Here we go, chapter seven!

And once again THANK YOU so much for the amazing response to this story, guys!

I got a question after the last chapter whether I would write the story about the Blue Scarf Burglar, and I'm not sure yet, depends on whether I get an idea for it or not.

And also, I would just like to give a special thanks to the guest reviewer known as "Kelly" for inspiring the end of this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.


Chapter Seven

Roy recognised the scar from the descriptions Maes had given him over the phone, and he instantly pulled out his gun. The serial killer known as "Scar" dodged, but jumped backwards and behind a rock. Roy grabbed Ed's hand and began running, Al following. With the way it was raining, Roy couldn't use his ignition gloves, which meant that he only had his gun to rely on. Which also meant that he needed backup to take this man down. "Al, take Ed and tell the MPs that the State Alchemist killer is – "

Scar somehow destroyed the ground beneath their feet. Al managed to dodge it, but both Ed and Roy fell. Roy grabbed the kid, trying to shield him and felt something sharp pierce the flesh of the upper part of his right arm as he hit the ground hard. "Al! Get the MPs!" Roy shouted, shooting another couple of shots straight at Scar to get him further away before he looked Ed over. The boy had tears in his eyes and a cut on his forehead, but that was it. Roy got to his feet and began dragging Ed with him.

Then they reached a set of stairs but Scar destroyed it when they were halfway down and Roy stumbled forwards about two metres before dropping about the same distance while crumbling stone fell around him. Ed had managed to cling onto the broken railing, hanging about three metres above the ground.

Shit.

And to top it off, Roy had managed to get his right foot trapped in a heap of rubble, so he couldn't move whether he wanted to or not.

"Roy Mustang, I will give you a minute to pray to God," Scar said, walking slowly towards him, right arm ready to basically destroy him from the inside out. Roy was just afraid of what would happen to Ed, his grip was slipping, and if there was one thing he didn't want Ed to see, it was Roy's murder.

Or even worse, that the boy would plunge to his death.

Then Ed suddenly stopped struggling as he saw the same thing that Roy did, Scar was about to walk right underneath where he was hanging, but surely Ed wouldn't be that stupid…

"DON'T KILL HIM!" Ed shouted as he fell onto Scar's head where he quickly sat himself on his shoulders and covered his eyes with his hands, making the murderer fall to the ground as he stumbled from the impact.

The kid was obviously quite good at calculating other people's moves already.

Or he was just damn lucky.

Ed fell off the man as they hit the ground, but he quickly scrambled over to him and sat down on his chest.

"EDWARD! GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Roy shouted, panicking at the boy's actions.

Scar seemed slightly confused by it all, and, thankfully, unwilling to kill an innocent five-year-old. "Move away, boy. My only business is with State Alchemists." He tried to push him off, but Ed just grabbed his jacket and clung onto it.

"THEN DON'T KILL HIM! I WON'T LET YOU KILL ROY!"

"Get off."

"No! If you're going after alchemists, then you might as well take me first!"

"You are not a State Alchemist. Now move." He sat up, and Roy had to say that he was impressed by Edward's persistence. The boy had obviously seen which arm Scar attacked with, because he was clinging onto it with both his arms and his legs.

"But I was! I was just two weeks ago! I'm Edward Elric!"

"EDWARD! STOP IT! JUST RUN!" Roy was getting scared. If Ed managed to convince Scar of his true identity, then he was as good as dead.

"Get off, boy." Scar was trying to shove the boy off.

"I won't let you kill him! I WON'T! I ALREADY LOST MOM THIS WEEK! YOU'RE NOT TAKING ROY TOO!"

Roy could have sworn he saw Scar pause for a moment.

"Please don't kill him!" Roy could hear that the boy's anger had now just been replaced by fear, and Edward was obviously crying.

Scar didn't move. He was just staring at the boy.

Then a shot rang out and Scar had a bullet lodge itself in his left arm. He growled and then his right hand glowed with energy as he destroyed part of the ground beneath him, and him and Ed fell downwards and into the sewers.

Roy heard Ed shout as he disappeared into a cloud of smoke and Roy could have sworn his heart stopped.

"EDWARD!"

The rubble covering Roy's leg slid off it as the ground beneath his feet crumbled and a couple of MPs pulled him backwards at the last second so that he didn't fall down too.

"EDWARD! DAMMIT! ANSWER ME! EDWARD!" Roy shouted, panicking.

A large amount of officers were pointing their flashlights down the sewers.

"BROTHER! BROTHER!" Alphonse shouted as he came running to the scene.

"Hello?" came a small voice from down in the sewers.

"EDWARD! ARE YOU HURT?!" Roy and Alphonse demanded at the same time.

"I don't think so, but the man got away. Can someone get me out of here?"

Al had already made a transmutation circle and Roy was soon climbing down the newly transmuted ladder.

"Edward? Where are you?" Roy asked the minute he had climbed down the ladder and his eyes were frantically searching the area. It was hard to see much.

"I'm over here. I lost my boots."

Roy pointed his flashlight to his right and found Ed sitting on the ground, shivering. He had indeed lost his boots and he began crying the moment he saw Roy. Roy ran over to him and picked him up into his arms, holding him against his chest, kissing the top of his head. The relief of finding Ed safe and unhurt was flooding his entire body.

"Don't ever do something like that again!" Roy said.

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't let him kill you." Ed was crying into Roy's shoulder as he carried him over to the ladder. As they reached the top, a pair of steel arms suddenly pulled the two of them out of the hole completely.

"Are you okay? Col – Roy! You're hurt!" Alphonse exclaimed.

"I'm fine, Al, it's just a cut," Roy said. He hadn't noticed before now, but the cut in his arm was obviously bigger than he had originally thought, judging by how he had blood staining a large part of his right sleeve.

"Roy! Are you fine? How's Ed?" Hughes came striding over to them. He took one look at Roy's arm. "You need to get that looked at, there's an ambulance over there."

And so Roy followed him, Ed still clutching the front of his uniform.

They sat down in the back of the ambulance and the paramedic moved to have a look at his arm, but Roy refused. "Check that he's fine first." He gently pried open Ed's grip and turned him around so that he could be examined first.

Fortunately, the boy was fine, just cold and soaked as well as the cut on his forehead, but with that bandaged, it was Roy's turn. Which proved to be harder than he had thought it would be, because Ed refused to let go of him. And so he ended up sitting bare-chested with a five-year-old on his lap as the paramedic sowed up the cut on his arm and applied the bandages.

And Hughes was of course nearly swooning over the "cuteness".


Ed was still clinging to Roy's neck as they opened the door to their hotel room. "Okay, Ed, let's get you warmed up with a hot bath," Roy said gently as he carried the shivering boy into the bathroom. He put him down on the bathroom tiles and removed his soggy clothes. They all landed on the floor with a sound not unlike a "plap". He then removed his own soggy and blood-stained uniform jacket and shirt and threw them in the same pile before he lifted Ed up by his armpits and placed him in the bathtub. He turned on the water and waited until it was a comfortable temperature before he plugged it in order to let the warm water fill up around Ed. Ed put his hand under the tap, letting the water flow up and down over his arm, and he grinned at Roy.

Roy was leaning his elbows on the edge of the tub and smiled back at him. "So the temperature feels okay?"

"It's perfect."

"Good."

Roy had to say that he wasn't completely in his element here, he had never given a kid a bath before. He had helped Ed get cleaned up before they left East HQ, but that had merely been with a washcloth and some soap. No, this was far more daunting. This was a parenting thing, and it scared Roy. Besides, he couldn't help but feel slightly awkward at the fact that the boy was naked. But at the same time, Edward was five, Roy was his legal guardian and so it couldn't be helped.

Which meant that he was lost except for what he had read in a book that Hawkeye got him about how you shouldn't leave small children on their own in the bathtub in case they drowned.

So, I'm staying here, that's step one.

Step two: foam bath.

Roy poured in some of the contents of the blue bottle he had bought back in East City that had promised that it was especially mild to the skin and was therefore recommended for small children. The foam began building up immediately.

Good. So, step three: talking/playing with the child.

"Okay, Edward. I need you to promise me that you won't ever try to protect me like you did earlier. You could have been killed."

"But then he would have killed you! I couldn't let him do that!" Roy saw tears pressing at the corners of his eyes just at the thought.

Because, fact was, the boy was absolutely right. If Edward hadn't distracted Scar for as long as he had, then Roy would have been dead.

And then he would have failed Ed once again.

And so Roy sighed heavily and pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry, Ed." Roy could feel the boy's tears running down his left shoulder.

"Don't get yourself killed. Promise me."

"I promise."

"Good." Then the boy surprised him as he placed a quick kiss on his left cheek before he resumed the hug.

And it made Roy feel oddly warm. It made him happy in a different way than he had experienced before. It was the same part of him that had felt like he couldn't breathe the moment he saw Ed disappear into the sewers with Scar.

And Roy couldn't help but feel slightly surprised by how easily they had trusted each other considering their history. But then, Roy had had a week to feel the panic rising before they found him. And Ed needed him. That was very clear to him.

And Roy needed him too.

No, they were going to find this out little by little. Him, Ed and Al.

After all, they were officially family as of today.


Sneaking into the hospital really was too easy. These stupid humans let him go wherever he wanted just because of a uniform.

But still, this better pay off. They had lost a sacrifice, or at least they couldn't be sure if the kid could be used anymore because of this mess. How the hell Wrath could let this happen, he had no idea. He was the leader of the entire country, yet he somehow managed to let the pipsqueak get kidnapped and turned into a fucking baby!

And so it fell to Envy to interrogate one of the psychos that had done it because there might be a chance that they had seen the Portal judging by their alchemy skills.

He went inside the room that belonged to Grant Penton and locked the door behind him. The man in the bed was a mess. The Flame Colonel really had done his work on him, but at least he was awake, and that was all that Envy needed right now.

"Are you here to let me see my son?" the man asked, hardly moving his jaws.

"No, but tell you what, I'll give him to you if you tell me something." Of course he wasn't really going to do that, there was no reason that he should do anything for these worms after all.

"What do you want to know?"

"You and your wife, did any of you perform human transmutation? There's no reason not to say so, after what you did to the Fullmetal pipsqueak, there's no way to make your sentence any worse."

"Will you bring me my son if I tell you?"

"Sure."

"Lillian did. She used the life of one of our first subjects to pay the toll. She used the information to make the preparation of our son possible."

Great. So they lost the pipsqueak and now they needed to track down the psychobitch instead. Envy sighed. He had a phone call to make.