Colonel Roy Mustang had been in a deep sleep, delightfully accompanied by a dream in which he and a beautiful woman were having a picnic of some sort, when the world around him was shattered by the shrill, incessant ringing of the telephone beside his bed. The dream dissipated as Roy groggily opened his eyes, and tried to rub the crust out of them. He reached for the telephone on his nightstand while simultaneously glancing across the room at the glowing numbers of his clock, and upon seeing the time fought the urge to slam the phone back onto its receiver.

Who the hell was stupid enough to call a man who could willingly summon flames from his fingertips at the late hour of 3:27 AM?

He knew, though, that such a late call inevitably meant something important, since the only people who had his home number was his team, his foster mother, and maybe a few stray people he had let his number fall into the hands of - the only other method of reaching Roy so late at night via his phone would be to look it up in his military records, but the chances of that happening were low, and since everyone he knew was fully aware of the Death King State he went into when he got less than eight hours of sleep, he answered the phone both highly agitated and highly curious.

"Hurro?" Roy slurred, and immediately cleared his throat. "Colonel Roy Mustang speaking."

There was a hushed whispering on the other side of the line, and he was about to label it a prank call and hang up before he heard the familiar voice of a particular Elric on the line.

"Oh, uh, um, hey, Mustang - er, Colonel."

Of course. Who else? Mustang sat up in bed and turned the lamp beside his bed on as he rubbed his eyes in weariness and annoyance, the curiosity having dissipated. "This better be good, Fullmetal." Man, would the older man kick the teenager's ass tomorrow if it was anything less of a Philospher's Stone, someone dying, or his dorm burning down. No, you know what, scratch that. Mustang didn't care if Ed's dorm was burning down. He could find a hotel and wait for another four hours to call.

"Um, yeah kind of. So, funny story - ow, shit!" Mustang's eyes narrowed at the loud thud that sounded suspiciously like a fist, immediately aware that something was wrong on the other end as hushed voices impatiently urged the teenager on. As Roy waited for Ed to continue, he swiftly slid out of bed and started to get dressed, silently thanking himself for buying the cordless telephone.

"Okay, so, funny thing," Edward said, and Mustang hurriedly pulled on his pants at the urgency and anxiousness in the boy's voice which would usually be placed behind at least some sort of facade. "You were right, for once, and I was wrong, and I'msorrybutyouneedtogivethemtenthousanddollarsorelsethey'regonnashootmybrainsout." Edward's voice trailed off into something just short of a whimper, and the last phrase was all connected as one word, though Mustang understood with dread what he had said. "Um, by the way, Colonel, you're on speaker."

"Okay, and might I ask who I'm speaking with and why I should give them a penny?" Mustang's voice turned cold and business-like, and even though he was aching to comfort an obviously distressed subordinate, he knew now was not the time to mess around; though he did feel bad at Ed's silent shock at the 'why-should-I-reason-with-you' part when it was obviously implied that the golden-haired boy was not a big enough bargaining chip.

Of course, Mustang already knew who was on the other side of the phone, and that was why he could feel worry coursing through him like fire as he quickly grabbed a pen and notepad so he could write down any information, now being fully clothed. Earlier that day, Ed had come bursting into his office as he was having a discussion with Hughes about the most recent bandits called the 'Green and Gouged Bandits', who were known for their severity in the physical sense and their greed in the monetary sense. Edward, sensing a sense of adventure, had implored more about it, and then been asked to be assigned to them as a mission, claiming he could enjoy beating up bad guys instead of finding a dead end on the Philosopher's Stone, for a change.

Naturally, Roy had declined, since any sort of crime group that lasted more than a week in Central equated them on the level of serial killers, and considering that they had made it this far with no alchemists in their group (but the extended knowledge of how to kidnap and subdue them), going as far as to threaten to court-martial the boy if he even tried to smell where they were. Ed had promptly chucked his latest report onto the desk, narrowly missing Hughes, and as he stomped out the door said something along the lines of 'Colonel Bastard, hogging all the fun for yourself!' without even acknowledging Hughes' presence, probably more out of hope that he wouldn't start gushing to him about his daughter than out of desire to be rude.

Nonetheless, an hour later he had found the Major sniffing out reports about the bandits among some of the lower-ranked privates that he knew he could abuse, and having found out that they were sufficiently homicidal, strutted away from the oncoming colonel with a wave of his hand and a 'Don't worry, I won't do anything stupid'.

Obviously he had broken that promise, since he was now being held at gunpoint by said group and valued at ten thousand dollars.

"I'm sure you've heard of us", a gruff voice said on the other end. "So I'll cut to the chase. He put up a damn good fight, but if you want him back alive", the villian said with the stress on the last word, "You'll need to meet us in one hour at the old abandoned saw factory on East Street. Just you and the money, or the kid dies."

"Hey, not dying would be nice!" Called a distant Ed, who received another thump and a small whimper of pain, to which Roy felt his blood boil.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes." Roy answered coldly. "I'd like to speak with Edward one more time, please. I need to make sure you're not just replaying a recording in the background."

The man huffed, and the receiver rustled and he guessed the phone was being passed to his subordinate, whose chances of surviving the night were uncomfortably slim. "Ed, you are in so much trouble when I get you back", Mustang growled, but without his usual heat. His true intention, of course, was not to give the boy any more stress, but see if the boy could subtly communicate something that would help the situation.

"They actually found me! I wasn't even looking for the bastards!" Ed cried in his defense in such indignation and desperation that Roy knew instinctively that the boy wasn't lying, and after another blow to the head he said, "I was just genuinely curious!"

"Don't worry Ed, we'll get you out of there." Roy could tell his window was closing, and silently willed the boy to say something useful that wouldn't get him immediately killed.

"Okay - hey, don't let Alphonse forget to feed the dogs, all right? They haven't had dinner since six." Ed rushed this last part before the phone was obviously ripped away from him and a gruff voice simply said 'One hour' to the sounds of Ed once again being tortured in the background, and then the receiver went dead.

Three phone calls.

The first, to Hawkeye. It was brief, informative, and soon full of rage bubbling over at both ends as they realized that Ed wasn't going to escape this one completely unscathed. She was to pick him up in fifteen minutes in her car while he phoned his bank, his second call, while he arranged to pick up ten thousand dollars straight - almost his whole account (he didn't have time to draw from military resources, since HQ was too far) - from the bank manager shortly, who was more than a little agitated at the hour and the transaction, but was obliged to comply with the order on account of Roy's involvement in the military.

The last, hesitantly. He knew he didn't have to worry about waking Alphonse up, but he didn't want to make the boy worry unnecessarily. Well, he supposed it wasn't unnecessary, so Roy dialed the number and hoped he could clear up some confusion.

"Hello?" The confused metallic voice on the other end answered, voice full of worry. "Ed?"

"No, Alphonse. It's Roy. Ed's been kidnapped, but we have it covered."

"Kidnapped?!" Alphonse gasped.

"Yes. I will fill you in once we retrieve him. Lieutenant Hawkeye is bringing in the local force. We'll get him back in one piece", Roy assured the boy, wishing his own words would convince him as well. "I have just one question."

"Yes?"

Roy realized how ridiculous he must sound as he asked the question with genuine intensity, but he didn't really care. "Do you have dogs?"

"No, sir", Alphonse replied, not the least bit miffed.

"Thank you, Alphonse. I'll call you and fill you in as soon as we get news."

"Thank you Colonel." Al said in a small voice, and Roy hung up, hurrying outside to jump in the car with Hawkeye.

"Any news?" She asked before speeding towards the bank.

"You said you got the local force?" He asked. She nodded, and he inquired, "Does that include the K-9 unit?"

"Sir?"

"Ed said something about dogs - I figured he means the K-9 unit, or else they hit him so hard that he now thinks he has dogs," Roy filled in, and a dark silence fell over both of them as they realized that with the gang's brutal history, that was actually a very, very real possibility.

"They must be fast on their feet."

"I'd think so. He said they hadn't eaten since six, so-"

"There's six of them?"

"Right, Lieutenant." Roy rushed out as they reached the bank, grabbed the money from the manager with a hurried thanks, and ran back to the car as it tore off towards old factory, where the 'exchange' would take place.

With fifteen minutes left to go until the set time, a plan was finally in place. Roy would dutifully do the exchange, no funny business; as soon as he had Edward safely out of the building and on route to the hospital for any contusions he might have suffered, the force would storm the building, and any criminal trying to escape would be set upon by the K-9 unit.

Five minutes left, and Roy nervously entered the abandoned factory, the local force being well-hidden and Riza ready to aid him in driving Ed to the nearest infirmary.

The doors creaked as Roy pushed his way through them, and as he entered a large room, a deep voice thronged towards him.

"Stop where you are. Take the money and slowly place it on the table in the center of the room, then back away twenty paces. We will then come out and count it - if you follow these instructions, you will receive your subordinate. If not, he will be shot at the first sign of trouble."

"How do I know he's still alive?" Roy shot out, the room a confusing mixture of echoes and destruction that served to his disadvantage.

"I'm here, Colonel," Ed's tired voice came from somewhere in the room that Roy couldn't pinpoint.

"Ed, what's the name of Pinako's granddaughter?" Roy called, making sure that Ed's voice wasn't simply an illusion or recording.

"Winry." Came the exhausted response, his voice cracking.

"Place the money on the table."

Roy did as he was told, and as a masked man came and counted the money, he gave a signal to his fellow criminals to let them know it was the right amount.

"We will now release your subordinate. He will remain in the middle of the room. Neither of you will move until we are out the door. We will have a gun on him at all times. Try anything and you loose both the boy and the money forever", the voice once again warned.

A figure suddenly came out from behind one of the broken machines that littered the room, pushing ahead of him one Edward Elric.

Looking back, the hardest thing in his life was to restrain from frying every single one of the criminals in the room the instant he saw Ed.

There was no bullshit about the way they handled their 'business', Roy realized as bile rose to his mouth.

Edward could hardly stand on his feet - or, rather, foot; both his automail limbs had been removed to restrain him, and he barely managed to stand upright with the help of a wooden pole that he grasped on to with his remaining hand in a desperate attempt to not meet with the floor. His clothes were tattered and torn all over; his pants looked as if some sort of animal had attacked them, and his flesh leg had blood oozing from what could only be knife stains in his upper thigh (Roy prayed they hadn't somehow nicked or severed the femoral artery, or Ed would never make it to the hospital), his platform shoes and socks had been ripped off and it looked as if they had made him walk across coals or something, because his foot had numerous burn marks on the top and there must be some on the bottom too, since Ed visibly winced every time he had to move.

His tanktop had been torn off, and his torso was covered with cigarette burn marks and bruises that covered his entire chest, ranging from blue to deep purple to a sickly green color, and from the way Ed's chest caved in Roy guessed that more than a few ribs had been broken in the process. On Ed's left arm there were two deep gauges that looked to be knife wounds.

Ed had two black eyes, and several bumps on his head that made his skull seem irregularly shaped. Hair had, in patches, been pulled out; the boy's usual trademark braid was loose. Both ears looked as if they had been boxed in several times, and his nose broken, as well as his fist (probably an attempt at self-defense) - the only thing Roy could think of other than death that the criminals couldn't do was cutting the boy's hair, which probably would have had the boy even more upset than the rest of the injuries combined.

Well, no, that wasn't true. Roy could think of a third thing they might have done, but so help him god, if they had even thought about violating Ed like that, any chance at Roy becoming Fuhrer was out the window, because these fuckers were dead if they thought they would live if they had sexually assaulted Edward.

"Fullmetal", Roy finally managed to croak as the men were almost out of the room. Then it all went wrong.

A dog barked.

Suddenly, Edward was on the floor, a bullet in his right shoulder, and Roy was filled with an unfathomable rage greater than he had ever felt even in Ishvaal, and the fire in his blood was released through his fingertips as he snapped towards the group on his way towards Edward, and he felt confident later when he learned that he had given them all at least first-degree burns.

Upon reaching the frail boy, Roy crouched down and picked him up gingerly, knowing that anywhere he tried to pick him up from would hurt Ed.

Sometimes, there's no joy in being right.

The boy cried out in pain as his eyes glassed over, and soon Roy was running out the door as smoothly but quickly as his legs could carry him, and he and the boy were in the car, speeding off towards the hospital, Roy using his jacket to try and stop the bleeding from Ed's shoulder as he realized the bark that had startled the men must have been one of the dogs from the K-9 unit, since there were no living quarters anywhere near the factory to house a dog. The men must have realized the same thing - Roy was only surprised (and eternally grateful) that the bullet intended for Ed's heart had instead been lodged in his shoulder.

As Edward struggled to retain consciousness, he looked up at Roy with glassy eyes. He tried to speak but ended up coughing up blood, and the colonel, feeling more useless than he had ever felt in his life, looked to Riza helplessly. She looked at the boy with a pained expression before once more focusing on the road, and Roy tried to quietly calm the boy down, struggling to keep his voice from cracking as he told Ed not to talk.

The car sped on.

Wow, that was a doozy! It's much too late at night to start the second chapter... I thought this was going to be a one-shot, but I guess it'll be a two-shot (maybe more if people really like it). It figures Ed would be so badly beaten up; can't you just imagine him sassing off to guys despite his limblessness and their possession of weapons? Anyway, pleeeeease review! My first FMA fanfic :3 Second chapter up soon!