VII. Sunset
-—Greed sees the human world for the first time.


It's amazing, Greed thinks, to be going outside after so long underground.

He knows it's for a mission. He knows he's supposed to be concentrating and listening to Lust, because she's been going on these for longer than he has...and Pride will surely destroy him if he messes this up. But he's never been above ground before, and the sight is simply breathtaking.

He's never seen so many living things together all at once; there are small things in the air he knows are birds, brown creatures with bushy tails called squirrels... He's always known of them, intellectually, because he's a Homunculus and these things have been ingrained in him since the moment he was born...

But knowing and seeing with his own eyes are two entirely different things, and he finds it hard to concentrate on Lust's instructions when it's all just so damn beautiful.

He wants to kneel down and feel the grass; he wants to reach up and touch the sky; he wants to climb the trees and chase the deer and do everything this outside has to offer. The only thing holding him back is the fact that Lust is a lot faster than him, and he's not too keen on finding out whether his Ultimate Shield can hold up against her Ultimate Spear...

But he's itching to ask for an extra five minutes—just five minutes—where he can just absorb and observe and be happy.

He's trying to listen to Lust—he really is. But the sky is changing color, now, and he's entranced by it, because why would it do that? It was a brilliant shade of blue the likes of which he's never seen, but now it is different. He knows the concept of color is strictly aesthetic; his Father has lived underground, surrounded by monochrome stone walls for centuries, and he has not been affected by it. So why is this happening? He needs to know...

The orange sphere he knows as the Sun is moving down toward the Earth, now, and he wonders if it will crash into the planet, kill everyone on it... (He remembers quickly that of course that's not what happens, don't be stupid, but still he wonders, because that's what it looks like and he's always been told to trust his eyes.)

He knows orbits and eclipses and Sun and Moon but he doesn't know this, this strange phenomenon in which the Sun moves toward the Earth. It causes the sky to change from light blue to a bright mixture of oranges and pinks and purples... And he wants to know; he needs to know, because even if this isn't necessary to the plan it's still fascinating, and surely something so beautiful has to have some merit?

He vaguely realizes that Lust has stopped talking, has noticed that he is not listening, but he does not care anymore, because he needs to find out why this is happening. So he opens his mouth to ask her, unconsciously prepares to bring up his shield in case she reacts badly...

But in the end, he doesn't need to say anything. She follows his wide-eyed gaze, a frown adorning her features, and her eyes alight on this great mystery of the upper, human world. Her face softens and she smiles a bit, turning back toward him. "The humans call it a 'sunset,'" she says quietly. "It happens at the end of every day, when the sun goes down."

Every day. He can't even imagine, seeing this miracle so often. He thought this was unique; he thought this beauty would never show itself again; but the humans get to see it every time the sun sinks below their line of sight...

He doesn't hate them, like Lust and Pride and his Father do. There's something else, deep within him, twisting his gut and his lungs and his heart... He knows it has something to do with the humans, but he knows it's not hatred. And this understanding, this new knowledge of sunsets is only intensifying that. And he thinks it has to do with his birthright, the avarice always at the forefront of his mind...

And he realizes that he wants this. He wants sunsets and skies and squirrels and birds. He wants everything this strange new world has to offer. He wants, because he is Greed and that is what he was created to do. He thinks he will do anything to grasp these things, these strange and new and human things, because maybe then this hole in his very being will finally go away.

(He doesn't realize, for a long time, what will really fill it. And by that time, it's far too late.)