Chapter one: The Failure
Roy Mustang knew it was going to be a horrible day from the moment he woke up.
His morning started with the wonderful wake-up call of his neighbor's obnoxious dog barking at gate-knows-what at four AM. Next came a burnt breakfast and an accidental coffee spill all over his uniform as he was just about to walk out the door, which resulted in wasted time changing into a spare uniform and ultimately caused him to arrive late at the office.
Which Riza decided to point out rather obviously with a monotone, "sir, you're late"
Roy just growled a meaningless apology and trudged into his office. He was immediately greeted by unusually large piles of paperwork in need of his signature. The sight made him want to just curl up in a dark hole and never come out. But, due to Hawkeye's oh so persuasive arsenal of guns, he found himself signing away at a snail's pace with the beginnings of a migraine.
After about three hours of ceaseless signatures, Riza came in with another stack of documents and dumped them on Mustang's desk. The man took one look at the two foot-tall pile of papers and dropped his head against the desk with an exasperated groan, which probably didn't help his headache.
"You're gonna end up working me to death, Lieutenant." Roy grumbled, lifting his head back up to give the new stack of paper a scorching glare as if he expected them to burst into flame.
Riza sighed and turned to leave the office. "But you haven't dropped dead yet." She said. "So suck it up, sir."
Roy growled something unintelligible as she left the room and begrudgingly continued his work.
This cycled for hours on end until it was dark and time to leave, and by that time Roy was just about ready to claw his eyes out or bang his head against the wall.
Once the clock struck nine o'clock, the colonel leaped to his feet and rather childishly ran for the door. Only to be stopped by Riza Hawkeye.
"Sir." She called before Mustang could step outside the outer office. He froze and slowly turned to face her, knowing better than to ignore a scary lady with a gun. "You aren't finished yet. You still have those left." She pointed through the open door to the inner office at his desk where a small pile of papers still sat.
The colonel nearly collapsed then and there at the possibility of more work but held firm. Instead, he silently willed the innocent pile of documents to spontaneously combust. "But Lieutenant, I'm tired and I can do those tomorrow." He whined childishly.
Riza shook her head and fixed her superior with a glare. "You are going to do them now. Consider it your punishment for arriving late." She growled dangerously.
Mustang opened his mouth to argue, but the drawing of Riza's gun convinced him to obey. He slowly trudged back into the office and dropped heavily into his chair behind his desk and picked up his pen.
Riza turned toward the exit and waved to her superior. "I am going to go home while you stay here and work, sir. Don't even think of leaving before all of your paperwork is done." She added before walking out the door.
Roy gaped after her, anger rising within him. He growled and looked down at the document he was currently working on with such burning hatred that he was sure that it would start to smoke... Any minute now... Nope. The bane of his existence just continued to sit there in front of him mockingly.
Eventually Roy sighed loudly and started to sign away again. He could feel his anger boiling in his chest and it only seemed to grow hotter.
He finished signing one paper and slid another in front of him. skimming it over, he found the words 'Fullmetal' and 'property damage' repeated within the white document. Roy groaned and begrudgingly signed it.
"Damn that brat." He growled to himself as he absently signed the other papers. "Why does Fullmetal have to destroy everything he touches? Damn kid'll be the end of me. Maybe even literally." For some reason, Roy felt a twinge of guilt for thinking that. But he quickly shook it away. "It's probably true." He snorted. "Fullmetal is so reckless and stubborn, always getting in the way and ignoring every warning I've given him. I don't know why I even bother!" Roy slowly grew angrier even though he had no reason to, he had to find some kind of medium to vent his anger. "he's always so annoying, screaming at me all the time and purposely putting himself into dangerous situations. I don't know how he's managed to stay alive for a whole two years in the military. Maybe one of these days his recklessness really will catch up to him. It'd be a relief on my part!" Roy scoffed to himself. This time he felt no guilt, he believed every word no matter how horribly cruel they were. "It would be better for everyone if Edward just disappeared."
Suddenly Roy heard the outer office door slam open and an uneven set of heavy, stumbling footsteps approach the inner office door.
Mustang tensed and quickly pulled open a desk drawer. he grabbed a pair of ignition gloves and pulled them on his hands. He stood from his desk and silently walked over to the door and stood in the shadows to wait for whatever was outside of his office.
The sound of heavy breathing could be heard now as the unknown assailant reached the door. Roy tensed and lifted his hand in preparation to snap and reduce the intruder to a pile of ashes.
There was a dull thump as if whoever was out there was leaning heavily against the door. Mustang quickly took the opportunity to surprise his enemy; He grabbed the doorknob, swung open the door, and took a step back as a body fell to the ground at his feet. He lifted his hand and aimed it at the intruder.
But he felt his heart stop in his chest and his stomach fill with icy horror as he saw a pair of pained and terrified golden eyes staring back at him through the dim light.
It was Edward.
Mustang just continued to stare at his subordinate, frozen in shock. The boy was breathing raggedly and his eyes were full of agony and terror. yet they seemed dull somehow, like...like they were... Fading.
"C-Colo...nel..." Edward rasped in a weak, pained voice.
"Fullmetal!" Roy gasped as he snapped out of his initial shock. He fell to his knees beside the young alchemist and gently rolled him onto his back.
As Mustang looked him over, he suddenly realized that most of Ed's red coat was glistening in the dim light and was stained several shades darker. Roy's heart skipped a beat. Ed was bleeding. Heavily.
"Fullmetal! Wh...What happened?!" He gasped as he frantically searched for the source of the blood.
Edward didn't answer. Instead he gave a strangled cry as Roy's hands reached his neck. Mustang gasped and quickly pulled away. His eyes widened.
"No..." He croaked. Roy immediately took Edward's coat and wrenched it off of him, ignoring the alchemist's pained cries. Next, Roy grabbed onto Ed's black shirt and ripped the collar away.
Mustang's heart stopped. He tried his best to keep himself from being sick as he stared at his youngest subordinate's neck.
Everywhere from his chest to his chin was soaked with scarlet. It's source: two extremely deep, ragged cuts on Edward's neck just above his collarbone, directly over a main artery, looking as if someone had dragged two dull knives across his flesh. The wound continuously poured blood, creating miniature rivers that dripped down the side of his neck. The boy's face was pale and sweaty, severe blood loss already evident.
"No..." Roy whimpered. A wound like this would almost certainly kill an adult, let alone a small child, yet he still tried to slow the bleeding by pressing his hands over the wound, but he knew... there was no saving his subordinate at this point. He'd lost too much blood already...
Mustang reached down and softly brushed Edward's blonde hair from his face with his free hand. The boy stared up at his superior with dull eyes that held so much pain and misery that Roy had to look away. He didn't want to see the life drain from Edward's once bright, fiery gold eyes... And it was already fading fast.
"M..must...ang..?" Ed's quiet voice whispered.
Roy reluctantly looked back at his dying subordinate. He felt his stomach turn when he saw grief and understanding in the faded golden depths of the boy's eyes. 'He knows what's going to happen to him...' Roy had to fight the tears away before they could spill down his cheeks.
"Y-yeah, Ed?" He choked.
Edward managed a weak and fragile smile. "I...I'm s-so... sorry..." He rasped.
Roy's heart constricted. "Sorry? For what?" He asked softly.
Ed looked up at his commanding officer with grief and sorrow in his eyes. "F-for eve...rything..."
Roy's dark eyes widened, the tears that were gathering there threatening to fall. "Wha-what are you... What do you mean, Ed?" He choked.
Ed gave a sad, heart-wrenching smile. "I've n-never told you this b-before... But... I always l-listen-ned to everything y-you said to me... I know I've been such a b-b-bastard to you..." Ed struggled to take another breath. "A-And I'm sorry I c-can n-never... make it up t-to you... b-before I... d..die..." He paused to blink the tears from his hollow, grief-stricken eyes.
"But... A...At l-least... I..." Ed's quiet words trailed off as he took a nearly nonexistent, ragged breath before his eyelids slowly started to drift shut.
Roy panicked. Fullmetal can't die! Not now! He squeezed Ed's hand tighter and he leaned in close, not bothering to acknowledge that the tears he had tried so hard to hold back were now falling freely. "D-don't close your eyes! Please! What were you going to say?!" He pleaded.
He felt Edward's hand weakly squeeze his back. "A-At least... I don't have to d-die alone." Ed whispered before his last breath left his body and his hand fell from Mustang's grasp.
Roy just stared at the dead child lying before him, tears still streaming down his cheeks. The silence that filled the room was deafening.
Then came the pain. The horrible, crushing agony and grief that constricted his chest to the point of suffocation. Mustang choked on a painful sob and pulled Edward's body against his chest and held him close. He could already feel the boy's comforting warmth fading.
The colonel's quiet sobs seemed loud even to himself in the unbearably empty office. He was alone. There was no one to offer comfort, no one to share his grief, no one but him and the silent body in his arms...
He had made a promise to protect his subordinates. They weren't supposed to die before him, especially Edward... The kid had so much to do, so much to accomplish, only to have his life ripped away all too soon just because Roy was useless to prevent it? How could he let this happen? How could he fail to protect another friend? First Hughes is murdered and now Edward dies right in front of him and he didn't do a damn thing to prevent it. He broke his promise...
He failed...
