Hey everyone! I'll be updating less for now, since right now I need to get caught up on...you know, school. I'll be sure to not totally abandon the stories though. Anyways, I realized something after I came out with the latest FUOT chapter...well, you'll see. Enjoy!

Joshua and Raven met up at the corner as they had planned, after a long day of job-hunting and inner thinking. Josh pushed himself over in his wheelchair – which he'd become pretty good at – and had this to say to his friend.

"Hey Rae," Josh said, looking over at her. "I just realized something,"

"What is it?"

"I had a leg for a whole chapter!" he exclaimed. At that moment, the author slammed her head on the keyboard.

"Really?" Raven was surprised. She hadn't noticed it the whole time, but after thinking it over for a while, it started to make sense to her.

"I suppose the author wrote it up on a whim and forgot that you lost your leg,"

"Maybe she'll forget again, like, maybe for the rest of the story,"

"I hope not," Raven paused, and then saw the horrified look on her friend's face. "I mean, it's better for the sake of continuity for her to keep track of these things. It makes for a better work if there's consistency,"

"Huh," Josh shrugged. After a moment of awkward silence expected of a ridiculous fourth-wall breaking, Josh decided to ask Raven if she got the job she applied for.

"So uh, did they hire you over at that diner?"

Rae smiled. "They did," she nodded.

"Did you lie about your age?" Josh asked, smirking.

She gave him a sideways look.

"Um…I mean, not that I was hoping for it or anything…cuz like, you know, why would anyone hope for that…but, like, did they take you, or uh, did they let you…"

"As far as they know, I'm sixteen,"

"Oh, okay," he nodded.

"And how did you do?"

"Uh, yeah about that…" Josh scratched the back of his head. "I uh, I didn't get the job,"

"That's alright, I think I remember there being another opening at the diner…" she trailed off for a second, then her face went pale. "Oh wait, that's for actually cooking the orders,"

"Think I can pull it off?"

"No," she sighed, a little guilty that she'd sounded a bit too brutally honest. It was a real shame that the two of them depended on each other in order to survive on their own, but neither of them knew how to cook. Josh occasionally attempted it, but let's just say it didn't end well – for her or Ju!

"Well, uh, let's change the subject," Josh said. "How do you think we'll be able to get Ju back to normal?"

"What?"

"I think there's a chance! Hey, just bear with me, okay," Josh scratched his head again – a bit of a nervous tick for him – before continuing. "Look, I know she only said it and Ed told us that you can't really trust her cause she's a humoculus, but I mean, really Rae, did you see her? She looked almost like Ju's twin for Pete's sakes!"

"Then how would you explain her forgetting who we are and trying to attack you?"

"Well, maybe she doesn't remember everything," Josh shrugged. "I guess dying does that to ya,"

"So if what you're saying is true, then Ju is still alive, at least to a point, and there's a way to make her a human again," Raven thought it over for a minute, and finally decided to think it over back home.

When they finally made it back to the motel, Josh got out the biggest books on alchemy that they had.

"If I knew more about homunculi, I might be able to work out how we can turn one into a human," she reasoned, flipping through the book for anything on the word "homunculus". This, along with a few notebooks

"I know what to do! I have a plan!" Rae sprang up and grabbed the handles of Josh's wheelchair, pushing her friend down the sidewalk like a maniac driver (she nearly ran over a squirrel). When they finally got back to their apartment, she ran to get a book on alchemy and several sheets of paper, and then started flipping through the pages and jotting things down. Josh pushed his way over to see.

"Wow," he whistled, looking at her notes. "You have really neat handwriting,"

"Okay, so I figure that going by what Ju said, we can actually use her to make her human again," Raven said.

"But…how?"

"I remember reading about homunculi somewhere in this book," Raven said, adjusting her glasses. "Maybe from there we can figure out a way,"

"Yeah,"

"Hopefully, it'll work, but I'm not sure,"

"What happens if it doesn't?"

Raven stopped short at that. Frowning, she said, "I...I don't...we'll think of something else, alright? Hopefully, it won't fail,"

"Not that I think you'll fail, just...you know, if it doesn't work out, kinda like it did with me,"

"I know what you mean,"

At that moment, the black and white kitten they had adopted jumped up onto the table, walking all over the papers and books and finally plopping down on the one Raven was trying to read. She giggled.

"Did we name him?" she asked Josh.

"I did," he said. "I named him Toby,"

"Why Toby?"

"Because he's a good boy!"

Raven couldn't help but laugh. She had to admit, Josh was a great friend to have, for all his quirks.

Meanwhile at the homunculi's base, Vengeance was getting the grand tour, Bastard-sama style; which, to be specific, meant Envy was dragging her by the ankle around the place.

"And this is where you'll be staying," he said.

"Let me go, damn you," Venge grumbled. "Do you really have to drag me like a frickin' rag doll?"

"Sure, it's pretty damn funny actually," he chuckled.

"Jerk,"

"Jerk-sempai to you!"

"You're Bastard-sama, now get it the hell right!"

Sloth looked over at Lust, who was finding the whole thing pretty funny. "They must really entertain you, I assume,"

"Yeah, they do," she said as the two of them started getting into a shouting match. The two of them walked off, as Wrath skipped over to Sloth and latched on to her hand.

"I was just wondering," Sloth said. "about the newcomer. Why do we have her?"

"Her?" Lust glanced over at Vengeance, who was currently…gnawing on Envy's arm while he stomped on her (he was still holding her by the ankle). "I'm not sure, but Master tells us that she's meant to be a 'back-up' for one of us; most likely Wrath...or Envy,"

Sloth stopped in her tracks at hearing that. Wrath looked up at Lust a little worried, too.

"You don't mean she's a replacement, do you?"

"I don't know, it's just what she told me," Lust shrugged. "But either way, I wouldn't completely trust her,"

"We all know that," said Sloth, while Wrath looked from Vengeance to his mother to Lust and back, still kind of scared about the thought of someone "replacing" him. Why would Master Dante do that? Maybe Envy was right about what he said, that if he pissed him off enough, he'd take it up with her.

"Mommy, you won't let Master do that, will you?"

"Of course not, sweetie," she said. Turning back to Lust, she said "I think Master's losing her mind,"

"She had it, you say?"

"True, true," the two of them didn't say anything and just watched the other sins fight.

"Should we stop them?" Sloth asked.

"Why bother?" Lust shrugged. "They're not harming anything, so they should just work it out themselves,"

"Here it is," said Raven after finally finding the page that mentioned homunculi.

"Great," said Josh. "What's it say?"

"It..." Raven read the paragraph before going completely pale and, with a seriously depressed look, said "...says it's impossible to create one,"

"HUH?" Josh nearly facefaulted. "Wha...what do you mean, it's impossible? But, she...she is one of those things! How is...wha...but...how!"

"I don't know," Raven sighed. "One step forward and two steps back! I can't believe we came so close to figuring it all out!"

"Yeah," Josh muttered. "And it's my fault,"

"No, it's not,"

"Rae, I'm the one who tried to bring her back, so I made her that way,"

"Josh, you know what? She got the idea to do it, to cross through the Gate,"

"So what are you saying Rae? That it's her fault?"

"No," Raven said. "It's not her fault. Not entirely, anyway. We're all to blame for the mess we're in. I could have said no, and so could you. She wasn't in control of our actions," she leaned her head on the table, both her arms burying her face. "We didn't have to go along with her idea, so it was our fault. Ju could have - or should I say, she should have - known about what happens to people who cross the Gate. You could have known...no, even before you tried that, from the start, we were all to blame for this,"

For a while, they didn't say anything. Then Toby came over and rubbed up against Raven's arm, purring.

"So then, now what?" Josh whispered, almost afraid to ask.

"We got ourselves into this," Raven answered, petting Toby and lifting her head. "So now, we need to get ourselves out,"

Ta-da! I got the next chapter out! Yay! Did anyone get the joke about Toby? (I only heard about that joke, really). LOL, Venge was nomming Envy! XD Well, I hope this was good. Please, review!