Descent

Chapter Eighteen

Why did Mustang have to be putting her through this? Why was he going to so much trouble to send her to an early grave? He had told her he loved her, the day he'd gotten his eyesight back. Had he been lying? Was it all just a great big lie, was it all just one lie after another? Had he been doing what he'd been doing ever since Edward had joined the military? Why was he even doing it in the first place? What had caused him to do such a horrible thing? These questions and millions more swam through her head and to Hell if she knew the answers to any of them now.

The truck ran over a speed bump and she was momentarily floating in the air, until the truck returned to ground and gravity pushed her back down into the seat with a poomf. Water splashed around the wheels as the truck landed and flew into the back of the truck, splashing Riza in the face. She wiped her eyes and listened to the steady sound of heavy rain hitting the tarp that protected her from it, and then opened her eyes and watched it fall, watched it fall, the one constant in this terribly chaotic day.

Really, when she thought about it, it was such a good day for rain.

It matched everyone's moods; grey and soggy.

Maybe, with any luck, the confrontation with Mustang would occur outside, and he wouldn't be able to use the alchemy that the tattoo on Riza's back had taught him. Just at that moment, as she thought of it, the place on her back that Roy had burned began to itch, and she reached behind herself to scratch at it with her left hand. As she did, a thought occurred to her.

What if Roy had already used that alchemy to kill Edward?

Her stomach suddenly felt empty, despite the lunch she had eaten, which she now wanted to vomit back up. Her blood boiled at the thought and she had to rub her temples to stop the earth shattering pounding that had erupted there. Edward wouldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead; he was Edward. The boy was practically immortal, there was no way he would ever die, especially not at the hands of Roy Mustang. She refused to entertain such ridiculous thoughts any longer, so she locked them back away, at the very back of her mind, inside an impenetrable vault with a million golden locks.

Golden, like Edward's eyes.

The eyes that had always fascinated Riza. She had never been able to fathom how such glorious golden eyes could actually exist until she'd discovered about Edward's Xerxian ancestry, after the Promised Day was well and over, when she'd attended Van Hohenheim's funeral, and in the eulogy Edward had told his father's tale. Riza had had to excuse herself later that day, after the funeral had finished, so that she could quietly, in private, let down the tears that had been begging to fall since the beginning of the day, the same way she had after the funeral of Maes Hughes. Roy had come looking for her, of course, and he had not seen her tears because of his blindness, yet somehow the man still knew that she had been crying. She had tried to tell him that she hadn't, because it just wouldn't do for him to know that behind her mask of calm and reason there was weakness, but he wouldn't accept it. He had taken her into his arms and allowed her head to rest on his shoulder, where she had then continued to cry silently. She had known then that he was the kindest man she had ever met. Or, at least, she thought she knew. Now, she didn't know what was true and what was false now.

She hated not knowing, because she was trained to know everything. It was a part of military life, knowing everything you could so that you could do your job, whatever that job turned out to be. Not knowing the answers was ingrained into her very being to feel wrong. She needed to know, even if it killed her.

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Havoc took a long drag on his cigarette before tossing it out into the rain. It was a great stress reliever, but he couldn't afford to allow it to distract him now. He had a job to do, a kid to save. Edward, he had to save him, because he was just a kid. He was too young to die, and he was too close to Havoc for him to allow that to happen without one Hell of a fight. He was part of the team, part of the family, and you don't let family die on you, not when you can do something to help them.