Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist.
Characters: Mostly Envy-Centric, Kimblee, Archer.
Series: Invidia.
Chronological Order: Somewhere along Judgment and Innocence.
Spoilers: For the Ishbal war and Envy's hand in it, for anime's Pride identity.
Beta: Dynast.
Rating: PG-13.
Genre: Drama.
Pairings: One-sided Envy/Kimblee, one-sided Envy/Archer, mentions of Archer/Kimblee.
Feedback: Please! If you spot typos, grammar, continuity (but bear in mind this is an AU fic), do tell me. I tend to write late at night and although my betas are skilled, they can't always catch all my slips.
Quote: "All things tend to corrupt perverted minds." Marcus Tulius Cicero.
Word Count: +/- 3 585.
Notes: Just a tiny look into Envy's mind and his games to keep boredom at bay. Dynast's idea as to how the Crimson Alchemist came to be.
Invidia: Corruption.
"All things tend to corrupt perverted minds."
Such a boring place, a boring time… Envy needed something to do, other than prowl restlessly around the countryside. He needed entertainment, but Dante's newest scheme was almost ready to be set in motion. When he reached his destination, wearing a face he'd perfected on a whim two hundred years ago and which he hadn't been able to use before, he noted dully that the small town was archaic at best. Stupid country people with stupidly simple country mindsets and stupidly boring country lives.
Dante had said there was a promising alchemist in here, but Envy highly doubted it; any smart, promising anything would have left as soon as humanely possible.
Still, patting the uniform distastefully – he hated blue – 'Colonel Heiss' stepped down the train and sneered at the town before heading to the small military quarters set at the end of the main street. Behind him, he absently noted that a couple of low ranking soldiers scrambled to take his bags – which were mostly filled with books, not that they needed to know that – and follow him with as much dignity as the poor sods could manage. Envy rolled his eyes. After twenty minutes of dodging questions and setting himself as owner and master of the office, he went to look for the so called prodigy Dante wanted to have under her wing. Wrath and Sloth had brought the report about him, but Envy really didn't trust the brats for information, though Dante seemed to believe their exaggerated praise on the young man.
He was pleasantly surprise to find Zolf J. Kimblee was, indeed, quite the promising tool.
He was interested in human transmutation already, so half of Envy's work was already done, but the young man with the eerie golden eyes was much more interested in destroying than creating; not that that was necessarily a fault, the forging of the stone needed much destroying, indeed. The boy was bright, though, in that strange way that obscured rather than enlightened things, but which Envy found quite fetching. It was a much needed break after centuries of dealing with spineless idiots who wanted to bring utopia or some equally senseless concept with their power. Quite simply, life had made Kimblee a hard creature; an orphan who had been disdained by everyone and everything and who drowned his loneliness in books and alchemy. Perfect victim and more than willing sacrifice, Envy thought gleefully.
"I could sponsor you," Colonel Heiss said with that quiet, hissing voice of his, giving the young Alchemist a tiny smile, "A few string pulled, and you could take the exam in a year."
But the golden eyes were smart – smarter than the last pair of golden eyes Envy had encountered – and the boy didn't jump at the chance like a senseless creature. Smart, Envy remarked to himself, while keeping his poker face in place.
"And what's in for you?"
Very smart. The boy understood how the world worked; he didn't expect to get anything for free. Envy realized he liked that.
"A good soldier for the military," Heiss said calmly, clear blue eyes glinting, "And perhaps someone to continue my brother's research."
"Your brother's research," Kimblee narrowed his eyes, showing a feline calculative nature that was both intriguing and amusing, "And what's that about, exactly?"
"Why, human transmutation, of course."
He'd said it so calmly, so easily, as if they were talking about the weather and not one of the greatest taboos in Alchemy. Kimblee was both awed and weary of the stranger that had simply waltzed into his life and offered – demanded him to take – a place in the military. The sun caught Heiss' hair and made it flare to an otherworldly red, almost as if his head was on fire. He looked terrible, powerful and barely controlled among the filth of the small town. Kimblee had nothing there, nothing but bitter memories and resentment, no one to come back to, no one to miss or write to. He smiled, sincerely for once, and nodded.
"Alright, sir."
Kimblee had made himself at home with Envy's current identity. While he normally hated having to wear another face and play a stupid character for so long – the excitement of it ran off too fast –, Colonel Heiss was a name he really didn't mind using; the man was powerful and commanding, yet quiet and slick like a viper, always ready to strike. And he really didn't mind having to keep the charade up at all hours – at least he was getting a decent amount of sleep, all things considered – since Kimblee's presence was enough in exchange. The young man was fascinating; how he moved, how he learned, how he acted. By the second month of having the Alchemist in his 'home', Envy noted with amusement that Kimblee was starting to imitate Heiss' cool façade, the quiet words and the dignified movements, as well as the hot temper that was always hinted below the surface, but whether his efforts were conscious or not, he didn't know.
Personally, Envy thought it suited him rather well, because Kimblee was pretty in that predator way that he found all so appealing and which humans disdained so often.
"How it goes, my friend?" Heiss called as he entered the basement swiftly, his uniform pristine as ever and his hair carefully tamed back into slickness, "Any breakthroughs?"
Kimble stood up from the floor – he always did when Heiss came into the room – and smiled. It was a discrete gesture, small and controlled, something Envy appreciated because it meant his tutelage was not being wasted. Kimblee was sweaty and tired from spending all day lurking around the basement, tracing arrays and figuring out ways to make something human… less human, to put it somehow. Envy was bored with paperwork, bored with Pride in his office, telling him what to do and certainly bored with the stupid red hair that wasn't green, but these moments, where he could clearly see the monster growing behind the golden eyes, they made it all worth his trouble.
"I think so, yes, sir," Kimblee didn't fall back when Heiss walked towards him, nor he swallowed nervously like everyone else. Envy appreciated that courage, even if it was badly misplaced. "I might, uh…" Blue eyes, mercurial, really, stared him down from up close. That was a classic intimidation technique, the one Envy knew humans found the most uncomfortable, but even if he was almost pressing against the thin body, Kimblee held his ground. "I need to…"
"Experiment further?" The Colonel provided easily, his smile sharp enough to cut through steel, "Why of course, my dear, I'll make sure to get you some… practice targets."
And Kimblee looked so pleased with himself, so content to have been acknowledged. Such an insecure man, Envy thought, one that depended almost exclusively on his opinion to function properly. He thought of Gluttony for a moment, but discarded the analogy almost at once. Kimblee would be useful only once, he would go and fight for what Envy told him to and then, once his mission was over, he would be taken away with the rest and become another glowing dot of red inside a stone.
Heiss and Kimblee shared a smile, but for completely different reasons.
The day of Kimblee's practical exam, Pride was in a pleasant enough mood to allow Envy to sit among the judges. Or maybe he realized that if he continued to make Envy's life complicated, he would find himself sitting along with Greed, rotting underground. Envy loved knowing he was better, the best among them, more so when all too haughty Pride was forced to acknowledge he was ill fitted to fight his older sibling.
But that wasn't important, what mattered was the eerie golden glow on Kimblee's eyes when they brought in the convict. Heiss himself had been present when those tattoos had been made, the ones that slapped together when Kimblee's smile broke free and which caused a shower of red mist when he grasped the poor sod's chest with those deadly hands. Heiss had been the one to ensure no one else could ever be tattooed that way again. Stifling a moan of his own, he felt the bloodlust skyrocket as the golden eyed man shook his arms, relieving them from the tension.
Silence stretched as the shocked audience sat immobile, incapable to comprehend what they had just seen. And then Colonel Heiss stood up and began clapping, a discrete sound but which was quickly echoed by the Führer himself. From there, the brass broke into pleased cheering that comforted and inebriated the still standing Kimblee.
"Your pet is pretty," Pride told Envy with a tiny smirk, "Though I'd have never thought you to be the human lover sort."
"Well," And Envy sneered warningly, blue eyes flashing violet for a second, "I'm not the one who ruts with them, so I say we're even."
And even as he felt the eye piercing on him, he left the room without looking back. Kimblee's golden eyes peered at him, unreadable expression in his face. Pride smiled.
Second Lieutenant Frank Archer arrived at the office one rainy Thursday. The Führer himself had granted him recommendation to be transferred into Colonel Heiss' wing, but not for any of the reasons the ambitious young man had hoped. The military was Pride's personal toy, he did with it what he pleased, so as long Dante's schemes were executed accordingly. Having Envy in the ranks was contradictory in itself, because Pride knew better than anyone that his older brother was merely following along on a whim. He couldn't care less about Dante's plans, they all knew that, but still their Master held the Shape Shifter in high regard and allowed him to do as he pleased. Pride thought that maybe if he gave Envy means to entertain himself, the little whimsical beast would allow him to run his plans in peace.
There was nothing more uncouth than being force to watch Envy go on a violent rampage whenever his willingness dried out, after all.
So he had looked around, sniffed a few files from the main records – he really had to get a secretary soon, one that didn't ask stupid questions – until he stumbled across a promising young man by the name Frank Archer. He seemed to be everything Envy needed to entertain himself for a couple of years, so Pride promoted him and sent him over and hoped to the Gate that would be enough to have his 'brother' out of his hair for a while.
Lt. Archer interviewed himself with the Colonel, feeling the same sort of fascination Kimblee had for the man almost instantly. The cool mannerisms and the quiet voice belied an explosive nature that Archer had no intentions of confronting. Ever. He was given a neat desk and a pile of paperwork to file and sort out, while Heiss simply locked himself into his office. If the men under his command thought he was working, they would have been solely disappointed to find out their 'leader' spent all afternoon playing darts.
Envy began to suspect he was the subject of unrequited attention when Archer and Kimblee first met. The thought amused him, so he allowed their delusions to continue, curious to see how far they were willing to take it; after all, there wasn't really much he had to do, aside studying a few profiles of people Dante needed him to impersonate from time to time. War was brewing, but it wasn't ready yet.
Kimblee had developed nicely, too. Cool, slick and completely remorseless as he used his talents to blow people into bright clouds of red mist. With each new assassination mission he grew wilder, almost reckless. Envy recognized the spark of insanity in his eyes and was able to tell when exactly did the man stopped seeing the explosions as work and began taking them as a hobby. Envy was sure he would be delighted to know there was a massive genocide coming. Archer, for his part, seemed intent on becoming prominent within the military, going on about his others without a second thought. He stacked paperwork and did everything Heiss was supposed to do – and which Envy had no particular desire to acknowledge – always expecting to be given recognition for his efforts. The Colonel humored him occasionally, mostly because the reactions – Archer's barely hidden glee and Kimblee's scowling jealousy – were entertaining.
Still, there was nothing more amusing – except perhaps, dismember someone, and by the Gate, hadn't Envy done that in ages – than to watch the two stubborn mules clash heads and egos at every possible moment. Kimble was not above using his rank to gain an infuriating response from Archer, who would then purposely set Kimblee's papers in disarray. Like petty children really, but who had no idea of their real purpose in the world.
"Alchemy, alchemy," Archer said in a haughty mocking tone, "Is that all you can think about? What are you doing with your paperwork? Blowing it up, too?"
"I should blow your stupid face in," Kimblee bared his teeth threateningly, "But then you'd just go crying over with Heiss."
"Colonel Heiss," The Lieutenant reminded him acidly, "And it is not my fault that he appreciates hard work."
"Oh, so I don't work? Is that what you mean?" The Crimson Alchemist, for all his efforts to remain aloof, could always feel his blood boil tightly in his veins whenever he started being a fucking asshole.
"At the moment I dare say neither is working," Colonel Heiss smiled wryly at both irritated men, the gesture deepening into a smirk when they quickly returned to their duties.
War was coming, as sure as dawn each morning, but while he waited, Envy could enjoy this little soap opera that had so conveniently settled right before his eyes. He was the Ultimate Actor after all, and he was nothing if not a lover of drama.
"It's time," Pride said, looking at him with barely hidden contempt.
Pride never understood him at all, though then again, no one had ever understood him. Envy smiled pleasantly at the thought, which only served to irritate his younger sibling, since he thought – more or less accurately – that he was laughing at him. Pride was a faithful dog, he followed Dante and strived on to please her, to give her everything she could want and even that which she really didn't want as well. He existed to obey her, and in his tiny, obscured vision of the world, a being like Envy, capricious and whimsical, had no real place to be. He often wondered why his older sibling was allowed such freedom, why he never bothered with ostentous displays of obedience and loyalty.
Why the fuck was he the favorite, when it was Pride that slaved away to do all the work.
Envy merely smiled and grinned and laughed, taking the whole world to be there simply to amuse him, either by existing or ceasing to be. The Shape Shifter didn't have a single trace of the hardworking individual Pride was, nor any devotion to their Master. He seemed to be entangled in her web, not by choice or destiny, simply by convenience and it was irking to see him get praised for it. Couldn't Dante see what a feeble creature Envy was? How easy it would be for him to betray them, like Greed had done before? Indeed, Envy had punished Greed for his alleged 'treason', but Pride had always suspected the annoying little monster had merely talked their Master into getting rid of the bastard he despised.
Envy was the favorite, the one that always got what he wanted and the one that seemed to grow stronger with each year… Pride hated him, but he wasn't nearly stupid enough to defy him openly.
He found he rather enjoyed existing, and the prospect of being reduced to nothing was not at all appealing.
"Very well," Envy grinned that grin of his, the one that twisted his face into a macabre show of teeth, "Book me a train ride on Monday then."
Pride narrowed the eye that could be seen and clenched the one that couldn't, his lips thinning into a thin stripe of white.
"Master ordered this to be done as quickly as possible."
"Yes, and 'as quickly as possible' is her euphemism for 'Monday'," Envy sneered, "Besides, I've still got things to do." When he noted the outrage bubbling below Pride's scowl, Envy's grin turned truly malicious, "Not humans of course, since you're still head of that department, but just a few things I have to do. If you excuse me, Mr. Furher."
How dared he play down his sacrifices for their cause? How dared he mock what he had taken so long to get? Pride rolled the eye behind the eye patch, but as always with Envy, nothing but queer shadows appeared before him. Of all the creatures in the world, it had to be that bastard, who had managed to become unpredictable enough to fool even the Ultimate Eye.
Colonel Heiss arrived secretly into the Ishbalan settlement and hid well until dawn cast light all over the desolated desert. People around him began milling and he entertained himself by selecting a target. It had to be a very good target, one that couldn't be forgiven or taken as a mistake… one whose life was precious enough to force the peaceful people into the frenzy of war. In the end, he had chosen a child, one of those that followed the leader of their religion around, laughing and playing with the long ropes of beads that hung from the old man's cloth.
Envy hated guns, didn't really see the purpose in them when it was all the more fun to simply rip people apart with his own hands. He enjoyed the thrill of the kill, but he also knew this had to be done carefully, or the plan would fail and Dante would become a terribly annoying individual from then onwards.
When he shot the boy, blue uniform in plain sight of a hundred stunned witnesses, Envy was grinning.
When he allowed himself to be 'killed' by the enraged Ishbalans, in front of a thousand men under his command, Envy was laughing.
The hardest part was to stay put while they went around treating his 'corpse' and the rather annoying fact he had to stop his own body from healing itself, so they would not realize it was all a rouse. Once he had been buried and mourned, though, he crawled up from his grave, making sure the whole place looked desecrated enough to cause another stab of anger in the military, changed into a bird and flew back to Central.
He was itching to know how his 'boys' would take on the news of his death.
It wasn't exactly what he'd hoped for, because in the end he hadn't been able to extract all human emotions from them. If he had, Archer would have jumped at the chance to replace him and Kimblee wouldn't act like an abandoned dog. They would be strong and powerful, they would make him proud, somehow, to know that he forged their madness in that way and showed them they road to hell.
If Envy's work had been entirely successful, they wouldn't have kissed in front of an empty grave. For some reason, the Shape Shifter felt vaguely insulted, too, but it didn't really matter.
Kimblee would be dispatched along the rest of the Alchemists, and then they would make their country proud by destroying the helpless little Ishbalans, who's Goddess wouldn't listen to their cries. Kimblee had turned out to be not good enough, though, and the stone would have to be forged by someone else, an Ishbalan. It didn't matter, though. Nothing did.
Archer took over Heiss' department, staying back against his wishes – the poor sod had always wanted to be a hero, but it seemed Kimblee would get the glory he wanted – and dealing with the bureaucratic side of things. He was controlling himself quite admirably, Envy thought with a sneer, considering he knew the newly promoted Lt. Colonel to be itching for a fight. But that didn't matter either.
Shame they got separated, Envy remarked to himself, hanging from a tree branch outside the office and watching the procedures unnoticed by the enraged, mourning soldiers, they would have made an awesome team of killers… could have been useful. But things were as they were, and there wasn't much point in wondering about what-if's and could-have-been's, not when Envy had yet again proven his worth as the best in what he did. After all, it might have taken Pride years to build up the military, but it only took Envy half a day to turn the entire nation into an outraged war-machine.
"Envy?" The Shape Shifter looked up to find Gluttony perched on the ceiling. "Master says she wants to talk to you."
It only took a quiet leap and a rustle of leaves before Envy was standing next to his younger sibling; below them, Archer thought he had seen a flash of white and black move, but there was nothing when he turned to look.
"Say, Glu," Envy hooked an arm almost affectionately around the Sin's shoulders as they took a moment to watch the city from their perch, "Have you ever been to the desert?"