"People cannot gain anything without first giving something in return,"

Wrong. The most significant law of alchemy had betrayed its most devoted follower. He'd discovered that is wasn't true, it was simply not true. It wasn't.

( It isn't? )

And he was not just referring to the Philosopher's Stone, which just as easily bended away those laws. Did the monster that did this to him fucking follow the law of equivalency? Of course not. Ed bet he was probably having the laughs of his life right now.

The repugnant little bitch.

( And just how does what happened relate to the laws of alchemy? )

Oh, but it did, Edward just wouldn't admit it to himself. Had he paid for what he had wanted out of Ed? And what he had taken from Ed? He had not. And yet, life went on.
Well, at least for the rest of the world it did.
So, did it matter if one disobeyed Edward's oh-so-respected laws of alchemy?

--You must pay up to get what you want.
--You must pay the worth of what you want to get.

Oh, but why? If you are paying up with something of the same value as what you want to obtain, then why do it?

( Yes, but a couple of chemicals and two drops of blood weren't the exact same as Mother, )

Had the young blond known that a couple of years back and he wouldn't even be here.
Dying or whatever.
And what if it had worked? If? Something told Ed that it wouldn't have been the same. He would know inside him that his mother had died, and would have only loved those couple of chemicals and drops of blood. An incredible shame it was that he had never thought of that. Then again, the Gate had its ways and you could never predict. Never. So, maybe it would have drawn his mother from Heaven and it truly would have been her with all the memories. The unfairness of that would be unspeakable, just because the two boys couldn't live with the truth that their mother died? Every other body in the world who had lost a dear one wouldn't get them back, but the boys got to. They were just different and special that way. Then young Ed and Al would have had to find a way to tell their mother, "Sorry, Mom, you're not dead anymore because we wanted you back,"

Still, none of those facts slowed the child down, it was simple kid logic at work. It was a selfish little sin with big after-effects. Ignoring every little one of those warnings in his head, Ed still wanted her back. Maybe it would have been just those chemicals and nothing like his mother, just her incomparable beauty, softness and graceful voice. Just her mold, just something…

Something that looked liked her.

( But I'm just glad neither one had to happen. And if there was a lesson to learn, I think I would have covered it. But there wasn't, there was no down and there was definitely no up. )

Period.
Before, Edward thought all of humankind had to get the gist of that law, the law of equivalency, alchemists or not. Apparently, the top did not spin in that course, the world didn't. At that split second, Ed only wished he wasn't an alchemist, he wasn't human, and that he was just nothing

( Who knows, that could be what I am right now. )

He made a mistake, and was too much of a coward to fix it. Again.

( Just like that bastard. )

He was just a kid, frightened and aching. Trapped between needing to play the character of father and mother to his only family and actually wanting to.

( But of course I want to! It is… it's Al. Of course I want to be the best for him, I always have. )

Still, his own thoughts no longer fooled him. He merely wanted to be the normal boy he once was, the normal Edward Elric. But he is a nobody trying to be somebody that was left behind; trying to get something not meant for nobodies like him. Something he lost, and something that wasn't his to begin with.

Sure, he is distinguished all around, he is pointed at, for a good or bad reason, and recognized as the Full Metal. Not that it was ever a good thing though, deep down, he didn't want to be 'full metal' much less be given the pet name of such.

Since the day Edward sold his freedom in the military, he pictured having "Edward Elric, Dog of the Military. Killed in action" upon his tombstone. Because he served like a dog on a golden leash. But not real gold, just coated in it. Fool's gold. It was just a metal leash, metal like him and full of it.

He was realizing how selfish his thoughts were. There he was, wishing he would die because he's so miserable, not even thinking of a little someone who had an even worse pain in a heart he didn't have. Sweet Alphonse, always by his side. What would he really do if Edward departed this life? Passed away, stopped 'working'. Would he follow, or carry on? Carry on the dream and think, "Ed would have wanted me to do this." or kick the bucket after his brother?

He would really like it for Al to put flowers upon his grave. Just like Mom.

( Mother… )

He might see her again. In some kind of heaven or something. Yet, Ed would have to believe in all that first and he could not. He could not get to believe it even if he tried. It was stupid; it's not real. If there really is a savior, a God, where was He when you drew your last breath? When Ed's heart pounded its last beat?

(No! Y-you… you just shut up. Whatever the fuck you are, my conscience or something. I'm still alive, okay? )

That was just it, He was not there. He was not anywhere. He wasn't there for the nobodies, and that was all Ed had to do to prove it. Just right then did the young blond understand what Greed had told him back there, the sin said strings were being pulled here. Now he knew who and whose. Ed was being pulled on strings by everyone around him, and all he had to do was cut those strings and go down from his own, free will. Then maybe dieing wouldn't be so upsetting.

Still, he would miss Al so much

"Hmm…he has a fever, though. Let him rest a little longer," Came a gentle, female voice. The hand removed itself. A cold, wet towel replaced it afterwards.

"Alright,"

"He'll be fine now. I'll be downstairs fixing up something to eat."

"Okay,"

"You can stay here, just let him rest." Footsteps walked out.

"Sensei?"

"Shh…"

"Thank you," The sweet voice spoke again. Ed began to make out the soft, child-like sound of it.

"Mm-mm" Footsteps paced away, sandals flopping. Then a loud, clanking sound came closer in its place.

"Who-- who's…?" Ed could hardly get by making the tiniest sound, his voice was but a hoarse whisper. Al gasped and sat in a chair at the side of Ed's bed.

"Brother? It's me, Alphonse," He whispered. He didn't really want to ask but the question let itself out. "Wh-what happened?"

And Ed understood the question as plain as it came, but of course he didn't want to answer it, for the same reason Al didn't want to ask. He could not summon up anything from a simple 'what happened'. All he knew was that Envy was there, and his mother. He thought about that though and, obviously, figured it must have been Envy who took that holy form. Then Envy did things to himYet even trying to remember confused him even more and made his head hurt to no end.

The shape-shifter was there, and... Ed was in a bed and couldn't move. He could recall fighting and screaming, mostly from himself.

Ed's wheezy breath broke in before Al would dare to ask his unanswered question again.

"I… wh-where…?"

"Sensei's house. I brought you here. You were… in very bad shape, brother, real bad." Al noticed Ed's eyes remained closed during their unstable conversation. He figured he shouldn't be talking to him when Izumi told him to let the boy rest, anyway.

"…Al?"

"Brother, its ok, I'm here… But, Sensei said you probably needed to --"

Ed coughed. "Ho… my ha--… hold… m--"

Al quickly took a hold of Ed's shaking hand. It was trembling so much it just about rattled his entire, lifeless arm.

"H-how long--" A tiny hiccup interrupted him. But it wasn't tiny to him, it momentarily choked him and gave him a brief touch of suffocation. "Ha…has it been… Al?"

He keeps repeating my name, I said I was here with him, already.
"A day, I took a train alone with you to get us here. I didn't know where else to go, brother, I was so scared for you… And this is the first time you wake up," The young alchemist's voice quivered near his last words. "Brother… tell me you'll be ok, please?"

Edward wanted to open his eyes and look at him. However, such plain act seemed so demanding to do at that moment. His shaky eyes felt clammy and soaked when he didn't even remember to have cried that much. Not that he remembered much else.

"I-I will… j-just--" He groaned, Al held his hand tighter. He knew that it did not matter how tight he held that sweaty hand, he couldn't feel the pain his brother was going through. But he assumed at least Ed felt better by having him hold his hand like that so tightly the way he was. It was more calming and soothing.

Suddenly, the elder alchemist gasped.

Al followed.

"Brother?"

Tears rapidly found their way down from the only one who could shed them.

Ed tried swallowing, but something in his throat was preventing him from doing that and even breathing properly, something wanted to come up and out. He could feel a slimy taste in his mouth, sort of like metal. Like iron, a nauseating taste. Tiny balls of it circling in his mouth, minute threads making their way through his teeth.

He abruptly spit out the blood that was swimming in his mouth and gagged. The red liquid rose from his mouth like a hellish fountain. Al jumped, his chair tumbled back. The sight of blood upon his brother brought nightmares to him. Nightmares that he couldn't dream and often turned into reality, just like now. They began from the first time he saw blood on Edward, that disastrous day in which blood was all over him and Al had to hold him that way. Naturally, he hadn't cared back then, he hadn't the time to think of pain and sickness, only to save the life lying on his newly cold and insensible arms. For what reason, to sit and watch him lose it?

Edward began coughing, he wasn't getting enough air. It was visible because of the way he tried to gasp but made nothing but a horrid, gagging sound from it.

"I- I can't… yo-your ha- !" Ed yelled to his terrified brother.

The sick alchemist choked within his own tears as he spoke to the other. Al urged to get closer to him and hug him, make him feel better. Certainly not physically but clearly for the other reasons, the more important ones. More than that, he wished to simply wipe off the crimson stain on his shirt, neck, pale face and heart. But doing that would only scratch that perfect skin, and a hug would most likely come to cut him even deeper.

"My hand? Brother, what's wrong!" The young alchemist cried, still holding and shaking Ed's hand as if to get him to talk.

"Ed!"

Al was bitterly mistaken. It wasn't comforting, calming or soothing to hold Edward's hand. It was nothing, literally nothing at all.

Edward opened his eyes violently, his petite pupils staring up blankly in shock. It looked so painful, the way they burst open, with an almost tiny sound of a 'crack' as his flaky lashes split open from their long-closed term. Perfect eyes that were excessively reddened, the small veins wadding themselves up with blood and inexplicably not bursting as they were. Still, it was relatively ironic. As a child, Edward had always feared that sandy effect that one got in the mornings as they opened their eyes, he always thought of the Sandman sneaking in at night and dropping the blazing crystals upon his perfect little golden orbs.

( I knew it. He did it all those times, I sometimes even heard him snigger at night and saw his shadow hovering over my bed! )

"I can't f-feel it!" He let out an ear-piercing scream. A scream of pain, horror, fear, heartache and all of the above.

"SENSEI!"

Smooth, white hands slammed down furiously on the table.

"You're not listening to me, Envy!"

The Sin ignored her and continued to look at his perfect facial beauty on a small mirror in hand. His bare feet rested on Dante's smooth table.

My nose. Yes, that's my problem; I need to work on my nose. I've never liked how the shrimp's is a little longer than mine is. Hell, I'll mimic his from now on, only better.

"Is Lust back, yet?"

Envy could not wait to tell his sister about his little adventure. Nonetheless, he wouldn't be surprised if she already knew about it, his little act had become quite a talk.

Lust was the one he got along with best anyway, the others didn't matter to him. Not that Lust did matter, he just liked her better than them. She would listen to him, more often than he would listen to her, but it still felt nice to have someone to talk to. Dante would never hear a word of what was going on in Envy's mind, sort of like a real mother and son thing, so he guessed Lust knew him more than anyone else. And of course, he knew her just as well, maybe a little more, but he liked it that way, he liked her. He liked her a lot... and she didn't know that.

"You're not even listening to me tell you you're not listening!"

"Stop screaming, yeah? You're giving me a headache,"

Dante growled.

"Focus Envy, either you buckle down and learn to shut up, listen and respect, or you will be very, very sorry."

The Sin calmly took his feet off the table and stared at her for some long, still seconds. His seriousness didn't last very long before he broke it with laughter.

"Whatever the hell bit you today?"

The woman grinned. Envy hated to admit it but it certainly did scare the not-living fuck out of him when she grinned like that. No matter which body she was residing in, the nasty little grin didn't change one bit. It wasn't a good gesture, and he knew he needed to cut off the jokes when she lost her patience. Yet the cocky attitude was his trademark, so he simply rolled his eyes.

A sudden knock on the main door cut off Dante before she clapped.

"Get it,"

A sigh. "Coming!"

Envy stood up and walked out of the kitchen, letting the elegant, glass doors slam behind him recklessly. Dante thought to herself for a few, dull seconds. She realized perfectly well that Envy would eventually find out about the attractive matters of the world and would want to bite off the leash she had had around him for so long. It didn't perturb her much, however, she did just wonder what he would do if he was able to step off her strong hold on him. Becoming a human wasn't his main concern, that was for sure. Then again, she could not have her brat going after his daddy, either. He was perfectly capable, daring, guiltless, dense and mad enough to kill him in cold blood, and so was Dante to take her make believe son's life if he was going to try and go at it against her. Son against mother, mother against son. Fair as it comes.

"It's your dog," Came Envy's screechy voice, interrupting her thinking.

Dante smiled to herself and stood up in her new, elegant way. In truth, it was but the body's elegant ways.

"Ah, Pride," She walked over to the back door, heading tours her garden. Without needing the word from her, Pride followed with his perfectly fake, joyous smile plastered on his perfectly-fake features. The older Sin stood by the door, glaring at him, and his fellow brother not even bothering to look down at him. He wasn't worth the look of his decent self.

"I'm going out, don't expect me back tonight,"

Dante stopped and chuckled. She turned, a wide smile on her face.
"No, you are

The elder Sin brushed off the annoying look the raw homunculus was giving him as he stood safely behind Dante, which wasn't much of a barrier to Envy, anyway.

"Wha-? I got you your stupid little watch, I currently have nothing to stay here for and waste my time!"

Dante interrupted him again. Her hand in the air in an innocent manner, the other resting on her hip.

"You will stay here because you belong here," She said in a factual tone.
And because the children must stay under their mother's wings.

Her conscience warned her to keep Envy under close watch. Very close, closer than the others. She was a mother. She knew what her children were doing and what they were up to with a creepy style, it was an extra motherly sense. She especially knew what went on inside Envy's feeble mind. It wasn't hard to guess in any case, he wanted to kill and hurt the innocent.

Or at least that's what one would think of the treacherous Sin.

He had personally set himself to go after the Elrics. It honestly didn't matter which one, both were as valuable as one another to Dante. Equality among the both of them, both uselessly useful. It would be rather interesting to know which one Envy wanted his hands on, however. And a little birdie happened to have told her how Envy had already gotten his hands on one of them. But perhaps he was after the young one now, except Dante couldn't think of any reasonable cause for the homunculus to be after either one of them in the first place. He obviously hated them with his wicked name as the reason, but it couldn't be that Envy had reached the point where he couldn't see them alive anymore. Hated them down to the missing heart inside of him, wanting to expose their guts with a bombing effect. Drown those golden eyes of theirs with dark, red blood.

Dante grinned. She couldn't be any prouder of her creation. At least right now she couldn't.

"And because you have nowhere else to go," She finished.

"We'll see about that,"

Pride finally stepped out of Dante's shadow, "You will not speak to your mother in that tone of voice, boy!"

Envy growled and pointed an accusing index finger at him, walking tours his fellow brother."You! You don't tell me what to do and you don't call me 'boy'! You pathetic excuse for a disgusting human! Don't even look at me!"

Envy's statement had to engender a feeling of humor upon Pride as he turned away chucking, deciding to let Envy think before he insulted. Yet the elder Sin didn't ever consider that one. He didn't consider himself a 'boy' because that is a male human… and well, it needs not to be stated that he isn't a male human. Nor, clearly, a female human. He liked to think of himself as 'both and either'. Neither gender, even as a homunculus with his scheming form. It absolutely didn't bother him to think that in any way he was some kind of 'freak' for it, because gender was for sex. Sex fascinated him like a newborn sucking on it's mother's tits. He mastered the god-given routine. He wasn't obsessed with it as far as someone like Greed would be.

But that bastard could control his excitement…

He just loved it, he wasn't labeled as pride or vanity, yet he loved himself. Himself only. He was the only thing the Sin desired to worship and did. There was no need for a significant other, not because homunculi didn't need one, but because he did not need one individually. Of course, someone like Lust would be a perfect example of disagreement. But toying with the subject was fun, however, it was at its best to leave it to a well-set limit. Envy wasn't afraid of having an intimate relationship with another; he just found no point in it other than simple reason as to have fun, dirty, untamed sex.

Love was just the top cherry on his icy-cream sundae, and he carried the spoon with the power to flick it off. Love was for the weak, honestly, look at where Dante was now because of it? Now, sex was for the dominant one, male or female. Envy surely took into account of himself as the overriding one when it came down to it, and like mentioned, he preferred to have both and either gender to toy with.

It mesmerized him; he was an astonishing piece of art, looking in the mirror and touching himself, the perfect, white flesh, was an addiction. It truly was, he didn't get enough of his own skin. After all, there was nothing wrong with studying his perfections and finding where he liked to be touched best.

He created this piece of art, not that manipulating bitch. He had only made a horrible thing, a frightened bit of trash, a pathetic little nothing. And all she made of him was a sick, overused mold. He was the true artist in the story. The ideal knight of the round table, a table for three. His androgynous qualities were complete and flawless; all the years he had taken to create this perfect form had proven to have given an amazing result. There wasn't the tiniest spark of regret or guilt for what he had done to himself, especially when referring to his most recent act.

If Envy was to like a man, he was a woman. He liked woman, he was a man. Then again, experimenting was another obsession. So, if he liked a man, he was a man, he liked a woman and he was one. These mixtures never came to happen, unfortunately, because nor did men or women incitehim when he was their same sex. Not until the pipsqueak became vulnerable and fun to toy with.

Envy immediately closed the subject there though; the shrimp was a squeezable toy and nothing more. But of course, there was nothing more important than a toy such as him.

The Sin took his look away from the uniformed homunculus to his superior's eyes. He licked the back of his teeth as he gave Dante a fierce look from head to toe and shrugged.

"I have better things to do," He sighed, and stormed away,

"You can expect Lust to be after you," Dante said, calmly.

"Yeah, whatev-" He slammed the huge doors closed.

Dante smiled to herself, "Yes... expect Lust to bring the worm back home,"
Pride chuckled, then cleared his throat, "So, what did you want me for, Dante? Lets talk quickly, I have a very tight agenda, you know."

"Yes, of course you do," She said proudly- proudly. The woman turned and opened the door to her back garden. Pride followed orderly, without needing the order. His hands entwined behind his back

"I need to talk to you about that famous alchemist of yours, dear," She said, bending down to caress the brilliant petals of her roses.

"Oh, Fullmetal?" Pride asked, with a frown. He stood silently behind her, watching her snake her hands through the flowers. Suddenly, her hand clutched into a fist, right after hearing Pride's response. She knew what Envy had done to the boy. She merely sent the sin to take Edward's watch, for reasons of her own, but Envy had taken a liking to disobeying her, more than he used to. Much more than he used to, he has never talked back to her and always directed her as Mother, just like the others. Now it was "master", sure it didn't bother Dante the way things had suddenly changed, but she liked what she felt when he called her Mother. Then she could treat him like a child, punish him like one, and also have the authority as his master, all at the same time.

Edward Elric, on the other had, wasn't currently so fortunate. He was dieing. And it was all over Central, and just about everywhere else about what had happened to the poor boy. People were enraged that such sick actions were taking place in Central, the city where justice was supposed to rule the most, and no one gave a care about it. More and more people turned on the military everyday; they had taken Edward's personal problem and made it the excuse they had wanted for years.

Silly Envy, all you wanted to do was have some fun while you were on such a simple mission. But of course you wouldn't let it be simple, would you? And I knew that all along. You certainly had your fun, I'm very sure of that, you disobeyed me, but behind that you did something greater for me than what I had planned. Ah, yes, more like him every day...

"No," Dante muttered. She picked a putrid and dusty rose from the rest and squeezed the hardened petals in her hand. She smiled, pouring the now red dust of what once was the rose over the other, bright and beautiful flowers, raining death upon them.

She stood, gracefully, to face her homunculus. "The Flame."

Pride's lips stretched into a morbid grin, a trait that wasn't used to his features.

YAY!

I love that old song. The Flame. Anyone else? Heheh.

I think it's almost a year since I updated this… there are no words I can possibly say to make this any less bad. XD;
Apologies!