Wow, am i really already uploading chapter eight? Only four more and I'll have to start writing the main plot...

Like I said, veeeery long chapter compared to the others. Go get some caffiene before you read. Share plz? >.>

I might as well just upload all the chapters. Nah. I think I'll leave ya hangin' for a while.

Listento me, talking like people actually read this shtuff. Meh.

Don't let the title scare you. It just sorta fits, or at least in my twisted mentally unstable mind it does. Read on I suppose.

Disclaimer: -sob- I dun wanna! fma's not mine.

Chapter 8: Lies

Edward and Alphonse Elric had both been out on a mission at the time of Hughes' arrival at Central. They were to return later in the day, and they were now headed towards the Colonel's office. Alphonse was not yet a state alchemist, for the exams weren't for a while, but seeing as he was one of the people acting as replacement Fuhrer for the moment, he was treated like one and still went with his brother on missions.

Despite the fact they were working together to run the whole damn place, Ed and Roy still didn't get along very well, Roy still poking fun at Ed's lack of height (Who's there? Sorry, Fullmetal, Black Hayate was blocking you from view.) And Ed still retaliating in his normal way (Who's so small they can't reach the bathroom sink even on tip-toes?). So when he finally made it to his office, his brother stopping to wait outside (as usual), he charged in, all his attention on Mustang. He slammed the door behind him, because if he didn't, their shouting would draw people's attention away from their work and Riza would often charge in and shoot something. Ed vividly remembered the once in a lifetime moment where Hawkeye's aim was off and the bullet hit Ed's metal arm, ricocheting out the window. The window had been closed at the time. He was still finding bits of glass stuck in his hair.

"Alright, Bastard Colonel, here's your goddamned report!"

He all but slammed the report down onto his desk, causing a few stray documents to flutter to the floor. He could smash the desk if he wanted to, seeing as since he had returned his limbs to normal he had began strapping a metal contraption to his arm so that he could transmute it into a weapon or whatever he needed. Needless to say it was heavy and took a lot of training to get used to and strengthen his arm. But he had insisted so Winry had created a special alloy for him and designed it to fit his arm. Roy looked up from his work. Ed was a bit taken aback to see that his expression was serious, not in his 'time to play with Edward' way. Despite his loathing of the Colonel's attitude towards him, he respected the man when he wasn't making fun of him.

"Colonel...?"

He suddenly sensed someone else in the room, now that he wasn't only paying attention to the Colonel.

"Oh, Hey there Ed. How have you been? I heard you got your limbs back."

Ed slowly turned to look at the couch, already knowing what he would see. Without thinking he sprinted over and grabbed the hem of Maes' uniform. Roy immediately stood up, his chair scraping harshly against the floor before falling with a loud clunk.

"Fullmetal!"

He continued to hold him like that, shaking with anger.

"You aren't Hughes! We all know that the dead don't come back! We know too damn well!"

Ed clapped his hands and placed his hand on the modified steel, transforming it into a blade. At this Roy stepped briskly forward, hand poised to snap.

"Edward Elric, I order you to stop!"

After Ed had released him to clap his hands, Hughes had dropped back onto the couch. He knew that Ed really meant to kill him. After all that boy had been through he couldn't blame him... The dead didn't come back to life...

Suddenly his head began to spin and he felt sick again. He grasped his head.

"..Roy..."

Ed stopped, having been ordered to so fiercely and seeing the man (who definitely couldn't be Hughes) suddenly look very ill.

Roy ran to Maes' side, once again placing a hand on his back.

"Are you sick again?"

He simply nodded, the movement making him feel worse. Roy had a bucket in his office for various reasons, this usually not being one of them, but he grabbed it and placed it in front of Hughes just in time.

Edward watched all of this; his arms limp at his sides. What the hell was going on here?

Roy tore his eyes away from his friend long enough to acknowledge Ed. Of course, the boy would be expecting answers.

"Ed, this is Hughes. I know it seems impossible, but it's him."

"It is impossible!" He didn't bother to re-transmute the blade, which swung about dangerously as he moved his arms. " You know better than that! How do we know that Envy didn't find a way back and this isn't him in disguise?"

"Ed, you don't understand, this is definitely Hughes-"

"Like hell!"

Edward swung around, not noticing that Hughes was sitting up again. His arm swung around with the weight of the steel and the blade was headed for Hughes' chest before he realized what he had done. Hughes' eyes widened. There was an eerie light as the blade passed right through him like a butter knife through water. All three stared in shock. Hughes and Roy because they knew what happened and were trying to register it, Ed because...

"Homunculus..."

He turned sharply to Roy after re-transmuting his blade, anger burning fiercely in his eyes.

"Roy, what have you done?"

Roy shook his head, face somber.

"I didn't do anything. He showed up at my door."

"Whether that's true or not, you should know a homunculus when you see one!"

Hughes sighed, undoing his human form and returning to his homunculus body. Ed turned and stared. Before he had the time to react without thinking again Hughes lifted his shirt to reveal the Ouroboros tattoo, along with the array inked over it.

Ed found his legs couldn't support him anymore and he fell backwards, supporting himself with his hands.

"That...array... his soul..."

Roy nodded.

"His soul was bound to a homunculus."

Ed shook his head violently in disbelief.

"Its not...possible..."

However he knew that it may very well be possible, and apparently it was, because here was Maes Hughes, alive in Roy's office. It really was him. He was alive... This fact slapped Ed in the face. He found himself standing up and throwing himself onto Hughes, crying uncontrollably.

"Hughes...you're alive...!"

At this time Alphonse peeked in, wondering what all the commotion was. He could have sworn he heard Hughes' name, and if he was brought up while they were fighting that would be going too far...

What he saw astounded him. Roy standing there, looking somewhat gloomy but smiling, with Ed hugging a man that looked like a homunculus, but...

"Hughes!"

Al rushed forward, falling over his brother to hug them both. The three laughed, and Roy watched them, sighing inwardly with relief.

After they laughed for a while Ed became slightly more serious, but he was still smiling.

"How did this happen?"

Hughes looked down at those strange clothes that still disturbed him.

"I don't remember."

"What?"

"He said he doesn't know!"

Roy's outburst surprised Ed, but he brushed that off.

"Do you remember anything? Even the smallest bit of information could help."

Hughes' face melted into concentration. After a few moments, he shook his head.

"I just remember running through the rain, completely terrified, and ending up at Roy's house."

Ed nodded. So that was why he was with Roy.

"Could you have been running from something?"

"Maybe...I'm not sure."

"Why were you sick just now?"

"I don't know."

"Are you... vomiting any red stone?"

Hughes looked at Roy, his eyes wide, but Roy shook his head. He sighed with relief and leaned back on the couch.

Ed crossed his arms, deep in thought. This wasn't getting much anywhere, but he did at least learn that somebody or something might have seriously scared him. But someone had to have created the Homunculus and bound him to it...

"You know we're gonna have to find out who did this."

Ed glanced at Hughes as he spoke.

"Its extremely likely...that you have ingested the Red Stone before."

Hughes bit his lip and looked down at the ground. It felt strange having Ed talk to him like this. But strange definitely wasn't anything new today.

Ed sighed and looked straight into Hughes' eyes, shivering slightly at their purple snake-eye appearance.

"Hughes...it was our fault that you were... killed in the first place. I promise to find out who did this. Although, I'm not sure what we should do when we find who it was..."

Roy stepped forward and sat down next to Hughes.

"We should probably find out why they did it. And possibly...how."

"I'll help too."

Alphonse added his part. Hughes had always been so kind to them, and his wife and kid...wait, his wife and kid!

"Hey, have you told Gracia and Alicia yet?"

Hughes twitched. Roy glanced at him, concern flashing over his features for a split second. A smile returned to Maes' face, but the emptiness of it made Roy sick to his stomach.

"Nah, I didn't want to freak them out. I'm sure they won't mind waiting a little longer. After all, I died."

Roy turned to face Maes, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at his him. As he suspected, rather than look at Roy he looked away to his left, a sign that he was lying or hiding something.

"Maes, is there something you're not telling us?"

Hughes pulled his face away and looked towards Roy's desk.

-There was smoke everywhere. He couldn't see, he could barely breathe in it. He thought he heard people talking. He couldn't make out the words. Trying to stand up, he found he could do so easily. He looked around, trying to focus, to see something, anything, when a brilliant light appeared. The smoke began to evaporate, and he could hear a woman screaming... –

"Maes! Maes!"

He suddenly realized his face was being slapped, and he looked up to see Roy, Ed and Al standing over him, and Roy stopped hitting him. Wait, over him...?

He sat up and soon realized he was on the floor. When did that happen? Wasn't he sitting on the couch?

Roy looked relieved, then his face hardened and he stood up.

"Don't scare me like that. Your face just went blank and you passed out on the floor."

"Oh. Sorry about that."

Roy watched him carefully. That was definitely an absent-minded answer.

Hughes watched the ground as if he expected it to move, thinking about what just happened. Who had screamed? He could have sworn he had heard their voice before...

"Yo, Hughes. You remember anything?"

He jumped and looked up at Ed. Damn, that kid was perceptive.

"Maybe, not really anything important...it was just a lot of smoke, a strange light, and someone screaming..."

Ed raised an eyebrow.

"I'd call that important. Tell us if you remember anything else. We gotta go."

He pointed his thumb towards the door as if to prove he needed to leave and made his way out. Alphonse followed close behind. Ed stuck his head in once more.

"Bastard Colonel?"

"Fullmetal Gnome?"

"...Good luck."

And he was gone, leaving behind a dumbfounded Colonel and Brigadier General. Roy shrugged it off and went back to Hughes, giving him a hand.

He gladly accepted it. Once he was standing, he brushed himself off and morphed to his human form. Roy looked at him oddly for a second.

"Can you do that to change into other things too? You know, like that one homunculus, Envy?"

Hughes shrugged.

"Nope. I tried. No go. Seems I can walk through walls though."

Roy nodded, stifling a chuckle. He already knew that, but Hughes had a way of making things sound humorous.

"So do you want to visit your family?"

Hughes looked away again.

"Does this reluctance to visit have something to do with 'us'?"

Hughes vision snapped to Roy. He opened his mouth, closed it, sighed, and looked back down.

"Yeah... Could we just leave them out of the loop...at least for a while?"

Roy watched Hughes carefully. It didn't seem like this would be reason enough to completely block his family out, but if that was what Hughes wanted...

Roy leaned forward and softly kissed Maes on the cheek.

"Alright. But they deserve to know at some point. I'll let my subordinates know not to tell them."

Hughes nodded, absentminded again.

"I need to use the restroom. I'll be right back."

Maes turned and abruptly stepped out of Roy's office. He walked into the single bathroom and locked the door before sinking to his knees and sobbing gently into his hands. He really hated having to lie to Roy like that, but it was all he could do.

End Chapter 8

Yah I know, I don't think Ed would have given up that easily either. But for the story's sake...moo.

Expect strange things from the next chapter on as I tried to wrap up the prologue. I like totally warped the story man. I swear, I had to have been high on something. Probably overload of milk. I am a milkoholic...

Duet Maxwell Shinobi of Wind: Ewww...-wipes drool off of chapter 7- Ah yes, as I say, freakiness makes the world go round... -Voice: I thought you said wierdos make the world go round? -Me Quiet you! I'm not doing what the voices tell me to anymore! I'm Freeeeeeeeeeee -slams head into randoms pole- Oww...

Alright, guess I'll call you Duet! Mehehehee duet is like...that singy thingy...-smacks self-

Yes people, revieeeeewww! I am now going to stop continually posting shapters and give you a chance to review so do it! I beg of yuuuuuu...

Strawberrypawpaw popsicles are awesum. -drools- gah now I want one...