Joy & Sorrow (Part 1 - Ludwig)

[December 1905]

It had been 4 days since Roy came back to Central City after submitting his report on Krid Novak at Eastern Command. He was traveling with his superior, Colonel Ludwig in a car, through the outskirt of the city. Both of them were sitting at the back of the car while one other soldier was driving it.

"How was your assignment?" Ludwig enquired.

"It was fine, but I couldn't find anything suspicious happening around him. Except, one of my local informer one day disappeared suddenly." Roy replied.

Ludwig took a sigh of relief, and said, "Good thing you returned safely."

Roy couldn't understand, so he asked anxiously, "What do you mean?"

"The assignment you took over is normally rejected by everyone. I never told you that the previous officers who were assigned the task disappeared. Everyone believes that all of them are long dead, that is why I told you specifically to never approach his house." Ludwig answered.

"I read his report, and everything mentioned there was before the Ishvalan war. There was no explanation on why he was court-martialed," Roy said.

"That's because the Fuehrer wanted to keep it hidden from others. Krid Novak was the one responsible for the utmost destruction in the civil war when it all began. He killed dozens of Ishvalans with his bare hands. Neither had he used any weapon, nor he was any alchemist, yet no one dared to fight him. Things became ugly when he started killing Amestrian soldiers because he had a difference in opinion with them. Even after killing 20 Amestrian soldiers, the Fuehrer didn't punish him. He sent him to that bloody town to-" Ludwig was interrupted when the driver suddenly pushed the brakes.

Ludwig looked toward the driver and asked curiously, "What happened?"

"Sir, Ishvalans," the driver exclaimed.

When Ludwig and Roy saw in front of them through the windshield of the car, they saw two Ishvalans at some distance. The men also saw them and rushed inside a 2 floored broken building. Before following them, Ludwig gave an order to his subordinates, "Go and contact the headquarters, tell them we need reinforcement. And Mustang, you come with me"

Ludwig and Roy then got out of the car and went near the building, with their handguns. Ludwig hand-signaled Roy to cover him while they enter inside. Roy understood his superior and both of them entered through the door-less entrance of the building. As soon as they entered inside the building, two Ishvalans started shooting at them from behind a 5 feet high wall. Ludwig and Roy took cover behind the pillars present near them. The 2 Ishvalans were using a rifle so, after every 2 shots, they had to reload their guns. But, they were shooting alternatively, so that when one is reloading his gun, then the other one can cover him. Ludwig understood that and he came up with an idea. He signaled Roy to distract them by firing at them. Roy followed his order and started firing rapid shots at them from behind the pillar. Because of that, the Ishvalans started firing at him and getting the small gap, Ludwig shot dead the shooter.

When the other Ishvalan saw his ally fall on the floor, he panicked and went emotional. He stood up and walked toward Ludwig while firing like a man possessed, but Roy shot at his hands. The rifle he was holding, fell on the floor, but he quickly pulled out a knife and charged toward Roy like a rabid dog. Roy froze for a moment when he saw the enraged man coming toward him with a knife. He had never killed a man in his life, but if in that condition, he was not going to pull the trigger, the Ishvalan man was definitely going to kill him. So, he pulled the trigger and the bullet in his gun was released toward the man, and it just passed by the man's shoulder. He couldn't believe that he missed. He pulled the trigger again, but there were no more bullets in his gun and the man was just a few feet away. He could see death right in front of him in the form of that Ishvalan man, but suddenly, he heard a gunshot, and the man fell on his knees.

The Ishvalan man was shot on his kneecap. The man was still trying to stand up but, Ludwig again shot at the other kneecap. That man was now completely disabled with only one hand working properly, in which he was holding the knife. They took the knife from the man and tied him to a pillar. Then they went toward the upper floor.

While going, Ludwig said, "You should start doing some fire alchemy, Mustang. We both are out of bullets and we cannot let these terrorists escape."

"But Colonel, I still need some more time to practice my alchemy. I cannot pinpoint or control the temperature right now. It might accidentally kill the target." he informed.

"We already have one terrorist in our custody. We don't need anymore. Now pull out your gloves, that's an order," Ludwig rebuked.

Roy was impotent against his superior's order. He pulled out his ignition gloves from the coat pocket and wore them. Both of them then moved toward the upper floor where they found a room whose door was closed.

They moved cautiously toward the room and stood beside on either side of the closed door. When Ludwig tried to turn the knob of the door, someone fired from inside. There were 2 shots, after which they heard the gun reloading. On understanding the situation, Ludwig whispered Roy to attack the person inside when he opens the door. Ludwig then again tried to turn the knob, and as expected, there were few shots after which the person inside was reloading the gun. So, Ludwig kicked the door and moved aside to let Roy attack.

"NOW MUSTANG," Ludwig shouted.

Roy was ready, standing in front of the door to snap and burn whoever was shooting them. And when the door opened, he saw a scared woman reloading her gun looking directly at him with fear. Roy was unable to snap when he looked at the scarlet eyes of that panicked Ishvalan woman. The woman finished reloading in few a seconds and was about to shoot him. Roy was unable to think anything else at that moment and did what he had to, in order to survive. He snapped but, the fire he created was unstable and burnt the whole room. The room burnt within a few seconds. The scream of that woman was echoing throughout the building and the scream of another woman was also coming from that room.

After some time, the fire stopped and by then the military was also there. Roy was still thinking who else was inside that room. He was waiting outside the building to see the dead bodies. First, the captured Ishvalan man was taken to Central Command for interrogation. After which, all the dead bodies were brought out one by one. The first one was of the man who was shot dead by Ludwig, the second one was of the woman who was shooting at them. She was burnt to a charcoal. When the third dead body was brought out, he saw a badly burnt body of a woman. The woman died in a curled position. It seemed like she was scared. Roy couldn't believe the horror he committed in the building. There were beads of sweat on his forehead and his eyes were filled with anguish. He went to one of the soldiers who brought the last body and asked him anxiously, "Where did you find this body?"

"She was at the corner of the room that you burnt. It looked like she was sitting at the corner out of fear," the soldier replied.

Roy was speechless and horrified when he heard the answer. And suddenly, he felt someone placing their hand on his shoulder from behind.

"Don't blame yourself for their death. You acted according to my orders," Ludwig continued, "You should take a day off."

Roy adhered to his superior's order again and went straight to Madam Christmas' bar. He took a table all for himself that day and kept on thinking and drinking till night. When the bar was about to close and no one was at the bar except Roy. Suddenly, someone close to Roy entered through the door.

"Hey Roy," Maes shouted, but Roy was didn't bother to look at his best friend.

He walked toward Roy's table and sat on the opposite side. Maes looked at the half-finished bottle of rum and the half-filled glass on the table with concern. He then continued, "I was looking for you everywhere, I thought you will be at home right now."

"Go away Maes, I don't want to talk to you," Roy said in a drunk voice while looking down at the table.

Maes asked Madam Christmas with gesture about Roy, and Chris replied with a Gallic shrug to tell she didn't know. So, Maes looked at his friend who was still averting his eyes from him, and said, "Did someone rejected you? I told you to wear some nice clothes, comb your hair and get a flower bouquet before talking to a woman. I think I will get a girl before you. Do you know what happened today?" He continued excitedly, "I was buying some groceries in the city and I saw a beautiful woman. What an angel she was…I was buying tomatoes and she was buying apples right beside me, and suddenly an apple fell from her hand. She and I bent down to pick up the apple at the same time and, our hand touched…Then she looked at me and-"

"Stop it, Maes," Roy requested politely. And then picked up the half-filled rum glass to drink, but Maes stopped him by grabbing his hand.

"Leave my hands, Maes," Roy growled while looking toward his friend with his anguished eyes.

"Tell me what happened?" Maes asked politely.

"I think you can find out yourself. You are in the Intelligence Department after all," Roy teased.

Maes got angry and snatched the glass from Roy's hand. Because of Maes' action, Roy glared at Maes and yelled, "Give me my glass back"

"Not unless you tell me what happened," Maes insisted.

Roy lowered his eyes. "I killed 2 Ishvalans today," He rued.

Maes understood which incident he was talking about. He knew about the incident but, he didn't know the details. Meanwhile, Roy continued regretting. "I promised someone that I will never use alchemy to hurt people, yet I did. He revolted when I joined the military. He said that I would become a dog of the military…I think he was right, I have become a dog."

Maes put the glass back on the table. He couldn't see such a broken image of his best friend. So he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he looked fiercely toward Roy. "Stop crying like a bitch. What's done is done. What did you think when you joined the military? Did you think you can stay away from incidents like this? I am not saying you to forget what happened today, I am just saying accept it and continue living…You once told me you want to make this country a better place, and I am sure you can't do that if you keep on acting like this," Maes scolded.

He then sighed and stood up. "Come on let's go home, I will drop you there," He smiled while lending his hand to help his friend get up.

Roy felt a little relieved from his friend's speech, but overcoming the guilt was a very difficult task for him. He looked at the grin on his friend's face and the hand he was lending to help him stand up. He accepted Maes' offer of getting a lift till home, but he stood up without taking his help.