Chapter 1: Desperation

She smiled and took one last look at her sons' faces. They were so young…they did not deserve to lose a parent at such an age. They had always made her so proud, especially Ed, when he had studied into alchemy, Alphonse following suit but never quite managing to be as impressive as his brother. This would ruin their lives.

It made her panic slightly, but she decided to put on a calm front, so as not to distress her children.

And as she took her final breath, she smiled contentedly at her children's beautiful faces.

…

Then she found herself in a void, surrounded by white. Even the dress she had been wearing: a soft lilac had paled and become white.

"W-where am I?" she asked aloud.

"At the Gate," a voice came from behind her. "I have a proposal for you."

She glared slightly, not trusting the strange blank figure across from her.

"What sort of proposal?"

"You didn't want to die," the figure stated, ignoring her question.

"Yes," she nodded. "I don't want to see my children grow up without me."

"I see…" the figure replied. "They are very talented aren't they? Your eldest took after his father in alchemy, and your youngest took after you in storytelling."

She smiled distantly at the thoughts of her children.

"So, I am giving you an offer," the figure continued. "You can die now, and condemn your children to a life without their mother, or you can return to life."

"There is a catch, isn't there? There always is with offers like these," she looked at it suspiciously. It smirked, a mouth appearing on its face to do so.

"Of course!" it chirped gleefully. "In exchange for you to return to life, one of your children must die." Before Trisha protested, it continued. "But not straight away. They will inherit the disease which led to your demise, and for many years it will remain dormant. But when they reach a certain age, then symptoms will become apparent, and they will perish soon after."

"How can you ask me to do something like that?" she cried. "I will never sacrifice one of my sons to you! What gives you the right to do these things?"

"I am Truth; God if you like it. I am the world, I am everything, I am everyone, and I am also YOU," it stated, pointing directly at her. "I am offering you a chance to go back to your children, to see their smiling faces again. And it is not as if you will never see one of them again. They will grow up, and you will continue to be proud of them."

Trisha scowled. "I will still never agree to kill one of my own children to save my own life."

"I had a feeling you would say that. That is why I have decided to show you the future, the future that will come into being if you do not accept my offer and choose to remain dead."

Suddenly, Trisha's eyes filled with shocking images.

Her children, at a transmutation circle, in their house. They grinned at each other, and placed their hands on the circle, activating it. Then chaos ensued. Alphonse's body was sucked into an eye which opened in the centre of the circle, and Edward's leg was disintegrated, leaving him bleeding out on the floor crying out for his brother. Then the child looked up to see a twisted, deformed being in the centre of the circle. Oh, Trisha wished she could comfort her child now; he looked terrified at the mutated thing lying before him. Then, she watched as he crawled along the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind him, and knocked a suit of armour to the floor. He then proceeded to use some of the blood oozing from his stump where his leg had been and placed a transmutation seal on the armour, and matching seals over his body. Trisha almost cried out to him, she could see what he was trying to do. She watched as her precious son cried to the heavens to save his brother, promising anything in return – his leg, his arm, his heart, anything – and then activated the circles.

She almost couldn't watch as her son's right arm was stolen, leaving him weak and bleeding out on the floor. He was dying… and she could do nothing about it. And her baby son was gone completely, only his clothes remaining. Then, the suit of armour came to life, and immediately spotted Ed. To her horror, it ran over and pulled him into its lap. Then, the voice which resonated from the armour…it was Alphonse's! Edward had bonded his soul to the suit of armour – the clever boy. But…it was at a cost, and he was in danger from dying from blood loss.

Another vision then came to her. A military man, a state alchemist came to the Rockbell home, where her two sons had fled to after committing alchemy's greatest taboo. Edward had survived, thank goodness, and the military man scolded him angrily for what he and Alphonse had done. Edward looked so shameful, and Trisha just wished she could embrace him and tell him everything was going to be alright. The military man continued, and then offered Edward a chance to apply to be a state alchemist, where he could find a way to retrieve his and Alphonse's bodies. Trisha never saw her son's decision, as another vision appeared before her.

It was of her eldest son, looking a whole lot older. He was in a military building, being handed a state alchemist watch and certificate. So he had passed the exam! She was so proud, but horrified also. She didn't want her child to be a toy of the military, no matter what age he was.

Then, she found herself on what looked like a battlefield. The dust was settling after an explosion, with many bodies scattered across the floor. A semi-naked blonde man stood where the explosion had emanated from, glancing around the battlefield, crying for a 'Philosopher's Stone', and Trisha followed his gaze, noticing her husband. Oh, he looked no different, still just as handsome as when he had left. Then the blonde man turned and stopped, walking towards a slab. Trisha moved to see the slab better, to see her almost grown-up son trapped to the slab with a screw through his left arm. He was glaring at the blonde man, and everyone on the battlefield was crying out his name, and the title 'FullMetal' which she guessed was his state alchemist title. Fitting, considering he seemed to now have automail replacing the limbs he had lost. All of a sudden, some dagger-like things surrounded the area where his automail arm should have been, but seemed to be absent. She followed her eldest son's gaze to the suit of armour, which was lying on a transmutation circle. No, Alphonse…he couldn't be doing what she thought he was doing…

Then, she abruptly returned to the white void, the blank figure grinning at her.

"Well, what is your choice?" it demanded. She blinked away the tears from what she had witnessed, and began to speak.

"I choose…"

A/N: This was one of those stories that when it enters your head, you can't get rid of it! So, I thought I'd share it with you all. Hopefully updating will be more frequent than it has been before with me (sorry!) because I have already written a few chapters of this already: as with Tot Swap Part II and Babysitting Blues, which I also hope to be updating more regularly from now on. Again, apologies for my inconsistency…

So, what do you think? Please read and review :D!