You need to rest.

Kimblee's voice spread through Envy's mind in a soft wave, accompanied by soothing sensations in their chest and underneath their chin, trying to comfort them into submitting. Envy shook him off, growling deep in their chest, refusing. The fear was still too great- even now, they could practically feel the fire on their skin, the shock and heat and incredible agony, and they knew if they were found it would happen again. There would be no escape- Colonel Firestarter would no doubt want to finish it. And if they were to die, Kimblee surely would too, and that was the last thing either of them wanted. They needed to escape, before they could rest, needed to get out of Central and very far away.

They knew he had a point, though. Ever since they had exited the Underground (through a manhole in the middle of a road, at a point where the tunnels had become impassable due to damage from the fighting) it had been getting harder to keep moving. Their throat was dry and their mouth sticky, all of their unhealed burns sending spikes of intense pain through their nervous system whenever they moved (or even, whenever they didn't). There weren't even any stories left to tell to distract them from it- back in the comforting dark Kimblee had told them of how Pride had figured it out and turned on him, devoured him, too clever not to see through the plan to betray Father at the last second- cleverer, perhaps, than Father had been himself. And Envy had humiliatingly confessed to what they had done with the Flame Alchemist (It was funny, and I thought it would rile him up a bit, make him more willing to fight, I didn't realize what he would do to me-) and now all there was left to think about was how much pain they were in, and how they had no idea what had happened during the Promised Day, and how if they didn't leave Central as soon as possible they were going to die.

Please, darling, listen to me...you're going to hurt yourself-

"Shut up, Kimblee," they whispered to the empty alley they were crawling through, trying to ignore the stinging sensation as air passed over their still-scorched vocal chords. They knew they were disturbing him- they could almost feel it, somewhere in the back of their mind, perceptions of emotion that did not belong to them. They didn't really care. Surely, they were making progress, and every inch between them and the fire-wielder who had tortured them and murdered their sister was a victory in their mind. Oh, how they wished they had their power still- the Ultimate Disguise was more than just a costume, it was accessibility, and freedom in its purest form. They could have been miles from here hours ago, if only they had a pair of wings, or a horse's strong legs to run on. Perhaps they had under-appreciated it when it was there- thinking of such things now made them miserable.

Just for a few minutes. Drink something. You're not healing like you're supposed to-

As his thoughts rang out again, Envy realized that Kimblee must be worried, in a sense, trapped in the back of their head, able to see and hear what was happening but unable to do anything himself. Helpless. Images from his mind were conjured in faint flickers before their eyes- he would hold them, carry them even (as though he could), if he was still intact. It was kind of cute of him, but Envy wasn't going to listen, no, they were too stubborn and too afraid.

And stopping meant something else, too- it meant acknowledging fully the condition they were in, and they weren't sure if they could handle the humiliation of it as well as the pain. As they were now, with only enough energy in their core to keep their heart beating, they would heal as slowly as a human did. They might as well be human, for all that they could do. Even their mind had been taken from them- it was so hard to think clearly when in this much pain, so hard to think at all…

In one trembling misstep Envy suddenly felt a wave of nausea rock their body, their vision blurring to grey as spikes of hot and cold cascaded through them, the feeling in their fingers and toes fading out. Prickles of pain crawled up their spine, flashing and popping in their vision as hundreds of tiny white lights. The world was hyper-exposed, a high clear note playing at one pitch in their ears, and their head suddenly felt so heavy, and there was a thick weight in their stomach, they weren't sure anymore which way was up or down, or how they had managed to get where they were in the first place...

Vaguely, they could hear someone calling them- Kimblee, it must be, thank goodness- but his voice was coming from very far away, the end of a thousand-mile stone tunnel, and there was no way Envy could make out any words or even put forward the effort to answer him, they were just too tired…

Then the world went completely black, and Envy didn't think of anything.

"Envy?"

Kimblee called up into the darkness around him, trying to pick out Envy's consciousness from the fragmented souls of their Stone. They were alarmingly absent- where their vision had been just seconds before there was blackness, and the soft stirrings of their thoughts had gone entirely quiet.

"Envy, please answer me."

They weren't responding. Had they fainted? Please, let it just be that, let them wake again soon. How strange and eerie it was inside them now, with no light or thought or sound. And how unpleasantly without control he was.

After they had taken him in, he had been able to see and hear and feel as they did much more easily than from within Pride (perhaps, because they had wanted him there), and so he had clearly understood the severity of their condition. The pain from their burns had flickered in the edges of his consciousness like candles, little spikes of discomfort that were surely incomparable to the inferno that was reality. And they had been so stubborn, refusing to take care of their body even as it was falling apart around them- not that Kimblee could really talk, thinking of it now he probably would have behaved much the same. It had been alright, though. Despite his concern and his own unfortunate circumstances (entirely without a body, reduced to a consciousness inside of a whirlpool of mindless energy), it had been nice to be with them again, to know that if nothing else they were together and could take care of each other that way.

But now, Envy had become silent, and there was nothing Kimblee could do.

It was a terrifying feeling. The blackness around him seemed huge, much bigger and emptier without the presence of their consciousness. What was going on outside? He had no way of knowing, no way of moving forward, no way of protecting Envy should something find them while they slept. If they were just sleeping- the damage to their body had been veryextensive, what if they couldn't keep going anymore, what if they never woke up and instead just dissolved into nothing like charcoal in the wind-

Kimblee quieted his thoughts, a feeling similar to taking a deep breath only without lungs or air to fill them. The red Stone shining around and behind him was still there, the lost souls with their gaping mouths and empty eyes still writhing in their damnation. Envy wasn't dying. At the very least he could be certain of that. But they were still helpless and entirely alone out there, in a world that didn't want them, and Kimblee was stagnated here.

Unwillingly, he was reminded of his cell.

No, he mustn't think like that.

He focused on Envy's glimmxering core, the red light that contained the essence of their being, their "soul"- though one of the distinctions between humans and homunculi was that the latter apparently possessed no such thing. If he could do nothing here but wait, then wait he would. It was something he had become very skilled with over the years. Though it ached in his heart to return to that state of mind, he would tell himself the same thing he had every day in prison- just be patient, they'll be back again soon.

He could only hope it was true.