So, this story was originally meant to be a one-shot, but somehow became a multi-chapter fic because my head just began creating a plot out of the blue with multiple characters and an antagonist.

This means that just like my other fics, I just write as the story comes into my head, which means I don't have a clue about how long this will be and only have an inkling about where the plot will be heading.

I hope to update this every other day or so, so there won't be long to wait between the chapters.

I hope you'll enjoy!

Chapter One

Ed was cold and in pain.

Why am I cold, though?

There was something about a train, he thought. A train, and there was another person, wasn't there?

He opened his eyes.

He was lying on a bunch of rocks. A bunch of cold, hard rocks. And there was snow around him.

That explains the cold and the pain.

But where was the other person? Where was the train?

He had blood running down his face and into his mouth. He licked away the dried blood on his lips.

He tried to stand up, but his left arm screamed in protest when he moved it.

Ed tried looking at it, but he couldn't see anything. However, judging from the way that his wrist was hurting, it was most likely broken.

Great.

What worried Ed the most, though, was the large glass shard that was protruding from his stomach.

"Hiya, kid, we'd like a word."

Ed looked up towards the noise. About five feet above him was a flipped over train. He was lying in a deep trench between two cliffs it seemed, and the train was pinned between them. It was a miracle that the train hadn't crushed him. The source of the noise, however, was made apparent as a man jumped down from the broken window above him.

"Oh, you don't look so good, kid, but we've got a great doctor, so don't you worry." The man was slightly fat but seemed strong all the same. He had a round face and a lot of stubble.

"What's going on? Who are you?"

"We're the ones who blew up the train, just call me Grey."

"What, why?" Ed was confused. He was still trying to remember who the other person he'd been here with was.

"Because we wanted to talk to you and your boss."

That's right! You're here with Mustang! You were on the train with the Colonel when the carriage exploded!

"Why?!"

"You don't need to know that yet."

"What the hell do you mean?!"

"Yellow? Seems like the kid is gonna be more pain than he's worth. Do we still take him with us?"

"Yes, Gold wanted both," an unfamiliar voice said.

"Very well, just need to prepare this one first, then."

"Just do it quick, I'd rather get going before this one wakes up. He's big enough to cause some trouble."

The man kneeled down next to Ed. Ed was still slightly confused by it all and didn't move. Then the man grabbed the glass shard and yanked it out. Ed yelled.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Ed moved to clap his hands, but the man grabbed his wrist, making him yell out again.

"Like I said, you're coming with us. Hey, Yellow! Throw down the first aid kit! That and one of Blue's little syringes!"

After fifteen seconds of struggling that was easily held back once the man decided to sit down on Ed's broken wrist, a white box suddenly came flying out of the window above them. The man quickly pulled a syringe out of the box before jabbing it into Ed's neck, emptying its contents.

Ed felt an odd shiver go through his body.

Soon, however, he felt drowsiness overtaking his senses and was quickly lost to the warm clutches of sleep.

Twenty-six hours earlier…

Roy had been having a bad night. He'd dreamt about Ishbal again, waking up shivering and covered in cold sweat at five in the morning.

He had taken a shower and only eaten a piece of toast for breakfast before heading off to work.

And so he sat here in the car, gloomily anticipating another day at work. He'd been coming in early to the office before when he'd had similar nights, and Hawkeye would certainly recognise his symptoms.

He had a bad headache and the first thing he did was walk into the cafeteria to grab himself a cup of coffee.

He sighed as he sat down before the large stack of forms that needed signing that he had failed to finish the day before.

All in all, this wasn't a good way to start the day.

And it didn't get any better.

At nine o'clock he received a phone call from the Führer himself, telling him that him and Fullmetal had to go to a town at the North-Eastern border to inspect a mine. It was only supposed to take a few days, but they were there to check that the promised minerals really were there, and so Führer Bradley decided to send their most recent recruit as well as a senior State Alchemist to go check it out. Roy could see the logic. Sending a twelve-year-old to represent the military after only one-and-half months in the military could be risky if left unsupervised.

And so he found himself on one of the most dreadfully boring train rides of his life with his smart-ass subordinate.

That was, until the kid woke up and Roy decided to give him some extra reminders about how to behave.

"I don't know if I remembered to tell you, but this is a very anti-militaristic town. It's a wonder that we even get this opportunity."

"Hmf."

"So, Fullmetal, try to act your age for once and keep your temper under control."

"So you think that I am unable to be formal?"

"Frankly, yes."

"You smug bastard! Of course I know how to act!"

"You have yet to prove it you know."

"Well at least I don't need a fucking nanny to threaten me with a gun every time I have to do my paperwork."

"No, you just deliver it three days late."

"Still, no nanny!"

"Oh, so what's Alphonse then?"

"D-don't you dare say that about my brother!"

"I think I just did."

"Well, at least I'm not an obnoxious bastard!"

"No, you're just an arrogant little brat."

"I'M NOT LITTLE! DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME THAT AGAIN OR-"

Then everything around them exploded.

Roy was flung about, as was the kid. Then the train began slowing down and Fullmetal landed against the window, smashing it upon impact. Roy could only watch as the boy flew out of the window with a scream, then the train fell even further and the shelf above Roy came loose and crashed against his head.

Then everything turned black.

Roy was in a cage in a cellar somewhere. He was trying to find out what was going on around him. His eyes fell upon the curled up form next to him. He may be lying with his back to him, but there was no mistaking the blonde plait. What worried Roy, was the fact that the kid had had his automail removed, probably to make sure that he a) couldn't use his alchemy, and b) was in no condition to escape. Whoever it was that had done this, had also stripped the kid down to his boxers, probably to get at the automail. He also had a bandage around his head and around his stomach and his hand was in a cast.

It certainly hadn't been when the train crashed.

Roy took a look at himself. He was still in his uniform, although his coat had been removed and the gun and the knife he had been carrying had been taken away. He felt his head and found a large bump but nothing more.

Roy shook the kid's shoulder. "Hey, Fullmetal?"

No response. Roy had to say that he didn't like how cold the kid's skin was. He turned him over on his back, and was at least happy to see that his chest was moving up and down steadily.

Roy sighed and removed his coat. The kid was going to freeze to death if Roy didn't do something to prevent it. That included getting the kid away from the cold metal floor that was zapping his body heat. He lifted the shivering child onto his lap before putting his uniform jacket around him. Roy had never been so glad that it was made of wool.

He began feeling cold pretty quickly, seeing as how the kid was cold as hell. Deciding to forgo his pride, but instead focus on making sure that his subordinate survived, Roy unbuttoned his shirt with one hand while holding on to the child with the other before bringing him in direct contact with his relatively warm chest.

After a few hours of this where nothing else seemed to happen, the kid suddenly shifted and then blinked his eyes slowly.

"Hmm? Wha?" He seemed to be taking in the surroundings while looking curiously up at Roy. "Colonel?"

Then he seemed to realise where he was.

"Why the hell am I lying against your chest!?" The kid began moving to get away, but Roy held his arms firmly around him.

"Listen, Fullmetal, you're in the early stages of hypothermia, I need to keep you warm."

"Screw that! You're fucking hugging me! Get off!"

"I'm not going to be responsible for letting you freeze to death, Fullmetal, so just sit still. This is hurting my pride just as much as yours."

The kid groaned, knowing that he was beaten.

"What happened to you? The last thing I saw you were flying out the window."

"I woke up on the ground with a broken wrist and a glass shard in my stomach. Seems that they patched me up, though. Speaking of "they", do you know who these people are? They kept calling each other colours."

"No, I don't."

"Let me answer that," a voice came as heavy steps could be heard coming down a set of stairs. A man came over and crouched before the cage. He was tall and had an unpleasant face. He wore a grey suit and had short, white hair, despite him only being in his forties.

"Who are you?" Roy said.

"Let's just say that my name is Gold." The man smiled as he looked over at Fullmetal. "Good to see that you're keeping him warm, makes things easier for us."

"What do you want from us?!"

"We're just a delivery service of sorts. A certain little town made a request that you two be brought over to them without the military knowing where you went. You see, the mine was just a ruse. They were never going to sell, but they did want a couple of military dogs." He eyed Fullmetal again. "Or military dog and puppy."

"Who are you calling a puppy!" the kid growled dangerously. Apparently they were getting too close to height insults for his liking.

"That's what you are, aren't you? And before you start going on a rampage, I suggest you keep still as you certainly don't want to disturb that wound of yours. Blue patched it up real nicely, proper surgical quality, but you don't wanna rip those stitches."

"You bastard!"

"Now, now. That's not a very nice word. You should speak politely to your elders."

"I'm a fucking State Alchemist! I talk however I want to to crooks like you!"

The man pulled out a gun before he unlocked the cage door and went inside. He crouched next to them. Roy hated to admit it, but even though it was easy enough to just grab the gun and run, Fullmetal couldn't and this man had accomplices. There would be no point in acting now, he just hoped that the kid would see that too. He pulled his arms closer around him.

"You know what, kid? You're fucking annoying. It would be really easy to just shoot you. I just can't decide where…" He began trailing the gun along Fullmetal's back all the way up to his right temple. "Really easy. But right now the pleasure of getting paid outweighs the pleasure of killing you. Make sure that it stays that way, because you're dangerously close to tilting the scales in the wrong direction."

Roy growled at the man, shifting the kid even closer to himself. "Don't touch him."

"So we're getting protective, are we?"

Roy hated this. The man was toying with him, showing him how little control he had over the situation.

He hit the kid in the head with his gun and then left the cage, locking the door behind him.

"Bastard," Fullmetal muttered.

Roy was just glad that it hadn't been anything else.

Roy had to say that he was relieved to even be able to hold the kid in his arms right now. He had been scared as hell as he had watched him flying out of the window as everything was crashing around him. The kid was twelve after all and was his responsibility. Nobody else was looking after him really, except for his little brother. So as long as he wasn't in Resembool, Roy was technically his guardian of sorts as he was his commanding officer.

Which meant that if anything happened to him now, it would be Roy's fault for dragging him into the military in the first place and therefore putting him in such a dangerous situation.

So he was both anxious, relieved, pissed off and scared.

And he had a freezing child pressed against his chest that depended on him to get them out of this because these people had stolen his limbs.

No way was he going to fail him and tell his eleven-year-old brother that he got his only family killed.

No way in hell.

"Wakey-wakey!"

Roy jerked awake at the sudden noise.

At first he was confused. Why was there a child leaning against his chest?

Then it came to him.

Fullmetal was still curled up on his lap, holding on to the warmth that Roy was able to offer. He was still shivering, but at least this was preferable to him lying frozen to death on floor next to him. He hadn't woken up at the noise though, but for the moment, Roy supposed that it was kinder to just let him sleep. Although the kid hadn't complained once, Roy knew that he had to be in a lot of pain. A broken wrist and a stab wound didn't just heal in a few hours.

"Morning, Sunshine. Our clients are here to have a look at you two to verify the quality of our delivery. I suggest you wake your little puppy up."

The kid's eyes shot open and his whole face turned demonic as he turned his face sharply against Gold. "DON'T CALL ME LITTLE!"

Roy suddenly had to hold the struggling child back while Gold just stood there laughing.

"Guess that means that you're ready to meet our clients." He turned towards the staircase in the corner of the room. "Red! Take them down here!"

"Yes, Sir."

"Just take things easy, Fullmetal. I'm going to get us out of here," Roy whispered.

"You better. I'm not gonna be leaning against your fucking chest just so you can let me die you bastard."

Roy scoffed, a small smile forming on his lips. At least the kid hadn't given up.

Then came three sets of footsteps down the staircase.

One of them was Red and another a smartly dressed brunette in a bright red dress. The last one was a badly burned Ishbalan man. The left side of his face was just one big scar and his left eye was basically seared closed.

Roy had a bad feeling.

"Here you go, Madam. Two State Alchemists. One of them already identified as the Fullmetal Alchemist. Sadly, we couldn't find the other one's pocket watch, as I already informed you," Gold said to the woman.

"That's okay. I brought with me one that knows how to identify a few of them, don't you Gregor?"

The Ishbalan nodded and then grinned as he studied Roy's face. "You really hit the jackpot, Miss Melanie. That's the Flame Alchemist, Roy Mustang. I'd recognise him anywhere. He's the reason I look like I do after all."

"How lovely. Then I would like to thank you for your services, Mr. Gold. Here is the agreed upon sum, you may check it if you like." The woman handed him a large bag.

"Thank you, Madam." He handed the bag to Red. "Please count them for me, Red."

"Yes, Sir." Red went over and sat down by a desk in the corner.

The woman walked over to their cage and crouched down before them, hands holding the bars. She was in her thirties and very pretty, except for the fact that her eyes suggested that she'd like to eat them alive.

"Hello, Mr. Mustang. I'm Miss Melanie," she said seductively.

"I'm sorry, but I can't seem to decide whether you want to kill me or kiss me."

"How about a little bit of both?"

"I have no interest in either."

"Oh, you're no fun."

"Believe me, you're the first woman ever to say that. It's just that kidnappers aren't really my type."

"Oh. So how about your little boy there, then?"

"I'M NOT LITTLE DAMN IT!"

"Ooh, he's fierce, I like that."

Roy felt anger surge through him as he held the kid tighter to him. "Don't you even dare think like that," he growled.

"Argh. Fine. Seems like Daddy Roy is quite a protective man, wouldn't you say so, kid?"

"He's not my dad," Fullmetal said in a dangerous tone.

"Ooh, sounds like someone has daddy issues. What did yours do then?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I like to learn things about people. Lets me push their buttons. Lets me play with their emotions." She licked her lips. "Lets me have my fun as I torture their little minds."

"Don't say anything else to her, Fullmetal," Roy said quietly.

"Wasn't going to, she's clearly insane."

"Mr. Gold, would I be allowed to go inside the cage to check something out?" Melanie said.

"Of course."

He then picked up a key and opened the lock and let her in, picking up his gun to provide protection.

She moved gracefully inside before kneeling down behind Fullmetal's back. Roy instinctively began to move the kid away from her.

Melanie held up a finger and made shushing noises. "No-no, Mr. Mustang. I'll ask Mr. Gold to shoot him in the knee if you move him, so you better let me do as I want."

Roy stopped moving, hating himself for being so useless. Instead he focused on keeping a firm grip on Fullmetal in order to stop him from doing something stupid, which he certainly wanted to, judging by the look in his eyes.

"What the hell do you want, lady?" the kid growled.

She slid up behind him, leaning her head on the remaining parts of his right shoulder. "I'd like to know your name, dear boy," she whispered.

Roy just wanted to hit her.

"Why?"

"So that I know what to call you, of course."

"Go to hell."

"I hardly doubt that that's your name."

"Fuck you."

"I guess I need to do a bit of convincing," she sighed. "Tell me, boy, have you ever met a chimera?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that some very nasty scientists decided to put me in a cage and transmute me together with a cat." She slid her right hand up to his chin and put her index finger against his throat, instantly cutting into his skin. "As you can see, I have rather sharp nails." She trailed her finger along his throat, creating a long cut.

Roy felt his stomach clench. They were speaking to a scientific impossibility.

Fullmetal hardly made a sound despite the blood that began trailing down the side of his neck.

"What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" she said, making another cut right beneath the last one.

"It's Edward Elric, now get your hands off my subordinate!" Roy growled, not seeing the point in keeping quiet.

She slid away from his shoulder and moved out of the cage. "See? That wasn't so hard…"

Then the door was closed behind her and Gold locked the cage again.

Roy immediately pressed his jacket against the two cuts on Fullmetal's neck.

"You okay?" Roy whispered.

"How can she be a chimera? It's not possible!" Fullmetal whispered back.

"Apparently it is."

"Sir? It's all here," Red said.

"Good. Then I'll let you take these two with you. May I say what a pleasure it has been doing business with you, Madam?"

"The feeling is mutual, Mr. Gold. Now, would Mr. Blue have anything help us get these two along with us? For an extra fee of course."

"He most certainly would, Madam." He grinned widely. "Red, would you go fetch Blue and his bag?"

"Yes, Sir."

He returned two minutes later with another man, this one dressed in a white coat.

Blue pulled a pair of syringes out of his coat pocket as Gold let him inside their cage.

The man kneeled down before them, holding up the first of the syringes. "Now, you're going to feel a little sting." Then Roy had the needle in his neck and the contents were being emptied into his body. Soon the man had done the same to Fullmetal, and Roy felt drowsiness pulling at him as the man left their cage.

"Colonel? I think we're screwed," Fullmetal said sleepily before he grew limp in Roy's arms and Roy succumbed to sleep a few seconds later.