Cardinal sin (2) : A laugh in Vain

Prologue

A villain's lair.

What's the first thought that comes to mind?

Dark, eery, mysterious.

This was not the case for the Cardinal sin's lair. It was a bright and cozy little cottage with the ocean air and a spectacular view of that body of water. The smell of cooking food wafted in from the kitchen, two were playing a board game on the floor and one was just coming in from a lengthy swim—quite a pleasant place for plans of murder to be made.

The leader of this group of evil-doers, Vain, the one who'd been swimming, threw his wet towel without regard on the floor. He lay down on the sofa in his swim trunks, eyeing the board game taking place in front of him.

"Who's winning?" asked Vain.

Accompanied by a scowl, Herman, said, "Not me." He was a follower of Sloth, so even though he wasn't just as stupid, he was still immensely lazy and never stopped complaining.

"I'm obviously winning," replied Ire, an admirer of the late Wrath. She may not have looked it, but this black-haired, smilling woman, was actually a walking armoury and a cold-blooded murderer who favoured violence.

Ire suddenly wrenched a knife from a sheath at her waist and threw it at the board. With impeccable precision, it struck one of the tiles, narrowly avoiding Herman's quickly retreating hand.

Ire said sourly, "That's cheating."

Herman rolled his eyes so they almost vanished beneath his thick eyebrows. "Almost had you there."

Drawing out another knife, his opponent pronounced while aiming at his face, "Try that again and I will make a messy job of piercing your ears. The holes might be a little big for earrings, but on the bright side, you'll have a pretty scar to brag about."

"What am I to brag about? 'Hey, look at this scar my savage girlfriend gave me'?"

Ire hopped to her feet only to throw herself upon Herman's bulk, knife drawn. "Exactly!" she cried wildly. "I'll get to it right now."

Vain watched them fight amused from the sofa til', from the kitchen, walked in Sophronia and her brother, Ebenezer (called Eben for short). Behind their backs, the siblings were called "Copy-cat hoe" and the "Man-slut eyesore" for they were both so unrestrained in their sexual activities to a point that it was repulsive.

The "copy-cat" part in Sophronia's nickname came from the fact that—though she tried to deny it—she was imitating the homunculus Lust in looks, actions and alchemy, even if it made her look pitiful.

As for Ebenezer, he was absolutely hideous. He had what Vain liked to describe as a blond crap on top of his head for hair and his face was a mess from a failure to beautify his features through surgery. It was surprising he even found people to sleep with. At least his alchemy wasn't half bad and he was devoted to the cause.

"What are they doing now?" Sophronia said in that irritable voice of hers, looking judgementally down at Herman and Ire.

"They kind of look like they're trying to bang there," Ebenezer stated, peeking over his sister's shoulder.

"Ire's trying to pierce Herman's ears," Vain informed them with a little chuckle.

In the middle of the brawl, Ire shouted, "He said he wouldn't mind earrings just the other day, so I'm really just doing it him a favour!". To this, Herman replied, "You're supposed to do that with needles, not knives!"

"How completely immature!" Sophronia huffed. She then took a seat on the edge of the sofa Vain was sitting on.

"You know, I'm still convinced they're going to be doing it soon."

"Does this look sexual to you, Eben?" Ire snapped, waving the knife in the air, which now had a stain of blood on it from the scratch she'd landed on her partner's arm.

"Extremely."

A man then dropped from the loft, landing with a rattle of the room in the dead center of the odd circle the Cardinal Sin had formed. Walter did a full circle of the room with his eyes. He swayed from barefoot to another, a small smile on his stubbly face for no reason.

"I can sort of see it, too," he said. "But why do we always have to talk about dirty stuff like this whenever you two are around? You make everything dirty."

"My point exactly!" agreed Ire. This had distracted her enough for Herman to knock the knife out of her hands. He took advantage of her surprise to turn the tables by picking her up and hurling her across the room.

"How violent for a couple. You two should really get some help." Sophronia put on an air of professionalism. "I'm the perfect woman for that."

Having broken her fall without effort or any bruises, Ire stepped onto the sofa, leaped from it and chased after Herman, who was by now begging for her to stop it—the main reason for his surrender was that he was tired and wanted nothing more than to lay down and take a nap. The two of them ran around the cottage, yelling deafeningly at each other.

"So that happened," Walter said, eyebrows raised. "Vain, you wanted to talk?"

The leader of the Cardinal Sin sat in a proper position. "You fed the prisoner?"

"Yup. I got the usual; cussing and a murder attempt. She's so persistent even after being our prisoner for months now."

"Good. How's the twin coming along? Do you have any leads on where you could find it?"

"Oh, yeah I found it. That's why I came back. Didn't I give it to you?"

"You didn't."

"Aaaah. Must have forgotten." Walter rubbed his muscled arm sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Go get it for me, you dunce!"

"Right! Here, I've got it." Walter reached into his pocket and tossed a dagger to Vain, who caught it safely.

Ebenezer remarked, "Convinient. You sure you weren't thinking about keeping that, Walt?"

The rest of the conversation was drowned out in Vain's ears. A mystified state had come over him as he held the knife. It was a delicate, but powerful blade on which the hilt had a name engraved—Vain's true name, not the title he claimed for himself.

A philosopher's stone; the brother of the one whose power the Fullmetal Alchemist had inherited, presently in the shape of the weapon he should commit the Ultimate Sacrifice with.

Vain would rise to Edward Elric's level, and surely he would be able to kill him then, along with Mustang and everyone else who had helped bring about the end of the homunculi.