Chapter 1: Faceless

North City: 14/01/1912

It had been a while since I had last been to North City, and I didn't find the place any more agreeable since last time. I was certainly used to the cold, but the urban environment dredged up some unpleasant memories. I wouldn't be here if it was my choice, but it wasn't, so here I was.

A notorious criminal and murderer from Central had reportedly made his way to North City, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. While the idiots that ran Central Command were seemingly content to let this man run wild, Northern Command couldn't allow such a thing to go unpunished, and so I had been sent to dispatch this killer.

When I arrived in North City I had been informed that Northern Soldiers had bottled up the target in the warehouse district, but they were seemingly unwilling to go further and finish the job. For some reason the soldiers here were unable to kill one man with an entire regiment, I made a mental note to mention this deficiency in North City's forces to the General when I returned.

I then began to make my way towards the warehouse district, the streets I walked through were illuminated only by the occasional streetlights, the pale light of the moon hanging in the night sky. As a gust of wind blew by me I felt the bite of cold on my forearm, the wind stinging the flesh of my arm that had somehow become exposed. With a slight wince of pain, I pulled at the bandages that covered my arms, covering the exposed area. I briefly checked the bandages that covered the rest of my body, berating myself for my carelessness before continuing on towards my destination.

The warehouse district was located on the edge of North City, and I had been told the location of the nearest cordon that the military had set up. Apparently most civilian workers would have finished for the night and gone home, so the likelihood of civilian interference was minimal. I had almost made my way to the cordon at this point, and according to the directions I had received it was located just around the corner from the street I was walking down.

I turned the corner into an alleyway and saw the cordon that the troops had set up across the entrance to the warehouse district, the troops seemingly relaxing when they saw my Amestrian Military uniform, the traditional blue uniform covered by the long black coat favoured by most soldiers in the North. Their relief was short lived however, as they tensed up again when they saw the rest of my appearance. I couldn't blame them for that, but I had a job to do, and I couldn't afford to be delayed by their curiosity.

When I reached the checkpoint one of the soldiers held up his hand to halt me, I sighed briefly at the interruption and reached for my military ID, passing it to the soldier while his comrade watched me with his hands on his rifle. I wasn't surprised that they didn't recognise me, as besides my somewhat conspicuous appearance I wasn't very well known, and I rarely came to North City.

"Brigadier General Richter Magnus." He muttered, reading aloud from my ID "Codenamed: The Faceless Alchemist." He looked up to confirm the source of my codename.

He must have been somewhat confused by my appearance, nothing but bandages covering my whole body, and a pair of goggles covering my eyes. Though I knew that my ID held a photograph of me with this look it was clearly still quite an odd situation, and I suppose his suspicion in this situation was warranted.

I knew how unusual this must have been for him, it had taken me months to become accustomed to my situation myself, and most new people I met regarded me with uncertainty and confusion. That fact used to bother me no end, but I had adapted to my circumstances, and I no longer allow myself to be concerned with something as trivial as my appearance.

"Do you have your Alchemist's pocket watch with you Sir?" he paused before continuing "For identification purposes."

I wordlessly reached into my coat's pocket and showed him the silver watch, he nodded and handed me back my ID, I pocketed both items and made my preparations to enter the district.

"So, you're a State Alchemist then?" another soldier asked, "And a Brigadier General at that?"

"Indeed." I replied, not wanting to recount my life story to these two "What's the situation here then?"

"The suspect is in here somewhere; all of the exits have been covered." The first soldier muttered, clearly not too keen on the whole affair "He is known to be armed and highly dangerous Sir, and we have been told not to interfere until reinforcements arrive."

"I see." I muttered, gears already turning in my head as I contemplated the situation "Well then, I suppose I had best get to work. You and your men are to wait here for my return. On no account are you to follow me unless I call for you." With that I walked away from the gathering of soldiers, and into the warehouse district.

"But Sir!" one of the soldiers called "Aren't you going to wait for the reinforcements?"

"I am the reinforcements." I called back, not bothering to hear their reaction as I made my way forwards in search of my target.

The warehouse district was cramped and dark, with the buildings all so close together it left only narrow alleyways to move through, leaving me feeling like somewhat of an exposed target. The buildings cast long shadows over the alleys and walkways, and the few gas lamps that could be seen were either flickering or completely broken, leaving the area around me in complete darkness. I placed my left hand on the hilt of my sword, ready to draw it in a split second should the need for action arise.

It seemed at first that the place was abandoned, as after several minutes of searching I had found no sign of the killer I saw supposed to be tracking. I briefly wondered if the incompetence of the soldiers had extended to the point where they couldn't even cordon off an area correctly, giving my target a way to escape. That train of thought was cut short when I noticed a few fresh drops off blood on the ground just below my feet, I crouched down to inspect the evidence and I realised that there was more blood further away, and with this discovery I had a trail to follow.

I followed the steady trail of blood for a few minutes until it led towards the door of a warehouse, there was blood smeared over the door handle, and I pushed on the flat surface of the door to open it, being careful not to damage any evidence and earn the ire of the MPs. I stepped into the warehouse and pushed the door shut behind me, the cold wind whistling through the holes in the building. As I walked further in I noticed the trail of blood had become far more pronounced and closely spaced, indicating that the injury was having a greater effect on the victim. I quickened my pace in order to reach whoever had been injured before their blood loss turned fatal, though I still stayed wary of my surroundings in case the killer was lurking around looking to finish off whoever he had wounded.

The interior of the warehouse was filled with wooden boxes and crates, creating a labyrinth of pathways throughout the building. I rolled my eyes behind my goggles, this was the perfect place for an ambush. I reluctantly followed the trail of blood into the twisting pathways of the warehouse, looking into every shadow for any sign of the killer that could be lying in wait.

As I made my way through the pathways I heard the sound of somebody breathing in pain, and it became clear that I was nearing the location of whoever had been injured by the killer. I turned a corner and saw the person I had been tracking, a young woman in military uniform sat slumped against one of the crates, her hands pressed against a wound on her abdomen that was slowly leaking blood onto the floor around her. I walked over to the woman, a Sergeant, judging by the rank markings on her shoulder, and knelt down beside her to assess the extent of her injuries. She only just seemed to have noticed me, and she looked up with an expression of fear on her face.

"It's alright." I placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her "I'm with the military."

She relaxed at this and nodded slightly in understanding, wincing at the effort of the movement. Her injuries were clearly severe, and if she wasn't given proper medical attention soon she would certainly die. I knew I had to do something to stabilise her here, as we would be easy prey to the killer if I had to walk an injured soldier back to the cordon alone. Unfortunately, my own medical training extended no further than the bare minimum provided by the military, however there was an art that I was more proficient in…

"Sergeant." I whispered, only loud enough to draw her attention while hopefully avoiding any outside attention from unwanted parties "I'm an Alchemist, and I should be able to mend your injury. But I need you to move your hands for me to perform the procedure, do you understand?"

She replied with a mumbled "Yes Sir" and moved her hands away from her injury, groaning in pain as the injury began to bleed more profusely due to the loss of pressure on the wound.

I pulled a stick of chalk from my belt and quickly drew a transmutation on the ground below the Sergeant, ignoring the steady drips of blood onto the circle as I finished drawing the array.

"Alright, this may sting somewhat. But I need you to remain as quiet as possible." I muttered to the Sergeant, who nodded her understanding and gritted her teeth.

I pushed my hands onto the circle and activated it, the traditional sparks and flashes of lightning spat from the circle as the transmutation was activated. The Sergeant, to her credit, managed to stifle her gasps of pain as the transmutation stitched her wound shut. The light vanished as quickly as it arrived, and it seemed the transmutation had been completed. A quick assessment of the Sergeant's injury showed the procedure to be a success, and although she would still need medical attention, the window to save her life had hopefully changed from minutes to hours.

Unfortunately, it seemed very likely that the noise and light produced by the transmutation had drawn the attention of the killer, and my suspicions were confirmed when I heard a dark voice behind me.

"So compassionate." The voice chuckled "But all you have done is prolonged the inevitable and led yourself to death as well. No matter, I have no issue with claiming a second victim tonight."

I turned to face the killer, and I was met with the sight of a large man with a perverse grin on his face, and threadbare clothes covering his lean but still muscular body. He had long, ornate blade clutched in his hands, it's elegant and refined appearance at odds with his ragged appearance. He was crouched on top of one of the crates, and he had seemingly been watching me perform the transmutation.

"I take it you are the serial killer known as Slicer?" I questioned, standing up straight to face the killer head on "The one responsible for a string of murders in the Central Area?"

"So, you've heard of me?" He chuckled mockingly "I see that my reputation precedes me."

"All you are to me is another criminal who needs to be brought down." I stated dryly, using the lull before combat to try and analyse my opponent "You will claim no more victims Slicer."

"Big words for someone hiding behind a mask." He cackled, leaping from the crate onto the ground and lowering himself into a fighting stance "I will enjoy ripping those bandages from your face and watching you scream in pain before I send you to death like all the others."

"You seem to have a fascination with death." I uttered, drawing my own blade, a single-edged sabre that was popular throughout the military "Come, and I will grant you what you seek."

With those words out of the way Slicer charged forwards, and I readied myself to meet him in combat.

Slicer's first blow came quickly, and I raised my own blade to turn the strike aside before retaliating with a thrust of my own, which he deftly stepped aside from. Another strike came immediately after, this time I stepped out of the way before making a strike at his side, which he brought his blade down to parry with.

My main concern was to move this battle away from the injured Sergeant, as a single stray blow could end her life; So, I allowed Slicer to push me backwards into a more open part of the warehouse, though I still parried or blocked all of his blows. Slicer's skill with a blade was evident, and I knew that this wouldn't be the simple fight I had hoped for.

As we reached the open floor to the side of the warehouse we began to circle each other while still trading blows, each attack was dodged or turned aside, neither of us wanted to commit too much at the beginning of the fight, and so practised blows were traded as we each sized each other up, looking for weaknesses or weak points to exploit.

We continued to trade blows and parries, neither of us could gain the edge over the other. Slicer's stance and form were near to perfection, and his technique gave me nearly no openings or weaknesses. But I had been taught by one of the greatest teachers in Amestris in the art wielding a blade; and although I was far from the skill of my teacher, I had learned a great many things.

I drew on my lessons and began to feign weakness and fatigue, hopefully drawing Slicer into over-extending himself into a strike that I could punish. He seemed to fall for my acting, as his attacks became heavier and slightly more extended, pushing me onto the back foot. After one of my parries only just scraped his sword aside he seemed to see his opportunity and drew himself back in order to begin a lethal strike, I readied myself to attack him while he remained in his ready stance.

Before I could make my own strike, Slicer dashed forwards and thrust his blade towards me, it's lethal edge threatening to slice me across the chest. I leaped backwards and watched as his momentum carried him past me, I capitalised on his over-commitment and slashed my sword across his chest, finally striking him with a glancing blow that split the fabric of his shirt and left a bloody slash across his chest.

Slicer recovered from his own strike and spun around to face me, glancing down at his wound before looking back at me.

"First blood is mine Slicer." I uttered, wiping my blade clean on my bandaged arm for emphasis "Give up, you know you are outmatched here."

"Never" Slicer spat on the ground before continuing "I'll carve you into pieces, just you wait!"

With that he gave a cry of rage and charged forwards with a flurry of strikes, I was barely able to resist his fury and turn his blows aside, but his relentless attack left me no room to counter with attacks of my own. But it was clear that his injury had made him somewhat sloppy, his previously flawless stance was now slightly looser, and that was a weakness that I could exploit.

As one of his strikes flew particularly high I saw my opportunity and ducked under the blow, pushing past Slicer until his momentum carried him behind me. Before he could recover from his strike I spun my sword in my grasp and thrust it backwards, the pointed tip burying itself in the back of his knee and bursting through his kneecap in a spray of blood.

Slicer cried out from the pain of this blow and the injury and his momentum sent him flying forwards, landing in a heap a good distance from me. I slowly turned to watch the swordsman turn himself over to face me, though his injury rendered him currently unable to stand.

"You are a worthy adversary Slicer" I spoke, keeping my voice level and calm "But you can't match me, give up now."

To my surprise Slicer just chuckled, his demented laugh echoing throughout the warehouse.

"Maybe, but there's one thing you should know about Slicer." He laughed, pausing only to wipe the blood from his chest wound.

"Oh?" I pretended to sound interested, in reality I was tired of this fool's games "And what might that be?"

"I'm not the only one." He spluttered, before calling out "NOW BROTHER!"

I barely had an instant to reach before I realised what was occurring, I leaped sideways, hoping to avoid whatever blow was coming. A burning slash across my right shoulder alerted me to the other assailant's location, and although I had avoided a lethal blow the attacker had still landed a painful hit on me. I stumbled backwards and grasped my shoulder, spinning to see my new enemy.

The unseen attacker made his way towards the still sitting form of Slicer, seemingly checking him for injuries before turning to face me. The new man was almost identical to Slicer, although his slightly underdeveloped features marked him out as being slightly younger. But it was clear that these two were twin brothers, and for a brief moment I wondered how Central's intelligence department was so inept that they mistook two people for one.

The younger brother helped the older one to his feet, and they both stood faced towards me, similar expressions of malice and insanity on their faces. Each one wore almost identical clothing and they carried their blades in opposite hands, giving the appearance of a reflection to the pair of them.

"So, you see Soldier." The Older Slicer muttered, gritting his teeth in pain as he put weight on his injured leg.

"Slicer has always been a pair." The Younger Slicer finished, grinning before continuing "Me and my brother have been lying, stealing and killing as a pair for years. Do you really think you can beat us both?"

"I know I can." I grinned, my expression invisible under my bandages "A second murderous dog makes no difference to me. I've faced down far greater than you two before."

"We shall see…" The Younger Slicer threatened.

With that the pair crouched into identical, albeit mirrored, stances and charged towards me, blades at the ready. Both brothers alternated between striking at me and stepping back to allow the other to attack, the barrage was overwhelming, and I struggled to evade their blows. I remember my teacher once telling me that the biggest weakness of attacking pairs was the fact that they would get in each other's way, making them less efficient than they would be alone. Clearly my teacher hadn't accounted for a pair of co-ordinated sword-wielding twins, and the devastating effect of their teamwork was obvious.

I raised my own sword and tried to hold back the storm of blows, but the pair thought in a perfectly co-ordinated and balanced way, and before I could react a sword thrust straight towards my head and I was forced to twist out the way, putting myself off-balance. As soon as the pair saw this weakness they exploited it, and within a few blows a blade slid between my hand and the hand-guard of my sword and pulled away, twisting my sword out of my grasp and sending it sliding to the ground far behind the brothers. Before I even had a chance to react to the disarming move a sudden high kick from one of the brothers struck me on the head and sent me flying backwards into one of the crates in the warehouse. The crate cracked on impact and as I landed on my back the contents of the crate, a massive coil of steel cable, spilled from the crate and fell over and around me.

"Is that it?" The Older Slicer chuckled, seemingly unimpressed "You know I was almost impressed for a second, but it seems that you can't stand up to us after all."

"Don't be so sure." I muttered, gritting my teeth and pulling myself to be feet, spilling the steel cable around by feet in the process "I'm afraid I still have a trick up my sleeve."

Before the pair could react, I clapped my hands together, the tell-tale whistling echoing through my ears as my transmutation activated, powered by the truth I had witnessed. I thrust my hands above the steel cable and in a burst of Alchemic energy the cable sprang to life, twisting around like a viper before darting towards the Younger Slicer.

The Younger Slicer's eyes widened at the display of Alchemy, but he was too slow to react as the cable's tip thrust towards him. At my command the cable split into several sharp points, and each one darted forward and pierced a point in his sword arm, bursting through in a spray of gore before retracting back towards me. Each cable had struck and severed a tendon in his arm, and it hung uselessly at his side, his sword falling to the ground from his open grip.

As his brother screamed in pain the Older Slicer could only look towards be in bewilderment as I clapped my hands together and transmuted the cable again, this time pulling a pair of swords from the twisted metal. As his younger brother retrieved his sword with his offhand the Older Slicer readied himself once again, and I held my paired blades forwards in a ready stance.

The two rushed into action once again, but it was clear that they were on the back foot. With both brothers carrying injuries more severe than my own, as well as still being shocked by my display of Alchemy, it was clear that they were far less certain of their victory than they had been moments ago.

The three of us continued to trade blows, but where the pair had once overwhelmed me with their speed and brutality they had now become slowed and sloppy, and I was able to hold the two of them back with my paired blades. The co-ordination of the pair appeared to have diminished as well, and they now occasionally leant into each other or blocked their paths when they attacked, the frustration of their injuries causing them to abandon their previously flawless technique.

The Younger Slicer dashed ahead of his brother and made a wide swing at my neck, I ducked under the blade and slashed both my blades against his chest, leaving a pair of parallel wounds across his chest. Before he could even react, the Older Slicer leaped in to aid his brother, blade at the ready. But he still limped from the injury to his knee, and his resultant loss in mobility allowed me to twist his weapon away with one sword and slash at his face with the other, leaving a shallow gash under his eye.

Both brothers reeled from their injuries and staggered back, giving me time to act out the finishing manoeuvres to our fight. I clapped my hands together with my swords still clutched in them, transmuting the blades back into a length of steel cable. The cable was animated by alchemy still and I tossed it at the Younger Slicer, the agitated metal wrapping around his arms like a great serpent and immobilising him. The pain from the pressure on his injured arm caused him to cry out and drop his blade, the shock of the pain causing him to fall to the ground.

The Older Slicer looked towards his brother with concern and anger, and when he realised the fight was still ongoing his gaze fell to me with a mixture of rage and suppressed fear. When the killer realised that I was now unarmed he charged towards me with wild fury in his eyes, his blade ready to cut me down in a single strike. With no time to form a new weapon I clapped my hands together and held my right palm out to intercept his strike, my open hand crackling with alchemic lightning. Just as Slicer thrust his blade forwards me I completed the transmutation, and as the tip of his blade touched my palm the entire warehouse was filled with a blinding flash of light.

When the light vanished we both remained where we had been, the tip of his blade resting right on my open palm, all momentum from the strike having vanished. With a crack of snapping metal, the ornate blade shattered, the transmutation having splintered the blade into dozens of pieces which now clattered to the ground with a series of metallic clangs.

The Older Slicer looked at me with bewilderment before tossing the useless hilt of his blade to the ground, before I could do anything else however, he thrust his empty hand forwards towards my head. His grasp closed around the goggles that covered my eyes and with a cry of rage he ripped them off my face, taking a handful of bandages with him and tossing the items to the ground.

I cried out in pain and recoiled back, pushing my hand over the exposed area in an attempt to stifle the pain, only to pull it away when I realised the futility of that actions. The Older Slicer chucked at my situation, only for his laughter to fade away when he saw what lay under the bandages that covered my face.

"What…" his voice came in a stammered manner as his eyes widened with fear "What the hell are you?"

I didn't respond, instead I swung my fist out and struck his temple while he was distracted, intent on ending the bought as quickly as possible. The force of the blow combined with his injuries and fatigue knocked the killer down, and before he could recover I transmuted the ground around him to hold him still, finally putting an end to the fight.

I reached down for my discarded bandages and goggles, the bandages were ruined but the goggles were thankfully still intact.

Click

I looked up towards the source of the noise, seeing the wounded Sergeant with a look of fear and confusion on her face, and her pistol trained towards me. I stood up straight with my goggles still clutched in my hand, noting with some annoyance that the precious salve that filled them had spilled out.

"I'm sure you've had a difficult experience Sergeant, and you've lost a lot of blood." I muttered, reaching into my belt to retrieve a new vial of the salve "So for that reason I am going to excuse your behaviour towards me, provided you lower your gun right now."

The Sergeant reluctantly lowered her weapon, though she seemed to still be suspicious. I understood why, catching my reflection in a small puddle nearby. All of my face was without skin, formed entirely of raw red flesh; my eyes were without eyelids, and thus my eyes remained open at all times in disturbing expression of torment.

"What happened to you Sir?" The Sergeant asked, sounding woozy and confused.

"I did something terrible a long time ago." I answered as I strapped my goggles back onto my head, the salve in them soothing the constant irritation on my eyes while not impairing my eyesight "This is the price I paid for my mistake."

She nodded briefly before collapsing to the ground, the blood loss finally going to her head. I walked towards her while I wrapped new bandages over the exposed part of my face, when I had finished I knelt down to assess her condition. She would live, but I needed to get her to a hospital, as well as taking the restrained Slicers to the MPs. I sighed before grabbing The Sergeant and carrying her over my shoulder, it seemed my work was unfinished yet.

I was finally back at the cordon; the unconscious Sergeant had been loaded into an ambulance cart and sent to a hospital. I had given her an official commendation that would be sent to her commanding officer, both for her genuine bravery and in the hope that it would incentivise her into not revealing what she had discovered about me.

The Slicer Brothers had been taken by the MPs, and when I asked what would happen to them I was simply told that they would be sent back to Central to be tried and executed, and as far as I was concerned, that was where my involvement in the matter ended. The killers had been stopped and captured and North City could sleep easy, so it wasn't really my concern as to what happened to them in Central.

It seemed my brief sojourn to North City had concluded, and I was looking forwards to leaving the place and returning to the place I called home. I bid farewell to the MPs and Soldiers at the cordon before walking back down the street I had arrived from, hoping that I would be able to find transport at this late hour.