Chapter 12

"Thanks for stopping me back then" Winry said to the Elrics and Asuka, already on the train and leaning out the window. Early in the morning, she got a call from work and was informed that everyone missed her dearly. "I have people waiting for me. I was this close to not being able to face them again. Thanks for pulling me back" She turned to Asuka "I know I'll never be able to be as tough as you and repay you in the same way, but I'll do my best" she ran her fingers through her ponytail, but several strands came out. "Sigh... my hair does this whenever I get depressed..." She then pulled Asuka into an tight but awkward hug. "thanks" she turned to Ed "Ed. But don't forget to take care of your automail!"

"Ok"

"I'll send you some good polishing oil soon, Al"

"Mm-hmm"

Winry's face then fell and she grabbed Ed's hand "Don't go dying, ok?"

"Alright. We all care about you, so don't go stressing yourself too much, Winry" he said

"Bye!" Winry called as the train began to move

"Bye-bye" Everyone chorused and started to make their way out of the train station. But even after the train started moving, even after he was long out of her view, her heart still couldn't stop beating abnormally quick and she still couldn't help but think and think of him. Whenever she'd be upset, he's comfort her. Whenever she was in danger, he would go to any lengths to save her. Now, whenever she would think about him, it made her feel strange. Good strange. Not creepy strange. He had always been her best friend, so why does she suddenly feel like her stomach is floating in outer space?

That's it... she finally understood the bubbly feeling she would get whenever she was around him...I've been falling for him...

"State Military Colonel Roy Mustang" Mustang raised his hand out to Ling, introducing himself. Asuka had never liked Mustang. She's heard from Ed that Mustang is nothing but a pretty boy that cheats on his girlfriends. Heck, he probably thinks of women as just sex toys and things to clean up after him, stupid sexist asshole... Anyway, they were currently in a crappy, beat up hideout house that Mustang managed to find to hide the captured homunculus. They had all agreed to gather there and the Elric brothers, Asuka, and another doctor had to car pool with Mustang. The moonlight shown through the cracked windows, dead bugs littering the window sills

"Ling Yao. Twelfth son of the Emperor of Xing" Ling introduced himself too "I'm grateful to you for providing a doctor"

"Not at all. Thank you for helping out with the Maria Ross incident" What? Asuka thought, getting pissed off. What happened to Lieutenant Ross? Why doesn't anyone ever tell me anything? "As well as this one" Mustang continued, pointing to the tied up homunculus that they managed to capture through yesterday's plan.

Ed and Al came to join them.

"Hey, what is that?" The doctor asked as he arrived too.

"A homunculus named Gluttony" Mustang answered. "Apparently, these guys have connections to a portion of the military's senior staff"

"Just a portion?" Ling asked in surprise, causing everyone to pay him their fullest attention "Far from it! There's a possibility that King Bradley is a homunculus too" he continued. Asuka felt disgusted. Sure she never really talked to Bradley, but there's no way he could be with people like the homunculi. He seems easygoing, like someone you could trust... "There was an Uroboros tattoo on the eye under the patch. He came after us, along with Gluttony"

"It can't be!" Ed rejected. How? This is impossible! It's like Ling is saying an ant bigger than an elephant. How could the most powerful person in the military be a bad guy? He was supposed to protect the people of the country. Besides, he had a wife and kid. Homunculi can't have kids, right? "The head of our country is a homunculus?"

"Then again..." Ling continued "Bradley doesn't have the same inhuman presence as Gluttony. His presence is the same as the regular person"

"But then... for one thing, if the Fuhrer is a homunculus, how is it that he has a son?" Al asked. "It said in that book that homunculi had no reproductive abilities -"

"No. His son, Selim is adopted." Dr Knox interrupted "He is not of the Fuhrer's blood offspring."

"Whether monster or human, either way," Mustang said with a mischievous look on his face "This makes it easier for me to drag the Fuhrer out of his seat. First we get some information out of this one" he referred to Gluttony "I'll take his philosopher's stone too. It may be useful for treating my man."

"Hey!" Ling interrupted, "Lan Fan lost her arm to capture him. He's a lead to gaining immortality! We're going to take him back with us to Xing!"

"Just a moment! We've been looking for a way to get our original bodies back for years now" Ed yelled

"Hey! I need to get back to 2015 so that I could pilot EVA and torment Stupid Shinji!" Asuka argued "There's no way I'm letting you take him to Xing"

"That's right, Ling! You're an illegal alien" Mustang added

"Do you actually think you can move around the country with Gluttony without some help from us?" Ed questioned

"Mr Mustang, I'm going home" Dr Knox said in the middle of all the chaos, nobody listening and busy fighting "I can't keep up with this anymore"

"...Mustang..." Gluttony suddenly spoke "...Mustang... killed Lust" he flew into a rage. Lust was the reason that Gluttony could have actually lived through his immortal life. When he was born, he had nothing. Nothing to do, nothing to live for. But Lust had given him all of that. It was because of her, Gluttony had a reason to live. And here he was, the man who took all of that away from him standing right there. He bulged against his bindings, furiously trying to break them and avenge Lust, capturing the attention of all the people there. "Roy Mustang!" Gluttony stood up facing Mustang, and his stomach split open to revile a hideous eye rimmed with sharp teeth that slithered around like worms. Then, winds hit Asuka with the force of a tornado, sucking her into, literally, the belly of the beast. Darkness swirled around Asuka as she fell... and fell... and fell into the seemly bottomless pit.

Asuka woke up minutes, or hours, or minutes later in some sort of water. Urgh... How much time has passed? Where is this place? It smells like crap... Urgh... She feels like crap... She opened her eyes and looked around but found that she could see no more than a few metres away in the dim light. Seriously, where is this place? Why does it seem that she is standing in an ocean of blood? Well, it would explain the smell...

"Hello?" She called out. She hated being alone. Especially in some blood bath. "Anyone there?" She stumbled around, her shoes soaked through to her feet. She made her way around. Every few metres, she would encounter some building ruins, but never another living human. "Hello?" she waddled around. "Anyone?" She made her way through the never ending land scene and after around half an hour, she couldn't help but think she was traveling in circles, chasing the rainbow. "Hey! Dumbass blond?" Was she going to be stuck here forever? What if she was? Will she either starve to death? "Damn it! What am I thinking?!" she yelled to no one "I'm gonna break my way out!" she fished a coin out of her pocket, aimed at the ever silent darkness and fired, the railgun sailing into the black and lighting it with it's usual brilliant golden colour, different from her normal blue/purple electricity, but it soon disappeared after 50 metres, the coin burning itself out by contact with the atmosphere.

"Asuka?" a muffled voice called out. Damn, she must be going crazy. Now she's hearing voices? No! She won't allow it! She won't allow herself to go crazy! She won't allow herself to turn into her mother! But the truth was... she didn't know if she could stop it. She has been in this hell hole for around an hour, with no other living soul there to even walk with her, the darkness around her constantly eating at her consciousness. Truth was... she was scared of repeating history.

But the voice just got louder "Asuka?"

"Shut up!" She screamed as she grabbed her head and collapsed right into the ocean of blood. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

"Asuka, what's wrong with you" Ed's voice asked, right beside her now. She lifted her face out of her hands and looked at him, his golden eyes filled with worry.

Her pride returned, fully renewed after meeting another human being. She jumped out of the water, blush rising to her cheeks and yelled at him "...I don't need your concern! I'm not a little kid anymore!..." Does he think she was weak? Does he think that she needs help? Asuka doesn't need any of it!

"Now, you're back to normal... though I can't say if that's a good thing or not. And I know you're not Envy in disguise. Homunculi can't use alchemy" Ed commented as he transmuted some ear plugs out of some wood floating by in case she goes on another one of her rants. "Now, help me find Al"

"Huh? You lost your own brother?" she sneered

"Shut up!" and he continued to call out "Al? Hey, is anyone there?" they sloshed around the shallow ocean of blood "Al! Answer me! Damn it... Ling, you dumb prince-!"

"Dumb? What do you mean dumb?" another familiar voice answered and the prince made his way into sight, carrying a bone on fire.

"Ling?"

"What a thing to call a prince of a nation..."

"You're all right?" Ed's face then fell "You're not Envy turned into him, are you?" his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"If you want, I can recite the entire hotel room service menu!"

"Alright. It's really you"

"What about you two... You're not fakes, are you, you bean-"

"Who are you calling a bean sized runt?!" Ed spazzed, jumping at Ling and attacking him.

"What about you, you little kid?"

"What was that? Care to repeat that?" Asuka challenged, giving him one of her death glares, electrical discharge flying everywhere.

"Alright, it's really you"

"There's no way out of this..." Asuka groaned, dragging her feet through the ocean in exhaustion, having run a marathon with Ed and Ling trying to find a way out of what they assumed was Gluttony's belly. But Ling suddenly tensed up.

"What is it?" Asuka asked.

"Something's coming" Ling alerted everyone of the new threat slowly walking towards them

"Hey, it's you guys, isn't it?" Asuka remembered that certain person... The It from laboratory 5.

"It's him, Envy, alright" Ling confirmed.

"Tell me the way out of here!" Ed demanded

"Unfortunately, there is no way out" the person named Envy said "You've really gone and done it now. You've even got me, Envy dragged into this as well. Gluttony is a failed attempt by our Father to create a Doorway of Truth... but Father couldn't create one. Not even with his power. This is the defective Doorway of Truth. I guess you can call this the area between reality and truth. There are no exits, or any ways out. All we can do is use up our strength and wait for our lives to end. Guys, all we can do is wait here to die."

"So all we can do is die..." Ling echoed

"What?!" Asuka challenged, not accepting the truth. "What the hell are you doing?! If you just die like this, what should the people you leave behind do?"

"Damn it! Creating doorways and things, just who is this Father? Is it the Fuhrer?" Ed asked

"Bradley? No, he's just a homunculus."

"If Bradley is one, then are you guys behind the Ishval civil war?"

"Ishval?" Envy's face lightened and he laughed a crazy laugh that chilled Asuka to the bone "I've never had a job more delightful than that one! Do you know what the trigger was that started the uprising? I, Envy, am the very person who shot that child! That felt so good. The civil war flared up right before my eyes, all over one bullet." Ed clenched his hands into fists. It was because of this creature! Because of him, millions of lives were lost, leaving behind loved ones. Because of him, Winry has no one but her Granny and has been clawing her way to still live as a normal human. "Man, that was a real thrill. Ah, and incidentally, the officer that I turned myself into was a moderate who opposed the military's intervention with Ishval. And that guy, he couldn't even account for himself and was court-martialed!" Envy expressed his amusement, not afraid of the pipsqueak that made his way towards him. "You humans are really easy to manipulate-"

"Damn you!" Ed drove his automail fist into Envy's face, but he didn't even flinch?!

Instead, red transmutation lights flashed everywhere and he said calmly "You want to fight, you punks?" Envy stood up "We're all going to die here anyway." his voice then tripled, as if there were three Envys speaking at once, in perfect synchronization. "Let me show you something neat before you pass on" and he transformed into a huge green dog monster. His eight legs supported his body, his head and shoulders were couvered with faces the same colour as his skin that looked like they were in pain and endlessly tortured and his 2 story long tail whipped around in anger. Envy thrashed around, smashing everything within his reach, sending Ed, Ling and Asuka to take precautions and take refuge on top of building pieces. Envy then smashed the piece that Asuka perched on, forcing her to jump off, but while in midair, Envy snatched around her heel and flung her into a building with so much force that it created a crater in the stone. Snap...snap... Asuka could feel at least two of her ribs breading upon impact. Heh, compared with EVA training, this pain was nothing undurable. She slowly got to her feet, though, careful not to shift her broken ribs.

Envy grabbed Ling next and smashed him into another wall and lashed Ed with his tail, sending Ed to fly across the ocean.

"Ed!" Ling and Asuka ran to him, flanking him and facing Envy.

"Can you make a weapon?" Ling asked

"Sure" Ed brought his hands together and touched the ocean. "In this sea of blood, there's no shortage of iron" a sword appeared out of it and Ling caught it. Ed then transmuted his own arm into a sword

"Can we take him?" Ed asked

"I'm not sure, I mean, with the way he's built" Ling answered "What's worse, he broke two or three ribs with the last attack"

"I'm in a pretty similar shape" Ed said

"Heh, compared with EVA training, this is nothing" Asuka broke the tension "and yes. We can take him"

"What if we can't" Ed smiled and teased her

"If we don't, what the hell will the people we leave behind do?" she said confidently, even smiling "but don't worry. We will survive, because if we don't, I'll kill you both"

A/N: finally! i'm back from the three weeks of what my family calls a vacation. this chapter is so boring. but you have to know what happens.