A/N: Hi guys! How's life going? I've been piled under school crap for a while, but right now life is good and I'm able to update this. I'm happy I've managed to get to writing again. I'd been feeling empty, but fan fiction filled me up again! I don't have anything to add right now, so see you at the end *:-{)

•

A wave of emotions hit me. I was angry, terrified, and sad all at the same time.

Drake shakily stood up and looked over at me. I stepped forward and place a hand on his chest to check if he was real or not. I could feel his ribs through the torn shirt he was wearing.

"It's really me Myra," he said. "You have no idea how much I've missed you or how much I worried. I've had no clue about what happened to you that night after I was taken."

I was knocked out of the initial shock of seeing him after so long when he said this. My teeth gritted as anger took over. "You bastard," I hissed. I clenched my fist and clocked him square in the face. The amount of force I'd put into my punch caused him to lose his balance and his glasses to fall to the ground with a clatter.

Drake caught himself with his boney arms and reached for his glasses. After slipping them back on, he stood up to look down on me. His dark gray eyes seemed to get darker, as if he were being possessed by some kind of demon. There was a red splotch on the side of his face from the punch, and it only made him look worse.

Swallowing hard, I took a step back. I recognized the look on his face as the same one from before.

"You have no idea what it's like to be trapped in this place," he growled as he stood once again, towering above me. "This blank emptiness… it's like a form of torture to be forced to go through the same memories countless times. You have no clue how many times I've thought about that night when we tried to bring Kat back. I've gone over everything that must've gone wrong and how it could have been perfected..."

Eyes narrowed, I clenched my fists tighter and met his gaze. "Perfected?" I growled. "Everything was taken from you and what you thought about was doing it again!? Get it through your thick skull already, Drake; the dead are meant to stay dead. You have no idea what life has been like for me since that day. I've learned so many things and the experiences I've gone through would make any normal person cringe. My leg was torn from my body and I was left there to bleed to death! Then I became a State Alchemist because it was what you had wanted to do. For ages I thought that I'd killed you and sister, but there have been people that actually care about me that helped me see the truth." I grabbed his hand and pressed the scar on his palm with my thumb. "Remember what you did to me!? You sliced my hand open for something that was entirely unrelated and you forced me to help you! Now our spirits are connected, and if not for me you would have died ages ago!"

Drake jerked his hand back and continued to glower at me as I went on. "I can never forgive you for what you did. You changed the moment Kat died. You worked on this pointless goal that only got you trapped here. I couldn't turn my back on family then, but things have changed."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he questioned me firmly.

I didn't let my gaze falter. "I refuse to be dragged down by you again. It doesn't matter to me that you're my brother. Mom died to save my life and you kept that from me." Guilt flashed in his eyes as he stepped back. My voice quivered slightly as I spoke. "Ever since I found that out there's been this nagging guilt. Nothing would have turned out like this if she didn't save me. You, Kat and Mom could all be sitting at home as a family, but it didn't happen. I know that the only reason you thought we could bring Kat back is because of mom."

My brother seemed afraid of me when he spoke. "How did you find out about any of that?" he breathed.

I jabbed a finger towards Truth, who was sitting on the floor behind us, clearly amused. "Truth showed me some scenes from the past. You know why my eyes are violet, right?"

Drake didn't answer; he just furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"It's part of the payment for my being alive today. Truth sees the world through my eyes and has a tendency to interrupt my thoughts." I shot an accusing glare at the white figure, who simply smiled innocently. Sighing, I looked back up at Drake and finished what I wanted to say. "I'm going to break the bond between us," I stated firmly. My brother's eyes lot some of their darkness and I could sense that I'd hurt him. "I'm done supporting you and when all's over and done with, you'll have done more for me in your death than in your life. I'm sorry, but it's my call. I don't know when, but you will be cut off from me."

My brother looked at me, hurt and shocked. He opened his mouth to speak, but I held up a fist to stop him.

"I'm done," I said firmly, hardening my gaze on him. "There are people waiting for me to get back and they're probably worried. I'm sorry Drake, but this is how it needs to be. You don't exist anymore and that's all there is now."

Drake was speechless as he closed his mouth. He nodded slightly, as if he finally understood.

I heard a creaking sound as my Gate opened, the black hands starting for me.

"Good luck with life Myra," my brother said. "Looks like you'll need it."

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore him as I was pulled back into the darkness. Although it pained me, I felt no regret in saying what I did.

•••

Confusion arose the moment Ed, Envy, and Ling came bursting through Gluttony. Al had no clue that Envy was the green monster that had torn through the fat homunculus.

"Envy?" the man to the side had said in a surprised tone.

"That thing is Envy?" Al's voice said. "Then that means…"

Ed was in the middle of trying to get up when Al latched onto him. "Big Brother!" he cried out as he did so.

The short blonde had difficulty breathing as he was pressed against his brother's metal body. "Al!" he choked out. "You're going to break my spine!"

Alphonse released Ed. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Ed furrowed his eyebrows. "You didn't have to be so dramatic about it…" He trailed off when he looked at his brother. Al's head hung as he spoke.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so happy you're all right. I thought you were dead," Al said, his armor shaking.

The memory of what Myra had said caused a certain pain to hit Ed in the chest. A sad expression made its way on his face as he placed his automail hand on Al's metal head. "I'm sorry for making you worry," he said, knowing full well how it felt to lose his entire family.

Al nodded and inspected his brother closer. "You're covered in blood!" he exclaimed.

Ed smiled ever so slightly at Al. "Don't worry, it's not mine. I've got a few broken bones though."

Al looked at Ed's arm. "Isn't that Myra's hair ribbon?"

The blonde looked down at the ribbon before turning back towards Envy and Ling, looking for his small friend.

"Where is she?" Al asked. "She got swallowed with you guys, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she did," Ed responded, still looking. A bright red light glowed from the opposite side of the room. As if on cue, the eye reappeared on Gluttony's stomach and Myra came through, landing on the floor in a heap.

She let out a disgusted groan as she sat up. "Well that didn't do my broken bones any good," she scoffed. Myra stood up, wincing as she did so. Her violet eyes scanned the room and caught sight of something behind the brothers. She frowned, her eyes narrowed slightly in confusion.

Curious to know what she was looking at, Ed turned around. His eyes grew wide at the sight of a man that looked exactly like his father.

"Well this is unexpected," the man said. "People coming out of his stomach."

Ed narrowed his eyes. "Hoenheim?" he thought out loud.

The man didn't pay him any attention and seemed to be lost in thought. "Hm… Steel appendages and a metal body..." He moved closer to them. "Are you two the Elric brothers?"

The blonde blinked in a mix of confusion and surprise. "So you aren't…"

"Did you mistake me for someone else?" the man asked. He raised his hand to his chin and looked off in the distance. "Hold on…" He turned back towards Ed and Al. "The name you just said, by any chance did you mean Van Hoenheim? And how exactly are the two of you acquainted with him?"

"He's our father," Al answered.

Myra scoffed at him from the other side of the room. "Since when is giving personal information to strangers a good idea?" she remarked.

The man didn't pay her any mind as he grabbed Ed's head, a pleasantly surprised expression on his face. "He's your father!? I had no idea he had children, this is especially surprising!" He laughed as if it were incredibly amusing.

Ed had quickly gotten fed up with him being so close and everyone except the man could tell.

As the man laughed he patted Ed on the shoulders. The laughter stopped and he frowned. "If the two of you are his sons then why is it that your family name is Elric?"

Ed growled as he backed away from him. "Elric is our mother's last name!" he said in an unnecessarily loud tone.

"Oh is that so," the man said, not paying any mind to Ed's reaction. "Where has he been spending all of his time?"

He growled again. "Who cares!? What I want to know is who the hell are you and why do you look exactly like him?"

The man went off on his own incoherent ramble while Ed had finally had enough. While yelling at him, he made the mistake of moving his left arm. He let out a cry of pain, causing Myra to shake her head at him.

"You really are an idiot," she said as she stepped over. She carefully took hold of his arm to fix the brace. Ed cringed at her touch.

This finally brought the man into reality. "Oh," he said. "It would seem that you're injured." He looked at Alphonse and stated, "And you've lost your left hand."

Myra snorted a laugh. "So you've just now figured that out?" she said as she continued to fix the way the ribbon fit. Ed let out a yelp and she slowed down.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" the pissed off blonde asked, his face pulled into an irritated frown.

"It's worked out so far, hasn't it?" she retorted.

The man narrowed his eyes at her. "You're Myra Loken, aren't you?"

She stopped what she was doing to look at him. "How do you know my name?" she questioned.

"You're the State Alchemist that's partnered with Edward. With your being here it wasn't hard to figure out."

"Ookay then," she said, pulling the 'o' out as she spoke. With one last adjustment she sighed and let go of Ed's arm. "You really did yourself in there," she said to the blonde as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her face contorted into a grimace when she moved.

"Allow me," the man said as he stepped closer to Ed. He took his arm and a red light glowed. Ed's eyes grew wide when the man stepped back and directed his attention to Al. He touched the spot where his hand was missing and a light glowed again. In a matter of moments Al had his hand back.

Ed untied Myra's ribbon and released the brace. He moved his arm and continued to stare in amazement.

'How did he do that?' Ed wondered. 'He didn't even clap his hands.'

The man once again focused on him. He touched his side and Ed winced at the slight pain. "It would appear you've broken a few ribs as well." Once again, the red light glowed and his pain was relieved.

Myra glared at the man from beneath her bangs as he looked down on her. Ed could sense that she didn't trust him.

"You've also injured yourself," he said. He walked around her and touched her back. Apparently she'd damaged her spine, explaining why she winced whenever she moved. Myra stood up straighter when he stepped back and blinked at him in surprise. She watched as he returned to his original position in front of the three of them.

"I consider the three of you to be vital resources. You must remain alive and healthy," he said in a commanding tone.

She raised a confused eyebrow at the man while Ed spoke. "This isn't right," he whispered, pulling her attention towards him. "He didn't make any kind of movement at all to transmute."

"I know," Al said in agreement. "He didn't even thin out my armor."

"In other words, there was no equivalence to his alchemy," Myra stated, joining in the conversation.

The three of them turned to look over at the man.

"What are you?" Ling demanded from the side, the attention of the group now focused on him. Eye's wide, he'd drawn the tacky looking sword Ed made and was now pointing it at the man. "What the hell is inside of you?"

The man looked at the prince from the corner of his eye. "I would ask who you are, but I honestly don't care."

Ling looked terrified but continued to hold his ground. The man turned towards Gluttony. "You can eat him."

The fat homunculus cheered and started for the prince. The three others moved to block him from Ling.

"Come on!" Ed called. "He's our friend! You want to keep us happy right?"

"Your friendship with him doesn't make him any less useless to me," the man continued as he walked away. Myra's eyes grew wide.

"Brother," Al said to get Ed's attention. "The homunculi kept calling this guy 'Father'. I think that means he's the one who created them."

Ed narrowed his eyes at the man.

"He did heal our wounds though," Al continued.

Ling staggered forward. "He didn't heal mine," he said. He glared at 'Father' as he spoke. "I don't like him. I can tell he looks down on humans and calls us fools."

This caused him to stop walking and turn around. "When you see an insect on the ground do you stop to think of it as a fool?" he asked. "The life of an insect is so beneath you it would be a waste of time to bother with judging it. That is a more accurate summation of how I think of you humans."

Myra's wide eyes narrowed into a glare. She looked almost evil with the devious smirk she wore, and her loose hair causing shadows to frame her face. "That's pretty arrogant of you, considering you need us humans for whatever it is you're trying to do with this country."

Ed took advantage of Myra distracting Father to clap his hands and transmute the floor. Father didn't even flinch as he stopped Ed's attack.

Al was the next one to attack, but that proved more frivolous than the first attempt. Ling leaped into the air and started for Father, who had already hit him with a counter blow.

"Do you three really think it's a good idea to go provoking this guy?" Myra asked as she backed up slightly.

Ignoring her, the brothers continued trying to get to their new enemy.

Father sighed. "I've had enough of this," he said. The next moment, a red flash had nearly blinded everyone in the room.

•

A horrible feeling of weakness washed over me and I felt my legs start to go weak. I staggered forward and somehow managed to stay upright. There was a sharp pain in the back of my skull and my hand reached up to cradle my head.

"What the hell was that?" I managed to say. The sound of clapping rang in my ears and I glanced over to see the brothers about to attack again. Nothing happened when they touched the ground.

"Hm," said a familiar voice. With the pain in my head already blocking out most of my surroundings, I didn't care that Truth was around right then. "This is most troublesome. If I were you I'd have tried to find an exit by now."

My eyebrow rose. "Why's that?" I asked him.

"While they won't kill you it seems that they will do certain things to make sure you don't run off."

I let my hand fall in exasperation. "So you're suggesting that I try to get out of here when it's pointless?"

"I never said it was pointless. I just don't want my toy to break." I could almost see the wide smile that I knew was on his face by now and it pissed me off.

"For the last time, don't call me your toy," I growled with a sneer on my face.

"We've been over this," he said, the smile obviously gone by now. "I can call you whatever I want."

My head hung in irritation. The silence in the room caused me to realize that everyone else was staring at me.

With a pissed off sigh, I asked, "Why do you always talk to me at inconvenient points in time?"

"I may talk but you respond."

'How old are you!?' I thought loudly. He simply laughed.

Choosing to ignore him, I looked from one to the other. Envy now had the brothers pinned down and Gluttony was sitting on Ling. They were all focused on me with confused expressions, save Al, on their faces.

Father looked me up and down, sending a chill down my spine. I tried to take a step backwards but found I could hardly move.

'You know, at this moment in time standing in front of my Gate sounds pretty nice right now,' I thought nervously.

"It would do you hardly any good considering the situation," Truth said. "You're in a physically weak state right now and while your wounds may be healed, you haven't eaten or drank much in a little more than a day. Without something providing for your body you may find it in much worse condition when you return to it."

Scowling, I hissed, "I wasn't being serious."

The silence that followed showed that he didn't believe me.

Envy's warped voice cut through my conversation with Truth. "Hey pipsqueak," he said to Ed. I noticed the serial killer look on Ed's face when he heard the homunculus say this. "She was like this back in Gluttony's stomach wasn't she? 'God' was talking to her?"

My eye twitched. "I can hear you, you know!" I said loudly before having to push the mess of hair out of my face. The green monster turned back towards me and glared. I glared back as I spoke. "And yes. As I'd told you before, God talks to me."

Father started to walk towards me and a certain form of fear came over me.

"How can he talk to you?" he asked.

I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. "Well it's more or less that I can hear his voice in my head and he tends to come at bad times."

Father narrowed his eyes slightly. "I shall rephrase my question. Why does he talk to you?"

"I-I'm not sure about how to answer that," I responded, stammering slightly as I spoke. This person may have looked like Ed's old man, but this one was noticeably more powerful. "He says that I'm important, so I've decided to not argue against him on that. But it has more to do with when my mom transmuted me. He sees through my eyes now…"

"Hm," Father said, causing me to trail off. He continued to look down on me. "It would seem that you are a more valuable resource than I had previously thought. Not only have you opened the portal of Truth, but you also have direct ties to him. Yes… I now have confidence that my plan will succeed."

'That can't be a good thing…' I thought to myself. Truth was either watching from the side now, or he was being quiet.

"As for you," he said, returning his attention to the pinned down prince. Father turned away and stepped over to him. "I've given it some thought and I have come to the conclusion that you may be of use to me in a certain way." I couldn't see his face from where I stood, but judging by the expression I saw on Ed's I could tell we were in for more trouble.

There was something inside me screaming to go over and look, but everything else said "Stay here where hopefully you won't get attacked/killed/mortally wounded/all of the above."

Obviously I stayed where I was. If anything bad happened I didn't want to be the one who ended up having to go to the hospital again.

I listened to what they were all saying from the side, my heart pounding with nervousness.

"Luckily for you I could always use a new pawn, and Greed's position happens to open," Father said.

'Don't panic Myra,' I ordered myself as I stayed where I was. 'Luckily that guy wants me alive, so I guess I should just stay out of his way. Something tells me I don't want to piss him off.'

Envy's still warped voice chimed in. "So that's what you're going to do," he said.

"What are you talking about?" Ed growled from where he was under the homunculus's massive green foot.

Father had moved to the side and now I was able to see what was going on.

"He's going to put a Philosopher's Stone directly into your friend's blood stream," Envy answered. "If all goes well, a human based homunculus will be formed." A sadistic smile spread across his face causing a nervous lump to form in my throat. "The only issue is that the souls in the stone will clash with that of your friend, and they'll be at war trying to take over his body. The Stone usually kills its host in the process."

I looked back at the guys. Ed was freaking out, trying desperately to use his alchemy, Al was trying to get free from under Envy, and if Ling wasn't breathing as heavily as he was then I would have thought he'd died.

"Let us go!" Ed screamed. "You can't do this! There's someone waiting for him!"

A look of realization hit his face. He reached around his back and grabbed the gun Hawkeye had given him. My eyes grew wide at the sight of the thing. Having never liked guns to begin with, it only brought on more discomfort to see the look on Ed's face as he turned towards the homunculus.

There was terror and a mix of other emotions in his eyes when he came face-to-face with one of the bodies that had been quiet for so long. The fear on the face of that deformed body far exceeded Ed's. Even from the distance I was at I could take in just about every detail, and I could see the tears that were falling down green skinned cheeks.

"Come now," Envy said, the same sadistic look still there. "Would wouldn't shoot that face, would you little boy?"

Ed looked like he was about to snap, but Ling's voice rang throughout the large room. "Don't shoot, Ed! This is what I want, so stay out of it!"

The lengthy story the idiot prince had told me back in Rush Valley came to mind. Even after remembering his goals, I wasn't about to let him give what he had now up for something like this.

Wanting to stop him, I took a single step forward before finding that I was weak beyond reason. Falling to the floor was my only option, so I didn't try to catch myself.

"Look what you've done now," Truth scolded as I pushed myself up slightly. "If you weren't so stubborn this wouldn't have happened."

'I was not going to eat a shoe,' I thought at him, not able to speak. The sharp pain in the back of my skull returned and I let out a soft moan loud enough for only me to hear. 'What did that bastard do to us?'

"To put it in terms you'll be able to understand easily, he somehow is preventing you from being able to access your Gate. Because you have such a close connection to it, you've grown much weaker than either of your friends."

I raised my eyebrow as I cradled my head with my hands. 'But all three of us saw that,' I thought. 'Why am I so much closer?'

Truth sighed. "Lest you forget what I showed you. You're mother gave you to me, essentially. You've been through the portal on two separate occasions, with neither one of them having anything to do with the other. On one account you were put through the portal and on the other you opened it for yourself, with help I must add."

Sighing I brought my hand down. My strength was fading fast at this point. 'I never realized how much I depend on alchemy. It's kept me alive and my connection is the only thing keeping me this way.'

"Your dependence on such a trivial force like alchemy is amusing indeed, but the enemy isn't the only one that wishes for you to remain alive. I do as well, so that you can eventually defeat them."

'How can you expect me to be able to fight this guy when I'm like this?'

"The circumstances surrounding the main event will be much different than the current one. You'll have you're alchemy and there will be help."

'How do you know all of this anyway?' I asked him. By now the world was a massive blur, and I could barely see the red sparks emitting from Ling's body, or even hear his blood curdling screams.

This time I could actually see Truth's grin. My own dark eyes were narrowed slightly at me. "I know everything. Being 'God', as you humans call me, I have the power to do incredible things. I am unable to do anything concerning this matter, however, because I don't exist outside of my realm. You may speak of me, but it is impossible for me to go to your world. There are certain… rules that must be followed. I needed a human vessel and luckily your mother gave me the perfect opportunity."

His grin faded out into nothingness and I fell into a space that was somewhere between reality and unconsciousness.

A/N: Hiya! I managed to get the chapter in mostly on time, so it counts!

Do any of you remember the study abroad program I mentioned oh-so many chapters ago? Well I'm thinking about asking my parents if they could send me to one of summer programs when I turn 16 (aka June of 2014). I'm really scared and I could use a bit of support. A regular review works just as well though. Which brings me to my last demand!

I am requesting that we can get the number of reviews from the current 79 to at the very least 90 reviews by the end of the month. I'll probably update this at least couple times before the end of February, and I expect more than just Kitten and elysenjazz to review. Those two review pretty much every time I update, which makes for a happy Hopeless, but I want to hear the opinions of the rest of you guys. So let's work on that starting now! May your steps be relentless, and peace out *:-{)