A/N: Sorry, this is a fairly short chapter.

I don't own Darker than BLACK or Fullmetal Alchemist.

Ed tried not to focus on the sword at Winry's neck as the Fuhrer led them through the underground passage. If only he could be up there with her. Just being able to tell her false words of comfort would make him feel so much better. But he was apparently denied that as well; he and Al were trapped, and he couldn't see any way out of it. They had finally found themselves in a situation in which they were over their heads, and Winry would pay for it.

Al hit him softly with his arm restraints. Ed turned to give a questioning glance, and Al leaned in to whisper, "Don't go beating yourself up now, Big Brother. Focus on helping Winry."

"No talking," the Fuhrer commanded, and Al hastily pulled away. Ed inhaled slowly, and exhaled. Al was right. He had to protect Winry somehow. He couldn't just give in yet. Could he…? He internally winced at the possibility of failing, and what would happen to Winry. She would get a much worse punishment than being turned into a Doll. So… what could he do?

Al watched forlornly as he saw his brother already berating himself over Winry's capture and pending punishment. It was both their faults, but most likely, Ed would put all the blame on himself. Just as he had that night when they had tried to bring their mother back to life. And when they had ended up killing her.

Don't think about that now, he chided himself. You're as bad as Ed. Focus on the situation. There has to be a way out. There always is.

There wasn't for Hei, another part of him whispered. He lost everything. You could, too.

No. Don't think about it.

Before he could stop himself, the image of the mangled, still-living body of their mother, the thing they had transmuted came to their mind. You're not all powerful. Mom, Nina, Martel, Hughes… they all died because neither you nor Ed could do anything. Maybe Winry will too.

No, Al thought to himself. He could feel the strange sensation of a rising panic, without any of the physical responses, fill him. He couldn't let that sense of paralyzing fear that was overwhelming Ed now get to him. He had to think for the both of them. I just need to think. Concentrate.

Too late, the other part of him sighed. Al looked up from his musings, to see that they had stopped in front of the entryway to a large room. It's too late.

The Fuhrer walked into the room, still holding Winry at sword-point. After a pause, Ed and Al followed him at a reasonably short distance. Al noticed out of the corner of the armor eyeholes that other people, mostly adolescents and children, were also being led—or rather, forced—into the room. Almost all were loudly resisting—cursing at their captors, screaming at the top of their lungs… it would be the perfect time to come up with a plan with Ed, but…

Al shot a glance at his brother, frightened. Ed's eyes were wild with repressed fear, worry, and rage. Would he be able to hold out? At this point, they could do nothing, not without getting Winry killed. They would just have to suffer through watching her being turned into a Doll. Or at least, that was the logical conclusion he had come to, but he wasn't a Contractor after all. He didn't think he'd be able to watch silently as Winry was put through that. Would he…?

"Al," whispered Ed, more frightened then Al had heard him in a long time. He flashed back to the day Ed had fallen in the river, when Mom had died, when Teacher had caught them fighting, and when Mom had died again. That had had to have been the last time Ed had ever really let on how scared he was, right after their failed human transmutation. It had been so long. Ed took a quick, panicked breath. "Al," he repeated, eyes wide, mouth already set in a premeditated grief. "What do we do?" His eyes begged Al for an answer, some way out of this situation, some way to save Winry.

It pained Al to have no answer. He wished he did, that he could somehow save them from this. But he couldn't. "I don't know," he whispered brokenly back to Ed. "I'm sorry." He looked down at the hated restraints on his hands that didn't allow him to do alchemy. "I'm sorry," he repeated in a voice so quiet the words were nearly inaudible among the screams of the other soon-to-be Dolls.

Ed reached out and awkwardly patted Al with his remaining hand, still in the mitten-like restraint. Al could hear the rattling of Ed shaking against the armor. "Should we just… let it…" Ed stopped, apparently unable to finish. He took a short breath, and continued. "Let's let them turn Winry into a Doll. I don't want them to kill her, no matter what," he asserted in a stronger voice closer to his normal self. But Al could see the pain in Ed's eyes. The decision was a costly one.

But it was the only one they could make. He nodded silently in agreement.

"It's time," Al heard the Fuhrer announce. He looked up, but the Fuhrer's expression wasn't triumphant, as he had expected. He was still smiling pleasantly with that grandfatherly expression on his face, but...to Al, he seemed far from pleased. "It's time, so where are the researchers?" he politely asked a nearby person in a lab coat, who trembled at being addressed by the Fuhrer.

"Th-they h-haven't come back yet, P-President F-Fuhrer, s-s-ir," the man answered shakily. "I'm the only one they left here. They're having s-some problems with the Contractor and the Doll—" the man gasped as the Fuhrer took the sword away from Winry's neck to point it at the man. Al could see Ed's face suddenly crease in concentration upon seeing the Fuhrer's reaction.

"B-but, there shouldn't be any problems!" the man hastily tried to assure the Fuhrer in a terrified voice, his eyes crossed as they focused on the sword being pointed at him. "We have several Contractors making sure the Dolls don't escape—"

"I assume you know how to use a sword," the Fuhrer interrupted calmly. Despite his stoic, even friendly attitude, his hands were trembling with some emotion, and the researcher seemed to notice. He looked more frightened than ever.

"Y-y-yes," the man stuttered. "I t-took fencing i-in the university a-and—"

"Good," interrupted the Fuhrer a tad shortly. He flipped the sword around in one swift toss in the air and handed the sword to the researcher. The man stared at it uncomprehendingly for a second before looking wildly up at the Fuhrer. "Keep that sword at this girl's neck at all times," the Fuhrer instructed the researcher as he pushed Winry towards him. "Kill her if those two," he pointed over his shoulder towards the Elrics. "Try to save her in any way. Don't hesitate. If they even look like their plotting something, do it." He started to walk away, drawing another sword as he did so.

"Wha…? B-but… Sir!" protested the researcher, apparently unable to contain his outburst despite his fear. "Where are you going?"

The Fuhrer looked back not towards him, but towards the Elrics. Al held back a surprised intake of breath at the transformation of the Fuhrer's face. It was furious, his expression promising danger to whoever had disrupted his plans. "To take care of the situation," the Fuhrer answered just as pleasantly as before as he slammed the door behind him.

The researcher winced, but quickly put the sword to Winry's neck. It was nearly silent now, the crowd of captured research subjects was watching their ordeal with interest, with the exception of a few crying children. They had all been herded to the middle of the room by a group of people Al could only assume were Contractors. He could see the speculative looks on some of the older captives' faces, wondering if this was their chance to escape.

"Damn him," Ed breathed. Al glanced in his direction to see, to his relief, that Ed was mostly back to normal. His eyes were focused on the problem of Winry's capture; the unexpected snag in the enemy's plans seemed to have given him hope. "He left Winry with a person scared to death of him. What do you think?" Ed asked Al quietly as his eyes flicked from Winry to the frightened researcher, who was watching them with bulging eyes. Winry seemed strangely composed; she seemed to have calmed down after the initial shock of having a sword put to her throat. Al could practically the wheels churning in her head as she too tried to think of a way out of their situation. "Do you think that guy has it in him to kill Winry? Should we chance it?"

"No," Al whispered back. "Better not, not without a plan. We need an opening."

"Shut up!" the researcher abruptly commanded them in a high voice. "No talking!" He held the sword closer to Winry's neck, and Ed and Al froze.

Suddenly, Winry started to writhe under the man's grasp. "What the…?" he exclaimed in shock. "Stop it! Stop it, or I'll— I'll kill you!"

"Let go of me!" she screamed at the man in a hysterical voice that clashed with the calm expression that had been on her face moments before. Al recognized that sound. She was faking it; when she was younger, she would always start bawling in that exact voice when she had wanted attention or to get Ed into trouble. But to outsiders, she probably sounded genuinely hysterical. "Let go of me!" She squirmed under the researcher's grasp seemingly unaware of the sword at her neck.

"Hey, just—stand still for a sec!" the researcher told her frantically. "If you don't stop, I really will—"

"No! Don't!" Winry screeched, her voice laced with that fake panic. "He said only to kill me if...if those two were plotting an attack!" The researcher froze and stared at her, his eyes wide in hesitation.

"Al," Ed whispered beneath the sound of Winry's next drawn-out, hysterical scream. "I'm gonna sneak up on him. Since I'm so…" he hesitated for a second. "short…I might be able to manage it—"

"Don't!" Al told him firmly. "Not yet—" He paused as he heard a noise above him. He glanced up cursorily, but there wasn't a solid roof— just a tangle of gigantic pipes. No one would be coming through those, right? But then, there was another noise, and Ed looked up as well.

"What—?" he started, brow furrowed. Before he could finish there was the screeching sound of metal on metal. The researcher jumped and looked around wildly and Winry stopped her screaming, listening intently to whatever the sound was as well.

"What's that? Who's there?" The researcher seemed to huddle in on himself as the screeching sound continued, heedless of his queries. "Stop it!"

Amazingly, the high-pitched squealing sound from above seemed to obey his command. Everyone in the room, the researcher, Ed, Al, Winry, all the Doll candidates, and even the Contractors guarding them, looked breathlessly up at the ceiling, wondering if the foreboding noise would return. But it didn't. Al could see Ed glance back down with raised eyebrows at the researcher, who was dripping with sweat and still staring, unmoving, at the ceiling. The researcher seemed to slowly thaw as he noticed everyone was now quietly staring at him or the ceiling. "W-well?" he said in a challenging sort of tone. "What are you d-doing, just standing there? Don't forget that you're guarding them!" he loudly told the Contractors who were all still staring upwards.

"Don't you recognize that?" one female Contractor murmured, not sparing a glance towards the researcher. She kept her gaze restlessly searching above her. "It sounded like…"

"A knife puncturing through metal," Ed breathed so quietly that only Al could hear him. Al threw him a sharp look and Ed elaborated. "Remember when we were in the train, and Lan Fan cut through the roof?"

"Oh," Al responded in a sudden realization. "So—do you think—?"

"Yeah," Ed said, excitement growing in his voice. "I think it's—"

There was a deafening shriek that echoed throughout the room, making it difficult to originate where the sound had come from. A large sheet of metal, ostensibly from a pipe, fell to the ground and landed on one of the Contractors, and two other Doll candidates. The room was thrown into confusion—the Doll candidates stampeded, and the Contractors did little to impede them. The Contractors all banded together, looking around for the new threat.

"Don't let them escape!" screamed the researcher, now in near hysteria himself. "What are you doing…? Go after them!"

The Contractors ignored him, and Al could practically feel their eyes sweeping over the room. Then… three human-sized objects dropped down from an overhead pipeline, and landed not far from where Winry was. Three people that Al recognized.

"Ling!" shouted Ed, a relieved smile growing on his face.

"Lan Fan, Fuu," barked Ling. "Take care of the guards. I'll go after the researcher."

Al could see the masked figures in black besides Ling charge towards the Contractors without hesitation, and Ling split off from them towards the researcher and Winry. The sound of a quick intake of breath emanated from within the armor. Neither Ling, Lan Fan, nor Fuu knew about the Contractors' abilities. They were skilled, but to take on that many alchemists at once… "Wait!" he yelled futilely. "Wait! Lan Fan, Fuu…!"

They ignored him, as he knew they would, and continued their charge. "Stop!" bellowed Ed in desperation as he too realized the danger those two were in. Before Ed could take another breath, Lan Fan and Fuu disappeared in a screen of flames.