AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey guys! well here is chapter 2!

I really hope you like it, cause well I might cry otherwise (just kidding)

AGAIN THIS IS AN ED X ROY

AND EDWARD IS A FEMALE (well gets turned into one but you know what I mean)

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own Fulmetal Alchemist... like at all...

Last time:

With those as his last words he activated the circle and I was held in place by invisible hands as electricity shocked through me in waves. I tried to fight against the pain the best I could before I couldn't anymore. The sound that escaped my throat didn't sound human let alone like me. I could feel pressure increasing on my neck as the sound grew higher in pitch the longer it went on. It felt like it went on forever before it suddenly stopped and the invisible hands let go and so did I.

Chapter 2: Finding Edward

It's been three weeks since I gave him the case file and honestly I expected him to have brought it back by now. A series of deformed bodies should have had him running around like a chicken with it's head cut off til he found who ever was behind it. He usually got his cases done in two weeks at most, but three weeks was out of character.

So now I was sitting at my desk with the phone to my ear waiting for the other end to pick up. Two rings sounded in my ear before a woman answered on the other end.

"Hello, Elric and Rockbell residence."

"Hey it's me Mustang is Alphonse available?" I could hear the sound of the children squealing in the background.

"Yeah just a moment Roy." the clicking of the phone being set on a flat surface sounded and Winry shouting to Alphonse that the phone was for him followed not long after.

Footsteps echoed through the phone before a male answered. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Have you heard from your brother?" I asked drumming my fingers on the top of my desk.

"Umm... The last time I heard from Ed was, I don't know, last month?" It sounded more like a question than a fact. "He hasn't stopped by in a while but he did call, something about people's pets coming up missing or something." That was the last assignment Ed had before this last one.

"Ok thank you Alphonse."

"Is there something wrong?" More sounds of children giggling and running through the house came through the other side of the phone.

"I haven't heard from your brother in over three weeks and I was expecting him to have completed this assignment already." I sighed, now I was going to have to go to his house.

The sound of a baby crying could be heard on the other end.

"That's not like him, when you find him let me know though, I have to go, Myu is crying." and with that the clicking of the phone hanging up sounded in my ear and I hung up my own.

I sighed and slumped forward on my desk, I had wanted this case wrapped up which is why I gave it to Edward, now I was going to have to fill out paperwork as to why it was taking so long. All the more reason to find the shrimp and make him tell me why it was taking so long. So I got up and left and asked Hawkeye to come with me, as backup, you know for when I found him.

It didn't take us long to get to Edward's house since he chose to live in central now in one of the military housings. It surprised me that he would chose to live here when anyone who did was required to give a spare key to their commanding officer. The look on his face when he handed the key to me the day he moved in was that of someone sucking on a lemon. I had to fight back a laugh.

Riza walked up to the door ahead of me and knocked. I stayed at the bottom of the steps before the door as she knocked again. It was completely silent on the other side of the door so she tried calling his name with no response.

"Try opening the door." I suggested, so she reached for the knob and turned it. Maybe I would get lucky and he left the case file on his coffee table or something.

Nothing.

I sighed as I dug in my coat pocket for the key and handed it over to her and waited for the door to open. I followed her inside and looked around. I had never been inside the other man's house before and it wasn't really that surprising how bare everything was given of what I knew about him. It may have been five years since he had gotten their bodies back but old habbits are hard to break.

His living room consisted of a couch, an arm chair, a small area rug, and a coffee table. An empty coffee table. I went into the kitchen, the dining room, and his bedroom. No case file in any of them. Hardly any personal items either. There were a few pictures of Alphonse and Winry with the kids in the hall and a room full of books but that seemed to be about it. No knick knacks, no paintings, no furniture, which made every step echo softly, just the necessities.

"Sir, I think you should come here."Riza called from the living room.

I found her holding what appeared to be the newspaper along with a pile of them sitting on the coffee table that wasn't there before.

"What?"

She handed me the one she was holding and pointed to the date on the top of the page. It was over a week ago. I looked at the ones on the table to see that there were seven unopened ones sitting there.

"I don't think Edward is here Sir, I found these behind the door untouched. And I would guess he hasn't been here in a few days. I checked his fridge and there wasn't much in there besides a few things that are now expired and left overs." She took the newspaper out of my hands and set it down and placed the case file in my hands instead. "I found this in his kitchen cupboards."

I opened the file to see what he had been thinking or maybe to a hint where he was going. He had jotted a bunch of notes in the margins, something about human transmutation, the need for a warehouse with enough space to hide people and far enough away from people so as not to be heard. Most of the abandoned warehouses and laboratories were torn down after the abandoned Laboratory Five incident. There were maybe twenty left and that would take a few days to for the military to get permission to search them. But Edward being Edward wouldn't have waited for permission to check it out he would have just gone.

He also had a map placed inside the file with circles marking the existing abandoned buildings and 'x's over the ones he had already searched. Four were left without 'x's on them which meant he was at this for a while before he stopped, but it didn't say which one he was going after next.

I would need permission though if I were going to take a few people with me since if I were to go by myself it could take weeks and by then whoever it was would be gone. Best to do it all at once.

"Sir, I think Edward found what he was looking for, but also that something went wrong. He no longer has his automail, or his alchemy to aid him." Riza sounded worried as she spoke, it would explain the lack of Edward and the growing feeling of dread in my stomach.

We decided to leave things the way they were and headed back to Headquarters.

When we got back I called everyone in and explained what we thought had happened, that Edward went looking for the person responsible for the deformed and mutilated bodies being left around central. We think he got close and that who ever the person is didn't like a State Alchemist snooping around and either has Edward, he's severely injured, or Edwards was dead. I left out that I really hoped he wasn't dead and how much of a pain in the ass this was going to be. I told them how Edward had narrowed it down to a few empty warehouses just outside of central and that was where we were going to be headed.

Armstrong, Havoc, Sciezska, Fullman, Breda, Ross, and Hawkeye all saluted before leaving to get their gear ready to go. We would split up into sets of two before we entered the buildings so no one went in alone. Everyone would be carrying small radios so they could alert the others if anything was found.

It took us about an hour to get to the sites of the buildings, this far out it was no wonder why no one heard any noise or reported anything strange. There wasn't anyone out here. Armstrong and Havoc split off to the left, Breda and Ross went to the right, Sciezska and Fullman went into the on in front of us, and Riza and I took the one in the back. Each building was spaced about half a mile apart so some walking was in for some of us. So even if any of these buildings were occupied they still wouldn't have heard anything.

I could see the building we were headed for even in the dim light of the evening as the sun began to set. No lights came on to show the way as it got darker with each passing minute so Riza and I picked up our pace and made it to the door in a few minutes. There was a padlock on the door which was held closed with some chains. I pulled my gloves on and snapped my fingers sending flames hot enough to melt the steel. Guns were too loud in case someone was inside.

I pulled the door open and winced as it creaked loudly once before going silent.

I expected it to be dark inside but what I saw made my blood turn to ice. In the center of the room was a raised platform that looked to be made out of solid steel with lights hanging directly above it, and littered on the ground around it were multiple bodies. All in various stages of decay, though the ones that looked the newest were closest to the platform. All of them were deformed and mutilated in different ways, none though seemed to have bled from their wounds since there was none one the bodies or the floor. How we didn't smell this before we came in was a mystery, I was still trying to figure out why we couldn't smell it now.

As we got closer to the platform I noticed there were steel bars erupting from the surface to the ceiling. Then I saw the transmutation circle etched into the cold steel around the bars. I felt myself become sick as I realized that the area inside the bars was big enough for a person to be held inside. The light above the platform just made the sight even worse with its brightness in the now dark room.

A shuffling noise came from my right, and as I turned my head to look a yellow glow flashed for a few seconds under what must have been a door before going out. A scream ripped through the darkness before cutting off and going silent again. My legs began moving of their own accord towards the door where I saw the light, I could dimly hear Riza's footsteps running to keep up behind me.

The door flew open before me and I came to a crashing halt at what I saw. It looked like a personal library turned into a prison with the large cage in the center. There was another circle drawn outside this one and in the center was a small blonde female, unconscious, and clutching something at her neck. And she was completely naked, and from what I could see very pretty.

And standing right outside the cage was Shou Tucker.

He was supposed to be dead.

He saw me and grinned widely. "Ah Mr. Mustang, do you like what you see?" He asked while turning his head to stare at the female in the cage. "She actually survived. The only one too." He seemed to be saying to himself. "I just knew she would. She is perfect."

I cautiously approached the cage where the girl lay inside. She was breathing even if it was ragged. Something about her seemed familiar even though I was sure I had never seen her before.

"Where is the Fullmetal Alchemist, Tucker?" I asked

He looked at me confused, "Fullmetal Alchemist? The one who no longer has automail or alchemy?" his head cocked to the side. "So why do you still call him such?" He turned back to the girl as though mesmerized. "He was here but now he is not. Now she is here and he is not."

I looked at the girl again, something tugging at the back of my brain but I didn't know what. "Where is he?"

If it were possible Tucker's grin grew wider and more insane. "She is he and he is she."

My eyes grew wide as my eyes darted back to the girl and took in her size and the exact shade of her hair. The scars on her shoulder spoke of having automail at one time and the one on her side was where Ed got injured in Laboratory 5 and had to have stitches. I head Riza gasp behind me as she realized it also.

The girl on the floor was Edward.

Riza aimed her gun at Shou so he didn't dare try to move.

"H-how...W-why?" she asked as I walked towards the cage and scanned it for a door, finding it on the oposite side. As I made my way over there I vaguely heard his explanation for why he wanted the perfect female and that he decided that Edward was his way of getting her. He told her how he waited until he was sure that Edward didn't have his automail or his alchemy to fight back with. How he practiced on so many people before him until he got it right.

I snapped my fingers and burned the cage open like I did with the lock outside and walked into the space where Edward lay. I knelt down beside Edward and moved one of the hands clutching something at Edward's neck to find a black ribbon around it.

"Change him back!" I heard Riza yell at Tucker. "You can't just leave him like this!"

I grabbed a knife I kept in my pocket and cut the ribbon away and took my coat off to cover Edward. I wasn't sure I was comfortable looking at the naked form before me knowing that it was Edward inside. Hell, I knew Edward wouldn't like it at all. And I wasn't sure how to refer to Edward at the moment, was Edward still a him or a her?

"Change him back?" Tucker asked like he didn't understand what she was asking. "I can't do that. She is perfect. There is no other." He began to ramble on and on how he made Edward into the girl before me. Chances were the only one who could change Edward back was the vile Sewing Life Alchemist. And he seemed to have taken a one way train ride to Psycho-ville.

"Riza we need to get Edward to the hospital." I said as I picked him/her up into my arms and began to make my way to the door of the cage. The body seemed malnourished and light as a feather.

"I cannot let you take her." Tucker said sounding angry. He reached for a gun we didn't notice before on one of the many shelves lining the room.

Riza didn't hesitate.

Even though Tucker was Edward's only chance, no matter how slim that chance was, at getting back to normal, she shot him in the forehead.

We told everyone that we had found Edward and to meet us at the hospital.

How was I going to explain this to Alphonse?

He was going to blame himself for not keeping a better eye on Edward, hell I blamed myself for not going to talk to Edward sooner. I shouldn't have given him the assignment for that matter. I felt terrible as we rode through Central, Riza not letting off the gas for anything.

Edward didn't wake up even once on the way there.

Author's note... again:

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Question for readers:

How do you think Alphonse should find out, or for that matter when?