Truth revealed

by Lucifer swift

This story original belong to fallen crest Summary:- Some of the cast of FMAB were brought to a room to show the whole secret of the anestrus, the war of Ishwal And many more. But in exchange of the knowledge, they have to feel the suffer and pain of all the event, their past and future, to unravel the mystery which never has been revealed to the world.

8. Chapter 8 (The Fifth laboratory)

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Bold- What happens in the episodes

"Episode Title"

Narrative

Regular talking/actions

---

Episode 8: The Fifth Laboratory

"Wow, this is really good." Mustang said. Everyone was packed into the cafeteria enjoying their dinner that was so nicely prepared for them.

"Even better than what we get at the Command Center." Havoc added before shoveling more stew into his mouth.

Mustang nodded, but didn't reply as there was already food in his mouth. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until he had started eating. It seems Ed, Izumi, and Sig were really good cooks as he heard those three were the ones who were in control of the kitchen. Speaking of that. "Where is Fullmetal?" He asked frowning since he didn't notice the boy anywhere. And trust him, that boy was so noticeable, he would have spotted him in this huge crowd. "And Alphonse." That, and Al would always be with his brother, and a suit of armor was impossible to miss.

"Izumi wouldn't let Edward eat until he got cleaned up and Alphonse went to the bedroom with him." Riza replied without looking up from her meal. "I believe he wanted to talk to his brother about what was said earlier."

"He better hurry up or the food will be all gone." Mustang said before going back to his meal.

"Izumi put a plate aside for him in the kitchen so that wouldn't happen." Riza responded as she was in the kitchen helping with the meal earlier so she noticed this.

*Ed and Al's bedroom*

The bedroom that V.H. made for the brothers was easily found since the door had their names on it, plus the fact that it looked different from all the other bedrooms when the inside of it was shown. The bedroom had a single bed in it as it seemed he knew that Al didn't need to sleep before he prepared all this. The bed, which was in a corner of the room, had red covers and black pillow cases, which made it seem that he also knew Ed's taste for colors. Like all the other bedrooms, it had a bathroom attached to it which was where Ed was at the moment, taking a shower. Unlike the other bedrooms, there was a bookcase with books on it for the brothers to read, which was nice since Al couldn't sleep. Added in with the books was a desk which had a small bed light on it so Al wouldn't disturb his brother with a bright light while he slept. Surprisingly, when the boys entered the room, they found Ed's red coat, which he abandoned in their hotel room while they were in Central, on the bed along with his travelogue, which was really his notes. Next to the door was a dresser that Al found had some clothes in it for Ed.

Right now, Al was sitting on the floor, reading one of the books that was in the room while Ed finished his shower. Normally, he would have stayed in the cafeteria and talked with his friends while his brother cleaned up, but Ed told him about the note from V.H., which made him curious and plus, this seemed like a good time to talk to Edward about what he said earlier.

It wasn't long until Al heard the shower turn off and he perked up. He could finally talk to his brother now. A minute after the water turned off, Edward came out of the bathroom dressed in boxers and a couple of towels. One was on his hair as he worked to dry it with one hand while the other carried the other towel.

Al closed his book and stood up. "I'll help."

"Huh?" Ed said, glancing out from under his towel. "Oh, Al, you don't have too."

"It'll be faster if you have help, Brother. Then you can go eat." Al insisted.

Ed shrugged, but agreed. Al was right. He was starving and couldn't wait to dig into his dinner so he sat on the bed with his back to the edge of it so Al could kneel on the ground and work on drying his hair while Ed started to dry his automail arm before it rusted. It wasn't something they often did together unless they were in a hurry so it wasn't often that Ed got to feel his brother gentle fingers rubbing his hair dry. It was something he treasured as Al was gentle and soft when he did it. If only Al had his body, then he could feel his warm, soft finger trending through his locks.

But he didn't have time to enjoy it as he had to get his automail dry, so after giving himself a moment to enjoy the gentle hands working on his hair, Ed went back to his automail.

It didn't take Al long to get his brother's hair dry and he was grabbing a comb and a hair tie from the dressing. Since he didn't have the dexterity to do a braid, he simply handed them to his brother, who took them and tossed a towel to Al and turned around so his little brother could help with his leg since he just got his arm done.

Al gently dried his brother's leg, not wanting to get the towel caught in anything as it might mess it up. He glanced up at his brother's face a few times as Ed worked on combing his hair out. Ed saw the glances, but didn't say anything about the odd behavior. Usually when Al decided to help him, they both stayed focused on their tasks to get this done as quickly as possible.

"Are you going to do your maintenance?" Al asked.

"No time. I want to eat and those guys probably want to start the next episode as soon as possible." Ed mumbled around the hair tie he had between his lips.

Al sighed. "You're going to have to do it soon, Brother. You've been ignoring it since we've been focused on the notes."

"I know." Ed said as he grabbed the hair tie out of his mouth and tied the braid. Sighing, he leaned his arms on the bed behind him as Al continued to dry his leg. "So, what's wrong?"

Al paused in his drying. "What makes you think something is wrong?"

Ed shrugged, staring at the ceiling. "You kept glancing at me. Is this about our future selves? Because I promise you, I'll be fine. And even I'm not, this is the future. We can make sure it doesn't happen."

Al went back to his brother's leg. "It's not that." "Oh? Then what is it?" Ed asked curiously. "It's about what you said earlier." Al replied, and watched as the muscles in his brother's flesh leg noticeably tensed.

"Al–"

"Why won't you tell me?" Al demanded, interrupting his brother. "Do you not trust me?"

Ed felt his heart clench. "No!" He almost shouted as he leaned forward and gently held the side of Al's helmet in his flesh hand, a sign of affection that hurt both boys as they couldn't feel each other's warmth. "I trust you so much, Alphonse. So much that I would even put my life in your hands because I know you wouldn't throw it away."

Al dropped the towel he was holding to reach up to grab Ed's wrist. "Then why won't you tell me what the problem is?"

The elder brother bit his bottom lip, looking anyway but at his brother. How could he admit that he didn't want to say it because he was scared? Scared that his thoughts were true? Frightened that he wouldn't be able to handle the pain of it being revealed that his precious baby brother really did hate him? "Brother."

The hurt in Al's voice caused a slight tremble to run down Ed's spine. He was upsetting his brother by keeping quiet, and he didn't want that, but he was just so scared. His mouth opened, but he just couldn't form the words on his lips.

"You can tell me anything." Alphonse whispered.

Ed's eyes closed. "I know." He replied quietly. "But, Al, I'm just not ready to say it. I'm scared. I can't bring myself to say it, not yet."

"Whatever it is, you don't have to be scared to tell me. I promise I won't be upset." Alphonse said pleadingly.

Ed shook his head. "Please, Al, can we just let it go? When I'm ready to say it, I will say it. But right now, I'm just not prepared for it."

"Prepared for it?" Al echoed.

'For your anger and hate.' Ed thought, but didn't say anything as he stood up, knocking his automail hand against Al's helmet. "Thanks, Brother." He said as he moved over to the dresser to grab some clothes. Whether he was thanking Al for the help in drying his hair and automail or thanking him for dropping the subject was unknown to Al as he watched his brother get dressed. He dressed himself in black slacks and a long sleeve black dress shirt.

"Time to eat at long last!" Ed cheered as he left his bedroom. He stopped outside the room when he saw everyone already out in the main room, chatting with each other. "You guys sure ate fast."

"No, you just took an hour to shower!" Mustang retorted before raising a brow. "Where'd you get the clothes?"

Ed motioned to the bedroom as Al came out. "They were in my room, and I didn't take an hour to shower! I had to dry my hair and automail or would you rather I rust?" He turned on his heels and marched to the kitchen to get his dinner.

"Eat quickly so we can move on." Hughes yelled at his back, but Ed only waved a hand at him without bothering to turn around.

Izumi turned to Al when Ed was gone. "Did you guys talk?"

Al huffed in irritation, crossing his arms. "I tried to, but he told me to leave it be until he was ready."

"I thought he wasn't one to beat around the bush." Avery said confused.

"He's not." Al grumbled, not used to this side of his brother. He just wanted to know why his brother was upset.

Within ten minutes Edward was back from the kitchen, grinning in satisfaction. "That was good. Ready to continue?" He asked as he sat on the floor next to his brother once more.

"We've been ready!" Havoc and Luke shouted at him.

"You're the one that made us wait." Brody added, nodding his head.

Ed rolled his eyes. "So sorry that I got messy trying to make you guys all a great dinner. Ungrateful jerks." He muttered the last part to himself.

"Alchemy is the science of understanding, decomposing, and reconstructing matter. However, it is not an all-powerful art. It is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be paid. This is the law of equivalent exchange, the basis of alchemy. Alchemists have a taboo, and it is human transmutation. It is that which no one must commit."

The opening song began once again.

"The Fifth Laboratory"

"Great, a whole episode devoted to the lab." Maria groaned.

"You better not die, Fullmetal." Mustang said. Ed twitched. "O ye, of little faith."

Al turned around to see 66 jumping from the roof of the building with his meat cleaver ready to attack. Al jumped to the side to avoid the attack. 66 slammed into the ground, but was back on his feet immediately, swinging his meat cleaver at Al who dodged by taking steps backwards. When 66 brought the meat cleaver down from above, Al jumped in the air and back away from him, letting the meat cleaver slam into the ground. Al landed on the ground as 66 pulled the meat cleaver out of the ground.

"You move pretty well for your size. If you didn't though, it wouldn't be worth the effort to cut you down." 66 said.

"Who are you?" Al demanded.

"I'm number 66." The enemy suit of armor replied. "Well, that's the name they gave me when I came to work here anyway." He leaned forward slightly, crossing his cleavers. "I'm going to cut you up, nice and neat."

"This guy sounds like a total freak." Edward muttered.

"Does he actually take pleasure in hurting people?" Al asked.

"There are those psychopaths out there that like that." Izumi said, frowning. "You'll probably meet people like him more often."

"I'm more surprised that you haven't met more people like this." Hughes said.

Ed shrugged and pointed at Mustang. "Talk to Colonel. He's the one who assigns me my missions."

Hughes looked at his friend with a raised brow.

"I sort through the missions on my desk so I don't have to give him ones that would put him in extreme danger or require him to kill." Mustang explained to his friend quietly so no one else would hear h

"And here you told me just a few weeks ago that you are his superior officer, not his guardian." Hughes muttered.

Mustang shrugged. "I won't make a kid kill."

Al got into a stance, ready to face 66.

66's helmet was shown. "All you have to do is sit back and scream!"

"Freak of nature." Edward muttered. "Have fun with that, Al." "I'll be sure to." Al said sarcastically.

A tan ground was shown with a transmutation circle on it. Edward was seen standing in front of it. A short pillar with another transmutation circle on top of it was shown in the middle of the bigger one. Then the scene flashed to one of the circles of the bigger transmutation circle which was splashed with dried blood.

Ed's frowning face was shown as he stared at it. "What is all this?"

"It is the transmutation circle to make the Philosopher's Stone." Dr. Marcoh said with a sigh and frown. "It seems that they really have continued with the experiments, but in a different lab."

"So, there is more than one alchemist doing research on the stone?" General Armstrong asked.

Dr. Marcoh nodded. "There must be."

"Must be someone without a conscious." Darius growled angrily. How could anyone use lives to make Philosopher's Stones? Or to use him and his buddies to turn them into chimeras? What kind of sick freaks existed out there?

"I bet this is what they use to transmute a Philosopher's Stone." Edward said.

"Yes, that's right." A voice replied causing Ed to look towards one of the doorways of the room where a suit of armor was walking in from. "I don't know who you are, kid, but you sure figured out a lot just from looking at a transmutation circle."

"I'm just good like that." Edward replied. "Who are you, pal?"

"Is that a sword?" Izumi asked since the suit of armor was shown again. "Oh? I guess it's a bit of blade-on-blade action." Edward said.

Mustang scowled. "Do you see this as a joke, Fullmetal?"

"No," Ed replied. "But I trust myself well enough to not let myself die here, especially with Al so close."

Havoc grinned. "I have complete trust in Chief to survive as well." "Thank you, Havoc." Edward said, grinning.

"He's just like a cockroach, couldn't get rid of him even we wanted to." Havoc added, now smirking.

Ed twitched. "You shall die a very slow and painful death in your sleep tonight."

"The one in charge of guarding this place from curious brats."

"You are too curious for your own good." Zampano stated.

"I am investigating it because it involves the Philosopher's Stone, which is my research for the military." Ed argued.

"Don't even try to argue this point, Fullmetal. You were trespassing, end of story." Mustang said.

Ed shrugged. "Had to try."

The suit of armor continued to walk forward. "For the moment let's justso my name is Number 48."

"What is with the numbers?" Al asked confused.

Mustang and Hughes shared troubled looks. "Most likely, they are prisoners and that was their number on death row." The former explained.

"And that is how they decide to introduce themselves?" Edward said incredulously.

"Is it really the time to be concerned about that?" Brody demanded, frowning. "This guy is going to attempt to kill you. And if he has been tasked with guarding this place and was a former prisoner, what do you think his occupation was in life?"

"A murderer." Izumi growled. "A skilled murderer would have the skill needed to guard a place."

Ed twitched. "So, there's a chance we're in trouble?"

"That's what we've been trying to get through your head." Hughes growled, mostly out of worry.

Edward glanced at his brother.

"He won't know about my blood seal unless I show it to him, so I should be fine." Al told him reassuringly, since he knew his brother was more concerned for him at the moment.

48 stopped. "And believe me, I'm not your pal."

"Sheesh, it was just a figure of speech." Ed grumbled.

"My orders are to dispose of anyone who wanders in here, poking his nose where it doesn't belong. Try not to take it personally, boy."

Ed's eyes narrowed. "Alright, I won't." He clapped his hands and transmuted his arm into a blade. "You try not to take it personally when this boy kicks your ass!"

"Hmm, you're an alchemist, are you?" 48 said before it was suddenly moving so quickly that Ed didn't have time to react as the suit of armor was suddenly in front of, causing Ed's body to tremble slightly.

"Damn, he shouldn't be able to move that fast." Avery growled.

Ed's eyes narrowed. Even Al didn't move that fast, and he didn't have a body inside his armor. How was this guy able to move that quickly while wearing that armor?

"How fast are you?" General Armstrong asked.

"Fast enough, but I have never moved that fast." Edward replied.

General Armstrong crossed her arms and looked back at the screen. "You are going to have more trouble than what we expected then."

"I am the better fighter, but Brother is still a very skilled martial artist." Al said, half explaining to his friends and half reassuring himself that his brother would be fine.

"And an alchemist." Luke added.

"No. That means nothing now." Edward said, staring at the screen with narrowed eyes that were filled with a bit of concern. "There is no way I can transmute fast enough with how fast this guy is moving."

"This is just turning out to be worse and worse in your favor." Sig said, frowning.

Ed nodded, but didn't reply as he was staring at the face of the armor and himself. This would be a difficult fight.

"Alright then, let's see what you got." 48 said and was suddenly swinging his sword up at Ed's head. Edward ducked under the sword as 48 raised his sword above his head. He brought his sword swinging down, causing it to clash against Ed's blade as he moved back.

Ed gritted his teeth as he stared at 48, who was suddenly charging at him again with his sword held in both hands and pointed at him

"A prosthetic arm, huh?" Ed continued to move back away from the enemy, eyes locked on the enemy. "No matter."

"Once again." Mustang muttered. "That arm of yours has saved your life."

48 was shown, still charging at the boy. "My sword can pierce steel as well as flesh." He swung his sword at Ed, but the boy blocked it with his blade again. He pushed the sword aside and lunged at 48 with his blade ready, but 48 jumped back to dodge. His sword swung forward again, but Ed ducked under it before kicking 48 in the chest, which caused a hollow echoing sound to resound.

"Oh?" Edward said, eyes narrowed. "So that's it." "What's it, Brother?" Al asked.

Ed smirked. "It seems that I am not the only idiot around. Those suits of armor are empty."

"You mean like Al?" Havoc asked. "Yep."

Karin paled. "But why would anyone do that if they would have to sacrifice something for it?"

Ed looked down at his automail hand before gripping his metal shoulder. "Think about it," he said softly. "They made Philosopher's Stones, even if they were incomplete, they would still work."

"They used the stones to bind prisoners' souls to armor so they wouldn't lose anything." Dr. Marcoh said darkly.

"That is horrible." Maria said, quite disturbed. "How could anyone actually do something like that to another person?"

Ed stiffened, hands curling into fists on his lap. Yes, it was a horrible life. It meant that person's soul would be trapped on this planet, unable to eat, sleep, feel, or anything else that a normal human could do. How could he be so selfish as to do something like that to his own brother?

When Maria turned her head back to the screen, she saw Ed's clenched fists and paled. "Oh, Edward, I didn't mean it like that."

"Didn't you?" Ed said through gritted teeth. "I took my brother's soul and trapped it in a metal hell."

"Brother! I don't see it like that." Al retorted quickly. "You saved me from the Gate. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead, but now I have a way to find another chance at life thanks to you."

"And besides, you pulled your brother's soul from the Gate, but these two that you are facing had their souls ripped from their bodies. They were forcibly separated while your brother was being deconstructed when you took his soul back. It is a bit same, but it is also different." Mustang argued.

'say it all you want, but that doesn't change anything. Al hates me.' Edward thought sadly. That was the part that hurt him the most.

"Edward, I really didn't mean it like that. It is as Colonel Mustang says. It is different. You did what you did to save Alphonse, while these guys were used as experiments. Your reasons and environment were completely different." Maria told the boy softly, hoping her young friend would understand.

Ed tilted his head at her. "I'm not blaming you for what you said. You were just the one with the guts to say it."

"Brother." Al said quickly. "Please don't blame yourself like this." Izumi sighed. "He wouldn't be Ed if he didn't feel guilt for everything."

"I resent that." Edward grumbled. "I don't feel guilt for everything, but this time, it is my fault."

Al sighed in frustration. What was it going to take to make his brother realize that he wasn't alone in the fault of what happened that night? All Al wanted to do was help his brother and be there for him like Ed was for him.

48 stumbled back a bit from the blow.

Edward gasped and stared at where he hit 48. His brows furrowed. "Hey, hey, hey!" [1] "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your hollow inside."

"Must you refer to your limbs?" Brody asked. "You already lost two."

"Hey, it's not like I'm saying he can take one of my limbs if I'm wrong." Edward retorted. "Besides, I know I'm right."

"Doesn't mean he won't take one from you anyway." Kain said with a grimace. "You have a knack for losing body parts."

Ed raised a brow. "What? Just because I lost a couple limbs?"

"That, and because you had tonsillitis and had to have your tonsils removed when you were twelve." Riza said with a sigh.

"And then you got appendicitis." Havoc said thoughtfully.

"I remember that. It was when you were thirteen. You passed out in the middle of our meeting." Mustang said with a frown. That had been a scary moment for the adults and Al, who almost proved it possible that a soul bound to a suit of armor could have a heart attack. "I know you like parting with your body parts, Fullmetal, but can it please stop? You can only lose so many before it becomes a serious problem."

Edward twitched.

"I don't know, maybe he wants to be full metal." Karley suggested with a smirk. "Can they make automail organs?"

Ed twitched. "No way in hell would I ever get automail organs, even if they did exist."

"Then stop having so many problems." Havoc growled. "I don't think any of us could take many more scares from you."

"You fight in the Ishval Civil War and yet almost have a heart attack because I pass out?" Edward asked amused.

Havoc glared at him. "You're Chief! You're not allowed to pass out like that." Ed shrugged. "Whatever. It's not like I need my tonsils or appendix."

"And it was really nice after you got your tonsils removed." Mustang sighed. "Too bad it can't happen again."

Miles chuckled. "Was it because he couldn't talk?"

"Couldn't talk, couldn't yell. It was so peaceful." Mustang smirked.

Ed growled. "No, what you liked, jerk, was that you could put me on desk work while I recovered and give me all your damn paperwork while you lazed around!"

"That was great too." Mustang smiled brightly. "We should do it again!"

"No!" Ed shouted. "Never again will I be forced to sit at your desk, doing your damn paperwork." He looked at Hawkeye. "Is that even allowed?"

Riza glared at her superior. "That's what you did when he was recovering from surgery?" She narrowed her eyes at her cowering superior before turning to Edward. "Technically, you are allowed to review his paperwork since your rank is high enough and you're a State Alchemist, but you cannot sign it. It was supposed to be signed by Colonel Roy Mustang, not Major Edward Elric."

Mustang laughed. "But it was. This kid is damn good at forging signatures."

Riza turned back to Mustang, glaring and wearing a dark frown. "Edward, I am never again leaving you in the Colonel's office alone when you are there to do desk work. And you, Colonel, are going to have a nice chat with me later."

Edward laughed while his superior cowered behind Hughes, who was torn between laughing and glaring at his friend.

"Ed, why didn't you protest? Surely you knew it was wrong." Hughes asked instead.

"Protest?" Ed growled, but was still grinning. "To who? I had no voice, was twelve at the time and only been in the military for three months at the time, and Colonel basically had me trapped in that office all week since Lieutenant Riza was on vacation. Besides, I was too weak and tried to even think of arguing or realizing it was wrong at the time."

"V.H., you better give me back my gun now!" Riza shouted angrily while Izumi cracked her knuckles, thinking up a thousand ways to torture this man. How dare Mustang take advantage of Edward when he was sick?

"Colonel." Al growled dangerously. Like Ed was protective of him, he was quite protective of his brother as well.

General Armstrong shook her head, but was smirking. "You are one dead man, Mustang. You should know better than to take advantage of children. How lazy can you be?"

Mustang spluttered protests.

"I was wondering what you were doing in there all week." Havoc said, not noticing or not paying attention to the dark auras Al and all the females in the room had. It seems his boss becoming the number one enemy in the room, making him above Scar, was unimportant. "I thought you would have stayed at the dorm to rest."

"I did for a few weeks as I couldn't leave since there was a chance, I would get infected with germs and get really ill afterwards." Edward replied, also ignoring the dark auras. "But after I could start eating solid foods again, it meant I could go outside, which Mustang took as a sign it meant I could return to work." [2]

"I see." Havoc said.

Avery, grimacing at all the dark auras, looked at the Colonel. "You might want to sleep with one eye open tonight."

"Why is everyone so upset? It was three years ago." Edward said, frowning. He hadn't meant for the Colonel to become blacklisted because of that. It just came up. Besides, he had gotten his revenge for all of the paperwork he was forced to endure that week.

"What else have you done to Edward while my back was turned?" Riza demanded, ignoring what Edward had said.

"Nothing." Mustang growled. Damn it, he was the superior officer here. Why was this happening?

Riza raised a brow and turned to Edward. "What has happened?"

Ed twitched. Why was this happening? "Nothing too bad, Lieutenant. Colonel would never hurt me or do something that could intentionally make things worse, so there is nothing for you to be worried about."

Izumi frowned. "We'll see about that."

Mustang groaned. "Great, I was already in Izumi's bad book for dragging Edward into the military. Now she dislikes me even more." He muttered quietly.

"It's your own fault." Hughes whispered back. "You took advantage of an ill twelve-year-old."

The Colonel twitched. "Don't say it like that. It makes it sound like I did something sexual to him."

Hughes patted his friend's shoulder in a mocking manner. "If you did that, I'd have to kill you."

"I hate today." Mustang growled.

"Oh, relax." Hughes sighed. "I know you would never touch a child like that. You're not that bad of a person."

Mustang raised a brow. "Are you saying that I am bad person, just not that bad?"

"Yes." Hughes replied with a smirk.

Mustang just shook his head, amused. Hughes was certainly a strange person.

48 stood up straight. "You're a perceptive one."

"I can tell from the sound. I spar against someone like you all the time." Edward replied.

"So, there are people like me on the outside too, are there?" 48 asked.

"Only one that I know of." Edward said, glancing at his brother, who was still glaring at Mustang. Laughing, Ed knocked his automail fist against Al's arm. "Let it go, Al. Three years ago, remember?"

"Alright." Al grumbled. "That's surprising."

Ed smirked. "Yeah, it makes me sick to think there's more than one idiot in the world who came up with the brilliant idea of bonding a disembodied soul to a suit of armor."

48 was shown again. "Hmm, perhaps I should introduce myself once again."

"And that means what?" Jackson asked with a frown.

"Perhaps this time he will give his real name." Armstrong said. "Only one way to find out." Ed muttered.

"48 is the number I was assigned when I was on death row. Back when I still had a living body, I was better known as Slicer."

"Slicer?" Hughes yelped. "You just had to meet Slicer!"

Ed blinked. "You know him?"

Mustang sighed, rubbing his eyes. "It was four years when they first appeared."

"They? Who the hell is they?" Edward demanded.

"They are the Slicer brothers. They are serial killers. Hughes and I worked together with our teams to catch them. They were quite elusive. It took us a year to catch them. After spending a year in prison, they were to be executed, that was two years ago." Mustang explained, frowning.

Al tensed up. "Brothers, Colonel? Does that mean the other brother could be lurking around?" He asked worriedly.

"It is hard to say. We know nothing about who ran this lab or how they picked their victims." Dr. Marcoh answered for the Colonel. "We don't even know if they took all the prisoners on death row to be used for experiments."

"What we do know is that they are highly dangerous and skilled swordsman." Armstrong said, frowning in worry for Edward. This was not going to be pretty fight. "We can only hope that there is only one brother around. If you have to fight both together, it is likely you won't survive."

Ed sighed. "Just my luck."

"I was a mass murderer, you see."

"So, you were slated for execution. Tell me something then, this laboratory, are they using condemned prisoners like you to make Philosopher's Stones here?" Edward asked.

"That I can't tell you." 48 replied. "It isn't my area. They simply recognized my skills, gave me this body, and made me the trusted guard dog."

"If it has to do with skill," Mustang growled.

"Then where is the other brother? They were both highly skilled." Hughes said.

"Can we stop talking about the second brother?" Ed shouted. "Right now, this brother is the problem. It is likely the other one won't even show up!

Mustang raised a brow. "Worried, Fullmetal?" Ed scowled.

"And here I thought you did so well in brawls."

"Even I don't try my luck against highly skilled opponents." Edward growled. "I have no desire to die."

"Really?" Mustang asked sarcastically. "It's so hard to tell, considering your actions. How about you try being less reckless then say that to me again, I might believe you then."

Edward glared at his commanding officer. "If I wanted death, I would have died a long time ago, but I don't so I will fight until there is no fight left in me. If I am to die, I'll die fighting for my chance at life."

Brody smirked. "That was a good one. You are full of good sayings and rants."

"There's that never give up attitude." Mustang said, smirking. "I'll hold you to that promise then, Fullmetal. Don't ever show something like what happened with Scar again."

"Right, right." Edward muttered.

"Interesting," Ed replied. "I'm sure they gave you a seal too, to serve as a medium between soul and armor."

"Yes," 48 said as he pulled the cloth off of his helmet. "I have a blood seal." He lifted the front of the helmet to reveal a blood seal on the back of it. "This is it right here."

"He actually shows it to his enemy?" General Armstrong said, quite surprised. That was just giving an advantage to Edward.

"Despite being murders, the Slicer Brothers did have some honor." Havoc said. "I guess he wants a fair fight in which Chief knows how to kill him as Slicer can kill him as well."

"How nice." Edward said sarcastically.

"He's actually giving you a chance to survive in this fight. Be grateful." Izumi snapped at him.

Ed scowled. "I'd be more grateful if he'd just let me go."

"Not happening." Hughes, Mustang, Havoc, and Brosh all chorused since they all worked on this case together.

"If you destroy this, the fight's yours." Slicer said.

"That's awfully considerate of you to show me your weak spot." Edward replied.

"I like to give myself a little extra challenge during a fight, now and then." Slicer said.

Ed smirked. "As long as you're in such a giving mood, then how about this? Why not just like me go?" He asked as Slicer closed his helmet and put the cloth back over it.

"Keep dreaming, Fullmetal." Mustang said. Ed shrugged. "Had to try."

Slicer's glowing eyes were shown. "Nice try, kid." Ed's determined, frowning face was shown. "But what kind of mass murderer lets his prey get away so easily?" Slicer gripped his sword in both hands. "Now, let's fight."

Ed raised his blade.

"Did you hear what I said?" Hughes's grinning face was shown as he spoke into a phone.

"What the hell?!" Havoc shouted, annoyed. "The chief!"

"Yes, we know it is no longer his turn for screen time." Breda said, sighing. "It would have been nice to know that Chief was safe before it changed though."

"Where would the suspense be then?" Edward asked. "Would kind of ruin it if you were shown the whole thing without interruptions."

"Fullmetal! Enough with the jokes, this is your life on the line." Mustang growled.

Ed held his hands up.

The secretary was frowning as she had to listen to Hughes on the phone. "My dear little Elysia's about to turn three."

Eastern Command Center was shown as Mustang's voice said, "Lieutenant Colonel Hughes! Do you think this could wait? I'm at work." The Colonel was shown with piles of paper in front of him.

"And since when do you work?" Hughes asked.

"Since when do you?" Edward muttered. Honestly, didn't any of them work?

Izumi glared at Mustang. "Oh, yes, when? Because I don't think Edward can be there all the time to sign your work for you."

Mustang scowled. One time he made the kid do that. All the other times he worked with the others in the outer office.

"That's a lot of paperwork you have." Darius commented with a grimace. He would hate to be stuck in an office all day signing that.

Ed twitched. "You have no idea how horrible that paperwork is."

"You do–" Darius went to retort, but paused. "Oh, wait, since you do Colonel Mustang's you do know how bad it is."

"It was one time!" Mustang growled. "And it was only half of what is in front of me on the screen."

Ed grimaced. Never again. He was going to make sure to escape the military soon. There was no way he would be tied down with paperwork.

"Poor, poor, Brother." Al moaned.

"Don't I get any sympathy?" Mustang asked.

Al glared at him. "No, because you made my brother do your work for you." Mustang twitched.

Hughes chuckled. "That's what you get. Even the compassionate and kind Elric brother can get angry. Thank you for proving this for us, Roy."

Mustang knocked Hughes's hand off his shoulder with a frown. It was One Freaking Time!

"Oh, what a coincidence. I'm at work too."

"Then how about you do some actual work?" Riza growled. "You are distracting Colonel Mustang from his work which is putting us all behind."

Hughes just grinned at her.

"Hughes must be an idiot to not be affected by Lieutenant Riza's glare." Edward muttered.

Al sighed. "Brother, be nice. And it doesn't bother you either."

"Well, yeah," Ed whispered. "But that's because it is never directed at me." "Which still surprises me, considering your temper." Al said.

Hughes was shown, doing a little dance at his phone. "She's the cutest little thing. You should see her!"

A picture of Elysia was shown in Hughes's hand as Mustang replied, "I'm sure she's adorable, but stop calling me to gush over your daughter, and on a military line too!"

"Not just my daughter, Colonel." Hughes said seriously as his hand shifted so a picture of his wife came out from behind the picture of his daughter. "I gush over my wife too!"

"You are absolutely insane." Edward grumbled.

"Just because I love my family?" Hughes asked amused. "I predict that one day you will be doing the same thing."

Ed scoffed. "As if."

"Aww, don't you just dream of settling down some day with a beautiful wife and cute children?" Hughes asked, grinning.

"No. I have no time for such dreams." Ed snapped.

"You never dream of the future?" Hughes asked surprised. Ed rolled his eyes. "Where will dreams get me? Nowhere."

"You sure are negative about quite a few things." Havoc commented. "You should be more positive."

Mustang was shown growling to himself.

The back of Hughes was shown. "I know, I know, it's your turn now. Go ahead, Colonel. I know you're dying to gush over your very own–" Hughes's mouth was shown. "Scar-faced Ishvalan."

Al snickered. "Makes it sound like a love affair."

"Hughes," Mustang twitched while Scar glared at Al. "Could you, I don't know, stop making things sound strange?"

"Where would the fun be in that?" Hughes retorted.

Mustang was shown again. "We found many bodies on the site where he vanished," The river was shown with soldiers standing around with many bodies covered. "But all of them are so decomposed that it's been difficult to identify them." Havoc lifted one of the sheets. "He hasn't been sighted anywhere in the east, so at the present, many people here think it's most likely that he's dead." Mustang was shown at his desk again.

"At least now we know that is false." Havoc said. "Which means we can stop looking for his body in that rubble and just get it all cleaned up."

"If that's the case, I should be able to lift the body guard from the Elric brothers soon." Hughes's voice said.

"That'd be wonderful." Edward said. "He's not dead." Mustang retorted.

"And you can't even let your guards do their job properly." Hughes added with a frown.

Ed shrugged. "We all know I don't do well with people looking over my shoulder."

"Perhaps we really should use a prison cell." Maria muttered annoyed. "Nah, I'll just find a way to escape." Edward said confidentially.

Havoc scoffed. "Even you're not that good, Chief." "Oh, but I am." Edward replied with an evil smirk.

Al sighed, shaking his head. "Brother. Havoc, perhaps it would be best if you just stop while you are ahead."

"Correction, Al. He should stop before he gets even farther behind." Edward said.

"Cocky brat." Havoc scoffed.

"Is Major Armstrong still in charge of the boys' protective detail?" Mustang asked.

Hughes was shown. "He was." Maria's shocked and angry face was shown. "But a couple of his men have taken over now."

"It seems you guys have finally realized that they are missing." Breda said, almost amused by the look on Maria's face.

Ed blinked. "Hey, who gave you permission to enter my room anyway?" He demanded.

"Probably realized that it was too quiet in your room. If they have suspicions that something is wrong, they are allowed to enter without permission." Armstrong explained to the boy.

"Oh, doesn't matter. We're long gone by now." Edward replied.

"That's the problem." Maria growled. Why couldn't these boys sit still and let her and Brosh do their job?

Brosh's crying face was shown. An empty bed was shown with a rope tied to the bed post that went out the window.

"We've been played!" Maria said.

"Climbing out the window. Been a while since we had to do that one." Edward said, grinning.

"Yeah, we haven't done that since training with Teacher." Al added.

Izumi's eyes narrowed. "You climbed out of windows when I was training you? Who taught you such a thing?"

Ed and Al glanced at each other, then at Izumi. Both of the boys shook their heads. Neither one of them were willing to admit that Sig had taught them a few ways to sneak around behind Izumi's back. He first did it so they could sneak food at nighttime, but then it developed a bit more from that.

"Oh, I will find out, boys, whether you tell me willingly or not." Izumi growled.

The brothers shivered in fear and looked away from her.

"Hmm, maybe that's why I can't get those two to tell me anything when they were younger, despite the threats." Mustang mused. "I am not scary enough it seems."

Maria leaned on the window seal. "I thought it was suspiciously quiet in here!"

Brosh grabbed his head. "Ah, Major Armstrong's going to take his shirt off again and yell at us some more, isn't he?"

"I am more inclined to yell at the Elric brothers." Armstrong said, shooting a disappointed and a bit of an angry look at the boys.

"We haven't done anything yet!" Ed protested. "Yet?" Luke asked, smirking.

Ed blinked before clawing at his hair. "I don't mean that we're going to do it the moment we're out of this room. I just meant that we haven't done anything wrong yet. It doesn't mean we're going to sneak into the fifth lab this time around."

"Of course, you aren't." Mustang growled. "Because I will post every damn soldier that is available under my command to watch you two as it seems that just a few aren't going to work."

Al groaned. "That makes it sound like we are the criminals that are being watched over."

"It would be a challenge to escape from that many." Ed muttered.

"You're not meant to escape." Brody snapped, rubbing his eyes. "Damn, when you say it like that, it really does sound like you two are the criminals here."

"Well, putting that many guards around us would make it feel like we were prisoners." Edward retorted. "Can we just forget the guards?"

"No!" Mustang, Hughes, Riza, and Armstrong growled.

Ed held his hands up. "Alright. Keeping us alive is top priority."

"At least you are finally learning. So, stop complaining about it." Hughes growled.

Maria grabbed the rope, angry twitches all over her face. "Those brats are going to pay. Did you even think about how this makes us look?"

"That probably wasn't on our list of important things at the time." Al commented. "When we learn some new information, we tend to get completely focused on that only."

Maria glared at him, causing him to yelp and duck his head. He hadn't meant anything by it.

"Let's go, Sergeant." Maria said, tossing the rope down and turning to leave the room.

"Huh? Where?" Brosh asked.

"Where else do you think, Brosh?" Maria snapped over her shoulder. The fifth lab was shown. "To the Fifth Laboratory."

48 was shown charging at Ed again. Edward was doing the same thing. They met in the middle with their blades clashing. 48 pushed Ed to the side. The boy ducked down and slid to the other side in a crouch. Slicer raised his sword and brought it down on Ed, who blocked it again with his blade. Next, Slicer swung from the side, which was blocked again.

"At least we know you can block." Mustang said. "But what about actually attacking?"

Ed growled. "Well sorry that there is no opening."

Some metal parts inside of Ed's arm were shown to shift.

"And there goes your arm." Dr. Young sighed. "It seems that missing bolt was important."

"It might hold up for a bit longer, but not by much." Kei added with a frown. "It depends on how much force and strain you put on the arm. Considering you are fighting a skilled swordsman and need your arm for defense, I say your arm is gone soon."

"Great, just freaking great." Edward grumbled.

A look of horror passed over Ed's face.

"You actually felt the shift?" Alexandre asked surprised.

Ed nodded. "It's a part of my body and when something goes wrong with it, I feel it. It was probably a noticeably feeling of it falling out of place."

"It's always worrisome when you feel something go wrong in the middle of a life-or-death situation." Charlie said.

Sighing, Ed rubbed his automail shoulder. "I'll probably try to finish the fight quickly now."

"Don't try to finish it too quickly, or you are likely to make mistakes." Izumi said.

"So, the fight got even more dangerous for our side." Kain said worriedly. "…."

"Damn, this just isn't your day, Fullmetal." Mustang said.

"It never is." Ed muttered to himself dejected.

'What happened? My shoulder doesn't feel right.' Edward thought worriedly.

Slicer charged at Ed. "Oh?"

Edward snapped back into the fight with a gasp and a look of horror.

"You let yourself get distracted?" Izumi growled.

"My shoulder gave out!" Ed defended. "I'm sure I was only distracted by it for a second or two."

"Which you cannot afford in a fight!" Izumi snapped.

Edward dropped down to his knees to avoid the sword that was aiming for his head. He did a one handed back flip when Slicer brought the sword down once more. As he landed on his feet, he stumbled back as Slicer came running at him again.

A flashback of Winry was shown. "I increased the percentage of chrome so it's less prone to rusting, but it's not as strong so don't try anything crazy."

"You actually heard her say that? I thought you ran off without listening." Riza said.

"I can hear and run at the same time." Edward replied. "Too bad that isn't what the problem is." Dr. Young said.

"To be fair, I didn't think she would mess up the maintenance. She's never done this before." Edward grumbled.

Kei shrugged, smirking. "Every mechanic has to mess up at some point. It's a learning point."

"Couldn't she mess up on someone who doesn't get into life and death situations?" Edward mumbled.

"I'm more surprised she thought you would actually try to stay out of crazy situations." Havoc said.

Ed frowned. "It's not like I go looking for it…" Many skeptical looks were shot his way. "All the time." He added.

Edward's worried face was shown. 'I have to find a way to end this quickly.' He came to a stop before charging forward at Slicer. "Or else I'm dead."

His blade came flying directly at Slicer, but it was pushed to the side by his opponent's sword. He pulled back slightly to miss getting hit with the sword. Slicer spun in a circle once before swinging his sword at Ed's head. The boy ducked under it again and lunged forward with his blade, but missed and was forced to jump back as Slicer brought his sword down again. Ed took another chance and lunged at him and had his blade back before he flipped in the air and landed in a crouch. He pushed off the ground and charged at Slicer, who blocked his blade again, causing sparks to fly through the air.

Slicer suddenly kicked Edward in the stomach, sending the boy flying to ground on his back. He moved closer to Ed and brought his sword down, but Edward flipped backwards away in time so the sword was stuck in the ground instead of his flesh.

"You're actually doing quite well." Charlie commented. Ed stared at him. "What? Did you doubt me?"

"Yes." Quite a few soldiers answered.

"So little faith. Did you think I survived on my missions solely on alchemy and Al?" Edward grumbled offended.

"You can't blame us for thinking that. You are so reckless and end up in a hospital a lot." Richard defended.

"But my missions were always completed successfully before I got sent to a hospital. Surely that has to mean something to you guys." Edward retorted.

"Yes, you secretly love hospitals, despite what you say about despising them." Havoc replied smartly.

Ed glared at him.

Edward landed on his back, rolled backwards, and climbed to his feet as Slicer got his sword out of the ground and came at him with it again. As Slicer swung his sword at him again, Edward flipped backwards again. He landed on his hand and flipped himself again to land on his feet and to get away from Slicer.

But, this time, when he landed, blood sprouted from his flesh shoulder.

"Shit," Edward growled, grabbing his shoulder. "When the hell did, he actually get my shoulder?"

"Ah, Brother, are you okay?" Al asked worriedly, already in fretting mode.

Ed managed a grin, though it was filled with pain. "Yeah, this is nothing compared to losing my limbs. This is just a little scratch compared to that."

"I was wondering when the first injury would appear." Izumi said with a frown.

"What?" Ed asked. "You were expecting me to get hurt?"

"Expecting, but hoping you didn't." Izumi replied with a troubled sigh. "It was expected if this guy is as skilled as your comrades say he is."

"Well, at least you now have an identical cut on each side of your jacket." Havoc said.

Ed twitched. "That doesn't make me feel better. He ruined my clothes!"

Havoc face palmed. "I forgot you have this weird thing about your clothes getting ruined."

Edward continued walking backwards while Slicer continued coming at him when his back suddenly hit one of the pillars.

"Great, you went and got yourself trapped." Izumi growled. "What have I told you about keeping aware of your surroundings?"

"Not much I can do if he's leading me there." Edward muttered. "Not unless I wish to become skewered."

Ed looked at the wall out of the corner of his eye before he was forced to duck the sword coming at his head again. The slash of the sword caused a deep gash to appear in the pillar.

"A sword should not be able to do that." Kain said worriedly.

"Damn, good thing I duck." Edward muttered, rubbing his left shoulder as it helped lessen the pain. "Otherwise, my head would have been completely severed off by now."

Al groaned. "Brother, don't say that so calmly."

"It's a simple fact. Besides, I'm not going to be stupid enough to let that happen." Edward replied. "I'm going to survive this."

Edward took this opportunity to flip in the opposite direction and roll across the ground while Slicer repositioned his sword and turned to follow him. Slicer's sword sliced down right next to Ed's head, causing the boy to gasp and look at it.

"Too close." Al said, breathing heavily. This was all too close. Too many close calls

Edward knocked against his brother's arm. "Relax, Al. I'll be fine. You know me. A stubborn idiot."

Al nodded, though wasn't much reassured after seeing the fight with Scar a second time. That fight was weighing heavily on his mind as he watched this fight. He hoped his brother wouldn't give up again.

Ed turned around and brought his blade up to block the sword from getting any closer. Slicer drew his sword across Ed's blade before bringing it in a motion to stab it down at Ed. To dodge the stab, Edward half-flipped to the side. He stumbled a bit and fell on his butt as blood began to pour down his face.

"Argh," Ed groaned, grabbing his head. "Who the hell adds a pain factor to this?"

"And there is injury number two." Brody said.

Ed glared at him out of squinted eyes. "How about you shut up and not count the number of injuries I get from this fight?"

"Well, somebody is in a bad mood." Brody quipped.

"You would be too if you had to deal with this damn pain factor!" Ed shouted before turning to his brother. "Hey, Al, punch me.

Al stared at his brother. He was sure if he had a body, it would be a blank stare. Who just suddenly asks someone to punch them? "Brother, you're in enough pain. I'm not going to punch you."

"But, Al, I need adrenaline in my system to make the pain seem less bad." Edward pleaded.

"I'm not punching you." Al replied determinedly.

Ed groaned. "How can you be so cruel to your brother?"

"Shouldn't it be the other way around? If he punches you, then he is cruel." Avery said, quite amused

"Not when I'm in pain!" Edward retorted, then turning to the soldiers. "Fine, I don't care who it is. Someone just punches me!"

Mustang blinked. "I don't know how to reply to that." He turned to his friend. "Hughes?"

"Why are you looking at me? I never had anyone ask me to punch him before." Hughes replied, quite confused and worried.

"I'll punch him." Buccaneer offered.

"That'd be nice." Ed said, suppressing another groan of pain.

"Who actually volunteers when someone asks for something so unreasonable?" Breda asked shocked.

Havoc pointed at Buccaneer. "Obviously him. Remember he punched Ed earlier for having such a cute automail mechanic. Do you think he is still sore over that?"

"Actually, I think he got over it after one hit." Breda said before a scream echoed around the room.

All eyes went to Edward who was now unconscious with Al fretting over his brother's still form. "Why the hell did you knock him out?" He demanded, not realizing that he swore in his worry.

Buccaneer shrugged. "I was only doing as he requested."

"He didn't ask to be unconscious!" Al retorted, hands roaming over his brother's head where Buccaneer hit him.

"Don't worry, Al. It's Ed. He'll wake up in a moment." Mustang said, frowning a bit. He couldn't believe Edward, the brat with a head practically made of steel, was knocked out from that. "Though, perhaps, we should get some ice for his head."

Sighing, Riza stood up. "I'll get it." She said before disappearing into the kitchen.

A groan was heard and golden eyes cracked open. "Brother! Are you okay?" Al asked quickly.

Ed grinned. "Well, I no longer feel the pain factor, just the annoying bump on my head."

Al sighed. "Idiot Brother. Lieutenant Riza just left to get you ice for your head. Could you not ask to get punched again?"

A light chuckle came from Edward. "Sorry, Al. It was just a punch. I got a lot worse from Teacher when I was nine."

"I guess." Al mumbled. "Here you go, Edward."

A hand bearing ice wrapped in a towel was in front of Ed's eyes. He glanced up to meet Riza's eyes and smiled. "Thank you." He said as took the ice towel and held it to his head before shooting a glare at Buccaneer. "Really? You had to use your automail hand? I don't want a concussion!"

Buccaneer shrugged, smirking. "You survived it last time." Ed grumbled to himself.

"Maybe this will teach you not to ask people to punch you." Mustang scolded before giving a long-suffering sigh. "I never thought I would have to say something like that of all things. Are you sure you're sane in the head, Fullmetal?"

"I am completely sane!" Ed shouted. "I just despise this pain factor."

"Well, maybe if you didn't get injured so much." Hughes mumbled to himself.

Breathing heavily, Edward stayed sitting on the ground while Slicer released his sword which was stuck in the ground. "What a cute little monkey." He spoke.

"Little?" Edward shouted.

"Brother, he called you a monkey too." Al said.

Ed twitched. "Damn bastard. Who does he think he is calling me little and a monkey?!"

"To be fair, you are like a monkey." Charlie said cheekily. "Have you not been watching this fight at all? You are jumping all over the place."

"We've been trying to tell him that for years, but he always denies it." Havoc said, grinning. "Well, now he can't anymore since he just watched the proof.

Ed developed an angry look and sat cross legged on the ground. "Who you calling little?"

"Forget that, and get off the damn floor." Izumi growled. "You don't just sit around in the middle of a fight."

"Did you not hear my heavy breathing earlier?" Edward asked, frowning. "My body is exhausted."

"And you are fighting someone who never gets tired. Seems unfair." Kain said.

"Just another problem that he has with this fight. Most of it is against him." Falman stated, frowning.

Slicer laughed. "It's been too long since I've had prey that was worth hunting." He pulled his sword from the ground.

"I hate being called prey." Ed mumbled.

"That isn't what is important either." Hughes growled in worry. "Can you please get your priorities straight and realize he is coming for you?"

Ed sighed. "I know, I know. It just feels strange to have another human call me prey."

"And we are never going to get anywhere if we have to keep pausing every few seconds." General Armstrong growled.

"Right, sorry." Ed mumbled.

He turned to the heavily breathing Edward. "With you tired and wounded now, you won't last much longer. Right about now, my companion should be finishing off the partner you left outside."

Ed got his breathing under control and asked, "Is this companion of yours strong?"

"Yes, he is." Slicer said, glowing eyes narrowing. "He isn't as strong as I am though."

Edward's eyes widened and he smirked before laughing.

"Have you gone completely insane?" Havoc asked. "Who the hell laughs in this situation?"

"Mental Institution." Mustang muttered to himself.

Ed clapped his knee and stood up. "In that case, I don't need to worry." He smirked. "You see, we've been sparring partners a long time and I've still never beaten him."

"So that is one concern lifted from my shoulders." Edward said with a sigh of relief.

"So, our only concern is Fullmetal now." Rufus said, grinning. "How good is your luck?"

"Let's not rely on luck." Mustang snapped suddenly. "Not when it is Fullmetal."

"Oi!" Ed protested. "My luck isn't that bad. I have pretty good luck sometimes."

Havoc and Breda gave him looks of disbelief. "Good luck?" The latter scoffed. "Who was the one that was buried alive in a glass coffin?"

Ed twitched at the reminder of that incident. He shuddered when he remembered how close he was to dying that one time. "That was…." He scowled when he had nothing about luck there. "Okay, that was bad, but it wasn't a glass coffin. It was a plexiglass coffin."

"My mistake, but my point still stands." Breda replied.

"Did you have to use that one as an example?" Al groaned. That had been a very scary experience for all of Mustang's team and him. If they had just been about a minute later, his brother would have died.

"Buried alive?" Rufus asked confused.

Izumi frowned. "You work in the east and you don't know either?"

"It was actually kept a secret." Riza explained. "We weren't sure of who we could trust and who was actually involved in burying Edward alive because the man who did it knew everything we were doing. He was eavesdropping on us as we searched for Edward."

"How did you find him?" Sig asked.

"The bastard gave me a walkie talkie and mailed one to Colonel as a way of teasing us." Edward replied with a scowl. "We used it to our advantage."

"It was lucky he gave us walkie talkies." Kain said. "We were able to trace them after we fixed them up a bit."

"Fixed them up how? Chief was trapped underground." Brody asked confused.

Ed scoffed. "Just like that jerk, you are underestimating me. I am an alchemist."

"An alchemist whose automail arm was strapped down with metal plates that were bolted into the plexiglass." Mustang pointed out.

"That is true." Edward said, but had a small grin as he turned back to Brody. "Winry convinced me to get my ears pierced when I was thirteen so I used one of the earrings to carve a transmutation circle into the plexiglass."

"You had pierced ears?" Hughes asked with a laugh. "I can see it. You are already a punk. What happened to them?"

Ed jerked his head at Mustang. "He didn't like them and made me get rid of them, even though the earrings saved my life."

"How often will you actually be in a predicament like that?" Mustang scoffed.

"According to you guys I have bad luck." Ed retorted.

Al sighed. "Brother, what do you care? You didn't even like having pierced ears that much."

"That's not the point, Al." Ed said.

Al stared at his brother. "And the point is?"

"Having an argument for the sake of having an argument." Edward replied with a grin.

Avery shook his head. "Let's just say you have a mix of good and bad luck." "I can believe that." Ed muttered.

Al's fist was shown slamming into 66's face. 66 went flying back with a scream. He landed on the ground and had to climb to his feet. "Damn it. Why can't you sit still for a second and let me cut you up, your big bucket of bolts?" He yelled as he ran at Al with his cleavers raised.

Al dodged to the side when 66 sliced down his meat cleaver and slammed his hand into 66's helmet, which sent the helmet flying. The helmet was shown as 66 screamed, then Al appeared on the screen. The helmet landed on the ground and bounced back a few times.

66 stood up straight and turned around to face Al to show his empty armor.

"You're empty!" Al said shocked.

As he was laughing, 66 picked up his helmet. "There's a bit of a story behind that." Al was shown in his stance. "Would you like to hear? It's a pretty good story. You probably already know it though. It all starts with a man by the name of Barry."

A childish drawing of a butcher shop was shown with a man holding meat in one hand and a meat cleaver in the other.

"Barry? As in Barry the Chopper?" Armstrong asked with a frown. "Who's that?" Al asked curiously.

"A serial killer that was roaming around Central about six months before Edward became a State Alchemist. We'll probably hear his story now since he enjoyed his serial killing so much, he's going to brag about it to you." Hughes explained with a frown and crossed arms.

"Once upon a time, right here in Central, there was a butcher named Barry who loved his work. His favorite part was cutting up the meat into little tiny pieces." The background turned red. "But one day, Barry found that cutting up beef and pork wasn't enough anymore." A picture of a man with a mad grin was shown with a childish drawing of a city behind him. "So, he took to the streets." The background turned red again, except this time it had chopped up bodies added to it. "And began chopping up people instead, night after night." The man was shown falling through a trap door with a rope around his neck. "In time, of course, Barry was caught, but not before 23 victims had fallen prey to him and his knife." The screen pulled out to show 23 crosses in the ground. "Naturally, after terrorizing Central after so long, Barry was sent to the gallows for his wicked deeds. And the world was happily rid of yet another evil man."

The scene went back to Al and 66.

"What kind of psychos binds serial killers' souls to suits of armors and lets them guard a place?" Edward asked with a frown. "That's so dangerous."

"I believe it is safe to say that someone in the military really doesn't care about safety and is just looking for more power." Mustang said.

"At least, that's what everyone out there believes." 66 said. "But our story isn't over yet. We haven't even reached the good part. Barry isn't actually dead you see."

"Isn't that obvious since he told the story of Barry and he wields a meat cleaver like Barry the Chopper?" Falman asked.

"Well, it would just be so anti-climactic if he just said that." Luke joked. "Is this really a joking matter?" Miles asked.

Ed and Al shared a look. "Yes!" They said together.

Sighing, Ed grinned and leaned back on his hands. "Honestly, this Barry guy sounds more amusing with his storytelling and he's not all that strong from what we've seen so there is nothing to worry about here."

"Well, that's good. It gives us more time to put all our worry towards you, Brother." Al said nervously.

"Oh, yeah, I'm in a fight." Ed said, blinking. A sharp gasp of pain escaped is lips and he grabbed his flesh shoulder. Damn, the pain was still there, but it had died down a bit for some reason. Because he was distracted by Al, he had forgotten about it. "Why'd you have to remind me?"

Al chuckled. "Sorry Brother."

"He's very much alive, and charged with guarding a certain place. Only without his body." 66 said before he was suddenly much livelier. "Yes, that's right! He's standing in front of your very eyes! I am the infamous serial killer, Barry the Chopper!" He slammed his helmet back on and his eyes glowed bright red. He crossed his meat cleavers over his head.

"Sorry, I never heard of you." Al said in his sweet, kind voice.

Ed chuckled. "You don't have to say sorry for that, Al."

"But man, you just completely ruined the scene, Al." Havoc said, laughing.

66 stood still in shock.

"I'm from a little town in the east, so…" Al said.

66 woke up from his shock and screamed, "Fine! But even if you don't know who I am, shouldn't you at least be a little scared?! Shouldn't you be going 'AHHH!' or," He pointed at Al. "'What happened to your body?!' Or something?"

Al fell out of his stance and lifted his helmet off.

Barry screamed and pointed at Al. "What happened to your body, freak?"

"Hey, now that's impolite." Al said.

Despite the serious situation, there was much laughter in the room.

"Okay, I admit. You boys were right. Barry is quite amusing, despite who he is." Havoc said, grinning.

"Al, are you being sincere or are you teasing Barry?" Mustang asked amused, lips twitching upwards, though he tried to stay neutral.

Al chuckled. "Probably a bit of both."

"Suffice to say, Al is not as innocent as we all thought." Falman said amused. "He is just so good at hiding it." Kain added, smiling.

Ed chuckled a bit. It seems not everything being revealed would be too bad. As long as people realized that Al was not as innocent as he seems. Maybe then they'll stop telling him to act more mature like Al.

"Oh, I see. You were on death row too. You had me startled there." 66 said.

Al twitched angrily. "No way! I'm not a criminal!"

"Huh? Then what happened to you?" Barry asked.

Al put his helmet back on. "It's kind of a long story. When I lost my body, my brother transmuted my soul and bounded it to this armor."

"Your brother?" Barry asked before he started laughing.

"And what is so funny about that?" Ed grumbled.

"I hope you guys remember these are serial killers you are playing with." Mustang said with a frown.

Ed blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Serial killers are quite manipulative and tricky. You have to be careful when dealing with them." Mustang explained.

"Of course. Your brother!"

"What's so funny about it?" Al demanded defensively.

"Are you sure you and your brother are really related?" Barry asked.

"What the hell kind of question is that?" Ed demanded.

"This is what I was just talking about. You have to be careful with serial killers." Mustang said with a sigh. "Don't listen to him, Al. It's probably just a mind game."

Al hummed in response.

Al deflated. "Well, I guess we don't look that much alike anymore."

"No, no, no. That's not what I mean." Barry said. "Are you sure that you're not a puppet created and controlled by your so-called brother?"

"Puppet? Created? So-called?" Ed grumbled under his breathe. Oh, this was

no longer funny. The moment things started to get manipulative; the humor left the entire situation. Barry had no right to say any of this. He didn't know anything about the situation so he shouldn't be talking about it. What went on with the brothers was their own business.

Al stared at the screen with horror residing inside of him. A puppet created by his brother? No, that couldn't be right. Edward wouldn't do that. He was Alphonse Elric, a very real boy, not some little toy for his brother to screw with and lie to.

"Is something like that even possible?" Darius asked confused. "I thought people couldn't be created."

"I suppose there is a chance that Edward could have pulled back the wrong soul and the owner of the soul could have accepted what Ed said as him being Alphonse since there is a chance the shock would have given him amnesia." Izumi said thoughtfully.

Heinkel frowned. "So, there's a chance Alphonse isn't really Alphonse?" "Alchemy is confusing." Kain groaned, rubbing at his forehead.

'Wrong soul?' Al thought in horror. Could that really have happened? Could his brother really just be playing him for a fool and not actually care about getting his body back? But, wait, if he was just a puppet created by Ed then didn't that mean there was nobody out there for him to get back! No, no, he couldn't think like this. Ed wouldn't do something so cruel, right? He knew his brother. That wasn't in his nature. But then again, if it was all a lie, then wouldn't that mean he really knew nothing at all about his so-called brother?

"Alphonse is Alphonse." Ed snapped at them. How could they just discuss that as if it meant nothing? This stupid serial killer was trying to hurt his little brother with words and they were just casual discussing it!

'But am I? Is he still lying to keep his secret going?' Al thought hopelessly. He wanted to desperately not to listen to Barry, but there was still a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that it was true.

Al grasped.

"Were you ever a real person to begin with?" Barry asked.

"How can you ask something like that?" Al asked angrily. "I was a real boy and my name was Alphonse Elric!"

Ed nodded to himself. 'Good. Don't listen to this freak, Al.´

Barry laughed again. "How can you be so sure of that?"

"I have memories. I remember who I was before." Al replied. "And who's to say those memories aren't made up?" Barry asked. Al gasped.

Ed's eyes narrowed. Made up memories for a puppet? He would never do something like that. That was just cruel to make someone believe they are a real person. And why was Al gasping? None of it was true. He couldn't really be falling for this trap, could he? If Al was believing Barry, then did that mean that his precious little brother didn't trust him at all?

The younger brother, on the other hand, was refusing to even take his eye off the screen. He knew if he did, he would look at his brother, and he had no idea of what would happen when he did that. He just couldn't do that, not now. His mind was a complete mess. Al wanted to desperately believe his brother with no questions asked, but Barry was making some fair points. And with Ed being so skilled in alchemy, he was sure the boy could actually do as Barry said. So, did he? Was this all just a big fat lie?

"This is getting a bit suffocating." Darius commented, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

"They haven't even said a word to each other, and yet the tension between them is already filling up the room." Breda said, frowning as he looked between the brothers. They were sitting a bit farther apart then usual and were looking away from each other. Though, on Ed's part, he looked more worried than anything else

"You have to feel sorry for the kid." Jerso commented to his buddies. "What do you mean?" Heinkel asked.

Jerso shrugged. "Wouldn't you hate it if everything you knew was suddenly a lie? That you suddenly weren't a real person?"

"We don't know if that is true or not." Darius argued.

"No," Jerso agreed. "But just think, you don't have a body and are trying to get it back, but suddenly someone is throwing speculations at you about you just being a puppet and they sound plausible enough to believe. How would you feel?"

Zampano shook his head, frowning. "I don't even want to think up such a situation. I may not like the body I have now, but at least I have one. I could never imagine a life without one. It must be difficult."

"Yeah." His buddies agreed.

"But Winry…and Granny. They know me." Al replied weakly.

'Good, good, Al. Remember that they are people who know you from before all this happened. There are holes everywhere in what Barry is saying.' Edward thought with a faint hope rising in his chest that his brother would find those holes. He knew it was hard to find the mistakes in something when you are feeling hurt and confused like Al was now, but he really hoped that Al could see them.

"That's easy. They're in on it too." Barry said. Al gasped.

Ed's eyes narrowed. Every single hole that Al found, Barry countered with a simple statement and Al was just accepting what Barry said as true. It was like he wasn't even trying to argue against it. Why? Why was Al listening to Barry so easily? He was his brother, not Barry. Al should believe him over some serial killer!

Al's hands curled into fists. How could Edward do something like create a fake brother and get everyone in on it? He didn't seem like the type of person to do something so harsh as to create a false human and then lie to them about it. Then again, if it was all a lie, then what did he truly know about Edward?

"Silly boy, you were never alive to begin with. It's as simple as that." Barry said.

A black boot appeared on the screen.

"Then how do you know you were really alive?" Al retorted as a soldier was shown inching along the side of the building.

Hughes groaned. "This is not going to end well for this poor guy."

"Next time we just knock the soldier out." Ed mumbled. "At least he won't get killed that way."

"I was, trust me."

The soldier rounded the corner and pointed his gun at the two. "This area is off-limits. Don't move."

Without even looking at him, Barry threw his meat cleaver and struck the guy in the face.

Al gasped.

Havoc grimaced. "That would be a painful way to die."

"I'm sure there are more painful ways out there. You could be slowly burned to death." Edward suggested but without his usual flame as his thoughts were still on his brother.

"There, did you see that? There's nothing I love more than chopping up live people." Barry pulled his bloody meat cleaver out of the soldier's head. "I can't control myself. I kill; therefore, I am! As long as I know that, it's all I need to prove to myself that I've always been me." Barry laughed like a madman.

Slicer appeared on the screen. "Your brother is that good, is he? Then I'll have to hurry up and defeat you so I can get around to taking care of him."

Ed, still breathing heavily, appeared on the screen with blood cascading down the right part of his face.

"You don't look too good." Hughes said worriedly.

Ed, who now had his legs pulled to his chest and his automail hand gripping his shoulder, shot his friend a glare. "Probably from the blood loss and we don't really know how long I have been fighting." He muttered while his cold hand crawled under his shirt and rubbed his shoulder to try to lessen the pain.

Ed's golden eyes narrowed very slightly and moved towards the door of the room. Noticing the movement, Slicer tensed slightly while Ed looked fully towards the door. "Go Al! Do it now!"

"Al? He's outside." Kain said confused.

Izumi smirked. "It's a distraction. Slicer thinks Ed is too exhausted to do anything and will get distracted."

"Playing dirty now, Fullmetal?" Mustang asked with a smirk.

Ed scoffed. "As if. There is no such thing as dirty in a fight. You do whatever it takes to win."

Slicer looked towards the door. "What?"

In that moment, Ed moved. His pounding feet made Slicer turn back towards him and swing his sword, but it was too late as Ed jumped and severed his helmet from his body.

"That was dirty!" Slicer shouted.

"The only people who can still talk after getting their head severed." Luke said, smirking, glad that this fight was finally over.

"There is no such thing as dirty in a fight." Ed retorted.

"Could you please not be repetitive?" Mustang asked.

Ed rolled his eyes before moving his cold automail arm to his forehead to rest on his aching head.

The metal armor fell to the ground with a CLANG!

Slicer's helmet bounced across the ground and Ed landed in a crouch. He stood up straight, clapped his hands, and transmuted his arm back to normal.

"What's the matter?" Slicer asked as Ed stepped towards him. "You still haven't destroyed the blood seal I so kindly pointed out. You going to or not?"

Ed picked the helmet up. "There's something I need to ask you about."

"The Philosopher's Stone?" Slicer asked.

"Yes. Tell me everything you know about it." Ed said.

"Sorry. I can't."

"Hey now, tell me, I did beat you at your own game." Ed said.

"That's where you're wrong." Slicer said.

"Wrong?" Falman mused. "Slicer can no longer move."

"Well, something is obviously wrong." Brody said with a frown. "But then again, when it is Chief, nothing is easy."

Ed growled. "My luck is not that sucky."

"I'm not beaten yet." As Slicer said this, his body was shown to be standing behind a wide-eyed Ed and the sword was poised to stab the boy.

"Move!" Quite a few soldiers shouted, fearing for the boy's life.

"He shouldn't be able to move!" Edward growled, quite shocked at this turn of events.

Miles, while worried for Ed, didn't show it like the others. Instead, he asked, "Ed, is it possible to bind more than one soul to a suit of armor?"

Ed shrugged. "I don't see why it couldn't be possible, but the blood seals certainly cannot be too close to each other. The souls would probably get twisted together if that happened. Also in this case, the owner of the souls would have to be close to each other, otherwise they would spend all their time fighting for dominance of the body."

Hughes quickly composed himself. "Then it must be the brother. Those two were extremely close, kind of like you and Al, though you two aren't murderers."

"Don't compare us to killers." Ed said.

Ed looked over his shoulder at the armor. He managed to step to the side so he wouldn't get killed, but the sword still sliced up his side, causing blood to spurt through the air. Ed stumbled away from the armor as the helmet flew from his hand.

Edward gasped and pulled his knees tighter into his chest. His flesh hand flew down to his side to hold it tightly. "Why the hell do we even have to have a pain factor? This is just so very cruel to us."

"It is strange." Izumi said with a frown. "If V.H. really is your father, I can't understand the pain factor. He is your father, and despite what you say, Edward, I'm sure your father would never want to hurt you, especially like this."

"That's a good point." Mustang said, glancing at his hurting subordinate, then

at Al. "Why is there a pain factor then?" To that, there was no answer.

Edward grabbed his side. "Impossible!" He cried as he looked at the suit of armor.

He grimaced as Slicer's helmet was shown on the ground. "I forgot to mention something about this mass murderer, Slicer."

The armor raised a hand. "His crimes were really done by a pair of brothers."

"So cheap." Ed grumbled as he gripped his side tightly. "That fight was so supposed to be mine."

"Fullmetal, that's not what is important right now." Mustang snapped. Ed shrugged. "I know, but it was still supposed to be my win."

"An independent head and body? That's a dirty trick." Ed said.

"Weren't you the one who said there was no such thing as dirty in a fight?" Brody asked.

Ed frowned. "True, but I have to restate that it seems, because souls bounded to suits of armors was never counted into that."

"Now, now. Weren't you the one who said there's no such thing as dirty in a fight?" Slicer said.

"And I am rephrasing that because souls bounded to armor need to be counted in!" Ed cried.

"Are you ready? Round two is about to begin, short stuff." The second brother said.

"Don't call me short!" Ed retorted as he moved his hands to clap.

"That's not really the important issue here, Chief." Breda said. "It's important to me!" Ed retorted.

"I believe, at this point in time, your life should be more important, considering a mass murderer is coming for you." Havoc said dryly.

The body of the armor charged at Ed. "I don't think so. I'm not giving you time to transmute!" He swung his sword causing Ed to step back.

"Problematic." Avery commented.

"So how will this end now?" Havoc asked worriedly. "Will you be alright?" Hughes asked.

Ed scratched his head. "Well, considering I can't get a weapon for myself and I lost a lot blood, it will take a miracle."

Hughes growled softly. "Not the answer I want."

"Would you rather I lie and say that I have a plan to survive this?" Ed retorted. "Because right now, I really don't have an idea of how to win."

Ed dodged another swing from the sword. 'Damn, I've lost too much blood. I'm starting to feel dizzy.'

"Certainly not good." Fuery muttered to himself.

Slicer twisted his sword around to slam the handle of it into Ed's side. The force of the blow sent the boy flying through the air before he landed on the ground and bounced back a few times until his back slammed into a pillar.

Edward coughed violently and grabbed his side once more. Damn, that stupid murderer just had to hit him where his side was sliced earlier. That just made the pain in his side intensify so much. Why? Oh, why did he have to meet such powerful people? He was going to end up dying at this rate.

"You okay, Edward?" Izumi asked.

Gasping for air, Edward sat back up straight and nodded. "Just fantastic." He muttered, rubbing his side a bit.

"Maybe this will teach you not to go to places we have told you to stay away from." Armstrong scolded a bit, but he was mostly worried for the boy so his heart wasn't in it.

"Yeah, yeah." Ed muttered. "I got it."

'Not good. Not good.' Ed thought as he stared shakily at the armor that was charging at him. 'Here he comes…I'm going to die…I'm going to die.'

"Don't think that!" Havoc and Hughes shouted out of worry.

"I'm more amused that he is actually scared." Mustang commented, only to get hit by Hughes.

"Your subordinate might get killed right now, and that's what you say." The Intelligence Agent growled.

Frowning, Ed looked at Hughes. "Don't take it so personally. That is just the way he is." He muttered before curling up on himself a bit to hug his pain filled limbs.

Scar appeared in Ed's mind from right before he tried to kill the boy. The music in the background became more active.

"If you're thinking of Scar right before death, you must have been more traumatized by that incident then we suspected." Mustang commented.

Ed groaned. "Seriously?" He turned to Hughes. "Forget what I said. He is being a real jerk right now."

Mustang shrugged. "I think I know you pretty well, Fullmetal. And if there is one thing, I have learned about you in the past few years, it's that when it looks like you are going to die, you always manage to surprise everyone and pull yourself out of the danger."

"Aw," Ed said mockingly. "I didn't realize you trusted me that much. How touching."

"Sarcastic shrimp." Mustang scoffed.

Edward shot out of his ball and glared at the man. "What was that, you bastard? Don't call me small!"

Ed clapped his hands together.

"Die!" Slicer cried with his sword ready to stab the boy.

Ed pushed off the wall, dodging the sword and slammed his automail hand into Slicer's chest to blow it up into pieces.

The soldiers looked from Ed to Scar.

"Did you just copy a serial killer?" Izumi asked.

"It seems so." Ed replied with a grin. "Well, at least I'm not dead!"

Mustang sighed. "And there it is. You always find a way to survive. At this point, I don't think we should worry about you since you always find a way to come out on top."

"You are hurting me so much." Edward snapped mockingly. "If you don't stop soon, I just might die from the pain in my heart. How can you be so cruel?"

Slicer's helmet was shown, showing shocked eyes, before Ed was seen, sighing in relief, and collapsing onto his knees.

"You reminded me of someone I don't like." Ed said.

"At least that reminder saved you." Havoc said. "All I really care about is that you are alive."

"And now I've done exactly what he did."

"How could you, you little brat?!" Slicer shouted and started shaking his arms around while Ed jumped in shock and leaned his back against the pillar.

"He's wiggling! That's freaky." Ed shouted.

"And that's what you're concerned about after all this?" Myers deadpanned.

"Well, now that the fight is over, yes, that's what I'm concerned about." Ed said.

"Brother." The armor said, dropping his arms.

"As much as I hate to admit it, we've lost." The helmet said.

Ed poked the legs of the armor with his foot. "So, you're not going to tell me you're really three brothers, are you?

"At least that is a valid concern." Brody said with a smirk.

"Concern this, concern that. How about we forget concerns?" Ed grumbled as he rubbed his aching body parts.

The upper body of the armor waved his hand. "No, no." The brothers echoed together.

"Come on, boy, you've won. Hurry up and destroy us." The helmet said. Ed sat up straight. "No, I'm not a murderer."

"You're a soldier, boy. Soldiers kill." General Armstrong growled. "You should get used to that fact."

"I will never kill." Edward retorted.

"Why do you hate killing so much? I know it is a difficult thing to do, but you seem to have a very strong aversion to it." Brody said confused.

Ed shrugged, but didn't look at anyone. "Killing is just a way to bring more

pain into this world and pull family and friends apart. Our mom was ripped away from us because of a sickness. Winry's parents were cruelly wrenched away from her because of a war. They were just meant to be doctors, and yet they were killed there. All that death just hurts the ones left behind. If I were to kill someone, it would be destroying another family and it would be my fault. I just can't do that."

"So instead of finding that as an incentive to join the military to protect your loved ones, you developed a fear of killing." Mustang mused.

"I don't fear it!" Ed snapped. "I just don't want to do it."

"With bodies like these, are we really even people?" The helmet asked.

Ed frowned. "I consider you people whether you have physical bodies or not. If I didn't, that would mean I didn't believe my own brother as a person either."

'Right, that is my brother. If that is really what he thinks and he says it to other people when I'm not around, doesn't that mean I really am his brother?' Al thought with a bit of hope floating around. There was no reason for Ed to lie to these two about whether he was real or not. Then again, what if he was just being careful? The moment the truth was let out, didn't that mean it could get out to everyone and eventually Al would hear it? Wasn't it just that the truth could never be said?

He didn't know what to believe anymore. Edward has always been there for him in the past few years so he knew he should believe him, but what Barry said did make sense. Even he didn't fully understand how to bind a soul to a suit of armor. It was so advanced and Ed did it when he was eleven! Is that even possible? What if Ed grabbed the wrong soul or just created him?

Al's arm was shown blocking another attack from Barry.

"Come on, what's the matter, little puppet?" Barry asked as the music continued in the background.

"I told you I'm not a puppet." Al said as he kept pushing the cleaver back with his arm

"You keep telling yourself that." Barry said before he swung his knife down onto Al's arm. "But how can you know for sure? How can you be certain you were really alive?"

Ed grimaced. How could Al listen to this guy? They were brothers. They were supposed to believe and trust each other above everyone else. Nothing could tear them apart. That was what Ed always wanted to believe, but there was always this fear buried in his heart that Al truly hated him for what happened, but never said it because he needed Ed to get his body back. There was that fear inside of him that Al truly didn't care anymore. And now Al was starting to distrust him because of a serial killer! It was hurting him so much. Not only did his brother probably hate him, but now he was distrusting him.

This was the worst thing ever.

"There is one way you can prove that you're not just a puppet made from scraps of armor. You've got a blood seal too, right?" Barry asked as Al's seal was shown.

Ed's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Destroy it. Go ahead and break it yourself. If you die, you were a real boy all along just like you want to believe." Barry said.

Ed's hand curled into fists. He had never wanted to kill anyone, but this serial killer made him want to kill him. He was filling his brother with poisonous thoughts and making him distrust his own brother.

"No, there's no way I could ever do that!" Al said.

"Oh, no? Then I guess I'll have to do it for you, won't I?" Barry said and charged at Al once more.

Ed was shown on the screen once more, gripping his bleeding side. "I know my brother is a human being. That means you guys are human to. I will not take the life of another person."

"Huh." Slicer's helmet said before he started laughing, surprising Ed.

"Brother?" The body asked confused.

"My brother and I have been lying, stealing, cheating, and killing together for as long as we can remember. And now that we are in these suit bodies, we are being treated like humans for the first time. Don't you see the irony?" The helmet explained.

"They were never treated as humans before?" Ed asked confused. "Surely they must have been at some point. They were kids once so surely their parents…"

"Their parents were killed when they were toddlers and they were placed in a foster home. When they were pre-teens, they ran away from it and I believe that is when their crimes started." Hughes said, trying to recall the information from his investigation on them. "Apparently, they ran because the foster home was abusive."

"So, they chose to live on the streets." Ed grimaced. Was that really the only choice that they could make in the matter?

"For that, boy, I'll give you a parting gift. I'll tell you everything."

"Of course, you would get the answers you need here." Mustang scoffed.

As Slicer continued, a pair of feet was showing stepping into the room. "I'll tell you who made the Philosopher's Stone and ordered us to guard this place."

Spikes came flying through the air and stabbed 48 in the helmet. A shocked look passed over Ed's face before a woman's lips were shown to grow into an evil grin.

"And there goes your answers." Havoc groaned.

"Can you please get rid of your horrible luck?" Walkers complained. Ed glared at them. "It's not my fault!"

"My, that was a close call."

"Ah, damn, her again?" Mustang groaned. "She just keeps appearing."

"And it figures that Ed would run into her." Hughes added with a tired sigh. "Do you love meeting danger?"

Rubbing his eyes, Ed sighed. "It isn't my fault!"

The nails began to retract, pulling the helmet with them. "Number 48, you should know better than to talk about things that don't concern you."

Envy appeared from behind Lust.

"Oh, great, the shape shifter too? This is just not your day!" Breda groaned. "I was so close to getting answers." Ed muttered annoyed.

"That's not important right now!" Hughes and Mustang shouted at him.

Riza nodded with a frown. "You are in a room with monsters now. Be more concerned about that."

The young State Alchemist sighed. "I'm sure the me in the future is worried and confused, but the me who knows they are not going to kill me is here. Haven't we already heard that they need me for something?"

"Well, well, would you look at that? What's the Fullmetal pipsqueak doing here?" Envy asked.

Ed stared at the two.

"Such a troublesome boy. How did you find out about this place?" Lust asked. Her nails ripped the helmet in half.

"Brother! Brother!" The second brother called. "Brother!"

Ed grimaced when he heard the younger brother calling for his older brother.

Just hearing the younger desperately calling for the older reminded him of Al. His brother would do the same thing when he was in danger. It even reminded him of their human transmutation. His brother calling out to him with his hand stretched out for Ed to save him…. His eyes shut tightly. His little brother held his hand out to him and he wasn't able to grab him and save him. He missed his brother that one time. He would never do that again. Even if Al hated and distrusted him, he would get his body back and prove that he was a real person.

A sword was shown stabbing downward. It pierced through the armor and the brother grasped. Envy was shown holding the sword. He picked the sword up and began to stab the blood seal repeatedly. "Quit your pathetic blubbering, you idiot!" Ed was shown closer as he watched in horror. "You were trying to kill one of our most important sacrifices." The blood seal was shown with multiple cuts in it. "Do you understand me?"

"I know they won't kill you, but I really wish you weren't around them with the state you are in." Riza said.

Ed frowned. "Right now, I'm just happy I wasn't killed by the brothers."

"You could've messed up the entire plan. What would we have done then?" Envy asked. He was shown staring down at the armor with a nasty look. "Huh?!"

Ed glared at him as Envy took the sword out of the armor and rested it on his shoulder. He stepped over the armor's arm and approached Ed with a smirk. The boy stared up at him with his glare. Lust moved closer to stand at Envy's side as Edward used the wall behind him to pull himself to his feet.

"Well, the only non-worrisome thing about this is that we know they won't kill you." Hughes said.

"Yeah, why does there have to be a music background for these monsters? It just makes the scene all that more painful on my poor old heart." Luke groaned pitifully.

Edward snorted. "Old? You look like you're in your thirties. That's not old. It's only old when you have gray hairs like the Colonel."

Mustang's eyes narrowed at the boy. "Gray hair? I don't have gray hair!"

Smirking, Hughes decided to play along and pulled a hair from Mustang's head. "That is definitely gray hair, Roy."

Growling, the Colonel smacked Hughes's hand away. "I'm twenty-nine. There is no way I have gray hair!"

"Actually, sir, you have grey hair." Riza interrupted with a sigh. "You've had them few a while now."

Mustang blinked once before turning to glare at Ed. "You!" Ed pointed at himself. "Me?"

"This is all your fault. Everything was perfectly fine until you and your reckless antics appeared!"

Ed blinked. "I'm causing the Colonel's gray hair?" A grin threatened to split his face in two. "Awesome!"

Chuckling, Havoc shook his head. "Better be careful there, Chief. He might smother you in your sleep tonight for this."

Ed yelped and turned to Riza. "Lieutenant Riza will protect me from the big bad Colonel, right?"

Smirking, Riza nodded. "Of course. After all, you are without alchemy right now. You are just a defenseless child right now."

"I'm not sure if I should be offended or not." Ed replied, scratching his head. On one hand, she agreed to protect him, but on the other, she practically called him weak. Well, to be fair, if he was caught off guard, he could probably be pinned, especially if his opponent was a trained person, like a soldier. If they kept up with their training and were strong, yeah, he could probably be pinned. He wasn't a powerful, invincible soldier. But that didn't mean he relied solely on alchemy and was weak without it

"Tell me who you people are. What plan are you talking about? What do you mean when you say important sacrifice?" Edward demanded.

"You are dizzy from blood lost and weak at this point, and you are demanding answers?" Avery scoffed.

"I never know when to quit." Ed said. "Don't we know it!" Breda retorted.

Envy got into Ed's face. "Oh, my, the pipsqueak is raring to go. I think I made it angry."

"Don't call me pipsqueak again." Ed said as he continued to breathe heavily.

"Then what would you prefer, eh, pipsqueak?" Envy asked.

Ed kicked his leg upwards at Envy, but he leaned backwards to dodge it and stepped backwards.

"Damn, I missed." Ed growled.

"It is rather upsetting. Someone really needs to hit those monsters." Havoc said.

"Woah, now. There's no need to fight here. Someone might get hurt, you know." Envy said.

"When have they ever cared about that?" Miles scoffed. "Besides, Fullmetal is already pretty injured." Karley added.

Ed shifted on the ground. The pain running through his body was pretty uncomfortable, but he's had way worse so he could survive this at least.

Ed clapped his hands.

"You're really going to try to fight in that condition?" Clarink asked with a frown.

"It's better than just lying still and letting them kill me! If I am to die, I'll die fighting!" Ed declared.

"They're not going to kill you." Izumi said.

Ed shrugged. "Yeah, but, once again, the me in the future doesn't know that."

"This is a fight that you started." Ed said. "So come on!"

Ed's automail arm fell limply to his side, leaving the boy shocked.

Ed blinked once, then twice. "Seriously?!" He screamed furiously. "You're going to break right there! It just ruins the whole dramatic moment!"

"It is kind of silly." Havoc said, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, how can it be that exact for when it breaks?"

Ed looked down at his arm. "Eh?"

Envy looked at him in shock while Lust had a blank face. "Technical difficulties."

"Wha-?!" Ed screamed.

"Lucky me!" Envy cheered as he jumped forward and petted Ed on the head.

Ed growled. "Get your hand off of me!"

Envy kneed Ed in the stomach as his hand snatched the boy's braid.

Ed grasped and curled up on himself to grab his stomach as his breathing became heavy once more. That hurt so much more than it should have. "I really hate him." He gasped.

"It certainly looks painful." Darius winced.

"Not helping," Ed groaned.

"Envy, he is one of the most dangerous of them." Dr. Marcoh said with a frown. "You should be really careful around him."

"Doesn't help me right now to know that." Ed grumbled, closing his eyes as he tried to relax his tense body.

Envy held Ed up by the braid. "You're fortunate your arms broken. If not for that, you wouldn't be getting off so easily."

Envy let go of Ed, who fell to the ground facedown with his eyes closed in pain.

"Listen to me well, boy. Don't ever forget this. Always remember we allowed you to live." Lust said.

"The way she says that," Ed gasped through his pain, taking a moment to rest his pain filled body before continuing. "Makes it sounds like they are gods who decide who lives and who dies. It really pisses me off."

"We can't have him poking around this place again. It's too dangerous. It will have to go. Blow it up." Lust said.

"Fullmetal! It is because of you that all these buildings are getting destroyed! First the library, now a lab." Mustang grumbled. "What next?"

"It's not my fault!" Ed cried. "It's all those annoying jerks who are working in the shadows. Blame them!"

A despaired Al appeared on the screen with Ed's voice in the background, "You know, Al, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while, but I guess I've been too afraid to say it."

"What was Ed about to tell me?" Al asked himself.

"It wasn't that." Ed mumbled, hurt rising up in his chest. Of all the pain he had received today, knowing his own brother distrusted him this much was the most painful of them all.

"He said, he's been too afraid to say it before. What could've frightened him that much?"

Barry flashed onto the screen. "Are you sure you're not a puppet created by your so-called brother?" Al appeared on the screen once more.

"Al, don't listen to him. He is trying to trick you." Riza warned. 'It doesn't mean he is wrong though.' Al thought to himself. "Were you ever a real person to begin with?"

Al blocked the cleaver again.

"What's the matter, little boy? You got something on your mind?" Barry asked. He charged at Al again, scraping his armor with the knife.

Al's fist went over his head. "Shut up! You're wrong!" He blocked the meat cleaver again.

"Just accept it! You'll feel better." Barry said.

Barry stabbed his knife forward, though it missed Al as he kneeled on the ground. The serial killer raised his meat cleaver to bring it down on Al. "You're mine now, little puppet!"

A shot rang out and shot Barry through the hand, which caused him to drop his meat cleaver. "What?" He spoke.

The screen moved to show Denny and Maria pointing their guns at Barry.

"Nice timing!" Havoc said.

"Too convenient." Ed commented, but he was relieved at their arrival. It meant that Al was now safe and Barry would stop screwing with his mind.

"Stay right there." Maria said. "Or the next one puts a hole in your head."

Barry scratched the back of his helmet. "This isn't going quite as I planned."

The soldiers were shown, then Barry, and finally Al before the screen started rumbling before there was the sound of an explosion. The building began to fall to pieces, surprising the soldiers and Al.

"Sergeant, get down now." Maria said as she took a few steps back. Rubble smashed into the ground from the building. Al glanced at it. "What are you doing? Get away from there!" Maria shouted at him. "But my brother is still inside the building." Al said.

"Ed's in there?" Maria asked shocked.

"Hmm, I know what this means." Barry turned around and ran away. "Time to get out of here."

"Hey, you!" Denny yelled and turned to the fleeing armor.

"I'd get going if I were you." Barry said. "Hold it!" Denny said and ran after him. "Brother! Brother!" Al called.

Maria ran over and grabbed his arm. "Take cover, Al, or you'll going to caught in it too!"

"Ed!"

The wall in front of the two blew up, filling the entire area with smoke that swallowed them up. Envy appeared in the smoke, walking out of the building with Ed swung over his shoulder.

"There you are!" Envy called. "I brought a little present for you."

"Brother?!" Al asked and ran forward.

Envy dropped Ed gently to the ground. "His life's not in danger, but he has lost a lot of blood so you might want to get him to a hospital as soon as you can." Maria was shown with Ed half on her lap while Al looked down at his brother. "Also, you really should keep a better eye on him. Stop him from taking these crazy risks. He's a precious resource."

"But who are you?" Maria asked.

"Lieutenant Ross!" Denny called, running back to his comrade with his arm covering his head. "We need to go!"

"Sergeant, help me with him." Maria said.

"What happened to him?" Denny asked.

Ed snorted. "Not much. Just met a few psychopaths, but that's nothing new with me."

"You have a knack for finding them." Mustang agreed.

"We'll talk later." Maria turned to where Envy was. "And you should go too…" She was surprised to find Envy already gone. "What? He's gone."

Another piece of the building smashed into the ground, surprising the three-conscious people. The screen pulled back to show the entire building falling down into pieces.

In the prison next door, the prisoners were yelling at the guards.

"Let us out!"

"It's an earthquake!

"Are you trying to kill us?"

"All of you quiet! Calm down now!" One of the guards yelled.

Kimblee's cell was shown.

"What a lovely sound." Kimblee said, causing his guard to look up. "I know it well. That's the sound of a building exploding." The guard walked over to the cell door. "Close as it is, I'd say it's coming from next door, the fifth Laboratory. Ah, it's such a comforting sound. The way it reverberates your entire body."

"That guy is such a freak." Myers said with a frown.

"Which is why he is in his very own isolated cell." Havoc replied. "You keep it down in there, Kimblee." The guard said.

"Oh, do excuse me." Kimblee said. "I was just recalling the Ishvalan War of Extermination." His hands with the transmutation arrays on them were shown. "And it put me in such a good mood."

Scar growled to himself. Of all the State Alchemists he wanted to kill, he wanted to kill Kimblee the most of all. He was the one to kill his family and so many others in that war. This man took so much pleasure out of it. He saw it from the way the man would smile when he blew things up. He was a psychopath that needed to be ended.

Kimblee's grinning face was shown, but his eyes were shadowed by his hair.

Al and the soldiers were shown running from the collapsing building while Edward was being carried on Denny's back.

"Are you sure you're not a puppet created by your so-called brother?" Barry's voice echoed in Al's mind before the screen went dark.

"Well, dark thoughts are echoing in Al's mind. It seems we know where we are heading." Havoc said which just caused Ed to throw him a dark glare. He didn't have to mention that. It was already hurting Ed enough to have his brother distrust him. He didn't need it said as well.

The screen lit up once more to show Central Command. Hughes was

shown talking into a phone. "So, things here in Central are pretty hectic. The senior staff in charge of State Alchemists are shorthanded, thanks to Scar's killing spree."

Mustang was shown, smirking on the other side of conversation. "Oh?" He asked.

"Rumor has it a promotion to Central for one Colonel Mustang isn't far off." Hughes said.

General Armstrong scoffed. That annoying Colonel in Central? He would not get there before her.

"Central, huh?" Mustang asked. "Not bad at all."

"Watch yourself though." Hughes said. "You can't move up the ladder as young as you are without making enemies."

"I've been prepared for that from the start." Mustang replied.

"Just a word of warning from someone who knows the game." Hughes responded. "You need as many people on your side as you can get your hands on now, Colonel. Which means," He passed before quickly whispering, "Get yourself a wife."

"Don't you ever give up?" Ed asked.

"I wouldn't be able to annoy Roy if I gave up." Hughes pointed out. Ed nodded. "Good point."

"Fullmetal, Hughes, stop encouraging each other." Mustang growled.

An angry Mustang slammed his phone down. "Seriously!"

Hughes was shown staring at his phone while the secretary stared at her book with a deadpanned stare. "I don't get it. He hung up on me, just like that." Hughes said.

The secretary looked away from her book to glare at Hughes. "Lieutenant Colonel, stop making so many personal phone calls, okay?"

"Oh, so sorry." Hughes tapped his head with the phone.

"How many times has she told you that?" Luke asked. "A fair few." Hughes replied.

Ed shook his head amused as he stretched his limbs out. With the end of the episode, it seemed the pain filling up his body was gone as well. "It seems we didn't learn anything new."

"All we learned was that a certain pair of brothers can break into a building and get themselves into serious jams really easily the moment we take our eyes off them." Maria growled, glaring at the boys.

Ed scratched his head in a sheepish manner. "Is that so? Perhaps we should continue onto the next episode?"

---

A/N: The way he says that in the Japanese version is just so cool!

Fallen Crest friend had tonsillitis last summer so I am just using the knowledge she gave her to how it work after the surgery. It might be a bit wrong since it has been months since that talk.

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See you guys in next chapter.