Chapter Seven

You're Back?

" 'Yes?' Edward replied. "

Roy stared hard at the dirty young man in front of him before the medical team arrived, and Edward immediately backed away into the corner again. They looked over Roy and deemed his arm to be fractured and 'nearly cut to ribbons'. Riza was really too nice sometimes, he thought before Roy asked one of the medics to go and look at Edward. He was careful about not saying his name, but with a bit of coaxing he was able to convince one. At first, the wild young man looked ready to protect himself, shoulders tense and eyes steady before Roy convinced him to hold still.

The medic could find nothing wrong with him, no injuries, or scars except for the obvious lack of focus. "It's like he's not all there, I've seen this in patients with shock but he has no other symptoms that I can see. We should get him back to base and get him cleaned up, there's no telling what kind of filth he's been in for how long." the medic said, her white army uniform a stark contrast to Edward's filth and dark clothing.

"He's covered in a lot of blood, do you think he could have been there when whatever attacked the people in Misview was there?" the medic questioned. "He could have escaped and fled into the caverns."

"Possibly." Roy replied hesitantly, not really sure what to think at that point, finding Edward there in the first place was a big enough shock.

"General Mustang?" Roy turned and saw Riza making a beeline for him, face serious as she asked the medic to go check on a soldier who'd 'hurt his foot'.

When she was gone Riza kneeled down beside Roy and looked long and hard at Edward, who was still frantically filling the room with the click of charcoal on stone. "How long do you think he's been down here?" Riza whispered.

"Judging on his appearance, months, maybe years." Mustang replied. "It explains why he saved me though."

They looked at the glaze-eyed fugitive, watching as he continued to scribble and stare into nothing, like Roy and Riza didn't even exist. For a moment Roy was lost in the past, back to the funeral, back to when he'd placed the picture frame in the blonde's casket and the finality of it all had crashed down on him. Now Edward kneeled before him, very much alive but still so far away from him that it hurt to look upon the crouched figure. Panic surged through him for a moment, tightening his chest and tensing the muscles in his back. What would they do if Alphonse discovered the truth?

With purpose Roy brought himself up tall, barking out orders as he used Riza's shoulder as a crutch. While the soldiers were scampering to obey him he returned to the side of Edward, kneeling down in front of him and trying to catch his attention.

"Edward." Roy urged, watching as the near blank eyes continued to dart across the lines and symbols. "Edward?"

He was effectively ignored by the young man, Roy looked down and tried to follow the complicated system of lines and angles that made up the circle he was drawing without much luck. It was too complicated even for him to decipher part of it, throwing caution to the wind he reached out with his uninjured arm and laid his hand over the blond's. Yellow eyes looked confused before they darted up to look at Roy whose own face was nervous and waiting to see what he would do. Riza stood behind him, he could hear her sharp intake of breath when he reached out and heard the click of her handgun. Ed's right arm was wrapped tightly in black fabric, crisscrossed and bound like a mummy all the way up to just below his pectoral.

"Edward, do you understand me?" Roy asked slowly, carefully pronouncing everything so that he could be understood.

A blink and a tilt of the head. "Yes." Roy sighed thankfully, letting his shoulders unclench.

"Alright, do you know where you are?" the blond head twisted the other way, tilting upwards and looking at what little sky they could see through the holes in the cave ceiling. "Edward?"

"Misview Experimental Facility. Eighty-seven miles from West City Headquarters, one hundred and eighty-two miles to Central City, two hundred and eighty-five to Risembool." Ed's eyes move back and forth over the ceiling as if he were reading the answers off of them. "You're here?"

The question stopped Roy for a minute, it was full of relief but at the same time confusion. "Yes, Edward we're here." he tried, unsure what was going through the young alchemist's head. "Is that bad?"

"No." he pulled away from the General, stood and wandered off to the other side of the room.

With a sigh Roy and Riza followed the elder Elric, they watched as he stood at the far wall staring at all the transmutation circles and chicken scratch notes that littered the stone in shades of grey and black. "Fullmetal." Mustang snapped, watching as Ed's eyes grew wide and his head pivoted to the General. "I need you to focus, can you do that?"

"I... think so..." he replied suddenly finding his fingers extremely interesting before he broke away and laid an almost steady gaze on Roy.

"How did you get here?" Roy began carefully, watching as the focused expression changed to concentration.

"A light... " face tilted to the sky again he recalled his arrival in that place, of the bright light and the blinding pain that had dragged him out of the darkness that had trapped him for so long.

Something snapped inside him, screaming its head off as a long, sharp ringing pierced his ears. A mass of information flew through his mind's eye like a whirlwind, warning flags stood at attention as he attempted to understand why. When his mind thought back to the first day it rebelled against him, it fought him every step of the way, the harder he pushed the louder the screams became. His eyes dropped from the openings in the ceiling to the dirty stone floor, as if the words were in the air before him his eyes skimmed over everything. Roy called to him but he couldn't hear over the noise, it only grew louder in his head digging its claws deeper.

As suddenly as it begun, it stopped. Swallowed were his thoughts until they were all gone, silence fell and he allowed the hands he never knew had been raised to clutch his head to fall to his sides. For a moment Edward stared at the stone floor, lost in the recesses of his broken mind. He could hear Mustang calling to him, but his mind was elsewhere. A question rose to him, brought from the depths of his memories. Why?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy?

WHY?

–

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Havoc sighed heavily as he shut the door of the military truck, inside Mary had been fed, checked by the doctors and packed away to be taken to Central. She'd cried a bit after Mustang and the soldiers had gone into the caves, afraid that they would kill the man that she saw as her hero. With bit of coaxing, she'd been convinced to eat some food before she was due on the next train to Central Headquarters and had almost taken a shine to the Lieutenant. He returned her sad wave when the truck pulled away, he felt bad for the girl she hadn't meant for any of this to happen and yet the girl was happy it did. Whoever her mother had been, she'd done a number on the poor girl.

With Mustang and Hughes in the caves, he was left in charge of the soldiers while the Brigadier General was on the search and rescue for Roy. When a group of soldiers had rushed out in a panic they all feared the worst, when the soldiers said that a giant chimera had killed the Flame Alchemist a stone dropped into his stomach. They'd said it was unconfirmed, and his superior was notorious for coming back from close shaves but he worried all the same. Falman, Fuery and Breda had been the lucky ones, they'd gotten to stay back in Central while he and Riza had been chosen to travel three days away and go on a manhunt. Though he enjoyed the chance to get out in the field at the same time now that everything had happened he was almost regretting his decision.

He could only hope that they found the General, in the mean time he was in charge of a whole mess of soldiers and he needed to make sure that everything was running smoothly. Many of the men that had pulled up base in Misview reported to him every hour or so, after Mary had been carted off he was glad to have a moment to himself. Away from all the loud soldiers and the roar of trucks was a little clearing that wasn't taken over by the little, but spread out town. A calm pool of water sat undisturbed a ways away from the entrance of the cave, close enough he could keep an eye out for anyone rushing out but far enough away to have a bit of privacy. When he was sure he was out of sight Havoc let out a long sigh, snapping his neck back and forth to work out the stress, rolling his shoulders leisurely.

Maybe when they got back to Central he'd call up that massage therapist he'd gotten the number of, his shoulders would probably thank him for it. Ah, yes Tabitha, she was a beautiful woman. Beautiful hands above all else, Tabitha was very meticulous about the care of her skin and nails, not for her own vain agenda but for her clientele. She was a sweet girl on top of it all, always asked Havoc where he wanted to go and when he gave her free reign she always found middle ground with him. Though they'd only dated for a few weeks they stayed exceptionally good friends, dating just seemed to complicate too much between them and Havoc was glad to have a good female friend.

He slumped against a nearby tree and took a deep breath of mountain air, nothing like the air in Central where all the alchemists left their experiments burning at a constant. The air was much cleaner here, and even the soldiers were thankful for it. Havoc fished around in his pockets, finally coming up with a carton of cigarettes that he always carried with him. Two years prior he'd gotten together with a woman that had been an avid health nut, she'd actually helped him give up the cancer sticks and even start exercising again. They broke up when she caught him sneaking a smoke every once in a while, seriously it wasn't a big deal, he'd get stressed and smoke one sometimes maybe once a month or less. Shortly after he'd met Tabitha, but since she'd decided they were better as friends he'd left the package at home to rot.

Now though, stress was an understatement for how he felt, unless word came back soon about if Mustang was dead or alive he needed something not mind-altering to bring his nerves down. Pulling one out he quickly trapped it between his lips, the package found itself back in his pocket while he pulled out the box of matches. It struck and he touched it to the end, puffing on it a little and feeling the relief flood through his probably now blackened lungs. He took a deep breath and held it, the nicotine surging through his body before a snap nearby made him choke on his own smoke. Coughing, his watery eyes searched around for the culprit, he didn't expect a deer to be carefully lapping up water so close to him.

"Huh, well would you look at that..." he chuckled, the doe was still pretty young though obviously full grown she still had a few spots splattering her tanned rump.

Surprised that the deer was so close he took a drag off his cigarette and took a bit of peace in watching the deer, he'd never seen one come this close before with only a few yards between them. Tall ears swiveled around as it drank to keep a lookout for danger, it raised its head to look at him once but it seemed to dismiss him as a threat as it bent its long neck again. Havoc took peace in his nicotine, puffing quietly as he watched the deer drink he felt a bit of the tension leave his shoulders. Thin eyebrows lifted upwards when the doe's head snapped up, he felt himself almost flinch as well when the creature let out a rough snort and tried to dig in its hooves and dart away. Kicking up dirt and grass it spun towards the safety of the trees, but never made it.

The deer was ripped from his sight, suddenly overtaken by surging water and sand with teeth. Slowly the mound of water and sand that stayed suspended drew back into the water, dragging the struggling deer clamped tight between mostly camouflaged jaws. He could still see the tip of the muzzle and front legs struggling to free itself, Havoc froze when it stopped, turning a bright slitted eye to him. A loud bellow bounced off the stone nearby, alerting the soldiers he'd attempted to avoid for even a short amount of time. They ran to him, asking what had happened, seeing the remaining hoof that had been left behind when the deer had been taken.

"Well... " Havoc dropped his cigarette to the ground and nervously stepped it out, his face pale and eyes wide. "Would you look at that..."

Maybe he shouldn't have tried smoking that cigarette after all...

Sorry for the extended disappearance guys. ^^; These next few chapters are being quite a doozy, can't seem to get this next chapter just how I want it. For now we have this, sorry it's so short! I am still working on this, I've been reading through it and changing a few things and drawing out a plot chart. As always Read and Review guys! I love seeing all your awesome comments! They're really beautiful and I love hearing from you!