Before I begin this new chapter, I have to address comments I received after my last update. Now, the person who left the comments, you were a guest, so you're getting a reply in front of my entire audience instead of in a message. Please do not ask me to change my characters in any way, whether it be name or personality. That's insulting to me, and it makes me feel bad about what I'm writing. Again, do not do this. Thank you for listening to my rant that was originally five times longer.

OWTF!

Rin got a bad feeling in her gut almost as soon as they got off the train in Liore.

"I don't like this place," she whispered to Al.

"I know. It feels wrong somehow, but we've got to keep going."

They walked down the street with Ed, Rin clinging to Al's arm as they went. Her eyes landed on a small outdoor restaurant and she gasped happily. Ed followed her gaze and laughed.

"You want to stop and eat?" he asked her.

"Yes, please. If we can afford it…"

"Don't be weird. Of course we can afford it." The three sat down at the bar and ordered food. Rin's eyes widened at the food and she began scarfing it down. Ed ate more slowly and listened to the loudspeaker. A man was preaching over the system, urging his disciples to praise Leto.

"So, are you three street performers or something?" the owner asked. Ed spat out his drink and Rin started giggling.

"Do we look like street performers to you?" Ed snorted.

"Yeah, that's why I asked."

"Ugh. C'mon, Al, Rin." He got up and his siblings followed suit. Rin finished the last bit of food on her plate, but Al stood up and knocked down the radio on the top. It fell to the ground and smashed into a million pieces.

"Hey! Easy!" the shop owner barked. "I didn't mean nothing by it!"

"Sorry, accident!" Ed apologized. "We'll fix it."

"How? It's in a million pieces?"

"I'll take this one, brother," Al offered, drawing a transmutation circle. He fixed the radio perfectly, drawing a crowd. Rin hid behind Ed as Al became surrounded, uncomfortable with the number of people.

"He must be the Fullmetal Alchemist!" people whispered. Ed flinched and Rin covered her ears.

"Actually, he's the Fullmetal Alchemist," Al told the crowd, pointing at Ed. They turned and looked confused.

"You mean that shorty over there with the kid?" a man asked.

"Who are you calling a shorty?!" Ed yelled, scaring the crowd.

Once everything was cleared up, they headed for the church. According to the shop owner with the radio, Father Cornello was going to perform miracles before the very eyes of the congregation. They kept to the back where it was less crowded. Father Cornello was an old man in priest's robes and wearing a big grin.

"I don't like him," Rin whispered to Ed. "He looks slimy."

"Let's see what he can do," he whispered back. "But, yeah. He looks slimy."

Father Cornello caught a flower petal that floated through the air and turned it into a giant, flowery sash. Rin gasped, as did her brothers. Her single eye widened in fear and hope, but that twisting feeling in her gut remained. She looked to Ed, who had an expression of thoughtful reflection.

"That's alchemy, alright," he told his siblings in a low voice. "But there's no transmutation circle."

"Y-you don't think he…" Rin mumbled.

"I doubt it. Even if he did, he'd still have to follow the rules of equivalent exchange, and there's no way that little trick was in line with those." Ed narrowed his eyes at the priest. "He's got to have one."

"And it's got to be on him," Rin added.

"His ring. That's got to be it."

"Oh, great god Leto…"

Rose knelt at the base of the statue, as she did every day.

"Please, in your benevolent grace, return him to life…"

"So this is the god you worship," a voice said behind her. She turned to see a boy in a red coat, a suit of armor, and a little girl with golden hair.

"Are you interested in Letoism?" Rose asked, standing up and facing them.

"I'm not really the religious type," the boy in the red coat replied.

"Well, that's too bad. To know God is to know hope itself. If we believe in divine grace, then through Him all things are possible. If you believed, I'm sure He could make you grow taller!"

The boy stiffened and the girl started giggling behind her hand. The one in the armor said something to the boy that Rose didn't quite catch, and the boy calmed himself down. He then sat down in one of the pews, the girl following suit.

"What about bringing the dead back to life?" he asked, leaning back. "Is that possible, too?"

"Yes." The boy sighed, bowing his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook. " 'Water, 35 liters. Carbon, 20 kilograms. Ammonia, 4 liters. Lime, 1.5 kilograms. Phosphorus, 800 grams. Salt, 250 grams. Saltpeter, 100 grams. Sulfur, 80 grams. Fluorine, 7.5 grams. Iron, 5 grams. Silicon, 3 grams. And fifteen traces of other elements.' " Rose stared at him for a moment. "That list represents the complete chemical makeup of the average human adult, calculated to the last microgram. But there's still never been a reported successful case of someone creating a human life. And you're telling me that something modern science can't do you can do with prayer?"

"Lift thy voice to God, and the prayers of the faithful shall be answered!" Rose shot back.

"And the funny thing is, all of those ingredients?" the girl spoke up for the first time. "They can be found down in the marketplace. A kid could buy them all for the spare change in his pocket."

"Turns out humans are pretty cheap," the boy added.

"That's blasphemy! We are children of God, created in His image!"

"You have to understand," the boy sighed. "Alchemists are scientists. We don't believe in unprovable concepts like creators or gods. We observe the physical laws of this world and try to learn the truth. It's ironic, really. Through the application of science, we humans have been given the abilities to kind of… play gods ourselves."

"Are you so arrogant as to compare yourself to God?"

"There's an old myth," the girl added, "about a hero who flew on wings made of wax. He tried to touch the sun, but when he got close, his wings melted away and he crashed and burned."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing," the boy sighed, cutting off the girl's speech. A smile grew across his face. "I'm sorry. Do you think your Father Cornello could save even lowly alchemists like us?"

"Of course! Come along."

Cornello wasn't happy.

Him being unhappy was an unusual occurrence since he'd taken control of Liore. The people of Letoism were willing to do anything he wished, believing it to be the word of God Himself. Liore was so out of the way that the government and military didn't bother with it. There was also the fact that he had the Philosopher's Stone in his possession, making his miracles all the more believable. As long as that held true, then his personal utopia would remain unhindered and he'd lead the revolution as he'd planned so long ago.

And now the Elrics were in Liore.

The Fullmetal Alchemist himself.

Cornello entered the room where he'd instructed Rose to bring the Elrics, and he realized that there was one more than he'd been told—a little girl with golden hair. It didn't matter. All three of them would be dead before sunset.

"Let's make this quick," he heard Brother Craig say to the Elrics. The boy and the girl were held by the guards, while Craig pointed a gun at the head of the armored one.

"Brother Craig, what are you doing?!" Rose gasped in horror.

"These three are heathens, here to besmirch the name of the Father," Craig replied.

"He's right, you know," the boy told Rose. "Let's make this quick!"

The boy flipped his guard around, knocking him out. The girl drove the heel of her boot into her guard's foot, causing him to loosen his grip in response. Craig was then punched in the face, the gun clattering out of his hand and to Rose's feet. The loyal follower stared in shock and awe at what had just transpired.

"Good work, Elrics," Cornello complimented, stepping out onto the staircase. The girl stared up at him with her single visible golden eye. It was like the eye of Judgement, making him squirm.

"You must be Cornello," the boy chuckled. "You know, it's funny that you show up right after a failed murder attempt."

"I assure you, I had nothing to do with my disciple's behavior. It was temporary madness."

"Yeah, sure." Cornello felt himself growing angry at this boy's insolence, not to mention his discomfort with the girl.

"Why have you come to Liore?" the priest inquired.

"We heard about your so-called miracles and wanted to investigate. So how about you hand it over?"

"Hand what over?"

"The Philosopher's Stone! We know you have one!"

"Lies! I am the voice of the great God, Leto!" Once again, the boy and girl looked annoyed at his insistence. The armored one, of course, had no expression.

"I'm not going to ask again—where is it?!"

"And I'll say again that I have no clue what you're talking about! Enough of this nonsense!" He looked at Rose. "Rose, pick up the gun and shoot the Fullmetal Alchemist."

"Don't do it!" the one-eyed girl gasped.

"Do it now, Rose, or you'll never see your fiancé brought back to life!"

Trembling, Rose leaned down and picked up the gun, aiming it at the three children.

"Don't shoot!" the boy in the red coat begged.

"I-I'm sorry!" Rose whimpered. "I have no choice!"

She fired the gun and it hit the one in the armor, knocking his helmet clear off.

"Alphonse!" yelped the golden-haired boy. The one in the armor sighed and picked the helmet back up, putting it on as if he hadn't been shot.

"He's hollow!" gasped Cornello.

"And he's not the Fullmetal Alchemist; I am!" snapped the golden-haired boy.

"What?! It's the short one?!" Cornello cleared his throat and looked at Rose again. "Do you see now, Rose? Alchemy has robbed him of his form!"

Rose was staring in horror. She dropped the gun and swayed unsteadily on her feet.

"Rose!" Edward (the Fullmetal Alchemist) yelped. The golden-haired girl dashed forward and caught Rose as she fainted.

"I've got her, Ed!" she called.

"Thanks, Rin!"

Within minutes of that, Cornello had released a huge chimera, which bit at Ed's automail arm before he defeated it. All three Elrics then hightailed it out of there with Rose in tow. Cornello incited his disciples to chase down the Elrics, only to find Edward sitting on his desk.

"What do you think of Cornello now, Rose?" Al asked her quietly.

He and the two females were out on a balcony, where Rin was fiddling with the church bell Ed had asked her and Alphonse to modify. Rose bit her lip nervously as she glanced at Rin.

"I… I can't believe any man would do such awful things in the name of God. But…"

"You need to forget Father Cornello," Rin spoke up, tapping the bell for Alphonse to pick up. "He's not the prophet you think he is. All of his miracles are just alchemy, plain and simple."

"Alchemy robbed your brothers of their bodies, correct?"

"No. We did that. We made a mistake and this was the price." Rin moved her hair slightly to reveal a scarred and closed eye. "My eye was taken away."

"You poor thing!"

"God can't restore us, but we can work to find another way."

The next thing the three of them knew, Cornello's true intentions were being broadcast over Liore by the machinations of the Elrics. Cornello again cornered the Elrics within his church and attempted to transmute a gun to kill all three of them, but there was a rebound and the gun fused with his arm. He screamed in pain, Alphonse hiding his younger sister from the sight while Edward scoffed because the Philosopher's Stone was fake. They exited empty-handed, only to be confronted by Rose who demanded the Philosopher's Stone away from them.

"It was fake," Rin sighed, and Rose fell to her knees, sobbing.

"Rose," Ed stated, standing over her. "You can't give up. You have two strong legs. Use them to stand up on your own two feet and move forward."

She stared up at the sky with tears in her eyes as the Elrics walked away.

Sorry it's been a while. I had writer's block and this file disappeared for a bit until I found it on a flash drive when I was working on something for class.

I promise one day I will complete this story. It might take a while but it will get finished. And to that end, I may combine multiple episodes into long chapters to help you out. None of those will be in the first season, though. Thank you for reading and follow if you want to know when this story is being updated. Reviews also help me work and make me feel like this story is being read.

So long and thanks for all the fish!