"Hawkeye, the General wishes to speak with you", Mustang's brows crinkled as he delivered the message to her. He knew Grumman was cautious to not appear attached to Riza, so the fact that he had publicly wanted her in his office raised some concern for him. The quizzical look was returned to him as she glanced up from the document she was reading. "He wants to speak to me", almost repeating what he had said rather than asking. Her mind began racing about everything she had could have possibly done wrong in her military career. As far as she was concerned, she was a top notch soldier. Sure she had ruined some drywall and albeit some very fancy wallpaper a few times firing warning shots at the guys, but nothing that deserved the Fuhrer's direct attention and certainly not enough to address her in private. Roy nodded numbly as she stood and saluted, turning her jelly like legs in the direction of the Fuhrer.
The walk to the Fuhrer's office felt like a march to the gallows. Everyone seemed to turn and stare in her direction, their eyes condemning and sentencing her with every step she took. As she approached the large twin oak doors she raised her fist to knock, but the willpower to bring her knuckles to the wood flowed right out of her body. Riza Hawkeye was scared; the same Riza Hawkeye that had fought countless wars, taken bullets to various parts of her body, and put herself in endless life threatening situations and this, too afraid to speak to an old man who probably wouldn't be able to even catch Riza if he was still in his prime. Still, the dread hung over her head and it paralyzed her to the core.
As she stood there staring at the circles in the wood her hand hovering mere inches from it, the door slowly creaked open. The old man on the other side smiled warmly at her, then gently ushered her in. "It's good to see you Riza my dear."
"Sir!" She broke her trance and snapped to a salute as he closed the door behind her and made his way to his desk. He waved her salute off and produced a small flask of an unknown alcoholic drink and two glasses from a drawer in his desk.
"Have a seat my child, we have some important matters at hand to discuss." Dropping her salute, she took the chair directly in front of him and thankfully took the glass from him. It tasted bitter yet sweet and she immediately recognized it from when she was a kid, when she would sit on his lap and ask for a sip. Although he had never been fond of giving a child alcohol, it wasn't uncommon for them to ask to taste it every now and then. "Ambre brew", he smiled as he looked down at his drink, "your mother's favorite no less". Riza's eyes dropped down to her own glass as she tried to conjure an image of her mother in her head. She had died when Riza was very little, so the memory of her had faded considerably over the years. After the silence between seemed to last an eternity Grumman cleared his throat. "Actually, there's been some changes that I need to inform you of", his grip tightened on the glass causing his knuckles to turn white from the pressure, "you've been assigned, rather hand selected, to go on an undercover mission for the Amestrian military". "What", her eyes widened as she met the similarly shocked ones of her grandfather. "Yes, the higher ups have unanimously chosen you, one of the most skilled and most discrete for the job." Riza wasn't sure how to react; when she had signed up she never imagined anything like this. War wasn't exactly frightening to her; she had always had comrades to fight alongside her and having a sense of duty to protect them had always been a driving force to make her excel at anything she did. But this, she would have no one to watch her back, to make sure the shadows didn't creep up behind her. Sometimes one person is just never enough.
