Ergh, sorry this chapter's so short compared to the other ones, but it was the best place to end it and such…

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Al was numb as he watched Pride and Father take his brother away. He wanted to break free and help his brother, but thanks to Gluttony, he couldn't even feel his limbs, let alone move them. When Gluttony got off of him and Greed pulled him to his feet, Al's limbs lay limply at his sides. He couldn't move them at all.

"Can I eat him?" Gluttony asked.

"Not yet. We need to make sure his death is slow," Greed replied. "I know, break the bones in his hands first. That'll be a good start."

Gluttony nodded and grabbed Al's right hand.

"Wait."

Gluttony blinked. Greed looked into Al's eyes with a strange look. "We need to wait until he can feel it."

Al stared at Greed, looking him straight in the eye. "Ling…"

"It's Greed."

There was a crash down the hall from where they stood, and Al watched in surprise as Ran Fan came sprinting down the hall, accompanied by none other than Mei Chan and Xiao Mei.

"Who are-" Gluttony was rudely interrupted when he found himself cut in two. Ran Fan had a blade on her automail arm, and it was very, very sharp. Gluttony quickly regenerated, but not before Ran Fan had knocked Greed several yards down the hall. Al had finally regained the feeling in his limbs, so he quickly jumped out of range of Gluttony's grasp and stood next to Mei Chan.

"We need to get rid of him," Mei said, pulling out her weapons.

"Right," Al agreed as he clapped his hands together and placed one on the wall.

Nothing happened.

"You can't fight?" Gluttony asked, a creepy grin spreading across his face. "Then time to eat!"

Al waited until the last second to get out of Gluttony's way, which caused Gluttony to run into the wall behind Al. Al jumped back behind Mei, who quickly used rentanjutsu to bring down a portion of the ceiling. It landed on Gluttony's head, and Al used this opportunity to use rentanjutsu to create two weapons for himself and his female companion.

"Aw, stop doing that," Gluttony whined. "Let me eat you"

"No!" Al and Mei shouted simultaneously as they both went to attack.

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Ed continued to struggle as he was dragged away from his brother, up until he was bound tightly to the bars of a cage. When he realized his hands were still free, Ed immediately tried to use alchemy, but it didn't take long for him to realize that he couldn't.

"I'm not taking any chances," Father said. "If your brother can't use alchemy, then he can be easily overpowered, should he try to escape. As for you, you should have realized that I meant it when I said I would get rid of your brother. You can only blame yourself."

Ed tried to kick out at Father, but he couldn't reach that far. When he realized that his efforts were in vain, Ed hung his head and let tears fall from his eyes. Al was probably in agony right now…

Before he realized what exactly he was doing, Ed grabbed a knife that had fallen from the table and brought it up to his chest. When Pride began to reach out for it, Ed thrust the weapon into his chest, just above his heart.

"What the hell are you doing?" Pride shouted when Ed let go of the knife and let his arms hang by his sides. Father saw what Ed had done and roughly pulled the knife out and tossed it aside before placing a hand on Ed's chest. In an instant, the wound was healed.

"Explain yourself."

"I already said that I have no reason to live without my brother," Ed snarled as he felt the cage behind him with his hand. Once he found a sharp edge, Ed quickly scraped his wrist along it, which resulted in a very deep gash, right on his artery.

Pride noticed the blood first, and wrapped Ed's arm in a shadow before yanking it up. Father healed that wound as well, and Ed stopped for a moment. What else could he do quickly…?

Ed brought his head forward and brought it crashing back into the bars of the cage. The result was desirable, and Ed somehow made himself do it again.

Of course, this didn't work either, and Ed was quickly moved to something that had a lot less sharp edges and hard surfaces. Ed struggled to free himself from the restraints that held him to the bed, but he soon gave up. Finally, he took a deep breath and let it out before he began trying to suffocate himself.

This time, Father simply knocked him out. He glanced at the doorway before looking at Pride.

"Go assist your brothers. It seems we have some unexpected visitors."

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Al and Mei were both exhausted. Gluttony hadn't given up with his goal of trying to eat the two, and while they had done a great deal of damage to him, the homunculus was just too hard to kill off for good.

Al stumbled as he avoided another attack from Gluttony, and the homunculus took advantage of this by tackling Al to the ground.

"Mmm, tasty," Gluttony said as he licked Al's arm, readying himself to take a bite out of it. Al cringed and tried to pull his arm away, but Gluttony's grip was too strong. He was just about to bite when something sent him flying back. Al looked up to see Greed and Ran Fan standing next to him. Ran Fan held out a hand and pulled Al to his feet.

"Go find your family. I'll take care of this one," Ran Fan said before running down the hall to face Gluttony. Al nodded shakily and looked at Greed.

"Ling…?" Al began uncertainly.

"He says he'll let me handle this part," the homunculus said. "I'm still Greed, but Ling says hi."

Al leaned against the wall and took a deep breath before he was ready to move again.

"Go find Hohenheim," Greed said, pointing down another hallway. "He might be the only one who can defeat Father."

Al nodded and ran down the hall, just as Pride rounded the corner and saw Greed and Mei Chan. He continued to run until he came to his father's room, and when he opened the door, Al suddenly realized that this was it.

They had to defeat Father now.

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Ed woke up with Father standing over him. Ed's first thought was to continue his attempts at suicide, but not even holding his breath would do much damage. Father had done something to him that controlled his breathing.

"You're awake."

Ed glared at Father and closed his eyes, but he opened them again when he felt something brush against his arm. Father was still standing over him, but now he had a syringe of some sort.

"This right here is a sample I took from your father. It should go quite nicely into your bloodstream."

Ed knew he should be worried, but he felt numb. What was the point in struggling anymore? He had figured that if he couldn't resist so easily anymore, then he could simply end his own life, thus making it impossible for him to be used as a weapon. He didn't even have that anymore. All he could do was wait as Father used his body however he pleased. He was an experiment.

As the needle went into his arm, Ed tried once again to get away, to get the syringe away, to let himself die, anything was better than this.

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Hoho was surprised to once again see Al at his door, but he recovered swiftly, and as soon as Al had gotten rid of the restraints, he walked straight for the door.

"This is coming to an end, isn't it?" Hoho asked as they walked through the hallways to where Father had most likely taken Ed.

Al nodded. "My friends are fighting off the homunculi, and they told me to come find you. We need to help brother."

Hoho nodded. "Most likely that bastard's going to try to create another monster out of him. We'd better hurry."

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Ed was in a daze. Whatever Father had injected into his arm was now spreading through his body, but it was different from what he had imagined. He was still in control. Ed tried to move, but he was still restrained. His body also seemed uncharacteristically weak.

Ed didn't know how much time he spent like that, but when he finally opened his eyes, he was surprise to see his own father standing above him. The restraints had been removed.

"Can you move?"

Ed nodded and pushed himself into a sitting position. The tattoo on his side now contained a red center, but he didn't care about that at the moment. He was alive.

"Where's Father?" Ed asked.

"I guess he ran off to do something else," Hoho replied as he pulled off his outer jacket and placed it around Ed's shoulders.

"Brother?"

Ed blinked and looked behind Hoho to see his brother. "Al… they didn't kill you?"

"Of course not. They almost did, but I had some help."

Ed blinked again. "Wait, you managed to beat them without any alchemy?"

"No. I had rentanjutsu."

Ed stared. "You have a lot of explaining to do, little brother."

Al gave Ed an embarrassed smile. Hoho looked Ed over once more before noticing the red in the design and the two drops of blood on Ed's arm, leftover from the syringe.

"What did he do to you?"

Ed rubbed his arm as he explained what had happened as best he could. Once he finished, Hoho sighed and ruffled Ed's hair, a gesture that confused Ed for the moment.

"It sounds like you're going to have an interesting future."

"If we survive," Ed muttered.

Hoho sighed. "Yes, if we survive. Are you ready?"

Ed exchanged glances with Al, and they both nodded. Hoho smiled and led them out of the room and into a hallway. They were going to end the madness, once and for all.

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It had been almost two weeks since Roy had last heard from Ed. Two weeks since the Fullmetal Alchemist had supposedly been transferred to another hospital, and Roy was worried.

He realized that Ed probably wouldn't be killed, but there were so many unanswered questions. What was Ed going through? Was he with his brother? Had Al been killed since he was too much of a threat to Father? Would anyone from that family ever be seen again?

He was jerked out of his reverie when General Hakuro flopped a giant pile of papers onto his desk. The general had recovered quickly, and he was now forcing Roy to do paperwork until they received orders from Father.

"Keep working, Mustang. Scar's little stunt caused a lot of problems in the military, and you're the one who gets to clean up the mess."

Roy sighed as he continued to sign papers and do calculations and such. After a few hours, Roy was about ready to kill someone, he was so bored and frustrated. So when the phone on his desk rang, he was more than happy to answer it.

"Mustang."

The voice on the other end seemed exhausted and relieved to have gotten a hold of Roy. "Colonel? That's you, right?" asked a very familiar voice that Roy easily recognized…

"Full- Ed? What- where are you? Are you okay?"

"Al and I are fine."

"Then where are you? We've all been worried about you…" Roy trailed off as Hakuro entered the office again and sat down at another desk.

"It's over." There was a click on the other side, and Roy knew that Ed had hung up. He stared at the phone for another moment before hanging up.

"It's over…?" Roy muttered to himself, trying to figure out what Ed had meant.

Hakuro looked over at Roy in confusion for a moment before shaking his head with a sigh.

"Did the Fullmetal Alchemist tell you that?"

Roy nodded, still trying to figure out what Ed had been talking about.

"Then I guess you've won," Hakuro continued.

"Eh?"

"We would have heard by now if something had happened in our favor. The only reason for the silence must be that all of Father's creations have been destroyed." Hakuro looked into Roy's eyes, and to Roy's surprise, the general smiled. "I suppose we'll have to make some changes around here. You're willing to help, correct?"

Roy blinked several times before nodding.

"Good. Let's change this country. There's not much of a point in continuing the conflicts for a plan that will no longer work, so we might as well make life better for those who live here."

Roy smiled and looked out the window. Even though his hopes of becoming Fuhrer were dashed, Roy knew that he was now fulfilling his goals. Things were finally working out for the best, and maybe, just maybe, Ed would return to pay back the 520 cenz he owed him.

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One more chapter and it's finished! Next chapter will be the one to wrap up all the loose ends. :D