Heya everyone! :D This little one shot will be about the Homunculi!

WARNING: Blood and gore ahead! And torture! Don't like please don't read! Thank you!

ANSWERS TO REVIEWS:

Panic: O.O W-wow…thank you so much! *.* haha I'm always surprised at the delighted reviews I get and let me tell you the reviews I received yesterday brightened my day immediately! I hadn't been in such a good mood lately but after I read those reviews I was on cloud 9! ^_^ Woah, really? I was so damn nervous about writing Greed, since he's one of my favorite characters and I was writing him for the first time! I really tried to avoid making him too OOC and keeping him in character, I'm glad some think I managed to do it! :3

Thanks for the wonderful compliments! Haha Yeah, I know, but for that particular one shot, I needed to portray Greed as being a complete douche bag and let out the part of him being protective of his squad and cherishing them, I'll write a one shot about their bonds soon! Again, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH! (squeal) Still can't really believe people like my stories so much hehe ^_^"

Anonymous J: haha Thanks a bunch! Oh you mean the thing with replacing swear words with "milk"? Yeah, I had to laugh too when I came up with it, since I doubt he would swear when his children were within earshot. Ahh yeah…I love writing scenes where Ling is his mischievous self and teasing Ed! :3 I doubt I pulled off Mei & Al very well but I'll try to improve that's a promise! Thanks for enjoying and reading my stories! :D

Enjoy reading everyone!

What Makes us Human

Greed had seen from the start what Father thought of them; as his pawns, a means to an end. Nothing more. They were just his marionettes to be played with however the puppet master saw fit, bending them to his will and making them execute things that even made Greed cringe.

Like this.

When one of his fellow Homunculi didn't fulfill a mission correctly or failed and dared to come back alive, they would have to pay hell. In Greed's opinion, it was better being killed off by Edward Elric and his rag tag team than….being "disciplined" by Father.

After his death, his first body, Greed had learned to obey his old man, as much as he hated his guts. Thankfully he managed to shut off Ling completely, not allowing him to invade his thoughts, take control of his body or be able to see what was going on, it was better that way. The prince would have thanked him if he had seen this.

This time, Lust failed to kidnap that Rockbell girl, Edward Elric's mechanic and supposed love interest, of course always a good target to use against him. At least she would have been if Elric himself hadn't caught on to what they were planning and quickly saved the girl before Lust could "play" with her.

Greed couldn't say he particularly liked Lust, she was certainly nice to look at, was a good partner in combat but otherwise he didn't like her at all. However, not even that bitch deserved what Father was doing to her now.

Greed frowned when Lust screamed out in pain again, a heart wrenching, blood curling scream that reverberated off the walls of their hideout. The other Homunculi quietly watched the torture of their fellow Homunculi, Gluttony especially was devastated, Gluttony had to be physically restrained so he didn't aid Lust in her misery.

Father stepped on her throat with his foot hard, sending bolts of electricity through her body, her regenerative abilities helped heal her but that didn't mean she didn't feel the pain.

Oh she did and it was the most terrifying thing she had been subjected to thus far. She tried to hold in her screams of pain, knowing it only urged on her "Father" to continue, but she was unable to. Father repeatedly sent bolts of electricity through her, shockwaves of the highest volt coursing through her, boiling her blood, searing her flesh, until bones remained. Then her Philosopher's Stone would regenerate everything and the torture would continue.

When Father strapped Lust to a wall, chained her to be more exact, her eyes widened when Father ripped out one of her elongated nails and plunged them into her stomach, Lust had no idea how he did that, but she suddenly felt multiple spikes protrude from her broken nail, piercing everything in her body, scraping just so against her Stone, the pain grew worse when he slowly dragged it upward, tearing open her stomach, her chest, ripping out her throat.

Blood freely gushed from her numerous, severe wounds. Lust remained unmoving for a moment, before her Philosopher's Stone slowly repaired her broken body.

Gluttony kept whimpering from beside Greed, on his other side, Envy was crossing it's arms, frowning in displeasure.

Before Father could continue with his torture, Greed intervened, "Hey pops, don't you think that's enough? Lusty still needs her Stone in full power if you need to use her aga-" Greed quickly brought up his Ultimate Shield to cover his, and Ling's, neck.

Father, with pinpoint accuracy, hurled Lust's broken nailed straight at his throat, the offending weapon bounced off the hard diamond-like surface of Greed's neck.

Greed's eyes were narrowed, not daring to show his surprise at Father's quick, unexpected violent attack at him. Then again, the old man was crazy as it was, of course he would pull shit like this.

"Did you say something Greed? I decide when to stop disciplining my beloved children, unless you want to join us?" a involuntary shiver of something akin to fear and disgust raced up and down Greed's spine at the pure bloodlust in Father's nearly white eyes.

Greed, with a dark frown, closed his mouth, his shoulders straighter and his whole body tense. He couldn't risk it, as much as he was the most rebellious one of the bunch, he couldn't risk Father torturing him at least not if he wanted to get the prince in danger too.

Father smiled a slow, menacing smile," Good," before he turned back to Lust, who had regenerated her whole body, a weary, tired look about her.

Gluttony whimpered again, shaking in fear at his Father's anger and bloodlust. Envy was biting his lips, Sloth was just looking emptily at the torture of one of his teammates, seemingly emotionlessly, but Greed sensed he was troubled by what he was seeing.

Pride slowly walked up to Greed and the Homunculus looked down at the powerful demon, "You dared to disobey our Father, Greed?" the kid was dangerous, no matter how prideful Greed was, sometime she had to swallow shit if he wanted to survive.

"Listen Pride, I wasn't disobeying him, I was just thinkin' outta the box. Imagine Lusty's stone draining it's power now? We still need her if we want to conquer the world," he crossed his muscular arms, concealed by the dark fabric he chose to wear instead of that weird, light getup Ling had previously been prancing around in.

Pride looked at him for a long moment, before nodding to himself, going back to his place beside Sloth and opting to watch Lust and Father.

Greed briefly wondered where Wrath was, but banished the thought, it wasn't important anyway, it was better he wasn't here, he may have gone into a rage if he saw this.

Ever since Wrath took control of the body of none other than King Bradley, he had turned into a damn softy. He was actually protective of his so called wife, Bradley's wife, and almost skinned Greed alive when he tried making the moves on her.

Greed watched in pity as Gluttony desperately tried to free himself of his restraints, constantly screaming Lust's name out in worry.

Greed quickly slammed his hand, coated in the Ultimate Shield in case Gluttony tried biting it, against the glutton's mouth, "Would you stop screaming? It hurts my ears,"

"B-b-but…b-but L-Lust….F-Father is…Father is…" tears rolled from Gluttony's beady eyes and Greed almost felt sorry for Lust.

"Listen Gluttony, you can't do anything, I'll turn you away from them if ya want, just don't make so much noise or else you will attract the old man's attention and the next thing you know you're his next toy," Greed briefly glanced behind him, closing his eyes when Father brutally ripped Lust's spine out of her back, tearing the skin, blood flying everywhere.

"P-p-please…b-brother…" Gluttony begged pathetically, sobbing quietly. Greed felt a pang somewhere in his chest, where the prince's heart was, but he ignored it.

He covered his forearms in his ultimate shield and grabbed Gluttony's very heavy chains, he heaved them up and turned Gluttony around so he wouldn't have to watch his sister-figure and fellow Homunculi get skewered by Father. Gluttony cringed every so often, hearing Lust's blood curling screams, however Greed wasn't able to do anything to help him with that.

Pride watched the exchange between Gluttony and Greed with mild interest, asking himself when the greedy Homunculus turned kind. Sloth had been watching as well and quietly, he moved over to sit next to Gluttony, carefully placing a massive hand on his chubby shoulders, trying what looked like to comfort him. Envy sighed heavily, sitting down heavily on Gluttony's other side, just sitting, being quiet, but strangely enough it pacified Gluttony slightly.

Greed just stood next to them with crossed arms, forcing himself to watch how Father tortured Lust almost to death. Greed questioned himself on his rare show of kindness, especially toward his Homunculi brothers and sisters. He shook his head, maybe it was the prince's influence or something.

After Father had been done torturing Lust, Greed, after Father left, carefully picked Lust's unconscious body from the ground, he passed by Pride, who followed him, along with Sloth, Envy and Gluttony.

"What are you doing Greed?" Envy asked suspiciously

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm carrying her away from the old man, least he decided he got bored again," Greed snapped back in irritation, walking toward one of the many chambers and laying Lust on a futon.

Gluttony immediately moved to look her over, holding back tears at her unconscious form. Sloth and Envy opted to stay with him, while Pride left.

"Thank you brother…" Lust whispered, holding Gluttony's hand.

A look of surprise briefly flashed across Greed's face as he closed the door behind him, trying to ignore the pain in his chest. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, trying to sort out his thoughts.

"I've never treated them as nothing more than my underlings! Why did I attempt to stop Father?! I hate the bastard but I hate Lust too! Why did I even carry her? I should have left her unconscious ass there!" Greed frowned darkly

"Because you have feelings Greed, you had them with your comrades as well, don't you remembered? Bido? Martel?" Greed shook his head, the memories of his past life flooding his mind again.

"Did I ask for you to butt in Ling? No! So shut up! I have to convince the old fart that I'm on his side or he will kill me off again! And this time you're coming with me to hell when that happens!"

"You tried to stop Father because you realized not all Homunculi are bad, they are just obeying Father, obeying orders, just like you, right? Maybe there are some among them who would never betray Father, but they just need someone to open their eyes about him. Like it or not, the Homunculi are your siblings, whether demon's spawn or saints, you treated Gluttony kindly because you saw how sad he was about Lust. Those were feelings Greed, your feelings, not mine," Ling waited patiently for Greed to answer, it had truly surprised him how Greed had acted kind toward Gluttony before, easing his pain at least a little.

Ling had wanted to take control over his body and confront Father, but when he saw how Father reacted at Greed saying something, he backed off. He needed Ed and the others to fight them off, Greed had been right thinking it foolish to act out of line now.

Greed lowered his head, a frown on his handsome face, "Heh, guess it's hard hiding something from you eh prince? Sorry to burst your bubble but I ain't the family type if you hadn't noticed, I only act when something would pop in for me," his answer was confident

"I didn't see you gain anything just now," Ling pressed on

"You're wrong, I did. I'm even greedy for a smile from a pretty woman's lips," Greed continued walking, not attempting to explain anything to the confused Ling.

Ling may not have seen it, but Greed sure did. Just before he had closed the door behind him, he caught Lust's eye as she whispered 'thank you' to him with a grateful smile on her tired face.

Maybe those so called "feelings" the prince was talking about did make them more human than what they were given credit for, Greed wasn't about to discuss this matter deeper though, he tended to keep things to himself.

After all, he was Greed the Avaricious. He liked keeping his possessions in one piece.

Done! Ideas for future chapters and reviews are very welcome! Thanks for reading!