This is an action packed chapter here!

Liz: Yep we've got fights

Envy: Blood

Ed: Sadism

Aaron: AND ME! (Sparkles)

Al: That ruins the mood.

Lust: That it does.

Greed: I am Greed and I want reviews!

Desire: And I Desire reviews.

Fear: Worst joke ever

Wrath: REVIEW!

Chapter 32: Blood on the ground

It really did fascinate Greed how much Liz resembled Kristen in personality and physical appearance. And in her tastes in men for that matter.

It was obvious the girl liked Envy, though she spent half her time arguing or rolling her eyes at him. And likewise, Greed could tell Envy liked her.

It was strange, and a little like Déjà Vu.

"So what are you doing here?" Liz asked, jerking him out of his thoughts.

"Heard there were a bunch of murders by those newbies and decided to check it out with some of my men." Greed shrugged. "I'm guessing that's why you're here too."

"Yeah." Ed sighed. Greed noticed he was still throwing distrustful glances his way. Maybe because the last time they had met, Ed had killed him and thought he might want revenge. The thought made Greed want to laugh but he restrained himself. "It's military business."

"Plus a few." Greed shot Envy a glance.

"Call me volunteer help." Envy smirked. "Though really I just want to kill Dante. That's my main motive."

"Well, then I guess our motives are the same in that respect." Greed sighed.

"Yes, maybe."

Liz evidentially noticed that their words were still tense when ever exchanged between each other as she sighed and stepped casually in between them as she walked.

Envy cast her a glance, raising his eyebrow in question and she smirked. "Just a precaution."

He rolled his eyes and Greed sniggered.

We met up with Lust, Wrath and that sparkling alchemist who shall not be named (I miss Armstrong), at the center of town. Greed joined us for this. We hadn't made the executive decision to join up but he just kind of came with and no one said anything about it. We could always use and extra homunculus in the fight.

Lust had acquired a map of the East city from the state library through means that I'm sure you can guess (She might as well use her name to her advantage) and she set it on a wooden table just outside the restaurant.

"Alright." Ed said, biting the cap off a pen. "Let's see if we can find a pattern in where these murders occured."

"First the one by the train station." Al said. "And then there was one at the intersection of First and Second Avenue."

"Plus ones here, here and here." Ed nodded. "I talked to some officers that said four more occurred in this area, here, here, here and here." He marked an x over each spot he tapped his finger.

"And there was one in this dark alleyway, this dark alleyway and this dark alleyway." I said.

Envy sighed "Remind me why we let her investigate those alone again?"

"I don't remember." Ed shook his head.

We continued to mark each location a murder was found in the East City. When we finished Ed shook his head. "Doesn't look like a pattern to me."

"Unless…" I studied the dots. "Hey Ed, give me that pen." I held out my hand and Ed passed me the pen. I started to connect the dots on the map. If it was what I thought it was it would work. When I finished I set the pen down. "Yeah, I thought so."

On the map was crude outline of an oroborus tattoo. Not as detailed as the ones on the homunculi's skin, but it was close enough that I could tell.

"So really they're just messing with us." Greed concluded.

"Not quite." Envy tapped his finger against the face of the oroborus. "It doesn't have an eye."

"So?" Ed asked.

"So where the eye should be…" Envy started.

"Then that's where the next murder is planned!" Wrath finished enthusiastically.

"Hooray?" Al said tentatively.

"This is an obvious trap." Ed sighed. "They're leading us in. Why?"

"So that they can kill one of us?" Envy shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe to meet this Arrogance… or maybe that was just bullshit and they're playing with us."

"Whatever their motive, we must bring them to justice." Aaron burst out stabbing his sword into the air.

"Who is that again?" Greed asked.

"Absolutely no one."

You might think it reckless of us to spring this obvious trap when the homunculi obviously had a plan. But hey, recklessness is what we do. We don't plan things through. We just charge into the mess like idiots. Luckily half of our group was immortal idiots. Only three of us ran the risk of getting killed.

Oh and there was Aaron. But really who cares about him dying?

Another familiar face joined up with us on the way. Knuckles, the wolf chimera I had met after my escape from the house at Dublith.

"How've you been shorty?" he asked me in greeting as we walked.

"Don't call me that, dog boy." I shot him a glare.

He held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. So what have you been up to?"

"Boring research work." I shrugged. "This is a nice break. How about you?"

"Fighting, investigating, following Greed." Knuckles said. "It's a restless life but I enjoy it. It's better than prison."

"No doubt." I nodded. "So you really want to help us with this problem?"

"Greed's problems are my problems, so I'll take care of them." Knuckles nodded.

I smiled. Even if Greed was a bastard at times he seemed to have a knack for attracting loyal comrades to his side. I wondered how he managed that.

The blank spot on the map took place in the center of a deserted network of alleyways. If nothing else did, that ensured that me and anyone with me would be put in danger.

It didn't take long.

"I'm a little surprised you decided to accept our invitation. I didn't think that you would" The familiar high pitched voice of Fear echoed through the alley. "But I guess I was wrong. Oh well," Fear dropped down from the roofs and landed in a crouch on the ground. "This makes it more fun."

"I agree." That voice belonged to Malice. Someone dressed in blue fell from the roof and landed with a sickening thump on the ground. Upon closer inspection I saw it was the officer who had greeted us when we came to the city. But he was long dead. Malice followed the body to the ground and landed next to Fear. His vicious violet eyes fixed on me first. I involuntarily took a small step back.

"Who's that one?" Envy asked quietly.

"Malice." I muttered back.

"Figures."

"Ok so we have the pair of sadists." I growled out. "Who else?"

"Don't forget me." Behind us, Desire also dropped to the ground, smirking his usual smirk.

"The perverted bastard." Ed clarified, his distaste clear. After all, it was Desire who had attacked Winry twice already.

"And me, your old friend." My blood chilled as Regret dropped down next to Desire.

"Alright, four of them." I muttered. "That's not… too impossible. We have four homunculi, three humans, a chimera and one…" I cast a glance at Aaron who was trying so hard to be taken seriously. "Mass of sparkling ego. I think we have a chance."

For a moment we were at a standoff before Fear took the first step forward. But before any of us could react it was Aaron of all people who jumped into the mix, stabbing his sword out with surprising control in Fear's direction.

"What the-" Fear jumped out of the way of the blade as it stabbed towards her stomach. "Who the Hell are you?"

"I will end your tyranny foul demon!" Aaron cried out, sounding so sure of himself it was sad.

"Where the hell did you pick this guy up?" Fear growled, blocking another slash from the blade with her arm which had morphed into a long blade as well.

"Some deep dark recess of inflated egos." I said flatly.

"I will handle this one easily!" Aaron claimed. I was pretty sure I saw the other homunculi covering up sniggers. Because even they thought he was ridiculous.

"Damn it. I'll take care of this guy alright?" Fear turned and sprinted off, leading Aaron away.

"Right, you just take care of her Aaron" I called after him waving.

"Wow, we might not even have to stage his death. Fear will take care of him for us." Envy mused.

"Convenient" Ed agreed.

"I'll give him a hand." Al sighed, being the nice person he is. He ran after Fear and Aaron.

We turned back to the situation at hand. Dealing with the other three homunculi.

Lust, Wrath, Greed and Knuckles faced Regret and Desire while Envy, Ed and I faced Malice. My eyes narrowed in concentration on Malice's feet. I saw him start to shift to his left. Then he propelled himself towards us. Envy ducked easily under his fist and rammed his elbow into his gut. Malice winced but he barely faltered. He used the momentum to flip over Envy and land in a crouch on the other side of him, right in front of me.

I barely managed to duck out of the way as a blade whistled over my head. I wasn't sure where that had come from but I didn't have time to think about it. With practiced ease I slid my own blades from their sheaths and jabbed out at his stomach. He swiped them both away and kicked me in the chest. I stumbled back, pain shooting briefly through my torso, but I didn't let myself falter.

Ed luckily came in at this point to take over and give me a short break. Behind me Lust and Wrath were busy engaging Desire. Desire, who was much bigger and stronger than Wrath, managed to kick the boy back into the wall with a strength and drove a crater in the stone. In return Lust shot a nail through his arm and pinned him to the ground.

Desire smirked up at her. "Say, you sure have a nice figure, babe." Lust's scarf had fallen away in the fight and Desire was making a point of staring in that area.

But Lust, unfazed by this comment, just smirked. "You'd think you would buy a girl dinner first before you start staring so bluntly at her chest."

Desire shot a column of flames her way and she was forced to retract her nail in order to dodge.

Greed and Knuckles were having no easy time taking on Regret themselves. But I found it hard for me to watch this fight. Because Hughes's face was so… angry. So vengeful. A look like that shouldn't be on Hughes' face. It didn't belong there. It made my chest ache with sadness, and might throat burn with anger at the same time.

Greed blocked Regret's knives easily with his armored hands and Knuckles it turned out was an agile fighter himself. They would be fine.

"Liz!" Ed called in warning.

I jumped to the side just as a knife went whistling past my ear and spun around on my heels, steadying myself with one hand on the ground. "You could have killed me there, Malice."

"You act as if I wouldn't just love to do that." Malice growled.

"I know you want to, but you're not allowed to." I said evenly.

"Can't be blamed for accidents though." He lunged at me again. I pushed myself off the ground and back into a standing position as I dodged. Unconsciously I was moving like I had often seen Envy and Izumi move. By dodging backwards. I didn't usually do that but somehow I knew that attacking wasn't going to do me much good.

The knife whistled several times past my face and sides before I had to draw my knives and cross them over my head to block a downward strike. But Malice seemed to want this as my preoccupied hands kept me from blocking a swift kick to my stomach that sent me flying back into a wall.

"Leave her alone!" Ed yelled as he charged Malice from behind. I watched, stunned, as Malice's hand flew up to catch Ed's auto-mail wrist as it descended. He smirked. "This arm is a nuisance isn't it? Luckily I'm one of the two who can do alchemy. So…" There was a flash and Ed's arm above his wrist shattered to pieces.

"Ed!" I rose to my feet and punched Malice in the face before he could attack Ed any further. Envy tried to come to the fight but a wall of fire from Desire stopped him. All of the fights were mixing together now, colliding at a confusing rate. But Malice's eyes were fixed on me alone.

"Huh, you actually managed to hit me." He said, wiping stray blood from his mouth. "But don't expect your luck to hold out.

His foot moved with speed that I couldn't even start to dodge and hit me hard in the side, sending me flying into the wall for what seemed like the hundredth time. Another minor attack swept over me from the abuse and I clutched at my chest.

I heard Greed snarl something incoherent in the midst of the fight and my eyes went automatically towards the sound. My eyes widened as I saw Regret had managed to stick a knife in Knuckle's throat.

"Knuckles!" I started to get to my feet but Malice kicked me none too gently in the face.

"Don't look away from me Lizzie." He snarled, his face demonic. I felt sharp metal scrape my throat as he pressed the blade against my skin.

Regret lunged at Envy as he tried to get to me, tackling him to the ground and trying to stab him as well. Ed was out of the fight without his arm and Lust and Wrath were still busy trying to contain Desire.

"I'll just… slip… a little bit" Malice said thoughtfully, tracing the outline of my throat with the tip of the knife. I was frozen. I really couldn't it past him to go against Dante's wishes and kill me. Not with the way he was observing me right now.

"Hang on, Malice!" Regret called. "You're not supposed to kill her!"

But he was already raising his knife.

And I couldn't move.

Dear god I am evil.

Envy: Yes you certainly are.

Ed: Good bye Knuckles.

Al: Your short appearance will be missed.

Malice: Hmm, wonder what's going to happen next?

Fear: You're the one holdign the knife, shouldn't you know?

Malice: No. Cliffhangers are sort of like when you hit a pause button a movie.

Regret: Makes sense.

Desire: Hooray for a chapter with a surplus of homunculi.

Lust: A total of eight.

Desire: I still think yo're hot.

Lust: And you're a bastard. Die.

Liz: This is the first time I've been able to call for reviews!

Wrath: Milk it.

Liz: I will. REVIEW!