Chapter Text
Mustang froze as he laid his eyes on the spray of blood over the walls. He had to feign disinterest even as his whole body shuddered inside. He was supposed to be okay with this as long as he got what he wanted. He couldn’t show how disgusted he was by these people’s actions.
“This is where we do our work,” the guide explained in his very thick Drachman accent. It didn’t faze him one bit that the walls were stained with multiple different blood stains of varying shades of red and brown. So many children...
“This is where you make the children?” Roy asked, winding his arm tighter around his “wife”‘s waist. His Lieutenant moved in closer. It brought him a little comfort that she was there beside him. She was dressed in a knee length grey skirt and blue blouse with her hair down, looking completely different from usual. But at least she was still Hawkeye. She was sensible and nothing like the monsters there. She was on his side.
“No, not make. Prepare,” the man corrected. He beckoned for them to follow him into the next room, not knowing how grateful Roy was to be out of that disgusting place.
Roy let out an inaudible sigh of relief.
The guide motioned for them to sit and left out the same door he come in through without another word.
Roy let out an uncomfortable sigh and scanned the room. It was like any other parlour. It didn’t look like the meeting place of deranged kidnappers and murders. The room had a white and beige floral sofa in the middle. The walls were painted a soft green. In front of the sofa was a light wooden tea table and white shelves lined the walls, holding little trinkets and books. There were a disturbing amount of baby toys on the shelves. Were they just to promote the business or as a little reminder of what they were there for? Or was it something more disturbing? Were those displayed like trophies from the children they had caught before?
He sat down on the sofa, waiting for Hawkeye to join him. She walked over to a shelf instead and picked up a little stuffed black and white spotted kitten with ribbon whiskers.
“I see you like my collection?” A soft, almost soothing if not for the owners distasteful business, voice hummed behind them.
Roy jumped up and spun around. He never heard him come in.
Hawkeye seemed to freeze in place before setting the kitten down.
“No need to be so jumpy, my friend. No one is here to turn you in,” the man chuckled, not failing to send shivers down Roy’s spine. He was a red head and his eyes were a startling blue. He was dressed in a grey suit with a bright yellow handkerchief in the breast pocket. He had a perfect Amestrian accent, so he was most likely from Amestris unlike the guide.
“Yes, sorry. I couldn’t help it,” Roy was quick to say, hoping he wants doing anything that might give himself away. He settled back down, his lieutenant joining him a moment later.
“Is this your wife? She is breath taking,” the man commented as he walked around the sofa to settle into a well worn armchair. It was a deep red with little golden diamonds sown into the fabric. It was a severe contrast against the rest of the room.
“Yes, this is Elizabeth. And I am—“ Roy was cut off by a raised hand and a shaking head. He paused and eyed the man letting him say what he wanted.
“No need for names. It’s much too risky in my line of work.” The man leaned back in his chair, sighing. “Now what is the happily expecting couple wanting? Boy or girl?” It was unsettling to hear how the man was wording the question. It was as if he were asking it to a couple actually expecting. It was something in his voice. It was like he was playing make believe. That’s what all the parents who bought children from this man wanted. They wanted a happy family. They wanted to play house. This was just a sick way of doing it. Lie to yourself and get your happy ending. And Roy was supposed to be falling into the game.
“I want a boy,” Roy answered before turning to Hawkeye. She caught his glance then clutched her stomach as if she were really pregnant, as if she were playing into the man’s soothing voice and little game.
She smiled ever so slightly. “I just want a healthy baby. Boy or girl.” She was good. Even Roy was convinced she was a desperate mother. Her eyes even watered. Did he expect anything less than this from his Lieutenant? Of course not. She was the best he had on his team.
“And who do you expect your baby to look like? Mom or Dad? Or maybe one of your parents?” He cocked his head to the side as Roy and Riza looked to one another like they were trying to figure the answer out with only their minds.
Roy looked her in the eye, not necessarily trying to communicate anything to her, but just to seem that way and stall.
“I want the boy to look like his beautiful mother.” Roy picked up a lock of her hair and ran his finger and thumb across the length, staring into her eyes lovingly. “I want a beautiful blond boy.”
“And the same eye colour as well?” The man prompted, with a smile on his face.
“What do you think, Eliza?” Roy asked his “wife”. He’d already had revealed her “name”, so he saw nothing wrong with using it.
“Well, I wish his eyes were like yours but any eye colour is fine as long as you love him, dear,” Riza mumbled a little, not over selling the lovey dovey couple.
The mystery man chuckled in his chair. “I have never met a woman like you, my dear. Those who come for this helpful little family starter are always very specific. It is quite costly. You don’t want to have the wrong child.” His smirk was demented. He looked insane, in other words, he looked exactly right.
Riza just smiled a little uncomfortably and wrapped her arms around herself. “I know I’ll love my baby no matter what it looks like. I— I just want a child.” Her voice broke a little and she blinked back tears.
“And I promise, that is exactly what you will get.” The man stood up abruptly. “Shall we see what I have that fits your tastes?” He talked about it like he was going to show off his prize meats. He stood up walked past the two of them, letting them get up and follow him to the next room. There was quite a bit of room hopping when trying to illegally adopt babies. “Now, I’ll show you our boys, so that you know what they will look like in a decade or so. After the de-aging process, they should age the same way. You can find one you like more that way.”
Roy stood up, taking his lieutenant’s hand to help her up. They followed the man through a hall and into the first room on the left. There were five other doors in the hall, excluding the one they had just come from. They probably weren’t all filled with children. He desperately hoped they weren’t all filled with children. According to their information, this operation wasn’t big enough to fill that many rooms with children. And the recent disappearances were not that numerous.
Roy felt his skin grow cold as the blood left his face. He could feel his stomach drop to his feet. There were probably about fifteen to twenty boys huddled up against the walls in blankets that looked nearly thin enough to see through. The stock was sickening, but it was only going to get worse.
“Come on, boys. Stand up. We have a new family for one of you.” The boys all stood up at the command, some a little slower than others but they were all up in a minute. The blankets were left on the ground and all fifteen or so boys stood stark naked, heads hanging in shame, hiding their faces behind their hair. Roy didn’t blame them.
Hawkeye gasped beside him. Roy would have as well if he had had any air left in his lungs. It was like the sight had knocked the air straight out of him.
It took him moment to realise they were supposed to be moving again. He walked past three brown haired boys, not able to look into their faces. He was sure he probably wouldn’t have wanted to. Next were three dirty, ashy blond boys. The largest, maybe twelve if the size of the boy were anything to go off of, was holding a fourth. This one was a baby, probably three or four weeks old. It was sleeping and had a little dribble of milk down its chin, indicating that it had just been fed. That was probably to shut him up so he wouldn’t cry for his possible new parents.
“Why is that boy so young? I thought we were promised older boys to look at?” Roy asked, gut clenching. Had someone’s baby been stolen or was this the result of the transmutation? Were they too late to save someone’s child? Well, they were too late to save a lot of children. The ones that had already been sold would be difficult to impossible to track down.
“Oh, yes, a few of our boys are not as submissive and don’t listen to the rules as well as the rest of the boys. We have to start early with them. I do have pictures of those boys before the preparation,” the man informed them. He just continued walking, though. “But those boys you are looking at all have darker blond hair. The lighter blonds are here.” He stopped right in front of five blond boys that were probably between ages six and thirteen. None of them looked up. Of course they wouldn’t want to. They were made to stand in a shameful, embarrassing way. Just hold on a little longer. Not even twenty-four hours. You can do it, he tried to mentally transmit to the children. Roy felt ashamed of himself for not being able to get them out sooner. Those kids were suffering so much. Again one of the older kids held a baby. Roy noticed as he let his eyes wander down the line. This one was fresh though. He looked like a new born. He had little tufts of fluffy golden hair.
The guy noticed Roy’s gaze on the baby. “He is the most recent transmutation. He was very feisty. Nice blond boy. And he was very pretty. I can give you him for twenty percent of the original price removed because of the transmutation and because he came here all on his own. We didn’t have to go looking for him. That would be twelve million.” The man reached out and took the baby. It stirred in his arms and in seconds the quiet, sleeping child was screaming. The man flicked its cheek which did nothing for the crying but did show how he treated those children.
“May I?” Roy asked, desperate to get the boy out of the red head’s arms. He didn’t realise that he’d said anything until he had a little baby being placed in his own arms. Roy looked down at the little boy’s face as his screaming slowed. The silvery newborn eyes opened for a couple seconds before drooping shut again. For the first time since he had received that damned mission, Roy actually understood why someone could do this. It wasn’t right, but he was almost falling in love with the infant in his arms. He knew why people would do it, but understanding was a little different. He did not condone what they were doing, but the boy in his arms was making Roy’s heart melt just a bit.
But this boy is someone’s child. And he was taken from them.
“Is this the one?” Mustang paused at the question and snapped out of his head. This boy couldn’t be the “one”.
“I don’t know.” He passed the boy to Riza who took him ever so tenderly. They were supposed to try dragging it out and be torn between two children so that they couldn’t do anything until the next day. They didn’t want to ruin any more children’s lives. If they couldn’t decide until tomorrow, a child wouldn’t be transmuted in that blood stained room. They would take down these traffickers and no more children would be hurt by these damned men and woman.
Roy intentionally looked at the other boys, and the warm feeling he got from the baby immediately melted away and was replaced by a feeling of disgust, not because of the children. It was because that baby boy had been like one of these kids but they transmuted him into an infant. “What happens if we change our minds and want an older boy?” Roy finally said.
The red head laughed. “You let him age. But if you’re asking if the transmutation is reversible, no, it’s not. There is a bit of excess material when we are done with the transmutation which we dispose of. With that in mind, think of it as cutting something big,” he paused, gesturing to one of the children before going on, “into something smaller. You can’t cut something small and expect something bigger. The material just isn’t there. You simply have to wait for him to grow up. It’s like raising any other child.”
Roy nodded, that’s what he had been afraid of. Even if they saved all those boys, the transmuted ones were stuck that way.
He scanned the boys, trying to find one with a hair colour closest to his “wife”‘s hair. That way it made more sense to pick that child over the little one.
Roy had to bite back the bile crawling up his throat as he thought about how that baby was once a kid with a loving family. He was taken. It wasn’t fair.
Roy stopped at a boy with nearly identical hair to Hawkeye’s. He reached out and lifted the boy’s chin tenderly.
The little boy was probably ten. He had his wide eyes locked on Roy. They were an icy blue and reflected pure terror. I’m sorry.
Roy couldn’t help but notice that the boy’s hair was shaped similarly to Fullmetal’s hair. It was only much shorter.
Roy tried to show the boy the most genuinely caring expression he could, wanting to ease the fear in his eyes. But the boy only looked more terrified than before.
“Eliza, what do you think of this boy?” Roy asked, pointing to the child in front of him. He hated how terrified the kid looked. Of course he would be scared. He was being promised a world of pain, and his entire existence as he was was being threatened.
“He’s lovely. I’m not sure yet, though.” She was handling the child back to the man with a hint of hesitance. It was like putting him in the lion’s claws.
“Feel free to think about it in the parlour. Or return tomorrow with your final decision,” the man suggested, taking the child and returning it to the kid who had been holding him when they came into the room.
Roy and Riza turned to one another and nodded. “Thank you. We will be sure to have made a decision by tomorrow.”
“That’s great news. I’ll take you to the parlour to show you pictures of this child and then I’ll have one of my men see you out.” He waited for the two of them to nod before leading them back through the hall and into the parlour. He went to a box on the shelf, motioning for them to sit while he pulled out a few photographs.
Roy sat beside Riza on the floral sofa again, waiting for the pictures to be shown to them. They would at least know who the infants had been before the transmutation. They could still return them to their families.
The man laid them out on the tea table.
Roy’s eyes widened and he had to swallow back his horror. The picture was of a boy with a few bruises on his cheeks and golden hair held back by a hand that clearly wasn’t gentle. But the horror was mostly because Roy recognised him. It was Fullmetal.