READ THE AUTHOR NOTE: okay so I am finished with edits I believe. Mustang incorporations have begun and will develop now as the story continues. If you would like to read the updates they are mostly in Chapter 10 now. I wanted to put this in for a while now but since I got this far I realised I missed my chance for a good intro to Mustang's background as well as hinting at Riza's . So I had to go back and place it there. Sooooo yes. Go back to Chapter 10 and enjoy! (Please Review!)

A Different Type of Soldier

Chapter 12

A New Perspective

"A-Are you alright?" Lt. Ross asked him as he was doubled over in a coughing fit. He was getting worse and everyone was slowly growing to realise it no matter how much he tried to cover it up. He just needed to finish this though. He was almost done and he couldn't stop now. As he felt like he was going to cough up a lung he steadied himself against the lab bench. The automail arm was all but useless now and he used it only when he really needed another hand. The shoulder port burnt like it was on fire but after such a long period of time with suppressing the pain it felt like nothing. He remembered the Rockbells warning him as well as the Colonel about wearing his arm too long. This was only the second day he had it. He shouldn't be pushing himself too far, but he had to. Edward was almost done with the cloning process. He was almost finished. He just needed to stop coughing for once and get back to work.

"I-I'm fine," he choked out as he picked up his vial of transformed cells. He needed to get them on the medium so that they could grow into seeds. He grabbed a small rod and started to pour the solution out on some growing trays. He could feel the eyes of everyone on him, except Brosh that was. The Sergeant had fallen asleep once the clock struck midnight. It was late at night… or rather extremely early in the morning. Lt. Ross was fearing for his health as she stood next to him as if he was going to fall over at any moment, which he didn't doubt. He already broke several beakers as his automail hand just let go of them as it's grip failed. That unfortunately set him behind schedule as he had to remake all of the solutions that were in them.

The Colonel however, was different. Edward didn't know what came over him. He still wore the usual glare of hatred towards him as the man watched him work but it just seemed more of a facade than a genuine expression. The man hadn't made one comment or scolding since Edward yelled at him earlier. Something was bothering the man, a haunting memory of a sort if the look in his eye was anything to go by, but Edward couldn't care less. The Colonel yelled at him and tormented him throughout his entire time at the rebel fortress. He didn't care that he had just witnessed his entire company be murdered before his eyes or the fact that he lost an arm or whatever painful memories that came with it. So in that sense, Edward was not going to care about him. He had more important things to do; like proving him wrong.

"How much longer do you have? You should really be getting some rest-" the Lieutenant said in a rather motherly tone.

"I'm almost… d-done," he stumbled as he felt his voice catch in his sticky and scratchy throat. He started to cough again and he bent over as the coughs wracked his body. The Colonel lunged forward and caught the vial from his grasp to prevent it from falling. He didn't want to restart it all over again and for that, Edward was actually grateful. His legs unfortunately started to shake. Edward gripped the bench and put all of his weight on it to prevent himself from falling to the ground. He couldn't give up now. He had to push through. He was almost done. But as panicked voices started to rise Edward felt something warm conjure up in his throat. His hand fumbled backwards and gripped the back of his helmet. He whipped the thing off and tossed it across the room. It crashed with something unknown to him as he went back towards his coughing fit. He needed air.

As the violent wracking of his chest slowed down and Edward could finally breathe once more, he pulled back and the only thing that caught his eyes was the color red. Voices gasped as Edward stared at the blood that coated his hand. His mouth tasted like metallic and he knew that he had coughed it up. This was bad. His entire body was shaking as he felt himself suddenly grow weak. The only thing even holding him up at that point was his grip on the table.

"Edward!" Ross exclaimed as she tried to lift him up. Unfortunately she touched his right shoulder and even with her gentle pressure a wave of pain was sent through him. Edward was so shocked by the sudden pain that he accidentally let go of the table and fell to the floor in a heap of white and gold.

"Edward we need to get you to the Rockbells immediately-"

"N-no," he gasped as he weakly tried to force himself off of the ground. "I need to finish this-"

"You have been pushing yourself too far. You should have stopped hours ago!" Ross scolded him. Edward forced himself to his feet and gripped the work bench again to hold himself up.

"I can't stop!" he said hoarsely back at her. "I can't! I need to make these seeds. We need to plant this crop-"

"We can go one more day without bread. You don't need to finish this tonight!"

"Why don't we help you? We could finish it," Brosh suggested as he was awakened by the struggle.

"No you wouldn't know what to-"

"Then tell us!" Ross argued with aggravation.

"It's almost done I just need to… to…," he staggered as he felt his voice hitch again. He coughed again and some more red came out. He looked down at it disgusted but tried his best to wipe his hands clean with a nearby towel.

"You're an idiot!" Ross exclaimed as she grabbed him by the waist and started to pull him away from the table. His shoulder jolted and she knew it but he guessed that she thought that hurting him a bit to get him away from the table was better than him pushing himself too far by just staying there. Edward fought her and pushed the soldier off of him which just sent him back to the ground. The Lieutenant stood over him with an angered expression on her face. "You are a stupid child, Edward. You mean to do good but you just don't see what it is doing to you!"

"I am not an idiot!" Edward retorted back at her, not even trying to get up off of the floor. He didn't feel like he could make it back to his feet again. "I am just trying to finish the job I was given. I am the only one that knows the procedure-"

"Then tell us what to do!" She scolded him. "You keep telling the Colonel to trust you but now you need to trust us!" Edward's mouth was open to argue but he found himself stunned as he stared into the woman's eyes. They were worried. He looked away as he felt an overwhelming feeling of shame grow over him. Ross kneeled down next to him and turned his face back so that he was looking at her again. "Edward… why don't you want us to finish it for you? It can't simply be pride of your job-"

"No," he mumbled almost inaudibly as he shook his head. His throat felt thick and it wasn't because of his coughing earlier.

"Then what is it?" she asked him gently, more gently than anyone talked to him before. Edward felt almost engulfed by her concern and as another jolt of pain rode through his shoulder he couldn't resist answering any of her questions. Edward looked down at his hands for a moment, contemplating how to answer but he felt an overwhelming feeling of shame and anger rise up in him. He was hopeless.

"I don't want you to know the procedure."

"Did you do something to it? Edward what did you do?" she asked very concerned for what he had created but he just shook his head.

"I… I didn't do anything. The seeds are perfectly enhanced genetic copies. The process though…. It's just…. So much like making me," he muttered. Ross and everyone else looked surprised. He knew they couldn't understand what he had meant by that and it took the Colonel's question to force him to give a better explanation why he was physically forcing his body and automail to the limits just to make some stupid seeds.

"Making a human clone is more complex but… the fundamentals are all there…. I just… I can't stand watching others make… me," Edward whispered.

"I bet that would look weird," the Sergeant muttered to himself. "Just seeing yourself in other people's hands. To see the failures..."

"Y-yeah, it's… horrible," he whispered unsure of whether he actually wanted to answer the man's absent minded statement or not. The Colonel shook his head and stood up from the chair he was weakly resting in. The man straightened out his jacket and took a few shaky steps forward as if something were still on his mind. The black eyes glanced slightly down towards where Edward was sitting and latched onto his gold ones, anger and fire gone from them, now replaced with regret. However for some reason Edward didn't think it was for him.

"Trust is a two way street, Edward," he said so calmly it almost scared him. For once the man used his name without a hint of disgust in it. "You can act like a kid and pretend you can do this all by yourself, or you can act like an adult and a true soldier and let us help you. Your choice. However, in your current situation I would definitely choose the latter." Edward narrowed his eyes at him in an attempt to find the trick or the insult but for once he found none. Edward didn't know what he had said to the man to make him so different but he was actually frightened with the new man's demeanor. He looked down at his shoulder and noticed that a thin layer of red was circling out on his armor from his port as well. He needed to get it off. He wouldn't be able to last much longer like this. With a huff of defeat he nodded his head.

"Fine… fine," Edward growled as he moved to stand up. He felt arms wrap around him to lift him up on his feet. He groaned as his shoulder was aggravated but he tried to force himself to keep quiet. His pride was already trashed for that day.

"Over here," he muttered as they lead him back to the table. Edward pointed to some of the vials and medium trays. "We need to pour these transformed cells on these trays. Only make a thin layer on each. Don't need too much… only… 1000 micro liters. You know how to work the pipettes right?" He asked them questionably. The Lieutenant and Sergeant looked completely lost but the Colonel nodded his head silently. Edward was surprised. He thought the man would have been completely useless in a lab setting.

"Is that it?" the Colonel asked him. Edward shook his head.

"No. you need to self pollinate the crop so that they could produce more original seeds. They need to be collected and stored."

"Why would we need to do that if you are making seeds already?" Brosh asked him. Edward sighed tiredly.

"You can't clone a clone. It doesn't work. You need DNA from an original source to prevent mutations. For example, you can clone the Colonel here because he's an original human… but… you can't clone me cause I am not."

"Wait… so you are saying that-"

"You need to keep an original source of DNA to make clones. If you try creating a new… hate using this word… specimen from something that is already copied there will be fatal mutations and the specimen will not survive," Edward finished the thought for the Colonel. The man seeme to lite up suddenly as if his mind was kicking into overdrive. All previous bothersome thoughts seemed to be chased out of him as Edward gave him this information. The only thing that Edward got from the man was a mumble of words one of which was caught as 'interesting'.

Edward, between coughing fits and shoulder pains, explained the basis of self pollinating the plants mendel style. The Sergeant was sent to work immediately by the Colonel even though the bags under his eyes just wanted more sleep and the Lieutenant was assigned to help him back to the garage where the Rockbells have been taking care of him for so long. She gently took a hold of his left elbow and wrapped her arm around his waist for support. As she did this he realised just how much his legs didn't want to work anymore. The rebels were right, he was pushing himself too hard.

"Come on sir, we need to get you back," she told him as he tiredly grabbed his helmet from the table. He groaned tiredly in response as they started to take slow steps towards.

"Clone," the Colonel called out to him as they made it to the door. Edward glanced back at the man to see him standing at the lab bench with the pipette in his hand ready to get to work on the seeds. Though with their distance he could still feel the black eyes study him. "Don't think that I am not going to bring this up tomorrow. My list of questions is just growing," he said sternly, a light but not killing glare on his face. Edward smirked lightly through the mask of his helmet.

"If you didn't I would expect there to be something wrong with you." The Colonel returned the mocking grin in sport of the aggressive banter and returned silently to his work. The Lieutenant tugged him along and Edward slowly made his way back to his bed for some well needed rest. Unfortunately, Winry Rockbell was not enthused with the state of his return.