Diamonds and Blood

Author: MoonStarDutchess

Part 1 of the Royai Stone Trilogy

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Fullmetal Alchemist and gain no profit from this fanfiction.

Italics are events that are happening simultaneously, with the events with Riza.

Diamonds and Blood

Her hand clutched the letter in her grasp, wrinkling the paper to such an extent that she doubted the words upon it would be legible by the time the creases and her sweaty palm had its way with the ink. Her lips were pressed in a thin line, eyebrows in the same type of form, and she was staring into space. It seemed like her soul had disembarked from her body, leaving on flesh sitting upon the warm sand. Her eyes could have been called vapid if it weren't for the tears on the border of them, threatening to come forth in a place and at a time where they were unwelcome and unneeded. She was on the battlefield and it was no place for a broken heart. It was a place for her to focus, to disengage herself from home and her conscience in favor of serving her country in, for once, a just war.

She glanced down at the letter and still not fully reunited with her feelings and actually trying to remain that way. Her mind couldn't help but go back to the man who was the subject of the letter; she could never separate herself from him. She could barely believe that she saw Roy Mustang and the word engaged in the same letter, much less the same sentence. Apparently, while she was gone, someone had captured the colonel's heart: something that she could never accomplish.

It wasn't as if she expected that he would ever love her, obviously, but the naïve part of her brain had always hoped and longed for him to have that type of affection for her. It had seemed like an impossible obstacle then. Now, it was an immovable mountain surrounded by wide rivers of quicksand that threatened to engulf her if she tried to cross.

Originally, she wanted the war over so that she could return to her commanding officer, but now she didn't know if she could return to him. She didn't know if her heart would be able to see him and the woman together. He would have someone to go home to while she would be all alone with nothing but her guns, her dog, unfulfilled dreams, and a chasm of emptiness in her body. For the first time in her life, she was scared and so unsure of the future.

Her life was like the sand she watched blow across the desert in abrasive waves of light earth. The sand was never stable, never stayed in the same place. She could very well leave this spot, come back the next day, sit down where she was at the moment and not be sitting on the same sand.

Events in life were shifting each day and cutting the path her life took. She had a nice stable place where nothing blew around, a stable place in which she could return. Then the news in the letter rushed upon her like a sandstorm covering any path that she may have planned or had made out. Disorienting her gaze from her further she wanted and giving her the reality check that she needed.

Riza lifted a hand to her chest as she remembered an important part of her life: the promise she made to the colonel. She promised to help him arrive at the top, to become fuehrer and change the country. She promised that if he ever strayed she would shoot him in the back. No matter what pain her heart would endure, she would have to keep that promise to him. People at headquarters called her the ice queen; she would just take it upon herself to become such.

Her fingers touched her dog tags then ran across an oval shape much smaller than the tags. She lifted the chain from under her collar and ran her eyes along the golden jewelry piece: a locked he'd given her for her birthday.

Such a trinket would mean nothing to a woman who was used to expensive diamond and gold, but it was the most precious thing she owned. The simple gold locket with a small diamond in the middle was nothing unique when it came to looks, it was the promise it symbolized hat made it special. It was a symbol of their promise to protect each other. A symbol of their loyalty. Of their friendship.

She tucked the chain back under her collar and stood. She would protect him as best she could, fulfill her promise, and then he would never see her again. There was no better solution to the events and life than that.

A strong gust of wind hit her causing portions of her hair to come out of her clip and move into her line of vision, assisting the tears that were now falling from her eyes in their task of blocking her sight. She let go of the letter in her hands then the wind picked it up and carried it away from her. She turned around and made her way back to camp, the hot sand embracing the letter in its warm cover.

A few weeks later, she received a wedding invitation. She stared down at the elegant print and knew that Roy had nothing to do with the styles or the colors of the invitation. However, she saw his messy scrawl at the bottom that said, stay safe. He knew she wouldn't be able to come yet he sent this to convey he was thinking about her. She threw the invite out in front of her but this time no wind carried it away from her. Instead, it fell within a few feet, not moving from its landing place.

The day of Roy's wedding came; Riza had noted the date in a small calendar she kept in her tent. Obviously, she wasn't able to attend, and probably wouldn't have if she had been in Central. That day wasn't spent dwelling on what she didn't have. Instead, it was focusing on a mission she had with her team and at the moment, it was going horribly wrong.

At the exact time her team had split, they were ambushed. The attackers had pushed them back until they had to take refuge in an abandoned building. It was unstable, about to fall off a cliff into a ravine below, with every shot they made, the stones chipped and rocks fell in front of them, breaking even more pieces off the dilapidated structure.

Her team was soaked in sweat, their perspiration soaking the blue of their jackets turning the darker. Soon, one by one, that sweat was replaced by the dark crimson stain of blood seeping out of their mortal injuries. The environment around them wasn't helping matters. The wind was blowing wildly, making aiming almost impossible. The enemy had the advantage over them.

After the heavy firefight, the only two left alive were Riza and a Lieutenant Carver. Both soldiers knew what their fate was going to be, but they were not willing to die without fighting until the very last breath left their bodies. Part of it was the way they were trained; the other part was that of sheer stubbornness, a trait in most of the sniper teams in Amestris.

They rushed up the stairs of the building as the enemies closed in, the stones from the house still breaking and the building itself swaying as if it was built on the rockers of a rocking horse. They could hear the cracking of the foundation underneath them as they kicked open a door, knocking the rotted wood off its hinges. They ran through the threshold and found themselves on the roof, overlooking the decimated city.

Back in Central, Roy was waiting at the altar with the officiant for the wedding. His fists were gripped tightly and an unfamiliar feeling overtook his body at that moment. He could feel his heart beating rapidly and chalked it up to having cold feet. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else happening. Something that just wasn't right at all. Perhaps it was the fact that Riza wasn't here for this happy day.

As he took in his bride walking toward him, he smiled. Hawkeye would love Cecilia and when she got back, he'd make formal introductions. He was sure the two would be great friends. She would be back soon.

Riza and Carver gazed around the rooftop and then looked over the edge to see the house was on teetering on the side of a cliff. They were trapped there and without a doubt, that rooftop would be their final resting place. No one would find them there before their bodies became carrion for the buzzards and other desert creatures.

Then two shots rang out into the windy desert day. A bullet hit Carter in the temple, killing him instantly; the other embedded in Riza's left shoulder, the painful burn extending all the way down her arm to the tips of her fingers. She turned around and more bullets made contact with her flesh. The force of the shots caused her to step backward, pain shooting through her body in currents until everything hurt. She hit the small ledge of the building and fell, her body sailing through the air and hitting six feet onto an embankment.

She didn't understand how she was still alive after all the shots, after the fall. She slowly moved her head to the right to see that her locket had ripped off and was lying near her hand. Through the intense pain that was overtaking her body, she grabbed the locket and clutched it as the earth under her arm fell and thumped further down the cliff until all grew silent. Her arm fell and she couldn't find the strength to lift it back up, there was no use. She couldn't smell, couldn't taste, and couldn't feel anything but pain. Her eyes blurred with tears. She was afraid, so afraid.

After their vows, Roy slipped the ring on his bride's finger, and she followed suit.

The desert was growing dimmer to her gaze as it grew colder despite the sun she knew was beating down on her directly with its intense heat. She gasped, trying to take in breath, struggling begging for just a hint of dusty air for her lungs, to relieve the aching burning. No matter how much she tried to breath, her lungs would not bend to her will. This was her end, the last fight and the only one she would lose.

Roy and his bride leaned in for the kiss.

Riza's eyes closed.

Their lips met.

Her breath shuttered to a halt.

"I now present Mister and Missis Roy Mustang."

Her hand slowly opened, her fingers going limp and growing cold even in the hot environment. The locket that was in her grasp fell to the ground, a small clink sounding with no one to hear it, and a light cloud of dust raising when no one could see it. Riza's blood slowly drifted down her arm in a smooth line, and dripped elegantly like thick nectar, onto the diamond embedded in gold.