Disclaimer: I don't own FMA and the dialogue is once again, based off A-Keep subtitles and my own knowledge of Japanese.

Thank you for the reviews. They make me so happy.

blurred3883 & Flower Kid : Sorry, in order to make it read more like a novel, I took the artistic liberty of adding in thoughts and embellished the scenery a bit. But I tried as much as possible to keep the story true to the anime episode.

Dark-Angels-Tears: Here's another episode for ya. Thanks for your encouragement.

3 Mother

1905 Rizenbul Village

A little girl stood against a wall holding a black puppy in her arms. She wore an orange flowered dress and her light blond hair went just past her chin. "Hey," she called to her playmates, annoyance plain in her voice, "you said you were going to give me a present."

The brown-haired boy looked up from the circle drawn on the ground in chalk. "Just a little longer," he promised, his gray eyes sparkling.

"We're going to make that present now," the other blond-haired boy told her.

The two boys picked up two bags and poured its gray contents into the middle of the circle. They exchanged glances. Simultaneously, the two boys placed their palms out the outer circle on the floor.

Winry's eyes widened as a bright light filled the room, swirling around the circle the boys had drawn. In the center of the array, the clay danced and swayed, slowly taking a human-like shape. Letting out a wail, the girl fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands. The puppy barked at the strange light.

Hearing their friend's frightened cries, Ed and Al removed their hands from the circle, abandoning their project. They ran over to the crying girl, trying to soothe her sobs. In the middle of the circle sat a perfect doll. It was their first transmutation.

The two brothers sat outside the house, leaning against the wall, wearing identical frowns. Six year-old Edward Elric's long blond bangs hung over his eyes and he stared at the tips of his sneakers. He wore a red shirt and blue shorts. His brother, younger by a year, Alphonse's shorter brown hair, light green shirt and brown shorts reflected their different personalities. From a young age, Ed had always been determined, stubborn, and protective of his calmer and more mild-tempered brother.

Inside, Winry sat at the Elrics' dining table, her parents standing behind her. Another woman sat at the head of the table, her long brown hair pulled over one shoulder and loosely tied. She nervously ran a hand down her lavender dress and a white apron. "I'm so sorry for what the boys did," she apologized.

"No, Trisha," the man reassured the boys' mother, "it was Winry's fault for overreacting." He laid a gentle hand on his daughter's bowed head.

An elderly woman walked into the dining room, her gray hair severely scraped back from her round face into a ponytail that stuck straight up in the air. A white apron was smoothed over her portly frame. "Those two are already excellent alchemists." She handed the doll to Trisha Elric.

The boys' mother turned it over in her hand and stared at the little doll, marveling at the frilly pink dress, blond curls, and permanent smile. "But they shouldn't know anything about alchemy," she breathed.

Trisha walked across the town bridge, an introduction to alchemy book clasped in her hand. She smiled down at the two boys skipping alongside her. "Did you learn alchemy from your father?"

Ed frowned slightly. "How can we learn something from someone who's never here?" he asked.

Trisha looked at the book in her hand. "Can you two boys understand all the difficult words in this book?"

"Somewhat," they answered together. Al turned guileless eyes up to his mother. "Is what we did bad?" he asked anxiously.

"No," Trisha assured the boys, smiling gently. "What you did is a very impressive thing. I can't wait to brag to everyone what bright boys I have." Her green eyes sparkled with pride.

Ed and Al grinned. They liked making their mother happy. This was the first time they'd seen her really smile since their dad left one day a couple years ago.

Back at the house, Trisha opened up her husband's study which had been previously off-limits to the boys. The brothers eagerly eyed the shelves of books lining the walls. "Be sure to thank your dad when he comes back and put everything back where you found it," she instructed.

"Okay," Ed and Al quickly agreed, running into the room.

"And don't open that closet." Trisha opened her mouth to issue another command, but instead put one hand over her eyes as an avalanche of books rained down upon the overly-anxious children. Ed and Al twitched underneath the pile of books.

The morning sun shone down upon the gently rolling hills of Rizenbul. The homes in the village were simple cottages with miles of grass and trees stretching between them. Trisha hummed contentedly to herself as she hung up laundry. She turned at the hurried pounding of her two boys running towards her. She smiled to herself. Those two never did anything halfway.

"Mom! Mom!" they yelled, stopping in front of her. "Look what we did." They held out their hands palm-up, proudly displaying two clay figures.

"Niisan made a horse," Al told his mother eagerly. Trisha made a show of examining the round torso, well-formed head and sturdy legs. Al continued, "But I could only made this." He slightly frowned at his lumpy horse. Its head was almost upside down and its legs stuck out at odd angles.

"That's incredible, you two," she praised her precocious sons. "You are truly his children."

The boys beamed back at their mother. "Do you think Dad will compliment us, too?" Al asked.

Trisha hesitated slightly. "Yes, he'll be sure to when he comes back."

Ed scowled at the sadness he saw creeping into his mother's eyes. "Who cares what he thinks," he muttered. "Come on, Al," he said to his brother. "Let's go show Winry." With that, the two boys dashed across the grass.

Ed sat on a grassy slope near the river bank. He placed his chin on his drawn up knees and wrapped his tiny arms around them. Al silently sat next to his brother, copying his position. "Niisan, do you hate Dad?"

The young boy's mutinous expression smoothed slightly. "No, not hate exactly," he finally said. "I just don't remember him. Whenever we talk about him, Mom makes a sad face. I hate that."

"Sorry." Al was too little when their father left and didn't remember him at all except for vague impressions of a blond man with large hands.

At his brother's soft apology, Ed reached out an arm and ruffled Al's hair. He sighed and got to his feet. "Let's go to Winry's place." Al nodded and the two headed over to their friend's house.

Ed and Al scampered up the Rockbells' stairs. They came to a halt in the open doorway. Winry sat at the dining room table, her head buried in her arms muffling her violent sobs. The two boys hesitantly entered the house. The little girl lifted her head and turned puffy and red-rimmed eyes on her friends. "Mom and Dad are dead," she told them, tears streaming down her face. She buried her head back in her arms.

The brothers stood frozen in place. "But I thought your parents were doctors."

"Yeah, that's why they had to go to the war in Ishbal," Winry managed between sobs.

They remembered the Rockbell doctors leaving a couple months ago. Al took a hesitant step forward and placed his clay animal on the table near Winry's elbow. "Winry, we understand how you feel," he tried to console her. "Our dad left, too."

Winry's head shot up. "It's not the same," she cried, flinging her arm out. Al's gift went flying and crashed on the floor. "They're dead! They're not coming back." Her blue eyes flooded again with fresh tears.

Ed quietly walked toward the table and bent down. He straightened up, the two animals cradled in his hands. "I read in a book about homunculus. It's a human with no soul," he said quietly, a thoughtful expression on his young face. "If we read some more, maybe we could…"

"That's forbidden." Pinako Rockbell's voice rang out in the room. "Alchemy isn't perfect," Winry's grandmother lectured. "That's why we auto-mail engineers exist."

The young boy clenched his jaw. He hated anyone telling him he couldn't do something. "Old hag," he pouted. A steady barrage of steel parts and pans chased the two boys out of the Rockbell home.

Ed and Al walked across the fields side by side in silence, their sneakers idly kicking up rocks and dirt. Ed spotted a figure at the top of the hill. Trisha stopped and waved at her sons. The blond boy lowered his head and sprinted towards his mother, Al following close behind. They threw themselves at their mother's legs, burying their faces into the lavender fabric of her skirt, hiding their tears.

Surprised, Trisha placed a slender hand on Ed's head. "What's the matter? Ed, you're a big boy. People are going to think this strange," she gently admonished. But she continued stroking his hair, soothing the boy's fears.

1909

The two boys ran across the fields up the hill leading to their house carrying baskets filled with vegetables and fruit. "Mom!" ten year-old Edward hollered.

"Niisan! Wait up!" Al called after his older brother. It wasn't fair. Being one year older, Ed had longer legs. But not by much.

Ed slowed to let his younger brother catch up. "Mom!" he yelled again, throwing the cottage door open. Their youthful faces were flushed from their run and the brisk air.

The boys paused in the doorway. The baskets clattered heedlessly to the wooden floor. Trisha lay sprawled on the floor, her sewing basket lying a few feet away. Ed and Al rushed up to their mother.

"This disease didn't develop overnight," the doctor confided to Pinako. "She must've endured the pain for many years."

Pinako nodded gravely and saw the doctor out. She turned back to the bed. Trisha Elric lay beneath the blue coverlet, deathly pale beneath the cool cloth one of the boys had placed on her forehead. Ed and Al hovered anxiously over their mother from their perches at the edge of chairs pulled up next to the bed.

Ed cursed himself. Why hadn't he realized it? He hadn't thought anything of Mom's frequent naps and how she used to sit down a lot. It just meant that he and Al had to help around the house more, but it was okay since it was helping Mom. They liked helping Mom. Ed traced his Mom's fragile features with his golden eyes. There wasn't anything he could do to help Mom now.

Ed slammed a tiny hand on the scattered pile of letters on his father's desk. "We have letters that were addressed to him here. If we write letters to all these people…"

"One of them might know where Dad is and tell him to come home," Al concluded.

Ed closed his eyes. "Not that I want that bastard to come back, but Mom…" Ed swore. He and Al stayed up late through the night composing letters telling their father of their mother's death.

Trisha reached out weakly to her sons. Two small hands grasped her pale, trembling one. "Dad left us some money," she said hoarsely. "I haven't used any of it." Her voice was thin and weak. The boys leaned forward, straining to hear what she was saying. "The two of you, use the money and cooperate and watch after each other." The brothers nodded fiercely, blinking furiously to hold back tears. Their mom had told them that they were big boys; big boys didn't cry.

The corners of Trisha's mouth turned upwards at their swift agreement. "Ed." She gazed at her eldest son. "Can you do me a favor?" Ed nodded again, gulping down a surge of hot tears. "Can you transmute a flower arrangement for me? A corsage?" Her eyes drifted closed. "He used to always make them for me," she whispered. Her hand went limp in the boys' grasp.

Comprehension dawned on Ed and Al. Even at death's door, their mother's last thoughts were of their father. The reason why alchemy made her so happy was because it reminded her of their father.

The day of the funeral came and Ed and Al's father didn't show up. Ed and Al didn't notice their father's absence. For as long as they could remember it had just been them and their mom. Now it was just them. Gray clouds gathered overhead as a small group of people gathered around a gravestone to pay their last respects to Trisha Elric. Slowly, the crowd dispersed and the people went home before the sun set. Two lone figures stayed at the grave site.

"Niisan, I'm getting cold," Al whimpered, looking up at his older brother from his seat on the ground, his arms wrapped protectively around his knees. "And I'm hungry."

Ed stood staring at his mother's grave, his black suit weighing heavily on his small frame. He ignored his brother's plea. Ed's eyes were dry. He had to be strong for his brother; he couldn't cry. "Al," he finally said, his gold eyes still fixated on the newly engraved stone, "let's revive Mom."

A few lamps chased away the darkness of the room. The two boys were studiously hunched over books on the floor of their father's study. Actually, in the past three years, it had become more their study.

"Look, here are his equations." Ed squinted at the faint scribbles. "I don't understand the details, but there's stuff about human transmutation. If I can just make out what it says…"

Al leaned over his brother's shoulder and scanned the text. His brow furrowed. "But it says here that human transmutation is forbidden."

Ed set his jaw at a mutinous angle. "Anyone would be glad to see a dead person come back to life. Everyone who's tried it has failed, so adult banned it out of spite," Ed confidently informed his brother. "If you, Mom, and I can live a happy life again, I'm sure Mom would love it to."

"Niisan?" Al's worried voice broke the room's stillness. "Maybe we should ask Dad first…"

"Mom died because of him," Ed ground out. He balled his fists on his thighs. "Mom has been waiting for him, but he didn't even come to the funeral." He stared blindly at the complex equations in the book. "If it was something that that jerk couldn't do, then I'll do it." Hatred and determination were etched on the young boy's features. "I'll do it," he promised.

1910

Ed put the finishing touches on the transmutation circle. "Al, ready?" He turned to his little brother, the piece of chalk still in his hand.

One year had passed since they had decided to bring their mother back to life. In that year, they had found a teacher and went away to relearn alchemy. Now they were back in Rizenbul in the basement of their home to make good on their self-promise.

Al nodded slowly. "Niisan, are you sure about this?" he asked hesitantly.

Giving his brother a confident nod, Ed answered, "It'll be all right. You want Mom back as much as I do."

Al followed his brother and together they dumped the bags of elements into a pile in the middle of the complex array. Al stared down dubiously at the inconspicuous pile. "We have the ingredients for the body, but what do we use for the soul?" he asked his brother anxiously.

"Give me your finger." Al obliged and Ed swept a pocket-knife blade over the tip. Blood welled from the cut. Ed did the same to his finger. They turned their fingers over and let the drops fall onto the pile. "A drop of blood for the soul."

The two boys placed their palms at the end of the outer circle. Immediately, crackling white light swirled up from the circle and filled the room. Ed and Al smiled in elation. But the tornado of bright white soon darkened to shooting bolts of red and purple. Bewildered, Ed looked around him. "Niisan!" Ed jumped at his brother's scream.

Black tentacles had latched onto Al's small frame, drawing him into the source of the light in the middle of the array. Purple light crackled and snapped around Al's disintegrating body. "Al," Ed screamed, reaching a hand out to his brother. Their hands missed each other by mere inches then Al was sucked completely into the blinding light. The room echoed with their screams mingled with the whirrs of the transmutation.

Outside, a lone figure stood in the pouring rain, staring at the transmutation rebound light shooting from the house. He didn't flinch as lightning and thunder waged a war to rip open the sky.

Al slowly regained consciousness. The suits of armor lining the walls of the room and their discarded books slowly came into focus. Al realized he was lying on his side and sat up. What happened? His body felt bigger, more unwieldy. He glanced down at himself and gasped. His body was completely made of metal.

Panicking, he scanned the smoky room for his brother. "Niisan?" A low groan answered him. Al scooted over to where the noise came from. Ed knelt on the ground, blood pouring through the fingers clutched over his right shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Al," he rasped weakly.

"Niisan, what happened to me?" Al's gaze darted from the stump of his brother's left leg to his missing right arm. "Your leg…your arm…" he whispered. He scooped his bleeding brother into his arms. He was so light. Al realized he was now a great deal larger than Ed.

Ed bit back a moan, nearly unconscious with pain. "With my arm, all I could do was attach your soul to some armor lying around here," he apologized.

"What about Mother?" Al asked apprehensively.

Ed clenched his eyes shut against the agony wracking his small body. He weakly gestured with his left hand. Al stared into the smoky mess. He gasped in horror at the wriggling mass he saw on the ground. "She wasn't human," Ed managed.

Al couldn't take his eyes off the grotesque lump that was supposed to be their mother. "What happened?" he repeated. "Your theory should have been perfect."

Wincing, Ed minutely shifted in the armor's arms. "The theory wasn't wrong," he confessed hoarsely. "We were."

Pinako heard the pounding knocks on her door over the deluge of rain. She opened the door and her pipe almost fell out her mouth at the scene before her. Rain poured off a giant suit of armor crouched in her doorway. In its arms lay an unconscious Edward, blood covering him from head to toe, his shirt and shorts torn and stained brown-red. The armor looked up at her, bright white lights where eyes should be. "Granny," it begged, "Niisan. Please save Niisan."

Winry stood frozen behind her grandmother. "Al?"

Al stood in the middle of the room, his head bowed. Ed lay in a nearby bed, his shoulder and leg bandaged. Against the white sheets, his young face still looked dangerously pale. Pinako paced in front of the suit of armor. "So you two finally returned from your training," she said disapprovingly, "and you decided to bring your mother back to life." She frowned fiercely Al, completely oblivious to the fact that she barely came up to his waist.

Al didn't answer.

The door opened. A raven-haired man stepped in, water streaming down his black coat that covered his blue military uniform. "I see. That was the light of a human transmutation. I've never seen such a strong transmutation response before." He removed his hat and closed the door softly. "Sorry for the intrusion," he said, flashing a silver watch.

"And what does a soldier want?" Pinako frowned around her pipe, dismissively noting the significance of the silver. "As you can see, these two are wounded."

Rainwater pooled at his feet. His black eyes scanned the room's occupants. They flickered briefly as they settled on the young blond girl then quickly passed over her to the elderly woman, bandaged boy, and finally rested on the armor. Standing upright, where empty eye holes should have been, a contained white light shone with a thin rim of red.

"I received this letter." He dug inside his coat pocket. He produced a letter addressed to a Mr. James Herbert.

"That's the letter we sent to all Father's acquaintances," Al exclaimed softly.

Mustang placed the envelope back into his coat. "We have also been looking for your father, Hohenheim, for some time," he told the talking suit of armor.

"Their father is still missing," Pinako interjected sharply. "We have injured people in here. Please leave," she commanded.

The man stepped over to the bed to gaze at Ed's sleeping face. "But if he's still alive after attempting a human transmutation, he is far more interesting to us than his father." He studied the young boy's features. "He has the potential to become a good state alchemist."

"He has done nothing." Pinako's angry voice cut in. "Go home. We're busy."

Roy calmly strode back to the door. "I am State Alchemist, Roy Mustang. Visit Central." He opened the door and stepped back out into the dark, rainy night.

Winry carried a bowl of water and cloth into Ed's room, her ponytail slightly swaying with each step. She set the bowl down on the nightstand and placed the wet cloth on the still sleeping boy's forehead. The young girl glanced at the enormous suit of armor sitting on the floor. She walked over and curiously examined it, tentatively tapping and patting the metal. Unable to resist, she lowered her tiny frame into the armor's lap, using his legs as armrests.

"Good morning, Winry," Al's hollow voice greeted.

Winry sprang up, furiously blushing. "Sorry, Al, I…"

Ed blearily opened his eyes and looked at what he had done to his little brother. The sweet, trusting little brother he had promised his mother he would protect. He closed his eyes again and fell back into blissful darkness.

Ed sat up on the bed as Aunty Pinako removed the bloody bandages, replacing them with fresh clean ones. "Granny Pinako," he finally said, his eyes studying the wooden floor. "There's money in the house that our Mom left us. Take it."

"Don't be foolish," Pinako interrupted him. "I don't want your money."

Ed shook his head. "No. I want you to take that money and equip me with auto-mail," he told her, his gold eyes set with determination. "I want to go to Central to see that Roy person," he continued. "He said I could become a good state alchemist. I remember our sensei telling us that the military gives them funds to conduct whatever research they want."

Pinako was taken aback. "You heard all that?" She pursed her lips together at the boy's mulish expression. "Did your sensei also tell you this? If a war breaks out, you will be called out to duty to use your talents to kill people," she warned the young boy. "My two sons were killed by State Alchemists."

Ed balled his one hand into a fist. "I'm going to take the exam. But to do that I need moving arms and legs," he resolved.

"Ed, you're not still thinking of…" Pinako trailed off. The thought of it was enough without having to voice it aloud.

Ed dug his teeth into his lower lip, biting back a scream of pain. His teeth drew blood as he writhed on the operating table. Al's metal head popped into the sterile room. "We're fine. Don't come in here!" Winry yelled. The armor paled and the door quickly shut behind him.

Tossing his head, Ed clenched his jaw against the next wave of pain. Winry's blond head was industriously bent over his left leg, her brow furrowed in concentration as she attached her finest piece of machinery to her friend. Pinako looked up and scratched her head. "Amazing," she breathed. "Most men would be screaming at the pain of attaching the nerves."

An agonized moan escaped from the boy's throat as Winry located another nerve end. "This pain," he bit out between his clenched teeth, "is nothing compared to his."

Al sat on the floor of the hallway right outside the door and helplessly listened to his brother's strangled cries of pain.

Al stood by the river practicing a series of punches and kicks. He paused in mid-motion as his brother approached. Ed's blond hair had grown long, so the boy had cinched it back in a short braid. He wore a white t-shirt, both hands tucked into pants pockets. From between the end of the shirt's sleeve and his wrist and below the pants leg, the metal of auto-mail gleamed in the mid-afternoon light.

It had taken long, painstaking months for Ed to get used to the feel of the auto-mail. Both brothers had spent endless hours relearning how much pressure to exert with their metal limbs.

"Let's do what we always used to do."

Ed looked up at his brother, a challenging glint lurking in his gold eyes. Those eyes had aged years in the months that had passed since that fateful night. "'To train the mind, you must train the body,'" he recited. "Our teacher said that, didn't she? But Al, can you do it with that body?"

Al took up a defensive stance. "I won't lose to an auto-mail," he vowed, bringing his hands up. Ed attacked and the two passed the next few hours sparring, getting used to their new bodies.

"Niisan, are you really serious about becoming a state alchemist?" Al questioned Ed, aiming another punch.

Swerving, Ed responded with a kick. "I don't know if I can become one or not," he admitted, "but I'm going to go see that Roy person in Central."

"Don't go."

Ed swiftly ducked another chop. "I've already made up my mind."

"Then I'll become one, too."

"You can't."

"Are you still planning on transmuting Mom?" Al inquired incredulously between jabs. "You said back then that we were wrong, so why?"

Al lunged forward to land another punch on his brother. Ed jumped out of the way and Al crashed into the hard-packed dirt. Al pushed himself up and looked up at his brother who had adroitly landed a few feet in front of him. He lumbered to his feet and straightened. "Then I'll become a State Alchemist and I will find how to return your arm and leg," he vowed.

"You don't have to worry about that," Ed returned firmly.

"But it was my fault!" he cried. "If I had disagreed with you, you wouldn't have lost your leg. And you even lost your arm binding my soul to this armor." He placed a hand on his hollow metal chest.

In a flash of movement, Ed jumped and captured Al's head between his ankles. Al flew into the pond with a splash. Ed nimbly landed on his feet at the water's edge. "And just tell me what you're going to do with that body?" Al sat motionless in the rippling water. "I'll find a way to return you to your normal body," Ed promised.

"Niisan, have you given up on Mom?" Al gazed at his brother in disbelief. Ed had been so determined to bring their mother back to life.

Ed's brow furrowed and he looked away. "There's probably nothing in this world equal to Mom's life," he admitted in a low voice. "But I don't want to lose you, too."

Al emerged from the water. "Then I'll go with you."

"Why?" Ed looked startled at his brother's proclamation.

"You always slack off when I'm not with you," Al accused.

Ed's face fell. "Is that what you think of your older brother?" he moaned pitifully.

"And also," Al quietly continued, "I never want to be separated from you again, Niisan."

Winry stood with Pinako and their dog, Den, at the top of the slope, watching the two brothers stand in silence as the water lapped at their feet. Winry's fingers tightened on Den's collar at the boys' resolution. Once again, they'd be leaving her behind. It seemed that everyone left her behind. First her parents, now Ed and Al.

"Maybe when they come back, they'll have matured," Pinako said gazing at the silhouettes of the not so young boys.

Ed gripped a suitcase in his right hand. He wore a black shirt, black pants, black zip-up jacket, and black boots. Over all of it, a red hooded cloak fluttered in the night wind. Embroidered on the back was a serpent's cross. The two brothers stood side by side in front of their home. Ed clutched the torch he held in his left hand. He could feel the heat of the flame singing his skin.

He swallowed hard and set his chin. They had made their decision. Even if they were only trying to regain their original bodies, they were still seeking the secrets of forbidden human transmutation. If they failed, the might disappear from the face of the earth for good. Or maybe something even more severe than that.

Ed's fingers tightened on the torch then he tossed it into the kindling he and Al had placed at the base of the house. The fire immediately caught, the tall flames dancing, casting shadows on the brother's faces.

The flames quickly devoured the house. Wood collapsed and glass windows shattered. But the boys didn't see any of it. Their backs were already turned, their past firmly behind them. Without a backwards glance, they walked away from the blazing inferno down the path they had chosen.

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