I am back! I stumbled across this story again and decided it needs to be finished. I am not promising when the updates will come but I do have a new motivation to finish this story and maybe write some more! Enjoy

"What do you mean brother has to go away?! And what do you mean I am in military custody?!" Alphonse fumed as Mustang stood patiently in front of him, an uncharacteristically nervous Maes Hughes only feet away trying to explain to his wife as to why he had to go away for a while.

Winry stood beside Alphonse with a neutral expression, trying to understand the little information that was being given. "Colonel Mustang, I understand that us being near Ed is for some reason a danger but please explain what is happening- its obvious someone is after him but why-"

"Mrs. Rockbell I cannot explain everything at this moment in time but I promise that both you and Alphonse will be protected and I will personally keep you updated on Fullmetals condition. He isn't in trouble with the military or anything, right now we just have to get him to a safe place for a while so we can figure things out. Someone is personally out to get him and they will likely target those around him that he has close relationships with, so for now please let me take care of this."

Winry looked down, her blonde bangs shadowing her blushed concerned face, "please take care of him…even in the few minutes that I was with him he seemed so lost…I don't know what happened or even what is happening now but please keep him safe."

Mustangs gaze softened, "I will, I promise."

While the sentiment seemed to be enough to ease Winrys mind it did not make Alphonse feel any better about the situation, "Colonel Mustang, you can't take brother away, he needs me to be there for him! We have never been apart- please, I can help and I promise I won't get in the way-"

"No Alphonse." Mustang closed his eyes and managed to keep his voice steady, he was starting to get inpatient. They were already supposed to leave hours ago and lingering in one spot was not going to help anything. "The person that is after your brother is going to do whatever it takes to get him, he already knows what you look like and he will use you to hurt Ed. I know you don't want that so I need you to stay here and help to protect both yourself and Winry…please Alphonse."

The suit of armor stood stiffly as the plea did not go unnoticed, Alphonse knew this had to be a big deal if such measures were being taken and now was not the time for petty childish emotions to get in the way of his own brothers well being. "Fine…but please let me know how he is as soon as you can."

Mustang nodded, "I will- and I promise to explain everything when I get the chance as well. I know it is not fair to the two of you to leave you in the dark."

The two nodded at that and took one final glance at the cleverly disguised ambulance that held Edward inside, with that they turned and headed back to Central headquarters where they would live until further notice.

Mustang sighed as he turned toward Mae's who had ended his conversation a long time ago, the two opened the doors of the ambulance and took a seat in the back on either side of a still unconscious Edward Elric. Major Armstrong soon entered the ambulance followed by the old doctor who took a seat in the passenger seat.

Armstrong looked perplexed, "Doctor Ty, are you sure you don't want to drive?"

The exhausted doctor looked over at the towering man, "I feel as if it would be better if I get some rest if that is alright with you Major Armstrong."

Armstrong smiled as he shut the driver's side door, "Nonsense! I was hoping you would let me drive, the estates have a bit of a rough route to them once you get closer!"

The conversation in the front seats soon continued on to small talk, Doctor Ty and Armstrong had gone way back as Armstrong had explained, the older man was almost like a grandfather to him as the doctor had been the Armstrong's private doctor for much of his childhood.

Mustang politely closed the divider between the front of the ambulance and the main section of the back, putting a hand on his face he let out a breath of air.

Hughes looked up from the disturbing image of an unconscious Edward to find an even more disturbing sight of his best friend. He tried his best not to notice as the colonels hands shook, "Roy, now would probably be a good time to rest you know, if Ed hasn't woke up in the past few hours he likely won't any time soon."

Mustang lowered his hand which revealed an expression he rarely showed, concern. "How did you get done talking to your wife so quickly? Wasn't she concerned?"

Rolling his eyes at the sudden change in conversation Hughes decided to play along, "she understood that it was important, besides, she is fond of the Elric brothers. What took so long with Al and Winry?"

"Tch, they just needed all the answers that I don't really have myself. Edward wouldn't even be unconscious right now if he hadn't…done that to himself."

"What do you mean?" Hughes held his breath as he waited for an answer. He didn't know what could have happened from the time he left to go get a nurse to returning to find the doctor already starting an I.V. but something somehow had.

"When you and the doctor were gone, I was told to hold the gauze to Edwards arm- in which I did. But as I leaned forward I felt something sharp- he had transmuted his arm into blade."

Hughes started slowly as he tried to process, "that was probably the only way he could protect himself…but there's more, right?"

Roy nodded, a painful expression played out as he spoke, "I got a closer look and saw that it had a lot of blood on it- and he transmuted two words: I'm sorry. He did it to himself Hughes…and I don't understand why. I've been trying to run through scenario's and of course Sin had something to do with it but in the end Fullmetal…Ed did this to himself."

"Which is why you got Winry to take his automail arm off…"

Sighing Mustang nodded, "I felt he would be safer that way- although I doubt he will care about the reasoning behind it once he wakes up and finds out that not only does he not have his arm but that it is six hundred miles away with the only mechanic that can put it on him."

"Sheesh…good luck with that one! Still…I don't blame you, I knew something wasn't right- you didn't tell Winry or Alphonse that, right?" Hughes tried to hide the fear in his tone, he was still taken aback that the strong willed and stubborn teen in front of him had tried to commit such an act that was so unlike him.

"Of course not. They would have been infuriated and above all else even more concerned then what they were- they would have never let us leave."

"Th-thanks…"

Mustang and Hughes both jumped bit as the teen in front of them spoke softly.

"Fullmetal! How do you feel? You shouldn't even be awake…how-"

Mustang was cut short as he noticed a single tear spill out of the glazed golden eyes that were staring ahead thoughtlessly, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…."

Maes shifted uncomfortably as he watched his friend struggle to respond to the broken boy in front of them, "Fullmet- Ed…don't you dare apologize. None of this is your fault…get some rest and promise me you will explain later."

Edward nodded softly as his eyes dulled once more and he fell back into a troubled sleep. "N-no…wait." Golden orbs made a reappearance as Ed struggled to sit up. Mustang gently held him down, "you are ok Ed, please get some rest."

"No…no you don't understand- tch! Damnit!"

Both Hughes and Mustang now held down the distressed teen as it seemed he was in pain, "Fullmetal what's wrong?!" Mustang called out, trying to tame the angry flame in Ed's eyes.

"Drugged me...he- that bastard- he drugged me…It hurts and I can't stop seeing it all!" Ed screamed.

Hughes cursed as he ripped the ambulance divider open, "Doctor! He says he has been drugged, he looks like he's in a lot of pain- we are trying our best to just keep him down but the stiches on his arm are bleeding!"

The doctor nodded as he skillfully reached into his doctor's coat pocket and pulled out a syringe, "make sure he doesn't move."

The two men did their best to keep the suddenly very strong Edward pinned down as the doctor injected the unknown liquid into his shoulder, the rest was instant as Ed soon fell back into a pained sleep.

Mustang wiped the sweat from his face as he took a breath, "what just happened?"

"I injected him with the only known sedative that doesn't interact with medications negatively, if he has been drugged we don't want to risk raising the toxicity any. I had a feeling that Sin had done something to the boy. Once we get to the estate I will have to run tests to figure out what chemicals he used but for now keep an eye on him." Taking one last look over of Ed's arm the doctor sighed, "thankfully we will just have to clean the stitch work up a bit but I think it will be ok."

As the doctor closed the divider once more Mustang punched the back doors of the ambulance in unfiltered rage, "that bastard, who the hell knows what we are dealing with."

Hughes eased towards his friend as he set a hand on Mustangs shoulder, "that might be our first clue as to why Ed did what he did though."

Roy let his shoulder drop, "maybe so…but still...what are these drugs going to do to him? Did you see his face?"

"Yea…it was obvious he was in pain…its strange that they have taken affect so late now. It has been what, five hours since Sin broke in? Ed hasn't moved a bit since he passed out."

"I'm not sure Hughes…what I do know is that we all need to be in peak condition before we get to the estate so we can help the best we can- I'm afraid that's all we can do for now."

"In that case…I'll take first watch, it is painful to see you struggle to stay awake."

Mustang was about to fire back when a yawn overcame his senses, "…Fine. Wake me up in an hour though- and if anything happens with Ed-"

"I got it Roy, get some sleep."

A grateful nod was granted as the colonel made himself as comfortable as he could in the crammed space and fell asleep quickly.

Mae's sighed taking in the scene of the two sleeping, concern flooding his senses as he thought back to only hours prior to this uneasy calmness.

Earlier...

"Nurse! Please get me the portable heart monitor, I also need another bag of O positive blood and a few syringes, please get a standard first aid kit together as well." Sticking the paling teen in front of him the doctor made quick work of attaching a red bag to the other end of the I.V. and began to carefully stich the now cleaned but still bleeding arm, he wiped away at the blood every so often as he skillfully stitched up the last of Ed's arm. "I think he is stable enough for transportation, Colonel Mustang-...Mustang?"

The man in question currently sat against a wall a few feet over, his eyes dull as he only stared ahead.

"Hughes, please keep your friend awake until I am able to look at his head, it seems he has some kind of concussion."

Hughes nodded as he crouched in front of his friend, "Roy, hey, did you hear? Ed is stable enough to leave now. We can get him somewhere safe and figure out how we can take this bastard down. Stay here and let me get a wheelchair-"

Dark eyes finally casted away from the wall and stared into the blazing emerald green ones directly in front of them, Hughes could tell that the man was trying his damndest to gather his senses. Mustang looked like hell, he felt about ten times worse than that but as he listened to his friends voice he fought through the fog as he made a move to sit up more. "No, I am alright, just shocked from everything…has Armstrong returned?" Flinching as he stood Mustang showed no more signs of struggle as his eyes regained their focus.

As if on cue Armstrongs voice was heard as he entered into the hallway, "I have retrieved the appropriate transportation and disguised it accordingly, we are prepared once everyone is ready to take their leave."

Mustang nodded his thanks as he directed his full attention to the Doctor and his still unconscious subordinate. "Nurse, please get us a stretcher."

The petite lady nodded as she ran to the nearest lobby and retrieved a stretcher, it only took both her and the doctor to lift Ed onto the stretcher and as soon as the action was done the group rushed to the disguised ambulance that was parked in hiding.

As the nurse and doctor situated Ed's I.V.s and started yet another blood transfusion Hughes glanced over to Mustang, he was just in time to catch the man as he fell forward. "Roy! Hey!"

Having heard the commotion Armstrong rushed over to aid Hughes in setting the nearly unconscious man against a nearby wall. The doctor was soon hovering over the man as well, as he shined a flash light back and forth in front of Roy and checked his head a bit he finally sighed. "Just what I thought, he does have a pretty severe concussion, I am surprised he could even walk."

Hughes pushed his sickening panic down as his expression remained indifferent, "what can we do?"

Doctor Ty sighed, "just monitor him closely and keep him awake until the concussive symptoms subside, considering it has been an hour since the attack and he is still awake is a good sign. He needs to stay conscious for another two hours just to be sure. I need go gather some medical equipment anyways so we can take this opportunity to get packed."

The few hours the group took to prepare for the trip consisted of the poor random nurse and doctor Ty running around as they tried to retrieve all the needed medical equipment for Ed and possible emergency, Armstrong was assigned to go find Alphonse and the others at the parade, and Hughes found himself worrying over a mumbling and cranky colonel Mustang and still unconscious Ed.

"This is insane." Hughes grumbled as he rested his head in his hands, his worried gaze casted on his delirious friend, Ed's heart monitor setting a comforting yet annoying beat to the stale air.

Mustang sighed, "Sin of all people…I thought he was dead, just goes to show that this military is more corrupt then we thought. Did you get any more information from Ed on any of this?"

Hughes nodded, "a lot actually, it's a mess Roy, I'm glad we are getting away. I know this is just dragging this fight else-where but at this point I think its better that way…this man is evil- very evil. I'll have to give you the details later though, I don't trust this atmosphere."

The two men sat quietly as they looked over to Ed, Mustangs eyes softened as his gaze rested on the stiches in the teens arm. Mae's had a feeling from just looking at his friends reaction to the stiches that there was more to this injury but was hesitant to ask right at the moment, he trusted he would be filled in later.

"What are we supposed to do Hughes?"

Emrald eyes widened as the tense voice broke through Hughes's stupor, "what do you mean?"

"He has been raped…just a week or so ago he was raped. We aren't doctors, we aren't his parents or any of that. We have nothing to go off of, he still has to find the stone and now- now he might not be ok. He has tried so hard to just get to this point, his life has been absolute hell and now he's been…he's been r-"

"Roy. We might not be his parents or experts or anything like that…but we are his friends believe it or not. He looks up to you and I and now it's our duty to make sure he sees the end of this. It's also our duty to stay calm and take care of ourselves so we can take care of him…so I have to ask…were you planning to just go on with a concussion like that?"

Mustang rolled his eyes, "come on…I was a little stressed Hughes, and I-"

"You know I do not buy that for a second, I saw how you struggled to brush it off. You have had plenty of head injuries to know that it wasn't just a common stress headache. Before we head out I need you to really think about and promise that you will take care of yourself in all this. I know you want to punish yourself Roy…none of this is your fault though. Ed won't get better if you die in the process."

Mae's narrowed his eyes as Mustang looked over at him for a split second before looking away in shame. Hughes knew the look in those dulled eyes, he had seen his friend in a suicidal state before, he was not going to risk losing him now.

Present time….

"Hughes?"

Looking up from his trance Mae's managed to see Mustangs face in the dimming light around them. "Hm?"

"I promise."

Mae's smiled, "good."

Hours passed as Hughes skillfully stayed up and watched over the two in front of him, every so often he would check their pulses for good measure. He assumed they were pretty far gone until the whole ambulance jolted upright. Both Ed and Mustang sat up and cringed almost at the same time.

"Armstrong?" Mustang called out.

"Apologies! We are reaching the more rough part of the route now, there are underground tunnels that we have running 5 miles to the estates. They are a bit bumpy given their lack of use, I will try to drive as carefully as possible.

Golden eyes blinked in confusion as Ed attempted to sit up, Hughes grabbed a couple of pillows and made it so the teen didn't have to exert himself. "Thanks…where exactly are we?"

"We are on our way to one of the Armstrong estates, I have talked with Winry and Alphonse as well, they are currently at headquarters being protected as high priority."

Mustang let out an anxious breath as he saw the teen untense a bit, "How are you feeling?" A stupid question he knew but anything to get minimum information out of the kid. Hughes had filled him in on all of the horrors that Sin was responsible for outside of the country, but they had yet to get all the details on why Ed had been attacked. He knew that Ed might have been targeted just for the kid causing him such success but somehow he knew there was much more to it than that.

"My head is foggy…I don't really know how to explain it, there are pieces of memories coming back but they are not coming in the right order. It's like I have to sort them all out…somehow I know it has not gotten to the bad part yet though. I don't…I don't want to remember everything." Ed's eyes watered as he looked forward, "I already feel everything that happened so why…why do I have to remember it too?"

Hughes couldn't help himself, every fatherly instinct he possessed kicked in and before he knew it he was hugging Ed in what he meant to be a firm and encouraging embrace. Unfortunately the opposite reaction occurred as a scream erupted throughout the vehicle. "Armstrong step on it! We need to get him stable!" Upon the command the vehicle lurched onward at a dizzying speed as Mustang and Hughes found themselves holding Ed down.

"Ed! Ed you are safe!" Mustang turned the light above them on but held back a gasp as he saw the boys eyes were distant and fearful. Hughes felt awful as Ed cried out and tried to pull at his I.V.s, doctor Tys voice soon gave them direction.

"You will have to hold him down for now, I would sedate him again but at this rate it would not be safe to do so with such a short span of time separating the doses."

The two men nodded, grim expressions remained as they heard Ed's deafening cries.

"Please stop! Stop! You can't do this- this..this isn't right! Someone help! Please help me! God, stop! Stop fucking touching me you bastard!"

Fifteen minutes painfully passed as the cries never ceased, Ed was a sweating emotional mess. His cries and pleas gave a painfully clear image of what exactly happened that fateful night. He begged for help, begged for Sin to let him go, to stop touching him, to stop ripping his clothes off. He cried and grit his teeth as Mustang and Hughes watched him cringe in pain as the worst of the memory came to light.

Finally arriving to the estate, the doctor opened the back of the ambulance and everyone carefully sat the stretcher down as Ed was held down even more while the doctor administered another sedative, for only having one arm the kid was putting up one hell of a fight.

"He will have to be on twenty-four-hour vitals watch now, I couldn't bear to watch it anymore though. I have taken a sample of his blood and will work to find an antidote before he has to wake up and endure anymore."

The two men watched as Armstrong and Doctor Ty unloaded all the medical equipment and moved them inside, it took a while for them to understand where they were until they looked up to see that the whole estate entrance was underground, the rest of the mansion was built in to the side of the near by mountain and was perfectly camouflaged with trees and even a massive waterfall.

Mustang looked over in concern, "Hughes, it wasn't your fa-"

"I know…I know. I should have known better then to hug him though…especially after seeing what triggered the drugs effects. I caused that flashback…"

"He needed to go through that."

Mae's looked over in shock, "needed to?"

"Not that severely of course…never that severely but now we all know what we are dealing with. It's important that we remind him that its ok to talk about it and we would never judge him. This is exactly like my PTSD therapy Hughes…I can help in some ways."

Hughes smiled at his friend, glad to see a small smile on his face. "You are right, it will be pretty hard to find us up here too! You sure Sin could even find us?"

"No doubt he will…remember that he is also an ex-state alchemist. He is no stranger to combat or tracking and he will find us soon. For now, we do what we can as quickly as possible, I give it three days' time before we are found. We need every clue we can to figure out why else he is targeting Fullmetal, if we can figure out Sin's plans then maybe we can predict his next move."

Hughes nodded, "you're right, in the meantime let's get Ed a nice place set up so he can relax when he wakes up."

Mustang smiled, "right, once we get the antidote I will feel better as well, Fullmetal has had enough. Hopefully now he can get some real rest and start recovering."

It was in that exact moment, that split second, that everything went black in Roy Mustangs eyes, the flame alchemist was barley caught by a hysterical Armstrong as explosions and shouts could be heard from every angle.

"Get him in the ambulance now! Drive damnit! I'll hold him off, just go!"

Darkness soon enveloped anything left to hear or see, an abyss of any moment from then on as chaos ensued.

I am really sorry for taking this long to update, I know how frustrating it is to read this far into a story without knowing the ending. I have severe depression and with every episode its like the act of God to get back into my interests. Thank you for sticking with me though, to be continued!