Seeing Red

Chapter 8

It's quiet.

Eerily quiet. He couldn't hear anything, and he wasn't sure if his ears were the problem, or if the place he was in was really that silent. Briefly, he thought about Edward and the white void he had talked about, and he wondered if homunculi went into the Portal when they died. But that didn't last long because—

Wait.

He heard an inhale and a long, heavy exhale. It sounded weary. It sounded like the owner had gone for so long without speaking that they just needed to make a noise of some kind. It sounded close, maybe somewhere on his right, and with it came a foggy realization.

I'm not dead.

Slowly, cautiously, he opened his eyes, finding a ceiling above and a distinct note of blue in his peripherals. He inhaled, testing out his lungs and not feeling his fatal wound, and then he tried to get himself into a more coherent state.

Is that...? He turned his head to the right, and he saw what was undeniably Mustang, their eyes locking. He squinted, and he quickly realized he didn't like being in such a vulnerable position around the colonel, so he braced his arms against the mattress and pushed himself up.

"You're awake."

Envy didn't acknowledge the observation, choosing a sharp question instead. "What did you do?"

"Tch." Mustang folded his arms over his chest, and he wasn't reclining in the bedside chair. He was tense. "I've been asking myself that for the past six hours." He leveled a not-quite-cold stare at the homunculus. "I used one of Howard's Stones to revive you."

It took a second to realize Howard must have been Jacket, but it didn't really matter in the big scheme of things. "You revived me." He said it with a distinct note of disbelief, though he didn't know what part of him would still be struggling to process the very obvious truth in the statement.

"Yes." Mustang glared, a calculating look in his dark eyes. "I don't know how many souls were in it, meaning I don't know how powerful you are right now. But I think it goes without saying that if you so much as blink wrong, I will incinerate you."

Envy snorted out a laugh, breaking eye contact even though every instinct he had told him to keep his attention on the threat. "Yeah. I think I know that by now." He looked down at himself, lifting his hands from the sheets and flexing his fingers. "So, we don't know how many souls..." He pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth. "Well, I can't feel the Stone."

Mustang seemed to grow even more on edge, and he slowly rose from the chair. "That's interesting." Dropping his arms from his chest, he started to rub the fingertips of his ignition glove together.

Envy stared down at his hands for a moment more, and then he dropped them into his lap. He swallowed, wondering what in the world was wrong with him, and then he looked at Mustang.

"Did she make it?"

Squinting slightly, Mustang regarded the sin with caution. "Her body is still fighting the Stone, but we let the process run its course, so she doesn't have the disadvantage Luther did. It looks like her case will be more like Raiden's."

Envy gave a faint nod. "Good." He continued to stare into Mustang's eyes for a moment, and then he heaved a sigh. Throwing the blanket off, he swung his legs over the left side of the bed and slowly got to his feet.

"Envy."

He ignored the warning and walked over to the window, peering through the glass and seeing what he assumed was the surroundings of a hospital. They were fairly high up, and there were people mulling around on the streets. It appeared to be midday, and he briefly wondered why these people weren't at their jobs.