A/N: Third to last chapter here folks! Wow, can't believe its almost done again. Hope you enjoy this chapter. And if you thought the last cliff hanger was bad...

Hehehe...

Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 54: A Life for a Life

Dante didn't bother restraining me. I didn't really blame her. Lying there on the floor, I must've looked pretty pathetic. My expression was as blank as that of Rose, who stood off to the side, rocking her baby. But while she appeared blissfully unaware of what was happening around her, I was painfully aware of every bit.

Edward was gone, sucked through the gate screaming and I couldn't do anything to help him. After all this time seeing the gate in my nightmares, I assumed I would be the victim. I wished I was the victim, honestly.

Alphonse sat in a transmutation circle at the middle of the room, meant to purify the stone for Dante's use. After that, I assumed she would use it to transfer into my body. I found it really difficult to care right now.

I should do something.

I should try to stop them.

But it wasn't like I could take Envy in a fight alone. What chance did I have against the rest of them? I mean, maybe Envy wouldn't fight me because apparently he liked me better alive but Dante had to be as skilled as he was. She'd lasted this long after all.

Then there was Gluttony. If there was one person I related to right now, it was him, wandering about the room, looking lost and afraid.

"Go on Gluttony," Dante said. "You're just one meal away from creating a perfect stone."

Gluttony whimpered. "But Lust… my Lust."

Envy glared at Gluttony from where he leaned against the wall. "After all this work, are you really going to back out now? Just do it. Get it over with." Even he seemed about done with this whole ordeal. He knew the drill at this point. Get Dante her stone. Let her use it to prolong her life. The same meaningless cycle over and over again.

"But… But…" Gluttony stared at the ground, dragging his long arms against the smooth surface.

"Poor thing" Dante knelt beside him, petting his head. "It seems there's no other way." Then she shoved her arm nearly down his throat. I started as she jerked his tongue from his mouth, her thumb pressing down hard on the tattoo as he choked and gagged. The tattoo glowed and Envy took a step back.

"What are you doing?"

I raised my head slightly. What was she doing?

Gluttony's tongue hung from his mouth as the light faded and his head dipped. Envy stepped forward, almost cautiously.

"Gluttony?"

The homunculus' head snapped up and he snarled. His eyes were that of a beast and his teeth barred, ready to snap down. Envy recoiled, his eyes wide.

"Don't get too close." Dante smirked. "Without human attachments the only thing left now is the urge to feed. Now he is pure."

Envy's eyes narrowed. I pushed myself onto my hands and knees, an odd sort of anger growing in my chest past the hopelessness. So Dante could take away a homunculus' free will along with their souls? A pure homunculus, I supposed, was nothing but a monster. But Dante didn't have a right to choose that for Gluttony or the rest of them.

Before I could move any further, I heart footsteps and a figure shot past me. Envy lunged forward, seizing hold of the attacker before it could get to Dante.

"Bring mommy back! You have to bring her back!"

Wrath.

"Envy do not allow him to use his alchemy!" Dante commanded. "The stone is unstable. It could set it off before we're ready."

"Mommy!"

"Quit squirming," Envy demanded. "Idiot, your mother is gone."

"Hold him," Dante said, reaching for Rose's baby again. The transmutation circle started to glow.

"Let me go!" Wrath cried. "BIG SISTER!"

It was those words that really jolted me into awareness and I stood, my teeth barred. "Let him go now!"

Too late. The gate was suddenly there again. And Envy did let go of Wrath, stumbling out of the crossfire as the black hands snaked out and took hold of Wrath's limb—no, Ed's limbs—and pulled until there was a sickening snapping of bone and sinew. The black hands tore the limbs right off.

I felt like throwing up. What was it with this gate? What was its obsession with taking things away? I was a step away from yanking the dumb thing open and jumping in myself.

But that was the problem. The gate was still there. It hadn't disappeared. A fact which Envy noted.

"Master." He took a few steps back, genuine fear in his voice and gaze. "The gate. It's still here!"

And not only that. Cries of exertion echoed from the other side as the doors slowly pushed open. Then a familiar face tumbled out, onto the floor.

"Edward!" Envy said it. All of us knew it.

I could have cried right there, but instead I rushed forward and jerked Ed into a hug before he could even register being back safe and sound. He was back. He was alive. I knew that couldn't have been the end.

"Oh my god. You idiot. Where did you go? How are you back here?" I squeezed him tightly. "I thought you were gone."

"I-I don't." He looked up at me. "Liz" He murmured. "Automail... I'm really back."

"Yeah you're back." My chest loosened. He was back. My best friend was back. Maybe the gate gave something after all. I gripped Edward's hand and helped him stand.

"Quite an amazing feat Edward," an oddly familiar voice said. I turned to see Marco standing not far away. We hadn't seen or heard from Marco in eons. Yet I knew in that moment it couldn't be him.

"Dr. Marco?" Ed stared at him. "I'd wondered where you'd gone."

"It's not him, Edward," I muttered under my breath. Envy, what are you doing?

Envy's form flashed and he morphed in Hughes, a face that he really shouldn't have worn after what he did. "Sure you did Ed. After all, you were the one who just handed the old doc over to the military and waved goodbye." He snapped his fingers. "Now that was a great idea. But then again…" His smile turned sinister. "You were bad luck for a lot of us, weren't you?" A knife snapped into his hand and he lunged at Edward. Edward stumbled out of the way and I took a step forward.

"Hang on. Stop."

Envy paid me no mind and seeing the look in his eye, I knew why. He wanted to kill Edward. He'd lost his chance at killing his creator, Hoenhiem and he wanted to kill Ed in his place. Every ounce of Envy that came from his name leaked into his words as he spoke through different voices.

"I'd still be with my wife and adorable little girl if it hadn't been for you. It must be tough fighting a friend you've already killed once." He slashed out at Ed again but this time Edward managed to dodge past him and grab one of his arms, twisting it behind his back.

"You think that trick is going to work? Think again!" Ed hissed. "Have you forgotten your friend Sloth? I killed her while she was wearing the face of my own mother."

"Really." Envy's form shifted again, this time into the aforementioned homunculus. "That must have been hard for you."

Ed hesitated and Envy elbowed him hard in the stomach sending him stumbling back. Then he stood, morphing into his own form. "So, not as tough as you think, huh?"

"Stop." I stepped between them, in front of Ed but facing Envy. "Don't do this. This will not end well for either of you."

"I can take him, Liz" Ed said. "Get back."

No you can't, I wanted to scream at him. He's stronger than you. He's better than you. And he hates you so much. Because his father abandoned him and made you instead. Because you're human and he's not. Edward, he's your brother.

All of those words wanted so much to come out but they stuck in my throat. I couldn't tell him. How could I tell him?

"Move, kid." Envy growled glaring straight at Edward. His hatred had taken full hold of him. I could practically see his thoughts running through his head. He was so close. So close to a slice of vengeance. How could I stop him.

"It's fine Liz," Ed murmured.

No it wasn't. No it wasn't fine. I was watching two people I cared about try to kill each other and no part of that was remotely fine.

Envy let out a hissed and lunged forward. Before I knew what was happening, he had shoved me out of the way. I went rolling, ending up next to Dante as the fight resumed. She looked down at me, smugly. "So you know, don't you? Why Envy hates Edward so much."

I stood, glaring at her. "What if I do?"

Dante shrugged. "Cruel isn't it?" she smirked. "The brothers don't know the whole picture. They can't handle it. That's why you haven't told them."

I wanted to tell her to shut up, but she was right for once.

"And how can you join in the fight when you care for both?"

I flushed. Again she was right. Of course she knew about Envy's liking for me. She knew Kristen, after all. She saw the similarities. She saw how Envy kept letting me slip through his fingers. After four hundred years, she probably knew him well.

"Watching it is then," Dante mused.

I turned my eyes back to the fight. Envy was using everything he had up his sleeve in this battle. Hughes, Marco, even Sloth, who looked enough like Edward's mother to be effective here. Ed was fighting back hard, hardly phased by these. But there was Envy's inhumane speed too. His... agility. Ed was a fish out of water compared to him. Envy had had four whole centuries of practice on him

And he wasn't human. There was that too.

"You don't want to admit that you'll have to lose something by the end of this." Dante was growing smugger by the second. "It's natural after all."

I smiled bitterly "Hey now, for someone who just lectured on the idealistic nature of equivalent exchange, you can't turn around and preach about it again."

"I'm saying that you might lose everything and gain nothing out of this. There is the option."

God I wanted to punch her. I wondered if I could get away with that.

Envy flipped through the air, landing right next to Wrath. Amazingly still functioning, the bleeding boy grabbed his ankle with his remaining hand and held it in a death grip. Envy tried to shake him off, but Ed lunged and tackled the homunculus to the ground.

"It's getting close" Dante murmured. "Have you made your choice?"

Choice. The words of the nightmare echoed back at me. Very soon you will face your choice.

"Show me what you really look like!" Ed demanded, punching Ed hard in the face over and over again. "Instead of being a coward whose only real power is to hide behind other people's faces!"

"He won't be able to handle it." Dante sighed, shaking her head.

"Do you really want to see?" Envy's smirk was malicious as I had ever seen. He was about to use his trump card.

"STOP JERKING ME AROUND!"

"You asked for it!"

A flash of light, a shift of form…and Ed was frozen, his eyes wide. His fist shook but didn't land again. I saw the form too. I had seen it before in my dream. That taller boy with long blonde hair... who looked like Hoenhiem... like Ed. I understood now why Envy chose his other form. He would never want a body resembling the person he hated so much. He would never live like that. It would be a cruel reminder.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted to see," his suddenly deeper voice rang out through the room.

My fists clenched by my side. Words flew around in my head.

Choice. Make your choice.

"Envy was the very first homunculus." Dante smile. "Created by Hoenhiem almost four hundred years ago, a result of the failed transmutation of our son who had died prematurely of mercury poisoning. I suppose you could say Envy was once your brother."

Brother. That was the killer word right there. I closed my eyes.

Ed had lost. I knew he had lost. But it wasn't too late yet. He had to move. He had to run!

But he wouldn't. I had to do something.

Soon you will make your choice.

A life for a life.

My eyes snapped open. I understood. It wasn't about revenge. It wasn't at all like that. It was my only way to make things right. It was equivalence. My feet started moving in a slow walk on their own.

"Then he abandoned me," Envy said softly. "Started fresh with his perfect wife and kids." I saw Envy's arm morph into a blade even if Ed didn't. "Needless to say I never did like being replaced."

Suddenly I wasn't thinking anymore. I was just running full force at Ed. I lunged. I knocked hard into him, sending him tumbling off of Envy just before a searing pain blossomed through my abdomen. All the hate and anger left Envy's face in an instant, leaving behind nothing but horror. But there was nothing I could do about that now.

I had made my choice.

A life for a life.


A/N: Welp! Hope you enjoyed! See you next week *cartwheels out of the room leaving cliffhanger behind* REVIEW~~