Manami returned inside the rotting house and walked into the room where Lan Fan was, seeing Ed and Al standing at the end of her bed.
"She's okay?" The brunette asked quietly.
They looked back at her and nodded.
"Yeah," Ed answered. "Just resting now."
"Mm…" Manami hummed and nodded. She didn't see Ling in the room, so she had assumed that he stayed out in the hallway.
But suddenly, Lan Fan groaned softly, her eyes starting to crack open.
"Ah, you're awake… are you alright?" Al asked her.
"Is there anything we can do?" Ed added.
"..." Lan Fan's eyes slowly traveled the room, probably trying to make sense of where she was… she looked over to Ed, seeing his automail arm.
"My arm is really gone, isn't it…" She asked, almost in a whisper.
"Yeah…" Ed nodded.
"I'm useless without it." Lan Fan's face twisted in pain. "I need a replacement…"
Ed looked at his own automail hand for a moment, then smiled at her.
"I know a mechanic that can hook you up."
"You should rest for now." Manami offered a small smile. "We'll be here if you need anything."
Lan Fan gave a firm nod, and Manami looked over to see Roy and Ling standing out in the hallway, chatting. She went to walk out and join the conversation, Ed and Al close behind her.
"What is that, anyway? Dare I ask." Knox asked, appearing behind them.
"They call it Gluttony. He's a Homunculus." Ling answered.
"These guys apparently have some sort of connection to the higher ups in the military." Roy added.
"Apparently?!" Ling scoffed. "More like definitely." His eyes narrowed.
"Your Furher, King Bradley… he's a Homunculus too."
"What?!" Everyone gasped.
"Under that eyepatch… there's an Ouroboros tattoo on his eyeball. He and this one came after Lan Fan and I." Ling confirmed.
"No way..!" Ed gritted his teeth.
"I knew I had a bad feeling…" Manami's eyes narrowed. "The way he said that we're 'precious...' Envy and Lust said that we were 'precious' sacrifices, too..."
"I can't believe it..." Roy muttered.
"Bradley doesn't emit the same inhumane aura that comes from this one," Ling looked to Ed. "That's what caught us off guard— his presence is still human-like."
"H-Hold on," Al interjected. "Doesn't he have a child? Homunculi can't reproduce…"
"The Furher's son, Selim… he's adopted. No blood connection to his father." Knox sighed.
"Well... whether he's human, Homunculus, or whatever…" Roy smirked. "Knowing this makes it all the easier to knock him off his throne."
The Colonel then looked to Gluttony. "First, we get as much intel as we can from this thing… then, I'll take his stone. It'll probably be useful in healing my officer."
"No way!" Ling barked. "The Homunculus is our catch! Lan Fan made the biggest sacrifice to get it, so it's ours!"
"We've been trying to get our bodies back!" Ed jumped in. "Neither of you should be thinking that you're just gonna run off with it!"
"Hold on, we don't need to argue over it!" Manami tried stopping the argument, but it was no use.
"I'm too old for this," Knox muttered. "Good luck with this, Mustang, I'm going home."
"Mustang…" The Homunculus spoke, but no one heard him over the arguing. Gluttony began to struggle in his bind, his grunts getting louder. Manami was the first to notice that Gluttony was starting to resist.
"..?"
"Mustang… killed Lust…"
"Guys..?" Manami's squeaked, but her voice fell on deaf ears.
"Mustang…"
"Guys!" Manami yelled, now getting everyone's attention. They all followed her gaze to see Gluttony seeming like he was... expanding in his bind.
It looked like he was about to pop!
But all of a sudden, something appeared on his stomach, then opened up to reveal teeth. It was a mouth..? No, inside was what looked like... an eyeball.
"ROY MUSTANG!"
BOOM!
Thankfully, Manami had fallen backwards and landed on her bottom… because when she opened her eyes, she saw a ditch in front of her feet.
"What..?"
"Colonel, what happened?!" Riza's yelled from outside.
"Stop, don't come in Lieutenant!" She heard Roy yell from behind her.
BOOM!
There it was again, but this time, it took out too much of the house to where the section they were in started to collapse on them. But Al hovered over the group to prevent the wooden planks from falling on them.
"Th-Thanks, Al..." Manami heard Ed stammer.
"Hold on…" The suit of armor grunted before pushing himself to stand and pushing the broken wood off of him, making some space for everyone else to crawl out.
"Colonel!" Manami looked up and saw Riza a few feet away.
"Don't provoke him, Lieutenant!" Roy yelled at her. "He's after me!"
"Mustang! Gluttony roared once he saw them again.
"Move!" Manami yelled, and everyone jumped out of the way as another blast came towards them and narrowly missed.
"What the hell is that thing..?!" She cried.
"No idea…" Ed's eyes were wide in horror. "But the fact that alchemy can create something like that…"
"It doesn't matter." Roy went to stand. "We have to take him down!"
"But we worked so hard to capture him!" Al protested.
"Survival is the first priority." Roy went to slip on his gloves bearing his transmutation circle for flame alchemy.
"It knows our names, and can't let it go back alive!" He snapped his fingers and sent a wave of fire that consumed Gluttony, making him cry out in pain… but, all of a sudden, the flames started swirling.
"..?" They watched as the area darkened once again, as the fire was sucked into his stomach.
"..." Manami felt a bead of sweat run down the side of her head.
"Oh no..."
Gluttony went to shoot another blast at them, and they bolted towards the forest.
"That was a good plan!" Ed yelled at the Colonel.
"You think of something better!" Roy shot back at him.
"Already did!" Manami yelled. "I'm getting the hell away from you!"
"I second that!" Ed agreed.
"Everybody split up in the trees!" Roy commanded, and everyone went their own separate ways once they reached the forest. Manami pulled out her fans and used wind alchemy to launch herself up into the trees, and she continued launching herself herself to jump from tree to tree.
She heard Gluttony roar in the distance, followed by the sound of gunshots. That must have been Hawkeye.
After a while of running, Manami jumped out of a tree to actually found herself back where they came from. She heard blasts from behind her, and she took a moment to catch her breath.
"Hurry up! We're leaving!" She heard Knox yell, and she looked up to see Ling helping Lan Fan into the car.
Thank goodness… she heard rustling behind her and readied herself to fight, but relaxed when she saw Ed and Al.
"Good, you're okay…" Ed panted.
"Where's the Colonel?" Manami asked him.
"Right here." She heard Riza speak as she emerged from the trees, helping Roy limp over to the car.
"Come on!" Knox yelled at them from the driver's seat, and Riza went to help Roy in the car before climbing in to sit with him.
"Ghh… you expect me to run away?!" Roy yelled.
"You'd just get in our way!" Ed barked.
"He's right, Colonel." Riza said. "You won't be of any use here."
"Don't you think you should be doing something about that new information about the Furher being a Homunculus?" Ed asked, making Roy's eyes widen.
"Why are we still chitchatting?!" Knox yelled. "Get in!"
"..." Ed, Al, Manami, and Ling all exchanged glances, before smiling softly at the adults in the car.
"The car looks full to me." Al said. "You go on ahead."
"But leaving this to a bunch of kids…" Roy gritted his teeth.
"What the hell did I just tell you less than a half hour ago?" Manami smiled weakly. "Stop trying to baby us and do your damn job."
"This was our mission to begin with… so we'll see it through. We appreciate the help up until now, though." Ed said.
"..." Riza sighed and went to load her gun. "Edward."
Ed blinked as he watched her go to hold her pistol out the window, and his eyes widened at the sight of it.
"Take it. You know how to use it, don't you?"
"That's a weapon… for killing people…" Al said quietly.
"Yes… but it's also a tool for survival." Riza said sternly.
"..." Ed swallowed and went to take the gun slowly. "I'll borrow it for now…"
They heard another blast behind them, and they turned to see red sparks flying in the air.
"Take care of Lan Fan." Ling said to Riza, before he joined Manami and the Elric brothers to run towards the forest.
"Wait… my lord!" They could hear Lan Fan cry from the car as it drove away.
The group made their way to the forest once again, following the sounds of Gluttony's cries and blasts… but, the closer they got to him, the more nervous they became.
When they found the Homunculus, all they did was simply hide in the bushes and trees and watch it thrash about.
"Why do I feel like… we're going into this less prepared than we were before?" Manami squeaked.
"Because we are…" Ling answered her.
"How are we supposed to do this?" Al asked, nervousness in his voice.
But suddenly, Ling quickly stood up and turned to look the opposite direction, drawing his sword.
"Huh? What's..?" Manami trailed off as she looked behind them as well, seeing a tall black horse.
Ed and Al gasped once they turned to see it as well.
"A horse..?" Al asked.
"Stop it, Gluttony!"
"It talked?!" Ed gasped.
"Long time no see…" The horse's lips curled upwards into a smirk, before red sparks started flashing around it. It's form started to change, to then reveal… Envy!
Manami's eyes widened in horror.
"Hey there, you two!" Envy greeted them with that same big grin. "It's Weather Girl and FullMetal Pipsqueak!"
Without skipping a beat, Ed charged towards him.
"I told you before! Don't call me SMALL!" He went to jump kick at him, which Envy narrowly dodged.
"Whoa, hey! Cool it!" Envy held his hands up. "I'm not here to fight you, pipsqueak!"
Yet Ed went to swing at him again.
"That's FIVE times now!"
"What?!"
"Five times that you called me small!" Ed snarled. "Twice here, three times at Lab Five! You've forgotten already?!"
Manami and Al sighed softly to themselves.
"What an idiot…"
But Envy suddenly jumped away. Nearby, they could hear Gluttony's voice. He had followed their voices until he found them.
"Mustang! He killed Lust! Swallow him!"
"No, Gluttony. He's gone. Besides, you can't eat him." Envy looked over to see the group, his eyes narrowing at the sight of Ling.
"You can't eat Mustang, nor the Elric brothers, and not the Weather Girl either… but," His lips curled into a smirk. "You can eat that squinty-eyed fellow there."
"Interesting. They're not after us." Ed grinned, then clapped his hands. He smacked them on the ground to transmute a wall between Gluttony and Envy.
"Ling, take care of him! We got Gluttony!" He yelled as he and Al went to charge.
"I'm backing up Ling!" Manami yelled as she ran to the other side of the wall, charging at Envy with her fans drawn.
"Wait, I can't—" Envy was cut off when Manami waved her fans to blow him backwards and slam him against the wall, and she twisted her whole body as she lifted a leg to kick him across the face.
"That's payback for what you did to me in Lab Five!" She yelled, jumping back a few feet.
"Grrr…" Envy lifted himself up from the wall. But then Ling came in charging, his sword drawn. There were a few swipes and blocks, until Ling managed to land a blow with his sword across Envy's stomach, but his arm suddenly turned into a snake and wrapped around the Xingese prince.
"!" Manami dashed towards the two of them, going to slide on the ground under them. Luckily, Ling saw her and dropped his blade, allowing Manami to catch it and easily slash the freaky snake-arm and free Ling. She then got on her hands to lift her legs and spin herself so that a few spin-kicks landed on Envy and sent him flying back.
Ling's eyes narrowed as he noticed the way Envy landed… it was strange. He then went to rip the disintegrating snake off of him, and then Manami tossed his sword back to him as she stood up.
"Those are some interesting moves." Ling commented with a grin.
"I only learned from your General." She grinned back at him.
"I could tell." He nodded, but then they both looked back to Envy.
"You brats!" Envy yelled at the, as red sparks flew from his body as he started to get back up.
"Are you ready to come with us yet? We just need information on the Philosopher's Stone." Ling said to him. "So how about it? Or do you want to do this again?"
"You scum!" Envy spat. "You humans think you can look down on me?!"
"I think it'd be wise to not look down on us humans either!" Manami retorted.
But suddenly, there was a crash behind them. It was Ed and Al, who had come crashing through the wall.
"Don't get in my way!" Ling yelled at them.
"Just because I can't kill you doesn't mean I can't knock you out!" Envy roared as he dashed towards Manami while her head was turned.
"?!" Manami went to wave her fans, but Envy was too fast, and he reached for her jacket and yanked her back, twisting her arm until she dropped one of her fans.
She struggled and resisted as Envy wrestled with her, but she finally shimmied her way out of her jacket so that she could punch him in the stomach, stunning him so that she could get away from him. While he was distracted, Ling went to slash Envy with his sword, cutting his leg clean off.
"GAAH!" Envy fell down once again, and Ling stepped over him with his sword ready to strike…
But suddenly, Envy's face changed to Lan Fan's, making Ling freeze in shock.
Lan Fan's fake face smirked devilishly. "Now, Gluttony!" Envy's voice came out of her mouth.
"!" Ed went to run towards Ling. "Ling!"
"Ed!" Manami had started to go after him as well, but then she noticed Gluttony, starting to open up his stomach.
They were in the direct path for the blast!
"Manami!" She heard Al call, and she looked over her shoulder to see his hand reaching out for her. She reached back for it, and even grabbed hold of it.
For a split second, she thought she was safe…
BOOM!
And then everything went black.