Chapter Nine: Two Sides to a Truth

The interrogation room was empty. Wrath closed the door and spoke to, apparently, no one. "Did you see where she went?"

"No," replied the disembodied voice of Pride, "I was watching Marcoh at the time. Father asked me to assist you once Envy returned to take over guarding him, but I see now he's not here."

"I sent him to the West to recover Gluttony," Wrath said.

"What happened?"

"It seems that Fullmetal and Mustang set a trap to capture one of us," Wrath said. He walked around the table to where Winry had been sitting some time before and inspected the edge of the table where her handcuffs had been attached. "Transmutation markings…" he mused.

"Why would they want to capture one of us?" Pride asked thoughtfully, "They won't get any useful information out of Gluttony."

"There are a few things that don't add up," Wrath agreed, "I was present during an interrogation this morning that involved the Maria Ross case."

He sudden stood straighter and turned his full attention to the darkest corner of the room. "Tell me, Pride, are you certain it was Envy that gave Mustang that evidence?"

"Absolutely. I watched him dig them out from the rubble of Laboratory 5."

Wrath's gaze landed on Winry's empty chair in confusion. "It seems Envy is framing Winry for delivering the evidence."

Pride seemed to consider this and said, "I thought that Envy was acting odd…"

"Is something on your mind?" Wrath raised an eyebrow at the others thoughtful tone.

"Envy is an incredible strategist when it comes to planning and manipulation; that's what Father created him for," Pride seemed to pause in thought before he continued, "The Maria Ross incident makes more sense now that I think of it. Envy knew I was watching him, so it was unlikely he would do anything he didn't want me to see. I believe he used the opportunity of framing Maria Ross to ultimately secure himself a position in the human world."

"By exposing the military to be corrupt?" Wrath asked, unable to see the whole picture of Envy's possible plan.

"That's part of it," Pride said, working through it in his mind, "By exposing the higher ranks to be corrupt, he increased Fullmetal and Mustang's awareness of us, in hopes that we would be preoccupied in trying to keep them from the truth. I admit, I was also focused on how we would recover from such a mess up that I had missed the actual goal, what Envy had really wanted to happen."

"He wants to side with the humans?"

"Not really," Pride corrected him, "I believe he just wants to spite Father. I don't think Envy really sees himself on either side, he works alone and for himself only. He had been in contact with Rockbell for a long time before the Maria Ross incident happened, and recently he had been getting very close to her – almost intimately. By using Rockbell to deliver the evidence he was able to place suspicion on her and at the same time gain her trust by letting her know what he had done to let her friend go free. In actuality, Envy used Mustangs intuitive ability to target Rockbell as a possible enemy in disguise."

"She's not a sacrifice, I could order to put her to death, making it look like I was protecting the military from a potential rat."

"But Envy has made it so that you can't touch her," Pride stated, darkly.

Wrath narrowed his eyes, "I don't understand."

"If you kill Rockbell now you place yourself under suspicion, and that's all Mustang needs to have you dethroned," Pride's words sunk in and Wrath's eyes flashed with anger, "You can't even use her to get to Fullmetal anymore because she is being watched by both sides. Envy has effectively made her untouchable. Mustang, in believing that she is a connection to us, won't execute her because he will see her as a means to get information – information she doesn't have and therefore cannot give him. Father won't be able to kill her either because after the public announcement of Maria Ross' trial it will look suspicious if the Fuhrer orders her dead for no good reason. As far as the public knows Hughes' murderer is already dead, and Mustang will know then that you killed her to keep her from talking."

Wrath growled in frustration and pressed his hand to his temple, saying, "And how does this benefit Envy?"

"I believe Envy merely gets satisfaction out of watching us struggle, especially if it is his plan that creates all the difficulty. In other words, he takes pride in managing to outsmart us," Pride replied.

"So, he's just having a bit of fun?" Wrath spat, darkly.

"After a little more than two hundred years of complete loyalty to Father, I can see why he would do this," Pride said, thoughtfully, "Envy is a restless emotion. Perhaps, if Father created him anew Envy would be more inclined to follow orders?"

"That will be Father's decision," Wrath said, he turned back to the table and added, "If Envy made Rockbell untouchable then who would go out of their way to sneak into the Command Center and kidnap her from an interrogation room?"

"Someone with impeccable stealth abilities," Pride commented.

"You are insane!" Winry shouted as she thrashed around against the hard armor of Alphonse's empty shell. He had broken her out of the Command Center using alchemy and the help of Ling, who was now driving them to somewhere outside of Central. She was certain that if Hawkeye and Mustang weren't completely suspicious of her before they were now.

It was odd to be inside Alphonse, but that had been the only way to get around the Command Center without being noticed. Winry thought it was ironic that nobody would notice a large suit of armor as opposed to a small girl, but she didn't voice her thoughts.

"I saw you get arrested and I heard Lt. Hawkeye say you were under suspicion for getting involved in Second Lt. Ross' trial. If the military is corrupt then there's a good chance they would try to frame you for something. I won't let that happen," Alphonse said determinedly.

Ling nodded as he drove and said, "After what I saw while fighting the Fuhrer…it makes sense that they would want to arrest you as a hostage to keep Ed in line."

Winry felt relief flood through her, but her eyes started to water. "Al, I'm sorry. I've been nothing but trouble for you and Ed since I've been here," she managed to choke out.

"It's better that you're here, Winry. This way we can protect you. If you were somewhere else and the Fuhrer decided to kidnap you we wouldn't be able to get there fast enough," Alphonse replied.

Winry held back her tears and said, "It wasn't the Fuhrer, it was Ms. Hawkeye that arrested me. She was asking me things about Maria Ross' trial that I had no idea about."

"It was Lt. Hawkeye?" Alphonse seemed a bit confused, "Well, I know the Colonel was doing some investigating on his own…maybe he just want to ask some questions after all?"

"Yeah, but the Fuhrer and…" Winry caught herself, "his bodyguard sat in and listened for a bit before he was called away. He seemed really interested in why Ms. Hawkeye was questioning me."

"The Fuhrer's a homunculus," Ling explained, shocking Winry into silence, "He probably wanted to sit in to make sure nothing about the homunculi leaked out."

Winry thought back to how Envy had failed to mention that detail and anger swelled up in her chest. She fiddled with the chain mail of Al's chest plate thoughtfully and whispered, "Al?"

"Hm?"

"You didn't tell anyone about Envy and I, did you?" Winry asked quietly. She felt Alphonse shifted uncomfortably at the mention of them together, but he assured her that only he and Ed knew about it and wouldn't say a word. Winry gave a thankful sigh. If word got out to Mustang and Hawkeye that she had lied to them, she would pay serious punishment for deceiving the orders of a military officer.

"Where are we going?" Winry asked, curiously, since she couldn't see outside Alphonse' armor. She could feel the car rocking and turning from side to side. It was making her a little motion sick.

"The west side of Central," Alphonse replied, "We've kidnapped Gluttony and taken him there."

"Gluttony?" Winry repeated in confusion.

"He's another one of the homunculi," Alphonse explained, "We captured him to find out about the homunculus plans, and whether they know anything about the philosopher stone."

"How did you managed to catch him?" Winry wondered out loud, and Alphonse shifted restlessly again, "Uh, well…"

The car stopped and Ling loudly announced that they had arrived. Winry knew from how Alphonse had eagerly left the car that he was keeping something from her, something she knew he knew she would disapprove. She shook the familiar feeling of being left out and focused on where Al was taking her. She peeked through a small hole in the joint between Al's breast plate and his shoulder plate, and saw that they had reached a small, rundown cabin on the edge of a dark forest.

"The Colonel is inside along with Lt. Hawkeye," Alphonse told her quietly as they approached the front door, "Just stay low and don't say anything and he won't know you're there. It's safer that way."

Winry nodded in silent agreement as Ling opened the front door and they followed him inside. It was then she realized that she had forgotten to ask how Alphonse and Ling knew each other. She pushed that topic away for the moment. She would ask them later about it. Winry saw Edward standing in a hallway along with Mustang and a man she didn't recognize. Ling and Alphonse joined them.

"How is Lan Fan?" Ling asked the stranger. His face was heavily lined with worry and he stunk of cigarette smoke and blood. "She's tough. But don't blame me if she gets lock jaw after she pulled a stunt like that…"

Something made a noise in the dark room across the hall from them and the man's attention was diverted to it. "So, this is what you guys were talking about. What is it?"

Winry gazed through the peek hole at something that was rocking back a forth on the floor. It was large and round and every once and a while it emitted grunting sounds like it was trying to break free of something. That was when she noticed that it had been tied up tightly with thick metallic wire.

"A homunculus called 'Gluttony'," Mustang replied, shocking only the man standing next to him. Everyone else, including Winry, seemed to have already known about this and the word homunculus seemed to be getting around a lot more. "Apparently these guys have connections to a number of senior military staff."

"Far from it," Ling suddenly announced, "There's a possibility that King Bradley is also a homunculus!"

At this everyone, save for Alphonse and Winry, were taken by complete surprise. Ling pointed to his eye and explained, "There was an ouroboros tattoo on the eye under his patch. He came after us, together with Gluttony."

"That can't be!" Edward gasped, "The head of the country is a homunculus!?"

"Then again," Ling said, thoughtfully, "King Bradley doesn't have the same inhuman presence as the others. His is the same presence as a regular person."

"But then, if the Fuhrer is a homunculus, how is it that he has a son?" Edward asked, confused.

Alphonse made a sound in agreement with Edward, and said, "It said in that book that Homunculi have no reproductive abilities."

"No," said the man next to Mustang. He looked deep in thought, "His son, Selim, is adopted."

They fell silent for a moment. Winry stared off into the dark room at the ball of flesh that was a homunculus and took in all the information like a sponge. It seemed Ed and Al were getting themselves deeper into something that was far more dangerous and dark than she had ever imagined. She found herself taking this information and turning it around, thinking back to Envy and what he had told her. From what she understood there were many homunculi, all revolving around Central and the military and they all seemed to have some goal in mind concerning the politics of the country. She wondered absently what goal Envy had plotted or whether he had anything to do with any of it. She even found herself wondering if he knew the Fuhrer was a homunculus like himself or not.

"First, we get information out of this one," Mustang was saying, "I'll take his philosopher stone too. It may be useful in treating my man."

"Hey, now, Lan Fan lost her arm to obtain him!" Ling shouted, heatedly, "He's a lead to gaining immortality!"

"Just a minute!" Edward jumped between them with his two cents, "We've been looking for a way to get our bodies back for a long time! There's no way I'm letting you run away with him!"

"That's right, Ling," Mustang snapped, "You're an illegal immigrant! We won't let you get anywhere fast -,"

The man next to Mustang grumbled, "I can't put up with this anymore! Mr. Mustang, I'm going back home."

" – without our help!"

"Lan Fan lost her arm over this!"

Winry rolled her eyes, but she heard a small whisper coming from the creature in the room. So did everyone else it seemed, because everyone stopped to listen as the things screams grew louder. It struggled against the bonds holding it in place and everyone froze to watch as it managed to stand, screaming, "ROY MUSTANG!"

Alphonse jolted back, causing Winry to loose her footing and hit her head on the back of the armor. She let out a soft whine in pain, but remembered to keep quite. Something outside the armor had exploded loudly, and everyone was shouting to get back and be careful. She distantly heard Mustang yelling at Lt. Hawkeye to get back and that the homunculus was swallowing everything up…or…at least that's what she thought she heard.

Winry strained herself to see what was going on, but Alphonse had started running and she had to grab the ridge of his breast plate to keep from falling over. There was a loud rumble and suddenly Alphonse had bent over in a crouch position, forcing her into the same position as well. She felt large, hollow objects hit the back of his armor and slide off. It sounded like the enter cottage was falling on top of them, and through it all Mustang was shouting, "Don't provoke him, Lieutenant! He's after me! It looks like we have no choice but to bring him down!"

Alphonse stood up again and Winry sighed as her legs started to tingle with the renewed flow of blood. "But we went through so much to catch him!" Alphonse shouted. His voice vibrated through the armor making Winry's head almost explode with pain.

"Our first priority is to survive," she heard Mustang reply, "Besides, he knows our names and faces. There's no reason we should let him leave here alive!"

Winry heard a soft clicking sound, like someone snapping their fingers and then a loud explosion followed shortly after. It trembled through the ground and Winry lifted her face to see what had happened. She gasped as she saw the cottage they had just been inside was lying in a complete mess of broken wood and glass. Brightness surrounded the image of a screaming body right next to the cottage remains and she realized it was the homunculus on fire! Mustang stood just before Alphonse with his gloved hand extended towards the monster. They watched as the flames consumed it and then…

A wide hole opened up inside its belly, with the image of an eye. Gluttony's screams ceased and he stood straight, pushing his stomach outward against the flames. Within a few seconds the flames seemed to be dying off, but everyone watched in horror as they were simply inhaled and consumed by the creature.

There was a moment of dumbfounded silence.

Then, "He swallowed…" Edward started.

"…the flame?" Alphonse finished in disbelief.

Suddenly they were running again and Winry had lost her balance more than once in the first minute. She heard Edward scream about how useless Mustang was and Mustang snapped back with some lame come back, but Winry wasn't paying too much attention to them. Aside from having to try and run in sync with Alphonse's movements, Winry was also trying to keep her head from banging against the front and back of the armor with every jolt and jump Alphonse made.

"Round back to the cabin, I have a plan!" Edward shouted and Alphonse turned sharply. Winry gave a little cry in shock and pain as her whole body collided with the side of Alphonse's metal armor. There was more running after that and Winry didn't know how long she would be able to handle it. She was sweating from trying to keep up with the immune Alphonse's stride and her whole body felt battered and bruised.

Then, Alphonse stopped abruptly and there was a definite scream of something behind them. "Sounds like you made him angry," Alphonse said.

"Alright, get in the car, you good-for-nothing-Colonel," Edward said and a car door slammed shut. Winry tried to steady her breathing, but she couldn't help herself if she was being a little loud.

She felt so light-headed. All that running, and she hadn't eaten anything in more than a day. The world spun and she grabbed the ridge of Al's breastplate to keep herself from sinking down into one of his legs and falling unconscious.

"Go and do your job," Ed was telling Mustang, "With the head of the military being a homunculus you'll sure have your hands full as it is. Leave Gluttony up to us."

"The head of the military…" came Hawkeye's shocked voice, "You don't mean Fuhrer Bradley?"

"We'll talk about it later! Let's get out of here!" called the voice of the man Winry didn't recognize.

"Take care of Lan Fan!" Ling yelled, before the car spun out and left them there. Winry gave her head a shake and whispered to Alphonse, "No more running, Al, okay?"

"Oh, Winry!" Alphonse gasped, "I'm sorry!"

"Winry?" both Edward and Ling said in unison. Winry felt Alphonse unlatch his breastplate and leaned back so she didn't fall out right away. When he opened it she saw that it was only Edward and Ling standing there.

"Winry!" Edward said, but he didn't seem happy to see her, "What are you doing here!? You should have gone with the Colonel! Al, why didn't you –,"

"She couldn't go with them, Ed," Alphonse said firmly, "and right now we can't talk about it. We've got to deal with Gluttony first."

Winry climbed out of Alphonse rather awkwardly and brushed a few strands of stray hair from her face.

"Winry can't come with us! It's too dangerous!"

"Well, if she stays close to us we can protect her!" Alphonse shouted back.

"So, these were the friends you were talking about on the train!" Ling said in a happier tone than the two brothers. His enthusiasm seemed to defuse the situation.

Edward seemed to have come to the conclusion that he couldn't just leave Winry standing in the middle of nowhere and that they had to bring her along. He said, "Alright, but no matter what, if I say run you run and if I say leave us behind you do so."

Winry nodded, not having the energy at the moment to argue or disagree. She followed them into the forest where they crouched behind a bunch of bushes to spy on the approaching homunculus. He wasn't necessarily a difficult target to find, since he was consuming everything around him, he was just… "Seriously freaky," Edward stated.

"How are we going to catch him?" Alphonse asked. His massive armored body was trying to hide behind a small, relatively narrow tree – it wasn't working too well in Winry's opinion.

Something moved in the bushes behind them and they all turned sharply to see what it was. Ling had drawn his sword and Winry had hidden herself behind Alphonse. "What was that?" he asked.

They gaze through the forest and the darkness to some large animal in the distance behind them. "A dog?" Alphonse wondered out loud and Winry found herself having the same doubts.

"Stop, Gluttony," it ordered.

"I-it spoke!" Edward gasped in disbelief, and the animal turned its gaze on him.

"Hey, long time no see." Winry swore she had heard that voice before somewhere, but the image of the dog was completely throwing off her line of thought. There was a brief flash of red light and suddenly, she was able to match the voice to the right image. "Fullmetal pipsqueak!"

"Envy!" Edward shouted angrily and ran at him full force, "Who are you calling a shrimpy flea-sized paramecium!?"

Envy clumsily dodged his flying kick and took a few awkward steps back with his arms outstretched, saying, "Take it easy! I'm just here to get Gluttony back! I don't want to fight any pipsqueaks today –,"

He narrowly missed Ed's fist as it collided with the tree behind him. Winry watched in awe as Envy jumped up to the branch above head, mockingly, out of his reach. "That's the seventh time!" Edward shouted loudly, fuming.

"What are you talking about?" Envy asked.

"You've called me pipsqueak two times just now, plus five times at Laboratory 5! That's seven times! You can't tell me you've forgotten it!"

There was a blank look on Envy's face, as he said, "What a pinpoint memory you've got there…"

He jumped down and Gluttony thundered past Alphonse, Winry and Ling to get to Envy muttering, "Mustang was here! Gonna avenge Lust! Swallow! Swallow him up!"

"You can't swallow the Colonel," Envy ordered calmly, "Or the Elric brothers either."

This seemed to deflate Gluttony's 'avenge Lust' bubble and his stomach started to sew itself back up. He whined loudly at this, but didn't disobey. Winry, Alphonse and Ling cautiously marched over to where Edward stood facing Envy. His eyes landed on her and he blinked in surprise. "Winry, you disappeared from headquarters earlier," he said casually, and then as an afterthought added to Gluttony, "You can't eat her either."

Another groan escaped Gluttony as his meal options were slimmed to one.

"I've sensed it before, too," Ling suddenly said before Winry could respond, "How many people are inside you, Homunculus?"

Envy's expression grew hard and his eyes narrowed on Ling for a moment. Then, a grin broke out over his face and he leaned an arm on Gluttony's round head, saying, "So, you're the kid who crossed swords with Wrath, huh?"

"Who are you calling 'kid'?" Ling snapped, "I am the twelfth son of the Emperor of Xing, and my name is –,"

Envy patted Gluttony's head, saying, "You can eat him."

Gluttony gave a squeal in delight and Ling, realizing what had just happened, turned on his heel and ran for it. Gluttony bypassed them at top speed.

"Envy, he's my friend too!" Winry shouted, angrily, "You can't just kill him!"

"Orders are orders, sweatheart," Envy said carelessly, shrugging, "He isn't important."

"I get it!" Edward shouted. He suddenly clapped his hands and a large stone wall rose up out of the ground. He had managed to separate Gluttony and Ling just in time and at the same instant, himself, Alphonse and Winry. Winry found herself on the side with Envy and Ling, and heard Edward shout from the other side, "Gluttony can't kill us and Envy won't kill Winry, he's all yours Ling!"

Winry realized just as Ling had and jumped between them, arms outstretched. "Stop!" she ordered, but Envy gave a burst of mock laughter and said, "Get out of the way, Winry. Heroics will only get you hurt."

"If you lay a finger on her I'll slice it off!" Ling threatened.

"I wasn't talking about me," Envy glared, but he was too slow. Ling had jumped up and used the wall to catapult himself around Winry and right at Envy, blade drawn.

Envy jumped back and avoided a deadly blow just barely. As soon as Ling landed he was on a full offensive, swinging his sword through the air at every angle, but Envy kept dodging his attacks. "Ha, not bad at all!" he commented.

Winry had run after them, shouting at them to stop, but neither paid any attention to her. Envy swung in for a punch, but Ling caught it and his sword slashed through his side brutally. Winry stopped to gasp in horror, but Envy sneered, "You fell for it!"

A large rumbling sound came from the other side of the wall where Ed and Al were fighting and Winry turned to see if she could see them, but the wall was too high. Then, she heard a terrible cry of pain coming from her side of the wall and turned to see that Envy was kneeling a few feet away from Ling. He was missing an arm!

"Envy!" Winry cried, "Ling, don't hurt him! Stop it!"

She ran up to Envy and timidly placed a hand on his shoulder. Red sparks were flashing up around his missing limb. Images of the time when Edward had come to her in a bloody mess passed briefly through her mind and she panicked.

"That was a cheap trick," Envy was saying. His voice was strained and his body was trembling in pain, "Blinding me like that…"

Winry looked up in disgust at Ling, and shouted, "What are you doing? Stop fighting! One of you is going to get killed!"

Ling responded to Envy as if she wasn't even there, "When I was little, I was always in constant danger of assassination. I couldn't help but learn a few dirty moves."

He started walking towards Envy, and Winry, once more, placed herself between them. "How about it? Will you come quietly?" Ling said, looking past Winry at down at Envy, who was still kneeled behind her. He looked at Winry for the first time since the fight began and said, sharply, "Move away from him, Winry!"

"I will not!"

There was a loud crash and the wall gave out behind Ling, who turned to see Ed, Al and Gluttony fly through it along with a massive amount of rock and dust. Ling was momentarily distracted, and Winry felt a small push against her arm. She let herself get pushed aside by Envy as he attacked Ling in that moment. Ling was fast enough to dodge it and let his blade slice Envy's leg clean off. Envy landed with a cry of pain on his back and Ling raised his sword, aiming it down at Envy's chest with the full intent on killing him.

Winry launched herself at them just in him and landed right on top of Envy, protecting him, "STOP!" she screamed in desperation, mostly because Ling's sword was inches from her chest and because she wanted the fight to be over.

Ling stopped himself in time before his sword went right through Winry and stumbled a bit to catch the shift in direction. He dropped his sword to his side and gritted his teeth.

"Winry!?" Edward shouted as he picked his way over the rubble of the broken wall to get to them, "What do you think you're doing!? Get away from him!"

"Protecting a monster like that…" Ling said in disgust, "Are you insane!?"

"I can't…" Winry's voice shook as she spoke. She was trying desperately to hold back the tears that threatened her, "I'm sorry…I can't let you hurt him."

Suddenly, Envy's arms wrapped around her tightly, bringing her closer to him, forcing her to almost lie right, flat, on top of him. Before Winry could wonder what was going on, Envy had shouted, "Now, Gluttony!"

Gluttony's stomach opened up and extended towards Ling. Edward's eyes widened and he launched himself forward, shouting, "Ling! Look out!"

Winry felt and heard Envy gasp, and he suddenly pushed her off him and jumped up to stop Edward.

It just took a second.

Winry blinked and they were all gone.

Leonahari: Okay, so I really liked how this chapter turned out despite that I renacted half of episode 24. First, I'd like to clear a few things up regarding Ling: No, he's not falling for Winry. I proof read this and thought, "wow, when Ling says he'll cut Envy's fingers off if he hurts her that really sounds like he's protecting her in a...love/admiring sort of way". It's not. Coming from someone who has many guy friends, they can be incredibly protective to the point where it becomes annoying - that's how I wrote it.

Oh, and someone pointed out a while back in a review that the Envy kissing Winry thing in the early chapters seemed a little rushed - I'm so glad you noticed! :P As you read in the first bit of this chapter, it was all apart of my (or Envy's depending on how you look at it) big evil plan. Cheers to you!

Alrighty, everyone, I'll write the next chapter as soon as I can. My finals are here now so I'm a little tied down this week, which is why I'm posting this early. At the end of semester let's all have a round of butterbeer (HP reference :P) on Envy's tab to celebrate, ya?