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batsutousaiTitle: Reverti Ad Praeteritum
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood/manga
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang, May Chang/Alphonse Elric, Gracia Hughes/Maes Hughes, post-Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell
Warnings: Spoilers like whoa, Ed's potty mouth, canon-typical violence, pile 'o OCs, mute!Ed, original character death, angst, fluff, past dub-con, past adultery, Ed has all the guilt
Summary: Unwillingly forced to serve as a human trial for a crazy alchemist experimenting with time travel, Edward Elric finds himself standing across from Truth in the moment it takes his leg from him. Armed with the knowledge of what's to come and burdened with guilt for the choices he'd made as an adult, Ed sets out to fix every mistake he ever made and save every life they ever lost, no matter what it takes.
Key: "Speech" | 'Mouthing words'
'Writing'
:Sign Language:
"In another language" | 'In another language'
On their second day on the road, they woke to find a couple of would-be attackers caught up in the alchemical traps they'd surrounded their campsite with.
"Well–" Al got out before cracking a yawn.
Ed tilted his head, giving the nearest of the three men – caught in a massive earthen fist – an interested look. 'Idiot,' he mouthed in Xingan.
The man's face twisted with fury. "A pox on you, outlanders! This is Kui land! You will pay for this–"
Ed clapped, then reached over and touched the man's shoulder, turning his clothing into a gag that climbed into his mouth and shut him up. To Al, he signed, :I'm gonna go piss.:
Al rolled his eyes and nodded before turning back to their catch.
When Ed returned from relieving his bladder, he found that his brother had gagged the other two and was in the process of informing all three of them why attacking travellers was poor manners, especially when those travellers were unaccompanied children.
(Ed loved his brother.)
Grinning and leaving Al to it, Ed turned to start them a quick breakfast, then started packing up their sleeping bags while waiting for it to cook.
Al eventually gave up on his lecturing and went to relieve himself, returning about the same time as breakfast was ready. "I really don't know what to do with them," he admitted to Ed as he served them both food.
Ed shrugged and carefully balanced his plate on his knees so he could sign, :Take their weapons and their clothing and leave them to run home?:
"Brother."
Ed rolled his eyes. :Or we could leave them here until some kind alkahestrist frees them. Or someone comes along and kills and robs them.:
Al groaned and turned his eyes to his food.
Ed ate a few bites of his own food, then snapped his fingers a few times, until Al looked up, and signed, :Taking their weapons is a must, Al. We can leave them with their clothing if you insist, but the weather is mild enough that they won't suffer for being forced to walk home naked.:
Al sighed and slumped slightly. "I know. And maybe that'll teach them not to try mugging a couple kids on the road–"
Ed, kindly, didn't point out how unlikely that would be.
"–but it still rubs me wrong."
:Embarrassment is a good deterrent against them trying again,: Ed returned with a flat look. :There may come a time when it's between taking their clothing and taking their life; which can you stomach?: Because Ed had been forced to make that choice a handful of times when he was travelling on his own, after the Promised Day. The one time he had just let a man go without taking anything from him, trusting his word that he'd turn over a new leaf, he'd woken up two nights later to find the fucker holding a knife to his throat, and ended up having most of his things taken in payment for his earlier softheartedness.
Ed would never be able to stomach killing people – and he knew Al was the same – but he'd learnt well his lesson about letting those who attacked him walk away without punishment.
Al winced and looked towards their would-be attackers. "Can we at least leave them their shoes?" he requested.
Ed sighed and nodded.
They finished their breakfast and packed up the last of their camp, then Ed went to disarm the untouched alchemic traps, while Al informed their would-be attackers that they were letting them go free, but only after confiscating all their belongings. He didn't actually free any of them until Ed came back over, however, which was good, because the first guy he freed revealed a sword he'd had unsheathed inside the earthen fist, and immediately went for Al.
Ed used his brother's shoulders and back as a spring board, simultaneously shoving him down and out of the way, and delivered an automail foot to the fucker's face, sending him straight to unconsciousness.
"Brother," Al sighed.
Ed rolled his eyes and started divesting the unconscious man of everything except his shoes.
The second man, once freed, didn't bother fighting back, just started undressing. He had a stock of knives not unlike the ones Ed remembered May using – kunai, she'd corrected him every time he called them anything different – and he picked one of them up and gave it a careful flip. Not quite like the knives he'd taken to carrying, but he could get used to them, and they were free. (Anyway, from what he remembered about May's explanation of distance alkahestry, you needed some sort of focus at the point where you wanted to activate the array – either a pre-drawn array or some material imbued with your "sense of self," or whatever bullshit – so he might as well get some practice in.)
The third man, when Al freed him, turned to flee.
"Hey!" Al shouted, rushing to his feet.
Ed, since he had one of the kunai in hand already, flipped it around to get a proper grip and tossed it after the man, leaving a shallow cut along the outside of his right leg. Which, well, the guy probably could have kept running, but he apparently took it as a warning shot and froze.
So, yeah, practice, because that hadn't been quite what he'd been aiming for.
Kindly, Al collected the kunai while he stood over that last guy, then chivvied the lot of them – the second guy having slung the first guy over his shoulder – out into the fields surrounding them, while Ed packed up all the abandoned items and cleaned one of the wrappings with alchemy, then used it to fashion places to keep the kunai.
"Really, Brother?" Al muttered as he accepted his pack, eyeing the kunai Ed had hid against his right wrist, just far enough back that it shouldn't interfere with his signing.
Ed shrugged. :I used western-style knives for a while. Sometimes you need more than alchemy in a fight.:
Al considered the sword they'd got off the guy who Ed had knocked unconscious, which Ed had attached to his pack. It looked nothing like the sword Ling had used, more like the sorts of swords used in ancient western art, but with an oddly-shaped pommel. "I guess," he allowed.
Ed reached over and flicked a finger at the sword, then signed, :I'm happy to teach you knife or spear-fighting, but I never saw much use for swords.:
Al gave a slow nod, his expression promising trouble. "Hm. The spear makes sense, actually, when you consider your rather extreme reach disadvantage against most people."
:Are you asking for a practical demonstration of knife-fighting?: Ed demanded crossly. :Because I could use the practice.:
Al snorted and shook his head. "Nope. I'm good."
Ed huffed.
They walked in silence for about a half hour, before Al said, "You were always more comfortable with the knife Teacher gave us."
Ed grimaced and nodded; it was true that he'd had better luck with the knife on the island, and his habit of turning his arm into a short blade to fight with had helped hone the fighting skills he already had from Teacher's more combat-based training. He'd figured out spears because, yes, there were times when he needed the added reach while fighting someone, but he'd always been more comfortable with smaller weapons that would let him get inside an opponent's guard.
"Maybe someone in the Chang clan can teach me sword-fighting," Al mused.
:How about I teach you some knife- and spear-fighting and you try whatever else you can learn from the clan?: Ed suggested. :Eventually, you'll find that one weapon that suits you best.:
Al considered that for a moment before cautiously asking, "What...did I use? In the future?"
Ed sighed. :Spears are easy to transmute from whatever's nearby; when you needed a weapon, that's usually what you went for.: Though, Ed had sometimes wondered if that hadn't been a partial holdover from his time in the armour, when a spear was really the only weapon sized for him.
"Hand-to-hand, then," Al mused. "Well, it is less likely to end in accidentally killing an opponent."
:Unless you have automail,: Ed returned, and if he'd been able to speak, he knew his voice would have been flat, because he knew from long experience that it was no easy task to go all out with only three (or two) limbs, while also trying to hold back with one (or two).
"Oh, yeah. I guess using knives pose about the same amount of danger of overdoing it as using your leg."
Ed shrugged. :I don't know I'd put it that way, exactly, but I'm already weaponised, so I might as well keep weapons on me.: Well, and he hadn't had alchemy to serve as a safety net. Not that he'd explained that part to his brother, and nor did he really have any interest in doing so; at the moment, Al seemed willing to buy the idea that Ed had traded his voice for Al's part of the toll, but if he got wind that Ed had been forced to trade his alchemy, before, instead, he'd start asking questions that Ed...didn't really want to answer.
One day, he'd probably have to tell his brother he'd used a Philosopher's Stone to get him back from the Gate, but damned if he wasn't going to put it off for as long as humanly possible.
The next time they were attacked was a few days later, when they were nearing their destination, and it was by two men who wore a sash across their chests in a very familiar manner. 'Chang,' Ed mouthed to Al, right before he was forced to catch a sword aimed at his head between his crossed kunai.
"Are you members of the Chang clan?" Al asked as he dodged the other man's sword.
The man whose sword Ed had caught, who looked to be the elder of the two by at least twenty years, let up on the pressure he was exerting and demanded, "Who wants to know?"
"We are looking to learn alkahestry," Al explained, ducking another swing from his attacker. "We saw your clan's name in one of the books our father owns. It was supposedly written by the Philosopher of the West."
Technically, none of Hohenheim's books had named any Xingan clans, but Ed and Al were banking on the idea that they had journals from the man who'd developed alkahestry into the art it was now to win them some points.
Both of the Xingan men pulled back, weapons still held at the ready, but clearly willing to listen. "You have writings of the Philosopher of the West?" the one who'd been attacking Ed asked.
Ed signed, :Descendants,: where he knew his brother would see.
Al's eyes flickered up toward his face, a suggestion of a frown at the corner of his mouth, but he offered, "We are descended from him."
Helpfully, Ed pointed at his own eyes; in all his travels, Hohenheim, Al, and Ed himself were the only humans he'd ever seen with gold eyes. (Well, them and his and Al's children, but that was sort of expected.) The particular shade of their hair was also rare, but less noticeably so when there weren't any normal blonds around to compare it to.
"Gold eyes," the man who'd attacked Al breathed. "Feng–"
"I see that," the older man snapped in response, before turning back to them. "Have you proof of your claims?"
:What? That we're descended from a man said to have lived four hundred years ago?: Ed signed, rolling his eyes. :Yes, let me just take out our lineage papers.:
:Stop trying to cause trouble,: Al signed back, even as he said, "I have one of his journals in my bag." And then, proving Ed wasn't the only one looking to cause trouble, signed, :I told you it was a good idea to bring them.:
:Shut up.:
"If you could get it out," the older man said, "I would like to show it to our clan's head alkahestrist."
Al shrugged and nodded. "Sure, though it is just a book, in the end, I warn you," he said as he slipped his bag off his back and knelt to go through it.
"Explain the hand motions," the younger man demanded. "They are suspicious."
"My brother cannot speak," Al said flatly, and the man flinched.
Since it looked like they weren't going to be attacked again any time soon, Ed slipped his kunai away and glanced over his shoulder at his bag to ensure the guy who'd attacked him hadn't damaged anything obvious.
"Here it is," Al finally said, holding up one of the books.
The older man very obviously sheathed his sword, then stepped forward to accept the book, which Al relinquished with a friendly smile.
:Tell him they can keep it,: Ed suggested.
"Brother!" Al complained, before letting go of the tie he was doing back up to sign, :We're not giving away any of Dad's books!:
Ed rolled his eyes. :Not even as a gift of friendship? Where are your manners?:
"Stop being difficult," Al said as he finished doing up his pack, then stood and slipped it on. :If this is that clan and they're willing to welcome us, THEN we'll give it to them.:
Ed snorted, but had to admit there was some sense in that. (And, hey, one fewer of Hohenheim's books to lug back with them.)
The older man slipped the book into his sash, then bowed to them and offered, "I am Feng, and my companion is Jian."
Jian offered a bow as he was introduced, smoothly sliding his sword away as he did.
Al glanced at Ed and, when he nodded, they both bowed back as Al replied, "I am Alphonse Elric, and this is my elder brother, Edward."
Feng nodded. "We will lead you to the village," he said, before turning and starting down a narrow path leading towards the massive, mountain-like rock formations which, in all honestly, Ed wouldn't have thought to take.
Jian motioned for them to go ahead so, after trading looks, Ed took the lead, with Al following just far enough back that they'd both have room to move if they were attacked again.
It was a good hour before Ed saw the first signs of habitation between the rocks: a column of dark smoke, thin enough to probably be a cooking fire, reaching up toward the sky. The houses came into view about twenty minutes after, small and shabby, even from a distance; a far cry from their visit with the Han clan.
The trickle of pity making it hard to swallow told Ed that, yeah, this was most probably the Chang clan; everything May had ever told him about her clan suggested they would have died out in another generation, if Ling hadn't offered the Yao clan's protection.
(He wondered what it would take to repeat that particular bit of history. Not getting them both involved in Amestris' chaos, he hoped. Maybe Hohenheim's journal could serve as the Chang clan's gift to the emperor? Buy them some of the favour they so clearly needed.)
When they reached the village, they attracted stares from pretty much everyone they saw, and Ed saw one woman draw a child away with a distrustful look.
:Is it the gold hair?: Ed signed to Al, who had come to walk next to him when the path had widened about ten minutes ago.
Al sighed. :No. It's your face.:
:RUDE.:
Al covered a grin.
Feng led them into the largest of the houses, bowing to the elderly man and woman inside. Ed and Al followed suit, even as Feng explained, "Elders, these outlanders claim to be descended from the Philosopher of the West and have provided a supposed personal journal of his as their proof."
"The Philosopher of the West, you say?" the woman asked, stepping towards Ed and Al, while the man took the journal from Feng and opened it to a random page. She stepped slightly to one side, letting the fire in the centre of the room light Ed and Al's faces. "They do say he had golden hair and eyes, and these two do as well."
Ed's eyes were drawn to where a girl was sitting next to the fire, both she and the miniature panda next to her looking interestedly towards his brother and himself. She was way younger than Ed had ever seen her, and her hair was in two thick pigtails, instead of the elaborate buns and smaller braids that she'd always wasted so much time on in the mornings, but he recognised her all the same, something like relief blooming in his chest. :May!: he signed.
Al's shoulders seemed to relax some. :Then this is the right clan. Good.:
The woman gave their short exchange an interested look, but everyone's attention was shortly drawn to the male elder, who let the journal fall closed and said, "I would have to study this to be certain, but the handwriting is similar to the journal kept in the Imperial palace; if this isn't genuine, it's an excellent copy." He turned a cool stare on Ed and Al. "His true name is passed down through alkahestrists; do you know it?"
Al cleared his throat. "Van Hohenheim."
May let out a startled sound, while the male elder stared at Al for a long moment before bowing. "And so it is, young guests." And, by the way Feng relaxed, that was the elder's way of offering his clan's friendship.
Ed blinked, then signed, :I sort of want to tell them he's still alive.:
:I have never been more glad that you can't speak,: Al returned.
:I can write.:
:STOP,: Al signed while shooting him that severely disapproving look he'd stolen from Mum.
Ed huffed; like he'd really tell anyone in this immortality-obsessed country that the useless bastard was still alive.
"What is this?" the female elder asked, motioning nonsense with her hands.
Al cleared his throat and quickly mastered his expression. "My brother cannot speak, so he communicates with his hands."
"I see." She straightened slightly, then offered, "I am Nuo, and my husband is Qiang. At the fire is May, the seventeenth imperial princess."
Al elbowed Ed and he sighed before obediently bowing with his brother, while Al replied, "I am Alphonse Elric, and this is my elder brother, Edward." Once they'd both straightened, he added, "We came to Xing in hopes of finding someone to teach us the Purification Arts, given the differences between it and western alchemy."
"You have knowledge of this 'western alchemy'?" Elder Qiang asked.
Al nodded. "We are both alchemists, yes, but my brother is the better."
Ed shrugged and nodded; true, but only because he was technically thirty years old. Even if a large chunk of that had seen him without any way to practise, he'd still gathered knowledge and shared his understanding with other alchemists.
"Might I request a demonstration?" Elder Qiang asked, before glancing towards where May had lit up. "We have never seen your 'western alchemy' performed before."
Al glanced at Ed, who took a moment to look around the room for something he could do that wouldn't involve drawing material from the floor. He spotted a white and green ceramic vase, which had clearly been broken at least once and poorly repaired. There was enough detail left between whatever compound had been used to repair it that he should be able to fill in the missing gaps, and it looked to have been very valuable at one point, judging by the hint of gold and silver that caught the firelight. :May I?: he signed, before pointing to the vase.
Al cleared his throat. "My brother wants to know if he can use that vase."
The elders traded looks, before Elder Nuo walked over and picked it up. "A gift Princess May's mother brought back from the Imperial palace, deemed rubbish after an accident." She offered it to Ed. "Please."
Ed clapped his hands together, then took it, letting the reaction wash over the piece and returning it to its former glory, the glue compound that had been holding the pieces together falling uselessly to the ground. And it really had been priceless at one point, as it wasn't ceramic, but made entirely out of jade (which he knew, from May, had a value comparable to gold, in Xing). The vase itself was white jade, with a thin layer of pale green jade creating the long, Xing-style dragon design, gold and silver flakes edging out the finer details.
Fuck him. He was holding a fortune in his hands.
Gasps broke out around the room as the light died away, and when Ed held it back out to Elder Nuo, she breathed out something that he suspected was a benediction of some variation as she carefully took it.
Ed turned to Al and signed, :It's made out of jade.:
"What, the whole thing?" Al asked, falling back on Amestrisan in his clear surprise.
Ed nodded. :With gold and silver flakes, but, yes. A vase made completely out of jade.: He shook his head. :Only in Xing.:
"...white jade exists?" Al asked, wide-eyed.
Ed couldn't help it; he laughed.
"Don't laugh at me, you stupid brother!" Al complained, shoving Ed. "It's not my fault I don't know these things; be useful for once!"
Ed ducked his head in an attempt to hide the grin he couldn't quite help, signing, :Sorry, sorry. But your face was amazing.:
Al, very pointedly, turned his back on Ed, offering, "I apologise," to their hosts.
"Honoured guests," Elder Qiang said, a well of respect in his voice, "with such power at your disposal, I cannot understand your interest in our inferior art."
Al frowned over at Ed, clearly at a loss, and he sighed and signed, :Translate for me?:
"Yeah."
Ed looked back towards the fire pit, where Elder Qiang had sat down across from May, Elder Nuo standing next to her husband and clutching the vase to her chest, while Feng was watching everything unfold with wide eyes, from well out of the way. :There's something off about Amestrisan alchemy, and we're hoping that in studying the Dragon's Pulse of the Purification Arts, as well as your concept of sensing another's energies, we might discover what's so strange.: Ed shrugged, giving Al a moment to catch up, then added, :Also, Amestrisan alchemy lacks the distance transmutations of Xingan alkahestry, and while we can repair a broken vase easily, we have no healing alchemy to speak of.: Because the healing arrays Ed knew were all Cretan, and he knew from experience that they were far inferior to the alkahestry of Xing.
Al cleared his throat, then added, after translating Ed's signing, "We are willing to trade knowledge for knowledge, and we grew up in a farming village, so we can help with the harvest and taking care of any animals. We do not expect to be allowed to remain for free."
:Hunting and fishing,: Ed reminded him.
"Oh, right. And we can hunt and fish."
"You have many talents, for ones so young," Elder Qiang mused. "Why come to the Chang clan? Surely you would find more benefit in allying yourselves with a larger clan."
Al shook his head. "Allies you can get anywhere; we are looking for friends. And, like Brother always says," he added, looking at Ed, who raised an eyebrow in response, "bigger does not mean better."
Ed rolled his eyes.
The elders traded looks, Elder Nuo's arms tightening slightly around the repaired vase in her arms. Elder Qiang looked back at them after a beat and bowed his head. "We would be honoured to have you join the Chang clan."
"And we would be honoured to accept," Al replied politely, bowing his head in return.
Ed barely kept from rolling his eyes again.
"We will need to find them a place to stay until a new house can be built," Elder Nuo said, looking towards Feng.
Ed raised both his eyebrows at Al, who sighed, then offered, "If you show us a clearing we can build in, we can actually build the house ourselves right now."
"More of your 'western alchemy'?" Elder Qiang assumed somewhat faintly.
Al let out a slightly embarrassed laugh and nodded.
"Apologies, Elders," Feng said, before turning to Ed and Al. "Can you clear the land, too? There is a small cluster of trees which have developed rot out by the northern rice field, which we've put off clearing for nearly a full year, as it is quite labour intensive."
Ed shrugged and nodded when Al glanced at him. Depending on how bad the rot was, they could use the trees as materials, which would be nice; just because they could build a house from earth didn't mean they should. (Even if they couldn't use the trees for the house, it wouldn't be hard to deconstruct them into wood shavings so the village could use it to nourish the fields, which was what they'd done back in Resembool, when all the cherry trees had developed a disease that they were helpless to combat.)
"Of course," Al agreed.
After glancing towards the elders for permission, which was given with nods, Feng motioned towards the door. "I'll take you now."
May ended up tagging along, scrambling to her feet and scooping up Xiao Mei before Ed was out the door. He held it for her and she squeezed past him with a stuttered, "Th-thank you."
(Ah, always good to know her ridiculous prince charming obsession was alive and well. With any luck, she'd latch on to Al again once it became obvious that Ed was a rude fuck.)
A few villagers followed along after them, clearly interested by the procession, but held back a bit, probably still wary of Ed and Al.
Once they reached the cluster of trees, Ed and Al both dropped their packs out of the way and walked in close to get a look at what they were dealing with.
"This is the same black fungus as we had back home, isn't it?" Al recognised.
Ed caught a low branch and expertly flipped himself up onto it to get a closer look. :Looks like,: he agreed, before reaching up and picking a green fruit just within reach. It looked to be a plum and he blinked at it for a moment – the two plum trees they had back in Resembool hadn't got sick, but maybe this was a different strain of the same disease? – before shrugging and hopping back to the ground to check out the other trees.
"Brother?" Al asked once they met back up again after each making a circuit.
Ed considered the group of trees for a moment before signing, :There's enough for a roof, I think. If you build the walls, I'll deconstruct what we can't use, then shape the rest.:
"No. Gargoyles," Al stressed.
:What do you have against gargoyles?:
"Brother."
Ed rolled his eyes and waved at the nearest house, then signed, :I know. Better they match as much as possible.:
Al sighed and knelt to start sketching a rectangle in the dirt. "Share a room, or separate?"
Ed tugged on his ponytail for a minute, debating, then suggested, :Two rooms, but we can use the second one as a study until one of us needs space.:
"Fair enough." Al quickly sketched his lines, eyeballed the rough map for a moment, then nodded and pointed out, "We're going to lose floor height."
:So make stairs.:
"Brother."
Ed shrugged. :There's not much you can do about it,: he pointed out. :At the least, it should throw off first time trespassers, should someone try to sneak in unannounced.:
"Sometimes, I worry about what you got up to as an adult," Al complained, before clapping his hands together and pressing them against his map.
Al transmuted much slower than Ed did, which gave him plenty of time to make his way through the group of trees, separating what they couldn't use from what they could and making two distinct piles out of the way of Al's growing walls. Once the outer walls had stopped growing, he clapped again and started shaping their roof, patterning the wood on the outside so it looked like the straw roofs of the rest of the village; eventually, they'd have to add real straw, to protect the wood from rain, but this would do them for a while.
When they stepped out of the new building to grab their bags, they found what looked to be most of the village standing there, staring in disbelief.
And then Elder Qiang commented, "That is something I should like to learn."
:We should probably skip the survival training for them,: Ed signed before ducking to grab both their bags, since it looked a bit like Al would be chatting for a while.
Al coughed into his hand. "We will draw up the arrays we used. Which, I think our arrays are a bit more complicated than you are used to, but we will try our best to explain them. Will we not, Brother?"
:Yes, yes,: Ed signed over his shoulder before ducking back into the house, leaving it for his brother to make friendly with their new neighbours, since he was going to be their main point of contact. For his part, he had a house to furnish.
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