Well here you go! This is the last chapter! Thank you so much for making it to the end and enduring my awkward continuity issues, and the fact that I totally unfairly completely stacked the odds against Mei to make her seem like she would have been a terrible Empress when really anyone would have cracked under these kinds of circumstances kinda like actual Imperial China did, and my stilted high school writing that I tried to go back and edit so the writing gets worse as you go through the story and then kinda gets better, and my splicing together scenes that I wrote when I was in high school when I was just barely writing this story with present day writing and my literally taking four years to finish it! You guys are seriously the best.

Lots of love,

ClosetFMAfan

April 7 1975

Harold DeWitt had unfortunately stopped taking notes a long time ago into the story. All the same he could hardly imagine he'd forget any of the details from this. It kept spinning around in his head. The Empress, betrayed by her own brother who was one of her strongest supporters, but who still tried to save her but was unsuccessful... and this couple in front of him who was caught in the middle of it.

"Wow. Honestly… that's a lot to take in."

"You can see why we don't go around telling everyone."

"What do you normally tell people?"

"We usually tell them that she came here to Amestris when she was eleven or looking for a better life and ended up staying here. We met when she was eleven and I was fourteen and she taught me alkahestry and we ended up falling in love. It's not too far from the truth."

"I suppose not," Harold said wonderingly. "So after you ran into each other in the palace again, you offered to get her out of Xing and take her to Amestris?"

Mrs. Elric nodded, uncrossing her ankles and reaching across the table for Harold's tea cup that had long been abandoned. "I had never stopped loving him, so when he offered, I knew that was where I was supposed to be. And we obviously couldn't continue living in Xing with the situation like that. It was an easy decision."

"So you got your happy ending, what about the rest of it?"

"What do you mean?" Al asked.

"Well we know the Republic collapsed only a few years later. Ling Yao was killed and replaced by their current government. But what about the rest of his family? What about Hua? And… well… do you know what ended up happening….?"

"To the Empress?"

"Yes."

"The Xingese government finally announced that she had died in imprisonment about three years ago. That's when they announced it at least. I have my own suspicions that they actually had her killed only a few years after she abdicated, if not sooner than that, and they were just trying to keep it hidden. Ling's youngest son Fu was killed along with Ling, but Lan Fan escaped with their second son, Jul-li. Ling's supporters tried to use her as a rallying point but she refused and after that pretty much disappeared. She's always been good at that. A lot of people think that she came here to Amestris so she would blend in with her automail, but it's never been confirmed and she's never reached out to us."

Harold could still hardly manage his amazement. He had come to this remote town hoping to speak to the former Ambassador to Xing who might have interacted with the Empress a few times. Instead he had found one of her close confidants and second cousin! The part that surprised him the most as he helped collect the empty tea cups and memorabilia that had collected as they expanded on their story was that his first thoughts didn't go to the fame that this story would bring him. What he cared most about was making sure that people knew this story. Everything about the Last Empress was so hidden or simply not there that no one knew anything about her! If the world could know what this couple had to share about the effort she poured into her country and everything she tried to do to protect it… it truly was a story worth sharing.

"Thank you. Thank you for sharing all of this with me."

"Of course. We're happy people are asking questions about it again. After the initial fall of Imperial Xing everyone pretty much lost interest in it. So we're happy to share."

"I'll let you know when the article is about to be published, shall I? In fact, well, with this much information we might even be able to write an entire book!"

"Well that would be something, wouldn't it?" Al said, eyes sparkling as he looked at his wife. She smiled faintly, shaking her head in exasperation and left the room for the kitchen. Al led Harold to the front door and wished him a warm farewell from them both. He closed the door on the young man's waving image before following his wife to where she was standing near the sink staring out the window.

"Mei?"

She turned to face him with a weak smile on his face. "We knew one day someone would come asking questions. It finally happened."

"I'm not too surprised. That's why we've been prepared with a story to tell, 'Mrs. Rikui Elric'" he said, pulling her into his arms and kissing the top of her head. "Perhaps we should feel bad about lying, but I've had to lie a million times when people have asked about mine and Ed's childhood. Or why I would wear armor. Or why I didn't help in the war efforts. Or if I was having an affair with the Empress. Or-"

Mei's laughter cut him off and he happily pulled her in closer.

Some wounds of theirs would never quite heal. Moments like these when people asked questions always made that more apparent. There was nothing that would ever be able to quite make up for the loss that Mei felt. She had dedicated her entire self to her people and Al personally felt that, no matter what blood lineage stated, that was what it meant to be queen. Even if it had been to his personal consternation.

At the same time, in other ways it felt like they had been able to build an entirely second life together. A life free from intrigue (other than the aforementioned moments when people asked questions) and sabotage and assassination attempts. A life where they had been able to live together and be an aunt and uncle and eventually parents themselves to a beautiful and incredibly brilliant daughter. They had had a good life together and he wouldn't trade a single second of it.

"I love you," he told her quietly.

"I love you too," she responded easily. "But if you think you're getting out of doing these dishes, you are wrong."

Al laughed and bent swiftly to kiss his wife, appreciating not for the first time that he could do so in their own home without any worries about who might be around or what might be going on next. Perhaps the struggle had been hard, but it had been worth it.

"Yes, Your Majesty."