Chapter II: Everlasting Loyalty

"I dedicate this song to the ones who don't belong...
Unwanted
To the ones who don't belong...
I know who you are
Hang on!
We're never going home again…"

("Unwanted" – Kill Hannah)

I guess this is the end, eh? Ah well… it was bound to come someday. Are you an angel? You don't look much like one… but hey, whether you are or not doesn't mean anything now. Just hear me out before I go. Listen to me—really hear what I say—so that everything I've ever done in this world wasn't in vain.

I used to be a normal young man; a normal soldier in a normal army fighting a normal war. Except, of course, nothing was really normal. Is punishing soldiers for their hard work normal? If I had known back then that, as a member of the Amestris Special Forces, I would be ordered along with the rest of my unit to completely destroy a particular Ishbal temple and murder everyone inside, I would have run for my goddamn life. Not only did we go through with the operation, but in order to keep us quiet, the good ol' Basque Gran himself ordered us all to be kept in the Fifth Laboratory. Well, I guess that in itself isn't too bad… but then they started to experiment on us; their own, loyal men! At first it was just simple questions and little tests, like "So how's your sense of smell doing lately?" or "I've been working on a more effective sample of aspirin, do you want to try it? Maybe it'll help your wounds feel better."

We were so blind; what they were doing was altering us—transforming us—into… things. One day you're human, one day you're part dog. I mean, it's not so bad, right? You still look like a normal human for the most part, except for the fact that your speed has grown to be wicked-amazing, you can suddenly smell someone's feet that are sitting more than fifty feet away from you, and your swordsmanship skills are top-notch. Yeah, it was all fine and dandy… except for the fact that I didn't feel like I belonged anymore. I couldn't just walk down the street and feel like I was a part of this world because, in essence, I wasn't anymore.

I belong to the strange and twisted world of alchemy now. If I just randomly walked into a city-street boutique and starting bragging that I was chimera, do you think people would've patted me on the back and congratulated me? Hell, no; if I was lucky they would just scream and run away. The normal folk don't know too much about us, except for the fact that we're all circus freaks; part human, part animal, with a dash of alchemy thrown into the mix.

But of course, that's exactly what the military did to us; they saw that we were successful and decided to just throw us out when we wouldn't completely submit to their bidding any longer. Luckily for us, that's when Greed showed up. You could say that he rescued us—he gave us a place to live with others of our kind… a place to belong. For that, I'll always be eternally grateful. Though Greed isn't widely known for his kindness, that one kind act towards us gave me a reason to live and a purpose to serve. I became devoted to serving Greed and protecting the Devil's Nest from prying eyes. The eyes of contempt possessed by the military, if you will. Or so we thought.

Of course, happiness is only short-lived, as I'm sure you know. Being a Homunculi—a created non-human, I believe—Greed was a natural target for those of his kind. Other Homunculi. I've never understood why Greed's own kind would have it out for him, and I guess now I'll never know. Anyway, the mission was simple and painfully clear; make sure Greed has a safe passage to the one called Dante. Fight anyone who gets in your way… even those that aren't exactly human. Even those that can tear you to pieces with knife-like fingernails.

So that's what I did. Good ol' Dorochet. Loyal to the end, just like your average pet dog.

Oddly enough, I don't really feel any regret. I just hope Greed managed to escape without harm, because if not… well, I'd be dying without a real purpose, like those Ishbalans I killed in that temple way back when. What they say about karma is so true; what goes around will come around, most likely to bite you square in the ass.

I also hope that Greed didn't really regard us as his servants; his stupidly loyal and expendable followers. Because, deep down inside… I hoped I was more than that. I wanted to be more than that. I wanted to be respected as an individual and not just as a successful but freakish science experiment.

I hope, with all my inhuman heart, that Greed respected me as I did him.

Because now, as I lay here dying, I confess that… that one hope was all I ever had to live for.