Chapter 12

"Where is she?" Mustang bellowed angrily, his voice echoing inside the empty hospital room.

"I don't know! I was only gone for a few minutes!" Ed yelled, the pitch of his voice rising with anger and alarm.

"Where were you, Al? One of you was supposed to be with her at all times," Mustang reminded them as if they had forgotten.

"I went to the door when I heard something. My back was turned for only a few seconds, I swear it!" Al exclaimed, his voice ricocheting inside the armor amplifying the anxiety in his voice. "When I turned back around, the window was open and she was gone."

"Sir!" Sergeant Major Kain Fuery yelled as he literally slid into the room. He was Mustang's hand-picked technology expert. "I just heard radio chatter that Greed was seen carrying a redhead near the Central annex."

"Dammit," Ed growled, balling his fists at his sides in anger. "We're going to get her. Come on, Al!"

"Wait!" Roy yelled, grabbing the antsy teenager by the collar. "We need a plan."

Flynn was somewhere in that space between sleep and wakefulness, blissfully unaware of the deep trouble she was in. She groaned slightly when a velvety pair of lips pressed a kiss to her forehead and continued to softly kiss the rest of her face. Her body moved and she became aware that she was in not in a hospital bed. The bed she was in was fluffy as a cloud and smooth silky sheets were wrapped around her naked body.

"Wake up," a male voice whispered in her ear, bringing her to complete consciousness.

"Where am I?" she asked. A shrill scream wrenched its way from her throat when she saw Greed's face inches from hers. She quit screaming when he closed his eyes and did not move.

"Are you done?" he inquired, opening one beady black eye to look at her.

"I think so. Let me check," she said calmly, opening her mouth to scream again. She did not bother when his hand clamped hard over her mouth.

"The next time I hear you scream I want it to be because I'm inside of you," he murmured, kissing her neck. He laughed at the snort of disgust she emitted. "I told you I'd make good on my word."

"Why didn't you take advantage of me already?" she asked, pulling the sheet tightly around her.

"Where's the fun in that? I want you to feel everything I'm doing. I want to see all of your emotions. The fear, the pain, the joy, the ecstasy," he cooed in a sensuous voice that flowed over her nerves and made a warm feeling, a hunger, stir within her.

"You've got to be kidding," she muttered to herself out loud. How could this man be arousing her under these circumstances? She kept her eyes on him as he moved to stand beside the bed. She watched with open curiosity as he pulled off the black shirt that was like a second skin. Her breath caught when she saw his amazingly sculpted chest and abdomen.

"See something you like? Wanna touch me?" he asked, grabbing her hand. He smiled lasciviously when she resisted by pulling back from him. "I know you want to touch me. Go ahead."

Damn! Flynn allowed him to pull her hand to his chest, laying it over his heart. She halfway expected not to feel anything at all but his rhythmic pulse thrummed through her fingers. Her hand began to tremble as he pushed it down, gliding her fingers over his defined abdominal muscles. She looked up to his face when he stopped her hand at the waist of his leather pants.

"Do you want to go lower?" he inquired, gently laying his other hand on the back of her head. Another sexy smile spread across his face when she bit her lower lip and blushed a lovely shade of pink.

Flynn wanted to pull away, but she was enchanted by him. He possessed that same overt sexiness that was multiplied by his self-confidence and downright cockiness just like Mustang. She gasped as he moved her hand lower, resting her palm over the huge erection straining against the tight leather pants. Her body grew hot and the hunger intensified into a desperate need.

"Open your mouth," he ordered.

"What?" she asked in shock, attempting to pull away this time, but he held her still with the hand on the back of her head.

"I have a present for you. Open your mouth," he repeated. He reached into the pocket of his tight pants and produced a red stone that looked like a ruby.

"What is that?" she inquired, staring at it as he held it between his fingers.

"It's called a philosopher's stone. It's a very special gift. It will give you powers and abilities you've never had before. You'll stay young and beautiful forever. You can be mine and always be with me," he said, moving the stone closer to her lips. "Take it."

"No," she answered in a low but determined voice. She cried out as he suddenly pushed her down on the bed. She screamed when he grabbed her broken ankle and squeezed it.

Greed dropped the stone onto her tongue and covered her mouth with his hand. He straddled her hips as she fought to get away from him. His fingers pinched her nose closed so she would have to swallow eventually to breathe. "I don't know you're name, and I don't care what it is. You're about to be given a new name. You're going to become something new and something better – more than human."

Flynn felt the hardness of the stone on her tongue before it swiftly melted into a thick liquid which was hot and cold at the same time but had no flavor at all. The liquid flowed down her throat, and she had no choice but to swallow it or choke. Her lungs ached for air, and Greed removed his fingers from her nose since she had swallowed. That same odd sensation of the simultaneous yet opposing temperatures flooded her body. Her whole body shuddered and convulsed. She now knew why Greed had kept his hand over her mouth. Agonizing pain seized her belly as if her intestines were being disintegrated. It felt as if all of her organs were being ripped apart then reformed inside of her. She squeezed her eyes closed and screamed more when images began to flip through her brain like an old movie. Mental pictures of faces she did not know and places she had never been, popped up in her mind. Horrible images of death and destruction were interspersed among mundane images of daily life. The frightening movie in her mind halted and once again she was all too aware of her body being wracked with pain.

"You're stronger than I imagined. You're going to be amazing if you survive this. Your body isn't even being destroyed," Greed said, sitting on top of her as she writhed and bucked with the pain.

'Not on the outside, asshole!' Flynn screamed mentally as the torture continued internally. If you survive this, echoed over and over in her mind. She grew still beneath him as the pain subsided. She could feel sweat flowing down her body and soaking into the sheets of the bed, but she felt like she was freezing inside. The mental projector of torment started again but she was too tired and her throat was too raw to scream anymore. She watched the images flow by as if she were watching someone's homemade slideshow. Tears flowed from her eyes and mixed with the sweat, soaking her hair and the bed.

"I think it's almost over, sweetheart," he said, kissing her sweaty forehead then licking his lips. He removed his hand from her mouth since she had quieted down.

"It hurts," she whispered, unable to talk any louder.

"I know. You're so strong. I can't believe you're not dead," he stated bluntly, moving off of her to lie beside her.

"I wish I was," she groaned, rolling onto her side away from him. She whimpered and bit her lip when a stabbing sensation began pushing from the inside out at her belly button. A terrible burning started around her navel reminding her of how it felt when Mustang had cauterized the wounds on her shoulder. She grunted and whined as the pain continued, jerking away from Greed when he tried to roll her over to see what was happening.

"You can either let me see, or I will make you let me see. It's your choice," he warned in a threatening tone.

Flynn forced herself to uncurl despite the ongoing torment in her brain and body. She looked down to see the stone had firmly lodged itself inside of her navel and was definitely a part of her body now. The Ouroboros tattoo had appeared around her belly button and the stone.

"That is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he whispered with fascination, rubbing his fingers over it. "Welcome home, Lust. It's nice to have you back."

"Don't call me that," Flynn snapped, jerking out of his grip. "My name is Flynn Brogan."

"What? How the hell do you still have your memory?" He was truly astonished. She wasn't supposed to remember anything. Obviously, she would be something new and different even from him and the other homunculi.

"Are you disappointed that I haven't forgotten who I really am?" Flynn rose off the bed, putting her full weight on what was her broken ankle. The bones had been healed when her body reformed itself. She sat back down on the bed to remove the bandage wrapped around it.

"Flynn?" Greed called, moving close to her. "Let me have you."

"What the hell do you mean?" she asked incredulously.

"I want you to be mine. I want to have sex with you," he stated frankly, coming close to be face to face with her.

Warmth washed through her body as if warm water had been poured over her head and trickled down to her toes. She leaned toward him, pressing her lips to his. She surprised him by aggressively pushing her tongue into his mouth. A moan rolled from her throat when he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her on top of him. She wanted to stop but it felt as if she was being compelled through no strength or will of her own. A sharp stab of pain like an electrical shock sliced through her brain before she lost consciousness - or awareness anyway.

Flynn awoke with a violent start and would have fallen out of the bed if Ed had not been holding her. She glanced around quickly, breathing a deep sigh of relief when she realized she was back in the hospital room.

"Are you all right?" Ed inquired, pushing the sweaty hair back from her forehead.

"I just had the most awful dream," she sighed, breathing deeply with her eyes closed. She felt an odd burning sensation at her belly button and was amazed at how real the dream felt.

"Sweetheart, you didn't have a dream," Ed told her, pulling up her nightgown. "Look."

Flynn looked down to see the red stone lodged in her body and the red tattoo. She began to breathe in shallow, quick gasps, and Ed shook her to get her attention because she was on the verge of hyperventilating. "Oh, oh, my god! IT WAS REAL!"

"Yes, sweetheart. We found you wandering around naked and confused outside of a bar downtown. You couldn't speak and you didn't recognize anyone. I don't think you knew who you were either," he said in a low voice. He held her against him, kissing her forehead. "What happened?"

Flynn retold the story as best as she could. A lot of the details were sketchy or she had already forgotten them. She did remember that she kissed Greed, but she had no clue what happened after that. She had a sneaking suspicion she did in fact have sex with him. This detail she omitted purposely from her hazy recollection.

"Ed, I'm sorry. It looks like I'm going to be relying on you a lot to help me now," she said. "Please, find a way to get this thing out of me. You need one, and I need to get rid of one. It's perfect."

"Don't try to be funny at a time like this. It's too painful," he gently admonished as she snuggled into him.

"I'll go crazy if I don't. I don't know how to handle this. I'm scared, Ed," she whispered, burying her face in his neck.

"I know. Me too."