As promised, an update a lot sooner this time! So I didn't get many reviews but I probably deserved that for taking so long in updating. Hope to hear from all of my readers again!

Disclaimers: see chapter 1.

Chapter 14 Back to the Mansion

"Let me get this straight, you lived in another world with a guy who looks like me?"

"Well…very similar. I suspect that in a few years you'll look a lot like him, except the eyes".

"And he made rockets that go in space?"

"Yep".

"Cool".

After the fire incident Alphonse had decided that it was time to resume his training in Dublin. So the next day, after a night of listening endless stories of Armstrong family, for now Alex wasn't the only one to tell them, the Elric brothers and Winry took a train. Ed had questioned that didn't Winry want to stay since she had come all the way to Lior, but she only smiled and said that the brothers were her only reason to travel in the first place.

In the train Edward had consumed in filling the blanks in Al's memory. Although Winry and Rosé had done their best to tell Al about the years he was in armour, they could only tell what they knew, which wasn't all that much. But Ed had the first class knowledge and he told everything, starting from the day they had broken the taboo of brining dead back to life and moving to the day he was pulled to the other world. Edward didn't exactly tell everything that happened during those years, for there were some things he himself did not feel comfortable of talking and felt Al didn't really need to know. Yet, he didn't lie about anything and if Al asked something he answered honestly.

The fact that Winry was sitting there next to them didn't bother Ed much. It was a high time that she would know what has really been going on. He owed her that much. She didn't speak much, but she held his hand. She had first said that she needed to make sure the automail hand was okay, but after the "check-up" she hadn't let go of it. Ed didn't mind. Even if he couldn't feel it, it felt good.

Winry got off on Risembool station.

"What about you, Ed? Will you stay in Dublin for long?" she asked.

"Not long. I still have to go to Central, Mustang said there's something he wanted to talk to me about" Edward said.

For a moment a frown appeared on Winry and she looked slightly panicked. Ed smiled to her. "Whatever it is, I'll come back after that" he said.

Winry looked at him, startled. "Will you now?"

Edward looked at her straight in the eyes. "Yes, I will" he said.

Winry smiled. "You'd better".

The same evening the two Elric brothers arrived in Dublin.

"What?! You nearly got yourself killed?!" Izumi Curtis yelled.

Al raised his hands up in defence. "It wasn't exactly that bad…" he said weakly. "Brother has been telling me about the years I forgot" he quickly changed the subject.

Izumi seemed to calm at once. "Hmm, has he now?"

"Yep. Though there are things I don't quite understand. Like that Gate thing" Al said.

"Maybe it's only better that you don't remember the Gate" Izumi said.

"Why? Is it really that bad?" Al asked.

"Not exactly bad…more like scary" Izumi said and started waving her hands, mimicking the tentacles that come out of the Gate.

"Yeah, scary" Ed said, doing the same thing with his hands.

Al watched them for a moment and sighed. This goes way over my head.

Ed patted Al's back. "Well, it's good to get you back here. Izumi wouldn't want any of her students doing foolish things. One is quite enough. Is there anything you need me at the moment, I thought I'd take a walk" Ed said, hoping to sound as casual as possible.

Izumi was only looking Al. "Yes, yes, go on. Meanwhile I'm going to see if this boy has already forgotten everything he learned" she said.

Al gulped.

Ed felt a bang of sympathy for his brother, but knew there was no stopping the teacher now. He slipped out of the door and started walking to his destination. Truth was he wasn't just aimlessly walking around Dublith. He had a purpose. Edward had reached to a conclusion that he wouldn't allow his past to dominate his life any longer. To be able to live for the future he would first have to leave the past behind. And to do that he would need to tie few loose ends.

And so Edward walked out of the town, through a nearby forest until he reached the mansion hidden by the trees. Dante's Mansion.

It was here that Edward had first time met Dante. At the time she had only appeared as an old woman who had once been teacher's teacher and knew the ways of alchemy. Edward had no knowledge that it was her pulling the strings in the shadows and controlling homunculus. The she was in fact centuries old former lover of his father Hohenheim. Or that she had no intentions of actually training Lyra, the young alchemist, but only wanted to posses her body to become young again. Edward had no first hand knowledge of what had happened to Dante and that was something he hoped to find out.

The mansion seemed as it hadn't been used in a while. Edward guessed it had stayed empty since Dante had framed her death the night Ed had killed Greed. The door had been unlocked so coming in had been criminally easy. The mansion seemed empty, free of any kind of furniture and signs of life.

No, there were signs of life there.

Inside one of the rooms Ed found a pile of empty food cans, a smaller pile of still unopened ones and a mattress with a blanket. Somebody did use the mansion as a shelter. And Ed had pretty good guess who it was. He didn't even bother to turn around when the cold feeling came.

"Nice place you've got here, Wrath" he said casually.

The figure of the seventh and youngest homunculi appeared from shadows. He still had long black hair and purple eyes, just as Ed remembered them. He also had a huge black robe pulled over him. Ed could see the automail hand and leg partly.

"You should really have those repaired. They're going to be pretty useless in a month or so" Ed said.

"Yeah, I'll just walk over to that blonde girlfriend of yours and ask really nicely her to repair them without any paying?" Wrath spat.

"Form what I've heard it worked for you the when you got them" Ed said, keeping his calm, but hands ready just in case…

It was then that he noticed Wrath's face. It seemed to be…older in some way. Wrath had also grown a little bit.

"I thought homunculi weren't supposed to age. Or get hungry or sleepy for that matter" Ed observed.

"I didn't think so either, until I ran out of the red stones" Wrath said, still menacingly glaring from his place.

The red stones. Imperfect, weaker versions of the Philosopher's Stone that gave homunculi their superhuman powers. Ed had to chuckle. "Seems like becoming human only required for you not to take them anymore" he said. "So, all the red stones are gone then?"

"I don't know if any was left in the underground city. If there was someone had taken them away by the time I went there again" Wrath said, weariness evident in his voice.

"What about Dante?"

"Ended up as Gluttony's food. It was a mistake to wipe his mind clean. He wouldn't listen to her commands anymore".

Ah, so Dante is death then. Though Edward felt relief in knowing she no longer possessed a threat, he didn't feel like jumping for joy.

"Why have you come here, Fullmetal?" Wrath asked.

When Ed spoke he was completely serious. "To put an end to this".

To be continued…

PS. The scene where Ed and Izumi wave their hands, trying to describe the Gate to Al, is not mine. It's a really funny little scene from FMA manga chapter 25, page 18.

Till next time!