Ed hated dealing with problems like this.
Actually, he loathed any obstacles that obscured his path when it came to anything. This was just a particularly annoying one, but he did enjoy what normally followed such occasions.
"I think this should work," he spoke coolly with a confident smile upon his lips as he held out his silver pocket watch that signified that he was a certified alchemist in the military.
The Amestrian soldier standing guard at the site he was assigned to broke out in sweat and fixed his position to stand attention as his once thick, rough voice turned to a nervous, higher pitch and he hastily spat out his words, "I am so sorry! I did not realize you were a State Alchemist, sir."
Edward huffed out a puff with his expression smug and stuffed the watch back into his pocket. "Let's go Al," he said to his younger brother, Alphonse, as he ran past the soldier towards the promising site inside the forest that the Colonel informed them of yesterday afternoon.
"Coming!" The suit of armor rang out loud, voice graced and kind.
Edward slowed to a walk and waited as Alphonse caught up with him.
The day had started off so hopeful and optimistic.
Why did such an ordinary and beautiful morning for the Elric brothers lead to a shattered nightmare?
Mustang's pen clattered to the desk from his mouth as he began to lose his battle against yet another afternoon nap and procrastination.
Not that he was putting up a fight.
The clock on the corner of his desk dully and slowly ticked in the silence of his office, mocking him and reminding him of just how bored he was.
Today's schedule entailed the usual stacks of paperwork in which his 1st lieutenant was anything but merciful towards when it came to completing and overseeing, and then a mid-afternoon report from Ed.
Roy pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, now aware and reminded of the scheduled debriefing.
Fullmetal was anything but relief in the Colonel's strenuous daily tasks, and in fact was a significant headache inducer. The inclement state of a meeting with Edward was always unpredictable for the adolescent's mood was the factor on how the interaction would be executed, most of the time at least.
Mustang shifted his gaze from the towers of uncompleted and completed paperwork to the pair of couches and the coffee table in front of his desk. He furrowed his brows when he took note of the soft pink and orange glow that cascaded over the a portion of the room, and it was only then that he realized that his naps were longer than he first thought and that the work day was arriving to it's end.
Roy looked to the clock on his desk and it confirmed that it was just about evening, reading the time 5:46 with its hands and roman numeral numbers.
He suspected that he fell asleep around 3 o'clock, missing the meeting with Fullmetal that was scheduled a half hour later.
'Did he even show up?' Colonel thought to himself, 'Tch. Probably not. More than likely just went off and did his own things. Stubborn child.'
Mustang reluctantly completed the remaining documents and files till it was just a little past the half hour of seven and his mind had just about flat-lined. He despised days that were endowed with nothing but signing and writing and reading over and over. At least he could keep Lt. Hawkeye off his back when he actually did his work.
His thoughts drifted back to the meeting he and Edward missed.
Under normal circumstances, he'd ignore the child's absence and write it off as him being just that, a child, but he was particularly bothered by it today as the mission, now that he just recalled it, he had sent him and his brother on was to investigate an unusual alchemical accident, one that might give the brothers a lead or two on restoring their bodies and Edward always reported back when it came to those.
Mustang never stopped to think as to why that was, but nonetheless, Ed always came for those, some days even on time.
Perhaps he had left a call? Not that it'd be likely. The Lt. would have informed him, but still...
He pushed himself away from his desk and made his way to the room where his subordinates worked. His gaze fell on the light, yellowed blonde in blue, glad she was still here this much into the evening.
He asked her simply and gingerly, straining to dismiss the sudden worry that pierced his throat, "Lieutenant. Have either of the Elric brothers called and or left a message for me today?"
She answered in her usual protocol tone and matter, her look now shifted from the small stack of work on her desk to his eyes, "No sir. No phone call or message of any type."
Mustang felt a little more panicked than usual by her response. He knew the two boys could handle themselves perfectly well. Edward was too stubborn to lose fights.
The concern that was gradually building up must have shown in his face without his aware for he was startled when the Lt. brought his attention back to her.
"Is something the matter, sir?" she politely asked.
"There was a debriefing scheduled earlier today around the afternoon and he was absent." Roy fixated his tone to be authoritative and curt, as was always of the Colonel.
Havoc, who was the only other person still present, chimed in, "That's nothing new, sir. Boss goes his own way." he spoke calmly, referring to Fullmetal as the nickname he dubbed on him, "Boss."
"I'm well aware, but he'll at least show up when it involves discussing progress on getting his and Al's body back. I gave them a new mission yesterday that they reportedly left for at 6 o'clock this morning to go and investigate the site of an alchemical incident just off the city of Guud. It doesn't take long to travel there."
"Do you suspect something happened to them?" Riza inquired.
"No," he began to say in contradiction to the protests in his mind, "I'm sure Fullmetal and his brother can handle themselves well." he spoke with his curt, baritone voice. It'd be unlike Edward to change his usual way of doings things due to how stubborn he was and he'd only change said routines if it was by his own stubborn decision.
Regardless...
"I'm going to drop by the site anyways, just to see if they're still there and perhaps missed the train."
'That's reason enough to excuse myself.' he thought to himself as he stepped into his office briefly, grabbed his keys and other materials, and shut the lights off before stepping back out.
"Be sure to lock up. I'll give you a call at your home later, Lieutenant Hawkeye, to inform you of what I found."
'Shit happens. I just hope that's all that could have and did happen.' he locked his office and walked over to the door that led to the hall.
"Sir." Havoc and Hawkeye replied in unison.
He turned to his two subordinates and wished them a good evening before leaving the room.
When he was at once alone in his car and on the road to Guud he let the thoughts that were a light cloud over his mind earlier flood back to him instantly.
Maybe he was overreacting and letting some sort of parental side that hid inside him dance around his mind, but he couldn't untie the consuming and formidable knots twisting in his stomach as he found it toodiscomforting that Edward didn't at least leave a call.
Roy shouldn't have let it bother him. Edward was a rude, stubborn, and ill-mannered teen. It was rare that he'd call.
He was just being paranoid.
After the uneasy and relatively short drive to and through the city of Guud, Colonel finally arrived to the location of the site which was located at the start of a wide, full forest.
When Roy noted the absence of a night guard posted it only added to his paranoia that was now a pretty decent size.
He exited the car, grabbed and lit a hand lantern that he carried in his trunk, locked the car, and entered the forest with unpleasant thoughts plaguing his mind. He traversed the twig and leaf decorated grass and weaved around trees till he came to the location of what must have been the accident.
Though the darkness around him was thick the moonlight and his lantern allowed him to see a grand hole spreading as about as long maybe eighty to a hundred feet in each direction in front of him.
The depth was unknown, but significantly magnificent. The hole was just short of perfectly sculpted round and from the right angle, bore the shape of a nearly flawless circle. The transmutation markings that surrounded the area affirmed the obvious that alchemy was involved here, but who or what could have caused something so terrifically terrible?
Mustang grabbed a rock about the size of his palm from the ground beside him and tossed it down the hole, deciding to test the depth.
Just as he counted 7 in his head, he finally heard a loud and small thud at the bottom of the hole, not a sound he was expecting as the ground was supposed to be composed of dirt though it sounded like it impacted with another rock.
"Well..." Mustang thought aloud, "Looks like I have no choice. I guess I'm going in."
It was probably in his best interests to at least check to see if either of the brother's could be down there. With no hesitation in his moves, he jumped into the small crater, clutching the lantern to his chest, and landed roughly on the ground with a loud and echoed thud on his feet.
His upper legs and pelvis pained in reaction to the abrupt landing, as was expected, nothing he couldn't tolerate.
He brushed off loose dirt that made its way onto his shoulder and held the lantern close to his face so he could analyze the threshold. The area's floors and walls were as far apart as the surface was.
Alchemical markings were everywhere where Roy walked around inside the hole and he was just about to make the basic transmutation that would carry him to the surface when his attention was suddenly caught by a bright red coat that lay tattered and torn under his feet.
He frantically picked it up and examined it finding, much to his fear, a black flamel cross on the back of the long coat. It was Edward's coat.
More inspection led to wear a dark maroon stained and gashed hole on the bright red jacket right were his left shoulder would be. Blood...?
Before Mustang could let any horrific scenarios that might have played out sink in his mind, a blunt blow was stricken to the back of his head.
His vision glazed and he tried to turn to identify his assaulter, but instead collapsed to the ground beneath him. The lantern he held fell in front of his shivering face and he saw blurred and booted steps approach him before the world finally blackened and consciousness slipped away from his grasp.