Protect

It is not Riza's place to defend the military. She does not need to- and more importantly, she does not want to. She feels ill at the thought of attempting to justify the actions of an institution she knows to be ruthless, senseless and brutal, and to do so would for her have meant sacrificing the last of her pride.

No- it is the soldiers she protects. The pawns, the dogs, the murderers, the ones who sold their souls to the state. It is the men behind the guns.

Of course, it is not her place to defend them either. She tries her best to remain stony-faced and neutral whenever she heard people discussing the military (how people can give up their lives for something like that is beyond me; the things these soldiers do are sickening) but despite her best efforts she cannot hold her anger in when confronted with such blind observations, resulting in a sharp-tongued retort (just because they work for the organisation doesn't necessarily mean they agree with it- and besides, think of all the work they do to defend this country) which usually serves to silence her opponents at once. She knows that she should not voice these thoughts- it is necessary to suppress emotion, in the work she does- but on the other hand, she thinks, someone has to speak out in the soldiers' defence. Someone has to know, to realise that even though they put up with the shortcomings of the state, it doesn't mean they approve of it; that even though they kill, it doesn't mean they don't regret it; that even though they are part of a system, it doesn't mean they don't hate it.

And, although she argues back for the sake of the common foot-soldier as well, there is one particular person that she protects above all else- not just from bullets and knives, but also from the stinging words and spite of the public.