A/N: Happy Easter Sunday, everyone, and welcome to chapter THREE FREAKING HUNDRED of Snap Shots! This is incredible. Thank you all so much for reading: it means so much to me. I hope this story doesn't disappoint. For full details of things to come, read the message at the bottom. For now, enjoy!

I do not own FMA.

Three Hundred - Until That Day, 3.0

She took one look at the sat little face of the girl sitting next to her, and knew she couldn't stay silent. But how could she explain the concept of making adult decisions to a child that was barely older than ten? Riza smiled — a small one, and slightly self-deprecating.

"To be honest, I don't like being a soldier, either." The little girl looked up, curious. "Knowing that if the situation calls for it, I have to be prepared to take a life."

The girl frowned, blue eyes watching Riza take a sip of tea. "So why are you in the military, then?"

Ah, yes. The age-old question with the age-old answer. Riza lowered the cup to her lap, the smile fading as her eyes dropped to the smooth floorboards of the house. Her voice was quiet, as though she were almost speaking to herself. "Because there's someone I need to protect."

The familiar words washed over her, calming her as they always did. She had never been able to discern exactly why or how they had this effect on her, but that was the truth of it. "It's not something I'm being forced to do. It's something that I decided for myself." She lifted her right hand, looking at the small callouses on her fingers, formed from hours of gripping firearms. "I pull the trigger by my own free will because I need to keep that person safe."

She took a breath, feeling the calm sink into her core. "Until the day that person reaches his goal, I will pull the trigger without hesitation."

She could remember hesitating only once before. He had held the energy for a final volley of flames balled in his shaking fist, waiting to be unleashed in an inferno on the little green slug in Edward's hand. Envy had wriggled and squirmed to no avail, the unrelenting metal fingers holding fast.

Roy had stepped off the straight and narrow, given in to his temper and let it carry him away like some great river… and goodness knew he'd never been that strong a swimmer. By his own decree, she should have buried a bullet in his back for that transgression….

Riza had desperately not wanted to.

Forcibly separated for six months, to rejoin together and take the boldest strike they could at the heart of the Homonculi's plan, only to have it tossed aside into the all-consuming fire of his rage? She should have shot him fifteen minutes before, but she hadn't, because after all this time and after seeing the unreasoning hatred in that face she — she could admit this to herself if no one else — that face she loved… she had still believed in him.

Her reason for hesitating this time was not trust that he would turn the situation around. Now, there was no Scar or Edward to help. There was only her.

Two men stood across the room, one with meaty arms hooked under Roy's in a full nelson hold, his hands braced either side of the dark-haired alchemist's head. The second stood with a loaded gun cocked and ready to send a bullet into whatever part of Roy he deemed fit. Riza was alone, her gun held in both hands and aimed in between the two, ready to twitch either direction and fire as soon as her hesitation cleared.

"Give it up, Lieutenant," the gunman said, almost exasperated. His foot tapped impatiently over the white glove on the floor: Roy had just been pulling his gloves from his pocket when they were ambushed, and had had no time to use them. "Either way you choose to play this out, you're going to lose."

She glanced at Roy, and felt her lungs freeze at the look in his eyes. You gave up once, it said, as clear as crystal. I told you not to do it again. Don't you dare do it again.

The gunman spoke again. "Come, Lieutenant, you have to realize this is futile. If you shoot my good friend Rutger, I shoot your Colonel. If you shoot me, Rutger will give a little twist and snap Mustang's neck like so much dry kindling." He smiled broadly. "You, my dear, are caught in quite the dilemma."

"…I'm beginning to realize that."

There wasn't much of Rutger showing behind the shield of Roy's body; small sections here and there of foot, thigh, side, shoulders, and head. She would need more of a target than that for a better chance of a successful shot, no matter how good her aim was. She supposed she could shoot the gunman first and try to hit Rutger before he had time to apply the necessary pounds of force that would —

No. No, she wouldn't let that happen. Blocking the mental picture, she took a deep breath. Don't give up. If you can't bull straight through, find a way around. There has a to be another —

And then she had it. Pulling her finger from the trigger, she separated her hands and raised them slowly. "All right. All right, Randolph, you have me at a disadvantage," she said, watching the gunman warily. "I'll disarm myself and then we can deal with this… but in the interest of full disclosure, I do have another gun."

Randolph smiled tightly at her in the same moment that Roy stared in disbelief. His stern look from before had faded into a dumbfounded Are you kidding me?! Clearly, this was the the exact opposite of what he had expected.

"I would expect nothing less from the famed Hawk's Eye. Draw your back-up, Lieutenant, and place both weapons on the floor. And don't try anything funny; this little toy of mine has a hair trigger."

"There's absolutely nothing funny about this entire situation," Riza shot back, her empty right hand reaching for the holster at the small of her back. "And I don't think that — that…." She froze, one hand just beginning to pull the revolver from its holster. Her nose twitched, and her eyes closed. She had the presence of mind to point the gun in her left hand away as she sneezed.

Randolph recovered from his surprise quickly. "Bless you."

"Thank you." She drew the revolver. "As I was saying, I don't think you're going to have much to laugh about in the next little while."

Her faked sneeze had covered the telltale click as she had cocked the revolver to fire. She levelled it at Randolph, the semi-automatic in her left hand pointing at the most open spot on Rutger: his leg, wide in a balanced stance and sticking out from behind Roy in the easiest shot possible. At least if she did hit the wrong man, she would only hit his leg….

She didn't hesitate, firing twice from each weapon.

Roy broke free of Rutger's grip as the big man yelped and began to fall, spinning on his heel and turning to kick the gun from Randolph's hand before he recovered enough to use it. He needn't have worried; the other man was groaning from the bullet wound in his shoulder, blood blossoming on the sleeve of his shirt.

Looking over to her, Roy grinned. "Nice work, for on the fly like that. Thanks for not hitting me."

"I wouldn't be doing my job if I had," she pointed out. "Are you all right otherwise?"

He bent and picked up the now-dirtied white gloves, and reached a hand to his neck as he straightened. "Feels like the big guy might've strained a few muscles, but no permanent damage." He crossed the room to her, dark eyes turning serious as his voice lowered. "I was serious: you took a bad situation and turned it completely around. Nice work and nice shooting."

Riza smiled. "There's someone I need to protect," she reminded him, just as quietly. "Until the day that person reaches his goal, I will pull the trigger without hesitation."

Three Hundred. Trois cent. CCC.

I canNOT believe I've written this many chapters. It boggles the mind that came up with them, but I have had the time of my life. That being said, by reaching this milestone, I think it's high time I took a little break. For six years — SIX. YEARS oh my gosh thats ludicrous — I've been cranking out a Snap Shot every single week. My creativity is nowhere near drained, but it's like getting partway through a long shift: sooner or later, you have to take a load off, take a breath, and then go back at it stronger than ever.

This is so hard for me, but I believe it's something I need to do. Snap Shots has seen me through six entire years of my life. I was writing Snap Shots while I completed my second college diploma, through a couple good jobs, an awful one, a kind meehhhhhh one, and it saw me to my current employment where I want to try and build a career. It saw me date a wonderful man that I am proud to call my fiancé, and that I will be excited to call my husband. I have written while on vacations and while visiting home on the weekend. I wrote and posted through the losses of both my grandfathers and my father. I shared with you all the adoption of my little terror tabby of a cat, my experience and fun cosplaying Riza at conventions, and little details from week to week.

Don't despair, everyone. I've spent six years building this house, but the older portions are showing some wear and tear. I'll be back to fix up chapters that I find to be lacklustre, whether through shoddy writing (looking at you, #38) or those few times where the story didn't fit the theme.

And once I'm done that, when I've got the other projects I'm working on (because there ARE other Royai projects) off the ground…. You know what, I'll make this a promise. Someday down the road, I'm going to come back to this massive epic, and I'm gonna do a round four. Because Roy and Riza never give up, and when it comes to this, neither do I. Break-taking? Yes. It's good and healthy. Give up? Never.

Keep your eye out for updates, my loves, and I'll see you soon.