Fuhrer King Bradley softly knocked on the door of his son's room. Since it was slightly ajar, he pushed it open with his fingertips. The scene in front of him took his breath away and made tears sting the backs of eyeballs. The last time he had experienced this strong of an emotional reaction was when he had seen his beloved wife lying dead on the cold, sterile steel table deep within the belly of Laboratory Number 5. His daughter, Selim's real mother, held the child in her arms with her body curled protectively around him like a human cocoon. The only part of Selim he could see was the boy's head that was resting on her chest. He wished he had known she was alive much sooner. He would have found her and brought her home to raise her son. He would have betrayed Father one last and final time to protect her and keep his daughter and his grandson safe. If only he had done so to keep her mother safe. How much different would life had been for the both of them if his wife and her mother were still alive? Shaking his head, he squared his shoulders and moved forward with soundless footsteps despite wearing heavy military boots. Before waking her, he reached down to run his fingers through the spiky short hair on the back of her head. He took a moment to remember her as his little girl while he gazed down at her.

"Forgive me for not saving your mother. I'll do everything I can to not let anything else bad happen to you," he promised although he feared the worst had already happened to her. She had been transformed into a homunculus - and so had her child. Somehow she had retained her humanity. He doubted the monster that lurked inside of Selim would allow him to do so when it finally awakened fully to completely take over.

Bradley leaned down to kiss her forehead. Leaving his hand on her shoulder, he shook her gently. "Honey, wake up," he whispered, continuing to shake her. "Wake up. It's late."

"Wha-what?" she stammered, opening one sleepy eye.

"Reyna, wake up," he said, stepping back from the bed as she carefully disentangled herself from the sleeping child.

Reyna stood up, taking a moment to work the kinks out of her stiff back. She stretched and yawned and wiggled her arms like noodles to restore the blood flow to her numb hands. Walking past her father as if she were still the inhabitant of this room, she remained silent until they were both out in the hallway. "What time is it?"

"It's after eight," he answered.

"Oh, no!" she gasped, running down the stairs. There was still a telephone on the small round table next to the front door. Her father had always kept a telephone there for guests so they would not have to use the one in his study. Picking up the receiver, she dialed zero hearing a buzz then a click when a Central City operator picked up.

"Name," the woman requested curtly.

"Colonel Roy Mustang, please," Reyna replied politely.

"Right away, ma'am," the woman replied in a crisp, all business monotone.

"Roy!" Reyna yelled into the phone before he could even say hello.

"Where have you been? I have been worried sick!" Roy fussed at her. His relief upon hearing her voice took some of the harshness out of his voice but his aggravation came through loud and clear over the phone line.

"I'm sorry. I fell asleep with Selim. He was sick today," she explained. "I'll be home soon. I'll leave now."

"Stay there, and I will come pick you up," he told her and she could hear the rustling of him putting on his jacket.

"No, I'd rather walk. I need the fresh air and time to think."

"You don't need to be wandering the streets alone so late at night."

"It's not even eight thirty, I'm a grown woman, an alchemist, and..." She paused, not wanting to say homunculus. "And I'm more than able to take care of myself."

"Hmph," he snorted irritably. "You're right, but - "

"Roy, I'll be okay," she assured him.

"All right," he gave in with an exasperated sigh. "Hurry. And don't make any stops along the way."

"I won't talk to strangers either, darling," she retorted. She giggled at his grumpy snort in response to her smart aleck remark. "I'll be home soon. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetheart," he returned, hanging up the phone. She turned to see her father standing behind her with an amused grin on his face. She returned his grin. It was easy since his smile was genuine. "I like to see you smile. I wish I could have made you smile more when I was teenager."

"I was always proud of you, Reyna," he said, touching her cheek. "I'm proud of you now."

Reyna almost responded with a snarky comment by telling him that he had a weird way of showing how proud he was of her. She digressed since she was in no mood to have the same argument that they have had many times before. Stiffly keeping the smile on her lips, she bowed her head as if she were a servant of the household. "I'll be going now. I will be back at six in the morning."

"About that," her father began, folding his hands behind back. He paced the floor in front of her.

Reyna held her breath waiting for him to continue speaking. She feared he was going to tell her not to come back and to stay away from Selim.

"I'll get Selim up and going in the morning. Be here at seven thirty to walk him to school." He knew today had been difficult for her. It showed in the shadows under her eyes and her drawn expression. She looked like a rubber band stretched tight and ready to snap. "You need rest. You still need sleep, you know."

"Yes, Sir," she rejoined, turning to leave.

"Good night, Reyna."

"Good night, Sir."

Sir. At least she had not addressed him as Fuhrer.

Once she closed the iron gate behind her, Reyna inhaled until her lungs were full of the cool night air. Pushing out the air in a wheezing sigh, she immediately felt lighter as if a nameless burden, an unseen weight, had been lifted off of her shoulders. She hugged herself as she walked down the deserted streets. In this part of the city, the high ranking officers were finishing their dinners and preparing for a before bed cup of tea or something a little stronger to help them ease off to sleep. Everything was quiet and no one, except for her, was out walking on the sidewalks. The comforting golden glow of muted lights shown through the sheer curtains of some of the houses. The streetlights formed yellow pools of light on the white cement sidewalks. She walked past the Central Command building that sat like a big hulking beast in the darkness. Small gas lamps hanging on posts along the maze of sidewalks among the buildings offered minimal light for the soldiers patrolling the grounds. A few stalwart paper pushers were still working inside, completing forms and reports and various other documents.

Reyna continued down the street, keeping her eyes straight ahead instead of looking at anymore of the plain, square government buildings that formed a city within a city. Turning the corner, she could see someone in the telephone booth halfway down the street. Who in the world... She strained her eyes to see a tall man with wide, square shoulders dressed in a military uniform. The dim light from the street lamp over the phone booth reflected off of the rectangular pieces of glass over his eyes. He was waving his arms madly and talking at a rapid rate. He seemed more excited than usual. "Maes? What the hell is he doing there?"

Then she sensed an ominous presence. The hair raised on the back of her neck and a frigid tingle zipped down her spine almost paralyzing her with fear. She detected a disturbingly familiar onslaught of suffocating evil that made her skin feel as if it might crawl right off of her body. She recalled experiencing this same awful sensation a long, long time ago in the underground labyrinth of sewers. Glancing around, desperate to find the source, she saw him standing across the street from the telephone booth.

He was standing under the street light, unconcerned about being seen. Short and mean like a vicious dog, his hair splayed out around him like the fronds of a palm tree. He was focused on the man in the phone booth and did not see her.

"Envy," she breathed, frozen to the spot where she stood. She should have known that she had not killed him that day. Some things were too evil to die.

Envy turned his head, looking directly at her. He smiled with pure malice. The small, gender ambiguous homunculus was wicked and ruthless, vile to the core. He was the most despicable of them all - to her at least.

Reyna observed his transformation into the spitting image of Gracia Hughes. Seeing him change into someone she knew and cared about right in front of her was scarier and more frightening than she had ever imagined it could be. She took a step forward as he stepped down from the curb onto the black surfaced street. The were both going in the direction of the phone booth. Her eyes widened as he raised up his hand as if to wave, seeing that he had formed it into a lengthy, pointy object like an overly long silver spike. "Creepy, transfiguring little bastard," she muttered, taking off into a full run toward Maes who was standing unaware in what could very well be his coffin.

Reyna was not sure if she would make it to her friend before Envy reached the phone booth. He was a whole lot closer and just as agile and fast, if not more so, than her. She pumped her arms and legs, desperate to reach the clueless Maes before the homunculus intent on murdering the Lieutenant Colonel got to him. Gauging the distance that remained between her and the booth and Envy and Maes, she knew she was not going to make it in time. Metal. She needed metal to form something. Her eyes moved about wildly in search of something she could use before catching a glimpse of the manhole in the middle of the street. Something to throw would work too. She turned hard to her left to go for the object. Her unexpected strange movement took Envy by surprise, making him cease his advance toward Maes. Catching Envy off guard had been a feat in itself, and she about to perform another amazing test of her strength and physical prowess. She bent down while still running, plucking up the cast iron manhole cover that weighed well over one hundred pounds. Treating it like a discus as if she were an ancient Greek Olympiad, she spun her body in a circle, hurling the massive piece of metal at Envy. The manhole cover hit him in the belly, lifting him from the pavement and sending him careening through the back window of a car that was parked on the street parallel to the sidewalk in front of the phone booth.

Maes jumped and turned in response to the sound of the shattering glass and crunching metal. He flung open the door to the booth, poking out his head to stare at the damaged car. Then he swung his head in her direction.

"Reyna! What the hell are you doing?" Maes bellowed, stepping out of the phone booth. The receiver dangled from the phone, the caller on the other end completely forgotten.

"Maes! Get away!" she screamed as he moved toward the car to check on the person inside.

"Huh?" The poor man was thoroughly confused and had no damn idea what was going. His mind had been too wrapped up in the breakthrough discovery he and Cain Fury had made.

They had pinpointed the location of Father's lair. Cain had rigged the sonar tracking device of a warship to penetrate concrete and steel like it penetrated water to find objects. Maes had left Central Command to use a secured line apart from the military phone lines that were always monitored to inform Roy of their amazing find. He had just finished explaining the fantastic device Cain had made but had not yet divulged the location of the Homunculus base. Then this happened. But what was this? He backed away as the person, a male dressed in an Amestrian military uniform, crawled through the back of the window unfazed by the sharp pieces of broken glass under his palms. "What the hell..."

Envy had changed his appearance again, not only to speed the healing of his damaged organs and bones that had been crushed, but also to give himself new weapons. He grabbed the gun from the holster attached to his side as he slid from the trunk of the car to the ground.

"NO!" Reyna screamed, rushing forward but she was too far away to do anything.

Maes reached inside his coat to retrieve something. A silver flash arced through the air as he extended his long arm toward the man holding the gun. Aiming for the soldier's face, he sank the three push knives he held between his fingers, two into the eyeballs and one between the eyes, right down into the man's brain. He remained still as the weight of the man's body was pulled from the knives and down to the ground by gravity. His chest heaved as he gulped in huge gasps of air.

"Maes!" Reyna exclaimed as she neared him. She jumped on him to give him a hug, almost knocking him down. She took his face between her palms, kissing his lips briefly and innocently in a celebratory gesture, thankful he was alive. Pressing her forehead to his as he held her, his whole body shaking, she murmured, "You're alive. Oh, thank God, you're alive."

"Reyna, what's going on?" Maes asked her, holding onto her as she unwrapped her arms and legs from around his torso.

"There's no time to explain. Let's get out of here," she suggested, taking him by the hand to pull him along with her.

"Shouldn't we call someone? To pick up the dead body?" He glanced at the man lying in an ever widening pool of his own blood on the ground.

"He's not dead," she informed him, tugging at his hand to make him move. "We have to leave."

"Where are we going?" he inquired, jogging to keep up with her.

"We have to go get Gracia and Elicia. They're in danger. That little bastard will kill them and enjoy doing it just to get to you. He was going to kill you, you know," she said, looking behind them to see if Envy was following them. He wasn't. Hopefully that will keep him down for a while - long enough for them to retrieve Maes' family and get them all to a safe place.

Envy had failed in his mission tonight. Reyna almost wished she could be there when he reported his failure to Father. Things were bound to get ugly especially since she had been the main reason so many of Father's plans had failed in the past. "We're closer to mine and Roy's house so let's go get him and the car," she suggested.

"Good idea," Maes panted. He was not winded from the run so much as the impending panic attack as the full understanding of what had just happened began to sink into his brain. "What...what the hell was that...person?"

"A homunculus," she answered sharply, quashing the desire to run back to finish the job. She wanted to kill Envy - and permanently this time. She would kill him as many times as it took to finally erase him from existence.

"He's like you?!" Maes exclaimed, his green eyes huge circles behind his glasses.

"He's nothing like me. He's far scarier and more sadistic than any of us," she said, running faster. They needed to hurry to go get his wife and daughter before Envy woke up to go after them.

"Us? How many of you homunculus are there?" he inquired, not really wanting to know the answer.

"More than you think. Hurry," she urged him, getting behind him to push him.

"I can't believe this. I can't believe any of this," he mumbled, slipping further down the slippery slope into shock.

"Oh, god, Maes don't do this. We have to save your family. Maes, please, Gracia and Elicia need you," she said, digging her shoulder into his back to move him along.

"Gracia...Elicia..." Saying their names out loud instantly snapped him back to his senses. "Gracia and Elicia! My family! My girls!" he exclaimed, reaching behind him to seize Reyna by the collar to pull her around to run next to him. "Come on, hurry! What are you waiting for slow poke?!"

That was the dedicated family man she knew and loved. Reyna ran along beside him, actually slowing her pace to match his, as they hurried to the house.

"What the hell just happened out there? Maes! What did you get yourself into?" Roy hollered at them as they ran into the house.

"Nothing I wasn't already eyeballs deep into anyway, Roy Boy. Someone tried to kill me, and Reyna stopped him. Oh, you should have seen it Roy!" Maes exclaimed in his usual animated way complete with over-exaggerated hand gestures. "She was incredible. Terrifying, but incredible."

"Me? How about you?" Reyna returned with admiration evident in her voice. She hugged Maes again, still thrilled that he was here with them, safe and sound. "You're the only man I know who can bring a knife to a gunfight and win."

"Oh, my god," Roy muttered, rolling his eyes. "Can we bring this meeting of the mutual admiration society to a close? I need to know what is happening!"

"Roy, get the keys. We need to go get Gracia and Elicia," she told him, running up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" he called after her, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"To change! In case I need to fight," she explained.

"Fight? What the hell - "

"Yes, that's the question of the night it seems," Maes interjected, patting his friend on the back. "What the hell, indeed. I have not one single clue as to what is happening right now."

"Hey, what were trying to tell me earlier?" Roy questioned Maes sharply, steering his easily distracted friend back to their interrupted conversation.

"Oh, we found the base of operations for the homunculi," he answered as if he were relaying information of no more consequence than the weather.

"Location?"

"You'll never believe it."

"I'll never know if you don't tell me. Out with it, Hughes."

"Right under Central Command," he replied, wearing a grave expression. "They've been under our noses, quite literally, all along. What's that adage? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?"

"So it's just like Reyna said. This homunculus called Father is orchestrating everything in Amestris. The Fuhrer is nothing but a puppet, a figurehead." Roy's head began to ache.

"It's far bigger than Amestris, Roy. Don't forget what I told you," Reyna said as she walked down the stairs.

"That was fast," both men commented in unison, surprised to see her fully clothed as she descended to the foyer where they stood.

"Father plans to turn all of the world as we know into one huge Alchemist's Transmutation Circle. He wants to destroy all humans, making a population of nothing but homunculi." Her face twisted into a grim mask of anger and revulsion. "He believes the homunculi are superior to humans. Smarter, stronger, faster...which they are," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "But some are capable of limitless violence and have a capacity for evil that seems to actually surpass that of humans."

"So it's like becoming a homunculus amplifies the sinful, immoral nature that lies within them?" Maes questioned her, staring over his glasses at her like a wise old teacher who had just learned something new and fascinating.

"Yes, exactly. If the person was already inclined more towards that part of their nature anyway. Everyone holds within them the capacity for good and evil. It's a choice we all make in which way to go. Father personally chose his closest affiliates based on their personality traits, specifically seeking someone with a predisposition for the sins they're named after. That's why the homunculi Father created share names with the seven deadly sins," she answered matter of factly. As much as she hated to admit it, even Selim had been handpicked. The child came from a prideful lot on both sides; his grandfather, his father, and even his mother, were all rife with pride - absolutely lousy with it.

"Dammit," Roy muttered, scrubbing his hands over his face. He looked bone weary; tired of just about everything to do with the alchemical creations of doom. There was no end to the new and disturbing revelations about the homunculi.

"Have you had the desire to be evil? Considering who your father is, you would have the latent potential. You could be a killer, a thief...any number of terrible things," Maes murmured, gazing at her with curiosity and maybe a hint of suspicion.

Reyna checked the laces of the bracers around her forearms. She was wearing black pants and a form fitting turtleneck shirt with long sleeves. The only skin showing was that on her face. She was wearing her boots just in case Envy showed up again, and she needed to kick his ass in the most literal sense. Of course she had wrestled with the temptation of indulging in reprehensible acts. No one was purely good - human or homunculus. She knew Maes had not intentionally been rude or thoughtless. She chalked the extremely blunt question up to his overzealous curiosity and lingering shock. At least he had not listed promiscuous among the things she could be. She had never once entertained the thought of having sex with another man during her quest to regain her memory and to return to Roy.

Besides, the position of Lust had already been taken, and Lust was the second person on Reyna's list, right after Envy, as the homunculus she most wanted to kill. If only she could find her. It was Envy's fault that Lust existed at all. He had returned to the Ishvalan prison camp to retrieve the body of the traitorous bitch who had been responsible for killing many innocent Ishvalans including her lover and his brother, both of whom had been Reyna's friends. Reyna had ran into Lust along her travels but had not ascertained the truth of the woman's identity until later when her hit and miss memory had finally decided to kick into gear.

"Just like human beings, homunculus make choices. We decide how we want to live our lives. What kind of person we want to be. Being a homunculus doesn't make one intrinsically evil just like being human doesn't automatically make one good," she explained, pushing past both of them to get to the door. "Come on you two, no more dawdling. We have two very important people to save."