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Chapter Two

Ed was angry. Last night he had flipped over most of the objects in his hotel room. Al had been fixing them for him afterwards.

Ed hated this. When Mustang wasn't there, Ed would hardly be allowed to look for the Philosopher's Stone. What was the point in staying in the military at all?

Don't think like that. The Colonel's gonna get you out and then you'll be back to looking for the Stone. You can't just lose all the resources.

He pulled on his damn uniform trousers. The blue was only depressing. When he had fastened his jacket, he punched the bathroom mirror in front of him and it shattered. Ed just clapped his hands and then repaired it.

He went out of the bathroom and met Al who was looking at him.

"Brother?"

"It's nothing, Al, let's just get going."

"Oh, okay, Brother."

They walked in silence over to HQ, walking towards the now old office. When they got inside, even though they were early, everyone was already there.

"Hi," Ed said, feeling odd wearing his new uniform. "I was just going to see if I had forgotten something here."

The others nodded. Ed searched, but didn't find anything. He was on his way over to the door, when he found it blocked by the rest of the team. Hawkeye was standing in the middle of the group, a gift held in her hands. "It's a going away present from all of us. Just something to remind you of your family."

Ed took it, ripping off the neat red wrapping, and found a framed picture of the whole gang, smiling. There was Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc, Breda, Falman and Fuery. They had also put a picture of himself and Al in each of the lower corners.

Ed smiled sadly, touched by the whole thing. Even though it reminded him of what he was losing, it was still great. "Thanks."

"We thought you could have it on your desk," Fuery said.

"I will." He looked at the clock on the wall, it said 07.55. "I guess I have to go."

He said goodbye to each of them, getting a man-hug from Havoc, Breda, Falman and Fuery. He then shook hands with Hawkeye. When he reached the Colonel, the man looked confused about what he was supposed to do. He eyed Ed's outstretched hand, then reached for it. He stopped however, and pulled him into a quick one-armed hug. "Take care, Edward."

"I will."

"And you'd better turn up here for lunch."

Ed gave him a two-fingered salute. "Yes, Sir."

Then he left the office.

Walking through the halls, he decided upon one thing. He was going to give General Schiff hell for this. He was Edward Elric, nobody was going to separate him from his brother and his team without coming to regret it within a week. And so he kicked open the double doors leading into his new office, determined to let these bastards know that you don't push the Fullmetal Alchemist around. He wasn't going to do something so bad that it would earn him a court-martial, but he was certainly not going to let Schiff have it easy.

"Elric! You will not kick open the door!" Schiff said.

"Why not, Sir? It's not like it's hurting anyone?" Ed said in his most innocent tone.

"Don't push me, Elric."

"I'm not pushing you, I'm standing right here, we're about five metres apart, Sir."

"Elric, my office, now."

Ed followed him.

Schiff stood behind his desk, finding a long cane. It had a long, thin razor-like blade in the middle that stuck out about five millimetres from the cane.

"Your right hand is automail, yes?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Then remove your left glove and place your left hand upon the desk, palm up."

Not seeing how to turn the man's words back on him to further irritate him, Ed did as he was told.

Schiff moved to the side of the desk, then he slammed the cane down on Ed's palm.

Ed didn't say anything. He wasn't going to let him have the pleasure.

SMACK

Ed still didn't respond although it hurt like hell. His hand was already bleeding a lot.

SMACK

Schiff moved the cane half a centimetre up towards his fingers each time.

SMACK

Ed couldn't fight the wince, but he still didn't say anything.

SMACK

Blood spattered the desk around his hand.

SMACK

Ed was biting his lips hard to fight the urge to shout out.

SMACK

A small yelp escaped his lips.

SMACK

Another yelp.

SMACK

God it hurts!

SMACK

Ed grunted with pain.

He waited for another blow, but it didn't come. Blood was pouring from Ed's hand and it stung and throbbed like hell.

"Like I told you, Elric, I do not take kindly to insubordinance. Let this be a lesson. You are not to cover up that hand until the doctor does, is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir," Ed growled.

"Good, you are dismissed."

Ed found his way to the infirmary, gripping the wrist of his throbbing hand. It dripped blood all over the place.

He got to the infirmary and met a doctor he'd had to see a few times over the last two years.

"Oh, hi Ed, what's it this time?" The guy was in his mid-thirties and had a rather sharp mind. Everyone who knew him just called him "Doc". He saw Ed's hand, and his eyebrows shot up. He leapt out of the chair he was sitting on, grabbing a huge compress as he went. He pressed it against Ed's hand. He gave a pained yelp as it came in contact with his abused skin.

"What the hell, Ed?! Why haven't you put some pressure on this?"

"I wasn't allowed to."

"Who ordered that?! Colonel Mustang would never do this!" Doc was shocked.

"I got reassigned."

"What?!"

"Let's just say that me and General Schiff don't get along…"

"Of course this would be him!" Doc said, an angry tone in his voice. "Well, come here, we need to bandage this."

Roy had felt odd just watching Fullmetal go like that. He didn't like it, not one bit. He needed some air, so when Hawkeye said that she would go to gather some documents, Roy had told her that he would do it. The way through the halls had taken him past Schiff's office. When he saw the blood drops that led away from the double doors, his heart sank.

He began following the trail that led to the infirmary.

It has to be Fullmetal! Who else manages to piss the man off to this level within ten past eight?

And so Roy quickly went to the infirmary, knocking twice on the door before walking straight into the room.

His suspicions had been correct. The kid that was sitting there, the blood from his palm soaking through the compress that the doctor was pressing against it.

"Fullmetal! What happened?"

"I kicked the door open and teased him, twice." He was looking like a kid that had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I thought I told you to not to provoke him!"

"Screw him! I'm not just going to do what he says!"

Roy pressed the fingers of right hand against the root of his nose, groaning. "Fullmetal, please just don't do this to yourself. You won't achieve anything by doing stuff like that right now. All you're doing is making him reach the point where he will punish you just for talking."

"I'm not going to let him break me! I'm not going to just let him use me as a tool! He's a bastard and we all know it!"

"Yes, but sometimes you're going to have to act as though some people are worth more than you just because of rank, otherwise you'll end up in front of a court-martial. Please, if you don't care about yourself, at least think of your brother. You're just going to worry him if you act like this."

The kid looked down at his feet, his fist clenched in anger.

Roy was getting worried by the amount of blood that was coming from his hand. "How many times did he hit you?"

"Ten."

Roy knew about the dreaded cane that the General used, but he had to say that ten was pushing it, even for him. Especially against a kid. After all, he had a much smaller hand than the usual soldier and so the damage would be worse. Which made a sudden fear creep into him. The man did not take Fullmetal's size into consideration and was treating him like an average grown soldier.

Roy had to keep himself from storming into the General's office and give him a piece of his mind.

He watched as Fullmetal's hand was being wrapped in generous layers of bandages in order to stop the bleeding.

"I have to say I agree with the Colonel, Ed. That bastard had no right to do this, but you still have to obey his orders. Please make sure that you don't have to come in here again this month?" The doctor said.

Roy was happy to hear that the doctor was as displeased with Schiff as Roy was. That meant that if Fullmetal managed to get himself into more trouble, at least he would get proper treatment and probably a way to vent his anger.

Roy followed the kid back to his office and then went to find the papers that he had gone looking for quite a while ago. When he came back to the office an hour later than he should, the first thing that met him was a shot at his feet. Roy jumped.

"Where the hell have you been, Colonel?!" Hawkeye demanded angrily.

"I've been to see Fullmetal."

"Why? Is Brother okay?" Alphonse asked with a scared tone in his voice.

Roy didn't see any point in lying to the kid. He would find out anyway. "Fullmetal kicked the office door open and teased General Schiff, and the man didn't take too kindly to it. He pulled out the cane and beat him across the palm ten times."

"He did? But why did you take so long?"

"General Schiff is known for using a special kind of cane that has a thin blade across the middle. It makes a cut each time it hits the skin. I found him because of the blood trail that he left on the way to the infirmary. General Schiff rarely lets the soldiers put pressure on the wounds that he inflicts. I tried talking to your brother and give him some advice about the General."

"Is General Schiff even allowed to do that?! How is Brother doing?!"

"Your brother will be fine once his skin has healed. In the meantime, I think you're going to have to help him change the bandages."

"Of course! But Colonel, how could he just do that!?"

"General Schiff has a lot of power, and I don't think he's using it in the correct way. I'm sorry I couldn't help Fullmetal more, but if it happens again, I'll talk to General Grumman to see what he can do."

And so they went back to work, although they were mostly just focused on the cruel punishment that Fullmetal had received.

It was a relief the moment the boy opened the door, although Roy would rather have seen him kick it open as usual. His hand wouldn't fit inside its glove, not even close, and so he looked slightly odd with just one gloved hand.

"Brother! How's your hand?!" Alphonse immediately rushed over to the kid, gripping his wrist gently to study his mutilated hand.

Fullmetal nearly managed to hide the wince as his brother moved his hand.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"It's okay, Al. It's just a few cuts."

Roy would like to argue that it was substantially more than that, but he wasn't going to frighten Al more than he already had.

Lunch was otherwise quite enjoyable, but it still didn't seem quite right as long as Fullmetal was wearing a uniform. He was supposed to wear the weird clothes and red coat. He was just glad that at least the kid hadn't been ordered to cut his plait. After knowing Edward Elric for two years, Roy would see it as nothing more than sacrilege.

Fullmetal had to return to his office all too soon, and so Roy couldn't help but feel that the office was missing something crucial.

At four o'clock that afternoon he received a phone call from the doctor.

"What's wrong?" Roy was seriously worried.

"I thought I should just tell you. I've received a phone call from General Schiff. He told me to have a bed ready tomorrow. Ed's getting flogged at nine in the morning."