A/N: I hate school so much. Last weekend I had to write TWO! freaking essays and I didn't have my meds so it took me forever. I got so overwhelmed and stressed out and I couldn't focus so I was a nervous wreck Saturday night when my computer crashed. Truth sent the "blue screen of death" upon me -_- That was a lot of fun (insert pissed off eye roll here and then a sigh). How about we move on? Here, have chapter 36 while I get myself something to drink.

•

'So I guess this is what it's like to be dead,' I thought. I was surrounded by a certain darkness that chilled me and it was with this reaction that I realized I was still alive.

My closed tight eyes snapped open and I looked up to see nothing. Frowning, I pushed myself up and noticed that my clothes were sticking to me.

"What the hell?" I thought out loud. I rubbed at my coat and brought my sleeve to my face. I recognized the smell.

'Is this blood!?' I began panicking and shook out my arms. 'It can't be mine, if I'd lost this much I'd be dead for sure!'

As my eyes adjusted I started to make out various shapes. I could see columns and broken up houses. My eyebrow rose as I kept looking around. A light was shining in the distance and I sighed in relief as I started walking towards it. "Hello!?" I called out. "Is anyone out there!?"

The memory of Gluttony swallowing me caused me to be confused to extremes. 'I tackled Ling to try and keep him from getting eaten but then Ed tried to pull me back. I'm assuming we ended up in the same place, so where the hell are they?'

I huffed as I walked on. "Edward!" I called out. "Ling! Are you guys here too!?"

"Myra!?" came a distant response.

Excitement shot through me with the knowledge that I wasn't alone. I started running and I eventually caught sight of the blonde kid I hated when we first met.

A smile the size of the moon spread across my face. "I've never been happier to see someone in my life!" I said as I got closer. Once I caught up with him my confusion came back and the smile was replaced with a frown. "So do you know what happened?"

He shook his head. "No clue."

Still frowning, I looked around. "Where's Ling anyway? He's to blame for all this," I said as I crossed my arms. I regretted doing so because the blood just caused it to stick even more. I sighed before looking up at him. "And then you decided to go and play the hero. What was that all about anyway?"

"Did you really think that I would just stand off the side and watch as you got eaten?" he asked as he met my gaze. "You can't stand doing nothing and neither can I."

I would have said something back, but the sound of moving liquid caught my attention. The sight of that idiot prince was enough to send a mess of emotions through me.

"Ling!" Ed called out as he started for him. He stopped within seconds, confusing me further than before. "Wait. How do I know you're not Envy in disguise?"

"Oh come on!" he said, lowering the torch he'd been carrying. "Do you want me to recite the entire hotel room service menu from top to bottom?"

Ed narrowed his eyes. "I guess it really is Ling."

"Well how am I supposed to know one of you guys isn't Envy?" he retorted.

My eye twitched and I started for him. I brought my right leg up and kicked him in his side, knocking him easily to the ground. For someone a good deal of height taller than me, he was as easy to kick down as Ed, who'd flinched when I did so. It was as if he were remembering when I did the same thing to him back in Resembull.

"She's Myra all right," he said.

I wasn't done with this bastard prince. He still needed punishment. "You asshole!" I screamed at Ling as he stood back up. "You just stood there like you wanted Gluttony to eat you! What the hell was that!?"

"You really didn't have to use your automail leg for that you know," he said, ignoring what I'd just said.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. "Would you rather have the other!? Fine!"

After kicking him down with my flesh leg, I smiled sadistically and folded my arms over each other again.

Once again my eye twitched as he blew me off and turned his attention back to Ed. "Well we know she's real so what about you, you little runt…"

I held my head in exasperation while Ed attempted to beat up the Xingese Idiot. "You just had to provoke him," I thought out loud.

Once Ed was done, he started asking Ling questions. "Do you have any idea as to where we are?" he questioned.

"No I don't," the prince responded. "The last thing I remember is Myra trying to push me out of the away before Gluttony swallowed us whole."

I frowned at this. "So you think that we're in his stomach? How could it be this big?"

"I don't know, but take a look," he said as he moved the torch towards one of the broken buildings.
"It's part of the abandoned house we were previously at."

I blinked at his discovery. "Huh."

"And look at this," Ling said when he pointed his torch at something else that looked like a car.

"That's the Lieutenant's car," Ed commented.

The idiot prince nodded. "I'm guessing that this fire is from the Colonel's attack."

Remembering Colonel Useless's epic fail, I made a sound in the back of my throat that was supposed to be a laugh. Unfortunately it came out more like a choke. The guys turned to look at me with confused expressions. Rolling my eyes, I waved them off.

They carried on with what they were saying. "I guess that proves it," Ed said as he looked around. "But how the hell could Gluttony's stomach be so big?"

I shrugged. "Who knows?"

Ling started speaking again. "In any case I doubt this is a very pleasant place to be."

The blonde didn't seem to pay much attention as he focused on something behind me. I raised an eyebrow as he grabbed the torch and ran past me.

"What is it?" I asked, narrowing my eyes to focus on him. Realizing that wasn't going working, I walked over to the pile of dirt he was sitting on. When I saw what he was holding, I asked, "Is that Al's?"

He nodded. "It's just his hand, so I guess that means he didn't get swallowed like us." He narrowed his gold eyes at the hand. "He must be freaking out right now. If only there was some way to contact him…"

Almost afraid of the glare he was using on the hand, I backed up slightly. "What are you gonna do now?"

Ed didn't seem to hear me as he lifted Al's hand in the air and swung it around like a madman. "Conveniently awaken telepathic powers!" he screamed. "Elric brother telepathy!"

"Yeah, good luck with that…" Ling said calmly as he walked in the opposite direction while Ed continued rambling.

Eyes wide as saucers, my face had paled in astonishment. "He's a bigger moron than I thought…"

Once Ed was done with his psychotic attempts to talk to his little brother, the three of us continued walking. He'd tied a random cloth around Al's hand and carried it on his back.

"This place is like a wasteland of broken buildings and human remains," Ed commented as we moved on. I scrunched up my nose as we walked past a few skeletons. "But they're all from different time periods," he continued.

"I'm starting to think that there's no way out of here," Ling said as we kept going.

"Well aren't you ever the optimist," I scoffed sarcastically. The royal pain-in-the-ass narrowed his squinty eyes at me.

"If there's no way out, then I'll just make one," Ed declared as he clenched a determined fist.

"Oh really?" Ling asked. "Just how and where do you plan on doing that?"

He stopped walking and clapped his hands. He hit the ground we were standing on and the familiar blue light lit up the area around us.

I took a step back as the ground sank into a giant hole.

"Here," Ed said with a prideful smirk. He held a hand out to Ling. "Hand me one of the torches."

Frowning, the prince did as he was told. Ed dropped the torch down the hole and we all went silent. After a good few moments had passed I held my head in irritation.

"We should have heard it land by now," Ed grumbled.

After standing up, I put my hands on my hips and sighed. I looked off towards the distance for second before smiling at my idea. I pulled both of them to their feet and pointed. "There's gotta be a wall at the edge of this place."

The next thing I knew the three of us were running as fast as we could through the sea of blood, trying to find an end.

"No matter how big this place is," I huffed as I ran, "if we keep going straight we're gonna reach the edge!"

"There's gotta be an exit somewhere!" Ed screamed as he picked up his pace.

After God knows how long, we finally slowed down to a trudge, none of us having any energy left.

'Considering the situation we're in, that really wasn't the best thing to do,' I thought, to worn out to bother saying it out loud.

"You know this is getting really old," Ling commented, his voice weak. "Blood doesn't make for very good terrain."

"Yeah, I noticed," Ed said, his voice at the same level but in a pissed off tone. "And we're still not any closer to finding an exit."

"I'm starving to death," Ling complained.

Sighing before answering, I said, "I've got free room service at that hotel, so when we get back I'll let you guys stuff yourselves to no end."

I heard a splash and frowned. I turned around and saw the idiot price flopped over a random tree trunk.

"You spineless little jellyfish," I growled as I narrowed my eyes at him. "You can't not eat for more than an hour can you?"

"You're really giving up this soon?" Ed questioned as his voice gradually got louder. "Are you that pathetic? It's bad enough when you collapse in the streets, but here!? Come on, get up!"

Ling's voice sounded hoarse as he spoke. "Just go on without me…"

"Get the hell up you dumbass!" I screamed, causing him to look up at me. "I can't believe you! You have a whole clan of people relying on you and you're just going to give up and die!?"

His eyes opened slightly and met mine before he looked away. "Please go…"

I scoffed at him. "Fine," I remarked as I started to walk off. "Let's go Ed."

The blonde looked from me to Ling before following me.

My hands clenched into fists and I stopped to glance at the idiot prince again. "We're really leaving you Ling," I said.

He didn't even flinch…

Turning on my heel, I pointed a finger at him. "I said we're leaving you!" I said, my voice louder this time.

That idiot flat out ignored me…

I growled and stomped my foot. "Come on! Just get the hell up before I shoved you face first into all this blood!"

He didn't move a muscle…

"Get up you lazy shit!" I screamed before storming back over to him. I grabbed his collar and pulled him down. There was a fire in my eyes as I pulled Ling through the pool of blood.

"What happened to leaving me behind?" he questioned.

I scowled at this. "If I have to drag you along with us then I will. I don't plan on leaving either of you guys here to die. There're people waiting for Ed and me to come back, same as… Ack!"

A rock had caused me to trip and fall backward into the blood, where the level had gotten deeper than everywhere else.

"Dammit," I growled as I pushed myself up. After yanking my coat off and tying it around my waist, I grabbed his collar again. He seemed to get heavier with every step that I took.

The moment I saw the giant platform in the middle of the wreckage, I felt instant relief. Ed helped me pull Ling up onto it and when we were done I fell onto my back in a heap.

Struggling to catch my breath, I turned evil as I turned my head towards the one who got us in all of this. "You weigh a ton, you know that?"

"Do you realize how much smaller you are than me?" he asked.

My eye twitched when he said this, but at this point I was too irritated to even try and yell at him.

"I'm starving," Ling commented in a wimpy tone.

"When aren't you?" I retorted, my tone proving how pissed I was at this point.

The sound of movement dragged my attention towards Ed.

"You know," he said as he pulled off his left boot. "Leather goods are edible. And with all this blood around I could easily make an iron pot and get water. With the Colonel's flames we've got a way to cook it."

A look of disgust on my face, I sat up and raised an eyebrow at him. "You're going to eat your shoe?"

"Well I'm not seeing anything else to eat around here, so do you have a better idea?" he snapped.

Scoffing at this, I lied back down. He narrowed his eyes at me as I rested the back of my head in the palms of my hands.

"You guys have fun with that," I said as I closed my eyes. The sounds of the fire Ed had set up put me in a state of peacefulness. Not sleep, just peace.

•

Ed, Ling, and I were all splayed out on the platform. I'd only gotten up once to transmute a drink of water. Even after thoroughly separating everything that had been with it, it still tasted off.

"I'm sorry you guys," Ling said.

"What for?" Ed asked.

"He's the one who got us into this mess," I commented bluntly, my eyes still closed.

"No he's not," he said. My forehead furrowed and I opened my eyes to look over at him as he went on. "We got ourselves stuck here trying to help each other out."

Sighing, I closed my eyes again. "Well that's an interesting change of attitude," I thought out loud.

"I've been thinking and I realized that this place is a joke after what my teacher put me through," he said.

Izumi came instantly to mind and I remembered how she'd tried to kill me when we'd first met.

"I'll believe that," I said with a shudder.

"It just sucks that we have no idea where this place is, you know? But as long as we've still got our health we should be able to find a way out of here."

Opening one eye to look up him, I raised an eyebrow. "When did you become so optimistic?"

"It's not optimism, it's stubbornness," he replied as he sat up. "If I even think about giving up I've got Al and now you to keep me in check."

I snorted a laugh as I sat up. "Looks like you bother to listen to me after all," I said with a smile. He returned it before I something caused me to turn my head towards the dark nothingness. I could hear movement off in the distance. It was obvious Ling had picked up on something as well.

"What is it?" Ed asked us.

My eyes narrowed as I stood up and got in my fighting stance.

"There's something out there," Ling stated.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh really? I thought that we were standing up for the hell of it."

The sound got louder and I finally managed to focus on what was coming towards us.

'Is that…?'

"It's definitely Envy," Ling stated.

My eye twitched. His obvious remarks were finally pissing me off. "No shit!" I exclaimed as I got in his face. "Who the hell else would be here you dumbass!?"

"Oh great, it's you guys," the androgynous homunculi commented.

"Yea, good to see you too," I commented sarcastically, turning my attention to him.

"Please show us a way out of here!" Ed begged loudly, startling me.

"You're just going to run to the enemy for help!?" Ling questioned.

"If it means survival I'll be his best friend!"

My head hung in exasperation while the two bickered. "You idiots," I muttered under my breath.

"It doesn't matter, because there is no exit," Envy stated.

The caught our attention. I looked over at him and frowned.

The homunculus sat on a random stone and held his head in his hand. "This is quite the mess you've gotten into. I can't believe you got me swallowed."

A light went on in my head. "So this place really is Gluttony's stomach?"

"Well yes and no. It's a bit more complicated than that," he said. "You're an alchemist right? You should know what this place is."

I frowned as I thought back to everything that had gone on before this. The light flicked off when the painful memories came back. The eye that was on Gluttony's stomach…

'Violet, like my eyes but much lighter. Truth gave me my eyes so does that mean that was…'

"This place is nothing like the portal!" I said. Ed glanced over at me, his own memories resurfacing. "It isn't dark and full of blood like this place though. It's a blinding white. And if this was the portal we should have seen Truth by now. Damn bastard said…" I trailed off, remembering that I hadn't told the guys about my little conversation.

"He spoke to you again?" Ed questioned. I was frozen stiff when he said this.

Once I'd melted I rubbed the back of my neck. "Heh heh… well, uh…" I laughed nervously. "He started talking to me back at the safe house and said I'd be seeing him soon."

There was a look of irritation on Ed's face but Envy cut him off.

"So that's what the real place is like," he commented, ignoring what had gone on between Ed and me.

My eye brow rose. "What do you mean?"

"Gluttony is a failed experiment by our father. He was trying to create his own portal of Truth."

"Huh?" I said, somewhat confused by now.

"Despite how powerful our father is, he still couldn't create one. We're all trapped in a defective portal of Truth. This place exists somewhere between reality and Truth."

"In between?" Ed repeated, eyes wide as saucers.

"Yes," Envy continued. "And I can assure you that there is no way out. The only thing left for us to do is sit here and wait to die."

My breath caught in my throat and I staggered backwards slightly. "No…" I protested quietly, my voice quivering. "No… that can't be right. There's too much at stake for me to die here. Truth said…"

"Are you really giving up so easily, little alchemist?" he said, cutting me off. "It's such a shame."

I gritted my teeth when he spoke. "Get the hell out of my head you bastard!" I shrieked as I held my face in my hands. "If you really want me out of here so badly just do it yourself!"

"I have no power there. If you wish to get out you'll have to do it yourself."

"Fuck off you creep," I hissed at him. His voice went silent and I let out a sharp breath.

Seething, I brought my hands down and looked over at the others.

"Is she alright?" Envy asked the boys. "'Cause I'm pretty sure sane people don't talk to themselves."

I narrowed my eyes at him and folded my arms across my chest. "If you must know, God likes to come into my head and taunt me every so often."

"What did Truth say this time?" Ed asked.

I sat down on the platform with a huff and put my cheek in the palm of my hand. "That if we want to get out we have to do it on our own," I said.

"Didn't you hear me?" Envy questioned in a pissed off tone. "I already said that there's no way out."

My eyes narrowed.

"Who is this 'father' of yours anyway?" Ed demanded, leaving what had just happened to rest. "Why would he need to make his own portal of Truth? Is it King Bradley?"

Envy scoffed at this. "A weakling like Bradley being our father? Yeah right, he's just a homunculus like the rest of us."

"I told you so," Ling said.

Rolling my eyes at this, I noticed that Ed's hands were in tight fists. I frowned and looked up at him.

"The fifth lab, human lives sacrificed to make Philosopher's Stones, homunculi…" His voice was shaky as he went on. "If the Fuhrer is on your side than I'm guessing you guys are the ones responsible for what happened in Ishval."

A sadistic smile spread across Envy's face. "Oh Ishval, huh." He cackled loudly. "I couldn't have asked for a more enjoyable job."

My eyes grew wide. I hadn't lived in the East at the time, but I knew what horrors had gone down.

"You remember what had happened to start the war, right?" Envy went on.

Ed seemed slightly taken aback. "I heard that a military officer had accidentally shot an Ishvalan child."

The smile stayed on the homunculus's face. "Yup! And the one that pulled the trigger was none other than yours truly!"

My breathing came to a halt as air got stuck in my throat. I swallowed hard and narrowed my eyes at him.

"You don't understand how good that felt!" he gloated. "I ravaged the whole country with a single bullet! I mean talk about invigorating!"

Completely appalled with this, I watched in silence as Ed took a few steps forward to face Envy. He stopped when the homunculus kept speaking.

"You wanna know the best part!? The guy I disguised myself as was a moderate that opposed the military's involvement in Ishval! The guy couldn't come up with a plausible defense so they court marshaled him!"

Ed started for him again, this time not bothering to stop when there was more to be said.

"I'll never get over how easily manipulated humans are," Envy said. The sadistic look on his face only got bigger as he laughed maniacally.

"You were the one. You shot and killed an innocent child," Ed growled as he walked forward. "You destroyed my home town and drove out the Ishvalans. You're the one that turned Scar into a murderer! And you're the reason why Winry's parents were killed!"

The whole world seemed to go in slow motion the moment he said this. I was reminded of the look on Winry's face when she came face-to-face with Scar and I wasn't sure how to react.

Ed knew. He was beyond furious as he punched Envy in the face.

With things now going in real time I was able to process what had just happened. Envy's smile shifted into a scowl as he glanced over at Ed.

'He didn't even flinch,' I thought as I noticed the pissed expression on Envy's face.

Red electricity sparked and crackled around Envy and Ed. My mind snapped back into reality.

"Ed!" I shouted as I hopped down to him. "Move you idiot!"

Ling followed behind me. Ed turned and noticed us before backing away from the homunculus.

"If that's how you want it, fine," Envy growled as he stood up, the electricity not showing any signs of going away. "Seeing as we're all dead anyway, I'll show you guys something neat." His face started to shift around and his hair lengthened. "Consider it a parting gift."

His voice had changed. Instead of just one it sounded like dozens of different people were talking at once.

"Did either of you notice his foot prints back in the forest?" Ling asked.

I scoffed. "He was trying to kill you and all you noticed were his foot prints?"

"They were sunken in pretty deep, which is odd considering the size of his body."

"What are you saying?" I questioned.

"Just that he's probably a bit bigger than we thought."

The electricity glowed brighter as Envy grew taller and larger. My jaw dropped slightly the moment the light went out.

Envy got on all fours, the force displacing the blood from beneath us. It came up like a giant wave and swept me under. Once everything had calmed slightly I came up for air and began coughing. I wiped my mouth off and looked in horror at the thing before me.

The homunculus had grown at least a couple stories tall and was a giant green beast. My stomach dropped when I saw the bodies of countless people that were attached together to create him.

"How is that thing a homunculus!?" Ling exclaimed from several meters away.

Struggling to get on my feet I glowered at the thing before me. Every one of the faces had a voice and every one of them was speaking at the same time.

"Play with me…! Come here… help me… Save me…!"

I shuddered at the sight and clenched my hands into fists.

"Hell no," Ed's voice said to the faces. "Go play by yourself!" He jumped back from where he'd landed.

A warped laugh sounded louder than all of the others as Envy turned towards Ling. He reached out and tried to grab him, but the idiot prince dodged him as long as he could before he was caught and slammed into some of the ruins. His voice sharp, he cried out in pain and fell to a slump on the ground.

"Ling!" Ed cried out to him.

I turned towards the blonde. "Don't draw attention to yourself!" I screamed.

It was too late. Envy had already noticed us and his thick green tail came right for me. My breath was forced out of me the moment he made contact. I was sent flying and landed hard on my back into the blood again.

Coughing as I came up, I glared at the thing that was supposed to be Envy.

"Myra!" he shouted. I could hear footsteps as he and Ling came over to me.

The taste of blood in my mouth, I spat in disgust before wiping my mouth again.

"You okay?" Ed asked as he extended a hand to me. Nodding in response, I took it and stood up.

"I'm fine, but what are we going to do about that?" I questioned in reference to the thing that had started for us again.

"Can one of you make me a weapon?" Ling asked. I turned to face him while Ed had already clapped his hands. A blue light gleamed as he made a sword with a ridiculous skull on the end of the hilt.

"Here," Ed said as he tossed it to him.

Ling raised an eyebrow at the pointless decoration. "You have the tackiest sense of taste."

I snorted a laugh at his reaction before clapping my own hands and clapping.

"I personally think it looks pretty sharp," the blonde stated with a smirk. He had already transmuted his automail arm into a sword.

I raised an eyebrow as I armed myself with a spear. "Was that supposed to be a bad pun?"

He shrugged before turning back to Envy, who was only a couple meters away at most. The homunculus let out a creepy laugh and I tightened the grip I had on my weapon.

"Do either of you think we can take him?" I asked, my gaze on him not breaking.

"I doubt it," Ling said. "He is a giant monster after all. And on top of that I'm pretty sure he broke a couple of my ribs back there."

"I'm a bit beat up as well," Ed stated. His voice got stronger as he kept speaking. "But that doesn't matter. All that does is filling him with some pain!"

Nodding in agreement with this, I held my ground as Envy brought his front legs up. He hit the ground and the force shot us all upwards, where his tail was waiting to slam into me again. He sent me flying again, this time my back colliding with a wall from an old building. The breath was knocked out of me when I did.

In shock from the impact, I fell in a heap to the floor of the broken up building. When I came back to reality Ed was calling out my name again.

The taste of blood in my mouth caused my stomach to lurch, because this time it was mine.

Legs barely keeping me up as I stood up, I coughed into my hand. My scars were joined with red dots. I scowled and wiped it off on my pants.

My irritation fueling me, I took hold of the spear and glowered at the laughing beast.

"This means war."

A/N: And another cliffy! Look, if I tied things up in a cute little bow, then where would the motivation for you to want more be?

I've now gotten used to writing these long chapters. I'm pretty sure that most of the chapters from here until the end will be almost this long or longer. I'm assuming that's a good thing.

Well there you go! I've got two more finals before this semester ends for me and I still need to work on that project, but I can't take the necessary pictures when the weather is this fricking cold and moist.

Oh well! Until next time please review, and stay soft ^_^