A slow, yet steady, dripping noises resounded throughout the dark room, as well as the rattling of chains and the squeaking of mice. Cheshire had been sitting on the floor of a dank, dark, musty jail cell for at least the past 5 hours. He was wearing enlarged handcuffs that kept him sitting with his back against the wall, as well as braces for his feet. He was completely immobilized, which severely bothered the cat. He was used to jumping around and swinging from rafters. He had even been chained up a few times back home. But THIS…this was just horrible.
There were so many mice around, but he could chase none of them. He could have captured the falling droplets of condensation in one of his palms to gaze at his reflections. He had absolutely nothing to do. So he took up talking to himself.
"Sure is cold in here…" he whispered, to no one in particular. He had talked to himself a lot in the lair of the Homunculi. It wasn't awkward or anything to him now.
"Sure wish Winry would visit…" he sighed somberly.
"Why would you want Winry to visit you? She was your prisoner," He answered himself, engaging in a self-argument.
"Well, maybe I liked her a little," he whined.
"Liked her? She's just a normal human. You can find humans anywhere."
"Yeah…but you can't find many Winrys…" he sighed, sinking into a deep pit of loneliness.
"Shut up in there!" A hoarse voice screamed, startling Cheshire out of his trance-like argument. Sighing into the dark, he remained silent for a very long time before the steel bars of his cell clanged open. In the doorway stood Edward and Alphonse, as well as Roy Mustang and Lieutenant Armstrong.
"My God, look at that monster…" Armstrong gasped, taking in the disheveled sight of the deformed homunculus.
"He's the one that held Winry captive. Put him to death!" Edward demanded, getting supported nods from his brother.
"Silly Edward, one cannot simply kill a homunculus. You must do about it in a special, if not debilitating horrifying way. First, we must find remains of his human body, and then get him to give up all those precious Philosopher Stones. THEN he is vulnerable to our weapons.
Cheshire gave a small whimper at all of the painful-sounding endings to his already shortened life, but truly, he was glad. He would die by the hand of someone who truly wished to end his life, not an army of Homunculi who could torture him for weeks and weeks before simply ripping the stones out of him. He hoped the execution would be done before this happened.
"Well, let's get him out of there, shall we?" Armstrong asked, the others nodding in return. They stormed the small cell, delivering several blows to Cheshire's head whilst blinding him and detaching him from the wall. He couldn't see anything at all, but he knew they were taking him to their Furor. A sick realisation ran through Cheshire's body as he remembered something. One of his brothers was the Fuhrur. He immediately began panicking, writhing in terror in the strong Alchemist's grip, and getting several more punches to the head for his troubles.
His brother, the most terrible and fearsome of them all, Wrath, would surely end him as soon as he could. His energy spent, Cheshire let his captors deliver him to his worst nightmare, and absolutely his last.
u_u
After at least 10 minutes of listening to his escorts jabber on about all the terrible way of how to torture information out of him, he was finally dumped on the hard floor of a large room. The hood shielding his vision was ripped away, leaving Cheshire blinking away spots and battle for vision. Several gasps went throughout the room as the Furor's subjects took in the horrid, beaten cat-thing.
"Please, be calm, everyone. Before you lays a creature so vile and tasteless, that he dare challenge the capitol of our glorious state. This, alone, is a crime punishable by death. Not only that, but he is one of the horrid Homunculi. For that, I do believe torture is in order." The Furor calmly regarded the broken Cheshire, as if he were simply gazing at a child who had simply wandered into an 'off-limits' zone.
"What shall we do, sir?" Roy Mustang asked, addressing his Furor with the sincerest of formalities.
"Well, before we start anything, I would like a word alone with the captive," The Furor asked, getting startled gasps out of the room.
"B-But sir, why would you want to be alone with such a horrible monster?" Armstrong sputtered, sweat dribbling down his face.
"Lieutenant Armstrong, it seems you have forgotten your place," The Furor said calmly, placing a shamed expression upon Armstrong's brow. "Now; you will all leave the room, please."
As everyone grumbled in discontent, yet filed out as they were told, Cheshire and King Bradley were finally alone. He strutted around the room, not even really paying much attention to his brother. After a while, he let out a shamed 'tsk' and got down to it.
"Oh, Cheshire… Sometimes I question the reason as to why our Father even created you," he spat, causing the poor cat to flinch.
"Ah…B-Bradley- I m-mean, KING Bradley…sir…" Cheshire sputtered, his heart threatening to explode out of his chest and all over the nice, porcelain tiles.
"You disgusting creature. You do know that I'm not just going to let you go, right?" Bradley continued. "Father has given me special orders to eliminate you should you ever betray us. You do understand that, right?" he asked, coldness seeping into his voice.
"…yes, sir..." Cheshire answered, hope draining from his thoughts.
"Oh, and I'm also going to torture that Winry girl until she dies of exhaustion," Bradley threw in, just to watch Cheshire expression.
"N-No! I-I'll do whatever you want! You can beat me up for the rest of eternity! Just…just don't hurt Winry…" Cheshire whimpered, tears resting upon his eyelids.
"Oh, I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice, dear brother…" Bradley responded, still cool and collected. "In fact, we may be able to start this 'torture' sooner than you thought." Placing two of his fingers in his mouth, Bradley let out a high-pitched, piercing whistle. The roof began to quiver, and before Cheshire could see what was happening, the rest of his brothers were standing before him in a heap of rubble.
"Oh, hello little brother! What a surprise to see you here!" Envy squealed, his giggles joining his brothers'.
"Now. Let us begin," Bradley growled, drawing his sword.
