Epilogue

Eleven year old Ren looked at the boy curiously. He was familiar, what with his red coat and long blonde hair, but at the same time he was quite different from Edward Elric. His eyes and hair were darker, his face was a different shape, and more importantly, Edward Elric had to be about nineteen now. This boy was not much older than Ren.

Not that Ren hadn't changed himself. He was often mistaken for a girl, and lately he wasn't even bothering to correct people. His red hair was getting longer and would be long enough to braid soon, and he had pierced his ears, putting his mother's earring into his right ear. He wore her coat and goggles every day, and had even put a scar under his right eye that was similar to his mother's. Someday he would get her tattoo.

"What are you doing here?" Ren asked the boy, not entirely sure who he was but knowing that if he was related to Edward Elric, he was likely to only bring trouble with him.

The boy didn't seem to know him. "I'm Alphonse Elric," he introduced. "I...I've been looking for my older brother, Edward. He disappeared a long time ago. I've been traveling to try to find him."

"I met your brother," Ren said quietly. "A long time ago, when my mother died. If I had never met him, my mother might be alive. You were there, too. You were wearing a suit of armor."

Alphonse grimmaced. "I'm sorry. I lost my memory of much that happened before a couple of years ago. Could you please tell me your name?"

"Ren," Ren answered. "Ren Cornig." He gestured toward the grave they were standing in front of. "Renea Cornig was my mother." He continued to stare. "You really don't remember anything?"

Alphonse shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't. Did my brother really cause your mother's death?"

Ren shook his head. "My uncle did. He was executed for it. But it's hard for me not to think that I met your brother just before my mother died. I think about a lot of things that happened before she died that maybe, if they didn't, she'd still be alive."

Alphonse nodded. "My brother used to talk like, too. Right after our mother died. He blamed my father most of the time, though." Alphonse turned and started to walk away. "You seem like a nice girl. Don't do anything you'll regret later, like try to bring your mother back. Okay?"

Ren had had no intention on doing so, and he didn't correct Alphonse's assumption that he was female. In fact, it was after that that he decided he would never correct people again. Just the opposite: he would become the woman that his mother was.

Eighteen year old Ren Cornig was sitting in a bar, reflecting once again on the day she'd shed the last bit of the boy Silas Cornig and started down on the path to become as much like her mother as possible. She had been traveling, had been to Thare and manged to hold her own, had learned alchemy from a variety of sources, and was still determined to become a State Alchemist.

Sometimes her mind wandered to the Elric brothers, and she wondered if Alphonse had managed to find Edward. He'd seemed so lost without him, and it saddened her to consider the possibility that they still hadn't found one another. Saddened her enough that she sighed, finished her drink, and tossed her money onto the counter, stepping out into Cervante.

It was the first time she had been home in years. She hadn't seen her brother or sister since she left home at age twelve, and she didn't even know if they still lived here, or if they would want anything to do with her. But thinking about the Elric brothers had made her miss her siblings more than she ever thought she would when she'd originally left.

As she approached the house where she had grown up all too soon, she found herself getting increasingly nervous. She'd still been a boy when she'd left, for one, and now, thanks to various foul-tasting concoctions from foreign lands and some modified healing alchemy, she looked very much the part of a woman now. She also hadn't so much as sent a letter home in the six years she had been gone. She wondered if her siblings would forgive her for that.

Ren hesistated, listening at the door. She could hear music from inside, and figured that Elvin must have continued his piano lessons. From the sound of it, despite his rough beginnings he had become more than proficient at it by now. It brought a smile to her face, and she was loathe to interrupt the song by knocking. But she knocked anyway, and sure enough, the song stopped.

The door opened, and standing on the other side was a tall, willowy, handsome young man, with strawberry-blonde hair and light green eyes which were covered by a pair of glasses, who her mother had always said looked more like his father with a little of his mother's coloring.

"Hello, can I..." Elvin stopped, before realizing who it was. He blinked a few times, examining the visitor once more. "Ren?" he asked at last. He stepped aside, more to let more light fall on the visitor than to invite her in, but Ren took it as an invitation anyway, stepping inside.

"It's been a while," Ren said, looking around the living room. A few of the chairs used for lessons were gone, and a small piano had been put in their place. It annoyed her a bit, but then, it wasn't as if she had been around to object. It was now Elvin's house to do as he pleased. "Where's Celia?" she asked.

"She went to visit Keyes. She's teaching her how to cook," Elvin said, examining Ren again. "Wow, I can't believe you're..."

"Here?" Ren finished. She knew what Elvin was really thinking, and smiled teasingly at him. "I've been all over the place. But before I went to Central to try my luck at getting into the next State Alchemist qualification exam I thought I'd stop here."

Elvin closed the door at last, staring at the floor. "You could have stopped sooner. Or at least sent a letter."

Ren nodded. "I was afraid you'd bring that up. I'm sorry, really. But I was traveling and learning and...well, changing, obviously."

"I can see that," Elvin said, stepping over to the piano bench and seating himself at it. Ren took that as a hint that she could sit down and did so, looking around the house again.

"Still playing the piano?" she asked conversationally. She knew it was a pretty stupid question: she'd heard him playing on the way in.

Elvin didn't tell her so, however. He just nodded and ran a hand over the keys. "I gave up alchemy. It just didn't interest me anymore. I got really good at the piano when it became my only focus, but out here there's not much I can do with it. I teach it once in a while for money."

Ren nodded. "You could always come to Central with me. It's the center of everything. You could make a name for yourself."

"And what about Celia? She's just a homemaker. She has no desire to go to Central, and I don't particularly want to leave her," Elvin pointed out.

Ren flinched when she heard that. "I thought you said she was with Keyes. Why can't she stay here with her?" Ren leaned forward a bit. "I'm sorry I left, Elvin. Really, I am. But I didn't think you'd want to come with me."

"But you could have asked at least," Elvin pointed out. "Even if we didn't want to come with you, you could have given us the option instead of making it feel like you didn't care about us."

"I know, but I was twelve. Twelve year olds aren't known for common sense," Ren argued. "And I'm here now. I'm willing to take you or both of you with me now. I miss you two, really. I know you probably don't believe me, but the longer I didn't get in touch with you, the harder I knew it would be. That's why I didn't."

"Are you about finished?" Elvin asked.

Ren sighed and got up. "Yeah. Sorry I wasted your time."

She headed toward the door when a voice stopped her. "I was heading toward Central myself, anyway," Elvin said.

Ren turned around and smiled at her brother. "So does that mean what I think it means?"

Elvin ran his hand over the piano keys again. "It means stay the night and we'll take things from there."

Ren began to head back into the house. "Thank you," she said to her brother.

The End