Chapter Fourteen

Night Time Risk

Casually Roy walked into his office that was blocked off by walls and a door. Through the door he went. On the other side he saw Riza sitting at her desk scribbling, much like the other officers. On the way to his office, he recalled receiving odd looks from everyone, probably because they thought he was dead for not showing up. He looked to his desk and his jaw dropped to the floor. At least nine huge stacks of paperwork littered his desk. Unwillingly, Roy waded through the papers to his desk where he sat down unable to figure out where to start first. Glancing over at Hawkeye who had not once gazed up at him. A frown had appeared on his face and grimaced as he picked up a report on top of one of the stacks of deskwork.

The whole morning went on that way. It was dead silence instead of the normal chatting that came through the door from the other desks. Roy was going crazy. He could barely stand how quiet it was. He was about to get up to see what Edward was doing when a voice cut through the silence.

"Don't even think of getting up, sir." Roy glanced at Hawkeye. She hadn't looked up nor showed any sign that she had spoken at all.

"I'm just going to stretch my legs, Lieutenant. It's terribly cramped sitting here for over two hours not being able to move because of the worthless reports cluttering around my desk." Roy hissed annoyingly.

"I'm sorry sir but you are not allowed to leave this office until you finish your paperwork. By the look of it you still have plenty to go through. But it's your fault for going AWOL for so long. Everyone was helping you by calling in sick for you, which is hard to prove without your consent." Riza was standing directly across from him with her hand on her gun at her waist. Roy sighed at plunked back down in his seat. How he hated being intimidated by her gun.

For the next hour Roy sat there writing and writing. For once he was getting something done. Roy could only sigh as he scribbled his signature or wrote a memo to an officer.

Finally after hardly any movement from outside Fury poked his head in.

"Oh, Sir you're actually here to day?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"Yes, Fury?" Roy replied. His voiced cracked from not using it in awhile.

"Um, I'm suppose to deliver more paperwork to your office." He replied, emerging from behind the door with another huge stack of papers.

"Fine." Roy replied, giving a huge exhausted sigh. Was that the only thing that his people asked of him anymore? Fury muttered a yes sir, placing the papers down and withdrawing from the room.

It was one in the afternoon when Roy decided to try getting up and going to eat lunch when Riza stopped him again.

"Sorry, sir. You still need to finish your paperwork and by the looks of it if you don't keep working at this rate I'll have to stay here after hours with you." Roy sighed more loudly, his head falling in shame. He regrets taking all that time off now. Edward also was busy with work that he had missed doing, but not nearly as much as Roy.

Quit some distance away another familiar blonde was bonding a train to Central. The train began to move. Winry saw people waving and their families half laughing, half crying, her grandmother among the crowd with an indifferent expression. She was use to Winry leaving for Central to check on the two mischief boys, Alphonse and Edward. She watched granny disappeared as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Winry felt a great leap of excitement. Any time she went to go see Ed she was overwhelmed with happiness. She peered out of the window. It was getting dark. She could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down later on. Her stomach lurched with nerves as the train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on a tiny, dark platform. She shivered in the cold night air.

"I hope it was okay for me to come unexpectedly, I want to surprise him." Winry chirped walking toward the only place she could think of Edward being. "He better have missed me. I went through all this trouble."

Ed had finally completed all his work by six and decided he would check on Roy. He walked toward the colonel's officer, but found him still working with Hawkeye still hovering over him with her gun. It seem like he wouldn't be done anytime soon, so Edward would have to walk home alone today. After all if he told Roy, he would just come along despite his orders to finish up. On his way out, Ed ran into Al, who was walking down the hall with a huge pile of papers. "Al? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, brother!" Alphonse cheered happily, "I was over Hughes'. I came in today, looking for you but somehow I was asked for some help by Lieutenant Hawkeye, and once people saw me helping her they just start making request. Now I'm in over my head with favors." He laughed innocently along with Ed, this was always like him. Unable to say no and not help anybody.

"Well I was heading home, you want to come with me?"

"Actually I'm still helping, so I'll meet you later." Alphonse headed back down the hall and stopped just before going into another room. "Oh, I hope you and Colonel Mustang had fun over my absence." He eyes felt with a warm, knowing look. Edward blush all of a sudden and nodded before his brother continued walking.

Edward was on his way to the house from his work that evening. The blanket of darkness made him shudder. In these streets, anything can happen. It was cold and windy that night. The alleyways gave Ed that creepy feeling of being watched. After walking a partial mile, Ed heard footsteps heading into an alleyway.

"NO! Please, don't...no-" A fearful voice yelled at it's highest, hoping someone would hear. Lucky Edward was walking pass the ally from which the screams had erupted.

"What the hell is going on?" He questioned, suddenly running into the darken enclosure of brick walls. "Hey!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The voice quickly cut off with a horrible gushing sound. This only made Ed more suspicious of it and he quicken his paste.

"What the-" His body froze all over. A emulated body laid motionless on the cold, hard cement. Blood flowed from his head rapidly, a large puddle forming around his head. His expression was felt with so much fear and pain that it was terrifying to look at, to die with your jaw panicky hanging by on side of you mouth. Among the tortured corpse was a familiar serial killer. His red eyes emerged from the darkness and stared angrily at Edward. The man looked up from the state alchemist he had just killed, a huge amount of blood still dripping from his stained hands. "You bastard." Ed coldly whispered. Scar could see him shake in fear.

"You are awful young to be walking around at night by yourself. Something might happen."

"Shut up, you bastard!" He furiously, without hesitation, transmuted a blade out of his right arm. "I'll finally make you pay for all the lives you took."

"I spared you last time, but if you insist I take your life here and now, I will not object." Scar smirked slightly and took a step closer. "I'll even let you have to first hit." He grinned and turned his head and put his arms along his sides.

Quickly taking action, Edward charged toward the man, cutting the side of his face, creating a line of blood with the swiftness of his blade. He dipped in the very next second and delivered a blow to Scar's stomach. But right before his fleshy fist had contact with Scar's gut, it was quickly caught in Scar's own his. "Now. Now. Fullmetal, I only sad you could have the first hit." Not even giving the boy a second to comprehend his sentence, Scar kicked him hard in the stomach, sending Ed flying into the closes wall. Scar approached the injured blonde and smiled, before kicking him in the face. He received a painful yell from him and it only feed his need to rid the world of all state alchemist. "I'll do the favor of taking you out quickly, Fullmetal." Ed painfully had blood leaking from his mouth as he looked up at the killer. Scar forcefully grabbed Edward, pulling him up by his hair. His eyes winced at the pain in his stomach and face, but he managed to clap his hands and transmute part of the wall behind Scar into tattling him, while he wasn't looking. The Ishbalan went soaring across the ally and landed among the rumble of the walk crashed into. Ed rushed to his feet and transmuted the rumble into a cement prison, surrounding Scar. "You're pathetic alchemy can't defeat me, Fullmetal. Have you forgot what I can do, if so let me refresh your memory?" Scar burst from the cage by merely touching the bars and charged for the alchemist. He took hold of Ed's metal arm and decomposed it into tiny, useless scraps of metal.

"Dammit!" Edward held the area wear his right arm once was. "Winry's going to kill me because of you!" Ed pointed furiously at Scar.

"Not if I put you out of your misery now." Edward was now truly pissed, this automail was damaged, again! He turned quickly and tried to kick Scar with his left leg, hoping the metal would hurt more than his fleshy one. But once again his attack was reflected by Scar's hand and counted, finally destroying his metal leg as well as the arm. "You do forget quickly."

"Crap!" Edward cursed himself for being so out of it while fighting. He looked back at the man who would decide on his future, fear suddenly overwhelming him.

"Cheer up, Fullmetal. You will have your caring Colonel join you soon, along with the rest of the state alchemist group." Scar cooed, picking up Edward by the hair once again. His palm covered Ed's face roughly, squeezing it furiously as a red glow emerged from his arm. Ed's eyes widened as he suddenly saw his life before his eyes, his mistakes, his accomplishments, his loved ones, his Roy.

-Meanwhile-

"There! Finished." With a triumphant grin, Roy placed down his last paper on the finished stack and stretched. "Finally free from this accursed paperwork!" Preparing to stand up, he heard an ominous sound coming from right behind him, more importantly his head. .

Click.

"Forgive my subordination sir, but before you go I need to make sure you actually completed all the papers. I won't have you skipping out on them again." Sighing in mock exasperation, Roy grabbed the nearest stack of paperwork and handed it to Riza to check. She looked over all of them carefully, making sure he hadn't mindlessly just sighed them anywhere and went on. "Alright, you check out, sir. You may go home now." In a flash, her gun was put away.

Rounding on her, Mustang frowned. "Finally. I didn't even get to have lunch because of you." Riza raised a brow, but she kept a steady look and her usual serious face on. Mustang raised his hand and casually waved her off. "Okay, there is no longer a reason for you to stalk me Hawkeye." She sighed and walked out of his office. "I wonder if Ed's had lunch or diner yet, maybe we can go out together." Roy smiled pleasantly as he gathered his belongings.

"Ed left out about an hour ago Colonel," Al suddenly intruded into the room, apparently cleaning up before leaving.

"He did." Roy practically growled. "Dammit!" Roy thought miserably on all accounts.

"He didn't want you to worry or stop working so he left out alone." Al inquired.

"WHAT!" Roy nearly jumped. "Isn't that idiot smart enough to know not to go out alone like that? After all he almost got raped by Envy, shot twice by a murder and not to mention that near death experience at lab 5!" Roy yelled, mostly talking to himself rather than Alphonse.

Al winced a little due the sheer decibel of his volume.

"What!" A higher shrill emerged from the doorway to Roy's office. It was loud enough to catch both attentions of Roy and Alphonse. They stared curiously at the blonde girl in his door.

"Winry? What are you doing back in Central?" Alphonse asked .

"Winry?" Roy repeated.

"Alphonse! What happened to Ed, where is he? Is he okay!" Winry screamed, half felt with anger and half, worry.

"Well..." Al didn't know how to exactly explain all the trouble that happened since they saw her last.

Meanwhile, Roy was left there dumbfounded. He grabbed his military coat and made a dash for the door. "Damn you, Edward!"

"Hey! Where are you going?" Winry shouted following him into the hall.

"To find Ed!" He yelled back, leaving the building with Winry and Alphonse both on his tale. "I hope you aren't in any trouble again, Edward. I don't think I can keep coming after you."