So... I got this idea yesterday and just went along with it and decided to post it now because it's pretty apparent to me that this is most definitely going to be a multi-chapter fic.
I don't know how often I'll update, but most likely it's at least once a week.
And for those who have read any of my other stories, there will not be as much violence as usual (but probably some, which is why I went with T as the rating just to be sure, also because of swearing. This is not a Torture!fic.)
I hope you'll enjoy this!
Ed kicked the office door open as usual. "What's it now, Colonel?"
"Ah, Fullmetal, we have got a new case. Sit down."
Ed plumped down into the seat in front of the desk. "What is it?"
"Central has been searching for an alchemist that we now believe to have come to East City. They have been kidnapping and experimenting on children of ages four to eighteen. None of the twenty children that have been found were alive. They had obviously been part of some sort of biological transmutation that went horribly wrong."
"And now that they're in East, you want me to be bait, is that it?"
"No. I want you stay at the military barracks until they have been found."
"What?! You're protecting me? Why?"
"Because I think that this person may be targeting you directly."
"How?"
"Each of the victims have either been blondes or have been automail users. Also, at the time of their disappearances, they were all wearing red. This began after you appeared in the newspapers five months ago."
"But what do they want with me?"
"I don't know, but you are not to leave this place without an escort of at least two soldiers, is that understood?"
"Fine, whatever."
"Havoc and Breda will follow you to the barracks, I've already had Hawkeye phone Alphonse at the hotel, and he'll be coming in about twenty minutes."
"Fine. Is that it?"
"Yes, Fullmetal, you're free to leave."
Ed stood up and stomped over to the door. This was stupid. He didn't need a babysitter, he could look after himself, couldn't he? He was a damn State Alchemist and had been so for two-and-a-half years now, he had proven his worth plenty of times!
"Hey, Chief, ready to go?" Havoc asked, rising from behind his desk.
"Come on, Havoc! You can't believe that this is necessary, can you?"
Havoc put a hand on his shoulder. "Better safe than sorry, Chief."
"Let's just go," Ed growled.
He walked quickly, trying to throw Havoc and Breda off his back, but the problem was that even though Breda may be a bit pudgy and lagged behind, Havoc was fit and kept up with him easily.
"This is why the Boss sent two of us. He knew that you'd try and shake us," Havoc said. "Just take it slow, Ed, he only wants to keep his team safe."
"Yeah, but he's not keeping me safe, he's fucking grounding me!"
Havoc sighed and they soon reached the front doors and were walking along the five-minute stretch over to the barracks.
Ed turned around, glaring at Havoc. "You see, Havoc?! Everything's fine! I don't need a fucking – ouch."
Ed slapped his left hand against his neck, trying to smack the wasp that had obviously just stung him. What he found instead was a small blowdart.
Ah, shit.
Havoc was immediately alert, pointing his gun at the direction of where the blowdart had come from, shooting at a tree twice while grabbing Ed under the elbow and dragging him along back towards the safety of East HQ. "Shit. Come on, Chief, we're getting you out of here. Breda! We're under attack!" Havoc shouted to the red-head that had just come jogging towards them. He immediately pulled out his gun.
Ed was getting tired. He stumbled slightly, and then the ground beneath them crumbled. Ed fell along with Havoc and he could hear multiple shots and voices shouting somewhere above him. He had fallen into a deep pit and Havoc was slapping his cheek, trying to keep him awake, but Ed's eyelids were just too heavy and soon everything turned dark.
Ed's head was buzzing slightly, his mind foggy.
"Ah, you're waking up are you? Good!" It was a woman's voice.
Ed opened his eyes slowly, looking dazedly around the room. He was in some sort of derelict operating theatre. "What's going on? Where am I?"
"You, Edward, are a very lucky boy," the woman said as she sat down on a chair in front of him. She was in her twenties and had a motherly look upon her face. Behind her was a man. He too, was smiling fondly.
"Funny, I don't feel so lucky right now," Ed said, slurring slightly.
"Oh, Edward, then I'm going to tell you, we just need a couple more tests first." She picked up a syringe from a metal tray beside her.
"What the hell?! Keep that away from me!" Ed was suddenly much more awake. Which was when he noticed just how much his right arm and left leg hurt. He looked about him frantically. His automail ports had been removed and he was in his boxers. Where the ports should have been, there were only bandages. His remaining wrist and ankle were both tied in place, and he even had an IV hooked up to his arm. "What have you done to me?!"
"We've merely prepared you." She smiled warmly and then stuck the needle into his hand, finding a vein.
Ed cursed.
She just fucking smiled.
"Prepared me for what? What is going on?!"
"Your new life, Edward, dear. You see, it all begins with me and Grant. None of us are able to have children, and we therefore thought about adoption. But we wanted to find someone who really needed it, and so we decided not upon children in orphanages. No, we wanted someone who we could give a new life, so when we saw an article about you in the newspapers, we knew it had to be you. And so, for the last five months, me and Grant have been finding children similar to you, trying to find out just how to get it right. We wanted to fix you, you see. And now you're finally here."
"You're not fucking adopting me!"
"Yes, we are."
She then pulled her chair away, which was when Ed noticed the array that he was sitting in the middle of.
Fuck.
Then the lady and Grant bent down and pressed their hands to the array, making it glow, and then everything turned white.
Roy was worried as hell. It had been a week since Fullmetal's abduction. And on the military grounds as well. Just because they hadn't foreseen that there would in fact be two culprits, and so while the officers were busy shooting at one of them, the other had just transmuted a large dust cloud, grabbing Fullmetal right under their noses.
And they hadn't even managed to catch the first kidnapper.
Havoc had of course tried protecting the kid to the best of his ability, and had a moderate concussion to show for it.
And fact was, Fullmetal was probably dead by now.
Just because they hadn't managed to protect him.
Alphonse hadn't given up hope and neither had Roy, though. But he had to admit that his hope was waning with each day that passed.
"Sir, we've got a lead."
Roy stood up immediately, staring at Hawkeye.
"A week ago, an old lady saw a young couple carrying their son into an old hospital. The son was described as blonde and wearing a red coat."
Roy was immediately heading out the door. "Tell me the address in the car."
He shouted to the room at large. "We've got a lead on Fullmetal."
It was all that needed to be said.
Roy kicked the door open to the abandoned hospital, telling his men which floors and which departments that they were going to check out. He had not allowed Alphonse to join them, merely because of the fact that there was by now a strong possibility that his older brother was dead.
And so he walked through the paediatrics department on the ground floor, his flashlight held in front of him. He shone the light into every room that he walked past, but couldn't find anything.
"LET ME GO! PLEASE!"
Roy began running towards the sound of the screams immediately. He ran down the hall and kicked open the door, finding two people standing there in front of a small boy. A boy much too small to be Fullmetal.
Which must mean…
"YOU BASTARDS!"
Roy snapped his fingers, but the couple had already moved and had transmuted a protective wall in front of them. Roy ran forwards, determined to burn the people that had killed his youngest subordinate.
Then there was another transmutation, and the couple disappeared into another dust cloud. Roy cursed, not able to see anything. He ran forwards towards the boy in the chair. At least they weren't running away with him too.
The boy coughed repeatedly next to him.
After a minute, it was made clear that the killers had created a hole in the wall and had escaped outside. Which meant that Roy now had to focus on their only lead, which was the small boy next to him.
Roy looked him over. He too was blonde, but had short hair instead.
"Who are you? Please help me! I just wanna go home!"
Roy's eyes fell on the child's and he froze.
The boy had golden eyes.
Just like Fullmetal's.
Roy noticed that the kid was sitting in a pair of boxers that were much too large for him, and he was sitting in the middle of a transmutation circle.
It can't be.
"What's your name?" Roy looked straight into the child's teary eyes.
"Edward. Are you here to help me?"
Oh god.
"Please don't hurt me anymore." The child was looking scared, obviously interpreting Roy's lack of an answer as a sign that he was here to do more of whatever these people had done to him.
His wrists were tied to the chair's armrests and he had an IV hooked up to his left arm. Roy gently removed the tape and pulled out the needle, earning a wince from the boy.
"I'm here to rescue you, don't worry, you're safe. I'm with the military." He started untying the kid's wrists.
"So you'll take me home to Mom and Al?"
God, it is Fullmetal.
Roy fake-smiled confidently and nodded. "Yes, I will. First, though, I just need you to answer a few questions back at the military HQ, okay?"
"Oh, okay."
The boy was shivering.
Roy got his last wrist free, and he unfastened his uniform jacket and dressed the child in it instead. When he stood up, it was probably going to reach him to his knees. "How old are you, Edward?"
"Five."
"And how long have you been here?" Roy started folding up the sleeves so that the child's hands were visible.
"Four days, I think."
Roy was going to burn them.
"Do you think you can walk?"
The boy nodded.
Roy stood up and lifted the child by his armpits, placing him on the floor. "You okay?"
"Yes."
Roy took his small hand in his right, and they walked slowly through the hospital. The boy kept sniffing, obviously still scared and trying not to cry.
"What's your name?" the small child asked him.
"It's Roy." Roy didn't want the five-year-old to call him the same that his fifteen-year-old self did. It just wasn't right, any of this.
How the hell was he going to fix this? What would he tell Alphonse? What would he tell the small boy that was walking slowly next to him?
Then Hawkeye came running down the staircase to his left. "Sir! Did you –" Then she stopped, staring at the boy, obviously recognising his eyes. She gasped.
"Yes." Roy said simply. He didn't want to frighten the child more than necessary right now. "Would you please inform the rest of the team, while I take Edward back to HQ?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
Roy walked to the door, looking down at the child. He seemed weaker than he had been when Roy found him. "Are you okay?"
"I don't feel so good." Then his legs buckled and Roy picked him up before his knees could hit the floor.
"Hey, Edward, what's wrong?" Roy said, the child was lying limply in his arms.
"Don't know. They gave me something before you came."
"Did they say why?" Roy was walking towards the car.
"I think they said something about a horse."
Which probably refers to yourself.
"Why can't I move, Roy?" The child was scared.
Hopefully it was the drug. God knew that the kid didn't need anything else right now.
"I don't know, but it's going to be okay, I swear."
This wasn't real, it couldn't be.
Yet there was no denying it that the child in his arms had to be Edward Elric.
An Edward Elric that was so young that he still believed his mother to be alive.
Roy got inside the car. The child couldn't move his limbs at all.
Which meant that Roy would just have to sit there with the boy in his lap to make sure that he wasn't flung about.
And so Roy drove. "Do you remember what happened before you woke up?"
"No. It's all fuzzy. Roy, why did she look at me like that? Why do you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're scared. Why do I scare you?"
"It's nothing. I'll explain it later."
"I don't think it's nothing."
Damn it, kid, why do you have to be such a prodigy?!
"I'll tell you later."
"You're stressed."
Of course I'm stressed! My subordinate has been drugged and experimented on so that he's been transformed into a five-year-old!
"Edward, do you know what they did to you?"
"They kept talking about adopting me, but they needed to make me ready first. They've been sticking me with needles and done transmutations."
Roy felt anger surging through him. That was what this was all about? Adoption?
"Have you had anything to eat?"
"No. I'm tired, Roy."
"Just close your eyes, Ed, you're safe now. You can sleep as much as you like."
"Thanks."
The boy was soon sleeping against his chest.
What the hell do we do, kid? We need to get you right again.
Roy went inside HQ, immediately running into Alphonse.
Shit.
"Colonel, did you – BROTHER!"
Of course he would recognise him no matter how old he was. And obviously there was a large part of Edward Elric that recognised his brother's voice, too, because he jerked awake. "Al? Where's…?" The kid looked shocked at the suit of armour. "What's the armour doing here?"
"You don't – ? Colonel, what did they do to him?"
Roy could hear the pain and fright in Alphonse's voice at not being recognised by his only family, and it made him feel guilty.
This was not how he had planned for this to turn out.
"Who are you?" the small boy asked his brother, fear in his voice. "Why are you wearing that armour? Did you rob us? Have you hurt Mom or Al?!"
Alphonse began shaking his hands quickly, trying to diffuse his brother's anger. "No! Brother, I – "
There were a few seconds of silence.
"… Al?" the kid said slowly.
"Yes."
"But … How? What's going on?! Where's Mom?! Why do you look like that!?"
"Edward, take it easy…" Roy said, trying to calm the child down.
"NO! TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"
Which of course had to be when the kid had regained control of his body and jumped out of Roy's arms on sheer adrenaline. He stood up on the floor and glared at them, looking frankly ridiculous. He had the same fierce glint in his eyes as Fullmetal usually did, but the fact that he was about ninety centimetres tall and wearing a vastly oversized military jacket while also barefoot, made him seem mostly like he needed his nap time and little else.
People around them were stopping to watch, and so Roy tried to diffuse the situation. He needed to get the kid looked over by the doctor and then do all the questions.
"Edward, listen, we're going to explain everything, but we need to get you looked at by a doctor first."
"NO! YOU LIED TO ME!" He began backing away. He was scared, it was evident in his eyes. "HOW DO I KNOW THAT YOU'RE NOT WITH THEM?! HOW CAN I TRUST YOU?! HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT YOU WON'T HURT ME TOO?!"
"Edward, you're at East HQ. We are surrounded by officers and none of these people are here to hurt you."
"I WANT TO SEE MOM THEN!"
"Edward…"
"You can't," Alphonse said, sadly.
"WHY?!"
"She's dead." There was so much sorrow behind those words.
Ed looked up at him, tears welling in his eyes. "NO SHE'S NOT! STOP LYING TO ME!" Then he ran in between a group of soldiers and out the front doors.
Roy began running after him, pushing open the double doors.
He stood there, gazing into the darkness.
Where did he go?
Roy kept looking about, but couldn't see him.
Shit.