Chapter Five: Monster of Flesh

Disclaimer: I do not own full metal Alchemist.

Lieutenant General Riza never was one to just sit by and wait for someone to report to her what was going on, so she often went to get information herself while being accompanied by one of the subordinates that was in the office at the time. This time it was Colonel Guile, whom she figured could be useful for getting information, even if his methods weren't very clean and could give some people nightmares, but it was still effective. The one thing she could complain about was that the man was one way at one moment and then the polar opposite another time, which led her to believe that he might have split personality disorder. After a while of his silence, the colonel started to pull a cigarette out of his pocket and was about to light it when he caught Riza's wondering eye looking at his hand and then at his eyes. Sighing, Guile took the cigarette out of his mouth and placed it back in his pocket as he continued driving, except this time he was actually talking. Well not exactly talking, more like complaining.

"We're not even in the office and this doesn't have a roof so none of it will even get into your face," complained Guile in a different voice from the one he used to confirm that he had heard her orders and was going to carry them out to the best of his ability. "You know, no one would know if you let me smoke right now so it has no effect whatsoever if I smoke while I drive and it's not like it's alcohol or some type of drug that could impair my ability to drive."

"You're still not allowed to smoke in the car," said Riza and he knew that was final so he stopped talking again and resumed his silence. "It will be the second mansion on the right."

"Yes sir," said Guile in the usual confirming order voice. His mannerisms had changed again and it was like he was a different person, as if Doctor Jekyll had taken the potion again.

Lust found that her new accommodations were filled with all sorts of comforts that a person could want in life and she knew that her old flame had made sure that the room was like that. Her room was not just a random number that he chose for her, he had taken his time to make sure that she would be content with it and added other things to it so that he could make her feel right at home. It was often his manner and that was what Lust treasured in him as well as the fact that he put all of his energy into fulfilling her wish and if she had listened to him when he told her that Dante was just paying her then she could have lived happy with him. For so long, she had missed the feel of his caress all over her body and missed the way he nibbled on her ear while they lay in bed and whispered his plans to her, not skipping any detail about what he intended to do and who he intended to kill. There was no place left dark, even in his inner thoughts and musings were shared with her over the breakfast table and no matter how radical or silly they sounded, he would always share them with her. He was extremely open with her, unlike the walking zombie looking homunculi who stood before her with his tap hat off and hanging on a hat rack.

"If you need anything there is a bell that you can ring for one of the servants," said the man as he turned to walk off, but he turned around at the last moment and stared at her. "Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"What is your name," asked Lust, "it's very rude that you know my name and I know not your name."

"Please forgive my rudeness, Lady lust," said the man as he bowed to her and kept one eye open as he said, "I am named Omerta, meaning 'silence.'"

"Thank you that will be all," said Lust as she waved him away and she looked at the clock, wandering when she would get to feel the warmth of his body again.

The front lawn had been mowed recently as indicated by the grass shavings on the lawn with other ornaments on the lawn, not the little ceramic men on the lawn known as gnomes, but it had many statues of knights and of the general himself. There was a fountain in the courtyard, a depiction of angels pouring water from a gourd into what seemed to be a small bowl. The bowl hung over a garden of roses that was titled so that when it was filled at a certain point it would pour a bit of water into the irrigation system so that it would water the roses. Each rose was assorted by color and planted within two inches of each other exactly. A sight like that would have been beautiful to behold if there weren't guards lying on the ground of leaned against the fountain unconscious. Riza had her gun in her hand as she inched closer to the back door with Guile covering her, just in case there were any other attackers hiding in the shadows. Breaking into a run, Riza made it to the other side in two seconds flat and then waited for Guile to make his own run, which was just a second longer since he was a bit farther from the back door then she had been.

"Well it seems like they're inside, so either we are a little early or a little late," said Riza as she pushed open the door slightly so as not to make a sound, but there was no one on the other side waiting for her to come in with a gun.

"Well first room….kitchen, is secured," said Guile as he headed over to another door and put his ear to it. "I don't hear any gun shots or sound of fighting so I don't think they are in the immediate vicinity, but I don't know the layout of this mansion."

"He has a panic room downstairs, follow me," ordered Riza as she took point and walked towards the bookshelf that led to a downstairs compartment.

There was a crunching sound, like bones being broken and a putrid smell rose from the darkness of the panic room, but there was no light for anyone to see what was happening inside of the room. When Riza finally walked down the stairs and found the light switch, she found that she wished she had just kept the whole room dark and spared herself the nightmare that was standing in the room over what was left of the general's body. In the middle of the room was a massive pale skinned creature with skin that was very pale and its skin was overlapping itself like some kind of flesh creature. Though its teeth may have been relatively smooth, its jaws had the strength to break through bone as it brought more of the general's body to its mouth, massive hands picking up the gore. At first, the creature didn't notice that Riza was standing there, but as soon as she stepped in the circle that surrounded it, the monster picked her scent out of the air and turned to look at the Lieutenant General. Without hesitation, Riza opened fire on the monster's skull, but each bullet seemed to be sucked into the mounds of flesh with no results whatsoever.

"Please, sir, let me take care of this," said Guile as he stood forward with his sword outstretched and pointed at the monster.

"Alright then, but be careful," replied Riza as she stepped back and let the colonel step into the fray.

At first, the colonel ran his special glove over his sword slowly, causing flames to shoot up on the sword, but then he got impatient and just shot his hand off to set the rest of the sword on fire. The monster seemed to be unafraid of this new threat and extended a hand to grab the colonel, but he jumped back and cut its hand in two. The creature howled in pain as it started thrashing around with pain and started to lash out at whatever was in its path, but Guile was able to keep away from it well enough so that he didn't have to dodge it fully, he could make by with moving an inch to either side. He then shot his sword into it's arm and ripped out a bit of its flesh, but yet it didn't howl in pain like last time. Then Guile stepped into the wrong spot, as his feet touch the part of its hand that he had cut off and to his utter surprise, his feet were stuck in the enormous mass of the creature.