Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or Harry Potter

- This will be the first part of the Exordium Crossover series, which will play out from The Half Blood Prince going forward to the end of the film series. A LOT will happen, it will be LONG and I hope interesting for readers.

- This will not interfere with my other stories.

- Please note, I have not read the Harry Potter books, only watched the movies. BUT, because I know how intense and accurate HP fans like everything to be, I have done extensive research into the bits of the books and films that I mixed in here. I hope I will not offend any HP fans, I really did try to keep it tidy.

- This part is written to completion.

- There will be pairings that will unveil themselves as the story unfolds, just a heads up, they won't necessarily be canon.

- The FMA timeline deviates from a short while after the Promised Day, Edward does NOT have his automail arm as per FMA Manga Chapter 107's events.

- This is not beta-read, sorry for any mistakes.

- The title means [The Circle]


All of my endings waiting to begin


Edward thought the day was going quite well, all things considered. In fact, it had been a good week over all.

Four days earlier, on a raining miserable Tuesday, Alphonse had woken up from a medically nourishing, drug hazed, unnaturally exhausted and deeply concerning sleep marathon and actually managed to stay awake for more than a half hour. And since then each day he'd been maintaining conscientiousness for longer periods of time.

And presently, Alphonse had been awake for three or so hours steadily, and was managing to hold quiet but lucid -and smiling- conversation.

It was good, no, actually it was great, because just two weeks earlier had been the Promised Day and between the numerous –violent, psychopathic - attempts on his life as well as the near fall of Amestris to Father and the rest of the chaos that had ensued prior to and thereafter, Ed had been beginning to question whether or not he'd ever succeed in restoring his younger brother to his flesh and blood body.

But, in the true nature of his determinate and obstinate being, or perhaps the extremely reckless and stubborn nature of it, -however one chose to look at things-, he had done the impossible.

He'd performed the first ever successful human transmutation.

And now, not only did he have his brother back, alive and well –perfect actually, despite needing to put some meat on his bones and some color in his skin- also, Ed wasn't going to go to prison for breaking the law…again.

He hadn't bothered to question why since he figured that sentencing him to life in prison after he and Alphonse –and a few other key people- essentially saved 57 some odd million lives, would be a pretty easy way to make said 57 million people turn on your organized military government, so yeah, it made sense that no charges would be brought against him.

That…and the fact that the Fuhrer had been THE evil son of a bitch involved in the plotting and planning to kill everyone in the first place. Yeah, it had been crazy. The entire thing still sounded crazy to him, it sounded crazy to everyone who'd been eye witnesses to it. Even Al was still processing it despite having been right there in the thick of it beside Ed.

"You felt it Brother…when the Truth emerged from Father's transmutation. It was massive, so powerful…scarier than anything we ever experienced in the Gate." Alphonse was saying as he tried to sip some water through a straw in between speaking. He was holding the room temperature cup of water in his frail clutch as close to his mouth as he could manage without disturbing the IV's attached to his arm. Edward felt awful for him, apparently in his weak state of slow but steady recovery, even his skin was delicate to things like hot and cold and sunlight…and needles.

Edward couldn't keep the worried frown off his face as he sat at his brother's hospital bedside, arms folded on the faded blue sheets and his chin rested atop them,

"Yeah, I felt it…hey," he sat up and gestured with his hand to the plastic cup, "…lemme' hold that for you, Al, your hand is shaking." his voice was laced with worry.

Despite knowing that Al's nerves were fresh and re-learning sensation and use, he still hated seeing it, he just kept wishing he could find a way to make it heal faster.

Mind you, Doctor Marcoh had offered to help with the Philosophers stone, but of course, Edward had declined.

No more messing in unnatural transmutations.

'Alphonse is strong, he'll heal just fine on his own and when he's at 100% again, he'll be proud to have made it there on his own.' Ed told himself as confidently as he could while watching Al clutch the cup tighter with his ashen, boney digits and shake his head, looking stubborn and eight years old again with a petulant frown,

"No Brother, I have to use what muscles I can…" he sighed and chewed on the end of the straw, "…I can't wait until I'm strong enough to start physical therapy." he mumbled around the plastic.

Edward huffed and resettled his chin on his arms,

"I know…I just want to help." he mumbled and then shifted his head to rub his forehead against his one arm. When he raised his head again, he absently flexed his own emaciated right hand into a loose, weak fist and he smiled,

"Thanks again for saving my ass out there, Al," it was easy to joke about near death when it was in the past, he'd done it so many times, "I was useless there for a second after I lost my automail." he raised his right hand slightly off the mattress and then drummed the tips of his fingers on the sheet a few times.

"Honestly, you're thanking me…?" Al frowned deeper now, it seemed so much more severe with his gaunt features and newly cropped hair, he looked pale and anorexic and it made Edward want to take his pain away, he'd swap places if he could, "…after what you gave up…-"

"Come on, Al," he cut his younger brother's forlorn toned words off with a hand on his forehead and a sigh, "I swear if you imply that my alchemy was somehow worth more than your life I'll-…"

"No, I was referring to everything. Over the past four, almost five years, everything you've sacrificed and-…"

"Aaaaal…." Ed groaned, not interested in the least in getting into that discussion.

They always had to agree to disagree about who'd sacrificed the most because Ed always blamed himself and Al always insisted it wasn't his fault alone and he didn't want to get into that. He was content to just sit there and watch Al successfully keep down the water and the bland soup he'd eaten earlier –because his stomach would reject rich and solid foods- and manage a conversation without drifting off to sleep involuntarily.

It was a good day.

"Ed." Al said back, his voice quite a bit less tinny without the echo and so in turn it was instantly more scolding because of it. It made Ed smile goofily, which made Al make a face of disapproval at his amusement, which made Ed smile wider.

Before the younger blonde could go off on a tangent about how Ed should get over himself, there was a knock on the door and it was followed by a soldier, who looked like he'd had a long day, entering immediately and saluting, standing at attention,

"Major Elric, sir, Private Holsen reporting, sir."

Edward raised an eyebrow, never having been impressed with the whole soldier routine no matter how long he'd been around it and he sat up straight, absently stretching his back as he scratched at his cheek absently,

"Uh, go ahead, Private." he said with a lackluster expression and tone that made the Private look uncertain.

He was probably newish and expected Edward to assert himself with the whole 'I outrank you so be very afraid' tone of voice, the same one Mustang always tried to pull on him whenever they would disagree on something, which was pretty much always. It was a tone that never, ever worked, at least not on Ed and he always got good laughs out of his colleagues when he imitated Mustang for it around the office...only when Hawkeye wasn't around though, because her 'be very afraid' tone was up to standard.

All the same, Holsen remained at attention with his posture ramrod stiff and his booted feet pressed together,

"I have been asked to retrieve you and bring you immediately to the primary crime scene, sir, by order of Colonel Mustang." he said in that slightly too loud and crisply clear voice soldiers were required to use.

Ed glanced at Al, the younger blonde was frowning, looking worried. Edward looked back to the soldier,

"Did he say why?" he asked, feeling annoyed that Mustang would summon him to work. Yeah sure, he was still legally required to report to his C.O since he hadn't resigned yet and even when he did, there'd be a duration of time while the paperwork was being processed that he'd have to work anyway.

But being summoned when the bastard knew Ed wanted to spend as many hours as he could in a day with Al…that was just asshole behavior. Ed decided he'd inform Mustang of that as soon as he saw him.

"No, sir." the soldier answered stiffly.

Edward sighed irritably and then pushed the chair he'd been sitting in backwards when he stood, stretching properly, he heard the popping of a few of his joints as he did so.

"Well, do you have any idea why? Was there trouble, commotion, did anyone get attacked?" Ed asked as he pushed his braid back over his shoulder.

Holsen shook his head once only,

"No, sir, everything seemed fine, except for everyone being asked to clear out of the underground room just before I was sent here."

Edward was grateful that the soldier had at least used his brain and offered up some information without having to be instructed, there was hope for him yet. Of course, Ed was also tempted to keep him at attention for another five or ten minutes just for fun, but Holsen had said 'immediately' and the quicker Ed dealt with whatever Mustang needed him to do, the quicker he could get back to Alphonse.

With a scowl that was always reserved especially for Mustang, Ed reached for his pocket watch where it sat on top of his black coat at the foot of Al's hospital bed. He slipped it into the pocket of his leather pants as he looked at his concerned -and sleepy looking- brother,

"Don't worry Al, I'll be back as soon as I can, the primary crime scene in under HQ so I won't be far." he reassured as he picked his gloves up and pulled the right one on first, wearing them more out of habit than out of necessity.

Alphonse nodded, still looking worried but trying to smile, so Ed reached out and gently ruffled his short hair,

"Try to get some sleep, Al, cause' when I get back I want you wide awake and rested so you can listen to me complain about Mustang." he grinned and Al smiled properly then, nodding again,

"I will, Brother."

With reluctance and annoyance, Edward patted and squeezed Al's boney shoulder once before turning to leave the hospital room, pulling on his second glove as he went. He left his coat behind because it was a lukewarm day outside and he would be able to get it once he was done with whatever Mustang wanted. He was grateful at least that he only had to make his way out to the front of –what was left- of HQ since he was in the hospital wing of HQ's military property.

Holsen relaxed –after some uncertain hesitation- when Ed mumbled for him to do so and then he followed Ed out of the room, but not before Ed glanced back and gave Alphonse a wink and a quick grin.

Once outside the room, they started making their way down the hall, Holsen walking just a step behind him. Edward let the scowl settle back onto his face then, because seriously, the last thing he needed was for Mustang to summon him to go on some stupid errand. He knew it couldn't be that he was needed for repairs or anything since just about everyone knew he could no longer use alchemy. So he could only assume it would be some menial task, and depending on just how many buttons Mustang was gonna push to piss him off, Ed started to think calculatingly of just how hard he'd clock the bastard for it.

They walked in silence, only the sound of Ed's combat boots and Holsen's military boots clipping against the linoleum could be heard over the sounds of ringing telephones and murmurs of conversations in the other hospital rooms and of people in the hallways that they passed. It was just before lunch time so standard visiting hours would start soon, and also it was time for shift changes so fresh nurses were starting their rounds.

Around a few corners, down a long corridor and then down a few flights of stairs and five minutes later Edward walked out of the military hospital and into the warm and windy weather of Central. He and Holsen followed along the concrete paved masonry edged pathway, walking for several more minutes and heading toward the gaping hole in the ground that served as the entrance to Father's underground 'lair', as it were. Although, in light of the fact that the entire front and middle section of the main building of HQ was completely destroyed, the hole in the ground didn't seem all that bad.

Edward subtly shook his head as he thought back to just two weeks ago, it had been a real living nightmare, fighting the powerful abomination that had been the ultimate homunculus. When he'd started on the journey to get Al's body back Edward could never have even imagined facing anything like Envy or Pride, let alone Father.

The sheer power…feeling the ultimate Gate opening, the immensity of the Truth looming, so admittedly frightening…

In the seconds before Ed had passed out, the air had been so dead and cold and still around Father…just like it was inside the Gate, only on a phenomenally larger scale. It still seemed surreal to think that for a brief moment, everyone in Central had been dead.

Edward looked back at the hospital building, now out of sight and quite a distance away, he was feeling anxious and wanted to return to Al's side as soon as possible. The younger blonde had been –unsurprisingly- having nightmares, something Ed had suffered with for years and Al had been spared due to his lack of ability to sleep.

It was catching up now though.

He faced forward again, seeing that they were nearing the loitering crowds of soldiers and alchemists hanging around the hole in the ground, several more men were still working further up at the front of HQ's main building.

The alchemists on site were free-lance, some volunteers and some hired to help clear up the rubble, debris and the general mess that was everywhere, and the place was starting to look less and less like a bomb had been dropped on it. It was no closer to being rebuilt since there were still investigations underway, but nevertheless, it was no longer completely trashed.

Edward pushed his bangs out of his face when the wind whipped up on the open front grounds. He'd just arrived at the rim of the gaping hole and he looked at the alchemized spiraling stone staircase that led down at least five stories below the ground. There was faint light at the bottom, no doubt set up by whoever had been working down there.

"The Colonel said he'd wait at the bottom for you, sir, he said you should meet him down there as soon as you get here." Holsen informed from just behind Ed and said blonde glanced at him, receiving another salute for his given attention.

That action seemed to alert the other soldiers around the disaster site that he was there and they all saluted accordingly, if a bit tiredly, and there was a chorus of the word 'sir' dutifully announced. It was bizarre. Edward figured it had something to do with him having been a key player in saving everyone's lives, and that that was why they all suddenly decided to start formally addressing him.

And damn it, it pissed him off, it'd taken him years to shake off that military shit after he'd first been appointed a state alchemist.

He huffed quietly and glanced around at everyone, giving a few half nods before he stepped down onto the beginning of the spiral staircase, it was well constructed with high side rails so no one could fall off while descending. He wondered very briefly who'd alchemized it before he started making his way down.

It took at least four minutes to get to the bottom, he counted, and that was at a pace that wouldn't give him vertigo. It was hot and damp that far underground, Edward made a face as his black T-shirt and unfastened waist-jacket seemed like too many layers to be wearing. He reached the final four steps and jumped them, his boots landing in the sand and broken stone of the cavernous underground area with a puff of dust.

Edward glanced back the way he'd come, up at the opening overhead and he whistled long and even at the size and height of the cavern. Looking back, it was understandable that more of the place had caved in since the Promised Day, considering how many of the levels had already been in ruins. Ed glanced around the underground area next, but the daylight shining directly down the opening didn't help with visibility, it made everything beyond the circle of moderate light appear almost pitch black, which was unhelpful.

Edward waved his hand in front of his face as the dust filtering around made him cough lightly, and when he caught sight of his glove, no longer crisply white, but instead dirty from the rails he'd absently touched on his way down, Ed made an irritable face.

"Shit, shit...shit…" he grumbled as he dusted his hands on his leather pants uselessly.

With a deep sigh Edward made a mental recall of directions, and then he walked toward the area where the initial battle had taken place. Even in the dark he knew his way, having been down there quite a few times in the days immediately following the Promised Day. As his eyes slowly adjusted, Ed could see a little better around the dark space that was hardly recognizable since being caved in upon. He remembered how bad it'd been there when he'd made his way down after the battle to retrieve what had been left of Pride, and it was worse presently. It hadn't occurred to him then, but when he thought about it now Ed realized that the little shit had been lucky he wasn't crushed when the upper levels had caved.

"Fullmetal…" Edward heard Mustang practically grumble-huff out his name and he glanced in the direction of the voice, only to get an eyeful of a bright torch light,

"What the hell Mustang, you tryna' make me blind?" he said unthinkingly.

"It'd only be temporary, so I wouldn't bitch about it too much." Mustang said sounding very tired and annoyed as his footsteps crunched closer, the light averted to the side of Ed, no longer shining in his eyes.

Edward felt –just a teeny tiny bit- guilty for his insensitive blind quip, made so soon after Mustang had been blind, when he realized that the older man was guard down and weary,

"What the hell did you want me down here for? I wanna get back to Al so hurry it up." he sidestepped the impending banter and squinted into the dull lighting around them at Mustang once the man was standing only two feet away.

His skin looked slightly sweated and he wasn't wearing his uniform jacket or waist-cape, he only wore the pants, his dust covered boots and his white –though not so much right then- uniform shirt which was undone a few buttons from the top with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Yeah, well, if you'd gotten here quicker you could have left quicker." he said back with a bland look on his face.

Edward's lips twitched downward in annoyance,

"Shut the hell up and tell me whatever it is already, it's hot down here." he complained in a mumble.

Mustang stared at him and then raised an eyebrow and blinked, before he tipped his head in a gesture for Ed to follow him,

"How do you think I feel, I've been down here for an hour." he complained as Edward followed him back the way Mustang had come, into a section near the darker corners of the underground area, where the light didn't reach at all, hence the torch Mustang carried.

Ed snorted,

"Now who's bitching?" and then he grimaced, feeling sticky under his clothes.

"I'm entitled to, I've endured it longer." Mustang said smoothly and Edward flipped him the bird despite it going unseen,

"Bite me." he mumbled.

They'd made their way into a smaller room in the back, way underground, but while it was smaller, it was hardly small. It was definitely empty though, as Mustang's torchlight cast over the space revealed, and Ed frowned when he realized it,

"You brought me to a hot room underground, miles away from civilization…" he exaggerated, "…that is totally empty?" and he glared weakly at the blob of white and dark blue that was Mustang behind the torchlight as they came to stop walking where the back dead end wall was. "Are you sure that your brain didn't get fucked up when you went into the Gate, or…" he changed his tone to amused, "…maybe Doctor Marcoh messed you up when he fixed your sight, after all, the eyes and the brain and pretty cl-…"

"Would you shut up and look at this." Mustang cut him off, flashing the light in his face most likely on purpose.

Edward wanted to clobber him, but he couldn't see him properly with all the white spots in his vision, so he decided to postpone any attempts for the moment,

"Bastard," he had to say before he squinted into the dark emptiness around them, "look at what, it's empty in here." he repeated as he took a few steps so he was standing just beside Mustang.

Right then the older man flashed the light on the back wall in a slow wide circular motion,

"This." he said quietly, and Edward looked at what the light revealed.

His eyes widened as he took in the sight, blinking a few of the final white spots out of his eyes before he squinted again, following the light where Mustang directed it over the large wall, "I found it minutes before I ordered everyone out and sent for you." Mustang said, tone noticeably more serious.

Edward blinked a few times when the Colonel moved the light too quickly to another spot and he reached out absently, missing on the first grasp but catching Mustang's hand on the second, and with a slide of their gloved fingers, Ed took the torch into his left hand when the older man let it go,

"So no one else has seen it?" he asked quietly as he focused the light where he wanted it to be.

On the wall was a large transmutation array, it appeared to be drawn onto the wall like most arrays were, but considering how pristinely white the chalk lines were, it looked like it was fresh, very recently done.

"Yeah, nobody knows why I sent everyone out. I figured it was best to let you take a look at it since it resembles some version of a human transmutation circle." Mustang said from somewhere behind Ed since the blonde had moved closer to the wall.

Ed shook his head, mostly to himself,

"It's not…"

"But it has the symbols for it," Mustang sounded uncertain even as he said it, "from the second inner ring to the base ring, sulfur, salt, mercury, lead, silv-…"

"Yeah, yeah, I can see that." Ed cut him off as he drew the torchlight down from the mercury symbol inward of the circle, "But you see these symbols, around the center of the circle…I don't recognize them." he shook his head again, eyes bright and wide, taking in the strange symbols with interest.

Mustang stepped up beside him and they both looked closely over the unfamiliar symbols, there were four in total, three positioned symmetrically around the symbol at the very center.

"I've studied alchemical runes and been inside the Gate more times than I ever wanted to and I have never seen symbols like these, they look like…doodles." Edward said disdainfully.

Mustang sighed beside him and Ed saw him glance from the runes to look at him with a smirk on his face,

"And here I thought you'd be useful."

Edward flashed him -with the torch of course- ,

"Really? We just found something that could be a fucking dangerous array and you're making jokes." he snapped, stressed because of the intricate design lined with shapes and words he couldn't read or understand the intention of due to the foreign symbols at the heart of the array.

Ed hated not understanding an alchemic array, it was like an itch he couldn't scratch.

Mustang swatted out at Ed when he'd flashed the light into the older man's face at such close range. Ed imagined his vision was far spottier and he smirked to himself. Mustang took a few steps back, pressing his fingers into his eyes,

"You just said it looks like doodles, you can't draw an array with made up symbols so it probably won't even work. Besides, no one is going to activate it anyway." he huffed quietly.

Edward had looked back to the symbols during Mustang's babbling and he narrowed his eyes at the symbols in the center. They did look like lazily drawn doodles, but he knew that it was dangerous to be naïve. The fact that they didn't know what the array did or the symbols meant was exactly what made it so dangerous, especially since it was down in that particular place, where the most dangerous and crazy son of a bitch homunculus had been shacking up. If it was his creation, the possibility of it being dangerous was guaranteed.

Ed memorized the symbols as he looked over them. The one at the middle looked like two lightning shaped strokes with curled ends parallel to one another and with a third crowbar shaped stroke running horizontally through them. Since it was at the middle it obviously symbolized the most powerful and necessary element of the array. The second one positioned above it was complicated, it looked like several strange and different fork ended rods, all meeting at the middle and pointing outward in a bizarre snowflake-like shape. The third one to the left of the middle looked like a backward small swirly letter 'h', and the last one to the right looked vaguely like a swirly upside down drawn snail…with two legs.

Edward made an annoyed face, it was unusual for him to not know what the hell he was looking at, it almost never happened, yet right then his mind was drawing a complete blank.

"Has staring at it been useful?" Mustang drawled from the darkness behind him.

Edward glanced over his shoulder, not even able to see the man,

"Hey, you asked me to come down here to look at this," he pointed out, "now you're rushing me? Don't you wanna' know what it does?"

Mustang could be heard sighing,

"Yeah…okay, yeah, I'll get some people to bring more light down here so we can get some pictures of it. But before that I need to break the lines so the array is inoperative." he sounded like he was half asleep and muffled, Ed assumed he was probably rubbing at his stupid face.

He nodded absently,

"Yeah, just a sec, I wanna' memorize the whole thing so I can research it too." he mumbled. And because Ed had no alchemy to speak of anymore, it occurred to neither him nor Mustang to be wary about him touching it.

So, innocently enough, Edward raised his free right hand and touched his gloved fingers to one of the center symbol's lines, and he had barely begun to trail the chalk line and realize that it wasn't smearing…before the circle lit up.

It started from the inside out, a blindingly bright white light which caught Ed right in the face since he was leaning so close. He just about heard Mustang curse and say his name because the array was emitting a sound, a suction sound and it was deafening, so loud Ed wondered if everyone above ground could hear it.

It all happened in split seconds as the light evened out over the large array, moving as though it was alive along the superficial lines of the design. And it felt alive, to Edward it felt as if someone was on the inside of it, or on the other side, pulling him toward it, into it.

It was then that Ed realized what was happening, and took in a sharp, loud breath, his eyes widening in panic as he watched his hand…his arm…his shoulder…disappearing into the wall, into the array…and it felt iced cold inside it, and the wall appeared as if it were a thick liquid, rippling outward from where his body was being pulled in.

"Shit! Mustang!?" Edward shouted, starting to freak out and he made the mistake of dropping the torch when, in his blind panic, he tried to put his other hand on the liquid wall for leverage to pull his other arm out of…of whatever the hell it was that was turning his captured limb dead cold.

"Fullmetal? I can't see you! It's too bright!" Mustang yelled over the sound coming from the array, he sounded far away.

Ed made a noise of fear, eyes wide and terrified, when his second hand and then arm was sucked in instantly up to his elbow, which brought his face only inches from the rippling, cold, blindingly glowing wall.

His breathing was erratic and just before the bottom half of his face and his chest touched the ice cold shifting waves of the wall, Edward yelled,

"Mustang, the wall! I can't ge-…" he was cut off as his face went into the pulsing array.

There was noise, so much noise…and Edward felt like he couldn't breathe.

It was unlike any array he'd ever activated, especially when he shouldn't have been able to activate it in the first fucking place. Inside of it was cold like the Gate had been, but it was deafeningly noisy instead of silent and Ed felt immobilized and unable to breath or move as he passed into it. He felt numb from head to toe and was quite sure he'd lost all sensation…but then he felt something solid and warm wrap around his waist and tug him backward hard enough that somewhere inside of him, the pressure hurt vaguely.

There were a few more tugs that followed, the painfully tight band across his waist unrelenting and grounding as the only feeling Ed could identify through the surreal sensation of being nothing and nowhere, which was slowly becoming overwhelming.

Edward's mind, unlike his body, was thankfully still functioning, running a mile a minute and trying to latch onto something, anything. Ideas, theories, explanations, a plan. He decided it was safe to assume whatever was happening had something to do with the Gate, with Truth. The similarities in the array pertaining to human transmutation could not have been a coincidence. So Ed focused on what his trips to the Gate had felt like, the most recent one just two weeks ago, and he mentally broke it down as he failed to be aware of whether he was breathing or moving.

The first thing that he thought of was the flow of energy. The energy of Truth was always cataclysmic to the mind and stifling to the senses, always present inside the Gate, casting fear and more often than not, insanity on anyone who ventured into its infinite domain. But since his senses were all numb, Ed could only open his mind to the energy, recalling the equation of human transmutation as he attempted to form the matrix of energy within himself, as he'd done a thousand times before. He calculated and executed the array and math to perfection in his mind…but he couldn't tap into the energy and it frustrated him, because apparently his alchemy was still not working.

The band around his waist was slackening and Edward refocused on it, panicking as some part of his racing mind screamed at him that he could not let that hold weaken, something about it was very important. He desperately tried then, to feel for a familiar energy, or any energy in whatever deathly cold realm the array had taken him to, reaching with his mind, searching for the familiar spark of something awakening at his core, the sensation of heat and power…and then he felt it.

And it was a massive energy, surging freely everywhere, completely foreign but pleasant and in abundance and it was within his reach. Edward couldn't feel his own extremities, but he could utilize his mental faculties and feel the heavy weight around his midsection, both sensations keeping him aware enough to know that he could get out of there somehow.

If the Gate hadn't been able to drive him crazy, cold and noise and numbness would not succeed.

When it came down to it, Edward Elric excelled in surviving when he was faced with the possibility of dying, you might even say he thrived under such conditions. With a will and determination –stubborn, I will not fucking die attitude- worthy of the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward zeroed in on the energy he felt and just like he'd used the energy of souls to escape Gluttony's stomach and had used Alphonse's alchemy to bring them back through the Gate just two weeks ago, Edward again used the external energy source much in the way he'd use a Philosopher's Stone, drawing it into himself.

With crystal clarity in his mind, his brilliant mind – and luckily his subconscious telling him to hang onto the weight around his waist -, Edward calculated the transmutation and the energy required and he tapped into the pleasant warm pulse of it with impossible ease.

As if it were meant to be used in excess.

Whatever happened next, happened fast…

…and maybe everything had happened within seconds, or maybe minutes, even hours, Edward couldn't guess since he'd felt suspended in blind numbness with nothing but a panicked and strained consciousness, but once he tapped into the warm energy standing out like a beacon of light in a dark cold place, Edward felt like the void left in the wake of his sacrificed alchemy had just been filled to overflowing.


I will try to get the next chapter, which will be longer, out soon.