Bonus Chapter: Long Night

Set in the wake of the human transmutation that reshaped both brothers, the chapter is narrated by Alphonse, who reflects on how different nighttime has become. Where he and Edward once passed the dark hours trading easy conversation and sharing whatever crossed their minds, Al can no longer sleep in his hollow suit of armor, and his endless nights now fill with far bleaker thoughts. Waking in the small hours, Winry Rockbell discovers that Alphonse has vanished.

Al drifts down to the river running through Resembool and, in a despairing daze, plunges in hoping to feel the water against him. Den finds him, sniffs him out as if searching for the boy he knew, then licks him and settles down beside him despite Al's efforts to explain that his body is no longer the same. Edward arrives, leaning on Winry, and admits how worried he has been, only for Alphonse to reply that such worry is pointless since his body cannot die. Enraged, Ed shouts that this is not true, aggravating the pain in his own shoulder, and Alphonse counters that his brother's pain is nothing beside the agony he himself must bear. The next day the two try to guess Al's feelings from his blank expression, which he waves off as impossible to read. By the end, his lonely musing has not been wasted, for it leads him to realize how grateful he is to have the people he loves in his life.

Included in Fullmetal Alchemist Perfect Guidebook 3 and released in Japan on October 10, 2009, the chapter is regarded as a defining piece for Alphonse's growth, tying into later moments such as Father's remark that Truth claimed Al's body because he longed to feel his mother's warmth. In a small continuity note, Al's blood rune survives his plunge into the river, contrary to his fear elsewhere in the main story that submersion could wash it away.