Sorry

In the silence and the darkness, Ed lay in somewhat of a daze.

Sean huffed from somewhere below his elbow. "My God, you're much heavier than you look!" groaned the older man. He had softened Ed's landing with his body and was now pinned under the teen's weight with his face smashed into the dirt. Sean felt around blindly in the dark until his hand landed on Ed's torso and he gave the boy a gentle shove, effectively getting him off his back.

Ed rolled over like a sack of potatoes. "What the fuck," he protested half-heartedly. He felt numb and when he tried to use his legs to sit up, he found that he couldn't get his prosthetic to cooperate. Worse were the little jolts of pain assaulting his nerves. Ed winced and clapped a hand over his shoulder where the metal met his body. His leg was no better but he gritted his teeth through it. Ok, touching the bars, bad idea.

Sean got up, dusting himself off but stopped when he realized that Ed was being very still. He felt around in the dark frantically until he touched Ed's hair and patted the young man's head awkwardly. "You alright, Elric?"

Ed didn't get the chance to answer. They heard the stomping of many pairs of feet and lantern light flared suddenly into the cavern from the far entrance. The men surrounded them, guns pointed and Sean put his hands up in surrender, kneeling down. Ed glared at the lot of them.

"Get up," one of them commanded in Amestrian, but with a thick accent. Sean obeyed immediately. One of the men came forward and roughly pulled the captive's arms behind his back, pinning them there. Ed wasn't about to go quietly.

Except, he couldn't move. When he tried to stand, his automail just flopped underneath him and he sat back down heavily, confused.

"On your feet!" shouted the first man, aiming a kick at the teen, which connected painfully with his ribs.

Ed winced as a new wave of pain washed over him but he stayed right where he was.

There was a quick exchange in a foreign language and Ed was hauled forcefully to his feet. He tried his best to balance on his right leg. They pinned his arms behind his back and the two prisoners were dragged at a bruising pace along the dark tunnel.

When they reached a plain metal door, someone produced rope and tied Sean and Ed's hands behind their backs. Then one of the men opened the door and the two were thrown unceremoniously inside. Sean managed to regain his footing and steady himself against a wall. Ed, unable to balance properly and with his hands tied, landed painfully in a heap on the floor. He felt the sting of small stones cutting the skin on his cheek but it paled in comparison to the waves of pain pulsing through his nerves. Before the door was slammed behind them, they could see that two of the men who had captured them stood in front of door to keep guard.

Sean glared at the closed door but said nothing for a long moment. There was a small amount of light from the lanterns creeping in from a crack under the door but otherwise, the room was dark.

Ed stayed right where he had fallen and lay very still. There was something very wrong with his automail. He hadn't felt this helpless since waking up in Granny Pinako's guest bedroom after that awful night. A panic rose inside him but he swallowed it back down.

Mind over matter. Calm down. Move slowly.

As soon as he tried to move, his muscles seized painfully and he dropped back down like a rag doll. Shit.

"Edward?" Sean was leaning over him, barely visible in the dim light. "What's wrong?"

I just got fucking electrocuted, that's what's wrong. Ed let out a self-pitying laugh. "Guess electricity and automail don't mix well," he groaned. Winry was gonna kill him.

"Automail?" Sean stared at him for moment until it clicked into place and his eyebrows rose in surprise. "You carry automail?"

Ed wasn't surprised Sean had no idea. It wasn't exactly a fact about himself that he liked to make public. There was a reason he wore gloves and long pants even in the soaring heat of summer.

Then the full situation became clear to the older man and he winced in sympathy. "Oh."

Sean sat down on the floor and, with a fair amount of struggling, managed to loop his long arms under his legs and bring his bound hands up in front of himself. It wasn't the most comfortable position in the world, but it was better than before. He shuffled closer to the other alchemist.

"Where?" he asked.

"Arm." Came the muffled answer, Ed's face still in the dirt.

Sean kneeled down next to Ed and gently patted first his left arm then his right. It was obvious which of the two was the prosthetic. Sean managed to ease Ed into a sitting position with his back against the wall. Peeling the automail limb out of his coat, Sean examined it the best he could in the low light with his hands bound.

"I'm not an expert by any means but I did, at one point in my youth consider a career in automail mechanics," he admitted in answer to Ed's skeptical look. He poked and prodded and examined the shoulder very carefully.

"I don't think it's that bad," he started then put his bound hands up in a placating gesture at Ed's sour look. "No doubt that it hurts but I don't think there's any permanent damage. I don't see any burns so it was probably a fairly low voltage. Someone without metal grafted to his body probably would have just felt a strong static shock. Can you move it at all?"

"Nope, can't even feel it."

"I think that's probably normal. It didn't kill you so…" he shrugged.

"Oh, if that's all.."

"So if I'm right, the feeling should come back on its own eventually. But," Sean bit his lower lip as he leaned back on his heels.

"But?"

"It'll probably feel worse before it gets better," he said without beating around the bush. "But like I said, I'm no expert." Sean frowned down at Ed's legs. He hadn't missed the way Ed had had trouble standing, let alone walking. "What's wrong with your legs?"

Ed gave him a humourless grin. "Same problem."

Sean stared at him in disbelief. "How much automail do have? And how the hell did I not notice?"

Ed did his best at a shrug. He'd gotten quite skilled at hiding it without really knowing why. Secrecy? Guilt? Shame? It didn't matter. Sean gave the teen's legs the same treatment.

"My God, someone really put you through the wringer," he joked lightly.

I did this to myself, thought Ed wryly but said nothing.

Sean stood and examined the walls of the small space. It had dusty shelves, all empty except for a few sad dilapidated boxes. "Can you still use alchemy?" he asked from the other end of the narrow space.

Ed shook his head then remembered that Sean probably couldn't see him in the low light. Even if he could make his hands touch behind his back, which he couldn't, he couldn't complete the circle in his mind without any feeling to his arm. And he needed his hands free to draw an array. And even if he somehow did manage to use alchemy, there was who knows how much solid granite on three sides and armed guards at the fourth. Ed couldn't even stand let alone fight.

"The short answer is no," he said evenly. "You?" He felt absolutely useless. This was the point where Al usually saved his ass. And where the hell was Havoc?

After his vain examination of the room, Sean came back to sit beside Ed on the floor. He shook his head. "Not without my arrays," he sighed in frustration.

"Some alchemists, huh?"

Ed couldn't do anything until the feeling came back to his arm or leg, whichever came first. "I guess we wait."

They waited approximately forty-five minutes. In that time, Ed did start to regain feeling in his leg. Sean had been right, the pain was almost unbearable. But he gritted his teeth through it and eventually that, too, faded to a dull throb. He stood uneasily to test his strength. He was able to balance well enough and when he put his weight on the automail, it didn't protest angrily with jolts of pain. Ed considered that a step in the right direction.

His arm was a different story. He still didn't have much feeling in it but, though it was painful, he found he was able to move his shoulder and elbow a little. The wrist and hand didn't respond at all. Since it had taken the brunt of the shock, Ed wasn't surprised but it made alchemy, his weapon of choice, unusable. Having his hands tied awkwardly behind his back certainly didn't help either.

Patience was not one of Ed's strongest qualities. Managing the pain was a good distraction and he paced around the room slowly and awkwardly. After a while he let out a growl of frustration and sat back down. He hated being caged. "What the hell is up with the electric cages?" he blurted out angrily.

Sean glanced over. "They're slaves, brought in to work the old mines," he said softly. "I mean, I'm just guessing, of course," he added.

Ed shook his head. "None of this makes any sense. What do you suppose they'll do with us?"

"Well they didn't just shoot us so that's a good sign," Sean was watching the teen carefully. After a long pause he looked away. "I'm sorry you got involved in this. You shouldn't have come here," he said quietly.

Ed frowned. "You neither but here we are." He hated feeling patronized. "Coming here was my own decision," he said firmly. Neither of them said anything after that.

As they waited, they heard a number of people coming and going just outside the door. There was a constant rumble that Ed recognized as the falling water further down the tunnel. Eventually, the dim light coming in under the door brightened as the power was restored. Sean was sitting closest to the door, his head leaning against the metal. He heard the footsteps as they got nearer and backed away. "You good to walk?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'll manage," said Ed grimly as they both got to their feet.

Sean looked at him pleadingly. "Don't do anything rash. You can't help those people if you're riddled with bullets."

Ed scoffed, pretending to be affronted. "Me? Rash?"

The door opened and without a word spoken to either of them, they were once again hauled like animals down the tunnel. Ed knew they were being taken towards the water cavern because the low rumble got louder as they went.

The lights were somewhat blinding after spending nearly an hour in a dark room but his eyes adjusted quickly. He made a mental note of all the people around him, their height, weight, fitness level and the weapons they carried. Six guards, two for each prisoner, one in the rear and one leading in front. They were all men, but didn't seem particularly soldier-like. Ed had spent enough time around real military men to know how they carried themselves and their weapons.

These guys looked like amateurs, quick with the trigger maybe but unskilled with their weapons like Hawkeye or Havoc would be. If he could just get his hands free, Ed was confident he could be quick enough to surprise them. He discreetly tugged experimentally at the rope binding his hands. Ed was surprised and pleased to feel the movement in his metal fingers. It was just barely there, but the feeling was returning to his arm as well. Even without the full strength of the metal limb, Ed was able to twist and wriggle his hands, pulling at the rope until he felt it start to loosen. He tried not to grin.

He kept tugging quietly at his ropes as they came into the large cavern. The water was still falling into the narrow pool just like he remembered. With the cavern better lit by the electric lights, there were details he hadn't noticed the first time. An extensive network of old scaffolding hugged the walls where the old miners used to work, chipping away at the rock. The wooden platforms were rotted and falling apart. Even in the brighter light, the ceiling of the cavern vaulted into darkness above them.

The old metal car sat heavily right where it had six months ago with a new addition Ed was not thrilled to see. Ben Hartley, looking roughed up and bloodied, sat slumped on the ground in front of the car with his hands tied to the front and back. His head was hanging low and he didn't move. And there, not far away was another relic he recognized.

Edward's stomach dropped as his eyes landed on a terrifyingly familiar device. It sat innocently on a metal table and Ed suddenly hoped to any gods that were listening that he and Al had been very very wrong about the purpose of that thing.

Ed wasn't sure if it had been restored or built from scratch but there it was in all its shiny glory, whole and dangerous.

His feet planted at the sight of it and the men guiding him actually stumbled a little, loosening their grip. Ed took advantage of the unintentional slip up and wrenched his hands apart, ignoring the jolt of pain in his shoulder. He dropped down delivering a sweep with his leg that dropped the guards on either side of him.

Touching his left hand to his right he laid his palm flat on the ground and used alchemy to send tendrils of granite to wrap around the guards holding Sean and the other two guards. The sound of footsteps made Ed turn quickly and he came around facing a wall of gun barrels pointed at him. He froze.

It wasn't the guns that made him stop, although it was a fairly effective deterrent. Standing directly in front of him was a man who was supposed to be on his side.

Barnes looked down on the teen with an annoyed and grim expression, flanked on both sides by over a dozen rough-looking armed men and women. His eyes held none of the charitable kindness he had before. Ed supposed it had all been a lie.

"Edward Elric," he said slowly, "you know I had heard some interesting rumours about you, Fullmetal. The People's Alchemist, isn't that cute? I'm told you're very resilient. I suppose the fact that you're here proves it."

Ed almost let out an actual growl but restrained himself. Mustang's voice came to him from their earlier meeting in the man's office We don't know who all the players are or what they're capable of. Someone had tried to kill him. Barnes had tried to kill him. He admitted to himself that it was fair to say he hadn't seen this one coming. Barnes had been so nice to him from the start, the thought that he was crooked made him reel a little but he stayed focus.

Barnes frowned at him now. "You've proven to be more difficult to kill that I anticipated," he said nastily.

Edward was disgusted with himself for being fooled by this man. "Yeah, well maybe if you didn't hire assassins with shit for brains, they'd have checked to make sure I was in my room first before blowing it to pieces," he spat, "you put a lot of innocent people's lives in danger you bastard." The teen made a move to bring his hands together but stopped as a dozen guns lifted and took aim at him.

"Hey, hey, not so fast," warned Barnes, lifting his own weapon and aiming it directly at the young alchemist's forehead. "You know, I've heard silly rumours that you were so good you could dodge bullets. Now I don't believe that for a second, no one's that good. But I can believe that you'd put up one hell of a fight since you don't seem to care about your own safety."

Ed scoffed but said nothing. He wasn't exactly wrong.

"But when it comes to others…" The man moved his weapon to aim a little to the right and above Ed's shoulder, targeting Sean. Ed scowled at the play, moving his hands apart as a show of surrender. Barnes gave a smug smile. "People's alchemist indeed. Tie him up with the other one," he ordered.

Ed was once again taken prisoner.

"And make sure his hands are tied as far apart from each other as possible and then some," he said, holstering his weapon, then looked down on Ed. "You're going to stay right there until I figure out what to do with you." As Ed was being led away, Barnes regarded Sean for a long moment then gave a sign to his men. Ed watched in horror as a man approached Sean, pulling a knife from his belt.

"Thank you Cann," said Barnes almost jovially, "you've been most helpful."

With a quick motion, the man cut the ropes binding the officer's hands.

Ed looked sharply at Sean, his heart dropping. Sean was not surprised by the action. He pointedly avoided Ed's gaze. Finally, he looked up as Ed was taken away with an apologetic expression.

"Sorry," he said sadly, "but I did try to warn you to stay out of it."

A/N

1. Another chapter, as promised.

2. Hands up readers, who saw this coming? Anyone?

3. I'm starting an end-of-story poll. You can choose between Mustang, Hawkeye, Breda, Falman or Fuery. I'm not going to tell you what the poll is for, that'll be a surprise. Vote if you want to, you may influence the ending ;)

4. Thanks for sticking with it, even through the long waits. I'm ashamed this has taken as long as it has but hearing from the readers is always so heartwarming. Thank you!