Still November 17th, 1958

"How much longer?" Roy asked Winry as she sat, wedged in between the electric generator and the gas lines that ran along the wall toward the heater.

"I'm almost finished," Winry replied. Tore's alchemy would be needed to really cook the electrical system but it was as messed up as she could make it on her own right now without turning the system off and alerting everyone that they were there. The gas system was cranked full open and the boiler was heating up fast enough it would blow in a couple of hours on its own. Fortunately, they had Roy to make it blow faster as needed. There would be no rush to get out; not until the last few seconds! "There," she removed the last bolt and wriggled back out. "When you guys hit this room the whole place is going to go to hell." If people fled, they would have a little time to get out. Winry felt bad about how many people would probably die, but warning was all they could give them. At least the facility would be destroyed.

She tried not to think about the already ruined lives of the Chimeras in the basement.

Somewhere outside the room, something exploded.

"That can't be good," Roy frowned. "Sounds like Ed's having all the fun."

"Fun?" Winry rolled Her eyes. "You're all crazy, you know that?"

"Sure we are," Roy chuckled. "The sane ones never get the girl."

Winry... was not in a position to argue against that statement. "We should get ready to get out of here." She stuffed the tools she had brought back in her pouch on her belt and stood up. "Should we go help?" Another explosion rocked the building and Winry braced against the wall as the foundation shook beneath her feet! "Or maybe not," she rescinded the statement almost at once.

"They're using alchemy," Roy confirmed with a short nod. "Stay here. I'll see what's going on."

Winry did not argue. She waited, ready to make a fast break when Ed, Tore, and Roy came back.


Roy stepped out into the hall. He had barely gone three steps before Edward and Tore came barreling around the corner at the other end, running at top speed. As he spotted them, an alarm sounded loudly, echoing through-out the building. Here we go.

"We got what we came for!" Ed shouted as they closed the distance. "Let's get out of here."

A moment later another man showed up around the corner, feet pounding as he swore angrily in Drachman. Tamirov was Roy's guess. "You sure know how to make friends, Fullmetal," he snorted, snapping his fingers and sending a flash of fire over his friend's head back towards the other guy. Part of the wall exploded from the heat, knocking Tamirov to the ground with concussive force.

"Watch it," Ed growled as he and Tore ran past Roy. "You almost burned my hair off...again!"

"You would have preferred something else?" Roy smirked as he followed them back into the utility room and closed the door behind them. Pressing his hands to the door he used the warmth around them to heat the metal and meld the door to its frame. He didn't dare use a life spark in here. "That should keep them for a while."

"At least until the bastard has time to draw a circle," Ed snorted. "He's fast. Let's get out of here and blow this place."

"Literally," Tore piped up.

Ed clapped his hands together and the stone of the floor below turned itself into steps, allowing them to climb back up to the ceiling grate they had dropped out of earlier. "You first kid," he gestured to Tore who scrambled up and vanished into the ducts. "Winry, you're next."

Roy watched as Winry climbed up the stairs and vanished above as well.

Something slammed into the door on the other side. Men started shouting, and Roy heard the sound of scribbling. "We're running out of time, Fullmetal," he snapped, waiting for the enemy to break through.

"Then get moving," Ed snorted. "If you flame anything in here that gas is going to blow and take us with it!"

Damn him for being right. Roy turned and ran up the makeshift stairs, crawling up into the duct again, not enjoying the sensation of having to squirm, wedged tightly in the space. He would never admit to being claustrophobic, but spaces where he barely fit to start with made him uncomfortable and irritable at the least.

"Move it, Mustang!" Ed's voice came from below.

"Working on it," Roy growled. He could see the exit, barely. It was dark outside now. As he emerged, Tore and Winry offered him hands out.

Roy tried not to groan as he hauled himself up onto the roof. "Come on," he called back down. "We can't do anything till you're out of there."

"You think I don't know that?" Ed's voice echoed back up at them. "Get moving! I'll catch up."

"But Ed-" Winry started to object.

"Go!" Ed cut Winry off.

"Let's start climbing," Roy looked at Winry. Tore started for their stairs without arguing. "The boy and I can hit this thing from a distance well enough. If we're standing on the building when it goes we'll get caught in the destruction."

"I know that," Winry scowled briefly at him. Then she sighed and nodded. "Let's go."


Edward was half way up the stairs when the door gave. He turned, hands together and his auto-mail transmuting into a blade before the soldiers even got in the door. To their credit, none of Tamirov's hired thugs balked at the sight of alchemy. Instead, they charged.

Ed leaped into the fray, chopping guns into useless bits first then shoving against the men who threatened to overwhelm him, using anything and everything he could in the room to stay above them or out of reach. It was difficult in small quarters. ::Come on,:: he smirked. ::Is that the best you've got?::

::Kill him already!:: He heard Tamirov's voice outside. But Ed had already knocked four men down groaning and no one dared fire a shot when they realized what room they were in.

Ed dodged a swing from one guy using his now-useless rifle as a club and slashed through one of the gas lines. ::Lighten up!:: he laughed, darting for his stairs and leaping upwards, grabbing the edge of the shaft and hauling himself up, kicking hard at one hand that attempted to grab his leg.

With gas filling that room, Ed knew he'd only have so much time before something blew on its own or he ran out of air. He scrambled quickly over and up, making it out of the shaft onto the roof with the sound of people on his heels.

There were also Drachmans on the roof! Or rather, almost. Ed saw them clambering up a ladder nearby. Leaping to his feet he took off running. He could see Roy, Winry, and Tore hurrying frantically back up the cliff. Fortunately going up was definitely faster than going down and Tore was nearly to the top.

A bullet whizzed by above Ed's head as he ran, then another. They were running behind him. He could hear their footsteps. In another few seconds they'd be in range of Winry and Roy, fully exposed on the cliff.

Can't let that happen, damn it! Ed spun, hands going together in mid air, and dropped to the stone beneath his feet. The roof of the building rippled and waved underneath the squad of men running towards him. They shouted, startled and off balance, most falling to their knees. Then the stone seemed to roll, catching them up in a thin layer of stone like an Aerugean burrito, and they went tumbling off the roof, screaming!

Ed jumped to his feet and started running again, returning his arm to normal as he hit the wall. "Blow it!" he shouted up at Roy.

"Now's a fine time for that order," Roy growled back, though Ed could barely hear him for the distance and chaos. "When my hands are busy!"

"It's not that far to fall," Ed retorted, though he was more pissed at the missed opportunity. "Tore!" he shouted higher.

"Here!" the kid peeked over the top of the chasm.

"Light her up!" Ed shouted, scrambling as another bullet tinked off the rock just above his head. More men, less time.

"But what about you?" Tore objected.

"Do it!" Ed shouted, scrambling up the side of the rock wall as fast as he could, grateful for gloves that kept his hands from getting torn up.

Tore paused, eyes wide as Ed turned his focus back to the wall, hoping desperately he wasn't asking too much of the kid.

Out of the cloudy night sky above came a crash and the air seemed electrified as bright light painted the wall around him. What the hell was that?! Ed didn't pause to look; he just kept climbing as behind him he heard the roar of exploding matter and a rush of heat. Rocks began to ricochet off the cliff face around him! Small ones bounced off his auto-mail or smacked into his other arm and leg.

Fire flashed down from above his head, illuminating the darkness again and Ed clung tightly against the rocks. Roy must have hit the top of the cliff. Everything was bathed in the glow of flame. Screams below were all he heard of the enemy now. The rocks had stopped flying.

Scrambling, Ed started moving again, aching and tired by the time he made it over the ledge. He was going to hurt all over tomorrow. Getting to his feet, he turned and joined Winry, Tore, and Roy in looking down.

Below was chaos.

Flames were gushing out the top of the building, fueled by the escaping natural gases; coming out the vent they had crawled out of and holes in the roof made by Ed's alchemy. "Some light show," he commented.

"I don't think they'll be doing much with it anytime soon," Roy commented as flames began to lick out the lower level windows on both sides. People were pouring out of the building, running for vehicles. "I'm glad we hid the truck."

"I think we should stay up here until they're gone," Winry suggested sensibly. Feeling the heat even this high up they weren't likely to freeze.

Ed watched them scrambling, driving away. There was nothing to be done to try and save the place really. He stepped away from the ledge. "Sounds good to me. No reason to go back to the truck till they're gone. Not a one of them seems to be heading in this direction."

"Why waste their time on us?" Roy snorted. "Cowards. Turning tail and who cares about the enemy, huh?"

Tore was still staring off the edge, focused on the destruction below. As Ed watched, Tore crouched down and placed his hands on a circle he had sketched in the stone at his feet. A second later a lightning bold darted from the clouds, striking the already burning building.

So that was how he did it earlier. Ed turned to his student eyes a little wide. "New trick?"

Tore smirked, though no amusement touched the boy's eyes. "I haven't had a chance to try it until now."

"Feel better?"

Tore turned and looked down at the burning laboratory. "Yeah, a little."

November 20th, 1958

The trip back to Petrayevka was almost disappointingly uneventful. The Amestrian group waited for a couple of hours before they headed back to the vehicle. By the time they left the area it was four hours after they had lit the place, and even in the night it was nothing but smoke and dim embers. Most of the exterior stone still stood but it wasn't worth salvaging, not in Edward's opinion.

They drove through the night, not daring to stop in any of the towns they passed. They didn't need Tamirov and his men - however many survived - recognizing them and deciding to get revenge. Fortunately they ran into nobody and were well back towards Petrayevka by morning. They stopped for gas and kept going, eating out of the supplies in the truck.

As Ed had expected he ached after a few hours of attempted sleep in the back seat of the truck. His muscles stiffened up, scrapes stung, and bruises from flying rocks were unpleasant. Still, it was all little discomforts and he refused to be a wimp and gripe about them.

He wished Tore would do the same. The kid had been sullen and grouchy by the time they got back to the van and griped whenever he was awake about being sore, tired, hungry, whatever might be bugging him. Ed did his best to be patient but the litany got old fast.

By the time they got back to Petrayevka late in the afternoon on the twentieth, Tore had simply sunken into silence, staring out the window.

"I imagine the government's in an uproar," Roy grumbled as they drove through the city towards the Embassy house. "First the kidnapping, then our running off for days for the rescue, then vanishing again for this. I doubt we're very popular at the moment."

"I don't care if we're popular," Ed frowned, glad Winry was driving as he focused more on the situation. "At least the situation's dealt with. I just wish we knew if Tamirov survived or not."

"Either way he's out his entire laboratory and inventory of supplies," Roy pointed out. "It would take years to work up a set-up like that even with funding from an outside source."

"Even our government did," Ed nodded, remembering getting a look at old reports on Laboratory 5 years back. Being a General as well as a State Alchemist did have some perks after all. "Let's get back to the house. I'll deal with Elkhov tomorrow if he doesn't hunt me down."

"That's right; it's your mission technically isn't it?" Roy replied smugly. "So does that mean you're taking the blame?"

"Every bit of it," Ed replied without hesitation. He didn't care who he pissed off at this point. He was mad enough to split heads! "I'm looking forward to getting some straight answers out of the Drachmans about what we're doing here. Cause now it really doesn't look like anything they had in mind was actually going to do any good. I think we've been duped."

"Or at least invited without completely honest pretenses," Winry suggested rationally.

"You're spoiling my self-righteous ranting," Ed looked over at her with a quirked half-smile.

"I try," Winry chuckled. "I'm just looking forward to getting back to the house and taking a long hot bath."

"And having a good meal," Ed agreed. Cold food for the last few days, and not in large amounts, did not make him particularly contented, especially not after all the alchemy they'd pulled at the lab.

"And a good night's sleep that isn't in the seats of this blasted truck," Roy added.

"Hear hear!" Ed agreed. He glanced back at Tore, but the boy didn't move. Ed wasn't even sure he was listening and it worried him. But any attempts lately to talk to him had been met with little to no response if he wasn't complaining. Ed was worried about one other thing too; Alphonse. They had been gone for another week. How had Riza fared with Al since then? How was Al doing? How was Elicia?

When they pulled up at the house it was almost dinner time and Ed could smell something in the oven even as they opened the door. He followed Winry and Roy inside, with Tore trailing in behind.

Riza was sitting in the living room reading. She looked up when they came in, smiled, and got to her feet as Roy enfolded her in a warm hug. "I'm glad you're back safely," she said. "All of you," she added a moment later with a soft chuckle.

"We're glad to be back," Winry smiled back.

"Something smells fantastic," Ed commented.

Riza smirked. "I've been informed there's a roast in the oven as well as fresh dark rye bread."

No wonder he was drooling. Ed turned to Tore. "Sounds good doesn't it, kid?"

The normally voracious teenager shrugged. "Sure." He turned and headed upstairs.

Riza looked startled. "Is he all right?" she asked.

Winry spoke up before Ed could open his mouth. "We finally found out what happened to his mother" she said softly. "It was a rough trip."

Riza nodded, her expression one of sympathetic understanding. "I see."

Ed looked around. "Where's Al?"

Riza looked in his direction. "Being a good hostage," she replied flatly.

"He hasn't tried to make a break for it?" Ed asked.

"I threatened to have the government sanction us both under house arrest for safety sake which would keep him from seeing Elicia." From the sarcasm, Ed could tell Riza hadn't actually made the threat, but the point was made; Al hadn't tried to do anything stupid.

"So what's he been doing when you're not at the hospital?"

Riza shrugged. "He's upstairs brooding."

"Has he eaten anything?"

"That hasn't been a problem," Riza said with an odd smirk.

Somehow Ed didn't find that reassuring. "Is he sober?"

He found her "doubtful," even less reassuring.

With a heavy sigh, Ed nodded in resignation. "I should go talk to him."

"Yes, you should." It sounded like something Izumi would have said.

Ed headed up the stairs himself and knocked on Al's door. He waited for several seconds but heard nothing. He knocked again. "Alphonse?"

"Go away."

Well that was encouraging. Ed steeled his courage - finding it ironic that facing Al's anger at him was more nerve-wracking than going into Tamirov's lab - and opened the door. "I don't think so."

While Ed knew that Riza and Al had spent a lot of time in the hospital visiting Elicia, he wasn't surprised that the room looked as if someone spent way too much time in here. Ed suspected that if the Embassy hadn't had the women who worked here the room would have looked much worse.

Even though it wasn't dinner time yet, there were a couple of old plates stacked on the desk. The bed sheets were rumpled but the bed didn't look slept in. The usual signs of Al when he was upset. What made Ed hurt inside though, was Al standing by the window staring out at snow that had started falling not long ago, and the half-empty bottle on the window sill.

"I told you to leave," Al replied without turning around.

"Well I'm not going to," Ed replied firmly, though without his usual sardonic tone. "We need to talk."

"So now you want to talk?" Al snorted softly.

Ed hesitated, unsure how to approach the situation. He really didn't want to get in a fight with his brother. "Yeah, I do."

Silence stretched out for over a minute. Finally, Al shifted his weight on his feet and replied quietly. "What happened to working together, Edward? You didn't trust me enough to even tell me you were going to take out the man who raped and tortured my wife. My wife, Ed. You never gave me a choice about going with you."

Ed couldn't argue with the facts. "Your mental state doesn't seem to have improved," he pointed out calmly. "And you would never have left Elicia in the hospital. How's she doing?" If she were doing well Ed had no illusions that Al wouldn't be handling this better.

"She's stronger," Al replied uninformatively before adding a little more information. "She's gotten over being sick after all the exposure. The bruises are healing."

That was it. Ed waited but got nothing else. "So what's got you up here doing a lousy imitation of me?"

That finally made Al turn around, and Ed flinched when he saw Al's blood-shot, tired eyes, the anguish there. His brother didn't look like he'd slept much lately; or at least, not well. "Take a wild guess."
Stunned, Ed opened his mouth to reply… then shut it. No, Al wasn't pride-fully pretending he didn't want his older brother's apology or sympathy. He really didn't want Ed here. "I'm sorry, Al." He turned and left the room.

Outside in the hall, Ed leaned against the wall, feeling oddly overwhelmed by an anguish that tightened his throat and the guilt he had tried not to think about since he had made the plan in the first place. He had been prepared for Alphonse to be pissed at him. They'd gotten in fights often enough their whole lives, over some stupid things sometimes too. But never had it come to a point where Al had ever looked at him like that... it wasn't even an expression Ed could put into words.

Feeling depressed and tired, Ed headed back downstairs. Dinner was just coming out and being placed on the table. Roy, Riza, and Winry were already sitting there. Apparently the Groves' were out this evening.

"How's Al?" Winry asked as he sat down next to her.

"He's... tired." Ed couldn't tell her anything more, not now. The look on Riza's face just made him feel worse. She wasn't upset, but she looked rather knowing. Of course, she'd had to deal with Al for days. "So how's Elicia?" he asked, looking at Riza directly. "Al didn't want to talk about it."

Riza finished serving herself up vegetables before answering. "She's still having a difficult time emotionally," she said carefully. "She cries often, and feels guilty about how she can't control it and how it upsets Alphonse. The difficult part though is she's been having flashbacks worse than yours."

Ed swallowed a bite of meat, though he almost choked on it. "That bad?"

Riza nodded. "Almost every time she falls asleep that's been what wakes her. Nightmares, and sometimes flashbacks when she's awake to what Tamirov did to her. It frustrates them both. Other than those, the doctor says she's about ready to be discharged. There's nothing else they can do for her physically."

That was what was really bothering Al. Ed knew all too well how disorienting and terrifying flashbacks could be; as bad as the original torture, embarrassing, and he remembered the guilt he felt every time someone else had to put up with him when he was a real mess. There was no cure but time, understanding, and working through the fear. "She'll probably be happy to be out of the hospital," he commented. "I think we'll all be happy to get home."

"Hopefully the safety of a familiar setting will help," Winry agreed.

"It should," Ed nodded. He had definitely felt better being home himself, away from the battlefront. He just hoped Elicia was more patient with herself than he had been in dealing with his issues. Fortunately she was more patient in general. "I think we should finish dealing with the government and get out of this place."

"You won't hear me arguing," Roy snorted. "Though I suspect we've outstayed our welcome already with this latest stunt."

"We should figure out exactly what we're going to tell them," Ed sighed between bites. He wouldn't take back what they had done for the world, but he wasn't looking forward to facing Elkhov and the rest of Drachma's military tomorrow when he explained it all and demanded some answers of his own.


While Edward and Roy were wrapped up in political discussion after dinner, Winry prepared a tray and took it up to Tore's room. She had a pretty good idea of what was bothering the boy. Not that it was difficult to figure out. She knocked at the door and got only a non-committal grunt in reply. Taking it for assent, Winry opened the door. "Tore? Are you hungry?" She stepped inside.

It was not an unfamiliar sight. The thirteen-year-old lay sprawled on the bed on his stomach, a pillow clutched to him, staring at the wall. Winry could barely see his face, but she didn't need to.

Tore shrugged. "Not really," he replied softly.

Winry set the tray down on the small desk in the room and went to the bed, sitting down next to him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?" he replied.

"About what's bothering you." Winry was not deterred. She reached out and placed one hand on Tore's back. "You've been upset since we destroyed the lab."

Tore twitched under her hand but did not try to shake it off. Instead he glanced over his shoulder at her. "What if I don't want to talk?"

"Then I'll leave," Winry replied gently, "if that's what you want."

Tore sat up as she moved to stand. "No! Wait I...." He looked so lost. "Please don't."

Winry rested her weight back on the bed. "All right." She let him take the lead.

For several long seconds Tore seemed unsure how to proceed. He was clearly battling within himself, wanting to talk but maybe not entirely sure how or what to say. "I feel...guilty," he finally said. "All those poor chimeras and we... we killed them. There was nothing we could do for them." He sat up, crossing his legs under him as he sat at the edge of the bed next to her. "Even Flame and Fullmetal couldn't fix them."

Winry put her arm around his shoulder, a natural instinct on her part. Again, Tore didn't shake it off. "I'm sorry too," she admitted. "But they were suffering, Tore. Tamirov didn't care about them except for the power they represented for him." Winry had never seen the chimeras Ed and Al faced years ago, but seeing them now, she understood the horror and disdain for which they spoke of alchemists who created them; knowing the pain their subjects were in. It was why neither of the boys had ever attempted to make one. "I'm sorry about your uncle."

"I'm not," Tore surprised her with vehement distaste. "I was at first but... but he sold those bastards my mother!" His voice broke and with it his resolve. Tears streamed down the boy's face and he leaned into Winry's side, crying. Winry brought her other arm up around him into a hug.

They stayed like that for several minutes. Tore working through the grief Winry had known to be there, and she held him, supporting him as she had her own children, and Ed and Al before them. She simply waited, letting Tore give release to the feelings he had tried to hold back for so long. There was no more mystery. The truth had been found and it was horrible.

Winry knew that feeling of loss.

Finally, Tore's sobs quieted and he looked up at Winry with dark wet eyes. "I'm sorry," he sniffled. "I don't mean to seem ungrateful. I mean...you've taken care of me and..."

"But you were hoping to find your mother," Winry finished the thought with a gentle smile. "There's nothing to feel bad for. Ed and I love you, but everyone was hoping you'd be able to find her."

Tore seemed mildly stunned by her admission of how much she and Ed cared for him, but he was too wrapped up in emotions to process everything, or so she suspected. "Thank you," he finally replied softly. "So I... I can still live with you?"

"Of course you can," Winry said as she loosened her hug, sensing he wanted to sit up. "It's your home too for as long as you want it to be."

Tore did sit up, wiping his eyes on his sleeve and trying to salvage his wounded teenage pride. "I do," he nodded. "I...can I ask a favor, Mrs. Elric?"

"Sure," Winry said, wondering what he had in mind.

Tore fished the small silver pendant out of his pocket. "This... this was Mom's. The chain's broken."

Winry understood at once. "We'll get it fixed," she promised. "I know a very good silversmith in Central."

"Thanks," Tore said again, smiling a little. "I really appreciate it." He looked over at the tray of food on the desk. "Umm...so, can I eat that now?"

Winry chuckled. "You'd better. I don't think there's much left downstairs." She stood up to go and this time Tore did not stop her. She smiled as she watched him eagerly jump up and go for the food. There were too many young men in the world that had to grow up too fast for her liking. It was nice when she could make the ones she cared for feel a little bit better.