Roy's vision flashed red; the world around him warped and distant from his target.
Envy.
Something within him flared, and for once, he refused to push it down. He embraced it, letting it pull him under a sea of fire and rage and revenge.
And Envy, the homunculus— monster in front of him had the audacity to act bored.
Bored, as if they hadn't extinguished the flame that single handedly burned bright enough to consume the world in its light.
Bored, as if they hadn't reduced those affected into shattered fragments, far too brittle to repair.
For Envy, it was as simple as breaking a mirror. The only difference was they didn't scramble to pick up the pieces. Instead, they laughed.
Roy couldn't possibly think of a word strong enough to contain the fury that pulsed through him, ferociously destroying him from the inside out.
He needed an outlet; he needed vengeance, so he did the only thing he knew how to do.
He snapped. He destroyed.
Envy's screams assaulted his ears in a brilliantly pained cacophony, but Roy was far too distracted to relish in the sheer satisfaction of the act. The numbness he'd grown used to had forced itself to transform into a flurry of emotion so strong that Roy had to physically ground himself.
He snapped again.
And again
And again.
He snapped until the fluids in Envy's eyes boiled out of their sockets; until their tongue had all but turned to ash. For the first time, he reveled in the taste of evaporated fat upon his lips.
Envy deserved to feel death, and Roy refused to stop until they would. It wasn't the type of death that could be restored and regenerated. Roy wanted permanence. He wanted fear.
Of all things, Envy fled.
Roy followed.
He'd long since dismissed the others that had been with him. Envy was his target and his target alone. If this were to become a chase, then so be it.
He rushed forward with a start, scanning the tunnels around him for any sign of activity. His steps echoed around him, yet he could hardly hear them over the sound of blood rushing through his ears.
"Hey, asshole!"
Roy froze. No.
Ed— no, Envy stomped forward, arms crossed and a stride full of confidence and irritation. A crimson red coat trailed behind them, and if he squinted, Roy could faintly see a blossoming red stain begin to form on their coat. With every step the stain grew larger, dripping blood to the ground with small taps.
"The hell do you think you're doing, bastard?!"
For as much as Envy looked and sounded like Ed, the difference couldn't be more obvious.
Those weren't Ed's eyes.
"Why-"
Roy snapped before they could finish, because how dare they wear his face. It was a mockery of everything Ed had been, and only served to fuel his flames. He felt sick.
Envy grinned between bursts of fire, cackling like a madman.
"Oh, this is hilarious! The feared Flame Alchemist, reduced to a beast hiding beneath the skin of a human! You're not so different from me now, are you?"
Roy paused, hand poised to snap. He'd lost the right to be called human long ago, so what difference did it make? He had no right to be granted the luxury of being viewed as anything but.
He remembered the screams that tore their way out of Al's soul, fragile and raw and wrong. The boy had tried to adjust — God, he'd tried — but Roy was no fool. Al's spirit had been dulled, and a sick part of Roy thought with irony that the armor had become fitting. Empty. No child deserved a fate as cruel as the one that'd been thrown at him.
Roy would rip away his last shards of humanity himself if it meant he'd get the justice he yearned for.
Ed was gone, and that was enough of a reason.
He snapped in a whirlwind of fury, alternating between pinpoint strikes and full blown explosions. Faintly, he thought of what Ed would've thought of him, giving in to rage in a way he'd sworn he never would.
He was dead. It didn't matter.
Roy tried to tell himself it was for Al, for Winry, for all the lives that'd been made a little brighter by the presence of one stubborn brat. He wanted to think this vengeance was for their sakes, but he couldn't force away the selfish part of him that incessantly spat the truth in his face. His goals had always been about himself, anyways. He was ambitious to a fault, and if he wanted something, he would get it.
Somewhere along the line, Envy's body had disintegrated, and the disgusting creature they truly were crawled out of the ashes with trembling steps. Roy was faintly aware of Riza's presence behind him now, eyes trained on his glove with sharpness. Would she stop him like she'd promised, or had she simply decided to take the descent into hell with him? Either way, Roy wouldn't blame her.
"You humans think you're so great, yet you allow yourselves to be reduced to this!" the thing wailed. "Aren't you ashamed? "
Envy pattered over to him, sharp teeth contorted in a way that almost resembled a smile. "Hatred will always breed more hatred, don't you see? Humans are such simple creatures. One insignificant death is all it takes for you to destroy yourselves!"
Perhaps Envy was right. Roy was simple, torn to shreds by the death of a child he'd hardly gotten to know. There was nothing complex about it. He knew why Ed had been killed, and that too had been simple. It was unfair, but not accidental. The creature in front of him had pulled the trigger, but who was it that was truly responsible? Envy wasn't the one who'd forced a child into the military, after all.
They stared at once another, Roy's face unconsciously contorting into one of disgust. Not so different, huh?
He tried to reach inside himself to find anything that wasn't unbridled rage; anything that wasn't blackened and tarnished by his own doing. He couldn't.
Roy snapped.
Riza watched.