Blazing Swords
Chapter 1: It's Colonel actually
Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist, but it would be so fucking awesome if I did.
The car carrying the fuehrer of the state drove down the peaceful Bentley street, named after one of the Fuhrers of the so called Golden Age of the State. It was a peaceful street in the Dankin district of Rulwich, a town that was set aside for the refugees in from the camps, mostly Ishbalan camps, but also others from other places on the battlefield. Most of the people around the car were those cheering on the man who seemed to be their champion because of all he had done to improve their living conditions and establish this town. People cheered as his car came down the long street that went all the way through the town and back onto his route to the capitol after negotiating with the separatist movement that was talking about breaking away from the Sate and forming their own government. At the rising tensions between the movement leaders and the members in his own military, the Fuhrer was forced to use all of his powers to make sure that a war wouldn't break out between the factions, an action that had put him at odds with a lot of generals.
Out of the crowd was a man with a scar over his left eye and a large brown cloak that concealed the weapons underneath as he waited for the car to get close to his line of vision. As soon as the car was in his kill zone, the man and his two other compatriots opened fire on the car with their automail arms that had guns concealed in them. The bodyguard in the car pushed the Fuhrer down on the floor board as he got on top to protect his charge and felt two bullets in his back along with the glass. The would-be assassins had stopped firing after two minutes and the bodyguard pulled out his gun to return fire, but as he got his head and his gun aimed, he saw the reason why the assassins had stopped firing. A man in a military uniform stood over the charred bodies of the assassin with a cigarette in his mouth. The man was tall with fiery red hair that was slicked back into hard spikes that looked like they could be broken off and used to stab someone.
"Who is that man," asked the Fuhrer as he got out of his car to see the bodies of the assassins and he noticed something about them. "Why are they moving around?"
"To answer both of your questions, sir, this is Lieutenant Guile Stryker," replied the body guard as he noticed the expression of shock on the Fuhrer's face. Guile Stryker was a name that had long since been put into legend, a regular Kaizer Soze, a spook story to frighten young cadets in the academy.
"How does that answer the second question," asked a young sergeant who was a state alchemist, but was something of a rookie. His name was Vashov Ranoche, or Vash as they called him.
"Those men are all alive, private," replied the bodyguard as he pulled out a gun and walked over to end he suffering the burnt men were feeling.
"That was cruel, Lieutenant Stryker, but you have saved my life," said the Fuhrer as he held out his hand, which was shook by Guil vigorously. The Fuhrer could feel scars on his hand. "You are now, Colonel Guile Stryker again, but do not repeat the bloodshed of the Ishabalan civil war that you committed so long ago."
"I'll try not to let you down, sir," said Guile, saluting to the Fuhrer before stepping off to report his kills and the entire incident.
"I want him transferred under the command of General Roy Mustang in the investigation of this," ordered the Fuhrer as he got back into his car and waved at the crowd as if the assassination attempt had never occurred.
"I feel sorry for Roy Mustang," sighed the bodyguard as he looked at his subordinate. "Don't you feel sorry for him?"
"I do pity him," admitted the sergeant as he looked at the newly promoted colonel, who had a sickening grin on his face as he reported on the part where he stopped the assassins. "I wish there was something I could do for him, but as a private there is nothing I can do."
"Well actually I was thinking about a way you could help our good general with the new colonel," said Vash's superior as he stroked his chin. "You'll have to be made at least a second lieutenant, but if everything works out you'll be made a captain in no time. What I need for you to do is accompany Colonel Guile to General Mustang's command group and keep an eye on him, reporting any actions that appear excessive in force or anything that is suspicious."
"You want me to keep an eye on Colonel Guile," asked a wide eyed Vash. "Couldn't you get another person to do that?"
"I don't know, could you spend the rest of your life on toilet cleaning duty," asked his superior.
General Roy Mustang had his head resting on his desk when his subordinate, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye walked into his office, sighing at the familiar sight of her commander slacking off, but she hoped that would change as soon as she showed him the information that she had in her hand. Then again, even as a general he barely read the reports that came into him, even when she put some of the reports that were right up his alley. When he was the Fuhrer, a short time, he never slept on his desk, claiming that he could see the people he'd killed during the war in his left eye. That was when he seemed to be feeling the guilt of all the deaths he had been ordered to carryout and it eventually led to his resignation from the military. That was the time of his exile and Riza was very concerned for his health, but she still had to respect that the only person who could help Roy Mustang at the time was Roy Mustang himself. Now the thing that she had seemed to put all of his faith in and hopes for the future was the return of the Elric brothers, which he had predicted on the correct date, and the new Fuhrer that he had backed with his own reputation. Unfortunately, neither Edward Elric nor Alphonse Elric seemed interested in the prospect of working for the State again, even if it wasn't like it was before.
"Oh god, not another report about some suspicions of separatist mischief," whined Roy as he set his face completely on his desk ion frustration. "I guess that's another report I have to half-read."
"I've got a report that I'm sure you're going to read thoroughly, sir," announced Riza as she placed the document on his desk with a her fake cocky smile, but Roy could tell that the reason he was going to read the document was because it wasn't anything good for him. "It's about an assassination attempt on the Fuhrer."
That got Roy's attention as his head shot up and he grabbed the document, letting his eyes pour all over the paper as he absorbed every detail accurately and quickly. Riza had never seen him read a report that fast with that much attention to detail, not since she put a document about the new uniform requirements for female officers, once again seeing his idea for them to wear miniskirts left out of the ballot. She could tell something was wrong when she saw his expression grimace and she knew that exact expression, catalogued in her memory of Roy's facial reactions to people's names, and she knew that whatever it was it would involve an alchemist known as the archangel alchemist, who was a colonel during the Ishbalan war who burnt his victims, but left them alive to strike terror into the hearts of the Ishbalans, armed with a sword of fire, which he used with finesse as he cut through people without any distinction between women, man or child.
He was the only military officer to be infamous for that reputation or to be punished for how he behaved, seeing as how he attacked places where he wasn't ordered to attack. The military brass figured that he had finally snapped, not being that sane due to seeing his family killed by Ishbalan retaliation to the dead little girl. He was already in the military then and one of those officers who tried to settle things without conflict, but when he lost his wife and child to the attack, he immediately pushed forward the imitative to use State Alchemists to kill the Ishbalans. It was for that reason that Roy had never felt comfortable around the man, the urge to call him a "blood thirsty" sadist was too strong for Roy's will to suppress.
"It's him isn't it sir," asked Riza as she looked at Roy's expression and he replied with a nod. "Why would they send Lieutenant Guile into the fray after his actions during the Ishbalan war? Shouldn't he be removed due to mental instability?"
"He argued that if he had to be removed from his position then all State alchemists would have to be removed," replied Roy as he remembered trying to punch through a brick wall as soon as he heard the decision. "But for the most part I believe that he has found some kind of cure for his madness or something like that because I saw his eyes when he walked out of the court house without a scratch on him. His eyes were different from the menacing ones that we had seen back in the war, they were actually quite sane and it seemed like there was some form of logic behind those eyes, but I guess the brass didn't want him sane so they wound up screwing him over anyway."
"He did deserve it though, didn't he," asked Riza as she looked at Roy, remembering his cursing when Lieutenant Guile was set free to continue his service in the military. "Even most of the killing you did that day wasn't anything compared to what he did to those two towns."
"He was the only one of us who had a good reason for doing what he did during the war," said Roy as he toyed around with the letter opener on his desk. "I doubt any man would be sane after seeing the burnt bodies of his wife and daughter. In the truth of it all, he's the 'Scar' of the military, thought I don't think he would like me comparing him to that criminal all that much."
"So what has any of this to do with him," asked Riza as she took a look at the report herself.
"He's going to be transferred here," replied Roy.
