Bluebird's Resolutions: Pride Unleashed (ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE)

by HatersGonnaHateStarscream

AU Sequel to the game 'Bluebird's Illusion'. Takes place during a crucial moment in Amestrian history, when the disappearance of the Fuhrer King Bradley, General Roy Mustang, Colonel Edward Elric, and his brother Alphonse Elric results in problems. Then a homunculus with a familiar face, going by the name of Pride, starts causing havoc shortly afterwards. MATURE THEMES. NO YAOI.

1. Waking The Fallen

AUTHOR'S NOTE (You can read more on my profile page about more information and why I am attempting this particular FMA story in the first place).

Hello readers. This story is just ONE of many unofficial sequels to Bluebird's Illusions out there, but with my own drastic spin. My Pride will start off somewhat to how we see him at the end of the game, but sooner rather than much later he will change drastically. The fic will have flashbacks and references to the game itself, and even same or similar quotes. BUT, since this is my own sequel spin to it, details will be changed to fit the model of the overall story. Think of it as a hybrid of the first anime series, the manga and the game, but adding and keeping in things I like and taking out things which I don't like. I intend to make the overall mood and most past plot points based around the first anime, with a few manga twists put into it. Almost, if all, chapters will be based around a specific song of a few specific bands I admire, but it certainly won't turn out to be strictly a songfic. And some of the lyrics WILL change to better reference what is mentioned within the chapter, but other than that they'll pretty much stay the same.

This story IS overall centered around Pride, HOWEVER, lots of other related events and characters will be involved and focused on when necessary. If you DON'T want to a demented, crazy, warped, homicidal form of Edward, with blood, gore, nudity, cursing, sexual and other mature themes…TURN BACK, because this WON'T be the fanfic for you to read, regardless of whether or not you like the concept of Pride!Ed or BBI.

Also, one final note, each chapter will be LONG and chock full of connected plot points and very descriptive language, which may or may not reference what will happen in future chapters. So for whatever 'small' or seemingly 'insignificant' things that might happen, I'd advise readers to NOT put aside, because they MAY be relevant later other words, it will be a full-on story, complex and character driven like how we have seen in the animes. So if I take along while before I release the next chapter, don't complain. Also, whatever new or combined concepts you see within this story belong to me, even though the songs used, most of the characters (which includes their homunculus selves as well), and the official anime backstory is not. DO NOT STEAL THEM. I've seen and heard enough theft within the fandom occurring as it is and you WILL get on my nerves.

Anyways…please enjoy the story, everyone. Now, ONWARD.

CHAPTER 1: Waking the Fallen

'In order to gain something, one must give something of the same value'

'This is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange'

'At that time, we still believed that to be the world's one and only truth'

'…But it turns out we were wrong…'

Envy rushes towards the direction of Father's chamber. He's just witnessed the destruction of a section of the lair, along with the person responsible for it, the now fallen Fullmetal Alchemist.

"SLOTH! Where are you...?" Sloth appeared moments later. She left from her position in the sewers a while ago, once she heard all the commotion that was happening nearby. Once she left the sewers and heard no more commotion taking place, she automatically concluded that she may have appeared too late. She really didn't care much, though, and she was content staying in the sewers as much as possible.

"I'm right here, Envy. I can't find Lust or Gluttony anywhere, maybe they're taking time trying to regenerate properly. It seems their encounters with that general alchemist and the younger Elric brother didn't end as well as we would've imagined." Sloth paused, noticing how jumpy Envy was underneath his agitation. "I was told by Father to stay out of fighting them, so I didn't intervene at all even when I saw them entering our lair. And as you already know, because of who I look like, if I showed myself to the boys it could've put a dent to Father's plans early on."

"Yes yes, I know. We all played our parts quite well today, despite what happened to our three puppet alchemists." Envy said the last few words with disdain. "It really shouldn't bother Father much, the Fullmetal pipsqueak, his eavesdropping brother and meddling general deserved what they got." Envy said nonchalantly with his hands at his hips, looking bored.

"You mean you actually prevented all three of them from escaping? Does Father know anything about this yet?" Sloth was somewhat intrigued by what Envy said.

"I took out his brother and general myself, and now the older Elric is dead as well. The short idiot practically died by his own hands, I didn't know he had the guts to destroy the lair and himself at the same time." Envy laughed for a few seconds, before continuing. "I'll be going straight to Father now to let him know what happened. Do me a favor, get rid of that military general but leave the Elric brothers down here for now. They're all in the same part of the lair that is now all rubble. The pipsqueak caused all that damage himself soon after I killed both his precious brother and general right in front of his eyes. Now, all three of the fools are dead, HA. Too bad Bradley was killed by the small fry right before that area went down."

"Really, is that so? Well that's quite a large dent in our plans, don't you think? Who will we make Fuhrer now? And we were planning to use the boy in the future to help fulfill Father's main goal. Now what do we do with him gone?" Sloth didn't really care much for any plans at all, but tried sounding serious.

"The fucking runt asked for it! He just couldn't sit tight and obey the commands we gave him like a good military slave, so he paid the price for his defiance. So what if his brother's body was malfunctioning. We made it perfectly clear to him that he sold his life to us, and we needed him for a greater purpose. If he wasn't so thick-headed he would've had enough sense not to provoke me or any one of us from attacking him and his precious 'loved ones'. Even if he didn't end up killing himself, I would've ended up killing him myself eventually. I hate the little bastard with every fiber of my being!" Envy clenched his fists, grinding his teeth together before continuing. "His brother and general got in my way from taking his pathetic life. In a strange way, he could consider himself quite lucky being the last of them to survive, but I'll bet he'd beg to differ." Envy snickered before continuing. "The stubborn fool took his own life after I killed them, as a way to escape his fate! Such broken, hopeless weaklings humans can be when traumatized, despite how sickening and cruel they really are underneath. Just one trigger, and their impulsive nature to spite others they loather comes out. And yet, they call US the monsters, whenever they ever find out what we really are."

Sloth listened to him attentively with a hand on her hip. "My my, such exciting events that have transpired today. I wish I were involved or at least seen their deaths first hand. I also despise the two brats who created me, and would want nothing to do with them." Sloth's smile was momentarily replaced with a straight, serious line before she continued, "Back to important matters, Envy. Where exactly do you want me to discard the Flame Alchemist's body?"

"Anywhere up above, preferably in a dark alley and far away from any entrances to the lair. Make him neither easy nor hard to find. When the other military lackeys come looking for him, they should be able to find him after a good amount of searching the premises. He actually got the least severe injury, I slashed him pretty deep on his lower stomach. But you can be sure that the fool's dead. The other military idiots won't figure out a damn thing about how he ended up like this."

"Should I leave a few hints and clues of his location scattered nearby, where it's more visible?"

"Do what you like, in that case, I don't really care anymore. Just make sure someone is able to find him, and also make sure no one sees you at all or else they might recognize you. You have your past identity Juliet Douglas to keep secret, after all. When the other dogs find his bloody corpse, they'll think twice before going out to look for his killer immediately. You and I know well that they will first want leads, making up their own conclusions about why and who killed him." Envy paused, then continued with more ferocity in his tone. "I want his death to be an ominous message, to strike fear into them and confuse their simple minds, and to prevent anyone else from becoming as bold and curious as these three idiots, or else death will follow them. We'll make sure they never find out what we are and what we have planned."

"Well, well, Envy, you really do know how to make such magnificent speeches when you're mad at humanity. Too bad the Fuhrer is gone, it seems we have one problem after another occurring lately. But we will find ways to continue exerting our control over this country, like we've done for many years. We have both Father and her leading us, after all." She added as an afterthought, "I may be one of the youngest homunculus for now, but I've come to realize some things. We should be satisfied that we still exist, but not as mortal humans." She turns around and leaves without another word.

"Hmph." He let her last, philosophical comment slide, remembering his current task. Envy runs to Father's room in a rush. When he enters Father's chamber, the man in white robes notices the mild excitement on Envy's face. Father is not one to enjoy pointless chit-chat, so he immediately proceeds to discuss about the circumstances that have just transpired. His intuition made him sense that something severe happened concerning the Elrics.

"The alchemic reaction I sensed... Is it Edward's?"

"That right, Father. The pipsqueak's gone crazy! His alchemy triggered off an explosion with the remains of the Philosopher's Stone...that part of the lair is already destroyed. There's no need to go there and check for him, since nothing remains standing and he's dead now. As well as his brother, who's also buried under tons of rubble."

"It would be better that we make sure. I will inspect the area later to see the magnitude of the destruction he has caused. Even though it's an alchemic reaction with the Philosopher's Stone, that explosion is beyond what any ordinary human is capable of. He is indeed one of my flesh and blood sons. His life should not end now, and I know how to bring him back. But first, I have one more inquiry of curiosity in mind. Wasn't there another military alchemist who came down here with my younger son?" Envy held back the small cringe his body was about to make, before he answered him.

"Yes, I took him out. I told Sloth to place the dead body of that meddling general somewhere random on the outside alleys above us. The rest of the military's goons will be looking for him, and I didn't want any of the lackeys to come sniffing around Bradley's office for too long. They'll surely find his body sooner or later. Not that it will do them good trying to find out what happened to their precious Fuhrer, either. He's also dead, defeated by none other than your pipsqueak son. Now that Bradley's gone, the military will be crawling all over the place to find out where he is."

Father sat there listening with an aloof gaze and a hand under his chin. "I see we have so much to do..." He looked directly at him seconds later. "Envy?"

Envy stiffened up, before he responded. "Yes?"

"Bring his body here." As an afterthought, he added, "We will worry about the rest later."

"But, Father...he's just a weakling human. When I left he was already dead! He couldn't withstand the destructive after effects of his huge alchemic reaction. Besides, that place is ruined, so how will I be able to go through all that rubble just to find his puny body amongst megaton blocks of structure?"

"It doesn't matter to me what you do to find him, just as long as you bring him to me. I will give him a new life, a perfect, immortal life as a homunculus, with the perfect name for him."

"..." Envy did not like the feeling he felt on what he might hear next.

"He will continue to help us greatly in achieving our goals. He will be a powerful addition to our family, Dante and I will guide him accordingly."

"But-" He was shut up abruptly.

"Do you have any objections, Envy? Say them and risk inciting my anger, or leave and carry out the task I've ordered, without any questions. I don't have to tell you which one is the wiser choice, you're intelligent enough to figure that out."

Envy's mouth turned into a grimace and his eyes turned fearful. "No...Father. There are no objections from me... I'll go now and get him..."

"From now on, he will be your homunculus brother... I shall call him Pride. The amount of power and hubris he's expressed earns him that grand name. Previously, there was no other homunculus suitable enough to truly take this sin as a name...but now, we've found the perfect candidate. Now go and fetch him for me, and he better be in one piece."

"Y-yes! I'll leave right now..."As Envy was about to turn to leave, Father continued.

"Wait a moment Envy, I forgot something else. There's another additional request I would like to make. I would also want my other son's body brought to me. I have something in mind for him as well."

"Yes Father, I will bring them both at the same time..."

"Try to be quick about it. I'm not sure how long his soul will remain at the Gate. His soul and dying body will soon be separated from each other. There are reasons for why I want his soul present."

Envy leaves Father's chamber, silently wishing Dante were also here. Unfortunately for him, she had 'other matters' to attend to outside of Central. 'Yea right, self-indulgent tendencies is more like it...' When he is completely out of his sight, he seethes. He did not like being out of the loop of specific details in their overall plans, he was always in the loop when it was only him and Dante. Before his dear 'father' came back into their 'family' picture, Dante was able to tell him everything. But even now with his old man back, he feels like his position has been downgraded to the one he had during his more ancient days. He knows that the being who calls himself 'Father' is changed and not exactly 'Hohenheim' anymore, but Envy still sees the situation as similar to how it was back when he was a human. His 'parents' were always hiding something from him. They saw him as only something to be used for their own happiness, and as a complete failure for the remainder of the time. 'Because I didn't have the natural talent for alchemy that they did, and then that short piece of shit came along centuries later and outranked me as his best son.' Envy thought with pure hatred. Due to the failed reassurances he's gotten from his father, and barely any attention from his sociopathic mother, he never had any affection for them or anyone else during his long, miserable afterlife. In fact, he outright tried to seek out his father, his creator, in order to kill him. During almost his whole entire homunculus life his main motivation was to destroy the bastard and ruin the lives of everyone else connected to Hohenheim.

And then, while he was still human, an early death caught up to him. He was accidentally killed from mercury poisoning, and his old man brought him back from the dead in the homunculus form he is today. After becoming a homunculus the bastard left them as soon as things got worse. And Envy, who was known as William Hohenheim while he was still human, had no one else to look up to or be in company with except for his mother, who he had quickly developed better mutual relations with. To make himself feel less miserable than he actually was, he let her manipulate him into thinking life would be better this way if he only gave it more time to get used to. And truth to be told, he now would certainly agree, especially since his earlier days were the darkest times for him. She stoked his fire of hate as time went on, and in return he helped her in her quest fulfill her selfish goals. Even when he was still human, his bastard of a father was in his own little world to even really care much about him, disillusioned with his spousal problems and moaning about how he ended up with such a mentally unstable woman. He wished his fantasies of wanting 'the perfect family' to come true, which have shattered completely ever since William's human transmutation failed.

How ignorant and naive Hohenheim was back then, thinking he would actually be successful bringing back his dead son. There was a reason human transmutation went against natural laws, and arrogant alchemists like him have their heads so far up their ass to admit to it. He left them soon after William was turned into the 'monster', as he called him, that had replaced his son. He covered up his tracks very well, so well that even Dante had a really difficult time even knowing if he was still in Amestris or not. She suspected him of hiding somewhere in Aerugo or in the desert ruins of the civilization centuries gone, the place which he said he came from before it was destroyed. She got worse and worse, becoming more insane from her anger and her inability of finding him, and of not finding any ways to fulfill her goal to become an immortal human. So much so that she lashed out at Envy during his earlier homunculus days, when he was still fresh and vulnerable from the Gate. He didn't have much spite back then as he should have had towards her, but his pure hatred for his poor excuse of a dad engulfed whatever anger he felt towards her. He left them, which was something completely unforgivable. At least she was still there, still gave him attention. He was their public enemy number one, so they teamed up against him, finding similar solace in their absolute hatred of him and his decision to leave them. Both of them wished deep down that he'd got his just desserts. And he somewhat did…

Envy was snapped out of his reverie about his past. He went back to thinking about his blonde half-brother. "Why would he name him Pride? That's completely idiotic... The shorty would never want to become like that... As if he ever had a choice to decide, as if I even have a choice to not bring him to Father." 'He probably won't remember anything, our old man would suppress his memories. If he actually does turn him into one of us, it might take a while before parts of his past comes back to him in little pieces. Just like it was for me…'

Envy stops in mid stride, then slowly puts his foot down. He has a thoughtful look on his face, which quickly turns into a scowl. He then continues walking forward with a more determined, fierce pace.

'No, I will make sure he doesn't get his memories back. If Father commands me to take him under my wing, I'll completely mess him up and turn him into everything that golden child bastard was not. A cold-blooded killer the likes of which pathetic humans have never experienced before! Let's see how much they'll love their precious alchemist prodigy then.' He chuckles darkly to himself as he proceeds towards the rubble-filled area, thinking such thoughts along the way.

He stops at the front of the rubble, looking around for any signs of colors that stood out from all the white, gray and black. He grumbles, all the while assuming that they are buried much deeper, and starts digging through it. 'Sloth was able to get that general alchemist's body out of here already? How the hell was she able to find him through all this shit so quick-' He stopped his inner dialogue when he noticed stained blue cloth standing out from the rubble, making him grin. He lifted off all the rubble from that specific area, finally finding Edward's dead and bloodied body, his clothes torn apart in some places more than others. 'Of course I'd find him first, none other than the prodigy and eldest Elric brat.' Envy thought with disdain. He scanned the body for any possible signs of life and, to no surprise, he noticed none and he lifted Ed onto his right shoulder none too gently, like a rag doll. He proceeded scanning the rest of the area for the younger brother.

It took him a while to find Alphonse's body, getting annoyed and impatient very early on during his search. Al was lying on his side, his chest bloodied and wounded from the deep stabbing blow Envy inflicted on him during their last encounter. The wound was still leaking dark crimson blood, but he had no choice other than to carry him out of the room on top of his other shoulder. Shoulder-carrying was the fastest way for him, thanks to his super speed and strength. He will certainly hate carrying Al's corpse with all that blood running down his arm and body, he realized with a definite scowl on his face forming, but a mandatory task is a task. Envy also noticed that both bodies were still warm, Al's body less so, which indicated that their souls were still at the Gate. If Envy had any real free choice in this, he'd let the bodies stay here and wait until the warmth completely left them and their blood stopped flowing, just to make sure they stay truly dead and lose their souls completely to that infernal Gate which was full of metaphysical mysteries. He didn't know as much as he should have about the Gate's secrets, however, but because he was a being spawned from that realm he knew enough. Envy had an idea of what Father had in mind for them, and if his guess was right, if Edward's soul is kept intact in his body well after his homunculus transformation will take place. But Father should've realized that it would make him much harder to control later on, should he not? There's a risk of Pride turning on them, and Envy could not allow that, he needed to discover a way to keep him under their control. Despite what Envy wants, Father's commands come first before Envy's petty, vengeful wishes. Much to his chagrin, Envy had to return to him pronto. Envy hoped that whatever secrets Father had up his sleeve, he would make sure that his past memories would not resurface to cause Father, Dante and the homunculi trouble again. Envy raced to Father, while his thoughts were still running rampant.

It was during instances like this, when Envy was too thoughtful, that he wished things would return to the way they were before the change of leadership over a decade ago. Before Father took the highest position over the homunculi, and even before Hohenheim left his newer family. Around the same year that he did take leadership, Dante told Envy that Hohenheim finally left his precious little family to take up his rightful place alongside her to be the master of the homunculi. The bitch indirectly backstabbed Envy for taking him back in, but Envy soon understood why. Envy would've laughed at the ironic analogy of them being one messed up family, with Hohenheim and Dante as the 'parents' of all homunculi, but the green-haired sin at the time couldn't accept that it was still him. Dante thoroughly explained to Envy why this sudden change happened, but he still didn't like his presence, not caring whether he was trying to make it up to them or not.

Over the years Envy has gotten used to it and learned early on not to go against him, not ever since that first violent encounter they had. He shudders recalling what happened, it was like nothing he ever thought was possible by the likes of someone he previously thought was a spineless coward, and yet Envy stood corrected. From then on he truly knew that his bastard of a human father has 'changed', has become someone more suitable to be around now rather than the abandoning asshole from before, but he's still resentful over the fact that he took over from Dante and she willingly became second in command. And the two-faced bitch was completely fine with it! She literally became deluded over the idea of this reunion being perfect. Every time Envy saw him he couldn't help but try to strangle him, and then had to shrug off these feelings when he remembered how much he was bested by him the first time he lashed out at him. Ever since then, he decided it's best to cast aside most of the memories of his ancient days, for fear of getting himself worked up constantly and having his anger get the best of his reason. Usually not one to get conscious about his anger getting the best of him, he definitely kept his mood in check when he was actually was around Father. He's mostly gotten used to it, but he didn't like it, becoming 'docile' for anyone. It was only years later when he truly got used to being around him. The first days of regime change never ended well for Envy, but he harbored his resentment for his old man well. He always felt like he was walking on eggshells when around him. Whatever change Hohenheim went through, he was very thorough in hiding the details, but Envy was not stupid. He caught many little hints later on, not to mention how obnoxiously loud his 'mother' was about him sometimes. Despite getting used to him, the deep anger he felt for what Hohenheim did will never quell, regardless of how things turned out.

Instead of focusing on Hohenheim, he set his sights on newer, more practical targets, his rival siblings or 'the Elric shits' as he liked to nickname them. The progeny Hohenheim sired out of that dead brunette's cunt. Even Sloth herself despises the offspring her human self had, she wants nothing to do with them now, which is fitting for her name. He does not like it one bit that Father will turn Edward into a homunculus, but at the same time he had his own counter plans in the works, designed to quench his undying hatred for them. To be a slap in the face against everything that they once had, what they previously stood for. He was going to turn him into the very thing his human self would've despise. He especially wanted to make Edward into a psychotic murderer, that shorter blonde fool who was diametrically opposed to Envy in every possible way, Envy's moral polar opposite, yet the best candidate of the two for what Envy had in store. It was a long-lasting process, one that he was sure would turn out in his favor for once. He was not patient whatsoever, and it will be hard for him to maintain such tolerance being around him, but he needed to make this work. If he causes their homunculus 'family' trouble, then Envy will show his nastier side. He hates them both as much as he hated Greed, who is now gone for good, but he'll try to tolerate Ed's homunculus just as much as he tolerated Greed during his earlier years. Back when Greed was still human and Dante thought he made a good replacement father…

His thoughts were abruptly stopped there, partly because he didn't want to remember this miserable part of his past, and because he's finally reached his destination. He opened the doors to Father's throne room, awaiting for the inevitable that was about to happen. He walked up to Father, putting down both brothers on the floor one by one, much more gently than he wanted to. Envy didn't want to upset Father during this crucial moment, these two were his 'precious' alchemist sons, after all.

"Here, I've brought them." Envy tried wiping off the blood from his shoulder that Al's body left on him. Father's expression turned somewhat alarmed at that, noticing the huge gaping wound on his youngest son.

"You made that wound on him?" He sounded mildly upset. Envy became nervous just then. What was he going to say, the truth? It will anger Father even more if he told him the whole back-story of why Edward went berserk at all. How Envy was attempting to murder him in the first place, but then his brother and that military dog got in his way.

Instead of the whole truth, Envy said, "I did Father, but it's because the younger idiot got in the way of me trying to stop his runt brother from escaping. He moved in front of my attack and got—" Father cut Envy short abruptly, making Envy cringe in confusion.

"Envy, there's no need to lie to me. It bothers me that you would resort to such pettiness in my presence, it's really unnecessary. Your half-brothers will be born anew very soon, there's no need to worry. You were right to initiate the final blow upon them, they were disloyal and were causing us trouble. Troublemakers are no use to us unless they are taught a lesson, fatal or otherwise." He stood up next to Envy. "Now Envy, stand aside, I will create a transmutation circle half the size of the room fit to accommodate this transformation." Father raised his hands in the air and, like magic, lines and curves were being carved onto the stone floor feet away from the four of them. It was all done through his invisible alchemy, without the need to actually clap and touch his hands on the ground to make the array, nor requiring the use of array-making tools. He knows many secrets of alchemy from the knowledge he attained from the Gate, so much so that regular alchemy seems like child's play to him. The circle greatly resembled a human transmutation circle, except that the inner space has an extra isosceles triangle facing opposite from the other one, forming a hexagon star inside of the solid hexagon shape. And in the small circle at the very center, overlapping the six intersecting lines, is another design resembling Alphonse's armor suit soul binding circle but much more detailed and full of different symbols all over. When he finished, he reached down and touched the huge gash on Al's chest, forcing it closed with his Philosopher's Stone's inner power. He then faced Envy, ready to make his next request. "I need you to place Edward in the center. Since he's the oldest and greatest of the two, and has displayed such immense power, he will bear the name Pride." Envy picked up Edward and walked to the center, gently putting him down. "Now, move Alphonse to a back corner and stay there with him, he must not come in contact with Edward's transformation."

Envy again did as he was told. He didn't want to admit it, but he was curious to see the birth of another homunculus first hand, even if it's through this unique way. He despised alchemy, never being able to grasp it himself when he was still human and further hating it because the pipsqueak was Hohenheim beloved alchemy prodigy. Despite this, the one thing he found fascinating about alchemy is the way it's used to create his kind, the homunculi, who were greater beings than humans themselves. It was the way he was born. At first he absolutely loathed being brought back from the dead as an undead monster of alchemy by him. The arrogant jackass of a father who thought he could defy the laws of nature and bring him back perfectly the way he was before his human death. But he learned soon enough that his rage is better suited against all of mankind, the vile beings who thought they had power over the Gate's dominion, the very place he actually came from. He thought that he was doing nature a favor by killing lots of humans off. It didn't help the fact that, as a homunculus, he and the others needed them for their plans, but he had to live with this sad fact. He saw himself returning from the dead for this one purpose, to help kill vast numbers of this dreadful species, whether by direct killing them or using their energy from philosopher's stones as food. The less humans the better, in his mind. Yes, he definitely held contempt for humanity, but that's also due to his jealousy of them, hence his name. And the fact that he will never again live without misery, partly because his hatred and jealousy wouldn't allow him, but mostly because he really didn't have a choice. He needed to go along with Father and Dante whether he liked it or not, being skilled alchemists who knew too much they were the only ones able to supply him with stones. His jealousy of the Elric brats only increased his overall jealousy of the whole human species. Much to his displeasure, he will only have to learn patience from now on, if he plans to carry out what he has in mind for the blonde prodigy.

In order to initiate the transmutation that was about to transpire, Father started it with the classic alchemic clap, then placed his hands on the ground on the nearest part of the circle facing him. This transmutation was supposed to be done manually, since it involved an array. What resulted from this was a bright light-blue light signature of most alchemic reactions, creeping over every corner of the room in an almost blinding fashion. Edward's body seemed to animate on its own, moving up in a standing position like a puppet controlled by invisible strings, engulfed in the bright blue light. The ripped military clothes that were previously on his body started disappearing, with him soon after becoming completely nude. His body's true colors were being covered by the blue, leaving only the main outlines of it visible beyond the light. Arms were outstretched at his sides, and his long blonde hair was moving crazily behind him. His mouth was wide open and full of pure white light, appearing as if he is screaming even though no sound is coming out. The same happened with his eyes, which wide and glowing bright white. His automail limbs disappeared, being replaced by what looked like his own flesh appendages. Huge lines of light resembling lightning strikes, with the same pure white hue, hit around the body in various places, making various patterns of white. It was as if the white patterns were done by a metaphysical brush with white paint on his body so intricately right before their very eyes. The first and foremost solid pattern of white energy formed on his left shoulder in the form of the ouroboros symbol, then the rest of his body followed suit with various strange markings appearing all over, both symmetrical and asymmetrical, lines and curves alike.

In a flash, he was gone. To Father and Envy, it looked like he disappeared for a few moments, but Father knew why this occurred. It was part of the process, and Father did not worry one bit because he had complete control of the situation. Edward's body was brought to the Gate, black Gate arms grabbing hold of him and moving his body toward it. Father was causing this, this process was Father's finishing touches upon his body and mind. The apparition of his soul stood directly in front of the open Gate, being held there by the arms. The shocked apparition stood there helpless and silent. The body came closer and closer to it until they touched, with the apparition disappearing as soon as the joining happened. The body also disappeared behind the Gate's doors.

Wake the ones and rise tonight
Fallen souls we shine so bright

Soon after, the blue light changed into a menacing purple tone, like the sort of purple hue seen in the irises of homunculi. He was starting to appear again. His open mouth, full of white light, started screaming, which soon lessened in volume as the purple and white lights started to vanish. When the transmutation stopped, his naked body descended down with a slight thud, leaving him in a position with his legs folded underneath his body, his arms at his side, and his head hanging down. His long hair, now free from its band, was hiding the sides of his face and closed eyes. His mouth closed, now hiding his newly formed razor sharp teeth, and the surrounding noise completely stopped. Father and Envy were now able to see his fully changed form. Disregarding the nudity and paler tone, Envy focused intensely on him and noticed his body was covered with red marks, intrigued by them although he dared not to ask Father what they meant.

Father was the first to break the silence. A Philosopher's stone was suddenly in his hand, brought forth from his own body. He had the stone prepared while Envy was sent out to fetch the bodies. He was walking slowly towards the new homunculus. "Rise my son, and take this stone from my hand." The blonde homunculus winced slightly before his eyes fluttered open. His eyes were pools of murky amber, no pupils in sight. He stood up with a blank expression on his face, his attention immediately on Father.

"...A-alive..." The homunculus said flatly, with no emotion whatsoever. Father, who was now standing in front of him, nodded and held out his hand with the stone towards him. He looked at it curiously.

"Consume the stone, as a homunculus it will give you almost the unlimited energy you need. You are my greatest offspring, and you deserve this, Pride." Pride sniffed at the hand, almost like a dog. Liking what he smells, he grabbed onto Father's arm and moved his mouth towards the hand. This surprised Father and he tried to stop him before his mouth made contact. "Pride...no, not like that..." He pulled off Pride's hands from his arm in a chastising manner. It seems, being a fresh homunculus, he needed Pride to work on his basic etiquette. Father also concluded that, since he was just reborn, he might be oblivious to most of his surroundings as well. He must have not heard Father's command moments earlier. "Open your mouth. No biting." Pride cringed at the tone of the last word. He did as he was told, sticking his tongue out in the process. Father put the stone on his tongue. "Now swallow it." Pride closed his mouth, gulping the stone down. "Good, Pride. Now all we have to do is wait for it to take effect." He pet his head in an approving manner.

Envy was watching the whole thing. If he didn't know any better, he would be dying of laughter right now. Instead, he was smirking wildly. 'Wow, it's like the transmutation took away his brain. This is rich!'

Father seemed to sense Envy's amusement, and turned his attention to him briefly. "You shouldn't be laughing at the expense of his only temporary, unfavorable condition, Envy. Dante told me you were exactly the same way during your first few days." Envy's mouth turned upside down after that. It became a sneer once Father looked away from him again. He already didn't like Father showing too much attention to Pride. Father putting him down like that, in favor of Pride, as he called him, made this experience all the more worse.

Moments later, Pride's left side started twitching, eliciting a moan from his mouth. "...it's...pain-ful..." His right hand clutched his left shoulder, cupping over his ouroboros mark. He winced, with his knees bringing his body downward, and his whole body shaking. His eyes have not shown much expression as of yet, but they were fully wide now. "...make it...st-stop...". He then descended more to the ground, bringing his body into fetal position. His right arm, however, was on Father's wrist, all the while he was still focused on him.

"Don't fight against it Pride, you need this energy. It will be your main energy source which will enable you to stay powerful at all times." Father has to let Pride deal with the after effects. He couldn't interfere or else he risked severing the reactive connection between Pride and the stone. He wanted the stone to reside in him without any drawbacks. This was the first time creating a homunculus in such a way, and he wanted this whole transitioning process to turn out right.

Pride was gripping on tightly, but there was no response or help from Father. "...please..." Seconds later, his eyes closed and he fainted. His hand let go of the wrist he held onto so tightly, and he now lie flat on the floor.

Father spoke to Envy, "He only fainted from the insertion of the stone's immense energy within him. This is a normal blowback reaction to it. Pride will be fine once he wakes up, we'll just have to wait until he recovers from the shock."

Envy wanted to speak again, he felt ignored. "What do we do now then? Just stay here until he's up again?"

"Certainly not, there is still much to do. Bring me Alphonse's body. After that, you will bring Pride to your room and keep him there until he awakens. When he does, alert me and I will come." Father made a huge stone slab out of alchemy in front of his throne.

Envy walked up to Father with Alphonse in his arms, an obvious unsatisfied look settling on his face. Envy was not okay with the answer he got, plus he was surprised at the audacity of it all. Father was ignoring the fact that he wanted Pride to take up his room, his own place of privacy where he can be at peace by himself. And with Pride naked, no less. Sure, it was weird for homunculi to even have rooms, but in a strange ironic sense homunculi needed their own place of peace. Envy was getting ticked off, but he hid any disagreement. "You should put some clothes on him first! He may be one of us now, but it doesn't mean I'm okay with seeing his privates." 'And I'm certainly not okay with him being one of us at all', he wanted to add but knew best not to.

Father actually chuckled at that, noticing Envy's extreme discomfort. "Don't worry Envy, I will give him something to wear once he wakes up. Right now, I have another important task to carry out." Envy walked up to Father with Alphonse in his arms and placed his body on the floor nearby. He then walked towards Pride and picked him up the same way, going straight for the door. As an afterthought, Father made one last request, "Make sure you put Pride on an elevated surface, I better not find him on the floor when I see him again. Your bed will do."

Once Father was out the door Envy looked down at Pride's face with utter contempt, his hands clenched tighter upon the blonde's body, squeezing at his right arm in anger. Pride's closed eyes twitched only slightly at this. 'He better wake up soon, or I'll rip the runt's face to shreds!' was what Envy wanted to say, but kept to himself. Once in his room, Envy just plopped Pride ungracefully onto his poor excuse of a bed at the back of his room, the only place where he could sit which was not a hard surface. He never used it for sleep since homunculi don't actually sleep, they didn't need it. Being passed out, however, is a whole other thing. He made sure to position Pride's body facing away from him. This wasn't only to avoid looking at the nudity, he just couldn't stand the runt being in his space and on his bed. Envy had all the rage in the world aimed at Pride's back, especially at his long blonde hair. He wanted to destroy him right now, but he had to keep this urge in check. And also keeping in mind what his initial plans were to exact his revenge, the right way. If he went all out on him now, he knew Father would make his life a living hell. He needed to think smart from now on, not brash and impatient like he usually is. If he got destroyed now then his whole existence so far would've been meaningless, and most important of all his own reasons for living, being his hate and vengeance, would become completely worthless in the end.

It would also piss off Dante if Father destroyed him, since he was her greatest homunculus lapdog and they have their past connection with each other. Despite this, he's certain the manipulative bitch wouldn't give a shit about him after a while either. Ever since Dante heard of Edward's existence years back, and even more after she took her first glimpse of him, her thoughts about him never left her mind. She had a sort of infatuation for the twerp, because she considered him the 'fair son of Hohenheim'. She will continue to think this way even when he's a homunculus, Envy concluded immediately, because she never changed. She sees many traits in the pipsqueak that she saw in his old bastard centuries ago, when the two were still 'happily married' together. Envy knew deep down that she was nothing but a psychologically messed up hopeless romantic. And she saw Envy as an even more pitiful, pathetic shell of his former self, so their feelings for each other were pretty much mutual. Despite this, they shared similar thoughts about the world and used the best of what they found while working together. Whatever mother-son relationship they once had transformed into a pure acquaintanceship instead. With Father coming into the picture later on, he knew this relationship ended and his rank lowered significantly, but there was no other choice for him. It's either obey or starve, get well fed or become a weakling with no more powers. After all, without any stones in them, homunculi are essentially degraded down to the position of super mortals, retaining a portion of their super abilities which were default to their being in lesser degrees, such as Envy's super strength and speed, but not their supreme powers, the powers completely impossible for humans to have. And Envy certainly did not want to lose his shape-shifting powers. It's the only thing of value to him that he still has, besides his extreme hatred of practically almost every living thing around him, especially humans. Not only that, but he will feel like a pathetic human once again.

Hours have passed and Envy remains standing, leaning on the other side of the wall with his eyes closed and hands crossed over his chest. He refused being anywhere near his bed. He didn't know what Father was doing in his throne room with the younger brat's body, but he's lost all interest by now. Father will most likely tell him later anyways. Right now, he wanted the older brat to wake up. He's waited long enough.

During this quiet time, Envy had nothing else to do other than be engulfed into his own racing thoughts. He normally would go crazy from the sheer boredom of watching over Pride, but after all this thinking it seems as if time flew by faster than he imagined it would. He was planning out everything he intended to teach Pride once they were both sent out on missions, how he intends to mentor him into becoming a vicious killer and turn him into everything else his human self was not. Envy was definitely sure that Father would eventually start ordering Pride to go out on missions with him, with Envy being the best and oldest candidate for showing him the ropes properly. And that's when Envy will put his plans into effect. He was so eager to make this all work out for him that he didn't bother looking for any flaws in his overall thinking. His future plan may very well backfire on him instead of benefitting him in the long run, but of course Envy's mind was stuck only on the present and full of hate and jealously, and thus did not consider any consequences. Regardless of how Pride would turn out, Envy would never truly accept him as a fellow homunculus. He would only see him as a manipulated tool.

In the meantime, Pride's mind was much more active than Envy's, so active in fact that he thought he was awake. He saw many images flashing before his eyes, remembering none of them yet finding some sort of comfort by their strange familiarity. Finding his inner voice, he suddenly thought, 'What...does...this...all...mean...?' The images stopped after what felt like moments later. His mind's eye appeared in a bright place full of light, with a huge gate at opposite end of the area. He was many yards away from it. There was something else in front of the gate, an apparition. The more he looked at it, the more familiar it felt. It was a young boy with short, dirty blonde hair and huge bronze-grey eyes, looking no younger than 10, staring at him. 'Who...are...you? I...know...you!' The boy then reached an arm out to him and started moving his mouth, but Pride heard no words. And then, just like magic, he saw the boy transforming right before his very eyes, into an older, taller version. And like Pride is now, this 16 year old was now nude. The gate behind the teen opened up slowly, revealing one huge eye in the center and small black figures underneath it, drawing forth many thin, long, black arms. The arms wrapped around the teen, pulling him in towards the inside of the gate. Pride didn't know why, but he felt like he needed to run to him and save him. It was no use though, every step he tried taking forward he was still held in place. He was trying to run towards the taller teen but he wasn't moving out of his spot at all!

Pride's mouth moved, making a one-syllable word, but the word fell on deaf ears. He couldn't hear himself speak now, something was preventing him from doing so. It might have been the significance of what he said that was being intentionally blocked from him, but why? The teen was almost fully in the gate, his mouth making scream-like movements and his eyes wide and scared. He was reaching out to Pride frantically, as a last measure of calling out for help. Pride was still running in place, helpless that he couldn't control his movement in this surreal environment. The physical laws of the natural world did not apply here, he realized. He mouthed a two-syllable word that Pride couldn't hear right before the teen's face was engulfed. The teen's right hand was the last thing to disappear, before he was completely engulfed into the everlasting darkness behind him and the doors closed shut in front of Pride. Pride stared at the gate wide-eyed during these last moments with what felt like tears falling down onto his cheeks, but was too overwhelmed and, surprising to him, very upset to even touch his face and confirm it. 'I'm...so...sorry...' He was starting to gain consciousness as the gate disappeared and his mind's eye started blurring. His eyes then snapped open.

Rise now and ever
Leave your memory

Envy was brought out of his reverie when he heard a groan coming from nearby. Pride was now lying flat on the bed, holding his left shoulder, eyes now wide open and his murky amber irises facing Envy. He watched the green-haired sin carefully.

"Finally...you're awake. I've been waiting quite a while for the moment when you'd be able to leave my goddamn room." Envy walked a few steps to the center of the room, still keeping his distance. In a demanding tone, he said, "Stay here while I fetch Father, he wants to see you right now." Envy walked towards the door but stopped his stride once he heard an ungraceful thud on the floor and more groaning coming from behind him.

"Nngg... Don't leave... Still hurts..." Pride looked up at Envy and reached up as much as possible with his right arm.

Envy growled "I'm coming right back with Father, you dumbass baby! Just wait for us on the bed!" Envy was about to open the door when he felt a hand loosely clasp around his ankle. Getting really annoyed at Pride's pathetic attempts of keeping him here, he kicked off the hand harshly then landed a kick at his chest. Pride cried out in even more pain, and soon feeling much worse pain when Envy picked him up by his left arm and literally dragged him back up on the bed. Envy took a handful of his hair and raised his voice, while being a mere inches from Pride's face, "You deserved that, little shit. Next time you better listen to your superiors and elders if you don't want to get hurt." Envy let go of his hair harshly and walked to the door. He slammed it open, then slammed it shut, stomping out of the room.

Pride was breathing quickly, staring at the shut door. He did not like Envy's treatment of him, but didn't think much else of it because his thinking mind was not all there. While his newly injured areas healed up, his shoulder was still flaring up with a piercing, but fainter, pain. He noticed the pain had lessened in contrast to before his 'sleep'. A few minutes later and sure enough, Envy returned with Father. At a corner, Envy was still looking at him in a murderous manner, hands folded on his chest staring intently at him, as if telling him 'say about what happened before and you'll get it worse later'. Pride may have just been reborn, but he learned immediately not to anger Envy, especially while in such a mediocre state.

Father came up to Pride, examining him. "Envy, you said he was still in pain, correct?"

"Yea, the whiny idiot couldn't stop complaining about it, so much so that he tried to make me stay here." Father ignored Envy's snide insult of Pride as he got hold of the blonde's face and looked straight into his eyes. Pride was feeling awkward about this. After what felt like a minute, Father took hold of his arm and raised it up. Pride was struggling a little against the touch, but Father didn't let go.

"Be still, Pride, I won't harm you. I'm just going to inspect your shoulder to see if the stone's transitioning process went through properly." Pride could not explain why, but he was feeling somewhat nervous. He felt as if he forgot something important. His renewed mind couldn't allow him to think straight, no matter how hard he tried. He just wanted the pain to go away. "Sit up and look at the wall in front of you." He did as he was told. Father grasped the shoulder and felt around it. "Where exactly is the piercing pain?" Pride pointed somewhere south of the ouroboros mark. "Ah yes, I feel a bump here. It seems the stone didn't properly insert itself as I expected it should. I need to fix its position. Pride, I'm going to ask you to endure just a bit more pain, can you do that for a minute? I promise the pain will go away soon after."

Pride didn't want to feel any more pain, but it seemed like he had no choice. He was looking up at Father with seemingly empty eyes, then moved his head downward looking down in front of him. "Okay." Father made a small nod. He put his palm flat on the ouroboros and alchemic energy came out of it. The mark started to glow blood red underneath his hand. Pride gasped and then yelped in agony, and then clenched his eyes and jaws shut. He felt the stone move upwards underneath his skin and in place under the mark. It then positioned itself sideways in his arms, making him emit a final whimpering cry. The alchemic light died down, and Pride's body seemed to slouch a bit in relief. Seconds later, he brought his head up with what seemed like amazement. His eyes widened as he touched his shoulder. He felt no more pain. It was only because the stone was out of place that he was in pain. Now it was over. "I feel...alright now."

Envy watched all this with mild annoyance. In other circumstances, he might've enjoyed all the pained sounds coming out of the blonde runt's mouth, but his mood was already too sour for him to enjoy this. He just wanted the brainless idiot out of his room as soon as possible.

"I'm glad to hear that, son. Everything else seems to be alright as well." He patted his shoulder with lackluster approval. He then focused on Envy, ordering him to the front of the room, and, close to his ear, very lowly he said, "Make sure to be wary of when his eyes start to change. His transition from human to homunculus will have both inward and outward side effects that signal how far the transformation has progressed. And make sure that you pay attention for any suspicious behavior. I've tried blocking out his past memories, but what would also help is if you could prevent him from regaining them from now on. I will make other improvements on him if needed." He faced Pride again. "Now Pride, you need to gain more sustenance, to further build up your energy." He reached into a pocket from somewhere on his white robes, pulling out crimson stones that reminded Pride of the one he consumed just hours ago, but smaller. Father extended his palm out, with the stones on, enabling Pride to have a better view of them. "These are red stones, they are similar to the Philosopher's Stone I gave you before, but unlike the other one these will not be your main energy supply. You must not be rash in wasting the energy of the Philosopher's Stone. Instead, the red stones will give you the temporary boost you need to fight. You will receive red stones after every mission, and the amount will increase after each time the more powerful you become. Here, consume them all." Pride didn't understand why, but all of the sudden he got a rush of energetic bliss by being near the stones. He wasted no time, grabbing one of them and swallowing it. He smiled with red-tinted teeth at the taste of it and greedily grabbed the rest from the big hand of Father. He got into a rushed feeding frenzy, his slightly sharpened teeth becoming somewhat longer and pointier. It was like he was transforming little by little right before their eyes, albeit hardly visible to any untrained eyes. "Good. Now that you are well fed, I should give you some clothes. It certainly won't do well for you to walk around nude." From the other side of his robes, he pulled out a dark, long fabric, similar in tone and color to Envy's attire. "This special fabric is the same kind of material found on your brothers and sisters, similar to the durable material Envy wears. It's a type of material unique to homunculi, given to them by the Gate after the first time they consume stones. You didn't gain any automatic clothes because you are a special case, so I must manually make them for you." Father was interrupted before he could proceed.

"Why is that, Father?" Pride looked at him directly in the eyes with much stamina present in his now less murky golden irises. He was also not stumbling over his words like before, and his mind felt a whole lot clearer. All of the sudden he was curious about homunculi, or rather, himself specifically. No doubt it was because of the stones, he realized. They've given him enough energy to fix much of his mind and body, even though there was still room for more improvement.

Father didn't want to say too much, as a precaution to prevent the possibility of Pride finding out his memories, and so soon after his rebirth. On the one hand, he didn't want to keep everything about homunculi secret from him because he was his most prized son, and believed that he should know more about the type of homunculus he's become. On the other hand, knowing how Edward was before, he knew his son would never want to be the way he was now, forever a homunculus and unwittingly working towards Father's wishes yet again. Of course, he made it very clear to Edward from the very beginning that his plans for him were far from finished. "You, Pride, were born under special circumstances. Your name fits you because you are also the prototype of a new type of homunculus. While I fashioned you to be the greatest from all the others, different rules apply with your kind, but you are all a part of the same homunculus family nonetheless. You're still just a newborn, and there is much we need to show you in order to become a full-fledged homunculus." Pride was satisfied with this answer, especially the part where Father complimented him, so he left the questions at that.

Father then took hold of the cloth's edges and his hands started glowing with basic blue alchemical light. Immediately, the fabric transformed into two big pieces and four smaller ones. This pile of clothes consisted of a top piece, a skort, two fingerless gloves of different sizes and two ankle gloves. Both the large pieces of clothing looked exactly like Envy's, but slightly smaller, made to accommodate his shorter stature. He handed them to Pride. He was satisfied to see Pride was able to side the gloves correctly, showing his inherent intelligence so early after his transformation. And just as Father expected they would, the gloves showed off the red nodes and lines of his lower arms and legs. These special clothes became transparent in places where they touched the nodes and the lines that extended from them.

"After you dress yourself, follow after me. I have several things to show you that you must learn." Pride, even though he still had a blank glare, looked incredulously at the skort, but swallowed his displeasure and wore it. Father turned to Envy and spoke, "Your work with him is done for now. I will let you know what to do next once I've made Pride more accustomed to his abilities. We will speak privately later about a few other matters as well." Father went to the door and waited for Pride to follow. Pride got off the bed fully clothed and stood up without any difficulty at all, following his lead. They finally headed out of Envy's room, much to Envy's relief. He glimpsed back at Envy curiously, who sneered back at him in response, before he disappeared from Envy's view completely.

They entered Father's chamber shortly after. Father sat in his throne and Pride stood in front of him, waiting patiently for his next command. Pride still had those blank eyes and that emotionless stare, but he was more aware than he looked, Father concluded. Father looked him up and down, looking for any flaws or mishaps on his body. The marks, for which their existence on Pride's body had more than one purpose, looked all in place, and he looked much healthier and livelier now than he did right after his transformation. His skin tone, paler than when he was human, still gained more color than what it looked like just hours ago. His previously automail limbs, which were completely 'flesh' now, were absent of any scar marks. His body was literally made brand new with no previous signs of amputation or injury, thanks to Father's advanced alchemy and his manipulation of the Gate's knowledge and power. What happened to them is still a mystery, although Father has lots of secrets up his sleeves and may decide use of every component of Pride possible later on.

"My son, I'm going to inspect you a little more to see if everything went well with your birth. This won't hurt at all." Father extended Pride's bare right arm outward. He glimpsed at his left leg too and, like before, saw no signs of flaws. Only body symmetry was present, save for the different red mark patterns all over him. Father found his own handiwork remarkable. "Good. You look perfectly fine. Now, I have to show you your first tool to use for offense and defense. With your lithe body, you should be able to move and fight efficiently, but you will also need a weapon. I can't risk letting you use normal alchemy for some time, since you're still fresh out of the Gate's realm, so for now you will make use of something else I've ingrained into you." Father touched the center of Pride's forehead, exactly where his pineal gland would be, and Pride felt a surge of information going into him. Some of the knowledge Father instilled into Pride was brought to the forefront of his mind, and at that instant Pride knew enough of this new functional knowledge to attempt some of it right on the spot. "What I want you to do now is materialize the weapon that suits you best. The one your mind's eye is showing you right now."

Pride closed his eyes for a few seconds, then looked directly at the blonde man in front of him. "You mean…a scythe, right?" Pride didn't wait for a response, he innately knew what to do. He clapped his hands together, then held out his right arm. Instantaneously, a large metallic weapon, approximately six foot in height, appeared as a result of this quick alchemic reaction, towering considerably over him. It had a long sickle extending from one side on the top, a long chain extending from the two end of the shaft, and two handle placements, one in the upper half of the shaft facing the opposite direction from the sickle and the other in the lower half facing the sickle. Despite its huge size, Pride had no difficulty holding it up, thanks to his inhuman strength. Pride was actually impressed with himself for being able to bring forth a scythe out of nothing, or what he thought was nothing. He felt enough excitement that he made a very faint smile in response, but other than that his face was still devoid of emotion.

"That weapon will be an extension of you. It symbolizes none other than death itself. The death you will bring to those who I see unfit or untrustworthy to dwell in the upper world. And those who might try to ruin my plans. You are one of the few I find competent enough to carry out the tasks I have in mind. That will be your main purpose, and as your father and creator, I demand your undying loyalty towards me. You are my most glorious offspring yet, Pride, and I have made sure of that. Not all your powers will surface now, and because of the conditions which resulted in your birth they will come in parts and slowly. Hopefully they will appear soon, but even I can't guarantee anything at the moment. There are some abilities you have now though, some hidden while others being more apparent. Among them are super strength and super speed. Now that you have your weapon, demonstrate to me how skilled and powerful you are. Your ingrained knowledge will help you." Father had to pay attention to all details, in case there are any flaws. As knowledgeable and powerful as he is, even Father is not immune to error.

Pride nodded and walked to the center of the room. He flung and twirled his scythe around, taking turns between both hands on each side, then above his head. He made a few special moves, moving his scythe around him very quickly by the chains, and normal moves, flinging it around with the help of the handles. Father noted how fast and agile he was, which had become more obvious once he started running and becoming a blur of yellow, black and red all over the room. Pride was able to jump so high and run on the walls too, seemingly defying gravity. His homunculus strength and speed enabled him to perform such a feat. His finishing moves were impressive as well. When he landed on the ground with his scythe he made a considerably large impact. The scythe may look like normal metal, but it was near indestructible, made by a form of special alchemy in which only Pride, and to an extent Father, can disintegrate. The weapon was like an extension of him, and in actuality it was. Father also found Pride's long hair not being a nuisance to him interesting as well. Just like his scythe, his hair was an extension of him too, but much less significant. It appeared to become more sentient and alive every time Pride moved, yet at the same time looked petrified and dead. A contrasting enigma that Father anticipated when he was shaping his abilities. The powers he situated into Pride have various side effects which are mostly beneficial to him. Pride is the first homunculus of his kind, but Father assumed the same would apply for any others that may follow after him. Pride's body is still mainly Edward's corpse reanimated. And Father expects him to go through a huge metamorphosis within the next few months, or perhaps earlier, which will turn him into a complete homunculus. In the meantime, he's just a hybrid of human and homunculus. His eye color change will determine when that transformation becomes complete, that will be the final physical sign.

Pride was interrupted in the middle of a huge attack move when Father called out to him, "That's enough Pride, you've proven yourself much more capable than I imagined. Your strength is incredible, your agility is even better, and you're more than worthy to wield such an immense and majestic weapon. It seems I made the right decision naming you after the greatest deadly sin." Pride descended to the floor landing on one knee and foot, then stood up gracefully, looking at Father with an aura of smug self-confidence, proudly holding his scythe tall with one hand.

"Thank you, Father. I intend not to disappoint." Pride said, with a hint of arrogance, while still masking his face with an emotionless glare.

Father smiled. "It's only fitting that I send you out on a trip on your first day, it seems you are now suitable enough to handle new surroundings in the above world, where the humans dwell. Soon, I will be sending you out on missions where you will need to shed their blood. Only then will they start to learn their place in this world, which is their subservience to us. Knowingly or unknowingly it does not matter in the end."

Pride grunted in approval. "Yes, they will know their place once I'm through with them."

"Not all of them, of course, homunculi still need humans as a food source. We can't bring them to the brink of extinction, not yet. But we can kill those who become alchemists or get in the way of my plans. The plans for our everlasting power and dominion over the planet. Dante is working on some things right now as we speak, just as I commanded her to. I need word from her first before I can proceed with the next step."

Raising an eyebrow lightly, Pride asked curiously, "Who's Dante?"

Father noted Pride's increasing liveliness from the curious tone in his voice. "Someone you will meet soon. She can be considered as Mother to all of you homunculi, almost the way that I am Father, but not quite the same in her case. She's very knowledgeable and loyal to the cause, and has been that way since the beginning. Envy and her get along quite well, better than they do with the other homunculi. There are practical reasons for this…" Father looked directly at Pride now, deciding to drop any further explanations. "It's about time you explore the upper world. Envy will go along with you, tell him I commanded it. He will know exactly where to take you. Also, you both should refrain from attacking any humans for now, today's trip is just for you to see how humans act."

Pride was excited to see how the upper world was, but he didn't really like the idea of going with Envy. Still, he was only a newborn, so to speak, and couldn't just venture out there alone without knowing about it first. He needed to know how to come back without getting lost.

The front of Central Command Headquarters was flooded with at least eighty military officers of various positions of power, though they mostly consisted of regular foot soldiers. Among these soldiers was First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, first in command lieutenant under the currently-missing General Roy Mustang. They were all looking for a few important people that went missing under a day ago. Half of them checked all over the building and found no signs of them, even though they were last seen going to Bradley's office. The other half decided to check around the outside of the structure, and yet again they found no signs of them. Almost all of the search team congregated to the front of the building, where Hawkeye was keeping watch and waiting for any reports.

Sure enough, a regular officer came up to her with unfortunate news, saluting to her first before talking. "Lieutenant Hawkeye, the investigation of both the inside and outside of the building is almost over. All of us in the search team agreed that there were no signs of any of the individuals missing. Fuhrer King Bradley and General Roy Mustang were nowhere to be found, neither was Colonel Edward Elric or his brother Alphonse Elric. We apologize for the lack of evidence on their whereabouts, but we're trying as best as we can."

"That'll be alright soldier, I understand. Let the search team off on a respite now."

Another soldier came up to her moments after, also saluting, and looking a little excited. "Finally! Some of the soldiers from the inside came back from the Fuhrer's office."

"And what's the result? No signs of him at all?"

"Indeed, the Fuhrer did not return to his office since very early morning. And it looks like the committee has finally reached a quick conclusion in response to his abnormal absence."

"Understood, soldier. Thank you for the information. You should also take a rest." She replied formally.

"Thank you First Lieutenant Hawkeye. Please take a rest as well. You've been searching nonstop for all four of them nonstop the whole day…" The soldier responded in a caring but professional tone, and then walked off to the rest of the team.

Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc then walked up to her moments later, noting her slight distress, even though she hid it well. "Hmm, it's strange…almost like they disappeared off the face of the planet. Have they really disappeared, just like that?"

Hawkeye narrowed her eyes a little at that response. "Is that really what you think, Havoc?"

Havoc's expression tensed with uncertainty, as he looked away slightly. "I don't know… What else could have happened, then? Did chaos occur within one night that resulted in this? There must be some sign of them, even if there's a huge possibility that they're all…" He stopped his sentence when Hawkeye gave him a murderous look. "Nevermind…it was silly of me to even suggest that, I apologize. I'll wait out here for you, then we'll join the others." He walked to the front of the building with other soldiers.

Meanwhile, in the bushes and trees near Central Command, Envy and Pride were looking at the soldiers in the distance. Envy's hair made him blend in more, while Pride's did not have that much of an effect. In the current sunset, though, they might have had some effect.

Envy was chuckling to himself, savoring the confusion and misery that surrounded the assemblage in front of the building. "Hehehe, stupid humans… What are they trying to do, dig them out? By the looks of it, they seem to be getting rather desperate to find their missing Fuhrer and their precious state alchemists. Aren't they being stupid, or what, Pride?"

Pride himself was really confused over the sight he was witnessing, and also confused by the fact that Envy seemed to be enjoying himself because of it. Those humans far below look like moving blue ants. So puny and pathetic, exactly portraying how weak and insignificant they really are. Pride said nothing to the ill-tempered homunculus brother he'd rather not be around, thinking about how strangely familiar the building was even though he's never been out of the lair before today. Or so he thought.

"Hey…Pride." That snapped him out of his thoughts immediately, remembering how cranky Envy can get when not listened to. "Don't be so quiet…don't you have any thoughts about all this?" Envy's true intent was to taunt Pride with these questions, even though he didn't exactly want a proper response from him. He knew how much he could tease Pride in such a way without him figuring out about his past. He wanted to rub Edward's past in his face, without giving out any revealing hints. And Pride, mostly fresh from his 'birth' only hours ago and now under an amnesiac state, was none the wiser. Despite this, the new homunculus still detected bad intent from Envy constantly, and couldn't understand why.

He finally spoke, shrugging off any feelings of paranoia. "About the humans…the ones down there. What exactly…is their connection to us?"

Envy did a mock facepalm, hiding part of his forming smirk. "You've really lost it all up there pipsqueak, haven't you?"

There was that nickname again, Pride realized. When he saw one particular soldier down below, one that looked quite familiar, he felt a sting in his head. "Ngh…" He clenched his hands and closed his eyes shut.

"I see that word still has an effect on you…but you don't seem angry at all. I thought you would still be sensitive to that word, in contrast to the name you have now." Envy scowled slightly. He hoped that wasn't the case, he wanted the runt to forget his past entirely. So internally he promised himself he wouldn't call him that anymore, or at least as little as possible, just to be sure.

Pride paid attention to barely anything that Envy just said, fortunately for the green-haired homunculus. Instead, he saw a faint vision of blinding white light and a boy with dirty-blond hair within it. This occurred a few seconds before his mind and vision cleared up. He clutched his head and clenched his jaw shut until the pain subsided. "Who…was that?! So familiar…"

Envy, not really sure what Pride was going through, had to force himself to stay quite now. He didn't want to bring up anything that might make Pride remember.

Rise now and ever
Leave your memory

After the pain subsided, he asked, "What…are we doing here?" Pride faced Envy with a slightly irritated tone.

Envy responded in a similar tone. "Why, you already want to leave?" Envy fell silent immediately, thinking that it might be best that they did leave. "That's right, there's nothing important here. Let's go." Envy faced around and started to walk away. Pride did not follow though, he was stuck observing one particular soldier again. A female one with blond hair and sherry-brown eyes. Envy noticed no presence following behind him and looked back, noticing Pride was glaring down below again. "Pride, what is it now?! Let's go!" Envy scolded him lowly.

Pride did not like Envy's tone but obeyed, responding in an annoyed tone. "Al-alright…brother. Coming."

Envy's own irritation was rising again. He didn't want to be called 'brother' by the likes of him. Without warning, Envy rushed up and backhanded him, making Pride thud onto the floor and onto his side. He clutched his hurting face, staring wide eyed at Envy with a slight scowl. Envy stared at him with subsiding anger present on his face, which was immediately replaced by a look of satisfaction. While Pride kept looking at him, Envy noticed his eyes' shape was more narrow and threatening. That's not all, Envy may have imagined this, but he could've sworn he finally saw small irises form within the murky gold pools of Pride's eyes.

"You look absolutely pathetic… Get up." Envy walked slowly ahead, not waiting to see Pride stand up. He knew the runt would obey him, because he knew no other way of going back to the lair without his guidance, and the way back was complicated enough.

Pride stood up and followed him a good distance away, staring at Envy's back angrily. He whispered very lowly that only he could hear, "No thanks to you…Envy."

What they didn't expect was that same female soldier noticing them in the distance.

Hawkeye, who had great eyesight, also had good enough hearing to pick up background sounds in the distance, which is what also what made her an excellent gun soldier. She saw two figments fighting in the shrubs on a hill near Central Command's right side. She looked at them intently, primarily focusing on the blonde's face. As the blonde stood up, she saw part of his face and alarms rang in her head in response to his familiarity. She runs forward a few feet and says out loud, "That's…!"

Havoc, standing at the entrance of C.C., kept a close eye on her. He rushed to her immediately after her outburst. "Hawkeye, what is it?"

"Look over there! I think I saw two people, one of them looked like Edward!" She pointed a finger at the place where the two figures were. Havoc responded in kind, looking at the direction where her finger pointed.

Unfortunately, he saw no one. "Where?! I can't see a thing in that mini forest. You sure?"

Hawkeye looked surprised, crossing her arms in irritation. "Maybe I saw wrong…"

"I think it's about time we, especially you, went inside and took a break. It's getting late and I'd rather you not stress over them out here."

Hawkeye nodded. "Alright Havoc, I do need a rest. But I will not give up until I find signs of any one of them, though. My search will continue later."

Havoc sighed tiredly. "Fine, but not without me you won't."

Hawkeye looked at the bushes again, with a sad expression. "Alright, fine… Just go inside without me, I promise I'll come in a few minutes. I need to get my mind cleared up first."

Havoc looked at her questioningly, then nodded moments later, knowing best not to question any further.

When she was completely alone, she rubbed her temple and then looked around. "Roy, Edward, Alphonse, where have you all gone?" She looked to the shrubs again. "Maybe I should go home and take a nap… But I get this uncanny feeling that I should continue my search tonight…or else I might be too late to save at least one of them." She walked into the building slowly, only thinking about the search that would continue later.

Pride, like other homunculi, had healing and regenerative powers. He noticed this immediately after he stood up from the ground. The pain on his face disappeared seconds later. He carefully followed Envy's trail and carefully kept note of the twists and turns they took this time. They were sneakily walking around the streets of Central. Right before night time fell, Envy decided to have them explore the outskirts of Central's main city. Apparently, he felt like Pride hadn't gotten enough of human life, and did this intentionally in order to waste time. He knew Father said to report back to him as soon as he saw a significant change in Pride, but he didn't really care right now. He wanted to continue taunting Pride, giving him a taste of the life he once had but has now forgotten, to add insult to injury towards his subconscious. What he found most interesting from the whole experience was seeing what reactions he had, which mostly consisted of genuine curiosity. But Envy didn't question him anything further, he only smirked.

When they returned to the lair later on, Pride was shown to his own room, much to Envy's relief. Father didn't ask him to do anything else other than rest, right after he noticed the change in Pride's eyes. The blonde sin briefly heard Envy talking with Father about a 'Wrath', which he automatically realized was another homunculus. Pride, not being able to sleep anymore as a homunculus, just sat on his bed waiting for the hours to go by, contemplating on events that transpired earlier that day.

'Why do I…feel so empty and…lost?' He thought, while sitting quietly on the bed. He then lied down, but suddenly noticed his skort was itching him when he did that. 'I really hate this annoying thing… Pants would feel much better to wear… I don't want to be a copycat of that green-haired jerk.'

And during the following days, spent mostly occupying his room in private and sometimes lingering some parts of the lair he hasn't seen before, he saw not a glimpse of any other homunculus except Envy. And things suddenly became too quiet and boring. Father called upon him a couple of times too, with some repeat of past requests. Other than that, it was too quiet for him, but he had to bare with it. Father said he needed the peace and relaxation to become more accustomed to himself, before he was sent above ground again

Father sent them out again on the same exact type of trip to the upper world almost a week later. But this time, he sent them out during the night. He claimed it would be a totally different experience for Pride.

They were walking in dark spots, like they did almost a week ago, so that they wouldn't be seen. Envy had to be careful to make sure they kept a low profile. He didn't want any more military scum seeing them, especially at such a critical time. They were searching all over the place looking for the four who have gone missing. Edward being one of them, along with the alchemist general Envy told Sloth to discard somewhere in an alley. He figured his body should have been found by now, but even he wasn't sure. However, he didn't dwell too much on that, nor did he care to.

Envy was bored, so he thought of a way to pester Pride without telling him too much. "You know Pride, about that stone in your arm, do you even know how it was created?"

Pride stopped walking and looked at him cluelessly. He shook his head. "No, Envy, I don't. How was it made?"

'Naive brat took the bait.' Envy chuckled. "Oh, you actually don't, huh? I guess our old man didn't find you trustworthy enough to tell you yet, and here I thought you were his greatest creation." Envy laughed aloud, mocking him. "Maybe one day, when you grow up some more and truly become one of us, you'll find out. Right now you're just a weakling, you might even hurt your brain too much if you found out." Envy knew he might piss Pride off, but he also knew that the newbie runt wouldn't do anything to him either. For the jealous homunculus, it was just so much fun antagonizing the younger homunculus. To make him feel inferior in any way he could, despite the high status name he was given. Envy, with his jealousy and hatred of him, thought it was all an ironic joke. He thought it was ridiculous how such a spineless and clueless midget of an alchemist was given the greatest sin name of all. Edward had grown to almost the same height as Envy is now, with Envy at 5 foot and 5 inches, and Edward almost an inch shorter. Despite this, the green-haired sin still couldn't help but think of him in such a way. Envy can always shapeshift himself to be taller if he wanted to, just to add more insult to injury towards Edward's memory.

Pride's tolerance for the green-haired loudmouth was running thin. But he's starting to realize it's best to not giving him the attention he wanted or else Pride would get his ass kicked by him again. Instead, he responded reasonably. "We should…head back to Father. I've had enough sight-seeing for one day." Pride's voice was not completely monotone anymore, it was becoming more expressive by the day, and by the hour. He was now able to speak in full sentences and sound quite intelligent. Both Father and Envy noticed this over the course of the past few days.

"Wait." Envy took hold of his arm and stopped him. "There's someone here, a human…" Envy listened again. "Two of them, in fact. I think you know what to do."

Pride looked at him surprised, shrugging off Envy's hold and not wanting to be touched. "But Father said—"

"Fuck what he said, you need to grow a backbone and stop listening to everything that comes out of his mouth. And it's better to do so as soon as possible. Here are your first victims. Before you know it, you'll soon enjoy killing humans as much as I do."

Pride was getting visible irritated by now. "Fine. I'll do your damn request, if it means you'll stop insulting me."

Envy's eyes widened when he noticed Pride's attitude changed somewhat. 'He almost sounded like…his past self, but he doesn't seem to be aware of it at all.' Envy sneered. "I don't promise anything, pipsqueak. This process is to make you one of us, the proper way. And if you don't do as I say, you'll always be daddy's little treasured pet." He heard Pride clap. "Wait, what are you doing?!" Envy became tense with surprise after hearing the infamous alchemy clap, thinking Pride was going to attack him. So he made himself be ready for anything that might happen.

"It's something Father taught me. I'm materializing a scythe out from my mind's eye." And sure enough, the scythe appeared out of nowhere next to his right hand. He was able to hear exactly where the humans went. After consuming the stones, he also gained increased hearing, but it took a while to actually take effect. He ran to the noise, leaping onto buildings to further expand his line of vision. Envy shrugged off his momentary tension and followed him, but at his own slower pace.

The humans are a couple, a man and woman who were drunk beyond their minds, most likely on their way home so late. Pride noticed they were in such a clumsy, unaware state, not paying attention much to their surroundings and without a care in the world. 'They won't know what hit them.' He thought with, what he felt like was, absolute glee.

"Hey, Char-Charles, I think-k I hearrrrd some-thing…" The woman said between hiccups and some slurring.

"Wh-ere darrrrr-ling?" The man also slurred his words. Before he could turn around, the assault came crashing down on them before they were aware of anything. Pride attacked the man first, slicing his body in half vertically and unequally, blood spurting out of him almost like a water fountain. The woman seemed to have snapped out of her drunken state when she witnessed this and started emitting a blood-curdling scream. The outburst was short lived, lasting only a second when Pride struck her down immediately, decapitating her. Pride's face ended up having runny droplets of their fresh blood, but not so much on his body.

Envy came shortly after that. He whistled at the site. He didn't expect the runt to have this kind of ferocity in him and so soon. "Bravo, Pride. Now clean up your face, you got their blood all over you."

"Blood?" One droplet was running dangerously close to his lips. Before he could wipe it off, it entered his mouth. He tasted the blood, and Envy watched curiously. Pride wipe the rest of the blood off with his gloveless finger. He continued tasting the blood, savoring it, becoming satisfied, and wanting more all at once. He licked off all the blood from his fingers, making noises of pure ecstasy. "Mmm, more, MORE…" He jumped onto the dead bodies, lapping up enough blood from the woman's severed head and opened up neck. He consumed as much blood as he could from her corpse first, before he proceeded to the other one.

Envy was genuinely stunned and amazed at the sight of Pride going crazy over human blood! He never expected this to happen. While side-glancing at Pride, he also witnessed his pupils change in size now, becoming longer and wider within his darkening gold-amber pupils. Envy also realized that he could use this side of Pride to his advantage. He was sure his bloodlust would change him into a cold-blooded killer much faster than anything else Envy could ever think of. Imagination wasn't really his strong suit, and whatever patience he had was even less present. Envy was always trying to get the job done as quick as possible, even if it meant no actual pleasure came out of it. But isn't that what the sin 'envy' was about, destroying everything someone else enjoys just because you don't have it? After putting his new plans aside in his mind, he suddenly remembered that if they make any more noise, unwanted attention might come to them, in the form of military dogs no less. And while this situation was becoming completely out of hand, this trip above their lair was meant to be a quite learning experience for Pride. Envy honestly did not care what Father told them, what he cared about were the consequences of disobeying him.

"We need to leave NOW, Pride. PRIDE?!" Envy pulled at Pride left arm, trying to get his attention. Envy noticed another uncanny thing. While Envy was normally super strong, and obviously stronger than Pride was hours ago, he wasn't able to pull Pride away from his feeding frenzy. It was as if the blood was making him super powered and was almost fixated in that spot like a megaton stone. Envy, now getting angry, had no choice but to knock out Pride in the head. "Stop. Drinking. Blood. NOW." Envy punched his face at each word. Pride actually snapped out of it after the last word.

"Huh?! What…just happened…?" He stood up, looking genuinely confused and back-peddling from the corpses slowly. Envy noticed that the front of Pride's body was all covered in blood. But what he knew was that they needed to leave, immediately. He heard more humans in the near distance, most likely military goons. And even if they were just normal citizens, he didn't want anyone seeing them and then running off to any dogs and giving their descriptions as the suspects responsible for this slaughter. At least, for Pride, not yet anyways. What concerned him was what Father might do if he found out that Envy had a huge role to play in Pride's deliberate disobeying of his orders. Today was not supposed to be a mission day, they crossed that line already.

"You've consumed human blood and gone insane, that's what! We need to leave now, we can't risk having any humans seeing us together like this."

"Why, are you scared of them? It's like you said, they are weaklings." Envy was actually getting a bit spooked at Pride, but he tried so hard not to show anymore fear to the likes of Pride, who, he reminded to himself, was the homunculus of the short alchemist brat that he absolutely despised.

Envy rolled his eyes. "Of course they are! But we took this too far, I did not expect this to happen. Father will get mad if he sees you like this." Pride only looked at Envy inattentively while he licked off any blood he saw on his right arm.

"I thought you said you didn't care what he told us. You should say what you mean next time." Pride stood up and dematerialized his scythe. "Let's go."

"No, wait, we're not going back to the lair yet until you get cleaned up. You look like absolute shit." A thought was then put forth in his mind. He suddenly realized that Sloth could help, she practically transforms into a living body of water. Envy then realized that would still be futile, because if Father noticed that Pride's irises grew to such a large size so soon he will want to know how that happened. But even so, Pride, couldn't go back 'home' looking like this. As for Sloth, Envy wondered where exactly she would be, whether she was in the lair, or in the sewers leading up to it? "Let's go, I have an idea. You're about to be introduced to another homunculus, a female one who appears older than you and I, but is not that old compared to my actual age. You might even see the newest Wrath nearby too, he's been nearby pestering her almost nonstop. Despite how young he looks, he's actually been walking around longer than you have and only recently were we able to get a hold of him and add him to our…'family'." As much as it was true, Envy hated using the word 'family' to describe their group. He said all of this with an indifferent tone, despite how uncannily conversational he may have sounded to Pride. Envy didn't actually give a damn about the new Wrath. In fact, ever since discovering the brat days ago he's been a pain in his ass to deal with. He is such a wild child with no discipline.

Pride immediately thought there was something strange in the way he described this Wrath having been 'recently brought here'. 'What does he mean by 'added him to our family recently'? I thought Father was the only one who created us homunculi…' That fleeting thought ended abruptly when Envy started running to the closest entrance leading to their lair. Pride had no choice but to follow, so after dematerializing his scythe, he soon caught up with him in no time.

They ran to the lair without being seen, thanks to their super-human agility. Pride was literally energized now, moving faster than Envy. Envy never once thought about consuming blood to increase his power. He figured it might've been due to the fact that Pride was a different type of homunculus, as Father admitted before, and maybe only homunculi like Pride were able to have an insatiable liking to human blood. Envy noted to himself to ask Father about this later.

When they reached underground, into the sewers leading up to the lair, Envy called out, "SLOTH. Come here now, we need help." This was where Sloth lurked, since the sewers were full of water and she could blend into it easily, starting surprise attacks at any time against intruders foolish enough to enter deeper. They couldn't allow intruders to bypass this far underground, or else there was a huge risk of having their lair right under Central Command Headquarters be discovered by the wrong people.

This was not their only lair, though. Years ago, they actually had full control of Lab 5 as their second closest, but otherwise unofficial, lair to Central, where all their criminal experiments of stone and chimera creations occurred unwarranted. They had the lab as their second important lair even before Father took control of them. But he went a step further and created the closest lair to Central when he took leadership, which was the one right underneath Central Command and the one they mainly stayed in today. The last lair, which was located much farther away from Central, was a building in the forgotten underground city in Northern Amestris. The whole city was concealed underground centuries ago when Hohenheim and Dante created a huge Philosopher's Stone out of that city's whole population. To prevent others from discovering the truth about what happened to the city, they both used their advanced alchemic abilities to drag the whole city underground and hide it forever. Years later, Amestris was created from the 'absent' ruins. Dante also has a home in the forests outside of Dublith, but that has been long since abandoned.

"Um, where is she, exactly?" Pride looked around them.

Envy responded, "Anywhere in the water. She hides in it, looking out for any intruders."

They heard some splashing nearby. "We, Envy?" Sloth materialized into her solid form behind them. They turned around. She noticed Pride and smiled. "Oh, so this is what Father did with him. How ironic." Envy glared at her, giving her a silent warning to not say much in front of Pride. "What do you need Envy?" Pride, with what little amount of human blood left on his body drying up, gave her a curious stare for a moment, then shrugged it off.

"Isn't it obvious? Just look at him, he's goddamn filthy. Apparently, he has an extreme addiction to blood. He hasn't even reacted this crazy to the red stones he ate before. Clean him up, we can't risk Father seeing him like this."

"May I ask why you're trying to hide this from Father?"

"And if I don't answer you? What then, huh? I don't see you as the snitching type…" Envy's irritation was reaching to high levels now, so he finally cut to the chase. "Will you do it or not?!"

Sloth told him flatly, "It's best not to hide things from him, you know how he gets when we disobey orders or keep secrets from him. Remember what happened to Greed? You may have the same fate."

"Yea well you know what? Tough shit, I'm sick and tired of following my old man's orders as if I'm just as much of a low-class pawn as you other homunculi. Well I'm not, I know more than all of you newer homunculi combined. I'm not his stupid lapdog, I was high on the ladder for centuries before he came into the picture again! And then I got Pride here, who I'd rather not have been stuck with at all."

Pride glared daggers at the back of Envy's head. 'The feeling's mutual, asshole…'

Sloth only shrugged her shoulders, "If you insist, it was becoming too boring around here anyways. But if he finds out, I want none of the blame on my hands." Sloth transformed her body into water and started cleaning up every blood spot on Pride that she could find. "You behave now, Pride." After she finished, she smiled at him almost genuinely. Something sparked in Pride's eyes, almost as if he was experiencing déjà vu. Whatever he was feeling at the moment was cut short by someone's yell.

"Mommy!" A voice called out far away in the sewers. "Where are you?!"

"Oh great, it's the annoying brat. I thought Father told him to stop pestering you while you're on watch! I'm going to set him straight myself if he keeps this up."

"The little fool still believes I'm his mother, when I care for no one. The woman who brought him to life died years ago from her own ailment. Of course, he might never find out about it…" Envy narrowed his eyes at her, more intensely this time, silently warning her once again to pick her words carefully.

Pride spoke up lowly, trying to comprehend what she meant but failed. "The woman who brought him to life?" Pride smelled something fishy in the way she spoke, but he still couldn't figure out why.

"I should be going now, wouldn't want Wrath to distract me again." Sloth fully turned into water and descended into the sewer waters below her.

Envy grabbed Pride's arm, forcing him to walk. "Let's go Pride. Sloth is busy, and so are we."

"What did she mean?" Pride resisted the urge to shrug off Envy's grip, speaking with slight annoyance.

"She's speaking nonsense, ignore her and follow me. We're about to see Wrath." Envy was looking for Wrath. Sure enough, they both found him running towards their direction. He looked frantic and excited.

"Where is she?! I know I heard her here somewhere! Mommy!" His voice echoed all over the sewers.

Envy quickly stomped up to him and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him into the dirty waters below. "You stupid brat, don't you ever listen?! The old man told you to leave her alone. She's busy, and she's certainly not your mother, you delusional tool."

Wrath sat up and looked away with disdain. "You have a mommy, why can't I?!" Wrath said angrily with a pout, glaring at Envy.

Envy knew what Wrath was talking about. "Dante isn't my mother or anyone else's mother. Homunculi don't have parents, you imbecile, we were created beings from the Gate. How many times do you have to be reminded of that? Get in line and start behaving or else Father will get pissed off."

Wrath stood up and ran off with a growl. "Leave me alone! I'm not going back there again!" Wrath was referring to the Gate. He remembered the last time he was brought there. Father told him there was a good reason for his recent visit to the Gate. It resulted in Wrath's mismatched arm and leg being amputated, which was excruciating for him. But then, almost immediately, the Gate gave him new limbs as replacements, thanks to Father's almost supernatural control over it. These new limbs actually matched his body, so much so that he assumed Father found the exact same limbs he left behind within the mysterious door. Father also kept Wrath's alchemy ability intact, despite losing the very arm that enabled it. The limbs Father found on Wrath were none other than Edward's human ones. Father was able to bypass the Gate's laws with his alchemy somehow, but Wrath couldn't explain it all nor did he care to find out. He was just glad to leave the place that brought on his worst nightmares. Unfortunately, despite all the knowledge he's amassed from the Gate, Father could not add in powers into Wrath, since he's already been born a while ago, and wasn't at the stage where he could develop powers anymore. Wrath, like Envy, are from the original type of homunculus, with Pride was considerably different.

Envy suddenly didn't give a damn what Wrath would do next. He always had little patience, and he couldn't waste any more time on someone he considered to be an annoying troublemaker. Sloth would have to deal with him herself from now on. He had Pride to focus on now. "Insufferable brat, if he wants to run off to Gate knows where without caring about the consequences, then so be it. I already told him to grow up from his weird fantasies."

Pride and Envy continued walking deep into the lair. Something was still bothering Pride, though. He just got his first taste of blood, and now he wants to know more about humans. They seem so similar to him and other homunculi, yet they were so breakable, so weak. He noticed that homunculi were much better beings in terms of power and durability. He even heard Envy mocking them a few times during the past week. The green-haired homunculus always acted irritated at almost everything and everyone. And still, Pride had to admit that he was right about the beings who looked so much like them in so many ways, yet were different on almost every other level.

"Envy…you never told me something, about the humans. What exactly is their purpose? Do they exist only to cater to us? I wasn't fully aware of what I was doing before when I was feeding on their blood, but is that what they are? Our food?"

Envy turned around and sneered sardonically at the thought of talking about humans. "In more than one way, they are. They are the dog shit we're supposed to scrape off our feet, the puppets we bend to our will, our unwilling servants used in our overall plans."

Pride added his two cents. "You mean like…tools we can use and break whenever we want? Is that right, too?"

Envy smiled wickedly. "Well Pride, it seems you're finally catching on! That's just one other way we're supposed to treat them, with complete and utter contempt and disrespect. As nothing but a bunch of maggots infesting a corpse. Don't you ever forget that whenever you encounter them."

No one can touch us

Pride followed Envy deeper into the sewers, now with a smile. It wasn't that he was glad at making Envy happy, it was more along the lines of him feeling satisfied himself. Somehow, making condescending remarks about humans elevated his own mood. He was truly starting to believe what he and Envy were saying. Consuming human blood also changed him somewhat, it made him more cold underneath his temporary calm persona. And it made him want even more blood, but he suppressed these feelings. He knew there would always be next time, when they were finally sent on a murderous mission.

They returned to Father shortly, looking at the older blonde man sitting on his throne in silence.

"You two returned rather late. Did something happen?" Father said stoically.

Envy decided to speak up about Pride, with more courage than he had before. "He underwent a change. Look at his eyes, you can clearly see his pupils now. Just earlier today they were only long, thin slits. They obviously changed in size, compared to the last time we went exploring." Envy spoke with feigned confidence, trying to keep the previous incident that led up to this change a secret. And then he heard the very thing he was hoping Father wouldn't say, but expected anyways.

"I see. Did anything happen that brought on this change at all?" Father looked from Pride to Envy as he said this, waiting for the older homunculus to tell him everything. To his surprise, Pride spoke instead.

"We saw two humans walking together so late." Envy, who was standing a little behind Pride's left side, tensed up when he heard this. "They're nothing like us, right Father? They really are such weak things, but I don't understand why they look so much like us."

Envy wanted to smack his forehead in frustration. 'You idiot, shut up…!'

Father raised an eyebrow after hearing Pride describe his observations about humans. "You certainly pay much attention to your surroundings, for a young homunculus only days old. It seems you've proven to me yet again that I have not made a mistake naming you Pride." Father nodded. "You are indeed correct, my son. Humans are lower than us on the power spectrum. We are their guiding masters working in the shadows, leading them to where we want them to go. Only a few humans, if any, have ever been capable enough to stand on their own. Usually, these humans who were worthy enough have only been alchemists of centuries past, the alchemists who have shown immense skill in the science, like Dante has. Other great humans were mostly those lost to history, existing only in the mostly unknown corners of the past. Today, barely any other humans exist which are of high worth. For homunculi, humans are their food source."

"Our food source, huh? Do they have anything to do with the Philosopher's Stone?" Pride asked, genuinely curious.

"The Philosopher's Stone, the first stone you received under your mark, is made from the concentrated transmutation of vast amounts of humans into one combined source of seemingly unlimited power. That is why foolish alchemist humans chase after it, without knowing what its components are. Despite how much power the stone has, even it has limits. The latest stone, through the indirect guidance of Dante, was created just a few years ago from the lives of at least 1000 humans, but it has since been used up by her to make her retain a youthful appearance and a longer life in her current body. However, the stones within you and the other homunculi are actually stones taken out from within me. I have enough power from my main stone to be able to share the power with all of you. My main stone initially had over a million human lives, before I divided the stone to give to each and every one of you. The smaller philosopher's stones are to make sure you all are powerful enough at all times, without relying only on their weaker imitation, the red stones."

Pride's face became quizzical. "Red stones? You mean the stones you fed me after giving me my philosopher's stone?"

Father nodded again. "Yes Pride, one red stone has a very miniscule amount of energy, not even enough to keep a homunculus at their highest power. That is why it's recommended for our kind to have a philosopher's stone as a main source of power, to prevent our energy from running out quickly. Never take your stone out. The red stones you consume will be converted into a liquid known as red water once they enter your internal energy storage system, but not immediately. This liquid is poisonous to humans, but not to us. Each stone takes time to liquefy, depending on when it was consumed and what its size is. The faster they are liquefied, the more quickly activated your energy will be, even though bigger red stones give you more energy in the long run. The red stones are mostly potent energy, but when liquefied the energy becomes active and ready for homunculi to use as a power source. In this way, the energy of the red stones can be considered as a temporary replacement to any lost energy from the philosopher's stone. Even so, you must use that energy wisely. We can't let the human lives from the philosopher's stone go to waste."

Pride interjected quickly, "Why not though? Don't humans only exist to serve us for as long as we want? Can't we always add more human lives into the philosopher's stones?"

Father shook his head. "I'm afraid it's not so simple, that is a huge risk to the stone and the process rarely, if ever, ends up succeeding. Though humans are plentiful and are of lesser substance than us, this task is near impossible to attempt correctly. Even someone the likes of me would have a hard time attempting it successfully, because it literally means transforming a living thing into part of an already existing energy source. Using both red stones and philosopher's stones at the same time is the best way to store up energy efficiently without wasting any or very little energy from the philosopher's stone. In each homunculus, the philosopher's stone is placed right underneath each of your ouroborous marks. That is why yours was placed in your left shoulder."

Envy has since relaxed when Pride changed the subject. They were only going on about the stones. Pride didn't mention anything about their encounter with the humans, he only said that he saw them. But Envy didn't want to hear anymore. The conversation was also annoying him. He didn't want to hear something he already knew about. And he didn't care to hear about details which added on to the overall explanation either. He was not an alchemist at heart and never wanted to be, so this is all useless jargon to him.

"So, the creation of the philosopher's stones are the only reason for why we need them?"

"There will be more uses for them in the future. Right now, their main importance to us is their life energy used to make the stones. May I ask why you have so much interest in them? Did something else happen when you saw the humans?"

Pride responded, thoughtfully. "Well, actually…"

Envy improvised as quickly as possible with his own explanation. "Pride couldn't shut up about the ones we saw above, and kept asking me many questions about them like he is now asking you. It's probably because he's still young and can't control his curio-"

Father faced him with an irritated expression. "I asked Pride, not you Envy."

Pride didn't know what to say exactly. If he told the truth, Envy would kick his ass later. He was still a young homunculus, and even after consuming all that blood, he was still nowhere near as powerful as his green-haired 'brother'. Then again, Pride himself was starting to get agitated at Envy's malicious treatment of him. It was better for him to tell some the truth to Father in the long run. Unlike Envy, at least Father treated him with care, he realized.

"Actually, something else did happen…and I can't explain why." Pride refused to look behind him at the now tensed up Envy, for fear of losing his courage under his 'brother's' pissed off gaze. "I just suddenly…went insane. Humans were close by. I killed them, and some of their blood got into my mouth. Then my mind got clouded with thoughts of feeding on their blood. I got into a frenzy and started drinking up a lot of their blood. My mind was totally unaware of my actions and surroundings when that happened. Envy got me out of it after I don't know how long. We headed straight here immediately after, before any other humans saw us." Pride didn't actually tell him the whole truth. He left out the important detail of Envy actually convincing Pride to start the attack.

Father looked upset, but tried to hide most of his anger, remembering that Pride was only 'born' days ago, and hasn't had much contact with anyone else yet. "I thought I told you both not to attack any humans." He looked directly at Envy and continued, in a chastising manner. "He was not ready yet."

Envy moved forward, shoving past Pride's left arm, and walked closer to Father. Pride really hated this petty, demeaning treatment, but stayed silent nonetheless. "Don't you think I tried to prevent him? He's more unpredictable and crazy than we thought." Envy lied, playing along with the half-truthful story Pride told Father. "At least the blood fest was what made his irises grow larger."

Father narrowed his eyes at him. "You should have told me that from the start, Envy."

Envy cringed at his tone. "I know… I just didn't think it was that big of a deal… And he's becoming more like the rest of us."

Father sighed. "Next time, do not keep secrets from me. I need to know everything that happens with Pride when he's out of my reach. You should already know that I do not tolerate secrets well. That applies to you too, Pride. Envy, you need to be his role model and mentor."

Envy, cringing at the last few words with veiled disgust, said nothing else. Pride said something instead. "I understand Father, I won't forget your commands from now on."

"Good." Father looked at the green-haired homunculus, dismissing him. "Envy, leave for now. We will talk later."

Envy looked away from Father with a sullen expression. "Y-yes…Father." Envy spoke the last word with light scorn, not really caring much if Father noticed, and then walked out of the room with a faint stomp. He wanted to punch Pride right now, or maybe even someone as annoying as Wrath. He made sure to be as far as he could from there at the moment. After finding the nearest punchable thing, which was a wall, he hit that instead, leaving a small crater. Envy bent his head over, breathing rapidly with his current anger engulfing all his thoughts, hand still connected to the ruined wall.

"Fucking pipsqueak doesn't know when to keep his annoying mouth shut! Even as a homunculus he pisses me off to no end." Envy tried to calm himself. He then remembered, "I need to become more patient, if I plan to change the little blonde shit into a complete monster. The type of vengeance I need to inflict on him needs to be long-term. Whatever pathetic weakling human friends of his that are still alive will feel all the brunt of my fury, by his own hands! The irony of it all will entertain me forever." He made sure that the next time he got his hands on Pride, whether it was hours or days from now, he would give him a good beating. He had to be careful though, he didn't want to be too rough in case Father heard him or the runt somehow made a surprising comeback. Envy didn't want to admit it, but Pride's immediate newly-found abilities and behavior made him even more cautious around the blonde homunculus now.

ENDING NOTE: The song (and even album) name used is "Waking The Fallen", from Avenged Sevenfold. This certainly won't be the last time I use an A7X, as I'm a huge fan of theirs and that particular album sort of alludes to what I have in mind for this story's future chapters.

The song is here: watch?v=kWDnkGDRueE

I would appreciate it if you let me know what you guys think, I'd like to receive as much feedback as possible. And if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes, do NOT make that the only point in your feedback. I'd like to hear about my story TELLING, first and foremost.