The 8th Sin

-A Love without a Soul-

Oh man, I still can't get over the embarrassment of chapter 6's disaster… Argh! Just hopefully, this one sounds a lot better because I am SERIOUSLY trying to improve the quality of the writing!

This is just so tiring... I just hope I don't make a mess of the whole storyline. Plus I've got schoolwork, so I'm trying my best to entertain and complete my work at the same time. Only for you guys. :-)

Oh so you guys know, I don't know how all the homunculi look like in the manga so I'm just going to use the anime homunculi, okay? I'll just be adding a bit of the manga's scenes. :P

Let's cut the crap and go for the action where I left us hanging.

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The mustached man looked taken aback at her knowledge of his name, "May I know who you are?" he asked, trying to conceal his shock.

She refused to answer him, "Where are you taking Greed?" she asked again, this time a bit more confidently, even though she was still intimidated by his presence.

"I'm sure you don't have to know that, young lady."

Freesia bit her lip, "Well then, can I take him back to my residence? He's hurt, "she tried again, pointing to the unconscious homunculus on the ground. She was quite sure that he was alright, since she could see his chest rising and falling.

The man she called Pride frowned, "My answer is no. Who are you?" he asked a second time, feeling even more agitated by the minute.

"I'm Freesia from Dublith. You... you're Pride, aren't you?" she back away a little, feeling that he was a dangerous man.

"How do you know?"

Freesia fell silent. For a second, she could somehow predict that she would see the same tattoo she saw on the back of Greed's left hand and her right shoulder in Pride's left eye. Raising a finger, she pointed at his eye patch, "You have an Ouroboros tattoo. You're a homunculus, right?"

"That's enough!" Pride seemed to be very surprised at how she knew all this. A cold sweat ran down his back as he saw the same tattoo on her and when he finally realized who she was. He's seen this child before. She would be the one to destroy them all for good, once she realizes her own strength. He took a few deep breaths, and instead went to try and bring her on his side,

"You seem to know a lot about us. If that is so, why don't you come with me? There are others like you."

Freesia shook her head, "No way! After what you've done to Greed? Fat chance I'm coming with you! I don't know how I knew you Pride, but what I do know is that you're going to hurt Greed!" she cried, now standing her ground.

Now this was getting sickening. If he couldn't get her to his side, he may as well just get rid of her. He didn't see any pressure points on her, he only had one sword on him so his only chance of getting away clean from this persistent homunculus was to pin her limbs down somewhere.

"By the way, you're not going to give Greed up any time now, are you?" she asked, one hand on her hip. Pride found this amusing and chuckled,

"He's yours for the taking if you can beat me," he said proudly, very sure that she wouldn't even land a scratch on him.

Before he could react, Freesia had done a somersault towards him, one leg extended to deliver a pretty much Greed-style drop kick, "It's a deal!" she cried as Pride stepped away easily and raised his rapier to pierce through her heart.

She didn't think he would do that and obviously had no back-up plans for it but as she closed her eyes and waited for the pain to was over her, the only thing she could hear was a 'thunk', "Huh?" she landed gracefully on her feet and looked down at her chest. A black solid encased her chest and parts of her neck, creeping up towards her face and shoulders like a shield.

"What the?" she hadn't enough time to wonder what had happened. Shield or no shield, Pride seemed intent on beating her the same way he beat Greed. This time, he was going for her head and Freesia shut her eyes, knowing her new-found shield wasn't going to cover her head fast enough and heard water slosh again.

"Huh?" it was the only thing that could fill her head. Now this was familiar... it was like the time she got away from that huge man back in Dublith... but when she tried familiarizing herself with this new power, she turned solid again, lying on her back on the ground with Pride standing over her, his rapier held in such a way that he could easily drive his sword through her repeatedly. She wasn't going to let that happen.

Raising one hand, she made her nails elongate again, but this time with a bit of knowledge on how to do it. Her nails stabbed through Pride's chest and shoulder, making him drop his weapon and somehow allowing Freesia to lift him a few inches off the ground, impaling him.

Looking at him like that made her wonder if he was edible and the mere thought made her slap herself; this was no time to eat! She flung him down to the ground and stood up, grabbing his rapier in the process.

From his fallen position, Pride was surprised. He couldn't predict her movements. It was almost as if his ability to predict was disabled as he fought her. And to be able to use Lust, Sloth and Greed's ability in turn were simply baffling. His wounds closed shortly after that as he got to his feet and faced her once more. She had his rapier in one hand and she was kneeling next to Greed, trying to remove the other four from the fallen homunculus' body.

"Do all homunculi have the same healing abilities? If they do, then it's going to be a pain for me to kill you over and over again!" Freesia cried, almost like Envy would when he was annoyed.

"I haven't lost," Pride said shortly, approaching her. Freesia couldn't stand this anymore. Anger washed over her as her right leg sank into the concrete pavement and with a blue alchemic light; a sharp spike drilled itself right through Pride's chest, unpredicted.

Pride's face twisted in silent agony, but most of his expression was that of surprise. Again, he failed to predict her moves. And this time, she used a skill which was that of Wrath's. It was impossible, though... She had no human limbs. She was a pure homunculus. How could she be able to perform alchemy? Pride's questions went unanswered as he fell on the cold ground once more, defeated.

A series of claps came from within a shadow as the day was growing darker and a small man (who looked more like a girl...) appeared from it, a mixture of an amazed and smug expression on his face, "Congratulations, you beat Pride," he said flatly, placing one hand on his slender hip.

Freesia narrowed her eyes at the newcomer, sensing the fact that he was a homunculus as well, "How many more of you do I have to meet, anyway?" she asked off-handedly, bending over Greed in such a way that the look on her face read, 'He's my property. Lay one finger on him and you're dead'.

The palm tree-haired homunculus shrugged, "You'll have to find that out yourself. As for now, I just dropped by to pick him up, since you won't give that one up," he said boredly, pointing first at Pride, then at Greed at the mention of the two men.

"Go ahead. But if you pull any funny tricks, I'll be forced to retaliate," she said threateningly and the fury in her eyes wasn't something anyone would fool around with. The pale young man ignored her and merely picked the taller and older homunculus off the ground, slinging him over his shoulder and with a mocking smirk; he disappeared into the shadows again.

Freesia heaved a sigh of relief and clutched her head as pain shot up the back of her head. A bit more of her memory resurfaced. Looking back at the spot where the palm tree had disappeared, she muttered under her breath, "Envy..."

It didn't take her long to retreat back into the house before Rin came back and inside, she had just finished dislodging the four swords from Greed's body and was just going to put them away somewhere when something grabbed her from behind and slammed her down on the bed, one hand on her neck and the other pulled back as if ready to smash her head to a billion pieces.

Her 'patient' had awoken. He was half-sitting on her torso and was forcing most of his weight down on her neck, which made it impossible for Freesia to breathe. With a choked cry, she tried to pry his diamond-hard hands off of her, but to no avail. Before she could pull any stunts, the pressure vanished, just as suddenly as it had come.

"Freesia?" asked a befuddled, yet familiar voice. He got off of her and Freesia sat up, coughing as she slowly breathed; glad to have some air back into her system. She glared at him, not liking the rough treatment one bit.

"Is this the thanks I get after saving your skin? You're welcome," she said, each word dripping with sarcasm. Greed crossed his arms over his chest and sighed,

"Alright, so you did. Or so you say."

As he said that, in that ungrateful tone of his and teamed up with that annoying expression that read 'I don't believe you', Freesia flopped face-first onto the bed and with both hands clenching handfuls of her hair, she started rolling around in frustration, emitting a sound that was a cross between a growl of frustration and a shriek of exasperation. To add to the bratty effect, she started to thrash about. This lasted for a few minutes before she calmed down.

Looking up at him, she asked, "Did you do something to make someone angry a few days back? The man who dragged you here definitely wasn't a jolly soul," she said sternly, searching the taller homunculus' eyes for an answer.

He didn't reply verbally, just with a shrug, "He never did like my guts," he said flippantly, smirking at her. Freesia gave up. At this point, she never was going to get anything out of him.

"Just know that I'll find out sooner or later," the wry smile Greed threw at her made her add, "Let's just hope it's not too late by the time I find out..."

He looked at her leave the room with an air that unmistakably said, 'Don't even think of leaving this room' as she passed him. He wasn't one to follow whatever anyone says, but this was an exception. He knew he was not completely out of harm's way and staying in hiding sounded like a very good plan at the moment as he looked around in search of anything that would peak his interest. Of course, anyone who entered the room was bound to have the paintings on the wall catch their eyes. He looked mildly impressed at the handiwork and his ears perked up at the sound of a door opening from outside.

Turning his head towards the source of the sound, he was expecting to see his fellow homunculus friend Freesia step into the room. Unfortunately, the group of three who made an appearance made Greed mutter under his breath,

"Shit."

Great. He just barely escaped Dublith (hey wait, he didn't escape. He was half-caught!), away from those darned men in blue uniforms and next thing he knew, he was with three people in blue uniforms smack in the middle of the room, which most likely belonged to one of them. The four exchanged surprised looks followed by a few moments of silence upon their entry and Greed made a mental note to maim Freesia later for leaving him behind in his tired state, stuck with the crowd he loathed most; soldiers.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my room?" Rin broke the silence and Greed was quite thankful that the winged alchemist hasn't noticed the tattoo on the back of his hand. Using that to his advantage, he slipped his hand into his pocket to hide the mark and just played dumb,

"Were you talking to me?" it wasn't exactly the best response, but it was the least he could say to keep himself out of trouble until he was feeling more energetic... Rin frowned at the man,

"Who else would I be talking to?" He was going to say something else when Greed cut in,

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the guy standing next to you?"

The spiky-haired alchemist standing next to Rin rolled his eyes skywards, "The least you could do was tell us your name, sir."

Rapid footsteps could be heard approaching from downstairs.

Melody, who was with the two men thought she heard something odd and turned to look in the direction of the door, "Uh... Rin...? John...?"

"Not now Melody!" the two men snapped at her while Greed went back to concealing his identity the best he could before Freesia comes in to clear everything up.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait very long. Freesia swung the door open, looking breathless and she was surprised to see the two people Rin had brought along with him, "Rin, who are these people?"

Rin eyed her, "Who is he?" he countered in an agitated tone, pointing at Greed who was innocently reading through a book he'd picked up from Rin's cupboard.

Freesia looked at her feet like a little girl who just broke the window with her baseball bat, "Uhm... Greed?"

"What?"

Freesia pointed at her 'friend', "His name's Greed. He's a homunculus, just like me."

All three pairs of human eyes and another pair of homunculus' eyes were on her and she couldn't help but make a little yelping sound in the uneasy situation.

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Okay, so this isn't exactly the best situation to put her in. :) Or is it? For the next chap, I have no idea what I'm going to put as throughout these 7 chapters, I have been making things up as I go. Do forgive me for any typos or wrong grammar, because I'm only doing this to relieve stress and I'm very pleased to know that people actually read this crappy story. X-X

Anyway, all I can say would most probably be... Oh, I dunno. What do you guys prefer to happen, Freesia ending up dead in a suicide move to drag Dante in with her in the end or she leaves that matter to the Elric bros and I spare the homunculi's life? (Although one or two wouldn't make it...)

Well, this is just going to be a suggestion for an ending, since I pretty much have most of the events that I was going to put in here implemented in my head. The story may be uploaded slower from this point on though. I've got more homework and I'm not too happy about it. :(

Read and Review, people!