Ed mounted the metal stars to the catwalk that ran along the third floor. As he moved higher, he was becoming increasingly aware of the face that the corpses that hung from the fourth floor catwalk by chains were nearly level with him.
There was the black-haired girl- she'd seen her before, when he'd been walking through Patrick's memories. She hadn't decayed too much, her skin had dried out and gone tight, like wax paper stretched tight over round bones.
He didn't know what about it unnerved him the most- the unnatural way her arms were out behind her, like the wings of a bird mid-flight, or the fact that her head was tilted forward so that her long, black hair obscured her face.
He watched her as he climbed the stairs, and her leg- she was tied by the ankles and hands, like she was a starfish, making snow angles in the sky- twitched.
Ed blinked. The copse twitched again- kicking out with both legs this time, the girl tossed her head back, and he got a glimpse of her face- dark green eyes, wide with fear, crimson-stained teeth- she let out a watery gasp and looked at him, and he realized with horror her throat had been slit, and that was the reason for the ever-large red stain on the ground below her...
"Edward?"
Ed pulled his gaze away from the girl or a minute- everyone was staring at him, and he realized he'd stopped walking halfway up the stairs.
He could still hear the wet gasps of a girl trying to breathe through her slit windpipe- the unnatural whistling the air made as it tried to get into her lungs- and he scrunched his shoulders at the sound, like a turtle, trying to crawl back into it's shell, hide it's head, get away, away from all this...
"What is it, Ed?"
But the girl was hanging right behind Hawkeye, and when Ed looked at the lieutenant, he had to look past her- right at the girl hanging from the ceiling.
"Help me." that's what he thought she said. It was hard to say for sure, given that the girl's mouth was full of blood.
Huh. That was weird. He tasted blood...
"Shit. Fullmetal, don't look at it." He broke eye contact with the corpse and found Mustang had placed a gloved hand on his shoulder, tugging Ed over so he was facing the kid and pressing his handkerchief underneath Ed's nose, which was sluggishly bleeding...
"You saw something, didn't you, Ed?" Atkins asked. Ed nodded- just a slight bob of his head, nearly imperceptibly.
"What was it?" Roy asked, though he sounded like he really didn't want to know.
Ed shrugged, letting the man hold the handkerchief to his face, trying to even out his stampeding heart. "...it doesn't matter." he said finally.
"But it might! Everything might matter, we need to know, Ed!" Atkins said seriously.
Ed peered over Roy's shoulder- the corpse had gone still again, her head was tilted forward, black hair obscuring her face. Like she'd never been moving at all.
Ed sighed, letting the shudder and coldness run through his veins. His nose had mostly stopped bleeding now, and he tucked the soiled handkerchief in his pocket- he might need it later- before he sniffed.
"She wasn't dead when they hung her there." was all he said, before he continued up the stairs, red coat billowing out behind him.
"Which one, Ed? The younger girl with black hair, or the blonde one hanging by the neck?" Atkins asked, and Ed winced when he described them both.
"The one with black hair."
"Did they let her starve, like the other one?"
"They slit her throat. Stop asking me questions." Ed growled, standing on the catwalk and looking around nervously. His fingers twitched- god, he was so on edge, he hated it, absolutely hated it...
For just a moment, he'd lost sight of those wet footprints. And now they were gone.
"Dammit." he growled.
Mustang stepped forward, a cautious look on his face. "You said you smelled vinegar earlier, right?"
Ed nodded slowly, looking at his superior carefully. Mustang looked at him seriously. "I smell it too, now." he admitted quietly.
There was splashing twenty yards to the right, he could hear the sound of wet feet slapping the metal grating, the pattering of... rain drops?
He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Mustang was right. He could smell it again, the faint scent of vinegar...
He opened his eyes and the footprints were back, leading him on.
He said nothing, moving forward like a bloodhound on the trail, not bothering to take his eyes off those footprints. They were small, whoever they belonged to couldn't have been more than five years old...
They stopped outside another rotting door. It was waterlogged from years of abandonment, it'd caused the wood to swell, and it took a hard thrust with his shoulder to force it open. He took three steps into the room, and the pungent chemical odor nearly overtook him.
Mustang was right behind him, and he frowned, grimacing and moving to cover his mouth and nose with his hand. "Formaldehyde." he said grimly.
Yes- that was the acidic, tangy scent in the air- any alchemist worth their salt could recognize it.
Bu what was of more interest to Ed was the glass aquarium in the middle of the room- this room had windows, and while they were cracked and grimy from years of disuse, the sunlight that filtered in had an ethereal quality to it as it filtered through and hit the fish tank, and the small body submerged inside it.
The rest of the team had come in, now, and some of the investigators were staring at the tank, wide-eyed. "What the fuck." Havoc muttered.
Ed said nothing, stepping forward and kneeling down, placing his hands on he glass.
"You said that's formaldehyde, Mustang?" Atkins was grilling Mustang now, thank goodness, because Ed was too busy examining the small girl inside the tank.
There was no lid- the girl was only a bit bigger than Nina had been, with long, wavy black hair that flowed behind her and seemed to suspend in the formaldehyde. Glazed blue eyes, forever fixed on a world Ed couldn't see, stared holes in the dingy, falling-in ceiling of the dilapidated room, a button nose, and a small smile on the corpse's expression...
There it was again. He could hear laughter. Running, fun, games, and then slowly falling asleep in a new place with new friends. Closing his eyes to never open them again.
"You got anything, Fullmetal?" Atkins asked, and Ed shook his head.
"It's peaceful here. I don't think... I don't think this one was a violent death. I don't think she was aware..."
"Maybe they did it like this because she was so young. She's one of the youngest victims..." Sergeant Chase, a reedy man form investigations, spoke up.
"I doubt it- why leave her here like some messed up corpse in a specimen jar? We used to have stuff like this in our biology lab..." one of the female investigators argued, and Ed got to his feet abruptly- the odor of the formaldehyde hit him full force, or maybe it wasn't that, but his eyes were watering, and he turned and stumbled out of the room anyways.
"Fullmetal- wait up!"
Ed frowned, standing on the catwalk and decidedly not looking at the corpses hanging from the fourth floor catwalk, instead choosing to stare at the metal floor. For a moment, he was still- he just wanted to stand here and regroup...
Someone from investigations cleared their throat- they'd been milling around for a few minutes by now.
"So, um... you... feel anything, kid?"
"No. I don't." Ed muttered flatly. His back was to the catwalk railing, because he swore he could feel the girl hanging with the chain around her neck- her gaze, piercing blue, burning holes into his back.
"Maybe we should keep going, then. Maybe you'll get something..."
There was the sound of glass breaking, and Ed jolted.
"What?" Mustang asked, eying him carefully. Ed blinked. "Glass breaking... this way..." he led them down the opposite direction of the catwalk, they were moving in a clockwise direction, this time.
There wasn't even a door to this room, just two sad hinges hanging without a purpose, and Ed strode into the room and knew that he really shouldn't look- but he did anyways.
On the table was a girl who looked to be fifteen. Completely naked, her legs were spread in a suggestive way- she'd been groomed meticulously, carefully trimmed so her genitals were visible. They'd cut off her own head and placed it between her legs- in an absolutely bizarre way, it looked like she had given birth to her own decapacitated head. Flowers- dried, pressed, and so out of place, were piled on her lower belly, a large X had been carved into her chest, and both of her arms had been neatly sawed off with almost surgical precision.
In the corner was a small stove, and beside it was a pile of bones Ed didn't want to contemplate.
One of the female investigators screamed, and everyone turned.
"Something bit me!" she brandished her arm, revealing a bitemark. It took several moments for everyone to calm down, but even then, the unease in the room was palpable.
"Why'd they cut off her arms?"
Havoc had gone white as a sheet, and he stepped out of the room hurriedly.
What was bothering Ed the most- besides the head placed between the legs- was the fact they'd carved out the girl's eyes. Two large, white daises sat in the empty sockets instead of eyeballs, and it gave a large, unworldly look to the macabre scene.
Ed stepped closer to the table, unable to hide his grimace- he really, really wanted to avoid looking at the poor girl's exposed genitals- but it was hard, something about her decapitated head, her face... drew him close.
They cut off your arms and took out your eyes. But why?
I don't know.
He was stunned when a voice echoed right back in his head- it wasn't his own thoughts- it was a voice, female, hoarse, scared.
I can't see anything. It's dark.
Ed looked around the small room critically. There was a small, filthy stove in the corner, a pile of bones, and a filthy, dust-covered cupboard...
I'm looking for you. I'll find you, wherever you are...
I can taste the salt...
He crept over to the oven, pulling open the door, only to be greeted with the stench of burnt fat and meat...
Mustang's eyes had gone wide, like he'd just remembered something he wished to lock away and forget forever. "Ed- I figured out what happened here."
Ed blinked, looking annoyed. "Yeah, I know they're cannibals. But they took out her eyes, I'm looking for her pieces..."
Ed trudged over to the corner, pawing through the pile of bones. When he lined them up, there were enough to be two arms of a teenage girl, but no tiny, intricate little bones of hands or fingers...
Ed frowned. There were small indents on the bones. "There there's teethmarks and cuts on the bone- they striped the flesh off with a knife and ate it right off the bone at some points."
Ed shuddered- at first he thought he tasted bile, but then he realized- it was salt. Like pickle brine...
He jogged over to the cupboard, throwing it open to come face to face with jars. In the yellow green pickle brine, looking like dirty pond water, five fingers, bone and all, floated like fat sausages.
It's so bright...
He carefully pulled out the jars- two jars of fingers- there were more, further back in the cupboard, and he pulled them out gently...
For a moment, he forgot how to breathe.
Oh god... they took out your eyes.
They were both there, floating in a jar. Ed grappled for what was the last jar- a giant slug appeared to be floating in it, bloated and swollen, and Ed swallowed again, tasting salty brine, before he understood.
"That's her tongue. I think... I think that's all of her." he gathered up all the jars, setting them beneath the table the corpse was laying on.
"There- I found you. You're all together now..."
Thank you.
He looked up to find everyone looking at him uneasily.
"Is she talking to you, Fullmetal? Is she saying anything?" Atkins asked eagerly. The crowd in the room had thinned out, and Ed shook his head.
"No- she's quiet now. She just... she wanted help, finding all the pieces, I guess..." he ambled back over to the corner, quietly gathering up the bones like they were fine china and setting them beneath the table as well.
"You... ah... you should... you shouldn't be moving the remains." one of the photographers from the investigations unit said finally, looking uncomfortable. "We like to take pictures of them where they are."
"She wants to be together. Or as close as she can be." Ed said, shooting the man a glare. "You're going to have to get better light to take photos anyways."
"Let him be, Donovan." Atkins said simply.
Mustang and Hawkeye were both looking at Ed in a mixture of horror and awe, and Ed sighed, closing his eyes. He was so tired all of a sudden...
Everyone was stepping out of the room, which was starting to make Ed's stomach turn. It smelled like animal fat and flowers, but the scent of decay was starting to overwhelm the flowers.
Havoc was leaning on the wall outside of the room- he looked like he'd just finished puking somewhere, and was still fairly shaken, and the amount of investigators had dwindled- Ed wondered if they were moving outside to bring in the body recovery team or if they were too shaken to stay inside for long.
He looked further down the catwalk- there, standing perfectly still, was the blonde-haired blue-eyed girl of about thirteen in her pristine white nightgown, watching him sadly.
She seemed to shimmer when she moved, but he couldn't take his eyes off of her for some reason.
She walked over to him and took his hand- he fingers were like ice in his hand, but he didn't let go.
She led him to the railing of the catwalk- where her corpse was dangling by a chain around her neck from the catwalk above.
Slowly, she stepped up onto the railing, never one letting go of his hand, and so he did the same. She took his other hand, giving him a long, sad look. And then she melted- exploding into a thousand dust particles, she dissolved.
He turned, looking out at the corpse hanging from the railing. She turned to look at him, kicked her feet and swung back and forth, trying to gain momentum, and when she swung closer, he reached out towards her- he just had to snag her hand, and they he could pull her over the railing and cut her down...
"Chief, what are you doing!?"
"Edward, get down from there!"
He swore he felt his fingertips brush hers before someone was grabbing him around the waist and bodily yanking him off the railing back onto the catwalk, and he looked up to find Havoc and the entirety of the investigations team staring down at him nervously.
"What the hell were you trying to do!?" Mustang demanded, looking like Ed had just scared the daylights out f him.
Ed swallowed. "I was just... the girl, I was trying to reach the girl. I almost had her- I just had to grab her hand, I was going to cut her down..."
"You're kidding, right?"
"No! I almost had her, she touched my hand!"
Everything lapsed into silence. "Edward. She'd hanging ten feet away. There's no way you could've reached her."
Ed looked up- the corpse had gone still, hanging like a ragdoll, and suddenly, Ed realized the the distance between the body and the railing was, in fact, too long for him to reach. And that he very well may have fallen the forty feet down to the wooden floor below them- all three stories.
"We need to get him out of here." Mustang was staying, turning to Havoc, who was looking unnerved.
"I agree."
"Take him outside for a few minutes and bring him back in, we still need him..." arguing.
Hello?
A voice. So small, so timid. Like it was afraid to be heard, afraid someone would hurt them if they spoke too loudly.
Help me! I want to go home!
This voice was different. The world had fuzzed out around him, he felt like he was under water, everything had slowed down.
I can't get out! I need to get out!
It burns!
Mom!
Help!
They lied to me, mom, help!
I hate this place!
Painful wailing of children- lost, forsaken, abused, scared- clawed at the inside of his skull.
I hate this place, and I can't get out! I hate it here!
Hate! Hate! Hate! the word seemed to echo, resonating
I hate it too, I hate them!
Mustang flung an arm in Ed's direction. "He's done enough for your damn investigation!"
"We need to recover these children for their families!"
Burn this place! Burn it to the ground!
A cacophony of lost voices shouted agreement.
Burn it! Burn it! Burn it!
"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" Ed hadn't realized he was shouting until he saw everyone staring at him. He flushed red, embarrassed- and let his hands, which had been covering his ears, fall to his sides. He heaved a sigh. "I don't know how to help you." he said to no one in particular, turning and walking away from the group, not sure what to do and wanting to be alone.
"Fullmetal- come back! You can't just wander off alone!"
The word set off a chain-reaction in his brain, and his leg gave out beneath him as he tried to take a step.
Alone.
alone.
alone.
I'm scared.
It's cold.
I'm alone!
Please, somebody, help me!
He fell to his knees, barely getting his hands out in front of him in time to catch himself.
"Shit, Fullmetal!" Mustang cursed, and his friends were running over, helping him shakily get to his feet.
"Please... please stop talking." Ed pleaded, placing a hand to his forehead. "I don't... I'm trying, but I... I don't know how to help, it's too much to handle..."
"It's not your job to do this, Ed. It's alright." Havoc assured him.
"I know. You've had enough. It's okay- I'll get you out of here." Mustang was looking at him with a mixture of concern and pity, and Ed frowned, pushing his hands off as the man tried to pick him up and getting to his feet, stubborn.
"I can't leave yet. I have... I have to stay..."
I'm up here. A voice whispered in his mind, like a gentle breeze through the grass. I know it's hard for you to hear so many voices. I'm sorry we overwhelmed you. Please... come find me...
"I can't leave yet. He's stuck on the fourth floor." Ed wiped his eyes, straightening himself and heading for the next set of metal stairs.
"Who is it, Ed?"
"I don't know- but he's asking for help." Ed said simply. And everyone fell into step behind him, not saying a word.
The fourth floor was a lot more exposed- weather had beat on the roof, caving it in at some points, and Ed paused, listening to the breeze blow in through the holes in the walls.
"I'm here. I heard you. Where are you?" he spoke aloud, not even bothering to keep his thoughts to himself anymore.
Quiet crying sounded from down the hall, and Ed moved towards it. It was a room at the end of the hall, but he paused when he heard creaking from a room on his left and opened the door.
The smell of leather and chemicals hit him first. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see that the outside wall had caved in, letting sunlight into the room- and the two corpses- a boy of about twelve, standing ram-rod straight, dressed to the nines, with his eyes removed and replaced with large, gray marbles and his mouth stitched shut, and a girl the same age standing beside him.
Ed's breath caught in his throat.
Their exposed skin was wrapped tightly- oh so tightly in bandages, they were like mummies, even their faces- the way they'd been positioned, the girl holding the boy's elbow, like two giant, living dolls...
Ed watched a spider run across the girl's face and turned, slamming the door behind him and gasping for breath. "Fuck." he muttered.
"What was it?" Atkins asked.
Ed waved a hand towards the room, taking a deep breath. "T-two more, in there..." he stuttered, swallowing down the bile that licked at the back of his throat.
"I see. You seem quite upset. Try taking a few deep breaths- we're almost finished here, Edward." Atkins laid a hand on Ed's shoulder.
Ed smacked it away. "Get your filthy hands off me." he turned, stalking further down the hall, before the crying started up again.
Please... don't forget me... that small voice sounded in the back of his head.
"I didn't, I didn't forget you, I promise." Ed reassured them hurriedly. "I'm sorry, I got distracted, I'll find you, I'm here, where are you?"
The breeze blew, and a door opened and slammed into the wall behind it- Ed darted into the room.
Again, the holes where the roof had fallen in let patchy sunlight stream into the room, but otherwise, the room was bare. Except for a plain wooden box lying in the center, a hammer, and a pile of nails...
Ed's heart dropped to his stomach. "No..." he whispered, before he was running over and grabbing the hammer, prying with all his might.
The rest of the team had filtered into the room behind him, and when Ed tore the lid off the box, the scent of decay wafted into the air.
Ed tore the lid off with closed eyes, and when he set it aside, he realized with horror that there were scratches on the inside of the wood.
"They... they put you in there while you were still alive?" he turned, looking at the bloated, purple face of an eight year old boy.
He fell to his knees. He could hear the buzzing of flies, and he had to fight back the urge to vomit- because he knew that brown hair, and he new that small face and that red shirt- now stained with seep and rot and decay...
"Stanley!"
"What is it, Ed!?" Atkins demanded, and Ed whirled looking horrified.
"That's Stanley! He- he was only eight, he's the reason I went in the woods in the first place, I was looking for him, and then my leg got caught in the trap and I died... oh god, I finally found him!" he fell to the floor and burst into tears.
Memories bubbled to the surface of his mind- a small boy throwing the ball around with him, playing tag and building forts after school. His head throbbed, his heart was shattered...
"Why would they do this to you!? Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I should've gone with you that day, even if I was sick..."
"Edward! How do you know Stanley?" Atkins had his notepad out, and Ed whipped around to face him, struggling to speak through his tears. "He lives in the same apartment building as me and my mom! We go to East Elementary together! We've been friends for years!"
Hughes cleared his throat, looking awkward and alarmed. "Edward... Edward, you... you've never attended school in East City, buddy. Ever. And your mom... she... she's been dead for years."
"No. Ed hasn't attended school here. But Patrick Mullaney went to East Elementary, didn't he, Ed? And Patrick shared some of his memories with you?" Mustang asked, stepping forward, a look of understanding crossing his face.
Ed blinked, still in tears. "Um, I... I think so? That's... the brick school by the woods, I think... my teacher was Mrs. Morgan, I'm in seventh grade... My little sister Melissa, she's in fifth grade, her teacher is Mr. Bronze..."
Hughes was looking stunned. "How is this possible? How does he know so much? This... it can't be supernatural, it just... can't..."
"Does it really matter at this point? He led you here, he found your bodies, he's had enough. Breathe for me, Ed. Kiddo- I know it's hard, but you need to stop hyperventilating, or you're going to pass out." Mustang ignored the investigations team, instead kneeling beside Ed and placing both hands on the boy's shoulders.
Ed lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Mustang. "B-but Stanley..."
"I know, Ed. Don't worry- we're going to take care of him, I promise. Breathe. That's it."
Ed's breaths were hitched and shuttering, but they weren't as frantic as before, and Mustang was managing to calm him down.
His nose had started bleeding again, and Ed fumbled in his pocket for the handkerchief as Mustang looped his arm under his knees and behind his back, picking Ed up bridal-style. "You ready to get out of here, Ed?"
"Y-yeah..." Ed admitted quietly.
Their procession downstairs was quiet, and On the second floor catwalk, one of the investigations team was sitting on the ground crying while another vomited over the railing.
Ed peered out at them miserably from his position against Mustang's chest and frowned- he felt physically and emotionally drained.
He blinked, turning and catching slight of more black charcoal marks on the wall. More than were even there before.
He squirmed, trying to get a better look...
"Hold still, Ed." Mustang scolded, but Ed only squirmed more. "Put me down. I see something..."
Mustang didn't look pleased. "Ed, please- let's just get out of here..."
Something was burning him. Ed screamed, jolted in pain, and Mustang was so startled he dropped him.
"What the hell just happened? Why are you screaming?" Mustang was looking at him in alarm.
Ed blinked, his automail hand going for his flesh arm. He rolled up his coat sleeve to reveal the red imprint of a small hand burned into his flesh.
"S-something burned me, I think..." he admitted.
Mustang's eyes widened. "Yeah, something did."
Ed winced, rolling his sleeve back down. "It's not too bad. Besides... these marks here... there's more of them..." Ed was making his way back to the wall, studying the charcoal marks carefully. There was a quick drawing on the wall, amid the peeling paint, and Ed realized with some alarm it was an arrow...
"It's... directions?" Ed blinked, hurrying to find the next arrow scratched onto the wall, and the next.
At the stairs, the arrow on the wall pointed down, and Ed scrambled down the stairs, looking around.
"You got my attention! What now?"
He looked at the ground, finding a pile of ash smeared into another arrow.
They were back on the first floor now- the factory was by no means small, it was sixty feet by sixty feet, but Ed took off at a jog anyways. "Where to next! I'm looking at the floor, it's your move!"
A handprint in ash on the floor. A smudged partial footprint.
Ed was standing in the far left corner of the shop near the wall. All around them, old machines left in various states of rust and disrepair were quietly rusting away on the floor, and Ed frowned.
"Huh. Now what?"
"Edward, we shouldn't be over here. The floor here is wooden and spongey- it might no be safe." Hawkeye said seriously.
Ed blinked. "But I have to be. He's over here, I know it." he looked around.
There were a few old metal drum turned on their side, what looked to be some kind of conveyer belt, an old generator, and a massive brick structure, about eight feet by six feet and five feet tall.
"Ed- come back over here, we'll figure out what brought you over here in a minute. Hawkeye's right- the floor isn't safe over there." Mustang ordered.
Ed turned, starting to walk bac towards them, only to get a handful of ash thrown right in his face.
"Ah! fuck! Stop, knock it off!" he stumbled back.
You're going to wrong way. A voice that was more anxious than it was malicious sounded somewhere behind him, and Ed frowned.
"I can't. They don't want me to go that way, they're not over there."
"Edward, the floor isn't safe..."
"Just give me a minute!" Ed said, and Mustang sighed. "Fine you have two minutes. No more."
"Where are you!? Give me something, please!" Ed shouted into the echoy expanse of the factory. Most of the investigations team had either assembled where the floor wsa more solid or were watching from the catwalks.
A small pile of ash appeared in front of him and the breeze blew, knocking it towards the base of the large brick structure. Ed circled the entire thing, but there was no way out or in except for on top of the thing, and it didn't make sense...
"I don't understand." Ed said sadly, leaning against the brick side of the rectangle dejectedly.
Something banged on the other side of the bricks.
Ed pulled his head back, not sure if he'd imagined the sound or not, before two charcoal handprints appeared on the side of the brick box. They disappeared, then reappeared- like someone was trapped inside, banging on the bricks...
"Oh my god. Oh my god! This is an oven, this entire thing is an oven! I'm gonna get you out, don't worry!" Ed assured them. "They're in here, in this brick oven! I can't find a way in!" Ed looked over at where Mustang and the team was waiting about ten feet back, not wanting to risk overburdening the spongey floor and its dubious supports.
"You're sure?" Mustang asked.
"Yes I'm sure, but I can't find an opening! I think I'm gonna have to use alchemy to open it up..."
"Wait a minute! Listen to me Fullmetal, if you're going to use alchemy, it has to be a very careful transmutation. If it's too rough, the floor might not be able to take it. If you don't think you have the energy to do the transmutation, I can do it..."
Ed blinked. "I can do it." he said seriously. "I probably can't do a ton of alchemy right now, because I'm tired as shit, but I know I can deconstruct those bricks without caving in the floor."
Mustang dug in his pockets. "Use a transmutation circle." he said simply, tossing a stick of chalk over to Edward.
"I thought he was so skilled he didn't need those circles you alchemists use." Atkins looked confused.
"He's going to use one now. It'll take less energy for him to transmute with a circle and help him focus the array better. I'd prefer he not bring this factory down on top of us." Mustang said seriously.
Ed was already drawing, and even for a free hand array, he was done in two minutes, tucking the chalk into his pockets and taking a breath, placing his hands on the array.
"Piece of cake. Deconstruct the bricks..." with a blue flash, the brick side of the massive rectangular stove gave way to dust, and a pile of ash came tumbling out.
Ed wordlessly dug through the soot and charcoal, feeling something solid and heavy within the pile and dragging it towards him.
Once he'd liberated it from the ashes, it was clear to see it was a skull and a human ribcage, as well as a spine. Charred black, there wasn't anything left but the major bones and ash.
"Right. Bring it back over here where the floor is stable." Mustang ordered.
"Right. Just... gimmie a second..." Ed bent over, placing his hands on his knees, god, was he tired. Mustang had been right to have him use a transmutation circle, even though it was like using training wheels, just the energy to activate it had taken a lot out of him.
He caught his breath and straightened, intending to bring the remains back over to stable ground, when he heard it.
Down here! Please, help us!
Ed turned at the voice, setting the ribcage down.
"Shit. There's someone else here, Mustang... what do you mean 'down there'?" Ed turned around, walking further away from the others and out onto the dilapidated factory floor.
"Edward, don't! The floor is too unstable!"
But Ed didn't hear her, and he took two steps forward before the ground gave way beneath him, swallowing him up and leaving only a pitch black hole in it's wake.