The Golden Sun: Chapter Two: The Chopper
AN: Whoa, this is insane! The response to this fic literally made my day and I couldn't be more pleased! Since its been brought up a few times, I should address that no, this fic has nothing to do with a game of the same name, its very much an FMA fanfic :)
"That's the fifth one in a month. He's speeding up; the time between kills is decreasing."
The sheet was drawn back, and Roy took note of the long blonde hair stained with blood, soaking the rest of the body where it lay in pieces.
The killer who had been nicknamed 'The Chopper' by the press was certainly making a mess of East City. They'd started finding chopped bodies in the city two months ago, always women and always with long blonde hair. This wasn't a woman though; the body couldn't have belonged to a girl more than ten or eleven.
Roy thought Ed's hair had to be about as long, though he was absolutely certain the fiery alchemist wasn't as tall.
"Is that why Central sent you down here, Hughes?"
Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes returned the sheet before making a gesture for the MPs to take the body away. "C'mon, Roy, can you at least admit you missed me?"
Roy rolled his eyes and sighed. He could see Hughes' soulmark peeking out of the edge of his collar, the simplistic curve of an anchor that matched the one on Roy's right hand, hidden under the gloves baring his transmutation circle. Not all soulmates were romantic, everyone knew that, and theirs certainly was platonic…even if Hughes used it as an excuse to get a little too up in Roy's business.
Hughes sobered. "It's got nothing to do with you personally, it's just that the Investigations team here isn't as good as mine."
Roy was guessing that he was enjoying his new promotion and being placed in charge of the Investigations Division at Central.
"What's the total kill count at now?"
"Eleven, that we know of," Roy walked with him back to the car, Lieutenant Hawkeye saluting them both as they got close before clamoring into the back seat. "I'm guessing you'll be wanting their files?"
"That would help, yeah." Hughes grinned as Hawkeye started the car and took them off in the direction of Eastern Command. "I also heard a very loud rumor that you've got a young up and coming State Alchemist under you now."
Roy's eyebrow twitched. "Loud is right, that brat has a pair of lungs on him."
Hughes laughed once before growing serious. "But seriously, why did you decide to suggest for Edward Elric to be made a State Alchemist? He's just a kid, I mean, he's what? Eleven? Twelve?"
"Almost thirteen." If memory served, Ed's birthday was in a few weeks, though he doubted the kid would stop his search for the Stone to celebrate something like that, not when his brother couldn't really appreciate his own. No one could say that Ed didn't put his brother before himself.
"I mean, military life isn't easy. That boy's gonna have to go through hell someday. You and I certainly have seen our share."
"He's already seen hell, and plenty of it." Roy didn't bother explaining what that meant to Hughes, though his friend did furrow his brow in confusion.
The car came to a stop and deposited both men sharply on the curb. "Sir, there's paperwork on your desk awaiting your signature," Hawkeye informed her superior, her sharp gaze making sweat begin to collect at the nape of Roy's neck.
"I'll get right on it," Roy promised, and she narrowed her eyes before driving off to park the car.
"Still slacking off?" Hughes teased. "You could be doing better things."
"Like what?" Roy immediately regretted it, because Hughes got a sparkle in his eye and faster than lightning whipped out a picture from inside his jacket, shoving it in Roy's face so much that he had to lean back and blink a few times.
"Look at my little Elicia! Only two months old!"
The picture displayed a baby with green eyes and fair brown hair in tufts, shaking a meaty fist at the camera. "Isn't she the cutest thing?"
If Roy had thought Hughes was bad in Ishval, gushing over the letters his then-girlfriend had been sending him, it was nothing compared to now.
"Yeah, yeah, your kid's cute—" Hughes gave a horrified gasp at Roy's flippant demeanor, but Roy ignored him in favor of pushing open the door.
Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda and Master Sergeant Kain Fuery gave him relatively cheerful greetings, while Warrant Officer Falman saluted stiffly (he was the newest recruit to Roy's team and the most uptight; they were working on it). Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc seemed to be in an almost stupor as he read through his (Roy's) paperwork, but he gave a friendly nod, his cigarette slipping in his mouth, unlit per military regulation, but present for the first smoke break.
Hawkeye's desk was still vacated, but would be filled in moments, Roy was certain; Riza was a stubborn one and she had a tendency to stick to his side. He meant that in the fondest of tones.
He strode past them to open the door to his own office within the larger one, permitting Hughes to follow him through, shutting the door behind him.
It was then that he saw the large pile of paperwork on his desk to be signed and Roy visibly sagged.
"One of these days, I'm going to regret the fact that Lieutenant Hawkeye is so efficient," he decided.
"You could always marry her first," Hughes offered with a cheeky grin and Roy had heard that suggestion so many times that his face no longer flushed.
Roy opted to ignore him, settling behind his desk and moving the mountainous pile of papers to the side before pulling out a file from his lowest cabinet and pushing it across the desk to Hughes. "This is what we've got on the Chopper so far."
Hughes thumbed through the file with interest. "Not a lot to go on, I see."
Roy's eyebrow twitched. "He doesn't leave much behind. Even the coroner says there wasn't as much blood as you'd expect with the bodies sliced and diced, so the Chopper probably kills the victims somewhere else and just leaves them out in the open for us to find."
Roy was at a loss with this serial killer. He was very good at not getting caught, Roy would give him that, but everyone slipped up. Maybe he'd grab someone smarter than him and they'd get away, maybe he'd kill someone too important…either way he'd slip up, and they'd be there to catch him when he did.
Distantly he heard the sound of clanging metal and a soft voice speaking beyond his door. Alphonse Elric was easy to recognize on the combination of those two things alone, but usually his arrival was accompanied by the sound of the main door being thrown open by Ed, his loud voice announcing his presence immediately. Roy didn't think he'd ever seen the kid quiet since his certification as the Fullmetal Alchemist.
There was a sharp knock on the door and it opened to reveal Hawkeye. "Sir, Alphonse is here, he wants to know if you've seen Edward recently?"
Roy blinked. "I didn't even know Fullmetal was back from his assignment…kid owes me a report."
"Oh," came Al's dismayed voice and Roy could see the hulking suit of armor beyond. "Brother and I wanted to check out the library here in East City and see if there was anything that could help us…Brother said he needed some fresh air but when I went to check on him he'd disappeared."
Roy wondered how a suit of armor could pull off pleading eyes so well when they were just red balls of light, but Al did it marvelously.
"Maybe he went for a walk?"
"Brother wouldn't disappear without telling me," Al insisted and Roy had to give that to him. Al was the single person alive that Ed would never abandon. No matter what, Al was Ed's priority, and that had been obvious from day one.
"We'll keep an eye out," Roy acquiesced instead and the thankful tone that Al gave him in return when his phone suddenly rang.
"Yes?"
The phone operator spoke on the other end. "There's a call for you on the public line, sir."
"I'll take it," Roy said, to which there was a loud click. "Yes, who is this?"
"Co-olonel Bastard."
"Ah, Fullmetal." Roy allowed a faint smile at how Al's entire body whipped around at the mention of his brother. "You're late at getting me my report and—" There was a strange rattled on the other end, like something was shaking terribly.
"There's -there's so much blood," Ed's voice was hollow and frightened, not filled with bravado, like it usually was.
Roy sat up, his eyes sharpening. "What blood?" he demanded. "Where are you?"
"Is Brother all right?" Al's voice pitched high in concern and now Roy knew that he had the attention of everyone in the office, including Hughes who was frowning seriously at him.
"I-I don't—" Ed's voice struggled and died, dredging up the image of a terrified Ishvalan child cowering before him in the Ishvalan War, crimson eyes wide, tears gathering before a shot sent her sprawling, blood collecting at the kill-shot at the center of the forehead. The image morphed and instead it was a small boy with golden hair and eyes, sun-touched and frightened. "—he took my arm, I—"
"Fullmetal!" Roy barked. "Get a hold of yourself!"
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end, like the boy had subconscious snapped to attention. He'd done it once before -just once- and Roy had poked fun at him for following military protocol for the first and perhaps the only time in his life, and then his ears were left ringing from Ed's screams of outrage.
"Sir," Ed managed to force out, probably because of how startled and off-balance he appeared to sound. Roy doubted he'd say it a second time.
"Tell me where you are."
There was silence on the other end and something like ice filtered through Roy's veins. It was his fault, he was the one that got the kid in the military in the first place—
But then his voice came again. "There's a sign across the street -says 7th street…there's a house right across from me that's painted yellow with five flowerpots on the porch…"
Roy relayed the information to Master Sergeant Fuery who took off running.
"Colonel—"
"We're on our way, Fullmetal," was all Roy said.
Ed had a hand tightly clenched around Al's gauntlet, and he hadn't let go since he was tugged gently out of the house by Hawkeye, her military jacket around his shoulders, settling him just as gently on the edge of the street as a medic came to look him over.
He was a state of numbed shock. He didn't think he'd heard a word of what the medic had said to him, his blood still pulsing in his ears.
Ed had lost his trademark coat somewhere along the way. Or maybe he'd left it at the library…he couldn't remember. There were bandages over his arm where the butcher knife had left Ed bloody, even if they were just small nicks. Ed was lucky, and it was clear that he'd killed more.
There had been so much blood.
"I was so scared," he whispered, eyes wide as he looked into Al's bright opticals. "I-I thought he was gonna kill me."
Al, evidently, couldn't think of anything to say, simply winding an arm around his brother so Ed's face could brush gently against Al's chestplate, hoping Ed couldn't hear the wild laughter from the one Mustang and his friend had called the Chopper as he was shackled and sent off to jail.
Al couldn't feel most things, the things that really mattered, but he could feel how small Ed's shoulders were to him, he could feel how they shook.
It must've been exhausting for his brother to put up a tough front all the time. Al wanted to tell him he didn't have to, that this was the path he'd chosen too, that he didn't have to be his overprotective big brother all the time, but in the end, Al just kept his silence.
Mustang was frowning heavily at something the other man was saying, glancing briefly back towards where Ed was clinging to Al's armor. He held up a hand then, stalling the second man's words before saying something Al couldn't hear. It was only then that he finally approached the brothers.
He dropped a hand to Ed's shoulder and Ed stiffened briefly before prying open his eyes and Al didn't even know if his brother realized that he'd relaxed at the sight of the Colonel, whose touch appeared to ground him in reality.
Al was still small when their father left, it wasn't as much of a sore point for him as it was for Ed, but he wondered if Ed remembered what it was like to look up to a man like their father had once been.
"We're heading back to the office, kid, it's probably more comfortable there to talk."
Ed blinked a few times, like he had to remind himself where he was, that his arm was bandaged, that his other arm was gone, ripped out at the port, that there was a jacket that didn't belong to him wound around his shoulders.
"Can you walk?" There was a careful smile on Mustang's lips at that, like he knew what Ed's response would be, and he did.
Ed's teeth ground together and hot coals burned in his eyes as he glared at the Colonel. "Yes," he spat out, "I can fucking walk!"
A few soldiers walking by stared at the blatant disrespect to a superior officer, but Roy just smirk as Ed shrugged off his hand on his shoulder.
He stumbled slightly as he stood, clutching at the visible port at his shoulder, but Ed only needed a moment to right himself.
"Where's my arm?" he demanded, all full of fire.
"Don't worry, Havoc's got it." Roy pointed the brothers in the direction of his car. "He says it looks be mostly intact."
Ed sighed, practically sagging in relief. "Good, Winry won't kill me now."
"Winry wouldn't kill you for that, Brother," Al reproached, but his voice was lighter now that Ed seemed to not be quite so shaken. "Every time you break your arm she gets more money!"
Ed's lips twitched and he patted the helmet on the top, like he was trying to ruffle his little brother's hair before Al straightened up to his full height, making the movement impossible.
"All right?" Roy asked just to be sure, resituating Hawkeye's jacket around his shoulders when it slipped.
Ed scowled at him. "M'fine," he muttered, striding ahead of Roy before calling back to him "You better not crash the car, Colonel! I know you're a bad driver!"
"What was that, you brat?"
Honestly, that kid… he made Roy's life so hard by just breathing.
"Why couldn't your brother have your disposition?" Roy lamented to Al, who was easily the more manageable of the two.
There was a tittering sound within the armor and Roy was almost certain that it was giggling. It wasn't a sound he'd heard before. It was strange to think that the soul bound to that armor was actually a small boy.
But no one said the Elrics were normal in any sense.
Ed narrowed his eyes suspiciously, one hand keeping a tight grip on his removed arm as he sat on the couch in Mustang's office, with the man that the Colonel had introduced as Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes before shutting the door behind the pair. "Who're you, exactly?"
Hughes gave a light laugh. "I guess Roy hasn't talked about me much."
Ed arched an eyebrow. "I don't usually stick around the Colonel long, he annoys me."
"But he's the first person you called in a crisis."
Embarrassment flooded through Ed's face. "Shut up!"
Hughes lifted his hands in surrender. "We're friends, actually, we're soulmates but its not something either of us bring up much."
Ed blinked in surprise, eyes flitting towards the simply mark on the man's neck. Some soulmates were platonic. He had to assume that was the case with Mustang and Hughes, given one of them was wearing a wedding ring and the other wasn't.
"I work with the Investigations Division in Central," Hughes continued, "I was sent here to catch a serial killer…lucky me you got to him first."
"Lucky, yeah, that's me," Ed drawled out, rolling his eyes. "Why'd he go after me?"
Hughes smile faded into a serious expression. "Turns out he's got a type, blondes with long hair…maybe he just happened on you by chance. I don't think he was expecting a State Alchemist for a victim."
Something dark coiled inside Ed's stomach, a sickening revolt that that was what had appealed to The Chopper. His golden hair was falling out of the long braid and he lifted his hand from the automail arm to finger the locks uneasily.
"Why don't you tell me what happened?" Hughes asked gently.
So, Ed told him about leaving the library to get some fresh air, promising Al he'd be back in a few minutes. The street was deserted at that time during the day, maybe one car -a truck- had driven past, making an odd skidding sound. Ed had been tired -he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night-, he hadn't been expecting it when something connected painfully with the back of his skull. Ed told him about waking up in a strange place with dried blood around him, without his arm. He didn't really remember how he'd gotten loose before the Chopper took a swing at him with his cleaver, he just remembered how it felt, the terror rushing through him. He only just managed to knock the man out before grabbing the phone and calling the first person he could think of.
Really, all things considered, Ed was faring remarkably well regarding physical injuries. He had a few nicks on his arm and the back of his head ached, but apart from that, Ed was fine.
"Is that all?" Ed asked finally, watching Hughes' pen still on the paper. "Can I go?"
"Got somewhere to be?" Hughes quirked an eyebrow.
Ed shrugged carelessly. "Al worries," he said as an explanation.
"You just escaped from a serial killer," Hughes pointed out nonplussed.
"Yeah?" The look in Ed's eye was clearly a challenge. "And?"
Blood ran thick between the brothers, it seemed.
"No, that's everything," he said. "You can go. Take care, Ed."
Ed gave a grunt before pulling himself up into a standing position, looping his automail arm over his shoulder that still had a limb attached to it before kicking the door open aggressively.
The office outside of Mustang's was surprisingly empty with only Breda and Havoc at their desks and Al patiently waiting to him.
"Brother! All done?"
Hughes gave a little wave to his soulmate's subordinates before disappearing as well, with Ed frowning after him. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with that information. He figured that if anyone would have been Mustang's soulmate -if he'd had one to start with, because, obviously not everyone had them- it would've been Hawkeye, they were practically attached at the hip.
Ed nodded distractedly, his braid falling over his shoulder. Now it felt like a noose that Ed needed to cut off. "I need some scissors."
Havoc was already riffling through his desk for a pair. "What for, Chief?"
"I'm gonna cut my hair."
That made everyone still in the room pause and stare at him. Breda was actually blinking in complete befuddlement.
"Brother," Al had never sounded so horrified, "you like your hair long…you begged Mom to let you grow it out."
A bitter snarl of 'And look what I did to her' was silenced before it could part from his lips; Ed didn't want Al to know just how much he hated himself for everything that had happened because of that failed human transmutation.
Havoc was the first one out of his seat, and gently prodded Ed until he took it, shifting uncomfortably in the chair. He couldn't bear to look at Al.
"Chief, you're always screaming at us when we suggest cutting your hair," Havoc pointed out with surprising patience. Both he and Breda were kneeling so that Ed's head was currently resting higher than theirs, a sharp contrast from how it usually was.
"Long blonde hair was the the Chopper's type," Breda muttered to Havoc, but Ed still heard it. "Listen, Ed, there's nothing wrong with your hair, okay? And there's nothing wrong with you."
Ed blinked furiously, tugging on the end of his braid, screwing up his face so he didn't get emotional in front of the pair of them. "I feel…gross." Bile threatened to rise up in his throat that the color and length of his hair was the reason a serial killer had looked at him and thought he'd be fun to dice up.
"He's the one that's gross, you're just a kid that happens to like your hair long, there's nothing gross about that," Havoc said, ruffling Ed's hair slightly. Normally Ed would find it annoying, but this time he didn't.
They didn't have to make him feel better, he was just like them, another subordinate of Colonel Roy Mustang, but everyone treated him and Al like they belonged there. It was one thing for Winry and Granny to treat them like that, they'd both known Ed and Al so long, but with Mustang's team it was different. Somewhere inside him, Ed could feel his chest grow warm.
"I don't think I could take you seriously with short hair," Breda added, completely straight-faced and Ed gave him a glare that had both him and Havoc grinning while Al's shoulder spikes seemed to relax behind them. "Might try to get an early night, big guy, you look exhausted."
Ed scowled some more, but even he couldn't deny how tired he was. It was getting late…it would be all right for him to crash in the dorms, right?
He yawned widely. "G'night," he said instead, standing swiftly enough to just miss something that sliced through the air next to his ear. Everyone looked around at the thunk to see something sharp and metallic imbedded deeply in wall behind all of them.
The four of them only had a chanced glance to the ceiling of a figure clothed in black, wearing a mask to hide their identity before there was a flash of light and the sound of one of the windows shattering.
"What the hell-?" Breda managed. "You guys all right?"
Al nodded his head needlessly but it was then that Havoc shouted for a medic and if Al had had a body, his face would've gone bloodless at the sight of his older brother on the ground, a wince creasing his brow, red blooming over his abdomen as Havoc ripped off his jacket to stanch the flow of blood.
"No, Brother!"
Ed's only attached arm twitched towards the sound of Al's voice, reaching for his brother before consciousness failed him and he faded into a dulling darkness.
They'd acted too soon. It could go either way at this point. Either the alchemist pulled through and they'd have to try again or the alchemist would die and they'd be able to relay the good news.
They should've waited until he was on his own. Without an arm he was vulnerable and thus wide open for an attack, and the alchemist was worth so much to them dead.
But if he lived…the Emperor would be most displeased.
AN: Someone should've warned you guys about the kind of writer I am before the Edling sucked you in…trauma and cliffhangers are a definite must ;)
All of Mustang's team are dads, I swear, even Hawkeye's a dad to this angry spitfire and his lovely armored baby bro.
As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!
