Ed attempted to cross his arms in defiance, but upon realizing he couldn't just settled for scowling. "Why should I say what I do for money? You know already, don't you?"

Hughes's eyes seemed to get narrower. "You're right, we do, but I'm going to give you a chance and keep the possibility open that you might not be who we're looking for. Now please answer the question."

Ed glanced at the door out of the corner of his eye. "I'm a thief. I steal things and sell them on the black market. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Hughes nodded. Sheska's pen scribbled.

"And you are Fullmetal?"

Edward considered this for a moment. "Maybe. Maybe not."

The Lieutenant Colonel sighed and closed his eyes. "Look, I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible. I don't like interrogating a kid, especially one who's disabled."

Ed narrowed his eyes. "Disabled?" He sent another glance at the door, trying to figure out if it was locked. Hughes didn't notice, only just reopening his eyes.

"Yes, in case you didn't notice, you only have one arm as well as an automail leg—"

To Hughes's misfortune, before he managed to say anything else Ed jumped across the table and socked him in the face. The man gasped as his chair fell on its back, with him still in it, and Ed took the opportunity to dive for the door. Sheska dropped out of a shocked stupor with a small intake of breath and tried to reach the door before he did, but Ed was faster.

He grabbed the doorknob, desperately trying to turn it—

Locked.

Hughes was recovering, he didn't have time to stand around. Without any more hesitation, he lifted his automail leg and slammed it against the doorknob. The door flew open, the edge splintered and broken. Ed almost fell over, but managed to regain his balance and bolt out of the room.

The office they had passed through on the way in wasn't as chaotic as before at first, but no soldier in their right mind would sit there watching a prisoner escape without doing anything about it. Ed had to throw several more punches and the occasional kick, but in the end he managed to make it to the door. By this time someone mustered up the sense to pull out a gun.

"Stay where you are!"

Ed stood there for a moment, gritting his teeth. Hughes was stepping over the downed officers, getting closer—he'd have to be quick if he wanted to get away.

Paying no heed to the armed officer, he pulled the door open—and there stood Major Armstrong.

Edward cursed his stupidity for overlooking this particular person—how could not notice that three of his escorts were missing from the room?—then a hand closed on his arm and spun him around to face Hughes. The Lieutenant Colonel looked up at Armstrong and nodded. This seemed to mean something, because the Major crouched and began to lean over.

"Please hold still for a moment, Edward Elric."

Ed raised his eyebrows in confusion. "What—GAH!" He cut himself off with a startled yelp as the support that his automail leg offered disappeared from beneath him. He refused to admit it to himself later, but he had to cling to Hughes in order to keep from falling to the ground.

"Sorry, kid," Hughes muttered, "but we can't have you escaping."

"Yeah, well," Ed snarled, "maybe you should have removed my leg sooner." Edward didn't think of himself as a person who liked having people help him stand up, both in the figurative and literal sense, unless it was Winry, because she was a close . . . friend. . . . So he let go of Hughes on impulse. What he had unfortunately forgotten, just for a moment, was that he couldn't stand on his one leg without properly balancing himself first, and even then he wouldn't be able to walk. His body was too off-balance for hopping, and that would look ridiculous anyway. So, upon releasing his grip on Hughes's shoulder, he promptly collapsed.

Ed decided it would be best to declare this the worst day of his life and be done with it.

He closed his eyes, and only felt when someone who he assumed was Armstrong picked him up off the ground. Ed heard a sigh behind him, and Hughes's voice said, "Poor kid."

He didn't need their pity.

"Well, Elric, it's back to the cell with you. We'll pick this up again tomorrow."

Ed didn't pay much attention to his surrounding on the way back to his holding cell. He was too angry at himself for being stupid enough to try and escape while unable to use alchemy and for not thinking about the consequences of his actions. He should have remembered Armstrong.

The Major plopped him down on his cell bed without a word. Ed looked from his port to Armstrong's exiting back. "Hey, aren't you even going to give my leg back?"

"Apologies, Edward Elric, but we cannot take any risks."

"Hey, cut me some slack!" he called, but the officer was already walking away. He leaned against the wall behind his cot with a frustrated growl. There was no way he'd ever be able to escape now, and he doubted any of his fellow criminals would want to help a cripple.

He scowled at the opposite wall of his cell. As much as he hated to admit, it seemed the military had won. He couldn't see any ways he was getting out of this.

He was just about to retreat into the darkest parts of his mind and stew in his despair when there came a call from across the hallway.

"Hey! Thief kid!" The 'I' was drawn out.

Ed looked across the hall and glared at the squinty-eyed Xingese teen from yesterday, who was now waving at him, seeming to have taken the chance to talk while there was no guard around. "What?"

The teen grinned. "You're Fullmetal, right?"

He nodded grudgingly.

"Impressive! I've heard a lot about you from the guards. You must have some pretty good tricks up your sleeves to go and rob so many places without being noticed!"

Ed scoffed. "Tricks? It's simple alchemy, nothing more. What are you in here for, anyway?"

The Xingese boy rocked back and forth on his heels. "I'm an illegal alien from Xing. The name's Ling Yao."

"Ling Yao . . ." Ed furrowed his brow. "The twelfth son of the emperor?"

"That's right," Ling said with a nod. "So you've heard of me?"

He shrugged. "I did some research after selling some stolen firearms to some Xingese official. I think his name was Cheng Lau."

Ling's eyebrows shot up. "You know, he tried to kill me about a year ago with some illegally obtained Amestrian weapons."

Ed snickered. "Whoops, sorry!"

What was he doing? He was in one of the worst positions possible for a criminal, even worse for one as infamous as he, and he was laughing. Maybe that was the reason; because his situation was so ridiculously hopeless.

His chuckles died at this thought; it seemed now that he had nothing more to do than wait for an opportunity.

'-'

"Yo, Roy!"

Roy looked up from where he was signing his paperwork and sighed, setting his pen down. "What is it this time, Hughes?"

Maes strode farther into the room until he was leaning on his best friend's desk. "You heard about the riots in Liore, right?"

Roy nodded. He had no idea what this was leading up to.

"Well, apparently it's become a full out insurrection."

This caught the Flame Alchemist's attention. He had gone to Liore a few months ago to investigate Fullmetal's latest thieving and uncovered a false prophet while he was at it. But he thought that had been taken care of, there shouldn't be a whole uprising happening. . . . "But how? Eastern troops should have been able to stop the riots!"

Hughes shook his head. "Troops from Central were sent out a few days ago, and that's when everything went to hell." He frowned. "Two rebellions in two decades. This really is a war-torn country isn't it." His brow furrowed. "There have been an awful lot of . . ." He trailed off.

Roy narrowed his eyes. "What is it, Hughes?"

He straightened up. "Nothing. Now I'd better get home, my beautiful Gracia and my adorable Elicia are waiting for me!" With that he pranced out of the room, a barely-real grin stretched across his face.

Roy sighed in exasperation and picked his pen back up again. That man had amazing mood swings.

'-'

Despite the way he acted when it came to his wife and child, Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes was by no means a stupid person. After all if he was then he wouldn't work as high as he did in the Investigations Department.

Investigations. . . . That was exactly what he was doing at the moment. He'd gotten out his map of Amestris at home and slowly, he was connecting the dots. Literally.

He'd always felt that the military was a little obsessed with conquering; now he understood why.

Whatever was going on in this country, it was a special kind of freak show.

Sorry this took forever, this chapter gave me some trouble and I'm not happy with it. Also I was lazy, and attempts at writing my original story were sucking the writing spirit out of me. But I'm back in gear and I've got a more organized order of writing my fanfiction chapters, so yay! Unfortunately I'm going on a camping trip soon, but it won't last long.

I hope no one was too out of character in this chapter, particularly Hughes. I also hope that the writing doesn't seem too awkward in places.

Please review!

-Quiet Leaf