Greed opened his eyes after the third slap Envy delivered to his face.

"I'm awake, stop it," he grumbled at them and struggled to sit up, his mouth twisted in a perplexed grimace as he looked around. "What the...?"

Envy sighed. They had already gone through all this as Greed's body slumbered and regenerated, and they had no particular desire to watch the whole process unfold again.

First came confusion.

"We're..."

Yep, there it was.

"Inside Gluttony's stomach, yeah," Envy supplied nonchalantly.

Greed stood on shaky legs and frowned when he heard the wet splash as his shoes made contact with the endless lake of...

"Is that blood?" Ah, their big brother was already at the revulsion stage. He started looking around, his expression a precious mixture of disgust and awe.

Envy could imagine how he felt. It was one thing to know what Gluttony truly was. The experience of witnessing it, of being here was altogether completely different.

What had struck Envy the most was not the perpetual darkness that wasn't black and merciful enough to hide the blood and the remains of Gluttony's feasts under a comforting blanket of complete blindness. It wasn't the ever-present stench of rot either.

It was the silence.

There was no such silence in nature. Even when it was seemingly quiet, the world was still bursting with life and although the humans noticed only a small fragment of it at any given time, they were always englufed in it, inside and out.

But this place held no life at all and it wasn't simply... quiet. It was the utter absence of sound. Literally the only noises here were the ones the two of them could produce. The small splashes Greed was making as he turned around flabbergasted illustrated it pretty well.

Envy couldn't deny that it was unnerving. They shot a look at Greed.

Here it comes...

"How do we get out?"

They supposed that it was normal for the mind to jump straight to the need for escape back into the world of the living. It had been one of their first reactions too when they woke up next to Greed's body. But...

"You know as well as I do that we can't. There is no way out," they raised a finger when Greed immediately opened his mouth to argue, "And don't even start with the there's no way that there's no way catchphrase."

"You're taking this far too calmly," Greed narrowed his eyes at them.

"I did all my panicking while you were still unconscious," Envy said wryly and shrugged. "Would it make you feel better if I started flailing around and crying for you to save me?"

Greed snorted and shook his head. He sat down on an ancient boulder whose lower half was submerged into the lake of blood. It looked like it had been a part of Xerxesian building centuries ago; Envy had noticed a few similar ruins scattered around while they waited for Greed to wake up.

"This is bad, sweet cheeks," Greed muttered rubbing the back of his head.

"No argument there, but there's nothing we can do," Envy shrugged again. It was funny, but there was some comfort in the inevitable. Fretting about the worst was useless when the worst had already happened. You could just drop the existential terror and move on, so to speak. Envy vaguely wondered if humans ever thought of it like this as they breathed their last. Ugh. Fucking humans... "It's all the pipsqueak's fault anyway."

Greed sharply looked up at them from his seat and Envy was startled to see that his plum-colored eyes were shining angrily.

"Bullshit," his lips revealed his shark-like fangs. "If you hadn't gone to save him, we could both have been back in the hotel by now."

That caught Envy by surprise. What right did he have to blame them?

They stalked closer to him, their ire rising with each step. "I couldn't let him die, you know that!" Envy cried, "Father needs him for the Promised Day!"

"Oh please, who cares what the old man needs?" Greed spat out.

"I guess it's true, then," Envy looked down at him with contempt.

"What is?" Greed asked without even trying to hide his annoyance.

"Just a thing I've heard humans say. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. You're still on that one-man pissing contest against him, aren't you?" Envy shook their head lightly, "You know, I thought you must have grown some common sense when you took his offer but you're still the selfish asshole you've always have been, right?"

"I'm selfish?!" Greed's eyes widened in offense. "I wouldn't even be here if I hadn't tried to get you out of the way, you dumb freak!"

Much like the last time they fought, Envy needed only that one insult, the one word that – underneath his possessive touches and his flirty smiles – reminded them just how disgusting Greed really thought they were. As their fist flew out and smashed against his face, Envy couldn't help but wonder if Greed would piss them off enough to make them assume their true form and finally put an end to his games and his insolence.

They were going to spend the rest of eternity here, in the non-reality of the false Gate of Truth, until even their Philosopher's Stones were eventually exhausted, so would it really matter if they perished at each other's throats instead?

However, unlike the last time they fought, Greed was not amused and did not turn the fight into a prelude towards intimacy. Not that Envy wanted him to.

He took the punch and snarled, his normally pale face reddened by anger.

Then he hit Envy back.

Cursing the pain that blossomed in their cheek when he backhanded them, they staggered away from Greed, splashing through the blood, but their favorite form was too petite. They were still in their big brother's reach.

A muscular arm shot forward and gripped Envy's slender throat.

"You little idiot," Greed growled, "Doing the old man's bidding all your life until it got you killed, and me with you. He doesn't give a shit about you, Envy, about any of us."

"Oh, that's rich coming from you," they panted as they dug the fingernails on one hand into Greed's forearm. He was so pissed that he had forgotten to use the Ultimate Shield. "Like you care," in this body they were smaller than him, but so much more nimble. Envy's leg shot up and their foot met Greed's kneecap forcing him to grunt in pain and release them from his hold. "You fucked off on your own and never looked back, and now you're preaching about Father? Give me a break!"

Greed lunged towards them and grabbed Envy's torso in his big arms, spinning them in the air and roughly slamming their body into the stone slab where he sat moments ago. They felt their spine jolt as their Stone immediately began healing them back up.

Envy struggled against him, but Greed just put a hand around the lower half of their face and squeezed, bringing his own face down to theirs.

"You think I didn't want to take you with me?" He asked, sharp teeth gritting. "He might have made you, but you're mine, Envy," Greed's gaze burned into theirs, purple and furious. "You belong to me, you always have. Never forget that, freak," he hissed at them, his breath tickling their skin.

And then, as suddenly as he had overpowered them, Greed removed his hand from Envy's face and took a few steps back.

"You never would have come with me," he sighed. He sounded... tired. Greed never sounded tired. "You're mine and yet you always did what he wanted you to do. If I had approached you, offered you the way out, you would have just turned me in to Pride and the old man. And don't even think of pretending that it's not true," for a second the anger crept back into Greed's voice. "So take a good long look around, and see what being faithful to Dad brought you."

Envy sat up on the piece of the Xerxesian ruins and stared at Greed, lips parted silently in confusion.

It shouldn't have made any difference.

But it did.

As a rule, Greed avoided lying. And it was difficult to lie to Envy anyways, because there were none more adept at it than them. Their very apperance was a lie, after all. So they knew that what he just said must have been the truth.

He had wanted to take them with him.

He hadn't, and the possessive way he spoke, as if Envy was nothing but a property of his, was unpleasant, and he was right, they would have turned on him so Father could sort him out and things could go on as they had before, and it really shouldn't have made a difference.

And yet it did.

All Envy had ever wanted was to be wanted.

It was why they hated humans so much. Humans had it so easy. All Envy had was a cold, distant father and siblings who tolerated them but nothing more. The Homunculi were more like a gang than a family. And the filthy humans who were not worthy to even lick Envy's feet enjoyed so much more just by the virtue of being... humans.

It was why they had taken such a delight in killing Maes Hughes, the man with the perfect life who had it all, a loving spouse, loyal friends and an adoring brat of a kid. Shooting Hughes and listening to his last words about a family he was never going to see again had felt almost cathartic.

Heck, it was why they were always throwing themselves right at Greed.

He was the only sibling who looked at Envy and saw more than just an accomplice or a pawn. Even if he was unbearable and egocentric, possessive yet unwilling and incapable of offering fidelity himself, even if he knew what they really looked like and called them a freak... at least he found them worth his time.

With Greed they could indulge in the lie that they could have at least a semblance of what humans had when they formed attachments. It was a lie, a sad, pathetic lie, but Envy was very good at lying.

"You know," a boy's voice rang out and made the two Homunculi look at it's direction. "The two of you sound like a married couple from a soap opera when you fight."

The Fullmetal Pipsqueak was standing not twenty meters away, an aloof expression on his face and a torch in his hand.

"No offense, but I kind of thought you were dead," Greed said to Elric as the three of them were wading towards the place the pipsqueak had landed in.

Edward just shrugged. "It was my first thought when I woke up too," he admitted, "Then I started looking around, and decided to see if I can find a way out, and eventually heard you guys fighting. What is this place anyway?"

"Well, you got us swallowed by Gluttony, so we're inside his belly," Envy informed him, their voice hostile.

Fullmetal stopped and turned to give them a quizzical look.

"That... can't... How is it possible?"

Envy shrugged mentally. Did it matter if they kept Father's secrets at this point? All three of them were as good as dead here, it was just a matter of time. "Gluttony is a failed attempt by our father to create a portal that leads to the Gate of Truth," they said and smirked, "He can't control it consciously. You must have gotten him really mad to open it up."

Edward's eyebrows shot up. "The Gate of Truth?" He sounded shocked. "But that's... that's not right. It's all white and empty, and..."

"Oh yeah?" Envy cocked their head and put a hand on their hip. "So that's what the real one looks like. This here, it's... how to explain it to a human?" They tapped a finger on their chin, "It's the in-between, yeah? A place that exists between reality and truth. It's where Gluttony's hunger comes from."

It was strange to watch Edward's face as his mind worked through what Envy told him.

But the little alchemist deserved some credit. Most humans would be so dumbfounded that they would look at you as if you had just spouted some crazy nonsense. Elric actually digested the information and in the flickering orange light of the torch, Envy could see that his amber eyes did not seem as lost as it might have been expected of a lesser human.

He had seen the real Gate of Truth, after all. He had been there. That's why he and his brother were chosen to become Father's sacrifices.

Then Fullmetal's gaze became suspicious and he narrowed his eyes at Envy and Greed.

"Who would try to create something like this?" He seemed to be growing angrier. "Who is your father? It's King Bradley, isn't he?"

Greed let out a loud, sudden laugh. "What, are you serious?" He guffawed. "That was your best guess?" He shook his head, "Nope, sorry. The Führer is just a Homunculus like us, kid."

The pipsqueak's eyes widened. "So Ling was right..." he murmured, then frowned. "If Bradley's one of you, then this means..." his gaze was uncharacteristically sharp, "It means that you're behind everything. Behind Ishval."

Ishval.

To this day, Ishval still was one of Envy's proudest memories. To ravage a whole country with a single bullet... They found themselves wanting to brag about it to Edward, to tell him all about the officer they had impersonated and the child they shot right in the stupid face. Imagining the pipsqueak alchemist's outrage made it seem like a hilarious idea.

But before they could say anything, Greed laughed again.

Stupid Greed. Always stealing the spotlight.

"I told you guys as much back in Dublith, didn't I? The military in this country has its fingers up way deeper than people will ever know," he grinned, "You really are out of your depth here, aren't you?"

"You talk big for someone who's trapped just like me," the pipsqueak shot back. "And what were you doing back in the forest anyways? I thought you said that you didn't get along with the rest of them," he nodded towards Envy who raised a thin eyebrow at Greed.

"Oh really?" They purred, "Is that what you told Fullmetal, Greed?"

Greed just shrugged. "Well, what can I say, kid? Haven't you ever fought with your brother? Sometimes your siblings can make you want to beat the snot out of them," he gave Envy a quick glance, "but they're still family, right?"

Envy simply rolled their eyes at that.

"Family..." Edward whispered, more to himself than to the two Homunculi. "I must get back to Al..."

"Sorry, but that's not happening," Envy said lightly, "I told you already," they sighed loudly when the pipsqueak turned his blonde head to glare at them. "There is no way out of this place. All we can do is sit down and wait to die. Hrmph," they gave Fullmetal a crooked smile, "In any case, you're going to be the first to go."

The Fullmetal Pipsqueak just stared at them for a moment, and Envy slightly shifted their feet under the surface of the blood lake, preparing their body for a fight stance and silently willing Elric to take the bait. They wondered if Greed was going to join them in killing the boy or was he just going to kick back and enjoy the show.

But, to their immense disappointment, Edward just turned away and resumed walking towards their destination.

"Come on," he urged them loudly, "I have something to show you."

"I found lots of pieces like this when I started looking around. It's good that I chanced upon you two so we could carry them all here," Fullmetal said as he used the torch to illuminate the stony surface of the mural. "It's Xerxesian and it reminded me of the transmutation circle back in the Fifth Laboratory. But..." He hesitated and looked back at Envy and Greed. "It's different. The matrix is much more advanced. This here, the sun, it represents the soul. And the moon," he tapped the old marble slab gently with an automail finger, "it symbolizes the mind. And this here," he pointed to another block of stone, "represents the body. This is a summoning circle for human transmutation."

Well.

Envy was impressed. The little human was getting really close. But they wanted to see if he could connect all the dots on his own.

"Yeah, so?" They asked dismissively, "What does it matter?"

Fullmetal gave them a mirthless smile.

"The last piece of the puzzle was when you said that Gluttony's insides are actually a defective Gate. So, considering that the matrix – see how the word for God is upside down and the alchemical dragon below? – would basically translate to something like "And I will strike God down and become a perfect Being", who put those murals here?" He took a step towards Envy, "It was your father, wasn't it? The whole nation of Xerxes, dead overnight. What happened to its citizens?" Another step, "He killed them all to make a Philosopher's Stone, didn't he?" His face was close to Envy's now. They could see the flickering sparks from the torch reflected into the angry golden orbs. "He's the one who transmuted himself, wasn't he? He's the one who's trying to become powerful enough to surpass God! Who is he? TELL ME!" He yelled.

My, this was certainly unexpected. The pipsqueak was a clever one, who knew?

"Why are you asking us?" Greed's smooth voice made them both turn their heads towards him. He was crouching in front of the biggest piece of the mural, studying the glyphs with an impassive face. "I'm barely over two hundred years old and Envy hasn't even dinged one-eighty. Xerxes was a little before our time," he added wryly and slowly stood up. "You, however, should know at least something about it."

"Me?" Fullmetal frowned. Huh. Greed has somehow managed to catch him off guard. "Why me? What are you talking about?"

"Well," Greed eyed the boy critically, "you're from Xerxesian descent. You would think that your ancestors would keep at least some stories about how their homeland was destroyed."

Fuck, Greed was right!

With his blonde hair and white skin it was easy to think that Fullmetal was Amestrian, but the eyes were a dead giveway. Much like the Ishvalans with their red irises, the Xerxesians had been famous for the unique golden color of their eyes. What was it with those desert people? And why had none of them noticed it sooner? Did it even matter?

Interesting.

The brat blinked in confusion. "That doesn't make sense. My parents are Amestrian."

"Sure," Greed shrugged. "But we're talking more than four centuries here. Someone somewhere down the line came from Xerxes. That's how humans work, right?" He shrugged again, "Should have asked your folks about it before you got stuck in a false Gate of Truth."

The pipsqueak averted his eyes and stepped away. "Wouldn't have mattered. My mother is dead and my father is a damned bastard," he muttered angrily.

"Well, I'd fucking drink to that!" Greed laughed and sat cross-legged on the small stony island where they had gathered. "Pity that the only thing to drink here is blood."

And then Edward dropped the bomb.

"And what if I told you that I can get us out?" He whispered.

"Are you sure this will work?" Envy asked skeptically as they watched Fullmetal finishing up the last symbols on the transmutation circle.

"Most alchemists believe that human transmutation can revive the dead. I know better," Edward cocked his head sideways as he carefully drew the glyph representing the crested moon with two fingers dripping with blood. "It's equivalent exchange. You can't transmute a soul that doesn't exist in this world anymore. That can never work. But what about a living person?" He took a deep breath and stayed crouched before the circle as he examined his work. "I can use this circle to deconstruct myself," he said slowly, "And then I will put myself back together. That's human transmutation. Since Gluttony is a false Gate, if we pass through the real one we... should wind up back in our own reality."

Envy was a little annoyed that they needed a moment to process the idea.

"What if it goes wrong?" They asked, just to see how far had the boy thought this through.

"A failed transmutation results in a rebound," Fullmetal lightly rolled his automail shoulder joint, "and it will ricochet back on the one who performed it. In this case, me."

"Hmph," Greed was pacing back and forth, carefully listening to the pipsqueak explaining his plan, "There's too much riding on this one. If you die, me and Envy can't try again," he looked at Envy and narrowed his eyes. "Let him use your Stone."

WHAT?!

"Are you serious?" They were shocked.

"Would I be joking in a moment like this?" Greed deadpanned with a question of his own.

"Well why don't you give him y..." Yeah, Envy realized how ridiculous the question was and promptly shut their mouth. Good luck making Greed share.

In all honesty, they would rather give up a little of their power than argue with their brother. By the time the argument was going to be over, Fullmetal likely would have starved to death and then they were going to be back to the ass end of nowhere.

This was their chance. Their only chance.

It didn't make it any more pleasant.

They reached out a hand and started shifting the innards of their form, feeling the warmth of the Stone as it traveled under their skin.

Then they opened up their palm and allowed the flesh to make way. The stony isle was suddenly bathed in a red glow, redder than ruby, redder than fire, redder than blood. Arcs of crimson light danced and crackled around Envy's fingertips as the Philosopher's Stone appeared in the open.

It must have been the first time Fullmetal had actually seen a real Stone, if one didn't count the tiny ones that the Homunculi had supplied to pawns like McDougal and Cornello.

The warring expressions on Edward's fice were priceless. He looked almost like he was in agony. He wanted to get back to the real world just as badly as the Homunculi did, but, being aware of what the Stones actually were, his foolish human squeamishness was making him hesitate.

"It's just energy, kid," Greed's voice sounded almost soft. "I know you're thinking that it's made of human souls, but they're not people anymore. No minds, no bodies, no memories. They don't remember who or what they were, or where do they come from, they'll never be back to what they were. They... they're nothing but a resource."

"But..."

"For fuck's sake, Greed," Envy growled irritably, "He's hesitating because if he doesn't consider the souls inside the Stone human, then he's questioning the humanity of his own brother. Tsk," they shook their head at the pipsqueak. Envy would never be able to figure out humans. Such... contradictions in such lowly creatures. Edward Elric was clever enough to find a way out of Gluttony's belly, a feat that was supposed to be impossible – not just difficult, not just dangerous, impossible – and yet he couldn't stomach using something that used to be alive centuries ago in order to actually execute his plan. "Would you hesitate throwing a log into the fire because you pity the tree it came from? It's a simple question, really," they waved the gleaming Stone in front of Fullmetal's eyes. "How badly do you want to see your brother again, Edward Elric?"

They watched as he steeled himself and the determination shone in his eyes.

And then he triggered the transmutation.

Alchemical energy suddenly roared all around them and a gale erupted from the summoning circle as the Eye – the real Eye – materialized itself and its pupil started right at the pipsqueak.

"Greed!" He cried, "Jump in it!"

"I really hope you know what you're doing, kid," Greed gulped and stepped inside the circle.

He was immediately disintegrated. Before his face disappeared into nothingness, he looked at Envy and gave them a nod.

Was it meant to be encouraging? A goodbye? Envy couldn't tell, because then they were deconstructed too.

They had expected it to be agonizingly painful but it was over before they could blink. As their vision blackened, they felt the Stone surrendering some of its energy to pay the toll for the transmutation.

That meant that it worked, right?

Right?

Ri...

...

White.

This was all there was.

Had they gone blind?

No, that's not right. They had heard that blind people saw only blackness. Not to mention that they could see their arms flailing around as they hurtled into the void.

And then their head was suddenly filled with thoughts and memories that were not their own. They burned their way in... and out, to be forever forgotten almost as soon as they appeared, leaving behind only a shadow of a shadow, an afterimage in the mind's eye.

It hurt.

They felt Father's consciousness sinking into his own vessel, ghostly fingers grabbing at the thousands upon thousands of screaming souls inside. Father looked for those who were envious and bitter, those who in their pettiness and jealousy had caused harm to their fellow man. Those who decieved others and those who hated themselves. Those who had nothing and wanted everyone else to be like them. Those who stole and killed not out of need or compulsion but out of absolute malice. The sadistic and the pitiful, all alike. The ones who had allowed the parasite emotion to drown their own joy and warp them into something colder and more cruel.

And then he expelled them.

Envy knew that they were witnessing their own creation from Father's eyes.

They felt nothing but disinterest. Not the anticipation of bringing a new offspring into the mortal world, not even the calculating decision to introduce a new pawn into the game.

Just an impossibly callous mind that purged itself of vice in order to get one step closer to posthuman perfection.

Father wasn't even disgusted.

Envy was not even worth that much.

They were worse than trash. They were just something that Father had not wanted. And he had removed them. A simple solution for a simple problem. Almost surgical. It was how all of them were made.

Suddenly they saw themselves standing inside the phone booth where they had killed Hughes.

But this time the places seemed reversed. They were the one kneeling there, shaking with pain. And when they looked up, they saw Roy Mustang staring coldly down at them.

Envy tried to raise their hands to protect themselves but the Flame Alchemist snapped his fingers and a thundering, fiery inferno engulfed the Homunculus.

Envy screamed as more and more images filled their head only to disappear in the blaze of Mustang's fire.

Greed howling in pain as his chained body was lowered into a vat of molten metal. Lust crumbling to ash in Mustang's feet. Gluttony screeching for her to save him as Pride devoured him. Pride himself begging Fullmetal for mercy only for the boy to reach into his soul and destroy his very essence. Sloth getting impaled and beaten down by Armstrong and a bunch of other humans until his Stone ran out of souls. Wrath falling in battle against Scar and bleeding to death after the grim-faced Ishvalan had ripped both his arms off.

All the while the fire kept ravaging Envy's body and they kept screaming.

And then it was over.

This chapter was slightly more difficult to write. I feel like it's important, both in canon and for this AU story, but some of the things about it were challenging.

I really didn't want to just write up the same stuff that happens in the show. That's no use to anybody. So far, the story has been going pretty much in the same general direction as the show with only minor deviations here and there. And while I will keep the general direction the same in the future (I'm not conceited enough to think I can rewrite the show into something better, nor does the prospect interests me), I also want to take more advantage of the fact that it's an AU.

This chapter, even if it doesn't look like it, is a step in that direction. The gist of it is the same as the plot of Episode 28, but I've played around with the details. The most obvious ones are things like swapping Ling with Greed, or Envy not blabbing about Ishval and turning into a giant monster, but a more important one is the scene at the end, with the things Envy sees. The show never addressed it, so I guess I'm stupid or something, but considering that the human transmutation was technically paid for by Envy with their Stone, they should have seen the Gate too. At least that's how *I* understand the logic of alchemy in FMA, but I do not doubt that I am somehow wrong, in which case... well, AU, y'know.

Until next time!

Peace!