Yellow lights blurred past my vision while I ran, illuminating my body in sickly gleam before plunging me back into darkness. My thoughts were singular in their intensity as I pursued my tormentress through the endless seeming halls of Lab Five. I was running faster than any human would find possible, slamming into every corner I turned in my haste. The impacts hurt, but I got the feeling the walls were suffering more damage than me.
Lust flitted in and out of my vision as I pursued her, somehow managing to stay a hall ahead of me at every turn. Sometimes I even lost sight of her, but her laughs would echo off the walls menacingly, and I would gain her trail once more. I had not known until I finally saw her again just how much what she had done had affected me. It was as if a cap on my sanity– the only thing that was keeping me from losing complete control– had been removed, allowing all of my anger, fear, frustration and despair to let loose in one catastrophic moment.
Finally, I came to the end of the hall that led to a large set of double doors, just closing as I turned the corner. I slammed through them, nearly knocking one off it's hinges. I slid to a halt, panting loudly in the large room I suddenly found myself in.
My angered gasps echoed off the walls of the huge space. Archaic drawings lined shadowed surfaces and large columns supported the high ceilings. I whipped my head side to side, scanning the room for my quarry. She did not appear.
My breathing calmed and my heartbeat slowed, but even as my adrenaline relaxed I slipped my armored gloves over my hands and pulled out my tonfa. Scanning the room more carefully, I realized that there were only two exits. Another large set of double doors stood silently on the far end of the chamber. I walked cautiously into the room, waiting for an attack.
With none immediately forthcoming, anger spiked within me once more and I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Lust! I know you're in here! What, are you afraid to face me now that I'm not helpless?" My own enraged voice bounced back to me, sounding deep and harsh to my ears.
"My, is all that anger I hear for me?" I whipped around with a growl resonating in my chest as Lust finally revealed herself. She was leaning casually against a column to my right, once again moving without a sound and looking as devastatingly beautiful as I remembered. "I'm flattered. Although last time we had one of our little dates you were so much more…cooperative."
"Cooperative," I choked, emotions not allowing me to draw a proper breath. "You tortured me!"
The Woman brought a delicate finger to her plump lips, a look of innocence on her face. "That's not how I remember it." She began walking around me slowly, her hips swaying and her voice becoming sultry with each spoken word, causing bile to roil in my gut. "Soft gasps in the night, echoing against the empty forest. A crimson robe splayed beneath me against the pure snow. Your pretty expressions as I removed your pain and gave you pleasure…"
My eyes widened in horror at her recounting of events, freezing my muscles as she stalked around me like a predator. "You're sick," I growled, not letting her out of my sight. Vividly, I recalled her hand as it pulled out of my chest with a sick squelch covered in gore and my blood. Flashes of terrible agony and terror as I tried to keep my fraying sanity together. Going over that edge as she dominated me physically and psychologically. And then her forcing me to consume on the lives of others, even as I desperately wished it all to end…
A snarl ripped from my throat, sounding inhuman and gutteral to my ears as I brought my weapons and teeth to bare. Lust fluttered long black lashes, her bowed lips turning up in a small smile.
"That's right," she simpered. "You aren't human, so stop pretending to be one." She lifted her arms by her sides, leaving her body completely open as if offering an embrace. "Do you want to kill me Alex? Do you want to rip my heart out like I nearly did yours?"
My vision reddened and I howled, truly losing control. I leapt violently at my grinning tormentress, the woman who I now irrationally blamed for every harm that had come to me in this world. The fight was on.
All of my training, all of my carefully honed control, flew right out the window as fury took over. Lust deftly sidestepped my wild charge, nearly faster than I could see, and I careened into the wall behind her, crashing into it with a deafening boom. Concrete shattered beneath my weapons, but I was already scanning through the dust, looking for my elusive opponent. There!
Lust was standing in nearly the same spot she had vacated before, glancing coyly over her shoulder, her arms still widespread. I came at her again, and again. Each time she seemed to flit in and out of existence as she dodged my blows, the same taunting smile on her face. Frustration bubbled within me. She was playing with me and it only served to fuel my anger as I continued to destroy the room around us without laying a finger on my true target.
It was just like before. No matter how ridiculously strong I became, she was still stronger. No matter how much I trained, it would be no use. She was all powerful, pinning me to the ground. Dominating.
I gasped, sliding to a stop and standing up straight, red-violet eyes widening with realization. Dust settled around me as I stilled, frozen. That was her game. She was–
"Alex," Lust cooed in mock concern, "What's the matter? Are you tired already?"
Slowly, I turned around, a deadly calm settling over me. I allowed her taunts to roll off my shoulders this time, not letting them enrage me further. I knew now what she was doing, and I would no longer allow it to continue. I began stalking forward slowly, my muscles snapping to my will in perfect balance. I brought my weapons to my sides, ready but tauntingly relaxed, as if I no longer felt she was dangerous. Two could play at this game.
Lust's smile slid slowly off her face at my languid approach, and her shoulders tensed tellingly. I was not the same helpless wreck I was before. I was stronger, more controlled, and deadlier. She had been using my fear and my memories of what happened that night in Dublith to make herself seem stronger than me, and maybe she was. But I knew for a fact that I was more skilled. I allowed my anger to condense into a deadly point in my mind, turning it from distraction to motivation. I had been trained by three of the most powerful masters in Amestris, and there was no way I was going to lose to my own fear.
I stopped several yards from my opponent, taking in her suddenly tense figure. I took a deep breath.
My tensed legs suddenly proppeled me forward, and this time Lust was on the retreat. As I rained blows upon her no longer blinded by my anger, I was able to keep up and not let her from my sight. I began to analyze her like I should have done since the beginning, like I did every fight. Our dual gasps and growls were only drowned out by the impacts with the environment around us as the walls shattered beneath our strength.
The homunculus was stronger than me, more experienced with her power, and faster. But, though she moved with grace, her blows and counters were wild and aimless. I saw them coming a mile away. In contrast, my attacks became controlled and precise. I aimed for vital points that would cause the most pain; a blow to her kidney, a direct jab to her sternum, a vicious kick to her knees, shattering the bone. Though she was able to dodge most of the attacks with her speed, I got in enough hits to turn her smug grin into a scowl.
Soon enough I discovered the futility of such a battle between homunculi. Though I was more skilled in hitting her vitals, she would merely heal instantly in a flash of red sparks.
And then I discovered her one staggering advantage over me. Pain tolerance.
"Where did all that beautiful anger go," Lust taunted, regaining her smile. I wiped it off her face a second later by shattering her jaw with all of my strength. Her head snapped to the side as my tonfa blew her several feet away. Still, she managed to keep her balance and looked back up at me, her hair falling behind her shoulders and her eyes amused as her jaw reformed. I grit my teeth as she healed yet again and charged, not letting up.
Calmly, she extended her hand towards me. At first, I didn't know what she was doing, and then my eyes widened in startling realization as her claws extended in an ability I had foolishly forgotten she could do. Dedicated to my charge and removed from the ground, I could not dodge as her spears impaled me, piercing through my flesh in a brilliant flash of agony and using my momentum to slam me into the opposite wall.
I crashed with an aguished scream and slid down, rubble raining around me. Falling to my knees, my hands clawed over the places where I had been impaled and I hunched over where my ribs had been shattered by the wall.
Mere seconds later, my ability to heal kicked in and I was inundated with the relief of pain as the red sparks did their job and closed my wounds. But the damage had already been done.
I gasped, shuddering violently as my mind stuttered to a halt in shock. Confused and disoriented, I scrabbled my hands over the places I had been impaled, eyes blown wide even as the pain had completely faded. My psych told me I was dead, but my body claimed that I was not, even as my mind screamed at me to get up, that the fight was not over. As a result of conflicting signals, I jerked to my feet before flopping back down on the ground like a limp fish.
Time slowed as I tried and failed to process what just happened. It was beyond comprehension. My mind knew I had just died, and yet my body was telling me I was sound and whole, even as it shuddered in remembered pain.
Lust's cruel laugh filtered through my panicked gasps and I looked up at her, pupils blown wide in fear. "I'll have to teach you how to shake off death, young one. Don't worry, I will guide you." Casually, she flicked the remainder of my blood off of her semi extended claws and began to advance, her heals clicking loudly on the polished floor.
And just like that our roles were reversed once more. I was weak in the face of her dominance, and I could do nothing as she stalked towards me. I shivered and clutched my weapons in shaking hands, preparing to fight even as terror became all consuming. "Come now, Alex. I'm not through with you yet."
Screaming incoherently, I swiped with one weapon, then the other, jerking to my feet. Lust sidestepped me easily, her confident smirk back in place as I once again lost control. "That's it, just a little more," she encouraged, but I was past listening.
She was backing up swiftly now. Her back pressed against the door opposite to the one we had entered, and she pushed through it, still facing me. I followed her like a fool, my heart pounding loudly in my ears.
And then suddenly…she was gone. I stumbled into the room, my final blow before her disappearance over extended and sending me careening forward. I fell to one knee, coming to a halt and panting harshly. I looked around for Lust, but it seemed that she had completely vanished. There was no other exit to the room, and yet she was gone.
The room was small, only about twelve feet each direction, and the walls were concrete. At first I could not understand what I was seeing. But then my vision snapped into focus enough to realize that the walls were painted in sweeping black patterns. The markings were almost unrecognizable. It looked like some form of alchemy but different. More…tribal. The sharp, organic markings reminded me uncomfortably of a venus fly trap about to snap down on it's prey.
"Thank you for joining me, Alex. You've been such a good sport, but now I think it's time to end our little game."
I spun in alarm at the sound of Lust's voice just outside the door, blocking the only exit. Her figure was tall and imposing, the only light shining behind her and casting her long shadow over me. She stepped forward and I retreated farther into the room, wary. "What do you mean?"
The black haired homunculus merely smiled and pulled something from behind her back. There was a flash of silver...and then something inexplicable happened. My body seized into complete stillness and I froze, unable to even draw breath. Hanging from Lust's relaxed hand was a small silver locket.
Lust's smile turned into a cruel smirk as I became unable to move. "Do you know what this is, Alex?" Not able to answer, I merely stared. "This is a lock of Trisha Elric's hair, the form you were meant to take. I collected it just after we met. Just in case."
She pulled the locket back minutely and I took a strangled breath as she examined it. "Did you know that the best way to subdue a homunculus is to find a piece of their original body? We are unfortunately weak that way." Her eyes turned to me deviously. "And fortunately strong in others."
She held the amulet back out and I was once again seized. My mind screamed at me to run, to fight, to do something. But this time I was well and truly at her mercy. All I could do was drown in my own terror as she stalked ever slowly forward.
Finally, she stepped over the threshold. Then, like the ignition of a bomb, my world was consumed in brilliant red-violet light as the black markings activated around me. I screamed.
Burning hot agony tore through me, as if every molecule of my body was being unmade. My muscles convulsed and I doubled over and retched, blood and red masses spilling over my lips. I stared down at them in shock, recognizing the red stones I had consumed. They were being expelled from my body. I retched several more times, but nothing but blood came up.
The second effect staggered me a split second later, for as the red stones were extracted, my strength left me in one violent sweep leaving me as weak and helpless as I had been that terrible night in Dublith when I had been starved for energy. I looked up at Lust in shock, only to find her standing right over me with a piteous expression on her fair face. It only served to look menacing as it reflected the red light around us.
"Sorry, little one, but I have to have you weak so that Edward will do what I want. It will all be over soon, and then you will be whole."
"W-what...Ed? What do you want with him?! Leave him alone–" I was cut off by another fit of coughing. Lust merely laughed.
Realization dawned on me like a flash fire, brilliant as any one of Roy's flames. This had all been a trap. A trap for me, and a trap for Edward. We were always meant to come here. Somehow, someway, Lust had made sure of it. Then she had led me like a lamb to slaughter to this very spot. And like an idiot, I had followed.
As the seductive homunculus leaned down, holding the locket open by its clasp and clearly intending to put it around my neck, I had one more thought before I was consumed by darkness.
My brothers were in danger, and because I had wandered into an obvious trap like a damn fool there was nothing I could do to help them.
Hm, Alex, it's a little too late to realize it's a trap. Ah, that was fun. We even got to see a little bit of Alex's animalistic side. For those of you who thought he had taken that whole episode in Dublith too well, there you go. Tell us how you really feel, Alex.
I've got two words for you. SCIENCE FANTASY. Yeah, I have no idea how the whole homunculus strength thing really works. It kind of contradicts itself. Like, they seem to be strong enough to shatter concrete with their bare hands, but they can have their heads ripped off by a hammer held by a half cow guy. So they are definitely not like Superman. I dunno. It's weird that they are that strong yet not durable enough to handle their own strength. Oh well. I'm using the contradiction to my advantage for some fun mental trauma. Thinking about it gave me a really good insight about how much pain a homunculus would have to go through to just be able to shake off death like they do. Probably why they are all insane.
Next Chapter: Alphonse faces off with his doubts of humanity, then gets eaten by a marshmallow.
I actually meant to have him in this chapter, but had way too much fun with the Lust scene. Oh well. Alphonse deserves his own chapter for his own emotional trauma. Good times.
