Chapter 10: The Split

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters of Full Metal Alchemist.

She was just sitting there on the floor in a daze as if someone had just given her haymaker on the left side of her head, but Roy knew better than that. Riza was probably just stunned at the absence of Vashov, the captain's betrayal proving to be a lot more for Riza to handle because of how close she was to him, he was her little brother. In a way, Roy had always seen Vashov as his rival for Riza's heart, that one person who could mean as much to Riza as he could and in a way, Roy was a bit glad that Vashov was gone now. He could have Riza all to himself without having to worry about any competitors or that Vashov might steal her away from him, but looking at her now, Roy felt a bit ashamed at being happy at her loss for he could see that she was taking it very hard with the way her eyes had a sadness to him that made his heart wrench itself out of his chest. Her tears came like little droplets of rain on the ground and Roy was compelled to hold her in her arms and tell her it was going to be alright as he gently whispered calming words of assurance into her ears. When she had finally stopped they just sat there, holding each other in a space that was somewhere between then and eternity as the lines of rank were broken down, general and lieutenant general became man and woman. They were in a place where nothing else mattered, only that they knew of no other place they wanted to be in than the safety of each other's arms, and Roy could have lived in that spot, in that moment, but the outside world called for the Flame Alchemist to stand for justice.

"General Roy, Lieutenant General Riza, are any of you down here," called a voice that belonged to Colonel Havoc who was trudging through the sludge of the sewer with great disgust on his face. "You guys couldn't pick a cleaner place to do this in, like say in some abandoned building that doesn't smell out the latrine in a prison."

"Yeah I'm sure they'll let the suspect they're chasing in on your preference next time they are in the middle of a high speed chase," came the sarcastic remark from the infamous, Colonel Guile Stryker as he shifted a cigar in his mouth. "My god that guy was like the winds of typhoon, freakin humanoid typhoon."

"Stop harboring your man crush and help me," ordered Roy as he hoisted Riza over his sholder like she was hurt, but they both knew she wasn't, this was just an excuse for Vashov getting away from her, one that the Fuhrer would accept hopefully.

"Yes sir," said Guile as he helped Riza up to the surface where the darkness of evening had begun to move in on the retreating sun as it went down casting an ominous glow over the horizon. The night seemed to be laced with foreboding and yet there was nothing any of them could do.

"Well all of the books that he asked me to pick up were on the top shelf and all very different," said Sheska as she was questioned by Roy and Riza, who both found it better if Guile didn't do the questioning due to his aggressive tactics. "It seemed odd to me that he would be looking in those books about gardening, but I guess it was like Dr. Marcoh's research."

"No actually it was a code in itself," added Sean, the other world's Guile, as he walked into the room with glasses on and holding the paper up. "If you were to look at the first word of each book you would see that the message says, 'There is danger concerning General Roy.'"

"What was that," asked Riza as she snatched the paper from his hand and shot him a dangerous look so he wouldn't follow up with some snappy comment, but few things stopped a man like Sean.

"I see that the wounds were mostly done to your manners," commented Sean as he walked out of the room with a grin on his face as he could sense the rage fuming right behind him. "Edward and I will be looking for whatever the map it supposed to point to."

"What map would that be," asked Roy as he turned to look at the now nervous Sean who was obviously supposed to keep that last bit a secret, but he apparently had butterfingers of the mouth.

"Well Vashov just happened to leave Edward a map detailing to a place where the Philosophers were looking for whatever it is they're looking for," replied Sean as he slowly backed out of the room, only to run into a very shocked Winry. "Ah, whatever it is I didn't do it?"

"I wasn't here to talk about anything," said Winry in clear annoyance because it meant that he had done something and she would have to kill him later most likely, but for now she could just get by with letting him live since she didn't know if he had developed it from always getting into trouble with her. "I was actually here to get you so we could get to the train station in time to get to the city of Beniy."

"Well then I guess you have room for another person in your group," said Roy as he walked to the door while pointing at random corporals that were sitting around. "All of you have my bag packed and then I want you, Riza, to take over while I'm gone for a few days and cover for me in case the Fuhrer shows up while I'm gone."

"Um, sir, don't you think that's a bit rude to force yourself onto a girl like that," said Winry as she shrunk before the over bloated General before her. "I hope that you're not trying to use your power or influence to get into my pants, General."

"What would he want to do that for," asked Sean as he lit a cigarette and shifted it up quickly to avoid the bullet that came for it. "I mean he has Lieutenant General Hawkeye here so he shouldn't need you or would want you since there are some good looking women here. Please tell me this is just alert status and they wear miniskirts when the alert status is revoked."

"Sadly no, but that suggestion is perfect to give to the Fuhrer," said Roy as he started scheming with the mischievous looking mercenary before Riza fired a warning shot.

"General or not, that is as far as that little conversation goes," said Riza before she pulled the cigarette out of Sean's mouth and cut the tip off. "There you go."

"Thanks, now can you tell me where the bathroom is, I think I might just shit myself in a few minutes," replied Sean as he stood there in shock.

Riza tossed and turned in her bed as she began to wander how Roy was being on a train somewhere far off by now, without her to make sure that he was alright. She suspected that Sean had started to ignore the radio that he was in charge of monitoring because he stopped listening after a few calls at midnight, but she wanted an up to date status report. After writing down a reminder to hurt Sean severely, Riza went into the bathroom to take a look at herself in the mirror and see the tired looking woman in the mirror, worry had taken its toll on her and he had only left yesterday. Last night was one that was filled without sleep as she tried not to think about him lying in a puddle of his own blood. The phone rang on her bed stand, it's high pitched ring could leave a headache on a person, but for her it left a sense of dread in her stomach as she picked up the phone and put it to her ear.

"Hello," said Riza, her voice a bit unsteady in her throat as she heard a familiar voice on the phone.

"I told you not to let him out of your sight," said the voice on the other end, the speaker's indifferent tone of voice didn't match the severity of his words.

"Vashov, what are you doing this call could be monitored," whispered Riza, unsure of whether or not she was being observed by agents to see if she was a traitor.

"It's not, I know that for a fact since one of my own is on the phone trackers," replied Vashov as he picked up something and she could hear another voice, a woman's voice that was somehow familiar. "Anyway, that is not the issue, the issue here is that an assassin has been dispatched for Roy's head and the assassin might be on the train right now."

"Is there any way that I could do anything about it," asked Riza as she panicked thinking that Roy was so close to death, if not dead all ready, and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

"You can meet me at the public library on Walden Street, make sure you're not followed," replied Vashov. "Don't worry, I'm sure the man they have guarding him will be able to protect him and I have a way to get on the train myself. The library should be open now so I'll see you there, big sister."

"Okay, I'll be there in fifteen minutes, little brother," replied Riza.