"You were a private back then, I remember…"
Mustang nodded.
Flashback
A young man was running outside in a royal blue military uniform at attention. Rain poured down the sides of his face, but it did not even faze him at all. He still kept his focus and composure.
He had been chasing a runaway for at least an hour, using all of the alchemy his training had taught him to stop the criminal from escaping. Finally, he heard movement around the corner in an alleyway in the back of a butcher's shop. At last… the young man thought.
"You're cornered." He called from his safe place around the corner from the alleyway. "There's no use trying to run." The young man pulled out his gun and turned the corner, aiming it right at the place where he had heard the movement, then he froze.
The movement was not from the criminal he had been chasing, but from a car driving away from the alley. It sped out of the alley, nearly hitting the young man, who quickly lunged to one side, clearing the way for the car to travel. The young man got up and straightened his military jacket.
Damnit. He thought. The colonel is going to have my hide…I pointed my gun at innocents. The young man's name tag read Mustang. Mustang sighed and was about to leave when he heard a moan from a dark corner of the alleyway. He whirled around and aimed his gun at the moaning corner.
In the corner was the naked body of a young girl, though you could hardly call it a body. All of its limbs were cut off, thrown aimlessly aside into a single pile of flesh and blood. Mustang edged near the stump of the girl, his gun still aimed at her head. When the moaning came again, he realized that the girl was still alive. He quickly knelt down on one knee to feel her pulse, and when he felt it, he gasped.
"Y-You're alive!" the girl tried to turn her head, but only succeeded in lifting it halfway before it fell on its own. Her eyes met his.
She had a beautiful golden gaze that did not seem human at all to Mustang. Her entire body was the palest shade of white that Mustang had ever seen, and her lips were blue from the cold. She had raven-black hair that fell in a black cascade beside her head. She was shivering uncontrollably, so Mustang ripped off his military jacket and covered her naked form with it, trying to keep her considerably warm. Rivers of blood flowed out of each of her mutilated stumps and stained Mustang's jacket.
Mustang looked around frantically, trying to see if anyone was nearby. "Help! Somebody! We need help!" he called, but he knew that no one would be around here. Even the butcher's shop was closed today.
Mustang looked back at the girl and gingerly picked her up into his immense, masculine arms. "Hang on," he whispered into her ear, and he took off running towards Central.
"You were near death," Mustang's voice cut through Sin's memory.
She nodded. "You carried me all the way to Central."
Mustang was panting, the girl in his arms, and the rain soaking him to the bone. He rushed up the marble steps that led to the large wooden doors of Military Central. He burst through the doors and kept on running. He ran past the eyes of the colonels, the sergeants, the majors, the brigadier generals, all the way to the Hospital Wing.
When he reached the Hospital Wing, Mustang hurried to one of the doctors that he knew so well.
"P-Please…" he panted. "I found her…an alleyway off of Main and Central…she's still alive…" the doctor's eyes lit up when he saw the stump of the girl.
"Come this way," he ordered, and led Mustang to the operating room. "Set her down here," Mustang did as he was ordered. "Now you must leave." Several other doctors filed into the operating room and crowded around the girl. Mustang started to object, but thought against it and left the operating room and went to the waiting room to sit down.
The doctors worked for hours. Every so often, shrieks of pain could be heard from the operating room, which told Mustang that they were working on giving the girl some limbs. After a while, Mustang's colonel came in and sat down by him.
"I heard you had a pretty traumatic day, Private," came the colonel's gruff voice. Mustang looked down. "Perhaps you should go home, son. There's nothing more you can do for her. It's all up to those damn doctors now."
"I want to stay with her, Sir," replied Mustang, his eyes fixed on the carpet floor. "She was obviously killed in that alleyway and left for dead by someone who really wanted her gone. I want to know who it was." Another scream came from the room.
"I'm only hoping that she survives the surgery. The Rockwells are amazing automail technicians, but four limbs all on the same body…I don't know if even they can do it."
"She's strong enough to survive it, Sir, I can feel it." The colonel stared at the young private. "I really can't explain it, Sir, but…I just feel like…like I was meant to find her. Like I was meant to be in that alleyway today."
The colonel patted Mustang on the back. "You did well today, Private. Take the rest of the day off and stay with the girl. Update me on how she's doing after the surgery, understood?"
"Yessir." He saluted and sat back down as the colonel left. Yet another scream sounded from the operating room.
"I didn't know if you were going to make it or not." Colonel Mustang said. "Like my colonel at the time said, the Rockwells were very good automail technicians, but you were their hardest task yet."
Sin grinned. "That pain was worse than any I'd ever experienced in my entire lifetime. But I'm thankful to them for getting these machines attached to me, or else I could never have done for the military what I have done for it." A thought crossed her mind. "What ever happened to the Rockwells, anyway?"
Mustang quickly turned away, a grim look on his face. "They were transferred. Don't dwell on it."
Sin sighed. "I remember what happened when I was through with the surgery. Do you?"
Mustang nodded. "Oh, yes, I do. I could never forget that."
Private Mustang opened the door to Recovery to find the girl in a hospital bed at the very back of the room, Mrs. Rockwell tending to her IV in her chest.
"Hello,Dr. Rockwell. How are you today?"
"Quite well, Roy, and yourself? My husband told me that you were the one who found this girl. Is it true?" Roy nodded. "You poor thing," she touched his shoulder affectionately. "How are you taking it?"
Mustang shrugged. "I truly don't know how to take it, Dr. Oh, how is little Winrey doing?"
Mrs. Rockwell's face lit up with joy. "Oh, Winrey's doing fine. I just came back to work, myself, three days ago."
Roy nodded and turned back to the girl. "So, how's she doing, Dr.?"
Suddenly, Dr. Rockwell's face grew grim. "There's something I need to show you, Roy," she pulled out a handful of papers from the girl's folder. "There is no record of her existing. Apparently, the girl with the same name as her died almost two hundred-fifty years ago, but that's all the information that we have on the name that she gave us."
"And what name is that?"
"Kraya Ami'ish. It's a common Russian name, Ami'ish, but Kraya is a Latin name. It is very strange that two girls should have the exact same name."
"Are there any identifying marks on her body, by any chance?"
Dr. Rockwell grew silent. "Only one…and I think you will be very surprised when I show you this." Roy stepped closer as the doctor gently brushed back some of Kraya Ami'ish's black hair that clung to her pasty face.
Mustang drew back when he saw what was hidden underneath the hair.
On the side of Kraya Ami'ish's neck was a mark that he knew all too well. A bright red serpent encircling three equally red triangles, each connected into their triangle shape by a single dot. It was the sign of the homunculi.
Mustang and the doctor turned to face each other. Both were deathly silent. Then, Mustang spoke.
"She is a homunculus." He said with much foreboding. "Kill her and get it over with." He turned to go, but an automail hand had grabbed his blue military jacket. When he turned to see who it was that had stopped him, Mustang's black eyes met two golden cat-like ones.
"P-Please…" pleaded the homunculus. "I…I will help you…find the others…" Mustang and Dr. Rockwell exchanged glances before turning back to the girl.
"If you talk to my colonel, he may spare your life, but he may not. I have no guarantees, understood?"
Ami'ish did not have the strength to nod or speak, so she mouthed, "Yes, Private Roy Mustang…"
Mustang whirled around, gave a polite nod to Dr. Rockwell, and left the room. He headed to the locker room, and when he was there, he took off his jacket, removed his State Alchemist's watch and name tag, and dropped it into a tin bucket of water and soap so that the bloodstains would wash out. Then he went to one of the sinks and stared at himself in the mirror.
A homunculus… thought Mustang. He shook his head and splashed his face with water. And to think…she almost had me…It doesn't matter anymore, he told himself. She's going to be dead in about an hour. The colonel will never allow her to live just because she has a few of the homunculi's names. Mustang went to his locker and entered the combination. He took out his spare military jacket and slung it on. He attached his name tag and put his State Alchemist's watch into a pocket. Once he was done, Mustang slammed his locker shut and headed to the Hospital Wing where he knew that his colonel would be interrogating the homunculus.
The colonel was already interrogating Kraya Ami'ish when the private arrived. He quietly slipped into the room and stood behind the colonel, who was sitting in a chair on the left side of the homunculus' hospital bed. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Rockwell were standing close to Kraya's bed.
Kraya did not look any better than she had a few hours ago, when Mustang had brought her into Central. Her face and neck were still deathly pale, and she looked as if she had not eaten in months. Her ebony hair clung to her face and her yellow orbs were without any soul at all.
"Are you listening to me at all, homunculus!" the private snapped back into reality at the tone of the colonel's voice, but Kraya would not come out of her daze. Then, slowly, her eerie-yellow eyes slunk lazily to look at the colonel.
"I am listening, Colonel Samuel Howard Macey." Her voice was tired, yet had unseen power to it. "But my name is not 'homunculus', though it may be my breed. My name is Pride." Mustang flinched. "You may call me Kraya Ami'ish, if you find it less horrid, Private Roy Mustang."
Colonel Macey leaned towards Pride. "I could have you killed, Pride, do you know that?"
"And what makes you think, Colonel Samuel Howard Macey, that I do not want to die?"
The colonel was silent.
"What makes you think that I would not kill myself even if you did set me free?" again, the colonel had nothing to say. Pride seemed to be amused by this. She looked down again. "I have been alive for nearly two hundred and fifty years, Colonel, and I have done things that would make even you want to die after just hearing them. I have sinned greatly against mankind. I want nothing more to do with the homunculi, Colonel Samuel Howard Macey, that I promise to you. All I want now is to die, nothing more." The homunculus turned to Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Rockwell and smiled weakly. "Your automail is remarkable, and I shall never forget your kindness, but I believe that your hard work has gone to terrible waste."
"Not necessarily," all eyes turned to Mustang.
"How do you figure, Private?" asked the colonel.
"Well, Sir…Kraya Ami'ish…she could be a powerful aspect to the Military, Sir,"
Colonel Macey groaned. "I cannot believe that I am hearing this from you, Private! She is a creature, a horrible, malevolent creature! Do you really want a creature to be in the Military!"
"Sir, if you would please hear me out…?" the colonel calmed somewhat. "Thank you, Sir. I agree that Ami'ish has done very horrible things, but think about it, Sir. With her abilities, Ami'ish could go undercover for us in Ishbal, or even back in with the homunculi—"
"No," stated Kraya bluntly. "I will not go back to them, not ever." her eyes were pleading with Mustang. "They kicked me out. They were the ones who cut off my limbs and left me for dead. I will not ever go back to them."
"It could be a trick, Private," Colonel Macey pointed out. "She could be playing us so that we do let her join the Military and then she can be a spy for the homunculi!"
"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?" screamed Pride. "I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE HOMUNCULI, DO YOU UNDERSTAND! I WILL NEVER GO BACK WITH THEM!" she calmed down a bit, then said, "You have no idea what they have done to me, Colonel Samuel Howard Macey…they made me a monster, and I was their leader." Everyone in the room was deathly silent. "That's right…I was their leader. Pride of the Seven Deadly Sins. I was worshipped by all of them as all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-healing. And then the one that controlled all of our lives…she became jealous of my power. So she drove me to that alleyway behind the butcher's shop and she cut off my limbs. Then she left me for dead. I want nothing more than to destroy the homunculi…to destroy her."
"That was when you made me join the Military." Sin stated, a weak smile painted on her face.
"We never made you join the Military—"
"Bullshit, Mustang. Colonel Macey told me that I could either join the Military or die. And when I said that I would die, he told me that I would not be dying, and that I would be joining the Military with or without my consent. You were there, so don't try to deny it."
Mustang smirked. "You have come a long way, Sin. At first, everyone in the Military resented you because you were once homunculi, but as time progressed…"
"…I began to gain everyone's trust. But…did they really trust me, or were they scared of my power?"
The colonel laughed. "That was more than likely it." He stepped nearer to her and touched the homunculus symbol on the right side of her soft neck. Their eyes met and slowly, Mustang leaned down and kissed Sin's soft lips. He gently pushed her against a wall and kissed her up and down her neck. Sin pulled his mouth back up to hers and they kissed again, this time with even more passion. Finally and reluctantly, Mustang gently pulled away. "I must go now, Sin." He said. "Continue to guide the Elric brothers along, as you have been doing. I believe that they will need you in the upcoming times."
Sin saluted, and Mustang returned the salute. "Goodbye, Sir." And Mustang left the small apartment.