This is a 3 part story following Ed's promise to keep weapons of mass destruction from reaching Amestris and destroying everything he holds dear. Eventual Roy/Ed, slowest burn possible in Part One. I will post trigger warnings where I find them applicable. But this is rated M for mature themes (war, trauma, self-loathing, etc.).

Part One: The World Before You

Ed has been forced to work as part of the war machine in Munich. He's biding his time, he has blood on his hands. He understands that it is his duty to help the people of this world, and in hopes, keep the horrors from ever reaching home. This is set during WWII. Part one is like a very past tense memoir. It happened, it shaped his world. Sort of the preamble.

Part Two: The World Without You

More spoilers to come on this, I already have all of this mapped out in an outline. Will move to the present. Themes will get even darker here because c-PTSD and trauma are silent killers.

Part Three: The World With You

Hopefully, Ed will mold the world beautiful again. Or just die trying


Chapter 1: Death came as an old friend

When his eyes fluttered open, Ed had been slumped against a stone wall in a dimly lit alleyway. He could hear the faint hum of mechanical whirring, the rumbling of cheers echoing in the distance and his body had felt shattered.

What Ed couldn't know then was that he actually had cheated death, and that the Gate had laughed when Envy stifled his last breaths. Promising to keep this perpetual dance of suffering going as long as it was amused. There was no way Ed could have known about earth, or the war, or that death was only the means to a beginning.

In those days, the days of the world before him, he imagined a second chance. A glimmering opportunity to take his knowledge from the Truth and mold the world beautiful again. And in all his youth, all of sixteen and absorbing the world through eyes bold, and bright, he really believed that it would all turn out alright.

However, there he sat in the lab, listening to Werner ramble on about 'subatomic particles this and molecules that' for an excruciating amount of time, again and again. In fact, this is where Edward had spent most of his time, with his head in books, or writing equations and theorems until his flesh hand was sore. True to his nature he often forgot to eat or sleep, so wrapped up in the nonsensical and wildly captivating nature of quantum mechanics. Sometimes he'd sleep on the couch, or down the hall in a now empty classroom. Laboring away at his love for learning, wondering if one day all of this would mean something.

When Ed had awoken, he'd found himself on the outskirts of a city called Munich, in what he didn't realize was one of the epicenters of mobilization for this disastrous war. From what he could remember, they didn't have wars like this in all the books he'd read there in Amestris. He was convinced that nowhere had wars of this scale, this level of cruelty and complete devastation of the land.

Ed himself had been spared some of the early horrors of the war. His blond locks and golden eyes had kept him safe, while other people were snatched off the street or simply went missing. He hadn't fully understood it then, how privileged he'd been with his socially desired looks and intelligence that encompassed all things science. Van Hohenheim had caught word of the young blonde prodigy, found sleeping in the university library by guards patrolling the grounds one night, and pulled Ed under his protection.

Hohenheim had spent several years worming upward into the high inner circles of Hitlers most trusted academics and scholars, which afforded him shelter from the inferno that was sweeping through the world. With Ed's mastery of chemistry and classical physics, he believed that mentorship under his friend Werner Heisenberg would grant him some defense against their enemies. In fact, the best place to be was right here under the watchful eyes of their enemies. So Hohenheim implored Ed to stay there in the lab, listening to the ramblings of another genius day in and out, in hope that it would shield him from the unfolding hell and keep him breathing.

But Ed was slowly and steadily being eaten alive. He had learned what some of his fellow academics were working on at Dachau and Auschwitz, or what the government was asking his mentor to do in this very lab. Because in these smaller circles of academics and doctors the rumors spread like wildfire in the quiet moments between drinks or hushed early morning hours.

Ed found himself a part of an elite group of scientists, tasked with advancing their weapon systems and ideally securing a solution to turn the tide of this war once and for all. But the solution his superiors were seeking called for a weapon that could deliver destruction on a mass scale. He was lucky enough to be part of a deranged mission to wipe entire cities off the map, and bring the rest of the world to its knees. And his mentor, his few colleagues he'd spent the last four years crammed inside this godforsaken lab with, all relished in the opportunity to please their overlord. They all quivered in excitement at the possibility of creating something with the explicit function to destroy the world as they knew it. They'd call it 'pioneering', alluding to exploring some of the last virgin frontiers of science all in the name of an honorable cause for their country and leader.

All Ed could think about when he had a lingering moment between reading a passage or working out numbers, was that death was like an old friend. He'd followed death in his previous life, he'd followed death into this life. And he followed death now, wherever he may lead him.

Even if he was confined to this lab, by the very design of his father - he would only play this abominable game as long as absolutely necessary. Ed was not a patient man by any means, but he'd lie in wait as long as he must, until he could destroy it all. Then he'd disappear into smoke rings, perhaps never having existed in the first place.

When dreams did take him, after many hours of remaining in constant motion, he dreamt of Al. And how he'd left him there crying on the wing of the plane. How he'd managed to keep Eckhart from unleashing her fury on his home, and how he'd managed to stop that damned German technology from irrevocably changing his world.

And he remembered how Roy clutched onto Al, to keep him from following. The pained sound in Al's voice as he called after him, and then the frantic attempts to claw his way closer to his brother. Roy hadn't said a single word, with his arms wrapped around Al's waist as he continued to struggle. He remembered the shiver that shuttered through his whole being, staring into those onyx eyes, as they peered into his soul. Both men had not uttered a single sound, but as Ed had kept staring into those eyes, he thought about everything he would have given to just stay.

But the plane began to slowly fall, while Al screamed, asking why he couldn't come with him. And Ed smiled, ripping his eyes away to turn around and head towards the gaping hole in the metal contraption. He'd paused, turning his head over his shoulder to offer any justification he could muster. With just a few words and a blank face he warned "This world is burning, stay away."

Then disappeared beyond reach.