"Al?"
"Al? Can you hear me? Wake up!"
A distant voice called from the beyond, sending Alphonse Elric back into reality. He stared at his older brother for a moment, trying to contemplate what he just experienced. "Brother?"
"Al?" Edward asked a fifth time, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah..." Alphonse muttered, his head still feeling as it would explode. It all made sense now, the world, the universe and the truth. it was all there behind that gate... "Are you okay? You're covered in blood big brother! and-"
He gasped at the sight before him, the bloodstains all around him and... Martel's body was lying peacefully on the ground a few feet away. Covered by a perfectly white sheet.
"I'm sorry Alphonse." Major Armstrong said with a sigh, "We thought it best to remove her before you woke up."
At that moment, Alphonse wished he had a body so he could cry. He felt so helpless. First Nina, then...all of this was too much. "I... I couldn't save her. I...just..."
"It's okay Al. "Edward placed his hand on his brother's shoulder. "It's over now. Let's go home."
~.~.~
That night, Alphonse sat in his hotel room staring at the sky out of the window. It was such a horrible curse being unable to sleep. Sometimes he wished the stars could talk to keep him company. He sure did talk with them.
"So...stars... What do you think?" Alphonse asked after explaining the whole situation. From the strange homunculus Greed to the death he was forced to witness. "Am I a horrible person?"
"Hardly."
Alphonse froze.
The stars never talked back to him before. In fact this whole conversation was one-sided! There was not suppose to be any-
"What are you gaping over, Alphonse. That's your name right?"
"Ah...?" He glanced around the room, where in the world was the voice coming from? And why the heck did it sound...familiar? Alphonse stood up and crept over to the door leading into the hall. He peeked out and found no one there. "Hello?"
"Hello Al." The voice said again.
"What is going on here?" He asked who ever it was as he went over to the window to make sure it was not Barry the Chopper wanting to chop him into scrap metal. "And why do I think I know you?"
"Because you do. And thanks to me this all worked out nicely."
"What...do you mean?" Alphonse knew that he was going insane or something. "Explain yourself."
"Fine, fine... Now I want you to take this easy...but I think... because I attacked King Bradley and got myself killed... you got your memories back and I got attached to this tin can. It's rather strange honestly."
Edward woke up with a start hearing a scream come from the room across the hall.
