A/N: I switched a lot in this chapter because I was telling two stories at once. One of them focuses on the happenings in Central. The other on the happenings in the south, around the Southern HQ.

CHAPTER 11—The Return of the Homunculus:

-FLASHBACK-

"Flowers?" Kimblee, who was gazing at the small pond, looked back at Vi in disbelief. The two of them were in a park near Southern HQ. He had asked her to come here because he needed advice. Something that would impress Naminé, something that would make her feel good about herself. And Vi had said, as she was saying again,

"Flowers."

His arched an eyebrow. "Who gives a damn about flowers?"

Vi shook her head before glancing at Kimblee. He was cute, she'll give him that much but he seemed dense. Too dense for her friend but she suppose the guy was searching for a way to impress the girl. And Naminé was single as far as she was concerned. "She does. Every girl does."

Kimblee thought about the notion. When was the last time he had bought Naminé flowers? Actually, he had never considered buying her flowers or any other girl for that matter. Looked at his watched to see what time it was. It was pretty late and Naminé was probably waiting for him. He sighed and started to walk away. "I better head home."

Vi blinked at first, thinking about what he had said before squealing with delight.

He stopped and turned around to look at her. He placed his hands nonchalantly into his pockets. Zolf didn't understand why the woman was smiling like something good had happened. "What?"

Still grinning, she stood up. "It's nothing. I have a night shift. So say hi to Naminé when you get 'home.' "

"Yeah. Sure." He walked away from the spot, following the path. He didn't walk much further than ten feet because he heard his name. It belonged to a woman but it wasn't Vi because it was a lot softer. Kimblee looked in the direction it had came from. He saw her sitting on the bench there, her green eyes on him. "Oh. It's you."

-END FLASHBACK-

It was night and the moon was gone from the sky. For once the stars didn't bother shining brightly and the streets were almost deserted. These things was welcomed by the homunculus who was strolling, reading the house numbers. He was looking for one in particularly and then he saw it—house number three-four-seven. He walked up the stairs and rang the doorbell, not really giving a damn about that it was after two in the morning. At first he heard nothing but then there was scuffling and the door opened, revealing a woman standing in the doorway.

"Zolf?" Her green eyes stared at the homunculus before she broke into a grin. "You came back to me." She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

In central, Naminé took a large sip of coffee before putting the mug down. She was getting tired but she had to, in her mind, stay up to find what she was looking for. She had a schedule to follow. The day before, which was the day after her date with Havoc and almost three hours ago, was to find books on alchemy that contained things about homunculi. So far, everything had come up dry, each article mention about how they come from failed human transmutations. Nothing had came up about how to get rid of them. Maybe Roy knew something like how they worked and stuff. She eyed the phone and picked it up. Then she dialed his number.

It rung several times before someone grunted, "Who is this?"

"Hi, Roy."

" Naminé . . . Who calls somebody at three in the morning?"

"You can't really blame me. I need your help."

"Can't you wait when you get to work this morning?"

"But I need to know something really important."

"No normal person does this."

"Whatever. Look. I need to know how you kill a homunculus."

"Naminé?"

"Hm?"

"Goodnight."

"Roy!" A click and then nothing from the other end. She sighed and hung up. Her blue eyes looked at the fifteen books scattered on the table. So far, seven of them didn't have what she was looking for. The other eight would probably not have the information either. Still, that didn't stop her from checking them as well.

Havoc stopped by the colonel's office to check on her the same morning. When he opened the door, he saw Naminé was sleeping on her desk, her head buried in her arms. He walked over and started to gently shake her. "Hey, colonel. You need to get up."

Her head raised up and her blue eyes opened to see Havoc's. "Hello," she said, her drowsiness cloaking her voice thickly.

"I know you might hate me for this, but," he said, dropping some paperwork on the colonel's desk, "the fuhrer told me to give this to you and to tell you they're due at three."

Naminé glanced at the massive pile and put her head back down on to the desk. "I'll take care of it at noon, Havoc. Right now, time to sleep." She closed her eyes and she went back to her dreams.

Kaili Thomson was the younger sister of Naminé by ten years and lived thirty minutes away from Southern Headquarters. Unlike her sister, she had straight dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. She knew a lot about Naminé even though her sister moved around every time she had a transfer. Kaili really missed her but she suppose having Mel around was almost as good. Still, she wanted to call her and invite her down for a week.

Today, she went out shopping for clothes at this new store that had just opened the same day. She bought several pairs of shoes, leather pants, two miniskirts, and a purse. Usually, she never buys so many things but today she felt happy.

"Kaili!"

She turned around and saw it was Mel. She waved. "Hey!"

Mel had bright orange hair that had this one big wave and wore bangs, except today they were held back by a headband. Part of the trio that Kaili knew and loved, she was the only one who remained back in her home town. When she reached by Kaili, she embraced the girl in a huge hug. "How ya doing?"

"Fine."

Mel's green eyes looked at the shopping bags she was carrying. "You went shopping by yourself for once. Your mom's at home?"

"Yeah."

"Heard from your sister lately?"

"I talked to her the other night. Everything seems kind of hectic in Central but she didn't go into details."

The two stopped at the street corner and eyed the vehicles passing by. The traffic light turned red and the cars in front of them came to a stop. Mel was about to walk on ahead but stopped to look back at Kaili. "You're coming?"

She shook her head. "I better head back home anyway. I'll see you around."

"See ya."

"Aaaaaiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee!" It was five minutes after three according to the clock, passed the time all her papers were due. She began to speed through them but she seemed to get now because five minutes later she had only finished two out of the stack. Being promoted was okay until they began to expect more from the person. Whoever came up the more-expectations-to-be-met policy with was a jobless moron, a voice said in her mind and she agreed with it. A knock was heard by the door but Naminé's eyes were glued on her paper. Now she knew how Roy felt that day she came in.

"Leave a message and I'll get back to you," she yelled at the person. Despite that, the door opened and Roy walked in, eyes already on the pile of unfinished papers. Was this some rare moment of payback? Didn't he choose the perfect one. "What?" She asked, infuriated by the folder in his hand (she thought it was more work). When the folder was thrown on top of the paper she was working on, she let out a groan. "More work, sir? And I'm sorry these papers aren't done."

"I know you wouldn't finish on time," Roy said. "That's why I told Havoc to tell you that they were due at three. Because if you were late on finishing at three but finished before four, then you would be on time."

" . . . Huh?"

"I lied about the deadline," he simplified so she could understand. The four o'clock deadline was also a lie because it would be the only way she would bring it in on time. In reality, the paperwork was due at five o'clock that afternoon. His dark eyes watched as Naminé opened the folder to see what was inside. "That's the information I know about your question this morning," he explained. "It's what I know from my fight with Bradley."

"Uh, so why did you write it down?"

He ran a hand through his raven hair. "So you would study it on your own time and not on mine, asking me questions I already provided answers to."

"Thanks," Naminé said as she put it aside for the time being. "I'll look at it later."

Kaili sat on her bed, her journal propped open on her lap. She bit the top of her pen, trying to recall what had happened that day. Absolutely nothing important but she wanted to fill the page that only had the date on the top right corner. She supposed writing that she met Mel that day was something but nothing. Writing about how she felt, that was okay but not really interesting. Her dreams seemed to have more action than the reality she was stuck. Now if she could only remember what she dreamed.

The doorbell rung, interrupting her thoughts. She got up and opened her bedroom door. She just about to run downstairs when she saw her mother heading to answer the door over the banister. Seeing no point to stay there, she headed back into her bedroom and closed herself off.

What was she thinking about? Oh yeah, her journal entry. So far, nothing. She picked up her journal and her pen. Soon after she was sitting on her bed, the pen touching the blank page, waiting for something that was worth writing.

Her pen rose from the paper when she heard voices, which disturbed her concentration. They were loud for some reason and she frowned at that. Her frown deepened when nothing was heard after all that yelling. Curious to see what happened, she left her bedroom and walked down the hallway to see over the bannister.

Below the bannister was a big room that was kind of like the entrance hall. That room connected all the others on the first floor together. The piano was positioned in the corner on some piece of red and silver carpet. The room was usually spotless and always clean. Now there was a red puddle on the floor.

Despite what her mind was screaming, despite the warning bells desperately ringing to be noticed, her body walked down the stairs to get a better look at it. When her feet gently touched the last step of her descent, a voice echoed in the room.

"I remember you used to play the piano. You were amazing at it." That sentence was followed by a piano key being played, the last C at the end.

Kaili turned to see who just said that. She saw it was a guy that looked familiar. Then it dawned on her almost immediately. "You're my sister's boyfriend . . . I thought you were dead."

The guy smirked, tapping another key of the piano. "Funny how things turn out, huh?"

"But . . . "

He looked up now, interested in what the girl had to say. "But what?"

Finally her brown eyes narrowed at the guy. Of course the dead don't come back alive and not those you actually seen in a wake. She had almost believed that but then her eyes caught something—the man's own. "You're not him."

"A perceptive little bitch. I guess your next question is 'who are you really'."

"No. Where's my mother?"

He didn't answer. The man stood up and walked toward the girl slowly, his hands tucked away in his pockets. For every step he took, she managed two quick ones backward. Suddenly, she tried bolting upstairs to get away from him. With a sigh, his arm extended and punctured the wall right in front of the girl. She stopped and looked at him, a petrified look coming into light. He couldn't help smirking. "Hey. I didn't get a chance to answer your question. You wanted to know where your mother is, right? She's in the dining room . . . 'sleeping' I guess you can say. Why don't you come back down here and talk something out? A negotiation perhaps. 'Cause trust me-–-you don't want to end up like your 'dear' mother."

Kaili didn't move right away. Facts were trying to make sense in her head. Her mother was dead. That guy who killed her wasn't human. The idea of her dying would become a reality if she didn't go. If she went, the man would put her to better use (in his case). Only five minutes ago she was hoping for something excited to write about. Now that something did, she wished it hadn't because it was something she didn't need. Reluctantly, she went toward the guy, seeing the arm retracted back to its owner in her peripheral vision.

"Who are you really?" she asked, her hand gliding on the railing. It took her a while to realized that was what he had expected her to say a couple of minutes ago.

The guy grinned, showing his pointy teeth, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer. "I'm Corruption, a homunculus."

Kaili didn't say anything but instead just glared at the man. The guy, or homunculus, whatever the hell that was, had killed her mother and she would not forgive him for that. The guy seemed to know the lay out of the house pretty well because he didn't ask her where anything was but headed toward the kitchen like that was what he wanted.

Corruption eyed the phone before walking over to it, dragging Naminé's sister along with him. He picked it up and dialed the number to the Naminé's apartment. It started to ring and his grin turned into a satisfied smirk. He handed out the phone to the girl. "You want to talk to your sister?"

Naminé that night was hanging with Vi. The two of them was researching about homunculi in order to deal with their own. So far, Roy's information had mentioned how they needed the remains of whom the homunculus was suppose to be. Using some of Vi's father's old notes, they discovered that a homunculus eats red stones to give it a human shape and could be used to regenerate. However, the ability could only go on for so long based on the limitations and how much had been devoured.

"This explains a lot," Naminé muttered as she finally closed a book. "But how are we sure that not all of his remains had been used? If they all were, then he can't really die that easily."

Vi sighed and took another book. "You look tired."

"Don't worry about it."

The phone rang and Naminé got up, causing the chair to make a squeaking sound against the floor. She walked over to the table where the phone was perched and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hi, sis." The voice on the line belonged to her younger sister except the anger and fear wasn't masked.

Her eyebrow's furrowed at the tone of her voice. "What's wrong?"

" . . . Mom's dead but I'm okay."

Before Naminé could say anything, she heard the phone make a sound as if it was being shifted or passed on to someone else. Then a new, masculine voice drawled into her ear. "Hey, babe. I haven't seen you for a few days now. How have you been?"

"You!"

"Of course it's me. Who else was you expecting? Your dead mother or your dead ex-boyfriend or the dead mad bomber? Let's be realistic here. You know, while I still have your sister so dangerously close to me."

The Lightning Alchemist could just see him leering down at her sister with a grin of false reassurance that everything was alright, that no harm could come to her. Thought it was just her mental picture of the scene, she had the urge to scream liar like it was happening. Nevertheless, she held it in and said, "Don't touch her."

The voice sounded surprised at the order. "Don't touch her?" There was an airy laugh followed after that. "Since when have I listened to you?" To prove his point, a muffled scream was heard in the background.

Naminé felt her inside twisted, partly due to the scream, partly of his using the line Kimblee had when they fought in the sewers. "Just don't hurt her."

The homunculus's sigh was heard through the phone. "I can't exactly promise that. See, there's nothing pure about me and if you take too long to come, she might soon see her mother again. "

There was a silence while Naminé realized what he was hinting. She bit her bottom lip before saying, "How long do I have to get there"

Silence filled the phone as he apparently thought it over. " . . . Five days and come alone. We'll be in that old warehouse waiting for you."

"What old—?"

"You know the one. To refresh your sweet memory, it's the place where you caught those thugs on your first military assignment with Kimblee and Romberg. Good when you were all friends, wasn't it?"

Naminé repressed her anger and kept herself level-headed. "I'll see you in five days."

"Any longer than that and I'll kill her. I'm glad we made this negotiation."

"What negotiation?"

He chuckled. "You for her, of course. You think I would just hand her over? I'll see you then, my love."

Before he could hang up on her, Naminé slammed the phone, frustrated and angry. How could she be an idiot? Like he would just up and go and leave her be. She wished she could have seen that coming because he had one on her and she had nothing . . . almost nothing. She picked up the phone and started to dial a number.

"That was him, wasn't it?" Vi asked.

Naminé nodded and heard the phone ring. "He has Kaili."

"That's not good."

The phone had rang four times and still no answer. She was just going to hang up and try again tomorrow when a familiar voice was heard on the line. "Hello?"

A/N: Why I named him Corruption: I wanted something that technically meant evil or to taint. So I used the thesaurus and corrupt came up. From there, I used the noun form of the word. Anyway, school's starts tomorrow for me. I wish it didn't. It takes time away from writing Chapter 12. Yep, I've got writer's block on that. Besides that, thanks to the following people who reviewed: Synette, CorvusCaminus, and kimimaros-angel. Till later.