Number of words: 3,204
Published date: April 6, 2013
Began chapter: February 4, 2013
Finished chapter: April 6, 2013
Chapter 23: What Lies Beneath
It was a matter of some note that Greed was completely wrong when he'd assumed that Lust and Envy disappeared during Mason's visit because they wanted to avoid helping or interacting with a human.
Though his assumption might have been true normally, in actuality it had been the farthest thing from their minds.
Envy leaned on the balcony railing, watching the fight below him with only half a mind. It was true that the wiry Sin was not in a pleasant mood, for he disliked Greed far more than he did Pride and he would have preferred to see Greed taken down a notch rather than the other way around. On the same hand, watching Greed fight reminded him of the fight he'd had – and lost – with that body's previous owner, the bratty prince kid from Xing. Envy knew Greed's fighting style and he was familiar with the Xingese kid's style; against the old Greed, Envy knew he at least stood a chance, for Greed had always favoured direct, aggressive tactics that emphasized his Ultimate Shield and didn't give a whole lot of attention to speed or agility. And Envy knew he'd had the old Greed beat when it came to moving quickly and lightly on his feet. Screw the fact that he couldn't do much about Greed's shield – it didn't matter if Greed couldn't hit him because he was too fast.
But this Greed was showing a different approach (though of course it was harder to observe when the fight was just for training); he'd lost his height and muscles and had replaced them with a body not all that different from Envy's own.
Envy absolutely hated that. He hated that Greed, whether his older brother could remember it or not, now shared the experience of having switched bodies – an experience that was supposed to be reserved for Envy alone, something special and unique all of his own. And he hated that the body he had taken such pains to design, making it as unique and different from his siblings as he could, now lost a bit of uniqueness with Greed's switch. Envy had gone with a shorter height because Greed and Lust had both been tall. He'd gone for long hair because Pride and Greed had had short hair and he'd made it straight because Lust's hair was wavy. He had chosen lean because Greed had been bulky and Lust had been padded in all the right places (much as he didn't really understand what that meant). Now Greed, like himself, was shorter, leaner, and had long straight hair.
Of course, it shouldn't have been a surprise, really. It was just like Greed to steal even intangible things for himself, taking away the little that Envy had hoarded as his own. And it didn't matter that Greed had done it unwittingly, nor that he'd had no real choice in the matter.
There was a lull in the fight. Pride had made a rather pathetic attempt to jump at his brother and Greed had effortlessly plucked him out of the air and thrown him down to the ground.
How did that phrase go? Envy wondered vaguely to himself. 'Oh, how the mighty have fallen'? Why the hell is Pride putting up with this anyway? It's not like getting the snot beat out of him will do any good…
Greed looked up at the balcony then, obviously giving their eldest brother a break.
The bastard smirked when he saw Envy watching.
Envy scowled in return and was momentarily surprised when Greed replied with a grin that was neither mocking nor cocky, but half-friendly. His surprise quickly dissolved, however, when Lust came up beside him, leaning on the rail and returning Greed's smile with a teasing one of her own. Obviously Greed hadn't been grinning at him at all then, but at their sister.
Envy could only roll his eyes at their playing footsies, but it was hardly new. Even right before he'd been boiled down and facing each other as enemies, Greed and Lust had flirted. And although it sometimes got on his nerves, most of the time Envy didn't think anything of it. Greed was a natural charmer and Lust, more than physical pleasure, loved being lusted after. It was an old game and neither of them honestly meant anything by it.
He was more interested in how Lust had managed to sneak up on him. The tell-tale click of her high heels was always a dead giveaway to her approach.
Furtively, Envy glanced down and couldn't help but smirk.
Maybe Lust didn't like the way her normal shoes echoed through the large mansion. Maybe the high heels were too warm in the summer heat. Maybe they were too painful to wear all the time without the Stone to do its healing – Envy didn't know since he'd only ever impersonated Lust for a substantial period of time once and that had been a disaster on such a scale that murder had been the only way to fix the date he'd botched. Maybe she saw no point when the only man around to entice was Greed.
Whatever the reason, Lust's feet were now clad in flat, open-toed sandals that of course matched her purple, Xingese-style dress.
Envy instantly wanted to make fun of her, though he wasn't quite sure how to go about it since he always had bare feet and it was such a trivial thing to tease her about, but he didn't get the chance. Just as he was about to open his mouth, maybe to suggest that she get her toenails painted red (an inside joke that had involved her complaining about human blood getting under her fingernails and which had been funny mostly because of the circumstance in which she'd said it), Lust's elbow jabbed into his side.
"What?"
"You'll want to watch this," she said quietly, as if she didn't want the pair below to hear. "This will be good."
"Huh?"
He straightened from his bored slouch on the railing, following her gaze to see that Pride had recovered enough to sit up and was moving his hand in the dirt at his side in a circular motion.
What is he…? Oh. Oh yeah! This is going to be good!
Greed could read their eager expressions even from the balcony, but there wasn't enough time for him to do more than turn halfway around before Pride placed both hands on the finished transmutation circle.
The result was absolutely beautiful.
Greed took the stone fist straight in the gut and went down with a gasp and Pride gloated over him and Envy didn't catch much else of the exchange because he was laughing so hard that he couldn't see or hear anything. Damn, that was the best thing ever! Maybe Pride'll give him a run for his money after all! Bastard deserves it!
When Envy finally caught his breath, Greed and Pride had disappeared from view and he could just make out the low rumble of a vehicle coming up the driveway.
"Well, that was fun," he said, turning to his sister and still chuckling to himself. "What do you think? Should we stick around, watch and see what else happens? I wouldn't mind seeing Greed slave away carrying boxes. Or we could…"
He trailed off. She wasn't listening to him. Instead, Lust was staring at the transmuted hand of stone and Pride's sketched circle with one of her intense 'deep in thought so don't bug me' looks.
What? What's so fascinating? Envy wondered in confusion, switching his gaze from his sister to the ground and then back again. It's just a transmutation circle. We've seen a million of them. It's nothing special.
And it was true. There was nothing special about the transmutation circle. The alchemy involved in transmuting earth was one of the simplest and easiest to learn, a beginner's move if there ever was one.
"Lust?" Envy prompted impatiently. "What? What is it?"
She spoke without looking at him, the words absent and meant more for herself than for him, her hand rising to tap against her lips thoughtfully.
"It always comes back to alchemy," she murmured pensively.
Before, Father was the only one who could use alchemy, she reflected. There was no reason for us to learn it. Our powers surpassed most alchemists and, being immortal, there was no reason to study the science that brought us to life in the first place.
But that's changed now. We don't have our powers anymore. Pride is learning alchemy and it is alchemy, once again, that has brought us back to life…
"Huh? What the hell are you talking about, Lust?" Envy now couldn't help but let some snarkiness enter his voice, for out of the many things he hated, being ignored was high up on the list.
She blinked and snapped out of her thoughts, glancing down at him as if surprised to find him there.
"Use your head, Envy," she said irritably. "If anything is going to be the key, it's alchemy."
He growled at the slight. "The key to what? Lust, you're not making any sense."
With an irritated sigh, she whirled from the railing and started indoors, speaking over her shoulder as Envy struggled to keep up with her longer strides.
"Our existence has always depended on alchemy. If there is any possibility for us to return to what we were before, it will require alchemy."
"You mean like creating a new Stone? But Pride said-"
"Pride," she snapped, "is gone. Dead. Or hadn't you noticed?"
"He's not dea-" Envy immediately began to protest, but Lust cut him off mid-sentence with an imperious wave of her hand. By some miracle, her brother seemed to sense the purpose in his sister's stride and the magnitude of the topic and so held his tongue, bare feet padding lightly on the floor behind her.
Lust led the way past the second floor foyer, down the hall past Envy's bedroom and the washroom, and then drew to a halt at the top of the second floor stairwell as Pride's voice called, loud and excited, for Ms. Bradley from somewhere below them. Though his words weren't clear to the eavesdroppers, Pride was clearly calling his step-mother to the front door to greet their unwanted grocery-delivering houseguest.
As soon as the voices grew faint, Lust started down the steps. His sister held her head high and moved with even more self-possessive confidence than usual, but Envy still felt a distinct sneaking feeling about her. Perhaps half of that came from her lack of clicking heels, which made it seem as if she was walking quietly so as not to attract attention, but Envy got the impression that she didn't want the others to see where they were headed.
Which turned out to be the library, Envy discovered, when his sister entered the room and curtly ordered him to close the door behind them.
"So, do you mind telling me what you're going on about now, or am I still not allowed to talk?" he asked caustically, crossing his arms behind his head.
At his tone, Lust would usually have given him a sharp look at the very least, but she appeared so engrossed in what she was doing that she hadn't even heard him. She immediately moved to the bookshelf and began to rapidly scan the titles, her fingers playing along the spines as she hunted.
"You know, I could help if you'd tell me what we're looking for."
Lust sighed under her breath but at least deigned to speak this time.
"I'm looking for books on alchemy," she answered distractedly, still scanning the shelves, "but particularly introductory works. Pride probably still has his beginner's texts somewhere… Ah, this might be it."
She paused on the lower shelf and seized a few of the books, reading the top title even as she carried them the short distance to the desk and sat down.
"But why-"
"Think for yourself! I'm busy," she admonished tersely, now flipping through the first book to study the table of contents.
Envy scowled and had a strong urge to snatch the book from her hands and throw it across the room.
Impulse control not being his forte, he proceeded to do just that, the only difference being that instead of throwing the book, he slammed it down on the desk in front of her.
"Damn it, Lust! Stop ignoring me and tell me what you're talking about!"
It has been suggested that a child will prefer negative attention from a parent rather than receive no attention at all.
Bearing out the truth in that statement, Envy was pleased that his unexpected action got the attention he'd been looking for, though the look on his sister's face was absolutely murderous.
Lust regained her poise quickly, of course. After studying him for a few moments with lips tightly pressed together and eyes frigidly cold, she softened and relented, speaking slowly as if to a particularly mule headed student.
"The Philosopher's Stones are created with alchemy," she said. "If we want to return to what we were before, it will require the creation of more Stones, and therefore alchemy as well. Pride has already said that he won't create new Stones and the most logical way to try to force him to do so – by threatening his life – obviously won't work because our lives rely on his Stone too. The bluff would be useless.
"But that doesn't mean that he's the only one who can create a new Stone. Pride is learning alchemy; there's no reason why I can't do the same."
Envy stared at her, dumbfounded.
"You mean… You're going to learn alchemy too?"
Lust nodded.
"I was the one who took the formula for creating the Philosopher's Stone to the military researchers. I know what the array looks like; I just need to understand how the array works in order to use it. Once I have that, it will only be a matter of finding the right opportunity. There's no point in plotting anything further until we have alchemy at our disposal."
His sister looked confident with her idea, but Envy couldn't help but point out the obvious flaw in her plan.
"But there's no way Pride'll let you learn alchemy if he knows that that's your goal, Lust. He's not an idiot. He told us not to even think about it; he'll kill us if he finds out!"
"I told you already, Envy: Pride is dead. Accept it. Our eldest brother has become nothing more than a pathetic mewling human child. There is no way he'll kill us even if he discovers-"
Envy shook his head fiercely in disagreement and didn't let her finish.
"Haven't you been listening to him? He nearly bit my head off the other day over my whole 'pet human' comment. He's still just acting. I'm telling you, if he finds out that we're plotting behind his back-"
"That's just force of habit," Lust opined dismissively. "He's reacting that way because that's how he's always acted with us, not because he's still Pride. You haven't seen it; he's changed. I'm sure of it. He's become compassionate, sincere. He will not have gone through all of this effort and risk only to kill us for disobeying him."
Abandoning the argument as futile, Envy tried a different tactic. "Then what about the Elrics?" he challenged. "So you say that Pride won't kill us, but what about them? Surely Pride would tell them if he found out you were studying alchemy."
Lust seemed to acquiesce on that point. Rather than respond right away, she tapped her fingers on the desktop and frowned in thought. She did not know the Elric brothers well enough to guess at how they would react to such news or what they would do about it and there seemed little point in postulating.
"It doesn't matter," she said finally. "If Pride doesn't know about it, they'll never learn of it either."
"And just how do you plan on learning alchemy without Pride finding out, huh? Aren't you going to need to ask him to teach you?"
Lust rolled her eyes in disgust and gestured pointedly to the books on the table.
"I will learn on my own," she replied with the sarcasm to say that that should have been obvious to him already. "The biggest danger will be in Pride noticing that some of his books are missing. But if I take just one at a time, it's highly unlikely that he'll notice. Even more so since he has no reason to refer to the introductory ones." With that, she reached out to pick up the book Envy had grabbed from her, re-opening it to where she had left off studying the contents to assess its usefulness.
Her brother remained silent, obviously digesting her reasoning.
"… Do you really think it'll work?" he asked after a moment in a quiet voice. "We can get our powers back?"
Lust glanced up. Envy was frowning down at the books on the table. His face betrayed nothing more than belligerent stubbornness, but the note of pleading was clear.
Do you mean it, Lust? We don't have to be condemned to this? I don't want to be a human! I want to be me again! Don't get my hopes up if you're not sure.
Disturbingly, she once again uncharacteristically found herself wanting to assuage her younger brother's fears and her words came out gentler than she intended.
"I can't promise, Envy. I don't know how long it will take to learn enough alchemy that I'll be able to create a Stone. It may take years; I don't know. Perhaps self-study will prove insufficient in any event. And as Pride pointed out, just having a Stone isn't enough; it may not be possible as we exist now to take the Stone back as our core. I could just be wasting my time and risking our lives for no reason. But alchemy is the key to our existence. Nothing can be done until we have that."
Her brother nodded, accepting her words and knowing that she was probably right.
Lust closed the book firmly and stood up.
"This stays between the two of us," she ordered.
"Duh. I know that," Envy replied, rolling his eyes at her. She ignored it.
"This one looks as good a place to begin as any." She hefted the book in her hand and placed it on the table, then picked up two of the other books she had removed from the shelf and moved to put them back before Pride or Ms. Bradley could chance upon them in the act. Envy helped without being asked, then they split up.
Lust to her bedroom to find the best spot to hide the alchemy text so that Pride would never find it.
And Envy, his steps buoyed with unusual optimism, back to the balcony to see if their houseguest was still there.
It hadn't been on their minds to avoid the guest when the man had arrived, but that certainly didn't mean they didn't want to avoid him.
Author's Notes:
Apologies to my readers: So quite clearly I was being optimistic when I thought that I'd be able to handle writing and having a full-time job at the same time. I'm sorry that this has taken so long, sorry that it's not very long, and sorry that I don't anticipate speeding up in the near future. This chapter gave me trouble mostly because I wanted to move on to other things, but this chronologically came next and couldn't be skipped. Because my update time has slowed, I'm planning to speed up the story plot-wise by skipping smaller ideas that don't contribute a whole lot. I plan for my next chapter to be very important; this might mean that I write quickly because I'm interested in it, or it might mean that it goes more slowly because I want to get it right. It's really impossible to say at this point.
