Author's Note: If you haven't seen my update/memo yet, here it is again... I decided to go back through and have Tallen only take Roy and Riza. I had plans for Havoc's character but I have changed my mind on where I want him in this story. So don't freak out. I haven't changed much in previous chapters (he was still at the bar with them; still passes out from being drugged; Tallen just doesn't have his men grab him when he has them grab the colonel.)

Anyway, it is almost four in the morning, so any spelling/grammar/etc mistakes, I will apologize in advance for. But because I stayed up all night rewording the previous chapters AND writing this one for you guys, I would really appreciate some love. So send me some reviews, please! Gosh, I'm so tired right now, I might die. xD

Chapter Four:

Day One

She didn't scream; she was stronger than that. She had been trained in torture methods before at the academy and had enough self-restraint to prevent herself from giving the enemy the satisfaction from her distress. She kept her jaw clenched together, her eyes remained tightly shut to prevent them from watering or releasing any desperate tears. With every punch he threw, she was sure to hold her breath with each impact so as to prevent any groans from accidentally erupting from her lips. Once his ambush of fists was done, she finally released the breath she was holding, taking in a few slow, exaggerated breaths. Riza could already feel the area around her left eye beginning to swell; a metallic liquid had pooled between her cheek and her gums. Her entire face was throbbing; she couldn't imagine how she looked right now. She lowered her head so her hair would fall around her face, preventing the Colonel from seeing any of the damage Tallen had inflicted. She could feel blood dripping from the commissure of her lips. She knew it was not in her favor, but she spit the blood from her mouth directly at Tallen's cheek, anyway. He looked annoyed but his eyes were still dancing with excitement. He said something, but she couldn't make out what it was he said; one of his fists must have hit her right ear because there was a high pitched ringing in it, making it difficult to hear properly out of it.

He turned away from her, sauntering over to the table at the corner of the room. Riza refused to show her nerves on the surface, but as soon as she saw him turn back to her with a grin and a knife, a nervous tingling sensation slithered through her veins and her heart quickened its pace. She heard the clanking of metal across the room, indicating that Roy was fighting against his restraints again. Riza held her head up high again, refusing to give Tallen any indication as to how she was feeling at the sight of the metallic weapon in his hand. The giant behind her pushed down on her shoulders, indicating he was wanting her to get on her knees. She struggled against his strength with a desire to remain standing, but one solid shove had her stumbling to her knees as he was wanting.

Tallen was now standing directly in front of her. Without warning, he dug the edge of the knife into Riza's arm in the same spot that the bullet was still located, rotating it back and forth so as to allow it to dig in deeper and deeper around the already existing wound. She couldn't help but wince at the stinging torment. Riza continued to keep her jaw tightly clenched together, still refusing to allow herself to make any sound. She could hear an infuriated male voice across the room and assumed it was Roy in protest to what was happening to her. Her hands balled together until her knuckles glowed white. Suddenly, the throbbing pain ceased just as she heard the sound of a metallic clank on the floor. Tallen was grinning at her, holding up the now bloodied knife in front of him. "Can't have you dying from something as simple as an infection, now can we?" He tilted his head to the side as if to appear less menacing, but Riza just glared at him. She glanced quickly down at the ground where she could now clearly see the gleam of silver beneath a coating of crimson; he was removing the bullet from her arm. The blade once again met her skin without warning, this time he was carving a trail with it down her upper thigh. She closed her eyes, taking in deep breaths to keep herself under control; and it gave her something to concentrate on besides the pain. He seemed annoyed that she wasn't having a more boisterous reaction to his blade. He forced it deeper into her thigh, dragging it to her knee. Blood began to dribble out of the deep, open gash. Tallen was eyeing the knife, carelessly turning it around in his palm.

"I still want to play with this a bit, but first," He grabbed Riza by the neck. She felt those heavy hands leave her shoulders as Tallen yanked Riza into the air by her neck, dangling her about a foot above his head. Black spots were exploding at the edges of her vision. Her hands were uselessly bound behind her, so she attempted to kick out at Tallen to no avail; her strength was leaving her at an alarming rate as he tightened his death grip on her neck. The sadistic gleam in his eyes had Riza wondering if he was already done attempting to torture her and had instead decided to just strangle her to death. She felt the fight leaving her body as the oxygen failed to circulate. Her eyes began closing; this was it. This is how she would die. Just before consciousness completely failed her, she felt Tallen release his hold on her, dropping her from where he was holding her above the ground. As soon as her body hit the rough floor, she let out a fit of coughs. Between each cough, desperate breaths racked her body; she couldn't seem to take in enough air at once. Her body was frantic for more.

Tallen took a step towards Riza. Before the man still hovering behind her had a chance to clasp his thick hands on her shoulders again, she threw out a kick at Tallen's shin. He leapt back just before impact. "Whoa, now!" He let out a dark chuckle, "I think I need to teach this little lady just who's in charge here." A devious smirk tugged at his lips, "Marco, go get the branding iron." His demonic gaze turned to a dark haired man standing off to the side of them that was assumed to be Marco, "I'm about to officially make this little treat mine."

Riza's eyebrows tugged downward at the sound of this. Brand her? He was going to brand her? What was it with the men in her life and using her skin, her body for their own selfish desires? She already had a permanent "brand" thanks to her loving father, marring her back. She would die before she let this bastard have the same luxury of using her body as his own personal sketchbook. She felt a foreign fit of rage boiling up inside her, overwhelming her typical instincts and clouding her judgment. She fought desperately against the monster that was once again holding onto her, this time at the elbows. "The hell you will!" She shouted, thrusting out her foot at Tallen again in an attempt to kick him. He was just quick enough to avoid the brunt of her attack, but she still managed to connect her heel with the side of his thigh, resulting in a grunt from him. He let out a laugh, "Well look at that, finally getting a reaction out of the 'Perfect Soldier.' Apparently, she's not a big fan of 'tattoos,' huh?" You don't know how right you are, she thought dryly.

She was still fighting against the man that was holding her back, and was almost able to wiggle free from his grip until the man Tallen had referred to as Marco had returned with a long iron rod with a cursive, overlapping 'TG' at the end of it; this end was glowing a bright red. Riza's eyes widened as he exchanged the branding iron with the bloodied knife in Tallen's hand. This couldn't happen, she couldn't let this happen. She pushed her back against the man behind her; she had no logical idea as to how to get out of this situation, so the only thing she could think to do was to put herself as far from Tallen as she could possibly get.

"I think it's real cute that you call yourself a man, yet the only prisoner in this room that you are 'man enough' to pick on is a woman." Tallen hadn't removed his stare from Riza; as if the unveiled fear in her large, bronze eyes but he did halt his venture towards her with the scolding hot iron at Roy's words. Riza watched as the muscles in Tallen's jaw flexed before he released a humorless chuckle in response. "Oh don't worry, Colonel. I have plans for you as well."

"Mr. Greggs?"

Tallen finally tore his eyes from Riza and focused instead on the new figure standing in the doorway. It was a short, older man that appeared to be roughly in his fourties. His hair shown an obvious amount of aging with its graying sheen and the wrinkles around the lower area of his mouth gave him a pessimistic appearance. Tallen seemed irritated, but still handed the iron back to Marco and made his way over to the new man in the doorway. They whispered back and forth for a moment before Tallen pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Yes, yes, alright. Tell him I'll be there in a moment; you are dismissed." The older man nodded, then without even acknowledging anyone else in the room, he turned and left. Tallen groaned out loud, "Alright, boys. I have a meeting I must attend at the moment. Go ahead and put the prisoners in cell block 3. You can just throw them together for now." He dug in his pocket, pulling out a big ring of keys and tossed it to Marco. "Marco, let Barrett take the woman to the cell first. Once she is out of sight, you can take Mustang; that way they are both more likely to be obedient." The large man, now known to be Barrett, nodded in understanding of his role, then took the large keyring from Marco. He shoved at Riza's back, "Get goin'." His voice was a gravely mumble. Riza obeyed, allowing the monster to follow her out of the room. Tallen gave her a final smirk and a wave before she was out of the room. "Don't worry, darling, we'll finish this later!" He shouted after her in a joyous tone. He then turned his attention back to Marco, "Don't speak to them, just lock them in and then leave." Marco nodded, then turned his attention to the two men still bound to the wall.

Riza finally let out a breath she hadn't realized she was even holding as soon as she was out of the room. Her entire body seemed to relax slightly at the absence of Tallen's menacing presence but his parting words did nothing to comfort her. She worried when he planned to 'finish' this. Bile rose up in the back of her throat at the thought of that monster's initials forever branded into her skin, tainting her more than she already was. She tried to force the sickening thought from her mind and focus instead on where Barrett was leading her. They walked down a tight, dank corridor lined with prison cells on either side. Riza made sure to count how many cells she passed, and every turn they took, in case her and the colonel ever had a chance to escape. Sixteen cells, left, four cells, through a swinging wooden door-note that there's no lock on it, four more cells, right… She ran through this order in her head over again to lock it into memory just as they came to a stop at the end of this hallway. The light above them was flickering, indicating it needed to be changed out. The bars on the doors had blotches of rust in various spots, or was it blood? There was no windows in any of the cells she had seen, including the one they now stood in front of.

The man fought through the ring of keys with one hand to find what she assumed was a skeleton key for all of the cells in this block, because the key he chose had a '3' engraved in it. He was still gripping her upper arm tightly, using his other hand to steady the key and unlock the door. He shoved her through the door then slammed it behind her, locking it, then turning back down the long hallway back to the main room they had been in. Riza glanced around, noting the toilet to her right, to her left was a small mattress on the filth covered floor with a single sheet but no pillow. She made her way over to it and sat down. Her back rested against the wall in an awkward manor due to her hands still being bound behind her back in the thick, too-tight shackles. She had to adjust herself a few times before finally nudging herself against the wall to push the mattress out enough for her hands to fit behind it, providing a more comfortable sitting position for her. She tilted her head down and closed her eyes. So many thoughts were rushing through her head; did Tallen realize why she had reacted to the branding iron? Or did he simply consider it a normal, human reaction to a stressful situation? Hopefully, he wouldn't think much of her reaction and would forget about the idea entirely. This lie she was desperately trying to convince herself to have any merit only elicited a scoff from the logical woman. She knew better than to believe something so ignorant; of course he would remember; of course he would choose to do something so permanent and inhumane. It got her thinking back to all of the victim reports in Tallen's file; were those poor women branded too? She couldn't remember seeing anything about it in the files, but that didn't mean he hadn't. Regardless, she had to regain control over herself. Reacting like that was exactly what he was wanting and she refused to give him any pleasure from her suffering. She took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She had to work this out in her mind; she could not and would not let herself react that way again. Riza continued taking in slow breaths through her nose, releasing each through her mouth while she patiently listened for the footsteps of her colonel to cut through the silence.

Marco ushered another man that was standing silently in the corner of the room to join him in moving the prisoners. This man was large; almost as large as the monster that had just led Riza to the holding cell, but instead of being the size of a giant with the muscles to match, this man was of average height, but the outline of every muscle was clearly carved into his arms and shoulders. He waited in front of Roy until Barrett had returned with the keys. Marco then unlocked the shackles from the wall mounts. The muscular man roughly grabbed Mustang's arm and began yanking him along behind him. He followed obediently, knowing that this man was taking him to where Riza was.

They walked for what felt like forever, passing by a bunch of empty cells before finally reaching the cell with the blonde haired beauty inside. Marco unlocked the cell then flipped through the keyring until he was satisfied with his choice and unlocked Roy's cuffs. As soon as the shackles were gone, he knew this was his one chance; Roy threw out a fist, connecting with the side of Marco's face. He flew into the wall, gripping his cheek. "Goddammit! You'll pay for that, Mustang." He struggled back up to his feet, stomping towards Mustang. The colonel ignored the man and had instead quickly spun around and readied another fist to attack the man still holding tightly to his upper arm; unfortunately, this guy was prepared. He caught Roy's fist in his hand. Roy tried to yank his hand back out, but to no avail. The man then flicked his wrist, bending Roy's fist backwards at a painfully awkward angle which elicited a indignant groan from Roy. He finally released Roy's hand then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him into the cell, slamming the door behind him. Marco locked the door. He stood and glared at Roy, "You fucked up, Colonel. I just want you to be aware of that." His eyes slowly turned to Riza with a hungry stare, but before he could say anything more, the other two men bumped into his shoulder then began to leave,

"C'mon. We were specifically told not to talk to them."

Marco rolled his eyes before following the other two men out.

Once the immediate danger was gone, Roy turned his attention to Riza. She hadn't appeared to have moved even an inch. She had her knees tugged up to her chest and her forehead was resting upon them; her face was hidden behind the wall of her golden hair; her shoulders were slouched slightly, but Roy felt much relief when he noted the small, rhythmic up and down of her shoulders indicating that she was in fact breathing. He crawled over to her, "Lieutenant! Are you alright? Can you hear me?" She didn't even move at the sound of his voice. He reached out a hesitant hand, resting it gently on the back of her head and began stroking her hair. "Please respond. I just need to know that you are-"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Her voice was muffled from how she was sitting.

Mustang raised an eyebrow at her before responding, "Um, alright, permission granted. Go ahead."

She lifted her head slightly to meet his gaze; he gasped. Seeing her up close like this made every muscle in his body tense in pure rage. Her entire face was covered in various shades of red and purple from the amount of contusions forming. There was a gash on the side of her cheek from the repeated impact of Tallen's fist. One of her eyes was blood shot on the far side and surrounded by swelling purple skin. Her lower lip had a trail of dried blood leading down her chin. He didn't have long to scrutinize his lieutenant's injuries before Riza's heel lashed out into his stomach, knocking him backwards.

"You… IDIOT!"

She kicked out at him again, but this time, he managed to block it with his forearm, "Hawkeye, what the hell?!" She slid off the mattress to her knees in front of the colonel. He was now able to note the anger in her eyes that he hadn't seen a second ago when he was too focused on her wounds.

"Why the hell did you have to act like that?"

He stared at her in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

She rolled her eyes, "Last night, at the bar. You just had to intervene, didn't you?"

Roy's eyebrows knitted together. "Did you see how close he was getting to you? What was I supposed to do, just let him hang all over you like you're h-"

"Yes."

He stared at her with a dumbfounded expression which led to her rolling her eyes once more. "Colonel, I'm not about to waste time explaining to you the basics of going undercover and what exactly one must be willing to endure in order to pull it off, so let's just drop it."

Roy's jaw dropped, "Whoa, whoa what do you mean 'willing to endure in order to pull it off?' Were you going to sleep with that bastard?!" Had her hands still not been shackled, she would've slapped her forehead at this point, or maybe even have slapped Roy.

"What were you hoping to accomplish by acting so foolish? This was the best case scenario to have expected after what you pulled last night! Telling our target you are my boyfriend? When you, whether incognito or not, have a very well-known face and I'm supposed to be on a date with the perp?"

He held up his hands in front of him as if to admit defeat. "I know, I'm sorry. This is all my fault." He meant it. He felt so guilty knowing that he may be the cause of their situation.

She shook her head with a sigh, "He already knew who I was before you came over to us. But just know, your bad behavior didn't help anything. Especially because now he thinks using me against you his best chance at getting you to give him my father's research." He looked away again.

"I'm mostly angry with you, sir, because had you not intervened, there would have been more time for you and Havoc to have left the bar before the sedatives took effect; then he wouldn't have you in a holding cell right now." He narrowed his gaze at her. Did she honestly think he would've just left her there? He grabbed Riza's shoulders just above where the bullet injury was located.

"Intervening like a drunken idiot or not, I was not about to leave you alone in that bar with a man like Greggs."

She seemed to have completely ignored his response; her head was tilted down again, so her eyes were on the floor. She seemed consumed by something troubling. He felt her shoulders tighten beneath his palms. "Colonel," Her voice was barely above a whisper, "Just how close were you to giving up? To telling him?" He was taken aback by her question. He was caught off guard by her change of topic and didn't even know how to answer it. He could lie, tell her he wasn't close when he thought that monster was going to strangle the life out of her, or when he was talking about branding her, but she would know it was all a lie. Feeling guilty, he turned away from her and released her shoulders from his hold. He remained silent, unable to admit his almost defeat to the strong woman before him.

"That's what I thought."

He didn't say anything in return yet again. It was silent for a long, drawn out moment until Riza finally tilted her head back up to meet Roy's gaze."No matter what happens, promise me right now that you won't give up. My life is nothing. Can you imagine what would happen if a man like Tallen Greggs had the secrets to flame alchemy?" He grimaced. He completely understood what she was saying and her logic behind it, but all the same, he knew he would be lying if he told her that Tallen could do nothing to get the secrets from him. Roy slowly shook his head, "You can't ask me to promise that."

She glared at him but again, he wouldn't meet her gaze. "I would rather die than allow you to-"

"What if the roles were reversed? If it were me getting tortured right in front of you and you were the only one that could help me and make it stop? What would you do?"

She looked sad and as if she truly understood how difficult this was for him, but still responded with, "I would follow my orders."

Roy's jaw flexed. "I'm sorry, but I'm not promising anything, Lieutenant."

The emotion left her eyes as a glaze of indifference glossed over them. "Fine. If there is this much doubt in your own ability, I'll just have to take matters into my own hands." The hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end; he knew what she was saying, but he decided to ask anyway.

"What the hell are you suggesting?"

"If I'm dead, he has no leverage over you." That's what he assumed she was meaning.

Mustang's entire body seemed to go numb as the terror of losing her consumed him. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "Riza, dammit, he beat you, shot you, I had to watch him almost choke the life out of you! He even tried to brand you. The worst part is I can tell he's enjoying it; that means things are only going to get worse. I can't let that happen. I can't just sit back and watch you fight through the pain of whatever else he decides to do to you, knowing I could easily make it all stop."

His words made her heart flutter; she always loved when he showed how much he cared about her. She allowed a small smile to break through her indifferent expression, to show she truly appreciated how strong he has been. She couldn't imagine what her face looked like right now and she couldn't imagine how it would feel to be looking onto Roy with the damage instead of her. She saw his eyes wander down to her neck and she wanted to hide under the sheet. The guilt and shame was so tangible in his eyes that it made her heart hurt.

Roy grimaced at the site of the bruising outline of a hand forming around Riza's neck. She couldn't take him dwelling on this any longer, not with that look in his eye. "How about we work on thinking of a way out of this place?" Roy was drawn back to reality and slightly thankful that they could talk about something other than his lieutenant's idea to 'fix' their problem. "Yeah, sounds good."

She flashed him one of her rare smiles for only a moment before turning a worried gaze down to his right hand. "How is your hand, sir?" He looked at her in confusion for a minute before realizing what she was referring to; leave it to Riza Hawkeye to be more concerned about him than for herself. Here she was bloody and bruised and she was worried about his stupid wrist? A soft chuckle left his lips, "It's nothing." That's when he remembered something; her reaction to the branding iron. "Lieutenant, are you... alright?"

He knew she understood what he was referring to by the flash of anxiety in her amber eyes. "I don't know why I reacted like that. It was a moment of weakness and I promise it will not happen again, Colonel."

He was taken aback by her emotionless and stoic response. Did she think he was upset about her reaction? Did she honestly think that's why he was asking about it? A frown crept across his lips. "I'm not upset with you for how you reacted, Lieutenant. I understand why it affected you. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

Her eyes sparkled with what appeared to be genuine relief to his response but Roy could tell it was still worrying her, considering Tallen's promise to actually brand her at a later time. Without thinking, Roy carefully wrapped his arms around his subordinate and pulled her into his chest. The action surprised Riza at first but she quickly relaxed into the warmth of his touch.

"Thank you, Colonel." They sat like this for a long while until finally, hesitantly, pulling apart when Roy noticed something wet soaking into the sleeve of his white shirt. Noting the source of the liquid, he pointed towards the wound on Riza's arm, "That's still bleeding pretty heavily." He went to the sheet on the bed and busied himself by ripping off two long strips from the edge of the sheet. He rushed back to his lieutenant's side. "I'm going to wrap it up really fast." He then gently reached for Riza's hurt arm and commenced wrapping the cloth around her arm a few times then tied it tight. Riza thanked him as they stood up simultaneously. Roy immediately leaned down and used the second strip of cloth to wrap around the deep gash in her thigh and stop it from bleeding as well. Once he tied it in place, he carefully tugged Riza's dress back into the proper place it was supposed to be in order to make her feel less exposed. She smiled at him, appreciative of the gesture. They turned and sat down on the small mattress.

"Roy, you need to understand that it's only going to get worse. What he did earlier is nothing to compared to possible torture techniques we learned about at the academy. I need you to stay strong; we both need to stay strong." He stared at the floor for a moment in thought before nodding.

"Okay, agreed. Oh and lieutenant? I forgot to mention something after our talk earlier. No dying; that's an order." She gave him a death glare before deciding against another argument right now. She chose instead to just rest her head against his shoulder. "Yes sir. Now let's focus on how to get out of here." Riza began by telling him what she remembered from the walk from the main room to their current cell.

"Dammit, Atticus." Tallen muttered under his breath. His associate ruined his fun with the beautiful lieutenant. He had apparently requested the immediate attention of Tallen, which was the reason he had to leave so abruptly and was the reason Tallen was now standing in Atticus's office. The man was sitting behind his large chestnut desk, leaning back in his luxury, black office chair. He had told Tallen to have a seat as well, but he preferred to continue to pout in front of the door. "I was in the middle of something, you know."

Atticus waved a hand around in the air in a nonchalant gesture, "It can wait. So, any news to report?"

"Both of the prisoners only woke up a short while ago. I haven't had much time to-"

"So we don't have it yet."

Tallen shook his head, "Not yet."

Atticus just nodded. His eyebrows crinkled and his lips puckered slightly as if he were deep in thought. "I'm assuming the torture methods you have been using are all 'physical', yes?"

Tallen made a disgruntled face, "What are you talking about?"

Atticus clasped his hands in front of his chin, resting his elbows on his desk. "Physical torture: inflicting pain on the body."

Tallen scoffed, "Uh, yeah." Sometimes, his long-time best friend and fellow partner didn't make sense. "Of course that's what I've been doing. In fact I was in the middle of-"

"'Making the lieutenant yours' by branding her, yes?"

Tallen looked at him confused, "How did you know that?"

"You can brand her if you want. But I think it would be effective on Mustang if you 'make her yours' in... other ways."

The man flashed a toothy grin to show he understood, "Oh, I like that idea."

"And I also think we should try to utilize some psychological torture."

Tallen was not much of a torture guy, at least not in order to get something out of the other person. If he tortured someone, it was for the pure joy of the victim's pain. He lifted a confused brow. "Are you sure something like that will work?"

"I'm positive."

Tallen shrugged, "It just doesn't sound as fun."

"Oh I promise that it'll be plenty fun and I'll gladly help." The man at the desk chuckled darkly, tapping his index finger against the side of his temple. "If you want to truly torture a person, you must start with the mind."

Author's Note: Next chapter coming soon.