Need a BETA READER STAT

Hope you enjoy this new chapter that's 3 days late. Got a lot going on but I'm tryna make things work and I guess they're coming. Gonna try and crank out a chapter once a week and streamline this fanfics development by breaking down events into 3-5 chapters a pop so this fight will not be very long but hopefully will pump you up.

Have a nice one and have a great new year!

Edward had no idea how he got here.

Garret had dragged him to a farm and the two of them stopped at the gate; both of them letting the situation truly sink in. For all the times the two had hated one another and wished bad tidings, they were going to have a family dinner together.

The young man was self aware enough to admit that he had been in a daze for the last six months but when he saw the gate and it truly dawned on where he was, he turned to leave but was stopped by Garret's grip. The alchemist himself looked like he was struggling to find any logical reason why he was doing this, hell Edward knew if he turned to look the man in the eyes, he'd see that no logical reasons came to mind.

"Look, we're already here and I told Haruna that I'd bring you for dinner. Just…sit down, eat something and then you can do whatever you want after that."

Edward turned to the alchemist and for a brief second entertained the idea of suggesting that he might try and kill the man's wife to get him to call this off. His conscience immediately swatted that idea down, he may have been tired and the man's face did bring terribly painful memories, but he wasn't that far gone.

Without a word, he allowed himself to be led through the gate and up the trail leading to the house on the farm. The young man sent a sweeping gaze over the property and noted that while it wasn't a huge farm, it was quite sizable and would take more than a single person to tend to it. He could tell there were signs of half done farm work like some stalks not being harvested as others were or some of the plants becoming too far overgrown.

Haruna must've worked on the farm mostly by herself to achieve this result. He wasn't insulting her in any way but it from the size and volume of the area and work, it was a huge workload.

"This place originally belonged to her father's father who had three boys and made them all take care of the place. When her uncles passed, her father passed it down to her and she had been working the farm all on her lonesome ever since. I help her out a few times but she's one of those people who does things a certain specific way and doesn't like it when you don't follow her intentions."

"Reminds me of someone I know who will only accept his way when it comes to any situation. Recently, he's shown that he'll let others do things their way but personally I think he only allows it as part of his master plans."

Garret was surprised to hear the young man respond to his line of thought but wasn't surprised when he knew the man Edward was referring to. Walter was a lot of things and "stubborn" would always be an understating adjective. He also knew that the man planned ahead like no one would believe. The young man wouldn't be standing here if not for Walter playing on the alchemist's mindset and making him ultimately see that his son wasn't ready to be free.

It was hard to admit that but Walter had said the right words and Rahim's own eyes and actions illustrated the situation and what needed to be done at that moment.

Garret will save his son but for now, he has other things to attend to.

The two of them reached the front door to the house and the alchemist knocked on his door in an unknown beat. A few seconds later several heavy locks scraped against the door before it opened and the woman he saw at the wedding was smiling at him.

"Good evening, Edward, welcome to our home."

The young man gave a tired small wave with his hand while Garret grumbled as he kissed his wife on the cheek and slid past her. Edward remained at the door awkwardly until Haruna gave him another encouraging smile and he walked in then moved out the way so she could close the door.

The first thought that entered Edward's head was how warm the house was. Not in the physical sense but something about the atmosphere made him feel like he was in a worn happy home. The house wasn't that big; the door immediately opened to a living room where there was a fire on the far side of the room and an opening on the right side presumably for the kitchen and bedrooms.

In the middle of the living room was a rectangle table that was illuminated by the fire with 2 sets of chairs on each long side. Sitting at the table already was a little girl reading a book that was easily half her height. Edward would've dismissed her had she not looked up and her stare was an intense focused look that didn't belong to a little girl who shouldn't even be able to read.

"You stink."

Garret and Haruna looked at her like she had grown a second head while Edward just studied her. His first thought was that she looked like Garret, the tan skin and focused eyes were strikingly similar. Her hair was jet black however like her mother and was in small braided pigtails. She wore a big pink shirt that covered her from neck to to knees and she had white shoes.

Looking at her she was indistinguishable from any normal little girl but Edward had learned enough to know better. He could tell from the moment they locked eyes that something was off about her.

He wordlessly turned to Garret, a question in his eyes. The alchemist looked at him and shrugged before heading to what Edward assumed to be the kitchen. Haruna shuffled past him and went over to the table to address the little girl.

"Luna, don't be rude, that's no way to speak to a guest."

Luna's facial expression did not change, not because she didn't do anything wrong from ignorance but because knew she was right.

"It would be more rude for someone to come to another person's house after working for several days and not cleaning themselves."

"That's-"

"Is there a water pail I could use?"

Edward's voice somewhat startled her as she turned and saw him staring at the two of them with an unreadable expression. He didn't seem bothered by their conversation but perhaps that was wishful thinking on her part. The dull thump sounded as the little girl dropped her book and turned to hop out of her chair.

"There's a water pail outside connected to a lever and a basin for you to stand in. I'll get you a change of clothes."

The young man was about to argue but Luna was already gone. He turned to Haruna who gave him an encouraging nod and he walked out the door then around the house. It didn't take him long to find the contraption that looked connected to a well of water.

Looking at it piece by piece, Edward could tell that the lever was to pump air into the well so that water would shoot into the tube and up into the water pail to shower the person inside with water. He could also tell that the water inside the well was connected to another separate system likely for drinking water. He wasn't surprised, Garret likely had the same intelligence as Talib, so it wasn't farfetched to see him create a water filtration system and outdoor shower.

The water that cascaded from above began to wash away the grime and dirt on his skin and hair. The cold sensations didn't bother him however it also didn't relax his muscles as he worked with one arm and a solid block of fats and oil to wipe off the dirt. He heard Garret's footsteps behind him but didn't turn to face him.

"How old is she?"

The alchemist let out a heavy sigh as he placed some clothes and a blanket on the ground and got up with a groan. "She's 4…and she's already arguing ethics with me."

Edward continued washing himself, neither him or Garret put off that action. The young man felt the alchemist's gaze scanning all the scars that littered his son's body, likely trying to imagine the hell he had caused.

"That's an interesting mark on your left arm."

Edward involuntarily froze; that mark had saved his life, Elsa had saved his life. He didn't know what Talib was going to do when they were fighting one another but when that blackdust hit the mark, it had cut his arm off to save his body. He was blurry on the exact events after that but after Walter had taken Wrath from him, he came to accept that he only had one remaining arm.

He was lucky, he was now free from Father's influence, his only problem was his split suicidal psyche. It never really occurred to him that this was exactly what he wanted when he first got to Arendelle but now he was so miserable and tired he couldn't enjoy it. He could live and love as much as he wanted to with no fear of being controlled again but Jorgen's words haunted his thoughts.

He was running out of time before Edward decided to end both of them.

A mirthless chuckle escaped his lips which caused Garret to raise an eyebrow. "Something funny about it?"

Edward washed all the sweet smelling oils off his body before turning and grabbing the blanket to dry himself off. "No, just thinking about how it saved my ass." Garret nodded thoughtfully.

"Probably what it was intended for."

The young man supplied an absentminded 'hmm' as he put the clothes offered to him. He was given a brown shirt that went past his waist and required a belt over it to keep it from being too loose. He was also given warm darker brown pants that had some patchwork that finally ended in some soft black boots. Looking at him, he would be a spitting image of a farm hand.

"You know, an Elemental's magic is dependent on that particular person. If it had saved your life then the Elemental in question must really care for you. Such a person should be valued and held close, don't you agree?"

Edward said nothing as he walked past the alchemist, earning a sigh from the older man. He didn't want to talk about Elsa, thinking about her brought everything back into focus and right now, he just wanted to forget.

Garret followed after him, the two of them bracing for the awkward dinner together.

Rahim was thrown through another wall as he flipped and regained his footing with his blade held in front of him. Walking out from the hole he just made was his brother who didn't look winded or worried for that matter. His hands were hanging limply at his side as he took languid steps toward his younger sibling.

The avenger had remembered the last time he had fought Shahbaz as well as the many times before that and planned on exploiting any openings he could remember his brother had. The problem was, his champion of a brother never made the same mistakes twice, he always improved over everything he did and not only that, he seemed to have an answer for every conventional method Rahim had thrown at him.

The younger sibling knew that he could access the abilities of the other Sins but had decided to not do so until he knew the full scope of Pride's abilities. Despite one time being a sliver of Father, Pride had walled off any connections or influence the Patriarch of Sins had on him. Even when the two of them fought, Shahbaz had fought as a human which ultimately led to his defeat, but it did not reveal what abilities he possessed.

Rahim knew that each Sin's ability was dependent on the particular person and their ability would embody a strong aspect of themselves. Being his brother, one would've thought he could guess the aspect that his ability would be derived from but he knew that guessing would be a massive mistake considering who he was fighting.

Which left him to try and fight as a human on equal terms.

The only problem with that was Shahbaz's strikes felt like being hit by a building. Any one of his punches made Rahim's soul quiver, and the amount of force behind them made it hard to keep his body from being blown apart. He knew that Shahbaz wasn't increasing his strength with his reserves of power, the reason that he swung so hard was the fact that his soul was that much stronger than his younger brother's.

When it came to two Soul Weavers fighting, physical aspects become relative, Wrath fighting Envy was a perfect example. Wrath wasn't anywhere near strong enough to pick up a weapon the size of a building, but he was several times stronger than Envy and it was only the latter's connection with the weapon that gave him the ability to lift it.

Shahbaz's body was an extension of himself and he was able to unconsciously channel his soul through it. As someone who prided themselves on fighting equal terms, Pride would always give someone a fighting chance against him. So a human fighting him wouldn't be affected by his soul's strength, a Soul Weaver on the other hand was forced to contend with an overwhelming force of nature.

The avenger covered the distance between them and slashed at his brother's neck who leaned out the way before grabbing the blade's guard with one hand. With his other hand, he directed a palm strike toward his opponent who had to let go of the weapon with one of his hands to bend backwards and out of the way. Not missing a beat, Shahbaz tightened his grip with the hand that held his brother's captive before turning and wrenching his opponent off his feet then slammed him into the ground.

Rahim felt the world whirl in his vision as he slammed to the ground like a ragdoll several times as he tried to work out of his brother's grip. When that proved futile, he reached out with his free hand and tried to jam his fingers into Shahbaz's eyes. His brother wasn't fazed at the attempt and grabbed his other hand with an iron grip then spread their arms opposite so they could be face to face with one another.

"This isn't like when we were kids, we don't have to listen to that shithead anymore. I can tell how much stronger you've gotten and so have I. We can now finally decide our own lives. Come on, I know you, this isn't your plan, you don't want this; Abraham wants this. He tried to make me into his loyal puppet but it didn't last long enough and with everything that's happening, he knows that he can't afford to have me on the loose. That's why he sent you, to play on my feelings for you so that you can remove me out of the way, he's only doing that because he's scared, scared of not just me but of us coming together."

Shahbaz looked deep into his brother's eyes trying to find a flicker of emotion to anything he just said. When he found none, he scowled before reeling his head back then smashing it against his brother's. The impact immediately sagged Rahim's body and if it wasn't for Shahbaz, he'd have crumbled to the ground.

"Abraham can't stand against the two of us together so he's trying to divide us. He doesn't give a shit about you, he made our lives hell/. Talib may have been the one we saw but Abraham was the one giving the orders. He's the reason Mom is gone, the reason we were separated, if it wasn't for him our lives would've been different. He made us orphans and turned us into weapons, how could you possibly want to do what he says?"

His little brother did not answer, his body still slumped in his grip. Shahbaz might've let go of him had it been anyone else but he knew how dangerous the two of them were. When he didn't get an answer, he started tightening his grip trying to crush his brother's wrists and limiting his ability to retaliate.

The bones under his finger's began to crack but the body they belonged to still didn't move. Just as he was sure they were about to crack, his grip loosened. Maybe he had really-

The sound of a blade singing as it slid across his throat was drowned by the blood pooling in his mouth.

Shahbaz didn't realize that Rahim had slipped out of his grip and had cut off both his hands a split second after slitting his throat. A foot stomped on his chest and pinned him to the ground with a blade pointed downward like a guillotine. His brother, the executioner, looked down at him with cold soulless eyes as he brought the blade down with every intention of skewering him. The older sibling was able to shoot his leg up and knock Rahim off balance while turning away to avoid the blade.

Spinning on his back, he used the momentum to get back on his feet and raise his foot up in time to intercept a stab aimed at his chest. The blade slid through his foot and under his kneecap. As the guard met the meat of his foot, a sudden force launched him off his remaining foot. Looking past his foot to see his little brother coldly staring at him caused a growl to bubble in chest as he stomped his free foot down and halted them both.

Not caring that blood was filling his mouth and that he couldn't breathe, Shahbaz regrew his hands before grabbing at where Rahim was. The avenger backed off out of reach pulling his sword with him and preparing for another bout. Shahbaz let his foot fall to the ground as it healed as well as his throat then spat out a mouth full of blood.

"That's always been your weakness. When you fight your enemies, you fight them on an even playing field. Your pride keeps you from crushing them with all the power you have at your disposal. Contrary to belief, that didn't come from devouring Pride, it came from your childhood. Throughout all of it, you hated how weak you felt, whether be from what happened to your parents and to being unable to protect your brother. No matter how much power you amassed, it will never wipe away all of your loss…"

Shahbaz's face darkened as his fingers clenched as he heard his brother speak. The dispassionate tone he took almost sounded like he was lecturing a failing student. If Shahbaz closed his eyes, he could imagine Talib speaking to him and that grated on his nerves.

"...even after all this time, you're still just that scared little boy who stabbed his Father in the back."

Never in his life had Shahbaz felt such a rush of anger come from one sentence.

He dashed forward with his arm cocked back and pulsating in a wave of blackdust, then swung as hard as he could. His knuckles met the side of the blade as Rahim blocked before being blasted by a cannon of blackdust that knocked his brother through the stone floor. It took him a second to calm his raging heart as he turned to look at the stump of his right arm.

Everything from the elbow down looked as if it had been blown off.

Shahbaz hated using his abilities, it always ended up like this. A gaping hole from where his fist struck and his opponent completely crushed under the weight of his power. Earlier he had said he wouldn't kill his brother and fought at a level where he was barely using any of his power but that comment had sent him over the edge.

That wasn't like him. He wasn't bothered by what other people said and when he crushed them they didn't leave any thoughts in his mind. This was probably a one time exception given who he was fighting and what he said. Rahim would always have an open line to his feelings and that night when he stabbed his Dad in the back for hurting his Mom was a memory that struck a nerve whenever someon-

Wait…

How could Rahim possibly know that….

"So that's what you can do."

The older sibling's eyes widened as the smoke cleared and he saw the younger one standing perfectly fine on the floor below. Nevermind the fact that Rahim sounded like he knew what ability his brother had, but he also looked completely fine despite sustaining such a blow.

"Father had said that he could never figure out what ability you had cause you never showed him but after that attack I think I understand. It's not that you were hiding it from him, it's the fact you don't have one."

Rahim's body dissolved into blackdust that floated up to the floor above him and reformed his form a few feet away from his brother. Raising his free hand, he pointed to the stump on Shahbaz's left arm before speaking.

"The reason your punches are so hard, is the fact that my body happens to be comprised of nothing but blackdust due to me losing my body. Because of that, when you're hitting me, you're not hitting this physical form that's imitating a human body, you're hitting my soul with yours which you channel throughout your whole body."

Shahbaz watched as Rahim held out his arm and the entire limp separated as if covered in layers. First was his clothing, then his skin, the muscles, blood, and finally the bones all on display as if to show what resided in the human arm.

"Due to the fact that Talib modified your body and ingrained blackdust into your skin, you were able to override it so now it's your soul and not his, so when it comes into contact with another's, yours crushes them with no effort. However, it seems that you aren't very adept at controlling the balckdust in your body because when you swung at me, you focused your reserves in your forearm and when it made contact with me, you lost control and it ripped off the portion of your body that wasn't focused. In other words…"

Rahim's arm reassembled itself perfectly and was still pointing at Shahbaz's stump that just finished healing itself. "Your reliance on your soul's raw strength destroys your body and forces you to heal after every extreme exertion on your part. A crude but effective tactic when fighting Soul Weavers weaker than you but when you're against physical objects like my blade…"

The avenger's body was exponentially faster than before and Shahbaz barely raised his arm up to block the blade trying to bisect him. The blade did not cut skin but Rahim didn't show any surprise on his face.

"...you have to focus your soul into your arm once again to harden your skin to a point where your opponent's weapon doesn't get through." Shahbaz didn't feel the blade slide against his arm as it zipped down the length of his arm until it hit his elbow and sliced through it like butter, cutting his arm off once again. The champion cocked his other arm back and smashed the spot Rahim was standing on, destroying the entire floor and forcing him to drop to the floor below.

Growling at the state of both his arms, he grew them back quickly and tried locating his brother who wasn't on the level with him.

"...However, it seems to only be in a localized area of your body." Shahbaz looked up to see his brother standing in thin air looking down at him with the same calculating expression Talib wore.

Shahbaz had calmed himself from earlier and his neutral expression returned to his face. He had miscalculated; earlier when Rahim had just started fighting him, he thought his little brother would go all out in the beginning and overwhelm him as he tried to do in the past. That tactic hadn't worked then and he should've known better than to expect his brother would feel it would work now.

Earlier Rahim was feeling him out, from the blows that knocked him into Talib's wall and into this room, he was gauging how strong his soul was. When Shahbaz had headbutted him and he played possum, he was testing how far his brother would go with no resistance.

He was testing if Shahbaz really had the nerve to kill his brother.

Ultimately, Shahbaz knew that he wouldn't kill Rahim and it put him at a disadvantage that already caused him getting his throat slashed. Not only that, his brother had also determined the secret and weakness to his abilities after a few clashes. The champion knew that if this battle dragged out, it would only get worse.

Finally, Rahim has only been fighting him with a katana and despite the little control he had over his own abilities, he had an impeccable sense of danger when he stared into someone's eyes. Ever since he had made eye contact with his brother, the hair on the back of his neck has yet to stand down, and the chill in his spine still tingled in the back of his mind.

He needed to take this fight seriously.

With a sigh, Shahbaz flexed his arms and blackdust erupted from his fingertips and started to crawl up his arm covering his skin in a jet layer of muscle.

Sorry Mom, I'm gonna have to hurt Rahim if I want to save him.