Alphonse prepared to set out for the warehouse mentioned on Edward's note. He sneaked the note into the fire to make sure Mr. Tucker wouldn't find out per his brother's request. Alphonse made absolutely sure that Mr. Tucker and Nina were both asleep before leaving. Although he couldn't understand his brother's reasons for being so secretive, Al knew it had something to do with Mr. Tucker. That was the only reason Ed would be so intent on keeping this from Mr. Tucker.

Once the father and daughter were conformed to be asleep, Alphonse quietly opened the door to the courtyard. Unfortunately, the gate was always locked after Nina's bath. Alphonse had to think fast about how to leave. He couldn't climb over the gate because his weight would cause the fence to collapse. For a moment, he didn't know what to do.

Just then, he heard the gate open and saw those three strangers.

"You guys? Were you all in on Brother's plan?" He asked.

"Yeah, but enough of that," Rachel quickly said, "You need to go find your brother."

"We'll lock the gate once you leave." Kevin said.

"Wait, how did you guys get a key to the gate?" Alphonse couldn't help but ask.

"We didn't," Brad chuckled, "We used our stones to unlock the gate."

"Well, thanks for helping me and Brother." Al smiled.

Alphonse bowed goodbye and raced to find the warehouse.

…

The group within the warehouse were all waiting anxiously for Alphonse to arrive. No one said a single word or made the slightest noise, for they all wanted to listen for Alphonse's presence. The only noise was the noises Monica made when asleep. Edward had messaged Kevin with his stone to unlock the gate for Alphonse for he remembered that his little brother's weight would break the fence. Even though they knew they had to, the waiting game was beginning to take its toll on the group. Edward was beginning to have fears of Tucker finding Alphonse and discovering the secret. His body began to tremble from the fear alone. Usually in times like these when his anxiety would make him feel horrendous, it would be one of the rare occasions he'd read a fictional book.

He usually stuck to non-fiction and alchemy books. The fictional books in Central's library were usually so dumb. He knew it wasn't gonna be very realistic, but usually he couldn't really feel for the characters. The stories were usually the same formula. But the books Dani and Tiffany had been introducing him to were actually kinda good. They were at least enough to distract him from the fear that was making him feel sick to his stomach.

To the group's relief, they heard knocking on the warehouse's massive doors.

"Can you guys unlock the door?" They heard Alphonse's soothing voice outside.

"Yeah, sure!" Tiffany squeaked before racing to the doors.

Soon enough, Alphonse was inside, and Tiffany locked the doors again. As soon as Al was seen by the others, Edward ran to embrace his brother. Finally, something was going his way. Edward had his brother safely in his arms again. After months of hell and back, Edward was finally able speak to him when he needed to let something off his chest, hold his hand if he was feeling lonely, and cry with him if they were feeling sad. It was moments like these that reassured Edward that this whole journey to restore their bodies was indeed worth every ounce of suffering.

Alphonse returned his brother's embrace and said…

"I missed you, Brother."

That was all it took for his walls to come crashing down.

"I…I missed you too, Al," Ed answered with an obvious tremble in his voice, "I'm so sorry I left you alone like that."

Alphonse shook his head before responding, "No, Brother. Obviously, something was wrong. I should be sorry for not understanding that sooner."

With that, Edward responded with a swift slap to Alphonse's metal face.

"Don't be stupid, Al! There's no way in hell you could've known what was going on." Ed snapped at his brother.

"Speaking of which, isn't it time we told Alphonse the truth about Tucker?" Dani pondered out loud.

Edward gave a somber nod before telling everyone, "Guys, I should probably warn you that some of the things I'll say here are things that not even Dani and Tiffany know."

"Okay" the others said in unison.

Edward took a deep breath knowing the truth was going to be hard to talk about, but it was for everyone's sake.

"Everyone has heard the story of Shou Tucker and the chimera that got him the State Alchemist title, right?" Ed began.

Everyone nodded in response.

"Those chimeras…do you know how they gain the ability to talk?" Edward asked.

Alphonse didn't seem to know at first. But after racking his invisible brain, he got an answer he was hoping wasn't true.

"Brother? Don't tell me he uses…" Alphonse nervously guessed.

"Yes, Al…he uses real live people." Edward somberly told his brother.

Alphonse looked down and said, "What else is he hiding?"

Edward took a gulp and lifted his shirt just a little to show a terrible burn that reached from the left side his lower waist all the way to the chest. That wasn't even mentioning the fading bruises and scars on his flesh limbs and torso.

"Holy…" Dani gasped.

"Geez, Ed! Did you get into a fight with a tiger or something?" Tiffany whimpered.

"W-What happened to you, Brother," Alphonse trembled, "What did he do?!"

Edward looked his brother dead in the eyes and said, "I found out about his wife too early. As a result, Tucker decided to use me next, but I tried to escape."

"I don't want to know what happened after that." Dani groaned.

"It failed and he locked me in the basement so I wouldn't reveal anything to you guys," Edward continued with little emotion on his face, "There I found his other experiments."

"Oh hell…" Tiffany whimpered again.

"One of them was reaching for a box that he had just shoved to the corner." Edward recalled with sorrow creeping onto his face.

"I dare not ask what was in there…" Alphonse cringed.

Edward walked over to Monica and picked her up.

"That chimera was reaching for her," Edward said with his voice beginning to waver, "I can only assume for the moment that the baby belonged to whoever the chimera was before the fusion."

"Brother…" Alphonse said in a tone that told Edward that he'd be crying if he had a body.

"I decided to…" Edward began but didn't finish because of the tears that were now flowing.

"I decided to put all of the chimeras in the basement out of their misery…and escaped successfully afterward with the baby." He finally choked out.

"Wait! That's what you came covered in," Tiffany gasped, "It was the chimeras' blood!"

"Nice observation, Tiffany…" Edward mumbled.

"That's why he wouldn't let me and Nina in the basement!" Alphonse cried out.

"After the escape, Kevin, Rachel, and Brad found me and brought me to the group that introduced me to Dani and Tiffany." Edward explained.

"Unfortunately, the leader was using all of us for mission rewards." Dani added.

"So, we left…just the three of us." Tiffany said.

"Now we're all here, living in a damn warehouse in order to put a stop to Tucker's experiments." Dani groaned.

Alphonse didn't want to believe what was just told to him, but the evidence was there in front of his eyes. Edward's wounds, Tucker being secretive about his chimera research, and the baby that was right in front of his eyes were all telling him of Tucker's true nature. He was a monster tricking people so he could keep his title. Alphonse couldn't believe how heartless that man truly was. If Al were to have discovered the truth, he would've been tortured just like his brother and the chimeras who had been mercy killed. All of this made Alphonse furious. Alphonse decided to ask them a question…

"May I see the baby?"

A/N

Holy crap…this chapter took so long (Partially due to excessive slacking). But it's out now. With Christmas coming soon, me and my family might be a bit busy. So, updates might get a bit slow for the time being. Doesn't mean I won't write at all. Again, thank you to everyone who's read this far into the story.

I'm so excited to write more moments with Ed and Al now that they're together again.

That's all for now, folks!