Nearly two years later, and I’m not sure if I can remember where I was going with this. I think I have a rough idea though, and I have decided to finish my fanfics now. Sorry about the long update period. University’s a bitch.

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Ling and Ed had been unable to move Envy with their own strength, but using Ling’s power, they had managed to move the ground he was on up and out of the blood.

Ling sat beside Envy’s body, while Ed paced restlessly in the blood below.

“We should leave him,” said Ling. “We have the information we need, right? You should be able to get out of here without a problem…”

Edward didn’t seem to hear him. He supposed he understood now why Envy had been so intent on leaving. He also understood, to an extent, the ban on his using alchemy.

“Edward,” said Ling again. “We have to get out of here. That thing… The Truth... It was horrible. I know you probably couldn’t feel it, but…”

They had used Alchemy to bring back the disfigured shell of their mother – both he and his brother. The Truth had taken his brother’s body, and Ed’s leg. It had then taken Ed’s arm when he had tried to bind Al’s soul to the suit of armor. Ed had to admit that he didn’t truly understand how the Truth worked, nor did he understand why it hadn’t attacked them before now, but he was beginning to get an idea.

“Ed, are you listening to me?”

Envy had forbidden him to use alchemy. He clearly understood, to an extent, how this place worked. It was obvious, since Envy had called it his world. He would need to wait for Envy to wake up again, to ask him some questions. The Truth must have fed off of alchemy somehow. The use of alchemy must mean that The Truth was able to take something from them. Alchemy was used to create the philosopher’s stone, and it was what had lost Ed his limbs and his brother’s body.

Why was Envy so scared of The Truth? Weren’t they on the same side?

He didn’t notice that Ling was standing in his path until he walked into him. He raised his eyes from the ground, then looked at Ling.

“Edward,” said Ling. “We need to leave this place.” Confident that Ed was listening now, he continued. “We have to leave Envy. He would do the same to us if he had the chance.”

Edward seemed to consider this, and was silent for a whole minute. “No,” he finally said. “We can’t do that.”

Ling frowned. “And why the hell not?!” he demanded. “You know that if he had the chance, he’d leave us both here.”

Edward shook his head. “No,” he said. “He was the one who came to me for help-“

“He only did it because you could get him out!”

“And he was the one who found you. I won’t leave him. The three of us are all working together.”

Ling scowled. “You’re far too honourable,” he said. “You have to stop treating them like they’re human. They’re not. They’re monsters.”

“No,” Edward said. “They’re not monsters.” Ling said nothing, but Edward didn’t continue.

“We will wait for him to wake up,” he said. “I need to ask him more information as it is.”

Ling continued to scowl, but he argued no more, not least of all because since Edward was apparently the only one who could get them out of this, he was in charge.

“I wonder how much time has passed since we were swallowed,” said Ling, some time later.

Edward pulled his watch from his pocket again, and opened it. Unfortunately for him, he had lost sense of time. As his watch was a twelve hour one, it was impossible to say how many days had passed, if any, or if it was morning or night. He snapped it shut, and put it in his pocket.

“I hope that Al isn’t worrying,” he muttered, more to himself than to Ling. He knew, of course, that Al was probably worrying himself sick.

“How much longer is this guy going to remain asleep?” Ling demanded, realizing that he shouldn’t allow Edward to depress himself by dwelling on the time that had passed. He nudged Envy’s head, and it lolled to the side. Envy didn’t react.

“I don’t know,” muttered Ed. “I hope it isn’t too much longer. Maybe we should just take our chances and leave him.”

Ling would encourage this thought to grow, but he knew that it hadn’t grown at all. Edward was just talking for the sake of talking. Besides, the more he thought about it, the less information he knew about this place. Perhaps Edward was right, and they should wait for Envy to awaken before they attempted anything.

“Do you want to sleep?” asked Ed after a time. “We could each take turns sleeping until Envy wakes up.”

Ling glanced at Ed, and then nodding. He laid down as far from Envy as the small platform would allow, and within moments, he was sleeping noisily.

Edward laid down, using Envy as a pillow, and stared upwards at the never-ending darkness.

At one point, Edward would have left Envy without a second glance. It would have been easy. Envy, though he wasn’t trying to kill Edward or Alphonse, was trying to do something with them. He killed people; he killed many innocent people. He was something to be detested, despised, and disgusted by. Edward, however, couldn’t bring himself to hate him. He wondered when whatever had changed had changed. He admitted he needed Envy for his knowledge of this place. He needed Envy to help him escape. But it was more than that, wasn’t it? He probably had enough knowledge now to escape on his own. He and Ling could get away now without needing to worry about anything.

It took him a moment of pondering, before he realized that Envy’s stomach wasn’t moving. He blinked, then sat up and looked at it. Then, he looked at Envy’s face. His face paled a little, and then he looked at Envy’s chest. Finally, he put his face near Envy’s. He could feel no breath coming off of the other being.

“Shit,” he said. How had he and Ling missed that Envy wasn’t breathing? Did Envy even need to breathe?

He placed his hands on Envy’s chest, and began pushing down on it, performing CPR. This didn’t seem to be helping though, so he tilted the homunculus’ head back, and began to lower his mouth to Envy’s, when Envy’s eyes flew open, and he shoved Edward away.

“What do you think you’re doing, pipsqueak?!” demanded Envy. He regretted his decision as soon as he had a metal fist ram into the side of his face.

“That’s eight,” snapped Edward.

Envy growled and sat up, rubbing the side of his face. Edward noticed at this at this time that Envy was, indeed, breathing again.

“Do you keep track of how many times everyone calls you short?” asked Envy, rubbing his face until the pain dulled away. “How the hell do you do it?”

Edward didn’t bother to mention that he didn’t keep track of everyone else’s. “You weren’t breathing,” he said.

Envy frowned, then shrugged. “Whatever you say, Fullmetal,” he said Envy. He grinned, and wrapped an arm around Edward’s shoulder. “Maybe you were just trying to sneak a kiss while I was sleeping.”

Edward made a disgusted noise, and pulled himself away from Envy. “Get a grip,” he snapped.

Envy grinned. “I’m surprised you’re still here, pi – Fullmetal. I would have expected you to be out of here by now. That’s what I would have done.”

“You’ve been helping us,” said Edward. “I couldn’t just leave you. It wouldn’t’ve been fair.”

Envy couldn’t help but smirk at him. “If that’s how you want to look at it.” He glanced at Ling, who was still sleeping. “You know, he hasn’t been helping at all. Let’s say you and I open the gate, and leave him here.”

“No,” said Ed simply. “I’m going to go to sleep. You keep guard.” Then, he flopped down on his back, leaving Envy to stare at him, confused.

Envy sighed, and sat down, swinging his legs in the blood. Then, he saw a shadow move. He pulled his feet out of the blood, pulled them to his chest, and sat himself between Edward and Ling.

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Thanks for continuing to read this after my long, long hiatus. I hope that it was worth the wait, though I doubt it was.

Please read and review. Con Crit more than welcome, flames will be mocked.

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REVIEW REPLIES:

To kamatari: Envy used his true form when he had left Ed, when the Truth had grabbed him in chapter three. That was the electrical discharge that Edward had felt.

To Toki1: Basically what happened was that Envy had a run-in with Ling before they were swallowed. Envy used his powers, but Ling still managed to dismember him, and didn’t actually get hurt at all.

To mew2: Yes, but it will probably be more subtle than what I had originally intended.