Just letting you know that I am still alive! I really shouldn't promise quick updates should I?

Anyway, enough of me. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing : )

He stumbled, the hand clamed around his skinny waist tightened in response. Muttering a strong batch of curses Edward had to restrain himself from screaming in frustration. He hated this feeling. Feeling broken and useless.

Injuries he could suffer with, but not dragging everyone else under in the process. That was and had never been Ed's way of doing things. Usually he didn't work well with a team. It had either been himself and Al, or the blonde on his own. Team work was very useful at times, but the communication was irritating. Having to get ideas and movements approved first instead of diving in for the kill was a waste of time in his opinion. The teen could and never would grasp the concept of planning.

Ed's leg began to buckle again, taking him and his superior by complete surprise. There was a growl and a long silence as the young alchemist righted himself, straightening his back and nursing the muscles he tried ever so hard to ignore the pairs of several gazes burning into him. Taking a steady step forwards, the same reassuring squeeze tightened around his waist.

"Are you-"

"Don't," the blonde stopped Roy dead in his tracks. "Ask me how I am, I dare you."

The Colonel caught the golden gaze briefly as Edward stumbled on, footsteps ringing against the tiled floor. He knew he shouldn't, but it was hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy. The teen was forcefully dragging his limbs across the floor tiredly, hauling his heavy weight and pinning his eyes open. He paused for breath, nursing a stitch in his right side and furrowing his brows in frustration.

"I... haven't... felt this bad... for a long time..." he wheezed, cracking an ironic smile. Holding his back, Ed dragged his feet slowly to avoid another close call. He'd done enough falling over for one night.

Risa held the familiar double doors wide open, waiting for Fuery, Roy and a sluggish Edward to walk through. The blonde nodded weakly in thanks and could have groaned at the sight of the approaching office. The door was wide open, but the looming gold nameplate was still highly visible. The mocking letters were etched boldly into the metal and made even Edwards metallic toes curl. It was this same room he had been summoned to many times before, the same poor abused door he kicked and battered on a regular basis, before and after each brief visit. Roy Mustangs office. Colonel Roy Mustang. Ed honestly had nothing against the man's position, but it certainly didn't have a good ring to it. The words didn't roll off of his tongue nicely like any of the others did, and it would always remind him how much authority he didn't have.

"We're taking a break," the raven haired man said adamantly, almost pulling a stubborn teenager through the open door.

"Already?" the teen asked, "We've only been going for ten minutes!"

"You're clearly in no condition to continue."

"Your body says otherwise; now sit down before you collapse-"

He stopped in the doorway, a pair of dark onyx eyes lingering on the awaiting scene before them. The Colonel looked back at the nameplate nailed to the door. It was defiantly his office, the same place he was confined to daily to sign stacks of terrifying paperwork. But it certainly didn't look like it.

Paper littered the floor, filing cabinets on their sides, and a selection of books lay battered and abused in several pieces on the hideous navy carpet. The only items of furniture that remained unscathed and in one piece were the desk and couch (much to Edward's relief). A single document was placed in the centre of the wood, right were the Flame had left it.

Removing an arm from his waist, Roy left Fuery to guide Ed to the comforting leather couch and carefully moved closer for further inspection.

Nothing was damaged too badly, but it was certainly going to take a while to fix things. The Colonel sighed with frustration, muttering curses under his breath as he trod on the badly littered floor, broken glass and splintered wood crunching beneath his feet.

"Well this sure makes life a lot easier..." he groaned, kicking the cabinet as he passed it. All the paperwork would have to be filed again, sorted into alphabetical order, re-printed and approved. The thought was a nightmare alone, but Roy knew there were far more important things to take care of. The ridiculous goose chase around central and his tired and injured subordinates.

"Is anything missing Sir?" Risa asked, searching the room for anything of value absent. "I doubt anyone would go to the trouble of making so much mess without a purpose."

"You'd be surprised," he muttered, "It's almost impossible to tell if something's missing when the place is in such a state... All I can think of is paperwork."

A chuckle emerged from the limp figure sprawled across the couch, Ed hissed as his ribs protested sorely.

"Paperwork?" he said in disbelief, "Are you going senile old man?"

"Not so senile when I'm dragging your injured ass from the curb," Roy smirked as the blondes face fell to a scowl, a pair of narrowed golden eyes emitting a hateful glare from across the room.

"As a matter of fact, there are a lot of people who would jump at the chance to see what's locked up in here, I wouldn't be surprised if most of its missing."

The man smiled despite the grief to come involving the inevitable clearing up. He knew he should be furious, bursting with anger, but he never liked the blasted paperwork anyway, even if he had spent most of his military career with a pen in hand.

Fuery was unsure what to do; fearing trying to help would only make matters worse. Instead, he put his brain into action and began to think. Harder than he had ever done before, about everything, the rebellion, the war, and the Philosophers stone. Were the night's events connected to anything somehow? There was a high chance it could be a mere grudge. Many men would go this far to get even, even if it did mean treason within the military. Since Ishbal there had been a substantial number of incidents ranging from shootings to bombings of cities, and there was nothing anyone could do to prevent them.

As Roy ran a gloved hand across the cold wood of the desk, he was surprised t find nothing had moved since he last been there, not the slightest. Ed's research was still neatly piled in the centre with messy annotations, rough drawings and scribbles bunched together around the pages. It was a miracle anyone could read it; after all, it just wasn't the same writing with a prosthetic hand.

Running a hand through his choppy black locks, the Colonel took the papers and began to skim through them, trying to make sense of everything. It had happened so quickly over the last few weeks, he hadn't quite managed to take everything in. One minute, he'd been comfortably lounging in his office, the next, called out to a crime scene in the early hours of the morning.

Edward grimaced as the tough leather clung to his skin, the smell giving him a minor headache. It was incredibly hard to concentrate like this. His mind had never been so cluttered before. Not even when he'd had to make the most important decisions of his life. The blondes head was buzzing with ideas, places, faces and arrays, all jumbled together messily. There was something. Something important he knew he should remember from the book. He picked his brains in frustration, rubbing his temples and groaning silently in defeat. He couldn't. Not like this. Instead, Ed's golden gaze shifted around the wreckage that was once a pristine office.

The Colonel was reading, quickly scanning through a bundle of files roughly stapled together, just holding the mass of papers together. The teen dismissed the thought of importance and began to look at the messy floor. He paused, and looked back to the report.

Biting his lip in thought, Edward hauled himself to his feet much to his body's protest and swiped the papers from Roy's hands. The raven haired man looked from his empty hands to the young alchemist standing before him, frowning at the teen who was nursing several sore ribs.

"Edward," he called sternly, hoping the tone would send the blonde back to his seat. As predicted, it was going to take much more than that to convince a stubborn Edward.

"Ed, I really-"

The blonde raised a finger to silence the man, without even looking up from his frantic reading.

"FullMetal! I-"

"Hush," the teen snapped getting rather absorbed in the text like one of his intense research sessions. Roy had seen his subordinate in a completely different world with a book in his hands. Trying to distract him proved almost impossible and had severe consequences, as the Colonel had experienced firsthand. Facing the wrath of a pissed Elric was defiantly not the most pleasant experience. The blonde could go hours at a time without stopping for a break, even working into the early hours of the morning.

"Edward, you're in no condition to be walking around, you're supposed to be resting!" Risa lectured, only to be greeted with silence. She doubted Ed was even listening. Before she could speak, Fuery silenced her with a finger nervously, mentally scolding himself for his unusual behaviour. Hawkeye raised a brow questioningly.

"Maybe we should just leave him... he might find something useful..." the man trailed off, gaze shifting to the floor. Risa sighed and vaguely agreed with a weak nod.

The Colonel was stood by the window, watching the distant flashes of red and vibrant orange pierce the deep violet sky. There was almost nothing left of southern headquarters, most of the conflict had battered buildings beyond repair. Fortunately, most of the damage was based on the court and training grounds, which were beaten into bad shape on a regular basis anyway.

It was quiet. Suspiciously quiet. The halls were silent with the exceptional ticking of the clock, and the power inside was down completely.

"What do you hear?" Roy asked as Risa stepped beside him, craning her neck to take a glance at the night's sky.

"Nothing."

"Exactly."

"Defiantly suspicious Sir."

The two glanced at the pacing blonde who was beginning to mutter to himself unconsciously, tracing the arrays with a gloved finger. Edward moved to the door without raising his head from the research, kicking the clutter occupying the floor weakly. Fuery adjusted his glasses and began to stutter, looking wide eyed at the blonde.

"Edward?"

The teen didn't batter an eyelid and stumbled, blindly reaching out a hand to steady himself.

"FullMetal!" Roy called, "What do you think your-"

"Library..." he muttered, "Need to check something."

Ed knew he would be scolded later. Without a doubt Roy would singe his ass and give him another long winded lecture about following orders and being obedient to the military. He'd worry about it later. Right now, the Elric was on a role, and it would take a pretty big distraction to interrupt his deep train of thought. He pretended to ignore the curses emerging from the doorway and smugly made his way down the silent corridor to the library. It wouldn't take long; he knew the place by the back of his hand and could probably walk it blind folded. But in Ed's current condition, that wasn't a great idea.

The teen bit his lip as a twinge of pain cascaded down his spine, the familiar stinging gnawing at his collar bone. Ok. Perhaps this was going to take longer than he initially thought. Leaning against the pale white wall, Ed took a series of deep breaths through his nose, as deep as his lungs would allow him to, wincing at the wheezing sound rumbling deep in his chest. The blonde came to the conclusion that if he'd taken up smoking this was probably what it would feel like. Like a rope being pulled tighter and tighter around his ribs.

With a groan, Edward tried hard to correct his badly slouched spine, dragging his limbs forcefully across the floor, scuffing the tiles as he went.

"Fuery?"

"Yes Sir?" Kain turned to face a fuming Roy, nervously keeping his distance.

"Accompany the 'prodigy' to the library would you? We can't have him collapsing in the hallway..."

Kain quickly left, giving Risa a brief glance apologetically for leaving her alone with their superior in such a dangerous, foul mood. She lowered her head and fought back a sigh.

"What happens now?" she asked looking back to the distant flashes in the sky.

"Honestly?" Roy raked a hand through his black hair tiredly. "I don't know."

Absorbed in his reading, Edward managed to stumble through the double doors in one piece. Squinting at the text from lack of light, his eyes stung in protest and he looked up as a distant door behind him clicked open. He paused; holding a nervous breath as a pair of boots inched closer, clanking against the tiles loudly. It was probably nothing, but after the night so far, it wouldn't hurt to check. Right?

Dismissing the sound as one of his colleagues, Ed released the breath he'd been holding and continued his walk, shifting the weight of his prosthetic arm from one side to another. Rounding the corner, the blonde realised the foreign steps had ceased. His single boot and foot were the only steps to echo through the hall. He stopped and listened. Nothing.

Clutching his research tighter, the paper began to crease. The young alchemist cursed his cowardliness, knowing he should turn back and investigate, or even take cover in a... office.

A golden pair of eyes shifted to the nearest door. The steps grew louder, more frantic, and the blonde didn't think twice before dropping the papers and diving for the door. The door. Jammed shut and locked much to Ed's disappointment. He looked down at his shaking hands. One clap and he's be in. One was all it took.

"No!" he cursed. He promised he wouldn't, not unless he had to. The teen had almost tried to break down the door, but he was running out of time and options. He couldn't break it even if he tried, not in his current condition.

Stumbling further down the hall, the steps were dangerously close. Edwards threw himself into a nearby closet as his heart thumped painfully against his chest. He pried a hand over his mouth to silence the heavy breathing. Unfortunately for Ed, it wasn't enough. A shadow loomed, a single eye peering through a narrow slit in the wood.

"Nice to see you again... FullMetal"

Sorry for the delay, but the longer chapter makes up for it right?