Apologies for the late update here but nonetheless, I hope you enjoy! :3

To say Al was worried sick would be such an understatement- in fact it would be insulting. Why he let his less than responsible brother go out in the night alone to do even a simple job was a mystery to him. He always had full faith that his brother could defend himself in any situation and he didn't doubt his skills in the slightest. Al understood that Ed had common sense and at least a little fear in him to know when he could or couldn't handle a situation.

All of that aside though, the two were in central, a place where the homunculi had been sneaking around and causing chaos. It wasn't a good idea for anyone to be walking the street of Central alone anymore, especially state alchemist.

"Brother…where are you?"

With about three hours of trudging around the city later Al was fed up, he had to find his brother. It was 1AM at this point and he severely hoped that Ed had good explanation for staying out and scaring him like this.

Releasing what sounded like an exasperated sigh Alphonse calmed his thoughts before they lead to any more anger, whatever Ed had gotten into was probably nothing he couldn't handle. All Al had to do was find him and give him the usual brotherly lecture that seemed to be given every day and the two would be on their way to the next major event.

Two more hours into the search though Al began to think that this wasn't just a simple search and lecture mission anymore. He had nearly searched the entire city in which he knew of, he had stopped in the Inns lobby on the way down and made sure that his brother hadn't been seen since he left. He had looked in every alley way and street corner he could think of, he had even looked in all of centrals libraries but to no avail. As Al weighed his options he hit himself in the head, he hadn't looked in the very place his brother had gone! Colonel Roy Mustangs headquarters, "Brother when I find you…" Al grumbled.

As he made his way into headquarters he sighed, of course no one was going to be there at what was now nearing 4AM. As Al turned to walk out in defeat a familiar voice meet his senses. "Al…what are you doing here?"

"Fuery! What are you doing here?"

With a nervous smile Fuery sheepishly replied, "Ah, well I had to catch up on a lot of paper work, the Colonel will kill me if I don't have this on his desk by the time he gets here! But uh…what brings you here though? And…where is your brother?"

"Well that's kind of what I was going to ask you…my brother came here to drop some paper work off."

"Yea! He was here, but that was hours ago. You mean you haven't seen him at all since then?" Al shook more as Fuery's voice grew concerned.

"I shouldn't have let him come here alone…it was only a few blocks but I didn't think of the danger and-"

Fuery put a hand on Al's cold metal arm, his reassuring smile bringing Al to his senses. "Hey! Its ok, lieutenant Hawkeye is going to be here any minute, she can help us sort this out."

"Sort what out?" A stern feminine voice demanded.

"Second lieutenant Hawkeye!" Fuery called out with a brief salute, "Ed is missing."

Hawkeye raised her eyebrow, "Alphonse?"

"y-yes ma'am, I thought he had just wondered off to study for a while at first but that's been hours ago. I really do think that my brother is in trouble."

The blonde headed woman nodded in understanding, "Right, then we need to assemble a small search party and find him." As Hawkeye made her way to the phone and began to call Breda, Falman and Havoc in haste, Fuery spoke up in concern. "Ma'am…what about the Colonel?"

She sighed, "for now let's let him rest, he was here late last night. If anything happens that is too severe for our search party to handle or that needs to be reported, we will call him."

Fuery nodded in full approval, slight bags under his eyes as he felt sleep calling for him. Had he known that an early morning rescue mission were to take place he would have forfeited the paperwork idea long ago.

Amidst his sleep deprived thinking Hawkeyes voice finally broke through, "understood Fuery?"

"Huh? Oh! Yes ma'am!"

The blonde-haired woman narrowed her eyes in slight disbelief, "are sure you understand the plan?"

Fuery slumped his shoulders as he solemnly shook his head in misguided embarrassment, "sorry lieutenant."

Keeping a well-placed sigh in replacement of the small smirk she gained from Fuerys over dramatic show, "you are to stay here as a report beacon and in any case of emergency you will be the one who seeks out further troops or care, understood?"

Fuery saluted happily as he realized that the blonde-haired woman was granting a pity job on him in his less than able state at the moment. "yes ma'am!"

It didn't take long for the rest of the team to show up as the office double doors opened.

Havoc stretched his arms and let out a rather loud yawn in response to opening the doors, as he slowly took out a cigarette and tucked the unlit paper strip of tobacco between his lips he sighed, "so what's this all about? It's hours before we are supposed to come in." As a stale silence hit the air in response Havoc stopped mid-stretch and narrowed his eyes at Hawkeye herself, "did something happen to the Colonel?"

Letting out a sigh a nearby Breda took a seat in his designated office chair, "you know that wouldn't surprise me, ever since our transfer here he has somehow been centered in all this chaos." Frowning a bit Breda took a good look at the crowd around him in that moment. "But that's not who is in trouble… where's Ed?"

A small, pained sound came from the hallowed suit of armor as Alphonse stood already in a burdening guilt, "I agreed to let brother walk here last night around ten o' clock or so…I have not seen him since."

Falman took that opportunity to speak up, "so you're thinking he was kidnapped?"

Alphonse nodded, "something like that at least, I know brother can hold his own and I know he gets side tracked but he has never been away from me for this long. I know something is wrong."

"Which is why I asked you all here." Riza concluded, "I have not informed Colonel Mustang due to his persistent need to stay up late, if any of you deem it necessary to call him or any help at any time we will inform Fuery and he will make the calls, understood?"

Everyone nodded in response, a grim look now evident on everyone's features.

A small scuff of a chair in the background caused the whole group to quickly snap their attention to the other side of the office as Hughes walked towards them, a small smile masking the overall uneasiness he felt over the whole situation. "Roy is not going to be happy about that call- which is why I am tagging along!"

Much to his dismay the whole group of people in the room, except Alphonse, stood straight with a salute at his presence.

Hughes held his hands up, "no need for all of that! As far as I am concerned we are off duty so our ranks don't matter." With a small meaningful stare in Al's direction he sighed, "I am more concerned about Fullmetal right now. You say he left hours ago- and that he wouldn't have just gone off somewhere to study or anything, right?"

Alphonse nodded, "he would have told me if he was going to do that, brother knows better than to disappear on purpose and not report back."

Maes nodded, a thought provoking look strewn on his face.

Hawkeye took that notion to take a bit of charge, "If we split up we can take three parts of the city that are closest in radius to HQ. If Edward were to be kidnapped or even accidentally get caught up in something it would have to be closer to his original designated location. Which reminds me…were the two of you staying in the military living spaces?"

Alphonse shook his head, "brother wanted to stay at the local inn instead."

Falman rubbed the back of his head in confusion, "jeez, that place is pretty pricey, the military rooms here are completely free."

Havoc laughed in response, "if it has anything to do with being closer to HQ then I doubt Ed would want to get anywhere close- even if it is a lot more expensive to be further away."

With a small chuckle Hughes proceeded to walk out of the office as the rest of the group followed suite, the clanking of Al's metal set the beat of everyone's footsteps as they made their way down the hall and out into the brisk air of fall.

As the group started to fan out into smaller units the metallic footsteps stopped in sudden shock, "wait! Did you hear that?"

The whole group stopped everything and listened, silence met their ears but soon another sense granted them explanation as a large pillar appeared.

"That's brother!" Without any further communication, Alphonse ran as fast as he could towards the nearby sight of the pillar. Using his convenient ability to not feel physical exertion he ran as fast as the hollowed-out metal would allow leaving the rest of the newly formed search party behind.

Hughes jumped in his issued military car, "let's go." The small car was soon piled into as everyone struggled to close the doors beside them. Havoc sighed as Breda all but sat on him, "good thing I'm not claustrophobic!" The still unlit cigarette in his mouth barely intact.

Hughes stomped on the gas pedal of the car, willing it to go faster than he had ever driven it, he knew something was wrong. For Edward Elric to send out a cry for help with a desperate use of alchemy- it wasn't right nor was it even close to normal. He knew he needed to get there either before Al or right when Al arrived.

It didn't take long for the car to come to a complete halt as the pillar came into view not wanting to draw too much attention, Hughes parked the car a few feet away from the blind corner of the street.

All five of the military officers slowly emerged from the car and made their way to the corner of the street, Hawkeye peered around the corner holding her hand up to give proper signal to the other officers beside her. Their act of silence seemed wasted as the piercing sound of Alphonse's armor seemed to reach through the dark cold air and slap the shock off each of their faces.

Forgetting the hand signals Hawkeye jumped from the shadows of the corner and held her hand gun steadily towards the gruff man that was by now holding an unconscious and injured Edward Elric, Hughes stopped the other officers from doing the same as he sensed a strange change in the air. "Just stay here until she shoots, something is wrong with this guy." A nod from the other officers supplied Hughes the courage to jump from behind the protected corner as well.

As soon as Hughes caught sight of the man in front of them his blood ran cold, this was no ordinary person. "It's Sin…"

Hawkeye's eyes grew wide and cautious as her vision focused more on the mans' facial features. "Alphonse! Stay back, this man is dangerous." Her unnaturally shaken voice betraying her as she called out in a pathetic attempt to keep the emotionally distraught Alphonse to stay put.

The warning fell upon the armor but made no impact as the soul within the hollowed shell boiled, "my brother…you hurt him and he's not even conscious! You have truly messed with the wrong people, you will pay!"

So nothing too major in this chapter- although I do promise a lot more for the next as the disturbing character of Sin unfolds!