Chapter 3: You can tell by the scars.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or the characters of said anime/manga. Vash and Guile are creations of my own and are therefore owned by me exclusively.


Lieutenant General Riza watched over the man who was tearing through each document paper, looking over every detail in the report and writing notes down on his opinions, some probably sounding logical and others probably sounding ridiculous, but since they were only in the theoretical stage anyone's half baked opinion was welcome. Even if it did come from an infamous sadist like Colonel Guile and she could see that he was about to pull a cigarette out, but stopped as his left eye seemed to move on its own to look at Riza's hand, which had inched its way to her holstered firearm. Another one of his traits that could be observed about the colonel, his ability to use both eyes to look at two separate things at the same time, just one more thing that Riza added to the "weird traits of Colonel Sadist's" list that she had been compiling in her mind for future use. Another peculiar habit of the colonels was to compulsively stick his tongue out real quick like some form of lizard or snake and then there were times where he would stick it out for two second and then bring it to his nose as if to capture the scents around him, not unlike a snake does.

"Am I that unnatural, Lieutenant General Riza," asked Guile as he brought his left eye to look at her so that they met somewhat eye to eye. His eyes were very eerie, like a snake's eye except it was red and gold surrounding what looked like a black rift in the center. Riza couldn't help but wonder why those traits of his were only noticeable once he took his glasses off, as if it were some form of mask.

"I like to learn from the strange habits of others," replied Riza before adding, "and your habits are the strangest of all, Colonel Guile."

"I hope they don't disturb you in anyway, sir," said Guile as he gave an apologetic bow that made Riza a bit lamenting for pointing out all of his habits which were probably all results of the traumatic events he had witnessed. "You can count on me to try and reform my behavior to make it less uncomfortable for you, sir."

"No, idiot, you can't help it if that's how you act," exclaimed Riza in embarrassment for having made him feel embarrassed. "Whatever habits you picked up due to trauma are beyond your control and are therefore not your fault for anything."

"Traumatic events?"

"You know what I mean, Colonel, the loss of your wife and child during the war, I'd think that would make people do a lot weirder stuff than that."

"Oh you think this is a result of that. It's not something that I picked up after their deaths, they're old habits of mine and really the only habits I picked up from that war were my sadism and my…..my smoking."

"That's a lie, Colonel Guile," said Roy Mustang as he laid his elbows on his desk and stared straight at the snake eyed colonel, their eyes both fighting a battle of will. "You were a smoker before you joined the army and you were the only smoker in your entire division, so don't tell me your habit was smoking."

There might have been a heated discussion or something resembling a heated discussion if Colonel Jean Havoc hadn't busted in through the door and started shouting things off in a panic. Havoc was a good colonel, but when something big happened he would blurt things out in the manner of someone suffering from tourette's syndrome and would shout his words as he tried to tell people what was going on. This, obviously, made him difficult to understand and they had to calm him down before he could speak properly enough for someone to tell them what had happened to him. It took them a few minutes to get him to speak clearly, succeeding only when Riza fired a bullet a few centimeters from his head, but she was followed by a heavy revolver shot that was just one centimeter closer to Havoc's head. She turned to see a grinning Vash, admiring his own handiwork.

"Now calmly tell us what is going on, Colonel," commanded Roy as he stared seriously at the colonel.

"It's Brigadier General , sir," exclaimed Havoc as he looked at the people around him as if he couldn't believe what he was saying. "The Brigadier General has been assassinated and they have the assassins cornered into a building on Bradley Street, but they believe that the assassins have taken hostages and are requesting we send someone down there immediately."

"Tell them I'm going down there myself," announced Roy as he walked towards the door only to turn back and look at the people in the room. "Lieutenant General Riza, Colonel Guile, Colonel Havoc, and Captain Vash, I want all of you to accompany me to the building. I want the assassins alive and in good condition, I want them able to speak clearly and without any burns on them that would keep them from forming a coherent thought. Torturing the truth out of them will come later, but right now we need them well."

"Yes sir, but I do believe that this report concludes that alchemist Edward Elric is a part of the group," replied Colonel Guile as he handed Roy the received message and took out a cigarette to prime for his outside smoke.

"Still, I want to see that they are captured personally," said Roy as he walked out of the room followed by Riza, Havoc, Vash, and then finally Guile who had been looking for his lighter that he kept in one of his pockets, but his uniform had many pockets (in case he had to hold a lot of things).


"Corey, are you awake," asked the black haired man as he called for his curly red headed compatriot who had priority over all the hostages on the first floor in the thirteenth floor building.

The building was reported to have fourteen, but that was only because the owner was superstitious and named thirteenth floor the fourteenth floor. Frankly the black haired man didn't know who the owner thought he was fooling; people on the thirteenth floor know what floor they're really on. Jump out the room you will die earlier, thought the black haired man as he walked down to the first floor to look for his red haired friend, but as soon as he got there he found that his friend was lying on the floor tied up. The black haired man immediately freed his friend, Corey, and pulled the gag off his mouth.

"Friedrich, behind you," cried Corey, but he was too late as his friend was knocked out by the same blond kid who had bested him as well, the one with the automail arm. "Damn you, you little brat!"

"Who are you calling little," asked the boy as he kicked Corey in the face with such a force that it made them man black out.


"Okay, everybody remember that you are only to shoot if need be, but I want those men brought in alive," said Roy, making sure his order was clear. "Alright then, everybody move when I make us a door."

"How are you going to make us a door, sir," asked Vash as he looked at Roy curiously, trying to catch sight of any explosives that the General may have brought with him unnoticed by the rest, or at least by Vash himself.

"I'm not called the Flame Alchemist for nothing," replied Roy as he snapped his finger, sending a ball of fire right through the wall and almost into one of the hostage takers, but the criminal jumped out of the way in time to avoid the blast. "Now everyone get in! Go! Get moving!"

The rest of the team followed in, sabers and guns drawn for any target that was right near there. The one target that had dodged the fireball had run into a wall and was now sprawled out on the floor unconscious as handcuffs were put on him. Riza and Roy decided to take the down stairs to open up the door to the troops outside while Vash and Guile took the upstairs leaving Havo to wait for the troops to come in so he could direct them. Roy and Riza ran into the Elric brothers on the second floor, but Guile and Vahs only ran into severe fire from submachine guns and semi-automatic handguns. Guile decided to use military hand signs to give orders for Vash while he started to remove his officer's coat and his under shirt. Vash used regular sign language to ask the colonel what he was doing and the colonel replied back, "these just came out the cleaners the other day."

Setting his clothes down on the floor so that they didn't get damaged by bullet fire, Guile primed himself for the run to the other side while Vash loaded his gun fully and made sure that his box of rounds were in his reach when he had to reload. The only weapons Guile had on him were his gun belt and his saber, which was very long and heavier than a normal officer's saber, but just right for a man as big as Guile. Vash saw a myriad of scars across the captain's body and he felt a sickening feeling as he realized that most of those wounds weren't made by an offender. They were self-inflicted wounds and the colonel was a masochist. Not just that, but he was a sadomasochist.

"Now then, I guess we should get started with the real fire and not the little gun smoke," said Colonel Guile as he placed his gloved hand along the sword, the tough material on the palm starting sparks with the saw blades engraved in the saber to create the necessary friction to set the blade on fire and soon he had a sword of fire in his hand. "Well he did tell me to be merciful so I guess that means I can only kill half of you guys."


Roy Mustang walked up through each floor, partially burnt criminals in handcuffs being taken off and he could smell a very strong smell of burnt flash as he got closer to the fourteenth floor (really the thirteenth floor). Around the room there were charred bodies, but only one of the charred bodies was alive and he could see Colonel Guile standing over a body, looking at it with a sense of sorrow as he held the Ishvalan assassin down with his boot. Roy knew that it was because Guile had believe that the Ishvalans weren't behind the attacks, but he couldn't deny what was in front of him, the msstermind of this whole plot was Ishvalan.

"I know you didn't want to believe that there could still be such antagonists, but there is an Ishvalan movement," said Roy as he went to help the colonel remove his boot from the assassins chest, briefly noting the self-inflicted scars and he found that the colonel stared back at him with different eyes.

"He was just given this mission, but whoever set this up wasn't Ishvalan," said guile as he removed the boot to allow the assassin to breathe. "I just hate that I'm still thought of as a monster by the Ishvalans, even after helping the refugees. I guess I'll never escape my the name I wrote in blood and fire."