Chapter 4

March 25th – April 6th

March 25th – Military Headquarters, Central

Riza stopped Ed on the way back to his room, having just given a report to Mustang.

"Ed, there's something you need to hear."

"Will it take long?" Ed sighed, "Al's waiting for me."

Riza let out a shuddering breath. How to tell him? "Have you heard of the Black Soul Alchemist?"

"Well, yeah," Ed looked puzzled. "Isn't he the one doing those illegal chimera experiments?"

"Did you know he was attacking border towns and abducting some of the people there to use in his experiments?"

Looking aghast, Ed shook his head.

"Ed..." Riza said softly, placing one hand on his shoulder. "He attacked Risembool. Four days ago."

The blood drained from Ed's face, and the alchemist seemed to reel in shock.

"Winry…she said she would...for her birthday..." he breathed. "She said she would...would go see Granny..."

He looked directly at Riza, and the fire in Ed's eyes surprised the older woman. "What happened?"

"Some people were killed," Riza said at last. "Not many though. Mangeli kidnaps and tortures, he doesn't outright murder. But Ed, you have to know, the town was cleared of almost everyone between the ages of fourteen and thirty..."

"Winry?" Ed choked out. "Granny?"

"Pinako's in the hospital, still unconscious, recovering from her injuries. She was probably wounded when she...when she tried to stop them taking Winry."

The bottom dropped out of Ed's stomach, his eyes widening as the horrors of Lab Five floated to the surface of his mind. He tried to ask Riza what happened to her but couldn't make a sound, as though his vocal chords had seized up.

'Please, not Winry…'

It was several moments before he managed to grit out, "S-so…w-what happened to her?"

Riza's eyes were full of regret and sympathy. "We don't know – we still haven't found Mangeli's main laboratory, and that's where he takes his prisoners. To be included in his experiments." There was no point in sugar-coating it.

Ed's entire body went numb. His legs folded beneath him and he sank to the floor, tears falling down his cheeks to darken the wood beneath him in tiny pools. Winry…Winry in a chimera laboratory. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the images assaulting his brain.

Winry, glaring at him and bellowing about taking care of his automail and writing them once in a while. Winry, face set with determination as she prepared to deliver a baby and save two lives. Winry, tears brimming in her eyes as she pointed the gun at Scar, desperately seeking justice for her parent's death. Winry, just after he'd promised to make her cry tears of joy, giving a smile so bright it put the sun to shame.

Had he lost that – lost her – forever?

Ed remembered Nina, remembered seeing the once-human mind in the chimera's blank face. Would it be like that with Winry, too? Would he look into a monster's eyes and see Winry's soul behind them?

Then another, grimmer thought struck him. Was Winry still alive? Could she even survive the experiments?

He became aware that Riza still hadn't moved. He took a deep, shuddering breath and pushed himself to his feet, leaning against the wall as his legs shook. His entire body felt like a limp noodle, his mind hazy, as though it hadn't quite gripped what Riza had told him.

"Ed, are you alright?" Riza's voice was filled with sympathy and regret.

"Al." Ed's foggy brain managed to grasp that thought and hold it. "I have to tell Al."

Riza hid her concern at the blank, toneless way Ed spoke. He looked like someone in the beginning stages of shock; he barely glanced at Riza as he walked into the room he shared with his brother.

"Brother!" Al greeted him, then started. Ed had collapsed on the couch, staring blankly into space, seemingly unaware of the tears coursing down his cheeks. "Brother, what's wrong?"

"Al," he whispered hoarsely. "Al…it's Winry, she…"

He trailed off, silent for several moments.

"What? Brother, what happened to Winry?"

"Hawkeye told me…the Black Soul Alchemist attacked Risembool...while Winry was staying there…"

Al gave a great cry. "Winry? Granny?"

"Pinako…she...she's in the hospital. Hawkeye said that Winry…she was taken to a laboratory…they don't know where it is, but it's a chimera laboratory."

Ed closed his eyes against Al's stricken gasp and bowed his head, trying to stave off the sobs that were soon wracking his body. They remained that way for a long time, each locked in their own thoughts, in their own hellish imaginings. But Ed knew, no matter what had happened to them, no matter what they had seen in Lab Five, they couldn't conceive of the nightmare Winry was enduring.

oooooooo

April 6th – Military Headquarters, Central

"Ed? Are you in there?" Riza's words were accompanied by several sharp raps on the door.

Ed groaned, splashing water on his face to try and effect a semi-normal appearance. But realistically, he knew it was a lost cause. Ever since Riza had told him that Winry had been taken...he'd had nightmares. Repeatedly, frequently.

Nightmares of a twisted chimera raising it's face and looking at him with Winry's eyes. Of Winry coughing blood, her body warped and shattered, her eyes pleading with him to help her.

He'd had similar nightmares about Nina, about his mother...but this was different. Nina and his mother were over and done with. They were long past, and if a particularly horrific nightmare about them woke him from sleep, he was able to remind himself of that. It was over, and there was nothing he could do for them. A little depressing, yes, but it helped to dampen the terror.

Not so with Winry. Because he had no idea what had happened to her, or what might still be happening. That was what made those dreams so soul-shattering, for when he woke, he never knew if what he had just seen was truth or fiction.

About three days ago, he'd dreamed of the day he went back to Tucker's house to find Nina and Alexander transmuted into a chimera. Only this time, the chimera's eyes were the clear blue of a midsummer sky, and the pronunciation of his name was followed by a halting 'al-chem-y ge-ek'.

That one had woken him at about one o'clock in the morning, and he hadn't dared to go back to sleep. So he'd stayed on his bed for the rest of the night, sitting and staring, as though his eyes could pierce the curtain of darkness, as though the night held the secrets of Winry's location. And if he stared hard enough, long enough, it would surrender them.

"Ed?"

"I'm here," he rasped out.

"You requested news of any change in Pinako's condition?" Riza said, more like a statement than a question.

Ed nodded.

Pinako had been hospitalised with a badly lacerated abdomen and several cracked ribs. But once in the hospital, she had slipped into a coma. She had remained so for the past sixteen days, and though Ed and Al had visited her twice, her condition hadn't improved in the slightest.

"Well," Riza continued. "I have news. She just woke up."

oooooooo

April 6th – Bluebell Hospital, Risembool

"Granny!"

At Al's exuberant shout, Pinako looked up at the two figures in the doorway. Ed nearly winced at the the bruises on her face, but compared to a still form lying on the bed, barely breathing, this was a vast improvement.

"Ed, Al," the old woman's head tipped in acknowledgment, but her eyes were haunted.

Both brothers stepped into the room, sitting in the chairs beside Pinako's bed.

Ed wet his lips. "Granny-"

But Pinako interrupted him. "Have they found my granddaughter?"

Ed shook his head.

"Have they found the animal that took her?"

Another shake.

Pinako let out a gusty sigh, and for the first time that Ed could remember, she seemed truly old. "I remember so little about it...but I know that short-term memory loss is a side-affect of a coma..."

Her eyes were distant, looking through the wall rather than at it. "Everything's rather blurry, but I think it was Winry's birthday. Den started howling...people yelling...the door splintered." Pinako's brow was furrowing slightly as she sifted through the fragments of memory. "Something was in the house...something knocked me down..."

Pinako's next words tore at Ed's heart. "The last thing I remember is Winry screaming."