Edward didn't really want to move. If he moved he had to admit to himself that he was awake. His bed was so uncomfortable this morning. He felt stiff and he had a pain right at the base of his skull. This day was likely not going to turn out very well. Edward groaned at the thought.

"Fullmetal?" It sounded vaguely like Colonel Mustang, which confused Edward. The Colonel should be nowhere near Edward when he woke up in the morning. That was just unnatural.

Edward moaned at the man. He had a string of curses lined up for use when he realised something was definitely wrong. He cracked open one of his eye lids taking in the dim light that covered the room. He tightly shut his eyes.

"Al, can ya' turn off the ligh..." That's when everything finally started piecing together again. Memories came trickling through Edward's brain. He remembered being followed and attacked on the streets. That didn't explain why he was hearing the Bastard Colonel. Did the Colonel save him? Then he remembered the door in Mustang's office being blown in. He didn't remember how he got in Mustang's office, but he remembered being there. So they had both been captured. Someone had been smart enough to take down the two most skilled alchemists in Amestris. But did they expect not to have any trouble? If they didn't, then they will find out how wrong they were.

Edward twitched slightly. He was somewhere between being awake and being unconscious. He had vague understandings of his surroundings and a numb feeling tingling through his body. He was hearing the Colonel talking, but not the words that escaped. His dumbed down brain was only capable of deciphering a few words: Edward, awake, Fullmetal, and hurt. He wanted to understand the full picture but wasn't sure if his brain would work through the information or just skim through the meanings. He felt like his own mind was unreliable at the moment.

Edward, once again, opened his eyes. This time, though, he was prepared for the light, however dim it was. His headache protested against the meager light that filled his retinas. "Bas..." Edward attempted to address the Colonel but his tongue felt like a numb, unfeeling chunk of rubber.

A spike of pain like a nail was driven into Edward's lower back and side. "Arghhh..." Edward moaned. Feeling was slowly returning to Edward's body as he was laying there. And he would have to admit, it really hurt.


Mustang felt like huge weight was laying on his chest constricting his breathing. He had watched Edward for about ten minutes after he first started twitching and groaning. Mustang had attempted talking to the boy, but he only got pained grunts or something like that for his answers. Edward had started talking when he first woke up but then stopped. He may have attempted calling Roy a bastard, but Roy couldn't really be sure.

"C- colonel?" Came a weak rasp. Edward turned his head to meet his eyes with Roy's.

"Fullmetal, are you okay?" Mustang asked the boy. He still felt the heavy feeling weighing down on his chest as he noticed how pale Edward looked when he could see Edward's face.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Edward replied, still raspy.

"You look really pale." Edward stared at him for a good minute, as Mustang breathed deeply through the nose. Edward's reply was raspy and exhausted.

"So do you..."

"Did they do something to you while I was out?" Mustang asked, hoping against the odds that the answer would be no.

"I don't know this is the first time I've woken up," Edward answered, sounding a little better than earlier.

"That's not right. He said you woke up earlier and were fighting with them. That's why he drugged you." Mustang was confused but Edward didn't let him think about it long.

"I was drugged?! Mustang, what if I said something about Al or the transmutation?!" Edward seemed to be very panicky about the whole being drugged thing. "And I don't remember it at all! Also add to that that my arm is gone!" Edward glanced down at the chunk of that was left of his automail arm.

"He didn't mention anything about the transmutation. I think your secrets are safe."

"But what if they aren't. We are stuck with someone who might know my greatest secret! And we don't even know their plan!"

"Fullmetal, they plan to sell us, but everything will be just fine. The team will come for us. We'll be out of here in no time." Edward seemed surprised by what the Colonel had said.

"Sell?" His voice came out strange. "Why in hell would anyone do that?"

"I don't kno-" The Colonel cut himself short, when he heard heavy foot steps outside the door. "Pretend to be unconscious, Fullmetal!" Roy hissed quietly with an urgency that couldn't easily be ignored. Edward must have heard the foot steps approaching as well because he went back to the way he had been when he awoke without even questioning it.

The door swung open on its squeaky hinges. "Well, I guess I was wrong. I thought I heard you talking. I assumed that Fullmetal had so kindly woken up for us." The man shrugged. "He will be up shortly. May as well have him tied, am I right Mustang?" The man's smirk was disturbingly wrong in so many ways. He grabbed Edward's arm, the flesh one- the only one that remained now- and dragged him to the opposite side of the room, to the wall Mustang had deemed empty earlier in the darkness. There was an extra pair of shackles there, instead of the coarse rope wrapped around Roy's sore, bloody wrists.

Edward was dragged right underneath them and dropped to the stone floor. Mustang watched the man for a second, but by the time he realised what was about to happen it was already too late.


Alphonse was sitting on Edward's bed, surrounded but his messily strewn sheets. He was torn between wanting to make the bed nice for his brother, when he came back, and wanting to leave it as it was. That was probably just his mind trying to fool himself into thinking that if it was like that than it proved that Edward wasn't really gone. He wasn't gone. Alphonse knew that, but if he were...

Alphonse's phantom heart felt like it was being slowly and painfully ripped apart. He could almost hear it as another piece was painfully torn away.

He never wished, more than now, that he could fall asleep. He wanted to lie down on Edward's bed and fall asleep so that he could wake up to Edward telling him to get up so that he could get some sleep before having to report to the Colonel Bastard in the morning. The morning that had already come.

Alphonse could barely remember the feeling of hot tears streaming down his cheeks. He wanted it. He wanted to cry. To sob into a pillow and let his emotions unfold.

"Ed..." He choked on the name. "You won't leave me... I know you won't. You wouldn't... You can't."


"Wait! Don-"

Edward felt something in his hand crack as the foot was brought heavily down on it. He screamed at the pain that erupted from his hand. He hadn't expected it. He heard Mustang shout against the action as he pulled his hand into the safety of his chest.

Edward panted through the building pain. A well placed kick to the stomach left Edward's panting in vain.

"Stop! What do you think you're doing?!" Mustang shouted.

"I don't like being played with, little twerp!" Another blow landed near where the first one. "I don't really want to damage you, while I can't have much fun, so don't play games with me. One more kick was laid out before Edward was pulled up by his wrist and shackled to the wall by one of the two shackles.

"Bast-" A good punch to the face stopped Edward mid word.

"Don't talk to me, kid. I'm not happy. You need to cook for another day or so before I can cut you. That's your punishment for taking to me. You don't want it stockpiling. Believe me. I'm letting it slide this one time, but only because I gave you a solid punch," The man sneered at Edward.

Edward ignored his warning and frowned at the man. "What do you mean 'cook'?" He was going through a lot of pain at the moment but that comment had taken his attention captive.

"One, but I'll answer that. A blood transfusion. You two were pretty drained and I couldn't very well have either of you die on me. How would I get my money, and some enjoyable company." The man said that last bit slyly, implying that it had another, more sinister, meaning behind it. The sound of Mustang's body moving was barely heard.

Edward muttered something.

"Two, and speak up."

"I said, 'burn in he-" A solid kick to his face shut Edward up.

The man only smiled as the kid slumped forward. "I guess, that was too hard."

"You're going to pay for that! Don't you dare touch my subordinate!" Mustang radiated hatred.

"Shut up, Mustang. You are just a dog that has to learn to listen to its new master." The man made his way across the room toward the door. "Hopefully next time Fullmetal, there, wakes up, you won't attempt to play a game with me." He opened the door, letting it screech in protest. "And will you be so kind as to remember the number "three" for me, Mustang?"