I laughed at the idea of it. His best friend was asking me, the killer, who had done it. It was just too gratifying. I couldn't help but wish that Sloth had her original form back, so that we could laugh together at the irony. Sloth was, however, no longer a young and intriguing female, but a large, and frankly unappealing male. I wasn't about to start worrying about that then, at any rate. I had made it several years without her, I could make it a few more.

My head was full, so full that it took an entire five seconds to notice that there had been a change in scenery. My world was white, but not the kind were you can't see. It was like I was in the middle of the whiteness. My eyes fought to see what wasn't there. The only handle I had on my sanity was looking at my hands, knowing that I was still there. There was no ground either, which came with the sensation of falling. In which direction, I wasn't sure.

What happened next, well I couldn't call it landing, as I never hit anything. The best way to describe it was that a world, entirely different from my own, materialized around me. After living for as many years as I had, there were not many things that I couldn't grasp. This, however, was one of the few.

I had landed in a house, that much was easy. What sort of house, or the sort of person who owned it, was a little more difficult. In any case, it appeared that the person had money to spare. The floors were wooden, polished to the point of glowing. The furniture was made of a wood of a slightly darker color, and the furniture design was unlike anything I had seen before. The only thing in the room that didn't seem entirely otherworldly was a small altar, stacked high with candles. Even that, in and of itself, was not completely normal.

I became aware that there were other presences in the room, other than myself. I turned and saw the Fullmetal Pipsqueak and a young, pretty redhead I was unfamiliar with. The redhead, I made a note of, was looking around, just as dazed as the pipsqueak and myself were. She was the first one to speak.

"Where the hell are we?" she grumbled inwardly. The voice was unfamiliar, the tone, unmistakable.

"Sloth?" I was shocked. I hadn't seen her in the form of a girl for some time.

"No, Envy," she stated dully, "I'm Roy Mustang. Yes, I'm Sloth, you idiot."

She hadn't changed. I was happy, but also somehow disappointed.

"What? I mean, how?" I asked stupidly.

"Some girl thought it would be fun to have the Elric kid here. Instead, she brought out the whole of the population," she said, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. I, on the other hand, didn't think what she had said made any sense. I could only think of one question to ask that wouldn't sound completely stupid.

"How do you know all of that?"

She looked at me tiredly, as if she was having to explain this to a child who would never understand, "When we came into this dimension, I took over the girl's body. I have full access to her thoughts and memories."

I was still confused, but I thought it was best to save questions for a better time.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" the pipsqueak blurted out, "What do you mean there are different dimensions?"

Sloth turned on him, but didn't yell or lash out. She instead proceeded to explain to him that there were different dimensions, and that the beings in this new one we had been dragged into had the ability to open doors between them. That was one question of mine answered. I was a little hurt that she felt it was more worthwhile to explain this to a child rather than myself. The pipsqueak took this information rather well, I thought.

"Wait, you mean so, Al's here too? Where is he? Is he alright? What about Winry? Nothing's happened to them, has it?"

Sloth sighed, "Not as far as I can tell, though I'm not sure Winry's here. Pretty sure she's still in our own dimension."

The pipsqueak left the room, into a hallway and around the corner.

"Wait!" I called after him, "Where are you going?"

"Don't worry about it," Sloth grumbled, "It's not like we can use him as a sacrifice here, anyway."

"But, wait, does that mean Father's not here?"

"I don't know, but there are far greater powers than him here, and they're not on our side."

Now there was something I just couldn't wrap my head around. This had to be some sort of joke, but Sloth didn't show the faintest hint that she was joking. Instead, she turned and followed the pipsqueak out of the room. It was all happening so fast, different dimensions, beings more powerful than Father, Sloth changing form for the first time in decades. I sat down on the floor and held my head in my hands. I was so full of emotion at the moment that I didn't even try to deny them.

It wasn't as if I had been expecting a big reunion with Sloth, but I hadn't expected her to run off and make friends of her own in the new dimension. I soon discovered that because I was in my original body, no one in the dimension could see me. The same went for all the others, except for Sloth. She, having taken over a body in that dimension, could be seen just fine, and took somewhat of a liking to the body's original best friend. She didn't keep her identity a secret for long, and lucky for her, the friend was also a higher being and had no trouble believing her story. The friend, Aura, as she called herself, seemed to like Sloth as well, from what I could tell.

I tagged along with them wherever I could, but Sloth didn't pay much attention to me. That is, until she and Aura decided to go swimming. The place where they went was a public pool, and I suppose Sloth had had her fill of being alone. As always, she resorted to me. I had always been an object to her, I knew that. I was something to use and then toss aside, but I always hoped I could change that.

Her friend, being a higher being, didn't find it very difficult to see what was going on. She didn't particularly approve of what we were doing, and decided to take action. That was when I discovered that she could touch me. She kicked me, and sent me flying through the water. The redhead yelped, in a way I knew that Sloth would never do. I looked back, and saw her for the first time. Her name was Tatiana, I knew that much from Sloth and her friend. The movements that she made looked much more natural, as the body was her own. That was the last I saw of her for a while, as Sloth jumped over her and took total control again. I swam back over.

When we got home that day, I went off on my own. I had to think about this one. Sloth and Aura went into the room I had first appeared in, and I went to my favorite room in the house. There was one section of the house that seemed natural. The library contained books of all kinds. I rarely looked at them, as it would be pointless to do so - I couldn't affect anything in that dimension, save Sloth's body, as she was the one who had brought me into the dimension in the first place. The room itself had an energy that Sloth mainly tried to avoid, but I liked it. The room had a hardwood floor, as did all but four rooms in the house, two of which were bathrooms.

However, the majority of the floor was covered in an intricately designed rug, that was soft under my feet. There were several options on where to sit, two reclining chairs, two regular chairs, and a bench in front of the piano. The piano was the main feature in the room, polished wood, an abundance of keys, and gold coated peddles, Grand Piano was certainly the right name for it. I personally wished that I could play it, not that I would've been any good. The seats all seemed rather friendly, but I didn't choose to sit in any of them. Instead, I preferred to sit on the very wide windowsill and look out over the mountains, and the lights at night. In the afternoon, the sun would leak through that window and warm my skin. I loved watching the sunset through that window. It had a strange way of making me feel safe, I feeling I hadn't had since… a long time ago.

Tatiana slowly became more dominant in the body, but showed all of her affection towards the Fullmetal kid, and didn't really care what I did. She made it a point to get Al's body back, although she didn't restore her favorite's arm and leg. She did have a bad habit of letting me come with her, wherever she went. That was why it shocked me so much when she told me that she and Aura were going up to her second house with Fullmetal and his brother, and that I was going to be left behind. I knew that she wouldn't have said that unless she had been pressured to, and I knew that it was Aura's doing. She never really had liked me, and wasn't very tolerant of my presence. I didn't know why, but I had a burning desire for her to approve of me, after all, she was the only person from that world other than Tatiana who could see me.

I was surprised by the news, but not particularly disappointed. I had been on my own before, and I hadn't been much in the way of company where I did go with her. She was obviously intent on the pipsqueak, which somehow made me hate him, rather than simply disliking him. Why, I couldn't place. I was in the library when they left, but when I heard the car start, I ran outside and stared as they left the driveway. Aura didn't see me, or ignored me, either way. Tatiana saw me run out, but looked away as soon as she caught herself making eye contact with me. The car pulled out of the driveway and turned down the road. I ran down the drive into the street and watched until the car disappeared around the corner.

I felt like a band inside me was being stretched as they got further away, but it didn't break. The stretch didn't go away. I had the house to myself that night, which meant I could sleep wherever I wanted to. I would've spent the night in one of the reclining chairs, if it were possible for me to get them to recline.

I couldn't, in any case, so I tried the couch in the living room for comfort. It was soft enough, but the material was scratchy and irritating. The master bedroom was in the back of the house, as I knew, but I had never been in there before. I walked in for the first time, and saw the withered antique furniture, the lightly painted walls, and the huge bed in the center of the room. Needless to say, I tried somewhere else. There was only one other option before I decided to sleep on the pool table. I walked down the hall and stopped at the second door I came to.

I knew this room was forbidden, no one had even had to tell me. It went without saying. I walked through the door.

Tatiana's room was far too girly to match her personality, but nonetheless, I was intrigued. As a habit, I didn't really explore young girls' bedrooms. This was one of the few exceptions. She had a loft bed, and the thing that had the most content was the desk underneath it. There were drawings on it, scattered all over, some of which were most obviously supposed to be of the Elrics. She had a gift for drawing, that was obvious. There was also an incomplete drawing of the Flame Colonel, and one of Father Cornello. Why she had chosen to draw him, I had no idea. There was also a drawing of a small girl with braids hugging a large dog. That was one I didn't recognize. There was also one of Shou Tucker, which made my stomach turn. I made a note that she had never found it worthwhile to draw me, though I wasn't surprised by this. I turned to her dresser, and examined the belongings strewn on the surface of it. She had a jewelry box with one door open and overflowing with necklaces. On top of the jewelry box there was an earring holder, and I noticed that there were several studs on it, although I had only seen her wear the large hanging kind. Her alarm clock had a time set to go off, but I didn't really mind. It wasn't like I could sleep anyway. The alarm would just tell me when the night ended and where the morning began.

I didn't find anything else that would be worth exploring, unless I wanted to get into her personal privacy. I figured I at least owed that to her for treating me in a neutral fashion rather than putting me on the street, as most would've done. I looked up at the railing around the bed and pulled myself onto the bed by using that, ignoring the easier use of the ladder. I was glad that although I couldn't affect things, they could affect me. For instance, I could touch things, and feel their texture, but I couldn't move them without a solid grip on the dimension, which I obviously didn't have.

The bed was a bit surprising to me. It had several pillows on it, though most were for decoration. There was one rather long pillow that reminded me of the kind pregnant women rested their bellies on. The blanket that covered the bed was pink animal print, and one of the softest blankets I had ever felt. The thing that surprised me, however, was that she had clung on to her baby blanket, which was folded neatly at the foot of the bed. I chuckled. She would certainly get mad if I told anyone about that.

I didn't know why lying down at night and closing my eyes seemed necessary to me, but I had always done it, and I wasn't about to stop. I lay my head on the pillows at the head of the bed, and let the softness of them caress my skull. I thought all night, about what living in a new world was like, about how to get Aura to like me, and about the one face I was beginning to trust.

The next morning, the alarm went off at six, and I jumped to the ground. I couldn't believe I was going to have to live an entire day without seeing anyone. I went outside and listened to the birds singing as the sun rose, not coming up with anything better to do. I don't know how long I stood out there, but I soon saw my surroundings changing. I was in a forest, as far as I could tell, and where I was felt a bit off. The band somehow seemed less stretched inside me, like I was closer to whatever was pulling on me. I turned around to look at my surroundings, and noticed that I wasn't as far away from civilization as I'd thought.

There was a large, but obviously old and rustic home on the hill, overlooking a road. I walked closer to the house. There was a window in the side of the house, and I went to look through that. I saw Tatiana's mother, who was incapable of seeing me, so she wasn't much help. Seeing her did bring me some comfort, however. I knew where I was, and I knew that Tatiana was there.

I got closer to the house and reached out to touch the window. The odd thing was, that I couldn't. It wasn't like I was afraid to touch the window. I mean that I literally found myself physically incapable of touching the house. I didn't touch anything like a barrier, my hand just wouldn't go any further. I turned around and reached the same hand out in a different direction, and it extended perfectly. It was definitely the house.

I looked through the window and wondered why I had been brought here, if I couldn't even go inside the house. I sat down on the ground and stared into the window. It was getting dark by the time I saw Aura and Tatiana.

Author's Note: Hello, to the one person who is ever going to read this. I really missed this story, so thanks for bringing it back into my life again, Aura.