Riza returned to work immediately. She felt shaken still, but she hadn't been injured and wasn't about to take a day off for emotional duress. Like Roy had told her, she needed to keep moving, and she had to stay strong. He would need that from her now more than ever.
In the Colonel's absence, Riza, as the highest ranking of his subordinates, had overseen managing most of the team's work ("And how is that different from normal?" Breda had quipped when she had informed them), but no matter how smoothly things ran, there was an undeniable emptiness with Roy and Havoc gone. It was by no means alleviated by the knowledge that only one of the two would be returning.
Something was different today though, and Riza could sense it the moment she walked into the office.
"These just came in," Fuery told her, and she knew instantly something was deeply wrong.
Sliding the paper of out the manila folder, she read her orders.
"We've all been reassigned." Fuery told her, "I'm going to the west, they're sending Falman up north, Breda to the south…"
"And that's not even the weird part," said Breda. "Last night, Mustang was released from the hospital. Completely healed."
That was impossible. It was a miracle he had even lived in the first place and it should have taken months for him to fully recover. Riza had been there; she had heard the doctors say it.
Breda went on, "He was promoted to Brigadier General immediately and assigned a new office in Central Command. One a lot closer to the Fuhrer's office than this one. The word is that he may have finally made it into the inner circle of Command."
"I just wish he wasn't leaving all of us in the dust," Fuery said mournfully.
Riza should have been thrilled. He was so close, so close to everything they had worked towards for so long. But something seemed off. Why now? And why had he said nothing about his promotion to her? Why were all the members of his team, handpicked by Roy himself, being transferred? And why her assignment?
"So where are they sending you?" asked Fuery. "Back to Eastern Command?"
She just shook her head and handed him the paper.
First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, you have been promoted to the rank of Captain and are to report back to Brigadier General Roy Mustang, where you will continue to work under him with his new team.
The Brigadier General looked very comfortable kicked back in his seat. He glanced up, "Lieutenant Hawkeye," he said smoothly, but there was something about the intonations of his voice that seemed off. "They didn't tell me you'd be hot."
Casual flirting wasn't exactly unusual for Roy but Riza's hand couldn't help but brush against her gun holster.
"Sir," she began, "are you certain that you're ready to leave the hospital? You underwent a lot of stress and I'm not sure how well you're handling—"
She was cut off when he kissed her. For a moment, instinct took over, and the familiarity of Roy's lips against hers. But it was only a moment and in the next, Riza's hand had slipped into her holster, and in the moment after that she had a gun pressed against his chest.
"Step away, sir," she said coolly, but to her surprise he only laughed.
"Damn," he said. "Figured it out that quick? They didn't tell me you'd be smart either; I was hoping we could have little fun before you caught on," he sat back down at his desk. "Or is that not the way things are between the two of you?"
"Who are you?" The question came from between gritted teeth, "Where's General Mustang?"
"Mustang?" The imposter waved his hand dismissively. "Oh he's dead. Or might as well be anyways. Whatever consciousness he has left is buried deep enough that I won't allow it to get through. As for me…" He smirked, eyeing her invasively from top to bottom. "I'm Lust. Pleasure to meet you."
Riza could have laughed out loud, "You're dead. I saw the Colonel burn you to ashes myself."
"Did you really?" Lust seemed genuinely curious. "Now, that would have been the old Lust you met, but let's see can I… oh, I do remember you," His lips twisted into a smirk again. "You were so torn up about Mustang dying… and after all that you wouldn't even give him a kiss?"
Riza ignored the question and aimed her gun all the more steadily. "What do you want? Why are you still in the military? And why would you transfer the rest of Mustang's team but leave me here?"
"Now, Lieutenant, you ought to remember that your bullets are hardly a threat to me. But still, I'll answer your questions all the same. I'm in the mood for making friends. Won't you sit down?"
He gestured to the chair in front of his desk but Riza remained as she was, not removing her gaze from the gun's aim at his heart.
He sighed. "Alright. As for what I want, I'm afraid you won't be getting a word out of me. I've remained in the military because my Father believes this is the best tactical position for me. I'm sure you've worked out by now that the military isn't entirely free of corruption?"
She nodded.
"And I'm also sure that you already know why I had the rest of Mustang's team transferred."
"If you want to remain in the military, you can't allow people to catch onto the fact that you're not the real Roy Mustang. No matter how deep the military's corruption goes, if people begin to talk, there's nothing you can do. You need to remove him from those who knew him best and would first catch on that you aren't really Mustang. But that doesn't explain—"
"Why I needed you here? Well… how about I tell you there's something you have that may be of interest to me."
"Vague answers are of no interest to me," Riza shot back.
"Well I'm afraid that's all you're going to get, Lieutenant Hawkeye."
"Fine. I have one more question," Riza said.
Lust gestured in permissiveness.
"Your— that is— General Mustang's Flame Alchemy. You can't use it anymore, can you?"
For the first time, Lust's smirk faded into something like discontent. "You're correct."
"Excellent." Riza grinned right as the bullet hit him in between the eyes.
"I told you, Hawkeye," he began as skin began to stretch and crawl across the open wound, "it's not that simp—" She cut him off with another shot to the side of his mouth.
His fingers grasped desperately at torn flesh. "What the hell are you playing at, woman?" He ignored the next bullet, this one to the heart.
"I've learned the hard way that it'll take more than a few bullet wounds to kill you, but you're operating on limited lives, right? You've got hundreds, maybe thousands, left, but I'm going to end as many as I can before we're done here."
He laughed again as a quick succession of bullets depleted the ammo of Riza's first gun. She withdrew a second.
"You know, even if you do somehow manage to kill me eventually, your precious General goes down too. He's as much a part of this body as I am.
Riza didn't blink. This was no time for her to be taken by emotion as she had been before; she knew what he would have her do. "You said General Mustang was dead, or as good as," she said, aiming carefully. "Call me a fool for taking the word of a monster, but I have no intentions of allowing his murderer to live a second time."
He sighed. "Well then I'm afraid that you leave me no choice." Slowly, he removed Roy's gloves. "It's a shame, Lieutenant; we could have been such good friends."
There was a barely perceptible flash of black and Riza's gun had been ripped from her hand. A beat, another flash, and her holster had been torn open, with her guns and ammunition spilling out onto the floor.
"Why, Lieutenant Hawkeye," he said, brandishing those terrible black spears protruding from his hands, "you're even better looking when you're nervous." He traced down the side of her face, smirking at the blood it withdrew. "Now are you quite sure," he breathed, inches from her face, "that you don't want to have any fun before I kill you?"
His eyes widened suddenly, and he jerked back, nearly falling to the ground.
"Stay away from her," he growled, staggering back to his feet. He seemed to twitch again and he grabbed her arm, pushing her up against the wall. The edges of the spears dug into the side of her arm and she clenched her teeth to bear the pain. With his other hand, he held a single finger, a single elongated black spear, against her throat.
"Do you see where I have her?" he spat. "Do you really think you can fight me now? Do you even understand the position you two are in, you sentimental fool…"
His eyes had been overtaken by a burning hatred Riza had never seen there before. She flinched away from his warm breath against her neck when she had a last, desperate idea. She jerked her knee up.
Lust, used to being in a woman's body, took no time to double over in pain. The moment his grip loosened, Riza slipped out. With Lust cursing behind her, she knew she didn't have enough time to find a more desirable escape route and closed her eyes as she jumped out of the closest window, praying that the building wasn't as tall as she thought.
A/N: Hey guys! I hope you liked the latest chapter; sorry about the wait. I also wanted to let you guys know that Lascivious officially has fan art! The wonderful Anna aka mustangsflame on Tumblr drew a scene from the first chapter which I'll try to link to on my bio.
