"Riza Hawkeye?"
Riza glanced up from where her sniper sat, cradled on her lap. She placed it to the side and stood up, quickly saluting.
"Yes, sir." The man looked almost embaressed. "You don't gotta do that, you know." Riza raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The man cleared his throat. "I wanted to tell you two things. One: We have a friend in common. Roy Mustang?"
Her surprise must not have been concealed completely, for she was suddenly greeted with a beaming smile. "Yup! Roy talked about you! I'm Maes Hughes; Roy and I were friends at the acadamy."
They shook hands.
"I'm sorry," Maes added, pushing up his glasses. "I know you two were close."
She blinked. "He's not dead."
Maes muttered something than sounded an awful lot like 'he'd be better off that way.'
Her expression saddened. "Then I take it he was taken in as a State Alchemist." Maes nodded solemnly. "Damn it," she growled. Her fists clenched from where they hung at her sides.
"You said there was something else you wanted to tell me." Maes looked up in surprise before his expression darkened, a look that seemed wrong on the man.
"Yeah. The military has ordered the State Alchemists to be brought in."
Roy knew he was being sent off to fight. That was all any of them knew.
Looking around them, he couldn't help but feel sick at the expressions most of them bore. Dead. Empty. Like they were nothing more than a shell.
The truck lurched to the side, but no one even found it an inconvenience. No one said a word. All the alchemists were chained with their wrists behind their backs. Roy's gloves were kept on the body of a single officer, the so called 'manager' of the State Alchemists.
"Anyone find out where we're going?" a voice asked, tone monotone. Glancing to his left, a heavily muscled alchemist sat in a corner. Roy faintly recognized him as the Strong Arm Alchemist.
Roy was at least satisfied in the knowledge that one other person still had a shell of life within them.
"No," Roy answered back, redirecting his gaze away from the man and back to his own lap. Since he had the ability to wield enormous power with his hands, they were bound so tightly any movement was painful and physically damaging.
He could feel the Strong Arm Alchemist's gaze on him. Roy exhaled, a few more beads of sweat matting the sides of his hair. It had been several hours ago, but it could have full well been days and he wouldn't have known, but the temperature had skyrocketed. The air was hot and stuffy.
The alchemists with severe injuries like broken ribs or punctured lungs wheezed heavily on the ride.
Only a few days later, did they finally arrive at their final destination.
To which they would later discover...was Ishbal.