This one is longer than usual since I couldn't find a good stopping point, but let's say it's to make up for the last chapter being short... I'm so happy I've gotten this far!~ Enjoi~~~

"So that's why the major took my big brother?" Al gasped. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Lin's news had been much more eventful than any of us had expected; it was probably more shocking to Al and Winry, however since I didn't know any of the people mentioned. From what I picked up, a friend of theirs had been framed for the murder of this Maes Hughes, escaped from prison, and killed by a certain Colonel Roy Mustang. However, the friend—a woman named Maria Ross—wasn't actually dead, but by faking her death they had managed to sneak her out of the country. Major Armstrong had taken shorty to meet her before she left for Xing.

"You guys have been pretty busy lately, haven't you?" I put in after the explanation. "Faking deaths, sneaking people out of the country, kidnapping little boys…"

"That's not all," Lin told me. "We've also set up a trap to catch the ones behind it, using Barry as bait."

I raised my eyebrows and let out a low whistle.

"Wow. You have been busy."

A spark of light shot into the air outside and burst, its glow lingering for a moment before fading into the sky.

"What was that? Fireworks?" Winry queried.

"Not quite," Lin grinned. "It's the signal to strike. …Are you coming?" He directed the question at Alphonse, who clenched his fists.

"This could lead us to whoever killed Lieutenant Colonel Hughes…"

"You'll come back, right?" Winry gazed worriedly at Al. He nodded.

"Yeah. I promise!"

"Wait a minute. You're saying that you're trying to catch people from the dark side of the military…Right?" I broke in.

"Yup. That's about right," Lin confirmed. I set my jaw determinedly.

"I'm coming too."

"What?" Al and Winry cried, making me cover my ears. They were too damned loud…

"Barry the Chopper told me that the people he was working for were named Lust and Envy, and that they were involved with the military. So if this little trap works, I could find out what happened to Greed. I'm coming," I repeated firmly. Lin shrugged and swung his legs outside the windowsill.

"Well? Shall we?"

"Wait, Selena, are you sure?" Winry grabbed my arm as I started to follow, blue eyes shining with worry. I sent her an apologetic smile and hugged her.

"I'll be okay, Winry. We'll all be just fine!"

It was a promise. A promise made only for a close friend.

To my surprise, Lin didn't lead us to the hideout where we'd met Barry. Instead, we approached the general area and followed a trail of debris and damaged property. As we entered an alleyway, familiar shiver chilled my spine, and I grinned. Lin glanced at me.

"Do you sense it?"

"Yep," I replied. "It's been a while… Guess I'm not as accustomed to being around homunculi…"

Up ahead, near the end of the alley, there was a loud crash, and moments later a dog rushed into our view. I wrinkled my nose—I'm not very fond of those vulgar animals—and spotted Xing idiot number two, also known as Lanfan, as she stepped in front of it.

"Oh, it's Lanfan," Al commented, just as she sank two daggers into the dog's face. "Wha—?"

He didn't have much time to be shocked by her actions. The dog's fur receded and its body lengthened, revealing a lean man with long, dark hair and a black shirt and what looked like a mix between a skirt and shorts. I knew who he was before my eyes even shifted to the tattoo on his leg.

'Oh yeah, that little freak. He's a shape-shifter. The only guy I can imagine that could manage to pull off a skirt… His name's…'

"Envy!"

The one sharp violet eye that wasn't bleeding shot to me with shock, confusion, and unadulterated fury in its depths. There was no mistake. This was a homunculus.

Lin and Al exclaimed in bewilderment, but I grinned. Meanwhile, Envy started to rise from a crouch, clutching his bleeding face.

"You…bastard…I'll crush you!" He seemed to be talking to Lanfan, but it was hard to tell.

"Huh…You're different on the inside, aren't you?" Lin pondered aloud, leaning forwards for a better look. Bad idea—that really ticked him off.

"Great, more people I have to wipe out. You just come one after another…!" he snarled. The ground suddenly shook as a huge, fat man landed a few meters away, making the pavement beneath him crumble.

"I'm back!" he called. My grin just widened.

"You wouldn't happen to be Gluttony, would you?" I muttered under my breath. "I have to admit this is exciting for me…"

"Hey, Envy, can I eat these guys?" the huge man was saying, much to the other sin's delight.

"Go ahead! Take a bite out of them!"

"Uh-oh—Selena, stay behind me," Al told me, hurriedly stepping in front; his worry was meaningless, however, seeing as Gluttony went after the Xingese travelers first, and Envy followed.

"Hey, wait!" I shouted, dashing after them. I heard Al shouting after me and his clanging footsteps, but I didn't stop until I'd lost them, turning every which way in search of the probable only sources I knew could tell me where Greed was, and whether or not he was…

Al's hand fell on my shoulder.

"Selena, this is really dangerous. Are you sure you should be out here with us? Those people could kill you."

"I can do this, Al," I told him. "If I can't, it's as good as giving up. And I think you know how much I hate giving up."

He paused in consternation, glanced around, and then took off his helmet.

"Selena, why don't you hide in my armor for a while?"

"I'm fine, Al," I replied, still searching for a sign of the homunculi.

"Selena." He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to look at him. "Please, you're in more danger than you're giving them credit for. These people are different from Greed. They won't hesitate to kill you."

"But Al—"

"It's okay. I want to find them too, and this way you can be safer."

Reluctantly, I nodded, stepping up onto his cupped hands so I could clamber inside, careful not to touch the blood seal as I did. My ears were filled with a dull echo, as if I held a metallic seashell to my ear. Peering upwards, I watched as Al's helmet eclipsed the rising moon. The iron rang and vibrated when he began jogging again, jostling me a bit while my eyes adjusted to the lesser light.

"Are you okay in there?" I heard his voice echo.

"Uh-huh. I'm fine."

Several anxious minutes passed before I heard him speak again, and he wasn't addressing me.

"Colonel!" The military title instantly put me on edge, and I huddled down silently.

"Alphonse, what are you doing here?" To my surprise, I recognized the voice as Falman's.

"Warrant Officer Falman, go do as I instructed you," another voice interrupted. I startled at the new development. What? 'Warrant officer'?

"Colonel, this is related to Mr. Hughes' murder, isn't it?" Alphonse continued, stopping. There was a long pause during which I heard footsteps fading away, possibly Falman's, and then the other voice spoke up again, cocky, authoritative, and fairly young.

"Well, are you coming or not?"

"Yes, sir!" Alphonse responded animatedly. More jostling, a car door slamming, and the sound of a motor.

"Oof!"

"Sorry," Alphonse apologized to the new voice.

"'Sokay… Could you scoot over a little?"

"Sorry, this is as far as I can go."

"Barry, don't let him out of your sight!" the first voice called, and I heard the serial killer outside yell back.

"He's approaching the center of the city," a sharp female voice informed the others.

"Not good. We don't want him attracting too much attention."

"Colonel," Alphonse interjected, "a minute ago, I saw someone with long black hair and an ouroboros tattoo. I've seen him before at Lab Number Five. He went by the name Envy. When my brother and I were in the south, I met someone named Greed. He was a homunculus."

"What? A homunculus? That's impossi—!"

"'Nothing is impossible,'" Al broke in. "That's what Greed told me."

I didn't hear the rest of what he had to say to the colonel. I was distracted by something else. In one of the corners of his armor, where some light showed through the cracks, was a small, rust-colored smudge. My eyes widened and a gag jumped in my throat.

"U-urgh…"

'The Fuhrer President. She was still in my armor, and he…'

I slammed my fist against the inside of Al's armor, silencing the conversation outside.

"Alphonse, what was that?"

"Al." My voice was thick with tension.

"Selena? Are you okay?"

"Al, let me out."

"What? What's wrong?"

"I feel r-really…sick…"

"I'm sorry, are you claustrophobic?" The helmet was removed, and I pulled myself up to lean nauseously over the top—I almost hit my head on the roof of the car in the process—one hand pressed over my mouth and eyes scrunched shut. Al's panicked voice wafted to my ears. "I'm so sorry Selena, I had no idea…"

"No, Al, that's not it," I groaned weakly. "You…missed a spot."

"What…? Missed a…?" He paused, and then gasped. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"

"I-it's okay…" I suppressed another gag, gripping the edge of his armor.

"You alright?" Someone poked my arm, and I nearly dived back inside of Al at the sight of a man wearing a black mask with a gun, as well as a blue-uniformed man and an armed woman in the front seat. Here comes the phobia for soldiers… "Whoa, you don't look so good."

"No shit…" I muttered. "And now I'm surrounded by—hurk …!"

"Uh-oh, don't throw up," the masked man put a hand on my shoulder, which didn't do much for my nerves. "What are you doing here? A little girl shouldn't be in the middle of all this—"

"I'm the same age as Al, dammit!"

"Oh, sorry…"

"Why are you here?" The man in the driver's seat, wearing a blue uniform, was looking at me through the rearview mirror with stark black eyes.

"Looking for a certain homunculus…"

"She's a friend of mine," Al told him. "I met her in the south, around the same time I met Greed."

"You're looking for homunculi? Why is that?"

"Because the bastard got himself into this mess, and now I have to clean it up…" Mr. Military glanced at Al for explanation.

"She was friends with Greed, and when I was kidnapped, the Fuhrer came with some troops and wiped out the entire gang. She thought maybe Greed had survived and is in Central…"

"…And I came to kick his ass back to Dublith."

My hackles rose at the sound of a gun being cocked.

"You're allies with a homunculus?" It was the woman in the front seat with blonde hair and sharp eyes. My own eyes shifted to the pistol in her hand, and I hissed involuntarily, earning a few odd looks. We glared at one another, and I felt my pupils dilating threateningly; she blinked in mild confusion but didn't lower her guard.

"Wait, Lieutenant," Alphonse broke in defensively, "Greed had betrayed the other homunculi, so she's not connected with the others."

"But can we really trust her?" the lieutenant asked coldly without averting her eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mr. Mask held his hands up in a time-out. "Girl fights are not pretty, and I don't think we need one in the car. We've got other stuff to do, right?"

"We're here." The car stopped, and we ended the glare-off to look outside. Barry was chasing some scruffy-looking thing into a military building. Everyone exited the vehicle, and I jumped out of Al's armor so he could put his helmet back on.

"Okay," Mr. Military began, "We know he's hiding in Lab Number Three. That should be good for now. We're pulling back."

A crazed laugh cut through the air, and Barry dashed ahead, butcher knife gleaming as he burst into the lab like a little kid in a candy store. Several screams floated our way.

"Um, I know we were going to pull back," I remarked, "but it doesn't look like Barry got the memo…"

Mr. Mask groaned.

"That bastard's out of his mind!"

"How…convenient." We all turned to look at Mr. Military, who had a sly smile spreading across his face.

*Evil laugh* Hooray for Barry and his thoughless wonder... And hooray for Colonel Mustang and his thoughful wonder. You know, I think Selena and Lieutenant Hawkeye will actually get along. I guess I'll see... It's fun finding out how my own story is going to turn out.