Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist still does not belong to me.

When he began to calm down, he slowly lifted his head up, turning away from the bodies in front of him. Except...he wasn't on the floor anymore, and the room wasn't white. He was sitting in the chair from before everything happened, and the room was filled with unsettling darkness. Although now Edward began to like the darkness, as it shielded his vision from the stiff and cold armor of his little brother and his father figure Colonel. But...how did he get in this chair? He uneasily scanned the room, looking for another presence, a doorway, a light switch maybe, but he couldn't see anything. He looked up to the ceiling, the familiar home of the disembodied voice, and prepared himself to yell at it, demand answers, but his breath was shaky and uneven from sobbing, and the words died in his throat.

"Ed-edward? Are you okay? What happened…" A familiar, concerned voice cut through the pitch black.

"Wh-what? Colonel, is that you…? It can't be-" Edward felt hot tears begin to spill from his eyes again. "You-you're not real, it's a trick," he was sobbing again, "you're d-dead." He buried his face in his hands.

"Edward, please calm down. I'm not dead, okay? I'm right here, I'm talking to you."

"N-no. You're dead. I saw your body. It was covered with blood a-and your eyes...you weren't blinking. Or breathing. You can't be a-alive." Edward stuttered out, weeping uncontrollably now.

"Edward, I'm on the other side of Alphonse. How can I be dead if-"

"Alphonse! He-he's gone, too. I saw his armor lying next to yours, his transmutation circle was stabbed with a sword."

"Brother...I don't know what happened to you, but please, we're real, we promise. We're both okay," Alphonse tried his best to reassure his brother, but to no avail. Roy and Alphonse couldn't see Edward through the dark, but they could vaguely make out the outline of his small figure, hunched over and shaking, hands buried in his face while he let out the most heart-wrenching sobs. They both wanted to go over to Edward and comfort him, hug him, continue to tell him that they weren't dead and that they were going to make it out of this mysterious room, but they were both chained to their chairs. Their wrists were bound by chains attached to the floor, and their ankles were bound by another set of chains that were attached to their chairs. They couldn't tell, but they assumed the chairs were also chained to the floor, three ways to make sure they definitely wouldn't get up.

Roy was at a loss for words as he listened to Edward's cries echo throughout the room, his own thoughts plaguing him about what could of happened to Edward, and when did it happen to Edward? He assumed Alphonse was thinking the same thing as he too didn't speak. Finally, Roy broke the silence, knowing he had to talk to Alphonse as neither of them were going to find the answer in their own conscious. "Alphonse...what do you think happened to your brother?"

"I don't know, Colonel. I was thinking the same thing. He said that we couldn't be real because he saw our dead bodies...do you think maybe he dreamt that we were dead?" Alphonse suggested.

"Wow, that must have been a really vivid dream if it made him cry this hard. I've never seen Fullmetal cry like that...he must have really believed we were dead." Roy bit the bottom of his lip, as he couldn't run a hand through his hair or do anything with his hands, at all.

"Hmm...maybe it's more like," Alphonse's breath caught short, as if he saw something unwanted lurking in this darkness, but instead, he continued to speak, voice growing louder. "What if this "Chaos" transports people into their worst fears, like a fear simulator?"

"Alphonse, that seems unlikely-"

"No, think about it, Colonel. The red glowing eyes, and how brother was frightened when he saw mine. 'Chaos is coming'...so that must mean that Chaos is coming to put someone in their worst fear, and then 'Erebus awaits you' is what's waiting for you when you get there."

"Ahh, so you caught on. You're a smart kid, Alphonse Elric." The deep, masculine voice spoke from above them. "But I fear you've missed some crucial information."

"Wh-what's that?" Roy cried out.

Unexpectedly, a quiet whisper was heard from Edward's direction. "N-no. No no. It's that voice again."

"Brother? Who is it...who's voice is-"

"Patience, Alphonse Elric. You will soon find out who I am, although I'm positive you already know." The voice spoke manipulatively.

"Erebus," Alphonse quietly yet quickly breathed out.

"Bingo! I am Erebus, god of darkness and shadows, but I am also the god of nightmares and fears," Erebus began to cackle. "I have gathered you all here today because you share one common fear. Would anyone like to guess what it might be? Edward knows."

"Stop," Edward spoke up.

"Sorry, that's not the correct answ-"

"I said STOP!" Edward yelled, chains rattling and chair rocking on the hard floor. "You leave them alone, they don't need to go through what I did."

"Brother-"

"But that's where you're wrong, Edward Elric. They do. And do you know why? Because the fear, misery, guilt, and sadness of humans is where my power comes from. All of those worthless human emotions are like a present to me. And you three are filled with those emotions. Absolutely delicious."

"You're sick," Roy yelled up to the voice he could not see.

"Ahh, Roy Mustang, I may be sick, but I am also a genius," the god spoke back to him.

"A genius? You call yourself a genius? I didn't think a "genius" would have a little minion doing his dirty work for him," Edward spat at the voice hiding in the darkness.

"Oh, you mean Chaos? Well you see, I can't exactly get rid of him. I was born from Chaos- all things pure and evil. He sends my victims to where they need to go, and I do the rest."

"Wait, you were born from him? Wouldn't that make you his minion them?" Roy questioned the god.

"Now that, Roy Mustang, you do not understand. The tables turned a few centuries ago. After I was born, I quickly became much more powerful than my father, and now instead of me serving under him, he serves under me. I am a shadow, capable of taking on any form and roaming freely. Of course I am more powerful than him."

"Wait, did you just say you were a shadow. We're fighting a shadow?"

The Colonel, also confused by Erebus' statement, spoke up. "Now I wouldn't necessarily say we're fighting him, Edward-"

"Silence! I may be a shadow, but I am still able to control your worst fears and nightmares. Now," suddenly, all of the darkness in the room shifted to white and back to black, and six pairs of red eyes appeared in the room, each pair standing in front of Edward, Alphonse, and Roy. "your worst nightmare starts now."

To be continued...