Chapter Eighteen

"What did you just say?", Lust said to Dante.

"The Ishbalan, Scar, he's alive", Dante said to her.

"No he's not. I saw his dead body", Lust said to her.

"That was Envy. The real Scar's at Lab 5, I told Pride to have his soul bound to a suit of armor", Dante said.

Lust's eyes narrowed.

"Are you telling the truth?", she said coldly.

The fear of death in Dante's eyes told Lust all she needed to know: Scar was indeed still alive.

"You better be telling the truth", Lust said to her has she left the library.

"Would I lie to you?", Dante said sarcastically.

That was the wrong thing to say. Lust stabbed Dante in the stomach, and left her to die. "He's alive", Lust thought to herself, "Scar's alive".

The first thing Lust did when she got to Dublith was get on the first train to Central. "I have to hurry", Lust thought to herself, "if Dante was telling the truth then that means that I don't have much time".

Lust clutched her locket, the train was almost to Central. Has the train pulled into the station, Lust caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd. "I know him", Lust thought to herself, "it's the Flame Alchemist". Once off the train, Lust made her way over to him. He was with his entourage as usual. "I need to get him away from them before he gets on the train", Lust thought to herself.

Lust approached Mustang from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. Mustang turned around and his eyes widened when he saw who she was.

"I'm not going to hurt you", Lust said quickly, "I'm here to help you".

Lust noticed that Mustangs subordinate's were beginning to notice her, Lust turned away.

"Just act normal", she said to him.

"Hey Mustang, having girl problems again?", Havoc called jokingly.

"More problems with women you'll ever have", Mustang replied has he followed Lust.

Lust led Mustang to a more secluded part of the train station where there were fewer people. Once Lust was sure nobody was listening she turned to Mustang.

"You've got a lot of nerve coming out into the opening, considering all the wanted posters", Mustang said to her.

"I'll take my chances", Lust replied to him, "I need your help Mustang".

"Why me?", he asked her, "couldn't you benefit more by killing me?".

Lust took a step towards him, "what if you could end all the corruption in the military? Would you?"

Mustang hesitated before answering, "What do you know?"

Lust smiled to herself but the smile quickly vanished.

"I need you to take me to the 5th Laboratory", Lust said to him.

"Why?", Mustang asked her.

"Because if you don't, the man I love will have his soul sealed to a suit of armor while the man you call 'Fuhrer', continues to corrupt the military", Lust snapped at him.

Mustang was taken aback by the sudden outburst and took a step back. His hands were in his pockets, no doubt that he was ready to snap his fingers if he needed to.

"Listen, just take me to Lab 5, that's all I ask of you", Lust said. There was desperation in her voice. "Please. Do this one thing for me, and I'll tell you everything I know".

--- --- ---

Scar had no idea where he was, or how long he'd been there. All he knew, was that it was dark, and his shoulder hurt like hell. His head felt like he was spinning, and his vision was slightly blurred.

"Where am I?", he asked, not expecting an answer.

"So this is the infamous 'state alchemist killer'", a voice said from behind him.

Scar turned around to see a man in a military uniform with an eyepatch covering one of his eyes. "King Bradley", Scar thought to himself.

"And to answer your question, welcome back to the 5th Laboratory".

Scar tried to stand, but found that he couldn't. Then he noticed the chains on his wrist.

"Don't bother. You've been drugged enough to keep you from doing anything harmful to me", the Fuhrer said.

"What's the point in trying, you're a homunculus aren't you?", Scar said to him.

"I see Lust informed you well", Pride said removing his eye patch and revealing his ouroboros.

"What do you want with me?", Scar asked him.

"Even you should know the answer to that. You simply know too much. I myself would've just killed you but my master had other ideas".

Pride walked over to something that was covered by a tarp. Pride removed the tarp revealing a suit of armor. Scar's eyes widened when he realized what he meant.

"Seeing has I can't do alchemy I'll have my friend here do it for me", Pride said stepping aside.

A man, or at least something that had been a man at one time entered the room. It's head was upside down, and it's glass somehow managed to stay on its face. The rest of its body was that of some sort of beast. It was then that Scar realized what he was sitting on: A transmutation circle.

"I see know that it wasn't the state alchemists I should've been after", Scar said has Tucker walked over to the circle. "It should've been people like you".

Has Tucker bent down to put his hands on the transmutation circle Scar shut his eyes. "My only regret, is that I never got to see my Selena again", Scar thought to himself. Suddenly an explosion was heard and Scars eyes flew open.

--- --- ---

Lust and Roy had finally made it to Lab 5. The entrance was locked and had been sealed shut using alchemy. Roy pulled on one of his gloves and snapped his fingers. A jet of fire shot towards the door and it exploded. Mustang and Lust stepped through the hole it had left.

"Remind me again why I'm helping you?", Mustang said to her.

"Because you want to end the corruption in the military", Lust said back to him.

It was at that moment that Lust heard a growl behind her. Lust slowly turned around to see a chimera. It looked like a combination of a wolf and a snake. Lust extended her claws just has the chimera lunged at her. Lust stabbed the chimera in five different places killing it instantly.

Roy was in a similar predicament with one minor difference: There were five wolf/snake chimeras in a semicircle in front of him. Mustang snapped his fingers and incinerated two of them. The other three all attacked him. All Mustang could do to avoid being ripped to shreds was move out of the way. One of the three chimeras wound up getting decapitated by one of Lusts claws. Mustang burned the other two to a crisp.

After exploring inside Lust and Roy quickly found the only hallway that looked has if it had been used since Lab 5 had been shut down. Lust and Scar walked down the hallway which led to a stairway. Lust and Roy made their way down the stairway. At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy metal door that was locked shut.

"Stand back", Mustang said.

Mustang snapped his fingers and shot a jet of fire at the door. It took the time but the door flew off with a loud bang. Lust and Roy walked through the doorway and bullets whizzed past Lusts head. Lust turned to see two soldiers with machine guns aimed at her and Roy. Lust extended two of her claws and impaled them.

Three more soldiers entered the room and aimed their guns at Roy and Lust. Roy was the first to act and before anyone could do anything had snapped his fingers. Two of the soldiers were smart enough to jump out of the way but the third wasn't so lucky. The other two opened fire and Lust cut off one of the soldiers arms. The last soldier threw a grenade before ducking behind a door.

The grenade exploded and caused the ceiling to collapse. Lust ran through the door not looking back to see if Mustang made it out alive or not. The door that Lust had gone through led into a big room with a large transmutation circle on the floor. And on that circle, was Scar. Lust ran to Scar and knelt down beside him.

"Lust what're you—"

Before Scar could finish Lust pressed her lips against his. Something she had wanted to do for a long time. Scar wrapped his arms around her and returned the kiss.

"I missed you so much", Lust said to him when they broke the kiss.

"Same here", Scar replied, "look out!".

Scar grabbed Lust and pushed her to the floor shielding her body with his just has one of Prides swords swung above their heads.

"Lust, I didn't expect to see you here", Pride said to her.

Lust stood and extended her claws. "I won't let you hurt him".

"Don't you care about finding the philosophers stone and becoming human?", Pride said to her.

"Not anymore. I have all I want and all I need right there", Lust said motioning to Scar. "And I won't let you take him from me".

Lust lunged at Pride who easily blocked her attack with his sword. Pride then cut off both of Lusts hands before knocking her to the ground.

"That was foolish of you Lust. You know I have the ultimate eye", Pride said to her.

Lust stood up has her arms re-grew and extended her claws. This time Pride attacked her and Lust barely had time to block the attack. What Lust failed to notice, was Shou Tucker moving towards the transmutation circle. All Scar could do was cry out for help. Lust saw the chimera about to place his hands on the circle and shot out one of her claws into Tucker's chest ending his pathetic life. But this move also gave Pride time to sneak up behind Lust and stab her in the back.

"Damn chains", Scar muttered to himself. He wanted to help Lust, but he couldn't.

With his right hand, Scar tried to grab one of the chains that held him. "I have to help her", Scar thought to himself. Scars hand wrapped around one of the chains and red sparks appeared has he blew the chains apart setting himself free. Scar stood and ran to help Lust. Just has Pride was about to launch another attack on Lust Scar grabbed the back of his head and red sparks appeared. The attack left Pride dazed and Lust grabbed Scars hand.

"Come on, let's get out of here", Lust said.

Lust led Scar out of Lab 5. Mustang must've called for backup because they could hear sirens coming closer. Lust jumped onto a rooftop and took Scar with her. Scar put his hands on her hips and pulled him closer to him.

"Thank you", Scar said to her, "for coming back for me".

"I promised I'd never leave you didn't I?", Lust said to him smiling.

"You know, my proposal to you still stands", Scar said.

"And so does my answer", Lust replied.

"I've wanted this for so long", Scar said bringing his face closer to hers.

"Matthias, why want what you already have?", Lust said just before their lips met.

For the first time in her existence, Lust felt free. Free of Dante, free of her desire of the philosopher's stone, free of everything. Lust felt a wave of emotions suddenly, has well has the sudden need for air. Lust broke the kiss and looked down to see her ouroboros glowing. Scar watched in amazement has Lusts ouroboros glowed red and then stopped suddenly.

"Lust are you alright?", Scar asked her.

"I'm fine, I think…", Lust collapsed and Scar caught her before she could hit the ground.

Scar gently laid Lust on the ground and knelt down next to her. Her eyes were closed but she was breathing. "Wait a minute", Scar thought to himself, "she never breathes". It was then that Scar noticed that her ourobors was gone. Lusts eyes fluttered open.

"Matthias…", she said.

"Lust are you alright?", Scar asked her.

"I'm fine", Lust said sitting up, "I feel…different".

"Do you remember anything that happened?", Scar asked her.

"Why are you asking me these questions? And yes, I remember everything. We just ran away from Pride and—",

Scar put a hand up to stop her. "I'm just worried that's all".

It was then that Lust realized why.

"My ouroboros is gone", Lust said looking down at her chest, "I'm human now aren't I?"

"See. You never needed a philosopher's stone to become human. All it took was someone to love you", Scar said to her.

Lust stood up. Scar smiled and put his arms around her waist.

"What do you say we go get a room somewhere?", Scar said smiling.

"I think I'd like that", Lust said back to him.

Scar kissed her lightly on the lips and smiled at his fiancée.

"What're you so happy about?", she asked him.

"For one, everybody believes me to be dead. And I have a beautiful woman to look forward to getting married to", Scar replied.

"What am I going to do with you?", Lust said to him.

"Make love to me", Scar answered.

Lust chuckled and brought her face closer to his, "It feels good to be human".

That was the last thing she said before their lips met in a kiss that literally took their breath away…


Killa Pat: This is NOT, I repeat not, the last chapter. I'm either going to write another chapter and then an epilogue, or just write an epilogue period.

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Killa Pat