Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ I Skip the Little Ones ❯ Theme 7: Crime and Punishment ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: This one's set in the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, so if you are manga-cenrtic, it may not make much sense, but I think you could get the drift, anyway.

Also, thanks to little miss clueless and Diedre D'Nai for their reviews. Thank you!!!

 

Theme 7: Crime and Punishment

Irony

 

How ironic, that I, one of the greatest mass-murderers of all time, am running around Central doing police duty.

 

Isaac McDougal was loose here in Central, and Führer Bradley had ordered me to capture him. Of course I was going to do it - it was a chance for some credit, and possibly a promotion - but it didn't mean I couldn't appreciate the irony.

 

I understood the Freezer's anger over the Ishbal Massacre. Hell, I was still pissed about Ishbal. Still. There were better ways to deal with it, such as getting to the top. History has shown that internal revolutions were much more effective than criminal uprisings. Ha. Criminal. Ha.

 

McDougal had just spit in my face, figuratively and literally, shaming me in front of a squadron of soldiers. Sopping wet, I stormed back to where the Lieutenant waited for me. She didn't seem too surprised to see my condition. “I'm going to get that bastard,” I growled, ripping off my ruined gloves.

 

“I thought you were already doing that, sir,” the Lieutenant replied calmly. “Did you forget that he liked to play with water?” She handed me a towel, as if she had been expecting me to come back drenched. She knew me too well. That, or she had no confidence in my abilities.

 

“Of course not! ….Well, maybe a little….” I grumbled, wiping off my face.

 

To her credit, Hawkeye did not laugh. “You really should pay more attention when your superiors talk, Colonel.”

 

I glared at her, trying to figure out if she was poking fun at me or not. She ignored me and pulled a briefcase out of the trunk of the car. We began walking back to the barricade. “Isn't it ironic, though?” I said, knowing no elaboration was necessary.

 

“No.”

 

I shot her a quizzical look.

 

“If you tried to pull whatever McDougal is doing, Central wouldn't need to chase you down. I'd shoot you myself,” she explained matter-of-factly.

 

I smiled. “Huh. Glad you have such a high opinion of me.”

 

“You can't dodge a bullet.” Hawkeye stopped behind the barricade. She opened the briefcase, revealing about half a dozen pairs of my special ignition gloves. “But it's not ironic,” she continued. “You want to save people, to accomplish your goals by causing the least harm. McDougal doesn't care who gets hurt, so long as he kills the Führer, and I don't see how that's going to make anything better at all. The two of you are completely different. Stop thinking yourself a monster already.”

 

I smirked self-deprecatingly. “That obvious?”

 

“Only to me.”

 

A strange crackling sound came from my left. Confused, I turned and saw a huge block of ice gradually moving towards us.

 

“Shit,” I muttered as I marched out - well, waddled, but that's not dignified - marched out to meet McDougal's alchemy.