Under the Weight of Your Wings

Raeluvs

A/N: Okay, if this chapter sucks, it's due to the fact that it's a rewrite. My original (God rest it's well-written soul) perished sadly with my old computer which promptly blew up today. Yes. It blew up. Smoke came out and everything and it is now a pile of garbage that I am going to kill with a flamethrower (if I had a flamethrower) My technological weekend sucked; I soaked my cell phone and it's dead, and I killed my laptop (well, it was six years old, so…) Okay, done babbling, I apologize. So, I'm trying again.

Light Recap- Roy is faced with Greed, the homunculus with the expression of Maes Hughes. He's given a pistol, one shot, and the words "I am your sin". What does this all mean? Will Roy choose the right target, or will Riza meet her end? These questions will be answered and new ones will arise in this action-packed chapter of Under the Weight of Your Wings.

Chapter 6- Mine and Mine Alone

Behind the ropes and gags, Riza was strangely calm. Her face was slick with perspiration, her eyes were straining to keep blurry eyes on Roy, and the ropes cut into her wrists painfully; she looked horrified. Maybe she was; she wasn't particularly sure anymore. It was as though she was watching an old reel of film from outside herself, studying the storyline as it gradually progressed and waiting for the next event that would twist the plot. Which of the two damsels in distress would the hero choose; would he realize who the real lady was, or would he fall victim to the charms of the villainous imposter? She viewed it with vague interest and waited for the next scene to unfold.

Roy stood with his mouth hanging slightly agape, eyes erratically sizing up the form of the man opposite him. Panic was dead-set into his veins; the handle of the gun was cold against his palm. Greed looked at him almost amused, a thin smirk plain on his face, smugness scarred into his perfectly carved face. Roy snapped his mouth shut abruptly, his eyes darting to the Oruborus tattooed into his palm.

"Leave Riza out of this," Roy growled, snapping his arms straight and aiming the gun directly between Greed's eyes. Riza and Envy both respectively looked up at the sound of the name. Envy grinned to himself behind the gag; there was no way that the Flame Alchemist could ever win this. Greed looked mockingly hurt; he shrugged his shoulders. Roy stared wrathfully at this being before him,

This monster…

"Now why would I want to do that?" he asked, his voice sardonically oblivious.

"You're my sin." Roy breathed, his voice almost inaudible. Riza's eyes widened upon hearing this. "Mine alone."

'His sin?' she thought, observing the reel in her mind. 'Didn't the Elrics say that homunculi were created from the result of a failed…?' Behind the gag, she gasped in shock.

"Be that as it may," Greed answered, smiling as he stepped forward, "that would take all the fun out of our little game." He clamped his tarnished hand atop the barrel of the pistol and lowered it carefully, staring Roy directly between the eyes.

"Now is that how you want to waste your one bullet?" he asked, his voice scathing. Roy wrenched the gun back to his center and glared at Greed.

"This is no game! You're toying with people's lives!" he shouted, his voice caustic. Flame danced in his eyes, fury burning in his chest.

"But don't you see, Roy?" Greed asked, running a casual hand through his hair. He stepped back and leaned carelessly against the wall, sliding his hand back into his pocket. His voice was soft, but his words were cruel, carrying on the thickness of the air. "Life is a game… and if you can't win it," golden eyes glimmered under the flickering limelight of the dimly lit room, a pale glare gleaming off of his glasses.

"Then don't play."

Roy felt a tremor snake down his spine; his hands trembled so slightly on the handle of the gun. Wordlessly, he turned to face the Lieutenants that sat before him.

Ebony eyes roamed the appearance of the two; they looked remarkably alike, from the rope burns at their wrists to the creases of their clothes and even the expressions on their faces.

'There has to be some alternate plan,' Roy thought absently, 'Even if I shoot Envy, he won't die so easily; homunculi have multiple lives or can be destroyed with their weakness, which I don't know. And even if I was to kill Envy and free Riza, Greed wouldn't just let me walk out. And if I shot Riza…' his heart leaped into his throat with the mere thought.

'I'm the one gambling with people's lives, her life.' He realized, his gun wavering in twitching fingers. 'Her future depends on the pull of this trigger and I can't even tell which one is her! I…

'…love her!'

Envy chuckled inwardly beneath his terrified appearance. He watched Roy scour the room for some shred of hope, but his cause was in vain. Here in the bowels of this church, he was the farthest thing from God. Prayer would not save him now, and blessings would not befall this wounded lamb cast away into darkness.

'Sorry, Flame.' He thought wickedly, 'in our world, we don't do miracles, and we don't do mercy.'

Riza was tired, so tired. Woozily, her head pitched forward; she waited for the click of the trigger and the echo of thunder, a sound she was so accustomed to, one that she did not fear. The film strip repeated again and again across russet eyes like words on a typewriter, reiterating time after time. Envy cast his head to the side, appearing even more distressed.

Roy looked at the back of Riza's neck as her head dropped, catching a glimpse of red. Dried blood encrusted the nape just below her hair; he remembered the pictures of her the Greed had showed her. A dark pool had appeared around her in those photographs. Detaching himself from his fear for a moment, he looked at Envy.

No blood.

Lost in just that moment, he raised his arms rigidly and aimed his gun, so tense, on the brink of losing that shred of control. Envy watched the realization creep into his face; he scowled behind the cloth.

'Shit.'

He looked at Greed and nodded once, just enough for him to see. Greed glided beside Roy silently so as not to disturb the taciturn intensity that hung as fog in the air. His head hovered directly next to Roy's ear and he whispered,

"Bang."

Roy jerked off balance, his hand instinctively gripping the pistol in his hand. Morphing to his original form, Envy darted forward and leaped over the top of the gun, hand clamping atop the barrel and wrenching it to the side, locking directly at Riza's heart.

Click.

The room was split by a sound of thunder.

Detached, russet eyes beneath a lock of blonde hair watched the screen chatter and fray, the film twisting and spiraling off of the spool. The distant whirring of the cache droned to a distant silence as the film slowed; the last scene faded to black.

A/N: Well, what a problem we have. Roy discovers, "Ohmygod, I love Riza!" and he shoots her. What a predicament, no? Kinda short, sorry. Stay tuned for Chapter 7- In This Darkness.

Raeluvs