A/N: Hello everybody, this is my first serious attempt at writing a fanfiction that isn't set around little one-shots and I've had a few twists and tumbles while battling out this chapter. I blame the characters. It can get a teeny bit frustrating trying to keep them from getting too OOC, I hope I succeeded but I know that in some parts I have failed epicly. I know Mustang is probably completetly out of character and I had to re-write this chapter around thirteen times to stop him from mutating, do you know how hard it was to get him up that wall? It wasn't something I could see him doing in real life but I needed it for the plot...argh. Plus I think I made Ed swear too much, he was an outlet for my own frustration when writing and his relationship with Mustang is probably more friendly than it should be or at the very least they act like they've known each other longer than they should have... Oh I'm hopeless...Also this is set in the Brotherhood universe but it's a few weeks before things start happening for real.
This story and most of plot relies on you guys because you will be picking the characters. Cool, no? There will be around fifteen Ed's to choose from ranging from Vampire to Female to Ed from the 2003 series. I need to pick three Ed's myself to help me set guidlines for the plot but you guys also get to pick three and whichever trio gets the most votes will be included, just send who you want in a review and perhaps they'll be prancing about in Amestris before you know it. This chapter won't actually feature any new Eds, it's kind of a 'test-the-waters' type of thing to gauge how interested readers would be. But the next one will be choc full of Alter!Eds for you to pic and mix.
Ahem, anyway please enjoy the story and let me know what you think.
Warnings: This chapter is Rated T for mild swearing and violence. The story as a whole is also rated T but certain chapters may have higher or lower ratings depending on the content, you will be warned at the start of each chaper so you will know what to expect.
Chapter One: And Then There Were Seven.
By DeceptiveSoftness [Softie]
The sky was overcast and grey, fumes from the city beneath mixing with rain bloated clouds to make an dreary smog that hovered ominously above the city. Most sane people were hiding from the hideous weather in the safety of their homes or tiding it out by taking shelter in shops or bars, but a group of unlucky suckers were racing down the rain slicked streets, mere blurs of blue and gold and red as they wove around buildings and down alleyways.
They moved almost silently apart from the wet clunk of their boots against the pavement, a few civillians peered aprehensively out their windows at the passing military but they were for the most part ignored. The two people leading the group were moving much faster and were several meters ahead of the other men. They were complete opposites, one was tall and dark haired, his skin pale against the damp, dark material of the coat that covered his military uniform and the other was smaller and younger, his long blonde hair plastered to his face and his bright red coat clinging to legs, tangling in them slightly as he quickened his pace.
The blonde let out a curse as he slipped and fell forward only to be jerked back upright by the dark haired man beside him. "Watch your step Fullmetal." the man sighed and the blond snapped his arm out of the others hold with an embarrassed scowl on his face. "Keh, whatever. Why are you even here?" he asked sounding more irritated than curious about the older mans presence.
The dark haired man gave a passable attempt at an innocent look as he answered staring straight ahead. "As your commanding officer it would be remiss of me to let you take on this paricular mission alone, well, that and the fact that during your last mission you managed to blow up several important buildings in Santerm and the military had to foot the bill, again." The blonde snorted and shook his head. "Yeah right, you just wanted to get out of doing your paper work, lazy bastard." he muttered as they rounded another corner.
"Well it's raining pretty hard out here, someone has to make sure you don't fall into a puddle and drown." the dark haired man replied with a smirk, wisely stepping out of range as the smaller blonde turned to him with a murdereous expression and clenched fists. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MINISCULE PIP-SQUEAK WHO COULD DROWN IN A SINGLE DROPLET OF WATER!" he yelled, stopping in his tracks to flail his arms threateningly. The dark haired man sighed again and ignored the blonde in favour of ducking into an alley, the group followed him leaving the blonde to stand there angrily for a few moments before he let out a growl of frustration and raced ahead to catch back up.
Once again he and the dark haired man took the lead and soon the meters between them and the rest of the group grew and grew until they were streets ahead and the sound of the others boots against the wet pavement were faint whispers. While it may not have been the smartest of moves to leave their back-up behind but neither alchemist had wanted the extra men in the first place and they were only there under Hawkeyes insistance. Her tone had been both respectful and stern as she told them that under no circumstances where they going on a mission together without sufficient back-up. Normally the blonde haired woman would be running right beside the dark haired man with a determined expression and a gun in her hand but a new firing range was being commissioned and she'd volunteered to help out and was unable to quit at such short notice.
Another reason for the back-up was the absence of Edwards younger brother Alphonse, normally the presence of the seven foot tall suit of armor deterred most would-be attackers more effectively than a group of armed men in blue uniforms. However during the mission in Santerm Eds automail had been damaged and they'd stopped off in Risembool to get it fixed. Al had been reluctent to leave but also unwilling to let Edward return to East City on his own.
Ed had managed to pursuade Alphonse to spend a bit more time in their hometown while he went to deliver his report, being with Winry and Granny Pinako was good for Al, it was good to be surrounded by people who'd known him as a small boy with sandy hair and wide gold eyes rather than the steel body that he inhabited now. Despite appearences Al was only fourteen and sometimes he just needed to be treated that way by people other than Ed. The younger Elric was due to come back to the city in another five days and so couldn't be with Ed for the current mission.
Edward shook rain out of his face and smirked inwardly when water from his jerking braid was flicked into the taller mans face, he pretended not to notice when he was shot a dark glare and glanced around the street. They were entering the warehouse district and idily he wondered why everything bad always happened in either a warehouse or a lab, it's like crazy people just gravitated to creepy places. "We're going after another bat-shit insane alchemist right?" he asked with a disaffected air, as though chasing down crazy alchemists in the lashings of rain was nothing out of the ordinary, which, when you think about it, it wasn't.
"We are. Perhaps if you bothered to read the mission file before we left then you'd know, but I suppose you just couldn't reach it seeing as the file was all the way up on the desk." Mustang said dryly before quickening his pace to escape Edwards enevitable outburst. It came in the form of a nearby wall growing spikes and attempting to decapitate him, the spikes were admitedly blunt and nowhere near long enough to cause real damage but the sentiment remained. Insult the blonde alchemists height, feel the wrath of the spikey wall of doom. He huffed a sigh and edged around the new wall decorations.
"What is with you and damaging public property?" he asked exasperatedly. Edward ignored him and clapped his gloved hands before pressing his hands against the wall, with a streak of blue light the spikes dissapeared without a trace. "It's not like I plan it, shit happens." he muttered with a shrug. That was the end of what little conversation they had as the two slowed down the quick walk to give the other men a chance at catching up, it wasn't likely that they would but at least this way they could tell Hawkeye that they'd tried to be considerate.
It became apparent that they were getting very, very close to where the alchemist was supposedly hiding out - several workers and people living about the area had complained of bright lights, loud screams and high pitched laughter comming from a smaller warehouse near-by, initally it had been thought to be a group of teenagers breaking into a warehouse and having a rowdy party but the cold blue edge to the light and almost inhuman nature to the screams led the military to believe that the rogue alchemist was indeed hiding here.
His name was Grant, once a state alchemist but he had been discharged after preforming less than savory experiments on his subordinates. He'd forged their signature on consent sheets so he'd been able to escape the firing squad but with the bad media and public opinion he was unable to remain in the military and was stripped of his rank and watch. He'd viewed this as a betrayal and vowed to get his revenge but at the time he'd been dismissed as just another crazy person without the means to fulfil his treat. Grant was now responsible for the abduction of over twenty people, fourteen of whom had been found, or at least parts of them, and six were still missing.
The closer they got to the mentioned warehouse the more opressive the atmospshere became, hot and metalic with the taint of forbidden alchemy. Edward fought the chill the wormed its way down his spine and banished thoughts of dark basements and childish ignorance to the very back of his mind. The building had more than one entrance, the large front door was closed and a giant six was painted on the grey, dented metal and even from where he stood Ed could see the clumsy array scratched into the wall beside the door, no doubt a trap to kill whoever tried to go through that way. He flicked Mustang on the shoulder and jerked his head towards the array before skirting around the wall to the smaller back entrance.
The taller man followed with a small frown that deepened when they saw that the back door was also boobytrapped. Both of them were almost completely silent as they backed away and thought about how to get in without disrupting the arrays on either door. "Look up there." Mustang murmered nodding towards the large windows that ringed the building just below the roof a few of the glass panes were missing or broken and jagged shards jutted out from the frame like teeth. "These sort of warehouses have rafters and support beams near the windows, if we can get up there we can get in without too much trouble." he made a small shooing motion at Edward for him to go create a ladder or something. "Go on. Be useful."
Edward snarled at him before brushing his palms together and pressing them against the wall, there was a crackle of blue light that ran up the wall like lightning before the bricks began to slowly move and form into hand and foot holes. "That's the best I can do without letting Grant know that we're out here." he said as he started to climb up the wall, the holds were good and within seconds he was beside the window, he looked down at Mustang who was eyeing the wall as though it might bite him.
"You just gonna stand there? Get up here and 'be useful'" he whispered down scathingly as he pulled himself up through the broken window without waiting on an answer, mindful of the glass, and out onto the rafter on the other side. It was around a foot and a half wide and hung three stories above the ground, the aged wood creaked dangerously beneath his feet and he hugged the wall, wary of going out any further. Below him the floor seemed far to far away and a slight wave of vertigo washed over him before he crouched down and got a good look at what was drawn on the floor. It was an array, huge and intricate, painted on the dusty floor with what looked like blood. Boxes and barrels lay smashed around the array and it looked as though the space had been cleared hastily to make room for the large circle.
Tied up in the middle of the circle, was the remaning six people Grant had kidnapped. Three females and two males, probably between the ages of eight and sixty, the youngest being the small girl huddled against a women Ed guessed was her mother and the oldest being a weathered looking man who was sprawled out on the floor, he appeared to be unconscious, or worse, given the amount of blood nessicary to create the array Ed doubted Grant would have used his own. He felt sick to his stomach and the stench of alchemy was heavier inside the warehouse, it seeped into everything, his clothes, his hair, his skin and he had the feeling that no matter how many times he washed it, it wasn't going to come out.
A shadow moved in the corner of the warehouse and Edward ground his teeth as Grant moved out of the darkness, humming cheerfully to himself. He was a tall man with unkempt blonde hair and shining green eyes, he moved jerkily like puppet led by strings and over his dark clothes he wore what appeared to be a white butchers apron stained with blood. The hostages in the circle all flinched as he approached, he smiled pleasantly at them and patted the little girls cheek, ignoring her whimper, and crouched down beside them. "It's okay guys, no need to worry, I've got it all worked out perfectly now." he told them with a wink. The other male, a man who looked to be in his twenties pulled back his lips in a snarl and spat at Grant. "You sick bastard, you're going to do to us exactly what you did to the others!" his voice was horse but his eyes burned with a fierce hatred that seemed to take Grant back a bit.
He frowned sadly at the young man before ruffling his hair and sighing. "Silly Tom, What I'm going to do to you six little duckies is going to be much worse than what I did to your precious Lucy." he said, his smile widening until it was just a baring of teeth "I just need a few more... ingredients, that's all" he laughed a high pitched laugh and stood, dusting his hands against his apron, smudging red against the fabric. "Just one more to be precise..." His eyes slid upwards to the corner where Ed was crouched and he laughed. "...And there he is!" Grant ran out of the circle and pressed his hands against an array enscribed on the wall, Eds eyes widened as the array set of several others in a trail that led straight up to where Edward was, he made a choked sound of horror as the rafter morphed and buckled beneath him, sending him flying three stories down to the ground below.
Meanwhile...
Roy stared at the wall wearily. It wasn't that he didn't think it would hold or that it wasn't secure but the idea of scrambling up the side of a warehouse was a little... well, he didn't quite know what it was but it wasn't something he particularly wanted to do. While it was a refreshing break from the mind numbing paperwork waiting patiently back in his office it was hard to think of the mission as anything more than dreadful. It was still raining, his clothes (including gloves) were soaked through, so that meant he wasn't going to be of much use if they get into a fight and he felt a cold coming on. Idly he wondered if he should have listened to his inner slacker and just called in sick this morning.
He gave a disgruntled sigh before starting to haul himself up using the handholes, they were not very deep and he was left hanging from his fingertips, the indents were made with Fullmetals size in mind and Roy couldn't bring himself to crawl up the wall practically on all fours so he was left with only using his hands and his arms shook with the strain of holding him plus the extra weight of his soaked clothing.
Perhaps he should spend less time behind his desk and more time training if this sort of thing was tiring, he mused as he hauled himself over the window rim just in time to hear Edward let out a startled yell and to see his subordinate plummet to the ground. He bit out a curse and dragged himself foreward to grab the blondes automail arm, he just managed to snag his sleeve before the added weight dragged him over the edge. Mustang hissed as one of the jagged pieces of glass caught on the glove of his free hand and tore through both fabric and flesh as he fell down.
The rafter twisted and split into two serpentine lances that curled around the alchemists inches from the bloodied array and jerked them to a halt. Ed let out a litany of curses as he struggled against the bindings but the wood split again and curved around each arm and pulled them taunt so that the blonde alchemist was unable to clap. Roy gritted his teeth as the same thing happened to him before he could react, the wood binding his hands behind his back. Grant was looking at the two of them with an amused kind of tolerance that one used when dealing with unruly children.
"It appears that I now have an extra ingredient, doesn't it duckies." he said brightly, tilting his head to stare at the other hostages who were looking at the two alchemists with varying expressions of disbelief and hope. "I really only need you though!" he told Edward with a wink as he patted the blondes cheek. "I could hear you two arguing all the way in here. You don't like him much do you?" he asked, nodding his head towards Mustang but Edward just bared his teeth in response. "What the hell do you want asshole! What's with the array!" he growled angrily and lashed out with his foot catching Grant in the stomach and sending him reeling.
Grant blinked slowly and placed a hand on his stomach before standing shakily and pressing his hands against the array on the wall again, this time the floor shifted and Edward was now held securely in place with thick concrete vines that looped around his limbs and torso. "That wasn't very nice." Grant admonished, rubbing his stomach sadly, "I haven't done anything to you - ah ah, don't talk just yet!" he muttered as Ed opened his mouth to yell and flicked his fingers along the array. This time a band of concrete wrapped around Eds lower face, muffling his voice. The enraged blond struggled viciously for a few moments before sagging against his restraints and settling for glaring heatedly at Grant who smiled warmly back. "Like I was sayin', you don't much like this fella here do you? So hypotheticly the 'Edward Elrics' of other universes would be likewise inclined?" he quereied with a raised eyebrow and Edward said something that was probably an expletive as he thrashed fruitlessly against the bindings.
Roy sighed for what felt like the fiftieth time today and looked around the warehouse, taking note of the large array and the hostages tied in the center of it, he could recognise echoes of human transmutation in it and as he mulled over Grants previous sentance he began to get a very, very bad feeling as to where this was heading. Back when he was in the military Grant was known as the Psychic Alchemist, he had constructed an array that allowed him to cause tears in the fabric of their reality and peer into others. Using this array it was possible to see what would happen in the future but because what they were veiwing was an alternate universe none of the visions could be counted on. It was in the pursuit of rectifying this that Grant experimented on his subordinates, he was then discharged and his alchemy thought of as nothing more than pretty pictures being projected in the air. Mustang had a pretty good idea what he was trying to do here but he had to make sure.
"Are you trying to tell us that you've found a way to interact with alternate universes?" he asked and Grants eyes lit up as he stepped closer to Mustang with a serene smile. "Ah, I remember you - " he peered at the shoulder pads of Mustangs uniform, barely visable through the binding wood and raised his eyebrows incredulously. "- Colonel Mustang, woo-hoo, you've certainly done well for yourself." Grant chuckled good naturedly. "It's nice to see you again, if only it weren't in such terrible circumstances... it's a pity but I'm afraid I'll have ta kill you too." his smile shrunk for a moment and he looked genuinely upset before he seemed to shake himself mentaly and then the grin was back in place.
"In answer to your question, yes. I've finally managed to cross the barrier into other worlds, it seemed that I was just lacking the right ingredients or at least the right quantity of ingredients. The other experiments were just test runs but right here and now I'm going to do the real thing! Isn't that just amazing?" he asked happily with a sweeping wave of his hand he gestured to the array behind the two alchemists, only Roy could see it though, because Edwards view was blocked by the concrete band. "I was just waiting on my last ingredient, and here he is, lucky sucker." Grant said with a nod at Edward.
"What do you want him for?" Mustang asked warily, Edwards eyes were wide with helpless fury and he gave another struggling growl as Grant started to circle them. "Well, it's like this, I want to bring over really powerful, angry, minion thingies from different realities. I've heard a good few stories about this little fella here and while it's pure chance that he happened to drop in-" here Grant chuckled at his own little joke before continuing. "- I'm glad he did. The arrays on the doors are duds by the way, I needed an alchemist to come through one of the windows up there so I could catch 'em. If you hadda looked before jumping in then you might have seen the ones I sketched on the rafters, all I gotta do is press this lil' thing over here and I can manipulate most everything in this warehouse." The tall blonde had a small self-satisfied smirk on his face, so unlike his previous vacant grins.
"It didn't have to be him, it could have been you but I want to use him instead, he has beautiful eyes." Grant explained in a matter of fact tone, as he leaned his face really close to Edwards. Ed narrowed his eyes angrily and thrashed again, his yells muffled by the band of concrete. "Angry eyes, tired eyes, desperate eyes, eyes too old for his pretty little face. I like them." Grant declared pulling his face back as Edward twitched, whether it was because he had been called little or pretty, Roy didn't know but he was sure that if the leather clad teen ever escaped from the constraints he was going to smash Grants face into a million little pieces using his right fist.
"Ahem, anyway, to conclude my little monologue, I was planning on using any old alchemist but instead I'm going to use him to pull the "Edward Elrics" of other universes into this one and have them do whatever I say. It shouldn't be too hard, I'll just tell them that I'll let them go home if they kill such-and-such a person or destroy so-and-so's house or bomb watchaycallits-town. Good plan no? I'll have Amestris on it's knees before an army of adorable blondes...hehehehehe!" Grant started to giggle before tapping the array again and grabbing Eds braid and the back of Roys collor. He started to pull the alchemists backwards towards the edge of the large bloodied circle.
He stopped just short of the array and let Edward drop onto the ground, Roy winced at the sound of the blonds head hitting off the floor with a painful 'thunk'. Ed let out a muffled groan and renewed his efforts at glaring pain, death and other evil things onto Grant who remained happily oblivious as he knelt on the floor and lovingly pressed his fingers against the crimson edges of the array, though without the intention of actvating it just yet. Mustang narrowed his eyes and started to try to slowly wriggle out of the bindings while Grants back was turned, the wood was less constrictive than Eds concrete ropes so he might be able to work his hands free.
One of his gloves was torn and the other was soaked so there went alchemy out the window, if push came to shove he could get creative and use the blood from the cut on the back of his hand but that might take too long, the array that controlled the floor and rafters was only a few seconds away if Grant needed it and it would take around a half minute to draw the array onto the back of his good hand because the other hand was injured and using blood was messy at the best of times, he didn't want to botch it up and end up setting fire to the entire warehouse because he drew a line wrong.
In the end the option was taken away from him as Grant released his collor with a harsh shove that sent Mustang falling backwards to to ground, he suddenly empathised with Ed as the back of his head smacked against the unforgiving concrete floor. It felt like his brain had come loose and was now bouncing around within the confines of his skull. His head throbbed and he couldn't think coherently - every thought was laced with dull pain and faint lethargy and Roy was frighteningly aware that his fall had perhaps been a tad more deliberate than Eds. While the blonde had been dropped almost absently to the ground, as if Grant had forgotten about him, Roy had been thrown and he could feel dampness spreading out around his head and he knew, somewhere beyond the pain in his skull that Grant had no intention of keeping him alive, he needed Ed but had been pretty open about his intention to kill Roy.
"Anngh..." he couldn't supress the pained groan that slipped past his lips as he gingerly raised his head and glared at Grant, if looks could kill then the combines efforts of both Roy and Ed would have send the blonde murderer twitching to the floor in agony, but, alas, he was made of stronger stuff and could not be defeated by ill wishes though he couldn't quite fight the shiver that raced down his spine as he glanced down at the two.
"Well hey now! I've done nothin' to you! What's with the Glare-o-Doom? I though we were friends, I was nice to you!" he said in an offended tone, his eyes watering a little as he pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. Roy stared at him incredulously and Edward hissed out a few more muffled curses. "No you fucking weren't!" Roy articulated for the both of them and gained a grateful look from Ed for saying what he currently couldn't. "Now, now. No need to swear, it's terrible manners!" Grant reprimanded.
"So is kidnapping people, tying them up and killing them." Mustang countered with a pained hiss as he moved his head and pain lanced through his skull. "Hm, perhaps you're right but at least I don't swear like a no-good-vagrant mister-bigshot-alchemist!" Grant muttered childishly and with a determined nod of his head he reached out and grabbed Eds arm, pulled out taunt by the concrete ropes, and pulled up his coat sleeve. He smiled a little loosely before pulling a small knife from his pocket and dragging it roughly across Eds wrist before yanking it out and holding it over the array so that the crimson liquid, spilling at an alarming rate from the wound, fell into a smaller circle inside the array.
"Blood memory." he explained with a wave of his hand as he pushed the blonde alchemist away from the array. "I can use that to locate the other Edwards, otherwise we'd be here forever and I don't have forever!" Grants face grew almost grim as he tossed a final look over at the hostages tied up in the very center of the array. They looked terrified, the child was openly crying now and the others all had a look of grim horror, even the old man, who'd been presumed dead before because of the cospse-like way he'd lain on the ground, had dragged himself over to weakly clasp the hand of the old woman. They'd seen this happen to the other captives and knew what was going to happen to them.
"Mhhu mnt ghhp thig*!" Edward screamed through the concrete gag and glared bloody murder at Grant. The emerald eyed alchemist seemed to understand the muffled words and waved a hand on front of his face as if to ward of Edwards anger. "Of course I can do it. I've done it plenty o' times before. Here, watch." he chirped before he pressed his palms firmly against the array and the warehouse lit up with icy white-blue light.
"No!" Roy protested, feeling useless and wretched as the array worked it's deadly magic on the hostages, making the six people scream and writhe as their life energy was sucked away to fuel the glimmering square that was forming in mid-air above their heads.
Through the square several images flashed and flickered and warped but were to quick too truely discern. A flash of gold and a glint of red followed by a swish of blue fabric and black hands clutching at pale skin. The images were slightly transparent and the warehouse walls were visable behind it giving the illusion an eerie, ghost like appearance.
"STOP!" Mustang yelled, throwing all his strength into trying to break the bonds that bound his limbs, but it was far too late. Whatever damage that had been done was irreversible. Grant tilted his head back to smirk at the two bound alchemists. Sweat had beaded on his forehead from the effort of starting such a huge transmutation but his expression was one of exhaulted delight. "Isn't this great?." he laughed as he returned his full attention the the array and the cacophoney of screams grew louder. His eyes shone with sick glee as he fed the array more and more power in an attempt to stabilise the wavering picture.
"The real show is about to begin."
A/N: Here's a sample list of the sort of Eds I will be including, If you guys think of any others yourselves let me know and I'll see if I can write them in. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. =D
* "You can't do this!" - This is what Ed was trying to say. ^_^'
-Future!Ed (FD - Brotherhood - Edwin.)
-TeenageFem!Ed (Our World - Edvy)
-OlderFem!Ed (Spy - Our World - EdHavoc)
-Neko!Ed (AT/Chimera/Child!Ed)
-Merman!Ed (AU - Royalty - RoyEd - Yaoi)
-Evil!Ed (Hitman - EdRose)
-Vampire!Ed (Traditional Vamp Absolutely NO sparkling)
-AngelFem!Ed (Child!Al - Royalty Ed)
-2003!Ed (Post Movie - EdNoah )
-Demon!Ed (Inuyasha series - InuYoukai)
-Blind!Ed (AT - Ex-Military)
-Ishbal!Ed (AT - Think Ishbal flashbacks except with Ed - Possible EdRiza.)
-Celebrity!Ed (AU - Edx? )
-Spirit!Ed (Guardian Spirit - Faerie-esque)
-Ghost!Ed (AU - Haunted Castle-esque)
-Prisoner!Ed (AT/AU - Torture - Maybe KimbleeEd or EdRiza or both.)
-FMA-Fangirl Fem!Ed (Our World - Otaku!Ed)
-Persocom!Fem!Ed (Chobits Crossover.)
-Old!Ed (Ed from the 2003 OVA "Kids". He's just celebrated his 100th birthday.)
Hm... and just in case your not quite sure what everything means: AU is Alternate Universe, that's where the characters are in a signifigantly different setting and plot than the cannon. AT is Alternate Timeline is where the characters are in the same universe but the timeline is changed so Ed might be older or younger or might be present for things that happened before he was technically born.
FD is Future Divergence. It's similar to AU escapt that the story branches off from the cannon in the future, usually after the original series is finished.
Fem!Ed is where I've used my awesome FangirlTransmutationPowers and changed Eds gender so that he is now a girl.
An Otaku is someone who is obsessed with a paricular thing though it's usually used in reference to anime fans.
R&R. XD