A/N: Mentions of gore/violence

Part I: Chapter III:

Torment

Winry knew she shouldn't have been surprised when Ling and Lan Fan suddenly appeared in her bedroom.

She really shouldn't have, considering how apparently, Xingese people don't like using doors. So, now, here she was, waiting for Ling and Lan Fan to finish their meal, which Winry had ordered through room service.

She sweat-dropped as Ling set aside his thirteenth rice bowl. "Um...Ling...don't we have more important matters to get to...?"

Ling hungrily slurped up the last bit of noodles from another bowl, then slammed the bowl on the table with a thud. "Of course." He chirped happily, his expression then becoming serious. "Did you go to the Investigations Office, yet?"

Winry shook her head. "No...Colonel Mustang told me to wait until he got more information. He sent Major Armstrong to pick me up at the station, who apparently had just gotten back from...well, Al's...interrogation."

Lan Fan inhaled sharply, her mask set aside on the couch next to her. "So, you have to wait before you're given more information? On what, exactly? Don't tell me there is more to the story than this."

"They're letting me see him." Winry bit her lip. It quenched her stomach to think about it, but she had a feeling that Ling was going to find out anyway, so she might as well tell him now. "Edward."

Ling froze. As did Lan Fan. Winry attempted to read the two's expression, but considering how they were trained to keep their emotions in check in tense situations, it was a difficult task. Just like Edward, she supposed. She never could figure out what was going on behind the genius, devious, little mind of his. Now, she knew, however, that Alphonse's mind was just as unreadable in this situation.

"T-they're going to let you..." Ling momentarily seemed at a loss for words. He then miraculously sorted through his million thoughts running wild through his head and picked one that summarized all his feelings. "Why?"

Winry shrugged weakly. "I don't know. And I don't even know if I want to see him. I mean..." She faltered. "Ling, he had bruises all over his body, apparently. I don't even want to know how he got them, and I want to see them even less. And, if they have more to tell me, then his body might be in worse shape than what was said on that letter..." Winry almost choked, but held it in. It was getting more and more difficult to keep her composure the more time passed, and it's barely been a few hours since she was told the news of what had happened. She knew she had felt determination, and that wouldn't change. But it was so damn difficult...

"Do you...want us to go with you?" Lan Fan suggested, startling both Winry and Ling, judging by the expression on his face.

Winry gave the ninja bodyguard a small smile, offering her thanks. "That would be nice."

Ling inhaled deeply. "Well, we'd better come up with a cover story, then. After all, we're pretty much criminals so..." Ling pondered this for a moment. He or Lan Fan could probably don a disguise, entering the building with Winry, while the other would wait outside and stay on guard. There was no telling what might happen, and considering the Homunculi were still out there, as well as Bradley...Ling didn't want to take chances. But a promise is a promise, and he was going to go with Winry no matter what. "I'll go in as your bodyguard, and Lan Fan will wait outside. I'll have a disguise too."

Lan Fan protested almost immediately. "Young Lord-"

"It'll be fine, Lan Fan. Winry will be with me, and it's not like we'll be leaving the building. I'm just there for support." Ling reassured his bodyguard, who obviously had conflicting thoughts.

Winry inhaled sharply, then gave the Xingese prince a grateful smile. "Thank you, Ling."

Winry felt her heart thumping loudly in her chest as she walked up the steps to the Investigations Office. Ling walked beside her, donning a suit and tie, as well as a pair of dark glasses, making him look quite...unusual. Lan Fan stayed a few meters back, before climbing onto the nearest building and staying there.

Winry held her automail toolbox in her right hand, clutching it so tight, her knuckles almost turned a snowy white color. They wanted her to remove Edward's automail. Off his dead body.

She gave a mental shudder at being aside his dead body littered with bruises and god knows what else, detaching not one, but two of his limbs, all because the Investigations Department needed to "look at it and his body better". Roy Mustang had called Winry not just a few minutes after she had talked with Ling and Lan Fan. She vividly recalled the conversation that she pushed to the deepest depths of her mind.

"Winry?" Roy Mustang's voice was heard from the other end of the phone, sounding...worried?

"Yes? This is Colonel Mustang, right? Did you get more information? Should I go to the Investigations Office now? Should I wait? Do you know why they want me there?" Winry asked all the questions in rapid recession, not giving herself a moment to breathe. Too many questions, but too little answers.

"...I did get more information. I also know why they want you to go over there..." Roy paused, almost sounding like he was...hesitating. Winry felt a pang of alarm arise in her. "They want you to remove Fullmetal's automail off his body."

Winry stopped breathing. "What? Why? Don't they..." She swallowed. "Don't they have people to do that? I'm just a civilian, aren't I? I can't-" Winry felt weak. Light-headed. Frail. Feeble. Sick. Shaky. She rapidly recalled every word she could attribute to how she felt right now, coming up with about eleven more.

"I know, but apparently there was some kind of array carved into Fullmetal's automail. Similar to the array he was found in...this array was complicated and one that no one had ever seen before. Also, apparently the automail Fullmetal had on was too advanced for the automail engineers we have on base to take it off without accidentally damaging...the body." Roy paused. "You should certainly be proud of yourself, coming up with something that advanced."

Winry pushed the compliment to the back of her mind, and asked the most important question at that moment. "But...why would there be an array on Edward's automail? I haven't noticed anything like that before..."

Winry trailed off, lost in her own thoughts as she recalled every moment she worked on Ed's automail. There was nothing strange about the automail, so it must have been...recent?

Roy's sudden question, unsurprisingly, furthered Winry's confusion. "Winry, when was the last time you had any contact with either of the Elric brothers?"

"Huh?" Winry blinked. 'The last time...' She looked over towards Ling and Lan Fan, who had been quietly standing next to her, so quiet she had almost forgotten they were even there. "Well, I would say about...a year maybe. Now that I think about it...he hadn't broken his automail once in this past year..."

There was a sharp silence. Roy spoke. "The last time I saw either of the Elric Brothers was almost a year ago as well. Miss Rockbell, I don't know if you're aware, but this past year has been filled with many of us staying on the lay-low, due to an...enemy we are currently fighting. We've briefly exchanged messages, but because of this, I haven't seen the Elrics in person since last year."

"So...something happened this past year that nobody knows about."

"That would be an accurate statement, yes." There was a sharp inhale. "Winry, are you prepared to do this? Do what...the Investigations Department is asking of you, I mean."

Winry considered Roy's question for a moment, dwelling deep into her mind, and latching onto the feeling of determination that she desperately needed. "Yes. I-I'm a bit scared, to be honest. But, if this helps in figuring out what happened..." She latched onto that feeling of determination and spoke sternly. "Then I'll do it."

Looking back on the conversation now, Winry wondered where the hell she got all the sudden courage from. Because now, all she wanted to do was to run back home and forget any of this ever happened. But no, she had to go through with this. No matter how much it pained her, and god she wasn't even inside the forsaken building, yet!

With a supporting smile from Ling, and a deep breath, Winry stood outside the door of the building...and pushed it open.

It was worse than she thought. His body. Edward's body. Edward's dead body.

What the hell happened this past year? What the hell happened to give him...Winry tried her best not to cry. she tried her best not to sob, weep, yell, or show any emotions. She tried so hard...And she especially made extra care not to even glance at any of the wounds inflicted on Edward's body. Seeing it once...she decided, was enough.

Ling, however...She bit her lip as she tried not to get distracted, as she worked on detaching Edward's automail. She had a feeling the Xingese prince felt the same way she did. But she also knew that it was probably better for him not to be here. Because unlike Winry, who was forced to focus on her job, Ling had no qualms and stared openly at Edward.

When they walked in, a woman greeted the duo, and explained what Winry already knew. About the array, the automail, and how Winry tied into it. She blocked out everything the woman said, and focused on staring straight ahead without her vision blurring. As difficult a task as it was, she managed.

At least, until she walked in the morgue. Immediately, she was overwhelmed by the sick stench of death that filled the room, almost causing her to step a few feet back. The room itself was freezing as well, but she hardly noticed it. The room was also fairly well lit, and was quite small, as well. In the center of the room stood a long table, most likely where the bodies where examined, and above it was a light, shining in a similar fashion to a spotlight. And as for who the spotlight was on...well, it was the one person she loved more than anything. Edward.

He lay there, eyes shut, hiding those wonderful golden eyes burning with fire and filled with life-a sure sign that he was definitely dead. He lay there, completely stripped, a blue blanket laying over his bottom half, but just above his knees, most likely to make Winry's job a little easier. His long, luxurious, golden locks were all loose, having grown long enough to reach a little over his hips. He lay there, dark purple bruises littering his entire body. Cuts and scars accompanying the occasional cluster of roughly ten bruises. He lay there, his neck and throat an angry red color, slight bruising present there as well. He lay there, rope burns on his right ankle and left wrist, small, thin cuts littered the area around both rope burns. He lay there, his left arm littered with more cuts than any other area of the body, long, savage, terrifying, scars all over his only flesh arm.

Edward lay there, dead.

Her mind had shut down in that second, and all she could do was stare. Not like Ling was any better.

So here she was, shoving all the thoughts running at a million miles per second in the very deep depths of her mind, and working on carefully detaching Edward's now useless automail.

It was pure torture. There was just no other way to describe it. The pain in her brain from not understanding a damn thing from what was going on was nothing compared to the deep, aching, hole in her heart. The large, cavernous, gaping, agonizing, tormenting, crater in her heart just ached. And it hurt. A lot.

Yes. There was certainly no other way to describe it. And "torture" just fit more perfectly than any other could.

Torment Definition: "severe physical or mental suffering"

Defined from online google dictionary

A/N: This chapter was somewhat shorter than the first two, and was focused mainly on Winry...I think I might have made a new genre of FMA fics. I mean...has anyone made any angsty Winry fics? I don't think so, right?

Minimal Roy in this chapter, and none of the other characters except Ling and Lan Fan was in this one...but next chapter will be mostly Roy. And a bit of our favorite papa bear, Maes Hughes.

Until next time...Jewel, signing off! (No, seriously...this is really fun...)