Edward, despite many other feelings swirling inside him, has become acutely aware of a barely recognizable sensation in his right arm. Initially he ignores it, having his heart torn apart by the sight of his brother's lifeless armor laid in front of him, but does a double take when he realizes that the feeling of the whistling wind is flitting through his thin fingers. Bony, malnourished fingers lead to a bony, malnourished arm, then to his shoulder, where the only evidence of there ever being a metal prosthetic is shrapnel lodged inside of him. Yet he pays no mind to it; the sheer fury inside him burns, and he needs a release.

His arm is pure flesh. Flesh that once saved Al, but now is the one thing that has reared them apart. Nothing of his brother remains except a husk of broken down armor and pieces.

The alchemist has to restrain himself from letting out a shaking breath. He knows he can't show weakness, so instead, the need for vengeance burns in his eyes. He stares through Father, who is still approaching him. Now is the time to act.

Edward rips the screw fiercely from his arm and sends it into the dirt next to his feet with an angry throw. His mind is blank as he lets his emotions encase his heart. Alchemy flies from his fingertips and hit Father with such precision that all of his friends are too shocked to do anything else but watch.

Father has no defense, no protection against the alchemy prodigy. Edward thinks of every single attack he can manage with it, and he knows he's close to victory when Father's vessel begins to break at the skin. Black ashes drift out of his cracked cheek.

Edward takes a moment to steady himself. Blood drips from his arm and various other places, and his breath is shallow. At this point, he notices that everyone has been cheering for him, willing him to fight, to win, to do all that he can. Hot blood courses through his veins as he hears his loved ones encourage him.

Father perseveres, but he's been weakened too drastically to be victorious against someone like the Fullmetal Alchemist. They both jump towards each other, but only Ed lands the punch, straight into his face with a flesh arm. He flies backward into the concrete.

"Get up, you novice!" Ed shouts, a fist still up. He towers over the feeble father. "I'm not done with you yet!"

Father scrambles to his feet but is punched by Ed multiple times more. Even with his right arm, he manages to make him weaker and weaker, to the point where Father has not even a shred of strength to fight back.

An uppercut from Edward sends him flying, then he crashes to the hard ground. As the victor takes labored breaths and unclenches his fists, his allies appraise him.

"You're done for," he states, looking away and towards the crowd. Hopeful smiles greet him, but somehow he knows this isn't over.

A pulse of energy from Father beats through the air, confirming his suspicions.

"Step back!" he shouts, doing so himself. "Now!"

Red sparks come from him and pick up dust into a cloud around him. God is now uncontained and free from a vessel.

"Philosopher's Stone!" Father yearns, then immediately attacks Greed. Ling shoves the thin man away, but his desperation is strong. He inserts a fist into his heart, where the stone of Greed lies. With weak arms he begins to pull, but internally, Greed and Ling are having their own war. Iris can tell; one wants to go, the other wants them to stay. She's not sure why, but they give in. Greed's power is now Father's. His arm turns black like the homunculi's soul, and, to protect the Prince, Lan Fan cuts off the arm. It is still lodged inside Ling, but then it dissipates into the air, and he sustains no injury.

"Greed, no!" Edward runs up just as the ouroboros tattoo disappears off the back of Ling's hand. Father seems satisfied for the moment, but then pain and regret shoot through him.

"Poison," Father coughs. He steps away from all of them and looks down to his hurt stomach. "Why are you betraying your own father? How?!" His body is becoming black and hardened, and it begins to crack like a desert floor.

"I renounce the power you gave me, and I'm turning it against you!" Greed reveals. "Your body is turning fragile and weak."

"I refuse to let this happen, ignorant child of mine! You'll die for this mistake!"

Father shoves a hand down his own throat and rips Greed away from his mouth. The homunculus has been reduced to a cloud of dust. Before anyone can grab hold, the thin man throws Greed into the sky. The dust scatters immediately, and he's being spread thinly across the sky by the wind. Ling looks up at him with horror.

"Greed!" he wails.

"Pipe down, kid," he scolds weakly, the ends of his mouth turning up slightly. "I'm sure you won't let my sacrifice go in vain. Thank you, my friends..."

The wind whisks him away, black specks fluttering off into the distance. Lan Fan puts an arm around Ling for comfort, but his eyebrows just furrow deeper, unable to look away from what is left of his dying companion. Absentmindedly, Iris puts her hands in her pockets. She's reminded of Iridian's stone by feeling the tiny smooth rock in her palm and takes it out. All of Greed has disappeared from the blue sky. Suddenly, the stone in her hand begins to dissolve into flecks of red dirt.

"He really is gone," she announces quietly.

The girl raises up the stone's dust to her face.

'And so is my sister. Iridian, I think now you can rest.'

She blows a gust of air into her palm. The wind picks up the red granules just as easily as it did with Greed, then soon enough, it's gone too.

Edward looks around at his friends, anger boiling in the depths of him as he feels their collective will slowly fading. Not his own, though. He's about to finish this curse, once and for all.

While still powered with sheer adrenaline, he gives Father a punch through his core where Greed's carbon has been weakened. When he pulls out his fist, Father has a gaping hole through his stomach. Iris pulls the blond away from him and holds him to protect him.

A cry of pain from a thousand voices escape from his single mouth, and the sound resonates deep within the city. He holds himself as red souls fly out of him and into the free Central City air.

"What's happening?" Ed yells, unable to tear his eyes away from the souls creating a tornado then dispersing.

"They're free now," Hohenheim states, a bittersweet smile gracing his aged face.

Father stumbles forward, looking down at his hollow body in disbelief. He trips forward onto his knees and grabs at the pit in his stomach. In a strange, distorted voice, he grieves, "My body... the stone... You've destroyed my stone!"

Suddenly, tiny black hands emerge from the perforation in his stomach. They grow farther and farther from him, start to grab at different parts of his body, then wrap around him. A hundred hands pull him together.

Edward mocks him as he exclaims in surprise. "Save your words. I'm sure the Truth will have a laugh at your excuses. Return to nothing, Dwarf in the Flask!"

More hands grow and capture him in their grasp. They do not silence him yet.

"Why is this my toll? All I desired was infinite knowledge to feel liberation! I wanted this world's knowledge for my own! I wanted to be free!"

No one does anything but watch in pity for a creature they could never understand. Iris waits, her forehead pressed deeply into Ed's shoulder until Father's screams have stopped. Finally, the hands swallow him up so that he becomes nothing once again, except only a bad memory that they have to bear.

•••

Edward wants to share the happiness the group feels now that they have won, but Alphonse isn't here; he makes him the happiest of all. The group notices it eventually, but they do quiet down considerably as they watch Edward walk to the suit of armor that was once his brother. Next to him are Iris and Mei, huddled up in front of his broken pieces. Quietly he kneels down to them but only looks at Alphonse.

"Tell me he's in there, you two," Ed hopes, but Iris knows him all too well; she hears the desperation at the end of each of his words as they come out of his unsteady throat.

Iris has been checking Al's armor for qi ever since he sacrificed himself, but she already knows what has happened; the absence of his soul just confirms it. But she doesn't have the heart to tell him, so she stays silent until Mei quietly says, "I'm sorry.

"I'm so sorry for letting this happen."

For a long moment, the alchemist clenches his teeth together. Slowly he lets go of his breath.

"I know Al wouldn't blame you, so I won't. It was his decision to save me."

Silently Ling and Lan Fan come up to the three of them. The prince puts a gentle hand on Iris's shoulder then crouches down between her and Edward. Lan Fan stands behind him, taking her mask off to reveal a stoic face.

"Don't worry, Ed." Ling gives him a hopeful look. "We have the toll for him right here. Lan Fan?"

She opens her palm to reveal yet another Philosopher's Stone.

"It's from Wrath," she explains. "It's his stone. Or what is left of it."

Ling takes it from her hands. "But surely it's enough, right? A stone is powerful, no matter its size."

"I can't," Ed declines before they can speak further. "I promised Al we wouldn't use it. Those are human lives - he'd never forgive me."

"Ed, what are you thinking right now?" Iris questions. It pains her heart to admit that she can't think of a solution to the problem. Her worry increases at his answer.

"I don't know."

"Edward," a deep voice calls out to him. Hohenheim begins to walk towards him, repeating his name gently another time so that he has his full attention.

"Don't-don't say it," the boy grumbles, then looks down in shame.

"Use my life for Alphonse," he says quickly before Ed can interrupt him. "I have just enough life left in me, and you boys are my only flesh and blood left. I would be honored to live through my son."

For a long moment, it seems as if Edward ponders this notion. Yet instead he is dumbfounded by this offer, and quite frankly, furious. When he looks back up at Hohenheim, the man is taken aback by the fire in his eyes.

"No! Never! I would never do that, you old bastard! It's our own damn fault, so our own damn problem. This has nothing to do with you! Why... why should you sacrifice your life for our mistake?"

"Because," he answers simply, "I am his father. And Edward, whether you like it or not, I am yours as well. I wasn't there when you two were young, but I'm here now, okay? And he needs me. Give me this chance to make you believe that I love you both, like a father should."

"Just shut your mouth, you rotten excuse for a father! You say one more stupid thing like that, I'll..." Ed swallows thickly, but can't help the tears that well up in his eyes. His voice breaks as he yells, "I'll knock you out! And that's a promise!"

The tears come, hot as they cascade down his face. Iris grasps at him until she is next to him, then gently takes one side of his face in her hand. She wipes away a few tears and some fresh blood. She doesn't get much of it off, instead smearing it on his cheek, but he halfheartedly smiles at her effort nonetheless.

She takes her hands away, but stays very close. She opens her eyes, and Ed is pained by her muted irises. He wonders if he'll ever stop hurting every time he looks into her eyes.

"Listen to me," she orders. "If anyone can figure out the solution to this problem, it's you, Ed. Throughout this entire journey, you've used solely your bare hands and your knowledge of alchemy. There has to be a way. You owe it to your little brother."

"I know there's a way. I can't afford to think there's not. I won't give up."

The alchemist clenches his fists, both sets of fingernails pressing into his palms. He opens his hands to look at his hands, then gasps quietly at himself. His left arm is strong and able while his right is thin and frail, but...

"I've been using them both this entire time," he says aloud in realization.

Edward takes a moment of silence for himself, then smiles. He looks to everyone, who are all looking back at him. He's suddenly overwhelmed with a humble feeling of gratitude. It swells up inside him.

"Thank you," he whispers, looking up to the sky.

He puts his right arm on Iris's shoulder, then says, "I'm gonna need you to step back, okay? Mei, help her, please."

The girl nods and guides her friend out a few feet away from Ed and next to Ling and Lan Fan.

Once Ed deems everyone is far away enough, he runs up to Mustang, holding out his hand. "Spare some chalk, Colonel?"

"What are you doing, Fullmetal?" he asks, giving him a look that demands an answer. Nonetheless, he fishes into his pocket then gives him a thin piece of chalk.

"You'll see."

From there, he begins to draw a giant circle. The smile he's wearing can't be wiped away.

"What is he drawing?" Iris asks quietly.

"He's out of his mind he's doing what I think he is," Ling comments to himself, then turns to her. "It's a human transmutation circle."

"...But without soul data," she finishes.

"Okay, everyone," Ed announces, now finishing his circle and readying himself to perform. "This is my last transmutation. I'll be right back."

"I understand." Iris smiles, small crinkles forming around her closed eyes. "He's going to visit the Truth."