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batsutousaiTitle: From the Worst of Times
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Warnings: Ed's potty mouth, canon-typical violence, pile 'o OCs, background original character death, Roy is actually kind of emotionally stunted
Summary: "From the worst of times," someone had once told a young Roy Mustang, "always come the greatest of gifts." There were times in his life that was all he had to cling to, but it always seemed to hold true, one way or the other.
Roy turned his focus to the new group. "I need you to start putting together phone lines for both this tent and the group down at the dorms. They need to connect to at least each other and the hospital, and while I would prefer multiple lines, focus on getting one each for here and the dorms for right now."
The highest ranked among them, a second lieutenant, stepped forward. "Sir, most of our supplies are buried under the rubble. We can get replacements from the warehouses, but it's going to take time."
Roy turned to Havoc, who had lit his cigarette and was clearly enjoying it. "Lieutenant Colonel, do we have any vehicles that can be leant out to Communications for the night?"
"Should," Havoc agreed. "Last I heard, the carpool entrance was unblocked, and I'm fairly certain most, if not all, of the road blocks cleared when people started heading home a couple hours ago, so you shouldn't have trouble get through the streets." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Want me to go with them? Flash my rank around if anyone starts getting fresh?"
Roy paused to consider that; it was true that the group could use someone of a higher rank with them, but Havoc didn't know a single thing about what they would need, and Roy wasn't certain his nap had refreshed him enough to trust him behind the wheel of a car. "No," he decided. "Head down to the hospital and switch out with Fuery."
The group of Communications people all looked quite relieved at the mention of the captain.
Havoc grinned knowingly. "You got it, Chief," he agreed before stepping forward and touching Ed's shoulder. "Boss? Hey, Ed," he added with a gentle shake of the blond's shoulder when he didn't get a response.
"What?" Edward snapped, gold eyes flashing when he looked up.
Havoc didn't react beyond nodding towards the Communications group. "I'm leaving. Keep tabs on him."
"Yes, thank you for that wholly unnecessary reminder," Ed snapped back before returning his attention to the array he was working on.
Havoc shrugged and nodded to Roy. "Good luck with him, sir."
"Appreciated, Lieutenant Colonel," Roy replied drily, and Havoc grinned, the end of his cigarette glowing as a bit of ash fell off, and it reminded Roy of something he needed. "Before you leave," he added, raising his voice to include the Communications group and the two privates and the lance corporal, "do any of you happen to have any matches on you?"
'Matches?' Havoc mouthed, looking confused for a moment before he spotted the out-of-place blue of the array on the back of Roy's left glove and clearly figured out what was going on.
The other soldiers all reported back in the negative, though the private that had gone searching for the officers to send down to the dorms offered, "I saw some earlier, sir."
Roy let out a quiet breath of relief and waved Havoc and the Communications group away even as he looked at the private. "I need two, please, Private."
"Sir," the man replied with a sharp salute, before hurrying off to hunt down the requested items.
It didn't take the private long to return, and Roy wasted no time in pulling off his left glove and setting it and the matches in a pile in front of him. He clapped his hands together, envisioning the array he needed, and quickly pressed his hands to the pile.
The transmutation was a familiar one, and therefore quick, pulling the red phosphorus and powdered glass from the match heads and affixing it to the tips of the middle finger and thumb of the glove. Once the light died, he brushed away the now-useless matches and pulled on the glove. He snapped with that hand, nodded at the spark, and let it die without activating his alchemy. "Excellent. Thank you, Private."
"Sir," the private replied, clearly awed, before picking up the useless matches and stepping away.
"How's your head?" Edward asked. "On a scale of one to ten."
Roy turned to raise an eyebrow at the blond. "I don't have a headache," he lied.
Ed sighed. "Roy."
The sound of Edward Elric using his given name for the first time was enough of a shock that Roy admitted, "A four."
Ed seemed to consider that for a moment, then asked, "Did it get any stronger just now?"
Roy frowned at him, uncertain where this was leading. "No." When Edward shot him a stern look, Roy firmly repeated, "No. Why?"
Ed sighed and pushed the paper with the array he'd been working on towards Roy. "You should be fine," he decided, standing from his crouch and grimacing as his automail leg made an angry noise.
"Fine for what?" Roy demanded, carefully tapping a finger against the corner of the paper, well away from the outer edge of the array. "What is this supposed to do, Fu-Edward?"
"You can't guess?" Ed asked, and there was a hint of mocking in his voice.
"No," Roy ground out, before snapping, "My focus has always been flame alchemy, not 'ooh, look, shiny'!"
Ed snorted, amusement glinting in his eyes. "You should try my approach some time, you might learn something." Before Roy could find a retort to that, the former alchemist leant forward and tapped a finger against the centre of the array, unconcerned about accidentally setting it off. "It's an array to sense life. We'll have to clear everyone off of the rubble, but you should be able to use it to tell us where we need to dig next."
Roy blinked down at the array, then turned to stare at Edward, awed and honestly grateful for the genius that his former subordinate had been born with. "This is amazing, Ed," he admitted.
Edward flushed and turned away. "Don't get excited yet, bastard; we have no guarantee it'll work."
"It'll work," Roy insisted, because Ed had managed to bind a human soul to a piece of armour as a child, while in agony from losing a leg; if anyone could create an array which would pinpoint living souls in no more than half an hour, it was Edward Elric.
Ed huffed in response, then pointed at the two privates who they'd brought from the hospital. "You two, you're with us, so Hawkeye doesn't start using us all for target practise. You," he continued, pointing at the lance corporal, "stay here and detain anyone who comes looking for the Führer. Anyone tries pulling rank on you and going after us anyway, you tell them that their interference will cause a rebound and both their Führers will be in critical condition in hospital."
The three soldiers all paled while Roy got to his feet, and the lance corporal stammered, "W-will it really–?"
Ed shrugged, unconcerned. "No idea. Come on, Führer Bastard," he called over his shoulder, before starting towards the ruins of Central Command and shouting for people to clear off the rubble.
"Sir?" the lance corporal pleaded, looking at Roy.
Roy placed a gentle hand on the man's shoulder. "Edward is exaggerating about the rebound," he promised, because he trusted that Ed wouldn't let Roy try an array that unstable, "but interruptions may upset the rubble; please hold anyone looking for me here, for our safety and theirs."
Looking much relieved, the lance corporal nodded. "Yes, sir."
Roy offered him a reassuring smile, then motioned for the two privates to follow him before setting out after Ed, moving at an unhurried pace and glancing over the array in his hand, memorising as best he could in hopes that he could use it again on the dorms without Edward having to redraw it. Which, well, as complicated as it was, he suspected Ed would have to redraw it.
Edward was awaiting them at the spot where the porch had been, glaring at a few stragglers who were taking their time moving off the rubble. "Mustang," he growled.
Roy nodded, then barked, "Clear out!" and the stragglers ran for the clear patch of grass where everyone else who'd been ousted had gathered.
"Sir," one of the two privates serving as Roy's guards asked, "where do we need to be?"
It took Ed a moment to realise the man was talking to him, then he pointed to a patch of pavement that was clear of rubble only a few steps away from where Ed had stopped. "There. You hear anything funny, any gunshots or whatever shit someone tries, you fucking shoot the culprit; leave interrupting the alchemy to me."
The two privates saluted him with a firm, "Sir!" then moved off to the suggested spot while Ed grimaced.
Roy snorted and quietly commented, "I think that was more respect than anyone bothered to pay you while you were actually in the military."
"Fuck off," Ed ordered before crouching with a grimace, his leg loudly complaining about the motion. "Get down here."
"Miss Rockbell is going to kill you if you keep pushing that leg," Roy pointed out as he joined the younger man in crouching over the rubble, gingerly setting the array on a flat stone between them.
"Nah, she can't kill me, she'd lose a customer. Might beat me around the head until I get stuck in hospital, though," Ed corrected, sounding far too cheerful about that possibility, and Roy couldn't quite hold back an amused snort. "Right," Ed said, his voice turning serious as he tapped a finger against the array, "when you activate this, you should feel a sort of pulling, if there's anyone alive under this mess. Focus on any of the pulls for a couple seconds, then move on to the next, but don't spend too long on any of them, and if you don't feel anything, let it go; the longer this array is active, the more tired it's going to make you."
Roy nodded grimly. "What will concentrating on them do?" he asked, needing to know everything he could about the array before activating it.
"Light the area up like someone set fucking bonfire," Ed replied. "Shouldn't take more than a second to light them, and they should stay lit for a few minutes, so don't worry about moving on too quickly."
"What about us and the rest of the soldiers up here?"
Ed's eyes glinted, something that looked suspiciously like approval reflecting the light from the nearest brazier. "The array should focus on life signs specifically beneath the rubble, but if it doesn't, just focus on life signs that are in groups of no more than three and ignore the group of us directly behind you."
Roy nodded his understanding and thought over everything before deciding he didn't have any other questions. "Right. Let's get this done so we can get these people out."
Ed's smile was grim as he stood, his leg screeching again. As he stepped past Roy, however, to join the two privates behind him, he touched Roy's shoulder, bringing him to glance up. "Don't push it," he insisted. "I know you want to get everyone out, but if you collapse from exhaustion, you're going to cause more problems."
Roy raised an eyebrow at him. "A reminder of the necessity of restraint from the Fullmetal Alchemist?" he returned.
Ed made a face at him. "Shut up, bastard," he ordered before stepping past.
Roy waited until Ed had fallen still, then took a deep breath and pressed his fingers to the edge of the array, letting his eyes slip shut as it activated.
The 'pulling' that Ed had mentioned felt a lot like when Father had activated the Gate in him on the Promised Day, and Roy grimaced, even as he turned his attention to the three 'pulls' he felt. All of them were fairly weak, but one was weaker than all the others, and he turned his attention to that one first. He mouthed a count of three, then moved to the next 'pull', mouthed another count, then turned to the last one and counted.
When he pulled back from the array, letting the alchemy go, a fair portion of his energy went with it, and he slumped tiredly to one side, breathing, "Fuck." He hadn't been that tired from activating an array since the early days of his work with flame alchemy.
A hand settled gently against his forehead, another hand coming to rest on his shoulder. "Still with me, bastard?" Ed asked, his voice quiet.
Roy managed to nod his head, then motioned in the direction of the first 'pull'. "Her first," he insisted, and had no idea how he'd known the gender of the person he'd sensed, but he'd take it all the same. "And tell them to hurry."
"Got it," Ed replied before he moved away, and Roy immediately missed his presence. "You two, stick with him and help him back to the tents when Breda gets over here," Ed ordered before raising his voice to shout, "Grab some of those torches and get started on that spot! Führer says move it! Breda, get your ass over here! You assholes, mark those other two spots before the light fades!"
Roy let out a tired chuckle and opened his eyes to watch Edward standing a few feet away, his hair practically glowing in the firelight around them, one hand outstretched as he shouted orders and insults at the group of men and women who were scurrying to move rubble around the bright purple glows that had remained even after he'd stopped powering the array.
Breda knelt in front of Roy, blocking his view of Ed. "Can you get up, sir?"
Roy held out a hand in a silent request for help, and Breda wordlessly helped him to his feet. He had to take a moment once he was standing for the wave of dizziness to pass, but he managed to start back towards the tents without any assistance.
"There's coffee and some food left for you," Breda said as they walked, all three men around Roy wordlessly matching his pace. "Ed sent me off for it while he was clearing everyone off, said you'd be wanting it soon as you were done."
"He would be the expert," Roy admitted drily, and Breda flashed him a knowing grin.
The coffee and food helped a lot, and Roy was back on his feet and heading back into the rubble as they pulled out the young woman he'd found. She was immediately rushed off to hospital, two field medics calling reports to each other as they jogged with the privates carrying the stretcher they'd put her on towards the main gate. There were two other bodies in the same small cavity with her, and Roy left Ed to manage that extraction, taking half of the soldiers and leading them to the next closest person.
By the time Falman showed up with an update about Grumman's status, they had just finished pulling out the last living person from the rubble, and had another three dead bodies to add to the tally of deceased.
"Sir!" Falman called, standing a respectful distance back from where Roy stood over the line of bodies, each one's face covered with a jacket, either their own or one belonging to someone who had pulled them out.
Roy bit back a sigh and turned his attention to his subordinate, stepping carefully around the lines of bodies. "Havoc is sleeping?" he guessed.
Falman gave a brisk nod. "I spelled him about forty minutes ago. I have a report from Colonel Hawkeye."
Roy nodded. "I expected as much," he agreed, motioning for Falman to walk with him back to the tent, his honour guard of privates trailing behind them. "How is Führer Grumman?"
"Out of surgery," Falman offered, his tone gentling, losing some of the military bite. "They had to amputate his leg, and while they managed to save his arm for the moment, the doctor warns that the nerve damage is bad, and he may be better served amputating that and defaulting to automail."
Roy shook his head. "Grumman's tough, but I don't know that he has the strength to survive two automail surgeries."
Falman offered a grim nod. "That was the colonel's feeling as well," he admitted. "The doctor says they'll discuss it with the Führer once he's awake and aware enough to make the choice. Either way, chances are very high that he'll be retiring before he leaves hospital."
Roy gave a tired nod. "I'll be sorry to see him go," he admitted, because as much as he'd wanted to become Führer, he liked Grumman and would have preferred to succeed him when the man was ready to retire, rather than have him forced to step down. "Was there anything else?" he requested as they reached the tents, nodding in response to the salutes from the lance corporal Ed had ordered to remain there and a sergeant standing next to the desk. He was momentarily surprised to see a phone sitting on the corner of the desk, and he felt himself smile a bit at Fuery's efficiency.
"A message from Lieutenant Colonel Havoc," Falman agreed, recalling Roy's attention from the phone. "He says Brigadier General Lee was discharged shortly after you and, according to the nurse he spoke to, had been well enough to leave since shortly after his arrival, well before yourself and Colonel Hawkeye had been brought in."
Roy raised his eyebrows at that. "If I hadn't been trapped in a room with Hawkeye and her gun, I might have stuck around for some extra attention from the nurses myself," he joked, even as his mind turned the information over.
"Reports are he brushed off all of the nurses who came to check on him, and they ended up just ignoring him because it had started to get busy by then."
'Started to get busy then', like it hadn't been busy when Lee had been admitted. Roy cast a quick eye over the parade grounds, then turned to the private who had brought him the matches for his glove. "Has there been any sign of Brigadier General Lee up here?"
"Not that I'm aware of, sir," the private admitted. "Would you like me to check?"
"Please do. And check with the soldiers manning the lifts and standing down on the street, while you're at it."
The private saluted and hurried off without a word.
Roy turned to the sergeant who was standing next to his desk, whom he recalled being a part of the Communications group. "Do we have a line to the dorms?" he requested.
"Yes, sir," the sergeant agreed, holding out a slip of paper with a number scribbled on it, which Roy accepted. "You're also connected to the city lines, though it's currently unsecured. Captain Fuery is working on installing a second line out at the top of the lifts, then he'll focus on securing the lines."
"Excellent. Thank you, Sergeant," he replied as he picked up the receiver and started to dial. "Someone find me Lieutenant Colonel Breda."
With the certainty of no one alive remaining under the rubble, those soldiers who had been sitting in the rubble and listening for cries of help had retreated to the tents, which meant there were plenty of people around to be sent on errands without losing another one of the three soldiers Fuery had found to serve as Roy's guard. Which was good, because Roy was already going to get yelled at if Riza found out he'd lost both Breda and Ed while they'd been pulling out the last two people; better he not further anger her by going below the limit of two soldiers.
The line connected and someone reported, "Metford."
"Colonel," Roy replied, "I need to know if anyone down there has seen Brigadier General Lee within the past two hours."
"Führer!" Metford recognised. "I'll find out and ring you back right away, sir!"
"Thank you, Colonel." Roy hung up the phone and turned to Breda as the man approached. "Andrew Lee."
Breda's expression darkened and he performed a sharp-edged salute. "You got it, Chief," he agreed before turning to hunt down whatever Investigations personal he could take away from hunting for bomb pieces to help him find the man and compile any information they could.
Metford called him back before the private he'd sent out returned, clearly having less area to cover: "No one's seen any sign of him, sir, not here. A couple of men report seeing him in hospital, and one says he saw him making a few phone calls fairly early on, but that's it."
"Thank you, Colonel," Roy replied. "As soon as I settle a few more things up here, I'll be heading down to you; Mr Elric created an array to find survivors in the rubble."
Metford let out a relived noise. "Sir, that may well be the best news I've heard all night. We'll keep an eye out for you."
Roy nodded and hung up, only to find the private he'd sent out was back. "Report."
"No one's seen him," the private replied. "The men down on the street don't remember seeing him leave the hospital, but they admit they may have missed him. I did get a definitive response from all the gates: he never passed back inside through any of them after he walked out just after the explosion, sir."
Roy frowned. "He walked out under his own power?" he clarified.
"That's what I was told, sir."
Suspicion was a dark monster in the back of Roy's mind, and it was only growing as more questions were fed to it about the missing general. "Is Captain Fuery still working on connecting the line at the top of the lifts?" he asked as he stepped out from behind the desk and cast his gaze over the parade grounds, trying to spot that familiar glint of gold hair; he needed to use that array on the dorms before he went crazy trying to form a picture without firm facts.
"He should be, sir," the private who had turned into Roy's message runner agreed. "Do you want me to get him for you?"
Roy shook his head. "Run ahead and keep him there, we'll come to him. Edward!" he shouted when he caught sight of the blond.
Ed shot him a scowl from across the grounds, but obediently started over when Roy motioned for him.
Roy turned to Falman. "Hold down the fort for me, Major."
Falman saluted. "Sir! I'll have any calls forwarded to the dorms."
"Thank you," Roy replied as he started for the main gate, motioning for the remaining two members of his guard to follow him.
Ed fell in next to him after only a few steps, snapping, "I'm not your dog any more, Mustang."
"Much to all our relief," Roy retorted. "I'm not sure I could afford a proper training regimen."
"Ha-ha."
Roy flashed him a smirk before turning his attention back to where they were going. "I want to handle the dorms."
Ed was quiet for a long moment, and a quick glance showed he was frowning down at the ground as he walked. Finally, as they reached the opening of the main gate, he said, "You need to take a break right after. And I mean a proper break, Mustang, not sitting for a quick meal and then going right back to work moving rubble."
Roy barely held back a sigh and pointed out, "You'll have to stay with me," because while Riza might cut them some slack for him losing his team on the parade grounds, the street was another matter entirely, and Ed was the only member of his team that wasn't going to be busy with something.
"Fuck," Ed snarled. "Why couldn't you still be a useless colonel?"
Roy snorted. "Wouldn't that be nice," he muttered before returning Fuery and the private's salutes as they reached them. "Captain, as soon as you can, I need to see if you can find out who Brigadier General Lee made calls to while in hospital."
Fuery nodded, frowning. "I'll do that once I'm done installing this line. Do you want me to prioritise that over securing the lines?"
Roy let out a quiet sigh. "Yes. However, if you can set your team to working on the securing, that would help."
"Yes, sir."
"When you're down in the hospital, wake up Havoc and have him come up here to keep an eye on things with Falman," Roy added, because if they had lines up, even unsecured ones, they really didn't need anyone sitting with Riza and acting as a message runner.
Fuery grimaced. "Yes, sir. You're heading down to the dorms?" When Roy nodded, Fuery dug a hand into one pocket and pulled out a set of keys. "Communications' cars were the only non-medical vehicles down there last I saw; we shouldn't need any of the rest of what's in the front car to secure the lines, so you can take that around to the dorms."
Ed snatched the keys before Roy could take them. "Thanks, Kain, you're awesome," he offered with a flash of his most obnoxious grin. "Right, come on, Führer Bastard!"
It was a sign of how quickly people resigned themselves to Edward's insubordination that the only soldiers who frowned were the handful of men and women who were in charge of the lifts. For his part, Roy just shook his head and quickly caught up with the blond, his three-man guard of soldiers once again taking up position around him.
Edward refused to hand over the keys to the car, and Roy didn't bother trying to fight him for it, instead just getting into the passenger's seat without complaint. The three soldiers crowded together in the back, and Roy looked back at them with a thoughtful frown while Ed got the car started and pulled them away from the kerb. "I never learned any of your names," he admitted. Because, honestly, a part of him had hoped they wouldn't be necessary for long, and the rest of him had been so focussed on one weathering one crisis after another that he hadn't bothered to actually ask.
"Lawrence Carcano, sir," the lance corporal announced.
"Whit Enfield, sir," the private who had been serving as Roy's runner offered.
"Matt Tarpley, sir," the other private said.
Roy nodded. "Thank you, gentlemen," he offered and they all inclined their heads before he turned back to facing forward.
He caught Ed watching him out of the corner of his eyes and raised an eyebrow at him. The blond shrugged. "Should I ask why you're suspicious of this Lee fuck?"
One of the soldiers in the back seat let out a vaguely horrified sound, and Roy realised that, just because they were getting used to hearing Ed call him names, didn't mean they were used to his habit of insulting everyone else. Especially since there was a world of different between the familiar banter of insults and mocking that Ed shared with Roy and his team, and the comments he made at the expense of people he just didn't like.
"A few things. Do you actually care about the specifics?" Roy asked, because it wasn't like Ed to start fishing for reasons why he shouldn't trust someone.
Ed seemed to consider that for a moment, then shook his head as he pulled to a stop outside the ruins of the dorms. "Not really. What's he look like?"
"Dark hair, Breda's figure, probably about your height." Roy flashed the blond a smirk. "Well, your height without the risers–"
"Fuck off, bastard," Ed snapped, shoving his door open. "I'm a perfectly normal height."
"For a midget," Roy couldn't resist adding, and quickly stepped out of the car before Ed could decide to try decking him.
Colonel Metford and Lieutenant Colonel Benet came out to meet Roy as his guard formed up around him, Ed slotting in at his right and wearing a scowl. "Führer," Metford greeted, both of them saluting. "What do we need to do?"
"Did you memorise the array?" Ed asked before Roy could speak, and the two officers in front of them shot him frowns.
Roy shook his head and admitted. "Not completely." Then he held out the blank piece of paper Ed had drawn the array on before, as well as a pencil he'd found in the desk.
Ed stared at him for a moment, mouth open as though he'd been about to speak before Roy had anticipated his needs, before taking the paper and pencil with a snort, his eyes bright with amusement. "Showy bastard," he muttered before brushing past the disapproving officers to find something flat to draw on.
"I need everyone cleared off the rubble," Roy said, distracting the two in front of him without having to resort to apologising for his former subordinate's normal manner. "Preferably, have everyone group together on the pavement or the grass, but if someone wanders off, that's fine, as long as they stay off the rubble."
"Yes, sir," Metford replied before she and Benet both turned to start clearing their people out of the way.
Roy turned back to his guard. "As last time," he told them quietly, "stay just behind us, off the rubble, and keep alert for any sign of trouble. Are you familiar with Brigadier General Lee?"
The three men traded uncertain looks before Carcano replied for all of them, "Yes, sir. Do you think this is all his doing?"
Roy shrugged. "I think he's slacking in his duties and I would like to know why. If you spot him, don't bother warning myself or Edward, just go and detain him. If he pulls a weapon, you have permission to shoot him, though I request you aim for a non-fatal hit." He looked between the three men, taking in their grim stares and giving them a sharp nod before turning and striding over to where Ed was working on the array. He didn't bother trying to distract the blond, instead looking past him to where the last of the soldiers were clearing out of the ruins.
Very likely because of how central the single bomb had been, the dorms had retained their most distant walls, partial apartments visible at either end over the piles of stone and the remains of soldiers' lives. While the initial explosion had blown out the front and back of the building, leaving signs of damage on the nearest building behind the dorms, most of the building had collapsed straight down. Which, while it meant the rubble was fairly contained and the streets unblocked, it left them having to decide between going at the mess from the high sides, or climbing to the top and digging down. Someone – Roy suspected Alex Armstrong – had transmuted stairs where the door had originally been, letting people to the top of the ruins, while other people had started digging in from the front on either side of the stairs.
"Mustang," Ed called and Roy looked down at him to find him holding out the paper with the array, which Roy took carefully. "If you hear me calling your name, stop."
Roy nodded. "Let's do this."
Ed led the way to the rubble and motioned Roy forward once he'd reached the last clear space wide enough to stand in. "Fan out," he ordered the three soldiers, and they did so as Roy found a spot just inside one of the dug-out spaces to the right of the staircase.
He knelt down there, having no interest in falling when he let the alchemic energy go because it had exhausted him. He set the paper down on a mostly flat stone in front of him, took a deep breath, then closed his eyes and activated the array.
There were more 'pulls' this time, every one of them as weak as the stronger two he'd sensed back at Command. He quickly set about focussing on each of them, lighting them up for everyone else to see and losing count of how many he'd found, because he couldn't focus on how many were there, only the movement of his lips as he counted to three each time and moved on to the next.
"Roy!" Ed snapped from behind him, and he pulled away from the array with a gasp. He felt himself falling backwards, felt too weak to catch himself, but then firm arms caught him, wrapped tight around his chest. "You're a fucking pain in my ass," Ed whispered against his ear before shifting behind him and shouting, "Mark where the lights are before they fade and start digging!"
The silence of the night burst into sound as people ran to follow the orders, too desperate to be of use to care that the person giving them was technically a civilian; Ed had that effect, Roy knew.
"Is he okay?" Roy heard Benet ask.
"He'll be fine," Ed promised. "You might call ahead to the hospital and have them send a couple of ambulances over here, though." After a moment of silence, Ed said, "Carcano, help me with him; we can set him up in the back of the car and if shit starts going sideways, one of us can just drive him the fuck out of here."
"Not an invalid," Roy insisted. Or, well, he tried to insist, but the Gate alone knew how it had come out.
"Shut the fuck up, bastard," Ed ordered and his arms around Roy shifted, making room for another person, so they could work together to get Roy to his feet and across the open space between the dorms and where the car had been parked.
Roy managed to keep awake until he felt himself being laid out along the cooling leather of automobile seats. Once there, he gathered himself enough to grab for Ed's arm before he pulled away and demanded, "How many?"
Ed was quiet for a moment, then he offered, "Twelve."
Roy tried to tighten his grip on Ed's arm, but he wasn't sure if there was a noticeable difference. "More in there."
"I know." A hand brushed through his hair, a promise of safety trying to drag him down to sleep. "Get some rest and let them pull out who they can and you can try again."
"Wake me if–" Roy started before his train of thought left him, exhaustion eating away at his too-slow thoughts.
"If something happens that I can't handle, I'll call Hawkeye out here so she can shoot the problem," Edward retorted. "Shut up and go to sleep, Roy."
There was something about Ed using his name that made Roy want to frown, but the thought drifted away into the blackness he lived in, and Roy followed it down into oblivion.
"–turn to the hospital!" Riza was shouting when Roy woke up.
He frowned, confused because he was exhausted, clearly not sleeping in a bed, and he knew Riza shouldn't have been there, though he couldn't quite recall why that was. He shifted against the gentle give of whatever he was sitting on, and something covering him started to slide off. He grabbed for it, peeling open one gummy eye to get a look at the object and found himself holding on to a dark brown coat.
"Are you done?" Edward asked, his voice flat. When there was no verbal response, he said, "He was just drained from the alchemy and needed to sleep it off. I didn't think that required taking up a bed in the hospital."
"He is a target," Riza hissed, quiet enough that Roy almost didn't hear her.
Roy opened his other eye and looked blearily at his surroundings. He was inside a car, lights from the braziers around the dorm reflecting off the windows. The driver's side door was cracked open, gloved fingers held between the door and the roof, explaining why he could hear the conversation that seemed to be happening just outside the car.
"Sticking him in a hospital bed isn't going to change that," Ed pointed out drily, and it occurred to Roy that Riza was supposed to be in a hospital bed. "Really, it's just going to give whoever wants him dead a stationary target, and there's no way you can screen who comes into a hospital. At least in the car we can move him if something happens. I'm not about to be fucking careless with him, Hawkeye."
"Well it sure looks like it!"
It came back to Roy, then: the array to find survivors in the ruins of the dorms, being moved to the car so he could sleep off the energy drain, Ed promising to call Riza out here if he couldn't solve a problem that cropped up, Ed using his name again. "Edward," he called.
The cracked door jerked and he looked over to watch as it was pulled open and Ed stuck his head into the car. "Fuck, sorry we woke you, bastard. Go back to sleep."
Roy shook his head, his mind finally waking up enough to remind him of the dozen or so things he needed to see to; sleep could wait. "You're making a habit of using my first name," he said, because there was something about that, about the way Ed said his name that was sticking with him.
Edward flashed him a shit-eating grin that didn't reach his eyes. "I figured out you have one," he joked, but there was something flat about his voice, an obvious lie, and Roy raised a disbelieving eyebrow at the blond. "You listen a lot better," Ed said next, and that still sounded like a lie, but when Roy raised his other eyebrow, Ed's expression shut down the same way as it had back in the hospital, when he been talking about his broken leg.
Roy shifted on the seat and grabbed the release to open the door. Ed looked like he wanted to stop him, but it wasn't him that stopped the door before Roy could open it all the way.
"Sir, listen to Edward and go back to sleep," Riza ordered.
"Move, Colonel," Roy returned, his tone leaving no room for an argument, and the pressure on the door let up.
Roy stepped out of the car, bringing the coat with him and allowing a quick grimace as his body protested the cramped position he'd slept in. He was pleased to realise that his dizziness and headache, both, had vanished, and he held out Ed's coat to its owner as he declared, "I'm fine. Colonel, what are you doing over here?" he asked, eyeing the bandage wrapped tight around her forehead. Her hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, a little lower down than Ed's, and he guessed the bandage was in the way of her usual hair clip.
"They've started releasing anyone who can walk out under their own power and isn't homeless, to free up beds," Riza reported, nodding over Roy's shoulder towards the ruins of the dorm. "I went up to Command first and Havoc sent me over here."
Roy nodded and turned to Ed, who had shrugged his coat back on. "How many people have they pulled out?"
Ed looked towards the ruins and Roy turned to follow his gaze, vaguely surprised to find what had been a fairly symmetrical pile of rubble gutted, new piles growing across the lawn and pavement. "Fourteen," Edward reported. "Two of them died on the way to the hospital, three died during or shortly after surgery, but the other nine are expected to make it."
Roy had to cling to the car door, his knees feeling too weak to support his own weight, and he was distantly aware of two sets of hands grabbing for him even as he breathed, "Thank God," because nine was better than none, because Maes must have been smiling to see him giving his all to keep his people safe, just like he'd sworn he would. "What time is it?"
"About thirty minutes before dawn," Ed reported carefully.
Roy nodded and slipped from the supporting hands that had caught him, stepping easily around the car and towards the dorms. "Right. Let's–"
Ed was suddenly in front of him, a firm hand pressing hard against Roy's chest, his eyes glinting with stubbornness in the light of the nearest streetlamp. "If you're not going to sleep, you need to eat, so get back in the car and we'll find somewhere to get food."
Roy opened his mouth to point out that there was almost certainly something to eat in the small tent set up to one side of the dorm, when Riza offered from behind him, "I have verbal reports from Major Fuery and Lieutenant Colonel Breda for you."
Lee, right. He needed that information to help fill in the rest of the very suspicious picture surrounding the events of the past day, and he knew Riza well enough to know she would hold the information from him unless he let them drive him somewhere that served more than rations. He sighed and nodded. "Madam Christmas, then."
"Madam Christmas?" Ed repeated, clearly unfamiliar with the rebuilt bar or its predecessor.
"Get in the car, I'll drive us," Riza said to Ed, before raising her voice to call, "You three follow us in the other car."
Roy glanced back over his shoulder as he returned to the car, and was surprised to see the three soldiers who had been serving as his guard since he left hospital loitering around one of the nicer cars from the carpool; Riza's ride over here, he assumed.
"Yes, sir," Carcano replied with a salute and they slipped into the second car while Roy, Ed, and Riza got in the one they'd borrowed from Communications.
"Madam Christmas," Roy explained for Ed once they were underway, "is the pub owned by my aunt. She's technically closed up shop by now, but she won't mind us dropping in for some breakfast."
Ed looked towards Riza, who nodded and offered, "It's not the first time. Chris will complain, but it's likely she's already got something cooking."
"Huh." Ed relaxed back in his seat and threw a smirk back at Roy, over his shoulder. "I had no idea you had a family."
"It's not something I make a habit of mentioning to my most loudmouthed subordinates," Roy retorted, and Ed's grin widened. "When is Miss Rockbell's train due to arrive?"
Ed's smirk faded into a thoughtful frown. "If she caught the train immediately after I called her, she should be getting in within the hour. Otherwise, she'll be here this afternoon."
"Major Falman has orders to watch for her at the station," Riza announced before Roy could suggest something similar.
Roy leant back and shook his head. "Perhaps I will go back to sleep," he said. "It's clear you lot can function just fine without me."
"Would you like to hand over the Führership as well, sir?" Riza returned evenly, and Ed started laughing.
"I had no idea you had such high aspirations, Colonel," Roy shot back, amused.
"Be honest, Mustang; she's going to end up doing at least half your job, anyway."
"That's called 'delegation', Edward."
"No, that's called you're a lazy bastard."
The sigh Riza let out made it clear she wished she'd thought to have one of them ride in the other car.
Edward glanced back at Roy, gold eyes sparkling with a level of amusement that, while Roy could understand and completely related to, he'd never seen the blond show in regards to their spats. It was a good look on him, Roy decided, offering an amused smirk back.
As the car slowed, Roy turned his attention to their surroundings. He could see the entrance to the pub just ahead with Vanessa, one of his aunt's employees, loitering outside, smoking. When Riza stopped, before she could turn off the engine, Roy ordered, "Let me out here and park the car around back."
Riza nodded. "Edward, get out with him," she ordered and Roy sighed, resigned, as he stepped out onto the pavement.
Vanessa perked up when Roy stepped out of the car, and she quickly stubbed out her cigarette as he stepped towards her, Ed and two of the men from the second car getting out behind him. "Vanessa," he offered with his most charming smile, "you're looking as stunning as ever."
"Flattery will get you everywhere, Roy," Vanessa promised, pushing off from the wall and stepping forward to run her fingers along the front flap of his uniform as the two cars pulled away.
"Kill me now," Edward muttered from behind him, and Roy didn't bother suppressing his amused smile at the blond's discomfort.
Vanessa's eyes lit up with her smile and she pressed a quick kiss to Roy's cheek before stepping back. "Go on in; the madam figured you'd show up some time this morning."
"Thanks." Roy motioned for the other three to follow him, then led the way into the darkened pub. "Madam?" he called ahead.
The square of the doorway behind the pub that led back to the kitchen lit before filling with the wide form of his aunt. "Roy-Boy?" she called back, and Roy heard Edward muffling a snicker.
Roy put on his most pathetic expression. "I was hoping I might convince you to provide some food for myself and a few of my men, Madam."
Backlit, it was impossible to see Chris' expression, but her smile was plenty obvious in her voice. "I might be convinced, but you'll have to pull your own chairs down." She waved a hand around at the tables, each of them topped with overturned chairs to clear the floor so it could be cleaned.
"You are as gracious as you are lovely, Madam," Roy praised.
Chris snorted and turned to return to the kitchen. "Keep that up and you'll be cleaning the floors before you leave," she threatened over her shoulder.
Roy chuckled as he stepped forward to pull down a chair from the largest table in the pub, the one that Chris had made him buy her after the second time he'd brought his whole team over for an after-work drink and they'd had to slide several tables together, scraping up the floor in the process. Enfield and Tarpley were quick to lend their assistance in pulling down the chairs, but Ed had relaxed back against the wall next to the door, gold eyes bright as he watched them work. "Are the chairs too high for you to reach, Ed?" Roy enquired, just to see if he could get a rise out of the blond.
Ed snorted and patted his left thigh. "Gimp leg," he insisted, and Enfield let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Riza and Carcano came in shortly after they'd got all the chairs down, Vanessa following them in and locking the door behind her. She tipped Roy a wink as she walked past him, and he smiled after her as she vanished through the doorway that led to the staircase up to the apartments where most of Chris' staff lived.
"Oh for fuck's sake, Mustang," Edward complained, and Roy returned his attention to the table in time to see Enfield, Tarpley, and Carcano all hiding grins. "Could you focus on something other than the nearest woman for once?"
Roy rested his elbow on the table and used it to brace his cheek as he eyed Ed's scowl. And he was probably acting too relaxed, given he hadn't known the two privates and lance corporal for long enough to trust them, but his aunt's pub was always his safe haven, even when he had to go and blow it up as a diversion. "Jealous, Edward?" he teased the blond.
It was still dark in the main room of the pub, so Roy couldn't be certain, but he could have sworn he saw a blush stain Ed's cheeks, and he blinked a few times in surprise, even as Ed snapped, "Fuck you, bastard. No one here wants anything to do with your libido."
"On the contrary–" Roy started.
"Go. To. Hell," Ed snapped, and when he turned his head to look directly at Roy, the light from the kitchen lit one side of his face to show no trace of a blush.
"Sir," Riza interrupted before Roy could continue baiting Ed.
Roy sighed and turned his attention on her. "What have you got for me, Colonel?"
Riza inclined her head. "Brigadier General Lee was near the main doors when the explosions started. Witnesses report he was seen loitering in an alcove, occasionally checking his watch. The rescue teams report that he was in the building when they started pulling people out, but seemed largely unharmed and walked down to the hospital of his own power, though he did insist on taking the lift. Once of the nurses at the hospital remembered him because he only had a few minor scratches, but he insisted that his rank earned him a private room."
Ed whistled. "Holy shit." He nudged Roy with his elbow. "I take back everything I ever said about you being a pompous arse."
Roy snorted, then offered a smile as three of Chris' women – Emily, Peggy, and Dorothy – came out with food for them and two oil lamps for the table, giving them just enough light to see each other and their plates without advertising that people were dining in the pub after hours. "Thank you, Emily," he said to the woman who served him.
Emily smiled as she set another plate in front of Riza. "We're just glad you're okay, Roy. There were some worrisome rumours floating around the city after those explosions."
"Not all seem to have been just rumours," Chris said from behind Roy, and he only just managed to keep from startling when she rested a heavy hand on top of the stars on his left shoulder. "Hello, Riza. Good to see you keeping this boy out of trouble."
Riza smiled. "Hello, Chris," she replied, even as Roy gave in to the need to complain, "Madam."
Chris laughed and stepped away to grab one of the chairs, then bought it over to join them at the table. "Eat up," she ordered them. Or, well, ordered everyone but Ed, who was already working at a steady pace to decimate his serving.
"Edward may need a second helping," Roy warned drily before starting in on his own breakfast. "Tell me some of these rumours, Madam," he suggested, since he knew Riza was too polite to continue giving her report with her mouth full, and he suspected she needed the food as much as he could admit that he did.
"Oh, little things," Chris said, waving her hand in the air a bit airily before using it to pull out a pack of cigarettes. "You're dead, Grumman's dead, the top brass is in shambles, an angry civilian is leading the rescue efforts up at Command, you're not actually dead but you are Führer, you're not Führer because Grumman's alive..." She tapped out a cigarette as she spoke and slipped the package away. "The usual. Light this for me, Roy-Boy."
Roy sighed and obediently snapped his fingers. "I'm clearly not dead, and neither is Führer Grumman, unless something happened while I was sleeping?" he looked at Riza, who shook her head.
Chris blew a mouthful of smoke at him, which Roy waved away with the ease of familiarity. "And yet you're wearing four stars."
"Führer Grumman is confined to a hospital bed," Riza reported evenly.
Chris' eyes sharpened as she turned to Riza. "How bad?" she demanded, because she and Grumman had been friends since before Riza or Roy were born.
Riza took a moment to swallow her mouthful and set her fork down, then replied, "They had to amputate his right leg, and they were making plans to amputate his right arm when I was discharged."
Roy straightened. "What happened?" he asked, because last he knew, they were going to wait to see if Grumman could make do with a bad arm.
Riza met his eyes steadily, and it was only because he knew her as well as he did that he could see how much it hurt her to explain, "He shifted in his sleep. No one realised the new position had pinched a vein and gangrene set in. By the time one of the nurses noticed, it was too late to reverse the damage."
"Fuck," Ed breathed, giving voice to the response that, Roy suspected, all of them wanted to make.
"I'm sorry, Riza," Roy offered quietly.
Riza's mouth thinned. "Don't be sorry, sir, just finish this."
Roy gave a sharp nod. "Tell me about Lee's phone calls."
"He made three, all to North City Command," Riza reported. "The first one was made as soon as he had been left by the nurses, the second was after you and I were admitted, the third was after Führer Grumman was admitted. According to the operator in North City, the first two calls were picked up by Major General Welrod's office, but the third one didn't go through."
"Welrod?" Roy repeated, frowning down at his breakfast as he tried to remember everything he could about the man. "He's the one that Lieutenant General Armstrong likes to refer to as 'that pansy-ass white-blooded snot-for-balls', isn't he?"
Ed choked on a laugh and his fork clattered to his plate. "I love that woman!" he declared while the three soldiers at the other end of the table stared on with wide eyes. "She's fucking terrifying, but she's amazing."
"Silence the wedding bells for a moment, Ed, I'm pretty sure you're not her type," Roy suggested and got an elbow in the side. He winced, but had to admit that he'd deserved that; at least the blond hadn't hit him.
Riza shook her head at their byplay, while Chris laughed. "That is the one, sir," Riza agreed.
Chris leant forward, looking past Roy as he sorted through what he knew about Olivier's least favourite member of the brass. "You must be that angry civilian who got the military's head out of their asses."
Ed snorted. "They need a kick every once in a while," he agreed.
"Chris, this is Edward Elric," Riza introduced, and Roy could feel the weight of the stare his aunt pinned on him.
"Roy-Boy always has such wonderful stories to tell about you, Mr Elric."
"Ed, please," Ed insisted. "I'm afraid I can't say that the bastard's ever mentioned you, though. Something about my being a loudmouth?"
Roy reached out and absently placed a hand over Ed's mouth. "You are a loudmouth," he commented before laying down the facts he could recall, "Theodore Welrod. He was a colonel under Clemin's command, led the group that staked out the radio station where we sequestered Mrs Bradley on the Promised Day. When Father's plan failed, he was the one who brought her in safely and was declared a hero, so Grumman had to promote him. He sent him up to North City so Olivier could keep an eye on him, from what I understand."
Ed pulled Roy's hand away from his mouth, scowling. "Okay, so he's a slimy fuck; why have Lee plant bombs and then call him?"
"Grumman, Bess, and I weren't supposed to survive," Roy reminded him, and he could see the picture beginning to form in his mind, leaving him, in turns, impressed and sickened. "Lieutenant Generals Peabody and Spencer are known for taking lunch a little early, and both of them sit fairly close to Grumman's usual seat in the officer's mess; if Spencer hadn't been home with his son, he'd likely be dead, same as Peabody. That clears out almost everyone above Welrod, save Olivier, and she's made it clear she wants to stay up at Briggs. With most of Central's command trapped under the rubble and likely dead, all Welrod would have needed to do was swoop down from North City and take command of the panicked enlisted men, and he'd have control of the military."
Ed closed his eyes, looking disgusted. "What is wrong with the military? This shit is why I got the fuck out at my first opportunity."
"Lee made sure he was in a position to be hurt just enough that he could be excused to the hospital, but not so badly that he couldn't put a call through to North City to let Welrod know everything had gone to plan, giving him a valid reason for catching the next train down here," Riza continued for Roy.
"Very likely, Welrod promised to promote Lee when he had control," Roy agreed. "Lee is exceedingly lazy, would rather make other people do everything for him; he would never manage as Führer, but he'd enjoy the benefits of a higher-ranking among the brass."
"You're going to need hard proof, Roy-Boy," Chris cautioned him. "Everything needs to be above board, or people will see Bradley again."
"Proof I can get," Roy insisted, folding his hands in front of his mouth, "but military crimes mean a military tribunal, and that means behind closed doors."
Ed shifted next to him. "But it's not just a military crime," he said, and Roy frowned over at him. "There were at least four civilians in the dorms, two of which are now dead, and one of the civilian buildings behind the dorms took damage, right? And the explosions shut down most of the city for four hours. Is that enough to try it in a civilian court?"
Roy looked at Riza, who was nodding slowly. "A case could be made," she allowed. "With most of the top brass either dead or in hospital, you'll have trouble filling the tribunal chairs, too."
Chris chuckled and, when Roy and Riza both turned to her, she said, "You're talking about trying two generals in a civilian court. That has–"
"Never been done," Roy finished for her, and he let free the too-sharp smile that was tugging at his mouth. "Good. It's about time the military was held accountable to the citizenry."
"So says the Führer," Ed muttered, but his tone was very clearly one of approval.
.
