Father was losing. Badly.

Pain... Everything was slipping. The power. The power he had craved for so long burned, but he could handle that.

But his control was slipping. His hopes were slipping.

The victory he always knew was just around the corner, the victory he had planned for years was slipping further and further away.

Now, a human alchemist with burning eyes was beating him. Even with his shaky grasp on the power, this shouldn't be possible!

Everything was falling out of place with each punch.

He was going to lose here. He was going to die here- be forced back into the emptiness of the gate, forever alone and lost in the dark sea of knowledge. And he knew it. If he tried to fight, tried to destroy the mortals with his -because it was his, even if he was about to lose it- divine power, then he would die. That would be his fate.

But who said anything about fighting? A God was capable of anything. And this God was not above running away.

He was, however, going to run away and get away. God were capable of anything and everything.

With a smirk, and a sudden tug on the power eating away at him, there was a flash, then everything was gone.

Ready to start all over again.

When Ed woke up and saw his mother's face, he thought it was a nightmare. She looked concerned, and it only got worse as he scrambled away. "Edward?" She asked softly, voice just as gentle as he remembered.

But he was just waiting. He could already hear the hissing voice of that thing.

"Why did you leave me here like this?"

"Please, put me back together."

"It hurts."

"Fix me."

He didn't remember falling asleep... but he was scared, everything was hazy when he tried to think back, because she was right there, asking questions, but he wasn't hearing what she said, he was hearing the hissing voice, the rasping breath, of the thing that lurked in his nightmares.

"Edward, are you alright?"

"Why... You did this. It's your fault!"

"I'm sorry." He whimpered, edging away, waiting to see that... that thing's face instead. The glowing eyes, the gasping breath.

"What's wrong?"

"Fix me. Please, don't leave me like this."

"I... I didn't want to. N-not like that!" The young boy cried, as he continued to scramble away.

Trisha Elric was very worried now. Both her oldest son and husband had randomly collapsed that morning, with no given reason. Her husband had looked at her like he'd seen a ghost, pinched himself then said something very rude. Which Alphonse had heard.

But his reaction was in no way as worrying as this. Why was her son scared? What was causing it? Why had he collapsed?

All while she was wondering this, she was attempting to get him to calm down, with no such luck... Surely he wasn't scared... of her, right?

What was going on?

Then Hohenheim stepped in. He knelt down in front of Ed and forced the boy to look at him.

"Edward. It's not a nightmare. You're fine." He said calmly, and that had the boy's focus.

"But... But mum." He whispered.

"No. Think rationally. What's the last thing you remember?" Hohenheim said gently. Trisha was stunned. She knew Hohenheim was ... a little withdrawn due to the situation concerning him being a Philosopher's Stone, so she'd thought that he would be a little awkward around his sons, as he always was.

But here he was, succeeding where she had failed. Now she was confused, worried and feeling slightly sick. Too much had happened in one day, but Hohenheim was handling it well.

Or not, because Edward started crying, and it broke her heart to hear his tiny sobs.

"Alphonse... Then Father. I was beating him up..." Ed's voice wavered as he said his brother's name. Trisha wondered if this was a nightmare... But who was this 'Father'? And Hohenheim was nodding...

What was this?

"Well, Father was a God, remember?" Hohenheim said slowly, which wasn't really out of place considering that he was talking to a child.

"Shut up bastard. I know." Ed snapped, and Trisha covered her mouth. She didn't know that her son knew language like that. Where had he learned it? When?

"I still don't understand how you can call your own father that..." Hohenheim mumbled.

"Add 'complete failure of a' in front of 'father', then you've got it. Anyway, back on topic." Ed responded with more anger than her young son had ever possessed. Well, she thought so, but her eyes and ears weren't lying to her.

Hohenheim blinked, not fazed at all by the language and hatred, and continued. "Well, he probably knew that you were about to finish him off, and tried to escape..."

Trisha didn't know that her son had the memories and skills of the Fullmetal Alchemist, that he was a genius. So she was completely lost when he groaned.

"What did he do?" Ed asked, sounding torn between hope, something desperate and broken, and horror.

"Please tell me it's not the impossible option." He added as an afterthought.

"He had the power of a God, nothing was impossible." Hohenheim muttered.

"I heard enough of that from Greed. Now what did he do?" Greed? Who's that?

"I think he travelled through time." Hohenheim whispered, and Ed suddenly leapt upwards.

"So it wasn't a nightmare? Then Al! Al isn't... he didn't..." Ed trailed off, frantically wiping his eyes.

"Yes. And speaking of people being alive..." Hohenheim said, as though he was just realising it for himself.

They both turned slowly, having just remembered that Trisha was still in the room.

She fainted.

While Hohenheim and Ed were helping Trisha, after a good five minutes of pure panic, they argued.

"What if he's killing everyone?" Ed demanded furiously, when Hohenheim said it would be best to lay low.

"You'd feel it." Hohenheim said flatly. "No, I think that last gamble cost him, and I think that he lost his power, that it cost him his control." He mumbled thoughtfully. "I'm not sure if you noticed but his control was slipping, badly. I think this stunt cost him everything."

Ed blinked. He hadn't noticed.

He'd been hurting too much to care.

"Hey Al, are you okay?" Ed asked, running over, and nearly collapsing with relief because Al was safe. He was whole, human, not trapped in a body that couldn't cry, couldn't feel warmth... couldn't keep his soul safe.

He wasn't in the gate, he wasn't trapped. He was free, just like he deserved, and due to some horrible, or wonderful twist of fate, they could save everyone.

Ed couldn't help it, he began to hope.

"Brother? Why did you faint earlier?" Al was clueless. He didn't remember... anything.

"Hey Al, what do you think of homunculi?" Ed asked desperately, hoping that the Al he knew wasn't gone... that the brother he had trusted in hadn't been lost forever to the white space of the gate.

"They're not real, and a really complicated concept. Why?" Al blinked, and every single hope Ed had crumbled and died. If he doesn't remember... was Al, my Al, dead?

"I had the strangest dream." Trisha groaned as she woke up.

"Are you okay?" Ed asked, and if Trisha had been more awake, more attentive, she would've noticed that he was too desperate, too scared.

"I'm fine, no need to worry, see?" Trisha smiled, trying to reassure her sons, as Al was also worriedly clutching her hand.

Hohenheim was holding Alphonse's other hand, and Ed was huddled away from the both of them, haunted eyes staring at his brother like he expected someone else.

To add to the constant drama of the day, just as Trisha was about to speak again, there was a sudden, frantic knock at the door.

The whole family blinked then all rushed to answer the door. The worried face of Sarah Rockbell staring back at them.

"I'm sorry, but have you seen Winry? She fainted earlier then ran off once she woke up, and we haven't been able to find her anywhere!" The poor woman was nearly hysterical.

Winry fainted? What? Does she remember too?

Ed's eyes widened and he raced off, ignoring the worried calls of his family behind him.