While Envy, Hawkeye and Major Armstrong left for the underground tunnels, Edward reached Major General Armstrong in the courtyard. "Major General! Please, I have to... say SOMETHING about..."
"Yes, what?"
"Um, what exactly did you mean when you said you'd... 'take him'? Do you seriously mean to take Envy with you to Briggs?"
"Envy, is that so? Yes. Are you telling me not to?" she asked, looming threateningly over Ed.
"Ehhh... no!" exclaimed Ed nervously. "But he's... problematic. He's a complete monster. I'm not sure what to think about his claim to achieve and have a trusting friendship. See, I figured out that he's incredibly envious about us humans since we're able to put aside our differences and trust each other and have loving relationships. He then said he wanted to have that too."
"Uh-huh. That does sound heinous."
"Er... I find it really hard to I believe him since he's tortured and killed people for fun before, but I guess I want to believe him. He did seem unusually non-violent now. I suppose I'm notorious for not wanting to kill anyone. I didn't even kill Pride! I pulled his true form out of that shell of his and left it in a safe place. But um, I guess my point is that Envy's dangerous. Really dangerous. So far he's been helpless against just Mustang's flames and when his Philosopher's Stone was directly destroyed."
"So you're saying that I need to have a quick and sure way to get rid of him if he causes the slightest trouble?"
"Maybe... sort of... yes. It's really, really easy to set him off by insulting him somehow but he's really dangerous too. Still, he's not a skilled fighter, and instead of doing what's efficient, he likes to gloat about his atrocities and tries way too much to insult people."
"I see. Does freezing him work?"
"...Well, yes, it should."
"Good." Major General Armstrong left again, considering the matter closed.
Ed could not help feeling like the situation was just a massive powder keg waiting to go off. Nonetheless, he was happy that he had not forced himself to kill Envy or have it killed by someone else. He only hoped that he would not have to regret that. He then remembered leaving Pride in Father's room and promptly left to get the miniature baby out of there.
During the rest of the day, the following night and the next day, medical and non-medical staff alike worked overtime to recover and take care of those injured in the battle. On the evening of the next day, all relevant people had been patched up, and Mustang could hold his meeting to discuss the future. One topic concerned Envy.
Besides Mustang, some of the people who were present included Edward, Major General Armstrong, Major Armstrong, Hawkeye and Lieutenant General Grumman who was to become the next Führer.
"The next on our list of extremely unpleasant issues is that other homunculus who survived... who Edward let live," said Mustang. "It's called Envy, and it's a shapeshifter. Besides Father, it seems to be the worst one of them. Among other things, it was the one who started the Ishval Civil War by impersonating an Amestrian soldier and shooting an Ishvalan kid, and the one who murdered Hughes." Mustang paused and took a slow breath to calm himself. "Now, does anyone besides Edward have any reason to let the thing live, or can we finally stop this farce and execute it?"
"Um, maybe we could put it in prison for a few decades?" suggested Ed.
"More like forever."
"You're not going to do anything to it. I'm going to take it with me to Briggs," said Major General Armstrong. Everybody turned to look at her.
"What!" shouted Mustang. Once he realised that he was screaming at a higher ranking officer, he changed his tone. "Surely you must be joking, Major General."
"I am not."
"That thing can't be trusted! It's made of sadism and deceit."
"It seems as if you're still mad about your murdered friend. Do recall how many friends of others you killed in Ishval. Grieve him all you wish but do not complain because your friend was special."
"That war was its fault too. And before you say that it might have started the war but we kept it going, do remember that the Führer-homunculus just fed the flames, leaving no choice but being a murderer or a deserter."
"Yes, it was an unfortunate situation and sadly no one realised that until it was too late. Was that supposed to change my mind?"
"...Are you going to pretend that it never did those things? That it isn't a sadistic murderer?"
"While I don't have a reason to doubt your words, your words are the only thing I have. I'd rather take this extraordinary chance than waste it because you claim this homunculus is a horrible monster and can't change or work with us."
"That thing is going to kill you and all of your subordinates if you take it to Briggs."
"I don't think so. But if it matters that much to you, I give you permission to tell me 'I told you so' if it doesn't work out."
"I don't want to say that to you, ever, Major General! I want that you and the Briggs soldiers survive."
"Why do you want this Envy, Armstrong?" asked Grumman.
"He's an unmatched impersonator and would be immensely useful for me. We could find out for good what those bastards in Drachma are planning or even root out their will to fight and help them become a better nation that we can trade with."
"And you think he will agree to do that for you?"
"He will never," said Mustang. "The second you let him loose, if he can even hold it in that long, he'll change face and murder you all."
"Hold your tongue. Let me recall... what was that he wanted? 'To have a trusting friendship' like us humans? It is a steep price indeed, and I shall make my best effort to prevent him from reaching that goal," she said sarcastically before looking at Mustang in a clearly serious manner. "Mustang, if it seems like that is what it takes to get him on our side, I have no problem letting him try to have that. If he still betrays us, I suppose you will have no choice but to teach me flame alchemy so I can deal with my error."
Hawkeye looked concerned now, and Mustang did not like the direction of the conversation. "While I can't truly oppose the idea of teaching you flame alchemy just so you could once again burn through that abomination, you should not think alche– –"
"Colonel Mustang!" stated Major General Armstrong forcefully. "I grow tired of hearing your babble. It is obvious that you resent the homunculus for murdering your friend and indirectly manoeuvring you into a miserable position in Ishval. You will not make my decisions for me. I will decide whether or not to take Envy with me. You will live with my decision just like you live with yourself."
"I literally will not live long if you let that abhorrent creature loose!"
Major General Armstrong gave Mustang one of the most evil eyes many of the others had ever seen. Of course, the only thing Mustang himself noticed was that the surroundings suddenly got unnervingly quiet. He did hear some anxious-sounding breathing from his colleagues.
Grumman was also unaffected since he was sitting next to Major General Armstrong and was not looking at her face at the moment. "She's giving you the evil eye, isn't she? She is, indeed," he said. "Okay, you both have good points. I don't know this Envy and I suspect I really don't want to, either. That said, I shall let Armstrong take full responsibility of her decision and the homunculus. If you let that thing wreak havoc in Briggs, I'm going to be very angry with you."
"That will not happen, Lieutenant General."
"I do hope so. So, what's next on our list of unpleasantries?" he asked and smiled at the dumbfounded Mustang.
Later, Mustang tried to get Grumman to order Armstrong to give up on Envy, but the Lieutenant General did not want to discuss the issue any further.
#-#
Envy spent two full days clearing out the rubble while soldiers who knew what it was kept a close eye on it. Nearly all of them stared at it with a look of fear and confusion that worsened each time it grinned widely at them. It found the reaction relatively funny. It discovered and saved a few people from the ruins, though it did not bother to treat one victim with a broken spine with enough care and ended up killing him almost unintentionally. However, no one seemed to care as they thought that the guy had been beyond repair already and would have died regardless of who had handled him.
While working, Envy performed all its physical jobs very mechanically and spent most of its attention on thinking about its future. How would it get along with the humans without trying to get them to fight each other? Edward and his friends were an exception after all; most people would fall for its taunts if it instigated them. It decided to go for as much ambiguity as it could for now and see if that worked. And maybe make them fight just a little.
Envy also thought about its goal and decided to try its luck with befriending humans. While it did consider them to be despicable lower lifeforms, they did have their uses and some could certainly be less annoying than others – it thought it could maybe come to appreciate some of them for that. It decided to pick out more tolerable humans to befriend first. Trying to be friends with everyone would just be creepy, and plenty of humans were obviously too insufferable. If the ones that it thought were more tolerable did not work out, it could always widen its views.
Near the evening of the third day, Major General Armstrong, her little brother and Edward sought out Envy in the mostly repaired tunnels near Father's room. Envy was explaining the layout of the unknown tunnels to two very uneasy soldiers.
The Major General spoke first to them. "Leave us." The two promptly straightened up, saluted her and scurried away. She then turned to Envy. "I have some questions for you. Will you come with me to Fort Briggs?"
"Hm? Is there another choice?"
"Not really," said Ed in a quiet tone.
While it did not like that it was essentially forced to bend to the humans' will, it thought that there were worse places to which it could have been told to go. "Hmph. Fine, I'll come. You want me to be one of your soldiers, is that it, Major General, sir?"
"Yes. You seem to be familiar with how the military works."
"Well sure, I've been pulling some strings around here for about a hundred and fifty years."
Major General Armstrong took a sterner look. "If I need you to pull strings, I might send you to spy in Drachma, but that's not going to happen for some time. I hear you're quite the instigator. I need you to hold in your demagoguery in Briggs, though truth be told, I don't mind if you 'test' the loyalty of my soldiers. Just make sure you don't ruin them."
"Are you suggesting that I should pose as random soldiers or other Briggs soldiers?"
"No. I don't care how you present yourself to others. If you do use your powers to mess with the soldiers, they will eventually catch on to the fact that there's a shapeshifter around. In addition, I have already told about you to some of my soldiers. Inside Fort Briggs, there's no point or need in keeping it secret that you're a shapeshifter. However, I do require you and everyone else to keep that piece of information inside the Fort."
"Hmph. You know what, I'm done pretending to be a human. I'll rather be myself for most of the time."
"You don't mean your... HUGE..." started Ed, looking a little pale with a touch of you're-doing-it-wrong.
"Of course not, Fullmetal Bean!"
Ed growled something about a maggot, but Major General Armstrong spoke over him. "Your huge what?"
"True form." Envy made a small jump into the air and landed on the tunnel floor, making it crack slightly. "See, heavier than I look. You better fix that, Fullmetal. Or is it Halfmetal now?"
Ed still growled a bit but before he could say anything, Major Armstrong cut in front of him. They had seen it more beneficial to not let Envy know that Edward could no longer perform alchemy. "Oh no, you mustn't exert yourself, Edward Elric! Let me handle this." He pushed his fists on the floor and fixed the cracks.
"You have a true form? Just how large is it?" asked Major General Armstrong.
"You want to see?"
"No!" shouted Ed. "We really... don't... uh..." Major General Armstrong glared him silent.
"Yes," she said.
"Well then! Let's get out of here, this tunnel is far too small."
Envy led them into a bigger tunnel and then an even bigger tunnel close by. It also checked that no one was within seeing or hearing distance. "Are you ready, humans?" it asked, grinned and started changing. Ed looked just inconvenienced since he had seen the transformation before, but Major Armstrong's expression of dread, horror, shock and disgust was exceptionally enjoyable to Envy. Major General Armstrong mostly kept her cool, though even her face clearly showed that she was surprised and at the least somewhat disturbed by the sight of a green, vaguely lizard-like eldritch abomination partially composed of moving and transforming corpses. "Ha ha ha!" it laughed with a voice that sounded like it had too many speakers. Yet some bodies on its neck and shoulders kept on going with their own, mostly inane lines. "You should see your face, Major!" The Armstrongs were still left speechless.
"I think that's enough," commented Ed. He was somehow trying to keep an eye on Envy while trying to not actually look at it.
"Yes, sadly, one can only shock a person once like this." Envy then started shrinking and changing.
"Are you kidding me? I'm shocked every damn time!"
"And am I not glad about it?" it asked with a wide grin as it shifted into its preferred form. It then walked back to the others, stretching its arms behind its back. It looked curiously at them while waiting for them to do something.
"Do make sure I never have to see that again. Do you need to eat?" asked Major General Armstrong after a short moment. Envy giggled at the sudden change in topic but did not have time to reply. "Do NOT giggle like that at me," said Major General Armstrong threateningly.
Envy pretended to be surprised by the sudden change in tone. "Oy, sir! No, I don't absolutely need to eat. But I think I will. Food is nice, no?" The real reason was that Envy actually got energy for itself from food and thus would not need to use its Stone just to maintain its body. Of course, eating meant having to maintain a digestive system, which was bothersome, but the lesser of two inconveniences in this case.
"Interesting. Do you need to breathe?"
"Yes." Again, Envy knew well enough that it could survive without air for some time, but that meant that it would "die" and consume its Stone.
"Do you need to sleep?"
"No. I like sleeping sometimes anyway."
"Does cold damage you?"
"Not much."
"You can't... 'eat' the souls of living people like Father, can you?" Ed cut in.
"Of course not, don't you think I would have done that several times already if I could? Only Father and Pride could do that, and even they usually didn't. Eating people's souls directly like that is terribly inefficient. If it wasn't, we wouldn't need anyone to make Philosopher's Stone!" Edward looked like he had heard too much.
"Are you going to betray me or Fort Briggs at any point in the future?" asked Major General Armstrong.
Envy raised an eyebrow at the directness of the question. It knew that it had to say no, but the manner of saying it meant much as well. It settled for a simple statement after looking decisively and seriously at the Major General for a moment. "No."
"If it turns out you lied, I will learn flame alchemy and hunt you down personally." Envy frowned and showed an offended face, obviously unhappy about the threat. It folded its arms on its chest. "Otherwise you're free to do whatever you wish to reach your own goal."
"That must come with other conditions like 'don't kill people' and 'don't force them to make Philosopher's Stone' and 'you must wear a military uniform'."
"Yes. That outfit won't do."
"Hm, you know, I might as well make myself a complete default form and wear real clothes."
"Real clothes?" asked Ed. "What do you call that then?" He pointed at Envy's outfit.
"A part of my body. What, did you think I could regenerate objects that are not my body? This is not real cloth," it said and stretched the front of its skirt-like piece of clothing with its hands. It then made it longer for a moment.
"So you're actually naked all the time?"
Envy just grinned in response as it let go of the "cloth" and placed its hands on its hips.
"You'll get a uniform when we get to Briggs. Until then, wear yourself," said Major General Armstrong.
"Hmm." Envy's body started crackling and reducing its mass to its minimum limit. "What rank am I going to be?"
"Warrant Officer."
"Heh heh." Envy then generated the appropriate uniform but left itself otherwise unchanged, at least based on its body type and face.
Ed became critical immediately. "That's it? You're going to go around looking like that? You still look like a teenager and you didn't get rid of that thing on your forehead or your eyes... you didn't even make yourself any taller!"
"Ha ha!" exclaimed Envy amusedly, leaned toward Ed and waved its fingers at him. "What is it with you and your shortness issues? Height isn't everything, you know. I find it more convenient to be shorter than most, pipsqueak." Ed gnarled and stared at it hostilely. "As for these things," it said and pointed at its still slitted and violet eyes and forehead where the red nodes were. "They're a part of my true form. I said I was done pretending to be a human. Human-like is enough."
"That's good enough for me, though I imagine you'll face plenty of questions about your age," said Major General Armstrong. "How old are you really?"
"A hundred and seventy-something. But it's not like that matters."
Major General Armstrong thought about what Envy had said for a moment. It did act like an immature preteen for most of the time, even if it was obvious that it knew much more and could hold a serious conversation about at least some topics without throwing a fit. Yet it seemed to expect people to treat it like a respected elder of superior intellect. Once one knew what it was and how much it really did know, it was easy to give it that extra lenience and ignore its presented age and impoliteness in favour of its real age and experience, at least up to a point. Even Armstrong herself noticed that she had not bothered to react on its childishness. "Are you a man or a woman?"
Envy made a small uninterpretable frown. "No."
"Hm. You need to hide your strange facial features in public."
Edward cut in again. "But, if you're going to look like that in Fort Briggs, aren't the soldiers going to notice you're not human right away? What will they think then?"
"They will deal with it," stated Major General Armstrong matter-of-factly.
"See? I like this attitude," commented Envy to Ed.
"They're going to make fun of you," said Ed.
Envy's expression changed into an annoyed one and it straightened itself. "Not for long." It looked at the Major General. "Are there any more questions? When do we leave?"
"I'm done." Major General Armstrong dug a watch out of her pocket and checked the time. "Mmm... we leave now."
"That was fast. Warrant Officer Envy ready to leave, sir!"
Major General Armstrong signalled that they should leave and started walking back toward the lift. Envy walked after her, and Major Armstrong and Edward followed it.
#-#
Author notes: And now for shapeshifter science! (Feel free to not read the following if you're not interested. It doesn't have much to do with the story directly, but it explains in detail a certain change I made with respect to the manga. Scroll to the end if you want to see just the outcome.)
The reason I wrote this is because Envy's weight and change of size were handled very inconsistently in the manga and anime, even if they had tried to make it reasonable by saying that Envy's mass doesn't change. I could ignore it while enjoying the series, but when I write, I just couldn't let it go! I literally couldn't write for days until I got this mass thing figured out. I need an explanation that is reasonable enough for myself.
So yeah, Envy's mass is problematic. Its true form is obviously larger than an elephant and seems to be about one-fifth to one-tenth of that of a blue whale. A large elephant weighs over 10000 kg and has a volume of 10 m³. A blue whale weighs 200000 kg and has a volume of 200 m³. Yes, I'm blatantly assuming that animals have the average density of water, 1000 kg/m³. Still, the size of Envy's true form seems to change in the manga from a fifth of a whale to a small elephant, and in the anime even more. The change might be due to its Philosopher's Stone diminishing, but I can't really say.
From a consistent point of view, I could declare that for Envy's true form, its (maximum) volume is about one-tenth of that of a blue whale: 20 m³. With a normal density, its mass would be 20000 kg. A human-sized form of that mass would be incredibly hard to move around, even if I said that Envy can construct its tissues so that they're extra durable. That of course would mean that in a small form, it wouldn't be nearly as vulnerable to physical attacks as it seems. Anyway, it needs to have less weight than a mammal of regular density to be able to manoeuvre quickly even with a durable physique, so I say its (minimum) density would be one-fifth of water, about 200 kg/m³. This would bring its (maximum) mass to 4000 kg.
Even if Envy "only" weighed 4000 kg, that kind of weight in a human-sized being results in massive destruction of furniture and buildings. Just consider that if it stands on two feet, each foot would have a weight of over 2000 kg (the weight of a personal car) on it, and a foot has a rather small area. That's massive pressure on a very small spot right there. Lighter things can break through floors. When running, it would shatter pavement and get stuck in softer ground.
A regular person could have a mass of about 50 kg and thus a volume of about 0,05 m³. Envy in human form, with a mass of 4000 kg and a volume of 0,05 m³, would have a density of 80000 kg/m³. The densest natural element is osmium with 22600 kg/m³, the density of Earth's core is 13000 kg/m³ and the core of the Sun is 150000 kg/m³. I don't think that kind of density is going to work.
Therefore, I'll declare is that Envy's true size depends on its Philosopher's Stone, so that its mass can be smaller if it doesn't have enough Philosopher's Stone. This leads to Envy being able to change its mass. (Well, mass is energy as per E=mc². Watch me flap my hands.) Besides, the homunculi regenerate their bodies out of the Philosopher's Stone anyway, thus creating mass out of energy. There could be a rule that regeneration is the only instance when energy-mass transformation occurs, and that Envy always regenerates into its original mass. Then the massive density and mass problem would remain, which is not good. I could also say that Envy weighs just 600 kg (which I'm thinking is a "reasonable" mass that doesn't hinder it immensely) and that its true form is a lot less dense than water. However, then it would just get blown away by strong winds, be incredibly squishy and fragile and wouldn't be able to hold people down in its true form.
Regeneration seems to be rather slow, so I'll say that the conversion of Philosopher's Stone into mass is slow and vice versa even slower and more difficult. That is why Envy does it very rarely, and most of the time it just weighs around 1000–500 kg. I think saying that 400 kg is its minimum weight would be a decent arbitrary limitation. (Why should this limitation be there, though? I like having it, but that's not a very good reason.) I think I'll also declare that its maximum density is 50000 kg/m³. Then its minimum volume would be 0,008 m³ which is a normal volume for a mammal weighing 8 kg (say, a large housecat). Also, when it's dismembered but doesn't regenerate properly and instead shifts into a new form that's complete even without the regeneration, mass is assumedly lost. This means that it can lose mass without converting it to Philosopher's Stone first.
But if the energy is specifically soul energy, how does energy from mass convert into souls? Then again, how does soul energy convert into mass? Okay, now it's maybe better to just leave it and say that souls are awesome and it happens, full stop.
In summary: Envy can change its mass. Its minimum mass is 400 kg and maximum mass 4000 kg. Its minimum volume is 0,008 m³ and maximum volume 20 m³. Its minimum density is 200 kg/m³ and maximum density 50000 kg/m³.
End of author notes