A/N: I don't own, and will never own, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood/manga or Final Fantasy VII. I'm only saying this once, because that won't change between now and the end of the story!
The people I chose as the 'main' characters (besides Ed), aren't necessarily going to show up at the beginning of the story! You'll get it when they show up, though.
Homecoming is a branch off Dimensions, so will be shortened to FoWD-HC, or just HC. Since everyone knows my reasoning from the poll, I didn't want to repeat it here. If you're a reader who never saw that poll and wants to know it, send me a PM and I'll forward you the premise I gave in the poll.
If you haven't read CA, up to chapter 33 (35 by FFN's numbering) of FoW, and the first 12 (13 by FFN's numbering) chapters of FoWD yet, go back and read them or Homecoming won't make any sense! Mainly, those chapters of FoWD are needed to grasp the idea behind the 'Dimensions' element to begin with, because I'm not going to make anyone read that explanation twice; while informative, it can get tedious if it's reiterated too many times. While I won't re-describe the CA and FoW cast, some of the OC's which appeared in FoWD will get re-described because a lot of them only got a very brief mention or were only described near the end. The rest of the FoWD story isn't relevant to HC because HC stems from a different dimension, other than my making note of Ed being in a better head-space now.
Note on character appearances: For all of my living memory, the human Al always had blue eyes, but for some reason, no one online seems to have that data. Because I already used that in SH, it's staying here—Al has blue eyes. To me, Trisha's were always pale, but I never particularly knew a 'color' for them; apparently, they're green (more Cetra heritage justification! Yay!), so I'm going with that. Otherwise, I'm trying to stick to the actual original colors of hair and eyes people had, so Al is really the only exception, because for some reason I can't see him with anything but blue eyes.
Keep in mind that, because Ed's landing in a different dimension from his original one, some things are different. Very few of the original changes (pre-Ed's arrival) were going to change the story's path much up to that point, though some events were in the process of changing. I'll note those instances when they come up. Dimensions Ed's introduction to the situation creates a vast change.
Timeline note (for those who care about correlation): I'm assuming the Cetra went to Earth around 2000 years ago, which was also when people besides the Spirans ended up on Gaia. That trade-off wasn't exact for timing, but it happened before the Spirans arrived, which was how the Cetra knew how to save the Spirans in the first place. On the other hand, I just can't perceive Xerxes as having only been destroyed around 500 years ago (by FMA:B time, that would put it around 1400-1500 AD), so Xerxes was destroyed sometime between the year 0 (Cetra arrival) and about 1100AD (the latest I could have seen it destroyed, and the latest I could see Hohenheim going to Xing). But, the 1400-1500 AD time is still relevant to the story for a very good reason!
On with the story! Double post today to kick it off.
Space and Time
It was surreal.
She felt like she'd been caught between awareness and unawareness for a long, long time.
First, she'd felt Minerva's resignation and sorrow. Over what, she wasn't entirely sure. It was a sorrow which transferred to her very strongly, and she felt like she wanted to cry, but somehow, she wasn't able to. That left her hovering in that state with only her soul to try to release the feelings.
Stars.
Even through that sorrow, she became aware of stars, but they were strange, like they were passing by fast enough for her to notice. And they were all around her, not just above her, like they should have been.
Just then, she also realized there was no feeling of heat or cold, just a general blank where such a sensation could have been.
What?
Right then, she felt Minerva focus on her, becoming aware that she wasn't asleep. Wait, why was she supposed to be asleep?
The mental question produced amusement from Minerva, and resulted in a surprising response: :The journey will be long, Beloved Child, so all of you little children were meant to sleep through it.:
:What journey?: Aeris asked in reply, feeling confused.
A sigh reached her, then the entity replied, :My world, your world, is no more. The damage done to it in those last moments...it could not withstand. The damage shattered the crust.: (1)
:Why? How?: the fifteen-year-old asked in distress.
There was a sensation as though of a head shaking with confusion, not denial. :I do not know. Fire shoved the land apart. That was as much as I saw. So little time to take what few survivors there were. There was no chance to choose, just take all who yet lived. Those who needed to be saved have been. Still, some good people were lost. Many of them.:
:Who would do such a thing?: Aeris asked in horror as she realized what had happened. Or at least the result of it. But fires shattering the crust had to have been explosives. Were there really enough explosives in the world which were powerful enough to completely destroy it?
Again, she had the sensation of Minerva shaking her head in confusion, having no answer.
:My family!: she suddenly gasped. When Minerva sent her a blank sense, clearly asking who she meant, Aeris asked, :Your Energy Healer? I don't know about how you define my father and adoptive mother...And Nina—she's your Budling—Zack, your Dynamism, Tseng, and Ed? Um, Ed's your Ancient Sentinel, but I don't know about Tseng. He's the Wutain with that stone on his forehead...: she offered, focusing on an image of him to send to Minerva. She added images of Gast and Elmyra to what she sent.
:Oh, my,: Minerva seemed to blink as she examined the images. :Holy Death, that is his essence. His mother will be proud. All of those you asked about are safely within the Omega body.:
:Holy Death?: the brown haired girl asked in confusion. Then it occurred to her that she'd never before had such clear communication with Minerva, and asked, :How can I suddenly talk with you so clearly?:
:You shall know why he would be called Holy Death later,: the planetary entity replied, sounding amused. :And you hear me so clearly now because you are directly within the core of my energy.:
:...So...this is like when we visited you in the Northern Crater and where your core was below Banora?:
:Indeed.:
Looking outward again, Aeris found herself seeing the stars passing by again, and realized it was because they were traveling in the Omega body away from their own world. How long had it been? Was there a way to know? She remembered that Minerva had trouble with 'time' the way Cetra and humans perceived it, so it would be extremely difficult to assess, even with Minerva's memory of the journey to that point—there were no actual milestones to count by in a sea of blackness and stars. If everyone was in stasis, they also wouldn't age—probably a good thing, but one less point to use to count passage of time.
So why was she not asleep? Had her body not been put into stasis like everyone else's? An assurance from Minerva told her she was, in fact, just as much physically in stasis as the others.
Did Minerva have any idea where they were going?
With a small tug on her mind, Aeris felt herself pulled to Minerva's awareness, where she could see and sense what the entity was operating on. The first thing she noticed about what she was being shown was that Minerva was very, very old, and had actually been on two other planets before Gaia. (2) One was destroyed by natural disasters before any sentient races had come to exist, and the other had been run-down and worn-out, to a point where she had no longer been able to maintain it. The children of that world had long since left her behind, and she had just been waiting for it to release her. It had been millions of years since she had arrived on the Planet and begun terraforming it, a task much more intensive there than on either previous world.
After assessing that, she found the method Minerva had used to choose her direction away from the Planet as it had crumbled. It was three-fold: a path away from both previous worlds, a path away from something familiar, and a new direction. The 'path away from something familiar' produced the remains of the reason for why no Cetra could hold Chaos and the meteors which hadn't been meteors that had brought other humans there. While Aeris couldn't fathom why she'd want to go away from familiarity, she vaguely realized Minerva had chosen to go in a direction away from where the star-ships had come from two thousand years before.
:Why?: she asked the planetary entity. :Are you trying to find an uninhabited world?:
:No,: Minerva replied, sounding vaguely amused. :I sense other worlds, many of them, in need of assistance I can give. Given how this world deteriorated due to people from the origin world of my little children who are not Cetra, I felt it best to do what I could for a different world where things may yet proceed along another path.:
:Won't it have its own entity, making you like Jeh-nova, an interloper?:
:I have no intent to overtake or destroy, and entities such as I are able to choose companionship rather than competition,: Minerva replied.
Aeris thought about the greed and suffering she'd seen in her own world, then asked, :What if they're in even worse shape than our world?:
:Then we work to bring them peace,: the entity smiled.
The half-Cetra couldn't help but snort in amused derision at that. :How can we possibly help them when we couldn't even help ourselves?:
:You underestimate the good done since you found my Ancient Sentinel,: Minerva replied in amusement. :It had been assisting far more than those immediately around you, and many people's eyes were opened to the need for a change. They shall be more receptive to any changes the Champion of Allpaths and Prodigal Son of the Star-Travelers would bring about. And while we may also be in a state of learning, that does not negate the experience and knowledge we may bring to a world in a worse state.:
:Who's the Champion of Allpaths? Or the Prodigal Son of the Star-Travelers?: she asked in confusion. In reply, Minerva showed her the images of two people—Lady Shinra, and her son, Rufus Shinra—causing her an 'oh!' moment.
She then pondered what the entity had said as a whole for a few moments before realizing there was truth to the statement. Either way, it could turn out well or poorly, but after everything many of the people of the Planet had gone through, there was a better chance it would turn out well. As long as the people who had caused the problem weren't going to come out of stasis with everyone on the Omega.
:Can you sense a difference between who was a person who caused harm and one who didn't?: she asked suddenly. When Minerva asked with a feeling why it mattered, she explained, :If the same people who were causing so much harm are released with all the average and good people, won't that just create all the same problems again?:
After a thoughtful pause, the entity agreed, :I am able to seek out their essences to determine that, and resolve the issue through purification, either to remove them entirely or give them another chance. There is one who is within the Omega who my Earthen Champion had intended to eliminate due to his greed. That judgment shall need to be fulfilled. Others—may yet have a chance for salvation. Hmm...perhaps a grand purifying would be best for all of my little children...:
Feeling the energies of said purification flow around her was a strange sensation, but it was somehow comforting. It was like a gentle cleansing of all tension, stress, worry—it eased, and it healed, and it made small changes to make things easier for them. For a long time, she just basked in the sensation, until she opened her eyes again and sought out what was beyond the Omega.
Still just stars.
She had no idea how long it had been, but if she was honest with herself, time actually had no meaning in her current state. Even though she kept trying to apply it, there was no real reason to—since everything was just in a holding state exactly the way it was, there was nothing to actively assess, either. Sleep also didn't seem to be a factor for her apparently very energetic soul, so she mostly just let her mind wander, seeking out the essences of those also on the Omega to see who she could find.
It didn't take much to find people she knew—Percia (3), Ed, Verde, Zack, Tseng, others—and from them, she could check on others. A few times, she came across a blank space, showing where someone had once been, but had since been cleansed. She also found a sense she associated with Minerva, but in the form of a sleeping infant, leaving her curious, as Minerva was fully present and aware at the time.
Then she thought to look for Alexander, and found him right next to Nina, not far from where her own body was. However, no other animals or monsters were present, like Odin (4), so she worriedly looked for Nanaki and Deneh—and found them with many others of their kind (What?)—then checked for Ria (5), holding her breath against tears. After all, she was a robot, not a person, so would she have been taken?
And then her spirit-form jaw fell open in shock.
When Minerva sent her a questioning feeling, she asked, :How were you able to take the robots, and even Alexander, but not any other animal or monster?:
A blank came back from Minerva before she replied, :Alexander is a special case in a very literal sense...He and my Budling cannot exist without the other. Otherwise, I took all those of sentience and free will I could reach. What robots do you mean?:
:Like the Cait Siths I'd heard about, and Ria! How were you able to take those robots with you?:
Again, there was a blank from Minerva as she asked, :Those are objects created by human hands?: A pause followed, then she replied, :They are as sentient as you, Beloved Child. They are, to me, living beings, little children of my world.:
:Whoa...I have got to tell Reeve he found a way to create life without sex or birth from a woman's body...: Aeris said with reverence. :Assuming I ever meet him personally...:
At Minerva's amusement, Aeris promptly ignored her and instead amused herself by pretending she was petting and cuddling the furry collection of robots. Some time later, she finished cuddling them, then kept going on her search of those in the Omega body. When she finished, she closed her eyes to rest for awhile, then felt something change and opened them again.
Looking around showed her that a swirling black thing with some 'gate-like' appearance behind it had appeared in front of and close to the Omega body. While the Omega didn't just fly right into it, things like black hands reached out of the thing to grip it, and she felt Minerva's awareness dull for several moments. Or was it hours? She couldn't tell. Whatever was happening frightened her, though, so since she could do nothing else, she just waited apprehensively.
Suddenly, there was a strong tug on the Omega as the hands dragged it into that black 'gate', and darkness fell. There was no such thing as passage of time, but she didn't think it took long for the darkness to clear as Minerva's awareness returned to the Omega, but the stars around them seemed somehow...Odd? Different? She had never been much of a star-gazer to recognize anything in the first place, so she couldn't be sure what was wrong.
Minerva's sense of resigned hope made her start searching for a destination (apparently they weren't quite there yet), and then for those she cared about.
Only to find that Ed was missing, no longer on the Omega body. And he was the only one who had vanished since Minerva's purification. Despite Minerva's attempt to calm her, she felt ill to know one of her brothers was somehow gone. Would it even be possible to ever see him again?
FoWD-HC
Something pulled on his mind, and he opened his eyes in surprise, only to find himself in front of the Alchemist's Gate with Truth sitting in front of him. It was obvious at a glance that Truth still had his old leg, so the one he'd somehow gotten on Gaia had really been the doing of the scientists who had experimented on him, and he really didn't want to know how they'd done it. Because Fuhito had attacked the Gongaga Reactor and Ed had instinctively gone after him to eliminate him, performing the kind of transmutation which would have put him in front of Truth was impossible. He was confused about and scared of why he was there.
Minerva appeared beside him, her bladed staff held defensively in front of Ed's body as she informed Truth, :My Ancient Sentinel is not your plaything.:
"Oh, good, you brought yourself here," Truth replied plainly. "We have very little time before my power will fade. The transition must be made before then."
For a long moment, both entities were silent, so Ed asked tentatively, "What do you mean, Truth?" Despite the question, he was thankful Minerva stood at his side, still with her staff defensively in front of him.
"Something ended every path of your Earth (6) near-simultaneously. None were in danger of destruction when that happened," Truth answered, and both Ed's and Minerva's eyes widened. "What the Five and I have been able to assess has led us to some difference, some flaw, in one particular dimension, but we cannot trace it further, despite our best attempts. At this point, our best chance is to send you, and your Ancient Sentinel, to that dimension to find and fix the problem. Of course, you are welcome to make yourself at home on Earth, as well, Minerva. If not, I have every right to return a child of Earth to it, only because the 'location' will be different, and we desperately need one with such knowledge now."
Ed could only stare, but Minerva looked at him and asked into his mind so he somehow knew she couldn't be heard by Truth, :Is it your desire to save your world of birth? If so, I shall assist you should you wish it.:
Looking up at her, he answered to her mind directly, :It's where I was born, where Nina was born. My brother, my mother, Winry—everyone! If Truth knew none of this when he sent me to you, his having given me that option would make sense, but now...Are you really all right if I ask for your help?:
She smiled faintly at him as she gave him a wordless affirmative, then turned her gaze to Truth to say, :His greatest strength is that he carries my essence in liquid form in his body. If we arrive there as my Omega, this is no issue. However, are you able to have such an arrival with my Ancient Sentinel?:
Truth seemed to hesitate, then shook his head and replied, "It would leave nothing but suspicion for your people should he arrive with you in such a way. His arrival must precede yours in order to form a foundation for you. With what has been done to his body, it cannot be transferred. However...A moment." It was obvious Truth's attention had focused elsewhere for a time.
As it seemed his attention was returning to them, Minerva asked, :What allowance are you able to give for the essence flowing through him?:
"With his blood replaced with your essence, that whole essence cannot be transferred as it is to his younger body," Truth said. "However, should even one of the Five provide some of that essence to merge with yours, samples each of you may give me, I shall be able to see it into his younger body, gradually replacing his blood over a span of time which I believe would be relatively short. The replacement would begin upon his awakening, though the introduction of it to his body would be extremely painful, and grow less so over time, until its completion."
Minerva looked to Ed to make the decision, and Ed had to swallow tightly, wondering what Truth meant by his 'younger body'. Somehow, however, he knew Truth wouldn't be able to specify any more than Minerva could, their only reference being that it was 'younger' than his current body. That could have meant one year younger, or ten years younger. He was all too familiar with pain, but...
"Are you saying my mind, not my body, will be put in a younger version of myself?" Ed asked suddenly of Truth, feeling unsettled. A younger body of his may have a lot of trouble with pain his current body would be able to handle, because it wouldn't have been exposed to such pain and largely desensitized to it.
"That is correct. Hence the reason what has been done to this body of yours cannot pass on to your younger body," Truth agreed. "And yes, the pain will feel stronger as a result. Are you willing to take that chance to have what Minerva calls 'your greatest strength'?"
To be honest, Truth asking his opinion was mind-boggling. But if even half of what Truth had said was wrong was actually true, there was no way he could leave so many dimensions of his own world to be destroyed. He'd already seen that kind of destruction happen on so many of Minerva's worlds, and it hurt every time. Could he say no, even knowing the pain he would suffer?
No.
Drawing in a deep breath and looking up at an apprehensive Minerva, he made his choice and turned back to Truth to say, "That essence lets me talk with them. If Minerva has to land near Amestris, get some essence from the entity nearest where she'll land, and nearest Amestris. Use that entity's and Minerva's, so I can talk with the ones I absolutely need to, and I'll do it. I can't leave them to be destroyed."
:I shall accompany my Ancient Sentinel,: Minerva added surely. :With all of my little children.:
Truth nodded and agreed, "It shall be so."
There was a twisting sensation which caused an ache in Ed's body, then a momentary blank, and by him drawing in a sudden, deep breath as eyes he didn't know he'd closed shot open. He was staring up at a familiar ceiling, but for the life of him, he couldn't tell where he'd last seen it. Something poked his mind (painfully), and memories suddenly flooded it, memories of Amestris, many of them ones he had forgotten in all the time he'd spent on Gaia. The ceiling above him—was his bedroom ceiling when he'd still lived with his mother and brother in Resembool!
He sat suddenly, breathing hard as he looked all around—his bedroom in Resembool! It really was that room from so long ago. But then, his 'younger body'...
Looking down at himself, he saw small hands, small arms, and small legs covered by a warm blanket. Reaching for his hair, he found it cut short in something like a crew cut, and knew he was younger than when he'd made that utterly foolish mistake to bring his mother back to life. He was small! But he still couldn't tell how small, and just looking at the size of his limbs wouldn't tell him that, so he had no idea of how to guess his age, other than probably younger than ten.
In a sudden mad scramble on aching legs that felt heavy for some reason, he threw himself to his feet and ran for the bathroom, where he knew there would be a mirror and some tells to give him an age range, not caring how much noise he made, or that it woke the other residents of the house. On the edge of the tub were his and Al's old bath toys, ones they had made using alchemy, but they were primitive by his standards—early attempts. Then, he looked at himself in the mirror, and knew he was very young, just by how he had to step on the stool in front of the sink in order to see over the counter to the mirror. His looks, however—
He was...around five years old?
For an instant, he wanted to murder Truth, the Gate be damned, but a voice he hadn't heard in oh, so long interrupted his thoughts as she asked, "Ed, what's wrong?" A gentle hand touched the back of his head, and she appeared in the mirror beside him, gaze gentle and worried, and he utterly froze as his breath caught painfully in his chest.
His mother was alive.
In the next moment, the pain hit, and he screamed in agony before blacking out, only vaguely hearing both his mother and brother shout in alarm, "Ed!"
Notes:
(1) This destruction doesn't have the same cause as in Fates of Worlds or any story which would have stemmed from that, though in this case, the most anyone in-story knows is that they were dragged into the Omega shortly after Fuhito blew up a few of the non-Midgar Reactors. No one knows how that led to the world shattering, so I'll explain here.
Since Ed's arrival (about 5 years before the Omega left Gaia), or possibly before it, Jenova has been driving monsters to dig holes in the crust, weakening it. The crust is little better than Swiss cheese at this point, but all of that happened out of view, and some of the holes passed very close to or under the Reactors. When Fuhito, who kept himself under the wire longer in this one, blew up a few of them at once, which had those paths close underneath, the dug paths channeled the force of the explosion and forced the Planet into several large chunks. More people (percentage-wise) survived than in the Fates of Worlds one, but the world didn't.
(2) Obviously, this part of Minerva's history is made-up, but I thought it would suit how she presents herself.
(3) Percia is Felicia's Turk name for those who haven't read all the way through FoWD.
(4) Odin was Dark Nation's new identity, and his owner/s were the Turks (especially Percia) and Nina. Rufus had no need of such a companion in the Dimensions line.
(5) Ria is this dimension's version of Libby and Elicia. Unlike most Gaian characters, she'll get a description, both of her looks and her abilities, when she actually appears in the story line, but until then, she'll only be referenced by name. Because Rufus had no need for a robotic companion, the Cait Siths and Ria are it for robots.
(6) Yes, Ed's world will be called Earth, as it has roughly the same dimensions (size, shape, gravity, etc.) as ours and the land masses are similar, though the countries are significantly different. I don't think this will come up often, though. 'The Five' are planetary entities residing on that world (it's massive compared to Gaia, so has more than enough room for five, and adding a sixth (and seventh with infant-Jenova) won't hurt it).