DISCLAMER: I own nothing other than the fanfiction itself

A/N: Anything about burns and shock I got off of google. Obviously, don't take this story as a reference for medical treatment of burns. Don't follow Riza's example, and take someone to the hospital.

This is one of my favorite chapters I've written for this story, and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Chapter Twelve: No Turning Back

Riza's hands closed into fists by her sides as she strode through the abandoned streets of the Ishbalan capitol, her eyes darting to look through windows and open doorframes on either side of the street. She knew that they were far away from the camp that they would remain unseen and unheard, but she was still set on edge by what they were about to do. She knew that this was something she had to do; as long as she had this tattoo upon her back, she would never truly be free. Backing down wasn't an option, and she tried to fight the nauseous feeling rising in her stomach as she looked with dread upon what was about to happen. She had no illusions about her decision: she would be in more pain than she had ever borne in her life, and her recovery would probably be a long one. The cosmetic aspect of the burns didn't worry her; she had never allowed her back to be seen before, so what were a couple scars? She would get through this. It was something she had to do.

Roy's footsteps were silenced by the sand they were treading over, but she was aware of his presence. She could almost feel the anxiety radiating off of him, and it was only feeding her own. In his hands were a roll of bandages and a bottle of painkillers – there was precious little to be found in any of the homes they had searched due to the looting, but they had managed to find the bare minimum. Roy wished that she would listen to him, that, if she insisted upon having him burn her, she would have waited until they were back at home where she could get proper treatment. She had always been a stubborn one, and, usually that didn't bother him. However, at the moment, her determined nature was going to cause her more harm than it usually did her good.

"Here." Riza stated, stopping in front of one of the abandoned houses. From here, camp was scarcely a speck in the distance. Even something as loud as a gunshot wouldn't carry over that distance. Roy turned his head back to look at Riza, planning on giving one last appeal to her rationality, but she had already walked through the front door. Too distraught even to sigh, Roy reluctantly followed her inside, shutting the door behind them.

It was a small miracle that the lights came on when he pulled the cord, and Roy was thankful that he would at least be able to see what he was doing. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he read the direction on the back of the bottle of painkillers, seeing that two pills was the recommended dose. Aware that such guidelines were strictly recommendations, Roy shook four tablets into the palm of his hand, knowing that two wouldn't be nearly enough to suffice for the pain Riza was about to endure. "Take these." He ordered, dropping them into her open palm. He knew she preferred not to take medicine, but she didn't offer up any sort of argument as she popped them into her mouth, swallowing them without any water.

Roy capped the bottle and looked around, seeing what they had to work with. This house, like all the others, had been torn apart in search of anything that could be of value, but the soldiers had left behind anything they thought worthless. Luckily for them, these worthless objects were just what they would need. Roy walked over to the upturned table, flipping it upright once more. Riza would need somewhere to lie while he attempted to treat her burns. "Wait here." Roy told her, using the tone of voice he took on when he was giving orders to subordinates. If Riza was making him do this, they were doing it his way.

He returned moments later with several towels he gathered from one of the bathrooms, and he brought them over to the sink in the kitchen. Upon turning one of the knobs, he found that the pipes leading to the house were still functional. The water wasn't as cold as he would have liked, but he couldn't be picky. This was more than he thought they could have asked for. He placed the plug in the sink, letting it fill with lukewarm water before placing all but one of the towels inside, letting them saturate with water. Another twist of the knob shut off the faucet, and he took the remaining towel in his hands as he walked back over to Riza.

Roy set the towel down on one of the chairs he righted and proceeded to take of his jacket, draping it over a portion of the table. Wordlessly he held out his hand, silently indicating that he wanted Riza to do the same. His fingers closed around the fabric when she passed the garment to him, and he repeated the process with her coat. Most of the table was now covered, hopefully lending to moderate comfort when Riza would need to lie down. Then again, he doubted that comfort would be at the forefront of her mind at that point. After rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, he picked up the towel once more and carried the chair over to Riza, setting it down in front of her.

As Riza pulled her shirt over her head, Roy could have sworn that he saw a flicker of fear pass through her eyes. As soon as it appeared, it was gone, and there was no substantial evidence of it ever having happened at all. Riza handed Roy her shirt and sports bra before sitting down on the chair backwards, her arms resting on the back of the chair and her back facing towards Roy. Roy set her clothing down beside the table and walked back over to her, the towel in his hand.

"Have the pain killers kicked in?"

"I hope so." Riza's voice was flat and factual. When she spoke this way, she was hiding something. Roy had little doubt that she was afraid, and she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Fighting back yet another sigh, Roy handed her the rolled-up piece of cloth. "You're going to want to bite on this."

Riza reached out and took the towel from him, and he could tell that, for a moment, she stopped breathing. He wanted to try one last time to talk her out of her decision, but she had already bitten down on the towel and turned away from him. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing seemed almost forced as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. Letting the words die on his tongue, Roy took a moment to let his hand brush gently over her shoulder, and he voiced the thought that had been repeating itself over and over in his head already. "I'm sorry."

Riza opened her eyes and looked up at him with a mixture of fear and gratitude that mirrored the contrasting emotions she had to have been feeling at the moment. She nodded once before closing her eyes again, letting her chin rest upon the back of the chair.

Roy stepped back from her, placing an adequate distance between them before reaching into his pocket, withdrawing one of his ignition gloves. He felt a catch in the back of his throat as he pulled the glove onto his hand, and he turned to look at Riza, full of disbelief at what he was about to do. The woman sitting in front of him meant more to him than anything else in the world, and he was about to cause her excruciating pain. The fact that she begged him to do it didn't help in the slightest; in reality, it probably made it worse. He didn't have a choice. It was something he had to do because she had asked him to do it. He had told her many times over the years that he would do anything for her, but he never expected her request to be something of this caliber.

Clenching his jaw, Roy lifted his hand, aware that, as soon as he snapped his fingers, there was no turning back. He inhaled deeply, and the seconds seemed to drag by longer than years. He didn't know how long he stood there before he snapped his fingers, and he was violently brought back to reality by the wave of heat that hit his face as fire streamed from his fingertips.

No amount of mental preparation could have prepared Riza for that first burn. The gag in her mouth caught most of her scream, but it was loud enough to bend its way around the cloth and echo off the walls. Her fingers clawed at the frame of the chair, her knuckles turning white as she grasped onto it as if it were life itself. Her back arched against the pain, and she had to fight the temptation to fall into the darkness that began to cloud the edges of her vision. After a moment, her scream died away, and she was left with a silent, quivering wail that resonated inside her chest. Up until this point, she was unaware of the tears streaming down her cheeks. Trying her hardest to breathe, she rested her forehead against the back of the chair.

Roy had turned his face away, incapable of watching as Riza writhed in pain before him. He didn't need to examine her wound to know that he had just burnt away several layers of her flesh, but he hadn't done enough damage to harm the nerves in her back. He didn't want to take away her sense of feeling in her back, but that meant that she would have no relief from the pain she was in at that moment. In the long run, it was the better option, but she was certainly feeling the negative effects of the short term. After her scream had died down, Roy lingered a few more seconds before turning back to her, taking a moment to examine her burn from a distance. The area on her left shoulder blade was a vicious maroon, and he could see that he had burned off one of the crucial parts of the cipher. He had planned in advance where he was going to burn her, and he had gotten the worst over with at the very beginning. That was the largest area he had to singe off.

"Are you ready?" He asked after a few moments, waiting for an answer from Riza. He would wait as long as she needed to recover. A few more seconds passed, and he saw a shaky nod of her head as it rested against the chair.

Once more, Roy snapped his fingers, and Riza let out another scream as the fire targeted a spot on her back just beneath the previous patch that he burned away. With that, the cipher would be completely removed. Without the key, no one would be able to decode what was written on her back. Riza fought with everything she had to keep herself conscious, knowing that fainting wouldn't be advisable in her present situation. To do so was dangerous when she was in this much pain, and she resisted her body's natural impulse to find a way to slip out of the torment. Her head was spinning, and she had no indication of whether or not the painkillers were working to dull the agony.

Her body draped limply over the back of the chair when the initial spasm ceased, and she reached up with her right hand to take the gag from her mouth. She was hiccupping for air, her body trying to continue its natural functions despite the distress it was going through. As she breathed, a faint whimper made its way past her lips each time her back moved. Even the rising and falling of her chest as she tried to breathe caused her pain. She fought back the urge to break down into tears, knowing that doing so would only cause her breathing to become more irregular, thus causing her more pain. It was several minutes before her head cleared enough that she became aware that they were far from finished, and she forced herself to place the gag back into her mouth, clinging to her determination despite her desire to stop. She shifted in her chair, gingerly straightening her back just enough so that Roy could pinpoint his flames.

This time, it was Roy who had to compose himself before continuing. He had little doubt that Riza's muffled screams would haunt his dreams for months to come, and it felt like he was in a living nightmare at that very moment. He decided that this burn would be the last. This time, he would take off the small area just to the right side on the middle of her back, wiping away the spot that first gave them the indication of the change in the cipher. With that gone, the entire code would be completely illegible. For the last time, Roy snapped his fingers, and he turned his head away when he heard Riza scream again.

The darkness was closing in around her eyes, and Riza was beginning to suffer from tunnel vision as she tried desperately to stay conscious. She was in so much agony that she didn't even realize that the cries she was hearing were coming from her own mouth. It felt like hours before the pain finally dulled enough so that it was simply a fierce burning rather than an unbearable torment. Her body was shaking, and she had broken out into a cold sweat despite the heat she had just endured. She had gone pale, and she was on the verge of slipping into shock.

Roy walked over to Riza and noticed the risk immediately, and he knew better than to try to move her at this point. He rushed over to the sink and took one of the damp towels in his hands, carrying it back over to Riza. Rather than placing the cloth directly onto her back, he wrung the water out of the towel onto her skin, cooling the burned area. He could see her relax as the water cooled her burns, and he began to repeat this process with every towel he had soaked in the water, replacing them as soon as he had removed all the moisture from the fabric.

A small amount of color had come back to Riza's face, and she seemed to be breathing more normally than before. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and Roy could tell she was doing her best not to show that she was in pain. Her stubbornness would get the better of her one day – he was sure of it. As gently as he could, Roy lifted her from the chair, taking great care to avoid touching her back. A whimper slipped past Riza's lips, and Roy could tell that she was still teetering on the verge of consciousness. Gingerly, he laid her down upon the table, making sure her head was tilted to the side. Once she was moved, Roy grabbed one of the damp cloths, draping it loosely over her burns.

He would have to change the cloths often in order to keep her skin from sticking to them, and it was best to keep the rags as cool as possible. He would examine her burns more closely after he was certain her condition was stable. If she didn't stabilize, he would need to find her a doctor. Possibilities and worst-case scenarios began to make their way through his mind at a rapid speed, and he became even more certain of the fact that he had just made a terrible mistake. Just as he was about to change the cloth on Riza's back, her eyes fluttered open, and it was easy to see that she was capable of focusing on objects around her rather than just stare blurrily ahead. That was definitely a good sign.

Roy said nothing as he replaced the cloth on her back with a fresh, cool one, and he heard Riza cry faintly, but he couldn't understand what she had said. The whimper came again, and, this time, Roy was able to figure out what it was that she was saying.

"No more…"

Roy reached out and gently brushed her hair back from her face and out of her eyes, assuring her "No more. I swear."

Riza did her best to turn her gaze upwards to Roy, and she was able to see his face out of her peripheral vision. Although she couldn't see it, she felt his hand wrap around hers, squeezing it lightly in a reassuring gesture. He didn't let go, and Riza felt more at peace because of that fact. She squeezed his hand in return, the movement faint in her weekend state. Roy had to listen closely again to hear the next thing she murmured, and he didn't quite know how to react to what she said.

"Thank you…"

A pained look came into Roy's eyes, but it vanished before Riza had a chance to see that expression on his face. Without words to respond to what she said, Roy leaned down, pressing his lips gently against her temple. Despite her pain, he saw Riza's lips turn upwards in the faintest of smiles. Maybe he had made the right decision, after all, he mused as he carefully replaced the cloth on her back once more. It was what she had wanted.

A/N: Reviews are love.

Up Next:

Chapter Thirteen: Reporting for Duty