Dear Reader,

Yes, I know, it's been a while. And yes, my grammar and spelling have come a long way. I look back at the earlier chapters and cringe. But, the spelling and grammar may be off in this, give me a break since its 3 in the morning. Well, I do hope you enjoy, and please, do tell me what you think.

-Ramona

"Why…Why William, why?"

Looking down at her sons face, Dante slowly ran her hands through his hair, tears abscuring her vision and her body shuddering. "My boy…My boy…"

He was the spitting image of his father, Van Hohenheim. The same blond hair, blond eyes, tan skin. Like a god of the sun. So beautiful, so perfect. And yet, his cheeks were pale, his skin was cold. And his golden eyes had lost their shine.

Her son William lay on the ground, not breathing, hair matted to his face from the sweat of his fever. The poisoning had made him so ill…She thought he could live forever like she and Hohenheim…But Dante was wrong.

He had died on a summers day, mid afternoon. It was the mercury that did it. The mercury she had been spoon feeding him since…She thought it would make him…

Dante let out quiet sobs.

Looking down at her shaking, trembling tan hands Dante felt the tears stream down her cheeks. That's right. She was immortal. The body she was in now…Was not her own. She had stolen it. As had her husband with his body. They had lived a very long time before William. And then one day, she discovered she was with child…How happy Van had been. How happy she had been, since wanting a child was what she had always dreamed of.

She could remember the day he was born, clear as a bell. It was snowing, cold, and the middle of the night. Van had delievered him himself, and he hadn't made a sound. She was terrified he had been still born, but when Van handed him to her…He had smiled up at her, and she knew from that moment on he was hers, and she was his.

And he had been beautiful. Willaim had grown to be smart, kind, gentle, and perfect…So perfect she wanted him to live forever in that beautiful body. Didn't want to have to watch him grow old and die while she and Van stayed young, swapping their rotting flesh out for new ones over the centuries. He had to become immortal.

Dante looked at her hands. She had killed her son with these hands. She had been killing him for years. Since he was born.

It was her fault.

"N-No…I…I'll bring him back…" Her voice shook as her hands curled into fists.

"Dante…Stop. This is pointless." Van said from the door way, casting light on William, onto the floor, which was covered in an odd transmutation circle, hastily drawn. Dante was shaking, hunched over Willaim. "You don't know what could happen, what could…Come back." Vans voice grew soft.

"N-no…I know it will work. I know it will." She shook her head.

She felt Van apporach, felt his hand on her shoulder. She stiffened. "But you don't know for sure dear." She closed her eyes as more tears came.

"But I have to try! I-it's my fault…I…I gave it to him."

Van grew silent. She felt him get down on his knees behind her, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair.

"If I die in the process…" She began to laugh, "It will be an equivalent exchange."

It was silent in the foyer as Dante watched Envy from afar. He knew she was, could feel her cold, calculating eyes on his back. But the sin didn't have time to let it bother him. As Envy sat in the windowsill, his mind was a hurricane of thoughts. He was wracking his brain, trying to remember what the Rockbell girl had said he needed to remember.

But…everything was blank. Closing his eyes, he grit his teeth in annoyance, feeling a headache of sorts coming on. On top of that, he was thinking of Edward Elric. He was thinking of killing him, and how badly he wanted to. He was thinking of driving his arm right through the boys chest and plucking out his heart. He was thinking of going to the girl Winry and giving her the pipsqueaks heart as a present and seeing her face contort with utter shock and fear. Then he thought about pinning her down and having his way with her as she looked up at him, making her know he had killed Edward and she would be his…But no, there was something wrong with that. Something not right. Envy began to rock back and forth as he thought.

If he did that, then the Winry girl would…Well she would be horrified. Which is what he wanted. But, at the same time, it's…Not what he wanted? Envy was so confused. One second he wanted to scare the girl out of her wits, then the next he wanted to hold her close and pet her hair. An image flashed in his mind, of a giant snake chimera and Winry…Envy clutched at his head, feeling as though he might get sick. More images flashed in his head, of his lips on the girls, of her hot skin beneath his. He shook his head, trying to stop the images.

Remember. A soft whisper in his head.

No, shut up. Envy spoke back.

He saw Winry laying down on the bed, her soft pink lips parting, whispering, "Remember."

"I'm hungry…" Gluttony murmured from across the room, causing Envy to jump.

Holy shit, Envy thought to himself, his small episode subsiding. It had never been that bad before…He let out a sigh before turning to look at Gluttony, who was looking down at his plump stomach as he sat of the floor at Dantes feet like a dog. She was in her usual chair by the fire, reading a small leather bound book sitting in her lap.

"Silence Gluttony. Your meal should be arriving soon enough." Casually she flipped the page to her book, ignoring the fat sin as he whimpered in protest.

Pressing his head against the glass, in hopes to make his migraine go away, Envy closed his eyes. "Speaking of meal," Dante called out across the room, "Isn't it time our little prisoner was fed?" She was obviously calling out to him, and Envy twitched in annoyance. He was about to tell her to go feed the girl herself, since he was in no mood to deal with her again, when screaming and crying filled the room.

He turned to see Wrath, crying and babbling nonsense to Dante, who looked as annoyed as Envy felt. Wrath clutched onto her, crying and screeching. "They killed her! They killed mommy! She's gone!"

Envy hadn't realized it, but he was standing, his whole body on edge. Sloth was killed? Somewhere in the pit of his chest he felt his heart clench and a cold chill run through him, or at least, what he thought was where his heart should have been.

Dante however held no emotion as the boy cried, "Calm down Wrath. What else can you tell me? How was it done?" Her eyes tightened. Envys lip curled slightly. She didn't even care.

Wrath wiped at his red, swollen eyes, trying to calm down but having trouble. Dante looked as if she would slap him if he didn't speak, "L-Lust and the Elric boys d-did it with a c-circle and-"

"Lust? Where is my Lust!" Gluttony stood, going over to Wrath.

"Gluttony." Dante looked at him, her cold eyes like daggers. "Sit." She hissed, and the fat man plopped down with a finger in his mouth, whimpering once more.

Dante leaned back, placing her cheek on her hand and thinking to herself, a small smile coming to her lips. "So, our little Lust has decided to help the Edward brothers…Well, it can't be helped." She looked onto the homunculie, "Lust is an enemy now. If any of you should see her…I want her taken care of. Understood?" She waited for a response.

Envy couldn't look at her, he only looked at the ground. Gluttony continued to whimper, and Wrath was sniffling. "Now," She said, breaking the silence, "Go and make yourself useful Wrath, prepare food for our guest " She leaned back and picked up her book.

"But you have to help mommy! You have to bring her back!" He begged desperately, clutching onto her skirts.

She chuckled, eyes going over the pages to her book, "Nonsense child, I cannot raise a homunculus back to life. I haven't the time or need for it."

Envy looked on as Wrath clutched to her, pulling. He knew it wasn't a good idea, it was only a matter of time until Dante lost her temper. Which was a very, very bad thing. And unfortunately for Wrath, Dante seemed to be in a very bad mood.

Her eyes tightened as she tore her eyes away for her book and looked at the child, "Wrath, stop this nonsense at once, Sloth is dead. She was never your real mother in the first place. Now stop your wining and get out of my sight," the air around her seemed to get colder, "Or you will shortly be joining her."

Wrath went still, and for his own good, Envy cleared his throat, "Come on Wrath, I need your help preparing dinner for the Rockbell girl." He began going to the door, not really knowing why he was helping the little brat, he didn't care for him or anything. In fact, he didn't know why he had even been slightly upset about Sloth. She was an idiotic homunculie. Letting the child make believe she was his mother so he would protect her. Stupid. And yet…Envy looked back at Wrath, who's lip was quivering as he looked up at Dante, "Get your ass moving brat!" Envy snapped.

Wrath jumped a bit, his wide eyes blinking. He got up, stumbling over his uneven legs as he went to Envys side. Once they were out in the hall and heading toward the kitchen, Envy stopped and grabbed Wrath, not to harm him. He actually didn't know what he was doing. Wrath was still shaking out of fear. Envy had his hand on the boys shoulder, both of them quiet until Wrath spoke.

"She doesn't care…She doesn't care about any of us…She'll just use us up until…U-until…" He started crying again, his face twisting. Envy was quiet, for what Wrath said…Was right. Dante didn't really care about anyone but herself. Siging, Envy got down on one knee to look the boy in the face.

"Listen Wrath," he began, "Just shut your trap and she won't kill you."

That didn't seem to make things better, because he wouldn't stop bawling then. Envy growled in anger, and admitted to himself that he was horrible with children. He supposed he could just beat him until he shut up, but that would get him no where. Dammit, he thought, I wish I could just get him to shut the fuck u-

His eyes widened as he got an idea. Standing, he grabbed Wraths hand and dragged him down the hall. "Oh will you quit crying?" Envy hissed, but Wrath just cried even louder. Finally, they made it to the right room, Envy unlocked the door and kicked it open.

A broken Alphonse who had been attempting to sleep shuttered, his broken armor clanking loudly as he gasped. His head had been returned to him, and his glowing red eyes widened.

Envy smirked, foot still in the air, "Sorry to disturb you." He mockingly apologized.

Winry, who had been sleeping as well, was sitting upright in the bed, the blankets pulled up around her. Envy smirked at her, his head twinging in pain slightly as this seemed to be a familiar sight to him, but he couldn't recall where or why he should have seen her like this before. Lowering his leg, he dragged Wrath in, then tossed him towards the girl, placing both hands on his hips.

He gave her an expectant look, and her eyebrows pulled together.

"There. Well, now I'm off." He sighed, wanting nothing more than to go.

"W-wait!" Winry snapped, "Why's Wrath here?"

Envy twitched, "So you can comfort him and make him shut the fuck up." His migraine was getting worse, and he had no patience for this.

The girl looked even more confused now, especially when Wrath continued to cry and placed his head in her lap. "And why do you think I'll do this? I'm your prisoner, remember?"

Envy finally gave in and looked at Winry, looked into her eyes. "Because you're you." Was all he said, then he turned and shut the door, then went to one of the chairs at the small table. Sitting sideways, he placed his legs on the table and yawned. He hadn't slept in days, and even though he didn't exactly need sleep, he felt like he could sleep through an entire decade.

"You can't just come in here and expect me to-"

"Winry….I think he's asleep…" Alphonse interrupted her.

And to their surprise, Envy the jealous was in fact, asleep.

"I don't like this." Marta murmured, looking through the bushes at the Central command center. Her face had been bandaged, along with her arm, and she was currently smoking a small cigar. Edward didn't know the chimera even smoked, but then again, there was a lot he didn't know about her.

"Well, do you have any better ideas?" Edward snapped, gritting his teeth, the smoke of her cigar agitating him. But to be honest, he didn't like the the plan more than the snake did.

"I didn't know snakes were cowardly." Lust taunted from afar.

"I am not a coward!" The snake hissed.

"You can stay out here if you would like."

"It's suicide! Just walking through the gates and going to Bradlys office. Who just happens to be an immortal homunculus."

"We're not immortal, just hard to kill." Lust corrected her.

"But he's still going to be pretty damned hard to kill." The chimera insisted her eyes growing dark as she looked up at the flags billowing in the wind. "Besides…he nearly killed Greed," Her eyes tightened, "Greed was invincible. And all Bradly had was a sword. A god damned sword. He shouldn't have been able to…But the old bastard did it. He sliced through him like tissue paper."

The others were quiet, especially the two humunculie. Edward guessed they knew of the fuhrer King Bradly's powers, and he knew all too well how powerful Greed had been. Hell, he had nearly died fighting him. It took all the young alchemist had to fend him off before he realized he could defeat the ultimate shield with his smarts. But in the end, it had been a mistake to kill the sin.

Sloth shook her head, "He won't be there." She had been insisting this since they had made their way to Central command.

"And just how are we supposed to know you're right?" Marta snapped, hissing slightly, "Maybe he stayed because he knew we would be on our way and this is all a trap!"

Sloth shook her head "I know the plan, I know he won't be there because Edward was supposed to go down the elevator." She was seeming a little less sure of herself now, especially because of how intimidating the chimera was. Edward found it slightly funny that Sloth, who was basically immortal, was afraid of Marta.

"Yeah? Well how am I supposed to trust-"

"Enough." Scar calmly said, his eyes never leaving the building for a second. "It's time we moved. We don't have much time." The Ishvalans automail gleamed in the light of the setting sun, and his blood red eyes held no fear. Edward was surprised he was even able to move those arms. He wasn't sure how much longer it would last. The nerves still needed much more time to heal. The Ishvalan would only end up hurting himself if he went any further, but Edward knew it was the mans own choice. And he seemed to want to help, which seemed odd. But, Edward was guessing he wanted to protect Lust. Which didn't make any sense whatsoever.

"He's right, we don't have much time." Lust, who was standing beside the tall man, agreed. She seemed to be in a lot better condition but Edward was still slightly concerned. He didn't want her slowing them down, but he felt she could pull through, homunculie seemed to recover quite fast.

Looking to his teacher, Edward sighed. "Do you think we can do this?"Earning a glare from her, Edward gulped.

"Of course we can," She looked at their small team,"We can't be stopped." She gave him a grin and stood, looking to the others. "Alright, does everyone know the plan?"

"There wasn't exactly a plan teacher…" Edward murmured.

"Ah well," Izumi looked at the building, "Then we'll just have to improvise, now won't we?"

"I feel so assured." Marta grumbled to herself.

Izumi cast her a glare, but merely turned an walked around the hedges they had been hiding in. The house wife began to walk across the street, not waiting for any of them to join her. Scar began to immediately follow, after giving a quick look at Lust, who trailed closely beside him. Sloth followed timidly, and then Marta, grumbling all the way with her hand in her pockets.

Silently, Edward followed looking at the building. A few weeks ago, Central command wouldn't have frightened him. It would have made him feel safe, secure. But now, it looked intimidating and ominous. Gulping, he and Izumi looked at each other as they passed through the gate, his old teacher giving him a nod as they pushed open the doors.

Edward managed a grin. "Alright, let's kick some ass."

I hope it was alright, yes it was a bit short, but it will be longer next time. And no, you won't have to wait 2 years :3