Precursor to Disaster

a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

YAJJ

Date: 1/27/2018 midnight

Summary: Written for maeshughesofficial's Reverse Dad AU, the dreaded moment where Ed and Al return from Dublith to find out that Roy is dead.

A/N: I have... Hero of Ishval on the way. I swear. I wrote like three words for it just last week it's COMING. I just got permission from maeshughesofficial to post my own fics about their beautiful, beautiful AU. A little background: The Reverse Dad AU is basically one where Roy and Maes switch places. Maes is the rising star State Alchemist Hero of Ishval, while Roy is the energetic and lovable family man. Maes actually got to Ed and Al BEFORE they attempted human transmutation, saw that they were going to try something amazing, and recruited the both of them as State Alchemists. While in Central, they meet an excitable man who had a huge heart and was ready to give away his love... and eventually the three of them, Roy's wife Riza, and their multitude of dogs do become a family. That is, until Roy dies somewhere around a year after. Ed and Al THEN attempt the unspeakable, mistakes are made, chaos ensues.

I HAVE written quite a few fics for Reverse Dad and have a few on the way, if you were interested in it and wanted to more just let me know, or check out maeshughesofficial's Reverse Dad AU tag! Be warned though, in my version Maes is a little more of a dick than Roy Mustang Canon was.

A/N: I don't own FMA, and I don't own the reverse dad au! just happily playing with both.

After three long weeks had passed, very long for some, since Roy's murder, Edward and Alphonse finally returned home from Dublith, unknowing of the tragedy. The boys chattered happily with one another, made confused comments at the sad looks a few soldiers passed them, and walked calmly to the office of the late Lieutenant Colonel (now Brigadier General) Roy Mustang.

Hughes was on his way back from another fruitless hour spent in records. He must have skimmed through over a hundred documents over and over again, trying to piece together whatever it was Roy was trying to tell him. Roy was an alchemist—amateur at best, but he was an alchemist all the same. And Hughes recognized the hints of a code when he saw one. Roy was not one for codes. Wasn't really one for subtlety, actually. But he had come to recognize Hughes' codes and wrote with them whenever something important needed to be passed on.

His code was screaming him in the face across dozens of documents, and he couldn't crack it, couldn't make what Roy was trying to tell him make sense.

He stepped away from his fourth cup of coffee of the morning, Munoz close on his heels. His team was diligently at work, he knew, for fear of Munoz's righteous fury. He walked, fingers to the bridge of his nose, past Roy's old office and headed toward his own.

He very nearly bumped into the boys on the way. If Munoz hadn't cleared her throat and greeted them in time, he surely would have run Al right over.

"Boys," he greeted, lowering his hand. "Finally returned from Dublith? I didn't know your train was coming in today. Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Hello, colonel," Al said respectfully, right hand zipping to his temple politely. Ed scoffed and tossed his head to the side, not offering the same sort of respect.

"No," he spat. "Teacher didn't know anything about it. 'Scuse us, we're gonna go tell Roy we're in."

"We thought that he or Mom would meet us at the station, but they must have lost track of time. I bet Dad's really busy," Al chirped, delight sparkling in his eyes. "We want to tell them all about what happened in Rush Valley and Dublith!"

At Hughes' side, Munoz stiffened sharply, her eyes widening a fraction. She glanced to her superior, who frowned a little, eyebrows knit together. Ed darted around Hughes, and Al followed him quietly.

"...Wait, boys," Hughes said with a sigh, stopping them in their tracks. "Listen…"

"What?" Ed complained loudly, tipping his head to look at him. "We'll give you the full report in the morning, okay? We haven't seen him in almost a month, and we just wanna say hi."

Something dark, something sad and aching shot through Hughes' heart for a fraction of a second. Edward and Alphonse truly believed that Roy would be on the other side when they opened that door, that Roy would be as excited as ever to see them, as cheerful and goofbally as ever, as if he wasnt currently pushing up daisies over three miles away.

And why should they think differently? When Riza had gotten in contact with one Izumi Curtis, the boys hadn't yet arrived at her home, and every time she tried to contact someone in Rush Valley, no one knew where the Elrics were. The funeral had gone and passed without them, as per military protocol. Hughes himself had advised against telling them, and though Riza hadn't much been pleased with him, since she was unable to contact them, she was forced to do as asked.

"Roy's… not in his office," he relented quietly. As much as he had believed against it, maybe he needed to tell them. Maybe, in the long run, it would be better.

Beside him, Munoz flashed a glance at him and nodded approvingly.

An air of suspicion drifted over the brothers. They split a look, and Al hesitantly asked, "...Do you know where he is...?"

"I…" Oh, but he was weak. He was weak. He couldn't say it, not to them. 'Roy Mustang is dead.' Four little words that he had to push out, no matter how foul they tasted, no matter how much he despised them. But these boys, they carried his last name like a trophy. He just couldn't do it.

Let someone else say it. Let it be anyone but him. Roy had been his best friend, his brother in arms, his silent supporter against a world that would be forever against him. He couldn't say it; he could hardly remind himself at night after a glass of gin.

Let Riza tell them. They would take it better from her, anyway.

"...No, I don't. The entire team went on a mission early this morning, and they haven't returned."

"...Oh," Ed said softly, watching the ground.

"Didn't he know we were coming back today?" Al asked, glancing at Ed. "We told them our train was coming in today, didn't we?"

"It was… unavoidable," Hughes said in a voice no louder than a whisper. At least, he thought, that wasn't entirely a lie.

Munoz's eyes went wide and she glanced sharply at her superior. She didn't say a word of reproach, but her disappointment radiated off of her like a sunbeam.

"...Okay, i guess. Well… maybe we should go see Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh! They're not far from here," Al chirped hesitantly.

"...Yeah," Ed agreed, quietly suspicious as he eyed his superior and Hughes got the feeling that somehow he knew, "yeah, sure. We should."

"Let us know when Dad's back, colonel!" Al hummed, leading the way. Ed followed after him, frowning silently.

Once they were gone and out of sight, Hughes braced his circle against his forehead, clenching his teeth to fight back a sudden wave of emotion. He squeezed his eyes shut, took several hesitant breaths, then ran a shaky hand through his hair. "...Dammit, Roy."

Munoz turned her sharp gaze on him as though to reprimand him, but instead she sealed her mouth shut to the rebuke and asked, "sir…?"

"Turning me soft just after I accused Armstrong of the same. Damn that man."

"Soft?" asked Munoz, furrowing her brows. "Sir, i dont see how that was 'soft' in any way. That was cruel. They're going to go home tonight expecting to see their father but he won't be there! He'll never be there again. And you call it soft to lie."

"He's not their father," Hughes grumbled out before he could stop himself, mouth quickly morphing into a guilty grimace at the words.

"Not their—" Munoz started, eyes blown wide. "Maybe in blood he wasn't, but he cared for them like he was, and they care for him as if he was! Imagine how that would feel!"

"...They would take it better from Riza anyway," Hughes said lowly. He shook his head quietly, then turned on his heel to head back to his office. "Come on. We've got to get back to work." Because anything was better than her disapproving glare on him.

Munoz's mouth dropped open like a fish, gaping wide. She closed her mouth with a click, glared at the back of his head, and followed, seething all the way.

Al looked back over his shoulder, in the direction of Colonel Hughes and Lieutenant Munoz. There was a sick knotting in his belly, one that he couldn't quite place. Hughes was acting very different indeed. "...That was weird, wasn't it, brother?" he said to his brooding older brother on the way to Armstrong's office. "Colonel Hughes was acting weird."

"Yeah," Ed agreed, arms over his chest. It had been odd. Hughes had started out solemn, but had quickly cleared the air, like he was hiding something. Hughes liked to hide things from them, sure, but he had never done it like that.

...Something as off. Al wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"Hey," Al suddenly chirped, jerking Ed from his head. He pointed down the stairs they were nearing, where they spotted a tawny head of hair. "Brother, look! Second Lieutenant Havoc! They must have just got back!"

When Ed's attention was fully off his thoughts, he spotted whom Al was speaking of. And certainly, approaching the base of the stairs was one of Roy's trusted lieutenants, files in arm. He was just about to start climbing the stairs when he heard his name.

"...Ed? Al?"

"Lieutenant!" Al cheered, hurrying down the stairs. He skipped to a stop beside the man, nearly flinging himself to the floor in his haste, grinning widely. Ed frowned and followed, slower. Havoc looked… he looked different, somehow. Something was wrong. And judging by Havoc's wide eyes as he stared at Al, something was very wrong.

"When did you guys get back?" Havoc asked, glancing between them with frantic eyes.

"Our train pulled in just a few hours ago! Hey, have you seen our dad? Colonel Hughes said you guys were on a mission, must have been until only a little bit ago."

Havoc's eyes grew wide, and both boys noticed the distress painting them dark. Havoc's hand dropped, the papers he was holding spilling out like rainwater. Ed bolted down the last few steps nervously, heart in his throat. Something was wrong. "Lieutenant? Are you okay? What is it?"

Havoc didn't even seem to notice that he'd dropped everything, eyes flickering frantically between them and growing wider by the second. Then, he quietly asked in a breathy, almost frightened voice, "didn't your mother get ahold of you?"

"Who, Riza?" Ed said with a little shrug. Al leaned down to scoop up Havoc's papers. "No, she hasn't called us. We were only in Dublith half as long as they were expecting. We stayed with Winry in Rush Valley for a little bit. Oh, guess what! We helped deliver a baby!"

"We didn't help, brother," Al said with a little laugh, handing over Havoc's files. "We sat around screaming while Winry and Paninya did all the work!"

"Oh whatever, Alphonse. Anyway, we met these crazy Xingese guys, too. One of them said he was a prince—"

"You mean after all this time, you still don't know?" Havoc said half-under his breath, but the quiet distress on his face was enough to make Ed and Al shut their mouths. Al glanced at Ed and opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was was lost in translation between brain and tongue, and he let it fall.

"...Don't know what?"

Havoc hung his head back and looked up at the ceiling, took a huge breath, and said, "you don't knooooooooow…" He sighed and shook his head, squeezed his eyes shut, and the knots were back. "Come with me, boys. You need to know something."

A loud crash echoed through Hughes' main office as the door was kicked into, slamming into the wall so hard that it left a dent. Munoz stood from her place at her desk to scold the assailant, but he marched past her and screamed, "I don't care!", storming into the private office inside which sat the Glacier Alchemist.

Munoz would have scolded him right away had she not spotted the tears in his eyes, and immediately knew what would have happened. Keeping the secret from the boys had been a bad idea from the start, but even she hadn't been expecting for it to unravel quite so quickly. She sat back in her place and considered her lap, flinching hard when the door slammed shut behind Ed.

Ed kicked in the second door even harder, striding forward quickly enough that he was able to kick it back into place and hopefully release some of his righteous fury. He stopped before the couches and looked at the man behind his desk who pointedly refused to look at him, scribbling his paperwork out with increased urgency. Ed wanted to scream, he wanted to scream and yell and far too big of a part of him wanted to just cry, but not here, not in front of this despicable man who had refused to so much as tell them the truth.

He opened his mouth, but the words refused to come without a blot of tears, so he snapped his teeth closed and turned away for a moment. Emotions back under control, he strode forward and came to a stomping stop before the desk, grinding his teeth.

Hughes glanced up his way, noted the expression and the tears, noted the dread. His stomach dropped straight to his toes. Had he found out already?

"You said they were on a mission," Ed accused heatedly, his voice brittle and already starting to break.

Hughes didn't respond.

"You said he was on a mission! Y-you said he was on a mission and that's why he couldn't pick us up! You—you—" Ed turned his face to the ground, glaring at his toes, furrowing his brows against his emotions. "You lied to us."

"I… did." Hughes lifted his chin in answer, lifted his brow, hoping and wishing to appear nonchalant though he felt almost anything but. "I thought, in the long run, you might be better."

"Better?!" Edward shrieked like a banshee, lifting his eyes. They were shining under the light; he likely wouldn't last long like this. "How fucking long did you think you could hide it?! Did you think that Al and me would just go the fuck home, all 'oh, Roy's not home yet, lah-dee-fucking-dah!' Did you think we wouldn't fucking notice when he never came home, when Riza started acting different and being different? How dense do you think we are?!"

"I never thought it would last for long." Just long enough so that he wouldn't deal with an aftermath he couldn't handle, especially when he could hardly handle his own.

"Then what was the damn point?!"

"You watch your mouth when you're speaking with your superior!"

Ed flinched hard and looked away, glaring to the side. Hughes hadn't even meant to yell.

He could normally handle rebukes, no problem. Munoz rebuked and scolded him all the time, and he was in the damn military. If it wasn't one thing, it was another, every day. But there was something about the way Ed was saying it, the expression on his face, that infuriated and frustrated Hughes. He wanted Ed to shut up, whatever that may mean.

He clamped his mouth shut and clenched his hands around the edge of his desk, willing his spike of anger away. After a moment, he asked, "where is Alphonse?"

"...he's in Roy's off—he's with the guys."

"Right. Well. I had believed that Riza would get ahold of you first, before you met with anyone who would tell you. You wouldn't have believed me had i said anything, anyway, so I didn't see the point of giving you undue stress until you were in an arguably safe location. I apologize you had to find out this way, but as is the way of the world, plans fall apart. Now, you are—"

"Where's Riza?"

Hughes shot him a brief glare, but it lightened at his question. "Excuse?"

"Riza. You know, the other person who adopted me and Al? Did you forget about that? Where is she? Or—" Ed smiled a tiny smile, and Hughes saw him bite back on some sort of emotion he hadn't been expecting. "Ha. Is she dead too? And you were just gonna wait a few months before telling us about that?"

Hughes scowled and shook his head. "Well, I imagine she's at the law firm on fifth; I believe she's been hired on as a receptionist there."

"Hired—she's working?"

Ed's surprise didn't surprise Hughes. Riza had been a stay-at-home wife since Roy had married her. Roy's pay had always been more than enough to cover expenses. Occasionally she would fill in nas a police dog trainer, as she had done before their marriage, but that only happened for a few days every few months and, with Roy gone, would not pay the bills. She had taken up the job the week of Roy's funeral, desperate to keep herself busy and her mind from wandering.

"Yes."

Ed frowned hard and pulled at his gloves, then nodded and turned around. "Fine. We're gonna go see her." He marched out of the room, eyes dark, completely ignoring the "i haven't dismissed you yet!" from his commander.

Roy Mustang

1885-1914

Ed knew logically that this was a military cemetery and that every headstone was going to look the same, was going to show nothing but names and dates. But Roy was somehow… more. He deserved more. He wasn't just a Lieutenant Colonel (now turned Brigadier General). He wasn't just a military man with a kill count, wasn't just a veteran, he wasn't just a number.

He was…. a dad. Ed had never been able to admit it, to himself or anyone else, for fear of a rejection on the level of Hohenheim, but Roy had been. Hughes had found them, but Roy and Riza had saved them. They had given them a home, and people they could love unconditionally. Somewhere they could break if necessary, without fear of a lecture. Somewhere they could just be the kids they were, because even if they were in the military, they were only fourteen and fifteen.

They gave them affection, encouragement, a little adoration, a lot of love. They gave them a family.

And now… now it was falling apart.

"I'm sorry," Riza said. She spoke at the headstone, but to the boys. "I tried calling you. I wanted you here so you could say your goodbyes. But everywhere I called, I couldn't get a hold of you. I wish you could have been there. He would have loved it. He would love that you're here, now."

Ed frowned and mumbled something suspiciously like "he wouldn't love his own funeral", but didn't speak clear enough for his adopted mother and his brother to hear.

Edward and Alphonse had gone to meet Riza at her new workplace, and she had pulled them aside and told them everything. With permission from her boss to head home (the "they just found out their father was murdered" schtick worked exceptionally well considering she worked at a place where souls came to die), she instead took them to the cemetery to say their goodbyes.

Riza smiled and leaned forward to lay a beautiful bouquet of lilies over Roy's grave. "Hello, love. I've brought the boys today. They wanted to say goodbye to you."

"Hi, Dad," Al whispered, and on Riza's opposite side, Ed mumbled, "hey Roy…"

Riza looked back at them and smiled a little, then said "come, come. It's alright. Come say your goodbyes." She rose and took a step back, crossing an arm over her stomach. Al moved to sit beside the headstone, the idea of sitting on recently upturned dirt made his stomach turn. Ed didn't seem to care so much, sitting beside him.

"Sorry we couldn't… come. We didn't know," Al mumbled softly. He swiped at his dry face. "We would have been here if we had."

"Riza tried to call but we… we were so excited for everything that we were never where we needed to be."

"We didn't even check in. I bet even you were worried sick." Al grimaced and lowered his face, picking at his pants. "Well. Would have been."

Ed turned his face away and tugged on his bangs. They were surrounded by other headstones, every single one of them looking the same as the one that they stood before. That wasn't right. That couldn't be right. This couldn't have happened.

Roy Mustang wasn't supposed to be dead.

Above them, Riza smiled a soft, sad smile and crouched between them. She put a hand on Ed's shoulder, and one on Al's, and pulled them in close. Al leaned to the side against her, disbelieving golden eyes staring blankly ahead, and Ed just frowned at the headstone

This wasn't supposed to happen. How many more people were the Elrics destined to lose? First Hohenheim, then Mom, and now Roy? Who else was there? Ed couldn't take much more of this, of losing the people he cared for. He was a damn State Alchemist! Both of them were! Weren't they supposed to stop things like this from happening?

Al sniffed after a moment and pulled away from Riza. Ed tugged away as well, glancing at Riza, whose emotions were starting to get to her. She pinched the bridge of her nose, face turned to the replanted grass, and mumbled, "I miss you… I miss you… I love you…"

Ed glanced around Riza to his brother, who shared a watery look with him. Al gave a soft not-smile and blinked a tear down his cheek, turning to their aching adopted mother.

Water. 35 liters.

The thought came to him before he could even hope to stop it, and he immediately knew what it was. Extensive, extensive research, back before Hughes had even found them. Desperate for a mother who had been robbed by illness, about to commit human transmutation had Hughes not stepped in and overturned their lives entirely.

Now, desperate for a father who had been killed in cold blood, not just for them but for their new mother, too.

The ingredients started swirling about in his head, twirling and whipping his brain from one point of the circle to another. It was like he was eleven again, preparing a circle to bring back their beloved mother. They whipped about faster and faster, suffocating and relieving him, until all he could think of was water, 35 liters.

Humans are made pretty cheap—all with a child's allowance.

They could do it.

Riza was so desperately sad, so upset when she saw them appear at the firm. She had known Roy since they were kids, had kept in contact by letter for years after they fell out of contact in person. He had been a constant in her life for at least ten years… and now he was snatched away, and it hurt her. It hurt them. It hurt all of them.

He reached around Riza in a half-hug, but grabbed Al's arms to get his attention. His eyes flickered to the headstone, and Al nervously looked as well. His eyes went wide and he glanced at Ed, but all of the hesitation that Ed feared would be there, all of the hesitation that had stopped them from resurrecting their mother, was gone. It was all replaced with determination. He nodded firmly, then pressed down to form a protective and comforting barrier for his aching mother.

With Al's reservations gone, and Ed's never really there, they really could do it.

They had lost their father. Lost their mother. And now, they lost Roy.

But no, they hadn't really.

They were bringing him back.

And maybe, if this worked, just maybe they could bring back Trisha soon, too.