Thank you very much to Shijaeger for the review! I'm so happy you're enjoying this fic! I hope you all enjoy this chapter too and don't forget, comments are loved and give me life. They're the biggest motivation for me to keep writing!

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Informing Fuhrer Grumman of what they'd seen was the first thing Roy and Riza did the following morning.

"I'm... not sure who you're referring to?" Grumman frowned after they'd explained the situation to him. He appeared to be just as confused as they were. "I've seen no officers fitting those descriptions. I think I'd remember them if I had."

His response was unexpected, which made them question if they had really seen the two officers at all. They had both witnessed them though, so it couldn't have been a hallucination. Frustrated and with no more information than they had before going into the fuhrer's office, Roy and Riza left, knowing exactly where their quest for answers would take them next.

They walked with purpose toward the archives and, after a quick look to make sure no one else was around, they let themselves into Room 3 - the archive where personal information about every soldier in Central was stored. It wasn't exactly off limits to a brigadier general, but they wanted to avoid questions about why they were entering that particular archive. Earning the suspicions their fellow soldiers would make things even more complicated than they already were.

Roy and Riza delved into the files once they locked the door behind them. In order to avoid gaining unwanted attention, they kept the lights off. Roy held up a small flame above his finger to shed some light on the paperwork they were pouring over.

Riza gathered up recent files and brought them over to Roy at the small table in the center of the room. When they finished going over a batch of files, she'd return them to their place and bring a new stack back with her. They continued on in this efficient pattern for almost an hour until Roy threw his hands up and growled, slumping back in his chair with a scowl.

"There's nothing! None of these recent transfers look remotely close to the officers we saw! They have to be imposters! There's no way they've been here longer than we have."

"Yes. Perhaps we should go over older files though, sir. Just in case."

Roy sighed, running his hand over his face in an attempt to wipe the fatigue away. He hadn't slept well that night, still reeling over witnessing the disappearing act of the strange colonel and lieutenant. The lack of sleep was getting to him.

"Yeah. You're right. As always."

Riza stood, gathering up the files they'd just gone through, and hurried to replace them, bringing a new set of older files back with her to the table.

"There has to be some explana- Ouch!" Riza moved too quickly and almost dropped some of the files. Her hand shot out to catch them, but she was at an awkward angle and one of the manilla folders sliced her finger.

Roy jumped up at her exclamation.

"Lieutenant? You alright?"

"Just a papercut, sir," Riza replied, returning the files to their places before addressing her now bleeding finger.

Roy approached her and whipped out a handkerchief from his breast pocket, holding out his free hand toward her.

"Let me see."

With a skeptical look and much hesitation, Riza finally lifted her hand and placed it in his. Gently, Roy brought her hand closer to himself so he could inspect the cut. It was deep and bleeding profusely. He dabbed at it to wipe away the blood around the cut, his grip on her hand warm and soft. Riza was suddenly reminded of when he came to help her after she'd been released from the hospital after the Promised Day. He'd been caring and gentle then too.

His face when he was concentrating always warmed her heart and that moment was certainly no exception. His eyes were glued to the cut on her finger, movements slow and delicate as he cleaned the wound and wrapped the handkerchief around it just tight enough so it would stem the bleeding but not cut off circulation. She couldn't help the small smile that curved her lips as she watched him nod in satisfaction at his handiwork before lifting his eyes to hers. He saw her smile and raised his brow in question, still holding her hand.

"What?"

"It's nothing," Riza replied, an airy laugh escaping her lips before the smile fell from her face.

They were standing close together. Too close. And he was still holding her hand. The reality of their situation dawned on her. If someone walked in, they were in a pretty compromising position. In that moment though, Riza couldn't find the willpower to move away. His hand in hers was comforting. He was warm and familiar and his presence was soothing.

Instead of stepping back, she stepped closer and he did the same, eyes locked, gazes never wavering as they drew closer, slowly closing the gap between them.

The handle on the door behind them rattled, breaking the serenity of the moment.

Riza gasped and Roy's eyes flew open. They were mere inches apart and their startled expressions matched. Immediately they tore away from each other, scrambling to return the files and hide before whoever was outside the door found them and started asking unwanted questions. They ducked behind a bookshelf and wedged themselves between it and the wall. It was almost an even worse position to be caught in than their near-kiss situation moments earlier, but with no time to choose a better hiding place, they froze and waited, hoping whoever it was would leave quickly.

The door handle rattled a couple more times before a frustrated growl came from the other side of the door and a small flash of light lit up the handle. The lock clicked over and the door opened. In a strange turn of events, the people that entered the room were the last ones Roy and Riza had expected to see.

In walked the two people whose identities Roy and Riza had spent the better part of two hours trying to uncover.

"Are you sure this is the right one?" The dark haired colonel spoke.

The room was fairly dark, but with the brightly lit hall as their backdrop, the colonel and lieutenant's silhouettes were easy to see. They looked around cautiously as they stepped into the room.

"Yes I'm sure," the azure haired lieutenant hissed. "That woman with the short hair and glasses confirmed it. You know, the one in charge of these things?"

"Right. Let's just drop this in and go."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it. I can't believe that damn blonde captain saw through us yesterday. And alerting the brigadier general she was with? Tch..." The azure haired girl scoffed as she brought what looked like a manilla folder over to one of the file cabinets, flipped through the folders already there, and dropped the one in her hands in between the others. "This is such a pain. How troublesome."

Roy and Riza looked at each other. This would possibly be their only opportunity to catch these people. Riza knew exactly what Roy was thinking and nodded. They ran from their hiding place, only a little awkwardly, and caught the lieutenant and colonel off guard. Riza trained her gun on the colonel while Roy lifted his hand, ready to snap should they try to flee.

"That's as far as you go," Roy said. "Thanks for making it easy to find you. I thought we'd be on a wild goose chase for the next month."

The colonel and lieutenant glanced at each other, no trace of humor on their faces. It looked like Roy and Riza lucked out. They'd bring these people to justice, the murders and arson would end, and Roy and Riza could go to East City sooner than expected.

The lieutenant and colonel smirked and dashed out of the line of fire so fast, Roy and Riza didn't have a chance to react. The dark haired colonel kicked the gun out of Riza's hand and it clattered to the floor, sliding across the room. The azure haired lieutenant dove behind Roy and kicked his legs out from under him. Roy fell unceremoniously to the ground, but rolled out of the way in one fluid motion as the azure haired girl tried to pin him.

"General!" Riza shouted, elbowing the dark haired boy in the side and diving for her gun.

The dark haired boy jumped in front of her and blocked her from picking up her gun. Riza leapt to her feet and threw a punch at the boy who spun out of it and ducked away, attempting to land his own punch. They sparred, kicking and punching back and forth, with Riza landing more blows than the boy.

Behind them, Roy and the girl also traded blows, with Roy mostly utilizing his clap alchemy to avoid any fire damage to the room. What he didn't expect - and he really should have, all things considered - was that the girl seemed to be able to use alchemy too, though it was nothing like any alchemy Roy had ever seen. She produced balls of shadow in her hands that crackled with blue and purple lightning, though Roy didn't see any alchemy circles on or near her. She wasn't clapping either so he ruled out the possibility of her having seen Truth.

Her alchemy was confusing, but he had no time to ponder it. He ducked and swiveled away from her shadow bolts, clapping and slapping his palms on the bookshelves and ground to create shield walls and spikes to try to stop her. He was too slow to react after the girl shot a particularly large bolt at him and it hit his leg, causing him to fall with a shout.

This caused Riza to be distracted for only a few seconds, but it was a few seconds too long. The boy dove at her, knocking her off her feet. Just when it seemed like he had the upper hand, Riza kneed him in the gut and locked her arm around his head, flipping them over, reaching for her gun, and pushing it into his head as she pinned him to the ground.

Roy snapped at the girl, finally far too annoyed at being stuck in a stalemate with her to refrain from using his flame alchemy any longer. The flames shot from his fingertips and the girl's eyes widened. She gasped, freezing in place. She folded her arms around herself and took a shaky step back just as the flames hit the bottom of her uniform coat and charred it.

"That's enough!" Riza shouted.

The girl saw the boy on the ground and she took a shaky breath, raising her hands in surrender. The azure haired lieutenant and the dark haired colonel were battered and bruised and Roy had cuts on his face and uniform, but Riza remained unharmed, unwinded, and ready to fight should the imposters try anything else.

"Who the hell are you people?" Roy demanded, standing and dusting off his uniform. He swiped his hand over the cut on his cheek to wipe away the blood. "You better have a good explanation for all this."