Chapter Thirteen:

"It's a rebound, Mustang. The Stone has reached its limit. It's rebounded back on Harding and it looks exactly like the reaction from that night."

Mustang and the BAU agents could only look on in horror as the light show continued for a few more seconds before it abruptly stopped. Everything went quiet. The only things they could hear were distant noises from within the city, and the ominous groans and creaks of the now ruined building as it threatened to cave in on itself. Hotch was the first one to move.

"I'm calling Garcia. We need FDNY out here to help recover Harding's body. That building is too unstable for us to go in." He pulled out his cell phone to do just that when Ed stopped him.

"No, don't call anyone just yet." The blond was still watching the building with a critical, impassive eye.

"Why not? We can't go in there without risking our lives and even I know there's no way for someone to survive that," Hotch argued, his finger about to hit the contact entry for Garcia.

"Because you could be wrong. He could have survived. I've been privy to rebounds of various magnitudes. I've seen a rebound that massive before and it is survivable. Granted, that rebound wasn't caused by an overused Stone, but that's beside the point. Harding very well could have survived and been fused with the Stone. I've seen that before too. Wasn't pretty and the moronic alchemist was even more unstable afterwards. My point is that Harding could be alive and even more pissed off and unstable up there. I don't know who FDNY is, but I doubt they're capable of dealing with that," Ed pointed out as he finally tore his gaze from what was left of the rooftop to face the agents.

"I agree with Hotch. There's no way Harding survived. That rebound, plus the attacks we landed, plus collapsing through the roof of the building? There's just no way." Morgan said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"It is possible to survive a rebound that big! I survived one like that! Plus, the roof hasn't caved in yet, so he's still up there and he's probably waiting for us to get distracted so he can attack!" Edward snapped back; only to immediately regret his words. He hadn't meant to reveal that bit of his past. Inwardly cursing himself, he continued speaking, hoping they'd forget about what he'd just said. "I'm going to check and see if he's alive and what his status is." He turned and jogged closer to the building, limping slightly, before stopping just before the sidewalk. Clapping his hands together, he pressed down onto the asphalt before creating a pillar to lift him up level with the building's roof.

Even Hotch didn't say a word as they watched Ed move away after he realised what he'd said. Mustang watched him go with the faintest hint of worry barely showing through his well-practiced mask.

"Is he serious? He really caused and survived an alchemic rebound like that?" Reid whispered, almost horrified.

"He is. However," Mustang held up a hand as Reid opened his mouth again. "I'm not the person you should be asking about it. It's not my story to tell." Reid shut his mouth at the finality in the Colonel's voice. Mustang turned his gaze back to Edward, a silent way of telling the agents to drop the subject, which they did. The pillar Edward was transmuting had come to a stop, level with the rooftop. He'd readied his automail blade again, just in case Harding had prepared a trap or decided to do what most insane people thought was a great idea, that being leaping from the rooftop to tackle him off his perch. If the agents had seen his face, they would have seen his golden eyes turn almost clinical as he assessed the scene before him.

Harding was surrounded by a cloud of dust and ash and lying in the middle of a decent-sized pool of blood. He wasn't moving, but Ed thought that he wouldn't be inclined to move if he was in Harding's position. Harding looked like a half-baked roast. His skin had bubbled and melted in some places, his clothes were barely existent, he had no hair left, and that was just from Mustang's attack. Ed could see various other wounds; cuts bullet wounds, and broken bones.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Ed activated his tracking array. While he wasn't using it to track Harding anymore, he had noticed something when he used it to track him from the latest crime scene. His tracking array couldn't see anything dead. He spread his arms and opened his eyes to look at Harding and confirmed his suspicions. Harding was still alive and if his alchemic energy level was true, he was still dangerous. Shutting off his array, Ed almost collapsed from the exhaustion and cursed at this world's lack of alchemic energy. He was so tired that he almost missed the movement on the rooftop and barely managed to dodge the attack Harding had sent towards him. He clapped as he rolled backwards off the pillar and slammed his hands into the side to create handholds, which he just managed to grab with his automail arm.

He almost let go of his handholds as he felt the arm pull at the port from the sudden stop, which hurt like a bitch when combined with the lingering pain from the blow Harding managed to land earlier. He felt himself draw blood as he bit his lip in an effort to stop himself from crying out when he felt the port pull at the muscles that grew around it. On top of the pain in his arm, his sudden stop reminded him very quickly about his broken ribs. Dust and chunks of asphalt fell around him, leaving tiny nicks whenever the sharp edges connected with Ed's skin as Harding's revitalized attack hit where Ed had been only seconds before.

"Ed!" He heard several people below him shout as soon as they realised what had happened.

"I'm fine!" he shouted back. He gauged his situation and realised he was only a little more than a story high, which he could easily jump from without dying, so he let himself drop and moved into a forward roll as soon as he felt his feet hit the ground, dispersing any momentum he had gained. He rolled smoothly onto his feet, only to promptly be pulled off them again by a very worried and irate Mustang, who was surrounded by equally worried-looking agents.

"What were you thinking? This is why you're always in the hospital! Are you okay? What are your injuries?" Mustang demanded, gripping Ed by his shoulders.

Ed hissed in pain as Mustang gripped his shoulder port. He jerked back, pulling away from Mustang's hands before he bothered answering. "I don't have any major injuries, Mustang. Seriously," he added at the sight of Mustang's disbelieving expression. "My shoulder port and ribs are the only potentially problematic injuries I've got, I swear."

"What about the gash in your leg?" Mustang asked, knowing that arguing further about broken ribs and damaged automail would be a waste of time. Ed would keep fighting until he literally dropped in his tracks. He still remembered the time when Ed had arrived early to report in after a mission, and Hawkeye had allowed him to wait in Mustang's private office while Mustang had been in a meeting with General Grumman. Mustang had arrived from his meeting twenty minutes later, only to find Edward passed out cold on the floor and unable to be woken. He'd rushed the teen to the hospital, only to find out that the younger alchemist had been bleeding internally, if however slightly.

"It's fine. I've had worse and you know it," Edward retorted. "And before you start channeling Winry about fighting with damaged automail, I will point out the fact that Truth swore my automail would stay perfectly functional, which means I can still fight."

Mustang at least had the decency to look mildly surprised that Edward knew what his train of thought was. Before he could reply, a large shape slammed into the ground, just a few meters behind Ed. Swinging Ed around by his good shoulder so he was facing the threat, Mustang brought his hand up and snapped his fingers sharply, sending a massive stream of fire straight for Harding, who was currently struggling to get to his feet.

Ed decided that Harding didn't look any better up close. It was now obvious how the Stone had rebounded. Harding barely looked human, and it had nothing to do with his injuries. His eyes were completely red and his expression was one of a feral animal who'd been tormented, cornered, and was ready to lash out, consequences be damned. His body had been warped and twisted by the Stone's rebound, in much the same way that Father Cornello had after his Stone had rebounded. Somehow a huge amount of mass that hadn't been there before had been added to his body, making him nearly twice as large as he had been when the fight began. Edward stared at him in fascinated horror. Harding shouldn't have even been able to stand in his condition, let alone willing to fight.

"What happened to him?" JJ's horrified voice whispered to Ed's right. The agents had fallen back behind the two alchemists, closer to the cover that Ed had transmuted for them. From this position they could still get a shot off at Harding, but without being in direct danger themselves. The two alchemists kept their eyes on Harding, analyzing his every move to try to predict his next attack.

"That's the result of the rebound," Edward said grimly, falling back into his defensive stance. "He's been forcefully merged with the Stone. My theory? There were probably only a handful of souls left and they likely tried to either take him down with them or they merged with him in an effort to keep themselves alive a little longer. He is no longer in control. Consider him to be no more than an extremely dangerous animal. He can't be returned to normal."

He wasn't one hundred percent certain what the Stone did, but he knew there was no way to fix anything affected by a rebound that big. Harding was going to be delivered to Truth either dead or unconscious and securely bound. "Be prepared for anything. He's just going to lash out with random attacks. There'll be no thought process behind his moves; he'll just do whatever his instinct says."

"Do you want to try trapping him first?" Mustang asked in a low tone, hand still poised to snap. He was nominally in charge, being the higher-ranked officer, but Edward had far more experience when it came to dealing with a Stone.

Ed considered the question for the moment before answering. "Yes, but not yet. We need to make him use up as much energy as we can so he's easier to trap. I've got a feeling that his senses are a lot sharper now," he whispered back.

Mustang nodded his understanding as Ed quickly turned back to quickly tell the agents that the plan was now to force Harding to use up his energy. Catching Mustang's eye as he readied himself to attack, he nodded, giving the signal to start. Ed raced forward, automail blade held at the ready as Mustang successful sent controlled bursts of flames at Harding while avoiding Edward.

Edward knew that he didn't have a lot of alchemic energy left, even if he were to activate his absorbing array. He wasn't quite willing to risk activating the array, considering that both he and Mustang had already used the array in this area. Having the absorbing array rebound on them…no. Not worth the risk while Harding was this unstable and there was still a chance that they could bring him down. For the time being, he decided to use hand-to-hand and save the last of his alchemic energy for the final moments of the fight.

Harding was kept busy dodging Mustang's flames and the agents' bullets whenever one of the managed to squeeze off a round, but once Edward got up in his face and started slashing at him with his automail blade, trying to exhaust him, he really had his hands full. More and more attacks started to land, and Edward was able to get in a few good blows of his own.

Ducking Harding's left fist at the last second, the breeze of which ruffled the hair on the top of his head, Edward wasn't able to avoid it when the right fist landed a solid punch directly on his unguarded ribs which left Ed reeling from pain. At the same moment, Mustang landed an attack and Morgan's bullet pierced Harding's left thigh. Harding screeched in pain and gave Ed a few precious seconds to collect himself and launch another series of attacks.

As the fight wore on, Ed could feel his own attacks start to become lethargic and sloppy – to the point that Teacher would have been able to kick his ass in under a second if she had caught him this tired. He was using so much energy that he knew that if they didn't end this fight within the next three minutes, Ed would be useless. He hurt all over now thanks to Harding landing more blows than not. He'd also acquired lots of cuts and scrapes from having to escape some attacks by throwing himself to the pavement. He had a bullet graze on his left arm from one of the agents' guns, but he thought it was worth it since that bullet had managed to hit Harding in the chest, possibly lodging itself in one of his lungs, if the raspy, tortured breathing was anything to go by.

He could tell that everyone else was nearly spent as well. Mustang looked as exhausted as he felt and only Hotch, Rossi, and Morgan had bullets left to fire. The other agents had made the executive decision to find some cover since they now couldn't protect themselves. That's when an idea popped into Ed's head.

It was a stupid, reckless idea, inspired by something that he'd seen Teacher do during the final battle with Father on the Promised Day.

It might not work.

But if it did, Harding would never able to survive it.

Mustering up the last dregs of his physical energy, Ed put some distance between himself and Harding with a couple of back flips. "Mustang! Send the biggest fireball you can manage at him! I have a plan!" Ed shouted across the street as he mentally prepared the array he'd need and the energy he would need to pull it off. He watched Mustang with an eagle eye, since timing was everything for this plan to succeed

Mustang stilled for a moment before taking a deep breath to prepare the energy he'd need to do as Ed requested. Mustang snapped, sending a fireball twice the size of Harding and three times hotter than your average fire straight for the rogue alchemist. A split second later, Edward clapped, slamming his hands to the ground in front of him and sending the alchemic energy along the ground and past Harding.

As he had suspected, Harding tried to dodge the fireball, but it was far too late. Edward's transmutation had raised a thick wall on three sides of him, leaving Harding no choice but to face the oncoming threat. Moments before it landed, Ed completed the array and built the fourth wall and roof, trapping Harding and the fireball in the same small space together so that Harding had absolutely no chance of escaping.

Harding's screams filled the air, screams that made Ed sick to his stomach. After a few moments, the screams died away, but nobody made a move towards the makeshift cage. Edward leaned over and rested his hands against his knees and just breathed for a few minutes while he waited for the fire to starve itself of oxygen. Finally, he walked over to the wall and borrowed Scar's technique to destroy a small section of wall. The smell – a combination of odors that reminded him of frying beef, grilled fatty pork, burnt liver, charcoal, sulfur, and copper – almost made him throw up. His eyes watered and his stomach flipped as he took in the horrific sight of charred remains. He stumbled back a step, and a moment later Mustang yanked him away from the box turned crematorium.

Edward moved several steps away and dropped to his knees as his stomach finally rebelled past his ability to control it. For all that he enjoyed pancakes and coffee, they tasted far worse coming back up than they had when he had eaten them earlier that day. Mustang knelt beside him and rubbed his back soothingly while he heaved. Shakily wiping his mouth with the back of his gloved hand, he pushed himself back to his feet with Mustang providing a supporting elbow as the colonel walked him away from the corpse.

Mustang was amazed at Ed's ingenious trap, but he also knew that the blond had never killed someone before. While the smell of burnt flesh and the sight of charcoaled remains were not unfamiliar to him, even he still struggled with it, as they brought back horrible memories of Ishval. He knew that Ed would no doubt remain shaky and probably a little ill for a while but would eventually pull himself together and put on a brave, unbothered face. What he was really worried about was the eventual fallout – the moment when the teen realised what had happened.

He put Edward back over by the agents' cars before returning to the box where the corpse was still smoldering. With a few simple transmutations, he had restored Edward's confining box back into the pavement and restored most of the damage to the surrounding area, before rejoining his subordinate to wait by the cars as the agents moved about, making calls and preserving the scene. After a few minutes of watching the agents, he cautiously wrapped an arm around the teen's shoulders, providing wordless support. Edward stiffened at the unexpected contact, but Mustang kept his arm firmly in place and a moment later felt the younger alchemist tremble slightly, in a mix of exhaustion and relief. He tightened his grip as Edward leaned into the supportive embrace and vowed that he'd be there for Ed when that fallout happened.

A/N - Here's chap 13 all revised and everything! This will be a short A/N because Chap 14 will be posted next!