Finally, the big day has arrived! This is the last chapter, finally! Hope that you all like this chapter. It turned out better than I thought, in my opinion. Hopefully yours will be the same, heh. Feel free to let me know what you think, but no flames, okay?

Disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist. Hmmm...someone really like my disclaimer from yesterday, wonder why? Anyway, I don't own FullMetal Alchemist, but I own you! (Betcha didn't know that, heh.) Okay, just something weird to say. Now on with the story.

"Al, you have to eat something," said Colonel Mustang, shoving a plate of food in front of Al. Al just pushed it away without a word. Colonel Mustang sighed. Al was persistant, but he was more so. "Alphonse, you have to keep your strength up. Eat something, please!" Al just continued to stare blankly into space as he placed his chin on his hands and stared at the plate in front of him, seeming not to even notice the food present on it. Colonel Mustang decided he'd try once more. "Major Elric, as your commanding officer, I demand that you eat!" He shoved the plate forcefully at Al, and forced him to sit up straight.

Al just stared at the food, then looked at Roy's stern face, shrugged, and finally picked up his fork and began to eat the food. Roy let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't about to let one of his subordinates starve himself to death. He understood how hard this whole ordeal had been on Al, having had to lose his brother...twice...but Al needed to realize that life was still worth living. It was easier said than done though.

Al wolfed down his food, pushed the plate away, and then stood up and left the room without a word. Roy wanted to say something to him, but he kept his mouth shut. If Alphonse needed to be alone right now, he would just let him be. Healing would come soon enough.

Al flopped down on his bed. "Brother, why did I have to lose you again? I just got you back. Why did this have to happen?" He tried to fight back the tears, but it was all to no avail. They came running down his face like rivers. He placed his hands over his eyes, and started having uncontrollable audible sobs. "I'm...such...a...baby...crying...like...this..." he said between sobs. Somehow, he felt he needed to act tough for his brother's sake, yet he couldn't stop crying. Was he failing his brother? Oh, how he hoped he wasn't.

"Brother...wherever you are...please be happy...please don't be disappointed...in me..." Al continued to sob. He flopped over onto his stomach, and tried to bury his face in his pillow to drown out some of the sobbing. This was even harder to deal with than the first time he had lost his brother. Why was that, anyway?

Al suddenly felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I could never be disappointed in you, Al." Al sat up with a start, the sobbing instantly ceasing.

"B-Brother?...Is...Is it really you?" He saw a pale, translucent form that he could barely make out the features of, standing just a couple feet from him. Was this his brother in spirit form? Why was he able to see him, anyway?

"It's me," the being replied. Then, as if reading his thoughts, he said, "You can see me because we're really closely connected, being brothers. Sometimes I think we might have even communicated telepathically while I was alive."

Al nodded in thought. Yes, they had indeed. He remembered that night the last time that had happened. They had to be really close for that to happen, so it only made sense that he would be capable of seeing his brother's ghost now.

"B-Brother," Al stuttered as he tried to find the words to say, "Why are you here? Have I upset you with my crying? I'm sorry, I tried to hold the tears back and be strong, but I..."

Ed put his hand over Al's mouth to silence him. "No, I'm not here because of your crying, Al. It does make me sad to see you cry, but crying is not weakness. You of all people should know that."

Al hung his head. Yes, indeed, he should be fully aware of that. "Why then did you come back, Brother? There's something you need to tell me, isn't it?" He looked back up at Ed. Even though he couldn't see his features clearly, he could still tell that Ed had nodded.

Silence hung in the air for several minutes as both brothers tried to organize their thoughts and feelings. Neither one knew what to say, but they knew that something needed to be said, sooner or later. Al spoke up first, "So...Brother, I guess that one benefit of dying is that your soul is no longer wasting away, right?"

Ed jerked his attention at Al with a start. "Actually, Al, that's what I was coming to tell you. So much of my soul was taken by that stone, that even though I am free from it now, my soul is continuing to fall apart. I can't seem to support my own soul anymore."

"WHAT?" Al yelled, panic clearly evident in his voice. The tears and sobs were about to start up again when Ed again placed his hand on Al's mouth to silence him.

"There's still hope," said Ed. "I can't support my own soul, because I'm just causing it to fall apart, but someone else could support it until my soul heals."

Al pondered what his brother might mean by this for several moments. Someone else support his soul? Wait, that wouldn't mean...

"Do you mean that you need to possess someone in order to continue to exist?" Ed hung his head, and nodded. Al's eyes suddenly opened as understanding dawned upon him. "You were hoping that I would allow you to possess me, weren't you?"

Ed lifted his gaze up and looked pleadingly at Al. "Actually...yes, I was kind of hoping that you wouldn't mind letting me do that. We're so close...and...if I have to share someone's body for so long..."

"I understand that, Brother," Al said, though he was quickly interrupted by Ed.

"I'd be a weak soul for a long time, so I wouldn't be able to control your movements or anything. You'd hardly know I was there, unless we were to speak to each other. Please..."

Ed didn't need to finish his statement, for it was Al's turn to interrupt this time. "You don't even need to ask me, Brother. It goes without saying that I would be happy to allow you to live in me while your soul heals. Actually, that's better than being separated from you by death. This will be a lot easier to deal with than that."

"Then...you don't mind?"

"Not one bit. I'm only too happy to be able to help you for once," said Al, starting to finally cheer up.

Ed smiled. His features were still kind of hard to make out, but Al knew he was smiling, somehow. That must've been the brotherly instinct the two of them shared. "So...Brother...how do we go about doing this? Don't you have to enter my body from another body, or something?"

Ed shook his head. "That was only while I was here on my mission. I had to do everything on my own strength, and that was the only way I could do it. Now, however, the powers that be have sent me here so that I could try and find a host and continue to exist, so I can do a few things a little bit differently this time. All I have to do is move into your body."

Al straightened himself out, and then looked up at Ed. "Then do it."

"Right now?"

"Right now."

The two smiled at each other one last time, since they knew that this was going to be the last time they saw each other's face, and then Ed moved forward, towards Al. He reached out and thrust his hand into Al's body, to give him a bit of a chance to prepare for the feeling he'd receive when his spirit entered his body.

Al jumped a bit at the feeling, since it kind of tickled him, but he really didn't mind it. It didn't hurt or anything, it was just...weird. Ed then proceeded to begin moving into Al's body. Al felt like his senses were a bit overloaded from all this passing through his body that his brother was doing, so he shut his eyes and waited for the moment to pass. He knew that it wouldn't take long.

Before too long, Ed had completely entered Al's body. It took him a few minutes more to actually get himself situated comfortably in this foreign body, which felt quite weird to Al too, but he was dealing with it just fine. After Ed finally was as comfortable as he could get in this borrowed body, Al stood up and ran his fingers down his torso. He still felt quite strange, but that was to be expected, since he could feel the presence of another soul inside his body. He knew he'd get used to it, but still, it was weird.

"Are you alright in there, Brother?" Al asked.

(I'm fine, thank you,) Ed replied back telepathically, (And I'm no longer falling apart. Your soul is strong enough to keep me together. Thank you.)

Al smiled. "You don't need to thank me, Brother. I'm merely returning the favor for all that you've done for me."

Ed smiled inside of Al. (I'm glad that you feel that way, but you still deserve to be thanked. Again, I thank you.)

Just then, Colonel Mustang walked into the room, and caught Al standing up and smiling. A bit puzzled, he asked Al what he was so happy about. Al chuckled a bit, and said, "I'm not sure if you'll believe this."

Roy smirked. "Don't tell me that Ed has come back to life again."

Al laughed. "Well, actually, yes he has, in a way. It's a long story though. Are you sure you want to hear it all now?"

"Why don't you explain it to me over dinner?" asked Roy, starting to make his way out of the room, and gesturing for Al to follow him.

"Is it that time already?" Roy nodded, Al shrugged, and then both men made their way out of the room. This was going to be an interesting conversation.

Life wasn't perfect. They hadn't gotten everything they'd wanted, and they'd had to go through heck just to get what little they had, but they had what they most needed: Each other.

Thanks for following along with me on this story, and I hope that you've enjoyed it. Please leave me a review and tell me your thoughts (but no flames, please!), and stay tuned for more stories to come from me, as I'm always writing them, heh.