And the second ending, in some ways slightly more cheerful than the first one, in some ways not.

The Last Sacrifice

He had succeeded.

The thought felt alien. Months of fighting madly for his life, battles with homunculi, skirmishes with Scar and crazed alchemists- all had brought him to this wonderful moment.

He stared at Al, basking in the sight of his younger brother in the flesh. His breath came short and his lungs were on fire, his heart felt like it was bursting, he felt dizzy and lightheaded and absolutely wonderful.

Al was still inspecting his new body bemusedly, but now he looked up at his brother, tears starting in his eyes and a grin splitting his face.

Ed laughed, the culmination of his life's work standing in front of him, and opened his arms. Al didn't hesitate even for an instant, and the two locked together in a bone-crushing hug.

They didn't need words. They didn't need anything but each other.

The shouts coming from outside the abandoned building they had chosen to use for the transmutation hardly penetrated their happy haze; now that they were completely together, body and soul, nothing in the world would ever separate them again.

He held Al at arm's length, and surveyed the perfection that was his younger brother. Resisting the impulse to touch was difficult; he didn't want to be clingy, after all. But Al just smiled at him and ran his own hands up Ed's arms, so that was ok.

"Now all we have to do is find a way to turn you human again!" Al said cheerfully.

Turn you human again. The words echoed strangely inside his mind.

Something sparked inside of him, some long-forgotten memory of a different person, but he quashed it quickly. He was- Edward Elric, he thought firmly. No, there was somebody- What a silly thought. True, now he was a shape-shifting homunculus and he hadn't been before, but he was still himself.

no...

That small protest seemed to die out.

He refused to give up this body he had worked so long and hard to have.

Not...not fair...

"Leave it alone, Al," he said softly. Al stared at him in surprise. "I've got my limbs back, and I've got you. I don't want to push my luck."

You promised...

"But...it's not right for you to be like this..."

That hurt. "Al, are you saying that just because I'm not...not human I-"

"No!" his brother hugged him tightly. "You are human. If I was human when I was nothing but a soul in armor, then you are definitely human!"

Sighing in relief, he hugged Al back. "Then please, my brother, let it lie. I am happy."

It wasn't like Al could really fix him, anyway. If he had learned one thing, it was that you couldn't raise the dead.

You promised...! the voice was laden with betrayal.

Edward looked at Al again, brushed some flaxen hair out of his eyes. Yes, he had promised.

To give up this life again -he was already long dead- never to see Al any more, to leave Winry and Pinako and Izumi and yes even Mustang behind, since Al was restored. All this he had promised.

He imagined the look on Al's face when he found out his brother had died. Thought about the reactions of all the people who had worked so hard to accept him, gone far enough that they had accepted a homunculus as his replacement.

No.Hell no.

He would not give up this life. Even if he had to fight to keep hold of this body every day of his life -of Al's life, since he could live forever, but why would he want to live after his brother died?- he would take what he figured life owed him. He had paid enough.

It's equivalent trade.

This is not equivalence!

You killed others. Now you lose your life.

Liar...liar...

Al didn't have to know. His brother would never know how close he had come to losing him completely.

"Let's go home, Al." Edward grinned, and held out his right hand. It only took a short thought to change the texture of the flesh from metallic to skin and bone.

His wonderful, beautiful little brother smiled back, and took his hand.

To sacrifice Envy's life for this...

Yes, it would bother him. He would lie awake some nights over what he had done.

But it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

A/N: (WARNING: psychobabble. Read if you're interested in what I was thinking, but you really don't have to)
I'm just going to put my two cents in about this second ending. The general consensus seems to be that the first ending rocks, and the second ending doesn't, for various reasons. I am aware the the second ending is shorter and less polished than the first, but it was an idea I felt I had to write. The whole story was shaping up for me as a bit of an angst-fest (at least that's how I saw it). I wrote the first ending because I could see no other way that it could possibly end; at least it was partially happy, since Ed got to die (that sounds so wrong) and Envy went to 'look for himself'.

Then I started thinking. What if Ed didn't keep his promise? Look at it from Ed's point of view: he basically has to choose between keeping his promise to Envy, and Al's happiness. For Ed, Al always comes first, last and always. So it's not easy for him to choose this, but in the end, I think it's something he might actually be capable of doing.

As for Envy, I truly don't know which ending is more 'tragic'. In the second one, he's not actually dead per se; his personality was simply swallowed up by Edward Elric. In a sense, he's perfectly happy. He's also not Envy anymore. In the first ending, Envy was left as a watered-down version of Edward Elric's personality superimposed on top of his own, and that's something he'll never be able to change. He'll constantly be attempting to be Edward, but he can never succeed. It's basically a quest with no purpose, and no end. And he can't stop. On the other hand, it's left on a hopeful note; he might find his own place eventually.

Personally, I'm not quite satisfied with either ending; if I had been, there would only be one of them. I posted them both 'cause I felt they were both significant to the story in different ways. You don't have to agree with me; I just hope you enjoyed the story, either way. (feel free to argue with me on any of the points I raised. You can even argue with me on MSN or something if you'd like. I like to argue.)

So which one did you like better?