The two ran past Dell, who easily stretched over one hundred feet long, until they reached the base of the hill. Luon looked back over his shoulder. Roy stood on top of the hill, ordering his troops. For a brief second, their eyes met.
“Yeeeearrrk!”
Luon wrenched his eyes back to Dell. The nearest side of him was spreading toward them and rising, blocking out the sun. If they didn’t move quickly, they’d be swallowed beneath that gelatinous mass.
Luon quickly slammed a palm down on the ground. The earth swelled into a ridge that shot across the ground in a wide circle around the creature. Luon gestured, and the ridgeline rose, forming a dome above Dell. Wind swirled around them as a massive volume of earth thundered into the air.
Just when the edges of the dome were about to meet, a sharp crack rang out, and a ball of flame rose from the top of the hill. The fireball roared through the air like a rocket, falling down through the opening in the dome the moment before it sealed, enveloping everything in flame. The resulting explosion shattered the dome, exposing a giant mass of seared and steaming flesh, cooked in an instant by the superheated blast inside the dome.
“Oouuuuut ooof myyyy waaaay!” howled an unearthly voice, Dell’s determination persisting even though his mind was gone. Then the creature that had been Dell roared. Just as Luon had predicted, the augmented blood rushed to the surface, trying to repair the damage. A massive tentacle spurted from the nebulous form, and Edward ran to cut it off with his arm-blade.
But his blade never reached its mark.
“This one’s mine!” shouted Luon from behind him, slapping his hands down on the ground once more. A blinding light arced from his fingers, splitting the ground in a crevice that shot toward Dell, running directly under him.
“Hope that cuts you down to size!” Edward shouted. The black crevice opened wide beneath Dell, pulling down the tentacled outer shell while another protrusion of rock thrust upward from inside the crevice, launching Dell’s human body into the sky.
Dell’s scream echoed across the dry, barren hills, and it was over.
the egger house looked much the same as always, tinged pink in the light of a beautiful sunset.
Edward walked up the sloping hill. He saw Shelley standing in the street by her house, gazing down at the sparkling river below and called out to her.
“Shelley!”
She looked up. Edward pointed a thumb back over his shoulder.
“I brought someone for you, as promised.”
Just behind him, Luon and Alphonse walked up the slope with Kip between them, holding onto their hands.
Shelley’s lip trembled. She looked as if she might cry, but she held back the tears.
“Mom!” Kip let go of Alphonse’s and Luon’s hands and came running toward her. “Luon’s back, Mom! He has to leave again real soon … but Edward brought him back so that he could see you first!”
“Kip! There you are! I was so worried,” Shelley said, hugging the boy as he ran into her arms.
Luon stood close by, quietly looking at them.
The Egger family was finally back together again.
Shelley smiled with tears in her eyes and reached out a hand toward Luon. “Welcome back.”
“It’s good to see you again,” Luon said, smiling back, and then he hugged them both. “I’m sorry, Shelley,” he said. “I … can’t stay, but I’ll be back, and I’ll tell you everything … I promise. And I want us to be a real family this time. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Yes, tell me everything,” Shelley said through her tears. “I’ll listen for as long as it takes. I don’t care if it’s happy or sad … as long as I hear it from you. Whatever problems we might have, we’ll face them together, Luon.” She buried her face in his shoulder.
Kip reached out from between them and grabbed Luon’s hand.
“Luon?”
Luon looked down.
“Can I call you Dad now?”
“Yes,” Luon said, and he picked him up in his arms.
Kip would grow into a man someday. He might grow to resent Luon for the death of his parents. But Luon had decided to be a father to Kip, and nothing would ever change that.
The three embraced for a long time, and to Edward and Alphonse, there was nothing to tell them apart from a real family.
“Thank you,” Luon said at last, turning to Edward.
After a while, the time came to leave. Luon went back down the hill to the military police waiting to take him away. Edward looked at Shelley and Kip as they waved him off, and in their faces he saw determination. They would wait for him to come home. They would wait as long as it took until they could be a family again.
“I’m glad,” Alphonse said suddenly. “I know Luon might have made the wrong decisions after the massacre, but I’m glad he got a second chance.”
“Yeah, me too,” Edward agreed.
They may not have saved Luon from his past, but the brothers felt sure that things would improve from here on out for the Egger family.
“Say, Ed,” Alphonse continued. “You know how people are always looking down on state alchemists, calling them the ‘military’s dogs’? I mean, I understand they have a history, and there are a lot of alchemists who don’t use their power to help people … but I can’t help thinking that if there were more alchemists who went out of their way to help, even without orders or chance of a reward, people’s opinions might start to change. It might take a while, but they’d change.”
“Al …”
“I guess I just wish there were more state alchemists like you.”
Edward looked down at his open hands.
Roy and Luon would carry the memory of the massacre with them like chains around their ankles for the rest of their lives. They knew what their power was capable of—a power that Edward shared.
When he chose to become a state alchemist, Edward knew he would have to follow orders. But how would he feel if he were forced to use his powers to destroy another person’s life? In fact, it didn’t matter whether he used his powers or not. How would he feel if another person died or was injured because of something he’d done?
Would he give up alchemy and quit searching for a way to restore his original body? Or would he forge onward, not caring and not looking back? Edward didn’t know which he would choose. He might even choose both.
Then Edward thought back to Izumi, how she had sent them off at the station after they had defied her warning not to search for Dell. It occurred to him that maybe she had meant to let them go from the very beginning. She wanted to let them see where the path they were on could lead them. She wanted them to change their course. What would Izumi say?
The lessons you teach yourself are always more important than the lessons you learn from others.
“Ed!”
Edward turned around. Alphonse was standing in front of the bookshop with Shelley and Kip, waving for Edward to join them.
“They say the train for Dublith is leaving soon.”
“I’ll help you pack your stuff, Edward,” Kip offered.
“Thanks!”
Edward thought about getting on the train, going back to Dublith and then on to … where?
He didn’t know where they would go next or what would be waiting for them there. He would just do what he had to in order to keep moving on toward his dream that, one day, he and his brother would have their true bodies back again.
And if it ever came time to make a choice, he would choose to be a state alchemist still—one who worked to help people, not to hurt them.
Edward took a deep breath, said a prayer for the road ahead, and looked up at the twilight sky.
It was time to catch their train.