Prompt: Chimera
Word Count: 1000
Rating: Mature
Characters: Ed, Dante
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. Or Greek mythology.
Summary: Dante knows everything… Or at least, she thinks she does.
A/N: It's kind of what I would have wanted for episode 49, where Ed confronts Dante, sans Rose and her baby. However, I put the story in Lior, for the sake of the raging war. Dante and Lyra are used interchangeably, as are lion/lioness.
"The sphinx guarded a pass to the city and asked all who wished to pass a riddle. Those who failed to give the correct answer were eaten. The riddle was: 'What thing walks on four legs in the morning, on three in the evening, and is weakest when it walks on four?' The correct answer was Man, because he walks on four as a baby and leans on a stick in old age. When Oedipus gave the correct answer, the Sphinx hurled herself over a cliff, and died." –Arthur Cotterell
TWISTED, SADISTIC
Temptation of the Sphinx
"So, what will it be, Edward?" Lyra toyed with the stones in her hands as she grinned at him, her facetious words dripping with mischief. She sat informally in a chair, legs hanging over one arm as her back rested against the other, resting like a queen in a throne. Golden light from the setting desert sun shone around her, illuminating her bejeweled neck and hands. A serpent devoured itself in the form of a ring on her middle finger, and a lioness sat in chains beside her, starved-looking and aching to hunt. Edward suspected he was its next planned meal.
Her stench made him nauseous, as did her sardonic offers. He'd told her what he'd surmised about her very existence, and she had traded him stories about Hohenheim and herself living for centuries off of the involuntary sacrifice of others. It came with a threat: she had subordinates who waited to destroy what he held dear. (She would not stop with Lior.) However, he had a choice: should he aid her in her soul switching, she would give him the philosopher's stone.
He'd refused, and her laughter reverberated along the walls of the empty building as the civil war raged on outside. "There is always a price to be paid, and so, there is always something to pay with. Even if you have nothing left to give, there are always weaker ones to use. You'll learn." She said.
"Is Dante even your real name?" He switched subjects. "What else have they called you?"
She smirked. "Lilith." She hissed without remorse.
"… What are you?" Edward asked.
"Me?" Dante let out a psychotic giggle. "…I am Aries as I am golden, I am Ares of war, of slaughter, and destruction. I am guardian and gatekeeper to knowledge which is sacred." She moved her feet so that they were firmly planted on the ground, and after looking down momentarily, she glanced up, eyes ablaze with sparks of malice. "I am that I am. That's all I'll say."
Ed furrowed his brow. She was disgusting, that's what she was. "You think you're so damn wise… You think you're a God, since you've seen the gate? You're wrong, Dante."
"Wouldn't you like to live forever, learn it all?"
"You're sick."
"We alchemists are diseases of society."
"…I'm done here."
"Fine, leave. Try and run like your father; save your brother, marry that mechanic… I'll find you, and dispose of them like I did Trisha. Your choice."
No…
Edward stood speechless, horrified by her words. The building shuddered as bombs erupted outside and flames shot through the windows, the riot echoing his disrupted mind. The curtains caught fire; the ceiling followed. Dante smiled and licked her lips. Now that the opportunity for mockery had arisen, she'd strike like a cobra hiding in the reeds.
"Hey Edward, I've a riddle for you."
Silence. His eyes burned as the room did.
"What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the daytime, and none in the evening?"
Ed snarled… She had given an erroneous riddle, and he knew not how to reply. Before he could find an answer, Lyra unhooked the lion. "You!" she chimed, and the lion lunged. Hurriedly he clapped and drew walls up out of the floor. He had to evade the lion, but how, now that they were cornered by fire?
Their entrapment inspired an idea: he would trap her in with the lion. He clapped, and three walls encircled her.
"Hey Dante, I've a riddle for you." Ed started. The lioness growled: she was hungry. Clap: another wall drove it closer to its master. "A dog has a litter of seven, each pup as evil as can be." Clap: A slope forced the lion down towards her, and Ed panted from the effort and motion of creating the maze. Lyra saw how the tide had turned and gripped the handles of her throne with whitened knuckles. Clap: he now stood behind her.
"What do you call the mother of the little sins?"
"Damn you…" she spat.
"No. A bitch." He said, emphatically. One last clap, and the floor rose up to surround her - she was imprisoned with the lion in nothing more than a few meters of space.
"How could you not get that one?" Edward said, cocked head and wry smile showing as he stood atop the fourth wall. A flaming piece of wood fell from the ceiling and rolled feebly towards the lioness, who was unfazed. She hunched her hind legs and back, readying herself to capture her prey. Dante looked up at him with tearing eyes and a firmly set mouth.
"I'll see you in the eighth circle of Hell, Edward." She stated, barely louder than a regretful whisper. The lion growled once more, bearing its claws.
He would never ponder why someone who claimed to know everything would assert to there being such a place. If Hell existed, it was having your mother die twice, a father's absence, and living every day in fear of losing the only family you had left to the will of monsters like her. She knew nothing, and so he cast her words aside. He was an atheist, and she was wrong.
"No. You wont."
He turned away and more pieces of the ceiling fell around him, crackling as they hit what was left of the floor. Heat engulfed him as he jumped down from the prison walls. He heard the lion as it struck, eviscerating her rotting flesh. She screamed.
The sun sank into the sky as she descended into her inferno, her yells dying as she did… Her last breaths would not even echo into the night she used to reign.
Edward lifted himself up and began running. He did not know how he would retrieve what he had lost, but he knew that he would. He would save the ones he loved. He wiped bitter tears away as he exited, narrowly escaping the flames.
She did this herself.
end
A/N: A)I never believed for one second that Trisha was really "sick," so in the anime, I always imagined that Dante killed her out of jealousy. B) Okay… there's a LOT of symbolism here from like 20384023984203984209384203948 different places so I hope to explain some things: For me, I focused on the Chimera of Greek myth – a monster comprised of a lion, a snake, and a goat. (Hence, the lion, serpent imagery, and the "aries as I am Golden" in reference to the golden fleece/ram constellation... yeahhhhh... it was the closest I could get to a goat. Anyway.) The Chimera was also said to be the parent of the Sphinx, who guarded the gates to ancient cities with a riddle almost no one could answer. (Just like the one in Harry Potter, but NOT the same as the sphinx in Egyptian myth, who is more… good. Haha.) A lot of Greek myth finds it's way here, as you can see. There's also allusions to the serpent that devours it's own tail, which although is seen as the tattoo of the homunculi, is only mentioned once and never explained [in the anime.] I also drew heavily from the works of Carl Jung and D. H. Lawrence in regards to serpents, and of course from Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno, in which the eighth circle of Hell is where frauds (including alchemists) go. And. Of course, Lilith, Adam's first wife, was a woman/snake who ruled the night and is from the story of the Garden of Eden. She was omitted from the Bible, but you'll find her in Hebrew stories. The quote, "I am that I am" is something God was supposed to have said, which Dante says because she thinks she's God. Does that all make sense? Yes? Please? Haha. I hope so. Shmeeehhhhh.
P.S. If a thousand words make up a picture, than check out the "Victorious Sphinx" by Gustav Moreau. It's my inspiration for this word-limited fic.
This was the hardest story I've had to write, honestly.
(I can't get this part to align left, even with html code! Arrghh!)