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Time's Scar	By : RotSeele Category: Fullmetal Alchemist > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 828 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Time's Scar
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 16-Sixteen
- 17-Seventeen
- 18-Eighteen
- 19-Epilogue
- 11
- 12
- 13
Twelve
Edward slowly opened his eyes and stared at a plain off-white ceiling above him. His flesh fingers felt a soft fabric beneath them, and after a little more exploring, he realized it was a quilt. He also could feel his right arm again, so he figured someone had fixed his automail while he'd been unconscious.
His thoughts stopped abruptly.
He sat up so fast the room spun, and he closed his eyes as his body protested the movement.
"I was wondering if you would wake up soon."
Edward opened his eyes and looked over at the speaker. Roy Mustang's single black eye studied him, his face carefully neutral. He was dressed in black slacks and a dark blue button down shirt. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he sat strategically in a chair in front of the only door in the room. Edward realized the room had no windows.
"Why are you here?" Edward asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral.
"I came after you. I figured it out, all those papers you left for me. Why you left in the middle of the night instead of waiting for me."
Edward curled his fingers slightly into the material covering his legs. "I didn't want you involved. This is my problem."
Roy rose abruptly from the chair, and Edward flinched. "Your problem?" Roy said gently, and it was all the more terrifying for that gentleness. "It's not just your problem, Ed! I thought you were gone for good when you and Alphonse went beyond the Gate, and then you showed up on my doorstep, telling me your brother was taken."
"I didn't want you-"
"Finish that line and I'll hit you."
Edward closed his mouth and just looked at Roy. Roy ran a hand through his hair. "Why, Ed? Why didn't you ask me for help? You know I would do anything for you."
"That's just it." Ed said. "You would do anything for me. And I couldn't let you help me. This is my mess. I got us into this. I'll get us out."
"You've always been like that." Roy let out a sigh. "You were always like that, from the first day we met to the day you came back. Do you remember what you told me when you came back? When we were pouring over your notes and memos and trying to figure out how to send you here?"
Ed bit his lower lip until it hurt. "I remember."
"You said you trusted me. Said I was the only one you wanted to know about what was going on. Said I was the only one who’d understand. You asked for my help, and then you just up and vanished. Don't you know how worried I was about you? How I wondered if you'd made it safely, if you were in bits and pieces in some never-where? Was that time, that night, so meaningless to you?"
Ed felt heat fill his cheeks. "It wasn't meaningless!"
"Then what was it, Ed? Because I distinctly remember you saying a few things, and sounding like you meant them!"
Edward's eyes stung with tears. He blinked them away. "I meant it. All of it. I love you, Roy, I really do. But this... You already have enough ghosts to live with."
Roy sighed deeply. "And you don't? Ed, I fought by your side the entire time you were growing up from a twelve year old brat to the fifteen year old you were when you first crossed over. Not a day went by after that that I didn't think about you and blame myself for what happened to you."
Ed looked at Roy and shivered. "I thought I told you that wasn't your fault."
Roy moved and sat on the bed beside the blonde, reaching to take hold of Ed's flesh hand. He squeezed his fingers tightly, then stared at the pale skin that looked even paler against his own. "I still blamed myself. And then to finally have you back, even under the circumstances that it was... I was happy."
Ed returned Roy's grip. "I was happy, too. I was happy to see you again, to finally be with you and tell you exactly how I felt. But Alphonse... he needed me and it was my fault he was taken like that. You shouldn't have come. This isn't your fight."
"None of it was your fault. You Elrics just seem to attract the crazy and power-hungry." Roy's expression softened a bit. "And it is my fight. Ed, you left all your notes for me. I translated them, just like you knew I would. How could I not interpret that as a plea for help? Especially after you just disappeared on me like you did?"
Ed was quiet for a time. He leaned into Roy and rested his head on the older man's shoulder. Roy pressed his lips to soft golden hair. Finally, Edward released a sigh. "I've killed people."
"I know."
Ed pulled away and stared at Roy. "What do you mean, you know?"
Roy smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eye. "Come on, Fullmetal. I know you're not stupid or dense. Haven't you figured out what's happened?"
Ed blinked. Blinked again. And then it hit him. The bed, the ceiling, the very room he was in - it all pointed to the fact that he'd been caught. He felt the blood rush from his head and stared at Roy. "Did they..."
Roy nodded. "After you passed out, and I stepped in to keep my other self from roasting us both, there were the customary freak outs and exclamations of the impossible and hows and whys and so on. Of course, I haven't let them see your face yet, mostly to keep down the noise and the psychotic emotional episodes you tend to have when faced with the impossible. But I managed to tell them enough to keep them from asking too many questions and convince them you're most certainly a victim in all this. So, my other self graciously decided not to have us arrested, aided our escape from the area, and now is currently putting us up in a safe house in Central."
Ed stared. "And?" He asked weakly.
Now Roy smiled widely. He was enjoying this, the bastard. "And there are three people downstairs waiting for you to wake up and come down to explain why they shouldn't turn you in and/or execute you on the spot."
Edward just gaped at him.
Roy leaned in and stole a kiss from the blonde. "And before you even consider it, if you try to escape, I'll know. And then you're not only going to have to fight me, but my other self, your other self, and your little brother."
Edward continued to stare at him. "You're such a bastard." He whispered.
Roy kissed him again, tangling his fingers in long blonde strands to keep Ed from biting his lip. "And you enjoy every minute of it. Now, are you going to come downstairs and help me explain all this, or should I let them come up and pin you down?"
Ed glowered at him but gave him a grumpy kiss anyway before shoving the Flame Alchemist back and pushing off the covers. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and slowly stood. "Any chance I can get a shower first?" He asked Roy.
The Colonel stood and smiled. "I think we can fit it into our schedule."
Edward glared at him. "You're not invited."
"Of course not."
"I mean it."
"Whatever you say, Fullmetal."
Roy Mustang studied his other self, who stood at the bottom of the stairs, arms folded across his chest and his single eye focused on the small blonde who currently sat at the kitchen table. Roy hadn't believed it at first, what the one-eyed him had been telling him, but there was no other plausible explanation. The man certainly wasn't a homunculus, since he could use alchemy, and the fact he knew everything Roy himself did certainly threw a wrench in the clone theory. Edward and Alphonse, too, had been shocked, though Roy had a sneaking suspicion that Alphonse wasn't as shocked as he seemed to be. Edward, however, had started cursing softly and then put two and two together and realized that the only way the one-eyed Roy Mustang could be here was that the translocation alchemy worked. He'd tried to wheedle information out of the other Mustang, but the man proved to be much harder to crack than Roy had expected himself to be. The fact that his other self was also older than he was wasn't lost on him either.
"How much longer is that bastard gonna take?" Ed grumped, looking at the other Mustang.
"As long as I damn well feel like taking."
Roy snapped to attention at the all-too familiar voice, and even Ed went a few shades paler. Standing just behind the other Roy was Edward Elric. Only this Ed was older, slightly taller, and hadn't bothered to put his hair in its customary braid. His automail right hand was pressed against the wall, gleaming dully in the light from the kitchen overhead bulb. His golden eyes were carefully neutral as they surveyed the three people standing - or sitting - in the kitchen.
"You... You're..." Ed stammered, for once speechless.
The other Ed looked at his younger self. "For the sake of keeping us sane, just call me Elric and him Mustang." He jerked his thumb at the one-eyed Roy. "To answer your question, yes and no. Yes, we are you, but at the same time, we aren't you. We're both older. We both come from a timeline alternative to the one you're in right now."
Alphonse made a noise. "That's how you knew what alchemy to use to put me back together. You are my brother, just an older version of him."
Elric nodded. "That's right."
Ed sputtered for a moment. "So why are you here? Why are you killing people? Didn't you realize if you were caught by anyone else it'd be my name and face that'd be plastered everywhere?!"
"I'm here because my brother is here." Elric replied, seemingly unconcerned with the obvious fact Ed had just stated.
"What do you mean?" Roy asked. "Alphonse is here, too? Where?"
Mustang stepped forward to allow Elric to move to a vacant chair. He said, "There are things we can't tell you, so you'll just have to accept the answers we give you. Long story short, Alphonse was kidnapped by a psychotic madman and is being held hostage."
"In order to get him back, the deal was that I would take out the people working on the translocation alchemy in this timeline." Elric said. "If I succeeded I'd get my brother back. If I failed, Alphonse would be killed."
"I would never agree to kill people!" Ed protested.
"That's why you're you, and I'm me." Elric said mildly. "You haven't experienced what I have. You haven't seen the things I have. Besides, you're what, fourteen? I've got five years experience on you, kiddo."
"Don't call me that. It's weird to hear yourself say that."
Roy looked at Mustang. "And how do you fit into all this?"
Mustang tilted his head toward Elric. "He came to me and asked for help."
"Why didn't you come with him originally?"
"Because I didn't. I'm lucky I even made it in one piece. Translocation alchemy is dangerous." Mustang rubbed the back of his neck. "You're looking at the only two people who know how to do it with high chances of success."
"Translocation alchemy requires the alchemist to break down the very atoms of an object and recreate them in a different location. Alphonse and I invented it as a way of communicating with Mustang. We were experimenting with non-living objects, seeing how much distance we could cover." Elric paused, as if he were debating with himself about how much information to reveal. "We were being watched. Olivier leads a secret society that goes by the name of the Académie. They want to use science and alchemy to basically dominate whatever society and country they end up in."
"And since you and Alphonse were using this translocation alchemy, he wanted to use it?" Alphonse reasoned.
Elric nodded. "We refused, of course. We never intended to use live creatures, and if our experiments worked then Mustang, and Izumi, would be the only ones who would be able to translate our work and send us a reply."
"But Olivier took Alphonse." Mustang said. "And he forced Ed - Elric - to perform the alchemy on him, Alphonse, and several of his men. They intended to end up in our time, but something went wrong and they ended up here."
"And when I followed, I appeared in my own timeline." Elric said. He lifted his hands when he saw Ed's look of confusion. "Imagine there are two worlds, mirror images of each other. They're connected by a Gate, much like the Gate of Knowledge. If you can pass through this Gate, you can go from world A to world B and vice versa. But imagine there's another world A and B that exist side by side to the first pair, just the second pair's time is different. I'm older than you, Ed, but we're the same person."
Roy blinked in confusion, but it looked like the brothers seemed to understand what Elric was saying. Edward said, "It's like looking into a photograph," he said to Roy, "where you're looking at your past self. For them, we are their past selves."
"But your experiences are totally different." Mustang said. "Many things that we've experienced you either won't experience, or it'll happen in an entirely different way."
"Like we could meet someone who doesn't exist in your time?" Alphonse asked.
"Exactly like. What me and my brother went through is, on some level, identical to yours, but with a few events changed here and there. It'd be like looking in a mirror, only having the reflection distorted."
Ed rubbed his jaw, his gold eyes narrowed slightly as he thought about what he was hearing. "Okay, I get it. And you two won't go back to your own time until you have Alphonse back."
"And until Olivier can't hurt anyone anymore." Elric responded. "If he's allowed to go to ground here, he's going to cause some irreversible problems."
Now it was Roy's turn to rub his jaw. "We're going to need a plan then. If he meant it when he said he'd kill your brother, then it won't be long before he realizes you've been compromised. I've managed to convince the higher-ups that you escaped, but if you start running around the city trying to save your brother, that might cause some problems."
Elric laughed. "He's even dumber than you, Mustang."
Roy scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Mustang cracked a smile and regarded Elric with an expression Roy wasn't sure he wanted to read too much into. "What he means to say is that we know how to blend into a crowd. If he was so easy to find before, you wouldn't have had to place a trap for him."
"And I know where Olivier's based. Or at least one of his hideouts. He might've changed it since our last... visit... but I should be able to find him. Or his goons will find me." Elric shrugged.
"So how do we take care of this case?" Alphonse asked. He looked between Elric and Ed. "No one is going to believe the older, alternate version of the Fullmetal Alchemist killed those people."
Ed saw a shadow cross over Elric's face. "Can we use someone else? Maybe we could use Olivier himself?"
Elric tilted his head to the side. "We could. If we can catch him. He's not like the other people we've faced in the past. He's smart to the point of paranoid, and he's never alone."
"We'll just have to set a trap for him." Alphonse said. "He's going to be looking for you, right?"
Elric nodded slowly. "He'll definitely be looking for me, especially if he wants to gloat."
Silence filled the kitchen for a moment. Finally Roy said, "Let's take some time to figure out what to do. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll come to us." He looked at Mustang and Elric. "I'd prefer it if you two stayed here until we figure out our course of action. We have to go report in and get debriefed about the case."
"I'm sure we can find something to do until you three get back." Mustang replied. Elric shot him a look that was bitingly feral. Mustang just kept smiling.
Roy gave a slow nod. He didn't really want to know what his other self was thinking of. "Just... don't leave here, okay?"
"Don't worry. We won't." Mustang looked at Elric. "Right?"
"Whatever."
Roy looked at Ed and Alphonse. The younger Elrics seemed almost hesitant about leaving, but Ed finally got to his feet and moved to follow Roy out of the kitchen. Alphonse wasn't too far behind them. When they reached the street, Ed looked up at the apartment building and frowned deeply.
"What is it, brother?" Alphonse asked.
"I dunno." Ed replied slowly. "I kind of don't want to ask myself the question, because I'm pretty sure I won't like the answer."
"But you're going to ask anyway, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Ed said, almost unsure. "Probably."
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Time's Scar