Their erstwhile captors had not *quite* stormed the front door. The Drachman marines had knocked- from their vantage point on the balconied second story looking out through the massive windows on the front of the A-frame, Envy had watched as two of them, the female corporal and the thin man with the scope on his rifle, had automatically broken off to circle around the back of the house, but that bruiser of a sergeant had called them back before rapping on the door.
Envy had sighed heavily at the bizarre invaders behavior, but it seemed Kulstonek really was trying to give them every opportunity to slip away, a thought that was borne out when the sergeant had pushed his radio transmit switch and growled "He's still here," into the microphone mounted on the headset he wore when Envy opened the door and stepped back, heading for the stairs and listening to the tread of heavy boots on the wood floor as the six Drachman soldiers moved inside.
"What's the order, Sarge?" Envy heard the corporal ask,
"Same as before, keep a loose eye, make sure he doesn't do anything crazy and see if we can get him to wander off."
"And…how are we supposed to do that?"
"No idea."
The homunculus was too smart by far to expect the Drachmans to behave anything like the Amestrian soldier they had spent almost their entire existence until now living around and beneath, close up experiences with both this same ragged squad and their overly confident commander had already shown that, but as the marines actually let down their guard a bit, relaxing ever so incrementally around the shapeshifter; normally a lethal mistake, but Envy had already shown themselves to have no further interest in violence, at least for the moment.
The homunculus frankly did not fancy gaining any further practical knowledge of this future's heavy weaponry after whatever that single tank shell had been made of melted what felt like half their internal organs with a single shot.
So, this time, there were no leveled weapons, no vigilant watches, it seemed a surly resignation had gripped the Drachmans, like punished schoolchildren doing an unpleasant task to make up for a mistake; in this case, the mistake had been that cold eyed sergeants, and like in any true military worth its salt, punishment was by the group.
Envy had withdrawn to the top floor bedroom, while the marines took the first floor, spreading out like an occupying army and settling in; briefly. The sergeant, Alkochik, although as always, the Drachmans used their own nicknames amongst themselves, even when talking to a superior, promptly grew dissatisfied with this arrangement and sent half the squad outdoors, for what purpose Envy couldn't guess, but they were left inside with the sergeant, the burly machine gunner and the cheerful woman with the red brown hair.
Silence had pervaded the A framed house, with Envy quietly picking through a book on Amestris' modern history; social, not political and certainly nothing much about the world at large outside of Amestris. It seems that besides the plethora of books about the so-called Promised Day Plot, the powers that be in Central- Envy was able to discern that the city was still the capital form their reading -were careful to not stock the library downstairs with anything that would be overly useful to the homunculus in the event they were brought back to this place, which led Envy to believe that for whatever reason the government still hoped to recruit them into their ranks, drip feeding them a narrative of chosen information about this future world, this despite Envies decades old rejection of their previous offer.
Why they thought that, and why they believed so strongly in the possibility to go to all this trouble, the homunculus could not even begin to guess at.
And so, Envy learned of labor movements and unionizations, about the fall of auto-mail and the rise of primitive cybernetics, and the government crackdown on both as they grew out of control, about women's rights movements; Envy's eyes had twitched when they read Hawkeyes name repeatedly in conjunction with that.
The stunted history books they read taught them of radical political parties and progressive movements, the rise of an elected republican government after the fall of the last Fuhrer; Mustang, of fucking course, and not so much a fall as the slippery snake abdicating his newfound position at the top only to be elected to a new position at the top by the screaming, dribbling half-witted masses; he'd been elected as prime minister the day after he stepped down as Fuhrer.
Fucking humans.
But with every page they shuffled through and word they read, Envy shaped their thought process; even if they had denied them any real information, the Amestrian were still giving the homunculus an invaluable resource by leaving these books here, allowing Envy to train their mind, shift focus and survive.
Whereas before they would have perused a new book or learned a new concept with the sole goal of understanding how the knowledge could be used to further the Great Plan, or who might need to be disposed of or recruited to keep things running smoothly, now, with every word they read and page they creased, Envy retrained themselves.
Now, their thoughts were "how is this going to benefit ME?".
The answer was not really at all, of course. They were learning about the social structure of a country that seemed to currently be in the process of being ground to dust under Drachman tank treads. Not really useful stuff, to be honest.
But the mental training was sound, in any case. And they a had direction to run, at least. This book was one of the few that mentioned the nations so=surrounding Amestris, and from what it described, Creta had grown into fairly stable nation, it might be a good place to start over in, as long things there hadn't changed to much since when this book was published in…Envy checked the publishing date.
2004.
Fuck.
The homunculus sighed and stood up from the bed, glancing out the overly large windows to see that it was now midday. They were about to walk back down to the first floor when they heard the approaching growl of another engine and stood by the balcony to watch as a four wheeled vehicle made the turn into the small graveled lot in front of the cabin; Envy had seemed something similar parked in the ruined courtyard of the chimera laboratory, but those had been whereas the one the rolled to a stop in front of the cabin was boxier and had an extended rear end covered with a camouflaged tarpaulin, like the cargo trucks of the world before they had gone into the jug.
The vehicles paused just long enough for a soldier riding in the back of it too unload a heavy looking container and a cardboard box, and for the scowling corporal to sign a form on a clipboard the drover passed too her; one thing that hadn't changed in all these years, it seemed, was that paperwork made the world spin, at least for the military.
Vaguely curios about what was going on, Envy walked down the steps to the first floor, only to find that odd, window-box like…thing in the living room to be lit up, and showing a…a…Envy stood stock still. What the hell was this?
The thing seemed to be playing a series of moving…images? Pictures? Projections of the afterlife? They hadn't the slightest clue. The window was showing a series of silent images of a man quietly walking through an apartment, lowering emotionlessly out at the world.
Envy cocked their head, confused, before glancing at the couch where the big machine gunner was leaning forward, seemingly entranced by the screen, his ears covered by a set of heavy looking…earmuffs?
"Er…Hatred?" Envy called, cringing slightly a the big man's nickname, but they had nothing else to call him, but the muscled Drachman didn't answer.
Envy stepped into his line of sight, leaning down and waving.
The huge machine gunner screamed in terror and jumped back unto the couch, seemingly utterly surprised to find the homunculus standing in front of him.
"What the…" Envy began, but they were interrupted by the squad of Drachmans pouring back into the house, weapons ready, "Hey, I didn't do anything!" Envy called, but the segreant seemed to immediately grasp what was happening, cursing as he threw a book at Hatred,
"You were supposed to be on alert for the prisoner, marine!"
"A-are they a prisoner, sarge? I thought…" Hatred stammered,
"Warboss might be trying to get rid of him, but you were down in the labs, you know this motherfucker can rip you to shreds in two seconds! Get your shit together, all of you!" the sergeant roared, before spinning on his heel and storming back outside, trailing the rest of the squad, except for Hatred, who remained on the couch with his massive knees pulled into his chest and those odd ear-muff tings half askew on his forehead.
The homunculus walked over and plopped down uncomfortably close to the half- panicked Drachman, resting one of their elbows on one knee and propping their face on their hand as they leaned further towards Hatred,
"What…" Envy asked, pointing at the glowing window box with their free hand, "is that?"
"That" turned out to be something called a "flat screen", as Hatred called it, though he'd bene fairly incapable of explaining exactly how it worked; the grumpy sergeant had called the same thing a "television", in either case it had somewhat anticlimactically turned out to be a device that showed something akin to the movies that were starting to be played in cinemas back in the 1910's; Envy was a bit chagrined that they hadn't made an immediate connection, but it wasn't as if they hadn't been a bit distracted by more important developments; what use in keeping up with the arts scene in country that was about to a corpse filled smoking husk, after all.
It hadn't bene hard to coax Hatred to share the movie he'd been watching with them; it had turned out to be a film about a serial killing stock broker who had to fight off an invasion of reanimated corpses- Hatred called them vampires.
The plot was ridiculous, really, for all that the Drachman gushed over it, but the sets, street scenes, cars and even costumes were fascinating, and the film might have even been a useful source of background information, if Hatred hadn't told them it was a "classic" produced thirty years prior.
Yet another dead end. Sooner or later, they were going to have to break down and try making conversation with the humans.
Intent on forestalling this grim possibility, Envy snatched another few books off the shelf and stalked back up the stairs, flopping back on the bed, whose poor abused frame and springs were getting ready to give up the ghost, judging by their groans as the deceptively heavy homunculus threw themselves across it, clutching the first volume from their stack…which turned out to be a autobiography of Roy Mustang.
The shapeshifting homunculus froze, staring at the cover,
"You gotta be fucking kidding me." They growled.
Envy tossed the book aside and reached for another, but stopped as the young female Drachman marine appeared at the top of the steps, carrying a tray piled high with covered dishes,
"Hey, er…Envy, food just came. You hungry?"
Envy had been about to proclaim their superiority of homunculi biology and deny it, but their stomach betrayed them, lurching hungrily to life at the faint aroma of fresh food wafting off the tray.
Envy nodded, trying a watery smile on for size.
"I haven't eaten in fifty years or so." The homunculus answered, in Drachman. They had a superior-of course -command of the language, but the slang and idioms of the Drachman marines was hard to keep up with on occasion.
"Well, I wouldn't really qualify this Amestrian sh…junk as food, but it probably does meet some of the technical requirements."
The red headed marine passed envy a covered plate, which the homunculus paused to consider,
"A bit fancy for an army on the move."
"The field kitchen is clearing out the cafeteria at that dorm attached to laboratories. It makes for a good change from rations. Even if it is disgusting."
The homunculus almost shuddered to think what Drachman field rations might consist of to make…Envy pulled the cover off the dish…overcooked pork cutlet with watery red gravy and limp pasta noodles look good.
Lovely.
"As long as your commissary department is on a lotting spree, you could have found something…edible."
Envy took the fork the human girl offered them and used it to stir the unappetizing mess on the plate around a bit. Then they stopped,
"What is this made out of?" Envy asked, looking at the white colored utensil, it was fa too light t be metal, and had an odd heft to it.
"Oil." The marine answered, plopping down on the much-abused bed next to the shape shifting homunculus, "And it's not looting, it's appropriation of enemy military resources during wartime. All covered under the rules of war and all that bullshit, I assure you."
Envy paused,
"What do you mean oil? And I remember when the rules of war meant you could massacre and sack an enemy town if they fought back."
"Fuck, don't threaten a girl with a good time, kid. These Amestrians have some fat looking electronics stores and I need a new graphics card."
"Kid?" Envy snarled, "I'm four hundred!"
"Well, you look like a fucking seventeen-year-old…" the marine narrowed her eyes, "Wait, what are you?"
"A homunculus, you half-wit."
"No, you bitchy little demon, are you a girl or a boy? Or both? You're the shapeshifter one of them, right?"
Envy smirked,
"Am I bit confusing human? Don't like it when someone doesn't fit your molds?"
The Drachman rolled her eyes "Sparks."
"What?"
"It's Sparks, meat puppet, not 'human'. Nice to meet the notorious Envy formally."
"Notorious?"
"Yeah, I learned about you in history class. We pretty much all did, actually."
Envy groaned. Sparks smirked slightly as she looked over at Envy again, before trying a different approach,
"So then, why are you dressed like that?"
"I'm dressed like myself, what of it?"
Sparks sighed,
"I guess. Did you get a lot of shit for... looking like you do, before?"
"Down in the labs, when I was trying to kill you? THAT'S how I look, Drachman." Envy preened a bit, "This is just how I want to look when I've gotta stand out a bit less. Plus, I like this body; as unique and cute a homunculus as I can be."
Sparks smiled faintly, leaning forward as she opened her own meal and looked down at it as her expression fell a bit.
It wasn't just because her food looked disgusting.
Picturing the lost homunculus back in the 1910's, they would have been cutting a daring figure with their skirt and crop-top on top of their androgynous looks, walking through a crowd of straight laced citizens and likely reveling in the stares and odd glances; that part was a stretch of her imagination, to be sure, but someone filled with some nascent god's feelings of jealousy and envy probably would enjoy the extra attention; but now, in this year, they might not even catch a second glance.
The Drachman felt herself feeling a bit sorry for the homunculus- it was going to be a long series of shocks adjusting to the last century and a half of changes and, while
Envy seemed tough; physically, at least; yesterday the homunculus had survived enough ordinance being thrown at them to level an elementary school. But it was going to be absolutely cataclysmic head fuck of change they would have to fight through to catch up. Sparks wasn't sure if anyone's psyche could survive.
"Fucking Amestrians, man." The marine muttered.
"Hmf?" Envy questioned; mouth full.
The marine shook her head, and Envy didn't pry; their mind was filled with their own thoughts.
That Sparks, a human, had so casually sat next to them and was now sharing a meal without so much as a second though was...what was going on?
The two sat in silence as the homunculus attempted to organize their thoughts; with everything that had been happening, one more thing so far out of what they thought of as ordinary was a drop in an ocean.
Yesterday they had been doing their damnedest to rip this "marine" and her comrades to pieces, but now she and the others seemed to regard them not even as an enemy prisoner, but more like a... Envy thought back to the tunnels. Desperately mocking Scar and Mustang and the others' temporary alliance. Humans could put aside their differences, forgive so much and help each other.
But this?
It was too much.
Envy wasn't some fellow human, even an enemy one. The Drachmans knew perfectly well what Envy was, the whole world knew, now, apparently.
"Why aren't you afraid of me?" Envy asked suddenly, looking over at the Drachman marine, unable to reconcile this in their head.
Sparks made a choking noise and covered her mouth, holding up a hand with a finger raised to ask for a moment as she rapidly chewed and swallowed her food.
"One second." She said, pulling a canteen out of a pouch attached her equipment belt, drinking deep before offering it too Envy.
The homunculus took it and drank without thinking, only pausing after the lukewarm water washed down their throat. An unthinkable kindness to them, a casual act to the marine.
"Why are you being nice to me?" Envy further demanded,
"By the Good God, one thing at a time, girl!" Sparks shot back, taking back her canteen and tucking it back in its pouch, "Look, I can't pretend you're not scary when you're...you know, a slavering monster. Or even when you just sit there and I can tell that...no offense, that something's off about you, that you're not really human even though you look like this, now. You fire up that uncanny valley instinct, yeah?"
The Drachman pursed her lips for a moment before going on,
"But...you talk. You try and figure out what's going on, you're interested in the world. It's obvious you're not just some monster that got slapped together and set loose. That you're... sapient? Sentient? I get those mixed up."
"Sapient." Envy clarified.
"Yeah. Thanks, anyway. But...when we found you down in the lab, the look on your face in that big assed test tube the blue-belles had you in? It was...fuck. Pain and misery incarnate, and I know what you're meant to have done back before they got you, but, fuck me..."
Envy's face hardened and their mouth split in a sneer,
"I'm not looking for pity, human."
Sparks rolled her eyes and stood up,
"The stuck-up snotty asshole attitude just makes you seem even less scary, lizard girl."
Envy was taken aback and immediately returned
"Better a lizard than a monkey! That's why they say 'sapient', you know!"
Sparks laughed as she made her way back to the stairs,
"When you come downstairs to toss your trash, you can stay awhile, yes? I'll make Hatred put on something for you to watch besides his shitty horror movies."
Envy let loose a barely audible grunt of dismissal before going back to one of the books they'd brought up with them.
It didn't take them long to flip through them all- whatever was in them that wasn't pointless, mostly bits and pieces about technological or scientific progress-although nothing about alchemical advances -was either blacked out or removed, with whole pages missing from many of the books, most of which were years old or out of date anyway.
Finally, Envy was left staring at that autobiography of Mustang. Still idly chewy on the oddly made spoon that Sparks had given them with their dubious lunch, Envy reached for it with the same enthusiasm they would have if they were picking up a poisonous spider.
They sighed as they opened the book, skipping forward to a chapter that dealt with the fight under Central. It might be... something to see the smug firebug assholes attempt at whitewashing his trying to burn them alive.
A few minutes later, Envy bit down so hard on the plastic spoon in their mouth it snapped in half. The shape-shifter barely noticed as they re-read the last sentence they'd read again.
And again.
They snapped the next page over, their keen purple eyes tracking back and forth from word to word with uncanny quickness, before dropping the book on the floor.
Envy sat up and got to their feet, spitting the broken piece of plastic cutlery out as they went, walking quickly to the top of the stairs and heading down to the narrow cabins living room, past the two Drachmans and straight to the bookshelf, lightly sliding their fingers across the bindings until they found a title, they thought might contain what they were looking for.
They paged through to another chapter about the fight under Central. Again, Envy quickly read. Again, they dropped the book, reaching for another.
The two Drachmans were saying something, Envy ignored them.
They picked the fresh volume up, skipping to another description of that final, desperate battle on The Promised Day.
Envy read.
Then they dropped the book.
The homunculus stood, hearing nothing, staring at the book case in front of them.
Envy barely felt a cautious hand grip their shoulder and give a gentle tug. Without thinking, Envy turned around, finding themselves face-to-face with Sparks again, who slowly waved a hand in front of the humonculus' face,
Envy realized for the first time there was a loud ringing noise in their ears.
They shook their head to clear it, finally hearing what the Drachman marines was asking
"...you ok? What's going on?"
Envy didn't answer,
"Do they need to eat a soul? That's what feeds the alchemist thing that keeps them alive, right?"
Sparks turned to glare at the hulking machine gunner,
"What? We could feed them Rancid." Hatred continued,
"This isn't the fucking time, asshat."
"...but I wasn't joking."
Envy took the moment to shake off Sparks' hand and walk to the couch, dropping down in the middle of it and barely hearing the tortured creaking of it's old frame as they sat.
"They left me." The shape shifter declared, keeping their unfocused stare on the ground.
"They all left me there." They continued.
Sparks looked confused, before reaching down to pick up one of the books Envy had dropped.
Hatred kneeled down next to Envy, gripping the machine gun slung across his chest carefully as he gave the homunculus a gentle shake, but he didn't succeed in getting any more of reaction than his comrade.
"Sparks, what the fuck did they read?" He asked,
"Man, I dunno. This is just the same shit we read in history classes."
Hatred stood and took the book from Sparks, who stood to the side and left one hand on her rifle, covering the homunculus now that Hatred was busy.
The big Drachman carefully read what was to him the almost ancient history of Amestria on the Promised Day, a familiar story of the Fullmetal kid and his friends defeating the homunculi.
Envy had to have known that their crew had lost, so that revelation clearly couldn't be what did this to them. But...Envy had been the first homunculus to fall that day, according to the accepted history, at least. But obviously that hadn't been quite what happened, as the spiteful homunculus was still very much alive.
Hatred mulled this over.
"Envy, when you say they left you, you mean the other homunculi, right?" he asked.
Envy finally tore their gaze up from the floor, and nodded once.
Sparks frowned,
"So, what really happened to you, then?"
Envy told them. They saw no point in keeping it inside themselves.
They told the two Drachman marines about being burned down to a worm. About trying to kill themselves. About being stuffed in a flask by Mustang and tucked away in his coat pocket like a piece of trash.
And then Envy told them about what they had just learned, multiple histories telling the same story about what had happened while they had been trapped away in the dark.
About how Pride had left them there in the jar. He had Mustang in his grasp, along with Wrath and that creepy gold toothed freak whose name Envy had never bothered to learn.
About how their father had Mustang right in front of him, who had to have felt Envy's presence there, and who couldn't be bothered to reach into a pocket and save them.
They had all left them.
A broken piece of a machine that was no longer needed and had been cast aside now that its purpose was fulfilled.
They couldn't have known it, but their story left the Drachmans gutted. To leave the fallen on the field was anathema. To discard a fellow warrior to the enemy, especially when rescue was a few seconds of effort away...was unimaginable.
The only outward sign of their empathy was that their hands slid way from the grips of their weapons as Envy spoke. Eventually, they had both sat next to the homunculus, with Hatred producing a camouflage patterned poncho liner from his rucksack, which was leaning against a nearby bookshelf and draped the light, quilted fabric around Envy's bare shoulders.
When the homunculus reached the end of their story, they slumped back on the couch, chin resting on their chest.
"I've always been alone, after all." Envy declared, something that might have sounded like the height of melodrama at any other time, but now, after that revelation, was more of the depth of misery.
How many times had they bragged about their inherent superiority? That glorious humunculi spirit?
In the end it meant nothing. Less than that, even.
"That can't be true, Envy. It's probably not what it seems.", Sparks somewhat awkwardly tried to reassure them; not only was she unsure about comforting the monstrous homunculus at all, but Envy was literally the only being left alive who had actually been there, and quite frankly it seemed like their summary of events was correct.
Envy laughed.
"It is EXACTLY what it seems. They left me to...to THIS!" Envy waved an arm, encompassing the world around them.
The homunculus fell silent, with neither of the Drachmans being sure what to say or do you reassure them.
Any idea of how to comfort the last member of a species who had been left to rot by the rest was far beyond either of them.
As Envy lapsed into moody silence, Hatred had awkwardly asked about watching a movie on the television; apparently, he had a something called a "hard drive" that somehow held films on it that were able to be played on the screen of the television.
The explanation of how any of that would work was a nice distraction up to the point that it started to give them a headache.
The homunculus had eventually just leaned back on one corner of the couch and tucked their knees up to their chin, with the poncho liner Hatred had given them pulled up around their head as they stared out a window at the growing afternoon shadows outside.
But they stayed with the two humans.
As whatever the Drachman machine gunner was watching devolved into a cacophony of high-pitched screams and monstrous laughter, Envy's eyes drifted over to find out where the other marine had gone.
Sparks was at the kitchen table, red-brown hair in a messy bun, helmet and rifle sitting on the table along with...a thing.
Curiosity broke through misery, and Envy leaned forward and squinted;
What in god's name was she fiddling with?
It has a glowing screen, hinged to another service the Sparks was pressing on intermittently with one hand while moving an oval shaped domed object with her other.
Envy silently slipped off the couch, intent on getting a closer look.
When they got closer, they noticed the small rounded objects stuffed in Sparks' ears. From their encounter with Hatred earlier in the day, Envy knew that these were apparently what head phones looked like in this day and age.
They had also heard the profane and frankly violent instructions the big sergeant had given his troops about not using them.
It seemed Sparks had a more selective memory.
Envy lightly tapped the marine on her shoulder when they got close enough.
" 'sup Envy?" She said, not bothering to turn around.
Not bothering to ask how Sparks had known it was them, Envy asked
"What is this?"
Now that they were closer, Envy could see that the lower half of the machine was laid out with a seemingly nonsensical jumble of keys, similar to a typewriter, but with more numbers and strangely labelled buttons.
"Gaming laptop." Sparks answered in a monotone.
Envy watched the screen for a few moments; there seemed to be... something playing on it. A heavily armed woman in a suit was firing a gun of some kind at...humans in some sort of blue uniforms.
Envy frowned. Was this some film from the war?
No. Judging by the way Sparks was tapping the keys and moving the odd dome thing across the table, she was controlling the woman on screen. Was this some sort of...game?
Suddenly, the woman on the screen collapsed to the ground in a heap, while message reading "Bandits Lose" in Drachman cyrilic and spelled out in blocky, blood red letters circled the screen.
Sparks let out a low growl that built into a snarled exclamation of "FUCK YOUR MOTHER!"
"Sparks! What the fuck?" Hatred shouted at her from across the room, "You're not even supposed to have that thing!"
"Piss off, Hatred, I removed the Wi-Fi card and Bluetooth, it's clean." Sparks shot back.
Envy didn't quite manage to translate all of that but they caught the gist of it.
The female marine seemed to remember that the homunculus was standing there again and looked up at them, not the least bit ashamed of her outburst,
"So you want to have a go, or what?"
Envy looked around in confusion,
"What the hell is even happening right now?" They demanded.
Sparks smiled sweetly and stood, patting the chair she had been sitting in as she did so,
"Have a seat and I'll show you, old lady."
Envy recoiled,
"I can end that pathetic blink-of-an-eye lifespan of yours early, human! Or I can wait until time does you in for me, which do you prefer, child?"
Sparks grinned and patted the seat again.
"It will blow your mind..."
Envy rolled their eyes and obliged the temperamental Northerner.
A few hours later, after night had closed in the door to the dimly lit cabin interior. The marines insisted this was called "light discipline" and would hopefully ensure that Amestrian fighters or drones- Envy still wasn't quite sure what those were -would have a harder time finding them.
Envy didn't notice the door. They were still in the seat Sparks had vacated, hunched forward toward the screen of the gaming laptop, fingers dancing across the keys, one hand quickly flicking the mouse (they still had no idea why the thing was called that, but oh well) across the screen while Sparks had pulled the chair from the side of the table and was sitting next to the homunculus and bitterly regretting introducing the immortal shape-shifter to video games; Envy had taken to the gaming laptop and Sparks' library of downloaded games like a fish to water, leaving the Drachman with the difficult question of how she was going to get her machine back from a being who could turn into a demonic dinosaur monster in the blink of an eye and crush her like a bug.
END PART 1