He knew full well what transmuting himself meant. He would die. All their research, all their travels, it all came to this. But if it meant bringing his brother back... Alphonse clapped, focusing his mind on the task at hand, and gently rested his hands on the still-warm corpse of the Fullmetal Alchemist.

A flash of yellow...

"Al...?"

Darkness. It was dark. Too dark. Something had gone wrong.

Images flashed; whether they were before his eyes, in his mind, or somewhere else entirely, he did not know. He saw them.

"For me it was a place called London; or at least, that's what the old man told me..." Ed seemed peaceful, or at least resigned.

"Take me to Hohenheim of Light!" A psychotic grin spread across the green-haired homunculus's face as he was pulled into the Gate.

A green serpent swung through the field of yellow, disappearing in a flash of light.

"Al...?" The teenager's voice quivered with hints of hidden fear and despair...

Then all went dark once more.

It was... warm.

Dark, but warm.

No, not dark... there were... colors. Colors? There were colors here?

"Edward...? Can you hear me?" Apparently a soft, concerned voice as well... the colors resolved into a face he never thought he'd see again. Rose.

"Yeah..." Tears welled up in the alchemist's eyes, and he wiped them away, looking to the side for the brother he would've expected in place of the Lioran woman.

"Al...?" He sat up, staring at his right hand. His flesh right hand. The hand that used to be automail. Had they done it? Had they finally gotten their bodies back?

"He used alchemy to bring you back, Ed," Rose's quiet voice informed him, "after you died." He looked once more at the flesh hand, felt the blood pulsing through the lower half of his left leg. Stared over at the brown-skinned woman, golden eyes wavering with forcefully withheld tears.

"The Philosopher's Stone... He used it to fix my body and pull my soul from the Gate... but then, what happened to him?" Rose looked away, brown eyes tearing, her face quivering. The blond sucked in a breath, feeling tears of his own surging behind his eyes.

"Don't tell me... don't tell me he's gone, Rose..." He stood, not noticing the tinge of hysteria to his own voice, and looked around.

"Al?" Where was that cumbersome suit of armor?

"Al!" Where was his little brother?

"AL!" Why wasn't he here, damn it? They were supposed to get their bodies back together! Together! The cries of an infant interrupted Ed's thoughts. Rose attempted to quiet the child, patting it gently as the blond alchemist looked over his shoulder. He slumped. A kid could express its emotions better than he, Edward Elric, ever could. The infant quieted, and the two young adults stood. The blond knew what he had to do.

"I hate to ask you this, but could you take him to the surface too?" The violet eyes of Wrath, prone on the floor, stared up at them in the frenzied panic of a wild animal trapped. Rose returned her gaze to the alchemist's face.

"What about you?" The blond turned away, gazing upwards.

"I'll destroy this place down to the last plank. So no one ever gets the idea to create a Philosopher's Stone this way again." The brown-haired woman looked down at the child in her arms, understanding his logic. The Stone had destroyed his life; what better way for him to ensure none would endure the same agony?

"Very well. I'm sure whatever happens, you'll find your way out. You've got strong legs; you'll get up and use them, won't you, Edward?" The alchemist turned back to face her, recognizing his words from so long ago. So childishly optimistic, yet so true. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find the courage to tell this strong, sensitive woman what he knew. He would not survive this transmutation. A brief, forced smile made its way to his face, before he turned to his goal.

"You'd better get moving. If what my dad said about the Gate is true, Al's old body and mine should still be there. And Al's soul is there too."

The elder Elric walked over to the immense transmutation circle inscribed upon the floor of the great ballroom, shedding his many layers. Jacket, shirt, tank-top, all gone. Ed picked up a piece of rubble, inspecting it for a moment before carving the circles into his forehead, chest and arms. He would transmute himself, and bring his baby brother back, and Al could have the normal life that his older brother could only dream of. He stood in the center of the array, focusing himself.

"Maybe life has no equal trade, maybe you can give up all you've got and get nothing back... but still... even if I can't prove it's true, I have to try. For your sake... Al." Edward clapped, golden eyes closing for what he was sure would be the last time in what had become his signature, although it was no more than a symbol now, and placed his hands on the circle inscribed upon his chest. The arrays glowed with blue light, elicting a response from the gigantic counterpart beneath his feet. He was going to bring his little brother back, and it would kill him. Of that, at least, he was sure.

The brown-haired boy blinked; where was he? There had been the Gate, and that darkness... and now... now... where was he? He lifted his hand, and felt his arm respond. Was he dead, and this was the afterlife that he and brother had never believed in? No... it was too cold... but what happened? Why did his head feel so empty? And what... what was that big transmutation circle over there? Wrath, supported by Rose, gasped as the boy lifted his gaze. For he knew, having seen that face many, many years ago when he and his bretheren had so eagerly engulfed it as the foolish children tried to bring back the dead, that those eyes were not supposed to be violet.

I don't know how to get back to you. This world is a strange place. But one thing's for sure: I will find a way. We'll be together soon, Al. Never would the blond alchemist dream that who- what- he had brought back to life was not his younger brother.

Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return;

To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.

That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange.

In those days, we really belived that to be the world's one and only truth,

But the world isn't perfect, and the law is incomplete.

Equivalent Exchange doesn't encompass everything that goes on here,

But I still choose to believe in its principle: that all things do come at a price,

That there's an ebb, and a flow, a cycle;

That the pain we went through did have a reward;

And that anyone who's determined, and perserveres will get something of value in return,

Even if it's not what they expected.

I don't think of Equivalent Exchange as the law of the world anymore.

I think of it as a promise, between my brother and me-

A promise that someday, we'll see each other again.

Never in his life would Alphonse realize that his inability to perform alchemy was not a shortcoming on his part, that his missing memories were not an accident, an extra price paid to the Gate in return for his body, mind, and soul, but a symbol of his lost humanity. The symbol of his status as a homunculus.