The end is here! This is official! :OOO

This called for me trying to figure out exactly how long it took for all of this to happen. I mean, I was mildly irritated that I didn't have a set amount of time for "Family History", since it was all rather vague and moving fast.

If only the events written happened, then everyone had about 5 days packed with action. But there's the fact that, on both sides, there was some studying done by all the teenagers, and I feel like the amount they'd supposedly done couldn't be done realistically within the span of those 5 days outside of everything else that happened, especially on Lily's end. I honestly thought she had at least a week in total, as more time seemed to pass by for her than the Elrics. Though that hadn't been what I originally planned, I think it's completely possible for time to be just a teensy bit more sped up in comparison to Amestris. So, if time actually runs at the same rate, then I'd say this entire sequel happened within the span of more like 6 days. But if time's faster on our side, then 5 or 6 days passed for Ed and Al, while to Lily it was more like 9 (I can give my reasoning by PM, if you're wondering why I say that).

Dang.

On with the story, one last last time! :D

Bzzz!

Lily flinched as the loud noise of her phone vibrating woke her up. She sighed frustratedly and tiredly as she flipped over on her bed to reach the device. She blinked open her eyes to check what time it was on her alarm clock. It read 7:16, which meant it was actually more like 7:11 since it ran fast. Nonetheless, she groaned at being woken up over an hour before she intended. She'd managed to get into bed at a reasonable time, and had hoped to be able to catch up a bit more on sleep over the weekend. Well, that was ruined. This better be important, she grumbled in her thoughts, sluggishly coming up with insults directed at her phone as she picked it up and unlocked the screen.

It revealed that she had received a text, which was new. She hadn't gotten a text from anyone in over a week, since the usual friends she would message with were Ed and Al, and she hadn't had to alert her mom about anything over text since they'd left.

More than that, it was a text from Megan. She started asking herself how Megan knew her number, when another part of her mind reminded her of how that came to pass a while ago. How did I forget already? Eh, I'm tired.

It was written in a surprisingly cringe-worthy way considering how smart the youngest Elric was, but it wasn't so odd considering her actual age. Either way, it was asking her to go check the basement for anything they hadn't noticed before.

Could she not have said that at a later time today? she complained to herself, flipping back over on the bed with phone still in hand. What time is it over there, anyway?

Just because she was annoyed, she decided to not answer yet. She didn't know if she would have time to do so today anyway, since she wasn't aware of if there were any plans beyond sleeping in. She never knew on Saturdays.

She left her phone on the same screen and placed it back on her nightstand. Yes, she'd ask about it when she went for her breakfast... or brunch... or even lunch, if she left eating off long enough. Right now, she was determined to get at least a little bit more sleep.

Since the family apparently had nowhere specific to go to at some point in the day, Lily's mom told her while they were both in the kitchen that she could go to the Elric abode if she so pleased. That meant she just needed to get dressed and choose when to go walk over.

After changing into a lazy yet typical outfit and making a flimsy attempt of smoothing down her hair so it looked presentable, she let her mom know she was going and went for the door. She said bye to her sister on the way, as Di was watching some comedian on Netflix in the living room, and let herself out.

She waved to her mom as she stepped onto the sidewalk (as she was standing at the doorway, watching her daughter until she got out of sight before going back in), and trudged forwards, going on the first walk she'd done by herself in a long time.

Her mind wandered about, going from wondering what Megan could possibly think was still in the basement that was of use to them to how long that moving trunk had been in front of that one house to hoping Mrs. Elric wouldn't be annoyed by her presence to wishing that chihuahua would stop barking every time she passed by its home. She soon turned in to the front yard of the familiar house where Ed and Al lived, though they were gone for... how long was it by now? Felt like forever.

She breathed in and out before knocking on the door. It was kind of weird for her to be out of her house, especially by herself, and so she mildly pleaded for Mrs. Elric to answer quickly. It apparently paid off, as the woman of the house answered the door a minute later.

"Oh, hi, Lily!"

"Hi," she responded on instinct. Before she could explain why she came to this house, she was happily ushered in and she stumbled into the living room.

"Sit down, sit down! Would you like some water?" the Elric mom chirped, ever the hostess.

"Um, no thank you," the younger girl stuttered out, looking down and pushing up her glasses. "I, uh, am here because..." For a moment she suddenly forgot how to word it. She stood there a second until it came back. "Megan asked me to go to the basement again."

The older woman's cheery face visibly dropped a bit, having expected something of the sort but still not completely happy to actually hear it. She nodded and led Lily to the basement, even though both knew she knew where it was.

"Would you like me to go down with you?" she asked, somewhat startling Lily.

"Oh! Um, if you want," the teen replied as the mom opened the door and turned on the light for the stairwell leading to the basement. Mrs. Elric motioned for the girl to go first, but indeed decided to follow her down the steps.

Once Lily had stepped foot into the chilly basement, she anxiously felt for a light switch and flipped it too, filling the underground room with light beyond that of the faded glow coming from the stair light and the small window in the door that led outside. She marveled again at just how similar their house's layout was to her own, though their basement was a lot emptier.

She awkwardly stepped towards the middle of the room, her every movement causing an echo, and she soon heard similar sounds come from behind her. She ignored the other presence for a moment as she turned her head about, studying the objects left in different parts of the floor, some tall enough to require support from the walls in order to not topple over. Seemed just about like any other basement not in use beyond storage for a small quantity of items.

Both knew this room's been used for more than that, though.

Near her feet were the dusty materials and chalk circles the brothers had used for their grand transmutation. She wished she could feel mad about them doing something so stupid, but only felt an ache of sadness instead.

She technically didn't even know them for very long- only, what, a few months?- but that was definitely enough for her.

"Anything particular you were looking for?" Stephanie Elric's voice rang, bringing Lily out of her contemplative state. She hadn't realized she'd basically spaced out. She looked behind her to the woman, who just stood there, blinking at her.

"Not really..." She hummed one continuous note as she tried to think of if there was something else she could say. "Yeah, I really don't know," she admitted, starting to fiddle with a piece of her hair (like she often did) without thinking about it.

"Well, I assure you that I haven't moved anything in here besides a few cans and jars on the shelf," the mom said, looking toward the wall that had a pair of shelves with extra food piled on. "If there is something to find, it should still be here."

Lily nodded and muttered thanks as she returned to gazing about the room and walking around, being careful to not step on anything that wasn't just concrete. She felt unsure and awkward inspecting someone else's basement with no idea what could even be worth taking note of. She was seriously questioning just going along with Megan's order- er, suggestion.

"Yeah, I can't see anything," she sighed to the mom of her friends. "Sorry about this."

"Oh, don't worry about it," the Elric replied easily. "If you have time, we could go upstairs to chat for a bit before you go back home."

Lily wasn't much of a person who just chatted with whoever, but it felt wrong to deny Mrs. Elric the company and opportunity to know her sons' friend better. Besides, she felt more comfortable talking with her than with a lot of other adults, and would most likely enjoy the conversation a little. She nodded and stuttered out an affirmation, then both proceeded to return to the staircase back to the main floor.

Lily looked again for the light switch as Mrs. Elric started climbing up the steps, and then just barely started following her after the light was flicked off, when she suddenly heard a noise she didn't recognize. Her eyes widened at the surprise sound, and her head whipped over to the room she had just left, to see the beginning of a fantastic blue light show.

It was like a huge clump of ripped wires smack dab in the middle of the basement, their frayed ends raging visible electricity in blue-colored shocks; or maybe it was more of a Tesla coil laying on the ground, surrounded by giant, violent sparks. A mild wind picked up from the crazy activity, and she could only stand there, incapable of doing anything other than gape.

She barely registered the sound of her hostess hurrying down the steps again to witness the same sight. She stood frozen next to her, even more shocked by the display. It was frightening yet so awe-inspiring.

After a few eternally-long seconds, it began to die down, revealing that the cause of the whole thing wasn't some huge electronic device that exploded or anything remotely similar. No, it was due to a lump in the middle of the room that, even in the darkness that seemed to have returned tenfold after such a bright event, looked suspiciously like a pair of people.

Lily remained as a statue- barely breathing, barely thinking- but Mrs. Elric hesitated only a second- as she had attempted to comprehend what just occurred- before she moved forward fast toward the sudden new arrivals.

"Boys?" she whispered in disbelief as she fell to her knees, lifting the arm of one of the bodies, which began responding to the movement a few seconds later with a groan. "John? Matt?" she continued, her voice thick and tears coming to her eyes.

They shuffled about more as they attempted to wake up. It turned out she'd been closest to Matt, who had blearily looked at the hand gripping his arm, then moved up to the face of the person. He visibly woke up completely with a gasp and threw himself at her, not holding back at all. She fell at his force and he landed on top of her, but neither cared.

They slowly began to get up after a long hug, just as Matt's older brother stirred and started picking himself up off the ground. John then realized his mom was there and tackled her into a hug much like his sibling had done.

After several seconds, the reunited Elrics heard a hiccup echo through the room, and looked over to realize that Lily was standing there, unmoved from the spot where she had first begun to witness the boys' return. They could not see her face, as the only light in the area came from the stairs and glowed behind her. Her silhouette was just barely visibly shaking like a chihuahua, so it was correctly assumed that she had begun to cry.

She silently wrung her hands anxiously together (and tried to keep her tears silent too) as she tried to decide what to do. She wanted so bad to run up to them and hug them so hard they could barely breathe, but she also didn't want to intrude on the familial moment. Being with their mom is tons more important than just a friend...

And she knew people her age generally weren't big on hugging, a lesson drilled into her brain until now she hesitated to try it on anyone unless given permission. She doubted either boy in front of her now (they were seriously right in front of her when she thought she might never see them again) was comfortable with a girl glomping them.

Though the room was dark, she could see Mrs. Elric turning to give her a watery smile and nudge her shoulder forward, inviting Lily into the room. Her brain seemed to take the motion as being allowed to not only continue to stand there stupidly, but suddenly cry even harder.

Al started standing up, seeing as Lily apparently wasn't going to move forward anytime soon, and cautiously inched toward her, most likely wondering what he could say to make her calm down. He didn't need to say anything; the moment he was close enough, Lily closed the distance and launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, even though it required being on her tiptoes. She didn't care about his comfort anymore. She needed this.

He awkwardly stood there instead of completing the hug, just as she expected, but it was amazing and such a relief to have further physical proof that he was actually there.

When she felt she had tortured the poor boy enough, she let go with a sniffle and giggle, and then turned to give Ed the exact same treatment. Before she could stop herself, "Thank you" tumbled out her mouth as she held onto the stiff torso of the blond.

Though she couldn't get any other words out, she hoped they knew what she meant. She was grateful that, even if they hadn't listened to her before- maybe she was wrong about the risks, but at this point she couldn't care less about being right- they came back.

They came home.

When Mrs. Elric and Lily were spent and finally brushing away their tears (the latter started complaining with a choked laugh about how her glasses were wet now), Ed and Al said they wanted to go to the hospital as soon as possible. At first, the females thought they meant that as in the brothers needed to be admitted because of some serious injury and thus began to freak out, but the boys assured they only wanted to visit Ryan.

"Can I ride with you?" Lily asked, then suddenly felt bad about the request. Was it really her business to just go around pretending she was part of the family?

Mrs. Elric didn't mind at all, apparently, as she started going back up to the main floor, the teenagers following once the brothers had made sure they had all their things still. "Of course you can! I'll get my keys and meet you three outside."

Ed paused and gave her back a confused look. "Uh, Mom? I can drive now."

She rebutted with a raised eyebrow at him over her shoulder. "Do you really think I'll let you boys out of my sight so soon?"

I see her point, Lily thought, and then quickly got on her phone to call her mom to ask if she could go with the Elrics- oh, and inform of her friends appearing once again. That was a bit of an important detail.

With permission officially granted by both mothers, Lily shyly followed the family into their car and did her best to not stare at the brothers too much. At least her staring wasn't so odd once they started talking.

"Should we call Dad?" Al asked his mom, who seemed about to reply yes, but then thought better of it.

"How about we leave it as a surprise for when he comes home?" she suggested slyly.

"You're evil, Mom." Ed grinned, clearly amused by the thought of his father's face when he opened the door and found his missing sons back with no explanation yet.

"You should probably tell Alice, though," she added, causing their expressions to drop.

"Do... do we have to do it?" Al asked- or maybe more like whined pathetically. He was still just as scared of his younger sister as ever, after all.

"Yes. I'd rather she learned from you than someone else."

Lily's mouth quirked up on one side upon seeing that the brothers frantically began a game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors", of which Ed eventually lost.

While the elder was mentally preparing himself for the phone call, the younger seemed to remember something and turned to Lily. "We brought you something from Amestris," he explained as he began to dig through his backpack.

She blinked as she processed the statement, and before she knew it he was holding out a necklace.

The pendant hanging on the simple black cord was like nothing she'd ever seen before. It was a delicately thin circle of sterling silver, engraved in blue with a stylistic design that immediately registered as a transmutation circle. Rather than tiny Latin words inscribed around the sides of shapes, there were instead decorative curls and swirls. Though the whole thing was covered in a layer of sparkles, which she wasn't a fan of, the fact that they actually brought her something from wherever they'd been (and it was something pretty and cool), tugged at her heartstrings.

"That's really for me?" she asked for assurance, and Al nodded with a bit of a blush as he passed it over. She couldn't imagine how weird they must've felt looking at jewelry and trying to guess what she'd like.

"Thank you so much, you guys! You're so sweet!" she gushed, holding the necklace in her own palms reverently. "I'm honored."

"Don't fuss so much over it," Ed grumbled, making sure his face was hidden from her by his hair, as he waited for Megan to answer the phone.

"I'm gonna put it on," she said unnecessarily, throwing the necklace over her head and pulling her thick hair out from underneath, then adjusting the length. She returned to admiring the pendant, still amazed by the gift and its origins. "You guys really made it to Amestris, then?"

"Yep," Al chirped just as his brother froze. The other occupants of the car could just barely hear a faint "Hello?" come from the phone, which was then repeated as Ed still refused to answer.

His mom gave him a look through the rear-view mirror, which prompted him to finally say something, as much as he wanted to just hang up. "Hey, Megan."

There was a pause, then suddenly an explosion of tinny screaming from the device that he now held further away from his ear. He started blurting out stuttered apologies back, and Lily decided maybe it'd be better to stop paying attention to that mess.

"That's insane!" she whispered with a grin to Al, excitement reigning over the urge to punch them for their idiocies (which had returned with a vengeance once her relief over them being totally okay died down). They made it through the Gate! And there was a whole other world on the other side!

"It was really cool; we can tell you some of what it was like later," he answered just as quietly, amused by her bursting emotions.

"Nothing you can say now?" she questioned slyly, moving her eyebrows about. He giggled at her ridiculousness, but then shook his head, and made the hand motion of locking his mouth and throwing away the key. She huffed and put her face into an exaggerated pout, only taking off again once she remembered that Mrs. Elric could probably see her being weird through the rear-view mirror. That was an embarrassing thought.

She glanced over and noticed that the younger brother's face was now pulled into a small frown, as if he was pondering on something he'd rather not. Upon seeing that he had grabbed her attention, he leaned to whisper once again, this time in a more serious manner. "How's Ryan?"

Lily realized they hadn't actually asked about her condition yet... though they could probably guess on possible states, and knew they wanted to go see her no matter which was correct. She sighed silently- completely opposite from the shouting match between Ed and his overseas-sister in the background- and said simply, "She's been awake for a day or so. She wasn't very coherent before, but asked where you guys were anyway."

He noticeably felt a bit guilty and concerned. "What'd you say back?"

"Just that you were somewhere else, but okay. Thanks for not making that a lie," she muttered, staring down at her lap and kicking her feet back and forth. "It was... really hard without you guys, you know. I'm not used to people leaving. And we had no idea if you were alive or... otherwise."

She wasn't usually one to guilt-trip people, but she wanted to get that off her chest and make sure they really understood what they'd done. Maybe from now on, the Elrics would learn to think about consequences just a little bit more. They were so incredibly lucky this time, but surely not the next.

"Yeah, we know, and we're sorry for putting all of you through that," Al eventually answered. "But at least we're here now, and we actually got something out of the trip." His serious expression gave way to a small, knowing smile.

She blinked. "You mean...?"

"Yeah."

Her mouth slowly opened into a gape, glancing between both brothers (even though the elder still had his attention on the call). They were actually able to get something that would help Ryan? Awesome!

He chuckled, and she suddenly realized she must've voiced her thoughts aloud. She slapped her hand over her mouth, but couldn't completely cover up her reddening cheeks. At that moment, the car slowed, and the teens finally paid proper attention to their surroundings, which just so happened to be the hospital parking lot. In just a few minutes, they'd be entering the grand building once again.

Ed had the sudden realization that he and his brother had walked down this hospital hallway more than they ever expected they would, back before the car accident. But now, unlike all those other times, they were striding through the building with a bit of confidence of a brand they hadn't had before. One where they seemed ready to change the world for the better. Well, no one here but Lily knew it, but they'd basically changed history already, accomplishing to go to a parallel universe, just like what was imagined in sci-fi books ever since sci-fi was a concept.

...They weren't the very first to go through to both ends of the Gate, but still.

He glanced over to his mom, who was walking beside them with purpose in very step. She hadn't gone with them to visit Ryan before, but she was now determined to see this whole ordeal through to the end.

He looked to Lily, who walked behind the Elrics. She looked just about as nervous and awkward as she had the first time she'd gone into the hospital with them, but she also had a bit of a smile surfacing on what would be expected to be a blank expression or even a frown. She's probably just remembering some stupid joke or something.

Al knew better, though; it was possible that she was barely holding back a grin because she was still so happy that her friends were back. She was the kind that became and stayed excited rather easily, so it was not hard to imagine. If that was the case, then they hadn't realized how essential they'd become to her life until they'd disappeared.

Truth was, they were both right. Lily had a bit of spring to her step due to the Elric brothers being by her side again, and she was also thinking of all the stupid stories and jokes to tell them once she had the chance.

Al remembered that they should find the chemical makeup of humans on this side of the Gate again to refresh, and thus borrowed his mom's phone to do just that. It was awesome to use the internet once again.

In time, they finally arrived to the correct room. Ed let out a breath before opening the door.

They came upon a plain bed in which lied the curly-haired girl named Ryan, asleep in peaceful dreams despite the setting. She began to wake up, however, upon the sound of the door closing. She forcibly blinked her eyes several times until she could finally focus on the visitors. Her eyes lit up and a smile ghosted on her face.

"Hey, guys," she greeted quietly. Though she still did not have much energy, it was already becoming easier to formulate complete thoughts and sentences.

"Hey," Ed said awkwardly, then gladly let his little brother step up to say more.

"How do you feel?"

"Like I got hit by a car," she said slowly, cracking a poor excuse of a joke that had her chuckling a bit anyway.

"Well, we're hoping that maybe we could help you with that," Al continued, nervously fidgeting, before both brothers proceeded to pull off their backpacks and scrounge up their special transmutation circles. Once they found them and revealed them, Lily quietly gasped at the sight. Those were very serious-looking arrays. Would they actually work, though?

Both walked over to her bedside and quickly skimmed through the clipboard on her nightstand, hoping to find useful information before they officially began.

"What... are you doing?" Ryan muttered, trying to figure out their actions so far. They did not answer yet, instead mentally calculating how they were going to pull off doing anything that could be of use to the condition of her body. If all else failed, at least they'd also devoted some hours and notes to learning about how automail worked...

Ryan's eyes continued to flicker between their faces and the weird drawings. She suspected they would attempt something, but... what was this? She didn't recognize these things at all, and they certainly didn't look like they did anything besides look cool. The Elrics were more into science than the ...opposite, which was what this looked like. Did they finally crack after all their other ideas failed?

She could barely catch from this distance the apprehensive but hopeful look the girl in the back (her name was Lily, right?) wore while linking her hands together, which made her wonder if she was the one that thought this idea up.

"Stay still," Ed ordered offhandedly as he and Al put the transmutation circles in place. She scrounged up enough energy to give them a mildly skeptical look, but they either didn't notice in their concentration or ignored it.

The brothers apparently seemed pleased with their setup and gave her sort-of-encouraging smiles before clapping and placing their hands on the drawings.

She felt a sudden sensation unlike any other, that both disturbed her but also seemed to be accomplishing something good at the same time. It took over her whole body, and she let out a faint yelp of a scream as she realized she was getting covered by blue sparks?!

Blurted noises of joy and alarm rang from the other occupants of the room, but she barely heard them over her own mixed feelings that moved fast yet sluggishly at the same time.

What are they doing to me?! was her final frantic thought before she only saw black.

"...Ryan?"

Don't worry, she only passed out. I mean, it would make sense considering how much of a shock that would've been, plus perhaps drained her of her energy. But naw, she's fine (unless your brain decides otherwise, but I'd rather it didn't :P). This just deserved an equally dramatic ending as "Family History". After all: not only was this story intended to end on a cliffhanger, it was destined.

Once again, I will say that there are so many ways this could go before, during, and after VH. I'm gonna leave this story here now so I can devote myself to new stories, unless I decided to do a rewrite in the distant future... Probs not, but one can hope. XD

Just to prove my point, this final alternate is an alternate ending to last chapter that leaves a bit of groundwork for a possible way this series could've been continued to a third book. It is a bit reminiscent to the ending of a book I read last summer that was like "OH MY GOSH!"

Alternate (Saga) Z:

"Let's move," Ed stated firmly, hoping to get the transmutation started before someone else showed up or they had second thoughts.

"Come on, Milo," she muttered to her sibling, nudging him to step outside the shed so they wouldn't end up part of the transmutation too.

Rillie and her brother had had enough experience with alchemy to know the outreach of the transmutation really depended on what its purpose was, but nonetheless it was usually safer to just step as far back as one was willing to. Therefore, Milo stood just outside the door, while she was at the doorway- she was shorter, after all, and this let that both of them had view of the proceedings.

There were some final quiet goodbye words and waves, and the Elrics decided to stop wasting time and just activate the circle they'd drawn already.

They nodded to each other before clapping and pressing their hands into the array, causing it to immediately light up, the overarching blue zips and zaps more dramatic than those of any transmutation Rillie and Milo had ever seen before. The grand sight mesmerized the two, though the latter not to the same extent. He was quickly woken up from the reverie when he heard shouts from outside, and he glanced behind him to see that people had just now decided to come into view and march to the shack. He glanced desperately between the brothers and their "visitors", mentally pleading that the light-haired alchemists would manage to complete the transmutation in time.

Unlike her sibling, however, Rillie's attention stayed stuck on the happenings in front of her. She practically felt an invisible tug- not from the swirling breeze that picked up within the shack, but from the fantastically-lit array itself. It seemed to welcome her, even when sparks started to tinge purple instead of blue.

Remember how you wanted to see their world for yourself?

The door's right here in front of you.

She knew she shouldn't, but she was once again pondering just what the harm was in moving closer, maybe even going in the circle... It drew her in a little at a time, but she also wanted to fight back fiercely. The internal struggle looked just as much external, from the way that her hair was sent flying by the manipulative wind.

WHAT do you have to lose?!

Before she realized what happened, she had taken a step forward.

The air within the shack suddenly gave her an extra-hard pull, shattering the trance, and she tripped forward further into the room, upon the horror of everyone, including herself.

Before she could manage to leap back to the door, shadow-black strands consumed her and her friends.

Alt. Z: Rillie accidentally gets sucked into the transmutation meant to transport back to the US.

Eh, less intense than that book, but oh well.

You don't know how perfect it is that I'm finishing today. It's the exact 1st anniversary of when I began to publish chapters for VH. It also happens to be my last day of 11th grade (though I didn't actually go to school today since there's literally nothing to do). From here on, I'm a flippin' senior. ;-; I don't like this.

Also, a bunch of the fanfic writers that inspired parts of this story posted this week! It was so mind-blowing to look at my updates list, because they typically don't update for months and months and they all decided to put a new chapter or one-shot or whatever this exact week when I had planned for quite a while to post today! Just... oh my gosh, that made me so happy. ;u;

Sorry about all the ANs this chapter, I just have a lot to say. ^^'

Thank you so much for reading and being awesome, and I hope you'll enjoy my future works too! :3 Happy Summer Break! K bai!~ :D