Clarity of the Rebound

Contract for the Future

By: Momonster

Summary: Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth.

Warnings: Epilogue? What Epilogue? (EWE) Chances of spoiling everything for the Manga save that horribly cliché Epilogue.

Rating: M

Status: WIP

Type: Multi-Chapter

Paths towards the future

"Its five feet long, the wooden shaft." The voice told him gruffly; a rough hand gently tracing his fingers down the axe's shaft. Their owner was an honest if coarse man, darker for his heartaches, but still warm and bright with happiness. "It's broken about two feet down the shaft-" fingers pressing his own to the broken wood, then towards the other half of the shaft. "-and up here." The hand guided his own much more fragile fingers towards where the axe's head sat and Ed's fingers encountered a deep gash in the wood. The metallic head barely hung onto the axe.

"You tried to use it even after it was broken, and broke it more in the process?" Edward gently teased, tapping the gash.

Coal miner Adam Black merely snorted at the blond, setting both ends of the axe in front of the blind man. "My idiot of a son did this, and it's coming out of his paycheck as well. Will you be able to fix it?" Ed smiled briefly as he nodded once. "How much will it cost?"

Ed bowed his head, and then crouched on the ground, writing into the earth at their feet. "I'll need to use F size array for this; that's six seventy-five. It's the wood array so two cen. Labor and material are already factored into the prices; so eight seventy-five cen." Ed turned slightly as he stood back up, leaning on his cane. "Gabriel! Size F; B array!"

"On it James!"

James. His alias here in this small village so close to Resembool. So close to a home he can't return to. Hohenheim would recognize him instantly as his child, even with the child Ed had been born only months ago.

Golden hair and eyes were unique only to the blood of Xerxes after all.

After waking up with his sight gone Ed had no choice but to wonder the area where he'd landed, trying to find shelter without attracting the wrong kind of attention.

He'd been lucky. The Messenger family had been close by camping, and heard his calls for help. They took him in uncaring that he was blind, and after three months he found a way to repay them for taking him in.

Now known simply as James; he ran a small alchemy shop outside their garage, having drawn multiple arrays on varying sizes of paper; circles for different kinds of material, anything a man or woman would need fixed.

Gabriel Messenger, the family's youngest child at five years old ran out of the Messenger home as only a child could – so bright his soul, so lively and warm and untouched by anger and hate - with a long thin holder in his arms, the end of the cloth bumping against his knees with each audible hollow sounding step, and pressed a hand to Ed's elbow. Ed nodded once and dropped to one knee, gently pulling his drawing from the carrier in Gabriel's hands and laying it on the ground.

Adam pressed the axe into Ed's free hand and the blond dropped both ends onto the array pressed together as the axe should be when whole, pressing his fingers along the circle's outer layer. "Ready Gab?"

"Always!"

Ed bowed his head over the circle and began to press his energy into it, grinning as he felt the blue/gold light of the transmutation begin to form over the axe.

His alchemy came to him easily, as it had always done, but now it was smoother than mere days ago. After all the experimentation he'd done with transmutations, with his own abilities and spirit, finally everything was settling into place.

His final steps were near.

And just like that, it was over. Gab let out a whoop as Adam picked up his axe from the circle, hefting it.

"And done." Ed commented dryly as he and Adam stood back up, Gabriel rolling the array back up as the two men shook hands, slipping the paper into its holder. "Remember though, it's only as good as its original materials. If that wood is old, it has a good chance of cracking all over again." Adam grunted, and Ed tilted his head with a laugh. "Ricky's in charge of the register today. Thank you for coming by."

This had been his life for five months now. Eight months after confronting Truth, eight months after finding out just where exactly he was.

And he was in Amestris.

In 1899.

Trapped sixteen years in the past; during the very year of his birth.

The embarrassing memory of his reaction to that tidbit of information made Ed wince in humiliation; then shudder as the movement pulled on the bandages on his back.

Then a loud voice broke through his thoughts, making him jerk upright. "Those burns finally starting to hurt you dipshit?"

Ed snorted. "They've been hurting asshole." A hand gently touched his back, tracing the burns with an expert eye, checking to see if they were healed enough for Ed to be up and about as he was. A gentle touch was all he needed to see if Ed flinched at any press of bleeding skin.

It wasn't surprising that he knew the burns well, seeing as he'd helped Ed do it.

Ed knew he couldn't use his normal way to call on Physical Transmutation. The ability to use Alchemy without a circle was to the trained eye unique to those who had seen the Gate.

And in sixteen years those who have seen Truth and lived to tell the tale will be attacked by creatures considered more than human – or maybe even less - and used in a Transmutation Circle, their very power used as material for the transmutation of a monster who wanted to consume what it believed to be god.

In sixteen years, only four people would be found for Homunculus to use, a fifth forced. So few people to call upon, he wasn't going to add to the number.

The fact that the Homunculus would need five separate people…and five unique Gates; meant that if they used sixteen year old Edward Elric, they wouldn't be using the then thirty two year old 'James'; or whoever Ed would be then.

Which could only mean that the Seven Sins had never learned of 'James' ability to transmute with a single clap.

Which meant that from the day he'd awoken blind and onward; Ed could never again clap to create an array from nothing but his own memory.

…and that with his clapping gone so to was his singular line of defense. Ed had no choice but to create another way to defend himself, using Alchemy or not.

Because he knew with his own luck, trouble would find him wherever he went.

So.

What could he do?

What could Edward Elric; could 'James', invalid of the Messenger family; could the person he is and will be come, what could he do?

It took days to figure out what kind of Alchemist he wanted to be. What kind of Alchemist he would have been without the knowledge of the Gate behind him.

Days to feel the elemental energy that had always been surging under his skin, ignored on his quest to right his wrongs.

Ed had always loved Lightning.

Without the ability to freely use anything and everything as a weapon; Ed took days of silence as he thought, focusing on what he could specialize in; what element to fight with, and once the answer came to him he could only wonder why it didn't seem to come to him sooner.

His talent was weapon creation using any material available.

His element was lightning.

How would he emphasize both to the point where the ease of clapping his hands seemed second to using his own specific talents?

That brought his genius to light; the creation of the array he could use that would simultaneously support drawing lightning to fight with, and also create blades from any material.

An array for the creation and manipulation of pure energy, altered into lightning. This would include chemical alteration and manipulation to create and control the path of lightning through the air, and whether it would be colored, or virtuously invisible.

An array for the transmutation of any material available.

And an array to help with hiding just who he was.

It was now in his grasp.

Manipulation of the air around him, the ground, liquid, even his own flesh.

With the creation of his unique Transmutation circle, clapping his hands would only be a tool to create stronger attacks. All he would need to do would be to press his hands together, allowing his energy to cycle through his arms, then the circle, and with his energy three times stronger than before, attack.

But the more subtle strength of his Circle would he his power.

Ed couldn't hide forever. His features, his talent; both were both too unique for the Army and the Homunculus to never hear of him.

So he needed to change who he was, and mold who people saw; to differentiate 'James' from Edward Elric.

Edward Elric was a state certified Alchemist, was the Fullmetal Alchemist; paraplegic child prodigy with an Automail arm and leg; well known for his people helping personality – as well as his antiganistic personality - his convictions and raw strength. The need for a circle thrown out was also a large factor.

'James' would have a circle. Maybe minor versions of his power house edged into arm bands, but he'd have a circle.

Changing the helping people thing wouldn't happen. Ed would never become an Alchemist who turned their back on the people. Maybe just not so…extravagantly.

And Ed was a powerhouse, simply because you never knew what he'd do.

That wouldn't change. But 'James' would have a main power he'd use. You'd just never know how he would use it.

With all this in mind and his circles created and drawn out on a life-size sheet altered to be exactly the same size as his own back, Ed called on the help of the blacksmith family in the village, asking of them something they'd almost refused to help.

Carving the array into his back.

A month ago Ed had the youngest son of the Firjak family carve the first array he'd drawn up into his upper back, between each shoulder blade; the second at Ed's left side, and the third at Ed's right side; each line three millimeters in width. It'd taken many pain filled days but Carl Firjak had done as asked, laboriously working until each line was as close to the specifications as ordered, ignoring the body he'd worked on's writhing moans and screams.

Two weeks later Ed's skin had healed with obvious indentions where the flesh had been carved out, and Carl did the next step, taking a white-hot poker to the lines, cauterizing the skin, making sure it never healed completely.

For two weeks now Ed was healing from the burning, after days of being bedridden from the pain of half healed skin being burned so severely.

For days afterward people came to his bedside scolding him for doing something so… damaging, so very final, Ed knew he wasn't done. Not yet.

Days ago Ed had Carl begin got mix together tattoo ink with minerals Ed himself had pulled from the earth, creating a dark blue ink heavy in iron and carbon.

The second to final step would be to tattoo the ink over the burns, creating an array heavy in minerals for Ed to use, minerals that if necessary Ed could pull from his own skin to fight with. The iron and carbon on his skin would also make calling upon those minerals for weapon creation through alchemy easier as well.

Ed had exhausted himself in thought.

He had lighting at his fingertips now. His arrays could bend light, alter sound, manipulate specific materials and even shift his own flesh and store his energy.

If these different weapons couldn't protect him, then he was doomed to alter time.

"You almost ready for the last part?" Now located within Ed's own private rooms; a bedroom, full bathroom and a living room like sitting room that opened to the rest of the house, Edward gently removed his shirt, letting out a soft sigh once the silk was removed from his back. Carl's indrawn breath made Ed grin grimily. The skin no longer was so sensitive he needed to wear bandages to protect his flesh, but it still hurt to wear clothing, the burns a shade of pink instead of livid red.

"Yes. I can lift my hands over my shoulders now with minimal pain; no pulled half healed flesh. Give it another day at most, and I can transmute the ink into the burns."

"That sounds painful."

"It will be." Ed shifted, touching the tattoo of the Flamel at his lower back, having been transmuted into his skin before Ed even got the idea for the array's carved and burned into his back. "The four Flamel I have on my skin were done this way. It will hurt, but nothing like the burns."

The Flamel was a symbol he couldn't part with. Now used to hold his excess energy, the four simple arrays with the Flamel at their center were simple alchemic batteries, collecting the energy he didn't use from day to day until he'd need it.

Rough hands pressed against his shoulders, and Ed willingly turned into the kiss Carl pressed against his neck, lifting a hand to run his fingers through unruly hair.

Ed felt Carl's hesitation for a few seconds, before the words were whispered into his ear. "Can I…?"

Ed tilted his head, gasping sharply when Carl pressed a hand to his crotch. "Carl…I don't, well…" Carl chuckled slightly, and gentle hands were pressing Ed into his sofa, removing his pants as Ed's back hit the soft material. Before Ed could get another word out Carl mouthed his exposed erection, and Ed couldn't remember why he'd wanted Carl to not touch him anymore.

Carl Firjak. The only shadow Ed could see that should have more light.

Ever since Ed had lost his sight; he'd taken to wearing bandages around his eyes to hide the sight of unique golden sightless, yet perfectly working eyes; and the almost invisible array that decorated his eyelids.

Those arrays were his own doing, inked into his skin using alchemy, allowing him to see…well not color, but almost…the hints of the humanity within a soul.

An idea given to him during his second trip through the Gate as he was whisked into the past, the array helped him 'see truth without sight'.

Ed had likened it to seeing the dynamics within a man's soul. The whiter they were, the kinder they were, and the brighter they were, the more ambiguous and outgoing they were.

Carl was shadows, he was dim. But he was the only one of his family willing to help Ed; willing to carve into skin and burn flesh. Maybe it was a hint of the sadism inside him that he could such things to another human, but Ed liked to think that he understood.

Carl was an alchemist as well after all. His talent wasn't as wide as Ed's, merely able to manipulate fire and trace amounts of metal, but he understood the need to be able to use his craft.

Then again, Ed knew Carl lusted after him from the moment the Messenger family had helped him into their home. Ed knew Carl could only be helping him for these few moments in bed they shared.

Ed couldn't berate that.

But he also wouldn't give Carl his virginity for it.

A few hours later, Carl cleaned up and left, leaving Ed drained and slightly sore in bed, wondering what to do next.

Tomorrow would be the completion of his array, and the final step towards arming himself.

Deep in the back of his mind, Ed worried about how smoothly this was going.

Nothing ever went right with the eldest Elric brother, and Ed was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Just as he was drifting off, Ed wondered how Al was.