Part 4: Truth
'This wasn't right, I didn't understand! What was happening, why didn't Dante tell me about this!' I started sweating. 'This wasn't right, something didn't feel right.'
All of a sudden, I heard screams coming from above me. Screams not just from one person, but from a whole group of people.
"Dante! What have you done?" I screamed at her. She just smiled, this time not disguising it with fake sympathy, it was pure evil. It sent shivers down my spine.
"This is what you wanted wasn't it? To bring your sister back from the dead? Being an alchemist, I thought you of all people would have realized that everything in this world is bound to equivalent exchange. In exchange for your sister's life, another's life must be sacrificed."
"But there's more than one person up there!" I screamed. Gusts of wind were tumbling around the room as the alchemic reaction behind me grew stronger.
Dante just shrugged. "The more sacrifices, the more power the stone will have."
Above me, I could hear the screams dying out, engulfed by the roar of the howling winds from the reaction. Slowly, the reaction started calming down. I looked behind me and saw a red stone floating down into the middle of the array. It was glowing red and I could feel its presence. The thoughts of the people screaming above left me when I saw it. I could feel guilty later. First, though, I had to bring Elizabeth back.
I started walking towards it when I felt a fist make contact with the back of my head.
"Ha! And who said you could have it once you made it?" said a voice I didn't recognize. I tried to look at him but my head was pounding. All I could make out was that he had a tattoo of some sort on his thigh. Then I saw Dante's feet pass by me.
"Here you go!" said the new voice happily.
"Thank you, Envy." Dante said taking the stone.
I struggled to get to my feet. My head was still throbbing, but I had questions that needed answering.
"Dante! What's this? You said I could bring Elizabeth back with the philosopher's stone."
She just looked at me and smiled again. "I said I'd teach you how to make the stone. I said nothing of letting you use it." Then she started laughing.
"We trick fools like you who want power to create it for us. So thanks, Mr. Alchemist." The man said. He was tall and rather slim and wearing an odd outfit. He had wild green hair coming out in all directions that was only kept up by a head band.
"S … so you used Elizabeth's death to get me to make the stone. Was Hoenhiem in on this too! Did he tell you about her death!"
Dante started laughing again. "I had chosen you long before the girl died. We knew that you'd need more incentive to make the stone, so I ordered Envy to kill her."
She said it so simply, devoid of any emotion. Envy didn't even flinch at her words. They destroyed me. My eyes lost focus and I fell to the ground trembling staring up at her in disbelief.
Dante cleared her throat. "Now, Envy. Please go and clean up upstairs and then come back down to take care of Daniel … what!"
I had gotten back up shakily. I felt like I was going to vomit. The Person I had trusted all this time, who promised me I'd be able to bring Elizabeth back, had betrayed me, in the worst way possible. All I could feel was hatred for her and this guy called Envy.
I made a dash for the table before they had a chance to react and grabbed some of the silverware from it. I scratched a transmutation circle into the table and turned them into a long, thin sword.
"Oh dear, I thought hearing the truth about his sister would make him weaker. This is rather inconvenient. Envy."
With that Envy charged forward. I kept on thrusting my sword to hit him, but he was too fast and kept on dodging the impact.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to hit me like." He started laughing and then his body started to mutate. His form became hunched and he went on all fours, grey fur starting to cover his entire body. Next thing I knew, Envy was replaced by a wolf … A wolf.
I took a step back. "Then … it was you who killed Elizabeth." The beast didn't say anything but leaped forward surprising me. I tripped over my feet and fell on my back. Envy took this moment and swiped out at me. I moved just in time and stuck my sword inside of Envy's new form. He gave out a whimper and then backed away and fell to the ground dead.
I sighed and got to my feet, turning to face Dante. "Now it's your turn." But all she did was laugh. I stared at her dumbfounded and then heard movements behind me.
I turned around and saw Envy was getting up, back in his original form. "Now look what you've done, I've died." Then he started snickering.
I dropped my sword from the shock and he took that opportunity to lunge himself at me. We started struggling on the floor throwing punches at one and other. Even though he was thinner then I was his hits were much more powerful than mine were. We got back on our feet and made some distance between us. After waiting for a while, he lost his concentration and looked behind me. I saw a smirk form on his lips.
That's when I made my move and ran towards him. Before I even reached him though, I felt a sharp burning pain in my chest and I fell to the ground again, this time, no hope of getting back up.
I looked down and saw the sword I was using pierced through my chest. Dante, while I wasn't looking, had picked it up and had thrown it at me.
She walked towards me then bent down beside me. She pulled the sword out of me slowly, watching me writhe in pain. "He put up a good fight, normal people wouldn't even have been able to land a strike on you, yet he managed to kill you. What do you think Envy, should I add him to our group?"
"Do whatever you want with him. It would be good to have someone else with us, though I don't like him much."
I didn't understand what they were talking about. How could I be on their side? 1: I hate them. 2: how can I be on their side when I'm dying?
The last thing I heard was the clang of the sword hitting the ground, and then I couldn't hear anything else. The images in front of me were growing fuzzy; the only sure thing I made out was Dante looking down on me. A coy smile on her lips while she was thinking about her plans for me.
The last thing I remember was Dante brushing a loose strand of hair from my face, and then all went black…