Alphonse continued the whole day to search for any traces or information on Duo or the other homunculi. It appeared that after the fight, they had retreated into hiding and nobody had seen them since. There was one strange rumor though about a young woman that Al hadn't met because she had come to their town around two years ago.

She was about twenty, friendly, and usually came to town everyday to either work or buy groceries, but she hadn't been by for the last day and it worried some of the people. The younger Elric naturally helped because he knew if he hadn't, it would've bothered him all night about not helping when someone had asked him to. They told him all the places she usually hung around until, finally, he had no other choice but to check her house to see if she was there. She was sort of like the Rockbells and how Ed and Al's house used to be, it was a small distance from the actual town so he had a while of walking to get there.

As he stood on her front porch, he raised his large hand to knock, but stopped when he heard retching noises coming from inside, "Ma'am? Are you alright?"

No one replied for a moment, but then a young woman peeked out from a crack in the door. She smiled and opened the door wider to reveal her pale face and a wash rags with some disgusting looking stains on it, "How can I help you, sir?"

"Have you just been sick for the past day? The townspeople sent me up to check on you since they hadn't seen you and were worried something happened to you." Al could see inside the small house and noticed it looked too filthy for a woman to be living in, but he decided not to jump to conclusions since that would be sexist of him to say that.

"Yes, I just didn't feel well enough to walk to town..." She coughed a little, but it sounded fake, "I'll be alright, so you can just go do whatever you need to. Thanks for checking up on me though."

Al turned to walk away when the woman said goodbye as well.

"Bye Alphonse!"

He stopped and turned to look at her, she was smiling innocently and acting as if nothing was wrong. Thinking it was a mere coincidence, he continued walking away from the house. He kept repeatedly telling himself that it was just one of those odd moments when a complete stranger knows his name, but maybe she had heard of him from the other townspeople.

That's what he told himself the whole time as he headed home.

> > >

Envy changed back from the shape of the woman they killed and kicked Gluttony out of his way as the much larger homunculus came out of hiding, "Move it you fat fucking blob!"

Gluttony had been holding some chocolate in his hand before that had just started to melt, but thanks to Envy, he had completely smashed it between his chubby palms. His beady eyes stared for a while before he finally understood what it meant, he started to lick his hands until chocolate had smeared all across his face.

Envy watched with utter disgust, but then turned his attention towards the door and went outside. Even though it was the middle of the night, the homunculus knew he had a job to do and now was better than any other time. As he expected, nobody was even awake at this hour of night but he had been cautious anyway as he went towards the train station ticket area.

"Good evening- Oh! So you really are okay then? That boy in the armor had told us you were just sick, but I didn't believe him... How can I help you this fine evening?" The middle-aged man smiled warmly at the woman and she put on a fake smile.

"I'd like three train tickets to Central, please?" Envy tried to make her voice to sound as sweet as possible and even added a small cough, "I'm going to go visit a doctor there since no one here seems to know why I'm sick..."

"Of course! I wouldn't hesitate a second to leave here if I were you, and it is so good that you've found two others to go with you!" The man printed the tickets and handed them over to the girl who inspected them and found that he only had till tomorrow afternoon to finish up her business.

"Thank you so much," Envy turned they cobalt blue eyes he had stolen towards the Rockbell's house and glanced down at his tickets. "I'm sure my two escorts will be so happy to come with me..."

Envy knew that he would have to hurry and find a way to make Duo lose his humanity or else he would go back to Ed and help him. There wasn't much time left either as he knew that Father wanted to meet Duo, and he was surely losing his patience by now. But it was partially Lust's fault for them taking so long since she had been the one who had wanted to head to Resembool in the first place.

"I guess it's time I dropped in to say hello..." Envy couldn't disguise the eager smirk he placed on the young woman's face as he walked toward the same dirt path he had followed only yesterday.

He wasn't very worried about stealth since he was still the young woman Alphonse had checked up on that afternoon, and knocked loudly to be greeted by a short old woman. "Is Alphonse there?"

She looked like she suspected Envy as not really being the girl, but she still called for Alphonse. The younger Elric rushed to the door and seemed worried that Envy wasn't at home.

"You shouldn't have gone to all that trouble to come here!" He sounded like someone's mother instead of a boy only fourteen, "Should I come visit you tomorrow?"

"Yes, please..." She coughed a little and that was when Edward appeared behind Alphonse looking pissed off, "And you can bring your little brother too if you want."

Envy was laughing inside the whole time as Ed started yelling, but he turned away and walked back down the path, "Please come by tomorrow morning. Good night Alphonse!"

He had finally set their plan back in motion, and tomorrow would be the day where Duo's fate would be decided. Whether he completely became Greed or if he became human again and gave up Greed. If he were to choose humanity, Envy would kill him without hesitation even if Father would be angry.

"Have a nice night ma'am!" Al called from the doorway as she walked away, "I wonder if I should walk her home..."

"Al, you're too nice. If she could walk all the way over here by herself let her walk herself home." The older Elric started walking upstairs towards the room he was sharing with Alphonse, but stopped as he felt a sudden chill overtake him. The sensation almost made him collapse as he noticed it wasn't just a chill but he had started trembling all over.

"Brother? What's wrong?" Ed couldn't believe Alphonse had said that since he could probably just look at him and see what was happening, but then it had abruptly quit once Al had talked to him.

"Nothing, never mind..." He mumbled as he hurried back to their room and went to the bed.

The blonde sat in the moonlight and just stared out into the darkness of the rest of the room, he couldn't figure out what had happened on the stairs and was just trying to think everything through when something in the window caught his eye. Right by his window was a tree, and for some reason he had thought he had seen someone sitting there watching him, but dismissed it as his mind creating hallucinations.

"There was something strange about that woman... Or maybe I'm just sick from not getting enough sleep..." Edward lied down finally and just stared at the ceiling thinking about everything until he finally drifted off to sleep once again.

> > >

Sorry for such a long wait for me to update! I just had writer's block for about three days whenever I tried to type up this chapter, but I hope it isn't too terrible. (And I think I accidentally jumped from it being in the middle of the day to night... oops...)

Please R & R!

Shari Maxwell