Envy stood in the infinite, transparent white nothingness called the Truth. The Homunculus was dead. Dying was not so bad for Envy, aside from the utter humiliation, and the near instantaneous feeling of stupidity from just having killed himself. But crushing the Philosopher's Stone that was the core of its being did not hurt until it was too late. And when it eroded away, nothing hurt.
Envy could tell by feel that it was in its human form, something that was baffling because the Sin died in its parasitic form.
Fullmetal described the Truth before, and Envy had even passed through it once. But such as one does when they feel uncertain about a new place, it took stock of the surroundings. Nothing. Envy walked what could have been ten feet before giving up.
It was more eerie to be in a white void than a black one. In a black void, nothing can be seen, and even if there is nothing to be seen, the dark covers up that emptiness. The world of darkness is something familiar, because there is always hope.
The white void announces with blatant and brutal honesty that you are alone. It reveals it nothingness and it suffocates the imagination. There is nothing to run to and nothing to run from. You are alone. There is no ground to call "solid" or "slippery;" no temperature to call "hot" or "cold;" not a single object to misidentify from a distance. There is no darkness, and the light has nothing to shine on. You. Are. Alone.
Envy was unnerved. It was afraid it might forget. Forget what? Everything. The person who was called Envy. That before the nothingness, this person called Envy existed in a thing called "time." That there ever was a "before." That anything ever existed at all.
Then the Truth took form out of its nothingness. It spoke. "Well, my dear Homunculus, here you are. Have you finally realized how wire-brained that little scheme of your father's was?"
The Sin woke up out of its daze. "Sh-shut up," Envy snapped. "It's not over yet."
"So you panicked."
The Homunculus growled. "Like Hell was I going to die from a human."
"Indeed. As I recall, you begged that flame alchemist to spare your life. Then you committed suicide. How strange, ungrateful really."
Envy was breathing hard. "You pile of crap, it's not my fault that everything I really needed was just out of out…of…."
Envy caught, for the briefest second, a glimmer. Turning slowly to face it, it saw two men standing inside a big blue box. "What the…"
"Was just out of the corner of your eye?" The one with a three-piece suit-and-tie and untamed hair finished. "You were right, Paradox, he er…"
"…It," the Homunculus reluctantly supplied.
" 'It?' Nooo, we can't have that- it just doesn't seem right. Not at all kind. Well, there's no rule in any language that says you can't add new vocabulary to it (except for the Dirusae Otconians, but they're an odd lot), so let's see… um, how about 'qed?'"
" 'Qed?'"
" 'That which was demonstrated," to quote the AIVAS1," he explained (but only sort of). "After all, if a human derived life form is neither male or female, it is only self-demonstrated to be it's own gender," he chattered on. The guy was interesting- and not in the way Envy had usually meant it either- he was as much of a curiosity as he seem genuinely curious. Here was a man who saw an endless space of nothing, and treated it like a novelty.
The other man, however, took to the attention of the Truth.
"Paradox," the Truth said, deadpan. "I don't have to guess what you're here for," it snorted. "Fitting for you, though, to choose the Homunculus Envy."
"What?" Envy said.
"Envy, that's you, and I'm the Doctor, by the way."
"Doctor…" it had an uncanny feeling to it. "And he's…" it pointed to his friend, whose conversation with the Truth was scouring its irritatingly smug smile off its nonexistent face.
"Ah, he's the Paradox, and the TARDIS couldn't have gotten here without him." The Doctor patted the blue box lovingly. "Remarkable girl, she is, but just can't make the jump into an omninondemsional space like this one alone.
"Oh, but bringing us here brings us to why we're here. Now, where is it…."
"Stop it." The Truth sounded like it was ready to burst. Envy jumped at the words. "Envy's mine. It destroyed its core; it doesn't have a choice about anything now."
"Which is where I come in," said the Paradox answered. "Envy never had a choice- ever- because it "
"Qed," the Doctor corrected.
" Uh- I'd prefer 'he.'"
" Qed never realized that- er, he had one." The Paradox had the same look and air as the old Greed. "And as you know- but is so like you deny- Envy's stone still exists in temporal quantum fluctuations.
"Found it!" The Doctor cried, and hop-skipped over to the Sin, presenting a pocket watch suspended from a happy tomato red ribbon. "We couldn't gather all of your stone that got skittered away in the world of micro-particle hubbub during your life, but enough was located to give you a good start."
"So you have a choice," said the Paradox.
"NO!" The Truth was furious.
"You can either spend a certain non-future of eternity with the Truth, or you can open that watch into a universe of possibility with the Time Lords."
"Don't you dare " the Truth bellowed.
Things clicked together in the Sin's head. "HAH!" Envy's signature grin found itself again. "YOU LIED, TRUTH. YOU LIED." With one hand pointing accusingly at the Truth, the other clicked open the watch.
Golden streams gushed from the device and sought out Envy's body. Without needing direction, the energy changed his body and restored his core. For the first time ever, Envy could have honestly sworn that he saw everything. By the end, the Homunculus felt invigorated and even a little dizzy. Then Envy felt something else.
"Two hearts?"
"Ah, yes: very handy," said the Doctor.
It was at this point that the Truth lost it. It screamed like a demon and launched at the other three with black tendrils.
"Let's go!" The Doctor led the escape to the TARDIS.
Envy laughed in mad ecstasy, and as he ran, he turned and stuck his tongue out far enough to taunt the Truth with his stone. "NYAH-HAH!" And the Sin bolted through the TARDIS's door. The exertion and laughter brought pains to Envy's sides, but it was well worth it. Collapsed on the floor, tears in his eyes, it was a wonderful fit. Envy could feel it in his bones; things were going to be interesting.
1 AVAIS is a character in the book series "The Dragonriders of Pern," created and written by Anne McCaffery. I do not own AVIAS.