Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Seven Deadly Sins ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

This fic is gonna be a bit weird, but I just got the idea. I'm still working a few things out, and there will be plenty of twists and surprises. It is an AU, and there aren't really any pairings except that I'm trying to stick in some Roy/Hawkeye. If you have any objections to that, it won't be a big part, so shut up.

Seven Deadly Sins

Chapter One- In which characters are introduced and a symbol makes its debut.

It was like clockwork. He didn't know when he realized their routines, but it didn't take him long to take advantage of it.

The two boys were passing on the other side of the street. They were both blond and somewhat vertically challenged. They were talking and laughing to each other, a basket of vegetables in their hands.

He frowned as he saw them and played with a strand of green hair. What he wished he could do to them if he got the chance…

“You're obsessed,” a voice behind him said. The voice itself was sexy, low and almost monotone, with a hint of amusement. He turned to face the intruder with a grimace. She was busty to say the least with a tattoo above her breasts.

“What do you want…” She glared at him, breaking her gaze from the same boys he'd been staring at a moment ago, “…Lust?” he sighed.

Lust wasn't her real name, neither was his Envy, though that's how he was identified. They didn't speak each other's real name. It wasn't allowed, at least not in public. Too many people sticking their noses in places they didn't belong.

“I've found us a new member,” she said, taking her place next to the brooding boy.

Envy spared a glance back to the boys, frowning when he'd realized they'd disappeared. He turned back to her, sighing again. “And who is this new member?”

She smiled, leaning over the table as the waiter came up. They were at a cozy little restaurant in the city only a few miles away from Rizembol, the closest town.

The waiter seemed instantly taken by Lust, as most men were when they first met her. Envy felt the urge to test his latest skills on the waiter as he stuttered through the menu, trying to keep his gaze from her chest.

“Two waters,” she said her sultry voice, and he bowed quickly, walking away.

“You draw too much attention,” Envy said.

She flipped her hair over her shoulders girlishly and made a noise. “There's nothing I can do about it. Besides, it… helps, wouldn't you say?”

Helps? He scoffed and changed the subject. “What were you saying about our latest member?”

“I wasn't,” she answered, “But she's taken the place of Sloth. You'll meet her soon enough.”

His frown deepened. When she didn't say things, it was because she didn't want him to get hot-headed. What grudge could he have against the new member?

“Whatever,” he murmured and stood. “You play your games. I've got things to do.”

She looked up at him, her eyes half-lidded in annoyance. “Like I said, you're obsessed. Don't let that get in the way of our plans.”

He shrugged. “You always assume I'm off doing something stupid.”

“You usually are.”

He gave her a soft glare and walked away.

><><><><

Edward and Alphonse Elric were two very special boys. They were not only skilled alchemists by the ages of twelve and ten, but they'd done the one thing no other alchemist had ever hoped to accomplish.

They'd done a successful human transmutation.

No one knew. No one needed to know. They had planned it carefully, once they'd heard their mother was sick, and there was no cure. They'd been young at the time, but not stupid. They knew exactly what to do.

No one ever knew that Trisha Elric had died. No one needed to know. If they were to bring her back without suspicion, they had to fake that she was alive, at least until they could resurrect her. It was not easy. They became acolytes of Izumi Curtis, trained under her, learned from her. They returned to their mother and attempted to revive her.

It had worked.

It had cost them an arm and a leg (quite literally) from both of them, but it had worked, and that was all that mattered. Their friend, Winry Rockbell, and her grandmother, Pinako, had equipped them with automail to replace their limbs. They'd given little explanation to where their limbs had gone; a traumatic experience was not to be repeated, and they left it at that. (Though, in all honesty, Ed was a little suspicious that Pinako might suspect them.)

Their mother had not remembered her death. She acted as if she fell into a coma, so they passed it off as if she had. No one questioned. No one even talked about it. Their mother was alive.

But the boys could not doubt what they'd seen. They'd traveled to the Gate. There was something more. There was something behind it.

The Truth.

Ed and Al never spoke of their experience. What was needed to be said? They had played god, yes, but there was no point in that anymore.

But a taste of something that powerful, no matter how small, has a chance of hooking you.

And they had gotten a pretty big taste.

><><><><><

“Did you get it all?” Trisha Elric asked as her boys came in through the front door, carting baskets of vegetables.

“Yep!” Ed grinned, holding out his basket. Al did the same, squirming beneath the weight.

“Big city shops have everything,” he said as his mother took up the basket, “It was huge!”

“It wasn't a big city,” Ed scoffed.

“Biggest city I've ever been to.”

“I've seen bigger.”

“Where have you gone that I haven't?”

Trisha chuckled as the boys continued to argue. It was good to be home.

A knock on the door interrupted the happy atmosphere. The three looked over at the door as if they'd just noticed it existed. Ed and Al glanced at each other then turned to their mother.

She offered them a smile. “I think there are some chores for you to do outside. You start on those and I'll start dinner.”

They nodded, catching her meaning and headed outside through the back door as she opened the door.

A young man stood behind the door, his expression grim. He had cropped black hair and wore the suit of the military. Behind him was another military personnel, a woman with blond hair kept up in a clip.

“May I help you?” Trisha asked uncertainly. She had not expected the military.

“I'm Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang,” he nodded to the woman behind him, “and this is First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. We're looking for someone.”

The back door cracked open and inch, and two curious eyes peeked through.

“It's the military,” Ed whispered to Al. Despite the fact that Ed was older, Al was a good two inches taller and therefore on top, even as both crouched so not to be noticed.

“What would the military want with mom?” Al asked.

Mustang held out his hand to Hawkeye who sighed and pulled out a white envelope with a sloppy address written on it. From behind the door Ed and Al gasped when they recognized the handwriting: Ed's.

Trisha recognized it too but gave no notion of it. The address was to a military man, someone she'd never heard of, but apparently Mustang had intercepted it.

“I've been looking for Hohenheim for some time now, and someone got this a few years ago, but only just decided to give it to me.”

“I'm sorry,” Trisha said sternly, “But he doesn't live here anymore. Perhaps you'll find him somewhere else…” She attempted to close the door, but he stuck his foot out, grabbing the door and pulling it open a bit more.

“I do apologize for my rudeness,” he said gruffly, “But there's one more thing I need to ask you.”

“If it's about Hohenheim-”

“It's not. There have been rumors of an organization. They go under the alias of Homunculi, though I highly doubt that's what they are. They use an ouroboros as their symbol. There are other rumors…”

His gaze rested on her for a moment too long and he turned away. “I just thought I'd try and see what people know. Thank you for your time. Hopefully I won't be seeing you again.”

Trisha watched them walk away before closing the door. Slowly and silently, she moved to the back door and opened it, letting her two boys tumble out.

“Come on,” she gave them a soft smile, “Let's get dinner started.”

><><><><

Roy Mustang sighed as he and Hawkeye stepped into the car. Jean Havoc was at the wheel, a cigarette in his mouth. He looked over at them, noticing their grim expressions.

“So?”

“Nothing.” Mustang held out the letter, “Close, but still nothing.”

“Sir…” Hawkeye began.

“She's hiding something.”

Havoc and Hawkeye stared at him.

“How do you know?” Havoc asked.

“Call it intuition, but she's definitely not saying something.”

Havoc shrugged and started the car. Hawkeye turned away, staring out the window dully. No one else would've started anything off a hunch, but she knew from experience that Roy Mustang's hunches were almost always right.

><><><><

Trisha Elric had sent her boys off to bed. She was dressed in her nightclothes and finishing her nightly chores. Dishes filled the soapy sink and she yawned. Things like this could wait `til morning, right?

She set the dish back in the sink and wiped her brow. Past the window was darkness and silence; the only light from the Rockbell's house not too far off. She could see her reflection in the glass. Slowly, almost fearfully, she pulled back the left strap of dress.

There was her mark.

The dragon eating its tail; the ouroboros. What on earth had gotten the military's attention? All their operations had been secretive, and if anyone had been alerted, they'd either been instantly killed, or someone else had taken the fall. They touched nothing; they had other people do their dirty work.

She hadn't even been in it long enough. Only a few years. Of course they weren't actual homunculi (she was the closest thing), but it was the easiest thing to go under since they mostly targeted alchemists.

She stared at the door of her sons. What would they think, she wondered, if they knew the thing they'd really brought back was not their mother?

They didn't need to know.

At least not yet.

Author(ess) Notes:

Okay, for chapter one, lots of boring information and introduction of characters. Sure, all of it's important for later plot development, but who really cares.

Oh well.

I hope I got Ed and Al's age difference right. I can't remember how far apart they were, so I assumed it was two years. Well, if wrong, please correct me, and I'll fix it.

I don't know any of the homunculi's real names, but Lust might be referred to as Solaris at times, and Sloth will be known as Trisha, since she was created by the Elrics. Yes, Hohenheim will have a part in this story. Don't you worry. And Envy and Ed will get a chance to spar.

Most of my information comes from wikipedia (the best site for finding everything you need to know), `cause my memory sucks and I haven't actually seen a few of the new episodes, but I'm working on it.

Anyone else notice how different the manga is from the anime? Weird. I like the anime better.

(ENVY IS NOT A SHE-MAN!)

(REVIEW!)