I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Brotherhood. But there will be some direct lines from the story.
This story deals with a gender-swapped Ed.
And please feel free to comment and or give suggestion.
I woke up with the smell of metal heavy in my nose, I was on my back laying in water or something. I clenched my fist to see if my hands would move then I flexed my toes, everything seamed to be working. I saw darkness all around me but I couldn't figure out where I was or where Ling was, the last thing I remembered was that Gluttony was about to... I something drop in my stomach when the realization hit me, I was eaten. I brought my hand to my mouth and tried to think when I smelt it, the metal smell was coming from the water but it wasn't water it was blood. It was suddenly too quiet to deal with I could only hear the blood rushing in my ears and my heart beat quicken.
"Hey is anyone there?!" I yelled looking in the darkness for any sings of life, I waded through the knee deep blood passing broken marble statues and columns. "Ling!" I yelled trying to get a response. "WHERE THE HELL AM I!" I saw light in the distance so I walked to it hoping to find anything, an exit another person. After what felt like forever the blood level lowered so know it was only around ankle height instead of around my knees. 'When I get out of here I'm burning everything I'm wearing.' It was lonely and no one was in sight, I looked up to see if there were any stars out but the sky was black the only light was coming from the fire. 'Where is everyone? I would even be happy with Gluttony maybe he could answer my questions at least.' "AL!" I called wondering if my little brother found his way into this hell. "Gluttony! Hell I'll even deal with that idiot prince right now." I muttered that last part but apparently it was still heard.
"Tell me if I'm wrong but idiot isn't a complement in your country now is it." I turned to the voice to see Ling standing in blood soaked pants holding a torch for light.
"It isn't but else do you call someone who lets himself get eaten?" I asked the prince. He smiled and walked closer to me but then I realized something before we were eaten Envy grabbed my ankle meaning that he is somewhere down here. "Stop before you come any closer how do I know you are you?" just because I was eaten doesn't mean I trust Envy not to try anything.
"You're a girl." He said thinking that was enough.
"Envy can change shape I think that he would know that I was a girl."
"I kissed you after we arrived in Central and I told you that I thought I had a connection with you." The prince tried again, his voice was filled with hope He took a step closer to me.
"And I said that's because you thought I was your type." I took a step in we were an arms distance anyway from each other.
"I'm not sure what my type is any more." He took another step leaning down for a kiss I started to lean up to meet him when I took another smell of the air. I pushed him away.
"Maybe after we get out of wherever we are." I bit my bottom lip and knit my eyebrow together hoping he'll understand, the cold eyes he gave me meant that he didn't.
"Yeah sure." He said starting to walk off, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"It's just that I'll feel like we where giving up with we kissed now." I further explained myself. He smiled and shook his head scoffing at me a bit. "Now give me the torch." I took it from with with my automail hand. "What did you use to make it?" I asked then looked down at the handle, it was human bone. I shrieked then dropped it, but before it hit the ground Ling made a quick grab for it.
"I found a skeleton and some wood back there so I decided to make a torch so I wouldn't be in complete darkness." I shivered at the thought of using a dead man as a handle, but that didn't stop Ling as I was thinking about how morbid that was he made me a torch of my own. "Here." He said holding it out to me, I didn't make a move to grab it so he held it closer to me and said. "Grab it with your automail so you don't have to touch it." I eventually gave in and grabbed it from the young prince. We started throwing ideas back and forth trying to find out where we were, the only conclusion we came up with is that we were inside of Gluttony.
"Maybe if we found a wall we could find the way out." Ling suggested I looked around in the darkness trying to find a wall that might not even exist. That's when we realized that we've been walking for hours and haven't met anything yet. Our eyes met apprently he was having the same thoughts. We both ran farther forward trying to reach somewhere anywhere, but there was nothing. Our second plan was to use alchemy and to transmute a tunnel out of there. I clapped my hands together and made a well straight down and just before Ling jumped in I tossed the torch down. We waited for it to hit bottom but after five seconds it sill didn't hit the bottom.
"Wall there has to be a wall somewhere." I said a little too panicked. We both looked forward and sprinted forward getting no closer to any signs of an exit. "Dammit! Why isn't there a wall anywhere in here, no space is infinite." My brain was going over all of the possibilities to why we haven't found a way out. I was scanning the room when I saw something reflect the light of the torch. I looked at the hill to see an armoured glove, Al...Alphonse? I ran to the hill and quickly climbed it, I bent down and examined the armour, it was Alphonse's hand. There was a smooth edge that cut off just above where the wrist is.
"Is that?" Ling asked unsure of how to phrase the sentence.
"It's Al's arm. Just his arm." I was relived that the rest of him wasn't down here with us but he mush still be worried about me. 'Maybe there was some way I could talk to Al, I mean our blood is mixed together and we've already determined that we are connected maybe we could communicate.' I grabbed his arm with both of my hands giving Ling my torch, and without thinking I yelled "ELIRC SIBLING TELEPATHY! RECIVE IT LITTLE BROTHER! ELRIC TELEPATHY!" I could hear Ling mutter something about leaving me on my own. I stopped screaming and waiting for some kind of response anything, but nothing came, so taking Al's arm Ling and I pushed forward into the darkness.
FMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFMFM
It felt like hours of walking and we still haven't found any wall, I could feel myself getting more and more tired with every step, until one step when I tripped on something on the way down I heard metal hitting metal. Ling caught me before I could fall and face plant into the blood.
"Easy there, do you need a break." I looked at Ling and realized he must have been as tired as I was, I studied his body of a second and realized how defeated he looked.
"Yeah I could use a break." I smiled as he let out a silent sigh of relief, he walked over to a brick wall that was sticking out of the blood. I put my hands on my hips, I frowned when both of them didn't touch my back my automail one wasn't touching it. Using my real hand I reached to see what it was and I found the gun that Hawkeye gave me. I held it in my right hand and fired it right in front of me. Ling jumped at the sudden noise.
"What the hell was that for!" He yelled from his seat.
"Bullets can travel fast then we can run so if I shoot this in different directions well be able to find the closest wall." I explained to him I rotated my body and shot again and again and again.
"There's not sound of it hitting against anything." Ling whined I turned to him and aimed right above his head and shot. He ducked trying to avoid the shot that was no where near him. "Stop shooting!" I tried one more time this time firing into the air and it hit nothing again. I keep firing all around but I quickly ran out of bullets.
"You're right Ling, but that's impossible nothing can be this big." He stood up and we keep on walking in the direction we deemed as forward. It felt like forever I could feel the energy slowly draining from my body.
"It's the sea of blood, it's tiring us faster."
"Just hold on a little longer Ling, there has to be an exit somewhere." My real limbs where as heavy as my automail ones.
"I'm hungry, as soon as I get out of here the first thing I'll want is food."
"I want food and sleep too." I yawned, "Oh crap the fight with Scar, I'm going to have to fix the town." Ling laughed then it turned into a cough, a body shaking wet cough. "Ling?" I turned to see that he was heavily hanging onto a knocked over tree. "Hey, Ling come on it's not that much farther." I walked up to him and gently shook his his body.
"I...can't go on..."
"Ling come on you can't give up now it would be pathetic." I told him "You're going to stop even after it came all this way? Get a hold of yourself!"
"Just go on without me!"
"Fine I will." I yelled and turned around. "I mean it." I took a few more steps away. "Ling I'm serious I'm going to abandon you here." I stopped walking something was keeping me from leaving I turned on last time and looked at Ling's body. I sighed 'Dammit.' I walked back to him and lifted him onto my shoulders. He didn't weight much for someone who was constantly eating.
"Weren't you going by yourself?" He sounded so confused that someone would come back for him.
"I have someone waiting for me back home, there's no way I'm dying here with you, and you have someone waiting for you at home and I'm not going to let you disappoint them." I told him.
"I thought it was because you loved me." He muttered. "Edelle do you think we could ever work out, or are we too different?" I didn't answer right away not knowing what to say. "Wait who's waiting for me?" He asked.
"Lan Fan. Can't you tell she's crazy about you." I told him, I thought he knew about her interest in him it was pretty obvious, I was mad that he was pretending that there was nothing in between them.
"She doesn't love me, she's paid to protect me, I'm nothing more than a job to her."
"Then why did she cut off her arm for you?" I yelled back, I could feel my anger fuel my body letting me take farther steps and faster.
"Because if I was to die and they found out about what happened at home she would have been executed for not doing her job." 'Oh.'
"Great that makes me feel like an -" I didn't finish because twice now in this hell hole I tripped on something sending both Ling and myself into the sea of blood. Luckily we found a large round flat surface to rest on. We both decided that we couldn't go on without food, so with a lot of convincing I got him to eat leather boot, well not the boot exactly but a soup made out of it. We ate and shared stories about our past, it was weird but Ling was telling me about Xingese history and I laughed, in all of this darkness Ling made me laugh. When the silence creped back in I stood up.
"Well break time is over, let's move." I looked to Ling and he was starring at me, "What do I have something on me?" I looked over my body trying to see if there was anything out of place.
"It's nothing, I just find it hard to believe that people keep mistaking you for a boy."
"What do you mean?" I asked putting my hands on my hips.
"That for one thing." He tilted his head at me and I quickly took my hands off of my hips.
"There's a reason why I were a lot of layers, it's not just for style."
"Yeah but how many more years do you have before your body starts really changing?"
"That's why, I'm trying to fix this before people start to notice."
"Why living with automail can't be that bad."
"I'm not doing this for me! I'm doing it for Alphonse!" Ling had nothing to say to that and the eerie silence came back. "Come on let's get moving."
"Ed wait" Ling said.
"Ling I'm not in the mood-" Ling threw his hand over my mouth.
"Shhh something is coming." I listened and could hear someone walking through the blood and it was getting louder.
"I thought I saw a light over here." 'Wait is that Envy?' "So it's you guys." Ling and I shared a look. Before I could say anything Ling yelled to Envy.
"Tell us where the exit is!"
"There is no exit! I only intended for you to get eaten squinty eyes now the Fullmetal brat and I are stuck too."
"Eaten... So we really are inside of Gluttony."
"Yes and no, haven't you already guessed where we are." I inhaled so I was right, that weird feeling I got went I was swallowed was real.
"The doors of truth." I said out loud. "But it isn't this, there was no blood and darkness, it was white with doors."
"So that's what the real one looks like." Envy said. He got comfortable and sat on a broken pillar not to far from our island.
"Real one?" I asked the homunculus.
"Father created this, it's a fake door of truth that he made for Gluttony."
"What the hell is this door of truth you keep talking about?" Ling asked but Envy and I ignored him and keep going.
"Even with all of his power Father couldn't create something like that, this whole place is a failure. This place is a place between reality and truth. There is no exit or any escape, no one can get out of here all we can do is to sit and wait for our energy to be drained from our bodies." I could feel my heart dropping with every word there has to be a way out, I had to see Alphonse again.
"Lier!" Ling yelled at him
"There's no way something like that could happen." I yelled to but it didn't have any strength in it.
"Say something Envy tell us it's a lie." He didn't answer but his silence was all I needed.
"No... If I die what will happen to Al? I can't die here I made a promise." I broke down tears started pouring from my eyes and I collapsed to my knees.
"Ed, it's okay it's going to be okay." He was rubbing circles on my back.
"No I don't understand anything why do you need people who've opened the doors, who is your farther and why does he want to open the doors so badly that he tried to create his own? Is it Fuhrer Bradley?" The boys didn't understand me, I went from crying my eyes out to calm and curious in seconds.
"Wow mood swing much, might want to chill out Fullmetal or else people might start thinking you're a girl." Envy said, I couldn't tell if he knew or not but I didn't care.
"Answer my question!" I screamed at him.
"No Bradley is just a little brat like you."
"So is he also a created human?" I asked, if we were stuck down here might as well try to find some information that could help. Envy gave me his sideways smile looked at me.
"Yep." 'Does that mean that everything the Fuhrer has done is connected to this? Think big name something that couldn't possibly be connected to it.'
"And the Ishvalan civil war?" He didn't change his expression. "Oh my god."
"There will never be a civil war as great as Ishval, do you remember how it started?"
"It was an officer that shot a child by accident." I answered him.
"Oh it wasn't an accident." Envy started to laugh a dark and sick laugh. "I did it, I shot that child and it felt great, I framed a really annoying soldier too, so it was hitting two birds with on really big stone."
"You bastard. You started a war, you destroyed the East, my home town, you created Scar and you kill Winstons parents. IT WAS YOU!" I pulled my automail arm back and jumped off of the platform and rushed him, he didn't move an inch making it an easier target for me. I punched his face letting the full strength of my automail hit him, but when it made contact he didn't even move it was like something was stopping my hand form going any farther.
"So you want to fight?" He asked his voice was cool, but there was something off about his eyes.
"Ed get back here." Ling snapped at me, I moved back not taking my eyes off of Envy.
"We're all doomed anyway." He stood up and started to grow like he was changing into someone,
"Didn't you see his foot prints from when we were fighting?" Ling asked I shot him a glare. "They were deeper then they should have been the same thing happened in Central too. He has an incredibly dense body mass, so his true size must be...huge." Envy was like a car accident I couldn't help but look he grew another set of arms and legs and he grew a tail. His head turned into an animal like form and faces twisted in pain sprouted from his skin around his neck. He was on all eight and looking straight at me with two different coloured eyes. I knew we where screw if I didn't think of a way to win and fast.
Hi guys long time no see don't worry I'm not dead just got insanely busy but now I've gotten into the rhythm of the new school year so updates should be happening much quicker then once every other month. So sorry, for the delay. As always feel free to comment and suggest anything, I see you guys soon