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Chapter Text

Land of Mines

CHAPTER 1

“Where are you from?” the kid next to Edward asked. He looked over but could barely see him in the darkness. The green canvas of the truck bed blocked out most of the light. Edward couldn’t even guess where they were let alone who was next to him. They hit a bump on the road and were slammed back down on the hard metal troop seats earning a chorus of complaints.

“What does it matter?” he groaned in pain only for his brother to smack him in the side for being rude. Edward rolled his eyes. He wasn’t one for niceties and they weren’t very useful, not where they were going.

“I heard that we are going to Xenotime. I used to live there. I wonder if I could see my family again.” The hope in the boy’s voice was a rock in Edward’s stomach. He sounded young, well, younger than Alphonse, and because of that he was very naïve. He didn’t know how to break it to him that their options were most likely a tie between getting shot or blown up. He didn’t think visitors were very much an option.

Amestris was at war. When was it not? It was a civil war between the Southern and Eastern military commands and the rest of the country. At first, it started because of food allocations. Central was draining the farmlands of food, sending all their rations to the North to support the border and leaving the actual farmers to starve. However, once political debate turned to the battlefields, the food rations were quickly forgotten, and it had just been about who had the bigger guns. For Edward, his brother, and all the other people who were forcefully caught in the middle, the war had just been about living to see another day. Now, with the war ending in a dreadful loss for the farmers, they all sat as prisoners of war in the back of a truck that was taking them to a minefield. With only a crash course in mine disposal under their belts, it was more likely that they would be blown to the heavens than ever see any semblance of their families again.

“Wouldn’t that be something,” Edward muttered, deciding against voicing his opinions. They hit another bump and the truck shuttered, making several of the occupants groan.

“Edward,” he heard his brother whisper to him. “Xenotime isn’t too far away from Resembool.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Just one minefield away.”

The truck shuttered again, and Edward heard the brakes of the vehicle kick in. They pulled to a stop and the driver’s doors opened and shut. All of them waited silently with bated breath. This was it.

Edward was blinded when the canvas cover on the back of the truck was lifted and the bright daylight came pouring into the musty truck bed. He blearily blinked his eyes to get them to focus as he heard Amestrian soldiers yelling at them to get out of the truck. Each of the other kids in front of them shuffled their feet and hopped out, racing to line up for their overseers. Edward squeezed his brother’s hand lightly in reassurance. They would be okay. He would make sure of it.

They hopped out of the truck into the dirty driveway of an old farmhouse. It was set on an open field that had once been used for sheep and livestock but now was covered in high grass and weeds. The only thing it was being used for now was an Amestrian minefield, the one that they would have to diffuse. Before he could take in much more of the scenery, he felt a rough shove. A soldier sternly glared at him and motioned for him to keep moving. He grabbed his brother’s hand and quickly hustled over to where the other prisoners were waiting for instructions.

 As they stood in line, stiff and tall, mimicking some semblance of military discipline, Edward finally caught a look of the others in his group. A sense of dread washed over him. They were just kids. They were a mismatched bunch of country kids, snatched from their schools, tossed into hand-me-down Eastern uniforms, and thrown into a war they never wanted to be in and didn’t understand. Most of them were younger than his brother, making him the oldest one there, but not by a large margin.

They stood there as ordered and they listened to the truck pack up and leave. Apparently, the guards that drove them there didn’t care to wait around for too long. They probably had better things to do than to watch prisoners blow up in a minefield. However, their new guards were nowhere to be seen. All of the prisoners waited for an order or for any sign of life, but there was none. The farm appeared to be entirely vacant. The other boys were shifting around and Edward could tell that they were getting anxious. He, too, had just begun to think that they had been dropped off at the wrong location when the door of the farmhouse opened and outstepped another blue soldier.

The man was a Central city officer by the appearance of his uniform, and he looked like he wanted anything but to be outside in the rising summer heat. The scowl that darkened his face was like a raging storm cloud on the horizon. His tempest mood threatened a hurricane should the winds change. As he approached them, his dark black eyes scanned the line of workers with every ounce of disgust they could muster. At that moment, he felt nothing more than a bug ready to be squashed under that man’s boots.

The man came to a stop in front of them and continued to study them. He looked around as if searching for more prisoners, but they were fourteen. They were all there were. Eventually, the officer let out a growling sigh of disappointment and addressed them.

“I am Colonel Mustang,” the man introduced himself. “You will address me as Colonel Mustang or sir, is that clear?” There was silence as everyone looked at each other unsure of who was to answer. “I said, am I clear?!” the man barked out as the half-second delay was a moment too long.

“Yes, sir!” they all chimed hoping to appease the officer’s demands, but the man didn’t smile. There was no pleasing him. Instead, he moved to the front of the line and pointed at the first unfortunate kid.

“You, what is your name?” he asked.

“P-Pitt,” the boy answered nervously.

“Pitt, what?” his deep voice threatened.

“Pitt, sir!”

“Very good,” he commented before moving on to the next kid. One by one they each listed their names out for the man to remember until the Colonel arrived at Edward. Before he asked for his name, he took a step back and studied him and Alphonse for a moment.

“You two look related,” he stated. “Are you?” he asked Edward.

“Brothers, sir,” he answered stiffly.

“Brothers. Interesting.”

“Edward and Alphonse Elric, sir,” Alphonse added. The dark eyes of the Colonel hardened as they turned on his brother.

“Did I ask you?” he breathed out. Alphonse looked taken back for a second.

“N-no.” Edward watched in horror as the officer wound up and slapped his brother right across the face. Alphonse whimpered as he gripped his cheek in pain, tears welling up in his eyes. Edward moved to make sure his brother was alright but the Colonel snapped his fingers at him and motioned for him sternly to stay put. While he wanted to argue and give the man back what he dealt, the Colonel had a gun. He knew he wouldn’t be helping his brother with a hole in his back.

“No, what?” the man breathed.

“N-No, s-sir,” his brother trembled. The Colonel didn’t smile at his pain. He only nodded his head as he saw his message got across. He turned back to Edward.

“Judging by your reaction you must be the older brother.” Edward didn’t dare respond. He glared daggers into the man’s dark eyes and stood firm. The Colonel looked unphased by his silent defiance and took a challenging step closer. Edward didn’t back down.

“Don’t let your protective stubbornness get you or your brother killed. You two better watch where you step if you each want to make it home together. Do you understand?” Mustang’s dark eyes pierced his with a fiery hatred.

“Yes, sir,” Edward bit out in spite. The Colonel gave him a once over before seeing something that satisfied him. He stepped back and returned to the entire line of prisoners.

“Out here, my word is law. My orders are life. You will obey everything that I tell you without question,” he yelled out at them. “Your goal here is to defuse all 50,000 mines in this field without blowing yourselves up. One breath, one speck of dirt out of place will require me to scrape what’s left of you off the field and I’m not looking forward to dirtying my boots. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” they all responded. He pointed out to the field that awaited them.

“The flags that surround that field are the boundary lines. Red marks danger. Green marks are safe. Every time you remove a mine, it must be counted and then indicated on the map. This,” Mustang said as he lifted a large area map out of his pocket to show them, “is just as important as defusing the mines. It details where the mines are and what type. If you don’t want to die, this marks the road to safety. Who can read?” Only a few of the prisoners raised their hands. Mustang passed the map off to the first person, Pitt, declaring him in charge of it. The poor kid looked startled when he realized all their lives rested in the palm of his hands. From the way he quaked in his boots, Edward felt like he should start writing his will before it was too late.

“Assuming that you each diffuse six mines per hour, the field should be cleared by the end of summer. After which, you will be sent to your respective homes.” They all glanced at each other nervously. It couldn’t have been that simple, could it? Clear 50,000 mines and then go home? The war kept them away for years as fighters or prisoners or both. The thought of ever seeing their home again was a fantastic daydream at best. Now the Colonel was saying that it could be true, if they just survived.

“Don’t look so happy,” he spat at them as he saw the little speck of hope in all their eyes. “So many good men have given their lives for this country. Because of you, they will never see their home again. Now I am stuck giving you a chance that they deserved. It’s a fucking joke.”

 Their hopes withered to shame and they all deflated. Though they were so close to their homes, they were still an entire minefield away. It didn’t matter how much rushed training they had. They were defusing bombs. If they didn’t make it home it would be because they were a scorch mark on the earth. Edward wondered if this was all worth it. However, one glance at his brother he knew it was. The burning fire of hope still lingered in his younger brother’s-tired eyes. He would defuse a thousand mines just to get him to see the fields of Resembool again. If Alphonse was determined to do it, so would he. They would make it home.

………..

Roy barred the doors of the barn and checked that they were secure, locking his prisoners in there for the night. After a long day in the field, they had fallen asleep the instant they hit their makeshift beds. He was considering doing the same after a long hard drink. He massaged his face tiredly as he turned and made his way back to the farmhouse.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

When he entered the house, his Lieutenant was waiting for him, a drink already poured and waiting at the table. He groaned as he collapsed into a chair next to her. Aside from a curt nod, she ignored him in favor of finishing her reports for the General, the reports on the prisoner’s receipt and progress. He picked up his glass and took a long burning sip of whiskey. It seared his throat with painful pleasure. Unfortunately, while it washed away the aches of that day, it didn’t wash away the bitter taste of fear and regret that had seeded in him since meeting those prisoners that morning.

“They’re kids,” he stated flatly, the exhaustion clear in his voice.

“Yes,” she curtly replied.

“They’re kids,” he emphasized once again. He was expecting a truck of old men, of soldiers, of rebels. Instead, he had gotten fourteen young boys, each barely old enough to have made it to high school. He knew that the rebel forces conscripted many of the men who lived down there but he didn’t know they took children. “How the hell am I supposed to clear this minefield when they won’t even last a week out there?”

“They are prisoners of war. They picked up weapons and attacked Amestrian troops. If they survived this war, they will survive this.”

“They still cry out for their mothers-“

“Then keep them alive long enough to see their mothers again,” she snapped. “Don’t coddle them. You won’t be doing them any favors.” Roy looked up at his Lieutenant and studied her. While he would be crazy to have thought her the motherly type, her complete disregard for the feelings of the kids was a surprised to him. However, as he looked, he saw a glimmer in her eyes. This was hurting her as much as it was hurting him. They were kids, Amestrian kids, who had gotten caught up in something they probably didn’t fully understand. They were kids who now had to fight their way through a minefield just to see their parents again. Unfortunately, though, she was right. They needed to survive, and he couldn’t keep them alive if they were acting like it was all fun and games. He couldn’t get soft. He couldn’t get attached.

“Don’t have to worry about that,” Roy grumbled in disdain as he took another sip of his drink. “I was never good with kids anyways.”

 …………………….

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 2

Edward clutched his stomach in pain as he grabbed his prodding rod from his bunk and marched to stand out in line with the rest of the prisoners to await their dreaded hike to the minefield that day. It had been a week and luckily all of them were still alive. Each time Edward saw his bunk in the evening a wave of relief came over him as he had survived another day. Every morning though, his walk down to the field felt like it would be his last.

A sharp growl erupted from his stomach and he did his best to suppress a painfilled groan. While they had not blown up yet, they also hadn’t eaten in days. The soldiers hadn’t given them anything aside from a few scraps here or there. It wasn’t enough for one person to live off, and definitely not for fourteen. If they didn’t get anything soon, they would die of starvation.

“I’m hungry too,” Alphonse whispered as the marched. “Do you think we will get anything today?”

“Doubt it.” His little brother grimaced in distaste.

“One of the others, Haymond, is having fainting spells. He needs to eat something, or I don’t know how much longer he’s going to hold on.”

“Which one is that again?” Alphonse slapped him on the shoulder in disbelief. He was never good at remembering names and he was struggling to find the energy or patience to care about the other prisoner’s names now.

“The tall one. The one who lives in Baden.”

“Oh,” was all he said on that. He would have to try and commit the name to memory, but he didn’t think it would ever stay.

Their conversation was cut short as they spread out for that day’s work. They dragged themselves across the grassy field, prodding the dirt for mines. Every inch felt like a mile, and every second felt like an hour. They had no distractions. Each one of them worked several meters away from each other so that if one exploded, they would not go down with them. That kept conversations down and their progress steady.

Edward inched forward on his stomach and used his prodding rod to start probing the next few inches in front of him. Despite the field being unused, the dirt had remained soft since its last tilling, probably done so when the mines were put in. He stuck the probe easily into the soft earth to feel for any impact. After a couple of sweeps, he felt it stop as it hit against something hard beneath the surface. Edward let out a huff of air in defeat. He was never lucky enough to find nothing.

He removed the probe and reached into his pocket for a small trowel that he used to delicately sift the dirt away. It was an anti-vehicle mine, one that he had defused plenty of times before in the training the Soldiers forced them through. He carefully unscrewed the pressure plate that hid the fuse and delicately reached in to twist it out. With bated breath, he lifted the fuse and flinched expecting a blast from the mine’s disturbance, but there was only silence. A sigh of relief escaped him as he pocketed the fuse and began to unearth the rest of the deactivated mine.

Another down, over 49,000 still to go.

As Edward set the deactivated mine to the side to recover at the end of the day, he looked back over his shoulder to see the Colonel sitting on the grassy hill, watching them. He sat there, laid back and relaxed like he was having a day on the beach; however, his eyes were like a hawk’s. As he scanned the field, his eyes latched on to Edward’s even at that distance. They were cold and calculating, like a hunter watching its prey. Edward didn’t stare into them long enough to figure out whether he was hungry. He simply turned back and continued to sweep the field.

He defused ten more mines over the next couple of hours and was working on his eleventh. He gently twisted the fuse just like all the others and pulled it out. The instant the fuse cleared metal there was a loud roaring explosion next to him. He flinched and ducked his head. A scatter of dirt and rock sprayed him. As the ringing in his ears dissipated, all he could hear were screams.

Edward checked himself when he realized he wasn’t dead. He still had his wits and limbs about him. The screaming was coming from the kid next to him. He scrambled to his feet and bolted over to the newly made crater in the earth. The kid lay in his own beat-up path, screaming and crying in pain. His body was mangled and charred, a mix of blacked charcoal and red blood. Edward nearly took a step back at the sight.

“Please, please, I want my mom. Please, help. I want my mom!” the kid sobbed uncontrollably as he reached up for help. What was left of his hand was a twisted bloody stump. A few other of the prisoners gathered around to see, but few consoled him as they were all too shocked to move.

“What are you standing there for?!” a roar came from behind them, startling them out of their daze. The Colonel was storming down the hill from his perch, looking more pissed off than usual. “Two of you take him up to the vehicles for medical attention. The rest of you get back to work!” Edward bent down and scooped up the bloody mess with the help of another prisoner. He writhed and screamed even harder as his injuries were jostled. Edward gave a few consoling words, but nothing could soothe injuries such as these.

They dragged him up to the house and set him gently on the ground. The instant they let go of him, the Colonel shoved them unceremoniously out of the way and knelt next to him. The kid, delusional from the pain, grabbed onto him and begged to see his mother. Mustang didn’t seem phased and pulled a small package out of his belt. Withdrawing a small pin, he plunged it into the kid’s shoulder, silencing his whines with a single prick.

Edward never seen morphine used before. He knew that soldiers carried it around for dire circumstances, but the southern rebellion never handed out anything like a medical kit even as they threw them at the front lines. Everything they used was what they could scrounge up at the local general store or farmstead. However, considering how fast it worked, he didn’t think he would ever want to be in the position to use it.

The Colonel stood up as the other Amestrian soldiers were already gathering around having been drawn out by the commotion. He snapped his fingers at two of them.

“Havoc, Fuery, bandage him then take him immediately to the medical facility. Record his name for the registrar as Haymond McCovic, Prisoner 156832,” he ordered strictly. Edward stood there in shock as the Colonel had recited that kid’s name without any hesitation. Where Edward worked alongside him for several days and couldn’t recall his name in the slightest, the Colonel knew it by heart. The two men saluted and without hesitation obeyed.

“Do you like just standing around and being worthless?” Edward looked up to see that the Colonel’s focused glare had turned sour with the sight of two prisoners just aimlessly standing there. “Get back to work.”

Edward turned and scrambled back down the hill towards the minefield, the other prisoner hot on his heels. He looked back only once to see the Colonel’s watchful stare following them carefully. After that, Edward didn’t think that he would allow himself to forget the name Haymond again.

…….

The prisoners hauled in the last of the defused mines and set them in rows organized by type. Roy watched them carefully as they counted them for the record, ensuring that they didn’t miss a single one. This was their third time counting them all, and their numbers unfortunately were the same. Every day they had been defusing less and less. They had barely begun, and they were already falling severely behind schedule. At this rate, they would all be spending Christmas with their faces in the dirt pulling fuses.

 “Sir, that’s 400 mines,” the kid named Pitt reported after they finished counting once more.

“That’s it?”

“One hundred eighty anti-vehicular, two hundred stakes, and twenty anti-personnel,” he clarified and turned over the updated map. Roy looked it over. All of them were marked down with precision. The kid looked like he took pride in his work. Any normal supervisor would complement a job well done. Unfortunately for him, they weren’t going to get it.

“What the hell are you doing out there?” he growled, all the prisoners stopped what they were doing and looked up at the sound of his voice. “How many mines did I say you have to defuse on the first day you got here?” he yelled at them. They shifted nervously, too scared to answer. “No one knows?!” A single hand raised timidly in the air. It was Alphonse, the younger Elric boy.

“Six per hour, sir,” he answered quietly.

“Yes. Six per hour. How many did you do today?” Again, he raised his hand.

“Three and four-tenths, sir,” he whispered, shame evident in his voice. Roy was shocked by the accuracy and speed of his calculation, but he did not let his amusement appear on his face.

“Barely half! You should be removing no less than seven hundred mines a day!” he scolded. “Do you want to go home? Do you want to see your families again?” The crowd of prisoners all whimpered their tear-filled yesses. “Well, it doesn’t fucking seem like it! We will be here for as long as it takes. Three months, three years, three decades. You will not get a sliver of relief until those fields are clear. Three and a half mines an hour is a fucking disgrace!”

“We need food,” a voice rang up from the crowd. It was the elder brother. He pushed his way to the front of the group and stood there defiantly. The rest of the younger boys waited in frightful anticipation while his own eyes glowed in helpless frustration. “Sir, we can do six mines an hour. We can do more if we have to but we need to eat. If we had food I think we would have enough energy to work longer-“

“Is that what you think?” Roy interrupted in false amusement. “Is that what all of you think?” He looked around at all the other prisoners who were staring at him, waiting with bated breath for him to show some mercy. Unfortunately, he could not give them any.

“Well, I don’t give a damn what you think!” he yelled at them, silencing any argument that they might have had. “I don’t give a shit about any of you. Even if food gets here, you rebels are not the first in line. You barely even make it to last place.” The tearful despair written on their downfallen faces was almost unbearable to Roy, but he dug in and held his place. They were dealt a shitty hand, but they still had to play it. They had a quota to meet. Food would come eventually, but if they gave up now, he would not be able to keep them in line the next time there was a shortage.

“Then what the hell are we supposed to do, sir?” the kid growled in defeat. His younger brother pulled his shirt to get him to stop but the elder kid buckled down and took another step forward. “We either die from starvation or die from a mine. Why not shoot us to get it over with faster if our presence is such torture to you?” Roy instantly drew his pistol and pointed it right toward the kid. All the prisoners froze in shock as the stand-down occurred.

“If you’re crying so much about the lack of food, how about we eliminate one of the mouths to feed? It’s just too damn easy to make your brother an only child,” Roy bit back. The elder Elric looked shocked that he was called on his bluff but didn’t allow himself to flinch as he stared down the barrel of Roy’s pistol. He still looked like he wanted to argue, but Roy wouldn’t allow himself to be reasoned with as his index finger toyed with the trigger. A sobbing plea from his brother made the kid visibly back down. Roy gave it a few more seconds before he holstered his gun, earning a sigh of release from all the prisoners. Roy did not let his own relief show on his face. He was not eager to make an example of the kid.

“Off to bed, all of you. Maybe if you slept more and spent less time complaining you would have enough energy to be grateful for what is given to you,” he ordered harshly. One by one, the prisoners broke out of their defeated stupor and started walking back up the hill. Roy watched as they trudged past him. Edward comforted his little brother who was giving him an earful for being rash and stupid. The sound of stifled sobs and empty reassurances filled his ears.

The worst thing was that the Elric kid was right. They wouldn’t last much longer in the field like that. Even the largest of the boys had sunken cheeks and a bony face. They were all surely starving. They had worked all day with their faces dug into the dirt sweeping for mines, and what did they have to show for it? Nothing. They would all be going to bed hungry once more.

The last one of them disappeared over the top of the hill and Roy felt his false anger die. He let out a defeated sigh and massaged his brow tiredly. He needed to find food and fast or else he might just not have a team to work with.

….

The next day they were given what they had called soup that evening. It was just a bucket of hot water with a few specks of seasoning in it. If they tried hard enough, they could pretend to taste the chicken bouillon. It did nothing to sate them and only roused their appetites more. Edward did not complain. It was more than what they had some days and, since the previous day, he learned his lesson about speaking up. He divided up the soup into thirteen equal portions and handed them out to the rest of the prisoners. His brother looked down heartened at the sight of their meal.

“Makes me wish we had Granny’s stew,” he stated sadly as he stirred the hot water with his spoon.

“Yeah,” Edward muttered in response. He watched the Colonel cautiously as he casually talked to his men just beyond their cooking fire. He didn’t seem bothered that they weren’t thrilled with their most recent meal.

“Do you think we can get some when we go home?” Alphonse asked hopefully.

“Yeah, I’ll take you home to Granny and she can make the biggest pot of stew you have ever seen,” he said. Though he didn’t quite believe his own words, he would make sure that they were true for Alphonse’s sake. His little brother brightened at the comment and began to eat his dinner with the imaginary taste of stew in his mouth. Edward took a bite of his own and his stomach roared in complaint.

“Delicious,” he said sarcastically, making his brother chuckle wearily. Just as they tried to lighten the mood, however, there was a groaning whine. The kid that sat next to them looked bitterly down at his bowl, more so than someone should when food was that scarce.

“My home is right there. Right down the road. My parents probably have food. They would have left something. I should go and pick something up,” he whined. He could never remember his name, but he knew him too well. He was the kid on the truck hoping to see his family. His childish naivety was crushed within the first few hours of getting there. Optimism didn’t survive well in a minefield. However, while they all grieved for food, his complaints didn’t seem empty this time around. They sounded desperate.

“Don’t say dumb things,” Edward hissed at him quietly as he kept one eye on the Colonel. “You’re not going to make it better for yourself.”

“But it’s right there! It’s right there!” the kid cried, tears welling in his eyes as he was starting to become hysterical.

“It’s okay. Just a few more months,” Alphonse tried to console him quietly in hopes of shutting him up. Letting the Colonel hear them cry about their homes would only give them more things to think about.

“I can’t. I can’t take this anymore,” the kid whined. “I need to go home. I don’t want to starve. I don’t want to get blown up. I just want to go home!”

“Don’t do anything stupid!” Edward bit but the kid jumped up from where he was sitting. His bowl of hot water hit the ground with a clatter making the rest of the camp turn to them. Alphonse reached out to grab the kid’s ankles but he bolted. Edward watched in shock as the hysterical boy made his mad dash for freedom. Out of the corner of his eye, the Colonel drew his pistol. Without any hesitation or remorse, the gun was fired, and the silhouette of the kid went down and disappeared in the tall grass. Everyone froze where they were, afraid that if they moved, they would get the next bullet. Mustang carefully holstered his pistol and took score of the rest of them.

“Eat up,” was all he said, before he turned back to the conversation he was so rudely interrupted from. No one else made a single complaint about their food.

……………….

Roy drove with Hawkeye to drop off the kid’s remains the following morning at the medical facility at headquarters. The poor kid barely looked older than ten, and now would not be getting any older. Roy wished he could have just let him keep running. He wished that he could have let him find his home, but he couldn’t. If he let one loose, the rest would follow. The line had to be drawn and it was done so with a bullet.

He had started out with fourteen kids and within the first week, he was down to twelve. His Lieutenant had faith that they would survive. Now they were tasting the bitterness of that falsehood. More would follow if they didn’t eat. Either the prisoners would make their chances outrunning a bullet or they would simply waste away to nothing. They needed to find a solution.

They entered the makeshift base camp and Roy ordered Hawkeye to finish their job to deliver the remains to the medical tent. He, on the other hand, was about to be a good dog and try to beg for more food. The Generals must have known about the shortfall, which made him highly doubt that they would change their minds. 

The officer’s tent was hot and stuffy like all the others. However, unlike the rest of camp where there was always a Private or Sergeant breathing down your neck, it was spacious and didn’t have many people in it. Seeing the General writing at his desk, Roy cautiously walked over in hopes that his interruption would get him on the wrong side of the conversation before it began. He promptly stood at attention and saluted the higher-ranking officer as he reported.

“General, sir,” he said. “Colonel Roy Must-“

“What do you want, Colonel?” the older man sighed. “Can’t you see that I am busy?”

“Sir, I have come to submit a resource request-“

“A resource request? For what?” he ruffed. “Those hicks are searching for mines. They don’t need anything else but a stick and a shovel.”

“Sir, they need food. I can’t run the mission if my workers are dying of starvation.”

“You get rations-“

“Only enough for my team and I, not the prisoners-“

“And how do they concern me, Colonel?” the General asked rhetorically. “That food is Amestrian military property. They are not to be wasted on scum like them.”

“They can barely walk the fields anymore. They’re fainting on top of mines-“

“Then what use are they to me?” he snapped. “If they can’t work anymore shoot them and replace them.” Roy forced himself to still as the shock of the General’s words nearly overtook him. He couldn’t have meant that, could he? Unfortunately, the look in the man’s eyes told him that he did. To the General, the prisoners weren’t kids, they weren’t even people. They were a means to an end.

“Sir-“

“Colonel, that is the end of this conversation. You will use the resources available to you to complete your mission. If that field isn’t cleared by the end of August, I’ll put you out there with them! Now, leave!” Roy bit his tongue and saluted the General. The man glared and didn’t return the gesture. In defeat, he turned around and slowly left the officer’s tent.

Hawkeye was standing by the truck waiting for him. He knew he wasn’t covering his defeat well enough when she said, “We will find another way, sir.” He sighed tiredly.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Any news on that first kid?”

“I dropped the one off at the morgue. He was there as well. He died yesterday from his injuries,” she reported plainly. Roy cursed silently. One lost life now just turned to two. Keeping these kids alive was making to be an impossible battle, one that Roy couldn’t bear losing.

 He was just going to admit to Hawkeye that he didn’t know what else to do but paused as he caught sight of the back end of the mess tent. Hawkeye followed his line of sight and her eyes widened slightly as she knew what he must have been thinking. Roy was going to get a beating for this if he was caught, but he didn’t give a damn.

“I won’t wait long,” Hawkeye warned him as she hopped in the driver's seat of the truck. Roy accepted the small window that she was giving him and his stupidity. After a glance both ways he saw that no one was coming, and quickly ducked in. He grabbed the first crate he could find and quickly made a beeline for the truck. He threw the goods carelessly in the back and hopped in. Without a need for words, Hawkeye drove them out of the camp and back down the road toward their own.

……..

Edward woke up with the normal pain in his stomach. It was becoming unbearable, and he didn’t know how much longer they were going to last. He had started to have dizzy spells within the last day. If he went on like this, he would have wound up like that other kid, fainting right on a land mine. He stared up at the mattress above him and waited for the dizzying feeling to go away. The pain in his stomach helped refocus him enough to sit up and get his feet on the floor.

“Al,” he groaned and gave the bed above him a few rough shoves. “Al, it’s time to get up.”

“You don’t sound so good,” his younger brother commented as he hopped nimbly down from his bunk. He was on his feet and was all ready for the day. He was fairing their hardship better than he was, but he was always better at hiding his pain through his optimism. Edward could see that his brother had lost a lot of weight already. Anymore he might disappear into thin air, though he could probably assume that he looked to be in a similar state.

“I’m fine. Just had a nice ham sandwich in my dream so I am all set for today,” he joked lightly making Alphonse smile.

“That’s not fair! I only had Brussel sprouts!” he returned playfully.

“I will wake the others. Can you get the water for breakfast?” Alphonse nodded his head and Edward slugged his boots on and began kicking the other bunks. The other boys groaned and whined but despite their complaints, they eventually got up to get ready for the day. Edward did his best to avoid the corner of the barn with the empty bunk. They had started out with seven full bunks and now they were dwindling fast. He tried to ignore it though he knew it would only take time for more of their beds to lie empty.

Just as Edward was about to wake the last few, the door to the barn was flung open startling them all awake. In the doorway, stood a rather disheveled Alphonse.

“Are you okay?” Edward asked as alarm bells rang in his head. His brother looked panicked, but he couldn’t imagine what it could be from.

“H-ham sandwich,” was all his brother could blabber out.

“What?” Alphonse grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him firmly.

“There’s ham sandwiches outside!” he hissed sharply. “Please tell me I’m not going insane, brother!” Edward’s eyes widened in surprise, and he pushed him out of the way to go check for himself. Lo and behold, there was a tray of twelve plain ham sandwiches waiting for them by the fire pit. Edward found his mouth dropping open in shock. There was food.

“Who do you think brought it?” Alphonse asked as the other prisoners gathered around to stare in awe at the plate.

“I don’t know.” It could have been anyone. It could have been the cruel lady who owned the farm. It could have been the Amestrian soldiers. It could have even been someone passing by. Edward didn’t know if it was a cruel trick or a genuine act of kindness, but he didn’t care. At that moment, he was willing to risk the world just to have a single bite of one of those sandwiches.

They divided up the sandwiches and each one disappeared before they even had time to hit their trays. Tears were brought to their faces as they tasted the sweet simplicity of their meals. They relished and rejoiced every bite.

As they finished up their meals, Edward’s stomach dropped as he saw the Colonel approach them from the farmhouse. He didn’t think the man would be happy to see them enjoying a meal they probably weren’t authorized to eat. They all stilled and awaited the officer’s reaction. Black eyes scanned them and their dirtied plates, betraying nothing of what the man was thinking.

“Get down to the field. You’re late,” was all the Colonel said. Edward felt his anxiousness deflate as the prisoners around him scrambled to grab their probing rods and hats. He was expecting to be scolded and berated for wasting time eating but there was not one comment on the food. The Colonel simply waited patiently for them to get ready. Black eyes turned on him as Edward sat there staring at him in shock.

“Get going, Elric, we don’t have all day,” he ordered stiffly. There was a tug on his shirt as his brother pulled him to his feet and out towards the field. He couldn’t help but glance behind him where the Colonel watched them steadily, lax and vigilant as always. It might have just been the food but something about that look now gave Edward some hope.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 3

“You are falling behind. You should have twice as many mines defused as you do now. What is the hold up?”

“We are down two workers. After a learning curve, the individual prisoners are meeting their quota now but being shorthanded means that we can only reasonably meet 550 mines a day. They have been doing that, if not more most days,” Roy tried to reason with the General over the phone. The conversation was a growing headache for him as the General was not one to be reasoned with. The curses and insults that spat out from the other side was evidence of that enough.

Roy’s prisoners fell behind due to the lack of food. However, after tactically acquiring rations every time he had to pay headquarters a visit, the prisoners were back on their feet and diffusing their quota if not more. Unfortunately, they were still behind and being down two workers was not helping. While the numbers that Roy and his team had to report back only told part of the story, that was the only story that the General cared about.

“You have been running into too many snags for a simple task. I will be coming down to see your mess of a crew and maybe figure out why you are such a useless officer!” the General roared over the phone before the line cut out. Roy closed his eyes and took in a frustrated breath before hanging the phone on the line.

“More trouble?” He turned around and glanced at the farmwife who was carrying a load of wash to hang. She was the owner of the field, house and barn that he and his team had taken over.

“No, Mrs. Tucker, just a visit from headquarters,” he smiled. She nodded her head, not believing him.

“Well, don’t let them bring any more of that scum down here. I can’t stand them running around here while my daughter’s about. With any luck the rest of them will walk over a mine and then be out of my hair. That was the only good thing my rebel husband ever did for this family,” she huffed sharply as she hoisted the laundry basket higher on her hip. While she was nice to the Amestrian soldiers whenever they were around, she had made her opinions of the prisoners quite clear. She loathed everything about the civil war and the rebellion. Her bloodlust and disdain were more than Roy had seen in even some battle worn soldiers. He had to have one of his men keep an eye on her as she had already tried to sabotage things for the prisoners such as feeding them rotting food or lacing their laundry with hot pepper flakes. While he was grateful for her hospitality, her cruelty was not making it any easier for him.

Roy didn’t know what he could say to her, so he simply smiled gratefully and excused himself from the house. He followed the trail to the minefield where the rebels were already out sweeping under the guard of a few of his men. He saw Hawkeye watching over them carefully, her eyes never straying from their work.

“Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir?” she responded, her eyes still latched to the field. The day she didn’t take her work seriously would be the day the Amestrian military ceased to exist.

“Headquarters will be coming down,” he noted.

“I’ll send Fuery to hide the rations,” she commented, already thinking of things to be cautious about now that higher ups were visiting. “Why might I ask that they are coming down now? We haven’t had a mishap in weeks.”

“We are behind on our quota-“

“We are down two workers-“

“That apparently doesn’t matter,” Roy sighed. “He wants us to have them work faster and he’ll probably do whatever he can to make them.”

“He’s going to get them killed,” she said stating the obvious.

“That also apparently doesn’t matter to him.” The two of them watched down the hill as the prisoners painstakingly crawled their way through the dirt. They had nothing to protect themselves. They only had their wits and a small stick. It would be a miracle if a single one of them saw the last mine get pulled from the field.

Havoc yelled down to the field to signal that it was lunch. The workers crawled back out of their dug-out paths and hiked a short way up the hill for their daily break. They were beaten and tired as they trudged on. As they passed Roy, the exhausted and filthy faces turned the other way. Only one pair of golden eyes watched him as the elder Elric marched by. They peered guarded beyond a veil of mud as he walked between him and his equally filthy brother. The kid was stubborn, that was for sure. Roy just hoped that his protectiveness didn’t get him killed, whether it be from a mine or forcefully from Roy’s own hand. He already had to take one of the prisoner’s lives, he didn’t think he could make himself take another should the case arise. They glared at each other, neither backing down.

“Have them take their hygiene day this evening and give them a larger dinner than normal,” Roy ordered Hawkeye as the prisoners disappeared over the hill. “I doubt the General would like to see them waste time with such things.”

“Yes, sir,” his subordinate replied. It was an order eagerly accepted. As Roy was about to turn to leave, Hawkeye called out to him.

“Sir?”

“Yes?”

“You take one too. Your anxiety is giving a stench.”

“Thanks, Lieutenant,” he deadpanned. As much her jab pained him, he was grateful for the reminder. He couldn’t let himself look worried in front of the General. The only thing worst than being accused of insubordination would be to be accused of caring for a rebel prisoner.

…..

Edward shuddered as he felt the cold water from the pump hit him. All twelve of the remaining prisoners were surprised when they were ordered to wash. They were only allotted one wash day a week, usually without proper soap. They still had two days more mud to collect before they were able to wash it off. Edward didn’t like it that there was a change of schedule. There was something comforting about knowing what to expect, event if they were always expecting the worse.

“Why do you think we are doing it now?” Alphonse asked as he sat by one of the basins doing the laundry for the barn. He had learned their first week not to trust the farm wife for supplies as she had laced the laundry soap with pepper flakes which had resulted in many burns in unspoken areas. They each took turns gathering what they could of the native soap plants in the surrounding fields. They used that instead for laundry and washing themselves as they were not allotted any other soaps to use.

“Who knows,” Edward muttered. “I just hope they don’t push the next one back. They might call us pigs, but I am tired of smelling like one.”

“Would be better if we had a river. Remember when the plumbing went out and we had to wash in the creek for a week?” Alphonse said reminiscing about home.

“Yeah, Winry thought we were playing without her and boy she was in for a surprise,” he chuckled in response as he remembered the memory well.

“I miss her and Granny. I wish that we could write them a letter, just to let them know we are alright.” Edward frowned and glanced back at his brother. Alphonse was looking sad. For the first time since they got there homesickness had really taken over him. He felt it too.

“I doubt that they would give us paper if they can’t even get us soap and food,” Edward said as he let the water run out and started to dry himself off and get dressed in his next weeks clothes. It felt like a fresh layer of skin.

“I have my journal. I could use that for a letter,” his brother said hopefully only for his dreams to be squashed when Edward sent him a warning glare.

“Do not let them know you have that. We aren’t supposed to have anything. How did you manage to sneak a journal in?” They had been searched multiple times upon being captured as prisoners of war. They were reduced to whatever clothes they had on their backs and the minimal supplies they were given. All mementos from family photographs to jewelry were taken. Edward couldn’t believe that his brother would try something as risky as sneaking in contraband, as simple as a journal might be. It made him afraid that Alphonse was taking a little too much after him.

“I tucked it in my boot before they did the checks,” Alphonse admitted with shame. “I write in it… to pass the time…”

“Don’t let them see it. A letter to Granny is not worth getting caught. They know we are alright and, in a few months, when this field is cleared, we will go home.”

“We will?” the hope in his brother’s eyes was returned. Edward didn’t know if it was worth promising something that he couldn’t keep, but if it kept the hope alive, he would promise the world.

“Yeah. It’s just a skip over that hill. A few more mines and we will be tasting Granny’s stew in no time,” he said with a smile. Alphonse seemed to believe what he said. Edward only wished that he could believe it himself.

…………….

The General’s car pulled in the late afternoon the following day. Roy knew he was in for it when the man’s stepped out of the vehicle looking more pissed off than usual. He waddled passed him without saying a word and immediately went into the farmhouse. He was already sweating like a pig in the summer heat despite the sun already on the latter half of its descent. Roy followed and found the General snooping through the farmer’s cabinets, probably having been tipped off about missing supplies from headquarters.

“Sir,” Roy said to distract the man from his half-assed search, “I have the work reports if you want to go over-“

“Why would I want to go over those? I didn’t come all the way down here just to read something that is sitting on my desk back at HQ,” the man scoffed gruffly at him as he gave up his search and closed the cabinet he was prying into.

“Then, sir, I don’t really know why you came down here.”

“To watch and see exactly how you run those rebels. You are missing your quota. There must be a reason, unless that reason is you.”

“N-no, sir,” Roy responded quickly just to earn a glare from his superior. He scoffed in disbelief and began his long lecture of work back in his time as an enlisted soldier. It was the usual spiel that every General gave: history of the army, bragging about their accomplishments, and insulting the current generation of soldiers. It would have been a good lecture if only the General knew what he was talking about and didn’t paint himself as a hypocrite to his own lesson. Roy learned how to politely tune them out for years now. However, just as the General was ramping up his belittlement, the man paused as something outside of the window caught his eye.

“What, what are they doing? Why are they leaving the field?“ Mustang looked to where the General was looking and saw the trail of prisoners walking back up the hill. It had been a full twelve hours in the field, a long day by anyone’s standards.

“The workday is over, sir,” Roy explained tiredly. “After counting the mines, they are going to bed-“

“They should be working, not wasting time sleeping.”

“Sir, they need to sleep. It’s a basic human function provided to all prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention-“

“Don’t you dare explain war to me, Mustang,” the General threatened. “These are rebels, criminals! If they need sleep, they can rest when the field is finished or when the are dead! Get them back out there.”

“Sir-“

“Now, Mustang! Don’t make me do it myself. It is stuff like this that makes you fall behind!” Roy bit his tongue and glanced back out the window where the prisoners were resting their aching feet on the log benches outside the barn. Even from there, he could see the exhaustion on each one of their faces. He didn’t know how much longer they could work in a single day. However, the General yelled at him again in his hesitation. With his own superior officer breathing down his neck, he had to obey.

Reluctantly, he went outside.

When the prisoner’s saw him approach, they all immediately stood to their feet at attention. Amongst them was the beginnings of a small fire not yet lit and whatever food they could scrounge together for dinner.

“What are all of you doing?” Roy bit, the anger in his voice fueled only by his frustrations with his superior officer.

“Making dinner like we do every day, sir,” the elder Elric said flatly. While all the others quaked in their boots like they were caught red handed, the older brother remained firm. Being the oldest kid in the group, Edward had become the advocate. Unfortunately, this was not the time for him to be stubborn, not with the General there.

“Did I tell you to make dinner?” he asked rhetorically.

“No, sir.”

“Then get back down to the field to continue sweeping.” The prisoners looked dumbfounded at each other at the order to go back. Alphonse, the equally stubborn younger brother, stood up to reason with him, but his brother pushed him back down.

“We pulled all the mines for the day,” the elder retaliated before his brother could, keeping the attention on him. “We did 7 mines per hour today. That’s above the quota-“

Roy back handed the kid who fell back from the sheer force. He held his cheek in pain, unable to hide the surprise on his face.

“You do not tell me when you are done! I gave an order, so why do I not see anyone going down to the field?!” he roared. The other prisoners scrambled to grab their probes and started running down the hill. As the Elric brothers struggled to regain themselves, Roy grabbed Edward by his shirt and hoisted him to his feet. The kid struggled in his grip, but Roy set him in his place with another slap to the face.

“I thought you would have learned your lesson about running your mouth, but I guess I was wrong. I should take this as my chance to shoot you. Lord knows why I didn’t take it the last time we had this talk. A bullet is all that mouth of yours deserves,” he bit. The kid’s stubbornness could no longer hide the semblance of fear that he held. Golden eyes widened as he half expected him to pull out his pistol and finish what he had started just a few weeks prior. As Roy glared at him, a hand rested timidly on his arm.

“Please, sir, he won’t be any more trouble,” the younger brother cried. Tears were streaming down his face as the kid really thought that he was going to murder his brother. “Please, don’t hurt him.” Roy found his hand letting go and instantly Alphonse dove in and hugged his brother like their lives depended on it. While Roy knew he wasn’t going to kill the kid right then, to them it probably seemed so.

“Like I said when you first got here,” he growled. “If you two want to make it home together, you better watch your step. Now get down there and start sweeping. You won’t be leaving the field until you pull an additional six mines more than the rest of them.” The younger brother dragged the other down the hill, not wanting to give him a chance to change his mind. Edward watched him over his shoulder as he went. His eyes no longer held that burning defiance, but they still burned. With what, Roy could not tell.

………….

Roy brought them in when it got too dark to see, but even that seemed too early for the General. He watched the prisoners trudge to bed with barely an ounce of energy left in them. Half of them collapsed on their bunks. The prisoners who had the unfortunate time of sleeping on the top bunk decided instead to sleep with their bunk mate. Roy quietly counted heads and locked them in the barn.

“You’re too soft on them, Mustang,” the General scolded him as he left the barn. “You have a job to do. Don’t let their stupid whining get in the way of you doing it. Get them to work or cut them down. They are no use to us if they can’t get the job done.”

“Yes, sir.”

“First light they are back on the field. 0530 I need to see their heads in the dirt.”

“Of course.”

…..

Edward heard the soldiers outside talking through the thin walls of the barn. Most of the other prisoners had fallen asleep as soon as they hit their beds. Even Alphonse was too tired to crawl up into his upper bunk and was crammed on the small space beside him. It sounded like Colonel Bastard was getting an earful from his higher command.

“Too soft? I thought he was being very harsh,” Edward heard his brother whisper beside him. He spun around to see a pair of golden eyes shining back at him in the moonlight. It seemed he was listening to them too.

“It could be worse,” he replied softly. He still remembered the sting of the slap the Colonel threw at him. He hit hard, that was for sure. However, if the man was wanting to do damage, he should have punched him instead. It was odd, but Edward could imagine he was holding back despite his anger. Despite appearances, Edward imagined that his mouth would have earned him a grave on the first day had the Colonel not been so lenient. He had the sense to shut up and survive literally slapped into him. While he wasn’t one to just roll over, after seeing his brother’s fear of watching him die, he would.

“How could it be worse?” While Alphonse was smart, he was also still young and naïve. After being reduced from people to workhorses it was hard to picture something worse than what they were experiencing then, but Edward knew that it was out there. The things he had seen on the battlefield were far worse than what he had witnessed there in the mine fields. They killed without remorse. Plundered villages and tortured the enemy. Both sides threw humanity out the window just to gain what little power they could. He would never wish anything like that on his brother, on any of them.

While Mustang was a bastard, Edward would be a fool to think that this was the worst it could get. After hearing what the visiting General had to say, he knew without a doubt that without Mustang there, most of them would already be dead.

“Go to sleep. We have an early morning tomorrow,” Edward told his brother instead. Alphonse looked annoyed that he didn’t entertain his conversation, but he couldn’t bring himself to pry any further. His brother turned on the mattress and with any hope, fell asleep. Edward stared at the walls of the barn, trying to hear anything else, but all he heard was the quiet whispers of the wind against the rafters.

…………..

Roy closed his eyes and sighed in defeat as he heard another mine go off. He was watching the field alongside his Lieutenant in hopes of getting some fresh air away from his superior officer. The prisoners were working slower than before as sleep deprivation set in and made them confused and sluggish. Unfortunately for them, that only made the General want more. Eight-hour days turned to twelve then sixteen. Each one of them were fighting through exhaustion just to see another day. If given the option, Roy didn’t doubt that the kids would choose to sleep in the field rather than make the hike back up to their now barely used bunks. In fact, if given the option, he suspected the General would prefer that.

Unfortunately, the General’s demands had caught up with the rebels and now they had lost another. From the distance up on the hill, Roy could see that the one that tripped the mine was not moving. They probably passed out headfirst onto it. There was no need to rush him to a medic. There was nothing more they could do for him.

“Sir,” Lieutenant Hawkeye prompted as he had yet to react to the event.

“Bring them in,” he ordered quietly as he watched the rebels slowly start to back out of their paths to help. Lieutenant Hawkeye’s eyes widened slightly.

“The General is not going to like that-“

“Bring them in,” he ordered again. “They can barely work as is and now another one of them is gone. Give them an hour to mourn and some food, then send them back. The General is preoccupied with his own work. With any luck, he won’t come down.”

“And if he does?”

“I will deal with it.” Without another word, his Lieutenant left his side and began ordering the prisoners off the field as a couple other soldiers from his team recovered the kid’s remains. Roy closed his eyes tiredly as the body passed him. He couldn’t bare to see his failure anymore.

The General had been hounding him day in and day out to keep the rebels working. It was exhausting to force himself to be so cruel. It was wearing him thin. Now with another one of his prisoners dead, he didn’t think he could keep up the act. Keeping them in order while keeping them alive was proving to be a near impossible task. Why couldn’t they have just been rebel soldiers? Why did they have to be kids?

“Don’t take it personally.” Roy looked up to see Havoc standing next to him, a smoke in his mouth as he watched the prisoners settle into the soft grass of the hill. He was acting as one of the guards, preferring to be outside rather than pushing paperwork.

“How can I not when I am the one giving the orders?” he grumbled back.

“You aren’t giving these orders, Colonel. They’re coming from the General who unfortunately doesn’t know what a heart is.”

“Don’t be fooled into thinking that I have one.” Havoc shrugged and took another long drag of his smoke.

“Sometimes playing the fool is the easiest way to get through,” he hummed. “They go home after this, remember that. There is an end.” Havoc returned to his post and left Roy to his thoughts. He was right. There was an end. While the path might have been impossible to walk, if they made it, they would go home and be free. That little bit of knowledge gave him hope. He would have them clear the fields and get these kids home.

An hour later Roy ordered the boys to get up and head back down to the field. Despite the shock of losing another friend, the prisoners were too exhausted to mourn. They had used what little energy they had to crawl up the hill and fell asleep near instantly on the grass. Some of them didn’t even finish their lunches.

Roy counted them as they each hobbled back down the hill to resume their work. Unfortunately, as he counted heads, he only saw ten of them. One was missing. Looking amongst the faces, he realized it was the younger Elric brother. Roy grabbed the older brother gently by the shoulder as he passed. The kid glared tiredly up at him with sunken eyes, a snarl on his lips, but not enough energy to vocalize it.

“Where is your brother?” That question earned him a confused look as Edward glanced behind him as if he thought he would see his brother right there. He wasn’t.

“We were just napping over by the barn… He was right there with me,” he explained hesitantly.

“Go do your job. I will find him,” Roy ordered lightly and then turned to head up the hill to find his lost prisoner.

“Sir,” he said so quietly Roy had almost missed it. He paused in his step and looked back at the older brother. His usual brash and protective demeanor was exchanged for what he could only guess was desperation. Roy was honestly glad that Edward had taken care for the younger prisoners. Someone had to look out for them. Unfortunately, as a prisoner himself, he was in no position to make demands. He seemed to have learned his lesson now about speaking out, a lesson that Roy wished that he didn’t have to teach.

“My brother…he can’t last much longer,” he said earnestly. While he was simply stating a fact that Roy already knew, he was begging him for some mercy.

“Start sweeping. I’ll be down with your brother,” he simply ordered lightly. The kid’s face fell as his concerns were dismissed. Frustrated but too tired to fight it, Edward turned and followed his order, probably trying to accept that his brother would be the next to die.

Roy searched around the tall grass of the barn for the missing prisoner. Before long he stumbled upon him laying out on the back hill. As expected, the young Elric was fast asleep, tucked in a soft green wave of grass. While he wanted to let the boy sleep just a few minutes longer, he had work to do.

Roy gave his legs a light kick, jolting the poor boy awake. Golden eyes blearily blinked open, groggy confusion evident on his face. After looking at him for a few seconds it finally registered to the boy who woke him up. He instantly tried to stumble to his feet. He staggered heavily as the exhaustion had taken away his motor skills and Roy had to catch him to prevent him from face planting into the dirt.

“S-S-Sir, I-I was just-“ Alphonse fumbled to explain but his words were slurred from sleep. His eyes were dark and sunken heavily into his dirt covered face. As Roy righted him, he felt the kid’s muscles tremble and shake from lack of coordination and strength. His older brother was right, the kid was a wreck. He probably couldn’t survive another hour out there let alone nine more.

“Get down to the field,” he said stiffly. Golden eyes looked up at him, dismay held in them. It seemed even he knew that he wouldn’t last long. However, unlike his brother, he didn’t argue. He simply took on a brave face and mustered the last of his strength to walk down the hill.

Roy massaged his face tiredly as he watched all the prisoners get settled in their paths. Seeing the condition the Elrics were in, he knew that he had to find a solution and fast, but anything he could do would only make the General come down on them ten times harder. Bringing them back up to their beds would only end in fire. Leaving them down there to work would only end in death. Roy didn’t know what to do.

From the top of the hill, he watched them as they crawled along the ground on their stomachs, prodding the earth for the next explosive. With how slowly and methodically they worked, it almost looked like they weren’t moving at all. Roy watched them for a few minutes before some stupid idea clicked in his mind.

……….

Edward looked to his side to see his brother crawling back to where he had last stopped his sweep. He was barely able to pull himself along because he was shaking so bad. If he did not have the strength to move, surely, he did not have the finesse to pull another fuse without igniting it. Edward felt himself fill with despair. While he knew that the soldiers didn’t care whether they lived or died, there was a slight sliver of hope that the Colonel for once would listen to his pleas. Instead, the man saw the state his brother in and had decided to sentence him to death in the mine field.

He prodded the ground in front of him gently, constantly looking over his shoulder to see how his brother was doing. Every time Alphonse stuck his probe into the soft dirt, his heart froze in fear of him finding something. They worked for only a few minutes before Edward heard the ear grating scolds of the Colonel behind them.

“What the hell are you all doing?!” the man yelled at them. “This isn’t a fucking race! Slow down and look at what you are fucking doing!” A few of the prisoners looked up from their work. They felt like they were barely moving at all, but exhaustion was probably making them careless. The worse thing they could do was miss a mine and have someone walk over it. They needed to be careful. They each followed the order and took more time on each section before crawling forward. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem good enough for the Colonel.

“Slow down!” the man roared again. “Stop fucking up my field and my count!” His voice sparked an anger that Edward funneled into probing the ground. He forced himself to search slower, every inch getting searched three times over. A wave of frustration and confusion picked up amongst the prisoners. One minute they weren’t searching fast enough to meet their quota and now they were going too fast. They tried to follow his orders; however, they could only move so slow. It had gotten to the point that Edward was barely moving at all, and the Colonel was still yelling at them.

“Brother,” he heard Alphonse whisper from his section. Edward looked over and saw a spark in his brother’s eyes that he hadn’t seen in a few days. “I think he wants us to sleep.”

“What?” he gasped.

“I think he wants us to sleep in the field!” The Colonel continued to yell at them despite none of them moving made him realize that his brother was right. The Colonel, for whatever reason, wanted them to sleep on the job. Alphonse had already dug out a small spot for himself and was closing his eyes. Edward looked over to his other side to see the other prisoners trying the same.

“What are you doing, Elric?” the Colonel roared. Edward looked back and saw the man standing over his path, glistening black eyes glaring at him. “Focus on your own work.” Edward glanced over at his brother then back at the Colonel, worried that the man was yelling at his brother for talking. Yet, he was focused on him. His eyes widened in shock as he caught a slight nod from the Colonel. Without saying it, the man confirmed that he was in fact ordering them to sleep. Hesitantly, Edward flipped over on his stomach and buried his head in the dirt. He was confused as to the Colonel’s change of heart but didn’t think too much into it. As soon as he set his head down on the sifted dirt in front of him, his eyes fluttered shut.

A kick to his ankles jolted Edward awake. It felt like he barely blinked but when he opened his eyes, the sun was farther down towards the horizon. The shadows of a forming sunset settled around the Colonel’s rigid form.

“Wake up,” he ordered him softly. Edward blearily looked around and saw the other prisoners shake off their slumber and start to pick up their work once more. It had been hours since the Colonel had ordered them to slow down, giving them just a little more sleep than they had before. Beside him, Alphonse had already started his work. Despite getting only a few more hours of rest, Edward couldn’t stop a small smile of relief as he saw the tremble in his brother’s hands had subsided. It wasn’t a full night’s rest, but they could work. They could see another day.

Edward picked up his probe and stuck it in the dirt, but he couldn’t shake his confusion over the Colonel’s change of heart. He dared himself to take one glance back at the Colonel, only to see him walking back up the hill to his perch as if nothing ever happened.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 4  

The next few days were a similar routine. While the General was preoccupied, Roy would have the prisoners take a couple hours extra of sleep in the field. Even after having suffered their most recent death, with the extra bit of shut eye, the prisoners were able to meet their daily quota of mines. The General was not satisfied, but Roy refused to cave and so did the prisoners. Not getting the cruel satisfaction he desired from the trip, the General got bored. When Headquarters called him back, he left Roy a warning.   

“I don’t like you, Mustang,” he said as he fitted his wide ass into the small driver seat of his car. “If I have to come down here again, it will be you out there instead of those brats.”   

Without the General there, Roy easily had the prisoners slip back into their old routine with shorter days, more breaks, and obviously their well-deserved sleep. With their health restored, they were able to work better and pulled nearly one and a half times more mines than they had before. Roy was sure that even though the General was not happy with the state of their work upon his departure, the numbers in the reports would appease him enough to not return.   

One Sunday morning, Roy was enjoying coffee at the kitchen table preparing his most recent report. A sudden knock on the door startled him. Before he could ask the person to come in, the door was quickly flung open and in it stood Alphonse. This was the first time a prisoner had attempted entry into the house unguarded. As Roy was about to yell at him, he saw the worried expression on his face.   

“S-Sir, Mrs. Tucker… she twisted her ankle-“  

“Where is she? Why aren’t you helping her?” he asked as he stood stiffly up from the table.   

“She won’t let us. She’s putting up quite a fight,” he admitted quietly. Roy closed his eyes and sighed in aggravation. That farmer’s wife was going to be the death of him. He motioned for Alphonse to show him the way and the kid led him out of the house and down the small dirt road to the water pump. He could hear Mrs. Tucker before he could see her. Curses flew over the grassy hillside so shrill; one could mistake her voice for a dying animal.   

“Don’t you filthy rebels touch me!” she cried as a couple of the other prisoners were trying to offer her aid, but she kept batting them away like she imagined them to be hungry crocodiles. Buckets of water were spilled next to her as she must have been trying to carry water for the sheep when she lost her footing. Her ankle was bent out of shape indicating a sprain if not a break. “Help! Help! I am being attacked!”  

“Mrs. Tucker, please calm yourself,” Roy sighed as he approached. She must have thought him an angel with the amount of relief that flooded her face.   

“Please, help. These criminals won’t leave me alone. I don’t know what they are planning but I don’t want them near me-“  

“We are trying to help you, lady!” the elder Elric groaned as he clutched his own bruised face, probably having caught her fist in the altercation. Roy glared at him for his rough language. The kid threw his hands up in defeat but made no more effort to argue.  

“I am going to have to get you to the doctor,” Roy said as he took a quick look at her ankle.   

“Ma’am, unless the war moved them, there is one in town by the post office. It’s a couple minutes ride from here. It’s not far,” Alphonse said in an attempt to reassure the woman, but she took it as an insult.   

“I know my own town, you brat!” she snapped as she smacked his hand away. The young kid withdrew a few steps as he massaged his hand out.   

“How do you know that?” Roy asked the young Elric as he tried to tune out the woman’s obnoxious wails. He was planning on originally sending her to headquarters which was not far but was still a decent drive away.   

“My brother and I lived in Resembool, sir. It’s just over that hill,” he replied honestly. “We used to come here to help herd the sheep to the train station for the wool festivals.”  

“So, you farmed?” Roy asked, only mildly surprised. Most of the kids from that region were from farming families. Yet, he seemed to always forget that when they were wearing remnants of a soldier’s uniform. The kid opened his mouth to answer but didn’t finish as Ms. Tucker continued to scream bloody murder. Roy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was getting tired of this.   

“Ma’am, now listen here!” he barked so suddenly that everyone quieted down. “These boys are trying to help you, goddammit. You better let them!” The boys nervously glanced at each other, seemingly unsure of how to act when his scoldings were not directed at them. Mrs. Tucker’s mouth hung agape as she tried to find where he had the audacity.  

“Well, well, I… I never!” she started but Roy would not let her finish.   

“Ma’am, you either let these boys help you or I would be fine with letting you walk to the doctor yourself. It’s your choice,” he breathed hotly. Mrs. Tucker looked like she was slapped. Admittedly, Roy was one more screech away from smacking the sense into her. She had made his work exceptionally hard both on him and his prisoners just because of her bitterness. He wouldn’t have her blow out their eardrums as well.   

Mrs. Tucker seemed to weigh her options but reluctantly yielded, holding up a hand for aid. Roy nodded towards Edward and the other kid named Pitt, and they hurried to help her to her feet. They led her back to the house and loaded her haphazardly into Roy’s vehicle where he gave instructions to Havoc on where to take her. The lieutenant didn’t look too pleased about spending time with the woman but did what was ordered of him. Roy didn’t relax until the car was over the hill and out of sight. With the chorus of sighs, it seemed like the prisoners didn’t either.  

“Fucking finally,” Roy heard Edward mutter to himself. He should have scolded him for his tongue but only pretended not to hear. He massaged his face tiredly. He didn’t have time for this. The boys were scheduled to go down to the field in under an hour and he still had his reports to finish. To only add to his annoyance, he felt a small tug on his pant leg. He glanced down to see the young farmer’s daughter, looking up at him with big childishly green eyes.  

“Where is my mama going?” the young girl named Nina asked him. He huffed to himself in frustration yet again another kid somehow fell into his lap. With her mother gone, she needed someone to look after her. If Mrs. Tucker sustained a twisted ankle, she will probably need help maintaining the farm as well. He cursed his luck, only managed to get scolded by Lieutenant Hawkeye.   

“She will be back soon. She just went to the doctor’s,” his Lieutenant answered as she joined him in the driveway. While she liked kids, she was not good with kids particularly those so young. The curt answer only made the girl’s eyes well up.   

“Mama’s going where those other boys did. They didn’t come back,” she cried and clamped onto Roy’s leg. While she didn’t know what had happened to the boys who left – Roy couldn’t imagine ever letting her see something like that – she was smart enough to understand that they weren’t coming back for a reason, probably a bad one. Her cries turned into outright sobs and Roy felt helpless and frustrated at his situation.   

“Hey,” a voice spoke up. Roy looked up and it was Edward. He really didn’t want to deal with the kid’s grumpy demands at that moment but after looking him over, Roy realized that he wasn’t looking at him. The kid was kneeling on the ground near the little girl who was doing her best to cut the circulation off of Roy’s leg. The girl opened a watery eye at him and Edward smiled. He held out a small flower that he must have scavenged from the scrub of the driveway. The girl’s eyes lit up.   

“Your mom will be home soon. She just hurt her ankle showing those lazy soldiers how to do their job. I am sure she will appreciate some flowers when she gets back. Do you think that will make her feel better?” he asked sweetly. Nina nodded her head and Edward offered out his hand. “Come on, let’s go find some flowers and let these officers bicker at each other.” The young girl took Edward’s hand, and Roy felt instantly relieved that at least once crisis seemed to be solved. Edward easily lifted her up into his arms and was about to carry her away but then paused.   

“Sir-“  

“Yes, take her,” Roy sighed tiredly as he waved his hand. “Don’t stray far. You have work to do.”   

“Thank you.”   

Edward carried the young girl off to the grassy hillside where there was a lot of wildflowers growing. He was smiling and making some lighthearted jokes to cheer her up, earning the first laugh Roy had seen from any of the prisoners since they got there. Roy felt unsettled that he was being thanked for something as simple as allowing him to play. He was even more unsettled that with a field full of kids, there was nothing childish to be seen. Just as he was thinking those thoughts, they were cut off.   

“Sir,” Hawkeye scolded him gently. “They are soldiers, treat them as such. They have work to do.” The warning caught him as his thoughts had started to soften. Yes, they were kids, but he had to keep them doing their jobs. He had to complete his mission and keep them alive doing so. He couldn’t allow himself to think such things. Roy cleared his throat and straightened out his uniform from where it became creased, and snot covered.   

“This just got more strenuous,” he muttered. “With Mrs. Tucker out of commission for a while, she needs someone to run the farm.”  

“She can hire some help from her neighbors-“  

“Most of which are already strained from the war as is. Even so, we can’t let a bunch of civilians wander so close to the mine field.”  

“Are you suggesting giving more work to the prisoners?” she asked incredulously. “They are already worn out as is. We can’t risk more casualties like before.”  

“It’s Sunday and they are caught up with their mines. At least for today, they can have a break and Mrs. Tucker can have the safe of mind that her farm is cared for.” Hawkeye looked skeptical of his orders but accepted them. For that day, the farm would be a farm and not a mine field. It might still be work, but maybe a change of pace would keep the place running.   

Roy let the boys finish getting ready for the day as Lieutenant Hawkeye alerted his own team about the changes. When it was time to go down to the field, the boys lined up in formation, each holding probing rods and trowels in hand, not realizing that that morning they wouldn’t need them. Roy counted them off, three shy from where they had originally started from, and yet one still missing. He looked around before he saw Edward passing of the young farmer’s daughter to one of the guards. The little girl waved happily at him, already having forgotten her worries from that morning. He waved back as he left, but his smile soon faded upon seeing Roy waiting for him with the rest of the workers. He jogged into the formation and the small amount of joy he gained from playing with the little girl had vanished.   

“Listen up,” Roy said loudly, and all the eyes of the prisoners turned on him. “Mrs. Tucker is otherwise out of commission for the time being. It is her farm, her barn, and her field, that have been so graciously handed to us to care for. In her absence, we need to make sure that it is cared for thoroughly. Today, we will focus on tending to it.” The prisoners’ eyes widened, betraying the surprise at the change of pace. Though the minefield was the last place anyone wanted to be, the routine that they had gave them some security. They knew what to expect even if they expected the worse. This was something different and they didn’t know what would come of it.   

“The focus for today is to feed and tend the sheep, the chickens, and conduct the routine house chores.” Roy watched as the hesitancy in the prisoners faded as he explained their tasks. Chores were something they were familiar with.  

“Who knows how to tend sheep?” he asked. Some of the kids raised their hands, the Elric brothers included. Alphonse was nearly standing on his toes, raising his hand eagerly. It appeared he desperately wanted to be picked. Roy sighed tiredly and picked up the younger brother and another prisoner and tasked them out. A smile spread across the younger brother’s face. It was something Roy didn’t think he would ever see on any of their faces. The kid’s excitement seemed to be infectious as the other prisoners relaxed and more eagerly volunteered for the next tasks at hand. They were all wanting a change of pace.   

After Roy divided up the tasks, he sent them to work, each with a respective guard trailing behind them. The prisoners scurried along, their feet faster than the usual trudge they do down to the fields. It wasn’t a complete change of demeanor. The still held the doomed exhaustion behind each of their eyes, but it was different. Roy realized that there was some hope. Unfortunately, as each of them were finding some sort of new joy in their tasks, Roy remembered that he still had his. Those reports were not going to write themselves.  

....  

The day finished with Havoc returning Ms. Tucker to the house. Her foot was bandaged and it was very apparent she was not going to be using it for a while. She was still as gruff and unpleasant as ever but upon seeing the chores completed and her livestock tended to, she didn’t make any comments towards the boys as they helped her to bed. Roy assumed pain relievers had something to do with it. While he was glad that they avoided disaster that day, he knew that the farm was not going to suddenly run itself. He needed to send the boys down to the mines the next morning or risk falling behind once more. He didn’t know if he could do both.  

“Sir,” Hawkeye said beside him, snapping him out of his thoughts.  

“What?” he groaned tiredly.  

“Look outside,” she simply ordered. Roy massaged his eyes which were tired from staring at his reports all day and turned around in his chair to glance out the window. Outside in the grass, he saw the Elric brothers along with a few of the other prisoners, playing happily with Nina. She was riding their shoulders as they ran around in the grassy field, their dog jumping at their heels. Giggles and laughter reached his ears through the window. It was the first signs of life this farm had held in ages.  

“I’ll go get them to bed,” he sighed as he knew that Hawkeye would scold him for being soft. Prisoners of war shouldn’t be laughing. They shouldn’t be frolicking or playing. They should be working and he was doing a crap job, like everything else, at keeping them in line. However, as he moved to stand up, he felt a hand on his shoulder.  

“Finish your reports. You can order them around later,” she said. He glanced up at her to see the faintest of all smiles forming on the corner of her lips. It appeared that even she had a soft side despite being unwilling to show it. Maybe, just for a little bit, they could enjoy the evening and pretend that they weren’t playing through the aftermath of war.  

Roy took his time finish the reports and by the time he left the house to send all of the prisoners to bed, most were fast asleep. As he counted heads, he heard soft whispers of a conversation coming from one of the bunks.  

“We got to tend sheep again! It was so much fun! I forgot about how much I missed it!”  

“Yeah, you got the sheep. All I got to do was haul water and shovel shit from the barn,” another voice complained.  

“When we get home, brother, I am going to go to school to be a veterinarian. Do you think I can do that?”  

“There’s only one problem.”  

“What?”  

“You have to be smart to be a veterinarian – Ow!” Who he now presumed was the elder Elric got retaliated against for his smart-ass comment. “We will figure out how to send you to school. You will probably have to go to Central or somewhere for university.” There was silence.  

“I don’t know if I could go that far. I am so homesick already and we are only a few hills away. Central? That’s far,” the younger brother mumbled in thought.  

“You don’t have anything to worry about. You always got me. We can go study together. You can do veterinary work and I could do something else.”  

“Like what?”  

“I don’t know, chemistry maybe. Math? Whatever it is, you’re going to be stuck with me for a while so don’t you worry. When we get home, I am going to be right on your tail making sure you’re smart enough to be a vet- ow!” the elder Elric whined again.  

Roy mused quietly in their conversation. Their big future fantasies were things that many people thought about. It gave them hope beyond just want. Unfortunately, kids or not, their dreams would have to wait till they could cross the minefield. Roy didn’t dare himself to think about how many of the prisoners wouldn’t live long enough to see them come true. It was a futile child’s dream created in a world that would not nurture it. But, he let them pretend and he let them dream because if it got them through another day, it was worth it in the end. Tomorrow, though, they had work to do.   

“Go to bed,” Roy ordered into the darkness, effectively cutting their conversation off. “You got a lot of work to do tomorrow.” After a moment’s pause, ensuring that the barn was quiet, he shut the doors and locked them in once more.  

……  

The routine changed but the prisoners didn’t mind. They returned to the minefield as expected but their tasks of running the farm remained. Throughout the day, they would take breaks from probing to run errands or tend the sheep. Paced out, the workload was not much different. More importantly, the distraction from the looming death of the minefield seemed to motivate the prisoners more. In the evenings, similar to before, they would make breakfast and find time to play with Nina before they had to turn in. Mrs. Tucker still seemed to disapprove of them with the way she snubbed her nose, but she didn’t stop her daughter from going out and playing with them. With all the work the prisoners had done to help her and her field, she seemed to no longer have any harsh words to say to them.  

A few weeks went by and the boys were tending their chores after a long day in the mine field. Like the prisoners, Roy found himself relaxing in the new routine. He sat on the crest of the hill looking down in to the mine field. The safe zone was growing exponentially and they were now halfway done with the areas they needed to clear. The opened area was now being used as the pasture it was intended to be. The town of Xenotime was slowly being returned to what it was before the war. While Roy grew up in the city, not fully knowing nor understanding country life, seeing the field restored he could come to appreciate why people lived out there.  

As he was relaxing in the grass there was a sudden explosion from down the hill. He found himself stumbling to his feet as he saw the smoke and dust from a detonated mine rising through the grass. No one was supposed to be in the mine field. Roy sprinted down the hill to see what was going on. He dodged the terrified sheep who were stampeding back up to the safety of their barn, the dog right on their heels to keep them inline. As Roy got to the bottom, he saw the younger Elric standing still and terrified on the edge of the safe zone, staring out into the once peaceful grassland.  

“What happened? Elric, what happened?” he asked but it seemed all the kid could do was point out into the grass. There, in the middle of the cleared field, were the remains of a single lamb. The ground smoldered where a mine had been detonated. The other prisoners gathered around them, summoned by the sudden explosion. The elder brother was desperately looking over Alphonse to make sure he was alright. The kid’s nerves were rattled but he was otherwise fine. A mine had exploded where they thought it was safe. Which meant only one thing.  

“You missed one,” Roy breathed out. The voices around him stilled and only the wind whispered around them. Roy felt his initial shock quickly get replaced by an insurmountable level of rage. “You missed one!” he yelled louder. “Everyone line up!” The prisoners, quickly fell into their lines on the path in front of him, eyes still wide from the shock of it all.  

“All of the mines are detailed on the map! Still, you managed to fucking miss one!” he scolded as he pulled out the map from his pocket and shook it angrily at them.  

“Fifty thousand mines and you still managed to miss one! Is it that you don’t know how to count?” Roy sarcastically yelled. “Do you know how to count? Do you?!”  

“Yes, sir!” the prisoners all replied in unison.  

“Show me! Show me you can fucking count! Count to ten!” The prisoners all looked at each other but after another snap order they each began counting together.   

“I don’t believe you!” he yelled after they had finished. “Count again!” He saw them work up the courage to hold back their tears and count again like they were in kindergarten.   

“So, you do know how to count. Then why the fuck are there still mines out there?” Tears started to stream down their faces. They looked like they wanted to plead their apologies but a simple sorry would not save the person who stepped on their mistakes.  

 “This map is what ensures the safe zones are safe. You are supposed to keep an accurate number and record every single mine you defuse! Now because of your incompetency this is worth absolute shit!” he roared as he threw the map down on the ground.  

“I asked if you were confident in your numbers, and you said yes! If you are so confident in your work that you would risk someone else getting blown up, surely you wouldn’t mind walking the field yourself,” Roy spat angrily at them. “You will march every inch of the cleared sectors until you are 100% confident that there are no missing mines left. If there are, you should be grateful that it is you that is getting blown up and not the farmer’s daughter!”  

A look of horror fell over the prisoner’s face as they realized what he was ordering them to do. They were playing roulette with a mine field.  

“Sir-” one of them started but stopped when they saw the sheer amount of rage on his face. There would be no swaying him. He snapped to a couple of the soldiers around and ordered them to get them on line. His men looked unsure of his order. What he was telling them to do could mean certain death of their prisoners should they have missed another mine. But they didn’t argue and it out as they were trained to do.  

They had the prisoners each link arms with one another. Tears streamed down the boys faces as they feared their next step would be their last. They were to be either blown up or shot if they ran. These were laws they had been living under for the past few months and yet the consequences were now all to prominent to bare. They were going to do a death march.  

Roy knew many commanders who exclusively used this tactic in the heat of battle. They would go through hundreds of prisoners a day just to clear a single strip of land for their tanks to roll through. Roy could never bring himself to doing it. He couldn’t imagine any condition where they should force someone to gamble with death just to clear a field. Only now, he understood. While his prisoners were kids, they had a job to do and they did it wrong. If they missed a mine, anyone going across that field could step on it. It could be tomorrow, it could be ten years from then, but if they missed a mine, someone would pay for it. They were lucky this time it was a lamb and not one of them. They did not have the luxury of combing the field all over again so they did not have the luxury of messing up.  

He nodded his head, giving the order to proceed and his men forced the prisoners to move together through the open field. They marched the entirety of the cleared area twice over. Roy made himself to stand and watch each step with bated breath. He was the one forcing them to march. He would make sure he knew the consequences of being soft. The prisoners arms were tightly linked as their bodies shivered in the cold and trembled in fear. He watched their emotions change from fear, to hope, to relief, then despair with each step they took.  

By night fall, they had finished marching the field and each one of them still had their life and limbs. The prisoners lined back up at the edge of the field where Roy was waiting for them. Their eyes were puffed red from the tears they spilt on their march. Snot nosed and shivering in the night’s chill air, they were a wreck, but they were alive. While they looked like they wanted to collapse in exhaustion, under Roy’s watchful gaze the stood firm and awaited their next order.  

“You will not miss another. Am I clear?” he bit out into the silent night. The prisoners didn’t say anything. Their voices were lost to fear but each desperately nodded their heads in hopes that they were heard. After giving them one more look over, he sent them scrambling up the hill to bed.  

Roy watched as the last one disappeared over the crest of the hill before he let out the breath he was holding. He took in several more as he held his head in his hands just to keep himself grounded in the field. It took him a moment to take in what he had just done. He had sent kids, children , on a death march. And yet, in this sick twisted world, it was justified. He felt like he was going to throw up.  

“Sir,” he heard the familiar voice of his lieutenant beside him. Even in the darkness, he could see her brown eyes staring at him and waiting in the moonlight for his next order. They held sense of remorse that Roy knew his also held.  

“I got attached,” he found himself admitting as the two of them stood alone in the remnants of the cleared pasture.  

“They are prisoners, sir,” she reminded him. He nodded his head.  

“They are prisoners,” he forced himself to agree.  

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 5  

Edward carefully stuck his probe into the earth as they all moved slowly and diligently through the untamed region of the mine field. His brother as well as some of the other prisoners were probing the earth close beside him. Since their death march across the field, they had all taken great care of their work. They probed the fields in more tight knit groups and combed the areas even the map said were empty. The map, they found, wasn’t as accurate as it was claimed to be as they found mines in unmarked regions of the pastures. However, they were too afraid to tell the Colonel this in fear of his next outburst. They simply yet thoroughly continued to probe and defuse, marking all the areas that were affected by mines.  

Edward could not stop thinking about the sheer amount of rage on the Colonel’s face as he ordered them to march. Despite it being days since the incident, the shock and fear that was in him still remained. He had foolishly become complacent in knowing that the Colonel, in some capacity, was looking out for them. The man had gotten them food when they were starving, had them sleep when they were overexerted. Mustang’s anger snapped him back to reality. All the prisoners now were working like machines with the knowledge that they could not afford another mistake. Edward wondered if that was all Mustang saw them as, machines.   

His probe struck the side of something hard and Edward sighed in defeat as he pulled it out and started to unearth it with his trowel. He cleared the dirt away from the firing mechanism and carefully pulled out the fuse. After pocketing it he moved to pick up the mine but stopped as he spotted a small piece of copper wire. He bent down closer to it and saw that it ran out from the mine into the surrounding earth. Curiously, he delicately took his trowel and began shifting the dirt away from the base of the mine. He froze as he saw what laid underneath.   

In an instant, Edward shot up from his spot in the pasture and yelled out at the other prisoners.   

“Stop! Everyone stop!” he screamed. The others looked up at him in confusion. “Stop! They are stacking the mines! There are two on top of one another!” Concerned spread across them as the others began to spread the news down the line. Edward saw nine heads pop up out of the dirt as each of them looked around to see what was going on. Nine wasn’t enough. Far in the distance, Edward saw one of the boys he knew as Pitt still working on his fuses, oblivious to their warnings.   

“Pitt!” Edward yelled out as he started to run down the line towards him. “Pitt stop! They stacked the-” However just as Edward was getting close, Pitt stood up to look at him, a defused mine in his hand. The connected wire tripped and the explosion tore through the earth right towards him.  

.........  

Roy heard the loudest explosion he had yet come from the field. It instantly sent him to his feet and running out of the farm house. They hadn’t tripped a mine while on the job in a month. He almost could have imagined forgetting what it sounded like. Screams picked up from beyond the hill and he saw a few of his own men race down to the field to help. He quickly followed, despite knowing that there was little he could do to help whatever prisoner got tangled in the detonation.   

When he got down to the mine field, he saw a crowd of prisoners gathered near the smoldering ash of what used to be a mine. Some of them were propping up an apparently dazed elder Elric as some of his men were bandaging a bloodied mass of a leg. His younger brother sobbed hysterically next to him as he tried to bring Edward back to his senses.  

“Brother! Ed! It’s going to be alright. You’re going to be fine,” Roy heard him cry.   

“What happened?” he asked the younger Elric. Alphonse wiped the snot from his face with a bloody and dirty palm, only managing to make more of a mess on himself. Roy was relieved to see that the blood atleast was not his own.   

“E-Ed tried to warn us about the- the mines. They were doubled up. A-and as he was warning us-”  

“Where’s Pitt?” a weak and confused voice asked. Roy looked down to see Edward blink blearily at them. He was dazed, possibly concussed, but conscious. Infact, aside from a rather bloodied leg, to his surprise, the kid was otherwise put together. No one standing next to a mine, let alone laying on top of one, would have been in one piece. The other prisoners who met their fate there were not that lucky. The kid shuffled his weight, using what strength he had to sit up further and looked around.   

“Where’s Pitt?” he asked again to Roy’s dismay. It was then that he realized that Edward was not the one who tripped the mine. Roy looked up to where the crevasse remained in the field. There was no sign that the other prisoner was there. A sick feeling fell over him.  

“Get him to the truck,” he ordered and his men bundled up the older brother as best as they could. The kid let out a short cry of pain as he was lifted to his feet. The sound of his brother’s hurt sent Alphonse into a panic. Roy held his hand out to hold the younger Elric back.   

“Please, sir, please give him something. He’s hurt. He’s hurt!” Alphonse sobbed. Roy knew he was asking him to give his brother morphine. He watched as the soldiers helped the kid back up the hill, only stopping once so that the kid could vomit all over their shoes. One gargled apology later, they continued up and over the hill.   

“No. Be grateful that he doesn’t need it,” Roy told the kid firmly. The kid's eyes welled up and tears poured down his snot and blood covered face as he tried to accept Roy’s unspoken reassurances. His brother would live.   

While it was obvious that the younger brother feared for his family, Roy was surprised that many of the other prisoners looked just as distraught over Edward’s injury. It seemed that each one of them grew attached to the elder Elric. Edward was the oldest boy there by a few years. He had unknowingly adopted the task of looking out for the younger prisoners. Roy saw Edward cook most of the meals, give the younger boys some of his food when they were exceptionally hungry, and even console them when they were home sick. Roy assumed that Edward was mostly just looking out for his own brother, but it seemed that many of the other boys were drawn to him. Now that the older boy was injured, the rest of the prisoners seemed lost.   

Knowing that it would not do any of them good to continue to defuse with the stress that they were under, Roy sent the other prisoners to go get washed up. The kids still looked distraught but obeyed as there wasn’t anything else they could do for the elder brother now. He watched as they left the field, each patting the younger brother in reassurance. He hoped that the cold water, aside from just washing his brother’s blood off his hands, would help Alphonse and the rest of them calm down.   

“Sweep the area for that other prisoner-” Roy started to order Havoc once when the kids were over the crest of the hill. Havoc though just shook his head in dismay.   

“We did, Colonel. There is nothing.”  

“ Nothing?” Havoc just shook his head again.   

“Apparently, the elder brother tried to warn them about the mines being stacked and boobytrapped on top of each other. One kid tripped one just as he was going over to warn them.”   

“Shit,” Roy hissed. One mine could obliterate a person’s limb. They saw the mangled mess of the other prisoner’s who unfortunately triggered the mines they were working on. Two though? They could erase that person from the earth. Edward only caught the shockwave and some shrapnel from the blast. That poor kid Pitt took the whole thing. Roy highly doubted they would find much even if they picked apart the grass with a fine-toothed comb. However, they needed to try.   

“Take the rest of the men and give the area a good sweep from here to the safety zone. We need to find something,” he said. “He had a family out there, Havoc. We can’t leave his family with an empty casket.” Havoc nodded his head and after a quick salute continued forward to pass his command down.   

Roy sighed tiredly and massaged his face. This was going to cause a whole new slew of problems in clearing the field. The field was boobytrapped meaning they didn’t know what to expect. When they encountered a mine would it be just one or would it be two? At this point they would need to expect anything which meant they would be moving extra slow through the field. Being down another two people, even more so. He didn’t know how he was supposed to keep these kids alive. However, whatever entity was listening seemed to give him the mercy of sparing one of them. That, he could at least be grateful for.   

.........  

Headquarters was busier than usual. Unfortunately, most of that traffic was around the medical tent. Despite guns no longer smoking, the nurses reported having a higher number of patients now than some weeks during the height of the war. Roy highly suspected it was because of the mine clearing effort. His suspicions were confirmed when he walked into the medical tent to see most of the patients missing a limb or two and all dressed in remnants of the southern uniform.  

“Colonel Mustang, you are here for pick up?” a nurse asked at the reception desk.  

“First time for everything,” he said, earning a sad smile from the nurse.  

“I am grateful that I don’t have to see your face as often as I do other commanders in charge of the mine fields,” she admitted. While she couldn’t say she felt compassion for a rebel soldier, he knew she was grateful that there wasn’t many children going through her medical tent. Roy only wished he didn’t have to visit the medical ward at all.  

“I am here to pick up an Edward Elric, prisoner 310023.” The nurse scanned her log and nodded her head as she found his name.  

“Yes, he is waiting for you at the pickup line outside. He is doing well. Light work with daily wound redressings until healed. It should only be a week or two till he returns to duty but he can walk,” she informed him and pulled out a few release forms. Roy completed what he had to and then took her directions on where to find him.  

The tent, overflowing with patients who needed beds, unfortunately pushed many of those who could stand or walk outside. Roy walked the line of patients until he found a familiar head of golden hair sitting out on the bare dusty road. His face was patched up in a few places where the blast got the better of him. However, his eyes were alert. Upon seeing him, he stood.  

“Sit. The lieutenant will pull the car around,” Roy ordered as he saw the kid wince upon putting pressure on his leg. He didn’t have to tell him twice. Knowing that it would be a few minutes till Hawkeye finished what she needed to do, Roy joined him on the ground. Edward eyed him warily as he sat down next to him. They sat together in an uneasy silence.  

“How’s the leg?” he eventually asked when he saw the boy picking at his bandages in boredom. The kid’s eyes flickered up to him as if to see that his question was genuine. It was. He pulled his pant leg up to reveal a horrible mess. Large splotchy pink scars covered his calf from where the shrapnel caught him. They puckered and raised from poor healing, most likely on their path to become keloids. Deeper wounds and burns were still covered in gauze as they waited their time to heal. Roy was amazed that with all the tissue damage the kid received, his leg still survived. Not many people could say they walked away from a land mine with their life and limb intact.  

“It’s fine,” Edward mumbled quietly. “Can’t really feel it. Aches sometimes.”  

“Yeah. It will probably do that for a long time,” he said. It wasn’t reassuring but it was a fact and Edward seemed to find comfort in those.  

“How do you know?” Roy raised his hand to show him a fuzzy pink scar down the middle of it. Edward’s eyes widened as he saw it. Roy sustained that injury during one of the earlier battles in the war. Their ability to keep the rebels at bay in Lassid had collapsed resulting in a gruesome hand to hand fight in the streets of the city. Roy had to stop a knife with his hand to prevent it from going into his chest. However, Edward didn’t need to know that. So, he didn’t explain it.  

“It makes writing reports a pain,” he opted for instead earning a small smile from the kid beside him. Edward seemed to understand that Roy didn’t want to talk about it further than simply sharing that he understood. That at least was able to set him a little more at ease as they waited for the truck to pull around.  

“Colonel, sir,” Edward said after a moment. Roy glanced down and saw the kid focused on the dirt infront of them. His jaw was tight as he seemed to be holding onto a question that he desperately needed to ask. Roy could tell he knew he wouldn’t like the answer to it.  

“Is... Did Pitt... I didn’t see him,” he stumbled, as he couldn’t bring himself to ask the damming question. Roy sighed heavily.  

“He’s dead,” he admitted not having the heart to lie to him. Edward bit his lip as he appeared to do his best to take the news like a man. But he wasn’t a man, he was a kid, and loss wasn’t an easy thing to handle especially when there was so much of it. Roy could tell that Edward already knew the answer to his question. However, it seemed that he held onto the false belief that the other kid could have made it out alive. The kid just needed someone to tell him what he already knew.  

“He was from Resembool, too,” Edward said after a minute. “He was about Alphonse’s age... They probably would have gone to the same school if the war didn’t break out.” Roy didn’t say anything. He listened to Edward describe the kid that he worked beside for the last couple months. They grew closer than Roy had suspected. Unfortunately ties on a minefield are short lived. A watery sheen coated Edward’s eyes. “I thought I could stop him.”  

Roy could have sat there and lectured the kid on the truths of war. There was no use crying over someone who passed especially when there was nothing that could be done to change it. However, after being pulled unwillingly from his house and home, Edward was dealing with the consequences of a war he never wanted to be in. Silent tears fell down his face as the kid tried to keep in his sorrows. Roy handed him a handkerchief and did him the service of looking the other way.  

The kid let the tears fall, but all sobs were stifled. He grieved silently, something Roy wished that he had the luxury to do. He had his team search the field for any remnants of Pitt but after a few days of searching they had still come up with nothing. There was nothing left of him. Roy didn’t think he could witness something erase someone so cleanly it was like they never existed in the first place. The shock still rattled him. The loss of another prisoner still stung. He let Edward cry for him though, as it wasn’t his place to grieve over a rebel.  

Hawkeye pulled the car around shortly later. By then, Edward’s eyes were wiped dry. The only sign that he had been crying was the slight redness to his bandaged cheeks. Roy offered a hand to help him stand and the kid willingly took it. He helped him into the back of the truck hoping to not jostle his injuries more than what was needed. It seemed futile to Roy to worry so much about the kid’s injuries when he would just be sending him back down to the field in dues time.  

After settling Edward in the back, and closing the canvas, Roy went around and opened the door to the passenger seat just to find a crate of food at its feet.  

“Sir, we need to get back. I am sure his brother is worried,” she said bluntly. She was right about that. He couldn’t imagine making the Elrics wait much longer to be reunited. Roy finished climbing in, mindful of the stolen goods, and shut the door. She put the truck in gear and it lurched before they easily putted down the road and out of headquarters.  

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 6  

“Al, I don’t need to rest,” Edward whined despite his leg protesting the strain he was putting it through. Alphonse had forced him to sit down and rest as they got to the water spigot. It wasn’t a far walk, but it had only been a couple weeks since he returned from the medical tent in headquarters. His leg was mostly healed, puffy pink scar tissue covering up where the shrapnel pierced and burned him. In his opinion, with the bandages off it looked worse than it was, but his brother would say otherwise. Regardless, he still had a ways to go before the strength would recover in his leg.   

He had been on light duty for a few days following his return and just recently returned back to the mine field. The one thing that they continued to do was afternoon chores to help with the farm. Even with Mrs. Tucker’s leg being fully healed, she apparently appreciated the help they gave her. Now with Edward needing a change of pace to heal, he did most of the chores in the house such as laundry, sweeping, and feeding the chickens. The others were slowly taking over the extra tasks as Edward returned full time to the minefield, but he still enjoyed the simplicity of collecting the water. There was nothing at stake on the walk out to the spigot except for a decent walk and some sore feet. These simple chores gave him the illusion that he was back home in Resembool, an illusion that he desperately wanted to upkeep.   

Despite being weeks after the explosion, it still rattled him. He could have died with Pitt if he was any closer. The pain in his leg reminded him that this was all real. Every day when they crawled over hell, it could have easily been their last. For some it was. Alphonse didn’t seem very fond of that reminder.   

“Stop complaining!” he snapped as Edward whined yet again about stopping. “Be grateful you still got your ass to sit on!” Alphonse still hadn’t let go of the fact that he almost lost his brother. The terror and grief in his eyes weren’t something that Edward ever wanted to see there. When he returned from the hospital, Alphonse coddled and hovered over him like a mother hen to a sick chick. While he didn’t appreciate the scoldings, he amused his brother in a hope that it would make him feel at ease.   

“We are over halfway done with the field. Do you think we will really be able to go home?” Alphonse commented as they both sat on the platform that surrounded the spigot and watched the sun sink further into the sky. The sunsets there were similar to the ones in Resembool, but not quite the same. The pink in the sky settled over the same hill they would look to when they were kids, but now they were on the other side of it.  

“Maybe,” Edward hummed, still having doubts over the promise Mustang had given them the first day they arrived to the farm. After their march across the field and his most recent dance with death, Edward knew that even if the promise was true, they probably wouldn’t live to see it.   

“It’s taking longer now,” Alphonse said, noting that their more thorough sweeps were taking more time. They were no longer rushing and had to carefully check every mine for traps. Now their time in the mine field felt unbearably slow and was filled with only trepidation. It felt like the Colonel’s goal to be done by August was a simple failed dream. “I hope Granny and Winry don’t worry.”  

“Knowing Winry, they probably have the entire town rebuilt from the war already. She’s probably picking apart tanks for spare parts,” he mused which earned a lighthearted laugh from his brother.   

“I sure miss them.”  

“I miss their stew-ow!” Edward whined as he got a stiff elbow from his brother. “ And I miss them too,” he clarified. “But, it won’t do any good missing them. We just need to make sure we get back.”  

“It’s hard not to think of them.” After their rest, the two of them filled their buckets with water from the spigot and began their short walk back. They laughed as their conversation turned to reminiscing some past joke that they shared between them and Winry.   

“Remember? Winry turned you down! I’m the better choice anyway. I’m a gentleman,” Alphonse declared bravely, only earning a jab from Edward.   

“A gentleman? Hard to compete with that. But in that case at least you know she doesn’t mind ugly,” he teased, making Alphonse gasp at the insult.   

“Hey! I am also taller...” Alphonse faltered as his attention was caught elsewhere. There was a loud commotion coming from the barn. They were startled as there was a shatter of glass as something was thrown out the window.   

“Do you think the Colonel is mad again?” Alphonse whispered nervously as he remembered the officer’s rage from the few weeks prior. His brother truly blamed himself for not keeping the sheep closer but Edward was just relieved that it was the lamb and not his own baby brother who bit the dust. After his own stint with a mine, he knew why Mustang got angry. One missed mine would be the end of whomever walked the field next.   

Another object flew out of the barn, shattering yet another window. After witnessing the height of the Colonel’s wrath, he had the feeling that this wasn’t it.   

“I don’t think it’s him,” Edward said hesitantly as he spotted an unfamiliar military vehicle in the driveway of the farm. As they rounded down the driveway with their buckets, Edward saw a rough crowd of unfamiliar Amestrian soldiers around the barn. The other prisoners were lined up outside, each looking rough for wear and scared shitless. Their bed frames were being smashed to pieces and soldiers were tearing what hay they could out of each makeshift mattress. They were trashing the place.   

Alphonse started to run to the crowd to see what was going on and Edward barely was able to shake his shock to follow him. As they approached, the new Amestrian soldiers caught sight of them and raised their rifles making them freeze in their place. Edward’s heart pounded in his chest. This wasn’t the Colonel’s team at all. He dropped his buckets of water and raised his hands over his head. Alphonse shortly followed suit. The guards lowered their weapons and grabbed them by their shirts, throwing them into the terrified semblance of a formation.   

All of the other prisoners were too scared to even move as they watched what little they had get smashed to pieces. As bedframes and boots were torn apart, suddenly a shout of eureka came out of the barn and silence flooded the farm. A stout officer exited the carnage of the barn with a small object held in his raised hand like a trophy. Edward heard his brother bite off a gasp as in the man’s hand was his small personal journal.   

“A spotless barracks he said, didn’t he?” the officer mused tauntingly. “Well, I say you can’t have anything clean if it's filled with pigs. I got contraband here. Let’s see who’s it is.” The man flipped the first page with his grubby fingers and read the journal entry out loud like it was a children’s book.   

“Dear Winry and Granny, I hope you are doing well after the war. Big brother and I are safe and thinking of you... blah, blah, blah, signed... Alphonse. Now, who might that be?” The man looked up from his readings into the group of prisoners who were all too terrified to move. Alphonse was trembling so much; the fear of the stranger’s wrath overcame him. Just as he was about to raise his hand, Edward raised his hand instead, stepping on his brother’s foot to keep him silent.   

“That’s me, sir,” he said before his own brother could argue. The ranks of the prisoners stepped out of the way as the officer came down to look over him over. The man looked down at him like he was cattle for slaughter rather than a person. He glanced between him and his brother for a second then back down at the journal.   

“Are you lying to me, boy?” the officer, who Edward now identified as a Brigadier General, asked quietly. He shook his head in response, which only made the man chuckle in amusement. “Really? Because I believe you are shitting me. Clearly you two are brothers, you being the older one. This journal was surely written by the younger brother which wouldn’t be you. It would be you,” he said jabbing a large finger from Edward to Alphonse. The hand suddenly reached out and grabbed a handful of Alphonse’s hair pulling hard as the General shoved the notebook in his brother’s face.   

“I ask again, is this yours?” he hissed. He saw tears stream down Alphonse’s face as the man held him tightly.   

“Y-Yes, yes,” Alphonse cried and the man shoved him to the ground. Edward found himself moving forward to help his brother but another soldier wrapped his arms around him to hold him back.   

“Al!” he cried as he tried to fight the guard off. The general chuckled in amusement as his despair.   

“Greedy pigs like you wanting more than you deserve, hiding contraband, and now we are finding that you are eating food that isn’t yours!” The General’s taunts turned to a roar as his true anger had slipped out from underneath his mask. He was here to figure out why they were being fed. Edward remembered the first few weeks when they had nothing. The food they now received had to come from somewhere, but none of them knew where. Alphonse moved to stand up but the General kicked him back down.   

“Are you thirsty, Alphonse?” he asked crudely. Edward’s brother shook his head.  

“No, no, sir,” he whimpered quietly.   

“Of course, you are. Working out in the fields all day? That sure works up a thirst. You need something to go with all that dry bland food. Men,” the General said as he turned to the crowd of Amestrian soldiers, “give him something to drink.”  

To all of the prisoner’s horror, the bloodthirsty looking guards opened their trousers and were taking their turn at pissing on the younger brother. They taunted him like he was a defilement of nature, no better than the scum on their shoes. Alphonse curled up in a protective ball, crying as the guards tried to pry him out of his shell to take the punishment full on. The more he resisted, the more aggravated his assailants became. Edward struggled against the guard that held him, desperate to get to his brother.   

“Please stop!” he cried. “Please stop! He didn’t steal anything.”  

“Stop trying to act innocent in all of this.” Edward froze as he heard the man’s slimy voice jeer. The General scolded calmly like the what he was doing wasn’t anymore unusual than taking out the garbage. “You have all wasted time, resources, and Amestrian lives playing out your ridiculous childish games in this war. Rebel scum like you beg and jeer like filthy pigs. Now take what you have been asking for.” Edward saw several of the guards started to kick and batter Alphonse as he continued to fight to protect himself from the sheer dehumanization he was facing. He bolted forward, wiggling out of the guards' grip in a desperate attempt to reach his brother. He threw himself over him just as a boot came down for his head. He yelped in pain as he took the kick to the jaw. Stars flew across his vision and the roars from the soldiers only grew.   

“Brother-” Alphonse whispered in fright but Edward only held onto him tighter.   

“Stay down,” Edward begged him through a bleeding lip. “Please just stay down.” Amongst the roar of the crowd, he heard a voice speak up.    

“Sir,” an Amestrian soldier said. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that it was one of Mustang’s men, the soldier known as Havoc. The man looked horrified from what was happening. “Sir,” he begged the General, “please, they are just kids. They didn’t ask to be in this war.”  

“And yet here they are all the same,” the General mused cruelly as he unholstered his own pistol. “Why don’t you get your commander, unless you want me to alleviate your pest problem myself.” Seeing the gun, Havoc’s eyes grew wide as he realized none of this was an empty threat. It wasn’t a taunt of power. It wasn’t anything like that. This was going to be a murder plain and simple. With only one glance towards where Edward and Alphonse laid helpless, Havoc ran.   

..........  

The day had wound down and the prisoners had off to finish their daily tasks before night closed in. His team was out there supervising while he worked on the reports. They had quite a few interesting weeks meaning more paperwork, but Roy was at least grateful that the chaos of recent events was behind them. They had settled into a good routine, something that both he and the prisoners appreciated.   

As Roy wrote his reports, he suddenly heard a commotion from outside. Voices were raised and Roy glanced at the clock. It was about curfew. He couldn’t imagine the prisoner’s raising a fuss with Havoc over their bedtime. Rest was honestly something they always looked forward to. Just as he was going to write off the noise, the door to the farmhouse was smashed open. In the doorway stood a rather flustered Havoc. His face was pale and filled with terror as if he had witnessed something that truly had horrified him. Roy was put on sudden alert.   

“Sir, you need to come outside. It’s the higher command-”  

“They’re here? What’s going on?”  

“Sir, they’re going to kill him!” Havoc cried in desperation. It wasn’t much of an explanation, but Roy immediately shot to his feet at the urgency.  

 He ran outside of the farmhouse with his Lieutenant as the commotion grew louder. A crowd of Amestrian soldiers were gathered in a circle jeering and taunting something barely worth their belittlement. He had never heard such disgust in anyone’s voice before. It sent a shiver down his spine. His prisoners stood in ranks off to the side of the crowd. They watched on, distraught and in pain, but too terrified to move. When Roy counted them, he only counted nine.   

He ran over to the crowd and pushed his way through to the center to find his two missing prisoners lying on their backs in the mud. They were the Elric brothers, covered in blood and piss as the Amestrians did not spare them any of their pride. Edward laid over his brother defensively as his bruised and bloodied face stared in terror down the barrel of a pistol.   

“Stop,” Roy said as calmly as he could as the tension of the situation held a tight grip around the trigger. “Stop, don’t shoot. I need them.” The officer holding the pistol out lazily turned an eye on him as the jeering of the crowd quieted down. He was Fessler, a Brigadier General from the investigations department. He looked down at Roy and anyone he outranked with much the same distaste as he did the prisoners around him.   

“Why?” he asked carelessly as if he didn’t hold the life of two children in his hands. “They are nothing more than filthy pigs. It would be easier just to butcher them now wouldn’t you say, Colonel Mustang?” His hand tightened on the pistol threateningly. Roy didn’t back down.  

“I need them,” he repeated earnestly. He reached out and laid his hand on the gun, gently pushing it down. “My assignment is to clean the beach. This is my unit. I got only ten left to clear this mine field. I need them.”  

“You know why we are here, right?” the Brigadier General asked. Roy nodded his head. There was only one reason why the General would send the investigations department down there. “We are investigating rumors that you are taking more than your authorized share of rations. Wouldn’t having a few less mouths to feed solve this little issue for you?” Roy stole one glance at the Elric brothers. They remained frozen where they laid, knowing that if they moved, it might be the last thing they did. However, the look of fear and confusion in their eyes struck him cold. He glanced at the other prisoners; their defeated expressions spoke the same. They looked like they expected him to agree.   

“Sir, please conduct your investigations how you must, but I need them to be able to work,” he said digging his heels in. “I need them... all of them.” The General looked disappointed in him but holstered his pistol at his plea.   

“Very well, Colonel,” he spat and shoved something into his chest. It nearly knocked the wind out of him but Roy grabbed it, only glancing down long enough to realize it was a journal. Contraband. “If we find a single grain that does not belong to you, it will be you who pays for it.” Roy nodded his head and saluted as the man and his team disregarded him and stormed back towards the farmhouse to conduct their search. He lowered his hand slowly and sighed as the tension released. He glanced back at the prisoners, seeing them tremble in their shame and fear. In all his power he wanted to comfort them and wipe away the humiliation they faced.   

“Clean yourselves and go to bed,” he instead quietly ordered. The prisoners scurried away to cry off their horrors in the quiet seclusion of what was left of their beds. He watched as the Elric brothers stumbled to their feet, knees bloody and weak. Golden eyes of the elder Elric connected with his. A silent glint of gratitude laid in them as he had saved them from being slaughtered like animals. Roy turned away, not wanting to look at their pain any longer. He gave the journal only a short glance before pocketing it and following the General back into the house.   

.................  

It was a great relief to watch the trucks disappear along the road. He felt all the tension release out of him and collapsed tiredly on the bench outside of the house.   

“What are you going to do for food now?” Havoc asked quietly as he lit a cigarette. In that moment, Roy was considering becoming a smoker himself if it did anything to ease his strain.   

The search was a failure for Fessler. When Roy caught wind of an investigation, he had made sure to stache the food in a small hole out in the field. The only thing that they found was the can of peas left over from his own rations. Fessler was furious that Roy wouldn’t admit his guilt but even more so that they couldn’t get any evidence. Unfortunately, Roy knew that wouldn’t be the end. They would be watching him more closely every time he went to headquarters for a report. However, the higher officers always called him a stubborn brat.  

“The same fucking thing,” he shrugged. Havoc eyed him curiously.   

“If they catch you, that would be it,” he said. “They’ll take your rank. Kick you out of the military. Are you willing to chance it after all that just happened? The prisoners... they could get killed.”  

“And without food they will die. Someone has to keep these kids alive,” Roy hummed. “Besides, the war is over. What’s the use of being a Colonel if the only thing I must look forward to is paperwork?” That earned him a chuckle and a pat on the back.   

“Considering you always push your paperwork off on me, you don’t have much reason to be a Colonel anyways,” he joked lightly making Roy smile in return. “How lucky am I to have you as a commander.”   

“And your other options are any better?” Roy smirked.   

“I think after tonight, you know that I could have far worse than a self-sabotaging son of a bitch.” The two of them did their best to relax outside of the farmhouse. They wished that the warm summer air could wash their worries away, but Roy didn’t think he could forget the atrocities that had occurred that night. The fear and pain in those kids’ eyes were something that not even the heat of battle could bring about. The images of the brothers facing their deaths would not leave him for the longest time.  

As the night darkened, Roy excused himself and made his way towards the barracks to lock the kids in once more. All the prisoners were already inside the barn doing their best to find some sort of comfort after the events of that evening. All, that is, except for one.   

Edward was sitting outside by the fire pit that was cold and dark. The prisoners must have been too scared to light it in fear of drawing more attention to themselves. He was soaking wet, having doused himself with water to wash off the urine and clean what wounds he could. Yet, nothing would wipe away the crimes that were committed against them. The only thing Roy could do was keep some normalcy in their routine and hope that a good night's sleep could cure what words simply could not.  

“Off to bed,” Roy said quietly as he approached. While that was enough to herd the boys on most nights, tonight was different. Edward only glanced up once before turning his gaze back down to the cold hearth.  

“I know you hate us,” the kid muttered. Roy paused and looked down at him. A patient raise of his eyebrow begged the kid to elaborate. Edward hissed as he put the wet cloth he was holding to his busted lip. Bruises piled over top the scars he received from the blast. It looked bad but it was going to look worse in the morning.  

“I know you hate us because of the war. Everyone does. But, if you hate us as those other soldiers do, please don’t hate my brother,” he quietly clarified. “He wasn’t supposed to be here. He never even picked up a weapon. I volunteered so he could stay home but they conscripted him anyways. Please, if you hate us with any ounce that they did, please just hate me.”   

Roy saw the soberness in the boy’s eyes. He was a prideful kid, strong and stubborn. Now, here he was forcing himself to beg him for the simplest of mercies. While Roy was physically disturbed by the sheer dehumanization the other officers had brought, he knew it wouldn’t be the last. The military didn’t see these prisoners as kids. They saw them as cannon fodder and a means to an end. Edward was simply asking him to protect his younger brother from such cruelty.   

Roy couldn’t believe that there were circumstances in that life that would cause a child to beg for something so simple as humanity. Even more so, he was hurt that the kid thought him capable of doing such things. While he wanted to tell him that he wouldn’t ever stoop that low, he couldn’t. It was a literal mine field out there and he did what he needed to do. It didn’t matter to him about their perspective. It only mattered that they would live to see another day. Roy didn’t know how to put that into words, so he did not say anything. He simply let out a tired sigh and nodded his head towards the barn.   

“Off to bed,” he softly ordered again. The elder brother slowly stood up, stumbling only once as his bad leg nearly gave out on him. Roy lifted him up only just enough to steady him, then let him go on his own. Edward glanced back at him only once, but otherwise followed the order. Like every night before, Roy counted the heads and locked them in once more.  

……………..  

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 7  

The sweltering heat of summer made most days unbearable, yet they pushed on. The minefield was closer and closer to being completed every day. Roy’s hope about being done by August was a simple dream, but seeing how diligently the boys worked he wondered if it was possible. Could they all go home by the end of summer? At the beginning of their mission, it had all seemed impossible but as he saw safe zone open up, he might just be foolish enough to believe it could be done.  

Roy sat at the kitchen table in the farmhouse drinking a watered-down glass of whiskey after a long day. They had pulled nearly 40,000 mines already. He calculated that, given their current pace, it would only be just over three more weeks of hard work to finish the field. Seeing the pile of deactivated mines grow, settled some of the worry in his chest. The boys he had would survive these few weeks. He would ensure it. Despite this, some fear remained in him. The retaliation he received from the command team made him afraid that they had lied to him. Maybe telling the boys false fairytales of sending them home was just to get them to work faster. They had taunted them like they were pigs to slaughter. Roy wouldn’t put it past them to dangle the hope of going home in front of them just to pull it away the last second. He had been to the General multiple times within the last few days to verify that his word was the truth. The General made no indication that he was lying though seemed aggravated with the number of times he inquired.  

Roy glanced out the window from where he was enjoying his drink and saw that the sun was dipping towards the horizon. It was about time to put the boys to bed. He took the rest of his drink in a single swig and went to carry about his business. He stepped out of the farmhouse into the evening air. The cool breeze and subtle light were gentle and a relief after a hot and exertive day. The boys were all spread out. Some were using their few moments of free time to pick flowers and search for bugs. Others were simply relaxing in the grass. Whispers of home waved through them all, only to be silenced upon seeing Roy standing there.  

He nodded his head towards the barn and the kids all scrambled to get in for curfew. He went in to count the heads like he always did. They all scrambled up into the remnants of their beds. After the investigations department had ransacked their bunks, they salvaged what they could, reforming the frames with rope and twine, and restuffing the mattresses with grass and straw. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. He counted them all just to come up one short. He sighed as he realized it was Edward.  

 Roy closed the doors behind him as he went out on his hunt for the elder boy. He wasn’t too worried as he knew that Edward would not run far without his brother. However, chasing him down was not something he wanted to be doing that evening. He scanned the grassy fields until he found the kid’s golden head poking out of a tall patch of grass behind the barn.  

Edward was looking out at the sunset beyond the minefield fiddling with something in his hands. His eyes were distracted, distant. He was obviously thinking a little too hard about something he shouldn’t be thinking about. The kid had been more quiet than usual ever since his confrontation with the General. He had seen the worse side of humanity and faced it head on. Roy wished that he never had to see such atrocities happen, but there was nothing he could do to wipe it away. The kid looked up as Roy approached and fumbled to hide the object he was fiddling with before he could see.  

“I won’t take it,” Roy muttered as, to the kid’s shock, he took a seat on the hillside next to him. Golden eyes watched him warily, obviously cautious as to Roy’s intentions. Scars scattered his face from the mine explosion like little stars on a darkened sky. The kid had been through a lot and yet he still remained the brave hardheaded kid who first arrived at the work site a few months earlier.  

“What is it?” Roy asked as he caught a small glimmer of silver poke out form the kid’s hand. The kid’s eyes flickered down to it and then beyond him towards the barn before he opened his palm to show him. It was a small pocket watch. Roy guessed the soldiers at the prisoners’ in processing needed to take more care in searching for contraband now that he found that two of his boys were hiding things.  

“Don’t tell Alphonse,” Edward said. “I yelled at him for having his journal. I didn’t want him learning from me.” Roy reached over to touch it but the kid pulled it away out of his reach, unwilling to trust him enough to part with it. They fell back into an uneasy silence.  

“Is what you said in the beginning true?” the kid asked out of the blue.  

“What is?”  

“That we are going home after this,” Edward clarified. “It has to be true because if not... I don’t know what we are all working for. Alphonse..., he can’t stay here. I can’t... He’s all I have left. I need to make sure he gets home.” Roy sighed tiredly, hearing the desperation in the kid’s voice. After seeing what the Generals did to them, it was understandable that Edward was struggling to find reason. He needed his brother to be safe, to be cared for, and that was not going to happen on a minefield. Edward needed something to believe in. While all of the younger boys were willing to trust in Roy’s statement of them going home, it seemed that Edward knew better than to trust blindly. Roy commemorated him for it because he too had trouble believing it.  

“Yes, it is true. Once the mines are defused and the field is cleared, you all can go home,” Roy explained quietly. The tension in Edward shoulders seemed to relax at hearing that. Despite not trusting Roy, Edward seemed to at least trust the fact that Roy would tell him the truth. They weren’t just working to oblivion, there was an end. That was as much reassuring to him as it was to the kid.  

They sat there for only a few more moments to watch the pink fade out of the sky before Roy patted Edward’s let to get his attention.  

“Off to bed. Tomorrow won’t be any easier,” he ordered. Edward stood up, his one leg noticeably stiffer than the other and took a few steps up the hill. Roy waited a few minutes to let the kid go. He closed his eyes and breathed in a breath of cool night air. While he could feel the end of their mission coming closer, they still had to finish it. Like the next dawn wouldn’t come any quicker when rushed, he needed to keep the prisoners all in line until that last mine was cleared. They were not in the clear yet.  

..........  

Lunch time came around and Edward was collapsing in the grass next to his brother, glad for the break. They sat at the crest of the hill, soaking up whatever breeze they could manage to snag on that hot day. Sweat and dirt coated his skin, making him relieved that it was wash day yet again. He couldn’t wait to pull the last mine for the day and take a cooling shower.  

“Mrs. Tucker got us soap,” Alphonse commented as they talked about it. “Lavender, I think.”  

“She didn’t put pepper flakes in it again, did she?” Edward asked suspiciously. His nethers still remembered the hot pain from the pepper shower last time they accepted something nice from her.  

“It doesn’t look like it. I think she appreciates the help.”  

“Tch. She probably just didn’t want to smell you anymore,” Edward scoffed, not believing it, but he was eager to have some nice soap to use. It wasn’t a luxury that they had the ability to afford. He went to take a bite from his sandwich when he heard some giggles beside him. He looked over in the grass just to see a familiar head duck down and out of sight. Edward nudged his brother and jerked his head over to the grass. Alphonse looked in that direction and noticed the little straw sun hat sticking out of it. A sly smile grew on his face.  

“Oh brother, could you go pick me some of that clover over there? I think my lunch could use a salad,” Alphonse overexaggerated a yawn, waving a hand towards the grass. Edward played along.  

“Well of course dear brother of mine, I would do anything,” he drawled as he stood up and carefully made his way over to the grass. Giggles could be heard from the obvious hiding spot but Edward pretended he was none the wiser. Just as he approached the tall grass the little girl Nina jumped out at him.  

“Boo!” she yelled and Edward fell back in faux terror which only made her giggle louder. She laughed and jumped on top of him, unfortunately kneeing him in the stomach in the process. “You are a scaredy cat, big brother,” she laughed.  

“Getting braver every day,” he wheezed out, trying to get some air back into his lungs.  

“Come on, I want a piggy back ride,” she demanded, the pout almost too endearing to turn down.  

“Nina, we can’t right now. But, how about we make some flower crowns while we eat out lunch?” Alphonse suggested. “I sure could use something to cover my head from the sun.” Nina whined about them working all the time but took his offer to make some flower crowns. Ever since they helped take care of Nina during her mother’s injury, Nina was chasing them down now that she realized there were other people willing to play with her. While they worked most of the day, all of the prisoners would find some time for her. As Edward got up to join them, he instantly found his face back down in the dirt as the large farm dog tackled him.  

“Alexander,” Nina scolded childishly. “Bad doggie!” Alphonse whistled sharply to get the dog’s attention then gave another whistle which called him over. Alexander leapt off him and sat gently next to his brother.  

“How do you do that?” Edward groaned.  

“Dogs just love me better. I also paid attention when Mr. McCready taught us those herding commands,” Alphonse said simply. Edward got up, wincing as he straightened out his bad leg. A worried expression flew across his brother’s face.  

“Are you okay?” his brother asked, concern evident in his voice. Edward waved off his worry.  

“Yeah, just got to get used to how stiff it is,” he mumbled. While he was grateful that he still had his leg, he also knew that the Colonel was right. It was going to keep hurting for a long time. With the way the Colonel passively talked about it, he suspected that would be for the rest of his life.  

 He hobbled over and joined where Alphonse and Nina were making their flower crowns. They were pulling from a various of wild flowers around them, primarily rosinweed, aster, and coneflower. Alphonse had already made a colorful crown which rested on Nina’s hat. Seeming to have already given up on the difficult task of lacing flowers, Nina was just building and tying together a large gaudy bouquet. Edward started to braid flowers into Nina’s hair, tying it up so it was out of her way. Ever since Edward showed her how to braid, Nina started to wear her hair down purposely trying to get him to braid it for her.  

Alphonse and Edward finished their lunch as they kept Nina company until a shadow fell over them. Edward glanced up knowing who it was already, but still upset that their time was over so soon. The Colonel looked down at him, expressionless as he took in the flowered disaster they were in. He didn’t say a word, and he didn’t have to. They knew it was time to go.  

“Come on, Nina, we have to go,” Edward groaned as he lifted the girl off his lap and onto her feet. Alphonse grabbed his elbow, helping him up himself.  

“Aww,” she whined despite having gone through this routine several times over in the last few weeks.  

“Why don’t you go show your mom the flowers you picked?” Alphonse suggested. “Wouldn’t that be nice?” Nina’s face only brightened slightly at the suggestion. Edward and Alphonse both grabbed their probes and trowel when a sudden gust of wind came over them. The cool wind was a relief on their hot skin and Edward couldn’t help but feel himself relax in it. The hot summer sun was getting to him.  

“No, my hat! Alexander!” Nina cried as another gust of wind blew her sun hat into the air. The dog barked happily and bounded down the hill after it, Nina chasing after him. Edward smiled at the playful chase as the wind tugged the hat along in its rough breeze. However, as he listened to the young girl’s cheerful cries, his smile faded. She was heading right into the red territory.  

“Nina!” Edward cried out as he where she was heading. “Nina, stop!” Everyone around him was put on sudden alert but the wind carried his voice away. Nina continued to chase Alexander, crossing the boundary into the danger zone. Everyone ran.  

Edward stumbled to get down the hill towards her, his bad leg catching on the rough terrain. He tumbled to the ground, desperately trying to get to her and being woefully unable to run. More of the other prisoners saw the commotion and realized the danger that they were in. They all started to run forth, calling to the girl to stop. Nina continued to play none the wiser. As Edward struggled to get up, his brother shot out into the mine field after the young girl. He scooped her up and held her firm to her chest, preventing her from moving.  

“Alphonse!” Edward shouted as he scrambled to his feet. His brother was stuck in the mine field, unable to get back. It was a blind man’s luck that he made it out there to Nina without blowing up, but now he couldn’t be sure that he could get back. Nina, seeing the panic on everyone’s faces as they crowded around the edge of the field realized that they weren’t playing anymore and fear befell her. Alphonse held her tightly, whispering reassurances to her quietly.  

“Shh, it’s okay, Nina. They will dig us out. It's okay. We just can’t move. We just can’t-” Alphonse gasped suddenly as the dog ran towards them, still playing around with the hat. Alphonse forced Nina down to the ground and covered her as Alexander bounded past. There was an excited bark from the dog as it caught the hat which was followed by a terrifying explosion. Sod was torn from the earth as a mine was detonated. Everyone along the fence ducked as debris and shrapnel flew over their heads.  

“Alphonse!” Edward cried through the ringing in his ears as blood curdling screams rang out from the field. He heard the terrified wails of Nina as she screamed out for her mother. The dust settled and Edward saw Nina, laying there scared but unharmed, as his brother shielded her from the blast. Blood cascaded from his back which took the brunt of the shock. It looked like he was flayed open, blood and bone poking out through his exposed wound. Yet, through it all, Alphonse laid overtop of Nina, pinning her safely in place.    

“Alphonse!” Edward cried again as his brother was now trapped in the middle of the field, injured and quickly bleeding out. Golden eyes of his brother glanced up at him, filled with pain. Despite his brother running out blind, Edward didn’t dare attempt the same. A single misstep would have been the end.  

Edward instantly dropped to the ground and desperately began to clear a path towards him. Shooken to his core with fright, he forced his hands to remain calm as he delicately removed fuses. He cleared one mine just to find another. Tears streamed down his face as he cursed the world. It was too damn slow. He needed to get to his brother. He needed to get him out.   

“Al, it’ll be okay!” he called out as he felt his probe hit another mine. He dug through the soft dirt and quickly diffused it like he had done a thousand times before. “I’ll get you out, just stay right there.” Inch by inch he moved, wishing each mine was his last. He blocked the terrified screams of Nina from his mind and forced himself to concentrate. He felt a presence beside him and he stole a glance to see two other prisoners quickly diffusing beside him, each making an attempt to clear a wider path. It felt like hours they crawled, probing the sand, but was probably only minutes before they reached them. Seeing her path to freedom, Nina instantly started to run towards the farm house, crying for her mother. Alphonse, however, didn’t move.   

“Al? Al!” Edward cried as he scrambled over towards his brother. He was crumpled to the ground, blood soaking him as it drained out of his mutated mutilated back. Edward ripped his shirt off and pressed down hard on the wound, hoping to get it to stop bleeding. His brother didn’t react.  

“Please! Medic! Please! Please, please,” Edward sobbed. He looked down at his brother and pushed his brother’s bloody and matted hair out of his face. He looked cold. He looked pale.   

“It’ll be okay. Al, you will be alright. You will see. I promise,” he reassured him. “I’ll get you home. I got you. I got you.” The weight of his brother was lifted from him as the other prisoners wasted no time and began to carry him back up the hill. Several soldiers helped guide them, doing their best to help where help was damned. Edward scrambled to follow him but as he left the danger zone, he felt arms grab him and hold him in place. He thrashed and fought against them.  

“Let me go! Alphonse needs me. H-he doesn’t like to be alone! Let me go!” Edward yelled but the arms only held him tighter.   

“Let them go,” Mustang ordered him. Edward hit and clawed at the Colonel’s arms, desperately trying to break free from where he was pinned to the man’s chest. He needed to get to his brother. He needed to go! He only grew more frustrated the farther his brother got.  

“No! I need him! Let me go! I need to be with him!” he thrashed but a sudden prick hit him in the arm. He kicked out and cursed as he felt a sudden warmth fell over him. His limbs started to slow and he began to float.  

“Please,” he begged, trying to fight the drug but losing the battle. His own pleas decended into sobs as without his strength it was all he could do. He watched his brother disappear over the hill as the Colonel laid him gently down to the ground.  

“Please, please, I need him,” Edward cried. He weakly grabbed onto the Colonel’s sleeve, hoping with all of his might that he would lie to him just one time. The dark eyes of the Colonel looked down at him, soft on a rock’s face.  

“You will be okay,” the Colonel said deeply. His voice was strong, reassuring and yet offered him no assurances. Alphonse was gone.  

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 8

“Sir,” Roy hear Hawkeye report behind him. He didn’t look up.

“Did he make it?” he asked, feeling like he should, though he already knew the answer by the tone in her voice. She sighed tiredly.

“No,” she answered simply. No more details were needed. Roy ground his fists into his tired eyes. They were so close, so close to making it to the end and now he had to go lose another one. The younger Elric ran out blindly into a mine field to save that girl. If he was an Amestrian soldier he would have been awarded a medal. Unfortunately, he was a prisoner and the only thing he earned was a grave.

Upon seeing the explosion, Roy knew that the kid, Alphonse, wouldn’t make it. Yet, it was different knowing for sure. Roy could still see the shear hysteria on the older brother’s face shook him to his core. Edward saw his own brother take a mine and had been woefully unable to save him. They all did what they could to get Alphonse and the little girl out of there, but it wasn’t enough. The kid bled out, probably dead before he made it back up the hill.

“Did you tell his brother?”

“Shouldn’t he already know?” Hawkeye asked. Unfortunately, the obvious isn’t always so when the heart is in need. Roy stood up and glanced out the window of the farm house into the darkened night. Hawkeye rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder which alleviated some of the weight he felt from the world. Gathering his wits, he left.

As Roy left the farm house, he nearly ran into Mrs. Tucker at the door. Her eyes were puffy red, having cried the ocean after hearing of her daughter’s panic. In her hands was a small ribbon wrapped box, stamped with the local bakery. Seeing him, she handed it to him.

“Give this to them,” she said. Roy knew what it was for. Having her daughter return safe and sound from a mine explosion was a miracle in itself. In tears of grief and gratitude, she had thanked him with all of her might for saving her daughter. He recognized that the grief in her expression was only one a mother could feel and yet, he didn’t deserve it. He had let her know the real person who had saved her daughter and she was all the more distraught. The kids that she had loathed and tormented for most of the summer were the very ones who put their lives on the line to save her little girl. While it was obvious she knew that a box of sweets couldn’t make up for all that they had lost, it was all that Mrs. Tucker could manage to do.

Roy took the box and thanked her quietly before stepping past her into the night.

Many of the boys were still outside as they waited anxiously for curfew. They had ended the work day early after the explosion and yet it seemed hours after the incident, the kids still couldn’t relax. Usually most of them were in bed by then but it seemed that their nerves had gotten the best of them. They all sat around the small campfire where the embers sparked in their last bit of life. He counted eight total, the one missing being Edward.

As he approached a couple of the prisoners stood to their feet. The worry in their eyes begging for good news. Roy simply shook his head and they all sank back down in defeat. They were now one less. He set the box of pastries down next to them, snagging one, and then walked into the barn to see to the one last prisoner he knew would be there.

Edward laid on not on his bunk, but his brother’s. Roy would have thought he would have been asleep but he saw his eyes staring blankly at a piece of straw he was fiddling with. Roy had to drug the kid to calm him out of his grief induced hysteria. He had been taken and laid down on his bunk all but comatose with morphine and heartache. Despite the drug having to have worn off by then, Roy suspected that he hadn’t moved from that spot all day.

Without a word, Roy walked in and sat on the bunk across from him. Edward didn’t show acknowledgement as he continued to just pull apart the piece of straw. Roy gently leaned over and tapped the croissant on the kid’s knee to grab his attention.

“Did you eat?” he asked calmly.

“No, sir,” the kid muttered honestly without looking at him. Roy handed him the croissant. Edward took it but didn’t move to eat it. He simply set the croissant down on the bed beside him and then continued to pluck at the straw. Roy sighed tiredly.

“You don’t have to tell me,” he heard him suddenly say. Roy glanced up from where he was in thought. Edward didn’t look at him but his eyes were now wet. “Please don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear it,” the kid repeated himself. “I know.” Roy wanted to give him some reassurances but there were none to give. Alphonse didn’t die quickly. He didn’t die peacefully. And he didn’t die a hero. He was just dead and that was a fact. Though Edward took reassurance in those.

Unable to give him more than what the kid already knew, Roy huffed in defeat and stood up. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a little black journal, one that he held onto since the General’s visit, and handed it down to Edward. His eyes widened as he recognized what it was. Shocked, he took it.

“He wrote a lot about you in it,” he said as a matter of fact. “I can understand why.” He gave the kid one more look over but Edward was too fazed to notice. With a final breath, Roy turned on his heel and left the barn. He wouldn’t say that the kid was okay. Infact, he was far from it. The look in the kid’s eyes was something Roy had only seen in a few war veterans. Grief was not something that belonged on that boy’s face. However, there wasn’t anything he could do to fix what had put it there. He could only hope that healing would come.

Leaving the barn, he saw that the other boys had did their best to appreciate a sweet in the bitter night. The box was only half eaten but it was better than not. He ordered them all to bed after they went about dousing the fire and they walked silently into the barn. He counted their heads one more time as was routine. As he went through, he saw that Edward had returned to his own bunk, the journal clutched tightly to his chest.

……………….

Edward didn’t move for a few days after Alphonse’s death. Roy had someone check up on him frequently but there was little change. The kid just laid in his bed, reading his brother’s journal. While he was obviously grieve stricken, Roy didn’t think he cried after that first day. Any and all emotion were drained, leaving a blank unfeeling slate.

Roy needed more hands to work but with Edward in such a state, he wouldn’t be doing anyone any favors pulling mines. He allowed the kid his time to grieve as the other prisoners went down to the field. They didn’t seem to mind, knowing that the older boy was in no state to be down there with them.

On afternoon, Roy was surprised to see Edward walk out of the barn. The kid looked ragged as he lost weight despite all their attempts to get him to eat. While Roy was glad to see him up, the intent in his stride was offbeat. He carried his probe and trowel in his hand like it was just another day in the field. To go from a near comatose state to acting like everything was fine. He did not trust it. The kid moved to pass him down the hill but Roy stuck his arm out to stop him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. The dead look in the kid’s eyes did not match his demeanor. Roy knew something was wrong.

“To sweep,” his voice drew, slow and almost confused. Roy shook his head and turned the kid around.

“Go collect the eggs,” he commanded instead. There wasn’t a fight, there wasn’t a scowl or a complaint. Like a machine the kid instantly turned around and did what he was told. That pattern continued after every task. Once Edward finished collecting the eggs he grabbed his probe and trowel again to walk back down. Roy then sent him to do the wash. After the wash it was to sweep the house. Over and over again, Edward returned intent on working in the mine field. Roy, for some reason, trusted his instincts to keep him away from it. Only when the rest of the boys returned from the field did Edward’s persistence cease.

“He looks like shit. Did he show any changes?” Havoc asked as they watched the kid sit aimlessly in the grass. He shrugged, not sure what to make of it.

“Not good,” he sighed. “I don’t think I saw him cry once since his brother passed.”

“That’s not good. Does he know?”

“Despite not wanting to, he knows,” Roy confirmed. Havoc shook his head with a heavy sigh as he pulled out a cigarette. Roy didn’t condone smoking and yet pulled out a lighter for him all the same.  

“Colonel,” he said after a few puffs, “I knew a guy after the Lassid incident, lost his whole team. He was the happiest looking man around until he blew his brains out on the john.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”  Roy asked sarcastically as he too knew stories of soldiers ending their lives in fits of insanity. During war, soldier mortality was dominated by uncontrolled hemorrhaging from battle wounds which was followed closely by suicide. He had seen many people take themselves out by a bullet than to see another comrade get blown up by artillery. He did not appreciate the reminder then.

“The kid’s gotta feel something, right? If he’s not feeling it...,” Havoc shrugged as he took in another drawl of his cigarette. His words were almost too heavy to say, but he said them anyways. “If he’s not feeling it, he doesn’t know.”

Roy wanted to think that what Havoc said made no sense. Edward obviously knew that his brother was not coming back. Everyone had said it. All the prisoners had sent him their condolences. Edward even acknowledged that he knew. Yet, it was apparent now that while he knew, he didn’t understand. Edward was not grieving, he was denying and he wouldn’t get better till he accepted the truth.

.........

Later that night, Roy counted the heads in the barn. Each one was nestling down into their rickety old hay mattress for a well-deserved night’s rest. As he scanned around, he let out a defeated sigh as he saw that he was one short. It was Edward. Seeing him falter, one of the prisoners next to him who was busying getting himself wrapped up in the scraps he would call a blanket, jerked his thumb towards the backwall of the barn, beyond which was the hillside. After a grateful nod, Roy closed the doors of the barn and left to find his missing prisoner.

The landscape was illuminated by the full moon. The golden wheat fields of Resembool now shown a deep silver, however there was one speck of gold that could be seen poking out of the grass on the short hill beyond the barn. Edward sat on the hillside with his knees pulled up to his chest watching the scenery below. Just as he was about to yell out to him to return to the barn, he froze when he saw the state he was in.

Edward was a wreck. The dark bags underneath his eyes held onto the sorrows they had seen, and they had seen a lot. Weeks had passed since his death yet the ghost of his brother still hung in his eyes. He stared unmoving towards the mine field they had been working for the past season. While the land was a beautiful scene, Roy knew that the kid was thinking of something else, something that shouldn’t be crossing his mind.

Roy carefully snuck up behind Edward. He was a glass, one tap from shattering off the edge of the table. He had seen it before, and he would be damned if he saw it again. Just as he got close to the boy, something snapped in him. The kid jolted up and tried to bolt into the untamed mine field. Roy launched himself forward and tackled the kid before he could get two steps closer to his decided fate.

“No! No!” he heard the kid’s desperate cries hit his ears as Edward tried to free himself from his hold. The pain in his voice killed him to hear.

“What do you think you are doing?!” Roy scolded him as he wrangled the kid. “What do you think killing yourself would accomplish?!”

“Get off me!” Edward cried as he furiously tried to fight him off. He wanted to continue his death mission if it was the last thing he did. Roy refused to let him.

“Tell me, Elric. What is the reason you’re trying to do a relay race through a fucking mine field?!”

“Because it’s not fair!” the kid roared at him, his fight stilling. Roy’s eyes widened in shock as he heard the pain in his voice. “It’s not fair,” he reiterated. “We only had each other. We don’t have anyone else. Why did… Why did he have to die? Why couldn’t it have been me?! It should have been me!”

“Not fair? Not fair?!” Roy seethed. “Your brother wouldn’t want you to throw your life away like this. How would that be fair?!”

“I am the older brother. I-I was supposed to protect him. I told hi-him I would get him home. W-we were so close, and I couldn’t g-get him there!” he cried. “Why couldn’t I just get him home? Why did I have to be the one left? I want it to be me.” Edward fought harder against him as he desperately wanted to follow his brother into the mine field. Roy tightened his grip and shoved the kid back into the ground. Edward winced at the force, but for a split second his attention was diverted from the spiraling mess of his thoughts.

“Listen here,” Roy growled. Golden eyes, filled with frustration and confusion, locked onto his as the kid heard the anger in his voice. “You’re going to keep moving. Whatever it takes. Even if the way ahead lies through a river of mud, you will keep moving. Your brother died protecting someone. He was a hero. He didn’t die just so you could give up!”

“But I’m supposed to protect him-“

“Would you have done any different, if you were in his position?”

“N-no-“

“Then how dare you say it is not fair that Alphonse did the same. He willingly protected that girl. Don’t you dare muddy his death by blaming it on fate or fairness. It was his choice!”

Roy watched as the last bit of frustration and fight slowly died in those pained golden eyes. The only thing left was despair. He finally understood. Long due tears welled up in the kid’s eyes and he let out a blood curdling wail as the weeks of grief flooded through him for the first time. Arms reached up and wrapped around Roy’s chest as the kid clung to him in hopes of alleviating the pain of loss.

They sat on that hillside through the night. Roy watched the river of sorrows spill out of the child next to him, unable to soothe the pain the kid needed to feel. He stayed by his side, holding him till the river ran dry. The sun was just peaking back over the horizon once more and he looked down to see that Edward must have fallen asleep sometime in the night. The pain was still evident on the boy’s scarred face, tear tracks dried after hours of mourning. Roy looked out to the horizon to see yet another day approach. It was one that nearly half of the prisoners were unable to enjoy. Right then, in the twilight of dawn’s glow, Roy let himself feel the loss of all the lives the minefield took away.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 9

Edward thought he knew loss but until the Colonel yelled at him that night, he realized he didn’t know what true loss felt like until he let himself. All the grief he had built up and it felt like his chest ripped open when he let it out. His brother was gone and that fact hurt more than any mine ever could. However, once he let himself feel again, once he felt the pain, he knew he would be able to live through it. For Alphonse and for the rest of the prisoners there, he would live.

The rest of the days there were slow going. Edward didn’t see another mine. The Colonel kept him off the field for the remainder of their sweeps and tasked him out with various other jobs to help around. Edward did them and did them willingly. He focused his efforts on every small task, willing himself to find some semblance of joy in them. And he did. He built up the energy to chuckle at the other boy’s jokes. He felt a sliver of pride when the others complimented him on his cooking. And he felt happy when from the hilltop he watched the last mine get pulled. Little by little, the pain dulled and Edward was still there, surviving.

“Elric,” he heard the deep voice of the Colonel say amongst the cheers of the prisoners when they realized they were done. The field was cleared. It was over. “How many fuses do we have?”

“Three hundred fifty-seven,” he answered.

“Count them again. The others will load up the casings and do a final check of the field.”

Edward sat in the dirt and dumped out all the fuses again to recount them as the others placed the last few deactivated mines in the pile next to him. The smiles on their faces were contagious. They talked about what they were going to do when they got home. They talked excitedly in a way they never did before. Because that was it. Their dreams weren’t that anymore, they were a reality. A sad smile grew on Edward’s face as he listened to them. He was grateful that they could all reap the rewards of their labor and go home. He couldn’t. Without Alphonse, there wasn’t a home to go back to.

A hand rested on his head and shocked him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see the Colonel kneeling next to him with a stern look in his eye. He could tell what he was thinking and silently scolded him for letting his mind wander too close to the dark.

Edward worked absentmindedly on his task as a few of the others loaded up the trucks to haul the refuse away. From their last day in the field, they pulled a total of four hundred mines, their shortest day yet and their last. As Edward counted and bagged the last fuse, a wave of relief flew over him. This was it. They had made it.

As he set the bag down to record the number, the earth shook as a loud explosion rang out across the hillside. Reactively, he threw himself down and covered his head. The loud explosion sounded like it came right next to him. However, as the ground ceased to shake, he realized he still had his wits about him. All he heard then was screaming. Looking up, he saw the Colonel running down the road towards a pillar of blackened smoke and flames. The other boys in the field were running past him, fear and worry in their eyes. The truck.

Edward scrambled to his feet and followed as fast as he could on his bad legs. The flames towered into the sky and the black smoke smelled of burning gasoline and gunpowder. As Edward rounded the bend, he saw the Colonel staring out, his hands on his head, helpless to the scene in front of him. Where green rolling fields once lay was a charred blackened earth consumed in flames. Twisted pieces of rubber and metal were all that were left of the truck. The Colonel had tasked five of the other boys to help load up the deactivated mines. Neither the four hundred mines nor they were there.

The rest of the prisoners alongside the Colonel stared out and watched the wreckage burn. They had finished the field. They deserved to go home, and yet even then the world was still ripping them away. Looking out at the mess in front of them, Edward knew that he should feel something. But, as he glanced at the three other remaining prisoners beside him and saw their shock, he couldn’t feel anything but disappointment.  

Gradually, one by one they left defeated. They couldn’t do anything for their friends now. They were gone. Edward left and sat at the top of the hill watching as the plume of black smoke billowed through the sky. It would be hours till the smoke settled. Eventually, as Edward sat there, he saw the Colonel make his way back up the bend in the road. The man stopped beside him, and after a heavy breath glanced down at him. His black eyes were puffy and red.

“Finish your work,” he ordered bitterly. Before Edward could follow his orders and return to the fuses, the Colonel left, continuing back to the farmhouse by himself.

………….

 Roy entered the General’s tent with his final report in his hand. The General had called him in to discuss his mission in person, something that Roy was not too keen on doing. His mission was completed as the minefield and surrounding area were cleaned up and yet he couldn’t help but question if it was worth it. While all of HQ celebrated another successful job, Roy found no joy in it. He had hoped to send all of the prisoners home after the mission, but he was left with only four of the original fourteen. He had taken men through a battlefield dodging bullets and knives. Yet when kids were put into his hands, he could only get a measly few of them to survive. He didn’t think there was much to celebrate in that.

When he walked in, he saw the General yelling at another poor sap on the phone. He was giving him an earful on a recent promotion for valor. To the General, apparently valor was won in the planning behind a desk rather than on souls on the battlefield. Roy set his report on the desk as soon as the man hung up.

“Sit,” the General ordered. Roy did not.

“What did you want, sir?” he asked, the General unamused by his silent defiance.

“Right to the chase as always. I heard you finished your field, Mustang,” he grunted. “Good. We need experienced men in Optain.” Optain was in the middle of nowhere similar to Xenotime. Once a battlefield, it was largely abandoned except by those in the restoration effort. If Roy had not been sent to Xenotime he could have easily been sent there. However, he already had written orders for his unit to go elsewhere.

“Uh, sir, I have orders to go back to Central for the end of the week,” Roy said, not understanding what the General meant. The man across the desk leaned back in his chair, a heavy breath on his chest.

“I did not mean you.”

“Who then? The rest of my team have their orders as well.” A rock settled in his stomach as he waited for the General to answer. He knew who the man wanted, but he needed him to say it.

 “Those rebels of yours, Mustang,” the General clarified. “It’s a shit show out there. Without any maps, Captain Arginine is losing prisoners left and right to these damn mines. They need more experienced sweepers like your rebels to help out.” Roy was dumbfounded.

“Sir, I promised them they could go home when they were done. You promised me that they could go home when they were done. They are done. They need to go home,” he stated firmly, reminding the General of what he had said to him over and over again. The General looked unamused.

“Things have changed. You need to take those boys to Optain by the end of the week,” he bit out stiffly.

“Sir, with all due respect I have four left from my original team of fourteen. If we send them to Optain, they won’t survive the month. They did their work. They deserve to go home.”

“I don’t want to hear another word about what those rebels deserve!” the General scolded harshly. “You don’t know what they have done, what they have on their conscious. If I hear anything more about this issue from you, I will go and shoot them myself just to be done with this matter!” Roy frowned. The sting of betrayal hurt even if it came from a man he never trusted.

“You knew. All along. You knew that they wouldn’t go home. You have been lying to me and my team this entire time.”

“And so, what if I have? What is a rebellious citizen other than a criminal? What is a criminal other than fodder? It shouldn’t matter to you. All you need to do is carry out orders. It is as simple as that,” the General said with a knowing grin. It seemed he took pleasure in pain. He was utterly unaffected by sympathy. “Take the prisoners to Optain. If you are even a minute late because you’re wasting time kissing those boys’ goodbye, I will have your rank. Do I make myself clear?”

“Sir-“

“I said, do I make myself clear?!” the General roared over him. Roy bit his tongue. The look of disgust in the man’s eyes made him realize that the General was not going to argue with someone he regarded as dirt. There was nothing he could say to get him to change his mind.

“Crystal.”

“Get out of my sight.” Roy turned on his heel and left the tent. Anger and frustration consumed him and he couldn’t help but feel lost. He had worked hard, so hard, to keep those boys alive and for what? Just to send them off to their graves in Optain? He had foolishly believed in the Generals word just like the prisoner’s had foolishly believed in his. He promised those boys that they would go home. Now, he would have to drive them to their death himself.

Hawkeye waited for him in the car, knowing what had happened by the unshielded expression on his face. He hopped in and slammed the door shut with so much force one would expect it to disintegrate.

“Don’t tell them,” she said as they drove down the road back towards their work site. Roy looked over from where he was stewing but Hawkeye kept her eyes on the road.

“Usually, you tell me the hard truth is better,” he replied bluntly.

“Not this time, sir. Let them celebrate for a little bit longer. It might be false, but it is the only thing they have going for them right now. They aren’t going to have much to look forward to after they’re gone,” she said. Roy didn’t like to lie. He knew that life’s bitterness hurt at first, but it was easier in the long run to accept the truth than it was to live with a lie. However, now, there wasn’t much left in these kids’ lives than pain. Without this glimmer of hope, there was nothing. She was right. Just this once, he would have to lie.

They returned to the farm in the late evening when the sun was setting down. The boys were gathered around the campfire talking excitedly to one another. They each talked about their hometowns and families, something that they hoped to see again. Roy knew they never would.

“I can’t wait to try my mother’s soup again! It’s the best in all Beram!” one of the kids said as he finished what was left of his dinner. Measly bread and gravy couldn’t compare to a family meal.

“My family will probably be rich now that the war is over,” another said thoughtfully. “Rush Valley is going to get a lot of traffic from those in need of automail. I’ll probably be a millionaire by the end of the week.”

“I don’t think that is how that works.”

“I can dream!” he cried dramatically making the other boys laugh. Roy couldn’t help but feel sick listening to them. The smiles on their faces stung. As he stood there, caught up in the briar’s of their hope, Roy felt a familiar pair of eyes on him. Edward didn’t partake in the joy and laughter of the other boys. He watched Roy skeptically from where he sat as the others continued their jest with each other.

Roy gave them just a few more minutes before he was sending them to bed. The boy’s didn’t complain and ran into the barn eagerly. In their minds they believed that the sooner they went to bed the sooner they could wake up in their own. How he wished that were true.

As Roy ushered them to bed, Edward paused outside of the barn. At first he thought it was the kid’s leg acting up again, but then he saw the worried hesitation on his face. As Roy was about to tell him again to get to rest, the kid turned around, a disheartened look in his eye.

“We aren’t going home, are we?” Edward asked quietly. Roy froze as he was too easily caught in a lie he never said. He frantically tried to put on a brave face and keep up the charade, but he couldn’t. Despite what Hawkeye told him, he didn’t have the heart to lie to him.

“No.” The kid looked down at the ground as he processed what he had told him. What they had worked so hard for, lost so much for, was ripped out from under their feet. Edward looked more disappointed than upset as if he was expecting this from the beginning.

“I won’t tell them,” he mumbled after a couple minutes. That surprised him.

“You are taking the news very well.” Edward shrugged.

“I don’t have anyone to go home to, but they do,” he replied simply. “They can be happy a little longer.” Roy gave him an appreciative nod and Edward smiled sadly at him, bearing a brave face. When he turned in, Roy counted the few heads that were left. The barn now empty of most of the company it had several months ago. After ensuring they all were there, he closed the barn doors. He moved to bar them in but hesitated before he tossed the beam in the nearby grass. He left the door unlocked that night. Maybe, if god was willing, he would return the next morning to find it empty.

God, unfortunately, was not on his side.

……

Roy could not sleep that night as he toiled in his betrayal. Just like the boys worked just for the faint glimpse of home, Roy had continued to push them as he knew there would be an end. For months he looked forward to the end. He looked to the day he wouldn’t have to keep these kids’ heads buried in the ground. He looked to the day that he wouldn’t have to treat them like prisoners rather than kids. He had looked forward to the day that he wouldn’t have to see another child get killed. But that day was now gone, because even when he went home to relax after years of fighting, he knew that those boys would still be out there dying.

He got up before dawn, feeling different than when he went to bed. He walked out of the farm house to see his men already getting the prisoners ready for their departure.

“Sir,” Lieutenant Hawkeye said, saluting as she approached. “The truck is ready, just waiting on your order to depart.”

“Good. I am putting you in charge. I would like you to ensure the men pack up what is left here and head back to Central safely. They are all expected to report back by tomorrow afternoon. There is a lot to do,” Roy ordered her.

“Sir, I will be able to carry that out after I drop off the prisoners in Optain,” she said, the confusion only evident in her voice. Roy set a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. The instant he did, the expression on her face opened up and her mouth opened in shock. She understood.

“I am going to drop the prisoners off. I want you in charge while I am gone,” he said firmly.  

“Sir,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. She looked like she wanted to argue against him, but she knew that he wasn’t going to accept her criticism. He was giving her an order. She cleared her throat to regain her composure. “When should we expect you back?”

“I’ll meet you in Central if I am not caught up,” he replied, a small smile on his lips. She tried to return it but she couldn’t bring herself to. She simply took a step back and saluted him once more.

“They are ready for you, sir. Drive carefully. You haven’t been behind the wheel in a while.” He returned the salute.

“Thank you. I will keep that in mind.” With that, he walked over to the truck where the four boys were standing each with a small seed back with their few measly belongings. They looked far different than the prisoners who had arrived there. Their faces wore years that their age did not match. Each one of them was covered in the dirt of their labor. They were tired but not defeated. They were the ones who remained. They survived.

He jerked his head towards the truck, silently ordering them to get in the back. They silently scrambled up in the truck. The boys helped Edward up as his leg fought against him, but eventually they were all loaded. He gave them a reassuring nod before he threw up the hatch and laced the canvas down around them.

The ride was quiet as he sat in the driver’s seat alone. The peaceful countryside flew by, showing him a part of the country he didn’t have the privilege to see before the war. As he drove, he began to wish that he travelled more. They drove up and over the far hills and continued until the sun was halfway up in the sky before Roy looked out his windshield and pulled the truck to a stop.

“Get out,” he ordered the prisoners after he opened the canvas for them. They looked out at the vacant dirt road in confusion but otherwise followed orders.

“At the end of this field is the town of Resembool,” he told them as he latched up the back of the truck. The boys glanced at each other in confusion. They were under the illusion that they were supposed to be dropped off at HQ for out processing so that they could get shipped off to their respective homes. Slowly, it dawned on them as to what was going on.

“We aren’t going home?” one of them started to ask but Roy just continued.

“Trains, there can take you to Baden or Rush Valley or wherever else you want to go. Then you will be home.” They looked at each other, thinking this was a trap, all except Edward who knew. The look of confusion and worry in his eyes was directed at Roy, not understanding why he would do this. He nodded his head stiffly.

“Go home,” he ordered. They didn’t say anything as they were still unsure of where to go. Roy ordered them again, more sternly. With only one last look over their shoulders, they turned, and they ran. Slow hesitant steps went faster and faster until they were full on sprinting down the hillside towards the little down of Resembool. Roy watched as they ran through the grassy field, stumbling over one another, until they hopped the stone wall and disappeared.

Left alone on the abandoned road, Roy couldn’t help but let a smile spread across his face. For the first time in months, he felt a sense of relief as a weight was lifted off his shoulders. For the first time in months, he felt happy.

…….

The truck pulled to a stop at the new worksite in Optain. It was another old farm, originally used for sheep herding before the war laid it to ruin. Now, the barn and the house were both riddled with bullet holes and swarming with soldiers. Almost double the size of the site Roy had over saw, this site housed nearly thirty prisoners, all of whom were already down in the field with their probes stuck in the dirt.

Roy saw the officers, including the General, talking jovially in the front yard as they waited for their new shipment of prisoners. They paid no heed to the fields behind them, only laughing quietly amongst themselves when they heard a mine detonate. Roy took a deep breath and steeled himself as he hopped out of the truck and made his way towards the officers.

“Colonel Mustang, about time you showed up,” the General ruffed out at him. “Colonel Argenine is going to be looking over the Optain sector. Get your men out and head them down to the field immediately. If all the prisoners work, this field should be cleared up by next Christmas.”

“It better be,” the Colonel laughed. “Lord knows I need a holiday.” The officers chuckled at that lighthearted joke, but Roy found no humor in it.

“You might find that I am a little shorthanded at the moment,” Roy muttered. They looked confused as what he meant but before they could ask anything, there was a shout from the trucks. Everyone except Roy looked up as the enlisted men opened the back of the vehicle to find it empty. There was not a single prisoner in sight. The Colonel and a few other officers ran over to see for themselves, but Roy stared directly into the eyes of the General.

“Yes, just a bit short handed. Maybe we should reset the timeline for Easter then?” he said with a smirk. The General was fuming, his rage evident in the burning of his eyes.

“How dare you,” he breathed, the fire from his voice scorching the air. Roy knew it was coming but he didn’t know that the greedy bastard could hit so damn hard. He fell back as the General decked him across the jaw.

“This is treason!” he scolded him. Another punch plowed across his face as the General was on top of him, holding him up by his collar as he refused to let Mustang go down before he was done. “This is sabotage!” Blow after blow kept him down, stars blinded his vision. Roy didn’t fight back. He took his consequence head on. He knew what he did, and he would willingly do it again. The General roared when he realized that his prey was not stepping up to his challenge of authority. The willful disobedience of a subordinate had cut him harder than anything he could throw at him. He dropped him like a bag of rocks and forcefully ripped the silver pins of Roy’s rank from his shoulders.

“I thought you were a smarter man, now you could be costing us the war,” the General seethed. “What do you have to say for yourself, you insolent brat?” Roy spat blood out of his mouth and sat up to look at the General. While his blood was still warm, leaking out of his fresh cuts, his eyes were cold and hard.

“This isn’t war anymore, General. Let them go home. It’s over,” he said simply.

“If you are so eager to aid the enemy, why don’t you go down in those fields and work with them yourself! Guards!” It only took a few seconds before Roy felt the stiff arms of two soldiers pick him up off the ground. He didn’t fight them. He accepted it.

“The Colonel is no longer in our army,” the General announced. “Take his uniform and put him out with the prisoners. He’s going to clear one field for each of the prisoners he let go, or until he gets blown up. Whichever comes first.”

Even as everything Roy had worked for in his life was stripped away, he couldn’t help but smile. While he faced certain death in the same fashion, he had forced his own prisoners to, he knew that over a hundred miles away there were four boys tasting the fresh air of freedom they deserved.

Chapter Text

EPILOGUE

A dishonorable discharge from the military was the end of some people’s life and Roy knew that to be quite literal. He had lost everything: his job, his house, his money, and not a single person would hire someone with that label on their reputation. However, even after all these years, he only had one regret that weighed on his chest. He desperately wished that he had let those boys go the instant they arrived in Xenotime. After his act of what the General labeled as treason, he spent two years defusing mines across Amestris. He was only allowed to stop when the last one was pulled. Crawling across those minefields only solidified his resolve that he did the right thing.  

“Hey, sir-“

“Don’t call me sir, Havoc. You’re my boss,” Roy muttered tiredly as he stacked another can on the shelf in the storage closet. His retired Lieutenant chuckled.  

“I’ll stop calling you sir when you start calling me Jean.”

“What do you need?” he asked, ignoring his want to be called by his first name. Havoc didn’t seem bothered.

“I need to run out to lunch. Do you mind manning the register?” he asked. Roy sighed. He didn’t like the register because of all the weird looks. He didn’t recover from the minefield without a few scratches, as was to be expected.

“Sure,” he said and finished stacking the last can in his box. He moved to step down from the ladder he was on, just for Havoc to hover behind him.

“Careful, you know your depth perception is shit.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Roy growled, frustrated at the reminder of the first time he used a ladder since returning.

In all reality, Roy shouldn’t have a job. A dishonorable discharge should have made Roy homeless begging for money on the streets. He knew many veterans, even with honorable discharges, who couldn’t find a job. A dishonorable distinction? That was a death sentence. However, while he wasn’t the richest man, he was rich in connections and was getting by with the help from his friends in his old unit. He secured a minimum wage job as a store clerk in Havoc’s general store. Even with shrapnel from a mine taking out his one eye, he was capable of working and making what one could assume was a living. He was alive. He was happy, and that was all he needed to get by.

He thanked Havoc as he got safely back to the ground as his depth perception made any set of stairs a gamble. Once firmly on the ground, he then proceeded to the front of the store where he took up his position at the register.

Havoc’s General Store had a solid customer base. It had been in his family for a few generations, selling goods in Lafaye for over 80 years. The town was small and situated deep in the farmland of Amestris’s eastern region. Despite this, it was a frequent stopover for people travelling from the cities of Berem and Taliana. At the height of the season, the town was bustling with travelers, and sales would often wipe the shelves clean. Though this meant a lot of work for Roy, he didn’t mind as it usually meant a good paycheck and some friendly faces.

As Roy was waiting for someone willing to be rung up at the register, he made use of himself tidying the display behind the counter. While Havoc and the rest of his unit always teased him about being lazy when he was a Colonel, he really just hated paperwork. Suddenly, when his mind was preoccupied in his work, he heard someone call out to him.

“Uh, Sir, do you have any change for a ten? I just want to get the newspaper and some boot laces,” someone asked behind him.

“Yeah, one second,” he said as he turned around to tab the register open. He looked up to take the money from the young gentleman’s hands only to freeze when he saw a pair of familiar golden eyes staring back at him.

Edward had grown from the child he was in the mine field to a strong young man. The scars that scattered his face faded nicely with the healing of time. He stood there steadfast in his shock, as recognition of his old warden flew over his face. Silence hung between them. Words were lost.

Roy silently took the money that Edward had outstretched in his hands and rung him up. He kept his eye firmly trained on the register. The tension was thick and awkward but it suited them well. That didn’t stop Edward from trying to break it.

“What happened-“ the kid started to ask awkwardly, feeling he should, but Roy cut him off.

“Same as you.” Edward nodded his head, understanding the pain that came with a story such as that. Just as Roy was about to finish the transaction, there was a short cheery cry from across the counter.

“Edward! Get this too. You are running out,” a woman said beside him. She was young, blond, and held a small infant on her hip as she slapped a small bottle of pain medicine on the counter. “He is always forgetting,” she teased lightly but paused as she seemed to catch the tension between them.

“Do you know him?” she asked Edward quietly. The young man looked stuck, unable to answer her.

“No, mam. We don’t know each other,” Roy clarified, telling the first lie he had in a while. She didn’t seem to trust his answer but the tension in Edward’s shoulders relaxed. For the first time, he felt comfortable in a small white lie. Roy moved and rung up the extra item and adjusted the change. They needed sixty more cents. Edward rooted through his pockets for it.

“What are you doing in Lafaye?” Roy asked the woman. She perked up at the lighthearted conversation.

“Just as everyone else is. My husband and I are on our way to the wool festival. He helps herd the sheep onto the train in Xenotime. We are just stopping here for some lunch,” she said. Roy smiled.

“That sounds wonderful. Might I recommend the sandwich shop across the street?” he replied and continued a nice light hearted conversation as the change was handed over. Roy completed the transaction and he handed over the bag of goods. Edward took it hesitantly.

“Thank you,” he muttered, though the way he said it made Roy imagine he was talking about more than the simple bag of groceries. Roy didn’t pay it any heed and simply wished them safe travels as he did all of his other customers. With only one final look, the young man turned and left, his wife cheerily discussing plans with him out the door.