Title: Time Exchange

Summary: In modern day Amestris, alchemy is nothing but legend. After the death of their father, siblings Edward and Harley find a silver pocket watch and old books with descriptions of actual alchemy hidden in his study. After accidentally bringing Ed, Al, Team Mustang, and (unfortunately) the Homunculi from 1915 to their time, they have a lot to do . . . specifically, bringing back the alchemy that the Fuhrer tried so hard to make disappear.

Warnings: Other than the typical language and violence that is FMA, there will be a few OCs, modern technology, and time travel. Takes place in 2013 Amestris, and the Promised Day hasn't happened yet for the canon characters. Liberties taken so events the place in the anime is never revealed.

Author's Note: Thanks for all the support guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

~Time Exchange~

Chapter 1

Waking with his hands tied behind his back and rope across his chest binding him to someone else wasn't what Edward Elric III had exactly expected ever, and he certainly didn't expect that he'd hear bickering if a situation such as this ever arose.

"I bet you the Fullmetal Pipsqueak over there has something to do with this, Lust!" a scratchy, gravelly voice was protesting loudly. "Why else would we randomly appear in this rundown shithole of a warehouse with him, of all people?"

"Calm yourself, Envy," a sultry voice purred in response. "We'll get our answers soon enough."

"I believe that we may have the wrong person," a new voice piped up, this one calm and collected, but oddly scary and dangerous, too. "He's too tall. He lacks automail. And his hair is short. He isn't Edward Elric."

Edward kept his head slumped forward with his chin resting against his chest, his heart beat loud in his ears. The person he was bound to moved as they barked out a laugh. "How long did it take you to deduce that, Wrath? If the kid was Ed then I'd be kicking your asses by now. Speaking of which, ganging up on me wasn't all that fair. Let's try one-on-one next time!"

"Greed," a smaller, echoing voice admonished with a sigh, "You stand no chance against one of us and you know that."

"Can I eat him?" a nasally voice asked excitedly.

"Maybe later, Gluttony," Lust responded bemusedly.

"Forget this, I'm getting tired of waiting on the pipsqueak!" the original scratchy voice that the sultry one, Lust, had called Envy. "Wake up!" A sharp kick was delivered to Edward's side, and he yelped, trying to curl in on himself further.

"Oi, man up, kid!" Greed, the one he was bound to, hissed. Greed twisted, trying to pull Edward away from Envy. The effort was wasted as Envy smirked and placed his foot on Greed's leg to keep him from moving.

Edward finally looked up into the faces of his captors, gold eyes wide with disbelief as he looked at each one of them. "What the hell?"

"What the hell is right," Greed grumbled. Edward twisted his head over his shoulder, seeing the side of a pale face with slanted eyes, dark bangs falling across his forehead.

"So." The only one in military clothes - clothes that looked like an older model from the modern military uniform, really - stepped forward. "Would you care to tell us your name?"

"Depends," Edward murmured. "Would you care to tell me why it is I'm here?"

The man chuckled, his one eye crinkling with amusement, the other covered by an eye patch. "You may look alike and have the same cheekiness, but you sound nothing like Fullmetal." His amusement quickly faded into something more sinister, a sneer marring his wrinkled features. "You don't get to ask questions, kid," he said firmly. "You will answer our questions."

"I don't think I want to," Edward responded without a second thought, nearly regretting it a second later when the weird one with greenish, dread-style hair kicked him in the side again.

"Trust me, Pipsqueak, you'll think again," he hummed with a devilish grin. "We can be quite persuasive."

"Man, you guys are major creeps," Greed grumbled. "Listen, kid," he said, addressing Edward this time. "Hold in what you can."

"I have no clue what's going on," Edward groaned. "Who are you people?"

He went ignored by those that surrounded him. The only woman - and, holy shit, she was definitely one of the hottest girls Edward had ever seen - moved toward him with a sultry smile on her face. "Like Wrath said, we're the ones asking questions, not you, dear." Edward nearly jumped out of his skin when the nails became talons nearly as long as her forearm. She caressed his face, and he barely resisted the urge to move for fear of being cut. "Now why don't you cooperate, hm?"

Edward didn't notice that he had been given a thin cut across his cheek until Lust had turned away and he felt the blood dripping down his cheek to his chin. He said nothing, staring around the dark, dusty warehouse for any means of escape.

"Stop scoping the place, kid," Greed hissed. "I got us covered." Envy landed a punch across his jaw, and Greed's head snapped around.

A little kid, no older than six or seven, quietly slid up to him. His dark blue eyes were vacant, and his voice echoed as he spoke. "You obviously have some relation to Edward Elric. Wouldn't you agree, Wrath?" The kid cast a glance back at the military office.

"I believe you're right, Pride," Wrath hummed in agreement. He looked at Edward. "Do you have anything to say to that, son?"

Edward gulped, but chose not to speak. Much like he had to Greed, Envy punched him across the jaw, sneering at him to answer.

"It's, uh, it's my name," Edward responded. "Edward Elric."

"I see." Wrath stood in front of him regally, his hands folded behind his back. "So, Edward Elric, what can you tell us about our location? We took a glance outside earlier. It doesn't seem like we are in Amestris."

"Uh, last I checked that's where I was," Edward responded, his irritation slowly building. "But, y'know, I'm the one kidnapped and tied to a complete stranger, so why don't you tell me?"

Wrath chuckled at that. "We didn't kidnap you, Mr. Elric," he responded smoothly. "We all appeared here in a puff of smoke from entirely different locations, and once the smoke cleared, there was us, and then there was you."

Edward narrowed his eyes in thought, thinking back to his last cautious moment. He remembered being at home with Harley, and being mad at her - which was very shocking, as he was rarely ever angry. He remembered the alchemy books, and how she had learned how to use the supposedly mythical art, and mentioned that she wanted to bring their father back. He then remembered going to sleep, waking to the sound of crackling energy, barging into the study, Harley, the smoke, and -

Oh. Well, that explained a whole lot.

Knowing that it probably wasn't wise to say anything, Edward remained silent.

"Mr. Elric," Wrath continued. "Where were you before you happened to wake up here?"

Edward didn't respond. For his trouble, Envy kicked not once, not twice, but three times in the side. He yelled upon hearing a crack, swearing at the sharp pain racing through his entire body.

"Kid, just tell the bastard and save yourself the trouble, it can't have been that important!" Greed snapped, squirming behind him.

"No," Edward hissed breathlessly, resisting the urge to cry at the intense pain that he had never felt so much of before. "Can't."

"What's so important about where you were that you can't tell us?" Pride wondered. One of the weird black hands that was floating around him reached out, running over his face before sliding down his shoulder and to his side, prodding at the broken ribs that resided there. Edward groaned in pain, but still refused to talk.

"Kid," Greed warned.

"Home," Edward gasped out. "I was at home."

And at that moment, Edward wanted nothing more than to escape these weird, psychotic freaks and return to Resembool so he could properly lecture and reconcile with Harley.

"Which is where?" Lust asked.

"Where the heart is, bitch," Edward snapped without thinking. Envy socked him in the face in the same spot as before, and Edward could already feel the bruise forming as his skin throbbed.

"My, my, you certainly are like Fullmetal," Lust purred, running a hand gently over his hair. Edward tensed, knowing that the fingers running through his hair could turn into a deadly weapon at any moment. "That leads me to assume . . . Tell me, Edward, do you have any siblings?"

Edward hoped that he would show no reaction, but his muscles impulsively tensed, giving Lust all the answer she needed. With a delighted chuckle, she continued to run her fingers through his short strands "So you do. That's why you don't want to tell us where you live, I suppose. I can understand that. Anyway, I'm guessing younger sibling, with how defensive you are all of a sudden. Brother or sister?"

"Ugh, you're another one of those types." Greed sighed exasperatedly. "The 'you can beat the shit out of me but touch my family and I freak out' types."

"So it would seem," Wrath agreed sagely. "Fortunately for us, we know how to get to those types."

Edward really didn't want to think about what the smile he was receiving from Wrath truly meant.

It took nearly twenty minutes for the short one - Edward, Fullmetal, pipsqueak, whatever the hell his name was - to stop spazzing. While the other people that had suddenly appeared in the study were very hesitant about accepting the idea of being in 2013, Ed flat-out refused to accept the fact that he was no longer in 1915.

"Time travel is impossible!" he screeched for what Harley counted as the third time now. "It - It defies the laws of equivalent exchange and it's just - not possible!"

"Well, obviously, it is," Harley responded heatedly for what must have been the tenth time. "Shut the hell up and let me think, will you? My brother is missing and you're a short idiot and -"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT YOU COULD FIT HIM IN YOUR POCKET, MICROSCOPIC PIPSQUEAK?!"

Harley was immediately fuming. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MICROSCOPIC PIPSQUEAK THAT COULD BE BLOWN OVER WITH A LIGHT BREEZE YOU ASSHOLE?!"

"They are definitely related," Havoc, the blond guy with the cigarette dangling from his lips responded from where he was lazing about on the couch in the living room that Harley had convinced everyone to relocate to.

"I can tell," Colonel Mustang responded, sounding quite amused. "They're both quite tiny."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BEANSPROUT YOU JACKASS?!" both Elrics screamed, turning to face the amused Flame Alchemist.

"Uh, sir," Fuery said nervously, "I don't think antagonizing two short-tempered Elrics at the same time is a good idea -"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORTER THAN THEIR TEMPER?!"

"I - I didn't say that!" Fuery protested, trying to hide behind Breda, who just scoffed at the entire scene.

"Brother," Alphonse, the calm gentle-giant suit of armor said, "She's our relative. Be nice."

"No, she's not related to us because time travel is impossible!" Ed protested. "The homunculi probably tracked down another kid with ties to Xerxes and are plotting to use her to lure us into a false sense of security so they can strike!"

Harley felt her anger dissipate quickly. "Homunuli?" she asked curiously, gold eyes brightening at the thought. "Men created by alchemists, right?"

"Sheesh, how clueless are you?" Ed grumbled.

Harley sneered. "For someone that only learned about the actual existence of alchemy yesterday, I'd say I have an excuse!"

Hawkeye, the calmest of the entire group and Harley's personal favorite, frowned at this statement. "Why didn't you believe in the existence of alchemy?" she asked quietly.

"Uh, because it's been nothing but a myth for years," Harley responded. "Until, suddenly, it wasn't. My dad had all of these alchemic books in this hidden safe and I followed the instructions and I could do it!"

"How did alchemy become a myth?" Falman asked with a frown. "Where we're from everyone knows about alchemy."

"Well, Dad always used to talk about it like it was real, but Edward and I always thought it was just for our bedtime stories," Harley said quietly. "Turns out it wasn't, I guess."

"Tell us a little about this time period," Mustang said, leaning forward on the couch to look at Harley. "Who's the current Fuhrer, and the one before him?"

"The sixth Fuhrer was Grumman, but he died during his tenth year of service," Harley listed off. "And then there was Roy Mustang - you, I'm guessing."

"So I do become Fuhrer," Mustang said smugly, a haughty smirk in place on his face. "And? Tell me about it!"

"You weren't, um, like any of the other Fuhrers," Harley said after a moment. "You brought democracy to Amestris and gave Ishval back to the people, which definitely helped in your popularity, especially since as a democracy, every five years there is a vote for Fuhrer. You won the two times you ran."

"Only two times?" Mustang asked with a frown.

"You were, um, assassinated before the third election," Harley said quietly.

Silence resonated around the entire room, and tension was obviously high. "And where was I?" Hawkeye asked sharply. "Or any of us, for that matter?"

"I - I don't know, actually," Harley murmured, frowning. "We never really went over it in school, and no one knows the details. It's kind of been a buried topic."

"Alright," Mustang said tensely after a moment, his fingers curled into fists on his knees. "Who is the current Fuhrer?"

"Um, he was only in his early thirties when he ran, but the Fuhrer has won all the elections since. His name is Selim Bradley."

Silence hung over the room again, the tension rising even further before Ed let out a mirthless laugh. "That explains so much," he said, sighing bitterly. "Seeing as he's a homunculus."

Harley gaped. "No way!" she gasped. "I mean - wow. A homunulus? Oh my gosh!"

"That might also explain why you know nothing of the colonel's assassination," Al remarked. "Or alchemy. I guess Selim was trying to cover up things that could potentially overpower him or get him kicked out of office."

"Hey, kid," Havoc said, nudging Harley's shoulder from where he sat beside her. "How did your old man die?"

Harley's mind blanked, a wave of sadness creeping over her. The subject of her father's death was still new and off limits for most that asked, but with the way their conversation was going, Havoc had to have a reason for asking. "He was in Central for some sort of research. I don't know much about the details, but apparently there was an explosion -"

"He was killed off on purpose," Mustang interrupted. "For knowing about the legitimacy of alchemy, I suppose."

The silver pocket watch still in Harley's jeans pocket felt heavier than before, and her fingers traced over the circle that it created against the rough fabric. "Yeah, I guess," she murmured quietly.

Ed quirked a brow at her actions. "Whatcha got there?"

Harley silently withdrew the pocket watch, and held it up so that everyone could see it. "It was with my father's alchemy books. I think it's a pocket watch, but it's been sealed for some reason."

Ed reached out for it, and Harley warily handed it over. He clapped his hands together, and in no time, he was opening the watch, the knuckles of his flesh hand going white with how hard he was gripping it. "Maybe you're telling the truth about the whole time travel thing," he muttered, tossing it back to her.

3 Oct 11 was carved onto the inside, and Harley looked over at Ed once more, noting the dejected expression on his face. "So this watch is yours, then?"

"Yeah."

A heavy silence fell over everyone in the room, and Harley took a moment to reflect on how weird the situation was. The seventh Fuhrer was sitting on her couch with the best sniper that Amestris had ever seen, a suit of armor and his alchemic genius of a brother were possibly related to her, her older brother was missing, and homunculi existed - and worse, one was even the current Fuhrer.

"This is so messed up," Harley muttered, stuffing the watch back into her pocket. She stood, all eyes in the room focused on her. "Okay, what's our plan of action?"

"Well, our ultimate goal is to return to our own time, obviously," Mustang said. "But since we're here until you can figure out how you accomplished time travel in the first place, we might as well get Selim Bradley out of office."

"And bring back alchemy," Ed added.

"Could we possibly search for my brother first?" Harley murmured, waving her hand slightly. "That's kind of an important goal, you know."

"Well, do you have any idea where he could possibly be?" Hawkeye inquired.

"If I knew where he was I wouldn't say we need to search for him, ma'am," Harley responded. "He was in the room with me when I did the transmutation. Is it possible that he took your place in the past?"

"Maybe he got sucked into the Gate," Ed suggested grimly.

"I don't think so," Harley murmured. "I didn't see the Gate, or the weird tendrily-hands that were described in one of my dad's books. It's not likely that he's on the other side of the Gate."

"So let's assume for right now that he's still in this time period," Falman suggested. "Where could he possibly have gone?"

"I have no clue," Harley murmured. "I just hope he's okay."

In the ruins of the Third Laboratory, the part of Edward's thought process that wasn't dominated by pain vowed that he would never tell the homunculi anything to do with his sister, even if it killed him.

And that's chapter 1! Thanks for all the support from everyone so far, I really appreciate it. :)

I apologize for all the mistakes. A friend of mine that reads over everything before I post it is out of town, so this is self-beta'd, and I'm terrible at catching my own mistakes, but I did try at least. If you see anything wrong please don't hesitate to point it out so I can fix it.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'd love to hear your feedback!

~Blaze