-.-.-.-.-. notes -.-.-.-.-.-.-
I do not own FMA, nor do I wish to.
italics are inside thoughts.
-.-.-.-.-. story -.-.-.-.-.-.-
Ed was used to taking the train. The years of trips alone or with her brother meant she didn't really think anything of it.
She also didn't really think about the difference in traveling alone as a boy or as a young woman. She hadn't been raised to be cautious of things women were raised to be cautious of. She was an excellent fighter after all, intelligent, perceptive.
Except for those times when she wasn't.
Al and Winry had dropped her off at the station that evening so she could return to the last month of her contract. The weather was so nice she had decided not to change her clothes for the trip and was still in a dress, her blonde hair was free of its restrictive pony tail and fell in a loose wave over her shoulders. Winry had warned her that women travelling alone were vulnerable to attack and to please please please be careful but Ed had waved her off, no one attacked the FullMetal Alchemist. She was retiring soon, no one cared about her work anymore so it would be fine.
Ed boarded the train and stored her suitcase on the top rack, then she took a bench seat like usual and passed out on the table in front of her. It was too dark to read and Al wasn't here to play cards with, so she slept most of the way to East City before she was woken by the familiar bounce in the tracks that meant they were about 20 minutes out. She'd attuned herself to the track changeovers on all sides to give herself time to wake up and gather her things.
Ed sat up, groggy and sore from sleeping on the hard table. She'd just started to stretch when someone grabbed her left wrist from behind her and wrenched it down on the other side of the bench, she opened her mouth to start a stream of obscenities but a sweet smelling cloth was shoved against her face, plugging her nose and completely covering her mouth. Ed tried to hold her breath but excessive movement required oxygen and as she struggled against the arms holding her down she realised she'd need to to take the risk of breathing in through the cloth. At least she managed to break the wooden table off it's brace with her automail leg and land a solid kick in the gut of one of the men advancing on her, but her strong left arm was trapped and she hadn't trained her newly returned right arm up to full strength yet.
The edges of her vision started to fade and she landed a few more kicks as she clawed uselessly at the hand across her mouth. Where were the other people that were in this car? Why wasn't anyone else here? Couldn't anyone see what was happening? Red blurred into Ed's vision as she lost consciousness.
-.-.-
Al was pacing the floor, his sister should have called by now. She'd promised to call when she arrived at her room in the barracks. He'd made her promise after Winry had shown him the newspaper article about women going missing in East City. Ed had laughed it off, she was invincible and no one bothered THE FullMetal Alchemist. Except she'd been in a dress with her hair down. Her coat packed in her suitcase; unrecognisable as the people's hero.
He looked at his pregnant wife for support, usually Winry calmed him down but she seemed to be just as concerned which wasn't good for the baby. "Call Mustang, he can check for us."
Al jumped on the phone before she'd finished the sentence.
-.-.-
Roy hadn't been sleeping. There was a report due tomorrow that had to have Ed's input and like usual, the kid had left it to the last minute. Bradley was in East City for only a week and Mustang had pushed the due date as far as he could. He had to meet Ed first thing for the notes then run to the King's meeting room. He'd been trying to make up Ed's section in case the boy didn't show and the phone's sudden ring startled him.
"Mus-."
"General! It's Al. We need help, Ed was supposed to arrive in East City an hour ago and she hasn't called and isn't answering her phone. We warned her about the kidnappings but i don't think she listened. She took the evening train out of Resembool and she should be home!"
"Al. AL! Slow down. Ed's missing? Why do you keep saying 'she' ?"
Roy waited while Al took a few breaths to calm down. "Ed is a woman, she's 22 which is right in the middle of the age group of those kidnappings that we've been reading about. We dropped her off on the evening train and she should have arrived by now and called us from her room but she's not answering and Winry and I both have a really bad feeling about this. Could you please please check the train for us?"
Mustang sighed and looked at the clock, 1am. He'd file away Ed's gender change to process later, "Alright, train and car number?"
"Train 48, fourth car."
"I'll let you know." Roy hung up. They'd been looking for this kidnapping group for a couple months. Trust Ed's luck to land him herself right in the middle of it. He hauled himself out of his chair and put on his work coat; he'd need to look official to get security to cooperate. The train should still be at the station for the overnight stop and they didn't usually start cleaning and shunting cars until around 5 am.
He found the train easily enough and with security following him he entered the fourth car and discovered exactly what he hadn't wanted to. The train car was half destroyed; one of the benches was cracked and the wooden table in front of it was broken and on it's side. Looking closely he could see small patches of blood. Ed had put up a fight. He put himself in Ed's position, she had probably been napping in the corner since there was a bit of blood and small hair on the top of the bench, probably from her arm being held over the top. Another small circle of blood about head height on the bench and some small drops on the bench where her hand would have fallen, but no scratches or nail marks in the wood itself. They'd knocked her out with some sort of drug, the sweet smell still lingered faintly in the air. Just like the other crime scenes he'd been to.
Roy stepped back and looked around, a suitcase had been left on the overhead shelf. He took it down and placed it on the opposite bench before opening it. Confirmation. Ed's cloak, right on top. Mustang felt his stomach drop, despite the evidence he'd been holding onto a thread of hope that it had been someone else. Years of training took over and he moved into action. They'd taken one of his people, and Mustang could be surprisingly possessive of his men. He closed the case and carried it off the train, giving orders as he went to summon the investigation unit. He'd need to head back to the office and call Al. There would be no sleep tonight.
-.-.-
Consciousness found Ed painfully, greeting her in the form of a hardwood floor. Her head cracked as she was thrown into a cell, her arms bound behind her back. They must have discovered who she was, maybe they'd gone through her things and found her trademark coat. It was hard to clear her thoughts now that her head ached in two places, her elbow and wrist felt bruised, the nails on her right hand felt sticky and she remembered scratching the hand holding the cloth to her face. Must be blood.
Moments later the door of her cell opened, startling her enough that despite multiple head injuries she rolled into a crouch and stood up. Her arms were still bound but at least this way her legs were free. A very large man entered, followed by two slightly lesser sized men. One of whom had a plate of food, the other had a scratched hand. This is the one that'd grabbed her. She smirked when she saw it, "How's your ha-"
The force of his slap sent her into the wall before she'd even had a chance to register he'd moved. Note to self, this one is fast. The fog in her brain was trying to take over as she stayed on the ground. The larger man pulled his subordinate back but gave no reprimand. "What's your name girl?"
Ed was stunned and not just from being thrown into the wall, did they really not know who she was?! "Mary"
Her hesitation did not go unnoticed. "Sure it is 'Mary'. Looks like my Second was right though, you're quite feisty. It'll take longer to break you but you'll bring more money in for me so it should be worth it." He turned to the third man. "Throw her food on the floor, she can have more when that's gone. We'll leave her hands tied for the duration. And no one comes in here alone, her automail leg will break your skull if you're not careful."
They turned to leave, Third dumped her food on the floor as commanded, it was only stale bread and spilled water and Ed was glad she wasn't currently hungry. The water might have been nice, but she wasn't about to eat that garbage. Ed slowly worked her way to her feet again, testing out her limbs and flexibility, once more going through her personal injury checklist. Mostly ok, lots of bruises and probably a concussion, but mostly ok. And now that she had time to investigate her surroundings, it looked like a wooden crate with a vent at the top, a vent she was too short to reach, even if her arms weren't tied behind her. She glared at it before checking the wall's strength. Kicking her automail into each wall and then the door. All sturdy. Probably animal shipping crates. Fuck. As long as her arms were bound behind her she could do nothing with her alchemy. The only items in the room were a small towel, a bucket, and a roll of toilet paper. She sincerely hoped this wasn't a long term accommodation.
-.-.-
She'd been wrong. Two weeks. Two weeks had gone by in this hell and the only thing she'd been able to learn was that she was somewhere near trains. Probably the train shipyard, though she couldn't be sure. It made sense, but her ability to comprehend things was slipping. She'd been fed three times, with a cup of water every other day that they'd held her down and almost made her drown in each time. She'd barely slept from the rotation of noise and interruptions, she recognised them as brainwashing tactics from her military training. On top of that her new arm was reverting to the state it had been in when she'd got it back from the gate and the thought of losing it permanently scared the hell out of her.
Suddenly the door to her crate flew open and she crouched against the wall as her three favourite people entered. They'd brought the chair again. She hated the chair but could barely summon the strength to fight as they put her in it and tied her shoulders back. She screamed as they removed her automail leg, and again when they replaced it. Over and over until she could barely breath from the pain. A daily occurrence. At least, she thought it was daily, it could have been hourly. She'd learned they weren't allowed to leave marks on her, but automail removal didn't leave any marks.
When she'd hit her limit, the largest one stopped. "Name please."
"Mary."
He rolled his eyes. "Ok, nevermind the rest of the girls. It's been two weeks. We're breaking this one today." At his nod, Third disappeared and came back with a battery and some cables. Ed couldn't summon the energy to react.
"Remove her leg again and we'll hook this up."
Ed screamed silently as the leg came off once more, her throat destroyed. Then tried to catch her breath as they hooked up the battery. Ground first, then before the live wire was connected, they shoved a towel into her mouth.
Her nerves lit up with electric fire. The physical pain was insurmountable and the emotional pain was right there after it as she realised she wouldn't be able to fight this. Ed felt the tears stream down her face, she wasn't going to win. They'd have found her by now if there'd been any clues. Mustang wasn't coming for her. Al and Winry would never be able to introduce their baby to its Auntie Ed. She'd die here, unable to keep ahead of the pain. She'd thought the Gate was hell but it was nothing compared to this, the Gate was logic this was death. Her body jolted as they electrocuted her several more times before unhooking the battery and removing the towel from her mouth.
"Name please darling."
He waited while she gasped for air. He'd seen her heart break.
She had to whisper, her voice almost gone completely. "Edaline. It's Edaline."
"Good girl Edaline. Where are you from?"
"Resembool."
"Very good. You've done very well today." He turned to his second, "Tie her down and give her some water. Then transfer her to the group hold, we'll ship her West with the rest of them."
Ed had no fight left. They were shipping her West. No one would find her. She thought again of Winry's baby and put all her effort into tying her brain back to reality. Every cell in her body was fried and she couldn't save herself as her torturers threw her around before reattaching her leg. At least it still hurt, they hadn't burned all the nerves away as it'd felt like.
Eventually they hauled her out of the single cell and to a room with a shower. Stripping her of her tattered dress and spraying her with ice water before momentarily untying her arms to place a cotton shift over her head. It felt like a hospital gown but covered at the back, cold and uncomfortable. Her arms were numb and it would be a while before any real strength returned, if it ever did, so she put up no resistance as they tied her arms again, this time in front of her. A glimmer of hope sparked in her heart; maybe she could rescue herself.
They dragged her through a hall and down four sets of stairs deep into a basement until they arrived at a door and she was thrown through it into a large room. She heard the door lock behind her but the only light coming from a few bulbs far at the top and it felt like an underground grain silo. Eventually Ed's eyes adjusted and she saw she wasn't alone, there were at least 20 other women here. Young women.
Motivated by the need to see her brother's child, save these people, and having her arms tied in front of her, she tried to roll into a better position. Her body refused. She passed out.
Ed awoke with a start a while later when someone touched her arm. Her military training kicked in and she vaulted to her feet before her body remembered the state it was in and collapsed. The girl that had woken her jumped backward.
"Are you ok?"
Ed hissed in pain, "Where are we?" It was a whisper and she wasn't sure she'd gotten the 'are' part out successfully, her vocal cords would need months to heal properly. If they could.
"As far as any of us can tell, the train yard. They're shipping us out tomorrow. West, i heard the guards saying. Along the border to Drachma."
Ed shuddered, Fucking Drachma. "How many? "
"About 30, two more came in after you."
Ed had finally managed to get herself into a sitting position, "people mobile?"
The girl looked a little confused but it was hard to tell in the low light. "Everyone can walk except you, they try not to damage us so we're worth more money."
Ed nodded. Her brain started analysing the situation, planning escape. Despite her complete mental collapse just a few hours ago, hope had taken root and was not giving in. "need my hands."
The girl seemed to connect the dots. "You're an alchemist?!"
She nodded. "move fast." then coughed painfully, she was straining her throat with all the whispering and wasn't surprised to see blood. The girl ran to gather some help and to get everyone up and moving.
She couldn't get up herself but she didn't need to escape, she was too broken. Her automail leg was almost non functional, her nerves were too burned out to tell it what to do and she knew she wouldn't be able to run like everyone else. Not to mention that when she was finishing doing the alchemy she was thinking of doing she'd barely have the strength to keep breathing. She could save these women, but she needed someone to save her. She knew it was possible, if the "sign" she made was large enough.
They hadn't tied her very tightly and after a few minutes with the help of a girl with very tiny fingers, they were able to get her small weak wrist clear of the bindings. She gave everyone the same instructions with lots of hand motions and a little whispering: run through the tunnel she was going to create and find help. Preferably some asshole named General Mustang at Military HQ. Tell him they knew where Ed was. Stay in pairs or groups. She was going to contain the kidnappers as best she could but just in case it would be better if they weren't alone. Pretty easy instructions.
A girl found a rock and jammed it under the door so it couldn't swing open, it'd give them a couple extra minutes. Then everyone gathered against the edge that Ed felt to be the best direction to go given the rumble of the trains.
Ed worked her way to her feet with the help of two girls, summoning all her remaining strength and then some.
*Clap* *Slap* She hit the ground with more determination than ever before and felt the bones in her right hand crack, weak from weeks of malnutrition. A huge earthquake rocked the walls of the silo and as soon as it stopped a girl yelled, "GO!" and they filed into the newly created tunnel as fast as they could. Ed stayed frozen in her crouched position, she wasn't sure she'd have the strength to seal the tunnel on this end so she'd put it in the darkest edge of the room. She prayed the kidnappers wouldn't see it because if they did she'd have to think of something else. For now, she hoped her plan worked. She hoped the tunnel was long enough to go past the wall, and she hoped the giant wall she'd put up around the shipping yard was big enough to keep everyone in that needed to stay in.
She could hear yelling at the door, the scratching as the rock was slowly moved out of the way by the shoving force behind it.
An enraged yell kept her from immediately passing out.
"SOMEONE TURN THE LIGHTS ON IN THERE!"
Shit. Ed clapped again lightly from her still crouched position and touched the floor, a paper thin wall covered the entrance of the tunnel just as the lights flicked on, searing brightness into her brain. She fell over into a fetal position as the door was finally kicked open and prayed she'd done enough, there was no strength left in her at all for any type of defence.
-.-.-
Two weeks. It'd been two weeks and no one had been able to find any trace of the missing women. Of Ed. Mustang was losing his mind, this was some sort of slow torture. He'd taken to wandering through the city at night constantly returning to the last known location anyone had seen her, the train station. He stared through the fence at the train yard and warehouses beyond. They'd been through there a hundred times unable to find evidence of missing women, evidence of Ed. Chloroform didn't last long and you couldn't keep Ed quiet for any length of time so it had to be close to here.
He was jolted from his thoughts as the earth started shaking and a giant wall rose up out of the ground 50 feet in front of him. Train tracks were thrown into the air, buildings broken in half, he heard an explosion in the distance.
Ed was alive.
Mustang started running. There was always an exit. There had to be because it was a huge wall and Ed needed to be able to get out. The size of the thing worried him even more; two weeks of captivity then this? How much power did she have? He'd only heard of her doing a wall like this once before with the red water case. She'd been knocked out for a week afterward when her exhaustion had caught up with her. If she was still inside then she'd be inside with her captors. And they'd be angry.
Two thirds of the way around and cursing himself for choosing the longer route he found women, lots of women, all dressed the same in a simple cotton dress. Some of them supporting others.
"Where's Ed?" he shouted as he neared them. Most of them recoiled at the force of his voice, but a few stood out.
"Are you General Mustang?"
"Yes."
"The only one of us that couldn't walk is still down there, she made the tunnel. That way about 50 feet there's a hole in the ground."
Mustang thrust his comm into the girl's hand. "Press this to talk. Get backup."
She nodded and Mustang took off. He found the entrance and jumped in feet first. It was fairly steep and he slid most of the way, tumbling through the paper thin exit at the end.
He braced himself as he went through the wall and when the dust settled the scene in front of him was definitely going to haunt him for the foreseeable future, yet at the same time, not as bad as his worst nightmares.
The first shapes he was able to see turned out to be several large men and when the dust settled further he could see they were surrounding an emaciated, black and blue, unconscious Ed. Her clothing was in rags around her with obvious cuts and scrapes leaking blood through the cloth. Several men had knives and one of them was screaming at the others to let him fuck her before they cut her to ribbons.
He lit them up.
They ran, screaming. He let them. If they were too dumb to remember 'stop drop and roll' when they were on fire that was their problem.
He ran over to Ed and felt for a pulse; cursing at the faint irregular beats. She flinched at his touch and her eyes opened. Mustang saw the relief flood her eyes when she focused on him and he had to stop her from speaking after two words. He swallowed the lump of anger that swelled up at the state of her voice. He'd received the message, 'more up' meant 'more women were upstairs', so after wrapping her up in his coat he checked one last time to ensure the immediate threat was removed then walked carefully with Ed in his arms toward the tunnel. He made it to the top before Armstrong, Havoc, and Hawkeye came into view.
He relayed Ed's information, "She said there were more women inside."
"Do you want me to take her?" Havoc could see the blood and bruises as Ed's head hung out of the jacket in his arms.
Mustang's arms tightened on Ed, "Where's the closest car?" As much as he'd love to set the whole place on fire he couldn't seem to let her go, Ed needed him, and he needed to get Ed to the hospital.