Once Riza and Dr. Striker got out of the building, Riza got in the car, looking for the nearest phone booth to call for backup and an ambulance. It took her about ten minutes to find the phone booth and she quickly got out and rang Central when there was a loud explosion, a large cloud of smoke and flames ascended in the air. Riza dialed faster and spoke with someone, giving her code, and they said they would be there shortly. Riza ran back to the car, driving like a madwoman back to the laboratory.
"Lieutenant, I don't know what you think you will accomplish. They're most likely dead."
"You don't know Edward then. He would do anything to save the Colonel, even though they're not on the best of terms. He'll be there."
Dr. Striker sighed, knowing more about his chemicals than Riza, and he knew that there was a lot of stuff that was flammable that had been stored up in that facility. He would know because he asked for it. There was another large explosion that rocked the car and Dr. Striker looked at Riza. He understood her loyalty to her superior and to the young alchemist but he had to wonder if it went a little too deep. To think they could escape those two massive explosions is a long shot even for that alchemist child. he thought.
As expected, when they got to the laboratory, there was nothing really left of it. Riza got out and stared at the burning rubble that was once the laboratory and fell to her knees, tears falling down her face.
"No… No, it can't be…"
Dr. Striker sighed, hating to be right, but he walked over and put his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry, Lieutenant."
Riza was suddenly angry. She was angry at Dr. Striker, angry at those strange people that had taken Roy, angry at Edward for not trying hard enough, angry at Roy for taking those stupid pills (even though it wasn't really the problem). She let out a feral scream and trudged to the rubble, beginning to remove some of the charred material.
"They can't be dead! Edward was strong and Roy was strong too! They can't be gone! They're too good for death!"
"Lieutenant, what are you doing?" someone said.
Riza looked over and tears fell down her face in horrid gobs that she didn't know she was capable of. She ran and wrapped her arms around the dirty man and then frowned.
"How did you escape? What happened to your arm?"
Edward laughed a little, scratching his head a little.
"Well, apparently the growth formula works on inanimate objects too. I was going to fight and the metal rusted out of my automail. Hope I don't get a disease or something… Anyhow, it fell off."
"Where's the Colonel?"
Edward looked away and Riza blinked.
"He's over here…"
She walked behind him as he made his way around the rubble to the other side. There, she saw where he had used alchemy to make a rock shield dome of sorts, and a small figure in the middle of it. When they got closer, she saw that it was a baby and Riza ran to it. It was Roy, but he was having a hard time breathing, sounding terrible.
"What's wrong with him?"
"All the smoke. Plus, he helped out a lot to get us out."
Riza looked back at Edward in confusion, holding Roy to her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, apparently, even though he forgot a lot of things, he didn't forget flames. When they began to get big and I thought we were goners, he started clapping and reaching out for them. I was a little confused. But as the fire began to consume the room, he was joyfully clapping and laughing, as if he loved them. I got the idea to draw his flame symbol onto his palms… Somehow, I'm not sure how, but when he clapped his hands, he was able to move the flames to keep them from burning us. We were able to escape with him doing that, but the smoke was horrendous and I only had one arm or I would have tried to help. When we got out, the explosions happened… His body is so small so…"
Riza touched the soot covered baby as the sound of ambulances and trucks could be heard where the military was coming. He would be safe…
"Mr. Elric!" Riza heard behind her as Dr. Striker was trying to run.
She looked behind her where Edward had fallen face first to the ground and ran to him. Dr. Striker pulled him over and then touched the ground where he had been laying.
"Lieutenant this is a serious matter." He said, holding up his hand.
She looked at it and saw that his fingertips were covered in blood. Riza's eyes widened and handed Roy to the doctor.
"Hold him. If you run off I will shoot you."
"I wouldn't do that."
Riza lifted up Edward's shirt and her eyes widened again. There were slash marks all on his chest and two puncture wounds through his stomach that were gushing blood. She could just barely hear the cars stopping and people shouting as she watched the blood that was on Edward ooze out of him. How had he not showed any signs? How had he been so calm?
"Lieutenant?"
Riza looked up as Havoc came to her and he looked at the body in front of her. He turned around and yelled for medics to come and help him and then knelt next to her.
"Hey, Hawkeye, are you alright?"
"He was bleeding so much… he… Havoc, don't let Edward die."
"Edward? Where is the chief?"
"Right there. These people… they injected him with one of Dr. Striker's serums and he grew up but… Havoc, promise that he'll be okay!" she screamed, grabbing his shirt.
Jean just wrapped his arm around her as she finally just cried. He knew she was fatigued, hurt, and worried. He also knew to never mention this to her ever again…
"Don't worry, Hawkeye, they'll be fine."
"You gotta clap for me, Colonel. We can't get out of here if you don't help out, okay? I only have one arm so I can't help as much as I'd like… There ya go… One more time… That's good… You're doing so good, Colonel…"
"EDWARD!" Roy screamed.
He looked around, not recognizing where he was or anything about the place. He noticed the cup over his face and pulled it off shakily, making out that it was the ventilator to help him breathe. Why was it so hard to do in the first place?
"Colonel?" someone said, a door opening.
Roy looked over, seeing Riza come in. He swallowed and tried to sit up.
"Edward; where's Fullmetal?" he croaked.
"Don't worry about it right now, Roy. You need to get better-"
"I WANT TO SEE FULLMETAL!" he screamed, knowing something was wrong.
Riza looked at him sadly and held out her arms to him. He held his out to her and she picked him up, dragging the pole with her that had all his fluids. He laid on her shoulder, out of breath.
"Why am I breathing weird? Why am I like this?"
"Well, Dr. Striker, the real one, made a specific batch of his serum for you and gave it to you immediately. We're using it to expand your lung capacity as well as get you to normal, which seems to be going well since you seem to kind of remember who you are. We didn't want to give it to you too fast so we were going to wait until you woke up to continue… You had a lot of smoke inhalation…"
"Where's Edward?"
"I'm taking you to him." She said softly.
She opened the door and Roy sat up, looking behind him. He frowned at the person in the bed.
"That's… him?"
"He had been injected with another serum before the lab exploded…"
"Wh- why is he like that? Riza, why does he look like he's dead?"
Riza swallowed. "Because he's pretty well near it… We can't turn him back to normal because changing his body will make everything smaller and could kill him. He was stabbed a couple of times it looks like…"
"No… no, he has to be okay… Riza, he has to be okay!" he said, tears forming in his eyes. "Right?!"
Riza didn't know what to say and Roy took that as something bad. His black eyes got bigger and he looked back at Edward.
"No… No, Fullmetal, you have to get better! That's an order! FULLMETAL, I ORDER YOU TO STAY ALIVE!"
He began to cough from the straining and he turned in to Riza's chest to compose himself.
"Promise me you won't let him die." He whispered, breathing heavily.
"I will try my best, sir… Come on, we need to get you back on that ventilator so you can breathe better."
Riza carried her superior back to his room as he silently cried on her shoulder, childish love and superior responsibility rolling into one to create emotions he wasn't sure how to respond to.
oh no! will ed make it? he has some serious wounds but his older body is making it difficult to heal. and poor roy. his childish mind is lingering around his regular one, making him act out. oh and riza has broken down before when she thought roy was dead so... and roy's flame alchemy is a little odd but i read up on it and it said that he manipulates the oxygen in the air to combustable levels and then the ignition gloves cause the spark that flows down the charged oxygen particles. i figure that in his baby state, he still has that ability only he claps and technically controls the flames with oxygen. i dunno what the symbol allows but that's what i'm using. correct if wrong...