Riza stared in horror at the file she had just read and then looked back at Roy, who had been watching her read.
"Fifty cases? Fifty missing persons cases?!" she practically screamed.
"Yes. That was the reason I was given the assignment. From what we now know of them doing up there and the reports, it seems like the military just kept sending team after team up there to try and find the one before but inevitably, they were turned into wolves before they returned, and so the cycle continued."
"It looks like after the tenth case they started dropping the men down from five, to two and then one… It seems like they are giving up."
"If you look at the other entries it shows that they can't prove anything and all the people up there do is deny it. They turn the soldiers into wolves and then display the wolves as their project because it is their project!" he snarled. "It's ingenious and sick all at the same time."
Riza looked through a couple of the papers when she came across a picture of Shiro Kiba. She flipped it around to her superior.
"Is this the one that bit you?"
"Yeah, that's her."
"You told Edward that she bit you because you called her a dog."
"I think I made that up… I don't know anymore."
"What prompted them to send Shiro Kiba to attack you?"
"Anyone who goes there and says that what they're doing is not worth the military's time and money, that's when their chipper demeanor falls off and they become mad scientists. Whatever is in the serum that they give them, it makes the wolves scarily obedient and they start to attack. Shiro Kiba is the worst and is the fastest, biggest, and strongest in the bunch. They use trigger words but she has a special trigger word and it's like she completely loses her self awareness, only going after what she is told to go after. I'll admit that the comprehension skills of the wolves are extraordinary."
"That would be because they were once people, sir. Which is what will happen to Havoc and Edward if you don't send someone there to rescue them."
"What good will it do!? Seriously, Hawkeye, think about it. If I send you or Hughes up there, or one of my other men, they will just deny everything and then when things get heated, guess what? More of you get turned into wolves. What will I do then?"
"Tell the Fuhrer."
"And it's a believable story how?"
Riza sighed and Roy leaned his head back on the bed.
"I want to help them but there's not way to do it without them turning anyone else into wolves."
Riza flipped through a couple more pages when she had an idea.
"What about Alphonse?"
"What about him?"
"They can't turn him into a dog."
Roy thought for a second and then smiled at his subordinate.
"I knew I had you around for a reason."
"I'm sure there is a compliment in that…"
Edward opened his eyes and sat up, touching his neck. It burned and was sore but he seemed to still be human, which Edward was happy about. He looked to the side and saw Shiro Kiba staring at him through the bars of her own cage.
"You tricked me…"
She shook her head.
"How can I trust you?"
Shiro Kiba just stared at him and he looked away, still haunted by Nina and Alexander's soulless eyes when they were merged together.
The door opened and the light came on and Edward watched as Hasch walked into the room. He pulled his rolling chair from the desk that was in front of them and sat in it, looking down at Edward.
"You are the first person who hasn't turned into a wolf after that shot. You must have been touched with some strong alchemy to withstand that. Especially for your stature; that was the dosage for a normal sized man."
"Who are you calling so tiny that he can ride on fleas and escape?" Edward grumbled.
Hasch laughed a little and pointed at him, looking at Shiro Kiba.
"This guy… You're a funny man, Mr. Fullmetal."
"I try… So what's the deal with this? What is your exact purpose?"
Hasch looked at his fingernails for a second.
"My research was to try and help the military with covert affairs by keeping soldiers out of harm's way and enemies without being the wiser. I wanted to try and modify wolves to be able to obey complex commands so that we could get information on enemies and spy on them when needed. I was funded but out of the few wolves I gave my first serum to, Shiro Kiba's mother was one of the few who survived the first round. By then she was pregnant with her litter of pups.
"When Shiro Kiba was born, she was the first to exhibit the signs I was looking for: understanding complex demands, intelligent beyond a canine, and many other features. She is unique… but she must have been a fluke in genetics and the mixture of my serum. After her, I couldn't get anything close to her. I was losing funding as well as 'merchandise', so to speak, and the military wouldn't give me any more wolves due to them not being a species in Amestris. They belong mostly in the North and Drachma and were not exactly easy to come by. I just knew that if someone could see what I'm trying to accomplish as a whole and not just one wolf that was the fluke of my experiment, then they would see…
"When the first group of soldiers came to tell me that funding was going to be halted, I snapped and put a new serum I had made from Shiro Kiba's saliva into each of their drinks. I had no idea what it would do and I didn't care. In all honesty, I had lost my sense for just a moment and just wanted someone to understand me and believe in me. Then they changed and… I knew that this was my chance. Something in the serum makes their minds just the way they need to be… they are moldable and yet able to comprehend the orders they are given. They lose their sense of self though but they still have their own personalities somehow. It's very interesting…"
"So now you just take any soldier that the military sends and use them for your merchandise?"
"Oh no, I only use those who realize the truth or who demean my work. It just so happens that all of the soldiers sent to me fall into those two categories immediately."
"What did you do with my friend?"
"Havoc? Oh, he's well."
"Is he a wolf?"
"No, we just put him in a safe place."
"What's happening to the Colonel?" he growled, putting his hands around the bars. "When Shiro Kiba bit him, something happened to him. It's like he's turning into a werewolf or something."
Hasch blinked a little, seeming quite confused.
"A werewolf? That's a very strange and out of context notion for you to occupy, Mr. Fullmetal."
"I just know that he's acting weird and that bite was not normal."
Hasch looked at Shiro Kiba and narrowed his eyes at her.
"You were supposed to tackle him and bring him back, not bite him. You let him escape."
Shiro Kiba stared at Hasch without blinking and Hasch rolled his eyes.
"You're an obstinate thing… Either way, Mustang will make his way back here but he's the first one to have ever been bitten by Shiro Kiba and not died. When I sic her on someone, she brings them down and kills them… or at least brings them back to me. Your Colonel has a set of legs on him and seemed to have outrun my best wolf. No matter though… the damage has been done and we will just have to see what happens."
Edward leaned forward. "He'll come for us."
"And whatever he sends, I will just do what I always do until someone decides to recognize my work and that it's not shoddy or idiotic."
He got up and turned off the light, slamming the door.
Alphonse was silent as Roy explained how things were going to work and what was happening. When he was done, he groaned and touched his arm where the bandage was. It was aching badly.
"So Brother is trapped in a place where a man is doing experiments on wolves and turns the soldiers that are sent into wolves for his own personal gain? You sent him to this place and now he's trapped there?"
"That would be correct."
"Are you that stupid?" he said and even took Riza off guard.
"I wasn't thinking very clearly; I haven't been doing that for a while now. I just wanted to get to the bottom of this. I didn't know they would get caught in the crossfire. But if you go then he can't make you turn into a wolf and maybe you can get some real answers."
Alphonse thought about it for a moment and knew what Edward would do if the roles were reversed.
"I'm going to need a dummy soldier with me so it looks legitimate. Just having me there makes me look like I'm meddling."
"I'll go." someone said from the doorway.
"Hughes…"
"I kind of overheard your conversation but I did hear that you need a decoy soldier. I'll go if you need one."
"No! You can't."
Maes frowned. "Why not?"
"Because it's an odd situation and I can't have you getting caught up in it. You have a family."
"I''ll be fine. Just fill me in and I can make it seem like a legitimate check up."
Roy and Riza looked at each other but Riza nodded and Roy filled his friend in as they made a plan to get their men home.
yeah maes just kinda popped up but oh well, he always wants to help
and because of his little journey through the gate and stuff, we'll say for the sake of this story that it makes low doses of alchemy non-working