"Yes, I had the same feeling," Ruby murmured. "He's brilliant, undoubtedly, likely a natural talent. But something about him seems... different. Not necessarily bad. I'm not sure." She shrugged.

"I can't help but feel I've encountered him before," Garnet insisted. "I just have no idea where."

Back in the archive, Al quickly packed up his notes and headed out. He planned on taking Ling up on his invitation from earlier.

"We'll figure it out," Ruby said with a brief grin.

Ling didn't mind, and had in fact already had rooms prepared for Al's arrival.

Garnet just nodded a bit.

Al was actually a bit surprised at the rooms that were prepared.

"You didn't have to go to all this trouble," he said when he saw them.

"No trouble," Ling assured him. "Not for you." He grinned. "I'm just glad to know you both managed alright."

"We managed fine," Al said. "And thanks again for letting me into the archives, it's been really helpful so far."

Ling nodded. "Of course. I'm interested to see how much you can do with alkahestry."

"So am I," Al said. "I was thinking about asking Mei to help us, if that's alright." He paused. "Oh, right, there were a couple other people in the archive today, they were studying alkahestry as well. We compared notes for a while."

Ling blinked. "Other people?" he asked, temporarily setting aside the issue of Mei. Because he didn't know how many people had access to the archives but it wasn't a large number.

Al nodded as he sat down.

"Yeah," he said. "A pair of girls from Amestris."

Ling considered that for a few moments. He'd seen a pair of girls from Amestris heading towards the lab, but one of them had definitely been a homunculus.

And abruptly he was Greed. "Describe them for me."

Al blinked at the sudden change. It had been a while since he'd seen Greed, but he could still tell the difference between the homunculus and the prince.

"One was light, with pale eyes and brownish hair," he said. "The other was really pale with black hair. Why?"

So they matched the girls he'd seen. But what were they doing at the archives? Homunculi couldn't do alchemy, or alkahestry.

Greed was quiet for a moment. "I ran into them earlier," he said, frowning.

"Really?" Al asked. "Then why the surprise when I mentioned them, if you knew they were there?"

"Because there's no reason for one of them to be there," Greed said. "Homunculi can't perform alchemy or alkahestry."

"So what would an unfamiliar one be doing here, then?" Al mused, following Greed's train of thought.

"Exactly," Greed said. "And where did this one come from?" He shrugged.

Al hummed in agreement as he pondered. Then he paused and looked at Greed.

"How could you tell she's a homunculus?" he asked, curious.

"We can always tell when we meet another of our kind," Greed said with a shrug. "There's something about all of us that we can't change that announces us as homunculi. Besides, she had the typical eyes."

"Fascinating," Al murmured, fingers already itching to take notes. What he wouldn't give to properly study the homunculi as a whole...

Greed snorted. "If you see her again and find a way to bring up the subject without getting killed, you can take all the notes you want," he said, shaking his head.

Al couldn't help but blush a bit at that.

"Sorry. Was I that obvious?" he asked.

"Only a little," Greed said with a grin. "Besides, you've got a mind just like Ed's. You want to know everything."

"You have to admit, we were a little preoccupied last time the opportunity came up," Al pointed out with a bit of a grin.

Greed chuckled at that. "You could say that," he agreed. "Just don't expect to turn me into a lab rat."