Morphed

Chapter Thirty One

Lol, I suck.

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Say goodbye, as we dance with the devil tonight.
Don't you dare look at him in the eye, as we dance with the devil tonight

~ Dance With The Devil (Breaking Benjamin)

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She saw the Homunculus first. The shapely woman was standing with her back to Riza. Her long black dress, wavy black hair and shapely figure Riza recognised as Ed's description of Lust. Riza allowed herself a moment to look past the Homunculus at the child behind her.

His shirt was torn to shreds, and a few small bruises marred his body. His skin was pale. Her eyes went to his flushed face, and she saw his golden eyes were alight with pain. His hair was mussed, he was groaning, and she realised with horror that the Homunculus' spear-like nails were embedded in his lower left abdomen. He groaned again, whimpering as he swayed from the chains that must be the only thing keeping him upright, his wounds leaking crimson.

She processed all of this in a second and made to shout for Lust's attention when she noticed the one thing that could make her falter.

The Homunculi's left hand.

Down Edward's pants.

The world stopped. And started. And stopped again.

Her blood roared and she might have roared with it, and the next thing she knew she was emptying her clip into Lust's back.

The despicable shouted with surprise and turned to her, roughly yanking her long nails out of Edward's side. Ed screamed in his throat and sagged, but Riza had to focus on the Homunculus now. She forced herself to block out Ed's pained sounds.

She grabbed another clip and reloaded her handgun as Lust smiled at her, ceasing her horrific ministrations on Ed's young body. Red tainted Riza's vision as the Homunculus licked some of the blood from her nails and grinned at her, a toothy thing that set Riza on edge.

"Well, I suppose you think you're here to rescue him, don't you?" Lust drawled. Riza responded by once again emptying the clip of her gun into the woman's head.

It may not of killed her, but it sent the woman staggering, giving the sharpshooter time to reload this particular gun's last clip of ammo. She tossed the empty cartridge and kept firing until the gun was empty, tossed that too, then grabbed another one. This time she emptied most of the clip into the Ouroboras tattoo on the woman's chest, purely because the image of it was sending her wild, and she blinked when she realised it was having a stronger effect the shooting the head. Lust was gasping now, but the stupid smirk never left her face.

"You can't kill me you know." She said even as her body regenerated. "Bullets can't hurt me, not really." Edward mumbled something Riza didn't hear, but whatever he'd said Lust hadn't liked, because she slapped him on the face and told him to shut his mouth. He mumbled again, and as Lust turned her back to Riza once more the First Lieutenant realised that Edward was trying to talk to her.

Lust threatened to cut out his tongue if he didn't stop talking, and Ed stayed silent for a moment, before drawing his breath quickly and roaring. "THE CIRCLES ON HER HANDS! SHOOT THEM! IT'LL IMMOBILI-" Ed was cut off by a vicious swipe of talons over his chest, and though Riza could see that the wounds wouldn't kill him, that action combined with Ed's words sent Riza into the killing calm.

Her breathing slowed, her mind cleared.

And she aimed.

Fired.