A.N. By the way, in the last chapter, when Lust commented on Greed's appearance, just to clarify, Greed does still look like he did in Ling's body.

Greed struggled to sit up, forcing his weary limbs (weary but somehow as heavy as stone) to heave up his disease-ravaged body (Greed promised himself he would try to stop bring so dramatic) upright on the couch.

Envy snorted at Greed's awkward progress. A brief flood of annoyance momentarily made Greed dizzy with the raw desire to rip out Envy's silly, black heart from his tiny, little chest. Greed drew in a deep breath of air, and instead gave Envy a languid smile.

Envy scowled, and a red light crackled dangerously around his body before it dissipated into the air.

Greed's smile widened. "Lust told you not to kill me," he reminded him.

Envy shot Greed a baleful glare. "I doubt she'd care too much."

Greed gave a small shrug, trying to appear at ease, although the queasy sensation of fear was beginning to knot around his gut. "She also told you to answer any questions I had."

Envy cocked his head, and his pupils slitted for a split second- as if as a memory of their former selves. "That depends."

"On what?"

Envy's lips curled upwards. "How nice you are to me."

Greed grimaced. "Where am I?"

A pause. Then Envy answered, "Gotham city. America."

Greed allowed his bafflement to show. "Is that a country? I've never heard of it." Neither has Ling he thought silently.

Envy nodded, and seemed to relax somewhat. "America is a country. But it's not in the same world as Amestris."

"Huh?"

Envy clenched his jaw, and ran his fingers through his long hair. "It's like…" he struggled momentarily for words. "The world that we lived in before… that was one world. This world is a separate world. Similar- but different. No alchemy or automail. The same languages and similar clothes. Different technology."

"No alchemy?"

"No alchemy," Envy confirmed.

Greed frowned, reflecting on what Envy had said. It seemed so unreal, but he doubted Envy had the creativity to come up with such an elaborate lie. And, honestly, it was the only explanation that made even the slightest bit of sense. "How did we get here?" he asked.

Envy bit his lip. "I don't know," he said after a while. "Lust and I… after we… died… or rather, right before we should have, there was a big, bright blue light."

"A light that seemed to eat the world?" Greed whispered.

"Right. And then we were in the warehouse, the same one you were in. Lust came through first- she died first; she was the one who eventually found me."

"Does everyone from our world come through?" Greed wanted to know.

Envy shook his head. "Only homunculi. When they use up their stones. After that… when we come here, we're sort of… human."

"Sort of?" Greed asked hopefully, picking up on the contrasting words.

"We can't regenerate, and we have a heart as our core instead of the stone. No Oroborus tattoo either. But our powers remain intact."

Greed nodded. He had figured out that much for himself. Another thought came to him, and he felt his face show the question before he himself had time to voice it. "If dying homunculi come through," he began slowly, "Where are Gluttony and Sloth?"

"They were liabilities," Envy replied smoothly, "Gotham's police killed Gluttony- though we were forced to clean up the mess. It was close. Something similar happened with Sloth- we had to take care of that ourselves."

"And Wrath?"

Envy shrugged carelessly. "He didn't come through at all."

"He was a homunculus, wasn't he?"

Another shrug, this one of helplessness. "I don't really know. He was a human-homunculus. Maybe it was different for him."

"I was a human-homunculus," Greed told Envy.

"Yeah, but you were also a regular homunculus. And besides, even when you were in that kid's body, you were different from Wrath."

"Oh, really?" Greed asked, feigning incredulousness.

If Envy noticed the sarcasm, he chose to ignore it. "You could regenerate, he couldn't. He fought the stone, your kid didn't. I'll bet you wouldn't have aged, either."

"And I had a cooler power," Greed announced proudly.

"Please," Envy snorted. "You were never any match for Wrath."

Greed ground his teeth. "What's the deal with this place anyway?" he asked in a rather feeble attempt to change the subject.

"Gotham? It's just corrupt and stained with its own little crest of blood." Envy spoke his next words with a hint of wistfulness. "First Gotham's economic troubles, then it became a crime dominated city, and then the Narrows- a section of Gotham- was sprayed with Fear Gas and then-"

"Fear Gas?" Greed interrupted.

Envy rolled his eyes. "Some drug that made people go crazy with fear," he said negligently. "Anyway," he added, seemingly eager to get on back on track, "then some guy called the Batman came out fighting crime and stuff (actually, I think he was around before the Fear Gas incident) and then-"

"The Batman?" Greed snickered, raising an eyebrow.

Envy giggled softly. "Some lunatic who dresses up like a big bat and prowls the cities at night," he said dramatically.

"Seriously?"

"I'm not making this up." Envy said somberly. "Then this Joker guy- a homicidal clown- came out and started on this huge campaign to screw everyone over that really freaked everyone out. Lots of people died," he added, as if an afterthought. "Then the Batman got him put back in jail, but the Batman had apparently killed a few people himself."

"Like that Dent, guy, right?" Greed asked, remembering the radio announcer earlier.

Envy frowned. "How'd you know?"

"I heard it over the radio."

Confusion flashed across Envy's face for a second, before it cleared up. "You mean the television," he said, knowingly.

"Whatever it's called here. Was I right?"

Envy stared a Greed for a second. "Yeah," he said, "Harvey Dent died. Lust knew him. She works in the District Attorney's office."

"How'd she manage that?"

"Not too hard to fake paperwork, apparently. And, besides, in Gotham they're not too into background checks. They need all the help they can get."

"No kidding."