A/N: I wanted to keep this as original to the scene as possible but as you can tell the intro is a little different than in the anime episode. It just works better this way for the rest of the story. Please R&R.
Standard FMA disclaimers apply. Background music-The Swan Song by Within Temptation
"Towards the End"
By MakoRain
The fire was burning hot and bright against his back and he could feel the threads of his clothing threatening to melt into his skin. Even if he was the Flame Alchemist, he enjoyed being caught in an inferno as much as any other sane person, which was not at all.
Just a few more steps were all Roy Mustang needed to clear the porch before the building would surely be lost to the blaze. Each foot fall was forced by the dead weight of the child he held in his arms until a blast shot him forward and the child flew out of his grasp.
He felt the impact of his body with the marble porch before hearing the walls of the now condemned building starting to come down, the roof collapsing in a wave of embers, soot and smoke.
Damn, he should have figured an escape rout into his plan but hadn't really been counting on making it out alive. As long as the bastard Führer homunculus went down, Roy didn't care if he would have made it out or not. Now, laying face first on the hard rock had him thinking differently.
He was dazed but that wasn't a threat. No, the fact that he was bleeding from various cuts the Führer had so lovingly bestowed upon him worried him much more than having all of the air knocked out of his lungs. It had him rethinking things again. Surely death would be better than feeling his life blood leave his body like this, depriving him of oxygen as the smoke billowed out of the soon to collapse building he was still partially in/on.
Mustang had to move, that was his first and only thought before he stood up to see a something that looked vaguely like Archer heading his way.
How the hell had the Lieutenant Colonel survived the ambush in Lior?
But was he really surviving in a metallic puzzle like that? Roy didn't think so as he took in the mechanical half of Archer's body, a depravity of a human form. He'd rather be dead than live the rest of his life as so many parts of a machine.
Unfortunately, Archer wasn't giving him much of a choice as he raised a gun in his metallic hand in Roy's direction before he heard the shot. The single shot rang through the night and he didn't recall feeling it before he was on the ground once more.
Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Why was Archer still shooting if he was already down?
This was Mustang's last clear thought before blood blocked his vision and he closed his eyes, shutting out the night sky with twinkling stars overhead. An echo of footsteps registered to his ears but he didn't have the energy to turn towards his condemner.
Roy Mustang was dying and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be.
"General!"
Riza.
Hawkeye's voice resounded clearly through his mind. It figured that even his hallucinated version of his First Lieutenant would address him by rank when she was the last one he wanted to use such formalities.
Maybe it was true that in death he would be able to see the one thing he had wanted for so long but denied himself while living. What a stupid philosophy to live by.
"GENERAL!"
Why was she yelling?
Roy wanted to cover his ears to quiet her down when suddenly the volume of the roaring fire and the frantic woman dimmed down to a low hum. He could barely hear Riza now and he sighed to himself.
This must be what death is like.
"Damn it, Roy Mustang, talk to me!"
What did he want her to say?
Roy couldn't have talked even if he tried.
For more times than he could keep track of had he thought of just what to say to her to tell her he thought of her in every waking and sleeping moment, that not a day passed by where she didn't torment him with her honey blond hair and warm hazel eyes. He wasn't allowed to think of her like that or want her in the way he had since she had come to serve under him.
Roy could numbly feel Riza shaking him and it made his whole body warm with the motion.
Couldn't she see he was dying? There was no saving him now.
Wet salty tears landed on his face and made it to his lips. All he wanted to do was wipe them away for her and tell him he was sorry for failing, failing her more than anyone else. It was the last thing he felt before drifting off into the darkness.
When Roy awoke in the hospital, he had to adjust his eyes to the blinding white of it all. This was made easier when he was given an eye patch to wear over his wounded eye and sent on his way once the transfusions and IVs did their job. He could already hear the pirate jokes that would ensue upon his return back to work. But he didn't have to worry about that for at least a month.
Roy was very happy of this fact, especially since he was being left in such good hands. Those capable hands were currently cutting an apple into slices with such grace that it made him smile and linger on those last hazy moments.
Just when he thought he had accepted the sweet relief of death he recalled wanting to stay, all because of woman sitting quietly at his side.
"Riza."
She looked up at the sound of her name, always so informal sounding when they were alone. He didn't want to be formal with her anymore and didn't find the need to, not with what had almost happened.
Death can really help a man gain perspective.
"What's the frown for?"
She placed the knife along with the apple in her lap. With an inaudible sigh she raised her head slightly to answer but not really looking him in the eye as she did so.
"The plan was perfect, you did your part. But I should have gotten there sooner to protect you."
What had happened had never been her fault but Roy could see how she thought so. She was always placing his world on her shoulders. It was about time he lighten that load for her.
"Nothing's perfect. The world's not perfect. But it's there for us trying the best it can. That's what makes it so damn beautiful."
Roy looked into her slightly tired yet glowing eyes as he said the only words he could think of to convey how much she appreciated what she had done for him, how much he relied on her, how much he cared.
He couldn't stop himself from touching her hair that she now left down out of that barrette. He liked to think it was especially for him as she didn't flinch away from his small contact, instead stuffing an apple slice into his mouth to escape the emotional corner he was painting her into.
Roy had a habit of making her uncomfortable more and more. He found that he enjoyed it immensely, particularly now that she would let him edge her far longer each time.
Roy could see that he was wearing her down and that it was just a matter of time if that light in her eyes held any hint of how much she enjoyed their encounters as well.
It was a start and that was all he needed.
As it was meant to be.
The End.