CENTRAL
It was raining, and the streetlamps were hazy beacons of light in the darkness. The woman in the hooded cloak strolled down the lane, alone.
There was no one else out, thanks to the hour and the bad weather. This suited her just fine.
In the dim light, she studied a wall plastered with soggy posters, before sneering under her hood. Her fingers flashed out and blurred… And a near-perfect drawing of her face (and cleavage) fell to the ground, the words WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH TERRORIST ACTIVITIES emblazoned underneath the portrait.
“How tiresome.” Lust said.
“They could have at least gotten my nose right.”
Gluttony was up there as well. She flicked his poster down with a half-hearted wave, but she knew it didn’t matter. Central was plastered with their posters, and she had no doubt that more were being shipped with the daily mail to each town in Amestris.
Their ability to move unseen had been compromised. Lust had never really appreciated total anonymity until it was gone. And since most of their old hiding places were known to Pride or Sloth, their movement was now very limited.
They were holed up in a slum apartment right now, after Gluttony had quietly consumed the sleeping occupants. Even that wouldn’t be good for much longer… If the rumor was correct, the military would be doing building-to-building searches once a few more of their troops returned from the East.
The situation was not pretty, by any stretch of the imagination. Lust knew the only logical course of action. They should have already fled the city on foot, moved by night, and snuck of the country through one of the lesser-watched borders.
That’s what they SHOULD have done. But…
A face flashed through her mind again, with a pair of practically crying eyes. Blank eyes, but there was still something there…
It felt of old memories, the kind that normally hurt like hell. But for some reason, these didn’t. “I’ll be back for you. We’ll see each other again. Don’t worry.”
That’s what she had said to Pet. Lust couldn’t say why she’d bothered at the time, and she still didn’t know. And that worried her.
Did I have a sister, once? She wondered. She’d never recalled her in any of the memories. The skin’s about right, the same tone mine used to be when I was human. The age is about right, could be older or younger. Is she my sister?
Did Dante hide her from me? Why was she there when Dante disappeared?
Too many questions. THAT was why she had to stay, she decided. But as soon as I retrieve Pet, we’re leaving.
Lights swung around the corner, lanterns held in the hands of cloaked policemen. Pulling her hood up a little more, Lust set off down the street. She wouldn’t have any good answers as to why she was out in the rain.
Ten minutes later, she had circled the block and was back at the wall. And this time, there was someone waiting there for her.
“I seen her.” The beggar whispered.
“Where?” Lust dipped her hand into the pockets of her cloak, and let the coins jingle. The broken-toothed man licked his lips.
“They tooker into the big buildin’ that night. The Palace. She ain’t cummout since.”
Lust frowned. About what I expected. This is bad news…
“Good work. Keep an eye out.” She handed over silver to the greedy wretch, frowning slightly. A few days ago, I could just kill him. Now I have to pay him… Killing gets noticed, and without the military covering it up… So annoying.
“Sure, sure… Heh, heh.. Thanks!”
The beggar waved, as her heels clicked away into the night.
He watched her go until she disappeared completely, then his face split into a fiendish grin. “Easy.” He whispered, as his shape flickered, and a burst of energy crackled along his frame… Reshaping him into a policeman.
He reached behind the wall, past the cooling corpse of the original beggar, and picked up a lantern. Lighting it with a sulphur match, Envy made his own way into the night…
“How is she?” Major Armstrong rumbled. Lieutenant Ross shrugged, and gestured over at the woman. She was tunelessly singing, and playing with a stuffed bear. The surrounding room was full of them, as she seemed to find them comforting.
“More human dolls just make her scream.” Said Maria. “I don’t know what she’s been through, but it must have been bad.”
The Major nodded, eyes crinkling as he watched the strange woman play. “Well, she’s safe now. Whatever she went through in that Laboratory… Hopefully it’s reversible.”
Lt. Ross sighed, and leaned back in her chair. The mystery woman had been assigned the one of the guest quarters for visiting diplomats, so at least the furnishings were nice. They’d had to lock the wine cabinet after the first few broken bottles of sticky juice on the floor, but aside from that there were no major problems.
“Well… We’ll see. They’ve had a few doctors in to look at her, but they haven’t turned up anything yet.”
Major Armstrong nodded, before standing and collecting his coat. “Well, I just stopped in to see how things were going…”
He stopped in the door, and looked back. “You’re not allowed to talk about her outside of the Palace, are you? The same instructions that I’ve got?”
Lt. Ross nodded. “I don’t know why…”
“Neither do I. But we have our orders.”
And with that, Major Armstrong shut the door, and his footsteps disappeared down the hall.
Lt. Ross sighed, and looked back at Caska in time to get an airborne teddy bear to the face. “Gah!”
“Hee!”
“Oh, you think THAT’S funny!” The Lieutenant grinned, as she grabbed another bear off the nearest table, and proceeded to launch it back.
The initial barrage was followed by a counterstrike, and both combatants utilized available cover to their utmost advantage, but Lt. Ross’ superior faux-ursine marksmanship lead to the defeat and surrender of Caska after the Lieutenant closed the distance and initiated a bout of tickling.
Finally, laughing and out of breath, the two of them collapsed on the floor.
Maria was still grinning when the lights went out.
Her grin vanished, and she sat bolt upright. Moving to the window, she saw no lights visible in the rest of the Palace. Then, there was distant gunfire, and shouting.
“Someone’s cut the gas lines.” She frowned. The strange woman moaned in the darkness… “Ooooooo…”
“Hey, come over here. Come on. Yes, that’s right…” Lt Ross moved Caska over behind her, and drew her pistol. Pulling a chair over and sitting down, she aimed at the door with both hands.
If there’s trouble, it’ll come through that door. And when it does, it’ll eat a bullet or three…
Major Armstrong was heading down the stairs when the lights went out. He frowned. Then, in the distance, gunshots echoed…
“The Fuhrer!”
He turned, and pounded upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. At the fifth floor, he used his officer’s key, and entered the restricted floor.
When he got to the Fuhrer’s quarters, he was greeted by shuttered lanterns and two rifles pointed at his head. Slowing, he held his hands up until they shined the light on his face. “Major, sorry. The Fuhrer’s in conference right now, with Lt. Col Archer.”
Lt. Armstrong sighed. “What a relief. Well, I’ll help you guard.”
“No need for that, Major.” The door opened, and Fuhrer King Bradley strolled out, face drawn in the lanternlight. Behind him, Archer nodded at Armstrong.
“Sir?”
“Well, they’re probably not after me.” The Fuhrer said, rubbing his chin. “No, I’d wager their objective is someone else entirely.”
A crash of glass from two floors down. Two shots, then a female voice screaming.
Armstrong started. “Maria! The hostage!”
“Indeed! Come on, Major!”
Armstrong was already in motion, shucking his coat as he went. He straight-armed the door open, and pulled on his cesti as he charged down the stairs. The Fuhrer and Archer followed after him, Bradley’s guards shouting in alarm as they were easily outpaced.
Armstrong burst through the door, to smell cordite hanging in the air. He saw the curtains blowing from the shattered window, and cast around… Then the lanterns arrived, and revealed the prone form of Lieutenant Ross, clutching her side and bleeding into the carpet.
“Maria!” He knelt, and gathered her into his arms, as she coughed. “Don’t move. We’ll get a doctor.”
“It’s… not bad, KAFF, I… Mostly I had the wind knocked out of me. They took her. You have to get after them! KAFFkaff…”
“You and you, find a doctor.” Bradley ordered. The guards saluted, and rushed off.
“They?” Asked Armstrong, still cradling Maria. She shook her head. “Came in through the window, didn’t get a good look. Hit me with, KAFF I don’t know, an arrow or something. Fast…”
Slowly, Major Armstrong lowered her to the floor. “We can’t waste any time, then. We should-“
“No need, Major.”
“….What?”
“Thanks to some recent information that Lt. Colonel Archer has unearthed, we know precisely where they’re going.”
“And we’ve set up a little welcoming committee for when they return to their haven…”
Lust hurried through the streets, limping. Finally ducking into a doorway, she frowned as her leg gave a crackle, then straightened out. The jump from the third story window would have gone much better if she hadn’t been carrying Pet…
But then this little excursion would have been pointless, wouldn’t it?
“Ba?” Asked Pet, from the folds of her cloak. She had been wrapped up and thrown over the Homonculi’s shoulder like a spare rug. Lust shushed her, then froze as lanterns appeared in the distant fog. She stretched out a hand to the door behind her, and twisted her fingers. With a faint CLUNK, the lock fell inwards, a perfect circle carved around its frame.
The two vanished inside as the military rushed down the street, spreading out as they went. No one noticed the carved out doorknob…
TWENTY MINUTES LATER
The block around the apartment was quiet, but Lust didn’t stop glancing around as they pulled up to the doorway. The door to the slum apartment was firmly shut, and Lust smiled as she unlocked it. She set Pet down, and the brown woman immediately started fumbling her way out of the entrapping cloak.
“Gluttony. Come, we need to leave...” She swung open the door, and peered into the darkness. Her eyes, slightly better than a human’s in the dark picked up nothing in the room.
There was a muffled thump from above. Her eyes narrowed, as she spread her fingers, and held her hands tense at her side, watching and waiting…
Then there was a series of thumps… And a pudgy form rolled down the stairs. She let out a sigh. “Stop fooling around and come on.”
He grinned up at her, and rolled to his feet. “Back! Back, Lust’s back…”
“Grab Pet and come along. We’ll need to move quickly. Have you eaten?”
He moved past her, and stretched out meaty arms to the quizzical Pet.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Lust paused.
Lust turned halfway, and speared him with five fingers, pinning him to the doorframe by his limbs and head, as he choked and died.
There was another THUMP from the stairs, and she looked back to see an unfamiliar man in a black, white-ruffed jacket descending the stairs… With an identical Gluttony hanging from the man’s leg by his teeth. Her eyes widened. He grinned, and waved a hand. “Yo! You’re the new Lust, huh? Wow, you’re a babe.”
Her hand whipped up, and snapped out… As the man twisted aside, and lifted the other Gluttony in her path. She speared the fat man to the stairway, as the stranger blurred into motion!
Before she could retract her fingers, the man had blurred across the floor, and tackled her! She withdrew her fingers, only to find him pinning her arms to her side, and grinning down at her… She whipped a thumb towards his face, and into the ceiling above as he twisted to the side… She blinked. Her thumb had torn away the flesh from the side of his face, but there was something underneath. Something that was dark and shone dully like stone…
“Nice, huh? I call it the Ultimate shield. I really don’t know what’d happen if your Ultimate Lance hit it square on, but no point in taking chances.”
She struggled, and he casually snapped her forearms.
Lust frowned. “Who are you supposed to be? A secret homonculus?”
“He’s Greed. Dante decided to tuck him away for his Sin.” A familiar voice wafted over from the doorway, and she glanced back to see Envy, with his arm around a struggling Pet.
“NO HURT LUST!” Gluttony had revived from Lust’s impalement, and started his charge… As Envy held a gun to Pet’s head.
“Stop.” Commanded Lust, and the pudgy little man halted, confused.
Greed grinned down at her. “Good girl. God DAMN you’re a babe. Stacked, and smart, too. I’d love to stick around and play, but we’ve got stuff to do. Well, that and you’d probably kill me a few times.”
“Is there a point to this?” Lust asked, quietly flexing her newly-healed arms and trying to line her fingers up for a groin shot. Greed snapped them again, as easily as a human would snap a toothpick.
Envy sneered. “Yes. We get your little Pet and space to do our own thing, and Pride gets you and Gluttony. Fair trade, I think. And a few troublesome pieces off the board.”
There were shouts from outside, and the sound of running boots moving into position.
Lust chuckled. “You just made another mistake.”
Envy frowned. “What?”
“You admitted that Pet has value to you. Gluttony, eat him.”
The pudgy man charged. Envy yelled. Pet screamed, and Greed snapped Lust’s neck.
It took some time, but she swam out of the darkness… Into pain.
…A man looking down at her, tears in his eyes. Husband, she knew. She was sick, and the fire was eating her up inside, and she KNEW that he’d never recover…
The memory hurt, and she tried to swim away from it, only to find herself
…Helping mama bake cookies, as the big, warm face smiled down at her and told her that she’d make some lucky man very happy when she grew up, such a good cook. “No way!” She heard her own voice, younger then, “Boys are icky!” And her mother just laughed as Lust screamed in her mind and pulled back
…”I love you.” He was looking into her eyes, and she was staring back and their faces were getting closer and closer, and finally the kiss, and there was warmth and Lust HOWLED inside her mind…
And woke up.
She was tied to a post, and the room was dark. There were no windows, and humming lights installed in the ceiling. The new kind, electric ones she knew. The same kind that Laboratory 5 used.
She pulled at her bonds, and felt bone grind on bone. Her arms had been broken, and forced into place by chains, doubled back with the elbows bending the opposite way. Her feet were suspended a good foot off the ground, and another series of chains and locks held her waist and neck. She could get no leverage against her bonds.
If she were human, the pain would be insufferable. As it was, it was hardly comfortable.
The door slammed open, and she saw light beyond. Light and worked stone… Not the Laboratory, then. And then Pride moved in, a bag in his hands. In the back of her mind, she heard the whispering begin again, and she started to shake as he untied the bag…
Revealing an old, broken rib bone.
She turned her head slightly to the side, but there was no place she could go to escape that slew of echoes, the memories that reverberated inside her skull frantically…
“Where… Where did you find that?” No sense in pretending, she couldn’t hide its effect on her.
“Dante left it in my care. A small precaution if you went rogue. It was useful in keeping you from regenerating until you were back here.”
Lust sighed. “She told me all of those were destroyed. Dante lied even in that…”
“Now then. Talk to me, Lust, and do not hold back. Tell me what happened, and perhaps you will live through this after all.”
“Also, this is a warning. I’ll give it only once.”
Pride removed his eyepatch, baring his eye. Electric light shined from the red seal, as it seemed to pulse across the white.
“I will know if you lie. And you will suffer.”
Lust clenched her teeth.
And Pride smiled.