"YOUR FATHER?!", said in unison by the four people in the room with Aura. Even Pinako, who until then had only been partially paying attention to what they were doing.

"Are you sure it's him, Aura?" said Al, trying to speak calmly so she would feel more at ease.

"Of course it is! You think I wouldn't recognize my own father in a picture?!" she replied, raising her voice for a moment. "He was with my mom and I until I was about six years old, then he was gone. Mom said that he had work he had to finish somewhere else. I knew he would come back some day, but as the years went on, we talked about him less. Then Mom met Lucien and rarely mentioned my father when he was around. Lucien didn't like hearing about Owen and would lock me in my room whenever I'd say my father would come back for us."

"Wait, you knew him as Owen? Interesting play on words by that old bastard. His real name is Hohenheim, Aura." Ed was silent for a moment, collected his thoughts, then continued. "I think I have an idea of what happened." Edward settled down at the table and began to share what he had learned while on the other side.

"While I was in Aura's world, I ran into Hohenheim at the lab. He said that after he left home he ran into a homunculus that could cast portals and ended up in her world. He did some research, found a lab that was working on theories for time or dimensional travel and began working with the scientist that started the research. He stayed there several years until he was able to get the portal finished. Then once it was ready he used it to get back to our world, but not before destroying his research so his partner couldn't use it."

"Wait, are you saying that you saw my father while we were in the lab?" Aura started to get upset, tears starting to well up in her one good eye, the other still bandaged. "He came back after all this time... I knew he was going to, but why didn't he come and find me?"

"I don't know Aura, I didn't think the two of you had even met at that point, much less that you were related." Ed told her, still trying to get his head around the situation.

"Why wouldn't he have wanted his research partner to use the project they worked on together?" asked Al.

"Because Hohenheim said he couldn't trust him. He felt it shouldn't fall into his hands, so he sabotaged the project. And based on that, I have a feeling that Lucien was the research partner. He knew what the portal was when it activated, so I'm sure he was the one that Hohenheim screwed out of the research."

"That may be the reason Lucien ended up with my mother. Maybe he thought my father left us his research." Aura's voice had begun to break as she spoke. She recalled Lucien telling her that he was looking for something her mom had hidden from him. It had to be the research material, that's the reason he had trashed the house back then.

"It's possible Aura, I don't understand why he went as far as marrying her to try to get to it though. Maybe... No, that's too cruel to even think about." Ed had started but didn't want to say what he thought with Aura there, she had already been through enough as it was.

"Just say it Ed, what are you thinking?"

"Well, perhaps he thought that after your mother's death, everything would be legally his. Including any research documents still left in the house or in a place previously unavailable to him."

"Which would explain why he was so angry when he found out nothing was left to him." Aura said, finishing Ed's thought. "But even after he searched the house, he never found what he was looking for. Maybe it's still out there somewhere?"

"No, Hohenheim would have known better than to leave even a scrap of a note behind. Plus he seemed to know what he was doing while he was setting up the machines in the control room back at the lab. He didn't need to follow any notes, he had it all memorized."

"So Lucien terrorized us for years, slowly poisoned and killed my mother, and... hurt me for nothing. There was no reason for it, no secret for him to find." Aura had started to feel that empty sadness again, and just wanted to retreat back to her room with the window.

"Aura, I think you may have been what Lucien was looking for. See, Hohenheim had set up the portal to only work for someone that was Amestrian. Since you are apparently his kid, the portal worked for you. It was you that started it after all, when you placed your bloody hands in the circle, it activated. I guess Hohenheim must have thought I had done it, but then... Wait, he did call out your name as we were walking through the Gate!"

"So he did still remember, I didn't think he'd forget..." Aura said quietly.

"Yeah, that bastard... Seems the only thing he's good for is leaving his kids when they need him the most!" Edward's anger began to rise. He had never had a good relationship with his father. But now learning that he had met another woman and had a child with her, he could barely contain his rage. He jumped up from the table so fast that his chair flew backwards away from him.

"I'm sure he had his reasons, Ed, he isn't a bad person. I can't remember any time when I was mad at him." Aura was getting nervous seeing Edward so angry. It was just natural for her to try to recoil from someone who was mad and aggressive. She had Lucien to thank for that fear.

"Don't try to defend him Aura, all he ever was to me and Al was a deadbeat, and now we can add a liar and cheater to the list as well!"

"Brother, please calm down, it can't be as bad as you think..." Alphonse attempted to neutralize his brother's rage, but didn't even come close.

"No Al, it is! How could he even try to claim that our mother was the love of his life with a straight face! He didn't care about HER or US!" Edward's temper had reached it's breaking point. He had to get out of the house before he blew the top off of it. He started to walk towards the door. As he walked past Aura she reached out to grab him by his arm, and caught his shirt sleeve.

"Ed, please don't go! I'm sorry all of this is making you sad, but I'm sure there's a reas..." She never got to finish her sentence before Ed went off again.

"If there is a reason I don't want to know about it. And I'm not sad, I'm angry! I'm pissed that he could be such a liar and a fake. He better hope that he never gets back here! Now let go of me Aura!" Ed yelled, trying to shake her grasp off of his arm and keep walking. She leaned out of her wheelchair and grabbed hold of his arm, pleading for him to stay and calm down. He pulled his arm back harder this time, breaking free of Aura's grasp. As he did so, the force made her lose her balance in the wheelchair and she fell out of it to the ground. She landed with a thud on her left side. She winced in pain as the stump of her left arm had taken the brunt of the fall. Everyone at the table scrambled up to help her.

Ed stood there staring down at her, tears reflecting in his eyes, his lip quivering. But before any of his tears could fall he ran out of the room and out of the house. Winry and Al helped Aura back to her chair and checked her wounds and to see if she had re-injured anything.

"I'm so sorry Aura, I've never seen him this angry before! Are you okay, does anything hurt?" said Winry, getting her settled in her chair.

"No... I'm fine, really." The sadness in Aura's soft voice was heartbreaking, "I think I'd like to go back to my room now." She slumped in the chair and hung her head down as Winry began to wheel her to her room. Al asked Winry if he could take her. Winry nodded and moved out of his way as he grabbed hold of the chair's handles.

"Aura, I know brother can be pretty hot-headed at times, but I hope you don't think he's mad at you, or that he meant to hurt you on purpose. He's always had trouble dealing with our father's absence, and doesn't know how to handle this new situation. But as for me... I'm glad to know that we have another member of our family. And I'm sure brother feels the same, he just has to work through his emotions in his own way." As Al pushed Aura towards her room, he noticed the air had begun to get colder, much more so as they went into her room.

"It's pretty cold in here, I'll have to check on the heat, do you want a blanket?" he asked Aura, who didn't seem to notice a difference in the temperature.

"No, I'm fine. I know Ed didn't mean to hurt me, but I'm sure things won't be the same now. When he looks at me, he's not going to see a sister, he's going to see proof of his father's lies. He's going to resent me for that, I know it..."

"That's not true Aura, not after all that you two have been through. You saved my brother's life on more than one occasion, helped him to get back home, even when it cost you so much. There's no way he would forget about all of that! He'll be happy that he has a sister now as well as a friend willing to risk everything for him. He cares about you Aura, that will never change."

"I hope you're right Al, I really do. Could you push me over to the window please?" Al maneuvered her over to her favorite spot at the window, asked again if she wanted a blanket since he was getting chills, but she refused again as he closed the door behind him. She put her elbow up on the arm rest and rested her face in her hand and went back to gazing out at the outside world. Even though her world and everything she had known had just been turned upside down, she found some small comfort in the fact that what she saw out the window had stayed the same.