1

Be thou for the People

Officially, the man known as Logan Molniya was shot in the chest and shoulder, was hospitalized, healed, and discharged. But that doesn't make that interesting of a story, now does it? And if that was all that happened, then I probably wouldn't have bothered putting it down on paper. So, then, there must be something else, now shouldn't there?

The Lieutenant Colonel walked through the white hallways of Eastern Command. He opened the door to the office of Colonel Roy Mustang. As Logan walked into the office, Mustang looked up.

"What is it Colonel?" Roy asked.

"I just have some paperwork for you." said Logan, setting down a stack of papers on his desk.

"Why would an officer be sent to deliver paperwork?" Roy asked angrily.

"Oh you know just how much I love to torture you." Logan replied, smiling. He waved as he left the room, and closed the door.

Roy groaned. "Bastard."

Logan slowly walked back to his office, wondering why Mustang hated him so much. He surmised that it was because their alchemy was extremely similar. Roy could feel that someone was copying him. But he couldn't understand why that would bother him. Roy doesn't seem to be someone to be bothered by that kind of thing. Logan's title as a State Alchemist was "The Lightning Alchemist." He transmutes the sub-atomic particles in the air to create negative charge. The rest of the electrons in the air will try to find a positive source to neutralize the charge. This results in an electric discharge. Logan's gloves act as both an electric insulator, and an electric conductor. The gloves make sure that no electricity passes through his body, but also allows the electricity to run through the gloves. He harnesses the electricity, and by snapping his fingers, he transmutes the electricity, allowing him to shoot it at whatever target he wills.

Logan sighed. His Alchemy was still messy. He wished he could find a way to clean it up. Make it better, faster, and stronger. He didn't see any way how to, but then again, he hadn't exactly been keeping up-to-date on Alchemy. He stopped and looked up. He was at the front entrance to the headquarters.

"Hm. Wonder when that happened." Logan shrugged, pushed open the door, and walked out. As he walked out, he continued to consider his alchemy. He couldn't make the electricity go where he wanted without snapping his fingers. But then again, he couldn't create a negative charge without touching the transmutation circle on the back of his glove. Of course, he could pass electricity through someone else's body just by touching them. That was simple. If he could find a way to transmute the electricity without snapping his fingers, or without having to initially touch the transmutation circle on the back of his glove then-

"Stop!"

Logan looked up to see a man stealing a woman's purse. He watched the incredibly stupid man ran toward him, completely oblivious to Logan. He touched the index and middle fingers of his right hand to the back of his left glove and stepped in front of the robber. The man stopped abruptly and looked up at him. Logan smiled at him and touched his two fingers to the man's forehead. This resulted in the electricity from the discharge to pass into the man's body. It was a small amount of electricity, but it was just enough to stun him long enough to get the purse, and give it back to the woman.

"Thank you so much!" She said to him.

"Don't mention it," he said with a mock salute. "'Alchemists be thou for the people,' right?"

Logan walked through the hallways of the Eastern Command with his hands in his pockets. Now, somehow, his mind had drifted to the subject of human transmutation. For some reason, he never thought about it. He had always accepted the things that happened in his life, good or bad. Obviously, when his wife died he didn't shrug it off. He had been left alone to raise their son, Dylan. But he never considered human transmutation as an option. It always just seemed… wrong to him. After all, Equivalent Exchange was the basis of Alchemy, and what could be equal to that of a human soul?

He looked up and found himself in front of the door to his office. He turned the handle, pushed the door open, walked inside and closed it. He chuckled as he looked at the large stack of paperwork he had neglected over the years. He chuckled. Some of it has to be from a year ago at least. He sighed and sat in his chair. He chuckled again. If Roy saw any of this he'd be so pissed.

As Logan finished up his last piece of paperwork for the day (Which was actually about 10 minutes worth of work), he stood up, stretched, grabbed this long black coat and walked out the door to his office.

Walking out of Eastern Headquarters, he looked up at the sky and saw black and grey clouds rolling in from the west. Logan chuckled. There was very likely going to be a thunderstorm that evening. He had always enjoyed thunderstorms. They were what inspired his Alchemy. After all, if he could harness the power of lightning, he would be extremely powerful. Lightning can reach up to 30,000 degrees Celsius (54,000 degrees Ferinheight), and with that kind of power, he should be able to take down anyone… even the Führer…

He shouldn't think like that. Führer King Bradley had never been anything but just. But then again-

"Lieutenant Colonel Logan Molniya!" came a voice from behind him. Logan stopped and turned to face the unfamiliar voice. Standing there was a man who wore a long black coat, black boots and dark glasses over his eyes. His arm was stretched out in front of him, and in his hand, a pistol. Logan chuckled.

"You think it wise, boy? Pointing a weapon at a State Alchemist?" Logan questioned.

"I see no military here, and you are no god. Bullets can kill you." The man replied. Logan chuckled.

"Do you know anything about lightning, boy?" Logan asked.

"Lightning is an electrical discharge when the bottom of a cloud becomes negatively charged." The man recited.

"Very good. So you must know that all lightning is electricity. And metals are very good conductors of electricity." Logan said, smirking.

"Yes. What's your point?" The man asked.

"Only that you are holding a very good conductor in your hand right now." Logan replied. The man's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He hadn't thought of that. "So may I ask why you have the audacity to stand before me with a piece of metal thinking that you could actually kill me with it?"

"You killed my family." The man stated, his hands shaking. "In Ishval. You killed them." Logan could see the tears streaming down his face, even from this distance. "My family is all that I had… and you slaughtered them."

Logan sighed and looked at the ground. After a moment, he looked back up at the man. "'Alchemists be thou for the People,' isn't that right?" Logan heard a loud sound and a piercing pain in his shoulder. He screamed in pain and fell backwards. Was he really going to let himself die here? What about his son. He couldn't allow him to become an orphan. Logan was stunned, either by the intense pain in his shoulder, or the fact that he knew he was going to die, and he watched as the man stepped into his field of vision and pointed the gun at his head. He took off his black glasses to reveal red irises.

"This is for my family… Military DOG!"

There was a loud sound, a flash of light, and then darkness.