Chapter 8: A Fitting Return

Roy and the others froze as screams erupted some distance away. "Falman, what's going on?"

Falman shook his head as he stood atop a small hill. "I'm sorry sir, I can't see anything."

Musoline frowned worriedly. "None of your alchemists can reach this far back, so there should have been no reason for that…" He shook his head. "Well, we cannot worry about that now. I want to end this as fast as you do."

Roy nodded as he took off his gloves, swapping them for Riza's gun.

Musoline nodded in understanding, knowing that Roy would feel tempted to use his alchemy if he wore them.

A man ran up to the gathered group, frowning at Roy before aiming his gun at him.

"Stand down, Miles." Musoline snapped.

The man looked at him in shock. "But sir, if we can kill him, we can crush their army!"

While the man was distracted, Riza grabbed her gun back from Roy and shot the gun from his hand.

Musoline approached him as he held his hand in pain. "We have agreed to a duel to decide how this war will end. Stand down or else I'll have you charged with insubordination."

Miles paled in fear as the Colonel took him to the safety of the hill where the others stood to watch.

Riza switched the clip in her gun to a fully loaded one and passed it back to Roy as Musoline checked his gun.

"Thanks, Captain. Now go watch with the others." Riza nodded warily. "I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Oh miss, if you could be so kind, can you please call the start for us?"

Riza blinked in surprise at Musoline, glancing at Roy who simply nodded. "Yes sir." Riza said, running off to the hill.

"You had better be a good shot, General Mustang. I may wish to leave this world, but I will not leave it easily."

Roy smirked in response to the amused grin Musoline was wearing. "Don't worry about that, I just hope you put up a good fight."

"Are you ready?" Riza called from the hill.

Roy saluted Musoline as a sign of respect for the older man, but was caught off guard when Musoline saluted him the same way.

"Don't be so surprised, General Mustang. I've spent some time alongside Amestris' military, so I know your salute. I felt it appropriate to use your salute in this situation."

Roy smiled as he nodded to Riza.

"I am ready too, Captain. Go ahead."

Riza nodded in understanding. The two men tensed as Riza began to count down. "Go!" She yelled as the two Generals began their duel…

The duel lasted only ten minutes before the others came down from the hill and surrounded an exhausted Roy as he stood looking over Musoline sadly.

Musoline chuckled in between coughs. "You put up a good fight, General Mustang… I am glad you didn't disappoint me…" He coughed some more as a small bit of blood trickled from his mouth. "Thank you all… now hopefully our states… can go back… to… being… allies…" His eyes widened in surprise and a smile crossed his face as Roy saluted him in the western style. His eyes closed and his head fell sideways as he died.

His Colonel covered him with her jacket, tears quietly rolling down her face.

After a few moments of silence, Roy turned to Miles. "Call the retreat now. We will head back to our encampment and begin pulling out as well." He said before turning to Riza to exchange her gun for his gloves.

The sound of a soft click had them freeze in mid-exchange. "I will never call a retreat. Amestris will fall here and now!"

"Not as long as I'm around!" A familiar voice called out.

Miles turned to see who spoke, when suddenly a blade flashed and he fell to the ground dead.

Everyone stared at the blood-covered blade before realizing who it belonged to.

Roy smirked as Ed transmuted the blade back into his ordinary automail arm. "It's about time you showed up, Fullmetal."

"Of course, I had to save your ass from whatever mess you'd gotten yourself into." Ed said, returning his smirk.

Roy nodded to Al as he approached before turning to the kneeling Colonel. "I guess that means you're in charge…"

The Colonel nodded as she stood. "I'll call the retreat right away, sir. Thank you for ending this."

"All right, let's pull out." He ordered to his team.

They nodded as they began to retrace their steps.

"Coming?" He asked to Ed and Al before walking away without an answer.

Ed rolled his eyes as he and Al followed Roy.

The sound of something like a firework caused them to look back and see a flare sparkling in the sky.

"I guess that's their retreat method…" Roy said, shrugging casually as he continued. "There are many people who will be glad to see you've come back. I just figured I would give you that warning."

Ed and Al looked at each other in confusion as they wondered why Roy would consider it a warning.

"Major! You're… crushing… us…!" Al squeaked out as he and Ed were trapped in the crushing grip of Armstrong's embrace.

"Lieutenant Colonel, can you please release the Elrics?" Roy asked in amusement.

Armstrong blinked at Roy in surprise before nodding and letting the Elrics down.

Both brothers collapsed to their knees, gasping for breath.

"It is wonderful to see you two. I feared we would never see you again."

"You know how hard it is to get rid of these two." Roy said, smiling slyly down at them.

"Hah. He's right... uhm, Lieutenant Colonel? When did you get promoted?" Ed asked as they stood up.

Armstrong flexed his muscles, pink sparkles surrounding him as he did so, and began bragging about how he got his promotion.

Automatically, everyone tuned him out until he wound down.

"Sir, the western soldiers have all left, as have ours. We're the only ones remaining." Fuery said, worriedly.

"Don't worry, Fuery, the last transport can't leave without us." Roy said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, but just because they can't leave without us, doesn't mean they won't try to." Havoc said; speaking around a fresh cigarette he had placed in his mouth

"Brigadier General Adran went in the transport ahead of us, sir." Falman notified Roy as he returned from speaking with the driver of the transport.

"He's probably gone to complain to Director Giles." Roy said in amusement. "Come on, let's go. We'll catch up on the way back to Central." He motioned for Ed and Al to follow as he and his team walked away.

"Well it's good to know some things haven't changed, eh Al?" Ed asked in amusement. Al nodded.

"Yes it is. Let's go before General Mustang has the transport leave us behind."

"That bastard would too…" Ed growled as they ran to catch up.

Meanwhile, back in Central, Sciezka burst into the room that Winry had set up as her work room. "It's over! The news just came in! They're coming home! They did it!"

Winry stopped taking apart the automail leg she had been working on for a soldier who refused it. "Is it really over?" She asked. She didn't wait for Sciezka to reply before bursting into her own excited cheers.

"Miss Rockbell?" A nurse asked, peering into the room.

"That's me, what is it?" She asked, trying to calm herself down.

"I have an envelope addressed to you from Central Headquarters."

"They certainly move fast…" Winry muttered as she took the envelope from the nurse. She thanked the nurse, who quickly left to attend to her duties.

"What is it?" Sciezka asked as Winry ripped open the envelope and read the letter with an odd expression.

Suddenly, she collapsed into a chair as she stared at the small slip of paper the envelope contained.

"Winry, are you all right?" Sciezka asked worriedly.

"It's… my pay check… for services rendered to the military…" Winry squeaked out weakly as Sciezka took the slip of paper from her out of curiosity.

Suddenly, she too collapsed into another chair and stared at the slip. "Wow… I hope mines will be this big…" She said, passing it back to Winry.

"Come on! Let's go celebrate!" Winry said, recovering.

Sciezka nodded happily as the girls ran out of the room, leaving the messy workstation untouched.