Quick update. Sorry that I don't have the Forced chapter up. Break is coming up and I'm trying to get work in BEFORE hand.

Damn FFnet keeps taking out the abbreviation 'H.A.E' and putting just a 'H.' Kinda, really, sorta, PISSES me off.

This starts back off on Al and Winry. (Not a flashback.) I may or may not continue that flash back. Probably will. Heads up.

Thanks for the reviews!

I'm forgetting something. I just know it.

Al held his breath, a rancid odor was emanating from the food room, and it wasn't last week's slop. He positioned his knife in his sweat-slicked palm better, for some reason anxiety was forming a haze around the edges of his vision, his breathing quickening. What was happening? He never got nervous at times like these.

Taking a deep breath he willed the anxiety away, focusing on the sound of his heart beat in his ears and the light foot steps of Winry behind him. They were half way down the staircase, watching closely for any sign of movement or noise.

Stepping down the last step, he stared around the room, his body freezing up as he met eyes with another person. He tried staring through the dark to try and identify who it was, but he knew whatever it was, it was an enemy. It was a young teen boy, around Al's age if not a little older. He had bright red hair, and was bare-chested, his stomach sunken in like a cavity and the rib cage was prominent in the soft light the lamp lights outside the window provided. His eyes watched Al, cocking his head to the side slightly as he stared, blinking a few times, Al noticing his pupils were dilated so wide it over took the eye.

An H.A.E.

Metal covered his whole abdomen up to the ribs, Al noticed, giving him the sunken stomach look. Further inspection revealed he also had two automail legs. Which he also knew would make him as fast as Ed was, if not, faster.

"Al, who is that?" Winry whispered into his ear, her breath grazing the shell of his ear, making him tense as he watched the red haired boy across the room straighten out his neck, eyes narrowing dangerously, a top lip curled, baring a top row of white, straight human teeth. His brow furrowing deeply.

Al shook his head slowly, trying to make Winry get the hint that talking or making any sudden movements was not a good idea. Whatever this thing was, it didn't have a human sense of thinking anymore. It was so...demon-like..

The red haired boy crouched slowly, hunching his shoulders, never taking his eyes off Al, those vivid black eyes looked bright in the dark room in contrast to his pale skin. Al recognized the stance the boy was in, a position that expressed aggression, ready to pounce, and Al knew he and Winry couldn't stop him alone.

It's arm twitched just as it bolted forward, Al flicked the knife at it with dead accuracy and precision, but it bounced off it's brow with a metal cling and fell to the floor. It stopped abruptly, stumbling slightly as it looked down at the knife, blinking at it for a moment before touching its forehead. A cut broke the skin, causing blood to trickle down its forehead, running a deep crimson color along the bridge of its nose. Looking closely, peering through the dark Al saw that a metal plate lay underneath the skin, protecting the skull. That was odd. Ed's was under the skull. Maybe this was an earlier experiment? That would explain its severe malfunctioning.

Al knew that whatever experiments the scientists had done on these humans had physically altered the brain, putting new chemicals and even artificial parts to replace the real ones. The accident Ed was in severely damaged his brain, so of course they had to replace the un-curable parts.

A low growling noise met his ears as the boy turned back to him, making him take a step back into Winry. A high pitched whistling was sounding from deep within the red head's chest, sending waves of horror down Al's spine, coiling his stomach into a dangerous knot. Sweat broke out on his neck as he felt his knees start giving out on him. What was going on? He never got nervous like this! He had been in just as dangerous situations but he never got this scared.

Then it came to him. That noise, whatever it was, was stimulating the chemical in his brain to activate the epinephrine in his body, activating his adrenal glands. Shaking his head, he concentrated harder, unable to make the sick anxiety leave, but he wasn't about to let it affect him physically, leaving him motionless and paralyzed.

Ducking low he ran forward, flipping another knife from his pocket so it aimed downwards and plunged it into the things neck, just below the ear, where he knew Ed had no metal protection.

But his knife just bounced back, he barely could keep a grip on it, his arm swinging back from the force. His mind buzzed with shock as he realized that it had protection where Ed didn't. Before he could get a grip of himself, let alone catch his balance the thing lashed out at him, grabbing his shirt collar, ripping it as it shoved him down to the ground pinning him. Winry screamed out, and Al tried to tell her to stay back but the thing started growling at him, its teeth inches from the vital areas of his throat. Whatever had been mixed with its brain had to have been a predatory animal, Al quickly deducted, since it went for the throat for a clean kill. He tried thinking of something quick to get it off him before it tore his throat out when a loud gun shot rung out through the house.

A high pitched shriek pierced Al's ears as the red haired boy suddenly slumped, making Al blink stupidly, frozen in shock.

Winry ran over, pulling the body off him, tears streaming down her face as she reached out to Al, helping him sit up.

"God, Al. Are you alright? Did I hit you?" She asked, gently brushing his bangs aside, gripping his shoulders in a death grip. He glanced over at the thing, trying to figure how Winry killed it, when she suddenly threw her arms around him, hugging him in a bone crushing embrace..

"Oh my god, I thought I had hit you when you didn't get up! Are you sure you're alight? Al, I thought I lost you!" She cried, tightening her grip.

He heaved a shaky sigh, patting her back, "I'm fine, but how'd you kill it- him, Win?"

She pulled back, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hands, sniffing, "Ed has a spot in the lower base of his neck where there's no protection. I shot its spine. I don't think its dead, but it might be paralyzed."

"What do we do with it?" Al asked, grabbing Winry's arm and holding her back from going to inspect it. H.A.E were unpredictable, his brother had told him, who knew if it was just acting?

"Well...we can't just leave it there. Should we...I don't know..kill it?" She breathed, reaching out for her gun she had dropped on the ground, hands still shaking, but a lot less fiercely than before.

"No. Maybe we can help him?"

"But Al... it's...malfunctioning. Whatever happened to him I don't think he'd ever be able to go back to normal."

"We've got to at least try. Don't you think you could help him, Win? You know more about this than anyone here. I mean...he's just like Ed-" Al cut himself off, face going impossibly white as Winry stared up at him with wide, angry eyes.

"He's not like Ed, Al," Winry told him, looking away.

"I-I know, but they're just...they went through the same experiment. They're both H.-"

"Ed would never become like that Alphonse!" Winry shot scathingly, clicking the safety on the gun and stuffing it back in her pocket, "He could never..."

"I know, Win! I wasn't saying that. Brother is a lot more advanced then this guy's... experiment. Of course he wouldn't. But you know more about the automaton setup then anyone else here. Maybe you could make him snap back to it?"

"The neurological part of the experiment is what made him like this, Al... I don't know much about the human brain. I'm more mechanic-"

"But the brain. They're parts that were replaced artificially?"

Winry stood there for a moment, staring down at the red headed boy, his back was moving up and down, breathing softly.

"But if he's paralyzed...what's the sense?"

"You know that paralyzation isn't permanent. Please, Win? I know you can repair the spine and revert the paralysis."

"Why are you so keen on letting him live? Its an abomination, Al! He wasn't supposed to be like this, its just torture to make him live through it! Would you want to wake up and be told you were a mindless animal and tore several, maybe dozens, of people apart?!"

"I want you to cause everyone deserves a second chance. Please, Winy. Don't let him die....what if this was Ed? Would you let him die?" He asked her, kneeling down beside the still prone boy, gently touching the gun wound that was dead center of his spinal cord. Winry was a good shot.

"Don't you dare bring your brother into this," She spat, clenching her fists and crossing her arms, moving over to one of the tables, "That isn't the same."

"How isn't it?! I know you care about Ed, Winry. But please, think about this. You'd kill him, so you'd kill Ed too? Just to put him out of his misery. Because he's an abomination?"

Tears were flooding down Winry's face as she turned and glared at Al, "Ed is not an abomination," Her voice was shaky, but she kept that defiant look on her face, "I just..."

"Would you save him if he were Ed?" Al pressed, feeling guilty for putting Winry on the spot like this. He knew of Winry's feelings for Ed, but if he wanted to save this boy's life, then he was going to have to play that card against her.

Winry turned her head again, "That doesn't matter, since Ed would never end up like that-"

"Winry, please don't let him stay like this. Please help me. I don't want him to die over something he had nothing to do with. He at least deserves a chance, please, Win? Help me?"

Winry's shoulders sagged, defeated as she rubbed the back of her neck, turning back around and stepping over to the red head, "I can see what I can do. I could reverse the paralysis. But we'd need to restrain him, I'll shut down his automail, we need some upper hands on him. But for now we need to wait till morning. We'll talk to Ed about it...but Al...Don't get your hopes up. Ed may think killing it would be for the best."

Al sighed, relieved, "Thank you, Win. I knew you wouldn't let him die. I'll...I'll talk with Ed. I think we can save him."

Winry just felt her heart tug in sympathy at how caring Al was. Looking down at the human part automaton she could see it was in severe pain. Those limbs were ill taken cared of and he looked like he barely survived a system shut down. He probably didn't have them like Ed did, since Ed's system was much more complex and missing required adaptions for it to work properly, so that meant it took him longer in adapting, resulting in these terrifying shut downs. But she had her doubts, about the boy and about Ed. She had a feeling that the boy wouldn't come back around to his normal self, and she doubted Ed wanted to house one. It sent up many red flags and posed a danger to all the members of the hotel.

But Al had never been wrong before. Maybe, hopefully, he wouldn't be wrong this time.

She placed her hand on its bare shoulder, receiving a loud growl that made her draw it back quickly, a little afraid. Al just frowned slightly, before nodding at Winry, noticing what she wanted.

"Here, help me carry him upstairs. We'll need to shut his automail off right?"

"Yes. Here, you hold his legs, they're a lot more heavier than Ed's type." She said, not wanting to have to carry the things upper body, near its head, where it was glaring at her through pitch dark eyes. But she knew she didn't have the strength to carry the heavy metal limbs.

Ignoring the murderous look coming from the boy's ink black eyes , she tucked her hands under his arms and helped Al hoist him up, his metal abdomen clinking as it flexed down, the metal plates sliding over each other.

But both teens both worried over Ed's and the other's safety as the lugged the part metal, lethargic boy, who was way heavier than he looked.

~*~

Ed felt the wind get knocked out of him as the H.A.E's metal knee came crashing down on his chest, snapping the plate that screwed the front of his automail arm onto his chest. He could feel one of the screws snap in one of his front ribs, but he ignored it, pressing with all his strength to keep the experiment's teeth away from his face. His rasping breath in his own ears overruled the shouting and snarling around him, he tried moving his hands up to its throat as Jeremy rushed over, trying to pry it off him.

"Get the fuck off!" He yelled, knowing it was useless to try to talk, as he thrashed his legs again. Pain exploded in his throat as blunt teeth bit into the vulnerable, soft skin, tearing into it, crunching through wiry tendons and squelchy flesh. His mind flew into full-blown panic mode and he started kicking harder, attempting to get its teeth out of his neck.

Suddenly a gun shot rung out. Sending the H.A.E off him in a writhing mess. Blood surged from a shot in the side of its head, pooling out on the ground as it flailed on the cement.

Clutching his throat, he searched the wound, pressing into it gently with his flesh fingers, skimming over the bloody wound for any signs of fatal damage. Sighing, feeling enormously relieved, he felt it was just a shallow gash and no vital veins were severed..

"Thanks Kev. Did you-?" He asked, glancing down at the thing, twitching on the ground then back to Kevin, who was unarmed. Standing next to him was a disarrayed looking Roy, aiming the gun back over at another H.A.E that was holding back, glaring knives at all of them. Roy shot that thing?

Ed looked further behind the H.A.E seeing the other one. His stomach clenched nervously as he felt the color drain from his face. He quickly added up his chances of taking them down, including his injuries. H. were nothing to mess with, he knew that first hand. Especially malfunctioning ones. But why did three of them come here? Why were they here at all? He glanced back behind him down at the one, that seemed unconscious, then at the other two, fully capable killing machines, ready for a fight.

Ed had enough trouble with one of them, but two? The odds were definitely against him. He looked over at Roy, still as stone, aiming Kevin's gun with trained experience. Ed had to say he was impressed that he took an H.A.E out with one shot, but could he do it again?

I'm going to fucking blow my brain out if I have to write H.A.E one more time.

(Do you guys know what the lesson was? -hence the chapter name-)