Everything had happened rather quickly. From the moment she woke up, sleepy and satisfied, morning sunshine across her face and Roy's arm curled around her protectively. He had worshiped her the night before, where his hands had wandered his mouth had followed, and he'd declared his feelings for her with his tongue against her skin. There had been no words uttered, none of meaning beyond instruction, laughter, and lustful moans that neither of them had been able to contain. Riza had just tried to assure him that she was there, real, whole, and filled with longing. Longing to remember, for safety, for home, and mostly for him. She'd scraped her fingernails down his back, dug her fingers into his arms, and it had been his name on her lips as she tipped over the edge again, and again.
In the morning, everything changed. Their peace together, naked and warm, and loving. It was shattered with a single phone call.
They had found the man that had followed her and Rebecca around town, they finally had something to go on, something that could maybe explain what she'd been doing there in that lab, what their purpose for her had been. Something that could lead them to the people responsible for taking away years of her life.
There hadn't been much of a discussion, they'd just gone through the house and picked up what few things they'd unpacked, then got back into his car and started the drive back to East City. A single night in the country had given her the bitter memories of her father, of a love that she'd been desperate to receive, to know she was valued and that he was proud, but it had never come to fruition. He'd never said the words, and he never would. It was a dull pain within her chest that had been chased away by Roy.
They'd both been so young when they'd met, flesh and blood ghosts in a house falling apart. Barely speaking to one another until her father had died, and she shared her secrets with him. From there a friendship, disappointment, anger, loyalty, and love had grown. Riza just wasn't sure what sort of love, but she knew that it was there, in her blood and bones, ingrained onto her very soul.
The night before wasn't mentioned, but they were content and happy, sitting in the car next to one another without feeling awkward. She'd been clear with him, she couldn't be his girlfriend. Not now. Not while her past was a puzzle she was putting together piece by piece, while so much of her life was a mystery together. It was unfair, but she was honest. If she'd thought about it before, she would have expected something between them to feel awkward or different, but it didn't. Maybe they had done this before, a night together followed by acting as if nothing had happened. Or maybe it just didn't matter. They were already tied together so completely, that sex had no ability to change anything. Or maybe it just hadn't sunk in yet, and that the adrenaline of running towards a lead stopped them from feeling anything else.
Once they arrived back in East City, they stopped at his house. Roy wanted to change into his uniform to look suitably intimidating, and Riza's fingers itched for a gun. Not to shoot the man, but to feel like her own defence was in her hands.
Everything changed once they got out of the car.
The hairs on the back of Riza's neck stood up, and she turned and saw the glint of light hitting the scope and she reacted before her brain could comprehend what had happened. She knocked Roy to the floor, and found herself on her back, pain shooting through her body.
Hayate was barking.
People were shouting.
Roy's hands were pressed against her side.
Roy was talking, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. Her hands shook.
Hayate was barking.
Rebecca was mildly concerned about the look on Breda's face. He was the brains of the bunch, and when he looked nervous, she got nervous. Or maybe it was the lack of sleep making her anxious, she didn't want to think about how long it had been since she'd been curled up in her nice, soft, warm bed, regardless it was far too long.
"What?" She eventually asked him, annoyed.
"Don't you think this is all a little easy?" He asked, he waved his arm in the direction of the living room, which had been turned into a makeshift interrogation suite. It was Jean and Al's turn to watch The Creep, leaving the rest of them to do what they wanted. Ed had fallen asleep somewhere, and the two of them were getting some coffee in the tiny kitchen.
"Yes, smashing his face with my gun after he smashed my face with my wall was so easy." Rebecca complained. Her face still hurt, and would be a throbbing, dull ache for a while.
"Not what I meant," He pointed out. "Look, these guys hid themselves for two years in the same city as us. They hid Hawkeye right under our noses. Now one of them just walks into your apartment and gets captured, then spills enough info to make him worth calling Mustang about? Doesn't that seem weird to you?"
"What, like this is all some kind of trap?" Rebecca tried to ignore the feeling of ice cold dread that was beginning to wash over her. The more he said, the more she thought about it, the more it made some horrible kind of sense.
"It just seems a bit easy." Breda said. "Don't you think?"
"Well, sure." Rebecca agreed. "I mean, he said he wanted to use me to get to Riza. We all thought that meant kidnapping me, but what if it meant something else?"
"A ruse to get them here?"
"Yeah, but for what?" Rebecca asked.
"I dunno, but someone should head over to Mustang's, just in case."
"Then let's go."
Rebecca and Breda arrived to chaos. That was the only way to describe it. They'd both seen worse during their time im the military, but blood on a quiet suburban street was enough to shock them both for a brief moment. There was an ambulance, and a crowd of people that Breda and Rebecca barged their way through. Mustang was at the centre of it, blood on his hands and shirt, smears of it on his face.
"What the fuck?!" Rebecca exclaimed. Loudly. "Where's Riza?"
"They're taking her to General." Mustang said. "Shots were fired from over there-" He pointed to a building across the street "-but I haven't had time to-"
"I'm on it." Breda interjected. There was no glance between them, but Rebecca knew that meant she was babysitting the General.
"What happened to Riza?" Rebecca asked again. The feeling of dread had seeped into her skin now. Ice cold and certain that something awful had happened. General Hospital was the closest, and even though it didn't sound like it, one of the best in East City. That was good, if something had happened to her, she'd get there quickly and she'd be fine. Right?
"Someone shot her." His voice was hollow. Empty. Rebecca was reminded of how he was in the aftermath of Riza's memorial. Walking through the motions, throwing himself into work and drink, and misery.
"But she's okay?" Rebecca prompted.
"They're taking her to the hospital." Mustang said. "I should be there."
"Yeah, you should." Rebecca spat out at him, anger rose inside her and replaced the dread. She wasn't cold anymore, she was burning hot, and pissed off. "Maybe while you're there you could think about doing a better job of protecting her."
There was a teeny, tiny voice inside her head, which sounded an awful lot like Riza, that told her she was being unfair. That yelling at Mustang wouldn't make anything better, that it wouldn't take back the bullet that had lodged itself inside her best friend, and that in the long run it wouldn't make her feel any better.
Rebecca Catalina firmly told that voice to shut up.
"I didn't just let her get shot!" Mustang insisted.
"Oh really? So why isn't she here and telling me to watch my mouth?" Rebecca countered. "You were supposed to keep her safe and now she's-"
Her eyes burned, but she didn't want to cry. Especially not in front of him. But she was tired, and sore, and scared, and she couldn't help it. She cracked and crumbled, and Mustang was hugging her, his bloodied hands patting her back awkwardly as she sobbed harshly against his shoulder. She wished Jean was here instead, it was his comfort she wanted, not Mustang's. But he wasn't here, and Mustang was. "I know, Catalina. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He mumbled just loud enough for her to hear. "You're right. I should've protected her."
"We can't lose her." Rebecca said, although it came out mixed with sobs and she was surprised he even caught her meaning. "I can't go through that again."
"Me either." Mustang admitted. And held her until her sobs turned to hiccups and she broke away from his embrace and wiped her face.
"Tell no one this happened." Rebecca insisted, once she was calm enough to speak. "I'm going to help Breda, then we're going to the hospital. The others are in Safehouse three."
"I'll fill them in."
Riza didn't dream while they tried to repair her damaged body. What she saw weren't dreams. They weren't the surreal imaginings of her subconscious turned into a strange reality that would pass upon waking and disappear into the part of the mind that stored such things, never to be recalled.
No. Riza didn't dream.
Riza remembered.
The moments of her life that had been foggy became clear, moments that had been forgotten to experimentation returned. Riza's life played out for her like a movie in her mind. She remembered her childhood, her father, her decision to join the military, meeting Rebecca, her first kill, her time in Ishval, her time with Roy, her time as his adjutant, the Promised Day, and everything in between.
She remembered what they did to her. How they tried to turn her into a killing machine for some discarded military officer with too much money, charisma, and time. She remembered how she didn't break. How she clung to the Colonel's last order, even when she'd forgotten his face and her own name. How they took that from her, and she broke loose.
Riza remembered everything.