As Ed entered headquarters and navigated the halls towards Mustang's office, he greeted the various people he knew as he passed them by. Al followed suit. At last, they reached the dreaded destination. Riza Hawkeye met them at the door.

"Edward! Alphonse!" she exclaimed. No one had expected them back in Central, except for the Colonel.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye," Ed inclined his head towards her, and then turned towards his brother. "Al, you stay here. I'll only be a few minutes. I hope." Ed muttered the last statement under his breath as he headed past Hawkeye and into the room beyond. The teen stood at attention, obviously uncomfortable in the presence of his superior.

"Well, Fullmetal, you're late…as usual. You're lucky I'm in a good mood today; otherwise you might be in danger of getting burned…if you know what I mean. I take it you're here to hand in your report."

Edward grunted a reply and dug the report out of the lining of his jacket. "Here it is. I'll be going now…"

"Not so fast," Mustang cut the young alchemist short. "You didn't think you'd get off that easy, did you? I want to hear a complete account of your findings, from your own mouth. It has been painfully obvious in the past that your reports are somewhat lacking in detail, especially those details which I consider important. God knows no one reads these damn things anyway. We just file them away without a backward glance."

"Sorry, Mustang. Maybe later. You see Al and I just got back into town and I told him I'd only be a minute. So you understand that…"

"Edward, sit." Once again the older man cut him off. And this time he meant business. Hearing Roy use his real name, Ed obeyed the command and seated himself in an uncomfortable chair. "Now, tell me, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing important really, you know, the usual. Dead ends, no leads, homunculi," Ed said the last word softly, hoping Mustang wouldn't hear him.

"Excuse me, but did you just say homunculi?" the colonel asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Did I? Maybe."

"Fullmetal, something is going on here that you aren't being completely honest about, however, I don't have time to manipulate it out of you right now. We'll be continuing this conversation in the near future. For now, you are free to go."

Ed glared at the man sitting opposite him for a moment before rising to his feet. With a nod, the teen turned and walked as fast as he thought he could without raising suspicion. As he shut the door behind him, Ed heaved a sigh of relief. He had come really close to spilling his guts in there. The last thing he needed was the military concerned in the business of the homunculi and the Philosopher's stone. Although interest arose every now and then in the more corrupt of the senior officers, Ed and Al had been able to research in peace up to this point. However, this was becoming increasingly more difficult with the homunculi on their tails. They'd had three close calls in the last month alone, on of which almost landed the shorter of the two brothers in the hospital, but it wasn't important for Mustang to know any of that. It's my burden to carry, Ed thought.

The Fullmetal Alchemist met up with his brother in the hallway where he had left him, and they headed to their dorm room to get settled back in, for a few days at least.

On the outskirts of the city, in a dark pub filled with cigar smoke and the stench of other not-so-legal drugs…

"That Edward Elric is becoming a real pain," the homunculi called Envy stated out-loud to his partners, Lust and Gluttony. "We have to do something about him."

"Don't be so short sighted, that boy could be the key to the Philosopher's Stone…and becoming human. We'll use him first to forge the stone. If he survives that, then you are welcome to do with him as you please," Lust replied in a sultry voice. Gluttony only snickered.

"Well then…if that's what you think we should do, let's put our plan into action. If all goes well, Edward Elric is only three short days away from never seeing the light of day again," Envy laughed greedily.

"You just wait and see, we'll be human again before long…even if it comes at the cost of that pipsqueak's life," the corners of Lust's mouth turned up in a smirk that would turn even the most evil of hearts to stone.

Miles away, the Elric brothers had no idea that they were in for the ride of their lives.