The 8th Sin
-Remember the Name-
Okay, here we are, celebrating the 20th chapter and not even half-way through the story! Gah! I have GOT to do something about all these requests my school's FMA fan club just shoved at me! Oh well, we'll just go with the flow.
I hope everyone's got no objections to my new weather forecast feature. I just had it in mind a few days before the chapter was uploaded and it could keep people guessing while I type up the next chap. :P
Alright, I've got a thing for rambling so I'd better stop myself before I go too far.
Please Read and Review!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-AQUOYA HOSPITAL-
Sky-blue eyes fluttered open tiredly as Jonathan Winrain regained consciousness, a blur of black and red within his view. Blinking several times, he wished he hadn't regain consciousness because the first face he could see was that of Zolf J. Kimbley. The said man didn't look very pleased though. As a matter of fact, the Mad Bomber was frowning at him, looking like he just saw something he didn't like.
"Congratulations on your return to the land of the living, sleeping beauty," the Crimson Alchemist said sarcastically as he vanished from sight to sit at the windowsill.
Land of the living? Was he dead or something? John closed his eyes once more and tried to recall what had happened to him. Oh, right. His necklace snapped and his locket rolled onto the road... Then everything was a blur. He slowly raised a hand and touched his forehead, which felt like something just split it in half and noticed that it was bandaged, as were his hands.
He looked over at the unhappy red-clad man. Whatever it was that he was getting all moody over, John didn't bother asking what it was. All he wanted to know now was, "What the hell happened?"
Kimbley, who was occupying himself with the clear skies of Aquoya momentarily tore his gaze from the sight to look at the injured alchemist, "Would you like the explanation to be from my point of view or yours?" came a counter question.
"Whichever grabs you. I just want to know what happened, Kimbley. Is that so much to ask?"
The aforementioned man shrugged, "Depends. You fell behind when we left Kayla Sheridan's house. I have no idea what came over you, but when I left you on your own back then, I found you half- ran over by a car, no less than five minutes when you were by yourself. What the heck were you trying to do, commit suicide?"
John raised an eyebrow, "...Why are YOU, of all people, having kittens over me having a road accident?"
"Hah! Worrying about you would probably be the last thing I'd ever do. The thing that I'm having kittens over is the fact that Teresa risked her ass just to save yours when the car that almost ran you over exploded!" he snarled, "Thanks to you, she's in a coma now."
The younger alchemist appeared unfazed by this, "I didn't ask for her help."
That did it. Kimbley was going to pound John's face into his pillow when a nurse came in. Her eyes widened at what Kimbley was about to do and barely had enough time to call out, "Mr. Kimbley!" there was a loud thump from where Kimbley's fist came in contact with the wall which was the closest to John's bed. John merely looked at the older man, who was breathing a bit heavily from holding back his anger and at the same time from the pain that his hand was experiencing.
His knuckles bled when he removed his hand from the wall. The nurse who just came in pulled out a roll of bandage from a nearby nurse's desk and made to inspect Kimbley's wound. But before she could touch him, he glared at her and growled,
"Don't touch me."
She didn't. Kimbley stormed out, but was still capable of being a gentleman by not slamming the door behind him. The air became still when the Crimson Alchemist disappeared. Thankfully, the nurse was able to regain her composure faster than John could regain his cool. Pushing a lock of her shoulder-length blonde hair behind one ear, she turned around to tend to the patient on the bed.
"Whatever you did or said to him must have made him very angry. Don't you think you should have apologized?" she queried as she carefully inspected John's wounds to see if any of them have gotten any better or otherwise. Throughout her inspection, John couldn't help but stare. Beauty was in the eyes of the beholder and John certainly was looking at one.
She was simply... beautiful. Not too tanned, not too fair, just right. Her skin was almost flawless. Silky, shoulder-length blonde hair was almost guaranteed to feel like 'touching' a gentle breeze and to top it all off, John could see that she had curves all in the right places, even in her nurse uniform.
What caught his attention most was her eyes. They were a deep, ocean blue. And that reminded him of someone he had seen in a photo once before... Someone his father had told him about. What was his name? If his memory wasn't messing around with him, he could have sworn the man's middle name was 'Victor'. Other than that, he couldn't remember much.
"It's rude to stare, you know," her voice was soft, melodious as they reached his ears. He snapped out of his trance, finally realizing that he wasn't staring at her face anymore, but was staring... roughly three inches south. A blush successfully transformed John's face into a tomato as he turned away in a hurry, only managing to give himself a bit of a headache.
The nurse giggled, "Now, this isn't a sight I see everyday. I'll need you to sit up now."
John turned to look at her again and tried to sit up, only feeling a jolt of pain shoot up his left ribcage. He winced and asked, "How bad ARE my injuries...?"
His companion shrugged, "Not too bad, I suppose. A normal person would've died right after being rammed in the side by a car, but you walked away with a fracture or two. Your head got a pretty good knock on the road, better not move it around too much."
With her help, John had finally sat up and once she was done re-bandaging his head, she jot something down on her clipboard and was about to leave when John suddenly called, "Wait!"
She turned around, "Yes? I'm sorry I can't stay long, but I've got a full schedule today..."
John drooped a bit. He was half-wishing she could stay longer but only managed to say, "I... didn't catch your name..."
The pretty blonde leant on the doorframe, giggling, "Aren't you a little young to be hitting on me?"
He smirked, "Who knows, I'm probably old enough to be dating you instead of just hitting on you."
"Nice try, Romeo, but better luck next time," John drooped even more at this. After a short silence, she made to leave but called over her shoulder, "Clara. Hopefully you won't be forgetting it anytime soon," With that, the door closed and she vanished from sight.
The Storm Front Alchemist looked at her leave and smiled to himself, "Clara..." he said to himself, liking how the name sounded on his lips.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-RUSH VALLEY-
It was amazing how quickly Freesia had recovered from her depression attack earlier on. She was now laughing and giggling away, Lolita by her side as she dragged the poor girl from one shop to another, not actually caring if she had visited it more than once. If this happened only because she stayed in the bar for half an hour, Greed certainly wouldn't want to see how she turns out should she stay there for as long as he did.
"Oh, look, look! (Hic!) That shop looks cool! Wanna go check it out?"
Lolita was terrified by the fact that the half-drunken homunculus was now acting like she was high on steroids, "Uh..."
"Okay, cool! Let's go!" with a merry laugh, Freesia grabbed a now horrified Lolita towards a small souvenir shop.(Which was a pleasant sight from all those automail shops that littered the place...)
Greed couldn't help but think the sight was amusing. Dorchette, who was walking alongside him, looked kind of worried. Half probably because he never saw Freesia acting that way and the other half because Lolita wasn't very good with hyper people.
"Are you sure it's okay to let her drink?" the dog chimera finally voiced out, looking at the taller man beside him, who was smiling away and trying to stifle a laugh when Freesia draped a rubber snake over Lolita's shoulders and got her screaming like it was the end of the world.
The homunculus shrugged, "I don't know. On my part, yeah, she's hyper. She's good and feeling happy. You don't look too happy to see her that way," he threw a sideways glance to the shorter man, who was nibbling on his fingernails.
"You know Lolita as well as I do! I'm just worried she might... well... Lolita can end up crying if she can't handle any more of this...this... Oh, I don't know, torture, shall we say?" He pulled out his pipe from within his shirt and before he could light it up, Lolita came running to him and immediately started to cry into his shoulder like a five-year old who just got bullied. Dorchette couldn't make heads or tails over whatever it was that Lolita was blubbering about, but what he COULD make out were,
"Dorchette! (Sniffle, sniffle) Freesia... (Mumble, mumble, sniffle, sob) Meanie! (Blubber, mumble) keep away... (Sob) ...Can't take it anymore! (Mumble, mumble, sniff)"
Both men sweat dropped. From where they were standing, they could see Freesia in an automail shop nearby, holding up something that looked disturbingly like an automail face. It wouldn't have been very scary, if only the mechanic didn't make it look like a tiki mask. The said hyper homunculus was giggling and calling Lolita, saying something like she wanted to show the poor nervous wreck some more of those things.
She waved at the men. Dorchette waved back, uncertainly and called out, "No, Freesia. Lolita's had enough. We'll play again tomorrow, okay?" his reason? Freesia was holding up more grotesque automail limbs that looked more fitting on a monster or some deranged mad doctor.
"Make her stop!" Lolita sobbed, acting a little hysterical at the moment. Sighing, Dorchette wrapped an arm around the teen's waist and used his free hand to pat her on the back.
"It's okay, we'll get her to stop REALLY soon," the dog chimera stressed the word with a nudge to his boss and motioning towards the hyperactive homunculus who successfully scared away the kids who were playing in the area.
Greed pouted, "Can't we just let her have her fun? It's not everyday that she gets to do this."
Dorchette rolled his eyes skywards, "Greed, I understand that you're my boss but sometimes, you just forget to draw the line. We let her play any longer than this and we'll probably have to stuff her in a strait jacket just to get her to stop!"
His boss sighed, "Alright, fine... Hey, why don't you go and take Lolly back to the hotel? I don't think she'll like it if Freesia decides to show up around her at this time."
"Right. Let's wait till she calms down," with that, Dorchette went back where they came from, towards the hotel. Greed looked at the duo leave and turned around to face his own problem; Freesia. She was sitting on a bench, feeling a bit lonely because Lolita had left and from where he was standing, it looked like her hyper ness had finally died down a bit.
He was going to approach her, but she beat him to it. She walked up to him, looking a bit sulky and said, "Lolly doesn't wanna play with me..."
A smile played on the corners of Greed's mouth. Reaching out, he ruffled her hair affectionately, "It's getting pretty hot. Not just anyone would play on a hot day. Let's head back to the inn before you get yourself a stroke."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-THE INN-
The effects of drinking had worn off by the time they reached their lodgings. Freesia and Greed had just passed by Llednar's room and Freesia was just wondering who he was with. She could tell that there was someone with him and it definitely wasn't her mother.
"Hey Greed, I'll catch you later. I wanna go and see who dad's with," she didn't bother waiting for an answer. All she had to do was touch the door and alchemize her way through it. She had a bit of trouble letting her foot in, though... Once she was in the room, she surprised her old man by just saying, "Hi dad."
"Freesia, would you mind knocking first, THEN you enter?" the older man looked at her in such a way that he was warning her that that was the last time she was going to use her powers to go through things.
The girl laughed and sat on the edge of her father's bad, looking at him with his guest at the table, "Sorry, but I kind of wanted to surprise you anyway."
Llednar's guest looked at Freesia and said, "That your daughter?"
"Yes, she is. Her name's Freesia. Freesia, this is a close friend of mine," he motioned to the gray-haired man with the matching gray cargo pants, who nodded at her.
"Name's August Victor Siren. Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise, Uncle August," Freesia said pleasantly, walking over to shake hands with the man. Looking at the table, she noticed a deck of playing cards next to him with an alchemic circle behind each one, "You're an alchemist?"
August smiled, "Not just any alchemist. I'm a state alchemist. They call me Cardshark. For... obvious reasons..." he said slyly, now looking at Llednar whilst picking up his playing cards. Llednar frowned.
Alice, who so happened to be in the same room and was just lying down on her bed huffed, "Llednar, you know you can't win over August in a card game. Stop gambling before you lose all your money. Besides, it's no good influence for Freesia!"
Freesia looked at her father, "You gamble?"
The aforementioned man twiddled his thumbs, "Well... Not all the time."
"Are you kidding? He once owed me over two grand!" Cardshark added 'helpfully', shuffling the cards with one hand and laughing heartily at the memory. Llednar's face slowly took on a shade of red and before it got worse, Alice piped up,
"August, stop reminding him and please put your cards away. Llednar, didn't you have other things to talk about with him? Oh and Freesia, I'm sorry honey but it's not nice for you to stay and listen. Why don't you and Lolita go out and take a walk?"
"Mom, I just got back from taking a walk."
Alice frowned, "Well, go back to your room and take a nap then. It's not nice to listen into an adult's business."
"Aw, Alice, don't be such a spoil sport! Surely the poor li'l wildcard wants to stick around a bit longer, don't you Freesia?" August cooed, acting like he's dealing with a ten-year old.
Freesia didn't like that, "Well... initially, I did. But I suddenly remembered that I wanted to take Greed..." she trailed off, realizing what she just said.
August raised an eyebrow, "'Greed'?'"
"Uh... I meant Grendel! Yeah, that's it! Ha-ha! Grendel and I wanted to... uh..." Freesia looked around frantically and motioned to something outside the window, "Oh, look at the time! They're waiting for me! Bye!" As quick as a flash, she left the room, leaving the occupants befuddled at her behavior.
She ran through her door, which was actually right next to her parents' room... and immediately flopped down on her bed, "That was close..." she mumbled and suddenly felt nauseous. That was odd... She did eat and drink a lot, but this was the first time she ever felt... sick after doing so. Heck, food poisoning would probably bounce off of her!
Her head spun and her body suddenly felt like it was on fire. Something was wrong, she knew that much but WHAT was it that was wrong, Freesia had no idea. A familiar sizzling sound rang in her ears. Yes, she was changing, altering her form at random. It was painful, taking the form of one creature after another in quick succession. Painful to the point that it was maddening.
Moaning and rolling onto her side, Freesia forced one eye open as she could sense the presence of another being like her. It was another homunculus and even through her blurred vision, she could make out the slim, slender figure of a woman wearing a flowing, black spaghetti-strap dress and long black gloves. Her hair fell over one eye and was neatly tucked behind one ear.
A memory forced its way to the surface of Freesia's already fragile mind and almost immediately, her body started to take the form of water involuntarily. Pain shot through her body as she tried to stop herself from changing, but it was no use. The more she tried to control herself, the stronger was the backlash.
If one's mind could be pictured as glass then Freesia's took the form of one that has been shattered.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August stood up, hauled Llednar up with one arm and quickly went to the foot of the bed Alice was on. Opening his jacket, cards immediately shot out, forming a spherical barrier around them. His single deck of cards weren't enough, so he alchemized the covers as a substitute. Something large and heavy crashed into the side of the barrier, leaving a good-sized hole where the collision occurred but the shield was strong enough to make the boulder bounce off.
"August, what's happening?" Alice cried, sitting up to try and peek through the hole where August was.
The card shark clicked his tongue, "Why didn't any of you tell me anything about your little girl?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why didn't you tell me she was a homunculus?" a shriek created a second wave of energy which forced August back, "and a powerful one at that!"
What Llednar and Alice saw through the hole could have made their hearts stop.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-TRAIN TO RUSH VALLEY-
Edward Elric was getting bored. These lengthy train trips were definitely getting to him and the fact that he and Al weren't the only ones on board weren't helping. Rin, Melody, Marcus and another cloaked person were in the same compartment and Ed tried his best to conceal his displeasure while Al continued to play with Marcus. He sighed. The fight with Greed before was sending him on his way to visit Winry in Rush Valley and he would have gotten there sooner if not for a wild goose chase that someone had set up so he'd stay in Central. (According to the final note he got, someone named Teresa was doing it to help Mustang keep him in Central...)
"Edward! Are you listening?" Rin said, frowning. The young blonde snapped out of his trance and looked at the winged man.
"Sorry, did you say something?"
The purple-haired alchemist huffed, "I was wondering where you went after the Devil's Nest raid in Dublith."
Edward raised an eyebrow and said, "On a wild goose chase. Someone said they knew where we could find information on the Philosopher's Stone but it turned out that I got tricked by some girl named Teresa. We ended up going all around Central and found out it was Mustang's doing..." the young man growled at the memory and Rin chuckled at the image he saw of the whole situation. That was something he could add to his list; Teresa was a skilled mediator. Not just anyone could fool Edward into a wild goose chase in Central, where he's been most of the time. All the more reason that he didn't trust her OR John, now that he's gone missing...
He looked out of the window. No one's seen John for quite some time now and it's rather disturbing. He came up with nothing and decided to let it rest. He was assigned to keep an eye on the Elrics and now that his formerly broken swords were fixed, he could get rid of his jamadhars. In other words, Rin was fighting fit and he needed a vacation anyway. Plus, Edward was going to have his automail fixed, which could take some time. Guess this was a good time to have a day off, after all. Melody hasn't spoken a word and was especially uncomfortable sitting next to the cloaked person who boarded the train with them.
Now it was Edward's turn to snap Rin out of his trance, "Hey, Rin! Snap out of it!"
Rin looked at the blonde alchemist, "Sorry... I had some things on my mind..."
"...Anyway, I was meaning to ask; you're called 'Seraphic Fury', right? Mind telling me how you got that?"
A smile crept up the pale man's face, "I'm not sure if I can finish that story... besides, I can see Rush Valley's train station from here. We'll save it for later, alright? For now, all I can say is that they call me 'Seraphic' for my wings," Rin stood up, taking his bag down from the compartment above Edward's head and sat back down, his bag on his lap.
Alphonse threw a glance at the cloaked person. His or her hood was covering half of the person's face, so it was almost impossible for him to determine the person's gender. A streak of red was partially covered by the hood and there was a sense of familiarity that Al couldn't shake off. Turning to Melody for an answer, he couldn't help but ask,
"Uhm... Melody-san? Who's the person sitting next to you?" he whispered, since he was sitting next to the red-head. Whispering didn't make much of a difference though. The young man's voice was practically echoing inside him and everyone could hear him clearly.
"Alphonse, it hasn't been that long, hasn't it? It's only been a week!" said a feminine voice from under the hood. If Alphonse was a stone statue, people could have sworn they saw his face crack.
The suit of armor quivered, "Th-That voice...! It can't be!"
"You know her, Al?" Edward asked, throwing a weird look at his younger sibling.
Rin raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Go ahead, put the hood down. That would refresh his memory."
Alphonse fell out of his seat in surprise when the cloaked woman removed her hood. He retreated to a spot near his brother's legs and pointed a shaking finger at the all-too familiar face.
"M-M-M-M-MA-MARTEL-SAN!"
The tanned woman grinned, "Glad to know you haven't forgotten me."
"But...but... how? You..."
"Yeah, I know... I died inside you."
Everyone in the compartment, except for Martel, Rin and Marcus stared at Al as if he grew another head. Before Al passed out (if he was even able to do that!), Rin filled him in, "She barely survived. The sword DID hit its target, which was one of the veins leading to her heart, but thanks to your armor, it sort of moved around a centimeter or two."
"But even so, it should have killed her," Melody chimed in, searching Rin's eyes for an answer.
"True, but have you heard of a technique used in acupuncture? I know it sounds impossible, but it is possible to make someone die momentarily. In this case, it was done purely by luck."
"Talk about being lucky..." Edward commented, looking at the former military woman who was smiling at him.
Suddenly, the train jerked and quaked, the horn blaring above them as the massive vehicle finally stopped with a force that was enough to throw someone from one cabin to the next. Rin opened the window and climbed down from the train in one liquid move wanting to see what had happened without realizing that Edward and Martel were following close behind him, leaving Melody, Marcus and Alphonse calling for them from the window.
Rin skidded to a halt at the head of the train. They weren't very far from Rush Valley at that time, maybe half an hour's walk away from the desert town and already he could see damaged buildings from where he stood. Someone's grunt of pain caught his ear as he looked at the head of the train and found, to his surprise, Greed. The homunculus was in his true form, looking more than tired and the strangest thing was that claw marks were evident on his supposedly impenetrable shield. There were two black diamond lances pinning his shoulders to the hot metal of the train and they certainly didn't look very friendly.
Someone was walking towards him. Or rather, something. He could tell it was a woman from its body shape but otherwise, there weren't any features that were too familiar. Except for the Ouroboros' tattoo on several parts of her body, gleaming a bright crimson.
She had long, silver hair that billowed around her form (think Eris from Sinbad) and the crimson marks on her body made him very sure that she was a homunculus. She probably didn't have anything on, as from what Rin could see; the same black diamond that embedded itself into Greed's body was clinging onto her like a second skin! Come to think of it, it looked kind of similar to Greed's shield...
The black diamond formed a tank top and a pair of trousers for her and at the same time, claws that were three times the size of a normal human's hands complete with thick, beastly legs to stabilize her body.
Rin's hand automatically flew to the sheaths by his side as he drew a pair of swords, one black and the other white. He was ready for battle but for some reasons, there was something about this woman's presence that made his hands shake. Greed had released himself from the lances and had completely regenerated.
"For once, I'm glad to see you," Greed muttered, loud enough for Rin to hear him.
The winged alchemist huffed, "I wasn't here to look for you. I'm here for Freesia. Where is she?"
Greed sighed and sat down, feeling more than a bit exhausted and didn't bother answering Rin's question as the silver-haired homunculus continued to walk towards them at a steady pace, "You bastard, answer me!" Rin growled, now pressing the cold blade of his black sword against Greed's neck.
The tall homunculus' violet eyes looked up at the alchemists' angry blue-green orbs lazily, "Are you sure you wanna know? You can just drop dead once I start talking."
"I want answers, and I want them now."
Greed's lips curled up into a smirk, "Impatient, aren't we?"
Rin fumed, "We don't have time to be playing around, Greed! We don't know what this other homunculus is capable of doing and I don't intend to stay long enough to find out!"
His companion rolled his eyes skywards and stood up, brushing sand off of his trousers and motioning towards the advancing woman, "Well, there's your answer. Happy?"
The winged alchemist's mind went blank momentarily, trying to digest what the homunculus was saying. What was he saying? Rin dared himself to speak and voice out his thoughts and when he did, he kind of wished he didn't, "Are you saying this creature is Freesia?"
Upon the single mention of the name, the silver-haired homunculus lunged towards the duo with such speed, the men only had time to blink before a powerful kick intercepted Greed's side, sending him crashing into Rin and forcing the two down to the ground. By that time, Martel and Edward had finally reached the head of the train and was just in time to see the two of them skid on the sandy ground.
"I am not Freesia... I don't know any Freesia…" she breathed, the unmistakable voice of the girl once named Lilith exuded from the powerful being. The eight Ouroboros marks on her body gleamed, as did the one embedded to the back of Greed's hand.
The aforementioned homunculus hissed slightly at the burning sensation when his mark responded to hers. He was never one to see the dark side of things and even said that nothing was impossible, but he was kind of afraid that he'd found one thing that was impossible.
Rin got to his feet first, his blades still drawn but not pointed at the female homunculus, "Freesia, it's me. Don't you remember me?"
Even from where he stood, he could see a few veins appear along her temples and some bulging on her neck. An expression of pain appeared on her emotionless face as her large claws made their way to either side of her head.
"I AM NOT FREESIA!" she shrieked, forcing them all a few good feet back and amazingly, the train itself moved a few inches back from the force that radiated off of her. Her body shuddered for a moment as she tried to regain her composure. Once in a while, they would hear her grunt in pain and finally, when her headache subsided, she kept her head in between her claws. Her face was once again devoid of emotion as she mumbled, "...I don't know what Freesia is... I am the Ultimate Sin... I have no need of a name..."
It pained Rin to see Freesia acting this way. It was almost sickening. Greed knew how the other man was feeling. He'd tried not to hurt her, but that resulted in him getting flung from the inn all the way out here with one single kick. They had no choice now but to take her down and deep inside, they wished there was some way they could return her to who she was. After all, she was still able to remember the name her adopted parents gave her...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have to admit; the ending to this chap's kinda crappy. :P Anyway, I hope this chap's okay. Let's see what I have in store for the next chap. Here's my longest chapter yet and I was inspired by 'Remember the Name' by Fort Minor. :)
WEATHER FORECAST FOR CHAPTER 21
The weather is unsettled due to multiple reasons unbeknownst to us and not much can be revealed. The only clue we have now is that there is a possible storm or hurricane coming our way. If things get worse, a possible blizzard will occur throughout the areas involved in this story.
NEWS FLASH
TyrantFlame is profusely apologizing to her readers for not keeping her promise and now has decided to still update, but please, don't blame her for being that way because she is now confirmed to have hypergraphia(a constant itching to type/write a story) so she will still be uploading, but at an extremely sluggish pace. This is confirmed for now and till the end of the year, this sluggish progress will continue as TyrantFlame's marks didn't turn out as hot as her name...
Here is your newsreader Shiryu typing, wishing you a good day and hoping you will wait patiently for the following chapter. Here's wishing reviews still come in. Have a good day.