A/N: Author's Note at the end. Enjoy.

The Gate

When he woke, he saw lies. When he woke again, he saw the Truth.

Kouichi K

Genre/s: Drama/Angst

Rating: T

When his vision had faded (and presumably, his soul and spectral form as well, though he really had no way of confirming that), he, to some extent, had expected the light at the end of the tunnel of darkness. After all, artistic translation generally seem to sway towards that consensus, even if it were improbable that more than a rare few had witnessed such a spectacle.

However, he had not expected that light to be a towering gate floating amidst an endless white expanse. Once the initial shock passed, it became the Gate wasn't as plain as he had first assumed, but contained a mural that rather resembled...

'...the symbol for Darkness?' he wondered aloud, reaching out a finger to trace the pattern in near awe, previous events temporarily forgotten in the entanglement.

'Indeed,' his own voice echoed back to him, causing the soul spectral to jump in surprise and whip around. The shadowed figure, that of a young boy of similar status to his own, sat comfortably amidst the white expanse, smile gleaming.

'W-who are yo-ou?' the boy stuttered, turning fully away from Gate to give the other being his full intention.

The bodiless shadow shrugged, then laughed. 'The right question. Always the right question. As to the answer: God, the World, the Universe, One, All...you. Whichever you prefer really.' The beam widened. 'Or you could just call me Truth. The Truth, if you will.'

A finger lifted, coincidently the same one the other had used to reach for the Gate, before the strange apparition gestured with a small nod to the direction his finger pointed, and the other, warily this time as the answer had rather thrown him off, turned back.

To see the previously closed Gate opening its doors, the large eye staring, and shadows reaching for him –

'Not yet,' the disembody said calmly, and the hands froze.

He turned back, confused, and now a little distrusting as the shadows reminded him of another power, clawing at him, fighting for dominance.

'Ah, I know what you're thinking,' Truth, as he had named himself, commented. 'That was lies. This is Truth.'

The other boy frowned slightly, taking in the shadow that gave him form, watching it change within his mind. Rather, only one thing really changed; the shadowed eyes that held no soul.

'You said that you were "me",' the soul spectral said hesitantly. 'Are you-?' He stumbled over his words briefly, before continuing coherently. '-another side of me?'

'So to speak,' Truth replied. 'And you are here for one of three reasons.'

He raised three fingers before continuing. 'Either you tried to bring back the dead and failed...'

He dropped a finger as the other voiced his confusion, but was ignored.

'You sacrificed someone else to open the Gate...'

The second finger dropped. The other just gaped at him.

'Or...you sacrificed yourself.'

The soul spectral started lightly, causing the other's grin to widen.

'Correct answer.'

Truth then lightly tapped his chin in mock thought, before lifting a hand, a creaking sound following which made the other turn around to see the Gate opening further. The shadow hands reached further, and the smile grew to its full extent as the soul struggled to free himself from the hold.

'Oh quit struggling,' the shadow smirked. 'It's what you wanted...in a way.'

And the Gate slammed shut again.

He found himself suddenly sprawled in front of the being known as Truth again, panting hard in pain as though his limbs had almost been torn off and his head overloaded with information...which was a rather accurate view of the situation.

'What was that?' he panted.

'Normally people complain their journey was cut too short,' the other said amused. 'But then again, they were mostly Alchemists. Eternally searching for the truth.'

The soul spectral crawled to his feet and faced the other, slightly unsteadily, after ensuring that all his body parts were indeed intact. 'Alchemy?' His brow furrowed a little. 'That's ancient art. No more than fantasy and myth now.'

'That's beside the point,' Truth shrugged. 'This is a matter of equivalent exchange. You were supposed to die, but as your soul is now safely within the Gate, it can be returned...at a price. The anchor.'

'Anchor?'

'Something to link the body and soul. On that side.' The shadowy figure pointed to the Gate. 'The spirits gave you a form, and you lost your freedom, memory and humanity for a time in exchange for that and power. Your body is on this side, and now, so is your soul. And yet, you lack the anchor, so right now, you are neither alive or dead.'

The other frowned slightly in confusion, and slight suspicion. 'I'm afraid I don't understand.'

'You will.' The grin widened. 'Eventually. But for now, your toll. For your anchor. And for opening the Gate.'

'Toll?' the other gasped. 'But I didn't-'

'Whether you meant to or not, it demands equivalent exchange.' The smirk grew eerily insane. 'So tell me. What equals the anchor between a body and a soul? Apart from the mind of course?'

Blue eyes widened and flickered downwards.

The smirk grew out, stretching across the face of Truth. 'Wrong answer,' it said softly. 'But it'll do.'

Then darkness spread again.

Everything was rather fuzzy, a mix of white, blue and black, while the surrounding noise buzzed annoyingly in his ears.

'Kouichi! Kouichi!'

Only that voice was clear, shouting for him, calling him...

He blinked, eyesight focusing on the crying face above him.

'Kouji?'

A mix of cheers, celebration and tears followed...but the long drawn out beep penetrated that, eventually arousing confusion, and later panic, as the euphoria of life vanished.

Author's Note

All the digital world/real world complexes have two worlds, like the world in which Amestris is and Earth being two worlds. Flipsides, or shadows if you will. The Gate exists as a doorway between these two worlds, as Ed and Hohenheim (and later Al) pass through it to Earth, and the soldiers and that weird Professor (forgot her name) from the first movie pass through the other way. Everybody also has their own Gate inside them (at least in Amestris). Using that in the Digital World/Real world complex, the Gate can exist between them. Ed initially opens the Gate from Amestris. When he opens the Gate from earth, he doesn't meet with Truth. Or go through those shadowy things. In season 4, while the others entered through the Trailmon, Kouichi didn't. Rather, his soul was in one world, and his body in another, unlike Al, whose body was still within the Gate. That led me to assume that it works one way in regards to the personification of Truth, though the concept of equivalent exchange (which as Dante mentioned is still a common children's dream) works both ways. That's why, on the rebound when sacrificing himself, Kouichi accidently opened the Gate (which the others may have had some part in...not really important) and came face to face with Truth, who relinked his body and soul in return for his heart, as Truth has a habit of taking body parts which correspond to desire. For example, it took Ed's leg so he couldn't stand as the support of his brother, then his right arm so he had to depend on others. It took some of Izumi's internal organs so she could never have children, Al's body so he couldn't feel his mother's touch, and Roy's eyes so he couldn't see his dream. Like Izumi, whose other organs linked together to account for the missing one, Kouichi's veins and arteries linked together so his body could function without the heart. The function of the heart is mainly to pump blood (ignoring the emotional sense) so he'll have to have regular transfusions to prevent blood poisoning.

And the reason I added that explanation is because I wasn't planning on continuing anything. On earth, that's like a medical miracle, and alchemy doesn't have to exist for the Gate if it can exist on Earth...or rather, that's the stance I took.

Well...that was a stupid idea. Oh well, all written now.