Hello! I am back with yet another story! I hope you all enjoy it! This will be a bit different than other things I've written thus far. This story will be a bit more Roy-centric, which I'm excited to try for a change! There will be some Ed time, don't worry! I'm not quite sure how long this will be, but I'm planning on only a few chapters.

Warnings: Some descriptions might be a bit dark and gory. Other than that, there are none. That is all.

I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

"Sir, you really shouldn't let a fifteen-year-old put you in such a bad mood."

Colonel Roy Mustang glanced at his First Lieutenant out of the corner of his eye. While her voice was stern, her eyes were alight with amusement. He grunted in response.

"I waited for over two hours, and he still didn't show! He didn't even answer my calls!" the Colonel tried to defend himself. "Aside from that, it's not like I want to be here."

He glanced around the dull walls of the prison as he and Hawkeye walked down the hall, the walls that sucked the life out of anyone unfortunate enough to pass by them. While his youngest subordinate failing to show up for his report did annoy him to no end, that was not the primary cause of his dreadful mood.

Hawkeye looked at him, her amusement quickly changing to sympathy.

"I don't blame you, sir."

There were very few people Mustang never wanted to see again, and he was just minutes away from an interrogation with one of them. He wasn't exactly thrilled. He and Hawkeye stopped before they reached the door.

Nathaniel Roe was waiting on the other side. Although, he was better known around East City as "The Dollmaker."

The Colonel had been on several missions throughout his military career, so many that most of them started to blur together. However, The Dollmaker case was certainly one he would never forget.

It had been five years since the man was caught, but Mustang still nearly shuddered at the mere thought of him.

Over the period of two months, fourteen teenagers had disappeared. There was no trace of where they had gone. None of them had anything in common except for the fact they were between the ages of twelve and seventeen and that they frequented East City's library.

Initially, that connection wasn't made. The victims were abducted in different parts of the city. The amount of time that passed between the disappearances didn't help either. As gruesome as it may have been, until there was a body, there was no indication of where they could have possibly been or what was happening to them. It wasn't until after the seventh teen disappeared that the thought even occurred that the cases were related. The seventh victim was a girl, only thirteen years old. Her corpse was found on a bench in front of the library.

Mustang wished he had never seen the pictures. All of her teeth had been extracted and she had been sliced from ear to ear. A demonic smile had been forcefully plastered on her face. The killer didn't bother to clean her up, so her face was a bloody mess.

What had disturbed Mustang the most was the fact that her eyelids had been removed. Her light blue orbs bored into his soul, even though it was only a picture.

The autopsy report revealed other disturbing discoveries. The girl's appendix had been removed. The initials "MR" had been carved on the bottom of her foot. Traces of atracurium and doxacurium chloride were found in her system, muscle relaxers and neural inhibitors. Whoever had abducted her wanted her sedated, but awake. According to the coroner, only the eyelid removal occurred post-mortem. The poor girl had been awake and felt every excruciating minute until her life had been ripped away from her.

The coroner brought the investigators' attention to the clothes the victim was found in. The dress she had been wearing was much too big for her, so it had been sewn to her skin so it wouldn't fall off. After military personnel talked to the girl's parents, they verified that the dress she was found in hadn't been the one she went missing in.

The killer had made his own clothes for the victim, probably before he even chose her.

Five more teens had disappeared and one of the bodies had been found before Mustang was given the mission to hunt this man down by Lieutenant General Grumman himself. Again, the victim wasn't found in the clothes he disappeared in. Someone had made them and dressed him up, as if he were a doll.

The public started referring to the person responsible as "The Dollmaker."

An aura of fear permeated East City. Parents were scared to even take their kids outside of their homes. They had to find this killer, and fast.

The day he was given the mission, another body had been found. However, this one was found inside the library. Several military officers had been hiding and watching the library, hoping to catch the man dumping the body. No one had seen a thing.

Mustang was called to the scene of the crime, the toothless, bloody smile of the young boy burning itself into his memory.

Investigations on the library staff were already underway. Since each victim went to the library quite often, it was safe to assume that was where the killer first met his victims. While the investigations weren't done yet, it didn't make sense. In order to remove the appendix, the killer had to have some sort of medical background. Also, a person that just worked at a library wouldn't have access to the drugs found in the victim's system.

Mustang demanded the records of anyone that checked out a book and when leading up to the victims' disappearances. There were a few names that matched the some of the dates leading up to the abductions, but there was only one name that matched every date of every victim.

Nathaniel Roe.

Or rather, Dr. Nathaniel Roe. Upon investigation, he discovered the man was a surgeon at the hospital in East City.

Despite the small victory of finally having a lead, two more teens had gone missing.

After sharing this discovery with his team, Hawkeye and Breda opted to follow him to the hospital to find Roe. He wasn't there, only further confirming him as a suspect. They decided to interview his coworkers.

Roe had become a bit distant since his mother, Meredith Roe, passed away two months previously. He wasn't near as chatty and was in a rush to leave the second work was done for the day. He had called in sick to work the past two days, which couldn't have been a coincidence concerning that two more teens had disappeared during that time.

After getting an address, Mustang led his team and other military personnel to Dr. Roe's residence.

The Colonel remembered that day all too well.

*flashback*

"Nathaniel Roe, open up!" Mustang yelled as he pounded on the door.

He motioned for some officers to check around the back of the house. He poised his fingers, ready to snap at any given moment. The others had their weapons ready to fire. He kicked the front door in, allowing military personnel to swarm the house.

Cautiously, they checked every room. There was no sign of Nathaniel Roe nor the missing teens. They searched every nook and cranny of the house.

Mustang's eyes wandered to the lone rug in the living room while the others were still searching the rest of the house. He moved it, revealing a trapdoor. He yanked it open.

An overwhelming, rotting stench assaulted his senses. Peering down, it was mostly dark except for a dull, flickering light.

"Down here!" he yelled as he descended the stairs.

He had to swat at the flies that nearly attacked him as he climbed down into the basement.

Humming could be heard over his footsteps and the creaking of the stairs. The cheery tune clashed heavily with the dreadful atmosphere in the basement. Once he reached the bottom of the staircase, Mustang couldn't help but gape in horror at the sight before him.

Against the wall sat nine of the missing teenagers, each with those disturbing, demonic smiles etched permanently on their faces. A few were already starting to decompose. Sadly, Mustang realized those were the ones that went missing in the beginning, before they had even connected the disappearances.

He had been foolishly hopeful that they were still alive.

Insects were crawling on them and in their gaping mouths. Those kids didn't deserve this.

He had been in too much shock that he almost forgot why he was even there. Roe was carrying the tenth over to the wall to join the others. The deranged man seemed oblivious to Mustang's presence.

"I know you don't like to pick favorites, mother, but I think you're going to love this one most!"

Mustang followed the man's gaze and found yet another corpse sitting in a rocking chair in a corner, surrounded by candles. He had the sick feeling that was his mother's body. He must have dug up her grave and brought it here.

He almost didn't register the other footsteps coming down the stairs. His eyes were trained on the killer as he approached a table, lying on it was his latest victim. He picked up a scalpel.

Mustang finally took action, forcing himself to overcome the nightmare before him that was too horrific to be real.

He snapped, setting Roe's hand aflame. The killer dropped the scalpel and fell to his knees, desperately trying to put out the fire burning his hand.

Mustang took this opportunity to tackle the man and wrestle him onto his stomach.

"You can't do this! Her collection isn't finished!" Roe screeched as he was handcuffed.

Mustang cruelly yanked him to his feet, another officer coming forward to help escort him out. He glanced at the table, seeing the fourteenth and final victim with a slash running from ear to ear.

He swallowed thickly. They had been too late. Fourteen kids had disappeared in two months, and all fourteen had perished.

*end flashback*

The Colonel actually shuddered. The sick man was waiting for him on the other side of the door before him.

Nathaniel Roe had never admitted anything during his trial, but he also didn't deny being guilty. In fact, the man hardly spoke. After his tantrum during his arrest, he didn't talk unless he had to. His face never betrayed any sort of emotion either.

His motive for why he killed his victims, or what made him choose them in the first place, remained a mystery. Mustang didn't even know why he dumped three of the bodies. No one could understand what would make him commit such evil acts, and no one ever would.

Given the extent of his crimes, he was given the death penalty. He had been on death row for the past five years. His execution date was approaching in a few weeks.

Mustang was surprised to get a call from Lieutenant General Grumman that morning with the news that Roe wanted to finally answer the infinite number of questions they had about the case. The killer said he would only answer if Mustang conducted this interview.

The Colonel didn't know what compelled him to agree, but he did. He would be lying if he said he wasn't at all curious, but he was willing to remain ignorant if it meant he never had to see Nathaniel Roe again.

However, there were fourteen families that never understood why their children had been cruelly ripped away from them. Perhaps, after this interview, they would finally had a bit of closure.

Hawkeye gave him a quick, reassuring grin. The two entered the interrogation room.

Roe, who had been staring intensely at the table, flickered his gaze to them as they entered.

"Well if it isn't the Flame Alchemist, Colonel Roy Mustang. I was expecting you a while ago. Was something holding you up?"

The killer's expression never changed, remaining as emotionless as ever. Mustang ignored his question. He was already annoyed that Ed didn't bother showing up for his report and he really didn't need the reminder. He threw the file he had been carrying down on the table as he and Hawkeye sat down. He just wanted this interview over with, so he got right down to business.

"When you were arrested, you said something about a collection. What did you mean?"

Roe's gaze returned to the table as he fiddled with the handcuffs around his wrists.

"My mother always liked dolls. When she died, she couldn't collect them anymore. I thought I would make some for her."

He said it as if it had been an obvious answer. Mustang's eyebrows raised. This guy was really off his rocker.

"What made you dump three of your victims, but not the rest?" he asked next.

"They were dolls, not victims," Roe said, tensing a bit and his eyes darkening, "Mother said she didn't like them, so I put them back where I found them."

The Colonel tried not to show it, but he was disturbed. He glanced at his First Lieutenant out of the corner of his eye. He could tell she was having the same problem.

"How did you choose your victims?"

The killer seemed to ignore him.

"You know what's interesting about dolls?" he began, "They're all so different. Their hair is different. If even two dolls have brown hair, one could have a light brown and the other could have dark brown. There are so many different kinds, it takes a long time to collect them all."

"How did you choose your victims?" Mustang asked again, annoyed.

"I think my favorite thing about my dolls were their eyes," Roe continued, "Each doll has their own story. I can see it in their eyes. There are so many different shades of blue, brown, and green...and each color is beautiful in its own way."

Asking the question a third time, it remained unanswered. That was it. Mustang was fed up with the man sitting in front of him. The killer asked for this interview and he was wasting the Colonel's time by spouting all of this nonsense. Roe kept mumbling to himself, not even acknowledging the two military officers.

"If you're not going to bother answering the question, I'm going to leave," he nearly yelled as he closed the file. He and Hawkeye stood up. "See you at your execution in a few weeks."

This did nothing to deter the killer from talking.

"I think my favorite eye color for my dolls is blue. It's such beautiful color. Although, you know what eye color none of my dolls ever had?"

Mustang didn't answer. He was almost to the door.

"Gold."

The Colonel's blood ran cold and he froze in his tracks. Even with his back to the killer, he knew there was a flicker of emotion on the man's face for the first time in five years.

"Tell me, Colonel, did Edward Elric come in today?"

And there's the first chapter! Why didn't Ed come in? What does "The Dollmaker" have to do with it? You'll find out next chapter! Also, if anything doesn't make sense right now, it will be explained later on.

Anyways, let me know what you think! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! If you did, I'm sure you'll enjoy the rest of the story! Until then!