The year following the incident had been a rocky one. Drachma had grown uncharacteristically quiet at the border, allowing Mustang to focus his efforts on Ishvar and leave Drachma to Briggs. Taking his mind off Drachma was sorely needed, given the tragedy.

Not long into the second year, Roy found himself dragged back into dealings with Drachma. It began with a phone call as Roy sat at his desk, lost in memory as he stared at his paperwork.
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Shaken from his thoughts, Roy answered the phone with with a lazy "Colonel Mustang."

"Have you lost all ambition, Colonel? Do you care none for the one you lost?"

Roy recognized the Drachman language immediately, able to decipher it after after a long pause. Thank god Ed had been teaching him. Ed...

"Who is this?" Roy asked angrily, before repeating himself in Drachman.

"He was right," spoke the male voice, lower and faster this time, leaving Roy momentarily unable to understand. "The man isn't fluent." The phone clicked and went dead as Roy tried to ask again who it was. In anger, he slammed the phone down, nearly breaking it.

"Drachma," he hissed. "First they murder Edward and then they taunt me with it!" His voice was livid, but low enough that only Hawkeye could hear. "Riza, please ask the men to resume their watch over Drachman communications."

Hawkeye responded with only a nod, understanding his motives. As she spoke with Mustang's team, the worry kept nagging at the back of her mind. She only hoped this new threat didn't cause him more pain.

The first few months following the phone call was relatively quiet, with radio silence from Drachma concerning Amestris. This gave Mustang's team just enough time to integrate themselves with current Drachman affairs.

While the team had been involved with Drachma for some time before Ed's death, they had almost completely pulled out-which was understood due to the circumstances. So naturally, after two years of grieving time, the higher officials didn't question Roy's motives for returning to the Drachman detail.

The team had several assignments to tackle before they could investigate the source of the mysterious phone call. After several false alarm spy missions and a few falsified claims, they could finally turn their attention from the Drachman presence in Amestris to the border itself, and possibly plant spies inside the country.

That was when the trouble began.

For every move Mustang made, it seemed anticipated and was countered immediately. Undercover men slipped into Drachma were intercepted, interrogated, and sent back to Fort Briggs with a warning-usually in the form of mild injuries, sometimes with a taunting message.

The more frequent Mustang's attempt at infiltrating and interrupting Drachma's militaritan operations, the worse it grew for him on the home front. The Drachman presence was growing more obvious inside Amestris, aggravating Roy and causing him to struggle to maintain peace on both sides. This went on for two years before Roy even heard a name to go along with this annoying new Drachman stratagem: Colonel Auren.

Despite Roy's best-picked men for undercover work, he learned nothing of Auren except he was a calculating, intelligent man rising fast in the Drachman ranks. He often wondered if Auren was the one responsible for Edward's death, and knew that his team reflected his own thoughts: he needed to be careful not to develop a personal vendetta against Auren.

While General Armstrong managed most of the immediate Briggs threats, Mustang focused on the other locations in the north and west where Amestris bordered on Drachma. After the Drachmans had constantly targeted and disabled all military outposts near the border, Mustang requested to be re-stationed in Xolemir-a snowy town just east of the west area and just south of Drachma-to remain closer to the front line.

He didn't realize how bad the petty cat and mouse games were until two years later...until he found a spy operating right under him.
Though the man had been careful to leave no hints of his motives, Roy Mustang had not survived training, war and years steadily climbing the ranks without learning to trust his instincts. So, after following the man after work one night, using all his tricks for stealth; Roy caught him-Bernie, was his nick at HQ-calling from a payphone, speaking in perfect Drachman.

"No, he doesn't suspect a thing. Really! And you said he was intelligent. Well, yes, you chose me for this position for that reason, yes?" A pause, then a laugh. "I do miss home. Drachma has better beer! Yes, rub it in my face, General." Another pause. "Yes sir. I will contact you as soon as I learn more." Bernie hung up, but froze in his tracks when he turned to face Roy Mustang, his superior. "Sir!"

"You do realize, given my line of work, that I have studied and am now fluent in the Drachman language."

"I know, you're my-"

"No bull," Roy said in a harsh voice, shutting Bernie up. "You're under arrest for suspicion of working for the enemy." Roy glared at Bernie, hand held up in a ready-to-snap position. "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Bernie took a deep breath before straightening himself, pride in his posture as he spoke in a Drachman accent. "My name is Bernard Ustor and I proudly serve the benevolent General Auren in his mission for peace."

"Peace?" Roy pointed to his base in Xolemir, ordering Bernard to walk. "He attacks military outposts on foreign soil and injures innocent men, yet you call this peace?"

"Injures, never murders," Bernard clarified, giving Roy a grin as they made their way back to the building.

"Tell me more of Auren."

"You know all you need," Bernard replied casually. "The General can out-think you in any situation; out-strategize your every move."

"Sooner or later, I will find him."

"For vengeance? Because he makes you look a fool?" Bernard laughed. "Or because you lose your friend many years ago-" Bernard clamped his mouth shut as his face hit the ground, Roy having tripped him and pulled his wrists behind his back.

"Mention Fullmetal one more time and your sentencing may come before you even see the jury."

Bernard grew silent as he was forced to his feet, not making a sound as Roy pushed him toward the building. He obediently entered, ignoring the stares from his supposed coworkers as Roy shoved him into a chair in his office, cuffing him securely to the chair. A cell would be too...impersonal.

"You spoke with Auren tonight."

"Yes."

"I want to speak with him."

Laugh

"The General does not wish to speak to you. He know your number, name, everything."

"Why? Is he afraid I'll track him down and end his fun?"

"He know your reaction. You won't listen to what he says in truth, you will think it all a lie. You Amestrians, you cannot have peace! You claim desire for peace but prepare for war, always look for war. We end your war with us before it begin, General Auren works for peace! My allegiance to Auren!" Bernard finished in Drachman, earning an expression of disgust from Mustang.

"I'm sure you're being truthful," Roy said snidely. "Perhaps a few days in the cell downstairs is in order for my subordinate spy." Roy released Bernard just long enough to yank him to his feet, Hawkeye already by Roy's side to assist him, having heard the entire conversation.

"See? You call my words lies. You will see. Think of peace. Thank my General when peace come to your country. Maybe one day," Bernard said with a derisive laugh, "Drachma will ally with you!"

"Quiet. Get in." Roy slammed the metal bars shut, watching Bernard as he sat on the bench with a relaxed expression on his face. "Perhaps General Auren will contact me when his spy fails to contact him."

"No. I know the risk of this mission. He will leave me to your judgement."

"He would abandon you and leave you in the enemy's hands?"

"It is best for Drachma today."

Roy watched Bernard carefully, receiving only a calm smile from the other man, as though they were friends and not enemies from different sides. He turned and left with Hawkeye, closing the door to his office when she joined him. He collapsed into his desk chair, sighing as the room began to darken with the setting sun. "So, General Auren has his followers believing in peace."

"It's a noble notion," Riza replied, watching the setting sun whilst Roy focused on Bernard. "At the risk of sounding naive… it would be nice if it were true."

Roy chuckled, a smile forming on his face. "Yeah. Can you imagine? For the first time in over a century. Peace with Drachma."

"If anyone can foster it, sir, it's you."