What? Another chapter so soon? Well I figured that since I had it already written, I could use this as an opportunity to show off some of the other characters.

Enjoy :) !

Chapter 2: Dante's sins and demons.

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Zacaria was driving too fast.

Both hands gripping the fur-covered steering wheel, the young man's foot pressed the accelerator and the vehicle speed into the deserted road. On the back seat, pressed against the glass, Aless clenched her jaws as the vibration made her teeth shake. And her hands squeezed the borders of her seat. But she seemed to be the only one in the car that was concerned by her friend's driving antics. Their calm, plus Zacaria's assurance that "There's no problem," and "We ain't passing the speed limit," pushed Aless to try and relax.

Burst of laughter resonated from the first seat as Zacaria and Lucy had a colorful argument about… She wasn't quite sure what and didn't care to listen. The groups euphoria was high, she could feel it. And she quietly rejoiced in her friends high spirits as they passed each other compliments and blinked their bleary eyes and sailed on the leftover adrenaline from their show.

The group laughed and giggle for all and for nothing, and while in the back Camille and Dimitri remained as quiet as ever, their eyes took on a hazy, content look. The world had a dream-like quality to it and Aless supposed that she too had gotten a little drunk on her own bold performance.

But that was still not excuse for Zacaria to be driving as fast as he was.

Aless sighed and rested her head on the glass. Outside her window, the moon cast zinc colors onto the black fields and pointed rooftops of the few small houses that lined the view. Veiny trees zipped past her and disappeared in the inky blackness of the night. For some reason, the setting reminded her of a doomsday movie, and she wondered what she would do if there was a sudden invasion of alien tripods.

´Since they shoot lasers at every human they see… Should I try to dig a hole in the dirt and hide under there…? Why don't people in movies do that? Unless the alien have heat vision and can see me through the ground… Should I cover myself in mud like Schwarzenegger did in the Predators movie?'

The ricochets of the car jolted her out of her end-of-the-world reverie and she had just enough time to observe the white eye of the moon disappear behind a thick cover of branches. The road became more narrow and the car motion more violent. She had half a mind to tell Zacaria to ´Cool it on the gaz foot, dude.'

"Hey who wants to listen to some music?" Lucy asked, turning in her seat to look at the three teenagers behind her.

Camille simply shrugged her shoulders, eyes closing and bordering on passing out, she wouldn't care what music was playing. Dimitri just gave a role of his chin, having already established that Zacaria's and Lucy's music sounded like a 'goat trying to conjure a demon and instead winds up chewing on a guitar.'

"What bout' you, Less, you got n'y preference'?"

"Bô. Choose whatev' you want, dude."

"Hey this was an awesome night we had, right?"

"Yea." Aless agreed with a content smile on her face. Everyone else gave a little 'hmpf' in acknowledgment and returned to silence. Heavy metal music began to play through the speakers and lulled everyone in a half-dance, half-sleep reverie.

The small group was returning from a theater performance -"Dante's Inferno" to be exact-. It was their third and last performance of the weekend, and while pretending to be a bunch of demons dressed in red raincoats and patrolling through the seven rings of hell certainly held its appeal, Aless was happy that it was over. She had no complaints; it was a lovely way to tie off the weekend.

As the vehicle speed down the road, and as all source of light disappeared -safe for the car's headlights-, Aless sunk into her seat to replay the day's best moments and more scenarios with hostile aliens invasions and quick-to-build shelters.

"Hey Aless, you're aunt's okay with you home late, right?"

Alessia thought about her aunt, who worked in a cafe and took care of her whenever booth her parents left the country because of their job, and who was probably returning to their apartment at the moment. "My aunt's fine." The teenager mumbled. "She knows I'll wake up fine for school tomorrow, and she's happy that I'm involved in a theater groupe."

She could see Zacaria nod thanks to the bright yellow lights of the car front. Lucy and Dimitri had at some point picked up a conversation, communicating between themselves with nothing but mumbles. "Could you drive a little slower? Please." Aless tentatively asked, shifting her head towards Zacaria.

"Hah, you're too conservative, Less, this isn't fast at all." The young man grinned in the rear-view mirror.

Alessa didn't have time to interject, nor did Zacaria have time to laugh, because at that moment everything changed. Camille jolted out of her seat and, for the first time in forever, broke her vow of silence and screamed.

"LOOK OUT!"

Aless didn't know what had happened. She heard Zacaria gasp, Lucy and Dimitri screamed, then she felt the car violently spin to the side. She just had the time to see a person roll on the road through her window before her focus switched to the trees who were getting closer and closer.

Time slowed to a halt. "We're going to crash." She thought with almost chilling calmness. Suddenly, all her movie danger scenarios became real and in half a second she tried to remember all the tips on how to stop her spinal cord from fracturing.

'You have to protect your head with your hands… And most definitely protect your neck… As well as make sure you won't fly off the chair…' She thought as she curled up in a ball and burrowed herself into the backseat.You should make sure that no trauma impacts your lungs… or you're back… Is it better to keep your head covered or your sides? And Anubis please please please protect me-'

Her train of thoughts came to an abrupt halt before she could wonder if she had lost her mind or her life first. The trauma of the accident amounted to the car driving over a curb and being lightly thumbed by a tree, causing Alessa's head to lightly jump and hit the ceiling through her hand.

It took her a moment to reopen her eyes. When she did, she assessed the various stages of disbelief on her friend's faces, as well as the state of the vehicle. The car had hit a tree but no serious damage could be observed.

Slowly, through all the shock, Lucy turned around to look at everyone, and Aless could see a shimmer of light in her dark eyes.

In few, simple, eloquent words, Lucy had mirrored everyone's feelings;

"What the fakinel was that?!"

The car was going to hit him.

The car was going to hit him and it was driving faster than any car he had ever seen and the light washed over him like fire and was going to run over him and hurt him and he didn't have his philosopher's stone and he was scared and didn't want to die even though there was no possible way he could still be alive-

Envy had lived long enough to have experienced being run over by a car -it hurt like hell and felt like if every organ in his body had switched places on impact-. And bizarrely; an innate human instinct embedded in the deepest part of his homunculus brain screamed: 'NO!'.

His arms suddenly shot out from behind the pain and pushed the ground away from him. He rolled to the side as the car drove past him and swiveled mere inches from the homunculus's body. The air gushed beside him with a strident 'vooosh' sound. His body rolled a little further before he collapsed on his back. The pain paralyzing him.

The pain... Oh god the pain…

Everything in his body burned. Everything that had hurt before now felt pulled from the effort of the push.

'Filthy…. humans… and their... goddamn…' He panted, but couldn't finish his train of thought.

He heard the sound of car doors opening and closing and then shrill voices.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god-"

"Is she dead?!"

"Oh god oh god oh god-!"

Children's… Envy though off-handily. They were kids, not adults… Probably teenagers.

Suddenly he was encased in white light, silhouettes of humans moved beside him, overshadowed by the source of the light.

"Oh god oh god, what do we do?!"

"I'm calling someone immediately!"

Someone crouched next to him and touched his mouth and his neck and his chest.

Don't you dare touch me… he growled silently.

"He! He's alive! he's alive!"

"Quick! Someone call an ambulance!"

"What the hell is he doing here?! In the middle of nowhere?!"

"I don't think we hit him -we didn't, right Zacaria? Were good, were all right!"

"I bet he's one of those gang guys! You know, the ones who proliferate in these parts! I bet they beat him up and left him in the middle of the road for someone else to drive over!" A boy yelled accusingly.

"You're funine' me, aren't you?!" A girl screamed.

There were more screams and Envy couldn't follow what was going on. The light, plus the hit his head had received after connecting with the road created a resounding head hack that occupied all his thoughts.

'Think, think, what happened? How did I get here? Who are these people? How do I get back to Father? Think, Think! What is the last thing you remember?"

Little by little, his memory returned to him: That's right, he was charged with searching for Doctor Marco, he had escaped. He had tracked him up to a place filled with snow… the north… he had been betrayed by… he couldn't remember his face but once his memories were restored he would make him pay! Then...what happened? It all became jumbled but… he had been forced into his true form…

His true form.

His parasitic self.

Roy Mustang.

Fire.

The Gate.

Truth.

He remembered everything.

"What was that?"

"Oh no! Look at him, he's crying!"

A blurred face appeared in his vision.

"Ssssh, ssssssh, help will be here soon. You're going to be all right, sweetie." The person said as she rubbed his tear-stricken cheek and his neck.

Alessia mistook the homunculus's snarl for a grimace of pain. She turned around to look at her group and exchanged more words with them.

"Were in the middle of nowhere! It's a good twenty minutes before the ambulance arrives from Paris!" a boy yelled.

Envy didn't hear the rest, his vision became black.

When he came to, he heard shouting and the sound of wind blowing and someone sitting next to him, rocking back and forth.

"This is all your fault!"

"My fault?! How is this my fault?!"

"You were driving too fast! We could have hit him! Do you realise that?! You Indian hippie-gangster!"

"Indonesian! I'm Indonesian!"

"BIG DIFFERENCE!"

He blacked out again.

When he came to, the world was moving around him. Red blared over his head and the surface he was lying on banged on steel gates. A hand reached out above him and placed a cone over his mouth. Air became warm and stiff and forced itself into his lungs. There were more people -larger as well- around him and he was lying down on a makeshift bed.

An older woman's voice was heard.

"And you just found him unconscious on the street?"

"Yes," came a familiar voice from before. "Yes, he was just lying there -totally passed out- he woke up for a little bit but then he was gone for ten whole minutes."

"You'll have to come with us to the hospital, you'll have to signe…"

He didn't hear the rest of what was said. The world suddenly spiraled around him and the last things he saw before he passed out for a finale time was two steel doors closing before him.

And everything became black once again.

Hoped you enjoyed, tell me what you think.

Thank you to Mari and FangirlAlchemist for their lovely comments, I hope you keep enjoying the story :).