Happy Monday. You know what that means!

Cara: It means that the authoress is astoundingly still updating on time

Chloe: Amazing!

Shuddap...

Envy: Still, it is quite the miracle

Ed: You surprise us every time.

That's it. I'm giving you another really depressing, life-scarring chapter.

All: Dammit

Al: REVIEW

Chapter 49: Vengeful Hearts

"The origin of the absurd idea of immortal life is easy to discover; it is kept alive by hope and fear, by childish faith, and by cowardice." - Clarence Darrow

The edge of town was a mess. Jagged rocks stuck up everywhere, forming a sort of cage around Envy and Hoenhiem, blocking them from the sight of the town's people who surrounded the area, gasping and staring in awe.

Al shouldered his way through the crowd and Chloe, Ed and Cara followed in his wake. When they reached the wall, Al opened up a door in the stone since Edward could not use alchemy without two arms. They pushed their way in and quickly sealed the opening behind them. No need to get anyone else involved here.

Envy was crouched on one side of the makeshift arena, his eyes blazing with fury Cara had never seen before, not even when she called him a puppet. It was almost terrifying, seeing him like this, his teeth barred in a snarl.

The man across from him stood calmly. Tall, with blonde hair and a beard and golden eyes, Cara could see the resemblance between him and Edward. He didn't seem at all afraid of Envy's anger. Just a bit sad.

"I'm not here to fight." Hoenheim said.

"I don't really care, old man." Envy snarled. "If you decided to show your face to me, you should have expected it."

"Envy, stop it." Al called out. "We don't know what's going on here, but you can't kill him."

"Not unless I get a piece of it." Edward stepped forward.

Hoenhiem turned his eyes on his sons. "It's good to see you again Edward."

Ed clenched his flesh fist. "You're lucky I don't have my other arm right now, old man, or you'd be dead."

'Funny, Ed and Envy are both calling Hoenhiem old man.' Cara mused, observing the scene curiously.

"You don't have rights to his life, pipsqueak." Envy muttered. "If anyone is going to kill this bastard, its me."

"He's our father. He abandoned us. I have the most right." Edward took a step forward.

Envy let out a bitter laugh. "If we're playing by those rules, I still win." He glared at Hoenhiem. "Well? Aren't you going to say anything? It's not like I expected you to explain me to your sons. Seems like you didn't stick around in their lives long enough to be able to. But now that we have a nice family reunion set up, why don't you break the news to them?"

"What are you going on about?" Ed asked, staring between Envy and Hoenhiem.

"Don't ask me for an explanation. Ask him." Envy said. Hoenhiem still hadn't spoken. He just stared at him sadly. "What's wrong? Speak. Tell them exactly why I have a right to kill you. Tell them the reason." He took a step forward, violet eyes practically glowing with his rage. "What? Have you lost your tongue, father?"

The makeshift arena went deadly quiet, filled only by the sound of Envy's ragged breathing. Ed, on the other hand, seemed to have stopped breathing. He looked slowly from Envy to Hoenhiem. "What is he… he can't mean…"

"Envy is the oldest homunculus." Hoenhiem said. "Created over 300 years ago, after the person he was died from mercury poisoning." He looked at Edward. "That person was my son."

The puzzles began to fall in place for Cara. The reason why Envy hated the brothers so much. The reason he hated Hoenhiem. And now she recalled his words to her back when she was still working for Dante.

"All you need to know, is that I stay here because I need to kill someone. Someone that might come back to Dante one day. And when that happens I will kill him."

That person was Hoenhiem. His father and creator.

"Mercury poisoning." Chloe murmured. "Isn't that—"

"That's what Jane died from." Cara nodded. Exposure to Jake's experiments. The same experiments had killed the human Envy used to be.

"Surprised, pipsqueak?" Envy said grimly. "You might think you have some kind of claim or that he wronged you the most. But his experiments killed me, he brought me back as this, and then he abandoned me. You really think you can top that."

"I told you, I didn't come here to fight." Hoenhiem said. "I came here to help."

"I don't need your help." Envy said. "I haven't needed it. Not for centuries. I need you buried six feet under. That's what I need."

"What you need is to kill Dante." Hoenhiem said. "That's what I want to help with."

"Yes, you'd like nothing more than to erase all of your mistakes." Envy spat. "Old flames included."

Ed seemed to sway on the spot and Al stood stock still. Neither of them could believe what they were hearing. Chloe stood quietly as well. None of them seemed comfortable with seeing this side of Envy. The hurt, more human side of him.

Cara didn't care though.

"But we do need to kill her." She stepped forward, moving between Envy and Hoenhiem. "We need a way to kill her so that we don't have to worry about her breathing down our necks."

"Move, Apathy." Envy growled.

"The name is Cara, remember?" she sighed. "They might not be able to understand how you feel," she jerked her head in the direction of the others. "But I do. My creators abandoned me, their mistake, in the middle of a field, hoping the thing I was would die. Even if they brought me back because they cared, they didn't own up to their mistake or stay with me."

"You don't understand." Envy said. "Its been 300 years and even though he knew what I had become, he still avoided me. Ignoring his mistake. Ignoring what he did. Your creators had no idea."

"No they didn't. But some people are worse than others. Hoenhiem is worse than my creators. Dante is worse than Hoenhiem." Cara glanced back at Hoenhiem. "You are a bastard for avoiding him for so long after. But you also have information we need to kill a much greater evil. So cough it up and leave before I kill you myself. None of us have time to deal with you. None of us want to deal with you alive. If you value your life, you'll talk quickly."

"We need the information." Al spoke up. "Envy, please. Let him speak. We need to kill Dante."

Envy's jaw was so tight Cara thought it might break from the pressure. But at last he seemed to straighten a bit. "Fine. Talk, old man. Before I change my mind."

"Thank you." Hoenhiem said. "There is… a way to kill Dante without giving her time to switch bodies. It would devoid her of the strength to do so." He shook his head. "She is over 300 years old but she is by no means immortal. Immortality, in its true form, does not exist. Eventually, everyone dies. Even homunculi."

Cara reached up to touch her chest, a grim look on her face. She knew that well enough.

"Dante's bodies are rotting faster and faster. She hides it but her current container is probably close to expiring. An acceleration of the process would kill her. And there is a circle that can do this." Honehiem continued.

"The circle they used to try to kill Cara." Chloe realized. "It accelerates the processes, right? It works on Dante too?"

"Yes." Hoenhiem said. He reached into his pocket and drew out a folder. "All the information is here. It's the best shot you have at destroying her for good. She's abused her powers for far too long."

"Thank you." Cara took the folder from him. "Now, you should probably go. As I said, you probably don't want to end the day with your guts on the ground."

"Yes." Hoenheim turned and moved toward the barrier. He clapped his hands and opened up a gap through which he could exit. He looked back at each of his sons. "I am sorry. I'm not trying to atone for all of my past mistakes. I know I cannot. But I am trying to at least atone for some. I should never have let Dante continue her war path for as long as she has. I should never have let her begin it. The least I can do is help end it."

"Don't think for a second this changes anything." Envy hissed.

"I won't." Hoenheim said. Then he disappeared.

"You should have let me kill him." Envy glared at Cara.

"You could have if you wanted to. You could have easily gotten past me. Me being a cripple and all." Cara said. "Killing him wouldn't change anything though. It wouldn't change what you are or what happened. If anything, leaving him alive allows him to feel guilty. And to die slowly as his immortality drifts away."

Envy didn't say anything. He just stalked away, through the opening left in the wall.

"I can't believe it." Al murmured. "He's…"

"He's not our brother. He's a homunculus of our brother. Nothing more." Ed replied.

"Yes." Cara agreed looking back at Ed. "Just like I am nothing more than a homunculus of Chloe's sister." Ed opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head. "You can't have it both ways. Besides, you're right. We are homunculi. Nothing more. No matter how much our creators wish it was otherwise."

"I know." Ed murmured.

Chloe bit her lip but didn't say anything. But Cara could see the thoughts racing across her face. She wanted to say something to disprove what Cara said but doing so would admit Envy's humanity. Instead she opted for silence.

"I'll leave the clean up to you alchemists." Cara said. "I need to find Envy."


Envy seemed to register Cara's presence without even turning around. He was sitting on a roof of a house on the opposite side of town when she found him. She managed to climb up. But before she could speak, he did.

"What do you want?"

"Checking to make sure you didn't sulk yourself to death." Cara replied flatly.

"I'm immortal, Apathy."

"Its Cara."

"Well I'm a little irritable right now, so I don't feel like calling you by your human name."

"You don't call me by my human name even when you're not irritated."

"Fair enough." Envy shifted. "You shouldn't have got in my way."

"Excuse me for wanting Dante dead more than a man I don't know." Cara sat down next to him on the edge of the roof. "Dante and her other minions are stressful. They're killing me faster, you know." She rubbed a hand over the back of her neck. "Don't you want Dante dead more?"

"Only by a slim margin." Envy muttered. "And Dante is easier to find than Hoenheim."

"So, you have a shitty father. At least he doesn't expect you to be the human you were." Cara glanced at him. "It follows some sense of logic: You hate me, I'll leave you alone." She shrugged. "Anyway, even if he didn't abandon and avoid you, would you have hated him any less."

"Doubtful." Envy said. "But you don't quite understand, little devil. You haven't met your creator."

"Wrong." Cara exhaled.

Envy stared at her, his irritated mask melting briefly away, replaced by surprise.

Cara looked down at her hands. "You know, it's kind of ironic, actually. You're the human made of Ed and Al's half-brother. I'm the human made of Chloe's older sister. I don't think she was born yet when a girl named Katie drowned." Cara shifted.

"They're here, aren't they?" Envy said.

"Yes." Cara shifted. "They looked so hopeful, you know? As if they actually had succeeded. As if I wasn't just a cheap copy of their sister. I felt too guilty to hate them. I don't really hate them." She brushed her hair back. "I don't feel anything about them. Maybe that's why I'm Apathy."

"We both ran into our creators on the same day." Envy looked up at the sky. "It's quite a coincidence."

"Yep. Sure is." Cara leaned back on her hands. "When this is all over, Envy, you'll have plenty of time to go on a quest for revenge. Dante won't be bothering you or ordering you around." She tilted her head back, watching the clouds coast across the sky. "You have so many lifetimes to do so."

"Who knows?" Envy said. "I wonder how long it will take for your condition to hit me if I stop taking the stones."

Cara glanced at him. "Probably awhile. You started off on them after all. Your body isn't ripped to pieces. And anyway, I'm sure Dante has plenty lying around. You can steal it all from her." She swung her feet back and forth over the ledge of the roof. "I wonder how long I have."

"Who knows?" Envy sighed. "Either way, Dante needs to die. I loathe Hoenhiem. But Dante needs to die first."

"And she will." Cara said. "Because she— You know, I don't even have to give a reason. Fuck her."

"Agreed."


The train was fixed by the next day, and the group was silent as it pulled out of the station. Envy sat alone, not looking at anyone, especially not the Elric brothers. Ed seemed perfectly keen on ignoring his existence as well. He acted like he didn't care but Envy's newly revealed identity was gnawing at him.

Edward could never fake apathy while it came so natural to Cara.

Chloe's brother and sister had come to see them off and Chloe had at last promised to visit when she finished her other obligations. Cara wasn't sure if she would follow through with it but Chloe usually thought highly of her promises.

"We know you aren't Katie." Rachel told Cara before they left. "We do. Our sister is dead. But you're the only piece of her we have."

"Your memories of her are a much better piece to have than I am." Cara replied.

"Yes." Ryan murmured. "Yes, you're right."

Cara almost wished she felt something at the goodbye. A tug of emotion left over from Katie's short existence. But she felt only relief to be leaving this town.

Since entering she had felt terrible and a weight seemed to lift off her shoulders as the buildings faded into the distance. It was best to put as many miles between them and that place as possible. That place of old wounds and agonizing memories. Perhaps they would have to face the scars of this place again, but now they all seemed content to pretend such scars didn't exist.

How unfortunate they could not pretend they had never gone to Stoneridge at all.


That'll teach you not to be sarcastic.

Cara: You were going to upload that chapter anyway.

Shut it.

Chloe: As usual, review and tell the authoress what you think.

Envy: Cause she's greedy like that.

Ed: And check out the poll on her profile and her other links!

Al: Have a good week!