Author's Note: This fanfic takes place after Brotherhood. It may contain spoilers from Brotherhood. If you haven't seen all of Brotherhood or read the manga then please don't read any further. This is just a warning. Also, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. The only character that I own is Malaina.
Chapter One: Request
Malaina casually walked through the narrow halls of HQ. Her long, wavy, chocolate brown hair was pulled back tightly in a bun as she made her way to Roy Mustang's office. She had recently been promoted to Lt. Colonel, thanks to Roy, the Fuhrer himself. Malaina was grateful that Roy promoted her but she felt more like his assistant than a Lt. Colonel. Either way, she was still happy to have the job that she did.
Malaina's arms were full of brown, paper folders. She raised a closed fist in the air and knocked on Roy's office door, twice. "Come in," came a deep voice from behind the door. Malaina walked inside and saluted Roy. "Hello, Sir. I have some files that were sent over from Ling Yao, in Xing." She explained to him with her usually quiet, shy tone.
Roy rubbed his temples for a quick moment and then took the folders from Malaina's arms and sat them on his desk. "Between this and the files coming in from Ishval, I am more stressed out than I have ever been in my life." He mumbled to himself as he inspected the files in front of him. He glanced up at Malaina for a brief moment. "Lt. Colonel, I have a request to ask of you." His deep voice practically pierced her ears and chills were sent down her spin as he addressed her. After a moment of silence, Malaina snapped out of her little daze. "Yes, Sir. What must you request from me?"
Roy divided up the folders into two separate stacks. "I would like you to take one stack of folders and read through them and then once we are both done reading, I want you to give me a short synopsis of what you read." He said calmly as he held out a stack of folders to her. She took them and gave him a confused look. "Sir, aren't you the only one in the entire military that is allowed to see the information that is placed into the folders?" She asked, wondering why Roy had chosen her for this task instead of his closer officers. Roy nodded as he opened up one of the folders in his stack. "Yes, that is correct. However, it would take me weeks to get through all of this so I need some help. That is why I am asking for your help with this task. Understood?"
"Yes, I understand, Sir." She said as she walked to a table in the corner of his office. She opened up a couple of folders that were sent from Ling Yao in Xing and began reading through them carefully. She had never imagined of being able to access information that only the Fuhrer could.
Malaina was intrigued with what some of these folders contained. The emperor of Xing, Ling Yao was requesting help from the troops in Central. She looked at Roy after she finished reading the file. "Sir? I finished reading everything and it looks like Ling Yao is requesting some help from troops. He says that a war is breaking out over there and he doesn't have enough military support to defend Xing from Drachma's invasion. Drachma soldiers started coming in two weeks ago according to him." She explained to Roy calmly.
Roy nodded, taking in the recent news. "Well, Lt. Colonel, Bolin, I am putting you in charge of this assignment. You are to take your troops and head off to Xing by the end of this week." Malaina looked a bit surprised that Roy decided to have her leave. She had never been in a war before. She simply nodded. "Yes, Sir. I will do that."