A.N.1 Because Ed has a fire in him that neither of his parents had, understands Equivalent Exchange at a deeper level than anyone else, and brings truth with him, striping away lies and illusions. So where did he come from?

It watched.

It worried, and it planned.

It only had two alchemists, and neither would be suitable for what it needed. But it did have other options, other souls it had touched. As its course of action became clear, it smiled, and reached out, drawing a soul-spark to it. One it had touched before.

Hohenheim noticed one of the voices vanishing, but was distracted by Trisha's announcement. Those two words that turned his whole world upside down. "I'm pregnant."

It shaped the spark with ease, belying the fact that it had never done anything like this before. This was good material to work with, malleable and already belonging to it, halfway forged into what it needed, simply from the existence it had been summoned from.

But its counter and answer needed to be more than human, so it forged in a spark of its own awareness, adding immutable awareness of the Law to its creation. As its creation was completed, it felt something of itself bind to the soul it worked with, and Truth smiled. Not its usual Grin, the one interlopers in its domain saw, but a proper, fond, pleased smile, sparked by the spark it was shaping. Its creation. Gate-child.

Truth had done what it set out to do, but found itself reluctant to let go of its creation. Still, it did, and aimed the spark to the empty body crafted by nature and one of its alchemists. Far from that which it worked against, so its child could grow untainted by that it worked against, undiscovered by the enemy. Wild life to give its child strength, and a place near the edge of the taint the Traitor had caused, to grow more in tune with the Law it made.

As the spark sank into the chosen unborn infant, Truth wondered in passing, when it had begun to think of this countermeasure as its child.


An instant, or an eternity later, (ten years) Truth's child returned to it, defying its Laws, and Truth was disappointed and angered. But then, it reasoned, why should this one be any different than the Traitor? If it was perhaps harsher than its normal way, when it sent the child through the gate, that meant nothing. It had even paused to speak with this one, after all. If Truth were capable of lying to itself it would have told itself that this meant nothing, but it was not capable of such, and so admitted that it still wished to be lenient to this child, for how else could the countermeasure work as Truth planned?

The child emerged, and Truth inquired, "How was it?" hoping that the look at the True Knowledge might have awakened the countermeasure's sense of the Law enough that the child would cease to be so foolish. How had its creation been so foolish to begin with?

The child turned back to the Gate. "I see. My theory of human transmutation wasn't wrong, it can be done, it's possible. It's still just missing something."

If Truth had been grinning its ever present grin at the moment, instead of being featureless in disappointment, Truth's jaw would have dropped. "All of the answers I need are right here! Please, you have to show it to me again!"

It was pleased and surprised at once. The child did understand some things then, but still, the Law that Truth was and kept, demanded a price. Still, Truth would be as lenient as it could. The countermeasure must live to counter the Traitor, even if that meant that the proper Toll would be taken for the most part from the human that had acted with the countermeasure in standing against the Law. Still, something would have to be taken from the countermeasure, or balance would not be served.

"I can't do that," it answered, standing. If things went as it thought they would— well, human bodies could live without limbs, and the binding that it knew to be the way the countermeasure would respond would bring the child to other humans, humans who could mend it. "I've already shown you all I can for the Toll you've paid."

"Toll? What Toll?" The child was so ignorant in the surface of its mind of what it knew in the depths of its Self, the Self that Truth had shaped. It was endearing.

"This" Truth said, as the leg was taken from the countermeasure and appeared on the form Truth was using to interact with its child. No, not merely it's child now. "Surely you knew? It's the law of Equivalent Exchange, right, young Al-Che-Mist?"

Truth's alchemist. Now and always.


And things played out as Truth had guessed, and better than Truth had hoped. It was so proud of its child the day that the young Alchemist came to it after returning the Traitor, and came bringing the Answer. Truth worked against its Law that day, bending the rule with leftover Equivalence and a renewed Toll, and gave All to the One who had at last done what it wished.

Truth's Hand. Truth's alchemist. Edward Elric.


A.N.2 Kudos to anyone who figured out the narrator before I said it was Truth. Guest: Nice one. The previous chapter as been edited to include it.
Guest 2: Glad you like them. I had to have someone compare them, and make him lose his temper.