Chapter Text
When Colonel Roy Mustang had been sent to seek out a pair of accomplished alchemists called the Elric brothers in the little Eastern town of Risembool, he had expected to find two adult Amestrian men in a pub or town hall or something, fixing people’s radios and broken chairs and such.
He hadn’t expected to come across a basement covered with blood and a little Ishvalan boy missing an arm and a leg.
He stood in the doorway of the little house and stared; all-too-recent memories of children just like this boy, with dull eyes and limbs blown off by alchemy, his alchemy, came to the surface unbidden, and he had to fight not to sink into those memories again. But despite the boy’s skin, hair, and eyes, he was not in Ishval, and the wounds were heavily bandaged, meaning the injuries had been recent. And looking at the horror show that was their basement, those injuries could only be from one thing-- attempting human transmutation.
“What did you do?” Roy hissed, striding closer to the boy and the suit of armor attending him. The boy didn’t move or even blink, apparently catatonic; however, the armored man cringed away and pulled the wheelchair back slightly, seemingly terrified even though he had at least a foot on Roy. The Colonel grabbed the young boy by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up out of his seat slightly and eliciting a shocked cry from the suit of armor. He’d killed so many Ishvalan children, but this was the first one he’d shown real physical aggression towards, Roy realized dimly. “We saw your basement. We know what you did. You committed the taboo, didn’t you?! Didn’t you?!!”
The boy seemed to hear this, cringing away and looking even more broken and ashamed of himself-- a feat Roy didn’t think possible.
“We’re sorry,” the armored man cried with a voice that sounded much too young for his body, grabbing the Colonel’s arm with a shaking, clattering hand. “P-Please, we’re sorry… We just… We j-just wanted… We’re sorry,” he said, sounding very close to tears as he ducked his head. “W-We just w-wanted to see our mother again…”
Roy’s eyes suddenly softened, the man releasing his grip on the boy’s collar and gently dropping him back into the wheelchair. The man in armor was not a man, he now realized; he was a boy as well. The second Elric brother.
“I was under the impression that Ishvalans did not do alchemy,” Mustang said, steepling his hands as he leaned his elbows on the table in front of him. Seated at the head of the table was the owner of the house and the Elric brothers’ legal guardian, Pinako Rockbell; across from him sat the two boys Roy now knew as Edward and Alphonse Elric. “I thought it was seen as desecrating Ishvala’s creations.”
“Although their mother was Ishvalan, these boys were raised Amestrian,” Pinako said solemnly, tapping her pipe against the edge of its ashtray. “Their mother left Ishval to marry an Amestrian man her family didn’t approve of and never looked back.” Edward visibly stiffened when his parents were mentioned; it was one of the biggest reactions Roy had seen from the kid today. “Their mother encouraged their alchemy, actually.” Silence hung in the air after this statement, the tension almost palpable.
“And rightfully. They are extremely gifted,” Roy said calmly, trying his hardest to ignore the tense atmosphere. Although what they had done was horrifying, they had done it with only good intentions, and that was more than Roy could say for himself. “Edward especially. To not only be able to plan a human transmutation at such a young age, but to be able to bind a soul to a suit of armor, even while gravely injured, shows an incredible amount of skill. If he wanted to be a State Alchemist, I have no doubt he would pass the examination with flying colors.”
“State Alchemist?! He’s just a boy, and a terribly injured one at that! And why in the world do you think he’d want to serve the same military that killed his people and devastated this town?!” Pinako snapped, clenching a fist. “Recruiting an Ishvalan boy missing two limbs… the military must be very desperate!”
“I’m not recruiting him, I’m simply offering him an opportunity,” Mustang replied calmly, black eyes boring into the boy’s red ones. There were odd flecks of gold in there, he noted absentmindedly. “If he became a State Alchemist, he would have access to all of our research facilities and libraries that civilians can’t access. Our resources would most definitely make finding a way to restore their bodies much easier. In fact, it could be practically impossible without it.” Roy paused for a moment, glancing at the boy’s eyes again; just as he’d hoped, there was a fire in them now, a determination that had been completely absent before getting their bodies back was mentioned. “Just something to consider.”
“Well, I’ve got to get going,” Mustang said, standing up and brushing a few dog hairs from Den off of his uniform. “If you ever wish to contact me for any reason, just ask for Colonel Roy Mustang of Eastern Command. I hope to see you again, Edward.”
He then left with the blonde woman, and just like that, Ed was done with wallowing in misery and ready to find a way to get his brother back into his normal body as soon as possible-- and if that way involved being a State Alchemist, so be it.