I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist but I do own all original content.
Every morning, it seemed, Sapphire was waking up dazed and confused. First, it had been when she first got to the Rockbell's, and awoken frightened out of her mind. Then there had been waking up in the late afternoon after being carried inside by the suit of armor. Then, in the presence of Lust. Now, Sapphire awoke slowly, a result of the swelling, tight pain in her throat, like she hadn't drunk anything in days. She attempted to swallow, but couldn't, and started coughing dryly, cringing at the new throbs of pain it brought.
"Here," she heard someone say, and the cool rim of a glass was brought to her lips. As she opened her chapped lips, water flowed into her mouth, and she swallowed it all in one gulp. "Better?" the voice said.
"Yes," Sapphire rasped. After clearing her throat, she pulled herself up into a sitting position. "Lust?"
"Yes, that's me."
Sapphire's mind was slowly coming out of her post-sleep fog. Lust…she thought. What a peculiar name. "Like one of the seven deadly sins?" she voiced.
"Yes. There are seven of us," Lust answered.
This sparked Sapphire's curiosity and she straightened up. "Really? Why are you all named after sins?"
"That's what Father named us."
"Why?"
"Because…well, we're all kind of like the sins. Gluttony likes to eat a lot, Envy lets jealousy get the best of him, and et cetera."
"So, you lust after things?"
"I guess I do," Lust chuckled. "Some say I'm not too hard on the eyes either."
"Who is Father?" inquired Sapphire. "Your boss? Or your actual Papa?"
"You could say he's both."
Sapphire pursed her lips in contemplation of this latest information.
"Actually," Lust said with a hint of apology, "he told me that he wanted to talk with you as soon as you awoke. Are you well enough to walk?"
"I'll have to get on my feet to find out," Sapphire said, stepping lightly on the ground. She put weight on her legs, which remained stable. Before she could step to demonstrate that she could walk, Lust took in a sharp breath.
"Oh, gosh. Your clothes."
"What's wrong with them?" Sapphire asked, feeling her shirt. She discovered multiple tears and clumps of dirt, and a small twig entwined in her sleeve cuff. "Wow," she laughed. "I probably look a mess."
"I'll get you an extra shirt and pair of pants. Wait right here. I'm afraid all I own are dresses, but someone probably has extra clothing somewhere," Lust offered. Sapphire heard her heels click out of the room as she left.
She felt a rush of gratitude for Lust. It was almost unbearably kind of her to get her something to wear. It was almost unbearably kind of her. Honestly, she didn't care how she looked. Sapphire couldn't see, so why bother looking good? Even though she fully believed that, her fingers found their way to her head, feeling her hair. It was thin to the touch and extended only to the nape of her neck. It hadn't grown much in the past year as a result of malnourishment, but Langley had also cut it periodically. His reason? So she couldn't find a way to strangle herself with her own hair.
Her finger's next destination was her face. Sapphire could remember how her five-year-old self's face looked like, but she hadn't really thought about what she looked like now. People had always told her that she looked like her father. He'd been thin, but tall, with shaggy black hair that hung over his eyes constantly. She knew he had the same color hair as him, and guessed she was lean like him. She wondered if she still had the thick, long, dark lashes framing her bright blue eyes. I wonder if I'm pretty…she thought.
Not long after pondering this, Lust returned. "I brought you the smallest clothes I could find," she said, and Sapphire felt a weight drop into her arms.
"Thank you, Lust."
"That's quite alright. I'll turn around while you change." Sapphire quickly changed into the clothes. The feel of the new ones were surprisingly large; she hadn't realized how grimy her other ones had felt against her skin until she had a juxtaposition.
"I'll take you to see Father now," said Lust, putting a hand on Sapphire's shoulder and guiding her out.
After a few moments of walking through cool, damp air, Sapphire asked, "Why does Father want to see me?"
"Well, Sapphire, we need to learn what went on with the Emerald Alchemist. He…worked for Father and suddenly disappeared." Sapphire's ears caught a change of tone in that last sentence. Lust's voice sounded more guarded. She was hiding something. "We need to know what happened to him, and Father thought you would be able to help."
"I don't want to talk about him," Sapphire said quietly, her voice shaking slightly. "Don't make me."
"All we need is a few minutes."
Sapphire's heart began to beat wildly. No one could understand. All she wanted was to forget the past decade and start a new life for herself, one without the Emerald Alchemist, maybe even one in Risembool.
"Will I be taken back to the Rockbell's afterward?" she asked cautiously.
Lust paused for what seemed like a long while before replying, and her fingers twitched on Sapphire's arm. "I've already said I'd take you, didn't I?"
Sapphire cringed and nodded. Now, Lust seemed annoyed at her. She decided to shut up for the rest of the trip.
As the duo walked on, the echoes of their footsteps morphed. At first, they'd seemed contained and cut short, as if they were in a hallway. Now, they travelled, the sound waves expanding outward to walls so distant that Sapphire couldn't hear the echoes bounce back. After two dozen steps, Lust stopped and said, "Hello, Father. I brought Sapphire."
"Sapphire!" Father's elderly voice exclaimed. "How are you feeling better?"
"Yeah," Sapphire murmured shyly.
"That's good. Well, I just want to ask you a few questions about the Emerald Alchemist."
Sapphire squirmed uncomfortably and wished more than anything she could get out of there.
"I would have had him brought here, but I understand that he is under arrest, and trying to talk to him at prison would be next to impossible, no?" He laughed as if trying to lighten the mood. "So, first off, why did he resign from the military ten years ago?"
"I thought he was working for you," Sapphire said.
"Yes, he was. But when he left the military, we lost contact with him. Why did he resign?"
"I don't know."
"Alright. Did he continue his research on creating a Philosopher's Stone using plants?"
"Yes."
"That's great! Did he succeed?"
"Why don't you ask all the people he killed?" she said darkly. "The ones he tortured, or the ones he turned into plants?"
"Oh?" Father said, his voice taking on an interested hitch to it. "Tell me more."
Sapphire bowed her head. So many people—homeless, or prostitutes, or runaways, or plain citizens. Their screams had filled the building as their very genetic makeup were twisted in ungodly ways. "You can't even make a goddam Philosopher's Stone that way. He figured that out pretty quickly. Then, he just focused on his own experiments. The green blood, and turning people into plants, or binding their souls to them, just because he could." Her voice quivered.
"Father," Lust warned.
"One more question, Sapphire. And this one isn't about the Emerald Alchemist." Sapphire tried to force back the memories and raised her head to listen. "Do you know that you can perform alchemy?"
Sapphire's eyes widened, her face frozen in a blank expression. No, she couldn't perform alchemy. Her Papa never taught her. And Langley…well, she was a prisoner, a slave, not an apprentice of his.
"Yes, you can," Father said, as if reading her disbelieving mind. "I know you can't see them but you have alchemic tattoos on your skin. They enable you to do alchemy. You've only done it once, though. Would you like to learn now?"
"To learn how to do alchemy…the thing that Langley lived for?" Sapphire said low. "No way in hell."
"No? Not the thing your Papa loved almost as much as you?"
"He…he didn't want me to learn. He said it was a dangerous science, that I'd learn when I was older."
"You're older, aren't you?"
Sapphire had to agree, but she feared alchemy. Sure, she wanted to be her father's apprentice as a child, but after alchemy was used on her for so long, it was aversive, like torture itself.
"I see something in you, Sapphire. I'd like to have you as my apprentice and work for me."
"Why would you think I'd want that?"
"If you do, I'll give you your eyesight back."
Time seemed to stop. "I'd do anything to see again…" Sapphire whispered, tears brimming in her eyes from sheer, raw emotion. "Anything."
"Then I'm sure it's a deal worth considering. Lust…" Father said. Lust put a hand on Sapphire's arm and urged her out, back the way they came.
A daze is an understatement for what Sapphire was in. the floor beneath her was nonexistent, and Lust's fingers on her arm were hovering rather than making contact. Back ta the room, Sapphire's weak knees gave out, and she flumped into the chair. She turned her chin up at where Lust was, her eyes wide with hope. "Lust?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"Can he really give me my eyesight? Is he that good at alchemy?"
Lust patted her hand, but Sapphire didn't register the touch. "Yes. He can do that."
"Tell him I'll do it. I'll become his apprentice, or work for him, or do whatever he wants. I want to see."
"You can tell him yourself."
Sapphire brought her hands up to her unseeing eyes. "I'll be able to see what I look like after ten years," she said in wonder.
Lust just patted her knee in reply.
Hey guys. I just wanted to say that with school and everything else, I don't have enough time or patience to finish this up. But I'd like some feedback. You guys gotta let me know if you want me to finish it up. I didn't have much planned until the end anyway. So if at least one person reviews and says he or she wants me to continue and finish it, I will.