"I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or any other already copyrighted material I may have missed." Leans in close and whispers, (doesn't mean I can't dream)...

The some of the summary is meant to scare off people who spook easy. You won't be considered weak if you don't read this. Think of people going insane and chewing off the faces of shrieking victims. Rated M with good reason.

THIS IS NOT A YAOI! In the words of the great and powerful Yoda, that I do not own the copy write for, "You must unlearrrn what you have learned." And that goes for all the sick-minded readers; you know who you are!

IMPORTANT: ONE thing I didn't say in the A/N's of the last chapter that I feel needs to be said is that RAPE is another story. It's not yaoi. Lets face it; if a man is willing to rape just to get laid is he going to care about the gender of his victim. And more often than not it's a power thing that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with being gay. Just think of all the don't-drop-soap jokes out there.

HEY, THIS IS FOR ALL OF YOU WHO WANT TO KNOW WHAT NINA LOOKS LIKE!

I based her on the Landseer. They look like black and white Newfoundlands and I added a very tiny amount of Border Collie mixed in for added grace and agility. Google Image Search Landseer and you won't be disappointed. Hundreds of pictures and there are a few of someone holding a two-month-old puppy. Although Nina is almost 'one fifth Bigger' as a puppy, they give you a good idea as to the size of the little monster. Landseers are most often utilized alongside Newfoundlands as water rescue dogs and are comparable in size and strength to a small packhorse! Trust me, it's the right breed to base Nina on right down to her personality.

Broken Stride

By … Fullmetal Angyl

I.e. K. L. Nelson

Ch.4 Enemies?

As he drifted at the edges of sleep Edward felt something move and remembered everything as he came to. Slowly opening his eyes revealed that Roy was fully conscious and looking about, but the way he couldn't seem to keep his head and eyes from shifting worried him and he hoped that there wasn't any permanent damage. He looked confused and in pain and was shivering with a chill.

Then Roy looked at Edward. It had only just occurred to him that he was under a blanket and lying in his subordinate's arms and between his legs bare chest like they were star-crossed lovers. Knowing this meant that Edward had to go through something degrading to keep him alive he looked appalled and grateful all at once. The white of Roy's left eye was blotched bloody from broken blood vessels, something he half expected to begin with.

"Fullmetal…?"

Edward kept his voice low figuring the mine would amplify it, and Roy probably had a bitch of a headache.

"Hey, it wasn't joy ride for me 'either' pal."

Roy glared at him for that one, or at least tried to. The attempt was comical, but Edward just sighed and decided to hold off on the onslaught of bitch jokes and blackmail he'd throw his commanding officer's way till later. He wanted to know the extent of the damage, and it wouldn't have been much fun picking on someone that couldn't put up so much as a loosing battle anyway. At the moment such a thing would have been just a cruel attempt at a cheap laugh.

"Do you remember the attack?"

Roy just stared off into nothing, like he hadn't heard a thing.

"Roy?"

Jumping a little he snapped back to reality. "Uh, yea… i-i-it'ss, faded… like a" He swallowed. "like a dream, or… some, thing……", he trailed off.

Feeling something move they looked down and Edward pulled the blanket down a bit to see Nina curled up tighter than a kitten and snuggling a little deeper into them. Edward smiled, but the other man wasn't so amused at the sight of the fifteen-pound fluff ball. Then, having taken in her markings and immense size, his eyes shot wide and he leaned back just a little. Edward wasn't too pleased with his reaction.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yea. Turns out they weren't sterile. They must have freed her when they escaped, at around two-months there's no way she was born after the cave-in. She's about as dangerous as a pet puppy and if you shy away like she's some kind of a threat I'm going to laugh my ass off at your expense."

After nearly a quarter minute Roy closed his eyes, gave a pained grin and nodded quite dumbly in agreement, like Edward had only just finished talking. He hadn't even registered the threat. It was yet another thing to add to a growing list of disturbingly out-of-character reactions.

The younger alchemist knew he needed to get Roy to a hospital fast, but the man was still hypothermic and probably unable to support his own weight. He was having enough trouble just keeping his head still and the blonde wasn't going to let him even try walking. Edward was stiff and hurting from head to toe and probably couldn't support Roy much less carry him like he had earlier. He probably couldn't walk very well himself either. More than anything they needed sleep.

"Roy," he asked, making sure he had the man's attention before going on slowly so hopefully he could keep up, "neither of us are going anywhere in this condition. You probably can't walk and I'm no better off, so we're stuck here."

Roy's eyes were trained ahead. Edward decided to not rush answers and started counting seconds to see if there were any changes in Roy's reaction time, hoping that he was getting better. At least his eyes 'seemed' a little more stable.

"Those tracks look well used."

Five seconds. Turning his attention to the tracks he saw that he was right. It was actually pretty quick thinking. They hadn't been left long enough for the contact surface to form rust in the humid air or even collect dust for that matter. They were old and worn, but shiny, which reminded Edward that he had been following live electrical lighting. He caught on almost immediately.

"You're right. I'm not counting on it, but there's a good chance we'll be found sometime within the next ten hours."

Immediately Roy threw him an incredulous look. "What if there isn't a connection between this tunnel and the one farther north? The lights didn't reach to the entrance, why wouldn't they have started from the main entrance?"

Edward's eyes were wide with understanding. Why didn't I see this!

"Have you been just following the lights?"

"Yes, I had no choice, a cave-in blocked the way we came and some of our men were trapped in the pile. Now that I think about it, they probably stopped using this mine for safety and claimed in was too expensive to run to avoid legal action. Those idiots tunneled over a cavern and the cave-in almost took us down with it. I couldn't transmute a path without knowing where the men were under the debris. It would have killed any survivors." Another thought came to mind, hitting them at the same moment, and they both looked down at Nina.

"Oh shit."

Roy nodded his agreement. "Edward, whoever are using these lights, they aren't our friends."

Heaving out a frustrated sigh Edward let his head bang against the stone wall and closed his eyes. They were lost and wounded in enemy territory and for all they knew there were more chimeras on the hunt, but they were alive and Roy almost sounded back to normal... almost. "Well... like I said, we're stuck here."

He was trying to find a pattern in the time it took Roy to register and react, hoping that it would keep getting better and not suddenly take a turn for the worse. With head injuries, anything's possible. After nearly a whole minute of quiet, save for their breathing, Roy came out with something that set off sirens in Edward's mind and his thoughts immediately threw him into a mild panic.

"When did you say that?" It had taken him that long to register before asking.

This was Not good.

"I told you that less than five minutes ago..."

When Edward had first spoken to him Roy had immediately registered his words, body language, and the emotion of his voice like a normal person would have. The reaction was almost instantaneous. But then he never registered the threat about laughing at him. Now he was missing entire statements. Is it fluctuating or just getting worse? He glanced about for almost another full minute, his eyes focusing and unfocusing and drifting about the whole time.

"Where are we? I remember being in a mine, but how did we get to where we are now?"

"Uh, I carried you across my back for a couple of hours. Do you remember the attacked?"

An instantaneous response. "Some of it."

He looked at Edward sideways for a long moment, like he was thinking about something and it was taking a long time to sort his thoughts before saying anything.

"Why didn't we go back the way we came... and where are the others?"

"Most likely dead, a cave in." Edward was somewhat calmed by the sadness in his friend's eyes. "I couldn't use alchemy with some of them trapped in the debris," he stated and Roy nodded in agreement. "It blocked the way and the ground was unstable. Those idiots were mining over a cavern. You broke a pipe with your head and I wasn't going to just sit around whistling with the floor crumbling under us and blood pouring from your skull, which is probably cracked. For all I know your brain is hemorrhaging. There's no way I was gonna wait for a rescue team."

Pushing the sadness aside and still watching him out of the corner of his right eye Roy gave a faint grin. "You were worried over me..."

Edward scoffed loudly. "Yeah, well... don't think anything of it, I would have done the same for a stranger."

But his friend's smile only grew. "Then tell me why I can taste blood when you're the one with a cut lip?" Roy seemed to be all too amused at the sight of the pale, sickly expression that crossed Edward's face. "I won't tell if you don't."

Edward could only nod in whole hearted agreement. Then once again Roy managed to floor him.

"You don't look so good. I don't think I can walk and I'm not going to let you try carrying me again."

For the first time since Roy first glared at him he turned and looked Edward in the eyes dead on. shit, shit, Shit... At least with the right one... The boy's mind jumped and his heart pounded in his stomach so hard that wanted to throw up.

The left one was white, it had rolled up and to the left so far that he could barely see a sliver of the iris. The sight of it left him shaking. A worried expression suddenly crossed Roy's face and he turned a bit pale. Lifting his hand from under Nina and the blanket he held it up before his eyes, seemingly examining it. He moved it sideways to the right, then the left. Centering it again he closed the left eye, then opened it and closed the right one. He jumped. After a moment he rested his hand back on the blanked covered bundle of fuzz.

"I'm half blind..."

The rest of the fic is 157 pages as of 10/19/07. I know that that's a much smaller number than mentioned in previous chapters, but I changed the spacing and took out segments I just hadn't gotten around to throwing in the scrap file.

That's something I recommend every writer have. A scrap file where you compile old, thrown out segments and ideas just so you still have them on record. I have one for each of my stories. It's also great if you want to make big changes to a segment but keep a copy of the original.

No matter how long it takes I will finish this fic.