Title: Two Worlds

By JumpinPopTarts

Hello guys, long time no see! Man, its good to be back…XD

For those who've read one of my stories before (and I don't think there'll be many of you, since up until now I've been writing South Park; a very different genre to this one!) I'm not giving up on South Park, but have since found a massive new addiction; the awesomness that is FMA!

The pairing's kinda odd, I know, but most of the other suggestions disgust me (EnvyxEd??? YUCK), and for those who've watched The Conqueror of Shamballa should know there's TONNES of canon regarding the pairing I've chosen (hello? That bit on the rocket near the end? So obvious!) A coupla days after watching that scene I decided to search for it and…gasps was appalled by the lack of fanfiction about the two of them! So of course I had to add to it…and here we are!

This is the first ever time that I've written a fanfiction for an anime, let alone an FMA one (though definitely not my first shounen-ai! ;-) ) so please be nice to me and leave a comment or two. Praise and constructive criticism are welcomed equally.

And above all, enjoy!

Oh yeah; WARNING: MOVIE AND END OF SERIES SPOILERS (well duh; why else would Alphonse Heiderich be in this??)

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. If I did there would be slash and a sequel to 'Shamballa'. Nuff said.

Edward Elric crashed into our world in a blaze of fire, tears and anger.

His cape billowed behind him as he flung his arms wide, dazzling golden eyes sliding closed in acceptance, craving oblivion. But something kept him conscious, kept him going; a single name churning through his mind, over and over and over

Al…Al…Alphonse!

But his brother would never answer him, he never could. Because Ed had sacrificed everything, his heart, his soul, his body, binding it in that terrible alchemic circle and sealing himself from his brother forever.

But if Al had survived….a smile curled across Ed's bloodless lips….then that was all that mattered.

He had expected the grasping hands of the gate, the black demons that had taken both Envy and (all those years ago in Risembool) Al's body, to come for him. But instead the void of rainbow light that surrounded him began to solidify, shifting splashes of colour becoming streets, roofs, chimneys…

But already it was too much. Drained by all the pain, the grief and the loss, Ed's body did the one thing that his mind had never allowed, and shut down, plunging the boy into deeper darkness before his limbs had so much as touched the ground.

Which was a good thing, really, because nobody would want to be awake when they hit a concrete pavement from 100 feet up.

Three Days Later

Someone had hit him over the head with a sledgehammer whilst he slept, Ed decided as the world slowly blinked back into focus, there could be no other explanation.

His entire body rung like a gong after its been struck, shooting pains lancing from his fingers to his toes, not to mention the angry red fireworks going off inside his skull. At least his back was padded by what felt like a bed mattress; so much for small mercies. As his eyes began to slide open, Ed snarled out another curse; he had a black eye too. Great, just great.

Where was Winry when you needed her?

"Edward?" The voice was coming from somewhere above by his feet, the words far off and rumbling, like distant thunder. It should have been soothing but Ed's head hurt far too much for that right now.

"Gothefuckawaaay…" he growled into the pillow beneath his head, unconsciously reaching for his automail arm; whoever was bothering him was about to get a transmuted knife up his a-

Nothing happened.

His human fingers touched automail, but this time there was no thrill of light, no half-instinctive transmutation circle…and more worrying still…no response from his arm. None at all.

Oh god, not again!

"Winry!" he yelled, almost by instinct, still half blind with sleep and painkillers. "Winry!"

The sheets tangled around his legs; ah, he must be in his bedroom at Risembool! He should be on his feet in no time...if only his favourite mechanic would answer him!

"Winry, my arm's not working again! Don't tell me you forgot to add another screw and-….huh?" he stopped. Because the bedstead he's just banged his foot against was made of iron, not wood like his one at the Rockbell's. Because these tangling sheets were rough and white, smelling of hospital rather than sleepy teenage boy. Because the small white room around him was not his own.

And the dark-clothed figure sitting at the end of his bed certainly wasn't Auntie Pinako.

"Hohenheim!" Ed yelled despite himself, his whole body dissolving in a whirl of limbs as he tried to get as far away from his father as possible. His father was dead! Sealed in the world beyond the gate….so this person had to be a homunculus! There was no other explanation.

Automatically, his hand fumbled again for that automail arm, for that wild surge of alchemy-

But all he got in exchange this time was a loud thumping noise and a sharp blow to the head! Instead of springing out of bed, the sheets had twisted and he'd slid backwards, to be dumped unceremoniously on his arse, right on the hard wooden floor.

Emphasis on hard.

From his seat by the bedstead, Hohenheim began to stand, a half-smile on his face as he moved towards his son…

Ed kicked, Ed growled, Ed cursed, but the fall had trapped his small body between the bed and the wall, wedging his thighs up to his chest and rendering his other limbs useless; the more he moved them, the further he slid down the gap.

Hohenheim was standing over him now, speaking in a tone so calm that it unnerved his struggling son.

"Ed…"

"Back off!" Ed growled, swinging his human arm at his father and cursing again as a wave of pain swept down from the finger joints. Since when had his hand been bandaged up like that? "What've you done to me?!"

Hohenheim was smiling for real by this time

"Just like my son." He said, amused, then "Only you could pass through the gate and defy equivalent exchange, for a second time no less, and still expect to come out in one piece!"

"Hardly one piece!" Ed grumbled, wincing as he realised that his ankle was bandaged too. At least the injuries were starting to make more sense now; last time he'd fallen as a spirit, into the body of the other Edward Elric. This time, however, he'd fallen with his body as well as his soul, and flesh doesn't take too kindly to being bashed against the ground. "That damn transmutation could have killed me…was meant to kill me…" he realised darkly, holding up his human palm and staring at it, as though expecting it to vanish before his eyes.

"Why am I alive?" he asked softly, flexing his fingers. "I shouldn't be. I should be…gone." The pain in his eyes made Hohenheim shift uncomfortably; the thought of his own son suffering so much saddened him beyond words. He spoke then, saying the first thing that came to his mind. Anything to take the haunted look from that young face.

"I take it that you coming here was the result of trying to bring Alphonse back." His brows furrowed in concern for his youngest son, even though the two had barely seen each other since Al had been a baby. "I hope it worked."

"Well, I can only hope…" Ed answered, then frowned and added angrily "And how the hell do you know about all that?! I thought you'd been shut inside this world for good!"

"I have." Hohenheim answered sadly, still looking at Ed in that disturbingly pitying way; like a real father would to a son "I only learned the story through you, Ed. You've been lying here for days in a fever, and were anything but quiet! You mentioned Alphonse a lot, then something about the homunculi…then an awful lot about this girl, Winry." His eyes twinkled through the sadness "Is she the little blonde one from Risembool? You seemed very keen on talking about her…"

Ed's ears reddened and he wrenched himself free of the bed, still keeping his back warily against the wall. "She's a friend, that's all!" he snapped "A friend!"

"Of course." His father said, though it was obvious that he didn't believe him. A look into Ed's thunderous golden eyes, however, told him that it was time to drop the subject if he didn't want to end up needing automail himself.

"So she was the one who looked after your automail? Ah, so that was why you were yelling for her just now." Hohenheim said lightly, but frowned when he saw the state of that had once been Winry's finest work. The metal was twisted and furrowed as though scorched by fire, some screws popping out while others were welded into the surface. The elder Elric reached out and gently cradled the mangled metal arm, noticing that Ed did not wince, or appear to feel anything at all.

"Hmm." He clicked his tongue, picking at a loose piece of plating with one pondering thumbnail. "The nerve relays in this are dead. It appears that the Gate was unable to reattach the arm as skilfully as your Winry. But you're lucky to have it at all." He added sternly "It could have taken far more back than just your arm and your leg." His son didn't seem to notice the scolding, however, but was staring blankly at his limp arm, as though he could see right through it, into the world that it had been made in.

"My arm and my leg." Ed echoed hollowly, his eyes glassy as a memory flashed through his mind. A memory of a wide golden ballroom, Envy's knife in his heart, and a pair of desperate eyes within an empty suit of armour, blazing with the light of the Philosopher's stone…

…Then waking, wiping away his tears and feeling skin against his cheek for the first time in so many years…only to lose it moments later in exchange for something that was far more valuable; the life of his brother.

"That's right." Ed murmured numbly, trailing his human fingers against his metal forearm. "I remember now. Warmth…skin… bones….feeling…" The words wedged in his throat and his human hand withdrew, fingers clenching into fists to hide the tears in his eyes. "Al won them for me." He whispered "And now I'll never get them back."

"I think that Alphonse would just be relieved that you were alive." Hohenheim said truthfully, half turning and rummaging with something on the dresser. Ed wasn't interested in finding out what, though; he was staring at his lap, his brother's memory like a weight across his young shoulders.

"But he won't know that." The former state alchemist murmured, letting his saffron hair sweep forward to hide his watery eyes. "I'll never be able to tell him from this side of the gate."

"Not yet." Ed jumped as something warm and sweet-smelling was pushed under his nose. He looked up and saw his father smiling, a warm mug of medicinal tea nestled in his outstretched hands. The boy took it absently, but kept his eyes on his father, far more interested in what his words had suggested than stupid medicine.

"What do you mean, not yet?" But Hohenheim was already pouring ordinary tea into a second cup, his eyes on the crockery and not his impatient son.

"Patience, Edward." He said after a while, blowing on his cup to cool it. "You can barely stand, but I know that the moment tell you, you'll be off to find them in a flash, and probably get yourself hurt all over again."

"There's a 'them'?" Ed asked, his brilliant mind already ignoring the warning. "You mean someone knows about the gate? About Amestris? You mean they know a way I can get back, even without alchemy?" His words were cut short when his father raised one large hand to silence him, making shushing sounds in the back of his throat, as though trying to calm a small child.

"Slow down, or you're going to dislodge the bandages."

"I don't care about the bandages!" Ed growled, unconsciously trying to wave his automail arm in frustration. The result was a strange mechanical grinding noise and a muffled yelp as Ed clutched his shoulder, trembling as the shocks subsided. "DDamn, that hurt."

"Your body's signals are just running into nothing now, creating a short circuit." Hohenheim said calmly "Until you get it repaired, you'll find yourself doing that several times a day, and I promise you that it won't start working again that way."

"I can do this one-armed if I have to!" was the arrogant reply, but it was quieter, and more than a little doubtful.

"Just take it slowly." Hohenheim advised "Drink your tea, get some rest, and let me study that arm a little. Who knows, I might even be able to make you a replica…but only if you're around to test it on. You-"

"Alright, alright; I get it." Ed muttered irritably. "Stay here and get better like a good dog, or you'll tell me nothing, right?"

"Pretty much." The older Elric smiled "But I promise I will tell you, and sooner than you think." Shooting his son an encouraging smile, he shifted forward a little and held his tea cup in his hands.

"To the future?" Hohenheim announced, raising his mug in a mock toast. His son smiled after a pause and lifted his own, letting the two chink together, silhouetted against the sunlight spilling in from the window.

"To the future."

Slowly, Ed sat back on his pillows, raised the cup to his lips, and drank.

And from that moment onwards, Ed's long road to recovery, and the start of his new life on Earth began to unfold.

The next few weeks were really hard, for both Edward and Hohenheim. The pain would come in waves, both physical and mental, leaving Ed numb and shivering, his eyes calling back that frightening, glassy look. But, as the days passed, these terrible bouts became fewer, and weaker. Hohenheim would be there every time, through the good days and the bad, always hovering on the edges with bandages, medicine tea, and tantalizing snapshots of news from the world outside.

Between all the healing, both Ed and Hohenheim formed an unspoken kind of truce, which turned into tolerance, then forgiveness for all the wrongs that they had done each other. Finally, by the end of the third week, Ed surprised them both by greeting Hohenheim in the morning, not with his usual "Morning Hohenheim" but with a warm, spontaneous.

"Hey dad!" Two simple words, but ones that meant so much.

Ed had lost his world, his home and his alchemy, but somewhere in this mess of grief and despair, he had found a father again.

And for now, that was enough.