Trunks of cars were not the most pleasant or comfortable places to reside, he realized in his thirty minutes inside the dark box. The ride was bumpy, his leg was still bleeding. Luckily the pain had numbed…he didn't know how, but then again he'd never been shot so cleanly before. Maybe that's what was supposed to happen. Really he just wished he could reach down and grab his left outer thigh where that bullet was lodged. He didn't want to remove it, only a fool would do that, but he wanted to pull the leg to his body…that instinct that always overcomes someone when they've been injured.
Settling for the fetal position was quite difficult and not nearly as effective when his arms were pulled behind his back. The cold was setting in. It was, after all, only just before 5am, and even in June mornings were chilly in Central.
He shivered a bit, tried to pull his knees close to his chest. No one's going to save me. A pitiful thought, really. Something he shouldn't be thinking. But his black hair was sticking to his face now in the sweat that had to be from his trembling fear…because it was still too damn cold to be from anything else.
-------------------
Havoc had sprinted clear from his kitchen to the front steps of Central Headquarters where he finally stopped in his tracks, bent over with his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath. It was cool, his throat was burning, and while running had worked his body up he still wished that he'd had time to grab his jacket before he left. But there, doubled over and spitting into the ground, he saw the pool of blood off to the side of him. Oh fuck. What the hell is going on…
Instinct told him to run inside, so he did. Though he didn't know exactly where he intended on going or who he planned on finding, he was racing up the stairs now despite his chest telling him Dear Lord STOP RUNNING! All that smoking was definitely catching up to him, but an unlit cigarette was pulled from his ear and shoved into his pocket anyway…just so he didn't drop it. It was just about five in the morning, no one would be upstairs…people didn't come in to the office until around six. Well, some people came in early. People that had a lot of work to catch up on, or – oh no – people that were told by a superior to change their shift.
Shit. She was probably here, and he skidded around the corner of the corridor leading to Mustang's office as he realized that thought. Gasping, trying to catch his breath, he still sprinted down that hall that didn't seem to end and then-
"Havoc!" He stopped running, turned around and kind of wished he hadn't heard that voice, of all voices to hear, but there it was. And he might as well deal with it properly.
"Riza...I…where…can't…find…"
"Catch your breath, Lieutenant." She came out of the second office, her face was white and she looked uncharacteristically flustered. "And pull yourself together, you look like hell. Where's the Colonel?"
"Gone…where…Ed…" He was doubled over again, hands on his knees and talking to the ground if nothing else. The woman swallowed hard.
"Ed got kidnapped and I couldn't get the car's license plate. I was just calling Mustang's house but he's not there– wait what do you mean he's gone?"
"Gone…shot…couldn'tsee…plate…either…"
"Shit. Shot? Where is Hughes?" She was marching in to the side office again, headed straight for the phone. Havoc followed, standing erect slowly with his hands on his hips, but he regained his breath. Do I really look like hell? He absentmindedly brushed his uniform pants off, and realized the undershirt he was wearing was not one of his better looking ones. Ah fuck it…
"No use, you know everyone below Colonel is all on that stupid retraining and reevaluation thing the Fuhrer ordered." Something occurred to him. "Wait, why aren't you on it?"
She lowered her head, and if he wasn't mistaken, he thought he saw her blush a bit. "The Colonel convinced them it would be unnecessary for an officer of my caliber." Shaking her head and looking back up at Havoc, she jibed, "So what excuse is there for you not being there?"
"Cute. Very cute." His eyes squinted as he crossed his arms now. "Roy told them he didn't want to be left without protection from any of his officers. So he picked me to stay with him."
He saw the disgust well up in her eyes, but she kept her composure as she shot back with, "Well my mother did always tell me that the stupid find comfort only in each other." She was leaving the room now, turning right down the hallway and walking so fast that it was hard for Havoc to keep up.
"Hey where are you going!"
"To find the Colonel and Fullmetal," she yelled back over her shoulder. "Where do you think I'm going?"
"Well wait for me for God's sake!" She quickened her pace.
"We can't afford to wait anymore. It's been about 23 minutes since I saw the car drive away from the steps, which means they could have gotten pretty far. Where did you say you were with the Colonel?"
"I didn't say. And I wasn't with him." She stopped immediately.
"Well then how do you know this happened, exactly?" Her tone was more than annoyed, it verged on homicidal. Hands on the hips and head tilted to the side (and a gun at her back) – this was a woman that no one wanted to mess with.
"I uh…" Oh shit. "It happened in front of my house."
He had caught up to her now, because she was standing perfectly still with an incredulous look on her face. He knew where this was going…and he didn't like it.
"What in the hell was the Colonel doing at your house before 5 in the morning!"
It was that accusing tone she always got with him. She always knew he was up to something, there was more to a story, that there was some hidden motive behind every single word that came out of his mouth. Maybe Riza and Roy really were right for each other. He continued forward with his head down, passing her now on his left as she stared at him with her big eyes demanding an explanation.
It may have been unlike her, but she still stood there utterly speechless for a few seconds after he had quietly but firmly answered her inquiry with, "We should get moving," and continued down the hallway.
"Jean! Get back here! I deserve an explanation!" He wasn't turning back; he had the upper hand now. "Second Lieutenant, as a higher ranking officer, I demand an explanation!" Silence returned her calls, and she thought she saw a small puff of cigarette smoke as he turned into the stairwell. "Dammit Jean, put that cigarette out!" She trotted after him. "And wait for me!"
-------------------
It was hell on the shoulders, hanging from the ceiling by his hands like this. His feet were bound tightly, and if he got his momentum going his toes barely scraped along the rough cement floor. Under any other circumstances hanging there naked could have been strangely erotic, but as the door to his isolated room opened and a burly figure entered, any sexual thoughts were forced out of his mind immediately. He was short and stout, but not someone you'd like to meet in a dark alley. The brown pants hung off his waist because of the big belly he had, and his white t-shirt was stained in too many places to even be considered white anymore.
"Ah…the great Colonel Mustang." The dark man sneered at Roy, face hidden behind the greasy brown hair that fell to the front of his head. The voice was just as slimy as his hair looked, which was fitting, Roy supposed. "The feared and adored Flame Alchemist."
"The very same," Roy shot back, his voice calm and cool like it always was, and like he knew it had to be if he had any intentions of getting out of this.
"So I hear you're to be a Brigadier General soon…maybe within the week." The man began to pace around Roy, as if taking it all in that he – or even anyone for that matter – had actually succeeded in capturing the Colonel.
"You've heard the truth then."
"And I also hear you could be General quicker than a little snap of your priceless fingers."
"Well now we're talking rumors, good man."
Laughter overcame the stout man as he passed in front of Roy. He stopped with his back to the door, stubby little hands on his hips, and continued his laughing as Roy stared in disdain, trying desperately not to think about swinging forward and knocking his feet right into this asshole's jaw.
"Rumors? No, no that's no rumor. I know your plans."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
The man lunged forward and drew a knife up to Mustang's throat. Instinct took over then as Roy quickly flinched back from the cold steel. His eyes faltered and that was bad enough, but his body still hadn't quite adjusted to being totally naked in the cold of this room, so it shivered a bit at what was obviously an inopportune moment. He was sure the man noticed.
"Oh yes, I know everything about you Mustang. I know your plans to be Fuhrer. I know each and every one of your associates and where they all live. I know where you eat, who you sleep with, and what time you take a shit every day." He brought the knife down and Mustang exhaled more audibly than he'd have liked. "But there's one thing I don't know, and it's the one thing that matters, Mustang." He resumed his pacing in a circle around Roy's hanging body. "You were successful in forging a stone a few years ago, and I need to know how. Now you're going to tell me."
"No…no I don't think I will." There was no hesitation in Roy's voice. There never was when it came to the stone.
"Well I figured you'd say that. Which is all well and fine if-" A spine-chilling scream cut him off. "Ah such wonderful timing, boy."
A look of terror crossed Mustang's face and held there despite his intents as he managed through gritted teeth, "Who was that." Not a question: a demand for an answer.
"That? Oh come now, dear Colonel, surely you should know that scream."
"Listen you fucker, you let him go, he's got nothing-"
"The Elric boy has EVERYTHING to do with this!" And the man walked forward quickly and all too casually pushed the blade of his knife deep into Roy's right thigh. Mustang's dark eyes closed tightly, his head fell as he sharply inhaled and held back a yell. "Now you will cooperate. You will tell me how you forged that stone." The knife twisted, Roy's eyes squeezed tighter and he felt the tears coming. "And if you don't-" The blade was removed.
"Elric will die."
There was another desperate scream from a different room, and Roy spit directly in the man's face.
"That's not him you shithead, I'm not stupid. Edward Elric does not scream from pain."
Again the man threw back his head and laughed. Now drawing a bottle from his jacket pocket, he advanced towards Roy again.
"Oh Colonel, be realistic. This isn't pain." The cap of the bottle was loosened, a dropper withdrawn from his other pocket. "This is torture. And you both will become very familiar with it."
It took only three drops of the clear green liquid over Roy's stab wound to make him bite into his tongue to avoid a scream.
"Oh let it out, Great Colonel Mustang! It won't let up. This serum fights off your body fighting it off. The pain will neither dull nor subside." Three more drops went over the bullet hole. Roy grunted and threw his head back now, teeth digging into each other so hard he felt he may very well break his own jaw…and it might feel better than this. "But this serum can be neutralized, and I'll do that just as soon as you give me your secret."
Tears were welling up. The pain was unlike anything he could have imagined.
"Not…going…to happen…"
"Very well." The man crossed to the door and grasped the handle. "But just think about that…if you truly want it to be your final decision. I'm going to go pay Mr. Elric a little visit."
The door shut swiftly behind him, and Roy couldn't help it when he heard himself scream, "NOOO!"
-------------------
"Yes, for the last time I know where we're going!"
Jean's hands were fixed on the wheel of the state car they'd commandeered and his knuckles were turning white because he grasped it so tightly.
"It's the same place we were going ten minutes ago, now put the damn map away!"
Riza was in the front seat, still criss-crossing her fingers across the map and sputtering out things like, "But with a decent speed they could have gone…" and "Given the time it takes to travel, we should arrive…"
"Honestly! Riza! I can see the damn building, and if you'd look up you'd see it too!"
"Do NOT talk down to me like that Jean, I'm only trying to make sure we've taken everything in to account in terms of – oh hey, I think that's the building."
"No shit."
Only an hour into the day Jean realized it was going to be a long one. This short trip in the car with Riza just made it longer.
"Park here…we'll have to walk up in order to keep our cover."
"Now we have to go stealth too?" He slid the shifter into park after positioning the car around a corner next to what appeared to be another deserted building.
"Honestly, how else do you expect the two of us to take over a building that I can only assume is full of men that just successfully kidnapped our two best alchemists? Do you ever think, or do you just complain first?" The car door shut simultaneously with her comments. Jean got out of the car and followed after the woman.
"Well I don't know, do you ever lay off or do you just like to make people feel awful about themselves?"
"Oh come off it Jean, you know you're being totally-"
"I'm the one who's at fault here, I'm sure. Ya know, maybe I should just go back. I'm sure you can handle everything on your own, because you'd probably do it better than anyone else anyway, right?"
"Fine! Leave like you always do! Head out to a strip club, go get drunk! That will DEFINITELY save Roy and Ed!"
"Oh stuff it, Riza. Don't act like you know a damn thing about-"
"Get down!"
Her voice was hushed, so because of that, and ONLY because of that, Jean ducked along with her behind a car. A car that looked oddly familiar to him. Oh fuck, this is the car from this morning.
"Riza," he began in a whisper, "this is the car I saw in fr-"
"Sssh!"
She pointed towards the front of the building. Two men stood there clad in full military uniforms, though it looked to Jean as if they might have been an older issue, maybe from five years back. Subtle differences – they have new boots now, and the pants fit just a bit differently – but he picked up on it. Observation, that was the key. There was something not right about those two. Their faces were hard to make out from this far away, but he was pretty sure that he recognized them as officers that got discharged a few years ago. Dishonorably discharged actually…
What the hell?
"We have to move in slowly Lieutenant." Riza's speech was barely audible, and her eyes were fixed on the two men at the door. "I can keep cover from here and I have a good shot, so if you can get around the left you can – are you listening Lieutenant?"
"No, I'm not." Her head whipped around, mouth and eyes wide. Clearly she was insulted. "Riza, these guys are military."
"Those are old uniforms, Jean," she snipped. "It is possible that being a radical group they got their hands on some of our trash for this specific purpose. It's not that uncomm-"
"No, listen to me. I recognize them. That's Brash, on the right. I can't remember anyone else with bright red hair like that. And Hardy on the left…I'm almost positive."
"Brash and Hardy…I think I remember them from a few years back. Those two were nearly inseparable. Wait, what happened to them?"
"Dishonorable Discharge. Willfully disobeying the order of a commissioned officer. Both of them."
Riza pursed her lips together. "Something's not right here."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you."
"Well congratulations for figuring something out before me for once, Jean." She rolled her eyes. "Military or not, they have the Colonel and we can take all measures to recover him. We can ask questions later. I need you to go around my left, stay behind that other car. I have a clean shot on Brash; take one on Hardy on my signal."
"I can't."
"Excuse me?"
Well this is embarrassing.
"What seems to be the problem Lieutenant?"
"…I don't have a gun."
"Oh for God's sake…"
