He knows it was a failed attempt at human transmutation. He's studied alchemy long enough, he's read all the reports, all the reasons why that was forbidden.

They were good reasons.

His face feels frozen, masklike, blank, calm. He forces the calm over himself, makes it take root in him. Breathe. Breathe.

He leaves then, because there is a trail of blood, spattered - so, one person, and he was being carried. He kneels, touches the blood with a fingertip. Wet. He wipes his finger off in the wet grass, follows the trail before the rain washes everything clean.

It leads to a building, the sign reading 'Auto Mail' and he nods to himself as he sees the name underneath it.

Rockbell.

Ah, he thinks, and finds little emotion inside the sound. So this is hell.

He stops and listens at the door.

"So, you two came back from your training?"

"Don't tell me you tried to recreate your mother."

Ah. The two Elric boys, the sons of Hohenheim. He'd received the letter from the eldest, Edward, an aggressive note demanding his father's return because their mother was dying. Things begin to make sense.

Roy Mustang folds his fingers around the letter in his pocket, draws a deep breath, enters.

Though he's saying the words that he'd put together when he realized what the children must have done, he's hardly hearing his own words. She's there. She's standing right there.

A photograph, his hand's still on it, he'd picked it up to hold before I shot. I don't want kids, I remember thinking that, I don't want kids if it'll mean they'd ever get word of something like this. Save me, save me, save me -

He keeps his calm. He refuses to look at her directly. It's necessary for this. He talks to the old woman, who is angry at him because he's the military; it's almost ironic, he thinks. She doesn't know that she is angry at him. No. Just look forward. Just push on. It's too late to save them. No human can come back from the dead.

Roy turns his gaze from the old woman to the boy in the bed. Ahh. Here's another blond with blood. He knows the girl is the one in the photo, but perhaps it's the circumstances that make them look similar now.

Something about dead parents, he thinks, or maybe just being in the Rockbell household. He still can't look at the girl, so he looks at the boy. He talks, tells the Rockbells without looking at them, tells the boy's brother, "If he survives a human transmutation, I've more interest in him than in his father. He could make an excellent National Alchemist." And it's true, and he could, but Roy feels himself staring, feels his gaze still blank. He wonders if the girl is watching him, if she can see it in him. He thinks that it would be better to be the one in war than the one left behind.

He thinks, Perhaps I can still change things.

After a moment, he manages to turn away.

He gives his name as he walks, for the benefit of the boys, wondering if the women will hear it, wondering if they will have heard anything, wondering if they will know. Nobody attacks him, and so it is still hidden.

"Visit Central City," he says, and he gets the oddest feeling the unconcious boy is listening. Perhaps it is just his transmuted brother. It must be his transmuted brother.

Roy doesn't look back as he leaves the Rockbells behind him.