Chapter Two: The Stray Dog

"Edward? Are you okay?" He should have known. As he stood in the grass by the riverside, fists clenched in anger, he cursed himself for not realizing. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Nothing was ever that easy. "Edward?" The soft, delicate voice of a tender, blossomed Rose stroked the young alchemist's ears, calling his attention back to her. He wanted to turn, wanted to look at her, but he couldn't muster the strength. Not after that, not after what had just gone down. "Is something wrong?" He could feel her eyes on the back of his head, and he knew he couldn't face her now.

"Tell Al..." he managed to get out, without even turning back to look at her. "Tell him I'm sorry. I can't keep my promise, not today...maybe not at all." His fists were clenched so tight, they were beginning to bleed. "I'm sorry, Rose. I have to go back to Central."

"Ed, talk to me." Rose's voice quivered with uncertainty. She had heard this tone of voice before, and she had never enjoyed it. She could hear his cold, distant matter-of-fact statements, and she knew they were never a sign of good. The voice speaking to her now, she remembered so distinctly as the voice that said farewell so many times before. She knew he was moments away from cutting her out of his life again, and that thought frightened her. "Edward, please...tell me what's going on." Reaching out her hand, Rose gently wrapped it around his right. She tried everything she could to sound strong, but inside, she was afraid.

Her fears were confirmed only a moment later, when Ed pulled his hand from her grasp. He shot his gaze back at her just once, as he ripped himself free from her gentle caress, and in that moment, she saw the pain in his eyes. There was hurt there, and it made her ache inside. There was sorrow, loss...so many conflicted feelings that she knew were only causing him more pain. But she only saw it once, before he turned and ran from her. "I'm sorry," he whispered to himself through gritted teeth. He should have known. He would never be free.

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"I won't become your dog again." Edward's voice carried with it his determination. He would not let the military pull his strings anymore. Not after the things he'd seen, not after the disaster in Liore...he was done with their whole corrupt mockery of order.

"Just as headstrong as ever." Ed easily noticed the standard stoic, neutral texture to Mustang's voice. The colonel spoke with a cautious tone that never betrayed his true intentions. It made him a very dangerous man to make any deal with. "I'm here because I need you, Edward. We need you."

"For what!" Edward attacked. "So that you can slap the name of the Fullmetal Alchemist back down onto your payroll, and get a nice, comfy promotion? I'm not playing your games any more, colonel. I'm not listening to greedy, power-hungry jerks speak through you any more."

"General," Mustang corrected, and it was that word that caught Ed's attention. "And I would watch myself if I were you. You are speaking to one of those greedy, power-hungry jerks."

"General?" the young alchemist questioned. His face betrayed his curiousity for only a moment, before he looked away and smirked. "Well, I suppose you must have done plenty of kissing up to get that spot."

"Look, Ed," Mustang ignored the obvious bait, "I'm not here for anyone else. I'm not here because someone told me to be here. I'm here because I need you back, not because someone else told me to come find you. The military needs the Fullmetal Alchemist. That is a point I am not willing to compromise. There are some in the Parliament that don't see eye to eye with me on this, but I want you back in our ranks."

"Uh-huh," Ed had already begun to grow bored of this discussion. There really was only one thing left: it was time to end this talk and send Mustang on his way. "Look, I already gave you my answer. I'm not what you're looking for. I won't sit back and blindly follow orders, col–general. I'm not going to stand by and let another massacre like Liore happen, and I'm certainly not going to take any part in it. I won't bloody my hands for your sake."

Ed started to turn away, intending to end this discussion, but was surprised to hear Mustang's response. The general's words piqued his curiosity. Looking back, he supposed that was probably why he stayed and listened. "That is exactly why I want you back."

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"Massh tatoes!" Lunchtime had come, and much of the household was now gathered around the table. Little Alphonse was busy with his hands, trying to mold his mashed potatoes up into what looked to the others like some sort of tower.

Rose watched her child for a few seconds, before motherly instinct kicked in. "Al, don't play with your food," she tried to get out through a suppressed smile, but for her attempt, she got nothing in return. She and Al had been staying here, at the Rockbell residence, since she came back with Edwards two years back. Until then, they'd stayed in Central. She had followed him back, partly out of not having anywhere else to go and partly because she wanted to come with him, but nothing had worked out the way she had hoped since then.

Winry took the seat across from Rose, but it was not hard to tell her mind was preoccupied. With her fork delicately resting in her right hand, she stirred her food, not really touching it. It wasn't hard to tell that there was something resting on her mind, but the question of what went unasked. Rose was busy with her son, and with her own emotional baggage she was trying not to bring to mind.

Aunt Pinako sat at the head of the table. It was not difficult for her to tell that there was something wrong, but just what it was, no one was willing to say. Rose had come in with a decent enough smile on her face, but it was easy enough to tell that she was just trying to be strong. Something had happened, Pinako knew this, but the young woman was not saying anything, and she felt it better not to press it.

There was a noticeable absence in the chair where Edward usually sat. Pinako could guess at what this meant: he had gone away again. This would explain the morbid atmosphere that surrounded the girls, even through their best attempts to hide it. But Winry took Pinako by surprise. If Ed had gone somewhere, why wasn't she rushing off to follow? Unless she didn't know? Well...Pinako supposed there was no place to go by guessing.

"Here, Al, eat your food. Like this." Rose had reached over to gently press the handle of a fork into her son's hand. That little child meant the whole world to her, everyone knew this. As Pinako watched, a smile slowly slipped over Rose's face, while she wrested the fork down into the potatoes, then up into little Al's mouth. Even in the darkest of times, she could find comfort in her precious little boy.

"So," Pinako finally made the choice to ask. "Where has Edward run off to this time?" The scowl on Winry's face hardened at the question. She had her suspicions, but it seemed they were about to be addressed.

Rose looked up from her son, leaving him to eat by himself. She knew he'd never do that, but her mind was suddenly elsewhere. She looked at Pinako for only a second, before her eyes shifted to the empty chair. She felt a pang inside, a dull ache that wouldn't fade, which forced her to look away from the chair after a couple seconds. "He's...he said he was leaving. Back to Central. I guess...I don't know. Maybe he's looking for something."

"That jerk," Winry muttered. Stirring her mashed potatoes with her fork, she found she still couldn't muster an appetite for them. "Didn't even say goodbye...again! He never says goodbye. He just runs off and expects us all to wait here for him to come back." She raised her voice, going into an angry rage before taking a deep breath and calming herself back down. "I'm sorry." She had thought those days were over, when he came back to Rizenpool. Apparently, she had been mistaken.

"Uncy Ed?" Little Al looked up from his potatoes. The tension across the table was thick enough that even a child could see it, but he didn't understand where it had come from. "Where's Uncy Ed?"

Rose lowered her hand softly to her child's head, comfortingly stroking her beloved son. "Don't you worry, he'll be back soon. He just...I think he just had some things to go take care of. He'll come back to us."

"Yeah, sure," Winry scowled. "Current record is three years." Rose looked at her now, and she found herself starting to understand Winry better. She saw the anger that raged on the outside, that Winry struggled to keep in check. And as she looked, she came to see deeper than that. She had seen Winry get angry so many times in the past two years, and she never could understand what could drive her that far. But this time, as she looked into those sapphire eyes, she understood. Because those were not eyes of hate or anger. They were not eyes of malice, as could be easily mistaken from a distance. Staring into them, Rose could see the tears she was struggling not to form. Those were eyes of hurt, of betrayal. Eyes of pain. And as she looked down at her precious son, picking at his food, she began to feel more kindred to the angry girl. For, in the end, they really were not so different. Two hopeful romantics chasing after an elusive hero.

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"That is exactly why I want you back." General Mustang's voice carried a hint of authority, mixed with a certain sincerity that caught Edward by surprise. The familiar smirk on the general's face didn't do much for negotiations, but now he had at least piqued the young alchemist's curiosity.

"You're going to have to run that by me again," Ed pressed. "You want me to come to Central because I WON'T follow orders?" He was beginning to question the general's mental condition at this point. Perhaps he had struck his head one too many times in the battle with Pride, which the general was still reluctant to speak about.

"Edward," Mustang started, "Times are changing. The State military has come under new rulership, and we need people who are not afraid to challenge their orders. You know as well as I do that the crimes committed in Ishbal and Liore were manufactured in order to oppress the people without making us look like the bad guy. I want to avoid another such incident."

"Then here's a thought," Edward retorted. "Why not stop poking the national nose into everybody's business? We can take care of ourselves just fine."

Mustang sighed. He was getting nowhere. "Look, Ed, the military needs people like you. Yes, maybe sometimes the people can take care of themselves, but what are they to do the next time a Homonculus decides to play with their politics? What are they supposed to do about the next Cornello that comes along?" The name of Cornello struck a nerve with Ed. The false prophet had misguided the people of Liore into starting a rebellion, which led the military into taking drastic action in their city. All of which had been set up by the Homonculi Pride and Envy. And for their desire for the Philosopher's Stone, they had not cared about the people that would be crushed in the process. Hurting, killing, torturing civilians, and everyone was to blame. Cornello for causing the resistance and the military for the crimes they committed against the people. And for this conflict, Rose had suffered.

Ed's fists clenched in anger. Cornello's name had reminded him of everything that the military had done to that city. Everything that Rose had been put through, tortured, interrogated...he couldn't even imagine what she had gone through, but he knew it was traumatic enough to leave her mute when she was released. They had done it all, and worse, they had lied to him. If he had only known...maybe he could have done something. But he didn't. They wouldn't let him. "Look, Captain Sarcasm, I'm not doing this again. I'm not opening another city up for your military to terrorize."

Mustang sighed, his hand climbing up to his forehead to gently massage it. "Look, Edward, I need you to reconsider this, rationally. Are you going to see eye to eye with me, or shall I have Major Hawkeye fetch you a stool?" The crack was too obvious, and it only served to fuel Ed's anger.

"You know what?" Ed scoffed. "I'm done with this. I'm done with you. I'm not having this conversation anymore, Mustang. I have people I need to look after. And I've got a house to rebuild." With those words, Ed turned away from Mustang, walking back towards Al. He'd made up his choice. To hell with Mustang and the military. To hell with false, misleading orders intended to cause suffering in the people. He was going to go rebuild his house. Rose had offered to help him do it, hadn't she? He might as well take her up on that offer. Who knows, maybe she and Al would move in there once the place was reconstructed.

"Ed." Mustang put his hand down on Ed's shoulder, to stop him from walking away. "I want you back because I trust you to do what's right. I know you've had a bad history with the military, and that's why I trust you. I need someone who will not follow an order that he knows he shouldn't. You remember what happened to the Rockbells?"

Ed's face contorted in anger. He remembered exactly what had happened to the Rockbell doctors in Ishbal, Winry's mother and father. He knew only too well. "You murdered them." Fists clenched in anger, he struggled to see what Mustang's point was. Why bring them up?

"Exactly," Mustang responded. "I need someone who would not repeat my mistakes. I believe that someone is you, Edward." His cold, stoic voice betrayed no hint of emotion. Ed was struck, for a moment, trying to figure out whether this was really his agenda, or if he was simply trying to mislead him again.

"I won't be your dog." Ed repeated those words, though his voice quivered with uncertainty.

"Liore was doomed to happen." There was a certainty in Mustang's voice that confused Ed. "Liore didn't happen because we sent you there, Ed. The reason I wanted you in that city was to keep a rebellion like that from taking place. Because I remembered Ishbal. I didn't want a repeat of that disaster. Liore didn't happen because you were there, it happened because the prophet came back. Liore happened because the disaster I sent you there to avert happened nonetheless."

"What's your point?" All this talk of Liore was making Ed angry. He still remembered so vividly, the pain he had seen in Rose's eyes. The hurt that made everything within him ache.

Mustang sighed. His hand slowly, gently let go of Ed's shoulder. Their meeting was coming to a close. "I need you to keep that from ever happening again. Because I trust you to do that better than anyone else in the military. Major Hawkeye and I are going back to Central, Edward. Tomorrow, measure will be taken for isolating and bring in insurgent criminals in civilian areas. The kind we can't simply forget. I would appreciate it if you would be a part of that."

"And if I refuse?" Edward scowled.

Mustang turned to walk away, signaling Hawkeye with his fingers. "Then I hope you can live with yourself, if another disaster like Liore happens while you sat back and refused to do a thing about it. I know you, Ed. I know you better than you care to admit. And I know there has to be something that drives you. Perhaps a certain desert rose that needs someone like you to protect it." Ed's eyes widened at the mention. Fists clenched in anger, he couldn't find it within himself to respond. "I'll see you in Central," the general left him, before following Hawkeye back up the road.

Ed turned back, looking for him, looking for them. He didn't know what to say, what to do. He was beaten, and he knew it. He should have known better, but he didn't. He should have known the military would never let him go, never set him free. He was nothing more to them than a stray dog, and now they had come to collect. He should have known. And as he stood there, fists clenched in anger, he heard a familiar voice, a soft, sensitive voice behind him, filling his ears. "Edward? Are you okay?"