sorry it took so long. i couldn't decide what to write for this chapter. i finally settled on the following--extreme spoilers for Ishbal, btw. like frame by frame spoilers...
Atop an abandoned building, Riza adjusted the scope on her rifle, pausing momentarily to toss the bangs off her forehead before looking through the scope again.
She'd never gotten around to mailing that letter to Roy, instead finding pride in what the academy called her "natural sniper abilities." It was the first time she had ever been praised for doing something right.
Her job, after months at the military academy, was not a difficult one. As a cadet, she wasn't allowed yet on the front lines. Yet, this was more than she had signed up for. Much, much more.
Her job was to kill people
Somehow, she hadn't thought of that when she had enrolled in the military. She hadn't thought of it while the targets looked like men, or while she had been taught how to kill a man in a thousand effective ways. It was just information. Cold information that had nothing to do with watching a man's organs explode out of him as a bullet ripped him apart.
But sitting atop an abandoned building, waiting, she was acutely aware of what she was doing.
It was difficult work, sitting on a building watching, being completely focused for hours at a time, holding the rifle till her shoulders ached. And that was just the waiting. She had been taught to watch for movement, to the point where her peripheral vision encompassed a full one-eighty degrees, a useful trait for a sniper. But the problem here was that everything was moving, both friends and enemies.
Slowly, over the three weeks she'd been her already, she'd trained herself to watch for non-blue movement. Though it was still a lot of things moving, it narrowed down her search. Otherwise, it was just a matter of luck, she thought, but her record of kills said otherwise, showing that she averaged nearly three times as many hits as her fellow comrades.
There.
Something brown as earth stirred slowly. Riza snapped her rifle into position, sighted, confirmed that it was an Ishbalan, and pulled the trigger. It was an automatic gesture by now, with none of the hesitation that she had faced when beginning. She sighed once more, and made sure she'd made the shot.
She had. The Ishbalan had gone down, a clean shot through the head. She sighed, and moved her scope to the soldiers the man had been aiming for.
Maes Hughes, she recognized immediately, the glint of the glasses and distinctive facial hair identifying him immediately.
She caught something at the edge of the scope that made her heart stop for a moment. She refocused, and…there it was…
That hair that she knew, black and always a little messy, those dark, slightly slanted eyes, that face that, despite being haggard with lack of sleep and stress, remained stubbornly round. Her hands trembled for the first time since she had picked up her guns, and she set the rifle down.
He was here.
She was here.
It had surprised him, when Maes had used those words. "Eyes of a hawk," he said, and immediately, he was in a different place, coaxing a smile out of a somber, amber-eyed girl.
He shook his head. No, he said to himself. No.
He was an idiot. He was an idiot for letting himself touch her, for letting himself return that kiss.
He still dreamed about that kiss, about her hands, her fine blonde hair.
Hawkeye, he thought slowly. And then smiled. It would be crazy, to think of that shy, timid girl here, in the military. She'd die.
They walked back to camp together, talking about nothing in particular, until Maes suddenly ran forward. "Yo! Thanks for before! You're the one who shot that one, right?"
It was a smaller hooded figure, and Roy felt a vague sort of interest at who might have saved them.
The woman stood, looked at him from under the hood, and then slowly pulled it back.
"It's been a while, Mr. Mustang," she said.
He froze.
And there she was.
Her voice was lower than he remembered it, but just as quiet and smooth. Her hair was still golden, though it was dirty from lack of care. And her eyes…those beautiful amber eyes that used to light up when he made her laugh…her eyes had changed.
"Or should I call you Major Mustang?"
It reminded him that he hadn't replied yet. Was she mocking him, calling him Mister and Major? Her eyes had trapped him, angry and empty at the same time. What had life done to her, to make her like this? What had he done to her, that she could look at him, and call him something as formal as Major Mustang?
And then it struck him.
He'd left her...alone...
His face changed immediately, as realization hit him.
"Have you begun to remember?" she asked quietly.
Surely being alone couldn't hurt a person as badly as this? Surely solitude couldn't change a gentle broken girl into a cold killer?
"How could I forget?" he answered softly. Oh those eyes…how terrible…he thought sadly, trying so hard to find a spark of emotion in those cold, dark eyes. Even this girl, this girl who I had remembered to be sweet and beautiful, timid and eager…even this girl has gotten a killer's eyes…
And then he did the only thing that he could. "Walk with me," he said softly, and led her out to the unforgiving desert, ignoring Maes' questioning eyes.
They walked together in absolute silence, both waiting for the other to start. Riza felt all her hopes slowly fizzle out of her.
"Why are you here?" he said finally, and her last hopes died. It wasn't the response one got from a man who cared about her in any way. He hadn't begun with "How are you," or "I missed you." Why are you here? It was the question one asked an unwanted guest.
She didn't answer.
He tried again. "How are you doing, without your father?"
"I…I hated my father," she said softly.
Great, he thought angrily. Remind her of him, why don't you? He turned his face away from her, suddenly catching the word he hadn't noticed. Hated? Since when did Riza hate anything? Since when did she dare to hate someone like her father?
She caught the question in his eyes and answered it the only way she knew how. "Because the sight of him absorbed in his research was as if he were possessed by something."
She paused and arranged the words in her mind. Suddenly, everything between them, everything that was left unspoken was all right for now, because for the first time, she had felt a suffering greater than her own. She had felt the suffering of an entire people, and compared to that, her hurt seemed petty. "But still, I believed in what he said, that alchemy would bring happiness to people." I hated it, but I believed in it. I believed the look in your eyes when you told me of the great things alchemy would achieve. She had stopped again, because the girl she had been still wanted to know...why did you leave me? That girl inside, still hesitant, still angry at him, wanted to shake the answer out of him. Yet she had suddenly become caught up in a differerent question, one that she had never imagined to be as important as it was. She struggled for long moments, before she finally chose one.
Finally, she asked him what was more important than herself. "Major…why are soldiers who protect citizens killing them instead?"
And finally, she let herself look at him. Why am I doing this, her eyes asked him.
"Why is alchemy, which ought to bring happiness, being used for murder?"
He only heard the question underneath. Why are you doing this? She was asking him. Why are you doing this, after all your words of protecting the people so girls like me wouldn't have to worry about anything?
And he had no answer.
He only walked away from her, suddenly not only sad, but ashamed.
He was supposed to be her hero, he thought brokenly, her eyes haunting him even though his back was turned. He was supposed to be the man who saved her from herself. He had told her how alchemy would save the people from harm, how it would bring back the hopes of the people, how it was only for the people, and here he was, killing the people.
And Riza watched him leave, suddenly realizing that the man she had idolized, who she'd set on the highest pedestal she could think of...was nothing more than a confused boy, as fragile as she, as confused as she, thrown into the same mess as she had been, unprepared for what the military meant. She stood there, both her questions unanswered, her life more in pieces than when she had started this journey--for her hero was a human, and she didn't know what to do.
That night, Riza had her first cigarette.
Whoa, I just realized what a LONG flashback this was. I mean seriously. But we are back to where we started at the beginning of this entire thing. All right, so we all should know that a lot of this comes straight from the manga. And if you don't know, shame on you. I've added some things, of course, such as thoughts, and roy just walking away at the end, but in my defense, as always, its not like it wasn't mentioned that it didn't in the manga, if you get my meaning…it just sorta cuts off. But anyway, i like this chapter, and as always, i appreciate the comments you guys leave...