Ed was used to the sight of the Truth now, his shadowy form framed against the veil of nothingness that is his realm. Ed rose from the invisible ground to face this shadowy creature once again.

'You know Edward, I'm getting really sick of you showing your face around here. Each time that gate opens I hope it's someone new… But no! You have to keep trying to work the secrets of the universe out of me!' Snapped the Truth, exasperated at Ed's latest attempt to learn whatever he knew. 'I would curse you with all of God's fury, but that would be pointless, given my position and all. Anyway, at least this time you're in way over your head Elric.'

Ed glared at the Truth. Ever since Hohenheim sacrificed himself to bring back Al; after that mess in Central, Ed had been fascinated by the physical nature of the Truth and how he was able to do the things he did. In his efforts to understand this being, he had conducted hundreds of Human Transmutations (on himself) and created thousands of philosopher's stones (out of terminally ill volunteers), alongside anything else Ed thought crazy enough to open the Gate and get him to see the Truth.
'Over my head? I didn't do anything too out of the ordinary. I was trying to rip apart the subatomic structures of a wreck from that mess; still standing in Central.' Ed snapped. 'It was only a few metres high…'

The Truth burst out laughing, his shiny teeth glistening eerily against the shadow of his form and the nothingness of his surroundings. 'You failed to realise that the "wreck" you refer to was part of a large research lab for the old Amestrian government. So instead of a few square metres of metal and concrete, you were transmuting exactly 350 square metres of Steel, Concrete, various rare metals and a great deal of copper. You fucked-up Edward Elric, now you're going to pay for it.'

Ed couldn't believe what he was hearing. He'd massively underestimated the scope of the task he was undertaking, he thought he had taken every precaution necessary to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Going so far as to draw the transmutation circle himself and performing it manually, without using the philosopher's stone inside him.

Ed ran through some rough figures in his head. Assuming this larger structure was made of the same materials as its' above ground counterpart and in roughly the same proportions, it would be approximately 70% Carbon (though this "great deal" of copper threw Ed's math off substantially) considering that the element is found in steel; common stones and the ingredients used to make concrete meaning that there would have been roughly 800,000 kilos of Carbon based materials in that pit.
The next question that had to be asked was, how did that underground lab get involved in his transmutation? The circle was drawn around only the protruding structure of the lab that Ed wanted to work on. The runes that he had used perfectly complimented the materials he intended to transmute. Even the runes of his own design for breaking down atoms into their base parts were well suited to the elements Ed planned on transmuting. Not to mention the molecules those elements had formed requiring restriction runes to control all of it.

'FUCK!' Ed roared. 'I forgot the runes of restriction for direction and compound molecules. So even… Shit how could I do something so stupid as to forget them. Well, Truth, what do I owe you? What are you taking from me now?'

The Truth smiled, a disturbing; eyeless but genuine smile. 'That's the question isn't it. What do you owe me? Considering that you were basically transmuting the supporting structure of a whole city block and underground underground lab to-boot. If I didn't step-in when I did, you could have flattened all of Central… or worse.'

"Or worse". Ed feared those words more than the toll he'd have to pay for his mistake because "or worse" could mean any number of things, even Rush Valley, where Winry was still running her Automail business.

'Then I guess I thank you for doing so.' Ed growled. 'How much do I owe you? How much of my research into you is taken back?'
Ed heard a deafening clunking sound from behind him. He turned to see his gate of Truth opening, he saw the blackness, he saw the hands ready to grab him, but they didn't come. They were poised, ready to do their work, yet they just waited.

'We can play this only one way Elric. Because of the gravity of what you have done, you owe me everything. All those 7000 philosopher's stones inside you, you're body and your very own soul-' Ed was shocked to his very core. Had his first large scale experiment into subatomic alchemy really caused that much damage? '-but this is not enough, for if I took all of your life now I would not have the energy needed to contain this disaster, so you need to continue to live... but not in Amestris. I will send you elsewhere. To a place where I can make use of your energy and fix this shit show.' The Truth proclaimed distastefully. 'I know it isn't my usual style to do this, but I need you to suffer for what you have done and learn from it. The same as the first time.' The Truth said, mournfully. 'You really are a prodigy and now I'm going to make you pay for it. Goodbye Edward Elric, I hope we don't meet again. Then again, if we do, I hope it's not because you're being as reckless and arrogant as you are now. Enjoy your new world, it'll be your home for a while.'

Ed was still trying to get his head around the first part of Truth's small monologue, when he was grabbed by those small black hands and dragged back through the Gate. Ed was used to the feeling of being transmuted, he'd been through it dozens of times at least, but this time was different. Instead of feeling like he was being pulled apart, he felt like he was being shoved through a pipe too small for his body. This feeling went on for what felt like several minutes, before he lost consciousness and the chaos of being transmuted faded to nothing.

Ed woke, feeling groggy, his vision was blurry and he couldn't feel his one organic leg. He took a moment to gain his bearings and started to take note of where he was. He was in a forest. 'We're off to bad start' he thought. He was in a tree, again, not great. That tree must be around 40 metres tall. 'Fan-fucking-tastic' thought Ed to himself. He then went through the basics of his personal condition, his automail leg was still attached to his body and responding to his commands, his normal leg was also still attached, it was just numb because he was lying in an awkward position. As for his everything else, Ed noted that he was no worse-for-wear, so he could focus on getting down from this tree. He clapped his hands and slapped the tree, there was a flash of brilliant blue light, followed by the tree shifting its' form until a perfect ladder was formed right next to the branch Ed found himself on.

Ed began absentmindedly climbing down, trying remember what the Truth had said to him. He immediately thought of the "or worse" part of his speech, when 'it' came to the front of his mind. What did the Truth mean when he said "new world"? Did he move Ed to another part of his own world, surely that must be it, as he could not go anywhere else.

Ed puzzled over this question for the first 10 metres of his descent of the tree. He'd thought about the possibility of other inhabited worlds existing in the universe but he never thought it would be possible to reach them, so dismissed the idea. Just as was starting to put together a way back home in his head, he saw it: big, humanoid and hideous. About twenty metres below him and reaching up with a gargantuan hand, a monster about 15 metres tall with a wicked smile and large unfeeling black eyes. Ed paused, frozen with fear.

'What the hell is this? What the hell are you?' Ed was already putting theories together in his head. 'Are you a new breed of homunculus? No you can't be, you don't have the tattoo. You must be something else; but what?'

The monster was unable to reach Ed, but it wasn't out of options. It slammed its' hand into the tree with great force, knocking Ed from his tree-ladder, sending him plummeting into the beast's gaping Jaws.

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A/N So this is take two for this story. As last time the document was showing all the format coding, surrounding the text, making it impossible to read. So, thank you to the person who brought that to my attention! I'll take more care in future in prevent it from happening again.

P.S. Please do enjoy this story and don't expect frequent updates (sorry, I am a busy and lazy shit)