Chapter 1: Apprentice
"Envy!" said the girl at the door, smiling at him. "We were wondering if you'd be able to make it; it's so good to see you!"

"Lust?!" cried Envy in astonishment, hardly able to believe his eyes. The girl in front of him looked so much younger, happier, more…mischievous than Lust. And younger...

"Where?! Oh, you meant me," she realized, smiling again. Not exactly the brightest stone in the circle, thought Envy. "But no, I'm afraid I won't be Lust for a while. I'm her apprentice, Temptation. She's the only one who actually gets a chance to say my name; usually 'Tem—’ is all people manage to stammer out anyway before—“

"And you know me…how?" asked Envy, wondering vaguely what the girl meant by saying she was Lust's "apprentice."

"Oh, Lust has told me all about you! I know all of the other Homunculi, too. But I suppose I probably have some explaining to do."

"Actually, I think I can take care of that," said Lust, stepping out and smirking her usual lusty smirk. Envy smirked back; this was definitely the Lust he knew.

"Oh! Y-yes, ma'am," said Temptation immediately, bowing and backing away.

"Nice to see you, Envy," Lust told him.

"Same here…I think. What's going on here anyway that was so urgent and required my attention? There's a whole world full of humans out there that I could be making suffer right now, so if it's not terribly important…"

"Oh, it is, trust me. Follow me," Lust said, walking into the large, old house with Envy following. "Contrary to popular belief, there aren't only 7 Homunculi in existence at a time. Apparently, there are 14. We just didn't know it. So, we've decided that, since there are seven more of us, we're each to take on an…apprentice, if you will. Oh, by the way, what did you think of mine?"

"Perky," replied Envy, shrugging. "She was like a happy receptionist in an office…or a flight attendant; not someone I would want to be around 24/7. Lucky you."

"Funny. Actually, you should thank me for the going to the trouble of gathering the rest up, as well as sending messages to you and the others. Obviously, Gluttony was already here, although I can't say he has much to teach his apprentice, unless the poor thing's forgotten how to eat. The others are all here, waiting for you to arrive. And Envy, please, try your hardest not to kill Greed; you know he'll want to fight you." Envy rolled his eyes as he followed Lust into a room that, as she had said, contained 4 of the other 5 Homunculi (Gluttony was somewhere else…probably eating). And, as she had warned, Greed leapt at him the moment they walked in. Naturally, Envy had Greed on his back on the floor in an instant, smirking down at him.

"Why, hello, Greed. My, we've been apart for so long I had almost forgotten the feeling of your body under mine," Envy laughed.

"Shut up, ya little freak, and get offa me," growled Greed, shoving Envy away, then standing quickly and stepping over to the others.

"If you two are done being childish," said Lust, shooting Envy a glance, in return to which he simply smiled, turning away from her and trying to look innocent (yeah, right). "There are a few...new arrivals you should meet." At this point, a door on the far side of the room opened, and 4 seemingly human teenagers walked into the room, two male, two female. The only thing visibly distinguishing them from humans was the small red mark on each of their bodies in various places; Envy had noticed that Temptation's was on her stomach.

"Defiance," said Lust, and one of the females stood forward, arms crossed and refusing to look at the Homunculi senior. The Homunculus mark was located on one of her forearms. "Abandon…" One of the males (and seemingly the oldest of all of them) came forward, with a somewhat unnerving smile on his face. Since he wore his shirt open, Envy could see his mark on the left side of his chest. "Revenge," Lust continued, and the other boy stepped out, looking much younger than the others, seemingly the same age as Wrath, if not younger, his mark showing blatantly from his right cheek. "And Excess." Envy noticed the look on Greed's face as the second girl (who happened to be rather…nicely proportioned, shall we say) stepped forward, examining her fingernails, showing her mark on the back of her right hand.

Disgusting, the green-haired Homunculus thought, seeing the eagerness in Greed's eyes. He then realized that there were, in fact, only 4 candidates. He turned to Lust to inform her of this fact (in case she hadn't noticed), but she gave him a look that kept him silent.

"So? Go ahead, take your pick," said Lust, turning to the others. Greed immediately stepped forward and pointed down at Excess.

"I like this one," he said, and she looked him up and down. Lust nodded, and the two walked away, out of the house, Greed already giving orders. Envy noticed Lust’s apprentice in the corner taking notes as they left.

"Defiance..." muttered Sloth. "Sounds like my kind of girl."

"He looks like he's my age," said Wrath, pointing at Revenge. "And I like his name. Revenge…you should come play with me!" So the four walked away, looking like a family with Sloth as the mother. Fitting, thought Envy. She always did seem like a mother-figure.

"I suppose that leaves me with this one," said Pride, not sounding entirely displeased as he walked over and took the remaining boy by the arm, dragging him away. Now alone in the room with her, Envy turned to Lust.

"Well?" he asked, and she turned, walking from the room and indicating that he should follow her. He sighed and did so.

"The last kid, excluding mine and Gluttony's, is in here," she said, opening a door after leading him down several long hallways. "She's even more of a non-conformist than Defiance; she doesn't even listen to any of us, and she's somewhat…devious (deceitful, you might say). She certainly has a talent for lying. I figured you would be the best at taming that wild side of hers and making her…obedient. Also…well, I didn't want to bring her out and introduce her…because of her sin…"

"Why? What is it?" Envy asked, and Lust, after hesitating for a moment, leaned over and told him quietly in his ear. Envy's eyes widened. "But…that's only a sin for a Homunculus…"

"Exactly. Obviously, she wouldn't get any respect if we called her that, so we based her name on her human sin; we call her Deceit. You and I are the only ones who know of her alternate sin." Seeing the very still form lying on the bed in a far corner of the room, Envy raised an eyebrow at Lust.

"You want me to make this," he said, walking over and pointing at the mound that was the girl. "…my apprentice?" Lust shrugged (since she was Lust, the effect was nice) and Envy sighed in exasperation, then leaned over closer and began to remove the covers from over the girl's face—then suddenly she reached around, grabbing his wrist and jumping out of the bed, pinning Envy to the ground with his arm behind his back.

"Who the hell are you?!" she growled as Lust watched, smirking, with a fairly good idea of what was about to happen. Envy chuckled quietly, then reached up and countered the girl, shoving her to the ground with a foot on the back of her head and twisting her arm around to her back as she struggled against him. From that vantage, he could see the round, red mark on the back of her neck that showed her inhumanity. He smirked up at Lust.

"I like her."