Equivalent Exchange

Germany : Circles

My life always had one constant thing; a mission.

My name is Edward Elric, or more commonly known as the Fullmetal Alchemist.

At first, my mission was to resurrect my mother using Alchemy. Alchemy, which is basically the medieval forerunner of chemistry, is based on the supposed transformation of matter. However, trying to bring someone back from the dead is a taboo: a silent rule that is never to be broken. When I was eleven, my younger brother and I broke this rule... Our attempt resulted in me losing of my left leg, and brother losing his entire body. I was fortunate enough to be able to connect his soul to a piece of armour before he too faded from my life. For that, the price was my right arm.

You're wondering what I mean by 'price'. Another important factor of the alchemy I practice is something called 'equivalent exchange'. If you want to transform something, something of equal value must be exchanged. A humans life has no equal, which made our attempt to bring back our mother useless.

The next mission I had given myself was centred around getting my brother's body back. Getting mine back too would've been a bonus, but I only cared to get back Alphonse.

Along the way, my brother and I realized that when we tried to save our mother, we created a creature called a "Homunculus". These artificial humans are people that had been tried to be resurrected, but were not able to fully come back. A woman named Dante helped seven Homunculi become a strong deadly sins. Our mother became one of these creatures, and called herself 'Sloth'. She looked exactly like our mother, but she wasn't the same. She had lost all sense of compassion, love, and morality. Dante used seven Homunculus to try and create a Philosopher Stone. This stone was what my brother and I were looking for; and we searched for one for four years. In the end of our search, battles, and adventures we ended up facing off against Dante and her Homunculus.

In the end... I died. Yep, I was stabbed right through the heart by a Homunculus named 'Envy'. However, after I died, my brother brought me back to life with a Philosopher Stone. He was gone, Dante was gone, everyone that was there— except Rose; a girl who I saved back on my journey— was gone. I tried to give up my own life to get back Alphonse, my brother. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of a giant gate. The gate was actually the origin of alchemical energy and a dimensional portal to another world. I passed through it and found myself on this Earth.

My next mission was to get back to my world. And two years ago, I found a way back! It found through an evil group called the Thule Society. I only went back to my world to stop them from taking over Amestris... But when I was there, I was able to meet up with old friends, and even... Winry Rockbell. The girl I had a crush on, even though I would never admitted it out loud. She gave me a new metal arm and leg, to replace the prosthetic ones I had created the two years I was away and I could tell she had missed me.

I reunited with my brother, who was alive and well. I knew that moment couldn't last though... I had to leave and come back to this world in order to close the portal and stop anyone else from the Thule Society from invading my world. So I left Winry again... I left everyone... Except Al: who snuck on board of my plane and followed me here!

So now we both decided on a new mission: to help this world by destroying an atomic bomb and live our lives here.

That's basically my life story, in a nutshell. I could probably make a whole show about my life, but I'm too busy for something like that.

It is now 1925, two years since we set out on that mission.

I ran forward, not looking back. I felt the snow crunch beneath my feet and my boots left behind perfect footprints. I suddenly felt my left foot make contact with ice and I slid to a stop. I saw myself coming up to an alley way and twisted around the sharp corner into it. My brown trench coat's tail flapped in the wind as I made the turn. I ran down the alley way and stopped when I saw the dead end.