Reunion, Groundwork

Hohenheim tirelessly walked forward. It was hard to get cold with all the souls that swam around in his body providing him passive energy he didn't truly want, but the North of Amestris would try to make him cold anyway.

He was in a region of snow-covered plains, vegetation was nonexistent as stone and hard soil shared ground under Hohenheim's shoes. He crunched forward to an exact position that even the best navigators would struggle to differentiate and halted before he slowly unbuttoned his shirt and revealed his bare chest. In doing so, he halted the motion of his fingers and frowned before turning towards his previous back at a right angle and clapping his hands together.

Blue lightning jumped excitedly and the stone and earth beneath his feet formed pillars that rose and curved in mid-air. Hohen doesn't know how someone snuck up on him this close, but they probably were up to no good.

Like drills, these pillars soared and aimed to maim. Hohen couldn't make out the figure, but they seemed to raise one hand and snap. Golden lightning flushed all other light out and the two pillars which converged upon him became something inexplicable.

The dirt and stone which was tightly fashioned burst once more just before reaching him in a flurry as white as snow. The squawking and the shifting of feathers concealed everything as Hohen's pillars ended their charge. The cloud dispersed, revealing hundreds of doves that fled skyward in a synchronized flutter of small wings and noises of the terror of sudden existence.

"Wha-WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Even if he had enough energy, performing such a complex transmutation that spit in the face of the Law of Natural Providence with such speed and ease was beyond both him and Father. Plus, he would never waste so much energy for something like that.

'Wait, a character of that level, could it be-?'

The curtain of doves parted and a man in a black trench coat and a black three-piece suit and tie with golden trimming was revealed. His clothes would stick out as the more fashionable and ostentatious version of Hohenheim's own traveler's earthy colored set.

"Mr. Nightingale, I presume?" Hohen asked but only lowered his guard a little, caught between gratitude and suspicion.

"You presume correctly. Very nice greeting, by the way!"

"Well, it isn't often someone can just appear behind me."

"If I didn't want you to feel me," Yuri spoke, and then vanished. A hand abruptly clasped onto Hohen's shoulder and he jumped. "you wouldn't."

Yuri actually gave the man the mental 'illusion' that he was behind him in order to turn around. No one can feel Yuri unless they see him first, this is still a fact.

Hohen shook his head and moved on. His Teleportation theory was confirmed, there is no normal way for an Alchemist to worry about stopping that so he didn't.

"I don't know if you experienced something similar to me or not, Mr. Nightingale, but I would appreciate it if you didn't waste such precious soul energy so easily."

"Haha..." Yuri transported in front of Hohen instantly once more. "Mr. Hohenheim, there are more energies and powers out there than you can count. Your Alchemy and Alkahestry have certainly been fun to learn, but they are very limited in scope compared to my methods. I don't even need souls per se."

'An energy beyond souls? Is he from the Far West or something? I've never been there but the world is much more vast than I've traveled alone.'

"But anyway, you must be wondering why I've arrived?"

"...To help?" Hohen relaxed, remembering Trisha's letter. "I must thank you for... for bringing Trisha back." Hohen let his waist lean forward at a sharp angle. "I don't know how to ever repay you."

Yuri let a smile stretch on his face and show his teeth. "Oh, it's not that hard. Just let me help you finish your circle!"

Hohen leaned his head back up, then his body. "You've mentioned this before... You know the form-" A paper appeared from nowhere and was shoved in his face.

"Does this look familiar?" Yuri had the exact Alkahestric Reverse Unsealing Circle, an array that developed five lines from five different angles and stopped after crossing each other to form a pentagon. These lines would run through the original nationwide Human Transmutation Circle's edges if it were overlayed, and was designed to not only tether the souls to their original vessel but to invalidate the entire process after it was performed. A trap, not to stop Father but to remove his energy when he had already played a fatal gambit.

"So you have figured it out as well. Far be it from me to question the man who helped revive my wife, but why do you want to help me?" He was grateful, but this circle was the culmination of his life's work.

"Look, Hohen, I'll give it to you straight." Yuri shrugged helplessly and leaned forward before throwing an arm over his shoulder and gesturing. "If your kids get any closer to me they might call me daddy! Don't tell my ladies this, but I'm not precisely ready to be a father, especially a stepfather!"

Black lines appeared on Hohen's forehead as a depressing shadow crept over it. Yuri was impressed, he used illusion magic to do the same thing before but these anime people have a unique constitution or something.

"The boys need a father in their lives, and your wife needs her husband, suffice to say. I'm just being a good neighbor!" Yuri spun around to face him and held him by both shoulders. 'That and I wanna tweak your circle a bit'

"And with you, our progress will be faster, is what you're saying?" Hohen wanted to believe such a laid-back and powerful character could help him finish it quickly and do so out of the goodness of his heart, but he still wanted to be involved.

"I can finish it much faster without you. In fact, I'll let you know when it's done!" Yuri clapped him a couple of times and whisked him away.

Hohenheim blinked and felt an inexplicable sense of displacement. He nearly vomited, a man of his stature, but his vision unblurred and he found himself in front of the only house he was ever happy to live in since that day.

"Ah... that's not fair..."

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Yuri continued. Several clones burst from him in translucent bursts of pale blue light and scattered across the land. He would not be late for dinner, no sir.

The original was still being set, but it was less of a formation and more historical scars in the earth that Yuri would have to travel back 400 years to alter. Truth would not let him do that.

But what he could do was give Father a taste of his own medicine, similar to what he did to the Xerxes king in the past. Yuri surrounded each and every carved blood marker with Elvish script. It was actually a very simple course correcting enchantment, designed to alter or redirect the effects of an existing one elsewhere due to a miscalculation. He had a different plan for Hohenheim's planted circles, in fact he didn't plan on letting those souls be used for it at all. But he didn't need to know that just yet.

{I got a plan for the finale that Yuri can't account for, don't worry}

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Hohen walked with trepidation towards the house and gave gentle raps on the door. No answer was heard, even knocking for several patient minutes. No one was home, he was beginning to think it was all a dream, that his wife was still dead and his sons by the wayside, that the man used him and his weakness.

To his right, an unfamiliar biome bordered his familiar home. 'That wasn't there before'. He started to hear the shouting of children, voices he had never heard before from a great distance. He set down his suitcase, took off his long trench coat and his jacket and vest to adjust to the new climate, and started maneuvering through the jungly brush when he reached it. Water that was unnaturally clean flowed to his right and continued towards the joyful noises.

'This has Nightingale written all over it.'

The brush was moved aside and a pool was revealed.

"WOOHOOOOO!"

Hohen barely registered a blonde head of hair plunging into the refreshing water. He saw another one facing away from him towards the same pool, and lastly a brunette in a bikini reading a book with a gentle smile on her face as she looked up from time to time.

Hohen was entranced, feelings started welling up within and he wanted to find the strength to move forward and hopefully claim a part in this scene.

*Sploosh!* "Hey, Al! Huh?" Ed tilted his head as the water lingered in his eyes, finding a tall man behind Al.

"Stranger danger! Stranger danger! WHO ARE YOU OLD MA-" Ed halted his panic as more water left his eyes and he seemed to recognize the man's outline.

Trisha whipped her head over as soon as Ed started shouting, but couldn't help but gape as soon as she saw him until she snapped out of it.

"DEAR!!!"

She charged. Death and rebirth made his departure cut deeper than ever before, even if she enjoyed the fact that she could live with her boys. Ed and Al were silent as their mother seemed to charge to him with a glee they couldn't muster. From below him near the pool, they only saw his towering figure and a set jaw below glasses coated in sunlight that let nothing past them be seen. They almost wanted to stop their mom but that felt cruel to think of.

But as soon as Hohen turned his head back to Trisha he pulled his glasses off and they saw the same thing Trisha did. Quivering lips, leaking eyes, and then shaking hands as they looked down. Dots were connecting even if their eight-year grudge still left an awkward pit.

The bikini-clad woman clung to Hohen who tenderly clasped her and let his face be concealed once more in the nape of her neck. She sobbed, and like always he hid his feelings and silently let his eyes water while whispering calmly to her to ease her. The boys awkwardly got out of the pool and dripped over to the poolside chairs. Trisha let go of her husband and gauged their sons' reaction to see if they could come over and greet him.

They were looking away, Ed was even whistling while opening a can of soda nonchalantly. Al peeked glances but held his solidarity.

Hohen glanced at their arms, scar tissue formed underneath the stubs of their incredible automail.

"Who made their automail?" He murmured to Trisha.

She snorted at his out-of-place curiosity, "Yuri's wife and little Winry. They did a great job, didn't they?"

Ed lost the classic right arm while Al lost his left, but instead of the obvious replacement mechanisms with gaping joints and linear-looking frame pieces, it was as if they had covered their arms with glued-on fish scales. Silver glittered in hundreds of small pieces on the outer layer, making it indistinguishable in range of motion from skin and much tougher. The insides were made of coils with very little piston activity, powered by their own Chi to make up for the added weight that bioelectricity couldn't possibly move alone without causing detriment to their growth.

They were essentially metal and dumbed-down versions of Yuri's arms. Certain parts will need to be replaced and more scales will need to be added as the brothers grow, but it was a lifelong automail.

Though Winry did end up needing to *BONK* Ed while he kept asking for more features.

Ally was proud of the arms, so much so that she was considering Robot Labor already.

"Ed! Al! Come say hello to your father, please! He missed you!" Trisha called out while nudging Hohen forward.

Ed let a tic tac mark appear on his forehead. "Well WHO ASKED HIM TO LEAVE US ALL ALONE!"

Hohen wouldn't be pushed forward, Trisha looked down.

"Without Yuri Mom would still be dead! We would still be alone! How do we know he missed us?!!!"

Winry peeked her head around the corner and halted before Sarah quickly dragged her back and the Rockbells retreated before they could enjoy the pool.

A hand gently rested on Ed and Al's shoulder individually. Toni and Ally arrived during the commotion.

"You have a right to be angry, Eddy, but listening first and judging after is a skill all people need."

"Yuri has a great amount of respect for Hohenheim and left to help him so he could come back. Don't you wanna know why?"

{Next Chapter: Young Love, New Beginnings}