he wanted to do. Riza could be very scary when she lost her sleep, though it was justified. She came to the office earlier than any of them, and left quite late.

Maes rang the bell again, and then gave him a knowing look. Roy immediately stopped the twitching of his fingers, and put on an emotionless face.

The door was answered, and yes – by a definitely angry Riza, and Roy could almost see the dark cloud around her.

"Yes, sir?" She managed a salute, even though all of them were out of uniform and there was no need for one. Her eyes drifted to Maes, and some of the anger was erased. Although Roy frequently disturbed Riza with phone calls at late hours, Maes would rather spend his time with his precious wife and daughter than try to irritate a gun-wielding werewolf. He had the kind of self-preservation instincts that Roy could only dream of having.

Maes took over, seeing that Roy didn't know how to frame the words. It was simple enough, but Roy would be sure to ramble instead of saying it the way it was. "Edward is missing."

To her credit, Riza did not let her surprise show or take more than a few seconds to understand what was told to her, considering she had just woken up. "How?"

"He ran away."

"Why?" Short questions, but exactly to the point. Riza was trying to gain as much information about the situation as possible, and Maes' short three-word answers weren't helping.

Roy spoke up, "He learnt; I told him I was the one who killed the Rockbells. The parents of his best friend."

Riza shook her head. "No offense, sir, but please tell me you didn't just dump it on his head without any prior explanation."

"I did explain-"

"From what you told me, Roy, you only told him the background and not the reason why you had to," Maes helpfully interjected. "You didn't tell him you would have been court-martialled or killed for not following orders."

"That's only an excuse, Maes. I simply killed two people – doctors who were saving the lives of people, may I add – to save my own skin. And what do I do after that? I continue to kill more people."

Maes was going to argue, when Riza interrupted, "Gentlemen, we can discuss on this after we find Edward, who is lost and all alone in the dangerous streets of Central at night-time. However, sir, if I may say, we had no choice in what we all did and the blame lies with the superiors who ordered the war. We were just their tools for this." Saying this, she turned and vanished into the darkness of her apartment to change her clothes.

Although finding Edward was important, she couldn't simply walk around in her nightclothes. She had to look at least partway presentable. And she also had to wake up her dog; they would need Black Hayate.

"Hayate, track!" Riza commanded as Roy handed over one of Edward's clothes to the dog. The dog sniffed, before following the command given to him and bounding out of the apartment. He was closely followed by his master and the other two supernaturals.

It was easy to keep up with the running dog, although Black Hayate would stop quite often to sniff and make sure he was on the right trail. Soon enough, they were at an alleyway. Hayate stopped, turning to his master and wagging his tail.

Roy's eyes narrowed as he noticed traces of blood in the area. Worry was his first emotion, which was quickly overwhelmed with anger. If the werewolf was hurt, it would not bode well for whoever took him.

"Continue, Hayate," Riza said, but the Shiba Inu seemed confused. "It seems Edward has been kidnapped, sir, and by more than just one if Hayate can't get Edward's scent that clearly."

"Can't we just track all the scents? They must have all gone in one direction."

"Roy, there will be a world of problems if we don't think this out clearly," Maes said. "First of all, if the kidnappers are more than we can handle, it wouldn't do any good for Edward. Second, the military will undoubtedly turn suspicious if we were to attack this unknown group and retrieve Edward. They would want to know how we knew Edward was there."

"And what do you suggest, Maes? We can't sit and do nothing. He could be hurting every second we waste!"

"Since the missing case for Edward is still going on, we – or at least, I – have to report to Captain Keith with the information we have now. Then, with his permission and military approval, we find Edward. We can also take along your unit for more man, and woman-," Maes added, glancing at Riza. "-power."

"We'll have to wait till tomorrow for that. And since this is the military, we would have to wait till afternoon for the approval. The trail could go cold by then," Roy argued. He was all for finding Edward the very moment and bringing him back.

"Sir," Riza said calmly. Both Maes and Riza were remaining calm for Roy's sake, though they wanted to find the werewolf. But it was easier for them; they didn't know Edward like Roy did and thus didn't feel the same desperation he did, no matter how callous it sounded. "The Major's plan is the best we have. If we barge in without thought, we would only endanger Edward more. And as Edward has been kidnapped, rather than outright killed or left here wounded, it would be somebody with a grudge against you."

"That's not going on much," Roy said wryly. "I can make a whole book with the number of people who have a grudge against me."

The night she had seen the boy, the nightmare of two years past had returned with a vengeance. She had startled awake in the night, images of her fallen sisters and brothers flashing in her mind.

Would the vampire, the Hero of Ishval, feel the same way they did when he saw the boy hurt? Would inflicting pain on the two, the vampire and the werewolf, ease their own pain? Was it right to take revenge by harming somebody unrelated to all of this?

She wished she had the answers, but nothing was ever black and white.

xXx

Womiob was one of the few towns close to Ishval. It was also one of the towns that Ishvalan supernaturals had decided to flee to. Already populated by other supernaturals, helping hands were lent and Womiob was far away from Ishval enough for the civil war to not affect any of them.

Affect as in 'not right in the town', though the shocks were felt well enough by them. Less exports and imports, frequent sightings of soldiers and distant sounds of war all followed, but it was better than being in the thick of it all.

Packs formed among the werewolves, and Alexia found herself lucky enough to be part of one through her elder brother, who had struck up a strong friendship with the neighbourhood boys, Alfred and Indolf, and their three friends. Though they were Amestrians, they were still moral people who couldn't condone the death of the red-eyed people over something that was the fault of the soldiers.

She had found her own friend amongst Ruth, Indolf's twin sister. They had all supported each other, and Gilbert and Alexia were frequent visitors to Alfred's house, where all eight of the pack met twice a week.

They should have expected it, but they didn't.

Gilbert was only nineteen, and Alexia was one year younger.

A look outside to see the chaos and mayhem, and a knock at the door to warn them the same would happen to them as well. That was all they got.

"Go!" Gilbert said harshly. Seeing his younger sister's hesitance, he added. "Now, Alexia!"

"I can't leave you here!"

"And if both of us try to escape, they'll just hunt us down. Alexia, you have to leave!" There was such urgency in her usually-laidback brother that Alexia found it hard to argue. "Please, Alexia."

"Open the door, Ishvalan. Failure to comply will only lead to forceful opening and your death." And listening to them would result in their deaths either way. Her brother turned around, and it was final.

To her eternal shame, she fled through the window. She heard her brother's faint "I love you, sister." But the last words of her brother that she heard were "Hello, Amestrian soldiers." Followed by a gunshot.

She didn't have the courage to look back.

xXx

They had all grouped together, except for two. Gilbert had died, and Indolf told her gruffly that Ruth had as well. Six out of eight.

She had been constantly assured she had done the right thing, the five men of the pack trying to erase the notion she should have stayed back. She was the youngest of them all, and they all fiercely took care of them, as if to compensate for Gilbert. She sometimes felt suppressed under all the care, but she understood.

It was the reassurance that though they may have failed to help others, they were taking care of their own. That they were all still alive.

Going back to Ishval was a death sentence, and going to Central seemed the same, unless they understood how much of the city was a near-maze, impossible to navigate even for those born and brought up there. It was the perfect choice, though it seemed as if they were jumping into the lion's den.

xXx

She wondered when the moral people she had known had changed. But for this, she had the answer.

Grief always changed people, for the better or the worse.

A/N: Currently listening to Bad Apple from Touhou Project, the English cover by JubyPhonic. Listen to it, it's amazing!

Womiob is actually the name of a town. The fallen sisters and brothers - Ishvalans think of everybody as family. And I like writing Alexia. She's one of the only OCs I've written for this long.

Instead of miscellaneous information for this one (though Roy's answer is just that), I have something else for the tenth chapter. Ed's thoughts on Roy, and some fluff, before our shrimp gets kidnapped!

It had been only four months. Four months and he had grown so close with Roy.

It wasn't that surprising in retrospect. Here he was allowed to explore his curiosity unlike in Resembool, where it just wasn't feasible. And his teachers had never liked all the questions he kept firing. Though they had happily answered in the beginning, as time went by and he continued to ask dozens of questions, they had gotten tired.

Roy wasn't like that. Whenever he had a doubt and the vampire was free, he only had to ask to gain all the answers he wanted and more. They also had lots of conversations, from the simple and inane to social issues. It was fun to expand his knowledge, and the books Roy recommended him to read did just that.

It was on this base of knowledge, of questions and answers, that their friendship built. Sometimes beyond simple friendship, Edward felt. The moments when Roy told him to eat his food and stopped him from damaging his eyes by reading too much felt like home, like Resembool, so much that it hurt. It was simple, but it was filled with memories that opened at the slightest reminder.

And it was a grief that Roy single-handedly stopped one night in December. No, not stopped, but made it easier to handle. One conversation had eased it, and four months was enough time for the burning cold to settle.

He wondered how his mother and Al would think about all of it. Would they be happy he was safe or would they be angry he was friends with a vampire? He liked to think it would be the former.

"The werewolves and vampires were known as the 'Children of the Night', according to the Ishvalan legends retrieved by the military. And like all siblings, they fought, although their fights were more than just sibling rivalry. It is believed werewolves accept the animal side of humans, accept the nature they come from, while vampires attempt to take away the sins of humans by ascending into something greater, something immortal. Both sides are right, one accepts while the other tries to change their very nature. This causes conflicts, of course..."

He listened to Roy's answer for his question about vampires and werewolves as he moved closer and took a look at the book Roy was holding. The warm atmosphere of the library and Roy's smooth, deep voice slowly lulled him to sleep, his head on the vampire's shoulder.

He woke up next morning on the couch in the library with a thick blanket over him and a pillow under his head.

And that's that! Hope you liked it!

*Edit: Changed 'latter' to 'former'. Thank you, DarkFlameFantasy!*