Greed shook his head upon observing the events of that day. "Pitiful…" he said of Lust's actions. "Have you gone completely insane?"

"He may very well have," an aged voice materialized behind the Homunculus. A middle-aged man walked up to the window next to him, watching the show closely. "Memories are quite fickle to you Homunculi. Oftentimes, it ends like that one; deranged, unpredictable, and driven mad by the dissonance the mind goes through."

"And are you an expert on us?" Greed accused. The man only gave a smirk. "Don't play stupid, old man. I know that you spoke to Lust; he told me that you showed him things."

"And if I did? There is nothing wrong with giving him what he wants."

"Tch, as if this is what he wanted; all he wanted was the screw as many women as he could. He'd have been satisfied," Greed claimed. "He's the embodiment of lust for God's sake!"

The man chuckled. "God...that's funny…" he said vaguely.

Greed wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Whatever, it's not like Pride gave me anything to do. All I'll do is watch; I couldn't care less about Envy, Pride, or Fullmetal anyway."

"No, it's only that Mustang that you seem interested in."

Greed turned away. "Because I need her."

"As I said; memories are quite fickle with you," the old man had won.

"...Do what you want," Greed conceded, as if he were giving the man permission to watch. "But if you get my way, I'm going to throw everything I've got at you," Greed warned as he walked away.

xXx

xxxXXXxxx

xXx

With one swift motion, Lust plunged his hand through Rose's heart. It didn't make a sound; silence was all that was heard, at least to Eden. Everything stopped. She immediately felt a weight on her chest, preventing her from screaming.

Rose's eyes widened slightly, but otherwise she showed no reaction as the blood stopped flowing to her body. She crumpled into Lust's, whose face held half apathy and half horror. He let her fall as he drew his hand out of her body, down to his feet. It was only after the lifeless corpse fell that Eden was able to respond. "Rose!" she cried, tears streaming form her eyes. Her voice echoed throughout Central City.

Lust felt something that was unfamiliar to him, as he looked down at Rose's still chest. It...hurt…

Lust dropped to his knees, looked upon the woman who, in life, he'd gladly spend the rest of his life with, and screamed. He screamed at his inability to feel anything for her death.

As he scream, all of his minions screamed, created a mighty roar through Central Command. Then, they began to fade back into the ground. Lust cradled Rose in his arms, trying to hold onto her until the end of time, but then he began to fade as well, back into the dust that had been used to make him.

"What's…?" Sloth was dumbfounded. "Lust...he's dying…"

The Homunculi's screams were heard echoing long after he had faded completely, until they were replaced, as a small droplet of a red substance fell onto Rose's corpse.

"That's a Philosopher's Stone," Sloth claimed, though Eden wasn't even listening.

Fullmetal's bones became heavy, and she fell onto her hands and knees. "Damn it...damn it...damn it!" Eden repeated over and over, pounding the ground. Sloth kneeled down beside her, offering what little he could.

"I...I'm sorry…" he said, not exactly empathically, but more understandingly.

xXx

xxxXXXxxx

xXx

Ling turned a corner and hid along his, his breathing strained from blood loss. Not only was he at his limit of endurance, but he was running out of tricks. "How much longer can you go, I wonder?" Pride's voice was right next to his. Ling reacted, throwing all of his weight into a strike at the Homunculus, who was leaning on the wall. The Fuhrer parried the strike and threw Ling back, into the wall, stabbing into his left arm, the blade going through and into the wall. The Xingese Prince let off a cry, though he bit it back soon after as the Fuhrer leaned close. "I'm sorry, but weren't you going to make me be the one 'dying on the ground'?" he mocked the younger boy.

Ling bashed the butt of his own sword into the Fuhrer's face, which only served to anger the Homunculus. He attempted a straight stab, but Ling managed to kick the strike up, making it barely miss him, and then wrap his legs around the Fuhrer's arm, forcing him to the wall.

Ling let go as soon as The Fuhrer shifted, and the result was Pride slicing clean through the part of the blade that protrude from Ling to the wall, letting him rip what was left of it out and block the Fuhrer's next strike.

Ling ducked and rolled out of the way of two more strikes and threw up his last new trick, a stick. The Fuhrer slashed through it, as Ling predicted he would, and it let off a blinding flash of light. Ling ran then, hoping to at least escape with his life. With any luck, Eden will have escaped by now, making his mission a success. However, the flash bomb didn't have as much of an effect as Ling had hoped.

"You really thought a light show would stop me?" Ling heard directly behind him, and, before he could react, he was shoved out of the nearby window, straight into the Center Courtyard.

xXx

xxxXXXxxx

Eden heard the sound of a window breaking before Ling crashed in front of them, with the Fuhrer not far behind. Ling attempted to raise a blade to fight back, but the Fuhrer knocked it out of his hands and kicked him away. Not too long after, Izumi was thrown out of a window in a similar fashion, but she knocked completely out cold by Armstrong. Against any other opponent, Eden would've been surprised, but against someone like that...maybe if she could transmute instantaneously like Eden could, then she could hold her own.

However, Ling wasn't going to go down without a fight, standing and raising what was left of one of the Fuhrer's blades. Pride laughed at the effort. "Come now; why throw your life away like this? Isn't it sacred to you humans?" he he put venom in the word.

Greatly angered, if not badly beaten, Ling charged forward, but never made it to his opponent, instead being attacked from behind. All Eden saw was a blur of white in the shape of a man, but whatever it was, it appeared behind Ling and knocked him unconscious. "I think that's enough," she heard as the form of a man materialized. He looked to be nearing his forties, with a square jaw and a golden beard, golden eyes, and golden hair. Pride immediately relaxed, seemingly familiar with this outsider.

However, to Eden, he looked familiar. "You're...you look like…?" she tried to place a name, wracking her brain.

"Oh?" the man noticed Fullmetal. "I see the little Alchemist has an idea," he seemed almost excited.

"You...look like Hohenheim of Light," Eden guessed. The man stood up straight, having to think for a moment.

"Well, you're just a bit sharper than you look," the man said casually.

"Did you...just call me stupid?!" Eden snapped, standing to fight him, though Sloth held her back.

"Allow me to introduce myself; my name is...well, I have many, but you may call me Theo," he said, looking at Sloth. "And you, my child, aiding the one you were supposed to destroy."

"Sorry, pops; never seen you before in my life. I ain't your kid," he retorted.

The man chuckled. "So narrow minded…" the man sighed before disappearing in a blur and then reappearing in front of Rose's corpse, on the top of the building. He picked up the red stone, and then kicked off the body.

"Rose!" Eden cried as her body dropped, landing with a thud.

Theo ignored her protest. "It's about time I regained one of my antiques," he said, taking it in his hand and seemingly embedding it into his palm. The stone glowed, and, in a flash, soldiers rose from the ground. They were lifeless zombies like Lust's but instead of a pink color, they glowed a bright white.

"He has Lust's power!" Sloth exclaimed as they both stood, now being the only two standing against these unforeseen odds.

"No, it's the stone that fell from his body," Eden reasoned. "Either way, it feels like it doesn't even matter if we kill you damn Homunculi if any old schmuck could use your power!"

"You truly don't get it, do you?!" Theo yelled from the top of the building. "Must I spell it out for you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Eden questioned back. "Are you like a god?"

"He definitely feels like one…" Sloth muttered.

"Perhaps I am to you, but I more so think of myself as something a bit more specific than any god could be," Theo recited. "Though if you practice Alchemy religiously, which I know you do, then you could consider me Alchemy's deity and you may call me-"

"Truth," Eden finished. "You're that white god that I saw when I tried to transmute Alphonse back to life! But why do you look like Hohenheim of Light? Was he your Messiah or something? And why are you here? In the real world?

"What are you talking about?" Sloth questioned, completely lost.

"Truth; a being that dwells deep within Alchemy's laws, so deep that only the most bold of practitioners know about; Alchemists that perform human transmutation are confronted for their sins, and have something taken, by Truth," Eden said. "But that doesn't explain why it's here."

"Perhaps I should shed some light on the subject," Theo said. "You possess a rare gift; one which the world has never seen before, and I'll be sure to never let happen again. You'll find out in due time, but for now, know this; you are the pawn in my game. Each of these obstacles, these armies, these Homunculi, are all tests for you to progress. With each one, your skill and willpower will be pushed to their absolute limits and beyond, until you either succumb, or you go all the way."

"And what happens then?" Sloth questioned.

"Well...that'll be for Eden to decide," Theo grew a sick grin. "And here, a new test begins, along with a thousand more!" the stone glowed once again, and the undead army started to close in.

"What if...what if all of this...all of these sacrifices...what if they've all been for nothing…?" Eden lamented, blocking and forcing back an undead's downward strike. "What the hell am I supposed to do against something with an unlimited supply of unrestricted Alchemy, and now that he has a Philosopher's Stone…"

"You are a fool!" a yell was heard from the opposite end of the courtyard. "To think that the embodiment of Greed would settle as being a piece in some self-righteous deity's game!"

Without warning, a wave of water crashed through the courtyard, sweeping away the seemingly endless armies of minions that Theo had summoned, however, the waves circled around the other Homunculi, along with Eden and Sloth.

"Greed!" Pride called, clearly furious. "You'd betray us too?!"

"I betray all but my own desires!" Greed argued. "Including you," he turned to Eden and Sloth as his torrent lowered to that of puddles. "And you; when next we meet, I will end you both. Now get out of here!"

Sloth gave Greed a look of silent gratitude before picking Eden up and running, far past Central Command.

On the way out, they ran into Hughes. The man looked surprised when they appeared. "Oh...Eden, you're safe," he acknowledged, though drew back immediately upon seeing her somber expression.

"How'd you get out?"

"Me? I left before everything got crazy; picked up everything I could find on State Alchemists and their families," he held up a pile of books. "Here's all the records."

"How will that help?"

"Trust me, kid, I was trained for this type of thing," he assured. "So...what exactly happened?"

Eden and Sloth exchanged a glance. "...I'll...explain when we reach out destination."

"Alright," Hughes accepted the answer. "...You mind giving me a lift?"

"Sure," the Homunculus grabbed them both and sped off down south, towards the City of Dublith.

Author's Note:

Another one fresh off the press; started this on at around 4 this afternoon, and am uploading it at around 10:30 that night, so excuse any grammatical or spelling errors.

Anyway, just wanted to get this one out because, honestly, it's one I've been dreading writing because it's just one big exposition dump where the evil mastermind explains his plan and blah, blah, blah...

I don't know, just give it until it ends, and then judge me for my decisions on the story, because I know some of you are being all like 'Truth would never do something like this because it doesn't have human sins or emotions' or some bull like that, and them I say that the whole damn point of this thing is to show how absolute power corrupts absolutely, even a god-like entity like Truth!

*sigh* anyway, that's all I've got; sorry that this one is shorted than the last chapter, but this was the best place to stop, obviously.

Why don't you leave me a favorite or review? Either way, it'll help me see what you guys think about this series!