Kingdom Chapter 25, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

bloodynessie: I hope that this email notification was another pleasant surprise!

Shadowwolf1997: It was fairly obvious that something was going to happen. Nothing good ever happens when criminals visit a motel.

Joker Oak: You'll just have to wait and see where the rest of Ed's journey takes him.

Hero-man Senshi: In regards to Edward's new introduction, I felt like he needed to come off as a darker character initially. That way, it's his scenes with Winry that appeal to his humanity, which makes those moments even more meaningful. Also, I enjoyed playing around with Ed as a dark character.

Sendrya: Envy quickly became my favorite character in this story so I'm glad that others like him as well. I always have a lot of fun writing his scenes.

A Quiet Morning: It was nice to finally squeeze Hughes into this story. Looking back, I've never really used him much. As for the beginning, I originally wanted to start the story off with Ed having an innocent moment before doing something violent, but when I was looking over this story I felt like the first nice thing he should do is help Winry out.

Jabberlucky: I wish I could have skipped the hiatus too. Tucker is definitely one of the worst characters, both in this story and the source material itself. It's not hard to make him creepy. My inspiration for him with this story was Roose Bolton from the Game of Thrones books and tv show with making him a soft-spoken sociopath.

Pepin-Bones: I had to do the same thing to get back into the right groove to write this story. There will be some more tension between Ed and Winry in this chapter as well.

Haler: Thank you. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chloee0x0: You have some interesting EdWin scenes to look forward to in this chapter.

Nono-chan230: Don't worry, you were very clear! Playing around with the characters but trying to keep them true to their manga/anime counterparts has been a very interesting part about writing this story.

Joja: Thank you. I'm glad that you're enjoying it.

Lola: I hope that you're excited for this one too!

Janine: Thank you for enjoying this story.

OoO

He'd followed Mrs. Rial's advice and left the city.

Before that, of course, he'd had to swindle a couple thousand dollars out of several houses on his way out. He had gotten onto a train and got off when the track stopped. After that he got onto a bus that went in the opposite direction of Central and got off of it when it ran out of stops.

No, Solf Kimblee was now living in some person's basement, renting out a one room bedroom and a bathroom. He'd even been able to lie his way into a job at a local grocery store. He was a Grocery Clerk, which normally involved dealing with a lot of customers and their idiotic questions. But Solf's manager had decided that since he was starting off, he would just offload incoming food as it arrived.

This suited Solf. He did not care for the petty questions of useless people.

Right now, he was not at work. He was at his 'home'. Though it was only home in the technical sense.

Solf sighed as he sat on his lumpy bed and once again looked around the pitiful excuse that he had for lodgings. 'So this is a normal life.' The youth observed dully as he looked at the cracked wallpaper and the generic painting of a potted flower.

There was no television in the room. At the moment, Solf's only form of entertainment was listening to his landlord fight with his girlfriend in the house upstairs. This was a fairly common occurrence which usually ended with him beating her. Solf sometimes saw the bruises when he passed her in the hall. Seeing them stirred memories in the dark haired young man. His mother had sometimes come home with bruises. That was back when his father had still been alive. Usually when it was just the two of them going out at night, they would come back together. But sometimes, she would come back alone and with bruises on her face.

Solf forgot the excuses that she would make when he had questioned her. He hadn't bothered to remember to remember them.

She had always been a weak woman.

'Am I weak now?' Solf asked himself, his fingers digging into the mattress. 'Have I become like her?'

Weeks passed in repetitive circles. He'd wake up, go to work, come home from work, sit in his room for hours, and go to sleep.

Repeat.

Eventually, Solf stopped going to work. A few days after that, he didn't pay the monthly rent. A week after that he still hadn't paid it.

Instead of going to work, Solf went out on walks. He'd traveled all over the town after a few weeks. After a while, he started hitting some of the houses at night. He'd case them during the day, checking for security and a possible way in.

So much for that normal life.

Eventually his landlord came to confront him about the late payment. Things…didn't go well for the man .

Solf sat on his bed staring down at the body in front of him. The pool of blood was slowly spreading over the dirty and ripped rug. The painting of the plant was on the ground, broken. Kimblee had smashed the landlords head through it. Now the irritating man was dead.

Blood dripped from his hands little by little.

This was his first kill, at least that he knew of for sure. There had been other's in the past who may have died or lived. But he had never stuck around to find out. So this was the first that he knew for sure.

Yet, he felt nothing.

But he knew whose death would make him feel something.

Kimblee looked up from the floor with new determination burning in his eyes. Then he goot to work.

There were no records of his birth. The police would be looking for a kid named Eric Vale. They would never find him. He had made sure to wipe the room every night for prints, not that it really mattered. With no records, they would never find a young man named Solf Kimblee.

Kimblee stood up and washed his hands. After doing so, he made one last wipe of the room, collected his things, and walked out the door. Along the way, he passed his late landlord's girlfriend.

As Kimblee walked, he knew, he would never have a normal life.

OoO

Present Day, Central

"Yes. Thank you very much." Solf Kimblee said pleasantly into the phone before ending the call. Upon hearing the beep, his demeanor immediately changed into a dark and serious tapestry. His blue eyes landed on the two men standing before him.

"Ling Yao was just released from police custody." He informed the two of them. "Gregory Delham arrived in person to secure it and now he is back at the manor. Our contact said Mr. Yao didn't say a word to detectives as to why he and Mr. Fu were at the motel." The dark haired man closed his eyes and exhaled before opening them.

"What's Lyra saying?" Kimblee asked.

"They don't know any specifics but now they know for sure that someone's out to get them. I don't think we'll be able to hide from this." Atlas ground his teeth.

"So now they're going to turn the city upside down going after whoever did this." Bald said with a scowl. "Somebody's going to crack and tell them everything. Archer sure fucked us in the end."

"We're not dead yet." Atlas shook his head.

"How so, yeh girlfriend going to make it all go away? It might have helped if ya didn't miss one of em back at the hotel." Bald scoffed next to him. The one eyed man had his arms folded across his chest. He had been the one who was driving the vehicle while Atlas had done the shooting.

The other man turned towards Bald with a scowl, his eyes glaring. "The fuck did you say?"

"Enough!" Kimblee sighed, his voice still managing to be loud.

The two arguing men paused to look at him.

"This is just a matter of inconvenient timing." Kimblee spoke calmly. "We had plans for setbacks such as this. In a perfect world this would never have happened. Still, given the circumstances you two reacted quite efficiently."

"So what's the plan?" Atlas asked.

Kimblee stood there for a moment contemplatively. He quickly looked back at his two men.

"We move the timetable forward."

"So we're finally going loud and proud?" Atlas asked, sounding surprised.

"No, we are not. It isn't time for that yet." Kimblee said, dismissively.

"Then what's the move?" Bald asked in slight exasperation as he sat down in a nearby chair.

"We're not going loud, but everybody else will be." The dark haired man responded.

Both Atlas and Bald exchanged looks, knowing what his words meant.

"Are we ready for that?" Atlas asked, turning back to their ringleader.

"Getting cold feet?" Kimblee arched an eyebrow. His voice was almost bordering on sarcasm.

"No." The blonde denied vehemently. "I just don't want to die just yet."

"Lyra just emailed me the blueprints to May Chang's drug factory, the schematics of the Xerxes, as well as the addresses of every Hohenheim owned business in the city." Solf explained, swiftly moving to the next subject. "I'd say we're more than decently prepared."

"This could get us all killed." Bald gritted his teeth, from his seated position.

"Only if we're sloppy. If we don't act now, I'd give it about a few days until someone gets scared and snitches to the Hohenheims." Kimblee then turned from them and looked out the apartment window at the city spread out before them.

"The board is stacked with too many players anyway." The dark haired man announced. "It is time we level that playing field down to just two."

OoO

Hohenheim Manor:

Pain. Raw and unflinching pain.

Van Hohenheim had only truly felt this way several times before. Physical pain was something he could deal with, it could be ignored or recovered from. It was the pain of loss that struck him. Despite all of the power he had achieved, not even Van Hohenheim could stop death.

'Trisha…Urey and Sarah….and now Fu.' The patriarch thought mournfully, his fists clenched tightly enough to almost break the course skin. Fu had been with him from the beginning, when the only things Van had were $5,000 dollars, his fiance, and his ambitions. Through the years as he had risen into power, Fu had always been beside him to offer counsel and guard his back. Fu had been a wise advisor, a trusted bodyguard, and a dear friend.

'And now he is dead, because of a job that I sent him on.'

The office around him was dark, casting shadows on the other people gathered. Standing to his right was Izumi and on the left was Scar. Neither of them said a word to the golden haired kingpin as his thoughts festered internally. Any moment, Gregory would arrive with Ling Yao. Van already knew what had happened at the motel, having heard from both Gregory and their contacts in the neighboring police districts. But Ling had been there and had seen it happen. Van wanted to hear everything he had to say, even if he had to force it out. The clock ticked loudly until the door opened and a familiar voice cut through the mental fog.

"Sir?"

Van slowly opened his eyes and saw a solemn looking Gregory standing at the open door. Although him and Fu did not often see eye to eye on many matters, the two men still had respect for the others. The lawyer quickly glanced at the other occupants of the room before swiftly ushering Ling Yao into the room and into a chair in front of Van's desk. The air was silent as the Hohenheim patriarch stared at the disheveled and pale young man in front of him.

"What happened?" Van questioned in a calm, but demanding voice.

Ling had spent the entirety of the previous night in a cell at the Bonath's sheriff department. Following the shooting the police had shown up and arrested the young man for questioning. Based on his appearance, Van would wadger that Ling hadn't slept at all. His eyes were large and bloodshot, the skin beneath them dark. A long pause passed between them before the younger man lifted his head and spoke.

"Does…does Lan Fan know what happened?" He asked quietly.

Hohenheim abruptly stood up from, the suddenness sending his chair slamming back against the wall. In any other circumstances, Van would have been more understanding of what Ling was going through. However, he wasn't in the mood to take things slow and be considerate. Izumi and Gregory watched in surprise as Van stepped around his desk and grasped Ling by the cuff of his jacket.

"That is not important." Van said coldly. "What is important is that you tell me everything that happened at the Bonath motel."

Ling's eyes were the widest that they had ever been as he stared up at Van.

"Fu called me this morning." Ling stammered out. "He said that he needed my help. We were in the room at the motel, Fu was interrogating him and…..everything started getting shot."

"Did you even bother to close the shades of the window" Van narrowed his eyes.

"I did!" Ling answered. "But they still shot it up."

"They?" Van followed up harshly. "Was there one shooter or was there more?"

"I…I don't know." Ling answered quickly, but his tone wasn't as confident.

"Was the gunfire random or focused?"

"I don't fucking know!"

Van pushed Ling back down into the chair dismissively. The younger man was frozen as he stared up at the blazing golden eyes down at him. His hands were gripping the arms of the chair with a death grip. Ling swallowed, never before had he been so uncertain over whether or not he was going to die.

Van glared down at Ling. After a moment, he spoke.

"What did the man, Mattis, tell you?"

Ling swallowed and hung his head, several seconds passing as he tried to remember. "He…he said that Archer had a meeting with someone, no clue who it was." The young man frowned as the words came back to him. "After that, Archer got all paranoid then suddenly he's gone and someone is taking out all of Archer's men." Exasperation tainted his voice. "That…that was all."

"How was it that you survived?"

"What?"

Van grimaced. "How did you possibly survive while Fu could not?"

"I...I...I was next to the window, a bit off to the side." Ling said. "Fu was right in front of it."

"How did you end up standing there?" Van continued.

"I was...lucky." Ling's eyes widened as he realized what Hohenheim was insinuating. "I had nothing to do with this! I loved Fu!"

"He had this." Greed spoke up.

Greed tossed a small black box to Van, who caught it. Van opened it to see an engagement ring. Ling opened his mouth as if to protest but stopped himself from saying anything.

Van looked at the ring for a moment longer. "For his granddaughter?"

Ling nodded.

The Hohenheim patriarch absorbed this for several moments. He tossed the box back to Ling, who scrambled to catch it.

"Get out."

Ling shot out of the chair and sprinted as fast as he could out of the room. The door slammed shut.

Scar and Gregory were staring at the door before glancing back at Van. Izumi had not looked away from him since he had started accosting Ling.

"Little harsh there Van." She quipped with narrowed eyes. "There was more he could have told us."

"There was nothing that he could have told me." Van simply walked over to the fireplace and leaned against the flame. His gaze downward at the flickering blaze. Silence permeated the room for several long seconds.

"Someone certainly doesn't want us to know who Archer met with." Gregory stated the obvious. "And I'd bet the family savings that this someone is out to get us." He glanced around the room. "Come on, I know you're all thinking about it. We had a good run, but it was only a matter of time before someone would try to knock us down."

"If the gunfire was focused, then maybe the shooters had access to technology that allowed them to see through the curtains." Scar offered as he glanced as Izumi. "You had such weapons in the military, correct?"

The dark haired woman nodded. "They're called Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars or ENVG-B's for short. They're not easy to come by on the black market so it could have simply been blind fire and the shooters just got lucky." Izumi offered.

"Archer was ex-military, he got all of his weapons from old contacts of his. I'd bet he had a few of those laying around." Gregory cut in. "And I'd bet that whoever offered dear old Frank, helped themselves to his armory."

"It seems that we could be facing another Edward situation?" Scar said. "This was either a well financed and executed attack from an unknown group, or a lucky random hit." Everyone grimaced at his last words. They all had their personal doubts about Patrick Vincent being the one who had injured Edward. Now it seemed that those doubts were warranted.

"Find out what you can. I don't care how or at what cost." Van ordered, the words sounding painfully familiar to what he had said when Ed had been attacked. "Someone in this city knows what's going on and if we have to carve the truth out of them, then so be it."

"Yes sir." They nodded and left to begin their searches. However, Izumi stayed. She stared at Van until the older man acknowledged her.

"Did my behavior disturb you?" Van asked.

"No." Izumi responded.

There were a few moments of silence before Van spoke.

"It's strange." He said quietly. "I'm so angry right now. I can barely even think straight….yet when Edward was injured I never even came close to how I'm feeling at this moment."

"What are you trying to say?" Izumi said as she came to stand next to Van. "That you valued Fu more than Edward?" She was frowning.

"Do I?" Van asked, sounding unsure himself.

There was a tense moment of silence between the two siblings. "Don't do this to yourself Van." Izumi said, sounding tired. "Fu meant so much to both of us. We can't think like this."

"It's just strange is all." Van said with a sigh.

OoO

Something was wrong.

Edward didn't know what it was, but ever since he first woke up there had been this uneasy feeling in his stomach. Like something bad had happened or was going to happen. He had tried to figure it out, but the aches in his ports had distracted him so far. One night of sleeping hadn't made his body any more used to the two metal contractions now attached to him. They still felt alien. Winry had told him that it would take a while for his body to become used to them. Still, his muscles hurt like hell, so much so that Winry already had to give him three painkillers.

"This is normal, Edward." She had assured him. "Your body just needs to heal. We'll take it easy for a couple of weeks then we can move forward."

'God I hate waiting.' Ed thought. Only a couple more weeks until he could finally get his automail limbs attached and then he would be walking again for real. That end goal couldn't come quick enough for the young Hohenheim. The quiet screeching of the wheelchair stirred Ed from his thoughts and caused him to glance back at the young woman pushing him. Even though the wheelchair could move on its own, Winry still liked to push him sometimes. Surprisingly, Ed found himself not minding it too much. As he looked at her, the ugly feeling he'd woken up with was pushed into the back of his mind.

Winry looked as beautiful as ever, now more rested after the surgery. She was obviously proud of her work as she was practically glowing. As Ed admired her pretty features, he thought back to the pre-surgery conversation the two of them had. A small grin formed on his lips as he recalled the unofficial promise they had made. Although neither of them had said it outloud, they had both acknowledged that they were interested in the other. And once he was no longer Winry's patient, they would be free to pursue that interest as far as possible.

'Fuck walking again.' Ed thought with a chuckle. 'I can't wait for that.'

On some level, he had been attracted to Winry since he first met her at the Xerxes all that time ago. That attraction had turned into a unique friendship as they got to know each other better. Though at the same time his desire to touch her, have her, had grown as well.

But Ed had realized that he didn't just want sex from Winry, although that particular act was no doubt going to be great, he wanted more from Winry. Envy would laugh at him for sounding cheesy, but it was true. He'd never previously been a fan of long term relationships, but for Winry he was willing to try.

'Just a few more weeks, you horny bastard.' Ed chuckled to himself. The quiet sound caught Winry's attention and her eyes turned to look down at him.

"Something funny?" She looked at him with curiosity.

"Not really, just thinking some things over." He answered with a small grin.

"What things?"

He didn't answer her with words. Opting instead to widen his grin and flash his eyes suggestively at Winry. She blushed as his meaning hit her, a light dusting of pink stained her cheeks.

However her embarrassment only lasted for mere moments before she too grinned. "Easy there, Edward." Winry replied with faux innocence. "We don't want you to get too excited considering your...weakened state."

Ed's eyes widened before he scowled. "Weakened state?" He asked dryly.

"Uh-huh." Winry nodded. "Your body just went through a major surgery. We're going to have to be extra gentle with you for the next few weeks." She already knew exactly what to say in order to get a rise out of him. "What with you being so delicate now."

"Stop teasing me, Rockbell." Ed huffed, turning his head back around to look at the hallway in front of them.

Winry laughed at his 'retreat'. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I'll try to be more sensitive." Her words were dripping with fake sweetness.

"Winry." Ed warned..

"Ok, I'm done." Winry chuckled again, imaging the pout that was no doubt on his face at the moment. "But seriously, you will have to be more careful for the next month while-"

"While my body gets used to the ports." Ed finished the sentence for her. "I should start taking shots everytime you say that." He spoke to her with humor, his mood now back to being good.

"I haven't said it that much?" Winry frowned, pursing her lips.

"If you say so, Doc." Edward shrugged. Their banter had lessened the earlier eerie sense of foreboding a bit.

'Hopefully it's nothing and I'm just having a weird day.' Ed thought as Winry turned a corner. Now they were just down the hallway from the kitchen. The door to it was straight ahead.

"Need me to get the door for you?" Winry asked as she stopped and stepped in front of the wheelchair and headed to the door, turning around to look back at him.

"Go to hell, Rockbell." Ed moved the joystick on the chair that made it move remotely. He sped past Winry in an attempt to beat her to the door. Winry laughed and quickly moved to catch up with him. However before a winner for the impromptu race could be decided, the door opened, and Scar walked out.

"Oh hey Scar." Ed came to a stop almost instantly. Winry stopped too, a little embarrassed that they had gotten caught racing each other like five year olds. She did notice that the expression on the usually grim faced man seemed to be even grimmer.

"Edward." He spoke, looking at the seated man next to her.

"Yeah?" Ed answered, his face now going serious too. Some silent communication must have passed between the two men because Winry didn't know where the sudden mood change had just come from. Ed had gone from being carefree to his stone cold mobster face that she had witnessed several times at this point. All it had taken was one look from Scar and Edward seemed to be aware of something.

"Something's happened. I need to speak to you, alone." The large man emphasized the word alone by glancing over at Winry.

"Alright." Ed said casually. He turned to look at Winry with a small yet apologetic smile. "Be back in a second." He then moved the chair towards the open door.

Winry watched them disappear into the kitchen. When the door shut she just stood there awkwardly. She couldn't hear what was being said as she put her hands in her pockets. As the seconds ticked by, Winry absentmindedly swayed back and forward on her feet. It wasn't very long before she heard something.

"FUCK!"

The sudden sound of smashing silverware made Winry jump and take a step back from the door. She stared at the door with wide eyes for a few moments before it was violently thrown open. Winry barely recognized the man that came rolling out of it.

It was Edward, she knew that. But he looked so different. His face was not just the stone cold expression of a mobster that she had seen before. This was something new. Something much darker.

He looked like a monster.

His eyes were the worst part. Devoid of the humor and life that she had seen just moments before. Winry was frozen as he turned to look at her.

"Attach the Automail, NOW!"

OoO

"I'm going to ask Lan Fan to marry me and I want your blessing!"

"About time."

Another car flew down the road behind him, but Ling ignored it. Instead he focused on the house in front of him where he and Lan Fan lived. They had moved in about two years prior.

'She's not teaching any classes at the dojo today, it's her day off.' Ling thought as he stared at the building. 'She's probably inside right now.' It was gnawing at him, the fact that he was about to tell Lan Fan that her grandfather was dead.

'He's the only family she had left.' Ling's hands clenched tightly into fists. 'For fuck's sake, he was more of a family to me then mine was.'

Fu had not just been a mentor to him, he had also been a father. Years ago, when Ling ran away from his family he took to stealing and pickpocketing on the streets to survive. It had been hard and he often went to bed hungry. One day, Ling tried to steal Fu's wallet while the older man was waiting for a taxi and was immediately caught. Ling thought he was a dead man for sure, but to his surprise Fu showed him mercy. In fact, he seemed to find the whole situation quite amusing. Instead of punishing Ling, Fu instead bought the hungry boy some food. After that, the hitman then took the young vagrant under his wing and introduced him to the Hohenheim organization.

'Everything I have, I owe it to him.' Ling thought as his nails dug into the skin of his hands. 'My job with the family, meeting Lan Fan, this fancy fucking house. Everything came from him.'

Reaching into his coat, Ling pulled out a flask that was usually reserved for special occasions. Uncapping the top, he tilted it back and felt the burning liquor pour down his throat. It stung, but the pain was nothing compared to the ache inside of him. 'Why didn't I check the fucking windows? I should have been the look out.' He thought miserably. 'Maybe if I did…I could have seen them coming…maybe I could have saved him.'

Taking another long and harsh gulp from the flask, Ling then carelessly tossed the metal container onto the sidewalk. It only barely registered to him that someone had previously given it to him as a gift, but at the moment he didn't really care.

He couldn't stall any longer. It was time to tell her. The ring box felt heavy in his pocket, but he wasn't thinking about that either.

With a sigh, Ling moved to go inside. His feet were heavier than normal, moving as if weights were attached to them. Opening the door, he looked down the hallway in front of him. Flipping the hallway lights on, Ling froze when he saw Lan Fan was standing there as if waiting for him. For several seconds they stood in silence before she finally lifted her head, revealing tears in her eyes.

"He's dead isn't he?...My grandfather." She asked, her voice tight with emotion. "I noticed you standing outside and I saw the look on your face. Tell me!"

Ling opened his mouth to say something, but anything he could have said or had wanted to say was gone. He was at a loss for words.

"I…I'm…" Ling wanted to say that he was sorry. He wanted to say many things to try and comfort her. But the words choked in his as tears fell from his eyes. Wordlessly, Ling opened his arms as Lan Fan practically crashed into him. Her arms went around his waist and her face was buried in his shoulder, her grip on him tight. Ling hugged Lan Fan back as she sobbed.

It was the only thing he could do.

OoO

Hohenheim Manor

Throughout the entire time that she had known him, Winry would never say that she was truly afraid of Edward Elric. She had initially found him intimidating, but never had she felt fear in regards to the golden haired rogue.

But now, at this very moment, Winry was scared of him.

Edward's eyes were dark and cold as they stared at her, anger burning brightly in them. Some of it might have been directed at her, or the unknown persons who had killed his friend Fu, or perhaps the entire world itself. Winry found herself quivering slightly under this gaze. She had thought that she'd gotten the full measure of Edward Elric. Sure, she had seen him angry when they first started working together. But this new side of him was something she'd never seen before. He looked ready to kill someone, rage and fury pulsing through his system like an angry drug.

'He is a killer.' Winry reminded herself, the words causing a painful ache to fester within her chest. 'I almost forgot that.'

It was true. During these last few weeks in the Hohenheim manor, her and Ed had gotten close. Closer than she had ever gotten with a previous patient. Because of that, Winry had ignored just who her patient was. But his enraged glare now reminded her. This is a man who had killed before and was good at it.

"Well?" Ed's voice cut through the air sharply, interrupting her thoughts. Winry brought up her eyes to meet his.

Pushing her trepidation aside, Winry stared back at him. "Edward, I can't do that." She shook her head.

He didn't like that answer, not one bit. The muscles of Ed's forehead tightened as the scowl on his face grew bigger. "I'm not asking." He breathed darkly.

"I won't." Winry tried to stand up taller as she said this. No matter how angry he got, Ed was ultimately confined to the chair. Still, there were also the tall goons standing a few feet away from them. After bumping into Scar, Ed had ordered several nearby thugs to carry him down to the basement. They complied, ignoring all of Winry's protests. Now a few of them stood off to the side, merely watching the scene before them. Winry couldn't decipher any emotions on their faces. She had tried to plead with them, explaining the dangers that this procedure could present for Edward but they hadn't listened.

'Why would they?' Winry thought bitterly. 'They're hired guns. Pawns who do whatever Edward or another member of his family orders them to.' It wasn't their jobs to question his orders, only to follow them. Doing her best to ignore them, the blonde mechanic turned back to her fuming patient.

Edward glared fire at her. "You said I decided how we moved forward. Well, now I'm moving it forward. So are you going to do what I said or not!"

Winry swallowed nervously. He almost sounded like a child throwing a tantrum, but his words and icy glare promised violence. "Your body isn't ready for this." She tried to implore him, keeping her voice level. "The ports were just put in. Attaching the limbs now would do irreversible damage to your body."

Edward brought his fist down on the table next to him loudly, spilling tools on the ground and making Winry jump.

"You're making this really hard, Winry." He muttered not looking away from her for a second.

"What you're asking of me is impossible." Winry almost threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "I won't do it."

Silence greeted her declaration. Edward sat in the chair, his body animated with emotions. He was fisting his left hand so hard that she was afraid his knuckles would crack through the skin. His face looked as if it was carved out of granite as he stared at her in ever growing fury. He was truly a frightening sight. Clearly, Envy wasn't the only Hohenheim with a fierce temper. Finally, Ed's response came. And it was spoken with a coldness that Winry had never heard him use before.

"Then I'll make you."

Winry blinked dumbly when she heard this, her breath catching in her throat. She saw the serious look in his eyes and what she saw only made the threat more foreboding. She glanced at the thugs off to the side and then back at him. His eyes still held the same look in them. Winry swallowed, closing her eyes for a few seconds to try and calm down. When she opened them, she thought she saw the look in his eyes waver for a moment. The blind anger seemed to lessen as some reason hopefully returned to his mind. Winry couldn't be sure, but she was certain of what it would do to him if she attached his automall so soon. She was going to stand her ground, no matter what.

"What was that?" She asked, putting on a face that was braver than how she felt.

"You heard me."

"Alright, how then?" Winry folded her arms, staring Edward straight in the eyes. "How are you going to force me to do this? Intimidate me?" She then gestured to the gangsters hovering at the edge of the room. "Or are you going to have one of them beat me up or torture me? I can't really put your automial on if my legs are broken, can I?"

Edward didn't react. He kept his features schooled, but she could see his hand was trembling and it wasn't out of anger.

"What is it then?" She pressed him further, courage that she didn't know that she had was forming inside of her. "Have one of them aim a gun at me? I'll still say no. What happens then? Are you going to have them shoot me?"

She took a step closer to him when he didn't answer. Off to the side, the bodyguards all tensed at her sudden movement towards Edward but Winry ignored them. "Well?"

The next few seconds were some of the longest of Winry's life. Despite the brave image she presented, her heart was pounding wildly in her chest. Beads of sweat were falling down her back and her hands shook. Ed's face was still a blank sheet. All of the previous emotion and anger that was there had been swept away. Even his usually expressional eyes were unreadable. As the seconds ticked, Winry's anxiety grew until she was a moment away from practically hyperventilating. Edward stared at her for several more moments before he finally broke eye contact with her to look at his men.

"Get out." Ed practically spat the word. His voice ladened with too many emotions to decipher.

Winry didn't look away from Edward as the men left the room. He, however, didn't look at her. The only sounds were the men rather awkwardly shuffling up the stairs one by one. When the door finally closed, there was nothing but silence in the room. Winry stopped herself from letting out a sigh of relief. She wasn't ready to relax yet.

Edward shifted in his seat as he used the control to turn the chair away from her. When he came to a stop he was now staring at the wall with Winry at his side. From the visible half of his face that she could see, Winry could see muscles moving almost mechanically in his forehead. She didn't want to be the first one to speak and instead waited for him to make the first move. As Winry watched, she could see the rage visibly returning to him. The anger again started to boil and churn in him like fire. Just as Winry was about to move closer to him, Edward let out a sudden yell. No, it was a scream. Anger, pain, guilt, and hopelessness all mixed into one vocal concoction. His chest heaving and teeth grinding, Ed raised his hand before slamming it down on the nearby table. Emitting another cry as his clenched fist landed harshly on the metal surface.

"GOD DAMMIT!" He roared.

Winry didn't jump back in fear this time. She stood her ground and watched him. The muscles of his arm and bicep rippled as he punched the table again. The impact echoed loudly throughout the room as well as the second hit that followed. This time he hit it with such force that there was smeared blood left behind.

"Edward." Winry gasped, trying to get his attention.

He hit it again. More crimson stained the table's flat surface. His knuckles were now torn and bloody.

"Stop it!" Winry moved forward and grabbed his wrist as he raised it for another self punishing swing. His strength surprised her, and she had to use both arms to restrain him. But finally Winry was able to stop his self-immolation. There was blood starting to drip out of the tiny wounds in his hand. Edward was panting, not yet looking at her. Eventually his breathing began to calm down and he let his arm fall limp at his side. A few moments passed before he turned his head to look at her. His eyes now red rimmed and there was a tiredness to them that she had never seen in him before.

"I'm sorry." He croaked out, his voice almost a whisper. "Christ. I'm so fucking sorry, Winry."

Winry remained silent as she finally allowed herself to relax. The tension in her muscles faded as she exhaled before fixing Edward with a serious look. "Are you? Because what I just saw scared me, Edward." She told him.

The words seemed to pierce Ed as he flinched, ducking his gaze away from her once again. It would seem one of his ways of dealing with guilt was to avoid looking at anyone, Winry noted.

"Yeah." He muttered in self-aware bitterness. "I can be pretty scary sometimes."

Winry didn't reply. Instead she folded her arms and looked at him expectantly.

After a moment Ed whispered something under his breath that she couldn't hear. He then nodded his head in what looked like resignment.

"I know...there's nothing that I can say right now that won't sound like some pathetic as hell excuse, but I'll say something." He turned to look at her. "I'm sick of being so fucking useless. All that progress we were making was good because I was moving forward and everything else was staying the same. But now I have family dying and they need me right fucking now!"

Edward paused to collect his breath for a second. Winry still didn't say anything, all of their previous arguments had shown her that it was best to let him get everything out.

"Don't say that it doesn't have to be me that saves the day because it does have to be me." Edward continued. "The cops and the other gangs have all kinds of names for us, but we're a family. Not just Al, Envy, and me, all of us. We watch out for each other and break skulls when someone crosses us. That's what Fu did for me when I got put in this chair. But I can't do anything for him like this. He's dead and…and I'm scared he won't be the last. "

At that moment, Edward's hand clenched and Winry was afraid that he would start hitting the table again. Thankfully he didn't, instead he sighed deeply. "I know we don't talk about it a lot, but I'm supposed to be the one to lead this family one day." A grimace formed on his face. "Since the day I was born, Dad has been preparing me for when I would take over after he kicks the bucket. Then it would be my job to protect everyone."

Ed then gave a small laugh that sounded a bit choked. "We've talked about a lot of things, Winry, but not that. You knew me before the accident, you saw the kind of person I was. Well…I'm still that person, just missing two limbs." The smile he gave was one of the most disingenuous things she had ever seen in her life. "If you asked me how many people I've killed, I couldn't give you an answer off the top of my head. I'd have to think about it, even though I'd rather not."

Winry once again felt that painful ache in her chest as she couldn't keep the shocked expression from forming on her face.

"Ed, I don't want to hear about that." She said, shaking her head slightly.

"What do you think I'm going to do with the limbs you give me?" Ed asked. "As soon as I'm back up on my feet what do you think I'm going to be doing?"

"Ed!" Winry finally snapped. "I told you that I don't want to hear about that."

"Why?" Ed challenged, pushing himself up. "Too scared to know the truth about the kind of man your patient is?"

Winry fixed him with a glare. "I already know, Ed. I'm not an idiot. I know what you've done in the past and what you're going to do in the future. But you're my patient, it didn't matter who you are."

At those words, Edward leaned back in his chair. He was silent for a long moment before speaking again. "Just yesterday when I asked you if you've ever dated a patient, and you responded 'People don't stay patients forever'." Ed looked her directly in the eye. "Did you mean that or were you just being cute? Would you actually date someone like me?"

"Ed...this isn't really the time to-"

"I like you. A lot." Ed said bluntly.

Hell, 'like' didn't even come close to describing what he felt for her. But he couldn't tell her that, not after what he just did.

Before Winry could respond, Ed turned the chair to fully face her. "I mean it. You're beautiful, and smart, and funny...and you don't take any of my shit which is pretty fucking hot too. But it isn't just that. You saw something in me. When I was lying in that hospital bed, mad as hell, you didn't run away. You stayed….you're still here." There were a couple moments of silence. "But if you don't want anything to do with me after this...I-I won't blame you. In fact it would probably be the smart thing to do."

Winry blinked in surprise at his declaration, her throat going rather dry as she tried to come up with a coherent response. Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she eventually grabbed a nearby chair and slowly sat down. Winry looked at her feet for a few seconds before looking up to meet Ed's eyes.

"I…I like you too. I wouldn't have said those things yesterday if I didn't." She admitted, her cheeks turning a bit pink. "But what you did earlier scared me and was completely crossing a line."

Ed nodded grimly.

"Still." Winry continued slowly. "I think I know you well enough that you wouldn't have followed through with it."

Ed frowned. "Winry, don't ignore what happened." He grimaced. "I…I threatened you. Christ, why the fuck did I do that?" The last part was a quiet murmur to himself. Edward then looked her right in the eye. "You can't just ignore what happened, Winry!"

"I'm not ignoring it, Ed." Winry clarified. "But I'm still forgiving you nonetheless."

Edward's eyes widened. "You know, Doc. I'm starting to think you might be a little messed up in the head because any rational person would be halfway out the door after the shit I've put you through. I almost ordered those men to hurt you."

"But you didn't." She countered, strongly. "And I don't think you would have either."

"I don't even know what I would have done, so how can you?" Ed asked with a frown.

"Maybe I know you better than you know yourself." Winry closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "Ed, stop acting like I can't handle this."

Ed kept his frown but did not say anything.

Winry scoffed humorlessly. "You act like I'm this innocent little girl who you're trying your best not to taint. Because I'm not, I'm fucked up. Maybe not like you, but in my own way. I saw both my parents gunned down in front of me when I was 10. That…that changes a person." The blonde paused as she sucked in a deep breath. She didn't enjoy thinking about the years after her parents death, especially her behavior. It was something that she never even talked to Paninya and Sheska about.

"After my parents, I was a piece of shit to my grandmother. I was just horrible to her and everyone else around me. I know I may seem alright now, but for a long time I wasn't. I used to start fights with people in school for no damn reason. Whenever someone tried to help me, I resented them. In high school, I took a lot of drugs. I got blackout drunk all the time. At parties, I would fuck bad boys in street gangs just for the hell of it. When I finally became an adult, after I'd supposedly gotten my life together, you might recall how I talked a high profiled gangster into getting rid of people who were causing me problems. So stop acting like I'm some kind of preacher's daughter. I'm the daughter of two people who helped your father become the kingpin of this city."

Ed stared at her for a few moments before he sighed. "That doesn't change what I did."

"Ed, you learned that someone close to you was murdered and got angry." Winry said with a shrug. "I'm sure it's not the worst thing you've ever done considering that you can't remember how many people you've killed."

Edward gave her a bewildered look before his face became rather tired looking. He almost made another comment about his concern for her mental health but decided against it. "I'm sorry about earlier. I really am." He instead told her again.

"I know." Winry replied. She moved her chair forward where she reached out and grasped Ed's hand, not minding the drying blood on it. "I'm sorry about Fu. I didn't know him well, but he seemed like a good person. And I know that you're impatient to walk again, but the best way that you can help your family is to recover. Get better as quick as you can without hurting yourself, that's what your family wants and I can guarantee that's what Fu would have wanted."

Ed looked at her with a soft look in his eyes. "How do you always know what to say to me every time I act up?"

"Because I'm a damn good mechanic." Winry gave a small grin.

Edward chuckled as he looked down at his and Winry's hands intertwined. "You are." He said, running his thumb over the softness of her knuckle. "But this thing between you and me is still fucked up. Just saying."

Winry let out a small chuckle of her own and ran a hand through her hair. "Well like I said, I always kind of liked a bad boy."

Ed couldn't help the arrogant grin that formed on his face. "Doll, you've never met a bad boy like m-"

His boast was cut off by Winry capturing his lips with her own.

OoO

Kimblee looked down at all the building plans and blueprints in front of him. The entire Hohenheim network. They were sprayed out on a table in front of him. He looked up to gaze at the bosses of Central that had flocked to his cause.

"You know your targets, you know where they're weakest." He said.

"Kill them all."

OoO

They finally kissed!

Things are really going to heat up next chapter.