Chapter 40

[Well we're back. Sorry it took longer than usual. Stuff came up.]

When Pride woke up, it was considerably darker, though he could tell he was in a hall. The walls were tan, and metal. He could see nails bolted in, keeping metal plates together to create the walls. The floor below him looked like a black and white tile, but it didn't feel quite right.

He sat up. It seemed it was more like he was in a room. The hall, walls curving in to make a circle, carried on for a little while before stopping at a door. The door didn't take up the whole circle. There was a part that was just a regular wall, with a keypad by the door. The light above the keypad was the only source of light in the room.

There was also another person in the room. She spun around as she heard him shift. It was hard to make out in the light, but he was fairly certain the woman's skin was a very pale purple, and the hair a very dark green tied into a braid. But, more tellingly, her skin looked softer and moister than human skin. The hair resembled wires more than hair, and both of those were familiar.

"You're that amphibian species," he said. "The highly intelligent one. Sorry. The Doctor and I met one on an ice planet, but that was over a year ago, and I can't remember the species name anymore."

"Ice planet?" She stared at him for a while, but then she sighed. "Do you mean Aqua?"

Pride blinked once. Then again. "Yes. You know her?"

The woman nodded. "She used to work for me. I fired her because she was crazy. My name's Tourmaline, by the way."

"I'm Pride. You could've mentioned she was crazy. Would've saved a lot of trouble."

"I left my less than glowing review of her available for public knowledge. I didn't expect anyone to hire her despite that, but maybe she found a way to hide it. She's clever with technology you know."

"I noticed," Pride said dryly. But considering what her boss on the ice planet was like, he might have known and hired her anyway.

Tourmaline nodded. "Well, we should get to work. This place is moving if you didn't notice. Which means every moment we're in it, we're farther away from where we should be. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to stay in this room indefinitely."

Yes. Pride could feel the floor vibrating slightly beneath him. The Doctor might try to get him out of this mess, especially if Lilly was also taken, but she might not even know they were missing yet. Besides, he didn't really want to sit around waiting for a rescue anyway.

He tilted his head. "Do you have something in mind?" If she didn't, he could always try alchemy on the wall.

Tourmaline nodded. "This key pad has some numbers smudged out, which means they've been used enough they're presumably the passcode. And I know what order the numbers go in most often, statistically."

Tourmaline punched in a code, and the door slid open. It opened up into a larger room, with someone already in it.

"You!" the person shouted, pointing at Pride.

The person took a half step back. Pride could see the how even though this person was angry, and would like to hide anything else, his eyes got wider and his finger trembled slightly. Very on point, but Pride shook his head. "This has to be some kind of trick. You're dead."

"Obviously not," Greed said. "And last I checked, Ed was taking care of you. And he came up totally fine. If anyone should be dead, it's you."

Well Pride wasn't about to explain why he wasn't dead. "And yet I'm not. And in the twelve years since the Promised Day, I haven't heard any hint to suggest your alive. Considering your human rules Xing, I'm sure you would've been noticeable."

"Oh he's ruling Xing now? Good. I'd be insulted if we went through all that and he didn't even get the throne."

"You didn't even know. Do you know anything that's happened in the last twelve years?" Greed didn't answer, though Pride didn't give him much time to. "Clearly the building is playing some sort of trick. You're not really here." Especially since he still looked like Ling, and yet wasn't sharing a body with him.

Tourmaline cleared her throat. Pride had been aware she'd come in, but he'd barely paid attention to her until she spoke up. "This isn't a building. It's moving."

Pride and Greed both turned to her. They were trapped in something moving away with a fake Greed, after being kidnapped (again), and she wanted to argue semantics?

She seemed to realize she was being ridiculous, changing subjects and sounding a little sheepish. "You two know each other?"

"You could say that. The name's Greed. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Tourmaline."

Greed extended a hand. It was clear he was trying, really trying, to focus on Tourmaline. But Pride could see the way he kept glancing at Pride. And Pride's shadow. If he caught Pride's eyes he'd glare, but Greed was nervous. Well, Pride's shadows couldn't move, and if Greed found that out he'd be considerably less nervous, and Pride would rather that didn't happen.

Pride got his best unimpressed look. "I thought we were getting out of here."

"Right." Tourmaline addressed Greed. "If you're not part of this place, how did you get in?"

Greed frowned, like this was a strange question. "'I went in a door."

"Willingly?" Pride asked skeptically.

"Yes, willing. This place is invisible. It seemed like a good place to hide. I was being chased, long story."

"It's invisible?" Tourmaline asked.

"Yeah. Cool, isn't it?"

"Impressive," Tourmaline agreed. "But a bit of a problem. No rescue is going to notice us any time soon."

"So we should focus on escaping," Pride reminded them, again.

"Then why don't you?!" Greed asked. "No, seriously. Why haven't you used your super special powers to get out? If you're really Pride."

And there it was. Pride couldn't use his old abilities, the form he'd gotten specifically to match Father. He could use alchemy, which homunculi couldn't do. It would be hard to come up with an explanation for this one. Greed was dumb, but not that dumb.

There was a sudden rumbling, it sounded like something grinding together, and the walls started moving closer together. All three walls, with the exception of the door they'd just come through.

"Oh no," Tourmaline said.

Greed laughed. He sounded like he was losing it. "Crushing walls. A classic."

Pride would rather not get crushed by the walls. "See any ways out?" he asked Tourmaline.

"I don't know." She shook her head. "I think the floor pattern was significant but . . . I can't think. I don't have enough time to figure it out!"

There had probably been some sort of time limit, but they'd been too focused on Greed to figure things out.

"Still not getting yourself out Pride? I suppose if you're fake that makes sense."

Greed had taken the classic route of putting both hands against the wall and shoving back.

"You're the one happy about walls crushing us," Pride pointed out, trying not to be insulted by how much his existence was in doubt.

It seemed, since the other two were useless, he'd have to do something. They were all getting a lot cozier.

Pride clapped his hands and created a hole in the wall directly in front of them. Greed stared, slack jawed, ignoring the wall as it pushed him. Pride shoved his head through the hole he'd just created. It seemed the floor ended beyond the room they were in, so no getting out that way.

He tried a different wall. Good, another hall going off. "Come on!" He shouted. Tourmaline jumped through, and so did Pride. Greed hadn't reacted yet. "Sometime today." And why did he care? He'd never cared about Greed before, and Greed regularly betrayed the other homunculi. Well, a part of him unfortunately knew why he cared, because he'd already had this conversation with Lilly, in an ice-cream shop. Seemed he'd be keeping this Greed alive. "Or we could just leave you here. I'm not sure what you were contributing anyway."

The words rang a little hollow, compared to normal, but it did seem to wake Greed up. The walls were now so close together Greed just had to lift his leg up and he'd stepped through.

"Now what the hell was that?"