Roy sighed as he watched his apartment burn to the ground along with some very valuable possessions, but it was nothing that he couldn't later replace. The only thing that as important was that he was alive and barely injured from the experience, and now he knew that the homunculi were making their move. But which one of them was still around to wait until he was out of his apartment long enough for them to make it into a deadly trap?

Surely he remembered that Ed went after the three called Envy, Lust, and Gluttony, but what other homunculi were there? Roy never had the chance to really sit down and contemplate, because he was rushed to the hospital to see if he was alright even though it was obvious he was. There was no one to see as the Fuhrer sighed disappointedly as he surveyed the debris that was once the Flame Alchemist's home.

"It seems that everything is going according to plan, though I do sincerely wish that it had been a bit more interesting to watch..." The man smiled to his subordinate as he got back into his car.

> > >

Alphonse decided to check in on his older brother, since it had been unusually quiet that night. As much as it pained him to say, Alphonse was used to Edward's whimpers, sobs, and sometimes even screams as nightmares plagued him at night. There were times that his brother was blessed with a night of peace from such horrid reminders of their past, but those were few and far between.

"Brother...?" He was greeted by silence and an empty bed, but there were no visible signs of struggle or of any escaping through the window. Though when he heard a light creak that was the front door as it pulled against it's hinges, Al knew his brother had left the house. It was then that he head a discreet giggle that echoed in the silent house.

"Who's there?" Alphonse knew he could easily find the intruder if he did a little searching for traces of where they were hiding, but it was apparently unnecessary as the young woman from earlier emerged from the darkness. "Why are you here at this time of night?"

"I'm here to challenge you to a fight, and I'm expecting a good one since you're the pipsqueak's younger brother." The girl's voice changed as did her appearance to show Envy in his true form, "Shall we go outside? Or would you prefer to just endanger your little friends the Rockbells?"

Al descended down the stairs and followed the homunculus outside to where they had plenty of open space, not to mention that he didn't want to hurt the only other family he had besides his brother by being reckless. It had probably been a bad idea to accept Envy's challenge in the first place, but if he hadn't he was sure the monster wouldn't have had any remorse of killing off more than just two innocent people in Resembool.

"What can you accomplish by fighting me? Or is that another one of your secrets that I'll have to get out of you the hard way?" Alphonse had a feeling that his threat was pretty much empty, but the homunculus showed faint signs of weariness in his smug expression.

"My purpose is for me to know, and only for me to know. I can't seem to understand why you're so curious to pry into our business anyway... Or are you nervous of what we're doing to your poor brother?"

Envy didn't give Alphonse enough time to reply before lashing out at him, but Alphonse easily parried the blow to return one of his own. His landed right on his intended target, and sent him back a few feet. Before Envy had even fully recovered from being thrown about twenty feet, he was already running back to attack Al.

This battle could go on for hours, but Alphonse knew he had to end it quickly and get the palm tree to tell him where his brother was and what they were doing. Or planning on doing to him.

> > >

"You should just come out Ed, unless you feel like making my night by actually making this fun. Let me set up this little challenge for you... If you can escape here, I promise I won't chase you or tell the other homunculi that I let you go." Greed laughed as he turned into another dark tunnel when Ed's voice reverberated throughout the entire underground.

"And what if you win?"

"Well if I win," he chuckled lightly, "you and your brother are going to finally becoming your destiny as our 'human sacrifices'. That's equivalent trade, isn't it?"

"You're morals are pretty fucked up if you consider that equivalence, but I'll accept your terms nonetheless..." Edward urged himself to keep his big mouth shut as he turned off into another deserted corridor of stone.

The blonde knew he was now caught in Greed's web, but he suddenly had an idea of how to lure out Duo. As he began formulating everything he would do, he stopped off into a small dead end that was pitch black, and not even a homunculus could see into it. He knelt down and readied himself for when Greed would walk past him, and in that instant would capture him.

Just as the Greed was about to pass by this small area without even glancing at it, Ed used his alchemy to form a giant stone hand that completely restrained him. So far Ed's plan was working well, and as he stepped out of the gloom he had easily blended into with his dark clothes, Greed smirked and began to laugh.

"Brilliant plan, Ed. Keep me here while you escape and then you will win the challenge without having to worry too much about a time limit." Greed got a look of surprise as Ed shook his head.

"That'd be a pretty good idea if I was a coward, but I have a different idea in mind." Ed looked into Greed's stolen amethyst eyes with his intense gold ones, "All I can ask Duo is... What do you think Heero would say if he saw you like this? Acting weak and giving in without even fighting this wuss?"

Ed smiled as he saw the malicious eyes of Greed revert back to Duo's perpled ones.

"Welcome back."

"It's good to see you too, but if you wouldn't mind..." Duo gestured towards the stone hand and Edward immediately deconstructed it with his alchemy. "Thanks, that makes me feel better..."

> > >

Finally! Duo's back and kicking! (I was even getting a bit frustrated with myself that I kicked Duo out of the way for so long.)

I hope this chapter was good becaue I did work really hard on it (even if it doesn't seem that way) to make it absolutely perfect.

I can also assure all the readers that this series will end around chapter 50 something, so we still have quite a few chapters to go.

Please R& R!

Shari Maxwell