⬩ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐀𝐥𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭 ⬩ (Roy Mustang/Fullmetal Alchemist)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

General Brewster arrived at her office early in the morning and she already had an enormous pile of paperwork on her desk. Her icy-blue eyes looked at the pile of work and showed immediately how annoyed the lady was. It was only Monday, and she already had to take care of so many things and to make her week worse, the Elric brothers had found out about Hughes' death which meant they would be after the killer just like Mustang.

Speaking of the devil, the Dark Alchemist hadn't decided yet if she was going to accept the male's invitation and spend a weekend at East City with him. He had proposed that on the last Saturday night and she had promised him to think about it.

Then, the phone began ringing.

'Yes,' the general picked it up and sat at her desk.

'General Brewster, this is Colonel Henry Douglas,' the man who had called spoke. 'I have a suspect on the Hughes' case.'

Brewster's eyes changed.

'You do?' she spoke, and he confirmed. 'I want you in my office now.'

Soon, the Colonel knocked at the General's office door and walked in with some papers in his hands. He sat in front of the lady and placed the files on the desk so she could read them. They were reports that indicated that the main suspect of Hughes' murder was Second Lieutenant Maria Ross. That was Envy's work... They didn't want to kill the Flame Alchemist because of his value to Father's plan, but the Colonel was getting closer and closer to the right answer, so the Homunculus came up with a plan to incriminate agent Ross.

'So, it was Second Lieutenant Ross,' the woman spoke after reading the papers.

'The eyewitness proves that but she has an alibi, and it is very unlikely that she had don-'

'Arrest her right away and proceed with the interrogation,' Brewster ordered interrupting the colonel.

'We don't have enough reasons to arrest her, sir,' he explained.

The General's blue eyes became stern as she stared at the man.

'I said arrest her,' she insisted. 'I don't care if you don't have enough reasons. I want Hughes' killer behind the bars. Understood?'

Douglas nodded and left the room.

Later that day, General Brewster received another visit to her office. This time from Major Armstrong. He was worried about his subordinate, Maria Ross, as he knew for a fact she would never do anything like that.

'General Brewster,' he greeted the lady. 'I came to talk to you about Second Lieutenant Ross.'

'I assumed,' she replied. 'I heard she was arrested.'

'That is in fact true. My problem here is that one of the evidence they hold against her is the fact that she fired a bullet. That indeed happened but in the Fifth Laboratory. One of Sergeant Brosh reports regarding the incident at the Lab mentions it.'

The Dark Alchemist knew exactly what the Major was going to ask her to do and she was determined not to do it.

'I see...' the female began. 'The problem is I cannot hand that report to anyone. I burned it. Those were Fuhrer's orders. On top of that, even if they knew about the report, they could simply argue it was agent Brosh who changed it afterwards to protect his colleague since there is no way to prove the bullet was really fired at the Lab. I would love to help but going against the Fuhrer with the possibility of it all being in vain is just a risk I'm not willing to take. I'm sorry, Major.'

Armstrong understood completely the General's position and respected it. He had done his part and tried to help his innocent soldier. Now, he had to hope the truth would win that fight.