"'this'" is english, i.e a foreign tongue in Amestris.

Amestris, a country already stained in blood, must prepare itself once more, lest it drown in sorrow and destruction.

Chapter 12: Innocence is Perception
summary: a reunion, a change of perception
Ed's POV

"Elric!"

He glanced around, managing to catch a glimpse of Mustang through the crowd of people. Without preempt, he shoved his way unapologetically between bodies, silently cursing the squeaking metal attached to his torso. Not only was the damn thing hindering his ability to move, Winry was going to be pissed.

"Mustang."

The Colonel didn't respond at first, eyes taking in the dirt, gore, and damage obvious on his person. Ed huffed, crossing his arms impatiently. "Some time today would be nice."

Roy handed off the clipboard he'd been holding to the soldier at his side, shooing him off with a glance before turning fully to his subordinate. "Fullmetal, why do I get the feeling that you weren't successful in your mission?"

Ed scowled. "Are you saying I'm incompetent?"

"Did you capture the person responsible?"

He felt his mouth open, but nothing came out. After a moment he closed it, staring moodily at the floor.

"Well? It's a yes or no question Fullmetal."

"I caught him."

He could almost feel Mustang's brow raise at him. "And? I'm assuming by your behavior that something went wrong."

"He's dead."

"Edward…"

"I didn't kill him!" He refocused his glare to Roy's face. "Alucard didn't either." He took a breath, and then continued in as controlled of a voice as he could. "The sun did. And judging by all the screaming, the rest of the men I took prisoner did too."

"The sun."

"I'm not lying, damn it!"

Mustang was quite for a moment, eyes darker than usual as he surveyed the younger alchemist. "My room, one hour. Bring the…Alucard."

Roy turned away in dismissal, Ed throwing him one last moody scowl before stalking off to find Al. Needless to say, traversing the half destroyed hospital corridors was a hell of a lot easier in daylight. Although it did throw into sharp relief the extent of the damage, right alongside the crimson spatterings staining the wallpaper.

"The reek of death is intoxicating, almost as if we stood in the center of a warzone-"

"We are, idiot."

The disembodied chortling of the alchemist's seemingly unshakeable shadow drifted about him. Ed didn't know or care exactly where the nosferatu was, the floating voice more than enough presence at the moment. He was tired, filthy, and from the looks of it had a long day to look forward to.

"If you're looking to know what became of your brother, perhaps you should take a left."

Ed paused, staring down the indicated hall. The lack of windows made the space seem dark and forlorn, the tossed furniture and off color streaks lining the linoleum adding to his tension.

"Why do you hesitate? Are you afraid of what you might find?"

Ed shivered, a chill skating up his arms. He knew Alucard was toying with him, looking for a reaction. He turned his head, expecting to see an empty hallway, but was instead met with a wall of red. The alchemist started, taking a step away from the man looming in his personal space.

Alucard smirked down at him, head cocked slightly to one side. "Well?"

Ed shook his head, muttering 'I'm not going to bother with you right now' under his breath as he stalked off down the hall, unconsciously avoiding the dried trails zigzagging about beneath his boots.

The further down the hall he went, the quieter it became, walls seeming to press in around him. He was being led toward the heart of the building, the lack of windows making it hard to differentiate between the objects scattered about him, not all of them pieces of furniture either.

The alchemist shuddered, the atmosphere of the place giving him a bit of the creeps. It was, really, kind of like how he felt about Alucard. That sort of wary, weirded out feeling that hovered at the back of his mind regardless of what rationality told him. "Wish the damn maintenance crew would get the generator working already-"

A hum cut through the silence around him, seconds later accented by the pops and snaps of the lighting fixtures overhead fighting for life. A particularly nasty snap of a light bulb frying directly over head making him jump.

The hallway was thrown into sharp relief for the most part, although far too many lights were stalling and flickering for his liking. It gave the place more of a horror movie feel than the darkness had, especially now that it was painfully obvious what the streaks on the linoleum were.

Ed absently ran his hands over his arms, picking up his pace as best he could. Up ahead he could make out a figure sitting in a dark patch of hallway, posture and outline vaguely familiar. He glanced back the way he'd come, somewhat confused. "Alucard?" The head turned just enough for the glasses perched on the shadowed face to flash crimson.

"How did you get ahead of-you know what? Never mind." He came to stand next to the nosferatu, arms crossed. "Well, since you seem to be leading me around by the damn nose, where the hell do you want me to go now?"

He watched the grin slide fluidly into place, chin tilting upward to indicate the room across from them with the least amount of movement possible.

Ed turned, eyeing the room. It was dark, whatever light fixtures it had previously held obviously not in any working order. He also noted one of the hall windows was broken and smeared with blood. A chill ran down his spine; it was too quite.

'Oh god, this doesn't look good…If Al's hurt, or worse…' He cut himself off, refusing to go any further in that thought. No use worrying about a bridge until you had to cross it, after all.

Stealing his nerves and squaring his shoulders, Ed stalked slowly into the room, not really sure what to expect but wary of anything. At first there was nothing, no sounds, no movement, no signs of life. And then, halfway through the room he heard it: sobbing. His mind tunneled, and throwing all caution to the wind he made a beeline for the noise, mind spinning off every worst case scenario that had ever touched his dreams. "Al?"

A hiccup and hurried whispering. Ignoring the pain in his automail leg, Ed dodged around an overturned table, threw a chair out of the way, and then practically threw himself onto the desk the noises were hiding behind. A bloodied face and wide, terrified eyes met his gaze. Dark hair, dark irises, and just a touch too young, the face too full to be his brother. "Who're-"

"Brother!"

Ed swiveled, turning to see Al crouching on the floor near the boy's legs, eyes wide with surprise and a grin dominating his face. "You're ok!"

Al gave him a perplexed look. "Of course I am, why would you think otherwise? I can take care of myself, you know."

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yea, I know, I know, it's just-" Ed suddenly remembered the cause for his worry. "Hey you bast-ah!" In the process of turning to yell out to the hallway, Ed had come to the sudden, startling realization that Alucard was standing directly behind his shoulder. So startling to his poor wound-up nerves, in fact, that he ended up falling off his desk perch and landing next to his little brother in a heap of limbs and complaining metal.

"Ed are you ok?"

"Bloody bastard! Stop doing that!"

Alucard chuckled, but otherwise didn't comment on Ed's grace, something that managed to unnerve the alchemist more than the creepy figure he cut in the darkened room.

Ed scowled up at the nosferatu. "You're an asshole, making me think Al was-well that's not the point. The point is-Hey get away what are you-"

Alucard had casually grabbed the edge of the desk and flipped it to the side, sending it crashing into the wall. He'd then leant down and clamped a hand over Ed's mouth, a sly grin on his face and annoyance burning in his eyes. "Perhaps if you shut your mouth and looked more closely at your surroundings 'boy', you'd see my purpose."

Ed grabbed at his wrist and attempted to free his jaw. Despite the lack of force seemingly being exerted, Alucard was yet again unmovable. He arched a brow, and waited, still tugging periodically at the creature's arm.

"Uhm, Mr. Alucard, I know my brother has a big mouth, but do you think you could let him go? He might try to do something stupid."

Ed watched Alucard's eyes shift toward Al, then swivel back to a spot over his shoulder. Without changing his expression, the nosferatu's arm shot out, coat brushing Ed's shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Alphonse.

A snarl choking on itself came from behind him, making him jump as adrenaline spiked in preparation. Alucard slowly turned his wrist, guiding Ed's head to the side.

"'Look closely, human. Even in the early stages, a Ghoul should be easy to recognize. Do not disappoint me.'"

After initially noticing the boy Alphonse was trying to help, Ed had promptly forgotten about him. In the time between his entrance and now, the boy had sat quietly behind them, and Ed had just assumed him to be scared.

He wasn't, for being scared was an impossibility for the body of the dead.

Frothing lips gnashed against nothing, trying to bite the hand clamped inches above it. Uncoordinated arms moving, trying and failing to grab at Alucard, who was quite unbothered by it. The boy whimpered, the sound quite human. The wounds on his legs, the ones Alphonse had fixed as best he could, had stopped bleeding, the blood begging to congeal. Wounds that looked suspiciously like they'd been made by teeth.

Ed stilled, eyes fixed on the dead boy twitching against the nosferatu's grasp. If Alucard hadn't led him there, hadn't bothered to intervene...

"You understand. 'Good'."

The hand slipped away from his face but Ed couldn't find it in him to move, let alone retaliate against the invasion of personal space. Al's hand clutched at his shoulder, and the two of them watched in silence as Alucard tilted his head, observing the ghoul.

"I think it's time you acquaint yourself with the enemy, Edward Elric." Alucard shoved the boy back against the wall. "Kill it."

The hand on his shoulder clutched harder, twin pairs of golden irises watching the uncoordinated body pull itself back into a sitting position, head bobbing and slowly turning toward them. The dark eyes stared into his own, no longer projecting the terror of a boy. Dark pools of nothing but unfocused hunger, more unnerving than the dead eyes borne by every lost soldier he'd seen in the night.

"'Kill it! Cut off its limbs, put holes in its body, crush its head! Kill it, Edward Elric! Prove yourself something other than a scared child faced with the boogey man! Prove yourself worthy!'"

The foreign words sent sparks of adrenaline dancing over his skin, just as it seemed to propel the ghoul into motion. He, it, lunged toward them, and acting on instinct Ed planted his boot square in the things mouth. He could feel the teeth give and the jaw buckle, spit and blood adding to the already filthy sole of his good foot.

The ghoul boy landed harshly on its back, gargling broken teeth and blood in its throat.

Ed shivered. Between Alphonse trying to strangle his shoulder and the creepy vibe of the whole damn place, he felt like his nerves were fraying. He watched as if from far away as the boy-shaped creature drug itself into a sitting position, toppled forward, and caught itself in a bid for its feet. It was a mess, lower jaw dangling at an angle, torn, broken, and dripping fluids; Legs torn apart and fraying, barely able to hold the thing upright, forcing it to struggle.

His fingers twitched, an array building in his head.

Back on its knees, unable to stand, the ghoul groaned, a deep sputtering whine reminiscent of a collapsing building. The sound of flesh being scraped off bone, the breaking of fingernails trying to gain purchase against the tile as the creature pulled itself forward.

He could see it clearly now, the alchemy circle in his mind's eye, could feel in that way he was still becoming accustomed to.

Closer, it was closer now, despite being slowed by quickly failing legs, rotting faster than the true dead.

The hand on his shoulder was gone, the smack of palms meeting and a split second light. The ground rose swiftly beneath the ghoul, a singular spike disappearing into the base of its throat and reappearing out of the top of its skull. The creature went still, held upright by the spike and its angle to the floor.

Ed turned to look at Alphonse, about to make an annoyed and half-assed diatribe about how he was getting around to it, and didn't need anyone to do his job for him. Al wasn't paying him any attention, eyes fixed on the ghoul he'd just impaled. The grim look on his face unbefitting of his youth.

"Al-"

"Sorry brother, but he was my responsibility. I tried to help him and failed."

He opened his mouth, more than prepared to dispute his brother's responsibility, but was cut off by the smooth voice of the nosferatu lurking in the dark.

"There was nothing you could have done. He was bitten, infected. Better to put it out of its misery, 'better to end the dream before it begins'." Smoldering eyes were fixed on the younger Elric, ignoring the elder.

Al pulled the spike back into the floor slowly, the ghoul's body following until it was laying prostrate on the floor amid its own filth. Slowly, he turned his eyes on Alucard, molten gaze intense. "You know what these things are, what this 'infection' is."

"Yes."

Al pulled himself to his feet. "Tell us."

A sly grin pulled at the nosferatu's lips, head tilting in acquiesce. "As you wish, Alphonse Elric."

A/n: I know it's been a long time, and I know this is short, and for that I'm sorry. My minds been in the wrong place to write this, up until lately. Been writing too much light-hearted comedy.