FUERY

"Hawkeye's been taken." What? Fuery looked around at the other men's faces and saw similar reactions, except for Havoc. "I secretly investigated Hawkeye's unusual departure to make sure that she was safe, but First Lieutenant Dorse and Second Lieutenant Goldsby found evidence that didn't fit in with the situation. We all know she's not the kind of person to suddenly leave like this, especially for so long. That's why I need all of you to go out and look for her. Dorse and Goldsby will assist you with the search. We don't have that many leads right now, and we can't waste any more time."

"Wait, wait, wait," Breda said, confused, "are you saying that for all this time, she's been missing?" Roy nodded at him tensely. Breda sighed exasperatedly and ran his fingers roughly through his hair.

"Havoc, Breda, Falman, Fuery," Roy started, making eye contact with each of them, "Keep this on the down low and work as fast as you can. We don't know who's behind this, so we had best not trust too many people. Royce and Brandt won't be informed of this and they will stay behind to work in the office. We're going to meet here in half an hour with Dorse and Goldsby to discuss everything."

"Sir, what do we say if they ever ask us what we're doing?" Fuery asked.

"Tell anyone who asks that you're carrying out the Fuhrer's orders and that it's classified information." He gave them a hard stare and they all saluted him before going out of his office.

Royce and Brandt were not present when they came out, probably out to look for some things the Fuhrer had requested. Fuery walked to his desk in a daze, his heart beating far too quickly and the blood rushing to his head. He fell in his chair and looked around at the other three. Falman was also back at his desk, deep in thinking. Breda and Havoc were still standing, although Breda looked perturbed, while Havoc was looking around at each of them.

"Did you know about this?" Fuery broke the silence between them. He could see they were all jolted out of their thoughts at the sound of his voice. Falman and Breda stared at him before following his gaze onto Havoc.

Havoc stared at him with a guilty expression, then lowered his head and said, "yeah, I knew."

"Since when?" Breda glared at him.

"We had our doubts for almost a week now," Havoc said, turning to his side. Suddenly, Breda grabbed the front of his uniform with both hands and pulled him forward forcefully.

"A week? Why didn't you tell us about it?" Breda said furiously, while trying to keep his voice down as much as he could. Fuery and Falman were already on their feet and rushing to them.

"Captain Breda! Please let him go. We don't want to start a fight now," Fuery pleaded. The problem is already big enough. We have to cooperate if we want to find her quickly.

Breda breathed out loudly from his nostrils before slowly relaxing his grip. Havoc never said anything, but Fuery could tell he felt sorry by the look on his face.

"Fuery's right. We have to work together, and fast if we want to find a lead on her whereabouts," Falman said after the tension dissolved.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but I couldn't. The Fuhrer ordered me to keep it a secret because we weren't sure of the situation yet. Trust me, I really wanted to let you guys in on this, but the chief said that we could've been watched by someone, especially if Hawkeye really was taken. If we all knew about it, then we'd all be acting differently and the people who kidnapped her would have known that we were on the move." Breda cursed after Havoc's explanation, while Falman and Fuery went silent. "That's why we need to act as normal as possible. I don't think we should all be out of the office at the same time. We should do a rotation so there's always at least one of us here."

"I think that's a good idea. I think we also need to keep an eye out on the Fuhrer. He's bound to do something rash if no one's there to stop him, especially since it involves Hawkeye," Fuery added. The others nodded in agreement. We have to work fast before he decides to head out himself.

"Dorse and Goldsby are going to meet us in half an hour in the Fuhrer's office. Until then, we should get as much work done as possible, because we'll be getting down to business immediately after the meeting," Havoc informed them. Without wasting anymore time, they all went back to their desks and quickly worked on their paperwork.

Fuery was working hard and fast, but his mind was always distracted and being tugged away. His heart was still beating at a fast rate and he could feel his eyes prickle a bit whenever he thought about Hawkeye being kidnapped. After all, that person would have to be very skilled and strong to be able to kidnap her. Did they take her by surprise? Did they disarm her? Fuery was trying to think of different possible scenarios of her kidnapping, but there was just too many that he had to force himself to stop so he could focus on his work.

Unfortunately, his mind wandered back to her and he remembered the way she looked on the night of the ball. Unlike all the other ladies that night, Hawkeye had been on duty so she had to be in her full uniform. Sometimes, during that night, he had looked for her and had seen her looking at other women in their beautiful evening dresses. Although she had her usual neutral face, he had seen her eyes wandering up and down other women's dresses and observing them. He knew she had wanted to come that night to celebrate the night with them, but some higher ups had requested her help for the security and, being Hawkeye, she obviously couldn't refuse that position.

Fuery also hadn't missed the bags beneath her eyes and the almost constant frown she had worn ever since Roy had become the Fuhrer. Her job had taken on a whole new level of stress due to her responsibilities and her tendency for perfection in everything she did. Fuery had observed her and had noticed how she would skip lunch sometimes so she could catch up with some work. It was clear that she had been working overtime and it had definitely taken its toll on her. Unfortunately, no one could convince her to rest a little bit more and the higher ups were definitely not going to complain about an overachiever. Roy had been caught up in his own duties and was mostly out of the office, so he hadn't been aware of her working hours.

She probably had her guard down since she was so tired and also... because of us. Fuery had tried his very best to erase that night out of his memories, but it seemed to be harder than he thought, especially now, since he felt even more guilty about their actions on that night. She was probably very hurt by our comments and too distracted to notice the people who kidnapped her.

As time slowly passed by, Fuery kept a close watch on the clock hanging on the wall directly in front of him. Nine minutes left. He continued doing his work quickly, glancing at the clock every now and then. When there was only one minute left he hurriedly finished the paper he was working on and placed it with the other completed ones on a nice pile in the corner of his desk. He could see the others were also trying to keep calm, but were clearly failing due to their impatience. It should've been half an hour now. Where are those two?

As if on cue, a knock was heard on their office door before it opened. Dorse and Goldsby walked in and saluted them. They all stood up and saluted back before making their way to the Fuhrer's door. No words were needed between them to pass on the message. They were all here to for a mission and they were eager to get started. They all understood that Hawkeye's retrieval had the utmost importance and no one wanted to waste anymore time.

"Come in," they heard Roy say after they knocked. He was already waiting for them, settled in his chair behind his desk, with his elbows on top and his fingers intertwined. He watched them enter one by one, with Fuery closing the door behind them. They aligned in front of him and saluted.

"I think we all know the purpose of this meeting. Dorse, Goldsby, tell us what you've found up until now," Roy started.

Dorse put some papers down on Roy's desk and spread them out. Everyone approached the desk to get a better view.

"After our investigation, we deduced that Hawkeye's absence was not deliberate. There were no traces of her disappearance, such as sightings from any neighbours or friends. We gained access to her bank account and discovered that it has been inactive ever since she has left." Dorse showed them a copy of the bank account to confirm the information. "We've also asked her landlord about her monthly payments and he said that everything was paid by cash. He received an envelop this month with her name printed on it." Goldsby took out an envelop from the pile of papers. Roy took it in his hands and examined it.

"If they can't get her to write for them, then they'd have to print it out instead of trying to forge her handwriting," Breda said. "If they'd written her name, then someone would've been able figure out that it didn't come from her."

"That's right. It's obvious it didn't come from her, because there was no withdrawal of that amount from her bank account either," Goldsby agreed. I'm sure she didn't carry such a big amount of cash on her either. Fuery studied the past transactions of her bank account and didn't find any big amount of cash withdrawals in the past six months.

"She didn't have any large sums withdrawn in cash in the past. I think she paid all her rents with checks, direct withdrawal to another account," Fuery concluded.

"Can I see that?" Havoc asked. He looked over the papers and confirmed for himself what Fuery had just said.

"It's already clear that she didn't leave on her own free will. Someone or a group of people took her away and did a very good job trying to cover it up. They certainly fooled us for a while," Roy said with anger. "We have to find her as soon as possible. Who knows what they've done to her by now or what they even want from her." Or if they've killed her already, Fuery thought. He knew they were all thinking the same thing, but refused to say it out loud, refused to acknowledge that possibility.

"We recently found something else regarding her military issued car," Dorse added. Riza had been issued a car when she was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, especially since she needed to go in advance everywhere where the Fuhrer was going to make public appearances, to make sure the area was secured. "We tried to track down her car, to see if she might've taken it with her. However, the car was found parked on Ferguson Street. When we asked around, the locals told us that it had been there for over a month now and that nobody had ever come to move it. Normally it would have been towed away, but since it was a military car, nobody reported it or did anything about it."

"That's where..." Falman started, but hesitated uncomfortably. Oh no, don't tell me...

"What Falman? Where is that?" Roy demanded.

"It's where we went that night, before she left." Everyone understood his meaning and looked away in guilt.

"Alright everyone. Look around that area to see if anyone saw anything. Surely one person saw what happened," Roy said with a touch of hope in his voice. "If you find anything, report back to me in person immediately." They all saluted him before heading out.

Once they were on the other side of the door, Havoc immediately took action.

"I'm going to head out with Dorse and Goldsby. Two of us should stay for now and we'll rotate later," he said.

"I'll stay." Fuery volunteered.

"Me too. Havoc and Falman can go first. We'll switch after. We'll keep an eye on the Fuhrer too." Breda added the last part quietly. And feed Hayate too.

Havoc and Falman nodded at them before quickly exiting their office with Dorse and Goldsby.

"We should do as much paperwork as we can, so it won't bother us with the mission," Fuery recommended.

"You're right. We'll finish ours and try to start on the others' too if we have time."

They both went to their desks and got down to work. Not too long after they started on their paperwork, Royce and Brandt entered the office carrying big piles of paperwork and a large bag full of letters and packages from the Fuhrer's personal mail box.

"Welcome back," Fuery said quickly after giving them a glance. Breda only grunted in acknowledgement as he furiously wrote away.

"Urg, the Fuhrer always receives so much mail, especially from fans!" Brandt whined. Well, he is considered the most eligible bachelor in Amestris right now. A lot of girls would do anything to get him. Even if he received all those fan letters and love letters, he almost never read any of them because Royce and Brandt's job also included filtering out his mail as best as they could. Only the important letters reached him.

Royce took the huge stack of paperwork and carried them to the Fuhrer's office while Brandt cleared up their desks, getting them ready to sort through the Fuhrer's mail. When Royce came back, Brandt was taking out the mail from the bag and placing them on the desks.

"When will they learn not to send fan letters and such? Surely they know that these pink envelops won't be reaching him." Royce grumbled. They went through the Fuhrer's mail three times a week and each time the bag would always be full. They've seen almost anything and everything being sent through the mail and it never ceased to amaze them.

They both separated the mail in different categories, such as letters, small and big packages and video cassettes. A lot of women went so far as sending videos of themselves, which only ended up as entertainment for them.

"Hey, look at this one." Royce held up a cassette for Brandt to see. From his seat, Fuery could see that it was only written the Fuhrer's name in a simple handwriting on the front of the cassette.

"Put it with the others. You know they're all from his fans anyway. It'll only make the Fuhrer waste his time if we give it to him," Brandt said without stopping from sorting out the letters.

"But I don't think this one's handwriting is from a girl. Looks pretty manly to me. Maybe it's important."

Brandt snatched the cassette from Royce's hands and tossed it to the side with all the other video cassettes. "Did you already forget the one we got last week? It had a similar handwriting, but when we checked it was only another proclamation of love. I swear, it's a new tactic they're using to try to fool us. If you want, we'll check it another time to make sure, but right now the Fuhrer has other things to take care of and I don't think he'll want to waste his time looking at things like that," Brandt said irritatedly.

"Fine," Royce submitted grudgingly.

"If you think it might be important, I can always check it later for you guys," Fuery piped in. The cassettes could only be played with the right player, which was located in another room. Since Fuery was their technology geek, he was in charge of verifying most of the videos that came through the Fuhrer's mail.

Royce retrieved the cassette and handed it to Fuery before thanking him and going back to the pile of mail. By the time they were done, it was already lunch time. Fuery had finished his pile of paperwork and had already started a bit on Falman's.

"Want to go grab a bit of lunch?" Breda asked him. Royce and Brandt had already left for lunch and they were the only ones left in the office.

"Yeah, but I think I'll just buy a sandwich or something and bring it back here so I can work at the same time," Fuery answered.

"Met too. We should finish as much as we can. I think the Fuhrer will be gone in the afternoon, so that means Royce and Brandt will go with him. We can lock the office and join the others then." Fuery nodded and they headed to the cafeteria.

They both bought something easy and quick to eat before going back to the office. For the next two hours they worked non-stop. The Fuhrer had left for a meeting elsewhere a while ago and they were just finishing their paperwork before they headed out themselves.

It was around three o'clock when they were able to join the others. Havoc had called them earlier in the afternoon and they had told him about their plan and decided to meet up in a coffee shop on that street.

"So, find anything?" Breda asked right away. Fuery could already tell by the mood and the defeated expression on everyone's face that nothing had been found. His assumption was confirmed when they shook their heads.

Fuery and Breda ordered their own coffees before discussing what had been done up until now. Apparently they had asked many people living in the apartments around the area and some small businesses, but nobody had seen anything on that day. That night, Riza had come to see them before she left and it had already been very late by the time she arrived. It was no wonder they had trouble finding someone who could've seen her on that night.

They spent the rest of the afternoon asking people around and waiting for people to come back home from the apartments facing the street. Fuery and Havoc came out of club 71 with a tired sigh. They had spent hours walking around and talking to people and couldn't find any lead on Riza. When the sun was starting to set, they all agreed to retire for the day and continue tomorrow.

For the next two days, their routine was very repetitive. Early in the morning, they would all come into the office to report to the Fuhrer before heading back out. They took turns among themselves to stay and do some paperwork, so they wouldn't fall behind their regular work. Fuery spent those two days calling other military headquarters, train stations all over Amestris, offices at the borders of Amestris and any possible friends or acquaintances of Riza. However, he never came up with any good news at the end of the day.

On the fourth day, Fuery was stuck doing the paperwork in the afternoon with Falman. Royce and Brandt were at their desks preparing the Fuhrer's schedule for the next two weeks. The office was silent, except for the scratching of pen on paper, as they were all working seriously.

Suddenly, Havoc burst through the doors, out of breath, with Dorse, Goldsby and Breda in tow. All the men in the office jumped in surprise, wide eyes staring at the intruders.

"Fuery, Falman," Havoc said breathlessly, signalling for them to follow him. They quickly got out of they seats and followed the others into the Fuhrer's office before closing the door on the assistants' curious faces.

"Sir, we've got a lead!" Havoc exclaimed, forgetting formalities. "A girl working at club 71 saw Hawkeye being taken by two men in a white van. We've traced it all the way to Hillion Valley, a town thirty minutes outside of Ishbal."

"Wait, didn't you say that you've already asked all the employees at club 71 and nobody said they'd seen anything?" Roy asked suspiciously. Fuery was just as curious to this development, since he was the one who had made sure to ask every single person from that place.

"We were loitering around that area again and a girl just came up to us and confessed. She didn't say the truth the first time we asked around because she said she was afraid to get involved in it. Apparently, that night she had just ended her shift and was leaving the club when she saw two men grab Hawkeye from behind. She had hidden herself behind a wall and even took out a paper and pen to write down the plate number of the car and the men's descriptions. We started by calling all the headquarters to report this van and luckily the Eastern headquarters had a report on an abandoned car in Hillion Valley that matched the description and plate number of that car. They said that the car was reported to have been abandoned for over three weeks now," Dorse explained.

Roy was staring hard at the surface of his desk, deep in thoughts. While the men waited in silence, Fuery could feel the energy in them revive itself. This was good news for them and they were all fidgety just thinking about getting one step closer to finding their missing teammate.

"We leave with the first train tomorrow morning. Everyone go home and get as much rest as possible. We have a long ride coming," Roy said, eyes full of determination.

With all four of them back in the office, the rest of the paperwork finished in less than an hour, especially since they were all pumped up with a new resolution. Havoc, Breda and Falman had all left immediately after they finished their paperwork. Fuery was also preparing to leave early, but Royce spoke up before he reached the doors.

"Second Lieutenant, did you check that video cassette yet?" Oh yeah... right. He had completely forgotten about it.

"I'm sorry. I didn't have time to check it yet." He felt bad to have let it slip his mind, especially since it was on top of his desk. "I can check it now though. If it's important then I'll give it to the Fuhrer." It was still early and he didn't want to make him wait any longer, since he knew they'd be gone for an undetermined amount of time from tomorrow onwards. Might as well get this over with.

We returned to his desk to grab the cassette before heading one floor down and into a room full of players. Fuery liked to used this storage-like room since nobody liked to be in this clustered space. The good and newer cassette players were in another room where the they were commonly used by different departments.

Fuery placed the cassette in the player and started it. The television lit up and made scratchy noises before focusing on a man. A man? That's different. Fuery watched curiously as the man started talking, but it wasn't long before the blood drained from his face and a cold seeped through his body. His body was trembling and covered with cold sweat by the time it ended. Fuery quickly turned off the player and clumsily removed the cassette.

He clutched it against his chest protectively, tears in his eyes, taking shaky breaths. I have to get this to the Fuhrer!


A.N.: Happy New Year 2013! So sleepy. R&R. Thanks.

D