As far as Riza could tell, she seemed to be doing the same thing for major Kimbley that she had done for Roy.

Riza scouted ahead, finding a place here or there to stand watch. Through the spyglass on her rifle she would watch for any movement, and take out any Ishvalans who were in their way on their path ahead.

Kimbley and the rest of the men would stand behind, waiting for her signal, and when they got it they would make their way ahead. When the real fighting began, Riza would find a carefully hidden spot on some sort of high ground and watch major Kimbley, just like she watched Roy, and make sure that he was safe, killing anyone who tried to hurt him.

She found herself missing Roy as he stood crouched down for hours on end sometimes, watching the battle and major Kimbley, but she couldn't deny even to herself that there was something very appealing about the way that major Kimbley did his job. Well, perhaps appealing was the wrong word. Interesting was more like it. He used his alchemy with a certain grace and enthusiasm that Mustang, for all his skill, lacked.

It wasn't really surprising when Riza thought about it. From what Kimbley had said earlier about his complete lack of disturbance as far as killing was concerned, he was probably holding back.

Riza was used to waiting until the end of the day to call it quits and make her way back to camp to eat and rest, although the rest of Roy's men had been able to take a few breaks for lunch and water throughout the day. Major Kimbley made it very clear that none of his men took breaks until the fighting was over, usually after the sun had already gone down.

As they all sat around a fire, Riza watched their tired and weary faces, too exhausted and focused on their food to talk or joke as they had done in Roy's camp.

As soon as they were finished eating most of them went straight to bed, and there were only a few other soldiers left sitting around the fire when major Kimbley came and sat down beside Riza.

"Good work today, soldier. I'm glad to know that I have someone competent watching my back." He raised his coffee cup in toast to her before taking a sip.

Riza almost repeated that she was just doing her job, but instead she found herself saying "Thanks." She and Roy were such good friends, and the rest of the men were so used to her by now, that everyone just seemed to take it for granted that she had the ability to protect them all. They didn't ever think anymore about the enormous amount of stress she was under to make sure that they were all safe. It was actually pleasant being thanked for once. But the happy feeling faded just as quickly as it had come when she realized that Roy was now on his own without her.

As if he had read her mind, Kimbley raised an eyebrow and said, "I wouldn't worry too much about Mustang. He's too lucky to be killed."

She nodded, unconvinced.

"You don't believe me?"

"I wish I could."

"You should. I rarely lie." When she didn't say anything, he added, "It isn't like I would just try and make you feel better, after all."

"Good point." Riza said. He was probably right. It would take nothing short of a miracle to bring Roy down.

"So what's the draw? I don't completely understand it." Kimbley said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Colonel Mustang. I don't understand it."

She thought about how in the world she was supposed to answer that question, but luckily she didn't have to.

A soldier came by handing out mail to everyone who was still up, interrupting her. He called out names, and Riza wasn't surprised that he didn't call hers out. There was no one left in her life to write her a letter.

She wasn't surprised to see that Kimbley got something, a fancy white envelope with several pages inside. He was in charge of all of these men after all, he surely had all sorts of correspondences all the time from the higher ups. She was surprised to see the corner of his mouth twitch a bit in laughter as he read the pages.

Riza couldn't resist; "What is it?" She asked, inclining her head just a tiny bit to look at the pages in his hands. The writing was tiny but neat, and sort of swirly. If Riza didn't know better, she would say it was a girl's handwriting.

"It's my sister." Kimbley said, still reading.

"You're sister?" Riza couldn't control the shock in her voice.

Kimbley looked up. "Why are you so surprised?"

"I don't know…I guess you just looked like one of those people who don't have any family at all."

"Like you?"

She glared at him but he seemed not to notice. "Of course I have a family. I may not be very close to most of them, but I've always got along very well with my sisters."

"Sisters? You mean there's more than one?"

He nodded. "I have three. The oldest is sixteen, the one who wrote, and the others, the twins, are both six."

"So many years between all of you. I mean, you're a little old."

He smiled. "I suppose."

"So…what is she like? Your sister? I mean…is she like you?" An image of a dark haired girl with a crazy smile on her face and fire in the background flashed in her mind.

"Not really. She doesn't know alchemy, or have an interest in it. But she is very refined and cultured like I am. It's part of our upbringing. Her interests are horseback riding and playing the piano."

"You're kidding."

"I'm not. She is also very clever, like I am. I enjoy having many stimulating conversations with her that I simply would not be able to have with others."

"So you're saying she shares your insane ideas about morality and death?"

"She is open minded and sees things for what they are, like I do."

So she was crazy. "Well that's nice, I suppose, that you have someone to speak to."

He set his letter down and took up his coffee cup again. "Don't sound so sad, miss Sharpshooter. I'm sure that after this war is over you'll have all the time in the world to find a new family."

Riza stood up. "It's time I got some sleep."

"I'll see you in the morning." He said.

She nodded and went off.

Kimbley and the rest of the men made it inside just before Roy ordered the doors to be closed.

Roy ran up to Kimbley, who was looking slightly breathless but somehow just as jovial as ever. "What happened?" Roy demanded.

"Ishvalans ambushed us. Didn't that soldier explain this to you already? It's not as if I have anything else to add Colonel Mustang…"

"Alright, alright. How many are there, I mean? What should we do?"

There were shouts now from outside and the Amestrisians inside hustled to stand to attention. Roy hated the worried looks on their faces, but he knew he probably looked the exact same way.

Kimbley didn't take even a second to respond. "What do we do? What do you think we do? We do our jobs as alchemists."

"There's too many soldiers in here for us to use our alchemy. We could hurt someone."

"We go up to the roof. I, at least, can take them all out up there." Kimbley made for the stair well. "You can follow me and come do your job, or you can stay here with the rest of these children." He said over his shoulder.

Roy followed, more hesitantly than he should have considered they were amidst a battle. But there was just something about following Kimbley alone up the roof that unsettled Roy.

…

Kimbley was already leaning over the edge of the Roof by the time Roy got up there.

And he was laughing

"What the hell are you laughing about?"

Kimbley finally stopped, but Roy wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. He got it anyway.

"Life, Colonel Mustang, just life. Sometimes it's just so good to be alive, and I can scarcely believe my luck."

Why. Roy thought. "Listen we need to hurry this thing up, people are getting hurt and our men are counting on us."

"They certainly are. Come stand over here, Mustang. They're all waiting below for their reckoning."

Roy walked up beside Kimbley. Sure enough, the Ishvalans were all waiting below, although not as many as Roy had originally thought there would be. This was all Kimbley's fault. He had insisted on staying here in the city even though they all knew it was dangerous.

"Colonel Mustang."

"Yes?" Roy didn't turn around.

The next moment there was a sharp tug he felt in his stomach. He glance down and saw the end of a blade sticking out through him. Quickly Roy flashed around to face Kimbley, but despite his quickness he was still in shock from the wound and when he raised his hand to summon his alchemy Kimbley hacked it off with the end of a bayonet.

…..

They made their way over a land of sand and sun, slowly but surely. Their regiment was farther away from the others so Riza didn't hear or see Roy for weeks. The Crimson Alchemist and his men were farther out now than any of the troops had made it yet. Everyday Riza and the rest of them woke up early and made their way through Ishval, leaving destruction in their wake. She went ahead or followed behind to make sure that major Kimbley was protected, but when they were just setting up camp or waiting for orders, Kimbley always requested that Riza stand close to him.

She knew he didn't trust her, but it was impossible to deny that he didn't enjoy her company. She was the only soldier that he spoke to besides to just give orders.

He never spoke about anything personal, usually just technical things, but she still noticed the way he singled her out. And it wasn't that he had a hard time talking other people, it just seemed like he had no desire to.

They were making their way around a mountain pass now; Riza had already gone ahead and made sure the way was safe. She walked beside Kimbley now, both of their eyes open for any enemies up ahead, but they spoke now about leadership.

"A strong leader shows no mercy. He doesn't let up and he pushes everyone to their limit. Otherwise how would they know their full potential?" He said.

"They would reach their full potential by their respect and love for their leader. That's how. If a leader is kind and caring for his followers, then they would want to do anything for him. That's how they would truly reach their limit, not by putting them under immense stress or hardship."

"I disagree. Look at yourself, for instance. You are working just as hard for me as you ever did for Mustang, and the two of us are as different as two leaders can be."

"That's different not because of the two of you. That's different because of who I am. I'm not like the rest of the soldiers, I'm a sniper and I go on my own way."

There was a grin in Kimbley's voice as he spoke. "Maybe that's true, miss Sharpshooter. But it still doesn't mean that Mustang is a better leader than I am."

"I didn't say that he was a better leader."

"But the leader that you described is Colonel Mustang. So you must be saying that he is."

"I…no. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that…I've seen the way Mustang treats his troops, and I see the way they act. The loyalty in their eyes. They would die for him. I don't think that your men would die for you."

"Would you?" He asked.

"What?"

"Die for him?"

"I…don't know."

"Don't you?"

"Yes. Yes, I would. I would die for Colonel Mustang." Ahead of her was the body of a young Ishvalan soldier that she had shot earlier when she was checking the way ahead. Growing beside him was one of the blood flowers. She thought of Roy. Going towards it, she bent down to take a closer look.

"And what about me? Would you die for me?"

She took a deep breath. Would she? She reached down to pick the flower, taking a moment to get her thoughts together.

Before she could anything, she heard a quick intake of air and then felt her back grind into the rocks on the ground as Kimbley tackled her.

She grinded her teeth together against the pain of Kimbley's weight on top of her and a searing sting in her right arm. As he pulled himself off of her she heard him shouting at the men to get into formation.

Riza wasn't sure what was going on until she heard more shots coming from behind them.

They were being ambushed.

"Kimbley, what's happening? Are we being attacked?"

He looked down at her, then back towards where the shouts were coming from. "Yes. We were so careful checking the way ahead we didn't think that someone might be stalking us from behind."

"You're hurt, sir." She said, looking at his jacket, which was soaked with blood. He looked down and unbuttoned it until he only had a white undershirt on.

"No, I'm not. You are. This is your blood."

She looked down and saw that he was right. He had pushed her forward, but she had still been shot. Her arm was completely red and she wasn't sure if she could even lift it.

Men were running past them and from the shouts and explosions she was sure that the fighting had already started.

"Please help me up, sir. I have to help."

He narrowed his eyes as he leaned down over her and touched her arm. She hissed from the pain when his fingers prodded her wound.

"You can't fight. You can't even get up, much less use your arm. I'm going to take you to the meds before the battle here gets too ugly. You're going to have to sit this one out, miss Sharpshooter."

"No! I can fight! One of my arms still works-Ahhh!" As he lifted her off the ground the pain from her wounded arm cut off her thoughts. She forgot for a moment about fighting and instead prayed that they wouldn't have to cut her arm off.

As he took her back towards the meds she saw soldiers running the other way towards the fight, which didn't seem to be going very well. There were screams and explosions coming from behind as the enemy pushed forward.

Weakly, she opened her eyes at Kimbley above her. "The fight…we have to go back!"

"Don't worry. I'll go back and end this as soon as I get you back."

He did exactly that. After leaving her with the doctors he left. Mere minutes later explosions rocked the ground. The last thing Riza saw before she passed out was the glasses and vials on the small table beside the bed they laid her on fall off and smash to the ground.