The air was starting to cool, and the light from the sun had begun to grow redder by the minute. His own body casted a shadow on the tombstone, and his eyes were fixated on the letters etched on the rock.

Maes Hughes – 1885-1914

"A Brigadier General," he sighed at the stone. "You said you wanted to support me from below. What are you going to do now that you're above me?"

"Sir."

The call caught his attention, and he turned. He came face to face with a female face wearing a halter blouse, with her hair done up. "The temperature is going down, Sir. It would be best for you to go back." He could see numbers running beneath the brown of her eyes, and knew instantly that she was running a program to determine something – perhaps the ideal temperature for a human to be in, perhaps how long she could let him stay outside without having to worry about any health complications.

"Soon, Riza," he told the woman-like Android, and she nodded. She stood next to him, and he took comfort in the warmth she exuded.

He stared at the stone for a while before sighing. "Alchemists are horrible people, Riza," he told her, and he felt her gaze upon him. "Right now, a part of me is trying to determine a formula for human transmutation, even though I know I'd probably fail and suffer the rebound."

"I cannot allow you to do that, then, Sir," the frown was obvious in her voice. He found it funny, sometimes, that an Android could sound so human.

"I won't do it," he promised her, and she relaxed. Typical of her. He knew she was programmed to monitor his wellbeing and prioritize his mental and physical health, but because it was hard for her to determine which of what he said was a joke and which was serious, it got him exasperated at times. "But… I feel like I now understand what those boys felt when they tried to transmute their mother."

She was silent for a while before speaking, "Are you alright, Sir? I detect no sign of stress from you aside of sadness and grief."

Damn her. Just saying that made something well up in his chest and pushed up, up, up, clogging his throat and burning his eyes. "I'm alright, Riza," he told her as he put his hat back on his head and looked up to the sky, letting the warm tears prick at his eyes before melting and falling down his cheeks. "Ah. It's raining."

Riza frowned. "But it isn't – "

"No," he cut her off, emphasizing the single word. "It's raining."

Once more her gaze was on him, and he could just imagine the numbers running beneath her brown irises once more, most likely running a search of human proverbs and metaphors. "… so it is," she said after a while. "Let's go back, Sir. The cold won't be good for your health."

He took a deep, shaky breath and nodded, following her as he wiped the rest of the tears away. He stared at her back, at the gleaming tattoo that was painted between her shoulder blades. Androids were required to have such tattoos – sigils, as the State preferred to call them – on their skin so that people could tell them and other humans apart, and those sigils had to be visible at all times. As such, Riza had to wear halter blouses practically all the time.

He wondered briefly if the Android felt sadness over Hughes' death. She was, after all, created by Hughes. Then he shook his head mentally, remembering that she was an Android. As far as he knew, Androids didn't know emotions.

"Riza, lead to the phone booth Hughes was found in," he told the Android, berating himself when he felt a tremor in his voice. He needed to pull himself together. "There is something I need to see."

"Yes, Sir."

"And call Major Armstrong. Tell him to see me there. I need to ask him some things."

"Yes, Sir." She fell silent, and he knew immediately that she was doing the task he had just given her.

He stared at her back again, etching the sight of gleaming silver against white skin that formed a sigil of a hawk and the serial number below it – E-H-Eye 001. Not for the first time, he found himself longing for the girl who the Android was a mirror image of, and he slapped himself for it.

That girl was dead. Now Hughes was, too. There was nothing he could do about it, because death was inevitable, inescapable, it would catch up to anyone, even him.

Boxes lined the walls of his house, filled with what little possessions he had. Inwardly, he made a mental list of what he had packed, what he had to packed, and what he could dispose of to minimize the weight of what he had to bring. He stopped halfway, though. Thoughts of Hughes' death keep invading his mind and breaking his concentration. With a huff, he called, "Riza?"

The Android, ever ready by his side, straightened. "Sir?"

"I'm sorry, but could you check if I've packed everything I need to bring?" he requested. He hated having to ask her to do every little thing for him. She deserved better than that. She wasn't his maid. This time, though, he honestly didn't have any choice, since he didn't want to accidentally leave something important.

Riza's eyes scanned the room, numbers running beneath the brown. Roy had expected her to make a mental list of what he had done and what he should do, and she didn't disappoint. "I believe you forgot your toothbrush and razor, Sir."

Roy scowled. "Why do I always forget the important things?" he grumbled as he walked to take said items.

"I believe this is the reason why Mr. Hughes created and assigned me to you, Sir," Riza answered serenely, closing her eyes and nodding in conviction.

"And thank Heavens he did," Roy sighed. "What will I be without you around?"

"As Mr. Hughes said it one time, you would be as useful as a wet match, Sir."

Roy chuckled and shook his head despite the pang in his chest when he thought about that old friend of his. He was just too resourceful. How he managed to create an Android with a sense of humor was beyond him. It was probably the self-learning program he installed into the Android against government regulation. With that up her sleeve, Riza was able to learn things Roy would never have thought to order her to learn or install programs for her to function in specific ways.

He could've sworn she was almost human.

He mentally shook the thought off. That was just ridiculous.

"Have you memorized the way from this city to our apartment in Central?" he asked Riza after a moment of silence. He couldn't help but ask her on this one. He didn't fully trust the GPS system in his car, which they would be using to go to Central, but taking the train like the rest of his team meant leaving his car behind, and he didn't want that. Even though many public transportations had been built in cities all over Amestris, especially in Central, he still preferred the privacy of his car.

"All done, Sir," Riza assured him.

"Any Android repair shop nearby to the apartment?" Roy asked again, just in case he needed to give Riza some upgrades or touching-ups later on.

"The Rockbell's Automatons is near, Sir," Riza answered.

Roy couldn't help but smile at that, remembering the time Riza had malfunctioned in Resembool when they went there to recruit 'Mr. Elric' and found a crippled twelve year old and his brother within Android instead. Both Pinako and Winry Rockbell readily helped them, and took no charge, no less. Apparently, as soon as Edward was accepted in the military, they moved to Central to make sure his Automail would work in top condition. He knew that they would readily jump onto a train back to Resembool to help their customers there, though.

"I believe we're good to go," he declared to the air, and Riza nodded her confirmation.

He turned towards a table, where a single photograph lay. It depicted him and Hughes in their military garments, with him grinning freely to the camera and him staring at it almost expressionlessly. It was another reminder of his loss, but he held tight to it, reveling in its agonizing clutch to drive him further in his goal.

"I will catch your killer," he breathed softly. "I promise you that."

Behind him, Riza watched with her calculating eyes.

A/N: New fic! This one is based off Android!AU that I made, which is kind of an expansion of another fic of mine, Artificial Human. You can check it if you want, but this is kind of like an AU of that fic, so I think you're good to go if you don't want to read it.

Also, you may want to refer to this post for reference, since it's kind of like a FAQ of this fic: twilighteve-writes . tumblr post/ 139287641033/ androidau (just edit out the space. Sigh, why does this website hate links so)

I've been planning to write this fic for a while now, but school's being difficult and writer's block is just so relentless. Which is probably why the word count is pretty much low... I'm planning to have longer chapters for later though, 3k words at the minimum (hopefully). But right now I'm just glad this is all typed up and uploaded.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this. What do you think of it? Is it interesting? Please let me know, leave a review! Have a nice day!