Part I: Chapter V:

Decisiveness

Roy stared at the child in shackles sitting in front of him, slumped over, hair falling in his face, looking slightly malnourished. The child's face was slightly difficult to see clearly in the dark and damp cell, but those unique golden eyes seemed to glow in the dark. The child's head moved upwards to look at the Colonel's face. Gold eyes met black, then, the child spoke. "Well, well, well. Figures the great Colonel Roy Mustang has come down here to my wonderful cell. What have you come down here for? Hm? To take revenge, perhaps? Are you going to burn me slowly?"

Alphonse's voice sounded amused, filling Roy with a sense of terror. He would never burn Alphonse. How could he? Alphonse was like one of his sons, whom he loved very much. Dread filled his stomach as he realized that this meant that one of his surrogate "sons" just killed the other. "I'm not." Roy replied, hoping his voice wasn't as shaky as he felt.

Alphonse raised an eyebrow, then cackled. Cackled. "I'm surprised. Who would have thought the Hero of Ishval would suddenly have a heart to not burn a child? Or is it because I look so much like Brother?"

The fourteen-year-old's words struck him in the face. It stung. If he was being honest to himself, he didn't even want to be here, but he had to. He had to find out the truth, no matter what strings he had to pull. Riza, his forever loyal Lieutenant, waited outside the cell, keeping watch. The two of them were currently in the darkest depths of Central Prison, where the most monstrous criminals are kept.

He could have sworn he felt his heart shattering into a million pieces when he found out Alphonse's cell was here of all places. If this was how bad it was when he was technically just a "suspect", Roy couldn't bear to see what might happen to the boy when he went to trial in a week.

'Actually,' Roy thought numbly. 'I already know what will happen.'

Everything in the case pointed to Alphonse being Edward's killer, and his confession would provide the Prosecutor with the perfect chance to get Alphonse sent to the gallows, or some other worse way to die. After all, the murder of a State Alchemist or any military officer is a crime punishable by death, unless you were some lucky son of a bitch like Solf J. Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist.

Roy hoped that Alphonse was a lucky son of a bitch.

"When is my trial?" Alphonse suddenly asked, almost as if he were reading Roy's mind. "I'd love to know when I would be placed on the Death Row."

The nonchalant way Alphonse said that sentence made Roy's stomach churn. Nonetheless, he answered the boy's question. "In one week. And it's not certain whether or not you'll be placed on the Death Row..."

Alphonse raised an eyebrow. "Really? Even after I already told you I was the one who killed Brother?" Alphonse hummed, looking thoughtful. "Interesting."

Roy felt sick. "Did you really kill Fullmetal? Or did something else happen?"

Alphonse suddenly grew stiff. He stopped all movement and glared dangerously at the Colonel. "I told you already." His voice came out cold, heartless. "I killed Brother."

There was a silence surrounding the two. Roy felt the atmosphere grow ten times more tense than it was before, if that was even possible. Alphonse seemed incredibly insistent on the fact that he had...killed Fullmetal. Stranger than that, Alphonse continuously referred to Edward as "Brother". And to top it all off, he was acting somewhat...sociopathic.

Did Alphonse feel...guilty? Roy wasn't sure what exactly hurt more. The fact that Fullmetal, his youngest subordinate, was dead. The fact that his killer was most likely his own brother. Or the fact that Alphonse was happy about the death of Edward. He decided that if, and only if, Alphonse really did kill Fullmetal, he would feel a lot better if Alphonse was acting like this because of the shock of losing his Brother.

'Wait...the shock...' Roy felt realization wash over him. 'Maybe...maybe Alphonse wasn't the one who poisoned Edward. What if it was someone else? And as for how he got his body back...' Roy felt himself fit the pieces together. It made sense, if Alphonse was acting this way because of the shock over Edward's death. If Edward used the strange transmutation circle to bring back Alphonse, and died from poisoning right after...

Knowing the Elrics, Alphonse most likely blamed himself. And because of that, he went into shock, and thus, became somewhat of a psychopath.

Roy inhaled sharply, causing Alphonse to look at him curiously. He swallowed and asked Alphonse a question. "What poison did you use?"

Alphonse raised an eyebrow. "I already told Lt. Colonel Hughes this, if you didn't know. I'm not saying anything."

"What was the transmutation circle on the floor for?" Roy pushed with his relentless questions. Alphonse had to break under the pressure at some point, right? Despite some deeper part of him saying that if Alphonse did break from the shock, this endless questioning might make his state of mind worse than it already is...Roy continued.

Alphonse growled with annoyance. Roy flinched, the growl reminding him eerily of Fullmetal. 'Those two really are alike, when it comes down to it...'

Seeing as how Alphonse wouldn't answer that question, Roy asked another. "How were you planning on escaping? Why did you confess?"

Alphonse glared, eyes unwavering, still staying completely stiff, making Roy unable to read his body language.

"If you hated your Brother so much..." Roy felt the words tumble out of his mouth like molasses. "Why didn't you kill him sooner?"

A smile made it's way to Alphonse's face. "Why, Colonel! I didn't think you could be so thick!" Alphonse made a broad gesture, as well as he could with his hands stuck in a block. "I really thought the all-powerful, cocky, Hero of Ishval, would know better than this!" Alphonse cackled, leaving Roy with a sense of dread. Either from the "Hero of Ishval" comment, or from the fact that he had a feeling he knew what was coming. "Of course, I didn't kill him until two days ago!" Alphonse began loudly, stating as if it was completely obvious.

'It's not...' Roy felt panicked. He had a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind as to what Al was going to say...but he really hoped he didn't.

"I had to wait until he got my body back before killing him, after all!"

Roy heard enough. If Alphonse was suffering from shock, there was no way he could go back to his previous mental state now. Without a word, Roy turned around swiftly and walked out of the cell, slamming the cell door as he went.

Riza, who looked as grief-stricken as he did, most likely from having heard the entire conversation, waited a moment before followed Roy down the hall, both trying to desperately ignore the sounds of cackling laughter coming from the fourteen-year-old's cell.

"Come in." Roy said tiredly, upon hearing the quiet knock on his office door. He felt sick after the conversation he had with Alpho-no, scratch that. He felt sick the second he heard what had happened.

Roy looked up to see who had walked in, and his most likely, frustrated-looking expression changed into something of a surprised one. "Winry?" Roy blinked, wondering why the girl decided to come to Central HQ.

Better question, how did she get past the-

His own question was answered as he looked her up and down. The automail mechanic was wearing a military uniform, that of a Private's, and had her hair tied up in a similar style to Riza's.

'Clever.' Roy praised as Winry began to speak.

"Um...I sneaked past the guards with the help of Private Sheska..." Winry explained awkwardly. Roy could easily guess why. Judging by the doubtful and somewhat "longing" looks Winry was sending the uniform she was wearing...she most likely held or still holds some type of dislike for soldiers.

Roy nodded. "Well, what do you need, Private Rockbell?" Roy decided to play along with the ruse.

Winry cleared her throat. "So...I did what the Investigations Department asked, and...removed Edward's automail." Winry began. "And when I left I...saw something strange."

"Strange?"

Winry nodded. "Well, I personally thought it was weird. I mean, does the Fuhrer normally go down to the Investigation Department to go in the morgue of all places?"

This caught Roy's attention. He froze, his heart almost stopping. 'The Fuhrer...? What the hell was he doing there?'

"Strange enough, Ling seemed to not want me to go near the Fuhrer. He pulled me aside and we just hid behind some wall. Ling said we were in his blind spot, so there was nothing to worry about, but...the Fuhrer went inside the room where Edward was so...I just thought that was a bit strange..." Winry faltered, seemingly pondering the events that happened to her.

Roy inhaled sharply, his mind still stuck on the Fuhrer, and now something else. "Ling Yao? He was with you?"

Winry nodded in response. "Yeah...I wanted support, and he went in under the disguise and excuse as my "bodyguard". Lan Fan stayed outside. I'm assuming you know her too?"

Roy nodded. "Did Ling tell you about the Homunculi?"

Winry paused, then shook her head. "No. I've never heard that word before now, actually."

Roy inhaled sharply then put his head in his hands. "Well...I suppose you'll have to have learned this eventually..."

Winry ears perked up. "Are you going to tell me about this...enemy you've been fighting?"

Was he? Roy had no idea. If Winry did know about everything that's been going on these past two years...she would most likely be more prone to danger. Knowledge can be dangerous sometimes, especially in the military. Even more so considering the enemies they were fighting. But...Roy contemplated deeply. If Winry didn't know, then that would also open her up to more danger. It's true knowledge can be dangerous, but ignorance is even more so. If Ling hadn't been with Winry, she would've been revealed to the eyes of the Homunculi, as someone who was close to Edward and Alphonse.

And that...would be bad.

Roy wasn't sure how long he had been thinking, but when he finally decided and snapped out of his thoughts, Winry looked seemingly confused. "Alright then, Miss Rockbell. I advise that you sit down for this. It's quite a long tale."

Decisiveness Definition: "the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively"

Defined from online google dictionary

A/N: This chapter to me, felt kinda..."meh..."

And...yeah...it was incredibly short, and I'm sure most of you were expecting a bunch of Roy, but I don't want to just add characters at unnecessary times. I put in the two most necessary conversations: Roy's conversation with Alphonse, and his conversation with Winry.

Oh, and about the Winry-conversation...you might think this is a bit too soon for a flashback, but this is just Part I of the story. There is way more to this than you think. And besides, Roy will be only telling Winry what HE knows. And I'm not necessarily going to show the "tale" either.

Only the necessary things for Part I, people. ;)

As for what'll happen in Part II...well, that's coming in a few chapters so, you won't have to wait long. (Part I is basically the "introduction" of the story, so that's why Part II is on it's way so soon. And, I'm not going to put it on a separate story or something...it's the same story...just split into parts.)

Thanks for reading so far, and this is Jewel, signing off! (Yay, it's my thing now!)