Author's note: This chapter contains descriptions of torture, as well as the tools used to accomplish this. If you're squeamish, don't read this chapter. I tried to keep it as mild as possible.

Ed growled softly as another wave of pain coursed through her body, biting her lip to keep from screaming instead. Roy had finally drifted off to sleep, his head resting on her hand, the sensation of his skin against hers the only thing still keeping her anchored to reality. She, however, couldn't fall asleep at all. Every time she closed her eyes, she would feel panic rise up in her chest, suddenly feeling like she was back in that dark room. So she would open her eyes, her body tensing at the mere thought of it all, which caused another wave of pain to course through her.

Fu had come to check on her a few times, every time apologising to her profusely for not giving her something to dull the pain. She had apparently suffered a concussion when she rolled down the stairs, and until Fu was certain she would be alright, she had to endure the pain. And if she was being honest, she really didn't mind. True, the pain was excruciating, but she had felt a similar pain before, when she had gotten her auto-mail. The biggest difference between the two was the fact that her current pain was all over her body. Clenching her jaw as another wave hit, she forced herself to take deep breaths, riding the pain like a wave until it subsided. Her head snapped to the side as the door creaked open, a sense of panic rising up in her throat like bile.

"Brother, are you awake?"

"Al…" She breathed, her eyes focused on her younger brother's form as he moved closer. "Al, what are you doing here?"

"When I heard you had gone missing with the Brigadier General, I got on the first train to Fenief. I couldn't stay in central knowing you were in danger…"

"But Al, you shouldn't be travelling…"

"I couldn't stay in Central." His voice cracked as he stroked her hair fondly, tears welling up in his eyes. "This happened because I wasn't here to protect you…"

"No Al, this happened because I was too weak to protect myself. None of this is your fault." Ed moved her hand from underneath Roy's face gently as to not wake him, Al taking it in his hands instead, pressing it against his cheek. "I'm so sorry if I made you worry, Al. But I'm fine now, I'm going to be perfectly fine, so you don't have to worry, okay?"

Ed bit her lip hard as Al suddenly hugged her, sending a wave of pain shooting through her body. Determined not to show it though, she wrapped her arms around him as he cried in her neck, his tears running down her flesh, burning as it made contact with the gashes in her skin. She held him until his crying slowed, his grip on her loosening as he drifted off to sleep as well. The whole situation was undoubtedly putting a lot of strain on him, tiring him out quickly as his senses overflowed with new emotions and experiences he hadn't felt for years. As his body pressed against hers, she wished she could lose consciousness as well, the pain of the pressure of his weight on hers almost becoming too much for her to bear. To her relief, Mustang woke up just as she was about to cry out, his strong hands gently lifting her sleeping brother's body from hers, the pain disappearing with it. Ed couldn't help but feel guilty at her inability to comfort her brother without succumbing to the pain, cursing her for not being stronger.

Roy lowered her brother into the bed in the corner of the room, pulling the blanket over him before moving back to her, his eyes scanning her body slowly. Ed watched as his onyx eyes moved over every bandage that was visible above the blanket, searching for any sign that she had started bleeding again.

"I'm fine, Mustang." She breathed, her hand reaching for his without her realizing. His strong fingers curled around hers, the heat calming her frazzled nerves slightly.

"Why was your brother asleep on top of you?" His voice was deep, yet gentle. Ed had to admit, she really loved the way he sounded when he was concerned. It was so different yet the same that it made her feel right at home in his presence.

"He was crying, so I held him. It wasn't his fault, so don't be mad at him."

"I'm not mad at him or at you for that matter. But you are badly hurt, and you need to take it easy, okay?"

"I know." She breathed, closing her eyes. Another wave of panic hit, making her open her eyes, her body tensing on its own, sending another wave coursing through her body. Her fingers tightened around his, making him look at her, a look of panic on his face.

"Are you alright? Do you want me to go call Fu?"

"I'm fine…" She croaked, the pain dying down slightly. "I just have to ride it like a wave."

Roy's jaw clenched tightly as he glared at the door, though she knew it was meant for the doctor instead. "He could at least give you something for the pain."

"I'm fine, Roy. The pain is nothing."

"How can you say that? I can see it's not nothing."

Edward's hand moved out of his, instead resting against his cheek, his onyx eyes focused on hers as she spoke. "This is nothing compared to what I've felt before. And I survived that, so I can survive this." Her finger moved across his lips, deciding that he would hopefully put her actions down to pain-induced delirium. Her hand dropped onto the mattress as the door flung open, revealing a rather tired looking Hughes.

"Roy, we found something interesting… oh, hello Edward. How are you feeling?"

"Hello Hughes. I'm feeling much better, thank you." She smiled back at him as he moved closer, almost disappointed when he didn't instantly produce a photo of his young daughter. "What did you find?"

Hughes eyed her cautiously, before turning to Roy, unsure whether or not to continue. "Go ahead, Hughes. Edward is as much a part of this team as anyone else, so he'll probably find out sooner or later."

Ed glanced at Roy as he said the word 'he', silently grateful that her secret had not become public knowledge yet. Not that she cared that much about it anymore, but she wanted Roy to be the first to know why she had lied all these years. Ed turned her attention back to Hughes as he pulled out a notepad, flipping it open half way before speaking again.

"Well, we analysed what we could in the basement, but there wasn't much to go on…"

"So what was the interesting part?"

"I'm getting to it." His eyes moved back to Edward's as he spoke, like he was analysing her reactions to his words. "The basement had quite a lot of blood in it, much more than what Edward had lost, so it's safe to assume it was their base of operations."

"Their?"

"We found two unmade beds, with evidence that they had both recently been used, indicating that there are two people committing the crimes. Furthermore, we found an assortment of torture tools. Quite a few of them were still clean, probably never having been used, but there were also a couple with…" His eyes moved to Roy's, begging him to stop him, but after a few seconds, he finished his sentence anyway, his eyes focused on Ed's again, "fresh blood on them. It's safe to say that those were the ones used on Edward."

A wave of panic rose up in her chest at the mention of the tools that had been used on her, a few of them etched in her memory forever. Roy's fingers encircled hers again, calming her enough for her lungs to move, taking in a deep shaky breath.

"We're familiar with a most of them, but there's one or two that we have no idea of what they are used for, so we can't match them to any of the wounds yet."

"I could probably identify them for you." She breathed before she could stop herself. Roy watched as she closed her eyes, scolding herself mentally for not keeping her mouth shut. But she knew that if it could help them catch the bastards who did this to her, she had to do whatever it took. "I also saw the face of one of the men, so I could probably describe him to you."

"If you are comfortable with that…"

"No." Roy's voice cut Hughes off, the tone of it cold and commanding. "Edward needs to rest, and it won't do him any good to remember what happened."

"I have to do this Roy, while it's still fresh in my mind." She urged, her fingers tightening around his slightly. She was scared, but she knew as long as he stayed close to her, she could do anything. "I'll start with the tools, if you have pictures of them."

Roy watched her intently, concern evident on his face, as Hughes disappeared out of the room, only to re-appear with a box in his arms. Edward could feel her body tensing as he neared her, knowing full well that it contained the actual instruments of her torture instead of harmless pieces of paper.

"I'm afraid all I have are the actual tools. Do you think you can still identify them?"

She wanted nothing more than to shake her head. She wanted to shake her head, crawl into Roy's chest and forget everything that happened. But instead, she nodded; the wave of pain coursing through her body almost completely unnoticeable as she lay inches away from the objects of her torture.

Hughes placed the box on the table, taking out blade after blade, placing them next to the box. She could barely make them out, but each one sent a new wave of pain through her body, as though it was recalling the metal as it had cut through her flesh. Edward's eyes widened as Hughes pulled out a curved blade, its jagged teeth still covered in her blood. Her body tensed as Hughes moved it in front of her, sending a wave of fear through her body. Roy watched her reaction, barking at Hughes to put the blade away.

"I-It's alright, Roy." She breathed, her grip on his hand tightening until her knuckles where white. "I have to do this." Her eyes shifted from him to the blade again, pushing the wave of panic back down. "I don't know its proper name, but I can tell you what he used it for. Better, I'll show you." Edward let go of Roy's hand momentarily, only to grab it again as the panic rose up in her throat like bile. There was no way she could let go of him without having a full on panic attack. Instead, she turned to Hughes. "Lift the blanket off of my leg." Hughes did so, waiting for her next instructions. "Now, if you look at the back of my calf, you'll see what that blade does."

Ed bit her lip as the pain of the movement coursed through her veins like fire. Hughes lifted her leg slowly, before carefully removing the bandage, Fu standing behind him instructing him what to do to not aggravate the broken bones. When had he even entered the room? She could feel the cloth fall away from her leg, exposing the raggedly torn flesh. She could still remember the moment he had cut her with the tool that now lay on the table next to her.

"Alright, princess. Now that you know who the boss is, how about we have a little fun." The man dropped the blade he had just used to cut open her shirt to the table. She watched as he picked up another tool, handing it to the man across from him. "Go get this one ready, will you?"

"Certainly." The man disappeared with the strange tool back into the darkness, leaving her with the deranged bastard.

"Now, Princess, how about we get rid of your pants as well? After all, I can't very well have my way with you while they're on, can I?"

"Fuck you." Ed spat out, making him growl at her.

"Have you still not learnt your lesson? Perhaps…" He lifted a curved blade off of the table, turning it over and over in his hands as he spoke, "this will teach you what you still haven't figured out. Now, the question remains, shall I use this on your face…" The blade's jagged edges bit into her cheek, though it didn't fit the curves of her face properly, making the man growl disappointed.

"I guess it's not made for that. How about your neck?" Again, the blade bit into her skin, this time each jagged edge making contact with it, sending pain through her neck. "Perhaps not. I don't want to kill you just yet. So maybe I'll just use it on your leg."

Edward bit her lip hard as the steel dug into her leg, refusing to scream. The man laughed frantically as the blade dug deeper and deeper into her flesh, until it finally disappeared completely. Slowly he started moving it in a sawing motion, making her scream out in pain, the blade ripping through her flesh.

"The flesh will never heal properly." Fu's voice ran through her mind, pulling her back to the present. Ed's gaze shifted to the man next to her, his onyx eyes trained on her face.

"Are you alright?" She only nodded, not sure whether or not she could lie to him without him picking up on it right away.

"There weren't any of these kinds of wounds on the other victims, was there?" Hughes asked as he moved back to the blade, picking it up and placing it with the others while Fu redid the bandage around her leg.

"No. This is the first time I've seen it used in this case, though I have seen similar wounds about eleven years ago. I'll tell you about it later."

"Agreed. Edward, do you think you can identify the second tool now, or do you need a moment?"

"I'd rather get it over and done with now."

Hughes nodded, before pulling another item from the box. Ed stared at it for a moment, not believing what she was seeing in front of her. To any normal person it looked like a much larger version of an office tool used to remove staples, with its prongs much thinner than the original tool. But Edward knew from experience that it wasn't meant for office use. Her breathing became shallow, before picking up pace drastically, a panic attack taking hold of her. She was vaguely aware of Roy and Fu barking at Hughes to hide the tool, as Fu moved over to her, a syringe in his hands. Moments later she was out cold, though it didn't save her from the nightmare that the tool had awakened inside of her.

"How many people have seen that?" Roy asked as he sat down at the kitchen table, Hughes following suite.

"Just the four of us. Why, what is it?"

"It's ancient torture tool. I'm surprised you don't know what it is." Fu said as he put the cup of tea in front of him.

"Before I tell you what it is used for, there's something you have to know about Edward." Roy's said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he could trust Hughes with his life, but he still felt wrong for having to tell him her secret. "It goes without saying that you need to keep it between us. No-one must know."

"Of course, you know you can trust me."

"I know. Here goes. Firstly, Edward isn't an anomaly to the case."

"What do you mean?"

"The killer hasn't suddenly started going after men. Edward is a woman." Roy watched as Hughes processed what he was saying. It was a lot to take in, he knew that from experience. As if reading his mind, Roy continued. "I don't know why she had kept her gender a secret, but I have no doubt that she had a good reason."

"Okay, I think I understand. Now as for that tool…"

"There are two variations of that specific tool. The first was called the Iron Spider. It was attached to walls. The one you have in that box, however, is the portable version, called the breast ripper. I'm certain the title is self explanatory."

"You mean…"

"Luckily, no. She seems to only have burns and slight tearing, so the bastard had stopped short of using it fully." Fu said, Roy heaving a sigh of relief.

"Burns?"

"Usually it was heated up before used." Roy said with a growl. "It's a barbaric torture method."

"Agreed. In most cases the women it was used on would bleed to death. Ed was really lucky."

"There's nothing lucky about the situation at all!" Roy snapped, slamming his cup to the table hard. "Ed was kidnapped and tortured. What part of that is lucky?"

"I think what Fu meant was that it was lucky of us to have found Ed when we did, Roy." Hughes spoke up after taking a sip of his tea. "Edward has quite a lot of injuries, considering she had been gone for only twelve hours. It could have been much worse."

"Exactly. After only such a short time, she has more wounds than I have seen on most victims of months of torture. It's a miracle she survived at all." Fu said, standing on the far side of the kitchen. Despite the fact that he was helping them, he still hated the military.

"So what you're saying is that she must be in immense pain?" Roy asked, though he already knew the answer. "If she's in that much pain, why are you still refusing to give her something to dull it?"

"If she had sustained a concussion, the pain medication would hide it from us. Because the meds will make her drowsy, I won't be able to monitor her mental health properly." Fu said, almost sounding annoyed that Roy hadn't figured it out for himself.

Hughes placed his cup back onto the table, before reaching into the box, pulling out the curved blade. "You said a blade like this one was used in a case eleven years ago? Mind telling us more?"

"The last time the military was in Rayerk, they were here to try and weed out refugees of the war that had somehow made it to this town. They didn't listen to reason, and certainly didn't care whether or not they injured innocent people to get at the refugees. There was one woman who ended up being used as a hostage."

"The refugees?"

"They thought that maybe the military would stop killing them if they had some sort of bargaining chip. Unfortunately for the woman, the refugees weren't the nicest of people, and they started to torture her for fun. Her body were full of scars similar to the ones on Ed's calf when she was brought to me. When the military finally figured out their base of operations, they stormed it, killing everyone in sight, regardless whether they were civilians or refugees. The woman ended up on the opposite side of a blast caused by some alchemist, and became partially blind as well. We lost a lot of innocent people that day."

"What happened to the woman?" Roy asked.

"She died shortly after being brought to me. The damage to her body from not only the blasts but the torture turned out to be too much to bear."

"It was war…" Roy spoke, trying his best to sound as nonchalant as possible, making Hughes look at him with a sad smile.

"Of course a military man like you would make an excuse like that to justify mass murder." Fu scoffed, leaving the two men in the kitchen as he stomped out of the house.

A/N: I'm going to move the update day for this to Tuesdays starting now. I'll update the information on my profile as I go as well, so feel free to check there if you want to know when the next chapter will be up. Feel free to review and message me :3 Until next time.