They were at a standstill. It was like an old desert film, with everyone pointing their guns at everyone else. No one dared move. Ed shucked off the last bits of his tarmac armor, and he finally broke the tense silence by stepping forward.

"That's it! There are enough people hurt! We're wasting time!" Ed shouted, exasperated and sick to his stomach. So many wounded or dying around him...

Hohenheim looked up from his post at the downed pilot's side. He'd healed what he could of the man's eye, though it was unlikely that he'd make a complete recovery without some serious alkahestry and bed rest. His pain was dulled for now. The blond alchemist stood up and stood by his son, one hand on Ed's shoulder.

"My son is right. We need to come to a verdict. What will you allow?" Hohenheim asked, staring at the jaded squadmates who stared back with haunted eyes. Three were still being healed of their injuries, but it was unlikely they'd survive without more medical treatment. Hohenheim didn't know how much Philosopher's stone he had in him to use. Over the long years, his supply of souls had depleted as the Xerxians sacrificed their own life force and consciousness to help those they encountered. Hohenheim had learned quickly to conserve his abilities for those injuries bordered by Death but not guaranteed it.

Ed rolled his shoulders tensely as the squad mates talked between themselves and a communicator linked directly to Oasis. Finally, one of them stepped up.

"We've talked to command. We will amend our prior statement. The slave tribesmen may come aboard, as well as Team Black. So may Thaddeus, as he is already a refugee of Patron City and a survivor of the electronic bonding experiment and therefore will provide much information on the subject. We will accept the programmed members of your team. However, we must ask the homunculus and his aide to stay behind. The assassin must also stay here. No Living Weapons may be allowed to enter Oasis," a black squad leader said, his tenor shaking slightly as a tear streamed down his face. He stared at Kojak with hurt.

Kojak bowed his head. He understood the measures they were taking. At least they could bring most.

"What do you say, folks?" he asked in gravelly tones.

"How many sick bays do you have?" Thaddeus asked gravely, cradling Nirvana. She was shivering in his arms, eyes deadened as she stared off into space. Her every fiber was tensed with pain, and her breathing was shallow. Ed fought the urge to race towards his teammate. He knew that taking up more space would do more harm than good.

"Four. We may not have room for her. Many of our men are wounded," he stated. It was as if a silent agreement had been reached. As if on a cue, slowly everyone began to fall in line, ready to be scanned into the ship. All weapons were to be confiscated. All were to be monitored closely by armed guard.

One by one, they stepped through the corridor of personnel, though Grayson and Georgia literally had to be bound and gagged with an assortment of zip ties, mouth gags, shackles, and sedatives. Ed watched the procession with some grim satisfaction. He looked at Greed, whose face was unreadable.

"So?" Ed asked, lingering towards the back of the line. Behind Greed, the hunk of metal continued to burn. Luckily, Ed had made sure that Kade was safely cushioned in a massive ball of flame retardant foam. That foam bath he'd been given all those weeks ago had given him the idea.

"I guess I'm not going. And don't worry about the chick. I'll take care of her," he said, pointing to the still-jerking Clottie. Ed's eyes tightened. It was clear she still awake and unable to do anything. She just had some awfully bad luck.

"You gonna be alright?" Ed asked. Greed was silent for a little while. If Ed didn't know better, he would've guessed that the homunculus might actually look a little hurt and disappointed. But of course, that was just a trick of the light.

"Yeah. I hadn't thought much of them taking me anyways," Greed said with a smirk. "Silly little optimist."

Ed spluttered just as there was a small commotion in the bay doors. Ed looked over with furrowed brows as a soldier argued with Thaddeus.

"She's clear! Can't you see she's bleeding to death?!" Thaddeus shouted in frustration, carrying Nirvana. She was deathly pale at this point, the knife sticking out of her side winking in the sunlight. The soldier shook his head.

"She's got a tracker bug on her somewhere," the soldier said.

"So's this one," another said, pointing to Alice, who'd just stepped into a second line.

"Ed?" Alice asked, her face displaying plumb worry. The soldier turned her arm over, showing the slave tats on her arm. He waved a weird, flat black wand over it, and it beeped with a green light. The soldier shook his head.

"She's hot. Slaves can't leave the city. The other tribesmen have already been shorted out somewhere else. We don't have the equipment or time to short you out here with what we have," the soldier contending with Thaddeus, standing solidly.

"Crap," Ed muttered under his breath, pulling up his own sleeve. His slave tattoo seemed to smile at him garishly, the bar code screaming irony. Just when it seemed like they were so close...

"This one's got a slave tat," another soldier said, pulling Zhang out of line. He protested loudly in Xingese, spluttering, and the soldiers looked to each other.

Kojak tried to negotiate. He stepped towards the soldiers from behind the line of menacing men, and he asked, "Hey, hey, fellas, there's gotta be somethin' we can do. We can't leave half our team because they've been slave tatted. I thought you said your tattoos were shorted out already." His last sentence, directed towards Alice, caught her attention.

She nodded her head.

"Nirvana did it. She put in nanos that fixed the cellhacker poison and shorted out our tattoos," Alice said with a quiver in her voice. Thaddeus' face fell.

"Maybe they did about two years ago, but these days tracker tats are impervious to nano alteration. They immediately kill the nanos that get anywhere near them with short electrical pulses. The tattoos are still live," Thaddeus said, shifting Nirvana. She whimpered in pain, and he shushed her gently, cooing at her in an attempt at comfort.

Ed felt as if someone had filled his stomach with lead. It appeared they were back at square one.

"There's no time to keep talking about this. Either they're going or they're not," the aide said, still playing with his tablet. The aide lifted his eyes slightly, almost in an annoyed fashion. "Father will find out you're here pretty quick, if he hasn't figured out already. Not to mention that sort of mess doesn't show up every day."

He pointed behind him to the metal behemoth still smoking. It was gaining a lot of stares from those that could see it, and it was obvious that a clean up crew was coming.

"New plan - I'll take the slaves and the other friendlies you obviously don't want, and you get to keep the rest of the team. Even split. Capice?" Greed suggested, and reluctantly they agreed with a few nods to one another.

"Get in the car," Greed ordered. Hastily, they began saying their goodbyes.

Ed watched as the team that had sort of become his family parted ways. Kojak kissed Nirvana's forehead, regret in his eyes as Thaddeus allowed them a brief conversation before hustling her into the car. Alice cried as she clung to Imal, the older boy coming close to tears as he buried his face into his sister's hair. Zhang and Guun had a private conversation before Zhang, of his own will, stepped off the ship with a solid stare. Richie shook Ed's hand as the two shared a sad smile. Ed approached his father hesitantly before he was suddenly engulfed in a large bear hug. For once, he reciprocated the sentiment.

Greed watched from a distance, a strange look in his eyes. His aide, having been with the homunculus long enough to recognize it, patted his shoulder softly, but discretely. With that, the aide continued to flick through his tablet.

Ed extricated himself from the goodbyes first, feeling the eyes of the squadron following him as he headed towards the car. He slowed as he heard a quiet argument.

"You need to get on that ship, Thad. This is your last chance. You can finally get out of here," Nirvana struggled to say as Thaddeus tearfully shook his head.

"I'm not going to leave you here like this. Without proper treatment, you'll die," he whispered, his voice shaking. All the emotions of the day had broken a dam. Everyone felt beaten and worn down. They were on the last leg of their journey, but for some it was just the beginning of another one. Ed's eyes tightened as Nirvana gently pushed Thaddeus away. She shook her head.

"I'm tougher than you give me credit for. Get out of here. I had a few years to enjoy the stale air. Its your turn. It's a screwed up place, but there's freedom there, Thaddeus. As stupid and wrong and terrible as that place is, it has freedom. That's enough," Nirvana said forcefully. Ed looked at his feet, standing to the side.

His mind crept towards Winry, and his heart clenched in sympathy as Thaddeus was silent. He knew too well what it was like to suffer for someone he loved. And to have that person try so hard to push you away from suffering for them was a painful, but needed, process. Sometimes, all they wanted was for you to be happy. He grasped his pocket watch as Thaddeus very slowly, very solemnly spoke to Nirvana in even quieter tones. The two gave each other a peck, the only sign of affection the two had ever expressed openly towards each other since Ed had known them, and he painfully began to walk away.

With that, all of the others piled into the car. As the clean-up crew arrived, the people who'd been left behind watched the transport fly off for Briggs, wondering if they were ever going to see their compatriots again.

With the way things were going, that chance was slim.

The car was bigger on the inside than it looked. Nirvana was put in a sort of 'medical' bay that bulged out from the main compartment, and the others who'd stayed managed to fit rather comfortably. It was a car that was built rather long with two benches of soft, leather seats. Usually a large table was in the middle of the aisle, but it was currently missing. There were windows, but they were blacked out for obvious reasons. However, they were blacked out both ways, giving the car a very secluded, intimate feel. It was a smooth ride that gave the effect they weren't even moving at all.

Greed sat in the middle of all this, completely comfortable even though a grand majority of his passengers were staring at him with looks ranging from disdain to wariness. Edward and Greed's aide, who was driving, seemed to be the only people comfortable in his presence.

Ed shifted Clottie during the silent ride, the young woman still shaking almost uncontrollably. She was exhausted, and Ed could tell. He wished he had Al's knack for comforting people when they were in pain or suffering, but that just wasn't his strong suit. So, instead, he decided the best course of action was to lay out a plan.

"What do we do once we get to our destination? Hide out? Lay low? Burn the city? Go after the big fish and ignore the small fry?" Ed asked. Alice raised her hand.

"What's a small fry?" she asked.

Greed cut in quickly to avoid an unnecessarily long conversation on the subject of larval fish.

"We regroup and try to get in contact with your big, bad resistance group-," Greed said, but he was interrupted by Zhang.

"We're not a resistance group. We're a haven," Zhang said in a 'duh' tone.

"Point being, you and your kin need to be linked up pronto -"

This time Ed raised his hand.

"What's 'linked up'?"

"Connected. Anyhow. We'll get all of you linked up, and I'll make sure it's a secure channel, triple-encrypted, voice change-overs, the whole nine yards."

"What's triple -?"

"What's 'whole nine'-?"

"Hold all questions until the end of my lecture, thank you. It'll be as tight as a camel's nose in a sand storm. Don't you dare ask me what a camel is. The last place anyone would expect to look for a communications link to that hole in the desert is a homunculus' stronghold. You guys will recuperate and pass on information. In the meantime, we'll come up with some sort of plan to get to Father," Greed spit out all at once in the hopes that he'd avoid further interruptions. He adjusted his sunglasses, only to have them ironically fly off his face as the car jolted to a stop. The entire cabin was thrown in disarray, with bodies flying everywhere. Nirvana was saved from this chaos by dint of being strapped to the recuperation table in the med chamber.

"What in Father's name-?" Greed muttered under his breath as he managed to heave himself off the floor. There was a massive bundle of bodies on the floor of the car, as the seats were facing each other limousine-style. The passengers groaned as they began to untangle themselves. Edward was the next to disengage himself from the mass of bodies.

"What's going on?" Ed asked, rubbing his face. He had a boot print planted firmly on his head where Zhang's size 10 right male foot smashed into it. Greed tapped the window, and several blue circles spiraled from his fingertips. He swiped one of the circles around, and the opacity of the window faded while Edward began to extricate Clottie from the group on the floor.

"Aw, crap. Another lev crash. I should've guessed it. I guess Lust's been desperate lately for a little mayhem after the police cleaned up that gang Underground," Greed groaned as he stared at the destruction and frantic activity going on just outside their door. All traffic had bottlenecked as robot traffic minders redirected them away from the elevated train wreck. Most of the passengers pressed their faces to the glass, ogling with horror.

The maglev train had skewed off the tracks somehow, leaving the middle of the train mangled in a twist of shiny metal, the windows splattered with gore from the passengers. People had attempted to cover the windows with what they had, but there was only so much they could do. The other half of the maglev was dangling off the elevated track, and people were continuing to fall out of the cars that hung in space. The passengers of the car watched in sick terror as people jumped off the train and to their deaths nearly five hundred feet below. They themselves were hanging in space, and it took Edward a few moments to realize that they were not on a road but on thin air.

"Holy crap," Ed breathed, watching it all with a heavy feeling of dread. The traffic had been diverted around the crash, but under the train it was evident that the thing that had thrown it off the track was a levitating car. It was completely crushed, with no hope for the people who'd occupied it.

"What do you mean, Lust is desperate? Is she another homunculi?" Alice asked, peeling herself from the window. She seated herself across from her owner, and Greed ran a hand through his spiky hair.

"Yeah, she is. And she's probably one of the least influential of us. Lately, she's been on the backburner, so she must've caused the accident to ramp up some of her power. You guys know about the circles, right?" Greed asked.

The teenagers nodded in unison as they started to seat themselves. The scene of the crash crawled by.

"Well, if people die to put their souls into the circles under the city, do you think Lust is going to wait for them to kick it?" Greed asked, stating it as nonchalantly as asking if one plus one equaled two.

"You're telling me that you condone 'accidents' like this to get power?" Zhang asked, horrified.

"Not all of us. Some of us have the more dangerous parts of the city, so it's not as bad. The other homunculi who live in better districts like this one have to ramp up their death toll. The humans never really question any of it. We're shadow creatures to them. We exist, but they halfway don't believe it. They don't want to," Greed explained, and the car fell awkwardly silent as they stared at the homunculi.

"You never change," Ed muttered to himself as he looked back out the window to the chaos of humanity going on outside. "Still using people to further your own ends, usually at the cost of their lives. Am I right?"

Greed was quiet for a moment.

"I'll have you know, the only trains I crash are the ones transporting child molesters. A benefit to society they do not appear to be."

Ed stared at Greed for a minute before spluttering, "You can load up entire trains with child molesters?!"

"It's down right common."

"What is wrong with you people?!"

About two hours later, they punched through traffic and finally made it to Greed's humble abode. Nirvana was lifted off of the recoop table and put on a special trolley filled with gel. She flashed two fingers to her other teammates as Greed's attendants began to wheel her out of the garage they'd parked in. Clottie wasn't far behind on another stretcher.

"Deuces, broskis," Nirvana croaked optimistically. Ed gave her a perplexed look before she flashed him a very specific hand sign that he understood all too well. He was on the verge of returning the sentiment when Greed motioned for the team members to follow him.

"Will they be okay?" Ed asked Greed, trying to keep up with his long stride as they approached a set of double doors done in a Xingese style.

"Nirvana'll be fine, even if she'll whine about it until kingdom come. As for Ingra - man, that name really stuck - shock withdrawal is tough, but you're pretty well and good, physically, for the first day. You just feel like crap. The day after that, though, your mind gets a little fuzzy. Sort of like being on a bad trip except there's no high to go with it," Greed explained, keying in a code to the door.

"What's a 'bad trip'?" Ed muttered to himself as the doors opened. Was it some sort of mental journey that became increasingly worse? Sort of like a nightmare? Or was it a literal bad trip? What did a high have anything to do with it? He was so confused.

"Welcome, my dear friends, to the Devil's Nest!" Greed announced as he flung open the doors to reveal a massive room. Ed and Zhang ogled. Alice, already familiar with the place, could only giggle at the boys and their awestruck looks.

It was a raver's fantasy. The room was split between three levels, each of them connected by a variety of lifts and staircases and pulley mechanisms. Tubes went through all three levels, and they were backlit by fluorescent lights that gave them an otherworldly glow. Speakers were embedded into the walls, and there were so many love seats, couches, and long, flat settees that the place would've rivaled any furniture warehouse. Bars lined the alcoves, glowingly backlit with odd assortments of drinks in a variety of neon colors. The walls were painted black, splattered in neon colors that no doubt glowed under black light. The entire compound looked ready to party, but at the moment it was completely empty.

Greed led them through the maze of columns, couches, and transport tubes to his personal glass room on the third level where he could overlook his kingdom. From the outside, it was a shiny, reflective array of windows sitting there on a balcony, overlooking the three layers of chaotic architecture. When the guests stepped inside through a special staircase, it was a clear room with glass walls that looked out, much like windows.

Zhang whistled appreciatively at the warm, decadent furniture. This guy really knew how to live.

"This is my nest, and I'm proud to call it home. We've got rooms off from the first and second floor, so feel free to pick one of them. They overlook the city, and I hope you'll find them agreeable. In the meantime, Alice and I are going to link up a communications channel to Oasis and see if any dogs are barking, shall we?" Greed said. Alice, who'd been here already, nodded and immediately walked to a door at the back of the room labeled with an indigo box, obviously indicative of slaves.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead, get out of here," Greed said, shooing them with his hands.

Ed and Zhang looked at each other, and they shrugged. They started down a random hallway, deciding that was just as good as any.

"Be ready for dinner at 10! Daniel cooks a good quiche! And with real eggs, not the synthetic stuff!" Greed called after them.

"Mr. Greed, sir, you have an appointment at three with Lust to play some handball, and then you've got another conference with the Madrigal Crime Syndicate around six thirty," Greed's attendant informed him briskly, his eyes still glued to his tablet. Greed patted him on the shoulder rough enough to almost make the man fall over.

"Here, this is what we'll do. We're going to the lounge, you're going to pull out the panties that're tied up somewhere in your rectum, and we're going to have a few drinks. We've had enough for one day."

"Holy crap! Look at all this! The floor's got fish in it!" Zhang gushed, kneeling down to look at a sucker fish that was stuck to the surface of the glass top to the aquarium just below his feet.

Ed looked around, not the least bit surprised by the opulence of this room. The ceiling skimmed fifty feet above their heads, dangling with iridescent bars that seemed to be trapezes, all of them interwoven with long sheaves of dark red cloth. The ceiling was peaked, giving the room an endless look. There was an entire bar, a kitchenette, a bathroom the size of the Xerxes ruins (decorated accordingly), and two beds sitting about ten feet across from each other. There were plenty of other amenities, Ed was sure, but he couldn't find the rest of them. Even the lights that gave the room its glow were hidden so well that he couldn't find a single fixture.

He sat down on the bed as Zhang explored the room they'd claimed. His mind was roiling with the past couple of days. They were now well and truly on their own, though they had a very powerful ally. Alice was busy patching together a connection to Oasis, meaning they'd finally be able to speak to Command after so many weeks of silence. He laced his fingers together, frowning deeply at the floor where a shark lazed just beneath his soles. Frankly, he was worried what would happen when they did contact Command. Even worse, what if they decided to reject their call?

Nevertheless, it was clear to Ed that his own personal mission was not yet done. He at least had that goal to look towards.

"Ed? You okay?" Zhang asked, looking back at his friend. Ed lifted his head, not realizing it had been bowed.

"Huh? Yeah. I'm... I'm fine. Why?" Ed asked.

Zhang shrugged helplessly, at a loss for words. The Xingese emissary was good at hiding his emotions, a trait normal for his occupation. Edward was less so, and it surprised the young man. Even when they'd first met, Zhang had been amazed at Ed's open display of his thoughts and feelings, a rarity in this day and age where everyone seemed to play their very happiness close to the vest.

"We're going to be fine, y'know? We'll get out," Zhang assured Ed. The blonde slowly started to smile, albeit a sad one. Wearily, Ed got up and stood next to his compatriot by a large, ornately painted wall.

"You wanna see something cool?" Zhang asked. Ed raised his eyebrow skeptically. He honestly wasn't sure if he was going to enjoy this 'cool' something, considering the fact that he'd been introduced to a lot of things that he considered morally or stylistically depraved. Rap music was the worst form of musical art he'd ever heard in his life. He didn't understand Alice's fascination with it.

"Sure," Ed sighed.

Zhang clapped his hands three times, and the wall in front of them suddenly seemed to dissipate into a shifting screen of smoke. Ed's eyes widened and he pinwheeled backwards as the entire city seemed to be laid out before him, great spires and running trains going back and forth between buildings and sparkling cars zipping over highways and skyways. Zhang clapped his hands twice, and the smoke screen disappeared entirely, leaving just a window that seemed to open a portal to an entirely different world.

Ed started a slow laugh. Pretty soon it turned into a guffaw, and Zhang smirked.

"You practically had me crapping my pants! Look at that! How high up must we be? Look - there's the arena! And there's the loading pads and - I can see practically everything up here!" Ed enthused, staring out at the panorama. Zhang shrugged his narrow shoulders.

"We have windows like this at home. They're not real windows, just screens. On the outside, there's a thousand cameras taking video of what's going on outside. Knowing this room, the walls are probably ten feet thick. We're not the only ones who hate the homunculi," Zhang said, tapping the wall.

Suddenly, the pitter patter of footsteps caught their attention. Ed recognized the sound of small feet in cheap sandals slapping the floor, and he walked over to the door to peek his head out of the room. Alice zoomed past so fast, Ed thought she'd take his nose off, but she kept running, not recognizing that she'd missed them.

"EDEDEDEDEDEDED!" Alice shouted all the way down the hall as Ed watched her retreating back, absolutely perplexed. He muttered a curse to himself as he realized he'd have to track her down to find out what the commotion was.

"Lemme guess. Alice?"

"Oh yeah."

"You might want to explain all of this all over again," Ed suggested, rubbing his temples in a lost fashion. He, Zhang, and Alice were sitting in what he guessed was Alice's room in the slave quarter. For a slave... Alice honestly lived better than both the boys had while they were at the arena. Heck, even now she lived better than they did with all the gadgetry and neat doodads surrounding her. Zhang had practically fallen over with envy.

Alice sighed as she crossed her arms, staring at the computer screen. Ed had listened to everything she said with attentiveness, but he had absolutely no idea what any of it meant. A lot of stuff about wavelength and blocking and jamming (though Ed didn't know how fruit preserves played into this) and yada yada yada. Even Zhang looked like he might be a little lost. The black-haired Xingese boy bit his lip as he shared a look with Ed, unwilling to admit his ineptitude.

"It looks like Command has blocked all signals from Patron City. I've tried changing IP addresses, I've tried modifying the wavelength so that we could go by radio, I've tried to hack the jammer they've got set up so that the signal will go through, but everything I try has been blocked so hard, I thought about using a laxative on my computer. Nothing's going in or out," Alice groaned. Ed stared at the screen before suddenly taking the keyboard, pulling up an email site, and typing out a quick message.

"Ed... what are you doing?" Zhang asked.

"This is the Internet, right?" Ed asked.

"Uh... yeah, yeah it is," Alice answered in a deadpan manner. She brushed a hand through her hair, the purple at the bottom giving way to brown.

"Well, you told me that Patron City basically copied Oasis Prime's idea. And from what you've told me, the both of them have the same internet connection. And also from what you've told me, people in Oasis use this email site anyways. So I'm going to try emailing Mustang and seeing what comes up," Ed stated.

"That's so insecure, though! What if someone goes through the email?!" Alice gasped.

"Do you think I'm stupid or something? There are millions upon millions of people in Patron City. They can't go through everybody's email. And we're in a homunculus stronghold. They'll be thinking we're running an operation. I'll just send an email and tell her not to reply, and I'll stick something in to let her know it really is me. Hold your horses," Ed grumbled, continuing to peck type his tiny message.

However, there was one thing he was using that might just give him a little bit of credibility besides his email address. He was pretty sure that everyone had forgotten about Morse code by now.

He tapped out a line of dots, the message playing out as just a random assortment to anyone who looked at it.

Roses are red stop Violets are blue stop This is Ed stop We want to talk to you stop P stop S stop Destroyed three different communications devices in the past six months stop nearly killed you with a rubber bullet stop

"What the heck is that?" Alice asked incredulously, practically shoving her face into the computer screen in an attempt to get a closer look at the dotted message. Ed shoved her into Zhang's lap and ordered, "Keep her."

Zhang did not look too perturbed to handle this command. He put on a simple smile as he held the girl in his lap, not minding at all that she was struggling.

Ed finished his message, and he clicked 'send'. He was glad he still remembered Morse. He and Al used to tap it on the bed frame when they were kids, sending messages to each other when they were supposed to be asleep. Of course, their mother caught on eventually, and they ended up in separate rooms. Obviously, this did nothing to stop their late night tap sessions.

They sat there, and they waited.

And waited.

And waited...

Before they knew it, Zhang was sprawled out on Alice's bed with the young slave girl curled up at the headboard, Ed listlessly playing a simple game on Alice's computer that consisted of bouncing a digital dot across a screen with an equally digital paddle. Each hit from the opposing player (who happened to be a computer - Ed was still trying to figure that out) made a ping. Ed had lost three times out of fifty-seven. He was proud of this fact, though he was playing on easy mode.

Suddenly a mail icon popped up in the corner, and Ed practically jumped out of his chair. He clicked on the tab, pulling up the email, and there the message sat in the folder.

"Zhang. Alice."

The Xingese emissary practically snored. The younger girl was no better.

"Zhang. Alice."

Alice turned over, almost putting her face in the other boy's hair. Zhang smiled in his sleep. Ed rolled his eyes at the schmaltzy display, and he picked up the nearest thing, a music player the size of his thumb. Taking careful aim with one eye, Ed chucked it at Zhang. Amazingly enough, it bounced off his forehead and landed on top of Alice's face, pegging her in the eye.

"OUCH!"

"WHAT THE F-"

Ed pointed to the computer, and the two forgot about their collective pains to scramble off the bed and see the great unveiling. Ed poised his finger over the mouse pad, hovering over it uncertainly. Alice was done with the waiting, though, and she beat him to the punch, pounding the button herself.

"Hey," Ed complained. Alice shrugged without regrets.

"You snooze, you lose," she said. The three of them glued their eyes to the computer screen immediately, skimming over the message. Which was... in Morse.

"I don't think there's a thing on Doodle Translate for this," Alice quipped, and Ed reached for a pad and pencil. It took him a moment to find it, but he managed to jot down the translation.

Got your message. Contact The Splinters. They will protect you. Didn't know they were still active. LAY LOW. Will send transport. Ed your hide is mine.

"That's... awfully brief," Zhang noted as Ed stuck the note to the computer. He'd never get over the whole 'sticky notes' idea. Whoever came up with that was a genius.

"What else did you expect? A novel?" Ed asked. "It's enough."

Of course... chances were those orders meant absolutely nothing. Ed didn't ever take orders well. Laying low was... never his strong suit.

"Edward... Elric?" a familiar voice said, and Ed turned back to see Greed's aide standing in the doorway, prim and bored as always. He was playing on his tablet, lazily flipping a finger across the screen.

"Uh, yes?"

"You're wanted in the hospital wing on the third floor. It appears a certain... Clottichilda wants to see you," the aid said, looking up at Ed.

And for a moment, Ed felt like he was being burrowed through with those eyes, like they were rooting out every secret he held in his being, a voracious worm trying to tunnel straight out of his soul. But the gaze didn't last, and the eyes went back down to the tablet.

"...Sure," Ed stated.

The sick bay was nearly empty, containing a row of beds that remained unoccupied. One at the end near the window screen held an occupant, bald and sweating. She thrashed against the sheets as if fighting imaginary enemies, and straps held her down. Her vision swirled around her like a fast-spinning mobile that refused to slow down, never focusing on any one thing. Ed watched her hesitantly from the back of the hall, almost unwilling to go and see her. He took a deep breath, trying to hold back his revulsion at the sickly warrior on the bed.

He'd seen people like that, at one time. He never thought he'd see it again. There'd been one incident that had involved checking out an opium den to case out an alchemist dealing illegal substances. They had interrogated a man who'd just been pulled off the drug for nearly a week, and he'd convulsed and spit the same way. When they'd found the den, Edward and Alphonse found nearly fifty people jam packed in a tiny room with one window, a single vent, and a concrete floor. Every single one was lost in a chemically induced haze, a dead look in their eyes. Ed would never forget the empty stares, and he couldn't understand why someone would do that to themselves, throwing away something as precious as their own consciousness.

The same feeling of revulsion sat on his shoulders like a panting vulture, but he tried to push past it. He didn't know Clottie's or Ingra's or whatever her name's situation, or how she'd come to be this way, or if it was even voluntary. From what he'd gathered, she'd been a peak fighter up until this point.

Clottie grunted on the bed, trying to scratch her skin. As Ed neared her bedside, it was obvious that she'd attempted to itch at her flesh, deep furrows in her arms where she'd tried to get rid of the ants that weren't there. He sat down in the chair, not even noticed. She was crying, and Ed felt his heart lurch.

Did she really want him right now? It seemed like she was completely out of it, lost in the nightmare that had been brought on by the withdrawal. Her brow furrowed, sweat dripping off of her. Cautiously, he put a hand out and touched her bald head. The cold metal pressed against the flesh, and steam briefly played over his fingers. She must be burning up. He looked for some sort of call button (surely those hadn't changed, had they?), but it seemed that the coolness was enough to begin calming her down.

"Not my... finest... moment," Clottie admitted painfully. Her stomach went through a spasm, and she whimpered.

"Isn't there some sort of drug they can give you? They seem to have a pill for everything," Ed muttered, looking at her abused body. It jerked and twitched now and again, but it seemed she was going through a wave of clarity. She looked at him with jaded eyes.

"Not for this, they don't," Clottie forced out. She leaned her head back as she took a deep breath, tired. Edward's eyes tightened as she tried to itch her leg, but the restraints wouldn't let her.

"Call the nurse. I need to use the bathroom," Clottie said, and Ed was about to do as she asked until a voice said, "Inquiry noted. Sending."

He'd never get used to that.

"You wanted me?"

"Side pocket to my pants. There's a black box in there," Clottie said, looking down at the mentioned pocket. Ed did as he was told, pulling out a shiny black prism that glistened purple in the soft lighting. It seemed to be made of glass, but it wasn't quite that fragile. Yet, it wasn't a plastic either. In fact, it was like a rock, very smooth and solid.

"There's a port... on the side. Link it up as... soon as you... can... Guard that with your life," Clottie sighed, her limbs locking and unlocking randomly. A nurse entered their space suddenly, dressed (of course) in a seductively short uniform with fishnet and long, curling red hair. Ed's head almost popped off his shoulders.

Was that really necessary?! They were supposed to be lowering blood pressure, not raising it!

"She wanted something?" the nurse asked, her voice sweetly high-pitched, quite incongruous with her appearance. Ed tried to stare only at her white high heels, his heart stuck in his throat.

"Uh... She was... hoping to go to the bathroom," Ed stated. Clottie chuckled from the bed.

"I never thought our savior was so human. Or easily-," Clottie noted as the nurse undid the straps and lifted Clottie out of the bed, helping her to stand.

"Is there a port anywhere around here I can plug this in?" Ed asked the nurse, interrupting and daring to look up. He rubbed a finger under his nose, surreptitiously checking for blood. It would be awfully rude to have it dripping out of his nose as he was asking this... nurse for help with a device that seemed so simple.

"Oh, yes! Down there, in that stand right next to you. It's a universal port - metallic puddy," the nurse explained with a smile on her face, so kind and thoughtful and voluptuous and bu- ANYWAYS.

Ed turned his back on the two as he tried to get his hormones under control, fiddling under the stand by the bed for the universal port. The top of the bed stand was supposed to be like a computer screen (ugh, more touch screens for him to break), and a projector's eye was at the front of it in order to produce holographic tri-dimensional graphics. Ed finally found the port by much fumbling and guessing, and he plugged it in.

A boot up sequence sounded on the computer before a holographic image stood on top of the table, miniaturized but almost real as life. Ed's eyes widened as he stared at the one foot tall rendition, his heart stopping as his breath crashed at a halt in his throat.

"Hey, Ed. Long time, no see," Alphonse said with a smile.

A/N: PHEW. Long time, no see, indeed. So, I'm going to make this quick: all updates will be sporadic. I apologize in advance.

I won't bother with the discussion questions this time. Instead- ask any question, any question at all! I'll answer it to the best of my ability! I'll be sure to post the questions and their answers in the next chapter as well, so everyone can see and no longer wonder. A person who asks a question is a fool for a moment, and a person who never asks a question is a fool forever.

Big thanks to my reviewers and subscribers and favoriteers! I apologize that I don't have an entire spiel with you guys, but I still love you all! I think you'd prefer having the chapter after all...

God bless, and happy reading!