The tone of this story is so sad but I can't help but think how in character all of this is. Especially the ending.

I was fortunate enough to be re-recommended this fic. As is my usual standard, I lowered through the whole thing in one night. And honestly, it was like reading this for the first time again. I was a blubbering fool by the end, absolutely heartbroken (just like I'm sure I was the first time I read it). This is so, so well written. You create really impeccable imagery. I'm so glad I found this again!

...Once more have you made a story that made me blink my eyes repeatedly in an effort to keep the tears out. My heart ached for the characters, and the story itself. The writing was AMAZING and your vocabulary and use of descriptive words were impressive as always.
The Royai is captured perfectly, unsurprisingly, coming from you. The Parental!RoyEd was also amazingly captured, as subtle as it was, and the ending just left a gnawing hole in my heart, as beautifully satisfying as it was.
When Roy and Hughes got into that argument, I felt like crying. When Riza cried after Mustang and he left everyone, I felt like crying. When Ed activated the array, I felt like crying. When I read the very last sentence of the twelve chapter before the Epilogue, I was one-hundred percent crying at that point.
Your stories are wonderfully written, fit perfectly in the Angst genre, and capture the heart of the reader.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you wrote and published your own story with original characters and it was raved over throughout the globe.
EXCELLENT job!

I... jesus. This cut me open more times than I thought possible. Every line was poetry, the kind I kept rereading lines of to savor even though it hurt. I knew this wouldn't have a happy ending, but wow. You kept me on my toes, unsure who to believe was telling the closest thing to the truth. A lesser author would have simply let Mustang be half-mad with grief and denial and be wrong, but you... he really did save nearly everyone, and that is so much crueler.

I love how much you left unanswered. How Armstrong came to fall under the metaphorical knife (*that* was a slap in the face, god), what Bradley and the rest of the brass were up to, Hughes' departure, even shelving the canon plot to let this tragedy breathe.

I'm so, so glad I came across this fic.

Damn girlie!

I don't remember EVER having broken down and bawled the way I did just awhile ago. I had to take a break before I could even comment! Geez, really! I was a hundred kinds of pissed off at Hughes and Edward, albeit they did what they had to for the purpose of plot. There was nothing at all happy about this, even with this pretty little ending. But thank you sooo much for writing it! I think I favorited it because it is a great story.

You've cut me open and scooped me empty. What am i feeling ? I don't understand. What are emotions? I'm in awe and shock and possibly pain. I feel emotionally eviscerated. Your prose is wonderful, simple but severely gut-punching.

An old piece this may be, but that makes it no less deserving of a review. After reading the entire story over the course of three or four days after finding a recommendation for it, I certainly owe it to take a few minutes to write out my thoughts.

On the whole, it makes for a fairly harrowing read-and I can honestly say I think that's the first time I've ever used to word to describe a story.

Admittedly, I don't know a great deal about the source material at time of writing, but I honestly think that was something of a blessing in this case. While I understood the basic premise of FMA and knew some about some of the more notable plot points, I didn't have much in the way of preconceived notions of the characters or the universe. It made for this interesting experience of reading through the story thinking to myself at times, "(Character) wouldn't possibly do that... would they?"

"Mercy denied," seems a rather apt summation of it all. It would've been a mercy for Maes to allow Roy to pass in the hospital, for Ed to have carried out his last wish, or even just for Roy to have believed them when they said his men were dead. In some small way, it would've been a mercy for it to have been true, if only to have spared Riza from seeing what they'd done to her Colonel and what he'd become. But they were all too weak to shoulder the burden of delivering the kind of mercy Roy asked for, until Hawkeye had finally returned, too late to do anything but deliver the final, shattering blow to finally but a broken man to rest.

The story is brilliantly written; It's this evolving series of hopes from the reader. "Mustang will recover and find his men alive somewhere." then "Ed and Hughes will find away to thwart Bormann." and finally, "Ed will 'save' Mustang from Bormann." But they're all dashed-one after another. The fact that by the end the reader finds themselves begging that the protagonist will be allowed to die as themselves, quickly and painlessly speaks volumes about the course of the story. That he's denied even that is the last cruelty.

The pacing is also well done-Using jumps back in time to reveal to the reader the events on the battlefield and the fate of Mustang's men as he regains his memory of them is every well done, and only adds to the string of "hopes" the reader forms.

I'll be adding this story to my favorites because it's more than deserving, but I have to wonder if I'll ever read it again-I'm not sure I could bear to start again, knowing how it ends.

You made sure I was never going to recover from this story.

Incredible
This is one of if not my favorite stories I've read on this site... would love for you to write more

So I know you finished this story almost 6 years ago. But I had my FMA comeback this year and started reading fanfic again. Five years ago I read Quiet Crown and re-read a few weeks ago. Now I inmersed myself into your other stories, and let me tell you that your level of writing you showed in this fanfic was out of this world. I've never read something so emotionally powerful and stirring. I cried and still am. I am amazed by your talent and that mind of yours you have, because it sure did create wonderful things. To think that I've read more published writers with their original stories that have disappointed me, it just baffles me... I do hope you keep writing, if not for us, at least for yourself. I admire you and your perseverance for writing this monstrosity of 91k words long because I barely managed to keep myself sane while reading it, I can't imagine how it would feel to write it. Thank you.

Good lord I've cried so much while reading this fic... I can't express how beautiful and well written it is, hell I'm still weeping as I type this ;-;

i have never been more emotionally ruined after a fic. I honestly cried. I cried and I shook and its been a good couple of hours now but I'm still not over it. This is truly an amazing fic, and I hate you. :) thank you for sharing

Well, it's been a number of months since I finished this and I think I've recovered enough to come back and leave a comment.

The skill with which you create the atmosphere and the impending sense of 'something terribly, terribly wrong is happening' is astounding. And I couldn't stop reading even though I realised I was headed for a very unhappy end.

I'm glad I finished your story and the only thing greater than my certainty that I'll never read it again is my absolute admiration at how well crafted it is.

Thanks.

This is the most beautifully written fanfic I've ever read. I have work tomorrow but stayed up til 3am to read this and no regrets. Loved how poetic each chapter felt and it's so so sad... I actually started tearing up. Beautiful.

Very good story! I honestly wasn't expecting it to end the way it did, but I guess that's what made it a good story! :)