Chapter Text
Edward was slumped against Darius, trying to keep his panic at bay. Heinkel knelt before him, gripping the rebar that was speared entirely through his torso and watching Ed’s panting with a creased brow. This was the worst injury Ed ever received, probably one of the worst any of them had seen—he knew he had to act fast.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Ed said and braced his arms just above where the rebar was protruding, readying a clap.
He had barely a second of centering his thoughts, viewing himself as a single mass of energy when Heinkel began to pull and Ed felt like he was being stabbed anew. His body jerked, and he yelled involuntarily, focusing all of his energy to mentally prepare for the transmutation. It would be like when he was trapped inside Gluttony and had used a traditional philosopher’s stone. Only difference was this time, he was a single soul.
After an eternity of pulling, the rebar broke free of his side and Ed sagged for a moment before clapping. Blue sparks of the transmutation surrounded him. Clenching his teeth, he thrust his hands to his wound, focusing on his energy. He could feel the tissues knitting themselves together, but there was still so much damage. Ed knew he was a bit too close to death. Pulling more from his soul, he pleaded with the transmutation in a way that felt a little too similar to human transmutation. His side sparked with pain again, but Ed refocused himself, pushing through it. He was a philosopher’s stone. It was a fair price, giving up his life force, and he would not give that bastard another opportunity to snatch a limb.
And of course, it was at that moment, when he was pulling back the transmutation, having accomplished as much as he could on his own, that he felt it. Small hands tugged at him, pulling him away from Heinkel and Darius. Edward screamed as the mine shaft disappeared around him.
Along with his surroundings, the pain disappeared as well, but Ed felt all the worse for it. He now faced a sickening endless white, with a stone gate facing him, and a white figure standing in front, completely shapeless other than a grin. For a moment, Ed couldn’t breathe. No, this couldn’t be happening. He’d been careful. He’d made a fair trade. The initial thrill of shock and fear was quickly replaced however.
“I was using a philosopher’s stone!” Ed shouted as his whole body tensed, ready for a fight.
The white figure, Truth, remained unnaturally still as their mouth moved dramatically and said, “It was still a human transmutation.”
“But I paid the toll,” Edward grit out. He had been so sure it would work, and his mind raced with the implications. Was there something about his transmutation that failed the Law of Equivalent Exchange? Or was there somehow a case where a soul, pure energy, wouldn’t be a fair trade? It went against everything Ed knew about Alchemy. As his mind raced, his body stiffened further, anticipating the shit response Truth would give. What would this cost him? If he was lucky, it would just be another limb, but given his situation, that would still kill him.
Truth’s head tilted. They still wore a grin, but something about it felt different from the last time he was here, tighter almost. “Someone else brought you to me,” Truth said, gesturing, and Ed noticed something that he’d never seen before—a pool on the ground. It was lined in gray stone, identical in look to his gate, but wholly unfamiliar and something he’d never heard mention in any book.
“What is that?” Ed asked, trying to peer into it without stepping closer. It had a perfectly smooth surface and was too reflective to just contain water. It almost looked like it was filled with liquid silver if there wasn’t a transparency to it.
“This is the way you’ll be leaving this place,” Truth announced, far too smugly.
That seemed like a horrid idea. He had no clue what was in front of him, but everything screamed at him not to get even a step closer. “No. I use the gate.”
“Normally, yes.” Ed debated smacking the smile right off of Truth’s face. “But someone else has tempered with your transmutation. Your gate won’t open.”
“Who tempered with it?” Ed demanded, feeling the heat rise to his face, as Truth seemed to grin wider.
“Are you offering an exchange of information?”
“Fuck no,” Ed shouted, as his whole body recoiled at the thought of making another deal with Truth. “I shouldn’t be here. I never wanted to see you again. I used a stone!”
“The price of your philosopher’s stone was sufficient for your healing.”
“Then why am I here?!” Truth responded only with that same forced grin. Ed shivered. “Let me out of here.”
Truth gestured again towards the pool. “This is the way.”
“I’m not going in that. I can’t swim.” Truth laughed and Ed, resolving himself to do whatever he could to get away, started towards his gate. Al needed him. Whatever was in that pool, Ed was sure it wouldn’t be Al.
He started towards his gate, determined to pry the damned thing open, but Truth said, “You don’t have a choice.”
And then his gate pulled back rapidly. Ed sprinted after it, but it accelerated further away. It was barely a speck when he finally stopped running. He spun, ready to scream at Truth again, but Truth was already behind him, pool alongside.
“It’s time,” Truth announced and black hands, poured out of the cracks in the base of the pool, wriggling their way towards him.
“What is it?” Ed asked frantically. “Where will it take me?”
“You will see soon enough.”
That wasn’t enough. He couldn’t go into that pool. Desperate, he said something he never thought he would. “I’ll make a deal. Let me go through my gate,” Ed shouted, but the hands continued towards him.
“I can not make that deal.”
“Aren’t you god?”
The hands were still for half a moment, as Truth said, “Even I am bound by rules.”
That was a terrifying thought—something Truth couldn’t do. “What rules?”
“Your world is bound by the law of Equivalent Exchange. Who is to say that is the only law?”
Your world. Ed’s heart rate spiked, and the hands grabbed hold.
“It’s time, Little Alchemist.”
Ed turned away, but the hands pulled, sending him to his knees. “I can’t,” he pleaded, as he began to be dragged backwards. “Alphonse needs me.”
Truth didn’t budge and said, cruelly, “Neither of us has a choice.” But suddenly, his gate appeared behind Truth again, and along with it was Al’s body.
“Al! Alphonse!”
Al’s face turned towards him. He was still too gaunt, hair and nails too long, but it was the sight of what he desired most. His brother as he should be.
Truth continued. “If you find yourself before me again, it means you have circumvented this law. For that, you'll be allowed passage through your gate. No extra cost.”
That should have filled Ed with excitement—Truth was essentially promising to give him Al’s body, but everything about this situation was wrong. He screamed for Al again. When the hands had gotten him to the edge of the pool, Ed knew he was helpless.
“I’ll be back Al. I promise!” The gaunt face gave a small smile.
As his body was dragged into the pool’s contents, Truth peered down at him.
“Farewell, Edward Elric.”
He didn’t splash into the pool; the contents were much too thick. It swallowed him, sucking him quickly beneath the surface. It was viscous and hard to move around in, but Ed sunk fast. He plummeted through the pool, reaching wildly for a handhold and failing. Truth’s whiteness gave way to flashes and streaks of white until even those faded to pinpricks of light in the distance.
Time was irrelevant, and nothing felt real. It was the same overwhelming feeling as traveling through the gate, even if the knowledge wasn’t drilling into his head. He was seeing the whole of the universe as he fell. The all-encompassing thickness lessened until it felt like falling through water, then air.
The spots of light disappeared, and Ed felt his speed increase. A fresh wave of panic filled him, terrified of the momentum he was building and the complete darkness that surrounded him.
And suddenly, Ed was stationary. There was no crashing. No Ed-sized crater showing his impact on the ground. The fall had just stopped. He gasped in a breath, and as his head spun, overwhelmed by the onslaught of his senses, his eyes shot wildly around him, trying and failing to take in the new surroundings.
Then the pain came. The exact spot where the rebar had skewered him screamed in agony. His hands flew instinctively to his stomach as he curled in on himself. A quick glance told him he was on a cold, stone floor in the middle of something that looked suspiciously like an array etched into it. Scrambling backward, Ed still clutched his side, terrified of getting caught in the array if it activated. He struggled to get his feet under him but kicked himself far enough to be free of the carved radius and pressed himself up against a stack of books.
Feeling a lot less exposed, Ed looked around again, finally catching sight of another man. He was standing on the opposite side of the room, wearing a white cloak that draped onto the floor. His long hair and beard were worn freely and his old face was so stern that Ed did not know if he was pissed or was just his normal face. Either way, he readied his hands to clap.
The man strode forward slowly, speaking in a language Ed didn’t recognize.
“Who are you?” Ed asked. The man responded with another string of unintelligible words. He tried again. “Can you understand me?”
The old man’s eyes narrowed as he said something else. It was unlike any language he knew. Too many consonants to be Drachman and too few tones to be Xingese.
“Fuck.” Ed scanned the room again, remembering Mustang’s training. The exit was clear enough—there was a bolted door on the far side. Windows lined the circular room, but they were partially covered, allowing nothing more than light through. Probably not the best option for escape. The whole place was dark and creepy, and not in a good aesthetic way. It was in a way that reminded him of a building that should be condemned. The only redeeming factor was the number of books and notes scattered about the room, but even those wouldn’t convince Ed to stay around.
Truth had said someone had tempered with the array and this creepy ass man was looking to be the culprit. The array on the floor, even if all the symbols were wrong and completely unfamiliar, was fairly damning evidence.
“Did you do this?” Ed asked, pointing down at the floor.
The man spoke again and then knelt, reaching for the array, but Ed wasn’t about to give him a chance to activate it. He clapped and pressed his hands to the stone, sending a ripple of spikes through the array, forcing the man backward a few steps.
A wave of dizziness crashed into Ed, but he was far more concerned about the old man’s reaction. He went from shock, glancing between the new spikes decorating his lair, to Ed. Then his face twisted, somehow perfectly combining fear and fury. The man shouted, but Ed was already moving, thankful his legs seemed willing to cooperate. It wasn’t far to the doors, and he stumbled into them, letting his automail shoulder act as a battering ram. He barged through the door only to be forced to skid to a stop.
Ed knew there was a chance he wasn’t on the ground floor, but he hadn’t mentally prepared to be this high up. The doors opened to a balcony that overlooked a scarred terrain. Deep pockets were torn into the ground, glowing with fire. Echoes of metal clanking, shouting, and roaring furnaces amassed into a buzzing that filled the air. What kind of hell had Truth banished him too?
A force pulled at his ankles and Ed smacked heavily into the ground, causing his wound to flare with pain again. His hands instinctively moved to clap, and blinking away the pain, he turned back to the man.
His staff was pointing right at Ed and when he spoke, jabbing the staff forward, an invisible force knocked Ed’s head back to the stone.
Was he transmuting the air? “What are you doing?” Ed shouted, panicked. He couldn’t move his head off the floor.
The man held up a hand and said something sternly. It looked almost like a peaceful gesture, or at least a sign to get Ed to temper himself, but Ed wasn’t in the mood. Something screamed at him to get out and get back to Al.
His head couldn’t move, but his arms were still free. He clapped and transformed the floor underneath the man into spikes. The old man was forced backward into his desk, and the moment his staff lowered, Ed was free. He tried to get back to the balcony. He could transmute a slide to get out of this tower, and then, well, he’d figure it out once he got to the ground.
The first problem with that plan, was when he tried to stand, he wobbled, stumbling back to the floor. The last transmutation had taken a large portion of his energy. Energy that was in short supply after his near-death experience.
He pushed himself forward, readying a clap that would transform the tower to lower him to the ground when a force knocked him back. That damned staff. Ed tried to turn and bring his hands together to transmute, aiming to knock the bastard’s staff out one of the windows, but his arms were pinned to the ground. Apparently, the man had learned.
Ed’s head spun from the last hit, his side screamed, and no matter how hard Ed clung to the adrenaline, his last sight was of the man looming over him. He gave his best attempt at a scowl and then lost consciousness.