A/N: Thank you for your patience. I apologize for this taking so long to post. School and work have been eating my soul.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! I promise I'm not going to abandon this story again.

Title notes: The title of this chapter comes from one of Aesop's fables called "The Goose with the Golden Eggs." It's about a farmer who realizes his goose lays golden eggs and kills the goose in an attempt to get all the gold, only to find himself empty handed. The moral is never be greedy and never squander a gift.

Warnings: None for this chapter.

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist, Stray Dog, and all their concepts and characters belong to Hiromu Arakawa. I simply borrow them for my own amusement.

Before Roy had even finished dismissing the rest of his squad, Maes was tossing him a piece of chalk from his desk. Roy didn't know what had just happened. The only thing he could think of was that someone had missed a transmutation circle engraved on Ed's metal hand. There was no other explanation. Except…

Roy hastily scrawled an array on the bulge in the stone floor. He wasn't sure if in his panic the boy had left air holes, and if he hadn't he could suffocate. This new development could cause major problems. The boy had already been deemed dangerous before anyone realized he could use alchemy. But another thought had also occurred to Roy. If the boy was truly dangerous, he could have killed them all. Instead he had destroyed Roy's transmutation circle and then sealed himself up in the floor to shield himself from any attack. The only injury he had inflicted was merely because it was an inevitable part of disarming the person he felt had threatened him. Ed hadn't tried to seriously harm anyone.

When Roy mended the floor, they found themselves faced with a very defensive Ed. The boy stayed crouched low on the floor, fangs bared, ears back, eyes darting between faces and sets of hands.

"No one is going to hurt you," Roy said calmly. As though to prove this he pulled off his remaining glove and tossed it to Ed. The boy seemed puzzled. "That was an interesting display When did you learn alchemy?"

The child deflated a little. He didn't move from his place on the floor, but his eyes were beginning to look more normal. "I don't know."

Roy frowned. He signaled for the others to be at ease before settling himself on the couch. "There's a chair, Edward. You can relax. We just want to talk to you."

Slowly the boy rose and moved to the chair farthest from the room's other occupants. Rather than relaxing, he perched on the edge of his seat. But it was an improvement and Roy hadn't expected anything more.

"Heig didn't teach you alchemy?" the dark haired alchemist inquired once Ed was seated.

The boy shook his head. "No. I… I don't remember learning it. I could just do it."

Roy furrowed his brow. "You don't need a transmutation circle. Why?"

Ed shrank back at the tone of the man's question. "I don't know."

It was at this point that Hughes interjected. His voice was gentle and calming. He recognized Ed's fear and took it in stride much better than he knew Roy was able to. Roy had trouble handling his own emotions at times, let alone the emotions of others. "Edward, it's alright. We want to help you. The colonel is an alchemist." He paused. "You understand that there are people in the military who think you're dangerous. They want to keep you locked up. We're trying to fight them. But alchemists are dangerous. The fact that you can do alchemy without even the need for a transmutation circle would give them even more reason to want you kept confined.

"We know you aren't dangerous, Ed. What you just did proved that. We had no idea what you could do. If you were as vicious as they claim, you could have killed us all. But instead you hid. Ed, we want to help you, but you have to work with us."

By the time Maes had finished speaking, the boy's demeanor had changed completely. He had curled in on himself, golden ears drooping, his tail curled over one hip and wrapped through his metal fingers. He looked miserable. "I hurt Roy," he said. "I am dangerous."

"You disarmed me," Roy countered firmly. "That's hardly the same thing."

Ed didn't look like he quite believed Mustang, but he didn't argue. Instead he just stayed quietly perched on his chair, metal fingers tightening on his tail until it made Roy wince.

"Edward," he said, hoping to distract the boy. "Could you show us your alchemy?"

Golden eyes flickered up to met onyx ones, then closed. The boy clapped his mismatched hands and there was a brilliant flash of blue light. As they watched the child displayed a large blade running up the outer side of his automail arm. It was a vicious looking blade and the fact that he was able to transmute and weaponize his artificial limbs ignited a spark of fear in Roy's chest, although he wasn't sure if it was fear of the boy or for him.

The colonel nodded, then pulled a set of keys from his pocket and set them in front of Ed. "What about these?"

Ed silently reverted his arm back to its normal state, studying Hawkeye for a moment before setting his hands to the keys. This time when the light died away there was a replica of one of the lieutenant's guns. The blond woman frowned at this.

Roy nodded again and took the gun back. He sketched a small circle and changed the metal back into his set of keys. It was troubling that the first and seemingly only things the child would think to create were weapons. It was a testament to how thoroughly brainwashed he was. It also wouldn't make the military any more eager to release him from the eight by eight foot cell in the hospital prison where he had spent the last month.

"Heig was never afraid you would use this against him?" Roy asked cautiously.

Ed looked startled. "Of course not. The master knew I knew my place. I was there to protect him, not harm him."

Roy nodded in acknowledgement. He could work with that. He didn't particularly like the idea, but he loathed the thought of this child being locked away for the rest of his life for the mistakes of a demented, power-hungry lunatic.

"Alright, Ed," the colonel sighed as he got to his feet. "Let's get you back."

The boy's ears drooped at the notion of returning to the little room where he had been confined for so long. But then Roy spoke again, a whisper too soft for the others to hear, and Ed had to stop himself from reacting. "I will get you out of there."