Hiding behind its chosen pillar, Envy looked at the humans moving about in the courtyard. They were starting to clean up things, fixing damage and rounding up the survivors. Edward's manner looked like he was gathering a group to go back and fetch Envy. He took along with him Hawkeye but for some reason not Mustang. Instead, he seemed to reluctantly ask Major Alex Louis Armstrong to come with him, and the once again shirtless hunk enthusiastically agreed, bloody though he was. Scar was nowhere to be seen. The three seemed to be heading toward the huge hole in the ground that lead into Father's room. Envy got up and walked over to the other side of the pile of rubble to keep the rest of the people from seeing it for now. It then headed toward the hole as well. The ground was unstable, and once the first cracks had appeared on the stone floor under its feet, Envy moved further away from the edge of the hole. Once it saw Ed, Hawkeye and Armstrong, it waved at them in an eerily cheery manner.
Ed was obviously alarmed. Hawkeye aimed her rifle at Envy, while Armstrong took a fighting stance. Envy lifted its other hand as well and held them peacefully in plain view to signal that it was not going to get aggressive. It walked closer but stopped some six metres away from them to keep a safe distance.
"What are you doing here? I told you stay in the tunnels!" shouted Edward.
"No, you did not. But truth be told, I would still be there if you hadn't managed to form that enclosure around a rat hole!"
"You could've still stayed down there and not betray my trust!"
"You're going to have to hear the full version, aren't you, Fullmetal Alchemist? Fine. A rat harassed me, so I took control of it. Then a whole bunch of other rats teamed up on me, so I had to run away. I ran across some stray mannequin soldiers and took control of them. I literally cleaned them up for you so that they can't hurt others, so shouldn't you be more grateful? Besides, like this I can do something useful."
Ed had looked vaguely amused when Envy told of its adventures with the rats, but now he kept quiet for a moment while seeming to relax. "How long have you been watching us?"
"I came just in time to see Greed die. Just so you know, I hate you for killing Father and damn, shorty, you'd be in for a world of vengeful agony..." Envy's manner turned slightly more hostile but it was clearly just posing; it stayed in place and was pointing aggravatedly at Edward while making an angry and offended face. "But I'm willing to ...forget that and not bother you and your little friends," said Envy with obvious reluctance and managed to not add "for now" at the end of its promise. It would not dare to misbehave too seriously lest Mustang would come at it again, even if it meant having to play along with Ed. It thought it could suffer the boy in order to survive, as long as he did not start getting on its nerves too much. It then continued in a rather dismissive tone, though it sounded otherwise serious. "So there, consider this the first act on the road to achieving that trust and friendship that's bonding you weak humans together so strongly." Envy lowered its hands and placed them on its hips. Major Armstrong looked delightfully confused, which improved its mood slightly.
Edward did not know what to think either. Refraining from excessive gloating and attacking was hardly commendable, but for Envy it did mark a milestone.
"What was that?" came the voice of Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong as she appeared next to her brother. "Do we have one more enemy here?" she said as she drew her sword.
"Sister! You should b– –" This time Major General Armstrong did not even bother to voice a command, but instead immediately gave a swift kick to her brother's shin to make him shut up.
"No! Well, I don't think so, at least," said Ed, sounding unsure in the presence of the Major General.
"Are you sure? It's a homunculus. Shouldn't they be gotten rid of?" She started walking toward Envy, sword at the ready.
Envy brought its hands back up to signal its defensiveness and took a few steps back. "Hold on now, Major General! I'm not any use to you as dead or an enemy!"
"Oh, you imply you're not an enemy now? Are you then a 'traitor' like that Greed one?" Major General Armstrong stopped advancing but did not put away her sword.
"If that's what you want to call me. It wasn't my intention to betray Father, but obviously since he didn't succeed, his plan was bad. Now he's gone and I'm free to do whatever I wish, which includes not making the same mistakes as he."
"I see. What can you do?" Envy felt some confusion toward the sudden question. It could see the flabbergasted Ed behind the Major General, and both Hawkeye and Major Armstrong seemed speechless as well.
"Straight to the point, eh, Major General, sir?" Envy took the form of Major General Armstrong. She looked a little surprised but otherwise unfazed. Envy continued in her voice but using its unofficial tone and freer vocabulary. "In addition, I have great strength and other useful homunculi powers. And of course I know a great deal about different things but even you humans can do that. Like drawing a whole bunch of transmutation circles even if I can't use them and reciting this one guy's cookbooks, and so on." It saw Ed, Hawkeye and Major Armstrong changing their expressions into another kind of astonished one. "What? Even when bored, it isn't always fun to play with and kill people, you know. They'd run out or lose their will to live," it said to them.
Ed seemed pale. "I do NOT want to know why you know this..."
The Major General changed her stoic expression just slightly to a more satisfied one. She turned around and walked toward Ed's group again. Envy could have easily struck her in the back, or so it thought. It managed to restrain itself. "I'll take that thing with me when I leave," she said decisively, putting away her sword, and did not even stop to hear any protests but headed back toward the courtyard.
Even Envy was surprised, but Ed, Hawkeye and Major Armstrong were nearly thrown off their feet. "Eh? Major General Armstrong, you... ah... bwah..." Ed was so shocked that he could not come up with anything sensible to say. He turned his head between the departing Major General and Envy. "Uh, well, um, the tunnels down there are in danger of collapsing, right? Why don't you t-t-three go there and fix them and get rid of any of those mannequin soldiers and make sure that there are no people stuck in the ruins and... Bye!" Ed ran hastily after Major General Armstrong, leaving the confused Hawkeye and Major Armstrong behind.
"What's with the Major General?" asked Envy, mildly annoyed and wiggling its finger after her. "Just coming and laying claim like that?"
"Ohh, she is like that..." started Major Armstrong helplessly and did not finish.
"You'll have to ask her," said Hawkeye warily.
"Oh? Intriguing." Envy grinned again and its two guardians were uneasy. "Well now, you heard him. Are we going down or not? Or are you not taking orders from a child below your rank?" Major Armstrong looked at Hawkeye who was still aiming her rifle at Envy, though not in a truly serious manner.
Hawkeye thought the situation over. She had no idea what the Major General was thinking. The immediate issue at hand needed to be handled, and she considered herself to be one of the most qualified people to do it. While she did not trust Envy and would probably have played along just long enough to safely execute it, she knew that it would take too many shots now. She did not think that she could accomplish it even with the help of Major Armstrong. Therefore, she figured that the best choice would be to see if Envy actually kept its word; this far it seemed to genuinely believe that it had no other choice, so maybe, just maybe this situation could turn out for the better. Also, Edward's suggestion was not bad, since they would be out of the way in the tunnels and no one would see Envy around. "Let's go down then. I suggest you change into a soldier less conspicuous than the Major General." Hawkeye lifted the rifle to her shoulders again.
Envy sighed and changed itself into the soldier it usually posed as.
"Let's go. Major, can we use that pillar that you used to bring us up?"
"Yes, First Lieutenant," said Armstrong. They moved closer to the edge of the huge hole, as did Envy. It heard some cracks from the floor beneath it and looked at it, annoyed. It stopped a good distance from the edge of the hole when it saw the pillar that Armstrong had made. "Did you hear that? This floor is unstable." Armstrong knelt down on the floor and studied it for a moment before pressing his fists against it. The floor cracked and changed a bit, its structure becoming stronger. Its outward appearance improved, and unlike when most alchemists made or fixed something, the floor did not seem to have any kind of alchemical flaws.
"Can that pillar of yours withstand my weight, Major Armstrong?" asked Envy.
"Of course! The art of making sturdy pillars has been passed down in the Armstrong family for generations!"
"I weigh at least five times more than you."
"Absurd!"
"Try it if you don't believe! Go on, lift me." Armstrong accepted the challenge and walked toward Envy.
"Major..." started Hawkeye but did not finish. Instead, she kept her rifle ready.
"So untrusting!" commented Envy at Hawkeye and faced Armstrong.
Armstrong grabbed Envy by the shoulders and was rather surprised when his little tug did not manage to raise a body the size of a slender teenager. "What is this?" He tried a few more times, each time with more strength. Once his tugging had managed to shift Envy's centre of gravity a little, it decided to make him stop.
"Are you done? Now, can that pillar withstand the weight or not?"
Armstrong was extremely puzzled. "...Probably not."
"The service lift is this way." They climbed over the smallest wall of debris and entered the headquarters building. Major Armstrong fixed some damage along the way.
Envy wondered what had happened to Mustang. It had seen him standing around, seemingly unhurt, even though it was obvious that he had been made the fifth sacrifice. It did not think its guardians would tell it anything about that, but it could still try and make them uncomfortable. "It felt like Father managed to get the souls of Amestrians at one point, even if he lost them. Doesn't that mean that he did manage to force Mustang to perform human transmutation? Even after I specifically warned you about that?" Both Hawkeye and Armstrong were quiet. Envy grinned to itself. "I wonder what was taken from him. I do hope it was his tongue, or his cursed hands."
"Shut up!" exclaimed Hawkeye.
Envy flashed its grin at the two but then spoke to them agreeably. "Oh, fine."
They arrived at the lift and Envy took it down to the forbidden levels. They set out to fix the broken tunnels systematically, with Envy clearing the bigger collapses first to check that there were no humans under it, and then Armstrong fixing the damage with his alchemy.
They found a few more stray mannequin soldiers that Envy assimilated into its body. One of them even surprise attacked Hawkeye, who would have lost at least an arm or her life if Envy had not grabbed the mindless doll. Envy of course would rather have let her die but knew that it earned points by "saving" her. Hawkeye was just very uneasy about it.
