Hand is better, time to write. Well...edit...with this one. It was written MONTHS ago, and I...reallysuckedwritingthischaptersoit'sreallyreallybad. Ugh. I edited it, it still sucks, so whatever.

God it's hot. I need to fix my A/C before I go pitch a tent outside (cooler outside). I'm fine with heat during the day, but when I'm trying to sleep? No. N.O. NO.

And to those that reviews hoping my hand got better soon, thanks a lot. I appreciate you users. Lol. A lot of you were afraid of sounding like you only wanted me to get better so I could write again....peh.

So yeah....sucky...chapter... Viewer Discretion Advised....for suckiness. I almost don't want to post it, but eh, I can't re write it. I hate rewriting. So I'm dishing this shit onto you! HAH!

Oh, and btw, the lesson of the last chapter was: "Always make your first shot count." Some of you were close. But yup. Here we go...-regrettably hits the upload button and cringes-

Ed barely had a chance to catch his breath before he suddenly heard a rough scrabbling noise of metal against cement before he was struck down from behind, head hitting off the ground with a loud crack. A loud ring reverberated in his ears, as something wet trickled from one of them, blocking out shouts that called his name. Rough nails clawed viciously at his back as he faintly noticed that it was the "dead" H.A.E. that Roy had shot off him when it was inches away from ripping a good hunk of his esophagus out.

Dazedly, he waited, unable to do much of anything but wait for the finishing blow, something to bite and start ripping from the back of his throat out but he felt...different. Everything seem to... darken even more. The edges of his vision blackened, tinged with red as he heard the loudest, strangest buzzing noise in his ear. It was so high pitched it almost whistled.

In one motion, he jerked up and flipped over, still under the H.A.E. and drove his feet up, knocking the boy back with much more force than he intended. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Everything went black as the high shrilling noise grew louder.

Roy watched, stunned as the two H.A.E. experiments backed up. He knew by now that the three animalistic-acting humans had to be the grotesque experiments his Colonel told him about weeks before.

"Hey..." Kevin asked, awestruck, "they're backing off?"

A loud screeching noise sounded and they all whipped around, just in time to see Fullmetal get pinned back down to the ground, his forehead knocking off the cement and a loud crack echoed through the lot.

"Fullmetal-!"
"Boss-!"

Forgetting about the H.A.E. behind them, Kevin bolted towards his leader, immobilized on the ground , Roy quickly following.

Before they could reach him, Fullmetal stealthily twisted in the H.A.E's grip and brought his feet up, kicking the experiment in the chest and sending it backwards off of him.

A growling noise erupted and left Roy frozen to the spot, staring at the bloodied boy who was struggling to stand back up. His eyes quickly snapped over to Fullmetal as he stood quickly, shooting forward and knocking his metal shoulder into the taller boy just as he got his footing on the ground again. One glimpse at Fullmetal's face had his stomach dropping to the cement The guy was actually snarling.

Making his feet move forward, Roy ran towards them, full intentions to help but there was a loud scream from the H.A.E. as Fullmetal smashed his forearm into its face. Kevin grabbed Roy's arm, holding him back.

"Don't get involved, you'll just be killed-"

Another loud growl ripped through the air as the H.A.E backed up from the gang leader, out of reach and glared at him as it straightened up. Fresh blood trickled from its nose as it returned the dirty looks Fullmetal was shooting him, both crouching in fighting stances.

Fullmetal's face was contorted into one of the ugliest snarls that Roy had ever seen. Even more alarming than General Kelpie's. And that man was one of the cruelest Generals the Military had to offer, and that was saying something.

His top teeth were bared, brow drawn down in a deep frown, breathing heavily through his nose. But his eyes. He couldn't see any gold, pure black pupil eclipsed the stunning gold, making him look all the more deadly.

"Hey, over here, you ugly bastard!" Kevin shouted.

The stare-off abruptly ended as the H.A.E. blinked and looked over at Kevin, letting Fullmetal make his move. He dropped to the ground on his hands, and kicked out his legs, swiping them under the H.A.E.'s, knocking him the the ground. Roy felt a surge of victory as he saw Fullmetal pounce on the H.A.E. and someone cried out in pain, but he wasn't sure which boy it came from as they both struggled for the upper-hand in their tussle.

Fullmetal quickly pulled a knife from his pocket, knocking the H.A.E backwards and sitting astride its waist, clasping his flesh hand over the experiment's throat, keeping it pinned to the ground. He brought the silver blade point of the knife down in the dark haired boy's eye, burying it up to the hilt. A grisly sucking noise squelched as he slashed the knife sideways, cutting a deep mark into its throat.

Roy winced as he withdrew the short knife and began repeatedly stabbing it in the neck, ripping it sideways before extracting it and continuing his onslaught.

It struggled, lashing out in vain for Fullmetal's face or throat but only succeeded in a good gouge mark from its unkempt nails on the gang leader's cheek.

Throwing the knife aside, Roy watched fearfully as the experiment started gasping, bloody flecks covering its lips and adding onto the blood on its face as Fullmetal grabbed it by the collar of its shirt and dragged it up to standing.

He, Kevin, and Jeremy watched him walk exactly six steps, dragging the thing by its shirt and slam its head into the brick wall of the building. A bloodied screech rang out and Fullmetal brought it up again and rammed it into the unrelenting stone brick again.

Roy couldn't move as he watched in dreadful silence, horrified by the wailing screeches the boy made as Fullmetal continued his assault, bashing the thing's head off the wall mercilessly, even when the creature had become limp and silent several hits ago.

Kevin made an odd, strangled noise as he took a few hesitant steps towards them before breaking out into a run towards Fullmetal, Jeremy seemed to suddenly snap back to it and followed. Kevin was the first to grab Fullmetal, pulling him back, making him drop the body with a loud thud. Fullmetal fought against the brunette's hands, trying to reach for the body again as Kevin dragged him back.

"Come on, Boss. He's dead. You killed him! What's wrong with you? You never act like this! Snap out of it!" Kevin shook him lightly, obviously scared. During the weeks Roy had spent at the hotel he had never seen Fullmetal look so distant.

He blinked a few times, staring at Kevin for a moment, then down at the body. A pained expression over took the blank look as he stared at the body, mangled and bloodied on the ground.

"I...I did that?" He croaked, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

"I...I did that?" Ed barely could hear his voice as he felt cold sweat break out on his forehead. What happened? He hadn't ever...he didn't mean...

The body lay prone on the ground where Ed had dropped it. Blood oozing from its mouth and nose, all mangled and bruised from being repeatedly slammed into a brick wall. He could feel his shoulders trembling as he looked away from Kevin and Jeremy. Keep it together, Ed. You're not supposed to be having a break down right in front of your team.

"Boss...are you alright?" Kevin asked, concern and fear evident in his eyes as he watched Ed's every little move. Ed glanced back up at him, trying to regain his breathing.

"Yeah, Kev. The others are gone right?"

"...Y-yeah...they...they ran away..."

Ed winced as he touched his throat, the injury throbbing as it made itself known, feeling the tears well up inside again. He didn't pay it half a mind as he let his thoughts race.

He killed it. But...it wasn't human was it? It killed so many people, of course he had to kill it! But...what if it could have gotten better? What if it had a family somewhere? A mother, a father....siblings.
But he was being ridiculous, of course it wasn't human anymore. Just because it was didn't mean it still is. There was no way to help it and letting it live would just put more people at risk and possibly kill dozens of more people.

A chilling cold ran an icy finger down his back as he realized his black out. Was that happening to him? Was...he...becoming like that?

He stared at it longer, barely feeling Kevin giving his flesh shoulder comforting pats and trying to talk to him, but it didn't even register in his ears.

What if I become like that? Would they have to put me down? Would they try to help me? Would they...still see me as human? ...Or would I be...be something completely different?

Guilt raged through him as he tried looking at anything but the boy he killed.

I'm a murderer.

But he wasn't human, that doesn't mean I'm a murderer... Does it?

"Come on, Boss. We need to get back to the hotel, you're hurt really bad." Kevin urged, looking down at the split collar bone and blood seeping through the shirt where a few screws were ripped out of Ed's ribs, undoubtedly breaking a few of the bones.

But Ed couldn't feel any pain, all he could think about was how he was supposed to live with himself with all the 'what ifs' running through his mind.

Roy was still a little dumbstruck as he watched Kevin trying to calm Fullmetal down, who was quivering like a fear-stricken rabbit, and Jeremy was checking the dead H.A.E to see if it was indeed dead this time. But Roy didn't have his doubts this time. After witnessing the genuine rage Fullmetal could possess, that H.A.E was a good as slaughtered.

At first Roy thought Fullmetal would have shaken it off, or told them 'good job, now let's go home' or something arrogant or snappish. But at the moment he looked like a child. A lost, scared, lonely teenager who had seen his fair share of the world's evils and more.

He rubbed, oblivious, at his shoulder, wincing as he felt the bite wound give a nasty sting, reminding him of its tenderness. Wondering vaguely if it would get infected and give him some kind of disease, he walked lamely, trying to not look as pitiful as he felt. Stepping up near Jeremy, intentionally away from Kevin and Fullmetal, and stared down at the back of the H.A.E's head.

"Think it's really dead this time?" Roy asked, trying to start some sort of conversation. Anything to fill the silence that wasn't Kevin trying to talk to Fullmetal.

Jeremy seemed to ignore him, still kneeling next to it, prying its eyes open with his thumb and forefinger. Roy felt a little twitch of annoyance of being ignored and grimaced slightly when Jeremy flipped the dead boy on his back, patting its neck.

"What are you looking for?"

"Oi, talkin' to him like that isn't a good idea." Kevin said, making Roy raise an eyebrow as he looked up, seeing that he caught Kevin's attention from Fullmetal.

"What do you mean-"
"He ain't gonna hear you. He's dumb."

Roy gave him a baffled look, wondering why Kevin of all people was calling a friend dumb.

"He's dumb-?"

"You know? Mute? He's deaf too. Can't talk or hear. But he can lip read, you're better off getting his attention before sneaking up on him like that."

Roy stared for a moment, watching Kevin make the blond sit down, pulling down his shirt collar and inspecting the broken bone. Looking away, Roy glanced back down at Jeremy.

'Is that why he couldn't hear that bizarre ringing noise before? Me and Kevin heard it, but Fullmetal is far from being deaf, so why didn't it effect him?'

Walking back to the hotel was uneventful. Fullmetal refused to be helped but in the end leaned on Jeremy for support, insisting that he was just fine. Roy noticed that the more minutes went by the more Fullmetal was himself. And he started to realize that Fullmetal put on a show of his feelings. Acting like a little shit headed brat and mouthing off just to put up a tough front. When he was really in pain.

What an ass.

Roy wondered how much heartache he cause his close ones. Like Winry and Al. They seemed pretty close. Close enough to make Roy wonder. Even now, with Fullmetal's defensive walls down, Kevin was looking pretty close too.

Many possible ideas were presenting themselves to Roy, some of them he thought up ages ago. He always wondered if he could get Fullmetal's information by force. He knew the Colonel suggested getting a sample of DNA, but he couldn't ever lay a finger on Fullmetal let alone rip out some hair. Though that'd be the easiest way out of this mission.

But he could always sneak into the boy's room when he wasn't around and find a strand of hair on a pillow or maybe even a comb. The kid had to brush his hair. It was impossible to keep hair that long untangled without the assistance of a brush of some sort. Even so, Roy had to admit he was a little scared of being caught.

Or even terrified of the thought.

All the same he wasn't going to attempt such a suicidal mission.

Then why am I here of all places?

Of course, getting out of this place alive was his first option and his most preferred. That encounter with the H.A.E made him falter about his odds of getting out of here alive. Were they insane?! How could they be walking (or limping) back to the Hotel and not afraid that something was going to pop out at any moment?

Feeling the hair on the back of his neck prickle at the thought, he glanced over his shoulder, frowning into the dark as they kept walking. Nothing but a long, broken tar road and decaying buildings.

Still. He wasn't going to take his chances like that again. Thank God, or whatever higher power there was, that Kevin dropped his gun when he did. Or Roy would have been the next meal for the H.A.E. .... and another problem scratched off of Fullmetal's list, Roy thought, a little sorely.

Next time he was going to take his chance with Fullmetal and demand that he gets at least a gun. Since obviously Roy shooting one of them in the back was the least of their worries, after what he saw tonight.

Finally, the minutes that took them to get back that felt like hours, the hotel came into view. Roy was itching to sleep, maybe even beg Winry to heal the bite on his shoulder first, so he didn't get some sort of disease. He knew she was pissed whenever they used up the medical supplies. Especially last time, when Kevin accidentally broke his arm. But he was thinking that he'd give it a try, since this was under special circumstances. It wasn't everyday you were attacked by vicious, deranged humans.

"Boss, come on. I know you're still injured and all but we need to tell the gang about the H.. We need to do something so we won't lose anymore people," Kevin took a seat next Ed's bed, chewing the inside of his cheek nervously as he watched Ed sit up in the bed.

"Don't worry about it, Kev. I'll take care of them tonight. I just...I just need to sleep." As much as Ed hated to admit it, he felt exhausted. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so drained. But he couldn't let his gang see him so weak. Best to hide in his room and get his strength back. Then he'd leave that night and kill the rest of the H.A.E. He couldn't let anyone else get killed. No matter how much it tormented him being the one to do it.

"Are you sure you're okay? You kinda...you kinda lost it last night...I've never seen you so angry. You..you almost looked like one of those malfunctioning H.A.E. You don't think...that you're starting to lose control-"

"Of course I'm not!" Ed spat, glaring profusely at Kevin, fisting both of his hands into his blanket, "What? Do you think I'd seriously become a deranged animal like them?!"

"No! Of course not, Boss!" Kevin held his hands up, "Even if you were, we could tell Winry and she could fix it before it even became a problem-!"

"Don't you even dare telling Winry about last night, Kevin. Or you'll regret it. Understand?" Ed growled. Kevin looked slightly surprised and a little hurt, making guilt curl up in Ed's stomach.

"Hey, come on, Ed," Kevin said lowly, "I'm just worried about you."

Breathing out heavily, Ed nodded, scratching the edge of his bandages around his throat, "I'm sorry, Kev. I'm just a little...stressed."

"I know. But if you feel like you did last night or do something without meaning it, tell me. We want to catch it early if it is...that. I don't want to see you looking like one of those freak shows. Not that you aren't already one." Kevin joked, grinning at the scowl on Ed's face.

"Hey. You were going to become one of us freak shows, in case you forgot," Ed smirked at him as Kevin made a face at him, "But luckily I made it in time."

"They wouldn't dare put metal on this hot bod. It'd just ruin the whole thing. Too bad some of us were just too ugly to even-"

A pillow catapulted from Ed's arm and hit Kevin in the face, knocking him backwards off the chair with a loud crash.

They both shared shocked looks before they started laughing. . Ed made to get up, but Kevin just waved at him, getting up to answer the door, leaving the chair tipped over.

Ed saw Al in the doorway, Kevin hooked a thumb over his shoulder at Ed, "Al, watch out, your brother is on his period or something, he might bite your face off-"

"Fuck you!" Ed yelled as Kevin ran past Al, laughing. Al walked in, an awkward smile on his face. Ed immediately lost his humor, knowing Al did something wrong. He only gave Ed that look when he was in trouble or did something that would get him into trouble.

"What did you do?"

"N-nothing-!"

"Al...you'd better tell me what you did or I'll seriously take all your books and-"

"How are you feeling?"

Ed blinked, feeling a little thrown off for a moment. Al never tried that tactic before, he knew Ed was too sharp to have the old 'change the subject' trick pulled on him. But he decided to answer anyway.

"Al, I'm fine. Why are you acting all guilty? What did you do?"

"We were attacked last night by an H.A.E." Al mumbled, making Ed lose what little color he had in his face. He stuttered for a moment, before clearing his throat.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"

"You were doped up, Brother! I couldn't exactly tell you when you were asleep!"

"What happened? Did one of you get hurt? Where is it?"

"It's...its in one of the rooms on the second floor..." Al mumbled, bowing his head, prepared for the explosion.

"You're...you're serious?!" Ed shouted, "You have one of those freaks locked up in the hotel?!" Scrambling up, he ripped the blanket off his legs and falling onto the ground in his haste to get out of the bed. Ignoring Al's protests he staggered over to the door.

Intercepting him, Al grabbed his flesh arm and pulled him back causing Ed to lose balance and fall to the floor. Al took advantage and pinned him by his shoulders.

"Listen to me, Brother! He's harmless! Winry disabled his automail and he's all tied up, his paralysis isn't even healed!"

"Winry is in on this too?! Let go of me! I have to kill it-!"

"No! You can't, we're going to save him!"

"He's- It's not human anymore Al! We have to kill it before it hurts someone else! Where's Winry?!" Ed demanded, kicking his feet under him and trying to get some footing so he could throw Al but his flesh leg protested and collapsed under Al's weight, twisting his automail leg at an awkward angle.

"She's healing his paralysis right now. She's almost done- Hey!"

Ed spat at Al's face, nailing him in the eye. Al wavered for a second, but that's all Ed needed to get his footing and flip Al over. Getting up as quickly as he could he bolted for the door, throwing it open and running for the stairs.

"E- Fullmetal!" Al yelled, running after him, minding his mouth.

Nearly tripping down the stairs, Ed started opening each door, letting the door smack off the wall and checking inside, before sprinting for the next door. Each room was heartbreakingly empty, their low numbers of people showing through the majority of empty rooms. By the time he checked the third door, Al flew out of no where and grabbed him, tugging him back. "No, don't do this! Please! You have to remember he's still a human! He never asked for this!"

Ed stopped struggling, remembering the broken body covered in blood, laying on the ground where he had dropped it, after Kevin pried the body from his hands. He questioned himself until he passed out, always wondering if it was a human he killed or if it was too far gone to be still considered a human.

"Brother...please...don't kill him-" Al pleaded, tears were dripping off his jaw as he trembled, his grip tightening on Ed's flesh arm, doubtlessly leaving bruises.

"Just...just let me see him, Al. I won't...If I think he's got a chance then..." Ed trailed off, pulling his arm out of Al's death grip, with a firm shake. Feeling terrible for the second time that day for hurting someone close to him, even if he didn't physically hurt them, it brought guilt down and pressed on his shoulders, building up.

Sniffing, Al quickly wiped his eyes, feeling a little humiliated for crying. Whatever condition this thing was in, it was putting a strain on Al, from what Ed could see.

Straightening up, Al grabbed Ed's wrist, pulling him down the hallway to the last door, which irked Ed a little. Knowing that obviously the room he was looking for had to be the last door. Bringing up his trembling hand, Al knocked softly, waiting a few seconds before timidly opening the door.

"Win? Its Al and Ed. Is it okay?" Al whispered, sticking his head through the gap of the doorway.

"Yeah, I just repaired the damaged vertebrae, his paralysis is gone, but I'm not enabling his automail."

Ed stepped in after Al, a little wary and worried sick about Winry for being alone with the thing for so long. What if it somehow repaired its own vertebrae and Winry had messed up on disabling its automail? He would have been to drugged to even try to kill it before it wiped everyone out.

"Do you realize how dangerous this was? Winry? Al? You should have killed it the minute you had a chance-" A low growl interrupted him, causing him to look at the H.A.E for the first time, slightly amused. Did it understand him?

It was a boy, his stark red hair had grown a bit past his ears, and he had a strong frame. He could have been a sport player, but with lack of food his ribs jutted out. But his stomach interested Ed the most. It was pure metal, four plates bolted to each other, easily sliding past each other, similar to Ed's automail shoulder, as he breathed in and out.

Stepping up closer he touched the stomach, earning a flinch from the H.A.E. He smirked at it. "What's the matter? Feeling a little vulnerable?"

Another snarl with bared teeth was Ed's answer before he showed him his automail hand, an interested look abruptly crossed its face, black eyes flickered between the hand and Ed's face.

"Does he recognize you're a part of the same experiment?" Al asked, his voice hushed as not to frighten the unstable boy tied on the bed and aware of others in the building. The walls weren't too thin, but they were thin enough.

"Each H.A.E. contains a certain receptor. So we can find each other. But its an incomplete adaption, none of us could enable it. But when these guys malfunctioned I think they subconsciously activated it." Ed muttered, mostly talking to himself, "And they can probably read mine also...but...I've never activated..." Suddenly Ed backed up, eyes widening.

"Brother what is it?"

"My...my receptor must have activated at some point... That's why they came here. They were looking for me. With two H. here they'll definitely pick up the static waves. Al, get rid of him! We'll all be swarmed!"

"What are you talking about?" Winry pleaded, staring at the red head before looking back up at Ed, "How'd your receptor get activated? You're not malfunctioning!"

"It could have happened at any time, Winry!" Ed snapped, touching the base of his throat , just above the collar bone, "We have to deactivate it...remove it. Whatever it takes, or I'll just attract more of them."

"Why are they coming after you? Its just a receptor..." Al said, a faint trace of comprehension before it was swallowed up by fear, "You don't think-?"

Ed nodded, "It's just a hypothesis. They're grouping. They came here to accept me into their group. Whatever part of their brains were replaced, I think the instinct to stay in a group is growing-"

"Maybe then you can talk to them!" Winry told him, grabbing his arm, "You can tell them we can help them! They won't attack you-"

"But at the border they did...but...Dammit, that's why they ran away-" Ed covered his face with his hands. When he temporarily lost it, they must have sensed it. But that other H.A.E he was fighting, was only trying to kill him to get to the guys to...feed. Were they that starved that they would resort to cannibalism?

"Why did they-?"

"Winry. I need you to remove the receptor in our throats. Take them out and destroy one. Try to find a way to keep one intact, but just disabled." Ed said, finally looking up. Winry stared at him, then at the red head.

"His too? You want to-?"

"Yes. We'll try to find a way to make him stable again, then we can catch the others and do the same. With the receptor we can re-enable it and make it easier to track them down...make them come to us," He smirked, Al grinned and nearly plowed Ed over with a hug.

"Thank you! I knew you wouldn't let him die!"

"Of course I wouldn't, Al. Its just...going to take a while before we get a break...through..." Ed stared at the red head's eyes. Did they just....retract?

"What's the matter?"

Ed moved back towards the bed, leaning in closer, "I could have sworn I saw his pupils shrink-"

Winry shoved him aside, bringing a small flash light she had on the stand and flashing it into the H.A.E's eyes, "I don't see anything...maybe...maybe he's coming back to us?"

"It can't be that easy. Maybe being around normal humans long enough without killing them is having an effect on him."

"Well, you making fun of him isn't going to help any." Winry quipped, glaring at Ed, "Why not try making friends with him? After all, you are the one who reach him best. Since he recognizes you as an H.A.E."

"I think I'll pass. I have Brats to recruit rather then spend my time befriending a killer."