Ed didn't think too much about the deal. He figured it was better than staying in Central, so the next day their answer was yes. After that they were free to do as they pleased. The first thing Ed did was stop by the Colonel's office. He wanted to give his thanks.

Roy wasn't there when Ed went there. When he asked someone, she said that today was Roy's day off. Ed thanked her and walked out of the building with his brother.

"So, what now? I don't really want to stay in Central for too long."

"We could stop by his apartment."

"You know where he lives?"

"Of course I do. I did live there for two weeks, you know."

"Oh, right. Okay, let's go."

Ed and Al walked quietly down the streets. Ed was limping slightly, so Al decided to make him rest for a while, using food as an excuse. They stopped at a small restaurant Ed had eaten at several times before. The owner recognized him and stopped to chat for a while.

"How have you been?"

"Not too bad."

"Where's the armor you're usually with?"

Ed gestured at Al, who waved with a hint of embarrassment.

"No way, you're the one with the armor?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't think you'd be so small. How did you manage to move that thing around?"

"That's a secret," Al said with an evil grin.

"Oh, come on, you can tell me."

"Nope. No can do."

"I don't believe you."

"Don't you recognize my voice?"

"Well, yeah, but… Okay, okay, I'll let you keep your little secret. Say, what happened to your leg?" Ed had shifted his leg and pulled up his pant leg to check on it.

"Oh, I had a little accident a while ago."

"You're calling that little?"

"Yes I am. Hey, where's our food?"

"It's coming. Can't you be a little more patient?"

Once they had eaten and paid, Ed and Al chatted with the owner for a while. Then, Ed saw something unnerving. There, browsing a flower shop on the other side of the street, was Tessa. She wasn't looking at Ed, but he didn't want to stick around to let her see him. Ed stood up, and trying to be as polite as he could, said a rushed goodbye to the man and ran off, pulling his brother with him. He didn't stop until they were a good distance away.

"Brother, what was that for?" Al asked once they had stopped.

"Did you see that woman looking at the flowers across the street?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"That's the one."

"The one who kidnapped you?"

"Yeah."

"What's she doing here?"

"Probably trying to find me."

"What should we do?"

"Let's go visit the Colonel like we planned. Maybe he'll have an idea."

-----------------

When they arrived at Roy's door, Ed had Al knock. He stood a good distance behind his brother as the door opened. Ed gaped as he saw the unshaven, half-awake Colonel. When Roy saw who it was, he slammed the door, shouting, "I'll be out in a minute!"

Ed burst out laughing as they waited.

"What are you laughing at, brother?" Al asked.

"Did you see what he was wearing?" Ed replied between gasps for breath.

"So he likes to wear pajamas with pink ducks on them, what's the big deal?"

"I wish I had a camera, that was perfect blackmail material right there."

"Jeez, brother, you're hopeless. Remember those nice pink flowery pajama pants you used to wear?"

"Hey, I only wore those because mom liked them!"

"You liked them too, though!"

"So did you! You stole them from me, remember?"

"No I didn't! That was Winry!"

"No way, that was so you!"

When Roy opened the door again, the two had begun a fight. Roy watched with some amusement as Al emerged the victor, sitting on his brother's back.

"What did I just miss?"

"Um, nothing," Ed muttered as Al got off of him.

Roy smirked at Ed as he let the two boys in. To Ed's surprise, it was fairly clean inside.

"So, what brings you here?"

Ed took a moment to say what he had come to say. "Well, um, thank you, for taking care of Al."

"You're thanking me, Fullmetal?"

Ed's face was very red at this point. "Yeah, is there something wrong with that?"

"No, not at all. I'm glad to see you're alive. I heard you didn't get your arm back, though."

"No, I didn't."

It was quiet for a moment, and then Al spoke up. "Um, Colonel, on the way here, we saw someone, it was the person who had taken brother. We think she's looking for him."

"And you don't know what to do?"

"No, we don't."

"What does this person look like?"

Ed tried to describe Tessa as best as he could. Roy listened quietly to Ed's description. Once Ed had finished, Roy took a moment to think.

"Where are you going now?"

Ed and Al looked at each other. "I think we're going to go to Dublith. That's where our teacher is."

"Well, just try not to attract attention, and stay on your guard. I'll file a report on this woman, and we'll try to catch her."

"Thank you." Ed wasn't nearly as red this time.

"How's your leg doing?"

"It's almost completely healed. At least I can walk on it now."

"Maybe you'll grow some too."

"Hey." Ed didn't much feel like attacking Roy for once. Instead, he stood up. Al followed his lead, and Roy walked them to the door.

"Stop by again some time. We'll have a milk speed drinking contest."

Ed ignored this poke at his dislikes and waved as he and his brother walked away.

---------------

Tessa walked down the streets of Central. She'd heard that the Elric brothers had been brought to Central, and that they had been deemed not guilty, so she had more of a chance of catching the Fullmetal Alchemist now than she would in a few days. So far, however, nothing had turned up. Nobody seemed to have seen either of the two.

She went to the train station with the hopes that someone would have seen the suit of armor that was the alchemist's younger brother. No luck there. Few people had seen that armor, and the ones who had hadn't seen it for quite some time. Another dead end.

Then the thought occurred to her: what if the younger brother didn't wear armor anymore? She thought of the boy she had met in East City. His hair was black, but he'd looked a lot like Edward, albeit taller and skinnier. What if that had been him? After all, he had been found in the east, and he was from Resembool…

Even though she had no other evidence for it, Tessa was convinced that she had seen Alphonse in East City. She changed her tactics, and began asking people about him. One person confirmed her suspicions when he mentioned that he'd seen a boy like that traveling with a blonde boy with a braid and a right arm of automail. They had gotten on a train heading south.

Tessa smiled to herself. She'd heard that the Elric brothers knew people in Dublith. She decided to take a trip to the south.

-----------------

Ed and Al walked nervously down the street toward a certain butcher shop. Once there, Ed paused before entering. He wasn't sure how people would react. Al had dyed his hair back to its natural color, so they would recognize him immediately.

Finally, Al opened the door and pulled Ed inside. Behind the counter was Mason, who looked fairly frazzled. There were a lot of people inside. He took a moment to wave to Ed and Al and shouted to someone in the back. Then he told the two to wait outside.

After a moment, Izumi came out. She paused as she saw Al, who took a step back out of fear. Then she looked at Ed. There was an awkward silence for a moment or two. Finally, Ed got up the nerve to speak.

"Um, hi, teacher…"

WHACK! Ed found himself lying face up on the ground. Seconds later, Al was sprawled over him.

"Couldn't you have called before coming? This is a really busy time for us!"

"S-sorry, we didn't know…"

Izumi held out a hand to Al. "Look at you. You did it," she said as she pulled him up. Ed had to stand up on his own. His teacher paused as she noticed the automail arm.

"What about you? Why is your arm still like that?"

"Eh, something went wrong, and I didn't get it back."

"What about your leg?"

"I got most of it back, and it's pretty much healed now."

"That's good. What went wrong?"

"Someone interrupted us. I still don't really know what happened."

"That's too bad. So, what are you doing now?"

"Not much, they're making me stay in the military, though."

"Why?"

"It's a long story."

"But they're letting you travel around still?"

"Yeah, but we're going to have to go back to Central at the end of the month."

"So did you just come to bother me, or what?"

"Yep."

Izumi smiled as she smacked Ed on the back. "Well, why don't you stay for dinner? Al looks like he could use some food."

-----------------

That night after dinner, Al sat outside for a while. The night air felt good. To Ed, it wasn't that exciting, but Al loved it. Not being able to experience this for five years made him appreciate it a lot more.

Ed stood in the doorway behind his brother. After a while, he yawned. "Hey, Al, I'm going to bed. Are you going to stay out here for a while?"

"No, I'm tired too."

Izumi had been nice enough to let them spend the night there instead of making them find a hotel. Most of the hotels were booked anyway, she said.

Al had troubles falling asleep, although that was probably because he was in a sleeping bag on the floor with only a blanket as cushioning. He lay staring at the ceiling, listening to his brother's breathing. It made him remember those long nights he had spent without sleeping.

After a while, he sat up. He wanted to steal the bed from his brother. As he stood up, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Someone had been right outside the window, looking inside. Al shook his brother awake and they looked through the window. There was nobody there.

"Hey, Al, are you sure you didn't imagine it?"

"No, I didn't imagine it," Al said, sitting on the bed.

"Well, whoever it was, they're gone now, so I'm going back to sleep." Seeming to think that Al had always been on the bed, Ed collapsed on the sleeping bag. Al smirked. He had succeeded. Now Ed couldn't complain about Al stealing the bed. He had left it on his own.

Al didn't think too much about the person at the window. It was probably just some kid, anyway. Nevertheless, he closed the shades and locked the window.

---------dash------

Later that night, Ed woke up to something going thunk, and a quiet curse. He sat up and looked around. Someone was standing next to the bed.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, Al, go back to sleep," Ed heard. He lay back down, but something was wrong. Why was Al's voice so high? And why had he called him Al? After a moment, he figured it out. Someone was kidnapping his brother, probably thinking that he was Ed. Ed stood up as fast as he could. Sure enough, the person wasn't his brother. It was Tessa.

Ed tried to move, but she was too fast. Within seconds, Ed was on the floor with his mouth covered and his arms pinned.

Then Ed saw someone else moving in the room. He couldn't see who it was, but he definitely wasn't on Ed's side. As soon as Tessa let go of Ed's mouth, the man had stuck a piece of cloth into it. Then they bound him tightly.

"Are we really going to take this one too?"

"Well, we don't have a choice now, do we?"

"Hang on, isn't this the kid we came for?"

"Yeah, it is. What was he doing on the floor?"

"It doesn't matter. Let's just take them both anyway. It'll be easier that way."

Ed struggled as the man picked him up and handed him over to Tessa, who had gotten to the other side of the window. She set him down and went back inside. Ed tried to bring his hands together, but they were too far apart. Then he tried to squirm out of the ropes, but he had no luck with that either. Finally, the thought occurred to him to make noise, so he started banging his head against the wall. That only succeeded in making a small thud and giving Ed a massive headache, so he stopped.

After a moment, they came out with Al. Tessa picked Ed up again and carried him down a dark street to an alley behind a hotel. Then the man left his brother and went inside. A little while later, a window opened right above them, and Ed found himself being handed over to the man, who placed him on one of the two beds. His brother was set down next to him.

Tessa sat down on the bed next to Ed's head. She placed her hand on Ed's forehead and smiled.

"I'm glad I found you. You need to get out of this place."

Ed tried to ask why, but all he could manage was a muffled growl. Tessa looked down at him. "I can't let you speak right now. You might wake someone up. But I promise, once we arrive at where we're headed, I'll untie you, okay?"

Ed couldn't believe this. She was acting like being kidnapped was a normal occurrence in his life. He tried to get out of the ropes again, but she put her hand firmly on his chest and prevented any more movement. "Stop struggling. We're doing this for your sake."

"Just knock him out, it'll be easier," the man said.

Tessa looked over at him and nodded. "Right." Ed watched as she picked something up off the nightstand and brought it toward Ed's face. It was a cloth, and as she placed it over his nose, Ed realized it was chloroform. Then everything was black.