Come Back To Me🪭 ✔️

Epilogue: Pass Away and Carry Me Home

Alphonse looked around and realized he was in his body. He saw Truth sitting there with that shit eating grin on his face and his brother standing behind the white apparition.

"Brother!" Alphonse called, reaching out to Edward.

"Tut, tut, little man." Truth said, blocking his view. "Me and Blondie made a deal."

Alphonse was confused. "Deal?"

"I told you that I wouldn't forget you." Edward said softly, looking up at his brother.

Alphonse made a face. "What are you saying?"

Truth grinned. "You'll see."

*****************

Roy held Edward tightly in his arms, rocking back and forth but not crying. He refused to cry. He had caused everything by being so caught up on something so stupid. Why did I ever care about that damned coat of his? It wasn't that problematic... he growled to himself, kicking himself over and over again for causing the issue.

"Sir, Alphonse's soul is gone!" Havoc said, coming to his superior.

Roy looked at Havoc slowly and Havoc sighed, knowing how difficult everything was.

"Colonel, I'm so sorry about Ed. This shouldn't have happened the way it did. To think he would sacrifice his own soul for you... I thought you said there was nothing equivalent to a human soul and that's why it was forbidden."

Roy looked at Edward's face, so stupidly at peace.

"Fullmetal had said that he found a loophole because my blood was used to create the focal point of the alchemical circle and my soul was going back to my actual body, not just the things that make up a body. Even when he was crazy, he was smart." He said with a humorless laugh.

Havoc nodded sadly and then jumped, startling Roy.

"Something's happening."

Roy looked down and saw that Edward was starting to pixilate away, as if going through a rebound. He looked over at the array that was still where his body had been and saw it was glowing. He stared at it and felt Edward's body become lighter as he was pieced away into the array.

"No! No, you can't!" he yelled, looking at the dead child. "Edward, what else did you do?! ANSWER ME, DAMMIT!"

"Colonel!" Havoc yelled, grabbing his superior when he tried to follow Edward's body. "You'll get sucked in too!"

"He did something dumb again! I want an answer!"

"He's dead, sir! You can't do anything about it! Whatever he did, it was probably for a good reason!"

"Giving up his soul for me wasn't a good reason!"

"He did it to right his wrong! He thought he was doing a good thing. He was an emotional wreck after what happened and he thought he could fix it. Whatever is happening now was something to help. I just know it!"

The array stopped glowing and Roy fell to his knees. He'd lost not only Edward's life but his body. He didn't even have anything to remember the kid by. Finally, Roy could take it no more and burst into frustrated tears in front of Havoc. He cried like a child who was just understanding death for the first time. He cried like a baby. He cried like someone who had failed at everything in life.

Havoc hated seeing his superior like this. He pat Roy on the back and rubbed it softly, not knowing what to do. Roy never got like this so there wasn't a way to comfort him properly in Havoc's book. Finally, Roy sat up and wiped his tears away, sniffling.

"I'm sorry..." he said softly.

"Why? You had every right to cry."

"Take me back to the doctor... I... I don't want to be here."

"Yes, sir..."

Havoc helped his superior up and led him back to the doctor.

*************

Later that night, Havoc walked outside to smoke a cigarette. He tried to calm his nerves from what had happened inside but it was proving to be very difficult. It was difficult for his hand to make him take a puff of the cigarette in his fingers, the shaking making aim almost impossible.

Finally, he let himself break down, putting his hand over his eyes and crying. He had held it in all night as Roy recounted what had happened but Roy's pain meds were leaving him and rerunning the emotional goodbye broke him once more, leaving him in the arms of Hawkeye as well as in tons of pain from the surgery. Someone had to be strong and Hawkeye was taking care of Roy, so Havoc had to be the one. He did it perfectly, just like Roy taught him...

A rustling sound made Havoc look up. It happened again and he put the cigarette in his mouth to grab his gun. He walked over to it just when it parted and someone fell onto the ground. Havoc pointed his gun at him and the frail kid struggled to lift his torso off the ground. When he did, Havoc made a face as the kid smiled in relief.

"Lieutenant Havoc..."

"Who are you?" he asked.

"It- it's me. Alphonse..."

Havoc blinked in surprise. "Alphonse?"

He put the gun up and helped 'Alphonse' up. He looked into his eyes and realized without a doubt that the kid was Al.

"What the hell? How are you here?"

"Brother... did some finagling..."

Havoc felt something wet and looked at Alphonse's arm, where it was dripping blood from the shoulder where the rest of his arm was completely missing.

"Your arm..."

Alphonse only smiled. "A small price I had to pay."

"Let's get you inside. With everything that's happened, I think the Colonel will be glad to see you."

"Good, because I have a message for him from Brother."

Havoc helped Alphonse into the doctor's house, wondering what Edward did to accomplish not just one miracle, but two.