Title: The Harder Path

Author: Evil_Little_Dog

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: This is a derivative work, and, as such, I make absolutely no money writing this. Darn the luck.

Summary: Maria makes a decision. Takes place post-Promised Day.

Notes: from Comment_Fic.

"Are you sure you want this assignment?"

Maria nodded at her superior officer. "Yes, sir."

"You know how difficult this will be."

She allowed herself the faintest smile. "More difficult than being dead to my family, and a traitor to everyone I know?"

He smiled back, just as faintly, perhaps even ironically. "I suppose not. But the Ishvalans are still wary of Amestrians, and rightly so. And the Eastern Desert is not a hospitable place."

"I've traveled through it numerous times now, sir, I believe I'm fully aware how inhospitable it can be." Those trips back and forth to Xing had taken a toll on her, though Maria had learned to survive in the arid clime. It had faded her once walnut hair to a shade closer to rare cinnamon. Her skin had darkened under the sun's daily pounding. Fine lines marred the flesh around her eyes. Maria considered it all a low price to pay, for her life, for her being able to return to her family with an explanation she wasn't dead, she wasn't a traitor, and, finally, her re-induction into the military, at a higher rank and pay grade.

Roy Mustang nodded once, and signed her papers with a flourish. Riza Hawkeye poured a bit of deep green wax on the bottom of the page, and stamped it with the official Amestrian seal. Waiting for a few seconds for the wax to harden, Mustang passed the papers back over to Maria. "Congratulations, Captain, and welcome to the Ishvalan regiment."

~end~