This will be a fifteen chapter story! :D Let's see how Ivy fails at plot!

…I hope it's okay. I actually wrote out a timetable and word goal per chap and stuff. *crosses fingers*

Who knows, maybe I'll finish this before we come back from Arizona. I got 12 days! That's over a chapter a day! I don't think I can do that!

Spoilers for everything, btw. If I owned FMA, there would have been a series of passionate kisses between Roy and Riza at every suspenseful moment. And at least one Lingfan and Edwin kiss.

And Mei would have a much bigger role, 'cause she's just that cool.

Roy awoke to the first ring that pierced the air of his silent home. Generally he did not receive phone calls at midnight unless his team was drunk, but considering he was always the one to suggest going out, and that it was a Tuesday night, (Or rather, Wednesday morning) that wasn't a very plausible option.

Besides, the bartender always called Riza, not him.

Roy rolled out of his bed, butterflies flitting around in his stomach. He cut the phone off mid-ring.

"Roy Mustang," he grunted, wiping the sleep out of his eyes and bracing himself for the worst. He heard the voice that he did not want to hear at midnight in the low, terrified tone it was uttered in. Roy never wanted to hear her voice like that, because it meant she was in trouble.

"I hate to bother you, sir, but there's someone in my house." Riza's voice was low and scared, (she may have been a war hero, and the only woman south of Briggs with a poker face that could rival any military officer's, but she was still a woman, and women do not like it when strange men are in their house at midnight. Riza was still human, no matter what the newspapers said.) and Roy could tell that she was pressed up against her bedroom wall, gun in hand, ready yet unwilling to shoot. She had always been hesitant to shoot anyone if she was only protecting herself. Roy's breath caught in his throat. His nightmares were coming true. Why couldn't they stay nightmares?

"I'll be there in a minute, Hawkeye. Be careful," he didn't even bother trying to hang up the phone, choosing instead to rush out the door and leaving it dangling from the cord, thumping against the wall. He wasn't going to be useless. Riza needed him, so he wasn't going to be useless if it took his dying breath.

~*~BREAK~*~

Riza crouched outside in the bushes, gun safety off with her finger on the trigger, ready to fire. When they had moved back to East, her landlord had offered her a small house for the same rent as her apartment had been. He was a kind, generous man (perhaps a little too kind, because Riza was sure she was getting the better end of the deal and if her landlord had not had other tenants, he would be losing money on her) and ignored the news, so he didn't know about the recent claims of her inhumanity.

She heard footsteps behind her and whirled around, heart in her throat. She didn't shoot automatically, but did hold the gun pointed at about the figure's chest, trying to steady her hands and breathe more than the shallow, gasping, terrified half lungfuls of air that seemed to be all she could manage.

It was Roy. Only Roy- her CO, her best friend, childhood companion, who cared enough to rush over in the middle of the night just because she had asked, not a murderer, not a burglar, just Roy. Her heart slowed a few beats, already feeling safer than she had before because he was there. His presence was all it took to calm her.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Colonel," she whispered, removing him from the line of fire. The gun was pointed at the ground now, the ugly barrel threatening the soil instead of the life she had sworn to protect.

"You aren't bothering me in the least. I'll always be there when you need me," her breath caught in her throat as he gently placed his hand on her shoulder. Her ears burned red, and Riza felt thankful for the cover of darkness. He would always be there when she needed him- it sounded like a promise. Riza wished desperately that it wasn't an empty one, abandoned at some point in the future when he deemed it unnecessary. Roy Mustang was a man of his word, right? She had known him long enough to know that much.

"Let's go catch that bastard," he growled, his breath hot in her ear. She gripped her gun tighter and gave a curt nod, not trusting herself to speak more than two tight words. No time for distractions now.

"Yes sir."

~*~BREAK~*~

The scream of a living thing being burned alive is possibly the worst sound any one being can utter.

She had heard the screams in Ishval by the thousands, and she herself had screamed when Roy had burned her back. Envy had screamed too, as his skin was boiled away and he died over and over again in mortal agony that never stopped. She had heard the screams before, and the screams were what haunted her and gave her the killer's eyes that Kimblee had pointed out so boldly in Ishval.

Somehow the screams were worse in the middle of the night in her own home. Somehow it was new when the screams continued on and on, mortal agony replacing what was once a life. This was what had killed her in Ishval, the screams that had kept on echoing in her ears. For many it was the bodies, the blood, the suffering, the widespread destruction that had given them the killer's eyes, but not her. The screams of the people still echoed behind her eyes nearly ten years after she had suffocated in the desert sand. Riza felt the gun slip out of her hand and clatter to the floor. She followed the firearm, collapsing in a heap on the wood, her eyes wide open and unseeing.

"Hawkeye! Hawkeye, snap out of it!" she heard Roy shout desperately. "RIZA!" his last word was lost to the sea of screams that had been locked away in a corner of her brain for so long. Her own screams of pain and pity mingling with those in her head.

She slipped into darkness, grateful of the silence that enveloped her with the bringing of unconsciousness.

~**~Break~**~

Pain. Burning, stabbing, shooting pain, and her entire body was aflame with it. Her own screams were the first thing she heard, though Riza was hardly aware that she was shrieking at all.

Stop it, please just stop it, kill me if you want to, I don't care, but just stop this pain. She screamed again- was that all she was capable of now?- the shrieks echoing off the walls. She barely heard him when he spoke.

"Please, it's okay, I'm right here, Riza, please, please, it's okay, you'll be fine…" The comforting words were nothing-they meant nothing to her, even uttered as panicked and desperate as they were. They didn't stop the burning, or the feeling that her body was riddled with bullet holes. Nothing she had ever experienced had hurt anything near this. Not one thing. Every breath that shook her ribcage felt as if air was made of a roaring blaze. She let tears leak from her eyes and felt a rough, calloused hand brush them away. It hurt for him to touch her- could he be using fire to burn her tears away? Riza clenched her teeth to try to stop her screams.

"Are you okay? Please be okay, please be okay… Don't die on me, dammit! Please don't be dying, just wait, I called an ambulance, it'll be here in a minute! I can't live without you, so DAMMIT, DON'T DIE ON ME!" His hands found hers, enveloping her fingers in fire. Usually his touch was so gentle. Why was he hurting her? This was Roy, her CO, her best friend, her childhood companion, her-

Riza's panicked thoughts faded as the pain overcame her, plaguing her long after she had succumbed to darkness once again.

~**~Break~**~

Roy could only watch and wait as Riza lay on the floor, shaking and screaming, her body thrashing and arching so high that it threatened to snap. He would kill anyone to make her pain stop, point his gloves at anything in the world for her screaming tears to cease flowing from her tortured eyes. If he could, he would take the pain himself just so she didn't have to endure it. It was his fault she had to go through the pain the military inflicted on her, his fault for Ishval, his fault for burning her. Maybe this was his fault too- with everything she had followed him through, he wouldn't be surprised if it was. Just please, Riza, don't die on me. He would do anything to stop her pain.

As it was, all he could do was wait for the ambulance to come, screaming her name and hoping in vain that she could hear him. That realization made Roy want to shed tears along with Riza- he was useless just when she needed him most, and when he had sworn not to be useless to her ever again.

1,570 words. Dang. I guess it's just about my word goal. Chapter one successfully crossed off! YAY PROGRESS!