A/N: I apologize for making Riza going up a hefty rank. I should have researched the ranking before I decided to put it in. I have changed it. Riza is supposed to become a Captain, not Colonel. And to those who don't know, the point of a prologue is an introduction. It is meant to be short and not that long and not meant to be understood until you read later chapters that lead to Riza's predicament.

"It gives me strength to have somebody to fight for; I can never fight for myself, but, for others, I can kill."

― Emilie Autumn, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

Chapter 1- Written in Blood

A gust of wind nearly blew her off her feet as she made her way into Eastern Headquarters. Riza curled a strand of hair behind her ear, regretting the decision of growing her hair out again. More wind blew pass her and her golden strands of hair flew all around. She needn't bother since she was already inside.

Riza gave a sigh as she closed the door behind her, missing the stronger wind that flew by just in seconds. She shivered, but felt heat radiating from above as she straightened out her disheveled hair. The heater was on and she felt calmness all around her. As she walked down the hallway Riza was greeted by those of lower ranking, most of them very young. She was eventually greeted by her fellow officer and long time friend, Vato Falman at the very end of the hallway. He nodded and with a quiet disposition, greeted her very politely. Riza nodded and greeted him back.

Warrant Officer, Kain Fuery and First Lieutenant Heymans Breda joined in the greeting as well, their desks always facing each other. Riza sat down at her desk, right beside a brooding form sitting on the largest desk in the room. Sighing, she folded her arms across her chest and leaned back on her chair, watching from the corner of her eyes the man sitting there, hunched over his desk and moaning and the thousands of papers stacked up in front of him.

"Sir, you forgot to do your paperwork…." Riza said bluntly.

Roy opened one eye to his subordinate, frowning. "I'm a General. Why do I still have to do paperwork?" He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. Despite the hard work in making his way up to the rank of General, the paper work never escaped him. "What is the point of paperwork anyway?"

"Everyone has to do paperwork, sir. Even the Fuhrer has to." Riza stood up and made her way to Roy's desk and pulled out one sheet of paper from the very top of the stack. She gently placed it in front of the General and pointed at the very bottom of the page. "These are all requests of the people of Eastern Amestris on the things we need to improve on."

Roy looked down at the paper and began to read it quietly. Then, after a few moments, his eyes began to water, followed by screams of laughter. "Are you kidding me! These requests on the improvements are ridiculous!"

"Sir?"

Roy handed her the paper to read. He watched as she scanned the paper from top to bottom. She grew silent and after thinking about it for a while, Riza tossed the piece of paper into the recycling bin. 'Who on earth would request a big mall filled with swimming pools?' she thought to herself.

"I saw that."

Riza came back to reality and blinked at her General. "Saw what, Sir?"

Roy shook his head. For the many years they have known each other, despite Riza's lack of emotions showing on her face, he knew her all too well. As she was reading that piece of paper for a request, he saw a little grin forming on her lips. But as quickly as lightning strikes, it disappeared for a split second.

Before Riza could make a respond, Falman quickly appeared, breathless from running to what looked like an urgent matter. "Sir!"

"What is it, Captain?"

Falman paused by his superior's desk and makes a quick salute before continuing. "Sir, there is trouble in the outskirts of town. Four people have been found dead on the scene by some of the residence."

The General thought for a moment. Since the reconstruction of Eastern Amestris, many have decided to take matters into their own hands. Some hope to make it into the military by showing off their alchemy skills and in the process, end up injuring or even killing innocent lives. "Captain Hawkeye," Roy finally said, looking up at Riza. "Would you please investigate this matter?"

"Sir," Falman interrupted. "I think you should see this…"

Roy looked at him curiously. He knew Falman all too well. There was a serious tone in his voice that Roy simply could not ignore. Without a moment's hesitation, he stood up and led the way out the door, followed closely by Riza and Falman.

It was a massacre. Falman explained the matter to Roy on their way to the scene of the crime. Four victims, four females lay dead on the ground, blood staining the wall red behind them. Other military personnel were there when they arrived, each wondering what to do next when they saw the car pull up. They all saluted as General Roy Mustang stepped out of the car with the female Captain not too far behind. Falman was the first on the scene and he led both Roy and Riza over to the bodies.

Falman reconfirmed with the General on what he had seen and pointed out something Roy had to see for himself. The General moved closer, squinting his eyes to see beyond the bright lights from the cars. Just beside the dark splatters of blood was something written, also with blood, "Bring me Roy Mustang."

"Any witnesses?" Roy calmly asked, turning to Falman without a second look at the writing.

Riza, however was studying the writing as close as she could. She kneeled in front of the bodies, carefully noting the four women dead on the ground. All four of them seemed to be around their 20's, probably around her age or younger. None of them seemed to have been raped or at least beaten just by the looks of it. It was odd that they were unharmed. These days when women were found dead, they were surely to have been raped first before murdered, but it didn't seem to be the case with these women. Forensics would have to take a look at it before she decided on her own. She leaned over and examined one of the victim's hands. There were traces of blood and skin under her nails, which told her this one fought back against her captive.

'Good for you,' she thought, putting her hand back down. Then, from the corner of her eyes, she caught something that anyone would have missed. Written in the same traces of blood, but fading very fast was a transmutation circle.

There was something odd about the way the transmutation circle was drawn. Just by the strokes of the lines, Riza could tell the murderer was either left handed or his right arm was injured, perhaps from that victim who fought back. More of the transmutation circle didn't seem right. This told her, the murderer didn't know what he was doing and was guessing on how alchemy worked.

"Sir, this is one of the witnesses who reported the incident," Falman spoke, pulling beside him gently an attractive young woman. Riza stood up and studied the woman, joining her General to listen in on what the witness had to say.

Roy nodded at the young woman, his face changing from a serious look into a gentle one. "Hello. What's your name?" He held out his hand.

The young woman seemed scared to answer, but as she looked into Roy's eyes, she suddenly became calm and composed, ready to talk. She shook Roy's hand and responded, rather quietly, "My name is Arianne Schneider."

"What did you see, Arianne?"

Riza took out her small notebook and pen and got ready to write the details.

The young witness glanced at Riza, who gave her a reassuring nod and shook her head, turning her attention back to Roy. "I don't really know what happened, but as I was walking down pass this alley, I saw a tall man running out of it."

Roy nodded. "Can you describe what he looked like?"

Arianne thought for a moment, replaying in her mind what had happened just an hour before. "He was very tall, probably around six feet," she replied. "I think he had dark hair, or maybe brown. I wasn't sure, because when he bumped into me, I fell and he disappeared."

"What was he wearing?" this time, Riza asked.

"I think he had a long brown sweater on and dark jeans," was the young woman's only response.

"Thank you," Roy said, shaking her hand. "You can go now." He glanced at Falman and nodded. Falman guided the young woman from the throng of the military surrounding the crime scene and back into the main street so she could head on home. He joined Roy and Riza later as they headed back to headquarters.

Once they arrived back, Roy turned to Falman and said, "Captain Falman, once the forensics are finished with the bodies, I want you to get me their report right away." When Falman left, Roy sat back down on his desk and sighed. "Captain," he lifted his eyes up to Riza, who was now sitting at her desk. When he got her attention, he continued. "Did you see what I saw?"

Riza nodded wordlessly.

"A transmutation circle only means this man really wants my attention," Roy concluded. "He thinks that sacrificing innocent people, especially women, is what would force me to come to him." He stood up and walked over to the window, on time to see darkness settling in.

"Do you think he's a follower of Bradley?" Riza suddenly asked.

Roy thought for a moment. Fuhrer Bradley, unbeknownst to the rest of Amestris, was a Homunculi, made to be human in order to bear responsibility of other human lives. He was made to manipulate and cloud the judgement of the people of Central. This in turn, started the revolution of human sacrifice. Many innocent people who were caught up in the crossfire sought shelter and when the war was over, a lot of the residence of Central and even military personnel who worked for Bradley, fled to East Amestris. Some still hold the burden of being ridiculed by the Ishvalans, after they themselves have been mistreated by Central.

"I would not doubt that from what you heard around the city, someone or some people would be up against us to bring back the ideals of King Bradley," Roy replied. Despite Roy's efforts to improve East Amestris, prejudice among the new residence of the region and those who have lived there all their lives was a recurring problem. Ishvalans were a peaceful people, so Roy could not blame them for all the things other people have caused the former residences of Central to become withdrawn. And not all of those who live in East Amestris belonged to Ishval. East Amestris was a mixture of all kinds of people. It was only then when the prejudice started a year ago did the rumours of a revolution became a public statement to those who could not find solace in the city. There were talks of a secret group hiding somewhere in the sewers of the city ready to fly a banner with King Bradley's name on it. The East Military knew this information from front to back. They were informed constantly on these events that were happening in and around the East. "Sooner or later, this man who wants to see me very badly, would most likely target the next higher up in the military."

"That means Fuhrer Grumman could be in danger," Riza responded.

Roy shook his head. "You saw how he drew that transmutation circle?"

Indeed, Riza did. Roy was right. The murderer seemed like an amateur. This man thought he could just kill any innocent lives so he could bring back someone from the dead.

"When the transmutation didn't work after killing those four women," Roy went on. "He probably panicked and fled the scene before someone caught him. It's also a possibility that he could be working for someone else who is after me."

"When we get the results from forensics, we will know what happened," Riza suggested.

The General nodded, turning back around to face his Captain. "It's getting late and everyone else has gone home. We should get going."

Riza nodded.

Click! The sound of a camera went off, but ever very lightly to avoid alarming the people a few feet away from him. Slowly, he watched as the General and his Captain made their way out the door from headquarters and into their car.

He smirked, putting his camera away, his eyes never leaving the blond female Captain who took her seat in the driver's side. He watched her carefully, eyeing every contours of her face, intrigued by her beauty. "Riza Hawkeye," he whispered, giving a slight nod of his head.

The car pulled away from the parking lot and into the main street of the city. The man stood up from his hiding place and winced at his injured right hand, cursing himself for being stupid as to allow a helpless woman fight back. Deciding that he wasn't going to let that bother him, he made his way to the nearest pub and perhaps hoping that some woman would treat him for some alcohol.

A/N: THERE! First chapter…DONE! I hope this was to your liking. I know it's slow paced, but that's usually how the suspense starts anyway. Please read and review! I don't remember much of Fullmetal Alchemist anymore so if my history is wrong on this, please forgive me!