I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just can't resist starting new stories! If a story idea is bugging me enough, I just can't seem to NOT write it out, and once it's written, I tend to want to post it. Sigh. I'm so sorry, don't kill me for starting a new one, please! I'll continue to try and update the others, I really will. I have more time now than I did a little while ago, so maybe I can start trying to finish some of the others up...maybe. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I have a whole lot of FullMetal Alchemist merchandise. Do you know what that means? It means that I am a fangirl, and fangirls NEVER own what they are fans of...so why are you even asking me?

The shattering of glass could be heard as the woman looked up from the notes she was writing. Instinctively, she grabbed her wand. "That idiot," she said, "I knew he would come after me." She pushed herself up from the desk, and headed towards the room where she had heard the glass break.

The room was completely dark, but she knew he was there. She could feel the negative energy emanating from his aura. "You might as well show yourself, because I know you're here."

"And why would I want to show myself to you?" came the reply.

The woman turned her face in the direction she heard the voice come from. "You really are an idiot, aren't you? You just revealed your hiding place to me. I should be able to make quick work of you." With that, she raised her wand and uttered some unintelligible gibberish. The positive energy from the wand began to clash with the negative energy of the being before her, and the two energies collectively began to swirl around the room.

"You...won't be able to seal me away...this time," the being choked out, "I've...gotten stronger! I will kill you...once and for all...for all of our kind."

"Yes," said the woman, "You have gotten stronger, I can feel that...but so have I!" She gripped her wand even tighter, and the energy level in the room increased.

The other being began gasping for breath. It was obviously a lost cause in his case, but he managed to get a few more words out, despite the effort it took to do so. "Even if you seal me...I'll escape...and I'll be back!"

The woman laughed. "It's next to impossible for a demon to escape their prison, since love is the only thing that can break the spell, and you demons aren't capable of loving." She paused for a moment, just gaining awareness of the energy coursing through the room. It sounded to her like the being before her was trying to speak again, but it was taking too much effort, and no words were coming out. The woman raised her wand even higher. "You really aren't worth talking to. I'll just seal you now, and be done with it."

With that, she waved her wand in one large arc, which caused first an explosion, followed by a scream by the demon as he was forcefully carried out of the house on a ball of light into someplace in the distance. The woman stepped over to the window and watched the horizon as the small ball of light slowly disappeared from view. She sighed, and then muttered to herself, "It would be a lot easier on you if you would just forget."

Edward leaned on the door and took a deep breath before he pushed it open and stepped into the room. He hated having to talk to Colonel Mustang, but what was he supposed to do if Colonel Mustang sent for him? "Come on, Brother," said Al, "It won't be that bad, I'm sure. Besides, I'll be with you, so it'll be easier than facing him alone, won't it?"

Ed almost smiled at that comment. "Thanks, Al, I do appreciate that...though I'm not quite sure that ANYTHING could make it easier to talk to that man."

"Well, just the same, I..."

"Let's just get this over with," Ed interrupted as he pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

Roy looked up from his paperwork. "Oh, FullMetal, you're finally here." He paused for a moment before adding, "Have you gotten shorter?"

Ed was about to blow up at this comment before he felt Al's arm slam into his chest, reminding him to keep his temper under control. He quickly took the hint and backed down. His temper had gotten really bad over the years when one bad thing after another kept happening to the brothers, and it had started to get out of control. That kind of scared Al, so he decided to take things into his own hands and give his brother his own form of anger management...the guilt trip. He didn't like making his brother feel guilty like that, but it did control his temper, much to his relief. Strangely enough, once Al had finally gotten his original body back, the guilt trips became even more effective, so he didn't have to try as hard. Just touching Ed usually seemed to make him stop.

Roy looked somewhat amused at the scene before him, with Al keeping his brother's temper under control, but he didn't say anything. Instead he stood up and walked around to the front of his desk. He leaned back so that he was sitting on the edge of the desk, and crossed his arms. "Now, I suppose you're wondering why I sent for you?"

"Yes...?" said Ed with more than just a note of irritation in his voice.

Roy chuckled and then stood up on his own two feet, and started pacing back and forth in the room. "There is a certain kind of being that poses a great threat to humanity. They have access to tremendous power and knowledge, and they have a deep loathing for anything that breathes."

Edward yawned, Al glared at Ed, Ed shrugged, Roy chuckled, and then continued his story. "Anyway, these beings can only be defeated in one way, by being sealed away."

Ed wasn't sure that he wanted to know, but he had to ask anyway. "They have to be sealed away...where?"

Roy sighed, "Inside of a human body." Edward's eyes went wide in shock as he was about to sputter some sort of gibberish, but Roy interrupted him, "No harm comes to any human soul. They are sealed into the body of a unborn child that doesn't have a soul yet. They also have the ability to forget who they are, so some of them grow up never knowing what they are."

Ed looked down at the floor, and studied his boots. "Wouldn't it be better to leave them alone then, if they don't know what they are? Or are they still evil even then?"

"It depends," said Roy, "We try not to disturb them if they don't know anything about their true identity though, since that makes it easier on everyone involved, but we still like to keep tabs on them." Ed snapped his head up, suddenly alert. "There is one that we have just been informed of that was sealed away some years ago, but we have no knowledge of its whereabouts. Your mission is to find this being and report their location to us. Don't reveal to them anything more about their identity than they already know, or you could just make things worse."

Ed let out a bit of a snicker. This really seemed like a stupid mission for someone in the military to be sent on...but, after all, if they were going to send him on such a mission, he would go. It would be a diversion from the norm. "Very well," he said, "I accept the mission. How can I recognize this...this...what is it...when I see it?"

Roy smirked. "For lack of a better word, we call them demons."

"Demons?" Ed said as though the word tasted sour in his mouth, "Why would you send a state alchemist out on a mission like this? It sounds more like a witch hunt to me."

Roy continued with his annoying smirk, and said, "Not quite. Witches aren't a threat to us, so it's pointless to seek them out. Demons, however, are a different matter altogether." He reached back onto his desk and grabbed a folder jammed full with a bunch of papers. "Here is all the information we know about them. You should be able to find them with the information included in this packet." He handed the folder to Ed. "That is all, FullMetal, you may go."

Ed turned to leave, but then turned around one more time and said, "Wait, you never did answer why you'd sent a State Alchemist on a mission like this. Wouldn't it be more prudent to send a witch after a demon?"

Once more with the annoying smirk. "It would be if it were running loose, but it's not. All we want to do is keep tabs on it, so that's where you come in. Just find out where it is, and report back to us."

"O...kay..." Edward said, shaking his head, and then walking out the door. The mission might seem stupid to him, but hey, he was getting paid for it. It'd be interesting to do, whether it was stupid or not. "Thank goodness that's over," he said as soon as he'd stepped out the door and started flipping through the papers in the folder.

"How are we going to find this...demon...thing, Brother?" asked Al.

"How should I know?" asked Ed, continuing to flip through papers. "Well, we have one hint here. They think that it was sealed somewhere in the East...while that doesn't eliminate much...it does eliminate half of the country." Edward sighed. Al followed suit.

"Well..." Al said, "I guess that we hop on an eastbound train and see if we can get any clues."

"Right," said Ed, "In some city over there, I'd imagine that someone would recognize these personality traits in someone." He scanned over the list. Nope, he hadn't ever seen these kinds of traits in anyone he knew, so that eliminated the possibility that he had already run into this demon on his travels.

Edward sighed again. He'd been sighing a lot today. "Well, come on, Al, the day's not getting any younger."

"Uh..right!" Al picked up his pace and ran to keep up with his brother. Ed bought their tickets and the two soon found themselves on a train, heading east. "So...Brother..." Al asked hesitantly, "Is there any way that these...demons...can escape their...prison?"

"Well, according to these papers, they either have to die, though they can't kill themselves, because the spell that seals them specifically accounts for that, or they have to love someone so much that they can break free." He laughed. "Like THAT would ever happen."

"I'd imagine that if they loved someone so much that they broke the spell, they wouldn't really be a threat anymore, would they?" asked Al.

"Probably not...but they'd probably still try to seal them away again. I almost feel sorry for these...demons. I'm not even sure that I like the way their labeled, it makes them sound evil."

"But, Brother...they are evil."

Ed let the folder rest in his lap as he turned his head and looked out the window. "I'm not so sure. It seems to me like they're more...mistreated. They might seem evil, but they're probably just angry at the way that humans treat them."

Al laughed. "Now you're feeling sorry for demons. Do you realize how silly that sounds?"

Ed turned his head back to face Al. "Yeah, I suppose it does sound silly, but I can't help but wonder if there's more to it than meets the eye." Ed smiled at Al, and then said, "Well, let's get some sleep. We have work to do as soon as we arrive at our destination, so we need to get our rest."

"Good idea," said Al, stretching out on the bench seat, which just so happened to be exactly the right size for him. He hadn't quite caught up with the height he should have been yet, so he was still a bit short...shorter than Ed for that matter...but he would surpass him, he knew that much. Ed put his folder away and stretched out on his bench seat. Naturally, being short, it fit him too, but he chose to just ignore that little fact. True, Al was shorter than him now, so that made that fact a little easier to deal with, but still...

"Good night, Brother," Al said as he closed his eyes.

"Oh," said Ed, coming out of his trance, "Good night." He then rolled over and went to sleep.

Hope that you enjoyed that. A little weird, I know...but aren't I always weird? Please review, and let me know how you liked it. If you do, I'll update sooner, because I'll know that this story is actually liked, heh. Hope to see you soon.