After the horrible fear the brothers had been forced to endure, they retreated back to the street to see if there was any sign of the missing man with his strange traveling companions… There was none whatsoever on the unusually empty streets of Central, and Ed found himself noticing how close they were to the place Duo had first been found.

"Brother… we'll find him soon… I have a feeling we'll find him and he'll be fine." Alphonse tried to conceal the own worry and uncertainty from his sweet voice.

Edward looked up with a hollow look to his eyes that hurt Alphonse to see him in such a state. But as always, Ed assured him it wasn't his fault with a forced smile that only made him seem so much more depressed. "It's okay Al, this is really nobody's fault but my own…"

There he went again, blaming himself for the uncontrollable unpredictability of fate. This had been going on for the majority of Edward's life and Alphonse had yet to find a way to stop him from making everything seem like he had caused it.

Roy had come up behind the two brothers and had yet to interrupt their conversation. He decided against the voice that begged him not to say anything and just listen to them, and tapped Ed on the shoulder.

He stifled back the small pang of guilt that almost made him blurt out a rude comment like he was always used to doing. This was too much to see on the young boy's face and found himself staring at the sky instead of directly into those gold eyes; something he never did.

"We're almost positive that none of that blood is Duo's except for a small area inside of the closet. That was the only spot that the blood wouldn't have splattered considering the door had been closed when it had happened." Roy watched some of the men as they tried to inspect the rest of the premises for clues, but found none.

It was utterly hopeless to linger around that area for much longer, or at least even more discouraging to Edward and Alphonse. So they took their leave and decided to look around the train station to see if anyone had seen any of the homunculi or Duo. It appeared that everyone had went inside early this on particular evening, which worked perfectly as a disadvantage to all of the military.

Ed's mood didn't improve any when he had reached the train station and interrogated the ticket seller.

"I recall seeing a woman like you described, a short and portly man, and a boy with a long braid… But no man with green hair… And the boy with the braid didn't look well…" The old man stroked his beard thoughtfully and added quickly, "They did have an odd looking cat though…"

Alphonse and Edward guessed that Envy disguised himself as a cat to get on free or not draw suspicion to him appearance. It became worse when the sky started threatening to rain, and when the winds became more bitter and nipped at Edward's automail; they went into a nearby pub. As young as he was compared to the other men, nobody objected to Ed coming in. Most probably assumed Alphonse was Ed's dad or something.

"What do you think the old man meant by Duo didn't look well? Those damn homunculi better not have hurt him…" Ed growled as he glared at the rain splattering the window.

"Brother, you worry too much. I'm sure that they would be smarter than to kill their hostage. Unless that's what they'd intended to do all along…"

"That really makes me feel better!" The blonde said sarcastically as he got up.

Alphonse watched him go out the front door and wanted to get up, but couldn't for some reason. The reason was unexplainable… Something just told him not to follow his brother; that he need to be alone.

> > >

He didn't care that this effort would turn up fruitless, or that there wouldn't be anything of use in the rain in the middle of the night. All he wanted was to find Duo and go back to how things had been.

"My whole life's been so horrible… and yet I don't complain all the time… So why does it always happen to me… to us?" Ed looked back to the faint lights coming from the pub's windows.

As he continued walking down the road, he could feel his mud-caked boots get even worse since he didn't look where he stepped. One tree branch stuck out just far enough to graze Edward's cheek, and he stopped. The small cut was bleeding more than he thought it would've and look at how the crimson stained his white glove.

"Is this an answer…?" He looked up into the cloud covered sky and felt like now was a good time to cry, but couldn't get the tears to come. There had only been very few times when he felt like this… So guilty, so ungrateful, so useless… Just like what had happened to Al before he had condemned his own little brother to a life in a suit of armor; he felt he was playing with Duo's fate too.

That was a lesson he had learned well the first time, but apparently couldn't help but do it because he was human. "So they can do it because they're not human?"

His hair heavily soaked and his bangs were plastered to his face by then. When he heard the sounds of Alphonse's footsteps coming up behind him, Ed stopped questioning the sky. He knew it was no time to act like such a fool… And especially not in front of the person he had done so many terrible things to.

"Ed… Don't… Just please stop and think about it. This isn't your fault, so stop acting like it is." Alphonse put a hand on his brother's shoulder and saw that Ed was pathetically trying to smile as if nothing was wrong.

"Come on Al, we have to keep looking unless you're tired- I mean…" Ed tried to stop from fumbling with his words, but found it a futile attempt.

"Brother, it doesn't matter what I feel like doing. If you want to keep looking we will, and I'll try my hardest." He saw Ed look somewhat consoled as he walked ahead into the downpour.

"Okay… but you know you're gonna regret this, right?"

I must apologize for updating so late! It was really rude of me to do so, but the Roy (Procrastinator) in me was taking control andI had no choice. I promise to write the next chapter sooner!

Please R&R!