Chapter 1: An Impossible Offer

Edward and Alphonse both entered the house "Hey Winry, I'm done with the roof" yelled Ed as he shut the door behind him, they both sat down on the couch with two mugs of hot tea resting on the table in front of them, Alphonse picked up the mug before him and took a sip. Winry peered at them through the doorway to the hallway, wearing an apron stained in flour.

"Took you long enough, Ed" remarked Winry as she leaned up against the door frame with her arms folded.

"Hey I'm still getting use to all this, okay" countered Ed, annoyed.

Both Alphonse and Winry lightly giggled at Ed.

"It's not funny, Winry! Do you know how painful it is repairing this house?" He said irritated.

"Well Ed, this may surprise you but I do; not all us were alchemy freaks." she replied matter of factly with a mischievous smile on her face.

Edward growled in response to Winry's comment, the last two years required him to made an adjustment to how he did things, the difficultly of what seemed like simple tasks in the past had escalated greatly. It didn't help that ever since they returned home Winry has had them do work around the house for her and Grandma Rockwell.

"Oh come on Winry, leave Ed be he has been working hard after all" laughed Alphonse, sitting next to Ed and holding the mug of tea in his hands

Ed watched as the two of them giggled at his annoyance for having to do different odd jobs for Winry, he thought back to when he traded in his alchemy for his brother; he allowed his lips to form into a small smile at their apparent happiness and the normality of their lives. It was worth it he thought to himself.

Alphonse leaned over to Ed "So when are you going to ask her?" he whispered with a sly smile on his face

Ed rolled his eyes "You don't need to worry about that" he replied "I'll do it when the time is right" or when I have the guts to ask

"By the way Ed, this came in the mail for you, it was sent by Roy." she walked over to the counter and tossed him his old pocket watch, he stretched his hand upwards and caught the silver watch, and stared at it for a second; he had sent it away with a letter asking to be revoked of his government licence maybe over a week ago, it puzzled him as to why Roy would send it back. Whenever a state alchemists either resigns or has their license revoked they also have to give up the pocket watch which was their form of identification.

"Why would he send this back?" asked Ed, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the silver pocket watch in his hands.

"Beats me, but you should have it as a keepsake" replied Winry smiling.

Ed looked down at the silver pocket watch again, his mind solely on the engraved marking he scratched on in the lid, he knew that Winry also knew about this and wondered why she wanted he to keep it, he mentally shrugged off the thought, placed the watch in his right pocket and hooked the chain onto his belt loop he'd place it in the draw when he had the time. There was a muffled ding sound in another room which caught Winry's attention.

"The apple pie must be ready" said Winry, she walked back over to the entrance to the hallway "oh and by the way-" she abruptly stopped her sentence as she turned to face Ed and Al again; her eyes widen and she had a horrified look on her face. She wanted to say something, she wanted to scream, to yell, do anything to warn them but... that thing on the wall behind them, the mere sight of it paralyzed her with fear.

"What is it?" Asked Alphonse, both of them looking at Winry's expression confused, that when Ed noticed it; Black tendrils.

Familiar black tendrils latched on to his body.

Ed panicked; he grabbed hold of one and quickly tried to rip it off his body but their grip on him quickly tighten and suddenly they pulled him into something from behind him, the last thing he heard was the mug of tea Alphonse was holding shatter on the ground and the last thing he saw was Winry rushing towards them and trying to reach out for them.

Edward rubbed his head trying to soothe the splitting headache he was suffering from.

What happened?

He slowly opened his eyes and was greeted to a familiar blinding white light of a brightly lit room; the realization of where he was hit him like an oncoming train. He rushed to his feet and almost instantaneously his eyes fell upon a familiar figure who sat before him.

"What the hell!" Yelled Edward, his anger directed at the Truth.

It had been two years since he's seen the Truth, two years since he gave up his ability to do alchemy in return for Alphonse's body, he'd believed that was the last time and now he found himself back into the Truth's domain.

"Ahhhhh" softly whined a voice to his right; Edward turned his head to see Alphonse lying on his back.

"Al!" Yelled Edward as he ran towards him.

"Brother!" replied Alphonse, who embraced his Edward, Ed fell to his knees hugged him back.

"What happened?" Asked Edward "Are you alright? did you lose anything?"

"I don't know" replied Alphonse, quickly he got up to his knees and then began to frantically look and tap around his body; checking if everything was there. "one moment I was with you and Winry at home and the next thing I know I'm... Here." he finished.

Al turned his head towards the truth who sat opposite to them, before Al could open his mouth to question the truth, he noticed something off putting; the Truth didn't have its usually toothy grin on its plain white face; instead his face held a more neutral expression, seeing this unnerved Alphonse, it looked almost unnatural. Alphonse slowly got up to his feet, the brothers then turned their full attention towards the truth.

"Wh- Why are we here? Why have you brought us here again?" questioned Alphonse. "We haven't done anything wrong!"

"You better have a damn good reason for kidnapping us!" Yelled Edward as he pointed his finger at the Truth accusingly.

The Truth then stood up, despite the lack of a smile on its face; its demeanor was still relaxed.

"I have an offer for you boys" declared the Truth "On another world there are a group of people who are a fighting a war for their survival, I've watched as they've courageously struggle against a powerful force they do not yet fully understand but who seek to annihilate them."

The Truth paused to allow the information to sink in, before then continuing "This is where you boys come in, you've faced adversaries of immense power and still overcame them." The truth face then contorted into a very small smile, still not showing any teeth. "no doubt with you two entering the situation this should tip the scales in their favor."

Edward and Alphonse stood and stared at the Truth almost dumb founded by what it was telling them.

"So you're telling me, that you kidnapped us from our home to have us thrown into another world's fight?" question Ed.

"I won't force you boys to go, it's merely part of the offer, what you'll have to do in return." replied the Truth.

"You're asking us to fight in someone else's war, don't know what you could offer to make us consider that, have you forgotten the law of equivalent exchange?" taunted Ed, a sly grin on his face "Also I'm not the military dog I was two years ago, Only Al can still use Alchemy and the situation you described sounds like a job for the military than just one alchemist prodigy."

The Truth smiled, its face now wearing that toothy grin that the brothers knew and feared, it then raised its left hand, holding it close to its face.

"How about two prodigies of Alchemy then?" responded the Truth as he clicked his fingers.

There was a loud crackling sound of lighting and large bright blue sparks formed behind them, both Edward and Alphonse turned behind them and watched in absolute shock as Edward's door of Truth began to materialize in front of them. The door that Edward traded away for Alphonse two years ago had returned to him... just like that.

"We'll go on" the Truth said, his arms outstretched toward Edward "try it out, let's see if you've gotten rusty after these last two years."

Suddenly a small block of wood appeared in front of the boys; Edward slowly pressed his hands together and a familiar blue spark appeared between his palms, a burst of adrenaline coursed through his veins as he knelt down and picked up the small wooden block, he then transmuted the block into a small wooden bird; the same one that he and Alphonse transmuted years ago when they first tried to learn about alchemy.

The Truth then pointed towards Edward's door of Truth "if you boys accept the offer then Edward can not only have his ability to perform alchemy for the job but he can keep it afterwards" The Truth paused to allow the offer to sink in. "So what do you boys say?" asked the Truth.

Alphonse continued his stare down with the Truth; the chance to get Edward's alchemy back, his chance to repay his brother on the promise Edward made to him to get his body back.

But despite this they knew they couldn't accept the offer, they couldn't be caught up in another world's conflict when they had only recently finished theirs and were still continuing to rebuild their lives since the aftermath. Now was certainly not the time to go and get involved in events they had no knowledge of.

"We have only recently gotten our lives back and we have people waiting for us." Said Al "We can't just drop everything and risk our lives in a fight we know nothing about, we could be there for months, even years away from the people we need to spend time with, the people who need us most."

"Time operates differently between worlds, a month on this world is worth year in the other" replied the Truth "should you spend some years there, perhaps maybe even a decade, in that world you will age with time, however when you'll return to your world, you'll return in the same physical state you left; any scars or ageing you went through in that world won't appear when you return to yours, how quickly you'll return to your world depends on how fast you boys operate, but once you're back it will be as if you never left at all. Though what you bring from that world, you can bring into yours."

"How do we get back home exactly, if we succeed? Or fail"? Asked Edward.

"You can return at any point, success or failure is how you measure, boys; if you truly believe that you have prevented the annihilation of those people or if you believe that the situation is hopeless than draw this transmutation circle and a portal back will open" replied the Truth, a transmutation circle then appeared in the space between the brothers and the Truth before them, it was very similar to a transmutation circle which they were familiar with using but it had difference in details. "Though be warned you only get one chance to head home, so choose your moment wisely and don't waste it or you could find yourself trapped in that world.

"Wait!" Yelled Edward "you're willing to give me back my ability to perform alchemy should we accept and gives us an opt out which we can use at any point?" He looked at the Truth with a dumbfounded expression "how do you know we won't just summon the portal the moment we get there and just head back home with my alchemy returned?"

"I know you boys like I know everyone and everything, while you have your own goals, dreams and ambitions, you don't have the ruthlessness to do such a thing; you despise injustice and the suffering of others, am I right?" The Truth retorted "Remember when you had the chance to shoot envy but couldn't when you saw the faces of those Xerxesian trapped within him, begging for help." it said its nonexistent eyes facing staring down Edward "When you arrived and witness the carnage and suffering of those people can you really look yourself in the eyes knowing that you have the power but was too apathetic to do anything?" It then turned its head towards Alphonse "and what about you Alphonse, when you protected Riza Hawkeye from lust, what was it you said?"I won't let anyone get killed, not while I can protect them" tell me Alphonse could you stomach abandoning those in need?"

The brothers traded glanced at each other, they knew that the Truth was trying to appeal to their sense of heroism, they even considered the time gap; it meant they could spend as long as necessary to aid those struggling in their war and wouldn't be gone for that long, it could be months but they're spent longer away from home back in the days when they were trying to recover their bodies and they wouldn't be trapped in that world, they could leave as soon as they felt their job was done and in the end Edward could get his alchemy back.

But still, they had to decline, they didn't want to possibly spend years in that world and months away from those they love and they had left Winry so abruptly.

"Sorry, but you're gonna have to find someone else, those days of getting into fights are over for us" announced Ed, he thought that this complete rejection would have sent a clear message to the Truth "Thanks, but no deal."

Al placed his hand on Edward's shoulders, as a sign of solidarity with Edward declaration.

"If it's all the same to you, we've heading out." said Al, with a defiant smirk in his face.

"Hmmmmm" replied the Truth questioningly, that toothy grin still plastered on his face "well if you boys insist, then you are free to go" The door of Truth behind them began to slowly open and the brothers were bathed in a familiar blinding light.

"Winry must be worried about us." said Alphonse to Edward, with a small smirk on his face.

"But before you boys go, I'd like to add something to the offer, hopefully it will change your minds." said the Truth, the grin on his widening "Accept the offer and I'm willing to not only return Edward's alchemy back, but I'm willing to give you one demand."

The brothers turned their heads to face the Truth "demand?" questioned Edward "what kind of demand?"

"The kind that allows many exceptions to certain rules of the universe" said the Truth "the kind which allows a person to have whatever they want, whatever their heart's desires.

"The kind that can see a long list of people brought back to life in perfect health, with no strings attached."

It was that last statement.

Their eyes widen at what was being said, a cold chill ran down their backs at the thought of it "You're lying!" Edward yelled "it's impossible to bring the dead back to life!" Edward gave the Truth a look of absolute fury; if these last years had taught him anything it's that you can't bring back the dead and that it was better to move from loss than be tied down and obsessed it reversing what is permanent. Now the Truth was telling him that the lesson he had learnt was a lie, it was possible after all.

"I am the Truth, Edward." It responded, just that simple statement was enough to turn Edward's expression from one of anger to horrified realization, he hadn't felt this way since Hohenheim had him question why he burnt down the house "Consider this equivalent exchange; save a group of people from total destruction, they go on to live for generations and in return you get to bring back a whole list of people from the dead, if you desire of course."

In their minds they went through that list of names; Trisha Elric, Van Hohenheim, Maes Hughes, Nina and Alexsander, Fu, Captain Buccaneer, Yuriy Rockwell, Sarah Rockwell, Scar's family, Izumi and Sig Curtis' son, Rose's fiancé, the list went on.

"Of course the parameters of the deal change; I'll be the judge of your progress and If I deem that you two have done your job then I will grant it to you, that being said you must secure a future in which these people can live for generations in relative peace, come back making little progress in the way of that or come back as failures then I will only return Edward's alchemy and nothing more." finished the Truth.

The door of Truth began to slowly close on them, it was now or never; they could leave through the portal, return home, live their lives and leave those people to their fate or they could go to this other world, be away from home for maybe a few months, but gain back Edward's alchemy and a chance to give their loved ones, and all those who sacrificed themselves for the brothers, a second chance at life.

"W-wait" pleaded Alphonse "can't we think about this? Maybe go back and prepare first?" In his mind an internal battle was waged; a desire to go home and finally live a normal life against the want of seeing and paying back everyone by bringing back their lost loved ones. He turned his head towards an ever closing door of Truth behind them and then the Truth.

"No" responded the Truth still looking at them with that damn grin "It's now or never."

They both turned to face the door, looking at it with scared hesitation before turning to face the Truth again.

The blinding light was now just centimeters from closing completely.

We'd would only be away from home for a few months, but surely they'll understand? they two of them tried to reason When they get everyone back, it'll be for the greater good, what's a few years in that world and a few months away from home compared to bring back of all the people they'd lost over the last few years? They just couldn't compare, Winry would understand why, of course she would...

...won't she?

They'll all understand why they were gone for maybe a few months...

...won't they?

The both Edward and Alphonse watched as the once blinding white light became thin sliver between two towering dark stone slab doors; the door of Truth slowly closed shut before them.

They had made their choice.