Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemistnot copyrighted to me in any way or form.

Author to reader/review:

Thank you those who have read this story and to those that have reviewed. Your comments are quite delightful from "...it's AU...I love AUs :)" Cringe and "Very, heartbreaking story..." Uniasus to "This fanfic is os evil! ME LIKEY! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!" Angi.

For those that had wondered if Ed and Al are related, the answer is no. It was an initial thought, yet it would complicate matters for me.

So again thank you bow to readers> and here is Part 1 of Chapter 7: Priority Edward.

Chapter 7: Priority Edward (Part 1)

The twisting and rolling in his stomach: Edward couldn't stop his nervousness. This being the first time they were conducting the experiment, the outcome would be unknown. His breaths moved in and out in a small controlled pattern. Edward hated getting needles. The attendants were so rough. He could remember one experience vividly; the male attendant had positioned the needle wrong - couldn't find the vein. So he had dug around (needle in arm) to find it. It was only once, and he didn't like it.

Edward couldn't help but feel a peak of curiosity. He was naked again; his clothes stripped from his body and he had also endured the routine cleaning. The room though was immensely different. It wasn't clean and white, but grey cement. The room was considerably large (larger than the usual rooms), and on the floor around him were intricate chalk lines that he didn't understand.

'It's still cold.' Maybe even colder, as Edward watched his breathe. Steam of some sort rose from his mouth as he shivered from the cold. His hands and toes felt numb. In some small attempt to warm-up, Edward wiggled and moves them. 'Why do they have to take my clothes?' In some feign way he thinks of becoming use to the procedure, though his disturbance keeps his mind to actual fact. Especially with all the people, that would later come into the room and observe.

There was a dull ache in his right arm, where the needle was administered. Again, he took notice of his surroundings to try ignoring the pain. This room didn't have windows because it lies farther down underground. They had to take an elevator to get within this area. He didn't even know an elevator existed. Edward didn't know what wing or section this place was. He didn't know why there were no machine and wires on or around him. The restraints were familiar, yet Edward wasn't lying on a table. He also didn't understand why those that just came into the room weren't wearing the usual medical attire.

The man at the front was studying him and the white chalk lines around him. Edward could see the mumbles on his lips, looking over and over at the chalk lines and it's occupant in the middle. Edward watched the man stiffly walk to another man, whispering in a hurried angry mood. Usually he would close his eyes when being experimented on - like he had done when his mother died. Curiosity raked and won over his brain.

There were 3 medical attendants, 2 unidentified people, and that stiff walking man who now steadily moved to Edward. His eyes did an once-over on Edward's naked form, settling on the restraints that held him down. With a frown the man turned to the others, pointing an accusatory finger in Edward's direction. "Those restraints come off."

"No." One of the medical attendants quickly answered; he was most likely the one in charge. "They have to stay on."

"I can't work with them in the array."

"What do you mean by…?"

"It could interfere with the procedure." He quickly cuts off the attendant containing his impatience for the man. "You already know what I think of this project. But if you at least want some successful results, that restraints have to come off."

The lead medic silently fumed, staring at the man - the alchemist - in cold fury. "Take the restraints off", he ordered the others. Edward's eyes widen at the stiff man's power over the medics. The lids widened even more when the restraints across his limbs and body were removed. Edward didn't move though, and that (he could see) gave the others a slight relaxation to their bodies. Except for the stiff man didn't relax but stiffened even more.

"What are the chances of success?" The lead medic asked the alchemist.

The alchemist ignored the question. "Has that shot been administered?"

Another silent fume and the medic answered, "Yes."

"Increase alchemic power"(a snort) "and activating it with alchemy. It's a stupid idea. Most alchemists wouldn't subject themselves to another's power."

The medic rubs his forehead in frustration. "This is only the first stage of testing." A small breath of air escaped his mouth as a laugh. "In fact, this is the first test."

Edward watched the stiff man nod his head, hearing the information. Then with a sudden relaxation in his shoulders, he takes off his coat and turns (again) to view the array. Though he could see the man had no real focus on it.

"How old is he?"

"What?" Everyone, particularly the lead medic gave the alchemist a strange look. "You mean him." A finger pointed at Edward.

"Yes."

"It doesn't matter: the younger, the smaller in mass and less power for you to use…theoretically."

"Power?" The obvious concern lays in the alchemist voice.

"The people we commissioned to make the array mentioned something. Didn't you read the report they gave you."

"Yes, I did so don't worry." The alchemist responded to the medic's fretting, "just curious if you knew anymore information then they supplied."

The alchemist looked at Edward, who stared curiously back. Striding to the middle of the array, the alchemist crouched in front of Edward with a smile. "Hey", he called to Edward gently, "I need you to do something for me."

"Like what?" The man was speaking to him. Edward felt astonished. He hadn't moved listening to the conversation between this man and the medic. Edward didn't dare move even more with the man speaking to him, only his lips to ask a question.

"I'm going to perform alchemy. Do you know what that is?"

Edward nodded his head.

"Good. When I perform my alchemy, I need you completely still. Like what you're doing now."

Edward nodded and whispered, "Ok."

"Don't be scared, ok." The man stood up and walked out of the circle, talking to the two others that also wore normal clothing.

'I'm not scared', Edward thought to himself instantaneously. Whether he truly was or not, it didn't matter. The alchemist now stood at the edge of the array waiting.

"Ok, are you starting?" The medics stood at the wall. The farthest away they could stand from the array, which took up the middle of the room. The other two men with normal clothes were closer, yet held their distances.

"Don't be scared" the alchemist repeats to Edward, placing his hand on the array to induce a glowing light that gradually increased. The tingling of the electric light wrapping around him warmed his skin; or to put it better, his skin would grow warm where the light touched. Yet Edward could feel the inside of his body get too warm quickly. A tingle formed in his arm at the point of his needle within his arm. The tingle, which seemed to fuzz, began to slowly creep up and down his arm and over his body.

The alchemy light grew brighter, and Edward now felt the tingle turn into slight pinpricks of pain. There was shouting inside the room, though Edward couldn't distinguish the words. He indescribably knew the pain shouldn't be there; that there shouldn't be shouting of that measure in the background, and the white-blue light emitted from the array shouldn't take on a darker white. The light was no longer a white-blue, the blue was gone, yet Edward could see that every wave and string of pure white light held a tint of a darker hue. It seemed as though a scarce shadow was attached like a parasite.

Then the shouting became more distant from Edward's curiosity, because it didn't matter. Those pinpricks of pain had become large cascading torrents coursing through him. Edward felt the scream, hear is own voice connected to the vocals, and his throat vibrated to make the sounds as it became dry and ragged.

He could feel the burning inside of him, searching and trying to get out. The burning sensation became more prominent in his right arm and left leg. It was in the bones, muscles, blood, ligaments, and now coming to the skin. Edward couldn't hear anything but the whirl of alchemic power. It shuts out his own yells and the shouting of the alchemist and medics.

There was a sudden release in weight, the pain in his arm and leg was gone and all together non-existent. He couldn't feel anything there. The pain started to increase elsewhere, his chest and left shoulder. Edward poured with nervousness (not scared) about the numbness. He didn't want it to happen again.

A sea of sound flooded his ears, eyes useless because they were unable to see, the pain and tingling disintegrating from his body. Everything sounded to be underwater. People still shouted as they ran in and out of the room. Someone was holding him to their body, telling words that couldn't even be distinguish phonetically. The light was still there off to the side whirling in a dark brilliance. The man holding him, the alchemist, had his fear seep out of him and Edward could now admit he was scared.

Edward didn't realize the labour of his breathing or the blood that flows from where his right arm and left leg use to be.

x x x

His eyes open with a dreary start. Edward came to a realization that he wasn't in that room layers beneath the lab. Yet the ceiling is unfamiliar to him. Registration took a few seconds for Edward to place himself in a room at a hospital. It was once he needed to go to the hospital with his mom – Edward stops the reminiscing of memories. Instead, it became best to assess the circumstances. There were bruises in various places of his body, Edward could feel that. An ache also made itself prominent in his lower back. The most pain came from – Edward didn't want to continue with the thought of where.

Neglecting any protest from his body Edward sat up on the bed, giving him a better view of the room. He swings his legs off the bed, stepping gingerly onto the tile floor. The floor is unfamiliar, being use to the feel of the cements rough surface instead of the smooth tiles. Both of them were still cold.

Taking another look of the room, Edward questions his current position. Why was he in a hospital? He couldn't feel any serious injuries if the two guards had inflict any, but it wasn't a place for him to judge. Why bring him to a public hospital? Assuming this is one. Edward ponders the possibilities, most of them being unreasonable or completely illogical. The one relatively possible outcome was the situation that the labs were destroyed in some fashion. Kei had told him people knew about the facilities, so the military was out of the question. Would people attack the labs for the experiments? If that's what people cared about, then yes they would.

Somewhere his brain nudges the idea of Kei lying to him, and yes that was a possibility also. So why did no one do something sooner? He pauses at the thought, remembering Davis and his words. I'll get you out of here, that's what Davis said. Is this his doing, placing him in a hospital outside of the facility after finding Edward?

'There's a window at the far corner of the room', Edward notes standing to view the outside world he hasn't seen since he was twelve.

x x x

"Excuse me, this is a restricted area." Alphonse watches the man turn towards him and the women, Juliet, who had given out the warning. They stood within the hallways of the sixth floor, where the private rooms reside. As of now, Juliet is going to be Edward's guardian. Almost everyone in the military, assign to the case or not, are being assign as guardians' for one or two teens of the 2nd lab. Alphonse was given the order to restrain Edward if the needs arise. This being the event of today's morning, when Edward attacked the nurse checking on his condition. She had unfortunately found him awake and pouncing, as they detailed.

As a simple answer, the man holds up the bucket of garbage in his hands. He gives them a smile, scratching the back of his head from his mistake. "Sorry, it's been a week and they still haven't gotten the uniforms yet?"

Juliet nods as Alphonse quickly checks the personnel ID around the man's neck. The military hospital was running short on some supplies lately, one being as the man stated uniforms. Budget cutbacks were causing a few disadvantages for the hospital. In short, it's now becoming ridicules.

'Nothing's wrong with the ID.' Alphonse had gotten the details from Roy early in the morning about the situation. If Alpha's wants these kids back, they obviously aren't being secretive about their objective. Yet to openly kidnap the kids would have raised the militaries interest, which technically should be non-existent to Alpha. If Alpha already knew of the military's involvement, it didn't matter what action they chose to partake.

It is those thoughts in mind that the military would now openly show their efforts, with the assumption Alpha already knew. The spies within the other facilities would have to be more careful. Either way, placing the teens and children under the care of military personnel would fit for both scenarios: Alpha knew or Alpha didn't know.

"Proceed on then." Juliet briskly walks in the direction of Edward's room, Alphonse following instep closely behind.

"I'll go in first." Juliet doesn't deter Alphonse offer. She had also heard about this morning's event.

Alphonse tentatively knocks on the door, "Edward." A short span of silence follows before Edward calls Alphonse name in curiosity. Opening the door, Alphonse is given the sight of Edward strapped to the bed. Edward jerks to life. His arm and leg struggle against the restraints, "Where the hell am I!"

He stops in the middle of the room with Edward's out burst. 'Why is Edward yelling at me?' It dawns of Alphonse. Edward was strapped to the bed. He doesn't know about the assault and the 2nd lab is now non-existent. Edward thinks this is another experiment, yet is confused as to where he is.

"Edward calm down, I'll tell you what's has been happening?" It fails to stop Edward's struggling.

"Who's she?" Edward glares.

Alphonse turns; Juliet enters the room with a mouse's timidity. He stutters, uncertain if he should introduce Juliet. Did Edward even know his parents?

"Juliet Sloe, I'm" she falters slightly under Edward continuous glare, "I'm going to be your guardian for the duration of your stay at the military compound."

The glares end, replace with a stare. Edward looks at Alphonse then back Juliet. Another minute and the glare's back yet not the ferocity of before. "I don't understand."

"Juliet, could I have a minute with Edward." Juliet nods with understanding and leaves the room. Alphonse looks at Edward in the white hospital pants and shirts. He could still see the bruises on his cheeks and lips, a sign of the assault upon him. "Yesterday the military sent an assault team to shut down the 2nd lab. I'm…you might have been unconscious when it happened."

Edward looks at Alphonse with disbelief. He slowly shakes his head, "I don't understand." He almost didn't catch the words with Edward's voice being so silent.

Alphonse walks to the bed, Edward looking uncertain with Alphonse actions. Slowly and carefully Alphonse unbuckles the restrains. "You would probably want these off." The stare continues in Edward wordless confusion. "Edward", Alphonse touches his hands and when the hand beneath his own didn't flinch away he continues, "During my time at the Facility I was a mole for the military."

"A mole?" Edward looks him up and down.

"A spy", Alphonse clarifies. There's no doubt Edward thought he meant the animal. Hearing the term for the first time, Alphonse had also done those actions. "I was sent to gather information on the people organizing these labs."

"There's more than one lab?" Edward's eyes widen.

Alphonse mentally chides himself for letting information slip. All is took is an added letter and Edward knew. It's easy to make mistakes with just gestures and words.

"Why?"

The question pulls Alphonse back from his mental berating. "What?"

"Why?" He asks again. In his eyes something unreadable shimmers.

Alphonse felt anxious seeing Edward's eyes. "What do you mean by why?"

"It doesn't make sense", Edward says, "You shouldn't care."

Astonishment at those words Alphonse quickly asks, "Why shouldn't I care?"

"You guys already knew right? She said everyone knew about the facilities. That they didn't care."

He could hear the desperation in Edward's voice. Alphonse has to assume that 'guys' were the military. In his gut he could guess that by 'she', Edward meant Kei. The female doctor had paid her most of her attention towards Edward and the others that were also given special care. The labs were paranoid about escapees, even when the possibilities weren't possible. If Kei and the doctors try to implant certain suggestion into their experiment heads, then there would be obvious mistrust against them. After handing Edward over to Juliet, Alphonse would need to inform the psychologists about this possibility.

All of them were assign a psychologist and Alphonse briefly wonders if it's a reminder of Dr. Fallor. He never met the man personally. Mostly the assistant, Davis, is the one outside of the office attending to errands and bonding with the kids. 'He might have been doing a better job than the doctor.'

"Edward" he falters. He couldn't explain it to Edward. 'It would be better if it were someone else.' Alphonse had worked for the facility and Edward already had an image of Alphonse as a nurse. He's sure Edward trusts him. Alphonse had recognized the relaxation in Edward's attitude towards him, as well as Davis. The discarding of trust that existed between them could be easily done, and Alphonse didn't want that.

Author Note: Chapter 7 originally (in planning) wasn't suppose to split into parts. Yet with the rate I'm going and distractions such as Final Exams, I made the decision to cut it up. So patiently wait for Part 2 (and maybe a part 3).