Time for me to once again switch gears... must clear all thoughts of Kang out of my mind for now... Kang get AWAY from my boots! ...-cough- Anyway... moving on.

Okay, as you all have probably realized by now, the request for Roy as a chimera won out... barely. Seriously, one vote was the entire difference here. It was down to the wire with those backlogged PM's. And since I had a fair number of chapters done for this, here we are. And yes, I did write chapters for all the story options, just in case. Am I overprepared? Oh well, I don't hear too many complaining. So here we are, with Roy about to become something other than pure human. Feel free to ask questions, I'm sure there will be some, but understand that Edward so wittingly answers most of them in upcoming chapters. Or at least I have a fairly good feeling some questions will be asked which I explained via Edward in following chapters.

Yes, I have seen there are apparently a lot of these types of stories cropping up... like daisies. But I don't exactly care too much seeing as how mine stars Roy as our dysfunctional human instead of Edward. Figures I'd end a huge story that took over 3 months to get up with daily updates, and I'd end up in chimera land just as the chimera tourism season started.

So what sort of nonsense needs covering for those who haven't followed any of my Roy and Ed stories before... oh right! They're Roy and Ed, Ed and Roy... together... with love. Ponies and rainbows and all that fun stuff. I will have my usual chaos that will ensue, after all... apparently I love creating chaos for my characters. I've already got chaos plans in my head. This will have fluffy stuff of course... but nice lovely chaos as well.

And that about covers that.

Here's to hoping you enjoy this!

Chapter One

"This place is creepy." Fuery muttered as he trailed along in the shadow of Breda, clutching his clipboard to himself and tossing wary looks around the dim abandoned laboratory.

The moveable equipment and furnishings that had once occupied space here were gone. Taken out to be salvaged if possible and put to use elsewhere. Now only dust, blackened sections of brick wall, and stained areas that looked alarmingly like blood. In this room they were in now, machines mounted to the walls stood cobwebbed and taped off with yellow caution banners. They'd been unable to remove those ones, and so would leave them to be demolished along with the rest of the building.

"Are you sure they won't blow it up while we're still in here?" Fuery asked again nervously.

"They have to wait for us to come out and give the okay, Fuery." Roy Mustang repeated for the seventh time since the start of the inspection.

Before this laboratory was demolished, it had to have a walk through. To be sure everything of value and that could be moved, had been. And that the charges were still set properly. Colonel Mustang had been requested to carry out the inspection, and had dragged along Breda and Fuery with him.

Really, Roy couldn't wait for this place to go up in smoke and rubble. It had been the laboratory devoted to the creation and research of chimeras, an operation convened in relative secrecy until only three months ago. There had been a breach in security, and the chimeras had gotten loose. Hence the dried blood splatters everywhere. It had taken nearly a day to mow down the chimeras that few had known existed.

A dark day indeed for the Amestris military.

Now they were going to cover it all up, there was no other explanation. The research was burned, the alchemists and even grunt workers on the project killed or imprisoned in a high security facility in the north. The press had been silenced about the incident, and fed lies which kept the unknowing public happy.

Now it was time for the laboratory itself to be erased.

Roy was almost glad that a certain Fullmetal Alchemist was still absent from all this drama. Had the willful blond been present for any of this, he was sure that Edward would have been a hellcat on the Fuhrer's fat ass. He knew how Ed felt about chimeras and government cover ups, and he was in full support of Edward's views. Even if he could not say it aloud. Whereas Edward could get away with being outspoken, Roy would be court marshaled. Unlike Edward, he had no one covering his ass. Not really.

"All looks good over here, sir." Breda called over from one side of the room, already edging for the door. He didn't like being in here any more than Fuery did.

Roy pulled his thoughts away from the dirty situation he was faced with, and looked over towards the rotund man. Breda had been putting on some pounds over the months. Stress eating, most likely. "Nothing about this is good." He replied in a preoccupied tone.

"Well, as bad as bad can be then, and still have everything as it should per orders." Breda substituted.

Roy didn't even have the enthusiasm to roll his eyes. "Great." He said in a sarcastic drawl. "Fuery?"

The still twitching nervous man looked over from where he stood next to the machines on the wall. "Fine." He reported, "these aren't going to be able to come off." And he patted one of the devices on its metal plated side.

Roy shot him a 'cease and desist' glare. "Don't whack on them, they're ancient. Nearly as old as I am, and don't make any wise ass jokes in your head about that." Fact was that technology went ancient every year. But he wouldn't put it past Fuery or Breda to understand that past their desire to want to make cracks about his age.

"Understood." Fuery said, though that did not stop the internal monologue of jokes that surfaced.

Roy never saw how it happened, but suddenly Fuery was falling back into one of the machines mounted to the brick wall. A lever was yanked down, and he was distracted from that by the blue light that flared up from the floor. "What the-" Roy looked down, and threw himself to the side and out of the circle of light just as it flared up to its maximum brilliance.

The light held, and then ebbed away, the dust that had covered the floor and obscured the transmutation circle on it had burned off from the intense rays of light.

Roy had landed, and rolled to a stop. Several colorful epithets slipped from his lips as he hauled himself back to his feet, ignoring the helping hands Fuery and Breda offered him. "I'm fine!" He snapped at them, causing both men to eye him warily.

What the hell?! This place was supposed to have been gone through, and had all transmutation circles marked. It seemed they'd missed one.

Roy glanced over at the machine, the lever had been yanked back up already. It seemed that the machines were still infused with some lingering alchemy residue. Hence the reason the circle hadn't blasted up at full power immediately.

"Sir, what was that?" Breda managed to ask, swallowing his concern for his life should he speak to his now annoyed looking superior officer.

"That, was a transmutation circle. Which means I am going to burn someone into so many tiny pieces they won't be able to find them all." Roy growled as he brushed the dust off his uniform.

"But if it's a transmutation circle… a transmutation for what?" Fuery questioned, looking still shook up from the incident.

Roy glared over at them, silencing any thoughts of further questions. "I'm going to find that out now, if you'll be so kind as to let me have quiet to work in. I have a headache now." He said, and snapped his fingers.

Breda and Fuery dove to the ground.

Roy ignored them as he controlled the glowing ball of fiery light to illuminate the room. Now that he could see the array, he swore again. "Get up off the floor." Roy barked as he let the fire flicker and die before he quickly marched out of the room and began hurrying down another hall.

"Sir!" Breda yelled after him, and they ran to catch up.

"What is it?" Fuery asked.

"Useless." Roy said as he suddenly stopped and whirled to face the two men. "It was damaged, therefore useless. Which is why I am standing here now still as normal as ever, but now I have a headache. Bright flares of light after being in the dark for so long don't sit well with me. So let's get this over with so I can go drink… a lot."

And so the inspection recommenced.

It took a great deal of effort and self control on Roy's part not to flip out, and in fact regain a calm outwardly composure. By the time the inspection was complete, and they were emerging from the explosive rigged building, Roy seemed completely at ease and smug as always.

With an indifferent air, Roy informed the overseer of the detonation that everything was in the clear. He then began the walk towards the "safety zone" where Hawkeye was waiting for him along with Havoc and Falman.

"Everything go okay, sir?" Hawkeye asked as he ducked under the yellow caution tape.

Roy straightened with a brisk nod. "Nothing lethal happened, I call that a good day."

"You still have an hour of it left. And should I find any unfinished work on your desk…" She let the threat hang.

Roy held up a pacifying hand to her. "My work will be seen to. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go lock myself in a dark office to get rid of this headache."

"Unlocked!" Riza called after him.

Roy waved a hand to show he'd heard her, but he honestly didn't care. He walked to his office, slammed the door shut, and collapsed down into his chair. Grabbing a pen he pulled the unfinished work to him and began making his way through it. His head throbbed, and he continuously told himself it was because of the light.

He'd lied when he'd told them the array had been useless, damaged. The only way he knew they'd forget about it by tonight. The array had been complete and in perfect functioning condition. What had for certain caused the lapse in the activation was beyond him. Yet he still stood by his prediction that it was due to the controls not having enough alchemic power stored up anymore.

At any rate, he'd jumped out of the way in time.

He had to have… otherwise… well he'd just know. That transmutation circle was to create chimeras. As he was obviously still quite human, it had not worked. That, and there had been no other animal in there with him. It was just him, which meant that having jumped out of the way when he did, he'd suffered no adverse effects. And certainly had not become a chimera.

But he shuddered, and felt the hairs near the back of his neck prickle in unease. The fact that the circle had gone undetected before made him upset. The fact that it had been a close call made him upset. This whole situation was a catastrophe, and one he wanted to put behind him like all the others.

All the other screw ups of the military he served in.

He heard the faint boom of the laboratory explosives being activated, and the echoing rumble of the structure caving in on itself. "Good riddance." He muttered as he clenched his pen tighter, scribbling his signature on a document before laying it aside.

Roy applied himself as wholly as possible to his work for the remainder of the evening, shocking Hawkeye every time she'd poke her head through the door, clearly hoping to catch him off guard. Yet he was sitting there, working diligently. Working meant he didn't have as much energy to devote to thinking on the incident from earlier.

He was clearly rattled still from it, as anyone would be who understood the gravity of what could have happened. And so he dealt with trying to regain normalcy about him in the only way available to him right now.

Paperwork.

When at last that was done for the day, he moved onto phase two. A good, stiff drink guaranteed to knock him on his ass.

So he rose from his chair, grabbed his coat, and left his office.

"Off already?" Hawkeye asked as she looked up at him. She was the only other one in the office, and had a very thin pile of papers left in front of her needing her attention. But she was only mildly surprised that Mustang was up and ready to go long before her. After so many years, she'd mellowed out some about it.

"Yeah, I have plans." Roy told her as he finished adjusting the cuffs on his black and silver fastened jacket.

She raised an eyebrow at him as she held out an umbrella. "Dinner plans?"

"Drinking plans, at home." He said and accepted the umbrella from her. "Storm came in?" They'd been expecting inclement weather since yesterday afternoon when the air pressure went haywire.

"I had to send Havoc down to my house to let Black Hayate inside before he got drenched. He won't get over that cold of his if he is left in a downpour." She replied and picked up her pen again.

Roy grunted and gave her a short nod. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." She called after him, already focused again on her work.

Roy made his way out of Central Headquarters, opening the umbrella against the downpour turning the world around him a dull haze of silvers and grays. Shivering a bit against the bitter chill of the wind he started walking as water sloshed against his boots. Winter was coming, there was no longer any doubt about that.

The sidewalks were empty of most pedestrians thanks to the rain, and even the number of cars and trucks was greatly diminished from normal. It took Roy less time tonight to walk home, the sky just turning dark behind the clouds as he made it to the front door of the two story small house he lived in alone.

On the outside the house looked aged, with paint peeling in spots, and weeds creeping up near the foundation. Roy just never had the time nor the inclination to truly worry about the outside of his home. It was the inside that was normally used. And while it was outfitted comfortably, it was empty in a way.

A true bachelor's abode.

Roy locked himself in, and set the umbrella in the entryway to dry. Pulling off his boots and coat he set them to dry as well before making his way up the flight of stairs to the bathroom. There he stripped out of his damp and chilled clothing and climbed into the shower.

Turning on the taps he soon got the water steaming hot, to the point he could barely stand the temperature. Placing his hands against the smooth, slick white tiles of the shower wall above the taps he leaned forward letting the spray cascade down his back. Hanging his head he closed his eyes, breathing deeply. He stood like that for several minutes before he washed his hair and body and climbed out.

Roy placed a towel over his hair to soak up the water while he dressed in his black cotton pajamas. Pulling on a pair of black fleece slippers he padded his way back downstairs and into the kitchen.

He reheated some spaghetti from last night with a snap of his fingers before sitting down at the table to eat. He'd had a long day, and not a fun one at all. He ate in silence, and once done rose from his seat to find his bottle of scotch.

He took his bottle of scotch upstairs along with a book he'd been reading lately. Piling under his covers Roy uncapped the bottle and took a hearty swig as he opened the book to the last dog-eared page. Finding his place, he continued to read, every so often tipping back the bottle.

It was nearing midnight before Roy fell asleep, book still in hand and lights on, a half-gone bottle of scotch sitting on the bedside table. The storm waged on outside, unheard by the inebriated and completely unconscious alchemist.

The alarm clock that was loud enough as it was when waking up a hung over Roy, blared with new life the next morning.

Roy groaned, and clamped his hands over his ears in pain as he glared at the alarm clock. Being hung over, Roy didn't think anything strange of the fact that everything looked sharper than normal, sounded louder, was brighter, and even the typed print on his book seemed miniscule but still in focus. He just figured he'd had more to drink than normal last night. So he put the book aside, turned off the lights and drug himself out of bed.

He never noticed that he could see clear as day in the dark of the room, the sky still seemed to be overcast, as no morning light was filtering in. He was too busy getting ready for work to even court the thought that something was off, something more than just being spectacularly hung over.

Roy headed down the stairs, and began mixing himself a hangover concoction before downing it. Right before he spat it back out and into the sink. Sure, it had tasted particularly strong, but something was definitely off. It tasted far too strong.

Maybe no more D vitamin infused milk for him and his pale complexion.

How he knew it was the added vitamin that was making it taste weird he didn't know, and didn't stop to think about it until after he'd transmuted the milk into a non-additive version. As his hang over started to ebb away, he realized that only a marginal amount of this was making sense in relation to a hang over.

How had he known what was off in the drink? Why was his eyesight so sharp that he could see details he never could before? Why could he smell that 'subtle spring breeze' scent that his fabric softener brand guaranteed but only until now could he smell? And why the hell could he hear the paperboy two houses down, and know it was two houses down? All his senses but touch seemed to be going haywire.

Roy groaned, lowering himself to the cold kitchen floor feeling very dizzy and wanting to hurl. What the hell was wrong with him? He sat there, taking slow deep breaths for some time, doing his best to ignore the fact that he could smell things on the air he never could before. When he'd opened his mouth to try breathing that way, it was only marginally better, there was less on the air to taste. But he couldn't go around with his mouth gaping open.

Briefly he thought about calling into work sick, but knew that having told Hawkeye last night he had drinking plans, she'd assume he was still suffering a hangover. That wouldn't go over well. But he was sick, there was something wrong with him.

The only reason he knew it wasn't psychological was because in some strange corner of his mind it all made sense. Especially what he was seeing and hearing. He knew it was real, it was just… more defined. So he at least felt safe in the knowledge he wasn't going crazy.

Shakily Roy got back to his feet, shading his eyes against the brighter light he now was privy to seeing, and walking slowly to accurately judge distance. After quite a few hard blinks of his eyes the light was bearable again, but he could still see clearer than ever. He pulled on his boots, and bundled himself in his jacket before grabbing the umbrella.

Outside it was still raining, and the scent of water and wet earth, and watered down oils from the road assaulted him. Shaking his head he tried to put it out of his mind as he put the umbrella up over his head and began walking.

He was quick to realize that once outside, his vision again bothered him less. Sure, he could see fine details and much farther than he should be able to. Able to read the street sign a mile away as clearly as if it were only a quarter of that distance. But he was adjusting until he actually started to grow accustomed to the change. He was learning how to see again, as strange as it sounded, until this felt normal. Even the smells were becoming easier to ignore. Though he had never before realized how heavily people walked, and in an effort to give his overly-sensitive ears a break, stepped lighter himself.

Roy made his routine stop at his favorite coffee shop, finding it crowded as usual. The chatter assaulted him from all angles, and he had the sudden instinctual urge to jam his hands over his ears in order to filter out some of the noise. So he quickly hurried through the line, flashing his pocket watch in order to bounce to the front.

As soon as he had his order, he quickly left, sipping on the caramel coffee drink. He thanked himself for having the sense to get something less strong, and sweeter tasting. The heavier aspect that accompanied the caramel helped tone everything done pleasantly.

So he continued on, thinking wryly to himself that he was getting the hang of this slowly but surely.

He had made it to work, through the gates, when fluttering remains of yellow caution tape caught in a bush almost a half mile away attracted his attention. He looked at it balefully for a few moments, before his black eyes widened. "Impossible." He whispered, though to his sensitive hearing it sounded like a normal level of pitch.

Roy put a hand to his temples, taking more deep breaths. It couldn't be… these… changes. They had to be something else. He couldn't be a…

"Oh Gate help me." Roy shivered in the cold air, his grip on the umbrella slackening and causing it to tumble from his hands. The item rolled away with the wind, through the puddles before becoming entangled in a bush.

He ignored it.

His heart pounded loudly in his ears, sounding like a drum. His breathing had quickened to almost a panicked rate. His every nerve seemed tense and quivering, waiting for something… anything. But not knowing what.

There had to be another reason for this. He had to find out. He just could not be… it didn't make sense. Quickly he whirled around, determined to risk the wrath of a woman in order to see a doctor. But startled back several paces with a yelp, and the coffee he'd managed to keep a hold of up until then slipped from his grasp to clatter wetly to the concrete.