A few days later after Hughes was shot in the booth, there was a funeral. It was a closed-casket one. The Amestrain flag was hung on his ebony casket while flowers from everyone surrounded it. The military cap he received was placed on top of it. Soldiers heaved and picked up the casket, holding it on their soldiers as they marched to the cemetery where Hughes will be buried. There we're a lot of officers there, I along Colonel Mustang, Lieutenant Hawkeye, Major Armstrong, and even the Führer. Mrs. Gracia attended with Elicia as well.
Shotguns fired in the honor of Hughes. All of us wore black Amestrain military uniforms instead of our dark blue ones. There was a hole for the casket and the soldiers placed the casket inside, beginning to cover the casket in dirt. Everyone surrounded the grave, watching and saying final farewells before Hughes will be forever buried beneath the ground.
I stood next to the Colonel. His head was tilted down, unable to look at his best friend's body. He was also holding back tears. Elicia held her mother's hand and flinched wth every fire of the gun. I was also holding back tears as well. "Mommy?" A tiny voice cut in. It was Elicia. She clung to her mother and tugged her hand. "Why are they burying Daddy?" She asked.
"Elici--" Mrs. Gracia sobbed, placing a handkerchief by her eyes.
"If they do that, Daddy won't be able to do his work," Elicia began to tear up. Mrs. Gracia began to sob some more at Elicia's ignorance at what's going on right now. Mrs. Gracia picked her the wriggling Elicia, now beginning to cry. "Daddy said he had a lot of work to do," she wailed. "No! Stop it! Stop putting dirt on him! Daddy!"
Major Armstrong began to cry as well, putting a gloved hand over his eyes. The Führer stood still, hands trembling on the sword, his sadness probably influenced by Elicia as well. Colonel struggled to hold back his tears, but I had stopped trying. I sobbed quietly as well, placing a hand over my eyes as well, tears flowing down.
"Soldiers don't cry" huh? Bullshit.
*~*~*~*~*~
Colonel Mustang, Lieutenant Hawkeye, and I stood over the fresh grave of Hughes. He had a tombstone that said his full names and dates of life as well as a kind message written beneath it along with a stone plaque that displayed his full name and dates of life as well. A fresh wreath of white flowers was placed on his grave. "Promoted two grades for dying in the line of duty...Brigadier General Hughes, huh?" Colonel Mustang muttered. "What good does it do to have someone who said they'd support me from below get above me...you idiot?"
"Colonel..." Lieutenant Hawkeye said.
"Alchemists are nasty creatures, aren't they, Lieutenant?" He sighed. "There's a part of me that was just frantically piecing together the theories of human transmutation in my head. I think I can now understand what those boys felt when they tried to transmute their mother."
"Are you all right?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked, staring at him intensely.
Colonel out his hat in his head and looked up at the sky, "Oh, no, it's started to rain."
"No, there's no rain--" Lieutenant Hawkeye was confused, but when she looked back at her superior, she was surprised at the sight.
"Yes, it's raining," Colonel repeated, finally shedding the tears he held so desperately back. Lieutenant Hawkeye softly gasped, finally getting what he meant. I looked up at him, tears forming in my eyes and falling again as well.
"Yes, you're right," Lieutenant Hawkeye muttered softly. "Let's go back. It's chilly out here."
*~*~*~*~*~
The soldier who gave Hughes the article of Reloe escorted Colonel Mustang to the archive room, as Colonel was holding a investigation on his death. "He said he was fetching something from the archive room," the soldier informed, pulling the velvet rope off the door and allowing him in. "That was the last time I saw the Colonel."
He pulled open the door, revealing a mess of papers all over the ground. Lust must of tried finding the one Hughes drew on, as I recognized the papers were the ones I fetched. "Did he get a fight with someone, Clockwork?" He asked me. "You were present for the whole thing, except for the part of who shot him."
"Yes," I nodded. "A woman with dark wavy hair and in a tight-fitting dress and a odd-looking tattoo on her chest. She goes by the name Lust. She shut the door and approached us. She had attempted to impale Hughes in the heart with her extendable fingernails but Hughes dodged last minute-suffering a wound in the shoulder instead. If I may add, she was one of the people participating in my abduction."
Mustang nodded, now following a trail of blood that Hughes left when he was wounded and walking with my help. "There were traces of blood leading from inside the room out into the hallway," the soldier continued. "And the next place he went was..." he pointed to the entrance where telephones sat along with a operator there.
Mustang continued on and spoke with the woman working with the telephones. "The Colonel was hurt and was about to place a call, but then didn't call anyone," she sobbed. "Major Joyce insisted he go to the hospital and they left."
Mustang made his way to the booth Hughes was killed in, which was roped off-limits and a soldier stood on guard t the crime scene. He opened the booth and examined the dried bloody fingerprints and smears within the booth. He took a step back and turned at me. "Joyce, do you know what Hughes was looking at before--" he asked me once again.
"Yes," I nodded, reaching within the pockets of my jacket. "I even have it right here." I pulled out the folded map and transmutation circle Edward had drawn for him. Mustang unfolded both pieces of paper and examined it. "I've looked at it for quite a while," I informed. "It appears the locations Hughes circled on the map match up with the smaller circles on the transmutation circle. And if the connecting lines match up...then the locations are somehow connected and make one big transmutation circle. I don't know anything else beyond that."
"Yes..." Colonel nodded. "If you look at it for a while, you can come up with that same conclusion. Even a toddler can figure it out. Who drew this circle?"
"Edward did."
"I'll have to hand these to him and ask him about it. Thank you, Joyce, for keeping and protecting the information Hughes found."
"Colonel!" A voice called. We turned to see Lieutenant Hawkeye with Major Armstrong. "I've brought Major Armstrong," she said.
"We have some suspects as to who murdered Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," he explained.
"Then why aren't you out catching them right now?" Colonel demanded, agitated as this was his best friend.
"We have some suspects, but we don't know who they are."
"What do you mean? Explain yourself."
"I can't."
"I am the Colonel, and I'm telling you to explain it! Are you doing to disobey a superior officer?"
"I cannot tell you."
The two of them stared intensely at each other and Hawkeye and I stared at them awkwardly, not sure who's side to take. "All right," Colonel sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry to have called you out. You're free to go."
"Yes, sir," Major Armstrong saluted before leaving the scene. He stopped himself, "Actually, come to think of it, I forgot to mention something. The Elric brothers were here up until just a few days ago."
"The Elric brothers?"
"Yes, the Elric brothers."
"Did they find what they were looking for?"
"No. After all, it is an item of legendary proportions."
"I see. Thanks."
Major Armstrong continued his way off. "Not much information to be gathered from that, is there?" Lieutenant Hawkeye sighed.
"Man, I tell you, the major is far to unsuspecting," Colonel crossed his arms. "He said 'those who killed Hughes', which would mean there is more than one person involved. It could be that there are people working as a group. The fact that he wouldn't tell me anything, even though as a Colonel I ordered him to, means there is someone above me who has forbidden him to talk. Someone to do with the senior staff, I'll bet. And what the Elric brothers are looking for, which is to say, the Philosopher's Stone."
"So how is an organization having to do with the senior military staff connected to the Philosopher's Stone and Lieutenant Colonel Hughes?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked.
"I don't know yet. But once I transfer to Central, I'm going to make sure to investigate the senior staff, and smoke out whoever killed Hughes."
"It's not like you to mix public and private affairs."
"There's nothing 'public' or 'private' about it. All of this, whether taking the position of Führer, or avenging Hughes, I do of my own personal volition! I'm going to stick it to the senior staff. Are you two coming?"
"After all this time, you have to ask?"
I nodded in reply, saying yes. We made our way back to Eastern Command, preparing for the day to end and another to begin.