Prologue

1890

He had been bred for war.

For as long as he could remember, his life was entwined with bloodshed and slaughter. The fact had frightened him, yet he did not falter.

Roy remembered little of his parents. Few memories chiseled in his mind, only ones of horror and demise. His father was a man of dishonor and of cowardice. And despite all the hardships he endured, he had the utmost disrespect for the people in his life.

His mother had not been better. Adele Morgan was an intelligence agent at the Christmas brothel. After having nowhere to go, Christine Mustang had given her a place to live, food to eat, and a job. The bond between the women had grown strongly, but the fate that waited for them was grim.

At the Christmas brothel, Adele met Chris' older brother, Roy Mustang. The tall dark haired man instantly charmed the voluptuous woman with muddy brown hair and dark eyes. Their love had been like the wonderful stories her mother had told her as a child and Adele immediately became smitten with the bloke. Contrary to his dashingly good looks, the man was a monstrosity. The love he had for her was only a pretense to get her to bed. It was how he talked to all women, she was not special. He fed her beautiful lies of a desired life and she fell for every well-crafted line spewed past his luscious lips.

Much like everyone else she ever knew, he betrayed and deceived her, and now she was damned with his child. She named his son after him, hoping the act would make him stay, but it was done to no avail. Adele regretted her only child's birth almost as much as the deplorable man she procreated with. Perhaps if the child inherited her features, she wouldn't have resented him so, but little Roy was the carbon copy of a man she detested and yet was infatuated with.

The problems between she and his sister arose soon after. She blamed Chris for letting Roy have other women and not caring for her, although Chris had little to do with her brother's choices.

The anguish she was put through had made Adele seek revenge. How dare he break her heart and try to get away with it? She had been through too much to be treated like vermin again.

For sometime now, the military had been looking for Roy for going AWOL. Since the man left during a time of war, the consequences for being a deserter were worse. Adele Morgan decided she would reveal to the military, the whereabouts of the man who hurt her and the truth about the brothel. However, she foolishly, shared her plan with a co-worker, who in turn told Chris.

The larger, but beautiful woman was enraged. After everything Chris Mustang did for Adele, she couldn't believe the woman would commit such treachery.

On that fateful night, Chris found her only brother sitting at the bar, nursing some hard liquor and whispering into a woman's ear who was sitting on his lap, the blonde woman giggling. As Chris approached the blonde backed away, not before pulling Roy by his tie and capturing his lips. He watched the woman walk off before turning to his sister with a disapproving look.

"You interrupted something important, you know." He sneered.

"I'm sure." She stared at her brother, anger apparent in her facial expression.

"What's your damage?" he asked, taking a swig of his liquor and preparing whatever scolding his younger sister had prepared for him.

"You know who, Roy. You need to stop her, because if you don't we're all screwed!" Chris cried out.

In all his years of knowing is younger sister it had been rare to see the plump woman so flustered. "What do you want me to do? Marry her? She shouldn't have fell for empty silvery words. She's a damn whore, not a woman one would marry, Chris."

"You're awful, you know that? You have a son, who I have been taking care of, because neither of you are responsible enough to do so!"

"I never asked the bitch to keep the kid. If she would have listened to me, she would have nipped him in the bud." Chris could hardly believe his response. How could he not care about his beautiful boy? His words earned him a sharp slap across the side of his face. She was fuming. Unfortunately, the resonating smack drew in the attention of many patrons in the bar. She lowered her tone in front of their audience, but her voice was still dripping with vehemence.

"Doesn't mean you can't act like his father! It was his fifth birthday last week and neither of you even showed up to the party the girls and I threw him!" she shouted.

"Enough." He hissed.

"You're sickening."

"Just shut your mouth and I'll help you. Trust me, the broad will think twice before messing with the Mustangs."

"You're going to threaten her?"

"Well, I'm sure as hell not going to marry her."

"You are the most irresponsible, despicable man I have ever met. If she informs the military, we'll be ruined. Why can't you see that?"

The man groaned and threw his hands up in the air in surrender. "Alright!"

[+]

Chris had never been the motherly type and especially never planned on having children of her own. She was a woman who would lay with a different man every night and earned her living that way. She was not like the women in the fairy tale's she would read to little Roy. Truth be told, the love of her life was found in the body of a five-year-old boy with onyx black hair and eyes to match. Little Roy was the only male who never broke her heart and the only male who appreciated her, bringing her gifts, albeit they were silly doodles or things he found in the garden.

Chris sat at the end of his bed, watching over the sleeping boy like a hawk. She pulled the blanket over him and smiled at the tiny child. She was more of a mother than the one who gave birth to him. And although, Adele and Roy weren't fit to take care of their son, she hoped they came to an agreement. It wasn't just the possibility of being incarcerated for having an intelligence agency, it was because little Roy deserved to have parents. But if they weren't there for him, well damning them to hell, she would be.

Torn from her thoughts, she heard her brother call out for her in the hall. 'If that idiot wakes up Roy-boy, I'm going to kill him,' she thought. She slowly crept out of the room and into the hall. Nearly colliding with him when she walked out of the door.

"What happened?"

"Chris, I – I…" he stammered, while pacing around in the quiet hall.

"You what?" she questioned, becoming apprehensive with his unusual anxious behavior. He grabbed her by her arm and forcefully pulled her to his room, shutting the door behind him.

He was shaking.

"She's dead!" he shouted in a whisper.

"What?" Chris' face blanched.

"I f-f-found her in the alley we were supposed to talk in, but she was…d-dead."

He buried his head in his hands. "What am I going to do? They'll think it's me. I'm done for!" he wailed.

"Leave." She uttered forcefully.

"What?"

"Go to Xing. Go to Aerugo. Go to Drachma. Anywhere, just get out of here!" She stated, still holding a forceful tone.

The man let out a sigh of relief that he had been holding. That's right, he could get out before anyone could accuse him and start a new life somewhere else.

After he quickly threw his items in a duffel bag, he wrapped his arms around his sister's portly body. Although the hug was unexpected, she knew much like the words he spoke, the gesture was empty. But what he said next surprised her. "Thank you, little sister." He held her tighter, "Take care of Roy-boy. I'm sure he'll make one hell of a man one day." He whispered in her ear.

She nodded her head. "Until we meet again, Roy." she muttered, watching him depart from her establishment.

A/N: Thoughts? Suggestions? Constructive criticism?