HEIR TO THE FLAME

CHAPTER 24: Why Things Must Change

Roy groaned again at the steering wheel. "Why is your family reunion so far away?" he moaned, his eyes still locked onto the road. It was easily apparent that Roy was not very comfortable with driving, the way his hands were clenching the wheel until his knuckles were white, and the way he clenched his teeth and seemed not to realize it. He stopped at a stop sign and Riza put her hand on his and smiled at him, and he sighed. "Don't get so worked up; it's only driving."

"ButI don't like driving! I hate driving!" he howled.

"Why?"

"Why? When I was little, my dad used to drive me to and from work, just anywhere he had to go. One day, he was driving to the store to get something... a present for my mom's birthday, I think, and another car just slammed into us. I was terrified, I thought the world had ended right there. I was just happily sitting there, doing whatever I was doing, and suddenly 'WHAM', something big and black pulverizes our car and sends it spinning out over a bridge! Now here I am, five or six years old, sitting there in the back seat paralyzed, scared out of my mind, while my dad is still trying to figure out what on earth happened and if he's missing any parts of his body, hanging over water from a bridge. In the first place, I can't swim, second of all, I don't think I would have tried if I could.

Eventually they managed to pull the car back and take Dad and I to the hospital, he had his arm and leg broken, but I was fine, if only severly traumatized, and that's why I don't like driving!"

Telling the story seemed to have calmed him down a bit and he continued to drive, his eyes sweeping the road like a hawk. "Mom was furious when we got back, and Dad sort of just grinned at her and said we had a 'minor accident'. Mom didn't think it was so minor when Dad had a leg and an arm broken, and I was still shaking."

"You can't swim?" Riza inquired.

"Not very well," Roy admitted. "I just never got the hang of it; Maes and Jean gave me grief over it for years until-" he stopped abruptly, realizing what he had almost said, remembering what he was about to say. "Until your father was executed?"

He nodded. "You know..." he said hollowly. "They're making these new photo slides to show to new recruits."

She didn't know where he was going with this and let him continue.

"It's about Fraternization, I nearly threw up when I saw it."

"Why?"

"You'll understand. You should watch it."

Riza nodded and didn't say anything more. It was obvious that Roy was still extremely sore in the area where his parents, especially his father, were concerned. "I don't think it's fair," he began.

"Why do they kill people, kill children, just because they're fraternized? Is it really such a sin to fraternize at all? Is there something wrong with it? Are fraternized children some kind of freak shows or something?"

"They're scared, Roy."

"Of what?" Roy snorted.

"Take you for example; the son of two alchemists, two very powerful alchemists, can be a dangerous threat to the military."

"Or it can be yet another weapon to use and to break," Roy said bitterly. "If it weren't for my dream, I wouldn't stand for another minute under the military. I'd just... I don't know, but I'd do something! I wouldn't have to blow people up for the military, I could just be... normal."

Normal. But what was normal? His entire family had been in the service of the military for generations, possibly since the military had begun. There had not been a single year of military history that had not seen a Mustang in the ranks, but now... the military was rotten, and his dream was to change that. When he was Fuhrer, there would be changes, big changes. There would be no more execution for Fraternizing, no more needless wars, no more use of alchemists against their will, no sexual discrimination (that one was for Riza), and perhaps... just perhaps... TINY MINISKIRTS!

Riza must have seen the change in his thinking through his facial expression because she smacked him in the head, hard. His head flew forward and smashed itself into the steering wheel until he pulled it back up with effort.

"You were thinking of miniskirts again," she said accusingly.

"Why can't you wear it just once?" he asked, and she directed another glare at him. "Because, you big skirt chaser-" Roy gasped, but Riza ignored him and continued, "I won't be another one of your little playthings to keep on your arm as ornamentation!"

"B-but, I wouldn't do that!" he said indignantly. Skirt-chaser indeed! "I told you I've settled down, and I never 'chased skirts' anyway!"

"Mm-hmm."

"Is that jealousy I detect in your voice, Elizabeth Hawkeye Mustang?"

"I'm not Elizabeth Hawkeye Mustang yet!"

"Ah, but you will be!"

"Just, just keep driving, Roy."

Roy whistled cheerfully as the roads eventually became coated with snow, and Riza directed him to a medium sized house on the outskirts of North City. She got out of the car with Junior at her waist and let him flail about trying to catch the snowflakes falling on his nose. He was delighted with them, and so was Black Hayate, who woofed and tried to chase and catch every snowflake in sight. There was already quite a gathering at the house; it was almost completely dark outside, so they were just on time. Roy got out of the car as well and waved to the gathering. "Family?" he asked.

She nodded and Roy whistled. "Wow, didn't know you had so much. I don't think I ever had that much family."

Riza sighed. She would have to face all of her relatives now. Her cheek pinching aunts, kissy grandmothers, her gossipy cousins, boastful uncles... the only ones she regarded as sane were her maternal grandfather, her father, and her brother. She took Roy's hand and quickly led him up the slope, just the way she remembered doing as a little girl. If you didn't head up the right way, you would slip and hit your head, not to mention slide all the way back down.

She handed Junior to Roy and Roy shifted Junior to one arm. Junior squealed in protest, not wanting to be carried by his father. He's a mommy's boy alright. Roy thought, amused.

Junior settled down before they got to the top and was soon snoozing, his face buried into Roy's black and red scarf. Black Hayate barked loudly and Jack looked up and waved, pulling on his father's sleeve to get his attention.

Jack ran towards them and swooped up Riza in his arms, and Riza beat him around the head rather uncerimoniously. "Put me down, you big ape!"

"Ape! You come back home and this is what I get? Not 'How are you doing, Jack?', noooo, I get 'Put me down, you big ape!'. The indignity of it all!" He said playfully, but put her down all the same. He wasn't fond of his sister beating him over the head, and he rubbed it tenderly. "Owww..."

Their father came up quickly behind his son. "I'm glad you could come, Elizabeth... how was the trip?"

"It was fine for me, but I think Roy's all tired ou-" She stopped when she saw Roy attacking the wine and chatting rather animatedly to General Grummon with Junior still sleeping against his scarf.

"So much for being tired," she sighed. "Has anything changed around here?" Jackory shook his head, looking back to the house briefly. "No... same old same old... it's been lonely since your mother died... but I'm holding up alright, I suppose."

"You could have written," she pointed out, and he looked surprised.

"I did! But you never answered any of the letters!"

"You did? They never got to me."

"Curse communication difficulties... I'll try harder to get mail to you, Elizabeth."

"Send it to Roy's house, I stay with him now."

"Oh, you do? Ahhh... young love..." he started to drift off and daydream in the middle of his sentence, but snapped himself back to attention. "Anyway, there've been some things I've been meaning to give you... I didn't trust the mail, and now it's better that I didn't, isn't i-" he stopped and his eyes narrowed, focusing on something behind Riza.

"You have company, Daughter," he said. He walked past her and planted himself firmly in front of her, in between her and General Haruko. Roy, who had been a ways off to let Riza socialize with her immediate family stopped all of his activities, yet he and Grummon pretended they were talking so they could assess what was happening. Roy didn't like it. Why wasa general here at a family reunion? And this particular general... it made his blood boil.

"I've just come to tell the First Lieutenant that she is being repositioned in my district again," he said, and Roy wanted to scream.

Jackory reguarded him calmly. "But she was taken out of your district a short while ago."

"There was an... incident. On a train. I am back now,"

"Still, she was redistricted. And what business do you have, coming on my property?"

"I don't think you are in a position to make inquiries. You are a civilian, so stand aside."

Jackory had heard all about Riza's current situation from Jack, and that was all he had needed to hear. "I refuse." The party started to mumble uneasily and Jackory raised his voice. "I refuse!"

Everything became deathly silent.

"If you refuse the orders of a military official, you will be charged with obstruction of duty. I will be authorized to deal with you as I see fit."

Jackory grinned at him lazily and looked back at Riza, slowly looked at Roy, then jerked his head in the direction of the house. She backed up two steps and Jackory folded his arms over his chest. "I'm still a young man, let's see if I can't still obstruct your duty. Do your worst, you... you..." anger started to rise in his voice and his face became truly furious. "YOU MILITARY SCUM!"

Roy and Jack had already started for the house after Riza had passed them. Jack ushered them quickly up the steps. "If anything breaks out, you'll be safe in the house," he told them. "Dad'll take care of everything!" Roy looked back at the general and Riza's father, still squaring off, worriedly. "Will he be alright?"

"Sure he will. Dad used to be one of the military too, a sniper and an alchemist. Maybe you heard of him? He was the GoldenEye Alchemist."

The GoldenEye Alchemist... an alchemist and a sniper, the GoldenEye Alchemist was famous for his stealth operations, his infalliable eye as a marksman. Not only that... but not one mission that he had been sent on had been failed, all were carried out to perfect precision... the cause for his retirement was unknown.

Jack opened the lock to the house hurriedly and pushed them inside, closing it shut behind him.

"What about everyone else? What if a gunfight starts?" Roy asked.

"I doubt Haruko will want to start a feud with twenty gunwielding members of the Hawkeye family. You may not have realized it, but every one of them was armed. If he values his life, Haruko will submit. Either he will submit, or Father will kill him."

"That a bit..."

"Rash? Father... has reasons to hate the military. So do we."

"So what's the deal?" he asked, trying to comfort a frightened Junior. Jack lit a lampand light glowed in the room. It was a living room, a main room, and above the fireplace, next to assorted couches and shelf upon shelf of books, was a large picture. A large picture of a woman.

"That was our mother," Riza said softly. "She was killed by the military when we were small. One of the officers supposedly went for a check, because there had been threats of violence in the main district of North City... Mom worked at one of the clothing stores in that district, and... and..."

"They accused her of being the one that orchestrated the threats of violence. They took her away and put her to death. They... they... they shot her in front of Father!"

"That's when he resigned from the military. He swore he would never go back, never give in to the military again. He... he hates them, he really hates them, with all his heart," Riza finished, and Roy mulled over her words.

"So why did you join? You must have known how strongly he would have opposed it."

"I thought... I thought I could make a difference, maybe I could find a person who could change things. And I did."

"Me?" Roy asked, and she nodded. He frowned, looking faraway and in deep thought.

"I thought I'd be able to change things too. But nothing will happen right away; I have you, and Junior... no, everyone, my subordinates, my friends... even Fullmetal, whether he likes it or not. I have to protect you, and to do that I'll do whatever it takes to become Fuhrer... we'll figure this out. Somehow."

For anyone who is interested, the sequel to Halfmetal Alchemist, Halfmetal Guardian: War of Broken Memories has been posted on FFNet. Check it out and review, if you feel like it. Hope you guys like this chapter as well, though it's taken a bit of a more serious tone than last chapter's. I liked the last chapter too, Riza had her revenge, mwahahahahahaaaa!

-T A