Oh geez... so terribly sorry about this. Really, I am. But I'm not going to explain my humongous line of excuses and complaints against my teachers here. If for some reason you do, I have a rant on my Deviant Art account (you can get there through my profile). But it basically includes crazy teachers, extracurriculars, my crappy old pieces of technology along with a five-day sickness.

But I'm all better now and I managed to put this up so... please don't be that mad at me. If I could have had this chapter here two weeks ago, I would have.

Enjoy. ^^

"Edward!" Hohenheim yelled. "EDWARD!"

"Should we go check on him?" Alphonse asked nervously.

"Maybe we should in a minute or two," Roy said quietly, staring into the green wall and trying to find any spot of gold that could be Edward.

"Do you think that's wise?" Izumi asked. "I know that it's dangerous to let Edward be out in open alone for so long but is it a safe idea for the kids?"

"I just a chance we're going to have to take," Roy said.

Hohenheim took a few steps forwards and ripped a hole in the green wall before he took a deep breath and let out his loudest possible yell. He tried his best to push away the panic that was eating away at his chest but found that it would not go away any time soon; the burden of being a parent.

"We should go," Hohenheim said after a moment of silence. "Or at least, one or two of us should go and see if he's alright."

"Your call," Izumi said. "Who wants to go?"

"I do!" Al yelled instantly.

"No way," Roy said. "I'll go. If someone of Kimblee catches you, Ed would do anything to get you and the kids back. He could stand to lose me."

"He can't stand to lose anyone! That's why we're in this mess."

"No Alphonse, we're in this mess because of a sadistic man," Hohenheim said calmly before he turned to look at Izumi. "One of us should stay here and one should go looking for Edward."

"Right. I'll go and look for him," Izumi said. "You and Alphonse stay over there by traffic light."

"Why?" Al asked, confused.

"So that is something were to happen, odds are you would be picked up on a traffic camera and would gain some harder proof of what Kimblee's been doing."

"Right."

"Stay out in the open," Izumi said before she took a step into the thick greens. "Roy, stay close to me."

Roy gave a nod before he followed Izumi into the green forest. Al and Hohenheim began to take the short walk towards the intersection, neither talking for a moment.

"Do you think Ed will be alright Dad?"

"…I don't know Alphonse."

"ED!" Roy yelled before he snagged his foot on another tree root, causing him to trip for at least the fifth time. "Damn trees!"

"Quit making such a racket!" Izumi growled. "If they did get Edward, then they might still be nearby and they'll defiantly know that we're following them if you don't shut up."

"Sorry," Roy muttered sarcastically, earning a whack on the back of the head.

The two moved forwards until the greens began to thin gradually until they were standing at the edge of the small clearing. Roy felt as if the bottom of his stomach dropped out at the sight of the empty space. Izumi let out a small curse, clenching her fist.

"They got him," she whispered angrily.

"How do you know for sure? He could have just gotten another order," Roy said, trying to find another logical reason as to why his friend was not there in the clearing, waiting for them.

"I don't know. But we should go back and tell Hohenheim all the same."

Roy and Izumi turned around and began to struggle back through the thick vegetation. It took them both several minutes to get back through the forest and into the cleared land. The two then ran as fast as they could down the street until they reached Alphonse and Hohenheim.

"Well?" Hohenheim asked as the two stood, doubled-over and panting. Worry showed in every line of his face and his gold eyes held fear.

"He's wasn't there Hohenheim," Izumi answered.

"What?" Al exclaimed, sounding horrified.

"Kimblee must have gotten him."

"But…but what do we do now?" Al asked, sounding close to hysterics.

"We either wait or we try to figure out where he took Edward," Hohenheim said calmly.

"Well then were do you think he might have taken Edward?" Izumi asked.

Hohenheim let his mind wander into thought, trying to imagine all of the odd places Kimblee might have ordered his men to take his son. He thought of all of the places Kimblee had taken them over the course of the day… and then he thought of the one place that did not make any sense. The GM building back by Edward's house. It could just be a wild guess that would lead them into a trap or even may just be a wrong turn, but it was the only thing Hohenheim could think of.

"What did you do you bastard?" Edward roared, heart pounding as he tried unsuccessfully to break out of his restraints.

"Why should I tell you when it's so much more fun to let your mind wander into the possibilities?" Kimblee whispered gleefully.

"TELL ME!"

"No," Kimblee said, turning around so that his back was facing Ed.

"Huh?"

"No."

Kimblee looked over his shoulder at Edward's frozen expression for a moment before smiling and walking out of the room, leaving Edward alone, furious, and scared out of his mind for his friends.

"How the Hell am I…?" Ed muttered as he struggled to get out of his restraints.

Edward's head looked upward as noises floated downward from above. He tried to distinguish voices or even words, but they all blurred together in a mash-up of baritones.

Should I yell? Ed thought.

There was a slim possibility that maybe the people upstairs, wherever he was being held, did not know exactly what was going on and did not approve of the kidnapping, drugging, and restraining of children. As Ed opened his mouth to yell out for help, he could hear Kimblee's voice. He could not understand the words but knew it was his and suddenly knew that it would not be wise to yell when his captor was so close above him. If the others were working for Kimblee, regardless if they were good or bad, they probably would let Kimblee deal with whatever had yelled if Kimblee said so.

He was trapped and he'd just have to deal with it until Kimblee was far away.

There was no clock in the dark, dank basement, so he had no real idea as to what time it was. He couldn't even hazard a guess as to how long he had been gone because of the knock-out from the drug. Who knew if anyone had realized he was gone or if Sammy, Terry, or Kyle were still an object or worry. They could easily be dead by now…

"I need to get out of here," Edward growled, feeling like a caged animal.

Pushing aside all previous reservations, Ed took the biggest breath possible before he expelled all of the air from his lungs into one, ear shattering yell of help. Ed expected commotion to come from the one yell, maybe some hurried footsteps, perhaps just a single set of tired footsteps…but what he did not expect was silence.

What the Hell?

Had they all left? Had Kimblee given all of his crony's orders to leave Ed for dead, tied up in a basement somewhere? It was plausible, considering who it was coming from, but a situation Ed did not want to put himself in. Just as Ed was about to let out another scream, he heard something.

Footsteps

Two sets of heavy footsteps and deep voices were coming his way. He felt a small bit of relief when he realized that neither of the voices belonged to Kimblee. It took the people a few intense moments until they were outside of the door and Ed could just barely make out the voices.

"…think this is a good idea? Mr. Kimblee would be pissed."

"I think pissed is a bit of an understatement. And why do you keep calling him Mr. Kimblee? We don't actually work for the man!"

"Yeah but there could be camera's or something stationed here."

"Paranoid much? Besides, by the time Kimblee figures any of this out, the kids should be long out of his hands and they'll be safe."

"Right. Just get the door open and get the kid out so that we can leave!"

Edward quickly tried to process everything that had been said between the two men in the seconds it took to open the door. They did not actually work for Kimblee? So that meant that… they were good? But then why were they working for him? But before he could process this anymore, the door flew open, revealing two men to Edward.

They were both large and muscular and both appeared to be around their thirties. The slightly taller one had short golden hair, a peculiar mustache, and glasses. The other was bulkier, had short, dark hair, old mutton-chop sort of facial hair and hairy forearms. The three stared at each other for a few silent moments before the blond spoke.

"So you're awake? I guess that makes this a little easier."

"Who are you guys?" Ed asked.

"Undercover detectives," the dark-haired said, taking a few steps forwards.

"Wait-what? Why are you-?"

"We can fill him in later Darius," the blond said, moving forwards until he was in front of Edward. "Now hand me the key."

"Here."

"Seriously, who the Hell are you guys? Can I at least know your names?" Edward yelled, turning to look both of the men in the face.

"My names Heinkel," the blond said as he released his arms.

"I'm Darius."

"Now get up kid before Kimblee has one of his snoops coming to check up on you," Heinkel said, giving Edward's arm a firm tug. "Don't just sit there! You want out don't you?"

"R-right," he said, scrambling up onto slightly numb feet. "Do you guys know where Terry-?"

"Perhaps," Heinkel said, cutting Edward off. "We think they might be somewhere in this building."

"And where exactly is this place?"

"Just filled with questions aren't you kid?" Darius grumbled. "We're in an old factory. Kimblee's been using this factory as headquarters for his underground operations."

"Which are?"

"That's classified information kid," Heinkel said.

"Quit calling me 'kid'!" Ed yelled, his temple twitching slightly. "And I think I have a right to know at least to some extent what he's been doing."

"And why do you think that?" Darius asked. "It's not like you're important; just a kid who got mixed up in Kimblee's trap."

"I'm NOT a kid! And I have to know because he kidnapped a bunch of little kids who were practically my siblings!"

Heinkel and Darius paused for a moment, exchanging glances over Edward, before the continued walking. They were silent for another moment before Darius spoke up.

"We got information that Kimblee might have been in the drug ring."

"And was he?"

"Nope. But he was selling and trading things on a Black Market of sorts. We could chuck him in prison just for that."

"And when you add in the kidnapping, he gets a few years added onto his sentence," Heinkel finished.

"What else could he get for a couple of years of child abuse?" Ed asked quietly.

The two men once again, exchanged glances over Edward. They looked slightly surprised, but not all that shocked by what Ed had said to them. Maybe they didn't know the full extent of Kimblee's crimes.

"We don't have any proof on that," Darius said gravely, looking Ed right into the eyes with an odd, animalistic unblinking gaze. "But if you want him in jail for it, you're going to have to speak to the judge."

"I don't care," he said fiercely. "Anything to get him behind bars."

"Well, let's get a move on and find those kids."

"And then we can find Kimblee?" Ed asked, eagerly.

"That's a job for the police k- Edward."

"I don't fucking care! Kimblee's been playing with me for years and it's high time I get some revenge!"

"You know the saying-?"

"Yeah, yeah, 'and eye for an eye makes the whole world blind'. But I don't care! He killed my mother! He did this to me!" Ed yelled as he flailed his automail arm in front of their faces. "He fucking deserves what I have planned for him!"

As Darius opened his mouth to respond, Heinkel stepped in-between the two and said, "We don't have time for this useless squabbling! Do you want those kids safe or not?"

"Of course."

"Then come one. We only have an idea of half of this place and Kimblee could be back any minute now."

"Where'd he go?" Ed asked, keeping up with the two men.

"We don't know. But he never stays here for more than a day at a time."

"Do you think he's back at the house?" Darius asked.

"Could be," Heinkel said.

"We could call one of the guys to go look at it."

"Later."

The dark night sky made the large building seem like a mountain to the group. Very few lights stood around the old parking lot; only a couple of feeble lap posts flickered now and again to add to the minor glow of the small town. Even driving as fast as they could when they could, the drive back still took over two hours.

Alphonse looked down at the cell phone in his tightly clenched hand. No one had called and he was not quiet sure whether that was a good or bad thing. He had to wonder where the others were; whether they had managed to get back home or if they were on their way over here. Al had called them all once but no one answered; a peculiar thing happened when he dialed Maes's phone, it said that the connection was broken. They should have had a minute to call or text them by now and it was troubling.

"Should we just go in?" Roy asked.

"There may be booby-traps," Al said, nervously staring at the dark outline of the building.

"Or they may be nothing," Hohenheim said pleasantly. "This may not be where they are at all and Kimblee could be miles away by now."

"Well…putting aside all of those cheery thoughts, we should probably come up with a plan," Roy said.

"Does anyone have any weapons?" Izumi asked.

"I have a pocket knife," Roy answered, taking out the small knife from the depths of his pocket. "Not much use though."

"Should we call the police for back up?"

"Not until we've found anything," Hohenheim said. "There'd be hell to pay if we caused a false alarm. We'll just have to be careful."

After a moment of mental preparation, the four people, Izumi leading with Hohenheim bringing up the rear, slowly and silently crept into the building. It was darker inside the building, lacking the natural light of the moon and the lights from the city, causing a lot of bumping and close calls.

"This isn't going to work," Izumi sighed after she stopped Al from his fifth stumble on something.

"I can't see anything."

"Wait," Roy muttered before there was the sound of rustling before a bright white light illuminated hall. "There we go."

Roy had taken out his cell phone and after so being in the darkness for so long, it blinded all of their unprepared eyes. They all hissed and told him to put it away as they rubbed spots form their eyes.

"It's too bright," Izumi hissed. "We can't use it. Someone could see it way ahead of us."

"But we need to see. So let's just flash it in a hall for a few seconds because I don't think all this tripping and yelling we're doing is very stealthy."

Izumi relented after a moment but told Roy no more for now and to warn them before they did. They group silently and carefully stepped around dark objects until they hit what appeared to be a dead end.

"Damn."

"We'll just have to go all the way back and go the other direction."

"What if there is actually nothing here?"

"We have to spend more than five minutes in here to find that out."

"Wait," Izumi hissed as the men's footsteps began to retreat.

"What?"

"Did you find anything?"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"A door handle," she whispered, glee present in her voice. "Roy, flash the light over here."

"I already looked at the entire wall," he muttered but did what she asked anyways. "There's nothing there."

"No, look."

Izumi pointed a slender finger the edge of the wall. There, only a few inches wide, was a small indent covered in rust-colored metal. It was big enough for someone's fingers to slide in and pull it, like a sliding door on a patio.

"Should we try it?"

Izumi pressed her ear to the door and the rest fell silent for a few moments, allowing her absolute silence.

"I don't hear anyone…but why would this be here?" Izumi ran her fingers over the hand hold again. "It's been made to b camouflaged in with the rust and the other odd grooves on the door."

"So maybe someone's in there?"

"Possibly."

Izumi put both of her hands into the door and pulled as hard as she could. It took several tries before the door relented and slide open for them.

"Whoa," Al whispered.

It was painfully obvious that someone was using the building for something. Yellow lights hung down from the ceiling, boxes were stacked along the walls. All of the holes in the walls and ceiling appeared to be patched up with plaster and they could also see the only window in the room was boarded up.

"Should we keep going?" Roy asked, pointing towards the door on the other side of the room.

"Might as well," Hohenheim muttered. "But only if no one else is around. If anyone hears any other voices, we have to hide quickly. Alphonse."

"Huh?"

"If I tell you to run, run. That goes the same for you Roy."

"Yes dad."

"Right."

With careful steps, the group moved down the semi-lighted hall until they reached a pair of steps. Up or down, up or down. The steps going up looked old and unused but the ones going down looked recently repaired, meaning that whoever was running whatever was going on in the building was downstairs. With every creak or groan of the stairs, they all froze, hearts beating erratically, ears straining to hear the tiniest of noise.

The first flight down brought them into a hallway that ended in a dead end. After several minutes of investigation, they all decided that the wall was just a wall and they continued down the next flight of steps.

"Wait," Roy breathed as they crept along a hallway that was almost as dark as the fist floor.

"What is it?"

"I think I heard someone."

The group all paused in fear as they tried to hear the voice Roy had pointed out. It felt like hours later when Hohenheim spoke up.

"I think I hear someone too. And they're coming this way."

"What do we do?"

"Hide," he hissed.

"Where?" Roy hissed back, feeling along the walls, trying to find a doorway or something to hide behind.

"We'll just have to ambush them," Izumi said, crouching behind an exposed beam. "On the count of three, we jump on them; it sounds like there are only two or three."

"Alright," Al said, finding a small hiding space in a cramped hole.

"One…"

The voices were getting closer and closer now. They could at least tell now that they were all male and that there were three.

"Two…"

One of the men sounded young, couldn't have been much over eighteen by the pitch of the voice but the other two were grown men.

"Three…"

"Do you even know where you're going?" one asked crankily.

"We would if the flash light didn't give out."

"So we're lost? Just peachy-."

"GO!"

"AGH!"

"WHAT THE HELL?"

"…Edward?"

"Huh? Dad?"

Roy wrestled his phone out of his pocket and shone it in the face of whoever he had in a tight headlock.

"AH! I'M BLIND!" Edward screeched.

"Whoa, my bad," Roy said, letting Ed go.

"What are you doing here brother?"

"What are you doing here?" Ed asked, rubbing his neck. "Did Kimblee tell you to come here?"

"No. We just guessed after he took you. It was the only place that didn't make sense."

"Did Winry or Maes call you guys yet?"

"No. We've called them but they won't pick up."

"Weird."

"But…who are these two?" Izumi asked, pointing to Darius and Heinkel.

"We're undercover detectives," Darius answered, fishing out his police badge from inside of his jacket.

"We've been watching Kimblee for a while now and have been watching him after someone accused him of drug trafficking."

"We found out about the kidnapping and we were trying to help Edward find the kids when we ran into you."

"Well there's nothing that way," Roy said, point over his shoulder.

"We came from the floor below and that's empty as well," Heinkel said.

"So where should we go?"

"There's only one other place besides up," Darius answered. "And I doubt he'd have the kids hiding up in air, closer to people who might hear them if they yelled for help."

"Where then?" Ed asked urgently.

"Follow me."

Oooh, what's gonna happen?

I loved thinking of adding Heinkel and Darius to the story. It was last minute but I needed a reason to get Ed out of the basement when there is no alchemy.

Okay, question: Did anyone notice anything special about how I split up the two groups? If you notice it, you win a cookie. :)

T-T I know that this story will probably be wrapped up in like, two to three chapters. :( But it's amazing to think that this story ended up over 100, 000 words and will break 40 chapters when I initially thought it would only end up being 20. Got to stop before I start to cry...

Please wait around for chapter 40! I know that if will probably be the most epic chapter but that all comes down to opinions. I promise to have chapter 40 up before October. :P

BYE!

-FSK