Ugh, this chapter was a pain to write. I had to rewrite a couple times cuz I didn't like how it turned out and what I got was…this. Please don't hate me too much for this chapter, I reaaaaally suck at writing fighting scenes. And I've been making you wait so long for such a crappy chapter, but pleeeease don't hate me :(

And yes, I'M ALIVE!

Ed scrambled out of his seat, nearly knocking it over, and Al and Hoenheim followed him as he ran full speed toward the corridor where the scream seemed to have originated.

The scene that stood before them startled the two boys, and even Hohenheim was surprised. After living for more than a couple centuries, nothing was supposed to surprise you, but of course, life never follows rules.

The previously dank and empty corridor was covered with vines, leaves, and flowers. Every inch of the golden brown stones were covered with leaves, twitching in surprise at the sudden arrival of three new people. Flowers lifted themselves off the floor, and turned to the attacker, as if waiting for an order. Ed was unnerved by the rich blood red color the flowers were.

Three of the students huddled in the corner of the room, struck with fear. One of them, Hermione, whimpered in terror. The leaves twitched and Hermione shrieked again. Ron reflexively wrapped an arm around her, although his eyes were just as afraid. The leaves twitched again as the vines slithered toward the two boys. They reminded Harry horribly of the snakes that he'd think Voldemort would have at his side.

"Nice, aren't they," the silhouette of a girl said. Her fingers brushed against her lips as she looked fondly at the vines and branches that were twisting up her other arm affectionately.

"Heh," Ed chuckled scornfully. The girl, Rose, not to his surprisement, looked questionably at Ed.

"What? Did you really fall for my lie?" Rose asked. "Hm, and I was berating myself yesterday for making such a horribly done lie. Maybe your brain is proportionate to your size."

"Oh, no, it's not that. It's just that we can't believe you'd attack so soon," Al said, covering up Ed's mouth as he turned red as he waved his fists and legs angrily in the air. He didn't like the comment about his size much.

Ed managed to pry Al's hand off, snickered and said, "I guess my brain is proportionate, after all, I'm so smart and tall. Smart enough to realize that you just dyed your hair so we didn't realize you're the opposite of the Rose we met in Lior."

"Not bad, Envy ordered me to when he found out that you had arrived." Rose grinned. "Just like how he ordered me to attack."

She relished the looks of her opponents' faces as she said the forbidden name to them, 'Envy.' "But, since I've got all the time in the world, being immortal, and since I've got three innocent lives in my hands, why don't we talk a bit? Like about how you knew that I wasn't Sloth."

"You obviously made up it on the spot. You knew you shouldn't say who you really are, just like Envy told you, perhaps," Ed said, "You hesitated after you said the first 'S..' It's nothing an amateur would notice. Of course, if you're in or were in the Amestris military, as Envy knows full well, you have to stay on guard at all times."

"Not bad, not bad at all," Rose laughed lightly, "but even if you did know that, you still can't stop me."

Ed, before anybody noticed, clapped his hands with a thundering sound and a large rock shaped spike shot out of the ground. With a small 'Oh,' it stabbed right into Rose's stomach. Her blood splattered on the stone; the shapes reminded the brothers of the flowers. Many of the vegetation closer to her had been soaked with her blood, leaving an eerie feel.

The vines and such all fell limp.

Although Harry was quite glad that their lives weren't in danger anymore, they couldn't help but feel that Ed had gone too far. Apparently Hermione felt the same way, by the way she paled and yelped. Hermione tightened her already painful grip on Ron. Ron swore that it was bleeding by that time.

"..Y-you d-did-n't h-ha-have t-ta go th-that far," Hermione stuttered, as she clutched Ron's shirt tightly with h.

"Waait for it," Ed said, eyes trained on Rose. "Just watch. She'll come back alive."

"Darn.. I was hoping to kill them before you mentioned that. Guess I didn't move fast enough, eh?" Rose giggled. She made motion - she swung her arms in an 'X' shape in front of her as if she was cutting something - and the vines crumbled the rock as if it was nothing more than paper.

"Hmm," Rose said, feigning thoughtfulness, "I do recall saying that we were supposed to be just talking, no fighting or anything violent like that. Really, boys these days. They don't listen to a word anyone says these days. Especially that Mustang, if what Envy told me was true, which I'm supposing is."

"Don't talk about that Bastard like that! He might be shit, but he's still a hundred times better than you," Ed yelled angrily, pointing a finger at Rose.

She yawned, looking unimpressed.

If Harry hadn't been so scared that he nearly pissed in his pants, he would have sweat-dropped. What kind of person was insulted a person while defending them...

Ed went on, "Of course he is a hell of a bastard, but he still did his best to help Amestris."

"If you're done," Rose yawned, "can we got on with this?"

She extended her arm without waiting for an answer. The vines and branches moved forward with amazing agility and attacked Ed before he was prepared. He grunted from the pain as some vines scraped his skin as he dodged. That was the moment that he realized that there were small thorns on the vines that weren't there before. He let out a low chuckle as he wiped some of the blood of his right cheek.

"Surprised?" Rose giggled. "I bet you didn't think I'd be able to grow thorns that quickly."

"Surprised?" Ed asked, repeating the question. "Of course not. I'm just laughing at the fact that your plants are so much weaker than Russel Tringham's of Amestris. I don't have to worry about them. In fact, they should be an insult to anyone who uses plants as their alchemic power."

"What...did...you...say!?" Rose screeched. She leapt forward like a cat, forgetting about her powers and her plants. Anger clouded her senses and movements. Ed took advantage of that and jumped out of the way at the last minute. She managed to stop herself before she crashed into the wall behind him. She turned back to Ed and Al and they noticed that she cooled down a bit.

Ed went right back to making her mad.

"Even a monkey could have done that," Ed scoffed. "In fact, a monkey might actually be able to come in contact with me. And really, that reaction after just a liiittle insult. I think you'd do better as Pride."

Rose blanched, "That idiot? Puh-lease, anybody who knows him would hate him. Kind of like you."

The three students stayed huddled together, watching the insults back and forth between the two enemies. Al shook his head sadly. Really, his brother being so reckless...not to mention idiotic.

"Can you back up your words?" Rose hissed..

She leaped at him again and this time, with the back up of plants. Al clapped his hands and a slab of rock that seemed to just sprout from the ground crushed the plants. Ed, this time, was preparing himself to face Rose as he expected her to turn and face him. However, Rose feinted running too fast again. Her hand stuck out from her sides and the vines shot out from inside her sleeves.

Ed gasped as he attempted to dodge. He managed to dash out of the way of most of them, but one of the vines managed to scrape his arm. He grunted at the pain. He glanced at his arm quickly, to estimate the damage done. Blood had soaked his red coat. He shuddered as he felt another dose of pain flow through him. His right arm was destroyed. There were shards of metal and wires scattered around the ground.

"Do you like it?" Rose giggled. "Some of the vines are coated with poison. And some of the flowers can release a pollen that can paralyze you."

"Brother!" Al cried. He clapped his hands, in an attempt to attack Rose. Suits of armor had clumsily begun to move toward her.

She laughed and said, "Do you really think that these tin cans can really defeat me?"

She easily dodged the first few attacks and crumpled the rest of the advances even without her plants. As she was focusing on the job at hand, she noticed a large blue flash that thundered through the room. She couldn't tell where it had originated, but she could see the trail that the blue light was following and the black outline that was left behind. She tossed some of the armor that was in her line of vision. She froze. She recognized this pattern, this array.

It was Flamel's, the one of the only things that could kill a homunculus. (1)

She whipped a hand out in Al's direction. He was startled and tried to duck out of the way, but it managed to hit him in his torso. Ed stared helplessly as he saw his brother fall as a curtain of blood flowed out of the wound.

"AL!" Ed cried as his brother landed with a dull thud on the ground. Rose turned to him, a feral grin curling on her lips.

Ed didn't move. His eyes were trained on Al's lifeless body. The stinging of his wound brought him back to reality and he looked up to see green vines darting straight at him. His eyes widened as he looked for an exit route. No hand-clapping form of alchemy, no time to draw an array, nowhere to run. He was screwed. He looked at his attackers again, only to find them plopping to the ground.

"Wha-?" Ed gasped. He looked back at Rose. There was a golden chain hung on her arm. Her eyes were also wide in astonishment. She couldn't move. She was frozen in place.

"Ed! Don't do anything rash!" a voice rang from the entrance.

"You're late," Ed spat angrily.

"Well a hero always shows up at the last minute, doesn't he?" Hohenheim smiled slightly.

"Don't talk about something so useless right now! Al's in trouble!" Ed growled.

"Take him to the infirmary," Hohenheim said. "I'll deal with Suicide here."

Ed hesitated a second, before dashing off to Al's aid. He was relieved when he heard Al's breathing, labored and shallow, but it meant he hadn't died…yet. Ed shifted him onto his shoulder, to transport him to the Infirmary, where hopefully, Madam Pomfrey would be able to heal him.

"Brother…" Al coughed.

"Don't say anything, save you breath."

"Don't," Al coughed again, "kill h-her."

Ed seemed to forget about getting him to the Infirmary, and just stared at Al oddly.

"Homunculi, - "a fit of coughing, "change after - " another cough, "the shards leave their body."

Ed looked at his brother again and sighed.

"Dad, just get the Stone shards out, don't kill her…yet," Ed commanded, still staring at Al, "but make sure she doesn't move, just in case."

Hohenheim nodded, and activated the array as Ed ran to the Infirmary.

Ed paced around the hospital ward. Back and forth. Right, left, right, left. He growled under his breath at the stupid Al who was too noble for his own good, at the stupid homunculi, who were too annoying for their own good, and at the stupid nurse who didn't let him see Al. Something about making sure he could relax properly.

"The nurse still isn't letting us in?" a deep voice asked from across the corridor.

"You! You fucking liar!" Ed growled, pointing an accusing finger at Hohenheim. "You said that the Philosopher's Stone would react and heal Al!"

"I never said that," Hoenheim muttered. He looked sadly at the closed doors. "I said there still was the chance. But now that I think about it, the Philosopher's Stone might have already been used up already..."

Ed opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He closed it, along with his eyes. In a forced calmness, he asked, "What do you mean that he might have already used it up?"

Hoenheim sighed, golden eyes looking directly at Ed.

He said,"How do you think he was able to talk to you for all those years?"

"What does that have to do with this!? I'm asking you why he might have used it up! He was in a suit of armor! There was no way that he could have used it up! He couldn't get hurt at--" Ed stopped mid sentence. He understood.

"Exactly.. He didn't have vocal chords. He couldn't have talked. He might have been communicating telepathically, transferring some of his thoughts to you. " Hohenheim looked at Ed sadly.

"He must have known that something was allowing him to do that," Hohenheim said, "After all, he had all of those sleepless nights to think about it...And to imagine, if I didn't leave to find a way to be mortal again, Trisha might still be alive and you two won't be in this mess."

Edward stayed silent, noticing that his father was starting to talk to himself. He let him be. As he continued pacing, he noticed a figure come up from the side. He paused. It was Rose.

"Ah," Rose said hesitantly. She looked down, "How is he?"

"What do you care," Ed spat bitterly.

"He saved my life," Rose said quietly back, "I might not be human, but I can think straight now. No stupid stones messing with my head."

"How sweet," Ed said, sarcasm dripping from every letter, "Why don't you play a good homunculus and go off to the corner."

"No," was the blunt reply, "He saved my life, I want to help him, especially considering it was my fault."

Ed snorted, "Glad you can recognize that. At least you're not a total idiot."

"If I wasn't afraid that I would be the only one blamed for your murder, I'd attack you right now," Rose muttered under her breath.

"Wouldn't you still be the only suspect if you killed me earlier in that corridor?" Ed asked in wonderment.

"Well, there, I'd have enough seeds and magic to grow a plant that could kill you the same way I would have ended up killing you," Rose shrugged. She slouched against the cold stone wall.

"How comforting," Ed muttered. "I can see the headlines now 'Freak Herbology Accident: Self-Proclaimed Genius at Alchemist killed by Plants.'"

Rose laughed.

"Eh, I used a lot of my plants against the fight against you," Rose said, "I set a couple, well I guess they're like mines, but it's amazing how you didn't set off any of them. You're lucky sometimes."

"Not lucky enough," Ed said quietly to himself. "I'd rather be dead then to see Al in pain like this."

"Classic hero," Rose noted. She caught sight of Ed's confused expression and said, "You know, doesn't care about anything besides making sure everybody else is okay. He'd die first, and make sure he drags as many of the enemies down with them."

"Well I guess I'm a classic hero," Ed muttered.

"So is Potter," Rose mused. "I started attacking the girl. You know, damsel in distress. And his prince, along with a bumbling fool, comes by and saves the day. Or that's how the story is supposed to go. To bad for Potter. But really, he's like you. He cares a lot about his friends, he'd do anything for them, risking his life and such."

"Hm," Ed hummed.

Rose continued, "In his first year, my third, he could've easily just owled Dumbledore about Quirrell, although the time he thought it was Snape, attempting to get the Philosopher's Stone and just hoped for the best. In the second year, he saved the redhead, Ron I think his name was, anyway the redhead's sister from that basilisk. Third year, he was trying to save Ron from that Sirius dude. The framed Azkaban escapee. They thought he was a mad murderer at the time. Last year, the Triwizard thing. He brought back Cedric's body, although he could've just left him there to rot."

"Ah," Ed hummed. He wasn't paying attention. Just staring at his stump of an arm.

He paled, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."

"What?" Rose asked, alarmed.

"Winry's gonna kill me…It's your fault! I'll tell her that you were the one that destroyed my arm!" Ed exclaimed.

"How nice," Rose said dryly.

"You were," Ed all but whined. "It was your stupid plant's fault."

"Deal with it. I'm not taking the blame. I'll have to go talk to Dumbledore anyway. I'll be in enough trouble as it is, although it wouldn't surprise me if he just let me off the hook. He's a bumbling old fool like that," Rose said.

"You deal with that by yourself! Winry's gonna kill me!" Ed grabbed the collar of Rose's robes.

She stared at him and blew a raspberry in his face.

"…Forget Winry killing me. I'm gonna kill you first!" Ed roared.

"Idiot. You've got one arm to hold me, and no other arm to hit me with. Genius, much?" Rose rolled her eyes.

The two of them plopped back down in front of the Infirmary doors.

"I hate you," Ed muttered. ­

"I hate you, too."

"Good."

"Ah, good evening Ms. Rendon, come in," Dumbledore welcomed. He glanced over the parchment in his hands quickly before setting them aside.

"Ah, hello," Rose said nervously.

"No need to be so nervous. I'm sure you mean no harm now," Dumbledore chuckled. Rose laughed along nervously and cautiously. Did this guy know that with a flick of her fingers, she could make his own desk gobble him up? Not that she'd do it…probably.

"I already talked to Flamel, ah I mean Hohenheim about it. Old habits die so hard," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "Lemon drop?"

"Er, no thanks?" Rose answered uncertainly. Eccentric old fool. She never was comfortable about talking with the headmaster.

"I'm sure your lemon trees could produce much better lemons than the ones used to make these," Dumbledore said, picking a lemon drop out of its wrapper with his long slender fingers.

"Er…" Rose said. She wasn't sure how to answer him.

"Mm," Rose hummed, nervous despite the reassurance. Now that she wasn't a mass murdering psychopath, she did want to make a good impression on Dumbledore. He was after all, one of the few things standing between her life and death. Although she wasn't technically alive. But that's another matter.

"I'm sure you want to get out of here as soon as you can," Dumbledore started, "So I'm going to make this quick. But first, let me ask you a question. Would you betray Envy?"

"Yes," Rose answered without any hesitation. Dumbledore piercing blue eyes focused on her and nothing else for a few moments and he looked away. It was unnerving. It was like he could see her every thought.

"All right," Dumbledore said after another tense moment, "Would you be willing to become a spy for us? Envy has been giving you instructions, I believe. If you would please share that information with us, I would be eternally grateful."

"I would be glad to," Rose smiled. "But there is a slight problem, as that would involve me still being under cover. Envy likes to give instructions face to face, he doesn't trust the owls. Says they're for food, not mail."

Dumbledore chuckled under his breath, and motioned for Rose to go on.

"So the problem is that as I'm sure you know, Voldemort can do Legillimens. He would be able to tell Envy about my, ah, betraying them."

"Hm, that is quite the problem isn't it?" Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "But that'd only happen if Voldemort really is loyal to Envy."

"You mean he's not?" Rose asked bewildered. "He seemed to obey everything Envy said, although I could hear him grinding his teeth together each time Envy ordered him to do something."

"According to one of my spies there, Voldemort has been calling Envy names, that are much more, ah, colorful then calling him one of the 7 sins."

Rose laughed softly, but wasn't very convinced, "Isn't there a chance that he will still tell Envy?"

"If you think about it, Envy's already as furious as anyone, even a homunculi can be at Ed and Al. He would have tried to kill them more times if it wasn't for Hohenheim's presence at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said.

"Oh!" Rose yelped. "Voldemort has a plan or whatever that is supposed to lead Hohenheim away from the castle."

"I know. My servant in his circle told me all about the plans that Envy has revealed so far," Dumbledore said, "But that's not very comforting because as I hear from Hohenheim and the Elric's, he works in secrecy."

"Well they're right," Rose scowled. "As one of the only homunculi, Envy gave me more privileges." She caught the look on Dumbledore's face and said, "I don't know who they are."

Dumbledore sighed and dismissed her solemnly.

Rose stood up, dusted some nonexistent dust off her skirt and went to the door. She felt a shiver down her back, but just brushed it off.

"You gonna move or what?" the gargoyle outside of Dumbledore's growled. It looked down over its pedestal to see the same blonde hair he'd seen for the last 15 minutes. Or was it 45 minutes? Same difference.

"Yeah, yeah," Ed grumbled. His back was getting sore after sitting next to the ice cold stone for the last few (many) minutes. Of course the iciness did help to stop the swelling of the wrench-shaped bruise on his cheek. Was it just him, or was the Winry here more…forceful?

"Then hurry up and beat it!" the gargoyle growled for the nth time. You'd expect stone to be more patient after being around for a few hundred years. Apparently not.

"And what is this?" a sickly sweet voice asked. Ed inwardly groaned. Whoops. Maybe that one was out loud.

"Ah, Umbridge!" Ed said falsely cheery, "What a pleasant surprise."

Umbridge could just feel the sarcasm dripping down from the line. Her expression didn't change, stuck with a sickly smile that made Ed just want to give her a nice hard smack right into the ground.

"You want me to get rid of him?" Filch asked eagerly. Mrs. Norris mewed in agreement.

"No need, as I was just telling Garygoyle here, I was just leaving," Ed said, a fake smile plastered on his face. It was enough to make him want to barf.

"Oi! The name's Gargoyle. Gargoyle," the gargoyle muttered darkly.

"That's what I said, Garygoyle," Ed said simply. And before turning away and stomping off, he noticed a stack of paper in Filch's hand.

"What's that?" Ed asked curiously and warily. Anything that made Filch look so happy was bound to be no good to him and/or the students. He mostly cared about him.

"This is a Ministry order -" Umbridge simpered. Ed cut her off.

"You mean the Cheesy Candy dude?" Ed asked nonchalantly.

Umbridge turned puce and in a forced calmness, said, "It's Cornelius Fudge. This is a Ministry order saying that any organizations are now disbanded, unless it has approval by me. Of course this would have nothing to do with you, as you aren't even a student here."

Ed noticed that the line was said just positively dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh," Ed said, "Well see ya, toady."

Umbridge looked like a boiled frog as Ed walked to his room with a slight limp.

"Finally that kid's gone," Gargoyle muttered. He started spinning as the staircase up to Dumbledore's office opened up. "Aw jeez! Can't a gargoyle have a rest?"

Rose flounced down the steps and said, "Ah…Professor Umbridge."

There was a slight wrinkle of distaste in her nose. It went unnoticed by Umbridge, but apparently Mrs. Norris noticed it and hissed at Rose's direction. Funny, hated people/animals seemed to band together, Rose noticed, bored-ly.

"Ms. Rendon, I suggest you go back to your common room before I give you a detention for the rest of the week," Umbridge growled.

"Yeah, yeah," Rose muttered darkly.

She stuck her nose in the air, away from Umbridge and strode off. Around the corner she noticed a shadow, which was Ed. He was watching Umbridge and looked slightly fidgety about her. Ed raised an eyebrow that clearly said, You told her didn't you?

"As if," Rose scoffed. "What's the point of helping a frog like her? Unless they got like no life, nobody would help her."

"Guess that explains Filch," Ed snorted, rolling his eyes. "Mrs. Norris too. I swear, even Al doesn't like her very much. Oh whoops, I'm sorry, I mean it."

Rose giggled before saying, "Well you should be careful. She is high up in the government here."

Ed snorted, "As if that ever stopped me."

He hurried down the corridor as he noticed Umbridge waddling over to see who the whispers were from.

"You're not in Amestris anymore," Rose said quietly.

"Who cares," Ed said flatly, but his eyes showed the truth.

"If I were you, I'd focus on getting back there," Rose continued, as if she didn't hear him, "It's best for your brother, and for yourself, especially with Envy running around and being psychotic."

"As much as I agree with you, I have to say no," Ed said, walking away. "You're not one of the Seven Sins. That proves that there are many possibilities of other types of homunculi. I have to take them out."

Rose sighed, and muttered, under her breath, "Insufferable fool."

Ed ignored her.

(1)-Still don't have the real name...did they ever even say it O-O