Disclaimer: No, I don't own FMA.
Summary: Slow and steady wins the race, but only if you're incredibly lucky. When Ed discovers the secret to Human Transmutation, Roy and his team's mission of reaching the top is thrown off track. But when the higher ups, and even the Fuhrer get involved, the situation is quickly thrown into disorder and turned into a struggle for power.
Author's Note: Eer. Yeah. Sorry for the slow updates, starting highschool is a drag. Also, I realise the chapter title has absolutely nothing to do with the chapter contents.
CHECKMATE
chapter six: bishop
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"I'm going to bring her back."
They hadn't done anything to stop him as Roy strided out the door, returning only a few minutes later with two blue eyed women and a young man. They had not stopped him as he picked up a piece of chalk and carefully outlined the array onto the cement floor of Hawkeye's little fitness training room. They did not even stop him as he threw the three sacrifices to the ground on their designated areas on the array.
How could they stop him when, in their own minds, they had been considering the same thing he had been? In all reality, the only reason they were not the ones to do it themselves was that they didn't want the extra blood on their hands.
No, they did not stop him. He did. Hands wavering inches from the drawn Alchemy circle, they whimperings of the sacrifices were not lost to his ears. "It doesn't matter." he murmured, more to console himself than anyone else, "They're prostitutes, they do not deserve to live." That one more to convince himself than anything.
It was true that they were not the purest of the human race, but since when had his mind ever obeyed cold hard logic? If it had, there would have been no use in fighting the government in the first place.
Ed had long since turned away, resigning himself to the confines of the Lieutenant's room, away from the stricken Fire Alchemist's voiced ramblings.
Havoc stared on with ashen eyes.
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"What's wrong, Mustang? And here we all thought you loved you little blonde toy." His eyes whipped to the door of the room. He had heard the front door open, but he'd assumed it had been Havoc or Fullmetal leaving the premises. Still, he was more than surprised to find Fuhrer Bradley himself, a number of military personnel and even a couple of trained Alchemists standing poised at the door. "Still, I thank you, Boy. (Yes, I meant to type 'Boy' and not 'Roy'.) Now we have the Human Transmutation formula."
His hissed 'Bradley' came out hoarse, and unknowingly he shifted his body to stand in front of his sacrifices, blocking them of any stray bullets they might shoot.
"Though I do wonder, what would have happened if you had tried to bring back someone already alive?"
It was then that one of the soldiers threw forth a body at him, and he realising that Hawkeye, though ill-looking and pale, was quite very much alive. It was also then that he realized that Havoc was standing solemn eyed, head lowered at the right hand side of the Fuhrer.
