The Phoenix Alchemist

Wings

Al smiled. I sat down next to him. "Happy Birthday. It was a few days ago." He widened his eyes. "Wait- but I'd just turned 15 when I crossed over! That isn't possible!" I sighed. "Time passes faster here. You've been here for nearly a year. I'm sorry." He was saddened and shocked. "Wait, but doesn't that mean you've-" I closed my eyes. "Yeah. I've probably been here for at least a few years. I'm okay with it. It's not like I have anything to return to." Images flashed in my eyes. Seven strange creatures standing around a bowl. I was crying, clearly a baby. They held out their fingers and from each hand dripped some blood. There was a shine of red light. I returned to the gate room with Al. "Say, were there other homunculus? Like a fat one, and two children?" Al jodded. "Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Pride, Wrath, Sloth, and Envy." I nodded. "Those sound familiar. Wrath and Pride are the children, right?" Al looked at the gates. "Yeah. Gluttony is the fat one, Envy has green hair, Greed has black hair, Sloth has dark brown hair, and they all have special abilities. Lust has sharp fingers that she can extend. Envy can shapeshift. Pride controls shadow hands. Sloth can turn into water. Wrath can transmute his own body. Gluttony can eat anything. Greed can change his skin into carbon as hard as diamond." I nodded and clutched my stomach. "Damn. Even here.." Al looked at me, frightened. "What's happenung? Are you okay?" I nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little-" I coughed up blood. "-stomach pain." I wiped my mouth. "I'll be going, then. I've probably been sleeping for quite a while." Al nodded and smiled. "Bye!" Another flash of white passed by and I woke up. A wet rag was on my forehead and I was lying on a bed. Ed was sitting in a chair near me. "What happened? Where are we?" Ed sighed. "My house. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with you besides a fever. You need rest." I nodded. "Ed, what do you know about the homunculi?" He looked at me strangely. "Well, they're created after a failed human transmutation. They are basically undead super villains, with their own lethal abilities. They've been traced back to a lot of terrible things, including the war of Ishbal. Lust and Envy worked together to kill Brigadier General Maes Hughes, one of my loyalist friends. His daughter, Elise, was only three." I took a deep breath. "What else do you know about Lust and their species as a whole?" He scratched his head. "I wouldn't call it a species. Lust was created by an Ishbalan man, the brother of a serial killer and occasional ally, and was originally an Ishbalan woman herself. She can extend her fingers to make blades, and likes to seduce men. I'll give you a book that talks about their little group." He disappeared into the other room for a minute and returned with a brown book on alchemy. "Do you know why someone, or a group of someones, would cut their fingers and let the blood drip onto a person?" Ed shrugged. "When my brother and I tried to bring back our mother, we both dripped blood into a bowl with the components of the human body. It bonded our souls. I'm not sure why someone would do it to a live human. Why do you ask?" I shrugged. "Thanks for the book. I'll read it as soon as I can sit up." He nodded and went into the other room. I laid down for a while, trying to sit up. Finally, my strength started to return and i sat up. I moved my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, clinging to the bed frame. The pain in my back returned and I doubled over in pain. I kneeled down, screaming. I felt something grow out of my back.

Two black wings.

I knew I had to hurry and hide them. I folded them in and jumped back into bed. Ed burst into the room. "What's wrong?" He asked. I coughed up more blood. "Just passing pain. I'm fine." He grunted. "You're not fine. Rest." I nodded and he shut the door. I sat up and picked up the book. "'Homunculus are said to not be able to conceive children. They look like who they were supposed to be transmuted into and may harbor some past memories, but ultimately are not the same.' Hmm." I said to myself. I furiously read. Occasionally, I would bring my wings out some. Finally, after straining, they shrunk back into me. I flexed my back muscles and they returned. I spent a while retracting them and growing them back. It was easy to do once I got the hang of it. I stopped coughing up blood after the wings grew in, but my fever continued. It wasn't even a fever, though. My body temperature was just very high. The attributes of a fever weren't there. I started walking again and the pain ceased. When Ed came to check on me, I was pretty much back to normal. "What's gotten you healed so fast?" He asked. I shrugged. "The coughing and pain have passed. I'm still warm, though." He nodded. I drifted off to sleep soon after.