Chapter 14

White and red lights danced everywhere, filling Asuka's field of vision as she woke up, having lost consciousness again. She could feel Envy's many faces on his shoulders... disgusting... the fireworks stopped flashing, and she could see again, but she wasn't in the tunnel of her memories anymore. Instead, she was in a white room with large tubes, thick as grown up trees, flowing everywhere. She looked around some more and discovered Ed and Ling both at her right side, Envy's many faces entangled around them too.

"Brother? Brother!" she heard Al's voice call out and saw him rush to his brother. "Brother!"

Ed's eyes slid open "Al? Al in armour? Which means..." His face lightened up "We made it back, huh?" He separated himself from Envy's faces and stood up, brushing himself off. "I have to wonder though, where are we?"

"This is a surprise" an unfamiliar male voice commented "People coming out of his belly" Ed whipped around

"Hohenheim...?" Ed muttered. Hey, Asuka thought, wasn't Hohenheim Ed and Al's dad? So why would he be here?

"A steel arm and leg... Armour..." Hohenheim continued, as if no one spoke, but suddenly went up close to Ed, as if inspecting him "Are you the Elric Brothers?"

"You're not him?" Ed asked

"Have you mistaken me as someone else? Do you mean Van Hohenheim? What's your connection to him?"

"He's our dad" Al answered

"Father?" the man asked, then suddenly grabbed hold of Ed's head, as if he was a new species that he just discovered by accident "That is a surprise! He went and had children?!" he started laughing and petting Ed on the head like he was some dog that just performed a trick "But as I understood it, your last name is Elric"

Ed pushed the man's hand off his head. "Elric was our mother's name!"

"I see, so where is he now?"

"I don't know!" Ed lost his patience "Never mind him, who are you?" he pointed his metal finger at the man's face "You look exactly like Hohenheim, you know!"

"He wouldn't be dead" the man continued, ignoring Ed, deeply engrossed in his thoughts. "Oh, are you injured?" he rediscovered Ed again, looking at Ed's broken arm "and you don't have your left hand" he turned to Al, put his hand on Al's wrist. Red transmutation lights flashed, and Al had his hand back. He then grabbed Ed's left arm "It's broken" he said casually, as if commenting on the weather. Red lights again. Ed tore off his bandages and flexed his hand.

"It's better..." Ed said, amazed. The man then put his hand on Ed's side "Ow, ow, ow"

"And some broken ribs..." He commented. Red lights. Ed patted his sides. Not a shred of pain remained "You are both precious resources to me"

"This is impossible!" Asuka interrupted. Even with what little she knew about alchemy outside of her field, she wasn't stupid enough not to know about the law of equivalent exchange. This man had done the impossible. He did something equivalent of dividing with zeros.

Ling pointing his sword at the man, bracing himself "What have you got going on inside you?" he demanded

The man's stare hardened to ice when he looked at Ling and Asuka "I'll ask you the same thing. Who are you?" he then turned to Gluttony "You can eat them"

"Alright" Gluttony happily said

"J-just a moment" Ed quickly made his way to his acquaintances and spread his arms out, using himself as a shield again. Al followed his brother "They're friends of ours! Out of consideration for us being your sacrifices, can't you, you know..."

"That's none of my affair. They're not ones that I need" he walked away

"Brother" Al whispered so that everyone but the homunculi and the man can hear "The homunculi called him father. He's the one who created them"

"What?"

"He did fix our bodies though"

"I don't like him" Ling stumbled to join the brothers. "Or his attitude..." He pointed his sword at Father's back. He spoke, hatred clearly made it's way into his voice, but Asuka couldn't help but notice that his sword was shaking. "He's just like those who laugh at humans for being fools"

"That's not true." Father turned to face the humans "Do you think of bugs crawling along the ground as fools? When you see a worm struggling, you feel no association with it, because your levels are so vastly different, right? That's how I feel about you humans"

Ed brought his hands together and pressed them against the ground. Large spikes sprouted from it, aiming themselves at Father. But Father blocked the spikes with his own shield made of the ground, transmuting without a transmutation circle or any movement whatsoever which should have been impossible.

"You may have healed my injuries," Ed started yelling, deeply disturbed and disgusted. Arguing while gesturing with his hands "but we still have irreconcilable differences! You seem to be the root of all this evil! I'm going to settle this right now! I don't give a damn about the small fry!" he suggested the homunculi

"You're a fine one to talk about small fry, pipsqueak!" Envy called

"Pipsqueak?!" Ed snapped, brought his hands together and pressed them to one of the tubes. Then rushed towards Father, wrapped themselves around him, acting like ropes and restraints. But they all shattered and blew away when the red light flashed everywhere. Envy then leapt at Ed, attempting to squash him under one of his huge feet. Ed leapt away and jumped towards Father, but a large block of stone transmuted itself out of nowhere, blocking Ed from getting to Father. Al then transmuted a tube out of the stone, determined to help his brother, but it dissolved into thin air before it even made contact with Father. Ling jumped at the man, but received a hard blow to the stomach by another block before he managed to gorge his sword into Father's eye. A brilliant arc of golden light lit up the whole room, marking the coin's travels as it sped towards Father. But it wasted away after only 10 metres, right before it made contact with Asuka's target, making the golden light disappear. Asuka's eyes widened. That should have been impossible! Her railgun has a range of 50 metres before the coin burned itself away. The railgun was her pride in this world... her lethal move... her trump card. But it was useless against this monster disguised as a human. What chance... what chance did they have against something like that?

The man sighed "This is a waste of time" he then stepped forward. As soon as his foot touched the ground, red lights flashed everywhere, blinding Asuka for that moment.

"What the hell did you just do?" Ed challenged. He brought his hands together and pressed them to the ground, but nothing happened? He tried again. Nothing. Al tried. Nothing. "My alchemy isn't working" Ed said in horror.

"Envy, you can have them. But try not to hurt my sacrifices too much"

"Aww, Father" Gluttony complained "What about me?"

"Heh, heh" Envy laughed and turned to Asuka and Ling "Well, I guess it's time I give you a taste of... true despair" Asuka's eyes widened as her intuition told her to run.

"All of you, run!" She managed to get out before Envy then disappeared. Amazing... how such a huge mass could vanish in small time. He then reappeared behind Ed and ran his sharp claws down Ed's back, making a deep enough cut to immobilize Ed for the moment. Ed crumbled onto the floor, blood staining his shirt. Envy then reappeared in front of Al, struck his hand into Al's stomach and separated his torso from his legs, causing Al to crash to the ground.

"If I hurt you guys, Father would just heal you after. So now, I immobilize you guys" He then flashed towards Ling, slashed his claws across Ling's right shoulder, creating a deep gash, and the only comrade that Asuka had left fell. Envy then turned his ugly head to look at Asuka

"So... How does it taste?"

Asuka's eyes widened. Without EVA, she was really was nothing... Without even her alchemy, she couldn't do anything. "Ling... Al... Ed..."

"Too bad, isn't it?" Envy continued "I think you would have made a fine warrior. You're smart, with good instincts. For warriors, it's not just about strength. They won't live very long if they're not smart. And yet, if they're too smart, they won't live long either..." he disappeared once again, and after seeing this technique multiple times, Asuka trusted her agility and intuition and managed to dodge, but just barely. She made her way towards Ling's dropped sword and picked it up. Envy then attacked Asuka again, but she dodged the punch and Envy's fist ended up denting the floor. Asuka jumped onto Envy's arm and stabbed him, burying the sword deep into his arm before slashing towards the side, causing Envy's arm to drop to the ground. Envy howled in pain as red lights danced around his stump, reconstructing his arm. First bone, then muscle and veins, then skin. Envy kept on attacking, Asuka kept on dodging and counter striking. Meanwhile, Ed came back to consciousness.

"Damn" he said. "She's amazing. To think that she could move like that and dodge. If she could do that, why didn't she do it before we lost our alchemy? Then we wouldn't be..."

"It's probably a last resort. She must not have much stamina." Ling answered, as he and Ed weren't that far apart from where they fell.

"Huh? How'd you know?" Ed asked

"Just a guess..."

"Hmmm, you might not be such bad material..." the man called father said, looking at Ling "I might be able to increase the number of pawns I could use" he pointed to his forehead, where a third eye opened up and cried out red tears into his hand, where it solidified and became a stone. He then dropped the stone into a cut on Ling's cheek. The stone became liquid again and crept into the wound. Red lights flashed everywhere and Ling started twitching from pain.

"Ling!" Ed yelled

"No, it's alright" Ling managed to get out "This is what I want. A philosopher's stone."

But they were interrupted by a load crash. They whipped their heads around and saw Asuka struggling underneath Envy's hand, both arms trapped so she could do nothing but squirm.

"Got you now" Envy sneered. "You really gave it all you had, but I knew it wouldn't last. I only had to wait for you to reach your limits." He then appeared to be deep in thought while Asuka struggled, but was no match to him in sheer muscle power. He finally wondered out loud "Now then, how should I torture you to death?" before he transformed another one of his hands into a large scythe, but just the blade, and buried it deep into Asuka's lower stomach.

Asuka felt nothing. Nothing but pain, pain and pain. This was nothing like last time. Last time, it was only Envy's claws and nothing deep. This pain doesn't even compare to last time's pain. This pain doesn't even compare to EVA training. When Asuka opened her mouth to gasp, a scream ripped itself from her throat instead.

"No!" Ed yelled, pushing himself off the floor but his back injury opened again, causing him to drop to the ground again. "Damn it" Why couldn't he do anything? Why couldn't he get up and help Asuka? Asuka was in pain right now! She was getting tortured until her heart stops beating! So why couldn't he help and protect her? He started shuddering, true despair weighing down his shoulders "Damn it, I can't move... It's hopeless... this is the end... there's nothing I can do..." warm tears subconsciously leaked from his eyes. What would he do...? What the hell would he do if Asuka died? If Envy killed Asuka, Ed didn't know what he could do.

She screamed and screamed, only stopping to cough up blood and draw breath when Envy twisted the blade and buried it even deeper until the blade pushed itself against the floor. Her limbs tensely spazzed from the pain. She didn't know how much she could take until God becomes satisfied and lets her slip into unconsciousness to escape the pain. Her head shook from side to side, her pupils shrinking, unable to withstand it and slipping into half consciousness... almost... almost there... almost to unconsciousness to escape. Almost to ecstasy and paradise. Asuka felt herself slipping away. Her eyes glazed over, no longer shining. Asuka looked over to Ed. He was... crying? Tears were dripping from his beautiful golden eyes... Wait... Beautiful? Where did that come from? Oh well... she was going away and leaving this pain behind. So why was he crying? He should be happy like she is, because she's about to escape. Asuka only stayed conscious for long enough to see the doors of the room slammed open to revile a familiar Asian girl and a man with a scar on his face before her vision blurred and faded to darker than black. Goodbye... Ed