As Edward Elric walked to his brother's grave, he felt something he had never felt before. He realized how much he loved his brother, and how he had loved him back. He took advantage of him, and now that he was gone, he felt dead and incomplete.
"Alphonse," Ed whispered."Why did you have to leave me? What am I supposed to do? How are we supposed to get Mom back to her original state? Why do these things keep happening to me"
"Ed," Winry said as she walked up to him." Hey! How are you? I haven't seen you since..you know..." Ed could tell she was trying to avoid mentioning Al's death.
"I'm fine...I haven't really felt myself lately, but I'll be fine," Ed responded.
"Where are you staying nowadays?" Winry asked him, changing the subject.
"I've been staying with Riza Hawkeye," Ed told her."And sometimes with Roy. I don't want to go back to Risembool. Too many memories"
It's been two years since Al had died. Everyone was sad, but in a few month's time, they got over it. But not Ed. He couldn't get over his only brother's death, the brother who had stayed with him through the good and the bad. He thought he was sad when Winry died, but this was too much. He could remember the moment his life was taken away...
"You can't do this! He's my little brother! Don't take him away from me..." Ed sobbed as the homunculous Torture stood before him with Al in his hands.
"We had a deal, Elric," Torture said."A life for a life. I got to choose. You want the girl back, right"
"I don't want you to take Alphonse! I just returned him to his normal state!" Ed said through tears.
"ED! BROTHER...!" Al screamed as Pain clapped her hands and started the human transmutation. In an instant, all life was drained out of Alphonse and thrown into Winry.
"ALPHONSE! No..This can't be happening...not again..."
"I'm sorry, Ed," Winry said as she saw Ed tilt his head down and start crying."I'll go"
"No, it's not you, Winry," Ed said through tears."I was just remebering how he died"
"Oh...thank you, Ed," Winry said.
"Huh? For what"
"You were willing to give up a life for me. Because of you, I'm standing here today. Though I wouldn't like to be"
"What do you mean by 'wouldn't like to be'?" Ed asked.
"It's just that you lost your brother because of me. It's no that I'm not grateful, because I truly am, but Al's your only brother. I'm just an old friend"
"Winry, don't talk like that! Don't go off and commit suicide because I'm sad my brother died! You should be happy you're standing here"
"You're right. I'll be more cheerful, I promise," Winry said."...so, why do you stay with Roy and Riza"
"Well, they don't live together yet, even though they're engaged. But Riza sometimes stays the night at Roy's house, and I live with her, so I go where she goes. I should be finding a place of my own, though, because I'm twenty," Ed said."I guess I like the security"
"I thought you hated Roy!" Winry said.
"I wouldn't say 'hate' anymore. We worked things out, and it helps that I'm at least a foot taller than two years ago," Ed said."That was the main reason we didn't like each other; he made fun of my height"
"Well, I'd better go...Oh! Did I tell you that I opened my own automail shop? Come by sometime!" Winry said as she ran to her car.
"Al...I'll get you back...no matter what it takes"
He walked away to his own car and headed for Riza's house.
Ed got out of his car and walked up to Riza's house and entered. He saw Riza sitting at her kitchen table sipping coffee.
"Ed you're home," Riza said."Where did you go"
"I went to see Al," Ed replied.
"You know, Ed, the wedding's next week and you haven't picked out your tux yet," Riza said, trying to change the subject.
"I'll just transmute one later," Ed said as he walked up to his room.
"Maybe I could...no, I'm not doing human transmutation again...not after what happened last time...but how did Pain do it correctly? It's against the laws of alchemy!" Ed said to himself."...I'll try one more time...for Al"
Ed walked over to his personal library of alchemy and searched for the old books Ed and Al read and studied before they began human transmutation on their mother. He found them and set them down on his desk and leafed through them. He went back and read them carefully, and again, and again. He intended to succeed this time. As he went over the formula one last time, he fell asleep on top of his pile of books.
When Ed finally awoke, it was about eight'o'clock AM and Riza was sitting on his bed staring at him.
"Huh? Wh-What are you doing?" Ed asked groggily.
"Oh, nothing," Riza said."I was just waiting for you to wake up. What are you studying?" She picked up one of his books and leafed through it.
"It's amazing haw you undersand all of this. I can't make sense of any of it!" Riza said. She then picked up a sheet of paper that Ed was writing on the night before.
"'Improved Theory of Human Transmu-'" She read aloud and then stopped."You're not planning to bring Alphonse back, are you"
"It doesn't concern you, Riza," Ed said as he took his paper back and set it down on his desk."Don't get involved. It's something I have to do"
"Ed, I won't allow you to do this! I may not know much about alchemy or understand it, but I know what a human transmutation is and I'm not letting you do it!" Riza yelled.
"Whats all the yelling about?" Roy said as he entered the room. Riza ran up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss. She whispered something in his ear, and Roy looked shocked.
"Ed, you're not performing a human transmutation! How do you propose to do it? You have nothing to sacrifice!" Roy said.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I want to do it without sacrificing a lot," Ed said.
"It's impossible! Why try to do this again? You know perfectly well what happened last time!" Roy said.
"Yes, I know," Ed said."I'm a more expierienced alchemist and person. I've gotten more mature since we tried to bring Mom back. I'm not afraid of death, since I've come so close to it many times before"
"Are you planning to sacrifice yourself?" Roy asked.
"Of course not, that's stupid," Ed said.
"Then wha"
"I don't know. Just leave me alone, alright? I'll do what I have to do."
As Ed stood at the top of the stairs an hour later, he overheard Riza and a neighbor talking about the neighbors' daughter's fatal illness.
"That's perfect!" Ed said to himself."She's just going to die anyway...but that's a crime and it would be wrong...and it's not like she would just hand her daughter over to me for what I'm going to use her for"
"Excuse me, lady, but do you think I could take a look at your daughter? I'm an alchemist; I might be able to help," Ed said as he came down the stairs.
"Of course! Do what you want with her; she'll just die anyway.." the woman said.
Ed walked next door and went into the girls' room. She looked very sickly and weak on her bed. Ed walked up to her.
"Wh-Who are you?" the girl asked.
"I'm Edward Elric, an alchemist, if you know hat that is," he said.
"I'm going to die, aren't I?" she asked.
"Yes, I'm sorry to say. Do you want to be put to good use before dying?" he asked her.
"Yes. I don't want to die knowing that I never helped anybody or accomplished anything in my life. What do I do"
"First, can you walk? If you can't, I'll carry you"
"I can't. I haven't been able to for a year"
"I'm going to draw a circle and I want you to lie in the middle of it." He carried her into a forest where they were away from buildings and society. He set her down and drew the transmutation circle around her.
"Now don't move. I'll be right back," Ed said as he ran to the graveyard.
