The group now consisting of Darius, Jerso, Zampano, Scar, Ed, and Manami, all continued down the dark hallway, and approached a door that Manami and Ed opened together to find a brightly lit room. The walls and floor were a matching white… except, on the door across the room, was a very large mural. One that they had seen before.

"The air here is foul…" Zampano grunted.

"You sure this is it?" Darius asked.

"Mhm." Ed nodded. "It's exactly as Al told us."

Manami looked down to see something on the floor. At first, it looked like a pile of metal scraps, but upon closer inspection, her eyes widened in horror when she realized that there were…

"Bones." Jerso frowned in disgust.

"Number 66." Ed clarified. "Barry the Chopper. He was one of the guardians of the Fifth Laboratory."

Manami looked up to the familiar circle above the giant set of doors. It was the same circle that she and Ed saw in the Xerxes ruins… and inside of Gluttony's stomach.

Meanwhile, Ed approached the doors, and found himself struggling to pull them open.

"Grrrr…! Come on!"

"You expect to open that door by yourself?" Jerso asked with a sigh.

"Stand back." Scar flexed his hand and went to approach the doors, but stopped when they started to open on their own.

"Ah… it's ope—" Ed's smile faded when he saw something coming for him… and fast!

Everyone yelled in surprise when a pile came flooding out the door, and it took Manami a moment to realize that they were people!

But, the way they moved… they only had one eyeball… these weren't people… but what were they?!

Everyone jumped back as the creatures charged in, coming in groups of two to three at each member of the group. They fought back and fended them off, but Manami noticed that a few of the creatures had gotten behind her and were walking towards the doorway that led to the surface!

"!" She quickly turned around and ran for them, waving her fans to summon a gust that would blow them aside, and then clapped her hands and transmute a wall to cover up the doorway.

Whatever these were, they couldn't get out into the city.

"Sorry, guys!" Manami waved away some of the creatures that came for her. "I had to seal off the exit!"

"That's okay!" Ed yelled back, as he kicked one of the creatures away from him.

"Hungry…"

"Mama…"

"It hurts…"

"Stop…"

Manami's eyes widened when she heard some of the creatures speak. It was… just like Envy's true form. Where the souls were crying and begging for help.

Then it clicked in her mind. That's why these things weren't dying. They weren't human at all. They were artificial dolls that had been infused with Philosopher Stones.

"Manami!" Ed seemed to come to the same conclusion, because he threw a spear to her to fight with, then stood back-to-back with her.

"We can't kill them, but we can cut off their legs and jaws!"

"Right!" Manami put her fans away and readied the spear in her hands for the next wave of dolls. They charged, and Ed and Manami yelled out as they fought back, slicing and dicing limbs and jaws left and right.

Some distance away, Scar was blowing limbs off of the dolls with his right arm, while the rest of the men had already taken their chimera forms.

No matter how hard they fought, how many dolls they took out… they just kept coming.

"How many are there?!" Darius asked, swinging away with Barry's machete.

"I'm running out of quills!"

"My spit is getting dry."

Everyone was getting tired. They needed to think of something else, and quick.

Only one thing came to Manami's mind… but she didn't like it.

Still… it seemed to be the only way.

"Everyone, come to me and cover me!" She yelled out, and everyone looked at her.

"Huh?" Ed looked back at her. "Manami, what are you..?"

Manami didn't respond. Instead, she threw the spear aside and pulled her fans out once again, eyeing each creature in the room.

As everyone made their way back to surround Manami in a semicircle and fight off the dolls, the brunette took a deep breath through her nose before lifting her fans to point at the dolls. All anyone could see were faint sparks of blue emitting from where her hands touched her fans.

And then she flicked her wrists.

Suddenly, all at once, every single doll exploded. No… there was no fiery explosion that Ed could see, but it was definite that their heads, arms, and legs had blown clean off their bodies from some unexpected force.

Everyone watched, frozen in shock. Manami then stepped forward to wave her fans to blow all the body parts— that were still moving— to one side of the room.

"Ed, help me transmute a wall… to seal them off..." She panted.

"Wh-What did you do..?" Ed asked, though he still helped her.

"Something I didn't want to do." Manami said quietly. "But… it was the only way."

They finished sealing the dolls off and she looked back to him to force a smile. Ed could see the pain in her eyes, and he had a bad feeling…

This was the ugly side of her alchemy. This was what she was terrified of doing up North. And could he blame her? It was terrifying.

BOOM!

An explosion coming from above snapped them all back to reality, and they looked up to see what would emerge from the cloud of dust that came falling down.

"Is that Mei?" Jerso asked, and Manami followed his gaze to see something small and pink dangling off the top of one of the doors.

But another cough that didn't sound young and girly was heard, and Manami looked down to the doorway to see someone standing up and waving away the dust.

"Envy?" Ed was the first to figure it out, and everyone else's eyes widened, including Envy's.

"Oh no… not you guys!" Envy gritted his teeth.

Meanwhile, Mei climbed down from the top of the door and ran over to the group, in front of Scar.

"You damn fool!" Scar roared at her. "Why didn't you go back to Xing?!"

Mei shrunk in intimidation.

"I… I just…"

"Forget it." Scar cut her off. "No crying."

"I'm sorry…" Mei sniffled. "Please forgive me."

"Ugh," Envy groaned, cocking his head to the side. "Typical whiny humans."

Everyone glared at him.

"So, we have the FullMetal and Wind Alchemists… and even Scar. And a couple of filthy chimeras." Envy said, putting his hands on his hips.

"I must say, I'm surprised to see Scar here. Don't you hate State Alchemists? They're the ones who reduced your homeland to a hell on Earth."

"Yes." Scar answered, stone-faced. "I'm aware."

"What?!" Envy gasped. "You're friends now?! What a buzzkill! Humans are supposed to love watching others suffer, while making fools of themselves! Why else would you always be at war with each other?"

"As far as I'm concerned," Manami spoke up. "We're at war with you scummy Homunculi."

"Ah, Weather Girl!" Envy said in a mocking tone. "Suddenly you're all-knowing?"

"No… but I know one thing," Manami frowned. "That we're winning this war."

"Aww…" Envy sneered. "How sweet."

"Don't patronize me!" Manami yelled. "You've been hiding behind hostages, killing them to make us bend your way..." She gritted her teeth.

"And it ends today. You won't kill anyone else!"

"That's an awful accusation." Envy frowned. "How do you know we killed anyone?"

"Maes Hughes." Manami growled, and Ed looked over to her with widened eyes. "He found out too much, and you killed him!"

"That wasn't me." Envy shook his head.

There was a pause, and Manami felt her heart start to pound as the words fell out of her mouth...

"Then who was it?"

"..." Envy stared back at her for a moment, with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

"That was Maria Ross." He replied smoothly.

"Bullshit." Manami spat, gritting her teeth. "Maria Ross was innocent. We've known for quite some time that she didn't do it."

"So you're okay that your Colonel burned her to a crisp?" Envy asked with a smirk.

Manami clenched her fists tightly around her fans.

"Dancing around the bush again. You're afraid to tell me the truth, aren't you?"

"Afraid?!" Envy let out a laugh. "Please!"

His lips stretched out to a devilish smirk that spread from ear to ear. Manami felt her stomach churn.

"Fine. You want the truth?" Envy held out a palm towards her.

"Congratulations. You've found your culprit."

Manami's eyes widened as he burst out into a fit of giggles, but then they narrowed again.

"And you expect me to believe that?" She asked. "An idiot like you?"

"An idiot you say?!" Envy roared in laughter, as red sparks started flying from him.

He was changing his appearance… and when he was finished… Gracia Hughes stood before her, smiling maniacally.

"I prefer to use that term for someone… who falls for a cheap trick like this!"

Manami stared, eyes widened in horror. She began to tremble.

No...

"You should see the look on your face!" Envy shrieked with glee. "That was the same exact look on his face when I shot him… right in the heart! The utter shock, the dumb confusion— as his own wife killed him!"

"SHUT UP!" Manami yelled.

"I thought you wanted the truth!" Envy laughed. "Who's afraid now?! You pathetic humans are all the same! It's GREAT!"

Envy laughed once more, and Manami was quiet for a long moment, her bangs covering her eyes as she glared down at the ground.

"... how dare you…" She finally growled. "And you even have the gall to brag and laugh about it…"

"Hmm?" Envy put a hand to his ear. "Didn't catch that."

"Ed…" Manami lifted her head to look at him in the eyes, and his eyes narrowed at the sight of her.

Her eyes were different…

"You guys go on ahead." She told him. "I'll catch up."

"No. Not without you." Ed was quick to reply.

"Who said any of you are going anywhere?" Envy asked, stretching out his hand and it transformed into a long and green stretch of goop, so that he could block the doorway.

Manami's eyes narrowed as she lifted a single fan to point at Envy, and for a split second, Ed saw the blue sparks from her fans.

She was going to do it again..!

"GAH!" Envy suddenly cried out, and Ed whipped his head to see that not only had the long green arm had been severed and was disintegrating, but so was his jaw.

"That'll shut you up for a minute." Manami hissed.

"Grrrah!" Envy was shrieking in pain, staggering back and crumpling to the floor before he began to regenerate, taking back his usual appearance now.

"Go! Now!" Manami yelled at the others.

"No!" Ed objected.

"There's no time to argue!" Manami yelled back. "You have to stop that bastard from activating that circle! Envy can't kill me because I'm a sacrifice!"

"But—"

"She's right," Darius grabbed Ed by the shoulder before he could further object. "We have to go."

He and the rest of the group went to drag Ed along past Envy and through the doorway. Eventually, Ed gave up resisting them and walked with them into the dark halls.

"She'll be alright." Darius said to him, once they walked away far enough.

"Yeah, that alchemy she's got is badass." Jerso added.

"It's not that…" Ed frowned. He had an awful feeling about leaving her behind like this…

"FullMetal." Scar turned to look to Ed. "She has the right to avenge her loved one. But…"

Ed raised his brows when Scar's expression changed. To something he could only think as sympathetic.

"It's up to her, whether or not the hatred will consume her. She may never recover, if she does."

Ed slowly came to a stop when Scar said that. It all clicked in his mind…

It was up to her, but… she didn't have to do this alone.

"!" He quickly turned around and bolted.