"I see men inside," Riza hissed, melting behind a tree and dragging Roy along with her. "Armed. They look like guards."

Havoc breathed out a shaky sigh of relief. "This...this must be it then. Right?"

Riza nodded cautiously. "I think they must be here. We should split into two groups."

Roy felt like an idiot for not understanding what she meant, but he was relieved to see that Havoc also looked slack-jawed and confused. Ed seemed to have possibly not even realized there were guards inside, and his head was tucked uncomfortably into Havoc's shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Havoc finally asked.

"This facility is much larger than the last one. It looks like there's at least-" her face was slack with sleep, but her eyes were still much sharper than anyone else's "-maybe five guards. That I can see. I would guess there's another four or five guards that I can't see. Two of us will need to make a distraction, so the other two can go in and extract Al and Hughes. They will probably be held towards the back of the facility."

"I want to rescue Hughes," Roy said immediately. He knew the glasses in his pocket were too light for him to feel, but all of a sudden he was sure they were pressing into his leg. This was the most dangerous part, he knew. Even with the Praxapan, they very well might die. But he was so close he could almost taste it, and all he wanted to do was see Hughes again.

"Sir," Riza said cautiously, "I think you should be part of the distraction."

Roy frowned. He trusted Riza, since she seemed to be the only one out of the four of them who was still thinking more or less clearly, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, the distraction team will need to take out more guards, if everything goes to plan. Your alchemy is more conducive to that. And you aren't actually injured, so once you're on the Praxapan, you should feel pretty good."

"So what do I do?" Havoc asked.

Riza sighed slightly, and Roy had worked with her long enough to know she was a little annoyed they weren't following her plan. "You and Ed will be the extraction team."

"Ed can't even walk."

"He'll still be able to help you if he can use alchemy."

They all looked to Ed, who didn't react in the slightest. Roy realized that he had fallen asleep on Havoc's back as they were talking.

"Fullmetal?" Roy said sharply.

This jolted Ed out of sleep, and he woozily looked up. "Wha's that?"

"Can you do alchemy?"

Ed shrugged slightly, which made him slip some down Havoc's back. "Pro'aly."

Havoc readjusted Ed, lines of pain forming on his face and not relaxing. "Um, might...might be good to know, Chief."

Ed's face seemed to regain some focus, and he narrowed his eyes, clearly trying to think. Reaching around Havoc, he moved his hands together, tapping them to Havoc's shoulder. There was a brief flash of light, and they all looked over to where Jean's uniform star had been transformed into a slightly-misshapen skull.

"Yep," Ed said, looking at his craft in pride. "Still got it."

"Wow. Um, thanks?" Havoc still looked extremely confused, and if Roy was being honest, he was also starting to lose the thread of the conversation.

"So, Jean and Ed will be on extraction," Riza reminded them, her voice getting sharp again. "Ed, do you think you can do that?"

Ed shrugged again, this time managing to catch himself before he slid down Havoc's back. "I mean…yeah. I can do alchemy, so...should be fine."

"And the Colonel and I will act as a distraction. Let us go in a little ahead of you, and we'll hopefully draw most of the guards away from the entrance and clear a way. Do both of you still have your Praxapan?" As she was talking, she drew out the vial containing the Praxapan, looking at them expectantly.

Havoc nodded. "Oh. Sorry, Ed, but I'm gonna have to put you down for a second. It's in my pocket." Ed slid gracelessly to the ground as Havoc reached into his pocket, producing his own Praxapan.

"Wait," Roy said suddenly. He pulled out the glasses that were weighing heavy in his pocket (even if only in his imagination), clutching them close before stumbling over and holding them out towards Ed. He wanted to be the one who rescued Hughes, the one who gave him back his glasses, but that didn't matter anymore. As soon as Hughes was rescued, he would need the glasses. Roy had seen his friend without them a few times, if they'd been lost or broken, and as much as Hughes tried to hide it, Roy knew he couldn't see very well. It must have been beyond stressful for Hughes over the past day and a half, trapped in this insane situation without even really being able to see. As much as Roy wanted to be the one to give that to him, it was more important that Hughes get his vision back as soon as possible.

"Maes's glasses," Roy explained, shoving them towards Ed again. "Can you...can you give them to him? When you find him?"

"Yeah," Ed said softly, taking the glasses and shoving them into one of his many mysterious pockets. "Of course."

"Is it time?" Havoc asked, holding the Praxapan up and inspecting it as he spoke. He looked excited to take it, which Roy supposed he couldn't blame him for. Roy wanted to rescue Hughes and Al, but the idea of the veil of exhaustion and illness vanishing, even if it was only temporary, was exciting to him as well.

"Think so," Riza said. She looked to Roy for final confirmation, probably more out of habit than anything else. Roy wasn't in a place where he knew much.

But he nodded shakily, and all three of them downed the Praxapan. The taste was slightly bitter in a way that was reminiscent of the pills he'd been taking, and just as hard to stomach. The taste, something he'd only ever had during Ishval, and only during the height of conflict, instantly threw him back into a storm of memories. For a second, Roy worried that he was about to start panicking. He fought to control his breathing. Now was not the time.

And then the Praxapan hit his bloodstream, and everything got so much easier. The panic melted away like it had never been. He hadn't realized that the Tychine had made his vision blurry until all of a sudden it was sharp again. He straightened up, able to take his own weight completely for the first time in what must have been hours. He was still shaking, but that was to be expected, he was pretty sure. It wasn't bad anymore. It just meant he was full of adrenaline, and it had nowhere specific to go. As soon as he started fighting, the shakiness would vanish.

A familiar sort of anger rose with the feeling of strength. It was powerful and yet somehow distant, in a way that probably would have been alarming if he weren't so goddamn high. He couldn't call to mind the actual feeling of Hughes' friendship, but he knew that he would burn the whole world down if it would keep him safe.

"We're ready," Roy said. In his mind, he'd thought it would be a question, but it hadn't come out that way.

Havoc nodded once. His face was pale and hard, his pupils blown out to the point his eyes looked nearly black. He bent down and hefted Ed onto his back again, not reacting at all when the weight put pressure on his broken arm.

"Havoc?" Riza said. Her voice sounded flat, but he could tell she was worried. "Is your arm okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Havoc said. Roy felt like the world had slowed down around him, but Havoc seemed to have the opposite problem - he was talking way too fast. "It still hurts a little, but...you know, I'm not even sure if it does still hurt. It feels pretty fine. These drugs are pretty good."

Roy knew from experience that Havoc wouldn't feel that way when the drugs wore off, but that was worlds away. Right now, all that mattered was the adrenaline in their bloodstreams and the time left before that drained away.

"We're going," Roy said, pulling his gloves on. His fingers itched with the desire to rain down destruction onto the men who'd taken his friend, and he clenched his hand into a fist. Not yet, but soon. He looked toward Riza as she drew her gun. Automatically, she checked to see that it was loaded, although they both knew it was. She cocked it, narrowing her eyes at the building before them. Her pupils were just as blown as Havoc's, but she still managed to project an air of intense, almost frightening, focus.

Nothing more needed to be said. Roy and Riza walked side by side up to the door of the warehouse. It was a large, sliding barn-type door, set on rusty runners. It wasn't locked, but Roy could tell that it was going to make a lot of noise when it opened.

Roy didn't care. He stepped forward and simply incinerated it. The wood disappeared in a gout of flame, shrapnel flying everywhere. Roy felt a few stray splinters lick his skin, drawing blood across his cheek, but that didn't matter either. The pain was good. It reminded him just how angry he was.

Roy walked through the empty space that the door had once occupied to find himself in the middle of a factory floor. There were narrow walkways on either side of the floor that continued straight back, into the recesses of the building. Roy chose a direction at random and strode forward, turning the corner. Ed and Havoc could take the other, sneak around the back, and find wherever Hughes and Al were. Or maybe, Roy could kill all of the guards really quickly, and then he could be the one to find Hughes. Either option was fine with him.

Roy snapped his fingers again, this time blowing a hole out the side of the wall ahead of him. He could hear movement in the depths of the warehouse, footsteps beginning to come towards him.

"You wanted the Flame Alchemist?" Roy yelled, incinerating one of the silent machines left on the factory floor. The fire leapt up, crackling like an old friend, and Roy let the anger take hold. "Now you've got him. Come out and die like the cowards you are!"

Through the smoke, he saw Riza, gun at the ready. They could stay here, waiting for the guards to muster up the courage to come to them, but Roy couldn't wait that long. He was going to make them pay, and he wasn't going to waste a single second.

Havoc ran soundlessly down the passage, ducking in and out of the shadows cast by the abandoned machinery. He should definitely have been slowed by Ed, still perching precariously on his back, but he could barely even feel the kid. That was really impressive, too, considering he was holding Ed on with his broken wrist. But honestly, he wasn't even completely sure his wrist was broken anymore. It didn't hurt at all, and it hardly even felt weak. Maybe the Praxapan had given him some sort of super healing.

To be completely honest, Havoc really liked this stuff. He knew he was maybe twenty minutes away from collapsing like Ed, but that didn't really seem to matter, not when he felt like this. Maybe he should ask Roy if he could get Praxapan for the squad more often. He bet it would make night shifts a lot easier. Instead of working for hours and hours to get everything done, they could get everything done in like twenty minutes and then go home and pass out. Yeah, that made sense. Havoc would bring it up with Roy next time they had a second, after this was all over and he'd gone home and slept for 36 hours….

Fuck. Havoc realized he'd kept running, but completely forgotten to concentrate. His body felt strong, but his mind felt somehow jittery. Luckily, they hadn't passed any bad guys yet. Havoc was pretty sure he would have noticed that.

A huge boom startled Havoc so much he lurched across the hallway, almost dropping Ed. Roy must have joined the battle - it sounded like he had exploded a wall. That was pretty cool, and it definitely sounded loud enough to be a distraction. Havoc was sure all the guards would go flocking to Roy and Riza, and leave Havoc's way pretty much clear.

And then Havoc saw two guys at the end of the hall. They looked kind of scared, so Havoc knew they had heard Roy, but they seemed unwilling to actually move to go after him.

Havoc didn't have time to overthink things. He didn't know how long he'd been high already, but the clock was ticking, and he needed to rescue Hughes and Al before it was up. Havoc hiked Ed up a little more securely with his bad arm, and then pulled out a gun with his left.

Havoc had kind of expected to be shaky, but it was alarmingly easy to aim. The first guy went down, and then the second one. He felt Ed kind of flinch at the sound of the gun, but he didn't say anything.

Havoc kept the gun in his hand, and used his arm to anchor Ed to his side. He hoped he wouldn't have to shoot anyone else before they found Hughes and Al, but it couldn't hurt to be prepared.

And anyways, he figured it must be a good sign that the scared guards hadn't left. They must be getting close. If they weren't actively guarding something, they probably would have gone to see what all the commotion was about.

Havoc grinned as he continued down the hallway. His mind might feel jittery, but he was pretty sure that his brain was still working way better than it usually did. He felt like a superhero, probably like Ed and Roy felt all the time with their alchemy.

The last thing the sober version of him had done was crash their car into a tree. He never would have done that if he'd felt like this. He knew, or at least Roy had told him and Havoc believed him, that he'd change his mind when the crash came. But fifteen or twenty minutes didn't feel like enough time to be this unstoppable.

But he didn't have to worry about that just yet. Right now, he was worrying about Al and Hughes. Havoc continued creeping into the darkness, and listened to the explosions echo from across the warehouse.

Riza squeezed off another shot through the whirlwind of flame and smoke, straining her ears for an answering cry. It was almost impossible to see through the destruction Roy was creating, but she'd managed to count six men before the flames had leapt high enough to conceal her vision.

"Cowards!" Roy screamed, his eyes flashing to match the fire streaking off his fingers. Standing beside him, near enough to feel the heat of his determination, Riza was once again reminded why she'd chosen to follow this man. Even after everything that they had been through, Roy's sheer force of will was a sight to behold. They never would have gotten this far if it hadn't been for Roy's absolute inability to accept defeat or to leave a man behind.

A scream echoed through the hallway as Roy's flames found their mark. His hair whipped around his forehead, eyes narrowed as he peered into the darkness.

"Show yourselves, and I can offer you a merciful death," Roy yelled, his voice echoing around the walls. For a moment, Riza almost forgot that they were supposed to be causing a distraction. Surely, the force of their combined wrath would burn through anything these amateurs had to throw at them. Then, as their enemies were lying at their feet, all they'd need to do would be to pick their way through the bodies and find Hughes and Al.

Another of Riza's shots found their targets, and she saw the corner of Roy's mouth twitch in a cold smile. As he half-turned his face towards her, she caught sight of the blood trickling down across his cheek, oozing slowly from a small cut below his eye.

A very, very small part of her was tempted to reach out to him and brush it away, but she resisted. She needed to focus on protecting Roy. She needed to focus on getting to Al and Hughes, and that, in a way, would protect Roy too.

Havoc hadn't run into any more guards, thankfully. Ed didn't really like being on the back of someone who was actively shooting other people. But Roy and Riza's distraction seemed to have worked, which made sense because it was deafening. Ed hoped Roy was paying attention to what he was doing, because it kind of sounded like the building was coming down around them.

Finally, they hit a door at the end of the hallway. It was the first and only door they had seen - Ed figured it must have been some sort of office, back when this place was a functioning warehouse. Havoc reached out and started trying to get the door open.

They were both startled by a sudden flash of fire - apparently this hallway looped back around to where Roy and Riza were fighting. Ed hadn't noticed. Their battle sounded so immediate no matter where in the warehouse they were.

"This must be it, this must be it," Havoc said. He sounded kind of shaky, and Ed wondered how much time he had before the crash. The battle couldn't have been that long, but Ed had passed out within twenty minutes. Havoc would probably be out within five. Ed could see why he was whispering "this must be it" like a prayer - if it wasn't, they were really out of luck.

Finally, Havoc got the door open. Ed couldn't tell if it had been locked or jammed, or if Havoc had just lost a lot of his fine motor skills due to the Praxapan. Either way, they pushed their way inside, and were immediately greeted with Hughes, Al, and two more guards.

Havoc went for both guns, and in the process, dropped Ed. Ed landed hard enough to bruise, but he didn't care. Al was here. They had found Al.

Ed tried to get his feet under him and couldn't. Instead, he started crawling towards the corner, where Al was in heavy chains that would keep him from doing alchemy.

"Brother!" Al yelled.

"Yeah," Ed said. His mind felt clearer than it had since before the Praxapan, but to his annoyance, he found that his voice was still a little bit slurred. "I'm here."

"When I heard the noises, I wasn't sure-"

Ed slammed his palms together, then dropped them to the ground. Al's chains broke apart in a flash of blue light. At almost the same time, a sudden gunshot from behind him made Ed flinch. He whirled around, and saw that Havoc had shot at one of the guards, but not managed to hit him. Now, both guards had their guns trained on Havoc.

On pure instinct, Ed created a circle once more, transmuting a stone pillar, a fist forming on the end of it as it cannoned into one of the guards. He stumbled backwards, his shot going wide. As he fell, Havoc squeezed off two shots, one from each of his guns. Both of them found their targets, and the guards crumpled to the floor, bodies impacting the ground at the same time.

"Are you okay?" Ed yelled at the Second Lieutenant, as he began inspecting Al for damage.

"I'm fine," Havoc responded cheerily, keeping his guns out and turning so he could focus on the door. "You? Al? The Lieutenant Colonel?"

"I'm fine, brother," Al said quickly. "But you look...about as bad as Colonel Hughes…."

"I'm okay," Ed responded. Every time that question had been asked in the past thirty-six hours, Ed's answer had been a lie. Now, finally, he was telling the truth. He was still so exhausted that he couldn't even stand, and he thought that if he closed his eyes he probably wouldn't open them for days on end, but he felt better than he had since waking up to find Al gone. A knot in his chest suddenly released, and tension that Ed hadn't known he was carrying melted away. "I'm just...I'm glad you're safe."

Hughes peered blearily around the bulky shape of Alphonse, blinking as a familiar golden-haired boy in a bright red coat swam into focus.

"Ed? Is that...you?"

"Yep," Ed said, and even as drained as Hughes himself felt, he recognized the weariness eating at the edges of Ed's slightly slurred words. "Sorry it took us so long, sir."

Hughes smiled a little, awake enough now to put together the sounds of the explosions echoing down the hallway. "It's okay. Roy's here?"

"And Riza, and Havoc," Ed said, motioning backwards. Hughes strained his eyes, unable to quite make out the figure behind Ed until he came closer. It was one of Roy's men, his Second Lieutenant Havoc. Hughes had met him a few times, and knew that in Roy's closely guarded inner thoughts, he considered the Second Lieutenant very highly. Hughes remembered the younger man as a pretty laid-back, reliable soldier, but right now he was vibrating with some kind of nervous energy.

"Hi, Colonel! We're here to rescue you, and we should probably do it quick, 'cause we don't have much time before the drugs wear off, and the Colonel and the Lieutenant are in the middle of a firefight."

Hughes was feeling more awake than he had been, but that...was a lot to process. He blinked at Ed, trying to sort out exactly what Havoc had meant by "drugs," and what was supposed to happen next.

"They took some Praxapan," Ed said airily, as if that wasn't worrying at all, and climbed across Al, every movement clearly taking a great effort. There was a flash of alchemy, and Hughes felt his handcuff dissolve away from his wrist. Ed frowned. "Why do they have you on an IV? What did they do to you?"

"It's the antidote," Al said quickly. "To the paralytic agent you all were dosed with."

"That was just me and the bastard - I mean the Colonel," Ed said. "Unless you ate some of those cookies, you should be fine to take it out. Which is good, because Havoc's right and we should...we should probably go."

Hughes blinked. "W-what?" he asked shakily.

"It's not doing anything you need, come on, I can probably get it out if you can't…."

"No I mean...I feel terrible, Ed. I can hardly stand, I've...I've been sick…. I think I must have been dosed with it too, and I don't want to rip out the IV if it's giving me something I need."

"Those just sound like the side effects of the Kyrenol," Ed said definitively. "I've been having them too, and so is Mustang. The original stuff doesn't seem to do as much as long as you're on the Kyrenol, but you can't stay on Kyrenol forever and I definitely see why. But you...never should have been on it at all."

Ed reached over and ripped Hughes' IV out. It bled a little, but that was the least of Hughes' problems.

"Can you stand?" Havoc asked.

"I can carry you if you can't," Al said helpfully.

Havoc grimaced. "You might need to carry Ed. It's not easy to shoot with you on my back, Chief."

"I think I might be able to walk now," Ed said tentatively. The fact that Ed couldn't walk before was...somewhat concerning to hear, but Hughes filed that away for later. They needed to get out of here.

Hughes started pushing himself unsteadily to his feet. The movement made the world rock around him, but he managed not to fall. He wasn't sure how much he could walk, but he was upright, at least.

"Oh!" Ed said. "Bastard told me to give you these."

Ed fished around in his pocket, and emerged with Hughes' glasses. Hughes felt his breath catch in his throat. Roy must have picked these up from the floor right after they'd been kidnapped, almost two days ago now. He'd just been carrying them around since then, thinking about them enough that he'd remembered to give them to Ed when they'd split up. He'd been so sure he would be able to rescue them, and he...he had.

Hughes shook himself slightly. It had been a long few days, and he was worn thin, but he couldn't afford to get emotional, not just yet.

Hughes stuffed the glasses on his face, took a step, and wobbled. Instantly, Havoc was at his side, holding him up. "I got you, sir. Here, you better take this, too."

Before Hughes could do much more than blink, Havoc was stuffing a gun into his free hand. "It's loaded," he said helpfully. "Don't worry, I still got one. I'm just not shooting too good with my broken arm, and I figure it'll be better if you have a weapon anyway."

"...Thanks," Hughes said, tightening his fingers around the grip. He still felt wobbly, but better now with a gun in his hand. "Okay. Let's find Roy."

He started forward, and as much as he wanted to take his own weight he knew that it simply wasn't going to happen. Luckily, Havoc stepped with him, supporting quite a bit of his weight. Hughes realized with an uncomfortable lurch that he was leaning heavily on the Second Lieutenant's broken wrist, but he didn't really have another option. That's what the Praxapan had been for, after all - get through a war zone, and collapse on the other side when dropping wouldn't get you killed.

They made it out the door, turning down an unfamiliar hallway. Hughes didn't really know the layout of the warehouse, since he'd been barely conscious when they'd brought him in. Luckily, that didn't matter. The echoing explosions, the screams, and the gouts of flame licking out from around the corner were more than enough to guide him towards Roy.

Hughes strained forward, cursing his weakened state and his agonizingly slow progress. He could feel Havoc trying to pull him faster, but there was only so quickly he could move. Beside him, he could see Al having the same problem with Ed. The older Elric was indeed on his feet, but he was leaning heavily against Al's side, looking determined but gaunt and very, very slow.

Finally, they rounded the corner. It was hard to see through the flames and smoke, but Hughes made out shapes of guards dotted here and there, probably about six. In the center he could see Roy, framed in his own firelight. Riza was beside him, gun raised and ready.

Hughes and Havoc took another step forward, almost within range, and there was a sudden crack of a gunshot. Hughes reflexively looked down, checking himself for new bullet holes, but he was unhurt. He looked back up just in time to see Roy blink, glancing down at the brand new tear in the side of his uniform, already turning red.

Almost lazily, Roy reached up, snapping his fingers and sending bolts of fire licking across two of the guards' skin. They burned to ash, but Hughes couldn't hear their screams over the sudden pounding of blood in his ears.

Roy took a step forward, stumbled very slightly, and crumpled face down onto the floor of the hallway.