CHAPTER TWO: The Truth Behind the Triangle

"Edward... Alfonse…" She was weak, and it nearly killed me to hear her strong voice sound that way.

"Shh, Callie, you mustn't talk. You're hurt! And we need you. Stay quiet just now and let Ed fix you up." Al seemed desperate.

"But I have to... have to tell…"

"Hush now Cal, after the transmutation you can talk. It may take some automail, but we'll get your leg back on." It had been lucky, lucky that Al could deflect Hawkeye's blow from her heart to her leg.

"Edward! Listen to me. It won't work because you can't... c-can't use human transmutation."

"Of course I can, I'm not afraid of bending the rules, I've done it before!" Why was she thinking of propriety now?

"No, that's not what I m-meant. I-I am not a human being."

"What?!? Callie, you don't mean that! She's delirious, Ed. Quickly!"

"No, Alfonse, listen please. I am a homunculus, a false human. I have so much to tell you, but I'm about to lose consciousness. A transmutation circle wouldn't heal me. It has to be a--" I cut her off.

"--A triangle." I'd forgotten, in my anxious rush, what she'd told us.

"Right, Edward."

"Hush now, Cal. We'll have you back to normal in no time." And I clapped my hands together. A green spark glimmered for a moment on her leg, then all was dark.

"Ed, you don't actually believe what she said?!"

"The transmutation triangle worked, Al. I have to believe my own work. The only reason a triangle could work is if her body wasn't completely human. A circle is required to maintain homeostasis, in all the normal ways. But for someone abnormal--" It couldn't make sense. For twelve hours, ever since she'd told us, I'd wrestled with the idea that the young form lying on our sofa could be a false human.

"But Ed, she's nothing like Lust, or Greed! They're m-monsters!"

"I know, Al, and that's what I don't get. She's younger than them, for one, and where Lust and Envy are incomparably beautiful…"

"Callie's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!" My brother's voice was so childish.

"Yea, I know, me too! But not in the same way. Her beauty isn't a disguise, like theirs. It's only love that makes us see her like that."

"Ed? Do you remember our Sunday school teacher?"

"Ms. Applestock? Sure, that crazy old lady was always harping on and on about sins."

"Yea. Do you remember, she made us each do a presentation on one of the Seven Deadly Sins, that one December?"

"Yea. I had Greed. Oh how it makes me shudder now, and back then I thought the worst of it was stealing an extra cookie!"

"Yea. But brother, do you remember what my Sin was?"

"Hmm... Winry had Envy, I remember, and Mira had Lust. That was awkward. And it wasn't Gluttony, because Mitchell did that cool simulation. So Was it Wrath?"

'No, brother. There's one left."

"I know. Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Wrath, Sloth... what's left? And where are you going with this, anyway?"

"Brother, it's Pride." At the word, Cal's hand twitched, and her pale forehead tensed.

"What?! Cal just moved a little. Cal, talk to me girl! Calantra!!"

"Brother, that means I'm right. Her name must have been Pride." But there was no triumph in Al's face.

"Yea... that was me."

"Cal! You don't know what you're saying. Your name is Calantra, the Phoenix Alchemist!"

"And that explains a lot about that nickname. She's not a flame-thrower like Roy Mustang, but she was reborn from ashes like the mythical bird. Weren't you, Callie?"

"Yes, Al, I was. I ran away. I couldn't stand it anymore. Huh, they say Pride goes before a fall... but I chose to fall. I hated them, all of them! Sloth always made me do his dirty work, Lust raped me several times, Greed kept trying to eat me in my sleep, and don't get me started on Gluttony! We were the lab rats, the Dream Team, they called us. Super-human, the Military's dirty little secret. I became suicidal. Then one day, we were out on assignment, and I saw the Brookwaiste Bridge, looming like a tower, 300 feet high. I plunged without a second thought. Such sweet release! And I won't even tell you about the After-Life, because you wouldn't believe-- hey, what's this thing on my leg?" She felt the automail cautiously, like it was some contamination.

"Oh, that's the automail. Sorry Cal, we couldn't completely reattach your leg without some sort of bonder. It's only five inches, though, and even if you wear a short skirt, no one will ever see it. I think I did a pretty good job…"

"Remember, you're courting Pride here, Edward." But she smirked as she said it.

"Hey, don't put yourself down-- Ohhh, you're joking! There's my Cal! Back from the dead, the Phoenix Alchemist indeed!" I was glad to see her playing around so soon.

"We were so worried about you, Callie."

"Don't worry Al. You can't easily kill what's not human. Although Riza did give me quite the migraine. Now, do you boys want to hear my full story? Alright. I'm about nineteen years old. Don't look so shocked, I know I look twelve or thirteen. I was seven when I fell, remember? And I was reborn into this ugly thing. But I'm quite content actually, it's nice to go to sleep and not worry about a Sin tearing your clothes off and-- erm, where was I? Oh yea, the laboratory. They kept us all together, which was a big mistake. Even humunculeii need some "me time" away from the horrors of the world."

"So what happened after you fell, Cal?" I was almost afraid to ask.

"Well I woke up in a hospital, completely unaware of who I was or where I was. I was barely alive, and for two years I stayed there under the care of a sweet older surgeon, Dr. Thessalonius. That old Doctor treated me like the father I never had. From his documentation, I appeared two or three years old when I arrived. After those two years, I appeared nine or ten."

"What?!?"

"Callie, you aged eight years in two?!?" Cal fiddled with the automail, clinking her small hands against it.

"I'm not human, remember. I was learning so much about the world I'd never seen. When I left, I was doing the work of a medical assistant, until the Doctor was attacked and killed by an Ishbali terrorist."

"That's when you decided to work for the State."

"Yes. The Doctor had introduced me, a seven or eight-year-old, to a respected alchemist of the State. Your father."

"Dad?!?"

"You knew our father?!"

"I studied under Hohenheim of Light for eleven months, while I aged to my present state. Now that I've hit the learning curve, I don't really know what'll happen. Maybe I'll stay this way. All that's for certain is that after I was commissioned to be Lieutenant Hawkeye's apprentice, I swore I would one day defeat the other homunculeii. I will see them destroyed."

"Whoa, Cal--" I'd never seen such determination in those green eyes.

"So now you know my story. The Phoenix Alchemist, the first child magician employed by the military until you came along, Edward Elric. And now I've hit quite a snag in my plan, with you and Al."

"Snag? Callie, what are you talking about?"

"She fell in love. Can homunculi feel human love?" A simple question, but something like anger flared in her.

"I'm positive I can. I'd never felt anything but platonic adoration for the Doctor, and I was so disappointed. I wanted real love, something I'd only read about in storybooks. I was beginning to think it was a human legend. And then, in the warehouse, when I saved Ed's life…"

"You did NOT save my life, I could have taken them--!!!!"

"... I began to see that I was wrong. And, and I'm so glad I was! I realized that even though I'm not human, and I don't deserve to be loved like one, I don't have to always be alone." She spoke so quietly we could barely hear her.

"You'll never be alone as long as we're here, Callie."

"You've got us for life, Cal."

"I love you both so much!" She was crying now, her eyes turned red and puffy as she rubbed them hard.

((Sorry, I know that last bit was really cheesy, but it explains a lot, doesn't it? I tried, emuroo, to make it a bit less confusing and to humanize Calantra, so she's not a MarySue. How did I do? Rates and reviews are love!))