Al walked down the street, his thoughts cluttered. He was frustrated, but he was also sad. He wanted to help his brother. Al never had seen brother this desperate. He gave a metallic sigh and sits on a bench. Al only wished he could stop Ed before doing something he'd regret.

He only realizes that he's spaced out when he hears a metallic clang. Al's armored head jolts up. It takes him a second before he recognizes Colonel Mustang's familiar smirk. "Oh! Colonel Mustang! Sorry, I was in my head." Apologized profusely.

Mustang laughed. "It's alright, Alphonse," he takes a seat beside the boy. They sat in silence for several minutes, staring at the wooded forest in front of them. Al particularly loved sitting here at this time of year. It was always sunny and quiet. Whenever he was frustrated about his body, it would cheer him up just a little.

Finally, Mustang decided to break the silence. "Are you out here for the same reason I am?" He looked over in surprise. How could the colonel tell that he was here to think? Al sighs softly and nods. "I'm worried, Colonel. I'm so worried that brother is going to get himself killed. I was hoping that coming here would clear up thoughts on what to do but it hasn't helped so far," Mustang patiently listens to him as he admits his worries.

"He's always been this way, thinking everything is his fault. I tried to talk to him when we got back but I couldn't change his mind." Mustang's face turned into a frown. 'The poor kid sounds miserable.' He patted Al's arm awkwardly. He wasn't good with teenagers when it came to emotions. The backup plan that he and his team had created suddenly came to his mind.

"Alphonse, I think that we may have a plan to stop Ed from doing something stupid." Al quickly turns to look at him, surprised. "You came up with a plan that quickly?" Al was surprised, it had barely been an hour since he and Ed had left Mustang's office.

Mustang nods, his topaz colored eyes staring into Alphonse's soulfire red.

"What do you have in mind?" The air around Alphonse is curious and questioning.

"Come on, I originally came to find you to bring you back to HQ. We're meeting the rest of the team to discuss the plan." Mustang hoped that would be a good enough answer for Alphonse for the time being. He's relieved when Al stands up to follow him.

Edward threw the packet of crime scene information across the room and slammed his automail arm on the desk.

He growled in anger and dug his hands in his blond bangs. He was frustrated, this Anamala guy had no patterns.

'Well, of course, there are no patterns. He's been killing just to get your attention this entire time.'

Ed let his head fall on the desk. There had to be some way to prevent these murders without giving himself up. He stands up and grabs his notebook, looking at his notes. There had to be a pattern with the murders.

Maybe the murders were situated close to where the guy lived. He snorted. That would just be his luck.

'All of the victims have been barmaids. They all were taking breaks in the ally ways when they were murdered.'

A thought suddenly occurred to Ed, his hopes rising. He looked at the reports and listed down each murder spot. He tapped his pen to his lips. "Two murders on Twelfth Street, three on Susana, and four on 11th." He finished the final point on the map and stares.

Ed growls and slams the map book closed. This wasn't getting him anywhere. The radius of murders had centered around the rich part of Central.

'Why would a member of the rich elite want to kill barmaids to get my attention?' Why would one of the rich elite want to try Human Transmutation?'

Ed suddenly got an idea. He knew what he needed to do.

'Death records are kept up to date and are usually placed in libraries. Maybe the Central library will have the most recent deaths.' He stuffed the pictures and reports back into the packet and grabbed his coat.

'That's got to be it right? This guy could want me to bring back a dead relative. A sibling or a lover perhaps.' That would make sense as to why he'd want him. What didn't make sense was why Anamala had killed so many people and waited months to call Ed out.

Ed knew he had to figure out the pattern before tomorrow. He was going to find this Anamala guy and stop him before he had to meet him. There was no way he was going to go headlong into danger without finding the motive first.

Havoc tapped his fingers dully on his desk. He was bored. He hated being bored. Where was the colonel, he had told them to meet him at HQ at 6:30. Havoc checked his watch. He withheld a giggle of laughter. His boss, THE flame alchemist, was late for the first time in forever.

"Hey Breda, want to prank the boss?" Breda's face gained a devilish smirk. They both stood up. "Boys." Hawkeye's gun clicked as she walked into the room. Her face, a blank mask as usual. They both gulped. "S-Sorry Hawkeye. The boss is a little late." Hawkeye's face remained unamused. "He had to go find Alphonse." She took her seat beside the colonel's desk.

It was a few minutes later when the colonel came in with Al behind him. He glanced around the room at each of them. Al took a seat beside Havoc. Fuery and Falman came running in a few seconds later.

"S-Sorry we-we're late sir. Falman needed help with his radio at his house." The small raven-haired boy apologized. "It's fine. Just take a seat, you two." They take a seat quickly. Everyone was finally together.

"What's your plan colonel?" Al was really curious now. He had held back his questions on the walk over to HQ. Now his questions were ready to leak out of his head. Mustang looked at Havoc. "You get the propofol," Havoc nodded and opened the case beside him.

Al watched curiously as Havoc as he took out a vial of clear liquid and a syringe. He carefully opened the lid of the vial and filled the syringe. "What does propofol have to do with the plan you came up with, Colonel?" Al was confused. How would this help brother?

"Propofol is a drug that's used during surgery to anesthetize patients. It can knock a grown man unconscious within fifteen minutes of being administered. I plan to place guards outside of your dorm room and outside the windows of your dorm room," Al was beginning to understand what the colonel was getting to.

"I'll have Breda, Major Armstrong, and Havoc guarding the outside. "Falman and Hawkeye will be guarding the door. Knowing Fullmetal, he'll try and sneak out of the window," Everyone was listening intently to what the colonel was saying.

"If in the event he is caught and puts up a fight, we will give him the propofol." Mustang motions for Havoc to start explaining the effects of the drug.

"Propofol would be able to quickly knock Ed unconscious. At most, it would be five minutes. I have a feeling it'll be at least two minutes before the drug begins to affect him. He would need to be held down if he starts struggling." Havoc finishes the explanation of the drug and his blue eyes drift to Mustang and wait for him to explain the rest of the plan.

"After he's unconscious, we will move him to one of the HQ holding cells and restrain his hands and then Breda, Havoc, Hawkeye, and some MP's will go and search for our psycho at where he said to meet him in the letter," Mustang's topaz eyes scan everyone's face as he finishes the explanation.

"Colonel, don't you think that's a little much? Brother's only 14," Al looks at him in concern. "I'm a little worried that after this all good and done and this killer is captured, he'll lose trust in all of us. We're supposed to be on his side. I just don't feel good about this plan.

Roy understood exactly why Al was unsure about this plan. He himself didn't really understand why this was his plane. He did know why Al would feel the way that he was currently feeling. Ed and Al were best friends, each other's worlds. He knew that Ed would do anything for Al and that Al would do anything for Ed. Al had never betrayed his brother before. They trusted each other with everything they had. That was especially important, Ed never opened up to anyone else, just Al.

He had seen just how close they were when Ed had been hit by a car when he first joined the military. He and Ed had been on their first assignment together. By this time, Ed had been in the military for five months. That had been when Roy had learned quickly that the kid was reckless and quick to act.

It had been snowing on that cold, December day. They were after the snow alchemist, Jack Grace. He had murdered two members of the military after they tried to take his license for failing his yearly exam.

Roy would never forget the feeling of running down the street with Ed just a little bit behind him. They had just spotted Grace. The ice alchemist had run across the road when the traffic light was red. The traffic light turned green right at the moment they were going to cross the street. Roy had skidded to a halt, expecting Ed to as well

Roy's heart stopped when he felt Edward run past him. He had opened his mouth to yell at his subordinate to slow down, that they could call for back up and get him some other time. The words never made it at his mouth. Before Ed had gotten all the way across the street, a car came speeding down the street.

Roy was frozen like a deer in headlights. He couldn't move as he watched the car plow into Edward, unaware that a car was coming as he ran. He watched in horror as Edward's head cracked onto the concrete.

Roy didn't know how he got over to Ed. All he knew was that in the next second, Edward was in his arms. He would never forget looking down into beautiful golden eyes, half-lidded. He didn't remember exactly what happened next. All he remembered was somehow getting to the hospital and sitting beside the young blond's bed with Al beside him.

His injuries had consisted of a moderate concussion, a broken right leg, and bruised ribs. It wouldn't be until the next morning that Ed would wake up. He had stayed by his subordinate all night, he had told himself then that it was to reprimand him when he woke up. He hadn't wanted to admit the true reason to himself. He cared for the kid. A lot.

So that was why when Ed woke up, breathing heavy and gaze unsteady, he yelled at the young teen for a while. Edward never met his gaze, all he did was look at Alphonse the entire time. Roy remembers that he had left the room to make a call and when he came back he stopped outside the room. Ed was crying. He remembers just how his heart broke as he saw Ed burying his face on Al's chest plate.

"Brother its ok. You're ok." Al had whispered. He didn't remember quite exactly what Ed had said but his crying decreased to sniffles.

"I could have died, Al. God, I thought I was. One minute I was running across the street and the next I was laying on the ground. I was in so much pain, but that didn't matter. All I could think of was that I would die and you would be left alone,"

"Brother, I know that you would never leave me. I would never let you. So don't worry. Now, you need to rest." Al had walked out of the room after that, allowing Ed to rest. If he had seen Roy, he didn't say anything.

Roy knew he probably shouldn't have listened in on the conversation, but he wondered why Ed was thinking of Al at the moment the car hit him. It was something he thought about quite often after Edward recovered and he and Al would come into the office for Ed to receive his assignments.

Roy understood his intentions as he thought back on the aftermath of Edward getting hit by that car. He didn't want Al to have to go through a situation like that again. He didn't want to have to feel his heart clench tightly as he told Al that his brother was badly injured.

He decided then in there that if Ed ended up hating him, he would accept it. He would accept his hot-headed subordinate hating him for the rest of his life if it meant protecting him. "Colonel?" Roy suddenly remembered what Al had asked him. "I don't mind him hating me for doing this. If that's what saves him from killing himself then I'd do it again," In his peripheral vision, he saw the rest of his team nodding in agreement.

"I trust you, Colonel Mustang. I think you know what you're doing." Al was still concerned. He knew that Ed could never hate him. He just didn't want Ed to push him away.

"So it's all settled then. You all know your respective tasks. Falman and Hawkeye will accompany Alphonse back to his dorm room. The rest of you will prepare for tomorrow night. You're all dismissed." Mustang said.

Mustang looked approvingly around the room as everyone went to go do their assigned tasks. Alphonse made his way to the door with Falman and Hawkeye but suddenly turned around. "Thank you, Colonel. It means a lot to me that you're trying to protect brother like this. I think that he'll appreciate what you're doing one day."

Roy doesn't know what to say to the kid. All he can do is give him a small smirk and nod his head. Alphonse leaves the room. Roy's smile drops from his face. It was time to find prepare for the end of the plan.

"Why is this taking so long?" Ed grumbled, searching through the book he was reading. He had been at the library all afternoon.

He hadn't expected there to be so many deaths to occur in central the last few months. By his calculations, whoever this Anamala guy had been close should have died in mid to late April. To be absolutely sure, he decided to check each record of death dating back to the beginning of the year.

He was currently in the section of the book that was March. His eyes lazily scanned the page past name after name. He scanned past a person with Anamala as their last name. Wait! His eyes quickly went back up to the name and he took the report from the book.

Name: Leiana Anamala

Date of birth: July 20th, 1901

Date of Death: March 4th, 1911 (10 years old)

Home Address: 132 quarter Ln, 12th street

Cause of Death: Blunt force trauma to the spine and back of the head. One leg and arm were severed and missing. The throat had been slit.

State of the crime scene: Victim was found in an Alley, outside of the nearby bar on 12th street. Her brother, Damien Anamala was attempting to stop the bleeding, not realizing the victim had been dead for a day already. Police were called around 2:30 and arrived around 2:50.

Statement by Damien Anamala: Daughter had been missing for about a day. Last seen walking to the school that was nearby. Realized she was missing when she wasn't home from school by 3:00 on March 3rd. She was discovered when was walking down an alley to get to the bar to ask anyone if they had discovered. Upon being told no, he left the bar and discovered her body nearly under the dumpster.

Ed grinned to himself. He finally had a name, Damien Anamala. A frown came to his face when he realized something. 'If Leiana died in March, then why did the killings only start in May?' That was what interested Ed the most about the situation. Then he began to think even more.

'Her wounds are the same as what has been happening to the people that have been found. Is it possible he killed her or is he copying the person that did kill her? It still doesn't answer the question of why the killings are centered around a rich neighborhood. Nothing is mentioned about if the Anamala's are rich or poor.'

The more Ed was learning the more he was confused. 'I can look into it more in the morning. Right now, I should probably go back to the dorms.' Ed folded the record and stuffed it into his coat. He placed the book back on the shelf and put his coat back on.

Ed shivered as the cool air of Central hit him in full force. He quickly looked down at his watch. It was 2 AM. 'Al is gonna kill me.' He usually didn't stay out this late at the library. He took a detour down an alley when he got close to the barracks. He was deep in thought about the whole situation. This was one of the most confusing situations he had worked on.

Suddenly, he tripped on something. His head collided with the pavement. Black spots danced in his eyes.

Ed squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the aching to stop and the dots to go away. 'What did I trip on?'

He slowly managed to get his arms under himself and into a sitting position and stood up. He turned around and his heart stopped.

Blood

Then he realized it was coming from someone. His breath caught in his throat. It was a woman. Her eyes were gouged out, her throat had been cut, and her arms and legs were missing.

Ed didn't realize he couldn't breathe until his knees had buckled. 'Can't breathe. Why can't why I breathe?' Then he felt something wet, Why was he wet? He looked down. He was covered in blood, her blood. His breathing grew heavier and more strained.

He panicked. His chest was heaving but nothing was coming in. 'Breathe. You need to breathe, Ed.' Why couldn't he take a breath?

He screamed as loud as he could with his ragged breathing. He was going to suffocate. No air was coming to him as his panicking worsened. No longer able to hold himself up, Ed crumpled onto his side. Darkness dragged him into a black abyss and he knew no more.