abbyjenna and Love's Labours Won... Jenna and Lois... Malice and Dysphoria
Just so you know... Love's Labours Won is the one who's mostly writing this... so check out her other fics (which are better).
"Hey, Nii-san!" I called, running across the street to where I saw my friend in the ice cream shop, eating three people's worth of ice cream.
"Hi, Lois!" called Jenna, who was shorter, though stronger, than me. I had long, curly ash-blonde hair; hers was a medium-length chestnut and straight as a board.
"Oh, dear..." I said, checking my watch. "Jenna, we need to go! We're late for class!"
"Just a little while longer?" Jenna begged, staring longingly at her huge half-empty bowl.
"No... I'm sorry! Dr. Nash has already been waiting for a long time!"
Jenna sighed with disappointment; I stamped my foot with impatience.
"Let's go already!" I yelled, starting to walk. Jenna finally discarded her ice cream and ran after me.
Dr. Nash was a nice older man with iron-grey hair and a salt-and-pepper beard. He wore thick, horn-rimmed glasses, and he frowned disappointedly at us as we snuck into class at the back.
"I see that these two have no notion of the meaning of the term on time," he said. "They can make up for it by helping me move equipment after class."
Dr. Nash's physics class went by speedily as usual. Once it was over, we began to move things for him.
"You know," said Dr. Nash as we worked, "I've never liked useless females. In fact," he continued, "I get rid of them as quickly as I can."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Jenna. "You failing us?"
"No," said Dr. Nash. "You're volunteering for my space-time experiment. A gate between worlds! You'll be in all the history books!"
"Uh-huh," I said. "And what precisely makes you think we'll sign a release for that?"
"You already did," he stated simply, suddenly pushing us forward. "It was in the syllabus you signed."
"WHAT!?" yelled Jenna.
"I told you we should have read that thing before we signed it," I said.
"Get in there," snarled the usually deceptively kind voice of Dr. Nash... as he shoved us into a machine and locked the door. He pressed some buttons, there was a whirring noise... and a gate appeared. No, really, a gate. Literally. A golden gate with purple eyes on it. It opened, and we both screamed in terror. We have an excuse, I swear; there were all these creepy creatures with big eyes and weird smiles. We fought it, but inevitability isn't something you can win against; their black arms pulled us through into some strange world we had never even imagined.
We fell a long way. It was dark. A few fires burned around some kind of circle etched in the ground, but it still looked like a set for a cheap horror movie. A middle-aged blond man and a dark-haired woman gazed into the center, their expressions horrified. I really couldn't make out what all the fuss was supposed to be over. There was something in the middle, all right. I just couldn't tell what.
"Is it... him, Hoenheim?" whispered the woman.
"No, Dante," said the blond man. "We must have done something wrong."
"Are you sure?" Dante asked, a slight catch of disappointment in her voice, as though she might begin to cry at any moment.
"Yes," said Hoenheim. "It's barely alive, anyway. It will probably die soon."
"Darling, please!" Dante begged, the tears now spilling down her cheeks. "What if it is him? Will you just let him die?"
"There's nothing I can do for it," he said. "Dante, it's a pile of guts. How am I supposed to heal that?"
"What about the Stone?" she said. "Maybe... we could fix it with the Stone."
Hoenheim sighed. "Dante, all the stones we have are useless... incomplete. How is that going to work?"
"You could at least try!" Her voice faltered, and she softly continued, "He was our son... Please, at least try. Try... for me." Her eyes glistened with tears.
Hoenheim sighed. "All right," he said wearily. "Bring the stones." Dante turned and left the room.
I turned to Jenna. "What kind of maniacs have we stumbled across?" I whispered to her.
"No clue," she returned a little too loudly for my comfort.
"SHHH!!" I said. "She's coming back."
"Here, darling," said Dante. Hoenheim took the small red jewels from her. He placed them in the circle, clearly expecting something to happen... and was disappointed when nothing did... until a disgusting squelching sound, coupled with some kind of mutated moaning, began to come from the middle of the circle. The pile of entrails in the middle was moving slowly, painfully, toward the stones. Misshapen hands grasped at the stones and brought them upwards, where they disappeared into some opening that might at some time have been called a mouth. Crunching, slurping sounds accompanied the motion. The creature began to make other sounds, curling, twisting, slithering sounds... like it was coming together.
"Darling?" Dante asked. "Did it work? Is he?"
"Something's happening," he said. "I am not yet sure what." The pile began to moan and choke.
"Gluuuh..gluuuh...gluuuck...GLAAAAAHHH!! AAAAGGGHHH!!" it screamed.
"What is that thing?" I whispered to Jenna.
"I dunno."
"Okay."
The poor creature continued to scream loudly, writhing and throwing itself all over the circle. Entrails and blood splashed everywhere, snaking together as if they had a will of their own. A drop of something splashed onto my face, and I suppressed the urge to hurl, my face turning a greenish hue.
"AAAAAGHHHHAAAAHHHHAAAIIIIIIEEE!!" it wailed, the last bits of flesh slithering into place... and lay still.
"Is it over?" Dante whispered.
"I think so," said Hoenheim. Dante ran into the center of the circle.
"Hoenheim!" she cried. "It's him!" She pulled the creature into her arms and began to cry.
"No, Dante," he said firmly. "Whatever that thing is, the one thing it is not is William." He turned and walked out of the room.
"I believe in you, sweetheart," Dante said, looking down at the sleeping form in her arms. "Just wait. He'll see. I never lost my little Willie." William's golden eyes suddenly popped open, his wispy hair fluttering as he stirred slightly.
"Who are you?" Dante blinked.
"Why, I'm your mother, sweetheart. Don't you remember me?"
"No." Dante paused, a stricken, heartbreaking expression on her face.
"So... you're not William?"
"I don't know. You tell me. Who am I?" Dante thought about this for a moment
"You're not William... You're going to wish you were him, though," she said after a moment, a cruel smile coming across her features. "In fact," she continued, "you're likely always going to wish you were someone else... so I will call you Envy."
"Envy?"
"Yes." Envy thought about that for a moment.
"I don't really like that... Mother?" he said, furrowing his brow. "Can I be William instead?"
"No," replied Dante, "but that does, however, prove my point. Also," she continued, an angry blush coming over her cheeks, "never call me Mother again."
Envy made a small sound like a whimper.
"Get over it," snapped Dante.
Envy seemed to be struggling not to cry.
"Get up," she said.
Envy lay still. She kicked him in the face.
"Get up."
"If you're not Mother... who are you?" asked Envy quietly. Dante smirked.
"Master." She turned to sweep out of the room. Envy glanced in our direction and jumped a little.
"M-master?" he stuttered.
"Yes, Envy?"
"Who are those people over there?"
"What people?"
Envy pointed straight at us. "Those people." Dante looked up at us. A cruel smile crossed her lips.
"They are intruders," she said. "Now I want you to kill them for Master."
"Kill them? Why?"
"Because Master says so," said Dante sweetly. "Don't you want me to be happy?"
"Well, of course--"
"Then kill them."
"Hey, wait up a second there!" I said, putting my hands in the air.
"I don't care why you're here, or what you're doing," said Dante. "You have broken into my house, and you will die. Rip them apart, Envy."
"Okay."
"No, you really don't want to do that, do you, Envy?" I babbled. He walked closer and closer. "Please, don't. I have a life, a family!" He wrapped his hands around my throat. I screamed, but lack of air made everything start to fade. The last thing I saw was his sad face above mine, tears in his eyes as he ripped my throat out.
TBC...