Kiki's Saga Chapter 13 Bones, bones, and Still No Skull

Greed's P0V.

A shaky and totally creepy feeling entered Greed as he made his way to the place he never really cared for. Nonetheless, this was the place where Greed was created, and the woman he was looking for was probably the only thing about the place that he truly feared. Fear. A pointless and total obstacle in Greed's plan for-no. He would not think of Kiki now. She could take care of herself. He had taught her everything she knew. Plus, she had the aid of alchemy on her side. Still, compared to Gluttony's ravenous appetite and Lust's manicured stakes of steel she would never stand a chance against them. She's so young and unexperienced. Greed wondered if she was scared. She had to be. Or even, is she alive? Greed swore, if Gluttony or Lust laid an immortal hand on Kiki then he would rip out their philosopher stone's with his bare hands and eat them like hard candy. No one would harm Kiki. Not without facing Greed's rage.

' Stop it! She's fine! Just do what you came here to do. You can find Kiki later.'

Greed shook his head and grit his teeth. Kiki would do the smart thing, she had to. The smart thing against homonculi would be to run. 'Please run.' He knew she wouldn't though. That was Kiki. So naive, but so fiery. Another totally annoying feeling filled him. Guilt. If Greed had insisted on keeping Kiki in that cabin, she would be here with him, completely safe from harm. But no, he let her go. He let her take a stupid walk simply because he wanted time to form a plan on how to get Kiki to become a homonculi without problems. If..if she died before he made the deal, then...then-. " NO!" Greed cried out as his fist connected with a nearby tree. At first it shivered and then a branch fell to the ground at his feet.

When Greed righted himself, he stood and made his way to the residence where he came into existence. As he walked he thought of the conversation he was about to have with the woman he hated. Would she want a price? Offcourse. The woman was not an idiot. But, what could he offer her that would equal her bringing back his last reason to keep living? Would she want his servitude again? The thought of working with Envy and the others again made his skin crawl. Especially after everything that happened at the cabin with Lust and Gluttony.

Then again, would she desire Kiki's servitude? Greed could see the logic. She would come back with the ability to use alchemy and with animal senses. She would obviously be the wealthier prize. Dammit. Not only would she come back into a life of servitude, she would also be the carrier for a sin. But which sin would dominate her? Greed couldn't think of a sin that would suit Kiki's innocent and loving personality. Maybe other sins existed that he didn't know about. Sins that humans committed everyday but didn't know they were sins at all. Could there be a sin worse than the seven that existed? The thought made Greed shutter. If it did exist, then Kiki would definitely be shouldered with it because she would be the eighth homunculi to come into existence. Which in itself became a horrifying thought. A sin that existed under everyone's nose was a sin to be reckoned with.

The question is whether Dante would even do it. Not to mention how the question, " Could you bring back a chimera that can use alchemy as a homonculus with memories and feelings intact?" would come to her. Greed smiled at the thought of Dante's face when he would ask her. Then his smile turned into a sneer when he realized how much pride he would have to swallow to even open his mouth. Ugh.

Greed stopped when he realized that he had arrived at his destination.

" After all this time I'm back at the beginning of the tale." The mansion, huge as it was, looked more like a prison than a home built for an old woman.

" Not even sure what I came here for." Truth was that Dante probably wouldn't even agree to his proposition. At least not without a price. A price he was sure that he wouldn't be able to pay. Yet, Dante stands on a high pedestal spouting bull about equivalent exchange being a bunch of nonsense. Greed couldn't help but think that the old hag should practice what she preached.

" Maybe I'm gonna beg that hag for my life." If Kiki was already gone then Greed had the feeling that he wouldn't be the one walking out of that mansion. The new indestructable girl he loved would be. His body would be more than enough for her complete resurrection. Then again-

" Maybe not."

Kiki's POV

" Come on. It's gotta be here somewhere! It's as big as a freaking city for christ's sake!" Kiki growled. She had been running for what seemed like hours looking for Dante's dang mansion. As the time went by her nerves got even more upset. Kiki couldn't make herself come to believe that Greed could have already left this world. Left her all alone. She couldn't be too late. Whatever he was going to do, she had to stop him.

Then, she finally saw a flash of white out of the corner of her eye. Kiki turned herself around immediately to see a big stone building towering above the trees in all its glory. Dantes.

Kiki was also greeted by the sight of Greed at her door. His back was turned to her so she couldn't make him stop and even though he was walking to his death, Kiki felt relief at the fact that she still had time to stop him. He walked in after practically kicking the damn doors in.

" Greed! Wai-" Kiki almost called out before she realized that she was not alone. She had caught her words just in time to see forms in the brush. There were two and if she hadn't have dived into the undergrowth they would have seen her. She was about to backtrack so that she could go into the mansion from another route, when she heard the fat one speak.

" I'm still hungry."

At those three words, Kiki almost lost it. All the pieces fit together instantly. These two were homonculi and they were the people who murdered Law and caused Doroche to suffer. They were monsters. And without confronting them, they had lured Greed into his death trap. Somehow they knew he would do the work for them. Like it was almost a game of chess that they played and he was the bishop. They were responsible for everything that made Kiki's life a mess. They were murderers and they needed to die. She had to do something. She had to-

No. She didn't come here for revenge. She came for Greed. To stop him from doing what the homunculi willed him to do. To cut the strings. Besides, it would only get her killed to take on two homonculi at once. The one person who told her how stupid it was to take on one of them was in the domain of a deranged woman anyway. Fighting these two would be easier than walking back into that building, but that is where she had to go. For Greed. Either he was insane to walk into that mansion, or he thought Kiki hadn't made it.

Kiki silently cursed herself and made her way to the other side of the mansion where she made her way (with her foxlike abilities) into a window closest to the ground. It wasn't like she could walk in the front doors or anything. Like Greed did so foolishly. Kiki had her own moment of triumph as the hinges of the window came unhooked and she made her way inside. Once in, she heard a soft, yet disturbing type of music playing. " This woman really is nuts." Kiki muttered. Either she was nuts, or so alone that the only entertainment she had was listening to depressing music all day long.

Kiki silently made her way to the library-slash-ballroom opposite of Greed's direction. She would meet him halfway and hopefully catch Dante offguard. By memory of the blueprints that Greed had showed her and the gang, she was able to take Dante's dumwaiter to the second floor. The cramped space did a number on her tail even though it was already stiff with agitation.

When she made it successfully to the second floor without being detected she went for the stairs. There she could confront Dante, all the while giving Greed that A-okay that she was still breathing.

She made it all the way to the stairs before she stopped. She wasn't actually on the stairs, she was simply on the balcony leading to the stairs. She bent her body down to the rungs of the hand rails. Something was happening. Something bad.

Kiki had a momentary feeling of relief when she saw Greed before she returned to being on her guard. Greed didn't look so good. He was breathing hoarsely from his mouth and hunching over slightly. His hand was clutched tightly to his chest as well.

Then Kiki noticed something on the far side of the room. It was Dante's body severed vertically in half on the floor. ' Did Greed do that?' She wondered. That's when Kiki saw the girl.

The one who supposedly worked for Dante before her death. " Lyra." Kiki whispered.

' Shouldn't she be cowering in fear in front of Greed?' Didn't she know or even cared that her life was in danger? Was she blind to the fact that her mentor was lying dead on the floor to her right? Kiki couldn't help but judge Lyra. Her questions were answered when Greed stopped walking. Greed's attention had shifted to something other than Lyra and Kiki's eyes followed him to a table sitting on the opposite side of the room. Kiki had to stifle a gasp as she realized that the very bones that had been in Dante's trunk were laid on the table. The bones that Kiki had failed to report to Greed.

" Those are-" Greed got out before Lyra interrupted him. " Your bones, yes." Then a memory that had been pushed into the far corners of Kiki's mind came back to her and caused the worst guilt that she had ever felt. It had been a week before their mission to retrieve Alphonse and the books from Dante's trunk. Her and Greed had been warming up for a fighting session when Kiki's curiosity had got the best of her.

" Um..Greed? Is there, yaknow.. anyway that someone can..um..kill a homonculus? Or are they completely indestructable?" Kiki felt shame for asking the question as she stared at the floor.

" Why do you want to know?" Greed asked. Kiki was thrown off guard at his question. She had waited and pondered what this conversation would be like for a long time before plucking up the courage to actually ask. It was one of those, it gives you headaches when you think about it types. She answered with, " I want to know because it simply better to be told than to try and figure it out for myself. Don't get me wrong. I would never dream of taking you out, but if I knew then I would be prepared for when I go up against the other homonculi. If ever." She felt confidence and truth in her answer. But she was also scared for her life around Greed. He could've walked out of the room, yelled at her, came at her when she wasn't watching, but instead he spoke.

" Homonculi aren't perfect. They are imperfect creatures that are supposed to be a certain person ressurected from death. Homonculi are imperfect because one, we aren't human, and two, we are simply creatures with that human's memories and appearance. Sometimes. Because we are not human we can neither use alchemy or die from natural causes. Like hunger, dehydration, or a simple gunshot. There is only one way a homonculus can truly die."

Kiki heard herself say, " How?" She got enough courage to raise her head and see Greed looking at her strangely. It was a confused grimace that Kiki thought must've been unsure. He answered. " The person of whom was trying to be ressurected leaves behind remains that are lethal and dangerous to the homonculus who replaced that person. By being close to the remains of that person a homonculus is weakened to the point where they can be truly killed forever. So weak, that once killed, they will not come back. Which goes to show that homonculi are nothing more than a failed copy of their intended human. I know for sure that I am nothing like the person that I was meant to come back as. Was that answer good enough for yah?" Kiki found herself nodding even though she had many more questions that she wanted answered. Greed didn't talk for awhile. The silence was making her nervous. Greed was almost always running his yap. It was surprising to see him quiet. Almost bursting out, Kiki decided to ask him another question. " If..if I died and someone tried to bring me back..would I be me?" Greed chuckled. Kiki waited patiently for him to answer her, but he just kept chuckling. " Um..Greed?" she asked timidly. He stopped laughing and stared at Kiki. For just a second Kiki thought she saw remorse but it was hidden within a snicker.

" First of all, YOU wouldn't come back. Someone else would be born with YOUR memories pretending to BE you. Second, who would care enough to bring YOU back?"

Kiki dipped her head in shame. No one would probably bring her back She knew though, that she was admired at least by somebody in her life. But who? She raised her head and found confidence that she didn't know she possesed. " That's what I'm trying to figure out."

Well I know that this chapter was yet ANOTHER cliff hanger, but what can I say? I like it that way. It makes people want to read more. Kiki's story will resume with the next chapter and you have no idea what I have planned, but it's good. Stay tuned for the next action packed chapter of Kiki's saga!

-Luna Blyeth