Weeping for Avarice
By: theunknownvoice
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
It hadn't been the first time she had seen him. Still she had to play her part. She couldn't admit to knowing the homunculus with her students in danger.
He recognized her in an instant. She had grown older but she was still beautiful. She was no longer Dante's puppet but then again neither was he.
"I will not have anymore children taken from me," she said as she charged him.
Izumi hadn't known about his skin. The punch landed and she felt the bones crunch. Of course he would be impenetrable. It was always the same with this man. He had a hard hide to everyone never truely letting anyone in.
The fight would last for a few docile moments. Edward would come barging in and challenge the sin to a fight.
It was later that night when she saw him again. She was back at her store. Sig was sleeping peacefully and Ed was pursuing his brother's kidnapper.
Izumi said nothing as she fled her husband's side. She grabbed a cloak and headed out of the shop without waking anyone.
She wandered down the beaten path towards Dante's woods. She didn't dare enter the old woman's house or set foot on the grounds.
She wasn't surprised when she heard someone flip over her head. She knew he would be there. He was like a lost dog; they always came home with their tails between their legs.
"Long time no see," he said the sunglasses still present on his face.
"I could say the same. What have you done with the boy?" she asked her voice growing colder.
"Who Alphonse? Don't worry Izumi I won't harm your student."
"Don't make promises you can't keep Greed."
He smirked slightly.
The silence between them was comfortable but laced with the hints of anger. They had not parted well from each other. It had been as all things between them were like fire and ice.
Their first meeting was purely accidental. He had escaped from Dante's trap. The cage that was meant to control him was broken. He hid the skull hoping that Envy would not get his claws on it.
He had been watching Dante's house for days when he first met her. She was young and a talented alchemist. Yet she didn't completely trust Dante. The old hag had thought to use this young one as another body.
Greed knew the game having seen it happen befor. None of the other had ever kept his attention. They had all been perfect baits for the old woman. Yet this stubborn creature of a woman kept his attention.
"You always come back and spy. You'd think you'd be smart enough to avoid coming back at the same time," the woman told him.
He almost fell out the tree where he had been hiding at the sound of her voice.
"How'd you know?" he asked jumping out of the tree.
"I'm not stupid I know when someone's watching me. What are you doing on Dante's land?"
"Keeping an eye on an old friend/enemy. You never can be too careful."
She made a move to head back towards the house but he grabbed her before she could leave.
"I can't have you go telling on me. There would be no fun in that."
"What's to keep me from telling on you?"
"You don't trust her."
"She's my teacher. I respect her."
"You don't need to tell anyone else. I know you don't trust her and you have a good reason not to," he said before disappearing into the woods.
He would show up frequently after that and bother her. She didn't know why she tolerated him. Maybe it was because he was interesting. Maybe it was because she liked him. Their friendship remained a secret.
It all ended one cold day. The rain pounded down relentlessly. Izumi had gone outside to protect Dante's flowers from the oncoming hail.
"You should leave here," he said coming out of the darkness of the woods.
"Leave?" she asked not surprised to see him.
"Get the hell out of here before she hurts you."
"She would never—"
"She's a liar. Izumi, tell me what happens when an alchemist attempts a human alchemy?" he asked his voice laced with venom.
"It's forbidden," she answered quickly.
"What happens?"
"Few alchemists survive the transmutation. The laws of equivalency take what is equivalent to a human life."
"What do they create?" he asked bitterly.
"They create nothing. Nothing comes from the exchange. No person has ever been able to successfully bring back the dead."
"You're wrong."
His eyes flashed dangerously before he continued.
"They create a homunculus."
"A fake person?"
"No, a living breathing creature that is viewed as soulless. Ask Dante about it when you see her next. Ask her about human transmutation."
He disappeared into the darkness from which he had come.
Izumi had gone back to the Dante the question lurking in her mind. Why would he ask her about human transmutation? What could he possibly want from her?
She was used to him. He always had a motive, always had a reason for the things he did. She knew that he wanted things. He even told her of stealing something just to get it but this wasn't about his avarice. What did he want her to see?
It was the normal dinner time experience. There was silence as Dante gracefully sipped her tea. Izumi ate her food slowly. If there was one thing that Dante required it was that Izumi have impeccable manners.
"Sensei, I have a question regarding my studies," Izumi said slowly.
"You can ask me anything dear. Alchemy is an area of broad study," Dante answered she set down the tea cup.
"I was wondering what a homunculus was?"
Immediately the tea cup spattered all over the floor.
"Where did you hear that phrase?" Dante asked her hands shaking slightly.
"I read about them. I thought they were fake people more like a doll. What happens when a person commits a human transmutation?"
Dante's eyes grew wide.
"Izumi, I would like to be alone."
Later that night Izumi could hear two very distinct voices. One she recognized as Dante's but the other was someone new.
"She's learning things she shouldn't. She was always curious but this is threatening me," Dante said lowly.
"Why don't you just take her body now?"
"I don't have enough stone fragments. Besides her body isn't as mature I prefer and this body still has time. Soon I plan on the possession but not now."
"So you think he's been here? You think she's been talking to him?"
"How else would she know about homunculus?"
"Why not kill her?"
"Too much suspicion would surround me. She lives alone in my house. Everyone would suspect me of killing her besides it would be a waste of a perfectly viable body."
Izumi shivered as she heard those words uttered.
"So, do think Greed has told her he's a homunculus?"
"I doubt it. Nicholas always did like to keep things to himself."
A few days later Izumi left Dante's house.
"You know that this is the end for me. The kid will have to learn what it means to kill," the sin said dragging them out of the past.
"It was never like you to give up Nicholas," she sneered.
His head snapped up at his human name.
"You know I have little to no choice. I can be locked up for another few centuries or die. The avarice always prefer the way that gives them more."
"You mentioned being caged once but you never explained."
"I don't care to now either. I don't want to go back through Dante's little hell because I won't be a good obedient little boy."
"Why did you warn me back then? What did it matter to you?"
"I liked you and I didn't want you to be dragged into the whole thing. I can do something for a motive other than gain or avarice."
"Those moments are rare. Do you really want to teach the boy to kill?"
"I have no choice. He needs to know how to defeat the others," he a paused a moment. "You created Wrath."
"I was trying to bring back my baby."
He had known when she left that she would marry and have a life. He had known but for a moment he had entertained the idea of being with her himself. He had felt a lot of things for this woman and he didn't doubt that she had liked him too.
"I'm sorry about it. What was the exchange?"
"I can't have anymore children," she said softly.
His eyes closed for a second. Whatever chose these things always hurt the initiator the most. He felt a shred of pity for Izumi.
"It's almost dawn and I promised the kid a fight. I have to go in there."
"What'll happen to you after you die?"
"What happens to any of us? I just know death is better than life in a prison waiting for her to let me out."
"You're going to just let him kill you."
"No, I'm going to make him kill me."
She stared at him for a moment. She knew that the battle would scar Ed. It would scar her poor boy's fragile soul as he drove in the killing blow. He would have to live with the death for the remainder of his life.
She didn't know why but she knew that she would feel grief. This would be the last time she saw him. The last time Nicholas ever came to speak with her and she knew that she would miss him.
She loved her husband but Sig hadn't been her first love. Nicholas had claimed that spot even if he had been a manipulative person. She didn't regret her life or her choices but she couldn't help but wonder "what if." Izumi Curtis was never one to wonder such a thing but she broke all of her rules when it came to three people: the Elric brothers and Nicholas.
Slowly she gave him the one thing she could. It was a chaste kiss but it was enough.
He walked away back into the shadows and she watched him go.
Standing over the graves hours later she felt sadness. Dante was dead but the idea of the woman switching bodies still lingered in Izumi's mind.
She stared at Nicholas' grave. He had been so determined that it would be his last day.
She looked at Ed. The boy was still in shock because of the death.
"I didn't want to but he gave me no other choice," he had whispered.
She let Al and Winry comfort Ed as they went back to the house. Sig and the other followed giving her a few moments at her mentor's grave.
She stared back at the tombstones. A small tear slid down her face. She had wept for Avarice.
The End