Good morning readers…so after last night, I posted the chapter, went to bed, woke up an hour later…and threw up. Repeatedly. For four hours. I feel. like. shit. So yeah, safe to say I won't be going to work. So I thought, why not write the next chapter? It is now five in the morning, and there's no danger of me falling asleep, so barring I don't ruin my computer, I thought I would write to distract myself. Anyway, enough self pity. On with the story!

o-0-o

"You just plum," Sixty six turned around slowly, and Alphonse gasped in surprise, all thoughts of ending the fight and finding his brothers quickly blown from his mind, "knocked my head off."

"Your hollow inside," Al said softly in shock. Indeed, between his opponent's hunched shoulders, there was a void of emptiness where a body should have been. Alphonse could only come to one startling conclusion. The military was making soul seals attached to armor that were just like him.

Alphonse reeled as the insane man continued to chatter, placing his helmet back on his shoulders. The military was creating soul-sealed armor? But why?

The young man, not as naive as some seemed to think, quickly came to a few conclusions that would have risen goose flesh on his real body. Why else create soldiers who didn't need to eat or sleep?

To use them as weapons.

It was a despicable thought, but one that Alphonse was beginning to believe the military was capable of. After all they had seen and found out, why would this surprise him now? At this point he just wondered if it was all of them or just a faction. Al sincerely hoped the latter was the case, because he was very close to kidnapping Edward from the military's service and locking him in a box, bodies be damned.

Belatedly, Al realized the man was still talking to him, a monologue of some sort, and he berated himself for being rude. At the very least, he should have pretended to listen, even though he really had better things to do at the moment.

"I'm sorry," Al interrupted him, quite lost at this point, "but what were you saying?"

The man seemed to bristle, the hair on his armor standing on end, and Al wondered vaguely if his soul was controlling that part too.

"Why aren't you afraid of me," the man whined obnoxiously. "I'm the reborn soul of the infamous Barry the Chopper, who ravaged Central on a mass murdering streak! Also I don't have a body! Shouldn't you be like-aaaah! Where's your body?!"

Al lifted his helmet, revealing that he was also bodiless armor, and Sixty Six, or he guessed, Barry the Chopper, seemed taken aback.

"AAA! What happened to your body!?"

More than a bit annoyed at this point, the boy placed his helmet back on his shoulders and sighed deeply. "Careful, you'll hurt my feelings," he said absently, already having dismissed Barry as a threat in his mind. He was much more worried about his two brothers. "Listen, can we call it a draw now? I'm worried about my brothers." After all, if there was one guard, there could be others, and not all of them could be as weak as this one.

"Your…brothers? So you're saying that that pipsqueak alchemist is your brother? And he put you in that armor?" Barry was pointing at him with his cleaver gleefully now, and Al felt a sympathetic spike of anger on Ed's behalf.

"Yes, and he doesn't like being called small. He put me in this armor to save me." Al was still a bit distracted, staring at the building beside them, when Barry's mocking laughter caught his full attention.

"Oh, haha, this is just rich. This is just precious! Your brother you say? Ahahah!"

"What are you laughing about?"

"Oh, heh, nothing," Barry giggled, bringing his hands to his face and tilting his head to the side. It looked markedly disturbing with such a scary mask. "It's just, brotherly love is so beautiful," he mocked. "Get's me every time, even when it is a complete sham!"

"What do you mean?" Al said, suddenly feeling trepidation crawl through him.

"I mean that it's a joke! Artificial affection!"

"No," Al denied immediately, "I love my brother, and he loves me!"

"Oh?" His voice was mocking and disdainful now, sensing that he had finally hit a sore spot and digging his claws into it. "How do you know that? He was the one who put you in that shell, how do you know that he didn't make you feel what he wanted you to feel?"

"You don't know anything about us," Al shouted, anger clouding his mind, along with a dose of fear. What Barry was saying was terrifyingly close to what he had begun to suspect before, but he wanted to deny it with all of his being.

"How do you know you aren't just an imitation!?" The man continued to taunt him ruthlessly. "A series of fake memories and emotions created by your brother to serve him? Souls aren't quantifiable by science, so how would you know the difference!"

"NO! I'm Alphonse Elric! I'm exactly like I was when I was a boy! I know I am!" It was the same argument he had had before, only this time, he wasn't just arguing with himself.

Barry, sensing his advantage, surged forward once more, battering the besieged boy with his cleavers. "Who are you trying to convince, Alphonse Elric? Me or you!?"

Fear and horror gripped Alphonse's mind, as ruthless as Barry's cleavers, as the boy went on the defensive.

"You know it's true, don't you boy? Alphonse Elric never existed! You're just a fake, a construct made on a whim for your brother's entertainment!"

The words weren't true, Alphonse knew they weren't but he was in no state of mind to deny them. Barry was hitting on the head exactly what he had been doubting himself, and Alphonse, taken off guard, had no defense against the mental warfare.

"But…No! I was real! I had friends and family and there are pictures…!" Al gasped. There were pictures of a young boy with Edward that looked like the him in his memories…but there was also someone else who looked exactly like him. Alex.

And suddenly, like a flood, it all started to make a twisted sort of sense. He had never existed at all. He really was a fabrication, and Alex and Edward had been the true brothers all along. The pictures were of them, and Alphonse was a fake.

"Al? There's something I've been meaning to tell you…but I'm afraid of how you'll react…"

What had he been trying to tell him? What was he scared of? Was Al not what he thought he was? Brother…?

Despair, like the hurt he had felt when he was first created, gripped Alphonse almost physically painfully. And he reeled back from the utter shock of it, only just blocking most of Barry's blows. And suddenly there was no where else to go.

"Hehehe," Barry cackled, now directly in his face and pinning him against the stone. "It was all a lie from the very beginning. A fabrication! You were never real and you never will be!"

It just couldn't be…! All the memories of his mother, growing up, training, all of the pain and the love he had experienced. A lie? They both lied to him? It couldn't possibly–no! I can't accept that!

But Barry was right. Where was the proof of his existence? He didn't see his body, it just conveniently disappeared. And even if Alex wasn't a part of it, he had shown up afterwards. Who's to say his memories hadn't been fabricated either?

You're. Not. Real.

An image of Edward's face came up in Alphonse's mind and a surge of love accompanied it as always, but the boy couldn't trust it. Not in his current state. "But–but what about you," Al exclaimed, grasping at any hope. Barry seemed to falter in his taunts, pulling back slightly. "What about you?! If I'm just a fabrication, a fake, then doesn't that mean you are as well?"

Barry jumped back, his voice finally going silent for a moment. Alphonse leaned forward, his armor trembling and forced to use the wall behind him as support. His usually unshakable faith in his brother lay in pieces beneath Barry's feet and Alphonse's soul was in turmoil.

"I don't care," Barry finally said, tilting his head to the side. "My life was over when I got caught. Now I have a new one, and even though I can't feel anymore, I can still experience the pleasure of chopping people up and seeing their blood splatter. I still get to experience the joy of seeing their eyes go from terror to pain and finally emptiness." His voice became more high pitched and creepy as he continued on, and Alphonse could only listen in abject horror. "My name is Barry the Chopper. I kill, therefore I am!"

The psychopath lifted his cleaver high above his head, but something seemed to catch his attention to the side. He dropped his arm and straightened. "What are you doing here?"

Al turned his head as well, catching sight of the man who had distracted Barry. He was standing only meters away, unnoticed amongst the drama. At least, Alphonse thought it was a man. He was large, only about five feet tall but bulbous, fat hanging grotesquely over his belt. His legs seemed to be a lot shorter than his arms, which hung almost to the ground. On of his hands was held to his face, his large finger being sucked in a wide mouth set upon an equally rotund bald head. His eyes were what disturbed Alphonse the most, however. They were pure white, set deeply into his face, and there didn't seem to be anyone present at all.

"What are you doing," the man said around his wet digit. Alphonse couldn't help but cringe in disgust and a little bit of fear. His voice was high pitched and breathy, distinctly childish and void of any sanity. "Lust said not to harm him…"

"What am I doing? What am I doing? Whatever I want!" Finally seeming to lose his questionable patience, Barry spun and attacked the newcomer with an insane cackle.

What happened next was almost too fast for Alphonse to see. At one moment, Barry was flying though the air wildly, cleaver above his head, and the next he was a heap of scrap against the concrete wall beside the confounded boy, a large indention where he had struck. Al tore his vision away from the stunned suit of armor and looked slowly back at the strange man. He had barely moved, only extending one of his gorilla like arms, not even bothering to take his finger out of his mouth. He looked over the carnage blankly before turning his vacant eyes on Alphonse, who couldn't help but cringe back a little.

"Lust says to bring you to her," he said, taking a step forward.

Wait…Lust? Lust was here? He had said the name before, but the boy hadn't registered it until just now. So if Lust was here, that meant this creature before him might be a homunculus as well! Alphonse couldn't make sense of it. There was just too much happening at once for he beleaguered boy to understand. One thing that registered loudly in his mind however, was that if Lust was here, then that meant that–

The intimidating man took another step forward, and Alphonse looked left and right for some kind of escape. But there were none. He was walled in on every side, and if this creature was anywhere as strong as Alex, then Al was in deep trouble. Judging by the scrap heap that was Barry the Chopper, that seemed to be the case.

"Why–why does she want me?" Al asked, trying to get the strange man talking so he could finish the transmutation circle he was drawing behind his back.

He only lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "I don' know. Lust wants you." He took another step forward, clearly not sane enough to hold much of a conversation, and Al scraped his chalk furiously into the wall behind him. Almost there.

Again, almost faster than he could react, the man before him was suddenly in his face, both hands grasping Al's shoulders tightly. Al gasped, hearing the metal creak dangerously, before he slammed his hand behind him, activating the transmutation circle. There was a great flash of white light as the wall writhed behind him, forming a spike of concrete. The weapon of alchemy thrusted forward, impaling the large man straight through the head, and Alphonse stumbled away from him.

The boy gasped in shock as the body fell back back a few steps, still managing to keep its feet even as its head was almost entirely gone. Bright red sparks immediately started emitting from the wound and before Alphonse's very eyes it reformed; first bone, then creeping muscle, veins forming and writhing, and then finally skin, the eyes reforming like liquid filling a balloon.

This time, when he stared at Alphonse blankly, there was a deep frown on his face, the look of childish innocence completely gone. Alphonse took a shaking step back. "That hurt…"

A whimper echoed through Al's armor as the thing continued his advance, and the boy had not choice but to turn and run, even though he knew he would be caught.

He was right. He only made it a few steps before he was thrown to the ground with a startled cry and pinned down. Alphonse scrabbled at the dirt, unable to feel the weight on him but knowing it was there, but his arms were slammed into the ground with meaty fists. "Stop trying to escape," the thing whined.

"Let me go," Al shouted desperately, but he was denied.

"No. Lust wants you," he repeated. "Besides…I'm hungry."

"Wha–"

In a violent jerk of motion, the man grasped his hands tightly and ripped Alphonse's arms right off his body in a tearing squeal of metal. Alphonse cried out, terrified, as he felt his soul snap back into his center from his separated limbs, the only real physical sensation he ever felt in this body without Alex's help. The snap-back was as painful as always, but he terror was even more real as he could hear his legs meet a similar fate, his soul snapping like a rubber band. His torso was violently thrown to the side and he rolled several times before coming to a stop facing the monster, getting a full view of what the creature did next.

Al watched in horror as the thing fell upon his limbs like a lion on its prey, actually opening his wider than natural mouth and devouring his limbs whole. Steam rose around the wide creature and Al realized that his teeth were somehow coated with acid, disintegrating his armor like it was soft cheese. Al began hyperventilating, his mind blown white with terror, and the sounds came out of his armor even though he had no lungs or real voice.

Al was helpless and paralyzed, watching his limbs be destroyed right before his eyes. It was eating him. It was eating him! Was he going to die?

The creature lifted the final metal piece and shoved it into his open gullet before turning his blank eyes slowly unto Alphonse. The boy whimpered in fear, completely helpless before this monster, as it stalked forward.

"Wait! Please!" Was this what Ed had felt when Scar had come after him? When he had watched his limbs destroyed and been helpless to stop his own death from coming? The man creeped forward heedlessly to Alphonse's pleas, his eyes glowing wickedly white in the pale moonlight. It was grinning now, teeth dripping with sizzling acid, and Al literally stared death in the face. There was no compassion, no humanity there.

"W–wait! Doesn't Lust want me?!"

This finally got the creature to pause. His look of childish innocence was back, his finger sneaking up to his mouth. "Lust?"

"Yes! You said Lust wants me," Al grasped onto his hesitation with desperation.

"But…I'm hungry."

"NO! Don't! Lust will get mad! She'll–she'll never forgive you!" Alphonse had no idea if this was really true; for all he knew, he could just be brought to her to be killed anyway. But it seemed to work. The thing's face scrunched up in something akin to sadness, as if he believed that this would really happen.

"Lust will be mad," it whimpered.

"Yes! Take me to her so she won't be mad!"

Several seconds passed by as the homunculus seemed to consider Al's words, and then he nodded, almost to himself.

"Lust wants you," he repeated once more, and without any more talk, he grabbed the terrified but temporarily relieved Alphonse by the shoulder spike and began to drag him towards the building.

Alphonse shut down and withdrew deep into his subconscious. He was alive for now, but who knew how long that would last. His eyes went dark, and the last thought he had before he shut out the world completely was for his brothers. He sent out a fervent wish that they were okay, and would come for him. That was the only thing he could hope for.

o-0-o

Dark. Pain. Where is this place? Where am I? I hear voices, but they do not mean anything to me…I can't wake up…Where is E–

A spike of pain obliterates all thoughts….it fades…where is Al–

Something soft strokes gently down my side before pain consumes me once more…

Wow, that was dark. Al lost it in this one, but don't they all at some point in the story? Sorry Al, I promise I'm not just taking out the fact that I'm sick on you. I actually did plan this out beforehand. To those of you who were disappointed that the last chapter was so short, here you go. A bit more.

And yeah, just wanted to point out that Al is human too. He has his doubts and he falls for tricks. So far, he has been like this story's infinitely strong wise man, but that is broken here. Now he's a scared kid. And who wouldn't be scared? Gluttony is effing terrifying! I always thought he was the scariest, just because he's completely nutters.

Now both bros are captured, so it's gotta be Ed next right? Right? You'll see. You probably won't see what's coming next, but I've been hinting so maybe you've figured it out.

Next chapter: Ed is glad he's small. And then he's really REALLY not.