Condemned
Chapter 10: Reflections
March 20, 2006
By CCD

Newly minted Brigadier General Dramazic sat down at her desk looking over paperwork. Among it were damage reports, casualty reports, and injury reports from the assault just one week before. After the attack very few American soldiers from that camp had made it. Out of the four hundred soldiers stationed there, only 85 survived. She sighed, among the fallen had been General Roberts and when a new leader was needed over the division, she had been top choice, however, since she had been a Colonel, she had only been given the title of Brigadier General by the higher ups. Brigadier, what a load of bull…

Major Lesner and Major Truesdale had been injured in the battle. Major Lesner was sent back to the states since he had a concussion, three broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder from a state alchemist who blew him into the supply tent. Major Truesdale had a broken wrist, however, he could sill fire his gun and that's all that mattered to those above.

Thinking of her two most loyal subordinates being injured made her sad, but she had to push that aside due to her other two subordinates. Edward and Mustang had been a valuable asset on the field, however, the battle weighed heavily on their hearts. She knew why.

She had seen the confrontation between Mustang and the female Lieutenant when she went to go look for him. After the battle she found out from Edward that this particular soldier had agreed to help push the Lt. Colonel to the top and never waver. It was a burden she chose to bear and seeing the man she chose to follow betray them, well, she knew it hurt the Lieutenant greatly.

After the confrontation she had found four male soldiers looking frantically for someone. Once she heard the rank she had told the men where to find the Lieutenant.
Flashback

Colonel Dramazic ran back to the battle when she saw that Lt Colonel Mustang would be all right. As she ran between burning tents she heard men yelling, as she got closer she began looking for the men and ducked into one of the few non-burning tents to listen.

"LT HAWKEYE! WHERE ARE YOU?"

As the men shouted she knew that they were looking for the Lieutenant who Mustang had confronted only moments before. She put her gun back into its holster and stepped out directly in front of the men. All four of them reached for their guns and she put her hands up.

"Whoa gentlemen, I just want to give you a hand."

"Why should we trust you," said a man with a cigarette sticking out of his mouth.

"You're looking for a female Lieutenant with blond hair right. I know where she is."

The men lowered their guns but kept them in hand.

"She's alive about 30 feet that way," she said pointing, "She's in shock so you need to get her out of here."

"What did you do to Lt. Hawkeye?" a younger man with glasses said.

"I didn't do anything to her. I found her catatonic on the ground and went looking for soldiers to get her out of here."

"Why are you telling us this," a tall man with white hair asked.

"I may be a soldier, but if I don't have to kill I don't want to. Go get you're Lieutenant back. She needs people she knows right now to support her. I wouldn't be human if I didn't at least reach out to someone in need, enemy or not."

The four men said nothing," but they did take off in the direction that she pointed not looking back.

She had found out from Edward that these were also former subordinates of Mustang who had also agreed to help him ascend the ranks. She could see from talking to Edward that he held an attachment for these soldiers as well. He had probably worked with them since he had worked with Mustang. She sighed everything was such a mess…

Edward Elric and Roy Mustang were lying on their beds. The survivors of the Dublith Camp Massacre had taken over a tavern in Dublith. The owner had been furious, but when he saw that the American soldiers had brought injured Amestris soldiers with them, he softened and let them stay for treating their wounded. He was also pacified when they promised to pay him for staying there when the war was completed.

Thus the two of them were sharing a room and sleeping on comfortable beds. Both of them were contemplating the battle in their own way. They knew that they had killed many of their former comrades, and they could have killed their closest friends on the battlefield.

They knew when they went into the battle that they would have to kill their comrades in order to survive themselves. As they looked back, they knew that if they hadn't fought they would have been so many more casualties than there already were. There had been no other choice

Lieutenant Hawkeye lay in her bed. She did not want to get up for the fear of all of what she had experienced to be true and not just one of her nightmares. She knew she would have to get up though since General Hakuro would be in soon to listen to her report.

She dragged herself out of bed and began to put on her uniform. Her thoughts were in disarray. What would she say to the General? Had Edward and Colonel Mustang really betrayed them? Was there a motive behind it or were they threatened or bribed in some way?

The female Lieutenant paused as she looked over at a picture. Lt. Colonel Hughes had insisted that they take the picture. It was the day before Alphonse Elric had died. Armstrong, Hughes, Furey, Havoc, Breada, Falman, Edward, Alphonse, Colonel Mustang, and her were standing there looking so happy. Who would have thought that that would be the last happy memory all of them would share together.

The tent door opened and General Hakuro entered followed by a majority of the men who were in the picture. Only the Colonel, Ed, and Al were missing from the group. They all stood silently as they saluted the higher-ranking officer.

"At ease, soldiers, I apologize for not coming sooner Lieutenant Hawkeye. I was giving the damage report to Fuher Bradley. He seems especially interested in what you have to say about Edward," the General said with a knowing smirk.

"I understand, sir," she said as she dropped her salute gently.

"What do you have to report, Lieutenant?"

"I'm afraid, sir, that it is as we feared. I confronted Colonel Mustang on the battlefield and he told me he has joined the enemy."

Hakuro sucked in his breath. Hawkeye also noticed various reactions from her unit. Hughes and Armstrong looked away, Havoc dropped his cigarette, and Furey, Falman, and Breada became pale.

"Are you certain, Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir, he told me he had joined the Americans, however, he did not give me any reason or motive behind this change of heart. I also did not physically see Edward Elric, sir, but Mustang told me that he was alive and had also joined the American forced."

"Thank you for your time Lieutenant. I would like all of you to do a little digging. Go into town as civilians. They will be running out of supplies soon with all of their injured and they will eventually come out. Find out what Mustang's reasons are. He may not have jumped ships of his own free will and may still be loyal to us. I must report this to the Fuher. I'll be counting on you so don't screw this up."

With that he exited leaving Mustang's band to discuss their new mission.

"Do you really think the, Colonel is being forced into service?" Breada asked breaking the silence.

"Of course he is, he would never…"Furey started to say before he was cut off by Hawkeye.

"No!"

They all stared.

"Uh, Lieutenant Hawkeye, why would you say that?" Hughes asked in a surprised tone.

"The look he had in his eyes was the look he gets when he's determined, like when he talks about one day becoming Fuher. He went to their side of his own free will. I just want to know why. He said that I wouldn't understand and that if we meet again, he will treat me like an enemy and said he would do the same for all of you if you crossed his path."

"I just can't believe that the Colonel would do something like this," Armstrong said.

"I can," Hughes said pausing before continuing, "I think he's given up on his dream to become Fuher to do a greater good I think he truly believes that he can do a better work in their military, since he's lost so much faith in ours. If I know Roy that was no threat he gave you Lieutenant Hawkeye. That was a warning for us to get out while we still can."

"So what do we do about Hakuro's orders? S'not like we can just ignore them," Havoc said.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye and I will go in and still see if we can figure out his reason for doing this and see if we can talk to both him and Edward. The rest of you keep an eye on things here and be prepared to leave if necessary," Hughes said taking up Mustang's job as the higher ranking officer and giving different orders.

"Yes sir," they all said as they departed each of them thinking about the recent events and where their loyalties lied.