Then, at the very last minutes of the story-

"You'll do as I say! You're taking me to Hohenheim" Envy screeched at the oily, disgustingly human-like Gate Children as they wrapped their black limbs around him, tearing at his flesh, gnawing at it, ripping back the layers of his alchemically created body.

The homunculus kept swapping forms one after the other, "You're taking me to see that bastard!" he roared, as he shifted his facsimile form Edward Elric to his own, utterly despised, "true" self, blonde and handsome just like that son of a bitch Hohenheim and his spawn, "To my father!"

Only they didn't.

The bright tunnel around him, the link between Amestris and wherever lay beyond the gate, a passage that seemed to be made of writhing flows of flesh-like roots, suddenly fell still, and, as the bright circle of his destination fell dark, so did Envy's world.

"What! What the hell is this? I told you little monsters to take me to Hohenheim!" Envy roared, writhing in the arms of the gate monsters in his truest form- that of a massive, snake-like green dragon. But even now, as the true monster he had become, Envy couldn't shake off the infant-like forms of the gate children that clung to him like limpets to a shark.

Envy tossed his massive head back and forth, fruitlessly snapped his jaws at the writhing hive of eldritch creatures around him and then he saw. His keen, inhuman vision had always been as clear as day even at midnight, and here, in the eternal darkness of the void between worlds, what it showed him almost drove him mad.

The space he was in seemed no bigger than a closet, a narrow space that still seemed to stretch out infinitely, above, below, behind, and in front, and from every corner eager eyes of purple stared at him, even as the creatures that had been holding him seemed to melt away, though he still felt the tug of their tiny arms passing over him, like a current on the sea.

They seemed to be taking him somewhere.

The shape-shifter fought and roared in defiance, but he may as well have done nothing for all the good his struggles did him.

There were doors out there in the shadows, gates like he had come through, although the etchings and designs seemed different on this side than they did from the other and he could almost hear a sound coming from each, a resonance he couldn't quite make out…until he heard one tune more clearly than the others; a frenetic pace of string instruments and kettle drums that grew louder and louder, and the ominous tune managed to plant a feeling of dread even in the hate-drunk mind of the homunculus.

"What is that racket?" Envy roared, covering for the dull sense of fear that only he could perceive.

Even if they could, the creatures that had been moving him through this void wouldn't have answered. They seemed entranced; their eyes fixed on something in the distance as they passed Envy toward it, though that destination seemed to be as indeterminable as any other direction in this twilight world.

The music swelled, and Envy could see another gate opening.

"No! No! Take me to Hohenheim, what are you little monsters doing?" Envy roared, blind as ever to irony.

Suddenly, one of the small creatures wrapped its impossibly long hands around his head and yanked it around so his eyes met its, and Envy found himself gazing into a pair of purple-irised, slit-pupil eyes that were twins to his own.

"I'm sure you'll appreciate the irony of this, but I am almost jealous of you," it spoke, its voice feminine and smoky, almost a purr.

"Lust? What the hell are you doing?"

The little creature that seemed to somehow hold a part of the dead homunculus smirked, sadly.

"You'll want to thank me for this, eventually."

"What," Envy began, but then his world became dark again as bright blue electric lightning crackled across his body, shrinking it down as he shrieked in pain.

"Shhh…" Lust consoled, but her voice was flat, without feeling, "It will be over soon."

Envy wanted to rip her to shreds but he still couldn't move.

Finally, the pain stopped, and he could tell he was in his "normal" body.

And then he felt cold. And he felt the slimy appendages of the gate children as they carried him the final distance to that open gateway.

Envy shrieked again, this time in panic, perceiving exactly what had just happened to him.

The eldritch horror with Lust's eyes smiled and gave him an oily kiss on the cheek. And then she shoved him towards the door.

Envy caught a last look at the open doors, which were daubed with black, painted letters in a language he didn't know, and then he was standing alone on an alien world.

The rush of sensations that filled him was maddening- cold, wet, something seemed to gnaw at his guts like a ferocious beast while his throat burned like a furnace, his mouth was dry, his body ached and his vision swam.

And then something lurched at him from behind the massive edifice of the gate.

Envy cried out and took a step back when the thing came into view on the gathering night, it was rotten, clad in torn ragged clothing, and it gnashed its teeth at him from a lipless mouth as it fixed him with milky, red-yellow eyes. The former homunculus took a step back, nearly lost his balance as his weight was suddenly far lighter than he'd ever been used to, and had to desperately bring his guard up as the creature fell on him.

His strength was far less than it once was, but he still managed to twist the stinking monster into a hold and twist, tossing the moldering flesh bag unto the ground, where its rotten flesh and weakened bones parted and snapped, spilling viscera and bits of yellowed spinal column unto the dirt.

The thing's lolling head kept snapping its yellowed teeth at Envy's feet, and the former homunculus recoiled in disgusted shock- where in the hell was he?

Envy cried out and took a step back, looking around as he did so and finding more creatures coming towards him; he left the thing he had just fought to lay broken in the tall grass and weeds as he readied himself for a brawl. He might not like fighting, but he was in a foul mood and was looking for someone to take it out on, so he stalked toward the mob of undead with grim intent, seeing them as weak, easy targets for his wrath.

One might have been.

But he was about to fight five.

Even now, as a human, he could move like water and fighting was more of a dance to him than it had ever been, but he was weaponless, and against the unending hunger of the unfeeling walkers, he was unknowingly out of his depth.

He grasped the first of the things by the hand, intending to toss it like the other one, but the thing's already broken fingers sloughed off into Envy's hands.

He had a half-second to begin a cry of disgust before another grabbed a handful of Envy's green locks and yanked, intent on dragging the human closer to feed on him.

Envy whirled, the hair in the walker's hands went taut, and then it tore out of Envy's scalp, and the former homunculus grew reacquainted with pain. He lashed out in anger at the thing even as it tried to bring a small mass of scalp at the end of the hair it had yanked out of Envy's head to its mouth. The blow made little impression, merely delaying it in stuffing its mouth with its fleshy meal. It stuffed its face and chewed with the trail of green hair that its prize had come with moving up and down as it worked its jaw.

Envy screamed, just as another of the things grabbed him from behind. He threw his elbows back to push it off and darted forward, spinning, finding another group of shambling undead coming at him, realizing that there was no real hope for him to fight any of them off and he began looking for an exit as he finally took the time to check his surroundings.

He spotted a few bulky-looking rectangular structures nearby and gauged that he had just enough time to break free and reach them before the monsters closed in on him. Envy made a break, dodged the grasping hands of a pair of walkers, and made it to his destination.

There was a set of rusted ladder rungs that led up the side of the rectangular structure, and Envy vaulted up them, scrambling to the roof. He was panting when he turned and looked back down, to find the scattered undead closing around the ladder he had just taken.

He kept filling his lungs without a thought until he realized that for the first time in four hundred years, the action wasn't just to maintain his cover and keep whatever disgusting human mark he was fooling from seeing through whatever form he was disguising himself as.

He gulped another lungful and started coughing so hard he almost doubled over as a wholly unfamiliar tingling sensation coursed through his body and froze every muscle in it, holding it so tight he couldn't even move as he sank to his side doubling up into a ball as he kept breathing rapidly, frenziedly even. Something was rhythmically pounding in his ears and it would not stop...

He was trembling so hard he fell to his side, his vision was dancing with black circles and it seemed like shadows were closing in around him, and through it all the undead scratched and pounded fruitlessly below him.

He wanted to scream, but when he opened his mouth, only a breathless croak escaped his mouth.

And then the air pulsed with an electric current that seemed to course through him, short-circuiting whatever had gone wrong with his body, as the gate flared into existence again, right where it had deposited him. Even heard it open with a grating rumble of stone on stone as the great doors swung open.

Envy blinked, still breathing too fast, but he rolled unto his hands and knees, then stumbled to his feet, he heard running footsteps and the sound of someone clambering over a chain link fence, and he looked around the area, still shaky on his feet, and found that whoever that someone was had drawn the attention of the undead.

Never one to not capitalize on another's misfortune, Envy looked around, blinking wildly, trying desperately to hold back that terrible force that had frozen him in place. He spotted an open gate in the chain link fence, and between it and hum sat another rectangular metal structure, sat lengthwise with this one, connected by a hallway module. The former homunculus stumbled forward, moving at a stumbling lope that broke into a jog, and finally to a run as he leapt from the short building and onto the ground.

But when he hit the ground, his still uncoordinated human body promptly betrayed him as he landed with too much weight on his ankle, and he cried out in pain as he twisted it. He fell, gritting his teeth and a group of undead closed in. Biting back on the pain, he hauled himself backward, then rolled on his stomach, crawling to the gate as the rotting predators closed in.

He desperately looked around, and when he saw a few coming into the gate from the other side, he forced himself to his feet, fighting back the stars that danced in his vision and threatened to swallow him as he pushed forward, limping just fast enough to slip by the walkers and unto the graveled road.

Envy quickly discovered the not-quite socks, not quite foot wraps that covered his feet were a fine fashion statement when one was a nigh-invulnerable homunculus, but when one was a soft-skinned human, they didn't quite stand up to travel down roughly rocked roads.

He traveled slowly down the tall grass of the shoulder, his progress slow and careful, lest he step on something hidden in the foliage. He thought about trying to rip apart his halter top to wrap his feet in, but the thin, small bit of clothing was the only thing giving him the slightest bit of warmth.

For a human, the growing darkness would be nothing but a late summer evening, cool and with a bit of breeze. Envy hadn't felt a temperature change through his artificial body for one day of his four hundred years, and he was starting to shiver uncontrollably.

Eventually, the road passed over a small creek and while looking down at the trickle of water while crossing the rough bridge that spanned it, he realized that the burning sensation at the back of his throat was probably thirst. Envy clambered down to the bank on the other side and drank deeply.

Thirty minutes later he had followed the gravel road to a wider road covered with some sort of smooth black surfacing, which he promptly puked up the brackish water he had drunk on.

Something else he found out about his new body, too late, was its need for clean water.

He was still doubled up on the side of the road when a pair of rusted pickups spotted him. A cold-eyed woman in worn camouflaged clothing climbed out and looked down at the shivering form of the fallen homunculus.

"Throw this in the back.", she growled, after rolling Envy over with a boot and checking him for fever. She found none, which meant he probably wasn't being turned by Wildfire.

"Thought those folks were looking for women?" the driver of her truck asked.

"That isn't a woman?" a man in the bed asked,

"Jaime shut the fuck up and do what I said. Those people said they'd take younger men or boys, but they wouldn't be worth as much."

They tossed Envy none too gently into the back of the truck, and stuffed pills and medicine down his throat when they got him back to the drawn-up circle of fortified semi-trucks they had encamped while gathering captives, before tossing the homunculus in the back of the cell.

Which was where, days later, he had heard a voice that pierced through the haze of illness and misery that had rendered him nigh on catatonic and sent him back into a pale shadow of his former self.

Now-

Edward's mind desperately tried to pump the brakes, but some part of him was acting on pure instinct.

He's unarmed, he's weak, this is murder!

Hughes, Ishval, an image of the grinning homunculus driving his arm through his chest after morphing it into a blade, tricking him into hesitating and then killing him

Edward threw his weight into the swing he drove downwards with Lucille, sending the gore-crusted barbed wire head of the bat on terminal course with Envy's.

"Edward, that's your brother!"

Ed started, gasped, and in a last-minute jerk brought the bat down on the floor of the truck next to Envy's head, splintering the heavy wood of the truck bed. Grimacing in fear, Ed stood back, looking fervently from side to side, eyes almost bulging.

He hadn't heard that voice, in that angry tone, since before his mother had died.

As well he should, as it was Trisha Elric's.

He had expected- hoped – to see Sloth in the cage with Envy. She wasn't. The homunculus he and Al had accidentally created was long dead, and with it the only other person who could match that tone.

"Please try, Edward. Don't let this world have you."

Standing ramrod straight, Edward quietly handed Lucille back to Negan, who was regarding his alchemist friend with a cocked head and a concerned look.

"Eddie, you ok? We not doing this, or…you want a gun or something?"

Edward shook his head, no.

"Alright…"

Ed took his foot off Envy's chest, and the homunculus, still wide-eyed with shock and fear at how close he had come to death- he'd been looking at Ed's eyes, and knew damn well the alchemist hadn't been trying to play a cruel trick on him; Ed had fully intended to kill him, but something had changed his mind at the last possible moment -stayed on the ground, and was too weak to move much more in any case.

"This is Envy," Ed told Negan, as he leaned back on the side of the trailer across from the former homunculus.

"Wait, what? This is the guy you were talking about?"

"Yeah…that one."

"Isn't he one of that Dante bitch's top guys? What's he doing here?"

Ed shrugged,

"Didn't he fucking stab you?"

"I want to talk to him."

Negan snorted,

"Sure, hero." He looked from Ed and back down to Envy.

"So he's from the same world you are?"

"Yes."

"What the fuck is with you people and the fucking hair?"

"What?"

"I mean you have that fucking giant ass man-mane and this motherfucker has a frigging tropical plant growing out of his head. Is that shit just super-fashionable back home, or what?"

Shocked out of his reverie, Ed could only work his jaw speechlessly for a moment,

"The fuck is that?" Ash demanded from the entrance to the cell, where she was taking in Envy's pale, sickly-looking body, his green mass of spiked hair, the form-fitting skort and crop top, and his dark purple reptilian eyes.

"What is it, Ash?"

"Oh, yeah, Simon sent me to get you so we can get organized. Rapey Davey copped a feel on one of the little girls you sent out from here and Arat cut his eyes out."

"So, normal stuff?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"I blame myself for not killing someone nick-named Rapey Davey in the first place."

Ash shrugged.

"But again, what the fuck is that?" Ash pointed at Envy, who had hauled himself up to a sitting position and was cautiously observing the strangers who had seemingly allied themselves with Fullmetal; as contemptuous as he found that, between the two of them they had that infernal barbed wire wrapped clubbed, two knives and the girl was carrying a pair of rifles and a handgun, and he did not wish any part of his now squishy human anatomy to come in contact with any of them.

Not to mention, Ed had stopped whatever fit he had gone through and was now staring down at him with a frankly appearing look that made him nervous, and he unconsciously drew his knees up to his chest to protect himself as all three stared at him.

"That's Envy."

"Is he a stripper?"

Negan ignored Ash's question,

"Eddie, didn't you say this motherfucker was some kind of evil fuck off monster type shape-shifting mass murderer?"

"Yes."

"And you're not killing him?"

"…no."

"Fuck sakes…why not?"

"He's human. Something in the gate must have changed him, or…or…I honestly don't know, but I want to find out."

"Are you fucking sure he's human?"

"If he wasn't, you'd be dead right now. He had the drop on us."

"Oh, I'd be fucking dead, but not you, huh?"

Ed flashed a cocky smile at Negan,

"Hell no, I'm a badass. I'd have made it, no sweat."

Negan raised an eyebrow,

"Ash watch the Alchemist and his new pet. If the palm tree-haired serial killer tries anything, shoot it and then kick Ed in the balls for being a fuck-wit."

"You got it boss."

Envy had watched the by-play with interest, not understanding a word but trying to grasp the power dynamic at play, looking for an edge even in his strung out, sickly state. He'd spent the past days since the road in a feverish blur, that had only started to break that morning, or, at least, he thought it had been morning, only able to keep track of time through the weak light coming in through the roof of the cargo container he'd been imprisoned in; at least, he assumed it was a cargo container.

He had almost no frame of reference, but from what little he had seen this world it was far different than Amestris, he would guess more technologically advanced, but he had seen no sign of alchemy since he had been in the klink. All he knew was that the medications his captor supplied him with had been unfamiliar, even to his inexperienced eyes (he had had no need for medicine in a good long time, something this new body had seemingly done it's best to catch him up with as it felt like he had caught seemingly every illness this world had to offer and had been wallowing in misery since his arrival), and the weapons his captors carried, their clothes, and even the few scraps of food he'd been given and was able to hold down had been wholly alien.

But that lunge at Edward had hurt, leaving him feeling almost utterly exhausted again, and the light beating he had just taken left him sore and his nerves raw; he wasn't used to feeling pain like that.

And so, he sat, and bided his time.

"Serial killer?" Ash demanded, rounding on Ed as Negan left the trailer.

"Something like that…an assassin, an agent. He was a homunculus," Ed met Envy's gaze, noting that the frenzied hate that normally danced in those purple eyes was almost gone, and the former homunculus looker haggard, and sick, "An artificial human created through alchemy."

"And his name is freaking Envy?"

"I…that's what hanging you up? Out of everything I just described?" Ed demanded,

"It sounds like a stage name of the trailer-trash stripper!"

"What even is a stripper?"

"Oh for…so what are you going to do with him?" Ash demanded; she was unsure about the androgynous person's real gender, but calling them a he seemed to be the general consensus, maybe.

"I...fuck. I'm not sure." Ed had determined to give Envy a chance, but having done so, he had no idea how to go about actually carrying it out, as he still absolutely did not trust him.

Ash shook her head and huffed in annoyance.

"Why are you doing this again?"

"I…Envy is my brother. I have to try."

"Oh, that's right, you said that…but if…oh fuck it, let's sort this shit out when we get home. I've got a load of new loot from that bitch that was running this shit hole, let's get it and your new friend into a vehicle. Side's, you gotta get back and celebrate your new promotion."

Ed paused having forgotten about his sudden rise on stature amongst the Saviors. Pushing down that well of surprise and dread, he crouched down next to Envy, just out of the former homunculus' reach.

"Envy, obviously you remember me. And, this is you, in a human body. Did the gate do this?"

Envy sneered, but started coughing, hard, almost falling over.

Ed started to reach a hand out to steady the thin ex-shape shifter, but stopped himself at the last minute, unsure if this wasn't a trick.

"Yeah. A parting gift from Lu…a gate creature."

"Lust, huh?" Ed asked, caching Envy's slip, "I got one from Hughes." He fell silent, just for a moment, to see if that would sink home to Envy.

There may have been a slight second of hesitation, or Envy might just be as ill as he looked.

"That's nice, what irredeemable curse did your late buddy gift you with?"

"The gate children gave me the ability to use my alchemy on this world."

Envy's face hardened,

"I hate you so much."

"You've often made that clear at great length. Can you stand?"

Envy hesitated, then nodded.

Ed stood back as Envy started to push himself to his feet, but his legs seemed shaky,

"Ed, give him a hand for gods sake." Ash said, as Envy's leg started to shake and he paused,

"Hold on…"

Ash rolled her eyes and stepped forward to help.

As she stepped under Envy's limp shoulder to help him to his feet, Envy whispered,

"Oh thank you so much, oh how nice…"

And then he was slammed up against the wall again, by Ash, and Ed had his hand pinned. It still clutched the knife he had pulled from Ash's belt.

The girl leaned in, almost pressing ragged, burned flesh of her cheek to Envy's as she whispered in German,

"I don't think I'd need to understand your language to understand that creepy sarcasm, pretty-boy."

Envy's eyes widened as the girl spoke what he understood as Amestrian,

The handgun she pressed to his temple also helped.

"Ash…please."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I…there's so much death here, Ash. We're still fighting each other, hurting each other, and the reanimated are still everywhere, they won't ever stop, and everyone that dies is one less to help us all survive. Even Envy. Give him a chance."

"You did."

"That was who he was on Amestris, that's who he's still trying to be, what he is trying to be…he's human now, he hasn't had a chance to…"

"I don't think he's changed, Eddie."

They were talking mostly in Amestrian, and Envy could tell this was deliberated choice by Fullmetal. Part of him wanted to cut in with some savage remark or try and wriggle free of the girl's arm, make her pull that trigger. But in this moment, he realized, he didn't want to die. He'd barely thought of death for four hundred years, but now he could almost feel the reaper breathing down his neck and it terrified him.

"I've changed, Ash. And maybe not for the better, mostly, but…I've only been here for a bit more than a week. Give Envy that. Let him see who he can become, or if he's still the monster someone else made him."

Envy grit his teeth, but was silent.

Ash holstered her pistol.

With one last shove, she stood back from Envy, who was still weak on his feet, but managed to stand.

Ed handed her back her knife and she took it by the blade, hodling it up to Envy,

"I'm violating a direct order from Negan by not killing you. Last time I did that, this happened," she flipped the blade around and touched the angry red scars on her face, which were still swollen and inflamed with angry red, webbed tissue, "But I owe my friend here. My friend who has killed two people in the last thirty minutes. Don't fuck with us."

Envy's eyes widened that revelation, but he was silent, and nodded.

"And Eddie?"

"Wha-ahhhh!" Ed started to ask but he cried out on pain as Ash lunged out and kicked him between the legs.

"Quit whining, you only got like, quarter strength on that, but I'm still following half Negan's order, at least."

And with that, she turned to leave.

"I like her."

"Shut up, Envy."

Edward ended up half-supporting Envy as they pushed their way back out of the trailer, with Envy doing the same as Ed limped along, the pair stumbling out of the back of the trailer like a pair of drunk friends after a night out- although in this case, the first non-violent interaction the pair had ever had was based more on mutual self-interest in getting out of the vile-smelling cargo container.

Envy stopped to survey the scene of devastation once he had made it to the end of the trailer with Eddie; the scattering of bodies, the eddying smoke and fire, all under the light of a pale sun partially obscured by clouds.

The big man who was seemingly in charge was berating one of his subordinates near the body of a man whose eyes seemed to have been gouged out.

"The fuck, Arat?" Negan shouted; Ed took a moment to process what he had heard Ash tell Negan back in the trailer,

Davey groped a girl and Arat cut his eyes out.

This then must be the aftermath of…

"How the fucking fuck could you assholes let the fucking prick leading the fucking pricks we just fucking curb stomped get away?"

Or not.

"She must have been waiting for her chance! Timmy and his guys are…"

"Timmy and the Dick Brigade couldn't find their dicks with both hands jammed down their pee-holes! Fuck!" Negan shouted, before storming off, stopping when he caught sight of Edward and Envy,

"Eddie, if you want to keep that guy he's staying in your fucking room."

"Hey, he stabbed me!"

"Yeah, well, you didn't kill him he's your fucking responsibility. Take him for fucking walks, make sure he fucking eats and make sure he doesn't fucking kill anyone in their sleep."

Negan strode out past the huddled survivors of the Saviors raid, with only a glare and a growled statement,

"It's a brand-new fucking life for you dipshits, Eddie will be around to explain the particulars soon," Negan said, stopping to glare at the woman who had showed the Saviors where Lunda had kept her captives, "And you are the sorriest dipshit of all, cuz you are now fucking in charge of this wreck. I'd fix the walls before stenches bust in if I were you."

"But…"

"And don't open the door for strangers, they can be some real dangerous motherfuckers; oh wait, you just found that out, didn't you? Get fucked, we'll be back."

Negan strode off again, waving an arm over his head,

"Get the shit packed up and lets fucking go!"

Envy didn't understand any of that, but the big loud mouth irritated the hell out of him- that the man acted like that precisely because it irritated people didn't occur to him, yet -but Ed hopped down and offered his had up to help Envy when the shouting man waved in a lets go motion.

Envy scoffed and waved Ed away,

"Oh look, did the good little dog of the military find a new master?"

Ed shrugged,

"He and I are a lot alike, actually." Ed answered in Amestrian

"Well, you both pissed me off, so you've got that right."

Ed stopped, looked up at Envy,

"Do you want to die?"

"Is that a threat, you've already shown you can't put the follow through on that, Edward."

"Stop acting like a fucking grade school bully, it's fucking stupid and it's fucking annoying, and it was a fucking question, asshole."

The sudden vicious profanity was a shock to the former homunculus; this was not the melodramatic swearing of the righteous, determined hero, this was…alive. But he supposed he owed the more interesting Ed an answer,

"No. No I don't."

"Then come with me if you want to live."

The girl with the guns had been standing nearby, and for some reason she started laughing when Ed said that. Envy ignored them both and jumped down off the back of the trailer, landing squarely on the ankle he had twisted so badly when he first arrived, and cried out as the searing pain shot up his still freshly gifted nerves.

Ed sighed and stepped forward,

"Please don't stab me again." He growled, as he helped Envy to his feet. To the former homunculus' surprise, the girl fell in on the opposite side of him as Edward, and took his other arm across her shoulder.

"This better not just be about you proving to yourself your still a good guy, Eddie."

"Maybe it is," Ed answered, as the three limped along in the tide of loot-laden Saviors heading for the exit from the half-ruined vehicular fortress, "Maybe it's to find out who I can be in this world of yours…world of ours. And maybe it's because Envy deserves a chance to find out, too. All of us were someone, before our worlds ended…"

Ed passed the corpulent body of the man he didn't even remember killing,

"And then we were someone else before we got here. And as awful as all this is, maybe the people we can become will still have enough of a spark of hope in them that this world won't take us."

And then the trio were out of the fortress gates, and back into the wilds.

Behind them, in the bullet riddled remains of the trailer, there was a detail that both the Alchemist and the former homunculus had overlooked, though the voracious scavenger had seen it, she'd had no idea of it's significance and had overlooked as quickly as it had taken her to rule out it's value.

Those ruined, bullet riddled crates of food and goods that had lined the side of the trailer the Saviors guns had torn through, were marked with a symbol; a cross, pointed on its ends, entwined with a black snake that wreathed the tip of the cross like a halo before descending.

A symbol both the Amestrians knew well.