"Water, 35 liters. Carbon, 20 kilograms. Lime, 4.5 grams—"

"No, Ross, that's wrong! It's ammonia, four liters next!"

"Geez, sorry."

"This is mom we're making. We can't screw it up."

"Okay, calm down. Um…Lime, 1.5 liters—"

"Kilograms."

"Shut up! Phosphorous, 800 grams. Salt, 250 grams. Saltpeter, 100 grams. Sulfur, 80 grams. Fluorine, 7.5 grams. Iron, 5 grams…uh…Silicon, 3 grams…and, yeah…then trace amounts of fifteen other elements."

"You're lucky your little sister is so smart."

"Whatever, Nina," Ross grumbled with a scowl.

"And don't forget the information for the soul," Nina added. She picked up a knife and sharply dragged it across her index finger. It hurt. She held it over the bowl, Ross soon following. They carefully sketched the transmutation circle.

"I can't wait," Ross said gleefully. "Dad'll come home and Mom will be back!"

Nina nodded enthusiastically. "He'll be like—" Nina dropped her voice exaggeratedly low—"I thought I told you to not to what the books said not to! Human Transmutation is bad! Arghh!"

"And then Mom will hug him and he'll be happy again," Ross said softly. They trailed off, thinking about how their father was never the same after Winry's death.

"I can't wait to taste her apple pie!"

"I can't wait to give her a hug!"

"What's the first thing we'll say to her?"

They paused and stared at each other with wide smiles.

"…We love you!" they shouted in unison.

"Okay, let's do this," Nina continued. She dropped to her knees, placing her palms on the circle. Ross nodded and they shared a grin.

"One…two…three!"

They activated the circle. Instantly, an explosion of blue light morphed from the floor, soon turning golden.

"Wow! I've never seen a golden transmutation before!" Nina squealed over the noise.

"Yeah!" Ross shouted back. "It reminds me of Mom's hair!"

Nina was about to respond when suddenly the room darkened and the light went a deep purple. Nina suddenly had a horrible, horrible gut feeling that something had gone wrong.

"Ross, something's not right," she whispered. She tried to pull back the alchemy, but it was too late. She was about to shout another warning when he heard him scream.

Nina whirled around and saw her brother's hands clamped over his mouth, his eyes squeezed shut. White light filtered between the spaces in his fingers, as if there was a lightbulb in his mouth.

"Ross—" and then it felt like her hands were on fire, being flayed and ripped apart. She wailed and saw small black hands tearing her flesh apart. Panic spiked up in her body.

"ROSS!" she shrieked, "Run!"

He snapped out of his stupor and stumbled to his feet. They tried to run, when suddenly the small black hands wrapped around them and savagely dragged them to the floor.

"No!" Nina wailed. Ross only made a guttural scream.

And then suddenly Nina was in a white place, with nothing there at all. She blinked a few times and suddenly there was a small creature surrounded with hazy black, sitting in an odd position. Its head bobbed.

"Hm? Are you—Oh, this is too good…" the creature laughed as if it realized something hilarious. "Oh, amazing! Father and son, making the same stupid mistakes…Uncle and niece, doing the same idiotic things…humans never learn, do they?"

Dad? Uncle Al? Nina suddenly remembered her father's automail leg. Did—did they do human transmutation too?

"Who're you?" Nina whimpered.

The creature paused, and chuckled. "This is my favorite part." it cleared its throat (if it had a throat) and began a speech that sounded rehearsed. "One name you might have for me is the World. Or maybe you call me the Universe? Or perhaps God! Or even the Truth. I am all, and I am one. So of course, this also means that I am you."

Nina heard a creaking noise. She whirled around, amazed to see a huge gray gate. On the front was the vague image of a dog; but it had eerie human qualities, like opposable thumbs and long hair.

Black hands shot out of it like bullets, wrapping around her. She wailed and screamed, trying to run. But the hands wouldn't let her run a second time; they went taut as they gripped her and pulled back.

"So noisy, just like your father was," Truth sighed. Then the door slammed shut. Truth grinned slightly.

"I can't wait to see what she'll be sacrificing!"

The hands dragged her mercilessly through the Portal. Information was stuffed directly into her head; she screamed for them to stop, it felt like her head was going to explode! But they carried her without listening. Then she saw her.

"Mom," Nina choked out. "Mom!"

The figure turned, and Nina felt a strong wave of horror and fear from it. Words entered her mind.

Not my dear children…

"Mom! It's me!"

And then she was back at the gate. She whirled around to face Truth, hysterical.

"You got to let me back! I need to see more! The answer was just past—!"

"You know what's funny?" Truth interrupted in a bored tone. "Your father said the same damn thing. So I'll tell you, too—I'll only show you what you paid for."

"Paid—?"

Suddenly, Truth stood up, and his white hands flaked away, replaced by flesh ones.

"Goodbye, Nina Elric," he laughed.

The World's dark laugh was the last thing she heard before she was ruthlessly teleported back home.

Nina let out a scream from the stared at her bloodied hands—rather, lack of hands—and trembled furiously. She heard an animalistic groan to her right and she turned sharply. There was Ross, blood spilling from his mouth. Nina's stomach jumped violently.

"Ng…ng…ong…" Ross blubbered, more blood flowing from his lips.

They'd taken his tongue.

Ross shakily lifted a bloody finger and pointed to the center of the room. Nina turned, and suddenly hope hit her. Mom is okay…Mom will make it alright…Mom is back!

But Mom was not there at all. Instead there was a brown blob of organs that had stopped pulsing long ago, with red eyes that lost their ominous glow. Mouth open in a moan of nothing but agony.

It was too much. The blood, the pain, the blob. Nina retched repeatedly, while Ross lay next to her, shaking uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Nina whispered.

Edward Elric returned that day from the store. He was not greeted by his wife and kids. He was greeted by his own past staring at him through his own children.