I open my eyes and find that there is a breathing mask over my face. I shakily remove it from my mouth and breathe in with a shudder. My vision is a little hazy as I look around but I find that I am in the hospital yet again and I move but feel more like I tried to push my body through water instead. I make a sound and hear something rustle from the corner of the room. Maes' face comes into view as well as Riza's and I turn away from their closeness.

"Are you alright?" Maes asks, his hand automatically on my forehead. "You passed out and Fuery got scared."

"I'm fine… Get out of my face…" I said with a groan, moving my heavy arm in front of them to get them away.

They pulled away from me and I struggled to sit up but it was impossible so I just laid there.

"The doctor said that he will be checking on you in a moment and will determine when they will be able to get that thing out of you."

"Huh?" I ask, feeling stupid but what was I supposed to do? "What do you mean?"

"Roy, it has to come out of you at some point. Did you plan on carrying it forever?"

"No…"

"They have to go over some of your vitals to make sure that it's safe for you to have them surgically remove it. They don't want you to bleed to death because you don't have enough blood volume." Riza says, looking in my chart.

"Where's Fuery?"

"I secretly took him to Jean's so that Breda could see him. He's still cognizant of himself so I don't know how Breda will react." Riza says. "He was very worried about you. I have to tell him you are alright when I go and pick him up."

"Just bring him by. No reason to make him wait when I'm here and he can see me." I say, turning a little as the baby settles in one spot again. It's hurting my side but I don't dare say anything to Maes, because he might cut the baby out himself… "Where's the Elrics?"

"I called Ed to tell him that you were in the hospital and he said to give his condolences but he also said that he thinks he perfected his transmutation for Fuery and needs me to let him into the chimaera labs to try it out."

"Try it out?" I ask, narrowing my eyes. "He's going to try and do dangerous alchemy and you're letting him?"

"No. He's going to use the transmutation equation he had made to try out on one of Tucker's animal chimaeras. If it succeeds, he thinks he can fix Fuery but he didn't want to use it on him if it failed and kill him in the process, you know?"

"Yeah…"

"He said he'd be by later on though."

I nod, fear in the pit of my stomach but excitement as well. Nothing else needs to happen to those boys but if they can get Fuery back to normal, they will be one of the most renowned alchemists of our generation.

~*~Edward~*~

I wait outside for Hughes to come and get us as Al looks down at me.

"Do you really think you've got it finished?" he asks.

"If not fully then I know that it's so close that we will get more results than failure."

Al nods when I see the military car pull around and we got down the steps to get in. I open the door and climb in as Al tries to wedge himself into it.

"How are you boys?" Maes asks from the front, looking tired but a smile on his face.

"Excited. I really think it's going to work." I say, confident.

Maes laughs a little and begins to drive off.

"How is the Colonel?" Al asks, doing what I was afraid to do.

"He's fine. He asked where you guys were but he was satisfied with the answer that you were helping Fuery and had a lead on your transmutation and forgave you."

I smile a little as I look out the window and watch the buildings rolling by. Al and Hughes talk discursively as I think about my equation, running it over and over in my head. Al is the one who has to do it since it's so intricate and I don't need a circle to do much. I don't think this is a good time to try and see if my trip to Truth will help me.

I close my eyes for a little bit and when I open them, we are stopped and at the lab. I climb out of the car and stretch a little as we walk. We walk into the labs and Hughes flashes his military ID for passage and I flash my watch to let them know who I was. I get a lot of awed looks from the scientists as we walk back into the lab.

"Long time no see, Elric brothers. I'm Nanao Nubizoka if you remember." The buxom woman says with another one of her cleavage showing bows.

I blush and clear my throat a little.

"We're here to use one of the animal chimaeras that Tucker had transmuted."

"Of course! Right this way, Mr. Elric." She turns around and we follow her toward the back of the building.

I look around and notice that the lab is a lot cleaner than when we came here a few months ago and smells better as well. We walk toward a door where Ms. Nanao takes out her key opens it. The howls and screams of the chimaeras inside are loud and sad as we all walk in. She switches on the lights and I see that there is a huge room just lined with cages and I turn to her.

"This is all the animal chimaeras that Tucker did?"

"Yes sir. He was determined to try and capture the same thing from before on his assessment. He used all sorts of animals and things to try that out. Which one would you like?"

"Do you have any that are mixed with dog or wolf?"

"We have pretty much anything that you need. The more dog breeds are over here…"

We follow her as I look at the sections of cages. Birds, reptiles, cats, everything that could be imagined. We turned a corner and there was about eight or nine cages that were labeled 'canine' and I looked through each of them. About four of them pounced at the cage when I walked by, I think one was dead, and three of them looked alright enough. But only one walked up to the cage and stuck its muzzle out to see what I was doing. I stuck my metal fingers in the cage for the animal to smell it, which it did. I looked up and nodded.

"This is the one that I want. Do you have any of the blood samples for it?"

"Yes. But we are not-"

"You have the military's permission to help Edward Elric out, by order of the Fuhrer." Maes says, pulling out some papers and handing them to her.

She takes the papers and then nods.

"Alright then, let me get the file on this one and get you what you need."

She presses a button and in about five minutes, two men arrive and she orders them to take the chimaera out of here.

As Nanao hands me the file on the chimaera I had picked out, Al sits beside me and looks over the contents carefully. Hughes looks at us from the other side of the table in confusion but in peace.

"You're going to see what the two animals are first and then see if they have the same blood here, right?" Al asks.

I nod. "Right… Ah, here it is. Looks like a Rottweiler puppy and a rabbit. But what kind of rabbit…"

"It's a regular wild rabbit." A voice says behind us.

We all turn as a scientist stares at us, his face covered with a surgical mask. I have a weird feeling about him but motions to the cage.

"We have the blood of a Rottweiler and a wild rabbit in another lab. I will tell them to go and get it for you."

He walks away and I look at Al, who is staring after the man.

"Did you feel something about him as well?" I ask.

Al nods. "Mmm…"

We wait for the man to come back but another man comes back and hands us two vials of blood.

"Here you are."

I nod, taking them and then turn to Al.

"You ready?"

He nods and we go to the chimaera.

We find and abandoned stone room and I hand Al the Rottweiler blood. He begins to slowly draw the transmutation circle that I had planned and Hughes leans into me.

"What is he doing?"

"He's drawing the transmutation circle in the most dominate animal's blood so that it will then overrun the other. I realized that there really isn't a way to split the merged animals completely but if I give more of the dominate blood into the body, then it can overrule the other and be more like one animal instead of two. At least that's how my theory is going to go… I have to make sure it works."

"So… Fuery is still going to have dog in him?"

I look away and sigh. "I thought that I would be able to split them but it's impossible. This is all I can do… yes, Fuery will still have dog in him but hopefully it will be only characteristics."

"I'm done, Brother."

I nod and unlatch the cage for the chimaera as Al comes over to it. He grabs the small animal and coos it as he sits the animal in the center of the circle. He orders it to stay and it does so. Al then gets on the edge of the circle and I pull Hughes out of the room as a bright light flashes and a dog's howl echoes for a moment. Once the light goes out, I open the door and see smoke disappearing and Al next to something.

"Al? Did it work?"

Al laughs and turns, a dog in his arms.

"It worked, Brother!"

I yelled in triumph and turned to Hughes, who was grinning ear to ear.

"I have to do one more experiment to be sure but from this try, I think we can get Fuery back!"

He smiles and Al proceeds to take the dog with us.

"Al, we can't have a-"

"Aw, come on, Ed. He likes you." He says as the dog tries to get out of Al's arms to get to me.

I reach out and pet it on the head as it wags its tail overenthusiastically.

"I mean, we did give it it's life back a little."

I turn to Hughes and he shrugs. "I guess I can say we need it for military evidence of the success of the transmutation."

"Yes!" Al says and I smile a little.

"What are you going to name it?"

"I dunno yet."

We head back to the car.

"It looks like your experiment was a success." The scientist from before says to us.

I look at him and he stares at me.

"Yes…"

"You're very gifted, Edward Elric. My compliments to your brilliant mind." He says with a bow.

I glare at him for a moment and he stands back up.

"I just hope that it helps your friend."

"Yeah. Me too."

"Come on, Ed!" Al yells and I walk away from the man.

Something doesn't feel right with that guy.

uh oh, what's with the freaky guy? and what names should I give to the dog? next chapter is THE chapter. everyone get ready!