"Get in the circle, Edward."

In his blazing panic, one rational thought came to the surfacer. If I'm going to die here, I'm going to go out fighting like hell.

He whirled, automail hand grabbing Gean's wrist that held the gun and squeezing. The gun was pointed away from him when it went off, but the noise was still loud and unexpected, and Gean lashed out with his other fist, punching Ed in the face and bloodying his nose...

Ed squeezed as hard as he could with his automail hand and Gean cried out and dropped the gun, allowing Ed to kick it away from him.

And Gean stopped struggling, looking down at Edward's face with a mixture of pity and horror.

"What the hell am I doing? Fighting with a kid..." he almost looked... remorseful.

"You put me in that circle and you're as good as killing me." Ed said seriously.

"I know, but you won't go along with the plan! I need you to help me! Don't you want the stone? Don't you want to resurrect your little brother!?" Gean sounded close to hysteria.

"Yes. I do. More than anything. But you can't bring back the dead..." Al's not dead. But you're probably killing him, for a second time, denying him help, not foraging the stone... But this is WRONG. He wouldn't want this, the man's theory is flawed, and even if it wasn't, Al wouldn't want a body at the expense of all these souls...

"Listen to me very carefully, Ed." Gean let both his hands fall to his side and sighed. "Because I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to dirty my hands. These people are already dead. And I haven't killed them. Their souls are a free resource to be harnessed. If you aren't going to help me with the transmutation, then stand back and watch while I become a God. You can't stop me, and neither can the military. Once I've foraged the stone, nobody will stand in my way."

Gean grabbed him and shoved him out of the way, away from the circle.

Ed stumbled and nearly fell. "Please- don't do this!".

Gean gave him a faint smile- the man was looking at him like they were friends, and he shook his head. "Don't be afraid, Edward. You're about to witness the birth of a God." He dropped to his knees, placed his hands in the array, and activated the circle.

No sooner had the words left Mustang's mouth- orders for him not to be followed, for everyone to fan out and take up positions in the woods around the factory while he went in- when a single gunshot sounded in the distance.

"Oh god." the words were barely a whisper as they left his mouth.

"Sir." Hawkeye looked hesitant... was she afraid?

"The plan is the same. No one follow." I don't want you to see what I find, if he's... gone.

Roy turned and took off running towards the factory.

Ed could do nothing but step backwards one step at a time- he was trying to get as far away from Gean and the damned human transmutation circle as possible, because even though he wasn't in it, he felt the wrongness in the air, the same wrongness that'd happened when he and Al had tried all those years ago...

It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and his palms itch.

The blue light of the activating array. The black mist- wisps of it rose up from the ground, and Gean shouted something- probably a cry of triumph, or maybe alarm- before the eye in the center of the circle opened, and the black hands came.

Gean was screaming, now.

Ed had slid down so he was sitting, back against the wall, and all he could do was watch as the hands grabbed onto Gean- they tore off his leg first, then his arms, Ed watched his body dissolve into transmutation marks and black and orange embers.

"Help me! Someone help!"

But Ed knew he couldn't. Any move towards Gean, if they even touched- would mean he'd be dragged down the rabbithole to the gate as well. And he had nothing left to give.

For some reason, he couldn't close his eyes. So insteal he just covered his ears.

The black hands were back- they were putting pieces of Gean back together, he was re-forming- but it was wrong, he was re-forming wrong...

In the blue alchemic light, Ed could see only one arm and a lumpy, malformed torso. An inhuman cry was torn from the man, as his crooked jaw gaped open, bloodied tongue hanging out of a mouth he was unable to close...

And just like that, the light of the alchemic reaction stopped. It'd all happened in the span of less than a minute. One minute. Had it been this fast when he and Al had done it all those years ago? Had Gean been through the gate- had he seen heaven and hell, everything and nothing- in only a few seconds?

His legs wouldn't listen to him.

The one-armed body on the floor was in an every increasing pool of red, and Ed shuddered involuntarily at the inhuman moaning it was making.

The sounds of a dying animal. It was pathetic and terrifying, and Gean would try to prop himself up on his skinny, misshapen toothpick arm, only to fall back to the ground with a grunt. He managed to hold himself up for one moment, two, lifted his neck and head and looked around- and coughed. Crimson poured out of his mouth, up his throat, and his eyes bulged- before he was falling into the mess.

The wheezing, rattling sounds that was the man's breathing stopped. And Ed was glad, because that meant he wasn't suffering anymore.

He got to his feet. His face was wet- he didn't know when he'd started crying. And he was terrified, and selfishly glad he hadn't agreed to help in this man's crazy plan, or he'd had been lying dead on the floor too.

He swallowed and tasted ash. This whole place- as demented as it had felt before- had a slippery, oily, wrongness about it, whenever he tried to breathe- the grime of forbidden alchemy had forever claimed the place now, just like it had claimed his basement all those years ago.

And he was left to wonder- What do I do now?. He looked from the puddle of blood, the poor, malformed creature in the middle, to the catwalk of the stairs.

Gean is dead. I saw he had a book on the philosopher's stone... Damn, I must really be heartless. Ed looked back at the corpse, frowning. Is this what it's come to? Pawing through the research of deranged alchemists?

But the image of Al- his beloved suit of armor- came to the forefront of his mind, and he steeled himself. Gean's research is flawed. But the books he has on the stone might still help me...

And so he turned, leaving the mess of it all behind him, and climbed the stairs with a heavy heart. I just need to get any useful research, and then I can baptize this place in fire. Just like his home. That seemed to be the only way to remove the aura of abomination from the air.

Mustang felt it before he even entered the factory. It was like breathing in sulfur- thick and cloying, it turned his blood to icewater and made his pulse race.

This wrongness- it was exactly the same as the Elric brother's basement had been, years ago. Except this time it was stronger- He'd stumbled upon that transmutation two days later, but now, freshly massacred, he was struggling to keep himself calm. He could feel the oily aura, it made the air around him feel heavy when he walked into it, and it was smothering and frightening, but he told himself to keep walking, because Ed was in there, and he might be hurt, and he'd seen worse. He needed to find Ed.

He raised his lantern and kept going.

When he got into the factory, his heart sank. There, sketched on the filthy cement floor, was a massive array. He could smell blood and electricity in the air, and his charcoal eyes widened. He placed a hand over his nose and mouth and kept going, ignoring the knots of nausea and dread and the voice in his head that screamed to run, because hell is here.

There was a malformed corpse in a puddle of blood at the edge of the array. It'd once been a man, but it was so horribly deformed now, that Roy wasn't sure what to call it.

He raised the lantern and looked around frantically. Ed wasn't in the corners. He wasn't in the center of the array... had this maniac sacrificed him?

He craned his neck towards the center of the array, struggling, looking for any debris in the darkness. He needed to know, but he would not step into the array, the taboo- but he had to be certain.

In the arena of human transmutation, he was woefully uneducated. Anyone who knew what they were doing was probably a deity, or insanely lucky, and most likely an Elric brother.

If he put you in the middle, would you... was your whole body taken? Are you... are you gone? No... surely at least your automail would be left behind, there would have to be something to prove you're gone...

He'd sank to his knees. He was in a puddle of blood, but somehow, he was beyond caring, because Ed's not here, he's not here, he's gone, what happened, I can't... I don't know... what if I never know what happened to him? his breathing was getting increasingly fast and ragged, and suddenly, he was finding breathing to be getting harder and harder.

It was hot in here, burning hot...

Oh god... I thought I was saving you by bringing you into the military. I can't... I don't know... what do I tell Al? How did I fail you so badly?

Over his own racing thoughts, he couldn't even hear the clanging sound of boots on the metal stairway behind him.

The footfalls echoed, and he was trembling, staring at the cursed array, because Ed was gone, and how was he going to keep going not knowing if the kid was dead or gone or god knows where...

"Mustang? What are you... are you crying?" A hoarse, exhausted voice spoke from behind him, and Mustang whirled to come fact to face with none other than Edward Elric in the flesh.

Ed looked like he'd aged ten years. The boy was holding a cardboard box full of books, with more tomes that didn't fit stacked on top. There was dried blood on his mouth and chin, his eyes looked dead, like he'd mentally and emotionally checked out, and in the filth and muck on his face Roy could clearly see where the kid had once been crying.

But now, Ed looked at him with minor concern but mostly indifference, because he was mentally and emotionally exhausted.

All Roy could managed was a strangled sound as he jolted to his feet, stumbling over to Ed and pulling the kid into his arms. There was a thunk as Ed let the box of research drop to the floor, forgotten. He looked surprised.

"Mustang?" Ed sounded uncertain, and maybe it was because Mustang was still crying, but he didn't care. He pulled the boy into the hug anyways, tucking the blond head beneath his chin. He could smell the kid- he smelled like wheatgrass and old leather book binding, and it was good, so good to know the kid was still here, that he lost himself for a moment.

"I thought you were gone." his voice was so raw and broken it even startled him. Ed didn't react, not fighting him but not returning the hug either. He was like a living doll.

Roy inhaled deeply, pulling back from the embrace but keeping both hands firmly on his charge's shoulders.

"I heard... a gunshot. Just one gunshot. I can feel... this shit, the transmutation, the wrong... and I come in here thinking you might be dead and you're gone! Do you have any idea how that felt!? Not knowing if you were in hell or not!?" Mustang was shaking the kid, now, but he didn't really care, because he'd just been so damn worried for the kid, and Ed needed to get it through his thick skull that Mustang needed to know if he was alright...

"Where the hell were you!?" Mustang demanded, voice dripping acid.

He didn't realize it, but Ed had started shaking from where he still had both hands on the boy's shoulders, and he frowned when the boy's lower lip trembled, eyes filling with tears. "I... I went to get the books." tears had started to fall down Ed's face, now, and he looked so damn ashamed of himself. He wouldn't even meet Mustang's eyes.

"This guy was crazy, but he had... he had a book... on the stone. I... I need it, for... for Al..." the desperation in the boy's voice was palpable, and suddenly, Roy wasn't so angry anymore.

"I see."

"I didn't... I didn't want him to die!" Ed pointed to the mangled corpse on the ground. "I tried to tell him... his theory, it was wrong... there are no souls here, you can't be a God... I just... the notes... I gotta fix Al!"

Roy pulled Ed back into his chest, squeezing the boy tightly. "I know. And you will, Edward, one day you will fix him..." he couldn't be mad at the kid for wandering off for the notes at the first chance. Not when information about the stone was so few and far between, and when the kid was so desperate to fix his brother...

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I swear. I couldn't stop him..." Ed was crying openly now.

"Shh. I know. It's not your fault. It's alright." He rubbed the kid's back, because really, what else could he do?

"B-but you're... m-mad at... me..."

"I wasn't mad. I was scared. I was so scared I lost you." Roy squeezed the kid tighter.

"You yelled at me..."

Ed was in fucking shambles. Normally him and Mustang shouting insults at one another was a daily occurrence, and normally Ed shouted right back without a problem, but something about what he'd just been through made the kid... well, a kid, and he couldn't handle being shouted at. Mustang didn't blame him.

Yeah, I did. I'm sorry, kid. It's alright. It's okay.".

Ed had completely let go, now, and he buried his head in Roy's chest and cried for all he was worth.

It took a good five minutes for Ed to stop crying, and even then, Roy was pretty sure he'd just run out of tears.

Ed just leaned heavily against him, looking like a breeze would blow him over.

The kid is going to crash and sleep as soon as we get home.

Ed leaned on him for one moment more, looking at his superior's face hesitantly before he pulled back, wiping his eyes. "What do we do now?".

Roy sighed. "We destroy this place."

Ed was still looking upstairs, looking conflicted, and Roy blinked. "What?"

"There's more research." Ed said, looking guilty that it was even a priority.

"How much more?"

"Two boxes."

"Show me where. I'll help you carry it out, and we can deal with this place."

Ed nodded, scrubbing at his filthy face as he trudged upstairs, Mustang at his heels.

A moment alter, something dawned on Roy. "I heard a gunshot earlier. Are you hurt?"

"What?" Ed was so spent, he was unable to focus on walking and talking.

"Are you hurt?" Mustang tried again, scanning the boy nervously. He hadn't seen anything major, but... "there's blood on your face.".

"Oh. Uh. He punched me." he admitted, continuing to trudge along, unbothered.

"And the gunshot?"

"We were fighting. He missed."

"Good.". Ed led him into the room- they each grabbed the remaining research and headed back downstairs.

Roy frowned, looking at the mangled body at the edge of the transmutation circle. He wanted to snap his fingers and burn this place to the ground, but he hesitated. If his alchemy activated the circle, it would be an even bigger problem...

"How do you destroy the array? Have you done it before?" Roy asked Ed hopefully.

Ed nodded. "Don't touch it with your hands. It might activate. You gotta use your feet." he strode over to the edge of the circle, looking at it anxiously, before he was deliberately dragging his feel over the chalk, one, two, ten times, to break the array in several places. It wouldn't activate now.

"That's it?" Roy asked.

Ed nodded. "Broken." he confirmed.

"Colonel! Chief!?" Havoc was standing a few steps inside the doorway, looking nervous.

Roy and Ed whirled, both surprised at the intrusion.

"Havoc? I told the team to stay outside."

Havoc grinned. "Yeah, well... you've been gone too long. Is that the Chief?" Ed stepped closer in the circle of lanternlight, and Havoc looked relieved. "You okay, buddy?"

Ed nodded wordlessly.

Roy sighed. "Havoc, since you're here- grab these two boxes." he handed him the two boxes of research, and Ed automatically picked up the other one and started for the door, on autopilot it seemed.

Roy followed after them, the fingers of his gloved hand already pressed together.

When they were ten feet away from the building, he snapped.

The remaining windows of the building exploded outward, and the fire caught the old, dry wood easily.

He let it burn for one minute, two, before he was snapping again- the entire fourth floor caved in, and he drew in more oxygen- the flames danced higher, praising the night sky with their lifted tongues, and Ed stared, emotionless, unblinking, just watching.

It was an hour and several snaps later when the cursed factory was finally just a charred, smoking crater in the ground.

Ed still stared, unblinking. "It's over, Ed." Hawkeye tried to reassure him. She'd already scrubbed his face clean of blood with a rag from the first aid kit, and Ed simply nodded, looking glassed over and not all there. "May it rest in pieces." he said robotically, turning and walking away, box of research in hand.

That night, after he'd tugged off Ed's soiled shirt and pants, sat him on the edge of the bathroom sink, and scrubbed as much of the grime from the factory off the kid as he could, Ed leaned on him, nearly asleep already, in just his boxers.

"Ready for bed, kid?"

Ed nodded sluggishly, and to Roy's surprise, got to his feet and headed down the hall to Roy's bedroom, crawling under the covers and looking at Roy through half-lidded eyes. Roy didn't hesitate to do the same.

Honestly, he'd probably have had a hard time sleeping tonight if Ed wasn't next to him.

Whenever Roy closed his eyes, it was hard not to jolt awake to the feeling of falling and the dense, cloying wrongness of being so near to human transmutation clinging to him. Or the image of the mangled corpse in a puddle of blood. Or that damned human transmutation array etched into the back of his eyelids.

But every time he did startle, he simply looked over at the small form dead asleep like a rock beside him- messy blond locks, eyes closed, lips parted slightly, breathing easily.

When he looked at Ed, he could forget about the horrible things. The bodies and the blood. The smells that seemed to linger. The box of human transmutation research he'd hidden in the kitchen cupboards of his house and the cans of soup that were now living on the dining room table, evicted from their home, because of said research.

Roy reached over, running a thumb across Ed's cheek affectionately.

My boy.

Ed reacted to his touch, taking a deep breath and letting a contented hum leave his lips, though he didn't wake.

So brave. So brilliant. I don't know what I did to deserve you. But I will never let anything hurt you.

He draped an arm over the sleeping boy, and let sleep take him, too.