Edward exited the train late at night. It was raining, he was alone, and no one else occupied the usually bustling station. He let out a groan. Looks like he would be ruffing it for the night, or just walking through the dark rain that was the early hours of the morning to make it to a motel or - god forbid - Central Headquarters.

"Hey, kid," Edward heard from behind him. He used his peripheral vision to see that it wasn't just one man standing near him - it was two. There were two men that looked beat up and just plain rough. Ed knew he could take them. He hadn't spent years training his body and mind for nothing, and even if he was only fifteen years old compared to these men - who were probably in their thirties - he knew he could do it.

"What do you want?" Ed asked. "I'm really not in the mood tonight, so why don't you guys go find something better to do?"

"Nah, we already found what we want to do," one of the men said, and Edward could practically hear the grin in his voice. They grew closer to him when he dropped his suitcase, drawing a protective stance.

"Back off," Ed said. He prepared to clap his hands to transmute his automail arm into a blade when two hands grabbed his, separating them. "I said back the fuck off!" he shouted this time.

"Gag him already, jeez," one of the men said. One of the men grabbed Edward's legs while the other had a hold of his arms. They carried him to a place where he was sure he wouldn't be found.

Edward knew his time was running slim. He knew that there was not another soul in the entire station that would hear his cries for help. No one would help him, so he had to help himself.

"HELP!" Ed shouted in attempts to get someone, anyone, to hear him.

"Christ, this kid's gonna get us caught!" the other said. Edward felt a punch to the face and could feel his belt being unbuckled off of his too loose pants.

Ed spit out a couple of teeth and felt blood in his mouth after he had been punched. He didn't know what triggered a raging feeling inside of him - a rage further than he had ever experienced, even when these men had grabbed him, and even when he was a child - but he put the rage to good use.

The blonde teenager struggled harder, using the weight of his automail to his advantage and making it harder for the men to get his clothes off. The more he struggled, the longer it would take for them to do anything, and the easier it would make for him to escape without permanent damage.

He could feel the fingers of the men slipping off of him. They were losing compared to his automail and Edward silently thanked Winry for making it so sturdy for him - not that this was the situation she had in mind when she had created it.

When Ed felt a hand slip off of him, he knew it was his chance, and went full out on the men. He pushed harder and harder until there were even more hands slipping off of him and he was on the ground with the other men trying to get their hands back on him.

He kicked one of the men in the stomach and hurried to get his pants back up - as they had fallen loose without his belt - as he stumbled away. He knew it wouldn't be much, but maybe he could manage to get to a building with people in it, even at three in the morning.

Edward then saw a car. He panicked, and hurried toward it, not even thinking that it might have been is assailants' car.

When he reached the car, he pounded on the window and the doors were instantly opened and two recognizable figures were outside of the car.

It was Mustang and Hawkeye.

"Edward?!" Hawkeye called out as Mustang called out, "Fullmetal?!"

"What the hell happened to you?" Mustang asked as Edward scrambled to Hawkeye. Sure, Mustang was well known, but Ed knew that Hawkeye was a protector. Yes, Mustang had looked out for him and protected him throughout the years, but he knew that Hawkeye had a womanly instinct to protect children no matter what. And that's what Ed felt like in this moment - a child.

Edward shook his head. "Can we please just go?" he asked. "Please? Take me somewhere else, anywhere else?"

"Where's your suitcase?" Hawkeye asked. She knew that Ed never traveled without it. It happened to have research notes in it, as well as his changes of clothing, though, they were slim.

"I don't care," Edward said. Hawkeye took the teen into her embrace, and was shocked when he leaned into it, finding comfort in it. Normally, Ed wouldn't be so eager to show weakness by accepting comfort.

"Sir, would you please retrieve Edward's suitcase?" Hawkeye appeared to ask, though was instructing the man to do this.

"No!" Ed shouted. "Just leave it..." he trailed off, embarrassed at his outburst. He was embarrassed at the whole situation, really, and he didn't want the colonel to go find his suitcase with a couple of men and put all the evidence into place on what happened. He was a soldier of the state and couldn't even protect himself from a couple of rapists.

"I'll go find it, Fullmetal," Mustang said, in an abnormally gentle tone. He must have been picking up on the vibes Ed was sending off as well. "Hawkeye is going to get you in the car, and I'll return with your suitcase."

Edward didn't answer, but also didn't object to being placed into the car with the woman watching over him. Mustang walked off into the direction that Ed had run from and began to search for the item that always seemed too large for the teenager to carry.

The colonel saw the suitcase in the middle of the train station. There was no one around it, and Mustang had to admit that he was trying to find out just what had happened to scare the teenager so much that he was acting...well...weak.

Mustang grabbed the suitcase, looking around to see that there was a belt not too far away.

It was Edward's belt.

The colonel felt a rage inside of him when he saw this. He was a trained professional and it wasn't hard to put everything together. The belt was forcibly taken off as shown by the hole that was worn out due to the amount of pressure placed on it to remove it.

Mustang walked back to the car and saw Edward's eyes widen when he zero'd in on the belt in his colonel's hands. He knew the man knew. He felt almost relieved that the man knew, and yet was terrified of the man thinking him to be weak.

"Fullmetal," Mustang started when he got in the car. He slid into the backseat to be closer to the teen. "Where are you staying for the night?"

"I planned on staying with Hughes when I got in," Edward answered.

"And your brother?"

"Back in Dublith with our teacher."

"Very well."