The afternoon following the Promised Day, Sheska's mother died.

She got the call from a tearful nurse. It sounded as though they had lost many of their patients when their souls left their bodies. Those who were already in a fragile condition could not handle the stress of it all, even once their souls had been returned.

"I'm so sorry, Sheska. We did everything that we could."

Stuck in a state of shock and numbness, Sheska spent the day curled up in a ball on her couch, barely moving as she let the news sink in.

The next day she forced herself to pull it together. Arrangements needed to be made, and it wouldn't help anyone if she were completely incapacitated.

The day after that, she quit her job. While she'd enjoyed working for the archives, she was fairly certain that she'd had enough excitement to last her a lifetime. And beyond that, it was difficult to want to continue working for an organization that she did not trust. There was a lot of trust that had to be rebuilt, among everything else that Amestris needed to do in order to rebuild itself as a country.

It wasn't that she did not wish to help, but more that she had seen how short and valuable life was, and wanted to live it to the fullest.

When she applied back for her old position at the library, they accepted her without hesitation. She'd matured and grown an exponential amount, and she was certain that they saw a change in her. Sheska wasn't the same person she had been all those years ago.

Kain Fuery also wasn't the man she had met all those months ago. War had a tendency to change people, and Sheska looked forward to getting to know him all over again.

The first time Sheska went to visit Mustang and Hawkeye, the room was empty, which came as a shock.

When Sheska walked into the room, the blonde Lieutenant was asleep, and the Colonel was staring in her general direction, smiling fondly though he couldn't possibly be seeing her.

Not wanting to startle him, she tiptoed her way into the room, but he turned towards her as soon as he heard her quiet footsteps.

"Colonel Mustang?" She whispered, so as not to wake Hawkeye, "Hi, I'm Sheska, I used to work for the military, and I'm friends with Kain, uh – I mean, Sergeant Major Fuery. He asked me if I could bring some books over."

Colonel Mustang chuckled lowly, "I remember you, Sheska."

"Right. Okay. Good."

She sat down by the already large pile of books and started adding her own additions, grouping them by category. After a moment, she stood back up again.

"Uh – Colonel? I think I kind of – well, inadvertently owe you an apology."

He was looking just over her right shoulder, and Sheska almost turned around to look before she reminded herself that he couldn't see her.

"Well I – actually, no. I think a thank you might be better suited."

"A thank you?"

"Yeah. A thank you for everything that you're going to do for this country."

Colonel Mustang's lips twitched up into a grin, and Sheska smiled back.

She waited for a few awkward moments for Kain to turn up, and when he didn't, she turned towards the door.

"Alright well I'll just, you know, make my way out here and-"

Cutting herself short, Sheska froze at a group of people coming through the doorway. Kain was there, with Breda and Falman, and -

Sheska shrieked, dropping her books as she ran over to Maria Ross. And then, without thinking about it, she threw her arms around the taller woman.

"I'm so glad to see you!"

"Hey!" Mustang was scowling, his voice low and commanding.

"It's fine, I'm fine." Hawkeye assured him.

"Oh! Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Sheska chastised herself. Of course she shouldn't be screaming in a hospital, especially when she was in the room of a sleeping patient.

"It's wonderful to see you too, Sheska!" Maria smiled at her, and Sheska smiled back. They had a lot to talk about, and she wondered how much Maria would be willing to tell her.

At least they got to rebuild in every sense of the word.

Sitting surrounded by piles and piles of books on Ishval that she'd borrowed from the library, Sheska smiled lightly to herself, listening to Heymans Breda quiz Colonel - or, rather, General Mustang on the Ishval region.

The tentative plan was for the entire unit to relocate to the region to help the Ishvalans rebuild. Maria Ross would be accompanying them, along with Rebecca Catalina, Denny Brosh, and Alex Armstrong. A lot needed to be done to start rebuilding after everything that had happened on the Promised Day, but Sheska knew that both Mustang and Hawkeye felt it was important they put their resources and efforts into the Ishvalan region, first.

The soldiers that contributed to the Ishvalan war all felt like they had a lot to make up for, Sheska knew that now. Nothing could ever be undone, the terrors couldn't be forgotten, and shouldn't be forgotten.

But maybe, just maybe, everything that had happened could bring them one step closer to achieving peace. Equality. A unified world.

Sheska could only hope.

As soon as she could make arrangements for her mother, they had a small burial for her. According to the nurses, her mother had been one of the few of their hospital patients who had family they knew how to contact. Not only had a majority of patients been without family, but Sheska was alarmed by the amount of unmarked graves. Soldiers and civilians alike.

She'd read about wars, of course, all through history. Numbers were quantifiable, but it was completely different to see the slew of graves.

Kain squeezed her hand, and she was thankful that he was there to support her.

Maria Ross had also come to support her, and in a surprise of all surprises, so had Edward and Alphonse Elric. She wasn't sure how they'd even heard about it, but it was touching all the same.

"Are you ready to go?" Kain asked her, and Sheska shook her head.

"Can I meet you later?"

Worry flashed through Kain's eyes, but he nodded anyway. "Of course."

Sheska spent the next few hours letting the tears flow freely, picking wild flowers and placing them on all the unmarked graves that she could.

"I'm so sorry." She said to each one.

Sheska's visits to the hospital became more frequent, and she started to feel adopted into Mustang's band of unruly misfits.

It shocked her when it was revealed to her that General Mustang got his sight back, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know how it happened.

She and Kain fell into a routine, and though it was mostly a comfortable one, it was also different from before Kain left. Nights were broken by night terrors, when the time came for him to accompany Mustang to Ishval, Sheska told him that he needed to go. He insisted that she come with him, and it was set up that she would help restore Ishvalan archives. The library was disappointed to see her leave, but she promised that she'd be back, and they promised that she'd have a position when she did.

When Kain proposed, Sheska felt like the luckiest girl in the world, to be able to marry her best friend.

A/N: Over a year later, I'm back, and hopefully back to stay. This took me a while to get back into, even though I'd had it planned out for over a year. The tumblr fandom created a really toxic environment for me, and it took away my love for creating, and my love for this show. I constantly felt guilt tripped and manipulated into reading fic, instead of reading it because it sounded enjoyable to me, and beyond that, writing certain things for certain people. But I love writing and creating, especially on my own terms, and realized I could continue doing that. Besides, these two deserved an ending, and everyone who took the time to read any of the first two of the trilogy, leave me comments, or send me messages deserve the ending too. It's not necessarily a happy one, but this is the direction the characters took. There were two possible endings I had in mind, but this is where we ended up. It was pretty difficult to write and I'm sure it'll be difficult to read, but thank you so much for sticking with me.

Please drop me a line and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!