Chapter 11: Deception
Hi everyone! I apologize once again for the late update; life gets busy, inspirational moments come and go, and here we stand. Don't give up on me yet, though! I have a lot of great plans for this story, so just hang in there and bear with me; you'll see them soon enough, I promise. :)
greatlittleking: I'm using the Tenth Doctor because he always has and always will be my Doctor. :)
Braxiatel Flux: I agree; the Doctor and Roy Mustang certainly have their similarities. Maybe that's why I love both characters so much! :D
The Doctor walked the streets of Central City, hands in pockets as he skimmed the quiet roads, alleyways, and sidewalks. It was getting late, so a lot of the city's inhabitants were probably having dinner with their families or working late. Aside from a handful of pedestrians and a car or two, there wasn't much activity anywhere outside.
As he altered his course to head for the hospital, the Doctor saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Another pedestrian? No, just a piece of paper blowing in the wind. These humans had more in common with those of Earth than they realized, the Doctor noted with a slight shake of the head.
He turned away to continue his walk, whistling an old song he'd heard in passing on a radio once, and almost collided with the very man he had been searching for. "Roy?" His voice was laced with unmasked surprise. "Where were you? You should have been back at the TARDIS by now."
The young general appeared momentarily confused, but his look of befuddlement was quickly replaced with a sense of casual recognition. "I was out," he replied. "Obviously."
Although the Doctor was put off by the alchemist's behavior, he decided it wasn't worth an argument. The change in demeanor certainly wasn't lost on him, however, and he made a mental note to keep a close eye on the young man. "I can see that," he said in a tone that matched Roy's. "Whatever you were doing must have been important, but you're needed back at the TARDIS. Waltzing around like this isn't safe; we have work to do, and you don't want to risk getting caught."
Roy shoved his hands in his pockets, arrogance coming off his aura in waves. "Right. Of course we wouldn't want that. Lead on, then."
Sighing, the Doctor did just that. Knowing how well-connected Riza was with this man, he would leave the deciphering to her. As clever as the Doctor was, Riza would be far more adept at sensing what was off about Roy's behavior…and possibly figuring out the cause.
Riza paced around the console room of the TARDIS, wondering what the hell was taking Roy so long at the hospital. He knew how risky it was to visit Hughes in the first place let alone spend any length of time with him. As much as she wanted him to catch a break from everything that had been happening, the mission was more important. Maybe this was unfair to think, but she felt no right to take any leisure time for herself given the gravity of what had happened, and a part of her wanted Roy to feel the same way. He probably did to some degree, which begged another question: had Roy gone to meet Hughes outside the hospital like he said he would, or had he gone charging off to do something reckless for the sake of the mission? Was he safe?
As much as Riza wanted to run off and find him to ensure his safety, she felt a greater need to hold the fort while the Doctor was away. She was still a little annoyed at the dismissive way the Time Lord had put her to sleep, but the break was necessary, and she understood that. She had not expected to wake up to an empty TARDIS, however. Sure, he might be in some other room doing who knows what—it was an endless vessel, after all—but her instincts assumed he was off searching for Roy.
Her suspicions were confirmed when the Doctor entered the TARDIS with Roy on his heels. She took a step forward to greet them, but was taken aback by the look of momentary shock on the general's face when he stepped inside. The shift in facial expression was so brief and subtle that a casual observer would have completely missed it, but Riza was never a casual observer where Roy Mustang was concerned. What had surprised him? Surely it wasn't the TARDIS; he was used to it by now, wasn't he? They didn't have the luxury of marveling in the wonders of time travel technology; not anymore, anyway. Not after what they had done.
"Hey," he greeted her, smiling warmly and taking a step in her direction.
The face was certainly Roy's, but something was different about his smile. This wasn't the way Roy normally smiled; she'd seen his face often enough to know every expressional quirk he had. Don't be ridiculous, Riza scolded herself. You're reading too much into this. "Don't you 'hey' me," she responded sharply. "Where were you?"
Roy's expression clouded in confusion. "The hospital?"
"You were gone a long time," she said, letting out an exasperated sigh. "I was starting to get worried."
"Worried? You? Come on." Roy's smile widened as he put his hands on her waist and pulled her into him. "No reason to be. I'm here, aren't I?"
The more he spoke, the more certain Rize was that something was wrong with Roy. His face, his gestures, the way he carried himself…it was all wrong. The best way to get to the bottom of this, she determined, was to play along as if she didn't suspect a thing. Riza smiled ever so slightly and smacked his chest. "Yes, you are. So…how was it?" she asked casually.
"It was all right. Hughes was…Hughes. Talked my ear off with wife and daughter stories. I thought I'd never get away." He chuckled a little and took a step back, his expression turning a little more serious. "I think I might have a lead on the homunculi."
"Oh?" Riza cocked an eyebrow, wondering where this new development could possibly have come from. "I thought you were just visiting with Hughes."
"Yeah, I was." There was a note of discomfort in his voice, as though the news he brought was troubling him greatly. "There was something…off about Hughes. He was talking to the Fuhrer right before I met up with him outside the hospital. He had a weird…almost twisted…look on his face."
Riza kept a neutral expression. "You think Hughes is up to something?"
"No. I think that wasn't Hughes at all," he said. His voice was firm, though Riza could detect a faint trace of finality in his tone, like a well-concealed effort to drive the point home a little too fervently.
"So you think…" Riza narrowed her eyes. "That's a rather dramatic assumption to make, Roy. You think Hughes might be Envy in disguise?"
Roy shrugged. "Maybe. There was definitely something fishy going on with his behavior."
No, there's something fishy going on with your behavior, Riza thought, hoping beyond hope she was wrong and this was indeed the man she loved standing in front of her. If this was Envy—and she was fairly certain it was—then she would be powerless against him in a fight. She had to keep letting him believe she was buying into his every word. "What do you think we should do about it?" she challenged him. "If you're right and Hughes really is Envy in disguise, then where is the real Hughes? Taking him down would be great for our mission, but if you're wrong and we confront him…"
"I know, we'll have a lot of explaining to do," Roy admitted. "I still think we should try."
"That's a bold move. Are you sure you want to risk it?"
Roy nodded. "Envy won't be an easy one. We might need to bring the Elrics into it."
Alarms flashed through Riza's mind at those words. Why in the world would Roy Mustang—the man who had once defeated Envy with nothing but a pair of ignition gloves at his disposal—suggest dragging the Elrics into assisting Envy's defeat? "That's all well and good," she said, "but should we really risk exposing the Elrics' involvement in this? The homunculi will target the brothers as soon as they find out they're assisting our mission. Best case scenario, you're wrong about Hughes and he finds out about our mission and the Elrics' involvement in it. If the military catches onto any of our suspicious activity, you'd better believe the Fuhrer will hear about it and take it straight to the source."
"Do you want to catch Envy or not?" Roy was starting to get irritated. "We'll never get anywhere if we don't start taking risks. We have a long way to go before this country is safe, so we might as well get a move on and knock out some of their stronger players."
Riza gazed at him, pretending to reflect on his words, but instead making a quick mental assessment of the situation. If this was Envy posing as General Mustang, it was safe to assume he had done something to get the real one out of the way. She hated to imagine it, but for the sake of the situation, she had to accept her fiancé was either captured or dead. Furthermore, Envy seemed rather set on attempting to sway her into suspecting Hughes, which made it was entirely possible that he had been previously hiding behind the face of Hughes and biding his time until his target—the Roy Mustang from the future—gave him an opportunity to strike. It was certainly a clever trap that she would not put past the shape-shifting homunculus.
Her first instinct was to do whatever she could to rescue him, but such an act was irrational and, assuming he was still alive, could potentially get both of them killed. She mentally cringed as a previous conversation with Roy came back to her:
"I'm a candidate for sacrifice—more so since I've already opened the Portal. If anything, they'll try to capture me. If they do kill me, though, it falls on you to get the mission done."
"Don't talk like that! I won't let you die."
"If I do, though, you need to stay focused. If they kill me, you need to find my past self immediately. It's a long shot, but since I'm from the future, he would probably still be alive. You need to tell him everything and get his help to end the homunculi. The other alchemists can help as well, but flame alchemy is necessary to beat the enemy. Understood?"
She had to follow through on her promise, no matter how badly she wanted to run from the room and find where those bastards were holding the man she loved. There was no room for attachment now; the country depended on her to do what was necessary. Right now, it was necessary to get away from Envy, and the only way to do that would be to comply for the time being. He wanted her to get the Elrics? Fine. She would do that. She would also get Colonel Mustang and Major Armstrong. She would get whoever she could, and they would end this before it was too late.
"I see your point," she said at last. "Very well, I will share your suspicions with the Elrics."
Roy nodded. "Good. I'll leave you in charge of taking Envy down; gather the Elrics and corner him in the Hughes home at dawn."
"Aren't you coming with us?" Riza asked. "You know the Elrics will refuse to kill him."
"Don't worry, I'll meet you there," he assured her. "Go talk to the Elric brothers and have them rendezvous with us outside the Hughes home at dawn. While you do that, I'm going to do some recon on where they might be holding the real Maes Hughes."
"That's a bit risky, sir. Please be careful."
Roy grinned. "You know I will. Now go."
The Doctor, who had been quietly observing from the console, stepped forward. "I'll go with you," he told Riza. "I'd like to meet the Elrics and assist with your plan."
Riza nodded. "We'd better get moving. Happy hunting, General."
"So you are the man from the future who was trying to interfere with my plans."
Roy recognized that voice, and the memories associated with it sent a chill down his spine. It did not help that the bag over his head impaired his vision just as the Portal-induced blindness had the last time he was here.
"The father is speaking to you," Kimblee sneered. "It would be rude to ignore him." Roy felt a sharp jab in his stomach as the crimson alchemist's elbow connected with his gut.
"Enough of this." The father sounded bored rather than angry. "Allow him to speak."
Kimblee shrugged and yanked the bag off Roy's head, pushed him down onto his knees, and pulled the cloth gag out of his mouth.
"Are you or are you not the flame alchemist from the future?" the father asked.
"The future? Sounds like crazy talk to me," Roy managed to say. The arrogant confidence in his voice surprised him. "Look, whoever you are, when the military finds out you kidnapped one of their top state alchemists, you'll pay dearly for it. Might even cost you your life. I'd tread carefully if I were you."
"Do not try to fool me, Mustang," the father said. It was uncanny how consistently flat and unfeeling his voice remained regardless of the subject matter. "I know you opened the Portal, and I know you have come from the future."
Roy sighed. "Portals too, huh? I hate to be rude, sir, but I'm fairly certain you're mistaken. I came here from the Eastern Command Center, not the future. Honestly, whoever provides your intel should be fired on the spot."
"He lies," a small voice whimpered. "He killed Lust. He's a liar. Let me eat him."
"You will not eat him, Gluttony," the father said firmly. "He will be one of my sacrifices. Now then, stop playing foolish games. You cannot hide your identity from me, and attempting to stall me is futile."
Roy shrugged. "It was worth a try, I suppose. I'd say it's nice to see you, but then I'd be lying. Still, it's interesting to actually see you this time."
Pride, who was standing beside his father, seemed puzzled by this. "Explain."
"I don't take orders from you," Roy scowled, surprising himself once again with the steadiness of his voice. "Torturing me won't make a difference. You need me alive, anyway."
"Who said anything about torturing you?" Pride asked. "Your woman is at our disposal. We can kill her at any time."
Roy didn't miss a beat. "She's aware of the risks. Both of us went into this knowing we might not come out alive."
"And why did you come into this?" the father prompted. "You are here to meddle with my plans, correct? I can only assume my plot was successful and you travelled through time to stop me."
Roy shrugged, relenting. "You're smart, I'll give you that. Arrogant, but smart…and also correct. I was one of your sacrifices; you had to force me through the Portal of Truth, and I came out a blind man. By the time Marcoh managed to heal me with a Philosopher's Stone, it was too late; your plan was already in motion." He allowed a look of disgust to cross his features as he recollected fake memories. "Everyone was dying around me."
"So you travelled in time to counter it?" the father asked, intrigued. "Please explain."
"I had to do something. Anything. All I could think to do was go through the Portal again and find a way to change it. As I was deconstructing, Hawkeye grabbed onto me, and we were flung into the past."
"And would you be able to duplicate this act?" the father pressed.
Roy shook his head. "I was not in control of my actions in the Portal. I'm not even sure how I managed to get here."
"A convincing story," a new voice said, "but almost entirely false nevertheless. You are a talented liar, Mustang, but even you cannot manipulate my ultimate eye."
"Somehow, you always manage to pop up at the worst possible times," Roy scoffed, glaring daggers at the man he had once followed with blind loyalty.
The father regarded the newcomer with the same apathetic expression he always wore. "Was there any truth to his account, Wrath?" he inquired.
"His statements about becoming your sacrifice were true," Bradley began. "Evidently he was a sacrifice but, as he said, it happened by force and cost him his eyesight. I cannot say for sure whether your plan was successful or not. He was telling the truth when he said your plan was in motion and people were dying, yet he was lying about re-entering the Portal to travel through time. His wording was such that I could not decipher the outcome of your plan as a whole."
"It does not matter in the end," the father said. "I have one of my sacrifices with me now, and he has saved me the trouble of forcing him through the Portal. I must say this is an advantage for us. When Envy's plan unfolds at dawn, we will have the Elric brothers in our possession as well, and Mustang's partner will be taken out of the equation."
For the first time since his arrival underground, a look of genuine fear crossed Roy's features. "Bastard," he mumbled, "don't you dare touch her. She's not a threat to you, dammit; I'm the only one with the power to stop you, and you've got me. Leave her out of this."
"She will be an extra measure to ensure your cooperation," Bradley told him. "Your cards are on the table, Mustang; we know exactly how to keep you under control."
Roy tightened his jaw. "Is that so? Try too hard to control a flame, and you might get burned," he warned.
"Not if you have the right tools." Bradley nodded to Gluttony, who stepped out of the room and returned moments later with another prisoner in tow. The Fuhrer grabbed the prisoner's arm and threw him face-down in front of the kneeling flame alchemist.
The man did not make a sound at first; Roy suspected he was probably near death. He was clothed in a tattered blue military uniform that was barely recognizable beneath the layers of dirt and grime. His black hair was unkempt and caked with dirt, and when he raised his head, he revealed eyes dulled by defeat, cracked glasses, and an unshaven face. "Roy," he whispered. "They got you, too."
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of the characters or ideas represented in this story.
AN: Plans continue to unfold on both sides as everyone scrambles to one-up each other. I hope you're having as much fun reading this as I am writing this, and I thank you for your patience with my slow updates! Life tends to get in the way sometimes, but I will never stop loving to write. Until next time, my great readers! If you would kindly drop a little note in that lovely Review Box below, it would make my day! :)
