Ice and Flame

Sakuragi Kirandra

A/N: Ugh, re-reading what I wrote 5 years ago is painful. Very painful. Still, no better way to learn than from your own mistakes, right? Going to edit this and try and turn it into something actually bearable.

Disclaimer: Story and characters not mine. Enjoy.

"Colonel?"

The door swung just a fraction, allowing Riza Hawkeye's head to poke into the room. Behind the desk, Roy Mustang sighed. "What is it now?" He had never expected being Fuhrer to be so tedious. "Not another diplomat from the Ishbalians?"

"No. It's the Elric brothers."

"Oh?" Roy got up from his chair. He could see Edward and Alphonse talking in the room beyond. "They're already back? It's only been a few weeks since they left."

Curiosity piqued, he got up from his not-so-comfortable-anymore Fuhrer's chair, and strode out. "Why hello, little Fullmetal. Found something worth reporting?"

Edward stood up. "I need to know if there are any deserter State Alchemists out there."

Roy frowned. Edward hadn't even grilled him for the 'little' comment. This had to be important. "Deserters? No more that I know of… why?"

"Because we met one," Edward stated. Crossing his arms, he glared at Roy. "Please tell me this isn't another Marco case and you're not telling me everything."

"I wouldn't presume to do that," Roy replied with a smirk. "Are you going to challenge me to another duel then?"

"No, but I might think of other ways," Edward replied, already beginning to stare down Roy - or stare up, given his lack of height..

Fortunately, a full-fledged quarrel was averted by Alphonse, who hissed a few words into his brother's ear. Slowly, and still glaring at Roy, Edward sat down.

Roy's smirk widened further. "Well, Fullmetal-"

"Cool it, Colonel." Riza marched into the room and thrust a stack of papers at him. "You do have one deserter alchemist unaccounted for, by the way."

"We missed one?" Roy pretended to ignore Edward's smug grin, and instead concentrated on leafing through the papers. "Who's he?"

"She," Riza corrected. Taking the papers from Roy, she easily located the sheet she wanted, and quickly scanned the page, her face growing paler as she read.

"Um..." Alphonse raised a hand meekly. Seeing no one protest, he lowered it and began to speak. "What's that alchemist's name...?"

"Her name is..." Mouth already open, Riza paused, then looked at Roy. "I'd better not say it." Sighing, she quickly shoved the page back somewhere into the stack, pointedly avoiding Roy's scowl as he glared almost angrily at the stack - which, they all knew, was impossible for him to find anything in.

"Well, she did say she wanted to meet you," Edward finally said, desperate to break the tension passing between Roy and the stack of paper. "I guess that means she knows you."

"But I –" Roy broke off abruptly in the middle of his sentence. He half-turned, hand already outstretched. "Duck!"

All four of them dropped to the floor. Roy snapped his fingers, nearly blowing away the whole window. A charred corpse fell inwards, hitting the carpeted floor with the faint thud. Then a spray of bullets peppered the wall above them. "Snipers," Riza hissed, drawing her own handgun and firing a few return shots.

A loud pounding drew Roy's attention to the door. "They've managed to infiltrate the building too?" he groaned as he snapped his fingers again. The resulting smoke cleared to reveal a coughing group of Amestrian soldiers. Most were instantly felled by a second spray of bullets.

"Get out," Riza snapped, practically shoving the other three through the door. Roy snapped his fingers again, exploding a good chunk of table and paper, and the four of them hurriedly took advantage of the mess to flee.

Only Roy glanced back once, and then realised instantly that it was a mistake. A gun protruded from the smoke and fire, swinging from left to right as if unsure who to fire at. But the moment Roy turned, it focused on him, and a single bullet escaped the barrel - strange how everything suddenly seemed to have gone quiet, wasn't it?

The bullet itself seemed to travel in slow motion. A single desperate, echoing cry rang out above the gunshots. Is it mine? Roy found a part of himself wondering. A figure threw itself in front of him, blocking the bullet from his view. Riza, a part of him thought. No, not her! another part protested. That part wanted to cry out, warn her, shove her aside... anything. But his limbs felt so stiff, so heavy, so rigid. Yet another part watched, entranced, as blood began to darken the front of her uniform. Strange... red blood plus blue uniform gives black, not purple...

Then the second part took over, and he was finally able to catch her. She was still breathing, he could see, but her breaths were getting increasingly laboured and shallower. He heard the clang clang of metal footsteps behind him, and watched as Alphonse easily took her trembling body from him and began to run.

Some part of him managed to follow.

Outside, four masked men knelt on a platform, periodically spraying the doorway and walls with bullets. The occasional brave soldier would venture through the door in an attempt to shoot or grenade or generally kill them, but so far they were still alive, and the body count was growing.

A sudden commotion from the doorway caused the four men to tense. If it was a State Alchemist coming... they exchanged looks, looks of we're outta here if they send in alchemists, never mind the pay.

Then...

The dust cleared.

A manly silhouette could be seen emerging from the thinning smoke.

The men didn't wait, they fired. Not the lazy spread of bullets they had been shooting so far - this round was all concentrated on that one man and they were actually trying to aim.

And then said man emerged unharmed, a block of metal chiseled in the shape of his torso and riddled with bullet holes held in front of him. "This defensive alchemy has been passed down in the Armstrong line for generations!"

The four hired snipers dropped their guns and ran.

A/N 2: Editing is harder than it looks. =X

A few notes on the story:

- Roy is Fuhrer, but old names stick.

- Ed and Al are still searching for the Philosopher's Stone

- Think of the setting as somewhere in the middle of the anime, but all the homunculi and Dante died and Roy became Fuhrer. And everything goes on as per normal.

Still, hopefully this doesn't read so bad anymore! Reviews please~