"Why is he here?" Breda whined, standing on his desk, well out of reach of the shiba inu below, staring up at him with his head tilted to the side. A second lieutenant in the military was afraid of a puppy. No one would believe it if they hadn't seen it for themselves.

"I'm sorry, Breda." Lieutenant Hawkeye apologized, calling Black Hayate away, "I didn't have much choice. My apartment is spraying for cockroaches and he can't be breathing in that poison. It's only for today, I assure you." She lead the dog back over to her desk, instructing him to sit by her seat, away from Breda's desk.

"You've got roaches? Gross." Havoc teased, helping Breda down from his perch, "You're a neat freak, how did you get roaches?"

"A neighbor brought them into the building," she rolled her eyes at her subordinate, "And you have no room to talk. You've had rats in yours, I've seen them." She'd been the designated driver one night when they all went out for drinks. To make sure that Havoc made it safely to bed, she'd followed him up to his apartment. When she opened the door, something brown and fuzzy scurried across her feet in the darkness.

"It was a mouse," Havoc corrected her, "and there was only one time."

"The dog can stay," Roy Mustang confirmed, "As long as the rest of you are still able to get your word done without distraction." That was rich. The colonel had no room to talk when it came to distractions keeping him from his work. Roy was a procrastinator to the extreme. Having the dog around gave him an excuse to slack off a little. When Hawkeye wasn't looking, he would try to get Hayate to do tricks or sneak him treats. It rarely worked though. He listened strictly to his master, ignoring orders from others.

Hawkeye brought a stack of papers over to Mustang's desk, "Sir, you really need to read these before you sign them. You initialed this entire stack when they require full signatures, not initials."

Groaning, he began to work his way through the pile again, scribbling signatures across them all, "There," he signed, "finished. Now where do these go?"

His lieutenant gave him an exasperated look, "You didn't read them."

"I did!" he protested.

"Brigadier General Thomas." she supplied.

"Thank you. Would you take these to him? He'll be expecting them by noon."

At least he'd paid attention to that part of the pages, even though noon had already come and gone. "Noon today, sir?"

Roy glanced at his pocketwatch, reading 1320. "Yes, by noon today." he admitted sheepishly.

She gathered the papers into a neat stack, shaking her head. After working with him for so many years, she thought she would get used to this sort of thing. Thankfully Brigadier General Thomas was not the type to adhere to strict deadlines. There was a good chance that she would find him asleep at his desk at this hour, taking a nap after lunch. She heard a whining over by her desk and she turned her head to the source. Her dog was pacing the room, pawing at the ground. He ran to his master and began rubbing against her legs. "Hayate? What's gotten into you?" she asked worriedly.

Roy noticed the lights hanging from the ceiling starting to sway, "Earthquake!" he shouted, "Get under your desks!" His lieutenant had no time to retreat to the safety of hers. He kicked his chair aside and grabbed onto her arm, violently jerking her down to the ground, sending the papers flying. He apologized briefly, as he guided her under his desk. Without thinking, he grabbed the dog too, shoving him under before taking cover himself.

The earth shook relentlessly. Pieces in insulation fell from the ceiling, lamps fell off desks and shattered on the floor. The constant movement became nauseating, nothing on the surface stood still for three full minutes as the tension deep in the ground released, unleashed its fury. Outside the office, people could be heard screaming, desperate to find safety. Those in the offices had been lucky, with heavy wooden desks taking the brunt of the force of debris falling from above. Windows broke free from their frames, raining shards of hell on those trying to escape. Roy latched on tightly to his lieutenant, covering her body with his. She in turn was wrapped around Hayate, who squirmed desperately in her arms, trying to break free, frightened and anxious. Despite his master's attempts to sooth him, he whined and thrashed.

When the shaking finally stopped, everyone waited a few moments before emerging, not sure if it was truly over. "Is everyone alright?" Roy asked, looking around at his men.

They nodded shakily, looking around at the destruction.

Roy knew they couldn't waste time. "Master Sergeant, I need you to make your way to the main floor and shut off the power grid as well as the gas line emergency shut off. Any down live lines could be lethal for survivors and the gas lines could explode."

Fuery nodded with a salute, "I know right where they are."

"Breda, I need you to go to the north building, ensure that evacuations are underway and assist in any way you can."

"Rodger!" Breda confirmed.

"Havoc, take the south building. It's only one floor but it's older, be careful."

"Got it, chief."

"Warrant Officer Falman," Roy ordered, "Clear the parking garage and assist with directing traffic. Signals will be out and people need to get to safety. We can't have people standing around getting in the way of the emergency responders."

"Yes sir."

"Hawkeye, come with me," he told his lieutenant, "We'll work our way from the top floor down for this building to help evacuate."

"Sir, what about west?" she asked, "What of the survivors there?"

Roy looked out the window at the building across the courtyard. The western building was the old site of Eastern Command Headquarters back when it was a smaller division. The building was nearly a century old, and was dilapidated even before the earthquake. Now it was barely standing. The top two floors had sunken in on the one below. Black smoke was billowing from the holes where windows used to be. "No, it's not safe. Our priority is to assist as many survivors to safety as possible." General Olivier Armstrong's words echoed in his ears, love for the dead is pointless, fight to keep the living alive.

"But sir!" she objected, "Over two hundred men and women work in that building. Are we to operate under the assumption that they are all dead?"

Her defiance was expected, but starting to get annoying, "No, we are to assume that the lives that can be saved are too few to risk sending men in to rescue them. The other buildings have the potential for more survivors that we can help. Once the fires are out and emergency crews arrive, they will see if anyone in there can be saved."

She balled her fists up tightly, her nails cutting into her palms, "Sir, I cannot obey that order."

Roy sighed, it was useless. He knew she would not back down. He remembered the woman who almost was left behind in Ishval, the one who stopped to bury a fallen child. The power shut off, leaving only beams of sunlight filtering through the broken windows to light the room. Fuery must have found the shut off switches. "You have one hour." he told her, "After that, you are to report back to me. If you do not return, I cannot promise that we will be able to send help until emergency crews are able to enter the building safely." As much as it pained him, he knew he couldn't risk more men to rescue her if something when wrong.

She nodded in understanding, "I'll take Hayate with me, he'll be able to find survivors more easily than I can."

Roy nodded, taking something out of his pocket, "Take this with you," he placed his silver pocketwatch in her hand, curling her fingers around it, "I want this back by 1430, Lieutenant."

She agreed, saluting him before taking off with Hayate at her heels.