'Well, this is a surprise.'

As Ling turned around at the sound, he saw a little boy standing in the middle of the tracks. He must've been growing insanely fast, because he looked exactly the same as last time, except for a circular mark on his forehead. His voice was a little hoarser than Ling had expected it to be and his clothes didn't have a fleck of crimson on them, which made him look very out of place in his environment. He didn't seem affected by the sight of all the gore at the slightest, on the contrary: a grin was spread across his face.

'Can't say the same about seeing you here, Selim Bradley,' Ling said, his voice echoing in the tunnel. 'Or should I say Pride?'

The boy seemed to seriously consider these words, before his grin widened. 'Pride, you say?'

'Ling, be careful.'

Careful, indeed. Ling hadn't be able to sense Pride's qi and even now, while they were facing each other, Pride didn't seem to have a qi like the other homunculi had. Was Pride still a homunculus or had his and Greed's assumptions of him been wrong? His qi-sense wasn't failing, was it?

The boy didn't move. 'Ah, I see,' he said calmly, observing. 'I thought all the homunculi had been destroyed. Yet, that armour can only belong to Greed. Am I correct?'

'What if you are?'

'Then it would be a lot harder to kill you, wouldn't it?' Pride deadpanned, making it sound as if they were having a polite conversation. 'I assume you're here to put a stop to me?'

'Why did you kill all these people? They never did anything to you.'

'No, they didn't. In fact, I didn't even know most of them,' Pride said, now looking nonchalantly around him at the chaos he had created. 'You see, my motive wasn't as sophisticated as revenge or anything of those trivial matters. No, the reason I killed all these people was because I could. It's that simple.'

Ling didn't know what to say. He hadn't exactly known what to expect from the boy, but if anything, it hadn't been this. Pride didn't seem to notice Ling's surprise and continued speaking.

'Of course, when I realised what had happened to this body, which now only contained a single soul, presumably the strongest one, I knew that there had to be a way to… Well, I wouldn't say 'return to my old form',' he chuckled. 'But certainly, there had to be a way to work my way up to a more… enjoyable form.'

He had started to walk slowly to the wall on his right while speaking, and was now leaning against it, examining his nails. Ling didn't interrupt, wanting to know the motive behind the murders.

'It started out with small animals,' Pride continued. 'Insects, birds… and now humans, naturally. Every souls counts, am I right? Every single one of them was- no, is a step closer to power.' He paused, looking up at Ling. 'But of course, I'm not the only one looking for power, now, am I? As it turns out I'm not the only homunculus around anymore, which makes things a little more interesting. Although I do enjoy the company, I prefer to work alone, as I always have.'

He paused again, observing Ling.

'I assume your plan was to just kill me?,' he asked. 'Because that's a little naive, you know? Sure, blocking out the light did the trick for now. I've got nothing to cast a shadow on,' he huffed. 'Easy to solve, really…'

Pride reached with his hand in his pocket, pulling out what appeared to be a matchbook.

Ling heard Greed gasp. 'Fuck, the son of a bitch has matches?'

'A little advice,' Pride said carelessly, before striking the match against his teeth, lighting it so it illuminated his face from beneath. Shadows were starting to crawl around them. 'Always be prepared.'

The next moment, Ling felt tiny hands, cold against his armoured body, quickly working their way up to hold him in a strong grip.

'You see, Greed,' Pride said, raising his voice to make himself audible over Ling's surprised yelp, 'I know I can't stab through that shield of yours – really nice trick by the way – but you realise there are other ways to hurt someone, don't you? If I'd want to, I could easily… break you.'

To demonstrate his point, Ling was suddenly turned horizontal in mid-air, the shadows holding his arms at his sides to prevent him from defending himself. He felt a tugging at both his feet and his head, and the next moment he felt his back slowly bending backwards. With utter horror, Ling realised that Pride had meant his words quite literal. Oh shit, he was going to snap his back. He would not be able to regenerate when held in that position. Smart move.

'No, no he can't – you can't – Ling, switch with me!' Greed stammered frantically.

He wouldn't. Ling was not going to back out of this one and show Pride that he wasn't the only soul inhabiting his body, basically inviting Pride to use that knowledge against him somehow. Besides, he could endure some pain. He had proven that already by getting a philosopher's stone into his blood twice, which hadn't been very pleasant experiences.

When he heard – and felt – his back cracking in protest, however, he knew that this was not going to be a fun one either. Pride seemed to be enjoying himself. Having thrown the match aside, lighting the body of his own mother in the process – the little psychopath – he let his shadows bend Ling's body agonisingly slowly.

'I've had worse, you stubborn little–' Greed let out a frustrated cry '– just switch already!'

Ling clenched his teeth and tried to struggle against his restrains, but quickly found out that it was no use. His vision flashed white with every little snap he felt. And god, did it hurt. The pain drowned out Greed's pleas to switch with him and he almost gave in, but he kept reminding himself that would show his weakness to Pride.

'So…' he heard Pride say, who had come closer and seemed to observe him as if he was the subject of some sort of cruel experiment, which, in a sense, he seemed to be. 'Does it hurt more when I do this?'

Then he twisted Ling's body, as if wringing out a towel. Ling heard himself scream and the next moment he saw only black, the pain taking over every inch of his body, his mind, everything. He gasped, desperately trying to get air in his lungs, but the last thing he noticed before he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness was a scream coming from within his own mind.

'…you there? Ling?'

He woke up suddenly, the sound of the chaos of souls around him rushing to him at once.

'Please, Ling, are you there?'

He cleared his throat. 'Er… I think so.'

'Oh, thank God,' Greed sighed, his voice full of relief. 'I thought you'd– I was afraid you–'

'I'm fine, Greed,' Ling interrupted. 'What happened? Where's Pride?'

'Don't worry, he can't hear me,' Greed said, his voice sounding a little higher than usual, which caused Ling to worry.

'That's not what I was asking. What's going on, Greed?'

'Er…' Greed hesitated. 'He sorta… trapped us. In the train.'

Ling almost wanted to ask if he couldn't just smash his way out, but he supposed Greed had already tried that. He also noticed they weren't wearing the armour anymore. Greed answered his unasked question.

'Can't bust out. Used up our energy to regenerate.'

Ling nodded in understanding. 'So were stuck,' he said. It wasn't a question.

'Yep, we're stuck.'

They were both silent for a moment. Ling tried to think of ways to get out, but settled upon the thought that the only option was to wait until the Briggs' soldiers would reach the tunnel, as long as it might take.

'What happened after I blacked out?' Ling asked.

'Well, you were suddenly gone. Completely gone,' Greed said, frowning.

'I meant with Pride.'

'Oh,' Greed said, a slight blush appearing on his face. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked around at nothing in particular. Not that there was anything to see: it was pitch black all around them. 'He escaped. Threw us in here when while I took over – apparently not fast enough – and made the tunnel collapse even further, right onto the train.'

Ling frowned. 'Then how do you know he escaped?'

'I saw him pry open the entrance we made while he was snapping us in fucking half.'

'Right. About that–' Ling began awkwardly.

'Why don't you ever listen? I told you to switch places with me. I've had worse and you know that. I could've handled it with ease,' Greed snapped.

'Well, I'm terribly sorry I saved you the trouble,' Ling said mockingly. 'And you don't have to keep that up, you know?'

'Keep what up?'

'You could have ''handled it with ease''? Who are you trying to fool here? We're not with as many souls as we were back then. Accept that we're not that strong anymore!'

Greed crossed his arms and scowled.

'Cat got your tongue, now?'

'Shut up.'

'Fine.'

The silence that followed the next couple of hours made the darkness even more suffocating.

Sorry, I have no good excuse why this is so late. Life, maybe... Artschool, mostly... And I got sucked back into the Hetalia fandom and started writing at least ten new fics. Oops.

I will, however, finish what I started and I don't care how long it will take. I promise to finish this.

I hope to be able to upload another chapter soon, but... I'm afraid you know me by now O.o

I'll try my best!

Thank you for reviewing last chapter and for following and favouriting this story. Every time I get a notification it makes my day. Thank you so much!

XxX