Number of words: 10,910

Published date: August 26, 2012

Began chapter: July 27, 2012

Finished chapter: August 7, 2012


Chapter 5: Laws of Alchemy

Pride led the Homunculi into the living room, which sported two couches and chairs set in a broken circle around the fireplace. Edward and Alphonse took seats separate from the group; they were close enough to speak up if they had to, but it was obvious they intended to allow Pride to direct the telling.

For a few minutes, the first Homunculus stalled. He busied himself with checking that they were all comfortable, asking if they wanted tea or coffee. He insisted on dragging a table to the circle by himself and spent unnecessary time pushing it back and forth so that it was exactly centred with the fireplace. Even once he'd clambered up to give himself some height and authority, he fidgeted with his clothing and looked nervously from face to face before taking a deep breath and beginning the story in a wavering voice.

"Um… Well… I guess the place to start is with the Promised Day.

"Uh, well, we all know what the plan was. The crests of blood were carved. Briggs was the last place to experience bloodshed. All we needed to do was gather the sacrifices and bring them to Father. Once the solar eclipse began, Father would use their Portals of Truth to open the planet's doorway, turn the population of Amestris into a Philosopher's Stone, and seize God's power for his own."

Even though she had heard it the night before, Lust still inwardly flinched at having their plans stated so clearly in front of the two brothers.

"Brigadier General Mustang led his men in a rebellion against Central forces with the intent of stopping us. He teamed up with Northern Briggs troops and they managed to take control of Central Command.

"Even so, they weren't able to stop the transmutation circle from activating. Wrath and I forced Mustang to perform human transmutation and the plan was a success. Amestris became a Philosopher's Stone and Father opened the planet's Doorway of Truth. However…

"The humans… They figured out how to counter the transmutation circle. There was no way for us to prevent it. The souls were freed from Father and sent back into their own bodies, and Father wasn't able to control their use of alchemy anymore. Without the souls of the Amestrians, he didn't have enough power to contain God, so he went to the surface to recreate the Stone using individual lives instead.

"I stayed behind to confront Big Brother. My container was falling apart. By forcing Mustang to open the Portal, I used up almost all of my Stone and was near death. I thought to steal Big Brother's body, use it as my own. Instead, Edward defeated me. He was able to tear the rest of the souls from my Stone and left me in my true form: a helpless baby. I couldn't think or do anything. It wasn't until two years later that I began to regain my memories.

"The humans fought Father on the surface, and they used all of their power to force him to use up his Stone in self-defence. And when the Stone was gone, Truth took him from this world."

Pride stopped talking, giving his siblings a moment of silence. Envy closed his eyes and put his head down. His hands gripped the chair arms so tightly that his arms – no, his whole body – trembled. Lust closed her eyes as well, no less immune to the painful truth even though she'd heard it already the night before. Greed pretended to remain unaffected, but he squirmed unhappily in his seat and acknowledged (if only to himself) that, as much as they had been enemies, he didn't like hearing of Father's death any more than the others. Even Gluttony and Sloth, who weren't really following the conversation, understood Pride's words. Sloth didn't change his expression, but Gluttony looked confused, and then upset, as he turned to Lust for confirmation of what he'd heard, and his beady eyes welled up with tears when she placed her hand comfortingly on his head.

Without their attention, Pride grew uncomfortable standing on the table, and he sank down to sit on its edge with his legs crossed, patiently waiting for the solemnity to pass.

It was Envy who spoke first.

"You… How can you…" He lifted his head to stare first at Pride, then at Edward, eyes so furious that the look should have killed them both. He gritted his teeth with emotions just barely under control, forcing the words out until he was screaming. "How can you just sit there, living with them like this? How can you forgive them!? Pride, they KILLED OUR FATHER!" His finger stabbed out to point at Ed accusingly. "And you're saying it like it's… like it doesn't…"

"It's not forgiveness," Pride responded as forcefully as he could while facing Envy's anger. "They were fighting for their lives, Envy! They didn't have a choice! It was either kill us or be killed themselves! We were the ones in the wrong!"

"We were wrong?! How, huh?! Explain it to me, Pride! Explain how using insignificant bugs that are just going to die anyway could be wrong! We're better than them! Superior! How could they possibly matter? And how can you even say that? You're Pride the Arrogant! Aren't you the most superior of all of us?"

"No! Stop it! Stop calling me that!" Pride shouted. "I'm not Pride anymore!"

"Huh?" Anger was quickly replaced by confusion. "What d'you mean, "not Pride"?"

"I'm not Pride!" he repeated weakly. "My name is Selim now. I'm Selim!"

Envy snorted derisively. ""Selim"? Hmph, who do you think you're kidding? Are you pretending to be a human now? What's the matter with you? You can't just call yourself by a different name and expect to-"

"I'm not pretending! I have changed! I'm not the same person anymore!"

The little boy faltered then. How could he explain it in a way that his siblings would understand? Greed was taking it all in with an open mind, having observed Pride's changed behaviour on his own and trusting in Edward's judgment, but Envy had crossed his arms over his chest with an expression of impatient scepticism and Lust was looking at him with sharp eyes, studying his words and manner to draw her own conclusions.

"I can't really explain it…" he murmured, "and I know you can't understand it now, but I'm both Pride and Selim. I still have all my memories as Pride. I still remember what I thought and felt. How beneath us humans were. How no sacrifice could be too great to accomplish Father's goal. But it's like… they aren't a part of me anymore."

"Is this 'change' because of your defeat? Because your Stone was destroyed?" Lust speculated, but Pride quickly shook his head.

"No, that's not it," he replied. "I think it's because of what's happened since then. Living with Mother without lying, without having any powers… I mean, I'm as close to human as I can get. I've been able to learn and observe things about them in a way that we never could have before."

"You little bastard!" Envy shouted, getting to his feet, fists clenched. "Who cares about understanding them?! Damn it, Pride! You should have killed them! You should have gotten revenge! You should have done something!"

Lust started to rise as well, preparing to do what she could to calm him down – they shouldn't be fighting now, especially not in front of the Elric brothers – but Pride stood and countered before she could say anything.

"Like what? What should I have done? What could I have done, Envy? Look at me!" Pride's tone became bitter as he gestured to himself, standing up to emphasize his change in size. "I don't just look like a child anymore; I am a child! This isn't just a container, it's my body! I can be hurt now! I can die! I don't have any powers. I can't heal. I don't have my shadows anymore. So what do you think I should have done?"

Envy didn't respond, but the question had been rhetorical and Pride continued speaking without so much as a pause.

"Tried to complete Father's goal on my own? Let's see, what would I have had to do? Activate the Nationwide Transmutation Circle again to recreate the Philosopher's Stone? How? The military sent units to points on the circle to fill it in and prevent anyone else from using it. Should I have stolen the military records to discover where it was broken, traveled to all the points, and dug them out by hand?"

He scoffed at the ridiculousness of the idea.

"How about the solar eclipse? Do you even know how rare solar eclipses are? Father had to wait four hundred years for this eclipse, and that's about how often they occur in the same place! If I can be injured, then who's to say I won't die of old age long before the next eclipse comes? Or should I calculate where the next one will occur and travel to its centre, wherever that may be? What if it's on the other side of the world? How am I, a child, supposed to get there and dig a new circle when it took Sloth almost two hundred years to dig the first one? And that's ignoring the fact that I was bound to remain within the circle's limits. If I tried to leave Amestris, I would have died. I don't know if that's still true, but does it make sense to risk it?

"Even if you ignore all of that, I still couldn't complete Father's goal. I don't have the knowledge that he had; no one does. His knowledge came from beyond Truth and there's no way for us to figure it out without him."

"Then bring him back!" Envy cried. "You brought us back, so why not Father?"

Pride flinched away from the accusation, refusing to meet any of their eyes and instead directing a hurt expression at the floor.

"It's impossible. Believe me; I've considered it from every angle I can think of." Lust detected a hint of guiltiness in Pride's voice, which was only confirmed when he shot a furtive glance towards where Edward and Alphonse were sitting, as if trying to gauge their reactions. He probably hadn't admitted considering it. The two brothers likely viewed the Homunculi's father as evil on an entirely different scale from his children and so would not have been open to the idea. "It's not the same situation. The alchemy we used for you wouldn't work for Father. If he's still alive, he's trapped beyond Truth's realm and there's no way for us to bring him back."

Envy still wasn't ready to accept it. "Then forget the plan! You still should have-"

"Sought revenge?" Pride finished with a sneer very much like his old self. "For what, Envy? What would be the point?" He shook his head as if amazed that his younger brother could be so dense. His tone was condescending. "How much damage could I do the way I am now? Maybe if I had my powers back, there'd be some hope, but like this? There aren't very many humans so pathetic that they'd allow themselves to be killed by a child. Even if I could manage it, how long would it take before I was discovered, captured, and killed? The military knows who and what I was; they wouldn't be moved to mercy by the face of a child. And who should I focus the blame on? The humans all worked together, so there's no point in holding any one more accountable than the others.

"The humans did what they had to do to stop us and save themselves. Should we hate them because they stood in our way?"

He let the question hang for a moment, daring them to argue. Envy glared at him but remained silent. Lust didn't let her opinion show, but she recognized the logic in his words. Greed merely shrugged, bored with the discussion since he'd kind of been on the humans' side already and agreed with most of what Pride was saying.

"No," Pride concluded. "I wasn't eager to throw away my life on a pointless quest for vengeance. Far smarter to accept my situation, accept what had happened, and do my best to live as a human with Mother."

Seconds passed in silence. No one spoke. No one tried to object or argue with him. As if exhausted by his own words, Pride backed up and sat back down on the table, sighing and resting his chin in his hands. Suddenly he no longer appeared as the eldest Homunculus, arrogant and superior, but as a simple human child, worn out and sensitive to the conflict and ensuing emotions.

When he started talking again, it was to continue the story of what had happened after the Promised Day.

"The people of Amestris were told that the senior staff of Military Command were the ones responsible for what happened. Clemin and Edison were the only ones left alive after the fighting and they were arrested as the masterminds behind the plot to sacrifice the population. If they had told the truth and implicated Wrath as well, the citizenry would completely lose its faith in the military, so King Bradley was portrayed as a hero who was betrayed by his subordinates and died trying to stop them.

"Brigadier General Mustang and Major General Armstrong were also portrayed as heroes who discovered the plot and risked being viewed as insurgents, fighting against their own superiors in order to protect the civilians."

Pride gave a light laugh as he remembered a smaller detail.

"Oh, and officially, Selim Bradley also died in the rebellion. I've got my own grave and headstone and everything!

"The government and military was in an uproar for a while, but Mustang oversaw Amestris's defence and the restoration of the city until Grumman was sworn in as the new Fuhrer.

"Changes have been slow in coming, but Amestris is far more peaceful than it was under our rule. Without the need to maintain our borders for the Nationwide Transmutation Circle, it's been possible to negotiate with Creta and Aerugo over land, so instead of fighting endlessly over contested areas, we've compromised. For example, the Milos at Creta's border have received greater autonomy and are now getting the opportunity to voice their grievances. I mean, relations are still pretty hostile. After all, our country's been taking over others' land since its inception and grudges don't just go away after six years. But things are getting better.

"Perhaps the biggest change has been with Ishval. It's been something of Mustang's pet project, really. He gave up a more prestigious office in Central to return to Eastern Command to direct the restoration efforts. Along with Mustang and Armstrong's efforts on the Promised Day, it was Ishvalans that came to Central and informed the populace that they couldn't trust their leaders anymore, and it was through Ishvalan efforts that the humans were able to perform their alchemy against Father's will.

"The government issued an official apology to the Ishvalans for what happened during the War of Extermination. Ever since then, it's been working to restore the Ishvalan people to their holy land. It's been slow going. At first, the Ishvalans didn't trust the government's words, suspecting that it was just a bid to find the remaining survivors to exterminate them, and even once they were convinced that that wasn't the case, it took a long time for everyone to travel across the country. And for all we know, there are probably pockets of Ishvalan refugees who never got the message or who didn't want to relocate again.

"The land itself suffered a serious blow from the war, so it's taken a lot of work on Amestris's part to get the people back on their feet. The croplands – and there were never a lot of those in the first place – were either burned or left untended to wither away, herds were killed or left to roam wild, and the major cities and buildings were destroyed, so the Ishvalans didn't have any primary resources of their own to build upon and they had to rely on Amestris's aid for food, water, medicine, and such. The warrior monks who survived the war – monks like Scar – became integral to Ishval's leadership and cooperation with Amestris. I guess, in their religion, they hold some authority over the regular people, so they become Ishval's representatives to the outside world.

"The wisest move Mustang made was to establish a railway system through Ishval to Xing.

"His Highness Ling Yao-" Pride paused for a split second as Greed perked up from his bored slouch at Ling's name. "-became emperor about a year after the Promised Day. Emperor Yao made it a priority to improve relations between Amestris and Xing. His time in this country, and learning about Amestris from Teacher, convinced him that an alliance would be beneficial to both countries, but one of the primary reasons why there's never been much contact between the two is because of the Great Desert which divides us. The solution: Build a railway.

"Xingese merchants always favoured traveling to Amestris by a southern route that crosses through Ishval. I guess it's less rugged and there are more places to stop for water. In any event, it made the most sense to build the new railway along that route, but there was some political squabbling about needing to go through Ishval. I'm simplifying it, of course, but the Ishvalans finally had authority over their own country again and they didn't want to just bow down to Amestris by allowing the railway to pass through their land without having control over it. And a lot of Amestrians objected to the idea of having trade with Xing controlled by Ishval. Some of the old prejudices lingered. People worried that the Ishvalans might stockpile weapons if Amestris allowed them to control their own trade.

"Instead of bowing to public opinion, Mustang negotiated fairly with the Ishvalans and reached a compromise: The Amestrian-Xingese Railway would pass through Ishval, but the Ishvalans could impose a duty on all merchandise traveling into and out of their country, while they agreed to not prevent the trains from running except for the sake of national security. The Ishvalans were recruited as the primary workforce in its construction and were paid quite well; besides just being hardworking, they've always been a desert people and so they were far more suited to work in the heat and dust than any Amestrians. The new trade route gave them a concrete base to build their new economy, and in fact, all three countries have benefited greatly."

Pride paused for a moment, frowning as he tried to remember another detail that fit into the story.

"I know I've forgotten something… Um…"

"The State Alchemists," Ed supplied from across the room.

"Oh, that's right! Thanks, Big Brother!

"The State Alchemy program was a way to find alchemists who could become sacrifices, but after the Promised Day, that was no longer necessary. The public has always disparaged State Alchemists. Alchemists are supposed to be for the people, but State Alchemists sell their talents for special privileges and have no choice but to use their powers to take life if ordered to do so.

"In one of many reforms to the military aimed at regaining the public's trust, State Alchemists can no longer be compelled to participate in combat. The program wasn't entirely abolished, since it still serves an important function in terms of defence and research, but at least the State Alchemist no longer has to worry about being forced to become a living weapon.

"Also, recognizing the potential benefit of studying other forms of alchemy, Amestris and Xing established a formal alchemy exchange program. Starting in 1919, teachers of Amestrian alchemy traveled to Xing to serve in Xing's academies, and Xingese alkahestrists traveled here to teach in our universities. Teacher was one of the first alchemy teachers in Xing!" Pride beamed with pride at Alphonse. "And the Elrics' teacher, Mrs. Curtis, was one as well. She's still in Xing, isn't she?"

"That's right," Alphonse said. "If she wasn't, well…"

Beside him, Ed shuddered. "We'd be dead, no question. I just pray she likes Xing enough to stay there! If she ever discovers that we did this…"

The brothers shared a moment of terrified trembling as they pictured their teacher's rage.

"…she'd kill us!"

Greed spared a moment to chuckle at their expense, remembering the fiery woman who had helped in the fight against Father. No doubt she was a force to be reckoned with! Envy merely eyed them in surprise, for he couldn't remember any instance where they had shown fear without reservation, before switching to disgust with them for expressing such a plainly weak emotion.

"I think that's everything in terms of Amestris," Pride said, tapping a finger against his lips. "My story's a lot simpler.

"When the fight was over, Big Brother rescued me from underneath the city and took me to Mother. To explain my appearance, he told her as much as he could: that I was an artificial human created by the higher-ups to spy on King Bradley to assist with their plot. And that, living with them and being treated as their own son, I had had the opportunity to experience humanity.

"Big Brother didn't know what would happen to me – whether I was still Pride, whether I still had any powers or not, whether I would grow – but he couldn't just leave me to die and he couldn't lie to Mother about me being dead when I wasn't. It was too cruel for her to lose both husband and son at the same time. He knew that she would want to raise me again, that what I was wouldn't matter to her. Big Brother's decision was highly criticized by his superiors; even if he couldn't kill me, he shouldn't have taken me to Mother. Instead, he should have left the decision with them. Then they could have killed me themselves or figured something else out without getting the Fuhrer's widow involved. But once she knew, it was too late to do anything else and they were stuck with me.

"Mother and I lived in the Fuhrer's residence at Central Command for a little more than two years. I aged like a normal child and I didn't show any hint of having my old powers or that I remembered anything. My only difference was the dot on my forehead. I was always watched, though, and I was never allowed to leave the command centre. Selim Bradley was supposed to have died in the coup, so they didn't want to risk that someone would recognize me and question who I was."

"You said you began to remember everything after two years," Lust interrupted.

Pride nodded and shrugged. "More or less." He shook his head at the memory. "Even though they knew that I'd been faking being a child for all those years before, the military still didn't realize that I might be tricking them again. It's insulting, really, that they underestimated me like that. Very stupid on their part."

Ed sent a sharp look at his pupil and Pride blushed and ducked his head, muttering an apology before continuing.

"My memories came back slowly and it took a while for my mind to return to what it was, so as a two-year old, I didn't particularly care all that much about the past and what had happened. But at least I had the presence of mind to keep the memories a secret. I continued to act as a child and lied in the right places to maintain the deception, but I did it more for Mother's sake.

"Mother didn't like living at Central Command. I don't know how she did it or how long it took her, but she eventually convinced Fuhrer Grumman to allow us to move. We moved to this home near Dublith in the early spring of 1918."

He hesitated for a moment, struggling to figure out how to explain the next part, before deciding that he might as well just say it and see how they reacted.

"A few months later, a little after my third birthday, I told Mother everything: That I remembered who I was and that I had been lying to her."

Their reactions were as he expected: Greed raised his eyebrows in surprise, Lust shook her head, mystified by the decision, and Envy bluntly blurted out, "Why?"

"I know it doesn't make any sense, but I did it, okay? I couldn't stand lying to Mother anymore! My choices were either tell her eventually or fake it for the rest of my life! There's a big difference between deceiving people because you have a specific goal and deceiving them because there's no other choice! I didn't want to lie forever."

"But the risk," Lust said. "She could have gone straight to the military and told them everything."

"I know!" Pride replied. "I knew all about the risk. It wasn't that she might have, it's that she should have; Mother should have told them as soon as I confessed everything. I thought that's what she would do, and I didn't want her to, but it didn't matter because I had to tell her!"

It was quite clear that they didn't understand. If he'd expected Ms. Bradley to turn him in, why on earth had he done it?

Pride couldn't explain it and realized, looking at them, that it wasn't something that could be explained.

"It doesn't matter, because Mother didn't turn me in. She listened to me and accepted what I said and promised to keep my secret."

"Stupid woman," Envy muttered under his breath.

Pride heard him and glared. "Mother wasn't being stupid, she was being selfless. I'm still her son and she was protecting the only family she had left!"

His green-haired brother merely scoffed and rolled his eyes. "That's exactly what I said, isn't it? Selfless, stupid... They're the same thing."

Pride swallowed a retort that would only result in further argument. Now was not the time to be picking a fight, so he fell back on his old failsafe technique: haughtily ignore his brother as if he were too insignificant to notice.

Worked like a charm. Envy didn't look happy, but at least he didn't say anything else.

"I told Mother that I wanted to see the Elric brothers," he said, continuing the story. "At that point, I didn't know what had happened after Big Brother defeated me. I knew that the plan had failed because the humans were still alive, but I didn't know if any of you had survived and I wanted to hear what happened directly from them. Big Brother spared my life, so I knew that if anyone could tell me everything without wanting to kill me, it would be him.

"Big Brother was in Creta and Teacher was in Xing at the time, but after a few months, they returned to Amestris and came to see me and I told them the same things I'd told Mother. And they told me what had happened and they believed me when I said I wasn't the same person anymore and they agreed to teach me alchemy."

"Surely you're not serious!" Lust exclaimed.

"Morons," Envy muttered.

Greed spoke over them, directing his comment at Edward. "Is he joking? You were convinced that quickly? Geez, I can't believe you guys! You're too nice!"

At their astonishment, Ed went on the defensive.

"No, it wasn't like that! I mean, well, it was a quick decision, but it wasn't like…" He flushed at the mocking grin Greed was sending his way. "It wasn't like I didn't have reasons, Greed!

"Look: When I fought Selim, I went directly into his Philosopher's Stone. I saw into his soul, and when he thought I was going to kill him, it wasn't your father that he remembered; it was the Bradleys, his adopted parents."

Pride blushed and looked down at his shoes, incredibly embarrassed to have the intimate detail shared out loud. He had never admitted before, to any of them, how much he had enjoyed playing house with Wrath and his adopted step-mother; it was a shameful thing for a Homunculus to admit.

"Selim risked his life when he asked to speak to us, all because he wanted to know what happened to you. Madam Bradley might not have told the military, but to trust me, a former State Alchemist…? Al had studied alkahestry, so he knew Selim's Stone didn't have any more souls and that he was powerless. If he was going to try to recreate the same destruction, his actions didn't make sense. Why tell Ms. Bradley the truth? Why tell us the truth? Surely there were better lies, smarter lies, to trick us and get us to help him without our knowing it.

"It was my fault that Selim survived at all. I refused to kill him. Thanks to me, he has to live like this. I don't regret the decision, but I am the one who put him into this situation, and that makes me responsible to help him if I can. And the best way to help him was to take him on as an apprentice."

Edward rose then, moving around the furniture to join Pride at the table. He hadn't planned on saying so much, but now that he'd started, he figured he might as well continue the explanation and the Homunculi would get sore necks if they kept twisting around to look at him. Pride looked grateful for the break and immediately stood up to give Ed a place to sit, moving to perch on the couch's arm right beside Lust.

"I know the difficulty of becoming an ordinary human all too well," Ed said. "In order to get Al's body back, I had to give up my ability to use alchemy, so I was sympathetic to Selim's plight."

He had to pause at Lust and Envy's startled exclamations, but waved their questions aside.

"Yes, I'm no longer an alchemist. That was the trade: Al gave his soul to get my arm back, and I gave up my Portal of Truth in order to bring Al back.

"By teaching Selim alchemy, he would have something to replace what he'd lost as a Homunculus. It would give him something to focus on, a purpose. We'd be able to keep a close eye on him, just to be on the safe side and, because we became his teachers, the military was willing to relax its guard over him. They used to send soldiers every month to check on things, but now Ms. Bradley just gets a few courtesy calls every once in a while."

Ed scratched his chin thoughtfully, wondering if the Homunculi would care about the new alchemy they were working on. He doubted it, but it was a good lead into the next topic.

"Al and I have been traveling and studying different kinds of alchemy. I spent some time in the West, and Al's been to the East. We've still got the Chimeras, Zampano and Jerso, to help – we're pretty sure we can return them to their original bodies now – and we wanted to make sure that what you guys did can never be repeated."

Ed frowned briefly, then, deciding to leave the past in the past, shook his head and smiled at Pride, reaching over to tousle the boy's hair.

"Selim's been an amazing study. He was the first to realize that we could bring you back, and he had the basic theory laid out before he even broached the idea to us."

Pride protested at that.

"I barely did anything! If it weren't for you two, I never would have been able to figure out how to use the reverse alkahestric pentagon to tie in with my Stone!"

"But it was your idea to use the Stone's pentagon and the soul-binding octagram together," Al countered. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Selim! And we needed you to explain the Homunculi's souls. No one else could have come up with that part."

Pride beamed at the praise.

Lust straightened a bit in her seat. This was what she was most interested in: how they had brought them back.

"'Explain our souls'? What do you mean?" she asked, turning to face the boy seated beside her. "You said that you would tell us how you did it, so start explaining. You've wasted more than enough time already!" Her words came out crisp and demanding.

Pride hesitated and Edward slouched on the table, rubbing his chin with a pensive look.

Lust misinterpreted the gestures to mean that they were having mixed thoughts.

"…Well?" she prompted impatiently.

"It's not that we're not going to tell you, it's just that it's hard to explain," Alphonse said from his place behind her.

"You're not alchemists, and this is a new branch of alchemy. It's hard to know where to even begin," Ed said.

"I'll try," Pride said, "and I'll keep it as simple as I can, but it'll be easier if no one interrupts."

He sat up straighter on the couch arm, taking stock of his audience before beginning. Lust was watching him keenly but with thinly veiled irritation. Because of the couch's size, she had one arm up and leaning against Gluttony's shoulder (He was the perfect height for an elbow rest.) with her fingers curled against the side of her face. Her other hand rested in her lap, fingers tapping her leg impatiently as she waited on him. Gluttony looked at Pride with his beady eyes, waiting for whatever words would come next that he wouldn't understand and probably hoping that a mid-afternoon meal was on its way. At least he was trying to follow the conversation; Sloth was currently blowing sleep bubbles and had likely nodded off long ago without anyone noticing. Greed sat slouched beside him, looking bored but paying attention nonetheless. And Envy, hunched in his own chair with one leg crossed, elbow on knee and chin in hand, still looked sour, but he couldn't completely hide his curiosity.

"The first thing to explain is why I suspected that it was possible to bring you back in the first place.

"First of all, we know how human transmutation works. Or at least how it fails to work. An alchemist can create a body using chemical ingredients, but there's nothing that can be exchanged for the soul that will be adequate to bring the dead person back. Souls can't be created. If a soul has passed from this world, it can't be brought back. The alchemist could offer their own blood as a template and use all of their memories of the person to try to recreate the soul, but it simply won't be enough. That's why the soul is so valuable: it can't be created by human effort.

"No one knows for sure what happens to a person after death. We know that humans are made up of three parts: the body, the soul, and the spirit. All three parts are intricately connected. Upon death, the body is left here and re-enters the food cycle as its biological components. The soul is freed to continue on to the afterlife, whatever that may be. The spirit presumably dissolves once it's no longer needed to connect the body and soul. But these three parts aren't rigid; Teacher had his soul bound to an inanimate object and he was able to move it as a substitute body, even while his real body was in another place. The humans were able to reverse the Amestrian Philosopher's Stone and return the souls of the Amestrians to their bodies, so we know that a body can survive without its soul at least for a while.

"My point is, even though there's a general rule for what happens at death, that rule can be broken. We proved that just as much as anyone!"

Pride gave a short laugh and the group nodded. They had all cheated the ordinary flow of death numerous times, thanks to the Philosopher's Stone.

"If a human's soul can remain in this world without its body, then what about us? What rules govern our souls?"

Envy answered. "None. We don't have souls," he said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Oh? Are you sure?" Pride asked with a slightly teasing tone.

The shape-shifter blinked and paused, suddenly not so certain. He glanced over at Lust, who was frowning pensively.

"We don't have souls," she murmured, thinking out loud. "Or at least not real ones. We aren't human; humans are the only beings that have souls. Ours are just imitations… Copies created by the Stone by Father…"

Pride shook his head emphatically.

"But we do have souls!" he exclaimed before adopting a lecturing tone. "Think about it: Father came into this world through Hohenheim's blood. Father carried the seven sins of humanity, which he had to sever from himself in order to become God. His origin may not have been entirely human, but we all contain at least a seed of humanity in us. His soul wasn't just a copy of Hohenheim's; Father had knowledge from beyond this world, so he had his own soul before he ever came here. And he gave us parts of his own soul, which means that we have our own souls too.

"The soul contains a person's personality and memories and everything about them that makes them unique. And can any of us say that we weren't unique? We grew and changed over the years, had different opinions, were even able to rebel-" Pride shot a look at Greed. "-were motivated by different things, had different memories… If we were just created by the Philosopher's Stone, we'd be like those mannequin dolls. They couldn't think on their own because they were only powered by souls that weren't theirs, whereas we had something original, something that gave us our own identity.

"But that doesn't mean that we didn't also share things. Even though we're individuals, we were also each one part of a whole. Our Stones were a part of Father's Stone. Our souls were a part of Father's soul. Our Stones created and maintained our bodies and housed our souls, but there still needed to be a spirit to connect the two. How do you create a spirit? It'd be the same as the alchemist trying to create a soul; it can't be done. So then, doesn't it make sense that Father would have given us a part of his spirit, just like our Stones and souls?"

Pride grinned proudly, waiting for one of them to suddenly understand the implications of what he'd just said, but it seemed he was giving them too much credit. He looked at Greed, who merely shrugged his shoulders at the expectant look on his older brother's face. He looked at Lust, whose eyes were introspectively considering his words but not coming to any conclusions. And before he could even look at Envy, his younger brother slouched back in his chair and said, "So what? I don't see how that's important."

Pride sighed in disappointment and Edward chuckled.

"Now come on, Selim. I'm sure you didn't see the connection right away either. You can't blame them for not seeing it; they're not even alchemists."

"I know," he admitted, "but it seems so obvious once you know it…"

"Well, excuuuse us for being so slow, oh great prodigy 'Selim'!" Envy retorted.

Rather than take offence at his tone, Pride magnanimously tilted his head in Envy's direction as if to say, Yes, you're slow, but I forgive you.

"It means that, just like Big Brother and Teacher, our spirits are connected. Teacher's body didn't die while he was in the realm of Truth because their spirits were tangled together. I'm still alive and Father didn't die; he was just taken back to Truth. Our spirits tie in with our Stones, not our bodies, so even though you no longer had bodies, you continued to exist!"

Envy continued to frown and Greed wore a puzzled expression, but Lust gasped in sudden understanding. Pride grinned at the look on her face, half bewildered and half amazed.

"I can't believe it. That actually makes sense!" she breathed.

"No it doesn't! How can our spirits being connected have anything to do with us not dying?" Envy demanded. "I don't care about the rest of you, but I certainly don't remember being alive for the past six years!"

"Well of course you wouldn't remember anything," Pride said. "If you didn't have a body, how could you experience anything to remember?"

"But if we didn't have bodies, how could we even-"

"Let me finish," Pride interrupted. "There's a second reason to explain why you didn't die.

"The world can be seen as a great macrocosm, a huge and complex cycle of matter and life. Plants are eaten by herbivores which are eaten by carnivores, and when the carnivore dies, its body becomes food for the plants and the cycle begins anew. Matter can't be taken away or added to the world's cycle… except with the Philosopher's Stone. The Stone works on the principle that human souls, which are immaterial and uniquely created by humans, are of such high value that new matter can be created in exchange for those souls. That's the only exception to the world's laws… Aside from us, that is.

"We existed through the Stone's power, but it's not like we were created by the Stone; it just gave us a means by which to live. A part of us came from Truth, just like Father. So what do you think the world would make of us?"

The question seemed rhetorical, but he waited as if wanting one of them to answer.

"… It… wouldn't know what to do with us," Lust ventured. "We would be an aberration."

"Exactly!" Pride said, pointing his finger at her excitedly. "We came into the world through an unnatural process! Our core, the part of us not supported by the Philosopher's Stone, would be an exception that the world wouldn't know how to handle. We aren't a part of the natural cycle, so the world didn't know what to do with your deaths. Your bodies didn't remain, so they couldn't be added to the food cycle. We weren't human, so our souls couldn't be sent on to the afterlife, but our souls also couldn't be used in any other way. They couldn't be returned to Truth, because Truth only opens for an alchemist who's trying to create a soul."

"So… You're saying our souls were in limbo?" Greed asked with a sceptically raised eyebrow.

"Well, that's not a very scientific term for it, but yeah. And we used alchemy to get you out of limbo."

"Alchemy, huh? I have a feeling that this is going to get even more complicated…" Greed muttered. Despite their differences, Envy seemed inclined for once to agree with him.

"I'll try to keep it simple," Pride promised before going on.

"The first thing we had to do was create your bodies. Well, the steps all happened at once, actually, but whatever. Creating the bodies really wasn't very hard, since bodies are pretty simple in terms of composition. We tried to make them as close as possible to what you had before, because otherwise the soul might not bind well. That was always the risk with the armour binding: if the soul doesn't 'match' the body it's in, there's the possibility that it will be rejected at some point. But obviously some things had to be different. Gluttony just has a regular stomach now. Sloth isn't a giant. Since this was Greed's last body, we thought that's what his soul would be most comfortable in. Envy, you were actually the hardest, since your body wasn't actually your real body. It's kind of lucky, in a way, that Teacher and Big Brother saw your true form, since I've never seen it."

Envy wriggled uncomfortably in his seat, not quite sure where Pride was going with this.

"If we'd just made your body to be the form you like, there was a real chance that your soul'd reject it. But we knew you wouldn't want to live the way you were in your true form either."

"What're you getting at, Pride?" he asked irritably.

Pride didn't answer directly. Instead, he gestured, pointing a hand at the back of his neck and then at Envy.

Confused, the shape-shifter stared at his brother with a quirked eyebrow, then reached back to feel at the base of his neck.

He started in surprise at what he felt and, ignoring the others, ran his hand along more slowly, lifting the collar of his top to feel underneath the fabric.

It was a lump.

Not a large lump, and with his long hair and shirt, probably not noticeable to anyone else unless they were looking for it, but touching the thing sent creepy shivers down his spine, as if he were running his hand along a bundle of nerves.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded with a wide-eyed look.

"You don't remember?" Pride asked. "It's your real body. We created two bodies for you: your true body and your preferred form. Since – no offence – you're kind of a parasite, we put your soul in your true body and then let you assimilate your preferred body."

Envy scowled at the word and continued to feel the lump anxiously, but now that Pride mentioned it, he could vaguely recall waking up in his tiny, powerless form. And, thinking that he was in danger, he'd gone straight for the human body lying next to him. It was almost ironic, now that he thought about it, that he hadn't recognized the body as his own cute human form. No wonder he hadn't had to fight the body's owner for control; it was basically a doll without any consciousness of its own.

"You're saying that you created our bodies, but I thought that counted as human transmutation," Lust said.

"Nuh-uh," Pride said, shaking his head emphatically. "Just transmuting a body doesn't count. Look at the Chimeras. Their bodies were transmuted and it didn't open the Portal. Same as the mannequin soldiers. Their bodies were created long before the souls were bonded to them and it didn't open the Portal either. Alkahestry has the ability to heal injuries, and that's transmuting a body too. In the end, bodies are just lifeless hunks of meat. It isn't until soul creation is involved that it becomes the taboo. Even the armoured prisoners didn't open the Portal, because their souls were just being manipulated in this world.

"The next step was to gather your souls. That was probably the trickiest part. We used a mix of alkahestry, my own Stone, and the lunar eclipse. Alkahestry specializes in long-range alchemy and the manipulation of energy. Combined with my Stone, we essentially pulled your souls and spirits to your bodies through me."

The Homunculi stared at him for a long moment, trying and failing to understand what he'd just said.

"… Come again?" Greed said, glancing to Edward for help.

Pride made a hurt look – he had simplified the idea as much as he could – but Ed accepted the challenge of explaining the science to an audience of non-alchemists if only to give the boy a break.

"There's really no way to put this in a way that will make sense. Because your souls, spirits, and Stones share a connection, we were able to use Selim as a… 'anchor' might be the best word for it… Uh, what would make a good analogy...?" He sighed and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I guess there's nothing in real life that- No! Okay, I've got something, though it might not work very well. Picture a spider web. You've got the main threads that connect to the surrounding plants as the anchors, and the points on the web where threads intersect." Ed's hand traced through the air as he spoke, drawing an imaginary diagram to accompany his words. "Pretend that you all were a seven-pointed web. Each point is you, your Stone and soul. And the threads that connect the points are your spirits. The point that is you has a thread from you to every other point. When you died, the points disappeared, but the threads connected to Selim continued to exist. So we took the ends of those threads and brought the ends to his point, looping them through his Stone."

Edward looked quite pleased with the explanation, but only Lust seemed somewhat satisfied with it.

"… That was the suckiest analogy I've ever heard," Envy said in exasperation.

"Sorry, but that's the best I've got. We said it was complicated! It's not my fault if you don't get it!"

"You calling me stupid, Pipsqueak?!"

"Calm down, Envy," Lust ordered calmly. "The points make sense, but what does it mean that you looped them through Pride's Stone?" she asked curiously.

"Well, another way to look at it is that we performed soul-binding, but with bodies instead of armour. Selim's Stone is the blood seal. It might not have any power anymore, but you couldn't exist without the Stone. The Stone is a natural repository for souls, so we've placed your souls in it and threaded your spirits out to connect to your bodies."

"Wait." Greed turned in his seat to look at Alphonse. "Is that what you meant before? That my soul wasn't in my body?"

"That's right. Your souls aren't in your bodies. They're connected by the spirit through alkahestry. Alkahestry is based on the principle of using the flow of energy to affect things far away. By harnessing the power of the eclipse, we have a self-adjusting, continuous alchemic flow."

Alphonse's words did little to clear up the confusion on Greed and Envy's part, but at least Lust was following along.

"And why was the eclipse necessary?" she prompted.

"The eclipse was the most important part!" Pride declared. "Even with all our other calculations, without it we couldn't have brought you back!

"The eclipse is a very powerful alchemic symbol. The sun represents the soul. The moon represents the spirit, and the earth represents the body. Father needed the solar eclipse to open the planet's Portal of Truth. By combining the soul and the spirit, the solar eclipse represents the perfect being: God. A lunar eclipse is different. The solar eclipse represents the natural order of body, spirit, and soul, but a lunar eclipse lines up soul, body, and spirit. The sun is on one side of the earth and the moon is on the other side, with the earth right in the middle. The earth – the body – casts its shadow over the moon; over the spirit."

"What does that mean?" Lust asked.

"It means that, during a lunar eclipse, the spirit is at its weakest, its most malleable," Ed answered. "We're scientists, so we don't believe in this the way it's meant, but people have always believed that a full moon increases psychic ability, making it easier to access the spirit world. With a lunar eclipse, the spirit is overshadowed by the soul and body, making it easier to bend it in ways that it normally wouldn't go. Thanks to the eclipse, we were able to bring your souls and spirits back, we were able to bind you to your bodies and Selim's Stone, and we were even able to influence Envy's parasitic ability so that he's not split between two bodies."

That's right, Envy realized. When I took control of that man in the North, I was just pulling his strings. It's not as if I saw out of his eyes or spoke with his voice. This way's practically the same as before. For the briefest of moments, he almost felt… He wasn't sure what it was called – Grateful? Wasn't that the word for it? – before forcing the unfamiliar emotion down under the much more appropriate and familiar scorn that the Elrics had made such an effort on his behalf. And just to reinforce the feeling, he proceeded to mock them.

"You've put an awful lot of thought into this, huh?" he said, giving his large and overly friendly smile. "Very kind of you. Really. But don't you think it's a little stupid to be helping your enemies? It's one thing to teach him alchemy, but to help him bring us back? Who's to say we won't turn around and stab you in the back?"

Pride glared at Envy angrily. Somewhere behind him, he heard Alphonse sigh. But Edward didn't seem at all put off by the question. Instead, he sidestepped the issue by asking a question of his own.

"Is that what you'd like to do? Kill us? I don't believe it, but go ahead and try if that's what you want."

Wha…? Envy stared stupidly at the golden-haired man seated across from him even as Pride objected in his shrill voice and Greed tensed, ready to protect the now ordinary non-alchemist. Ed's eyes met his with a steadiness that was both unnerving and aggravating. Fullmetal thought Envy wasn't going to attack him, knew it, and didn't see any reason to be worried even if he did. Envy's purple eyes slid around the circle and he realized, horribly, that there was nothing he could do even if he wanted to. Both Elric brothers were skilled fighters. Alphonse still had his alchemy and even if Ed did not, without his own shape-shifting, Envy wasn't skilled enough to stand against him. Greed was on the humans' side and was a skilled fighter even without his Ultimate Shield. He didn't know who Pride would side with, though the child monster was virtually harmless now anyway. And Lust, well, what could she do without her Ultimate Spear? Gluttony was equally useless, and Sloth, no longer a moving tank, was too slow to make use of his muscles even if he could be dragged into the fight.

It didn't help that Ed was right. Envy was angry, yes, and frustrated, and confused, and more than a little disgusted by the Elrics' actions, but he didn't really want to kill them.

Annoyed that his taunt hadn't produced the result he'd expected, he muttered something unintelligible and sullenly sank back into the chair.

"You're right," Edward said. "Maybe it was stupid of us to do this. Maybe we've just been hopelessly optimistic to think that you all can change, and the instant our backs are turned, you'll kill us. Maybe Selim's a more incredible liar than we've given him credit for-"

"I'm not lying!"

"-and he's tricked us so that you can recreate the same destruction you plotted last time. And if that's the case, we'll have to accept responsibility for whatever happens. But I don't think so.

"Don't get me wrong; this wasn't our idea, nor were we the ones who thought it should be done. Selim is the only one you should be thanking. He was brave enough to ask for our help in the first place when he knew we wouldn't agree and that it would put him under suspicion. He was stubborn enough to continue asking despite our opposition, even when we threatened to stop teaching him alchemy if he refused to give up the idea. It took him an entire year to wear us down with arguing and debating and cajoling and begging. I can't even tell you all of the arguments he used. That we were willing to give him a second chance, so why not you? That none of you chose to be the way you were and that you were just used by your father for his own ends. That you'd proven you had good sides: Greed, having friends and protecting them; Gluttony and Lust being so close; Wrath marrying a human; Selim enjoying his time pretending to be a child. That we committed the taboo and Selim had the right to make the same attempt to bring back his family. That he would try even if we refused to help him. That if it was possible to bring you back and we didn't, wasn't that the same as condemning you to death?

"I could go on, but the point is that it wasn't a quick or easy decision. I know it'll be hard and we can't expect you to accept it right away. You've always believed that Homunculi are superior to humans, but please just listen to Selim. Give it a chance. Being a human isn't all that bad, right?"

Pride nodded. He looked at his brothers and sister anxiously. Their reactions, if not encouraging, at least weren't disheartening.

Greed met his eyes and shrugged nonchalantly. He'd always bragged about his Ultimate Shield, had enjoyed showing off his immortality to impress his human henchmen, but the loss of those things wasn't the end of the world. He was willing to accept the change. After all, if you were dead, you couldn't possess anything. He had to be alive in order to satisfy his avarice. He had been satisfied by having good friends and no matter what Alphonse said, he'd see Ling again, and trains and deserts and border crossings and pesky 'chi' could just shove it!

Envy refused to meet Pride's eyes, scowling at the chair arm. It was hard to tell if he was deep in thought, trying to come to terms with the idea of being human, or if he was stewing in the cesspool of hatred and contempt that was his jealousy. He would be the hardest to win over, but as long as they could keep his cruel streak to a minimum, it wouldn't be so bad.

Lust didn't meet his eyes either, but it was quite clear that she was deep in thought, balancing the arguments Ed had just listed, considering the situation in her calm and deliberate way. Pride felt admiration well up for her attitude. It wouldn't matter to Lust if she liked the prospect of being human or not; she would approach it as something to be overcome with the same self-confidence and assurance with which she handled everything, hiding any reservations or hesitations under her sultry smirk.

Even as he watched her, though, Pride saw her lips turn down and a small frown mar her brow. And after a few more seconds, she looked up at Edward and voiced her concern.

"There's something I don't understand. You said that Pride's Stone is the blood seal." She waited for their nod before continuing, "Then what will happen to us if Pride dies?"

Pride's mouth fell open. "What? What makes you think I'm gonna' die? I'm only six, Lust!"

"I don't mean that it's likely, but if our souls are tied to your Stone, doesn't that mean that we'll all die if you do?" she calmly pointed out.

Pride didn't know what to say. He hadn't even considered it. But for all that he hadn't thought about it, apparently his mentors had, for Alphonse addressed the question quickly.

"That's true," he said. "We can't be positive without trying it, but Selim's Stone is what kept you from dying and it's what's holding you in the world now, so if his Stone is destroyed, you'll probably die too."

The looks the three intelligent Homunculi shot in his direction were not encouraging, and Pride's hand unconsciously rose to press against his chest, feeling the faint pulses of power from his Stone that accompanied his heartbeat.

"But there wasn't anything we could do about it. Brother and I discussed it and I've theorized that, with time, your souls may eventually become free of the Stone and bind to your bodies the way they do in humans, but it's too early yet to know if that will happen. To be fair, Selim is the youngest among you physically, so his death shouldn't be something to worry about, and humans have to live knowing that they could die at any time."

"Think of it as a warning, then," Ed said, leaning back on the table and waving a hand airily. "Looking after Selim is the same as looking after yourselves. Don't let him do anything stupid or he'll take you down with him."

Maybe he meant it as a joke, but no one laughed. Greed frowned because it meant he wasn't as free as he'd imagined. Envy frowned because it meant he had to be worried about someone else's skin besides his own. And Lust frowned because she saw the most serious implication of all: If they tried to cause trouble and the humans discovered it, they only had to kill Pride to defeat them. He would become the weak link that they had to protect, a severe handicap.

The news sent a sombre pall over the room. Pride fidgeted on his seat, disliking the silence, but he didn't know what else to say. He couldn't promise that he wouldn't die – that was a part of being human – and they had explained everything that needed to be explained. So now what?

He was more than a little surprised when Gluttony spoke up.

Pride had assumed that Gluttony hadn't been listening to their conversation or at least that he hadn't understood any of it, and actually, his question didn't prove that he had been doing either, but to a certain extent, he deserved some credit for noticing what none of the others had.

"Lust, where's Wrath?"

The Homunculi all looked around in surprise as they realized they hadn't even noticed the absence of their youngest sibling. Envy and Greed spoke over each another.

"Huh, you're right. He's not here. What's the matter, Pride? Didn't want your fake father-figure around?"

"Hey, that's right! Where is that bastard? You'd better not have brought him back! He's not getting away with killing old man Fu this time!"

"No, we didn't bring Wrath back," Pride said. "I'm sorry, Gluttony, but we couldn't have even if we'd wanted to. Wrath wasn't like the rest of us." He tried to explain it to Gluttony gently, for the round Homunculus looked saddened by the news. "Wrath was originally a human. He had his own soul, a human soul, and he died a natural death as a human. He was bound to the natural flow of the world and passed on as all humans do. Attempting to bring him back would definitely have been human transmutation.

"Besides…" Pride paused a moment, picking his words carefully. "I don't think Wrath would have wanted to come back. We weren't all that close, but I know he didn't regret anything. He lived the path that Father set out for him and knew that his life made a difference in the world. He knew that he would die eventually, even while he had to watch the rest of us scorn death as if it didn't matter. There was nothing Wrath respected more than the struggle between life and death, and he wouldn't have wanted to cheat death by being brought back this way."

He wasn't sure whether Gluttony understood the explanation, but he seemed satisfied with it nonetheless and the others didn't object to his reasoning. After all, Pride had been the one closest to Wrath – as much as that didn't mean much.

"Is there anything else you want to ask about?" Edward asked the group. "Now's your chance."

He allowed a few more minutes to pass, but no one said anything. Pulling out the silver State Alchemist pocket watch, he flipped it open and grumbled at the time.

"Already that late, huh? Guess we might as well get started on supper then. I don't know about anyone else-" He paused mid-sentence to cover an enormous yawn. "-but I want to get to bed early tonight."

"You sound like an old man, "Al laughed.

"Yeah, yeah," Ed muttered as he stood up. "Feel free to wander around and explore the place," he said to the Homunculi. "Selim, you should call Atelier Garfiel to let Madam Bradley know everything's all right. She knew last night was the lunar eclipse, so she's probably worried sick about you."

"Right!" Pride chirped, and without further ado, he jumped down from the chair arm and darted from the room, clearly signalling that the meeting was at its end. Edward headed for the kitchen and Alphonse rose to follow his brother.

After a few moments of uncertainty as to what they were supposed to do now, Greed shrugged and got up, heading for the nearest door to prowl the mansion's grounds. Lust and Envy shared a look and rose to follow Edward's advice of familiarizing themselves with their new home and naturally Gluttony tagged along behind them.

Sloth was the only one who didn't move.

Still asleep, it wasn't until a few hours later that Pride came to wake him up for supper. The hulking man was quite content to bask in the warm summer sunlight streaming through the living room window.


Author's Notes:

Edward and Alphonse's involvement: This is the part that I admit is least realistic, but I also don't believe it is impossible. Consider Alphonse's speech to Kimblee in Episode 52 about humanity needing to search for new possibilities without being bound by rules in order to advance. (I always considered that speech to be hypocritical; Father and the Homunculi are doing exactly what Alphonse says is necessary for humans to do.) I don't believe Edward would have killed Envy even if his injuries hadn't been so grave (although he probably wouldn't have stopped Hawkeye from killing Envy if he hadn't committed suicide first). Although Gluttony was attacking them, there was clear horror and anger on the humans' part when Pride ate his brother. Edward made friends with Greed and was obviously grieved by his death. Despite being enemies, I think the Elrics could have considered the Homunculi to be victims almost as much as the people they killed, forced to bear their father's sins. As scientists, could Ed and Al truly have ignored the possibility of bringing them back to life when their new theories convinced them that it could be done? I believe that their compassion for Selim's position, their desire to prove their theories, their belief that the Homunculi were manipulated just as much as they were manipulators, and the fact that the Homunculi would be powerless and mortal are all factors that make their involvement in reviving them at least not entirely impossible. And Fuhrer Grumman's final comment of "Will humans and Homunculi ever truly be able to relate to each other?" (Note the plural.) makes it definitely seem to me that the Homunculi weren't meant to be gone for good.

Fuhrer Grumman and Major General Armstrong: I see many stories placing Armstrong as Fuhrer in the years after Grumman retires, but I consider this unlikely. It gets more mention in the manga, but Armstrong's forces killed a lot of Central soldiers. Even though she was acting for the country's good, the citizenry would have a hard time accepting the killing of her own country's soldiers when they were just innocently following orders, reducing her popularity outside the Northern forces. As Amestris struggles for democracy and peace, Armstrong's personality would not make the best match for the country's future. Meanwhile, Mustang is praised as a hero who stopped the sinister plot without killing any innocents (soldiers included). He was also Grumman's subordinate and friend, so it is more likely that Grumman would try to position Mustang to replace him. Whereas Mustang becomes integral to Ishval's restoration (earning him points in the public's eyes), Armstrong most likely returned to Fort Briggs to continue defending against Drachma (a responsibility she seemed especially passionate about), completely unconcerned with humanitarian causes. So although she might have the ambition to be Fuhrer, I don't think the new democratic Amestris would pick her as the best person for the job.

The Milos: This is a reference to the movie Fullmetal Alchemist and the Sacred Stars of Milos. The Milos are a group of people who, much like the Ishvalans, suffered by living on the border of the Nationwide Transmutation Circle. Their land has been fought over by Creta and Amestris for a long time and the people, caught in the middle, are forced to live in horrendous conditions in the ravine separating the two warring countries. Pride could have offered more details, but I went with the assumption that the Homunculi were already aware of them and so further explanation was unnecessary.

"Spirit" versus "mind": I don't know the specific Japanese word that is translated alternately as "spirit" and "mind", but the two terms seem to be used interchangeably. The manga uses both and there are differences between the anime's subbed and dubbed versions. In the end, they serve the same purpose: representing the thing that connects the body and soul. I am using "spirit" because "spirit" to English speakers has a closer meaning than "mind" to how I am using it in this story.

The science: I'm sure there are good reasons why the science I've proposed here couldn't work. I don't plan to debate whether I'm right or not. At least I've tried to create some arguments that are half-believable to explain how the Homunculi were revived. And alchemy evolves all the time, right? Give me the benefit of implausible, not impossible!

The Homunculi and Hohenheim: I'm not really sure if all the Homunculi knew about their father's origins. When Pride first encountered Hohenheim in the tunnel, he seemed to know who the man was and later recognized the blood kinship between the Homunculi and the Elrics. Greed had the opportunity to hear the story directly from Hohenheim along with Edward. I'm merely assuming that the rest of them also know the basic history. Perhaps, if Father did not tell them directly, they inherited the information upon their births, just like their knowledge of language. I could have pretended that Envy and Lust didn't know who Hohenheim was, but I felt that just added extra bulk to the chapter when it wasn't necessary.

I feel like this chapter repeated a lot of information from the prologue, but I also felt that it was necessary to write it this way. Please comment if you think details should be trimmed from either chapter to reduce repetition. This is the end of the long opening chapters and we will now be entering the second phase of the story (refer to Chapter 1).