The Golden Sun: Chapter Twenty-Four: The Ishvalan Civil War

AN: I've been trying to handle the genocide and ethnocide of the Ishvalans as delicately as possible, so a huge thank you to my Jewish followers who let me know when I'm doing that well.

The Havoc-Ed relationship was a brotp you weren't expecting, but here we are.


Riza had known it was coming. She'd been irritated that Havoc had taken such a long break, but when he'd explained that he'd taken Ed to lunch and talked with him awhile, it made more sense. She let him off easy that time, but she couldn't help the spike of unease when he'd told her that he'd steered Ed in her direction in regards to the War.

The idea of talking about the war to someone who was Ishvalan by blood did nothing for her anxiety.

But she hadn't been surprised to come home to see Ed leaning against the wall next to her door -her neighbor had seen fit to stop her and inform her of the 'suspicious character' lingering outside her door and did she want him to call the police, which Riza was appalled by because she was a member of the military and also because Ed with his exotic gold eyes and darker skin automatically resulted in people viewing him as foreign and a reason to be racist- just staring down at his feet, testing his left foot, lifting it and setting it down like he was reminding himself of its weight.

"Hello, Edward," she said as she approached her door and he looked up, seeming a bit skittish to her.

"Hi," Ed said awkwardly, tugging at the end of his braid, "Havoc said—" He shook his head quickly. "Havoc suggested I talk to you."

Riza nodded, moving past him to unlock her door. "Why don't you come in?"

The tension that had been clear to see in his shoulders lightened slightly and he entered her apartment quietly rather than his usual stomping, something Roy had always insisted he put on for show to emphasize his metal leg, but none of them had been completely sure.

Riza tugged off her jacket, hanging it on a hook before pulling out her kettle and Ed sat wordlessly in an open seat at her table, recovering quickly from Black Hayate's flying leap at him moments before. Neither of them so much as spoke as the water boiled and she poured it into two cups. "Something specific on your mind, Ed?"

Ed's fingers interlocked around the cup she'd given him, waiting for the tea leaves to steep in its bag. The metal was a contrast with the flesh. "It must be pretty pathetic," he said finally, "to not realize that my mom was Ishvalan." He pulled a picture out of his pocket to show her and Riza took it from him; it must've been around the time she'd passed away, since Ed and Al looked about four and five.

Surprise bloomed across Riza's face at those words and at the picture. Ed and Al's mother was a beautiful woman with dark brown hair and skin much lighter than her son's -inherited from her non-Ishvalan parent, undoubtedly- but the ruby red of her eyes gave away her ancestry. But Riza knew that face, not completely well, but her father had many pictures of the two of them together. Riza had never heard her last name and had never considered that the Trisha her father spoke so fondly of was actually Ed and Al's mother.

"You were young," she said simply and Ed sighed.

"Yeah, Gerah said that too," he muttered and Riza cast him a confused look. "He's an Ishvalan in Resembool that got on really well with Mom…I guess we didn't really realize how unusual our upbringing was until we left Resembool."

Riza smiled faintly.

Ed shook himself. "I know it's a…difficult topic," his eyes shifted to the side, no doubt remembering the haunted look in Roy's eyes and how ill he seemed to be on Meat Day, "but could I ask you about Ishval?"

"You can," Riza said slowly, carefully, "but you might not like what you hear…did you have any family in Ishval during the war?"

Ed frowned suddenly in thought. "Grandma Binah was from Emunah and she'd moved away a long time before the war, before she met Granddad, but her sister still lived in Emunah…I think Mom had two cousins, but she said—" His mouth twisted faintly. "She said the Lieb family stretched as far as the eye could see."

Thankfully, Riza had never been to Emunah during her deployment, but that didn't mean that she hadn't killed anyone in his family, just that the likelihood had gone down.

She pitied the day that Solf Kimblee, the Crimson Lotus Alchemist that devastated Emunah, ever crossed paths with Ed.

Riza took a sip of her tea and Ed did the same. Then she removed her gun from its holster, and began to clean it slowly.

"You probably know that Ishval and Amestris had a lot of clashes in the past and at one point Ishval had been annexed to a region in the southeast of Amestris, near the Eastern Desert." She looked up just to be sure, and Ed nodded. "There's always been a bit of religious and cultural tensions between Amestrians and Ishvalans, but the two regions had been at relative peace until 1901 when an Amestrian soldier accidentally shot and killed an Ishvalan child."

Ed recoiled sharply and Riza was sure that that detail was something that had never made it to the history books. "What?" His eyes were wide and stunned. "But how do you accidentally shoot and kill a child?"

"No shot to the head could be construed as an accident," Riza said tiredly. She'd made far too many of those shots for them to be accidents and no amounting of bending over backwards would change that; hearing people laud her as the infamous 'Hawk's Eye' that cut down so many in the War made her stomach churn. "Senseless murder inciting rebellion isn't that uncommon, historically speaking…but the response was explosive on both sides." Riza tried not to shudder. "Ishval exploded in a storm of riots and protests until the situation had become an all-out civil war, causing massive casualties on both sides. Though the Amestrian Military had the Ishvalans outnumbered by far, Ishvalan rebels were able to keep the conflict going due to a steady supply of munitions from the neighboring country of Aerugo, which aided the rebels in order to weaken Amestris' southern border for their own gains."

"Of course," Ed grumbled under his breath, taking another sip of his tea.

Riza's thin smile was without feeling. "The fighting continued to spread until the entire East Area of Amestris had become a war zone. But it was only in 1908, a full seven years since the conflict had begun, that it became total hell in Ishval."

Ed swallowed thickly, remembering a particular day when his mother had been cursing Bradley -and there were many- but this one stuck out in his mind. "Order 3066."

Riza nodded hollowly. "It started simply, with Ishvalans soldiers in the military being stripped of their rank and imprisoned as traitors."

"Are they still in prison?" Ed had the sudden urge for a prison break, but his heart fell into his stomach when she shook her head.

There were some things she felt were too cruel to tell a fourteen-year-old just discovering the truth about his lineage, and speaking of how those men and other captives of the war had been experimented on was a bit much for even her to swallow.

(She never knew the full extent of those experiments and, personally, Riza hoped she never did)

Most combat was blind, a normal soldier might fire erratically without a clear target in mind, but it was different for snipers, someone was sure to die when they pulled the trigger, and that was something Riza was coming to live with.

There was a long silence, broken only by her continuing on. "Then they sent State Alchemists into the front lines to act as human weapons…it worked, of course, decisively, and horrifically, ending the war and near exterminating an entire people."

Ed flinched hard and Riza was sorry for that, sorry for what part she'd played in robbing him and his brother of their mother's rich culture, but he had come to her for the unbridled truth and she was giving it to him, no matter how unfortunate it was.

"I was still in the academy when I first became involved in the Ishvalan campaign." Riza needed something to do with her hands so she began to meticulously clean her gun -slowly because she could so how skittish it made Ed-, "and, I don't know if you know this, but cadets are sent to the battlefield during their final year for on-sight training."

Ed shook his head. He'd never heard of that rule before, but, then again, they weren't technically at war currently; the occasional skirmishes with Drachma and Aurego didn't count.

"Well," Riza shrugged, "I was deployed to Ishval because my school was in the Easter Region, but the main reason was the troop shortage on the Ishvalan front; they took anyone they could get." Her hands tightened slightly. "After that, I was dragged deeper and deeper into the warzone."

"How old were you?" Ed was biting his tongue to keep from coming off too horrified but he didn't think it was working all too well.

"Seventeen," Riza said, remembering all too well what it had been like back then. She hadn't even had her friend Rebecca Catalina by her side as a comforting presence within the chaos of the massacre, but she supposed that was fitting for a murderer like her. "Not much older than you are now…and my father would've been rolling in his grave the second I decided on this path."

Ed remembered her telling him how her father had trained Mustang in alchemy. "He didn't like the military?"

"He detested the military," Riza's mouth twisted faintly, "there was only ever one person in the military he could stand and that was only because your mother joined only to help her mother live comfortably."

He'd lifted his teacup only to set it down in surprise. "My mom knew your dad?"

"They were old friends." Riza stood up suddenly, disappearing into her living room, briefly rummaging before coming back with a picture of the two of them together, handing it over to Ed who blinked in surprise.

"Oh," he said, "that's your dad? We've got a copy of it."

Riza nodded, taking the picture back from Ed. "She was good to me, and very kind…I guess she and Al are a lot alike." She smiled faintly at Ed.

"Yeah, I think they are," Ed said, still thinking about how Olivier had said he reminded her of Trisha. He shook those thoughts off. "But you still joined up."

Riza's smile fell. "I did," she agreed. "I had someone I had to protect."

Ed wasn't stupid, not by a long shot, but he could read between the lines.

"Mustang," he muttered under his breath and Riza inclined her head in agreement.

"I won't say that his reasons for joining the military weren't good," she told him, "because I truly think they were good reasons and he's still a very ambitious man who wants to change this country for the better, but the way the State Alchemists were used…Order 3066 itself…it's still all very horrifying to think about."

Ed looked down into the remaining tea in his cup. The only thing he could feel was Black Hayate milling about on his feet. He didn't know if talking to Hawkeye had even made him feel better. He was grateful to Havoc for what he'd done, getting him away and telling him stories and offering advice, but he still didn't know what he thought.

Hawkeye had killed people in Ishval, maybe even Emunah, where his family was from, perhaps not as much as Mustang hand, but his people's blood was on her hands and her acknowledgement of that hurt as much as it soothed.

"Does it feel better to hear it from me?" Riza asked.

"No," Ed said tiredly.

"I didn't think it would." Ed's head shot up in surprise and she could see the question forming on his mouth.

"Then why—?" Ed couldn't even finish the question, too flummoxed.

"Edward," Riza was very patient with him, like she'd always been, "you have a right to ask what it like, to ask about the experience from my perspective, but I can't make up your mind for you…I can tell you many of us didn't want to be there, didn't want to kill anyone, but what we wanted didn't matter because that's what we did…and there was a day when Lieutenant Colonel Hughes and I found the Colonel with a pistol in his mouth and had to talk him down from pulling the trigger."

An uneasy horror settled in Ed's bones and on his face, clear to see. He was familiar by now with Roy's PTSD and his insomnia to know that the war had profoundly affected him, but Roy had never talked about with Ed, which would probably alleviate a lot of the issues that had sprung up between the two overnight.

"People see Roy as a Hero and he sees himself as a monster who thinks of you and Al as the one bright thing in his life."

Heat rose in Ed's cheeks and he shifted his eyes immediately away, dropping a hand to pat the top of Hayate's head, the dog nuzzling happily at the attention. "I'm sure that's not true," he muttered, "the way he looks at you…"

Riza's mouth twisted faintly in a sad smile. Did she love Roy? Absolutely. But did she also know that fraternization in the military was heavily frowned upon? Yes. And did she also know that Roy wasn't in an emotionally healthy space to begin dating? Yes.

She'd told him that she would walk through hell with him and for him, she was there to protect him, but she wasn't ready to give up that position for wife or girlfriend.

"I'm not the one he's got a picture of on his desk," she said and Ed choked on his tea. "He was the kind of person to tell Hughes everything you and Al had been up to, like a proud father. Trust me on this, you two are the bright spots in his life and one day you're all going to have to talk it out."

Ed preferred using his fists.

Who knew, maybe that would be just as effective.

He stood up quickly. "Thanks for the tea, Lieutenant…and everything else."

"No problem," Riza said, but she couldn't help but think about what Kimblee had said to her on the battlefield.

"When you drop an enemy, can you tell me in all honesty that you don't, for a moment, indulge the satisfaction and pride of a job well done, Miss Sharpshooter?"

No, Riza could say that with certainty. If anyone in the military was a monster, apart from the Fuhrer who had drafted and enacted Order 3066 in the first place (the horrible irony that the man whose actions had led to the senseless murders of hundreds if not thousands of families going home to be a kind father to his son didn't escape Riza), it was Solf J Kimblee.

The man was utterly psychotic and it was honestly a miracle that he was even still employed by the military given his violent tendencies.

One day, Riza knew, he was going to snap and realize that bombing Central would solve a lot of his problems.

"But, Ed?" He paused, pulling his coat up over his arms. "Did the Colonel ever tell you why he wants to become Fuhrer?"

Ed shook his head. He just knew that that was Mustang's highest ambition and it was one that many of the higher-ups didn't approve of (though that might've had partially to do with the fact that he was half-Xingese).

"He wishes those that were praised as heroes during the war to be brought to trial as war criminals."

Ed jolted and got a strange look on his face, caught somewhere between wrathfully angry, horrified, and perhaps even a sliver of justice. It was a look that didn't surprise her, so she couldn't be offended by it. Ed and Al's people had been senselessly slaughtered, even when they weren't the cause of the war, it made sense to want some retribution for that.

His automail hand creaked as he tightened it into a fist and he turned away from her, his head bowed forward slightly before he straightened, clearing his throat and leaving silently.

But when Riza checked the door knob later, she'd find a large dent in it from the grip of his hand.


"Are you okay?"

Ed, who'd walked home -not that it was very far from Hawkeye's apartment in the first place-, had only just shut the door behind him and leaned against it when a voice jolted him out of his thoughts and he tried not to jump terribly at the sight of Ling Yao, looking as good as ever -which did absolutely nothing for Ed-, his brow furrowed in concern.

"Oh, yeah," Ed said, rubbing a hand over his face, "it's just…" He thought about dealing with the whole issue of Shou Tucker's bastardization of alchemy that had made him vomit his stomach contents into the nearest toilet the first moment he'd been free, if he'd gone right from that into the Ishvalan War, Ed was sure he'd've passed out by now. Luckily, Havoc had given him a reprieve halfway through with food and stories that he was going to make him tell Al as soon as he got back to town; Al's memories of Mom weren't as solid as Ed's, and he was a big fan of stories. "It's just been a long day," he admitted finally.

He brushed his bangs back, standing a bit more fully. "How's Lanfan?"

"She's managing," came Fu's voice and Ed peered into the living room were Lanfan had evidently set up shop on the couch with an assortment of pillows and blankets while Fu sat on the distant arm of the couch. Fu looked up from his granddaughter to cast a grateful look towards Ed, who was getting a bit embarrassed from all of them. "Thank you…when is your friend coming to see her?"

Ed had almost forgotten about Winry and he checked his pocket watch. "Her train should be getting in soon."

It probably would've been earlier, but Winry had to get through some last repairs to clients in Rush Valley, since she did have an apprenticeship and just leaving off without an explanation probably wouldn't earn her any points, even if Garfiel was pretty understanding about those things, from what Winry had said, at least.

He didn't have the chance to explain that coherently when the phone suddenly rang and Ed lamented about his day being an absolute bitch before he lifted it and answered. "Yeah?"

"Edward." Teacher's severe voice made Ed wince as he pressed a hand over his eyes.

"Uh, Teacher! Hi," Ed forced a bit of false cheer into his voice, "how's everything with Al?"

"Not so good," Teacher said and Ed drew his hand back in surprise. "How soon can you get out here?"

Unease settled in Ed's stomach like he'd swallowed a piece of iron. "Why, what happened?" He was fully aware that he had the attention of Fu, Lanfan, and Ling, but it wasn't like he could just go into another room; the cord on the phone only stretched so far.

"We're not really sure…it's almost like he…passed out."

"Passed out?" Ed asked in incomprehension. "What do you mean 'passed out'?"

"What d'you think I mean, moron?" Teacher snarled and Ed quailed like he was in the same room as her. "I mean he was walking to go back to the train station and he just keeled over and we can't get him to wake up, so maybe you should get your ass over here and see if you're any better at it."

"I'm on my way, I'm on my way," Ed said quickly, hanging up and running up the stairs to stuff a spare set of clothes in his bag and racing down just a quickly. "Are you guys gonna be okay for a day or two—" Or however long it took. "–on your own?"

Ever since they came to town it was like Ed was rushing around ninety percent of the time but it wasn't like he'd planned for his life to be this hectic.

"I'm sure we'll manage," Fu assured him and Ed bumped Lanfan's fist with a promise that Winry would be over soon before practically racing out of the door.


Winry would've been fine traveling on her own, she'd done it before, but it really warmed her heart that Paninya was so eager to join her. Winry wouldn't say that they were connected at the hip, but things had been going pretty well since they'd seen Ed and Al off in Rush Valley.

She'd met Paninya's family, the LeCoultes, who'd just kind of taken in Paninya after she'd been abandoned as a child and Dominic was actually the one to build Paninya's automail legs that Winry was in awe of -he was still refusing to share his technique, but Winry was kinda okay with that, because she had Mr. Garfiel to teach her- and they all seemed so thrilled that Paninya had found her soulmate.

Dominic's daughter-in-law, Satella had found it incredibly romantic; she and her husband were markless but that didn't stop them from being as lovey-dovey as possible.

Paninya had stopped stealing from tourists as much -which, apparently, had been her favorite pastime that Winry had neglected to write home about- and helped out more with repairs and cleaning, which she said was only to pay for taking Winry out to lunch as much as she liked, which made Winry's cheeks flush and her smile beam brightly.

She'd snuck into the spare room that Winry had been given by Mr. Garfiel to sleep with her arms around Winry, nuzzling her face into her shoulder and that was how Winry wanted to wake up every day for the rest of her life.

Winry had mostly dozed on the train, her legs hooked over Paninya's where they were stretched across to the opposite bench, her head tucked onto Paninya's shoulder, with her girlfriend's arm around her waist, smoothing circles into her hip with her thumb, and it was late when the train finally came to a jolting stop, Winry's eyes flying open.

"Just the train stopping, Win." Paninya's mouth curled in amusement, brushing her hair off her left shoulder so she could press a light kiss to her soulmark there and Winry tried not to shiver. "Ready to go?"

"Mm." Winry rubbed the last bit of sleep out of her eyes, hoisting her bag of tools and supplies onto her shoulder. "Let's go check out an amputation!"

Paninya laughed at her enthusiasm for something so morbid, but she still took her hand, swinging it as they left the train together and almost ran into Ed.

"Ed? What're you—?" Winry barely had the time to question before her friend pushed past her.

"No time, gotta go!" he said. "Something's wrong with Al!"

"Al?" Fear gnawed at her insides, but then the train was pulling away to head off again before she could question Ed more fully.

Oh, she did not have a good feeling about that, she did not have a good feeling about that at all.


AN: A lot of this probably seems like re-hashing, but the Ishvalan Civil War is an important topic to deal with in this fic

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