The Devil's Crossing Chapter 1: The Gate, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

The Devil's Crossing

(disclaimed)

Chapter 1: The Gate

His golden eyes flickered slowly open, staring into the black ceiling above him. His throat felt strangely dry; his body felt hollow, dead. He wasn't sure if he wanted to move or not for fear of how his body would suffer. There was silence among him, an echoing emptiness that matched he himself.

He finally attempted moving his left hand a bit, twitching his fingers slightly. There was no pain. He moved his entire hand, lifting it up with his wrist. Afterwards, he moved his whole arm up and down. It seemed he was intact.

He bent his waist and moved into a sitting position to find himself on a stone table in a barren room. There was only one other person in the room, but the boy had failed to notice him. He was more preoccupied with looking at himself, amazed to see both real arms, both real legs… but they were covered with red markings that reminded him of alchemy circles. They traveled over his entire nude form except for his face.

"This doesn't make sense…" He whispered in a scratchy voice that sounded unlike his own. There was a hiss to it to accompany the parchedness.

"I'll say it doesn't!" A voice shouted, partly of shock, mostly of anger.

The blonde's empty eyes widened and took notice of the green-headed man. "YOU!" He shouted.

Prior to these events…

In an area heavily surrounded by trees, there ran a small, clear-water stream. Beyond this stream and up a timbered knoll there sat a castle. This castle was dark with stained-glass windows. It ascended into the heavens with tall, sharp points, seeming as though it could pierce the very sky and rip holes in it. Inside, the castle was that of the gothic style with large ceiling and extreme attention to detail. The staircase in the middle of the main hall led in two directions, and the railing was adorned at the ends with sculptures of dark angels. All of the furnishings were made of either stone or dark wood. The entire building seemed to be in ideal condition, except for a single crack in the tile in front of the flight of steps.

Lurking in this castle were dark creatures, human though they looked on the outside. They held the faces of ones whom had passed on, with the red mark of the ouroboros engraved into their skin on some part of their body.

At the top of the left stairway, a child with long, fawn hair pulled back in pigtails sat. She wore a black dress that tied around her neck and trailed away at her knees. On the outer side of her right ankle, the ouroboros was placed, in all of it's crimson glory.

The little girl stared at her pale, bare feet with her catlike, aquamarine eyes. Her tiny hands were folded in her lap. She let out a little sigh, one so quiet that only she could hear it.

"Obsession," A voice called to her. She looked up into the darkened doorway behind her at the man who emerged, a dark-haired man with equally-colored eyes. He wore a skin-tight, black shirt with a purple button-down over it, left open with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His pants were baggy and black as well, as were his boots. His ouroboros resided on the back of his neck. "I was looking for you…"

She stood up and stared into his gray eyes. "I've been here," She told him. "I don't know why. Where were you looking for me, Heartbreak?"

He gave her a kind smile. "I could search this place for endless hours and not even tell you the extent of where I've looked. Truth be told, I got distracted in the library."

"You're always reading, Brother Heartbreak. It's a strange hobby for you, since you can do so much more than sit cooped up in there all day."

"What do you do for excitement, Obsession?" Heartbreak asked as they traveled down the stairs.

"I get Daddy Redemption to take me into Central City," Obsession giggled somewhat wickedly. "I go see that Shou Tucker absorb himself in his own pity, the fool." Her sweet face switched to a rather devious one. "He still pines for this body of mine. I hear him crying from the cell they placed him in. I hear him yelling 'Nina, Nina! They've taken my Nina!'. It was his fault that Nina was gone in the first place, and having my useless, unmoving body to cuddle was wasteful. I'm glad Envy snatched my body from him and took me to the gate."

Heartbreak eyed her with a bit of sadness and surprise. "Do you not miss him at all, Obsession? Do you not miss being Nina Tucker at all?"

"I don't remember much about Nina Tucker except that the man I called father put me through suffering beyond my years. I don't miss that man at all. He used me as his tool and didn't decide to miss me until I had been long since dead. The worst part was that my soul didn't matter as long as he had my body. I'll bet that if Envy hadn't saved me, I would've been morphed with another animal. Why do you ask? Do you miss your life?"

He shook his head a bit. "There's nothing to miss. Everyone I knew died out when I did. We all turned to stone, like this…" He held out his hand, and it morphed into stone before their eyes. "My life as Lujar brought me nothing but pain."

"Yes," She took his hand, "but lucky for you, now you have me, Brother Heartbreak."

He nodded. "I suppose I do…"

"Hey!" Another voice called from the right set of steps. His feet were heard stomping heavily upon the stairs as he descended them and approached them hurriedly.

"Daddy Redemption!" Obsession greeted, beaming a childlike smile. Her wickedness was gone, replaced with a seemingly everlasting innocence.

This man wore platform boots that were tied from the ankle to the knee by many belts with silver buckles. His pants were black and skin tight, held up with a similar belt as well. His shirt was translucent black from the waist to the chest and down each arm while the rest was solid black. The mark of the ouroboros could be seen on his abdomen beneath the fabric. He wore the face of Maes Hughes, yet his eyes were darker, less lively.

"What is it, Redemption?" Heartbreak asked, staring somewhat worriedly.

"Envy is going to make another one of us. You said you wanted to watch this time, Obsession."

Her eyes lit up. "Yeah, I do! Come on! We'll all go together!"

Munich, Germany.

Edward Elric had decided to go out for a stroll to clear his head. He was feeling strangely inspired to work on getting back to Amestris and back to Alphonse today, but he needed to air out his head before he lost it completely. Just spending time reflecting on the extensive possibilities and infinite power of the gate and all he had learned about it was enough to make one's head explode.

The path he had chosen was one that he had traveled before on occasions such as this. It had towering brick buildings and such raising into the sky that was a dull gray today, but not many people. They were farther into this part, and he preferred to not be around them anyway.

It was silent. There was only the sound of his footsteps and the occasional chirping bird or gust of wind to keep him company. That was when a sound entered his ears, a strange sound that couldn't have been a person or an animal… it seemed… otherworldly.

After a few moments of trying to discover where it was coming from, he met eyes on an alleyway between two buildings that seemed strangely darker than usual. His heart leapt in his chest, and he wasn't positive as to why. He approached cautiously, considering he had no skill in alchemy in this place.

"Hello?" He called, feeling idiotic that he would say something so used. He entered the passage, and the sounds of his feet now seemed extremely hollow.

Ahead of him he could see a mass of black taking form into a body. This person he knew immediately, and his breath paused in his throat. Yes, indeed, he knew this person, but he didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be possible.

Despite his denial, it was Envy, now finishing solidifying into his humanlike form. There was still darkness wrapped at his feet.

Edward couldn't, he wouldn't let him hurt innocent people here. They didn't even know how to defend themselves from something like him. Without thinking, he charged him.

Envy heard the approach and turned just in time to meet eyes with his enemy.

Ed pounced on him. "You bastard! What the hell do you think you're doing! Showing your face here! I'll kill you!"

"What the fuck!" Envy shouted, punching the blonde in the face.

Edward, despite his bloody nose and lip, wrestled the homunculus to the ground. He pummeled him for a few moments before Envy turned the tables and slammed Edward against the brick wall next to him.

Envy's foot met with Edward's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Envy took the time to smirk at him, a bad mistake since it was the millisecond the other boy needed to whirl around and kick him to the ground. He attacked him again and began punching at him unceasingly. Envy blocked and dodged most of his movements though a few blows met with his milky white face.

"Son of a-" Envy began but silenced as darkness swooped around the two of them.

Edward looked up at the shadow-like objects engulfed them. "What is this!" He screamed, shutting his eyes. When they flew open again, he was standing before the very place he'd begun to lose hope that he would ever see again.

"The gate…" He whispered and barely had time to get it out before the doors flew open and dragged the both of them in.

"I can't see anything," Obsession said, peeking into the window of the door. This was the room where they had all been created.

"Redemption, where is Rebellion?" Heartbreak asked idly, trying to find something in the room to show Obsession.

"Not sure," Redemption said. "He's probably in the high tower brooding again. I'll go check on him when we are finished here."

"There's a force coming from behind the door," Obsession whispered excitedly, feeling the pulse in the wood with her hands. "Is this how it is every time, Brother Heartbreak?"

"It was when Redemption and Rebellion were created," Heartbreak replied, "but… something's not right."

"Not right?" Redemption leaned forward and peeked inside.

Edward took hold of Envy's wrist and made another punch at him, even through the dark shadows of the gate. Before his fist met with his face however, he had vanished into the black.

"Hey! Come back here!" Ed shouted. "Don't you run from me!" He looked around into the darkness. "Damn it… How'd I get myself into this…?"

The gate's creatures grabbed at him. "HEY! What is this!" He screamed as they scratched and bit at him. "They're trying to rip me apart!" He swiped at them with his hands, but soon enough they too were being consumed. "NO!"

His will to survive pushed him forward. His clothing was ripped to shreds as he swam through the horde. "This doesn't make any sense… I don't know what's going on… ! This shouldn't be happening!"

"You could be of use to me now, boy," A voice with no owner echoed around him. He couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to. It was as if numerous voices were all speaking the same words at once.

The gate's creatures left him floating in silence. He took a breath.

Out from the obscurity, something tiny and red as a drop of blood was hurled at him. He started to dodge, but he knew that it would hit him in the chest and braced himself for the impact. Instead of bouncing off of him, however, it sank into his skin, and several others came flying. He couldn't think, breathe, or speak. Watching these… red stones… sink into his chest, stomach, arms, legs… A hand grabbed his shoulder from behind, and he lit up with strange red markings.

Darkness followed.

(A/N: So, what do you think? This is my first FMA fic, and it's most likely gonna be kinda... long... yeaaah... Anyways, I know there's a movie, but I haven't seen it, so I'm doing my own FMA sequel, mixing in a few ideas from the unattainable game, Bluebird's Illusion, but different of course. Oh, and by the way, the new homunculi aren't named after the sins because they were not created by the sins of other people who used human transmutation -except for maybe Obsession, of course, but even she wasn't complete. Go easy on me. I know I might not have gotten everything down perfectly research wise and what not, but I hope you can bare with me and enjoy the story anyway. Thanks for reading. )