Broken↩️🪭 ✔

Chapter 11

"Where's Roy?"

The answer was so simple. It was so simple that it made Roy want to cry. He was right there. Right there... But Edward couldn't see him. All he saw was a man with black hair. The image of him had been skewed by false proclamations and horrible consequences and he would never be able to see him for who he was.

"He's at headquarters." Maes said, answering Edward's question. "He's at headquarters and is going to help us to help you."

Edward's eyes brightened. "Really?!"

"Really." He said, looking at Roy. "What do you remember about Roy, Edward? Do you know what he looks like?"

Edward suddenly became very scared and clung to Riza.

"No! No, I don't know... I don't know anything about it."

Riza glared at Maes but Roy was interested in this particular conversation. It seemed like it might help.

"Did they hurt you, Ed? If you didn't tell them what Roy looked like, did they say they would hurt you?"

"No! No, no, no, no! I don't wanna!" he cried, seeming genuinely scared to answer.

"I think we should leave the questions to Copplestone." Riza said, heading back into the kitchen.

Maes looked at Roy as he looked at him.

"Let me get dressed and go with you to see Copplestone. I want to put some request questions in whatever he had planned."

Maes made a face at him. "What do you have planned, Roy?"

"Don't worry... I think I may have a plan."

Maes didn't really like where things looked to be heading but at least everyone was happy and halfway decent this morning because he had a feeling the clouds would definitely descend pretty quickly by the end of the night.

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Copplestone awaited Roy and his gang to come and have him interrogate a poor defenseless child that was half confused and half scared of everything that had to do with the man. He wished with all his might that what he could do for Edward would change things but Edward had to see who Roy was for himself and Roy had to be patient and let it happen. Neither of them were going to let it happen and one of them had the ability to try.

As if on cue, Roy and Maes walked into the interrogation room and Copplestone smiled at them.

"Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel. So wonderful to see you. Where's the kid?"

"Hawkeye will be bringing him shortly. What exactly did you have planned for him?" Roy asked, sitting across from Copplestone.

"Flashcards. Kids love them and they teach an easy lesson."

"Flashcards?" Maes said. "What do you mean?"

Copplestone leaned over and picked up some cards from the ground and put them on the table. He lifted one up and Roy saw the word FULLMETAL on it.

"I hold this card up and ask him what this word means to him. He tells the first thing he thinks of. Anything with a definitive answer gets taken out of the pile but those he can't answer get pushed to the back. The trick is to understand what he identifies other things with. For example, if I asked him what FULLMETAL meant to him, he could either say his automail or he may say a suit of armor... he may say nothing. We need to know how he associates things so that we can get a better picture of how he thinks."

"What other cards do you have in there?"

Copplestone showed him the rest of the cards and Roy nodded.