"Lieutenant!"

"Second Lieutenant Hawkeye!"

"Lieutenant Hawkeye!"

"Hawkeye! Do you have eyes?"

Riza tried to respond, pushing through the hundreds of people gathered for the ceremony. The promotion. A speech was being given, it was the perfect opportunity for an assassination attempt on the new Brigadier General's life…

The man charged the rifle he held in his hands, leaning over the square in Central City was hot and muggy. All in black, hiding in the shadows, the only thing to identify him being there was the nose of the rifle sticking an inch out into the sun. He focused his site on a disturbance in the crowds. Someone was running. A woman.

His eyes widened a fraction. Shit. They'd figured it out. He knew they were bound to figure it out, but he didn't think that they'd be able to respond this fast. His time was now. He lifted the rifle to his eyes, balanced expertly on his shoulder and aimed at his target. A black haired man, with eyes to match.

"Lieutenant! Tell me you have the target! Get him off that podium, NOW!"

Riza gulped in air. They had switched the site of the ceremony. It had to have been an inside job. It was supposed to be in the East Sector, why had they changed to the west? Everyone knew. Everyone knew except for the promotee's bodyguards. How could they not have been told?

It was a full out ten mile sprint from one sector to the other. She hadn't wasted any time once they found the East Sector to be almost completely deserted. She had sprinted off, someone yelling after her, "West Sector!" And so she ran.

"COLONEL!" she yelled, but it came out as a harsh whisper. Some people next to her stared at her like she was crazy as she shoved them aside. Her throat was dry and her lungs were exhausted. Her lungs screamed for air, her body ached, her legs felt like lead. She had sworn to protect that man. She couldn't stop just because she couldn't breathe.

"COLONEL MUSTANG!" she yelled. He looked at her and she finally felt some hope. His black eyes hitched from happiness to confusion to fear. She shoved people aside, throwing them to the ground, "Get out of the way!" She screamed desperately.

Aim. Thought the man above. Aim well, you get one shot. Make it count. The blonde woman made it onto the stage just as he squeezed the trigger.

The gunshot shattered through the sounds of cheers for the man that hit the ground not moments later. Someone landed on top of him. There was an agonizing pain in his chest. There was something leaking on his body. It was suffocating. The screams as people ran off in different directions in a terrified frenzy. The weight that was on his chest and the hair that was brushing against his cheek.

Blonde, tinged red.

He coughed, blood spurting from his mouth. The pain in his chest swelled as the person on top of him moved. His vision began to fade. Blonde, he could see blonde. And brown. Brown eyes. They started to fade.

"Colonel!" Riza yelled, ignoring the pain in her shoulder. How could this have happened? She was willing to give her life for the man and had flung herself in front of him. Why was she still alive and his eyes were blurring?

"Colonel Mustang!" she screamed, much to her embarrassment her voice cracked.

"H…Hawkeye?" was all he could get out, blood spilling down a trail of red from the corner of his mouth.

"Sir…" Riza felt her eyes start to blur with tears when the black in eyes started to turn grey, "HELP! Please, somebody help!" The panic in her voice was evident to anybody that had been listening. She pulled back, placing her hands over the hole in his chest, blood soaked her hands. It turned them red, staining them forever. The hot, thick liquid leaked in between her fingers as she tried to hold it in.

"You're alright?" he coughed out.

"What? Sir, don't talk." She choked out through the tears that she couldn't control.

"I'm glad you're alright. And you didn't have to die for me." His lips tilted upwards a bit.

"Colonel? Colonel? Don't die, listen to me. Sir!"

Tears dripped onto his face as he looked up into her blurry eyes. He coughed, his body wracking. It was a sound that would haunt her forever. Blood sputtered from his mouth and his eyes shut.

"Colonel?" she screamed.

Fuery ran into the now almost empty square. There were two people on the stage. Neither of them was moving. He called for an ambulance and ran onto the stage. He slowed when he heard the sound of sobbing.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye?" Fuery said, trying to get his voice out louder.

Her form was shaking, her right shoulder and arm were covered in blood. She was on top of someone's body.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye?" Fuery said again, stepping a little closer.

"Fuery…" Kain Fuery had never heard his superior say anything in that tone of voice. Riza looked up, her face soaking wet with tears. She lifted her hands. They were shaking uncontrollably and covered in red. Fuery's mind went blank as he saw the blood leaking across the stage to his feet. It had covered Colonel Mustang's blue uniform, making it look almost black.

"I…I couldn't…" Riza choked out, more tears came, "I didn't get here in time…"

Fuery fell to his knees, barely registering Breda's voice over his radio telling him they'd caught the sniper in the Central City Bank. The men from central hospital could hear her scream of rage as they came running onto the scene. The pain and anger in her yell echoed through the courtyard as people finally started to gather around.

"Please miss…" one of the doctors said, putting a hand on her left shoulder.

They tried to pull her off. She yelled in protest sending a useless sling of her hand behind her. She gripped at her superior's jacket, "You promised! You told me to follow you to the end! This isn't the end, Mustang! Don't go where I can't follow! Damn it, Roy Mustang, wake up!" Her cries and tears started to interrupt her speech, "Wake up! Please!" They pulled her off, trying to get her to the ambulance.

Riza looked down at her hands through the blurry tears in her eyes. It was his blood. It was on her hands. His blood.

The bullet had gone straight through her shoulder, barely nicking her, and hit him square in the chest. She vaguely heard the doctor say that if she hadn't been there than it would have pierced his heart immediately. That there'd be zero chance of him living if she hadn't been there. That meant there was still a chance of the Colonel living. She barely registered the information in her stunned phase. The man pulled a bandage around her shoulder as she stared blankly ahead.

His blood. It was still on her hands. She looked down. All she saw was red, it covered her hands and most of her arms. His blood was on her hands.