Edward did not like running naked. He was used to the security of his leather pants (tight), and trying to sprint without them on felt a little like his balls were going to fall off.

Unfortunately, he had to ignore that.

"Paul!" Ed shouted. "Hey, Paul!"

Edward skidded to a stop and winced; it had seemed like a good idea, to make him look more keyed up, but skidding on a bare foot was a horrible idea, made worse by the unpleasant screech of automail on rock.

"Ed?" Paul looked alarmed. Good. "What's up?"

Panting for effect, Edward answered, "There's people—coming this way—they look official."

The man's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything. Fine, then. "You go get Mark—he needs to know, he should go take a look—I'll warn everyone else."

"Yeah, okay," Paul agreed, his expression an odd mixture of confusion and surprise. Without looking back at Ed, the man headed off to Mark's house, awkwardly half-jogging.

Edward allowed himself a moment to congratulate himself before following Paul, quietly so that he wouldn't be noticed, keeping to the edges of the surrounding buildings and watching Mark's house. He didn't see Paul, so the man must have already gone inside…

Mark and Paul burst out of the building, hurrying down the steps and away, out towards the main road. That was good, but now...this was the tricky part.

Sprinting again, Ed made his way up to the front door, pushing it open—no locks, which was great news, because he didn't have time to deal with that. Edward slithered in and shut the door once more.

The building was dim, as it always was, lit only by Mark's fireplace. The plus side: it was warm.

Shaking his head, Edward forced himself to concentrate. He didn't have time to get distracted, as it wouldn't take Mark long at all to realize that there was no one coming. Ideally, if he had to stay in a little longer, Roy would be able to buy him a little more time, but he still only had minutes at best.

Ed made his way over to the rugs by the window he had peeped through before, pushing them aside and dropping to his knees to examine the transmutation circle. He couldn't keep himself from muttering aloud as he did so-call it a nervous habit.

It wasn't surprising that the circle resembled the one he'd used years back, but it sent a small jolt down his spine. Only, it wasn't quite the same—the connections were different, even broken in some places to join up with a smaller circle in the center, which (here he bent so that his face was almost touching the floor to get a closer look) a single word written within…

Understanding rushed through Ed, and he pushed himself back and up onto his feet, trying to calm himself down. It was just a theory, it wasn't as though he was certain—nothing like this had, as far as he knew, ever been tried before, so how could he be sure?—but it wasn't the best thought.

In even more of a hurry, now, to get out, Edward tossed the rugs back over the circle and ran to the door. He pulled it open just a crack, and looked out, relieved to see no one coming back just yet. Ed slipped back out of the building, and headed towards his house, where he was supposedly lying in bed that very moment.

Roy stepped out from behind a building as he saw Edward slink out of Mark's house. He exhaled in a gasp, gulping in more air—he hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath. But those few minutes the boy had been inside had been terrifying.

Now for the cover up. Roy jogged away in the direction Mark had gone, only to see the very same man coming back over the crest of the hill. A chill ran down Roy's spine as he realized just how close they had come to being caught.

"Mark!" he called out, waving to get the man's attention as he approached. "I'm so sorry, Ed told you the same story he told me, right?" Roy tried to keep his expression apologetic as he looked at Mark. Something was off about the man, he looked almost sickly…of course, Mark was already of a frail build, so maybe Roy was reading too much into things.

"Actually, he told Paul, but it's the same thing, really. Something about people in uniform coming up the hill?"

Roy closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm so sorry—he told me the same thing. He had a fever this morning, and I saw him on my way to come see you about it. He was talking to a building…" Roy sighed dramatically. "I think his fever must be so bad it's making him hallucinate. I took him back to our house so he could rest, but I'm really sorry about the trouble he's caused."

Only once he was done telling the lie did Roy dare to look Mark in the eye. The other man's stare was searching. "It's not your fault," Mark finally said. "These things happen. It's probably the chill—you two came at a bad time, you haven't had the chance to get used to the cold without clothing."

"Yeah, I thought that might be it…would it be okay if I went and took care of him for the day? Hopefully he'll be fine by tomorrow and can get back to work."

Once again, the man paused before answering, though the wait seemed more thoughtful than suspicious. "Yes, I suppose that's alright. Just don't go catching the same thing."

"Thanks!" Roy responded, smiling. He glanced at Paul, who was, in contrast, frowning heavily. No doubt the man was thinking that this meant Roy would have a whole day with Ed, and he didn't seem to be happy about it. Roy grinned a little wider and turned around, leaving Paul and Mark behind as he headed for the house.

Curled up under the covers, Edward couldn't help but think this was a great plan. He'd gotten some information (bad, but he was sure he and Roy could handle it nevertheless, being in bed having boosted his confidence) and now he got to sleep all day. Not bad at all.

"Glad to see you're enjoying yourself."

Ed rolled over to see Roy standing in the doorway, grinning. With a groan, he sat up, still bundled in blankets. "There, professional enough for you?"

The man snorted and walked forward, sitting cross legged at the base of the bed. Ed heaved his legs up and around to mirror the pose, tossing a blanket over Roy's legs in the process. This was ignored. "So? What did you find out?"

Seriousness came over the room. "Nothing good. The transmutation circle was pretty similar to the one—to the one used for human transmutation." Ed stumbled over his words a bit. Even though Roy (obviously) knew about his incident with human transmutation, he was so used to covering it up that he couldn't say the words, couldn't claim the circle as something like the one he'd once used. Not aloud.

"Okay, but we already knew that—or at least, we knew he was doing human transmutation, so it makes sense. So…?"

"It was different, just a little. Some of the lines broke off in different places to connect to the center circle."

Roy ran fingers through his hair, looking stressed. "Yeah, but that could do any number of things."

"There was a word in the circle," Edward added quietly. "Just one."

"What word?"

"'Imperium,'" Ed responded. "It means—"

"Control." Roy's face was white.

Edward nodded. "Yeah. So I think…I think, somehow, Mark's using the Philosopher's Stone to control the people he changes."

They were both quiet for a moment. "But how?" Roy finally asked."How is that possible? Alchemy changes something, but it's not—it's not like a remote control. You can't just suddenly use it and make someone do what you want, that doesn't make any sense."

"Right," Ed agreed, leaning forward slightly. "So he must be putting something in them. Something he can control."

Closing his eyes, Roy sighed heavily. Edward watched him, feeling absurdly guilty over having to relay such bad news. "I was hoping we wouldn't be right," the man murmured. "I was hoping it wouldn't be this complicated."

"Yeah, but I mean, we can still handle it."

Roy opened his eyes. "I know. It's just…I just have this feeling. Like this is getting more dangerous than I expected."

"So?"

Roy took a deep breath in. "Isn't it normal for me to think that more danger sucks just a little?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you just seem really upset about it. It's not like we haven't been in danger before, you know."

And Roy did know, that's what made him so irritated. Because he'd been in plenty of tight spots, and so had Ed—hell, half the time he'd sent the blonde into those difficult situations. So why, why was Roy so reluctant to but Edward in danger again? Where was he getting this stupid protective streak?

"No, you're right," Roy said aloud, pushing away his internal misgivings—he'd just have to deal with this heavy feeling on his own. "We'll do just fine."