AN: Wow, people are actually interested! –dances- I'm glad about that. I still don't know if I'll be updating this frequently, but I'll do my best n.n! Thanks for all the kind reviews!

And I'm also thinking of rewriting the first chapter… -ponders- I'm not entirely happy with it x.x… Ah well, I'll see about that x3

And, since everybody likes to see RoyEd, I shall make it RoyEd! Though Envy makes an appearance too, of course x3.

And by the way, the Homunculi aren't special in this—I'll make them either guards or alchemists, since alchemy in this world isn't so advanced here that they even attempt to do human transmutation… if that makes sense x.x It does in my head xD.

Enjoy!

New Arrivals

Edward stared at the pink, red and orange horizon in front of him. The two guards standing next to him were chatting about the new arrivals, occasionally sharing laughs and making fun of Edward himself. The blonde didn't mind so much—the guards weren't the worst. He remembered there had been one guard, Greed (don't ask about the name, his mother must've been a crazy one), who occasionally raped the prisoners, whenever he felt like it.

Edward had been sure King Bradley knew about this, but it wasn't until one of the prisoners filed a complaint against him, that he acted upon it. Wrath had also been the reason why over fifty prisoners had committed suicide.

Roy Mustang was standing besides him on the dock, his hands behind his back and look ahead of him with stern eyes and an arrogant aura around him. Roy had recently been promoted and it was his duty to 'welcome' the new arrivals, making sure that they would listen to him and the other guards by scaring them. Edward couldn't see him doing that—no matter how stoic Roy acted, he had a heart on the inside, unlike some of the guards.

Edward was also there to 'welcome' them—it was his job to set an example for the others. He normally didn't listen so much to the guards or to Bradley for that matter, but he wanted others to be at ease with him, to make sure they didn't do anything drastic on their first day (there had been one time where a kid attacked one of the guards and tried to strangle him after the guard had called his mother a whore and had told him that he would enjoy raping him. The kid had been shot on the spot and when journalists got word of this somehow, Bradley explained that the kid had tried to escape. Things like that happened often in Central.).

Bradley had first offered this to him a year ago, when he noticed how many of the smaller children took a liking to him and how Edward managed to handle them easier than the guards. Edward had always been rather good with children and so Bradley had offered him a cell of his own and even better food, if he would keep up doing a good job and keep the kids quiet (Bradley didn't want to deal with the press so frequently). Edward had accepted, because a single cell was a very nice reward—he had always enjoyed his privacy.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, a ship finally came into sight. It was gloomy and reminded him of his arrival—it had been scary, lonely and it was awful knowing that he couldn't see his mother anymore.

"Ready, Edward?" Roy Mustang asked him, a small smirk on his face. Edward scowled at him and nodded. "There are a lot of small children on board, I heard, so I'm sure you'll fit right in," he continued and waited for the usual explosion.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE COULD EASILY BE MISTAKEN FOR AN AMOEBE!" Edward screeched, pointing a finger at him. If it had been a normal kid who did this screeching, the guards would've beaten him to a pulp immediately—but this was Edward. He was a special case and they all knew him.

"You should really learn to control that temper, Ed," Havoc said, taking his cigarette briefly out of his mouth to talk properly. Falman just shook his head in mild amusement at the antics of the prisoner, deciding it would be best to just ignore the two of them.

They had clashed from day one—Edward couldn't stand his superior attitude and Roy just enjoyed the free entertainment of getting on the much younger boy's nerves. They all knew though, that Roy had always protected Edward nonetheless. This wasn't out of the ordinary—Roy did not enjoy the way the prisoners were being treated. Had it been grown men, who had been sentenced for rape or murder than he wouldn't have complained, but these were children. Children who had done nothing wrong, except learn alchemy and they were being punished as if they had bombed an entire city.

But as much as Roy tried to help the children, he helped Edward the most. It had been him who made sure Edward was able to go in and out of his cell more often than the other children. He had been the one who had talked to Bradley about a single cell, he was the one who brought Edward all sorts of books to keep that brilliant young mind of his occupied. These things seemed minor, but they were a big deal for Roy and he himself didn't even know why he was doing it, just that he did not want Edward to find out. The blonde had a lot of pride and Roy knew that he would rather die than accept help from Roy.

"Well, that bastard should just stop making jokes about my height!" Edward declared, his eyes narrowing. Roy instantly was reminded of the first time he had met Edward—in all those years in hell, the boy hadn't changed one bit. Sure, he was just a little more mature than he had been, but he hadn't broken yet, not like all of the others. Most children would give up on life after half a year, most children would give up on hope, but Edward didn't. It was probably the only reason why he was still alive.

Havoc shook his head, chuckling lightly at the nerve of him. Most guards didn't like Edward, but there were few who did enjoy his energy and rudeness—Havoc was one of them.

"Did you hear, by the way? There are some older kids on board this time," he said, deciding to change the topic. Edward immediately perked up a bit. It wasn't often that older people were captured—they usually grabbed kids while they were very young and the ones that were Edward's age, usually killed themselves, simply died because of diseases, or were killed by guards. Edward was probably the oldest there.

"There are?" All three of the guards nodded.

"Only two of them though, heard they were quite the troublemakers," Roy continued. "One is sixteen and the other one is nineteen. Both male." He could see Edward's face pale when he mentioned that one was sixteen, which was one year younger than Edward. Alphonse must me sixteen now…

"What are their names?" he demanded.

"Russell Tringham and Envy," Roy frowned. "They didn't find out much about this 'Envy' character, just his first name and age. According to Hughes, he looks like a walking palm tree." Edward raised an eyebrow, on which Roy shrugged. "He said I would understand when I saw him."

"Hughes is coming back today then?" Edward asked him, masking his excitement. Maes Hughes usually went back with the boat in order to see his family every month, and would return with it the next day when the ship was full with new arrivals. He would sometimes stay an entire month though. Roy gave him a nod.

When the boat finally arrived, a large group of new arrivals came out. Some kids were crying, some were angry and some just seemed to be confused. But the emotion they all shared, was fear—Edward remembered feeling that when he set foot on the damned island.

He glanced over at the group, before his eyes rested on two taller figures.

The first one had blonde hair and had a pretty mature face for his age. Edward noted, with much irritation, that the guy was at least a head taller than he was, even though he was younger than him. No doubt Mustang would torture him with that information. The guy—Edward figured that he was Russell—still wore his own clothes—brown pants, a white button-up shirt and black shoes. He looked angry and kind of reminded Edward of himself.

Once he had taken a good look at the other one—Envy—he completely understood why Hughes had called him a palm tree. The guy had very long, spiky green hair and violet eyes. Kind of weird features, but Edward just shrugged—he himself had golden eyes, which was rather odd as well. Envy was very skinny and dressed weird—if Roy hadn't told him that they were both male, Edward would've easily mistaken him for a girl, since the guy wore a skirt. He appeared to be very annoyed by the crying kids, Edward noted.

Roy did his speech, while Edward just stood there awkwardly, occasionally looking at the two older boys. The children had stopped crying briefly, so they could hear Roy talking slowly and using very small words so that even the six year olds (yes, there were even children that young that were being sent to the place) could understand him.

Edward tuned the speech out completely—it was filled with information about how things were done here and something he had heard over a dozen times already. It was quite uneventful and he instead tried to smile friendly and reassuringly at the kids. Some smiled back shyly and some just looked at him as if he were crazy, as if saying: 'What the hell are you smiling about, for Christ's sake? We're never going to see our families again and you're smiling! Just keep those happy facial expressions to yourself and let me sulk!'. Edward would've done the same thing, had he been standing there.

He looked over at Envy, who had his arms crossed and looked bored. The blonde shook his head mentally, thinking about how Greed would've loved him—a stubborn guy who was just begging to be broken. Greed had always loved the people who still had some fire in them, who still wanted to fight and who still had hope. Envy seemed to be one of those people and Edward prayed to God Envy wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Is everything clear?" Roy asked the group. There were about thirty new arrivals this month, which was considered a very small amount there. There usually were about seventy each month. The group nodded their heads. "Good, then let me introduce you to Edward here," he nodded his head in Edward's direction, who waved awkwardly at them. "Like you, he's a prisoner and if you have any questions, you should first go to him. He'll guide you through the first months and he'll help you adjust. Understood?" The group nodded again, like loyal dogs, before they were being guided towards the prison by Falman and Havoc.

"That went easy," Edward commented to Roy, as they walked behind them. Roy shrugged—he was always like that after new arrivals. "You okay?" Edward muttered, to make sure the others couldn't hear them. He would never admit it out loud, but Roy was a decent guy and Edward enjoyed talking to him, even though these talks usually meant him getting teased and insulted by Roy. It was something that kept his mind off the entire situation.

"Yeah, it just breaks my heart to see these kids," he muttered. Edward shrugged.

"Things should be different here," he told him. Roy nodded.

"You think you can keep a secret?" Edward raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Sure, who am I going to tell anyway? The rats?" Roy gave him a small smirk, putting his hands behind his back as he raised his head.

"I'm aiming to become head of Central. Once I am, I'll change everything here. I might not be able to get the world to accept alchemy, but I can make it easier here for everyone," he stated proudly. Edward blinked at him once, before his face broke out in a huge grin. "And I can also make sure you get an appropriate high seat in the cafeteria—I heard you were having trouble reaching the table from Havoc."

Every kid looked behind them and were shocked to see that a mere prisoner was shouting at a guard.

"NICE WAY TO RUIN THE MOMENT MUSTANG!"

Havoc just told them it was another ordinary day in Central.

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