The Coldest Years
Roy's been missing for three years. As the team tries to find him, they may very well uncover another giant military scandal, so soon after the famed Promised Day. How is the team to find him, and how will they fix him when they do? Chimera!Roy. Forced RoyxOC
Disclaimer: I still don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Sorry! (Although that's probably a good thing...)
A/N: Changed the summary! Better?
Also, because everyone is suck-ish, (seriously, not one review? What am I doing wrong?) I'm going to go the positive route and assume that this story is perfect. The reason no one is reviewing is because no one can find anything to say about it. You're all stunned speechless by my beautiful writing style. I really like that idea.
So, now that my ego is effectively stroked, please review? I know this story needs help, but honestly? What am I doing wrong with it?
And, I've decided that I don't care. Edward is 'Boss', Roy is 'Chief', end of story. Thank you veeeery much.
A young brown-haired man panted as he jogged the Western HQ, peering around for his superior. He covered his eyes with his hand, shielding out the bright rays of the sun. With a cry of relief, he continued his trek, grinning but then snapping into a respectful salute. "Command Sergeant Major Fuery! A phone call from Central, sir!"
The dark-haired man looked up at him, lifting his chin directly. He saluted, if only to release the younger. "Thanks, Brayman. I'll be there shortly," his superior assured, smiling.
Brayman nodded at him and scurried away, towards the mess hall's building.
Fuery grinned to himself as the man dashed away. God, he loved that. He loved the kind of respect that, even as a lowly Command Sergeant Major, he received from some soldiers.
He continued toward the barracks and dropped off a note with the kind receptionist, to be given to one of his coworkers reminding him that Tusla needed his report ASAP, and then headed further into the heavily walled area, toward the base.
The young woman, Brenda Hatte who was, indeed, free Friday night, smiled as he approached. She wiggled her fingers at him innocently before pointing toward the phones. "A phone call from Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye. She claims that it's urgent," she said.
"Thank you, Miss Hatte." Fuery quickly ducked to the phones, picking up the nearest one. Brenda quickly cued him into the right frequency (a thing that he'd taught her not long after his arrival here in West City—he loved being a technological know-it-all) and then let him be.
Fuery cleared his throat and, with the sturdiest voice he could muster, he said, "Command Sergeant Major Fuery speaking."
"Fuery, it's Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye," said Hawkeye so formally.
"So I was informed." Fuery nodded, tucking a little further into the box that attempted to offer privacy but failed so miserably. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Actually, the team needs your help with something. Turns out Ed and Al found something in Dublith that they didn't like. I thought that just leaving Sheska to find someone to go would be alright at first, but then…" Hawkeye swallowed and shook her head stoically, sighing with defeat.
"Mustang." That was all that Fuery had to say for Hawkeye to audibly shudder and agree.
"Yes. I just thought that maybe we could look into it, maybe find a clue. I'd go with just who we have here, but… I need everyone here, this time. I do," Hawkeye said.
Fuery grinned, glancing around the hallway. He heard Hawkeye's immense sigh of relief and his grin widened when he replied, "when do you need me, and where?"
Falman watched the snow billow down, in the midst of a short snowstorm. He stood at the window nearest the receptionist desk, where he stood manning the phone, today.
It was really a pointless job, he and all of the others knew. It really, really was. There was no one that actually called up to the base. The only people to get ahold of here was generally the Major General, who had her own, private phone that most used. But, on that rare chance that someone important called, there was always someone to man the phones.
It did, at least, give him the chance to finish reading his books or playing his crossword puzzles or Sudoku. The Major General really didn't care what they did when they were on duty managing the phones.
A loud ring nearly made him jump out of his skin, and for a second he glanced upwards at the warning bell to see if Drachma was on the move or something. Then, he recognized that annoying noise.
The phone.
Someone was calling Fort Briggs.
Oh, son of a bitch.
"Good evening, this is Fort Briggs," he said, slumping into the seat and holding the phone to his ear.
"This is Lieutenant Colonel Riza Hawkeye speaking. I'd like to speak with Captain Falman as soon as possible."
How good was it to hear that voice! He hadn't heard it in a while. "Speaking. Hey, Hawkeye. Sup?" he asked.
Hawkeye sighed at his informal tone, but a smile reigned true in her voice. "Hello, Captain. I was wondering if you could spare some time off to come down to Dublith with the team?"
"What for, pray tell?" he asked, spinning in his chair to look out the window again.
"A mission. A bad case of animal abuse and neglect. Al claimed that he and Fullmetal… had a feeling."
Falman clicked his tongue. "You need me there?" he asked. It wasn't as if he didn't want to be there. He did. He missed the team, and he would like to meet up with them again, maybe go out for a couple of drinks with the guys like old times. But he did love winter up here. It was so beautiful.
"I… would like you there. Something that Alphonse said, it's bothering me. He said that the animal that they spotted… that its eyes were human." Hawkeye hovered cautiously on the last word, listening anxiously for his response.
"And you think that—"
"Yes."
Falman didn't even need to say what she thought for her to know what he thought she meant. There was only one thing that could drive her to call him in from his work. And that one thing was their commander. A smile covered his cheeks in response. "Have you called in the rest of the team?" he asked her.
"Fuery will be here by Friday—" Only two days away… why so early? "—And I have yet to talk to everyone here, but I have no doubt in my mind that they'll agree to come."
He wondered for a second if she had had any doubts that he'd be there. He quickly pushed away those doubts with a firm nod of his head. Not caring particularly what Armstrong said—he did have vacation time building up, maybe he could take time off for that?—he told her, "I'll be there as soon as I can."
Hawkeye took a heavy sip from her drink, peering over the lip of her Styrofoam cup as the men around her fidgeted anxiously. Havoc and Breda sat on the couch, Breda clutching his own cup of coffee as if his life depended on it while Havoc balanced an unlit but chewed up cigarette precariously between his pointer and middle finger. Armstrong himself just looked awkward, sitting scrunched on the opposite couch in the break room. He looked down at his bare hands, waiting for Hawkeye to start talking.
Hawkeye set her coffee cup beside her and pushed herself off of the counter. "Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules," she said as if speaking to a force of no less than fifty hardened soldiers about to go to battle, "just to meet with me. I can assure you, I did not take you from your work for any light reason. This matter is of some importance. How great the importance I cannot judge. Not yet."
Breda glanced sideways at Havoc, cocking an eyebrow when he noticed that she spoke a lot like Mustang had once spoken.
"Why exactly did you call us here, Lieutenant Colonel?" asked Armstrong, rubbing his thick hands together.
Hawkeye looked at him, and then at the other two. "I have a mission for us. Believe me when I say this, I would not have called you if I felt that I didn't need you. There is something very wrong in Dublith. Something that made Alphonse give me a call. Apparently, something that has bothered he and Edward enough."
Havoc bit his tongue, the tip hanging limply out of his mouth. "So… what is it?" he asked.
Hawkeye looked right at him when she spoke, "A very, very bad case of animal abuse and neglect," she said.
Breda lifted his eyebrows in disbelief. "This is no light reason?" he asked.
"I wouldn't have called you if I didn't believe so," Hawkeye said, her voice clipped as she glared at the man.
"Right, right. Sorry," Breda quickly amended.
Hawkeye coughed into her fist momentarily, taking the man's apology a little coolly. "Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted," she murmured, "Edward and Alphonse had a bad feeling about this animal that they saw. Alphonse called me, and he brought up Nina." She paused for a second, watching the three men shift and slowly become aware. "The chimera."
"You think that the animal is, perhaps, a chimera?" Armstrong elaborated, his small blue eyes widening a little.
"I think that it's a possibility, and I think that Ed and Al would agree with me, if I presented the idea to them," Hawkeye agreed.
Armstrong still looked a little uncomfortable. "And you're asking us to make a run down to Dublith, for at the least: potential animal abuse and neglect; and at the most: a potential chimera that we still don't know if it is actually a chimera or not."
Hawkeye swallowed, knowing how ridiculous that sounded. She nodded firmly. "Yes. I need your support. Fuery and Falman will be here on Friday. They've already been so kind to volunteer. I know that it doesn't sound like much, I do, because I didn't think that it sounded like much, but the more that I listen to that conversation that I had with Alphonse, the more that I think: what if it's something more? What if it's more than just animal abuse? What if it's more than a successful chimera transmutation? What if it's…" she swallowed again, pushed her pride down evenly, and looked to each of the men. "What if it's him?"
The mock-helplessness in her eyes flashed so strongly that all three men broke. It wasn't difficult to understand that she was putting up a shield. Riza Hawkeye was anything but helpless. Still, she and the colonel had been so close ever since before the Promised Day. Since before Edward. Even before Ishbal.
Breda shifted uncomfortably. He bit his tongue, the coffee that he'd drunk sitting in his stomach unpleasantly.
Havoc looked up at her, but then looked away.
Armstrong was the first to react positively, tears streaming from his small eyes. "Oh, but my heart goes out to you, Miss Hawkeye! To see such loyalty, such determination for a man that the entire military had once thought dead is truly heartwarming! Any but you would have stepped up and taken his place and denounced him as though he were little more than roadkill that they had the misfortune to stumble on. But you! You searched, you never gave up! And even now, you take even the most improbable case and hold it tight to your bosom as though it were the largest bar of gold and you were nothing more than a beggar! I have never seen such loyalty! Of course I will come!" Armstrong stood and yanked Hawkeye into his arms, squeezing the life out of the poor woman who had been too shocked into silence to scramble away.
After a minute of true helplessness, Armstrong dropped Hawkeye and went to blow his nose. Hawkeye immediately got to regaining her composure, looking at her comrades.
Breda watched her, and then looked at the door that Armstrong had gone from. He nodded firmly.
Havoc grinned and tossed his chewed up cigarette into the nearby trash can. "C'mon, Riza. You know us. We'd never leave you like that. Or him. Especially when he didn't leave me." He tapped his leg, nodding like Breda had.
Hawkeye took a second to process the information, still in a bit of a daze from Armstrong's assault. She blinked, and looked at them. A real smile crossed her face, one that lit Breda and Havoc's faces immensely. "I… thank you, boys. You are dismissed."
Friday found Havoc, Hawkeye, Breda, and Armstrong standing at the train station, patiently waiting for Falman and Fuery's train to come in. If it was on schedule, Fuery's was expected to come within the next five minutes. Falman's would be in around six that night.
Hawkeye scratched nervously at her palm, sitting on the bench with Havoc and Breda at either side. Armstrong stood behind her, both drawing a crowd and giving them good breathing space.
They were mostly silent. Havoc or Breda sometimes raised their heads and voices when they saw a train pull in, excited to see their comrade, but it was never Fuery's train, and they'd been doing that the whole time anyway.
Finally, ten o'clock rolled around, and not three minutes later, so did a train. After several passengers unloaded with their stuff, out stepped a short man in the traditional white garb that meant that someone was in someplace hot.
Someplace like the west.
Armstrong waved his hand and called toward him, drawing the amused and confused looks of several other passengers.
For the first time in a year, Fuery's brown eyes peeked up from beneath that silly outfit and met with most of the old teams'. A cheerful smile broke on his face, and he happily jittered forward to them, saluting to all of them.
Hawkeye saluted to release him, a smile hovering over her lips. "Thanks for coming, Fuery. This really does mean a lot," she said.
Fuery nodded, his hand dropping. "Thanks for trusting me."
After almost a full hour of mindless chatter, the group went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. Hawkeye explained the situation in full as best as she could, and went about thinking of a plan with the boys. It wasn't long before five o'clock found its way there, and found the group heading toward the train station, five luggage in tow. They would be taking the seven o'clock train to Dublith, just as soon as Falman arrived.
When Falman did arrive, just like Fuery, he got the biggest embrace from his pals that either of them could give. Armstrong seemed content to promptly out-squeeze them.
Hawkeye respectfully shook his hand, glad that he'd chosen to come all of the way down from his beloved station up north for this. As with Fuery, they sat and chatted again, though not for nearly as long, before climbing aboard the train just as the conductor was calling, "Final call for all boarding the seven o'clock train to South City!"
When Hawkeye arrived, she wasn't exactly expecting a welcoming committee. She was expecting to have to follow Armstrong to the Curtis household, where Edward had told to meet when she had called to tell that they'd be there.
But that wasn't what she got.
Alphonse stood tall and proud at his brother's side, just a little taller than his older brother, who stood with his arms crossed firmly across his chest, peering at something in his hand. Edward snapped his pocket watch closed, grinning at them. "Took you guys long enough!" he said, gripping Havoc's extended hand and giving it a firm, relieved shake.
Havoc chuckled, shaking his hand as well. "Came as quick as we could, boss," he said.
Behind them a ways, a woman with stringy black hair and her large husband stood watching. Armstrong trudged over to him and they bumped fists like old pals. Hawkeye shook Izumi's hand, smiling at the woman.
Izumi nodded in reply. "Long time, no see, Miss Hawkeye," she said.
"And you," said Hawkeye kindly.
"Thank you for coming down and taking care of this. I went down there myself yesterday, and I know what the boys were talking about when they told me. I just can't handle chimeras. Anything else that has to do with alchemy—even fire-alchemy or that alchemy that the Crimson Alchemist did—I'm alright with. Chimeras are just wrong. They're just…" Izumi shuddered momentarily. "Alchemy is science, but that is not science," she explained.
Hawkeye nodded. "Alphonse mentioned something like that," she agreed.
Izumi smiled at her. She pushed her hands into her pockets. "So… have you found anything—"
"No. Nothing new."
Ever since the Promised Day, when Mustang had stumbled about, blind and incapable of doing anything in his state, Izumi had protected him. She'd done it that day, she'd gone to visit in the hospital when she visited Alphonse and Edward. Even after he'd gone missing, she'd inquired about him and offered her services to find him.
It really was sweet. Mustang had told Hawkeye so, how kind he thought she was being, after she visited him for the third time. And Hawkeye had thought so, too, when she'd charged into a large warehouse in different parts of the country time after time with Izumi at her side, both hoping to find the missing man.
They'd even gone to Drachma once (the Drachmans had claimed that they would not go so low as to take away a man who was fighting so hard to fix his country's foreign policies, and had shooed them away as quickly as possible for even mentioning the idea), to Creta two or three times by now (the Cretan queen, too, looked offended. She'd sent her guards after them and would have had them executed had Izumi not stealthily thrown up a wall and then made a giant door in the wall and every wall between them and the outer gates), and Aerugo twice now (the prince there had been a bit suspicious, and promptly accused them of attempting to kidnap him before they'd had a chance to explain why they were there).
Izumi squeezed her arm gently. "Don't worry. Something will come up."
Hawkeye noticed that she didn't mention what she thought that something was. "Yeah… I know." She smiled a little.
Ed looked awkwardly around them all. "So… erm… how long were you gonna stay?" he asked, looking down at their luggage.
Hawkeye shrugged, setting hers at her feet. "However long this may take," she said. "We always bring a change of clothes, just in case."
Ed nodded. "Okay. Uh, we can maybe drop all of those off at Teacher's shop…?"
Izumi didn't seem to have any quarrels with Ed's offer. "Sure. Come with me. We're only a ten minute walk from here. The walk to that building is much further," she shrugged.
"Thank you." Hawkeye nodded at her pleasantly.
Izumi nodded in reply, turning to lead them all to her house.
Hawkeye's heart beat a steady thum-THUMP, thum-THUMP in her chest as she stepped forward into that building. She felt sick to her stomach. It smelt of death in that place. Of death, and pain, and utter wrongness.
Edward was to her left, a handgun held firmly in his hands, while Alphonse was to her right, hands tensed and ready to clap. The rest of her crew stood behind her, preparing themselves to do what they did best.
She felt Edward shudder against her arm, and then quickly attempt to calm himself. It was apparent to her that he felt this wrongness, too. But of course he did. He was an alchemist, after all. Used to be one, at least, and just because he lost the use of his alchemy didn't mean that he completely forgot everything that had to do with it.
Alphonse glanced to the right, toward him, and offered a tiny smile. He looked forward, noting a pair of eyes peering out at them.
Apparently, though no one was surprised, they were not alone.
Hawkeye noticed them as well. She leveled her pistol at the eyes and glared, daring them to come forward. She would not shoot unless they proved to be a threat. She would not.
The eyes moved as a man stepped out. "I don't believe that you are supposed to be here. Who are you, exactly?"
"The ones who are going to uncover your little scheme," Edward spat.
Hawkeye elbowed him.
"Oh really? What 'scheme', if you don't mind my asking? I'm just too curious." The tall man grinned at them. He looked behind him, and signaled.
Out from the shadows behind him crept four men, two in lab coats and two in dark clothing. The two in dark clothing pulled out handguns not unlike Ed's own, while the two in lab coats only held up their fists, as if they thought they could fist fight their way out of this.
Al sucked in a steady breath and muttered, "Alchemists…"
Hawkeye's eyes widened a little. She looked at the two men and, sure enough, transmutation circles adorned the gloves on their hands. She stiffened.
Armstrong stepped forward, pushing all three of them to the side. He flexed his muscles impressively. "Do you hope to think that your alchemy can hope to compete with mine, which has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations?!" demanded the man.
Somehow, none of the five men flinched. Even Armstrong was surprised.
Al seemed to recover from the shock of Armstrong's declaration being ineffective first, somehow. He clapped, ducked, and pressed his hands to the floor. Immediately, a wall of cement and dirt rose up from the floor and encased the five men.
Edward watched Alphonse. He nodded at the younger. "Good thinking, Al. Those circles on their gloves didn't look like any that could bust through cement. That should stall them at least." He tugged on Hawkeye's arm. "Come on, while we have time!"
Hawkeye shook herself awake from her stupor, nodding at the brothers. "Yes, let's go. C'mon!"
Her men followed close behind her. They rushed across the room, past the mound that Alphonse had created, and into the doorway from which the men had appeared.
The hallway that they were met with split right there into two separate parts. Hawkeye glanced at Armstrong, the second-in-command. The blond put his hand out and clapped Fuery on the shoulder. "I'll take with me these fine young men. That will leave you with an alchemist," he gestured toward Al, "a physical combatant," he nodded at Ed, "and a strategist," he nodded at Breda. Then he grinned. "And, of course, a fine marksman."
Hawkeye nodded. "Thank you, Armstrong. Ed, Al, Breda, you're with me. We'll go this way. Armstrong, if you find anything… I dunno, make some kind of transmutation that we might be able to hear," she said.
"And we'll just call Ed short if we find anything." Breda grinned.
"I'M NOT EVEN SHORT!"
Fuery laughed a little. "We'll just have the Lieutenant Colonel show off his impressive alchemy," he offered with a shrug.
Falman nodded. Havoc glanced backwards at them, rolling his eyes. "Keep your head, Hawkeye." He said seriously.
Hawkeye scowled a little, but also nodded. "And you, yours."
"Good luck."
Hawkeye turned around and marched down the hallway. Breda and Ed followed her. Alphonse watched Armstrong's unit retreat momentarily, before quickly catching up with his brother.
Breda furrowed his eyebrows at her. "Hawkeye, do you think we'll find anything?"
Hawkeye paused, missed a step, and shrugged. "I don't know. I hope so. If only so that this wasn't a waste."
"Of course it won't be. That's one place we won't have to look later."
Hawkeye glanced to the left and right as one hallway appeared perpendicular to their own. She looked at Breda, who shrugged.
Edward looked at Alphonse, and then at Hawkeye when the boy nodded. "I'll watch your back, Hawkeye. Al will go with Breda. That way we can cover more ground quicker." "I'll call for you if we find something. We probably won't get separated that much. This place didn't look big on the outside," Alphonse agreed.
Hawkeye watched the two, and then nodded. "Yes, that's a good idea. Good thinking. We'll go straight, Ed. We'll see you guys soon."
"Take care of yourself, brother."
Ed rolled his eyes. He grabbed Hawkeye's elbow. "Whatever, Al. You, too."
Hawkeye watched Breda and Al leave her, feeling as though this meant something. She smiled a little at Ed, who continued trotting along in front of her.
They found several staircases and went up and down them, refusing to split up now.
They were two levels below ground when they saw something. Well, they heard it first. Unsure of what they heard, they silenced and listened.
"…Claws?" Ed guessed, looking up at Hawkeye for confirmation. He leveled his gun nervously.
"That would be my best guess. Come on."
Ed nodded. He followed her, glancing up at her. "Should I call Al and Breda?" he asked.
"You might get someone's attention. No. Not yet."
"…Alright." Ed shuffled forward a little closer to the solid door. He steadied himself, pushed open the door, and went inside.
The room was pitch black as he stepped in, and he searched nervously for a light switch. He flicked it on as quickly as he could.
He almost screamed when he saw a snarling black cat before him, its brown eyes narrowing darkly. He looked it over, trying to discover if this was who he'd seen. No, its paws weren't white; they were all black.
"Ed?"
"Th-there's a cat in here, is all. Surprised me," Ed defended, slowly moving forward to give Hawkeye more room.
"Maybe you should call Alphonse…" Hawkeye muttered, squeezing in behind him. She squeezed his shoulder tightly, also watching the cat and three kittens, all three of whom she had just noticed were peering out from behind the cat.
"Yeah. Yeah, okay..." he coughed into a fist and sparked Al's name loudly.
Riza jumped when a yowl broke out from behind and above her. An almighty thump sounded, and growls echoed from behind.
Slowly, oh so slowly, she turned around, her hands tight on her pistol. She searched for the source of the noise, and then looked down.
A snarling cat with teeth bared and claws unsheathed glared at her. It was the same size and color as the cat in front of Ed, with narrow black eyes and four white paws.
"…Ed…?"
Edward almost dared to peer over his shoulder to see what Hawkeye saw, but the cat before him shifted a little closer, thin and weak-looking yet still so strong. "Yeah?" he wondered momentarily if she thought they were going to die, but this was Hawkeye, and even if she thought that, she wouldn't ask that. Of course not.
Hawkeye paused, not even sure that she knew what she was going to say. She swallowed, refusing to look away from the cat in case it tried to attack. Her eyes wandered over the cat's face and, for only a second, their eyes locked.
Her eyes widened. Suddenly, she felt very sick to her stomach. She even so much as flinched backwards, pushing Ed closer to his own enemy. 'No… god no…'
"What? What is it? Hawkeye, are you hurt?" Edward demanded, finally looking over his shoulder to see Hawkeye's assailant.
Hawkeye's free hand went to her mouth, as if she thought she'd throw up. She forced herself to swallow and muttered around her thick throat, "oh… oh god…"
Ed turned a little more and looked her over. She didn't look hurt, so what was it that was bothering her? Why was she freaking out on him? "What is it?" he asked sharply. He didn't notice several people appear at the door: The entirety of their team.
"Those eyes. Those eyes…" Hawkeye tried to explain feebly.
"Are you hurt, Lieutenant Colonel?" asked Armstrong, at the back of the group. Havoc stepped forward a little, his eyes scanning over the cat in front of him.
Hawkeye shook her head. She looked sideways at Ed and continued her attempted explanation. "It's those eyes… I would recognize them anywhere, doesn't matter how long it's been…" she gulped, closed her eyes, and forced her next, shuddering breath. "Roy…"
The reaction around the room was much the same: shock, horror, and a little bit of anxiety. Really, only the cats' reactions were different.
The cat in front of Ed glanced towards its companion, who took no notice of his name. The chimera in front of Hawkeye snarled. Either it didn't recognize its name, or it just didn't care. It opened its jaws, and snapped in a voice that made Hawkeye's heart soar, in a voice that was so unbelievably not human and yet… yet so very beautifully, wonderfully, fantastically human, "Get back!"