Disclaimer: I do not own FMA, and never will.

Note: I don't have much of medical knowledge, and the research I did went way over my head, so I'm sorry for medically inaccurate stuff. Any inaccuracy with amnesia however, can be totalled up to what happens.

A/N: Merry Christmas to everybody! I had this idea for a while, but actually wrote this down one boring day in class. I'm sad for giving Roy credit for somebody's else discovery, but it had to be done for the impossible to happen.

Without much more ranting, onward we go!

Forbidden Action

"Colonel, watch out!" Edward pushed his superior aside, taking the fatal bullet meant for the charcoal-haired man.

"Fullmetal, wha-" was all Roy got out before he fell to the ground. He stared in horror as the teen fell to the ground, blood almost instantly pooling around him.

A coldness seeped through his being as he stood up, eyes filled with barely hidden fury as he snapped his fingers in the direction of the shot. The dark alleyway lit up for a few moments as fire rushed forward. A scream rang to the skies and the smell of burning flesh assaulted the air.

Roy snapped again, before turning and rushing to his fallen subordinate.

This wasn't supposed to happen. It was a simple mission; their aim was to just round up a few criminals in the area. The only reason Roy had tagged along with Edward was because of talk about the criminals somehow having gotten their hands on military weapons.

And it was proven true when they chased one of them to the alley, only to be ambushed by six others, who were easily rendered unconscious. Except for one, it seemed. A costly mistake that could have taken Roy's life; instead, it took Edward's.

'Be optimistic,' he scolded himself, before speaking to Edward, "Stay awake, Fullmetal. That is an order." He crouched on the ground next to Edward, uncaring of the blood staining his uniform. "You can pull through. Just wait till I call the medics."

"Nah, ba-bastard. I-I know bi-biology. It's-it's fatal," Edward spoke slowly.

"Fullmetal, listen to me for once in your life and stay awake!" Although Roy tried to hold it back, desperation still leaked into his voice.

"Co-Colonel, look after Alphonse. Tell him… not to stop." Edward gritted his teeth at the agony as Roy gently lifted his head, before applying pressure onto the area of the wound. Every movement and every word pained him. He knew he had perhaps seconds left, as the bullet had barely missed his heart.

'The joys of having performed human transmutation,' he thought with a laugh.

Strangely, he felt peaceful, or as much as he could be. He trusted Mustang and the others would look after Alphonse. His only regret was that he wouldn't be able to keep his promise to his brother.

"Mustang," he whispered, making the man lower his head to hear him clearly. "I… always thought you were better than that bastard." Seeing Roy's confusion, he smiled and added, "Dad."

No matter the seriousness of the situation, the utter shock on Roy's face made him smile even wider, though it hurt. He had wanted to say that for quite some time, but if he had known his superior would have reacted like this, he would have done it sooner.

"Fullmetal," Roy spoke. Then after a small pause, he continued, "Edward, I think of you like my son. Now stay alive so you can make fun of me for saying something so sappy!" The last four words came out in a pleading tone.

But Edward's eyes were already closing, darkness encroaching his vision. His last thought was being glad that his feelings were mutual.

Roy stared at the still body, desperately applying pressure even though he heard Edward's breathing stop. It had been unrealistic to expect Edward would have lived through such a wound, but he had still held hope. Saying those words aloud made his feelings much more real, and he bit back a sob.

He stared at his red-stained gloves in anger – anger at his failure to do anything for his subordinate, at yet another death caused due to him. He removed and placed them in his pocket. He couldn't wear it. He just couldn't.

But perhaps, there was a way to make up for his failure.

Mechanically, he picked up Edward's body, placing it in a less bloody area. He recalled the circle for human transmutation with crystal clarity. He had only wanted to use it twice in his life: during the Ishval Civil War to bring the Ishvalans back to life and after Maes' death.

But this time, he would succeed. He had Edward's body and the teen had only been dead for a minute at the most. There was no way he could fail, considering everything was logically in his favour.

He looked at the circle he had drawn only to verify that it was theoretically perfect. Neither the effort nor the time he had taken to do it mattered. This was for Edward; the teen who had much more to live for, much more to do, who was lying unusually still in the centre of the intricate circle.

Edward's words flitted through his mind – completely unrelated to the issue at hand.

'The Philosopher's Stone is made up of tens, hundreds, thousands of souls.'

'We forgot to account for her soul… The price of a human soul is far too great for anything else to be equivalent to its value…'

Souls. There was no set number of souls to create a Philosopher's Stone, and every human had a soul. Everybody was a Philosopher Stone, technically, a very small one.

He clapped and placed his hands on the outer rim of the circle, concentrating on using his soul ('even if many had called him a soulless monster'). Instead of the usual gentle-blue, the circle lit up with a bright scarring scarlet. Roy ignored it; it wasn't messing with his alchemy.

Within half a minute however, lightning crackled, rushing up from the circle. The red turned purple and Roy found he couldn't lift his hands.

Brilliant light flashed in his eyes. Roy caught a glimpse of an eye underneath Edward just before his vision went black.

He opened his eyes to see pure white. There was nothing but white surrounding him, and he wondered distantly if this was what death felt like. Death wasn't unusual during human transmutation, after all.

The outline of a person appeared in front of him, a wide grin on its face. Behind it were large double doors, with carvings on black stone. The Gate. Then this must be-

"Alchemist," Truth said in a sing-song voice. "You do this even though you know the consequences."

"He hasn't been dead for too long. The only thing I need to pay for is his soul. And I technically did pay some of the cost with my own soul."

"To give you the ultimate knowledge is not equivalent, Mr. Alchemist." Truth grinned even more, if it was possible. A shiver went up Roy's spine; he knew this was not going to be good news. "A better price would be taken from the other one…"

Roy's eyes widened. But before he could say anything, the white faded away.

He didn't hear Truth's last words as he appeared back in the alleyway. "He is important, Mr. Alchemist. More than any of you humans could possibly comprehend."

If anything had happened to Ed…

He rushed to the boy, picking him up.

Edward's eyes were closed, and he was still deathly pale. Roy couldn't stop a silent tear as he buried his head in the blond hair. How could he tell this to Alphonse, to his unit?

He had thought he could protect Edward if the boy was under him in the military, though in the beginning it had only been for selfish purposes. It was bitterly ironic that the boy had gotten hurt saving his superior's life. And even worse, the alchemist didn't blame him. If he was blamed, it would have been easier to take. It would have been easier if Edward's last words were his usual insolent comments - 'Can't you protect yourself, Colonel Useless, without Hawkeye babysitting you? Guess all you're good for is to pass comments on my height and smirk like an idiot.'

As he wallowed in self-guilt and melancholy, he didn't notice the fact that Edward's wound was healed.

Edward opened his eyes to see a familiar blue. He knew he had seen it somewhere before, but that memory eluded him.

He groaned as pain lanced through him for a moment, and suddenly, a word echoed through his blank mind. It sounded right… and so he spoke it aloud. "Dad?"

The weight on his head disappeared, and concerned coal-black eyes looked at him. Surprise flashed through them, before it was quickly concealed. "Fullmetal." A sigh of relief.

Was that his name? His confusion must have shown on his face as the man ('his father, because that was the only certainty he had in the world of unknowns') asked, "What is the matter?"

He bit his lower lip, afraid to reveal it but wanting to. "I… I don't remember anything." He closed his eyes to avoid looking at the surprise on his father's face.

A hand rested on the side of his head, and he opened his eyes. "It doesn't matter." There was an emotion he couldn't recognize in those words.

"What- What's…?" He trailed off, unable to complete his question. 'What's my name? What's your name? Where are we?' How could he possibly ask that?

It seemed his father had picked up on what he wanted to ask however, answering after a pause of silence, "You are Edward Elric-Mustang."

"What?"

"Elric was your mother's last name. Trisha Elric." The two words stirred up no memories, and a stab of guilt went through him.

There was guilt heavier than his in his father's eyes as he said in a low voice, "It's because of me this happened to you."

Frighteningly, his first instinct was to scream. To scream at his own father. 'Stop being so self-centered, you jerk! Don't you dare act like I'm so small I can't make my own decision, okay?'

He wondered how messed up he was.

"Don't-don't blame yourself. I don't know what happened," he confessed. "But it doesn't matter. It doesn't. After all, it's not like anything happened." The remnants of some memory, now nearly erased, told him the person in front of him wasn't to blame. It was more of a feeling than any image, though a flash of blue and black followed that feeling.

"Can you stand, Edward?" He was helped into a sitting position, and except for a bit of light-headedness, it wasn't that bad.

"I think so," he said, and his father stood up along with him. The moment the two hands holding him vanished, he tumbled forward, eyes shutting as a sharp pain pierced his head.

Roy barely stopped Edward from crashing, and quietly called the boy's name, only to not get any response. It seemed the transmutation had taken more out of him than he had shown (not that that was saying much, considering how utterly weak Edward had been).

It stunned him that Edward somehow believed they were father and son. It was utterly absurd. They were just superior and subordinate… and yet, he hadn't been able to say anything against Edward's belief. No matter what solid logical excuse he made for that, deep inside (even while he would viciously deny it to anybody else who asked), he knew it was largely due to the warmth that flared in his heart at that word.

He carried Edward like one would carry a sleeping child – which was exactly what Edward was, he realized – and went over to the transmutation circle, putting on one of his gloves onto his right hand.

In one snap, all traces of the forbidden transmutation circle disappeared in a blazing explosion.

*FIN*

A/N: Let me just give my justifications for human transmutation working.

-First, Edward had only been dead for a shorter period of time and unlike Trisha, his body was already there – whole except for a bullet wound. Then Roy used his soul, and the pocket watch (remember the first anime where the pocket watch is an alchemical amplifier?). So, the actual cost becomes far less than the 'Ultimate Knowledge' of Truth, so the price was taken from Ed, who had already experienced it. (sighs) That was long, but I feel it was necessary to explain myself.

Complete for now, because I honestly don't think I could add anything to Amnesia!Ed not already done by other, better writers.