See disclaimer in Chapter One

I woke up the next morning to a sharp blow on the top of my head, sending me toppling to the floor from where I had been sitting outside Winry's room. "Ow! What the…?"

I heard Al shout "My head! Hey!" He stood up and ran down the hallway after the skidding helmet, clanking and clattering in his haste. I looked up to see the imposing figure of Izumi Curtis, my old alchemy teacher, looming over me, her hands planted firmly on her hips. I shrank away from her dark scowl, averting my eyes from a stare that could drill through stone.

"Just what do you have to say for yourself, Edward Elric?!" Her voice boomed as she leaned over and brought her face that much closer to mine. "Your friend is sitting in that room, alone and undefended, while you two slackers take a beauty nap? Unbelievable!"

"T-Teacher?!"

"You only had one job, Ed! And this is how you do it? You should both be ashamed," she shouted, wheeling on Alphonse, who had only just returned his head to its proper place. I could see a dent in it where she had hit him.

"Uu-uuuh," stuttered Al, unable to form a coherent argument while his legs were still trembling.

The frightening housewife was about to say much more, but a creak from the wooden door stopped her train of thought. Winry stepped out, rubbing her eyes and yawning as she walked barefoot into the hallway. "It's okay, Mrs. Curtis," she mumbled. "It's okay. I'm fine."

I smiled confidently as Teacher lost her head of steam. "If you're sure that these idiots are doing their duties, then I'll let them be." She assumed her default stance, standing tall and crossing her arms in front of her.

Winry waved a hand dismissively, blinking at the bright light in the hallway. "You know how they are, ma'am," she said. "Once a slacker, always a slacker." She retreated into her room, smiling slyly at me as my jaw dropped in horror.

"Aw, come ON Winry!" I groaned as Teacher got right back to punishing our 'slacking'.

"I wasn't sleeping!" wailed Al, raising his arms over his head in surrender. "I can't! I was awake, I swear!"

Teacher glared at us, and if looks could kill…. we'd be dead twice."Honestly. I thought you boys actually cared about Winry."

That's going too far!

"How dare you?"

I slowly got to my feet. A clang rang out from my right side as my automail arm tensed, my fist clenching in a tight knot of rage.

"Have you seen her? Have you ever talked to her for more than a few minutes? You don't get it, because you never really met her until now. But I grew up with her! Besides Alphonse, she is the best friend I will ever have, and she's broken! Her strength is gone, her face can barely manage a smile! And you have the nerve to question how I feel? You don't know shit! You can't feel what I feel, just like I can't feel what she feels; and you don't have a single damned clue how much it hurts to see her in pain." I felt a hot streak run across my face, and I reached up with my sleeve to dash away the tears of anger that had begun to fall. "Al and I would give anything to keep her safe. We would give up anything to heal the hurts she's suffered. Hell, I'd go through the Portal of Truth all over again just to stop her damn nightmares! I'd lose every limb I've got to keep her safe, but now...I can't do anything. I can't heal her, I can't stop her from being afraid, and I feel so helpless! So look me in the face and tell me again that I don't care!"

"...Ed?..."

I froze. I looked over my shoulder, and saw Winry standing behind me, the cat held in her arms as her shoulder propped the door open. Her eyes were wide, the clear blue fogging over with shock and tears.

"...H-hey, Winry," I finally mutter, swiping my arm across my eyes one more time before facing her. "So...you're fully awake now."

"Y-yes. I am." Her cheeks turn a faint shade of pink. "I...I just wanted to know what all the commotion was about…"

Teacher spoke up. "Edward. I was wrong to accuse you. Be glad I'm in a good mood… Oh, by the way, one Colonel Mustang called the house asking for you. It sounded important; you should probably check in."

Al tapped his chin quizzically. "What does the Colonel want, brother?"

"I'll explain on the way, Al, but we have to get moving." I glanced at Winry, who was still standing in the doorway. The cat was nudging her neck with its face, and her eyes looked so confused. I can't just leave her alone here. Teacher was right about that much…"Hey, Teacher? Could you...watch over Winry while we're gone? I don't know how long we'll be, but this is something we have to do. And if there's anyone who can keep her safe, it's...it's definitely you." I looked her in the eyes and willed her to understand. "You're not a 'slacker' like us."

Teacher returned my gaze, then looked to Winry, who was still scared, still a little lost. She nodded, and flashed her rare smile. "Looks like we'll be getting to know each other fairly well."

**FMAB**

As we approached the butcher shop that Teacher's husband ran, my thoughts still couldn't leave that hospital room. I didn't want to make Winry feel abandoned...believe me, that's the very last thing she needs. But if Mustang is going to keep his end of the deal, the least I can do is keep mine.

Sig Curtis greeted me at the door, holding a huge meat cleaver and wearing a slightly stained white apron over his dark grey shirt. "There was a man named Mustang calling. He wanted to speak to you boys. It was rather urgent, as I recall." He then walked back into the shop, leading me to the telephone without another word. It wasn't really necessary.

I picked up the phone and called the Colonel's office. He picked up immediately. "Hey, Fullmetal, is that you?"

"Yeah, Colonel, it's me."

"Listen. we could use a hand up here. We're a little short-staffed." I heard the jab, and bristled.

"Who're you calling short?!" I shouted, holding the receiver right in front of my face.

"Relax, Fullmetal. That's not what I meant this time, anyway. You have to get to Rush Valley quickly. We've picked up a strong lead on Winry's attacker, and we're following him right now. The only problem is that he's cleverer than we thought he'd be. He's using every evasive tactic he can think of, and we don't have enough men to sustain a prolonged manhunt."

"Don't worry about it. We'll be there! When did you..." I was interrupted by Mustang.

"I've got a call coming in from one of my men on another line. I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done." The phone clicked, and I heard the hiss of rushing static.

Al tapped me on the shoulder. "What did he say, brother? You looked pretty happy."

"I am happy, Al," I said, grinning at him. "They've identified the guy that hurt Winry, and they've set up a manhunt for him. Only problem is, he's not stupid. They're worried they don't have enough men, so Mustang called us in!"

"That's great, brother! If they found him already, then it shouldn't be long now. Colonel Mustang is really clever when it comes to this kind of thing." Al's eye lights twinkled with anticipation. "We'll be able to come back and tell Winry that the man who hurt her has been arrested!"

"Yeah. That would be something, all right." Suddenly, the phone cut back to the Colonel's voice, but it was faint, like the phone was far away from his head.

"...what do you mean...not good enough, damnit! I want a perimeter...search until you find the bastard! We are not letting him get away!"

Al tapped me on the shoulder. "What is it now, brother? You look stressed."

I shook my head, wondering what happened to get the Colonel this worked up. "Something's wrong on their end. Mustang's not talking to me directly, but I can hear him shouting."

Al crouched and leaned forward, listening to the phone as we waited for the Colonel to explain what was happening. Suddenly, we heard a far-off mumble, followed almost immediately by a huge slamming noise and a shouted, "Shit!"

"Colonel, what the hell is going on over there?" I finally exclaimed.

He seemed surprised, but I could barely tell underneath the frustration that practically dripped from his voice. "He slipped away! I don't know how he did it, but one moment he was in clear view of one of my men, and the next, a two hundred pound man just vanished into thin air!" My knuckles, the left ones, popped loudly as my fist tightened.

"What do you mean he vanished? People don't vanish!"

"I know that! He's got to be somewhere, but we've completely surrounded the area he was last seen in, and we're getting nothing."

Al shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense. He'd have to have passed through there somehow without you catching him. Maybe he's using a disguise!"

"Alphonse? Since when were you holding the phone?"

"He isn't, but this concerns him too," I explained.

"You're right about that much. I'm going to call in some favors from Eastern Command, see if I can get reinforcements. This weird disappearing trick is too familiar, and I don't remember from where. It's bothering me." He sighed heavily, then continued. Now, he just sounded tired. "Come here or stay with Winry, Fullmetal. It's your call now."

"Don't worry, Mustang, we're coming. And this time, that bastard won't be able to escape from us." My voice growled near the back of my throat as I hung up the phone. Not now. Not after all he's done!

**FMAB**

Colonel Mustang opened the door to his office, and Lieutenant Hawkeye saluted to the Colonel as we entered. "Still no sign yet, sir, but we're making progress!"

I gazed in awe at the remarkable efficiency with which Mustang's men had gathered their resources. Everyone in the room was holding a phone, radio or map, and nobody was idle for longer than a second. "Fury!" barked the Colonel. "Status report!" Sergeant Fury was hunched over a radio, holding a large black box in his lap. Two wheels spun inside it, pulling a long roll of black tape between them…

"A tape recorder?" Al exclaimed. "Cool!"

Sergeant Fury stood up, grabbing the recorder and tucking it under his arm before saluting. "We've been recording the emergency call number and tip lines for the past two hours! No suspicious activity has been detected, and there haven't been any reports of new victims!"

"Good work, Fury. Keep it up."

Fury smiled widely and nodded. "Yes, sir! Thank you sir!"

"Elrics, talk to Fury and Havoc. They'll give you the rundown on what's happened."

I frowned. "I thought Havoc was injured!"

He rolled up to us, his usual smirk replaced by a grimace. He was in a wheelchair. "Nice to know you care, Fullmetal. As it happens, the Colonel can be quite...persuasive, when it comes to adventurous quests for vengeance."

He handed both of us a large packet of paper. "These are field reports from two different units that were stationed in the area when the search began. We've been combing through them for clues, but maybe you two will be able to spot something we had missed. Fresh eyes and all that."

"Thanks for the help, Havoc," I mumbled. "Maybe you could get us another ten pounds of paper just to make us feel at home, eh?"

"I don't think that'll be very hospitable of us. We don't want the paper to outweigh you, after all." He winked.

"Whyyy yyouuuu…!" I lunged, only to be lifted bodily into the air by my little brother.

"Careful, brother! It was only a joke! Don't beat up people in wheelchairs!"

"I weigh a hell of a lot more than a stack of paper, you jerk!" I fumed, still suspended in the air.

Havoc just laughed and rolled away, whistling.

"We do have to actually start looking at the reports eventually, brother," Al groaned. He paused and put me back on the ground. I looked up at him, and his eye lights twinkled. "After all, the longer we're here, the longer Winry's all alone."

I jumped a little, and glared at him. "That was a low blow, Al. But you're right. We have to get going as soon as we can." Sergeant Fury motioned to two chairs behind him, and we sat down and began reading.

These people are clueless, aren't they? Some guy sends a tip about Winry and they don't even know who he is? What a joke! He could have been a valuable witness. Why didn't he stick around? "The 'good samaritan' had called an ambulance to Winry's location and left without a trace. It doesn't make sense to me, Al. Most concerned citizens would at least try to stay with the person they helped, but this one just ran away. It's suspicious." I was reclining in the stiff wooden chair, leaning it back on two legs.

"You're right. That is really unusual. But listen to this." Al held up his packet, and began sorting out his own discoveries. "The attack happened sometime after two in the afternoon, as far as Winry remembers. But the wounds she suffered hadn't even matured to an hour's time when she was found at three forty five. That means that there can't have been too much more than a half an hour between the time she was hurt and the time the ambulance arrived. With that kind of a time difference..."

"...It's entirely possible that the good samaritan may have crossed paths with Winry's attacker without knowing it." I finished, my fist clenching. "So close, but still so far away from anything we can use!"

Suddenly, a new tip call came in over Fury's radio. He quickly switched on the tape recorder, and we waited to see what would happen. The operator asked for the caller's name, and got a smug laugh in response. "*Names don't matter, stupid. I have information you want.*" I sat bolt upright, a chill running down my spine as the harsh, nasal voice continued. Al stared at me, his head shaking slightly from side to side.

"The fifth laboratory," we muttered in unison.

"*I saw that guy you're after, the one who beat up that girl last week. I was walking my dog, minding my own business and thinking about what I was gonna have for dinner later, when this creepy guy ran out of an alley with a bat.*" The call continued, and there was no doubt about it: it was the green-haired homunculus from the fifth laboratory.

Havoc rolled up to us, his brow quirked as he asked, "The fifth laboratory? You mean the one that collapsed on top of you?" He glanced toward the radio, listening to the distinct voice still emanating from it. "Do you know this guy, Fullmetal?"

"Unfortunately, I do," I growled. Alphonse just put his hand on my shoulder silently.

"*He threw the thing in a trash can and beat feet to the other side of town. Now that I think about it, he was splitting in the opposite direction from that girl's reported location, and he looked just like the picture on the wanted posters!*" The speaker buzzed oddly, and we all heard the voice shout, "*No, you moron, don't eat that!*" before the phone on the other end hung up.

Sergeant Fury scowled. "That's no way to treat a dog."

Alphonse stood up. "That wasn't a dog he was talking to," he said. "It was a homunculus, and so was the one speaking. That voice belonged to Envy, the homunculus that was at the fifth laboratory." He paused. "Now that I think about it, he was also at that cabin in the woods that got destroyed. I bet he was talking to the other homunculus that showed up there."

Lieutenant Hawkeye turned her head toward us, a strangely haunted look in her eyes. "The fat one. The one that attacked me in the sniper's nest. What was it called?...Gluttony."

"That's the one that swallowed me," I mused. "He's dangerous. They both are. But not only are they nearly impossible to kill," I slammed my fist on the table, causing Sergeant Fury's radio to bounce slightly, "Envy can change his appearance!"

Mustang narrowed his eyes. "You think he was the one that attacked Winry."

"I wouldn't put it past him. He's a sadistic bastard with a love for dramatics. This is just his style."

Al shrugged. "It doesn't look particularly good for us, but at least we've got something. Learning that our enemy is a homunculus is better than learning nothing."

Lieutenant Hawkeye nodded in agreement. "You're one step closer to catching Winry's attacker, Edward." she added.

"I don't want to be one step closer. One step closer is one step too far away!" I barked. "We don't have anything to go off of! We know who they are, but not how to find them."

"Not so fast, Fullmetal." I glanced at Mustang irritably, wondering what kind of faulty scheme he was cooking up this time. "At the end of Envy's phone call, he was yelling at the homunculus Gluttony to stop eating something. The sight of a person eating an inedible object would most likely attract attention from civilians. I'll update my men in the field to keep an eye out for unusual disturbances being reported." Mustang picked up his phone, to contact his men.

I bristled, finally having had enough. "Colonel, with all due respect, maybe we should actually do something! I'm tired of sitting on my ass while this freak walks around scot-free. If we're going to catch him, maybe we should listen to somebody who hasn't failed yet!" I stormed out of the room, not even giving Mustang the chance to reply.

"Brother! Wait! You're not thinking too clearly either, you know!" Alphonse ran after me, trying to maintain at least an illusion of peace.

I sharply turned on my heel to face him, annoyed that Al couldn't see the severity of the situation. "You don't get it, do you Al?! Mustang said he didn't need me, he said that he could catch this bastard without me, and when he finally did find him, what happened? He let him escape! He let him get away!" I fought back the hot tears that threatened to fall. "I should have ignored Mustang, and came here when I wanted to! If I was here, I would have caught that egotistical homunculus the first time around! Then Winry would have some closure, knowing that her attacker had been caught! Maybe her nightmares would stop! Maybe she would finally laugh and smile freely again! Because I've already failed her once Al, and I sure as hell don't want to do it AGAIN!"

"Brother… it's not his fault. None of us has ever been able to pin Envy down. The only one who could was Gluttony, and they're on the same side, remember? The only way I stood a chance against that thing was by surrendering!" He ran ahead of me and blocked my path, taking up as much space in the hallway as he could. "This isn't a plan, it's suicide, and you're being selfish if you think this is a good reason to get killed!"

I stopped in my tracks. "What are you talking about?" I snarled.

"I've been Winry's friend for as long as I've been alive, just like you! You think you're the only one who cares about her? Are you really so conceited that you think you can prove everyone wrong and save the day all by yourself?! Sorry, brother, but you don't have a clue what's really going on, and I'm willing to prove it."

I ducked under his outstretched arms, but he snagged my hood and yanked it over my face, obscuring my vision. I felt his grip release, and flung the hood back in time to see a heavily armored knee fly towards me. It caught me in the shoulder, sending me flying backwards. "I know you're angry!" he yelled. "But that's no reason to forsake everyone! They wanted nothing more than to help us, and you just betrayed all of their trust just as surely as they betrayed yours!"

His huge fist swung towards the side of my face, and I brought my right arm up to block it. He pulled the punch just before it connected, using its momentum to spin his body around. He dropped to the floor and swung his leg out from underneath him, kicking me solidly in the back of the legs and throwing me off my feet. "You want to make Winry feel safer by catching Envy, but how safe will she feel if Colonel Mustang has to tell her that you died?!"

I flipped to my feet, but Al was faster. His other foot whirled out and landed squarely in my chest, forcing the air from my lungs and toppling me backwards. "You want to be the hero, brother," he said, stepping firmly on my automail leg, "but divided, we fall. Even heroes need friends."

"Do you think I'm some sort of idiot, Al?!" I struggle to get to my feet, but he puts more weight on my leg. "I'm tired of people getting hurt because of us! Because of our mission! Like… like Brigadier General Hughes, or Nina, or... Winry. Every time we bring anyone else into our business, somebody suffers because of it, and I'm done watching people I know get hurt. If we do this alone, only we will suffer for our mistakes. If we do this alone, it doesn't matter if we fight against the odds, because at least we're the only ones facing them anymore!" Streams of tears fall down my face, and Al lets me stand up. "If we do it alone...we won't hurt anyone."

"You forgot what I said, didn't you? Look at you, Ed. You're the older one, and you're still arguing selectively like a kid. What happens if Winry finds out about what you're trying to do?" His voice cracks inside the helmet. "What if Mustang...no. What if I have to walk up to her, look her in the eyes, and tell her that you didn't make it?! She's hurt already, brother, but that...that would kill her inside."

I felt the blood drain from my face as I collapsed to my knees. My vision blurred, and I felt lightheaded as I struggled to comprehend what I had almost done. Al sat down, putting his hands on my shoulders. "I just wanted to stop her from hurting. I just want to make her happy again…" My hands clapped over my temples, warding off a headache. I tried my best not to scream, but I just felt so...raw. "I...I…"

Al gave me a hug, his huge steel arms wrapping gently around my trembling body. My hands clenched, slamming against his hollow chest and sliding to the ground as I cried.

Please leave a review and visit my friend and co-author, DarksteelRebelhawk, out on Wattpad! His stories are so amazing! More chapters to follow!

-warehouseluver13