Hey all, I just got home from class! It's about 7:30pm central time, and I am exhausted! Anyway, in response to some of your reviews, I am THINKING of making a sequel. I don't know when I will start on it, hell I still need to come up with a concept. I most likely will wait until I see the movie and see what is resolved out of that before I go making something totally off the wall. I started writing again on my Inuyasha story, so I might just keep with that until I finish it. Hell I have a habit of getting tired of writing on one story and shift to another (I think I've got like three going on right now from various fandoms?). Just for example, I just noticed that I started typing a few chapters of my Inuyasha story back on Halloween of LAST year, and I'm just now coming back to it. I've got a Lord of the Rings story that I've been working on for almost three years (so you can imagine just how long that one will be).

Onto another subject…I do agree that I like Winry being used in the story instead of Rose. Hell, in the anime Dante says that she wants 'Hohenheim's son' to love her, so I figured that if she did her homework she would have went after Winry instead of Rose. Now, I do understand why they did Rose instead of Winry, but hey…you gotta love fanfiction, eh?

Anyway, enough blathering. I'm posting chapter 34 on Thursday when I get home from class, so I'll see ya then!

Chapter Thirty-Three

"EDWARD!" Winry screamed, as her soul finally broke through the force that was controlling her. Tears streamed down her face as she began to run towards her beloved, but were stopped when she felt a hand firmly grasp her wrist. She turned around to see Dante angrily looking at her. Winry narrowed her eyes and jerked her hand away from her captor, and quickly ran to where Edward's body lay. Ignoring the pool of blood she was in, Winry kneeled next to him and cupped his expressionless face in her hands.

"No…It can't be…" she whispered to herself as she realized he was no longer with her. She gently grabbed his real hand with hers and held it lovingly, stroking his palm with her thumb. Tears continued to stream down her face as her heart began to break within her.

Envy laughed as he watched the girl hover over Edward's dead body. He always loved to see any human in pain, whether it was physical or emotional. But, he knew Dante wouldn't be happy seeing her new body act in the way she was, and walked over to drag her away from Edward.

Winry reacted the moment Envy grabbed her arm. She fought back, but he easily threw her to the side. The girl landed hard on her side, but quickly got up again, and ran towards Edward. Envy caught her by the neck and held her up in the air, cutting off her airflow, "Do you want to join him?" He could see the tears still flowing down her cheeks as she weakly tried to pry his hand from her neck. Envy soon grew tired of the girl's crying and threw her off to the side, into a stone column. The force of the landing knocked the wind from the girl, and she held her head while kneeling on the floor, trying to regain her breath.

"Humans are such fragile creatures…" he stated and scoffed at the girl's weakness for the boy. She put up more of a fight the last few times he fought her, and now she had seemed to give up all will to live.

"Brother…" Alphonse whispered to himself. He couldn't believe what he just saw, "Brother! No way…Edward can't die!"

Wrath turned his head around from his limbless body to look at Edward's still body, "He's dead…?"

"That's right! He's dead…" Envy said, turning his head towards the child homunculus, "Everyone will die! Only the homunculus will remain…" Gleeful laughter erupted from deep within Envy at the thought of millions of people suffering and eventually dying. He continued to laugh for a few more moments until a body slammed into his side, knocking him to the ground. He angrily got up to see Winry quickly kicking herself up from her position and glaring at him.

"You really do want to die, don't you," he sneered at the girl. He could see the hate and anger towards him fill her eyes as she slowly wiped some of the tears away. He glanced over at Dante, and saw the look in her eyes. Cursing underneath his breath, he could see that she would not approve of him killing the girl in front of him. But maybe she wouldn't care if he had a little fun with her for the moment.

"So, you've changed since that time we visited you at your house. Have you been training?" he mocked her. Her expression stayed the same; she didn't move a muscle. "I wonder if you've improved any since our fight at the shooting range. I do have to admit, you did surprise me a few times there during our little playtime. But now, you have no weapons, and you can't use alchemy, so what are you going to do?"

The expression on Winry's face went from anger to sadness in a matter of seconds. Her knees gave out from underneath her as she slumped to the ground. She sat there, looking towards the floor, unsure of what she could do. She didn't even know where she was. The last thing she remembers was meeting Dante with a girl named Rose in Lior while she was working undercover. Next thing she knew, she's in the middle of a ballroom wearing a fancy dress, while Edward lie dead not too far away. It was just all too much for her to handle. She hid her face into her hands and began to weep quietly, greatly entertaining the homunculus in front of her.

"Oh, are you really going to act like you did when I first met you? You really are weaker than I thought…You know," Envy said as he walked closer to her and squatted down so he could whisper in her ear, "I don't really know what Edward saw in you after all…"

Her left hand shot out as soon as the words escaped his mouth and closed around his neck. Envy, taken by surprise, tried to pry the girl's hand away from him, but the automail was just too strong. He saw her lift her head and flash an evil smile, "You're not the only one who can trick people, Envy…" Winry pulled her right hand back, and with all the power and hatred she could muster, punched the homunculus in the face and sent him flying across the room.

Envy quickly got up from his fallen position and angrily rubbed his neck. Without hesitation he ran back towards the girl, not caring anymore if he killed her or not. He could deal with Dante later. Winry easily ducked down and dodged his attacks, but lost her footing as she tried to jump to the side; all thanks to the damn dress she was in at the moment. This is why she preferred to train in pants and a tank top. It's less chance of something like this happening. Winry fell onto the ground, and quickly tried to get up, but Envy jumped directly behind her. Slinging his arm around like a noose, he held her in a chokehold, cutting off her air supply again. Winry tried kicking and punching him to release her, but nothing she did seemed to work.

Envy smiled as he could feel her strength fading as the oxygen was cut off from her body.

"Envy, that's enough," came a commanding voice from his side. He looked over and saw Dante glaring at him, angered by his disrespect and blatantly ignoring her orders on how he handled the girl. Growling to himself, he knew he would not be allowed to kill the teenager. Frustrated, Envy grabbed the girl by the neck and held her at arm's length. Before Winry, or anyone could react, he bashed her in the side of the face with his other hand and let her fall to the ground. Winry's body crumpled on the ground in a motionless heap. Envy walked back to Dante, kicking Edward's lifeless body on the way, "Don't worry. I didn't kill her. I was just tired of her attitude…" he told the woman.

"Brother…Winry…But they…My brother can't be dead!" yelled Alphonse as he saw the events that just occurred. Winry was still alive…but his brother was a different situation. "My brother…"

"This is reality," Dante said, pushing Envy away from her with one hand. She was too angry at him at the moment for him to be near her. "Or perhaps his sacrifice wasn't enough…In the end, sacrifices are never enough. Gluttony," she called out, gaining the attention of the drooling homunculus, "It's time." Without waiting a second more, Gluttony began to run toward Alphonse, ready to devour him from head to toe.

"No…" came the small whisper from Winry, who had just started to regain consciousness, "Al…"

Dante sat and watched as, finally, things were starting to work the way she wanted them to. Edward was dead, and Winry was coming in and out of consciousness. She would have rather Envy didn't use the force he did while fighting the teenage girl, but she had to be overcome somehow, or else she may have ruined the whole plan. Holding the baby in her arms, Dante looked over to see the girl slowly regaining consciousness, her arm reaching out as if she could help Alphonse. It's too late, now, thought Dante, even if you resist, I will soon take over your body and discard your soul.

"Please…Stop…" she could hear the girl whisper as she struggled to push herself up to her knees.

A clapping noise caught the attention of Dante, and anger began to flow through her veins, "What! What happened?"

"Gluttony," called Envy, walking away from Dante. He too had heard the noise and wondered what happened. Gluttony lifted his head from his meal and looked to his fellow homunculus, and much to everyone's surprise, part of his mouth was missing. "It's alchemy! He's being dissolved," muttered Envy as he saw what was happening. He took a few steps back as Alphonse began to sit up in the transmutation circle, while Gluttony tried in vain to find his lower jaw with his hands. The inside of Al glowed brightly with a crimson light as ancient tattoos glowed in the same light all over his metal.

"You fool," Dante spat out as she walked over to hand the baby to Envy, then began to walk towards the circle, "Didn't I tell you that you shouldn't use alchemy? You've dissipated that much again…"
"Stay away!" Al screamed at her, waving his hand in front of him threateningly. His outburst caused the woman to stop in her tracks and not come a step closer, "Don't touch me!" He turned away from her and began to walk towards his brother's body.

"And what exactly are you going to do?" questioned Dante. Both of these brothers could be so stubborn at times, just like their father.

Alphonse walked up to Edward's body and knelt down next to it, "My brother isn't dead yet." His comment caused Winry to jerk her head up in surprise, but the motion caused her head to feel like it was splitting in half. Ignoring the pain, she crawled as best she could over to the other side of Edward's body and looked hopefully into Al's eyes, pleading for him not to be lying. Al reached down and felt the side of Edward's face with his cold, metal hand. "See? He's still warm…"

"Al…" whispered Winry, new tears formed behind her eyes at the thought of Edward still being alive.

"His soul is still inside the gate," he continued, "I just have to bring it back, just like he did for me." Alphonse looked up to see his friend's pleading expression. "Winry…You will be together again. Please…move back…"

The teenager looked at her childhood friend and slowly nodded, then began to scoot back as far as she could from Edward and Alphonse. With the studying she had done, she had an idea of what was to happen. But it was as if she could see Alphonse's determined eyes looking straight into her soul at that moment, trying to comfort her the best way he could.

"You mustn't do this," yelled Dante, her frustration rising to a boiling point, "If you do that…"

"I…" interrupted Al, "Many people were sacrificed when I became the Philosopher's Stone. No…" he said, lowering his head. "Maybe I died on that day. That's why…"

Envy growled, frustrated at the boy's actions and threw the baby from his arms to his side. Winry gasped as she saw the child fly through the air, and quickly jumped up to grab him before he was to hit the floor. The homunculus lunged towards Alphonse, as the metal armor clapped his hands and looked up at him, "That's dangerous…"

A bright blue light erupted from where Edward lay as Alphonse began the transmutation. The light filled the room, and in succession, large crimson transmutation circles began to light up around the area, until it was filled with the mix of blue and red light. Winry rolled over on her side, putting her back towards Alphonse, and covered the baby with as much of her body as she could to shield him from the light. She clenched her eyes together, but the light was so bright it seemed to penetrate anything around it.

"Brother…" she could barely hear Alphonse whisper before the blue light grew and overtook him, Edward, and Envy.