Edward hung limply from his plait which was, somehow, still together. It was barely staying together, though. He could feel it falling apart.
The man jerked at Edward's plait. He wasn't up to moving around any, though, so he followed the movement without a fight. He was still feeling mostly dazed.
"Come on. You need to be lively for when Mustang comes to get you. I can't have you looking like a useless, limp rag." Edward was suddenly dropped. He curled in on himself and held his head. "How pathetic. I expected more of the Fullmetal alchemist."
The man could be heard walking away, but the relief of his departure was short-lived because his departure was short-lived.
Edward pushed himself up into an awkward sitting position, leaning on his remaining hand.
"Very good. I was hoping you wouldn't play dead when Colonel Mustang sees you. He needs to know that I wasn't lying when I said you were still alive."
"Y- you actually called him?"
"Oh, he talks now too?!"
Edward opened his eyes then. He looked up at a tall man with red hair and a clean face. Sky blue eyes watched him.
"Now, let's get this doggy ready to see his master again." The man grabbed Edward's wrist and pressed it down against the floor, pressing his knee to it to keep it down. Edward saw him pull out a strip of leather. It resembled a belt, but it was much too small to be a belt for anyone.
A collar.
Edward flinched.
"You don't like it? I'm offended. I picked this out especially for you. It has little arrays because I know how much you love alchemy." A cold smirk was on his face.
Edward could feel dread pooling in his gut. This was not good. He didn't know what the arrays could do. He flinched away as the man tried to grab his hair again.
"Hey, what happened to you being so submissive?" There was a frown that was borderline threatening on his face. He obviously like how easy Edward had been before. Edward pulled away uncomfortably from unwelcome hands.
Edward felt the rough leather touch his skin, but he couldn't move any further away from it. He had already pulled away as much as he could. He thrashed as the man tried to wrap the collar around his throat. "Keep your collar to yourself!"
"It's you're collar! See!"
The collar was shoved into Edward's face, but he managed to see that on it was an identification tag. It read the word: Eddie, Doggie of the State.
A cold laugh rang out. "Do you like it?"
Before Edward even got the chance to shout at the man, he felt the collar wrap tightly around his throat. It was yanked tighter after that so that it cut of Edward's oxygen and also his reply. He was sure that it was not going to take long for his face to turn red from a lack of oxygen.
"Oopsie. My mistake." The man loosened the collar slightly. He had the fakest sounding voice ever. It wasn't like Edward believed a word he said, but it was still faker than fake.
Edward gulped in several breaths of cool air. "What the hell?! Are you trying to kill me?!" His voice was rasping a little as he spoke. He instinctively tried to throw a punch at the man, but his arm was still trapped.
"Now, now, that shifting under my knee wasn't any kind of violence I hope?" He asked it as a question as if Edward wanted to answer him.
"Maybe it was," Edward snapped. That wasn't the only thing to snap, though. In one quick movement, the man had Edward's wrist twisted in an odd angle, going just a little past too far and earning a swift snapping sound. Edward yelped in pain, somehow managing to keep from screaming for real, as the man fixed the collar and clipped on a leash.
"You should have been a good doggie because bad doggies get punished, and you don't want that."
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