No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

by BridgitKiido

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. Not me. Although I'd love to. If I did, however, Ling would be a prominent character in the anime as well as the manga. He's not even mentioned in the anime. But enough about Ling.

Timeline: This fic is based on Fullmetal Alchemist's anime timeline, after the movie. In fact, it takes place shortly after "Circles", a one-shot of mine. It's not necessary to read that though, as I'll explain everything that happened there that's relevant.


Prelude

Maes Hughes had been a great man. He was a loving father, a loyal subordinate (although he could be a bit off-topic at times), and a good friend.

And then, he had gotten himself shot.

Roy Mustang had always thought that it was partially his fault that Maes had been killed that night. No matter how many times anyone tried to console him, he always thought that he was to blame.

And that's what drove him to committing the ultimate sin – human transmutation.

He knew the consequences. He had seen what had happened to the Elric Brothers when they had done it. Most of the bones in his body were telling him not to do it.

But his heart wouldn't listen, and one night, when he had a couple days off from his military duties, he gathered together all of the ingredients in a large pot, drew the circle, placed a single strand of Maes' black hair fished off of the man's uniform in the center, and placed his hands on the outside edge of the circle.

Immediately, Roy knew he had done the wrong thing. The transmutation went berserk, destroying many glass objects in the room. Roy was unable to escape unscathed either – most of the nerves that sent messages from his left eye were taken. And as for what he created…

Well… it looked sort of like Maes Hughes.

Sort of.

…Kind of.

…Not really.

(It was a very lucky thing that Roy had done this in the basement of his own house without anyone else around. Otherwise, he would have been arrested for this… or worse.)

Roy eventually left… whatever he had created down in the basement. His eye wasn't bleeding or anything – the nerves had simply vanished. And he still had one connecting, so he could see a little bit out of his left eye.

His right eye had always been the stronger one, anyway.

He tried not to let it faze him, especially when the other military personnel were around. In fact, not even Lieutenant Hawkeye noticed a difference in his actions.

And it wasn't as though keeping up his work ethic was much of a problem – Roy had been a rather slothful person to begin with.

It was rather difficult though, which made things almost a blessing when Frank Archer managed to catch him unawares as he escaped the Fuhrer's burning mansion with Bradley's adopted son. The other colonel shot him in the left eye and would have done more damage except Riza killed him first. Roy probably would have died if the Lieutenant hadn't brought him to the hospital.

When things were sufficiently healed, Roy had to wear an eye patch because his left eye was beyond repair. It wasn't too hard to adjust, however, as said eye had been going bad for several months anyway.

Eventually, Roy even got over Edward Elric's disappearance. After all, the boy had been like a son to him… almost. More like an officer who was quite fun to tease (especially about his height or lack thereof) and had begun to grow on him.

A parliamentary system had been developed in Amestris after Fuhrer Bradley's death, so Roy never did realize his dream of becoming the Fuhrer. Even so, he did his best to help his country, although he retired at a young age. This was in part due to his injuries, but also in part because he had proposed to Miss Riza Hawkeye.

The two of them were married and lived in Roy's house. He had eventually cleaned the basement after… that incident, but he hadn't stepped foot in there for years, so it was quite dusty.

Eventually, Riza got pregnant, and about five months through said pregnancy, the Elric Brothers re-appeared… in the dusty basement. Everyone was overjoyed to see them, and the brothers were happy to be home again as well, although whenever they were asked anything about the other side of the Gate, they could not seem to remember any details as anything except obscure dreams. Everyone figured that this was just the passage fee that the Gate had taken from them when they passed through once again – all of their memories of the Gate and what lay beyond in exchange for going back to their lives in Amestris. Neither of them could use the clapping alchemy anymore either, but somehow it was all okay, and neither of them had any regrets.

Four months later, Riza gave birth to a healthy baby boy who looked just like Roy, except for the eyes – he had Riza's eyes. The two of them had mutually decided to name the little boy Maes, after the man who had died because he collected too much information, partially in order to preserve Maes Hughes' memory and partially in hopes that their child would grow up to be intelligent as well.

All this time, however, an entity had been watching from the shadows. A mysterious entity with green, cat-like eyes…


Author's Note: The title is derived from a saying that I picked up from my family. It's fairly self-explanatory. If you think you've figured something out about the plot, please don't state the specifics of it in your review but merely allude to the fact that you think you know something, just so that in case you are correct your review doesn't wind up providing spoilers for others accidentally. I might ask over the personal messaging system to hear what you've figured out, although I won't specifically state whether you're correct or not. Please review though, even if all you have to say is "good job" or "this story has no point so just shut up and stop writing junk."