Stand Up and Walk

My Own Soul

You wait, hoping that Envy will laugh, will call Ed a fool for suggesting something like that, but he says nothing. Instead, he leans forward, crossing his arms at the boy and sneering. "Get us out of here," he bargains, "and I'll gladly tell you everything!"

He glares down his nose at you and Ed, his chin lifted in the air. "You've spent enough time beating around the bush; I'm getting sick of waiting for you to ask! You need to pay a toll, right? To open the portal?" He raises one hand in the air and, in a flash of red sparks, transmutes the arm into a bird's leg, the predator's talons razor sharp.

With a giddy exclamation and a wide smile, the boy slices the talons across his chest, revealing the Philosopher's Stone nestled in his chest.

The red glow pulses before you but all you can do is stare in horror as Envy seems to revel in the pain.

He's done it too, you know, echoes the voice from your dream in your head, and you shake your head minutely at the grim realization. But it's a lot harder for him. He heals so fast that he has to be creative.

"This should work!" the boy says, a giddy smile on his face.

※※※

You and Ed wipe the blood from your hands onto your clothes. You stare down at the familiar transmutation circle that the two of you had scrawled on the ground, carefully ensuring that every line was as straight as possible, each circle as perfect as you could make them.

You turn to Ling, who is standing with Envy outside the circle. You scratch the back of your head awkwardly. "Y'know, Ling..." you say haltingly, not sure how to continue. "There's... a chance that this might not work out for us. If anything bad happens, you need to warn people about these homunculi! Can you do that for us?"

Smirking, the boy stands with his hands on his hips, turning his face arrogantly to the side. "I don't care that much about Amestris," he informs you smugly. "It's not my country!"

You can feel a vein bulge in your forehead before your brain even processes the words. When you finally do, it only begins to pulse harder. "Are you serious?!" you demand of him, and he snickers out a laugh, tilting his head to the side at the two of you. "You guys still have too long a life left together to die in a place like this," he tells you, and you feel your cheeks warming at his words. "Besides, you have people that are counting on you to come home! So just make it back alive, and you can tell them yourselves."

Envy steps inside the circle. "Let's get on with it!" he complains.

You and Ed exchange a look, and then you give each other a firm nod.

We can do this!

Together, the two of you clap your hands and then slam them into the ground at the center of the circle. Blue and black alchemy lights up the area, shining brightly as a red hue slowly begins to engulf the world around you. Shadows that are not your to control begin to swirl around the edges of the circle. The shadows soon give way to reaching, grasping black hands that you'd hoped to never see again.

As a huge, unfortunately-familiar eye gapes open in the center of the circle, you hear Ed begin to shout. "Ling!" he calls urgently over his shoulder, not daring to turn away from the chaos before him; "Jump in it, now!"

You hear the boy's hesitating footsteps for only a moment. "You maniacs better know what you're doing!" he hollers. "I'm trusting you!"

Then he steps forward into the circle. You can feel the weight of the air shift as the particles that make up his body join in the mash of your transmutation. You marvel at how much easier it it to control everything now than it was when you were younger. You wonder if it's because you're much stronger as an alchemist, or if it's because you actually understand the goal of the transmutation this time.