ROY

"Sir, the car is ready."

"Thanks Brandt. I'll be right there." Roy buttoned up his uniform properly. He was going to attend the inauguration of the newly built memorial for the victims of the Promised Day. They were expecting over half the city's population to be present. Even now, the public wasn't really aware of what had happened that day. They couldn't just tell everyone that the military had been under the control of some homunculus, that everything had been plotted from the beginning and that they had all been sacrifices. No one would accept those explanations. We need to make one for Ishbal too. That war was already bad by itself, but knowing that it had been a part of the Father's master plan had made it even more sickening.

"Is everything alright with the security?" Roy asked when he got into the car.

"Yes sir. Breda took care of everything," Brandt answered.

One week ago, Royce had left them. His mother had fallen ill and needed caring. Being an only child, he took a leave of absence for an undetermined amount of time, leaving Brandt alone to take care of everything.

"How's everything going along with you Brandt? Not too busy?"

"It's alright sir. It's busy but I'm managing, sort of," he said, unsure of himself, making Roy chuckle.

"Don't worry. We'll be getting a temporary replacement for Royce soon. It should be either today or tomorrow." Roy saw Brandt smile and sigh with relief from the rearview mirror.

When they arrived, thousands of people were already there. The moment Roy stepped out of the car, a loud cheer erupted. He smiled and waved at everyone as he made his way to the front, protected on both sides by military officers who stood in front of the ropes that prevented people from crossing over. Every time he flashed his smile at the crowd, there was an uproar of screams and squeals from the ladies.

All the high ranking officers were present for this important event. Roy shook all the generals' hands and offered some small talk. Most generals were accompanied by their wives or husbands, but some of them had their children. Roy had to resist rolling his eyes when he saw Jennifer Sarzoft standing beside her father. What's wrong with you Roy? Normally you love the attention from a beautiful girl like her! Roy tried to convince himself to like her, but it was somehow an uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling.

"Good day General Sarzoft, miss Jennifer," he greeted them.

"Good day to you too, Fuhrer Mustang," they both answered. Even though Roy had already politely rejected Jennifer, her father had still tried asking him another time to meet up with his daughter. Once again, he had declined, telling him he was too busy. Roy had not lied though. All he was focused on at the moment was finding Hawkeye, which meant that he had no time for anything else.

"How's everything going with the railway constructions?" Roy asked the general, deliberately avoiding eye contact with his daughter.

"It's almost complete, sir. Just another week and the station in Ishbal should officially be open," he answered with pride.

"That's good news. It will greatly help us in rebuilding the city." Roy said a few more words to them, then walked away to meet a few other people. The ceremony was about to start very soon, so he was heading toward his assigned location.

As he walked to his spot beside the podium, he spotted a familiar face and gave his most charming smile while he walked up to that person.

"It's a pleasure to see you here for the ceremony, General Armstrong." Olivier Armstrong smiled wryly back at him. He knew she would be here today. It was an important event to honor and remember the fallen and he knew she must've lost many of her men in that fight, especially her close subordinate.

"Yes, well, I'm certainly not here to see your ugly face," she said dryly. Ouch, so much for respect toward the Fuhrer. Roy didn't get angry for her show of disrespect since they'd always had this kind of relationship and he was thankful for her actions during the Promised Day. On her part, Olivier also kept her comments for private moments between them, when it was only the two of them.

"Still as charming as ever I see," he answered back without missing a beat. Olivier was staring at the crowd with a stern, bored expression. Her eyes scanned the area quickly.

"Where's Lieutenant Hawkeye?" she asked calmly. Roy's smile disappeared. Olivier noticed the change in his expression and looked at him.

"She was taken. We're looking for her," he said in a low voice only she could hear. Olivier frowned harder and had a cold expression. No more words were needed to explain the situation. She must've known how much it affected him because she didn't pry any further.

"I hope you find her soon. If I have any news of her I'll let you know. She's a fine soldier. I wouldn't mind keeping her in the North if I find her first." Roy chuckled at her comment.

"Indeed, she is one of the best in the military and because of that, I can't ever let you have her." Olivier huffed and was back to her normal angry face.

A few seconds later, someone came up to tell him it was time to start the ceremony. He started off with an opening speech, delivering an eulogy of all their fallen comrades. After him, there were a few more people who came up to say something and in the end, the monument was revealed after he pulled off the huge cloth that was covering it.

The ceremony had started in late morning, so by the time it was finished, it was already lunch time. A lot of officers asked Roy to have lunch with them, but he declined all of them, eager to get back to his office.

"Fuhrer Mustang! Are you sure you wouldn't like to eat lunch with us? I'm sure Jennifer would be delighted if you joined us," the General called out to him as he was walking away. Jennifer was beside him with a light blush on her cheeks. On any normal day, Roy would've accepted the offer, but his mind was already preoccupied by other things.

"Thank you, but I'm afraid I must decline the invitation." He gave them an apologetic smile. "Maybe another time." His last comment made Jennifer smile brighter, with hope in her eyes.

"Where are we headed sir?" Brandt asked in the car.

"Back to the office."

"Aren't you going to eat something first?"

"I'll eat it in my office. I have a lot things to do. Just get me a sandwich or something." Eight days have passed without any news of Hawkeye. Havoc, Fuery and Falman were still out in the East searching for her, while Breda had come back to help out in the office. Breda had also come back two days ago accompanied by Rob Grey, the big guy who had been one of the men who had kidnapped Hawkeye. Roy had not had the chance to meet this guy yet, but he was definitely looking forward to it.

If this guy proved to be just as clueless and useless to them as Jack, then Roy could at least find out some things about Hawkeye during her capture and what had happened exactly. Revenge. A word he knew all too well. He had almost been driven mad by revenge when he was looking for Hughes' murderer. Hawkeye stopped me at that time. Now he was looking for Hawkeye and her kidnapper. He wasn't too confident he would be able to control himself if he ever found Marcus. After all, no one would be able to stop him.

When he entered the office, Breda was on the phone. He looked up the moment he heard the door open.

"Sir, it's Havoc." He knew it was an update of the search. The look on Breda's face already told him that nothing had changed.

"Havoc, anything new?" he still tried asking.

"No sir, we've visited the small towns and villages around the river, but there was no news of her. Nobody has seen a person or... a body in the river." He could hear the hopelessness and the fatigue in Havoc's voice. Not good. Roy clenched his fist around the receiver. Both men stayed quiet, not too sure what to do next.

Roy didn't want to give up on the search, but he couldn't possibly keep his men there for weeks, looking for someone that could be anywhere. She could be at the bottom of the ocean for all he knew. If no one has seen her along the river for the past two months, then their chances of finding her were infinitely low.

"Keep looking," Roy started slowly, "keep on looking Havoc."

"Yes sir," he heard Havoc answer in a broken voice after a few seconds. He knew it was just as hard for them as it was for him. They were on the field looking for her, but not finding anything. It must've been so frustrating and despairing. However, not being able to do anything, like Roy, was even worse. Every day and night, all he could do was wait for some news, and pretend everything was alright to the rest of the world.

Roy hung up the phone and paused for a second.

"Brandt, clear my schedule for a couple of hours. I have to go meet someone." Seeing Roy's cold demeanor, Brandt nodded without any complaints despite the future complications that could arise when he had to redo the Fuhrer's agenda.

Without a word, Roy went into his office and closed his doors. He sat at his big desk, not really paying attention to anything around him. There was too much going on through his head that he didn't know what to do anymore. If he had not been the Fuhrer, if he had not been a soldier, he would have been out there searching for her.

Being in his position, he could not just abandon his post and go out in the woods to look for her himself. He trusted his team and knew that they would've tried just as hard as him. However, the debate inside of him between his emotional and rational self was becoming turbulent. His rational side knew that it was futile to continue. If a person could not be found after one week of intense searching after falling or being thrown into a river two months ago, then the chances of finding that person was so slim, it was close to impossible.

He couldn't accept her death until he found her, but he also wondered if he could ever find her again. If I left my post, she would never forgive me. Everything he did, he would always think about what she would say or what her opinion would be. That was how he kept himself sane on a daily basis, but his hope was also rapidly dwindling with every passing day.

Roy ate his sandwich quickly, thinking about all the details of Hawkeye's case. Where could he be? What would he do next? Looking up every person with the name Marcus was going to take much longer than they thought. They couldn't exclude any region of Amestris from the search either because he could be anywhere. With his picture out in the open, he was positive Marcus was in hiding at the very moment and probably in disguise. Was it a good idea to expose his face? Maybe he'll go into hiding for a long time.

Roy cursed under his breath. If they hadn't released his wanted portrait, then people wouldn't know who to look for, but at the same time, it was giving Marcus a reason to hide himself. Roy always had a headache each time he thought about problems like these. I'll find you no matter what.

Roy was accompanied by Breda when he went to the Investigations Department. Dorse and Golsby were already waiting for him. They saluted when he came into the viewing room.

"Did you get anything out of him?" Roy asked.

"Nothing new. Like Jack had said, he doesn't know any more than him. They seem to have been abandoned by Marcus. It doesn't seem like there was a plan after they threw the Lieutenant Colonel into the river. They just scattered and stayed on the down-low." They were both frustrated that the case was not going anywhere.

"I'm going to speak with him," Roy said. The others already knew that he wanted to be alone so they walked out of the room. "Breda, you stay." Roy wanted Breda to watch from the other side, to see if Rob would display any strange behaviours that he would've missed. Breda did have a knack for observing people and analyzing them.

Roy opened to door to the adjacent room, walking in slowly. The clicking of the heels of his polished shoes on the floor made Rob look up at him. He looked surprised for a second, then went back to his poker face. Roy had the same mask, expressionless and unreadable, but on the inside, he was feeling his rage coming up slowly.

Like the last time, he sat across from him at the other side of a table. They stared at each other in silence. After a few seconds, Rob started to glare at him.

"You must be a happy man. First, Hero of Ishbal, now the almighty Fuhrer of Amestris." Roy didn't say anything, not wanting to play his game. Rob flicked his eyes quickly to his left arm, showing his burns. "You ruined my life."

"And now you want revenge?" Roy asked immediately.

"Exactly," Rob said calmly. An evil smile grew slowly on his face, "and I got it." He laughed out loud.

Roy's eyebrows twitched. It was getting harder for him to maintain his composure.

"Do you know how long it took us to find the perfect hostage? Well, I guess you can't really call her a hostage since we didn't want anything in return. A prisoner then. Yes, a prisoner. It took us a very long time to figure out your relationship to... the Lieutenant Colonel." Rob looked at him expectantly, but Roy didn't say anything. "Riza Hawkeye was your alchemy teacher's daughter. Oh how happy I was to find out that that same little girl was still by your side. The girl from your childhood, who was like your sister, or... lover?"

This time Roy could not help but glare dangerously at him. How does he know that? His hands gripped the armchairs tightly to refrain himself from doing anything. Stay calm Roy. You need him to talk. Don't kill him yet. He repeated those phrases in his head to stay quiet.

"She denied that fact, but then again, she denied almost everything. She didn't talk much, she didn't even make a sound. Do you know how much that infuriated me? I would beat her as hard as I could, but she'd never scream. And because of that, I always had to stop to check if she was still alive. Marcus wouldn't let us kill her. I'd have to say the best part was at the end, when we put her in a bag and I beat her until the bag itself was bleeding. She didn't scream, no, she probably lost consciousness in the middle of it, but I did hear the nice sound of her bones cracking."

Rob was taunting him, like provoking a hot volcano ready to erupt and wipe him out.

"But you know what? There was one thing I did regret not doing," he leaned forward as much as he could and said in a lower voice, "you see, she was such a pretty thing, so feisty. I would've loved to have had my way with her. I would've violated every part of her, but Marcus forbade us from raping her. I'm sure she would've cried out for you then."

Roy's left hand took a hold of his shirt, clenching it hard. He pulled him a little closer as he leaned in too. Roy's mouth was beside his ear and he said in a low, menacing voice, "you're a dead man."

"I've been dead for a long time," Rob answered back.

"No, I'll make sure you go through another kind of death." Roy backed a bit and looked at the man in his eyes. The murderous intent in them promised he would not go back on his words. You will die the most horrible death. Rob saw Roy's intent through his eyes and fear coursed through his body. Roy saw that split second change in Rob's features, but it disappeared when he willed himself to hide it.

Roy punched him hard in the face, making Rob fly back in his chair. He pushed the table aside and grabbed the front of Rob's shirt and pulled him back up to a sitting position. The man was attached to his chair so he could not move. Roy gave another punch to his face, this time holding the chair to prevent it from falling again. However, he didn't want to break his jaw since he needed him to talk, so he went to punching his ribs. After the second hard punch, he heard a crack. Rob cried out in pain and grit his teeth hard.

"Why are you screaming? Hawkeye didn't scream when you did this to her."

He gave another hard jab at the same place, hearing a louder crack. Rob screamed out, despite his efforts to keep it in.

"One broken rib and that's all you can take?" Roy grabbed his jaw in a deathly grip, making Rob face him. "I'm sure you did much worst to her. I saw Marcus dislocate her shoulder. I'm going to make sure you suffer just as much as her, both physically and mentally."

Rob was breathing hard and whimpering a little bit when Roy let go of his jaw. Disgusting.

"What happened to her in the end?"

"She- I- I pushed her off the ledge into a river. An hour before you came." Rob was more hesitant to speak now. He had lost his vigour and arrogance from the moment before, probably from the pain of each breath. He looked up at Roy and saw that he was waiting for more. "She didn't come back up in the river. She was all broken, could barely stand on her own. The river was strong and I'm sure she wasn't able to swim. She must've fallen down the waterfall. Just that would've crushed her to death." Rob looked at him with a mixture of fear, pain and anger. He's not lying.

Roy could not stand being in the presence of this man anymore. Before he left, he told him, "you'll be kept somewhere where you will never get to see the daylight until the end of your days." You will live what she had to go through for the rest of your life.

When Roy walked into he viewing room, Breda was waiting for him with his arms crossed and his hands in fists.

"I don't know how you managed to wait that long to beat him up," was the first thing he said.

"Me neither, but if I didn't, I would've scorched him to death already." Roy walked toward the the door leading to the hallway. "Let's go back. We'll talk in the car."

"Yes sir."

The first few minutes of the car ride back to HQ was silent. Breda didn't want to interrupt Roy's thoughts. They were both anguished by what they had heard. It was hard to accept, but the fact that Hawkeye was dead was becoming more and more of a reality. It can't be. She wouldn't die like this, Roy told himself. But at the back of his mind, guilt, grief and hopelessness were creeping forward ever so slowly. We survived the war, the promised day, hell, we even fought monsters. She can't go like this.

"So nothing new about Marcus," Roy finally said to take his mind off Hawkeye. Breda looked at him from the rearview mirror, but Roy was staring out the window.

"Nothing. Like Jack had said, they don't know anything. We don't even know where he went or toward which direction."

"Damn it," Roy muttered. "We've put out his wanted poster, but we've received nothing this week. He could already be out of the country."

Roy did not understand the way he worked. Why would they leave before I even arrived? Why would they even call for me in the first place if they weren't going to meet up with me? Wait, he said an hour before I came? Roy came to realize something. It was impossible for them to know of the time of his arrival if all three of them were in the abandoned prison in Keller.

"Breda!" Roy said agitatedly, "they have someone within. Did you hear what Rob had said? They threw her off an hour before I came. How would they know that if all three of them were there? They have an informant. Someone within the military that knows what I'm doing."

Breda was shocked by the revelation. "Shit! There's a mole in the military?" Things were becoming more complicated by the second.

Roy passed his hands through his hair agitatedly. Needless to say, his stress was rapidly piling up. He already had trouble sleeping at night and his appetite wasn't as good as before. He was always feeling tired, but the thought of not being able to find Hawkeye was preventing him from sleeping. Not knowing whether she was alive or dead continued to gnaw at him, keeping him from attaining a peace of mind.

When both men entered the office, they were greeted by Brandt and another officer.

"Welcome back sir," Brandt saluted, so did the newcomer. "This is Warrant Officer Catelyn Sakel. She'll be replacing Warrant Officer Michael Royce during his absence."

Catelyn looked to be in her mid twenties, with thick brown hair tied in a ponytail, brown eyes and delicate features. Anybody would definitely think that she'd be the Fuhrer's type.

"At ease Warrant Officer Sakel," Roy said. She easily relaxed herself and smiled shyly at him. When she looked at him, she batted her eyelids far too many times for it to be natural. Great, another one. Roy didn't want to have to deal with flirting in the office, so he did the only thing that was polite and easy: ignoring her. "It's a pleasure to have you in our team. You'll be assisting Brandt with his duties. He'll show you around and if you have any questions, then feel free to ask him anything."

"Yes sir," she answered in a sweet voice.

On any other normal circumstances, Roy would have picked out another person himself, but being so busy and pressed for time, he had just asked human resources to find someone apt to fill in this post. I should've known a female officer would've wanted to come in here with an ulterior motive.

"What's next on my schedule Brandt?"

"You have a meeting with the generals in twenty minutes sir."

"Alright. Can you prepare all the papers and bring it there?"

"Yes sir." Brandt and Sakel saluted and left the room.

"Come into my office Breda." Once inside, behind closed doors, Roy seated himself at his desk.

"We've got one of your admirers in the office now," Breda commented with a half-hearted smirk.

"Tell me about it. I don't know how they managed to bring me more trouble." Roy sighed and said, "as long as she gets the work done."

Roy picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Eastern Headquarters," a man said on the other line.

"Connect me to Kain Fuery in the Communications Department." The man didn't need ask who it was since everyone knew that the Fuhrer was the only one calling everyday to speak with Fuery.

"Anything?" Roy asked. It had almost become a routine now. Roy would ask the same thing every day and each time he would get the same answer.

"Nothing sir," Fuery replied in a dejected voice.

"Abort the mission and come back," Roy commanded.

"B- but sir!" Fuery panicked.

"Fuery, we can't continue. It's been two months and we've been looking for a lead for over a week. I'm deploying hundreds of soldiers for this mission and we've found nothing. In all the cities, small towns and villages, no one has heard or seen anything. If, after two months, no one has seen her, then it means she's not there or she hasn't been found. Abort and return."

"Understood," Fuery said reluctantly.

Roy hung up slowly. A few seconds of silence passed before he looked up at Breda.

"What are you thinking?" Roy asked him calmly. Breda's face went from hurt, anger to disgust.

"How can- how can you do that? I know it's unreasonable to continue and the chances of finding her are infinitely small, but- but she's Hawkeye! How can you have it in you to abandon her like this? Hasn't she been with you from the start? Doesn't she mean anything to you?"

Roy stared and waiting for him to calm down.

"I don't know if she's alive or not. All I know is that in these past two months, her body hasn't been found in the East along the river. If she's alive, if she's made it out somehow, then she's not there. I believe in her. I believe she's alive. And if she is, then she'll come back to us. Right now, I want to focus on catching Marcus and his mole inside the military. We're walking on dangerous grounds and I need all of you here. When she comes back, I want it to be a safe place."

Breda listen quietly and at the end, his anger and frustration was replaced by sadness and apology.

"I know you all care very much about her, but I do as well. So don't you ever doubt me that way." Breda could see the determined look behind Roy's eyes. "Hawkeye is... very important to me," Roy added the last part after carefully choosing his words.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry for ever doubting you. I should know by now that we can trust you." Breda smirked.

"And I as well. I trust you all and that's why I'm calling them all back."

The rest of the day went by normally. Since it was already a Friday, Roy dismissed Brandt and Sakel after the meeting. Havoc, Fuery and Falman had come back to Central in the late afternoon on Saturday and they met up at the office on Sunday.

Roy had to explain to them his motives for calling them back again, since they had all thought the same thing that Breda had the day before and came to the office with sad and angry moods.

"A spy in the military?" Havoc asked in dismay. "Damn it! This explains a lot of things. They knew when the Fuhrer would arrive."

"They also knew our routines, if not they wouldn't have been able to get Hawkeye in the first place. No one from the military followed Hawkeye when she came to get us at the club, from what we know, then someone must've known where she was going."

"It could be someone from the Investigation Department. They're trained to be discreet. Dorse and Goldsby knew about Hawkeye's disappearance really early too," Fuery suggested.

"I don't know. It's too early to conclude anything. It could've easily been someone from the club too. Who knows if they have any informants in there." Roy know all too well about informants in those kinds of places. After all, he had a whole network as well. This is going to be hard. We're gonna have to tread carefully...

They continued suggesting possible choices for the spy, but in the end, they couldn't decide on one. With their limited information, they couldn't narrow down their choices very much.

"It's getting late, we should call it a day soon," Roy proposed. "We'll have to gather more information about this to move on. Because we don't know who it could be, you'll have to do all this on your own. It's a lot of work to do, but I can only trust you four." They smiled at him and nodded in agreement. Roy already knew they wouldn't object to this. "If we can find this person, then we'll be one step closer to finding Marcus."

Each time Roy uttered that name, he was consumed by fury. The others knew about it too since he would always have a murderous look when it came to discussing about that man.

The next day, Roy came into the office to find everyone there, already working at their desks. They all greeted him and he did the same in return. He was about to enter his private office when he heard Sakel speak to Brandt.

"This desk is a little small. Is it okay if I move to that one in the corner? This way we can both have more room." She was seated at Royce's desk, which was sticked to Brandt's and were a bit smaller than the rest in the office. Everyone looked at her with wide eyes, looking back and forth between her and the Fuhrer, who had stopped midway of opening his door.

"Ah, um, that desk is..." Brandt stammered.

"That desk is already occupied Warrant Officer Sakel. You came to replace Royce so you will be seated at his desk. If you'd organize your desk properly then you wouldn't find it cumbersome," Roy said a little too roughly, making the girl cower.

"I'm sorry sir. There was no one there so I thought it was free," she said in an alarmed voice.

"That's Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye's desk. She's my aide."

"Oh, where is she?" Roy heard the others shift uncomfortably in their chairs. Even for Roy, she was really starting to get on his nerves. He steeled his facial expression so he wouldn't display his annoyance.

"She's away at the moment, but she will be back." Roy looked away and entered his office before she could ask anymore questions.

Yes, she'll be back.

A.N.: She'll be back? I wonder. Sorry for the tardiness guys. Once again, I appreciate the nice reviews. It reminded me to update the story hehehe... The next one will be coming soon. I'm working on it! Here's a hint: new character.

D