When Light Enters Your Heart
Summary: "If I had a heart, you'd be the light in it." Envy has lived his whole life hating his father and wanting to kill him. Then he meets Lilly and his whole world changes. Lilly is an alchemist trained to be an assassin and tasked with killing Envy despite her clear PTSD from her first kill. Having heard the truth about why Envy's father Hohenheim of Light left Envy and finding journals kept by him and Dante documenting their feelings for their son Lilly reveals the truth to Envy. After Lilly nearly dies protecting Envy from her sister who had been ordered to follow Lilly and kill Envy should she fail he begins to develop strange feelings for her. After living in the darkness so long has he finally found the light? EnvyxOC and EdWin shipping.
SPH: Hello everyone one! I'm not dead! *cricket chirps* Ahem, okay so I think I ranted in a story about how I could never forgive the 2003 Envy for wanting to kill his father and half-brothers, but after doing a little digging I basically found out he'd been lied to and manipulated by Dante, his own mother and that he was completely unaware of the truth about the situation between him, his father, and his brothers, so yeah kinda hard to stay mad at him when he'd been fed lies to make him want to kill his family. Also I'm gonna warn you now, Envy's going to end up being very OOC in the story, mainly because this is a "what if Envy was secretly trying to protect Ed and Al from Dante since they're brothers" story as well as a "what if Envy had a love interest" story so yeah, prepare for him to be very OOC, though to be perfectly fair he's OOC in the majority of my stories that include him in them so, yeah most aren't up yet, but he's gonna be OOC in almost all of them so you have been warned. Anyway, disclaimer time! I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters; they belong to Bones and is loosely based on the Fullmetal Alchemist manga by Hiromu Arakawa. The song Lilly sings is annapantsu's cover of Disney's God Help The Outcasts which I also do not own. I only own Lilly, all other OC's, the story, and the plot. On with the story!
Prolog
Lilly's vision became blurry as she hit the ground. She could hear her name being screamed out by the others. Two faces came into view, but her vision was too blurry to make them out. It didn't matter; there were only two people with her she knew who they were.
"You're gonna be okay, hang in there!"
Lilly shed a tear at her sister's voice and managed a weak smile.
'My time's up here, I'm so sorry both of you. At least I got to tell him the truth, I can rest easy knowing that…' she thought as her eyes closed.
"LILLY!"
A few weeks earlier…
Lilly stood in a dark room with a light shining over her. A female figure stood above her on a balcony, shadows hiding the facial features only allowing her figure to be seen.
"You know why I called you here, correct?" the figure asked.
"You have a task for me to carry out." Lilly said almost robotically.
"Yes," the figure said, "as you know you recently finished being trained to be an assassin and were the one to kill the target."
"If by recently you mean almost a month ago then yes." Lilly said still in an emotionless tone.
"DO NOT TALK BACK!" the figure yelled making Lilly flinch. The figure cleared her throat. "Because of this training and your success in being the one to deliver the killing blow I have a task for you that will test your new abilities." She said.
Lilly couldn't see the features of the figures face, but she was able to make out a smile that made a chill run down her spine and caused her to feel sick in her stomach.
"I want you to kill the Homunculus Envy." The figure said as a table with a gun and bullets rose from the floor in front of Lilly.
"K-kill?" Lilly asked her eyes widening. Her pulse rose and her breath quickened as the memories from the kill came flooding back to her mind. It was taking all she had not to have a full-on breakdown. Ever since she'd killed the target she'd been a total wreck. She's killed someone, someone who had been very close to her, who had almost been like a father to her, especially since her real father disowned her after she had been assigned to class 3E, the Assassination Classroom. It still haunted her at night, in her dreams. She couldn't even leave her room most of the time the guilt was so strong, and she'd cried more times than she'd like to admit.
"Yes." The figure said. "As you know, I am a Daughter of the Gate, the one representing chaos. Envy is the most chaotic of the Homunculi, he is a threat."
Lilly looked at the gun and bullets in front of her.
"The bullets are soaked in his blood;" the figure said, "I managed to get some of it when he'd died three hundred and eighty years ago before his father attempted Human Transmutation to bring him back to life. As a Homunculus he is near immortal, but as you're an alchemist as well as an assassin I'm sure you know what a Homunculus is, correct?"
"A Homunculus is an artificial human made with alchemy by using Human Transmutation; however there has never been a recorded case of it being successful." Lilly said still staring at the items in front of her.
"Ah, but that's because they only ever saw the result from right after they got back from the Gate." The figure said, "You see, for it to work they must be fed red stones that were made by sacrificing human life, however; they still lack a soul thus they aren't truly human. This is why they're almost immortal, but there is a way to kill them."
Once again Lilly was sure she saw the smile that set off warning bells inside her.
"As they're only a replication of the human the alchemist was trying to bring back something from the real deal, a bone, a lock of hair, anything that was once part of the human the Homunculus is based on will paralyze them, they can be stopped by the real deal, it can kill them too." The figure continued. "I want you to shoot him in an area that would normally instantly kill someone, the head, the heart; you're the one who knows the specifics. Now, it might not be enough to kill him by shooting him there, but it will defiantly paralyze him. I want you to draw a transmutation circle that is used to trap and kill Homunculi, do it after he's paralyzed, he'll be sure to stay out of it if it's already drawn."
"But…" Lilly started.
"You will do as I say, understood?" the figure asked.
"Yes…" Lilly said hanging her head.
"Good, now there' a note with the date and location you are to kill him under the gun, take those and the bullets and eliminate him." The figure said.
"Yes, Mistress." Lilly said bowing before grabbing the items on the table and putting them in her bag before leaving. She walked out a door leading to a back alley and then walked into a busy street of Rush Valley, the town which she lived on the far outskirts of.
"Yo! Lilly! Nice to see you out and about!" a man called from inside one of the many Automail shops.
Lilly forced a smile and waved before continuing on her way. Sighing she pulled the note from her bag and read it. She made a small tsk as she read that she was to go to Central. She hated trains; she hated leaving Rush Valley to be more exact. Sure she wanted to travel and see the world or at least all of Amestris once upon a time, but now that she was a killer she was ashamed to show her face in public, or even to her older sister Tulip and cousin Iza.
Lilly was so wrapped up in her thinking that she ended up tripping over something. She groaned getting up before turning to see what she'd tripped on, only to see it wasn't a something, it was a someone. A man who'd passed out on the street to be exact.
"Oh my gosh!" Lilly cried getting to her feet and rushing over. "Okay, you're gonna be okay!" she cried. Looking around she took notice that she was closer to her house than to a doctor, or rather, the train station. The local doctors were only family doctors and automail surgeons, not people she trusted to handle the man in his state. Grunting she put one of the man's arms over her shoulder and lifted him up to carry him to her house.
Lilly sighed as she laid the man down on the couch. The man had been heavier than she expected and while she wasn't sure why she'd assumed he'd be light she also wasn't sure why exactly the man smelt of rot, though she had a pretty good idea. Sighing again she went to the kitchen and got a bowl of water and a rag before dipping the rag in water, wringing it out and placing the damp cloth on the man's forehead.
"Oh my gosh what' going on?!" Lilly heard Tulip scream.
"I found him passed out in the streets." Lilly said, "The closest hospital's in Dublith and he was already close to the house. After he wakes up I'll see about getting him to a hospital."
Tulip sighed before scowling.
"Ugh! What's that smell?" she asked.
"I think it's him." Lilly said motioning to the man.
"Ugh, when he wakes up have him take a bath or something." Tulip said pinching her nose and walking out of the room.
Lilly sighed as she turned back to the man. Sometime later the man groaned before waking up.
"W-where am I?" he asked.
"You're at my house." Lilly said standing up. "I found you passed out in the street and the nearest hospital's a town away so I brought you here for now." She continued as the man sat up.
"Thank you, it's very kind of you." The man said.
"My name's Lilly, Lilly Rose." Lilly said.
"Hohenheim of Light." The man said.
Lilly blinked.
"Well, I've heard weirder names I guess." She said, "No offense."
"None taken." Hohenheim said.
"I did notice you seem to smell of rot while carrying you." Lilly said, "I assume that the reason is that you were able to use a Philosopher Stone to jump from body to body to stay alive and that your current body is quickly rotting."
"How?..." Hohenheim asked.
"Have you ever heard of Daughters of the Gate?" Lilly asked, "They're pure energy or essence of the Gate that takes on a Human form, always female for some reason. There's always only five at a time and each represents something. One represents Time, one fire, one weaponry, one chaos, and one who represents life and death both." She sighed. "I work for the one who represents chaos, she's informed me on many things about alchemy, including the Stone." She said. "I didn't align myself with her willingly; my sister volunteered both of us in exchange for protection from our abusive father." She admitted, "Even worse she now wants me to kill someone, a Homunculus named Envy, who had been created three hundred and eighty years ago by his father."
Hohenheim's head jerked up at her words, though Lilly didn't notice.
"She thinks he's a threat to her," she continued, "and since I was trained to be an assassin she felt I was the one who should carry the job out, especially since I was the one who killed the target. She gave me bullets she'd soaked in his blood, not entirely sure how she got it, but she's over five hundred years old and I don't really want to know how she got it." Tears started running down her face. "The problem is I can't kill someone, not after being forced to kill the one person who was the closest thing I ever had to a loving father. I'm a monster; I killed someone innocent because I was forced into having no choice. I should have said no, but he was going to be killed regardless of if I'd done it myself or not."
"You're a good person." Hohenheim said, "Your regret proves that. Tell me, do you think it's right to complete the task she gave you?"
"No," Lilly said, "artificial human or not, soul or no soul, a life's a life and it's not right to take it away, especially when it's for something as petty as feeling he's a threat. I don't even know why she's threatened by him." She rubbed her arm. "I don't know anything about him, for all I know she's lying and just wants him to be killed for her own enjoyment."
"I know a lot about him, or at least about who he was prior to becoming a Homunculus." Hohenheim said, "I'm actually the one who created him."
"So you're his father then." Lilly said, "Guess that makes sense given the rot." She gave a nervous smile. "No offense." She said quickly.
"None taken." Hohenheim said. He sighed. "Envy was once my son." He said, "When he was born I wanted to stop trying to achieve immortality, to actually be a family, but his mother, Dante, she refused to give up. To her, he was just an accident, a mistake and that being able to live forever was far more important than her own flesh and blood son." Honhenheim closed his eyes as a very regretful expression appeared on his face. "She forced me into ignoring him and into doing experiments." He continued, "I could always see how much it hurt him, how much he longed for us to stop. I tried once, but Dante caught onto what I was doing and I was unsuccessful. Eventually when he was eighteen Dante and I got into an argument over if mercury was the elixir of life that gave immortality or not. He broke the argument apart by yelling for us to shut up and that he'd test it to see if it was true. He ended up drinking mercury and died of mercury poisoning."
Lilly frowned as she sat down beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I was so devastated." Hohenheim said looking like he was going to start crying, "He was my son and he'd died all because I wasn't strong enough to say no to his mother and be there for him. I wanted to redeem myself, to have a second chance at being his father, to finally give him the attention he'd longed for and needed. However, what I created, it wasn't human, it was alive, but it wasn't human." He sighed. "I couldn't take it anymore, I'd ignored my son his whole life, I'd caused him to kill himself, and then I'd gone and put him through more suffering. I had and still have no doubt that he blames me for everything, especially what he's become. I wouldn't be able to face him after he'd eaten red stones, so I left him and his mother. After everything I'd done, I couldn't stand the guilt, and I couldn't face my son, so I left."
Lilly frowned.
"Maybe if I told him or asked him…" she started.
"I highly doubt he'd believe you or listen to what you have to say, not without proof." Hohenheim said.
"What makes you say that?" Lilly asked.
"It's been almost four hundred years," Hohenheim said, "by now he's come to believe I abandoned him because I didn't love him. Even if he didn't believe it at first by now he's more than likely given up on the hope that it wasn't the case."
"Well, there's got to be some way we can possibly convince him!" Lilly said getting up.
"There might be a way." Hohenheim said, "I used to keep a series of journals, personal ones not ones for research, I often wrote in them about how I longed for Dante to give up on eternal life so we could be a family, I hid them in the city underneath what's now called Central. If he were to read them it might be enough to convince him of the truth, or at least get him to listen to what you have to say."
"Do you remember where?" Lilly asked rummaging through her bag.
"Yes, why?" Hohenheim asked.
"Because," Lilly said pulling something out of her bag, "since I work for a Daughter of the Gate I'm often given items that completely ignore equivalent exchange or sometimes completely ignore science and alchemy altogether." She opened her hand to reveal a pair of dice. "These amplify my alchemic abilities but they also are able to create portals to where I want to go. I rarely use them, never really had a reason to, but if you can remember where the journals are then I can create a portal that goes straight to their location." She explained.
Hohenheim looked at her skeptically but shrugged.
"They're in a crate in one of the old buildings, the one beside the church if I remember correctly." He said.
Lilly nodded and got ready to roll the dice, but paused for a moment.
"And you're sure you're okay with me and Envy reading them?" she asked.
Hohenheim gave a small nod.
"A small part of me always hoped he'd find them and read them." Hohenheim said, "I doubt he read them, something tells me if he had your Daughter of the Gate wouldn't find him a threat."
Lilly nodded before rolling the dice. When they stopped a portal opened up in front of her making Hohenheim's jaw drop.
"That looks like the place, even if it's covered with even more dust." He said quickly recovering.
Lilly nodded and walked through the portal closing behind her. Once it was closed she began searching for the crate. She soon found it and started reading the journals to ensure they were indeed what she was looking for. She was a bit surprised that Hohenheim had fit eighteen years' worth of journal entries in only three journals, but to be fair the handwriting was small and Dante had probably forced him to use all other journals for their research.
As she was getting up from sitting on the floor she noticed a fourth journal in the crate which had formerly had other stuff in it most likely to better hide it. Frowning she picked it up and read it, surprised to find it had belonged to Dante. She scowled as she read, each entry made her despise the woman even more. Having read enough she slammed the book shut before shoving it in her bag with the other journals and opening a portal back to her house.
The next few weeks were spent ensuring that Hohenheim would be alright before she had to leave for Central.
Lilly's heart broke as she walked through the slums of Central towards the old abandoned church. She saw so many people begging for food, or money, or even some clothes. She tried to keep her eyes forward, but it was so hard when she could relate to the people she passed. Just like her, they were outcasts.
When she finally entered the church she was close to crying. Taking a deep breath she looked around. Her eyes landed on a statue of who she assumed was the god the people that once used the church worshiped. She took another deep breath.
"I don't know if you can hear me," she sang.
"Or if you're even there.
I don't know if you would listen,
To my peoples' prayer!
Yes I know I'm just an outcast,
I shouldn't speak to you.
Still, I see your face and wonder,
Where you once an outcast
Too?
God help the outcasts!
Hungry from birth,
Show them the mercy,
They don't find on earth!
God help my people
We look to you still!
God help the outcasts
Or nobody will.
I ask for nothing!
I can get by!
But I know so many,
Less lucky than I!
Please help my people!
The poor and downtrod!
I thought we all were the children of God.
God help the outcasts,
Children of,
GOD!"
Lilly took a deep breath as she finished singing feeling almost as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her shoulders.
"Hey!" a voice cried from behind her.
SPH: Dun, Dun, Duh! Okay, so you all probably know who it is yelling and for the record because I know there are going to be people confused by the description and by the start of the chapter, no, Lilly does not die and become a Homunculus. She's 100% human the entire story and even after it. I'm not going to say what happens to her exactly but she ends up fine, healthy, and alive. Also yes I was inspired by Assassination Classroom to give Lilly's assassin backstory. Anyone who's seen Assassination Classroom should already know who the target was and more or less the gist of what happened in class 3E though not exactly since FMA is set both in the past and in a different world. Alright so it's late and I don't have any questions for you, so this is Samantha Peace HeartStar signing off for now! Peace out and keep spreading the FMA love! See ya and goodnight!