Morphed

Chapter Thirty

Credit for the art goes to yours truly. You like it? Significant improvement on the last one, aye? (It's on my DeviantArt account, go check it out. Pretty please?)

Not even gonna bother with a 'previously', you all know how it ended. :3 

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Falling in the black
Slipping through the cracks
Falling to the depths can I ever go back
Dreaming of the way it used to be
Can you hear me?
Falling in the black
Slipping through the cracks
Falling to the depths can I ever go back
Falling inside the black
Falling inside, falling inside the black

~Falling Inside The Black (Skillet)

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Six.

That was how many days it had been since Edward Elric had disappeared.

And Riza Hawkeye blamed herself.

Well, she supposed, not quite. She was certainly not guiltless at her inability to find the boy, but she wasn't exactly to blame for his disappearance, either. Personally, though she hadn't voiced this particular thought, she blamed Mustang. She wasn't sure what had gone on between the two of them that day at the warehouse, but she certainly had her suspicions. And not one of them was one that she liked.

She was currently sitting at her desk in Mustang's office, trying desperately not to think about how deeply Mustang was in shit with the Fuhrer for losing track of Ed, and how much more shit he'd be in if the child wasn't found. Though Riza suspected that Fuhrer Bradley didn't actually care all the that much about Ed's well-being, and more that Mustang had disobeyed orders by letting Ed run off, only to disappear.

It frustrated Riza to no end that they hadn't been able to track down where Edward had gone. Mustang, Hohenheim and herself had combed the area once they realised that Edward was gone, but not one of them had turned up anything. She cursed herself for not following the boy straight out, but Mustang had told her to give him space, and when she'd moved to follow anyway he'd actually ordered her to stay put. She'd been shocked enough by the action alone that she had listened, had gone against her gut. She'd followed the order for all of seven minutes before she disregarded her superior completely and went outside.

She should have done it sooner. Should never have listened in the first place.

It was unclear whether or not Edward had run off of his own free will or if someone had taken him, but the three of them were of the agreement that someone had snatched him. Not only was Edward unlikely to risk being caught and shipped off to a lab, as the Fuhrer had promised he would be if he didn't stay with Mustang, but after what had happened the last time he'd stormed off...

No, Edward would have shoved his pride down and stayed. This was definitely outside work.

Mustang suspected one of the Homunculi, and no one disagreed. By this point the whole of Mustang's inner staff had been made aware of the Homunculi, what they were and the threat that they posed. The problem was that Mustang didn't want that information to be known to anyone outside his direct circle of trust. Which made preparing the resources to find them rather difficult.

Yes, Hohenheim knew where their lair was, and had informed them all. But he'd also informed them

of how much of a maze that place was. They could get lost down there for weeks and never find their way out. They had no way of mapping the area down there, not without being killed.

She rubbed her eyes. God, she was tired. She'd barely gotten a wink of sleep since the moment she'd first realised Edward was gone. Over the course of six days she'd pulled three all-nighters, with only a few hours of sleep in between. She was thoroughly exhausted. But she couldn't let that stop her, not now. Not when Edward could be in danger, could be hurt...