Author's Note: Well, I think it's safe to say this is the longest chapter of this fic! This chapter is the combination of two ideas I've had for a long time but didn't want to write, but they've been haunting me almost since I first came up with this AU, so I finally made myself write it out. And then of course I had to make it much more complicated than it probably needed to be, and as a result became much more focused on plot than I was expecting it to. I hope everything makes sense in the end, and that the emotions of the characters came across clearly, because for some reason I found that particularly hard to describe this time.
Please be advised that this chapter deals with sexual harassment and human trafficking. Nothing explicit is depicted, but it is talked about, and implications are made.
Requested by LinaBean15 on FFNet and Speedinfinity on AO3
When Roy Mustang had recruited a twelve-year-old girl to the military, he'd known it would bring a whole host of new headaches and unforeseen issues he'd never had to deal with, considering all of his other subordinates were adults. He'd developed contingency plans to put into motion if the Elric sisters' secrets seemed in danger of leaking. He'd argued for various exceptions to rules about uniform, budgeting, and research grants for El, both to help her continue to make progress but also to ensure she didn't decide dealing with the military was more trouble than it was worth. He'd even had a talking-to with the men (at Hawkeye's suggestion) to make sure they watched their language and more or less behaved themselves when the Elric sisters were around.
But there were some things he'd never anticipated having to deal with. Things like the rumors that sprang up, spreading dark insinuations about why he might want a young girl reporting to his office. After catching wind of these rumors for the first time, he made it a strict policy that at least one other person was to be in the outer office whenever El came to report in, and they had to leave the door ajar at all times. He also did his best to make sure El never heard the rumors.
Or there was that incident in the showers, when El had only been with the military for about a month. Roy had seen to it that the creep who had tried to snap a photo when El had gone in there alone ended up not only with a broken nose but also a dishonorable discharge. Even then, even after making El promise to never use the showers unless Addie was with her or at least there were other women in the showers at the same time, Roy had lost a lot of sleep over the whole mess.
Because this wasn't just another soldier reporting to him. This was a young girl. When she'd first become a State Alchemist, she hadn't even been a teenager yet. In any other circumstances, she would be a schoolgirl writing compositions or giggling with her friends over a handsome boy or...whatever it was teenage girls did. Just because Roy couldn't imagine Elaine Elric doing any of those things didn't mean he could expect her to be prepared for life in the military.
As he watched her from a distance over the next few years, he could see the way she tried to adapt. How she wore boys' clothing, how she tried to stand tall and talk tough, the only lingering vestige of femininity the blonde braid hanging down her back. How she snapped at the slightest hint that she was small, cute, and frail, that she needed help in any way.
She was beginning to see that being a teenage girl in the military made her vulnerable. And if she was vulnerable, she could be taken advantage of.
Roy hated that he couldn't protect her from that.
So when he first caught wind of a teenage boy flirting with her at the cafe El and Addie often frequented, Roy was delighted. For one thing, it offered him a perfect opportunity to tease her within an inch of her life. For another, it led him to think that at least El had one chance to enjoy a normal teenage girl's experience.
Besides, if someone had managed to look past her abrasive personality and need to prove herself as tough and capable, that meant they had good taste, right? El deserved to have someone who would pursue her, someone who would make her feel beautiful and wanted. And if the young man wasn't worth her time, El was perfectly capable of sending him packing.
At least, that was what Roy thought until El was kidnapped.
Roy had just finished his dinner and was staring at the state of his kitchen and reluctantly admitting to himself he probably needed to do dishes when a sudden pounding on his front door brought his thoughts screeching to a halt. Alarmed, he grabbed one of his gloves from the pocket of his coat hanging in the entryway as he peered through the peephole. To his surprise, he found Addie Elric was the one pounding on his door.
Roy flung the door open, automatically glancing down to look for El. She was nowhere in sight. "Addie? What—"
"Please, Colonel, you have to help me!" Addie burst out, wringing the huge gauntlets that were her hands. It was impossible to see any expression on her helmet, but her voice sounded frantic, on the verge of tears. "My sister's gone, and I can't find her, and I'm scared something terrible's happened to her, and—"
"Easy, Addie," Roy said, raising his hands. "Take a deep breath. Just tell me what happened."
With a brave effort, Addie straightened and squared her huge, spiky shoulders. "We...We were going back to the hotel for the night. But right when we got to the front door, Justin was there and he wanted to talk to my sister and she was all annoyed but she told me to go ahead without her and I did, I know I shouldn't have left her alone at night, but I went up and I didn't realize something was wrong until she never came in and then when I went down to look for her she was just gone and I—"
"Slow down," Roy said, reaching up to pat her arm gingerly. How did one soothe a giant suit of armor? "You're going to need to give me details. Who is Justin?"
"The boy!" Addie burst out impatiently, gesturing with her huge hands as if he were standing right next to her. "The one who keeps following my sister and hitting on her! She's not interested, we'd always leave whenever he shows up at the cafe or something, but he just won't stop and so Sister finally said she was going to...to tell him to stick it where the sun don't shine!"
The bizarre incongruity of that phrase, betraying the hint of a southern twang that was usually absent from the Elrics' voices, was almost enough to crack Roy's composure. He wanted to laugh. He wanted this all to be a simple case of teenage stupidity...but he knew better. Nothing about the Elric sisters was ever simple.
Clearing his throat and banishing the hysterical laughter rising in his chest, Roy looked steadily up at her. "Addie," he said, commanding her distracted attention. "Do you think El is in danger?"
Addie clenched her gauntlets into trembling fists. "Yes."
He nodded briskly, opening the door wider and stepping aside. "Come in for a moment while I call up the team. Don't worry, Addie. We won't rest until we find her."
One of the good things about the Elric sisters' semi-permanent residence being the military hotel was that the staff were familiar with military protocol and rank. All Roy had to do was march into the lobby, bark a few orders, and everyone scurried to comply.
Hughes and his Investigations team showed up shortly after Roy and his team arrived, scouring the streets directly surrounding the hotel for any clues. Meanwhile, Roy sent Hawkeye with Addie up to the girls' room, both to see if El had returned and to hopefully get Addie to calm down a little. The poor girl was beside herself with worry, which was understandable but distracting to the investigation. It was hard to ignore a seven-foot-tall suit of armor who kept forgetting her own strength and nearly pulling doors off their hinges.
Roy was just organizing the rest of his team to start interrogating the staff to see if anyone had seen where El had gone, when he noticed the receptionist hovering nearby, looking like he couldn't decide whether he should interrupt them or wait until he was noticed. Roy turned sharply to him. "Yes?" he barked, more sharply than he'd intended. "What is it?"
The man started slightly, then immediately dipped into a deep bow. "Excuse me, sir, but just before you arrived, a package was delivered for Adelaide Elric, and I-I was wondering whether..."
Roy frowned, glancing over at the clock hanging behind the counter. 9:24 p.m. "Is this a normal time for you to receive mail?"
The receptionist shook his head. "No, sir. But this was delivered via courier. Unusual, but not unheard of."
After a moment's thought, Roy nodded. "I'll take the package."
"Of course, sir." The receptionist hurried behind his counter and pulled out a large box, placing it on top. Judging from the way he moved, the box must be quite heavy. There was no postmark, not even a name written on it. Just some twine holding a nondescript box closed.
At first, Roy reached for his pocketknife to cut the box open, but then he reconsidered. If, as he suspected, the package had been sent by whoever had El, whatever it contained was intended for Addie. If there were any clues in its contents as to El's whereabouts, Addie was the most likely one to know what it meant.
So, after sending the others to question the hotel staff, Roy had Havoc carry the box upstairs with him, its contents clattering with every step. By the time they reached the door to the Elric sisters' room, Havoc was puffing a little. "What's in this thing?" he grumbled. "Bricks?"
"Bricks don't clank," Roy said shortly, knocking once before opening the door.
"Wha...?" Havoc jiggled the box in his arms a little, and was met with the sound of metal scraping against metal.
In the hotel room, Hawkeye sat with Addie on the couch, a comforting hand on Addie's spiked shoulder. Addie's face was in her enormous hands, and Roy was certain that, if it were possible, her face would be a mess of tears. When the door opened, she quickly straightened, then wilted again when she saw who they were.
Roy motioned for Havoc to set the box down on the coffee table in front of Addie. She just stared at it. "This package arrived for you, Addie," Roy explained. "It's possible that whoever sent this is connected to El's disappearance."
At that, Addie sat up straight with a clatter, then reached over and yanked the twine off the box in one swift motion. Before Roy could speak a single word of warning, she pulled the flaps open and confirmed his suspicion.
Inside the box lay two automail limbs. One arm, one leg. Roy didn't know the first thing about automail, but it didn't take an expert to recognize these as El's. They looked like they'd been sawed straight through, close to where the metal would meet flesh.
A tiny sound echoed around Addie's empty body, like a hiccup or a stifled sob. She reached out a trembling hand towards her sisters' limbs.
"Go get Hughes," Roy murmured to Havoc. "We'll need to dust for fingerprints."
Havoc nodded and hurried out of the room.
Though Roy refrained from touching the metal limbs, he made no protest when Addie gingerly lifted the arm out of the box. Her gauntlets would leave no fingerprints behind.
Then Addie gave a small gasp and hurriedly set the arm aside. She reached back into the box and pulled out a piece of red cloth the limbs had been resting on. The cloth unfurled in Addie's hands, revealing the distinctive red coat El wore everywhere. As if to make sure no one could mistake whose limbs these were.
With a cry of despair, Addie dropped her face into the red cloth she clutched between tight fingers. "Sister," she whispered. "Sister..."
Hawkeye murmured something softly to her, patting Addie on the back firmly enough that they could hear it echoing through her body.
Roy stood there dumbly, unable to help, trying to make sense of it all. Clearly, this wasn't simply an overeager boy trying to get a date. How had one boy managed to overpower El, who was not only a genius alchemist but also skilled in martial arts? She wasn't the sort of person to be intimidated into going somewhere against her will, nor would she have let anyone take off her automail—let alone cut it off—without putting up a fight.
So did that mean she was...?
Suddenly Addie sat up straight again, staring down at El's coat. She felt around the fabric until she found one of the pockets, and pulled out an envelope. She stared at it for a moment, then looked up at Roy. "Mustang?"
He glanced down at the envelope and saw, pieced together from letters cut out of a newspaper, his own name. Roy Mustang.
Automatically, Roy held out his hand and accepted the envelope. Whoever had El must have known who her commanding officer was. Maybe they knew that he was the first person Addie would turn to, or maybe they just figured this was the quickest and easiest way to get a suspicious package to him.
The envelope wasn't sealed, and when Addie passed it over to him, several photographs fell out, scattering across the floor. Roy knelt down to pick them up...and froze.
El lay sprawled on a bed, her long bangs falling over her eyes. Instead of the boyish clothes she usually wore, she wore a dress. No...not just a dress. It looked like...a school uniform. Except the top three buttons of her shirt were undone, and the short skirt was hiked up to expose much more of her thigh than was decent.
Roy glanced at another photo by his knee. El draped carefully on an upholstered chair, clearly unconscious with her head lolling back, but posed in such a way that it accentuated her chest, where he could almost see a bit of lace...
Swallowing hard against the taste of bile, Roy gathered up the photos. All were of El, posed like a doll in a variety of suggestive positions, all carefully framed with blankets or pillows or just the right angle to cover up the missing limbs.
"Colonel...what...?"
Roy glanced over at what Addie was pointing at, dreading another hideous photo. By Addie's foot lay a note, made of more newspaper clippings pasted onto a slip of paper.
Do YOU liKe whAt yoU SEe FlaME alCHemIST?
do I makE YoU BURN?
HOw MuCh aM I wOrtH
PRICE UPON REQUEST!
"Sir."
Only when he looked up and found Hawkeye watching him with concern did Roy realize he was grinding his teeth. Slowly, he got to his feet, crumpling the note in his hand. He drew a deep breath, but that did nothing to douse the embers smoldering in his chest. It only roused them to a flame.
Roy needed to consult an expert. Hughes and his forensic team were analyzing the package and scouring every inch of the hotel, but that wasn't the kind of expert he needed.
He knew that it was highly irregular to take a break from an investigation into the kidnapping of one of his subordinates to visit a bar. He knew there wouldn't be any easy way to explain why he was there if anyone noticed he'd slipped away from the rest of his team and then drove across town for a drink. But he didn't care.
Roy sat at the bar, impatiently tapping his heel against the rung on his bar stool. At this time of night, the bar was crowded with drunk men getting drunker and drunker as the hours wore on. The sounds of raucous laughter and the smells of booze and tobacco smoke pressed in on all sides, wrapping him up in a sickening cloud that made him want to run outside and scream. Or puke.
It didn't help that he kept on thinking of those photographs. El, who never wore a touch of makeup, dolled up like an actress in the spotlight. El, who looked more at home in leather pants and combat boots, wearing lacy underwear that was all too visible underneath a school uniform that left precious little to the imagination. El, always so energetic and loud-mouthed with fists flying and mouth running a mile a minute, lying still in bed with her eyes half-open in a drugged stupor.
And the thought of what they would have had to do to get her in that state...
"Hey, there, Roy," a sultry voice said in his ear, a warm hand sliding up his arm. "Sorry to keep you waiting."
Roy was so on edge, he almost lashed out at her, but he managed to restrain himself by gripping the edge of the counter. With a tight-lipped smile that would fool no one, he said, "Not at all, Vanessa."
"The Madame will see you now," she said, hooking her arm through his and guiding him towards the door that led behind the bar. "It's a shame you're only here for business, or I'd ask you to buy me a drink..."
As soon as the door swung shut behind them, muffling the hubbub from the rowdy patrons, Vanessa dropped the sugary smile and tucked her blonde hair behind her ears in a businesslike manner. "It's a kidnapping, isn't it?" she murmured, suddenly dead serious. "Someone important?"
"Very important," he muttered under his breath, reaching for the door to Madame Christmas' office.
Before he could, Vanessa clutched his arm even tighter, holding him back. "You stop them, okay? Promise me you'll stop them. Don't just save whoever this is and then go home. Put a stop to all of it."
Roy looked at his usually bubbly adopted sister, who now stood straight and tall, expression grim. Like all their other sisters, Vanessa had been rescued from a fate horribly similar to El's. If not for Madame Christmas, she would probably be in a brothel right now, as trapped in that life as her birth mother had been.
He wanted to promise that he would grant her wish. Just as when he'd first presented his insane plan to his adopted family, Roy wished he could promise that once he became Fuhrer, there would be no more brothels, no more women enslaved to the lust of rich men, no more children ripped away from their mothers and made to do things no child should ever be exposed to. Idealist as he was, even he knew that was more than he could promise. So instead, he could only reiterate what he'd said that day.
"I promise I will do everything I can."
Vanessa didn't look completely satisfied, but she let him go.
Madame Christmas' office looked the same as it always had. Full ashtrays lay on every surface, and piles of paperwork and folders almost hid the small desk from sight. Only one small, narrow window with the blinds always closed, and one dingy lamp sitting precariously on one corner of the desk illuminated the room. There was a nicer room closer to the front that looked almost like a parlor, where Madame Christmas would entertain any guests or businessmen who might need to see her. But this was where the real business of the bar took place. Roy knew that somewhere, buried underneath these mountains of invoices and resumes and receipts, were the dangerous records of intel they'd fed him over the years.
"Sit down, Roy-boy," Madame Christmas said, emerging from a cloud of her own smoke as she leaned forward onto the desk.
Roy sank into one of the worn leather chairs in front of the desk, where he used to sit as a child, swinging his legs and asking incessant questions. "What can you tell me?" he asked, leaning forward as well.
"Well, I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news." She stabbed out her cigarette, adding it to the already overflowing ashtray by her elbow. Roy glanced down and saw the photos he'd passed along scattered across the desk. He quickly looked away again.
"What's the good news?"
Madame Christmas tapped one long, red fingernail against one of the photos. Roy didn't check to see which one it was. "Pretty sure I recognize this décor. Think I know where these pictures were taken."
Roy's heart leapt, then got lodged in his throat. "What's the bad news?"
"It's Blackjack's."
Roy blinked, waiting for more. When none seemed to be forthcoming, he ventured, "The Northside casino?"
Madame Christmas put a new cigarette to her lips, but didn't light it. "The casino's just a front for their real business. The Blackjack Auction. Held once a month, word-of-mouth only, requires a hefty sum just to make it through the door. Different place every time so they won't be caught. Attracts a very specific clientele, with very specific...tastes."
His mouth had gone dry, and he almost wished he'd ordered a drink after all. "What is sold in this...auction?" He already knew the answer, but he made himself ask anyway.
Madame Christmas took the cigarette out of her mouth and tossed it aside, her lips twisting in a look of disgust. "Human beings. Many of them young girls. Young girls."
She sighed, gathering up the photos and slipping them back into the envelope. "I almost made it inside once, in my younger days. Rich old fop kept buying me drinks, so I pretended to be interested while he boasted about how he was so rich he could buy the whole casino and everything in it. I didn't mind swindling him out of every cenz he had on him, so I was ready and willing to go with him to this auction he kept mentioning...until he let slip that what he'd bought the previous month was a ten-year-old girl who didn't last the night."
Roy's hands clenched his knees so tightly they ached. "Where is this place?" Dimly, he was aware that his voice had gone completely flat and emotionless.
"I'll give you the address." Madame Christmas scrawled it onto the envelope with El's photos, but she hesitated before handing it over. "Roy...I don't like to say this. But you need to be prepared...for whatever you may find."
"What are you saying?"
Her eyes were bleak and bloodshot as she peered over at him. "It may already be too late."
It was past one o'clock by the time Roy finally reached Blackjack's Casino. Unfortunately, it took time to muster up the manpower to carry out a full-blown raid on a casino. Roy knew there would be hell to pay in the morning, if not for days ahead, as he dealt with the ramifications of this. But right now, he didn't care. All he wanted was to act as quickly as possible. His heart lurched every time he thought of where El might be right at this moment.
"Please, sir!" Addie said. "Let me come with you!"
Roy frowned at her, looming head-and-shoulders over all the soldiers around them. If he'd had his way, she would have stayed behind at the hotel, but she had stubbornly followed them here.
"No, I want you to stay outside," he said, speaking as gently as he could with his heart pounding so hard. "This is no place for a twelve-year-old girl."
"It's no place for my sister, either." Hands as big as his face clenched into fists at her sides. "Besides, I can help with my alchemy."
He hesitated a moment more, but even though Addie's face looked the same as it always did, he could almost see her setting her jaw and glaring at him with blazing golden eyes, just as her sister would in her place. So with an impatient huff, he nodded. "Fine. But you will remain with myself and Lieutenant Hawkeye, and you will do exactly as I say. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir!"
Roy shook his head at himself. He had to be crazy to even contemplate doing this with a child in tow. Especially when that child wasn't even in the military.
Still, there was nothing quite so satisfying as bursting through the doors of the casino, marching in, and snapping orders at the startled staff and patrons of the casino with a huge suit of armor looming behind him. The night had clearly been winding down, but there were still stifled screams and cries of surprise, the clattering of dropped dice and poker chips.
Roy picked a particularly frightened looking waiter who'd dropped a tray full of wine glasses. "You!" He jabbed a finger at him. "Where is the manager? Show me. Now."
The man scrambled for a door in the back, leading Roy, Addie, and Hawkeye up a flight of stairs while the rest of the team rounded everyone up for questioning. Roy had already told Hughes about the auction, so he knew that would be part of the interrogation. But hopefully they would find some information first, because questioning this many people could take days.
Finally, the waiter indicated a door at the end of a hallway with a little metal plaque that read Justin Harrow. He looked like he wanted to retreat back down the stairs, but Hawkeye grabbed his arm to keep him there. At Roy's prompting, Addie quickly sketched a transmutation circle that twisted the floorboards into restraints that held the waiter against the wall, just in case.
Without bothering to knock, Roy threw the door open, marching in with the others just behind him.
This office was much more opulent than Madame Christmas', with a window looking down over the casino floor and a fireplace with a comfortably crackling fire surrounded by leather armchairs. At first glance, there didn't seem to be anybody in the room, but the frantic rustling of paper drew Roy's attention to a thin, bespectacled man shoving papers into the flames. Justin Harrow, presumably.
Even as Harrow looked over at the door, startled, Roy held out a hand and activated the transmutation circle stitched into his glove. Creating a bubble of air around the fireplace, he siphoned all the oxygen up the chimney, extinguishing the flames in a second.
Kneeling by the suddenly empty fireplace, Harrow gaped between him and the stacks of half-burned paper sitting in the pile of smoking ashes where an instant before had been a steady flame.
"Wait...Justin?" Addie cried, taking a step closer to him. "It is you!"
Justin. Wasn't that the boy Addie had mentioned who had been hitting on El? Looking at Harrow a second time, Roy realized how short the man was. He also had one of those faces that could be anywhere from 18 to 40. If he weren't wearing a three-piece suit, wore a rounder pair of glasses, and held himself a certain way...he might seem only a little older than the Elric sisters.
Justin scrambled to his feet, backing away from them. "Wh-What do you want?" he demanded. "You can't just barge in here like that!"
"Funny," Roy said flatly, stalking forward. "We just did."
Grabbing the front of the man's shirt and slamming him up against the wall, Roy snarled, "Now. Tell me where the auction is."
"No auction here," the man gasped, struggling to pry Roy's fist open. "This is a casino."
"Nice try. Lieutenant!" He glanced over to catch Hawkeye's gaze, then nodded towards the desk.
With a brisk nod, Hawkeye crossed over to the desk and began riffling through its contents. Roy watched the manager's expression as she dumped the contents of drawers onto the floor, papers crinkling underfoot and pens clattering against inkwells.
Funny. Hawkeye was always so precise and fastidious. Maybe she was repressing something.
It seemed Addie couldn't restrain herself anymore. "Where is she?" she demanded, taking a step closer to tower over both of them. "What have you done to my sister?"
Harrow gave Roy a thin-lipped smile, looking as dignified as he could with crooked glasses and tie askew. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. You must have confused me with someone else."
"Sir, I know that's the same—"
Roy held up a hand to silence Addie. The clattering and rustling from the desk had suddenly stopped. "Find something, Lieutenant?"
"Secret compartment." There was a tightness to Hawkeye's voice that would have made any of the men cringe if it were directed at them. "Containing film negatives. Of El's pictures."
Refocusing his attention on Harrow, Roy turned his fist so the collar of Harrow's shirt tightened around his throat. "What a strange coincidence," he said flatly as Harrow swallowed with difficulty. "Care to enlighten us on how this came about?"
He could see Harrow's pulse pounding away in his neck. He wet his lips nervously. "I...I have no reason to put myself in hotter water than I already—"
"That wasn't a request!" Roy snapped the fingers of his free hand, sending a spark into the wastebasket that sat nearby, full of crumpled papers. At his command, the gases in the air swirled around this fuel, sending a gush of flames upwards in a column of fire that singed the ceiling.
After only a moment or two, Roy cut off the oxygen to his fire, extinguishing it like he had with the fireplace. The smell of smoke lingered, a silent reminder of what the Flame Alchemist could do.
Eyes wide, Harrow timidly met Roy's gaze. "The...The auction's tomorrow night. He said you wouldn't figure it out until I sent the photos to the paper, they'd make the morning issue, and then it would be too late, and I'd be long gone."
Roy narrowed his eyes. "Too late for what?"
"It's-It's what he said he wanted!" Harrow stammered, holding his hands up defensively. "Not someone connected to the military, I told him, not a State Alchemist, for crying out loud! I tried to interest him in some of the other product, but he wouldn't have it. He wanted dirt on the man who'd lost him his job, and he said if he couldn't find any, he'd make some himself. An exposé on the scandals Colonel Roy Mustang is hiding! That's why he had the package delivered to the hotel, said it would get the sister riled up and pointing a finger at you, and it would take days before anyone could follow the trail here. A foolish move," he hastily added, seeing the fire in Roy's eyes. "Clumsy, very clumsy. Short-sighted. No way he could get away with it. Though he did sound confident it would take you longer than this. But my hands were tied, you see. He knew about the auction, he said he'd take that to the morning paper if I didn't arrange everything!"
"Who?" Roy shook him, just to make him shut up for a second. "Who blackmailed you?"
"His name's Michael Lowe."
The name meant nothing to Roy, but he heard an echoey intake of breath from behind him. "No..."
Roy shot Addie a glance. "You know who he's talking about?"
"Private Lowe!" Once again, Addie spoke as if it should be obvious who she was talking about. "The one who followed my sister into the showers!"
In a flash, Roy remembered punching a man in the face and throwing his camera against the wall. He'd forgotten the man's name, but he could still envision that face covered in blood. That man who'd tried to catch a glimpse of El in the showers...now had her in his clutches.
Stomach churning, Roy refocused on Harrow. "Tell me where they are. Now."
Their destination was a warehouse. Of course it was a warehouse. Specifically, the warehouse storing the furniture sold in the store where Michael Lowe had been working since he'd been kicked out of the military. Given enough time, they probably would have tracked him down here even without Harrow's help. But time was running short.
The thought of what El might be going through haunted every step Roy took. His only hope lay in what Harrow had told him about how they'd managed to subdue the Full Metal Alchemist. A chloroform-soaked rag to the face, then a stronger drug jabbed into her neck with a syringe when she still struggled. They'd had to re-dose her to keep her still while removing her automail. Apparently, they'd underestimated just how much resistance this small thirteen-year-old girl had built up to anesthesia.
Surely, they wouldn't do anything to her until the drugs wore off. With everything they'd pumped into her, she would be limp as a rag doll, unresponsive to anything...if they hadn't killed her outright.
He kept seeing her lying on that couch, artfully arranged...eyes staring. Mouth gaping. Skin turning a ghastly grey, just like so many corpses he'd seen before...
Predawn light began to tinge the sky as they finally pulled up outside the warehouse. The huge building was dark, every window shuttered. They kept as quiet as they could, hoping to come upon Lowe unawares. Roy gave the signal for a perimeter to be set up around the warehouse, then beckoned to his men and Addie.
He'd given up trying to convince her to stay behind. There was no telling what they'd be walking into...but he couldn't deny that Addie would be the best comfort to El once they found her. Besides, he couldn't have restrained her anyway.
Hawkeye raised a pistol to shoot the lock off the door into the warehouse, but Addie stepped forward instead, hastily sketching a transmutation circle on the wall with a stick of chalk. The flash of light and quiet buzz of electricity certainly drew much less attention than a gunshot would have.
Once inside the warehouse, they fanned out, moving as quietly as they could. The huge expanse of the warehouse was filled with indistinct masses, crates stacked in piles as well as the alien shapes of furniture covered in drop cloths. But it was clear where they were headed. The only light in the whole place came from one dusty corner, faint and flickering like candlelight.
As he drew nearer, Roy distinctly heard the clink of class and the glugging of liquid pouring from a bottle. He stepped around a massive crate and found himself face-to-face with a sight that turned his stomach even more than any of the photos.
A few pieces of furniture that no doubt came from the crates around them created a strange little haven of opulence in the middle of their dusty surroundings. A little table, a couple of upholstered chairs sitting on a rug...and in the place of honor, a large four-poster bed covered with soft pillows, clean sheets, and a shimmery red bedspread. In the center of this fluffy white cloud lay El, still in that infernal school uniform. Her remaining arm and leg were tied to opposite bedposts with silk scarves. She looked like a puppet whose strings had been cut, lying still with her head turned to the side.
And there he stood at the bedside, sipping from a glass of some amber liquid and staring down at El. Michael Lowe. His back was to Roy, but judging from the way he swayed, he might not have noticed Roy's presence even if they'd been face to face. Lowe reached out a hand, trailing fingers up El's thigh...
Snap.
Lowe cried out as the glass in his hand exploded, sending shards of glass everywhere. He stared stupidly at his dripping hand.
"Michael Lowe," Roy barked, stepping into the circle of candlelight, "you are under arrest for kidnapping a State Alchemist."
Bloodshot eyes met his and widened with fury. "You!"
He stumbled forward, but before Roy could even raise his hand to snap again, Addie charged in from the side. Her enormous fist collided with Lowe's face, and Roy distinctly heard the sound of something cracking. Maybe his nose breaking again. He hoped so.
Almost before Lowe's body crashed to the floor, Addie was already at the beside, ripping at the scarves tying El down. "Sister! Can you hear me?"
The others rushed onto the scene, weapons trained on Lowe's inert form. Roy's fingers itched to snap, to burn this monster to a crisp, but he made himself turn away and let his men cuff Lowe and drag him off. Instead, he hurried to the other side of the bed to check on El. "Bring the medic in," he called to Hawkeye.
El let out a faint moan of protest, like a sleepy child who didn't want to wake up.
Pulling off his gloves, Roy reached out tentatively to brush El's long bangs out of her face. Her cheeks were flushed, and her skin felt clammy, but he wasn't sure what that meant. "Full Metal?" he called, trying to sound gentle rather than frantic. "It's time to wake up."
With another faint moan, El turned her head towards him, almost nuzzling her cheek into his palm. Then, slowly, ever so slowly, her eyes eased open. She blinked groggily up at him. "Hn?"
"Sister!" Addie clanked to her knees by the bed, clutching El's hand in both of hers. "Oh, thank goodness! How do you feel?"
Moving sluggishly, El flopped her head onto the other side to look at Addie. "F'ls...sweird. Headdhyurts."
"That's to be expected," Roy said. "You've been drugged."
El blinked, going slightly cross-eyed. "D'ugged? Wh...What 'app'ned?"
But Roy could hear voices and the clomp of boots that meant more troops were entering the warehouse. "We'll debrief you later," he said briskly, sliding an arm behind her shoulders. "For now, let's get you to a hospital."
He pulled her to a sitting position, impatiently looking over his shoulder to see if the medic was there yet.
"G'nna hurrrl." And before anyone could move, she threw up all over herself and Roy.
For a long moment, there was silence.
"Toldja."
The lacy black bra dangled from El's thumb and forefinger, held as far away from her as she could reach. "Why does anybody wear this stuff?"
"Do I really need to spell it out for you?" Addie asked dryly.
El shot a withering look over at her sister, who sat in a chair by the hospital bed. She hadn't moved from that spot since they'd first arrived—at least, not to El's knowledge. She'd been in and out of consciousness until the drugs had finally worked their way through her system.
"I mean, it's so...itchy." El waved the bra a bit in the air. "And it's got holes in it."
"It's called lace, Sister."
"Ha ha. All I'm saying is, you wouldn't catch me dead in this getup."
"We almost did," Addie said quietly. "Or worse."
El noted the haunted slump of Addie's shoulders. It was weird, but everyone else seemed to be taking the whole thing a lot worse than El was herself. Yes, Michael Lowe was a creep, and she was glad he would never see the light of day again. It sent a shiver down her spine to look at those stupid clothes and realize she'd been wearing them. Some stranger—maybe even the creep himself, which made her want to take five scalding showers in a row—had taken off her old clothes and then covered her naked body with these hideous trappings.
It was violating, demeaning...and yet, it didn't feel real. El hardly remembered anything between the moment Justin managed to wrestle a damp rag over her face, and when she woke up to find Mustang and Addie leaning over her. If she didn't think about all the implications of what could have happened if they'd gotten there any later, it didn't feel so unlike other desperate scrapes she'd gotten herself into before. She'd been loopy and nauseous for a while, and the headache still lingered even a day later. But the doctor and nurses had been embarrassingly thorough, and she'd been reassured that other than drugging her and roughing her up a bit, nobody had done anything to her. No lasting damage. As soon as Winston got here with her new automail, she'd be good as new.
But it was different for Addie. She'd been awake for those hours of terror, not knowing where El was, fearing the worst...
"Well," El said lightly, trying to break the tension in the air, "If you ever see me buying something like this, at least then you'll know I've gone completely bonkers."
Addie raised her head and tilted it to one side. El could almost see the small but cheeky smile creeping onto her face, as if asking for permission to be there. "You never know. Maybe one day you'll get married and want to look nice for your husband. Win—"
"You shut up!" Balling up the bra as best as she could one-handed, El lobbed it at Addie's face.
A bit of lace got caught on Addie's forehead spike, and they both burst into laughter.
Suddenly, a knock on the door and a deep voice calling out, "Full Metal?"
"Quick, quick!" El hissed. She and Addie frantically stuffed the bra back into the bag of the clothes she'd been found in.
Addie managed to tuck the bag under the bed just as Mustang cautiously opened the door a crack, keeping his eyes averted. "Are you...decent?"
"Yeah, what do you want?" El said, more forcefully than she'd intended. She hoped Mustang didn't notice how hot her cheeks were.
"Just checking on the invalid—"
"I'M NOT AN INVALID!" the double amputee wearing hospital clothes roared.
"Sister!" Addie hissed reprovingly.
Mustang held up his hands in surrender. "I just wanted to make sure you're all right."
"Yeah, well. I'm fine. Obviously. Just as soon as I get my automail fixed, I'm out of here."
"Good."
An awkward silence settled over the room, in which Mustang kept looking anywhere except at her. She'd never seen him look so uncertain of himself.
After a moment or two, Mustang cleared his throat and said, pacing over to the window, "Blackjack's Casino has been shut down. Hughes is going through what records were left intact. There may be more arrests in the near future. Though I daresay many rats will slip through the cracks."
Addie clanked as she shifted a little closer to El. "I hate thinking about anyone else going through what my sister did. She's okay, but that's because we were able to find her so fast. What about all the girls who don't have anyone looking for them?"
Mustang turned from the window, nodding solemnly at Addie. "I know. We're doing everything we can, but I'm afraid this is a war that may never be won."
The awkward tension in the air ebbed away into a thoughtful silence. Then something occurred to El. "Hey, um...whatever happened to those photos?"
Mustang's face went completely blank, like he'd just swiped an eraser across a blackboard and wiped all the emotions off. El had seen him do that several times before, and it was kind of scary. It usually meant someone was in trouble—not like the way she got in trouble and then they had a shouting match about it, but the kind of trouble that led to someone's face getting black and crispy.
"I burned them," Mustang said quietly. "Lowe's actions were incriminating enough to put him behind bars. No one needs to see them again."
"Okay. Uh...thanks." El's cheeks grew hot as she remembered that he had seen those pictures too. He had to, in order to find her, but...she hated the thought that he'd seen her looking like that. Not that she thought he was a creep like Lowe, but...
"I'm sorry."
El looked up, startled out of her thoughts. He stood at the foot of her bed, hands behind his back as if standing at parade rest, except that he was looking at the floor. "Huh?"
"It was my fault that you had to go through this." He closed his eyes briefly, as if the thought pained him. "I should have been more vigilant concerning Lowe, once it was clear what sort of person he was. And...I am the reason you're in the military at all. You would never have had to face anything like this if—"
"Geez, first Addie and now you?" El cast a fondly exasperated look at her sister, who shrugged sheepishly. She'd already had to put up with Addie's profuse apologies for not sticking to her side like glue on the one night when it mattered.
Mustang finally looked at her, straight into her eyes, for the first time since he'd walked in. She realized for the first time how bloodshot those eyes were, with bags under them like he hadn't gotten any sleep since this whole thing started.
El frowned, wishing he had two arms so she could cross them. "Look. You weren't the one who drugged me and kidnapped me and tried to...you know. All you've been doing this whole time was trying to find me, and you don't have to apologize for that. You're not my bodyguard or something; you can't predict when someone's going to try something. And I joined the military because I decided to," she added, jabbing her thumb at her chest. You didn't push me through the door. You opened it, and I walked through."
She might have been imagining it, but she thought he stood a little straighter. A smile crossed his lips—not his usual smug smirk, but something softer, almost...fond? "All right, then."
The moment passed as suddenly as it had come, till El wondered if she'd imagined the look in his eye. Mustang turned to leave. "Glad to hear you're on the mend. I'll expect you in my office as soon as you have two legs to get there."
El snorted. "Slave driver."
But there was a warmth in her chest, like a cozy little fire crackling away.
