Disclaimer: I don't own FMA...if I did then certain facial hair would never exist.
AN: I'm ill...blocked nose, headache, sore tummy, sore throat...so I havn't proof read this due to my head hurting. Please excuse typos etc.
Enjoy :D
The metal twisted and creaked as the transmutation circle began to remould the wing Edward had donated from the wreck of the air ship. The wind picked up and furiously tugged Mustang's hair as it began a swift descent. He gripped onto the small handles he had created and clung on as the wind picked up and he felt the growing presence of the ground beneath him.
On impact the entire contraption shook, skidding and sliding like a skipping stone down one of the main streets in Central. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eye shut as stones flew over the contraption and stung him. Eventually the entire thing came to a groaning halt and he lay for a few moments, eye shut and body tense, to make sure he'd really stopped. Roy slowly pried his eye open and glanced around. The street was a aisle of rubble and debris from the fright. He could already hear the rudimentary siren of emergency vehicles running around the city and the rancid stench of death creeped into his nostrils. They'd saved Amestris, but at what cost?
He slowly uncurled his aching limbs and pushed himself to his feet. The descent and 'landing' had severely messed up his uniform but at least it was still decent. He glanced around, he was in the western section of central, just off from Central library and the leisure centre. He took in a deep breath to calm his nerves, he was still shaking from his encounter with Edward. He'd lost him again.
Mustang hung his head but quickly rescheduled his thoughts when he thought of headquarters, was everyone alright? He looked back at his flying machine, and when he was certain it wasn't going to cause any hassle where it was, started in a jog back towards the main building. He wasn't as fit as he had been but he still managed to cover the distance in less than ten minutes. The men were infectiously celebrating on the steps, gripping comrades in feverish hugs and congratulating each other on their victory.
When Havoc spotted him from his smoking spot on the sandbags he called loudly, "GENERAL MUSTANG!" At this the rest of the crowd of soldiers turned in his direction and after a moments pause began to clap before finally esculating into a joyous chorus of celebratory and thankful singing.
He couldn't help but grin as they celebrated his return. He wandered up to Havoc, Breda and Falman, where they were all perched on a crumbling wall of sand bags, "Well look what the cat dragged back to Central," teased Havoc.
Mustang gave him a playful punch on the arm as Falman shook his hand in greeting and Breda gave him a small casual salute. He felt at home here, with the men he knew and trusted after a matter of moments he suddenly realised how much he had missed their company. "I see you're still the chimney I remember from the office."
"Only for you, Mustang," he blew out a tendril of smoke and stubbed the butt out, "so what brought you running back?"
"I heard you guys needed some help and I couldn't just let you screw things up again, could I?"
Once the initial reunions were done Mustang's face darkened slightly as he regarded the group of man and women in front of him now trying to clear up Cental, "Where is Lieutenant Hawkeye...I...um...needed to talk to her..."
"Oh she's gone to find Ma- OW!" started Breda before Havoc smacked him over the head.
"She's gone home," Havoc finished non-committally. Roy raised an eye brow suspiciously as he regarded his previous subordinates. He could tell instantly that they were hiding something and he wasn't sure what. Why would they hide Riza's location from him? Then his chest constricted, what if she'd gone home to check on a family she'd built whilst he was away? A husband perhaps?
He looked at Havoc slightly pleadingly, "I need to talk to her...do you know where she went?"
Havoc looked at Mustang and a stab of anger hit him, you left her. Riza had willingly given herself to Mustang and he left without so much as a letter, he didn't deserve to know where she'd gone and he certainly wasn't about to spill about Maes. That wasn't his duty to tell Mustang he was a delinquent father, all be it without ever realising he had a kid. The rest of the men had fallen awkwardly silent, probably all thinking the same thing regarding Maes.
"I'm going to see if they need help on the clean up," murmured Falman and scuttled off, Roy watching him with a confused expression as Fuery and Breda mumbled something similar about cleaning up and leaving. Roy began to get worried now. Something was wrong and they were not telling him.
Roy turned his critical expression on the innocently puffing Jean Havoc, a lit cigarette fuming quietly from his lips, "I won't bother asking again, no doubt you'll just give me the same answer," he waited for some kind of protest from the lieutenant but did not receive any, "Fine, I'm off to find the lieutenant." He said with a steel determination in his voice as he spun on his heel, quickly leaving before Havoc could start to protest.
Havoc watched Mustang, he felt a wave of dread pass though him. Riza was probably being reunited with Maes...the last thing she needed was a guilty Mustang waltzing into her life. She needed some space after today's events. He sighed and grabbed his uniform jacket, slinging it lazily over his shoulder as he began to walk in a separate direction to Mustang. He had the edge, he knew where Riza most likely had gone...Gracia's.
Riza had discarded her uniform jacket and was instead running frantically through the messy streets of Central in just her black polo neck and blue dress trousers. Her heart constricted painfully as she passes bloodied debris and collapsed buildings or corpses. She willed her legs to move faster and forced images of crumble buildings falling on her little boy to the back of her mind. She finally arrived at the Hughes' residence and practically threw herself at the door. Banging hysterically and calling out Maes and Gracia's, hell even Elysia's, names. There was no answer.
In her desperate and panicked state she forced open the door with the very persuasive barrel of her .45. She swept frantically through the empty halls and reception rooms before surveying the barren bedrooms. Maybe they had made it out the city? She ran back down the stairs and onto the street.
The railway station was only another ten minute run but she was already very tired from the battle and her boots were beginning to give her blisters. She fought through though, more than anything she needed Maes I her arms, she needed to hear him cry or giggle, run her fingers through his thick dark locks and kiss his pudgy round cheeks. Anything! She just needed Maes.
She rounded the corner from the main road and into the car pack before the station itself. Her breath caught in her throat as it constricted and burnt. She let out a small wail and put her hands on her head in sheer shock. The station was no longer there. Instead was a mash of steel cables, broken glass and rubble. The bent shoot of the steam engine protruded from the rubble, blackened from a high pressure explosion. There were men in blue uniforms and tattered shirts heaving debris out the way and pulling out bodies and survivors. Several people, both men and women, huddled in tears next to the rubble. Another wail cracked from her lips and she sprinted into the chaos. She began scraping and tearing at rubble, not caring that her tears were staining her cheeks or that her nails were breaking and bleeding from the shards of rock and glass. "Maes!" she called in a strangled wail, "MAES!" she called again, far more desperate now.
Her eyes scanned the mess, another person had been hauled from the rubble by the group of relief workers but still no sign of Maes, "Oh please God!" she cried, "MAES!"
Roy was slightly shocked as he walked back onto the street. Her apartment was no longer her apartment, she must have kept her telephone number when she moved because he had certainly called her whilst in the North. So she had a new home. Somewhere he didn't know, surely that was a sign? She'd moved on...Riza would never have moved without a reason. She was to practical for frivolous acts, such as moving because she didn't like the colour of the kitchen or she got bored. He stuffed his hands in his pockets feeling dejected and lost. He missed his chance. He'd been a total fool for going North, taking an action that drastic.
He heaved a sigh, intending to go back to Headquarters and help continue with the restoration when he turned the corner. Central station had been completely wiped off the map. He gasped audibly and was about to run over and help the rescue team when someone caught his eye. It was none other that Riza Hawkeye. She was scrabbling through the rubble manically. He trousers were torn and the dark polo neck was showing large sweat patched from her exertions. He'd never seen her so undone and it unnerved him. Something had to be very wrong for her to be so panic stricken.
Her hair was hanging limply and she brushed it aside limply. She'd given up scrubbing her wet cheeks due to the dirt and blood on her hands. She sat back, her chest burning and her fear rapidly encroaching on her mind. That's when she heard it. It was faint, barely a whisper on the wind but it was definatly there. A wail. She could hear a wail. A beautiful, melodic wail. She could have picked out the pitch of that cry anywhere in the world, in the darkest and busiest places, she would always recognise that wail.
Riza had never thanked whatever deity available so much for her sniper skills as she scurried across the rocks to the sound. She found a large pile of debris, constricted by a particularly large rock. She placed her ear firmly against the rock and listened closely. She could still hear the cry and it made her smile hopefully, "Maes? MAES!"
The crying inside changed pitch and this time it was joined by frantic calls of several others, including Gracia's. Her smiled widened but then she saw the rock, she tired to move it back by pressing her shoulder to it but it wouldn't budge. She glanced around, the panic gripping her again. Then it hit her...what if she used alchemy? She was still at the very beginning and she only knew the basics of the basics but she had to give it a try. They were desperate. People in there, including Maes, might need medical attention.
"Riza?" Roy called attentively, as he approached her. He didn't want to startle her, not in this condition anyway. "RIZA!" he tried again, only louder this time and she did turn in his direction. She was crouched against a very big lump of twisted rubble and steel. Her large amber eyes and dirty face settled on him. Her eyes widened and she suddenly sprang to her feet and began to unsteadily runn towards him. She tripped once scrapping her knee but she barely seemed to notice.
She hit him with such force that he struggled to maintain balance. She ripped at his uniform jacket a distant look of determination and fear etched on her face. "Riza, what ar-" he was cut off when she growled at him lowly and finally seemed to find what she was searching for.
Riza yanked the chalk he kept in his breast pocket and gripped it tightly in her sweaty and bloody palm. She stumbled back across the rocks, Roy following her curiously, towards the boulder. She fell to her knees muttering, still ignoring his presence behind her. His eyes grew wide as she began to sketch a circle on the stone. The circle was very basic and missing a few key lines but Riza was definitely attempting alchemy. Before she could tap the sides he quickly grabbed her wrist. She glared at him, a glare that would have previously paralysed him with fear, and went to shove him out the way. He was stopping her from reaching Maes. How dare he!
"Wait!" he said, trying to keep her calm. He'd never seen her so out of control, so racked with desperation that she was almost blindly stumbling through the situation, "the circle is wrong and to weak for this transmutation. Let me." He held out his palm calmly for the chalk, almost as if cajoling a small child to come out of a hiding place. She hesitated and glanced at his palm and then at the chalk before laying it in his hand. He nodded thanks and then began adjusting the circle on the rock.
He added two extra lines and removed another before kneeling and tapping the outer circle with his calloused finger tips. Riza sat watching him intently, as if he were a high security prisoner that needed to be controlled and monitored. Her sniper eyes were not going to miss a detail of his movements and she could feel the ache in her arms to encase Maes close to her chest and suck in his smell. In these moments, the man before her was not Roy Mustang. This was not the father of her illegitimate son or the man she'd loved and followed religiously for entire adult life. This was a tool, something to help her reach Maes. It was all about Maes.
The rock groaned and fractured. Hair thin crevasses streaking out in a complex spider web over its geological plains. In a flash of blue light, that seemed to last hours to Riza, the rock transformed into a plain arch, flooding the small cave within in light.
Gracia was the first to emerge, she was holding her right arm, it was slightly bloody and lay limply at her side. She was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and dust, her eyes squinting painfully at the light. Her emerald gaze fell on Riza and she gave a weak smile. Riza felt a slight whisper of guilt pass through the turmoil in her mind. She didn't want to see Gracia! She wanted Maes! Where was he? He wasn't in her arms! Gracia must have seen the fleeting panic in Riza's eyes because she smiled knowingly and croaked, "With Elysia."
Riza gave a releived smiled and tenderly hugged Gracia, trying to avoid her damaged arm. Roy gently led Gracia away towards the medics that had begun to gather at the site of the ruined station. He tried to act strong and comforting towards her but his eyes kept glancing back towards the small cavern as the few other survivors filtered out of it. What was she so desperate about? It obviously hadn't been Gracia otherwise she would have been more attentive. And who, or what, was with Elysia? That was surely the source of Riza's panic. He was still a little unsettled by her actions. It had to be something pretty important for Riza to get so worked up. He finally got Gracia handed to some medics and stayed with her out of duty to find out what was wrong and to comfort her while the medic checked her arm.
Gracia glanced at him and stated, "go Roy."
He looked at her, "pardon?"
"You're figiting and it's making me nervous. You want to see Riza, don't you?" There was no venom or spite in her voice. She merely stated what she had observed through Roy's actions next to the ambulance while she was attended to by the kind medic.
Roy opened his mouth to protest, he wasn't about to leave Gracia by herself to deal with her injuries without a friend...on the other hand he was desperate to check Riza was aright. He wanted to pull her into him tight and whisper his apologies and reassurances. Since the first moment he'd seen her he'd wanted to feel her soft lips against his again, this thought enticing lustful memories of their passionate night to creep into the fore front of his already cluttered mind. He shook himself free of this reverie and was about to reply to Gracia's statement when he was interrupted by a small, yet very familiar, squeal, "MUMMY!"
"Elysia, Honey!" Gracia smiled as her daughter bounded up to her and gave her mother a huge hug. Roy watched as his best friend's family interacted, happily reunited after Gracia was rushed to the ambulances. "Did Riza find you OK?" Gracia enquired.
Elysia nodded and snuggled closer to her mother. He little blue dress was ruined, all dusty and ripped after her short, yet terrifying, ordeal in the rubble. Elysia's eyes were clouded and weeping from exposure to the contaminated air of the collapsed construction and joy with being able to catch up with her mother. She'd watched as Roy had quickly led her away but had been unable to move because she'd been supporting a crying Maes. Her mother had become unable to hold the baby when her arm broke after the collapse. Elysia's arms were tired but she remained strong in the hope everything was going to be OK, the perpetual optimism she had no doubt inherited from her father. "Are you alright, Mummy?" she asked with worried and sad eyes.
"Yes, sweetie," Gracia said assuringly, running a and through Elysia's hair and kissing her forehead, "I'm not going anywhere but we may need to visit the hospital, OK?"
Elysia nodded and then her face lit up slightly as if she'd forgotten something, "Riza took Maes, Mummy. I hope that's OK, you told me not to leave him." Grace felt her stomach do a little somersault at the look that now descended on Roy Mustang's face. His eyes had locked on Elysia, the black depths becoming filled with a mixture of confusion and hurt. Surely Elysia knew and understood that her father was dead? Yet...what if someone had done something stupid in his absence? Was there anyone besides him who had felt that strongly about Maes and knew alchemy? Furthermore, why would Maes have gone with Riza and not his family? Assuming this was the same Maes and furthermore, why would Riza get that wound up about Maes Hughes? The two had never been particularly close...at least not from what he'd been told or seen.
His mind swam and he felt himself visibly paling as his mind worked at a thousand miles per hour to makes sense of what Elysia had just said. Gracia gave her daughter another reassuring smile, and nodded, trying to ignore Roy's face, "Yes, sweetie, that's fine."
"What does she mean Maes?" Roy spat out, his words coming out harsher and more desperate than he'd intended. Gracia and Elysia both looked at him, bewildered by his tone. Elysia visibly recoiled and cuddled closer to her mother.
Gracia smiled stood calmly and took Elysia's hand with her unharmed arm, "It's not our place, Roy. Talk to Riza."
Roy stood there with his chin on the floor, what did she mean not her place? Not her place for what? The behaviour reminded him very much of his men's behaviour towards him after the fight was over, what is with everyone? With Gracia now walking away from him and her arm clearly dealt with he turned desperately back to the chaos of the collapsed train station, his eye scanning for Riza's form. He needed to know she was alright. Her sudden out burst of frantic and panicked emotion had really frightened him, even though he fought to not show it outwardly. He also was desperate to know what was going on and what it had to do with Maes Hughes.
His gaze darted from figure to figure, scrutinising each one for the silhouette of Riza Hawkeye, one he knew so well. There were teams of men and women, removing rock and debris to free survivors and corpses alike. He watched as the line of blanketed bodies grew slowly next to the string of ambulance and he found himself thanking what ever deity there was that Gracia and Elysia had been fine and unharmed.
When his eye finally settled on Riza it widened. He stood rigid and only remained breathing through force of habit. She was stood on the road, clutching a bundle to her chest and quivering, unmistakably from tears. Around her were the powerful arms of a certain blonde second lieutenant and he found his gut twist and turn in jealousy and disgust. Riza was crying, crying, on the shoulder of Jean Havoc. That embrace was so comforting and loving that it left no doubt in his mind that there was more there than a working friendship. He was about to turn away when they broke apart revealing the bundle in her arms.
Two little limbs were caught up in Riza's shirt and around her neck, the small round head was swathed in a mop of characteristic mind-night black hair and the small wail emanating from it distinguished it unmistakably as a baby. The cogs began turning in Roy's head. His feet glued to the spot and his limbs pale from the blood that had now drained right to his core as realisation began to form in his thoughts. He thought of the night he'd shared with Riza before his transfer and the fact that the child looked over a year old, the shear panic in Riza's actions when she realised the station had collapsed, the child had jet black hair and it was clinging to Riza like she was their...mother.
His mouth went dry, the blood draining from his face and his heart beat sped up, "Oh fuck..." he mumbled.
It's a medical proven fact that reviews heal colds... ;P