"We should take a look at the shapeshifting," Marcoh said. Their latest pile of data from the monitor circles had been run through, backwards and forwards, they had milked it for every last drop of information they could. The little worm ran on the soul-power from the stone alone, constantly pulsing throughout its arteries, and that stone formed roughly 30 percent of its body mass, and, and…it still wasn't good enough, the government wanted a full and complete breakdown, they needed to understand this thing perfectly. Heinz knew why well enough. It was the last of an endangered species; once it was killed, that species would be extinct. This was sound science. A perfectly reputable field.
"That's one of the things I don't get at all," Marcoh continued. "I can't think of a circle that would let you do something like that. There have been advances, of course, in bioalchemy, but…"
"I don't use a circle, dumbass," said the worm. "I don't need one."
"...but," Marcoh got louder, he insisted on pretending like he couldn't hear it, even though Heinz often thought its input was rather useful. "by my understanding, one would need a different circle design for every figure, to account for different balances of the elements. Different height, different weight…"
"Well, the weight doesn't change, actually-"
"...all those things would change the amount of every element, change the nature of the transmutation. The stone covers cost and supply of materials, but I don't know how the change can be done without anything to narrow the focus…"
"-except when it's burned away by some psycho with a revenge complex-"
"...never mind that everything has to change. How does it maintain memories, identity? Every time it shifts it has to make something new entirely…"
"-actually, not really, I just have to move stuff around-"
"Okay, slow down," said Heinz, louder than both of them. The little headache he had been putting off every day was blooming, and he wanted to snip it at the root before it could grow. And it really was impossible, trying to think clearly over both of them. He honestly found Marcoh more bothersome than the homunculus- he had a tendency to go on and on, finding tangents, describing in detail problems without putting a step forward to solve them. He was a brilliant alchemist, of course, but still. At least the worm was somewhat entertaining.
"Let's just set another monitor circle," he continued. "Open ended. Then when it changes, we can see what kind of transmutation it's doing, and where."
"Yeah," Marcoh replied, looking up from his papers. "Yeah, no, we could do that."
A high, tiny sound reached Heinz's ears- a squeaky little cough. When he looked over, the worm was staring at him with disapproving eyes (how emotive it could be, for something that didn't have a human face), standing firm on its stumpy little legs, and though it was a very ugly monster, something about that was undeniably cute.
"Ahem," it said again, and only when Marcoh looked up did it continue. "I think you're forgetting something."
"What's that?" Heinz asked before he realized what he was doing, and he cringed when Marcoh looked at him in shock, turning back to his papers, like he could pretend he hadn't said anything.
"You talked to me! Hey! You talked to me! Wheeee!" He could hear smacking sounds against the glass, it must have been jumping up and down, and he couldn't resist just glancing over- it was running in circles, chasing its tail, eyes huge and glittering.
"Sorry," he said to Marcoh. "I didn't mean to."
"He talked to me! He talked to me!"
Marcoh just shrugged. Heinz couldn't help but feel a little annoyed- that rule was foolish anyway, they had to listen to the thing talk, it only held them back not to speak with it. And Marcoh was being so picky; he needn't cling so tightly to regulation.
"Anyway, I was saying," said the thing in the jar, "that you forgot something. I can't shapeshift. Not like this. I'm stuck- why else do you think I would look like this?"
"It can't change like that," Marcoh said softly, through slightly gritted teeth. He looked right at Heinz, not at the worm, and on his waxy face the intensity of his gaze was intimidating. "I know that. We know that- we've just determined it, right now all the flow of energy is going to keeping that thing alive."
"So we'd need more energy," Heinz said calmly. "If we want to do it properly."
The room was quiet- the thing had become still, and wasn't speaking. He had a feeling it was watching him, not Marcoh, but he didn't dare turn at all to look.
"Yes, we would."
"Do you know where we could get that?" Heinz asked, wary of the strange atmosphere. By 'energy', they could only mean one thing, they had tested this, there was only one compatible source. But to get ahold of that…
"Let's pack up early," Marcoh said suddenly. "There's something else you should see."
~
Heinz had never been to this part of the research facility before. He only had keys to the front door and the homunculus laboratory. He had guessed it would go deeper, but hadn't been bothered to think deeply on it.
Marcoh led him to another laboratory- this one protected by more stationary guards than their own.
"The researchers aren't in," said one of them.
"That's fine," Marcoh replied. "We're just taking a look."
Inside, this lab was larger than the one Heinz was used to. And instead of a glass box, in the center of the room there was a huge metal cage, within which sickly humanoid bodies writhed, crawling over each other, off-white hands clawing at the bars. Each one seemed identical- emaciated, tall, lined with red tattoos and sporting a single bulging eye in the middle of their foreheads. The sight was disgusting- far more disgusting than the subject of their research, and that was saying something.
"What are those?" Heinz asked after a moment.
"Well, they're here because we're trying to find out exactly," Marcoh said. "Their creator was killed, and his records got destroyed in the battle of the Promised Day- you read up on all that, right?"
"Right," Heinz replied.
"Well, they run on the red stone, too."
Heinz looked back at the cage. It was funny- those struck him more as the 'homunculus' from legend. Artificial humans- ultimately inferior, like dolls. Nothing like what they had in their laboratory, that thing wasn't 'human'- artificial or otherwise- at all.
Except for maybe in the eyes, and the way it spoke. A little like a child…
And then he suddenly remembered something.
"In the file, there was a short account given by some Xingese girl," Heinz said. "It must have been these she was talking about- our subject was able to absorb these for power."
"Yes," Marcoh replied, and there was a hesitancy in the colours of his voice.
"Well, problem solved then," Heinz continued. "There's quite a few here, we can probably take some, and it won't be an issue for the other project."
"Yes, I suppose we could."
~
"I don't know if we should go through with it," Marcoh said to the night air, or maybe to Heinz. The city streets of Central were well lit, even though the sun had already set, and the cobblestone road outside the research facility smelled wet with rain. Heinz stopped to look back at him- it was still hard to read his face, even after all this time.
"We need to, for the project, but...I don't know if we should risk it."
"You mean, risk restoring the homunculus?"
Marcoh nodded slowly, perhaps he was wary, perhaps there was a kind of pain in his expression. Heinz didn't really know. He didn't really want to deal with it, either.
"I don't think there's much risk," he said, his manner businesslike. He wasn't lying. He had read the files, of course, but despite that he had trouble seeing the little thing as dangerous. It didn't seem so monstrously clever, the way everyone went on about it. But Marcoh was not convinced- of course, he had been in closer contact with it before, but perhaps being on opposite sides of a war had clouded his judgement somewhat.
"I'll adjust the container," he continued. "That's the kind of thing I do, remember? It will be perfectly secure. And besides, we're only giving it one of the doll-soldiers."
There was a silence, Marcoh was still nodding, but it didn't seem like he was listening. The air was damp and that made its chill more pervasive, winter was coming, and Heinz wanted to go home and make himself something hot to drink- not wait around trying to convince Marcoh to continue the work he had hired Heinz to do.
"I used to live in this small town," Marcoh said softly, and his breath pooled in the air before his face. "A little farming town. It had a train station, and that was about it."
Heinz shuffled his feet. He was not in the mood to hear Marcoh's life story, not just then.
"I hid there after the war. It was my home- many wonderful people, wonderful sights. Peaceful."
Heinz nodded, and smiled a close-lipped smile, but Marcoh didn't seem to be paying attention to him at all. His eyes had an overbright quality to them, like he was remembering something clearly ingrained in his mind.
"The last thing Envy did before it was defeated- well, before I defeated it, up North- was tell me how that village would be destroyed."
The rain started to come down harder, cold drops hitting the skull and sliding down, obscuring the streetlights.
"Destroyed, and everyone there killed, because I had escaped. And I knew, then, that it could have done it. It really could have. Carved another blood crest into my home...and that was before all of this. Imagine how angry it must be with me now."
Heinz didn't think the homunculus seemed very angry. It never threatened Marcoh in the lab, it just teased him. And besides, it could hardly have that power now, not with the old government disestablished.
He just couldn't see it.
"That won't happen," Heinz said in the following quiet. "It won't get out. So don't worry, okay? You're probably tired- tonight we'll get some sleep, and take a crack at it in the morning."
Marcoh just looked at him on the steps and, fed up with the rain and the dramatic atmosphere, Heinz left him there, walking to his own car and driving home. He didn't think much about the story Marcoh had told- it was scary, sure, but he really just couldn't bring himself to be bothered by it.
~
Within the week the shapeshifting setup was complete. Heinz had been clever- designed a new container, one made of a special alchemically synthesized material, one he had only used in Briggs a few times. It was strong, and also not brittle, unable to shatter and resistant to great force while also staying clear so observation could be done. At Briggs he had tested it with bullets, and those barely chipped the thing, so he doubted the little worm would be able to pull off anything strong enough to break out. And besides, they were only giving it one of the dolls- containing about enough juice, Marcoh had figured, for one change, as well as some added body mass. Heinz wasn't concerned at all- in fact, he was a little excited to see what would happen; the work had become more intriguing to him over time. Monitor circles were laid out beneath the new cage- anything that happened, there would be records of it, etched into the circles themselves by the energy change.
"This is nice," said the homunculus in its new container. "Lots of space! Kind of smells funny, though. What's it made of?"
"We can enclose the worm in one corner while we bring in the doll," Heinz said, and even though it didn't have ears their little subject clearly perked up as he spoke- it hadn't known their exact plan, until then.
"What are you talking about? What doll?" it was asking, and it sounded excited, which caused Marcoh's expression to harden.
They went through with it anyway. It was easy to trap the homunculus in a corner, changing the shape of the container with basic alchemy, and simultaneously opening an entrance on the other side. The soldier doll had to be dragged in by some of the guards- wearing a special collar attached to long poles, so it couldn't reach anyone with its grasping fingers. It looked hungry to Heinz, with that gaping, seeking mouth. Like a hungry toddler.
The worm in the cage went still when it was brought in, curling around its tail. Perhaps it thought that if it did anything, they would take the doll- and all the bounty it contained- away again. It was truly silent for the first time since the project had started.
When the doll was inside, Marcoh only hesitated a second more before activating the reverse circle, which returned the new cage to its normal shape and division, the worm and the doll now taking up the same space.
Neither one wasted any time- it was almost humorous how they lunged at each other, but Heinz couldn't really laugh, he was too interested in what would happen next. The homunculus- artificial lizard, next to an artificial human, really- darted up one skinny, reaching arm with surprising agility, and then launched itself into the wide mouth, the slimy tail whipping inside before teeth could come down to bite it. The doll reeled for a second, seemingly confused- eager prey, that must be new- and then it froze, all the muscles locking, and Heinz suddenly smelled electricity in the air.
The doll doubled over then, bony fingers clawing at the air before its chest, the single eye rolling. The image was grotesque. The thing stuck its tongue out like it was in pain, making a high ghhhkkk sound from somewhere deep inside its throat, stumbling back and forth across the floor. Only after Heinz had to watch this torture did it start to change.
But oh, change it did! The grey limbs and torso shrunk, losing length in favour of bulk, toned muscles appearing where there had been but skin and bones before. From the head- which was also changing shape, the eye splitting and moving down, the jaw shrinking and widening- streams of loose grey tentacles sprouted, or maybe that was hair, and by now the thing was kneeling. The monitor circle was going crazy.
Heinz had an instant to consider the new build the creature had taken on- small and slender but athletic, with much more muscle detail- and then the colours changed, too. The sickly grey became a blinding white, and jet black silk wrapped tight around the torso, hips, and limbs, with certain areas left bare, what was that about? The long hair changed too, becoming more obviously fibrous, the colour a deep near-black kind of green.
The circles went still.
The creature tossed its head back to expose its face, a young face with sharp eyes and a wide mouth and a small nose that turned up slightly on the end. It breathed, chest rising, and Heinz was suddenly struck by its appearance in a way that surprised him utterly- how could it have come out so attractive? In the falling of that chest, and the tiny movements that betrayed muscle in the jaw and throat, was an allure he could never have anticipated. And the eyes...they were so entirely human, with delicate lashes and small creases, eyes that were looking right at him. Purple eyes. Purple, oh, that meant-
"You see?" said Envy. "I told you I was pretty."
~
"You have no idea how good this feels," Envy was saying, and now it- he? that seemed more natural now- stood, stretching out white limbs like he had been sleeping. His voice, in terms of intonation and inflection, was identical to before- but the new depth that came with having full-sized lungs revealed new tones in the timbre that Heinz hadn't heard before- darker, sweeter ones. "I hope you got what you needed, too."
"I'm sure we did," Heinz said, it was true, the monitor circles had etched so much onto their surfaces, Marcoh and he should get to work on them right away- though he didn't much want to, not just yet. And oh, he wasn't supposed to talk to it, but that was so hard when it looked and sounded so wholly human, so natural, so...charming.
Well, not wholly human. Heinz had lived in the North for years and he had never seen someone that pale, and he had certainly never seen anyone with green hair, or hair of that strange texture at all. The stuff looked a little- no, a lot- like the spines of a spider plant, or a mandrake.
Ah, yes, and he knew what mandrakes were for, in legend. So that was that, then.
Envy was admiring himself then, playing with his hair and the funny skort he was wearing (though logically, he wasn't actually wearing anything), standing on one leg to point his toes like a dancer. On one thigh, Heinz saw a little red mark- a circle of some kind-
"Hey!" he snapped suddenly, and he ran up to the cage, because he realized Envy could have made a transmutation circle on his own body. "What's that-!"
Envy just stopped to stare at him, not moving to hide, and once closer Heinz could see it wasn't a transmutation circle at all. Which it couldn't have been, now that he thought, since Marcoh had said the homunculi couldn't perform alchemy beyond their own natural mechanisms. Rather, it was a tattoo- an ouroboros, infinity, the snake that devours its own tail.
"Do you like that?" Envy purred, and in that voice the words sounded terribly seductive, and he stepped closer to the wall of the cage, lifting his leg so Heinz could see. "All my siblings had one too. It was Father's little joke, I think, or maybe his prayer. He wanted to live forever, after all."
Ignoring the undeniable separation that was the container, Heinz was mere inches from Envy's skin just then, and the mark was high up on exposed thighs, yeah, that 'outfit' was definitely questionable, almost slutty- and Heinz was suddenly flushed all over, so he stepped back, swallowing hard because his throat was dry from how Envy was smiling at him. He had sharp teeth, Heinz saw.
"We should get to work," Marcoh said, and Heinz agreed.
~
For the rest of the week the atmosphere in the laboratory was different, or at least it was different for Heinz. They had plenty of information to go over, just from one transformation- so much to decode, on the nature of the change, areas targeted, balance shifted. It hadn't really happened, now that he thought, how Heinz would have expected- he had assumed Envy would take the stone inside, and leave the doll itself, but it seemed to have absorbed the entire thing.
These scientific thoughts were what he used to distract himself from having to look at the homunculus in the container. He certainly looked like an 'artificial human' now. It was hard to associate the pale, effeminate young man in there with the slimy little worm from before. No, Heinz had certainly had no special interest in the worm. He had been amused by it, but it hadn't distracted him like this, hadn't made him shift in his seat when he felt those purple eyes on him, hadn't made him blush whenever white lips parted in a smile. Strange, that the green colour should stay only in the hair.
"So what are you doing today?" Envy asked, whenever they set up for the morning, and Heinz knew he wasn't supposed to answer but it was more difficult not to now, with the imploring tilt of the head the creature always applied. He supposed it would be easier to gag Envy now, but he didn't bring it up, because he certainly didn't want that idea in anyone else's head. He liked listening to Envy talk, even if it made him less productive.
"I'm doing just the same," Envy would continue, and often he giggled, which was a surprisingly cute sound. "What I always do, just sitting in here...God, this is boring."
As Heinz watched from under his brows the homunculus leaned back from a kneeled position, so that his head touched the floor and his torso was stretched out. Lean muscles could be seen moving in his belly. Like this his hair rested elegantly around his head, like some spiky halo, and he spread his thighs apart slowly and then Heinz had to look away.
"It really wouldn't hurt to say something to me," he said after a while. "I might be helpful. You never know. But if you won't, then I will make sure I'm not helpful at all."
It was a childish kind of threat, and hardly a serious one, but the pout was audible in his voice. Over his papers, Heinz smiled in spite of himself.
~
"They are made of the same stuff, I think," Marcoh was saying, and he coughed into his fist at the end of the sentence, holding up the chart of elements they had found in Envy and the soldier doll, prior to the transmutation. "That's how it was able to absorb the doll."
"He," Heinz corrected automatically, and when Marcoh looked at him strangely he suddenly had a deep and profound shock to his sense of perception. "Wait, Envy is a 'he', right?"
"No," Envy called out from inside the cage. "And no, I'm not a 'she' either."
"That's hardly worth discussing," Marcoh said, and he coughed again, this time for longer, so long Heinz had a moment to reel inside in the face of this new information, which he had no previous model to understand it with. "It's just a- it's just a-"
Marcoh actually doubled over this time, unable to finish his sentence, and for the first time Heinz felt concerned, putting a hand on his back, and then his forehead. The skin there was warm, and a little damp, the red of fever no doubt not showing through beneath the scar tissue on his face.
"How long have you been like this?" Heinz asked softly when he was finished, and Marcoh just shook his head, like he knew what was coming and was already prepared to refuse it.
"Doesn't matter," he said, his voice rough in his chest. "We need to keep working."
"No, no, you seem very sick," Heinz replied. "And at your age, that can be serious. You might even need to go to the hospital. At the very least, you should go home for today."
"I shouldn't," Marcoh said and, with skills learned from being on the receiving end of such techniques by his mother, Heinz firmed up, putting his hands on his hips.
"Oh no you don't," he said. "You're going to bed. I can finish up for today. Everyone will understand."
Within half an hour he had shuffled Marcoh into his jacket and out of the laboratory, ordering one of the guards to accompany him home. Coughing colds like that had to be nipped at the bud, after all.
It was only when he was getting ready to go back to work that he realized Envy had been silent the entire time. Now, he was looking at Heinz with those strange and lovely eyes again, and with a shock Heinz realized they were entirely alone. It was just the two of them in the lab, now.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Heinz said lamely of Marcoh, though he had a feeling Envy didn't care about that at all, watching him shift back and forth on bare feet, winding one strand of dark hair through his fingers. Or her fingers. Or whatever.
"So you can...finish up, without him?" Envy asked, coming to a standstill very close to the glass.
"Yeah," Heinz replied, and after the word left his mouth he felt an instance of embarrassment, and then sudden empowerment- who cared about that stupid rule, anyway? He only kept it to save face in front of the senior alchemist anyway. "Yeah, I'm sure I can. I was just cataloging some data from the transmutation."
"You got a lot from just that," Envy said, and now he was smiling, he didn't jump around like he had the first time Heinz had replied, though it would have been cute if he did.
"From 'just' that? Surely you realize how complex...how amazing your abilities are."
Envy bit his lower lip, still smiling slightly, like he was being bashful, what in the world? Heinz couldn't help that he blushed at the sight, blushed all over.
"Well thanks, Mr Mystery Alchemist," Envy cooed, and no one had ever spoken to Heinz like that before, it made him feel bold, like he was a general at the front of an army.
"My name is Heinz," he said. "Kristoff Heinz, the Iron Circle Alchemist."
Envy mouthed his given name, and then grinned, all sharp teeth and too-bright eyes.
"Well it's nice to be introduced at last, Crim-"
He stopped suddenly, eyes going wide, his expression becoming for a second one of empty shock. Then it wore off, and the smile crept back up, and he wondered what the pretty creature had thought of.
"...Iron Circle."