I love the reviews! Please keep them coming!


Ed stumbled into the hallway, Elicia held tightly in his arms, with the fire sequestered for a moment in the room behind them. The bedroom down the hall was starting to go up in flames, they had to get out...

Ed ran down the hall for the stairs, only to come face-to-face with an inferno. The first floor of the house was being consumed by flames- it was already halfway up the stairs, and there wasn't an inch of the first floor that hadn't been ignited. There was no way they were getting through that.

The fire from the second bedroom had engulfed the shut door, now, and it threatened to cut off any hope of escape back to the second floor they had.

They were going to be cornered. Elicia whimpered in his arms, and Ed made a split second decision, turning and running back down the hall. He shielded Elicia with his body from the flames as he raced past the second bedroom, feeling the heat and smelling burned hair as his braid was singed.

He ducked into the bathroom across the hall, slamming the door behind him.

There was the large, clawfooted bathtub he dropped Elicia into.

He could feel the sweat on his skin heating up... God, when had it gotten so hot in here? The heat was going to kill them if the smoke and flames didn't...

The fire was going to consume them all. Unless he could stop it, hold it back somehow. But what did he have to work with? All he had was wood, he was trapped in a bathroom, what could his alchemy do?

He turned, pacing the small room like a caged animal... and paused when he heard a squeak. He'd stepped on a rubber ducky.

An idea ignited in his brain faster than the flames, and he clapped his hands, turning and slamming them against the wall. Destroy the drywall. Plaster transmuted to dust. The pipes themselves- copper, he assumed...

A large spray of water shot out of the broken pipes, thoroughly drenching the bathroom and everything in it.

Elicia gasped in surprise, and Ed quickly did the same with the opposing wall- they were both absolutely soaked to the skin, Ed's clothes sticking to his body.

Elicia stared up at Ed from where she sat in the empty bathtub, eyes wide, strawberry blonde hair wet and clinging to her face as her soaked PJ's clung to her skin.

Despite the growing heat, Ed managed a smile. "Guess I'm gonna have to make a mess of this place, huh, Elicia?" he had no idea how he'd kept the terror from his voice. But Elicia smiled.

Ed grabbed the bathroom trashcan, turning on the bathtub faucet and filling it, before attempting to put out the flames just outside the door. He decided it was a lost cause as soon as he'd opened the door- the flames were too much- but maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to soak the door and keep their wet room from burning...

The heat was uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and Ed took a brief moment to think. They were safe from the flames- for now. But who knew how long that would last? Ed could feel the heat from the inferno on the first floor below him- the bathroom floor was unnaturally hot beneath his feet, and he found himself stepping into the empty bathtub with Elicia as water continued to spray from the pipes he'd broken, trying to think.

Even if they were safe from the fire upstairs, it was only a matter of time before the floor below them gave way, dropping them into the hellish fire below them. Unless they could manage to put it out...

Ed turned on the water in the tub, crawling out and placing himself on the floor.

He turned to look at Elicia, trying to force himself to stay calm. "Alright, Elicia, I really hope you don't have to go to the bathroom." He clapped his hands, placing both of them on the toilet seat- he transmuted the porcelain to a fine dust- he didn't need it. Water immediately began flowing out of the piped that'd been connected to the toilet, and Ed transumeted a small, toilet shaped hole in the floor, a blast of hot air immediately coming up from the ground below them. The water from the pipes poured downstairs, sizzling and steaming... It wasn't much, but it was something.

Over the crackling of the flames, Ed looked over to see Elicia laughing.

"Big brother! You broke the toilet!"

Ed managed a wane smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I did."

Elicia was still in the bathtub, fully clothed, and the tub was nearly overflowing. That was good- let the water soak the studs and overflow onto the bathroom floor, maybe even drench some of the inferno below them... He didn't need to put out the whole fire. He just needed to keep the room they were in and the room below them from going up in flames.

With that in mind, he deconstructed the sink, letting the water flow from those open pipes as well, joining in drenching the bathroom floor and the first floor below them.

He climbed back into the now overflowing bathtub with Elicia, trying to think and stay calm.

He could smell the smoke- burning wood and acrid smoke- all around them. But it hung high in the air, away from them, for now. The heat was all around them, but the fire hadn't managed to invade their little sanctuary of overflowing pipes- yet.

A beam of wood from the roof above them clattered to the ground, sluggishly smoking, and Elicia looked alarmed. Ed swallowed.

"It's okay, Elicia. I know things are kind of scary right now- but I need you to listen to me, okay?"

Elicia looked up from where she clung to him in the bathtub with wide eyes.

"The floor below us in going to collapse at some point. Most of the house is, probably. It will be a little scary and we'll fall- but only for a minute. If we stay in this bathtub full of water, we won't get hurt."

"But is there fire downstairs?" Elicia asked, clinging to him tightly.

"Yes, there is fire downstairs. But not right below us- see- cause I broke the toilet." Ed pointed to the streams of water from the broken sink and toilet that flowed through the holes he'd made in the floor.

"So- we're going to fall downstairs to the first floor, probably. And the fire will be all around us. On all sides. And it will be scary, but it won't be bad, because we'll be in this bathtub and the ground below us won't be on fire..."

"But what are we going to do!?" Elicia asked, looking up at him with teary eyes.

"We're going to burrow underground. Once we fall through to the first floor- I'll use my alchemy to get through the floorboards to the ground. From there- I can make a little dirt cave all around us. We'll be safe from the fire. Most of the house will fall over- and it will be scary, and we'll have to wait awhile for help- but it's going to be okay. Because your dad and my... Mustang is going to come and find us."

There was another crack, and another plank fell from the ceiling. The house was starting to come apart. Something shifted beneath them- Ed felt the floorboards shudder beneath them and pulled Elicia into his lap.

"I don't wanna fall!" Elicia clung to him, and he squeezed her right back.

"I know. Just hold onto me- we'll be alright."

They waited in tense silence- minutes felt like hours- there was a pop, and the floor beneath them shifted. Elicia gasped.

"I'm scared!" she wailed.

"I know." Ed's own heart was hammering in his chest. He was scared, too. "But when I get scared, someone who cares about me a lot will sit with me. And they talk to me. And they give me a hug until I feel better. I can't make it go away, Elicia-" In the distance, he heard the sound of wood collapsing and boards clattering down as their charred remains gave out.

"But I'm right here. And I'm gonna hold onto you until it's okay again."

The fire was right outside the bathroom door. Ed had to raise his voice to be heard over the crackling of the flames and the sound on running water.

Ed Held Elicia to him tightly with one hand and ran his fingers through her wet hair. That was what Mustang usually did to calm him down, right?

"It's scary right now." he licked his chapped lips nervously, feeling the heat in the room despite the water. "But it's going to be alright."

The floor gave way beneath them.


A bottle of milk shattered on the sidewalk outside, spilling chocolate milk all over the asphalt. A suit of armor stood, horrified, looking at the scene before him.

"Brother!" Alphonse clanked forward, coming face to face with the Hughes, Colonel Mustang, and a black figure hogtied on the ground. In the distance, sirens sounded.

Roy and Hughes turned to look at Alphonse, shocked.

"Alphonse!" Hughes came running over, with Mustang not far behind. "Alphonse, is Edward and Elicia with you?"

"No- my brother- he and Elicia are still inside!"

Hughes sagged to the ground, looking near faint.

"I have to go in there- I have to find them!"

"Alphonse, you can't." Roy said forlornly.

"I don't have a body! I can't get burned! I can save them!" Al spoke hurriedly, his voice rising an octave with desperation.

"Alphonse- a house fire burns at over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. You might be able to go in- but even if you do, your metal body will become burning- no, red-hot even- to touch. You can walk through the flames- but Ed and Elicia can't. You'll end up trapped inside and not able to help anyone. And if the heat were to burn hot enough, it might vaporize your blood seal, and you'd be gone..."

Alphonse seemed to lose his vigor all at once. "I see. Maybe there's some other way we can help... Garden hoses, maybe?"

A sputtering laugh rose from the ground nearby. Xavier, still dressed in back, rolled over to look at them and spat through bloody lips.

"Don't flatter yourself! They're both dead! No garden hose can put out my masterpie-ack!" Xavier's deranged rant was cut off by a large metal foot being placed on his windpipe. Alphonse didn't apply enough pressure to cause damage- only enough to silence the maniac. Al's soulfire eyes narrowed, if that was possible.

"My brother is alive, and so is Elicia. We've faced people far more dangerous and much smarter than you, so don't flatter yourself. You're in enough trouble as it is, so you'd better shut up. It takes more than fire to kill my brother."

Roy and Hughes simply stared. It was easy to forget that Alphonse was powerful due to his gentle nature- but with Edward being threatened, it no longer seemed to matter that Al was a suit of armor, or that he was eleven years old- he was every bit as intimidating and skilled as Edward.

"And if by some miracle you got lucky, and my brother is dead, well, then I'm going to make you wish you were dead too." Alphonse finished, lifting his foot from Xavier's throat.

Xavier stared up at the sky, unnerved and shocked by the exchange, and Roy himself had to blink.

Fire trucks were pulling up at the sidewalk now, and Roy nodded to Alphonse. "Let's go see if we can help."


The sound of splintering wood and clawed feet of the tub hit the ground below it with an almighty bang and a splash.

The twenty foot fall from the floor above was jarring- the water that splashed out of the tub sizzled with an almighty heat. Ed looked up from where he was clinging to Elicia in the tub, brushing his soggy bangs from his face and taking in the scene around them. They were surrounded by walls of fire on every side. His skin was starting to burn in the heat.

He scrambled out of the tub, Elicia still clutched tightly to his side, and fell onto the charred, soggy smoking floor below him. He was on his hands and knees- he needed to get to the ground beneath the house so he could begin to use his alchemy to tunnel out...

He didn't even hear the beam falling over the roar of the flames. But a moment later, he was sprawled on his back, gasping for air as black spots danced before his vision. It hurt...

Ashes and cinders rained down on his skin like snowflakes. The red hot cinders burned when they touched his skin...

He wanted to close his eyes. He wanted to give up.

"Big brother!"

He looked up, eyes wide, to see Elicia, still barefoot in her pjs, staring down at him, tears still streaming down her face and wide-eyed with fear.

If he gave up, she would die. She needed him- everyone needed him... His lungs burned at the effort to draw breath against the beam holding him down, but he clapped his hands, pressing them to the heavy wood and transmuting it to the first thing that came to mind.

The beam burst into red flower petals, that were swept to the side and off of him as he sat up, gasping for breath.

Elicia gasped, looking shocked, but he didn't have time to explain. The flames around them were uncomfortably hot- the roof and walls around them could cave in at any moment.

He clawed his way through the charred wood floorboards, too dazed and exhausted to consider using alchemy. Once he'd made a sufficient hole, he grabbed Elicia, stuffing her through.

He climbed in after her, finding himself still a victim of the cruel heat, but now in the crawl space of the home.

He was no longer in his body. He was floating above- he felt so dizzy, sick, even. He knew he'd needed to get here. To the ground. To the dirt. But why? He couldn't think straight- the heat, the heat was unbearable. They needed to escape it. But he was so, so woozy and tired.

He managed to bring his hands together and clap- his arms felt like they were made of lead. He pressed them to the floor, focusing all his remaining consciousness on the transmutation, even though he felt the energy leaving his body as he did so.

Blue light split the darkness, and the earth around them rose up to form dirt walls- a small, dirt igloo of sorts formed above them, thick walls rebuffing the cursed heat and sheltering them from any fallen debris.

The last thing he remembered was the darkness once the little dirt igloo had covered them- they were no longer illuminated by the light of the flames. But maybe the darkness was actually his eyelids- because he couldn't hear anything other than the static that filled his head.


It took the fire crews an hour and a half to battle the blaze. It would've taken much longer, but Alphonse and Mustang had strategically placed arrays around the house and activated the water lines buried within the dirt, channeling the water into the blaze.

Hughes and Gracia held one another on the lawn- and when the last lick of flame melted to embers, they were left once again in the darkness, with only the lanterns of the fire crew to illuminate the grim scene.

The firemen said it would be too hot to sift through the rubble- but in response, Alphonse simply drew an array and knelt in the dirt, activating it. The blue alchemical light drew energy from the hydrogen bonds between the air and the water they'd poured into the rubble, using that energy to cool the water and freeze it, cooling the rubble to bearable temperatures.

Roy was already ankle deep in rubble, searching, before the blue alchemical light had completely faded.