Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Chapter One
"You haven't heard anymore? You're sure you didn't miss anyone?" An official voice echoed in the large office. The sound waves bounced off of the empty teal blue walls only to collide into stacks of books and papers. After the second collision, the waves angled towards the wooden bookshelves where the sound was absorbed by the red grain of the thick wood. However the echo barely lasted and couldn't be heard resonating in the room. The room was large, but it wasn't that large; not to mention that it was cluttered with a dark oak desk with matching chairs, various lengths of parchment with hurried notes, towering bookshelves, soaring book piles, and a sleek and dark phone. This said phone currently resided in the hand of the man in charge of the voice. It mumbled out a clear response to the receiver of the call.
"Positive, General. All of the bodies have been confirmed. Everyone who was thought to be in the building was identified." A deep and powerful voice responded back. Although the voice seemed worried and sad. The General silently thought of how dismal it must be, delivering more bad news on a deadly case with no leads. The whole situation practically spelled 'awful'.
The General let out a long and troubled sigh. "This doesn't look good Armstrong." He paused for a second thinking back at the situation. "This is the third civilian bombing. The people are frightened. We can't calm them; how can we when everyone in the military is just as worried?" He turned in his chair looking outside. The sky was cloudy and bore a sign of rain. In the back of his mind, Roy thought the clouds looked like bruises that someone would find on their arm or leg. Instead it was a hindrance to the pure blue sky that would normally brighten the whole room. The atmosphere outside seemed to agree with the tone of the conversation.
"I know, sir. And we can't afford to have another military library attacked either. Schezca hasn't been to all of the libraries." Armstrong agreed. The General remembered the attack Armstrong was talking about. It had been one of the two attacks on the military side of things; totaling the number of attacks to five. "General Mustang, the only thing that is the same with all of these attacks is the alchemy involved. All the witnesses say the same thing: colored lights went off before the destruction. The damage surrounding the buildings only supports this fact. But each site has been destroyed in different ways from the others. Not one array has been used twice. The only constant is the alchemy involved!"
"But there's no connection between the attacks. They are all random…" Roy Mustang mused. He spun in his chair and quickly placed his elbow on the table scattering loose pieces of paper to the blue carpet below. He leaned into his hand as he continued his talk with Armstrong. His good eye was zoning in on a large and dark knot on the wood's otherwise perfect surface. He sighed again. "Has the investigation committee found anything yet?" His eye left the wood and lingered on a picture. It showed him with his military uniform on, looking glum and serious. Beside him stood a taller man with a much happier face upon him. The man's glasses gleamed with delight in the picture. The lamp that stood illuminating on his desk, cast a glare on his side of the picture, but also seemed to cast a friendly glow over the cheerful man. Roy's heart sank slightly when he thought of his best friend.
"Nothing significant. They're still trying to see if there will be anything new to report from the new attack site."
"And there is no clue as to what the next target is? Anything to indicate whether it'll be a military or civilian target?" Roy asked, his mind desperately begging for an answer. He had already increased the security of all the cities, but he couldn't get them all. At the rate the attacker was going, a backwater country town like Resembool could be attacked. He had no way of knowing what town would be next or what building. And being the General of the whole situation didn't help either. Although the people would only partly blame him in the event of another attack; the new Parliament that has also been set up took the other chunk of blame. They had their say in how the country was going to be defended from terrorists.
"None, sir," Armstrong paused, "At least we haven't found any yet." He sounded hopeful, trying to convince himself of the same thing. 'Armstrong was always the optimist,' Roy thought to himself. However, he was a little bit more on the pessimistic side. He didn't respond to Armstrong's hope.
"Is this line safe, sir?" Armstrong suddenly asked in a low and quiet whisper. Roy was taken aback by the question.
"As far as I know," Roy said, suddenly doubtful of the line's security. He listened intently for any signs of the line being tapped, a frown forming on his face.
"Then," Armstrong paused for a moment, checking to make sure that it was safe. "How is you're research going?" Outside, the thunder laughed merrily causing the room to give off the feel of being vibrated.
"Not so well…" Roy sighed. "Being the General I'm obliged to put more of my time into the terrorism case, than my own." Now that Roy was at the top of the line, he wasn't so sure he liked it all that much. Sure he was in charge of the military, earned a great salary, and had all the information in the world at his finger tips. However, the whole world seemed to have problems, and being the General it was his job to answer a good majority of them. It was Equivalent Exchange. In exchange for becoming a powerful and influencing figure, you lose a lot of time for yourself and your own endeavors.
"I understand. A lot of us here are trying to close this case as much as we can in order to help you. We all want him back as soon as possible." Armstrong replied confidently. Roy knew that the 'we' he was talking about was most of the military, but more specifically it was his closet circle of friends.
"I appreciate it. But we can't risk messing up this case in order to get back to what we want to do. Edward chose to go through the Gate. We can't put aside what we're doing in order to bring him back. He might not even want to come back for all we know." Roy trailed off as he thought about his younger subordinate. Since the attack of Eckhard and her minions, Roy hadn't seen Edward Elric, or heard from him. But that's to be expected when you live in another foreign world that can only be accessed by powerful and dangerous alchemy. But that was exactly what his research was about. He wanted to find a way to reopen the Gate and bring Edward back, whether he liked it or not.
Everyone was still in the dark about Edward's disappearance after his brother's resurrection, so to speak. And they were even more clueless about his sudden reappearance, along with strange demons and flying ships, and then his exit with his brother. That was two years ago, and nothing new had been found. No one knew where he was or what he was going back to. But everyone knows that Edward doesn't belong in that world. And they planned on bringing him back.
But getting him back wasn't going to be the hard part. It was reopening the Gate. The only ways that Roy had ever heard of the Gate being open was during Human Transmutation, or in the case two
years ago, when someone from another world wanted to enter the other. In both cases, however, powerful and dangerous alchemy was involved. Roy needed to find a way to decrease the risk involved. And the only thing that got rid of the risk completely would be the Philosopher's Stone.
"Permission to ask a personal question, sir?" Armstrong's voice drew him out of his depressing thoughts. Having called him with military business in mind, Armstrong wanted to be respectful to the higher chain in command. Outside the clouds broke slightly, letting in a small ray of sunshine to fall upon Roy's desk and face. He looked up at the sky, thinking to himself that he was glad the bruise covering the sky wasn't going to last forever.
"Of course, Armstrong," Roy replied. Off duty, Roy and his friends were very casual about their ranks, however; at any given moment Roy could break out some ridiculous command that they would have to do it. It had been known to happen. But while they were on duty, military conduct was expected.
"How is Riza doing?" Armstrong's voice didn't sound official any more, but friendly and curious. The change of tone had a massive effect on the mood of the conversation. From once being dull, depressing, and otherwise didn't bring any good news, the conversation turned into one of the future and one of hope and joy.
"She's fine. She visited the doctor three days ago and she said that everything was fine. They still say that she's due in two weeks," Roy replied leaning back into his leather chair. The sunshine expanded and filled up his whole face, clearly showing the smile that rested on his lips. Today there was only one person in the room and that was General Roy Mustang. However, on a normal, daily basis, Riza Hawkeye occupied the room with him. Just as with his friends, Roy's relationship with Riza while on duty was strictly military. Riza made sure it stayed that way. But as soon as the day was over, the relationship between them changed drastically. Whereas with Havoc or Falman, Roy and his friends would joke and pick on each other, Riza and Roy's relationship was different. Havoc, Falman, and Fury didn't feel jealous at all about the treatment Roy gave Riza. They had no desire to be carrying his unborn child!
Not long after Edwards second disappearance and Roy was promoted to the new General, Roy realized that he wouldn't want to spend the rest of his days with a woman other than Riza Hawkeye. Well, Riza Mustang now. They didn't need years of dating to realize that they both loved each other unconditionally, and married each other a year ago. And now, Riza was about to give birth to their first child.
"That's good to hear. I hope to be back in Central in two weeks. I hope I can be there with you when your child is born. Maybe I can take some pictures…" Armstrong chuckled, obviously remembering his old friend Maes Hughes. Roy laughed with Armstrong recalling how Hughes used to bombard them with picture everyday. He was sad to think that Hughes wasn't going to be around to see his child's birth.
"I hope to see you there. I'm going to need as much help as I can get!" Roy replied; he was still very nervous about being the 'Father Figure'.
"I wouldn't worry about a thing!" Armstrong comforted his friend. He was well aware of Roy's impending fear of being a bad father. "If you can live through Edward growing up, I'm sure you can handle a child with ease." Roy laughed in agreement, mentally thinking of how stubborn Edward was when he first joined the military. The thunder laughed and rolled in agreement as well.
"That's all too true," Roy said and he realized that he was sad that Edward was going to miss the birth of his child as well. He frowned slightly, now worried that he would get wet on his way home.
In the phone, Armstrong sigh resonated. "Well, sir, I have nothing more to report." He started to end the conversation. They both needed to get back to work and finish what was left of their duties for the day. The clouds started to invade upon the only light coming from the sky, daring any other holes to pop up.
"Alright, Armstrong. Hope to see you soon," Roy said. He placed the phone back into its silver cradle and leaned back against his chair. He stretched and yawned. Looking at the clock he saw that it was past time to go home. He frowned. He wanted to go to his house and see his wife, but he still had papers deliver. Luckily he could convey them on his way home. He got up from his chair and collected the appropriate papers. He picked up his black jacket from the wooden coat rank in the corner and turned towards the door. Before closing the door, he looked out into the injured sky once more. The thunder rumbled, encouraging him to go outside so he could finally make it rain.
Roy walked down the flights of steps, thinking about the information Armstrong gave him. He continued to ponder as he walked into the main entrance hall, but stopped when he heard his name.
"I'm sorry, sir. General Mustang has been very busy." The receptionist at the front desk said to a blonde man in front of her desk. In his hand he held a folded piece of paper.
"When will I be able to see him? He's the only one who can really evaluate this," The man politely asked, showing the receptionist a white piece of paper. The man wore formal clothes, obviously trying to look nice when, or if, he saw the General. He seemed rather anxious to meet the head of the army.
"I'm General Mustang. Can I help you with something?" Roy came up to the desk, and introduced himself the man. The blonde man looked up in surprise, but showed a wide smile when seeing Roy. He stood out with his bright blonde hair and pale skin, and not to mention his white teeth, when contrasted with the dark and dreary sky. The thunder rolled angrily.
"Yes please!" the man said enthusiastically. "I was wondering if you could look at this transmutation circle. You being the General and a State Alchemist, I thought that you would have the best expertise." The man finished with another smile and unfolded the paper he had in his hand.
Roy took the paper and took a quick glance at it. "Wow," he said in surprise as he saw the complicated design. Symbols were everywhere in the circle along with lines that corresponded to each one, creating a complex and intricate design. Roy glanced up at the man, expecting to see him smiling at him, but instead he saw the man looking to the left, his smile had turned into a smirk. Roy quickly looked back down, before the man saw him, but discretely put his hand into his pocket and put his glove on.
"That's quite an array. But I would need days to study it and tell you what I think. But I'm afraid that's time I don't have right now," Roy said, wishing he could discretely look over to where the man was smirking, but was unable to due to his eye patch. He handed back the paper.
"Oh I see…" The man frowned slightly. "Well, actually if you're not in a hurry," he looked up at Roy hopefully giving him another full face smile, "I can show you how it works right now." Roy didn't respond to the comment. His eyes narrowed as he noticed how the smile was forced and didn't meet the man's cold, blue eyes. He quickly glanced over to his left again. Feeling that something was up, Roy
immediate turned his head to look as well. The first flash of lightening lit up the area, blinding the people inside slightly.
To his left, a man with brown hair quickly reached behind his back and pulled out a sleek, black pistol. As he was bringing it up he fired the gun, silencing the room with a deafening roar. The receptionist beside Roy collapsed against the desk. Roy heard the bullet collide with her skull.
On instinct, Roy pulled out his hand and snapped his fingers causing a stream of fire to collide with the man. He had no desire to kill him, but as soon as the fire touched him, the staccato popping of gunshots echoed through the halls. Apparently, the man had pounds upon pounds of ammo on his body, and the gun powder reacted with the fire. Without taking a second glance, Roy knew the gunman was dead.
Having already jumped back after snapping his fingers, Roy looked back towards the smiling man. A pistol rested in his hand while his other one still grasped the paper. Smoke came out of the barrel from a gunshot that got mixed in with the explosion and the thunder that roared in anger of the battle. He missed Roy the first time, but his eyes were on the General again, hoping to get another shot.
From the front door more people with gun came rushing in, firing random shots into the room. Some of the other military personnel fell down injured or dead, before they could pull out their own firearm. In the back hallways, Roy could hear other military men scramble to pick up their weapons and see where the battle was. The problem was, most of the men had already gone home, Roy guessed that there wouldn't be much for a battle. And what made matters worse, he was probably the only State Alchemist in the building.
Roy stood his ground and released another explosion of fire; one towards the men at the door another at the smiling man in front of him. He heard another staccato of gunfire and knew he hit one of the men at the entrance, but he knew the Smiling Man dodged his blast.
Around them, smoke filled the air. From Roy's attack, chairs, desks, and sofas that once occupied the room now started to smolder and burn. The heat in the room started to rise, making the atmosphere uncomfortable as the humidity started to invade the room from broken window panes and a gaping hole in the wall from Roy's conflagration. The otherwise large and spacious room now seemed small and cramped with the smoke compiling on top of everything.
"Get out of the building!" Roy yelled over his shoulder, hidden by the smoke from reception desk. He repeated himself, yelling louder as he turned around looking for the Smiling Man. He already knew what the transmutation circle he held did. It didn't take him long to come to the conclusion that the people attacking the building was the terrorist group, and this building, and everyone in it, was the next target.
He snapped up two additional firestorms. More explosions could be heard echoing down the hallway along with shouts and screams. Behind him more gunfire echoed, several stray bullets whizzed past. Roy cursed aloud, realizing that the group had men down the back exits and his men and their men were having a stand off.
"Gah!" Roy yelled as he slumped to the floor, his leg collapsing from under him. He quickly looked down and saw blood seeping out of a small round hole. It wasn't until a second later that he heard the gunshot. He looked up and snapped his hands again, not sure where to direct the blasts. He cursed aloud to himself again, this time because he couldn't see out of his left eye and had to repeatedly turn his head to look in that direction.
And it was in that direction that the Smiling Man came from. More smoke came from his gun barrel. Roy immediately raised his arm to snap his fingers but another pain rippled through his shoulder. He felt more blood seep into his blue uniform and trickle down his arm. He looked up with vengeance in his eye and saw the Smiling Man frown down at him. He pulled the trigger again.
"Grah!" Roy grunted as this bullet took his other shoulder. The Smiling Man looked down and saw that Roy's fingers were still in motion, getting ready to snap once again. With a quick movement he stepped on the hand, pushing all his weight onto his iron toe boots. Small cracks could be heard as Roy's hand broke under the pressure. Roy cursed in pain, and cursed again because he couldn't move his arm to go into his other pocket and slip on his other glove. Outside the thunder ravaged and another dash of lightening lit up the otherwise violet and black sky. Through the thunderous noises, Roy could hear the rain slamming down against the building. Almost as if the sky was trying to fight back for him, but unable to reach its target.
"Now, now, none of that. Here I am trying to be nice and show you what this array does," The man was smiling again. Lightening crackled through the sky lighting up the man's face, giving him a crazed look in his eyes. He leaned forward as he said this, placing a hand on Roy's shoulder and squeezing tightly boring his fingers into Roy's skin, expanding the already open wound. Roy barred his teeth in pain and tried to keep his moan from slipping out. Already blackness started to crowd his vision, unconsciousness trying to slip in, shutting Roy off from the outside world. Unwillingly letting his eyes slip downward, Roy saw his blood pooling out from him. He struggled to look up when he heard the Smiling Man laugh. His mind raced, trying to think of someway to attack the man, but his mind refused to cooperate through the pain and blackness.
Roy breathed heavily as he watched the man kneel in front of him, placing the transmutation circle at his feet. The blood from Roy's wounds started to seep into the paper. Through his haze, Roy came upon a realization. Outside the thunder rumbled in agreement.
"No, wait. You'll be destroyed too!" Roy hoped against hope that the Smiling Man would stop his actions if he knew he would be destroyed as well. However, he said it too late. The man had already clapped his hands and placed them on the stained piece of paper. He looked up at Roy, smiling.
A piercing yellow light blinded Roy for a moment, but it dimmed allowing him to still see the smiling man. He felt useless, unable to do anything to stop the reaction. He looked down at the circle and saw that more of his blood had leaked onto the paper. The red liquid continued to move towards the black etching, and when it finally touched the edged of the circle, everything changed. The blood started to glow, and it stopped its movement. Slowly the glow swiftly climbed across the pool of blood where Roy was lying, and when it was done encasing that, it started its way up his body.
His eye grew wide as he felt the reaction going through him. He looked up from the reaction towards the Smiling Man. The man wasn't smiling anymore, but looked horrified. He held up his hand in front of his face and Roy saw that the same thing was happening to him. His hand had been covered in blood from where he squeezed Roy's shoulder and now his hand was glowing from where the blood stained it. They both sat entranced by what was happening to both of them.
It happened to the Smiling Man first.
He screamed out, his other hand clutching his arm in a death grip. He rolled backwards, away from the blood, and writhed in pain. From where he sat, Roy saw the man's hand start to deteriorate from his body.
Then Roy felt the pain. The pain wasn't just at his hands; instead it coursed through his whole body. He gasped and tried to hold back the screams as he watched the yellow light start to disappear and then saw his body evaporate as well. He couldn't hold in his screams any longer.
-WUttOS-
Outside the building, a large crowd gathered. People jumped and screamed when they heard the staccato explosions. They were crying and screaming wanting to get through to their family that still remained inside, but the police force was keeping people back. In the crowd shouts could be heard yelling at the police asking why they didn't go in there to help. The police's answered that it was the terrorist and they couldn't risk losing a whole squadron with an alchemic reaction going on.
At the edge of the group, stood Riza Hawkeye (now Mustang); beside her stood Gracia Hughes. They both stood horrified, but Riza quivered with fear. She knew what was going on, she heard the familiar sounds of gunshot explosions and the screams of dying and injured men. Having lived through battles she was attuned to all the noise and heard all of them, no matter how small. And everyone in there she knew and worked with, some of them were good friends of hers. But what made her tremble in fear even more was that she knew her husband was in there as well. She couldn't hear his fingers snap, but she heard the familiar explosions as the fire hit its target. And what made it worse; she couldn't go in there to help.
The rain started to tumble down. Even with the on going battle, the people could hear it as it pounded against them. They saw it come down in layers before it hit them, but they stayed rooted in place, watching in terror as the rain tried to help with the battle as well.
A bright yellow light flashed and lit up the area. The light receded from where they were standing, but it remained in the building. Riza recognized it as light from a transmutation. A scream echoed to the outside. It was loud and painful. People in the crowd shifted with discomfort, it had been the loudest scream yet. Not long afterwards another scream sounded, this time much louder than the first one, and much more painful.
The light grew brighter and the scream ended abruptly. Riza gasped and stared she started to lose feeling in her legs. Immediately she reached out and grabbed a hold of Gracia's arm before she fell. She felt the blood drain from her face and she barely registered that Gracia was looking at her in worry and asking her what was wrong. But Riza was unable to answer. The thunder moaned and shouted with a great ferocity.
She knew that it was Roy screaming in pain.
She knew that Roy was now gone from this world.
Author's Note: Whew, got that chapter done. Seven pages! That's pretty good for me! I hope the chapter was good, and that the cliffhanger was good enough. Don't worry, it's not the end. And sorry for the Roy torture/him losing. But I needed it to happen. I hope to get the next chapter up soon, but you never know with me. Oh yeah, its been awhile since I've last seen Fullmetal Alchemist, so please tell me if the characters are out of character or if I have any info wrong! Please tell me what you think, and give me as much criticism as you want! Cause I need it! And if anyone has any ideas for a good title name, I'm open to suggestions!