As per usual, I've been pretty active on ao3 with some AUs, but I figured I might as well cross-post this one. Will be a relatively short fic, but as I'm not finished yet, updates will come weekly. Enjoy!

Cover art by Akarri! Full version available on my tumblr ranowa-fanart-dump!

When they finally found Roy, Maes thought it was already too late.

It was one of the deepest rooms in the lab, and with the power knocked out all they had to work with was the faint glow of the emergency light strips, an eerie sort of blue-green luminescence that barely managed to illuminate the room at all, never mind help clarify what had happened here. Just that the cage, formerly a host to what Maes could only guess to have been a chimera, had been violently broken- and that said creature was now nowhere to be seen.

It was Maes who carefully went after the three researchers on the floor, checking for a pulse in each one of the cooling, blood soaked bodies.

"Dead," he said quietly. "Each one."

Each one looked like they had been clawed to death by something... big.

Not human.

Maes swallowed hard.

Ed squirmed another step back in the darkness, though Maes couldn't tell if he was trying to get further away from the cage or the dead bodies. Either way, he could not blame him. "Well, what now?" the kid asked uncomfortably; the emergency lights glinted off his bladed arm as he waved it in the air, glancing at him. "Do we keep going?"

Maes nodded tersely, half lowering his weapon but tense all the same, all too wary of a chimera in the shadows; perhaps, even, the monstrosity that had done- this. "I think this is probably the source of all this trouble. Whatever chimera that caused all of this came from this room, but they're certainly not here anymore…"

By his side, Ed tensed a little again, his face sallow and unhealthy in the dim lighting. "Yeah, and look around, Hughes. I bet whatever the chimera did to these guys it was in self-defense. And now we're supposed to put him down like a sick dog, right?"

"Ed…"

"It's fucked up and wrong. The military researches on them like they're braindead animals, then acts like it's a cardinal sin for them to fight back. Calls us into-"

"If you want to try and reason with the animal that did all of this," Maes gestured steadily about the carnage, "be my guest. If you want to lobby the military and speak out against chimera research, also, be my guest, but we're not here to talk about animal rights. We're here to make sure this chimera doesn't hurt anyone else- includinginnocent civilians, Ed- people who have nothing to do with any of this at all." Frowning a little, Maes returned his dagger to his sleeve as he picked up a nearby file, holding it out under one of the glowing light strips to try and get some more insight.

He was hoping this was all just a coincidence. One huge, horrible coincidence. He'd hoped for it since the moment the alarms had gone off, he'd hoped for it since he'd dragged Ed down here before Bradley could give the probable cease and desist order, and he was praying for it now as he squinted to read the file under the light.

He prayed for the best… even as his heart, more and more, feared the very worst.

"This isn't that helpful," he murmured, reading down the sheet. "It just says Creature Z…"

Ed made another small, unhappy sound, metal blade clanging with a cold and chilling ring against the wall. "That means it's classified. If the animal used in a chimera was classified, or something like that- something they don't want written down in too many places, I mean- they'll call it Creature Z. The real name is only recorded in one or two places; probably not here." Seeming to be done waiting in this dark, bloody room, Ed pulled away, squinting to follow the dripping, black blood stains along the floor and leaving Maes to scramble after him, file in his arms. "Al and I figured that out when we were looking into chimeras, what the military does with them. After N-" Ed stopped, his small, dark form tensing a little against the wall. His voice wavered. "…you know."

Maes, swallowing hard again, tightened his grip aroundn the file in his hands

He did know.

"…Anyway," Ed went on, even more tense than before, only to stop at a fork in the path. Hesitantly, the alchemist took a small step left, then shook his head vehemently and swerved off in the other direction, not even stopping to explain himself or help Maes. "This way, this way- anyway, the military tries to keep it quiet, but they do a lot of sketchy shit. Does it say anything else?"

"What do you mean?"

Ed muttered something to himself, still seeming to be focusing more on the blood trail and the darkness and the flickering lights than what he was saying. "They have to record how dangerous the chimeras are, in case- well. In case of shit like this. It was based off how dangerous the animals were, how docile the chimera was, stuff like that…"

Made sense, Maes figured. He glanced uneasily back down at the file, holding it closer to the wall to try and decipher the tiny print in the darkness. No… no… not that… no…

He stopped.

He gulped.

"…All it says is to approach with extreme caution. Use of lethal force is necessary and condoned."

Ed paused again, lingering uncertainly against the wall, metal blade still raised and back even tenser than before.

Then, he kept on going without another word.

Maes followed close behind, heart pounding so fast and hard it felt like the blood was racing in his ears and his chest was tight and screaming from the anxiety. The alarm continued blaring, faint blood trails gleaming and almost luminous under the strange lighting, slick under his feet, and every quick turn and locked door the barged past only sent his heart down further into his stomach- because he was afraid of what he would find.

He hadn't spoken to Ed about his fears just yet. They were so close to surely unfounded he hadn't been able to work up the nerve, too wary of how things might end today if he was wrong- and part of him was still praying that he was wrong, because the alternative was just too horrible to consider.

The research labs in the basement of HQ, a closely guarded secret but one that Maes, at his station and rank, was fully aware of, had sent them into a basewide lockdown, not thirty minutes ago today. There'd been procedures to be followed, gates to be shut, guards to be set out- but Maes had had his fears growing for weeks now, and Maes had seen the alarm gone off himself, had heard the escaping scientists gasping about an out of control chimera, and he'd known, oh, god, he'd known how paranoid he was being- he'd known how unlikely it was- how almost certainly wrong he was-

And he'd known that, on the very slim chance that he was right, that was his one and only chance to act.

He'd taken Ed, the poor, unfortunate boy who'd been by his side only by happenstance, and he'd ran.

It was dangerous. It was probably stupidly dangerous, because if he was wrong, and this was just a wild beast tearing the labs apart- here Maes was, completely untrained for it, and here Ed was, fully capable of fighting it off but with a soft spot for chimeras a mile wild, and none of the other soldiers knew where they were. This was a horrible, horrible situation and a really, really bad idea.

And he was too desperate to care.

If there's a chance… just the slightest chance…

Ed came to a sudden halt again, pacing grumpily at a fork in the corridors, one hand clenching at his pants leg while the blade continued twitching by his side. "Hughes, I don't know about this. I really, really don't like this. There's blood everywhere, we don't know anything about what we're going up against except that he'll probably wanna kill us for being military, nobody knows where we are… why are you so insistent about this? It's not safe- I really think-"

And then, out of nowhere, he stopped dead.

It was so suddenly Maes almost ran into him, barely stopping himself from toppling into his back at the very last moment. "What is it?" he demanded, voice just a hushed whisper as he jumped to move around him, shaking him by the shoulder. "Ed, what-"

"Shh," the alchemist hissed. "Shh, shh… listen. Do you hear that?"

Hear something? Under the blaring alarms and his own panicked, pounding heart, no- no, Maes did not hear something. He could barely hear Ed's words, for god's sake. "Ed, I-"

"This way!"

"Wha- Ed-!" he cried, but Ed was already pulling him back down the left path, towards an even darker depth of the lab. "Ed, wait-"

God, Maes thought as he was tugged powerfully along behind a suddenly running kid barely even a third his size, some day this kid is going to be the death of me.

It then occurred to him, somewhat morbidly, that it was quite possible that day was going to be today, if the monstrous chimera that had slaughtered those three scientists back there was still in here, and Ed was dragging him straight to it.

It wasn't just Ed; there was something about that whole State Alchemy program, he determined as he was tugged along, something that made all its members bull-headed and stubborn and far too reckless to live past thirty, and made them drag along those around them on their stubborn and dangerous missions into reckless-land, and, oh, all right, he was a bit of a hypocrite, because the only reason Ed was in the mess was because Maes had dragged him along, but-

"There!" Ed suddenly cried, his bolt of a run jerking to a stop so suddenly Maes nearly tumbled to the floor. "Here, it's- do you hear that, Hughes? It's coming from right here, I think, do you- do you hear that...?"

Maes groaned, rubbing a hand over his face again. No, aside from the still steady, monotonous call of the emergency alarms that echoed anew with every corner, aside from Ed loudly babbling at him, no, there was nothing-

Maes, his mouth already half open to order Ed to just explain, stopped.

He frowned.

There... was something.

Ed had taken them to another door, this one marked with symbols on the outside to designate it as some such lab just like all the rest, and by the emergency lights on the floor this wasn't even close to an exit. The door was shut, and with the alarms still blaring it was almost impossible to listen through it, wouldn't have even tried if not for Ed, but...

He could hear it, now.

It sounded almost like... sobbing.

That was it. Deep, guttural, shaking sobs...

Sobs that did not sound entirely human.

Maes exchanged another tense look down with Ed. In the darkness and thin glow of the emergency lights, he looked almost green, sharp eyes wide and silent at the sound, his mouth fallen to a thin line, and Maes knew that he had come to the exact same conclusion that he had.

"Ed," he said, as quietly as he could and still be heard in the clamor. He reached out to touch his shoulder just as the alchemist moved to try the knob. "Whatever it is that's in there, if it tries to hurt either of us, you can't hesitate, all right? Just because the military's probably been cruel to it so far doesn't mean it'll do anyone any good for you to get yourself hurt."

Ed's eyes narrowed up at him, still silent and now, guarding reluctance. Guarding anger. At the probable injustice of it all, at the unfairness, at what had happened to Nina, all of it. But Ed was also not a child, anymore, and Maes could see in his eyes that he heard the truth in his words as clear as he heard the sobbing behind the door.

"I know, sir," he muttered darkly, quickly casting his eyes away, and he did not look at him again as he returned his focus back to the mission at hand, and at last tried the door.

It was not locked, to both of their surprises, and raising another question for Maes; if the chimera was behind this door, and it was sounding like it was, how had the chimera gotten inside at all? How had it opened the door? Was it more human than animal, more human than Nina had been, more human than a wild beast the military would want to put down like a diseased dog?

Because the ravaged, clawed apart bodies that he'd seen, so savage, so bloody... that could've only been the work of an animal.

Ed, with another wary, tense sort of breath, slid in front of him, and pushed the door open to allow their way into the rest of the room.

From over Ed's head, at first, all Maes could discern was that it was very dark, just like the rest of the whole underground lab complex, and rather small, the lights on the opposite wall flashing at him from what felt like less than ten feet away. He blinked hard several times, the flashing lights so bright and constant they felt burned into his eyelids even as he squinted down into the room, trying to discern details, searching for the source of the sobbing which had only gotten louder when Ed had opened the door, that deep, cracked sound of grief- of an animal in pain.

At first, all there was to make out was a great, trembling lump on the floor. Covered in something, like a blanket or an especially large coat, hiding the creature's humanity (or lack thereof) in its entirety, just shivering there on the floor, and at first, that was all Maes could see.

Then in the flashing of the lights, there was a gleam of metal, the figure slowly, tremulously lifting something off the floor, and Maes shouted, "Gun!" as he threw himself onto Ed, and there was s sharp blue sizzle of alchemy to spring a wall up before them just in time for the gunshot.

Maes hit the floor gasping, curled protectively over Ed and completely stunned in the same breath, and looking down to the young alchemist saw him just as shocked as he was. His eyes were huge and face drained white, hands still pressed against the floor from the wall he'd brought up to protect them, that had protected them, because they weren't shot right now, but in his eyes Maes saw the same disbelief that had nearly stopped his own heart.

Had they just been shot at?

By a chimera?

"Stay down," Maes hissed, planting his hand back down on the kid's neck as Ed started to rise, trying to keep him firmly down beneath his wall. "Ed-"

"Did we just fucking get shot at?" Ed craned his neck, not quite peering beyond the wall but still gaping up at him, hands falling out of their clap as he started to try and maneuver himself around, trying to get a better look while at the same time not expose himself to danger. "Did we just- you said gun, was that- what the hell was that?"

Maes just shook his head back, hand still pressed to the back of Ed's neck. He had no idea what the hell it was, he hadn't even been able to glimpse anything beyond that shivering lump on the floor before he'd seen the gun. He glanced nervously back to the door behind them, the door that he just been puzzled over because how on earth could a chimera have opened it unless they were more human than animal- but if they were now being shot at...

"Full... Fullmetal?"

Maes, one hand still holding Ed down while the other moved to push himself up, search around the edge of the barrier, froze. Ed froze right next to him.

...oh...

Oh, no...

Another piercing, unsettling silence slid into place between them, between him and Ed and the chimera. The creature wasn't even sobbing anymore, perfectly quiet on the other side of Ed's barrier, the only sound the continued chorus of alarms that was so constant it had blended into almost nothing around them- and the pounding of Maes' own heart in his ears. The lights flashed on, and Maes and Ed both stayed crouched there in safety, staring at each other in disbelief.

That one, single, fragile word... so low and cracked, so soft they surely could've misheard him- yes, Maes thought frantically, yes, that's it, we just misheard-

"F-Fullmetal...?" There was a soft, vague sort of shuffling sound from behind Ed's wall, cloth rustling together, then something almost metallic, a faint click of metal on metal. Then, "Fullmetal? Is that... is that you?"

Maes' heart clenched violently, then lurched to just sink like a stone.

Oh, no... oh, no... oh, no, please...

The young alchemist by his side was not looking at him, though, had not seen the blood drain from Maes' face or felt his heart grind to a halt. Ed, still tensed and taut like a coiled spring, began to creep up, and this time the hand on his neck was shrugged aside without so much as the slightest hesitation. His sharp, brilliant eyes were narrowed in the flashing lights, searching and heavy with all of the dread that weighed on Maes' own heart, and no longer allowing himself to be stopped, he pushed himself out from behind the wall to face the chimera.

Maes, his heart in his throat, followed him.

The chimera was still pressed back against the far side of the room, shrouded in what Maes at last realized was a lab coat. A lab coat meant for someone far bigger than him, because it dragged around his form like a winter blanket, only a hint of bare toes visible at the hem as the creature scrabbled to pull it up higher at their approach, a makeshift hood for his head that shrouded his whole face in darkness and left his whole form indistinct and uncertain. He scrabbled back a little more against the wall, still curled on the cold floor, still trembling, a tiny whimper crawling out to tug at Maes' heart- and Ed, as carefully as if approaching a wild animal, inched forward.

"...Colonel?"

The tightly curled, trembling figure tensed back against the cold, opposite wall again. The heavy coat stayed hooded over his head, so much so that Maes couldn't even catch a single glimpse of his face.

But he nodded.

He nodded, one very slight, trembling twitch of his hood, and that was all it took for Maes' world to come crashing down around him.

But then, Roy was scrabbling to press himself back tighter against his corner, gun wavering back off the floor to tremble between them, the sleeve shaken so far over his hand all Maes could glimpse was something leathery and thick and decidedly not skin. "W-who- who's with you? Who is it?" His voice sounded garbled and strange, somehow, muffled in a way that Maes couldn't quite understand. "Fullmetal?"

Ed lingered back by his side, unmoving and silent at the almost plaintive request, wide eyes darting between the two of them, plainly stricken and Maes even worse. Even through that strangely warped, muffled voice, he heard the fear there, so unlike his friend, and it felt like there was a steadily cascading roar in his head as he dared to inch forwards again, hands help up in the universal gesture for peace. "It's just me, Roy... Maes. Are you- are you-..."

The words stumbled together in his mouth, failed, and then, died, his are you okay falling apart before it'd ever even hit the air.

He wasn't okay.

He wasn't okay at all.

"Can you put the gun down?" he asked instead, swallowing hard, coughing a little to even get those words out at all. Because the gun was still in the air, wavering unsteadily between the two of them, because he'd shot at them and was still trembling furiously down on the floor, and with him cornered now like a trapped, frightened animal... "Roy, it's just us. It's okay, you're safe now, so just- just, please, put the gun down..."

But Roy did not put the gun down, and a heartbeat later, the emergency alarms and flashing lights pierced through his skull and struck him with the reality that they were not safe. Roy was not safe. There were people still looking for him and Maes didn't know how long they'd be able to hold them off. Roy had that gun because Roy knew people were looking for him, hunting for him, and he wanted to be able to protect himself at any and all costs.

The colonel jerked again, breaths raspy, and Maes ached with the need to tear down the hood, to see, but Roy wasn't anywhere near close enough for him to reach and Maes wasn't suicidal enough to try. He stayed there just huddled up and shaking, head twitching back and forth, and so frightened and so obviously hurt it was more than he could bear.

But it was Ed who broke the terrible silence, the alchemist abruptly bolting into action between them, so sudden and strong it was as if he was the only sane one still in this room. "We don't have time for this! Both of you, we can't do this now; the military could be right behind us! We have to get out of here right now!"

Roy flinched badly at those words, another tiny whimper tearing past his hands, and Maes was alternatively heartbroken and infuriated, half of him needing to hold him and the other half shouting that it didn't matter because he was never letting those dammed "scientists" lay a finger on him again- but none of it mattered, because Ed was right. They were out of time. They'd been out of time since the alarms had gone off, since Roy had vanished three weeks ago, and now there was nothing left for them to do but run.

"Ed's right," he grated out past gritted teeth, moving closer as well. "We've got to get moving, now. Roy-..." Maes trailed off and cursed, hand dragging through his hair as he paced, mind racing. How the hell were they going to get out of here? Even if they could navigate back through the lab while avoiding the search teams, there'd be soldiers guarding the entrance and while Colonel Mustang would perhaps be able to bluff his way past a few... well, by the way he was covering his face, Maes doubted he looked very much like Colonel Mustang, anymore.

But with those whole place crawling with soldiers, then with Roy huddled up there with a bullseye all but painted on his face-

"The sewers," Maes muttered at last, turning to Ed again. "Ed, HQ is built right over the sewer system. Do you think you can transmute your way there and then find your own way out?"

"I- yeah, yeah, I can do that. I can do it." The alchemist flexed his dangerous hands again, palms already hovering not even an inch apart. "But what about you?"

"People will miss me if I disappear off of base. They'll notice that I'm gone and when they realize Roy is gone, too, too many people will be watching me to try and find him... I have limitations that you don't. You'll be able to disappear." Maes paced back and forth, heart pounding hard on a race to a finish line he didn't want to meet, listening again for the very slightest sound for any sort of approach from the hallway. "Ed, you had a mission out of town tomorrow. You're still going on it. You and Al take Roy and get out of the city as fast as you can, and get him somewhere that you think will be safe."

He didn't even need to ask Ed if he would do it.

He'd come with him this far.

The alchemist was already nodding, brow furrowed as he started pacing over the floor, probably searching for the best place to transmute his way out. Maes was too stressed to even be closed to relieved, but it was something, and he finally allowed himself the briefest sliver of a smile.

A smile that was quickly wiped away with a gutwrenching pang of trepidation and sorrow, when he turned back towards the still trembling chimera- Roy- on the floor.

"Roy?" he asked carefully, lowering his voice and his knees as he sank down closer towards his best friend. Roy flinched back away from them again, a muffled noise of panic escaping him as his covered hands shot up, grabbing at his hair and skin to- to shield his face from view, Maes realized with a gasp. He'd stayed shrouded in the oversized lab coat this whole time, face hooded without exception, but now it was worse; now Maes couldn't even look at him. Roy couldn't bear to even let him try.

His sorrow hardened in his stomach, this time, morphing into ice cold, unshakeable rage.

Rage at Roy, no matter how misplaced and unfair it was, because how could he? How could he think that he and Ed would ever care what he looked like? How could he think he needed to hide his face from them? Rage at the scientists that done this, because in his heart he knew the Roy that was his best friend wouldn't have hidden himself, that the Roy hiding know was scared and wounded on the inside and out and had only gotten that way because they'd hurt him. Then that rage morphed into a cold, hard spike of hatred for the military for condoninig all of this, the whole of the military all the way up to the dammed Fuhrer.

But now was not the time for Maes to get angry.

Not while Roy's life still hung in the balance, and hung there so precariously with every last second they remained standing here in this lab.

"Roy," he cajoled gently again, hand still hovering between them while Roy's own kept scrabbling to hide his face. Behind him, he heard Ed clap once, twice, then start running his hands over the walls, searching for the best place to start. Damn it, they were running out of time. "Roy, are you hurt? Or- or will you at least be able to hang on until Ed gets you some place safe? Or does he need to look for a doctor in the city instead?"

Maes bit his lip, his mind already racing with the implications of it, because Roy certainly wasn't speaking up to stop it. There was Knox, Knox was always willing to help Roy no matter how he'd complain about it... even if Knox was a doctor, for, well, humans, and there was a chance Roy was not-

Another stuttery breath sucked past through gritted teeth and Maes shook his head at himself, violently shoving such thoughts to the very back of his head where they could not continue. "Roy, come on," he stressed desperately, waving his hand a little in front of his face, trying to get his attention. Why wasn't he saying anything? "We don't have much time! How badly are you hurt? Ed needs to know! Roy- Roy, look at me-... buddy, please..."

Roy mumbled something. Muffled still behind his hands, warped still in that way that Maes still could not identify, but above all else, was not normal.

And god help him, he wanted to be gentle, because Roy deserved it more than anything in the world right now- but they were out of time.

"Roy," he said again, harder now, with steel. "Roy, look at me-"

"I CAN'T!"

It was a bellow. A- a roar. An impossibly deep, throaty, guttural roar, so low it rattled his bones and so loud it struck through him like a bolt of lightning,

It was not, in any way, the sound of a human.

"I," Roy growled again, softer but a definite growl, "can't. I can't see, Maes."

Maes blinked. His heart, a band clenched tight around it and aching with each thud, silently dropped.

He couldn't- oh.

He couldn't see.

A stunned stretch of silence slowly expanded between them. Roy continued to crouch, shivering hard and panting like an overheated dog; then, with another brutal jerk, his hands flinched back up to more securely cover his face again, and instead of a growl, the next sound he made was a choked whimper of indescribable pain.

Then, there was a brusque clap behind him, a rumble of earth in time with an azure crackle of alchemy, and any time they'd had left for this conversation had run out. Ed was there, grappling with the colonel, pleading with him, "Come on, come on,", struggling to haul the man up to his feet. Roy reeled beside him, buckling straight to his knees, pained moans growing ever louder while Ed just looked desperate. "Come on, Colonel!" he begged, and with one mighty heave he hauled the poor man's limp arm right over his shoulders, supporting nearly his whole weight as he dragged him to the exit.

The very last thing Maes heard from the pair was Roy, gasping, "Marcoh- I have to s-see Marcoh-" before Ed clapped again, closing off the tunnel he'd made seamlessly and utterly to his view, and Maes was left alone.

Alone, and horrorstruck.

Several moments passed in complete stillness. The alarms continued blaring in his ears, lights still flashing, but in the darkness all Maes could see was his best friend huddled on the floor, covering himself in any way that he could, and undeniably, certainly, almost defiantly, not human.

Maes clenched his jaw, a cold, angry wave of sorrow and anguish washing through him in the deadly silence that remained.

Then, he steeled himself, turned, and strode away.

The file for the chimera remained, secreted and safe, tucked away beneath his uniform jacket.