Chapter 14: Nothing I won't give

This was probably the most complex transmutation Edeline had performed to date yet. Not only did she use her brother's Gate, which ultimately sped up his dying process but used her own life energy to seal his wounds – with a touch of alkahestry in there – then pulled his slipping soul back from the Gate yet again and reattached it to his body all in one go. Sure, she had done each of these separately before, but that's a whole different story.

The problem was that at least one of these should be considered human transmutation and she absolutely had no toll to pay lest with her own life. Winry is so going to kill me… – was the last thought she had before the white void enveloped her.

In that instant, her memories started flooding into her mind. Everyone and everything that she had only caught small glances of in the past month when Al allowed her to use his Gate, suddenly all came into focus with meaning.

New York, Steve, Wanda, Peter, Tony, Natasha, Clint, Bruce – the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., the future in the alternate world, the mutants and other various superhuman beings, technological advancement they only dreamed of in Amestris. All their adventures, laughs, her own freaking manga and anime show, their support over everything. She remembered it all.

And then there was London and Hogwarts, Harry and the Weasleys, Hermione, magic and all sorts of peculiar stuff. Her magic! The extensive research that had led to the circle she even used just now. Dumbledore, the manipulative old wizard. Finally, her way back home, how she gave up her memories just to give him a chance to save Harry. She wondered how that had turned out in the end.

All her worries and weird feelings that she had in those first few months while Al was in the hospital, even the freaking milk flavored jellybean in her pocket suddenly made sense as she stood there before the omnipotent being, who seemed… rather surprised.

"Well, certainly not the sibling I was expecting," Truth scratched its head.

Ed stoically looked around the all too familiar whiteness. How many times has it been? This was the seventh… the most magical number of them all. And surely the last. She just couldn't really see at this point how she was going to get away with her life this time.

The white being looked curiously behind Ed's back.

"That is definitely not your Gate," it stated the obvious.

"I know, I gave that up," she stood there nonchalantly.

"Interesting…" Truth hummed deep in thought. Ed would have wanted to ask what was so damn interesting, but in the grander scheme of things, it didn't really matter.

"I don't even know what to do with you. This certainly hasn't happened before," the frustration was evident in the being's voice.

"Are you telling me no one had ever tried human transmutation before using someone else's Gate?" the ex-alchemist asked, unable to stop herself.

"Well, not just human transmutation. I should have known there was something fishy with the way energy flowed through here a couple of times in the past month. It just wasn't Alphonse's style at all."

Now it walked up and right past Ed to the Gate and placed a hand on it as it contemplated further. The blonde stepped aside to give it more space.

"This is not the only Gate you tried accessing, was it?" Truth asked finally.

"No, it wasn't," she admitted. No point in lying here, it already knew the answer anyway.

"You know… if it weren't for your already intertwined minds, or if you had used anyone else's Gate, you'd both be dead now," Truth stated turning its eyeless face towards her.

"Does that mean Al is okay?" that was the only relevant question to her right at that moment.

"It appears so. Although this is the second time now that you have used your own life force for healing… I wonder just how much time you have left in the world," it skimmed its hand over the design at the bottom part of the Gate and turned around to walk back to its usual place in the center – if there was such a thing in an endless place.

"What about his soul?" Ed inquired. That was the tricky part, the reason they were here and for what she surely had to pay.

"You were fast enough, it hadn't reached the Gate yet when you bound it back to his healing body."

"Good." That was a relief. Although given that the transmutation was a success, she should have guessed as much. There was no amount of alchemy to bring Al back if he had died before she could finish the transmutation.

"Aren't you the least bit worried about yourself?" Truth cocked its head to the side. It would have even been funny if it weren't for the situation.

"I think you know me better than anyone else at this point. There is really nothing I wouldn't give for my little brother," Ed smiled to herself. That song had really summed her up well… it was nice knowing the origin of that too with her memories returning.

It was weird talking like this with the omnipotent being. Almost as if they were friends. None of that mocking attitude it always used to give her during the previous visits. Then another thing occurred to Ed. Maybe there wasn't just one Truth, and this one was Al's, given that she just came through his Gate. It just seemed so much humbler than the cocky bastard she usually saw.

"You are neither wrong nor right in your assumption. Everyone's Truth is slightly different, but in the end, we are all one and the same, just maybe a different side, aspect of it. Your situation is even more unique like I said before because ever since that first human transmutation you managed to intertwine your Gates together. In a sense, you guys are inseparable for the rest of your lives."

Edeline stayed silent as she mulled over this information.

"Does that mean if I die he dies?" panic suddenly overtook her again, since she was sure she was going to die here right now.

"No! Not at all. Although given your history I'm sure he would do something equally drastic to prevent that if you were come to pass prematurely, which could end up causing you both to die. But that is a whole different question," Truth smiled with a hint of disapproval.

The ex-alchemist relaxed at that, it would have been terrible to fail at this just because their very first sin caused their lives to be so irrevocable connected.

"But that is also exactly the reason why you seem to have regained your memories when you entered even though they were lost in equivalent exchange. Since your minds are connected, the residue of those remained here, and memories are just as attracted to the mind they belong to as a soul is to its own body," the omniscient being explained. Nothing could avoid its attention in this realm.

"So what now?" Ed asked finally after a few moments of silence.

"Good question. You know I told you before a person's sole purpose for living is to get enriched by their struggles, providing a way for the universe to experience itself. Now, as you may imagine, there hasn't been much new under the sun for quite some time, believe me. But… you managed to bring along something I haven't seen before. You standing here now before me defies all logic and previous knowledge of the world or alchemy," it spread its arms then let them fall back by its side.

"I'm flattered… I guess…" the blonde cocked a brow. Making monumental discoveries surely wasn't on her agenda.

"Last time Al's soul cost you your right arm, hasn't it…" Truth asked rhetorically as seemed to contemplate further their current predicament.

"Yes…" Ed trailed off.

"Anyway… off you go… but I must warn you, if you ever cross this place again, nothing short of a Philosopher's Stone will save you. And we both know how much you hate using other people's souls…" the white being suddenly said in an almost happy-go-lucky attitude that combined with his words was quite creepy.

And with that Al's Gate opened behind Edeline and she was sucked back in once more.

She came to abruptly, sucking in a large breath, disoriented with her surroundings. It was dark, but even with that, she could make out the clinical whiteness of the place, not to mention the distinct smell of disinfectant.

Hospital… Great…

She was hooked on a heart monitor, and a thin line of plastic tube was under her nose that kept pumping precious oxygen for her to breathe, an IV line set up in her hand. It irritated her as fuck.

She began pulling off all the stuff that was attached to her, causing the machine to go from rhythmically beeping to an annoying whistling sound.

Ed only now realized that someone was sleeping with their head on her bed when they suddenly jerked awake by the ruckus she was making. That someone being Winry.

"What are you doing, idiot?" she asked pushing back the other blonde onto the bed.

"Geez, I'm fine! Quit being so bossy," the ex-alchemist exclaimed in frustration over the fussing.

"You weren't fine, Ed, you were in a coma for the last five hours," the mechanic explained with tears gathering in her eyes.

"I'm fine now, so c'mere," the golden-eyed blonde opened her arms, inviting the other to settle in between in them.

Without another thought Winry clambered on the bed and began crying into the crook of Ed's neck, the previously held back tears mercilessly overflowing.

"I was so worried," the mechanic managed between sobs.

"Shhh, it's okay,– Ed tried to calm her girlfriend.

Just then a nurse… who else would it be… Nurse Nora came rushing in because of the alarm the heart monitor had set off at the nurse's station.

"What in the world?!" Nora assessed first the two blondes huddled on the bed then realizing that her patient was conscious again, she stalked over to the monitor and turned it off, plus removed the IV correctly before Ed could hurt herself with it. "If it were anyone else, Ms. Elric…" she wiggled her index finger admonishingly but let them be. "I'll notify your doctor that you are awake."

And with that, she left. Ed looked to the side and was just about able to catch the first rays of dawn peeking over the horizon. Did she just call me miss? Looking down on her clothes she realized that she was only wearing a hospital gown. At one point or another, she was stripped of her uniform, not to mention the bandages. Well, that cat is out of the bag… a whole new set of problems to deal with, but that could wait until tomorrow or whenever they decided she was well enough to bust out of this place. For now, she was content with having her girl in her arms.

"I love you, Winry, sorry for causing you so much grief," she whispered in Winry's ears as she rubbed her back soothingly. Near death experiences certainly put things in perspective.

"W-what did you just say?" azure blue eyes widened as she looked up at Ed.

"I love you, Winry," the ex-alchemist repeated with a distinct blush creeping up on her face.

"I love you too," Winry replied, first brushing her lips against the other blonde's to test the waters, then full on claiming them.

"Khm, khm," came a distinct coughing sound from the door to bring their attention to the doctor standing there.

The two women jumped apart faster than the speed of light, thoroughly embarrassed and flustered by the fact that they were caught. Winry also climbed off the bed to leave space for the professionals. The physician named Dr. Wenworth then proceeded to check Edeline out quickly and found everything normal, much to their surprise. Ed wasn't that worried about herself, using your own life energy to heal someone else could be tough. Especially in the circumstances that she did it in, so no wonder she had passed out.

"What about Alphonse, my brother? Is he alright?" Ed asked finally.

"I'm not the doctor on his case, I'll send Dr. Kerritz along your way when he is out of surgery," he nodded as he left the room.

"Did they tell you anything?" she turned back to the blue-eyed blonde who now again sat in the chair beside the bed.

"Not much, the last I checked he was still in surgery to make sure that there was no internal bleeding and was given a transfusion," Winry stated with a hint of worry.

Edeline threw her covers off and began hunting down her uniform to change from this godawful gown.

"What are you doing?" the mechanic looked at her in shock.

"Trying to find something to change into," Ed declared as a matter of fact.

"Uhm… it's…" Winry tried to warn her, but she had already found her uniform neatly folded in the closet. Her jacket was stained with Al's blood.

The pants and the shirt were more or less spared, so she quickly put those on after stripping from the hospital gown and threw her hair up in a simple ponytail. She felt naked without the chest bandages that seemed to have been thrown out. Or they probably had to cut it off, her shirt was a button-up, so it was easier for the nurses to get her out of that without drastic measures when she was unconscious, but those didn't survive.

It was only now that she realized that Winry was still in her pink dress, torn and also bloody in some places. It seemed she had never left her side.

"If you want to, you can go home you know, change, take a shower. You had a pretty rough night," Ed fished her keys out from her pants and gave them to the other girl.

"Are you sure? Can I bring you something?" she hesitantly asked.

"Clean clothes for both Al and me would be nice. Maybe toiletries and food. Thank you," the ex-alchemist kissed Winry on the cheek then was out the door in an instant looking for Al, whom she found one floor above them in the post-op care unit of the surgical ward.

What she didn't expect was Elena and Havoc sitting outside his hospital room, both in the same clothes from the day before.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ed inquired with surprise. She figured after the incident Prince Claudio was going to keep the errant princess real close and the team would be back at HQ interrogating suspects or averting an international crisis or home sleeping or something.

"Chief, you are awake!" Jean exclaimed in relief as he looked the blonde girl up and down, frowning when he saw that she was back in her own clothes. "Did they release you?"

"Not exactly, but they also didn't find anything wrong so see if I care," she huffed flippantly.

Elena, who until now sat there in sort of shock, shot up from her seat and hugged Ed for her dear life, sobbing. What is it with crying females today? Ed scratched her head embarrassedly.

"Anyone for Alphonse Elric?" a doctor in scrubs came up to them a few minutes later.

"Yeah, he is my brother," Ed replied to the man.

"I'm Dr. Kerritz, I was the cardiologist operating on Mr. Elric. I heard you did emergency medical alchemy on him in the field. I must say it was a flawless job, we were able to remove the bullet with only a small pericardial window. There was no internal bleeding so he should be out of the woods," the surgeon explained in that detached voice doctors usually speak in.

"Expected recovery time?" she knew the drill, they were in hospitals way too much over past years, although that was mostly her if you didn't count the three months Al had to spend there when he finally got his body back.

"Around 4-6 weeks until full recovery, but if no complications arise we can probably release him from the hospital 7-8 days from now."

"When can we go see him?" the older Elric asked after a huge relieved sigh.

"He should be waking up soon, but for now only family, one at a time. He will be groggy for a few more hours because of the anesthesia," Dr. Kerritz commented then left them to check on other patients.

"Sorry guys, I'll go ahead," Edeline left the still slightly shaken up princess in the lieutenant's care. I wonder why he was the one left with the babysitting duty…

Steady rhythmic beeping welcomed her as she pushed the hospital room door open. With an injury like this, it was only natural that he would be kept on a heart monitor for a while. Al was a little pale but otherwise fine on the outside.

"You silly idiot. Look who isn't aware that they are not invincible anymore…" Ed muttered as she pulled a chair up next to him and took his left hand into her own.

"You don't get to talk, Sis…" Al's groggy but slightly amused voice came from the bed.

"Shut up," she huffed at the jabbing.

"Only after you do," the younger Elric kept smirking lopsidedly.

"You really scared me for a second there," Ed's mood took a serious turn.

"I know. I was sure I was going to die…" Al trailed off as he recalled his life flashing before his eyes after the bullet pierced him right in the chest. I shouldn't have survived that… "Wait a minute… what did you do?"

"Uhm…" the ex-alchemist scratched the back of her head.

"You can't be serious! You could have died!" he groaned agitatedly once the realization hit him that his sister performed human transmutation again, with his Gate nonetheless. After everything they have talked about, her theory regarding just how dangerous this was because of the risk shifting. The monitors started beeping a little faster. At that moment Fullmetal vowed to herself that she was never going to tell the full extent of her sacrifice. Now that she thought about it… she never told him about Baschool and the mine incident either.

"Calm down, Al, before they come in and kick me out!" Ed cried out, squeezing his hand a little to reassure him. Al took a deep breath with a bit of a wince to regain his calm.

"What did you have to give up?" the younger Elric asked finally flatly.

"Surprisingly nothing…" Al looked at her dubiously at that statement. "It turns out I did something nobody has ever done before, so Truth took that new knowledge about the universe as payment. And as an added bonus I got my memories back…"

"How did that happen?" he inquired with genuine curiosity. A long time ago he promised that he would find a way to return them to her. He never would have thought that this was the way. Although Ed having those flashbacks during indirect alchemy that she vehemently denied should have been a clear sign.

"I guess just the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind…" Ed laughed at her own movie reference, which of course left her brother all confused again. "Sorry, a memory, I will explain later. Anyway similar concept to your soul being attracted to your body, my memories just rushed back to me the moment I set foot there."

"But I thought you used my Gate, how could your memories have been there?" the blond boy raised a brow at that notion.

"Our Gates have never separated it seems, even after I gave up my own," the ex-alchemist shrugged. Al's eyes started drooping again, and for a minute Ed wondered how much he would remember from this conversation. "Get some more rest."

"Whatever you say, Sis," he yawned and went back to sleep.

"You know, Al… humans truly are amazing," Ed sighed as she leaned back in the chair. After all that they had been through, they were still here.

Even if a little worse for wear. Though the doctors said there was absolutely nothing wrong with her, ever since waking up she had been feeling a little light-headed, a little bit less in touch with her own body. Just as Truth said… I wonder just how much time I have left in this world… The mathematics was still hazy, but she would be surprised if she lived to be fifty.

The rest of the diplomatic visit went smoothly even without Ed's input into the whole thing. She refused to leave Al's side. The peace talks were completed, the treaty was signed. There was nothing else to be asked for.

Mustang's team was specially thanked by Prince Claudio for keeping both him and his sister safe. For some reason, Ed had a feeling that there was a promotion in there somewhere for the bastard. Finally…

Unless… you see… once the paramedics take you to the hospital and the nurses have to cut off chest bandages only to find out you are a woman despite everything that has been in your official medical records indicating otherwise, there is really no going back.

Roy tried his best to prevent it, but given that right after the transmutation she just collapsed and was barely breathing, there really wasn't much else to be done but to let the doctors do their thing.

Edeline took sole responsibility for it, and everyone played their part very convincingly that they had known nothing about this, so probably the General's position and reputation wasn't in question.

As for Ed, she was granted amnesty by Führer Grumman for this fraudulent act for two reasons: first, the outdated law had been revoked ever since the Promised Day, second, her service to the country undoubtedly outweighed the fact that she lied about her gender. This did put her under the scrutinizing glances of the higher-ups though, and she had probably lost all chances of another promotion, but she didn't care about that.

Allin a week's work…

Their free time was spent by Al's bed with Ed's journal in hand as she explained through her drawings all the various unbelievable things she had seen and the stories of her adventures with her friends that she made in the worlds she had visited. Unbelievable was the operative word here… They teased the blonde mercilessly on the more ridiculous points of her stories, Al usually demanding a wide range of explanations.

As it turned out, someone had the decency – or nerve, really depends on your views – to notify Mei of Al's near-fatal run-in with a bullet, but for some reason forgot to mention it to either Ed or Al. So when said Xingese princess burst into the hospital on their final day there before Al's release, only to find an attractive younger little princess – who had refused to go home with his brother to Aerugo – feeding sliced apples to Al, who Mei thought was on his deathbed… well, let's just say the green-eyed monster is indeed an ugly look on anyone.

Things cooled down soon enough though when Al explained that she was only like a sister to him, and Elena insisted that she just wanted to repay the younger Elric for saving her.

Since housing this many guests in her tiny apartment became genuinely impossible, Ed decided to just book too freaking hotel rooms on her own expense, one for Al and Mei, and the other of course for Elena, only to have a semblance of peace in her own damned home again.

After they said their goodnights on the day of Al's release from the hospital, Ed was finally able to spend her evening with just Winry by her side.

As they settled themselves in bed to sleep something occurred to the ex-alchemist, which elicited a sly grin on her face. She pulled the blue-eyed blonde closer to her and whispered in her ear.

"Hey, Winry… I know about the screw that you accidentally left out of my arm all those years ago…"

THE END

A/N: The seven times Ed did human transmutation: (1) attempting to bring their mom back, (2) pulling Al's soul back, (3) getting out of Gluttony's stomach, (4) first failed trade of alchemy and going to Marvel world, (5) second failed trade and going to HP world, (6) getting home from HP world, and finally (7) saving Al's life after gunshot. First three entirely as per canon, from 4th on as set out in the story. In canon, Ed did 4 human transmutations.

So this is the end… But only of Part 3! I'm sure many of you were much unsatisfied, and since I had great fun writing this trilogy of sorts... Stay tuned for Part 4 with Alphonse in the focal point of it all, it will be called 'Next generation.'

Another story sort of referenced here is 'A Song of Fire and Ice' which is also now complete and up (it's about Roy and co on mission in the north right before the start of episode 1 of FMAB).