Al woke up, then immediately wondered how he was still alive. I gave myself up for Brother. So why am I still here? He started to get up before noticing that his body wouldn't move. Wait. His body.

Al looked down and saw his torso. It was his flesh and bone torso, although emancipated, but definitely not armor, and certainly not the Philosopher's Stone. He lifted an arm and pinched himself. "Oww!" Okay, so this wasn't a dream. He was really back! "Brother, I'm back! Brother I'm-". Then a thought, a horrible thought, cut him off. There was no way he should have been able to get his body back without losing something. But he had everything. He could feel every limb, every organ, every inch of skin, HUMAN skin. So who had paid the price? Where was Ed?

The boy flung his new head in all directions, searching for his older brother. But all he saw was a girl in a pink dress. Wait, girl in a pink dress? He looked closer and started to recognize her. It was Rose! His heart leapt a little. She'd be able to tell him what happened.

Rose was able to tell him some of what had happened, how Ed had come back and then asked her to leave. She'd come back to make sure the blonde shorty was alright, but had found Al instead. As she talked to him, her eyes subconsciously drifted downwards, and she immediately went red. Al followed her gaze and blushed even deeper. He wasn't wearing any clothes!

He immediately sat down and grabbed his knees to his chest, partly from exhaustion-his body really wasn't in the best shape-and partly to spare Rose. He shyly asked, "Do you know if there's anything I could wear around here?" She nodded and ran off, coming back with a long coat in her arms. It was huge on his fragile frame, but served his purpose. He had to get back to Central and start all of them looking for Ed.

After about an hour to let Al build up some energy, he and Rose found the way Ed had used to come down to this awful city. It took a while, since he wasn't very strong, but they eventually made it up to the surface level. It was light outside, looking like midmorning. The night had passed while they were working their way up. Although they didn't really know where they were, Rose did some asking for directions and finally managed to get an idea of where Central Command was. Eventually, she had to leave him at a coffee shop where she asked the owner to look after him. Now she could run.

Rose tightened her grip on her baby, hiked up her dress, and kicked into high gear. When she got to Command, the two guards outside the gates barred her way. "Where do you think you're going miss?"

She brought herself up to her full height and remembered what Alphonse had told her to say. "I need to see Lieutenant Hawkeye. It's about the Elric brothers."

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we're going to have to ask you to-" They were cut off by a different voice.

"What about the Elric brothers?" It was a woman in a brown turtleneck and slightly lighter long coat, coming from the direction of the hospital. She matched Al's description to a T.

Rose bit her lip. "Are you Riza Hawkeye?"

The woman nodded. "Yes. Can I help you?"

"Come with me."

Riza followed the girl to the shop where she'd left Alphonse. Riza gasped when she saw him. The boy was little more than skin and bones, but he was human. Alphonse was human. She smiled and said, "It's good to see you back in your body, Al. But where's Ed?"

"That's the problem," said Al as he attempted to get up and greet her, although he sank back into his chair defeated. "When I woke up, I was like this and no one was there but Rose." He nodded in the direction of the girl with the two-tone hair. "I think Ed's missing."

Riza pulled out the chair across from where Al was sitting. "Can you tell me about it?"

"Yes." And Alphonse told her the whole story, from the Liore incident to the discovery of the city underneath Central. "We reached the surface about an hour ago, but I haven't seen Brother anywhere. I can't really look for him like this, but," and he whipped out the puppy eyes. "I thought maybe you could help me find him."

Riza leaned back in her chair. If what Ed had told her was true, then there had to have been a price for getting Al's body back. Paying that price had been the whole point of their search. She put her elbows back on the table and peered at the young man in front of her. "You know it's possible that Ed might really be gone, Alphonse. The price for getting you back might have been his own life."

"NO!" Al banged his boney fist on the table. "Brother wouldn't do that! He wouldn't sacrifice himself like that! He wouldn't leave me alone, even if it meant getting my body back. We're all we've got!"

Riza put her hand over his fisted one and held it. "You're right Alphonse. Ed wouldn't do something like that. Let's get you to Command. Then we can sort this thing out." Easy for me to say, she thought to herself. With Roy out of commission from that earlier fight, I've only got the others to work with on this. I could probably get Armstrong and his crew on the case, but I don't know how good they are at this sort of thing.

She got up and motioned for Rose to join her. It's times like these that I actually miss Hughes. She and Rose each took one of Al's arms over their shoulder and helped him walk the remaining few blocks to Central. They had some work to do.

Don't be review shy. And yes, I will be bringing Ed back.