Walls. Ed hadn't checked the walls yet. He'd looked at them of course, but actually gone in close, eyed them all over for scratches, dents, something unusual -

He'd checked the walls. Or had he? Didn't matter, the desk in the corner of the room had caught his attention now and halfway over to the far wall Ed stopped, spun around, and advanced on the desk.

Ed's chest hurt. Why did his chest hurt? Oh, maybe it was because his heart was throbbing like it might burst. Hearts weren't supposed to beat like that, were they? But it must be fine. It must be fine, because Roy had taken this drug before, in Ishval, and he was still alive and his heart hadn't burst.

But Roy was a lot bigger than Ed. The pill had been pretty small, so maybe it didn't matter. But what if it did? What if Ed had already taken a fatal overdose, and that's why his heart was beating so fast? That seemed possible. Likely even.

Ed felt vaguely nauseous. Was that his body telling him to throw up? Telling him that he'd taken too much? Would that help, or was it already too late?

Or maybe none of that mattered. Maybe his heart was just beating too fast, and it didn't really mean anything. He was pretty sure his breathing had sped up too.

"Focus, Ed, focus," he whispered to himself. "Just gotta...gotta…."

"What was that?" Havoc said from behind him.

Okay, so maybe he hadn't whispered. That was weird. "I'm t-trying to focus," Ed said. The shaking seemed to have gotten worse, somehow, which seemed strange and impossible since it had been pretty damn bad before.

He could see how this would help in battle, honestly. This was supposed to have helped in battle. Now, half of his energy was divided between trying to find a clue, and half was just spent trying not to hit anything. He had so much nervous energy, too much, and there wasn't anything to clarify it. His thoughts were sliding away faster than he could even consciously register them, but if he were actually fighting, and there were sometimes milliseconds between life and death, he thought that would be an asset.

He bet it would make him stronger too. Or, not stronger, but it seemed to have temporarily erased his ability to feel pain. The human body was capable of so much more than people let it be. If someone could feel their muscles tearing as they tried to lift something, then they would drop it. It was just instinct. It was just human.

But Ed didn't have that anymore. And that made him a superhero.

"Fuck," he said. "I forgot to focus."

"What was that?" Havoc asked again.

"I...I don't know." Ed turned back to the wall.

No. Not the wall, the desk. He was focusing on the desk, and he was looking at the desk and it was going to help him find Al.

Ed grabbed the first thing he saw on the desk, a notepad, and clenched his shaking hands around it. It was blank, useless, and Ed was going to throw it at the wall when his eyes lasered in on something. There were marks on the paper, subtle indents that Ed doubted anything but his new supervision could have seen.

Ed grabbed a pencil before his brain caught up to his body and - snap. The pencil was in two pieces in his trembling fingers, and they fell to the floor with a clatter.

"No," Ed whispered, or maybe yelled, and he was on his knees when Havoc appeared beside him, picking up the pencil.

"What did you find, Chief?" He sounded awake now, not as awake as Ed, but more than he had before. Ed stared at him for a millisecond, trying to decide if he should punch him, take the pencil back, or just let Havoc help.

Ed shoved the notebook into his face, jabbing at the page. "Rub it on the page," he said, tongue tripping over his words. "P-pencil marks."

Havoc's eyes widened slightly, and he obediently began rubbing the broken pencil across the page. Ed paced back and forth, resisting the urge to rip his hair out and wishing the Second Lieutenant would fucking move faster.

Ed scanned the room, his brain moving on ahead of itself. Riza was looking at the IV for some reason. Ed would help her, if Havoc didn't find anything. Or maybe if Havoc didn't find anything, Ed would put his fist through the wall and tear this whole place down board by board.

Roy was still sitting on the ground, looking pale and ill. Ed wondered if he had looked like that before the Praxapan. He wondered if he still looked like that, but faster.

It seemed like hours later, but just as Ed was about to draw blood from chewing his own lip, Havoc gasped out loud.

"What, what what WHAT?" Ed shouted. His heart suddenly kicked into high gear, blood pumping so loud in his ears he was afraid he wouldn't be able to hear Havoc.

"1547 Castle Street, Warehouse 13, Crynah," Havoc said, tone tinged with disbelief. "Ed, I...I think you solved it. This...this is it! An address! Holy shit!"

Ed's heartbeat increased, and now his breathing was moving out of control. He felt like he might fall apart, and he stared at Havoc dumbly for a second as his racing mind struggled to process his words.

"We found them," he repeated, and his legs began to get weak.

"You found them. I think," Havoc said, and Ed felt a moment of relief overtake the jittery nightmare of the Praxapan.

"Good," he managed, right before his vision blurred to blackness and he fell.

Havoc thought he was pretty good with surprises, and he also thought he had been handling this whole thing pretty well. The caffeine and nicotine rush had worn off long ago, but he was getting through it. Honestly, he thought he was still being pretty useful. But he knew he was really getting tired when Ed's knees buckled, and he just sort of stood there. Then, a few confusing seconds went by where Ed was lying on the ground, eyes closed, and Havoc was just standing there watching.

Finally, his brain remembered to tell his body it was time to move. Almost mechanically, still overwhelmed and confused, Havoc took a step forward and knelt beside Ed.

"Hey," he said. "Um...Ed? What happened? Are you okay?"

"What's going on?" Riza said from somewhere across the room. "Is Edward alright? Did he just fall?"

"I think he passed out," Havoc said, and slowly reached a hand out to shake Ed's shoulder. His hopes were not high that Ed would wake up, but his next step was taking Ed's pulse, and he thought he might get pretty panicky if he had to get to that point.

To Havoc's surprise, Ed's eyes slitted open. He stared up at Havoc for a second, and then closed them again.

"Wake up," Havoc said. "Come on, come on, Ed. Wake up."

Ed's face was completely slack, his lips slightly parted. At the sound of Havoc's voice, his eyebrows drew together for a second, but there was no real hint of recognition.

"Guys," Havoc said worriedly. "There's...there's something wrong with Ed."

Roy mumbled something that Havoc couldn't make out, and Havoc's head snapped up to look at him. He was on his knees, bent over like a question mark, one hand splayed on the ground. Havoc couldn't tell if he was very, very sad, or very, very sick. Maybe both.

"Sorry, sir, what was that?"

"It's the comedown from the Praxapan," Roy said. His voice was a little stronger now, but he still hadn't looked at Havoc, and Havoc wasn't even sure he'd looked at Ed. "It's...it's intense."

"So how long is he going to be like this?" Havoc asked desperately. It wasn't going to be very easy to actually rescue Al and Hughes if Ed couldn't even open his eyes.

Roy shrugged softly. "Don't know. Depends. At least a few hours."

Havoc closed his eyes, just for a second, and let himself feel completely out of his depth. Then he got to his feet, pulling Ed with him. Ed didn't make any move to help, but Havoc hadn't been expecting him to. It was easy enough to lift Ed, even with his metal limbs adding to the dead weight of his body - Havoc wasn't mean enough to say it to Ed's face, but the kid was tiny.

Havoc put Ed gently over his shoulder, holding onto him in a fireman's carry. As far as he could tell, Ed didn't wake up at all.

"Huh. Well, maybe he'll wake up sooner." Havoc hoped he sounded more convincing than he thought he did, but he really didn't have much energy left to devote to deception. Careful not to jostle Ed, he moved towards the door, the notebook with the address in his other hand.

"Lieutenant," Riza said, a tinge of warning in her voice. "Where are you going?"

"Umm, to the address Ed found?" Havoc asked, wondering what he could possibly be doing wrong now. Should he be taking Ed to the hospital instead?

"What address?"

Havoc instinctively straightened up and turned around. Roy's voice, previously weak and almost inaudible, had suddenly grown sharp with command. He was still leaning over, bracing himself on the ground, but his eyes were locked onto Havoc, more aware than they'd seemed in hours.

"Oh. Did you...did you not hear that? Ed found a notepad with an address."

Roy made a quick, sporadic movement. It looked like he'd tried to shoot to his feet, but he didn't quite make it there. He fell back to his knees, looking dizzy, sick, and defeated. Havoc looked helplessly at Ed on his shoulder, then back at Roy, trying to figure out if there was a way he could juggle them both.

He needn't have bothered. Riza was already there, gently taking Roy's elbow and helping him struggle his way to his feet.

"Let's go," Roy said impatiently, but he didn't ask Riza to let go. His first steps were slow and uncertain, and Havoc thought that if Riza had let him try to walk on his own, he would have ended up back on the ground. Roy caught him watching and skewered him with a glare as he kept moving. "To the car, Havoc. Quickly."

As requested, Havoc walked quickly to the car, easily beating Roy and Riza. He was in the middle of arranging Ed as comfortably as he could when Roy and Riza finally made it out of the cabin. Roy was clinging to Riza's arm, looking as though he might fall at any moment.

Just as Riza was getting Roy settled in the back seat, the beeping of the alarms started again. It took about two seconds for the noise to start giving Havoc a headache, and he let himself close his eyes for a second as he tried to collect himself.

Roy groaned, but when Havoc turned around, he was already fishing the pills out of his pocket. Ed though...was a different story. His eyebrows creased together slightly at the sound of the alarm, but he didn't wake up.

"Damn it," Havoc said mildly, jostling Ed's shoulder. "Come on, wake up, it's time for your pills…."

Ed did not wake up, and didn't give any indication that he was going to.

Ed had been keeping his pills in the pocket of his red coat, which he was still wearing. Havoc reached in and found the tiny bottle. The idea of force-feeding a dose to Ed felt awfully...violating, but he wasn't sure what other options he had. If Ed were to stop getting the medication, he wasn't going to wake up from the Praxapan in a couple hours. He would probably wake up in a couple of days instead.

Havoc took one of the pills, and pushed it into Ed's limp mouth. Ed gave no indication that he had noticed this development. He didn't spit the pill out, but he didn't swallow it either.

"Water, I need water-" Havoc muttered to himself. There was a half-full bottle rolling around the floor of the back seat, and he grabbed it. He tilted Ed's head back to what he hoped was a natural angle, and poured a bit of the water into his mouth. Then he realized this was probably not the best idea, and hoped vaguely that he wasn't about to drown Ed.

Ed coughed and choked, but he was apparently cognizant enough to swallow, because he did not bring up the pill. Havoc patted his shoulder tentatively.

When that was finished, Riza was looking at him.

"I can drive, but you'll need to navigate again," she said gently.

Havoc nodded, and gave Ed one final pat. Roy's eyes were closed now, his face screwed up in pain, and Havoc didn't like the idea of leaving him and Ed alone in the back seat. But they didn't have much choice. Neither of them could navigate.

Havoc climbed onto the seat beside Riza, and opened the map that she handed him. He was so exhausted that the words were blurring on the page. He knew how to read a map, he was sure of it, but it just...suddenly seemed so hard. He knew he had to locate the address, but god, when had all the words gotten so tiny…?

"Are you alright?" Riza asked him.

Havoc shook himself slightly, and wondered if it was possible to blink a headache away.

"Yeah," he said, wishing his voice sounded more convincing. "I think it's just...yeah let's just…."

Riza pointed to a spot on the map - now that she had showed it to him, he could see it was the road they were looking for. He took a small breath and tried to force the bleary jumble of lines into focus. He was so exhausted that he could barely think straight, so exhausted that he couldn't even remember if he'd had a cigarette recently. He couldn't even remember if he had his cigarettes, or where they might be if he did.

And none of that should matter, because the Colonel and Ed were pretty much out of commission and Riza shouldn't have to do this all on her own. Havoc was trying to pull himself together, he really was, but he just couldn't seem to make the map organize into any kind of sense. And now, he was overthinking it, staring at the map in a blind panic that was just making reading it harder, worrying about being the one to lose Hughes and Al.

"Focus, Jean," he whispered quietly to himself, shaking his head slightly. He shot a guilty glance towards Riza, but she didn't seem to notice. He yanked his attention back to the map, and wished he was doing a better job.

Roy wanted to be doing something useful, but instead he was curled against the side of the car, his forehead leaning against the cool glass of the window. He was tense, and felt more awake than he had in what seemed like forever, but his body hadn't caught up to his mind. As much as he wanted to be helping Riza and Jean find their kidnapped comrades, he couldn't even muster the strength to open his eyes. He felt slow, sick, and almost tapped out.

"Left!" Havoc's voice came abruptly from the front seat, sounding panicked. "Left here, sorry, sorry…."

If Riza responded, he couldn't hear her. Her voice was lost in skidding tires as she swung the car into a sharp turn, and Roy felt his stomach lurch in response.

"Not again," he breathed, too quietly for the others to hear. The nausea had been bad on the ride in, and he'd gotten almost to the point of throwing up a few times. Now, keeping his stomach in check was taking more strength than he thought he had.

Roy gagged with the next breath he took, his eyes shooting open.

"Stop-" he croaked, beginning to scrabble for the door handle. "Stop the car…. I'm going to…."

They slammed to a halt, the abrupt motion doing absolutely nothing for his nausea. Roy got the door open just in time, leaning out and emptying the meager contents of his stomach on the side of the road.

"Oh no," he heard Riza say softly from somewhere behind him, and he heard the opening of another car door.

Roy groaned and spat onto the ground. He was pretty sure he wasn't done, so he tried to get out of the car, hoping he could stumble a few steps away and not be bothered as he finished. That didn't work - as soon as he tried to stand, his legs buckled beneath him, and he whimpered as the gravel bit into his knees and palms.

Roy realized his breathing had sped up, somewhere along the way, and he tried his best to calm it. Instead, the nausea built and he retched again, bringing up a small mouthful of stomach acid onto the ground.

He heard a small rustle as someone knelt beside him, but Roy was getting horribly dizzy and he didn't want to look up. He felt a hand tentatively touch his shoulder, then move to his back. The hand started rubbing gentle lines up and down his spine. The movement was soothing, even as nauseous as he was, but he didn't want to admit that.

"I'm sorry this is happening to you, sir," Riza whispered.

"You don' have to do this," Roy mumbled. He meant this specifically - comforting him with a hand on his back while he vomited on a lonely roadside. She still had to help him rescue Hughes and Al. But he thought that she understood.

This statement was undercut slightly when he dry-heaved, and then let out a small, pained sound before he could help it.

"I think I do, sir," she said gently.

"It's jus'...jus' a side effect of the pills, I think."

"I know, sir."

"Hey, I'm putting Ed in the front seat," Havoc said from the car. "I can drive, and I think you should stay in the back with the Colonel."

Roy wanted to protest, but he was just so dizzy, and he felt so sick, and god her hand felt good. He let out a shuddering breath.

Roy heard the car door open, and he turned around slightly to watch Havoc's progress, wincing when the world swooped around him. Havoc managed to get Ed out of his seat, but Ed was still alarmingly still, not reacting at all as Havoc heaved him over his shoulder and made his way back around the car. With some difficulty, Havoc managed to position him in the front seat in a way that looked somewhat comfortable. Ed's eyes opened to slits when he did this, but Roy didn't think he recognized what was happening. Havoc circled back around to the driver's side and leaned awkwardly against the side of the car.

"What...what are you waiting for?" Roy managed, sucking a deep breath in and praying it would calm his heaving stomach. "We c-can go."

Even through Roy's spinning vision, Havoc looked as though he was deeply unconvinced. Roy felt Riza's hand tighten on his back.

"Sir, we can wait a little longer, you clearly need a rest-"

"We can't...wait," Roy replied, wishing that he had enough breath to sound commanding. "Maes and Alphonse need us. I'm ready."

He tried to push himself up off the ground, and the world tilted sharply around him. He fell back to his knees, grabbing at Riza as she went to support him.

"Sir-"

"Help me up, Lieutenant," Roy ordered. "I will be fine."

He heard her sigh, but her arm found its way around his waist, and her strong hands helped him balance as he stumbled back to the car. Havoc had opened the door for him, and now was in the driver's seat, fiddling with the steering wheel.

Riza helped Roy climb into the back seat. Even through his fog of pain and exhaustion, Roy knew her very, very well. He could tell that she was worried, possibly even annoyed, but he sensed an undercurrent of admiration there too.

That was nice, but Roy didn't really deserve admiration. It was simply that as terrible as throwing up in a car in front of his subordinates would be, losing Hughes would be unimaginably worse. Roy was willing to put himself through any amount of discomfort, pain, or agony if it meant seeing Maes again.

Roy settled into the backseat, feeling more than seeing Riza beside him. Keeping his eyes open hurt his head too badly, so he let them close, once again leaning his forehead against the window.

"Drive," he said softly, and the car began to move.

Ed was lying on something hard. That was strange, because he didn't remember lying down, especially not on anything hard. He also seemed to be moving, which was just as confusing, since he remembered being in a cabin.

"What's happening?" he asked groggily, peeling his eyes open and shifting slightly. As it turned out, the hard thing he was lying on was his own right arm. Ed extracted it from under his body and peered at it in confusion.

"Ed, thank god, you're awake!"

"Am I?" Ed asked, twisting his head to the side and catching sight of a deeply exhausted-looking Havoc, steering wheel in one hand and crumpled map in the other. Before he could follow this up with another question, Havoc shoved the map into his hands.

"Quick, where am I turning?"

Ed blinked down at the map. They were driving...yeah, that sounded right. They were going…Ed couldn't remember. He leaned his head back again, and closed his eyes.

"Ed, no! Wake up!"

Ed lurched upright at the sound of his name. He hadn't meant to fall asleep. But he felt like he'd been hit with a truck, everything was just so heavy, and all he wanted to do was sleep. Things would be easier if he was asleep. He couldn't tell if he was in excruciating pain or just very uncomfortable, but either way...maybe he'd be able to tell when he woke up.

He realized his eyes had closed again when his chin hit his chest.

"Where we goin'?" Ed mumbled. He'd meant the words to sound clearer. They'd sounded clearer in his mind. But his tongue just didn't seem to want to cooperate right now, and there was nothing he could do about that.

"The address you found, remember?" Havoc sounded mad, but Ed hoped he wasn't actually. Ed was still struggling to put together the pieces of exactly where they were and what was happening. He groaned a little. His head ached.

"Right," he muttered. "Hughes and Al. We...we're goin' to get them."

"Yes," Havoc said, and he'd forced some patience into his voice. "That's why I need you to look at the map. I don't know the way."

"Riza?" Ed asked. He tried to turn around to find her, but he seemed to have lost all the strength in his core, and he couldn't sit forward enough.

"She's in the back with the Colonel. He...he needed help, Chief. And now I need help. You're the only person I've got."

Ed forced himself over the map. They had been...he wasn't quite sure where they had been before. And some time had gone by...how much time again though? And now they were going...the address escaped him.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"I don't know exactly, somewhere around here." He jabbed at the map. "That's what you're supposed to be figuring out."

"Oh," Ed said blankly, blinking at the vague area that Havoc had pointed out. The seconds seemed to drag on. "We're going to…a warehouse?"
Havoc sighed. Ed knew he could be doing better, should be doing better, but he could barely keep his eyes open. It was hard to concentrate on what Havoc wanted.

"Yeah, just…I think we're still going straight for a while. Just…yeah."

Ed could tell that Havoc didn't want to ask too much of him, but he also knew that Havoc really needed the help. He was clearly beyond exhausted, barely able to keep up a conversation with Ed.

"I'll…figure it out," Ed said, trying to keep his voice from slurring. He forced his eyes open, bending back over the map, and sighed.