#my man hides the fall of Liore from Ed ''for his own good'' and then acts like a kicked puppy when Ed gets mad at him about it

[coockie8]

What would you say is your favorite character duo dynamic from FMA? (I apologize for all the FMA asks)

Might be a little bias for shipping reasons, but no dynamic in that series is funnier to me than whatever Ed and Roy have going on lmao

Roy and Hughes are a very close second, though haha

[reigningsniper-a]

9, 18

9. Favorite battle? Why?

     Poignancy-wise? I have to choose Roy v Envy. 

     Lust v Roy is amazing and well earned, don’t get me wrong - but there is a lot riding on this confrontation that isn’t in the fight against Lust. Lust stabbed Hughes before Envy shot him, sure, but as the audience we know that Envy was ultimately Hughes’ killer. So ever since Envy shot him, we have been waiting for Roy to find out. 

     And when it finally hits? All bets are off. Roy absolutely falls into a wrathful and vengeful rage and leaves no prisoners behind. We have to watch a man so dedicated to protecting people, measured and controlled until someone is threatened, absolutely lose it and almost totally lose himself. The emotions, man…. There’s layers and layers to the complexity of how emotions roil on that my chest tightens thinking about it.

     But (because I just, can’t let this one go unmentioned after discussing this choice with a friend). Sheer holy shit yes YES fight? Al v Pride and Kimblee. I remember watching those sequences, enthralled with the animation. But we also see Al finally give it his all. And he’s got a Philosopher’s stone to use. He struggles with the conflict of using the souls and their energy, but ultimately he knows that the souls would at least want to aid in the battle against the ones who murdered them all for their power. 

     And he’s battling Kimblee and Pride.

     FMA has so many amazing fights. They’re all different and there’s so many combinations of face-offs. Some are also lucky, because certain matchups would have met resounding defeat at certain times or just because of the people involved. It’s actually a little crazy to really think about their weight and the time they occur, who they’re between, etc... They are all?? So?? good??? 

18. What was the biggest thing you took from the series (most important moral)?

     I have always adored the emphasis on the ones that you hold dear in tandem with all of the connections that you end up making. You look at the canon and it’s a wide range of people. It’s not just limited to the Elric’s closest family and friends. It’s all the people they come across and make connections with, even the briefest of ones. We start with Rose and the conflict in Liore right in the very beginning (manga) and three episodes in (brotherhood). 

     Then all of a sudden after Winry escapes from Kimblee’s reach and the chimeras rebel, the party ends up back there. And Rose recalls how Ed told her to stand up and get back onto her own two feet. It goes much deeper than a coincidence. It specifically was meant to highlight that even in his brashest and bluntest of moments, Ed was able to so resoundingly and meaningfully affect people. 

     The entire start of the plot and what solidifies them into the Homunculi’s crosshairs is Ed and Al wanting to bring their mother back, someone who loved them and touched them dearly someone they missed. Roy loses Hughes, his best friend, and spends the entire rest of the series trying to avenge him and to simultaneously protect everyone else while losing the other five closest to him. Ed and Al grapple with Winry being pulled into the conflict and trying to keep her from harm. Even Lan Fan and Fu return from Xing, new automail and all, in search of Ling but also to assist in helping Ed and his allies.

     Even Marcoh, a little doctor hiding in a small town reappears and becomes so vital. It shows how as life goes on everything manifests in an intricate web. You meet people, they meet people, sometimes it overlaps, you meet again, etc… It’s…a wonderful push and pull that I think makes the sacrifice Ed makes all the more powerful. Alchemy touted as a gift and something to be valued. Ed relies on it for so long and puts so much faith in the research to get their bodies back. But when faced with getting Al’s body and soul back he would happily give away his ability to perform alchemy because of all of the people he has behind him and around him. 

[literature-works]

A Different Type of Soldier Chapter 7: FMAxSW AU

Story summary: In a period of civil war, the Empire pushes the Rebel forces towards the outer reaches of the galaxy. With the Jedi Master Van Hohenheim captured and the Rebel forces stretched to their breaking point, there doesn’t seem to be any hope for them to take down the Empire. But a forgotten insignificant clone might be the answer the Rebels were looking for.

Chapter Summary: ED-0001 is being interrogated by the rebel forces. What information is he willing to give? What truths does he discover?

A Different Type of Soldier

Chapter Seven

The Clone that Doesn’t Belong

 Roy glared down at the data pad he was skimming through. The clone’s information was pulled up and a picture of the clone was staring right back at him, or rather, a picture of a small scared five year-old child stared back at him. It appeared that since soldier identification pictures were only needed every ten years, the clones did not care to update theirs until they were matured. Apparently, Captain ED-0001 was not to that point yet.

Roy did not get to talk with the clone outside of the small chat they had at the cellblock. He did not even know the clones name yet alone what he looked like without his armor on until he was finally given the clone’s files. The golden hair and golden eyes came to a surprise to Roy, sure as the age and rank. Captain ED-0001 was not a normal clone. That fact was plain as day. However, the why was a little harder to figure out. As Roy pushed down through the clone’s files on the data pad, a warning message popped up on the screen that read ‘Secure File Access Denied. Code Needed.” For a young clone, the Captain had a lot of restricted files that they needed to get to. He had sent Fuery on a mission to decrypt them but it was a very secure code. It was something that the highest ranks in the Imperial forces used and not something they could break in a day, let alone a week. Whatever was in those files was important, and Roy wanted to figure out what.

Suddenly, a cloud of smoke hit Roy’s face and he coughed as he swung his arm around to disperse the smoke. It reeked of ashes and cigarettes, the last thing he was expecting to smell in the hospital ward.

“Havoc put that shit out. You are in a hospital for god’s sake!” Roy exclaimed as he reached over and plucked the cigarette out of his subordinate’s hand just to quickly stub it out on the bed railing. The man gaped at him like he was the devil.

“I am allowed to smoke two a day in here! I have permission from the doctors!” he argued back.

“Yeah, well you don’t have permission from me.”

“You are the one who brought work to a sick man’s bedside. I thought you were actually going to keep me company, not stare at children’s photographs all day,” Jean grumbled crossing his arms in defiance. He looked angry, but Roy could tell he wasn’t. He was just tired and wanted a break. A distraction more like it. There were certain things that Jean didn’t want to think about, most of which happened in Liore. However, Roy, for better or for worse, needed to know.

“What did the doctor’s say, Havoc,” he asked the man beside him softly.

“I can’t fucking feel my legs, Colonel. What the fuck do you think they said?” the man glared at him bitterly. He instantly reaching beneath the hospital bed covers to his pocket for another cigarette to replace the one Roy had smashed. Roy did not stop him even as he lit it. Smoke escaped the man’s mouth as he took a deep and shaky inhale of the thing. His hands were trembling as he brought it to his mouth and back. Roy didn’t know if it was out of anger or distress. He had to guess a bit of both. “The spinal cord is not severed. They said I wasn’t even hurt, go figure. Bruised spinal cord. The mortars loosened the house’s structure we were camped out in and an imperial Captain’s missed shot hit a support beam that brought the roof down on us. Just like that, chances of recovery 1%.”

“That’s still a chance,” Roy reminded him but Havoc let out a cheap laugh, smoke pluming out of his mouth.

“I am not a lucky man, Colonel. The doctors don’t even have hope for me. My discharge papers are already signed. I am done.”

“We will figure out something. The Rockbells-“

“Figure out what, Colonel?” Havoc cried at him. His voice was filled with pain even though half of his body felt nothing. His words consumed half of the hospital ward as he scolded him for his hopeful thinking. “I can’t feel my legs. Automail isn’t an option. You can’t connect to nerves that don’t fucking work! I am done. Just forget about it.” Roy frowned as he watched Jean close his watery eyes and collapse back into the cushions of his bed. He frustratingly wiped his face as he took another drag from his cigarette. He was trying to act cool like the world would judge him for crying, even though Havoc knew Roy would never do that to him. Maybe he refused to cry because he didn’t want to accept he could no longer walk. Even though he said it over and over again that he was done with the military, Roy knew Jean better than that. He was a romantic. Any last strand of hope he clung onto even when everything else was gone. However, 1% was the smallest sliver of hope anyone could have. Even Jean knew it was in his best interest to let it go.

A few minutes and a few puffs from his cigarette later had Jean staring absent mindedly up at the ceiling to a world Roy could not see from where he sat. The man groaned and let out another breath of smoke before turning back towards Roy. Reality was better than a doomed man’s imagination.

“How are the interrogations going?” he asked, changing the topic very quickly. “I am guessing not well with the way it looks like someone pissed in your cup of tea.” Roy growled as he looked down at the data pad once more just to see the locked file alert pop up again. Where Jean had his problems, Roy had his own.

“They would be going better if they were going at all,” he answered.

“He’s still asleep? It’s been a week,” Havoc stated.

“Yeah, he’s still asleep. I have been having Dr. Rockbell keep me updated. She says that he is stable and his vital signs are good but… after the surgery he just isn’t waking up. It’s like he’s in a trance or something.” Roy had yet to actually talk to the clone to begin his interrogations. He was swamped with paperwork and other necessary investigations to fix everything that Kimblee messed up but that wasn’t the main reason why Roy had not started interrogating. The main reason was because the clone simply was asleep. Since the surgery, the clone had not breached consciousness. He wasn’t in decline. He wasn’t on the verge of life or death. Everything seemed normal except the fact that he was asleep and Roy did not know when he would wake up at that rate.

“Why don’t we just get rid of him? It would be easier,” Jean muttered.

“I wish. We shouldn’t even have had to bring him but the clone and his company had surrendered. Kimblee nearly solved that problem though,” Roy grumbled. “But now, it might be good that we did. Look at this.” He leaned over and handed Jean the data pad he was flipping through. The man placed the cigarette in his mouth and took the tablet in both hands to begin flipping through the file.

“Over half of the Captain’s files are restricted. Not just sensitive material but highly classified,” Roy stated.

“But… Colonel, how is that possible? He is a low ranking clone. He was running a company of 40 men! How does he have all of this?” Jean asked him. Roy shrugged before pulling the data pad back. To go through it once more even though he had already memorized the clone’s information. Havoc took another draw from his cigarette before releasing the puff of smoke in thought.

“What do you think he is hiding in there?” he asked after a few moments of pondering. Roy shook his head. He hadn’t the slightest idea, but they needed to find out.

……

“Stop!” he screamed as his eyes flew open to the darkened room. Once his cry died, it was quiet unlike the chaos that rested behind his eyelids. It was calm. Captain ED-0001 closed his eyes and let his head fall back to the creaky cot he was resting on. He listened intently to the gentle hum of the stun barrier over the cell door. In the pure silence of the empty cell block, he was grateful for something to remind him where he was. He was grateful, even if he was remembering how he was a prisoner of war on a forgettable desert planet.

Images of red and white flashed through his mind and the Captain opened his eyes again to keep the thoughts at bay. He did not want to think of that again, not after having another nightmare. He groaned as he pushed himself up off his cot and swung his legs off the side. In an instant, he was face down on the cold cement floor of his cell having lost his balance from a simple action. His shoulder roared with pain, stronger than it ever was before and he let out a small cry. Cursing, his hand shot up to hold his aching shoulder, but it met with only air before falling back to the ground. The Captain opened his eyes and looked down at his bandaged shoulder to see what was wrong with it just to find that it wasn’t there at all.

“It's….” he started but he couldn't find the words at all, his heart absolutely frozen in mid beat. His shoulder just ended. Where the bandages were, slightly bloody from his aggravating fall, there was just a stump and nothing more. He felt his entire being go numb as he just stared at it. It was gone, just gone. As if to make sure he wasn’t imagining things, he ran his other hand over the gauze trying to feel for his arm where it should have been. There was nothing. The Captain bit his lip to stifle an anguished cry from escaping it. It came out as a muffled scream and he felt his weight give up on him as he collapsed back down to the floor with a thud.

“No! No! No! No!” the Captain cried as he beat the ground with his only fist. Tears streamed down his unmasked face, his armor having disappeared sometime in the night. Argument picked up beyond his cell and soon footsteps pounded across the floor as someone was alerted by his cries.

“Captain-“ he heard a woman gasp. “Someone call Dr. Rockbell and the Colonel. He’s awake!” Hands grabbed his torso and began to pick him up on the floor. The Captain didn’t fight him as he was overcome with despair.

“It’s gone. It’s gone. Why is my arm gone?!” the clone yelled at the soldier who was helping him up. His eyes met a woman who wore concern as plain as day on her face. Green eyes were wide but there was no answer on her lips.

“Sir, everything will be alright. It’s okay-“

“It’s okay? I don’t have an arm! It’s not coming back! It’s- no, no, no, no.” Panic had turned the Captain’s blood cold and he found himself unable to breathe. Tears streamed down his cheeks as his chest heaved to take in air. His arm was gone. His arm was gone! A soft hand rested on his bare chest and back, holding him firmly in place.

“Sir, take a deep breath. Calm down. Calm down,” the woman told him. He tried. He really did. But he only ended up choking on it and coughing. His eyes darted back to his right shoulder and another sob was shoved out of his throat.

“No, no,” he begged over and over again even though he knew that it wouldn’t change a thing. The damage was done.

“Don’t look at it. Look at me,” she said, forcefully turning his head so his golden eyes were only focused on her green ones and not on what was left of his arm. “Focus. My name is Maria Ross. Tell me your name.”

“E-ED-0001,” he choked. She nodded her head.

“Good. Good. Okay. Take another breath. Good,” she said as he followed her directions. “Good. Tell me your age.”

“S-Seven and a-a half.”

“Good. Breathe. Good. I know someone who is around that age,” she said to carry on the conversation. “Sergeant Brosh, isn’t your sister seven-“

“And a half!” the Captain heard a man declare from across the room. “My younger brother is her twin!”

“Br-Brother?” the Captain choked out. Ross nodded her head, eager to see he was focusing on the conversation. She was trying to keep up a decent conversation to keep him grounded. She told him to take another breath and he did. He felt the air fill his lungs and he closed his eyes relishing in the relief.

“Good. Yes. The sergeant is an older brother. Do you have any siblings?” the Lieutenant asked. The Captain forced himself to take another breath and nodded his head but the words to elaborate did come to him. Seeing this, she ordered him to take another breath. A hiccup popped out of his chest and he pulled his knees up and pressed his head down into them. He focused on his breathing and managed to calm down. Tears still trailed down his face but he didn’t dare wipe them away as he was afraid he might catch sight of his shoulder. He didn’t want to look at it. Silent sobs accompanied the hiccups that took over him. The Lieutenant continued to talk to him and rubbed small circles in his back.

“So, you are a brother. Would you like to describe them to us?” she asked him, hoping to continue the conversation and pull him the rest of the way back. However, he didn’t get the change to elaborate as a gruff voice cut her off.

“He’s a clone, Lieutenant. He isn’t allowed to have siblings. If he did he would have a thousand.” The Captain looked up as Ross quickly stood up and turned around, forgetting him on the floor. He saw a new man enter the room, the soldier that had talked to him outside of the cell the other day. Colonel Mustang. His dark eyes were burning into him and the Captain could only see a mixture of rage and disgust hidden behind them. “I would also recommend that you don’t get too associated with the clone. He is not here on vacation after all.”

“Sir, he was having a panic attack after just waking up. I was trying to calm him down before Dr. Rockbell got here to look him over,” she replied to try and explain herself but the man glared at her which quickly shut her up.

“He shouldn’t be crying over his arm when his company faired far worse in the fight. The fact that he is still living means that he got off easy. Life is a mercy that war rarely seem to give,” the Colonel stated sharply. “He might be young but he’s also a trained soldier, proficient in nearly every weapon out there. War is a lifestyle and he might as well know how to live it if he picks up a gun.” Ross looked like she wanted to retort but she bit her lip and backed away, allowing the Colonel to talk to him. The Captain instantly felt horribly vulnerable in front of the man. He wanted to hold up a defiant façade. He wanted to fight, but he had no armor to hide behind and no arm to fight with. He felt like a foolish child sitting in front of him.

“Isn’t that right?” the man rhetorically asked him. The Captain turned his eyes down to the ground as he had nothing to say. The man was blunt and correct. He had gotten off easy in the tides of war. His entire unit had lost their lives and he was sitting there panicking over his lost arm. He chanced a glance at the bandaged stump but barely looked at it for a second before his stomach churned and then turned away. He was pathetic. However, the Captain quickly had to remind himself who it was that had killed his unit. They were supposed to live. They were supposed to have been fine. The Captain looked back up at the Colonel and returned his burning glare with one of his own.

“Don’t you dare talk about my unit, you fucking bastard. Not after what you did to them,” he hissed.

“You shouldn’t be too upset or someone might think you were programmed wrong. Imperial soldiers were designed to be expendable and know it,” the Colonel growled at him.

“Then I guess you have a fucking defective clone on your hands because my soldiers were not fucking expendable, no matter if they were a storm trooper or a clone.”

“You are a copy.

“If I am expendable, then fucking kill me too.”

“No one’s killing anyone because I don’t want the extra work- excuse me-“ a sudden voice barked out. The Captain looked up to see an elderly lady push her way through the cell and past the Colonel. She was short, very short as her old age must have taken a toll on her. However it did little to thwart her fortitude. Looking at her, the Captain vaguely recognized her from the operation room. She hobbled over to him and set her medical bag down on the floor.

“Captain, sit up. I need to look you over,” she ordered.

She instantly began to buzz around his wound.

“Why is it gone?” he asked her, desperate for an answer. When he was knocked out he had an arm and within a night it was gone. He needed an explanation. It couldn’t just have been gone for no reason. The old woman hummed.

“It was infected and the shoulder was completely destroyed. We had to replace some of your shoulder with metal just to keep you together. There was no saving the rest of it. If we kept it, it would have killed you,” she answered him truthfully. The captain nodded his head, though he felt like the words just washed over him. It was the blaster bolt that hit him in Liore. Where it took the rest of his soldiers’ life, it had only taken his arm. He found himself ashamed for being so disturbed. His unit was gone and he got off easy with losing an arm. The cruel words of the Colonel clung to him. As much as the captain tried to reason with himself, he still felt the despair sink into his bones. The woman began to pick at the bandages on his shoulder to unravel them. He quickly lifted his left hand up and gripped his shoulder, stopping her progress.

“No. I don’t want to see it,” he begged her silently. She looked up at him surprised but not shocked. Her eyes softened as they realised his fears and the Captain felt an overwhelming amount of sympathy from her.

“I have to check your shoulder. I understand you’re scared. Don’t look at it if you don’t want to,” she told him without an ounce of annoyance to her. She was patient. The Captain quickly looked away as the woman began her progress once more. The bandages were gently removed and he heard the doctor let out a gasp of surprise. The captain quickly closed his eyes, not wanting to look at the source of her wondering.

“Impossible,” the elderly woman breathed, and he felt a hand run over the residual stump. The odd feeling was unnatural and sent shivers up the Captain’s spine. He flinched away from her. It wasn’t right.

“What’s wrong with him?” the Colonel’s deep voice asked as he saw the doctor’s complete shock.

“Nothing-“

“Nothing? Then what’s the issue?”

“That’s the problem. Nothing is wrong with him. Look,” she exclaimed and the Captain heard the Colonel move closer to look.

“No way,” the Colonel gasped.

“Wh-what?” the Captain wheezed out as he cautiously opened his eyes as if the thing they were looking at was going to come out and bite him if he looked at it wrong. He turned his eyes down to look at his arm and he saw exactly what was the issue… or rather not the issue. His arm, though gone, showed no signs of injury, infection, or swelling. It was completely healed. It looked as if it was healing for ten weeks or longer. He ran his hand over the scaring, feeling his stomach churn with the abnormality and the awe.

“Your arm. It’s… completely healed. It has only been a week and your arm is fully healed,” the doctor muttered.

“A-a week? I was out for a week? No. That can’t be- There’s no way-“

“How did you heal so fast? Is this normal for clones or are you some kind of freak?” the Colonel interrogated him. The Captain reeled back as the man was practically on top of him.

“No, this isn’t fucking normal! If anything happened it was because you did something to me!” he retorted, trying to keep his stance as the man hounded him. The Colonel glared down at him, but it seemed that he thought better of himself and took a small step back.

“If we did something to you, you wouldn’t have woken up,” he heard the Colonel breathe, his voice was fire getting fanned in the hearth. The man turned and barked orders towards the guards at the door. “Get this clone to in processing!” The doctor glared at the man and pushed herself off the floor.

“You can’t interrogate him yet! He is still recovering!”

“As you said he is healed. Once a patient has been fully healed, their jurisdiction transfers from the doctor to me. We are going to get to the bottom of this freak of nature if it is the last thing we do.” Pinako looked like she wanted to argue but unfortunately she knew the man to be true. With an apologetic smile to the Captain, she packed up her medical kit as the two guards, Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh, rushed in through the door.

“Hurry up! I don’t have all day,” the Colonel growled at them before stomping out of the opened cell door to where the Captain had assumed was the in processing center for prisoners of different types. An overwhelming feeling of dread filled him as he watched the empty doorway. Up until that moment he was a patient, now he was going to feel what it was like to really be a prisoner of the Rebel forces. He didn’t know what to expect, but he knew with that man leading the inquisition, he was probably going to be marching to death row.

He felt an arm on his only shoulder suddenly lift him to his feet. His legs were weak and wobbly. It felt like he hadn’t used them in ages. In reality it was only a week. The offset weight of his arm made him take a few stumbling steps as his balance was off. The Lieutenant steadied him out.

“Come, sir,” she said sternly as she lead him out. They didn’t even bother restraining him as if they didn’t imagine him to be a threat. The Captain glanced down at his shoulder once more, a sigh of grief escaping him. He guessed he really wasn’t.

…��.

The clone commander glared back at Colonel Mustang as both of them sat at a metal table in one of the base’s interrogation rooms. It took them hours to drain him of information he need not verbally give. His entire body was examined head to foot for anything they could use for identification purposes. They didn’t have to look far as his brands were the biggest give away there was. Aside from that they had taken his automail leg, torn it apart and rebuilt it just to make sure it wasn’t rigged. The Captain was sure that they had done something to it as the port still burned from its reinstallment. It usually didn’t hurt that long. Now, he sat there in new prisoners clothes with an assigned number.

Everything he owned, his armor, his clothes, and even his name were confiscated and taken away from him. In processing was a form of dehumanization, he had concluded, but he did not let it have power over him. His pride was nothing compared to what his unit had lost.

He glared at the Colonel, his distaste with the rebel soldier evident on his unmasked face. The man stared back at him with equal intensity. Their despise for each other seemed to be the only thing they agreed on.

“This is Colonel Roy Mustang interrogating clone Captain ED-0001 from the Imperial Green Lion Company, Avarice Battalion, Extravagance Corps, prisoner 0310, in room Alpha, session one. Current time is 0500 on September 1st,” the man said to the recording device that was sitting on the table. He shuffled his notes and took his time pulling up his information on his data pad before beginning questions. To most it would seem like the Colonel didn’t care. The Captain knew he was just testing his patience.

“I don’t know what you are expecting to find,” ED-0001 said. “I am the commander of a tiny unit, but go off I guess.”

“You have hundreds of class A confidential files in your records. I don’t think that is normal for a low ranking clone. Do you mind explaining them?”

“I don’t even know half of the files they store in this thing,” he sighed, raising his wrist that contained the record chip in it. “Maybe ask an easier question.”

“You’re lying. I know you know something about them. Your records are nothing like I have ever seen before. Commander at age six, proficient in every type of weapon-”

“Of course I am lying. This wouldn’t be an interrogation unless you find some clever way to weasel information out of me. However, I will take that last part as a compliment. Thank you.”

“I am not here to play games with you, clone,” the man seethed at him and the Captain smirked as he saw he was pissing the man off. Mustang seemed to realize that he was toying with him and didn’t like it one bit. “How about I remind you of your status here. After such a complete failure on Resembool, I am sure that your return back to the empire would only end at the business end of a blaster. If you answer our questions-“

“You will what? Keep me around? I think I know my position, Colonel Dumbass. I am dead either way. So please, give me another incentive on why I should tell you anything,” the Captain huffed. “Besides, I have better chances with the Empire. In clone standards I should have been scrapped long ago. If they kept me around for this long they might as well keep me a little longer even with one less arm.”

“Another incentive than life?” the Colonel laughed harshly. ED-0001 frowned. “It really is amazing how cruel and coldhearted clones can be even to themselves. Glad everyone is on the same page.”

“We are not coldhearted! We tried to help Resembool before you came along-“

“Help Resembool? We were there as a distress signal was sent out about your harsh treatment. You burnt and raided towns. You murdered farmers and raped innocent people. How on earth were you planning on helping them in this manner?”

“That wasn’t-“

“Oh, so it was the other Imperial troop that ravaged those villages? The only thing you clones were made to do was to destroy. You are an expendable force made by the dozens and created to follow orders of the Empire. You don’t help people.”

“We are not expendable!” the Captain yelled back at the Colonel. “We are not expendable and we are not brainless. We are humans just made differently. People like you look at us and I don’t know what you see. We look the same and talk the same. We have the same emotions and feelings as anyone else. I don’t know why we are said to be something different, something less than human. That man Kimblee killed my company because he imagined him to be expendable! What a safe thing to say when you are the one pulling the goddamned trigger and not the one catching the bullet. The next time you call us expendable, look at your own unit and put them in the place of my own.”

“Don’t compare yourself to us. We are not remotely the same-“

“If I was not human I would be considered an animal or beast. The conventions of war do not pertain to animals and so there would be no reason for you to sit here and interrogate me.” Silence stretched through the interrogation room and rebel and imperial soldiers just glared at each other. The stand off had begun and neither gained an inch on the battleground. It was obvious that the Colonel considered the idea that he was interrogating vermin instead of another person. That only made the Captain’s blood boil even more. The dark eyes of the Colonel looked him over, taking in every detail of him as if to find something worthwhile to prod at. It seemed, eventually, that he found something.

“If clones are so normal, tell me why you can heal so fast.” The Captain found himself taken back by the question as it was actually one he didn’t know. He was wondering the same thing. How did he heal that fast? He thought he was only knocked out for a night. It turns out he was out for a week without any sign of surgery done to him. He glanced down to his shoulder, the missing gap in his arm still made him queezy.

“I-I don’t know. There was nothing in my plans about it. It shouldn’t be possible.”

“Your plans? You cloning information?” the Colonel asked as he raised his eyebrow in disbelief. “Clones don’t know their creation processes. Tell me the truth-“

“Well, I surely remember how many times I got stabbed with a needle and what they stabbed me with. The immunization procedures I received were the same as other consensus processes and there was nothing abnormal about it. Logically, with the same immunizations and growing up in the same environment, my immune system should be roughly the same. There is no possible way I can heal that fast.”

“So, you are telling me that you just… remember how you were made?”

“Just the stuff I can. How else do you think I made those seeds?”

“You made those seeds?”

“Maybe I should stop telling you things because obviously you don’t believe anything that comes out of my mouth.”

“That’s because what you are telling me is a simple-minded clone like you became well versed in cell and molecular biology and then used that information to make stupid seeds for farmers on the small planet Resembool.”

“Well I see your problem. The proper adjective in that sentence would be genius not simple-minded,” the Captain smirked as he playfully tooted his own horn to get on the man’s nerves. It worked. The Colonel’s face was now red.

“Why would you waste all of that time and effort to learn about genetics just to make a bunch of seed. What were they for?”

“I don’t know about you, but I believe seeds were meant to be planted. I don’t want to assume anything though. You rebels might be different, I don’t know.” The Captain heard a growl and looked over at the Colonel to see the man trying his best to strangle the table. He laughed as he didn’t imagine that it would be that easy to get on the man’s nerves. He thought the man would have been a professional. There was a knock from the side of the room and the both of them looked over towards the mirror. The Captain was no fool, he knew that there were people watching them but he didn’t think that they would make themselves known.

“Colonel Mustang, sir, I believe now is a good time for a break.” A woman’s voice came through the speaker system. The man closed his eyes and pinched his nose in frustration. It seemed he knew he had lost that round.

“I will be back,” he huffed as he stood up and grabbed his papers. The Captain watched him head towards the door.

“Hope you don’t waste too much time. Don’t want you to miss the party.”

……..

“Sir, you can’t let him beat you up like that,” Lieutenant Hawkeye scolded Roy as he glared through the right side of the two way mirror to where the clone was resting peacefully in the interrogation room. The clone was staring at the ceiling like he had something better he could be doing than answering his questions. The little punk was trying his best to piss him off.

“I thought I had him at several points. I just need to keep pushing. He will snap eventually-“

“Or you will,” Hawkeye retorted, busting his bubble of pride way to fast.

“Okay, I might have gotten a little frustrated, but I was getting good information. It is obvious he is more sensitive than he is letting on. If I can just go back in there-“

“He had you running around in circles at the end, sir. He was mocking you. He is not going to take you seriously for a while. With all due respect, sir, I cannot in good conscious let you go back in there.”

“You can’t order me around, Lieutenant. Incase you forget, I outrank you-“

“I did not forget, sir. However, I am the expert on clones here. Therefore, I do have the power to tell you that you are going about this wrong.”

“You are an expert on how they were made, not their psychology-“

“Psychology is based on experience, sir. I think I am qualified even for that, don’t you think?” she said. Roy opened his mouth to retort but upon seeing the steel look in his subordinate’s eyes closed his mouth. She was right.

“What’s so different between interrogating a clone and anyone else?” Roy grumbled to himself as he crossed his arms and stared back at the mirror. The clone had taken to resting his head on the table. Roy couldn’t tell if he was bored or actually falling asleep. He looked like a simple teenager, even acted like a simple teenager, but Roy knew him to actually be more than that. Though, he wondered in what ways.

The Lieutenant sighed

“He’s defensive, sir, and it was obvious he was very upset when you started alienating him as a clone. He already feels different because of who he is, there is no longer need to push that fact any farther.”

“Even if it is true?” Roy retorted. Hawkeye glared at him but he didn’t back down. He held firm. Unfortunately, so did she.

“Sir, I am going in there to conduct the questioning until you cool down. You cannot let your anger take a hold of you. He is playing you like a violin.”

“Hawkeye-“

“Sir, I will not discuss this farther.”

……….

The door to the interrogation room swooshed open once more and the Captian glanced over lazily expecting the Colonel to be back in scowling again. However, he was surprised to see a different soldier, a woman. She had a completely blank expression on his face. The Captain found himself immediately intimidated by her presence. He didn’t know the cause, but he knew that she was going to be nothing like the Colonel was. He steeled himself for anything.

The woman sat down at the table and pressed the recorder that rested there.

“This is Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye interrogating clone Captain ED-0001 from the Imperial Green Lion Company, Avarice Battalion, Extravagance Corps, prisoner 0310, in room Alpha, session two. Current time is 0700 on September 1st.” she read into it as she drew out her note pad and clicked her pen. Unlike the Colonel she did not waste time shuffling her papers around. She already knew what she was going to say and how she wanted to say it.

“Sir,” she said, reminding the captain that he technically out ranked her. “I heard that you had stated previously that you wanted to help Resembool when we had attacked your battalion. Would you please explain to me how you planned on doing that.”

“Why should I tell you? It isn’t like it matters anyways. Everything’s ruins once again.”

“We went to Resembool after hearing several accusations about your unit’s conduct. However, when we arrived, we did not see burning buildings nor starving people. So I wanted to ask you why this was.” The Captain frowned and shifted around in his seat. He looked away from the Lieutenant as her heavy gaze fell upon him. There was no apprehensive tone to her voice. There was no insult or words of disgust. It sounded like she was simply asking a question. This had to have been a trick.

“You aren’t playing this good cop bad cop routine are you? That stuff’s a joke and you know it.”

“Do I sound like I am praising you for your actions, sir? If so, I do not mean them. I am simply asking a question and wish for it to be answered. You will not receive any praise nor any insult from me, only the truth. I could bring the Colonel back in here and you could continue beating your head against the wall for, let me see,” she hummed as she looked down at her watch, “the next four hours?” He didn’t reply, but it seemed he didn’t have to. The Lieutenant smirked and sat back in her chair. If she didn’t make him cave in, surely time would. The Captain wondered about answering her. The rebels were searching for important information that could aid in their fight against the Empire. If he told her anything they might be able to weaponize it. However, was this something so important? It was a silly humanitarian mission. It was no closer linked to the inner secrets of the Empire than a grain of sand on the planet Xing.

“The previous commander was the cause of all of these accusations. I knew I couldn’t atone for what he had done, but I could make sure that these things never happened again. I arranged several missions to rebuild all of the towns. We fixed the buildings, restored their farms so that the townsfolk could be ready for the season. Knowing that we were always on the verge of a food crisis, I also began to design a new line of genetically modified crop that would grow in under half the time of a normal harvest so that the farmers could grow enough for our quota and themselves. We were on our way to exchange the first harvest when you had attacked us. With those seeds they would have been able to regrow their entire harvest before the end of the season, but you rebels went and blew up all of our carriers. Now, once again, the entire planet of Resembool will surely starve. Those seeds were their only chance.”

“You made the seeds?”

“Yes! Why is that so unbelieveable? I made the seeds. It wasn’t that hard either. Most of the effort was trying to get the equipment for it on a clone’s budget,” the clone commander growled.

“How did you learn how to do this? You are trained in logistics not biology.”

“It… was the only thing I knew after being made. I saw some of the scientists notes and data when I was going through my alimentation procedures. I wanted to learn more about myself and I had all of the basic knowledge I needed. From there I just skimmed and picked up on anything more I could. I even…” The captain paused in the middle of his sentence. He was about to talk about his cloning procedures. It was simple information on his research but he had to remember he was talking to a rebel. He couldn’t allow them to get that information. The Lieutenant waited for him to continue but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to she pushed.

“Yes?” she questioned, asking him to continue but the Captain bit his lip.

“Nothing,” he muttered.

“You decoded your notes didn’t you?” she asked filling in the blank space he had left hanging there. The Captain’s jaw dropped in shock as she easily figured out what he was going to say. He shook his head and closed his mouth, trying to regain his composure infront of the rebel soldier.

“I never said that. You are just putting words in my mouth,” the Captain retorted defesively. It was a horrible lie and the woman saw through it easily. He was pathetic.

“You had no access to biological texts, or at least the ones necessary to understand cloning processes. Even still you managed to become well versed in the field, so much that you were able to design and create your own genetically modified organism. The only information that you would have access to at every single point in your life that would give you enough information to do such a thing are the brandings on a clones back. The brandings given to clones are highly classified information and strongly encrypted. Only the scientists that developed the procedures know how to read them. How on earth did you figure that out?”

“I don’t know. I remembered how they made me and I went from there.”

“You… remember how you were made?”

“Yeah…. It’s nothing that I really do want to remember,” he muttered. The Lieutenant looked like she wanted to push the question some more. However, she simply jotted something down and changed topics. She seemed to understand that wasn’t a topic he was going to talk about any time soon.

“What made you decide to do this project of making seeds? It is a lot of work for your first year in office.”

“What do you mean, what made me do this? I couldn’t just let those people starve!” he retorted roughly.

“That never mattered to the Empire before.”

“I don’t fucking care. People shouldn’t live in terror because of some person’s ruthlessness! I was made to follow orders. How I follow them though is up to me. I am not going to force people to live as slaves just to complete a mission quicker like the previous commander. I am ordered to as a logistic specialist to obtain a quota of food for the Legion. I do that. It doesn’t matter to the Empire what I do on my free time as long as I get those numbers. I got the quota easily and also prevented an entire planet of people from starving. I guess you could say I am helping the Empire by helping the people.”

There was a pause. The Lieutenant did not glance at her pad, only stared at the Captain in thought. ED-0001 didn’t squirm under her stare though. He stood fast. These people believed he was a ruthless monster. He was far from that. The Lieutenant pursed her lips in hesitation before asking her question.

“What do you believe is the goal of the Empire, Captain?” ED-0001 was taken back by the question.

“Why?”

“Just… enlighten me for a moment. What do you think the Empire is trying to do?” The Captain hesitated. He had been with the Empire his entire life. It was thanks to them that he was even alive. He knew the empire like the back of his hand. It was everything he was. However, how the Lieutenant asked the question made him feel like no matter how he answered, he would be wrong.

“The Empire is trying to unite the galaxy. Oppression and violence is happening on many different planets throughout the four different quadrants because of the different conflicting laws they have. The Central Empire wants to help unite them and stop this from happening.” The Lieutenant bit her lip and nodded her head as she wrote something down on her note pad. The Captain was unsettled with her silence. She stared at what she wrote on the page for a few minutes as if she was unsure about where to go from there. The Captain wanted to feel like he had once again outdone an interrogation as she was lost for words. However, he knew this to be wrong.

“Captain… The Central Empire wants to unite the galaxy under one rule, and one race. They are creating genocide throughout the galaxy killing anyone that gets in their way. Their idea of a perfect nation is a nation of brainwashed storm troopers or clones, like you, who can obey them on every command. You are helping them kill millions of people for the sake of false perfection.”

“That’s not possible,” the Captain stated flatly. “The Central Empire wouldn’t-”

“The Ishvalans,” the Lieutenant interjected, “were a peaceful race that looked and acted just a bit too different than the Empire wanted them to. The destruction of their race was caused by the invasion of clone troops, one who just happened to misfire into a crowd of people.”

“It was a chaotic set of events. No one knew what was to come of it-”

“The Central Empire set an order of extermination on the Ishvalans,” she stated flatly. Her voice was firm, but soft. The Captain froze with his mouth open to retort, unable to come up with anything. His eyes were focused on the edge of the table as his mind seemed to be running through everything he was told by the Empire. It couldn’t be true. He couldn’t have facilitated something as atrocious as that. The Empire wasn’t like that! However, the way the clones and storm troopers were treated, the way they were thrown carelessly into battles and disregarded civilian life… No. That was just war wasn’t it? That was just what happened. The more the Captain tried to justify the Empire’s actions, the more the idea of a peaceful Empire seemed ridiculous to him.

“The Central Empire started with the massacre on Xerxes. Surely you know that,” the Lieutenant said.

“The Rebels slaughtered the entire jedi council. Our Supreme Leader was the only one who was left.” She shook her head and the Captain found himself speechless.

“The Supreme leader had been building the clone army behind the council’s back for years. Eventually, it was strong enough that the Supreme Leader used them to massacre the jedi council and half the population of the entire planet. Those who could not flee were killed where they stood. The Central Empire was born from the blood and ruins. I am sure it will die in the same manner.”

“No… N-no, no…,” the Captain gasped.

“Many of the rebels here are refugees from Xerxes. They watched their family and friends die at the hands of the Empire and are fighting simply to get some sort of home back.” The Captain covered his mouth, not trusting anything else but a scream to leave it. The Lieutenant watched him, her eyes full of sympathy but said nothing. She simply made a note on her pad and stood to leave.

“This will be it for today,” she told him before making her way towards the door.

“I-Is it true? Please, i-it can’t be true,” the Captain blurted out, not caring that his voice reeked with desperation. He didn’t want what she said to be a lie. He needed it to be. If it wasn’t he had helped an entire nation to destroy thousands of lives.

The woman turned to him, a frown deeply engraved in her face. She didn’t say anything. Only nodded her head. She left but he couldn’t hear the shut of the door over the loud sob that had escaped him.

……..

“I can’t believe it, Hawkeye. You got him! You really got him!” the Colonel laughed in awe as she returned back into the observation room. He was staring out into the interrogation room through the two way mirror, a grin on his face. She glanced to where he was looking to see the imperial clone sitting there, his back quaking in anguish. A twinge of sympathy flew through her as she watched him openly sob there. She had not gone in realizing that he was oblivious to the evils of the Empire. She had thought that he was working along side them in his own way. Instead, he had thought he was really helping the people by working for the Empire. She had tore that entire ideal away from him. She had torn his entire life to shreds with one simple truth.

“You got a lot of good information in there. The fact that he made those seeds and knows his own cloning process is huge. We definitely need to get those plans from him. Maybe they can tell us what is going on with this clone.”

“Sir, with all due respect I got through to him, but by no means will I make an effort to destroy him. I will not go back in there. He just had his entire world ripped from beneath his feet. Give him time to adjust. He will be more complacent tomorrow.”

“Time to adjust? I didn’t have time to adjust when clones destroyed everything I had on Xerxes! Stop sympathizing with the enemy, Hawkeye. He’s a clone. They weren’t made to have feelings.”

“If he doesn’t have feelings, sir, then why is he crying?” The Colonel turned his eyes from her to the clone sitting isolated in the adjacent room. Hawkeye couldn’t believe that he was only seven years old and so advanced already. Though he held the body and the mind of a teenager, the horrors of what he saw and did still take a toll on the unexperienced. The Colonel, however, didn’t see this. He glared out at the clone in the other room. He looked like he wanted to bite at her for suggesting they stop the interrogations. In the end, the man let out a hot breath.

“Fine,” he said bitterly. “0500 tomorrow morning he is to be back in here. I have some questions that I want to ask him.”

“Yes sir.”