55 individual followers and 8 individual reviewers. i feel so motivated.

Heads up everyone, this isn't an Ed/Mustang combo. also, it's from my stash of not-so-good backup stories and i've only got a few more left in that pile so it's only going to get worse.

!-!-!-!

A beautiful day. The sun shining, a cool breeze rustling in over the windowsill. Perfect.

Inside the office was a completely different situation. A darker situation.

Rebels, in a very coordinated play, had disguised themselves as office workers and snuck inside Headquarters. Knowing Mustang had a dangerous genius child prodigy, they had taken that office first and then the rest would work their way to King Bradley from there. They'd found Ed, Havoc, Breda, Falman, and Feury just outside the cafeteria. Going for the child first they knocked him unconscious before he even had a chance to realise the danger. The other four put up a good fight but were outnumbered, unarmed, and distracted by Ed's unconscious state. The rebels easily incapacitated them before shoving them into a supply closet, blindfolded and muffled.

Kicking in the door and quickly dragging the boy into Roy's office they were met with an unprepared Hawkeye arguing with her ignorant superior. Hawkeye had been fast, but not fast enough. She'd only managed to get two shots off before Ed's body was held up as a shield. Roy was right behind her, gloves on, spark set but killed the flames as soon as he took in the scene; Hawkeye stopped moving. All the rebels' guns were pointed at Ed. The two waited, not about to lower their weapons until they had to. At least one rebel was injured, she'd got his shoulder and he'd had to drop his gun.

There were five men visible and each had their weapon aimed from different angles pointed at Ed, probably a sixth they couldn't see at Ed's back. Between her and Roy, there weren't enough people to disarm all of them at once and ensure the boy's life. Though judging by the set of his jaw, she was sure Roy's definition of 'disarmed' wasn't the same as hers.

They placed Ed in a chair and tied his hands to the arms of it.

"Make a move and we'll blow his head off."

Mustang backed off and lowered his hands, seemingly at ease. The rebels were educated though, "Take them off. You don't need your hands up to make a spark. Leave them on the table." Mustang grunted, irritated. There was another set of gloves still in his pocket, but it would take time to put them on.

They looked at Riza, "Gun down. On the floor if you would." She lowered her weapon, leaving it on the ground beside her.

"Ok, doesn't matter where you leave it." He motioned for them to move. "Backs against the wall over there."

They complied and Ed's chair was dragged closer to them for better viewing but still just out of reach. The guns stayed trained on the blond boy to help Riza and Roy focus. The lead rebel tied their hands behind their backs with leather straps and pushed them to their knees.

"Ok, so I have a few questions about your King."

Mustang rolled his eyes. "Do you really think you're going to get anything out of us? That kid signed up for the army like everyone else. He knew the dangers from the start."

The rebel frowned. "Hmm. My intel said you had a soft spot for this one." He leaned back and punched the unconscious boy several times in the head. The sound was sickening.

Mustang remained stone faced.

"Still no?" but this time he didn't even give Mustang time to answer. He threw the chair on it's side and kicked Ed in the ribs several times. Mustang's face was losing colour but otherwise kept up his air of indifference.

"If you beat him to death, then you lose your bargaining chip."

"Maybe, but i have a closet of others I found with this one that I could beat up as well."

Mustang felt Riza go still beside him, she must have thought the team would be able to come to the rescue, though he'd figured that these assholes wouldn't have got Ed unless the rest of his team were down.

The guy kicked Ed a few more times for good measure then went to straighten the chair. Pausing when he noticed extra cloth around Ed's chest as he lifted Fullmetal up,

"What's this? Is the child already injured? Maybe you do really hate the kid."

The rebel pulled on the wrapping that was showing under Ed's shirt. Mustang was confused, as far as he knew, Ed was healthy and fit for duty. He hadn't even sent him out on mission in over a week.

Hawkeye's reaction was different. She couldn't hold back her whispered, "No!" and when they turned to her she jumped up and slammed into the rebel nearest Ed. A small altercation, she couldn't do much while her hands were still tied and she was shot through the leg for her trouble. Mustang stayed very still, furious; if there was any sign of a spark and they'd all go up in flames. One of the rebels turned their weapon toward Hawkeye's face, "behave yourself!" The leader picked her up he threw her against the wall beside Mustang again.

"Well that was uncalled for," he turned back toward Ed, "What's so interesting about these wraps?" He pulled a knife out and sliced the front of Ed's shirt open.

"This is quite the injury… Or is it? There's no blood here. Even after all that abuse." The knife was working its way through the wrapping. "Oh my. Roy!" he moved away so Mustang could see, "You didn't tell anyone your Fullmetal Alchemist was a GIRL!"

Mustang was stunned and the rebels saw it, "You didn't know! That's hilarious!" he leaned closer to Mustang, "I have someone who might enjoy this new development. How about we wake this little girl up and see what she thinks. Maybe she'll like it." He directed the next command to one of his lackeys, "Go get Lain." The man took off.

"Now, how to wake her up." he paused for dramatic effect, making sure to meet Roy's eyes as he said the next part. "I know. I hear automail removal is pretty painful. Let's do that."

Ed screamed, coming awake as her arm was taken off. Then again when her leg was also removed. Each scream ending in a fit of coughs, some of which included blood after having been kicked in the gut so many times. Then 'Lain' arrived, Mustang almost gagged at how excited the man looked. The new rebel grabbed Ed's only arm and dragged her and the chair into Mustang's inner office.

A chance was a chance and Hawkeye took it. There were no longer guns on Ed and she slipped Mustang's glove out of his pocket and onto her hand. Mustang had felt her hands beside him and was ready. She snapped and the room erupted in fire.

The rebels burned. Charred to unrecognisable lumps in seconds. Lain ran out of the office to see what was happening and was instantly caught in the flames.

He was not burned as quickly. Hawkeye was sure she'd hear those screams in her nightmares for weeks to come.

They were able to free themselves from the leather straps with some work and while Mustang put the flames out, Riza limped over to the office to check on Ed.

She was relieved to see no further damage, though without a shirt the bruises were visible and coming in fast. Ed was unconscious again, likely a good thing. The less she remembered, the better.

She removed her coat and covered the girl before anyone could come in. She wasn't sure what was taking Mustang so long until she heard voices in the doorway. Then she learned why no one had come to see about the gunshots and screaming.

There were rebels for each office in the building. Mustang's team had been deigned more dangerous and had been attacked first so that no one got warnings or help.

She could hear Mustang's fingers snap and the roar of flames as he made his way out the doors and down the hall. She was glad she didn't have to watch the consequences of his rage, and it sounded like the other deadly alchemists had joined him in a search and destroy mission.

Eventually Havoc and the team were with her, Breda was the only one with both working arms and he brought Ed's heavy automail limbs over. It would be better to put them on while she was still unconscious and fortunately, she did not wake up during the installation. They still had to get her to a hospital though; hopefully there weren't many internal injuries.

Mustang appeared at the door, the least injured of all of them. He scooped his youngest subordinate up and walked out while Havoc and Breda helped Hawkeye from the building. Falman and Fuery followed behind.

There were very few rebels left alive. No one asked what would happen after Bradley got to them.

!-!-!-!

Mustang had done his job, having helped clear the building of rebels all the way to Bradley's office, he was able to get leave for his team to visit the hospital instead of waiting for the military's general medic unit. He found them all in his office and focused on his youngest charge. She needed help, quickly.

They took two cars, his and Breda's. The team dividing itself up for the trip. Not a single doctor questioned him when he walked in the front doors of the hospital, they just took Ed from him and let him follow.

The exam room was stark white compared to the blood and ash left in his office, and seeing Ed's black and purple bruises against the white cloth somehow made everything worse. At least he knew why Ed hated hospitals. He sat off to the side and waited for the report. Hovering only made the staff nervous.

It took some time but eventually they had Ed wrapped up. The report included the status of her broken ribs and what to watch for in case there was any severe internal bleeding, the hits to her head didn't seem to have left much damage, and for the most part though it looked like she was going to recover.

The team's reports came in right after, Hawkeye's leg would take several weeks and she'd need crutches, there was also a few dislocated shoulders, a broken arm and a broken leg among the rest of the crew. They got off fairly lightly considering what the rebels had been planning to do to Ed, what he would have had to listen to.

Hawkeye came in and saw his expression, she started to explain but he stopped her, "It's fine. I'm irritated she didn't tell me. But it's my fault i didn't notice." They sat together waiting for Ed to wake up. The rest of the team received leave to head home.

Eventually Ed regained consciousness. Painfully. They fed her more drugs and once they kicked in she tried to leave, only noticing at the last minute that she was missing her chest wrap and that Mustang was sitting next to her bed with Hawkeye, they did not look impressed at her escape attempt.

The glare she got was enough to motivate her back into bed, especially now that she was feeling so exposed. "What happened?"

Mustang was still glaring, so it was Hawkeye that spoke up, the look on her face also conveying that her secret was up, "You were ambushed with the team. It's been sorted out."

"Why does my automail hurt?"
Hawkeye hesitated, if she didn't remember, she didn't want to bring the memory back, unfortunately lying wasn't in her skill set. "It was removed and replaced. Would you like me to call Winry?"
Ed winced, "No. it's ok." She looked around, "What happened to your leg?"

"Ambushed."

Ed narrowed her eyes. There was something missing but Hawkeye wasn't forthcoming. Then she sighed, she'd figure it out later. Right now more sleep was in order.

She lay back down again, her ribs were starting to hurt through the drugs and when she moved her leg something felt off. Looking down under the sheet her stomach fell through the floor. She turned back to Hawkeye, trying to contain her fear.

Her voice cracked, "Why is there a hand shaped bruise on my thigh?" Normally she wouldn't have asked about mysterious bruises, pretending she knew and sorting it out later, but for someone to have been that close to her without her knowing… what were these two hiding?

Hawkeye had looked away but Mustang answered, anger evident in his eyes, "He's dead."

That didn't help. Well, it did, but didn't tell her what had happened. She needed to see the rest of herself to know more. She started to get off the bed and managed to slide half way off before Mustang caught her, silently he helped her to the small washroom and waited outside while she checked her body.

Aside from massive bruising on her stomach and ribs, the only mark was the handprint that had scared her initially.

She stumbled out of the bathroom and the Flame Alchemist caught her for the return trip. Careful of her ribs.

"When?"

"When my contract expired."

And that was all. She wasn't going to explain why she hid her identity. Why she hadn't told him. She was still Ed.

"I could have-"

"No! Don't finish that sentence. Do you treat Hawkeye differently?"

He stayed silent.

Ed sighed, "Take her home Roy. She's in love with you and injured. She wants to be treated differently."

Mustang wasn't sure how to respond to that and so didn't say anything as he helped Ed climb back into bed. She passed out shortly afterward.

When she woke up again a few hours later Breda was there instead.

"He take her home?"
Breda smiled.

She carefully rolled back over to get more sleep, "Finally."