Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist

Summary: This chapter takes place two years later, Roy has joined the Amestrian army and has big ambitions for his future. This chapter will be much more sombre so don't expect much comedy, the beginning of the chapter will set the tone for the whole chapter.

Two years later

It was a dark, cloudy and overcast day. The clouds were hanging over the city like an ominous presence and within that city stood an 18 year-old boy and girl holding one another's hand tightly as if the world was going to fall through under their feet.

A rain-drenched Riza stood in the middle of a cemetery, rain beating on her back as she slowly knelt on her knees. Riza knelt, as she watched her father's coffin being lowered in the deep abyss of his grave.

Riza let out scream which cut through the air "Nooo, You're a MASTER! You're not supposed to be dead!", shouted Riza while throwing her body over the coffin.

Roy knelt over and grabbed Riza away from the coffin as she screamed in pain at the loss of her father which made Roy's heart tear at the sight of her. "Please, YOU HAVE TO BRING HIM BACK, HUMAN TRANSMUTATION DO IT!" she turned on Roy, her eyes red from the tears, she grabbed his arms and pleaded with him.

Roy turned his face away and felt tears fall down his cheek and his voice breaking as he said "I..I..ca-ca-can't", Roy couldn't hold his tears back any longer as he also started crying too feeling as though his heart was being wrenched out of his very body and his throat drying while words are trying to escape.

Roy broke free of Riza's grasp and hugged her tightly into his arms while sobbing loudly. Riza held onto him feeling as though all the strength from her legs were escaping, her mind spinning thinking of all the moments with her father, those little times when he would just smile and she sobbed especially for the moments missed with him "I'm sorry DAD I wish I was a better daughter".

Riza and Roy stood there hugging the whole time while they lowered his body into the unknown; they both watched one of the greatest masters of all time taken from them, Riza was the first to walk away which Roy found surprising and immediately chased after her.

"Riza, where are ya' going it hasn't ended?" Roy asked. Riza turned to him with glare "now I fuckin' know what it feels like to be alone with no mother or father and I don't want to stay to watch as the people I love die around me and…" Riza stopped abruptly, Roy approached her slowly and tried to put his arms around her which she smacked away.

Roy's face was one of shock "Riza…" said Roy. Riza simply stared at him tears falling down her face as she said "Stay away from me, I don't wanna see you again,….I…I…don't wanna see someone I-I L-L-LOVE DIE!" Roy looked at her shocked and speechless "b-b-but Riza".

She immediately pushed him to the ground "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" her voice full of pain and teary eyed. Riza ran as fast as she could to her house and stood there staring at the familiar hallways, rooms, beds and scents of her childhood which made her boil up inside because it was all just a memory now. Riza ran over to her bedroom and grabbed a suitcase stuffing all the clothes and money her dad left inside it, she then stood frozen for a few seconds as she looked at the picture frame of her and Roy in which he was purposely licking her nose to ruin the photo, she immediately grabbed it and stuffed it at the bottom of her suitcase. Taking one last look at the house she ran out into the rain where only a silhouette of her could be seen in the distance due to rain beating on her, and that was the last anyone in Hightown or Roy ever heard from her.

One year later

Roy was running through the streets of Central city like a clown with dynamite stuck up his ass, exasperated and running out of energy he stopped for a breather. Roy clutched his rib whilst breathing deeply when he heard from behind him, "Roy you're gonna be late for the graduation ceremony you idiot, I told you I would get a car" Maes shouted across the street.

Roy hobbled his way to the car wheezing like a chain smoker and jumping in the back seat. "TO THE CEREMONY MY MEN!" Roy ordered, Feury, Breda, Havoc and Falman were in the back seat which was cramped beyond measure. The scene of five men in the back seat of a car sat on each other's lap was sure to turn heads; they all arrived finally at Central headquarters and rushed through the main doors like a pack of dogs and eventually arriving at the main ceremony hall.

Roy turned to the others and said "How's my uniform look guys is it alright?", Maes replied "Oh, Mustang I think I'm already falling for you", Roy glared at him saying dryly "HA..HA..Funny".

The gang made their way to the seating area and sat through a whole long speech from king Bradley which was weak sauce in Roy's eyes, he leaned over to Maes "hey knobhead, you still got my back when I overthrow this old fart" asked Roy, Maes replied "Yeah sure as long as I get to wipe your ass everyday", they both had to stifle their laughter to stop from bursting out laughing.

The majority of the ceremony was a snooze-fest with old curmudgeons traipsing on one after the other telling stories of when they had graduated, Roy's eyes was drifting off to sleep until they started calling out the names of soldiers to receive their graduation medals and for alchemists they would receive the special state alchemist medal. Roy stood there and received his medal which he wasn't really bothered about all he cared about was making it BIG as a state alchemist and making sure that the life that he had as a child would be just a distant dream.

Roy sat back down in his seat and watched as General Grumman of the eastern army stepped up to speak "Today I am proud to welcome you all as brothers and sisters in the Amestrian armed forces and it is equally my pleasure to announce that this year all graduates from the eastern academy will be joining the Central city academy graduates in an amalgamation of the two forces. Now, I know that you may resort to tribalism due to you being from central and they from the east but I say to you this, they are your brothers and sisters in arms and one day you may have to call upon them to watch your back on the battlefield. The eastern recruits are gathered in the courtyard and it will be an informal meet and greet, finally any questions?"

Nobody replied until Havoc shouted out "are there any fine-lookin-ladies in the eastern academy?", Grumman cackled at his remark and replied "the only ones that are ladies in the eastern academy are the men, I assure you the women there are warriors". Havoc looked disconcerted by the generals reply.

Roy and his gang of friends made their way with the other recruits to the courtyard which was abuzz with talk of military life. Roy, unlike the other recruits was a very single-minded recruit whose only objective in life was to leave his life of poverty and make it to the top as führer, for that very reason he did not mill around looking for the old lowly recruit instead he was cow towing, brown nosing and essentially ass-kissing every captain and general he could see. Roy being a recruit made it difficult for him to recall his exploits as a hardened military pig so he may have bent the truth or in layman's terms, bullshitting. Roy went on and on and on with himself, making sure to keep his fake smile going as he had to listen to the generals tales of their own misadventures. Slowly but surely, to Roy's delight, people start to make their way inside as the induction period was over and most of the recruits would be leaving for their apartments or barracks.

Roy found himself one the last to leave the courtyard as he walked through the deserted halls of central command, feeling eerily lonely and thinking back to a year ago when his best-friend had left him alone. Thinking about it made it feel like so much had happened and changed that it was like it was a life-time ago even though it was only a year. The feeling of loneliness made him extremely morose which wasn't in his nature and he decided to leave central and go home to his new apartment which were issued as a gift to all graduates.

Roy trudged his way into the apartment which he had moved his belongings into two days earlier after leaving barracks, he plopped his self-down onto the sofa whilst putting his feet up on the coffee table and just sat their staring at the phone. Suddenly the phone started to ring which made Roy nearly jump out of his skin.

"Hello" answered Roy. " Hi Roy, it's your mum, I was wondering when you were going to come and see us you've been gone for a year now?" his mum had been calling and sending letters to Roy since he had left for military training, his first few months he would reply to her but now it felt as though the only thing that was on his mind was work and how to succeed in life without looking like a real tit.

"ah, mum you see…erm..erm..about that" Roy knew that he was going to be busy especially since he had become a state alchemist but he couldn't bring himself to say 'no'. "I should make it home for tomorrow mum but I'm really busy at the moment…OH is that someone calling me!... I better go I'm wanted mum, love you, bye". He abruptly put the receiver down and felt ashamed of himself, putting his hands into his face he thought how much like a politician he sounded when he said, he 'should' be there, leaving it open to interpretation.

Roy crawled into bed and lay down in his comfortable surroundings which were a far-cry from his wooden floored 'bed' if you could call it that. Drifting off to sleep he wondered where his life would lead even though he knew where he wanted it to go.

Eight months later

Roy was sitting with his friends in their office looking despondent at what they had just heard during their inter-departmental meeting. Nobody spoke for a good 10 minutes taking in the gravity of the situation until someone spoke.

"so it's…true, we're going to war" Feury spoke up, his voice badly masking the terror he felt.

Breda looked at all of them and said "come on guys!... I'm sure it won't be as bad as you guys are thinking maybe the war will be quick we could be home maybe within a month, I mean it's not like the Ishvalan's have a real army" he looked around trying to find some signs of encouragement but found none.

The only person that did not look remotely moved was Roy Mustang who was sitting behind a desk his face hidden behind a newspaper, they all looked at Roy who had become like their unofficial leader even though he was the same rank as them. Roy lowered the newspaper and smiled, they all gave him a quizzical and disbelieving look like he was a crazy person for smiling at a time like this.

Roy looked at all of them and said "what are all you girls crying about nothings even happened yet, you lot are acting like someone shot your grandmother up the ass".

Roy stood up quickly and grabbed a load of papers and stood in front of the desk "Alright, I'll let you lot into a little secret boys, I've heard the scuttle-butt around central is that old fart Grumman is tryin' to hold this little shit-fight off by trying to get it into parliament rather than have Bradley just go-to-town on Ishval".

Havoc looked at him curiously and replied "how's that gonna make a difference he's the Fuhrer he's got the executive decision and he's commander-in-chief".

Roy gave a smirk "I know you're not into politics but I am and I know how this crap-hole works, I'll explain the plan", Roy grabbed a seat next to them and made himself comfortable before speaking.

"you see Grumman being the clever bastard that he is, is going to get this into parliament so the MP's (Memebers of Parliament) can call a debate, which will obviously have to lead to committee hearing on the legality etc." Roy paused to look at them so he knew they were following him.

"So once it's in parliament and committee they'll have to have a further hearing on funding which of course will go into a select committee with some fat-turd going over the numbers and hey presto bob's your uncle the people will lose their enthusiasm for war-mongering and that in turn will put pressure on the politicians who will turn around to the lower ranked generals whispering sweet nothings in their ear". Roy took a deep intake of breath and carried on.

"And then Bradley will lose support for the war and his garbled demented sabre-rattling will stop and we can sleep soundly knowing we won't have to see our cocks blown off by our own soldiers' bullets". Roy looked incredibly smug about himself because he was 'In the loop' and the rest weren't.

The team looked gormlessly at Roy who looked back and shouted "Go on then you brainless shits get off your arse and start calling everyone you know we got some Cow towing to do, so get on them phones". They all immediately hurried to the desks and started calling all the politicians they knew about trying to get this into a parliamentary debate session.

"Alright girls I'm going for a walk and when I comeback I wanna see results" Roy strode out of the room, checking for signs of life in the corridor to which there were none. He immediately started running down the corridor and up two flights of stairs to Grumman's office.

Roy jumped into Grumman's office out of breath, "so I presume you've put some feelers out for my idea?" spoke Grumman.

"Yes sir, I've got my team on it, there calling the MP's trying to push for a debate" replied Roy.

Grumman sat there staring down at a piece of paper which incidentally was what most of his office his office consisted of, huge piles of paper on his desk which almost made the diminutive man invisible.

Grumman let out a sigh saying "this whole war hoopla is such nonsense it just another excuse for Bradley to 'gentrify the barbarians' as he calls it. Lives..HA..they don't mean squat when power and money's involved, all those generals who I knew as a recruit went from idealists to corporatists" he chuckled at the thought.

Roy look at Grumman inquisitively saying "cynicism?, sounds like you've lost faith in your fellow man general, don't worry though once I become führer you can be rest assured all will be good".

Grumman let out a laugh at Roy's statement adding "you'll get far boy but not far enough to change anything but far enough to give you the illusion you're doing the right thing". Grumman looked at Roy and said "I'll be honest with you kid, the days of heroism is over so don't get any ideas about saving this nation it's all about fixing the cracks in the wall even though the roof's caving in. Even our master plan to derail the war is just a stop-gap measure".

Roy looked visibly shocked "WHAT? Then why are we wasting our time trying to stop it?" Roy shouted.

Grumman stood up and for the first time, Roy could see a fire in his eyes that reminded him why he was feared and respected in Amestris, Grumman shouted back "Don't you question me when I'm trying to save lives boy! This country has gone to hell and the last thing I need is one of our most promising recruits to start questioning the idea of stopping a war, albeit temporarily".

Grumman sat back down saying "I want you to go over to parliament and grease some palms, make sure this issue gets into a debate session, now leave".

Roy sprang to his feet and made his way over to parliament house, as he entered into the parliament buildings, he made his way to the government's chief whip's office.

"Hey, Dan the man how are you, wife still not giving you head" said Roy cheerily.

Daniel Kent the chief whip of the governing party replied "I see they've let the boy scouts out then"

Roy smirked saying "you would know that, you bloody peado".

Dan interjected "what do you want Roy and I'm guessing it's from Grumman".

Roy sat down and said "so you've heard about the war debate idea through the political grape-vine"

Dan replied "if by grape-vines you mean your office, then yes"

"Alright let's cut the bullshit are you ready to take it onto the 'floor' or not" said Roy.

Dan replied "Who the fuck do you think you are!, you're just some upstart recruit who thinks he can order me around well I got news for you, FUCK OFF!"

"Oh, come on Dan the man you know you want to take it to the floor or do you want everyone to know you've been fiddling your secretary" Roy said this with an evil grin on his face.

Dan looked wide-eyed with his mouth agape, "wha-wha-what are you talking about?" replied Dan sounding terrified.

"You're not the only one here that can tell people to fuck off, so now are you going to fucking do what I say?" Roy grabbed a pen from Dan's desk, "or do I have to shove this pen so far up your ass that you start writing your own political obituary on to your bladder".

Dan looked shaken and immediately responded "Y-y-yes of course whatever you need, I can get it onto the floor no problem"

Roy smiled saying "THAT'S MY MAN! I knew I could rely on you, you tubby little bastard" Roy made his way to the door, before leaving though he paused and turned around "oh, Dan I forgot to tell you, DON'T EVER FUCKING THREATEN ME AGAIN YOU LITTLE WEASEL CUNT!...alright I'll see you later my fat little friend have a great day bye"

Roy spent the next few hours waiting around the parliamentary bar talking with other MP's about the war issue and mostly milling around waiting for the debate to start. Roy sat in the gallery that overlooked the chamber floor where the MP's were slowly gathering to start. He sat there for a few hours as the house was debating issues such as transport, housing and treasury expenditure until finally it came to the statement by the minister of defence on the stance of the government on whether to defer to führer Bradley or start an enquiry.

The minister stood up to the dispatch box and was about to read when all of a sudden there was a scream; scuffles broke out at the door of the chamber as MP's were trying to hold back what looked like to be soldiers.

Roy looked on in disbelief saying to himself "it's a fucking coup that bastard is attempting a coup, fuck! fuck! fuck!". He watched as they marched in formation into the chamber where MP's sat there frightened and shocked at what was happening.

The speaker of the house stood up and shouted "What in god's name is this, the constitution demands that you leave at once, no soldier is to ever enter this chamber-"

"QUIET! From now on you don't have the authority to speak for the people and I am taking executive control of this nation" it was führer Bradley who spoke as he stood in the middle of the chamber cutting an imposing figure which struck fear into the hearts of the MP's.

Roy ran out of the parliament building, immediately driving to Central HQ to Grumman's office. He burst through Grumman's office door and shouted "Bradley's done a coup d'état, he's dissolved parliament and has taken full control!"

Grumman let out a sigh saying "I guess we should've expected this from him, and now we go to war and to the ruin of this nation" there was a deadly silence as they both contemplated what would happen and if they would survive.

OK I told you guys there would be politics involved, it may have ruined the story for some people but certain events will happen to bring Roy and Riza together in a few chapters. And for the third time PLEASE COULD YOU REVIEW I sound like a broken record repeating myself like this.