Stand by You

XXIII

I woke up smelling the familiar smell of iron. I emerged from the strange liquid, coughing. It was red. Dark red. My side burned and I clenched my side, gritting teeth. When I pulled my hand out to examine the blood from the wound, I was surprised to see that it was covered in blood. In fact, I was swimming in a sea of blood. I couldn't even tell the blood on my hand was even mine. Where am I...?

Splashing was heard and I jumped to my feet, drawing my sword, only to find Edward with two torches. "Oh, it's just you Ed!" I sighed, withdrawing my sword. "I thought you were someone else."

"Well, I'm here, Evelyn," he assured me. "Where are we?"

"I don't know..."

"I see. Come along. We should go and find Ling."

I came up to Edward and grabbed one of the torches. Together, we slowly made our way forward. Floating in the blood were eroded rock that used to be a mural and skeletons wearing nothing but rags. After what seemed like hours, we spotted someone with a torch. "That must be Ling!" I cried, grabbing onto Edward's hand. "Come on! Ling!"

As we ran up to him, Ling froze. "What's wrong--" I asked and froze too.

Edward was beside him, sitting on his bottom. He was staring straight at the Edward I was with.  I shifted my eyes between the two Edwards. "If there's two of you the that means one of you is Envy! Which one is it?" I demanded.

"Eve, look out!" Edward by Ling cried.

I turned around just to see the Edward by me turn his arm into a scythe and slash me with it. I jumped back, pulling out my sword and jabbing him with it but he bent back, avoiding my jabs as he did a black flip, shifting into Envy. "Thanks Evelyn for leading me towards the guys," he grinned viciously.

"Tell us the way out of here!" Edward demanded.

"That's pretty ugly of you, Edward Elric!" Ling yelled.

"Shut up!" He yelled back. "A man will do anything to survive!"

While they bickered, Envy sat down on a nearby broken column and sighed. "Unfortunately, there is no way out of here."

Edward and Ling paused their arguing to look at Envy. He looked grave and dead serious. "You've really gone and done it now," he snapped. "You even got me, Envy, dragged into this as well."

"Where is this place?" Ling asked. "Are we really inside Gluttony's belly?"

"We're both inside his belly, and not inside his belly," Envy replied, facepalming, tired of all this shit. "Fullmetal pips-Alchemist, you've realized what this place is, haven't you?"

"Now that you mention it, from the moment that Gluttony swallowed us, I've felt that sensation before somewhere," Edward muttered.

"You remember it, right?" Envy said, his eyes narrowing. "You experienced it in the past, after all."

Edward's eyes widened in realization, "The Door of Truth! But, it wasn't like this there! It was an all-white space, with a doorway."

"Yeah?" Envy remarked. "So that's what the real thing is like, huh?"

"Real thing...?" I trailed, confused with all this talk. Then again, I've never performed a human transmutation before, so I'm not one to talk.

"Gluttony is a failed attempt by our Father to create a Doorway of Truth," Envy explained.

"He's what?" Edward whispered.

"But Father couldn't create one, not even with his power. This is a defective Doorway of Truth. I guess you could this the area between reality and truth."