Cahpter 23

"My son? Why?"

Hohenheim's voice echoed inside Envy's ears, and his thoughts betrayed him. As the battle between Edward and Alphonse Elric was coming to a brutal climax, the circumstances of their battle brought old memories to bare, and he started to recollect a profound episode in his life: The day he died.

Hohenheim loved him as if Envy was his flesh and blood, and not an orphan.

Envy was a shy, little boy, living on the streets, orphaned when his parents died from preventable diseases, but as his family had no money to pay for medicine, they died, leaving him homeless and hungry.

But Hohenheim found him, adopted him; raised him, educated him, and gave him guidance and the confidence he needed to tame his world with Alchemy. And he was happy. He lived in a village where everyone knew who he was and welcomed him with open arms.

When he was seventeen, he applied to be a State Alchemist, and passed all the tests with ease. The Fuher at the time recognized his talents and assigned him to his first mission. He was elated to undertake the task given to him, and excited to start his new life and career as a certified State Alchemist.

But on his first mission, things went terribly wrong, and he accidentally killed an innocent child.

He was assigned to investigate an illegal gambling ring in the far northern Town of Cala. Instead, he found himself in the midst of a civil war between two fractions desiring power, and the residing Government begged for his help to resolve the situation.

At first, he refused to get involved because he was ordered not to interfere with the natural order of the town. But after nearly dying, after a rogue missile demolished the hotel he was staying in, one night, burying him under a heavy weight of rubble - using his Alchemy to escape - he offered his services to finally put an end to the civil war.

It was only after what he had done, did he regret his decision to get involved.

That night, angry and without fear for his life, he walked out into the battlefield, on the front lines -- an energy force barrier erected by his Alchemy protecting him -- he generated an outcrop of powerful Alchemic energy, and sent it pulsing in every direction, like a ripple through Time. In less than a minute: every tank, every gunnery, every weapon, was summarily silenced, after a horde of explosions. He then oversaw to the complete destruction of the remaining forces to both armies.

When he returned back to the town, he thought he would be congratulated. Instead, he found a crowd of people surrounding a small house on the edge of the front lines. He entered and was shocked to learn that a young boy had been killed when a piece of flying debris sliced through his home and killed him while he played with a toy train.

The townspeople blamed him, but he could not have known his actions would cause this result. He had tried to help them, but instead they banished him from the town, forever.

When he returned to Central City, he stood before the Fuher and explained his actions. The Fuher had read his report and understood his involvement in the civil war. But because of the severe nature of what he had done, he was suspended and them stripped of his State Alchemist certification. He protested, but his words fell on deaf ears. The local newspaper called him a murderer and he was run out of the city, after word of what had happened got to the public. They called him Retluous, which was Ishabalan for Soulless Monster. Because they felt he had killed the boy without mercy, and only people without souls killed like that.

Several months later, he returned, after perfecting an Alchemy technique so devastating that no one could stop him, and staged a one-man coup d'tetat against the Alchemy Academy in Central City, slaughtering several State Alchemists in his wake. He wanted revenge for what the academy had done to him, and went on a rampage. There was no end to his violence and destruction, and he loved it!

But when there seemed no end to his butchery, one man stepped up to face him, and that was his adopted father, Hohenheim. And he held an ancient Samurai sword, for which Hohenheim had carried around with him everywhere. It was passed down to him by a great swordsman who instructed Hohenheim in its usage. And it apparently had a very special ability, though Hohenheim never told Envy what that was.

Hohenheim looked very different from his present appearance. He was a younger looking man, but his hair was still blonde.

"My son. Why!" Hohenheim said. "Why do you do this?"

When he saw his father blocking his way on the front steps to the Academy, he gritted his teeth in disgust. "Because, Father, they cast me aside, like the orphan that I am, for a crime that was not my doing," he said, bellowing a deep hatred towards him. "They ran me out of town, and you said nothing! You disowned me. Why? And why do you stand in my way now? "

"I had no choice, my influence on the matter was limited," Hohenheim said. "But I knew you would return someday, stronger than when you left. Only, I never conceived of this. No son of mine would act discordantly in such a manner," he then said. "I raised you, I taught you the value of right and wrong, and now, this is the way you repay my kindness and generosity?"

The anger began to swell inside Envy until he could no longer contain it. Wearing a pair of white gloves, with the Transmutation symbol etched into the palm of each one -- which his own idea, so he wouldn't have to drawn a circle all the time -- he brought his hands in front of him and clenched his fists tightly, bringing his elbows inward. Then he formed an ancient Alchemy symbol with his hands. He brought his thumbs, forefinger and Index fingers together, curling his other fingers inward, making a symbol much like a church steeple or a chapel. Then he brought his hands to his chest, and over his heart. Hohenheim recognized the symbol immediately as forbidden Alchemy.

"Tonight I will bring a new era, Father, a new dawn where everyone who wishes it will be able to practice Alchemy freely and without restraint, instead of being slaves to the State and their bias laws," Envy said. "I will destroy the Academy and therefore annihilate their hold on the people."

"The State doesn't regulate the use of Alchemy," Hohenheim said. "The purpose of the State Alchemists is to protect its citizens from its misuse. Alchemy is the right of everyone and it's a responsibility. Laws are enforced to keep order, without order chaos would reign, and the world would be a very dangerous place."

"But the world is already a dangerous place! At least with Alchemy, people have a fighting chance!"

Hohenheim shook his head, disappointed. "I can't allow you to evoke forbidden Alchemy, son," he said. "If you insist on taking this path of destruction, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to destroy you!"

"You're buffing," Envy said, smirking thin, his blonde hair waving in the wind. "And what can you do with that sword against my powerful Alchemy?"

Suddenly, thunder rumbled in the sky, and Envy looked up quickly, and saw that dark clouds were beginning to mass together in a very suspicious and uncharacteristic matter, on an otherwise clear day, swirling around as if someone was controlling them. He had heard Alchemy could govern the weather, but it would take a master Alchemist to do something like that. And yet, Hohenheim was such a man.

But how was he doing it? He wasn't using Alchemy, he had no Transmutation Circle to work off of. The only thing he had was that sword. But then he looked around and saw the Academy was outlined with a giant Transmutation circle, and Envy was standing inside it. He tried to step outside the circle, but an invisible barrier was keeping him inside. He used his own Alchemy to try to crack the barrier, but without success. He looked again at the mass of clouds above his head and saw that a vortex had formed.

"Father. . .Nooo!" he shouted out, but his plea fell on deaf ears once again, and the vortex dropped and the clouds engulfed him, encompassing his entire body, spinning rapidly around him. He panicked and screamed in awful agony, his voice shrieking like someone who was being murdered, and the dark clouds slowly folded in and started to crush him like a vice grip around a piece of metal. It was then his body vanished inside the vortex. But, much to his trepidation, his consciousness -- his soul -- still remained, residing inside it.

The vortex was then sucked into the blade of Hohenhelm's sword, and Envy was gone, his human soul trapped inside it.

Envy blinked, returning to the present.

It was a fleeting memory, something he thought he had forgotten, but the fight between Ed and Al brought it back from the depthless void of his subconscious.

When he was resurrected as a Homunculi, a creature without a soul, through the disillusioned and envious ideal of his father to be normal, something other than the body snatcher that he was, jumping from person to person, transferring his consciousness from one mind to another, stealing that person's identity -- that resounding memory of his death -- his soul trapped in the sword, that the son of Hohenheim now wielded, Alphonse Elric -- was recollected. He still didn't understand how, but he theorized, as he was a part of Hohenheim's past -- Hohenheim's desires, hopes, and dreams, and even his thoughts, were transferred over to him when he was conceived, like memory ingrams of the Human consciousness.

But the past was ancient history.

And yet, he still harbored the deep hatred, and feelings of abandonment and betrayal, towards Hohenheim, he felt on that day. They were burned into his consciousness like a memory.

He had a second chance at life. Well, actually, a third chance. And he wasn't going to blow it. After he killed the sons of Hohenheim, he'd return and finish what he started, and destroy the State Academy in Central City. After, however, he retrieved his soul from Hohenheim's sword.

Everything was coming together as he had planned, and a sinister smile crept onto Envy's face.

"Time to die now, Edward," he said.

And he saw Edward trip backwards and fall to the ground as he moved away from Alphonse, fully exposing himself to an attack from his brother. And Alphonse obliged, wasting no time, striking hard and fast with his father's sword.

To be continued...