The deadliest of silences had settled in the midst of the falling rain. The two figures stood on the large front lawn, seemingly frozen in time.
Riza could feel her hands shaking uncontrollably; her fingers dug into the muddy earth as she fought with herself to regain her calm composure. Here was the man that they had been searching for- the cold blooded killer who took away the life of the young investigator Rebecca Quinn… the same person who managed to elude the entire military, and who had suddenly appeared in her house only a few minutes earlier. He had been the source of her sleepless nights, of her stress and deprivation of normalcy… and now she was laying at his mercy on the lawn of the only person who could both save her, and yet needed saving as well.
"I must admit, you proved to be quite the intelligent young woman, Miss. Hawkeye. For a moment, it even appeared that you had gained the upper hand in all of this."
She shuddered, hearing the same icy voice that had managed to give her the chills over the phone, and now it was coming from directly behind her.
"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, finally finding her voice.
A chilling laugh proved to be her only response, and she shut her eyes for a moment, attempting to block out the terrible sound. It almost seemed as if the rain had started to become painful as it fell harder now. A low rumble of thunder erupted in the distance as the storm worsened.
A bright bolt of lightning lit up the sky, illuminating the world around them for only a few moments. In the brief few moments of light, Riza suddenly realized that something was horribly wrong. On Roy's front porch laid the small black and white furry body of Black Hayate. A long slender needle protruded from the center of his stomach, and a small patch of his white fur had turned dark red.
"Hayate…?" she whispered, her voice still hoarse. Her young dog didn't even flinch at the sound of his name. Painful tears welled up in her eyes as she dug her hands into the muddy ground, feeling the dirt sink under her nails. "Hayate! Hayate, no!"
She pushed herself off the ground, ignoring the searing pain that shot through her leg. Her fingers had barely brushed against the slick metal of her gun as she felt a second sharp prick in the back of her other leg. With a cry, she felt the strength in her remaining good leg melt away. For the second time that night, she met with the ground in a painful heap, this time landing on her left side.
"I see you've still got quite a lot of strength left in you, even though you've now lost feeling in both legs, correct?"
Riza's eyes widened as she looked down at her legs lying limply in the grass. There were two thin needles protruding in the backs of both legs, resembling the needle in her dog. "What the hell did you do?" she demanded, straining her neck to attempt to look behind her. "What did you do to me?"
A bright yellow light suddenly shone from an upstairs window in Roy's house, casting a single long beam of light down through the rain. The crunching of grass was more enough of an answer for the Lieutenant, and she felt her heart quicken in her chest. The Colonel was coming outside… and he was in grave danger.
"Shit!" she cursed, struggling to pull her limp lower body towards the stairs of the porch. If her worst fears proved true, then her attacker had just turned his sights on Colonel Mustang.
All the prayers in the world couldn't help her now, she knew, as she watched the front door open with a swift turn of the doorknob.
"Colonel!" she screamed, feeling her head start to spin from a dizzying desperation. "Colonel, please stay back!"
Riza could feel her heart break as the Colonel's handsome face came into view. His onyx eyes widened in shock, seeing both the injured young dog on his porch and his Lieutenant splayed on the grass in the down-pouring rain.
"Hawkeye! Oh gods, what the hell happened to you?" he cried, grabbing his jacket from inside the house.
Riza dug into the ground with all the strength she could muster, feeling the soggy soil underneath her fingernails. She managed to pull herself forwards slightly.
"Colonel he's here! You're in danger!" she cried, hearing her voice shake.
Roy leapt off his porch, not even bothering to use the stairs. As soon as his feet hit the ground however, there was a quick flash of movement from behind him. The Colonel turned around quickly, one hand already in his pocket, most likely pulling on a pyrotechnic glove. With one fluid motion he drew out a gloved hand and snapped his fingers.
Although the entire exchange only lasted a few seconds, by the time the smoke cleared from the Colonel's fire, it became all too clear what the outcome had been.
The once whole pyrotechnic glove was now removed from the Colonel's right hand and was instead pinned to the ground beside him with an all too familiar long slender needle. Two of his fingertips were bleeding; obviously grazed by the sharp weapon.
Out of the shadows on the front porch stepped a tall figure shrouded in the darkness that covered his features.
"So we meet again, Colonel Mustang. I must say, it was so nice of your darling Lieutenant to lead me to your humble abode."
Roy growled. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded. "I've never seen you before."
There was a slight pause before the man suddenly stepped forward. His blazing red eyes met with Roy's, sending the young Colonel backwards in surprise.
"An Ishbalan!" he barely whispered in shock.
With a fluid motion, his attacker drew three needles from a pocket and he gripped them between his fingers like claws, slashing them through the air at Roy's chest.
Colonel Mustang let out a pained cry as the sharp weapons met with his flesh, tearing both his shirt and skin. A fine spray of dark red blood sprayed through the air, sparkling amongst the rain. He slowly slumped to the ground holding his chest painfully. His black hair fell in front of his eyes as he fought to regain his breath through his pain.
Riza could barely control the panic that slowly threatened to consume the remaining sanity that she possessed. "Colonel!" she cried helplessly, feeling her right arm buckle in the slippery mud. She slumped on her side on the ground, but strained with her sore muscles to push herself back up straight.
"An Ishbalan, you say? Did my red eyes give me away, Colonel Mustang?" The masked man stepped forward towards Roy, and leaned over him slightly. "You may have been able to guess my race, but it is quite clear you do not remember as to who I am."
Roy lifted his head, and Riza could feel a twinge of guilt, seeing the pain in his eyes.
"What is this, some pathetic attempt at revenge?" Roy managed to mutter through his clenched teeth. "Let me guess- you were involved in the war? Are you going after the soldiers and alchemists who slaughtered your people? It's not quite the most original idea, I'm afraid… I've heard stories like yours before. You think it's right to kill to avenge a death, but there's no way you can exchange a life for a life!"
"Colonel…" Riza whispered, listening to her Colonel's brave words to his attacker. Even in the face of death, he was as cocky as ever.
"Original? You'd like to hear something original?"
The blonde Lieutenant shifted her gaze to stare up at the tall shrouded man who had just spoken. She squinted her eyes to prevent the rain from blurring her vision, and was surprised to see him lift a hand and tear away the bandages that covered his facial features. Her eyes widened as the last bandage was stripped away.
The man's face was deeply scarred and deformed, seemingly from a burn of some kind. His skin color was deeply tanned and discolored in some places and seemed as consistent as leather.
"I'm sure there were many Ishbalans that you destroyed during the war, Colonel Mustang, but there weren't many who survived your fire attacks. If you want an original story, Mr. Flame Alchemist, try to think back on the young Ishbalan boy you crossed paths with during your rampage of genocide. He hesitated in firing his rifle at you only because somewhere inside of his innocent heart there may have been a shred of decency and humanity. You pointed that dammed glove at him and at that very instant he was doomed to a hermitic life of pain and suffering as you transmuted your hellfire onto his face and body." He grinned, showing off rotting jagged teeth that sat crooked in his mouth. "Is that original enough for you, Colonel? You see? You and I go way back."
Roy was in shock. He had instantly recognized the man's scars to have been inflicted by burns, but he had never imagined that the young Ishbalan boy he suddenly so clearly remembered could be the same man that stood before him at present. At a loss for words, the Colonel was momentarily lost in his painful memories.
The man bent forward and lifted the Colonel's shredded glove from the ground, removing the long slender needle as well. "The pain of burning alive physically does not nearly compare to the pain of being shunned from your own people- from the entire world because of a mere flesh wound." He spoke, his voice growing dark and angry. "I spent so many years plotting the perfect way to return the deed."
He turned around slowly and stared down at Riza who was currently stretching her arm in an attempt to reach her gun once again. He effortlessly knocked her arm away, hearing her cry of pain as a painful cracking sound could be heard coming from her shoulder.
"Not long ago I ran into a young boy who had lost his older sister to the dogs of the military. He was distraught and heartbroken, with a mere goal to learn alchemy so that he could hope to trade himself into the army to take her place. When he had sought her out after the war to beg her to return home, he found that she had turned her back on him, only turning her loyalties towards her Colonel and no one else. What was he to do without the support of his sister? I took him in and taught him the ways of alchemy; the forbidden practices of my people that I had learned in the time I was in lonely exile. In return, he gave me the information I needed to keep a watch on his sister, of course because she would lead me directly to her Colonel- the man who ruined the life I once knew." The man grinned again. "Does it hurt to feel so used, Miss. Hawkeye? Your own brother was indeed the most important pawn in this game."
Riza lashed out at him at grasped his leg in a trained death-grip. "You're a fucking bastard!" she cried. "How can you bear to manipulate such an innocent young boy! He's confused and lost… and you're only using him to turn him into a cold-blooded murder like you! What kind of a life is that!"
The man snarled in distaste at her touch, and swung his other leg behind the one she held and struck her in the neck with the back of his heel.
Instantly, Riza lost her grip against him and fell backwards against the wet grass, clutching her neck in pain.
"Don't worry, my dear, your brother only had the best intentions in mind. I was sure he wouldn't assist me if I had told him my true intentions, so of course I convinced him that I was only trying to get back at the Colonel for brain-washing you into staying in the military. His contempt for the Flame Alchemist was enough to fall for it, you see."
He watched her clutching her neck still, writhing in pain as she tried to move it. When her eyes finally met back with his, her face twisted into hatred.
"If I were you, Lieutenant, I'd be more displeased with myself for your actions earlier tonight. If I recall, you did fire your gun blindly back at your home. Did you check to see your attacker's face before you shot them?"
Memories of earlier that night came flying back to Riza suddenly as she felt her heart threaten to stop beating in her chest from shock.
She had seen someone in her house… she heard them running behind her as she made her escape… when they had thrust themselves against her car she had fired her gun out of reflex. Never once had she actually seen their face or heard their voice; she had been too scared, too panicked.
"It was Jason…?" she whispered in shock, her voice quivering uncontrollably. In her mind's eye, she could imagine her young brother lying on the curbside before her house, reaching out to her in a silent plea for help as she had sped away; blood covering his abdomen.
"I… I shot Jason!"
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Author's Notes
I have been in somewhat of a writer's block… like whoa times two plus yeahh.
I know it took me forever to update, but this was a really hard chapter to progress with… but I am pretty sure that I like the way it came out after all. Yeah… umm I really don't know what else to write. The stuff in this chapter is self explanatory, and pretty much is a source of explanation from earlier on in the story.
Thanks for reading… you guys rawk! 3
xoxo