My sacrifice
Chapter one: out like a light
Be kind this is my first FMA fic
I will only say this once I don't own full metal alchemist!!
Light filtered through the grand window panes in the back of the bright and stuffy office, the rays lazily bouncing off the polished hard wood of the semi-clean, paper strewn, desks, to hit the pale walls, forming peculiar silhouettes on the pastel painted areas they touched, showing the dust that danced an imperceptible ballet in mid air. Black eyes looked over the room slowly, unenthusiastically; well used fingers occupied by doodling on some oddly important work, which needed to be signed for the end of the day. As the hand ran the pen delicately over the documents, obsidian eyes finding the clock that rested over the old, polished hard wood door at the other end of the sun gorged office. 2:37. A low groan escaped the thin, lightly chapped, lips as the incredibly dark gaze took up the exploration of the quiet office, which they had seen for many years, once again, still needing to kill some time so he wouldn't have to finish the paper work that rested on the desk, at that instant, or that day.
"Hey Breda!"
The sudden outburst from second lieutenant Havoc got the attention of most the office and snapped the red head, seated near the other end of the room, out of his reverie and sent the tattered folder that had been held in the pudgy hands to the slightly, gritty tiled floor, with a dulled snapping sound, the papers disappearing under the semi-clean desk and into the shadows. Grumbling, Heyman bent down to pick up the file, muttering profanities under his breath as he heard Jean laughing from across the room, at his desk, his pudgy fingers probing the darkness of the ground under the work area.
A sharp yelp escaped from the man's pale lips as he fell, hard, backwards from his old, polished, wooden chair, that clattered harshly to the ground in a series of loud, clattering, bounces as he scuttled away backwards rapidly, holding the hand, he had used as a probe, close to his wide chest, staring, pastel bleu eyes wide in terror, at the shadowy part under his work station, as if he had seen a green monster.
Two of the occupants of the room had jumped to their feet, looking around for what had scared the man, the one with a gun out, eyed the room from top to bottom, finally resting a questioning gaze on the man on the ground then to the desk.
"What the...?"
A tall grey haired man put away his gun as he knelt beside the over turned chair and sank his sand paper hands into the obscurity under the desk, ignoring the other man's pitiable pleas not to do so. Pulling back his arms from the darkness, a small black and white fluff ball, holding the faded, dog-eared, yellow jacket, that held the paper work from the newest case the team had been investigating, rested in his hands at arms reach.
A small, excited, yip escaped the pup's mouth, his tail flailing wildly behind him as the jacket was removed from its small jaws, the drool sticking to the paper as the document was thrown, unceremoniously, to the man still sitting on the floor, colliding with his head before falling limp to the man's, uniformed covered, lap. The black eyed man gave a grin as the others laughed at Heymans who still eye balled the dog wearily, slowly getting to his feet, reaching for his toppled chair slowly.
Doodling finished, Roy crumpled up the scrap paper/paperwork/doodle and threw it across the room, missing the mesh wire waste paper basket by a few feet as the dying rays of the sun glared at him, blocking his view of his immobile metal target.
He looked slowly around the bright office at the men who were making fun of the poor Breda, the man having sat back down with a slight embarrassed blush on his face as the others mocked and teased him by imitating his face when he had hit the wall, trying to get away from the black and white pup.
Onyx hair falling in his face as he shook his head tiredly, a grin painted on lips, Mustang swept his dark eyes over the laughing bunch, all of them snickering loudly, except for one, the one sitting not to far from the desk he was occupying, just in front of a packed bookcase, filled with military records and novels.
His hand swept dryly to the side, cutting off all the snickering in one soft, swift, twitch of his finger tips, all turning their eyes to see what their leader was looking at, their mouths hanging a bit at what they saw.
The first lieutenant was fast asleep on her paper overwhelmed desk, her head resting on her folded arms as the metal cased pen she had been using before rested in front of her, having rolled away slightly from her delicate fingers when she had dropped it. It was sharply reflecting the orange/yellow rays of the sun that watched them from its high point in the sky. The many documents she had been working on most of the day, pocked out in all directions from under the bleu sleeves of her uniform, held down by the weight of her head and one hand placed on top of the discolored yellow jacket that contained her work and research.
The men watched her for a few seconds, turning there startled gaze to their colonel afterwards, to assess what they should do, staying quite as Roy watched the woman with interest, before starting towards her without a sound, like a predator, leaving behind the spare desk he had been using. The other men watched wide eyed, slack jawed as he approached his prey, slowly, soundlessly, the perfect way to get him killed if she awoke to find him there, hunched and hovering over her.
They held their breaths as they watched, unable to look away from the scene, even though they knew of the outcome. It's like a movie you already know the end to, you still watch it till the end, transfixed by the actions you've already seen, unable to stop the events unraveling in front of your eyes: to gruesome to look away.
They watched as his hands slowly approached the unblemished sharp glare of the silver handle of the gun that had fought its way throughout the layers of dark cloth to reflect the daylight. He looked up to them with a grin and placed a finger to his pursed lips, indicating silence.
Roy's steady hand slowly lowered towards her weapon, his eyes betraying his nervousness that he tried to hold down with a fierce grin planted on his thin, pale lips. His used hand hovering over the polished metal, he stopped shy of the shiny object, his eyes fixated on the one of the woman's pale hand that pocked out from under her dark sleeve. It's just your imagination. He thought as he reached out again, but stopped once more, his eyes focusing on the woman's slim shoulders, his sandpaper hand coming to rest softly on her arm.
The sudden shrill crying of the phone sent the men that were in the office in a frenzy of silent terror,
Breda jumping under his desk, as Havoc jumped behind the coat rack, while Roy and Falman jumped behind the couch. Fuery, in a mad dash, ran and grabbed the gleaming black phone on the second loud ring, his clammy, pale, hands almost dropping the heavy device before placing it, shakily, to his ear. The woman didn't stir once. The others looked up with a collective sigh as they got up from hiding as the young man nodded and put down the phone, looking a little perplexed.
"Fuery. Who was it?" Asked Havoc as he untangled himself from the coats with a sigh.
"It was lieutenant colonel Hughes; he said something about the Führer coming this way. And to be on..."
There was a soft, almost soundless nock on the polished wooden door in the front of the office, cutting of the young man's words, and, before anyone responded to the sound, it opened slowly, a tall, lean woman with dark brown hair and a clip board held to her chest, walking in followed by a tall, imposing, man with an eye patch on his left eye.
The men automatically snapped to a practiced attention, their bodies forming a tight, ridged, shield in front of the sleeping woman, hiding her from the new comers gaze.
"Sir!" Stated the men at the same time, saluting to the Führer who watched them with an amused grin, his one eye watching his brunette secretary make her way slowly to the colonel, handing him a crisp new, faded, yellow folder with the military's green crest on the front.
The man nodded, descending his hand from his temple to accept the important documents the woman held out to him, his gloved fingers holding the file as his eyes read the neat bold title: Chimeras in Frïontal. His dark eyes narrowed as he read the information rapidly, before snapping it shut sharply to look back up to the man near the door, watching the group with his mostly closed eye.
"As you may have figured out, the town of Frïontal has been under relentless attack by Chimeras and I have decided to send your team, Mustang, to help out the military personnel already there. The creatures seemed to have been getting increasingly intelligent as the days go by and we have reason to believe that whoever made the beasts is managing to make them more and more...dangerous, more clever, if you will. They managed to invade the east wing of the camp and kill almost twenty men, wounding fifteen and destroy a great deal of ammunition before they were stopped. As you can imagine it's a considerable loss. The town is hard to access to send shipments or help."
The team listened to the man attentively; their eyes narrowed in concentration, trying to imagine the vicious animals destroying the town, ammo, killing the villagers, military personnel and visualize the faces of men already there, that couldn't do a thing to stop them.
Suddenly the Führer's head cocked to the side slightly, looking at the men before looking back to Mustang with an almost bemused look on his face, his smile still in place.
"The "official" state records indicate that your squadron has five members, colonel, and, apart from state warrant officer Falman, I only count four of you." He gently picked up some papers from his secretary's gleaming wooden clip board, the metal clip shining in the sun, almost as if mocking them about their failed hiding performance.
His head bobbed up and down as he mentally counted the people in front of him, his eyes moving from the paper to the men lined up facing in his direction, the pages rustling in the silence of the room as he checked off every person he had looked at. With a small laugh, he fixed up his eye patch with one hand, his lips settling into a grin he walked over to the men neatly lined up like dominos.
Mustang could almost feel the cold sweat beading on his forehead but the icy rush going down his spine, his stomach dropping to his knees he could feel quite clearly. He already knows, doesn't he? He thought worriedly as the man stopped in front of him, his mind racing wildly as he was forced to raise his eyes only to some extent to meet the other eye looking back.
"May I see first lieutenant Hawkeye, Colonel?" Asked the head of state with his normal, shit eater's, grin, the words cold to hear as they dripped from his lips, the last word, his rank, holding some venom, knowing that the man couldn't really do a thing except follow the orders that were given to him.
Roy bit back a groan and, nodding faintly to the others, who stepped to the side, Mustang settling beside the woman's left shoulder, watching the man with weary eyes, silently, not sure what to expect.
The füreur's right eye brow rose slightly as he looked at the woman, her body moving with the movements of her rhythmic breathing, slow and calm, oblivious to the people watching her. The colonel watched the 'president' walk up next to his lieutenant, sweeping some stray strands of golden hair from her face, letting the rays bathe her unhealthy pale skin in light. Roy's dark eyes narrowed slightly when the rays uncovered the dark, almost purplish, circles under her eyes, the almost sickly pale skin in contrast with the shady color. The imposing man gently brushed his fingers softly against her forehead, his face turning a bit more serious as he turned to Mustang.
"Really Colonel, I though you took better care of your subordinates"
"Sir?"
The man shook his head with a sigh, gently pulling out one of the many folders that littered the woman's desk, eyeing the title before opening it, flipping through the numerous pages fast, only to close it after a few seconds.
"Miss Douglas, What day are we today?" He asked not looking up front the yellow jacket.
"Thursday July 25th, 1920" She stated in her calm, cool voice, looking down at her papers, her brown eyes skimming over the words.
The Führer narrowed his sharp eye before turning to look at the first lieutenant for a few moments, and then turned to Roy with an almost angered look.
"Colonel Mustang, I gave this report only four days ago, it's about the alchemic killings in Lior that have been going on for months, targeting mainly the military's officers, alchemist and non alchemist alike." He paused giving time to the other man to absorb the information.
After a nod from the colonel, and most of the group, that stood silently on either side of the first lieutenant's desk, he went on.
"I can only think that you handed out the work that very day. Here's my point."
He handed the thick documents to Mustang who opened it slowly, unsure of what to expect. His onyx eyes opened a bit in bewilderment as he started reading what was written: Riza's fine penmanship was sketched in many places filling in the appropriate area and, as he flipped throughout the document, page after page were filled with pictures of the crime scenes, delicate handwriting, doodled drawings of the arrays used and the murder areas, in different angles and the killer's M.O. At the end there were countless sheets of hypothesis about the murderer and the possible motivations as to why he or she killed who he or she did and who it could be.
Starting from the beginning once more, Roy could only think about how much research his lieutenant had to do to write up what he held in his hands. It was almost thirty pages long! He'd have to talk to Sheska about that later on. The documents were taken from his hands in one swift jerk and handed to the secretary, Miss Douglas, before he could blink.
"You all have the rest of the day off to prepare for the voyage to Frïontal. Pack and rest, your train leaves tomorrow at 0754 sharp. Don't miss it."
With a wave, the man was gone, leaving them all a bit confused and silent.
"So... if I got half of that, we have to go to Frïontl?" Asked Sergeant Major Kain Feury, looking up to the colonel who seemed as confused as he.
The flame alchemist blinked slowly a few times before looking to the others, who eyed him expectantly, their bodies ridged still in a salute manner. He shook his head gently and nodded rubbing his forehead.
"Ya. Havoc," There was an awkward pause between his words as he pinched the bridge over his nose in fatigue, trying to figure things out "get your things then go get the car, bring it out front and wait for us there. Breda get the paper work to the front bureau, Falman get lost and Fuery," another slight pause as he let his hand drop to his side in a tired manner, "Help me with the lieutenant, I may need a shield when she wakes up."
Quickly the men dispersed, Falman saluting respectively before returning to his rightful place within Maes' office.
Roy looked down at the thin woman, still fast asleep on her desk, slightly cleared of the paper work Breda managed to get free without waking her, her head resting in her arms, her lips parted to let out soft puffs of warm breath that ruffled the remaining paper work. Slowly, more hesitant then anything, he closed a hand over her shoulder, wincing at the feel of skin and bone, the bleu covered area shivering slightly under his heavy hand. He looked at Fuery, who waited patiently for his next move, before turning his gaze back to the woman, gently shaking her shoulder, wanting to bring her gently back to consciousness.
A soft, almost un-Hawkeye like, sound passed her lips, her back lightly arching upwards towards the man's touch, before her head lifted faintly, her deep amber irises blinking open in confusion at the invading sun beams. When it actually registered where she was and what she had been doing, her eyes snapped fully open. In a flash her body tiring to get into an erect position, thought the heavy hand on her shoulder prevented her from doing so.
"Easy now lieutenant." Stated her taisa calmly, slowly removing his firm hand from her frail body to rest it at his side. She stood up as fast as she could, her arms pushing her up rapidly, somewhat shaking under the force of lifting her lithe weight from her desk, weighed down by the heavy uniform, off the scarcely padded chair she had been dozing in moments before hand he had awoken her.
"Sir, I apologize, I don't know what happened, but I shouldn't of..." Her gaze narrowed a bit as she looked around, sentence frozen, her, hawk like, eyes landing on the young man beside the colonel a few seconds, not really seeing him, before they fell back onto the man after doing a detailed sweep of the bright office.
"Where is every one, sir? I hope there's a really good explanation for why we are the only ones in the office." She rocked backwards on the heels of her heavy military issue black boots, her thin but muscled, uniform covered arms crossed tightly against her chest and an ice cold glare stationed on her superior, awaiting an answer from him.
Fuery stood silently behind the colonel as the tall man exhaled slowly from his nose and shook his heavy head with a sad grin touching his slender lips, passing a used hand in his disheveled midnight raven hair; his dark gaze finding her's almost sheepishly before turning hard, in a business like manner she was little use to. Not even awake five minutes and she thinks I did something wrong, typical At least she didn't pull the guns out on me.
"We have a mission." He stated dryly, standing strait, forcing her to raise her still glazed eyes slightly to keep them planted in his. "The Führer himself came in to assign it to us," He watched her pale throat as she swallowed heavily, her small Adams apple moving up then down, causing his mind to wander slightly before he caught himself. "We leave for Frïontal tomorrow morning at 0754 hours sharp. The big man himself gave us the rest of the day off to get our shit together and rest up before we leave."
"Of course sir. I should've known that you wouldn't have let the others leave without a good reason. Forgive me" Her eye lids slid shut, hiding her amber eyes, as she yawned tiredly behind a hand, her body lightly wilting to the side. The taller man sighed disapprovingly as he shook his head once more, looking at her concerned.
"Lieutenant have you been sleeping well? You seem exhausted." Stated Kain softly looking at her with a slight fear of being shot in his big brown eyes. She looked at him oddly, as if she hadn't noticed him before then, even thought during the sweep of the office her eyes had lingered on his a few seconds...
"I've been working over time on a case that's all." She stated packing her things in a black, unmarked travel bag she took out from under her desk, her hands not as steady as they usually were as she packed away her guns and folders and other miscellaneous things away. She looked around, her hands having placed everything away; she looked to her colonel with a perplexed expression on her delicate features.
"Sir, have you seen the documents I've working on? It's all in one folder. It was on my desk last time I checked, I can't seem to find it. I had all my research in it" She pulled out the many drawers of her desk in order as she spoke, looking, almost desperately, at the documents she pulled out, before she placed them back neatly in the beginning of the pile.
"Maybe. Yellow folder, almost an inch thick." She was absently nodding as she rooted around, shifting from one drawer to another. "The Führer has it." She froze for almost a minute, her features frozen in a look of, what you could describe as slight shock, before she turned around to look at him sharply.
"Are you sure, sir? The one about the alchemic killings in Lior?" He nodded leaning back against his desk, arms crossed over his chest as he watched her, with an amused raised eye brow.
"He was impressed to say the least," He was picking up his own things, having pushed away from his perch after a while of surveying his 1st lieutenant, he spoke as he did so. Kain doing the same thing at his own work station.
"Ready?" They all looked to the door where Breda had just crossed the thresh looking at the 1st lieutenant, who had snapped to reality at his voice, hesitantly before going to get his things ready to leave.
Within minutes, they were walking down the halls, Roy in front and the others forming a sort of triangle behind him: Riza to his right Breda to his left and Kain falling behind the others walking silently behind Roy, to the left of Riza and the right of Breda.
They walked silently there steps lost in the echoes of the ones around them, the halls slowly filling with military personnel as they weaved closer and closer to the front of the building where Havoc would be waiting for them in their transport. There movement was finally halted when the flow of blue uniforms got too thick to move, about twenty yards away from the door. Hawkeye Sighed at the same time as her superior, her ears picking up the annoyance creeping up in the man's tone, and her eyes catching his hands itching to get to his gloves. Just as his fingers slipped into the alchemic material, three bullets shot out from the nozzle of a FN Model 1910, held tightly in his 1st lieutenant's hand. Every one froze before turning a collective, terrified glace towards the group who stood impatiently behind them, to the woman wearing the coldest mask they had ever seen in their short military lives.
"I suggest that you get use to moving from in front of a superior officer, you bunch of slackers. And saluting wouldn't be a bad start either." She stated calmly putting away her pistol in the holster at her waist. Her eyes raised a fraction, her head not lifting." Now!" she barked.
The hall went from deathly quiet to extremely noisy as the low ranked officers scrambled madly over one another to get to the walls, there arms flying to a sloppy salute as they panted and shoved one another for room. The higher ranking officers just chuckled and took the opportunity to pass and to tell the colonel that he should consider sending his lieutenant as a drill sergeant. Pleasantries were exchanged before Roy excused himself and went on his way, with his entourage close at hand. Mustang laughed softly as he glanced at the terrified men on the wall, a few women also though they looked more pissed then scared, he noted their gaze landing slightly behind him and guessed at who they were mad at.
The cool air wiped their faces as they stepped out onto the platform before the steps that led down to the car that waited giving a slight cough once in a while. Slowly they descended the stairs, Roy and Riza almost side by side, the woman slightly in front of the man, two steps lower.
"You know you really should be a drill sergeant, Hawkeye." He stated with his usual smirk as he stuffed a hand in his pockets, the other up and under his eyes inspection, fingers flexing slowly in his alchemic glove, "You have the talent, the guns for it and more importantly you can command respect from anyone. I mean we do need some more responsible recruits. The privets now a day..." He shook his head dropping his arm with a tired sigh "They seem to be slacking off on the..."
He paused. Turning his head slightly to glace at his subordinate, he could see that she looked ready to collapse; every step seemed to sink too much and seemed to get heavier at each step taken. Her hand looked like it was holding up her blond head, hair falling to shield her face and hand a bit as her feet searched slowly for the steps beneath her.
Just as he was about to bring that fact to the attention of the others who hadn't seemed to notice her odd behavior, a long sigh passed her paled lips as her body fell forward limply, her arm falling away to her side, her weight keeping the forward motion going.
"Shit! Breda!" He thrust his hand backward, towards the man, knowing that he wouldn't be able to catch her without tumbling down the stairs himself.
The 2nd lieutenant quickly gripped his superiors hand and held onto the concrete banister tightly as Roy shot forward, an arm wrapping securely around her wait as he jerked to a harsh stop. A collective sigh crossed the small group as Fuery quickly ran down pass Breda, and down the steps, gently gathering Riza from his superiors arms, letting the man stand strait as he led the half aware woman down the rest of the steps, sitting her down on the last one, where Roy met him at a fast pace, his eyes filled with concern in their dark depths.
"What the hell?" Stated Havoc in a hurry as he got out of the car, tripped fell, got back up and jogged to the others as quickly as he could.
His hands gently turned the woman's head upwards slightly, after he had crouched beside the black haired young man, seeing her eyes so...empty scared the shit out of him. Gently Roy knelt down beside the other man, and placed his hand under the woman's chin gently, shooing away Havoc's, slowly turning it away from Jean so he could look into her deep amber colored eyes that stared back listlessly, half lidded.
"What happened? The lieutenant never acts this way! Is she alright...?" Furey Was getting almost hysterical as he spoke rapidly, of course, that was before Breda's strong fist collided harshly with the top of his head, to send him to the ground in a low crouch, shutting him up as he clutched his throbbing head with both hands.
"Furey." They all looked up to the man who was gently and slowly lifting the first lieutenant to her feet, supporting her weight with his own body, one of her arms draped over his shoulders, her head resting low on his upper arm.
"Sir!" Stated the young man standing back up strait to a salute.
"Kain, you and the others have to never forget, although our hard headed Hawkeye here doesn't always act it, she is human. With that she has all the right in the world to be weak at her hours." The others looked away slightly, guilt written on their faces. "She's been over working herself and this is the prize she gets for doing so. All she needs right now is rest and our indulgence. Never forget that she comes with all the pain you have, all the small aches and pains, fatigue and exhaustion, the only difference is that she keeps it bottled up so not to worry us. She can't always watch you bums and have the energy left to do her own work but she forces herself. Got it?"
Without another sound he walked over to the car, opened the door and slipped in, gently placing the half conscious woman against his side. The others quickly and quietly filed in, Fuery in the second seat, in front of his superior, while Breda and Havoc sat up front.
The car advanced slowly with a small lurch, forcing Roy to hold onto Riza, who still leaned on him, so she would not fall off the seat and onto the ground, though he didn't seem to mind that much. He held onto her as the car advanced a few blocks before Havoc stopped it, letting Breda and furey, who roomed together in a small apartment, out, warning them that he would pick him up at 0600 hours.
After having dropped off Furey and Breda, the driver turned around and glanced at the two in the back, squinting through the bright light of the afternoon sun.
"So chief, you want to swing by the lieutenant's place first? Or do you want to go home first? I'll drop her off if you want."
Mustang shook his head.
"No stop by my place first."
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