Hey guys! Ready for another round? I noticed I am now over 100 reviews, which is GREAT! I'll be posting chapters throughout the weekend, most likely one a day (or more if I'm nice). I don't want to rush through the rest of this story too much though. The next four or so chapters are pretty thick (not word-wise for the most part, but content-wise), and I don't want to overwhelm anyone. But I will be posting regularly. Anyways, thanks again Indome, for pointing out my mistake. I reread the end of the last chapter and changed a few words, so it didn't sound like Edward was walking around with an entire legbone or something. Though that would make for an interesting plot twist…hmmmmm….nah. I'm not that bad!

I do want to make one apology ahead of time. The first section of this chapter basically sums up a couple of episodes, as I did not want you to be put through a bunch of boring detail that didn't include Winry (you know sometimes I get the feeling you want her to show up again, eh?), so it may be confusing. I promise I tried to make it as un-confusing as possible, but I don't know how good I was at it. Gomen!

Anyways…on with the show!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Things had not gone as planned as Edward would have liked them to. He and Alphonse left Rizenbul early the morning after he had read Winry's diary. The two were spotted as the train was stopped to inspect for the brothers, and they narrowly escaped. Ed and Al rented out a room that was close to the forests that held Dante's mansion; Edward wanted to return there to see if he could find some more information on the Philosopher's Stone and also the homunculi. Before leaving the Rockbell house, a strange phone call came one day and Pinako was asked to give Alphonse a number to call. During the time Edward was gone from the hotel room, Alphonse used a phone just outside and dialed the number. He was told to come to an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town if he wanted to learn how to use the Philosopher's Stone he harbored within his body. Alphonse felt the phone call was strange, but decided to go to the warehouse while Edward had gone to investigate the mansion.

Edward came back to their room later to find the window smashed in and glass covering the floor. Moments later, he was attacked by the homunculi Lust and Wrath, who broke off his metal forearm and absorbed it into his body. Edward quickly realized he was not going to be able to defeat the two at the moment, so he jumped out the window and landed in the alley below. Both of the homunculus followed him outside. Wrath became angry when Lust asked Edward once again, that if he had the Philosopher's Stone, would he make them into humans. He attacked Lust and made her impale her weakness, a charm that had been given to her lover in her former life. Edward quickly helped her as best he could, and removed the trinket from her sight. She quickly impaled and stabbed Wrath, appearing to have killed him. Lust warned Edward, as they ran to the abandoned factory she knew Alphonse would be at, that Sloth (the homunculus that was created from Ed and Al's failed transmutation) was after his brother.

"Wait! Wait…" Edward yelled to her as they continued to run towards the abandoned factory, "I didn't promise you…To make you human…"

"Why…" Lust asked irritably as she stopped, not turning to face the teenager.

"I should be the one asking! Why do you want to become human? You guys are immortal and don't age…And I don't know why, but you seem to be having a lot of fun living like you do…Even so…Why do you want to become a human again?"

The homunculus paused for a moment before turning around to face Edward, "You say such cruel things. Then, why do you want your brother to return to his original body?" She saw the surprised reaction, then the realization of her words sink into the boy's head. "It's the same thing," she said before walking away towards the factory.

A few more minutes passed before the two arrived at the abandoned building. Edward looked around and found some old gun cartridges, and he quickly transmuted them into a makeshift arm, since Wrath broke his automail arm not long ago. He stood up and flexed it; it wasn't nearly as good as the automail he was used to, but it would be sufficient for now.

As he finished inspecting his work, he heard a door creak, and looked up to see his brother and the homunculus that looked like his deceased mother walk from a stairway leading from underneath the factory.

"Homunculus…" Edward growled, "Let go of Al!"

Alphonse looked from his brother to the person beside him, "But brother, this person is…"

"Yeah, I know…She fooled me too," interrupted Edward. "But she's not our mother…"

"I also understand, but--"

"No matter how much she looks like her," Edward continued, not letting his brother speak, "she has no soul!"

Sloth pretended to have a hurt look on her face as she looked towards the elder brother, "That is such a terrible thing to say, Edward…"

Edward heard some shuffling behind his brother and Sloth, and soon saw the man he used to know as Shou Tucker walk up behind them. Ever since he was arrested for transmuting his daughter, Nina, and her dog Alexander into a chimera, the military hid him below in the Fifth Laboratory and turned the man into a chimera himself.

"Please, Al!" came his raspy voice as he slowly walked up to Alphonse and reached for him.

"Tucker?" Edward questioned, as he was still surprised to find him here, "So it was you who deliberately called Al here by himself!" He stopped talking as he noticed the crimson light inside Al, the light from the Philosopher's Stone, was not as bright as it once was.

"The Law of Conservation…When we used the Philosopher's Stone, this is what happened," Al said guiltily. Tucker had been attempting ever since his daughter's death to revive her by using the Philosopher's Stone, not caring whether it was real or fake. He craved the power that could return some of his memory into the soulless dolls he produced, in hopes of creating another daughter.

Edward stared at his brother and became angry, "Tucker talked you into doing that…Dammit…" He talked to himself as he held a fist close to his body, "The number of people I must beat to a pulp after this has grown too big…If I don't write them down, I'm gonna forget them! Oh, well. For now Al, come here with me…"

"He can't, Edward," replied Sloth.

"Are you gonna return Al to normal?" questioned Edward as he glared at her, knowing full well what the answer was, "Or do you plan on having the person who controls all of you use what remains of Al's body?"

Edward quickly transmuted his automail arm into a large gun, and after yelling at his brother to move, began shooting dozens of bullets towards Sloth's direction. The homunculus quickly turned to water to let the bullets fly through her, and as gravity took hold, melted into a puddle onto the floor. Alphonse quickly regained his feet and ran in front of the homunculus to protect her.

"Brother! Stop it!" the younger sibling yelled.

"Al, get out of the way!"

From the puddle of water rose the homunculus's head, "It hurts, Edward," she said as her body began to take shape again.

"I know," he sneered as his hand returned to its previous state, "that you won't die like that!" Edward quickly began to run the other way, prompting the homunculus to chase him. It wasn't long before she stretched out her watery arms and wrapped them around the teenager, preventing him from escaping.

"Please, don't run," she said calmly. She began to pull the teenager closer to her when she looked down, and realized she was standing in a giant transmutation circle. "That is…"

"This is the alchemy array that was drawn when I killed Greed in Dante's house a while back," Edward stated as he turned to look at Sloth, "This must be something to seal homunculi, right!"

"You are quite brilliant," Sloth said, somewhat impressed, "But that alone won't be enough."

"I know," replied Edward. "The homunculi's only weakness…A part of the body whose failed transmutation created you!" He quickly reached inside his coat and whipped around to shove the small box he retrieved into the homunculus's chest.

"Brother! That is…"

"A remnant from the body whose transmutation gave birth to this homunculus," replied Edward, as Sloth gasped and began to melt into a puddle on the ground.

"Mom…"Alphonse muttered, "Brother, don't tell me you…Our mother's grave!"

"It was enough that I did this alone!" yelled Edward.

The liquefied form of Sloth began to move throughout the circle, trying her best to escape the seal. Watery hands attempted to wipe off part of the transmutation circle, but with no luck.

"It's pointless, Sloth," commented Lust as she walked from behind some of the machinery, "Even if you do that, the alchemy array won't disappear." She extended some of her claws to emphasize her next point, "It was etched in deeply, with my claws…"

"Thanks," said Edward as he threw the small trinket that used to belong to Lust towards her. Before it reached her she quickly closed her eyes and batted it away with her claws, "I didn't do it because I wanted that thing."

"Why are you betraying that person?" questioned Sloth, the watery substance forming to make her head appear from the floor.

"Sloth, don't you remember anything?" Lust said as she walked closer to the circle.

"What are you talking about?" questioned Edward.

"I remember. Even if it is only a little," Lust slowly said as she lifted her head to look through some of the holes in the ceiling. "We weren't supposed to have memories. It might simply be that the memories of the dead were etched in my mind. But…Even so, I have memories. I was…a woman from Ishbal," she said as she turned her head down to Sloth. "If the memories from before you were born were to surface…Then you would have a glimpse of hell!"

Alphonse startled everyone when he suddenly ran from his spot towards the alchemy array. He quickly grabbed the box that contained the fragments of his mother's corpse and threw it through one of the nearby windows, releasing her from the seal.

"Al! What are you doing!" Edward said as he began to run outside. Alphonse quickly stuck out his hand and knocked his brother to the ground, "Brother! You can't do this with our mother's body!"

"Al," Edward said bewildered, "If we don't defeat them, then they'll chase you forever!"

"But if she was stopped by this," the younger brother said as he looked towards Sloth. She had regained her human form and kneeled in the circle, regurgitating pieces of red stone, "then that means…we created her back then."

"Al!" Edward exclaimed as he stood up, "She's a homunculus!"

"Homunculi are born through a failed human transmutation," Alphonse interrupted. "But even if they don't have a soul…"

"I beg of you, Al!"

"But we created that person!"

"That's right!" Edward tried to explain, "That is why we must give her death!"

"We can't!"

Lust, growing weary of the feuding brothers, walked closer to Sloth, "Then, I shall do it," she said calmly as she stretched her claws out. Sloth, still in her human form, weakly reached an arm for the two brothers, her eyes pleading with them to let her go. Before Alphonse could react, Lust quickly slashed through her fellow comrade, reducing her to the watery form once more.

"Go back and get it, fullmetal boy," stated Lust as the form of Sloth began to shape again, "the seal is not yet complete."

Without another word from the homunculus, Edward turned and ran outside to retrieve the box that held the piece of his mother's body. Running out into the sunlight, Edward shielded his eyes and began to look around for the small box. Off to his right, he could see the homunculus Wrath picking up a small object.

"You were trying to pick on mommy with this, weren't you?" he said, looking at the small box in his hand.

"Mommy? Wrath, she's not your mother!"

"I've decided to steal everything that's yours," he stated calmly as he turned and smiled towards Edward.

"She's not even my mother…" replied Edward.

"Fine…Then she'll be mine! Everything of yours will be mine. Even parts of that girl you know is mine!" exclaimed the child homunculus; happy to see how his words affected the teenager.

"What do you mean," demanded Edward. He saw the child turn the underside of his left arm towards the alchemist. Below the elbow on the forearm sat a large scar, appearing to have been made by a blade of some kind. At first, the sight didn't affect him, but then bits and pieces of Winry's diary came floating back to the surface. When Envy had her pinned in the dining room he turned his arm into a blade and plunged it into her left arm. "You bastard…That can't be…"
"It is…and so is this," the child said gleefully as he pointed to his right leg. Sure enough, Edward could tell the slight difference between the hand and feet structures that would lend to the idea that they came from different people.

Trying his hardest not to let his emotions get the better of him as they would do no good to him at the moment, Edward took a deep breath before opening his hand towards the child homunculus, "Give it to me." Seeing the child not wanting to cooperate, Edward lunged toward Wrath, but was too slow as the child jumped straight into the air, out of reach for the alchemist. He jumped over Edward and landed a few feet away from him. The moment he landed, Wrath took the small box and absorbed it into his own chest, keeping it well out of reach for Edward. Feeling that the absorption was complete, Wrath turned his head and showed his evil grin to the elder brother.

Edward and Wrath crashed through one of the nearby windows into the abandoned factory, as Lust kept slicing Sloth every time she formed. Wrath turned his head and saw what Lust was doing; panic written all over his face. "What are you doing to mommy!" he screamed at Lust as he stood up. Edward stood up a few feet behind him and tried to explain, "He's yearning for a mother, and found a substitute…"

"I'm telling you to stop!" Wrath screamed as he ran towards Lust. He passed by an old conveyer belt full of guns and, using alchemy, turned his left arm into a dozen giant guns, all pointing at Lust. He shot dozens upon dozens of rounds of ammunition at her, but she quickly ducked and ran behind some machines. Sloth, who was still in her liquefied form at the time, noticed Alphonse looking towards the young homunculus, and took her chance to escape. The flow of water entered the hole in Al's side easily, and she commanded him to walk away, influencing the way he moved.

"Al!" Edward screamed as he began to run after him, not paying attention to the bullets flying everywhere. He stopped running as Lust came from out of nowhere and extended her claws fully, slicing the guns all the way down to the triggers.

"I will take care of Wrath," Lust stated calmly, indicating Edward should go and help his brother. Without waiting another moment, Edward ran off after Alphonse.