A/N: Got bored. Got an idea. Wanted something short. Wrote stuff. Enjoy!

IMPORTANT NOTE: On the FMA side of things, it's a combination of both Brotherhood and the 2003 anime canon. Jsyk.

~Penelope

The night of his greatest mistake. It all came rushing back – the glow of the circle, the cool of the concrete on his hands as he slapped them down, determined to undo the past. The swirl of alchemic light, dimming from blue to purple… he'd known it was wrong. But in an impulsive act that would've put his late brother to shame, he'd gone ahead. He'd committed the taboo. He'd defied the laws of the universe.

Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.

But to see his brother's smiling face again…

Equivalent Exchange.

Was it worth it?

The consequences of that night of pure arrogance stood before Frank Hardy now. Side by side with that green-haired freak named Envy, the homunculus that called himself the new Pride stood wearing a wolfish grin that did not belong on his brother's face. It didn't look like him. But it was. Blond hair had been turned black, and baby blue eyes violet, but there was no mistake Joseph Hardy. Not as his brother, the one who was supposed to protect him from all this in the first place.

"Surprise," Envy purred, his androgynous voice twisted with cruel amusement. He placed his hands on his hips, leaned back and sneered in all his sadistic, crop-top-clad glory.

"Joe…" The name rasped from Frank's throat in a defiant whisper, breathless, unbelieving. Human transmutation wasn't possible. It wasn't supposed to succeed. He'd lost a lung and the sight in one eye to the Gate for his presumption that night! And yet here – it had worked? He actually brought his little brother back?

"Unfortunately, no." Envy chortled, finding the entire situation far too funny. "You see, every time a foolish alchemist commits human transmutation, a homunculus is born. But we can't survive without a Philosopher's Stone as our core. Thankfully, Father's always on the lookout for new members of the family. He takes us in, feeds us, keeps us alive. Which is more than anyone can say for you, you little fool!"

Fool… Yes, he was a fool. A fool to cling to an impossible hope.

But he looked exactly like Joe… So much so, it was painful. Maybe… maybe Joe was still in there… "Joe, it's me," Frank muttered, ignoring the pointed words of the embodiment of jealousy. "It's Frank."

Joe – Pride? – dropped the grin and raised his head defiantly, looking down his nose at him. "Sorry. I've never seen you before in my life."

"Did I forget to mention that we have no memory of who we used to be?" Envy said gleefully, steepling his fingers. His Cheshire smile had yet to dim.

"I know you're in there somewhere, Joe, you have to be!" Frank blurted. He was shaking. His mind, once nothing but data and realism, was reaching its end. He couldn't take much more of this, not after everything else… "You're Joseph Hardy, my little brother, son of Lieutenant Colonel Fenton Hardy and Laura Hardy! You grew up in Central, went to the Academy, you wanted to be an MP, not an alchemist – you used to say that alchemy and its law of equivalent exchange were nothing but depressing… Alchemy couldn't bring Iola Morton back from the dead. She was a soldier in Ishval, remember? Remember, Joe!? That's why you hate state alchemists! Kimblee and Mustang – it was their fault she died!"

Pride hadn't given a single reaction to his rant until he uttered the syllables 'Iola Morton'. That's when the homunculus' purple eyes grew wide and he went stiff, ramrod straight. Envy's grin finally vanished, and he scowled.

"Hey, don't listen to this puny human! You're better now, better than all of them, family or no!"

Pride jerked his gaze to Envy as if he'd struck him. Horror dawned on the latter's face as he realized he'd only confirmed some of Frank's words.

"You mean…"

Frank, eyeing Envy, took a single step toward them. "Yes! Yes, you are Joseph Hardy. You fell in love with Vanessa Bender during your senior year at the Academy. You changed your mind and wanted to become a soldier, but you didn't know how to tell her, because her father was another victim of Ishval. She wanted to be a nurse – still does. And she misses you. Almost as much as I do."

"Oh, you missed him!?" Envy erupted with rage, leaping between the two of them. "If you missed him so much, why would you abandon him the moment he needed you most? You're the one who dragged him from the afterlife, and when you couldn't stomach the results of your arrogance, you turned your back on him!" Suddenly, the Ultimate Abomination was speaking with such a conviction, such passion, that Frank wondered if he weren't speaking from personal experience. "We're the ones who picked up the pieces, who helped him start over, not you!"

Frank hung his head. Every word struck true. Too true, and it hurt. Had he known… had he known… What would he have done? Sacrificed dozens of other innocents just to create the Philosopher's Stone his brother needed to return? No. As foolish as his actions had been, it had been for Joe and Joe would have never justified murder, no matter the stakes.

"You see?" Envy spoke to Pride, but his grin didn't return. In fact, Envy seemed quite sober now. "He doesn't deny it. He didn't want you."

"No!" Frank looked up again, vehement. "No, that's a lie! If I didn't want you back, I never would've gone against everything I know as an alchemist. I wouldn't have defied the Truth. I wouldn't have risked death myself. But I didn't know… Joe, I swear I didn't know!"

In a flash of black and clack of heels, a well-endowed woman dressed in a low-cut black evening dress and elbow-length gloves leapt from the warehouse rafters and landed beside her 'brothers'.

"Soldiers are surrounding the place," the third homunculus – Lust – breathed in her characteristic monotone. "The Fullmetal Alchemist is with them."

"Let them come," Envy spat. "I need to crush a few humans right now."

"Pride only just absorbed his stone, Envy," Lust scolded. "He needs time to adjust to its power. We need to go."

"Tch." Envy scowled, turned a glare on Frank as he stood watching. "You sure I can't kill this one?"

"He's a sacrifice; you know that full well."

"Life's so unfair…"

The two began to retreat to the shadows, but Pride remained rooted where he was, staring at the floor.

"Joe?" Frank muttered. What was he thinking? He so wished he could know. What was it like in a homunculus' mind? Was Envy right? Did he have no past memories to draw upon? Was there anything left of his baby brother in this sad creature?

"…Frank…"

Yes! Yes, that's right!

"Pride!" Envy barked, patience nonexistent. "Get your butt over here! We're leaving!"

Pride lifted his head, fixed Frank with a mournful look, and then turned his back on him.

"I'm sorry…" was all he said. And then he followed after his new family.

His new family. The ones who were there when Frank had failed to be. The very same ones h***-bent on the genocide of the human race. A plot that Joe Hardy would roll over in his grave at the mere insinuation that he was somehow involved.

And Frank had been the one to make it all possible. Because of his pride, he'd given the homunculi a new ally, and lost his younger brother a second time.