Waking up sucks
Waking up on cool, dark floors in dim and damp places was happening way too often for Edward, he needed to rethink his choices that leads to him sleeping in shit places like this. Groaning, Ed rolls over enough to get himself to sit up on his knees. He looks around with a splitting headache, slowly starting to remember what happened. He quickly looks around and notices several bodies laying around him, enough bodies to make it look less suspicious for Ed’s tiny power nap. He finally spies his brother’s familiar golden-blonde hair, not even taking in the length of it (which had grown way too much for the amount of time he was knocked out). Ed rushes to his side and starts looking over his brother.
Ed is so focused on his brother’s wellbeing, which isn’t looking that good considering how he was starting to look exactly how he did after The Promise Day, that he doesn’t notice the other bodies stirring. Riza and Havoc are the first of the four pile of bodies stacked on the far side of the dark room to become alert. Riza immediately moves her hand to where her handgun was strapped and, realizing belatedly that she didn’t have it, she also realizes the length of her hair had grown a shocking couple inches since being knocked out during the transmutation. Riza immediately starts looking over Mustang and Fuery, who seem to be waking slower than the rest. Havoc tries to get up in order to check on the Xing travelers and the Elric brothers but realizes that he couldn’t move his legs. Doing a pretty good job of keeping his panic from showing on his face, he looks over to Hawkeye in order to let her know that he is unable to walk again.
Unbeknownst of the impending chaos happening on both opposing corners of the room where the military dogs and the Elrics were, Lan Fan and Ling Yao were already up and looking around at their surroundings with critical eyes. Ling Yao silently signals for Lan Fan to check on the brothers while he surveys the room. Lan Fan nods her confirmation, Ling already starting to walk around.
The room lacked any natural light, either indicating that they were in a room that was intentionally made without windows or they were underground. Considering the earthy, damp smell, Ling was thinking the latter. Ling noted that there was one wooden door with lighting seeping under it, this being the only light in the whole room. The light may be dim and limited to the surroundings of the door but Ling was able to notice the markings of a transmutation circle around the tiny room. Whatever that circle did, it seemed to have transported them somewhere…
Edward finally was able to focus his breathing enough to notice that Lan Fan was now next to him and trying to help with Al -- Al who was now once again a husk of a boy. Al’s breathes were shallow but he seemed to be doing alright for being a bag of bones. Ed finally noticed the old, familiar creaking from his right arm. He looks down and is thrown for a second at seeing his old automail arm. ‘Fuck.’ is the only word Ed could think of to describe the situation he was in and he finally remembered the odd ‘dream’ he had while he was knocked out. Considering the youth everyone around him suddenly obtained, his dream with Truth wasn’t a dream at all.
---
“Well, well, well… it’s been a while Edward Elric...” a familiar voice speaks to him, a voice that Ed wishes he could forget. Groaning, Ed opens his eyes to Truth sitting before him.
“I can’t say I’m all that happy to be here, I’m afraid.” Ed says, glaring warily at the shapeless being in front of him.
“Aw, but I missed you Edward. You always made my job so…”, Truth begins to smirk, or what could be called a smirk, turning Ed’s stomach inside out, “ amusing.”
After a brief pause, Edward impatiently asks, “So what am I doing here again? Didn’t I already giving you everything of mine.” Ed shifts uncomfortably as Truth’s smirk widens.
“You did pull such an amazing stunt last time, I applaud you… But it seems that you are once again needed. Your dear alchemy buddies made sure of that.” Ed’s eyebrow twitches at the ‘alchemy buddies’ part but he doesn’t have time to retort or question Truth’s intentions.
“You and your ‘friends’,” the way Truth said the last word sent shivers down Ed’s spine, “are going to be needed in order to help with another pesky problem of mine. Someone thinks that they can make themselves live forever, not unlike your dear father.” Ed manages to keep himself from visibly twitching from the mention of his father but he has a feeling Truth knows how uncomfortable Ed is and just doesn’t care.
“While you are going to need alchemy in order to take down this interloper, I cannot restore your gate but I can send your body into a time where your gate will be accessible.” Truth finishes, giving Ed a pause for his questions.
“What do you mean you need my help? Who am I meant to find? What am I supposed to do when I find them? What do you mean ‘a time where my gate will be accessible?” Ed rambles on until Truth’s smile broadens almost painfully so, causing Ed to shut up.
“Of course you have so many questions for a scientific brain like yours. That’s why I’ll implement a small summary of the world you will be transported to into your brain, along with your company. And when I say to fix a pesky problem,” Truths grin almost feral now, “I mean eliminated the problem any way you can. Now, I think it’s about time you head back to your friends, Edward.”
Before Ed can say anything else, his vision blackens and all he can think is that his head fucking hurts.