Prologue
A loud yawn followed by a long exasperated sigh was heard from the inside of a small, candle-lit room. The room had shelves full of books on varying science topics including astro-physics and chemistry. A young blonde man patted his cheeks in an attempt to stay awake. His desk was completely cluttered with piles of books and papers. Several of the visible papers contained circles embedded with foreign symbols.
"This is going to take much longer than I original thought," he exhaled as he stretched and glanced at the clock. It was three in the morning. He shifted his gaze back to his work. He had not gotten very far; he was still missing so much. As he picked up his fountain pen, his eyelids began collapsing.
"Well, I'm calling it a night for now. I sure hope Al is having a much better night than me." The young alchemist got up, straightened the papers into an organized pile, and placed them inside a box labeled: Edward's Research Notes. He took a handful of books from the shelf and put the box in a small hole behind the books. Afterwards, he slid a piece of wood to cover the holes and his notes and put the books back. He lifted a small, silver candleholder and carried it to an adjacent room. As he opened the door, he saw his younger brother covered with blankets and with a smile plastered on his face. Edward could not help but grin. His brother was dreaming so peacefully. Perhaps in his dreamland he was back in Resembool with granny and Winry. Edward's smile began to fade with his realization that they were never going back.
With a quiet, somber sigh, he closed the door and remained looking at the fire. It reminded him of alchemy—it was like a fire to him. It was a spark that had kept him alive but was now gone for good. Although he had tried to transmute objects by drawing the transmutation circles, his efforts remained fruitless. There was no such thing as alchemy in this parallel world. What gave him hope and kept him intrigued, however, was how he had been able to use chemistry to open up the portal between both worlds. That was definitely alchemy. His father, Hohenheim of Light, had attempted researching faint traces of alchemy, but he only found the Thule-society, which cost him his life. Regardless, Edward attempted to keep all of his memories of this ancient art alive by writing down everything he knew. This project was the only string left to keep him sane since after Alphonse Heiderich's murder, he vowed to never work on rocket science again. It would only be used for evil and destruction by corrupt leaders like Adolf Hitler and Deitlinde Eckhart.
Just the memory of Eckhard made Edward's stomach cringe. A year ago, she had almost destroyed his home nation, Amestris. She was a power-hungry cult-member who did everything in her power to open a portal from Germany to Amestris and steal weapons for war. At the very last minute, however, she grew fearful of Amestris for its power and began destroying everything in sight. Countless innocent children, men and women lost their lives that day for the greed of a single woman. She called Edward a monster even though she was the real monster for killing so many. The Elric brothers and Mustang managed to stop her and bring her back to Germany, and with the help of officer Hughes, she met her end.
After Alphonse surprised his brother by coming to Germany with him, both of them destroyed the entire building and burned all of the research the Thule-society members had assembled. If information like that was to be tampered with again, it could destroy the world. Out of fear, the remaining cult-members scattered. The NAZI party took them down. The Elric brothers managed to get away and start a new life for themselves far away from any catastrophe. Edward searched relentlessly for a job until he found a job at Munich University assisting Professor Hesselberg with medicinal chemistry research. Alphonse dedicated himself to studying this new world. He was interested in the literature, history, and sciences. He was mostly interested in archaeology, however.
Edward reached into his pocket and took out his silver pocket watch. A dragon was engraved in the front. His brother said that it was a souvenir from Mustang after they reunited. It was sealed with high-quality alchemy, which was very difficult to open without it. Winry was probably the only one who could open it, she was a highly skilled automail engineer and mechanic. Winry. He missed her greatly. For two years, he had debated about what to tell her if they were to ever meet again. Their meeting was not what he had expected, nonetheless. Edward was in a hurry to stop Eckhart. The only moments he spent with Winry were when she was attaching his automail. She really was great. A single tear streamed down his face, and he wiped it off with his cold, metal hand. It provided him some cool and tranquility. His automail was the closest thing he had to Winry. He proceeded to put out the candle with his right hand and set the candleholder on a small table. He opened the door once more and walked towards his bed, which was parallel to Al's. Quickly, he drowned into a quiet, peaceful slumber, encompassing the memories of the time he was little. What he did not know was that the peace would not last for much longer, for he was fated to always lead a life of unrest.