In the gate, the endless white, Truth's face was twisted with rage. One of it's hands was clutching its chest, exactly where its heart would've been, had it been human.

If the Truth had ever once entertained the notion of being human, it certainly didn't now, nor did it dream of ever being anything more, or the unbearably arrogant beings that claimed to be more.

If anything, Truth despised the monster that tried to claim the powers of God, for taking what never should've belonged to it.

Taking then giving. It really wasn't the humans' fault, they were so weak, when the reality of the world drowned them, and their tiny significance.

The beings that claimed to be better, more, evolved... those were the ones that truly angered Truth.

Imortality, gained by cheating death, equivalent loss of millions, but in the end, the lives that kept them safe from the clutches of time, were human. The sins that the homunculus claimed to have removed made them real, made them equivalent.

The emotions, the strength that made humans so entertaining, as they lived, strugled, grew stronger and broke, then put themselves back together, were gone.

It didn't improve them at all. It only showed humans at their worst. Humans truly were insufferable when they gained power and they let it control them.

Arrogance was the worst, lesser beings meddling with powers that weren't theirs.

Yes, it was annoyed, furious. The humans were powerless, even for it to take back what shouldn't be theirs, they couldn't forget the Gate, you never forgot your lesson- never forgot your price, but they hadn't paid the price. That was unforgivable.

It was making the Truth hurt. Right where it would've had a heart. The distortion was hurting it inside.

It wasn't a nice feeling, and Truth hated them for it. Pain was for living things, it wasn't anything to do with something like itself. Fragile bonds had been forged between the humans that it had seen, and it could feel them, just there, just enough to feel their sickening feelings.

It hated them all for making it feel.

Ed stared at Sig, who was sitting so still it was like he was made of stone.

"It'll be okay." He said quietly, hoping to reassure the man, and wondering if anything he could say would really help. "She's strong."

Sig sighed heavily. "I know, but I worry." He said sadly, and Ed remembered his eyes from the final battle, and how scared he looked behind his strong shield.

Sig had always seemd so big and strong- a pillar, and Ed had secretly seen him as a fatherly figure. He'd seemed calm, unmovable, but here he was, scared and looking in that one instant, even smaller than Ed was.

Izumi was giving birth, and last time, the child had died in its first night of life. The two parents had been devestated, and Izumi had been broken.

Only to be completely shattered when she tried to bring her child back.

Yet there was so much hope, so much that could be changed.

Ed frowned. They all knew that Father was also back, with knowledge of the past, and he could stop any plans they had used now.

But did he know that they were back too? If he didn't, they had the tiniest advantage, but he knew...

Then everything would be against them, and they'd have to start again from square one.

Everything suddenly seemed very big and very dangerous.

Ed thought of Al's beaming face, and his mother's gentle smile, Izumi's arms hugging her stomach.

He thought of the burning fury in Roy's eyes as he glared at Envy, then the sheer ice in Father's hollow eyes.

He remembered the pain of the automail surgery, made agonising by the guilt and questions he couldn't ask.

He remembered the cold of the mine, the screech of metal and the strange calmness of the snow as his world burned with agony.

Yes, it had hurt before, and it he failed, made one wrong move, then it'd hurt more.

But he could live with that, just to make sure the future didn't happen again.

"It survived." Hohenheim's voice was tired, and Ed nearly missed it. His eyes widened.

"Is... Teacher okay?" He asked, his throat suddenly very dry.

"Yeah. She's fine. Everything is fine." Hohenheim said with a smile. Ed couldn't describe the feelings of relief that flooded him in that moment.

Nearly on instinct, he rushed forwards and hugged his father tightly. "Thank you." He was crying, and he hadn't realised it until Hohenheim ruffled his hair.

"It'll be okay." Although Ed couldn't see it, he could hear Hohneheim's smile.

"Everything?" Ed asked, for the first time sounding small, sounding breakable.

"I promise."

"Did her child die last time?" Winry asked timidly. Ed merely nodded, looking down at the floor.

The child's cries echoed through the still air.

"We're going to change everything, aren't we." It wasn't a question.

"We're going to try." Ed agreed grimly.

"There has been one change already." Hohenheim sighed. "There can be many more."

"Are you going to leave again?" Ed asked, although it didn't sound accusing like Winry thought it would. He sounded wary, but not angry.

"No. Not unless I absolutely have to... But the Dwaf in the Flask already knows about my counter circle, so it's pointless." Hohenheim's voice carried all his pain, pain from the loss of Trisha, pain from betraying his sons. Pain from knowing that even after everything, after all of his sacrifices, it was all for nothing and the fight hadn't ended.

"Will we be able to save her? Will we be able to save everyone?" Ed asked, eyes narrowed.

Winry sat up straight. "Can we stop my parents from going to Ishval? They won't listen to me, I'm only a child." She trailed off bitterly.

"If we need to, we can transmute them to their chairs and force them not to go." Ed suggested with the ghost of a smile.

"I can try and talk them out of it, and if that fails... Get them to sit down." Hohenheim chuckled.

Winry smiled. "What would the circle be?"

"I keep forgetting you became an automail mechanic." Hohenheim murmured. "That stuff hurt."

"Good. It kept Ed safe." Winry huffed.

"Yeah." Ed's smile was sad. "It lasted until the very end."

"So about the homunculi... Will any of them remember?" Winry asked curiously.

"I don't think so." Hohenheim mused. "All of them were dead at the end, right? The last one to go was Pride."

Ed froze. "I think... I think he died. I'm not actually sure." He hadn't wanted to recall anything about that fight, it was too close, too painful. But if he was wrong, and Pride had, against all odds, been alive in the small boy that had been sleeping in his coat, then it would cost them dearly.

"I see." Hohenheim sighed. "So until we're certain what their moves are going to be, we can't do anything other than wait."

Ed frowned. He didn't like just sitting around. "So you're saying that we just need to keep studying alchemy?"

"Yes." Hohenheim nodded. You don't realise this, but both of you need protecting too.

The rest of the year trickled by slowly. Izumi and Sig adored their son, who was a healthy and strong child.

Hohenheim had taken to carefully studying maps and complicated, old, alchemy in his study. When Ed had asked what he was doing, he had only been told not to worry, which bugged him to no end. He hated not being able to do anything.

Instead he trained, working on regaining his skills in fighting. He didn't have his automail this time around, so he had to find away around that.

Before he could even start worrying about his main weapon missing, he had to start training again from square one, and it sucked, because all the time he could remember doing the exact same thing with Al, which hurt.

Because this time, his younger brother had chosen to sit out the combat training and learn more about medical alchemy, Ed had been joined only by Winry, and only rarely, as she was more focused on studying alchemy.

Still, he reminded himself that all the bruises and the lonely hours were worth it, because it meant that his mother would be there at the end of it all, to smile and scold him.

He'd rather die than lose that again.

Roughly a month had passed since the Ishvalan War had ended, and Ed was walking towards the station absently, deep in thought.

However, a familiar figure was lounging against the station wall, smirking.

"Took you long enough, bastard." Ed's grin lit up his entire face.

"Fullemtal, you've grown taller, I see." Roy smiled pleasantly. "Glad to see you've remembered me."

"I really hope that you didn't just call me short, I'd hate to make you uglier." Ed beamed. Strangely enough, I missed this.

"Now, shall we get down to business?"