Two months out of the hospital, and he found himself back in one. Scarlet had been ill, ever since that encounter with the Homunculi. Despite her protests that she really was fine, and that they needn't worry, Mustang found out that she was a terrible liar. The doctors said that she wouldn't be fine for at least another month, and even after that, she'd have to take it easy for about a year. He found that Scarlet simply hated to be fawned and worried over. Her argument for getting him the hell out of her room was,
"Alphonse-kun needs your support more than I do."
In a way, Scarlet was right. But he hated to admit that the girl was right. She was almost just like Edward, except female. The effect of seeing the Homunculus Pride on Alphonse's mind was almost catastrophic. The boy had gone through a complete nervous breakdown, and was prone to crying at the very uttering of the syllables of his brother's name, meaning that one couldn't even say 'red' in front of the boy.
Presently, they were in Scarlet's room discussing the strange events of the murder investigation.
"Scarlet-san, just exactly what did you do Wrath?" asked Alphonse, sitting close to the hospital bed.
The sixteen year old girl took a long drink of water before answering.
"I sacrificed him," she said placing the cup back on the bedside table.
"H-How does that work?" asked the brown-haired boy hopelessly confused.
"When I exploded him," said Scarlet, tapping the feathers in her hair, "I saw a shining red stone among all those bits and pieces. The Homunculi are built around a Philosopher's stone, and that's what that rock was," she said, filling her glass again.
"Thinking about it, that does explain the Homunculi's multiple lives and regeneration ability," said Mustang stroking his chin, "But how were you able to come to such a conclusion so quickly?" he asked watching the girl down another glass of water.
"They told me," she said wiping her mouth.
"WHAT!" exclaimed Alphonse horrified.
"Well one of them did," she amended, leaning back.
"Which one?" demanded Mustang.
"He called himself Greed," she said, "He's not on their side. He defected apparently…" she added.
"Greed? He was in Dublith, at the Devil's Nest bar…" said Alphonse reflectively.
Scarlet looked surprised.
"He was in my hometown up North. I think he's been running around for the past couple years," she said.
"Why did he tell you about it?"
"Well, I was…maybe 8, I could do a bit of alchemy, and he was in a library, where I fixed some broken books. He told me a story about the Homunculi," she said, pouring herself, yet another glass of water.
"The story came along the format of 'Once upon a time', and 'they lived happily ever after'," she muttered as she drank.
"My parents died shortly after, so I committed that story to memory," she added softly.
"Greed's dead now…" said Alphonse softly.
"Pity," muttered Scarlet, "He could've helped…" she said when she suddenly vomited blood again.
"You've restored your internal organs," said Mustang, staring pointedly at her. Scarlet looked at him unrepentantly.
"That was my only real chance to do so. If I was to try to restore them through the law of Equal Exchange, there was no way for me to be able to pay up," she said.
"There were people, inside that stone…" growled Mustang.
"Those people are dead now. They had nothing to return to that could be called human," she retorted, "Understand, General Mustang, Equal Exchange with the Gate has a tendency to be exceptionally cruel," she growled.
"You're back…" said Lust, upon seeing the two of them.
"Where's Wrath?" she asked, after about three seconds had past, and the ex-Fuhrer was nowhere in sight.
Envy heaved an overly dramatic sigh.
"I've got good news and bad news," he said, closing his eyes.
"The bad news is Wrath is dead." Lust gasped at that. Not one of her fake mocking gasps but a real one for once.
"The good news is Wrath is dead," continued the green-haired teenager.
"I fail to see the humor in that Envy," said Lust in a no-nonsense tone of voice.
"The Flame General and the Soul Binder, were there," said Envy, "As was that Dolan girl…' he added.
"Dolan…Dolan…"repeated Lust to herself, thinking. She turned to Pride, refusing to speak to Envy, "You mean the Scarlet Alchemist?" she asked.
It was more likely that she'd get a more truthful answer from the blonde Homunculus than from the green one over there, she thought.
Pride nodded once and added, "She's the one who killed Wrath," he said simply. Envy was no longer really paying attention to anything, and was sitting on a table twiddling his thumbs.
"From what we know, the Scarlet Alchemist was under the General Basque-Gran's command, until his death, and then repeatedly transferred to a series of other people's commands until her 'death' in the North" said Lust.
"She's supposed to be dead?" asked Pride, looking a bit confused.
"Some military officials had arranged for her untimely demise at the Northern Front, but it seems she has managed to weasel her way out of it…" explained Lust.
"She appears to presently be under General Mustang's command," said Pride, "And has apparently found a way to kill Homunculi…" said the red marked Homunculus.
All three of them stared at each other in silence for a bit.
"Should we tell Him?" asked Pride, breaking the silence. They all traded looks, before deciding.
"Yeah…maybe we should…" sighed Envy. He hated having to report anything to that man…
"What do you mean, by cruel?" demanded Mustang.
"Remember the first time I met you two? Alphonse-kun here was saying that he would try to revive the Fullmetal Alchemist? I said that he would have to sacrifice an awful lot to do that," she said, downing another glass of water.
"Human transmutation is unlike any other type, the prices are quite high," she said.
She's drinking an awful lot of water… thought Alphonse, watching her fill her glass again.
"What do you mean by prices?" asked the grey eyed boy.
"Try thinking of Equal Exchange as a shop," she said, "To get something, you pay a price. If you want the first something back, you return what you got from the shop. That's what it's like for normal transmutations, making it possible to undo even chemical changes," she said, "However," her eyes grew hard at that, "Human transmutation is an exception. The return policy on that type of transmutation is quite unfair. Not only do you have to return everything that you got out of it, but you have to pay more. It's like paying money to return something at the store," she turned to look at Alphonse in the eye.
"If you, Alphonse-kun, were to try and bring back your brother, you would have to sacrifice the ingredients to make a body of his size, and a couple hundreds of people to be able to get his soul back," she said.
"What are their lives to me in comparison to his?" demanded Alphonse, tears forming in his eyes.
"Let me finish," she reprimanded him sternly, "Not only would they have to be numerous; they would also have to mean something to you. You would have to come up with something or someone equal to what he meant to you. Meaning…" she took a deep breath before continuing, "you would have to sacrifice someone who is as close to you as he was. Not only would you be sacrificing people who mean nothing to you, you would have to sacrifice someone in your life who is just as precious as Edward Elric was," she said with dead finality.
Scarlet turned to Mustang.
"Do you understand now Roy? How hard it is to atone for the sins of those who've trespassed on God's territory?" she smiled weakly, "the only way to bypass that altogether is to use the Philosopher's Stone…"she smiled gently.
She called me Roy... thought the General, exceptionally surprised by her sudden speech. Then he realized it.
"He didn't…he didn't…Did he?" spluttered Mustang.
Scarlet turned her eyes up to the ceiling.
"I think he did. There's no other way for that to have worked…Though I doubt they made the deal very cheap…" she said drowsily.
"What do you mean?" demanded Alphonse, upset at being left out of the loop.
"To restore you to your body, your brother made a deal with the Homunculi…He sacrificed part of one of them to get you back…" murmured Scarlet, her eyelids drooping.