Shou Tucker was in an abandoned building, a place where no one would think to look for him.
He had transmuted his daughter into a chimera just to keep his job, but now, older, wiser, and worse for wear, all he wanted was to make it
right by bringing his daughter back to life.
He had already gotten this far with the Philosopher's stone, but his will wasn't strong enough to attach her soul to this body.
(Note: this takes place after the F.M.A. movie that concluded the series)
Without it, he knew it would be much harder - especially with the Elric Brothers on the other side of The Gate, for he had kept up with current
events.
Still, he had lost everything - this lifeless doll was all he had left, and all that mattered to him now was giving it life - if for no other reason
other than to atone for all the bad, thoughtless things he'd done!
He had heard the various accounts of other people trying what he was about to do, and that all these ended in grotesque failures - creating
homunculi in the process.
He knew the risks, and the warnings against it, but he had nothing else to live for at this point, so he didn't care - as long as he could get his
beloved daughter back.
So he put some clothes on her, put her in the middle of the circle, marked his non-human parts (he felt that trading them for his daughter's
soul would be a fair enough equivalent exchange), and activated it.
In a flash of light, he found himself at The Gate. It opened, revealing all those Gate Children, their black, baby-like faces smiling sinisterly, and
Tucker fell on his knees and begged with tears streaming down his up-side-down face.
"Please," he cried in anguish "give her back - my daughter - Nina - please give her back to me!!! I know I don't deserve her after all I've done,
and I've failed countless times, but please, just this once, have mercy. Take away from me all that isn't human, and in exchange, give me my
daughter's soul - put it in the body I made for her - PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU!!! I'll never ask you for anything again if you just do this one
thing for this poor, wretched man!"
The Gate Children were silent, them reached out and put their small, black hands on his non-human parts.
"You're funny." one said.
"You really think you can trade us these parts for her?" another continued.
"Very well, you'll get her back alright," a third one said.
"but you might end up wishing you hadn't," a forth said with an evil smile.
"and if you do, then don't blame us," a fifth said.
"but blame your own selfish self instead!!!" a sixth said with a look of evil insanity.
The next thing Tucker knew, everything went black, and the last thing he heard before lost consciousness, was the wicked laughter of the Gate
Children.
When he woke up, he was back in the building, wearing his lab clothes, with a perfectly normal body.
"It looks like they accepted them." he said to himself "I may have to examine myself further to make sure they didn't take any more than I asked
them to, but that can wait. For now .... Nina ..... do I dare even look at her? What if I made another mistake - but no! This has to work - they
said they'd give her back to me. Alright, here goes."
He slowly turned around to see her lying there. She still looked the same - she looked perfectly normal, and still had that lifeless look in her
eyes. Did it work? Did he succeed? He rushed over to her side. "Nina," he asked afraid "is that you? Are you there? Have you come back to me?"
She didn't answer, but continued to stare blankly at the ceiling.
"I knew it," he said sadly "I asked for too much! Why did I think this would work, when nothing else in my life has?"
Then he got down on the floor, and started crying in his folded arms. "I suppose it's for the best," he said to himself "I mean if she really did
come back, what would she say to me?"
While he was crying he heard a soft, gentle voice "Daddy?"
He slowly lifted his head to see her face - still staring at the ceiling with the same look in her eyes.
"Nina?" he asked, a bit nervous.
Very slowly, her head turned to face him. She still looked the same - no emotion, soulless eyes, but she was staring at HIM with that look now!
"Nina," he asked "Is that really you?"
"Yes." she said, emotionlessly.
Tucker was happy, but what he didn't know was that during all that time inside The Gate, she had accumulated a vast amount of knowledge -
more than Edward had when he visited, so she could perform transmutation without a circle, and could now do all that Wrath was capable of
and more - she could fuse with anything or anyone, and then separate to make it as if it never happened. She had full knowledge of alchemy,
and of the world beyond The Gate. She was now mentally linked with her counter-part on Earth - the two girls now shared the same, exact
mind - she could see whatever her Earth self saw, and vica-versa. They also shared all their memories. Both had the regenerative properties of
a homunculus, but weren't ones themselves, and their ability to age had been taken away in exchange for all this knowledge and power, so
neither of them could die (they'd be 8 forever), and she was fully aware of all this!
Most importantly, she was fully aware of everything bad her father had done - especially to her and her mom, and she knew that her father had
brought her back, and why he did it, but real question is, as she stares at her father blankly with those lifeless eyes, can she find it in her heart
(which just started beating again) to forgive her father for all the bad things he did?