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The day Al and Ed had been captured by the homunculi’s guard was the end of their journey. There was no other way around it. The soldiers restrained Ed first, before they split Al into pieces, leaving him only with his torso and helmet as they were transported back to the capital.
Ed was forced to kneel before their old master, Al was dumped and scattered beside his brother.
“Only three hours. I’m almost disappointed how quickly that capture took. Really, I thought you were smarter than this, Edward,” the oldest homunculus gloated, shadows growing larger in the room. “You know the punishment by now, don’t you?”
“D-Don’t. Please,” Ed begged, his head touching the floor, pushing against it as if it would change the outcome.
Al could only watch as his brother continued to beg for the punishment to be different, but still, it did not change how Pride came forward, his shadows growing larger and larger until they encircled Al’s metallic body.
“This would stop if you obeyed like a good little boy,” Pride reprimanded, his shadows caressing Al’s soulmark, and he heard nothing more, fading away.
Ed saw the soulfire eyes dim to practically nothing as Pride took over his brother’s armoured body, extra shadows dragging the limbs back into place.
Like a puppet being yanked by the strings, Al’s head snapped up with too many eyes peeking out from the shadows in his empty body.
“You must secretly love seeing this. You can’t help yourself!” Pride’s voice overlapped with Al’s, sending spiders crawling down Ed’s spine. “What is it, the fifth time this year? Really, you must love seeing your brother be my little sockpuppet.”
“No… You’re wrong,” Ed ground out, unable to stop the homunculi from puppeting his brother however he pleased. His hands were restrained to prevent him from performing alchemy, not that he even knew any alchemy that was related to light or fire.
“I’m wrong? Then why do you keep disobeying me?” Al’s body marched towards him, and Ed didn’t fight it as his brother was forced to pick him up by the front of his dirty, torn undershirt. “Answer honestly, little boy.”
Ed struggled to contain his anger over the short comments, grinding his teeth in an attempt to keep from exploding. It was useless to do so anyway, but it would prolong the punishment. It would prolong the amount of time Al was forced to sleep against his will.
“Answer.” Pride’s voice took control of Al’s body, the voice echoing through the empty armour.
“Leave my brother alone,” Ed demanded instead of answering, because what could he say? He was trying to escape his master and the homunculi for the country to the East. That way, he could find a way to reverse the curse of human transmutation, he was certain of it. “You want to punish me. Punish me, but not…”
“Oh but it’s so much fun to use your brother against you.” Pride purred, taking off the helmet so Ed could see how the shadowy hands caressed the soulbinding mark that ensured Al wouldn’t stay dead. “Look how easy it is to control him! He can’t even wake up and see what he’s doing!”
One of Al’s hands shot out and gripped Ed’s organic arm, squeezing and pulling it at unnatural angles, easily ripping the ropes apart.
“He doesn’t know what I make him do, unless you tell him afterwards,” Pride giggled, making Al’s body yank Ed’s arm enough to dislocate the arm from the shoulder socket.
Ed screamed.
“Do you think he feels what I make him do?” Pride continued, his original vessel striding forward. “Or do you think he imagines what it had felt like, when you tell him all the juicy details?”
“Stop!” Ed begged, the pain unbearable as he was forced to hang from his dislocated arm. “Please!”
“You know the rules, Elric,” Pride’s original vessel reached the two, and he reached up to grab Ed by the chin, forcing him to look at the soulless eyes of the young boy he had possessed long ago to be his original vessel. “We don’t stop until I get bored.”
Al’s hand tightened around Ed’s arm until it snapped like a toothpick.
Ed screamed.
Pride giggled.
The hell continued.