Trisha Elric was a good mother. She loved her two boys more than anything else in the world, and would do anything for them.
So, when Edward's screams from his nightmares started, she worried. Because what would give him nightmares? Why was he having them? Then he'd left for 'alchemy training' and she'd grown suspicious, because what kind of alchemy training couldn't be done at home, and was it really as important as Hohenheim seemed to believe it was?
Hohenheim wouldn't answer her questions. Edward would manage to worm his way out of answering, and look unbearably guilty as he did so, which only made her more confused, and worried. Because he was her son. Why did he look so sad? Why wouldn't, why couldn't he tell her?
What had happened to the smiling little boy she remembered?
She made sure to keep and eye on Edward after that 'alchemy training' because she was getting the to the bottom of this if it was the last thing she did.
For nearly a week, nothing happened, and life settled back into a routine.
Until one day, by pure chance she stopped outside a door, enough to hear her youngest son's pleading.
"It's like I don't even know you anymore." Trisha froze. She had barely heard the whisper through the door, and for a second she thought she'd imagined it.
Then, there was a small, horrified gasp. "Al." It hurt her to hear them both sound so broken. She was about to rush in there and confront them, comfort them, because she couldn't stand hearing it.
But the next words made her feeze.
"Hey Al, do you think that time travel could ever be possible?"
So she stood there in silence and listened and heard the entire story.
And as she listened, she remembered the strange dream she'd had the day one of her sons and her husband fainted, that suddenly didn't seem like a dream anymore.
This was real, apparently. It would explain the nightmares, it would explain everything.
Eyes narrowed, Trisha marched off to find her husband. He had some explaining to do.
"So someone managed to obtain the power of a god and escaped into the past to avoid being killed? You know how that sounds, right brother?" Al asked after Ed's explanation. He hadn't explained everything, only that they had been involved in a fight with someone who had obtained the power of God and had time travelled.
The details, at least some of them, would come later, because he was sick of keeping secrets. Even so, he wanted to protect Alphonse from the pain, because it wouldn't happen again.
"Yeah, it sounds like I'm mad, but there is a circle to back it up... Especially if you place it on a map and you know your history." Ed sighed, collecting one of the many pages scattered that held the transmutation circle. He didn't have a map handy, but Al saw.
"...but why didn't you tell me sooner? If you remember, why don't I remember?" Al asked, and Ed froze.
"You'd better win... Big brother..." And the light had faded from the eye sockets in the armour. Al had died. Died.
"Al, the future... It wasn't happy."
"Give him back! He's all I have left!"
"It hurts, big brother Edward."
"That thing they transmuted... Was it really their mother?"
"I'd be a shame if something happened to that automail mechanic of yours... Winry, wasn't it?"
"At last. All five sacrifices are here."
"But why don't I remember it? If you were dragged back when you fainted... Then dad was dragged back too. And Winry! Why wasn't I with you?" Al sounded desparate now. He sounded scared and Ed hated it.
And before he could even open his mouth, Al's entire body slumped. "I died, didn't I?" He concluded grimly.
"Al, what are you doing? No... No, you can't. Al... Don't do it!"
"You'd better win... Big brother..."
"Yeah." Ed's throat was dry. "It was my fault." That remark earned him a punch in the shoulder.
"You're being an idiot." Al said simply. "How did I die?"
"You sacrificed your soul... To give me my arm back, so I could escape." Ed managed, throat dry.
"You lost your arm?" Al sounded horrified.
"I never asked for this stupid body!"
"You lost a lot more... And that was my fault too." Ed muttered bitterly.
This time, he was punched in the face.
"Stop blaming yourself! None of it has happened yet, right?" Al asked seriously.
"No, and it's not going to happen." Ed responded, rubbing his sore cheek.
"Then you haven't done anything. So stop blaming yourself." Al huffed.
Ed stared. Al was acting exactly as he had before... before he died in the previous timeline.
Then he broke down laughing, because there was a huge weight off his shoulders in that moment, and after a minute, Al was also laughing and everything was okay.
"Brother, how much can you tell me about the future... Or past... Or-" Kabuto started, only to be interrupted by his younger brother.
"It's not anything nice." Scar said gruffly.
"Okay, why did they call you 'Scar', brother?" Kabuto asked, sitting down and staring at Scar with raised eyebrows. "I do have authority as the older brother here, you know." He said with a small smile, in an attempt to lighten the mood a little.
Scar snorted. "I suppose you do." The Ishvalan managed a smile.
"So," Kabuto continued. "What was the future like? Did you make any new friends? Get a girlfriend?"
Scar paused. "I had companions." He started, then paused. "And I killed a homunculus."
Kabuto fell over. "A homunculus? They're real?" The alchemist breathed.
"Yes. They have the ability to regenerate using the Philosopher's Stone within them to regenerate." Scar elaborated.
"Woah. What was fighting them like?" Kabuto asked eagerly.
Scar paused. "The one I killed, Wrath, used swords. Two of them."
"Talking to you is like pulling teeth." Kabuto muttered. "Wait... Wrath... So they were named after the seven deadly sins?"
"Yes. You met Greed when Fullmetal and the Flame Alchemist were here to learn your alchemy." Scar explained.
"The weird one with the sunglasses was a homunculus? So that tattoo-"
"They all have one somewhere." Scar interrupted again.
"So what about your friends? What were they like?"
Scar blinked. "They were my companions, brother."
"Friends." Scar's brother insisted.
"One of them was a small Xingese girl with a pet panda," Scar started, ignoring Kabuto's smile. Although the former killer wouldn't admit it there and then, he'd missed this.
Trisha knocked politely on Hohenheim's door.
"Come in." Hohenheim called, voice muffled.
Trisha did, and she wasn't smiling.
"Can you tell me how our son lost and arm in the future?" She asked coldly, glaring at him. He'd known, all this time and kept it from her. She wasn't happy. The conversation she'd just heard had been enlightening to say the least, and she needed to confirm it. The way Hohenheim's face changed to one of complete shock and he fell off his chair proved that it was true.
Which meant that if she didn't remember (and she didn't really understand, she was just following her son's logic here) that she'd died, which didn't seem real. But if her husband reacted so strongly, and he'd also fainted, then that confirmed it for her.
"W-what?" Hohenheim stammered, staring at her in total shock. "How do you know about that?"
"I overheard a rather enlightening conversation." The normally sweet woman replied flaltly. "And if I don't remember, I either wasn't fighting or died." She concluded, and seeing her husband's face go pale, she decided that it was the latter.
Her legs trembled, and she collapsed to the ground.
"So, would you like to tell me how Edward lost and arm? How Alphonse died? What happened to our sons?" She choked. "Why does Edward have nightmares? What has he seen? I don't remember so tell me. Please, Hohenheim."