Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Categories:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Collections:
Piglitt Fullmetal Works worth a read, Timey Whimey
Stats:
Published:
2021-04-25
Completed:
2022-12-29
Words:
109,371
Chapters:
77/77
Comments:
729
Kudos:
2,391
Bookmarks:
699
Hits:
96,463

Make a Deal to Fix your Mistakes

Summary:

Ed gets caught in the rebound of a Human Transmutation and nearly dies as a result.

Truth offers to save him, but will only do so by sending him back in time to his childhood.

Because Truth wants back the Souls that disappeared with the Homunculi. And Ed is going to be the one to get them back, allowing him to fix the mistakes he made the first time around in the process.

Notes:

So I have plot points for this but no way to get from point A to point B. So.... This is going to be a fun journey

Chapter Text

10 years after the Promised Day, and Edward Elric has what many people would call the perfect life. 

He brought back his brothers body, without losing any more body parts. His job let's him travel all over the country. He has a wife and 2 kids that love him. 

But the Gate he lost took a part of his Soul with him when it disappeared. The job that lets him travel all over the country keeps him away from his family. The family that love him no matter what. The family he can't bring himself to love the same way. It's true that he loves and adores his kids, but they weren't his choice, they were Winry's. 

Winry that has loved him since their late teens. Winry that he grew out of love with as he figured himself out. Winry who he married in order to not break her heart. Winry that he cheated on with the one who truly has his heart no matter how much he wishes they don't. Wishes that he hadn't gotten drunk that night because he had been doing so well, keeping away from that man.

He pulls himself out of his quickly spiralling thoughts as he looks at the house he's been sent to. The neighbours have been hearing increasingly loud rants at all hours of the day and night, accompanied by loud bangs. This isn't something Ed would typically be asked to check out, but one of the neighbours (a low level Alchemist) recognised some concerning things the man is saying in his rants. Concerned that something dangerous is happening, Ed got sent out to investigate. Because he may have lost his Alchemy, but he's still the resident expert on human transmutation, which is what the neighbour fears the man is researching. 

Stepping up to the door, he knocks twice before stepping back to wait for an answer. The muffled banging and curses don't fill Ed with comfort as the man makes his way towards the front door. 

The door opens to a man wearing a button down shirt with half of the buttons in the wrong hole, and some brown slacks. His eyes widen just a fraction when he looks at Ed. "Edward Elric, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" 

Ed just raises an eyebrow at the man. "We've heard rumours that you're practicing or researching human transmutation. I'm here to make sure that they're just rumours." The man stares at Ed for a few seconds, seemingly nervous before nodding and stepping aside to let him enter the house. "What's your name by the way? I didn't get told before I was sent out here." 

The man leads him through the house towards the basement, the standard place for most Alchemy rooms. "My name is Lucas Silvera." He opens the door to the basement and leads Ed down the stairs. As soon as Ed follows him down he immediately recognises the array drawn out on the floor. Sitting right in front of him, seemingly innocent is a human transmutation array. Lucas turns around to face Ed. "I don't know why they sent you here. It's not like you can stop me." 

Ed takes a small step forwards, being very careful not to touch a single chalk mark on the floor. "I may not have my Alchemy, but I know more about human transmutation than any Human should have the right to." 

Lucas steps further back from Ed to stand on the edge of the circle, far out of Ed's reach. "So what is your plan now? You break my circle? I could activate it long before you managed that." 

Taking another small step forwards, Ed glowers at the man. "If you try to do this you could die. Not only is the transmutation dangerous in and of itself but the rebound could kill you before the array even finishes activating." He takes a quick look around the basement they're in. "It's not like you made this basement incredibly sturdy." 

Glowering back at him, Lucas pricks his finger and lets his blood fall in to the tub containing the necessary ingredients to form a human shell. "You don't understand, Fullmetal Alchemist. I'm not trying to bring someone back to life." 

It takes a few seconds for Ed's brain to catch up with what the man is saying. "If you don't want to bring anyone back to life then why the fuck do you have that!?" He points down to the tub, where the few drops of Lucas's blood have caused small sections to stick together. Lucas looks confused which only angers Ed further. "You only need those things if you're trying to create a body. Are you telling me that you were trying to do human transmutation for whatever stupid fucking reason, and you did so little fucking research that you were about to drag someone's soul into the destructive carcass that this would create only for them to die all but immediately!?"

Lucas scoffs at him. "It's not human transmutation if there isn't a human to transmute." With that, he claps his hands and presses them to the edge of the circle. 

Enraged, Ed yells at him as the Eye appears underneath Lucas. "You fucking idiot. You are the human. You transmute yourself. What you've done now, is fucking kill the both of us." The basement begins to shake thanks to it's terrible structure, which sends tremors up through the rest of the house. It doesn't take long for the first piece of ceiling to fall and smash on to the floor. When Ed looks back over to Lucas, he sees that the man has already fallen pray to the rebound. "Fuck. Seriously?" He sends a second looking down at the dead body, before turning around, to try and get out of the basement door. Before cursing again when he can't see the doorway, only the pieces of stone and lumbar and whatever other bullshit Lucas used to build this shit excuse for a basement. "Fuck! No, no this cannot be fucking happening." He takes a step back before his automail leg catches on a piece of broken ceiling and he falls backwards, hitting his head on a jagged piece of metal. 

Ed lies there for a second, before drawing his gaze over to the human transmutation array. The eye is still there, the creepy fucking baby hands that haunt his nightmares still stretching out of the ground, searching for someone to grab on to and pull in to Truth's domain. But he drags his head away, going in to Truth's domain wouldn't be much help to him. He lays there for a few more seconds, trying to think of a way to get out of the basement without dying. As he lays on the floor he sees another piece of ceiling come loose right above where he's laying. Rolling out of the way as quick as he can manage still doesn't manage to avoid him getting hit. The debris catches him in the side as he moves, slicing his side open rather violently. "For fucks sake!" He eyes the circle again. The eye is closing and the hands receding back in to the floor. He glares at it before heaving out a sigh. "You better have something good for me Truth." 

He places a hand on to his bleeding side as he crawls towards the circle. When he's in reach, he slams a hand on to the circle. Thankful for once when he feels the familiar but still uncomfortable, borderline painful feeling of being taken apart atom by atom. When he opens his eyes he's stood in front of Truth again for the first time in years, but the first thing he does is breath a sigh of relief that he can't feel himself bleeding out any more. 

As Ed takes check of himself, Truth watches on with their usual knowing smile. After a few seconds, Ed looks up at Truth. "Why did you leave the gate here open for so long?" 

Truth gives him a slightly different smile, one that if Ed didn't know better he would say looks sad. "I knew you were going to need my help. And seen as you almost got yourself killed stupidly, you have little room to say no to what I'm about to ask you." Ed raises a weary eyebrow at them. "I want those Souls back. The ones that made up the Philosophers stone. You had no way to get here before now, and you would've said no if you could. But now you don't really have much of a choice. Because if you were to go back now, you would die a slow and painful death." 

Ed stares at them, unable to figure out what Truth is trying to say. "Well what else am I going to do? You're not going to ask me to stay here are you?" 

Truth chuckles at the question a few times, their creepy glowing smile growing with the laughs. "No, Alchemist. I'm not going to ask you to stay here. I'm going to send you back to your childhood so you can bring me back those Souls. It will even let you fix the mistakes you made, so really we're both getting something out of this." 

Faltering for a few seconds, Ed opens his mouth without saying anything for a good few seconds. "Are you asking me to live out my entire life again? What about this life? Or this timeline I suppose. What happens to the people here?" 

No answer comes for a short while, leaving Ed to stare at Truth like a lost child again. "They will move on. You will die in this timeline, and they will mourn but they will continue on. If you accept my deal, you will never be able to return to this timeline, but even if you go back now, you will die. No one will get there in time, because you didn't take anyone with you." 

Silence reigns for a few seconds, before Ed lets out a heaving sigh. "Okay. If you promise me that no one here will try anything stupid to bring me back, I'll accept your deal and bring you back your Souls." Truth's smile widens as he stands up, pushing his weight on to Ed's borrowed leg. The movement draws his gaze to the flesh and draws a groan of complaint from his throat. "I'm gonna have to have automail surgery again aren't I?" 

Truth grins even wider, before nodding. "That you will, Alchemist. But I can lessen that pain for you a little. You will be taking your younger self's place. The younger you that hasn't sacrificed their Gate." Ed's old Gate builds itself back up behind him and Ed can't help but turn his head to look back at it. Feeling part of his Soul returning at the sight of it alone. "Welcome back to the missing part of your Soul, Edward Elric. I know how dearly you've missed it." Truth holds out their hand towards Ed. "You accept my deal yes?" 

Staring down at the hand for a few seconds, Ed nods his head. If he was going to die in his original timeline anyway, he may as well be able to fix the mistakes he made in it. "I accept your deal, Truth." With that he meets Truth's outstretched hand with his own. Only a second passes before a jolt of pain runs through him, to concentrate itself in his shoulder. Looking down at his right shoulder, hidden among the soon to be gone automail parts left as shrapnel in his shoulder, is the Alchemic symbol for the sun. Ed stares at it for a few seconds before looking back up at Truth, who is just stood there with an obnoxiously ominous smile on their face. "What is this?" 

Truth continues smiling at him, as Ed's newly reformed Gate opens behind him. "It's the proof that you've accepted my deal." As Ed starts getting pulled through the Gate, Truth takes a second to give him some more information. "As long as you get me my Souls back, I don't care what you do. Tell whoever you want about this, don't tell anyone. Everything is your choice as long as you uphold your end of the deal." Ed nods his head as the Gate pulls him through it. Spitting him out on the floor of his childhood house, bleeding out from his leg.