Useless

Jean Havoc was useless. He had come to the conclusion only after a few days of laying in the hospital bed unable to move the lower half of his body or even sit up by himself. He had literally been stabbed in the back, by a woman none the less.

He had been dating a woman who had seduced him to get closer to the Colonel. It wasn’t the first time, the colonel always seemed to end up with his girls, but this time was different. She had been trying to get all the secrets that he had. He being Jean Havoc, who was notorious for his bad luck with women and liked them to have big boobs, had been the ideal target. He had just been too stupid to see it at the time.

Now the ironic part was that the man he had followed into the basement two days ago where things had gone so wrong was laying unconscious in the bed next to him looking even worse than he did.

In retrospect, they had both been stupid. They had both underestimated and were not prepared to combat what had come their way.

The light skin of Roy Mustang was marred with cuts and burns. He had learned that the man had burned his wounds closed so he could get help and not bleed to death. He had learned from the first lieutenant who was so faithfully sitting next to the colonel that he had refused to be helped until he was sure that Jean was being helped.

Stupid bastard. He had sworn up and down that one day he was going to become the fuhrer and make the country a better place(along with recruiting a miniskirt army). How the hell was he going to do that if he got himself killed trying to protect a now useless pawn? Did he not understand that the five subordinates that followed him were willing to give up their lives for him?

He him self had given up so much for him, girlfriends, the ability to walk, his independence, the best years of his life. That was why it was going to hurt so much if the colonel didn't make it out of this.

" He was thinking the same thing " Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye had looked up from the motionless body of Roy Mustang for the first time.

" What? " He asked. She had always had the unnerving ability to read what was on your mind.

" He was frightened that he was going to loose one of us. He'll do anything to keep the life of a friend safe. Hughes' death really made that final. He will do anything to make sure the rest of us are safe."

Maes Hughes, the man had once been an annoyingly obsessive family man, and also the one who had promised to help push Roy to the top. Unfortunately he had been murdered in a telephone booth after he had found out the militaries dirty little secret that was sure to get the colonel to the top.

They both knew how guilty he felt for his friends death, how depressed he had been for months after. He had tried to hide it but it was obvious to all those around him. And it was understandable, Hughes had been trying to call him when he had been killed. Roy had literally been on the other line as his friend took his last breath.

"He's a fool. He's never going to make it to the top if he doesn’t cut the ties to all of the things that are useless to him."

"That may be so but I am certain there is one place for such a fool. We both know that one day he will make it."

'I really don’t know. I’d give anything to make sure all that he is going to do actually happens, but he can’t be bothered with trying to save the lives of everyone else.'

"He has a good reason for it." She said.

What the blond man didn't know was that Mustang had saved her life. She had given up on living when she had been told that he was dead. The colonel had always protected his followers like they protected him.

"All of us need something to believe in. That’s why we all follow him. The colonel is no different, he knows that he can’t do it on his own, he needs people that believe in him so he can believe that he can make it."

Jean sighed and returned to staring up at the ceiling, the first lieutenant’s words still buzzing in his mind.