Disclaimer in previous chapters. Please see Author's Notes at the end.

- x -

"I'm afraid you're not listening-"

The door crashed open, and Winry did her best not to jump. Considering she'd been nanoseconds from driving the screw into live bone, and it was going to be bad enough, the last thing she needed was to be imprecise because some asshole just scared the bejeezus out of her.

Beneath her hand, Ed flinched, but otherwise he didn't respond. Didn't even bother to open his eyes. He was braced and ready, and it was the last one. Of all the times to be interrupted –

Winry didn't say anything to the many sets of heavy boots she heard entering the room behind her. She just steadied herself. She had to do this now, unfortunately, and she hated to do it when Ed had an audience, but there wasn't much she could do about it if his physician hadn't been able to stop them.

Then again, he was exceedingly bad at stopping people. He hadn't managed to stop her, after all.

"There is an ongoing medical procedure in this room –"

"I'll wait." That voice she didn't recognize, but Edward's eyes flew open, and his expression was shocked.

"Major General Hakuro!" His voice was a little thick, but otherwise it sounded absolutely normal. Winry hesitated, the drill pressed into the small hole she'd bored through his skin and muscle. She could wait a few more seconds, but if any that blood was allowed to clot –

"That's General now, Full Metal," the unfamiliar voice corrected with a small amount of irritation. "We have some pressing questions that simply cannot wait-"

"Get out," Winry snapped. If it was military, it could damn well wait. Mustang knew better than to allow officers to come barging in while she was working –

General.

Hakuro.

The asshole that was running against Mustang in the Parliamentary elections. And someone that outranked him.

What the hell did he want? Had he somehow found out about the bomb?

"I need to finish this up immediately, and you're in my way," she continued, in her most dangerous voice. "Whatever you need to discuss can wait for five minutes. Dr. Patterson, please escort these officers back to the hallway outside."

"You must be Winry Rockbell, the automail mechanic," another voice sneered. "While I understand you're respected in your field-"

That was a refusal to leave if she'd ever heard one. "I'm sorry, Ed," she muttered between her teeth. He just dipped his chin, once.

Then she drove the final screw home.

She was not going to botch the installation of this port for some military pissing match.

He never made a sound. She had her other hand on his bare chest, steadying both him and herself, and felt his muscles contract as he clamped down on his breath. His jaw clenched so hard that she could hear his teeth creaking, just under the sound of her mechanical drill. He kept his eyes open, didn't even blink. He kept eye contact with presumably the general over her shoulder the entire time, and she finished as quickly as she could.

It was several seconds after she'd withdrawn the drill from his shoulder and inspected the head to ensure there was no blood leaking around it before he started to breathe again, and she noted that no one said a word. Whoever had been speaking to her had been quite effectively silenced.

It wasn't often you walked in on someone getting a screw driven into their body, literally. Maybe now they understood why Patterson had been keeping them out.

"That's the last one, Ed," she murmured, patting him with her right hand before withdrawing it from his chest. They could conceivably attach the automail arm right now, but she wasn't going to touch those nerves again until Ed had had some time to get accustomed to the new pain. And attaching weight to the port now, with it just installed –

He was going to have to really, really prove to her that he needed to use his alchemy that badly. That he was the only one that could do whatever it was that had to be done to that bomb. This was a rush job to begin with, and if she screwed up or he overused the limb, that was it. They couldn't cut the stump back any more without needing to just rip out his whole shoulder to give him range of motion again.

And she wasn't going to do that to him. It was bad enough that he lost the leg and arm like he did. She wasn't going to start tearing more chunks out of him.

"Then I take it you're finished?" the general inquired.

She turned, drill still in her left hand, and gave him her most withering look. "No," she said simply. "I haven't even started with his leg yet."

In actuality, she had no plans to attach that port to him today. She really should have given everything a full three days to recover, and his arm was still pretty angry from the surgery. His leg was also still a little inflamed, and she wasn't going to risk that port either, just so he could walk.

She'd carry him if she had to. But she did understand the importance of taking care of a bomb that could destroy the whole city. If he honestly was willing to risk that arm – permanently – then she would give him what he asked for.

There were three officers in the room with Dr. Patterson, and it was easy to identify the grey-haired general, even if she didn't know what the stripes and stars meant. The other two she didn't recognize, but obviously one of them had been the one insulting her.

Neither of them seemed willing to challenge her. Hakuro, on the other hand, was ignoring her altogether.

"Where did you get it, Edward Elric?"

Ed laughed. It was a little forced, and a little lower than she remembered his laugh, but it had all the attitude. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific, Hakuro. I've gotten all kinds of things from all kinds of place-"

"Don't get smart with me, major," the general snapped. "You have been asked a question by your superior, and you will answer!"

"My superior?" He curled his left arm behind his head, looking for all the world as though he was just reclining against the head of the bed. She knew moving his arm had to have pulled at the muscles she'd just finished driving metal screws through, and it had to have been extremely painful, but outside of a slight thinning of his lips he never gave it away.

"In what way are you my superior, Hakuro?" The men around the general bristled, but Ed just closed his eyes and appeared to relax. "I'm sure the records say I died in action four years ago, so I'm not a major, and you're not my superior officer. You're not an alchemist, so you're not my sensei. You're not my father, you're not even my equal in chess." His golden eyes opened, and they were full of an emotion she hadn't ever seen from Edward.

"You are still a National Alchemist! As such, you are bound by –"

"Doesn't a National Alchemist have to take an evaluation once a year to keep their title?"

Hakuro smirked. "Not under new Parliament law, no."

Ed nodded slowly. "I see, I see. That's too bad. I skipped mine the year before Parliament could have possibly abolished the requirement. If only I'd made the time to get it done then, I'd still have my title." The familiar, obnoxious, arrogant smile was back. "I guess I'll just have to sit for the exam again."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." The general's tone was cold. "I'll be sure to have you grandfathered in."

Ed nodded again. "That's very generous of you, General."

"I'll make it official the week before I banish the title from government service!"

Edward leaned forward, all pretenses gone, and Winry delicately removed herself from the bed, putting down the drill and standing at his side. He couldn't get up, which he clearly wanted to do, but he was probably going to try, and she'd probably have to punch him to make him see reason –

"Don't," she murmured to him, back to the officers. "You'll hurt yourself."

"You're awfully confident about this upcoming election, aren't you?" His smile was crawling more towards a smirk again.

"Now that I know what it was that you and your brother tried to give to Major General Mustang, I am," he agreed. "A powerful weapon indeed, and just in the nick of time. That's why I'm so certain pushing paperwork through to have your title reinstated will be simple. You've just rendered every alchemist in this country obsolete, Full Metal. Congratulations."

Edward regarded the general silently, and the man continued after a brief moment of gloating.

"From whom did you steal the bomb?"

"Winry."

She forced herself to look at him, watching his face for some sign that he wasn't about to say the stupid thing she knew was about to come out of his mouth –

"Don't worry about my leg for now. Let's just get the arm finished."

She had already explained to him – twice – why it was a bad idea. He was her friend, but foremost he was her customer. And she wasn't about to argue with him in front of others.

But oh, Edward, can't you see this is what he wants? To upset you? "I'll need to go and get it-"

He just nodded. "I'm certain the general and I will be finished when you get back."

She hesitated, then turned and did so, hurrying by the officers so they couldn't see her face.

"Stop her."

A hand closed around her arm, roughly, and Winry whirled on the man that had caught her.

"Tsk," he warned, when she raised her fist. "You wouldn't want to do that, Ms. Rockbell."

"Let go of me!"

"Where is his replacement limb, Ms. Rockbell?"

Edward was staring at her intently, and she figured out too late what he'd really been asking her to do.

The automail limb was in Al's room, where she'd been doing most of her work since Ed had been sedated. And Ed wanted her to go back there. To warn the other room that Hakuro was here. That when he was done with Edward, he was going to come for Al. They had to make sure he didn't really know what condition Al was truly in.

"In a storage locker," she snapped. "Dr. Patterson was allowing me to use the nurse's locker room since this ward was almost empty."

The young doctor, unlike her, seemed to have no trouble catching on. "There didn't seem to be any harm in it, General –"

Hakuro cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Gregor, go with her."

"Now, really!" Patterson had moved in front of the door. "I'm afraid I can't allow that. It's for the female personnel. If you have a female officer with you that's one thing, but he can't go in there."

"I don't think we really want the Full Metal Alchemist to be performing any alchemy so soon into his recovery," the general murmured. "I think it would be better if we confiscated that limb, just until he's been cleared by my private medical personnel. Lieutenant Gregor can accompany her as far as the door, and she will bring him the piece of automail in question."

Winry just glared at the lieutenant, who was large and would have reminded her of Alex Armstrong except he wasn't even slightly handsome, his bulk made him look like a gorilla, and nothing about him was charming. His hand easily wrapped around her upper arm, and she was pretty sure there wasn't much she could do about it. All she had in her overall pockets were the kinds of tools that would be required to beat a normal person.

This man was not a normal person.

And he was also a military officer. The last thing she wanted to do was get the colonel or any of the others in trouble.

Oh, and the major general had gotten her that pass . . . and it was still chained to her overalls. Currently the overall shoulderstraps were dangling in the way, but if General Hakuro noticed it –

She lessened her glare and looked back at Ed, who had abandoned his cocky look for one of anger. He was baring his teeth at the general.

"Let her go."

"Why did you try to send her away, Full Metal? And why are you being so uncooperative? Perhaps you are in too much pain." He looked past her at the doctor. "I believe the procedure we interrupted looked quite painful indeed. It would probably be best to sedate this patient and make him more comfortable-"

"I'm afraid I can't do that so soon after a port installation." Dr. Patterson's voice was firm. "You may be a general, and this may be a military hospital, but as far as care of patients are concerned, you have no jurisdiction. You shouldn't even be in here, and I shall file an incident report-"

"With no one," the other officer in the room growled. "As far as you're concerned, the general never made a visit."

Patterson looked between the officers a moment, and Winry remained still. If they really put Ed under a full sedation . . . shocking the already angry nerves that had just been pulled into the channels by using those kinds of drugs could result in diminished or no activity in the ends. After all this, the surgery and everything else, if they put him under a full, it might all have been for nothing.

Didn't Hakuro realize that was why you had to install automail on a conscious person? Or was it because of that . . .? Was he trying to permanently cripple Ed? Ensure he couldn't use alchemy . . ? That was ridiculous, he could always do it the old-fashioned way –

Or was he just threatening with it?

"It came from a place that's since been destroyed, along with all the research." It was Ed's voice, and it was quiet.

"Where?" The general's tone was . . . satisfied.

She could see why Mustang hated this man.

"A castle in the middle of a lake," Ed answered dully. "The physicist's name was Huskisson. He asked us there to present the bomb to the military."

"Find him." This was ordered to the officer that was not holding onto her, and he left the room immediately.

Once he was actually out the door, Ed picked up his head and looked at the general. "You won't find him. When Al and I told him no, he attempted human transmutation in an effort to get rid of us, and disappeared."

"So your brother Alphonse was with you?"

Ed nodded. "Not that he remembers. As you well know, since you tried to force him to sit for the same exam I did, at the same age." His eyes were hard beneath his golden bangs. "He knew he could never transmute the Philosopher's Stone. Rose told him. But you tried to make him a dog of the military, like me. I won't forgive you, Hakuro."

"Well, thanks to your efforts, it's a moot point," the general responded. "Physicists will be the new scientists of Amestris, and they can provide us with greater technology and rewards than ten thousand alchemists!"

"We'll see." Ed looked up calmly at the silver-haired general. "Were there any more questions?"

"Where was Huskisson's castle?"

"I don't remember. It's probably in my report on the subject."

"Perhaps I should ask your brother."

Ed didn't react at all. "If you want to continue wasting your time. Now let Winry go."

Hakuro considered this, then nodded sharply, and she was released with a rough shake.

Winry rubbed her arm, glaring at the gorilla before backing a few paces towards the door, as if just desperate to get some distance between her and him. Ed probably still wanted her to go warn the other room, even if he had convinced the general to leave Al alone –

"It was nice to speak with you again, Full Metal," the general murmured. "I think I'll give my regards to Alphonse before I leave."

"You know he doesn't remember." Ed's voice had a dangerous lilt.

"I just wanted to see how he's been getting on. I understand he was shot, and as a general of this army it is my duty to gain intelligence on the enemy that may someday walk through all these doors you so carelessly leave open."

Behind her, Winry felt the doorknob dig into the small of her back.

"Miss Rockbell, would you accompany me? I see you have a military pass, and I'm eager to learn why you would be considered an expert witness in a case involving someone without automail."

- x -

"The general's here?"

"Yes." Hawkeye's voice was grim. "He just left Ed's room, and he's heading for you."

Jean tapped his front teeth together, aching for a cigarette. All this time in the hospital being healthy was killing him.

"How did we find out?"

"Breda's friend Patterson."

"Orders?"

"Have Al pretend to be asleep. And do your best not to get court-marshaled. Ed can mouth off because he's not in the army."

"Oy, oy, I get it. Anything else?"

"Keep the Tringums out of prison, if possible."

"Aye."

Havoc hung up the phone, looking around the room. Fletcher was still asleep, his butt in a chair and his head laying on his arms on Al's bed. Al was watching him quietly, and Russell was busy making a show of laying out his alchemy ingredients.

"Don't want the dear general to get the wrong impression," he muttered when he realized Jean was staring at him.

Havoc just nodded, making eye contact with Al. "Hawkeye wants you to pretend to be asleep. I know it's all you've been doing lately, but give it a shot. If the general can see you can't talk back, he's going to prattle on all night."

Al seemed to understand, because he closed his eyes obediently. That done, Jean gave the room a once-over. Other than the transmutation circle they'd drawn around Al's bed, there wasn't much the general could have a problem with –

Rockbell's automail bits could be an issue.

"Oh, Russell?" He gestured vaguely at the dross and the actual limbs she'd made. "Where can we stash these?"

Russell looked over the various tools, scraps of metal, and the two gleaming limbs themselves. "He'd look in the closet, huh."

"Yeah, he's a real peach," Havoc muttered. "And Winry wasn't supposed to be allowed back here. They could drum up trespassing charges if they felt like it."

Russell glanced around, then made a face, and broke out a piece of chalk. "Go stall 'em, would you?"

Havoc gave a long-suffering sigh. "Why is that always the order? Havoc, go stall Rockbell. Havoc, go stall the general that hates you. Havoc, why don't you have a girlfriend yet . . ."

Still griping good-naturedly, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and started down the hallway. He could already see the general's party at the end, with one Winry Rockbell being flanked by possibly the largest soldier Jean had ever seen.

Excluding Armstrongs.

This was gonna be great.

They secured entrance before he could actually meet them at the checkpoint, so he stood in the center of the hallway and waited for them. He wasn't sure what Russell was up to, but it probably included alchemy and hiding things in the ceiling or something. He'd give the kid enough time to get his pretty picture drawn, but he couldn't buy much else.

He saluted smartly, and General Hakuro gave him a sour smile. "You are hereby relieved of duty, Lieutenant Colonel. Take the night off."

Jean nodded, rubbing the back of his neck briskly. He hadn't gotten permission to be at ease, but he wasn't going to sweat the small stuff. "That's very generous of you, General," he replied cheerfully. "But per pending military investigation policy, an officer needs to be present to oversee the checkpoint enlisted-"

"Lieutenant Gregor will serve in that stead," the general cut him off, with a much less friendly tone.

Havoc nodded agreeably, then paused. "Oy, but, General? In a pending military investigation, all the serving officers are recorded prior to the investigation to prevent information leaks. Is Lieutenant Gregor on that list?"

General Hakuro's eyes flashed. "He can be added."

Havoc saluted. "Yes, General sir, but doesn't it have to be on paper prior to his taking the post? I'd be happy to wait if it meant I got the rest of the night off, General."

Hakuro stared at him, and Jean chanced a grin. "Don't tell me the general is still sore about six years ago? It wasn't your fault, you thought your opponent was Brigadier General Mustang and if he had been, I'm sure you'd have trounced us-"

"I did not give you permission to speak freely, Lieutenant Colonel!"

Havoc deliberately snapped to attention, saluting. "Aye, general sir! The general did not, sir! I apologize for my manner, sir!"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you weren't taking your promotion seriously," Hakuro observed.

Threaten my promotion, is that the best you can do? But he carefully remained silent. If nothing else, staring the general down was buying the Tringums time to do their thing. And he'd gotten practice trying to stare down Black Hayate.

"Get out of my way, Lieutenant Colonel."

He turned 45 degrees and took two steps back, then fell in line as their party passed. Gregor the large soldier gave him a black look, and Winry ignored him entirely. Her shoulders were tense, and her hands were wrapped in graceful fists.

Hawkeye hadn't mentioned Hakuro had found the pass.

They proceeded without further incident to Al's room, which was more than large enough to allow them all as much standing room as they liked. True to his word, Russell had made the metal – and the automail – vanish as though it had never been. There wasn't even an extra circle on the floor.

Of course, the sides of his boot looked suspiciously covered with chalk dust, but since there was a chalk circle drawn around Alphonse's bed, it could be easily explained away.

Russell stood protectively in front of Al, and at some point Fletcher had woken up. Neither looked pleased to see the general, but both managed amicable enough greetings.

"How is your patient?"

"He's not technically our patient," Russell pointed out. "As you know, we're alchemists, not doctors. But that said-"

"No, that's enough," the general interrupted. "If you're not doctors, then you're visitors."

Russell pulled out the heavy cardstock pass, which he'd had in his back pocket. "We were asked by the military to lend assistance-"

"And so you have. He looks quite well for someone near death, wouldn't you say?"

It was true; Alphonse was bared down to almost his waist, and the marks on his neck and chest were now invisible. Havoc wasn't sure they were really doing the poor man any more good, but there was certainly no doubt their efforts had saved his skin when nothing else was going to.

"He still needs some work," Fletcher spoke up, before his brother could respond. "His internal injuries are harder to see, but they're still there."

"I'm sure it's not beyond the talents of Dr. Patterson. Consider yourselves relieved of your responsibilities here. And congratulations on a job well done. I understand Alphonse Elric would have died without your help."

Russell looked as though he wanted to say something, but he just bowed his head. "Thank you, General." Fletcher didn't follow his brother's lead, and Hakuro smiled indulgently at him.

"You may turn your security passes into the checkpoint when you've gathered your things. Again, you have Amestris' thanks."

The general strode past them, looking down at Al. "My, but he's gotten much older, hasn't he?" He sounded surprised.

He really did, and it sort of weirded Havoc out at the same time. Right after he'd last spoken with that armor, in Resembool, there had been a great many things happening all at once. Al's kidnapping, Ed's rescues, Al's sacrificing his body – which was the Stone – to resurrect his brother, and then Ed turning around and doing it right back.

What they'd ended up with was a ten year old Alphonse, who had looked almost exactly like Edward the first time he'd seen that kid. They should have had a much older Al, and it was weird interacting with the kid he'd come to know as a poker player and an immovable combat force, only younger, without any of those memories.

But still, so much like he had been . . . he'd sort of seen Al grow up both with and without Ed, and he'd really turned out to be the same guy. Good. A little too naïve, maybe, but a good kid.

Only he'd aged more than four years after the Thule Invasion. He looked to be the same age as Ed did, which would put him at his real age, twenty-two.

Why had his body aged? And when that had happened, did he get back the memories he'd lost? Which Al was the one in there, the one that couldn't talk, couldn't move? Couldn't even tell them what he'd done?

Had something happened when they were coming through the . . . the gate-thing? They'd assumed all this damage was from the bullet wounds, but what if it was something . . . something weirder than that?

"Much taller, too," Havoc observed. He wasn't really sure how much verbal abuse Al was willing to take. He'd been pretty stressed out, considering he'd known all along that Central might be in the process of blowing itself up while they tried to help him talk.

"Has he been standing?" The general was looking at him now. Which was good, and bad. Lie and say he was better off than he was, or tell the truth and say he couldn't get out of bed? Obviously the general wasn't trying to actually kill Alphonse or Ed; he was trying to get other alchemists away from them. Probably just to slow down their recoveries enough that his test on the bomb could go off without a hitch.

After all, Hakuro knew that Mustang couldn't make a move, not and stay in the running for the Prime Minister's seat. The only ones that could risk it would be National Alchemists like Tringum and Armstrong, or the Elrics themselves.

Ah. That was why he was hassling Winry Rockbell, too. If Ed couldn't walk, he couldn't do anything about the bomb. The general just wasn't sure about Al's condition.

So in this case, honesty probably would be the best policy.

"No, sir," he answered quickly. "It's just, he seems longer than his brother. Perhaps it is a trick of the rooms, since they are not side by side."

Hakuro seemed to have expected a smart-ass remark, because he analyzed it for quite some time without being able to find anything to get offended about.

"We'll take care of the paperwork tomorrow," he said coldly, returning to the door. Obviously he'd decided if Al couldn't get up now, it was unlikely he was going to tomorrow. "Remain on duty until then, Lieutenant Colonel. Once the Tringums have gathered their – things, please escort them off the premises."

He saluted, but he waited a beat to make sure the general knew he wasn't happy about the order. That seemed to satisfy him; he turned to Winry Rockbell.

"This man doesn't appear to need your services, Miss Rockbell."

She hesitated. "I was –"

"Perhaps they thought he was going to lose an arm, but the Winding Tree Alchemist was able to repair it?"

She faltered, letting her gaze drop.

"Edward Elric has no memory of what happened to his automail, sir." If honesty was the best policy, surely he could pull something out of his . . . ear . . . "Alphonse does. Winry Rockbell is here to interview Al and determine if there are going to be any psychological repercussions should Ed regain his memory, in relation to the torture he suffered at the hands of the enemy."

Then he clamped his mouth shut. That was thin. It might have been the reasoning Mustang had used to get her the pass, but it was thin.

"Alphonse has knowledge of the enemy?"

Oops. "In the few brief periods of wakefulness he's managed, he's given us some base information." That wasn't a total lie. Apparently he'd spelled out the word 'bomb.'

"Perhaps it would be best to wake him now, while we're here," the general pondered. "I don't recall seeing any reports from the Major General regarding this information."

"I doubt he will be coherent," Russell stated, from the foot of the bed. "He's been given painkillers to help him rest. Perhaps you should return tomorrow to interview him."

The general looked as though he wanted to say something, and Fletcher looked as though he wanted to kick him. Neither was a particularly good idea.

"I agree with the Winding Tree Alchemist, sir," he volunteered, just to irritate the man. Then he turned to face Russell. "If you would please gather your things, sir, I will escort you to the lobby."

While he knew he didn't have the ability to dismiss the general, his words seemed to spur the man into action.

"I agree. By then Lieutenant Gregor's paperwork will be through, and we can guarantee his safety from whatever enemy may be pursuing him. Lieutenant Colonel, make sure to notify the nurse's station that all updates on his condition will now be sent directly to my office."

Since Patterson was their ace in the hole, that wasn't as bad as it could have been. "Of course, sir."

"Ms. Rockbell, due to the sensitivity of military matters, your interviews will have to wait until our investigation has been completed. I understand this might delay refitting the Full Metal Alchemist with his automail, but I promise our investigation will be swift."

She didn't say much of anything. She was probably wondering what the hell they'd done with the automail she'd worked so hard on the last three days.

Mustang was going to have his liver for breakfast after this. Oy.

"Do not allow anyone to dally, Lieutenant Colonel. Alphonse Elric needs his sleep."

Havoc just saluted, waiting until the general and his very large soldier's footsteps were quite far down the hallway before he relaxed.

They all exchanged looks, and then almost as one they glanced at Al.

Al had his eyes open, and if Jean didn't know better, he'd say they looked hopeless.

- x -

Author's Notes: Dragging on and on . . . okay. Now the stage really IS set. Hakuro is ready to sweep Mustang's plans under the rug, the boys are all but screwed, and some of Amestris' neighbors to the north are about to get nuked. Remember, though, I said everything was going to come up roses . . . and it will! Glowing ones, with little tentacles . . . Kidding. Thank you guys so much for all the lovely reviews! :cuddles them and loves them and feeds them leftover baked chicken: I've done a read-through, and I noticed all kinds of embarrassing things, so again, I apologize that I've missed a few of them!