AN: Sorry for the wait on this chapter. I wasn't in the mood to write and when I was, I just wasn't satisfied with this chapter. Trashed several versions. Enjoy!

Covert Affairs

Chapter 15

Truth

May Chang couldn't say she wasn't used to being ignored, she was one of so many children back home, but here people just refused to see her. It wasn't like this is the towns in eastern Amestris where she had crossed the border. They were nice people, they didn't treat her any different than they would any other visitor. They thought Shao Mei was a cat and she was too young to be traveling by herself, but it was still said out of concern. The people of Central were different; they were sheltered from the outside world and it showed. Amestris tried very hard to keep the people in it's capital happy and also ignorant, something she gathered from interacting with people at the hotel.

It worked in her favor. As long as she stayed clothed in Amestrian fashion she was practically invisible. It wasn't that people didn't acknowledge her, they just didn't want to because they didn't know how to deal with something from outside their known world. May was thankful for that now as she was on her way to the scene of the bank heist. She just wanted to take a look in case there was a full military response. She hoped there would be, that would mean snooping around Central Command would be easier if tehy were distracted.

As she walked down the alley she kicked a can and thought about her own life as a princess; how she had never really paid attention to the servants in the palace or all the commoners who worked around her without her noticing. This journey was supposed to be solely about finding the answer to immortality and returning home with it so she could help secure her clan's dominance in the royal house and avoid their elimination. However, this adventure was turning out to be an eye opening experience for her, she was no longer that sheltered princess who didn't see the world for what it was. It also made her homesick in a different way because she wanted to go see everything she missed out on so far in her life.

She noticed a man on a stoop ahead and eyed him. Central was also home to a high number of murderers and crime, something she had encountered with her own eyes on many of her investigative trips. Another striking difference from her life in the royal palace. She passed the man and looked at his face, hidden under the shadow of the hood of his jacket. He wore glasses and was clearly trying to remain unnoticed. Something about him intrigued her, but also raised the hairs on her neck. So she turned the corner and walked a little faster.

May felt him though, that man from the alley following her. Shao Mei perched upon her shoulder and tugged her braids telling her she was being followed. Her faithful friend always had her back. If this man thought he was going to have it easy picking on a little girl, he was going to be in for a nasty surprise.

Riza lowered her weapon and Roy dropped his hand to his side as they stared at each other. She had no idea why the universe seemed to be against them recently as this was way too many consecutive instances of her being shocked by her husband's behavior. Yet it didn't change anything, Roy was still standing in front of her and she wasn't even sure she wanted to ask why he was down here. The tunnel behind him was well lit, probably by lanterns or flashlights since any flame would be insanely dangerous with all the sewer gases and oil coating the sludge. A full array of expressions crossed his face and she knew her own hadn't changed from the shock of turning the corner and seeing him.

Roy felt like he was the unluckiest man in the world. What wasn't his wife going to catch him in the middle of this week? He was in the process of an impromptu robbery of Amestris and he was going to stand here and draw a blank on what to say to his wife when caught in the act. Then she stood and looked around the corner at the mess of pipes they had created in order to orchestrate this heist. He knew there was no more lying, Riza wasn't going to believe anything but the truth. Even the truth was a little unbelievable. He knew he was on a tight schedule, he really couldn't put off melting the gold much longer. So he went for the truth for a change. "I'm robbing the bank."

Riza just stared at the system of pipes now leading up to the vault and also down into the sewer water. Roy's voice and words registered with her, but her mind struggled to comprehend what he said. Her husband was robbing the bank she was supposed to be protecting, he was stealing from the country's gold reserves. "Why?"

"To keep the gold safe." He said simply and she looked at him. Her sharp brown eyes searched his face to see if he was serious.

"Don't you think that's a little extreme?" She asked. She was trying to buy her brain time to digest what he was telling her. Roy was robbing the bank, the same bank he saved this afternoon.

"I don't know who we can trust anymore."

"There's a lot of that going around." She said.

"Riza..." He swallowed hard and made another life altering decision in the blink of an eye. "I don't just work at the academy. I'm the head of the counter-terrorism agency and the professor job is just a cover for my actual one. I was in the bank today because we got a tip that it was the target of an attack, I didn't expect it to be that soon. I can't really get into the specifics but right now my priority is making sure the money in the vault stays in Amestris and remains the financial foundation of our country. My team and I have to get this gold out before this bank opens tomorrow. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to you, but when it comes to protecting you and this country I had to make the difficult choice to keep this from you."

She stared at him. "Then why have I never heard of this division?"

"It's a covert department directly under the Fuhrer." Roy said as if that should have been self-explanatory.

"Roy," She paused and looked into his eyes. "No, I mean I would have heard of it because I work covert ops under the Espionage division."

"Come again?" Roy focused on her now, the gears in his head turning as something from the back of his mind surfaced. His team, especially Kimblee, had been trying to figure out for years who was running the espionage division. They had turned up bodies of Drachma spies, like the one he and Hughes found in the sewers, and they knew someone was stopping them.

"I'm a spy, Roy." She saw his confusion and understood the feeling. "I've been intercepting spies from Drachma since I left the academy."

He blinked. "My team and I are focused solely on Creta. I was handed the new department after Ishval. Those late nights, I've been decoding intel from West City."

They stood there in silence for a few moments until Riza finally said, "This is why you have been teaching at the academy? This is why you didn't want a promotion?"

"This is why you've been gone weekends doing 'bank transfers'?" Roy countered. "That shampoo, the one that is odor eliminating and military issue...you used it because you've been in places like this and not trying to cover up being with Barry?"

"I told you Barry works with me." She said and paused, she should have know Barry would remain an issue with him. Roy could be stupidly jealous. "He does."

"You're a spy?" He cocked his head and looked at her. Those were real? Hot woman spies were real? Holy shit! "You wouldn't know anything about a murder that happened down in these sewers, would you? Perhaps why a Drachma agent was sniffing around a crime scene?"

Riza swallowed hard. He had seen that? She thought that saying she was a spy would allow him to conjure up mental images of tight fitting clothes and sexy lingerie, like those damned books she caught him with. However admitting that she was the one to kill that woman was another thing entirely. She saw from his face he already had the answer from her hesitation but she gave him the explanation he was looking for anyway. "Yes. Intel was leaked, I intercepted one of their agents in the sewer system and we fought. Hence that cut lip you noticed. I walked away and she didn't."

"That had to be a hell of a shot. Head shot in these dark sewers while being attacked, that's impressive. Not that I didn't think you could do it...I just thought your shooting skills were recreational and security requirement." Roy recalled the body in the tunnel the day he recruited Ed. He said it as a thoughtful compliment and saw her eyes light up because of it. She too was in a thankless job. "Do you head the division?"

She couldn't believe that they were casually having this discussion now. She knew him, she knew he wasn't lying and was needing more information from her to piece together everything that didn't make sense in their lives. He was brilliant and somewhere in that head of his he hid away all the instances when things just didn't add up. Questions he couldn't ask because it would seem like he didn't trust her. In the end though, they had been lying for years for what? This moment? This moment when they ran into each other trying to save the country, just on different teams? No wonder he was worn out and not pursuing a promotion, he was in charge of saving the city from terrorists from the west. "Grandfather heads it up. I run my team. Rebecca, Barry...we protect Amestris from Drachma."

He noticed a pause as she said Barry's name. There were more people that she wasn't ready to mention. He didn't blame her, he had yet to tell her who was on his team. This felt surreal, confessing it all to her now. As his heart still pounded from the encounter minutes earlier and the nagging knowledge that he was going to have to bring this to a close to complete his task.

Riza could see him thinking it through. She almost said that his Mother was also part of this but he had been shocked enough for one day. None of this solved their current situation: He was here to rob the bank and her job was to protect it. Instead of making a decision she said, "Protecting this gold is one of my major responsibilities. The job at the bank...it's not just a cover job, it has it's purpose as well."

Roy glanced over to the pipes and swallowed hard. The clock was ticking and the last thing he needed was to have a pivotal moment in his life crop up. He knew she was trying to bring him back to the real issue, the one where they were on opposite sides of this situation. "This gold isn't safe here. "

"Apparently not." She wanted to take a deep breath and calm her heart-rate down, but they were in a sewer. A deep breath would make her gag and she had to use all of her senses to read Roy. He was convinced this was the right thing to do and all he had to do was manipulate the oxygen concentration to cause her to pass out in order to continue with what he was doing. His gloves were already on and it wouldn't take much for him to increase the Oxygen concentration in her vicinity to end this conversation. She hated that she had to think that way of the man that she loved, but she knew his arsenal of moves and his way of thinking. He would do it to spare her making a decision to stop him, because he felt that this was the way to protect her and the country. She had to watch his face for his concentration, if he was manipulating molecules he would have to focus on it. Why was God pitting them against each other!? Would she really attack him if he made the first move?

Roy heard her worry in her voice. She was a trained soldier, no a trained spy. His wife knew him better than he knew himself, she already guessed his next move before he realized he might need to make it. He wasn't going to fool himself into thinking that she was just going to ignore her job because he said so. He was going to have to convince her that he knew what he was doing and if anyone could see through him it was her. Shit. "This is the only way to ensure this money is safe. From Greed and also from whomever is leaking information from within Central Command,"

"So Greed is from Creta?"

"I have no idea." He admitted and then walked over to the pipes to explain what was going to happen. What needed to happen soon. "However I'm on a tight schedule and I'll figure it out when we know our gold is safe. Well, what gold is remaining since we believe the vault is short a sum of it. There isn't enough here to back all the Cenz in circulation. Until we get to the bottom of this, we need to protect what we know is here."

"Gold is missing?" She asked and watched him nod. Gold was already missing?

"If it gets out that there is not enough money here to support our paper money, it will do just as much damage as a robbery or someone destroying the building. Riza, someone has targeted the very foundation of Amestris and is poised to deal a crippling blow. If you're not going to help me than you need to shoot me. I can not stand idly by and allow enemies of our country to destroy us. At least if you shoot me you can bring attention down on this bank and make sure so many eyes are on it nobody will try anything."

She stared at him wide-eyed. "Roy..."

"I need you to believe in me Riza. This is the last thing I want to be doing, but I have to. I'm not asking you to help, I won't make you an accomplice. However I really need to start the process now, otherwise we're going to run out of time. Just turn and walk away, please. If I'm wrong, I'll let you take me in and confess everything. I'm running out of time."

"Tell me what you're going to do with it." She said quickly, the needy look in his eyes coupled with the urgency of his voice was enough to make her waver on her convictions. He believed in this enough to risk everything, she had to give him the chance to make her believe it too.

"I'm going to melt it, send it down the pile to the Main Street Depot and get it out of town."

"To where?"

Roy bit his lip. Shit. He didn't exactly clarify that with Zane. "Somewhere safe."

"The bank manager checks the vault every morning. He'll discover the gold is missing and it's not going to take a genius to figure out who had access." She wasn't going to throw in her lot with him until she heard a sold plan. Perhaps she could talk him out of this. They could heighten security at the bank, but from what she was seeing in front of her...it wasn't good enough. He was right, the gold wasn't safe because Roy was robbing the bank with some half-cocked plan and would succeed if she didn't step in his way. Dammit! There was no right answer here!

"We have a plan." Roy said.

She looked at him and he deliberately didn't look at her. "Roy, you're not doing a great job of convincing me you're not the enemy."

"Fruitcake." Roy spat out. "We're replacing it with fruitcake and coating that with some gold bricks we stored in the safety deposit vault to avoid having them melted."

Riza felt sick and it wasn't just the stench. Roy must have lost his mind.

"Riza, I'm running out of time. Please, you have to trust me. I know it sounds insane, but I am robbing the bank. I'm using the steam, sewage and gas lines to heat and transport the gold. I'm going to melt it, keep the furnace in the pipes going to keep it liquid with Flame alchemy. It's going to travel down the line to the antique train that may or may not move once it's loaded. Then Fullmetal will come down, repair the lines and Kimblee will show up and make gold bricks with fruitcake. I'll coat it all with gold and we'll go to the station and find out where the train is going with it."

"Kimblee...and fruitcake." Riza recalled the research she had read and looked at him. Something that sent up a red flag in her mind. She remembered that research, she had read it throughly trying to find the reason behind it. Still, something was off if Roy was counting on the Crimson Alchemist to pull through for him. "You trust Kimblee?"

"Nobody trusts him." Roy said. "But I trust Haley Whitman and she's taken on this part of the heist and decided to use him. I didn't have many options."

"So his research is real?" Riza asked, "And her porn is..."

"Yes. He's been trying to bankrupt the Fruitcake business so he could get his Mom some dolls. The porn is how we send intel from West City to Central. It's still not my porn."

"So the train is Whitman's." Riza said as pieces began to fall into place. This was by far the most insane plan she had ever heard, but he was going to make it work. If she wasn't teetering on the edge of a decision that would turn her into a criminal or make her turn him in for his criminal activities, she'd be proud of him. "I don't understand Kimblee though. Why would you have him on your team?"

"Kimblee wasn't my choice, but we're managing him. I have a great team. If we've kept him from going ballistic then it's a testament to the great people I have working for me." Roy waited and resisted the urge to check his pocket watch. "Riza, I know I'm asking a lot but will you trust me? Can you let me save our country? I promise when this is all over and if I survive the hell Grand is going to unleash on me tomorrow...I'll tell you everything. Everything. Then we can work together to try and figure out who the hell is doing this and why it was so important to keep us in the dark about each other. Something is horribly wrong in our government and it has nothing to do with what our enemies are doing in the shadows. We've been working against each other, Bradley knows that. He's trying to keep our hands tied while still asking us to perform our jobs. It's counter productive which means there is a higher purpose. Will you join us?"

"Yes." She said and watched him relax. She didn't need tothink anymore, she just had to act on her gut instinct. Her gut told her Roy knew what he was doing and everything he said reinforced what she already believed: Bradley was up to something. She believed him, she believed in him. He'd never endanger the people he cared for and he'd never ask her to do something like this unless it was the only way. Everything he said made sense, every connection he made helped her make sense of information that just didn't sit right with her. "However we need to merge teams, now."

"We don't have time for a meeting." Roy pulled out his watch and closed his eyes. Shit. They barely had time for a bank robbery.

"Roy, my team is upstairs. We're working against each other right now." Riza said and put her gun away.

"Honey, right now I need you to get out of this tunnel. If something goes wrong, it's going to go horribly wrong. There is a hatch there, it goes up to the bank basement and it will keep you safe." Roy walked over to the pipes and pointed to the hatch. "Bring them in on it, Maes is up there and I trust him to speak for me as leader of this team. I just have to start this now and you can't be here."

"I'm not leaving you." Riza said simply and watched his face show his frustration and anxiety.

"Riza." he said softly and put his hand on her shoulder. "No...I won't risk your life..."

"I risk my life all the time and you never knew about it. I'm staying. You're going to be exhausted after you finish this and someone is going to have to make sure you get up that ladder safe and don't fall into the sewer water and drown. I'm staying." She ran her hand through his hair and down his cheek. "I need to watch your back too. I won't be able to get word to Rebecca and you can't afford another conversation like this. WE don't know if Greed will be back either. Go ahead, start your robbery."

"Dammit Mustang." Basque Grand was fuming as he looked at the notepaper in his hand. He sat in the back seat of the car as his driver sped along to the scene of the bank robbery. He couldn't fucking believe that that bastard set the bank on fire or that he took the new Fullmetal kid with him! "Dammit Mustang!"

Grand kicked the back of the seat in front of him and looked out the window. He had been in Tucker's lab this afternoon demanding to see progress on his Chimera project. So far Tucker was just making worthless shit, things the military had no use for. He needed creatures that could be used as weapons, not just guard animals and oddities to fill the cages in circus freak shows. He wasn't paying him so he could play with government resources like that. He wanted results and apparently it was going to take threats and Tucker's tears to get things done.

Meanwhile his prize war machine was out destroying government property and putting the financial stability of the country at risk. Job well done Mustang! People were fearful enough of alchemy, why not destroy their life savings in the middle of the capital to make them really worry? He had Kimblee to thank for that little bit of information as he was the only soldier who had the balls to interrupt his Tucker tirade. Nobody else thought it important to disrupt the meeting. Solf damned Kimblee was having to tell him that three of his people had torn the First Bank of Amestris to shreds. Kimblee who was busy laughing about it and was just weird as Tucker's little pets. So he left Tucker crying in his lab and called his office.

He was pleasantly surprised that Mustang had been a good little soldier and came to report his destruction. His secretary chattered on about how he was such a great man to look up to because he protected Fullmetal from the scathing remarks of miserable old bigot Commanche. Grand grunted. Commanche hung out at the office most days in order to harass other alchemists and try to get them fired. He wasn't surprised there was an exchange of words, Commanche was the biggest opponent of young people having such power and privilege. His secretary then informed him that there was another alchemy related event right outside the building, as Mustang set Commanche's wooden leg on fire.

This job didn't pay enough; holding alchemists accountable for their actions and research was like trying to fish with your hands. They were all such smart bastards. They were already mentally capable of finding loopholes in the laws of the universe so running circles around the military rules and regulations was child's play. They were the treasured State Alchemists and damned near every one of them took advantage of that status. Half the time they weren't where they were supposed to be and the other half they were doing something appalling that guaranteed his phone was always ringing.

So he crumpled the note in his hand that he had written down all the information on; his long list of things he had to yell at Mustang for. He knew Fuhrer Bradley wouldn't press the issue, but Grand wanted to do more than bury Flame in punitive paperwork. He wanted the man knocked down in rank, he wanted every bit of damage done by everyone in that bank lumped onto that smarmy shit. Mustang was the commander there and that was how the military worked! However he had yet to talk with Bradley on the matter and wouldn't do so until he had the reports in his hands. He was sick of this shit. He expected it from the research alchemists who hid in their labs but any of his men in uniform were held to a higher standard. A full Colonel should know better. Even worse Grumman was trying to push to make that boy a General. HA! Not in his lifetime.

By the time they reached the location of the bank he was livid. The road was blocked off by barricades and trucks were in front of the bank to clear out the debris, so his driver stopped on the corner. Grand got out and the driver pulled ahead to get out of traffic and park on a side road. It was good, that way he could collect his thoughts before marching in and demanding answers. He could clear his head by surveying the damage to the Armstrong Insurance building and make a decision on his approach to the situation. Did he want to humiliate Mustang in front of these men? It would be unprofessional, but there was that annoying little title of 'Hero of Ishval' that grated on his nerves. It's not like any of these men worked for him, he was nothing but a stupid teacher. A full Colonel before he turned 30? He didn't know the reason Mustang was the first to achieve that, but he knew he would be the last.

Grand walked down the empty street and looked up at the Armstrong Insurance building. He shielded his eyes from the setting sun and looked up at the new balcony on the fourth floor. It was adorned with gargoyles. The Fullmetal Alchemist was a talented kid, there was no questioning that. The balcony was a work of art and the boy did it with no transmutation circles while hanging upside down from a four story building. Another thing he could hang over Mustang's head was the endangerment of an asset like Fullmetal, what they hell was the kid doing jumping off a roof? Special indeed. Grand shook his head.

"Basque Grand."

Grand turned and looked at a man who was standing on the sidewalk behind him. A tall civilian in a tan jacket wearing sunglasses. "We've closed off the road to all but military personnel. You'll have to go around."

May Chang watched from around the corner as the man she saw in the alley pushed his hood off. She had crossed the street to get away from him, but then realized he was walking somewhere with a purpose. Curiosity made her follow him. She raised her eyebrows as he walked up to the big military man with the mustache and outstretched his arm. Then it happened, an explosion. Something with so much dispersed energy that made her shudder. The military man was no more than a body with a head popped like a engorged tick as his blue figure slumped to the ground. She stared wide-eyed at the scene as the man turned to come back to the street. Tan skin, white hair and red eyes, with an X shaped scar on his face. The man was an Ishvalian!

Barry couldn't believe what he was seeing. Holy shit! Some guy just blew up a dude's head in broad daylight!

It made something flutter in his soul. Those memories from days gone by when he could grab a woman and put her in his truck and carve her up...but even he had to hide in his truck to get away with it. Even if he did it on a busy street, even if that joy of knowing that people were just walking by his vehicle while a murder was happening...he still was hiding behind the aluminum shell of a truck.

He was so flustered by seeing the blood splatter again that he almost couldn't think. He calmed himself. Barry, you have a woman to impress and right now her husband is really on the verge of getting into a shit ton of trouble for destroying the bank. Use this to score points. Riza means more than savoring past kills. Riza will be so happy with the information.

So he walked to the end of the alley next to the insurance agency and peaked out around the corner. He grabbed the military guy's foot and pulled him down the alley into the dark so nobody would see him dead on the sidewalk. Hopefully they didn't notice the blood splatter on the side of the building, but it was a disaster area after all. Who would really notice some little thing like brain matter on the windows?

Next, he was going to have to figure out a way to make contact with the team. Riza and Rebecca were in the tunnels so no way to contact them. Al and Alex were in the bank, so he could call them. They had phone service right? That was something that crazy ass alchemist didn't strike with his lightning. So he kicked in the side door to the insurance agency and sat down at the desk. Then he dialed the bank, happy that he memorized Riza's office phone number. He just had to pretend to be someone looking for Al, right? Except they knew who he was because Whitman was in there so he needed an alias. He could be a girlfriend! Al's girlfriend!

"Hello!" Barry said in his best girly voice. "I'm calling for Alphonse!"

Maes Hughes cocked an eyebrow. Someone was calling for Al? Someone that sounded like they were in a submarine mimicking an old lady? He leaned against the desk and allowed his fatherly instincts to kick in. "I'm sorry, who is this?"

"Uh," Barry looked around the office and saw a calendar. Rabbits...dressed up in costumes doing Shakespeare? Whatever. He needed a name and fast. "Bunny. I'm Al's girlfriend."

"He doesn't have a girlfriend." Maes said and wondered why the lady sounded so strange. Maybe a bad connection?

"We just met! Today! We were playing Scrabble together and Clue! I heard the bank got robbed and I need to talk to my sweet, adorable Al right now!" Barry chirped. Dammit, he said Bunny when he meant to say Juliet! Fuck. This was why he never got to do real field work.

"Lady, how old are you?" Hughes could detect a deepness to the person's voice that shouldn't be present in a young girl Al's age. It was the worst attempt at a girl's voice that he had heard which was saying A LOT considering Roy Mustang loved to goof off on the radio and the karaoke bar.

"Lady!" Barry gasped. Ok maybe imitating his late wife was a bad choice. He needed to sound like a 13 year old girl. "Look mister! How dare you make fun of my voice! I'm a little girl and my Al sees me for the wonderful girl I am. Witty, charming and great in the kitchen. I want to talk to him now!"

Maes grunted. Well he'd just have to hang around at the door to the office and listen in. Why would Al have a girl call him at Riza's extension? What was he doing here late at night while working security? He had the job a day or two at most! God! He only got this kid last week and he was already ruined and wild. "Hang on."

"YAY! My Alphonse!" Barry squealed.

Maes frowned. Everything on his parental control panel was blinking a warning alarm and he was hesitant to let Al get on the phone. However he knew that he couldn't sit down with Al and discuss something that might be happening, he had to witness something in order to express his concern. So he'd let Al and Bunny talk. "Hey Al, a phone call for you."

Al saw some of the curious glances and just decided to ignore them. "Uh, Ok."

"Bunny."

Al was glad he didn't have facial expressions because he would have given Hughes the most bizarre look. Instead he just stood there and waited to see if the man would explain that or just keep staring at him. He had that scrutinizing gaze as if Al's next words would condemn or vindicate him. So he just replied, "OK."

Maes turned and walked back to the office. That didn't get him a reaction, but Al was a suit of armor so that wasn't surprising. He pointed to the phone and smiled, Al scooted past him and he watched Al's back as he picked up the phone. too bad Ed was downstairs taking a nap, he would have been able to get answers from his little brother.

"Uh, hello?"

"Al, it's Barry. But call me Bunny because that guy needs to think I'm your girlfriend."

"Ok, Hi." Al said and then added, "Bunny."

"Look, I need to get a message to Riza but I can't get into the sewers without being seen."

"I thought you were already..." Al paused and could feel Mr. Hughes's eyes on him. OK, he had to use code. He was a secret agent now, he had to maintain that. "In the basement. Wasn't that were you were told to go?"

"Oh, you're smart kid. Yeah, those were my orders but you know how hard it is to be in this body and not be seen, right? I was trying to get to the manhole over here because I can't cross the street but then some guy comes up to a soldier and calls him, Basque Grand. The soldier guy was was looking at the building over here. Then this guy, some dude with a scar on his face, just blows up the soldier's head! It was awesome!"

"What?" Al tried to mask his horror as he knew Hughes would ask what was wrong. Barry was prattling on like it was the best thing ever and not a gruesome murder. Someone, blew up a man's head? Did one of Greed's crew have that ability? Riza and Rebecca has mentioned the robbers had some weird abilities, but to do something like implode a skull...it required alchemy.

"I need you to get a message to Riza. Tell her that some guy just murdered Basque Grand in the street and I covered it up by dragging his body into the alley. However the murderer walked away so I don't know if he's one of the robbers or not."

"Ok. I'll ask Mr. Armstrong to come pick you up." Al said as he remembered the new alchemist was now on their team. It would be nice to get rid of him for a while. He was tired of hearing about every painting he was hanging up on the walls.

"Good thinking. I'm worried about Riza, I mean there is a murderer in the streets!"

"You mean you?" Al asked.

"No the other guy! But damn, he had balls doing it in the open."

The fruitcake bits bobbed and floated down the sewer as Kimblee and Whitman walked along the access way beside it. The entire causeway was covered in a layer of fruitcake. Haley cleared her throat. "So, explain to me why these things aren't sinking but yet will have the density of a gold brick at the end of the line?"

"The nasty gel fruit bits," Solf said with a grin. "I blew them up when I broke up the bread. So now all the pockets were those disgusting nuggets were are air pockets. Like a hull of ship, just with bread."

"Neat." She replied. The fruitcake factory heist was easier than she thought it would be. The storage warehouse was separate from the baking facility so all they needed to do was open a hole in the floor and start blowing up cake then shove it down the hole with a forklift. Kimblee was like a excited child, reminding her what a creepy bastard he was in Ishval. Same Kimblee, whether he was blowing up people or fruitcake.

"So how did you get to Central so fast?" Kimblee asked and noted that the fruitcake did not absorb any thing. New research for his assessment next year.

"I hopped a freight line." She said and flickered the flashlight over the pastries in the poo. "Freight trains don't make stops. They also leave at scheduled times like clockwork. They run along lines outside the city and can travel faster."

"Interesting." Kimblee filed that away for later use. "Also interesting that you'd involve me in this heist."

"We both know you don't give a shit about right or wrong, only what is interesting." Haley kept walking. "So I gave you interesting."

"How do you know I won't sell you all out?" He queried

"You probably think you can get more blackmailing us to stay quiet than the government will give you for being a snitch." She replied.

"True."

Alex Armstrong stood in the tunnel and looked at the sewer water as it turned from sewage to a concentrated layer of moving solids. He stepped closer trying to figure out what the hell it was and then heard voices. He froze and prepared himself for a fight if need be.

Haley saw him first and kept walking towards him, acting as casual as she could. She saw his eyes react to the surprise of seeing a familiar face in the underground sewage tunnels of Central. Well she was going to have to think quick to come up with a reason for being here with Kimblee! When she arrived at the bank earlier, she and Alex had exchanged pleasantries and she made it clear she was only in town to make sure Zane was OK. Alex teared up, as usual, and she took the opportunity to scoot over to Hughes on her way to find answers. However, taking a leisurely stroll with Kimblee in the sewer system was a long way from doting on her brother. "Hi Alex!"

Solf looked over her shoulder and grimaced. Well blowing up a body of his size was going to make the walkway slick and hard to negotiate. Though he was curious if the blood would sparkle as it flew through the air.

"Haley?" Alex blinked. "What are you doing down here? I thought Zane went home?"

"I'm on a date." She replied. "With my boyfriend here, bachelor of the year and fashion guru Solf. Zane was fine, so I took the opportunity to spend time with sexy here."

Alex looked at Kimblee as he smiled and waved. "In the sewers?"

"I'm doing research." Kimblee said. "No matter how many times I tell her I'm a busy man, she just barges in and expects me to drop everything for her, including my pants. I have work to do, Basque Grand is on some rampage about research grant abuse and I need to catch up on mine. He made Shou Tucker cry today, apparently the military in a land locked country doesn't need mermaids."

"Research?" Alex looked at the sea of questionable product floating on the water. What the hell was that?

"My fruitcake research." Solf said and watched Alex's confusion unfold on his face. "Can't say more, top secret stuff you know."

"Fruitcake...in the sewers?" Alex asked. Oh, this was going to make it hard to want to enjoy the delicious treat again.

"Yes." Kimblee grinned. "Consider this a public service announcement: fruitcake is not healthy. It's not real fruit and it's not cake. It's a disgusting block of non-decomposing, non-digestible food without an expiration date. It's like giving your dog rawhide, it just sits in your gut like a rock. Horrible stuff."

"You're researching it for what purpose?" Alex asked. He couldn't believe Kimblee was actually genuinely researching this bread. His sister had mentioned the 'Fruitcake Alchemist and his goddamned flowers and poems' when he rode with her on the train. If Kimblee was down here with his 'girlfriend' and was flirting with Olivier this weekend, his womanizing reputation well earned. He had to refocus. He was on a spy mission, not a matchmaking mission. He had to figure out why they were here and inform them it was dangerous. "Why are you in the sewers?"

"The research... is about the absorption ability of fruitcake as a solution to...the increasing population and escalating pollution problems in Central City." Haley answered. Solf chuckled behind her clearly entertained by her bullshit.

"Fruitcake?" Alex said sadly. Damn, everything that tastes delicious was bad for you. He looked over and smiled at them. "You're doing this on a date?"

"Yup." Solf wrapped his arms around his 'girlfriend'. "She couldn't stand being away from me but I have work to do so here we are. See, I even have special gloves just for altering the cake."

Alex raised his eyebrows as the man produced some food service gloves with arrays drawn in sharpie marker on them. "You're doing Alchemy research together?"

"With fruitcake and a river of shit. Yup." Haley nodded.

"That's so beautiful!" Alex squeaked. Perhaps their love was true afterall, an alchemist would only share his research with someone he loved and trusted!

Kimblee groaned as Armstrong found a way to rip his shirt off and flex in the restricted space.. "Why doesn't his sister take her clothes off like that?"

"When properly motivated, she does." Haley replied.

AN: So sorry that these chapters keep getting longer and longer. It just happens. Hope this was a satisfying chapter, let me know what you guys think.

"Bunny" Barry is from the manga where Barry calls Roy as one of his 'girlfriends'.