Beta: Taintedletter

Picture done by me. 

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

(PRIDE)

Pride let out a small sigh as Ellie curled into his side.

The night she came home with him and Wrath had been a busy one, to say the least. After Katherine had finally released Ellie to go to bed, the small girl had almost immediately woken back up and fled to Pride's room to seek refuge from a nightmare.

She had been scared by visions in her head.

How utterly ridiculous.

But that was how humans were. Humans were pathetic little creatures who cowered at the sight of power, and lusted over violence. They were creatures who jumped at the chance to slaughter their own, and betrayed one another with ease.

Every human Pride had met reminded him of these facts.

Humans either turned to whimpering bags of meat who pleaded for their lives or tried to hide behind a mask of false bravado when encountering Pride's true form.

They all paled with terror when they saw Pride devour their fellow kind, though.

You would think that witnessing such predictable actions for over three hundred years would have dulled Pride's amusement.

But low and behold Pride could still relish their faces as he toyed with them before death.

He loved it when they stood up to him, because it made their defeat to him that much sweeter.

Humans were such easily predictable things, he believed.

Until along came two oddities.

Katherine Bradley, who Wrath claimed, and Elizabeth Luxanna.

Katherine was... warm.

Pride had never known the touch of a mother, or been shown genuine care before meeting Katherine. The woman was sweet to a fault, and doted on Pride without restraint. Being tucked into bed was a novel experience, and having a motherly figure worry over him was... fine.

It made him wonder why all humans weren't like that. If they were, Pride wouldn't find them so disgusting.

On the other hand, if Pride had to describe Ellie in one word it would: puppy.

Because that is exactly what she was.

She yipped, barked, and dashed over to his side at every chance. She was a loyal dog who eagerly awaited her owner at the end of each day. All he had to do was give her a pat here, a compliment there, and spend time with her, and she rolled over for him.

No matter how much time passed between the two, she would go out of her way to be by his side and entertain him.

It amused him to see that innocent affection in her eyes, the way her whole face would light up with warmth when she saw him.

Puppy aptly described her.

No matter what he did by that point, Pride would bet she'd still come running straight back to him. Even if he locked her up, starved her, cut off her limbs one by one, she'd still give him that sweet smile.

She'd all too happily commit the taboo if he asked her to, thusly making her the perfect sacrifice for Father.

Yes, Pride had done an excellent job at cultivating her dependency on him. Now with him having "saved" her from her family her loyalty to him was cemented eternally in her heart. She would devote herself to whatever he asked to her, and she would do so with a wagging tail.

'How naïve,' Pride thought as he stared down at his Ellie.

She even saw him eat another human—a foolish thief that had slipped past the guards—yet she kept clinging to his side.

She had to know what he thought of her. She had to have figured it out by that point.

But she still stuck around. She still looked at him like he hung the moon.

'What an idiot,' he thought. 'A genuinely dumb dog who'll still come crawling back to the master that beats it.'

Humans usually had some semblance of self-preservation. Where was hers?

Perhaps he was doing the human race a favor by offering her up as a sacrifice. Someone so gullible shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.

Ellie rolled over in her sleep, mumbling something incoherent under her breath. She reached out, blindly, until she grabbed onto Pride's hand. Pride stared down at her small fingers—'She's smaller than me'—and wondered how anyone could be so...

'Pure?'

Pride abruptly stopped that line of thought and corrected himself. 'Stupid. Utterly moronic. Idiotic. Gullible. Ignorant. Insane.'

As Pride continued to list off synonyms for stupid-little-girl-that-really-ought-to-know-better, he kept staring down at her hand.

"You're my best friend," Ellie shyly declared. "I just want you to be happy."

"I just want you to be happy, Selim."

"I hope I can make you happy."

"I love your smile, though!"

"Ehh? You have so many mouths! All the more reason you should smile more."

"I'm so happy you're my friend, Selim."

Pride wondered, then, how someone so stupid could think they were actually friends. How someone so naïve could believe for an instant that they could be friends with Pride?

Pride was above humans.

He was above this clingy little puppy.

She didn't deserve the title of friend.

She barely deserved to be in the same room as him.

She didn't—

"I thought your shadows looked really cool!"

"Here, use my scarf until we get home, okay? What if you get frostbite?"

"Let's get some flowers for your momma!"

"Happy birthday, Selim! Ah, I'm so happy for you."

"H-Hey! S-Stop laughing—it's not—it's not that funny!"

Pride shut his eyes and yanked back his hand from the sleeping human. He rubbed at his face, trying to banish away those hap—stupid memories. None of them mattered in the end. She was a talented alchemist who was loyal to him which made her the ideal sacrifice for Father's plans. She wasn't someone who would be alive in another ten years, so there was no point forming attachment now.

There was no reason—

She didn't matter to him.

She... she and Katherine Bradley meant nothing to him.

They were humans.

They were weak.

They were stupid, and pathetic, and—

"S-Selim, are you okay?" Katherine cried out, her eyes wide with motherly concern as she rushed over to him. She wrapped him tightly in her arms, squeezing him when she realized he was unhurt. With tears in her eyes, she whispered, "Oh, thank God you're okay. I—I don't know what I would do if something were to happen to you, my sweet Selim."

They were humans, and humans were beneath him. These memories were beneath him and he was having none of it!

Pride viciously shook his head to banish them, and his shadows began to swirl around him in lazy irritation. None of them mattered. They would all be dead soon enough and he—

—would be alone again.

No. He would not. Father—

'—would continue to ignore him.'

No! His siblings—

'—would leave him again. After all, they could leave Amestris, and they would need to in order to prepare for the next great plan of Father's. Amestris would be a wasteland of a city, and Pride would stay trapped there for eternity. Alone, and unable to leave.'

His siblings might visit, but Father's orders would always take precedence. It wouldn't matter what they wanted. It didn't matter what Pride wanted. Pride was merely a tool to be used by Father, and disobedience meant being destroyed and rebuilt.

His siblings knew this. After the Promised Day his siblings would disperse to find a new country to choose from and start the process again. Pride would stay in Amestris, alone, and be ordered to kill those who got too close to the truth of what happened.

This would be his final task, and it would be the task he had to complete until the day he died.

He never had an issues with this before, so why—

"I'll always be with you," Ellie promised him sweetly. "That way, you'll never be alone!"

"Here, Selim," Katherine beckoned over to him. "Hold my hand so you know you aren't alone."

'Stupid,' Pride thought. 'Both of them are the epitome of morons. They are the very definition of gullible humans.'

He wished they would hurry up and get out of his head.

He wished those memories would stay silent.

He wished...

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

(ELIZABETH)

The night Mr. Bradley brought Elizabeth home, Mrs. Bradley was appalled to see her in such a state. The motherly woman rushed the small girl into the bathroom to clean of her of the blood, and when she saw the bruises her face paled with anger.

Mrs. Bradley whispered, her voice trembling from her rage, "These don't look new."

Elizabeth lowered her gaze, and didn't respond.

Mrs. Bradley pulled the small girl into her arms, burying Elizabeth's head into her chest and saying, "You're safe now, sweet child. I promise you, you are safe now."

Warmth, and overwhelming emotions that the small girl couldn't handle flooded through her. She trembled, tears spilling over eyes, and before she even knew it she was clinging on to Mrs. Bradley for dear life and sobbing.

Mrs. Bradley held her, kissing her head, and wiping away her tears. "It's okay, sweet child. It's okay."

Elizabeth cried over things she didn't understand, over wounds she wished she didn't have, and over a heartbreak that she wasn't sure would ever go away.

'Why couldn't she have been my mother?'

'Why couldn't I have been part of this family from the start?'

Mrs. Bradley soothed her with gentle love, and an open heart. "You're safe now, my sweet child. You're my daughter now."

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

SLAUGHTER AT LUXANNA – TWENTY THREE DEATHS!

LUXANNA MASSACRE! ONLY ONE SURVIVOR!

TWENTY THREE DEAD AT LUXANNA!

Headlines of a similar nature began to circulate through Central.

The night of the massacre—for there really was no other way to describe it—was one that Elizabeth could barely wrap her head around. She had the memories of her actions, but those memories felt detached.

Like she was watching someone else butcher the servants.

There still wasn't any guilt, or uncomfortable feelings around the night. She really thought she ought to, though. She thought taking a life was something that should deeply bother her, or cause some kind of hesitation, or hiccup.

As someone who was working hard to invent new medicine to save lives, she fully understood their value.

But try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to care.

Did she secretly resent them? Did she wish their deaths?

Or maybe this was simply who she was?

Was she a killer?

The concept of murder didn't bother her. She never gave it much thought beforehand because it didn't matter to her.

She knew when she became a soldier she would have to do so for her country.

She was told, every day, that she was going to kill.

That she was being trained to become a living weapon for the betterment of her country.

Did she simply become desensitize?

She didn't know.

Or maybe Crow did his job. Maybe he turned her into a good little soldier like he wanted.

Maybe.

'If I am a soldier,' Elizabeth concluded slowly, 'then I'll make sure to protect those I care about. If I have to take a life, I want to make sure that it's the right thing to do.'

She may never know why she was comfortable with murder, gore, or other things, but she thought maybe it didn't matter.

As long as she could protect the family that cared for her—Mrs. Bradley, Selim, and Mr. Bradley—then that's all she could ask for her.

After all, she fully realized that if it hadn't been for them—for their kindness—she would not be here today.

Literally, and figuratively.

Without Selim's friendship, she would have wilted away until she became an emotionless husk. Her Grandfather's abuse would have only grown more severe, and she was certain he would have killed her.

But Selim stopped him, and saved Elizabeth from a cruel demise.

She owed her life to him.

The least she could do was keep him safe.

Elizabeth was accepted into the Bradley's family without any fuss. While she retained her status as Luxanna heiress, she couldn't legally take over the family until she was sixteen.

With Mr. Bradley's influence, he named Mrs. Bradley Elizabeth's guardian, and the Bradleys became Elizabeth's foster family.

With Mrs. Bradley declaring Elizabeth as her daughter now, she kindly told Elizabeth she wouldn't mind if the small girl called her Mum.

Having never had a mother, and having come to deeply love Mrs. Bradley as her surrogate mother, Elizabeth happily (while crying) told her she would love to.

This also meant that Mr. Bradley had been unceremoniously titled as Papa now.

(When the name Father was originally suggested both Mr. Bradley and Selim had vehemently rejected such, so Papa was chosen instead.)

Selim was still Selim, though.

He was her best friend in the entire world, and he always would be.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

"Oh," came Elizabeth as she stared down at her partial failure for her new blood plants. The crisp morning light of dawn filtered in through the greenhouse windows, bathing everything in hues of gold. Unfortunately the warm sunlight did nothing to assist in the unfortunate situation Elizabeth found herself in.

"What?" Selim asked—he had accompanied her for that chilly winter morning. He peered down into the cupped leaf and wrinkled his nose in distaste. "It reeks of blood."

"It's only the blood plasma, it didn't produce any blood cells," Elizabeth frustratedly explained. "This is the only one to have survived, too! All the other hybrid attempts died."

"You can't expect every endeavour to be a success. Unlike me, you aren't perfect," Selim pointed out.

Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at her friend before she turned back to look at her plasma-filled plant. She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought. "I wonder... Blood cells are produced from bone marrow which is comprised of two types of stem cells: hemopoietic, and stroma. Hemopoietic is what produces blood cells, and I thought I could replicate it through a plants' hormone abscisic acid, but I guess not. How can I, then? Hmm."

"Why not transmute the necessary parts from an animal?" Selim suggested.

Elizabeth gave him an appalled look. "I am not experimenting on some poor animal any more than I have to! I already feel bad for using the rats."

"They're rats."

"You're point?" she retorted. "I like animals. I'm not going to needlessly subject them to experimentation when I don't even know it would work. Besides I need human cells, not animal. If I introduced an animal's bone marrow it would make things needlessly harder. If anything, I ought to introduce human bone marrow."

Selim frowned thoughtfully. "Humans, huh?"

"Yep. And I doubt I'll run into any human bone marrow any time soon," Elizabeth sighed. "So I'll have to think of something else."

"Hm."

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

The Bradleys' living room was quaint and cozy. There was a massive fireplace at the far end with two couches on either side of it. There were tall bookcases covering two walls, and each of them were filled with Katherine Bradley's favorite books (she was an avid reader). It was tastefully decorated with blues, browns, and creams, while warm lamps were strategically scattered about.

There were also a few hidden weapons stashed here and there by the führer, but they were hidden well enough only Selim had stumbled upon them by sheer accident (and even then he's only found three out of seven).

In the chilly months of spring and winter this was Elizabeth and Selim's favorite spot to be. They loved sitting by the fireplace as they took turns reading from some of Mum's beloved books. At times Mum even joined the two with them, carrying a tray of tea and snacks that the children would munch on while she read to them.

In the late evenings when the führer, Papa, returned home he would join them on the couch and listen in. He wasn't one to read out loud, but he drew comfort from listening to his wife, and seeing how happy his children were.

Around noon on a cold spring day found Selim waiting for Elizabeth to join him in the living room. The two had planned on listening to Mum read from a mystery novel she picked out.

He sat by the fireplace, his knees tucked in, and he watched the fire lazily eat the wood he fed it.

Then the living room doors opened and an out of breath Elizabeth hurried inside. She carried three glass jars—with one of them being more than twice the size of the other two—and headed over to Selim.

"S-Selim," she called out, rearranging the jars so she held the two smaller ones in one arm, and the big one in the other. "I—I have something for you."

Curious, Selim got up from his spot and met Elizabeth halfway.

"I was, um, I was doing a little light reading a couple nights ago and one of the psychological articles I was reading talked about compliments. Genuine compliments, specifically, and how they can help nurture self-esteem, and, um..." Elizabeth fumbled with her words, slowly growing quieter as she went on. Red-cheeked, she held out the largest of the glass jars.

Selim carefully accepted the jar, raising an eyebrow at the multi-colored notes stuffed inside. Elizabeth nervously fidgeted in place, clutching the last two remaining jars tightly.

Selim lifted up the lid and pulled out one of the notes. Out loud he read, "Your red eyes look really cool."

Embarassment flooded through Elizabeth as she realized how utterly mortifying it would be if she stuck around while Selim read all of the complimentary notes she made for him. They were intended to be a nice gesture, but Elizabeth knew her poor heart wouldn't survive if he read all of them outloud near her.

"I-I-I-I-I h-h-h-h-a-a-ave t-to g-g-go," Elizabeth stammered out, her face hotter than the sun and redder than tomatoes.

"Nah, I think you should stay," Selim said, a horribly cruel smile slowly taking over his face. There was maliciously gleeful shine in his eyes as his shadows grabbed onto Elizabeth. "Let's see... I love the way you give characters different voices when you read out loud."

A choked squeaking sound escaped Elizabeth, and she squirmed to try and escape Selim's shadows. "M-M-M-M-M-Mer-er-ercy!"

But Selim was unrepentant, pulling out another note. "You're the best seeker in hide and seek."

This started to make Selim cackle while Elizabeth felt like she was about to have a heart attack from how utterly embarrassed she was.

Mercy was granted to her when the door to the living room opened up, and Selim had to immediately retract his shadows. Elizabeth stumbled forward, noticing that it was Mum who had opened the door. She shoved a jar in Mum's arms, and fled before Selim could catch her again.

"Tch," Selim muttered after she left.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Elizabeth clutched at the last jar of compliments she made, walking quickly through Central Operations to drop them off at the führer's desk. She did her best to avoid meeting anyone's eyes, trying desperately to calm her heart and cool her face.

Unfortunately that did not happen.

Before she could make it to the führer's door she ran into a strange man.

Literally.

"Ah!" she exclaimed as she practically sprinted into his side. "I—I'm sorry!"

The man in question gave her a toothy grin, waving her off. "It's fine—ah, you look familiar."

Elizabeth flushed, unconsciously taking a step away from the man.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you," the man apologized. "I'm Maes Hughes, from Intelligence. Are you lost?"

The name clicked somewhere in the back of Elizabeth's mind. She could vaguely recall coming across him at the library.

Something about him bothered her, though. The way he smiled felt strained, like he was forcing a masquerade. And his eyes felt—felt off. Not bad, per say, but not good, either.

He felt like—

He felt like a man who was covering a bullet hole with a band aide. Like a man who was trying to save a sinking ship by using his hands to toss the water back out into the dark sea.

Like a man with one too many scars and who didn't know yet how to deal with them.

She couldn't explain how she felt that way, or why, but Elizabeth wasn't one to ignore her instincts.

And they told her that this was a man who meant well, but had quite a bit of baggage.

"I'm not lost," Elizabeth told him, wondering if she ought to feel pity for the man, or not. "I'm here to see Mr—I mean, Papa."

Maes rubbed the back of his head. "Hmm. Do you know where he is?"

"Yes, sir," Elizabeth answered.

"Mind if I take you to him? It doesn't sit well with me to leave a child alone."

Elizabeth wanted to tell him she would be fine on her own, but for some reason she held her tongue. Instead, she found herself agreeing to such with a smile. "Okay. Thank you."

Maes smiled at her. "So who's your papa?"

"Führer King Bradley," Elizabeth answered.

Maes did a double take, his mouth dropping open. "W—Wait, then does that make you Elizabeth Luxanna?"

"Yes," she said, doing a small curtsy. "Pleasure to meet you."

Maes scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Aha, likewise."

Elizabeth waited a handful of seconds to allow Maes to take the lead, and he caught on quickly enough and began to do so. Throughout the short journey to the führer's office, it looked like Maes wanted to speak with her. He kept opening his mouth as if to say something, but a conflicted look came over his face and he abruptly shut his mouth.

When they reached the office and entered, Elizabeth greeted her foster father with a curtsy. "Good afternoon, Mr. B—Papa."

"Good afternoon, Elizabeth," Papa responded at his desk. He raised an eyebrow upon noticing Maes.

"Mr. Hughes was nice of enough to escort me," Elizabeth politely explained.

Mr. Brad—er—Papa raised both his eyebrows at that. "I wasn't aware you needed an escort."

"That was because of me, sir," Maes interjected. "It didn't sit well with me to leave a young girl unattended."

"Ah. I see. Thank you for your consideration." Papa folded his hands together as he leaned over his desk. "And what did you need, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth held out the jar. "Just wanted to drop this off, sir."

Papa reached forward to accept the jar, giving it a once over. "Thank you, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth curtsied. "I'll heading out to my greenhouse to work now, s—Papa. Have a good day."

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

EXTRA:

After a long day of researching for substituting bone marrow, Elizabeth was glad to finally be able to relax in her room.

With a big yawn she entered her bedroom, flipped on the light, and then froze.

Because there, on her bed, was the jar of compliments she had given Selim.

"No," Elizabeth whispered, horrified.

Her room became filled with mirthful red eyes, and wicked smiles. She turned on her heel to try and flee her room before it was too late, but—

Selim's shadows shoved her book case in front of her bedroom door, as Selim himself came in through her window.

Elizabeth whimpered. "Mercy."

Selim's downright cruel grin told her that no mercy would be given that night.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Answer: Pride, with Wrath being right behind him.

Question: Which part of Amestris would you like to live in? Maybe near Briggs, or right at Central?

Reviews are love!