Author's Note: This was co-written with Sarah Liz, my friend from We both write a little and attribute to the general idea of this story. This is the teaser that can also be found on Livejournal. If you wish to know more, feel free to leave a comment. Mind you, if you're reading this, we'd love to hear ANY comments you have on the story. Enjoy the story.
"H-hey. Hey, Colonel?" Edward hesitated, then unlatched the thick steel door and pushed it open, just wide enough to look into the stall beyond and confirm that what he saw was real.
The occupant of the stall didn't respond. He lay there, with his legs tucked under him. All four of his legs. Ed felt his stomach clench and threaten to reveal all of what he'd eaten that day (which wasn't much). Chimera. Dread became a reality that flinched a little as Ed threw the stall door open hard enough to make it bounce back halfway along its track.
What remained of Roy Mustang's human body had been ill-used. Ugly bruises marked him from hairline to waist, standing out against skin that was tinged a frightening pale gray. Someone had bound a dirty rag tight across his eyes, and it had stayed there, because Mustang's hands were shackled behind his back, gloveless and swollen with chafing against the steel cuffs. The only remaining piece of his uniform was the pair of steel tags that hung on their chain around his neck--the military's ownership tags. Mustang wasn't an outrage to human modesty, though. Just below his human navel, human skin first mottled, then darkened to a uniform black and vanished beneath a coat of short black hair. Below that...was the body of a horse. Something of his country-boy childhood surfaced in Edward just long enough to comment that the horse must have been a draft breed, to have legs that long and feet that big. The animal's neck had merged into the man's back, binding thick muscle to the small of his back and around where his hips should have been. The horse's mane now sprang from roughly the midpoint of a human back, and continued down to fall over a coat of black and white patches. All four legs were hobbled, the rear ones with a chain that ran to the back wall of the stall, keeping the captive chimera from escaping even when the door was open.
"Shit." It was the only word that came to mind. Edward stepped into the stall, feeling himself trembling and trying not to let it show in his voice. "A-all right, Colonel, just stay calm. We're here to get you out. It's gonna be okay, you're gonna be fine."
He was talking more to reassure himself than the filthy, abused prisoner, who didn't respond. The scientist in Edward automatically added up some facts, and came up with a hypothesis. Making chimeras isn't an exact science. The madman who did this couldn't have known whether the chimera would have the Colonel's soul...or the horse's. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Ed heartily wished he wasn't an alchemical genius. If Roy Mustang's soul was gone, there was nothing he could do to get it back. He'd learned that the hard way. The best thing he could do for the poor animal, if it was an animal, was to find a major vein and cut it, and end the creature's suffering.
The FullMetal Alchemist gathered up his nerve, and reached to fumble with the knot of the blindfold. The human torso tensed at the touch, and equine muscles bunched, ready to propel that big body to its feet and take the bruised human face out of reach. Ed, unthinking, put his steel right hand on the Colonel's shoulder. "Shhh. Easy. I'm not trying to hurt you."
Human or equine, the creature relaxed a fraction, and kept still long enough for the rag to loosen under Ed's hands. He dropped the blindfold in disgust and looked into the bloodshot dark eyes that blinked in the sudden light, trying to see a man in that glassy, detached stare. "Colonel? Come on—you understand me, right? Hold still, I'm gonna get the cuffs off." Ed took a deep breath, steadied himself. Drew the array he wanted in his mind, placing every line and rune with exacting precision. Sloppy array, sloppy alchemy, the voice of his teacher intoned in Ed's mind, and the last thing Ed wanted right now was for the energy to slip his control and perhaps break Mustang's wrists. The FullMetal Alchemist checked the array glowing in his mind, then clapped his hands. The steel of the cuffs first cracked, then fell into dust as it oxidized. Mustang's hands fell nervelessly down his sides and hung there as though they weren't connected to the Colonel's nervous system. Maybe they aren't. Ed snatched up one of those limp, swollen hands and started rubbing it, working his fingers into the palm and along the fingers.
Mustang continued to stare at him, his brows pulling together a little as though not sure what to make of him. Even lying down, with his long legs tucked up, Mustang was a good three inches taller than Edward. That kind of thing didn't gall Ed as much as it had when he was younger and had yet to reach five feet at sixteen, but he still noticed it when people had to look down to meet his eyes. Ed found himself babbling.
"You can feel this, right? It probably hurts a little, doesn't it? You've just got to get the circulation back, that's all. You're gonna be fine. Fine, you hear me? Come on, aren't you gonna say anything? Even some stupid comment about me being short? I might even let you get away with it this time."
Mustang stopped the words tumbling from Ed's mouth by lifting the arm the younger man held, tugging experimentally. When Ed let go, gave him his freedom, Mustang flexed his shoulders, slowly. Grimaced and raised his left hand toward his eyes. Stared at it without expression for a long moment, then slowly—very slowly—reached toward Edward's face. Ed felt his eyes going wide and the hair on the back of his neck prickling, but he forced himself to stand still and wait. The back of Mustang's hand brushed Ed's cheek, then dropped rather heavily onto his right shoulder. Mustang's fingers weren't working very well, but they pushed at the material of Ed's collar, seeking to pull it away. The look on the colonel's face was guarded, but there was a silent plea beneath the dirt and the bruises.
Ed read the gesture for what it was. "You're not sure of who I am," he said, watching for confirmation in those weary dark eyes. "You want me to prove it." Ed didn't like it. But he'd done a lot of things he didn't like in his life, and this one at least probably wouldn't be painful, just uncomfortable. He sighed a little, but reached up and carefully unfastened the top buttons of his shirt. Using his left hand, he pushed the stained fabric back along his shoulder, revealing the steel tongue that reached out from his automail port to the bolt screwed into his collarbone. "Okay? Now can you believe it's really me?"
Mustang's hand pushed the fabric back still further, found first the old surgical scars, then the edge of the automail port. He sucked in a deep breath, closed his eyes and shuddered once, hard, then opened his eyes again and said one hoarse, barely-believing word. "FullMetal".
It had been a few days since Edward had found the colonel in the stable like that. It still left Ed restless in the night. He'd always thought of the colonel as a bastard, true, but he'd been a strong bastard. And even when the man couldn't protect himself (like in the rain), Lieutenant Hawkeye or one of the other members of his staff were there to take care of him.
But they'd been separated, Maes had told him. It had been a mission for Roy as an alchemist. They needed him in particular because they'd needed his thoughts on the new anesthetic that would help lung-damaged patients breath easier. But when they'd gotten there, Hawkeye had been held up at the front desk because they didn't want Black Hayate into the building, and the dog was on special medicine, so she couldn't leave him at home.
Hughes had been arranged to be the last-minute sub for the military courier who was supposed to carry the locked briefcase, was on his way to pick up his son (who looked like he had the measles), when he was caught in a car wreck. But while in the building, was distracted when someone had asked how Elysia was doing.
Somehow, while both officers were distracted, Mustang was kidnapped. And Maes had rushed to where Ed and Al were staying, the only alchemists he could trust, when he'd heard of what had happened to get them to help in retrieving the newly made chimera.
It saddened Ed that one of the strongest adult he'd ever met was in such need of support now. It wasn't that he wasn't prepared to help the colonel. He'd been a big supporter of Mustang in every attempt to raise his rank (which sadly hadn't happened yet). But, it seemed like Mustang was so broken now...
They had a lot to work to do.