Soldier Keep On Marching On

Today On Out...

Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.

**********

"Jeez Maes, you couldn't have handled that any differently?" Aiden scolded.

The man had the decency to look abashed. "I know, I know, but I was excited to see her and it just slipped out."

After Maes' terrible introduction, it didn't surprise Aiden when Riza did pull a gun on the man. But the motion alarmed her and she stepped in front of him with her hands up, quickly explaining what happened that night all those months ago. Riza was, understandably, hesitant at first to believe her and then when Aiden proved Maes was himself, she was enraged.

Maes Hughes hadn't been as dead as they'd been led to believe and neither of the two responsible told Roy. They'd let him grieve and mourn for a friend - a brother shot dead by an enemy within the military. Not to mention Gracia and Elicia.

"They all think you're dead!" she raged.

The two other occupants of the room let the woman pace the floor and berate them and yell at them. They deserved it and it wasn't anything they hadn't already said to themselves. Selfish? Crazy? Liars? That one hurt and it'd been said before but not yet from the Lieutenant.

Then suddenly the woman collapsed on the couch in defeat and brought a tired hand up to her face. "We have to tell him," Riza said.

"Absolutely not."

The reply came so quick Riza had to pause and evaluate it before she looked up and frowned at Aiden. "He deserves to know." Her friend didn't respond and suddenly the woman was on her feet. "You can't keep him in the dark like this, that's torture! Have you seen what trying to find his killer has done?"

"Of course I have!" Aiden snapped back. "You don't think I've noticed how Roy's been sleeping and eating less? How he's so damn driven that he's not taking care of himself? We don't have a choice here Riza! Maes Hughes needs to stay dead until we drive the homunculi out of the military!"

Riza's eyes narrowed and Aiden blanched. "You knew," she accused. "We didn't know anything about them until months after the funeral. You were prepared for his death."

Maes stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's not her fault. Sit down and we'll tell you what you need to know. Why we can't say I'm alive and why you won't tell Roy."

Riza cast them another cautious look until she nodded. She ignored the couch and stood in place as Aiden slowly began to tell her story. First came her life and when Aiden's age and the timeline didn't match up, Maes shushed her and told her to pay attention. Then the car crash came along and with that was Aiden's description of Truth and a large cement gate identical to the one the Elric brother had described. Age regression, a journal, the outright fact that the woman in front of her was from another dimension and to her they were nothing but fiction until she'd been tossed here for the sake of entertainment.

By the end of it, Riza had been staring at the floor for minutes on end, unseeing and processing the new information. Aiden had been ripped away from her family and tossed out like trash as enjoyment of a god-like being. She voluntarily entered the military knowing the war she'd witness - although it's not like she hadn't gone through it before. The woman kept her past a secret because if anyone found out she thought she'd be shunned in one way or another.

"He's not going to like this."

Maes snorted. "Roy's not going to like anything we do when he finds out. His best friends hid the fact that I was alive when he thought I was dead."