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For Roy, it looked like it would be a normal day at work, but things went south not too long after arriving at the office. He had been doing paperwork, as he usually did, but there was a ringing in his ears, and a lump in his stomach.
“Don’t think about it. Just don’t…”
The mind was more eager to stop this than the body, and the feeling kept getting worse and worse. Everywhere Roy looked… bodies, blood, and fire. His fire.
“What have I done…?”
Death. Destruction. He’d caused it. How many lives had he taken?
His breathing was getting faster and shakier.
“How could I have taken part in that?”
He thought he heard a knocking on his door. It sounded like Riza. He wanted her there, more than anything, he couldn’t open his mouth to answer. Had his office always been this blurry?
“Sir?”
His head was pounding, pounding, pounding. “Screw my ambitions. I never wanted to hurt so many people…” His voice could barely reach above a whisper.
He thought he heard the door opening, and footsteps, but he was so out of it that he couldn’t even tell if they were in the present or just in his memories. The rhythmic thumping as he walked along the Ishvalan desert…
“Sir! Snap out of it!” Roy felt something hit his face, and he looked up to find the source.
“Riza?” He whispered. His eyes cleared up to reveal his favorite person in the whole world, his queen.
“It’s me, sir.” Riza said, and her voice slowed Roy’s heartrate, her very presence like a healing balm.
“What happened? It was like I was there again… in Ishval.”
“I… I think you were having a panic attack, sir. You were stuck in your head, so… I slapped you. Are you alright?”
“Better now that you’re here, Lieutenant. It… it was bad. Memories of the war were rushing back, and they wouldn’t stop, and—“
“Shhhhhh.” Riza whispered. She’d moved to sit beside him, and her hand slowly rubbed his back.
“You’re safe now.”