"How the hell are you guys still alive!?!" Ed shouted.

"Alive. That's a funny way to put it; isn't that right, Sloth?" Envy replied

"My boy, we were never truly alive. But I see what you're getting at."

Edward gritted is teeth, he had killed Sloth once…and knew Envy was sacrificed when they created the gate nearly a year ago. But this didn't make any sense; none whatsoever.

"Don't you get it, Elric? We were revived—again!" Envy exclaimed.

"But why would anyone want to revive you two…again?!"

"Why? Hm. Well, the question is—why not?"

"Because you're mistakes! You destroy everything and everyone in your path just for the fun of it!"

"That's exactly why we were revived." Sloth added.

"Who? Who revived you?"

"Who, what, where, when, why? Is this 20 questions or are we going to get to business?" Envy taunted.

Edward clenched his fists, and Al put his hand on Ed's left shoulder.

"We can defeat Envy any day."

"But what about your thing with—her."

"We'll deal with that when we have to…" Al sighed and removed his hand from his brother's shoulder.

Ed nodded, agreeing—and yet not.

"So, the battle begins?" Mustang asked.

"Hell yeah!" Ed exclaimed, and they all got into a fighting position.

The homunculi leaped from the second level to the first, taking them up for their challenge.

And so the battle began. Edward was greeted by Envy quickly, but Ed dodged every blow Envy shot at him. Envy was furious with that, but before he could do anything, General Mustang was on his tail. Ed noticed Al observing, and he motioned Al to help Mustang fight Envy. Al was about to protest when Sloth arrived. She began attacking Al—with Al simply dodging—but Ed wasn't going to just stand by and watch!

Ed jumped by Al and pushed him towards Envy and Mustang.

"Go!" He shouted, as he blocked Sloth's swipes with his auto-mail arm.

"But—"

"Just go!" Ed ordered.

Against his wants, Al turned and began fighting Envy with Roy.

With Al out of the way, Ed could freely demolish Sloth once more. He knew he had the guts, since he killed her once before; that was there to comfort.

Ed gasped under his breath. He forgot; the only remains he had were gone. They were used against her years ago and disappeared either when she died last or when Wrath was sacrificed for the gate. Shit. He wouldn't be able to kill her yet, but the least he could do was stall her until him or the others thought of another plan.

Sloth slashed at Edward several times, hitting him every time.

"She's gotten faster…" Ed thought to himself. (A/N: Lol the first time I typed that it said "She's gotten fatter…" *easily amused*)

"Something on your mind…son?"

"Shut it, I'm not your son!" Ed shouted, taking a couple swings at her.

"Ooh, touchy. That's no way to treat your mother—neither a lady."

"You're not even real!"

"Oh really?" Sloth began. She turned her right arm into liquid and shoved it in Edward's mouth, blocking his throat from air.

Ed was choking, and Sloth transformed her other arm into liquid as well and wrapped it around his body.

"How real does this feel, my boy?" She asked, taunting him.

Ed shot her a glare and held his breath—of what he already had of course.

"You can't last forever, Edward." She sang.

"This is gonna be disgusting…" Ed thought to himself as he began to swallow the liquid arm of Sloth's.

"What the hell?!" Sloth exclaimed.

"I'd explain if I didn't have freaking waterish shit down my throat!" Ed shouted in his thoughts.

Sloth whipped her arm out of his mouth and when it transformed back to normal, her hand was missing.

"You…ate my hand!?"

"I believe I drank it…And if you don't get your slimy arm off of me, I'll do more damage." Ed smirked.

Disgusted, she took back her other arm and transformed it to normal.

"That's what I thought."

Sloth transformed fully to water and slithered over to Envy.

"What is it, Sloth? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"We need to go." She said, showing him her arm.

"Damn, the fun was just beginning."

"You're not going anywhere!" Mustang shouted, snapping his flame at them.

"Until next time!" Envy shouted.

The flame exploded where they were.

For a moment, Edward thought it actually hurt them, until the smoke cleared.

"They're…gone?" Al asked.

"Yup."

"FullMetal?"

"What?"

"What the hell did you do?"

"I…kinda drank Sloth's hand." O.o

"You drank her hand!?" Al exclaimed.

"Well I had to breathe!"

"…Well we'll NEVER forget this moment, aye Alphonse?"

"No way, Sir." Al replied, sarcastically.

Ed glared at them. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to barf me out some homunculi."

"That's something you don't hear every day…"

The next morning, Edward wasn't feeling too good. Mustang had him stay in the dorms and have Alphonse watch over him. Today was their unexpected day off.

"Brother, are you alright? What exactly is wrong?" Alphonse asked, concerned.

"I feel like I'm gonna explode!" Ed shouted angrily.

"Did you eat too much again?" Al sweat dropped.

"NO!"

"Then what is it?"

"I dunno!"

Al grunted, his brother surely was sick, but what frustrated him was that he couldn't figure out what it was.

"Food poisoning?"

"I haven't eaten since yesterday morning! If it was poisoning, I would've noticed yesterday!"

"Well, I'll go get a doctor then." Al said, stopping his brother from going on a rant.

When Al left the room, Ed felt he'd lost the only help line he had.

He had no freaking idea what was wrong with him—he's never felt like this before, so he was confused.

His stomach ached, his head throbbed, his heart pounded off beat and he felt like something was going to shoot out of his flesh.

This was all new to him, at least out of nowhere like this.

Ed gripped his stomach with his left hand, hoping that would help him cope with the pain.