Finished! Here's probably the last chapter for any multi-chapter story from me for at least a while. I've been starting to get busy with moving to another country only next month. I'll write when I can, but since I'm not planning on posting anything I can't finish quickly. I should still be able to post a few oneshots and poems ocassionally, but I'm not promising anything. Anyways, thanks for reading and supporting this story. Please review.

Chapter VIII

Al found Mustang in the middle of the battle. The knight was as soaked in sweat as Al was, beads dripping down his face and neck. Undoubtedly, his shirt was clinging to his skin over his dull and chinked mail as he took on a large green dragon.

The man was teamed up with another knight, an aging man with a deformed face whose skin clustered in bags in some areas and stretched out in others. Mustang was burning the dragon with floods of bright flames while the deformed knight was walking closer to the beast in its blind spot, one arm held up.

With the way the dragon was wriggling around, Al had little doubt the deformed knight would soon be spotted. He held his sword in front of him. He didn't know what good a flaming sword would do against a dragon, even the beast wasn't as fireproof as Al would have thought, but he could distract the thing long enough for the older knight to sneak up on him, right?

Al met Mustang's eyes and nodded toward the dragon. Mustang nodded, smirking. He stood still and watched as Al rushed forward, blade striking against the creature's cheek.

Roaring, the dragon turned toward Al. "You! You and your brother tied me up in a pillow case and threw me out into the winter snow. Me, Envy!"

Al was temporarily stunned. "You're the magic snake?"

The dragon, Envy, coiled back as though to strike at Al, but it coiled straight back into the deformed knight. There was a bright light and Envy's form evaporated away, leaving behind a tiny green lizard-like monster.

Al stared. "Is that one of Father's advisers?"

"Yes," the deformed knight said, picking Envy up by his tail.

"Brother's resting in the tunnel. He knows how to deal with what's left."

The knight nodded and ambled off right away.

Al stepped closer to Mustang and gazed at the deformed knight. "Will he be okay?"

"Sir Marco should be able to take care of himself. Just keep fighting."

"I understand. We should head to the dungeons then. Brother says Selim's down there with our dad."

The two of them fought their way out of the fray and broke into the castle itself via the fissure left by Ed's earthquake, but down inside, they only found a shape sitting against a wall that was dimly lit by the sunlight streaming in from outside. Mustang lit a fire in his hand and held it, revealing that shape to be the king, panting and out of breath.

"Dad!" Al bounded to his father's side, Mustang right behind him.

"Your Majesty!"

King Van looked up at the two of them with sickly eyes. "I'm afraid my body isn't in as good condition as it used to be."

Al knelt down on the damp floor, ignoring the mud being pressed onto his pants. "Are you alright?"

The king raised a thin, trembling hand and ran it over Al's cheek. "You're covered in cuts and bruises. You've been burned by something too."

"I'm in good shape considering the battle out there. Brother made a protective charm for me."

King Van smiled. "I'm proud of you. How's Edward holding up?"

"He's exhausted. I made him rest in the secret tunnel."

"I sent him to command the troops. Does someone have that covered?"

Mustang nodded. "We were engaged in one-on-one combat by the time he got out there. Your reinforcements helped a lot. Edward says he needs to send Father and his advisers to the Gate."

"I know." Hohenheim turned his head toward the way out of the dungeons. "I have one of them contained up the hall."

"Can Al handle taking them to Ed? I'd like to move you someplace safer."

King Van shook his head. "I'm safe enough down here. Besides, that thing shouldn't be given a chance to escape." Emphasizing his first point, an otherworldly helper appeared by his side with a bow and a quiver of flaming arrows.

Al's breath caught in his throat as he looked at the form of a beautiful woman. She had deep auburn hair, a soft smile, and green eyes that looked gently toward him. He could swear he recognized her from the images on all the lucky cards Mister Cornello had tried to sell him over the years he was longing to be reunited with his family: this being took the form of Queen Trisha, Al's mother.

The king took his hand off his youngest's face. He was looking at the being guarding him and smiling, but when he spoke, it was to Al. "Bring your brother here. I've got something to give him."

"I will. Are you sure you're okay down here?"

Ed watched his father one moment longer. King Van slumped against the cold, dirty, black dungeon wall and was snoring softly, exhausted after what he'd sacrificed to give Ed his gift. His hands were balled up into fists. "You stupid old man," Ed said, but it was no more than a whisper. He didn't really want to disturb his father's rest, and besides, he still had work to do.

Ed turned and walked further into the shadowy dungeons, looking around for the defeated little boy that was Pride. After a few minutes, Ed heard a voice.

"Brother, what did Dad give you?"

The crown prince saw his younger brother, illuminated primarily by the flames coming off his sword, with the glow from a magical seal giving everything a red tone. He was standing in the dungeon hallways, near the cell containing Pride, whom Ed had come to collect. "Al?"

"You're tense. You don't look tired anymore, but you're upset about something."

Ed nodded stiffly. "Dad sacrificed too much to get me the edge against a full-blooded sorcerer like Father that I need. Tell you about it later – I've got to go fight."

Al's voice was gentle when he next spoke. "I thought you might. I knew you might need your sword, so I grabbed a spare one out of the armory so I could return yours to you."

Al knelt down to place the flaming sword on the ground in front of Ed, seeing as how he could not hold it by its fiery blade to hand it over to his brother. Before Ed knelt down to pick it up, he held out his hand to Al. "Let me see your sword for a moment."

Al complied, and in a moment, the spare sword too was covered in flames. The hallways were that much brighter for it and Ed could see the way Al was drooping there in the hallway. He was smiling, but there were injuries on Al's face that made his smile seem more ironic.

Ed loosely punched Al's chest. "Dad and I have got this, okay? If you're tired, you should take a break."

Al nodded. "Go get Father. I believe in you."

As Al sat down in the dungeons to rest, Ed released the magical seal on the cell in which Pride sat against a wall, too weak to move. The prince bent down to touch Pride's cold skin and the piece of the Gate around his side unwrapped and took the evil spirit back with it. "With all the fallen advisers the knights brought me after Mustang and Marco spread word of where I was, that's the last of them. All that's left is Father himself."

Ed marched back to the fissure and grasped the rough stones where the castle's foundation was split and pulled himself up, climbing out onto the green spring grass.

He turned his face upward, catching sight of the blue sky spattered with clouds beyond the castle walls. In between him and it was his opponent, whose red coat and golden braid were visible from down on the grounds. Ed went to the stairway and climbed up toward the wall-walk. "You."

Father turned. He was fresh, not even having cause to have broken a sweat or dirtied his hands. "You really did escape the Gate."

Ed smirked, readying his sword. "Did you doubt me?"

What came next was the biggest magic battle that anyone in Amestris would ever have heard of. Ed pulled a rift to the magical realm right open and allied beings came to aid his dimension freely and unhindered; Father raised his hands palm-up on either side of him and all the castle's fallen rose to his aid slowly and soullessly.

Magical and Undead beings clashed all over the wall-walk and up and down the walls themselves. Ed himself seemed to transform into one of the otherworldly beings that a magic-user could call upon for aid, his magic more powerful than it had ever been. Magical light and magical darkness battled for ground over the whole castle.

Ed had to fight his way through what seemed like thousands of pale, rotting, or skeletal warriors to reach Father. With more magic going through his body than it was used to, adrenaline and determination were the only things that kept him going.

The prince didn't know how long it took to reach Father, but he knew it was a while. When Ed reached him, they engaged in a sword fight. Ed's sword was flaming, but Father's was coated in a green slime that Ed thought might be poison.

Father backed Ed up against the precipice. He struck at Ed's throat, but Ed shielded himself with his sword, getting himself nicked in the cheek instead. He brought his knee up and got Father under the belt.

With the armor Father wore, Ed's knee wasn't as effective a weapon as it could have been, but Father still lowered his sword for a moment, hands going toward the pain. Ed knocked him over with a fist to the jaw and pinned him down on the wall-walk as the black tar over his heart peeled off in the form a thin hand attached to a skinny arm and went down to get the corrupt sorcerer.

Ed sunk down against the precipice. As the world was fading, he saw the Undead fall again and the summoned helpers vanish. A cheer from down on the main battleground rose, loud enough to penetrate Ed's failing senses.

Al knew someone had to separate the living from the dead after the war, and he wanted to find his family to make sure they were all alive. He tried to help with that, but Mustang didn't allow him near any body that might be dead.

"There's no need. We knights are taking care of it." He steered Al off the muddy, blood-covered castle grounds and into the large, narrow banquet hall instead, where allied survivors were being gathered. Against the east wall sat the Curtis couple, who smiled when they saw Mustang with the younger prince, Izumi getting to her feet.

Al went and greeted his foster parents with a hug. His mother seemed alright, only as injured as though she'd been working out in a brier patch, and his father wasn't poorly off either. Sig Curtis was still sitting down, a simple leather shoe removed from a foot whose ankle was red and swollen.

A blond, blue-eyed girl came up from behind them. "Excuse me, is Prince Edward alright?"

It was the girl who'd stood up for Ed in Risembool. She sported many small cuts on her arms and face, and another cotton charm hung openly around her neck, resting on her light gray top.

Mustang turned to talk to the girl. "He's alive. Sir Marco's tending to him at the moment." He adjusted his footing so Al was now included in the conversation circle and introduced the girl to the younger prince – Winry Rockbell, Ed's "secret" girlfriend from Risembool. He introduced Al as Ed's brother who'd been in hiding.

"I was about to check on Ed. I'll come back with the news. You two might as well wait together."

Al smiled at Winry. She told him it was nice to meet him and sat down by the Curtis couple to wait for the knight, immediately starting to talk to Izumi about swords and knives.

With magic on their side, it took only a matter of days to clean up after the war and for the survivors to be up and about again, even if not everyone was fully healed. In that time, Al volunteered. He did things like cleaning the castle and distributing food – he had originally come to Central Castle as a servant, and they did need the extra help at the moment.

Al's eyes were back to their original golden color, but he just smiled when the servants who noticed and said anything pointed it out and said that he didn't need brown eyes anymore. Then he went back to working beside them. He didn't think they'd believe him if he was the one to tell them who he was.

He'd just finished grooming Ed's horse when his dad came into the stables and put a thin hand on his shoulder. "You've been a big help, but you didn't have to do this, you know."

Al glanced at his dirty, sweaty hands. "No task is too lowly to help out, even if I am really a prince. There's a lot that needs to be done."

"I wasn't blaming you." King Van moved his hand off Al's shoulder, instead wrapping his arm around both of his son's shoulders. "Come, I have something to discuss with you and Edward."

The two of them stopped briefly by a well for Al to wash himself off with its cold water before they entered the dark castle and climbed its tower to Ed's chambers. Ed was lying on his bed by the window, holding a thick, brown, leather-bound book above his face. His cheek was still bandaged up, and Ed was still sentenced to taking things easy, but he'd regained some energy over the last couple days and he'd been able to resume his studies.

King Van shook Ed until he had his attention.

"Dad?" Ed put the book down and sat up, now noticing his second visitor. "Al?"

"I'm no longer up to running the kingdom. I'll be going to join your mother soon."

Silence sunk into the moment, both princes looking at their father. Even if Al hadn't gotten to know his father that well, he was sad to see him go. It wasn't that long ago that he got his wish to be reunited with his family – no more than a couple months.

His brother had known their father longer. Al looked at Ed, who was looking at his lap, unusually quiet. "Are you sure you can't take your immortality back? I don't need full access to the magic realm like a full sorcerer anymore – Father's gone."

King Van sat down next to Ed on his mess of cotton and deerskin blankets. He gestured for Al to sit next to him on the other side.

The bed was softer than Al was used to. He knew he'd get moved out of the servant quarters once the battle was cleaned up, but he was still unprepared for how deeply into the mattress and blankets he sunk when he sat next to his dad. It was nice.

The king pulled both of his sons to him. "It's not like I gave you access to my magic, Edward. I only extended your own, and that cannot be taken back."

Al looked over at his family. Was the gift their father gave his brother on the day Ed defeated the one who'd been reigning over Amestris what was killing his father?

He saw Ed place his hands on his lap and dig into his dark pants with his fingers. "I'm still mad at you for that price, stupid."

"I know it's hard on you, but I had to become mortal. Once you two died, you'd never see me again otherwise. Besides, I miss your mother."

Al thought of the being he'd seen guarding his father down in the dungeons. He remembered her soft smile and the way his dad had been looking at her. "Go see Mom. We'll meet you in the spirit world."

Ed met his younger brother's eyes.

"We will see them in the spirit world, right?"

"It's not that," Ed said slowly. "I don't know if I'm ready to be king."

"Brother, you'll do great."

"I believe you're ready." King Van took his hands back from around his sons and stood up. He beamed at them. "Both of you have become fine young men, and I intend to honor you for what you did in the war before I pass the crown down to Ed. What do you want?"

Neither boy spoke for almost a minute. Finally, Al spoke up. "Dad, I appreciate the offer, but the only thing I've ever wanted was to be with my family, and I have that now. Besides, I was the one who got captured by Father, and Brother was the one who rescued the kingdom."

"You did your share too. I could at least invite the new Sir and Lady Curtis to a position here. They are your family too, are they not?"

A smile spread over Al's lips. "Thank you."

King Van's gaze turned to his eldest son, but Ed shook his head. "Like Al, I've got everything I need to be happy."

"There must be something."

"Well," Ed said at last. "I like food. I guess a feast would be nice. Say it's to celebrate getting Al back."

So a feast they had, with many carefully-arranged dishes that even Ed said he'd never tried before. Al sat with his family and tried the dishes alongside his brother – some savory, some sweet, and some spicy.

As they sat in colorful fabric, softer than Al had ever worn, King Van told the two of them stories about their mother. It was at the feast that King Van also made a few important announcements – that Prince Edward would soon be receiving the kingdom, and that Prince Alphonse was alive, being welcomed back to Central Castle that night with his rightful status.