Chapter One:
What has happened to this world I called home
What am I doing? Roy couldn't help but think as another tree branch hit him in the face.
"Sorry General! Again…" The young boy of thirteen called back to him. He had come to the former general only days before, asking if he would come with him. And how could Roy say no? Alphonse was the spitting image of his brother. Maybe the younger brother knew something about the elder. Maybe, just maybe, this guilt would go away.
"I'm not a General anymore." He reminded him for the…he lost count of how many times. They had been traveling through forests like these, underground passageways and the like ever since Al had came to him. For some reason he refused to use any normal means of transportation. "And where exactly are we going?"
"Resembol!" He piped happily. "I told you already, I need your help!" Roy was starting to wonder if the boy had done something illegal, he shook the thought, it was something only Edward would do. Light fell on his face, they had left the forest. He glanced up and gaped at the sight before him. "We're here!"
"Halt! Does a sheep travel in the shadows of night?" A huge grey wall of stone and metal stretched as far as the eye could see. Only a few yards in front of them came the fortress's gate. What took Roy's breath away was standing up on the ramparts, clad in the misshapen uniform of a decommissioned soldier and aiming a rifle straight at them.
"Riza?" He breathed.
Next to him, Alphonse saluted. "Sir! I, your sheep Fox, have returned with our black one Lion.."
…? What did he just say?
Riza turned around and shouted to someone on a lower section of the wall. "Open the gate!"
Al led him forward as the gates' doors were pushed open. "What's this code you're using?" Roy whispered to him as the stepped inside. "And what happened here?"
Al opened his mouth to answer but was cut of by the arrival of Riza hopping down onto the main level. The boy straightened up and saluted. "Major Hawkeye, sir!"
Major? For a moment it looked as if she was going to hug the young alchemist, instead she grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently. "What in hell were you thinking! You can't just up and leave whenever you feel like it, for all I knew you were dead! And you bring him back with you!" A glare like daggers shot out in Roy's direction.
The soldier that had opened the gate stared at Roy wide-eyed. "Major…should I take your post?" He eyed Roy as if the alchemist was someone to be wary of.
"Yes, I'll send someone else over to man the gate." Riza answered, turning away from Alphonse. She looked weary. Now that he was up close he saw how tattered she was, like the clothes on her back. Patched up cargo pants, a bloody t-shirt over a bullet-proof vest full of bullet holes and an oversized helmet that slid off on one side of her head…the other soldier looked the same. "I'll also have whoever it is bring food for everyone up there." It didn't look like she ate very well either.
"Riza, what's going on here?" The other soldier glared at him and rolled his eyes before climbing up to the ramparts.
The same glare began to form on her face but then faded. "Of course, you wouldn't know." She waved him to follow her. "This isn't the place for this discussion, Alphonse go get something for yourself to eat."
Roy followed her down the long corridors. He noticed that every time they passed someone they would salute Riza. "Do you run this place?" He asked.
"I wouldn't say that." She answered with a smile of satisfaction. Yep, she was their leader all right.
He also noticed that when they would notice him they would give the same cold glare. "Does everyone hate me?"
"Pretty much." Didn't hold back on that one. She opened a door in the wall that he hadn't noticed before, actually he hadn't noticed any doors. They must all be like this.
"And why is that, exactly?" He stepped into the room.
"Sit here." She said pointing at a spot on the floor. More than a little confused, Roy followed her order only to have her shut the door on him. She's leaving me here! He sat in the dark room for only a few minutes before she came back again, turning on the lights and shutting the door behind her. "Sorry about that, I needed to explain some things to some people."
"That makes a whole lot of sense."
"Neither do you, why are you here?" Something felt…off. Riza wasn't acting the way he remembered. She was putting on an offensive front but in actuality everything about her was defensive. The way she kept one hand behind her and on the door-a quick escape-, the way one arm grasped the other- barring herself off-, and of course her eyes that shone with wariness that refused to stare anywhere near him.
"Is something wrong?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"No." She snapped a little too quickly. "Answer my question before asking me anything!"
"You don't need to shout."
"I do when you're being stupid!" Instead of coming forward, like any normal person would while shouting, she cringed back as if…
"How can you lead this place if you're even scared of me?" The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Since when was Hawkeye afraid?
Her eyes widened for a moment. "I'm not…" She clenched her fist and cringed. "Alphonse will answer your questions." Riza's voice was barely above a defeated whisper. It was almost painful for Roy to hear, what could have happened here?
His eyes fell to the floor as she discreetly slipped out the door. What was going on? Resembol was a…a fortress, Riza was acting stranger than usual - and in charge-, Alphonse was…well he didn't know what was up with him yet but Roy assumed that there would be something. God, it's like I'm in a soap opera and my character just came back from the dead.
"And why are we even in Resembol!" He sighed and glanced around the room. There was a tiny bed in the far back corner. Whose room is this? At it's end was a small crib and at it's head was a small dresser. Roy thought it was weird that Riza would just dump him off in some random person's room. Unless…
Did Riza have a kid? It had been two years. He tried to imagine her as a mom but he kept thinking about when she first got Black Hayate as a pet. Shuddering, he hoped that she would have enough sense to never point a gun at a child.
If she did have a kid, then who could the father be? …Maybe Havoc…? She probably wouldn't go for a military guy…Roy couldn't help but feel a bit jealous for this mystery man that may not even exist.
His stomach sank as he remembered the reasons he couldn't (or wouldn't) be that man. Riza…had always been a special case. There was something about her that, how could he put it?…that wasn't right. It was as if she was missing something, or that something had been taken away.
Roy wished that things were different, and for the longest time he had tried to pretend that it never mattered. Yet time proved that what he wanted was never going to happen. That realization was what finally drove him to leave for Briggs in the first place.
"General?" Alphonse voice came from the other side of the door along with a knock.
"Here."
The door opened and the boy entered. "Barely ten minutes here and you've already got the Major all in a huff." He smiled. "What did you say to her?"
Roy sighed. "Alphonse, why did you bring me here?" Alphonse's smile faded. "What happened?"
Alphonse sat down on the floor and motioned for Roy to do the same. "It started with the rebellion you and my brother started when finding out about Bradley. All rebellions have those who reject them. Many of those who did completely played those of the rebellion, the 'rebels'. Of course the people of Amestris, who had been seeing what was going on, were not going to allow them, the 'patriots', to have power again. So the patriots began to call themselves the conservative party, pretending to be a less radical party then the rebels by wanting only the basic changes to the government that the people were asking for.
"Their plan was, once voted in they would be able to control the strings to make it look like there was change when in reality everything stayed the same."
"As long as you have the political power, you can control the media." Roy nodded, familiar with this tactic.
"Yes, and so they were going to play things out to make it look like the rebels had committed crimes or terror, basically blame those with radical ideas of all the countries problems."
"That sounds familiar." It wasn't much different than when the country blamed Ishbal for everything.
"But the patriots knew that the people wouldn't believe them with their hero as the rebel's figurehead: you. When you left they made it out as if you turned your back on the party because of the 'horrible crimes' they had committed.
"Soon battles raged all over this country in a civil war over 'fighting terror' and trying to retake our country. We, the rebels, have small colonies like this all over to protect our supporters and create an army that will eventually bring us into power. We barely survive everyday on the defensive. And I assure you every day is a fight whether there is a battle or not."
Roy sat there, soaking it all in. This…really was all his fault. Now he saw why everyone hated him.
"No one wanted to get you're help after this, blaming you for what happened." Al continued quietly. "But I'm not going to. We need you here. We need a leader."
"What about Hawkeye?"
"The Major's only this camp's leader, I'm referring to the rebellion as a whole." Alphonse chuckled.
"No, I mean what happened with her." The young alchemist blinked in surprise. "She's different somehow."
"Around the time when you first arrived at Briggs did you ever get a message from General Armstrong?" He asked quietly.
"Nothing that was important…only things like 'make sure you watch out for bears.' What does that have to do with Hawkeye?"
"Nothing…" The look in Alphonse's eyes showed that it wasn't the case. "Major Hawkeye…" He seemed to be struggling with the words. "She…she won't…" He sighed. "She's sick. We don't know what it is. It's serious and we can't do much for her." His words tumbled out too fast for him to say them properly. "I-I think she's scared that- that something bad will happen and she won't be able to take care of us. She knows how much we need her! Wi-without her I I don't know what I just…" The fear and worry in his eyes glinted with new-forming tears.
"Wait. Calm down." Roy placed his hands on Alphonse's shaking shoulders. "What's going on?"
"The other day she collapsed and when the doctors were checking everything out, they found something." Al shook his head. "I don't know much about medicine but they found a virus or something that they can't recognize and since then she's been having weird symptoms."
Roy thought about their earlier exchange…this couldn't be the reason she acted that way…was it? Something was off. There was something Alphonse wasn't telling him. And if that was this case, was this story he was telling true?
"You can't talk to her about it though! It's a really touchy subject and she already has it in for you." The boy had looked so genuine but judging from this statement he had probably been lying to cover up whatever had really happened.
"Alright." I'll find out sooner or later.
A silence fell between them, both being skeptical of the other. In this time Roy began to notice things about Alphonse. The boy held himself differently, as if he had chains of his own to carry now. But that's what war does to people. A war that he could have prevented if only…
"Alphonse?" He heard Riza's voice from the other side of the door. Al peeked his head out the door before disappearing behind it. Roy could barely hear their muffled voices, all he made out was 'no room' and 'I'll have to'. When the door opened again only she was there.
So this was her room. She was holding a baby.
"You can spend the night here and we can have you on your way tomorrow." Riza said, gently placing the child in the crib.
"I'm not leaving." Roy declared. "I made a mistake by doing so before and I'm not going to do it again."
"That's a great thing to say, but nobody wants you here." She was still refusing to look at him.
"Alphonse does."
"Alphonse is a child." She was still glancing frantically around the room for an escape.
It felt as if he were swallowing his pride as he awkwardly changed the subject. "Speaking of, what's his or her name?" Roy asked, nodding towards the sleeping baby.
Riza seemed surprised at his question. "Oh, um." Her face flushed. "It's Mathew Edward Hawkeye." She spoke her family name so quietly that it was barely audible. It had always been the biggest shame for a woman to have a child out of wedlock and from her reaction she probably wasn't with the father anymore.
What got Roy was the child's second name. "Mathew Edward?"
"I was going to name him after Alphonse" Riza explained. "but he said that he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his brother and suggested that I name him after Ed." She seemed to have relaxed. He walked right up next to her to get a look at Mathew; his cheeks were chubby with baby fat and his little hands cupped near his squinted shut eyes and short dark hair.
Roy couldn't help but smile, he had always been a sucker for babies. "I hope he has his mother's eyes?"
"He does." She smiled too. "But he has his father's good looks, he'll be just as popular with girls."
Taking her comment as an invitation to ask about the father, he did, "could I ask who the father is?"
Riza instantly tensed up. "N-no…" She moved to the side of her bed and bent down to search under it. "There's a spare mattress under here…" But she couldn't get it out because it was caught with the dresser pushed up against the bed like it was.
"Here." Roy reached under the bed and lifted it up at the corner. But she didn't use that chance to move the mattress out from under it. He glanced down at her and saw that she was still sitting in the same place, shaking. "Are you alright?"
But she didn't answer, only moved her hands up to her throat; the sign for choking. She looked as if she were gasping for air except there was no sound, as if no air at all was moving through.
Oh God, I can't remember the last time I had to do CPR! Not remembering much of anything in the procedure he dropped the bed and hit her hard on the back. A wet sound and the sound of air came from her throat. Roy was glad that it was all she had needed, except that now she was coughing up pools of blood.
Finally she coughed up a huge clot and she was done. Alphonse really wasn't lying. He helped the panting Riza to lean against her bed. As he did, her hand bumped into the clot that she had coughed up but instead of sticking to her hand, it rolled and bumped into his knee.
It didn't feel like a clot. "What the-?" He reached down and picked it up.
-I can see what's inside of you-
Roy felt sick.
It wasn't a clot. It was an eye.
A/N: re-uploaded :D
