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The Gate of Magic
“Might've known it'd be you, Mustang,” the man in the chair said lazily as Roy entered the room along with his Ministry escort. The black-haired man raised an eyebrow and gave him a good look, but knew, beyond a doubt, that he had no idea who this man was. He would have remembered someone who looked like that, especially someone who wore such old-fashioned clothing. But the man talked to him casually, not like a friend, but still as if they had known each other for years. “I suppose that's something like luck, at least.”
“What did you say his name was again?” Roy asked the wizard beside him, ignoring the strange remark—he'd get to that later.
“I didn't,” the wizard sighed. “That's the first thing he's said to anyone besides demanding we bring him his brother.”
“Nobody mentioned anything about a second person,” Roy said coldly, smirking internally as the wizard gulped nervously. “I should hope you're not mistreating a citizen of Amestris.”
“N-no, sir!” the wizard stuttered. “It's just—just an animated suit of armor, that's all. It's why we picked them up. The armor has been taken upstairs for testing and—”
“Testing!” the man in the chair snarled, eyes burning with anger as he leaned forward in his chair as much as he could with the restraints. “If you touch his fucking seal, I'll tear this place apart!” Then he turned to Roy, eyes filled with a strange mixture of emotions that made Roy's heart jump in his chest. “Mustang, get me my brother!”
“Perhaps it would be best if we do as he requests,” Roy said smoothly, effortlessly hiding the way the look had affected him. “That seal he's talking about is probably something alchemical, if the watch is anything to judge by. I would like to take a look at it.”
“I'm not supposed to leave you—” the wizard began, but Roy cut him off.
“I think I can handle one tied up alchemist,” Roy smirked. “You'll only be gone for a minute.”
“Yes, of course,” the wizard said, though he didn't sound very happy to be agreeing with Roy. “If you need anything, the guards outside can help you.”
Roy nodded agreeably and, once the wizard had left, turned back to the supposed State Alchemist again. Strangely enough, he seemed to have suddenly deflated, and the only emotion left in his eyes seemed to be a wary hope.
“Now that I've gotten them to bring you this brother of yours, maybe you could answer a few questions for me,” Roy began smoothly, smiling coldly as he adjusted his gloves. The man barely glanced at them, which was strange, but Roy shrugged it off and continued. “You can start by telling me where you got that watch.”
“It's mine,” the man said shortly. “I earned it when I was twelve.”
“From your grandfather, I suppose?” Roy asked casually, and smirked at the man's obvious confusion. “You'd have to be in your seventies for it to be your own, and there have never been any State Alchemists that young.”
“It's the nineties?” the man asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “What the fuck have I gotten us into this time?” He leaned forward again, eyes intent as he seemed to examine every inch of Roy's face. “You are Roy Mustang, right? The Flame Alchemist? Hero of Ishbal?”
“Yes,” Roy said simply, too taken aback to respond otherwise. He had seemed so sure of himself before, but now he seemed at a loss, staring at Roy as if just looking at him would answer all of his questions.
“What the fuck,” the man said again.
Roy cleared his throat before he let himself talk again, certain that his own confusion would be obvious if he didn't. “Since you seem so well-acquainted with me, why don't you tell me your name?”
“Ed,” the man said absent-mindedly, clearly lost in his own thoughts. “Edward Elric.”
Roy couldn't stop himself from gasping in surprise. This seemed to capture the man's attention because his head turned quickly back towards him, eyes narrowed in suspicion as he seemed to wait for Roy to speak. But Roy couldn't. His mind was miles away, in a tiny town called Resembool. He could see everything as clearly as if he was there again—the fallen armor with a half-finished array drawn on the inside of the back plate, the boy with a missing leg (dead or unconscious from the blood loss, Roy hadn't been sure), and the thing in the middle of an all-too familiar array staring at him with glowing red eyes.
He'd burnt everything, the entire basement including the boy, who'd certainly been dead after that if he hadn't been before.
“Edward Elric died months ago,” Roy said hoarsely. The old woman that had found him had told him the name of the two boys that had lived in the house, had shown him a picture—Roy could see a resemblance now that he was looking for it, but it couldn't be, he was too old—
“Did you burn it?” Edward Elric asked, eyes alight with an emotion Roy couldn't hope to identify. “That thing we made, and the array?” There was a short pause, then, much quieter, “Did I at least manage to save Al?”
Roy was saved from answering by the sound of the door swinging open. He didn't have time to gather his wits before a large figure entered his view, and he could only stare, helpless with shock, at the very suit of armor he had melted in the basement of the Elric house.
“Brother!” the armor said in the voice of a young boy as it clanked over to the man in the chair, heedless of the wands aimed at it. “Are you okay?”
“I'm fine, Al,” Ed said shortly, and there was a brief flash of light before the man was suddenly standing, the cloth that had been holding his hands together falling silently to the floor. One of the wizards moved forward, clearly ready to hex him, but stopped as Roy automatically held up a restraining hand. “Let me check on your seal.”
“They didn't touch it,” Al said even as it took off its helmet and leaned over for inspection. “Brother, I feel weird.”
“Don't be ridiculous, Al, you can't feel anything,” Ed responded absently, his brow furrowed in obvious confusion.
“Not physically weird,” the armor said in a patient tone. “I don't know how to explain it, it's like I'm in two places at once.... Brother, is there something wrong with it?”
“It looks different,” Ed said. “There's a weird ring around the outside, and a bunch of symbols that don't even look alchemical.”
“They're probably not,” Roy spoke up thoughtfully, finally regaining his voice in the face of this curiosity. He shrugged as the armor and the man turned to look at him, both obviously surprised (Roy wasn't even going to wonder how he could tell what a suit of armor was feeling), and then he turned to the wizards behind him. “I know who these two are, though I haven't seen them since we were boys and I'm afraid I hadn't recognized Ed originally. Everything is fine. If you could please leave the room, I'd like to speak with them privately. You can assure your superiors that I'll be leaving with them shortly, and that they don't need to inform the military of this—I will speak to my own superiors myself.”
“Are you sure?” one of the wizards asked hesitantly even as the other two prepared to leave. “I mean, he got out of those restraints pretty easily—”
“With alchemy, not magic,” Roy pointed out shortly. “You know he has no wand on him, and you can't control minds or implant memories with alchemy.”
“Just do as he says, Mackins,” one of the other wizards said from the doorway. “Unless you want to get into an argument with Amestris?”
“Right, yeah,” the first wizard replied, wincing. “We'll leave you to it, Lieutenant Colonel.”
“Lieutenant Colonel?” Al asked uncertainly once the door had closed behind the wizards. “Did you demote yourself again, sir?”
“He's not our Mustang, Al,” Ed said impatiently. “I don't know how this happened, but he said we died a few months ago trying to bring mom back. And, uh, somehow it's the nineties.”
“The nineties?” Al asked with more wonder than surprise. “Is it just a weird calendar change, or did we somehow end up in the future?”
“Judging by the way Edward's dressed, it's your future,” Roy answered, stepping up next to Ed and peering at the seal over the shorter man's shoulder. “But we can worry about that later. Right now, I'm more interested in this seal of yours.”
“Do you recognize any of these symbols?” Ed asked, pointing at the outside ring. “This part leaves me clueless, and even the symbol in the middle is...weird.”
“This is a pocket dimension,” Roy said shortly, reaching out a finger of his own to trace the outer rim himself without actually touching the array. “The symbols inside specify just what the dimension is like, if and how time passes inside, what can be stored in it...things like that. I've never seen it attached to an array before. In fact, it shouldn't even be possible; alchemy and magic don't normally mix.”
“Doing the impossible is an Elric family trait,” Al said, sounding amused. “And brother's a genius.”
“I suppose he would have to be,” Roy said agreeably, “because this looks like the completed version of what this world's Edward Elric was trying to do before he died.”
“So I didn't save him,” Ed sighed. “Should've known. That reminds me, earlier I asked—”
“Yes,” Roy interrupted, not wanting to hear the question again. “I wasn’t going to leave anything for anyone else to find.”
“Good,” Ed said, sounding relieved. “It's best that way. Now, this pocket dimension—what was in it?”
“...A body,” Roy said slowly, ignoring the surprised noise Ed made. “And that difference in the soul? It keeps it in this dimension while something else is taken out of the other one. I think, if it was activated, Al could change back into a human form.”
“Let's try it, Brother!” Al said excitedly.
“I don't know, Al,” Ed responded hesitantly, eyeing the array with distrust. “What if Mustang's wrong? I could lose you again.”
“I think it'll work,” Al assured him. “I told you I feel weird—that must be the effect of the pocket dimension. Activate it, Brother. If you don't, you know I'll try it myself later. I don't want to be stuck like this again, and if there's any way to avoid it....”
“Yeah,” Ed said so quietly Roy almost didn't hear him, then he raised his voice to add, “Mustang, step back. If this thing fucks up, I don't want to get you killed too.”
Silently, Roy did as he was told, stepping back until he was almost positive he'd be out of range if the array went wrong. A long moment later, Ed activated the array, and Roy watched with fascination as the blue light of the transmutation covered the metal body, crackling with power. It was a bare moment before the surface area of the light got smaller, silhouetting a figure that wasn't much taller than Ed, and then it faded away. In its place was a teenage boy.
“It worked!” Al said gleefully in a voice that was much more mature than the armor's.
“Why are you naked?” Ed snarled in return, removing his coat and swinging it over Al's shoulders. “C'mon, put this thing on. I'm not having my little brother walking around without any clothes on!”
Al laughed as he obligingly shoved his hands into the coat's sleeves and swiftly buttoned it up. “I'm still barefoot!” he said cheerfully.
“Fuck,” Ed said.
Roy rolled his eyes and took out his wand before quietly conjuring some clothes that he hoped would fit Al.
“You're clearly not used to magic,” Roy said, bringing the clothes over to them. “Nakedness is not exactly a long-term problem among wizards. Conjured clothing won't last long, but it should be enough for us to hit a few shops and get you to Diagon Alley. We'll take a room in The Leaky Cauldron for the night so we can come up with a cover story and teach you some magic. I'll just have to let the Headmaster know that I won't be back until dinner tomorrow. And before you ask, I've been temporarily loaned out as a teacher for the magical school of Hogwarts. I'll explain later.”