A/N: Sorry for the delay. I've been sick. Still am, but I thought as long as I'm resting, I should try to type. So, if this doesn't make a load of sense, blame it on my cold. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Answers

After running out of the big building, it sniffed the air, picking up the trail of one almost immediately. Heading east, it determined that it was Avarice, the scent mingled with that of a young man. It shook its head. It was a shame he would have to die to recapture the sin, but it was for the greater good.

Father Donald O'Neil awoke to the sound of a pounding on the front door of his church. He climbed out of bed and walked down the steps from his living quarters above. Before he did so, he snuck a glance at the bedside alarm clock. Nearly eleven p.m. He sighed quietly, holding onto the banister and making his way to the door where the pounding grew in intensity.

He flung the door open to reveal two men, both with looks of desperation on their faces. Suddenly regretting opening the door at this time of night, the Father grew apprehensive and fearful, especially after noticing the firearm one of them carried.

He gulped visibly, half closing the door to shield him in case they tried anything. They were both dressed professionally, but appearances could be deceiving. "Can I help you?" he asked, clearing his throat as his voice came out meeker than he'd intended.

"God, I hope so. Can we come in?" The one with the gun said quickly, then bit his lip, looking the priest in the eyes. Father O'Neil stepped aside, hoping he wasn't making the wrong choice.

"Thanks. C'mon Sweets," He pulled the younger man in after him, and once they were all standing inside the foyer, he made introductions.

"What do you know about the Seven Deadly Sins?" Booth asked after quickly identifying himself and Sweets to the Father.

"I know some. What is this about?" He asked the question, but he knew. He'd heard stories at seminary. Nothing official of course; stories about the sins and the thing that kept them.

Without waiting for a reply, he led them upstairs to his rooms. "Follow me. There are things that need explaining." He sat down at his desk while Booth and Sweets seated themselves on opposite ends of the bed.

"In ancient times the sins were written down for the first time. This is well known. What isn't well known is that they were also made into entities. This was extremely dangerous because each sin had the power to eat away at the soul of its host, creating an empty shell, masked as death."

"Whoa there! Masked?" Booth looked at Sweets, shock on both their faces. "Angela Jansen was still alive?"

"In a sense. Her internal organs would have shut down, and there would be no movement. I know it doesn't sound feasible, but think of the soul as a life force, the essence of one's being. Without it, you would be as good as dead, but yet, at the same time, not."

"An empty shell," Sweets said, echoing the priest's words. "Incapable of living as we know it, but in some form, still on this earth."

"Wait a sec. Could she still…feel?" Booth shuddered at the thought of Angela Jansen feeling Cam cutting into her for the autopsy and unable to do anything about it.

"No, empty shell, remember?" Sweets corrected, convinced that Booth still wasn't getting it.

"Sure. Continue, Father."

"Because of this danger, an entity was created to guard the sins, keep watch over them."

"That big black thing?" Booth couldn't help but ask.

"Precisely. It was charged with containing the sins and retrieving them should they ever escape."

"Well, they did, so now this Soul-keeper is after them. What happens when it finds one?"

"If the sin is inside a host, the Keeper sucks it out through the mouth, bringing it back inside itself. Because the Keeper has no soul, the sin has nothing to feed on and no strength to gain. It's trapped. The unfortunate result of this action, however, is the death of the host."

Sweets turned pale and covered his mouth again with his hand. "It was looking inside my mouth. If I'd had a sin in me, I'd be…dead?"

"Yes."

"Would the sins go inside the first host they could find?" Booth asked, already fearing the worst.

"Yes, they would seek the first soul they came across. As the soul is eaten away, the sin takes over."

"Angela Jansen on the park bench," Sweets realized. "She died because of her soul, but on the outside, it was like she died as the result of being slothful."

"Our friends are in trouble. The sins must have gone into them, and they were gone by the time the Soul-keeper showed up. How do we stop them?" Booth was about ready to pull his gun on the poor priest if he didn't get some answers to their problem soon.

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Sweets called out, earning a death glare from Booth. "How come we weren't taken over by a sin? There were seven of them, but only five of us became infected." He pointed at Booth. "You said the black thing said that two were no more."

"Are you true believers?" Father O'Neil asked.

"Meaning?"

"Do you truly believe in the existence of the immortal soul?"

He received two nods in response.

"Then that is why. The sins cannot eat away at the soul of one whose faith in its existence is strong. If it enters, the sin will shrivel up and cease to exist."

"I wonder which two we killed," Sweets mused.

"Doesn't matter. How else do we kill them without killing our friends? We gotta get rid of them before the Keeper finds them."

"That I do not know," Father O'Neil shook his head sadly.

"So, that's it? I'm supposed to just sit back and wait for this Keeper to kill them all? I can't…I can't do that. Let's go Sweets."

It arrived at a bus stop on a street corner. The scent faded. The host had boarded a bus and the trail was covered with the smell of exhaust. The wind changed and it caught another scent. This one Envy, mixed with the scent of a female, and on foot. It walked purposefully in the direction of the scent.

"Agent Booth!" Sweets called out after Booth as he hurried down the front steps of the church, heading who knew where. He wasn't sure what to do, or what he could do; the only thing he knew was that he had to do something.

Sweets barely had the car door shut before they were speeding through traffic. "Where are you going?"

"To Bones' place. See if she's there."

"And do what?"

"I don't know Sweets, I don't know! Something, anything!"

"We don't even know which of the sins each of them has. We need to figure out what to do."

"Father O'Neil didn't know."

"Doesn't mean we can't figure it out. Now, please pull over before you get us killed. I had one near death experience tonight; I would really like to avoid another."

Realizing that Sweets was right, Booth reluctantly complied.

"Thank you. Now, what do we know about the sins?"

"They're…well, they're sins. What are you getting at Sweets?"

"But what is a sin Agent Booth? As far as I can see, they're all feelings. We have Anger, Avarice, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, and Pride. All emotions." Sweets held up a finger as he named each sin.

"I thought Gluttony was eating and drinking to excess. And Sloth is not doing anything. Those are actions Sweets."

"Actions that are caused by feelings. The feeling of always being hungry or thirsty driving you to excess and the feeling of just not wanting to do anything."

Booth nodded slowly. "Ok, I'll buy that. What are you getting at?"

"I think I know something that might stop them. As with any feeling, how do you get rid of it, get it to go away?" Without waiting for a reply, he plowed on. "You indulge it or neutralize it. If you're sad, you do something that makes you happy. If you're feeling sick, you rest."

"You might be onto something there Sweets. Assuming you're right, how do we deal with each sin?"

"Well, let's go down the list. Since we don't know which two no longer exist, we gotta cover them all. First, Anger. How do you neutralize anger? I punch a pillow."

"Somehow I don't think that'll do it. A fight maybe?"

"That makes sense. It would appease the feeling of anger, get all that energy out. Good." Sweets scribbled it down in the memo pad he had in his jacket pocket. "Ok, Envy. Envy is wanting something someone else has. So, getting what is coveted should be effective in making it, for lack of a better term, die."

"Right. So it depends on what the host wants. We just have to make sure it gets it."

"Precisely." Sweets made more notes in his pad, then chewed on the pen cap. "Gluttony?"

"Lots of food, lots of drink. How much though?"

"Until the feeling is sated," Sweets stated.

"Well, I know that, but we have limited resources here Sweets."

"Hopefully, that was one of them we don't need to worry about. We'll play it by ear. Sloth?"

"Make 'em get up and do…stuff," Booth suggested. He didn't have a clue.

"Another work in progress," Sweets murmured; he couldn't think of anything better either. "What about Lust?"

That was easy. "Sex." God, he hoped one of the women had that sin. If it was Hodgins or Zach, he was going to be hard pressed to get rid of that one. Maybe he could make Sweets do it.

"Ok, Avarice?"

"Avarice: a desire to gain and keep wealth. So, give wealth."

"Not that easy Agent Booth. I just paid my rent and phone bill. I have next to nothing."

"Yea, me too." He was struck with an idea. "Hodgins. He has all kinds of wealth. If it's not him that has the avarice sin, then we just give his wealth."

"Ok, not sure how we'll do that, but I'll make a note and we'll figure it out later." Sweets jotted down more lines in the notepad. "Last, but not least, we have pride. Pride is the feeling of superiority over others. It makes sense that besting the host in something would get rid of that feeling, bring it down a peg. What that something is will depend on who has that sin."

"Great. Are we set? Can we actually do something now before the Keeper finds one of our friends?"

"Yes. But, how do we find them? They could be anywhere."

"Maybe. How did you feel when you woke up?"

Sweets frowned. "I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Of course, that was on top of the slap you gave me. There was no need to hit me that hard."

Booth rolled his eyes. "Point is, they probably felt that bad or worse. Where would you go?"

"Home," Sweets said.

"Exactly. The Keeper was at the lab. It's following people on foot. Cam's place is the closest to the Jeffersonian. We'll kill her sin first. Hopefully we're not too late."

"All right. Let's do this!" Despite his apprehension, Sweets was excited. Finally, he was going to get a piece of the action.

A/N: Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading!