The Laments of Wilhelm Von Hoenheim

The following Story is a little bit of Full Metal Alchemist Fan fiction. I wanted to delve a little more into the psyche of Envy, and so I've written his origin story; something that was never really explained in the anime, with the exception of a very precious few details. So I hope you enjoy reading Envy's origin story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

I keep having these blinding painful memories of dying. Do all homunculi have these?

 The feel of the hardening veins, the cold faintly metallic taste on my tongue, the weakness and lethargy.

I was only 18 when I died and all I ever wanted was to be a great alchemist like my father and mother.

I worked tirelessly at his side day and night trying to come up with new alchemical formulas, and once he thought of me as his son…

Then that fateful day…

I was so foolish trying that elixir on my own without properly testing it first….I should have known better. Mercury based tinctures were supposed to equal the key to immortality, but all that I gained was death. My skin was afire the entire time, and then the pain I endured in my throat and lungs…not hearing…then not seeing… finally not even able to cry out in agony. I suffered for hours like this, unable to do anything… I died alone on the floor of the laboratory, a few feet away from where my father and I would spend hours researching together…

The next thing I remember was his face looking down at me, but instead of pride and love in his eyes instead I now only saw pity and disgust.

“Dante, What have we done?” He demanded of Mother, who was standing somewhere out of my view. “How could we have failed? The calculations were exact! It was supposed to be a perfect human transmutation, not this failure; this MONSTER!” He threw his notebook aside angrily.

“Hoenheim stop it! He’s breathing! Wilhelm’s breathing! See? We didn’t fail after all!” Dear sweet mother gently chided father.

For some reason I couldn’t move my head to see her… I couldn’t move anything without great effort.  Father stopped what he was doing and continued to stare at me with a look of revulsion in his face.

“That thing is not our son! Wilhelm is dead Dante! That monster is not him! I won’t accept it!”

I suddenly felt cold and dead inside. My own father calling me a monster… I didn’t understand…

With great effort I spoke out, despite the tremendous pain in my chest and throat. “F…fath…father…” I rasped in an unfamiliar voice. I was confused by the sound…

Father put his hand over his mouth and looked as though he was going to vomit.

“Hoenheim wait! We can fix him! What if we try that red tincture we’ve been working on? It’s been working so far on us, it’s worth a try! We can’t just wash our hands of him! He’s breathing! He called you father!” Mother sobbed desperately.

 I wished I could run to her and dry her eyes, but I was also so enraged at father for making her cry I wanted to punch him in the face… but all I could muster was a spastic flail of my green, scaly limb in a vain attempt to reach out for him. No wonder He found me repulsive, I wasn’t even human anymore.

“P…please…father…” I rasped in that strange voice again.

Father just shook his head and turned away, walking out of our lives forever.

Days went by and I hoped for his return, but he never did. Mother took care of me, although she never was able to look me in the eyes, or call me by my name ever again.