Chapter Three: Covetous Fiend

"Mo-mother? Do you have a fever?"

"I'm perfectly fine, Adiel." That smile wouldn't go away. In a certain light, it looked deranged.

In any case, that smile didn't seem to mean well. Dante quietly ushered the two into the parlor and they stood there, confused. William raised an eyebrow but didn't protest when their mother took his hand and made a cut with a small scalpel. She collected the drops of blood in a glass flask before the flesh sewed itself shut. Dante walked to Adiel and Adiel held her hand out before Dante even asked for it. With their blood collected, Dante stepped out of the room, still facing them and with the door still open.

"What are you doing, Mother?" William asked in a clipped tone. Adiel's thoughts were whirring at high speeds, however. She wanted their blood. Their not-entirely-human-strange blood. Did Dante think that the secret of immortality embedded itself in their blood?

Dante smiled. Adiel bristled slightly. She smiled a little too often these days. Each smile was becoming more and more deranged, if Adiel dared to say so, and gods why was her perfume becoming stronger?

"I am trying to fend for myself, now that your ungrateful father—" Adiel thought she was trying to be blasé about it "—left. He couldn't bear to tell you everything…"

"…tell us what, exactly?" Adiel asked, wary of the proceedings. Dante sighed.

"About the Philosopher's Stone." William did not have the instant recognition that Adiel had. She, back in her other life, read many books about the fabled substance named the Philosopher's Stone. She read it in her history books, in her science texts, even in her favorite children books. Adiel never expected—although in hindsight, she berated herself for her stupidity—the stone to actually exist in this reality. It should have existed in this land of alchemy, but alchemy became an actual science for her and a fable such as the Stone had no place next to science.

William did not like how he was the one left unaware. "Adiel, what is this—Stone? Why do you know about it? Did he tell you about it?" No doubt who he was. Adiel shook her head.

"It's from before." William understood. He was fully wary of Dante now, but content to give the lead to his sister, seeing as she seemed to know more than he at the moment. Adiel looked at Dante closely. A fabled substance… capable of turning lead to gold and creating the Elixir of Life… but I doubt that is what it really does; an alchemist can turn any substance into gold with only the sacrifice of energy and the Elixir of Life… that's only a product of the imagination of an authoress… where is the alchemical principles in such a substance? Assuming that the Stone can preserve life somehow, it maybe—it transmutes the body? It could work by maybe reconstructing the body, renewing the cells. But no one knows of the intricacies of the human body at this time, so I doubt the process works like that, with cells.

"Adiel, you're quite clever, but I doubt Hohenheim deigned it fit to inform you of such a critical piece of information." Dante's smile never left her face, but her eyes gained a steely glint. "Where did you hear of the Stone?" Adiel felt like she shouldn't answer. Dante softened her gaze. "Did the Gate teach you, then?" Adiel still didn't respond.

William was even more confused by now. "What does that thing have to do with anything?" he growled.

Dante looked at him with slight contempt, shocking both twins. "Seeing as when you two were dead, beings such as yourselves reside within the Gate. No wonder you can learn and pick things up from within the Gate."

"Beings?" William's voice was dangerous. Adiel felt a William-tantrum in its incipience and moved to restrain him, but Dante was quicker. She dropped to the floor, her hands pressed firmly against the hardwood and glowing blue lines began to reveal themselves, weaving an intricate pattern on the ground. Adiel would have spent more time admiring the art if it wasn't somehow the course of her insurmountable pain. Even the pain of being created, murdered, and dying put together was not able to top the sheer thickness of the pain, pain that felt endless and just as strong every minute. There was no inuring herself to this type of pain. She heard William's cries of agony and a small, unaffected part of her mind cringed in fear for him.

She felt herself fall to all fours, feeling as though parts of her body wished to detach themselves from her, and regurgitated a river of red. Through her hazy eyes, she noted that while the color was the same, its viscosity and the amount was too much to be blood. Adiel felt as though her stomach was trying to throw itself out of her mouth before the glowing stopped. She saw William in an even weaker state. He was curled up on his side, the red liquid flowing morbidly from his mouth to his jaw and dripped down from his face. His eyes were blank and pupils were dilated and unseeing. Occasionally, a hand would twitch as to grab for something, but it would stop as though it changed its mind.

"The Philosopher's Stone is the secret to my life… and your father's life," Dante's voice cut through the cloud of daze. Adiel snapped her head up as fast as she could, unsteadily pulling up her right hand to wipe away the red trail from her mouth. Dante walked back into the room and stopped by William. She pulled something out of her pocket—a needle?—and with one quick motion, she appeared to have sewed something onto the back of William's neck. Adiel caught a glimpse of a very fine thread. William started screaming and thrashing, but his motions seemed much weaker albeit his shrieks were not.

"The Philosopher's Stone is apparently the secret to the lives of you two, as well," she mused. Adiel couldn't fight back as Dante pricked her neck with the same needle and threaded a thin, dark, translucent thread into her skin. It burned, but she didn't feel compelled to drown in agony like William. "—close enough in genetic material, so this should be enough to keep you weak," Dante muttered. The woman circled to her front and swiped her index and middle finger through the puddle of red sick in front of Adiel. She rubbed it against her thumb and didn't bother to wipe it off.

"This is the Philosopher's Stone. You remember the state of your existence in the first few hours of your new life," Dante drawled idly. She was still lowered to the level of Adiel's face. "The Philosopher's Stone is a substance that provides for unlimited energy in transmutations, so that even the most impossible transmutations can become reality. Hohenheim and I brought you two back to life. Or—" she sneered, grabbing Adiel's face and fingernails digging in—it didn't hurt at all in comparison to before—and looked on with fascination as her facial wounds slowly heal. "—some semblance of life. You two are more like… human imitations." Dante inspected Adiel's face again. "It seems that without much of the Philosopher's stone powering you, you are unable to regenerate as fast. I only stopped the transmutation to leave you two enough of the Stone to exist."

So that's what it was. A transmutation … like they were objects, mere substances to use as reactants to create some product of science. Isn't that what she and William were, products of experimentation?

Adiel regained a bit of her senses to actually speak. "Yo-you sai-said that t-th-the s-s-Stone w-was r-respon-sponible for your l-life?" Deities, she was stuttering. She hadn't felt this weak in half a century.

Dante nodded noncommittally. "Girl, Hohenheim and I have existed for longer than a century. The Stone is an alchemical amplifier, allowing for the most impossible transmutations… even ones concerning the soul."

Soul? How could one transmute something intangible?

"I can live indefinitely… by binding my soul to another body. Hohenheim has done the same for many years… now you two—we promised each other to live out the rest of our bodies' natural lives with our children." She made 'promised' sound like 'poisoned'. "We tried… only to find that you two most likely had lives without end as long as the Philosopher's Stone was inside you. Hohenheim was too wrapped up in his wants and desires for a proper family… but I know that I can find eternal life, a more secure immortality like the two of you. He had the gall to steal the rest of the Stones that we've been storing, leaving me with nothing!" She was ranting now.

Adiel spat out some red in front of her. "Now what? Why are you hurting us? What the hell are you doing?"

Dante patted her head like she was a dog. "I am going to find out what makes you tick and you will cooperate. After all," she stood up, "you want to help your mother, right?" Adiel knew that smile was something to be wary about.

Animal. An animal was what she felt like. Whatever Dante embedded into her skin prevented her from moving, kept her barely functioning. William was the same, except he was in constant pain. The woman had the both of them strapped to a wall with chains holding them in place. Adiel was able to deduce that they were being held in the cellar of the manor. Dante cleared out the wine and shelves and dedicated the large room to her new research.

The twins realized how different they were. Time passed but they never felt hungry. Dante would sometimes tie up other people next to them, but they were normal alchemists and scientists. Many of them came into the room whole, but returned with parts missing after Dante was done with them. Sometimes she would kill them. Adiel looked her mother's brutality with disgust and eventually, apathy. William had pain to twist his disgust into a perverse delight, for when he focused on something else, he would be able to forget his agony. When Dante killed the poor humans or when they died due to maltreatment and injuries, the stench of decaying flesh was unbearable—it stank the same way Dante's perfume stank. Come to think of it, Hohenheim smelled the same way. The two learned that they didn't need to breathe. While slightly uncomfortable and unused to the loss of a sense, it enabled them to keep their wits a little longer—at least for Adiel.

Adiel hated Dante. If it was just her and not William, she would be content to find an escape and never see Dante's spiteful mug ever again. But it was because of William that a deep seed of loathing was inside Adiel. It was because of that damnable woman that William was losing bits of himself—to turn from a physician apprentice to a creature of bloodlust. For changing her brother, she wanted to rip Dante limb from limb. She didn't want Dante to die yet, though, she wanted her wounds cauterized. Then she would start to skin the woman. She would cut off her nose, gouge out one eye, scalp her, slice off both ears, and hold her in front of a mirror with her single eye wrenched open with hooks, keep her from dying until she wanted to die from looking at herself. The vindictiveness of her thoughts only alarmed her slightly. Maybe I want revenge more than I think.

Adiel swore she saw sparks of insanity in William's eyes. They would come and go; Dante wasn't always around so Adiel could grate her vocal cords a bit to talk to her brother. William responded, but she could tell how much it cost him to do so. He still did, all the same.

She didn't know how long it was since the first day, but a long time after, Dante poked around her arm and slit her wrist open lengthwise. She inserted a small needle and used clamps and hooks to keep her skin from mending together. Blood or some liquid inside her non-human body would drip out, following the needle and plop down into a flask. Dante would religiously change her needle and sterilize it every few hours, giving Adiel a better sense of time. After a week or so, however, Dante pulled out the needle, hooks, and clamps and left her alone. She started to work on William. He was not a well-behaved subject. He thrashed, cursed, spat, and did everything he could to get at Dante. Eventually, it angered her to the point where she took more of the strange thread to stitch into his skin. The thread made William weaker and weaker, until he was mostly unconscious for a few weeks.

After she was done with William, she removed his extra stitches and moved to work on Adiel again. This time, Dante's explorations were much more intrusive. Dante did not bother to shield her work for privacy. She stripped Adiel down, sliced her abdomen open, and began a gruesome journey through her reproductive parts. It was a different kind of pain. Adiel forced her mind to numb itself so it felt like she wasn't all there. William yelled and raged at her, threatened her, but Dante laughed. What could they possibly do to her? They were the ones locked up, not her; they were the ones being cut open and restrained, powerless. To Dante's disappointment, Adiel's ovaries were only an imitation of the real thing and her uterus did not have the blood lining that was needed to nurture an embryo.

"Shame you can't have children," Dante commented as she messily sutured Adiel's abdomen up. Adiel's eyes were hazy and if she needed to breathe, her breath would have been labored and sharp.

"Adiel? Adiel! Are you—are you…," William trailed off, not knowing what to ask. She wasn't okay. She was still alive, so there was hope. Then he snorted. Hope for what? For escape? For this stupid nightmare to end? It's all the stupid bastard's fault! He seethed internally. If he hadn't left, if he hadn't betrayed our family—if he hadn't abandoned us, none of this would have happened!

"I…I'm f-fine." Her voice was faint. Dante smiled serenely, which sickened Adiel—it reminded her too much of the kind-hearted woman that used to be her mother, not this cruel witch that cut up her own children—why was she even doing this? Was she always insane? A part of her laughed. She commended Hohenheim for leaving when he did. He must have sensed the depravity deep within the woman. No one could change that much, unless the personality was already part of them. Adiel regained feeling of her body and winced when she realized how long it would take for her stomach to close up properly, especially with Dante's purposely botched-up suturing job. "What now? Going to cut up William's testicles?" she sneered. She mentally apologized to her brother in case she gave the devil-woman a bright idea… William's protests and invective was poisonous.

Dante smirked, the expression more suiting her. "No. It matters little. I was only curious about childbearing… since I plan to create the perfect body with yours as the base. I have no need for more children. I could always create more if I ever get to that point, right?" Her levity grated on Adiel's nerves.

"Fuck you, bitch!" It had been a long time since those kind of words came out of Adiel's mouth. "You'll never get what you want!" Dante's smirk widened and she pulled out her needle and thread.

"Who knew you had such vulgar vocabulary? Did you pick it up at the Gate, too?" She took her time inserting the strange fiber into the needle eye. Dante was deft with a needle from practice, weaving in and out until Adiel's mouth was sewed shut tightly. Adiel's lips burned where the odd string touched and she felt like someone was wrenching the lips off her face every time she opened her mouth slightly.

"I wouldn't move much if I were you. The hairs do not affect you as much as your brother since they are his and not yours, but you two are similar enough that the hairs will weaken you and irritate you… just a little reminder to keep your mouth shut."

Adiel kept fixing her burning stare upon the woman. Dante laughed. "It's time for a little lesson… purely for your edification. You two are not humans. It took me this long to find out what you truly are—legendary products of alchemy, homunculi!"

While Adiel was more familiar with the subject as an alchemist, William knew enough about it from medical studies. "An artificial human?"

"Yes," Dante crooned. "I didn't expect that to be… but it seems like neither of you are actually alive. You mimic a human body and its processes, but at most, you are only an imitation." She stroked Adiel's face, fascinated with the smooth flesh. "A beautiful imitation… I would actually prefer it if I were to be immortal. I wouldn't need to move bodies ever. Convenient…but you have flaws."

Dante stalked in front of them, pacing as she talked. "It was so easy to create homunculi. I would have thought that the process was much more complicated and difficult—it seems that homunculi are products of failed Human Transmutation, specifically, a transmutation to resurrect the dead. I brought in those alchemists to transmute for me; I didn't want to use the Philosopher's Stone, so they would pay with their own bodies. It is very pricey to create a human… not just the ingredients, but there is an essential part missing… which leads to an alchemical rebound and the birth of a homunculus. Every homunculus I've created was unable to perform alchemy. Every homunculus I have seen… except for you, Adiel."

Adiel sneered. There was little else she could do. Dante smiled coldly. "I cannot bind my soul to a homunculus's body unless I wished to be trapped forever, unable to perform alchemy. I need to find out why you are able to… perhaps I will steal your body. It's no guarantee that your body will still work the same. I need to construct a real human body, first. I also need more of the Stone.

"Maybe you two will be of use to me, even after this—my experimentations have reached their conclusion. I was going to dispose of you two…"

William spat at Dante. "You—fuck you!"

Dante turned back to William. "Don't think that I've forgotten about you." She proceeded to stitch his mouth shut as well. "That's better. Now I can hear myself think." William's face dripped blood and his eyes were screwed shut due to the searing sensation on his mouth.

"I'm sure I can train you two to serve me well in my plans…"

Adiel blinked. Sunlight. She had not seen those warm, golden rays for many years. It felt like she had been unconscious for years—better unconscious than asleep, since she knew what kind of dreams would haunt her if she ever let them. The sound of a dull knife. Hooks scraping against the stone walls. "Stop! STOP! Don't hurt William!""—I'll listen! I'll listen!" The dark inside of an iron maiden. Fire and ice.

She shuddered. When Adiel let her finger draw a line down her forearm, the flesh was smooth. There was no sign of scars, anything to denote mistreatment, experimentation, torture. Training, Dante called it. Adiel smiled darkly. She was trained, alright. She couldn't find it within herself to rebel against Dante even if she wanted to. Scared her shitless, she did; made her feel pain beyond pain. The winds ruffled her long, black dress. She wasn't chilled, despite the strapless nature of her clothing.

She looked to her right. William stood under the light, scowling and slouched. His hair was loose; his clothes were nondescript black robes, covered by a black cloak. Gone was the vivacious, proud young man from years ago. He looked like he was barely there. "Will—"

"—Envy," he interjected.

Adiel frowned. Dante renamed them. William had been first; he rejected his old name so quickly, Adiel knew that he was trying to rid himself of Hohenheim—after all, it was that man's favorite story when they were still a family, how he proudly declared William his son and named him. But Dante… "Envy… it fits one that is a sin himself." She couldn't stand Dante's voice. "You… since you are the twin of Envy… might as well just name you Jealousy." What a crack-loaded name. If she wasn't conditioned to not punch Dante in the face, the woman would have been bleeding all over her precious carpets already—

"Jealousy. Stop thinking so much." William should stop interrupting her thoughts.

"Envy, shut up."

Adie—no, Jealousy (Dante would discipline her if she knew that Jealousy didn't fully accept her name)—walked back inside the manor. She was done looking outside at the humans. She saw the consequences of the bloodshed from nine years ago, all those smoldering structures and ruined cities, from the Great Purge of Kristian. The religion of Kristian was dominant throughout the land except in Xing, Creta, and the Arsraen Empire. She learned from Dante that the secular radicals became weary of the grip of religion and staged a bloody uprising across all countries, killing all important Kristianic figures in one sweep. The war against religion raged and ended but three years ago. Now, it was 1666, a hundred and nine years since everything changed. She laughed. Envy was disappointed; if they were released earlier, he could have helped the pathetic humans off each other. Dante conditioned Envy to be especially murderous.

Not that she cared. As long as Envy and she were okay, she didn't give a damn about Dante and her mechanisms and schemes. Oh, wait… both their well beings were dependant of the success of her little schemes. Jealousy gave up. She was thinking in circles. She hadn't been able to think straight since a century ago.

"Damn it! Damn—" she looked to her left. Wi—Envy was frozen in front of a mirror. His right arm was poised to strike the mirror, but he was unable to move. That's right; the bitch conditioned him to not throw tantrums in the house. She quickly walked up to Envy to calm him down.

"Envy, stop," she said, knowing how meaningless the words were.

Her brother whipped around and glared at her. "That bastard's face is haunting me! I can't break mirrors; I can't run away—what the fuck am I supposed to do?"

Jealousy minutely sighed at her brother's display of melodrama. She knew she should be more sympathetic of Wi—Envy, since she knew he blamed everything on Hohenheim. She partly blamed Hohenheim, as well. She also knew that Envy's total blame was unfair. Jealousy put the rest of her blame on Dante.

Envy was looking at the mirror again. He was using his fingernails to scratch at his face, knowing he would heal up to look exactly the same, getting more frustrated at the fact, when… with a flash, his cheeks and his face rounded.

Jealousy shoved him aside from the mirror, clutched his face to her eyes and she raked her gaze up and down his visage. The shape of his face just changed. Envy was stunned. "What happened?" he asked vacantly.

"Idiot, how should I know? It's your face that changed. It was like an amorphous blob of sorts…"

"Wha…?" Envy shoved Jealousy off of him and stared at the mirror. He smirked. Closing his eyes, another flash enveloped him as his face morphed. Jealousy noted with fascination that Envy's nose was more delicate and pointed. He looked younger, eyes more narrow and vicious. The color of his irises was now a pale purple hue and no longer the rich violet that he shared with Jealousy. His eyebrows long and his face was pale and androgynous. She didn't see any bit of William in him anymore. He looked back at the mirror, admiring his new face. "I wonder…" he murmured, and with another flash, Envy's hair lengthened into long, dark green spines and his broad, well-built body seemed to have shrunk. Envy threw off his cloak and looked down in awe. His body was now willowy and slender. The robes he had on did not fit him anymore. He threw them off.

Jealousy hissed. "Wandering around in your underwear isn't going to please Dante. Put your clothes back on!" Envy ignored her and with yet another flash, his body was donned in tight-fitting black robes. "I thought it was just your appearance, not your clothes."

Envy shrugged. "It seems like I can change my look fully. Wait…" he held out his arm and watched with a grin as his hand morphed into a blade. "I guess it isn't as much as 'changing my appearance' as it is true shape-shifting." Jealousy's eyebrows rocketed towards her hairline.

"This… is crazy." She pulled her index finger along the blade. The appendage was sliced off and she picked it back up, held it to the bleeding stump on her right hand, and smiled when the flesh and bone reconnected. "I wonder if I can do it."

"Maybe. I would like to think that it's my unique talent… after all, you have alchemy."

"True." Jealousy stepped in front of the mirror and concentrated.

"It's easier if you imagine a specific change." It was harder than she thought.

Suddenly, it felt like a warm ripple started at her head and moved down to her toes. She opened her eyes and saw that Envy was gaping at her, now looking like an exact copy of him. She looked in the mirror. "You are a boy under those robes, right?" she asked. Envy sneered.

"What, did you do the transformation too thoroughly?" Jealousy kicked his shin. He kicked her back. She grunted but was still looking at her face.

"I don't like your eyes." She stared in the mirror and with a small blue spark; she saw them turn back to her original shape and color. "Good job on the eyebrows, though; I know that most girls would kill to have them." Envy tackled her to the ground in fury.

They picked up their clothes after the fistfight and dumped them in their 'rooms'. The twins had adjoining bedrooms that were furnished identically: a dresser with a mirror, a tall wardrobe in the corner, a large and dark couch with a small table next to it. There were no beds since neither could sleep and Dante didn't provide one to rub it in their faces. Just as well; neither twin cared about sleeping anymore.

Jealousy was waiting in the hall for Envy to come outside. Once he did, both made their way down to the ballroom. Dante didn't go inside the room; she allowed the two of them to turn it into their 'playroom' of sorts. Before, Envy would be given live humans to kill as Dante conditioned him inside the ballroom, so it stank faintly of human blood. Now, Envy collected weapons and torture machines and poisons while Jealousy practiced her alchemy secretly in a corner.

Envy took his robes off, while prompting Jealousy to do the same. She rolled her eyes and just transformed so her clothes were gone. Envy twitched at his inability to think and beckoned his sister closer. The two sat down facing each other.

"Why do you think we have the same ability?" Envy wondered.

Jealousy knew that he remembered Dante's little lectures as well as she did when they were being trained. "I found out that all homunculi should have an ability of sorts… not one ability is the same." "Well, that dumb witch can't know everything."

Envy looked at his left thigh. On his skin was a red tattoo of a dragon-serpent eating its own tail and circling a six-pointed star. He looked at Jealousy's left thigh. Same tattoo. "Didn't she say that none of them had the tattoo in the same location, either?"

Jealousy rolled her eyes. "Did she ever create more than one homunculus at a time? We were born together, remember? Her little experiments are lacking another variable." She made the word 'experiment' sound vile.

Envy donned his tossed garments while Jealousy shifted them back on. Jealousy had on a vicious scowl. "We have to tell her this. Remember—"

"—yeah, I do."

Dante was delighted when they told her about their ability. Her unholy smirk grew wider and wider as Jealousy figured that their ability would make it easier for Dante to carry out her plans. Whatever those plans were, she didn't know and Dante didn't care to inform either of them yet.

What she did do what bring out a list of names and instructed both of them to bring her the people on the lists. "I want all of them collected within seven years' time, understand?" Her sweet voice melted Jealousy's eardrums. She wanted Dante to shut up.

"Yes, Master." The woman was a lord of darkness and evil. Jealousy wished she could slap that smug face and—

"Don't you dare look at me like you're my equal, dear Jealousy," Dante hissed venomously. Jealousy shrank back unconsciously.

"I apologize," she murmured.

"Get out of my sight."

The twins backed out of Dante's room as fast as they could. Envy gripped Jealousy's shoulder tightly in reassurance and pulled out the papers that Dante handed to them.

"The woman said all of them, so…," Envy muttered, eyeing the list. "Recognize any of these names?"

"You know I can barely keep up with news these days; the consequences of being locked up for a century," she retorted sulkily. Envy grew silent and still. She apologized. "Regardless… many of them are notable scientists and alchemists… albeit I'm not sure what kind of people are on that sheet—" she gestured to the last piece of paper "—so do you recognize any of them?"

Envy looked back and forth between papers. "I'm pretty sure that she listed some of the leading Natural Philosophers—whatever they call themselves these days—from Vye. This one—" he pointed at a name: Xan Feng Li (of Xing, Jealousy noted) "—he is one of the thirty-two heirs to the throne. He holds no interest in the throne because he is the leading physician in Xing; he'd rather pursue medical and alkahestrical studies than rule a country. Dante must be doing human experimentation still."

Jealousy nodded nervously. The two started walking down the corridor. "I though she wanted to make more of the Stone first?"

Envy shrugged. "She can do both at the same time."

Jealousy conceded. "But I wonder… what is the Stone made out of? How is it able to provide such unlimited power?"

"It's not our place to question," Envy answered stiffly. Jealousy knew he was nervous, as well. He straightened his posture. "So, do you want to collect them separately or together?"

"It'll be easier together… though it'll take more time—I'd say together." They looked at the list. Jealousy sighed. "She has around seventy-odd people and their locations. Where do we start?"

Envy pulled her back upstairs. They went inside his room, where he pulled out a large map of the current world. Jealousy looked at it with amusement. Not the whole world on there… I wonder what's beyond the ocean in this world? Envy took out a quill with an inkpot and began to mark the map.

"I would start with Creta first, since it is the closest to Hylantier. Xhosa Isle is the capital, so we'll go there last. Pick off the humans in the countryside first, and then we deliver them back."

Jealousy smirked. "You were planning on delivering them one by one? Not efficient… We can't carry all that but—let me try something." Jealousy moved to an empty space behind Envy's couch and with a flash, a black, powerful horse stood where she once was. She bucked and Envy jumped onto her as she trotted around his room. Suddenly, she tossed him off and transformed back. "We can do something like that! Either of us can transform into something big to transport them back!"

Envy smirked. He leapt down from the wardrobe where Jealousy tossed him. "Clever… I know what we can do. We pick somewhere to hide out… we bring our prey back to our 'lair' and keep them sedated. Then we bring them back. We can go at this country by country, easy!"

Jealousy rolled her eyes. "Try not to be too efficient… I'd rather not spend much time back here."

As discussed, the twins journeyed to Creta first. They didn't bother to transform out of what Envy was starting to call his 'most-adorable-and-cute-lovely' form. Both looked like exact twins, androgynous, except for the difference between their eyes and the length of their hair. Envy decided to mimic the shape of Jealousy's eyes, but kept the lavender irises while Jealousy opted for shorter hair.

They already captured everyone except for three people of the Cretish list. One lived in the city of Lilith, and two lived in the capital isle of Creta named Xhosa. Xhosa was separated by a stretch of sea, so Envy decided that they should target Lilith first. While they wandered the streets of Lilith, Creta's cultural capital, the two homunculi were decked in the flowing, light-colored robes that were the customary fashion of Creta. They wandered the streets inconspicuously, speaking in whispers so no one heard that they spoke Hylanchian while slyly stalking their prey. Mozan Cora was an eccentric scientist. He barely stood still, he was an insomniac, and he always picked streets and restaurants that were just crowded enough, but not so crowded that kidnapping him would go unnoticed. He unconsciously gave the twins no chance to strike.

"Maybe he's onto us?" Envy hissed at Jealousy.

Jealousy almost snorted. She bought a basket of grapes from a vendor with some money she pick-pocketed and conversed with the man in smooth Cretish. Envy rolled his eyes. If he could communicate with the Gate, he would be able to speak any language he wanted, too; she didn't have to show off damnit—

"Take a grape, grumpy." Jealousy prodded her brother with the basket. They were now leaning against a tree trunk, basking in its shade. "He's just weird. I asked the vendor about him." Envy whipped his head around to berate Jealousy, but she stopped him. "Calm down, great deities! I didn't sound suspicious… I asked him about the artist Mozan Cora. He is an artist, after all, and in Lilith, visitors inquiring about Cora aren't rare."

"Fine, good job; what did you find out?" Envy grumbled. He hated being useless. At least he was better at kidnapping than his sister—

"Pay attention, will you? Stroke your ego some other time!" she snapped. Envy knew for a fact that she stroked her ego all the time. "He is very neurotic; this is heightened by his insomnia. He told me that the only time that I would have enough time to talk to him is at the gymnasium."

Envy had a look of immediate revulsion. "You mean, that place with all those naked human men? There?"

Jealousy sighed. "Yes, there. He frequents the gymnasium to listen to lectures… but he bathes there only a few times a week. We just need to follow him until he's in the baths, seclude him… then strike."

"This is a job for one, isn't it?"

"Unless you want me to go in there with you…"

"No! Filthy human males looking at you—"

"—Females can't go in there, anyhow. I would be in a male's form—"

"—no!" Envy and Jealousy were staring impetuously into each other's eyes. Jealousy mentally chuckled. Envy was still as protective as he was befo—no, she mustn't think that. It would only bring sadness.

"It's not like I'll be leering at the all the men; honestly, my sin isn't lust," Jealousy drawled. Envy sneered then waved his hand.

"Fine! But only because I need backup… and no staring!" Typical brother behavior.

"I'll need to be the one to lure Mozan; you can't speak Cretish, remember?" Envy was about to have an aneurism.

The two walked inside the gymnasium and slipped into the changing area when no one paid attention. There, they transformed until both looked like naked versions of Envy.

"You know how weird this is?" Envy seethed, his pale purple eyes glaring into Jealousy's violet ones.

S-he chuckled. "Well, I'm glad that you're not vain. I heard on Xhosa, there are female versions of gymnasiums, and—"

"—Shut. Up." Envy stomped his way towards the baths while Jealousy followed more gracefully. S-he spotted his palm-tree-ish hair walking along the hall sulkily and noted that some of the men passing by were giving him appreciative glances. His exotic looks, maybe? I don't see how someone would want—s-he almost lost sight of him.

Envy was moodily sitting at the edge of the giant, steamy bath. Jealousy padded over to him and clutched his shoulder. "Stop your griping. What's wrong?"

He scowled. "Nothing. This is weird. Let's get it over with." He made no move to enter the water, though. Jealousy smirked. It was time for revenge. Jealousy's grip turned violent and s-he shoved him into the hot water.

Envy hissed with shock. "Bitch!" he bit out. After a moment, he fully lowered himself into the water. "…it's nice," he admitted reluctantly. Jealousy snickered and stepped into the water, as well.

"Excuse me, are you two twins?" Jealousy turned around. There was Mozan Cora in all his naked glory. S-he couldn't believe her luck, being approached by him. Envy turned to Jealousy, confused.

"What's he sayin'?" he whispered. Jealousy shushed him.

"Yes, we are. You are the famous Mozan Cora," s-he answered with quiet fascination. The man smiled and lowered himself into the water.

"I am he. Permit my curiosity but… you two are foreign, am I correct?" There was her opening.

"Yes, my brother and I traveled far to reach Creta so that we could see all the great natural beauty that inspires fantastic artists such as yourself." S-he was pretty good at flattery.

Mozan seemed to think so, too. His chuckle was accompanied by a blush. "Thank you for your compliments. If you and your twin would permit me to paint both of you—I must confess, you two would be most aesthetically pleasing as models…"

Envy could see his sister's smirk. "Of course! We would be honored!" They commenced small talk afterwards and Jealousy brushed Envy's leg underwater, alerting him to their success. "Just follow me afterwards," s-he whispered.

After an hour or so, Jealousy told Mozan that they would meet him in the foyer of the gymnasium. The twins walked back inside the changing room and in a secluded corner, they transformed back their clothes on.

"Let's get out of here," Envy muttered. Jealousy was female again, he noticed, but most wouldn't be able to discern it underneath her robes.

"You thought you were uncomfortable? I have no idea how males survive with that thing just hanging out… it made me feel so exposed…"

"Let's not have this conversation, Jealousy."

Mozan was quick to catch up with them. He cheerfully led them to his house. It was a large, open structure with a courtyard. They quietly followed Mozan, who was too busy talking to his servants to notice if the twins were talking to one another.

"Ready the ethanol," Jealousy whispered. Envy nodded. Jealousy flexed her left hand and smiled when Mozan made his way back to them.

"Come, my art room is upstairs. There is a balcony I wish for you two to pose on." He led them up the plain, wooden staircase. Jealousy looked about the house with interest. Envy was bored.

Mozan stopped at a nondescript entranceway and gestured them inside. He showed them the spectacular view from the large balcony. Jealousy noted that there were many houses surrounding them. She grinned. Psychology dictates that the more witnesses there are, the less willing they are to respond to a cry for help.

Envy was looking at various anatomical paintings with interest. Jealousy walked next to him. He smirked and said, "Mozan painted the heart wrong."

Jealousy scoffed. "You would know, after ripping all those hearts out."

Envy shrugged. "I have an eye for detail." He noticed that Mozan was at the far corner of the room, blocked by a few tables from the entrance. It was time. "Jealousy, seal the entrance."

Jealousy quickly closed the entryway with alchemy, sketching a plain circle in the dust on the table and using the wood connected between the table, floor, and entryway to seal the opening with wood. The sound and light alerted Mozan. "What?" He didn't have time to think before Envy leapt upon the man and pinned him down. He wrenched open his mouth and positioned his hand above his open jaw, his fingers trickling with a clear liquid that smelled strongly of alcohol. Mozan struggled and spat out some of the liquid, so Jealousy needed to help. She held her hand over his mouth, as well; Envy pinched the man's nose while shoving the man's jaws shut to force him to drink or choke. Mozan chose to swallow the liquid. The twins let him up and he staggered around.

"I was lied to? Why… why are you doing this? Who are you?" His motions became more and more clumsy and he finally collapsed after a few moments. Jealousy smirked at Envy.

"Good idea to hide the ethanol inside our bodies." It was genius; Envy thought to transform one's hand so it was hollow, pour ethanol into the hollow parts, and then transform back to seal the ethanol inside. They only needed to morph away the tips of their fingers to allow the liquid to drip out.

Envy grinned, pleased with himself. He then looked at the unconscious body of Mozan. "Ugh, now we have to lug this guy all the way to Delphora." He made sure no one was looking before jumping out the window. "Hurry up!" he called up at Jealousy.

She winced as he shouted in Hylanchian. They would blow their cover one day because of him. She hefted Mozan's lax body onto her left shoulder and sprinted towards the balcony. With a running leap, she flew off the railing and landed on a twisting green dragon that shot into the sky.

It had been two months since they collected Mozan Cora and the twins finally collected everyone in Creta. Jealousy kept them in alchemically created chains and cages, making sure they were fed and watered and uninjured for the journey back to Dante's manor.

Envy smirked as one of the men inside a cage glared balefully at him. "Jealousy, let's move out. I'm sick of looking at all of them."

His sister was reading through the name list. "I'm checking in case… okay, we managed to get everyone. Wait for the preparations…" She handed the list back to Envy, who folded the paper and tucked it into his robes. Jealousy then sketched out a large circle, redrawing it many times for perfection, and added triangles and a smaller circle within. She told Envy to move aside and stepped on the outer edge of her array. Instantly, a blue light flared from the lines and the cages began to change into ones of metal in lieu of stone. The chains and restraints were transmuted into metal, as well.

Envy walked around to each cage, extending his arm inside and using his hand to press unto their carotid artery until they fainted. Afterwards, he trickled more ethanol down their throats. "That'll keep them from struggling for a day or so," he said happily. Jealousy was done with the transmutation, so Envy transformed into a huge, green, serpentine dragon while Jealousy secured the cages on his back by transmuting metal rings attached to the cages around Envy's stomach. After the last cage was secure, Jealousy tidied up after her brother and herself, and leapt onto Envy's head as they sped back towards Hylantier.

The two managed to time their departure so that when they were in the air, it was dusk so no one was able to see them in the sky. Thus, they could remain closer to the ground and not risk killing their cargo from higher altitudes and the elements. It took a day for them to get back to Hylantier, so their prisoners were stirring within their restraints.

Jealousy quickly took the cages off of her brother's back and once Envy transformed back, both worked to chain up the humans in a single file line, their arms unable to touch and more than arms-length away from the person in front and back. Jealousy walked in the back while Envy took the front, just in case someone decided to escape.

They marched down to Dante's parlor, where she usually worked on her notes and studies at night. She did her laboratory work in the daytime, down in the cellar. Envy wrenched open the parlor door.

Dante looked up from her papers and tomes. "You're back early. Did you two fail such an easy task? I gave you seven years." Her tone was clipped.

Envy gestured for Jealousy to usher all of the Cretish inside the parlor. Most of them were dazed from being knocked unconscious and shuffled around in an unfamiliar place. Dante stood up excitedly. Jealousy announced with a smirk, "Everyone that you asked for from Creta. We're taking them country by country. Much more efficient."

Dante inspected each of her prisoners. "Yes… how did you finish this within six months?"

"I flew," was all that came out of Envy's mouth.

Dante raised an eyebrow. "You… flew."

Jealousy explained. "Since we can transform, he transformed into a dragon so we could transport such a large amount of people. The actually flying… seems like magic, but it's probably the homunculus body unconsciously tapping into the Stone for it to alchemically reproduce flying. Proof is that we can't fly while in a body that can't traditionally fly."

Dante looked impressed. "It seems that I have done well in training you two. You've kept your wits." The smirk on Envy and Jealousy's faces grew a bit darker and rigid.

Envy and Jealousy made their way across the countries of Drachma, Amestris, Ishval, Aerugo, Kataron, and Vye in five years. Some countries were a lot bigger and more populous, so it was more difficult to find certain people. They only had a little more than a year left and needed to finish their task quickly, as to not upset Dante.

"Envy, since the Arsraen Empire only has one needed human, it would be easy for you to just snatch her up and fly away. Granted, it might be hard for you to find her, but she's very high-profile and everyone knows that she lives in the capital city."

Jealousy was trying to convince Envy that the two needed to separate in order to complete their task. That was partly true… it was also because Jealousy wanted to go to Xing alone. In her former life, her culture was almost identical to Xing. She could read, write, and speak Xingese even without the Gate's help. She wanted to explore, to live a little history that connected her back to a more peaceful and happier time—a time when she was human. She knew that Envy would have little patience for her to indulge in human nostalgia and rather crush cultures than admire them. He was unable to let go of the pain from Dante, let go of the poisonous chants that now dictated his actions. He saw himself as inhuman, maybe even better than a human. Jealousy knew she wasn't human, either. She felt no sympathies towards them anymore. Even so, it was fun to play pretend, even for a little while.

"I don't know… Bycarus is a large city, I hear…," Envy said nervously. He didn't seem to want to separate from Jealousy, even only for a few months (which was akin to a second for them).

Jealousy gripped his shoulder comfortingly. "You'll be fine. I'd rather not give Master any excuse to try her new experiments on us. You saw how she tore apart that defective homunculus—"

"—I know. It decomposed right before me," Envy interrupted softly. Dante took to transmuting the experimental homunculus as a hobby, emphasizing the fact that she could vanish the both of them if they failed to meet her expectations.

Jealousy nodded empathetically. "Right, so you know the importance of this mission." Envy sighed.

"Right."

Jealousy smiled sadly and grabbed her brother for a hug. "I'll miss you, too, okay? I know you just don't want to say it—"

Envy shoved her off, trying to keep a sneer on his face. "Don't get all sentimental with me!" he screeched, a scowl showing through his wild green hair. He pulled on the shorter green hair of his sister, silent now. "Don't fucking get killed or something," he muttered.

Jealousy rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Good luck." She had three people to catch. All three were heirs to the Xingese throne, so all three would have exemplary security surrounding them. Perfect.

She took care of the Chao clan's princess first. Fan Ji Chao was spirited away at night, when she went for her midnight walk through the forests surrounding Hei Bai City, capital of Xing. The Zhang clan's warrior prince, Yi Meng Zhang, was snoring peacefully in bed when Jealousy snuck into his room and poured pure ethanol into his rice wine jar and into his mouth. He actually thought he was drinking in a dream and swallowed the alcohol greedily, effectively knocking him out. She didn't dare use the same tactic she did for the other countries; as soon as she secured the targets, Jealousy hastily flew them back to Hylantier. She had only one target left, and while she knew she could capture him just as easily, she wanted to take as much time as possible.

It wasn't that she did anything as clichéd as falling in love with him. She was only curious about Xan Feng Li.