Okay, I noticed a few mistakes when I re-read the first chapter, but don't worry; I'll try to correct myself better this time around.

Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own. FullMetal Alchemist.

Thanks to the reviewers by the way! I think I should have planned this out a little better, oh well, I honestly don't want to go back and rewrite all of this.

Chapter Two: Horrific Realization

Roy was caught by Riza on his way home from the bar, that man seemed to be haunting his thoughts, reminding him of the heartache that came with losing his best friend.

The young blonde jogged up behind the Colonel, Black Hayate following close behind, " Sir!" She shouted, finally catching up with him and walking beside him. He looked distant to her when he merely waved in acknowledgement to her presence. She looked up at him considerately, " Are you all right, sir? Did something happen?"

Roy thought things over for a few seconds before answering, he didn't want to say the wrong thing and have her think that he was in need of therapy for seeing things. " I'm fine, Hawkeye." He paused; " I'm just a bit tired is all."

Riza didn't believe him, but she kept to herself anyway, letting the Colonel believe that she believed him. She decided to get off of the subject, " Sir, Edward came by after you left, something about seeing Hughes out on the street." She stopped walking as soon as he did, seeing the look on his face, " Sir, I knew that this would be a touchy subject for you, I'm sorry." She bowed her head, hugging her small notepad and Black Hayate's leash to her chest, waiting for something to happen.

But, Roy said nothing; he only started walking again at a quicker pace. He desperately wanted to avoid the subject, even if it meant avoiding Hawkeye and FullMetal for a while. She was right; it was a touchy subject for him. Especially after that bar incident.

He slowed his pace when he was far away from anyone he knew, he needed time to think, time to piece everything together. Then a thought came into his mind; what if Ed's theories were true? What if homunculi were created from human transmutations? He didn't even want to think that Hughes was a homunculus now, that would crush everyone, especially his family. But they didn't have to know, not yet.

He allowed himself to just drop lazily onto the closest chair he could find when he got home, which happened to be a hard kitchen chair. He sighed, resting his head in his left hand while he thought and drumming his fingers on the table. That couldn't have been Maes, much less a homunculus. He would have remembered him, right?

But he did. He called him by his first name, claiming it was a good guess. He looked at the clock; it was 9:30 PM. The day went by quickly enough for him. He wanted to fall asleep, but he was kept awake by the thousands of thoughts that were in his mind. He needed to tell someone. FullMetal? Hawkeye? He decided on Hawkeye, and soon he fell into a slight sleep, in the middle of his kitchen.

xXx

The next day brought many shocks for him. He was in his kitchen, someone was at the door, and it was about an hour after he was supposed to be in work. Sleepily, he decided to answer the door first. He stood up, stretched, and unlocked everything while opening the door.

It was Riza, the look she gave him clearly stated that she wasn't expecting this. She fumbled her words, " Oh, um, g-good morning, Sir." She took a quick look at his ragged appearance, " Are you all right, Sir?" She knew she seemed to be asking that question a lot lately, but a lot has happened and she just wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything stupid, again.

Roy stretched, standing out of the way to let her in. He laughed slightly when he spoke, " I told you, I'm fine. I barely slept last night. Why are you here?"

Riza stepped inside, " We were worried about you, you're hardly ever late so we assumed something had happened and they all sent me out here to check up on you, sir." Actually, they drew a name out of a hat, but he didn't need to know that.

Roy smiled, realizing his mistake, " Sorry to make you come all the way out here. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be ready to go."

Riza nodded, leaning against a wall, " I'll be waiting outside." Roy nodded as he walked upstairs, still yawning and leaving Riza shaking her head as she walked outside.

It didn't take him long to get ready, she was surprised. he walked out of his home, looking as if nothing was wrong and he had just overslept. As they walked, he remembered what he had wanted to tell her.

" Hawkeye, I've got to tell you something." He said suddenly, startling her a bit.

She looked up at him with the usual look of concern, " What is it sir?"

He was silent for a few seconds before he responded, " Something's been troubling me, since yesterday. At the bar, there was a man playing pool. At first I didn't see his face very clearly, but when I did; he looked almost exactly like Hughes."

" But Sir, Hughes is dead."

Roy gave her astern look, " I know that, but then I asked him his name, and he didn't answer, but he knew my name."

Riza thought, " Perhaps it was a good guess?"

" That's what he said, but I don't believe him. Then I tested him, and just as he was about to leave I called him Hughes, and he responded!" While he talked he kept his gaze on the ground, glaring at it. Riza didn't know what to say.

" Sir, where are you going with this?" She finally asked.

He smirked, " It took me most of the night, but I think I've got a solution." He paused, sighing, " FullMetal claims that a homunculus is made during Human Transmutation, so--"

".. You think that Hughes is a homunculus?"

" Exactly."

She seemed to be determined to prove him wrong, " Sir, have you found any proof that supports this?"

Roy laughed, " You should know that I'm always prepared for these questions, Hawkeye. He knew my name, he looked exactly like Hughes, he even did that odd hand signal that Hughes always used." He knew that there was one piece of proof that he was missing though; the arborous. (A/N: I apologize if I spelled that wrong, if anyone can give me the proper spelling, please do so!)

Riza didn't argue as the reached HQ, she would have enough to deal with through out the day anyway. But still, she actually believed him despite her better intentions.

The day went by fairly normally. The Colonel was scolded many times about his paperwork, Fuery managed to find another small animal, and Riza left with a headache. Before she left she saw Ed go into the Colonels office, glaring at him. She felt compelled to listen at the door.

" Colonel, if you don't believe me--"

" What am I supposed to believe, FullMetal?"

" That there's another homunculus running around!"

Roy paused, " Well, give me a brief description and I'll send Havoc out tomorrow during his free time."

Ed, obviously still flustered, gave him a quick description, " Black hair, glasses, always wears gloves." He thought, " Actually, he looks a lot like Hughes. But I'm sure that it's the new Greed! If you need proof then the arborous is on his hand!"

Roy stopped writing, but all Riza heard was small gasp and a rather long pause. Ed had just proved their suspicions; Roy had created a homunculus in his attempt at bringing Maes Hughes back.

Ed soon came storming out, not realizing Riza was there.

" I'm sorry Ed!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, " Is that really how you lost your eye, Colonel Bastard!" Roy nodded. Ed scoffed in a frustrated tone, storming out of HQ.

Riza peeked into the office, " .. Sir?"

He looked up, " Oh, Hawkeye. Come on in."

She did warily, and before she could speak, Roy had to ask, " How much of that did you hear?"

She cast her gaze to the wall to her left, " Um... just enough to know that your theories are true Sir."

Roy sighed, leaning back in his chair, " What am I going to do? It's not like I can just confront this homunculus out of the blue."

Riza smiled, " You can't, but maybe I can." Riza told him of her idea, and they agreed on everything. They would execute the plan tomorrow; they both took the day off.

xXx

Riza was waiting for Roy outside of his home, dressed in normal clothing. A dark blue skirt that reached her knees, and a white shirt. When Roy emerged he was wearing almost the same thing he was the other day. Black dress pants, and a white formal shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. They exchanged hellos and went on their way, heading to the bar. During the normal hours, it was a restaurant for all, it became a bar at 5 PM. It was only 12:00, so they were good for a few hours.

" Sir, are you sure you got good information from Edward?" She asked while they waited outside the bar/restaurant.

Roy nodded, " We can trust FullMetal, don't worry." At that moment two figures came into their line of vision. A smiling woman, holding the hand of an excited young girl. Roy and Riza waved to the pair, " Hello Gracia, Elysia." Roy said happily.

Riza smiled, " Hello, it's nice to see you." She greeted.

Gracia smiled as Elysia became a bit shy, " Hello Roy, Riza." She picked up Elysia, " Elysia, do you remember these two?" She questioned. Elysia nodded shyly, but she smiled anyway.

Riza glanced up at Roy, but the returned her gaze to Gracia and Elysia, " Thanks for coming out today." She said, sounding very out of character.

Gracia just smiled, " It was no problem, thank you for inviting us." She aimed that last part more to Roy than Riza.

Roy nodded, this was going to go perfectly, well, if the suspected homunculus was there. Edward had told them of a way to make a homunculus vulnerable, so Roy planned on using Gracia and Elysia to make Greed talk.

xXx

While inside, Roy smirked as Greed proceeded to beat people at pool. He checked; it was like this all the time nowadays. Elysia pointed to the mob of people, " Mommy, somebody said a bad word!"

Riza couldn't help but smile, and Gracia did the same, " It's okay, just ignore those bad men, okay?" Elysia nodded, stabbing a piece of food with her fork and eating it.

Greed wiped his face with his sleeve, was it him or was he having an off day? Some punk had nearly beaten him earlier that day. As the current game went on, he lost. He could hardly believe it, what the hell was making him like this! He sighed, looking around the slightly crowded place. A small group of four caught his eye. Patchy? But who were the others with him? They all looked so familiar though, especially a woman and small girl. When the young child looked up from her plate, she saw him, watching them. He gave her an odd look before looking away.

Elysia gasped and looked up at her mother, tugging her sleeve roughly, " Mommy! Mommy!"

A bit startled, Gracia looked down at her, " What's wrong, Elysia?"

Elysia nearly stood up in her seat, " It's daddy mommy! Look, over there! He can go back to work now mommy!"

Gracia dropped the pen she was holding, " E-elysia, it can't be, remember? Daddy's gone sweetie." She said calmly, stroking her daughters hair. But Elysia strongly protested.

" Mommy! No! Daddy's right over there!"

Riza looked over at Roy, giving him a look that plainly said, ' Well, what now?' Roy didn't respond; he was waiting.

Gracia shook her head, " Elysia, lets go to the restroom for a minute." She took her daughters hand and stood up.

Elysia tried to pull away, but was dragged along anyway. As they passed the billiard table, Elysia managed to weasel out of her mothers grasp, running over to ' daddy' and tackling him. " Daddy!" She clung to his leg, not letting go.

" What the hell, get off of me!" He said trying to shake Elysia off.

Gracia gasped, " Elysia! Come back here now!" She scolded. " I'm sorry, sir!" She said, trying to coax her daughter away, though not looking at the man.

" No! I'm staying with daddy!" By then, Roy and Riza had quickly gotten up, this wasn't what was supposed to happen.

Gracia looked up at the man for the first time, and her eyes widened with pure horror. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. It couldn't be, her husband was dead! But...

She took a few steps back, bumping into Riza and looking from her to Roy. Elysia was confused, why was mommy so scared? " ... Mommy?" She questioned, now merely standing next to Greed. He was equally confused, who the hell were these people anyway?

" Look lady, take your kid." He half demanded, gesturing to Elysia.

Gracia was red faced as she turned to Roy, who didn't look surprised at all, " Roy, did you know about this? What's going on!" She pleaded, not bearing to look at Greed again as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Roy looked down at the floor and nodded, he knew he should've told her. " Gracia, technically, that is your husband, but it's also not."

Greed scratched his head, " Who the heck are you people?" He looked at Roy, " Patchy, didn't expect to see you again." He added.

Elysia smiled and clung to Greed's leg again, " Daddy, you're silly!"

Greed didn't know what to do. But just then, a thought struck his mind. Were these people his friends and family before his death? Gracia reached out to try to bring Elysia back, but was stopped, " No, it's okay." Greed interrupted with a sigh.

Needless to say Gracia was taken aback, " Oh, um.." She was still utterly confused, but, if what Roy had said was true, then she could trust this man. Couldn't she?

Roy shook his head, " Look, we know that you're a homunculus, but, shouldn't you remember us all?" He asked, folding his arms across his chest.

He wanted his questions answered first, but Patchy seemed determined. " That was a really stupid question, Patchy. I have absolutely no clue if I should or not." He recognized all of them, but those memories were buried pretty deep in his mind, so he couldn't grasp them easily. He wished he could though, especially for the little girls sake. She seemed totally convinced that he was her dad, and it made him feel bad despite the nature of being Greed.

Riza saw Roy reach for one of his gloves, but she didn't know why he was doing so. The homunculus seemed to be cooperating, was she missing something? She looked at Gracia, who seemed to have calmed down quite a bit. Occasionally the woman would call Elysia, but the young girl would always stay within a few feet of Greed.

" Daddy," Elysia said, " did you get hit on the head?" She asked innocently. She really sounded quite curious, obviously she knew that people sometimes had memory problems after getting a good blow to the head.

Gracia blushed, " Elysia!" She half scolded, half called, though not daring to get too close to Greed. Riza seemed to be the only one not keeping her attention focused on Greed. Poor Gracia...She thought, seeing tears beginning to well up in her eyes again. Was it because she was staring at her husband? Was it stress?

Greed merely cooperated with Elysia, " Um, yeah. Guess so." This was totally out of character for him, but, the kids innocent face was just too much. Finally, Elysia let go of his leg, beaming up at him. He looked from one person to another, and did the only thing he could do in order to get some time to mull things over. " I'm leaving." He said suddenly, gathering his coat from a bar stool and walking at a quick pace towards the door.

Elysia gave his retreating form a questioning look, but then called out, " Daddy, wait!" But he didn't stop. Elysia ran over to Gracia, " Mommy, why is sad?"

And that's where I'm going to cut off this rather long chapter. yeah, I know, the story's moving pretty quick. If all else fails I'll go back and edit both chapters later on. Thanks to all who reviewed, seriously, I love getting reviews.

I expect the next update will be sometime within the week, so please keep checking back! If it's not up by Friday, it'll be up sometime over the weekend.

I'm actually working on Chapter 3 as we speak!