Thank you to my reviewers! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far (:
I have to admit, when I first began this story, it was supposed to be much shorter than it's turning to be, hence the experimentation with pacing (which was apparently a failure enough to be noticed on chapter 2, and I apologize).
To say that seeing Edward in front of him was a shock was a bit of an understatement. Roy was reeling with confusion, mouth hanging open as he tried to pick from the jumbled collection of questions in his mind. He finally snapped out of it when Edward laughed derisively.
"Have you left your intelligence in Amestris? What little you still have in your midst of senility, old man?" Ed's accented tone wasn't as humoring as it used to be; it was definitely more harsh and cold, though his eyes held that old Fullmetal Troublemaker charm.
"But you died!" Roy blurted stupidly, so stunned by his old friend's presence that he couldn't even scold himself for that remark.
"Yes, I did. And then a new life was given to me." He leaned casually against the bar, gazing at Hawkeye and Havoc with a chuckle. They were just as stunned and speechless as Roy.
"What are you talking about?" Roy finally felt some of his wits returning. "I saw the body."
"Ah, yes. The body without automail, easily transmuted from a dead animal." The hurt in his old friends' eyes wasn't lost on him, though he didn't show it. "It was a necessary cover."
"A nece-a necessary cover?! Did you even think about what that would do to me-what your death would do to your family?!"
"Yes, I did," he spat venomously. He glanced at his men and gave a wave, commanding them "Upstairs." To his amusement and the Amestrians' horror, Auren's men quickly disarmed Havoc and Hawkeye, knocking them unconscious as they fought back. Roy protested as they were carried upstairs, but a gun in his face from Auren's left-hand man stopped him.
"What the hell are you doing, Edward?!"
"Auren!" he snapped in reply, fire in his golden eyes. "My name is Emil Van Auren!"
"Have you been brainwashed?"
"No." Auren pointed to the stool next to him, inviting him to sit. When Roy refused to do more than stand and stare him down, Auren smiled. "Colonel, sit. We will talk."
"Take that jacket off," Roy hissed through clenched teeth. "You're not Auren. You're not Drachman. You're Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, and you're Alphonse's brother. Or did you forget about him?"
Auren's face darkened as he faced his mug of beer. He turned just enough to face Roy, grab him by the collar, and yank him toward the bar so hard that Roy's face collided with an empty shot glass. He wasn't allowed to slump to the floor, as Auren forcibly sat Roy in the barstool, his words quiet but laced with venom.
"Do not discard my name or soil his."
"What the hell have you become?" Luckily for him, the glass hadn't shattered; though the pain probably would have been less if it didn't stay solid. "What happened to Edward?"
"He died," Auren mumbled, switching to the Drachman language. "Ten years ago, he was tortured, broken, and murdered." With a deep swig of his alcohol, he turned his gaze to Roy, golden eyes lost in memories of the past. "Work for Drachma or die, he was told. Sure that he was already going to die, he had little hope, and no drive to fight. Though ready to die, he changed his mind when he realized the opportunity.
"Peace. He could foster peace with Drachma's neighbors. Creta, Amestris, Xing.
"So he accepted a new life. A new opportunity. A new name." He turned his hard gaze to Roy, as though challenging his choice. He really should have known better, for Roy always had challenged him.
"And he left his old life behind completely. He left his brother and best friend to think him dead. He left his home, his country, his entire life as if it was all worth nothing."
"So quick to darken his name, aren't you?" Auren hailed the bartender for another round, and one for Roy. "My choice had conditions, you see. If I tried to contact anyone, I would put their life at risk. They had me and they knew it. I nearly chose death, but… to dream of peace, the chance to always have my family safe from war, even if they never know I am still watching over them." His harsh tone had given way to sadness, one that Roy was more familiar with hearing from him. Still, the illusion was broken by Auren's Drachman accent, leaving Roy feeling alone again, despite his former subordinate sitting right next to him.
"Even now? You wouldn't reveal this to your brother?"
"What good would it do? Not only ten long years separate us, but entire countries. I hear Alphonse has a family of his own, and I am nearly running a country myself. I'm sure you can see that I'm hardly the man you knew."
"You must be in there somewhere," Roy replied in a joking tone, trying to nudge Auren back toward the Ed he knew. When all he received was a reserved gaze, he tried again. "Surely you can't have suppressed your old life completely. Not that it would be hard to do, there's not much of you to begin with." To Roy's surprise, he was met with a raucous laugh.
"Are you insulting my height?"
"You sure haven't grown in ten years."
"Neither has your rank, Colonel!" Auren laughed again, giving Roy a shove that nearly landed him on the floor.
Roy chuckled, accepting the beer offered to him with a thank-you. He seemed to sober as he took a swig, contemplative expression on his face.
"You are the man responsible for the preparations of peace. You will be the Ambassador for Drachma. You understand this is only natural, right?"
"Yeah." Auren's answer was short, indicating his blatant aversion to the subject.
"You will go to Amestris and ask for peace as a Drachman man. You do recall your… previous... life, as a hero of Amestris, don't you?"
"Yeah," he mumbled again, downing a gratuitous amount of alcohol as though it would chase the subject away.
"As good as an actor Bernard is, he won't be able to do this for you. You'll have to face the people of Amestris, not just as a Drachman General, but a traitor."
"I am hardly a traitor!" Auren snapped, his peaceful demeanor gone in a flash. "I fought for Amestris. I helped to save the country, I fought for her, and then I am left to die in the hands of the enemy? I am not a traitor, I chose survival and a hopeful future."
"You know they won't all see it that way." Roy sighed, watching with concern as Auren downed the beer with record speed and lack of grace. "Slow down before you knock yourself out."
"I am a Drachman man, I can handle much more than you think!" Auren spat in reply, the red on his face and slight slur to his words betraying his claim.
"No, you're Amestrian and you're a lightweight," Roy replied, finally leaving the Drachman tongue. He quickly learned that his words were a doubled insult… as well as an apparent dare, as Auren not only finished his own beer, but also chugged Roy's down as though it wasn't merely a sip away from being a full glass. "Edward," Roy warned.
"Auren! My name is Auren!" His emptied glass slammed Roy on the shoulder, landing with a shatter on the floor. Ed always had a terrible attitude when drunk, but this was taking it to a level Roy had never seen before. "Edward is dead he has been dead for ten years! My name is Emil!"
"General, calm down!" Roy held his shoulder with a grimace. "I've come for peace, not war! Calm yourself!" Despite Roy's words, he found himself moments later lying on the floor amidst the broken glass. A fist nearly met his face, but one of Auren's own men saved him by restraining their General.
"General! Please. You know he will need more time to understand." He continued to restrain the struggling drunk, only offering Roy an apologetic smile.
"Get off of me Gregor I will have your head for this!"
"Indeed you will sir," Gregor replied dryly; "Just as you have had it many times over."
Auren seemed to relax, either seeing sense or suddenly running out of energy. Roy bet on the latter, as Auren was breathing heavily and looked one sip from being smashed.
"Yeah yeah carry on Gregor," he muttered, stumbling the few steps to the bar and seeming to forget Roy was even there.
"Assaulting a Colonel like that could start a war, you know," Roy groaned, thankful of his plush jacket guarding him from the littered glass. "If I were you I'd-"
"Colonel!" Riza's urgent call sounded from the stairwell. She appeared at the doorway with Havoc on her heels, both with their weapons aimed at Auren's few men left downstairs.
"You didn't kill them, did you?" Roy cringed as his reply came in the form of a sardonic glare. "Right, of course not."
"What's been going on down here?" Riza's gaze quickly traveled between Auren's men, hands up in surrender; Roy, clutching at his shoulder while ignoring the impressive red mark on his forehead; and the General himself, with crooked glasses and a dangerous sway in his entire being.
"Just a chat," Roy assured her, glancing at Auren. "Though I believe you should release the General's men, as he'll need all the help he can get to make it home tonight."
A sigh escaped Roy. Ed had gotten this drunk once, in response to a challenge just like tonight. Roy had been the one to carry Ed home from the bar, and tonight's events just brought all his memories flooding back, slamming against his aching heart. The pain of loss was still stabbing at him, because though Edward hadn't actually died all those years ago, he was still gone.
Roy was shaken from his thoughts when Auren suddenly landed on the floor, having completely passed out. He stared at the changed man, shaking his head with a disbelieving smile as he knelt next to him. He froze when several guns were aimed at him, though he simply offered Auren's men a dull stare.
"You realize he's an old friend of mine. Not to mention you're outgunned. Lower your weapons, will you? We're trying to make peace here. Your General will be fine." Roy turned his attention to Havoc and Riza, instructing them to lower their weapons, satisfied when they did so without hesitation.
Auren's men followed suit, though they were still clearly, and understandably, alert for sudden movements. Gregor instructed one of the four men to go check on the two upstairs; when he received the all-clear call, he knelt next to Auren with an expression of hopelessness that Roy saw all too often on Riza's face.
"We will take him home, Colonel. You may go."
"In this weather, at sundown? Are you mad? We'd never survive the night." Roy's laugh caught Gregor off guard, which Roy immediately took advantage of. "Let us stay one night. And have the opportunity to speak with Auren when he is sober."
"Well… all of the rooms at the inn are full, but…" Gregor had seen the entire exchange between his General and the Colonel, but was still leery of their alliance. Though their ultimate goal was allied peace, he was having difficulty in trusting these.. outsiders.
"We shall stay at the General's house, then." Before an outraged Gregor could argue the point, Roy silenced him. "With supervision, if you really think he needs it. We've saved each others' lives more than once. He may not be the Edward I remember, but we have no reason to harm one another."
"I don't agree to this!"
"Then you will have to join our humble party at his home." Roy shrugged his coat on after shaking the shards of glass off, giving Gregor a hard gaze. "We know where his home is, we can take him. Will you be joining us?"
"Of course. But I will be taking him." Gregor surprised Roy with his ease of lifting Auren, despite his slightly heavier build and the limbs of automail. "Men, move out."
As the three Amestrians followed the Drachmans, Roy felt himself freeze in short time. He shivered both from the cold and from the night's events. He couldn't have known how it was going to play out, but he never expected to find Edward here. Alive.
And whether he truly had changed or not, Roy was determined to bring his old friend back.