To Fmalover07: I'm glad to hear you like the story. Just know that, to find out everything that happens will take a lot of chapters yet.

To Minerva Aemilius: I'm always happy to hear from new people, and believe me, you certainly aren't the only person to read stories without reviewing to them. Thank you for your compliments. I really am trying to write faster, but every time I actually sit down to write, something manages to get in the way. I really want to write out the rest of this story, though, so don't think I will give up.

To Haruko Takahashi: So many people have nice things to say that I don't know how to thank them without sounding redundant. So, I suppose a simple "thank you" will have to suffice in the wake of you kind words.

To Siren Air: If I'd had this chapter done a month ago, I would have said "Ta-da! Your wish is my command!" But, as it has been a month, that would seem a little pretentious. I swear, I am trying!

Chapter 15:

Riza confronts the one responsible for Roy's disappearance, and it becomes apparent just how fitting it is that she bears the mark of fire.

It can come as if from nowhere.

An unknown young man stood in front of the door to the apartment complex. He looked as though he'd very recently entered his third decade in life, and he wore a uniform that identified him as one of the apartment's staff. As the complex was her destination, Riza instantly took notice that he stood in the spot where Mr. Finch, also an employee at the apartment complex, normally would have been posted.

The former doorman's replacement stood a little straighter as the sharpshooter stepped out of her car and rounded to the sidewalk. When he glimpsed the mark of a Captain on her shoulder epaulets, relatively new to her, the young man even pulled at the bottom of his doorman's jacket to rid it of any possible wrinkles. What was it about the higher ranks of the military that made people react in such ways that the lower ranks did not? They were all serving their country. Some had simply been at it a little longer than others.

Riza had never seen this young man before, which meant he was either new to the job or there had been a switch in the complex's work schedules that had resulted in Mr. Finch giving up his night and morning hours. She wished the apartment employees had seen fit to inform her of the switch. She would have run a background check on the young man who now had the responsibility of guarding her General at night on every other weekend.

"Ah, you must be Captain Hawkeye! " The nervous air about him led Riza to the conclusion that it was indeed his first day on the job.

"I am. Good morning, Mr. Meyer." She greeted him professionally yet not unkindly, having already taken note of the name on his name tag long ago. She would have to be sure to run that background check when she got to the office later that morning. He gave a small nod, likely putting her face to the name he'd been given, as he would need both for future reference.

"I've been asked to inform you that Brigadier General Mustang will be down shortly." the young Mr. Meyer informed her thusly.

"Thank you. " Riza accepted the information with a small nod of her own and then took up a position of relaxed attention beside the car, awaiting the emergence of said General from his apartment building.

The pair would have been waiting in silence, but her presence, as she found it often did with those unaffiliated with the military, began to unnerve the young man. Riza stood straight and still with her eyes held forward and unblinking. She only shifted her gaze to watch the occasional passerby, keeping a vigilant eye out for any possible threats as was her duty. Any hand that was removed from a pocket, drawn from behind a person's back, or removed something from a handbag was assessed for danger. All of them cleared, just as 99% of all the others had. Her diligently observant eyes certainly didn't miss Mr. Meyer's stiff posture nor the subtle shifting of his feet, something that occurred with more frequency the longer the silence dragged on.

"So, I hear you have been accompanying Brigadier General Mustang over to Ishval." It would seem his nerves had finally gotten the better of him. Possibly suffered from pressure of speech. "Is he the same Mustang who's in charge of the restoration efforts?" Riza offered a simple nod at the young man's question.

"He is."

It was in the news quite often, so there was no harm in confirming the information. Mr. Meyer's eyes seemed to light up a little with this revelation as one might expect from someone meeting a famous celebrity.

"I can't believe it!" His awe over the situation was evident in both his tone and the youthful twist in expression. He was clearly not adept at hiding his reactions, but an expressive countenance could fare well for one who greeted patrons at the door to any establishment. Someone like Riza, on the other hand, would probably scare away any potential tenants by giving off an air of unapproachability. "Of all the jobs I applied to, what were the odds that I got chosen for one that would allow me to meet one of our country's heroes?" Riza almost smiled at his enthusiasm, but it wasn't challenging to keep her expression schooled.

"You probably hear this a lot, but I just wanted to say it's incredible what you've all managed to accomplish over there." Riza glimpsed the door behind Mr. Meyer open as he said this, and the very man they were speaking of stepped out into the sunlight without the boy noticing.

"Thank you for such kind words."

Mr. Meyer nearly jumped out of his skin when Roy spoke, and he wheeled around as the General stepped into his view. It was actually rather difficult for Riza to keep from grinning that time.

"The Captain and I will have to be sure to inform the others we've heard first hand that our efforts are being supported here in East City." The amusement Roy found in startling the young man was hardly hidden, one of his easy and sincere smiles gracing his handsome features. It was one of those smiles that still made Riza's stomach give a small flutter even after having known him for over a decade. It was a shame he had so few chances to use it now, what with them being so busy in Ishval.

The amused glance Roy sent her told Riza the smile had been more for her benefit and that he knew exactly what it did to her. She in turn raised a single eyebrow, silently warning him to tread carefully in how he proceeded and to be wary of his hubris. She could always double check on whether or not there was any extra paperwork that needed to be filled out on this fine Saturday morning. Roy possibly seemed even more amused by her response as he returned his attention to the young doorman.

" A-ah! Brigadier General Mustang!" Mr. Meyer was none the wiser to the exchange that had gone on between them. Their silent form of communication was so mastered and subtle, in fact, that no one ever really was any the wiser. At least, no one would know what it was that had passed between them, even if they were to notice some sort of an exchange had in fact taken place.

"Good morning. You must be new." Roy gave another one of his easy smiles just to spite her, Riza knew, as he greeted the young man who would now be posted outside of his apartment in the mornings.

Stubborn man. Riza thought fondly in spite of her own previous threats as she felt the corners of her mouth lift just a little.

"Y-yes sir. " The young Mr. Meyer looked like he was about to swoon as he shook the famous General's offered hand. Roy then turned, casting Riza a good-humored grin as he approached her.

" Shall we, Captain?"

"Yes, sir." Riza turned back to the car behind her. She had her hand on the handle and had begun to open the door when Roy placed his hand on the handle over hers. Confused and even a little startled, she withdrew, thus allowing him to open the door the rest of the way, standing aside to let her enter.

"Sir? " His eyes were alight with humor as he smiled at her surprised confusion. He enjoyed flustering her in such small ways.

"I'll drive today, Captain." It only took a brief moment for her confusion to fade, and Riza nodded.

"Alright. " She turned to face the young Mr. Meyer who still stood with his mouth hanging part way open after his informal meeting of one of Amestris's few Brigadier Generals, a man who was also an acclaimed State Alchemist. "Until this evening, Mr. Meyer."

The young doorman seemed to start upon hearing his name. He then realized he'd been staring like a fish out of water and quickly corrected his expression.

"O-oh, sorry. But, please, call me Louis." He offered a smile.

"Very well." Riza actually returned his smile that time. "Good day, Louis."

Louis Meyer

The name was written in her grandfather's notable italic scrawl. It was all that lay on the small piece of paper he had given her just moments before, and the implications were not lost on Riza. She couldn't describe the feeling that filled her in that moment as she read the name that was all too familiar.

Riza Hawkeye was not an inherently violent person. She'd grown up calm and level-headed and always weighed every option time permitted before she fired any weapon upon anyone. Whether it was to hurt or to kill, she would not shoot someone if there was no need and would only take a life if left with absolutely no other choice. If circumstances would ever permit, she would be glad to never harm anyone again. She was not a violent person.

But, in that moment, she just wanted to hurt something. She didn't really care what. Seeing the name on that piece of paper filled her with an anger she feared she would be unable to control.

She had run her background check on Louis Meyer that day. In fact, she'd even run a number of checks on every employee and resident in that apartment long before then. It had taken time, but it was time well spent in her book. If even one of them had held any form of animosity towards Roy, the military, alchemy, Ishval, or the Ishval Restoration, they could have proven a threat. So, Riza had been careful, had found every scrap of information she could pertaining to each person's life.

Louis Meyer had cleared. He had grown up in a small town in the north until he moved to East City for work. Not much was known about his life before he moved, but that lack of documented information wasn't uncommon for small towns. The Elric brothers had had little by way of records when Roy and Riza had gone to find them; they hadn't even known they were looking for a pair of young boys. Louis had come to East City when he was sixteen. He had no family to speak of. His record was clean. He lived in a modest apartment across town. He paid his rent and taxes on time and had no debt with the bank. On paper he seemed a perfectly average citizen.

But, Riza's grandfather would not have pointed her in his direction if he hadn't been sure that Louis had some level of involvement in this abduction. It was that thought that very nearly sent her into a frenzy right their in the hall of Eastern Headquarters.

A fortunate distraction came in the form of one Jean Havoc as he poked his head around the far corner in the hall. Riza was apparently what he sought to find because he bore a look of small triumph before hurrying to join her.

"So this is where you ran off to. Find anything?"

When Riza's stern demeanor, eyes lit with a fire he hadn't ever seen before, turned to him, it was all the heavily trained combat specialist could do to not flinch back.

"What's wrong?" He didn't like the looks of this.

"I know where we start." was all he got by way of a response before the almost unnervingly calm woman passed him by to lead the way out of the building.

Louis Meyer hadn't returned to work since the day the military had questioned him, which was certainly suspicious enough to irritate Havoc's 'perpetrator bone'. He'd certainly seen similar flight responses when people came face to face with a possible criminal charge. But the fact that this one had something to do with Mustang's disappearance made it personal, granting him an understanding of Hawkeye's earlier personal brand of fury.

Jean knew, when the woman simply pretended to be angered, she would accompany her angered silence with harsh actions such as the slamming of a door. When she was honestly pissed, however, this was not the case. There was no foot stomping or desk drawer slamming or cup breaking or pencil snapping or any other response that would accompany such things in just about every other member of the human race. Jean had witnessed Hawkeye's rage before, but never on a scale like this. There were few outward signs of her rage. Her fists and jaw would clench, and she would speak even less than was her prerogative.

But all of it could be seen clearly in her eyes, a fire burning in them that was so difficult to describe and yet so easy to distinguish on sigh. Beyond that, she just radiated this. . . aura, almost, that made all those around her comply to all orders of social and professional conduct, spoken and unspoken, as though they feared some nameless deity would smite them dead if they refused.

Jean could certainly understand her anger, though. If this Louis kid really did have something to do with Mustang's kidnapping, the Lieutenant wasn't sure if there was anything on heaven or earth that could save him from the firestorm heading his way—nor was he sure he wanted anything to save him.

So, with this aura of ominous promise following them, the small group of investigators had crossed the city in utter silence to the building listed as Louis Meyer's place of residence.

Only when they entered the building and approached the concierge desk were words again spoken. Even then, it was to simply ask where Louis Meyer was. Once Hawkeye pulled out her military ID, the manager had been happy to help. Unfortunately, Louis hadn't returned to his apartment for the past few days, either. It seemed he was already on the run.

Jean himself was a little surprised when Hawkaye asked the man to tell her anything he could about the surrounding buildings. The manager had been confused as well, but he had complied and answered the question to the best of his knowledge. Most of it was normal. The area was mostly residential, but there were a couple of small stores and cafes and other things of the like that would draw in the area's populace, promising them almost all the goods they might need within great proximity to their homes. The manager didn't understand Hawkeye's peaked interest when he mentioned an older apartment complex down the street was closed and set for demolition later in the month.

But, Jean understood well enough.

From there, locating Louis had actually been a rather simple task, and the band of four, five if Mei's cat was included, had taken maybe three hours to track down a person the military had been searching the city for for the last four days.

This speed was something Jean would later know to be a bad thing.

After all, a wildfire could burn for months before finally dying out.

"So, you don't think he's left already?" Al asked as they exited the building, and Riza shook her head.

"If my theory is correct, then no. He would have stayed in the area to complete his business before fleeing the city." her tone was almost baleful as she held a near single-sighted focus on their target a block down the street.

Al almost asked what that business might be, but something in about the woman's presence shoved the words right back down his throat. So, he followed silently, waiting to see for himself what she was talking about.

He didn't miss the way Havoc was studying his comrade, almost as one would a potential threat, and beside the young alchemist, Mei's posture was defensive in nature as she observed the military Captain leading their small troop. She was standing a little closer to Al than she normally would as they walked, and it was not something that went unnoticed by the intelligent young man.

She could sense it too, he supposed, and probably on a much greater level than he given her upbringing in Alchehestry. Something was off about Riza Hawkeye, and the only thing that came to Al's mind when he thought this was an image of Lust riddled with bullets as the normally stoic sharpshooter emptied every weapon she had on the homunculus.

The thought did not comfort him.

The crack of splintering wood erupted within the apartment as the door was forced open with its frame flying free, a heavy military boot the culprit behind the damage. The owner of said boot, one Jean Havoc, stepped aside to allow Hawkeye to enter the space first before following in swift military fashion with his weapon drawn. She moved right, checking all corners as well as a small solitary closet as Jean moved left to clear the open kitchen of all possible threats or persons in hiding. As he was checking the gap between the fridge and the wall, however, he heard the unmistakable sound of a window being thrown open in great haste. The Lieutenant swore under his breath and made a break for the door.

"I'll head around to cut him off!" he supplied as he ran, noticing out of the corner of his eye as Hawkeye entered the single hall in the apartment with Al and Mei trailing cautiously behind her. If he wasn't so focused on his target, Jean would have wondered why she was moving so slowly, walking down the hall with an almost physical air of dangerous calm about her. If he wasn't so distracted, he would have gleaned what she was planning before it happened.

Hawkeye reached a door near the end of the hall, Al and Mei close behind her to assist as needed, as Jean careened out the open front door, ready to bolt down the three flights of stairs to corner their only lead on the streets below. He didn't see the military captain raise her gun, but the gunshot that barked through the apartment made the combat specialist halt mid-run, nearly toppling over when his momentum continued to carry his upper body forward. A scream followed swiftly after the gunshot, and then a thump sounded as if the runner, whom Jean could only assume was Louis Meyer, had fallen back out of the window to land on a hardwood floor.

Eyes wide, Jean snapped back a step to look inside the apartment, disbelieving as he watched Hawkeye, unnervingly composed in her demeanor after shooting a likely unarmed civilian, enter the room with the now injured fugitive. He ran, joining the concerned Al and Mei as they too hurried to the doorway she had disappeared through.

Louis Meyer looked pitiful. Normally taller than Hawkeye, he was on the ground, slumped against the side wall as he clutched his shoulder—undoubtedly the sharpshooter's target for she never hit anything she didn't aim for—as he shrunk back against said wall. He no doubt wished he could pass through solid objects right about then under the cold, uncaring gaze of the military captain who walked over to stand above him. Thankfully, she had holstered her weapon, but there was something now in her eyes that sent a chill of trepidation down Jean's healed spine, warning him that more than a small something about this was off.

Louis, for his part, had not been appeased in the slightest when the Captain had holstered her weapon. Openly armed or not, this woman's wrath was nothing to grin or joke about. That wrath was ever present in that room, almost a physical entity for the way it seemed to suck the oxygen out of the air around its focal point.

He had known. He'd known she would come around asking questions sooner or later, with sooner being far more likely than later. He had also known that he would have been unable to keep his involvement in the kidnapping from the astute military captain. He would have been thrown in prison for any number of years with his future after his imprisonment lying in shambles. So, he had done the only thing he could think of before all of the inevitable pieces fell into place. He had run.

But, in gathering the possessions he would need in hiding and in paying off his debts so those he owed wouldn't come looking for him, it would seem Louis Meyer had taken too long in his escape.

Because she had found him anyway, had hunted him down and cornered him with the outward appearance of equanimity that barely contained the violent tempest writhing just beneath its surface.

"C-Captain Hawkeye, I-I-"

"Where is he?" Any explanation Louis would have given was cut off. The Captain's voice, like her eyes and the way she carried herself as she stood over him in a manner that was all too foreboding, was cold and dripping with no small amount of an unspoken threat of harm should he lie to her or choose to remain silent. Louis stared up at her with a blatant fear, the trembling of his body giving it away plain as day as he tried to think of some way to get himself out of this situation he'd been too slow to avoid.

Alarms were going off in Havoc's mind, telling him to intervene before things got out of hand, but he did not. She seemed sure about this. Hawkeye would not have shot him if she had even the smallest doubt as to his involvement in their leader's kidnapping. And if that was true, this young man might be able to tell them where Mustang had been taken.

His fists clenched anyway.

"T-took who?"

Looking back on that moment, Jean would really wish Louis hadn't asked that question. He recognized the glint that passed through Hawkeye's eyes upon hearing the seemingly falsified ignorance. He'd seen it from her before on a few sparse occasions after a plan hadn't quite played out as the team had thought, leaving one of their troop in danger. But, this time that glint seemed so much more. . . animalistic.

When she closed the gap between Louis and herself, hauled the injured man to his feet with surprising strength, and slammed him into the wall, it was all Havoc could do to hold himself in place and stretch an arm out to prevent Alphonse from intervening as the boy clearly wished to. Louis screamed when his injured shoulder was jarred by the Captain's intentionally harsh actions, though his perpetrator had passed the stage of caring, had lost it to the depths of her anger long ago.

Those blaring alarms went off in the back of Jean's mind again, but he ignored them. Hawkeye always had a reason for her actions, a plan that would inevitably lead to some required conclusion that would allow them to move forward. Nothing was done without reason or control. Time was short, those the team sought having nearly a week's head start om them, so a harsh interrogation was unfortunately necessary given the boy's apparent non-compliance.

"Who took him?" The subtle increase in her voice's volume was another warning Jean ignored, though the grinding of his teeth was a testament to the quickly growing anxiety he chose to disregard.

He would regret that decision later.

"I swear, I don't know what you're talking about!"

Another wrong move, it seemed.

Anyone who knew Riza Hawkeye understood two very simple facts. One: her aim was perfect most of the time, and just south of it when it wasn't. And two: she never removed a weapon from its holster unless she intended wholeheartedly to fire it at a moment's notice should the need arise. A weapon was not drawn if she had no intention of using it. It was not something she would bluff about.

That was why, when a sidearm was removed from one of such holsters once more, it found its polished muzzle placed right above Louis's left kneecap.

And she pulled the trigger.

The man's kneecap all but shattered as the bullet tore through his leg, passing through flesh and bone to imbed itself into the wood floor that lied a little over a foot beneath it. As this happened, the man screamed a blood curdling scream as he crumpled to the ground, slumping against the wall again with his leg no longer able to support his weight.

"Hawkeye!" "Miss Riza!" The two exclamations were voiced simultaneously by Jean and Al respectively as they moved to get her away from Louis Meyer, Mei clapping a hand over her mouth at the woman's uncharacteristically violent actions. None of them had expected such actions from her, and witnessing such loss of control from from one who almost served as the physical embodiment of self-discipline was too disturbing to put into words.

Jean and Al hadn't taken two steps before they found the muzzle of another gun pointed in their direction, a gun that Riza had drawn with her now free hand to aim directly at them. They froze, eyes wide and disbelieving.

There had been very few times in Jean's life when he hadn't known what to do, what action he should take next to move forward. The time after he had lost the feeling in his legs had been one of the more severe instances in his life where he'd felt lost. But, he could honestly say the present state of affairs were certainly foremost so in his mind in their degree of unpredictability.

Riza Hawkeye, someone he had known for about a decade, was pointing a gun at he, Al, and Mei to keep them from putting a stop to her violent interrogation. She was ready to shoot them, even! This wasn't the woman Jean had worked with for so long. It was as though Riza Hawkeye had been ripped from her own body, and something more primal had been shoved back inside, something with the eyes and heart of a cold blooded killer.

He'd never seen her lose control, not like this. Not to the point where she would physically harm someone in a fit of rage. They weren't even sure how Louis Meyer had assisted the kidnappers or even if he had been the one working at the General's apartment to do so, yet she had just shot the boy in a way that could leave him permanently handicapped! Beyond that, she was more than ready to kill him, to murder him right there in that abandoned apartment!

"Where did they go!?" the outraged woman cried, the muzzle of the very sidearm she had used to shoot Louis twice before now pressed against the cowering young man's temple. "Where!? Where did they take him!?"

"I-I don't know!" the boy finally spluttered through his panic. "They didn't tell me! I heard one of them mention Dublith as they were walking away, but that's all, I swear!" he shouted desperately as he held his bleeding injury. There were very few things that could bring most grown men to tears. The promise of death was certainly one of them. Knowing he couldn't move out of the trajectory of the bullet that would come shooting from the barrel pressed into his temple, tears of pain and terror were openly streaming down the boy's face.

"I was only supposed to leave my post for ten minutes, and I'd be paid twice my annual salary! I needed the money to pay off my gambling debts, but I didn't know they would kidnap one of the tenants! I swear!"

Riza's eyes widened upon actually hearing this confession from the lips of Louis himself. Yes, she had been expecting it, but actually hearing him confirm the information aloud was completely different than knowing his guilt on a silent level.

Her pupils constricted, her jaw clenching as her finger's grip on the trigger of the weapon in her hand tightened. To hear him actually admit it. . . to hear this young man, someone she had trusted to protect her General while he slept, tell her that he had been stupid enough to take a bribe that had resulted in Roy's kidnapping. . . She would never be able to put into words her rage and the overpowering hate that very nearly consumed her. She had only felt it to a degree worse than in that moment when facing Lust after the General's supposed death. The only real difference this time was she had no way of knowing whether Roy was dead or alive at this point.

That, and Louis Meyer would actually die if she pulled that trigger.

And she very nearly did. She could even feel the springs inside the gun begin to compress as the pressure applied neared that which was required to send a bullet from the chamber and into Louis Meyer's scull. But, at the sudden spike of Riza's intent to kill and all the rage that poured out with it, Mei and the small companion on the girl's shoulder had let out a small gasp, the former still holding a hand clapped over her mouth.

Riza froze as the solitary box she'd built around herself came crumbling down.

It took everything she had in her to keep herself from pulling that trigger anyway, but that small sound had snapped her back to reality, had brought her back to herself. Her being returning completely to her physical body to take in her surroundings, she realized just what it was she was doing. Of all the things to choose from in that moment, there was only one part about her actions that truly disturbed her. She couldn't even remember doing it, but that didn't change facts.

Riza had a gun pointed at them. Her allies. Her friends, even, if on a more distant note with two of them—after someone saved a person's life, how could that person not consider them a friend, even when they'd spoken very little to one another.

If that betrayal wasn't disgusting enough, twisting her insides into a nauseating knot of guilt as it mixed with her boiling rage, Riza was about to kill this young man in front of them, a young man who wasn't very much older than Alphonse and Mei, in fact. She'd been about their age the first time she had taken a life, the first time she'd pulled the trigger out on that forsaken desert. To expose them to such an action from her now. . . The thought actually made Riza sick.

But anger was a hard thing to let go of, and she nearly pulled the trigger with all of this in mind, knowing she would never be able to look them in the eye again.

At the last moment, the instant before the trigger sent its force to the weapon's firing mechanism, the sharpshooter opted for the only alternative that came to her frenzied mind.

In one fluid motion, Riza turned the weapons down, flicked the safety on both of her weapons to further keep herself from doing something she would never be able to forgive herself for and shifted her grip on one firearm to grip it by the nozzle. With all the strength she could muster, she whipped the pistol through the air, striking Louis across the face with such force that he blacked out on impact. He fell sideways, collapsing in a heap on the floor.

He was unconscious but still breathing.

Several beats of near silence passed, Riza's ragged breaths the only sound passing between the company. Before she could change her mind—it would be just as easy to kill Louis if he were unconscious—the sharpshooter quickly holstered both weapons she held as she turned, the group standing in the doorway hastily backing out of the way to let the furious woman pass.

The eyes of both Al and Jean trailed after her, one showing concern while the other showed an anger that was unhidden, as Mei instead ran into the room without another moment's hesitation.

She crouched down beside Louis Meyer as Xiou-Mei leapt down from her shoulder. The Xingese Princess then used his own blood to draw the necessary alchehestric array on the wooden floor, much like she had done three years ago for the very woman who had just shot and nearly killed this young man. Al was beside her then and helped shift Louis to position his knee, the most grievous of his two gunshot wounds, over the array. Familiar blue sparks flew as the foreign alchemy activated, and the wound slowly began to close.

When she was done, the restoration was not perfect. He would probably never walk unassisted again. But, at least the bleeding had stopped, and his life was no longer in mortal danger.

As the duo repeated the process with Louis's shoulder, Jean, at last turning his attention from the door Riza had gone out of, entered the room with Al and Mei. He removed a knife from his boot and flicked it open with a click. Kneeling down, he then took up the task of fishing the bloody bullet out of the floor, and the only sounds that followed were the carving of wood and the second activation of the Alchehestric array.

Both tasks were completed with relative swiftness, and Jean stood, dropping the retrieved bullet into the pocket of his casual pants.

"Al," the man looked up from examining Louis's injury's at his name, "Can you do something about the blood? . . . Hide it, maybe?"

He wasn't actually sure how one would go about doing that, but, with a grave expression that made him look much older than his seventeen years, Alphonse nodded.

Damn, Jean needed a smoke, but DNA evidence was just the thing they were trying to avoid.

With a simple clap, Al placed his hands on the floor. Like magic, the deep red and decently large puddle of drying blood seemed to sink into the floor, growing in the process. In addition, the hole that Jean had butchered to get at the bullet was repaired in the flash of an eye. In a matter of seconds, the cover-up was nearly flawless, only the tearing apart of the floor likely to tell anyone of the violence that had taken part in it only moments before.

Jean let out a low whistle of amazement despite his foul mood.

"I just moved it to center of the boards and spread it out to make it harder to notice." Al supplied as he stood. "If anyone tests the cross-section of any of them for blood, though, they'd certainly find it."

"Alright. Then let's get him downstairs before people come to investigate the gunshots." Jean replied, and he and Al then took one of the man's arm each and hoisted him up. As dead weight for his currently unconscious state of being, Louis was much heavier, but they managed with relative ease to move him from the room, the toes of his boots dragging across the floor rather noisily in the silence.

Mei opened the door to the alley for Al and Jean, their hands currently occupied by carrying 160 pounds of dead weight which they'd already brought down three flights of stairs.

All of them took notice of the woman who stood a few yards away near the mouth of the alley. Though faced away from them, she was clearly still distressed, as evident by the low tilt of her head and the shaking of her body as she leaned against the wall and held her arms around her midriff in a display of defensive posturing.

Al and Jean eased Louis down against the wall of the building they'd just come out of, but the Lieutenant placed a hand on the young alchemist's shoulder when he then made to go check on Riza. Confused, he turned back to the older man, only to meet the still grim expression he wore.

"Can you go find the other bullet?" The stern look from the normally easy-going man was enough to shove Al's concern to the side. Feeling very much like a small child, he could only nod before hurrying off to do so, Mei following behind him after receiving the unsaid message that Jean wished to speak with their leader privately. The due—or trio, given the cat was on the girl's shoulder again—passed the sharpshooter on the way, again casting concerned glances her way but said nothing and didn't slow down. They stopped at the end of the alley, probably making sure the coast was clear, before they rounded the corner to retrieve said bullet from the wall three floors up.

Jean rounded on the woman the instant they were out of sight.

"That was completely out of line!" he hissed as he moved to stand in front of Hawkeye. "And with them present?" A finger was thrust in the direction the two teens had disappeared, and the woman's head lowered further.

". . . I know. I'm sorry." the words were spoken softly and trembled to accompany the continued trembling of her body, no doubt caused by her continued attempts to reign in her rage. When, under the continued scrutiny of Jean's austere ad demanding gaze, she said no more, the man gave an aggravated grunt before moving back over to Louis Meyer's prone form.

Taking out his pocket knife again, he then proceeded to remove the bottom half of the young man's leggings to further hide the evidence of the recent gunshot wound—a wound that more looked like it had been caused a number of weeks ago rather than a few minutes. Fishing an almost empty bottle of some kind of alcohol from a nearby trash can—how fortunate it was that the building next door was a restaurant—Jean poured what remained onto one of the legging bottoms and used it to wipe away the rest of the blood from Louis's leg. Grudgingly, he then removed his jacket and worked the boy's limp arms through the sleeves to conceal the blood from the gunshot wound to his shoulder.

It was a shame. He'd been quite fond of that jacket. It may have been a gift from an ex, but it was a nice jacket. The compulsive smoker made sure to retrieve his lighter and the half used pack of cigarets from the front pocket, though.

Al and Mei paused as they reached the end of the alley, backs pressed against the wall to remain as unseen as possible. Cautiously, Al, who was in the lead, leaned over to peak around the corner, scanning the area to see if it was clear of any observers. In the street at the end of the alleyway, he could see a number of people running past, gathering at the front of the building no doubt.

People had come running at the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Of course, never mind the fact that they should run away from the gunfire, but humans were curious, sometimes to a fault and especially when it came to situations that contained the possibility of danger. Why else would they gather outside of a bank in the middle of a robbery or remain in the aftermath of a bombing when there could easily be another bomb in the area.

Or why they would run towards the sound of gunfire.

The way was soon clear, though, and Al crept around the corner with Mei on his heels and made his way silently over to where he knew he would find the bullet they sought. A quick glance up proved his spatial calculations had been correct, the small bullet hole residing nearly twenty feet up. For a normal person, such a height would have made the task of retrieving the bullet impossible without a freakishly tall ladder or a climbing harness that would allow them to propel down the side of the building.

Fortunately, Alphonse Elric was anything but normal.

When he was sure no passersby were in a position to be drawn by the activation of alchemy, Al clapped his hands and placed them on the ground beneath him, and a pillar of stone then arose from the ground to lift him up the necessary distance. Fortunately, the bullet had been stopped by the brick wall, and even more fortunate that the only windows on said wall did not allow for a view of what had happened inside the room currently behind him—or rather a view of who had been in the room behind him.

With another clap—he didn't know how he'd ever gotten by with such easily performed alchemy before—Al then placed his hand on the wall. The alchemical sparks from this transmutation were much smaller than the two he'd previously performed and served to both remove the bullet from the wall as well as fill the hole that had been made in its wake. The piece of metal was twisted and compressed to a point where it almost didn't look like a bullet anymore, but the blood on it proved it was what he was after. Al then turned his attention to Mei on the ground bellow his pillar.

"Catch." he whispered loud enough for her to hear him across the near twenty foot distance before dropping the bullet down to her. As a martial artists, the task was simple enough for her to complete. Al then rejoined her on ground level by returning the pillar of cement to its original form as a pathway, and the two crept back down the alley with the retrieved bullet in Mei's possession.

Rounding the corner revealed that Riza had not moved, and Havoc was standing from where he'd previously been kneeling in front of Louis Meyer, stuffing something into one of his pants pockets. Louis was now wearing the man's jacket, as well, so he'd probably retrieved something of his from said jacket.

When Havoc saw the two teens, he gave them his full attention and hurried over to them, and Mei extended her hand to him. Holding out his own, the Lieutenant accepted the bullet she then dropped into his palm with a small nod of thanks as Al approached Riza.

"So. . ." the young alchemist began somewhat cautiously, noting how the trembling of her limbs seemed to halt shortly after he spoke. Her eyes opened slowly but remained facing downward. "Dublith?"

That was where Louis said the kidnappers had mentioned, so any clues they could probably hope to find at this point were most likely in that city. Hopefully, they would be able to find something.

After a pause of indeterminate length, Riza lifted her head, some emotion passing briefly through her eyes when she met Al's What that emotion was, he couldn't tell, as it had passed to quickly, but he could have sworn he saw her shoulders relax a little when he didn't turn his gaze away.

"Yes." she affirmed with a small nod. Then she pushed herself from the wall, turned, and began making her way down the alley to reach a street that wasn't currently overrun with curious and concerned civilians.

As she was passing by Louis, however, Riza stopped, the subtle flinch he gave at the sound of her pausing footsteps a testament to the fact that he was now only feigning his state of unconsciousness. How long he had been, none of them knew for sure.

Havoc made to move forward- he would not make the mistake again pf assuming she could control herself around this young man—but Mei's hand on his arm stopped him. Surprised, the much larger man cast a bewildered and troubled glance back at the Xingese Princess at her intervention, only to see her give a small shake of her head, telling him things were alright.

She could probably sense Riza's intentions, Al assumed. New to the trade, he could only pic up those emotions that were strong enough. Well, that was how he understood it, anyway. Mei actually mentioned something more along the lines of the chi a person gave off emitting some kind of energy that was interpreted by the body's instincts as being some kind of intention, good or bad, but Al still had a little trouble grasping the concept. Might as well have been a watered down form of empathy, in his opinion.

Despite her assurances, the anxious group turned their attentions back to Riza to see she wasn't looking at Louis, instead careful to keep her eyes forward as though afraid she might lose control of herself again if she did so much as take in the sight of him.

"If I were you, I would leave town before anyone else from the military finds you."

Louis didn't respond to her words in any way, nor did he open his eyes, but the second flinch he gave at the sound of the woman's voice was enough to express the fact that he had heard her.

If the circumstances were different, Riza would have taken him into custody herself, even after what she had done to him. She would have taken the punishment the military saw fit to give, likely some form of lengthy suspension without pay and a demotion. But, there were others present, others who had already conspired to cover up what had happened before she'd known what they were doing.

And time was short if they wished to follow the trail of those who had taken Roy. They had almost a week head start as it was.

So, Riza would let him go.

She would let Louis Meyer take whatever remained of his money and flee the city to find a life somewhere in some remote town where he could change his name and hide his status as a fugitive. The thought of him looking over his shoulder for the rest of his days was certainly enough to give her some level of peace. And thus, she would turn her eyes away from his betrayal so she could at last begin looking for the man who had been taken from her.

She would let go of her hatred if it meant she could find Roy.

"So, you managed to track down this fugitive, Louis Meyer. You even succeeded in pulling some information out of him, but he got away in the end. Whereabouts currently unknown?"

"Yes. I found him in an abandoned apartment complex near his own that was set for demolition. I cornered him and managed to extract information from him that the abductors had mentioned the town of Dublith after paying him to take a convenient break on the night the General disappeared. He caught me by surprise, though, and made a run for it. I got off a shot as he was fleeing, but it only grazed him. He escaped, and I lost him while in pursuit."

"I see. And the anonymous call that was called in at 1:48 PM, stating that a man matching the fugitive's description was last seen fleeing the area after the gunshots, was it called in by you?"

"Yes, it was."

"Why didn't you inform the military directly of what you had found?"

"Time was short, and filling out the official incident report would have taken even longer. I had a lead, but it was time-sensitive, so I followed it."

A.N.: Roy wasn't in the original version of the opening scene, but, as he is currently indisposed, I plan on adding him in anywhere I can.