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Later on that day, after becoming more used to his spare leg, Anne and Ed sat outside with Den, the Rockbell's dog, and Alphonse, who had joined the older Elrics to make sure they didn't get into any trouble.

"What's with that money hungry lady?!" the oldest Elric said unexpectedly, scaring Anne out of her thoughts.

"You're asking that now, Ed?" Anne asked exasperated. Her brother had always had a tendency for the dramatics, but they sky-rocketed whenever it included their blonde childhood friend.

The blond boy sighed and laid back down on the grass, his hands behind his head. It was a typical pose of Ed's, one he had whenever he was bored and anxious. Anne smiled at the thought. It's been a long time since any of them had taken any sort of break or vacation. She understood that at times it was necessary to find a cure for their bodies as soon as possible but at the same time she knew that a break once in a while would help so much.

Edward had been too stressed recently, ever since her encounter with Scar. He's always near her, never out of sight. She appreciated the gesture, but her brother needed to understand that she can take care of herself. She wasn't completely helpless.

"Never mind. A week huh? What am I gonna do? There aren't even any libraries around here."

"But isn't it nice to have the occasional break when we haven't had it very easy for a while?" Alphonse spoke up. Anne smiled at that.

'My thoughts exactly little brother.'

"But I don't do well with breaks!" Edward said petulantly.

"Oh for goodness sake's Ed! How's this for a thought? You can spend time with your family without any of us being in any mortal danger!" Anne huffed as she got up and left the brothers on the hill.

With confident steps, Anne made her way to the Rockbell home.

"What the hell's up with her?" Edward said, as he watched the retreating back of his twin sister.

"You're very dense nii-san." Alphonse sweat dropped, his glowing eyes also following their sister.

"What was that?!"

Edward stopped though, as he noticed his younger brother give him a serious look before speaking.

"We've been searching for a long time now on how to fix our bodies that we really haven't thought of anything else. We haven't taken many breaks where we spend time together as a family. We're all we have left nii-san. And I think it hits Annie the hardest. She misses mom a lot."

Edward couldn't help but remember how Anne was when their mother was still alive. She was so similar to their mother, besides their appearance. All of the Elric children had inherited their father's gold hair and eyes, but Anne was the only one who got their mother's kindness.

But ever since the incident much of that kindness seemed to have vanished. Don't get him wrong she still loved her brothers and treated them with kindness and love, but outside that small circle Anne now tends to act more like her older brother more than anything.

Alphonse watched as Edward rose to his feet, his face looking back to where Anne had gone. And if he knew his twin as much as he thought he did, he knew exactly where she went.

"Come on Al, we're gonna get some flowers."

Anne walked through the gates of the cemetery, a small wrapped bouquet in one hand. She kept walking as if in memory, to the small gravestone near the back of the sea of white tombstones. There she stopped at the second to last row, the fifth one from the left. Her mother's grave.

Trisha Elric

1878-1904

"Hi mom," Anne smiled wistfully, "it's been a while. Sorry we haven't come back to see you we've been very busy these last couple years." She couldn't help the small hitch of breath that passed her lips.

"How do you like my new haircut? It wasn't my choice really. I wanted it to get longer you know? You always said how nice it would look if it was long," she laughed at this, her mind going back to the time where her hair was as short as her twin brother. She didn't like it long, it would always get in the way of playing with her brothers. She was only four when she made the decision and, to her mother's great joy, Anne had promised that she would grow it out and was happy of the smile that had filled her mother's face for the rest of the day.

It wasn't even a year later that her mother succumbed to an illness. But that didn't stop her from growing out her hair. And so for the next ten years, Anne had meticulously taken care of her golden hair in memory of her late mother.

Tears filled her eyes as she continued, "Edward is doing ok. His nightmares keep him up at night but he tries to pass it off as if nothing's wrong. I know better. I see sometimes how his automail hurts him. He keeps working himself to death to find a cure for us and be a good big brother to me and Al." She couldn't help the tears now as they slid down her face and dripped unto the flowers she held tightly in her left hand. Her automail hand.

"Alphonse, though I know he won't say it, hates being in that suit of armor. He hates being alone by himself at night. Sometimes I can hear him crying and can't help myself from doing the same because his new body won't shed any tears. He can't sleep. He can't eat. He doesn't like that he's almost seven feet tall. And I hate myself knowing that I did this to him."

She wished her mother was here. She always seemed to know what to do and what to say. She wiped her eyes of tears and raised her head.

"But I'm gonna be strong Momma. I'm gonna make sure that the boys are taken care of while you're gone, like I've always done. That's my new promise to you." She smiled and laid the bouquet of white orchids in front of the grave.

And with that last gesture, Anne turned and walked out of the cemetery.

Her legs seemed to have a mind of their own as within a few minutes she stood on what was once her front lawn. In front of her there was nothing but charred remains of what was once her childhood home. It was here that they tried to transmute their mother and where they failed. She could remember it like it was yesterday.

The year was 1910. A few years ago she and her siblings were able to find an alchemy teacher. They had just recently returned and decided that today was the day. They believed they knew enough about alchemy that they would be able to perform the transmutation.

"Water 35L, carbon 20Kg, ammonia 4L, lime 1.5Kg, phosphorus 800g, salt 250g, saltpeter 100g, sulfur 80g, fluorine 7.5g, iron 5g, silicon 3g..."

As each item was checked over by Edward, Anne and Al were carefully put every ingredient into a wide metal pail in the middle of the basement. Once everything was in the pail, the two looked at their brother for further instruction.

"Right, now the constructional formula."

And with that the three set out to draw out the entire circle making sure there were no mistakes, for the diagram was very intricate. If they messed up even a single line the results could be disastrous.

"And now something for the soul." Edward gave each of them a knife, which they then used to prick their fingers and dripped the blood into the pail. As she watched, Anne couldn't help but feel a small feeling of doubt.

"Okay guys this is." The three of them quickly put their hands at the edge of the huge circle and watched as the transmutation lit up with blue. With that, Anne quickly forgot about her previous feeling of doubt and watched in wonder as the room lit up with wisps of air and blue lightning covered the circle.

They watched on as slowly the lights turned from a calming blue to a menacing red as black dust lifted up like strings.

"Ed something doesn't feel right." Alphonse voiced as a huge eye appeared in the middle of the circle. A scream came after and Edward and Anne watched in fear and shock as the previous black tendrils came and started breaking apart their younger brother.

"AL!" They both began to reach for him when Edward began screaming as well. They both turned to see the same hands taking apart Edward's left leg and he fell to the ground.

"It can't be! Rebound?!"

"ED! ANNIE!"

She turned back to see that her brother was slowly being taken away, his arm outstretched reaching for them. She reached out with her left hand quickly hoping to catch her brother before he was taken wherever he was being pulled to.

"AL PLEASE! GRAB ON!" she said stretching out her hand farther but watched in horror as her was wrapped in those same black tendrils and watched as her arm disappeared from the tips of her fingers all the way up to her shoulder.

"AHHHHHH! AL!" and with a final scream her brother disappeared and she soon found herself in a white void.

"Huh? Ed? Al? Wait was I doing? I just-…." Her eyes widened at the being before her. It was a featureless version of a young girl about the same age as her probably. It sat there with an unnerving grin on its empty face.

"Hello." It spoke like a young girl, though her/its voice seemed strangely familiar.

"W-who are you?" she couldn't help the feeling that she knew this person.

"Huh? Well I'm so glad you asked," she/it said with a grin, "I am called by many names. I am the world, I am the universe, I am god, I am truth, I am all, I am one, and I am also…. you."

It/she pointed at her and she could hear something open behind her, like a giant heavy door. She turned slowly and watched as more black tendrils rushed trying to pull her into whatever depths very hidden inside the door. She screamed as she tried to run away from them but she could feel them grabbing her and pulling towards the open door.

"Quiet, child. This is what you wanted, isn't it? I will show you... the Truth!" and at those words the doors slammed themselves closed.

She was constantly pulled through streams of information, all of it trying to fit inside her head.

"IT'S TOO MUCH! MAKE IT STOP!" she screamed, as stream after stream was rushed before her, as she tried to close her eyes but was unable to do so.

Near the end, or what felt like the end, she could see a white figure, that of woman. She knew instantly who that was as she reached, trying with all her might. "MOM! MOM PLEASE!"

She stood, back at the white void, with her arm outstretched towards the being she had met previously, she/it still sitting down as if Anne had never left.

"How was it?"

She couldn't answer. She had seen so much. So much knowledge. Knowledge that she didn't deserve. Guilt ate raw at her. She had tried to stop her brother from attempting but she was guilty of the same feeling- of wanting to hold her mother's hand as she had done when she was little.

"Oh? What's this? A guilt ridden alchemist? Well, I have to admit that's a first."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" she asked curiously.

The being chuckled. "Every alchemist who has gone through that door has always wanted more information after they return. You however have no desire for it. A first. But you still have to be punished as that is how the Law of Equivalent Exchange works you see."

She watched as it lifted its arm as if urging her forward. She did so and put her hand in its hold and watched in shock as her arm broke apart and became part of the being's body.

"I'm sorry, but not even those who feel guilt are exempt from this rule. Right young alchemist?"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

She was back on the floor of their basement, her arm bleeding all over the stone floor. She could hear another scream near her and found Edward holding his stumped leg in pain as the blood pooled beneath his body.

She lifted her body with greatly difficulty, as she now only had one arm, which was covering where her left arm used to be, trying to stop the bleeding. She looked around trying to find her youngest brother and gasped as she saw that what remained of her brother was only a pair of clothes.

"Dammit, this can't be happening…" She heard Edward muttered, and watched as her twin struggled to drag himself.

"Edward…."

The lights died down after a few seconds, but that all she needed. There in the middle of their transmutation, was something grotesque. It wasn't even human. It was a like a bag of flesh with random limbs attached to it. It tried to lift an arm but it died not long after.

"This is wrong…..this isn't what we wanted!" Edward yelled.

"Al…." she said, as she dragged her exhausted body to the set of armor in the corner. It was old, probably dating back a few hundred years, but it would work perfectly with what she had in mind. She had learned many things while in that sea of information. She would bring her brother back, she was sure of it.

"Give him back…." She muttered as she swayed. She could hear Edward following her, slowly but surely the Elric twins made their way to the armor. Anne knocked it over as soon as she reached it, the slamming of metal parts filling the room.

"Give him back to me….." she muttered in a daze. She went towards the neck area of the armor and found a perfect spot for the transmutation. She just had to draw it out carefully, and use her blood in place of chalk. She could feel herself losing consciousness quickly. She was only half way done before her vision swam and she slammed to the stone floor unconscious.

"Annie?" Edward asked softly, fearing what may have happened was only a dream. But Anne didn't move after that and he quickly feared his sister's death. He looked back to what she had been drawing and couldn't help but blink. He knew what it was.

With new determination, he quickly finished the transmutation. And quickly made to clap.

"No you won't take him too! He's my brother. Take my leg. Take my arm. Take my heart! TAKE ANYTHING YOU CAN HAVE IT! Just give him back! HE'S OUR LITTLE BROTHER HE'S ALL WE HAVE LEFT!"

Anne sighed. That day still haunts her dreams and she's pretty sure she'll remember it for the rest of her life. Edward had told her what happened after she passed out from blood loss, how she was the one who made half the seal and he finished the rest. It was that reason that she lost her eyesight.

But while in the white void for a second time, Truth had given her a rather unique solution. Because she had felt guilty and had only performed half the transmutation with her blood, he would give her a bit of a leeway. She would be blind in a sense, but not completely. And that was how her blindness worked. She could "see" people by their life force, pretty much anything that lived on this planet she could see. But not anything else. And for some reason, something underground kept her from seeing at all.

"Annie!" a shout broke her out of her stupor.

It was Edward and Alphonse.

"We stopped at mom's grave to see if you were there, but the only thing we found were flowers. So we came here." Alphonse said. He looked at Edward as if expecting something and sighed when nothing came. Gently, he pushed his older brother forward, making him stumble before straightening in front of his twin sister.

"I'm sorry about earlier, Annie. I didn't mean to imply anything. You know I love you guys more than anything, but I want to return our bodies back."

She couldn't help her softening look as she gazed at both of her brothers.

"I understand Ed. I didn't mean to lash out at you. I'm sorry. But you're gonna have to make up for a lot of time that you didn't spend with me and Alphonse. Sooo….." she poked him on his prosthetic arm before running away, leaving both Elric brothers confused.

"Tag you're it! Run Alphonse!" she screamed happily.

Alphonse giggled in glee before joining his older sister. The oldest Elric couldn't help the large smirk that crossed his face as he watched his siblings run away.

"Oh so that's how it's gonna be huh? Well ready or not because here I come!" Edward screamed, as he followed after his siblings.

Sounds of laughter were heard for the rest of the day on that hill, as well as seeing many flashes of blue lightning and smoke, and many stopped to listen as the voices came from where the old Elric home used to be. Many of the small town's inhabitants could remember a time long ago when the Elric children would play like this all the time. It was after their mother's death that the laughter ceased. But now, after many years of silence, there was joy once more on top that small hill at the end of the road.

Down the road from the Elrics' home, sitting on her front porch, Pinako smiled.

AN: Hey guys I'm not dead! :D Sorry that's its been a while, but I have not given up on this story yet. I've been very these last few years with a thing called life, but the best news is that I have a new laptop that doesn't crash! So I will try my best to upload more chapters for this story, at least once a month if I can manage, since it's my fave from all the ones I've written.

Thanks guys!

~Natsu