Ehehe, sorry for the wait. I thought I didn't have enough for another chapter, but hey look!!

On another note, I have just reposted chapters 2 and 9, so this story SHOULD now be completely Parental!RoyEd. I think I've gotten out all the flirtatious bits in the beginning, so hopefully that will clear up some confusion... for future readers anyway.

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Ed dropped his red coat on the ground without even looking at it. Even that was too heavy a burden for him to carry now.

He'd been in the desert for four days now and finished all the water he'd brought yesterday. He'd dropped his suitcase and black jacket already.

He forced his legs to move because he could see the Cselkcess ruins ahead. That must be where Al had gone. He didn't know how far away it was because there was nothing else out here to measure its size against. Just sand, broiling hot sand and more sand.

But what did it matter? Al was ahead.

He tripped and stumbled over the unruly terrain, the only thought in his mind being that Al was ahead and he had to get there. He slipped again and went down on his knees where he rested for a minute before weakly pushing himself upright.

And then something happened. Something so big and weird that at first Ed simply couldn't understand, comprehend or recognize it.

And then his brain slowly began processing what he was seeing. Red light flooding the ruins in front of him, snapping up into the sky. It began devouring the buildings, shrinking them down toward the earth.

'Oh yeah. Al's there...' Ed thought.

"Oh crap, AL'S THERE!" Ed tried to run but his legs felt like spaghetti and it was more of an abnormal amble that carried him closer and closer to the brobdingnagian transmutation.

The red light died long before he got to the city of wreckage. Rubble and bricks and rocks were covering the ground in between towering walls, making running absolutely impossible under the best of circumstances. As things were now, the transmutation had shaken all the structures still standing and as Ed moved slowly through the city he could see the clouds of dust left by rocks and bricks falling and structures collapsing, not to mention hear their thundering crashes as they did so.

On some level, he did know that he could be killed, but his brother's safety was now foremost in his mind and he slogged on through the rubble and the enormous clouds of dust and unbreathable particles to the thunder of destruction until he came to a three-street intersection with a staircase leading up a fourth direction. The streets were all blocked with fresh devastation except the one Ed had just come from, so he dragged himself up the stairs. He turned the corner onto the roof of a small building and saw Lust speaking hurriedly to Envy.

Ed's mouth and throat were too coated with dust to speak so he snuck up on them even without meaning to.

"... can't let him die!" Lust seemed to think that what she was saying was very obvious.

"He won't. Father will be here soon, he'll find him."

"Why shouldn't we look for him?" Lust hissed.

"There might still be witnesses. We need to kill them all before they have time to hide." Envy's voice was gravelly and cruel.

Ed clapped his hands loudly to get their attention and also so he could transmute bindings for the homonculi.

"No! Don't transmute the roof, it'll collapse!" Envy yelled. Ed stopped. They didn't know where his brother was, right? So he could be underneath this roof... and from what he could feel as he dragged himself pathetically toward the clean, healthy creatures, Envy was telling the truth.

He stopped ten feet from them, scared to push his luck by going any further out.

He tried to ask them if they knew where his brother was, just in case they were talking about someone else they couldn't find, Gluttony perhaps, but all he could do was choke dryly on the dust.

"Kid. Hey, here!" Envy tossed Ed a canteen he'd had on his hip and Ed caught it with much confusion.

"C'mon, drink it. I know you need it." There was definitely some unspoken thought of human weakness in the words but Ed chose to ignore it and focus on transmuting water out of the water in the canteen, thus expelling any poisons or extraneous particles. He gulped some water down and gagged on the thin mud in created going down. He coughed his throat clear before gulping some more. Then he glared at Envy.

"Why are you helping me? Where's my brother? Is he OK? What was that transmutation for?"

"You're so childish, FullMetal Runt. What makes you think I'll answer?"

"If you don't, I'll hurt you."

"Hurt me?" Envy's eyes glinted in the sun. "I guess you've realized you can't kill me then."

"Wanna find out?"

"Listen, Kid. You have to come with us so we can figure out what Father wants us to do with you. You're a witness, so you really should be killed but Father probably wants you alive." He looked disappointed, "Come with us and you'll get answers."

"Is my brother here?"

"Yes." Envy was clearly annoyed. "Now come."

Ed started inching toward the homonculi warily. When he'd halved the distance between them, Envy suddenly stepped forward and quick as lightning Ed's automail blade was at his throat.

"Don't try anything funny, Runt," Envy sneered.

"You go, I'll follow."

"That's now how it works." Lust was suddenly behind him, two deadly sharp spears on either side of his body. Envy backed away while Ed couldn't move, then pulled a coil of rope from his hip and went around next to Lust. He tied Ed's hands together with his wrists back to back so he couldn't do alchemy and then walked around in front of Ed again. Grinning nastily, he made a loop in the rope and tossed it over Ed's head, pulling it tight around his neck.

"You can let go now," Envy sang to Lust as Ed's eyes widened in indignation.

"Well you always said you'd do anything for that little brother of yours, didn't you?" Lust asked as she walked past Ed. Envy snickered and tugged on Ed's rope.

The journey to their destination was better than Ed's last because he'd had water, but worse because Envy's tugs on the rope around his neck consistently felled him and then Envy would continue to jerk and pull while Ed tried to right himself in the loose rubble and dust.

"Hurry up, Kiddie."

"Stop yanking my rope!"

Envy glared at him and started walking back toward him. Ed backed away slowly and Envy lunged, grabbed Ed and slung him over his shoulder.

"HEY! Put me-"

Envy clapped a hand over his mouth. "Don't yell. You'll cause another collapse."

"Mm-mmm!!" Ed wriggled and tried to bite Envy, who bounced his shoulder up into Ed's stomach.

"Urgh," Ed complained angrily.

"Hush up, this is kinder and you know it," Envy told him distractedly. Ed flushed hot red.Kinder? Kinder? He didn't care about kindness! This was embarrassing and left him vulnerable! On the shoulder of someone who had made numerous past attempts on his life.

He kicked Envy in the small of his back and Envy hissed. Lust turned and narrowed her eyes at them before warning Ed, "Stay still. We're not allowed to hurt you."

Ed shook Envy's hand off his mouth and growled, "Whose orders?" while Envy dropped his hand back to his side, unconcerned. He and Lust glanced at eachother, communicating silently for a moment.

"You'll find out very soon, now," Lust said softly. "The more cooperative you are, the sooner we get there."

Ed couldn't decide whether to cooperate or try to kill the homonculi. He thought about it for long enough that the decision was taken out of his hands.

Envy sat him down in a clearing free of rubble with a transmutation circle in the middle and... Ed's stomach lurched when he realized there were little fragments of metal around the circle.

"WHERE'S MY BROTHER?" he roared, turning on Envy while trying to loosen the bind on his hands.

"Shut up! You'll cause another collapse!" Envy snapped, taken by surprise. Lust grabbed the back of Ed's shirt and shoved him into a small building that had obviously been alchemically raised. It didn't look like any of the other structures, although its basic shape was the same.

Ed went down on his knees but...it didn't even register with Ed. He was staring straight at a very tall blond man, his hair back in a ponytail and his beard extending all the way along his jaw. He wore glasses. Familiar glasses Ed recognized because once when he'd been fairly small he'd stolen them to get his father to play with him.

"I was wondering where you were," Hohenheim Elric said to his teenager.

"Wh-what have you done with Alphonse?" Ed's voice was shaky, partly with rage and over-protectiveness for his brother and partly with some vaguely outlined...fear. His father... He realized he was afraid that meeting his father would mean- mean that he would have to have something to do with the man.

"He's right here, but please be quiet for your brother's sake, Edward."

Ed surged forward and stomped into the curtained room Hohenheim had gestured to, stopping dead when all he saw was a cot covered in white blankets.

"A- Al?" Ed's voice rose anxiously.

"He's right there," Hohenheim said behind him.

"Where?" Ed snapped childishly. There was no suit of armor in this room. What did his damned father think he was trying to pull?

"In the bed, shh."

Ed swallowed. Then he shook his head. "It's too small. Al wouldn't fit on it."

"Edward," Hohenheim said firmly, "Come here." He reached for Ed but the little alchemist jumped away, glaring. He wasn't going to let Hohenheim touch him.

Hohenheim sighed and went to the bed. From behind, it looked as though he was folding the bed covers, but then he turned around holding a well-wrapped blond child in his arms.

Ed whimpered unconsciously. Hohenheim carried the boy toward him and Ed yelled, "What did you do to him?"

"You know exactly what I did to him," Hohenheim replied reproachfully. "Aren't you a State Alchemist? Use your head."

"Do- you have- a- Philosopher's Stone?"

"Yes, Edward, I do. Alphonse will be fine in a day or two. He had a rough ride coming back through the Gate."

Ed forgot his anger at Hohenheim for a moment and tiptoed forward in much the same manner as he had the first time he'd been allowed to see Al after he was born. He got up the very tips of his toes and looked carefully and curiously at his baby brother's sleeping face.

Then he remembered himself and glared up at Hohenheim. "Put him down," Ed ordered.

Hohenheim frowned.

"I'm his father. And yours."

Ed swallowed. Oh this was gonna suck...

Hohenheim rocked Al gently and to Ed's mixed horror, fascination and pride, Al reached up and got a hold of Hohenheim's shirt between his fingers. Ed found it strange that he should understand the action so well- then realized, in a sense, what it meant. Al had found a parent. But a different one then he himself. He was dismayed. he didn't want anything to do with Hohenheim. It was long since past when Ed had needed his help protection and as far as comfort, well, er, ...Roy? All of a sudden Ed wasn't completely sure he did have Roy. And what would Roy say when he heard Ed's father had turned up? That Ed should be with him?

"You're not denying it. That's good, better than I hoped for, really," Hohenheim smiled.

"Yeah, well. It's about the only thing I know about you. I wouldn't have any idea about, say, who you've been sleeping around with for the last ten years." Ed fought the blush heating his face as he said the words, not wanting the snap of them to be lessened by making it so obvious that he was embarrassed to say them. Hohenheim put Al back to bed, then turned to face Edward again.

"Funny. I'd heard in Central you had a temper but I didn't know you were going to take to low blows, Edward. I'm surprised your mother ever tolerated that sort of thing."

Ed snarled like a dog and Hohenheim jumped a little. "My mother died seven years ago, Hohenheim. But I guess you really don't care, do you?" Ed shouted the last few words and had the satisfaction of seeing the tall man flinch again.

"Edward, I'm your father and if you don't keep your voice down and talk about this rationally, I will punish you." His eyes narrowed, trapping his spitfire offspring, then added, "Who did raise you?" as an after thought.

"Pinako took care of us until I joined the military. We've been on our own ever since," Ed fudged a bit, leaving out Roy's recent "adoption."

"That explains a lot." Hohenheim's voice had softened. "I never imagined your mother would have let you join the military."

"Got that right, you shithead," Ed snapped. Hohenheim reached for him, clearly intent on discipline. Ed jumped back and he said, "Now, Edward, didn't I warn you?"

Ed panicked and clapped his hands, sending up a sturdy wall between him and his blood father. But as soon as it was up, it shrank back down so Ed could see Hohenheim kneeling on the ground touching it with his hand. Alchemy.

Hohenheim glared at Ed as if to tell him there was no escape but Ed transmuted a bridge that went from where he was standing, over Hohenheim's head and touched down near Al's bed. He knew he couldn't escape without his brother. By the time he got halfway over though, Hohenheim had transmuted a break in the bridge which Ed fell through, right into Hohenheim's arms.

Ed's whole body went rigid, almost corpse-like at the torrent of adrenaline and panic that hit him like a brick wall.

Hohenheim grabbed his wrists and set him down and Ed found his legs could barely support him. he was vaguely aware that Hohenheim was trying to position him, get him to stand a different way. Then Conscious Thought mashed its way back to the forefront of Ed's brain and he screamed, "No! You can't do this to me!"

Hohenheim read the hidden meaning in Ed's inflection though, and held him fast.

"Who can? You told me you've been on your own."

Ed swore when he realized Hohenheim had understood.

"He's back in Central," he mumbled and Hohenheim let go of him. "He?"

"What are you, deaf?"

"I'M your father."

"I hate you. Neither Al or I need you so why don't you just leave us alone?"

"I just brought his body back from the Gate where you got it stuck!" Hohenheim's face contorted with rage, his fists clenching suddenly. Ed matched him, taking a defiant stance but shouting instead of growling.

"He wouldn't have been stuck there if you hadn't run off!"

"If you had stayed out of my study like I told-"

"You never-"

"Yes I di-"

"I was FIVE!"

Hohenheim struggled with himself. Even he wasn't dumb enough to tell Ed that he should have been a more obedient five-year-old. Besideswhich, Ed had been five when Hohenheim left, not when he'd been told.

"So you knew right off we'd lost our bodies to alchemy."

"That blood seal of your brother's was pure alchemy. Nothing else could have done that, but-" he halted for a moment, as if afraid to ask, "Who did the transmutation?"

"I did!" Ed didn't see who else the man thought could've done it.

Hohenheim stared at Ed and went a shade paler in the face. "You didn't-. Try to transmute your mother?"

"Yeah," Ed said quietly. "When I was eleven and Al was ten, we tried to bring Mom back. Because she was all we had," Ed explained with a glance at Hohenheim.

"You- you bound your brother's..." Hohenheim went even paler.

"That's right. I gave up my right arm for his soul."

Hohenheim snatched up Ed's wrist in his hand, quick as lightning and held it up, both showing Ed his own arm and more importantly, asking for confirmation.

"That's why I'm the FullMetal Alchemist." Ed frowned. "If you heard in Central that I had a temper then-"

"Everyone said it was in the Eastern war. I thought you must've gotten caught up in the military's operations. And then they recruited you to keep your mouth shut or something of the sort."

"Well it's against military law to attempt human transmutation, so that's my cover story."

"Oh, God." Hohenheim sat down on the floor and covered half his face with one hand.

"What? You didn't think I was smart enough?"

"Edward, you're fifteen."

"So?"

Hohenheim just shook his head.

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R&R please!

Domo arigatou