The first thing he noticed when he woke was an excruciating pain in both shoulders, a fact that did little to quell the rising panic seeing that one of his shoulders was covered by a steel plate. While his shoulders bore most of the pain he soon felt the throbbing ache throughout his whole person. The young man pushed the pain to the back of his mind as much as possible, and attempted to figure out where he was. The first thing that drew his attention was, besides the pain, his shoulders also felt heavier. He gave it no mind, except the brief acknowledgment, passing it off as an effect of having his arms bound overhead for who knows how long. His wrists were trapped by a wooden stockade preventing him from pressing his palms together and freeing himself. He found his feet also chained, to what he couldn't see. The room was shrouded in darkness, no windows, only a sliver of light no bigger than a strand of twine gave any indication that there was a door.

He racked his brain, trying to remember how he ended up in his current predicament. His long bland hair fell into his eyes as he thought back to the last thing he could clearly picture in his mind. He had been sent on a mission by the brigadier general, the bastard had sent him to investigate a small, ho-dunk town a few hours outside of East City. There had been a series of reports of missing people and strange alchemical occurrences, what was odd though, was that all the missing persons weren't from the town, they were all visitors. These reports had been coming in for the last month and a half, only one of the missing persons had reappeared a few days after they had been reported missing, but the man's condition wasn't a good sign of what might've happened to the others that hadn't.

It was as he hung there, bare knees scraping the rough stone floor, that he wished he had accepted the backup he had been offered since Al was off in Xing, but his pride got the better of him and he declined, opting to go alone. He had arrived in town only the previous night, or the night before he was captured, he didn't know how long he had been locked up for. When he arrived he could immediately tell something was…off which put him on high alert. He checked into the hotel the brigadier general had booked for him, dropped his things on the bed and cleansed himself of the smell of train in a quick shower. Once clean and redressed the blond pulled his hair into a ponytail and left to gather what intel he could that night. He decided upon going to a local pub, hoping the locals might be drunk enough to let something slip while he hid away in a shadowy corner.

The only thing he learned from the pub was that the local beer was nothing to write home about. There hadn't been that many people who stopped in, and those that did were very tight lipped. He determined it was because of his presence, every time someone new sauntered in he caught the bar tender discreetly motioning to where he sat. That continued on for a little over an hour before he got so fed up with it he left.

It was clear the towns people didn't appreciate him poking around in their business, the glares and not-so-whispered comments aimed his direction were dead give aways. He returned to the hotel and turned in for the night, hoping he would have better luck in the morning. He didn't. If anything his luck was worse. Word must've spread that he was in town because the locals went out of their way to avoid him. All but one who followed the blond from the moment he left the hotel.

He should've expected something was going to happen, should have been more prepared for an attack, if he had he might not be in this situation, yet here he was. He had been jumped from behind, whoever did so was smart enough to knock him out before a real fight could begin. He blacked out, at one point he thought he remembered waking up and being strapped to a metal table, but it was such a hazy memory he couldn't be sure if it was real or not.

Heavy footsteps echoing outside of his cell brought the blond out of his reverie. They stopped at his door, the shadow disrupting the narrow strip of light confirmed this. A harsh tremor shook his body as the lock clicked open and the door swung open, blinding white light washing over him. Dull golden eyes scrunched shut, and he involuntarily tried to back away from the person darkening his doorway.

"Oh good, it seems my little bird is finally awake," a gravelly, yet also slimy voice said.

He glared at the source of the voice once his eyes had adjusted to the bright light pouring in. He was only able to discern a few identifying details as the man was back lit and thus disabling a clear view of his face. The man was a short, stout, bordering almost on circular. His patchy grey hair, or it looked grey in the lighting, reached down to his shoulders in some areas while in others it was straight up missing. The long, sickly yellow lab coat he wore brushed the floor when he stepped forward, barely fitting through the door frame.

"Who the fuck are you calling a little bird, you deranged shit? Release me and I'll show just which one of us is little!" the young alchemist spat, his voice scratching at his dry throat as the words were forced out.

"Good, you still have some fight left," the man said, ignoring the blond's outburst, "I was hoping you hadn't been so easily broken, where would the fun in that be? Right my little bird?" the dark laugh that followed sent the young man's stomach into knots.

"The fuck did you do to me you fucker?"

"Oh Edward," the golden eyed man jerked back, as if physically attacked, "Surprised I know your name? I guess you would be, seeing as how we've never officially met before. But that's not all I know about you Colonel Elric. You're the youngest State Alchemist in recorded history, also known as the people's alchemist, the alchemist who doesn't need a transmutation circle to perform alchemy, Roy Mustang's prodigy, the Fullmetal Alchemist. And now here you are. I had expected you to put up more of a fight when my men went to collect you. Yet all it took was one blow to the back of your pretty little head and you went down," the man said with crazed glee, "Do you know how long I've waited to get my hands on you? To see just how resilient you truly are? To see how well you would take to the alterations I had planned for your perfect body? And by what I can see, you took to the first round of, let's call them enhancements, exceptionally well. There was a question of whether or not your automail would be a problem, thankfully I was able to cut through the anchor plate and reach your shoulder blade,"

"I'll ask you one more time. What. The fuck. Did. You. Do. To me?" Ed growled out, punctuating each word with an wild snarl.

"All in due time little bird, all in due time," the man said, the smirk evident in his tone.

"Due time my ass! When I get out of here you're going to regret ever thinking of using me for your twisted experiments!"

"Ever the optimist aren't yo-" the man chuckled but was cut off by a strong vibration that shook the whole room, jarring the blond from his precarious position. "Go see what that was, now!" he yelled at the two guards who were standing outside the door. They nodded and took off towards the source of the disturbance. Seconds later Ed saw them flying passed his door, followed by an earthen fist.

"Looks like the cavalry finally found me," Ed said with a an evil gleam lighting up his eyes, the first true emotion to reach them since he woke, "I'd tell you to run, but I doubt you'd get very far,"

"We'll see Edward, my little bird, we'll see. This won't be the last time we see each other, that I can guarantee," and with that the man slipped out of the cell and disappeared into the confusion.

Not long after the demented doctor left Ed to escape, his doorway was once again filled with a shadow. This one an unmistakable, large figure. In any other case Ed would have cringed away and begged for someone else to be the one to find him, but at that moment Ed wouldn't have cared if it was the man's older sister or Scar, he was just happy that he was going to be getting out.

"Colonel Elric! I've found you!" Major Armstrong's boisterous voice boomed, "My word, what happened to you? What unspeakable tortures were you exposed to?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Ed said, his voice rough and scratchy as the adrenaline faded from his system, allowing the pain to wreak havoc upon his body once more, "How long have I been gone? Last I remember I had only just gotten here,"

"You were supposed to check in over a week ago, Fullmetal," a new, yet annoyingly familiar voice said from behind Armstrong.

"Shit..." Ed grunted.

That was the last person he needed seeing him in this state beaten and practically naked, save for the thin pair of underwear. Nor did it help that, even as pained and as screwed up as he currently was, he still felt body reacting the way it tended to do when Mustang was near by. He couldn't pinpoint when these feelings had started blossoming in him, but he did know he could never let the other man know.

A heavy silence fell between the three men, Ed couldn't see his commanding officer as Armstrong still stood in the doorway, but he knew the older man was still there. After another few tense moments the Strong Arm Alchemist stepped further into the room, followed by brigadier general Roy Mustang. Mustang held a small flame at his finger tips like one would have held a lighter, illuminating a small area around his person. His midnight blue, almost black, eyes scanned the cramped cell before falling on the chained blond in the center.

To anyone else, save a select few, the Flame Alchemist gave no outward reaction to seeing the sorry state his former subordinate was in. Edward knew otherwise, could see the small twitch at the corner of the mesmerizing eyes. Could hear the brief, yet sharp intake of breath.

"Major Armstrong, please help Colonel Elric out of his restraints and take him up and outside. Tell Havoc to take him back to the hotel and get him settled in my suite, Hawkeye should have a spare key he can use," the brigadier general said, voice tight, before turning on heel and exiting the room.

"Yes sir," Armstrong saluted, then turned back to Ed to release him.

When the blond was free he slowly moved from his knees to his feet, legs shaking from lack of use. As he righted himself he nearly fell back on his ass, his center of balance thrown off because of the strange weight on his shoulders. Armstrong caught him before he hit the dirt floor, but in doing so jostled Ed's shoulder, sending white hot pain shooting through the young man's body.

"Colonel Elric! Are you okay? I didn't mean to cause you pain!"

Ed grunted through gritted teeth, grasping the man's arm as he once again tried to stand, "I'll be fine once I get out of the shit hole,"

Armstrong nodded, and with all the grace one would expect from an Armstrong, carefully lead the young man out of the old facility, taking care to stop and let Edward catch his breath when needed, and avoiding the continued fighting between Mustang's men and the doctor's goons. The pair finally reached the exit and found Havoc talking quietly with the Lieutenant Colonel over by one of the military cars. The Strong Arm Alchemist quickly filled the other two in while Ed was helped into one of the vehicles with Fuery's assistance, receiving odd looks from all those who were present the entire time. He passed it off as concern, he could only guess how shitty he looked after being held captive and experimented on for over a week. Too tired to give much thought to anything, the blond stretched out across the back seat and let sleep claim him.