A/N: Kudos to whoever recognizes the asterism. Before I had line breaks, but I edited it away and then replaced with three asterisks, but for some reason that didn't appear and there was no section break at all. So I'm using the asterism, even though it's a little too small so I also put it three times, even though the three asterisks are already in there. (Fanfiction formatting problems...) Tell me if there's a part that seems like there should be a section break and there isn't.


Brother


I pushed against the gate, demanding it to let me though. I pushed and pushed, and finally it let me through, and I collapsed to the ground. Was I back?

"Brother!?" It was Al, truly Al, with that metallic echo in his voice.

"Alphonse?" Then I noticed again, my hand numb. Unfeeling. "My automail. I'm really here. But..." An image of the other Al, calling out for his brother. "Did that mean that the other Ed had to die? His life... traded for mine?" No... It wasn't fair... What had he ever done to deserve this?

"Quite an amazing feat, Edward." My gaze snapped up toward the man who had spoken, and my eyes widened with surprise.

"Doctor Marcoh? I never did know where you went." Had he been here all along, working with Dante?

His form changed, and I knew it was only Envy. That shape-shifting bastard. I growled.

"Sure you did, Ed." Hughes' familiar, lilting tone filled my ears. "After all, you were the one who found the old doc and just waved goodbye as he went into the Fuhrer's custody! Now that was a great idea." No. He couldn't mean... "Poor thing ended up in that thing's stomach." He pointed at Gluttony, and I stared at the monster.

It was all my fault again...

"Wouldn't have died if you hadn't had tracked him down." I turned back to glare at Envy. "Of course, you were bad luck for a lot of us, weren't you?" And suddenly Hughes, no Envy, took out his knives and threw them at me. I hurriedly dodged, still disoriented.

"I'd still be with my wife and adorable girl if I hadn't met you. It must be tough, fighting a friend you've already killed once!" He lunged, and again, I clumsily dodged.

Why? Why did those words hurt when I knew they weren't true? When I knew it wasn't actually Hughes speaking?

Because he was right... It was all my fault...

He came at me again, and this time I managed to get behind him and put him in a choke hold. No, I couldn't let this guilt stop me. This wasn't Hughes; this was Envy. A monster.

"Is that all you got?" I said through gritted teeth, anger coursing through my body.

"Release me," he begged, so much like Hughes.

"Impersonations with guilt trips attached!?"

"Damn you..."

"You'll have to do better than that! You're still a homunculus under that face! Have you forgotten what I did to your friend Sloth? I killed her while she was wearing the fave of my own mother!" Envy's face turned, and became something else. Became... her.

"Really?" she said, and my grip loosened. "That must have been very hard for you." Envy kicked me in the gut and chuckled, transforming back into himself.

"So, not as tough as you think," he taunted, and I growled, clapping my hands together.

"I'd reconsider the use of alchemy if I were you," Dante suddenly spoke from behind me. I froze for a moment, glancing wearily backwards, but then made a noise of disbelief.

"And you think I'm going to listen to you?"

"Go ahead if you want, it's not like I care what happens to your brother." Envy smirked, and my eyes widened, only now fully taking in the situation.

Al was lying in the middle of a transmutation circle... The Human Transmutation circle.

"The philosopher's stone has already been activated." Dante's words, confirming my worst fears. "If transmutations occurred near him, who knows what could happen." No... Damn it –

"Let's find out." Envy's face was suddenly right next to mine, and then he kicked me in the stomach. I doubled over, then clumsily dodged the next attack. When the next one made contact though, I rolled back up onto my feet and backed away.

"You're going to pay for that!" I growled, and now the homunculus somehow back-flipped to the other side of the room.

"Keep trying, Ed," he laughed. "I'm much stronger than you." But then Wrath grabbed onto his leg, and I was able to barrel into him, rolling around until I was finally on top. I punched him, kept on punching him to wipe the smirk off of his face.

This bastard... This bastard! He kept on changing faces, pleaded with me with the faces and voices of those I loved.

"Show me what you really look like!" I demanded, screamed. "Stop being a coward who's only real power is to hide beneath other people's faces!" His grin turned evil and sadistic.

"Do you really want to see?" I pulled my fist back.

"Stop jerking me around!" The fist descended.

"You asked for it!" And then he changed... he changed into...

Hohenheim?

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted to see?"

No... Not the bastard himself, but –

"You're... his son?" After all these years, this still hurt. That he would betray our mother like this... Have another child that wasn't us.

"Envy was the first homunculi," Dante explained, so calmly, so matter-of-factly. My hands shook. "Created by Hohenheim almost four hundred years ago. He was the result of the failed human transmutation of our son, who died prematurely from Mercury poisoning. I suppose you could say that Envy was once your brother." Brother? No...

"And then he abandoned me." The bitterness was so clear in Envy's voice. "He started fresh with his perfect wife and kids. Needless to say, I never did like being replaced." Suddenly, his eyes widened, turning feral, and then there was so much blood, blood, blood... Blossoming pain in my chest...

His arm through my stomach – the man who was my brother...

Thoughts trailed away. But still one word, one word.

"Brother?"

A whisper, a whisper, and then it was gone.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

I was standing in front of the Gate. Strangely, I felt calm, relaxed. It was finally over, and now it was my time to go.

It always comes back to this, huh. The Gate and this place. I smiled ruefully at it.

But then... Al was suddenly there, gone again only a moment later. Into the Gate, I knew.

"Al?" I whispered, and then that feeling of peace left, and I was jerked back into the world of the living.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Rose was crouched in front of me when I opened my eyes.

"Edward? Can you hear me?" she whispered, her voice so frail. I wondered what was wrong, why she seemed so fragile, why there was moisture on my cheeks.

"Yeah." I wiped the warm tears away, and gave a weak smirk. "What am I crying for?" But then I noticed, once again. My right arm. It was real. Like when I was in the alternate dimension, but... I was here.

"Al?" No... he couldn't have. I remembered now, I had died. So why, why was I still alive?

"He used alchemy to bring you back, Ed. After you died." Her voice was so gentle, so worried, and it tore me apart.

"The philosopher's stone... He used it to fix my body and pull my soul from the Gate? But then... Then what happened to him!?" His soul had been bonded to the stone. He couldn't have used it. He couldn't have.

But Rose only gave a small gasp and glanced away. I felt everything break inside of me.

"Don't tell me... Don't tell me he's gone, Rose." But her face said it all.

No... No. It couldn't be.

"Al. Al! AL!" My voice echoed in the ballroom, only the sound of a baby's cry responding.

No... Al...

I can't let it end like this. I'm sorry, Al, but I can't.

I looked at Rose and smiled sadly.

This would be goodbye.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

I stood on top of the human transmutation circle, smaller ones written in blood over my mind, heart, soul, and body.

"Maybe Dante was right. Maybe life has no equal trade. Maybe you can give up all you've got and get nothing back. But still... Even if I can't prove it's true, I have to try. For your sake, Al." I closed my eyes and clapped my hands together.

Now it truly was my time to go.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

...

But life had decided to play some cruel joke on me, because I was still alive. And in front of me stood the other Al, the Al whose brother I had killed.