A/N: See CH 1 for relevant note. I apologize for the notes length. Future A/Ns will be as short as I can possibly make them.
Disclaimer: Is this even truly necessary beyond the first chapter? If I didn't own FMA before, what are the odds anything is going to change after CH1 is posted? In any event, I still do not own FMA.
Tzimice looked at the three Homunculi standing before him. The power of his undead blood filled him, making him feel greater than he had for centuries. He began to asses each of his foes' threat level. He decided that the dumb looking blob may be the most threatening of the three. The acid in his mouth would make direct physical strikes to him more difficult than they would be against the other two.
To be sure, the ancient creature had no doubt he could land such strikes if necessary. But Tzimice decided that his more esoteric powers would be most effective in stopping the vacant eyed brute.
The little green haired thing (Tzimice still wasn't certain if it was a man or women, and frankly didn't care much either way) would be the easiest of the three to deal with, and Tzimice decided to save his death for last. As near as Tzimice could tell, its illusionary powers were the only ones of note that it possessed.
The woman was a wild card. She didn't appear to be all that threatening.
'But then again' Tzimice thought with amusement 'the same could be said for myself.' He decided to deal with the female creature as it necessitated, and would otherwise ignore her until the fat one had been dealt with and the androgynous one had been sufficiently incapacitated.
"I don't believe we've been properly introduced. May I ask your name?" The female said in a very low, near seductive voice. Tzimice smiled inwardly. To think, trying to seduce a thing that had been dead longer than any nation had existed.
But he saw no harm in keeping to etiquette. Nothing said one had to be rude to the thing's one was going to slaughter in mere moments, after all.
"My apologies, young lady." Tzimice responded in a most dignified tone. He kept the power of his blood at ready call, just in case the three creatures tried something, but otherwise change his stance from one of combat to one of a courteous bow. Rising from the motion, he looked each one in the eye.
"I am known as Tzimice, and I am the lord of this domain, and have been since its founding." Tzimice said in a formal, matter-of-fact, yet still cordial tone. "You have disturbed me, and have proven to be a true bother to the stability of this place and its cattle…excuse me, mortals. Thusly, I have come to exact the toll due from such disrespect." His voice remained even throughout his introduction.
Gluttony, the fat, acid-mouthed Homunculi gazed blankly at the strange, pale man in front of him. He smelled weird, and a thought entered Gluttony's otherwise non-functioning mind.
"Can I eat him now, Lust?" Gluttony asked in tone reminiscent of a child badgering its mother for a cookie from the jar. "He smells weird. I wanna know how he tastes." Lust looked down at Gluttony.
"In a moment Gluttony. I want to talk to him for a moment." Lust returned her glance to the pale figure in front of her. Lord since the town's founding? He certainly didn't seem that old, and Lust didn't recall any Homunculi being called Tzimice. And if he was the lord, why hadn't she seen him sooner?
For his part, Tzinmice remained as he had since he had finished introducing himself. "You said you wished to speak to me, child. At the risk of sounding rude, I must implore you to hurry on with it. You see, I'm on something of a schedule, and simply don't have the time for conversation and death-dealing both."
"Ok, I'll get to the point then; Just what are you? You certainly aren't as my comrades and I are, yet to be able to do what you did to Envy, you can't be human either."
Tzimice couldn't help but laugh a little. Lust, Gluttony, Envy…three of the seven deadly sins of mortals. How inventive of these creatures. If their actions didn't demand he kill them, he might like to learn a little more about them. But one's duties were one's, and this little conversation was taking to much of his time as it was. He still had some hours yet before the sun rose, but he wanted to enjoy this. Such fascinating creatures deserved creative deaths.
"While I'd love to get into the details with you…Lust, wasn't it?" Lust nodded. "As I said, I'm on a rather strict schedule, so to summarize; I am a Methuselah, or a very ancient vampire, to drastically over simplify the matter." Tzimice then took a battle stance, beginning to ready his powers. Before Lust could start talking again, Tzimice spoke. "This has been a truly fascinating talk, but here is where our conversation must end. You must pay the price for your actions, and that price is your lives. So then, fat one, didn't you say you wanted to try and eat me? Then have at me."
Gluttony glanced to Lust. She sighed and nodded her assent. The little fat man charged with a great deal more speed than one of his considerably mass should be capable of, mouth hanging open, drooling destructive acid as he prepared to take a bite of this new food.
He never got the chance. The little blob felt himself being lifted into the air. Looking about in confusion, Gluttony found he was being born into the air by his own shadow, looking like pool of darkness with tendrils protruding from it, slowly wrapping around his rotund form. Gluttony squirmed and tried to bite the shadow, but to no avail. His mouth simply closed around the black nothing to no effect. The shadowy constraints grew tighter and tighter, squishing and crushing the Homunculi's flab and bone. Gluttony began crying out in fear.
"Lust, Lust help!" The child like abomination cried out. Lust sighed again.
'How did I get stuck being this idiot's mommy?' she wondered to herself. But she couldn't allow the fat beast to be destroyed by this "vampire". He was too useful to her.
"Envy, go help Gluttony, I'll deal with our little vampire here." She ordered. Envy looked hesitant at first. "Don't tell me your afraid of the big bad bloodsucker just because he slapped you around a little bit." Envy turned his head to glare at Lust. The movement caught Tzimice's eye.
"Hmm… so the little hermaphrodite does have some tricks besides shape-shifting." Tzimice muttered, noting the fact that Envy seemed to have completely recovered from his earlier assault.
"I wonder if its mind is as quick to heal as its body?" With that, Tzimice vanished, fading from view. The shadows continued to crush the now frantically flailing, clearly panicked Gluttony. Envy got a look of pure fear in her eyes. Lust looked only slightly interested.
Lust readied her hands, shaping them into claws. Envy took a fighting stance, though his eyes were still disturbed. Sure, he had healed from the first attack, but it still hurt. Envy did not like pain, and liked fighting things that he couldn't hurt but that could easily hurt him even less. His head still hurt from earlier, and that headache was getting worse.
And worse and worse. Soon, Envy felt like his head would explode. That's when he noticed the eyes. Glowing red, just floating in the air in front of him, gazing into his own. He heard voices.
"You can't win." "You will die." "Why are you still hear" "Kill Lust" "Kill yourself" "Give up" "What are you really" "Filthy failure" "Alchemist's mistake" "Soulless wretch" "Weakling, imbecile" "End yourself," "End Lust" 'Do it, Do it, DO IT!"
Ten voices, no, twenty, all screaming at him inside his own head. "No, shut up, get out of my head. God dammit, I will kill you. I am not going to do that" Envy cried out, panicked and in pain. He had fallen to his knees. Lust looked over, very curios as to what Envy was going on about. Envy began lashing out at where he saw the eyes. He was there, he was just invisible. But every swing failed to hit any thing. Envy couldn't even strike the floating eyes themselves.
"Envy, what are you swinging at!" Lust saw nothing in front of Envy, and began to wonder just what she was up against. Gluttony had stopped screaming for her. The shadows had begun to flow down his throat, and were expanding him even has more shadow constricted him. Lust knew that soon Gluttony would be broken. He may heal, but even a Homunculi would need time to recover from that sort of damage. And Envy was still screaming at no one in particular (as far as Lust could tell), striking at empty air, occasionally falling down and clutching his head. This wasn't right. Homunculi are not suppose to be able to beaten so soundly by anything, vampire or not.
Lust felt a presence emerging from behind her. She swung her pointed talons with great speed, slicing behind her. She caught the blur of movement, felt the something rush over her, and saw her claws hit nothing but air.
"Envy, over here!" Envy continued to gibber and swing at nothing, not even acknowledging Lust with so much as a glare or a "piss off".
"I'm afraid its rather occupied trying to fight its own madness at the moment." Lust swung again, extending her talons, and again she saw only a blur. This time, though, she felt more than wind as Tzimice went by. She barley avoided being sliced in half by the Methuselah's own talons. Lust looked down and saw a very nasty gash along her right side. She turned and saw Tzimice staring at her, a demonically bemused look in his blood red eyes. Tzimice then turned and looked at the still struggling Gluttony.
"My, how resilient you creatures are turning out to be." Tzimice said, sounding slightly impressed. "I can't say much for your actually fighting abilities, but you handle getting a beating very well." Then he raised one claw (Lust noticed her own blood dripping from the blades on the once normal hand), then made small gesture, something like a thumbs down and making a fist combined. The shadows suddenly sprouted what can only be described as blades, piercing Gluttony at every conceivable angle. The vacant look common to the beats eyes was replaced by a look of pure agony. The creatures blood dripped freely to the ground. Turning to Lust, Tzimice said in a tone similar to the one he had used when he introduced himself. "So, shall I finish him first, or that?" Pointing to Envy, who had stopped struggling and was actually crying. Lust was shocked. She didn't even know a Homunculi could cry.
"Stop it, get out of my head. Stop showing these things to me, I don't want to see, I don't want to hear." He kept muttering. While not bawling by any stretch, a few tears had worked themselves free. For the first time, Lust began to wonder about their chances of victory. If this…thing could reduce Envy to tears, who's to say that he couldn't kill them? Sure, she had already healed the wound he had inflicted on her, but so far, he seemed to have largely ignored her.
"Ok, ok, we'll leave your precious town. It isn't worth this much trouble." Lust said, trying to force anger into her tone to mask her…fear? No, not fear. Homunculi don't feel fear. Just like how they don't cry.
Tzimice looked confused for a moment. "Who said anything about your leaving? I thought I made it clear," He paused, letting his smile show his wickedly shard fangs, "you are going to die. You must pay the price for your actions. It is to late for me to allow you to live. Even if you somehow escaped, I would hunt you to the ends of the Earth, and I would kill you."
The look of fear in Lusts eyes made Tzimice grin like a mad man. "So, child, now that you fully understand your situation, which of your two fellows do you want to see die first?"