So... I'm back with another chapter after yet another writer's block... My muse is a funny (or not really as it can be pretty annoying at times) thing, so I can't really say when the next update will be. However, I would like to make an announcement as I am planning once this story is finished (in probably quite a few chapters as I have a few things that need to happen first) to make a sequel.

So thank you so much for sticking with me this far and I hope I'll update soon!

(And do please leave a review as they usually inspire quicker updates, but no flames, please)

Chapter twenty-nine

Roy pulled on his white T-shirt and light grey sweatpants and sighed. His clothes smelled like his, his hair finally smelled like his own because he had the right shampoo, he had an unusually generous amount of his own deodorant on just because of the scent…

… Yes, for the first time in a month, he finally felt clean. He smelled clean. His bathroom smelled clean. It smelled like a clean and healthy Roy Mustang that was done getting clean.

And it's fucking wonderful.

Roy looked at himself in the mirror and suddenly froze.

How the fuck hadn't he noticed the beard?

It had been allowed to grow for a month and he hadn't had a shave in all that time. He'd just seen it as natural and unavoidable in the cage and back at the hospital he'd been too used to it being there to actually even consider it. In hindsight, he guessed that nobody had mentioned it to him at the hospital as the nurses weren't going to exactly encourage him to request a razor.

But now? Here? In front of his own mirror?

"You're going down…" Roy said angrily. "I'm a free man."

God, that felt good to say.

And so Roy walked back downstairs fifteen minutes later, clean-shaven and as ready as he'd ever be for the next post on the programme.

"Alphonse?" Roy asked into the hallway as he headed for the kitchen to find a pair of scissors for Ed's hair as well as the bag of crisps.

"We're in the living room, Colonel," Al said, and so Roy pocketed the scissors and went into the living room to find Al standing in the middle of the room, Ed nowhere in sight.

"Where's Edward?!" Roy said, surprised and confused.

"Brother found himself a… hiding place…"

"Bo-uh," came Ed's voice slightly muffled and Roy wheeled around to see that Ed had curled himself up inside the otherwise empty drinks cabinet, judging by the proof that the glass doors provided.

Roy's eyebrows shot up at the sight and he threw the bag of crisps to Alphonse before he strode over to Ed. The boy had nearly shut the doors completely and was looking up at Roy with a kind of uncertain curiosity.

Roy gently opened the doors, even when Ed halfheartedly tried to keep the left door shut. "Okay, Edward, I know you're not going to be happy, but it's time to get you fixed up a bit, so bear with me and then we'll get you tons of cookies and ice cream."

Ed just looked at him curiously, obviously perplexed by the sudden lack of a beard. "Here we go, then…" Roy said, reaching in to lift him out. But then he paused as Ed placed his hand on his right cheek, holding it with a puzzled look upon his face, studying Roy's face as though he had a memory on the tip of his tongue.

Then something curious happened. Ed suddenly reached out and grabbed the front of Roy's t-shirt and stared at him. "AWLUH-ELLU!" he shouted, before he looked at Al sadly and then Ed let go of Roy's t-shirt and pulled his hand back to his chest and curled in on himself, frowning.

Roy just kept looking at Ed, the boy didn't actually seem angry, but he was trying to recreate it.

"Colonel? That was —" Al began, sounding shocked.

"Yes… That was when I first met you two in Resembool," Roy said, still looking at Ed, whose lips were moving slightly without noise. "Edward? Are you okay?" Roy asked, worried that Ed had remembered something that made him fear Roy. "Edward?"

The boy looked at Roy suddenly and his eyes seemed to fill with realisation. "Eh…dah … Ed-dah … Eddah!"

Then Ed reached out with something akin to a smile and grabbed Roy's finger. "Eddah!"

Fuck.

Ed was looking so pleased with himself, but problem was that judging by the evidence, Ed was now thinking that it was Roy's name.

"No, I'm Roy, remember? Roy Mustang."

Ed just looked at him in confusion, no comprehension to be found in those golden orbs.

But there was something else in there…

Hurt.

Ed was looking hurt.

But why? What had Roy done to warrant that reaction?

Damn it! Of course! The other times, I've been encouraging him and celebrating it when he remembered something, which is probably why he's trying so hard in the first place!

Roy sighed and leaned forwards, gently stroking a stray lock of knotted hair out of Ed's face with his free left hand. Ed whimpered and looked at him with fright as he let go of Roy's finger and tried batting away his hand.

But there was still hurt in those eyes.

"Edward, I'm sorry," Roy said, sitting down with his legs crossed as he watched the frightened child who was looking not unlike he would if Roy had slapped him.

"…Eddah," Ed said, looking at Roy with hope in his eyes.

Roy sighed and smiled, holding out his finger for Ed to take. "Very good, Edward, and soon, hopefully, you'll learn that it's your name."

Ed studied Roy's face and his mouth formed into a very weak smile as he grabbed Roy's finger. "Eddah."

Al found himself lost for words as he watched the conversation. It was heartbreaking to see his brother like this. He didn't know what had happened to him, what was happening to him to make him this way.

But Al had never wanted to cry as much as he did right now.

Instead, he could only watch as the Colonel sat there for the next fifteen minutes. "Alphonse, are you ready?" he said suddenly, his back still to him. Al could hear that the Colonel was finding this hard too.

"Yes, sir."

"Then I'm sorry that I have to carry you again, Ed."

And then the Colonel leaned forwards and scooped Brother into his arms, Ed instantly screaming and thrashing in the strong grip. "Okay, Al, you go ahead and open the bathroom door for me, then when we're through, I want you to lock the three of us in and remove the key as Ed is still dead smart and determined and I don't want to take any chances."

"Okay!" Al said, walking ahead of them, wanting to punch every single one of the people who did this to Big Brother as he made his way up the stairs.

"First door on the right, Al!" the Colonel said over the sound of Ed's screams.

Al did as he was directed and opened the door for them, seeing the way the Colonel was holding Brother securely and preventing him from hurting himself by kicking and punching the things around him. Before this all happened, Al would never even have thought that his brother could make such noises. He really just sounded like a trapped animal.

Al closed the door behind them and locked it as he was told to before placing the key on top of the shelf by the door, and then he opened the bag of crisps, holding it at the ready as the Colonel struggled to get Ed's sweater off him, Ed now yelping where he was sitting in the bathtub. "Al, please hold his leg in place so that he doesn't hurt his foot and then do the same with the arm when I get started on the sweatpants."

"Yes, sir!" Al said, walking over to the tub and then he grabbed Ed's right leg just above the ankle. Al still had trouble believing that this was how his relationship with his brother was going to be. This was how his life was going to be.

Brother was...

...Broken.

The Colonel pulled Ed's sweater over his head and as his hair was pulled back and his neck was exposed, Al got his first clear view of the greenish bruises around Ed's neck. That and the strange little dent-like thing on the side of his neck. The skin was unbroken, but it looked like it had been stretched together. "Why's his skin like that, Colonel? Not the bruises, but the ... dent?"

The Colonel seemed to instantly grow sick as he kept pulling Ed's wrist out of the sweater. "Melanie took a bite out of his neck and they healed the wound closed. It's like that because he's basically missing a piece of his neck," he answered in a haunted tone, nearly inaudible over Ed's screams. "Now please come over here and grab his arm for me."

Al was suddenly glad that he didn't have a stomach or he would probably have thrown up. Those monsters had turned his Big Brother into a mere object for them to torment.

And they had broken Ed's mind. They had broken the mind of one of the strongest and smartest people he knew. They had hurt his brother. And Ed was so scared. His eyes seemed to betray some sort of inner torment that Al had never seen the likes of.

Al grabbed Ed's arm and held him still as the Colonel moved to pull off the sweatpants. Then they were off and Ed, his big brother Ed, was staring at them in fear while wearing a pair of diapers.

Al felt like running off and punching everyone who had let this happen to him. Who had let those monsters torture his brother to this point.

Colonel Mustang threw a towel around Ed's shoulders, earning another frightened whimper. "Crisps, now, Al," the Colonel said and Al immediately reached inside the bag and handed one to Ed who began sniffing it and then chewed it with all his might, making Al keep feeding him as Mustang stepped into the tub and sat down on the edge, pulling out a pair of scissors and carefully set to work. "I'm so sorry, Alphonse," he said quietly. "I-I don't know what to say... Just ... If you need to talk, if you need anything, just please tell me. And if ... understandably enough, you don't trust me, then just know that Lieutenant Hawkeye is here too."

Al was overwhelmed by everything. He didn't know what to say or what to do, but the thing that had really stuck with him, was the defeat in the Colonel's voice.

And it made him realise that Brother wasn't the only one who needed his help right now.