Hi everyone! So sorry for the long wait; got to love school, right? Now that I don't have any papers to write at the moment, I can finally update!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Fullmetal Alchemist except my imagination and the OCs that will appear later.

Chapter Two

Inside the Gate

Darkness; everything inside the Gate was filled with darkness. The nothingness seemed to eventually conquer the others inhabiting the place, causing them to forget who they had been, but leaving them with one desire: to escape this place. They waited in a dreamless slumber until the Gate was opened by someone dying and joining them or by someone foolish enough to try to reclaim their lost loved one.

Greed would watch all of these incidents from a distance. The antics of the other Gate-people amused him, especially when one of them finally got their wish to leave, while the others seized a payment from the alchemist waiting on the threshold, only for the resurrected being to be returned shortly after. He knew this was because these not-quite-homunculi had not been fed the one thing they needed to live: Philosopher Stones.

Sometimes, he found himself interested in who was entering the Gate. He wondered if the Elric kid had been able to succeed in hunting down the others. He really could care less about the others except for Envy and Dante; those two were going to pay for the century they keep him Sealed, and for the trickery that had caused him to die and come to this place. He often thought of how much wealth and power he would have had if he hadn't lost so much time in either of the prisons.

Huh, really how much better is this than being Sealed? He thought, sarcastically. Well, at least when he was Sealed, he still had a body. To be honest, he wasn't even sure what he was now.

Time passed, with nothing really major happening until the gate opened, revealing Lust, who, upon crossing the threshold, turned into a formless blob. Greed watched, as moments later, Sloth appeared, and the same thing happened as she entered the Gate. Greed mentally grunted; those were not the two that he had hoped to see.

The most interesting thing that happened was watching the flash of a figure go past and into the farthest reaches of the darkness. It was a blur of color, but he thought he could just make out who it was. Hey, was that the kid? Greed continued to stare after the blur, wondering what exactly was at the other end of the darkness. He slithered slowly in that direction until he heard screaming from outside the gate. Wriggling his formless body around, he saw the Gate had been opened again, and none other than the crybaby Wrath was there. He watched as the other Gate beings seized Ed's limbs from him, in a cruel payback for stealing those limbs from Ed himself years ago.

Greed watched in horror until a thought occurred to him; maybe, just maybe he could escape this place. He would just need to wait until the Gate opened again, and push past the others crowding it. Yes! Then the world will be mine! He slithered forward, thinking all the while of all the riches he would have again.

Eventually, the coming and going of previous homunculi and Ed were almost an everyday occurrence. Ed waltzed through, opening the gate, Pride entered, then the gate was forced open by none other than Envy.

"I've come to kill him! Take me to Hohenheim of Light!" Envy yelled to them all.

Almost there! Almost there! Greed thought, slowly inching forward. He froze when he saw the transparent figure of Ed outside, warning Envy not to do that. Again? Wait…is the kid dead? Greed forced himself to concentrate again on escaping. Well, at least he got rid of most of them before he died. Especially that one. Greed glanced up at the form of Envy being attacked by the Gate beings. He watched in disbelief as the first homunculus turned into a strange serpent-like creature right before his eyes. I really need to get out of here; this place is really making me go crazy.

The Gate began to swing shut as a young boy he had never seen before appeared and Ed disappeared. Greed growled mentally as he tried to crawl faster. Just as he came to the side of the light brown haired boy, the Gate closed. Greed lay at the boy's feet dejectedly.

The boy looked down at him, as if mildly curious. "So, this is what is inside the Gate. I wonder if this is what brother saw when he was in here?"

Greed tensed. He had heard that voice somewhere before. But he didn't know this kid. Why is he in a spirit form and not like me? This place is very strange. Maybe I'm being punished. Is that how this works?

He rolled over to see this strangely familiar boy better. He had large gray eyes that seemed distant and sad. The boy suddenly sat down beside him, watching the Gate as if waiting for something. "I don't know why, but I have this feeling I should stay here." The boy looked at the violet eyed being next to him. "You seem familiar, somehow."

Greed stared at him, wishing he could speak. That seemed to be one of the things that the Gate stole from him when he returned. In fact, none of the other things like him could speak.

"I guess you can't speak. That's okay. I hope you don't mind me sitting beside you. It just seems so lonely in here, and I can't shake this feeling that I've seen your eyes somewhere before." Suddenly the boy smiled. "At least I know I saved brother. I didn't know if it would work, but I knew he hadn't been dead long, so he would still be inside here and not completely lost."

Suddenly it hit him. Greed's eyes widened as he realized who this kid was. It's Al! The former homunculus instantly felt sad. The entire time he had held Al hostage, the then armor bound child had been so innocent and even helped him when his hide-out at the Devil's Nest had been raided. Now this kind person was dead. Greed rolled back over and rested his head against Al's leg. What am I, some kind of puppy? He rebuked himself.

Al began petting his head. Greed narrowed his eyes. Apparently I am. He then scared himself by enjoying the petting on his head. So this is what I've become, a cuddly puppy.

"I just had to save him. After everything he had done for me; he sacrificed everything to save me when we tried to bring back mom. The least I could do was save him, too." Al continued. He looked down at formless violet eyed being beside him as he continued to pat its head. He smiled softly again. "At least now I can see all my friends who have died again. Marta and Nina and even Greed." He chuckled. "I know I was his hostage, but it made me sad when I found out brother killed him."

Greed blinked at him in shock. Al really felt like that? So ironic that I am here as his lap-dog and he doesn't even know it. "Brother wouldn't have been able to defeat the other homunculi without his help." Al sighed. "It was Envy who killed him. It happened right before my eyes and I could do nothing to stop it."

Greed bristled and narrowed his eyes. Envy always had a way of destroying everything. First, he had made his life miserable as one of Dante's henchmen. Then he had had him Sealed for over a century. To sum it all up, he had killed Ed-Man, that kid was fun to bug-and now Al was dead trying to bring back his brother.

Groaning at the realization that he must be going soft-this petting is not helping-he promised silently to Al that if he ever escaped this place and met with Envy again, he would make him suffer.

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