"How long... has it been," Edward thought to himself. "How long... that night... Envy told me... Al's body... temporary... not much time left... Headquarters... Fuhrer Bradley... tunnels under Central... brought me to the homunculi... brought me to... looked like that bastard... looked like my father."

Edward's thoughts swirled in his head. He felt lost amidst a sea of pain and confusion. He stirred slowly to consciousness and began to weakly speak.

"How long have I been here... four days, maybe five..." Edward tried to raise himself, but found the task far too excruciating at the moment. His head felt swollen, his body was strained, his automail groaned as damaged components gnawed at one another, and he could both smell and feel dried blood. He managed to prop himself in a sort of vertical sitting position leaning on his weakend right arm. Ed took a few minutes to gather himself, and finally managed to stand upright. Just as he was about to take a step, he heard the roar of flames from a far off distance, followed by the echo of a woman's scream.

"That scream... that voice... I know that voice. I've heard that scream before... That homunculus... Lust." Edward remained still and quiet. He prepared himself for what he might have to face. A few tense moments passed and the reverb of fire against stone walls died down.

"Took her... long enough to... give... up the ghost."

Edward was stunned at the sound of the out-of-breath voice he heard. "Colonel Mustang"

Ed couldn't help but laugh to himself. "So... you came looking for me... I'm gonna give you so much hell about this your gonna wish you left me here to rot." He found the thought of causing the colonel grief about actually caring amusing in some sadistic way.

"I think... she's... finally dead."

Edward's eyes widened at the sound of the next clearly fatigued voice he heard. "Alphonse! But what are you doing here? He's in no shape to deal with the homunculi. If he's hurt, I'm gonna beat the hell out of you, Mustang." Ed swore under his breath. He could hear footfalls approaching him from the direction he had heard his brother and the colonel. "I guess there's nothing to do but wait." The steps were groing closer, paced at a run. But, there was a problem. Edward could only pick out one set of footfalls. They grew closer, and it would only be a few moments until whoever they belonged to would be upon Ed's current position. The owner of the steps came to a halt within Edward's limited range of vision in the darkness of the labyrinth.

"Well, well... looks like the Fullmetal pipsqueak finally woke up," Envy hissed, voice full of venom and spite.

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