Desperation (Part 4 - Central Park)

[Central City]

As promised to Ling, Roy had arranged a private meeting at Central Park for Ling and him. For security purpose, few soldiers were deployed outside the park. It was evening, and Ling was wandering with Roy in the park which was filled with various trees and flowers. And as usual, Roy had Riza as his personal assistant/ bodyguard, and two more soldiers were also present there just because he was a Major General now. Similarly, Ling had the 2 Zhansi, Lan Fan and his political advisor, Hu Zemin with him. Mei had gone to meet the Elric brothers and Winry who were in Central to attend Oliver's funeral. After attending the funeral, the Elrics decided to stay in Central for some time, in order to pay a visit to their friends. Moreover, Alphonse was also supposed to deliver some lessons to the State Alchemist aspirants.

So, while Ling and Roy were walking through the park, Ling said, "Looks like you resolved your Ishval issue after all."

"There is still some work needed to be done," Roy smiled.

"I have heard that you are the most powerful state alchemist of them all?" Ling questioned.

Roy laughed and replied, "Well, what can I say."

When Ling didn't receive a definite answer, he looked at Riza walking behind and asked, "What do you think Major Hawkeye? Isn't he the most powerful state alchemist? You have seen all the state alchemists, and you know General Mustang very well. So I guess you are the best person to make a judgment."

After Ling asked the question he stopped, and even Roy stopped to look at Riza for the answer. So, Riza answered with her usual blank face, without making any eye contact, "There is no doubt that flame alchemy is the most destructive alchemy, but if you ask me about the most powerful state alchemist then I don't think he is the one. At least not on a rainy day."

Hearing Riza's answer, Roy looked forward and left a sigh whereas everyone else started laughing. Yin was also laughing with her mask on and walking in front of Ling and Roy. Then suddenly, something came flying toward Yin and dropped near her feet. Everyone looked toward the object when they heard its sound while hitting the ground. It was an unpinned grenade, and without wasting a fraction of second, Yin quickly threw a kunai knife in a random direction, away from their group and pulled out a sword-like looking thing from her back. That thing turned out to be an umbrella when she opened it and placed its handle on the ground and covered the grenade with it by pressing the umbrella, making the handle short and fully covering the grenade. The canopy of the umbrella had a transmutation circle drawn on it.

When the grenade exploded, the explosion actually happened at some distance where Yin had thrown her kunai knife. After watching Yin's action, Roy shouted, "What was that?"

"I transferred the explosion energy from that grenade to the place where I threw the knife," Yin replied.

Everyone was on guard due to that incident. And as anticipated, some Ishvalans rushed out of the bushes ahead, and Richard, the maths teacher who kidnapped Oliver, was the one leading them. As soon as the Ishvalans jumped out of the bushes, they started firing. Yin quickly stretched her umbrella and used it as a shield between the Ishvalans and the others. None of the bullets were able to put a dent on the umbrella, the bullets were falling on the ground as soon as they came in contact with the umbrella. In the meantime, Riza was firing bullets at the Ishvalans and Yang was defending others by putting a wall before them. Riza had shot 2 Ishvalans in their legs due to which they were unable to move anymore. Still, there were 5-6 more Ishvalans with Richard who were rushing toward them while firing bullets from their rifle. Lan Fan was fighting on her own, while Ling, Hu, and Roy were sitting behind one of the walls created by Yang. Riza also took cover behind a wall created beside the wall where Roy was, and asked, "Shall we kill them?"

"No, it will worsen the image of the military in front of other Ishvalans," Roy replied.

"Killing would have been much easier," Yang said while he was taking cover beside Riza.

Suddenly, the firing stopped for a brief moment and everyone heard the reloading of the rifles. Because Riza was with two handguns, she moved out of the wall and shot one Ishvalan on his leg. In the meantime, another Ishvalan was going to fire at Riza, so Riza again hid behind the wall expecting a gunshot. But, she didn't hear any. When she looked out of the wall, she saw all the Ishvalans and Richard were on the ground with kunai knives stuck on their hands. Ling, Hu, and Roy also stood up to see the scenario.

Now that the situation was under control, Ling took a sigh of relief and said with a smirk, "Looks like the women have finished the job."

But then, Roy saw few injured Ishvalans, were crawling to reach to their rifles. Like the showoff he was, Roy snapped with his ignition gloves on, and a streak of fire burnt all the rifles lying on the ground. But the streak which Roy created, went just beside Yin's shoulder before it burnt the rifles. She was startled because of that. So, once she calmed down, she opened her mask and turned around to face Roy and his team. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR? AND WHO DID THAT?" She yelled.

Roy and the other two Amestrian soldiers were looking at her face, without replying anything. So, she shouted again, "I AM ASKING SOMETHING."

Roy cleared his throat and replied with a bit of hesitation in his voice, "I did it."

"May I know why?" Yin asked with lowered eyebrows.

Roy gulped and answered, "Well, Thaaa-"

But before he could complete his sentence, Riza interrupted, "He burnt off the rifles because two of the militants were trying to reach for them. It was just a precautionary measure."

Roy and his two bodyguard's were still gazing at Yin. So, Ling went near Roy and put his hand on his shoulder. "I can understand," Ling empathized.

Roy looked at Ling, but because of embarrassment, he was unable to answer. Meanwhile, Riza said, "General, we need to inform the Central Command."

But Roy was amazed to find a bit of jealousy in her tone. He looked at her with widened eyes, but he didn't respond to her proposition. So, Riza repeated, "General!"

"Yeah, sure," Roy replied instantly.

He looked at his two bodyguards standing there and ordered, "Go and inform the Central Command about what happened here. And tell them to send some men to arrest these people."

The soldier ran to the nearest telephone booth to call Central Command. Meanwhile, Roy went near Richard, who was also wounded and sitting on the ground, glaring at Roy. Roy looked at Richard for some moment and then said while removing his gloves, "An Amestrian fighting along the IFF. There is only one such person in my recent knowledge. As a matter of fact, I saw you with the leader of IFF in a photograph. Do you happen to be the missing maths teacher of Military School, Richard Green?"

"Yes," Richard replied.

And as soon as Richard said "Yes", Roy punched him hard on his face which made him fall on the ground. Roy was about to hit Richard on his face again, but before that Riza interrupted, "General don't."

When Roy heard her voice, he stopped and said, "You shouldn't have dragged my personal life into your meaningless war."

Roy then turned around and walked a little away from Richard. In the meantime, Richard sat up and teased Roy by saying, "General Mustang, haven't you heard the old saying? Everything is fair in love and war…At least we are better than you. We never hurt your son, and we even promised his safe return once our demand is met. But, what you do? You create monsters using your evil alchemy and use them to do your dirty work. First, you created a philosopher stone by killing innocents, then you created chimeras, and now… and now you have created something more ungodly so that you can wipe out anyone who stands against your tyranny."

Roy and Riza understood what he was referring to. So, Riza informed, "We have nothing to do with the incident which took place at the warehouse."

"Does every dog in the military is trained to lie like that?" Richard asked with narrowed eyebrows.

Everyone from Xing was listening to their conversation, still, they didn't think to interfere because it was Amestris' private matter. Meanwhile, some soldiers who were standing outside Central Park reached there. They arrested all the militants of IFF and took them to jail.

Ling and his team also went to the hotel they were staying in, accompanied by 2 Amestrian soldiers. After everyone was gone from the park, Roy and Riza got inside their car. Riza sat on the driver seat and Roy sat beside her. Roy leaned back his head on the seat and sighed. "What a rough day it was," Roy said.

After a brief moment, Roy looked at Riza and smirked. So, Riza asked, "Why are you smiling?"

"I am going to ask you a question, and I expect only the truth from you," Roy replied.

"What?" Riza questioned curiously.

"Weren't you jealous when I was looking at Yin?" Roy enquired.

"I was not," Riza answered with a stoic voice.

"I thought you never get jealous when you see me with other women, but here we are," Roy smiled.

"I would very much appreciate if you stop this conversation right now, General Roy Mustang," Riza scolded.

Roy looked ahead and answered, "Don't worry Major Hawkeye, you just need to smile very often, and you look much prettier than Yin."

Riza started the car and after some time a smile appeared on her face, thinking about what Roy said. When she smiled, Roy noticed that even though he was looking ahead. So, he smiled and commented, "Just like that."