The Fate of It All

By: Icyblackflame

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist; I'm not intelligent enough. In fact, I can't even remember the person's name who invented it. Big deal.

Author's Notes: This is a dark fic - the characters are probably out of character (maybe not Envy 'cause we know he hates Ed a lot), but I don't think Ed would say things as rude as I'm making him say. Again: big deal. This has adult situations. What, exactly? I forgot. I guess you just gotta read to see.

As you can tell, I'm not in the best of moods, which is good because I can write excellent torture fics. Wow, there. I'm guessing you can assume there's torture. Yup. Okay, whatever. Read.

Summary: Envy and Ed hated each other. One always wanted the other to scream. To hurt. To ache. To bleed. To burn. To cry. One always wanted the other to die. But when fate causes a strange mishap of events to occur, one may very well find themselves needing the company of the other as a basic mean for survival.

xXxXxXx oOo xXxXxXx

Envy smirked at Ed's expression; it was absolutely delicious! The one person he knew that could match his expressions perfectly was surprisingly Edward Elric.

Envy continued to inch his way toward the deliberant blonde, drowning in the pure bliss he was feeling as he hungrily swallowed the poison the alchemist was electing.

"Do you know what rape is, baka-san?"

Ed shriveled his nose in disgust at the approaching predator. A completely worthless bag of filth. He took a step back and curved his lips upward to match Envy's putrid smirk. "What a beaver did to your mother in order to create you?" He glanced up slightly, imitating a thinking gesture, and then locked their gazes once again.

Envy grimaced at the remark and ceased his pace, his mocking smirk still intact. "Well, aren't you the comedian?" He ginned. "In my opinion, the only thing worth laughing at is your less-than-meaningless existence. A complete waste of flesh; a waste of time; a waste of space. A waste of life, even."

Edward snarled at this. "At least I'm serving a purpose while I'm alive, which you failed to do in life, and, pathetically, in death. If you asked me, you are the very definition of disreputable and repugnance." He inwardly smirked at Envy's expression. The homunculus had resumed his journey toward the blonde mid-sentence, and scowled.

"Why, thank-you, baka-san. I would have never expected such kind words from a leech like you." Envy slowed his steps as he approached the alchemist. "I've thought about it and decided there was one thing funny about your act." His smirk was back in place again, betraying nothing, but mocking absolutely everything. "The look on your face when I take away everything you wish you had, everything you thought you had, everything you almost have, and everything you'll never have..." Envy was in right in front of Edward. He narrowed his eyes and lowered himself so that their gazes could meet. The amount of venom dripping from his eyes alone paralyzed Ed completely.

"...Again."

oOo

Ed scoffed and curved his lips into a frown. He knew this was coming, and he hadn't tried to stop it. Well, what would it have done, anyway? Envy does what he wants. Envy gets what he wants.

...And Envy wanted Ed to thrive and thrash in pain, bleeding and drinking the blood he bled, choking on his own existence; drowning in his very essence.

Ed felt a searing pain as he found himself flying backward. His back spasmed as it connected with the wall with brute force, embezzling the last of his breath from him. Gasping, he struggled to stand and looked up, only to see Envy running toward him with a malicious look devouring his face.

"You'd better swallow that useless pride, Elric, because if you don't, I'll take it from you, grind it up, and beat it back into your vain body," Envy laughed. "Although it won't be so handy to you anymore. But then again, what would an imp like you know about being useful?" He had made his way back to Edward by now, and was about to punch him before his feet were knocked from under him. He fell hard onto the ground.

Edward stood up, his body throbbing and conflicting with every movement he attempted. He made it to his feet and held onto the wall for support. Everything was spinning; he could barely stand on his own. He nearly missed what Envy had stated, but he'd heard it, and he smirked with what little energy his body unwillingly offered.

"As if a squalid nothing like you could even define 'useful.'" Ed noticed Envy struggling up and looking at him with that same hateful glare. "That's right. You are nothing. Dead. Defiled. Worthless. Damn it, Envy, at least I'm alive, but I'm sure a swine like you couldn't possibly remember what that's like, can you? You can't possibly remember what it's like to be re-" Ed's face slammed into the wall violently. Envy had gotten up and made his way over to Ed without his knowing it.

Envy fought to catch his breath. He was seeing red, and breathing fire. How dare he. How dare that bastard say that to me...

Envy was about to strike when he heard Edward continue. His vision was getting blurry and his blood was boiling. He couldn't fight like this...he couldn't even think like this. How was it that whenever he thought of that Elric kid, he wanted to hurt something? Kill something? Destroy anything? Hurt him. Kill him. Destroy him. Envy smirked. No, destroy was not a strong enough word for what he wanted to do to the alchemist. He couldn't even describe what he wanted to do to Ed, but he'd just have to improvise. He wanted this kid dead now.

Through his thoughts, he'd completely missed what Edward had said.

Ed glared at him with a perplexed and untamed look on his face. "Did you hear me?" He was holding onto the wall for support. Envy could tell he wasn't going to hold up very long. Ed clapped his hands together and transmuted his automail arm into the metal sword he preferred using and lashed out at Envy with renewed, yet slowed speed. "Answer me, you bastard!" He yelled.

Envy nearly laughed at the teen's movements. Was he kidding? He couldn't believe that Ed actually found that thing even vaguely threatening. He held Ed off with a round-house kick, throwing Ed back a few feet. He then attempted a back flip, but was knocked back down in mid-air. How the hell did he get so damn fast?

This didn't exactly knock off Envy's train of thought. He spun his legs forward and lashed out, returning the favor by knocking Ed's feet right from under him. He soon discovered that he'd miscalculated his movement as Ed landed right on top of him, his feet kicking his face into the ground.

He grasped his head and pushed Ed off him, realizing that his strength was leaving him. Groaning, he stood up, and spat out blood. The pain had just now hit him...he'd bit his tongue very deeply. Damn it.

Waves and waves of blood began pouring down his throat, suffocating him. He coughed violently at this. He wanted the Elric boy dead now, but his strength was near pathetic. Had the alchemist hit him more than recognized? Envy was about to smirk when he fell to the floor.

Edward was throwing punches as hard as he could now. He, too, realized that both their strength was not the best at the moment. He could see that Envy was too lost in his thoughts, and took the opportunity. He'd struck his enemy with a sloppy double-round house kick, but he hadn't noticed his opponent's mouth full of blood, which had escaped through his mouth to his face.

He quickly scraped his right hand over his face to wipe away the rancid liquid. As he did this, he noticed that it was darker and colder than it should have been. Was this due to his being a homunculus, or something else? Ed hid this fact in the back of his mind as he noticed Envy making his way up and prepared himself for the worst.

To his dismay, a bright blue light surrounded Envy's form, transforming his body into something new. Or worse yet, he may have just been healing his body. Edward couldn't let that happen. Before the light had completely emasculated, he lashed out and pushed him backward.

To his surprise, he, too, was engulfed in a light of his own, but it was pink. That's when he noticed Envy's light fusing with his, turning it into a light purple, then surrounding himself with the same color.

Ed's body hurt like hell...and it felt as if it were burning, too. He couldn't tell what was happening to it, but he wanted it to stop right away. The light was vastly closing them in, leaving the air tighter and tighter. When it weakened, he felt...different. What had happened?

Envy opened his eyes to find himself thrown across the floor, opposite side of Edward. He looked at his right hand and noticed the blood. It was different. It was warm and bright red. Then he noticed the glass surrounding himself, and breathed out.

He looked around for Ed, or at least he tried to when he realized his vision was very blurry; he couldn't make out anything. No matter. He could just catch his scent-

Wait. Where was his scent? He couldn't smell anything but blood. In fact, now that he was fully awake, he couldn't see anything but blood. He couldn't feel anything but blood. Was he still in the same place?

He heard noise shuffling to his right and immediately jumped up to the offending noise, but found himself right back down on the floor. Granted, he had lost a great deal of energy, but he hadn't remembered losing this much power.

"Don't worry," He heard, "I can't get up right now, so you can just stay there, though it seems as though your body planned on doing that-" Ed froze. Who was that sitting there? It couldn't have been Envy.

He tried to stand once again, but found he couldn't, as he'd predicted. But what exactly was going on? His senses were...different. Stronger. He could see much better than he ever could, and he noticed a ringing in his ears. Upon further observation, he found that it was the other's breathing that he heard. And now that he was thinking about it, he hadn't been looking at the other's movements when he'd known they were trying to get up. He'd sensed them. Heard them. Smelled them.

He heard a raffling noise, and looked toward the other's direction and found he was staring at him too. Examining further, he concluded that the being did look like Envy, but he looked...

"Who are you?" Envy asked the other.

Ed looked confused. That definitely sounded like Envy...

"What do you mean who am I? Who do I look like?"

Envy's face was baffled. "I don't know. You sound like the Shrimp, but you don't look like him."

Ed blinked. How could he not look like himself? He still was himself. He snarled slightly and attempted to stand up. That's when he noticed the complete...lack of pain he was in. This was beyond him. He was about to walk to the other when he slipped on the blood swished around him and bucked forward. He saw nothing but black and felt something on his face. Somehow his hair had gotten out of its usual tie and was scattered around his face. He scoffed and moved it away from his face with his right hand and-

His right hand? Ed looked down and observed his hands, and stared with a disbelieving glance. He was staring at two hands. Two flesh hands. Then he took noticed of the black strands in his hand and pulled subconsciously.

That was his hair. What was going on? Surveying himself further, he noticed that he was wearing something different, and his legs were longer. He felt a chill run down from his spine to his waist, and-

Wait...Legs? Two legs? Two flesh legs? Two-

"Are you done yet? I already pointed out that you don't look like yourself. At any rate, you look like an idiot doing that. I'm guessing you still are that crappy-ass bastard. What the hell did you do, anyway?"

Ed looked up. "I don't know. I ran into you while you were shifting while my sword was transmutating itself back to my arm. It might have just been an alchemic reaction." He narrowed his eyes. "Why do you care, anyway? It obviously didn't affect you at all. You still transformed."

Envy raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about, baka-san?" Envy smirked. "I lost control of my shift when you so stupidly bumped into me. I didn't transform."

Ed eyed Envy with the same state of bewilderment. "Maybe your brain isn't functioning as well as it should be at the moment, which, I wouldn't be surprised, seeing as it never does anyway...but you did change. You don't look like yourself."

This was getting old. Very old. And it had just started. The homunculus eyed Edward with a tired look in his eyes. "I know you're a moron...but this isn't-"

That's all the Alchemist heard before the flames were turned up.

Ed returned Envy's glare with one full of as much odium as he could muster. The way he'd said that...he'd punctuated every word down slowly and precisely down to the last syllable, treating Ed as if he were stupid. Well, clearly the delusional homunculus was going out of his way to be stupid this time. Exceptionally stupid. Amazingly stupid. Ed sighed. He wasn't up for this today.

"Listen to me, Shithead." Ed closed his eyes and breathed out. His temper was beginning to rise; he could feel his blood simmering. "I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play here, and frankly, it's not funny one bit. But I do know that you do not look like the hideous, gender-confused troll you, for some reason, prefer to look like. Now maybe the four-hundred years you've moronically chosen to silence your brain cells are taking effect on the rest of your repulsive body. In fact, I'm sure they are. But I, however, am perfectly fine. I know exactly what I am looking at, you bastard. Instead of observing me like a hawk, why don't you pick your damn self up and take a peak at your reflection."

Envy snarled and looked down. He couldn't exactly tell what he looked like from all the shattered glass strewn about everywhere, and growled. With his left hand, he reached out for the massive amount of glass before him, and

Envy glared at Ed – this was getting very tiring. "Listen up, shrimp," he said hoarsely while reattempting to stand, which he was gradually accomplishing. "I know you have trouble comprehending sentences with more than three words in them, but I'll make this as short as I can: I...did...not...shift, understand?" Envy breathed out shallowly before continuing. "Now, I know you're a half wit...and that's on a good day, but this shouldn't be too hard to understand. Even for a dimwit like you." He punctuated his words slowly again...almost in a vicious manner. Ed was pushing him over the edge, and once he was off, there was no going back.

Envy found himself in terrible pain as he finally made his way into a standing position, and also held onto the wall for support. He looked back at Edward to be faced with an awkward glare. "So you didn't change?" he heard, and in nodded in response.

"No. I-" He paused and stared at the glass scattered about his feet. Now that he was standing, he could see his reflection much more clearly.

The man looking back at him had long, black hair, a thin, yet muscular frame, and piercing sapphire eyes. His left ear, he also observed, held a tiny, yet very noticeable silver earring hiding behind his slightly un-kept hair. Was he hallucinating? He knew he hadn't transformed – he would have felt it if he had.

But then...what had he done?

"I-I feel...different," he stated more to himself than to Edward.

"So do I," he heard, but ignored. "What the hell happened?" He reached for his right arm and froze. What was that...feeling? He was...he was warm. But how was that possible? He was dead. Dead people had no warmth whatsoever.

While Envy took his sweet time observing himself, Ed decided to do the same to his self. He trailed his vision over his flesh limbs – all four of them. This was certainly a new and ancient feeling.

He took his left arm and traced his right, memorizing every muscle he felt. He surveyed all the creases, all the shades, all the scars – anything he could drown in the overpowering sensation of having two arms. Together. On his body...

His body.

This wasn't his body, he realized. This was some guy's who...barely felt alive. He felt his cold arm again...there was almost no pulse. This body didn't feel...like a body at all.

Something suddenly struck him. He looked at his arms again and began to observe the blood veins...or tried to, at least. Then it hit him. He had no blood veins he could see. In fact, his arms were very pale and...freezing, although he, himself, felt nothing.

He glanced over his shoulder to find Envy staring at him with a cold sweat. What had happened to the both of them?

"-Going on?"

Ed now focused all of his attention on Envy, whom he hadn't even realized was speaking, even though he was staring right at him. "What?"

Envy cast him an aggravated glance. "I said, 'What do we do now? Tell me whatcha think's going on.'"

Ed snorted. "You want to hear what I have to say?"

Envy smirked. "Not really, shorty. I just want to know what the hell's going on. You had to mess things up, didn't you?"

Ed glared at Envy. "How did I mess things up? For your information, I was fine until you had to come and bother me!"

"Really now? Well if I recall correctly, you started this fight, and you ran into me while shifting, attempting to do alchemy. What were you thinking? Or were you thinking at all?"

Ed looked down and glared at his feet. How the hell was he supposed to know it'd affect anything? To be truthful, he hadn't even meant to run into Envy – he'd...stupidly...tripped over his feet and collided with him. But still...

"Whatever, Envy. Just whatever. But arguing won't help us solve this problem, now will it? We need to figure out what we are – who we are, and where are body's really are."

Envy sighed tiredly in Edward's direction. "You really don't have a good memory, do you, Baka-san? I am a shape-shifter; I don't need your help.

Ed scoffed. How could he have forgotten that? He sighed.

"Then why don't you just change back and leave me be."

Envy peered into the alchemist's eyes. "Gladly." He readied and wiled himself to shift while bracing himself, also. Granted, his abilities were amazing, but at a cost that no other being knew other than himself. Or Dante, possibly. But it hurt...very badly to shift. But each and every time proved well worth it.

He focused in his mind on the image he preferred to use. The "troll," as Edward so politely suggested. Envy scoffed. He didn't need to think about the Shrimp right now.

Everything about that person flooded his brain – his appearance, his scent, his state of dress, his personality, his voice; everything he needed to know to change into him.

Heh...willpower is so much stronger than humans seem to think it is.

With all the information he needed gathered into a tiny space in his mind, it felt himself explode inside, the painful process of transforming making itself known once more.

He felt the muscles of this person changing and molding into a thinner frame, he felt his bones literally ripping inside him. He felt everything down to the cells in his body shifting into "himself."

Oh yes, this hurt. But at least it was almost over.

...Or was it? He opened his eyes to find Edward staring at him intensely with a very bewildered appearance consuming his face.

"If you're done acting like n idiot, could you please just change and leave me the hell alone?"

Envy glared at Ed, but this time with a hint of confusion.

"Shut the fuck up, pipsqueak. I'm tired right now, so I'll just do it in a little while. Don't get on my nerves until then, and I may even decide not to kill you...today."

Ed smirked. He knew exactly what Envy meant by that. 'I'm too weak right now, but I'll change back when I'm not such a scrawny pig.' His smirk turned into a rather crazed grin.

"Soot yourself, Envy," he said as he watched the other sit down and close his eyes.

He opted to do the same, although he felt completely fine. Well, other than not knowing what the hell was wrong with him. But that could wait for a little while.

Right now, he had other things to think about.

xXxXxXx oOo xXxXxXx

Okay...there's chap one. Damn! I wanted to make it at least ten pages...which is still kind of short, in my opinion, but...this is barely nine. Oh well – I almost made it, heh. I think I would have talked myself dry if I kept on going, though. Well, there's no-where to go from there. Well, at least with this chap. But there are plenty more!

Now...I'm gonna try my hardest to get this story completed...and this will be my first one...ever, pretty much (that I've finished)...but I need your help and encouragement. Please review and tell me what you think! (Gives a brownie and a hug to all of you!...except Alex...He just wants the brownies )

Remember...flames are not allowed, but feel free to give me a negative review (with helpful criticism, of course!)

Random joke of the chapter:

Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch some Marijuana
Jack got high, unzipped his fly, and said, "Jill do you wanna?"
Jill said "Yes," flipped up her dress, and then they had some fu
...But silly Jill forgot her pill and now they have a son!
...Named George

-I know there are different versions of this -

Take care!