Chapter Four: Barry the Chopper

Edward's vision was brought back from a haze of consciousness, discovering he was tied to a chair. His automail arm was also gone.

"Good morning, mister Alchemist," a familiar voice said. The woman Edward had tried to save was standing in front of him, holding his automail arm. "Word around the street is that you can transmute without circles. So I took some precautions."

"Are you the one who's been doing this?" Ed asked. The woman chuckled, removing a wig to reveal that she was in fact a he. "A man in women's clothing?"

"No one would suspect a lady to do any of this," the man said. "My name is Barry; Barry the chopper."

"You're sick," Edward spat.

"Apparently both of us are," Barry said, grinning. "

"What are you talking about?"

"You thought I wouldn't notice those cuts on your wrist?" Barry asked. "And the ones on your shoulder. I did strip you after all."

Ed remained silent. He glanced to one of the corners in the room and saw his red coat laying on the ground. The chopper must have left it there when he stripped him.

"I have another surprise for you," Barry said. He moved backward, grabbing chains and pulling them forward.

Winry stumbled, her wrist attached to the chain. She had cloth wrapped around her face to keep her from screaming, but that didn't mean she didn't try.

"Winry!" Edward shouted. "Let her go, you sick bastard!"

"What do you think, girl?" Barry asked Winry. "What do you think about how your friend deliberately slices up his own skin?"

Winry made muffled sounds. Ed couldn't even look her in the eyes, and he didn't know if that was because he was ashamed of what he had done to himself, or if he didn't want to see the fear in her eyes when he couldn't save her.

Thankfully, Edward still had that screw that Winry had dropped when she was taken. While Barry the chopper was going into a full rant about how Ed was just as demented as he was, and how he had killed people before, Edward was carving a transmutation circle into the chair.

The flash of light was bright and momentarily blinded the killer before he realized what happened. The kid had just transmuted himself out of his bonds.

"You little!" Barry shouted. Edward let out a scream, moving out of the way just in time for the chopper to crash his butcher knife in the space the blonde boy had previously occupied.

Ed ran toward the meat, trying to get away. He wasn't going to leave Winry, but the thought did cross his mind that he should get some help.

Of course, the chopper was right on his tail. The first thing Edward did when he ran toward the meat was make round a circle and grab his automail arm.

Pain surged through him when he hooked it up, the nerves connecting. His ears were still ringing when he went running.

He was quick to get to Winry, and tried with all his power to get the chain unhooked from her wrists. She was too tightly bound. The blonde girl started making more muffled screams when she saw Barry headed toward Edward. He went off running again, hating to leave her there. Thankfully, the chopper was too focused with the young alchemist to even care about her.

Edward ran into a meat slab, Barry crashing into the back of them and forcing the two of them to tumble down to the floor.

Ed closed his eyes tight, transmuting his automail into a blade and immediately slashing into anything he could find.

The slash met with a metal pang. Edward opened his eyes.

"It'll take a lot more than that to kill me, brother," Alphonse said gently.

"...Al..." Ed trailed off. He looked down at the ground where he was hunched over on his hands and knees. His arms had slashes all over them from the altercation with the killer. Luckily, that's what they looked like they were from. No one would think anything of the self-inflicted wounds.

The blonde boy couldn't stop the tears that flowed from his eyes. He practically curled into Alphonse's armor.

"I was so scared..." Edward trailed off. "So scared...I honestly thought I was gonna die..."

Ed had been left alone while Alphonse spoke to Hughes, thanking him for coming to help and saying everything he needed to say.

"Hey, Ed..." Winry trailed off, standing in front of her friend now.

"Winry..."

"Is it true?" the blonde girl asked. Edward didn't have to ask what she was talking about. He simply nodded. "Why?"

"It seemed like the best thing to do at the time," Ed answered.

"Cutting your own arm?" Winry asked. "Was it...was it you that used that towel and..." Of course the girl hadn't forgotten about it. It had been a big mystery to her.

"Yeah..." Edward trailed off. Winry wrapped her arms around him, hugging the pre-teen close to her.

"I'm sorry I didn't help you when you needed it," Winry said softly.

"It's okay," Ed responded. "I'm not gonna do it anymore."

Winry knew that he would.

She told no one.

So I played a little with Pinako knowing about Ed's cutting, now I played with Winry knowing too. Sorry this took so long to post - it was already written, but I just got so busy. There may or may not be more to come.