Timeline: Set after Brotherhood, but disregards the "Two years later" time skip.

Rating: T for Ed's mouth and some violence.

Pairings: Pre-slash Roy/Ed, but could maybe be read as just intense bromance if you squint or read with one eye closed. Nothing explicit going on, in other words.

Prologue

A heavy black boot hit the puddle with force, the splash going unnoticed on already soaked pants but the sound was gunshot loud in the silent alley. Stealth was pointless now, his quarry had spotted him and was on the run – he had to catch him. He'd seen the notes, the arrays and he knew what the madman was planning.

The deja-vu had made him breathless for a moment.

So many years later, in a different damned country even, but still the same old shit over and over. If he didn't catch this guy, stop him before he began…

Ed clenched his teeth hard enough to make his jaw ache. He had something up his sleeve that might work, but he wasn't ready. It was all just theoretical, but the idea was sound. He'd come up with some pretty wild stuff in the last few years – all of which he couldn't put into practical use, and some probably shouldn't be even if he could. His backup plan here fell into the latter category - even if it did work, it didn't mean that he should do it. The very thought of puttingthat into action made him slightly dizzy with anxiety.

The other option was failing altogether though. If he didn't get there in time and his Plan B failed…

No, just fucking no. He would not go through that fucking fiasco again. He couldn't do it again. Hecouldn't. Not because of the loss of his alchemy but mentally, the thought just made something shrivel inside of him.

To think for a little while there he'd been bitching and moaning the loss of adventure…

This was not what he'd had in mind.

Please don't let me be too late…

His target rounded a corner ahead of him, the sopping tail of his coat giving a little goodbye flick before disappearing. Ed gritted his teeth and pushed himself harder as his automail port groaned in protest at the damp combined with the abuse. He slid on the wet ground, balancing himself gracefully as he rounded the corner in a spray of water and gravel.

The alley was empty.

"Fuck," he hissed, eyes sweeping the doorways.

Rain fell heavily around him, not cooling the muggy air at all. Aerugo's weather was fucking ridiculous – beautiful or horrible with no in-between. Distractedly shoving wet hair off his face, he mentally mapped the area – nothing but abandoned industrial warehouses around here if he remembered correctly. The town of Palyo was close enough to the border to still be recovering from Bradley's time in power and reconstruction hadn't reached this old industrial stretch yet. Taking a guess, Ed went left.

The door was locked.

A vain throbbed above his eyebrow as he dashed right.

It was locked, too.

He growled out a long line of expletives as his eyes darted back and forth.

"Quit bein' lazy," he growled at himself, pulling back his foot he gave the door a hard kick that did nothing thing but make a loud clanging sound.

Fuck it…

The third kick popped the door with a squeal of metal.

Even after all this time his hands still gravitated to that familiar pre-clap position when adrenaline was running high. He scoffed and shook it off, reaching instead for the knife in his belt. He'd gotten his ass handed to him a lot in that first year when instinct had him clapping before his brain reminded him it was useless.

The inside of the building was pitch black and loud with the sound of rain on the corrugated roof. The smell hit him like a kick to the face and he threw an arm over his nose to block it. It validated he was in the right place, but it also told him with gut churning certainty that he was too late – at least for some of them…

The ground beneath him burst into life in a frighteningly familiar pattern, freezing him in place. A chuckle jerked his attention up to see Keller, the alchemist he'd been chasing, on the edge of the array, grinning manically and lit only by the blue alchemical energy.

"You crazy fucker, this isn't going to work out for you like you're hoping," Ed said, fear and anger warring with each other and almost choking out his voice as he struggled to heard over the rain. "I've seen this played out before, it won't-"

"Spare me," Keller interrupted, grin never faltering. "I know exactly what I'm doing. I've been planning this for longer than you can imagine, Fullmetal. This city is just the start. The fuel and the bait I needed to give The Gate exactly what it really wants.

"You."

And then the world disappeared in a wash of familiar white light.

Nonononono this was not happening!

Ed's fists clenched in helpless fury and fear as up became down and the very molecules of his body seemed to pull apart and reconnect. He knew what was waiting for him when he opened his eyes yet he kept them tightly clenched in a childish attempt at wishing it away.

It was for naught though because when he finally pried his eyes open the expanse of white still awaited him.

"We meet again."

Ed froze at that voice – one that haunted his memories and nightmares. Turning slowly he met the featureless face of Truth.

"Still, wearing my leg, I see."

"You mean my leg," it grinned.

"Bastard."

Truth grinned so widely it made Ed shudder.

"You always were the most entertaining."

"I didn't ask to be here," he blurted even though the memory of Mustang's sightless eyes told him that didn't matter one fucking bit.

"I'm aware. You are the sacrifice not the aggressor. This time, at least."

"Idiot Keller thinks I'm worth something to you," Ed snorted with false bravado.

"And you don't think you're worth anything? Because you gave up your alchemy? A soul is a soul, a body is a body. You think yours is worthless? You've been here more than any other alchemist in history. The amount of knowledge stored in your feeble human mind is actually quite impressive."

Around him them the light took on a sickly reddish tinge, the air humming in a maddening way. The endless expanse started filling with transmutation circles – mirror images of the circles he knew that bastard had set up around the city.

They'd all been activated.

Even though he knew he didn't technically need breathe on this plane, his chest still felt tight and panicky. It was happening too fast! Plan B had to happen now, but he wasn't as confident in his theory now that he was faced with actually putting into action. He wasn't positive that it would even work at all let alone with so little preparation and in this place. He'd underestimated that fucker Keller and now all the people of Palyo would play the price. And from what'd he'd said, they were just the beginning. Al, Winry, Granny, Mustang, Hawkeye, Armstrong, Gracia – an endless parade of faces flowed through his mind, reminding him that he couldn't fail here.

"You can't give him what he wants," he whispered, knowing it was in vain, but trying anyway.

"Has it been so long that you've forgotten the laws of equivalent exchange? I've received payment – for that I must give something in return."

"You can't reward him for killing people!" Edward yelled in frustration.

"It is not my place to judge intentions, only exchanges," Truth said flatly, all trace of its grin gone.

"You have to know this is wrong!"

"I am Truth. Do not presume to tell me what I know. What about what humans must know? What of their ethics and morals and sins? Is it not their job to know these things are 'wrong'? Yet they come before me again and again. Always wanting and upset when they must give."

Ed turned away. He couldn't say much. True he'd been just a child, but he'd still been arrogant and greedy. And stupid - a stupidity that still whispered at him deep down.

"So you'll just take me and all the people in this town and give that fucker whatever he's asking for?"

"You would like me to ignore the laws of equivalent exchange? To make decision based on 'right and wrong' instead of balance?"

"Yes," Ed said, his voice bordering on pleading

"'Right' is relative, Edward Elric. You of all people should know that. You thought you were 'right' to try and bring your mother back. Shou Tucker thought he was 'right' to do anything necessary to retain his State certification. Von Hoenhiem thought he was 'right' to interact with the Dwarf in the Flask. The King of Xerxes thought he was 'right' to seek immortality at any cost. Everyone who has ever done anything that you would consider terrible had thought of themselves as 'right'."

Ed sighed, the feeling of defeat and inevitability crushing him as he looked around again. The arrays were glowing more brightly and the translucent figures of the city were coming into writhing fruition around him.

The terrified face of the woman that ran the diner by the train station (she'd given him a free piece of pie because he looked "too thin for someone so handsome") stared back at him from an array filled with others.

The homeless man that Ed brought coffee and a pastry to each morning he'd been in Palyo huddled on the edge of another eyes clenched shut and hands over his ears.

The little boy that he'd saved from the river that reminded him of Al clung to his mother's leg in the distance.

It went on and on. All the familiar faces he'd seen during his short time in the city twisted in agony and fear.

He closed his eyes and focused on all of them.

If there was a real God out there, he hoped he'd forgive him for what he was about to do. If all there was was this smirking know-it-all bastard in front of him though… well, he could go fuck himself.

His hands came together slowly in a familiar way, causing Truth to give a very human sounding snort of amusement.

"Wish as much as you like, that gate is-"

The sound that erupted behind him when his hands touched was hideous, like muscle and bone ripping and breaking, layered on top of the collective ghostly gasps of the souls around him as he concentrated on the theoretical lines and arcs in his mind and reached out to those around him and pulled.

"What are you- STOP!"

The fear and panic from Truth was so surprising and frightening in that moment that Ed almost did stop. But he caught himself in time – if he stopped now, half finished, they'd all be done for. Not only would Keller win, but Ed knew the Truth knew what he was doing now - if he stopped before he was finished that thing would make him pay in ways he couldn't even fathom, he was sure.

He found the connections he was looking for, yanked and tied and bound while ignoring the screeching around him. The air was heavy and crackling, the gasps of shock and pain of the people deafening, but mostly all Ed felt was power.

This was dangerous, too much for a human, he knew that, but he kept pulling, connecting. Finally, light headed and feeling too full, he turned, even though every fiber of his being was telling him not to look at the abomination he'd just created.

The gate was back.

His gate. But still not…

It was massive. His old gate had been no slouch, but this thing dwarfed it. He could see the familiar markings from his own gate, faded and overlaid by thousands more. Curves and arcs and unknown languages spread over blackened stone. Cracks and crumbled pieces breaking the pattern here and there showed that while the theory had indeed been sound it wasn't without flaws.

"Wh-what is this?" The Truth sounded young and scared right then. And that, more than anything, frightened Ed.

Because the real truth was, that he wasn't quite sure…