The world was a surreal blur around me as I walked through the quiet streets of Dublith. Most of the population was in the center of town, leaving the streets deserted and empty. The Woman walked in front of me, her heals clicking softly against the stone. My vision was blurred around the edges as the intensity of my craving consumed my chest in agony. I had figured it out; I had realized. It was the red stone. I had finally run out of the energy it had provided for me. Sick amusement coiled in my gut. It had taken an absurdly long time for me to make the connection. But it was obviously the reason. I had not taken anything in as sustenance besides the stone and a few bites of food, which no longer seemed able to sustain me.

We passed by a loudly jangling bar, the light and sound flashing in the corner of my vision, shattering in the quiet of the night, but I never took my eyes off The Woman. She was my entire focus, and even as I stumbled and drug my feet wearily, I did not let her from my sight. The noise and light faded behind us.

She has impeccable balance, I thought distractedly. I had never been able to walk in heels that tall without stumbling. Her figure was a dark graceful shadow before me, leading me further and further from the center of town. At last we walked past the last street of Dublith and into the sparse forest beyond.

It was still snowing, the soft white tufts floating past me, blurring against the night sky which obscured the heavens in gray cloud. It had been snowing long enough that the ground was covered in a thick layer of the stuff, some soft and some hardened into deadly patches of slick ice.

I slipped and cursed. I felt weak, weaker than I could ever remember feeling for a long time. Bile sat in the back of my throat, bitter and acrid, and it felt like a chore to bring air into my frozen lungs. Despite wearing several layers of clothing, the cold bit into me sharply, as if my body was no longer capable of regulating my temperature. Had I really just been dancing merrily in a crowd of happy people, spinning around and having the time of my life? Now I felt dead, as if all of the energy in my body was gone. Is this what death felt like? I supposed I would know, having died before. But as before had been violent and quick, now it felt as if I was losing my life slowly, every aching breath a sharp report of pain, as if my chest had never healed and was still a gaping cavity through the middle of my body.

I was falling behind now, The Woman a mere shadow flitting in and out of my vision, enhanced as it was. Even though the night was pitch dark, the only light coming from the lit town behind me, I could see as if it was mid-day. Still, the shadows seemed to conceal her, and I was suddenly afraid that I would be left out here alone, and that she would leave me even as she promised she would give me the answers I so desperately sought. My chest gave another fierce reprimand of pain and I stopped in my tracks, gasping and falling to one knee. The cold snow parted beneath me with a crunch.

"Enough," I gasped, clutching at my aching body and reaching out desperately to where The Woman had disappeared behind a tree. Silence met my plea and she did not return, and I was suddenly terrified that she had left me, painfully aware that I would not be able to move on my own for very much longer. I was beginning to wonder whether it would even matter if I got the answers I needed, if I was just going to drop down dead at any moment. I was suddenly reminded of the futility of all of this. If she gave me answers, what then? I didn't think anything could save me of this pain now…

I dropped my other knee to the ground and knelt in the snow, the rocks and ice digging into my legs, and curled my arms around myself, looking up into the sky. The snow landed gently on my heated face, cooling my fevered skin slightly. My breath misted as I exhaled. The night outside the city was completely silent, devoid of chattering wildlife in the frozen earth. Everything that thrived in the spring was asleep, only to awaken at the first touch of warmth. But that time was far away, and I sat shivering in the silence.

I heard footsteps in front of me, and I snapped my eyes down form the sky to find The Woman standing in front of me again. She looked at me with her shining eyes, and I could not make out anything that she might have been thinking. Her gaze was soft like the snow, and just as cold. She took a step closer and suddenly I was very afraid.

"Don't come any closer," I whispered, my voice breaking the quiet of the night. My voice sounded muted to my own ears, being absorbed into the forest without an echo. The Woman paused in her advance and considered me for a moment. She nodded and took a step back.

Questions crowded in my mind, clamoring for my attention in a jumbled mess of thought. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and demand answers until they were all sated, but I was just too weak to move. One question clamored above all others in that moment, who are you what am I why does it hurt AM I DYING, and I opened my mouth to ask, but her voice broke over mine before I could make a sound.

"You foolish boy. You should not have taken any more red stone."

My mouth hung open in confusion, the questions I had sticking to the back of my throat, and a startled–strangled– laugh was emitted. "You were the one who gave me the red stone in the first place." My accusation hung in the air. She looked away from me, towards the ground beside her, and folded her arms delicately over her chest.

"Yes. Twice now."

"…Twice," I whispered in confusion. I cleared my throat, trying to make my weak voice louder. My chest twinged. "When was the second time?" Had she sought me when I was sleeping or unconscious to force feed it to me?

"Lior."

At first I did not know of what she spoke, but then an acidic and poisonous suspicion, one strong enough to take my breath away, squirmed through me like a coil of cold fear. It couldn't be…"You–" I coughed, "You were there. That night three years ago…"

"Oh yes. I was there." Her words were like a bucket of cold ice water down my spine, and I leaned forward, listening intently as I unexpectedly heard the story of my origin to this world. "I watched everything from start to finish. I watched as those foolish boys begged for a teacher. I watched them find those books and gather their little materials." She looked at the sky, her expression distant. "I was interested to see what they would accomplish. I expected some sort of failed attempt that would merely kill them both and destroy their little town, but some part of me hoped that another would be created."

"…Another." She meant me. My heart raced. She was there, she knew what I was. A small voice whispered a warning in the back of my mind, pleading with me to turn and run, to not hear the answers that would surely destroy me, but I ignored it ruthlessly.

She looked directly at me, her eyes flashing. Her red lips curled into a small smile. "Finally, after nearly a year of waiting and watching, I saw a bright flash of light and heard a scream, and there you were. The old woman tried to burry you, and I found you in the ground atop that hill. You were nearly dead, and I gave you life once again." Her teeth flashed. "A newborn homunculus."

Before I could ask, she continued in her smooth voice. She looked down at her own hand and her fingers extended slowly, ripping through her black gloves with a quiet tear.

"An artificially created human. We are what is created when foolish humans try to bring back the dead." Her voice became bitter. "They create us to fill the void that they have in their weak hearts, unable to accept that there is no solution to death. We are the human dolls, the substitutes for those that will never return."

The revelations were coming thick and fast now, and I was hardly able to keep up. She had been watching, and she was the reason that I was alive and not still in the hole where Pinako had buried me. I couldn't find it within myself to examine just how I felt about that or what it meant, so I focussed on what she said last. I felt…relieved, even as I heard the terrible truth of what I was. I finally had a name for my suffering, if not an adequate reason. Homunculus. The human doll.

"You said we," I whispered, even as I watched her fingers extend into spears before her.

"Yes," she said. "We." With a display of inhuman strength, she brought her hand down in a violent arch, destroying a tree behind her. I watched in awe. It was the same way she had killed Shou Tucker; by piercing his body with her spears.

"We are different. Stronger, faster." Better, was her unspoken word, but I could hear it even as she didn't say it. Her opinion was obvious. Even so, I couldn't help but think that even as she proclaimed to be better, some part of herself was as bitter as I was to not be human. Just like me, she was forced into a body that was the copy of someone else. But that was mere speculation, a feeling. I did not truly know.

Another sharp pain intruded, shattering my thoughts into splinters. I arched my back with a gasp and waited several seconds in agony for it to abate. The Woman waited patiently while my fit subsided. When it finally did, I leaned back and let my arms fall limp at my sides. "You said before that I was foolish to take the red stone. Why, when you gave it to me before?"

She sighed. "The red stone was initially developed to be a power source for us, something to sustain us. When homunculus were first created, we were nothing more than writhing creatures of ill formed torment to be left to die. At some point, it was discovered that if enough energy was given to those ill formed corpses they would develop into something alive, something powerful."

"Eventually, through much experimentation and many human sacrifices, our creator discovered the right recipe for the red stone that would not damage us, but would rather help us grow and develop stronger. That is, until we can receive our true power source. The heart of the homunculus."

My mind reeled as she finished her explanation, too many thoughts running through my head to even sort it out. The power source? The heart of the homunculus? And I did not miss the way she said the creator, as if there was only one. I remained silent, overwhelmed.

She began to walk towards me. "But you had to go and take impure catalysts. Do you realize the damage you have done to yourself?"

"I'm starting to," I mumbled numbly, the pain in my body distracting. She said that there was a certain type of red stone homunculi had to take. So the stones I had been consuming…

"The red stone is not a secret. Alchemists across the country have created it to boost their transmutations, and as a result, the experimentation of it has caused the military to ban it, even as they develop it behind closed doors. But that has stopped no-one. In fact, we encourage it."

"You…encourage people to create the red stone? Don't you have any idea what that does to people?" I said sharply. My mind flashed back to the sickness I had seen in Xenotime, the suffering that that blasted red water had caused.

The woman smiled prettily and waved her hand, as if to say 'what's your point'. I growled. "Were you the one who 'encouraged' that lunatic in Xenotime to create the red water?"

The Woman put a delicate finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Ah, Xenotime. That foolish little insect Mugear was a complete failure. Even with the help of Tringham's brats he could not create a satisfactory red stone. He was too weak to make it biologically."

"You bitch," I gasped. My mind shied away from what she was implying: that he should have used a pregnant woman's natural condensing womb to create the stones. I remembered with vivid clarity the time Mugear had spoken of it. Did that mean that the stones that she had fed me before…? Bile rose in my throat and I gagged, but my stomach was still empty from my earlier sickness.

"Please, call me Lust," she smiled, unfazed by my anger.

"Wha…"

She began walking towards me slowly, her hips swaying seductively beneath her shimmering purple robe. "You are in pain because the red water and stones you have consumed outside of myself were impure artifacts, failures of the real thing made by incompetent alchemists." She unclenched her hand at her final words and a gleam of red caught my eye. Delicately clutched between her thumb and forefinger was a shimmering red stone.

My hunger spiked sharply and I cringed in pain, my eyes never leaving the gleaming, sinful and accursed gem. My mouth began to water and I lurched to my feet against my will.

Lust snatched back the stone, concealing it in her hand once more as I stumbled towards her with a groan. "Not so fast, little one." I halted, coming back to my senses in a rush. "Do you feel that craving? That is your body telling you that you are empty of your power source. That is your body telling you you are incomplete." She clicked her teeth in annoyance. "Because you have taken an impure catalyst, you briefly got the energy you needed, but at the same time the impurities have been building up in you like a poison." She stepped forward with a look of sympathy and I was suddenly reminded that we were in a secluded place where anything could be done to me and no one would witness it. I took a step back.

"That poison causes a powerful addiction that cannot be cured but by more poison. Your body will begin to break down without a proper power source and you will begin to lose your mind." She took another step forward and I slowly began to back away. Her face became sad. "It has happened to us before." Step. "One of us came upon a cache of impure red stones and consumed them, unable to control his nature despite my many warnings." Step. My heart pounded in fear at her words as I began to really understand what she as saying. "His mind and body were destroyed before we could provide him with a homunculus heart. He was never the same." Step. My back hit a tree, the rough bark digging into my skin, distracting me for a split second. It was all Lust needed.

Faster than I could react in my weakened state, the taller woman grabbed both of my limp hands and pressed them above my head. My eyes opened wide in surprise, and I tried to struggle, but I was in no shape to put up a fight, super strength or no. She squeezed her hand and I cried out, feeling the bones grind against on another, and fell limp, sliding down the tree slightly. She relaxed her grip but held me firm, supporting me as much as she was holding me captive.

Lust pressed her body in close, her ample chest brushing agains mine. My heart fluttered in my chest as I felt her body heat, realizing with painful clarity exactly how vulnerable I was. She stood over my trapped form, her hair creating a sheet of black that briefly obscured the rest of the world in my peripheral. Lust gave me a soft look, her violet eyes glimmering. Then she pressed her lips into my neck, causing my breath to hitch."You should have only taken the red stone from me." She whispered against my pulse. "Now I will have to undo the damage that has been done."

My heart grabbed onto her words with painful desperation, and I shut out all else. "Y-you can fix me? End this p-pain?" She pulled back slightly, running one of her small hands down my chest, the other still pinning me in place. I shivered as she began to slowly unbutton my jacket, exposing my chest to the cold winter air.

"Oh, yes. I was almost too late." She giggled lightly in her deep voice, "but it seems your luck has held."

She moved her hand to my newly bared skin and pressed lightly. I began to wonder just what she had in mind, when the pressure on my chest became uncomfortably harsh, and the air was knocked out of my lungs. I looked down, and was alarmed to see that she had pressed her fingers together into an unmistakable point. "W-wait, what are you doing," I gasped, even as the pressure increased.

"Shhh," she whispered, pressing her lips to the edge of my jaw. "Be still, love. I have to remove the impurity."

"N-no, stop," I whimpered as I felt the unmistakeable sensation of a knife being pressed between the apex of my ribs. My legs, which had begun to tremble violently, gave out and I slid to the ground, Lust following me and straddling my legs, holding me down even as she pressed her spear in further.

My bones cracked, and I screamed silently as the skin was broken on my chest and I was penetrated, her hand splitting me open agonizingly slowly. I struggled weakly, but I was only capable of a few aborted jerks that were more of animal instinct than a bid for escape. I was gripped in unimaginable torment as she literally dug her fingers into what felt like my heart. My vision spotted around the edges as shards of jagged fire gripped my entire being. I felt the warm liquid of my blood, pumped by my desperately beating heart, dribble down my stomach and into the snow, painting my pale skin and the pure white ice crimson. The agony lasted for eternity as I tried desperately to take hold of my sanity, which was fraying with each gentle thrust into my body. Incomprehensible sounds escaped my lips, even as I was unable to draw breath. Through it all, Lust's husky voice whispered consolations and comforts into my ear. She petted my hair gently with her other hand, which was no longer needed to hold me down, as I was too far gone to even struggle.

Eternity passed as my torment continued, even as it could only have taken a few minutes. Finally, Lust's hand came to a stop and gripped something within my chest, just behind the ruined protection of my ribs. "This will hurt," She whispered against my skin. Inside I laughed hysterically at the absurd statement, but outwardly I was only capable of a wet gurgle, blood trickling down my chin as it bubbled up from my bruised lungs. It was going to hurt more than it already did? Please kill me now…

She tugged gently, relentlessly, on the mass she had gotten ahold of, and it seemed as if my body did not want to give up whatever it was. She pulled and I was jerked forward, my head lolling back lifelessly. Spots danced before my eyes as I was barely registering the flashes of pain anymore. She jerked once, twice, an then I felt a terrible ripping within me before her hand was suddenly yanked back, out of the cavity of my chest.

I fell back agains the tree and slid down, a lifeless doll, as Lust inspected her hand, the appendage dripping with my blood. "Almost too late," she whispered to herself. Between her long fingers, steaming as the cold night air met my cooling blood, was an obsidian mass, jagged and vicious, about the size of my thumb. Bits of crimson flesh hung off of it, as if the malignant crystal had done it's very best to take as much of me with it as it could.

That was inside of me, I thought to myself numbly. That was what was hurting me…I closed my eyes. It no longer mattered. I was bleeding out swiftly, my warm blood leaving streaks down my body. My healing powers were nowhere to be found now that I didn't have the red stone to fuel me. I felt resigned but relieved, wishing for a swift end from the agony. I had found out what I was, but it had not mattered in the end…

I heard a sigh just as my vision began to go black. Something wet touched my lips and a small item was placed in between them. "Almost too late, but not quite."

At first nothing happened, but then I began to feel a distinct tingling around my heart that was not pain. The feeling spread, and my body began to spark red, lighting up the area surrounding us and causing Lust's eyes to flash crimson. The Woman leaned forward over me, her robes fluttering about her sides and concealing both of our bodies form the cold. She was smiling at me gently as my eyes were blown open wide and my chest was knit together. Soon there was no trace of the injury, and the tingling sensation turned to one of distinct pleasure as my energy returned in a rush of heat. I moaned and arched my back, my mind in shock of the combination of my abuse and the new sensations. Lust petted me softly through my convulsions, still straddling my hips and holding me down. I had fallen to the ground completely, my arms the only thing still attached to the tree where Lust had returned her hand to pin them. Not that I was of any mind to escape. No, the feelings flowing through me, healing every wound and every hurt and causing me to feel more alive than I had in days, gave me no desire to go anywhere.

I parted my wet lips and exhaled with a sigh, my mind still nowhere to be found as the sensations of my body took over. Twice more Lust fed me one of her pure red stones; created by despicable means, the sustenance of the homunculi and the substitution for the homunculus heart, the real power source. My mind was in a haze, and I barely heard her when she began speaking again.

"I have undone the damage this time, but do not consume the red stone again. I almost lost you, pet, the only one of us to survive that wasn't created by him."

She leaned down over me, her hair brushing my face gently and her heat comforting me in the freezing night. She kissed me on the corner of my mouth. "I will come for you when the time is right. I will be watching until I can give you your heart."

She pulled back and I looked at her blearily, missing her heat as the cold air touched my bare chest. My mind was blissfully blank. "These will sustain you for now. Give your brothers my love."

I blinked, and she was gone. The wind howled around me, and distantly I heard shouting from the direction of the town. I stared at the sky blankly, snow drifts landing gently on my face. They melted and ran down my cheeks like ice cold tears, cooling my heated skin. My ceremonial robe had spread around me, the red silk blending seamlessly with the blood pooled around my body. I wondered idly if I would ever get the stain out.

My consciousness tried to resurface, but I was pushing it back, shying away from the memories of what I had just experienced. I only wanted to focus on the sense of well-being the stones had gifted me with. Later I would remember, but for now, I tried to think of only what I had learned through my shocked haze.

Lust. The Homunculi. The creator. The impure stones. I had gotten my answers, although they made little sense to me in my current state. I was so very tired. I just wanted to sleep. Warm streaks of water fell down my face. They felt different from the ice I had felt before. I brought a trembling hand to my cheek, realizing with numb clarity that they were tears. My breath hitched in a trembling sob. I felt more alone now than I ever had in my life. I wanted…I needed…

"Edward…Alphonse…" I whispered into the oppressive dark. "Please, come save me. I want to see you." I laughed pathetically and mirthlessly, my newly formed lungs spewing out a bit more trapped blood. "I need to see you." I no longer cared that I wasn't human. I no longer cared that I was betrayed and I had hurt them. I wanted them here with me. I wanted to hear Edwards deep voice and feel his warm touch. I wanted to lean against Al's cool body and share his emotions. I wanted to go home. I wanted to sleep.

Finally, blessedly, I got my wish. I fell limp against the frozen ground, the blood drying and feeling sticky against my skin, and gave into darkness. Just before my consciousness was completely lost, a dark shadow fell over me and a shouting voice, vaguely familiar, called my name. I knew no more.

…

…

…

Hm. That was rather lustful, if I do say so myself. Why? Because it was Lust. And because having the characters hurt each other in a mimicry of passion is kind of beautiful. In a poetic way, not in real life. Please no impaling in real life (only the fun kind).

I have a confession to make. Lust was one of my favorite characters in the series. I thought she was one of the most baddass bad guys. I always wished that she ended up being the main antagonist in the series, but if I remember correctly she dies pretty epically, which is cool too. In my story, she will play a huge role, if you haven't already figured that out for yourself. And oh-ho, she seems to have some plans for little Alex that even I wasn't expecting until I read the wiki page on the homunculus and realized that most of them were created by the same person. It seems that with every chapter I write I have to change my plans just a little bit to accommodate all the strange little twists I come up with.

And the homunculus heart? Three guesses what that is, and the last two don't count.

Next Chapter: Edward and Alphonse meet a certain doctor on their way to Resembool and discover a lead to their search. All that while being blinded by Armstrong's bare muscled chest. It's a wonder anyone gets anything done with that guy around…

Continued AN for those that care…

Thanks so much for your feedback on the trilogy idea. I've decided that…I don't want to decide yet. It depends on how resolved I can make the fifth lab feel for the story. If it leaves too many open ends it will feel like the story is incomplete. I hate it when authors IRL do that. I know I'm notorious for cliffhangers, but I don't want to do that too terribly much with the ending of a book. We'll see. You all had some great points pros and cons, so I'll have to decide carefully as I go along. I would one day like to print and bind this thing (for fun, and maybe to give to my friends for free), so it will eventually end up in three parts anyway, it's just a matter of whether I can pull it off online. And if it would be inconvenient for you guys which none of you seem too terribly concerned about.

Anyway, I'm rambling. It's time for the next arch, the last arch of the first part, to begin! Yay! I wouldn't be surprised if it took the next ten chapters to get through. We'll see. Tootles!