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Description
Warning! Contains FMA 104 Spoilers!

All five of the sacrifices were trapped by 'Father', and the solar eclipse had just begun. After a failed attempt by Greed to stop him, Father evaded and moved to the true center of the Amestris-wide transmutation circle. "It's time!" Father laughed as he slammed his palm onto the ground, and the five sacrifices watched helplessly as the Gate opened up within each of them. A black sphere appeared in the middle of the circle and expanded exponentially, growing past the borders of the room, the Führer's palace, Central, and eventually all of Amestris. "With this energy," Father cried out over the noise, "I will open this planet's gate!"

Winry collapsed to the ground suddenly; she didn't know what had happened, but she felt as though her strength was leaving her. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, her heart wouldn't beat, and her mind became clouded as she succumbed to the weakness and collapsed to the floor. "Ed…" she whispered with her last remaining strength before she fell into darkness.

Ed struggled against Father's tendrils, determined to break free, but was unable to escape his grasp. 'Shit shit shit!' he thought. 'I can't let him do this! But there's no way I can break free.' At that moment, an image of Winry appeared in his mind. 'Winry is counting on me! This entire country is counting on me! If only there was somet-'. His mind was interrupted by a sudden thought. 'That's it! If I can just move about an inch or so, the balance of the transmutation circle will be thrown off, and he will be hit with rebound!' Ed thrashed left to right, forward and backwards, trying to gain even that precious inch, but once again Father held him still. Ed looked around the circle, and saw that the other four sacrifices were just as helpless as he. 'This is it,' he thought to himself in despair. 'There's no way to stop this. If we can't move, then it's ho-' His eyes widened; he knew how to stop Father. 'I don't have time to think; I need to do this now!' With that, he clapped his hands together to start a transmutation.
"It won't work," Father cried out. "I'm not made of any material that you know how to manipulate."
"Who said anything about manipulating you?" Ed responded as he moved his hand over his automail limb.
"You're little blade won't do anything either," Father laughed. "Face it, you can't stop me."
"Think again!" Ed yelled at him. "This ends now!" With that, Ed transmuted his arm into a blade and brought it back to strike.
"I told you, your little sword won't do anything to me! There's nothing you can do to sto- Wait, what are you doing?" Before Father could stop him, Ed took the sword and plunged it through his chest.

Ed's teeth gritted at the pain of the blade piercing his heart, but he did not let up as he pushed it deeper through his body. 'I wasn't able to move myself, but if I remove my self completely, this node of the transmutation circle will disappear and the circle will be thrown out of balance.' Seeing the look of frustration and fear on Father's face let Ed know that what he was doing would indeed cause a rebound. He had no idea what the rebound would be like, but he knew it would be better than what would have happened if the transmutation had been allowed to continue. Ed looked around the circle at the other faces as his vision blurred. His father looked at him in distraught, and the eyes behind Al's helmet showed his torment as he screamed Ed's name. Turning to his former mentor, he saw a look of both pain and understanding on her face. Even Mustang, who had lost his sight only a few minutes ago, somehow knew that something was wrong, and tried with all of his remaining senses to discern what it was. Ed chuckled to himself, not at anything in particular, and let a single tear drop from his eye before it succumbed to darkness. 'Winry…' Ed thought in his last moments. 'I'm sorry, but I have to break my promise to you…' As his last mental image floated over the darkness of his conscience, Ed's mind became still.

As the Gate within Edward closed, Father felt the delicate balance of the transmutation circle tip irreversibly into chaos. The energy of the countless souls stopped midway through the transmutation, and utilized Father's energy to reverse the reaction. "I was so close!" Father cried out. "I was almost a god!" Beams of light penetrated his dark and mysterious form as the Gate fed upon his life and the lives of those entombed within him. As more light escaped from his body, Father's cries were drowned out by the buzzing of pure energy, until finally the room became darkened. The bodies of the sacrifices lay still on the floor as the stone walls and ceilings slowly released their grip of some of the more poorly-masoned rocks, allowing them to fall to the floor before shattering into smaller pieces upon impact with the surface below. Izumi's eyes fluttered open as she groaned in pain. She sat up and looked around to see Roy and Hohenheim stir and groggily sit up. "Is everyone all right?" she asked, finding it surprisingly easy to let the words escape from her mouth.
Roy pushed himself all the way up and looked around. "My eyes hurt like all hell, but other than that I'm f-" Roy stopped himself mid-sentence and brought his hand up to his face and examined it. "I-I can see again!"
Hohenheim looked over at him curiously. "How is that even possible?"
Izumi prodded at her belly before gasping. "Wha- I- My organs are back!"
Roy was about to say something when he heard a quiet metallic clanging from the elsewhere in the room. He looked over to see Al thrashing slightly from side to side. Roy ran over to him and saw that the glow from Al's eyes had disappeared. "Al, are you ok?"
From inside the armor, he heard Al respond quietly, "Get me out of here!" Roy pulled of the helmet to reveal the human face of Al.
"Al! You're back!" Roy exclaimed as he hurriedly began to disassemble the suit of armor. When the last piece was removed, an extremely malnourished, weakened, and unclothed Al struggled to stand.
"How did this happen?" Hohenheim pondered out loud. "The reaction reversed itself, how did you all get your original bodies back?"
"Where is Ed?" Al asked weakly, and everyone else looked around frantically.
"He's right, Ed's not here," Roy observed as he began a futile search for the young alchemist. The others began to search every corner of the room, but to no avail.
Izumi looked around the room and spotted a slight glowing mark on the floor. "What's this?" she asked herself quietly as she headed towards it. Everyone else watched her as she walked closer, and sprang up when they heard her gasp. With Roy carrying Al, they walked over to the mark to see that it was actually a faintly glowing message that had somehow been put on the floor.

'Because of your actions, your sins have been forgiven.'

As soon as they read the words, the message faded, once again leaving them in darkness. "I guess that explains why we have our full bodies back," Roy thought out loud. "But how did that message get here?"
A silence blanketed the room as the members rattled their brains with the mystery. After a while, the silence was broken by Al's weak voice as he answered the question. "It was put here by the only thing that holds the power of life," he said with a distinct calmness and certainty. The others slowly ran the riddle through their minds before they, too, understood. "And if that is what happened," Al continued, "then I know that my brother is in a safe place. Come on, let's get out of here." With that, the survivors slowly made their way out of the stone chamber towards the world of light.

Winry's eyes tightened as she winced involuntarily from the pain of a near-death experience. Her eyes opened slowly, and she winced once again from the relative brightness of the room. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and looked around. Pinako and the two soldiers slowly stirred and sat up themselves. "Are we… alive?" Winry questioned.
Pinako slowly sat up and glanced around the room. "I think we are," she answered.
Winry stood up and walked over to her grandmother. "Are you doing ok?" she asked as she helped Pinako up.
Pinako placed her hands on her hips and popped her back. "I've felt better, but I'll manage." She watched as Winry began to walk back up the stairs. "Where are you going?"
"To the kitchen."
"What for?"
Winry turned around and smiled. "I've got an apple pie to bake!"

2 weeks have passed since Amestris was saved from being completely wiped off of the face of the planet. Mustang, along with some of his trusted military officers, was working hard to rebuild the foundation of the nation, and Izumi had gone back home. Hohenheim had left to an unknown location after confirming that his son would be ok, but assured them that he would be back. Al had just arrived in Resembool after not being able to do so due to the chaos in Central. Even before the train came to a complete stop, Al jumped onto the station platform and ran with reckless abandon towards the Rockbell home. Halfway there, his body reminded him that it had not been used in many years and was still weak, forcing Al to slow down to a brisk walk. His clothes hung loosely from his scrawny frame as he walked up the steps of the automail shop and knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door swung open to reveal Winry, whose jaw dropped at the sight of Al's old body before embracing him in a tight hug.
"Al, you're back! And you got your old body back!" she exclaimed excitedly.
Al returned the embrace. "It's good to be back," he replied happily.
Winry let go of Al and glanced around. "Where's Ed?" she asked. "He came back with you too, right?"
The look on Al's face was more than enough to answer her question. "I'm sorry, I- we don't know what happened to him…" As Winry hung her head, Al hurriedly added, "Winry, don't cry! Ed wouldn't want you to cry, he made you a promise that the next tears you cried would be tears of joy!"
Winry wiped her eyes and looked up at Al with a smile on her face. "Don't worry, he already kept his promise. I'm alive, aren't I?"
Al chucked a little bit before a peculiar smell drifted across his nostrils. "Winry, is that an apple pie that I smell?"
Winry smile grew even wider as she grabbed Al by the arm and pulled him inside towards the kitchen. "I made I promise to you too, didn't I?"

"Oh my gosh, this all tastes just as good as I remember it!" Al sighed happily as he finished his first homemade meal. "I don't think I could eat another bite!"
"Well that's a shame," Winry said, "because there's still a slice of apple pie left."
Al chuckled and beckoned towards Winry. "That pie is too delicious to resist." Winry, Al, and Pinako all laughed together, and the room was filled with a cheery atmosphere. Winry stopped laughing when she heard a series of banging sounds. Everyone grew quiet until they heard someone knocking on the door. "Who could that be at this hour?" Winry wondered aloud as she left the kitchen to answer the door. Moments later, Al and Pinako jumped out of their seats at the sound of Winry's scream and ran to the door. As they entered the foyer, they saw Winry wrapping her arms around a man with long blonde hair.
"Ed?" Al questioned. Winry slowly let go and let the man enter the house. His face immediately brightened up upon seeing his brother in his old body.
"I see you got your body back too," Ed commented before giving his brother a hug.
"You got your arm and leg back?" Al inquired as he released the hug. Ed nodded and removed his tattered, dusty jacket to reveal his fully-fleshed right arm.
"It's quite a bit weaker than my left arm," Ed said, lightly flexing his new limbs, "My left leg is in a similar state. It definitely made walking around normally a challenge."
"What happened to you?" Al asked. "I remember when yo-" Al stopped, not wanting to let Winry know the full details of what happened when Ed caused the recoil in the transmutation. "I remember the transmutation reversed itself, and then you were gone. What happened? Where did you go?"
Ed hung up his coat on the coat rack and shrugged. "I couldn't tell you what happened even if I wanted to. I remember I was in the transmutation circle with you all, then everything went white, and I found myself in the middle of the desert. I later found out that I had ended up where the old kingdom of Xerxes used to be. After wandering around in the desert for a while, I came across a small camp, and managed to navigate my way home from th-" Ed was interrupted by a large growl emanating from his stomach. "Oh yea, I guess I forgot to mention that I haven't eaten in a couple of days…"
"Just when I thought I was done cooking, we have another guest!" ranted Pinako playfully as she walked back into the kitchen to prepare more food.
"Ed, there's a slice of apple pie in the kitchen if you want it. But you'll have to beat me there first!" Al challenged his brother as he dashed into the kitchen. Ed started to follow him, but was blocked by Winry.
"Take those filthy boots off, mister! I just cleaned the floor," Winry instructed before turning and following Al into the kitchen.
'Well, it seems that Winry hasn't changed,' Ed chuckled to himself as he slipped off his boots. He walked over, placed his boots by the door, and gazed out the window at the starry night sky. "Sorry 'bout all those things I said about you in Lior…" he commented absentmindedly as looked up at the heavens.
"Ed, what are you doing?" Winry asked, interrupting him from his thoughts.
"Just thinking." Ed replied nonchalantly.
Winry walked over next to him and gazed out the window. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.
Ed shrugged. "I dunno. A lot's happened in the past couple weeks, and I guess my mind can't wrap itself around it all." He turned and smiled at her. "Come on, let's go join everyone back in the kitchen.
"Sounds good to me, but Al already finished that piece of pie that he offered you."
"Dammit Al, that was my slice of pie!" Ed yelled into the kitchen.
"You were too slow, brother!" Al yelled back.
"I'm going to get you for that" Ed threatened playfully before running back into the kitchen, back into the company of the closest family that he has ever known.

Description
Warning! Contains FMA 104 Spoilers!

All five of the sacrifices were trapped by 'Father', and the solar eclipse had just begun. After a failed attempt by Greed to stop him, Father evaded and moved to the true center of the Amestris-wide transmutation circle. "It's time!" Father laughed as he slammed his palm onto the ground, and the five sacrifices watched helplessly as the Gate opened up within each of them. A black sphere appeared in the middle of the circle and expanded exponentially, growing past the borders of the room, the Führer's palace, Central, and eventually all of Amestris. "With this energy," Father cried out over the noise, "I will open this planet's gate!"

Winry collapsed to the ground suddenly; she didn't know what had happened, but she felt as though her strength was leaving her. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, her heart wouldn't beat, and her mind became clouded as she succumbed to the weakness and collapsed to the floor. "Ed…" she whispered with her last remaining strength before she fell into darkness.

Ed struggled against Father's tendrils, determined to break free, but was unable to escape his grasp. 'Shit shit shit!' he thought. 'I can't let him do this! But there's no way I can break free.' At that moment, an image of Winry appeared in his mind. 'Winry is counting on me! This entire country is counting on me! If only there was somet-'. His mind was interrupted by a sudden thought. 'That's it! If I can just move about an inch or so, the balance of the transmutation circle will be thrown off, and he will be hit with rebound!' Ed thrashed left to right, forward and backwards, trying to gain even that precious inch, but once again Father held him still. Ed looked around the circle, and saw that the other four sacrifices were just as helpless as he. 'This is it,' he thought to himself in despair. 'There's no way to stop this. If we can't move, then it's ho-' His eyes widened; he knew how to stop Father. 'I don't have time to think; I need to do this now!' With that, he clapped his hands together to start a transmutation.
"It won't work," Father cried out. "I'm not made of any material that you know how to manipulate."
"Who said anything about manipulating you?" Ed responded as he moved his hand over his automail limb.
"You're little blade won't do anything either," Father laughed. "Face it, you can't stop me."
"Think again!" Ed yelled at him. "This ends now!" With that, Ed transmuted his arm into a blade and brought it back to strike.
"I told you, your little sword won't do anything to me! There's nothing you can do to sto- Wait, what are you doing?" Before Father could stop him, Ed took the sword and plunged it through his chest.

Ed's teeth gritted at the pain of the blade piercing his heart, but he did not let up as he pushed it deeper through his body. 'I wasn't able to move myself, but if I remove my self completely, this node of the transmutation circle will disappear and the circle will be thrown out of balance.' Seeing the look of frustration and fear on Father's face let Ed know that what he was doing would indeed cause a rebound. He had no idea what the rebound would be like, but he knew it would be better than what would have happened if the transmutation had been allowed to continue. Ed looked around the circle at the other faces as his vision blurred. His father looked at him in distraught, and the eyes behind Al's helmet showed his torment as he screamed Ed's name. Turning to his former mentor, he saw a look of both pain and understanding on her face. Even Mustang, who had lost his sight only a few minutes ago, somehow knew that something was wrong, and tried with all of his remaining senses to discern what it was. Ed chuckled to himself, not at anything in particular, and let a single tear drop from his eye before it succumbed to darkness. 'Winry…' Ed thought in his last moments. 'I'm sorry, but I have to break my promise to you…' As his last mental image floated over the darkness of his conscience, Ed's mind became still.

As the Gate within Edward closed, Father felt the delicate balance of the transmutation circle tip irreversibly into chaos. The energy of the countless souls stopped midway through the transmutation, and utilized Father's energy to reverse the reaction. "I was so close!" Father cried out. "I was almost a god!" Beams of light penetrated his dark and mysterious form as the Gate fed upon his life and the lives of those entombed within him. As more light escaped from his body, Father's cries were drowned out by the buzzing of pure energy, until finally the room became darkened. The bodies of the sacrifices lay still on the floor as the stone walls and ceilings slowly released their grip of some of the more poorly-masoned rocks, allowing them to fall to the floor before shattering into smaller pieces upon impact with the surface below. Izumi's eyes fluttered open as she groaned in pain. She sat up and looked around to see Roy and Hohenheim stir and groggily sit up. "Is everyone all right?" she asked, finding it surprisingly easy to let the words escape from her mouth.
Roy pushed himself all the way up and looked around. "My eyes hurt like all hell, but other than that I'm f-" Roy stopped himself mid-sentence and brought his hand up to his face and examined it. "I-I can see again!"
Hohenheim looked over at him curiously. "How is that even possible?"
Izumi prodded at her belly before gasping. "Wha- I- My organs are back!"
Roy was about to say something when he heard a quiet metallic clanging from the elsewhere in the room. He looked over to see Al thrashing slightly from side to side. Roy ran over to him and saw that the glow from Al's eyes had disappeared. "Al, are you ok?"
From inside the armor, he heard Al respond quietly, "Get me out of here!" Roy pulled of the helmet to reveal the human face of Al.
"Al! You're back!" Roy exclaimed as he hurriedly began to disassemble the suit of armor. When the last piece was removed, an extremely malnourished, weakened, and unclothed Al struggled to stand.
"How did this happen?" Hohenheim pondered out loud. "The reaction reversed itself, how did you all get your original bodies back?"
"Where is Ed?" Al asked weakly, and everyone else looked around frantically.
"He's right, Ed's not here," Roy observed as he began a futile search for the young alchemist. The others began to search every corner of the room, but to no avail.
Izumi looked around the room and spotted a slight glowing mark on the floor. "What's this?" she asked herself quietly as she headed towards it. Everyone else watched her as she walked closer, and sprang up when they heard her gasp. With Roy carrying Al, they walked over to the mark to see that it was actually a faintly glowing message that had somehow been put on the floor.

'Because of your actions, your sins have been forgiven.'

As soon as they read the words, the message faded, once again leaving them in darkness. "I guess that explains why we have our full bodies back," Roy thought out loud. "But how did that message get here?"
A silence blanketed the room as the members rattled their brains with the mystery. After a while, the silence was broken by Al's weak voice as he answered the question. "It was put here by the only thing that holds the power of life," he said with a distinct calmness and certainty. The others slowly ran the riddle through their minds before they, too, understood. "And if that is what happened," Al continued, "then I know that my brother is in a safe place. Come on, let's get out of here." With that, the survivors slowly made their way out of the stone chamber towards the world of light.

Winry's eyes tightened as she winced involuntarily from the pain of a near-death experience. Her eyes opened slowly, and she winced once again from the relative brightness of the room. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and looked around. Pinako and the two soldiers slowly stirred and sat up themselves. "Are we… alive?" Winry questioned.
Pinako slowly sat up and glanced around the room. "I think we are," she answered.
Winry stood up and walked over to her grandmother. "Are you doing ok?" she asked as she helped Pinako up.
Pinako placed her hands on her hips and popped her back. "I've felt better, but I'll manage." She watched as Winry began to walk back up the stairs. "Where are you going?"
"To the kitchen."
"What for?"
Winry turned around and smiled. "I've got an apple pie to bake!"

2 weeks have passed since Amestris was saved from being completely wiped off of the face of the planet. Mustang, along with some of his trusted military officers, was working hard to rebuild the foundation of the nation, and Izumi had gone back home. Hohenheim had left to an unknown location after confirming that his son would be ok, but assured them that he would be back. Al had just arrived in Resembool after not being able to do so due to the chaos in Central. Even before the train came to a complete stop, Al jumped onto the station platform and ran with reckless abandon towards the Rockbell home. Halfway there, his body reminded him that it had not been used in many years and was still weak, forcing Al to slow down to a brisk walk. His clothes hung loosely from his scrawny frame as he walked up the steps of the automail shop and knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door swung open to reveal Winry, whose jaw dropped at the sight of Al's old body before embracing him in a tight hug.
"Al, you're back! And you got your old body back!" she exclaimed excitedly.
Al returned the embrace. "It's good to be back," he replied happily.
Winry let go of Al and glanced around. "Where's Ed?" she asked. "He came back with you too, right?"
The look on Al's face was more than enough to answer her question. "I'm sorry, I- we don't know what happened to him…" As Winry hung her head, Al hurriedly added, "Winry, don't cry! Ed wouldn't want you to cry, he made you a promise that the next tears you cried would be tears of joy!"
Winry wiped her eyes and looked up at Al with a smile on her face. "Don't worry, he already kept his promise. I'm alive, aren't I?"
Al chucked a little bit before a peculiar smell drifted across his nostrils. "Winry, is that an apple pie that I smell?"
Winry smile grew even wider as she grabbed Al by the arm and pulled him inside towards the kitchen. "I made I promise to you too, didn't I?"

"Oh my gosh, this all tastes just as good as I remember it!" Al sighed happily as he finished his first homemade meal. "I don't think I could eat another bite!"
"Well that's a shame," Winry said, "because there's still a slice of apple pie left."
Al chuckled and beckoned towards Winry. "That pie is too delicious to resist." Winry, Al, and Pinako all laughed together, and the room was filled with a cheery atmosphere. Winry stopped laughing when she heard a series of banging sounds. Everyone grew quiet until they heard someone knocking on the door. "Who could that be at this hour?" Winry wondered aloud as she left the kitchen to answer the door. Moments later, Al and Pinako jumped out of their seats at the sound of Winry's scream and ran to the door. As they entered the foyer, they saw Winry wrapping her arms around a man with long blonde hair.
"Ed?" Al questioned. Winry slowly let go and let the man enter the house. His face immediately brightened up upon seeing his brother in his old body.
"I see you got your body back too," Ed commented before giving his brother a hug.
"You got your arm and leg back?" Al inquired as he released the hug. Ed nodded and removed his tattered, dusty jacket to reveal his fully-fleshed right arm.
"It's quite a bit weaker than my left arm," Ed said, lightly flexing his new limbs, "My left leg is in a similar state. It definitely made walking around normally a challenge."
"What happened to you?" Al asked. "I remember when yo-" Al stopped, not wanting to let Winry know the full details of what happened when Ed caused the recoil in the transmutation. "I remember the transmutation reversed itself, and then you were gone. What happened? Where did you go?"
Ed hung up his coat on the coat rack and shrugged. "I couldn't tell you what happened even if I wanted to. I remember I was in the transmutation circle with you all, then everything went white, and I found myself in the middle of the desert. I later found out that I had ended up where the old kingdom of Xerxes used to be. After wandering around in the desert for a while, I came across a small camp, and managed to navigate my way home from th-" Ed was interrupted by a large growl emanating from his stomach. "Oh yea, I guess I forgot to mention that I haven't eaten in a couple of days…"
"Just when I thought I was done cooking, we have another guest!" ranted Pinako playfully as she walked back into the kitchen to prepare more food.
"Ed, there's a slice of apple pie in the kitchen if you want it. But you'll have to beat me there first!" Al challenged his brother as he dashed into the kitchen. Ed started to follow him, but was blocked by Winry.
"Take those filthy boots off, mister! I just cleaned the floor," Winry instructed before turning and following Al into the kitchen.
'Well, it seems that Winry hasn't changed,' Ed chuckled to himself as he slipped off his boots. He walked over, placed his boots by the door, and gazed out the window at the starry night sky. "Sorry 'bout all those things I said about you in Lior…" he commented absentmindedly as looked up at the heavens.
"Ed, what are you doing?" Winry asked, interrupting him from his thoughts.
"Just thinking." Ed replied nonchalantly.
Winry walked over next to him and gazed out the window. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.
Ed shrugged. "I dunno. A lot's happened in the past couple weeks, and I guess my mind can't wrap itself around it all." He turned and smiled at her. "Come on, let's go join everyone back in the kitchen.
"Sounds good to me, but Al already finished that piece of pie that he offered you."
"Dammit Al, that was my slice of pie!" Ed yelled into the kitchen.
"You were too slow, brother!" Al yelled back.
"I'm going to get you for that" Ed threatened playfully before running back into the kitchen, back into the company of the closest family that he has ever known.