Saphroneth on looping:

One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping.

There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one.

The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it.

To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.)

The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop.

Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality.

Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.)

Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.

TV Tropes explanation for Time Loops:

"The Infinite Loops, also known as the Innortal-style Time Loops, are an ever-expanding genre of Time Loop fanfics.

The premise is that something has happened to Yggdrasil, the World Tree computer that contains and runs the multiverse. As a result, the various universes have been put in 'safe mode', time-looping until Yggdrasil can be repaired. Each universe's loop is maintained by the presence of an Anchor, a core person from that loop who is the first to notice their universe is looping. There is always an Anchor in a Loop.

As repairs to Yggdrasil continue, more people in each universe begin Looping as well, but are not necessarily aware participants in every Loop; only the Anchor is so blessed..or cursed. Your mileage may vary. Characters that are aware of the Loops and retain memories of their previous go-arounds are termed "Awake"."

Loop 1. (And so it begins)

(GoldenGiffiness)

Painpainpainpain.

W-where am I? His leg and arm felt dead and sore. They never hurt this bad anymore.

"Brother? Brother, are you awake?" Ed forced his eyes open, despite the light that speared into his head like hellfire. Two piercing red eyes ravaged his heart. He had just gotten used to seeing his eyes mirrored in his brother's again.

"Al?! Wha, what happened? How… but…" Something in Ed's chest cracked. "How are you back in that body?"

"Back…? Brother, are you feeling alright…?" He glanced at the stumps. "Alright, stupid question."

"I'm more worried about you right now, Al!" came the borderline hysterical response as he forced the pain to the back of his mind.

"I'll be alright, idiot!" Came the equally frantic reply. "I haven't been bleeding out!"

"At least I have a body to bleed from!" Ed choked back. "Al, how? What happened?"

"You tell me!" Al snapped back. "I woke up like this! And your-your leg and arm are gone. What happened to the transmutation, brother? W-what happened to us?"

It finally clicked that Al's reactions were strange. "W-wait, Al. Y-you're saying we just tried to bring back mom?"

"I think something's wrong with your head to, brother… YES."

Ed wanted to bury his face in his knees, but he had notice the stumps. And his inability to move.

"Al… What year is it?" No matter what he suspected, he was not ready for the answer that confirmed his insane theory. "D-d-d-damnit… Al, this is insane. But… I. I swear this all already happened." A migraine was starting to bud betwe en his eyes, and he was once more reminded of his lack of automail when he tried to raise the cool metal to his aching skull. He wanted desperately to sit up, but could only try to lurch to a different position and face Al more, flinching at the lancing pain the movement caused him.

"Maybe you just need sleep, Brother." Al's eyes lightened the same way normal ones might soften. "Maybe… Maybe it'll all make more sense in the morning."

Maybe the nightmare would go away if he slept. Thinking like that seemed foolish, he had encountered many a nightmare that turned out completely real. But he was too lost in pain and fear to care anymore. Gold eyes slipped shut, and the world went dark.

It wasn't a dream. The colonel showed up, just the same. Even if he acted different. Then again, he was acting different to, as was Al and Granny and Winry. He was too dazed to react or care about Mustang, and it took him days to realize the man's offer had never happened.

He had seen an endless amount of things that could be called impossible, but he refused to believe in any of the half-baked mad theories his brain came up with. Alternate universe? Time Travel? Even as a child, he hadn't been one for such fairytales.

Then what? A coma, maybe? But you couldn't feel pain in dreams. Some new homunculus? Impossible, Father was gone.

"Have I finally gone truly insane, Al?" he muttered into his pillow, fighting the tears back, before fading once more into oblivion.

It was another few weeks before he pulled himself out of his fears long enough to decide that he couldn't risk it being real when the whole country could be in danger. He shoved his trepidation to the back of his mind. "Yo! Granny."

The old women let out a breath of relief to see him in possession of a spark once more.

"How'd you feel about making me some new limbs? I'm sorta sick of floundering around like this." Both mentally and physically.

''Blue Group" Terrorist organization destroys train # 04804, 59 civilians, officer Maes Hughes, and General Halcrow and family are proven casualties.

Ed tightened his fist, crumpling the newspaper as he wept into his spare hand. He hadn't been there. He should have been.

Never again, he swore to himself.

Never again.

Loop 2- The Truth

(Goldengriffiness)

It was the second time. The second time Ed had woken up at the start. The first had not ended well, and left him hopelessly confused.

But this time, he'd do his best to fix things. He stood shakily on his automail, paced outside with Al following, looking as lost as he felt.

The trick would be getting Al into the circle without him noticing it. It was tricky, but he'd managed. The gate opened, and Truth grinned at him.

"Well well, alchemist, didn't think I'd see you again so soon. And with your brother's soul, no less. Wanna trade it back so you don't need the shiny arm anymore?"

He gritted his teeth and ignored Al's flabbergasted confusion, jabbing his finger back at his personal gate. "My personal gate of truth for my brother's body and soul. Get it over with."

The white being cackled. "...No. That's far too easy, you've clearly done it before. Come back with something else."

And then there was darkness.

Loop 3,

(A/N)- This is where we start having time jumps. These short comedy snips are in no particular order, but do happen some time before the next character starts looping.)

(GoldenGriffiness)

"Gryffindor!"

Edward jumped up moodily, ditching the hat behind him and he strode to the table to tentative applause as he massaged where the port to his automail arm should be, but was now replaced by a jagged lightning scar running around the shoulder . However novel it was for him, Al, the unawake Mustang, Hohenheim, Ling, and everyone else to be in the same year, it still stung that Roy still managed to be at least half a foot taller than him.

He couldn't help but snort as Envy "Homunc" was sorted into Slytherin, along with his six siblings.

Fist met face. This was going to be a fun seven years. It didn't help that the loop had decided to replace the Dursleys with Olivia Armstrong and Teacher. The only ray of light was that they were at least only living together for finances, and not actually together, because that would have been a scary thought.

(Loop 4)

(Goldengriffiness)

Tucker placed his palms on the transmutation circle, eyes determined. He tried to ignore his daughter's expression as lightning crackled from his hands into the circle. A chubby Ed-head megaphone appeared, slanted eyes seaming to glare into the man's soul.

"Attention, alchemy-Toting Extremist!"

Then the illusion broke, revealing a award on a podium and a pile of grenades.

"And the world's worst Father award goes to Shou Tucker!" Recorded Applause filled the room when the confetti started falling, shot from the dummy's horn.

"Now, as your reward, a one way trip to neveerrrrlllaaand~!"

The Tucker mansion went Boom. From Hughe's house, Elicia's new adopted sister(and her little dog to) frollicked.

(Loop 5)-Ashes of Eden

(Goldengriffiness)

Nothing scared Al more than when he Woke Up and could only feel the chill wind that scalded over bodiless souls. How could his body be gone? Again. He'd only just gotten it back!

His vision was fading in and out, like he remembered after that horrid transmutation. When his sight was finally back, at first he thought he was in a terrible, terrible was Ed, little eleven-year-old Ed, bleeding out next to the edges of the large chalk array, missing two limbs and pale as a ghost. He couldn't help but look to see that the mangled, disfigured, soulless creature meant to be their mother was there too.

Even as he begged for it all to be a dream, he scooped Ed up into his arms and went running to Pinako's, because how could he chance that it wasn't?

It hurt. He had just gotten used to running again, at least the little sprints he could manage. How the wind would beat on him, sing through his hair. What it felt like for Brother to be able to support him, touch him again. He was just getting used to how looking at Mei would cause that odd tingle in his chest.

He didn't want to be back to this. He didn't want Brother to be back to missing an arm. He couldn't feel his thudding footfalls on the grass. The only thing he could feel was the nauseous, heavy aching of a heart that didn't exist in this body.

He managed a desperate plea for them to help Ed, and did his best to withdraw into himself after. Granny would manage, she was the doctor. And he'd wait. Either for Ed to wake up, or for him to be gone from this frightening, horrible, terrible dream.

The next day he was there, staring at Brother. He wouldn't wake for another day, he knew that. But if there was some key to this puzzle of where and when they were, Ed had to know, right? Ed always ended up at the center of these things.

At least if he talked to him again, maybe Ed could chase away the hopeless numbness that ebbed and flowed in this body. Somehow, coming back to it was worse, so much worse than the first time. His body had been weak and frail, but at least it was his. Not this foreign embrace of ice and steel.

He was shocked when Brother started rustling the sheets of his bed. He'd not left his side for any of it the first time, and those memories were seared into his soul.

"...Al," Edward muttered, his gold gilded eyes slitted in pain.

"Brother." With a great stolen clash Al fell to his knees. "Brother, I don't know what's happening. We're back and you're hurt again and you're not supposed to be this bad again and brother, I just g-got my body back and we aren't supposed to be here. Not like this." There was a great heave to his voice, a heaviness that bespoke tears this body refused to shed.

Meanwhile, Ed was crying too. He'd barely cried the first time it happened, his eyes had just seemed to pale and die. But now… The only times Al had seen so much life in those eyes was first when they thought they were about to see Mom again, and finally when they had strode together out of Truth's doors. They were the eyes of a blind man who had just seen the first dapple of sunlight in his life.

"Al." He managed to lurch himself into a sitting position and lean forward after loops of practice with this verry recovery. Al rushed to catch him, only to find his brother's one arm desperately reaching to grasp him in a pitiful attempt of a hug. He lay his face against Al's cold shoulder for minutes, before turning his face up with an unbridled look of relief and joy. "Al, you're here."

(Loop 6) (Big Hero 6)

(Goldengriffiness, TheSilentInsomianc)

"OW!"

His big toe throbbing from the dolor of having a heavy piece of metal crush it was not something Edward Elric usually Awoke to. Especially as it was the big toe he DIDN'T usually have. "What the fuck!"

Whiiiirrrrrrrr...

Whirling around at the foreign, high-pitched noise, Ed ignored green paint shining beneath the dawn's light, ignored the very fact he woke up in a normal kid's bedroom with both feet intact to focu on the blob of white something expanding from a red, metal cube tucked away in the corner, behind the other bed.

A silver hand moved in a circle when the blob inflated into a massive, marshmallow monstrosity. Edward might've thought this was some sort of prank, or a rather amusing version of the Truth if it wasn't for the synthetic voice that came out of its bouncy, mouthless head..

"Hello," it said. "I am: Alphonse. Your personal Alchemy companion."

Edward couldn't decide on which was more disturbing: the robotic inflection of this marshmallow monster, or the words coming out of its mouth... wherever it was.

"I was alerted for your need for soap, when you said: 'fuck'," continued the gargantuan pillow.

Stifling a groan, "Al, are you screwing with me?"

"That would be: affirmative. Hello, brother."

Ed stared at him for a moment, brow twitching. He was struck dumb, and his addled mind had some trouble processing this blobby, silver creation that was not his brother. Then Edward finally broke. "Pffffft. God, Al… you look… too freaking cute like this!" He crumpled. "Hahahaha!" He keeled over in another peal of laughter. "Oh God, I can't take this. I-I, haha, I, t-this is just too much! Hahahahaaa - GAH!"

Ed tripped on his own two feet and caused a mini-avalanche of whatever the hell this kid kept in his room. The Alchemist broke into a fierce crescendo of swearing, grumbling as Alphonse merrily continued his diagnoses. It didn't help the marshmallow monster included instructions on washing one's mouth out with soap.

(Loop 7)

(Goldengriffiness)

Edward strutted into the practical part of the Alchemy exam, having refused to take the written one again. Instead, he gatecrashed.

"Now I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I'd like to think I have some killer alchemy to show you all!" He whipped out his wand, shot off a patronus, transfigured the stands into glass, turned the uniforms pink, and capped it off by summoning water out of thin air with a mumbled 'Aguamenti.'

Seeing Wrath get dangled by a levicorpus was also quite enjoyable.

Needless to say, he passed.

Mostly because he refused to change everything back unless they passed him

(Loop 8) Are You With Me?

(GoldenGriffiness)

It was lucky Ed was there. Around the table, they ate (with the exception of Al) with gusto. Elicia was waving a spoon around her head with what the very Unawake Maes claimed was angelic intent. Ed, bits of mashed potato and pork chops peppered on his face from the girls antics, disagreed. Still, he was enjoying the very, very alive Hughes too much to complain.

This confused the non-Awake Al as well, who was staring at his brother with some confusion. Ed just raised an eyebrow unhelpfully, because telling Unawake Al about the loops had never ended well. It would just upset them both, and all progress would be lost upon reset. It was agonizing.

The quiet conversation was interrupted by a desperate scream. The brother's heads whipped around as Hughes jerked back so far his chair upturned, his hands jerking desperately to his chest where the fatal bullet had struck. His glasses fell to the floor with a crack of glass as he hit the floor.

Gracia was the first to run to him, but stumbled to a stop at seeing the raw look of fear and confusion in her husband's eyes. Worse, it seemed to be directed at her.

It took Ed another second to get moving, and more to realize what might have happened. Gritting his teeth, he forced his foot to hook on the table's leg as he jumped to where the older man was. He fell with a well-orchestrated crash, hands 'desperately' slamming together and hitting the floor in an attempt to transmute something. Apparently accidently, metal sprung from wood, forming a little room for Maes and himself out of a mish-mash of particles so complicated it should take Al some time to figure out the structure enough to perform alchemy on it.

He grabbed Maes with one hand and pulled his wand from his subspace pocket, before apparating them away with a great crack.

They appeared on a beach, on the same one Al and Ed had spent a month on as children. Ed helped the sprawling terrified man to a sitting position, tightly grasping his shoulders to keep him steady as his breaths began to deepen.

"Snap out of it Hughes," Ed muttered. "You're not there, Envy can't hurt you. You're fine, you're fine, you're fine." He repeated time after time, like a mantra. He let go of one of the older man shoulders to stick his wand into his subspace and summon a calming draft. "Drink this."

Hughes didn't have the strength to argue, and gulped the concoction down. Ed was none too surprised when the man's eyes slid shut minutes later. He helped lay him back, before going to find materials to transmute a bed. He'd been ready for other loopers, anticipating the first native showing up in his loop even. But this was never what he would have expected. He'd seen the body before, as he tried and tried and tried, and failed again and again, to save the man every new loop. If it wasn't Envy, it was Lust or another homunculus. If he found a way to eradicate them all, then it could be anything.

After he'd created a bed and little hut for Hughes with magic and alchemy, he made himself a hammock and waited for the dedicated father to wake up.

He was grateful to see the man, and happy not to be alone besides Al in these damned home loops anymore. The unawake Al already was treating him like a stranger every loop, for the little quirks he's lost or gained over time he certainly didn't have when learning to cope with his automail.

But this… What would happen to Hughes? Would the loop's stubborn habit of killing him in what felt like the most violent, heartrending ways available stay intact? Was this the fault of their admin, whoever that might be? He had been told that there was a great mix of them, with differing attitudes and temperaments, and not all of them benevolent.

He shook off the slightly murderous intentions from his mind when he heard Hughes' low call. He dropped from the hammock and ran over. There were more important things right now.

"Hey Hughes," Edward said helplessly.

"Edward, what the hell is going on?" Hughes said, sounding lost. "I… I think I died?"

"Uh… yeah. You did. But you're back… Have you ever read any of those old stories about time travel…?"

"Yeah, once or twice… Why?" Hughes bit out bitterly at Ed's awkward attempt at calmness. "Fullmetal," The man's uncharacteristic use of his title hit Edward liked he'd been slapped. "The last thing I remember is being left to bleed out after someone who looked like my wife shot me. What. The HELL. Is happening!?"

Edward stepped back, voice coming out in something that sounded both like 'timeloops' and a squeak.

"I'm serious, Fullmetal. Explain. That's a order."

Edward drew in a hitched breath. He desperately wanted to spring forward and hug the man, incredibly grateful to have another looper here. But this was the man's first loop. He reminded the blind terror of his own first loop. "Can you promise to believe me, Hughes? Or at least wait for me to show you proof?"

The man sighed tiredly. "Alright, fine."

And so Edward told him. He pulled his wand out to show him some spells, hoping the man didn't assume it was some form of alchemy he did not understand. He apparated. He pulled out his Hub laptop, showed him some of their episodes, and capped off with the standard 'welcome to the multiverse' speech.

"I've already been around for a good hundred and fifty loops, Maes," Edward finished tiredly. No use dancing around the subject. "Every normal one, I've tried and tried to stop you from dying. Usually, it's Envy, the skimped-up, gender-ambiguous prick who can shapeshift. Otherwise, it's Lust. I think you've met her too, the one with the freaky fingernails. I've gotten rid of the lot of them, but it's always something." He gritted his teeth. "Every. Single. Fucking. Time. And I don't know if it'll stop now. I just want you to know that, if you do die, you will wake up again in a new loop."

He looked up tiredly, having averted his eyes as he'd mechanically continued. The man's shoulders and head were slumped, trails of damp down his cheeks. With a quiet grace the Edward that Maes had known certainly lacked, the blond walked forward and placed his flesh-and-blood hand on his friend's shoulders. The eyes the teen used to look at him were old and terribly tired.

"I'm so sorry, Hughes." As a man who had been forced to tell many loved ones that someone had died, he recognized the tone. The tone of someone tired of seeing, and speaking of, death.

But he was still a child in Maes' eyes, and he couldn't help but feel he should be strong for him. The older man pulled the blond into a hug with a sharp intake of breath. "Again and again," fists clenched. "And I'm not strong enough to save you."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Ed," the man choked back tiredly. Edward ended up sobbing into the man's shoulder for far too long. Time stretched on.

When he was finally done, Hughes was the first to speak. "So, what now?"

"Well," Ed said tiredly. "I might stay here. If I go back Al will just see something's wrong and it'll all go to hell. You learn real quick that if you don't take the time you need, you turn real useless real fast, or start going stir-crazy, or get Sakura Syndrome. I'd advise you stay with me. It… I wanted to try it some time - see what happens if I remove you - but I can't just kidnap your unawake self. That's crueler than letting things go on as normal."

"Thanks for that," Maes said earnestly. "I don't think I can just leave everything to burn though, Ed, can't we stop it?"

"I can remove the homunculi from the equation. The problem is that Bradley is a homunculus, and removing him usually requires a lot of hands-on damage control for me, or the following war for power makes Ishbal - yes, I've been there, I end up in Roy's shoes sometimes, I've met you in the academy - look like a playground argument. The way that leaves it the most stable is to implement Hawkeye as Führer, and that involves a loop where Mustang is out of the equation." He waved his hands at Maes' expression, "Hey, I never did that intentionally!" He continued, " I have taken the post successfully in the past, but it's a huge pain in the ass, especially how all my work gets reset! Plus you can imagine Colonel Bastard's reaction."

"Alright," Maes blinked. "...can I ask how a teenager can be Führer?"

"A really impressive resume and a good portion of the populace threatening to follow me anyway. It wasn't even intentional, the first time. I just tried to fix all the problems I could: hunger, the common cold, reveal the homunculi, et cetera." He looked at Hughes' incredulous look. "What? I get bored!"

Loop 9 (Directly after 8)

(Goldengriffiness)

Ed tiredly looked up, eyes widening when it wasn't Roy there to greet them, but a grim-faced Maes Hughes. Unlikely Variant, or did Hughes finally Wake Up again?

"Heh, this all you Woke me up for, Granny?" He'd been squirreled away in his room, digging various out-of-loop cures from his subspace pocket to speed the healing of his limbs and numb the pain.

"I certainly wasn't ready for this rude Awakening when I got here," Hughes said tiredly. "A boy messing with alchemy this serious? Roy Mustang would have come, but there were unforeseen issues. Honestly, I feel totally out of my league."

'Issues you clearly caused. Good job, Hughes, you learn fast.'

"Who's this Royce Hoarse person?" Edward asked, feigning grumpiness. He hated this part of the loop. If he could walk he could have stopped time with a crystal from the 'Molly Moon' universe and got them out of there, but he was helpless without his prosthetics, and he doubted Maes had gained power since he last saw him, judging by his lost expression.

He had been away from the island when Envy and tracked them there. They hadn't hidden well enough. Ed hadn't been prepared for what he had found. It had been clear Envy had tried to torture his whereabouts out of the man.

And Pinako wasn't going to let someone in the military alone with her ward after his recent traumatic experience. He needed them to make his automail, and so stunning and obliviating Pinako and Winry was out of the question. He wanted to spend this loop trying to avert Hughes' fate again. And the attempt wouldn't be half-assed this time. Maybe Xing… and/or the Fidelius charm…

(Loop 10)

(Goldengriffiness)

"This is maddening, Edward," Hughes said tiredly, sitting on the cold chair in the cafeteria. "I can't imagine doing this another time, let alone a dozen or a hundred more."

"You gotta learn to live with it. It'll get easier when you get a Fused Loop and get to play around more, I promise.",Ed said tiredly. "I've also heard from Hiccup, a friend, that it gets better when more people start Looping. The best way to get someone to start Looping is to hang out with them and sort of… invest yourself, even if it hurts. I think that's why you're here. When I found out Truth wouldn't accept my alchemy anymore, I focused on saving you. Truth won't take the same answer for Al twice." He wanted to collapse. "I also got a note from our Admin before, but no information on who it is. It said that we have to adhere to the basic flow of events sometimes, or the loop becomes unstable. I'm relatively a young looper." He chuckled mirthlessly. "And my Subspace Pocket is small. There might be ways around any number of the shit in our Loop, but it might be a good hundred years for us until we get that far."

"So we endure?" Hughes rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Ed, sometimes I loop in before Elicia is even born. I see how the changes in me change how she grows. See my wife worry, and then lose it all again when I die again. Seeing that is harder than any death."

"I know, I promise." Ed said tiredly. "But if you stay with them, they will hopefully Wake Up. It may take awhile, but try to bear with them. Try to bear with me. In the meantime, we need to take a break before we go batshit insane. Trust me, I've been close. How would you feel about getting Winry to become Führer this loop?"

"..What have we done?" Ed stared at Central, at the Heart of Automail-opolus, Automail capital of the world.

Loop 11 (FMA/Madagascar)

GoldenGriffiness

It was the promised day. Father sat on his throne, glad for the time, even if he did not show it.

That is, until a disco-ball lowered suddenly into the room and a song that would make many loopers run and hide started playing. Edward appeared with a microphone. What was a sacrifice doing here?

'I like to move-it move-it!'

'He likes to move-it move-it'

'We like to…. move it!"

The homunculi appeared, faces blank from the imperius curse as they served as back-up singers and dancers.

Alright, maybe this had been because he had lost a bet with Hughes. Even still, the expression on Father's face as he warred with himself to stay emotionless eased the last few loop's crap out of his system.

Time to see if you could kill Father by forcing him to commit suicide from over-exposure to catchy tunes.

(Loop 11+)

(Custodator,Edited by BIOS-Pherecydes)

Maes Hughes sighed, his eyes glaring at the accursed sand of Ishval, all the while replaying the information he gained from what loopers called The Hub Loops in his head. And he didn't like it one bit.

Fullmetal always avoided his question or changed the topic whenever he asked him how his family ended up doing after his demise, just saying 'They were fine.'

Hah, they were fine? There was nothing fine in the voice of his little Elicia's plea to let him out of the coffin to go to work, nor his beautiful Gracia's river of tears as they buried him six feet under.

He swallowed another gulp of water before he stood up and started walking toward Amestris' military camp. Fullmetal had enough problems trying to save Amestris and her people, he shouldn't let his fated demise plague Fullmetal any further if he could do something about it.

He was a survivor of Ishvalan Civil War, his hands soaked in blood long before Fullmetal even learned how to draw his first Transmutation Circle, it was time he tried to rebel against his fate on his own. And he wouldn't allow anyone who dared make his family cry to die by anyone else's hands.

"Archer, sugar, oliver, then eight, eight, zero," Maes said into the phone without resorting to his notes while still holding his injured shoulder. "Damn, I really need to work on my speed and dodging."

"I need you to put down that line, sir," a feminine voice stated from behind him, accompanied by the sound of a gun cocking. He let the line fall loose to hang in the air and let the momentum of his falling right hand knock his concealed knife free.

Which he then threw at the person behind him with extreme prejudice.

He looked carefully at the limping body of not Maria Ross and saw with satisfaction that her mole was still missing.

"Alright, that's one obstacle down," he grinned, before wobbling a bit from his blood loss.

"This is Colonel Roy Mustang, and please Hughes, be serious this time, I'm not in the mood to listen to your antics," the voice of Roy Mustang rang out of the line that was still hanging in the air.

"Right! Roy! You've got to listen to me, the plot behind our-!"

Gun fire rang out behind him and he felt pain in his abdomen. Maes stumbled a bit and looked back at the no longer limping body of his murderer.

"You think I would be out that long? I'm not Lust, I can regenerate faster than her! Human!" Envy said with a grin as he pull the trigger again.

Maes stared at the desert of Ishval.

"...AGAIN!"

Maes throw several more knives at the disguised Envy before he drew a military issue saber out of the scabbard by his side and impaled Envy through the head, leaving the saber lodged in the floor.

"HEH! Serves you right!" Maes Hughes shouted in triumph.

Just before Envy's body began coursing with red lightning, leaving a giant green monster standing before him.

"Oh, you cheating bas-!"

Both he and the phone booth were quickly flattened.

"AGAIN!" Maes shouted.

He threw several dozen throwing knives at Envy before he carved open Envy's chest and plucked his Philosopher's Stone out with a wet squelching sound and proceeded to stomp on it until it broke. Envy's body struggled a bit longer before it finally gave out.

All in all the process lasted just under 30 seconds.

"HAH! I got you this tim-!" something latched at him and he found himself struggling to control his body.

"HAH! You caught me by surprise, but now I can do something even more fun with your body-" Envy gloated. But cut off abruptly as Maes fought back his control and pulled the grenade's pin under his uniform.

"AGAIN!"

Maes proceeded to pierce Envy's chest with his knife, followed by his hand, before unloading several dozen of the grenades stored in his Pocket into Envy's chest and pulled one of its pins.

He hit the dirt for cover as the high explosive went off against Envy's philosopher stone, point blank.

He waited tensely with another primed grenade, the safety lever held firmly in his hand.

Nothing came out of Envy's body.

"YES! I survived this at las-!" He was unable to speak any further as he felt his torso pierced by something from behind. He managed to look back to identify Lust as the one who had done the deed with her long black fingers.

Another of which she had aimed directly at his head.

"Oh, you gotta be shi-!"

"I HATE THOSE MOTHER****ING HOMUNCULI AND THAT MOTHER****ING PHONE BOOTH! I'M SERIOUS!" Maes threw his profanity at the empty desert, startling his nearby comrades and the Ishvalans that were waiting to ambush the Amestris' military base. Ended his loop in record time.

"THERE'S NO WAY YOU ARE MARIA ROSS! BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS WORE TINY MINI SKIRTS!" His best friend's dream may not have been appropriate in this situation but he was starting to run out of ideas.

"THREE DAY OLD USED SOCK THAT HASN'T BEEN WASHED!" Maes proceeded to smash Envy's nose with a fist still covered with said biochemical weapon.

Envy's blind fire still killed him, but the satisfaction of hearing Envy's disgusted retching made it all worthwhile.

The sounds of a mini-nuke going off could be heard clear across Central.

"And that's what I was doing before I decided to just unload every Holy Handgrenade I could manage to find on that park. The result is interesting I have to admit. If you pull the pin of only one out, the rest just fly everywhere across Amestris after the first one goes off," Maes-chan said as she sighed. "I...I'm sorry."

Only the swearing of death threats from Ed-chan could be heard from the Eiken Club.

(Loop 12)

After an unusually trying loop full of Mustang being obnoxious, Edward smirked happily at the very displeased colonel before donning his stolen gloves, swaggering into the heavy rain, and snapping his fingers.

Fire lanced above his palm, oblivious to the steady rain. The Impervious charm was too much fun to use on the man after a stressful loop. Variants where they ended up switching places had to be good for something, after all. As an Anchor, he was guaranteed more practice time than the man with the colonel's speciality, even if Roy eventually started looping.

He hoped he wouldn't. An Awake Roy going after Envy was not a pretty prospect.

As always, Mustang's expression was absolutely priceless. There would be pensive photos later. Lots of them.

(Loop 13) FMA/Aristocats

(Goldengriffiness)

"Cause everybody wants to be a cat~

Cause the cat's the only cat who knows how to swing~

Yeah, everybody's picking up on that feline beat'- cause everything else is obsolete~"

Al jumped excitedly and joined right in , tail wagging like a happy puppy's. Edward stuffed his head under a pillow with a growl until only his malicious eyes and lashing tail were visible. He hated the musical world. He hated them, he hated them, he hated them all. He spent the rest of the song thinking about how to skin the furry creatures in horrible ways.

(Loop 14) FMA/MLP

(Goldengriffiness)

Hell no.

Edward's eyes twitched. It was about time, somewhere in this damned multiverse, that a Loop could go by without someone, somewhere, managing to insult his stature.

Clearly, this Loop was not it.

He was standing in front of what seemed to be a rainbow-maned, pristinely white, sun-butted, unicorn pegasus pony princess.

Who had the phrase "My little ponies" so deeply engraved that as her student, he'd heard it daily according to his loop memories.

The look on the Unawake Celestia's face when Edward's eye began twitching and he let out a low growl that could only be summed up by an angry mother Ursa Major was interesting, to say the least.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL A BREEZIE COULD MISTAKE HIM FOR HIS LONG LOST DWARF OF A CHILD WHO DUE TO REASONS NEVER GREW PAST THE SIZE OF A EIGHT-DAY-OLD?"

Beside Steelshine Array the unicorn, Alphonse the baby dragon snorted, marveling at what Looping had done for his brother's creativity in short-rants.

Summary:

Active Loopers:

Edward Elric (Anchor)

First Loop Power: Wizardry (Harry Potter)

Alphonse Elric (Looper 1)

First Loop Power: Wizardry (Harry Potter)

Maes Hughes (Looper 2)

First loop Power: Soul Reaper/Shinigami (Bleach)

Note- Thus far, ALWAYS dies in home loop and usually in variants, no matter what anyone does to try and stop it.

(A/N. FMA loops are active and growing! If this confuses you or your interested in getting a more thorough understanding of the giant looping universe, I suggest looking up the TV Tropes Page.)