Author's note: Greetings and salutations from this long absent author! I really need to start watching a couple of my favorite shows again to get inspired, don't I? Of course I do. Oh, and I would like to ask people not to yell themselves hoarse about the throwaway running theme in this chapter. TTFN and as always, me no own FMA n DW.
Chapter 16 Waking Dreams
{Mustang's exhaustion was palpable, Envy decided, as he took in his surroundings of the alchemist's mind. He stood in a barrel-vaulted tunnel, floor lined with tile. 'This is where I died… He's still holding onto that…' Envy cringed. It wasn't going to be easy: saving the man he once tried to kill, who, at the same time, tried to kill him.
A gasp of pain reached his ears. He spun around and felt out its source with his mind. Far away, he sensed that there was, in the centre of the dream, the dreamer: Mustang. The young Time Lord approached slowly, keeping to the shadows, all the while trying to sense the man's full state. When Envy saw a glow ahead, he walked even more silently, careful of each bare footfall, and narrowed his eyes to hide any glint that would shine in them. As he got closer, he saw Mustang tied to a stake and the woodpile beneath him blazing. The black smoke winding around Mustang formed into a bucking, emaciated horse, and as it rose, it stirred and took Mustang's form, then wicked into the ceiling. Sensing that the predator was still unaware of him, Envy stepped into the firelight.}
When breath returned to Al, he moved slowly, examining his burns by fingertip. The explosion blinded him, and his eyes stung. He squeezed them shut and resisted the urge to rub. But he could still hear.
Envy still had a barbed tongue. "A threat! So that's why I'm still alive- you need me for something! I mean if you're really intending to kill someone, there's no need to threaten their life, you just go ahead and do it. But no matter, if you do kill me, I'll still regenerate."
For Envy, this was another risky move- he was not yet a full-fledged Time Lord, and only when he became one could he be capable of their regeneration. But a little hinting, a little befuddling the enemy couldn't hurt at this point.
The possessed Mustang stared dumbfounded. "Regenerate? Stupid. You can't. Your stone is almost depleted."
Envy brightened, although he leaned heavily on his one good arm to relieve the otherwise painful and lone support of being held up by his scalp. "The stone? Oh no no no no no. Not that sort of regeneration. The type I'm thinking of is a bit more… unpredictable." The man continued to stare, uncertain but guarded. "Oh, I wouldn't search Mustang's mind for it- Humans are far too young to have heard of them. But I wouldn't be surprised if the legends reached your planet- if it survived the war."
"Planets? What other types of regeneration? What are you talking about, Envy?" Alphonse cried.
"Shut up! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE COWERING AND BEGGING FOR YOUR LIFE! What are you."
Envy smiled inside. He wanted this sort of situation to creep up since the first time he saw the Doctor do it. In a lively voice, Envy said, "What am I? Well, I could be anything- a man, a woman, an adventurer, a cheater, a la chupacabra. I could be a lie. There are so many possibilities! You know, I don't think there is any one thing that I could be. There's not one solid truth about me you could find! It could be all an illusion, but it also might not. And that goes for everything else that has-is-could have-and-might exist. Know how I know? Because I see 'em, the possibilities." With a coy smile to bare the edge, Envy softened his voice. "Each and every one, flowing around, like currents of wind."
Mustang repositioned his grip the hair. "Wasting my time won't save you."
"Oh I'm not wasting time. I know exactly what I'm doing with it. It's apart of the job description. Time would be in absolute tatters if it weren't for people like me."
Mustang let Envy go. He stepped backwards, shaking. "No- it can't be- they're all gone… the Time Lords were all destroyed."
"Almost," said a voice behind Mustang. Envy never thought he'd see the Colonel jump so high. To bad he was yanked along by his scalp.
{Envy stood before Mustang, waiting to be noticed, "Mustang, you've been possessed," he said when the Colonel set eyes on him, glowering.
"Homunculus!" Mustang shouted back before coughing from smoke inhalation.
"Hello to you too," Envy said calmly. "I see that you've been a bit reined in. Need any help?"
"Shut up."
"I'll take that as a 'sniffle, yes pwease.'" Envy turned serious. "You're growing weaker, that thing is feeding off your conscious. It's making your dreams reality." Envy stopped to let Mustang digest this. "I don't know what it is, or what its goal is, but every time you fight back, it takes more of your conscious for itself."
"How can you help if you don't know what it is?" Mustang glared at his old nemesis through the flames.
"Because I'm not a part of your dream, but I'm inside it. I'm the link to reality."
"Don't get so cocky when you're half dead," a blustery voice came from the wall. "Even a Time Lord can die if they are killed fast enough." Smoke seeped back into the tunnel, took on the horse shape. It circled the two, prancing in and out of its horse-form, as if sizing them up, snorting, and turned to bit through Mustang's restraints. "You are free, alchemist," it whispered into Mustang's ear, it's long eyelashes dropped in faux regret. "You know the Homunculus for what it is. You know its lies; you know its hate." Its smoky eyes turned hard and its thick lips pulled tight against its teeth in a smirk. "Do the honors, I insist." Foggy-eyed, Mustang's mind grew pacified against the apparition. Obedient to the heady power of the incense, Mustang raised his hand. Envy tensed and swallowed; he stared back at the man, lips pursed.
"Mustang," the Doctor's voice came from out of the darkness, bearing a dangerous edge. "You kill Envy and the Nightmare takes over your mind completely."}
Mustang's body turned to see a lanky man with wild hair in a pinstripe suit-and-tie, wearing a seriously unhappy expression. Behind him appeared two blond-haired girls, one Mustang recognized as Winry Rockbell. She gasped in horror when she saw Alphonse and ran to his side as the other girl ignored the standoff between the men, hovering over the crumpled heap of Envy.
After the possessor's initial shock, Mustang snapped his fingers. What he hadn't noticed that the man in the suit was carrying a fire extinguisher.
{There was a jet of white cloud that blasted the explosion out of existence."If I may be so rude to say that you need to damper your apatite, but I do have a problem with you roasting my friends."The Doctor strode into the firelight in his casually frightening sort of way, extinguisher swinging lazily in his hand.
Envy let out a snort of laughter. "Nice one, Doctor."
The Doctor nodded in acknowledgment. "Thanks."
"Just because you managed to get inside the Human's dream, 'Doctor'," the Nightmare hissed, "doesn't mean you're doing anything more than just mouthing off.'"
"Ah, but what a mouth it is. See?" The Doctor grinned toothily. "I always floss, of course. And I can roll my tongue- Oh, and fold it!" He stuck his tongue out, and did in fact fold it back on itself, like a piece of paper. "Very rare trait. You've got to have a little band of muscle that runs down the tongue to do it."
The Nightmare's eyes peeled open in fury, its lips flared out, and revealing strong teeth. The alien screamed its fury, the flexing of the hindquarters propelling it forward. And this time, the Doctor aimed the fire extinguisher right into the horse's face.}
A pang of pressure hit Envy when his connection with Mustang was broken. It made him spasm, to which Elisa raised Envy into sitting, supporting his back. Mustang seemed to be pulled nearly off his feet by thin air as the phantasmal horse vaporized form his being. When no longer held up by the wicking away of the ethereal beast, he fell and crumpled, laid stunned on the floor, and drenched in sweat. He was only aware of his airless chest and dry, burning eyes.
Above the Colonel, the nebulous horse reared and screamed. Weaving in and out of currents it felt, the nightmare placed its sights on the doctor. The Doctor did nothing as the monster rushed forward, accepting his fate as he drew the horse in on his breathe. From his place on the floor, Envy and Elisa gasped a startled "Doctor!" And the atmosphere suddenly turned to one far worse than any hell could offer.
"How dare you," the Doctor, a quiet rage that made Envy huddle in fear. "If you think I will let you have any consolation prize…" Envy swallowed. "Then, take this."
From nowhere, a jagged glowing orange line stretched across the room.
"What's happening? Colonel? Envy?" Alphonse sat up from the wall as he groped the air with his hands. Envy peered at the boy, and could see that he was trying to scan the room with burnt eyes wide open.
"Stay there! Don't move!" Envy shocked even himself with his command.
The line widened, bright like a furnace, creating a powerful vacuum wind. The Doctor stood silently in front of the rift, glaring furiously as the horse was sucked out of him and into the light. Its scream was something Envy never wanted to hear again. When the horse was completely gone, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, sealing the rift.
The man pocketed his gadget, sighed and asked, "Now, is everyone alright?"
"Alphonse's really burned," Winry cried.
"I think I need more Philosopher's stone, Doctor." Envy said with a sigh, leaning into Elisa. His dry eyes begged to be closed.
"I think so too," he replied. The Doctor scooped Envy up, who felt unusually light. "Already out; you really pushed yourself to the limit, didn't you?" he muttered. He turned to the door to get Envy down outside of the transmutation circle.
"Hold it, 'Doctor.'" Mustang had already risen. "That thing is a threat to anyone he sets eyes on. I can't allow him to live. If you resist, you will be considered an Enemy of the State."
The Doctor turned to face Mustang, his face unreadable. "An Enemy of the State is pretty light for me, Colonel. I've faced much worse that what you can imagine, and so will Envy, because somebody has to. Things went so very wrong for my people, and Homunculi are the only beings capable of taking the place of the Time Lords." With that, he left the room, and carried his apprentice into the TARDIS, which stood in the corridor. The Doctor lay Envy down by the base of the console, where his condition could be stabilized in the presence of the TARDIS's powerful soul. "Wriny, bring your friend in here and we'll get him treated," the Doctor called.
"Hold it, Miss Rockb- What is this?" Mustang gawked with his first steps into the ship after Winry steered Alphonse into the blue box.
"Only what it looks like- haven't you ever seen a time ship before?" The Doctor ran over to close the door and then came to Alphonse's side. "Alright-y then, let's have a look." He whipped out his glasses.
"Um, excuse me, but, who are you? And what happened to Colonel Mustang?" Alphonse asked.
"The Doctor."
"Yeah, but, you haven't told us your name. I'm Alphonse Elric, by the way."
"The Doctor. As for the Colonel, a Nightmare is a being of pure psychic energy. Ordinarily they attach themselves to non-sentient beings, and feed off their brainwaves, but this one got greedy."
"How are you going to heal me?" Alphonse asked warily. "If you work with Envy, then you probably use a Philosopher's stone."
"Me? Nahhh. Never bothered with it. It's like I told Envy, alchemy never really caught on with the Time Lords. At least, not by our standards. And that, I can assure you, is one reason why you're standing here today. No, Alphonse, I am going to use…" the Doctor sprung up and dashed across the room, and started rummaging around the ship. "Oh, where is it…"
Meanwhile, the rest were experiencing an awkward silence. Elisa sat down in front of Envy, still guarding him from the suspecting alchemist. And with good reason too: Mustang was regarding the two with a silent glare.
"Don't set my ship on fire," the Doctor called from across the room.
Roy jumped at the command, recovered, and said, "Do you really believe that monster that could eat your soul would be your friend?"
Elisa glanced behind her, smiled and said, "There's this video of actual snake that was given a live hamster for food, only it didn't eat it and they live in the cage together. They became friends. I suppose it's like that."
"Aren't we a hypocrite then, Envy?" Roy's stare shifted to the Homunculus.
Envy stirred in his sleep, and let out a little sigh. It was obvious how safe he felt; he didn't bother fighting the tiredness even with a slighted State Alchemist near by. The Doctor trotted back, throwing a dense wool fire blanket over Envy, clenching a palm-sized moist-towelette packet in his teeth.
"Here you go," the Doctor said, tearing open the packet, "clean the burns with this, and you'll be healed in a few hours. Oh, and the eye-drops." The Doctor spun around, reached over Envy, and started to make adjustments on the console. "We'll just head back to New Gallifray for a minute."
"So long as the Viewer doesn't get a hold of Envy," Elisa said.