The door was two stories high and made of scarred old dark wood. Carved into it was a detailed depiction of a tree whose branches spiraled up and away from the trunk in graceful twisting patterns. There were words circling the tree in a language I could not understand and at this moment all I wanted was to understand. The door was beautiful; I was even more entranced by this door than I had been by the purple light that had brought me here.

I couldn't help but feel as if I had seen something awfully similar before, but my mind could not capture that memory. I stood up and looked around me but saw nothing but white, this door and I were the only objects in this place.

Normally I like the quiet; I find it peaceful and calming, but not this. This was the sort of quiet that was not self-imposed, the kind that made you feel as if you were completely and utterly alone in the world and perhaps I was, after all it was just me and this door.

The quiet seemed to be violently shattered by a sudden creaking noise, followed closely by a loud whoosh as air rushed out of the door as is slowly opened. A seam that did not previously exist appeared down the center and the door slowly glided outward. I took a few curious steps forward and peered into the open crack but was greeted only by darkness.

I was still alone.

A sudden flash of color had me turning back to the door where a giant violet eye now gazed at me through the opening. Its unblinking stare was unnerving and I took a few hurried steps backward, but there was nowhere to hide from it. I could see my reflection shining back at me from the depths of the eye, I watched myself as I blinked slowly and shuffled my feet in a nervous gesture. The sight of my wide green eyes and agape quivering mouth brought with it the realization of just how terrified I was. Until now I hadn't felt the sweat that was running down my hairline or beginning to soak the sleeves of my shirt, I hadn't noticed how shallow my breathing was or how my hands were visibly shaking as I wrapped them about my chest.

Suddenly my image was gone, just as quickly as the eye appeared it was gone, fading into the blackness as if it had never been there at all, but there was nothing that could convince me that it had never existed. The image of that eye, and my reflection inside of it, was permanently burned into my mind and I knew it would haunt me in my dreams.

From the place the eye had previously occupied a small figure appeared, it stood in the door and like the eye it stared at me, gazing at something I couldn't see. It slowly walked out of the door, and each step it took was silent, as if the sound was absorbed by the white canvas we occupied.

The figure stopped and stood in front of me, and from this close I could finally see that this figure was no more than an outline of a human body. I thin barely there outline was the only thing that stopped it from disappearing into the whiteness surrounding us.

"Hello," it's voice was hollow, empty, yet resounded with the voices of many. As if it could my fear a grin so large it took up the majority of its face appeared on the figure. The grin was toothy and amused by my terror, from the simple gesture I could sense how much this figure must look down upon me.

"Hello," I hesitantly replied, "who are you?"

The grin, if possible, seemed to grow even larger, "I am the one you call the world, the universe, god, truth, all, one, and I am you." God? Truth? All?...and me? Hadn't I heard that before? Hadn't I seen it?

Suddenly whatever had been blocking my memories seem to disappear and I remembered everything. I remembered what I had been doing before the purple light, I remembered all about FMA, and I remembered the Truth.

"Now it's time you pay up. " He seemed to sense that I had remembered and was taking amusement in my mounting terror. "Equivalent exchange, right?" He laughed, seemingly eager to take something from me that I wasn't willing to give.

"N…no. I don't want anything, I swear! I didn't mean to come here, I don't even know alchemy," I pleaded, hoping that Truth would see reason, see that it didn't need to take anything because I didn't want anything.

Truth only laughed, seemingly entertained by my desperate display. "Not want anything? You humans are all the same you all want something!"

"I don't want anything, honest! Just…just send me back!"

"See! You want to be sent home and that is where equivalent exchange comes in! Do something for me and maybe I'll do something for you…but first…"

Suddenly, I felt a horrible pain in my left eye and then another in my right arm. "W…what?" I gasped, clutching my face with my remaining arm as I watched a familiar green eye appear on the previously featureless face and a pale arm grow from its shoulder. A the while cursing that grin.

A heavy boom shook the floor, the door was pushed forcibly open by six black tentacles that shot out from the inky blackness towards me. I spun on my heels and ran, trying to pump my legs faster but knowing that there was nothing I could do to escape them.

I was yanked backwards as the slimy appendages wrapped around my body and dragged me back into the door. My screams echoed around vast whiteness and Truth just smiled on, staring back at me as the doors closed, caging me inside. Knowledge of things I had only dreamed existed came pouring into my head, knowledge of the FMA universe, of alchemy and it hurt. There was too much, too quickly and my mind could not sort it out or comprehend it all.

The deeper I went into the gate the bigger the pain grew, crescendoing until my body could no longer function on a conscious level.