"Alphonse," May whispered uncertainly as she slowly rose to her feet, staring down at him as he continued his work, "Did we… Did we do the right thing?"

Alphonse did not immediately answer, continuing to erase, redraw, and erase again bits and pieces of the array's design until it was to his liking. Every formula he ever learned was whirling around inside of his head, contradicting the others the longer he looked at his work. If he looked at it any longer, he feared he would second-guess himself.

"Alphonse," May began again, this time more quietly.

"I don't know, May," he admitted quietly as he raised his golden eyes to meet hers. "I don't know…"

For a moment Alphonse froze as his thoughts began to race. What was she doing?! If she did this she could-

Stop, he commanded himself. Now was not the time to think; it was the time to act. In one swift motion he bit the tip of his thumb, drawing up a copious amount of blood. With his other hand he grabbed Hawkeye's wrist, ignoring the fact that she was continuing to attempt to talk, her words and sentences disjoined and incoherent.

Using the blood on his thumb, he quickly drew out an alkahestric circle on the back of her hand before he released his grip on her wrist. After clapping his hands together he reached out with both hands, resting one set of fingers beneath her chin and the thumb of his other hand on her forehead. A beat later a pulse raced through her, causing her entire body to stiffen momentarily before her knees buckled. Before she hit the ground, May caught her and quickly lowered her down.

Not wasting another moment, Alphonse knelt down beside her and began prodding her shoulder in an attempt to awaken her, calling out her name as he did so. The longer she did not stir, the more worried he grew. He had reacted quickly, surely it had been enough!

Inhaling sharply, she opened her eyes, frantically looking between the two people that were looming over her. A moment later she caught her breath and gasped, "Alphonse? May?" Then, seemingly surprised by her own voice, she held her hand up and kept it hovered over her face, turning it with a look of awe on her face. "How… How did you-"

"I'm sorry," Alphonse apologized as he cut her off. "There isn't time to explain. I need you to tell me everything that is going on!"

"Hey."

Both Alphonse and May whirled around to look at the person that had startled them. Edward stared back; one brow raised quizzing as he muttered, "Everything okay in here?" His focus was on the pair for only a moment, however, as it then wandered over to Alphonse's pocket, where he had deposited the alchemical chalk he had in his hands moments ago.

"Yeah," Alphonse replied coolly. "Why do you ask?"

"I just figured I'd check in on you; you two have been in here for a while," his older brother noted.

"Yeah," Alphonse admitted as his eyes wandered down to the circle. "I just wanted to check it again and make sure it's perfect."

"I understand," Edward murmured as he walked over to his younger brother and crouched down next to him. After staring at the runes and array for a moment, he said, "I saw her leave yours and May's room last night… Everything okay?"

"Yeah… Why," Alphonse asked as he looked up at his brother.

Edward shrugged, "I just wanted to be sure…" He trailed off again, as if collecting his words in his mind. After a prolonged silence, he asked, "Did she say anything?"

"Are you sure," Alphonse asked, trying, but failing, to mask the desperation in his voice.

Riza nodded and murmured, "Yes. That's what it wants." Saffron eyes stared critically into his own as she asked, "Can you do it?"

"But you realize," Alphonse said quickly in an attempt to appeal to her, "That if something goes wrong, if something isn't perfect… You'll die."

"I'm aware of that, Alphonse," she said as her eyes softened. "But I need you to look at the bigger picture. You are the only one that can do this. I know it's a lot, but I know that you're capable of it; capable of making the right choice. I trust you."

"… Right," Alphonse replied reluctantly, faltering slightly. Then with a small sigh, he continued, "Whether this goes right or wrong, the General won't be happy."

"I know," she replied, the corner of her lip tugging upward. "But he'll have to realize that it will be for the best. He-" As she moved her hands, her fingers brushed across the ring on her finger. Alphonse watched as her face fell, her eyes staring longingly down at it. At last, after pausing for a few moments, she murmured, "I miss him…"

"Everything will work out, though! When this is over-"

"If," she corrected him, cutting him off. "If this is over, then I'll see him again."

Alphonse wanted to correct her. He was confident… He had to be! Everything she gave him was enough. He could do this. It had to work! It just had to!

His thoughts were cut short when she slipped the ring off of her finger and held it out to him. Hesitantly, he extended his hand and flattened out his palm. She carefully placed it into his palm and held her fingers there on top of it for a few moments, as if afraid to let it go.

Finally, she pulled away and muttered, "Please be sure to get that to him… No matter what happens."

"I will."

Alphonse shook his head at his older brother. "No. She didn't say anything." He could feel May's eyes boring into the back of his head, quietly demanding what his was doing.

He was never one to lie to his brother; hell, they told each other everything. But if he told his brother, then he would surely put a stop to it. He didn't realize, though, that they were almost out of time.

There was no time left to reconsider or reevaluate.

After a few beats of what felt like a long and drawn out silence, Alphonse awkwardly cleared his throat and murmured, "I have to remove that," as he gestured to her hand.

Despite the fact that it looked like an alkahestric circle, the art itself was more like a marriage of both alchemy and alkahestry. It was something both he and May had developed together.

He had taken the notion of the blood seal that bound his soul to that armor so long ago and used it to create something that could be used "temporarily."

One of the things he and May noticed while they were in Xing was that there were many times when someone would die before most of their family members had the chance to say goodbye. A lot of it had to do with the fact that so many people in the small village they resided in worked in rice fields that were sometimes kilometers away. By creating and using this "temporary blood seal," Alphonse was able to prolong their existence in this world long enough for their loved ones to say goodbye. It was almost as if he were placing a 'cap' on their 'containers,' or bodies, which would allow them to house their soul for a while longer.

There was no cost associated with it because the soul would eventually be freed, though the time the soul was bound was extremely limited. He had found that once the blood dried and cracked on the skin, the soul would be gone.

He could tell that even now his blood was nearly dried. If anything, there was maybe one minute, possibly two, left. Alphonse also had to keep in mind, however, that the seal could also put an immense amount of strain on the spirit. And with the amount of strain Hawkeye's had to endure, he was afraid that if they waited any longer, it would be severed.

"… Right," she said indolently as she raised her hand, staring down at the array drawn in blood on it. At last she extended it toward him and rested it in his palm, but not without first murmuring under her breath, "I don't want to go."*

Trying to keep his emotions in check, Alphonse thought it best not to reply and instead said, "Will you let me know that you're still here when I'm done?"

She cast her eyes away from him and replied, "Yes."

He tried his best to smile reassuringly, despite the fact that she wasn't looking at him. He wanted to exude confidence, but on the inside he was terrified, because he did not know if she had been here for too long. If he defaced the seal now and she had been, then she would be gone for good.

He knew, though, that sitting and idly thinking about it would only make the situation, and the strain, worse. Raising the pointer finger on his other hand, he pressed it down on the skin just outside of the array. Pausing for a brief moment, he allowed his eyes to fall upon her once again, but she still refused to look, keeping her eyes on the floor next to her. Without missing another beat, he muttered, "I'm sorry," as he dragged his finger through and destroyed the array.

The silence that Edward answered with told Alphonse that his brother wasn't totally convinced. His response, however, was what confirmed that suspicion. "Are you sure? Because I saw her in the kitchen just now and noticed that the ring was gone."

Alphonse felt his chest tighten for a moment, but quickly recovered as he said, "Yeah. It's true that she didn't say anything, but she still came to us to see if we could remove it," as he gestured removing a ring from his finger, hoping to convey the notion of charades to his brother. Still seeing a sliver of doubt in his brother's eyes, Alphonse added, "She must have decided that I was able to help because I had looked at the General's face to see if I could fix it."

He silently pleaded that his brother would accept his answer and move on. He couldn't know…

After what seemed like an eternity, Edward shrugged one shoulder up and down as he said, "I guess that makes sense," rubbing the wedding band on his own finger. "It can get annoying after a while."

"Yeah," Alphonse replied, a sense of relief flooding his gut.

The two brothers turned their attention to the array again and looked at it for a few moments before Alphonse had the courage to speak again. "I think… That we need to do this soon, maybe even today."

Edward looked up at him, then over Alphonse's shoulder toward May before turning his attention back to his younger brother. "I know that, but why do you say it like this now?"

It was Alphonse's turn to shrug this time. He had asked her when the seal was broken if she had still been there. And after a paused that seemed to last an eternity, she had nodded. Still, he'd prefer to do it sooner rather than later. He knew that they were running out of time. "I just have a feeling…"

She didn't know how long she had been standing there, staring into the reflective glass that was before her. All she knew was that the longer she looked, the more frustrated she became.

It was bad enough that the one called "Al" had continually asked her something; something along the lines of "Are-you-still-here?"

"You" was her; she had heard it countless times when he-Roy, said it when referencing her. "Al" was, therefore, questioning her. So she nodded in reply when he asked her, every time he asked her. And if he was questioning her about it, then she would nod for it as well.

Because it will eventually respond.

Last time she had done this, it had worked. It had reacted so violently and so abruptly that it had manifested itself in her thoughts and in her body. The lingering smell of the iron in the blood on the back of her hand only caused her to remember the event all too clearly, practically feeling the shattered fragments of the reflective glass in her hand. She was recalling this memory, but why wasn't it responding?

She tried mentally tugging at it, trying to coax it back, but it was as if the 'line' that connected them was slackened. With a frustrated growl she leaned closer and leered at the image reflected back, brimming saffron staring into brimming saffron. Blinking the wetness away, she tried to think of other ways to get it to respond.

Reaching up, she grabbed and gently tugged at the tip of her ear. When it fluttered away from a second touch, she looked triumphantly back at the image in front of her and waited. It hated those. Surely it would want her to stop.

Her waiting had been for naught, because the emptiness inside of her remained, left completely unfilled.

Obviously she wasn't getting anywhere with this. It seemed that a stronger stimulant was needed then. Walking out of the room, she looked around, seeking out "Roy." He would know what to do. He always caused it to react.

Picking a direction, she followed the hallways toward his room, hoping that he would still be there. It was still early, but he was a late sleeper.

Rounding another corner, she gasped in surprise, almost running into something. Taking a few steps back, she saw that it was him.

Roy stood there in surprise, his brows raised. After a few moments, however, his eyes softened as he murmured something unintelligible to her. Regardless of what it was, one thing was certain: his voice caused her heart to flutter, just as it did every time he spoke.

Then this would surely get it to respond…

Stepping forward and reaching up, she lightly took his face in her hands. Pausing as her eyes searched his face, she waited to see if it would react or do something. When it didn't, she advanced slowly, feeling his eyes on her the entire time.

When she pressed her lips against his, she could feel his entire body stiffen and tense. But after a moment his lips stopped quivering and he remained there impassively; not returning it but not pulling away either.

Something swelled within her, but it wasn't it. Instead, this feeling she felt was bliss: simple, unadulterated happiness. Her body knew his; it craved him. And something inside of her told her that he knew and felt this too.

After a few moments, however, her feelings of splendor quickly turned to frustration. It did nothing. There was no push, no pull; no force telling her to stop or continue. It remained as impassive and indolent as he.

But it wanted him; this much she knew. She could tell whenever it remembered him, how protective it would be as it guarded those memories for itself.

She knew too that he wanted, loved, it as much as it did him. She could see it in his eyes every time he looked at her. He was looking for something and it wasn't her. Now she was building the bridge between then, giving them what they wanted. So why wasn't it responding?!

Feeling her frustration grow to desperation, she pressed her body to his and held her lips more forcibly against his. Where was it?!

She wanted it to be scold or berate her, push or pull away again. She wanted it to thank her and come back. She just wanted it to just do something!

Her thoughts were broken when he reached up and grasped her wrists, slowly lowering them away from his face. Though it seemed as if the fight that raged within her lasted for hours, in reality it had only been mere moments.

Opening her eyes, she watched him pull away until she was at arm's length from him. His eyes scanned her with curiosity and confusion, but his expression conveyed pity. He muttered something comforting, judging by the inflection of his voice. Pulling her forward and toward him again, he dropped her wrists and wrapped his arms around her in a reassuring gesture, pulling her closer to himself.

It didn't matter, though, she decided as she buried her face into his shoulder, the wetness she felt earlier returning with a vengeance. Nothing mattered. His soothing words, kind embraces; nothing.

Because no matter what he or she did, that one simple, irrevocable fact would remain:

It was truly gone.

A/N: Quick reminder that 'it' is Riza's soul, in case you forgot.

Anyways, after mulling everything over what I have left, I have determined that there are 4 chapters left total. Next chapter will be titled "Moment of Truth" and will feature the (failed? successful?) transmutation.

I apologize for not answering reviews last time; school got out of hand for a while there, and now I feel like it has been too awkwardly long. But I just wanted to say that I genuinely and truly appreciate the reviews, favorites and follows, really!

See you next chapter!

*P.S.* Doctor Who reference… No shame!