“Roy!” she cried, leaping onto him with nearly as much force as the metal spike which had mauled his arm.

He winced, and she pulled back, alarmed.

“Are you alright? Are you. . .” She noticed the wound on his shoulder. “You’re hurt! Oh, Roy! You’re bleeding!”

He smiled, his eyes full of tears from the pain. “It’s nothing, Ra. I’m just glad you’re ok.”

“Roy,” she murmured warningly, gazing up at him, “you risked your life for me back there. Why?”

He stared into her eyes in disbelief. “Why? Because I love you, Ra.”

“But you found me. That means you read my diary.” She hung her head in shame. “You know what I am now, and you know I hid it from you.”

He put his good hand on her arm. “Akira Satomi. That doesn’t matter. I don’t even care if you don’t love me, or even if you can. That doesn’t change how I feel about you. I will always protect you. I promise.”

She smiled quizzically, gazing at him. “Really.”

“Really.” He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “Now let’s go back to the dorm. Someone needs to rescue Hughes from the rum.”

“Let me rescue this one,” she replied, laughing. “You’ve been a hero enough today.” She kissed him quickly on the cheek and ran ahead with Riza.

He held his cheek, smiling awkwardly. Well, this is going to be interesting.

There was a bright flash of light, and Roy screamed in pain as a metal spike leapt from the wall and drove itself into his shoulder, slashing through muscle and snapping bone.

“You fool!” H howled. “I was so close! So close! Now I need to find a new body!”

“Oh, shut up,” retorted Roy, clutching his useless arm. “I left you alive, didn’t I?”

“Why? You’re an idiot, boy. You think I won’t try again?”

“Not with her, you won’t,” he panted. “I can guarantee that. Because wherever she is, I’ll be there, watching. And next time, Hoenhiem, I will kill you.”

“How do you know my name?”

“That’s not a good question.” Roy grinned mischievously. “A better one is what else do I know?”

Hoenheim smiled painfully at him, his blackened lips cracking sickeningly. “You know, I rather admire your courage. I hope someday my sons will be like you, boy.”

Roy’s eyes smiled at the man through the pain. “Stop calling me boy. My name’s Roy Mustang.”

“Roy Mustang. I’ll remember the name.” The charred man staggered out of the door and vanished into the night.

And I’ll definitely remember yours, thought Roy.

“I don’t think so,” crowed a familiar, yet suddenly cocky voice from the door behind her.

“Roy?”

“I got your message,” said the same, walking into view, one hand raised menacingly. “That kind of stung, you know.”

“I should sting you more often,” she replied. “It seems to be good for you.”

“Whoa. Slow down, kiddo,” warned H, his hands raised in front of him. “This young woman and I were about to conduct a rather important experiment.”

“An experiment,” replied Roy, winking, “that I’m afraid I’m going to have to put on hold.”

Hawkeye ran into the room, gun drawn. She made her way to Akira, cutting the ropes on her arms. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Riza.”

Roy gestured to the two of them. “Riza, get her out of here.”

“But, Roy. . .”

“No, Akira. Go.” Hawkeye grabbed her arm, and the two of them ran to the door and out into the street.

“What have you done?” bellowed H, his eyes wide. “That girl isn’t from our world! She doesn’t belong here, and you’re letting her run fee!”

“She might not be from our world,” retorted Roy, his eyes flashing hematite with anger, “but she’s a human being. And human beings should never be treated as means to an end. They’re an end in themselves.”

H laughed menacingly. “That’s high talk coming from a military cadet. You’d better have a better reason for acting so foolishly than that, boy.”

“Oh, I do.” Roy spun on his heels, snapping his fingers. A massive ball of fire engulfed the man before him, who howled in pain. “I love her.”

“What?” Akira stared at him. Was he insane? “There’s no way.”

He sighed. “Yes, actually, there is. I’m not proud of what I did to get to this point, but I have discovered a way to be nearly immortal. I don’t want to live forever, though. I just have more work to finish before I can die. I have to stop others from learning my secret.”

“What do you mean?”

“I cannot even tell you all of what I’ve done. I’ve forgotten some of it already. Some of it is so terrible I wish I could forget it. And the rest? I can’t possibly begin to explain it to you. So many people have died to keep me alive. I can’t bear that weight on my shoulders for all eternity. I’d go mad.”

“And you’re going to kill me now to accomplish what, exactly?”

“I need to find a way to banish my mistakes, so to speak. I was willing to let them run amuck in this world, but now? Now I have something I need to protect.”

“And what’s that?”

“My family.” He pulled a worn brown leather wallet out of his pocket, handing her a picture of a beautiful woman with long brown hair. Beside her was a small boy of about three years old with blonde hair and mischievous amber eyes like his father’s, and in her arms was a small sweet-faced infant in a green tunic. “My wife, Trisha, and my sons. They mean more to me than anything, make up for everything. They’re my salvation, my reason for persevering.”

“And you think killing me will protect your family, is that it?” She smiled sympathetically at him. “I think I understand now. But you shouldn’t have kidnapped me, H. That just wasn’t very nice.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “Are you mocking me?”

She grinned. “Yeah. A little.”

“My, you’re plucky.”

“I get that a lot.” Her smile faded. “You’re still going to kill me, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, then. Just make it quick.”

So far, my search hasn’t revealed anything new. But as I’ve only been at it for a few hours, I’m not all that worried. If there’s been any research on the subject, I’ll find it. I’m not giving up until I do.

I had a dreamless sleep for the first time in months, sir, so I’m pretty sure I’m getting close to something important.

“Wait,” muttered Roy. “Sir?” He looked up at Hawkeye, confused. “Did Akira tell you why she was keeping a diary?” Or for whom?

“No, Roy. She never even told me she had a diary, and only wrote in it at night when she thought I was asleep.”

“Huh.” He continued reading.

October 22

I received a letter today from a questionable source that goes by the name “H”. I’m slightly concerned that this might be a setup, but he seemed afraid of the military, so I wanted to avoid telling anyone about it. To be honest, though, I’m not that stupid.

Roy, I know you’re probably reading this right now if something happened to me. Yeah. That’s right. You’re that predictable. Sorry, sweetie, but it’s true.

He told me to meet him in the Rezra Grill, so start searching around that area first if I’ve gone missing, and spread out from there. I trust you and Riza to bring me home safely. Hughes, feel free to set up for a welcome home party. I’ll probably be hungry and cold.

Ok, Roy. Put the notebook down and come get me now.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he muttered, smiling. You’re one incredible woman, Ra.

“What is it, Roy?” asked Maes Hughes.

“I know where she went,” he said, turning to Riza. “Let’s go, Hawkeye. Maes, stay here and wait for us to come back.”

“But. . . but. . .” stuttered Maes as they walked out the door, “you know I’m skilled with push knives, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” chuckled Roy over his shoulder, “but I also know you’re drunk.”

“True.” Hughes waved wildly as they turned the corner. “Bring her back safe.”

I’ll try.

“I know what you are,” he whispered gruffly, his breath warming the side of her face. “I know what’s inside of you, my dear.”

Her hazel eyes flashed with terror and confusion. But these emotions were soon replaced with something much more powerful: determination. She leaned against the ropes which bound her hands once more, wincing as the twine cut into her arms.

“So tell me,” she hissed menacingly, “What am I?”

“What?” he said, his amber eyes flashing in surprise. “You mean you don’t know? You’re a portal between worlds, just waiting to be opened.” He smiled warmly at her. “And we’re going to open you, my beautiful fire princess.”

“You pervert!” she screamed, straining at the ropes. “I thought you said you were interested in me for purely scientific reasons!”

He chuckled softly, his eyes softening. “That’s true. I didn’t mean that in any sort of dirty fashion, my dear. And I am sorry I have to do this. But, you see, I’m rather desperate to see if it is possible to use particular individuals as gates. I hope you understand.”

“No. I don’t understand. Not at all.” She glared at him. “What are you talking about?”

H smiled at her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have expected you to know all that much about this world and its problems. I’ll try to explain this to you as best as I can. I don’t believe in killing people if they don’t know why first.”

“Wait. Killing? What? Why?”

“Exactly.” He untied her arms and retied them higher up so she could use the lower portion, then handed her a slice of bread with berry jam. “Here. You should eat while I talk. This will take a while.”

Of all the kidnappers in the world, why’d I have to get one of the surreally flaky ones?

Tonight, I dreamed of Ginko again. We were walking through a beautiful bamboo forest which seemed incredibly familiar to me. He explained that this forest was near my home, and I was suddenly able to remember it. I had met him there once, nearly two years ago. It seems like it was so long ago, now. Perhaps it is the distance between us, but my dreams of him are becoming less clear. I don’t entirely remember his face any more. This worries me. What if I lose him entirely? I don’t know if I’d be able to live without his presence in my life. I sort of remember what life was like without him. It was cold, lonely, and eternal. With him by my side, fighting for my humanity, I was able to feel whole again.

Sometimes I worry that even in this world, I am not entirely human. After all, I spent four years as an unchanging, immortal being before I met Ginko, and even now the days seem as minutes to me. What if I’m no longer human at all, but a soul stuck in a body too small and weak to confine it?

No one in this world seems to understand me at all. They try to, yes, but it is impossible for them to break through these walls when I can’t tell them anything about who or what I am. Even Roy will never be able to truly grasp my struggles, and he is the one person who understands as I what it means to be one with flame. I am fire incarnate, he a wielder of my very nature. Surely our bond would be the strongest of any I could form in this world.

But I have been unable to connect with him, and it is destroying me piece by piece. I need a soul bond with someone to survive as a complete individual, but there is no way I can ask him to form that bond with me. This is for several reasons, perhaps the most important being the fact that he is in love with me. I, however, am still in love with Ginko, and I fear that gaining that kind of bond with Roy might be misconstrued by him as an act of romantic love which I cannot offer him.

Therefore, I must continue to seek alternate means of connection to this world. I’ll begin asking around the alchemical community, and see what I can dig up.

What if some pervert had gotten his hands on her? What if he. . . Roy’s face flushed with anger as he clenched his fists. I’ll kill him. I’ll find him, and then I’ll kill him. If he touches her, I’ll burn his face off.

“Roy, calm down,” interjected Hughes, his eyes wide with concern. “Akira is probably fine.”

“We don’t know that!” he bellowed, his fists beating at the air in frustration. “She could be being tortured right now, for all we know! We have to find her, Maes. We have to as soon as possible.”

“Let’s think about this rationally,” he replied, clutching the arms of the frantic little man to stop him from punching him in the neck by accident. “She must have told someone where she was going tonight.”

“The only person she would have told was Riza,” replied the frantic teenager, “and she has absolutely no idea.”

Hughes turned to Hawkeye, his viridian eyes questioning. “She really had no one else she confided in?”

Hawkeye blushed awkwardly. “No. Not really.” She paused. “Wait.”

“What?” demanded Roy. “What is it?”

Riza turned and walked to the floor by Akira’s bed, returning with a small red-covered notebook. “I noticed her writing in this a lot,” she replied. “I think it might be her diary.”

“Diary?” both men cried in unison.

Riza shook her head. “But it’s not polite to read people’s diaries,” she retorted.

“Riza.” Roy glared at her. “Surely, given the circumstances. . .”

She reluctantly handed over the journal, which Roy reverently accepted.

Well, this’ll be an interesting read.

“So you’re awake.” The voice behind her was soft, but deep and husky, like the call of a great wolf. She turned her head to be met with a pair of stern amber eyes glowing in the darkness behind her. The speaker emerged from the shadows, his long toffee-colored hair framing a handsome bespectacled face.

“Who are you?” she interrogated him sternly. “Where am I? What are you going to do with me?”

He smiled warmly at her. “Relax, Miss Satomi. I don’t wish to harm you. I just want to ask you a few questions.”

“I won’t answer any questions of your until you answer mine,” she retorted angrily.

“Fine,” he replied, sighing. “You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you?”

“That’s what my friends say,” she replied, grinning menacingly at her kidnapper.

“You can call me H, if you need to call me anything at all. You are in my apartment in Central, and my intentions towards you are nothing less than purely scientific. I have no intention of harming you in any way, at least not yet.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, that’s comforting.”

“Sarcasm. Funny. Shall we begin?”

“Fine by me, since I don’t suppose you’ll be serving tea first.”

He sighed. “Please don’t be difficult. I’ll let you go as soon as I’ve learned what I want to know.”

“Alright, H. Just begin already.”

“Where are you from, Akira?”

“Oh, so we’re on a first name basis now? Don’t you want my phone number first?”

He coughed.

“Sorry. Ok. Where I’m from? That’s a difficult question. See, I don’t exactly remember where it is. All I really remember I this hot guy with white hair and some strange creatures called mushi.”

“So it’s safe to assume that you’re not from around here.”

“You can say that, I guess.”

“Do you remember anything else?”

“Well, I remember being a ball of giggling, cooing fire.” She smiled. “You probably think I’m crazy.”

“Not at all, my dear. And you’ve actually been quite helpful.”

“Well, I’m glad I could. . .”

She trailed off as her head was rather abruptly introduced to something hard.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

“Just talk to her, Sparky,” commanded Maes Hughes, his eyes glinting with a rare seriousness.

“But. . .but. . .” protested Roy, pacing across the room as he had been for hours now, “I can’t just talk to her, Maes! I kissed her! How the hell do I talk to her about that? She probably hates me now.”

The taller youth put his hand affectionately on his shoulder. Roy stared up at him with pained eyes.

“I just don’t know what to do, Maes. This is a stalemate game I’m playing. No matter what move I make, I’m going to lose. Can’t you see that?”

“Of course it seems that way to you, Roy.” Hughes smiled at his friend. “Women are really good at taking all the rationality out of life. It’s what they do. You can’t treat this like chess or you’ll lose her. You have to talk to her now, or you don’t stand a chance at all. It’s all about the follow-up, trust me.”

Roy smiled slyly at his friend. “So now that you’ve got that baker’s phone number, you’re suddenly the expert on women, huh?”

“Ye- . . .I mean, that’s not the point, Roy,” he stammered, blushing happily. “This is about your love life, not mine.” He grinned widely. “I think you’ve really got a shot with this one. You just have to move quickly and decisively, or some other guy’s gonna snatch her up while you’re brooding like a drunken oyster.”

“You really need to work on your analogies, you big goof,” sighed Roy. “Fine. I get your point. I’ll go over there right now and talk to her.” He opened the door and walked over to room 403.

He had just reached the door and raised his hand to knock when a very bewildered and panicked Hawkeye burst through the door, her braided pigtails flying behind her like grain in a strong wind.

“What’s wrong, Riza?” asked Roy, his heart pounding with adrenaline.

“Akira,” she stated flatly, trying to hide the fear in her eyes. “She’s missing. She’s been taken. I know it.”

“What? Who. . .How. . .?”

“I don’t know. But she and I were supposed to go to the shooting range at seven and then study history together for the rest of the evening. She wouldn’t just skip that. She’s really taken to studying these past weeks, after all. Something must have happened. She’s been gone for at least five hours.”

“Calm down, Riza. We’ll find her.”

We’d better find her. Akira. . .