AHHH! CHAPTER 40! YEEEAAAHHH! OVER 500 REVIEWS!

I can honestly say that I NEVER expected this story to grow past 20 but I am so happy I was about to let this story grow because I love it so. :)

This is a rather big chapter and this will be the last chapter before the much awaited/dreaded epilogue comes out. I'd like to thank my awesome friend and beta for editing this chapter! :D

Enjoy! :D

The door was even more hidden than the entrance to the lower levels. Even after Darius had pointed it out to Edward, he still could not see any tell-tale make that there was a door in front of him. All of the walls looked the same down there: slate grey, cold, and with a few splotches of rust in random areas. Darius then shrugged and said that Kimblee had done a good job hiding it before digging in one of his coat pockets. After pulling out a small key-card, Darius pointed a fat finger to a small break in a rusty patch.

"See that?"

"See what?" Ed asked, annoyed.

"Just get on with it Darius," Heinkel grumbled. "We're wasting time standing around, complementing how well Kimblee's done in his attempts to hide from his own men."

"Fine."

Darius slipped the key-card into the slit in the wall before pulling it out quickly. Sudden realization hit Ed like a ton of bricks as a small beep met his ears before the wall panel began to slide into itself. Once the door was gone, it revealed a set of brand-new stairs made out of shiny, untouched metal. A blinding white light came out of the top of the ceiling, illuminating it all. Kimblee had made this recently with the purpose of hiding quite obvious now.

"How did you get the key?" Ed asked in utter disbelief.

"…it's complicated," Heinkel answered after a pause were he looked at Darius. "We can talk about it later. After we've found the kids."

Edward nodded heavily before he stepped inside the hidden stairwell and followed Heinkel and Darius down the steps with the others following behind him. With each flight they descended, they temperature appeared to drop more and more, giving everyone a small chill. The blinding light appeared to be the only light source in the stairs, cloaking them all in semi-darkness once again.

Ed had to wonder how far the stairs were taking them underground when they went down their fifth flight. After walking down the sixth, they came to a stop at a cold and intimidating hallway. It was long and empty, paneled in the same, cold metallic as the steps, even the floors were covered in the material. Soft yellow lights came out of the ceiling, allowing the floors to reflect like a mirror and bring a soft light to their adjusted eyes. He could not see what led on the other side of the hall or when it ended at all, making him uneasy.

"What do you think is at the end?" Ed asked in a whisper as a shiver passed through him.

"Hopefully the kids," Hohenheim answered in a calm voice.

"And Kimblee," Izumi said with malice in her voice. She did not like the ordeals they had been put through and was easily angered at the thought of Kimblee now.

"Let's keep moving," Roy said urgently, rubbing his arms to bring back some much needed warmth back in them.

It was freezing in the metal hallway and they were defiantly dressed for a hot summer day. Not for standing in an ice box over sixty feet into the ground.

"But we should be really careful," Alphonse said, his voice ringing hauntingly along the hall for a moment afterwards.

"I don't think Kimblee would have wasted money on booby-traps but he is right," Heinkel said. "We have to be quiet and careful."

The walk was nerve-wracking. Every tiny noise seemed to be magnified in echo's and with their appearances blurrily reflected around them it made Ed feel as if more people were following him. Kimblee had probably done this on purpose; done this to unnerve his intruders before they got the chance to get to him and give him a possible edge.

Or maybe Edward was just becoming paranoid with everything that had happened. It was a strong possibility, most likely reality now. It was a real wonder how Ed couldn't be paranoid with everything that had happened to him in his short life.

Another small glow came from over Ed's head and, after craning his head upwards, he saw that there was another small light. The light was warm and soft, the exact opposite of what the hallway brought to you. Edward tried to bottle up the small sphere of warmth as he continued walking passed it but found it quickly dissipating. The hallway was beginning to get claustrophobic and oppressing; he had to hurry up and find the kids before he went insane.

"Edward," Hohenheim muttered.

"What is it?"

"Look," Hohenheim said, pointing forwards.

Squinting, Edward could see it. The hallway was ending. He could not see anything distinct except the end of the hall. Ed just hoped that there were some doors at the end.

"Come on," Ed said before he picked up his feet and began to run down the last stretch of the hall.

He did not care about the racket he was making as he clanked and smashed his was down the hall, he just needed to get to the end. He needed to end this long ordeal once and for all. And Edward knew the end would be soon.

"Dammit Kimblee!" Ed shouted as he pounded his fists on the empty walls that surrounded him. He felt trapped, as if the three walls were closing in on him. He pounded as hard as he could in hopes that maybe Kimblee would open them if he continued.

"Edward!" Izumi shouted, pulling Ed away from the walls.

"Relax kid," Darius said.

"Open up Kimblee!" Ed yelled as he pounded his fist on the door once more.

He was so horribly sick and tired of being placed in Kimblee's palm and being forced into doing whatever sick things he was threatened to do. Ed wanted to be the one to boss people around and he did not feel like listening to anyone's orders, no matter if they were reasonable or not.

"Edward!" Hohenheim yelled, as he placed a hand on Ed's shoulder.

Just as Ed picked up his fists to pound on the door again, the door disappeared in the wall, revealing another chunk of the hallway to the group. Had it not been for Hohenheim's grip on his shoulder, Ed would have fell face first onto the cold floor.

"What do we do now?" Roy whispered staring at the hall.

The hallway was no longer a straight shot. It split into two halls that veered off into the opposite sides. They would have to split up. And Ed thought he knew what was at the end of both of the halls.

"We have to split up," Ed said, taking a step forwards to peer into both of the halls. "I'm sure Kimblee's got the kids stuck on one side while he's hiding on the other."

"Do you think he'd really do that?" Al asked quietly.

"It'd be best if we split up anyways," Izumi said. "We'll cover more ground."

The groups quickly dissolved into two groups: Edward, Hohenheim, and Heinkel and then Alphonse, Izumi, Roy, and Darius. Edward's group would go down the right while Al's would go down the left. It would be next to impossible to communicate with each other seeing as their cell phones no longer got any quality reception down there and half of their phone batteries were about to die anyways, their owners unable to charge them over the hectic days.

The lighting continued down the left corridor as it had in the other with soft yellow lights every now and again. Izumi led the group while Darius protected them from behind leaving Al and Roy in relative safety between them.

It felt as if they had been walking for an hour when they finally were forced to stop. A wall with a small, square window stood in front of them. The glass on the window was pristinely clean; again proving just how many people had probably came down here.

"What do you think is in there?" Al whispered.

"How do we get in there is my question," Roy muttered as he looked around for a tell-tale key-card slot like the other door.

"Can anyone see in there?" Izumi asked, peering to the dark room.

"Let me take a look," Darius said as he pulled a heavy mag-lite off of his belt and shinned it at the thick glass panel.

"What do you see?" Izumi asked urgently.

The walk down the hallway seemed to take a lifetime for Edward. As much as he wished to find the children, he hoped that he had picked Kimblee's hallway so that he could let out some seriously pent-up anger on the man. He wanted-no- needed to hurt Kimblee, beat him, pulverize him, or else Ed felt like he would go insane.

His father and Heinkel were silent. Ed was not sure if he wanted the two silent or to talk so that maybe he could relax his pounding heart and unset mind.

The yellow lights started to become farther and few between, meaning that sometimes the three men were almost in total darkness. Heinkel had a flashlight on his belt but they never used it, seeing as soon as it became too dark, it would lighten up again in another minute. Finally, when Ed thought he was about to lose it, they stopped.

A thick, steal door stood in front of them. It was ominous and Ed felt as if he had picked the correct hallway; Kimblee had to be on the other side. But how would they open it?

"Kimblee," Ed growled, hoping yelling and releasing a bit of his temper would suffice as a key to the door like before.

"Do you think he's on the other side?" Heinkel asked Hohenheim behind Ed's back.

"I think it's a high possibility."

"Open. Up," Ed hissed between clenched teeth as he tightened his fists.

He knew that Kimblee could hear him. He had before and he would now. There were probably microphones and video cameras all along the passage way to alert Kimblee of intruders. If that was the case, Kimblee would have known that they were on their way hours ago.

"Edw-," Hohenheim said calmly before he was cut off by the soft crackle of a loud speaker.

"As you wish Eddy."

The metal door swung open a moment later. The three men stood frozen for a moment at the doors opening for a while, unsure and a little scared. Ed took a deep breath and walked forward quickly before his father could stop him.

"Kimblee," Ed said in a loud voice that rung out in a small echo.

The room was dark, too dark for Edward to see unassisted. Hohenheim and Heinkel stepped in after Edward, afraid that they might lose him if they were separate, even by a few feet, for too long. Heinkel fumbled with the flash light on his belt for a moment before he got it up and shone it into the abyss.

"Kimblee," Edward growled as he stared at the man in front of him.

Sitting there, in a comfortable, high-backed leather chair was Zolf Kimblee. He wore his usual, unpleasant grimace of a smile and looked completely at easy with being found relaxing in a chair, a couple stories underground, and in the dark.

"I see you've found me," he said in a soft whisper that sent chills up Edward's spine before he let his eyes drift to the other two men in the room. "Well done."

"Zolf," Hohenheim hissed with a murderous expression on his face.

"Hohenheim," he said pleasantly as if he were greeting a friend instead of an old adversary, "I see you're looking astonishingly well."

"The game is up Zolf. Give up the children and we'll go easy on you."

"Oh?" Kimblee said, as his eyebrow quirked comically high into his hairline. "But that's where you are wrong my dear friend, the game is just beginning."

Before anyone could react or say another word, Kimblee moved his hand upwards astonishingly fast before a shot rang out. The flashlight dropped and flickered out.

"…There they are," Darius whispered breathlessly.

"What?"

"Th-they're there!" he shouted, turning to shine the light into the other's faces. "I see all three of them, sitting right in there!"

"What?" all three of them cried before Al wrestled the light from Darius's hands and shined it into the room to see for himself.

Al would not have believed it if he had not seen it himself. There, sitting with their arms and legs tied up with piece of cloth covering their mouths, were the three children Edward had shown pictures of: Terry, Sammy, and little Kyle. They did not move at the light or noise but appeared to be sleeping due to the rhythmic moving of their bodies.

"They're alive," Al whispered, feeling a great sense of relief wash over him. He knew Edward would have been devastated if a single one had been hurt and had continued to pray that they were fine.

"How do we get them out of there?" Roy asked urgently.

"Do you think this glass is bullet proof?" Darius asked as he tapped the window with one of his thick knuckles.

"Maybe," Izumi muttered, folding her arms across her chest. "Probably. Why?"

"Because I could always try and break it and see what happens," Darius muttered as he pulled a revolver off of his belt and pointed it at the glass.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Roy muttered. "What if it's not bullet-proof?"

"Then the glass will stop the bullet before it can break."

"Well than what if it hits one of them?"

"I doubt that it will. My aims not that bad."

"Oh that's reassuring."

"Well how else are we supposed to get them out of there?"

"Darius," Izumi said. "Try it. But try to aim as far away from any of them as you can or it'll be your head Edward takes."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered as he set his gun up to aim. "I suggest covering your ears right about now."

The shot rang out with plenty of shattering glass afterwards. It turns out that the window was not bullet proof after all. There was plenty of high pitched screaming after a moment that the other had not taken in account for. The gun shot had obviously woken up the three children and probably scared the Hell out of them as well.

"Sammy!" Al yelled as Darius cleared away broken pieces of glass from the frame with his gun. "Terry! Kyle! Are you guys alright?"

"…wh-who's there…?" asked a very timid voice.

"…I-it's Alphonse. Alphonse Elric. I'm Edward's younger brother."

"Alphonse?" the voice asked again; this time Al was sure it was Sammy who was speaking seeing as the voice was too feminine for Terry or even little Kyle. "I-is Edward here?"

Al wanted to cry at the young girl's voice. She sounded so desperate to see Edward again that he wished that Ed had been there with them when they found the kids.

"He's not he with us but… but he is here in the building," Al said loudly through the glass. "He and our dad went to try and find Kimblee. Well I mean…" Al did not want it to appear as if Ed had chosen finding Kimblee over saving them. "We had to split up a while back and we're guessing that they'll find Kimblee."

"Oh…"

"But uh, do you think you guys could get out of there?"

"How?" drawled a slightly manlier voice that most likely belonged to Terry. "We're tied up and the door only opens for Kimblee."

"Hey Kids," Darius said as he pushed Al a bit out of the way and shined the light into the hole. "How are you tied up?"

"Rope," Sammy answered. "Just rope on our wrists and ankles."

"Yeah and it's giving me one Hell of a rope burn," Terry muttered.

"Is that really all?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm…"

"He obviously wasn't that intent on keeping them locked up if someone managed to get down here," Izumi muttered. "Regular glass, no guards, not even regular hand-cuffs."

"Does anyone have a knife that we could give to them to cut off their ropes?" Darius asked, turning to face the others.

"I do!" Roy exclaimed as he dug his hands into both of his pockets before pulling out his pocket knife.

"Good," he said before turning around and looking back into the room. "Hey kids!"

"What?"

"We're going to toss in a pocket knife; do you think you would be able to cut yourselves free?"

"We could try," Sammy answered. "Send it in."

"Be careful," Darius said before he grabbed the pocket knife from Roy's hands and tossed it gently through the hole.

"Do you think you could try to shine the light over here?" Sammy asked as she began to carefully saw through the ropes on Terry's wrist.

"Sure."

Minute after minute passed as each of them slowly cut through the thick rope bonds. Sammy eventually got through the ones on Terry's wrists and ankles before he turned and slowly cut through the ones on Sammy. She then moved to the corner where Kyle lay, seemingly unconscious because he did not react to anything but there was a steady rise and fall of his chest.

"We're done," Sammy called out, sounding exhausted.

"So how do we get them out now?" Roy asked.

"So you think you could fit through the window?" Izumi asked, peering at its size.

It was big enough for a small child to fit through but she wasn't so sure about how Sammy and Terry would fit through it.

"Kyle could easily fit," Terry muttered. "Let's get him up and through."

"Right."

Carefully, the two children, slightly weakened by their lack of sustenance, brought the sleeping boy up the window frame and slowly slide his head through. His shoulders passed through easily, which meant that the rest of him would as well.

"Okay now, Sammy, climb on my shoulders," Terry said. "And see if you can get through the hole."

"O-okay Terry," Sammy said uncertainly before she kissed him gently on the cheek.

"Just get on with it!" Terry exclaimed, face red with embarrassment.

"Sorry."

Sammy climbed onto Terry's back before she move up onto his shoulders and began to crawl through the small hole.

"Ow…" Sammy winced as she scrapped her forearm on a small piece of glass.

"Careful…" Darius muttered as he carefully pulled the girl through the hole. "There you go."

Once out, Sammy was set gently on the floor next to Kyle. She could hear Terry jump up and grip onto the window and struggled to get through. Sammy had to be a little grateful that Kimblee had starved them during their imprisonment or else they might not have fitted through the hole. As soon as Terry was out, Sammy felt herself being picked up and placed in Darius' large arms.

"What now?" Al asked as he carefully picked up Kyle.

"Easy," Roy answered as Terry climbed onto his back. "We go and find Ed."

"HEINKEL!" Edward yelled as he turned to watch the blond officer fall to the floor, gripping his left shoulder.

Another shot rang out just above Edward's head and he knew that it was not meant to hit him, just to shut him up. He wanted to go and check on the wounded man but he also wanted to attack the man who had just shot the bullet.

"Now," Kimblee said, grinning. "I think it's time we ended this."

"What do you mean by that Zolf?" Hohenheim asked with both hands raised in surrender.

"I mean all of this," he said as he got up off his seat and began to move his gun from Ed to Hohenheim. "All of the lying and deceitful behavior that seems to be rather prominent in this family of yours."

"Why?"

"…Why not?" Kimblee asked with an evil grin.

"You can't be doing all of this just because I took Trisha from you?" Hohenheim asked in disbelief.

"Hmm… perhaps I am. Or maybe I'm just doing all this because I forgot to pay the cable bill this month and I have nothing entertaining to watch. Who knows?"

Edward gritted his teeth as he suppressed the strong urge to scream and attack the man. But he knew the outcome of that quite clearly; he would end up next to Heinkel on the floor, bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound.

"Or maybe I am really doing all this because of what you did to me, my friend. And maybe I took your little snot-nosed brats because I knew that you would turn me in the moment you returned home with you daddy and wittle brother. So I guess you can both be equally guilty for why I'm doing this."

"Kimblee," Hohenheim growled. "Why would you hold a grudge for so long? And why would you continue when you already got our revenge? You killed her years ago! SO why do you continue?"

"Why?" Kimblee asked. "Because even though I hated that whore for leaving me and sneaking around my back, I still did not wanther to die. I wanted you to die, my dear friend Hohenheim. And after years of dealing with your brat, I've decided that he is too much like father for my liking… so he's free to go as well."

"Kimblee-!"

BANG! BANG!

Hohenheim fell to the ground hard as he tried to stop the thick bleeding in his upper arm and the graze on his shin. Edward stood, dumbfounded as he stared at Kimblee. He had shot his father and Heinkel.

That bastard…

"AGHH!" Edward yelled as he began to run towards Kimblee, enraged.

"EDWARD!" Hohenheim yelled out as he reached a bloodied hand towards his eldest son.

BANG! BANG!

Edward felt his face fall flat onto the floor but did not feel the pain he had been expecting. He expected agony as the bullets entered his body and tore through his muscles but… there was nothing. Well, not nothing but defiantly not anything close to pain. After a moment, Ed realized that he had not been shot. The bullets had only grazed his left cheek and left arm. The tight grip around his ankle told Ed that his father had forced him down and saved his life.

Should I get up?

After a moment of debate, Edward pushed himself up with his arms and looked up to stare down the revolvers gun barrel. Kimblee was holding it a mere inch away from his forehead and was smiling gleefully.

"Any last words for the kiddies Eddy? How about you little girlfriend?"

Edward opened his mouth to speak words but did not know what he was going to say. And Kimblee would never hear them because the loud blast of another gun drowned out whatever garbled words he was going to say.

Edward turned his head around in amazement to see his father sitting upright, looking exhausted but alive in his eyes and with a gun in his own hand. After a moment of shock, he realized that it must have come off of Heinkel belt, remembering seeing a gun holster on him hours ago.

"You will leave my family alone," Hohenheim whispered in a deadly voice a Kimblee fell to his knees, blood blossoming from where he was shot.

BANG!

"You will not harm anyone ever again!"

BANG!

Kimblee fell onto all fours.

"And you will have to deal with your wrong-doing in Hell."

BANG!

Kimblee fell onto his back with the force as his cold grey eyes began to fade and blood spurted out of his mouth. Panting slightly, Hohenheim tossed the gun to the other side of the room as if it was poisonous before he collapsed onto his back.

"DAD!" Ed cried as he crawled over to him. "DAD! Are you alright?"

"'M fine Edward…" he said weakly. "I just need to rest…"

"NO! You can't leave me! We still need you! I still need you, dammit!"

"I'm not going anywhere Edward…not anymore. I won't leave you two boys again."

"G-good," Ed whispered as he tried to push away the tears that were coming to his eyes. Whether form exhaustion or simply from the emotional roller coast he had been put through, he did not know or really care.

"Heinkel," Ed said, turning to look at the pale man. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Think so. We just need some damn help to get us out of here. I don't think I can walk."

"That's perfect," Ed muttered, pushing bangs passed his ears.

"Did someone say they needed some help?"

Edward looked up and saw, to his immense astonishment and undeniable relief, Alphonse, Roy, Izumi, and Darius standing there but the most important thing was what they were holding.

"Edward!" Sammy cried out, nearly jumping out of Darius' hold. "Eddy! Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine Sammy," Ed whispered as he tried to calm the sobbing girl. "More importantly, are you alright?"

Sammy nodded furiously as tears ran down her dirty face like a waterfall. Edward wrapped an arm around the girl and looked up to see Terry smiling at him.

"And you?"

"I'll be fine in a bit," he said with a tired sigh. "Kyle will be just fine too. He just got a bad bump on the head and is running low on food."

Edward nodded, unable to speak for his throat suddenly became constricted with bottled up emotions. Terry came and sat down next to him and leaned against him before Ed wrapped his remaining arm around Terry. How long they sat like that, no one really knew. But eventually, Edward, cleared his throat, rubbed his blurry eyes, and looked up at the others.

"Let's get out of here."

*sniff* so touching... :P (DIE KIMBLEE DIE! GO PAPA HOHO!)

So, again, the next chapter will BE THE LAST. So be prepared and have your tissues ready when you see the update. :P (partially serious. I'm pretty sure I'm going to at least tear up.)

Please send me a review so that I know how you liked it! :D

-FSK