Ed knocked on the door of Sin's apartment. "Sin!" he called. "Come on, wake up. We have a lead!" he turned to Al, standing right next to him. "That should get her up,"
When she did not come, Al said, "Or not,"
Ed snorted and jiggled the handle. "Come on, Sin, open the do—" the thin, wood door fell out of its frame and to the floor. Al folded his arms and looked at his brother.
"Good going, Big Brother," he said sarcastically.
"Al…" the suit of armor turned and looked inside the apartment. He gasped.
Sin's apartment was a total wreck. The wooden shelves that had held various books and picture frames were broken and their contents scattered about the apartment. Her bed was broken in half, and the window was wide open. As the Elric brothers stepped about the debris, Ed heard a cracking sound as he stepped. He looked down and picked up his foot to reveal a broken picture frame. It was obviously hand-drawn and hand-painted. Ed's eyes widened.
"Al!" he called to his brother. The suit of armor turned his head and went to his brother. Ed showed him the picture.
"But…But that's—"
"That's Sin, I know," Ed answered for him. It was she, but it was not. She was in an all-white background, and her hair was not in its usual French braid, but hung loosely about her shoulders. And it was brown, not the usual black color. Sin's eyes were not golden, but a soft emerald-green color instead. She wore a maroon, vintage dress with puffy, lace sleeves. And most unusual; she was smiling brightly. Ed turned the portrait over and saw words painted on the back.
"'To my beloved Kraya, From your painter, Hansel.'" He read aloud. Ed turned the portrait back over and traced Sin's outline with his forefinger then looked back around the ruined apartment.
"Where could she have gone?" he asked himself.
"Brother…" Al was kneeling close to where Ed had found the portrait. Ed saw what he was looking at. Scorch marks. There were about ten of them all around the apartment. "What do you think happened?"
"These are electricity scorch marks," Ed realized. "She was trying to electrocute something…"
"…But what?" Al finished for his brother. Ed nodded.
"The trail is long cold, Al," Ed said, getting up. "We should go. Maybe we can follow the events up to right after she left."
Al nodded. "But what if she didn't leave her apartment? What if she was attacked just after we left?"
"Then the trail is even colder than we thought. We should just follow our lead and hope it takes us to Sin."
"But shouldn't we tell someone about this? Colonel Mustang would—"
"No," Ed answered, turning his back to his younger brother.
"He and Sin know each other very well. I'm sure that he would be able to—"
"I don't want to involve Mustang." Ed said plainly. "He'll complicate things,"
"He would want to know if Sin was missing!" Ed froze. "Remember, she's an important aspect to the military, Big Brother. If Sin turned up missing and they needed her for a very important undercover mission, what would happen? No one would be able to reach her! And she could be in serious trouble!"
Ed groaned. "All right, all right!" he shouted. "I'll try to reach Mustang,"
Al stood. "Is he still in Krayensburg?"
Ed shook his head. "I don't know. He may still be here, but I highly doubt it. He's looking for a ghost." He folded the portrait and slipped into the inside pocket of his red jacket.
"What are you doing, Big Brother—"
"It's for identification. We can ask people in Lior if they've seen Sin." He explained, heading out the broken door.
"But do you really think that she'd be in Lior?" Al followed his older brother out the door.
Ed shrugged. "I have no idea. But if her informant is the same one as ours, then she'll be headed in that direction."
Al nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Lior isn't that far from here, so I bet she did go there in search of the homunculi."
"We can only hope," Ed responded.
Once outside, the two Elric brothers went to a green pay phone next to their hotel. Ed reached into his pocket. He produced two silver coins and dropped them into the coin slot. He dialed Mustang's office in Central and waited for him to pick up.
"Mustang, here." Mustang's bland tone came from the receiver.
"Colonel?"
"Ed?"
"Yeah, it's me. Listen, have you heard from Sin?"
"No, why?"
"We haven't seen her all morning, and her apartment's a wreck."
Mustang was silent, as if he was thinking.
"Sir?"
"Resume whatever you were doing. I will handle this."
"But, Sir—"
"Good day, Ed," with that, Colonel Mustang hung up the phone.
"WHAAAAT?" Ed screamed at the phone. He slammed it down onto its console and looked back up at Al. "HE HUNG UP ON ME!" he snarled.
Al held up his hands. "C-Calm down, Big Brother…" he said. "We should just go to Lior like we had planned. That store manager seemed reliable enough,"
"Al, I don't know about you, but when I talk to a person about a crucial piece of information, I expect to get at least an assurance that they've witnessed the actual event, not saying, 'Oh, a group of people dressed black were on their way to Lior, I remember.' There are a lot of people who dress in black, Al."
"But he specifically said that there was a small, round man with them and a woman with very long, black hair. So we can at least check into Lior."
Ed folded his arms. "I never said that we weren't going to Lior, I'm just saying that we shouldn't be disappointed if we find absolutely nothing."
Al nodded and started walking to the train station. "But I bet we find the homunculi,"
Ed shrugged and followed the suit of armor. "Maybe…"