Author's note: College is now finished. Yipee! Now I can work on this when work's not calling me. I know I said I'd put this up yesterday, but distractions and a slight lapse of writter's block prevented that. By the time I was ready to write again, I was too tired. But, a day late is better than two. Enjoy!
4 days ago...
Twenty minutes passed, and Colonel Mustang, Major Armstrong and Ed's doctor were still talking in hushed voices. Every so often, one of them would look in Ed's direction through the open door. And, every time, they would find and angry, untrusting face glaring back at them.
Al was sitting on a bench outside his brother's room. He'd been shocked when Major Armstrong had revealed that Ed not only didn't recognise them, but was certain that they weren't who they were. Al knew, but didn't want to admit, that this was the reason why Ed had been acting so strangely before going completely psychotic in the cafeteria. What Al didn't know was why this had happened or why now.
"It could be stress," Al heard the doctor say. "But I highly doubt it. It could be something that was passed down to him by his parents, but from what I've been told, that's not possible."
"So, if it's not any of those things, what else could it be?" Mustang asked, failing to sound mildly concerned.
"Well, a probable cause would be some kind of disease that we're not aware of. Or, most likely, he's being affected by some recreational drug that's not breaking down in his body," the doctor answered with a shrug.
"That can't be it!" Al shouted angrily, rising from his seat. "I know my brother, and he would never do anything like that!"
Everyone was silent for a moment and stared at Al in surprise. He'd been a nervous wreck for the whole morning, and no one had thought he would be in any state to defend his brother's honour. But, then again, everyone has their breaking point.
"Relax, Alphonse," Lieutenant Hawkeye ordered soothingly, coming to the terrified doctor's rescue. "The doctor was only suggesting the Edward might be affected by drugs, not that he was willing taking them."
Al visibly deflated once Lieutenant Hawkeye had spoken, taking what she'd said to heart. Then, He straightened up; the lights in his helmet were bright with excitement.
"But, you can help it break down, like the second stage of alchemy, right?" Al asked hopefully.
"Hopefully," the doctor nodded to appease the young man. "We'll have to perform a few blood tests to determine what it is, and then we can formulate a treatment."
"That's good news indeed," Armstrong chimed jovially.
"Wait," Hawkeye interrupted. "Do you have to his blood already?"
"No, we'll have to draw enough for several vials," the doctor answered.
There was a sharp intake of breath from all the officers, all wincing at the thought.
"We'll come in with you," Mustang said.
"While I can appreciate you wanting to be there, Colonel, I'm afraid I can't allow such a request," the doctor shook his head.
"You misunderstand, Doctor," Hawkeye replied.
"Brother hates needles," Al explained.
"He may react violently," Armstrong continued.
"So," Mustang summed up. "It wasn't a request; we are going in with you."
The doctor looked around and realised that he could not deny the colonel. Reluctantly, he nodded his head.
"Falman, Fuery," Mustang called to the two officers who had been hanging in the background. "Take up positions up the corridor. Lieutenant Hawkeye, remain here. The doctor, Major Armstrong, Alphonse and myself-"
"Uh, can I stay out here with the lieutenant?" Al asked quietly.
"Sure Al," Mustang nodded understandingly. "Alright, the doctor, Major Armstrong and I will go in. Let's pray nothing happens."
Present...
"So what happened?" Winry asked faintly, not daring to allow herself to imagine the countless horrendous possibilities.
"We took our positions, and the colonel went in," Hawkeye replied.
A bang echoed throughout the courtyard, causing even Hawkeye and Mustang to flinch. A new bulge had appeared in the side of the building.
"Looks like Ed's caught his breath," Hawkeye noted dispiritedly.
"Don't worry, Winry," Al assured the girl as her face fell. "Major Armstrong's keeping an eye on him."
"Fullmetal has hardly eaten and has barely slept," Mustang continued when her expression didn't change. "While he's still resisting our efforts, he doesn't have nearly as much persistence."
"He's pausing sooner and for longer," Hawkeye explained. "That means that he's coming closer to complete exhaustion."
"Which is good news for us," Mustang noted.
"And just how the hell is that good news?!" Winry demanded.
"It means he'll put up less of a fight than he did that day," Mustang replied.
4 days ago...
Ed glared at the three men surrounding him; Mustang and the doctor at his sides and Armstrong at his feet. At first everyone was still in the strained calm.
Then, the doctor pulled out a syringe.
Ed's eyes went wide with shock and fear. He struggled against his restraints. He could hear the leather creaking in protest of his efforts, which only instilled more determination in him.
"Take it easy, Fullmetal," Mustang ordered, holding down Ed's automail arm. "The doctor's only-"
Snap! Crack! Thud.
Everyone froze, staring at Mustang who had landed on his ass on the floor. A red mark had already exploded on the right side of his face. He lifted a hand to his cheek, wincing at the touch.
It was then that everyone realised: Edward's automail arm had broken through the restraints. Before anyone could move, Ed brought his hands together and then touched the bed.
The bed shone from the alchemic reaction and the restraints broke away, leaving Ed free to move. But that was only the first part of the reaction. The broken leather wound itself around the terrified doctor and a stunned Major Armstrong. When the reaction was finished, neither could move.
Edward leapt off the bed, ignoring the pleas of those around him and raced desperately to the door. Once at the door, he bolted left, only to stop after two paces.
In front of him were Falman and Fuery. Both had an equal amount of shock on their faces. Reluctantly, they stepped towards him, moving slowly so as not to spook the already terrified teenager. Fuery slowly reached out with one hand.
"It's alright, Edward," he stated, noticing how timid he sounded.
However, Ed was not convinced. He turned around, ran past the door and stopped. This time, he was facing Alphonse and Lieutenant Hawkeye. Hawkeye had her gun trained on him with shaking hands.
Not once had she ever imagined this harrowing scenario.
"Please Edward," she begged. "Don't make me shoot you."
"Brother," Alphonse called quietly. "If you'd just take a breath and calm down, you'd know that we're only trying to help."
Unexpectedly, Edward did take a deep breath, exhaling calmly. He turned to look behind him to Falman and Fuery, who had advanced several paces towards him. Moving shadows in his room showed that Armstrong had released himself from the grip of the leather straps.
Ed turned back to glare at Alphonse.
"I know what you're doing: you're trying to act like my brother and people that I know," Ed hissed. "Well, you won't fool me!"
Ed clapped his hands together and lunged at the wall to his right. After an explosion that sent cracks across the entire wall, floor and ceiling, a man-sized hole appeared.
"Crap! He's using alchemy?!" Fuery cried out despairingly.
"Brother, don't!" Al cried futilely as Ed ran into the newly exposed room.
There was plenty of rubble lying on the floor and there were several people were sitting upright in their beds. Nothing but absolute horror was on those patients' faces as they stared at this violent intruder.
"We need to get him out of here before he hurts someone," Mustang muttered urgently to Armstrong.
At that moment, Ed spun round to shoot a dangerous glance at his brother, Colonel Mustang and his team.
"What's this?!" Ed barked. "You trying to make me think I'm in a hospital, or something?! Stop jerking me around!"
"We're not trying to make you think you're in a hospital, Brother," Al protested.
"You are in a hospital, Edward," Hawkeye insisted. "You're not well."
"I don't believe," Ed murmured.
He clapped his hands together and then touched his automail. It didn't transmute into the normal, simple wrist-mounted blade this time. This time, the whole forearm plate became a blade as well, with serrated edges.
It was enough to make everyone think twice about approaching him.
"Edward Elric," Armstrong began. "There is something inside you that is preventing you from recognising your friends and family. Allow the doctor to draw some blood so that they can find a way to help you."
"I..." Ed spoke uncertainly, shaking his head. "I don't believe you."
"Trust us, Edward," Mustang requested. "We're only concerned about your wellbeing."
"SHUT UP!" Ed shouted, charging at them.
Without warning, Al rushed forward. He collected his brother in a tight embrace, picked him up off the floor and kept on running. As he approached one of the full-sized windows, he turned to face inwards and went through the glass, putting his metal body between the razor sharp shards and his brother's vulnerable flesh.
Everyone rushed to the window, where Armstrong didn't hesitate to transmute a slope for everyone to safely descend three storeys. As everyone hurried to the bottom, no one could not look in horror as the brothers fell like a pair of lead balloons.
Al released Edward from his grip and watched his brother jump away from him. Both brothers landed on their feet, although Ed was only a tad more elegant about it. Al heard the sickening crunch and crack of metal under too much force to remain undamaged. Thankfully, the damage was only superficial, and not structurally compromising.
Ed walked a few paces before stopping. He looked around in a disoriented fashion. He hadn't noticed that the fall had knocked his arm plate/blade off his automail, and only realised Colonel Mustang's presence once he was five feet away.
"It's... This isn't Central," Ed stated in a small, shell-shocked voice. Where the hell did you take me?"
While Ed was waiting for Mustang to answer, he felt a slight prick on his left arm. He turned just in time to see Lieutenant Hawkeye jump back from him, a syringe in her hand with the plunger down.
As Ed stepped towards her, he lost his balance and stumbled. He saw her drop the syringe and dash forward, catching him before he hit the ground. Staring dazedly into her face, Ed felt the world go hazy and quiet. As everything started to darken, he heard her speak.
"That's the second time I've had to knock you out. Can we please not make it into a habit?" Hawkeye asked gently.
Ed didn't answer. His eyes rolled up and his head lolled back on her arm. His lids struggled to open in a vain attempt to remain conscious. Finally, his body went limp and relaxed as the sedative worked on his fatigued body.
"That was too close a call, sir" Hawkeye stated as Mustang approached the duo.
"Yes, I don't think we can risk letting him back into the building. Who knows what he'll do when he wakes up next time," Mustang agreed solemnly.
Present...
"As we couldn't trust him in the main building, we moved him to the building we're walking to," Mustang explained.
"It's far away from the general population so he won't be a danger to them, but close enough for us to get there quickly," Hawkeye finished.
"I see..." Winry replied sadly.
They had made three quarters of the way to the deformed building. Before them were two officers, who saluted Mustang and Hawkeye when they approached.
"Sir, Second Lieutenant Maria Ross, andSergeant Denny Brosh reporting in, sir!" the young woman replied.
"Anything new since we left?" Mustang asked with an unusual amount of lacklustre.
"Apart from the new addition to the decor?" Sergeant Brosh asked sarcastically, shrugging his shoulders. "Not much, I'm afraid, sir. We've heard a few bangs and crashes, but we haven't seen anyone. Major Armstrong would know more about the ins and outs of what's been going on, but we're not about to go near that place, with all due respect, sir."
"Understood," Mustang nodded solemnly, moving past the two guards.
Lieutenant Hawkeye, Al and Winry passed the couple without a word. Winry snuck a glance back to see them watching their group continue further.
"So, what happened after you moved him here?" Winry asked, returning to the pressing topic of getting up to speed with Edward's current condition.
"Not all that much different to what we've already told you, I'm afraid," Mustang replied nonchalantly.
"His actions got repetitive after a while: try to escape, yell insults at us, claim that we're not who we are. You get the basic idea?" Hawkeye asked wearily.
"The day before yesterday, Brother was really bad. He wouldn't stop transmuting anything he saw. He was doing everything to get out of there," Al explained. "That's when I told the colonel that we needed to call you."
32 hours ago...
"Colonel, his behaviour is getting worse; we won't be able to restrain him for much longer," Falman reported to the colonel outside the building.
"If it was just him, I don't think we'd have much of a problem, but his automail..." Fuery trailed off.
Al, who had been a short distance away, heard Fuery and quickly made his way to join the conversation. He had a thought that he wanted to share, and hoped that they'd listen to him.
"Colonel, why don't you have his automail disabled?" Al suggested.
Mustang looked at Al in surprise. While he had been considering that as a possible measure to rein in the boy's out of control brother, he hadn't expected Al to mention it.
"I think I may have no choice but to remove it," Mustang admitted, earning him a shake of Al's helmet.
"You can't remove it!" Al protested. "It'll freak him out and it'll hurt him!"
"But Al," Fuery interjected before Mustang could speak. "Didn't you just say it had to be removed?"
"No, not remove it, just disable it. If you did that to his leg as well, then he won't be able to break out of any restraints," Al explained, deciding not to mention that Ed could perform normal alchemy.
"And if he does break out again, he'll be easier to apprehend," Falman added cheerfully, liking this half-formulated plan already.
"I can call Winry and ask her to do it," Al stated, growing more confident on Falman's eagerness.
Mustang didn't return a comment. He frowned thoughtfully and walked a few paces away from the conversation. The last thing he wanted was to involve someone else, a civilian, in this mess. But, he had to admit that Ed's mechanic would know how best to disable the automail without breaking it.
"Just ask her to come over, Alphonse," Mustang ordered as he turned back to face them. "Don't tell her of anything that's happened; we can explain the situation to her once she gets here, and any information will simply upset her."
"Yes sir!" Al agreed eagerly, nodding in appreciation.
"Isn't it a bit late to call her now?" Fuery asked quietly, not wanting to put a dampener on the uplifted mood.
"Y- Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll call her first thing in the morning," Al announced.
"First thing in the morning then," Mustang agreed, praying that waiting wasn't going to make the problem worse.