XXVI

~ Central was surprisingly calmer than I ever anticipated. Other than a few military personnel scurrying around here and there. It seemed the civilians were staying inside which is what we all want. Unnecessary casualties are the last thing any of us want and it makes that much easier to avoid when they stay out of our way for us.

Ross was doing an excellent job at maneuvering the truck through the streets. We were all keeping our eyes peeled for Mustang and the gang. Considering we had a little bit of breadcrumbs of smoke from Mustang's explosions helped. Ross had to break hard at one point when a group of military ran across our path. One of the men yelled at us and ordered us to get out of the streets. I stayed low in the passenger seat and luckily Ross had her hood up, covering most of her features. Who knows if anyone would recognize her? As we raced and turned a few more corners, we almost ran into a few more soldiers that popped out of the alley, but this time, Ross didn't brake.

"Stop!" Catalina yelled and Ross immediately did so, sliding into the curb. All things considered; Ross was excellent behind the wheel. I couldn't imagine if Mustang was the one driving. Catalina raced to the back of the truck and shoved the doors open. "Yoo-hoo, Riza!"

"It's about time Rebecca." I heard the disapproval tone in Hawkeye's voice.

"I know, sorry….but I think you'll find it was worth the wait." Catalina said playfully as she came back into the truck to open the side for everyone to see our treats. "I've got all the sorts of goodies." The small group gasped and gave Catalina a round of appraisals. She ended up yelling at one of the men and told them that they couldn't flirt with her unless they had a lot of money. It took everything in me to not cackle with laughter. I was able to slowly get to know both Ross and Catalina better on our road trip and I want to believe that we all kept good company with one another. I can't say we were anywhere near the friendship mark, but we weren't just acquaintances anymore either. Ross finally opened her door, and I caught a glimpse of Mustang and Breda standing close by.

"Here you go." She lowered the gun that was up front with us this whole trip and handed it to Mustang.

"Oh…thank you." Mustang took it with no knowledge of who was all in this truck.

"It's good to see you, Colonel. It's been a long time, huh?" Ross finally took this moment to unveil her hood for the big reveal we all planned on our way here. I could see their shocked faces and wished I had a camera to capture them in this moment. It was priceless. "Second Lt. Maria Ross…returning to active duty without permission, sir!" She saluted them.

"What she said." I leaned in close to Ross and raised my head over her shoulder for clear view and Mustang and Breda. They're expressions amplify.

"No way!" Breda exclaimed as he brought his hands to the sides of his head, trying to contain his excitement. With no time to celebrate, Catalina grabbed some equipment from the truck and was setting it up to send a teargas bomb into the oncoming fire.

"I'm surprised they haven't charged in by now." Catalina said.

"Well, we do have the Flame Alchemist backing us up, so I really doubt they wanna take any risks. Little do they know, the Colonel's restraining himself since we're in the city." I heard Fuery explain.

"Aw, jeez…I came all the way to Central to find a good man, but you're all just a bunch of sissies." Catalina complained as she dropped the bomb to be blasted off. With the distraction in place, everyone piled into the truck, Catalina securing all the doors, Ross slammed on the gas again, giving us the perfect get away.

"They're Xingese teargas bomb with extra pepper spray." I was in the back now with everyone as Catalina went through the supplies with the men. Mustang and Hawkeye were in the front with Ross now. I was sitting right next to Fuery, and my heart was hammering away from all the excitement.

It felt so good to be back with everyone. Granted there was no time for well over-do hellos. Not until we were able to get more secured in our location at least. I glanced and gave Fuery a once over. It was hard to tell with us positioned like we were in the back of this truck, but he seemed to have matured a lot since I last saw him. He noticed me staring and gave me a questioning look. I returned an innocent smile to him.

"What's up?" He asked curiously.

"Nothing. It's just…been a while you know."

"I think it's been more than a while." He joked.

"Touché. I guess it's just good to see you. I'm glad to see you in one piece. I heard you got sent to the Southern border…" Last I ever heard the South border was practically a warzone. When Jean told me that's where Fuery was sent to, I felt sick to my stomach.

"It was rough, but I was able to manage." The ghost of what he went through in Aerugo shadowed over his eyes. No. The Fuery that I once knew wasn't quite the same anymore.

I quietly placed my hand over his and gave a quick squeeze, looking down to the floor. I noticed he looked to me and returned my squeeze before he also looked away. There are no words of comfort for what Fuery went through. I'm sure Breda was in the same situation. I've heard the West wasn't any prettier. I took my hand back and gave Fuery another once over.

"Have…have you bulked up?" He looked me in surprise by my question. I waited for his reply, hoping this turn in conversation will lift the heaviness from a moment ago. He gave me a shy smile as he examined himself.

"I wouldn't say so…but…maybe?"

"Maybe it's because I haven't seen you in forever, but it definitely looks like it." I had to contain myself from poking more fun at him when I saw the blush on his face. I wouldn't say he was anywhere near a beef cake but there was more to him than from what I remember.

"Would you two stop flirting. It's obnoxious." Breda grumbled from the other side of Fuery.

"Just because you're jealous Breda doesn't mean you need to rain on our parade." I shot back to him.

"You couldn't make me jealous even if you actually tried, Lovington."

"I wouldn't try even if my life was on the line, Bredaaa." I prolonged his name in a mocking manner. Fuery seemed to be trying to keep his chuckle muffled.

"Man, I missed your banter Lovington." He chuckled some more.

"I apologize for my superior's behavior Mrs. Bradley. I swear we're more professional than this." I heard Breda say to Mrs. Bradley who I had completely forgotten was crouched down on the other side of Fuery.

"Yes, my apologies, ma'am." I tried to save myself. Mrs. Bradley only gave us a quiet smirk and small nod. Clearly she was in distress from the events of today. I looked back up to Breda who was shaking his head at me in disapproval. I stuck my tongue out at him in defiance. He only rolled his eyes and looked back over to Catalina who was still going through supplies with the others. Yes. Circumstances be darn, I've missed this.

We were able to find refuge at the public news station, giving them the broadcast of the decade. An exclusive with Mrs. Bradley herself and the attempted assassination on her life. Things were going smoothly, despite all the ups and downs. Fuhrer Bradley went from MIA to proactively combating the Briggs battalion. Breda made the decision to put all the blame on Briggs and Armstrong. It was the only way to keep our coup and Mustang out of trouble. Granted we would be screwed once Bradly came out and called our bluffs. Until then, we had to keep the smoking mirrors up.

Breda just got done explaining to Mrs. Bradley that it wasn't safe yet for her to see her husband and asked her to be a little more patient. My heart went to her. It wasn't her fault that she didn't know that the man she was married to was a monster. Her son was a whole other, but same story. No way were any of us going to break the news to her. She already fainted once, and the poor woman could only handle so much in one day.

Breda came back over to stand by me in the back by the door. Fuery, Catalina and Ross had gone to patrol the hallways and keep an eye on anyone trying to break through.

We stood in silence for a moment before I bumped my shoulder against his arm. The two of us might not have gotten along a lot of the times but we were friends. I missed him in the time that I was away. More than I thought I would. Granted I missed Fuery the most but that's too be expected as he's my favorite.

"How have you been?" Breda's awkward question had me chuckling. I saw in my peripheral that he was giving me a questioning look. "What's so funny?"

"We are not doing this." I chuckled more.

"Doing what? Asking questions?"

"No, just not the small talk questions. We're not going to act like it's been forever since we've seen each other, even if it has been forever." Small talk was to get through an interaction with a stranger until you blissfully parted ways. I refused to have that with my team. No matter how long it's been.

"How else am I supposed to find out what you've been up to in the last…" Breda looked up like he was figuring out a math problem in his head. "Almost year?" I can't believe it, but I guess it has been that long.

"We can have that conversation over a pint of beer when this is all over." We broke in silence again as we contemplated to ourselves the likelihood of us getting out of this alive.

"Fine. Then I'm doing a loophole and asking how that idiot is doing?" I laughed through my nose as I knew he was referring to Jean.

"Surprisingly, he's doing well. He seems to have adjusted to his new lifestyle quite well. He has his ups and downs, like we all do, but he's not letting anything slow him down. I'm proud of him."

"Am I going to hear wedding bells in the near future?" I wish I was drinking something, because then I would've spit it out everywhere instead of choking on the air as I breathed in my saliva.

"Excuse me?" I tried my best to say in between coughs. I glanced up to Breda to see a mocking smirk.

"I always thought you two would be good together, once you got out of your own ways."

"You thought we would be good together?" My tone was sprinkled with nonbelieving.

"Yah. Even with Mustang's weird rule of no one dating within the team, I figured once you two figured out you were both crazy for each other, nothing would stop the two of you." His words had my cheeks flaring up lightly. I didn't think Mustang's rule was weird. To me it did make sense. Starting a relationship within the team could jeopardize it. Like Hawkeye said. If we were to break up, it was rather likely that we wouldn't be able to work with one another anymore.

"So, you knew we were crazy for each other?" I said, trying to clear my throat of any tingling that was left over from choking earlier.

"Please. You both were obnoxiously obvious with it. You were just in denial with yourselves."

"Except he was constantly dating." I don't know why I was trying to argue.

"Sure, except they never worked out and he always had the weirdest reasons for the breakup." Now that he pointed that out…yah. Jean had some pretty weird reason from time to time as to why the girlfriend broke up with him or why he broke up with them. "Not to mention the amount of times I caught him watching you. Especially when you would get flirty with Earl."

"Ok stop! I don't want to hear anymore. You've made your point." I brought my hands to my cheeks as they felt they were on fire. It was probably normal to feel embarrassed, but I didn't like it. Also, his original question still had me flustered. "And I don't know if we'll get married." I proclaimed as I brought my hands back to my sides.

"Oh?"

"It hasn't even been a year. It's way too soon to even think about weddings and spending the rest of our lives together." I was digging deep in me. Carefully putting my words to how I truly felt. "I do see a future with him, and I do want it but…" I felt my heart break with the next words that were about to come out of my mouth.

"But?" Breda egged on. I could tell he knew that the conversation was going somewhere unpleasant.

"But…I had plans and dreams for myself, Breda. Plans that didn't involve anyone else and with his condition…" I couldn't finish my sentence and Breda had nothing to say. "In all honesty…I've been feeling lost lately. Although I just said I have plans and dreams…I don't know if they're the same anymore. I don't know if I want the same things I did when I first joined. I don't know if I'm changing them because of him or if I truly just want something different for my life now. I just don't know…" I brought my hands back up to hide my face and went down to a squatting position as the anxiety of my words overwhelmed me.

Breda didn't say anything for a while. I'm sure he was processing everything that I was saying. That Jean and I might not last after all. That thought alone sent a bubble of panic to my chest.

"That's… a lot." He finally said. "Does he know any of this?" I slid my hands down my face and had them prop my chin up, like I needed them for moral support to keep my head high in this low moment for me.

"I'm not too sure. I think I said something like this before I left…but everything I said was in the middle of a panic attack and I don't remember exactly what I said…" I was becoming aware of how inappropriate this was. I shouldn't be talking to Breda about this. He might be a friend but he's a friend to the two of us. I just put a lot on his shoulders.

Not to mention this is the wrong time to be opening up like this. We're in the middle of war and I'm pouring my heart out. I forced myself back up to stand and gave Breda a weak smile.

"We should probably get back to-" I was cut off by as a red light glowed, almost blindingly from the floor, putting us on high alert.

Streams of red energy sprung from the light. Breda and I looked to each other, not knowing what this was or what to do. A sudden sharp pain came to my chest, and I fell to my hands and knees, as I gripped onto my shirt where the pain was.

Breda collapsed to the floor with his back to me. He wasn't moving. I tried to look around and saw everyone else was slumped over, life less as well. I couldn't hold on anymore. I fell to the ground as well, wishing the pain would stop. I felt my life slipping. This is what dying felt like. I tried to fight it. I reach for someone who wasn't there. "Jean…" Making my final wish that I had one more moment with him, to tell him I love him...my world went dark. ~

End of Chapter 26

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