When Al woke up, everything was dark, and he could feel movement, as if he were on a train. There was something in his mouth. He tried to move, but he was firmly bound, and something was pinning him against the wall. It took him a second to realize it was his brother, who was also bound and gagged. Al tried to push him off, but his efforts only caused Ed to fall even more on his brother.

Eventually Al gave up. He waited for someone to come to them. Tessa must have kidnapped them, but why had she taken both of them? Wasn't she just after Ed? Al was confused. After a while, he realized that his eyes had adjusted to the minimal light in the room. He looked at his brother. Ed's eyes were closed, and he was breathing normally. Al figured he was asleep.

After a while, Ed woke up. Al saw him open his eyes, and waited for Ed to notice him. Finally, Ed looked into his brother's face, and tried to get off of his brother. He didn't succeed, though. After a while, Ed just looked apologetically at Al.

"Mmmph."

Al found it really amusing that his brother was trying to talk. He shook with silent laughter. Ed realized his brother was laughing and glared.

They sat in silence for a long time. Finally, the train stopped moving. Al heard footsteps, and light flooded the room. He immediately squinted, turning his head away from the door. Once his eyes adjusted, Al looked back up. There was a woman standing above them. She looked down at the two with a friendly smile.

"It looks like you woke up sooner than we expected," she said as she leaned over them and picked Ed up. It was only then that Al noticed the man standing behind her. He walked up to Al and picked him up. Al tried to get away, but of course he wasn't able to. Once he realized he didn't have a chance of escaping, Al devoted his energy to observing his surroundings, which was hard to do since his head was at such an awkward angle.

Soon they came to a car. Al was wondering why nobody was paying attention to them, but then he realized that the only people around seemed to be allied with Tessa and the guy carrying him.

The man set Al down as he opened the car door. Then he gently placed Al on the seat and removed the gag. Before Al could say anything, though, the man closed the door. Al looked around and saw his brother next to him.

"Brother…"

"Hey."

"What happened?"

"They came in the middle of the night for me. They would have just taken you if I hadn't woken up. For some reason I woke up on the floor."

"Oh, yeah. Heh."

"Did you do that?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Al…"

"Anyway, where are we?" Al asked, changing the subject.

"You're asking me?"

"Weren't you awake when they came?"

"Yeah, but they didn't tell me anything. Do you think they're stupid?"

"Well, no, but you've been with them before, right?"

"Yeah, but I didn't know where I was until I escaped."

"So, how are we going to get away?"

"I don't know. She said she'd untie us when we got to wherever we were going."

"But where is that?"

Just then, the front door opened, and Tessa got in the passenger's seat. The man got in on the driver's side and started the car.

"Where are you taking us?" Ed asked.

"Not too far, just to the other side of town. From there we're going by carriage to a small village in the mountains."

"Why are we here, though?" Al asked. "Why can't you just leave us alone?"

"I told this to your brother, but your lives are in danger. The ones who robbed that house…"

"Yeah, yeah, they're after us, but why are we safer with you than with the military?"

"Would the military have given you any freedom while protecting you?"

"We were walking around freely when you kidnapped us, weren't we?"

"But you weren't being protected. It was painfully easy to find you and take you here. How well do you think you'd do against those two?"

Ed didn't say anything. Tessa was right, but he still wasn't buying her story. "At least with the military we know where we are. And we know what we're dealing with. Right now all I know about whoever it is that's after us is that they looked like us when they broke into that house."

"I can't tell you any more than that because I don't know anything else."

"Then how did you find them when they came into the room where we were trying to get our bodies back?" Ed was practically shouting at this point.

"Brother, calm down. Shouting won't do any good," Al muttered. "I'm sure if she knew anything else, she'd tell us."

Ed looked at his brother. "Al…"

"And think about it, brother. Would you rather be stuck in that room again? Where they don't let you out except to go to the bathroom?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Just stop, brother. I'm fine with this, why aren't you?"

"Uh, maybe because right now we're tied up like prisoners? How about that?"

"Now, Ed, I told you that I'd untie you once we got to where we're headed. If I untie you sooner, the two following us wouldn't believe that we're holding you prisoner."

"See, brother? I knew there'd be a reason."

Ed gave up. He knew there wasn't anyone following them, but he also knew he was fighting a losing battle. Al had been completely hypnotized by Tessa.

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

After a while, they switched over to a carriage, like Tessa had said they would. Ed looked out through the back of the covered carriage at the town they were leaving. It was more of a city, but that didn't matter to Ed. He was concentrating on where they were. That way they could get back more easily.

Tessa seemed to realize what Ed was up to, because she pulled the cloth flaps closed after a moment. "You should get some rest. It's going to be a while before we get there."

Ed wanted to protest, but Tessa gently covered his mouth. "Shh, your brother's already asleep."

Ed looked over at Al, and sure enough, Al was sound asleep. He looked very peaceful. Ed decided to let him be. Tessa smiled as she removed her hand. "I know you aren't tired right now, but try to get some sleep, okay? It'll make the trip go faster."

Who was she, his mom? Why was she acting like Ed and Al were little kids who couldn't take care of themselves? Ed didn't think too much about it. Instead, he rolled over, his back to Tessa, and closed his eyes.

When he woke up, Tessa had set him down on a chair at a table. Then she closed the door leading outside and began to untie him.

"Where's Al?" Ed asked.

"He's still sleeping. I put him into your room. Sorry, but you're going to have to share a bed. It's a big bed, though, so it should be fine."

"Where are we?"

"Ed…"

"I want to know, okay?"

"Look, I have instructions not to tell you anything, so stop asking. I'm going to send you into your room in a minute, too, after you eat."

"I'm not hungry."

"Well, you're not going to get another chance to eat until late this evening, so if you want to starve…"

"Fine." More and more, Ed felt like Tessa was treating him like a five-year-old. He was just glad she didn't give him any milk.

Tessa practically read his thoughts. "I know how much you hate milk, and you should be happy to know that there isn't a refrigeration system up here, so you won't have to worry about having to drink it."

Once Ed had finished eating, Tessa walked him upstairs and sent him into a small, windowless room. Ed looked around. He could easily use alchemy to get out of here, but he'd need Al's cooperation. Ed didn't want to leave without his brother.

Ed lay down on the bed next to Al. It took him a moment to notice Al watching him.

"Hey, brother."

"Hi, Al."

"We finally arrived, didn't we?"

"Yeah, we did."

"Look, I'm sorry I took her side. I wanted her to think I was convinced by her story."

"You weren't, though, were you?"

"Something about her face told me she was lying. Besides, what about that bloody thing from that night?"

"There are a lot of questions that don't have answers, huh?"

"Yeah. It's kind of fun, actually. Like solving a puzzle."

"But this puzzle involves our lives."

"Shh, be quiet."

"Huh? Why?"

"Just… pretend you're sleeping, okay?"

Ed listened to his brother and closed his eyes just as the door opened. Ed heard two sets of footsteps coming toward them. One stopped by their feet, but the other continued around the bed and stopped next to Ed's head. Ed felt a hand on his forehead.

"So, what do we do with them now?"

"Well, I need to make them both believe we're protecting them from the robbers. Once they believe that, they'll follow us anywhere."

"But why do we need them to follow us? Can't we just kill them and dump them somewhere?"

"You don't have any sense at all, do you? This is the Fullmetal Alchemist. If he disappears, the military won't be happy. Besides, he'll be useful soon."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we need replacements for those two failures, don't we?"

"But how do we know the kid will do what you tell him to?"

"Easy. Now that we have both of them, we can just hold one hostage and make the other one do the work. Maybe they can help at the end, too…"

Ed had to sneeze. He tried to hold it in, but he couldn't, so he just hoped that they wouldn't realize he was awake. He was pretty convincing, too, he thought, but…

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

Roy was working at his desk when someone came into the office. They handed him a piece of paper and walked out quickly. Roy looked at the paper. What he saw on there shocked him.

He arrived at the Fuhrer's office moments later. Riza let him in, and he sat in a chair across from Bradley.

"So the Elric brothers are missing?"

"Yes. They were kidnapped from their teacher's house the night before last. A few people witnessed a woman, matching the description of the one who had the Fullmetal Alchemist up until recently, walking down the street where the house was located several times that night."

Roy was quiet. He was angry at himself for not being stricter with the brothers.

"I want you to find them and bring in the woman responsible for this for questioning. Ms. Hawkeye will accompany you."

This startled Roy. Riza was being used as a hostage, so if they were letting go of someone so important to keeping Roy in check, it meant they really wanted Ed and Al back. Either that or they were up against someone very dangerous.

After a moment, Roy stood up to leave, but Bradley gestured for him to sit down again. "Do you know the details of that robbery?"

"No, sir, just that the Elric brothers were suspects for a while."

"You're going to need to know more than that to understand what you're going up against." Roy listened to Bradley's account of events leading up to the robbery, and became immensely worried as he realized just how important it was to get the brothers out of Tessa's hands, both for the military and for the people of Amestris, and also for the sake of the Elric brothers.