"Watch closely, Syaoran. He has them trained." Ed whispered as they helped the girls and Loyalty with their purchases when they returned. Loyalty grinned goofily and made the girls laugh and cheer. Then, he would let his expression become glum and they would slump their shoulders with mock depression. He would promptly smile again and they would cheer once more. "You see? About a month into this world and he can bend women to his will with hardly any effort! He's uncovered the secret to manhood!" Ed was right. No matter how many times Loyalty smiled or frowned, there was always a reaction from Winry, Tomoyo, and Sakura. "Now, watch," Ed put on the biggest goofiest grin his lips would allow. It caught Winry's attention imediately.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. Ed's expression slumped instantly, "What are you planning over there, Ed?"

"Forget it, Winry," Ed moaned. He looked back to Syaoran and gave him a look that clearly said, "See?"

"Hmm," Syaoran thought for a few seconds, then allowed himself to smile a little... then a little more... then grin.

"Syaoran-kun! It's so refreshing to see you smiling!" Sakura stated happily, taking that moment to give him a small hug. Ed gaped at him.

"It's you, I think." He told Ed when they had gone back to their game.

The day had gone by quickly, especially for one so eventless. It was no wonder that Loyalty had gone into one of his thinking sessions again. He couldn't stand these feelings anymore. They were either filled with regret or guilt. No matter what path he chose, it would be better for everyone, he reminded himself. No matter what, the pain he felt inside would stop.

--

"Everyone help to prepare for this storm," Pinako announced as the black clouds began to loom closer to the Rockbell household, "The wind is going to really pick up, so it would do good to board up the windows!"

In an instant, the house was in a rustle, gathering wood, nails, and tarps. They fled outdoors, the wind already pulling at their hair and clothing. Everyone was at a window or opening, closing it tightly. The sky was yellow and sickly looking, like all blueness was tarnished. Syaoran was nailing the board into the window as Ed held it into place when they were both turned around by Loyalty. His body was plastered with transmutation circles and his face was cold and almost expressionless.

"All done," Winry sighed as everyone filed back into the house. Everyone nodded.

"Where's Li-kun?" Tomoyo asked, slight worry in her voice.

"Now that you mention it, Edward-kun is missing as well," Maes commented, "As is the homunculus."

"Sakura-chan?" Winry asked as she watched her put her shoes back on, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to look for them!" she announced. Pinako put her hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"Stay. We don't want you to get lost as well." she ordered. Sakura shook her head.

"I can't lose Syaoran-kun again!" She knew something bad was going to happen. She knew it was more than just being a little lost in a thunder storm, "Please forgive me, Rockbell-san!" She padded the cards in her pocket and walked out the door.

--

"What is this?" Edward called through the howling wind as Loyalty led them to a clearing. In the center was a giant white alchemy array. Loyalty gestured for Ed kneel in front of the circle, "What's going on, Loyalty?"

The homunculus merely pushed him to the grass, using his powers to melt the ground around his knees, incasing them. Ed was stuck, partway underground and unable to move.

"Loyalty, answer us! What're you--" Syaoran was cut off as the power to his body was cut short. He collapsed in the center of the array as Loyalty knelt beside him, turning him over.

"Loyalty-kun!" came a female voice over the increasingly heavier wind. Sakura walked over next to Ed.

"Don't walk into the array," He advised, she nodded. As the living virtue looked into the distance, a large set of doors appeared before him. He was ready for it this time. He watched the Gate's doors open slowly as over a hundred pair of eyes gazed back at him. He looked back to Syaoran as he held him in his arms, raising his fist over his lower back.

"Loyalty! Don't!" Ed ordered. "Don't do something you'd regret!"

"I could never regret this. Only one of us was meant to live here," replied a voice that seemed to come from the Gate itself, "Thank you, Edward. Activate the array as soon as I'm finished."

"Loyalty-kun!" Sakura cried. She looked behind her as she felt a soft hand on her shoulder, "Hughes-san?"

"Don't watch," was all he said.

Loyalty raised his fist, aiming for Syaoran's blood seal.

Sakura leaned into Maes, as he held her shoulders comfortingly. She didn't understand anything that was going on, yet she couldn't stop crying.

His fist swung down, Sakura gasped and looked away into Maes's chest as she heard a sickening crunch. She turned around slowly as she could feel her embrace get tighter.

"SYAORAN!" she screamed a piercing scream that broke through the storm, stabbing into the ears of anyone who was within several hundred feet. Syaoran's body laid in Loyalty's lap, the fragments of his back scattered all around him. Her heart felt like it had split in two as she could still see remnents of blood on the flecks of metal. Maes knelt down and held her against him, the way a father would protect a child from a nightmare as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Do it, now!" came the voice from the Gate. Before Ed knew what he was doing, he clapped his hands together and thrust them onto the array as it, and the circles on Loyalty's body began to glow like fluorescent lights.

--

What was going on? It was like his trip into the internet, yet there was even more information. However, it was more graceful, it didn't feel intense and painful. It almost felt right. He looked down and found nothing. No body, no form, nothing. Like he was nothing more than a hovering sphere of feelings. He could see all around him, yet his vision was still focused as hundreds of ink black hands slinked on and around him. Another form appeared in his vision, his form.

No, he reminded himself, Loyalty's form.

"This belongs to you," said a voice that had no tone or sound, yet it was perfectly clear to him. He didn't know to whom the voice was refering to or what the voice was even talking about. The last thing he remembered was Loyalty's hands cupped around him as everything went black.