A/N: I know, this is really, really late, but a lot of stuff came up. I also may have to start updating more sporadically from now on, unfortunately. But hopefully that will mean I have more time to edit chapters and improve them. And no matter what, I am going to finish this story, so no worries about that.

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

Hei was alone. All alone in the empty white space where the Truth lay. He sat, head hanging limply down and leaning against his Gate. He refused to glance to his right; he knew what was there. He could feel it—the presence of his sister's Gate. A heavy feeling that spoke of an ancient, omnipresent knowledge pressed him down into the nonexistent ground. The feeling forcibly reminded him of how insignificant he was; how useless he had been when it had truly mattered. The Gate to his right was like that reminder had taken physical form.

But it was still strangely comforting, although he would never admit it aloud. The Gate was also a reminder that his sister was still with him…sort of. The last bit of Bai that was left tied him to this very thing that had taken her away. The Gate was repugnant, yet he still felt an odd fondness for it. He could almost hear his Contract's distaste already—"You're so irrational!" It would probably have tried to command him to just choose one emotion or the other—having two such conflicting emotions made no sense, after all.

But he couldn't hear anything now, not even the Contract in his mind. The blank white smothered everything; even the sound of his own breathing, even, it felt like, his own consciousness. The white was so vast, so consuming, he felt like he was part of it—if he hadn't felt the steady movements of his chest as he inhaled and exhaled, he might have believed himself dead. He waited for some sound, any sound to break the spell. But nothing. The Gates hung silently in the space behind him, and he remained motionless, breathing in and out, in and out. Just existing. Nothing else.

He couldn't bring himself to form any coherent thoughts in this mindless white, but the old terror started to slowly return to him, creeping through his limbs. His lungs started to expand and contract more rapidly and shallowly, and the stale air from the bland, white space circulated all the more throughout his body, paralyzing him. He could feel that breathtaking fear that had compelled him to protect his sister in the first place returning.

The fear of being alone.

His head leaned forward to touch his knees with a soft thump, his shoulders hunched slightly as that sly serpent called solitude constricted his breathing and whispered dire predictions into his ear through the silence. It was all he could hear, and he could not block it out. That was the grip loneliness held over him—it was a persistent feeling, always gnawing away at any hope he managed to gain. He couldn't deceive himself that he wasn't alone; he couldn't do anything about it. It was just an inescapable fact. If there was a hell, being all alone had to be it.

He lifted his head to gaze blearily at the unnaturally white wasteland in front of him, as if trying to force himself to hope that someone would be there. No one was there.

All alone.

"Hei." A voice shattered the silence and broke the spell. His eyes flew open wide, hearing a familiar voice call his name. His head turned frantically, carefully scanning his surroundings. Nothing.

"Yin." His voice emanated hoarsely from him in a strange, echoing entreaty. The whiteness dampened his voice, but surely she must have heard him. Maybe she was hidden somewhere in this white void that he was in. Or maybe he was just imagining her voice, her existence? His insides clenched automatically at the thought.

"Yin, where are you?" He couldn't keep a trace of fear from entering his voice.

"I'm here." His eyes kept searching blindly through the whiteness, but there was nothing.

"Yin…please," he said, his voice becoming almost imploring. The empty plainness of the void he was in suffocated him. "Where are you?"

"I'm here," Yin's voice said again. He turned around towards the voice. It was coming from behind him, but… there was only him and the two Gates in this empty space.

He had to be just imagining Yin's voice. "Don't…leave me alone," he whispered to himself defeatedly. No one heard him. There was no one else.

"Hei." Yin's voice, the voice that had been coming from the nothingness grew so concrete that it pulled him away from the scene, which vanished, just like that.

Hei squinted, his eyes still blinded by that empty whiteness. It was all he could see for a second, but he blinked, and slowly the image of a ceiling stippled with stains came into focus. Ah. A nightmare. He stared at the ceiling for a moment more before his eyes automatically swiveled around, searching for a more familiar object that he would recognize. A chair with one arm broken off, splinters sticking haphazardly out, a couch with stuffing coming out a long rip on the seat cushion…it wasn't familiar. He maintained his current relaxed position—it was very possible that he was still in hostile territory, and that he would have to take an enemy by surprise. Had he been captured? He tried to remember, but his memories seemed so far away in his half-asleep state…

"Hei." He started slightly, and his head turned to look to his right.

"Yin," he breathed. So at least they hadn't been separated. "What happened? Where are we?"

Yin's grip on his hand tightened. "It's…okay."

But something in her tone seemed strange despite the reassurance. "Yin, what is it? Were we captured?"

"That's…not it." He waited impatiently as she tried to slowly form the words. "It's…okay." She looked down, and her grip on his hand tightened further, her nails digging faint, half-moon crescents into his hand. "Not alone."

Hei could feel his face contorting into an expression of surprise. "What?"

Yin just shook her head slightly. He vaguely wondered if he had said something in his dream, and if she had heard it. But it wasn't important at the moment. "Yin. What happened?"

Yin lifted her head, and resumed her usual deadpan expression. "Parcel brought us out of the underground place," she explained. The strange timbre in her voice had disappeared as well. "You were hurt. Your foot. "

His foot? He remembered… that Xingese Contractor had stabbed him in the same foot that the Lieutenant had shot. But he couldn't feel a trace of a wound. It wasn't even hurting at all. Had they given him pain medicine? He tentatively flexed it, but it felt normal. "What's going on…?" he wondered for what felt the umpteenth time.

"That's what I'd like to know," a voice said behind him. Hei sat up sharply and turned to see November 11 walking into the room with a slight frown on his face. He looked different from when Hei had seen him last, and it took him a second to identify what the change was. November 11's eyes and facial expression, which had somehow softened since Hei had seen him in Ishbal, had regained that cold, hard quality they had held in Ishbal. As November 11 continued to talk, Hei scrutinized him, trying to find a reason for the change. "We were losing, and then a human-shaped observation specter appeared. All of a sudden, all the Contractors attacking us killed themselves using their Contracts."

Hei stared at him, memories flooding back to him. "The specter touched my foot," he muttered quietly to himself, and looked down speculatively at his foot, which was wearing a shoe that was considerably torn up…yet, impossibly, the foot seemed fine. He swung his feet over to face November 11, and the old spring mattress below him squeaked. "Now it's…"

"Healed," finished November 11, his frown deepening. "You know something. Parcel and I saved you; time for you to return the favor. What happened?"

"Wait… what about Mao?"

"We didn't get to him in time," November 11 said impatiently. "Who did that specter belong to?"

"What happened to Mao?" Hei demanded heatedly as he stood up.

"I wouldn't know, would I?" November 11 responded, his voice only growing icier with each word he spoke. "I told you, we had to leave. There were too many. Now, tell me. Who did that humanoid specter belong to?"

"Humanoid?" Hei couldn't help repeating softly. He barely stopped himself from shooting a glance at Yin, but he could see Yin raise her head out of the corner of his eye, and a rare expression of confusion flashed across her face for the briefest of seconds. He had seen the specter himself but…

"Yes. As I said," November 11 replied with absolutely no trace of that fake humor or politeness in his voice. "A human-shaped specter appeared, and all the Contractors opposing us committed suicide shortly thereafter."

Hei slowly shook his head. It couldn't have been…it couldn't have been Yin's specter. She wasn't a murderer; there wasn't any way it could be hers. "I don't know who it belonged to."

"You're lying."

Hei returned November 11's glare coolly.

"Tell me." November said, his voice lowering dangerously.

"Are you trying to protect your Doll?" Parcel asked as she stuck her head out from the door behind November 11. "There's no need; if it was her who killed them like I thought, then she saved us." November 11's eyes narrowed.

Hei shook his head once more. "It couldn't have been."

"Why not?"

Hei took a slow breath, thinking it over. "A specter can't kill. All it is is a disembodied soul that a Doll can see with. It couldn't have been her."

Yin shifted by his side, but when he tilted his head to observe her reaction to his assessment, her face was blank.

"Specters don't take on a human form either," November 11 said tersely, bringing his attention back to the conversation. "Hers is different. If you don't remember I've already seen her specter, from when you first arrived in the prison. It must be hers."

"Why do you want to know?"

"That doesn't matter."

Hei examined him for a moment before asking in a softer tone than before. "Someone died?"

November 11 blinked, surprise creeping past the cold fury on his face. "Pardon me?"

Hei just kept looking at him.

Parcel glanced tentatively towards November 11. His short-lived surprise was once again replaced by that frigid rage. "April's dead," he finally said shortly. April, his partner in Ishbal. "She drowned herself using her own Contract."

"And you think Yin did it," Hei finished for him. A soft, ethereal, electric-blue glow slowly began to emanate from him. Pencil-thin sparks danced and flashed between the fingers of his gloved hand.

"Whoah, whoah, whoah!" Parcel shouted as she ran to put herself between November 11 and Hei. "There's no reason to get all defensive!" she told Hei. She pointed a finger at November 11. "He might be getting a bit emotional, but there's no way that he'd try to get vengeance for April. She was ready to kill him! Attacking you'd be just stupid, and we Contractors aren't allowed to be idiots."

"Actually, I would quite like to be, as you say, idiotic at the moment." November 11 told Parcel, not taking his eyes off of Hei for a moment. Hei tensed and the alchemical glow grew in intensity. November 11 watched him calmly while Parcel gaped, trying to keep up with the rapidly deteriorating situation. "Fortunately for you, I haven't gained quite enough control to act on my own. My Contract won't allow it." He sighed, his frown clearing. "You can relax. I won't do anything. I can't." After a tense moment, the glow surrounding Hei like a full-body halo faded.

Parcel rounded on November 11, and her bear ears flopped uselessly onto her back. "You really are an idiot! To think of even acting on emotions like that…!"

A forced, ironic smile crept onto November 11's face as he tore his gaze away from Hei. "I suppose I can say the same to you. You pretty much gave us away to the scientists after all." He sighed again. "It is quite strange though. Before, I never would have thought that any of my colleagues had left the slightest impression on me…"

Colleagues… Hei looked up sharply as the word reminded him of the situation under Central. Ed and Al, two human sacrifices, were alone, and at the mercy of the government. He was uninjured now. This would be his only chance, while the researchers were distracted, if he wanted to kill the brothers... or maybe he even would be able to help them escape. "I want to go back to the lab."

Parcel, Yin, and November 11 observed him stoically for a moment before Parcel finally spoke up. "I changed my mind. You're an even bigger idiot than him." Hei's lips twitched upward into a small smile.

"The Elric brothers," Yin muttered.

Hei nodded in response to her statement. "I need to help them escape. They're more dangerous in the hands of the government than you realize."

"And you want us to put ourselves in danger again to bring you back?" November 11 guessed. That frigidity was stronger than ever in his voice, and although Hei recognized that November 11 had been telling the truth when he had said his Contract wouldn't allow him to attack Yin, he also knew that their brief alliance was over.

"No. I can get in by my—"

"C'mon!" Parcel interrupted in exasperation. "Even you should know that's practically impossible. You can't break in there by yourself and still be unnoticed."

"And I can't leave those two in the hands of the government," Hei responded calmly. "It's far worth the risk."

"Is it…?" Parcel murmured to herself. She paced back and forth; her brow furrowed to an almost comical extent as she muttered to herself. Suddenly, she groaned in frustration as she retrieved her bear ears from where they had fallen against her back, and returned them to their former position on top of her head. "Remind me to give Champ a good talking-to when I come back. This whole irrationality thing is gonna get me killed."

"Lan Fan! Fuu! Stop!" Ed yelled right before a young, female Contractor shone momentarily with a surreal glow, and a fireball barreled straight towards the charging bodyguards. The fireball hit something, he couldn't see what, and everything in the immediate vicinity was engulfed in heat and roaring flames. Ed shielded his eyes—he could see the bright light of the explosion through his eyelids, and he felt like his skin was crinkling up from the heat. It was impossible to see if anyone had survived the blast.

"Did they…?" he whispered to himself, barely able to hear himself over the sound of the flames consuming everything nearby. He couldn't be sure, but it didn't look good.

"Get away!" they heard over the gluttonous flames the scream of the researcher holding Winry hostage behind them. Ed's attention was immediately averted from the mounting flames before him when he saw that Ling was dashing towards the researcher, heedless of the danger his guards were in or the fact that the researcher was growing increasingly unstable, his eyes wild. His blade dug into the side of Winry's neck, and blood trickled down in a thin stream. "Get away, or I'll kill her!"

Ed turned and sprinted towards the researcher after Ling upon hearing the man's assertion. "Ed, wait!" he heard Al shout behind him, but he couldn't. Winry was in more danger than ever before; he had to try to save her before the researcher snapped and killed her, right then and there. He heard the clanking of Al's armor, but weirdly enough, it was heading away from him and from Winry. He didn't ponder Al's strange action for long however, as the researcher shrilled another high scream again.

"I'll kill her!" the researcher screeched, his voice hitting his highest pitch yet. Ed's heart beat irregularly against his chest as he sprinted towards the researcher. He wouldn't get there in time. The researcher would do it before he could stop Ling's charge, before he could do anything. He stumbled over his feet as his foot smashed into a half-buried pipe, but threw himself off the ground as quick as he could towards Winry. He had to make it in time.

"Go ahead," Ed heard Ling say coldly. Ling was only a couple of feet away from Winry now. "I don't know her. I don't care." Ed's chest constricted at the words. They sounded like a death sentence. Winry!

The researcher paused as he processed Ling's statement, his face frozen in indecision. Suddenly, he exhaled in a strange sort of grunt and looked down towards his midsection, which had Ling's sword deeply embedded right below the ribs. Blood spattered onto the floor, and the researcher looked up at Ling, eyes round in fear. He opened his mouth, uttered a gurgled, feeble protest as blood dribbled from his mouth, and fell to his knees. The sword the researcher had been holding at Winry's neck clattered to the floor. She kicked it away, and shaking, moved hesitantly to kneel by the man's side. Ling approached the man as well, and slowly pulled the sword out of him with a sound that made Winry squeeze her eyes shut. But Ed, who had nearly approached them, could see the man mouthing wordless screams. "I was lying," Ling told the fatally wounded man seriously as he wiped down the sword before he turned to smile playfully at Winry. "She's my future Empress. Of course I won't let her die."

Those words were the last straw, and Ed felt his temper completely snap. "You!" he bellowed. He found himself nearly inarticulate in his rage. "Just! What! Do you think you were doing! You could've gotten her killed!" He reached Ling, and punched him with his automail hand as hard as he could. Ling flew several feet before sprawling on the ground with a grunt of pain. He lay flat on his back for a moment while Ed panted in fury above him. "You!" Ed repeated, pointing a finger shaking in fury at Ling. "Don't gamble with her life again! You've already done that with your bodyguards, but Winry's not some tool!" The punch and the lecture wasn't enough to express the severity of Ling's actions, but it would have to do for now. He strode over to Winry, who looked up at him tearily from her position by the man's side. He had intended to pull her away from Ling, that bastard who had just risked her life, but as usual, her tears disarmed him completely. "Uh…Winry?"

"He's dead," she whispered, not looking at the researcher below her. Ed squinted, trying to see her expression, but the smoke was growing thicker now, and he couldn't see her well.

"He tried to kill you," Ed reminded her bracingly. He silently admitted to himself that the researcher's manner of death had chilled him as well.

"He's dead. Just like Mr. Hughes." Ed froze. Winry sniffled and glared at him through her tears. "So you knew about that! Why…why didn't you say anything?"

"I…I didn't…"

"I'm sorry to break up the drama," Ling broke in loudly. "But we've got a bigger problem right now." Ed glowered in Ling's direction to see he had sat up, cradling his jaw and flexing it experimentally to see if it was broken. When he was certain that it was not, he slowly stood up, and raised his eyebrows at Ed. "That's how you reward me for saving her? Punching me?" Ling asked, sounding annoyed as he spit out blood out of the side of his mouth and wiped his bloody lip.

"You deserved it," Ed snarled. That sneaking, lying, cold-blooded prince did deserve it.

"You might not agree after I save your brother's life too," Ling claimed cockily as he stood up and winced after he tried to smirk at Ed. "Ow…"

"Al…! I completely forgot!" He looked towards the flames. Al was nowhere in sight. "Oh no…" He whipped around towards Winry. "Stay here," he told her in a low voice. And for once, she nodded meekly. His eyebrows pulled together at her uncharacteristic obedience, she must be really scared, but after a slight hesitation, he raced towards the flames. "Al! Where are you?"

"Ed!" came a faint yell at the far edge of the flames.

"I'm coming!" Ed shouted to his brother's barely visible form obscured by the opaque smoke.

"Aaah!" he heard Al yell suddenly. Ed's eyes widened and he sprinted into the swirling cloud of dense smoke. "Al?" he yelled. "Al where are—?" his voice was suddenly muffled as a plate of burning metal covered his mouth. He struggled for a moment, but stopped as he recognized it as part of Al's arm. "Al?" he coughed. "W-What happened? And let go, you're burning up!" Al relinquished him immediately.

"My legs got smashed. I can't move."

"Hang on, I'll get you out of here—"

"No, don't! I'm too big!"

"I'm not going to just leave you!" Ed coughed a rattling cough again, and doubled over, trying to purge his lungs of the smoke.

"Must you argue so loudly?" a voice interrupted their conversation. Ed looked up in panic too see another Xingese Contractor emerge from the smoke, looking down at them with a bored expression. "Your irrationality is giving me a headache." He took out a knife, and Ed tensed, preparing to try to block a stab of some sort. But strangely, the man directed the knife towards his wrist, and cut it with one fluid motion. Blood spurted at Ed's head, but he automatically moved out of the way.

"What are you doing?" Ed yelled hoarsely at the Contractor. He shook his head to clear it and coughed a hacking cough again. "You'll kill yourself!" He couldn't stop himself from flicking a glance at the bloodied ground before him visible through the swirling curlicues of smoke.

"Shouldn't you be worrying about yourself, rather than the enemy?" the man asked him in a nonchalant voice. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, holes several inches deep appeared in the ground where his blood had been previously. Ed stared. "It's ironic isn't it? My payment is to bleed, and I kill with my own blood. It seems, for me at least, bloodshed really does only lead to more bloodshed."

"Ed, get out of here, now!" Al commanded him in a panic, but Ed stood there blankly for a second. Blood? And alchemy…? A smile slowly crept over his face. He had an idea. "Ed, I said—!" Alphonse's order cut off with a gasp as Ed suddenly rammed his only flesh arm into one of the spikes on the Al's armored shoulder.

"Grghh!" Ed grunted in pain, and his eyes squeezed tightly shut for a moment, before he opened one to watch the Contractor warily. He gave the man a shaky grin. "Thanks for giving me a great idea," he wheezed.

"Ed, have you gone insane?" Al yelled at him. "You're going to have no arms left if you're not careful!"

"I'd have to agree with him," the Contractor said as he approached, an eyebrow raised. "I don't understand humans at all. Unlike me, you have no reason to injure yourself." The man raised his sliced wrist, blood streaming from the shallow wound, and prepared to fling his blood in the brothers' direction. "But I suppose you'd have died anyways."

"No one'll die today," Ed said through clenched teeth as he yanked his arm back from the spike. The flow of blood increased as it splattered onto the ground. "And especially not us." Ed's feet suddenly moved in a rapid motion, painting a transmutation circle in blood onto the floor. The Contractor's eyes widened, but Ed and Al didn't see the rest of his reaction because in the next second a wall appeared, reaching from the floor to the ceiling, that separated the room into two and cut off most of the Contractors and the fire from Ed, Al, Winry, and Ling.

"Ed! You okay?" asked Al.

"Yeah," Ed grunted. "Losing… a lot of blood. Speaking of which…" He quickly drew two more bloody circles with his feet, and in two flashes of light, Al's legs were repaired, and his hand restraints decomposed. "There…" Ed sighed. Al quickly stood up and dragged Ed away from the thick smoke towards the cleaner air closer to the door.

"That was really, really, stupid you know," Al told him admonishingly as he dragged him.

Ed's lips quirked up. "That shouldn't be a surprise."

There was the clash of metal on metal. It seemed that one lone Contractor, who was fighting Ling, was trapped on their side. But he had been distracted for a second by the approach of the brothers—long enough to be fatally wounded by Ling. Ling looked up, saw the wall, and with barely a second to comprehend what he had seen, barreled towards them in a rage.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Ling bellowed, looking more enraged than Ed had ever seen him.

"Saving our asses," Ed replied hoarsely before spasming into a coughing fit that only spattered his blood further over the ground. The smoke was still thick, even with the wall separating them from most of the fire. He could see Winry start to run over from where she had been standing, stock-still, watching him and Al fight.

"Ours?" repeated Ling scathingly, gesturing towards the wall Ed had created. "Lan Fan and Fuu!" Ed's heart immediately sank. He had forgotten about Ling's bodyguards. "What about them? Take the wall down right now!"

"Ling," Ed started hesitantly. "They're probably not…"

"No!" Ling stated fiercely. "They're…!"

"Just fine," finished Al smugly. There was a pause.

"…Huh?" Ed managed to get out.

"Young master! We are unharmed! Do not despair!" came the voice of Fuu from inside Al's armor.

Ed broke into a relieved grin. "Well, well, little brother. So that's what you were doing when I was rescuing Winry."

"Actually, I think I did that," Ling corrected him absentmindedly as he hurried up to Al and started to try to pry off the armor's front plate. Ed snarled feebly in response.

"Ed!" yelled Winry as she hurried towards them. "We need to get out of here! There's too much smoke! What…" she slowed down and stared at Ed. "You're bleeding."

"Huh? Oh…yeah."

"Don't 'oh yeah' me, Edward Elric," Winry told him severely, an undercurrent of fear still in her voice. She started tearing off the lower part of her shirt. "That's a serious wound." She began wrapping the cloth around the injury.

"Wow, you guys are pretty cramped, huh?" Ling's voice emanated happily from next to Al's armor.

"It was only meant for one person, after all," Al interjected.

"Master!" Lan Fan gasped. "Were you injured?"

"Ed punched me," Ling mentioned offhandedly. Lan Fan shot daggers at Ed with her eyes. He was sure real knives would follow sometime later; hopefully not in the near future. "But he and Al helped to save you, so I'll let it slide."

"Can we please get out of here?" Winry requested nervously, shooting a glance at the wall. Right on cue, it shivered from the impact of an explosion on the other side.

"Uh…right." Al said. "Let's go."

"Couldn't we have just kept the girl in your armor, Al?" Ed protested grumpily as he started forward. "I swear, she's going to kill me in my sleep some—" the world suddenly spun, and he collapsed. "Wha…?"

"Ed!"

"I told you!" Winry scolded him as she bent down and propped him up so that Al could pick him up. "That wound's serious! You've lost a lot of blood, so don't move much, okay?"

"Yeah, no more stabbing yourself, Ed," Al warned. "You were lecturing me about killing myself, but there you go again, hurting yourself and being a stupid hypocrite. Stupid brother."

Ed groaned. "Guess I…can't respond to…that."

Al stared at him for a moment before sighing and taking pity on him. "Geez…Let's just get out of here." He walked carefully into the hall, the others following him like some strange sort of parade.

"Hey," Ed asked suddenly, in a wheezy, quieter-than-normal voice. "Can someone tell me how the insanely violent girl and the old man are still alive? How did they survive in the first blast?"

"We hid," Lan Fan told him shortly. Her voice was hoarser than normal as well, and Ed wondered how long she had been inhaling smoke in that cramped space inside Al's armor.

"Behind what?" Al asked, curious as well.

"We're not stupid enough to barge into someplace like this without a plan," Ling told him in a voice, that to Ed, sounded annoyingly superior. As if Ling knew that he and Al had barged in on the offensive without a cohesive plan. It only aggravated him further that that was indeed the case. "We spent the past day spying on the researcher's conversations from the ventilation shafts, and collecting intel about where the researchers would be, and how to get there. Too bad we didn't get to capture a scientist…I was sure there would be more than just one."

"But what about that flame?" Ed pressed in his scratchy voice.

"Don't you think our entrance was unnecessarily showy? There was a reason for attracting all that attention instead of doing a surprise attack. We wanted to use that section of the pipe that we cut through to get down here as a shield against possible attacks."

"A shield?" Ed repeated slowly. His were starting to slur. "They hid behind that?"

"Stop talking, Ed," Winry scolded him as they walked further into the labyrinth with no destination but to get as far away from the lab as possible. "Just save your energy."

Ed gave a weak equivalent of a growl. "Can you two…just give me a break…for a second?"

Winry gave him a wobbly smile. "Not when you almost killed yourself."

"Yeah, Ed," chorused Ling. Ed shot him a weak glare.

"Some thanks," Ed grouched. "I saved you guys, and all I've gotten is a lecture."

Ling laughed. "Isn't that what friends are for?"

"Who said I was your friend, you free-loader?"

If Al could have had a face, he would have smiled. Ed was seriously injured, and they were still trapped in this underground maze. But they were free of their restraints, he could use alchemy again, no one had been turned into a Doll, and best of all…they were alive. And together.

And as long as that was true, it felt like they all had a decent chance of escaping here alive.