Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The few days after the Promised Day were some of the happiest days of Edward’s life. Seeing Al’s face again, watching him re-explore the world with that childlike wonder in his eyes, Ed couldn’t get enough of it. The relief was making him feel satisfied in a way that he knew he was always striving for, but now that he has it, it feels unreal.

Watching Al get excited over a book, being able to feel the leather cover and dry paper pages, it was like coming home. The feeling that everything is going to be alright. Which is weird because for so long, they never caught a break from their lives going south. It always felt like a downward spiral. But now, that feeling is gone and replaced with something that makes Ed feel at peace for the first time since their mom died.

Even though Al wasn't over the fact that Ed still had his automail arm and leg, Ed didn't mind in the slightest. Getting Al's body back was always his goal, he was the big brother and needed to put Al first. So he told Al that his automail serves as a reminder and that he's fine with not getting his limbs back. Al made a face at him that insinuated that Al doesn't believe him. But all Ed was thinking about was how he can finally see expressions on his beautiful brother's face.

Ed wasn't able to stay with Al for as long as he wanted though. The Amestrian government was in shambles, and now that Mustang had his eyesight back, he needed help picking up the pieces. Ed was tempted to just quit and save himself the hassle, but he owed Mustang some favors with him helping them find clues on the philosopher's stone. It also wouldn't hurt to have a stable income now that Al is basically living at the hospital for the time being.

Going back to work and having to do loads of paperwork was something Ed wasn't used to. He's used to being in the field and getting his blood pumping. Not sitting at a desk and writing indescribable things on paper.

Why was he even given this job? Mustang knows his handwriting is horrendous. Ed guesses it didn't matter since work was being done either way. Or he learned how to read Ed's handwriting at some point.

That's how Ed spent his next year. Working for Mustang and enjoying having his brother's body back. Ed actually shot up in height like he always dreamed he would, turns out that he was just a really late bloomer. He's almost as tall as Mustang. Key word being almost.

Now that Al no longer needed constant medical supervision, Al went back to Resembool to stay at Granny's house. Ed finished up all the work that Mustang absolutely needed to be done after a few months and asked for an honorable discharge from the military. He was excited to see Al again but leaving the team felt like losing his other arm.

Ed thought that leaving the military would be a one-and-done simple thing. He was very wrong. The people of Amestris didn't like the fact that the Fullmetal Alchemist was quitting after only 5 years of service. They believed the People's Alchemist still needed to help the people and that Ed was abandoning them.

It didn't matter that he was a child soldier, that he joined the military at 12 years old, or that he deserved a break after saving the country. Most people didn't care about those things. Even though he was labeled as the youngest state alchemist on every newspaper in the country and everyone knew, they still believed he was supposed to stay a dog of the military for a long time. They used Ed as their voice because he was one of the only ones who put them first.

In return for all the work Ed has put into helping people, the second that he entered the streets of central after he quit, glares were sent his way from every direction.

Ed wasn't used to this much hostility aimed toward him. At least they weren't yelling at him or attacking. Small mercies.

Resembool was like a safe haven. Everybody knew everybody so everyone knew the Elric brothers. They didn't care about him quitting the military, they were just glad to see them alive and whole again. Not that Ed was whole again, but Al was always everyone's favorite so they took what they could get.

Relaxing with his brother, Ed felt as though it was the calm before the storm. This was one of the times that he didn't want to be right for once. Sadly, he was. Newspaper articles came out about him and all the property damage he caused on his missions.

Once the villagers in Resembool caught wind of the papers, it was like the walk of shame through central all over again. He was always known as the trouble child compared to Al so it didn't take much to convince them.

There was no disputing the articles because they were true. Ed did cause a lot of property damage during his career and there was no proof to say otherwise. That made it hard for people to let it go.

Next thing Ed knew, his nightmares were getting worse. Anxiety crawled through his skin every time he left the house. Ed was never a person to care about what people thought about him, but having the people he grew up knowing turn around and give him the stink eye, impacted him more than he thought it would.

Ed became more subdued. He stored away his iconic red jacket and changed his style into something more casual. The less he was recognized, the more comfortable he was.

Al and Granny were trying to support Ed all they could but staying by Ed's side was all they could do. Ed knew that they noticed his lack of sleep and his inability to stay still.

A month after Ed returned to Resembool, Al decided that he was healed enough and wanted to visit May in Xing and study alkahestry. Ed thought that was an amazing idea and decided he will do the same, but he will explore different countries first then meet up with Al in Xing later.

Ed waited for Al to leave for Xing, then he set off for his first stop: Creta.

Traveling to the other side of Amestris to cross the border to Creta put Ed on edge a little bit. Not only did he risk people recognizing him, he also didn't have his alchemy to defend himself anymore. He needed a new way to defend himself.

Buying some small throwing knives and a sharpening block at a blacksmith shop gave him a few odd looks. But thankfully, they didn't seem to recognize him so he only panicked a little bit. Being in social situations with strangers still freaked him out.

The long train rides helped him get used to being around people while they were coming and going. As long as Ed has his hood up, it wouldn't feel as though people were burning his skin with their eyes. It also gave him plenty of time to catch up on his Cretan.

Creta was unlike anything Ed expected. He wasn't sure what he expected, but it sure as hell wasn't this.

Amestris does not have a friendly relationship with Creta so passing the border was difficult. However, once he did, the change in culture was immediate. Ed quickly learned that this country was not made up of towns or cities, it was made of tribes. And the tribes hated any other tribe that was not their own.

Luckily, the first tribe he arrived to gave him a fairly warm welcome. They were hesitant at first, but that was to be expected.

This tribe taught Ed many things. They had a more convenient use of alchemy there that focuses on everyday uses, instead of weaponry like what Amestris has. Even though Ed couldn't use alchemy, he found it all so interesting and absorbed all the knowledge he could. They also had traditional practices that were basically their own type of hunting and gathering. They taught him how to be more connected with nature and treasure all things that are given from it, as well as meditation techniques to calm his mood and stay level headed. This did wonders for Ed's anxiety and stress.

Ed left Creta with a much calmer attitude compared to when he arrived.

Ed's next stop was Aerugo. It was much easier to cross the border from Creta to Aerugo than it would be to cross from Amestris to Aerugo. And once he entered, he was reminded of Resembool.

Fields of crops and widely scattered houses gave him the feeling that he would take the information he learns here and share it with some of the people in Resembool. Ed had to walk a long while before he reached a town and a hotel. It felt as though he was getting whiplash. The town was as full as the streets of Rush Valley. Maybe it was because it was the middle of the day but even at this kind of time, the little town in Resembool was never this busy.

Once Ed got all he could get out of the locals (knowledge wise), he went to some of the main cities and learned some finer craftsmanship techniques.

Ed’s trip in Aerugo was almost as long as his one in Creta, which was only a few months long. And he decided that it was time to tackle the one country he was debating on going to.

Drachma.

Not only does Drachma and Amestris have a very hostile relationship, they are very much like Amestris. Meaning, they are hostile with pretty much everyone. And, its snowy as fuck up there and even though Ed’s automail won’t cause extreme frostbite, it will still ache like a bitch.

In hindsight, going to Drachma was one of the only things that Ed will regret doing in his entire life.

In order to get to Drachma, Ed needed to travel through Amestris’s borders (both north and south). That was a huge pain in the ass, so Ed just decided to cross them illegally instead of doing it the way that would take more time. Crossing the south border was not as difficult as crossing the north border. There was no way in hell that the Ice Queen would let him cross with her knowing about it. So he saved her the trouble.

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to do that. But Ed's got places to be and shit to learn.

It was a good thing that Ed packed very heavily for this trip or else he would have frozen to death on the mountainside, automail be damned. He had to sleep in tunnels of snow that he dug out for a few days before he reached the city.

Ed had somewhat high hopes for this trip, considering his luck with not getting attacked in Creta or Aerugo.

Maybe he shouldn't have jinxed it.

The moment Ed stepped into the town, all eyes were on him. He didn't understand why until he noticed that all the citizen's hair was either black or brown. His golden blond hair stuck out like a sore thumb.

It reminded him of when Ed quit the military. The eyes all filled with hate, disgust, and disappointment. Even with all the relaxing exercises he learned in Creta, he still couldn’t take it. He could handle a few more days in the snowy mountains if it meant avoiding those stares.

Just as he was about to turn around and leave this country in the dust, things got a hell of a lot worse. The local police arrested him. Ed tried to put up a fight and explain himself that he was just leaving, but they weren't having any of it. No matter what he said, they wouldn't listen to him.

They took him to a small military base. It was then that Ed knew he was fucked. He had heard stories of soldiers that were held captive in Drachma; they never came back the same person as when they arrived.

Ed tried to make a break for it, but without his alchemy, he didn't make it very far. Especially when a police officer didn't have any hesitation in shooting him in his flesh leg.

They ended up dragging him there. Some Drachman soldiers directed them to a basement with concrete walls and a chair with restraints.

Ed really fucking wished that he had his alchemy in this moment.

He was in that basement for two and a half months. The things he learned there were some of the things he never wanted to learn from experience. He broke himself out. Two months of planning and a half of a month of trying to wait for the right moment. He finally got out and ran to the snow covered hills. He never thought he would be so happy to see snow in his life.

Ed crossed the border and stayed at an inn in a small town that was concerningly close to the mountains. He recuperated here and fattened himself back up to his normal weight and worked out a little to regain some of the muscles he lost. They didn't feed him that well in that basement.

The only thing keeping Ed going at this point was seeing Al again. They haven't seen each other in a year and Ed felt like he needed to see Al to keep him from falling apart. The way he always has.

Once Ed was at a fairly healthy weight, he went back to Resembool. It was right next to the eastern border and he didn't feel like going all the way to Rush Valley to get repairs from Winry. Granny will ask less questions and aim less wrenches at his head.

The damage done to his automail wasn't too bad and it was fixed in no time. Granny practically pushed him out of the house to go and see Al because she knew that the problem he had wasn't something she could fix.

Crossing the desert a second time wasn't any better than the first. Except this time, he isn't there to see a person who is supposed to be dead, he needs to cross the whole desert and make it to the other side. To Xing. To his brother.

Ed barely knows any Xingian, but he makes due. And he makes it to the Chang clan in no time.

The moment Al sees him, Al's face brightens, then it drops. He rushes over to give Ed a bone-crushing hug that he desperately needed.

Later, Al will tell him that he had only seen Ed have that dead look in his eye once before. The time after they attempted human transmutation, before Mustang showed up to talk some sense into him. And seeing Ed like that again scared him.

Ed stayed in Xing for a long time. Mostly because alkahestry was so interesting and also because the dragon's pulse was incredibly hard to learn. He also had some spare time to pick up some Xingian.

One thing he was thankful for was that he didn't need to be able to use alchemy in order to use the dragon's pulse. He remembered that Ling would use it while also not knowing any alchemy or alkahestry.

Life was nice with Al and May, even though he was third wheeling most of the time. Ed's mental health improved dramatically from being around Al almost everyday. He was still not as loud and expressive as he once was but he can thank his time in Drachma for that. In return, he let himself care about others more. Ed helped others because he enjoyed it, it was like his coping mechanism. And he liked this method compared to other ones because he was helping someone other than himself.

And just like that, two years passed in Xing. His automail was getting banged up and it needed more than just some improvised maintenance to get it back up to shape.

Leaving back to Amestris and leaving Al again hurt, but he was comforted by the fact that they will meet again. No matter what.

-----------------------------------------

They should call it 'The Desert of Hell' for how hot it is here. It's the third time he has crossed this damn desert and somehow, the experience doesn't get any better, it gets unimaginably worse.

Just to spite him, sand is in every nook and cranny that sand is not supposed to be in. This fucking sucks. Ed imagines that if he scowled any harder, it would become permanent. Or, at least, that's something Al would say.

God he misses Al. Three days without seeing his beautiful brother's face and Ed is in a pissy mood already. No wonder his first thought after Drachma was to see Al, he's the one who prevents Ed from getting thrown in a damn mental institution.

Finally Ed spots the ruins of Xerxes on the horizon. He almost cries with relief when he gets under a patch of shade. Ed decides that he'll set up camp now and set off early the next morning so he can save himself from getting cooked in the sun longer than he needs to.

Speaking of cooking, it's a good thing that Ed picked up some skills to whip up something good in all the countries he's visited. He can't rely on restaurants and room service constantly like he used to when it was just him and Al.

The sun sets and Ed gets ready for sleep by preparing himself to wake up with a sore back from sleeping on solid stone. He should have brought a fucking pillow or something, but he's an idiot so he didn't.

He can sense other people in these ruins thanks to the dragon's pulse, but they mostly seem to be minding their own business so Ed's not all that worried about them. Because of this, Ed drifts off into a peaceful sleep.

Or it would have been peaceful if he wasn't facing one of the things that he never wanted to see again. This too bright, white expanse of bullshit was supposed to be over! HE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A GATE ANYMORE! HOW THE FUCK WAS HE HERE AGAIN?!

That stupid smile and his flesh arm and leg are in front of him, taunting him. Ed really wished he didn't have to see that asshole's face again.

"What the fuck do you want, Truth?"

Was it just his imagination, or did that creepy fucking smile widen after he spoke. This might not be good for Ed if Truth is in a good mood. They always seem to feed off of his misery.

"After all of the things we've been through together, that is how you greet me?" Their tone is almost mocking as they sit down on the sorry excuse of a floor.

"I asked you a question. Answer it." Ed wasn't going to waste his time going back and forth with this asshole. He needed answers because clearly he didn't bring himself here, Truth did. And Ed wants to know why.

"Alright, alright. Not one for small talk, I see. I brought you here because I have a deal to propose to you." Truth stated.

Ed stood there for a moment thinking. Why the fuck do they want to make a deal with me? Why me? What would they offer me that would make it worth it? What are they going to make me do in exchange? Truth just said that they wanted to propose a deal, does that mean I can decline if I want?

Truth interrupted his thoughts before they could get out of hand. "I will explain what the deal entails and you have the option to shoot it down if you wish, but I wouldn't be so rash when you have a chance to get your gate back."

Ed froze. This wasn't good. If they're willing to give his gate back, he might not want to know what he will need to do in return.

"Explain." Ed demanded.

Truth's grin spread impossibly wider as they explained, "In exchange for your gate, you need to do me a little favor." Ed extremely doubted it was going to be little. "And this favor might include you traveling to a different universe."

This conversation kept getting weirder and weirder. Ed wasn't sure he could believe Truth. Which was kinda ironic because they are literally the truth.

"Go on."

"In that universe, you will need to stop a being named Thanos. His goal is to kill half of the universe and to do that, he needs five special stones. I want you to protect or destroy those stones, you can never let him get ahold of all of them. He will get stronger the more stones he has, and when he has them all, you will have failed." Truth finished talking and crossed their arms.

"Why would it matter to you that he wants to kill half the universe? Wouldn't you benefit from that, getting so many souls and all?" Truth isn't one for morals or ethics, so they have to lose something from this guy's plan if they want to stop him so badly.

Truth pouts and answers, "He's ruining production rates. Getting so many souls at once will affect the production in the long run."

At this point, whether this information was bogus or not, Ed was absorbing it like a sponge. And he was really hoping that those 'stones' weren't anything like philosopher's stones. But one question has been nagging at him this whole time.

"Why me?"

Truth hummed and tapped their chin. "You are one of the only humans to have something to gain that I am able to give you. If I asked any other human, they would ask for fame, money, or even a life of someone they have lost. I cannot give them those things. But I can give you your gate and some knowledge of an alternate universe because you have already crossed over to this side and are one of the best alchemists that are able to get this job done."

That might be the only logical thing they have said during this whole conversation, Ed thinks. But wait–

"If you need an Alchemist, then I can't do it unless you give me my gate first." Ed says hesitantly.

"Correct! If you accept this deal then I will give you your gate to complete it. As well as a little knowledge about the universe you will be sent to. You will have to figure out the stones by yourself and all the information you will get about Thanos will be his name."

Great. So Ed basically has to figure it all out by himself. That's fan-fucking-tastic. But getting his gate back is really tempting, mostly because this time Al isn't involved. If Al isn't a part of this then the only thing he has to lose is himself.

Ed made himself a promise to see Al again and he intends to keep it. He's just going to take a little detour. He stopped Father's plans, this deal could be better or worse, but it's worth risking.

"How long will this 'little favor' take?" Ed questioned. He couldn't leave Al for too long for both Al's sake and for his. Mostly his.

"It will take as long as you decide it to be. Which can last to either a few years or up to a decade. But for convenience's sake, I will make sure that the moment you finish this favor, I will send you back to the moment you left."

That was quite a while. Ed really hoped to be there for less time than what Truth said. Can he really last another year without Al by his side? Ed guesses this is one of those "no pain no gain" situations.

Soon enough, Ed came to a decision. "I'll do it."

"Great! Have fun, little alchemist!"

Truth waved as Ed heard a loud bang behind him. Standing there in all its glory was his gate, the gate that he never thought he would see again. The doors opened to reveal those creepy, tiny hands that always made him instinctively back up.

Closing his eyes and trying to shut out the painful feeling of being ripped apart atom by atom, Ed saw bits and pieces of information then pitch black darkness.

----------------------------------------

Nick Fury expects only a few things in life. He expects the sky to be blue. He expects the grass to be green. He expects his agents to do their mother fucking jobs.

What he does not expect, is to do his usual check up on how the research on the tesseract is doing and see a pair of double arched doors appear on the ceiling and someone to fall out of them. It didn't help that the doors also had creepy ass black hands coming out of it.

It's a good thing that cameras were in this room or else nobody on God's green Earth would believe this shit actually happened, because the doors and shitty hands disappeared not even three seconds later.

The lab is silent around him. Nobody makes a move or sound because if they do, this might actually become real. And Fury knows that he doesn't want to deal with this shit.

It took Fury a longer time than he would like to admit to come out of his shock and actually turn his attention to the person who arrived here uninvited. Agent Barton does the same and Fury can see in the corner of his eye that he has his bow at the ready.

Once he gets a good look, he stops in place. If there would be one way to describe this person, it would be that they look like if the sun turned into a person. He never knew there was a color blonde that could look so golden before now. Everything about this kid is golden actually. Except for the long white coat covering most of their body.

It hits Fury just now that this person is just a kid. They look like they're only in their late teens or early twenties. But, he knows better than to let his guard down like that. Especially when this kid just came from some creepy ass doors that seemed to act like a portal of some sort. Precautions need to be taken in this situation.

"Agent Barton, bring them to a locked and surveillanced room. We need to wait until they wake up to figure out what the fuck just happened. Everybody else, get back to work." Fury orders.

He can already feel a headache coming on as Agent Barton struggles to lift the kid over his shoulder. He's dealt with too much of this kind of shit. Finding out that aliens are real was one thing, but that Thor guy didn't show up right in fucking front of him like it was intentional. There's no way that kid specifically arrived in the lab where the tesseract was being worked on without it being intentional.

Now Fury has to wait for the fucker to wake up to get some actual god damn answers.

Chapter Text

Once Fury got the call that the kid was awake, he dropped everything and speed walked – instead of running because he has a reputation to uphold – there as fast as he could. It took 3 days. THREE DAYS for that fucker to wake up. This shit has been on his mind non-stop. It just had to take forever.

Agent Barton told him that the kid is actually a man and he can thankfully speak English. The last time he saw him, the kid's features were very confusing. The long hair and sharp eyes were feminine while the sharp jaw and broad shoulders were masculine.

When Fury arrived at the room the kid was being held in, Agent Barton was already there waiting for him.

"Is he hostile?" Fury asked. He wanted to make sure before he entered the room.

"No. If anything, he's really confused. He keeps asking where he is and at some point he gave up getting answers from us and kind of shut down." Agent Barton looks ashamed and a frown pulls his lips. "We tried talking to him again but he only said that he will only answer our questions if we answer his." Agent Barton answered with a little concern showing from his voice.

"Alright. Come in with me." Fury decided that waiting any longer might do more harm than good. He really wants answers and holding someone against their will when they aren't hostile won't build them much trust.

Opening the door and walking inside with Agent Barton on his heels, he notices that the kid is sitting on the bed that's in the corner of the room. Fury also notices that the long white coat is folded right beside him on the bed so he has a view of what the kid is wearing. It seems to be some very Asian-like style of clothing, and no part of his body is being shown from the neck up.

Getting a glimpse of the kid's face again makes him pause for a moment. Those are not normal eyes. Not only is their color as bright as his hair, those eyes are too old to be on a kid's face. Fury hasn't even seen eyes that old on seasoned soldiers before. The only ones that come close are Agent Romanoff's, and he's read her file, he doesn't want to know what this kid has been through to have eyes that look older than her's.

Those eyes also creep him the fuck out, because it feels like they are staring deep into his soul and showing the kid exactly what what he wants to see.

Fury decides to take a deep breath and calm down. He needs to start this out slowly and possibly gain a new ally. If he's anything like Thor, he will have something worth having, whether it be knowledge or an otherworldly power.

"My name is Nick Fury and this is Clint Barton." He waves a hand at Agent Barton. "I get that we both have some questions. I am here to ask mine as well as answer your's. Is that alright with you?" Fury attempts to make his voice as gentle as possible but it seems to have failed based on how the kid's posture hasn't loosened up at all since he entered the room. His eyes are still as sharp too, like he's a cornered animal waiting for something to attack him. He looks ready to fight back too.

The kid takes a second to look at both Fury and Agent Barton for a moment longer before standing up and walking over to the two of them. At first, both of them tense, not knowing what the kid will do. But the kid only sticks out his left hand for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Edward Elric. It's refreshing to have someone here who will give me some answers." Edward offers a small smile that makes the corner of his eyes crinkle. Fury isn't one to bat for the other team, but he can recognize another man's beauty for what it is.

Fury shakes his hand and waits for Edward and Agent Barton to exchange handshakes before he leads the three of them to a small table on the other side of the room. Thankfully, for it being such a small room, it has enough chairs.

They all take their seats and Edward pulls out an old-fashioned looking journal and pen. He flips to an empty page and speaks. "Would it be alright if we took turns asking questions?" Fury nods. "Great. I'll start off with something simple. The first question I have is, what was the date when I arrived here and what is the date today?"

This feels too much like an interrogation, Fury thinks. But he plays along for now, soon it will be his turn to be in control.

"You arrived here on October 10th and today is the 13th." Fury answers.

"And the year?" Edward counters, not looking up from writing down Fury's answers.

This confuses Fury for a second and he reevaluates the old-fashioned journal and pen. They might be normal for Edward, but almost nobody uses fountain pens anymore.

"2011" Fury answers.

Edward's head shoots up from where It was buried in his journal. His eyes are wide with shock as he stares at Fury. Then, he takes a deep breath and writes 2011 beside the dates in his journal. He sets down the pen and motions for Fury to ask his question.

Fury has a new question based on that reaction. "If the year is so surprising, what year was it where you came from?"

"...1919. I was born in 1899, so yes it is very surprising that I somehow time traveled." Edward answers hesitantly.

Fan-fucking-tastic. This kid has it worse than Rogers does. He's actually surprised the kid took the news that well considering he time traveled almost 90 years in the goddamn future.

Edward picks up his pen again and goes to ask his second question. "Where are we? Be as specific as you can, please."

Fury hesitates. He makes eye contact with Agent Barton for a moment and they are thinking the same thing. This base is supposed to be a secret to the public. But this kid seems like he has no idea where he is and it doesn't look like he came here intentionally, like Fury previously thought.

"We are in a desert in the United States of America." That's not as specific as he can be but he can’t be giving away their exact location.

This seems to be enough for Edward because he writes down what he says anyway, but not without a slight crease in his brow. It's like he knows that Fury withheld information from him, but he's not calling it out. Fury doesn't know what to make of that so he decided to go ahead with his other question.

"Where did you come from?"

Edward answers with an even voice, "I come from a small town called Resembool in the country of Amestris."

Fury doesn't want to deal with this shit anymore. He should have known that he wouldn't recognize where this kid is from. Unlike Thor, this kid doesn't come from a story in Greek mythology that can be easily looked into.

"Am I right to assume that you've never heard of it?" Edward asks.

"Yeah"

"I'm not the only one who's confused then. I've never heard of the United States of America, I would've remembered that mouthful if I've heard it before." Edward sighs and rubs at his right shoulder.

"Hold on a damn minute. So, not only did you travel through time, you traveled through space as well? How in the hell did you accomplish that?" Fury asks a bit frantically.

"I didn't. I wasn't the one who made it happen, I'm just the one who got spit out." Edward answers defensively. That's not good, Fury needs to stay on the kid's good side if he wants to use him. And who knows what he's hiding. "Next question. Am I able to leave here? Or in other words, will you let me go? This cell is very luxurious, but this is still imprisonment." The slight glare Fury receives makes him wince.

So much for staying on his good side. Fury can't let him go. There is too much they don't know about him. It's too much of a risk to let him roam free when they don't know the damage he can cause. Fury decides to say, "I currently cannot let you leave because you are not part of this world. A lot changes in 90 years and I am willing to offer you to work for us in return for housing and necessities while you adjust."

That came out good. Make himself look like the good guy. He's the one doing the kid a favor.

The room drops a couple of degrees when Edward's glare gets sharper. Both Fury and Agent Barton tense and shudder like something just crawled through their skin. There is a pressure in the air that Fury didn't know can be caused by a person. He feels smaller all of a sudden, like there is a weight on his chest that is making it hard to breathe.

Edward's eyes are unyielding while they stare in Fury's soul. He has never felt this loss of control in his life. He doesn't have the upper hand, and he is no longer on the kid's good side. Edward is smarter than Fury gave him credit for. He will not fall for the petty tricks that Fury is offering.

But unlike what Fury was expecting, the pressure in the air dissipates. Edward leans back in his chair, continuing to make eye contact with him.

"I will accept your offer on one condition." Edward finally says. Fury listens to every word like it will be the last ones he will ever hear. "My safety and wellbeing will not be compromised while I am in your custody. I expect to not be attacked unless I do something that puts your people in danger. Is that clear?"

Fury sits there for a moment trying to understand what he said. Did this kid just agree to be imprisoned by him? Is he not smarter than Fury thought he was? No. Edward knows what he's doing, he must have a plan or something to gain by staying with SHIELD.

"I agree to your conditions. In no way will you be harmed while under our care unless it is with probable cause." Fury agrees. Edward offers a small nod in response.

Now to get down to business. "I would like to know what kind of subjects you specialize in so we can match you with a job that you will fit with." Fury asks.

Edward tilts his head to the side while he thinks of his answer. "I would say I am a scientist. I am an expert in chemistry and physics, but considering it is now 2011, I assume there are some things that I need to catch up on."

Fury nods and thinks that everything is fitting together too well. A scientist getting dropped into a lab, specifically SHIELD's lab with the tesseract, is way too convenient. Something is going on that Fury doesn't know, and he needs to figure that out before Edward finds a way to escape their custody. And Fury knows that Edward can, and will.

"I will make sure that you are given a lab with all the resources needed to get you up to date." Fury assures him. Now that’s out of the way, Fury needs to get the hell away from this kid. Edward creeps him the fuck out, not like the doors did, but in a power sort of way.

Edward stands up and Fury and Agent Barton do the same. The two head for the door while Edward walks to the bed and waits for them to leave before sitting down.

The door closes with a soft click, Fury and the Agent next to him are left there to process what the fuck just happened. Fury doesn't feel like he had the upper hand during that whole conversation. If anything, he feels like he fell into some trap.

Agent Barton's question interrupts his thoughts. "Did you feel that pressure too or was that just me?"

"I felt that shit too. Be careful around that kid, he's dangerous." Fury warned.

"Like that wasn't obvious already." Agent Barton says as he walks away.

Fury definitely has a headache now.

----------------------------------------

Ed is fucked.

It took him three fucking days to wake his sorry ass up. Having information shoved into your head by the gate never gets easier. At least he can communicate with these people. It didn't seem to go very well, though.

Al would praise him for being nice and not cursing during the whole discussion, but intimidating them probably lost him a few points.

He learned that little trick in Xing. The dragon pulse can do many things and only a few have learned how to influence other people's souls with their own. In Xing, they call the life-force of all things: qi. Normally, people who learn the dragon’s pulse can only sense other people's qi and emotions. Only a select few have a deep understanding of their own soul to the point that they can control what others can sense from it.

Normal people who don’t learn the dragon’s pulse can feel when he influences someone with his own soul. It's more like an instinct for a normal person.

But just to recap, Ed is fucked.

He's trapped in this shithole working for the people keeping him here. At least the conditions are better than Drachma. That's the main reason he wanted that Nick guy to promise his safety. Drachma was hell and he will do anything not to go through that again.

It was a good thing that he decided not to use any alchemy. Even though he has it back, doesn't mean he should use it. Especially, when Nick's qi was giving off so much greed toward Ed. Greed for information and power that Ed could possibly supply.

Ed doesn't trust Nick at all. He acts like he has everything to gain and will do whatever it takes to have it. But he also acts as though he has all the power and control with everything he does. Nick even tried to control Ed during their conversation before Ed shut that down when he climbed too high.

The person next to Nick might have been a problem if a fight broke out. Nick was no problem, the only thing he had on him was a gun and he has little fighting experience based on the way he moves. But Clint, he has much more combat experience. Maybe not as much as Ed, but enough to last him an extra few seconds in a fight compared to Nick.

His opinion of Clint is still pending because he stayed quiet the whole time and his emotions were controlled, other than the disapproval and indecision that slipped out throughout the conversation.

All in all, Ed is pretty confident that if it came to escaping, he would have a pretty good chance of getting out. Also, being able to feel all the other people in this giant building is a big advantage. Memorizing patrol patterns will be a piece of cake.

Ed turned to the door as he heard it open. Clint came back with a black, flat… thing. Ed wasn't sure what it was.

Clint offered a little wave as he walked up to Ed and handed the thing to him. Ed wasn't sure what to do with it and started examining it and flipping it over. He notices that there is a slit through the middle of the thing and he opens it.

As Ed examines the inside, Clint sits beside him on the bed. Ed allows it for now because his qi is neutral and doesn't have any other motives. Ed does notice that Clint has the urge to help him, though.

The inside has what looks like a keyboard that Ed has seen on typewriters but more advanced looking, and the other side is a smooth, black material. Ed jumps as it brightens and and turns on. The screen has a light gray background and a sign-in box in the middle.

Ed turns to Clint who has been watching him and waiting patiently.

"Do you know how to work this thing?" Ed asks hesitantly with a small embarrassed smile.

Clint offers a small smile in return and nods. His emotions turn fond like he is remembering something. "Yeah, this 'thing' is called a laptop. You have access to the internet with this and can look up whatever you want in it.” When Ed tilts his head in confusion, Clint tries again. “It's like an unlimited library."

Ed's eyes widened. What? An unlimited library? That's like a dream come true. Just thinking about it has him feeling giddy and excited. He can tell that Clint isn't lying, so he feels good that he's not getting his hopes up.

"Here, I'll tell you how to use it." Clint offers, his qi filling with amusement.

Thus started the most mind boggling experience of Ed's life. Everything was so different, it was like the world was at his fingertips. There was so much knowledge Ed didn't know where to start. Some of the terms Clint was using Ed didn’t know so he searched up what they meant. He could do that! It would just tell him, and he didn’t have to flip through a damn dictionary!

Eventually, Clint left after showing him the ropes of working this 'laptop'. Clint wasn't too bad. He never got impatient when Ed asked questions. There was never even a hint of irritation or ill intent in his qi throughout the entire explanation. Clint, so far, is a good man in Ed's book.

But, Ed needs to focus and get down to business. Ed decided to start with how this shit actually works and operated.

Going down a rabbit hole of information and figuring out all the materials and mechanics, Ed came across something called programming. Programming appeared to be the heart of making many things in this world. So, Ed wanted to add it to his list of skills.

Thank fuck he did.

----------------------------------------

It took Ed a while, but he became an expert in programming in a little over ten days. In between lab work they gave him to do and catching up on the progression of science, Ed's programming skills were now top notch.

Something that he came across in his programming adventure was a little something called hacking. He is all for learning things that he shouldn't know, so he added that to the arsenal as well.

Hacking mostly caught Ed's attention because there is a lot of information he doesn't know about the people keeping him here. He tried looking up their names but nothing came up. He needs information that they are not giving them. And he's going to take it whether they like it or not.

There are computers in the lab that he works in that are connected to their database, Ed assumes. If he can hack into one and get information from it, he can learn so much about the people here.

He stole a USB from someone's lab that was empty and brought it to his room with his laptop. Creating a code to hack into a database with unknown protections won't be easily done, so he took all of the precautions. Nobody will be notified of his program and the database will be downloaded onto the USB when it is done. Simple.

Hopefully, it works.

The next day, Ed entered the lab like normal. Greeted the others in their own sections of the lab and went to his own. He waited until lunch for them to leave him alone in the lab and he set his plan into action.

Ed's program on the USB will take a little over 10 minutes to finish so he went over to one of the computers, plugged in the USB, and walked away to get lunch. Leaving will make sure that if anybody sees it in the computer, they won’t connect it back to Ed. And if he stayed there at the computer, he might look suspicious.

Ed made sure to get back before everyone else, and sure enough, the USB was still there. It finished a minute later and he collected his prize and went back to his station to continue his work until the day ended.

The moment to actually find out if it worked completely was when he settled in for the night. He pulled out the USB from his pocket and plugged it into his laptop.

Like confetti, windows started to pop up everywhere on his screen. Some labeled 'confidential', others showing research materials, and random ones about certain individuals that they are monitoring.

Ed focused on the individuals first.

Steve Rogers aka Captain America, a super soldier from 1945 who actively fought against Hydra during WWII. He went MIA during his last mission and was found encased in ice in 2011. Rogers was still alive when they found him and he is currently living in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York.

Natasha Romanoff codename: Black Widow, an expert assassin with a high kill count specialized in combat, interrogation, and assassination. She has many other skills that Ed is impressed with and she was conditioned in that field of work at a very young age. She is currently an agent of SHIELD because of Agent Barton. It seems like she hasn't caught a break her whole life. That hits a little too close for Ed.

Clint Barton codename: Hawkeye, a skilled marksman. Damn, Ed misses Riza. He was hired as a special agent for SHIELD and primarily uses a bow and arrows as his weapon. Ed needs to be careful with that. He doesn't know how to fight someone with that choice of weapon.

Tony Stark, a genius billionaire that created a suit of armor instead of weapons of mass destruction. His rise in fame was caused by his inventions and his father, Howard Stark. Tony was reported missing in Afghanistan and later, it turns out, he was captured by terrorists. The experience left him with a new mindset toward his company. Ed can respect that.

Bruce Banner, a science project gone wrong. When made angry, Bruce can transform into a green monster that reminds Ed too much of Envy's giant form. He has supernatural strength but no control. He is currently residing in India helping the sick. Ed can see that it also provides research papers that Bruce has written. Ed is definitely going to read those later.

Thor of Asgard, an alien that arrived on Earth last year and can harness the power of lightning with his weird hammer. He is connected to a group of scientist civilians that helped him when he arrived. Relations are friendly with him and Earth. He is currently not a threat. Looks like Ed's not the only alien around here, it's probably because of this guy that Nick and Clint didn’t kill Ed right away.

Nick Fury, the director of SHIELD. A United States Army veteran who rose to the rank of colonel. No wonder he and Ed didn't get along well, colonels and Ed don't mix. Even when they get promoted to general, they still don't mix. Looking at you Mustang.

After some digging into what Hydra and SHIELD were, Ed wanted nothing more than to leave this place and put all of this shit behind him. But he still needed more information, so he started looking at the research files.

The tesseract reminds Ed of alchemy. The physical properties resemble it in so many ways, it has Ed yearning to clap his hands and feel the power that it brings. The first phase of their plan with the tesseract is figuring out how it works. Apparently, they pulled the thing out of the water along with that Rogers guy. Ed opens up phase two and hesitantly scrolls through.

Goddamnit. These guys want to build weapons out of the power held in the tesseract. And the weapons are based on the ones Hydra built during WWII. What the fuck are they thinking?

The tesseract should have stayed in the fucking water if this was how it was going to be used again. Ed needs to find a way to get rid of it, or destroy it. Wait. That sounds familiar. Is this one of the stones that Thanos wants? Fuck. If it is, then Ed needs to find a way to destroy it. No one should have that much power at their fingertips.

Ed tries to ignore the fact that he got back alchemy, that it gives him a lot of power right at his fingertips.

Truth just had to drop him in the middle of trouble, didn't they.

Chapter Text

Taking a page out of SHIELD's book, Ed's going to plan his goal in phases.

Phase one:
- Learn everything about the tesseract and keep up to date with the research they are doing on it, while also working on figuring out how to destroy it.
- Use more skill in his lab and show his knowledge so they hopefully upgrade him to work on the tesseract project
- Earn their trust to do so

Phase two:
- Once the tesseract is accessible, he can do his own research on it, mostly to destroy it.
- Earn trust of others that work on the tesseract so they don't suspect him.

Phase three:
- Take the tesseract and escape when the time is right.
- Destroy it, if possible.

Ed's a bit proud of himself for actually coming up with a plan. Maybe Mustang's rubbing off on him… nevermind, that's a terrifying thought.

But seriously, this is going to take a lot of work. He's not good at building trust or socializing with people. The only people he socialized with were with people he already knew. Mostly Al, May, and Winry because he hasn't spoken to the team that much since his discharge. Whenever he focuses on the feeling of his dog tags on his chest, he gets the urge to see them again.

God he misses them. It might be forever until he can see everyone again. And to them, nothing would have changed. If he told them that he made a deal with Truth, would they believe him? Whatever. It doesn't matter. All that matters right now is executing his plan and getting rid of that fucking cube.

His first step is Clint.

Clint is the closest person to Nick that Ed knows about. If someone is to voice their opinion about Ed and it make an impact, it will be Clint. Ed often sees him in the break room around a certain time. He seems to fit to a schedule and stick to it insistently.

Ed decides that he will try to start up a conversation when they're on break and get there when Clint's break starts and say goodbye before it ends. That might appeal to him. He won't be taking up his time or ruining his schedule. Being considerate is likable, right?

Ed just needs to push through the feeling of anxiety that crawls through him when he thinks of talking to someone he needs to be friendly with but doesn't know anything about them. That feeling of anxiety never fully went away since he was discharged, he only learned how to push it away. It's only instances like this that make it spike again.

Setting his plan into action the next day, Ed prepares himself. He needs to make sure that he doesn't mention anything in the database that he's learned or else Clint will find out he hacked the system.

He heads toward the break room a few minutes before Clint is supposed to show up, and waits. Not long later, Clint enters the room and goes for his usual coffee. Ed steels himself and decides to start with a question to make it less awkward and go from there. He walks over to where Clint sat down at one of the tables and sits across from him.

"Should I call you Clint or Agent Barton like Nick does?" Ed asks, a bit nervously but trying not to show it.

Clint looks up from his coffee and rests it on the table. "Clint is fine. Director Fury likes to stay professional but I'm not picky." He pauses, "Does Fury allow you to call him Nick?" Clint asks curiously with a hint of disbelief in his qi.

Ed huffs, "I never asked. I tend to call people whatever I want when I don't respect them. That can always change though."

Clint stares at Ed for a second with a blank face, but his qi is curious. "Does that mean you respect me since you asked what I want you to call me?" He asks.

"Sure I do. You're not the one with a perpetual stick up your ass and you're not the one keeping me in this place. You also have more fighting experience than him, don't you?" Ed asks, teasing while he tilts his head.

"How do you know that?" Clint asks defensively.

Ed puts up his hands in an innocent gesture. "It shows in your posture and the way you move. You're not the only one who has experience." Ed reaches into the collar of his lab coat and pulls out his dog tags.

Clint's eyes widen when he sees them. He looks back at Ed's face like he's connecting some dots and his qi fills with understanding. "How long?" He asks.

Ed's eyes soften, he's thankful that Clint didn't look at him with pity like people most often did. "Five years. Volunteered at age twelve and quit at seventeen with the rank of major." Ed answers honestly. He doesn't mention that he was a major the moment he joined, but that's fine.

Considering Ed for a moment, Clint's qi fills with grief. Ed assumes that he doesn't like the fact that he was basically a child soldier.

"Why?" Clint asks quietly.

Ed raises an eyebrow. "Why did I join or why did I quit?"

"Why did you join? You were so young, you still are. Why did you give yourself to your country when you could have just been a kid?" Clint's questions come out frantically like he's itching to understand.

Tilting his head, Ed thinks for a second. "I haven't considered myself a kid since I was five. I had to take care of my brother when our parents weren't there. The military provided money, resources, and housing and we needed those things. When the two of us no longer needed them and I closed all the favors I owed, I quit."

Ed doesn't like talking about himself, but this is about building trust. If Ed doesn't lower his guard, neither will Clint.

Clint seemed to accept that answer and looks down at the coffee in his hand in thought.

"Why do you do it?" Ed asks a bit suddenly to get the conversation going again and to take the focus off of him.

His eyes look back up at Ed, surprised. He takes a second to think of an answer and finally says, "For the benefits. And this is one of the only jobs that fit with my skill set. I would like to have a job that was less dangerous, but I'm stuck with it for now." A small smile shows on Clint's face but his qi is uncertain.

"Do you have someone that worries about you who wants you to be safer?" Ed asks curiously.

Clint's smile becomes more real and his qi turns fond. "Yeah, my wife. She worries about me all the time and I wish I could get rid of some of that stress. I also want a job that allows us to spend more time together."

Ed nods. "That's understandable. When you tie up your loose ends here, you should find a job that you like, and maybe try some new things. Life is too short for you to spend too much time doing something you don't want to. If you want to spend more time with your wife, work towards that goal. Doing that sooner than later will allow you the time that you want."

Looking down again in thought, Clint's qi fills with resolve. Ed smiles and stands up. "Well I got some work to finish up from yesterday. Catch you later?"

Clint looks up and offers a smile too. "Sure. See you around."

Ed nods and turns around to walk back to his lab.

That went good, Ed thinks. The conversation stayed civil unlike his one with Nick. It ended on a good note too, even though Ed had to share some things about himself, it was a good start. Hopefully, it will become easier to talk to him in the future.

Getting along with the people in the lab was easier because they could talk about science for forever. Ed helped people out here and there when they needed it and that's how he showed his skills. Now he just needs to wait until Nick trusts him and thinks he's capable enough to work on the tesseract.

----------------------------------------

A few months passed of Ed executing phase one. He worked on building trust with people and Clint ended up being a good friend who he spent most of his breaks with.

He spent most of his time catching up with new sciences and finding out a way to get rid of the evil cube. But the problem with finding a solution to destroy it was a big one. Even if Ed destroyed it, he would only destroy the container that holds all the energy, the problem is finding out what to do with that much spare energy. He can't just get rid of it. It's energy, it doesn't just go away. The tesseract has enough energy to destroy the Earth so Ed needs to find a way to destroy it very carefully when he does.

Other than that, Ed's been bored. He's just waiting for things to work themselves out at this point. Everybody in the labs think he's a genius and are coming to him with the hardest equations for him to solve. Ed's fine with it, they keep his skills from getting rusty.

Sulking, Ed heads over to the break room for some time to cool his head. He notices Clint in the corner with his usual coffee in hand. Ed walks over and collapses in his now designated chair across from Clint.

"Rough day?" Clint asks with an amused smile on his face.

Ed sends him a playful glare and drops his head on the table groaning. "More like a rough few weeks. I'm bored out of my goddamn mind, there's only so much science I can catch up on that they came up with in the last 90 years." Ed mumbles into the table.

"Caught up already, have you?"

"Mostly."

Clint pauses, thinking. "You know, Ed, I think Fury was talking about putting you on a project. He noticed how you're smarter than the other people in the labs and he might be thinking of giving you an upgrade." Clint raises a questioning eyebrow.

Ed's head had shot up from the table and tried to put on his best relieved expression. "Oh thank fuck. I thought my brain was going to melt if I spent more time solving other people's problems that they couldn't figure out themselves." He sighs while dragging his left hand down his face.

He hates using Clint like this. Ed considers him a good friend and a good person, but Ed has a goal and he needs to see it through. Maybe, once this whole doomsday cube business is over, they can keep in touch. If they are still on good terms at that point.

Clint chuckles and says, "I don't know when you will be transferred so you might have to deal with it a little longer."

"Noooooooo." Ed groans. "I can't take it anymore." He drops his head back on the table and covers his head with his hands. He doesn't have to act to make it genuine, if he had to deal with staring at his room's bland colored walls and the just as bland colored lab for any longer, he might explode. It makes him itch at an instinctual level.

Clint starts laughing for real now and stands up to leave. "Good luck, soldier."

Ed flips him off as he walks away, chuckling to himself about Ed's misery.

Finally, Ed internally sighs. He was starting to think it would take forever to build some trust enough for him to get close to the tesseract. He feels satisfied that all his hard work wasn't for nothing. Progress is being made and that's what matters.

----------------------------------------

The notice came in three days later. The details weren't specific, but Ed could tell that it was the tesseract project based on how much they didn't want to specify. At this point, Ed probably knows more about the tesseract than the scientists who are currently working on it. It's a good thing they post all their research about it in the database.

Ed's so glad he picked up programming.

An agent by the name of Phil Coulson arrives first thing in the morning to show him to the tesseract research lab. Ed remembers reading about him in SHIELD's database. If he's not mistaken, Phil is one of the agents that work directly under Nick. But unlike Clint, Phil doesn't have the posture or movements of an experienced fighter.

Phil greets him with a smile and they head to a section of the building that Ed has never been to before. They go through multiple doors that need pin numbers, badges, face and fingerprint recognition.

At least they have the tesseract under high security, Ed thinks. They must be really taking a chance at putting him on this project. Surely they don't completely trust him, but they trust him enough to try. Maybe they are at a roadblock in their research and are getting desperate.

Ed won't be able to fix that since he is working on destroying the damn thing.

Phil and Ed go through one final door that leads to a staircase going down. Ed's senses turn on alarm bells in this mind. He can sense the tesseract. That's WAY more power than he thought it would have. That cube is no joke. Figuring out what to do with that much spare energy might be harder than he thought if there's that much of it.

Oblivious to Ed's inner turmoil, Phil leads them both down the stairs. Now that Ed's focus is not solely on the fuck ton of energy down there, he notices that Nick, Clint, and a dozen of other people are down there too.

Ed steels himself to see Nick again. They haven't seen a lot of each other since their first meeting and Ed was hoping he didn't have to again. At least Clint is down there too. Just Clint's presence will help Ed not freak the fuck out.

Getting a glimpse of the cube has Ed staring in awe as he follows Phil on autopilot. The images of it in the database didn't do it justice. Not only can he feel how powerful it is, he can also see how vibrant it looks. He has to tear his eyes off of it when the two of them reach Nick.

Nick has that same annoyed scowl on his face and Ed inwardly sighs. Dealing with him is never going to get easier, is it?

Phil goes to stand off to the side while Nick takes over leading Ed to some guy in jeans and a flannel shirt. He doesn't look like a scientist, but Ed knows that looks can be deceiving.

"Erik Selvig, this is Edward Elric. I added him to your team because he proved his scientific excellence and I think he can be of use to you." Nick says.

Ed recognizes that name from the database as well. If he remembers correctly, Erik was one of the scientists that helped Thor when he arrived at Earth.

Ed holds out his left hand for a handshake and Erik returns it excitedly. "It's always a great help to have another brain to give more perspectives." Erik says frantically.

Is he always this hyper or is he on something? Ed rolls with it for now and responds with a kind smile. "It's great to be here and be given this opportunity."

"Edward might also be able to give his scientific opinion from an otherworldly perspective. He's not from around here." Nick says. Oh, Ed gets it now. They think he might find out something else about the cube that Earth science hasn't seen yet.

Erik beams like Ed just made his whole month. He shakes like a kid who just got a new toy. This guy seriously has to be on something to have this much energy. Maybe the tesseract is rubbing off on him from being around it for so long.

Nick dodges out of the way when Erik lunges forward and grabs Ed's arm to drag him over to one of the computer stations. He starts explaining everything about the tesseract at a pace that makes Ed impressed that he hasn't choked on his tongue yet.

Ed stands there while Erik enthusiastically explains everything that he already knew for months. Ed starts to look for Clint with his senses when he remembered that he sensed him when entering the room.

Up and behind him Ed senses Clint's qi. The feeling increases when Clint notices that Ed is in the room. Ed steals a glance behind him and makes eye contact with him.

Clint's expression and qi fill with surprise on how Ed noticed him from his hidden spot. Ed smiles at him and sends him a playful wink, then turns back to Erik's frantic explaining.

Behind him, Clint's qi changes to exasperated disbelief. Those have become some of his most common emotions when he hangs out around Ed, and Ed's kind of proud of that fact.

----------------------------------------

Ed spent the next few days in that lab before something went wrong.

He didn't even get to make some tests on the cube for HIS phase two before the thing started exuding dangerous levels of gamma rays. None of the scientists knew what was happening and Ed had some idea. In the research, it specified that the cube acted like a portal between two spaces, here and some place in the universe. Whatever is on the other side of the cube, it's trying to cross over.

Nick showed up almost immediately and demanded to know what was happening. He said that the building was already being evacuated, that relieved Ed’s nerves at least a little bit. Who knows what will come out of the other side of the cube. What if it’s Thanos or something else that’s extremely dangerous. What if it's a trap and the whole thing is going to blow up?

While Ed was internally panicking, Erik was explaining what the gamma rays were doing and Nick called Clint down from his hidey hole near the rafters.

“I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things.” Nick complains while the two of them walk toward the cube.

“Well, I see better from a distance.” Clint answers.

“Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?” Nick points to the tesseract.

As the two of them approach, Ed and the scientist next to him notice that the cube’s energy is spiking again, like it has been for the past hour and a half. “Doctor, it's spiking again.” She says.

Clint and Nick ignore the commotion and settle right beside where the cube is being held. “No one's come or gone. It's oven is clean. No contacts, no I.M.'s. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end.” Clint answers.

Nick looks at him with a blank face. “At this end?”

“Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?” Clint looks at the cube and back at Nick. “The doors open from both sides.” It seems like he and Ed were thinking the same thing. From how far away Clint supervises everything, it's impressive that he knows as much as he does.

Ed braces himself when the cube puts off a large wave of energy that shakes the whole building. Except he has to keep bracing himself because the waves don’t stop. They just keep coming. The energy feels as though it’s focusing on doing something and Ed ducks behind a desk to wait for it to happen. There’s no stopping it at this point and Ed just needs to roll with it.

The cube fires off a beam behind toward the platform across from it. And just like Ed thought, a portal starts to form. It's not like the ones Ed has seen. It’s round and the inside is dark while the edges are lined with the energy from the tesseract keeping it open.

The portal stays there for a second or two then it explodes outwards. The shockwave has people covering their faces and putting their backs toward the energy plowing at them.

On the platform, there seems to be a man that has blue flames coming off of him. It must be from the exploding energy since that mysterious guy was closest to it.

Soldiers advance on the mysterious man while Ed's eyes follow the excess energy from the explosion. Shit. It’s gathering in the ceiling and it can blow any goddamn second. There are so many people in this building, how are they going to evacuate on time?

The man stands up on the platform with one of the most evil smiles Ed has ever seen on someone’s face. There are two kinds of evil that Ed has seen, the numb ones and the over excited ones. This guy falls into the second category and they tend to be crazy but with many weaknesses because they have emotions to expose.

“Sir,” Nick shouts. “Please put down the spear.”

Ed can take a guy with a spear. He knows the ins and outs of that weapon. If this goes to shit, Ed’s confident that he can at least disarm the guy. But, his qi is funky, and not in a good way. It's filled with hate and self righteousness but there is a fakeness to some of it, it feels artificial. Those two feelings never go well together, fake or not.

The guy looks down at the spear like he’s just noticing it, looks back at Nick, and fires a wave of energy at him from the spear. Clint has to tackle Nick out of the way so he doesn’t get hit by it.

Ed watches as this guy absolutely decimates the armed soldiers. One by one, they drop like flies. The guy was shot but it had no effect on him. Ed’s got to be careful with him. He needs to wait until the guy lets his guard down before he makes his move.

Scientists, soldiers, and agents alike start to shoot at the man. Ed doesn’t really see the point since the guy is literally bulletproof for some reason. Waves of energy go by and people go down. Their slackened faces burn into Ed's mind, adding to the ones before it. He feels like a coward when each body makes a sick thump every time they hit the floor. He hates waiting but if this guy is going down, it's not going to be when he’s expecting it.

He wishes he could go out there and beat that asshole with everything he has and expose how fantastic he is at hand-to-hand. Except, the fear – of being used as a weapon by SHIELD and them finding out he has other uses – makes him freeze up and put his safety before others.

He's knocked out of his mindfuckery when there is a moment of silence while the guy enjoys the view of the destruction he caused. Then he spots Clint trying to pull himself off the floor, the guy strides over to him and reaches him just as Clint is on his feet. Dammit. Clint isn’t strong enough to take that guy when Clint's weapons are solely projectiles.

The guy looks Clint in the eye and says, “You have heart.”

Ed’s not sure what that’s supposed to mean. But he has no time to focus on it when the guy’s spear is touched to Clint’s chest. Blue energy goes through Clint’s body and his eyes turn black then to blue, like a film has rushed over him.

Clint’s whole form relaxes and he holsters his pistol. His qi just muted, not gone but muted to a point where Ed wonders if that guy just brainwashed his friend. Even if the guy himself might be brainwashed, doesn't mean he's going to get away with brainwashing other people. Especially if Ed has any day in it.

When the guy goes to turn around to presumably brainwash more people, Ed’s right in front of him with his right fist raised. A loud clang echoes through the room when it connects with the guy’s face. He falls flat on his ass and holds his face like it's about to fall off. Ed’s surprised they guy didn’t pass out like most people do. But he assumes he should expect something different from a guy who just came out of a portal from a mysterious cube.

Ed goes to grab the spear but Clint acts immediately and lunges toward him. Ed is forced backward as Clint tries to get a hit on him. The keyword here is ‘tries’. It's not working for him all that well.

Ed doesn't blame Clint for attacking him. Clearly that guy did something to him to make him act like this. So Ed really hopes Clint doesn't blame him for hitting him back, because that's exactly what he does.

Waiting for an opening in Clint's barrage of attacks doesn't take long. Ed pulls his leg back, then swings it forward right between Clint's legs. He made sure to use his flesh leg to not cause some permanent damage.

Clint stumbles and has a hard time standing up straight, he curls around himself like he got shot. Ed winces in sympathy and goes to a soldier's body on the floor. He grabs the handcuffs off their belt.

Behind him, he notices that the mystery guy recovered from the punch in the face and is starting to brainwash other people. Ed hurries back over to Clint, who is still trying to recover from the low blow, grabs one of his hands and closes a handcuff around it. Ed then drags him over to a desk and connects the other side of the handcuff to the desk leg. Clint is conveniently too occupied to try and struggle against him.

Ed hears the guy say, "Please don’t. I still need that.” Feeling Nick’s internal panic, Ed turns around to see Nick with a suitcase and he can sense that the cube is inside.

“This doesn’t have to get any messier.” Nick tries to calm the situation down. His back to Loki.

“Of course it does. I’ve come too far for anything else.” Nick turns around to face him. ”I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.” Wow, this guy really needs to get knocked down a few notches. The only person who’s ego comes close to Loki’s is Mustang’s, and no one's ego should be as big as that pyromaniac.

Also, Ed’s heard that name before. Isn’t Asgard that place where that Thor guy is from? Doctor Erik has the same thoughts as Ed because he decides to say, “Loki? Brother of Thor?” Ed doesn’t need to read his qi to notice that Loki gets more irritated after he says that. Maybe his brother is a soft spot, and not in a good way.

“We have no quarrel with your people.” Nick tries to get back on topic, and also buy time. That energy at the ceiling is getting worse by the second.

Loki smiles all high and mighty-like. “An ant has no quarrel with a boot.”

“Are you planning to step on us?” Nick says in that sassy voice that tends to slip out when someone has some audacity to do something he doesn’t like.

“I come with glad tidings, of a world made free.”

“Free from what?”

“Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-” Loki spins around to doctor Erik and presses his spear to Erki’s chest. “-you will know peace.” Shit. Ed needs to separate Loki from the spear, but he notices that Clint is starting to recover from the blow Ed landed on him.

“Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing.” Ed really wishes that Nick would help him stop Loki instead of trying to distract him. When the room is so quiet other than their voices, he can’t really move to do anything without Loki noticing.

“Sir,” Clint interrupts. Great, there goes his element of surprise. “Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us.” Ed finds satisfaction in the fact that Clint’s voice is strained and he’s still heavily leaning on the desk.

“Like the Pharaohs of Odin.” Nick comments. Ed doesn’t pay any mind to that comment mostly because he doesn’t understand the reference. He also ignores Erik saying that it's dangerous to stay here, all Ed is focused on is figuring out a way to get Nick and the cube away without things going to shit. Which will likely happen anyways.

“Well, then-” Ed senses the attack before it happens and dodges out of the way of an energy blast from Loki’s spear. It goes straight for the table that Clint is trapped to, breaking every part of it and leaving Clint unharmed and unbinded.

Ed uses his momentum to sprint toward Loki and grab the spear from his hands. He clearly wasn't expecting Ed to just grab it, so it slips right from his grasp.

Before Ed can use the spear to attack Loki, he hears Clint yell, "Stop!" He looks over to Clint with his gun aimed at doctor Erik's head, point blank. "Drop the spear." Clint then looks at Nick. "And hand over the tesseract."

Nick and Ed eye each other and Nick hands over the briefcase. However, Ed's not the type to play by the rules. Ed throws the spear to the other side of the room and it just so happens to be in the opposite direction of the exit.

Everybody freezes and Loki’s qi flares with so much anger, Ed's surprised he didn't combust into flames.

"You-" Loki grits out with hatred.

Ed offers him an evil grin in return. But he soon realizes that time is up for all of them. The building rumbles and Loki swears and heads for the exit. "Let's go." He says, like it physically pains him to do so.

Loki's group leaves and Ed sprints toward the spear he just threw. He yells behind him to Nick. "Go! I'll meet you up there!"

Nick doesn't hesitate to run towards the exit that leads to the ground floor. It takes no time at all for Ed to locate the spear, mostly because the damn thing is exuding similar energy to the tesseract.

Ed hauls his ass upstairs and out the front doors to a helicopter. Ed's only seen those things in images or blueprints and they're more badass in person. Ed pushes those thoughts away for now and climbs on. It takes off a second later and Ed learns that he isn't a fan of riding these things.

They fly over the desert for a while but then he notices Loki's group below them. They're driving in one of SHIELD's cars and barely made it out of the collapsing tunnel.

Nick notices as well and tells the person flying the helicopter to get closer to the car. Ed's not sure what good that's going to do, because the only weapon Nick's got on him is a pistol.

He fires at the vehicle until he runs out of ammunition. He looks back at Ed for more ammo or another pistol, but he forgot that Ed doesn't have one. Nick never trusted Ed enough to give him one. And that might have been some good judgment because Ed was taught how to use one by Riza, and she didn't go easy on the lessons.

Nick gives up and yells for the pilot to bring them to the Helicarrier. Whatever the hell that is.

Ed just hopes that Nick will be less restricted with him, even when still being in custody. He proved that he wasn't an enemy. Hopefully that will be enough to grant him more freedom.

But first, they need to fix this clusterfuck of a situation.

Chapter Text

When Director Fury came to him at the gym with the mission, he wasn't sure he could do it. SHIELD tried to trick him when he first woke up from the ice, and while their trust improved since then, he never forgot about it.

In the end, Steve's urge to do the right thing won out. The file specified that the tesseract was extremely dangerous and has the potential energy to destroy the planet. Like Steve didn't already know that. He's seen what the power from that cube can do and he doesn't want to see more. Especially, when the lives of innocent people are at stake.

It was time to get back into the action and start helping people again.

Meeting Agent Coulson was an awkward experience. Having fans was never something that he got used to. He just wanted to help people. Being frozen in the ice for so long and having his actions portrayed as legacy made him a thousand times more popular.

Steve never even got used to the fans that showed up to his performances in the 1940s. Well, he did get used to them somewhat, but he never learned how to deal with them. And coming back almost 70 years into the future didn't change that fact.

It was surprising to Steve that a high standing agent would be a fan of his. But not as surprising as witnessing an aircraft carrier turn into a FLYING aircraft carrier. He didn't think things this big could even go in the sky.

He's been surprised by many futuristic things, and this one might be on the top 5 next to the internet, cell phones, and the Cold War.

Arriving at the control room with Bruce Banner has him second guessing Director Fury's judgment. Banner could get out of control at any second and they are on a flying vehicle. The only way off is down or stealing a jet. They should be more concerned with a hazard as dangerous as Banner on the ship.

Not that Steve believes that the guy would lose control, it's just that they should be more prepared if it does happen.

Nevertheless, the view in the control room is astounding. Steve never took the time to enjoy the view whenever he was on an airplane because he was jumping out of them most of the time.

"Gentlemen." Fury greets Steve and Banner.

Steve hands Fury 10 dollars for their bet and stares through the glass with awe. He's definitely surprised, but not referring to the mission.

Fury walks up to Banner and thanks him for coming, but Steve stands and waits for his orders. This is something he's used to. The less he knows the easier things will be in the long run.

Eventually, after Banner gives them a solution to find the tesseract easier, then they get a facial recognition of Loki somewhere in Germany.

"Captain, you're up." Fury orders.

Steve feels like he's been waiting for forever. He needs to get his body moving because he was sitting in that jet and waiting for orders for so long.

"Also," Fury says before he can turn around and head off to put on his suit. "Getting the upper hand against Loki might be easier now that he doesn't have his staff with him."

"How did you get his staff from him when he was so powerful with it to begin with?" Steve asks. Fury doesn't seem to be the type to overpower someone with that much advantage in their hands. Especially, with one of his agents being brainwashed and turned against him.

"I didn't do it, but he will possibly be working with you on this mission. His situation is a bit special." Fury answers. "As to how he did it… I guess you could say that he has some of the same experience you do."

That can mean many things but Steve assumes that this person was previously in the military. It's almost impossible for another person to have come back from the past, and not a lot of people have dealt with crazy psychos obsessing over immortality.

(Little does he know, Ed checks all of those boxes.)

"I'll keep that in mind, Sir." Steve responds and readies himself for the mission.

This suit is in better condition than the one he used in the 40s. It also looks different, the colors are brighter and whoever designed it - presumably Agent Coulson - didn't take into account that less color meant more camouflage. The bright colors make it somewhat tacky but Steve thinks it's more about making a statement to the public.

The suit ends up fitting like a glove, which is a little concerning, but Steve decides not to focus on that detail.

----------------------------------------

That insolent swine!

Loki has never been this consumed with rage before. That filthy earthling had the gall to take his precious spear and throw it across the room so he didn’t have the time to get it back. Loki has never had the displeasure of meeting another being that was as mindless as the one that made his plans more difficult.

The blonde hair certainly didn’t help his all-consuming rage. He has always despised those with golden locks, more importantly when they get in his way. It left a welt on his ego that will last until he has that mortal kneel at his feet once he becomes king. Perhaps, Loki can make it his personal slave to satisfy his revenge.

It was baffling for the reason that, even though the mortal had a blonde mane similar to his brother’s, they look nothing alike. If anything, the mortal was attractive and perfect in a way that should be worshiped. Its punch to Loki's face hit as hard as a god's would. It was gold in a way that the element can not compare. Those eyes were brighter and fiercer than the golden castle of Asgard during the most breathtaking of sunrises.

NO! STOP!

He CANNOT possibly be thinking that way about a mere MORTAL! Those sort of thoughts are preposterous! Mortals are not ones to be worshiped. Loki will be king and no mortal should change his mind or stand in his way. Those thoughts are due to stress. Stress caused by that awful mortal that needs to be punished for getting in the king’s way.

Right.

Focusing on the plan to acquire Iridium, Loki readies to put himself out in the open without his staff. Is this how Brother feels when he is without his hammer? No. No time to be thinking about that imbecile. What Thor feels is nothing for him to concern over. Not that he was concerned.

They need to travel to Germany to get the metal his scientists are in need of. The metal will assist the tesseract to keep a portal open for a very long time. Loki needs that to bring in his army.

The Agent with the bow and arrows proves to be very useful during their mission. It is no wonder that the mortal with the eyepatch chose to keep it around. Loki wouldn’t call himself lucky that so many mortals are willing to work toward making SHIELD fall, but it is definitely convenient that they made large amounts of enemies.

When Loki arrives in Germany at the place that is holding the precious iridium, it is disappointingly easy to trespass into the building. His followers gave him this device to get an eye for them to enter the building where the Iridium is being held.

Walking down the steps, attacking the guards, and pinning the target to the stone table to stab out its eyeball, is very therapeutic. This is the sort of thing that he wants to be free to do when he is king. Having no one question his actions or treat him differently, that is what he wants.

Once the eye is completely scanned and the mortal falls to the ground passed out from the pain, Loki heads toward the crowd and alters the mirage on his clothes to wear his original horned helmet and cloak. He relishes in the fear emanating from the earthlings and takes a deep breath, a faint smile pulling at his lips.

Magic does not have a great impact in a physical fight, but Loki is the god of mischief and he makes things work in his favor. So when a car zooms toward him, he makes a copy of himself to make the vehicle swerve out of the way missing the clone and crash into a nearby building, an explosion emanates from it moments after impact.

Turning back toward the mortals, Loki’s smile grows back on his face. They are running around like ants. He is the boot and is ready to take a step.

He creates clones surrounding the little ants and orders them to kneel until they comply. They hesitantly drop to their knees and Loki’s smile turns satisfied.

"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state?” He starts walking through the crowd of mortals on their knees before him. He soaks up the power that fills him. “It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

It is not of importance if this instance does not last long. Being out in the open, there is no doubt that someone capable enough will come to get him. Without his precious staff that was given to him by The Other, he will not be able to put up a long fight, but that is not what matters. They want him, they’ll get him. And the benefit of the result will fall on Loki’s shoulders.

An old looking mortal has the audacity to speak against him and Loki has no patience for it. He is still fuming from the golden mortal standing in his way and he will tolerate no more.

Loki reaches behind him and yanks out a throwing knife that one of his followers supplied him before they left. He throws it at the old earthling but it doesn’t hit its mark. A mortal with an obnoxiously colored outfit and shield blocks the knife out of the way, then straightens to look Loki in the eye.

“You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.” The colorful mortal says. The crowd of mortals scatter at the hostility and sprint away in all directions, leaving the two of them alone.

Loki recognizes the look in the mortal’s eyes, the look of a soldier who is loyal to the people. His brother has that same look. What a joke they are. “The soldier. A man out of time.” Loki says. His follower with the bow warned him about this one and the others that will possibly stand against him. He really does not wish the others to dress this dreadfully colorful.

“I'm not the one who's out of time.” The colorful mortal responds.

Out of the corner of Loki’s eye he notices a jet approaching. When it stops in the air in front of him he hears a woman’s voice coming from it ordering him, “Loki, stand down.”

A mischievous smile spreads on Loki’s face. They can’t attack him with the weapons on that jet when he gets close to the colorful mortal in front of him. Loki doesn’t waste a second to run up to the mortal and stay close while attacking it while it tries desperately to get its shield between them. Loki does not need his staff to be strong, but it makes it a lot easier when he does. For the moment, he will make do with what he has for now.

Loki makes a sweep at the mortal’s legs with one of his own but it jumps up to avoid it. It moves its shield from its chest and Loki takes the opening to aim his fist right between the star on its chest and the stripes on its stomach. The mortal flies back and struggles to its knees.

He follows the mortal to stay close in case the jet decides to open fire. “Kneel.” Loki demands. He knew that taking the throne would have some backlash from the earthlings but this is getting on his nerves. He just needs to make this last a small while longer and somehow give them the upperhand for them to take him. This mortal is not strong enough to best him or to make it look believable.

The mortal looks up at Loki with an offended look on its face. “Not today” it says out of breath, trying to attack him again but failing terribly. Loki internally cringes at its stubbornness.

A few moments pass of the mortal making useless swings at him. Some of them land but they barely make a dent for Loki. This is getting embarrassing, Loki thinks.

Both the mortal and Loki hear something flying towards them and look to the sky. At first, Loki thinks it is the jet but, out of nowhere and blast hits him square in the chest and sends him flying backward. That hit definitely made a dent, it didn’t hurt that horribly, but it stung.

Loki looks up from where he landed awkwardly on a set of stairs to who attacked him. A suit of armor stands over him with many weapons coming out of the suit that are aimed at him. “Make your move, Reindeer Games.” It says. Loki deducts that there is a mortal in that suit of armor.

Loki takes this chance to surrender and put his hands in the air. This mortal in the suit will be harder to beat than the colorful mortal. Actually, they are both really colorful. Great… this is going to become a theme, isn’t it?

----------------------------------------

Ed needs a nap.

He hasn't slept since the night before Loki took the tesseract, and that was around 60 hours ago. It’s not a great habit of Ed’s to not sleep for obnoxiously long periods of time, but he couldn’t just steal Loki’s staff and go right to sleep after. No, he needed to research the thing like his life depended on it.

But after the incident, he and Nick needed to relocate to somewhere safe and not in the middle of the Arizona desert - Ed found out where they were from the database out of spite because Nick wouldn’t tell him. Where they relocated was somewhere Ed wasn’t expecting. It was a giant boat.

It looks more like an aircraft carrier than a boat though. Ed's seen aircraft carriers on the internet and then went down a rabbit hole of the United States military. Their military is bigger than Amestris' by a long shot and that's really saying something considering Amestris had a constant three front war with its neighbors.

Nick called the giant boat the helicarrier which Ed assumes is the combination of helicopter and carrier. But it's confusing because he doesn't see many helicopters on the deck.

When he asks Nick about it he just shrugs and says, "You'll see."

Ah yes, that's very helpful. Thank you very much Director Fury. Your vague answers give me so much wisdom. I can't wait for more shit to come out of your mouth that will give me no information at all, Ed thinks.

Maybe the lack of sleep is making a bigger impact than he thought. But thankfully, he is sane enough not to say his thoughts out loud.

When they get on the helicarrier, Ed immediately books it for the lab. Why they have a lab on a boat, Ed doesn't know, but he's not complaining. It surprisingly has some cool shit in it and Ed gets to work on the staff with some new toys to test out.

Time is a blur for him as he works. He is so focused and centered on brainstorming new ideas on how to destroy the tesseract based on the energy in the staff. The two are very similar and Ed has the lab to himself so he doesn't need to worry about people finding out he's trying to destroy the one thing that they want to get back.

The inconvenient thing is that he is so focused that he doesn't notice a day and a half passing by. The thing that stirred him out of his state was a sinking feeling in his stomach, as if he was being lifted.

Fuck. Was that what Nick meant about that "you'll see" shit? Does this fucking helicarrier FLY? Ed's never been on a flying vehicle in his world before because they didn't EXIST and he doesn't trust the ones in this world. ESPECIALLY one this big.

Ed tries to calm himself down by doing some breathing techniques Al taught him in Xing. Focusing on Al and his breathing makes him calm down exponentially, but there is still some underlying tension in him. He needs to trust that they know what they are doing, he can feel hundreds of people on this ship and they are relaxed like it's a normal thing to happen. It's just something he has to get used to, he needs to get used to experiencing future things and this is a good thing to start with. The feeling isn't as bad as when he was on a actual helicopter. It would have helped to get a warning, but he just has to roll with it.

Hopefully, this thing doesn't fall into the ocean. Ed can't swim! He'll be fucked if it does! Breathe. Focus on breathing. It'll be fine, try to trust them even if it is hard to.

After taking a few more deep breaths and calming his mind, Ed turns back to continue his work. He gets a few minutes of peace before he senses two people stop at the lab's entrance. He turns to see them as the door opens and recognizes both of them, Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner.

Natasha visibly tenses when they make eye contact. This is their first time meeting but Ed can understand many things about her just by the look in her eye. He didn't need to read her file to see that she was a child soldier, he can see it in her eyes. He sees the same look in the mirror.

Bruce doesn't seem to have noticed Natasha tense and looks at him with wonder. Ed's surprised that the guy hasn't turned green considering his qi is a massive bundle of anger. Maybe he always is and he controls it in order to not destroy everything. That's definitely reassuring.

"Who are you?" Natasha asks. She tries to ask nonchalant but it comes out accusing.

Ed tilts his head and asks, "Nick didn't mention me?" You would think that a normal person would warn you about working with someone. But considering that Nick didn't warn Ed that the boat that he was getting on FLIES, he's not surprised.

"No, he didn't." She answers a little more relaxed now. Ed assumes it's because he referred to Director Fury as Nick.

He sighs, knowing that it would be the case of Nick leaving people in the dark. Ed wonders if Nick get a sick satisfaction from watching people wander around ignorant of what is going on.

"Well, in that case," Ed starts, he might as well introduce himself. "I'm Edward Elric. I was one of the scientists working on the tesseract before a psycho decided to come out of the damn thing." He leans back on the table behind him and crosses his arms.

Natasha gives him a skeptical look but relaxes farther seeing as he knows about everything going on. She turns toward the door to leave, "I'll leave you two to have fun then." She offers a little wave as she exits and Ed gives her one back.

Bruce, however, walks toward Ed and holds out his right hand. "Bruce Banner, great to be working with you, Edward."

Ed takes his hand and focuses on not using too much pressure to not make it noticeable that his hand is metal. Bruce continues before he can say something else. "I haven't worked with someone as young as you before, you must be quite talented to be working on a project this important."

Ed puts on a smile, but internally he wants to crawl into a hole and bury himself in it. He used to brag about how smart he was and how he was a genius, but now, he doesn't like the attention. Or any attention in general, really. Having the focus on him makes him want to run away. When people compliment him, he has to talk about himself, and all he can come up with is everything that he's ever done wrong in his life.

He settles with, "Thank you, doctor. I have read some of your work and I would say you are quite talented yourself." Ed pulls his hand away and continues, "You can just call me Ed by the way, only Nick calls me Edward because he likes to be a pain in my ass."

Bruce offers a bitter smile, "Have you only read about my research or have you seen all the work I've done?" He asks, looking down at the floor ashamed.

Ed knows that he's talking about how he destroyed Harlem when he lost control, but Ed doesn't really care about that. "I won't lie that I haven't seen all of it." Bruce seems to deflate. "But you seem to have good control over it, no incident in two years, right? That's a good record considering the feeling of being angry doesn't go away for you."

He looks back at Ed surprised that he cares so little and knows that he's always angry, he just learned to control it. Bruce seems to relax his shoulders from where they rose and gives Ed a true smile.

Ed notices that his qi calmed down a little. When was the last time someone treated him like a person and not a monster or a time bomb? Fuck, that sounds a little too familiar to what the people of Amestris thought of him when those newspapers released. He even thought of himself as those things after his time in Drachma.

Bruce snaps him out of his thoughts when he says, "You're the first person to guess that I'm always angry. Usually they assume that I turn into 'the other guy' when I get angry. How did you know?" He asks.

Ed raises an eyebrow at Bruce's use of 'the other guy'. Maybe he hasn't figured out that he and 'the other guy' are the same person. Ed guesses that his denial runs pretty deep.

Regarding Bruce's question, Ed can't tell him about the dragon's pulse. He can't trust anybody with his secrets while he's still in Nick's custody where it can be used against him. So he settles for something vague. "It was mostly a guess, actually. When I watched the videos, it was more like you embraced your anger instead of pushing it down. And when you are pushing it down, you carry yourself like you're afraid to show too much of yourself." Speaking in half truths is harder to do but the payoff is well worth it.

Bruce accepts that answer and rubs the back of his neck like he's nervous. "Am I that obvious?" He asks.

Ed smiles, "Nah, I'm just good at reading people." Bruce huffs out a small laugh. "Now," Ed starts. "How much did you get briefed about the tesseract?" He puts his hand on Bruce's shoulder to lead him toward the staff.

"Not much, just the basics. Am I right to assume that this staff is similar?" Getting right into the science talk, the two of them spend a great deal of time working together in that lab. It must be a few hours later but Ed's sense of time is still screwed so it could have been longer.

Ed goes to take a bathroom break and leaves Bruce in the lab. After emptying all the coffee from his system, he goes to get more for him and Bruce, then heads to the lab. But when he gets back, Bruce isn't there. He expands his senses to look for Bruce's angry qi and finds him near the front of the ship. He also can sense Nick and Phil with him.

He chooses to wait for Bruce to come back and try to take a small nap while he waits. He really needs sleep even if it's just a few minutes.

He falls asleep not even a minute later.

----------------------------------------

Ed wakes up to someone shaking his shoulder.

Well… waking up is putting it nicely. More like, Ed's head shoots up from where he was slouched over one of the desks. He desperately tries to figure out who the fuck woke him from his much needed slumber and finds Bruce… and someone else.

He blinks a few times to make his brain work again and thinks he recognizes the guy. The first name in his mind is completely empty but he remembers the last one… maybe Stark. Ed's not sure but that's what he's gonna go with.

"Damn, and I thought Goldie Locks would be a good nickname for Thor." Stark says.

It takes a moment for Ed to process what he just said. Then decides to give up, he groans and flops back down on the table on his folded arms. With his head down, he misses the concerned looks Bruce and Stark exchange with one another.

"Ed? When was the last time you slept?" Bruce asks with his concern peeking out in his voice.

"A minute ago."

"No, I mean like a whole night's sleep. At least six hours."

Ed thinks for a second. "What time is it?"

"It's 9:30 pm."

Oh, he hit the 75 hour mark, that's fun. Ed lifts his head off his arms and rubs at his eyes. He hesitantly says, "Uh… around 75 hours ago."

Bruce looks at him with an unimpressed stare and Ed is reminded of when Winry and Al would give him that look when he didn't take care of himself. "That's not that bad, I've gone longer." Ed tries to defend himself with a smile.

"That doesn't make it better, Ed." Bruce sighs and lifts up his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.

Stark on the other hand looks amused and says, "What's your record, Goldie? My sleeping habits might not be as bad as I thought when compared to yours."

Ed thinks of the times when Al's body was still armor and would stay up to not make Al feel lonely. Those times didn't last long when Al was so adamant on Ed getting sleep and he caved eventually. A small smile pulls at his lips at the thought of Al. Damn he misses him already.

There were also the times after Drachma where he COULDN'T sleep, no matter how hard he tried. Whenever he did, he would wake up screaming and clawing at his neck. Al always had to calm him down and make him talk about it later in order for him to cope. He always leaves even his neck covered now because of the scars.

"About two and a half weeks, maybe. I'm not completely sure because it's been a while since I've gone that long before." Ed answers.

Stark's jaw drops and his eyes go wide, Bruce looks more concerned than he was when the conversation started. Bruce ends up taking a deep breath and saying, "You know what Ed? How about you go back to sleep, we'll continue your work on the spear."

Ed grimaces, he doesn't think that Nick will let him sleep any longer when they still have work to do. Nick expects Ed to give a full report on the spear and its power soon. But since when has Ed followed orders? "Alright." Ed gives in. "If Nick catches me sleeping and he complains about it, tell him that I will shove the stick that's up his ass into his remaining eye if he wakes me up."

Stark snorts and says, "Will do, Goldie."

Humming in approval, Ed folds his arms in front of him again and drops his head on them. The last thing he hears before he drifts off is Stark saying, "He broke my personal record."

Chapter Text

When Tony entered the lab with Dr. Banner, he didn't expect a bag of gold to be fast asleep at one of the desks. He didn't know if they were a man or a woman, he has never seen hair that extravagant on someone either.

Walking up to their desk with Banner and waking them up shocked Tony more than he is proud to admit. The kid was beautiful, even with the obvious bags under his eyes he could tell beauty like that is hard to come by. And Tony has met many beautiful people in his lifetime.

Seeing the kid awake makes his confusion about the kid's gender disappear. The deep voice and that sharp jawline fit the beautiful puzzle pieces together. It makes Tony wonder if there are other pieces about this kid that will make him more memorizing.

In the end, Tony and Banner let the kid sleep for a while longer because clearly he hasn't had enough. But Tony still can't bring himself to look away. He's attracted to the kid like one would be to a painting at a museum. Not romantic attraction, but his radiance is something that Tony can barely comprehend. He's never had someone break the scale of beauty so viciously.

Sorry Pepper…

Goldie is wearing a deep, blood red hoodie that compliments how bright his hair and eyes are. But the weird thing is, no part of his body is being shown other than his face. Goldie's neck is covered by a black turtleneck undershirt and his hands are covered with black leather gloves. It's like he raided an agent's wardrobe because he's also wearing the same combat boots and leather pants as Agent Romanoff is.

Is he an agent or a scientist? The clothes say agent, but he's in the lab and the work on the screen in front of him doesn't look like Bruce's.

He takes one of the two lukewarm cups of coffee on the desk and pries his eyes from Goldie to the work on the screen. He understands most of it, which is surprising because he usually understands everything. The screen is filled with the most advanced chemical equations that Tony's ever seen. “Who is this kid?” he mutters.

“He said his name is Edward Elric.” Bruce comes up behind him. “Apparently he was working on the tesseract before it was stolen. Though, he doesn't look much like a kid to me.”

Wasn't THAT the truth. Goldie looks like he's seen hell, not just because he looks tired, but that look in his golden eyes is worse than the one Tony sees in the mirror. Damn, that's definitely not a good thing. Is this kid okay? Why is he working for SHIELD? Clearly they are overworking him, so why is he still working for them? Why doesn’t he quit?

“This stuff is impressive… How old is he?” Tony asks.

“I didn't ask but he looks like he's in his late teens or early twenties.” Banner answers. “When he was explaining the work he has done so far, I could barely keep up with him. Ed is very talented.”

That's what Tony thought. Tony has never met someone so young that understands chemistry and physics at this high of a level. Not even Tony was this good when he was that age. Where did SHIELD find this kid?

Tony should bring Goldie to Stark Towers some time, he bets the kid would have a field day. Speaking of Stark Towers… “You know, you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land.” Tony says to Banner. It would be fun to work with these two and let them grow their skills.

Banner thinks about it for a second before he shakes his head. He walks over to his work station while saying, “Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke… Harlem.” He says with a guilty look.

“Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises.” Tony picks up a small electrical rod that was on one of the tables and stabs Banner in the side with it. Best way to find out how dangerous he is, is to test it.

The door opens as Banner exclaims, “Ow!”

“Nothing?” Tony asks. He might be able to convince Banner to come to Stark Towers if he can prove he isn't a constant threat to others.

Tony distantly hears someone storming towards them and looks up. Oh, of course. The one person he doesn't want to interact with shows up.

“Hey! Are you nuts?” Rogers asks angrily.

Deciding to ignore Rogers, Tony continues to question Banner. ”You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?” That gets a smile out of Banner.

“Is everything a joke to you?” Rogers interrupts. Can’t this guy take a hint? Tony thinks this guy is just naturally dense.

Tony gives in and takes a deep breath. He puts on his metaphorical mask that he uses to deal with the press, he's going to need it to deal with this guy. “Funny things are.”

He stares down Tony with a hard glare. “Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny.” Rogers turns to Banner. “No offense, doctor.”

Banner offers a shy, self-deprecating smile. “No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things.” He points to the small electrical rod in Tony's hand while trying to keep his head down. Tony can tell that he doesn't want to be a part of this conversation, and he doesn't blame Banner. Neither does Tony.

“You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut.” Tony says to Banner. That condition of his is making him hold back.

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark.” Rogers interrupts again. Can’t this guy shut up?

“You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables.” Tony will never trust Fury or SHIELD as far as he can throw them. Working under someone has always been a problem with Tony since the incident with Stane and the Ten Rings. He needs to know what Fury wants, no bullshit.

“You think Fury's hiding something?” Rogers asks doubtfully. Oh my god, this guy needs to get his head out of his ass. Tony walks over to a side table to grab some blueberries that he brought.

“He's a spy. Captain, he's THE spy. His secrets have secrets.” He shoves some blueberries in his mouth and points to Banner. “It's bugging him too, isn't it?”

Banner looks like he wants to crawl to the corner and hang out with the passed out bag of gold. He stutters out an answer to get him out of the spotlight. “Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and… “

“Doctor?” Rogers interrupts.

A beat passes as Banner thinks and takes off his glasses to enter the conversation. “'A warm light for all mankind’, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube.”

“I heard it.” Rogers says.

“Well, I think that was meant for you.” Banner points to Tony. Tony rewards him by offering the bag of blueberries for him to grab out of. “Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower? That big ugly…” Steve questions. Did this bitch just call his tower ugly? The audacity of this guy! “...building in New York?”

“It's powered by Stark Reactors, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?” Banner turns to Tony.

“That's just the prototype.” Tony answers. “I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now.” Then turns to Rogers. “That’s kind of what he’s getting at.”

“So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?” Banner refers to Tony. “I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?” That’s exactly where Tony’s mind went when he was given the briefing for this mission. SHIELD needs the tesseract, but for what purpose? Wait, couldn’t he just ask Sleeping Beauty in the corner? With how fast he fell asleep after they woke him up, he probably won’t even remember Tony waking him up again.

Tony scraps his conversation with Banner and Rogers for now and walks to Goldie who is still passed out. Rogers looks surprised that there was another person in the room that he didn’t notice but Banner looks unsure.

“Are you sure you should wake him when he threatened Director Fury if he did?” Banner asks.

Tony stops next to Ed and turns back towards them. “I’ll be super quick.” He whispers loud enough for them to hear.

He decides to wake him the same way that Banner did but a little gentler. Shaking Goldie’s shoulder softly rewards him with a very deep and groggy groan. He rolls over his head to face Tony with his expression pinched, most likely from the bright lights. Goldie’s jewel-like eyes peek out from his long lashes. Tony feels sorry but if Goldie answers his question, it will save him hours of trying to find it himself.

“Hey,” Tony whispers softly. He surprises himself with how gentle he’s being with the kid, but he can think about that later. “I need to know what SHIELD’s intentions for the tesseract are.” Tony states it as simply as possible because he doesn't think that Goldie has the focus right now to process anything complex.

Goldie blinks a few times then unslouches his upper body off the desk. Then just… stares at Tony. He might be still asleep or he’s trying to read Tony’s intentions. Tony has no idea, it might be both. A minute passes of silence until Tony thinks that he won’t give him any info, but right as Tony goes to back off, Goldie reaches into the inside of his hoodie where Tony assumes there is a pocket. It isn't a traditional or normal place for a pocket but Tony assumes that’s the point.

He pulls out a USB drive and hands it over with a pointed look. Tony assumes Goldie is trying to make sure he is responsible with it. His eyes look more awake now as he grumbles, “This’ll save you the time of doing it yourself.” He drops the USB in Tony’s hand and flops back on the table, falling back asleep not 10 seconds later.

Tony scoffs. This kid is hilarious. He knew that Tony was just going het the info anyway if he didn’t say anything. He could get along with this kid better than he thought.

Tony walks back over to Banner and Roger who are looking at him with curiosity. The smile doesn’t leave his face even as he plugs the USB in one of the computers. Dozens of screens pop up in front of his face and as he reads, his smile slowly slips away. “Damn.” He says. Pressing his finger to his earpiece he orders, “JARVIS, stop the program.” This kid just gave him access to SHIELD's whole database with no confidential restrictions.

Banner and Rogers come up behind him to read the screens as well. Tony can see the exact moment Roger’s confidence crumbles into a million pieces. It is very satisfying to know he was right even though he proves himself correct very often.

“Well, that solves my question.” Banner admits.

Curiosity is eating Tony from the inside. Why did Goldie give him access to this? Does he not agree with SHIELD’s plan and this is his call for help? He's is just full of mystery, isn't he?

Rogers stomps to the exit of the lab but before he can reach it Tony stops him. “Hey! Where do you think you're going?”

He turns around to stare at Tony and says in a hard voice, “I'm going to confront Fury about this. This needs to be brought to light with the others working on this mission.”

Wow, that's ironic. “If I'm not mistaken, you were willing to follow their orders, no questions asked, not even 5 minutes ago.” Tony interjects. “Sunshine over there gave me this info and I'm not putting him in potential danger just because of your change in opinion.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Rogers asks.

Finally this oaf is listening to a word that comes out of Tony's mouth. This is groundbreaking news. “Play along.” Tony says casually. “Get the cube back, but don't let SHIELD have it.”

Rogers thinks for a moment then nods his head. Wow. Did he just agree with him? Tony never thought that would happen.

“Holy shit.” Tony and Rogers turn to where Banner is absorbed in one of the screens near Goldie, who is still passed out. Tony needs to know how this kid sleeps through all this commotion, it's impressive.

“What?” Rogers asks.

Banner turns toward them with a slack jaw and his eyes wide. What's so surprising? Or did he have a stroke?

“He's trying to destroy it.” Banner finally says.

Tony thinks back to the equations he saw and freezes. Wait… he's right! He himself to move and runs over to Banner to shove himself in the screens. Oh my God. THAT'S what those are for. Tony feels like an idiot, and that's a rare feeling.

How could he be so STUPID?!

----------------------------------------

For the next few hours while Goldie sleeps, Tony and Banner work toward continuing the work to destroy the tesseract.

They already set up the system to find the tesseract and now they just need to wait until it shows up on their radar. For now, they are absorbed in all the work Goldie has done so far.

The more they figure out about Goldie’s work, the more they believe that the kid is a fucking genius. Every part they uncover makes them want to praise him like a God. Everything is perfect. There is no part that the kid did not think of. The equations are complete and without mistakes. Tony and Banner are looking at Goldie and each other every now and then to make sure everything is still real.

If Tony didn't believe that he looked at Goldie in awe BEFORE, he sure as hell does now.

Where did this kid come from? This kind of genius should be acknowledged. How hasn't Tony known of him until now? How long has he been working for SHIELD? The kid doesn't agree with SHIELD and that is why he is working on how to destroy it. If giving the USB to Tony was a reach for help, is this kid in danger or has SHIELD put him in a tough situation that he can't get out of?

The kid looks exhausted and is clearly burnt out. Who would endure that kind of treatment to that extent for money? But if its not money and it's force, then there might be a problem.

Just to confirm or deny his suspicion, Tony goes back to the computer that he plugged the USB into. Goldie doesn't fit the image of one being imprisoned because he's in a lab instead of a cell, but it would be nice to get rid of the thought he has.

Rogers left a while ago and Tony assumes that he is silently fuming wherever he decided to hide away or he's telling the others. That guy's justice complex is too much. Why the hell did Howard compare him to Rogers? He acts like a child when he doesn't get his way and makes rash decisions.

Pepper might say differently, but Tony doesn't act like that.

Pulling up the section of the database that focuses on the people SHIELD keeps an eye on, Tony doesn't find anything. He almost sighs out of relief until he sees that SHIELD has a section for prisoners.

Reluctantly, Tony clicks to the section and scrolls to find the E’s in the alphabetized list of names. When he gets to the E names he stops and his heart drops. There is only one name in the E section and it was the exact name he was looking for.

He takes a deep breath and calls Banner over. Banner changes his excited demeanor to a concerned one when he hears the serious tone in Tony's voice. He walks to stop beside Tony and takes a second to read what the screen says.

Tony sees Banner tense beside him and decides that now is the time to see where Edward Elric came from. But Tony hesitates, should he really snoop on someone who helped him? He's really curious and he can tell that Banner is too.

He turns to Banner and sends him a questioning look and Banner answers with, “He gave you the USB, didn't he? He likely read everything that is in here, even the things about us.”

Tony nods at that logic. It's only fair that they know about him in the same way he knows about them. Feeling more confident, Tony presses on the name on the screen.

What shows up first is a video. The setting looks like the previous lab for researching the tesseract. A few seconds into the video things start to get fucking weird.

Blue electrical sparks make a pair of black, arched double doors appear on the ceiling of the lab. The doors slam open and small black hands reach out of it. From the black hands, a person falls out and lands heavily on the ground.

Tony recognizes that hair. He looks at the screen and back to Goldie a few times just to make sure. Is Goldie an alien?

The doors in the video close, the video ends, and Tony and Banner are left to process what they just watched. Is Goldie really not from this world, like Thor? Is that why he's a prisoner of SHIELD's? But this video dates back to almost half a year ago. Surely they figured out he wasn't a threat during that time. Right?

The second thing that shows up is another video. He hesitates again, all of Tony's confidence was squashed by the contents of the first video so he doesn't go to press play. It's Banner that ends up playing the video and Tony is frozen in place by his own body and therefore forced to watch by his own curiosity.

As the video continued on, the more confused Tony got. Goldie ACTUALLY is an alien and was born in 1899?! And how the hell did he manage to intimidate Fury to the point of him looking afraid? Fury has had a scowl on his face every time Tony has been unfortunate to see him.

Apparently, Goldie let Fury take him into custody in exchange for essentials and protection. This means that Goldie has caught up in all the chemistry, physics, and who else knows what other things that have advanced since the 1920s in his world. No wonder Fury put him on the tesseract project. Who knows what other science exists in Goldie’s world?

Tony suspects that Goldie also agreed to let Fury take him into custody because that would get him closer to the tesseract. Tony can admit that this kid has guts.

When the video ends, notes show up next. The notes taken about Goldie say that Agent Barton got close to him and found out that Goldie used to be in his country's military from ages 12 to 17.

What. The. Fuck.

Tony turns to Banner to make sure that what he read was not his mind making shit up. But unfortunately, Banner looks just as surprised and equally concerned. This kid was a child soldier. No wonder he has that look in his eyes. Centering himself, Tony decides that he’s done enough snooping and swipes away the screen.

As the screen disappears, Fury walks into the lab and his eyebrows raise when he spots Tony.

“What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” Fury asks angrily. What the fuck is this guy’s problem?

Tony decides to be an ass about it. “Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you.”

That seemed to make him more angry and Tony’s not sorry. “You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract.” Fury says with the most attitude that he’s seen from him.

“We are.” Banner quickly says. “The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile.” Thank god for Banner replying because Tony was too focused on why the stick up Fury’s ass is deeper than normal.

“And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss.” Tony offers a mocking smile. There is now way Fury is getting that cube back. Tony won’t let Sunshine’s work be for nothing.

It is taking everything in Tony not to beat the living shit out of Fury right now. Sunshine did nothing wrong, just happened to drop into a different world, and Fury decides to imprison him because he might be a threat. Oh fuck you, Fury. Sunshine has been working by himself for a long time and Tony's urge to help him is almost overwhelming and he has barely met the kid.

Rogers enters the room and immediately zeros in on Fury. His gaze is filled with betrayal and disgust. Fury seems to notice the animosity aimed toward him from every other person in the room and asks, “What did you find out?”

Tony decides to scrap their plan of laying low and let out all his frustrations on Fury. Fuck this guy! He is imprisoning one of the smartest people Tony has ever met, and Sunshine chose to trust him. No way in hell will Tony betray his trust. He will get him out of this situation and take responsibility for keeping him safe. Fury will not be hurting Sunshine in any way if Tony has any say in it.

He looks at Banner to make sure they are thinking the same thing and sees a protective look behind those glasses. That’s all the incentive that Tony needs so he pulls up screens of Phase 2 and Goldie’s prisoner profile.

Fury's expression doesn't change, unsurprisingly. He will most likely try to talk his way out of this. But Tony knows bullshit, he talks it all the time and it won't get past him.

“We were only taking precautions in case he was dangerous, and we made a deal.” Fury explains. And there he goes trying to save his own ass as Tony thought.

“A deal that he had no choice but to be a part of.” Banner counters.

Thor and Agent Romanoff enter the room and Banner turns to speak to her. “Did you know about these things?” Banner says, his animosity increasing.

She stands her ground. “You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?”

Tony takes great offense with that. This is the lab where they are working and she has the audacity to come in here and tell Banner to leave? What the hell?

“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed.” Banner says.

“Loki's manipulating you.”

“And you've been doing what exactly?” Tony is so glad that Banner is sticking up for himself because these people are treating him like shit.

“You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.” She says. Not that kind of manipulating, lady.

“Yes,” Banner agrees, “and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy.” He walks grabs the screen with Phase 2 on it and faces it towards them. “I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

Fury interjects and points to Thor. “Because of him and Edward.”

Thor looks incredibly confused by Fury's statement and points to himself. “Me?”

“Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.” Fury explains.

Thor looks offended when he says, “My people want nothing but peace with your planet.”

“But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled.” Fury pauses for a moment. “Where is Edward anyway?”

He looks around the lab until his eye lands on Goldie asleep in the corner. Agent Romanoff and Thor notice him too and look surprised that they missed him. Fury's face fills with annoyance and disapproval.

Tony tries to stop Fury from stomping over to Goldie by saying, “You know, Goldie said that he will shove the stick that's up your ass into your remaining eye if you woke him up.”

Fury responds with, “I'll take my chances.”

He stomps over to Goldie and lifts his hand to presumably slam it on the desk. But he never gets that far before an old-fashioned throwing knife is thrown up toward Fury's face and sticks itself in the ceiling, leaving a shallow slice on the edge of Fury's ear.

Oh wow, Tony thinks. This kid is all bark and plenty of bite.

Chapter Text

Ed wakes up to his qi sense blaring alarm bells in his mind. When did so many people get into the lab? And why are they so angry and annoyed?

Not even five seconds later, he senses someone’s annoyance at him, they are stomping towards him and he reacts out of instinct. Before the person's fist can hit the table, Ed throws one of his knives past their head as a warning. Ed has had many people threaten his life when he is sleeping. This is nothing new. It's either strike first or die and Ed has never hesitated to strike first.

The traditional Xingian throwing knives are small enough that Ed can store them in his sleeves. They can be thrown in quarters of a second from their storing place; they are excellent for surprise attacks. Too bad he couldn't use them on Loki, projectiles didn't faze that guy.

But they work on regular humans. Checking who he threw his knife at, he turns his head to lock eyes to eye with Nick. Nick looks like he just shit himself, whether it's from the knife or the icy glare Ed is giving him, Ed doesn't really care at this point. Why do people keep waking him up?

“What do you want?” Ed asks in a low raspy voice.

Nick tries to take a deep breath to calm himself but it comes out stuttered and unsteady. He slowly lowers his fist that was frozen in the air and tries to speak, “I- I needed to speak with you about our deal.”

Ed thinks he was about to badger him about sleeping on the job, but the warning seemed to scare his complaint away. Saves Ed the trouble of arguing with him about it, he guesses.

Standing up from the desk and stretching his back, Ed walks over to where his knife is stuck in the ceiling. He reaches up and yanks it out to put it back in his sleeve. He turns back to Nick and motions for him to continue while he leans against one of the desks. Everyone's watching Ed with silence while Nick tries to put himself back together.

Nick walks over to the circle of people and faces Ed to talk. “I need you to be a part of this mission as an asset who will fight Loki's army if they ever arrive.”

If Ed wasn't fully awake before, he definitely is now. The deal isn't equal now. Is Nick trying to take advantage of him and his skills? Why the fuck does this shit keep happening to him? Can't Ed just get a break?

“Why?” Ed asks simply. He feels like he's putting up the same wall he would put up when talking to Truth. Don't give anything away and get as much info as possible.

“You have proved yourself exceptional at physical combat. Agent Barton and Captain Rogers were unable to get the upper hand on Loki. But you did, and managed to disarm him of his staff as well. I believe that you will be an excellent addition to the Avengers Initiative.” Nick says.

Everyone in the room looks surprised and looks at Ed with understanding on why Nick is acting this way. But Ed's glare hardens. Does this guy think he's an idiot? Ed has dealt with superior officers that can convince him better than that. Trying to appeal to Ed by complimenting him won't work. Ed knows that every one of his skills can be used against him, just like in this instance.

“What will I get in return?” Ed asks. If Nick thinks that Ed won't notice that their deal is uneven now, he is so wrong.

One of the people spectating them decided to interject their opinion. “Isn't helping people a reward by itself?” The colorful guy says. Ed somewhat recognizes him, maybe he's the Captain Rogers guy that Nick mentioned. That name also sounds familiar.

Ed levels at him with a blank stare and simply says, “No.” Rogers looks taken aback and Ed hears Stark snort somewhere to the side of him, but Ed ignores them and turns back to Nick with an expectant look.

Nick thinks for a moment and says, “You will have the same benefits as you do now and your work on the tesseract will be on hold while you work on this current mission.”

Scoffing, Ed stands up straight and crosses his arms to fully face himself at Nick . “So, to conclude, whether I'm working in a lab or risking my life in battle, the benefits are the same. That doesn't seem right.” Ed says with a mocking tilt to his voice.

Nick stays quiet like he was caught red-handed and he doesn't want to say anything that will be thrown right back at him. Too bad Ed has an idea, a very good idea.

“How about this,” Ed begins, “I will offer to help you stop Loki. But in return, you release me from your custody AND our previous deal is terminated.” He has taken everything he needs from Nick and SHIELD as a whole, he doesn’t need them anymore. He has plenty of experience of taking care of himself anyways.

“There will be others that will try to get a hold of you.” Nick insists, gaining back some of his confidence.

Too bad Ed is going to squash the confidence he just got. “What did you say again, I’m ‘exceptional at physical combat’? You would think that SHIELD would let me handle the problems myself instead of sticking their nose in everything if I can defend myself.” Ed says, smiling at how Nick’s mouth clicks shut and looks up, as if he’s praying.

Ed decides to continue, “Either I help you and YOU release me, or I permanently release MYSELF from your custody. Your choice.”

He gives Nick time to respond and leans back on the table again. It takes a few more seconds of silence until Nick gives his answer. “Fine.” He doesn’t look like he wanted to say that but too fucking bad, Ed doesn’t give a shit anymore.

“Good.” Ed says.

Nick puts aside their conversation and looks to the group of people around them. Ed kind of forgot they were there, he was so focused on bargaining his freedom back. Honestly, one of the only good things about working at SHIELD other than the plethora of information was Clint. The other people Ed worked with gave him a skeptical look wherever he went because he wasn’t from Earth. Nick decided that being a foreigner was information that he could tell everybody. Ed kind of hates him for that too. For being in a secret organization, he simultaneously has a big mouth and is annoyingly vague.

“Um… back to what I was saying,” Natasha decides to interject and continue her previous point about Bruce, “Loki is after Banner and we need to get him as far away from Loki as possible.” She orders.

Ed asks Nick, “Where did you put Loki?”

Nick looks at him weirdly and his qi is curious. “In the advanced cell block near the back of the ship.” Ed’s eyes widen at that and his anger grows because of everyone's stupidity. How did they not think that was an awful idea?!

“You’re a fucking idiot.” Ed grounds out while he covers his face with his hand.

“Excuse me?” Nick asks, attitude growing.

Natasha looks like she regrets starting their argument but Ed is glad that she did, who knows how long they have until shit goes wrong? Ed needs to fix this and he needs to fix this now. He drags his hands off his face and glares at Nick.

“So, you’re telling me, you brought him exactly where he wanted.” Everyone looks confused including Nick so Ed decides to continue. “He got caught on purpose you dumb fuck. You brought him to your base where his scepter is. Not only did you lead his companions to his us where they can take us out without us knowing, you put everyone on a ship that can easily be shot out of the GODDAMN SKY! Clint is more clever than you give him credit for and can easily make this giant piece of scrap fall into the ocean if he wills it to.”

Panic surges in everyone's qi and it almost gives Ed a headache with how strong it is. At least they understand how their idiotic actions are now.

Nick runs out of the room giving orders into his earpiece and leaves it plunged in silence. Ed decides to take over giving orders because Nick basically just abandoned them to do hell knows what. He sighs, “Alright,” Turning to the group, he can tell that Bruce is the one here who is the most terrified and plans to fix that. “Thor, Stark, and Rogers I need you guys to head to the deck and prepare for any unfamiliar guests.” He then turns to the ones he didn’t give orders to yet. “Me and Natasha will stick with Bruce to make sure he’s safe.”

Ed decided to keep Bruce with the two people he feels the most comfortable with. Hopefully that will make him calm down a little more. Ed’s not used to leading people but this whole group looks lost so he reluctantly volunteered himself.

“Why do we have to take orders from you?” Thor asks.

This guy… “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I thought that it would be better if you were out doing something productive, like stopping an attack on the ship rather than standing around like a bunch of lost puppies.” Ed is really on his last leg right now. Are all these people idiots? “If you have any better ideas, shoot.”

That seems to shut him up, but it seems that Thor wasn’t the only one with something to say. “What about Loki?” Natasha asks.

FINALLY, someone else with common sense. “Good point,” He says, then turns back to Thor and changes his orders, “Thor, keep his leash on him.”

Surprisingly, Thor nods and turns around to walk out of the room. Ed took him for someone who had a God complex like Loki does, but Thor seems to be more subdued. That probably comes with being friendly with humans, he only puts himself slightly above them.

Ed turns to face Stark and Rogers because they haven't moved their asses. Stark doesn't seem worried in the slightest but Rogers looks like he wants to say something. Ed raises an expectant eyebrow at them.

Roger’s qi is filled with displeasure and Ed has no idea why. Does he not like following orders? That doesn't really make sense because he is literally a captain. Maybe it's just Ed. It wouldn't be the first time that someone didn't follow his orders because he was younger than them and didn't take him seriously.

“Fury mentioned you have similar experience as I do.” Rogers says hesitantly.

Ed has no idea what he's getting at. He notices that Stark's qi fills with understanding. “And?”

Rogers seems to be thinking hard about something and Ed just wishes that he would hurry up because their role is the most important in the orders he gave.

“What rank are you?” Rogers finally asks.

Oh, he's trying to figure out if he needs to follow orders out of military obligation. He would need to follow Ed's orders if Ed was a higher rank than him. But Ed has never been in the American military or any military on earth. Ed doesn't tell him that though.

“Major.” Ed says, and Rogers tenses and goes to salute but Ed stops him. “I was discharged. You don't need to follow my orders but I highly suggest you do.” Rogers relaxes. “I'm only giving you guys orders because Nick bailed on us and you looked unsure.”

Ed knows that he wants to keep talking to Ed, but he keeps his mouth shut and acknowledges his orders. “Yes, Sir.”

Grimacing at the ‘Sir’ part, Ed waves him off. Rogers turns to Stark who offers an impressed glance at Ed, and they walk to leave the lab. Ed breathes a sigh of relief and stands next to Bruce who looks unsure about the situation. Natasha regards him with a blank face but her qi is curious and suspicious.

“What a great way to wake up.” Ed says sarcastically, and stops to stand right in front of the staff on the table. “Do you think I can just continue napping and let them handle it?” He asks hopefully, mostly to lighten the mood for Bruce and Natasha.

Bruce huffs out a nervous laugh and responds, “I don't think they would be happy about that, you have a responsibility now. You can take a nap once this is all over.”

Ed grumbles under his breath and looks out the window past the table in front of him. He really hopes that Stark and Rogers have gotten to the deck already. The faster they get these guys, the quicker Ed is free from SHIELD.

The computer on the other side of the room pings and Bruce quickly walks over to it. Ed and Natasha follow him to see what the pings were for. When Ed gets a look at the screen, he doesn’t know what he’s seeing, but clearly Bruce does. “Oh my god.” He says quietly as an explosion is heard in the distance.

The qi of incoming danger is blaring in Ed’s head. Ed's instincts go into survival mode. He tries to pull Bruce away from the window and tells Natasha to get away as well but he’s too late. Ed tries to position himself between them and the windows. The three of them are pushed back from the explosion coming from the vents in the center of the room on the floor. They fly through the windows and land in a lower equipment room.

Ed can feel the hairs on the back of his head singe and his ears start ringing when he lands. It takes him a second to gather himself, so when he does, he’s surprised to feel that there is a cut on the back of his head. Head injuries bleed an obnoxious amount but he doesn't have time to deal with it right now.

Ed landed on his back with Bruce on top of him and he groans at the weight. He’s had worse falls than this but it still wasn’t a good one. He maneuvers Bruce off of him and searches for Natasha, she’s talking into her earpiece and reporting that they are okay to someone on the other side of it.

His body goes rigid as he feels Bruce’s hold on his anger slipping. Ed sits up and gets a better view of them. Natasha’s leg is stuck under a pipe and Bruce is breathing heavily on the floor.

“We’re okay, right?” She asks nervously.

Ed takes a deep breath and answers her. “We’re okay.” He tries to talk in the most calm and collected voice he can imagine and it seems to work on Natasha for the most part. Even though he can feel blood dripping down his neck, it can wait, he’s mostly fine anyway.

He stands up and leaves Bruce alone for the moment and lifts the pipe off Natasha’s leg, setting her free. He looks her dead in the eye and says with a stern voice, “Go help the others with anything you can do. I’ll deal with him.” He points to Bruce who is slowly getting more and more out of control.

She hesitates but reluctantly stands up and shoos away a few workers who were coming this way. She follows them away but not without looking back at Ed and Bruce. He gives her a reassuring nod and she turns and hurries away.

Taking another deep breath, Ed turns to Bruce who is slowly getting more and more green and bigger in size. His shirt is ripping and the green skin underneath is peaking through the cracks. Ed really hopes that his pants are more durable than his shirt.

Ed’s not afraid of green monsters. Nothing could beat Envy’s gigantic form and it makes Bruce’s form look like a teddy bear.

Ed also knows how to calm someone down. He did it so many times with Al when they were in Xing and it is one of the main reasons Ed recovered as quickly as he did. Using his qi to influence others does not only have to be used with intimidation. There is a range of emotions Ed can influence people with, and this is one of the moments that it will come in handy.

Moving in front of Bruce and taking his green face in his hands, Ed lets out all of the calm emotions he can manage and focuses them on Bruce. He can’t let Bruce run away, it will only get worse if he does. Ed needs to deal with this here and now.

Bruce tries to fight away and is moving all over the place, but Ed doesn’t stop. Ed is staring into Bruce’s eyes and keeps his expression natural. Freaking out will only make Bruce freak out, staying calm will help both of them. This is exactly what Ed and Al did to each other when they either had a nightmare or a panic attack. It was like magic each time and Ed really hopes that it will work for Bruce too.

“Bruce,” Ed whispers with a gentle voice over Bruce’s grunting and heavy breathing, “breathe for me. Deep breaths.”

He demonstrates by taking a big breath in, holding it, and releasing it. Bruce is continuing to pull himself from Ed’s grasp, but like hell will Ed ever let go. Bruce needs his help right now and Ed is going to give it to him.

The growing and greenifying slows down but it doesn’t stop completely. Ed has to stand on his knees to meet Bruce’s eye now but he can still see and feel parts of Bruce still in there. “Good, good.” Bruce is doing such a good job right now so he gives Bruce a small smile. “In and out.”

Ed keeps his breathing even and audible to help Bruce join. Bruce eventually stops trying to pull away and looks Ed directly in the eyes without looking away constantly. It might have been because Bruce noticed that Ed isn’t scared of him or doesn’t shame him for what he looks like, but either way, Ed takes it as an improvement.

He looks so scared that Ed’s urge to help him increases tenfold. Ed doesn’t want him to be scared of this part of himself, even though Bruce doesn’t consider a part of himself and keeps calling it ‘the other guy’. Maybe this experience will help him gain some confidence to let go a little and gain some control. The more scared of it Bruce is, the less control he will have over it.

Bruce’s breathing is still heavy and exaggerated so Ed continues. “Breathe, Bruce. In-” Ed breathes in, “and out.” He does as he says and hears that Bruce is trying to do the same so he keeps going.

Ed continues this process for a few minutes and encourages Bruce when he successfully manages to slow down his breathing somewhat. As Bruce shrinks down to his normal size and skin tone, Ed pulls him into a hug. He did so good and Ed is so proud of him. The qi influence works stronger the closer Ed is and the more focused he is on his target, so Bruce relaxes further.

When he’s sure that ‘the other guy’ is gone, Bruce embraces Ed back, very hard. Ed feels as though Bruce is holding onto him like a lifeline. He sympathizes with Bruce for not having anyone who could be there for him to calm him down. Most people can’t do what Ed has just done and Bruce must feel like Ed did the impossible.

“I didn’t know I could reverse it like that.” Bruce whispers into Ed’s shoulder.

Ed smiles to himself and whispers back, “You learn something new everyday, right? Had to fill up the quota for today.”

Bruce pulls back and looks Ed in the eye with the most happiness that Ed has seen come from him. Ed smiles back with warmth, he’s so proud of this guy. Then he notices Bruce's shirt and frowns. It’s tattered to bits and it’s barely hanging on him. Ed pulls off his red hoodie that he stole from one of the supply closets and hands it over. This confuses Bruce until he looks down at himself and takes the hoodie with his head down. Ed can see the hint of a blush from the embarrassment but ignores it.

Ed is left with only his thin, black, tight turtleneck shirt on and wishes he had worn more layers. He hopes that nobody looks too close at his right arm or else they will notice the harsh edges and indents on it. He will be fucked if he has to go into battle without getting another layer on first because this thing will rip super easily, and shiny metal where someone’s arm should be is pretty damn noticeable.

But Bruce needs it. The hoodie is all Ed has as a reward for how hard Bruce worked to calm himself down. Ed needs to remember to get something later that is better. Maybe some food or cool science shit. Damn, his big brother tendencies really kicked in with Bruce, didn’t they?

Once Bruce pulls the hoodie over his head, Ed feels himself lean to the side without him willing to. The panic of every person on the ship hits Ed like a truck, and with his head injury, it feels as though his brain is going to leak out of his nose.

It takes him a second to figure out everyone’s panic and why Ed and Bruce are sliding across the floor to slam into a wall.

Oh, shit. The ship is falling out of the goddamn sky just like he predicted. What is everyone doing? He really hopes that they are actually doing something and not evacuating the ship to leave him and Bruce to fend for themselves.

Ed looks over to Bruce to see how he’s doing and, thankfully, he’s not turning green again but looks like he’s going to shit himself. He looks terrified as he meets Ed’s gaze. Damn, Bruce is not used to high stakes situations like Ed is. He’s basically a normal person on this ship.

He decides that this is another moment where he has to step up and help Bruce because he doesn’t know how to handle situations like this. Standing up from the floor, he offers a hand to Bruce and when he takes it, pulls him up.

Ed really wishes that he had one of those earpieces so he can figure out where they need help and what the situation is, but he’ll just have to improvise.

Deciding to find out if Thor is doing his job, Ed turns to Bruce and asks, “Do you want to stick with me or go to the control room where you can help out more there?”

Bruce’s qi turns confused, but then he must realize that Ed isn’t going anywhere that might be safe. He puts on a determined look, but Ed can tell that he’s still scared about being a liability if Ed isn’t there to calm him down. “I’ll go to the control room, I might be able to help get another engine back online. I don’t know how many we lost but it must be at least two if we’re going down.”

“Good luck.” Ed says with a proud smile.

He gives Ed a smile back and walks toward a set of stairs that should lead to the connecting floors. Ed tries to head to the detention block by following Thor and Loki’s qi, but with so many people’s qi that are strong with panic, it’s pretty damn difficult.

Eventually, he reaches the detention block to see Phil on the ground leaning against the wall with what looks like a serious chest injury. The cell that was supposed to contain Loki is now gone and Loki and Thor are nowhere to be seen.

Ed sprints over to Phil to look at how bad the injury is. Phil is having trouble breathing and blood is slowly trickling out of his mouth. Ed deducts that he was stabbed through the chest and his heart and lungs are in danger of failing. He thanks his lucky stars that he studied way too many types of medical sciences in Xing or else this would be impossible.

He looks Phil in the eyes with a serious look and tries to limit the threat on Ed’s safety if Phil told anyone what he is about to do. “If you tell anyone about this, I will cut out your tongue so you won’t be able to tell anyone anything ever again.” Phil hesitantly nods, his qi is filled with fear and confusion but Ed has no time to think about that. Ed centers himself and blocks out any distractions in his mind.

Putting his hands together in front of him and feeling the power that alchemy brings, makes Ed feel like he’s finally whole again. He could use it for months after he got it back, he still needs to keep it a secret until he fulfills his end of Nick’s deal. But feeling it again has him smiling excitedly.

He settles one of his hands on Phil's chest where the injury is and focuses. Healing with Xingian alkahestry is basically bordering human transmutation but it bypasses the gate and soul. It takes its energy from the one being healed and the one healing. Unlike what Ed did to heal himself in the collapsed mine with a pipe through his gut, this takes energy from people’s cells. The energy that food and water gives humans can be controlled and focused on one specific spot to make it heal faster.

That is exactly what Ed is doing, speeding up the process and focusing the energy on a specific spot. Of course, he needs to have knowledge of what he’s healing in order to heal it right, but Ed doesn’t have to worry about that. Xing had amazing human research and applied their skills to keep growing them. Ed almost wished he learned those things in Amestris so he didn’t have to spend a decade of his life in one go when healing himself the stupid way.

Ed keeps his eyes closed to focus on what he’s healing and to not distract himself with whatever Phil’s expression might look like. But when he’s finished, he pulls his hand away. It's covered in blood but that doesn’t matter right now, what matters is if he did everything right.

When he looks up at Phil, he stops short. Phil is looking at him with a childlike wonder in his eyes. Damn, he might not snitch but that doesn’t mean Phil won’t bug him about it. Ed looks back down at Phils chest and looks over his work. Thankfully, everything looks fine. There is a massive scar but Phil's breathing is even again and his pulse is steady.

Ed goes to stand up but his right knee buckles under him. He has to steady himself on the wall in order to not fall on top of Phil, who is still looking at him with awe. His head feels too light and his legs feel too heavy, he has to drop his head and take deep breaths in order to not pass out. He is reminded of his head injury when it throbs violently. He doesn’t have the energy to heal it right now so he ignores it.

He’s not in the best condition but he manages to not pass out and collect himself enough to stand up straight. Just in time too, because Nick sprints into the room a second later. Once he spots Ed and Phil, he walks over to them and immediately knees in front of Phil. Ed gives Phil a stern look that he hopes conveys to ‘keep your mouth shut’. And, thankfully Phil does.

Once Nick decides that Phil is okay, he turns to Ed and says, “I need you in the control room.”

Ed sighs and nods. He can’t just take a minute to relax can he?

Chapter Text

Stepping into the control room and looking toward the big obnoxiously shaped table, Ed sees that Rogers, Stark, and Bruce are already there.

Once Bruce notices that Ed entered the room, he's on Ed like a snake. Bruce immediately grabs Ed's shoulders to turn him around. Ed is super confused until gentle hands prod at where he assumes is his head wound.

Ah, Bruce is worrying over him. Man… this makes Bruce really resemble Al right now. Al was really the only one who worried over him.

“I knew something was up when I felt the back of the hoodie wet with blood.” Bruce grumbles. “Why didn't you tell me you split your head open?”

At this point, they gathered the attention of Rogers and Stark, but Fury, who came in behind Ed, doesn't seem to care about whatever is going on. “I didn't split my head open.” Ed tries to defend himself, “It's just a little scratch.”

Stark had gotten up from his chair while Ed was talking and rounded Bruce to get a better look at Ed's injury. Ed can tell his qi is concerned but he's doing a really good job hiding it.

“Yeah, well, that ‘little scratch’ is still leaking like a faucet. I'm surprised you haven't passed out yet, Goldie.” Stark comments.

Ed huffs. “As much as I would love to go back to sleep, I don't think now’s a great time.” He looks back at Stark and Bruce. “I'm fine, seriously.”

Both of them look doubtful so Ed decides to lessen their worries at least a little bit. He turns to Nick and reluctantly asks, “Do you have a med kit around here somewhere?”

Nick doesn't bat an eye when he points at a door off to the side. Ed sighs and goes through it to see a plethora of medical equipment on multiple tables. It doesn't look like a medical station, it looks like people moved medical equipment here because too many people were injured for them to go to the actual medical station. Either way, Ed's not complaining, so he grabs what he will need to stitch up his head and goes back to the control room.

When he gets back, Nick is in the middle of what looks like a speech about the Avengers Initiative. Once Nick mentions Phil and his ideas about heroes, Ed almost scoffs. Nick is one slick bastard.

Ed walks back to the table and sits down next to Bruce.

The title of hero only exists to those who are awarded it by the people. Heroes are thrown under the bus whenever they can't do something or something goes wrong. The expectations of being a hero are impossible to continuously achieve. Nick wants them to be heroes that follow orders and be public figures. It is not them who are making the decisions, it's Nick. He can control the media however he wants, if either of them do something he doesn't like, he can destroy their image in a heartbeat.

Ed has already seen what people can do to a public figure. No matter how much good they have done, their image can be destroyed way too easily. One inkling of doubt can create chaos. Nick is only asking us one thing: what would we rather endure, following orders or the wrath of the citizens?

There is no point of saying his thoughts out loud because the three who need to make a decision have already made it. Ed doesn't have a choice in the matter since he and Nick have a deal.

The room is silent after Nick is done talking so Ed busies himself with cleaning his wound. It's kind of hard to clean it when the blood dried his hair stuck to it, but he makes due. When he's done cleaning it, he grabs another cloth and some rubbing alcohol and pours a generous amount on the cloth.

Ed rubs the soaked cloth against the back of his head. The pain isn't too bad, when he said it was a little scratch, he wasn't lying. The wound feels like it has finally stopped bleeding, but Ed should still get some water in him before he has to go back into battle.

“I don't find it fair that Goldie has to fight either way if we decline or not because you didn't give him a choice not to.” Stark says suddenly, breaking the silence.

Huh?

“I agree.” Bruce chimes in from next to him. “If we choose not to fight, Ed has to do it by himself.”

Ed looks over at Bruce and Tony with wide eyes. THAT'S why they are choosing to fight? Because of Ed? That's an awful reason!

“Um… as much as I appreciate the help, you guys should find a different reason to get involved in this. I don't want you to put the blame on me if we lose.” Ed says while pulling the cloth from his head and grabbing the staple gun that will staple his wound closed.

“I'm going to fight because there are people on the streets that will be in danger if we don't stop Loki.” Rogers determinedly says. “We just need to find out where Loki will open up the portal for his army to arrive.”

“Edward.” Nick looks expectantly at Ed. “You predicted what Loki's plan was when we captured him. Do you have any ideas on where he would open up a portal?”

Ed thinks for a second. “Well… there are only three places where his army can come from; the sky, land, or underground. He wants it to be where everyone will be able to see it, so underground is unlikely and land is less flashy. The portal will likely be opened in the sky and the cube will be at a high vantage point. He will also try to stomp on someone else's image in the process to create chaos and fear.” Ed pauses. He doesn't know any places like that because he doesn't know much about Earth. “Does anybody know a place like that?”

“You just perfectly described Stark Towers.” Stark says like it's funny but also absolutely terrifying at the same time.

Rogers interrupts their discussion with a question for Ed. “How do you know so much about Loki’s actions?” He sounds suspicious and Ed doesn’t really know why. He’s giving them Loki’s plan on a silver platter, what more does Rogers want?

“I'm surprised you don't.” Ed scoffs. “You spent most of your military career chasing a crazy person, you would think you would start to understand how their thought process works.”

“I tried not to think about what went on in his head.” Rogers defends.

“No wonder it took you years to get the crazy fucker.” Ed mumbles loud enough for Rogers to hear.

Rogers looks offended by his last statement and says, “How many crazy people have you gone after, since you seem to be such an expert?”

“Oh man, I can't even count there were so many.” Ed looks up at the ceiling and tries to mentally come up with an estimate of all the ones he’s gone after. Even counting the homunculi and Kimblee, there are so many rogue alchemists that Ed needed to hunt down throughout his career. For being a country with war all around it, nobody really talked about the war it had with itself and the increase in crime.

Rogers stops to think for a moment and Ed can tell there is more on his mind. Ed scraps his counting and takes this moment to ask Bruce if he can use the staple gun to staple his wound closed. He can’t really reach behind himself to do it. He could really just heal it with alchemy, but there are too many people and cameras around for that. He also needs to go into battle in a while and he doesn’t want it to open while he’s fighting.

CAMERAS! Ed totally forgot about the cameras in Loki’s cell room where Ed healed Phil. He’s such an IDIOT! Thankfully, Nick either didn’t check the footage or didn’t watch long enough to see what Ed did. His qi isn’t curious enough to conclude that he saw what Ed did. Either way, Ed needs to hope that Nick will actually let him go free once he completes his end of the deal.

Ed pushes aside his internal panic and focuses on Bruce positioning himself behind Ed. He chose Bruce to do this because Bruce is the one he trusts the most and has the most straightforward qi out of the other people in this room, other than the whole ‘always angry’ thing. If, at any point, any one of these people try to capture him or worse, Ed won’t hesitate to steal a jet.

“Ready?” Bruce asks. Ed can sense that he feels guilty, but he doesn’t know how to fix that.

“Yep.” Ed answers and pops the p to act nonchalant. Getting staples in his head isn’t really a big deal so he doesn’t have to act that hard.

Ed feels Bruce pinch the skin then press the staple gun against it until a snap echoes throughout the room. This repeats for six more times until Bruce decides that it won’t open up any time soon. When Bruce was doing his thing, Ed didn’t twitch, move, or make any sound the whole time. He stared at the table in front of him and zoned out until it was over.

He unconsciously goes into that zone when he knows pain is coming. It saved him from the sessions lasting longer than he can handle. Giving people no reaction leaves them unsatisfied, that was one of the reasons Ed has mellowed out throughout the years. Not reacting to taunts, insults, or threats was what kept him alive for as long as he did in that place.

Blinking rapidly to shake himself out of that state, he stands up and gathers his rages and alcohol and takes the staple gun from Bruce. As he’s walking back to where he got them Rogers asks him a question.

“Were you a prisoner of war during your service?” Ed stops so fast that his shoe squeaks against the floor. “I only knew POWs who reacted to pain like that.”

Ed’s breathing picks up and his heart is beating in his chest so hard it feels like it will crawl its way out. He was just trying to not think about Drachma too hard and Roger went and fucked it up. The attention of the other people in the rooms isn't helping in the slightest. He’s at least thankful that his hands are full because he has the subconscious impulse to scratch at his neck. The memories of needles and whips come to the forefront of his mind and he’s having trouble pushing them away.

It takes a few seconds of silence before Ed has the confidence to speak again without risking his throat closing up mid sentence. But when he does, he turns around and levels Rogers with his most feared glare that made generals piss themselves. “Mind your own damn business, Rogers.” He threatens in a low voice.

Ed doesn’t bother using his qi influence to get a double hit on him, he just wants to get out of there where nobody can ask him sensitive questions. He books it out the door and leaves them to figure shit out themselves. Ed offered his two cents, they can sort out the rest. Because of this, Ed misses the horrified looks from all of them, even Nick. If Ed stayed, he would have witnessed Bruce and Stark leveling their own glares at Rogers.

But, since he didn’t stay, Ed left to try to gather himself while dumping all the stuff in his hands on a table and finding his way to an arsenal and possibly a supply closet. After that, a bathroom because those don't have any cameras in them and Ed needs a place to ride out his anxiety attack.

----------------------------------------

Bruce doesn’t like this Steve Rogers guy.

He isn’t an expert with emotions, but even he knows to not ask a question like that to someone you haven’t met properly. Bruce is pretty sure that he’s been there for all of Ed and Roger’s interactions, and they were not friendly in the slightest.

To Bruce, Ed didn’t look threatening when he told Rogers to mind his business, he looked scared. Ed didn’t even answer the question either, so it is a high possibility that it was confirmation that he was a POW. Someone as young as Ed being in the military alone was shocking, adding the POW experience stacked on top is just cruel.

How Ed responded to having his wound stapled shut was also concerning, he just… turned off. His eyes lost the life in them and he just accepted it like it was a familiar friend that he’s seen too many times. This makes Bruce think that Ed could have been tortured while a POW. He hates to think about it, but it makes sense.

Ed doesn’t act like someone who experienced something like that. Usually, people who go through something traumatic like that tend to lash out at the world. But, Ed acts like the opposite. Of course, Bruce hasn’t known him to be completely sure, but it seems like Ed has embraced what happened to him and put it in the past. It has clearly still had an impact on him and he is still possibly healing, but he has learned to deal with it in a healthy way.

Bruce thinks back to everything about Ed that might have given it away other than the reaction to pain. The turtle neck and gloves might be connected to it, but that might be a reach. Honestly, Bruce can’t think of anything else that might have given it away. Clearly, Ed doesn’t want that fact to be known about him if he doesn’t show it and reacts that strongly when asked about it.

Next to him, Stark is fuming and Bruce is glad he’s not the only one. From what he knows so far, Ed is one of the smartest, kindest, and most beautiful people he has ever met. He helped Bruce calm down when he didn’t even have the obligation to, and he didn't choose to run away.

Ed did something weird during that time, it felt like he put a warm blanket over Bruce and was feeling what Ed was feeling, which was calm. Bruce is fascinated about what Ed did, but he can ask him later. Right now, he needs to know why Rogers thought it was appropriate to ask a highly sensitive question to Ed. But Stark beats him to it by asking the first question.

“Was that really necessary?”

Bruce is surprised how Stark isn't climbing over the table and using Rogers as a punching bag by how mad he sounds. He thought Stark was one to control his emotions in every circumstance, but he has been proven wrong.

“Yes, it was.” Rogers admits.

Stark and Bruce are taken aback by that answer. In what world would Rogers need to ask that question to make Ed feel like he needed to escape from the situation? Ed made Bruce feel safe around him, Ed doesn't deserve everyone suspecting him every corner he turns.

“And why is that?” Bruce and Stark say in unison. They are feeling the same rage and Rogers doesn't seem to notice.

“He never said what country he fought for or what side he was on. He must be in Fury's custody for a reason and I needed to see if he was speaking the truth. Getting people emotional is one way to do that.” Rogers explains, like what he did was noble and logical.

Is this what Ed felt in the lab when he called all of them out on their stupid mistake of bringing Loki on the ship? Bruce feels like Rogers is missing a few brain cells, but knows that he didn't stay long enough to read Ed's file so he doesn't know Ed like Bruce and Stark do.

“Captain.” Fury interjects. Bruce forgot he was still there to be perfectly honest. “I apologize for not informing you sooner, but Edward isn't from Earth. When I said he has some of the same experience as you, I meant that in a military sense and a time traveling sense. He stated that he was born in 1899, which makes him 113, and older than you.”

Rogers looks down at his folded hands on the table. He doesn't have a guilty expression on, which makes Bruce feel like he should need more sense talked into him.

“Why was he in your custody?” Rogers acts like Fury will give him an acceptable answer. Too bad for him, Ed did nothing wrong from the start.

“He arrived in the research room where we held the tesseract. I took him into custody to test if he was trustworthy.” Fury answers.

“Has he proven himself?” Rogers asks. He's digging for an excuse for his actions.

Fury thinks for a moment and leans on the back of a chair. “As far as I can tell, he is the type of person to help others without needing to receive anything in return. He approached Agent Barton soon after he arrived here and gave him advice about his job. Not to quit exactly, but to find one that benefits him the most and one that he is happy with.” Fury pauses. “Edward has given me every reason to trust him, and that is the reason why I don't.”

“I am aware he is hiding many things from me, and I have yet to find them out. One thing I do know is that Edward could be extremely dangerous.” Fury finishes.

Dangerous? Ed doesn’t seem dangerous, he just looks like a normal young man (except the obvious blinding beauty).

“Dangerous in what way?” Stark asks skeptically.

Fury exhales through his nose. “I don't know what it is, but Agent Barton knows what I’m talking about. If you work together with Edward, he might trust you enough to tell you.”

Bruce doesn't blame Ed for not trusting Fury, even Bruce doesn't trust him. He looks toward Rogers and even though he still looks justified with his actions, there is a hint of doubt.

Stark still looks unsatisfied by Fury's answer and Bruce is the same. He really hopes that Fury offers his end of Ed’s deal. If not, he’s sure that Stark will back him up with helping Ed get out.

----------------------------------------

Ed is exhausted.

Not only is he running on only a few hours of sleep in the last few days, his anxiety attack really took a lot out of him. Damn Rogers, he just had to open his big mouth.

Ed ended up stealing a leather jacket from a supply closet and some extra knives and also a gun (just in case) from a nearby arsenal. He's still uncomfortable with using guns in actual battle, he's had plenty of practice thanks to Riza, but he doesn't want to kill anybody. However, he needs a last resort no matter how much he doesn't like it.

The leather jacket he stole is thick enough to cover the contours of his right arm. Ed chose the jacket because of the many pockets in it to store all his knives. With the red hoodie, he had to sew his own secret pockets.

Once Ed calmed down enough to actually think about something other than what Rogers asked and the memories it brought up, he notices that there are two more people who joined Nick, Bruce, Stark, and Rogers at the table in the control room.

Internally groaning, he drags himself back to them. He really doesn't want to face everybody after what happened. And he kind of feels bad at snapping at Rogers that venomously. He should probably apologize when he gets back, he thinks that's what Al would want him to do, but only if Rogers apologized too.

Damn, he misses Al. Half a year in and his first stone was stolen by some crazy person. He better get that thing back and keep it away from people until he can destroy it. Thor isn't from Earth, right? Maybe Ed can ask him to take him to a desolate planet to destroy the tesseract in case it blows up.

Arriving at the control room, Ed immediately clocks Clint next to Natasha. When their eyes meet, a sheepish smile appears on Ed's face. He kind of forgot about the crotch kick he landed on Clint. He needs to apologize for that too.

But before Ed can get a word in, Clint walks over to him and pulls him into a crushing hug. This is surprising for Ed because Clint isn't one to do physical touch with people and the last time they saw each other Ed almost prevented him from ever having kids in the future.

Ed stands there for a second being crushed and he doesn't know what to do. Does he hug back? Does he apologize? Is Clint going to stab him in the back for what he did? No, Clint's qi shows that he won't hurt him. Then why is Clint hugging him? Ed's so confused.

“Um…” Ed mumbles. He doesn't know what to say and Clint's qi isn't giving away very much other than worry and relief. Why is he worried, and why is he relieved?

Clint pulls back and stares at Ed with a glare. Ed flinches at the look and brakes himself to endure Clint's payback. But the hit never comes. Clint just sighs and holds him by the shoulders at arms length.

“You couldn't have aimed for a different spot, could you?” Clint says while cracking a smile.

Ed relaxes at the friendly tone and the sheepish smile grows back on his face. “Nick would have gotten mad at me for breaking one of his favorite toys if I aimed anywhere else or hit any harder.”

Clint gasps and puts his hand to his chest in fake shock. “I always knew I was one of his favorites. Fury has such a way with emotions.” Ed can sense Clint's qi fill with amusement.

God, he missed Clint. “I know,” Ed plays along and puts on a thoughtful expression. “His facial expressions are so vast, it's like you know exactly what he's thinking.”

Clint breaks first and starts laughing. Ed cracks his first real smile since Loki showed up and it feels refreshing. He considers Clint a real friend even when he had to keep many things from him. Ed knows that Clint has to tell Nick everything he learns about Ed, but Clint is still a great guy.

He's too preoccupied with Clint laughing that he misses everyone's looks of awe. It's their first time seeing Ed actually smile and it makes their hearts stop for a second. It's like the room is lit up and the warmth of the sun is shining down on them.

It doesn't take long for Ed to notice the attention on him and his smile fades to an uncomfortable one while he looks down to avoid their gazes. Clint notices this and his laughing goes quiet, he dismisses the glances and continues to talk to Ed like everyone isn’t staring at them.

“You didn’t get into trouble while I was gone did you?”

Ed scoffs. “Who, me? Of course I didn’t, that would be a stupid thing to do.”

Somewhere in the group watching them, Stark says, “He split his head open.”

Clint’s eyes go wide and his qi instantly transforms to panic. He grabs Ed’s shoulders and turns him around, just like Bruce did to get a better look at the wound.

Ed sends a playful glare at Stark without moving his head too much. “Traitor.” Stark puts his hands up innocently.

He sighs and turns his attention back to what Clint is doing. “Bruce helped me fix it up and it's fine now, it wasn’t even that bad.”

Clint takes his hands away from the back of Ed’s head and gives him a deadpan look. “I bet you're the type to break a bone and walk it off like nothing happened.”

Ed looks away with a guilty expression. He has done that so many times that all of team Mustang had to do a medical check after every mission because he ignored cuts, broken bones, concussions, and other wounds to the point that they were annoyed at him.

Clint sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You have, haven’t you?”

“Maybe…” Ed says, still not looking at Clint. “But in my defense, they didn't hurt that bad. I could have just walked them off until they healed.”

Now Clint looks shocked. Ed doesn’t know what he said to shock him but he’s guessing he’ll find out soon enough.

“‘They’? As in, more than one?” Oh, that part. Clint sighs. “That’s it. You are no longer allowed to medically evaluate yourself, you need someone else to do it in order to make me believe you’re fine or not.” He determinedly says while crossing his arms.

Ed’s face drops. “You’re just being an asshole on purpose now.”

The mischievous glint in Clint’s eye shines too brightly for Ed’s liking. “Too bad, Goldie.”

Throwing his arms up in the air out of exasperation, Ed turns his attention back to the group who he knows was listening to their whole conversation, even if some of them try to hide it. “So, you guys come up with a plan?” Ed asks.

Turns out, their plan consists of going to Stark Towers and stopping Loki. Ed has never heard a more vague plan in his entire life. Even he and Al could come up with something more concise, and that's saying something.

Working with these people is going to be the death of him.

Chapter Text

Clint is worried about Ed.

He looks like he hasn't eaten or slept since they last saw each other and that was a few days ago. Clint knew Ed wasn't the type to completely take care of himself, but this is extreme.

When Clint first met Ed, he was incredibly skeptical. Ed was a mystery, he dropped into a top secret lab and stated that he didn't know how he got there. But once Clint got the opportunity to learn who he really was, he considers Ed a good friend.

Ed was kind and offered advice from a short life but with plenty of experience in a variety of things. He had the wisdom of an old man but his sense of humor rivaled Clint’s, and his attitude toward certain things can be scarily close to Director Fury.

Like Clint said, Ed's a mystery.

He doesn't understand why Ed wouldn't take care of himself. He looks toward Ed nodding off in the Quinjet heading to Stark Towers and wonders. Throughout the time Ed worked in the previous lab, he got skinnier and more tired. It was like sleeping and eating was something that wasn't necessary for him. But the weird thing is that Ed looks to have at least some muscle on him that is from keeping up on exercise. Clint can't see much of Ed when all of his body is covered except for his face, but it is quite easy to tell when someone is standing on their last legs.

Why would Ed do this to himself? What was so important that sleep was not on his priority list? Ed seemed so knowledgeable about taking care of other people, but does he know how to take care of himself? Could it be that he stopped taking care of himself because he thinks there is no one that will care if he doesn't, or that there is no one to keep him in check and remind him that there is.

God, Clint might just be the only person that Ed knows that is close to him enough to care. The only people that Ed might be close to is the people who he used to share a lab with and Fury. Clint knows that Fury doesn't care about Ed, only about If he's a threat or not. And the lab people got transferred somewhere else and Ed might never see them again. Clint doesn't even think that they were that close to begin with, though.

Clint knows that Ed keeps things from him because Fury ordered him to report any info Ed shares about himself, and Clint doesn't blame him. Honestly, he wants Ed to keep things from him so he doesn't have to tell Fury. The less Fury knows, the less he can use against Ed. Clint just wants Ed to be free, and he's proud of Ed making the decision to risk his life for his freedom, even if he never wanted Ed to need to go that far to get it.

He doesn't know if Ed is able to fight in the state that he is in and is worried Ed will pass out mid battle. He knows Ed can hold his own, sadly, from personal experience, but for how long?

When they get about half a mile from Stark Towers, Ed stops nodding off and sits up straight. He doesn’t look any kind of drowsy, he looks fully ready to go into battle. How many times has Ed needed to make that switch so it becomes seamless now? Clint is curious about just how much battle experience Ed has, because five years in the military does not create the experience that Ed has. What has Ed’s life been like in his world?

Before Clint can think too hard about Ed’s past, within the minute of approaching their destination, Stark needs assistance in losing some of the weird flying alien things chasing him. Clint and Nat do their best to get rid of some of them and circle the Quinjet around the Tower to take out more. They come across Loki and Thor duking it out on the balcony but before they can help Thor out, Loki shoots a beam of energy from his staff at one of the jet’s stabilizing engines.

The jet starts to go down, Ed, Steve, and Bruce in the back hold on to anything they can grab. They fly through the streets and Clint and Nat do their best to control their landing. They crash land on the streets in front of Stark Towers.

Clint unbuckles himself from the driver’s seat of the jet and runs out with the others, except for Bruce who is staying in the jet for now. This is Clint’s first time being in a war. It’s chaos all around them and everything is being destroyed. He looks to the two military experienced fighters (Ed and Rogers) and notices that their expressions are calm, like this is a view that is familiar to them.

The thought of Ed’s past is brought up again, but Clint stomps it down. Now’s not the time to be thinking about anything other than the alien army coming from the sky.

----------------------------------------

“We’ve got to get back up there!” Rogers yells over all the screaming coming from all around them.

No shit, Ed thinks. They are running towards the tower from where they crash landed in the jet. That blast from Loki’s scepter really did a number on that thing. Speaking of the scepter, when did Loki get it back? Nevermind the fact that Ed was preoccupied a lot during the invasion on the helicarrier, he thought he would have noticed that Loki nabbed it at some point. Mostly because that scepter gives off high levels of energy, just like the tesseract.

That’s another thing he has to do - don’t let SHIELD get ahold of the scepter either.

Ed wouldn’t be surprised if that scepter was another one of the ‘special stones’ Truth talked about based on the similarities between the two. Even in this moment he hypothesizes about any way he could possibly destroy one of the stones.

But before he can get too deep in thought, the four of them stop on the street to look up at the sky where the portal is. This giant metal shark/alien thing flies out of the portal along with many other smaller alien ships. When the giant metal shark flies over top of them, it ejects aliens from the sides of it and they land on the sides of the buildings.

The rise in panic throughout the city is worse than it was on the helicarrier. Being in an overpopulated space with many untrained people who don’t know how to defend themselves is something that he hasn’t had to deal with yet since learning the dragon's pulse. Xing was filled with trained assassins and fighters, that panic was often not felt. If Ed learned the dragon’s pulse at a young age, he would probably be used to this feeling, but right now, it’s overwhelming.

“Stark, are you seeing this?!” Roger yells again, but into his earpiece this time. Ed wonders if he really has to yell if they can hear him fine if he talks normally, maybe it's just a moron thing. Ed wouldn’t know. Speaking of earpieces, they finally gave Ed one so he’s in the loop and not constantly confused about what’s going on.

“Seeing, still working on believing.” Stark replies. Oh boy, if this is unbelievable to these people, they should see Envy’s true form, they would pass out from the shock and horror. “You think you can handle that thing, Banner?” He asks.

From back in the jet, Bruce replies. Ed can imagine that he has some sort of screen up to see what is going on. “‘The other guy’ can handle practically anything. But I’m not sure if he will focus on helping people instead of hurting them.” Bruce says uncertainty.

Ed understands his hesitation with not trusting himself so he tries to help Bruce’s conscience. “If you get out of control, I got you covered. I did it before, and I could do it again, right Bruce?” Ed says with a small smile on his face. Bruce can be more comfortable letting go if he knows that someone is watching his back.

He hears Bruce huff out a small laugh through the earpiece. “Thanks, Ed.” Genuine appreciation leaks from his voice.

“No problem.”

Rogers, Nat, and Clint take cover behind a car from the blasts coming from the sky but Ed doesn’t really need to when he can sense when they’re coming. They witness groups of the small alien ships fly through the street and pave destruction through all the paths they cover. The people on the streets are laying waste to all the explosions, Ed has the instinctual impulse to clap his hands and provide cover but he squashes it down.

Is it really worth it to not help these people and in return have less targets on his back, or should he risk his safety for the people who might lose their lives today? The indecisiveness claws at Ed from the inside, which choice is the better one? Is there a better one? He doesn’t want to get captured again for whatever reason and the people in this world are very power hungry. Alchemy doesn’t exist here and will definitely be something people will crave to have for themselves. Should he expose it to the world?

Rogers again chooses to point out the obvious. “They’re fish in a barrel down there.” He says, referring to the people on the streets.

Aliens land, surrounding them on the street they are on. Ed ducks out of the way of a few blasts shot his way and goes next to Clint taking cover behind a flipped car.

Nat tells Rogers to go help the people and that the three of them can handle the aliens that come at them. Ed’s glad she does because being around Rogers and his animated way of doing… EVERYTHING is kind of making him uncomfortable. Being around Nat and Clint is much more manageable because they have a one track mind, eliminate the targets, close the portal, and maybe help some people if the opportunity arises. Ed likes the simplicity.

Not that he doesn’t want to help the people, it’s just, he can only do so much. He needs to make sure that the tesseract and scepter don’t fall into untrustworthy hands, he can let others handle taking care of the civilians.

“You think you can hold them off?” Rogers asks Ed and Clint.

Ed gives him a thumbs up and a exasperated look but Clint’s qi is full of excitement and resentment. “Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure.”

Loki pissed off all the wrong people if even Clint is mad at him. Ed kind of feels sorry for the bastard.

Clint takes this moment to expose himself from his cover and start shooting arrows left and right at the aliens surrounding them. Nat also starts double wielding her pistols to shoot as many aliens as she can, which Ed thinks is a very inefficient way of doing that. Double wielding pistols throws off your aim exponentially, Riza drilled that into his brain with all the other things she taught him.

He watches Rogers jump off the raised road they were on and run towards people in need of help. Ed takes a moment to steady his mind and body before exposing his fighting style to Nat and Clint. When he’s ready, he provides cover for Clint by jumping over the flipped over car and running straight at the aliens while pulling his knives out. Usually, it would be stupid just to run at them without a plan in mind, but most people can’t predict other people’s actions like Ed can. Not a lot of people can run as fast as Ed can either.

His fighting style has changed since training in Xing. He incorporated more acrobatics and flexibility, mostly because Al and May made him. Their endurance training was almost impossible at first, but now he's faster and more agile than ever. Thanks to his automail, his muscles have adapted to get stronger, added on to the fact of them being used to carrying around dozens of pounds of metal every day.

Choosing his first target, Ed gets right up into their space and uses his knives to slice the inside of their elbows then drive a metal fisted uppercut to their jaw. He quickly moves onto the next to sweep their legs from under them and use his other leg to kick them into an alien behind them, creating a domino effect and slamming them both into the side of a car. He makes quick work of the others and after less than a minute, he’s left the only one standing.

Ed noticed a while ago but the aliens qi’s are strange. They act like they function on a command but also have a certain amount of free will. He wonders if they were also brainwashed by Loki’s scepter. If so, how can Ed be sure that Loki isn't brainwashed. If the scepter can act on its own like the tesseract can, who knows what it's motives are. Or it's like an infection in a way that it affects everyone who touches it.

The infection theory is more likely, since people need to be touched by the scepter in order to be brainwashed. Which isn't all that comforting to be honest. This means that Loki might not be the bad guy in this situation. But he obviously has some issues that encourage the brainwashing to look real because Loki’s qi wasn't fully muted like Clint's was.

Focusing back on his surroundings, Ed expands his senses to check on Nat and Clint. They seem to be alright and are finishing up helping some civilians get out of a bus. He heads back to them to offer some more help to get rid of the plethora of aliens that are arriving.

While Ed goes in up close, Nat and Clint attack from a distance. They get through a few dozen aliens before they start to taper off and the alien blasts come less frequently. From what Ed can sense from his ally’s qis, they are grateful to stay out of getting up close and personal. They don't have the energy and stamina that has been ingrained in Ed even after long months of only being in a lab.

Ed glances at the top of Stark Towers and his urgency to get to the tesseract increases. The faster he gets up there, the less they will have to deal with these aliens. He weighs his opinions again to use alchemy to get up there. He can’t get one of those alien ships without a boost upward. Maybe Stark can give him a ride, or is it rude to use his as a mode of transportation?

Before Ed can finish his thought, Rogers shows his half covered face again. Along with Thor who just FLEW THROUGH THE FUCKING SKY! Is this what they meant by they are literal Gods?! They just defy physics whenever they want to like fucking Merry Poppins?! (Ed didn’t watch the movie, he just saw clips of it that made him think it was made for people to watch when they are on too many drugs)

Oh… actually, putting his mental ranting aside, Thor doesn’t look or feel all that well. There is pain coming from his abdomen and betrayal in his qi. Loki must have done something.

“What’s the story upstairs?” Rogers asks Thor.

Thor replies out of breath. “The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable.” Ed thinks he can do something about that but he needs to GET TO THE DAMN THING FIRST.

Okay, maybe he’s a little on edge because of all these robot/alien things and flying metal sharks, but he needs to get to that cube before more damage is done. And all these people are focusing on are dealing with the ones on the ground and not fixing the actual problem!

He distantly hears them talking about how they're going to deal with the situation and Rogers responds with his annoying teamwork idea. Teamwork can suck Ed’s ass, he’s going to do his own thing.

A qi spikes in Ed’s senses and a smile grows on his face. “Looks like the big guns are finally coming out.”

Everyone turns to Ed then to the street where Ed is looking. After a few seconds of them looking at Ed like he’s crazy and back at the street, Bruce finally comes into view. He’s riding a motorcycle that Ed presumes that he stole. Ed would do the same in an apocalypse, to be perfectly honest.

Bruce gets off the bike and walks toward them. “So,” Bruce gestures around with the spread of his arms, “this all seems horrible.”

“I’ve almost seen worse.” Nat interrupts.

Ed glares at her in the corner of his eye. She had no right to call Bruce out like that, it was just rude. Seeing Bruce like that wasn’t bad, it's just another part of him. Rejecting it will do more harm than good.

“Sorry.” Bruce apologizes. “But, Ed did a good job of making sure you didn’t.” He looks at Ed with a thankful gaze, which makes the others do the same but with surprised looks instead of thankful ones.

Ed puts his hands up in response to all of the eyes on him. “Don’t look at me. He did all the work, I was just along for the ride.” Bruce really needs to give himself more credit.

Rogers looks back and forth between Ed and Bruce, considering them with a thoughtful gaze. It goes away a second later when he talks to Stark through the earpiece. “Stark, he’s ready.”

“Suit up Banner Boy, I’m bringing the party to you.” Stark’s qi registers as approaching in Ed’s mind, it’s been going in and out of his range for the duration of their time here. Stark flies out from behind a building in their line of sight with one of those giant flying metal sharks right on his tail.

“I-I don’t see how that’s a party.” He distantly hears Nat say.

A grin grows on Ed’s face and he chuckles to himself. “That’s not just a party, that’s a whole festival.”

Bruce goes to turn around to face the alien shark but not without one last look at Ed. Ed gives him a reassuring smile and thumbs up, making sure Bruce doesn't have to hold back. Bruce responds with a small nod and turns around to face his opponent.

“Dr. Banner,” Rogers stops him, “this might be a really good time for you to get angry.”

Still walking toward the giant alien shark steadily making its way toward them, Banner looks back at Rogers. “That’s my secret, Captain.” He stops, “I’m always angry.”

Bruce’s skin darkens to that familiar shade of green, his shoulders expand and his whole body grows in the matter of seconds. If Ed was insensitive like Rogers, he would hound Bruce on the specifics of his condition until he couldn’t talk anymore. It was something Ed was infatuated by.

As quickly as Bruce transforms, the alien shark is right in front of them. An oversized green fist stops the shark's head where Bruce lies but the rest of its body is still moving forward due to the inertia. Metal plates of armor peal from the alien shark's body as it bends over them.

Stark somehow found a weak point in the alien shark's defenses while he was being chased because he fires a projectile at a part of exposed flesh on the shark's body. A second later, the shark explodes. Flesh and metal fly around like a grotesque firework while the group block themselves from it.

Blowing up the giant shark enraged the aliens around them because they start to scream and yell. Ed looks around at all the aliens and his eyes again pull towards Stark Towers. Okay, Ed needs to finish this before it drags on too long. Rogers starts giving out orders, but Ed’s not listening. He turns to Stark where he is about to fly off with Clint to take him to the roofs.

“Got room for one more?” Ed asks.

“Depends on where you’re headed.”

Ed sighs, “I’m probably the only one who can figure out how to close that damn thing, and I can’t do that from down here.”

Stark registers that for a second before agreeing. “Just don’t flail around like a newborn, Goldie.”

Huffing out a small laugh, Ed turns around for Stark to grab onto the back of his leather jacket. His stomach drops violently when they are lifted off the ground. Ed’s glad he doesn’t have anything in his stomach to throw up or else he would be painting the streets with whatever he last ate.

Stark sets down Clint at the top of one of the nearby buildings for him to have a high vantage point to shoot aliens from. The peace of being on land for a second doesn’t last as long as Ed wants it to, however, because his stomach drops for the second time as Stark carries him to the top of Stark Towers.

Seeing the view of the city below his feet, Ed knows now why Stark designed his suit to go airborne. Granted, the view of the destroyed city right now isn’t the greatest, but the adrenaline and the freedom he feels up there is fantastic.

Ed is dropped off on the top of the tower by Stark but not without one jab at his weight.

“Damn, what do you eat? Metal? You’re about as heavy as I am with this suit on.” Stark wonders.

Ed knows that Stark isn’t being insulting or rude, and he doesn’t know that Ed is literally over 20% metal, so he just laughs it off and shoos Stark off with a response. “Oh, you know, a bowl of screws in the morning and a car engine for dinner, the usual.”

Stark barks out a laugh and lunges off the building leaving Ed by himself. Well, Ed thought he was by himself until he noticed someone’s unconscious qi up there with him. Looking around a corner, Ed sees Dr. Selvig passed out on the ground. He must have been the one to open the portal and create the contraption around the cube.

Ed decides to leave him on the ground for now and focus on shutting down the portal. He can tell that Selvig is still alive, he’s just unconscious. He’s not a priority right now.

Walking closer to the tesseract, Ed can feel the energy coming out of it and into the sky. It is like a fountain of power leaking into the sky and in the surrounding space. Having all this energy spreading into the atmosphere probably isn’t good.

He reaches his hand out and places it on the barrier to feel the power and how he can somehow stop it from continuing to pour out. The barrier sparks around him, but doesn’t push him away because of the minimal force he is using. He is only touching the barrier, not trying to get in.

When he has somewhat of an understanding of what the energy is doing and how it is working, uses his prior knowledge of the cube and all the research he did on it. He takes his hand away from the barrier, and claps it together with his other hand.

Alchemical sparks dance around him as he imagines the circle he wants. The circle is quite simple because the tesseract is made of different types of pure energy and it can be manipulated in many ways. Ed presses both hands to the barrier and closes his eyes to concentrate. The power flows through him like a cycle and he easily pushes his way through the barrier. There is no resistance because he is constantly pushing energy in and out of his body and becomes one with the energy around him, including the barrier.

Stepping through is like a film covering his whole body and his muscles buzz under his skin. Sound is muffled around him, but it isn’t a huge problem because Ed can sense where everything is without using his eyes or ears.

Inching closer to the tesseract, Ed can feel the increase in energy flowing through and around him. He ignores the burning in his eyes and the tenseness in his muscles, continuing forward. Reaching his hand out and closing it around the cube brings relief to Ed’s worry of it rejecting him or doing anything worse, like blowing up.

Ed makes sure he has a good grip on the cube before ripping it from the machine and stopping the flow of energy to the sky. Looking down at it, he feels the energy closer than ever before. He never really got to hold the thing in the lab because there were always people around, and walking up to it to touch it would look suspicious. But not that he has, he can tell that it is similar to a philosopher’s stone but without the souls.

It’s just raw potential energy.

The portal in the sky above him closes which shuts off the life from all the aliens that Ed can sense. It freaks him out because all those lives are gone in an instant. Ed doesn’t know if they were robots or something, but they feel pretty real. Guilt settles deep down in his gut. He didn’t know that closing the portal would kill all the aliens that came out.

He stares at the residual destruction on the streets and an idea comes to mind. He can’t apologize to the aliens, but he can fix what he can for the people of Earth.

Even if it means exposing himself to the world.

Chapter Text

Ed has a temporary alternate solution for the stones.

If these stones all have as much power as this one and the one in the scepter, figuring out how to destroy them might be more troublesome than he thought. But they can't have unlimited energy. If Ed uses up all the energy in a stone, then he won't need to destroy it. It will just slowly lose its power the more it's used, just like a philosopher’s stone.

Destroying a stone could be easy in theory, but the action of doing it will be challenging and have disastrous consequences, like destroying a planet (considering that this stone is not made up of souls that go back to the gate without trouble). And he can't go to a nearby planet to blow it up or else it will affect earth in some way too. If he does need to destroy it, he needs to go far, far away in order for it to not have an effect on people and not get caught in the crossfire.

So, Ed has figured out what to do with the tesseract first is to use up its energy.

He feels as though all of this destruction and death is his fault. Stopping Loki from getting a hold of the cube in the first place would have stopped this from happening. He could have gotten up on the tower faster if he wasn't hesitating and getting distracted so many times. If he didn't take a nap on the helicarrier, he could have been briefed on the situation sooner and prevented the attack. He didn't know that closing off the portal would kill all the aliens, but there was no real way to prevent that. There were so many things Ed could have done to make it so this city wasn't destroyed and people weren't hurt.

All his life he has made mistakes. Not being good enough for Hohenheim to stay, not noticing his mother's sickness until it was too late, trying to bring her back and losing Al in the process, submitting Al to the worst four years of his life by sealing his soul to a suit of armor that didn't let him eat or sleep or feel anything, and letting Al down so, so many times. Ed can go on and on about all the mistakes he has made. But in those instances, he almost never had a solution sitting in the palm of his hand.

In this instance, there is only one way to atone for the mistakes that he has made.

The stone has made this city into ruins, but Ed can use it to reverse the damage as much as he can. He doesn't care about showing his alchemy to the world anymore. The people of this city deserve that much, at least. He has all this power in his hands, it would be a waste to not use it for good.

He is still terrified though. People will be after him to gain the power that he has, if he goes through with this. He will have to be on his toes for basically the whole time he stays here. Trust will have to be earned through time with the people he knows and will know. There will be people who will get close to him who's only gain is Ed's power. But as an alchemist, he still lives by the rules his teacher taught him.

Alchemists be thou for the people.

With his resolve steeled, Ed turns back to the machine that Selvig built to open the portal with the tesseract. It's fairly well made considering the time he had to build it, but it needs to go. The Iridium metal will come in handy when handling the tesseract so he pulls that out first and stuffs it in one of his many hidden pockets.

Drawing energy from the cube in his left palm, he imagines a basic transmutation circle for multiple metals and places his right hand on the machine. He doesn't need to clap his hands when the energy is coming from the cube, he just needs to imagine the ways he needs to use it and it will work to his will. Just like a philosopher’s stone.

As the machine bends and molds to become an indiscriminate ball of metal, Ed notices that the power is coming from the center of the cube rather than from the whole thing. Like there is a core that holds the real power and it is being contained by an outer shell. The transmutation settles down and Ed inspects the tesseract more closely. Taking a risk, he switches the cube to his right metal hand and crushes it around his metal fingers.

The cube cracks and shatters into small glass looking pieces, but within the pieces, there is a bright blue stone. It shimmers and glows with an indescribable pureness that Ed has never seen from anything else other than an alchemy transmutation. The feeling is so familiar that it makes him think that the stone is just alchemy condensed into a stone. But that’s not possible, alchemy is an action, not a fuel source or something that can be stored. He grabs it with his left hand and knows that this is the real power of the stone. It was muted by the shell and feels more powerful now that there is no interference blocking it.

Ed feels relieved that this stone’s energy isn’t made of human souls. That's a really morbid thought, but there were a lot of morbid things that happened back home, so morbid is normal for Ed by now.

The amount of radiation coming from the stone probably isn't good for him, and holding it in his flesh hand isn't making matters any better. He grabs the iridium from the pocket he placed it in and draws energy from the stone to surround it in a layer of iridium. He pulls out his dog tags and attaches the Iridium covered stone to the chain.

He has some leftover iridium, but it is not needed right now. He might as well keep it since he was pretty sure it was a rare metal, not that it matters when he can create more by transforming chemical compounds to whatever he wants. He stuffs the iridium back into his pocket and thinks that he should play it safe and not create any materials from the stone like Father Cornello did in Lior. There is a higher chance of errors and it is very unstable, he’s not going to risk it.

Satisfied with the placement and safety of the stone, Ed leaves the ball of metal behind that used to be a machine and walks toward the edge of the tower. The height is not comforting. Jumping from the tower would be the fastest way to get down from here, but he doesn't want to bust his automail when he doesn't have a mechanic he can trust yet. It might be a long while before he can find one. Stark would be a good one, but Ed doesn't fully trust anyone in this alternate dimension yet.

The tower is at a slope and he is pretty sure that sliding off wouldn't be too bad compared to jumping. He gets closer to the edge and shuffles right on the downward slope. Holding his breath, Ed drops and tries to slow his slide with his right arm clawing at the side of the tower.

He's used to falling from high places but the feeling of his stomach in his throat has never been an upside of it. The absence of ground under your feet as you fall doesn't put his conscience at ease, even as his hand has traction. He blinks rapidly to prevent his eyes from drying out from the wind blowing aggressively at him and reaches the ground earlier than he would have liked.

When his legs buckle as they meet the ground, he drops into a roll to prevent breaking a leg or two. Which didn't work as well as he wanted it to because the moment his feet touch the ground, a snap comes from his left leg. If his stomach didn’t feel like it shot out of his ass when he landed, it sure as hell does now.

He's fucked.

If Winry were here, she would definitely kill him.

Ed takes a second to catch his breath laying on the ground before begrudgingly pulling himself to his feet. He can tell what's broken immediately because whenever he puts weight on his automail leg, pain shoots up from his stump like a live wire.

The shock pad. The pad that is essential for every piece of automail if you don't want nerve damage. The pad that helps cushion the nerves so it doesn't feel like your stump isn't grinding against nails. The pad that keeps people from going insane from the amount of pain it prevents.

Okay… so sliding off the side of an abnormally tall building wasn’t one of his best ideas.

He's pretty certain he can fix the damn shock pad himself, but he's not a mechanic. He doesn't want to risk it when he only knows the bare essentials of automail and how the shit works. He has to find a mechanic sooner than he thought he would. He really doesn’t want to trust anybody with his metal limbs, their model and overall design doesn’t exist in this place. People are fucking greedy, and Ed doesn’t want to fall into the wrong hands again or take any risk that might have that outcome.

He leans against the side of the tower that he stupidly slid down from and puts most of his weight on his flesh leg. Maybe he can ask Stark to fix it. Ed doesn't really trust the man all that much – he doesn't trust anybody in this world as far as he can throw them, except maybe Clint – but if he doesn't want nerve damage, he's going to need to take a risk.

Speaking of risks, he's got a power to use and a city to fix. Ed would rather do it when he's not surrounded by people who will most likely overreact and be too fucking obnoxious (as if their obnoxious clothing wasn't enough).

Clapping his hands isn't necessary with the stone hanging off his neck, but it feels right. Even after years of not having alchemy in his back pocket, the instinct to clap his hands for a transmutation never went away. It doesn't disappoint either, the spread of the blue sparks and the pulse of power that travels through the streets is memorizing every time he sees it. Closing his eyes from the beautiful view, he concentrates his focus on the ruins of the city.

Foundations blend back into place, the structures of the buildings grow together, and glass windows travel back to their original places. The materials move like they have a mind of their own, but Ed knows that it is his mind that is doing all the work. He brings life to the materials through alchemy and they follow his mind with ease.

It's hard work, considering that there are a few square blocks of streets that are destroyed. Dozens of buildings and plenty of pulverized streets need to be fixed, but Ed loves the challenge. He hasn't gone all out in a long time, it feels freeing and refreshing. A weight on his shoulders that he didn't know was there disappears. The complications and responsibility of alchemy has been brought back to him, but for Ed, it was worth it.

He does some finishing touches and details to some of the buildings to make them more authentically pleasing (no gargoyles, don't worry Al). Plumbing and electrical isn't really a problem for the places that weren't destroyed, but the places that were, he leaves the inside of the walls open and the part of the street where plumbing is the worst, open. Leaving them open will help people repair them easier, and Ed doesn't have the capacity to do that right now. He's focused on too many different things to do that.

The transmutation dies out while he pulls his hands from the ground and surveys the new city before him. The gasps and hanging jaws of everyone who witnessed the phenomenon fill the air. The city is spotless of dirt and grime for the first time since it was built and Ed can appreciate the beauty of the city.

Not too long into Ed's gazing of the city, he is interrupted by wetness on his upper lip. His tongue swipes at it to wipe it away and is hit with the tang of blood. Then the lightheadedness and dark spots clouding his vision start to appear.

Ed sits properly on the ground with his head hanging between his legs to will himself to not pass out.

The ringing in his ears gets louder until it consumes all other sounds. He can't pass out right now, not when he's out in the open where people can see him. Not where he isn't safe.

But fuck, is he tired. He hasn't attempted to fix a whole city like he just did and it took a lot more out of him than he expected. The fuzziness of his brain can attest to that, along with the consistent ringing and blood dripping onto the concrete.

It takes a few minutes before he can lift his head without it feeling like an anvil is weighing it down. Though, when he does, the view of an oversized green Bruce sprinting at him full speed is what greets him. Even when there is a constant whirlwind of anger in that body, Ed can still sense the hint of worry, telling Ed that Bruce isn't going to rip him limb for limb when Bruce inevitably reaches him.

Bruce reaches him way too fast for Ed's comfort so Ed has no time to wonder why he's being lifted like a cat under his armpits in giant green hands. Bruce's eyes roam over his body in search for any obvious injuries while Ed waits patiently for the verdict. When Bruce finds nothing worrying over, he drops Ed with a huff.

The ground meeting Ed's feet reminds him of the torturous fact of the broken shock pad. Pain laces through his whole body and he doesn't have the energy to keep standing. Trying to act natural, he follows the momentum down to sit again, making it look like Bruce dropped him on his ass.

There is a faint shake in his limbs that he wishes would go away with being handled so roughly and the aching pain that lingers. He knows Bruce doesn't mean anything by it and probably doesn't have much control over anything except: help people and don't kill anyone.

However, being so exhausted and being treated like he's at someone else's mercy is asking for a flashback. The ringing that was starting to go away comes back with a vengeance as he tries to not get consumed by the memories and pain. Bruce's rough breathing disappears along with all other sounds once again as he tries to push away the memories assaulting his brain.

He faintly feels a hand settle on the top of his head. He would have flinched away from it if it weren't for the gentleness of it. Ed blinks rapidly to clear his mind and bring him back to the present. Lowering his head once more as he tries to breath in deep breaths, slowing everything down.

After composing himself for the third time that day, Ed looks up at the person with their hand on his head and finds Nick.

Fuck. He really must have been out of it if he didn't notice Nick even approaching him, let alone get near enough to touch him.

The weirder thing is that Nick is touching him in a gentle manner, parental if you want to exaggerate. The one eye of Nick's that isn't covered is looking at him intently and patient. This kind of behavior is extremely out of character for him based on everything Ed knew about the man.

Ed's qi sense kicks back in just for Nick's worry to attack him viciously, another surprising turn of events. Ed has never felt anything other than stoic calmness or slight agitation in the man's qi before.

Opening his mouth to say something before the silence of them staring at each other becomes awkward, Ed reassures Nick, “I'm good now.” The pain has settled and his brain is calmer so he believes himself when he says that. The blood dripping from his nose also stopped, that's a plus.

Nick searches his expression for a second before removing his hand from the top of Ed's head. “Flashback?” Nick asks.

The plain and simple question makes Ed do a double take. Oh yeah, Nick was in the military too. He must have seen these kinds of things plenty of times.

Ed hums in affirmative, “Yeah, sorry.” Nick's face scrunched up when he says that but he changes the subject before Nick can say anything. “How did you get down here so fast? Weren't you on the carrier when we left?”

Nick sighs through his nose and sits down from his crouching position to sit beside Ed. “I sent a team to help clean up once the portal closed. I decided to come along after we caught a man trying to steal a jet with a nuke on it with the intent to blow up the city. We landed a block away about 5 minutes ago.”

Ed chuckled, “Putting someone else in charge of it while you deal with cleaning up down here?”

Looking away and ignoring Ed calling him out, Nick continues explaining, “I actually wanted to thank your insight for warning us about what Loki and the people under control can do. That was how the traitor was caught. I increased security on each square inch of the ship before the attack.”

Well, that explains why Nick ran out the room leaving Ed to give instructions to the others. Ed puts a disgusted look on his face, “Don't thank me, ‘thank you’s feel weird when they come from you. Getting soft in your old age?” He tilts his head to give Nick a teasing smile and raised eyebrow.

Nick gives him the look that means Ed had the audacity to say something to piss him off. “Call me old again, motherfucker, I dare you.”

It takes everything in Ed not to burst out laughing right then and there, not with how Nick's qi flows with relief and amusement. He covers his mouth with his hand to hide his smile but he knows Nick saw it anyway.

Their interaction is cut off by Bruce letting out an animalistic roar not five feet away from them. The action has both of them tenseing, but Ed is the only one who relaxes after realizing Bruce isn't a threat.

Ed turns around to look up at Bruce and all of his green glory. “Hey, big guy. I think all the excitement is over now. You think you can calm down for me?” He pats the ground beside him, opposite of Nick because the eyepatched man is looking at Bruce as if he's a bomb about to explode.

Bruce huffs and shakes his head as if he's trying to shake away any violent thoughts and plops on the ground next to Ed. Extending his left hand for Bruce to hold on to, Ed releases a calming qi to reverse Bruce's green state.

“What the–” Nick is cut off by Ed turning to him and holding a finger to his own lips, silently telling him to be quiet.

After Bruce takes Ed's hand, he visibly deflates. His large frame slouching, almost looming over Ed as he holds on to his hand. It's not like last time where Bruce is twitching as if he's fighting for dominance between him and ‘the other guy’, this time the transition is smoother. Ed proved that he can help Bruce with this problem of his and is proving it again by reversing it from an already completed state, not preventing it from taking over like what happened on the helicarrier. Bruce trusts him now.

He lessens the qi influence the more Bruce returns to normal. By the time Bruce is looking around with aware eyes and not a speck of green on his skin, Ed has stopped releasing his qi.

“Looks like you're gonna need another shirt.” Ed says absently.

Bruce looks at him with wide eyes then looks down at himself. “Sorry, that was your hoodie.”

“It wasn't actually mine. I stole it from one of the supply closets on his ship. So basically, it was his.” He points to Nick who is still looking at Ed like he grew another head.

By now, the other guys have started to gather around them. Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are walking towards them with equal levels of confusion on their faces. Stark and Clint land back on the ground while looking at the surrounding area as if looking for something.

“Any of you know how the buildings put themselves back together?” Rogers asks, looking around the group.

“The radius was pretty wide but whoever or whatever did it had to be around his area because this was the center.” Stark responds.

“Did Loki or one of his minions do it?” Romanoff wonders aloud.

Thor, the expert on all things Loki, responds, “Impossible, Loki has never had this kind of power and if he did, he hasn't been able to use the tesseract to this efficiency.”

“If he did, why would he fix the city if he was the one to destroy it in the first place?” Clint reasons.

“Um…” Ed raises his hand hesitantly from where he's sitting on the ground and all eyes turn to him. “I did that.”

Silence permeates from the group as their jaws drop. Nick lets out a long suffering sigh and Ed gives him an apologetic look.

“H- how?!” Bruce asks frantically from beside him, eyes wide.

Ed gives all of them a deadpan look, “I'll tell you when we aren't in the middle of the street where people can hear us.”

This makes the group pull themselves back together and pick their jaws off the ground. They look at each other as if silently asking what they should do but it is Stark that speaks up.

“Have any of you tried shawarma?”

Chapter Text

The shawarma place was farther away than he hoped it would be.

It was only a few blocks but those few blocks were torture, and Ed knows what real torture feels like, this is pretty damn close. The nerves in his leg feel like they are on fire, the end of his femur is most likely bruised to all hell, and he's starting to sweat from the effort of making it look as if nothing is wrong.

Hopefully, Clint doesn’t know him well enough to tell his facial expressions apart as well as Al can. Well, Ed suspects that nobody needs to be as good as Al because the little asshole always said that he was super easy to read. He puts extra effort to mask his pain just in case.

But by the side eye glances he's getting from the man, he knows something is up. Along with Romanoff, surprisingly. She has some keen eyes and Ed respects that, but it's reminding him of Riza, which wouldn't be a problem if he wasn't already longing for his home so much he feels he's going to rip his skin off.

The food doesn't look too bad, at least. It reminds him a lot of Cretan food. Considering the food at the former SHIELD base was composed of sandwiches, soups, and salads, this place is heaven. Even Central Command had better variety than those, but the quality of the food was way worse, so it pretty much makes them equally shitty.

He stands in line with the rest of the group at this small food joint that the employees are somehow willing to still work despite the fact there was an alien invasion in the city not even an hour ago. He's able to lean on his flesh leg and take the pressure off his nerves and stump, stopping the liquid fire traveling up his leg and into the rest of his body.

Patting his pant pockets he realizes he doesn't have any money on him. Fucking Truth, he's starving and Nick didn't give him a cent for all the work he's done for him. His stomach growls just to spite him, he might just bawl his eyes out here and now. All he had for food the last couple days was coffee.

A swinge of pain spikes up his leg to top the fucking sprinkles on the already fucked up cake.

Turning to Clint, he puts all of his grief and suffering into his words with his face looking dead, “I don't have any money on me.”

The asshole just smirks at him, but before he can respond, in line in front of them Stark turns around to face them. “I'm paying for all of us so it doesn't really matter anyway.”

Ed gives him an incredulous look, “You sure? I eat a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean I can eat an entire elk and ask for seconds.”

Both Clint and Stark raise an eyebrow, “You can eat the whole restaurant dry for all I care.” Stark taunts.

Ed's qi sense is telling him that Stark is speaking the truth, but Ed doesn't feel all that comfortable mooching off of others. Not when it can easily be thrown back into his face, but Stark doesn't seem like the type unless Ed pisses him off somehow. The rumble in his stomach urging him to take up the offer isn't helping matters, but eventually, he gives in. “Fine… but I'll spare your wallet for now.”

They all place their orders and choose a table to sit at – It's a tight fit but Ed's not gonna complain if he's getting food. They settle in and breathe deep sighs of the battle being over and turn to Ed who has yet to give them answers.

Ed notices the attention and sits up straight, “Alright, any of you heard of alchemy?”

“That's like a bullshit form of science, right? It created the basis of chemistry, but overall it's a fever dream of impossible creations.” Stark oh so helpfully shares.

A vein in Ed's forehead pulses, did this robotic motherfucker really just say that? He's never heard a more insulting statement in his life, and he had to live through years of short jokes from Mustang. He puts his head in his hands and lets out a wounded sound as if Stark sucker punched him in the gut.

“What? Am I wrong?”

“If I must say,” Surprisingly, Thor interjects, “Asgard has some of the most exemplary alchemists who use magic to amplify their craft.” The proud look on his face does nothing to help Ed's spiral into disappointment. Seriously, magic? Really?

“What's alchemy?” Clint innocently asks, though to be fair, Romanoff, Rogers, and Nick seem to be equally lost.

Thor opens his mouth to ultimately say a crime against science, so Ed shuts him down before he can spew more shit. “It's what I used to fix the city.” He says in a low voice that carries across the table.

This gets Stark and Bruce immediately interested because they visibly perk up and look as if they want to tear Ed's brain apart like they are dogs who set their sights on a new toy.

Bruce is hiding it better but their qis are identical. “Is that why you are so good at chemistry? Because alchemy created the stepping stones to chemistry?”

Ed grimaces, “I think my definition of alchemy is a lot different from yours. For me, I need chemistry in order to do alchemy.” From all their confused looks Ed decides to elaborate. “Alchemy is the process of understanding, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter. But, it operates on the law of equivalent exchange, meaning you can't create something out of nothing. Something of equal value must be given for what you want to create.”

There is a pause, the group taking time to process and understand what he just said. “So, basically, you took the rubble of the broken buildings and used it to repair the city?” Romanoff clarifies.

A relieved smile grows on Ed's face, “Yes, exactly that. Do I need to explain more or is that enough?” He tilts his head at Nick for that question since he mostly explained it mostly for him.

Nick has that constant someone-pissed-in-my-cereal face on but nods anyway, “Good enough. I've started to give up trying to understand your alien bullshit.” He casts a sideyed glance at Thor.

“At least my shit is based on science, I have no fucking idea what Thor has going on over there.”

All eyes turn to Thor who is not at all listening to the conversation and instead toying with his hammer, flipping it in his hand. He eventually turns back to the group to find them all staring at him. “What?” He asks innocently.

Half a dozen sighs ring through the restaurant.

Their food comes out a few minutes later, thankfully, and it smells like heaven. Ed makes sure to thank the waiter before stuffing his face. He ordered 3 wraps, each with different fillings. Too bad he's starving or he would have taken more time to savor each one and notice the difference. But sadly, all his mind and stomach are focusing on are foodfoodfoodmoremoremore.

By the time he's done with his second wrap, most people are done with their first and finishing off the rest of their meal. Nobody comments on how large his appetite is, thankfully.

A thought crosses his mind when a tinge of pain comes from the back of his head. He turns to Nick who is wiping his hands off on a napkin. “Any word on how Phil is doing?” He asks the question quietly but he can feel that the others are listening to.

Nick takes a second to answer, swallowing his last bite and wiping his mouth. “Last I heard, his condition is stable and he will make a full recovery.”

Ed is not the only one at the table who breathes a sigh of relief, it seems Phil is fairly likable to most.

“However,” Nick continues, “Most of the work had been already done by the time he made it to any medical help. The wound was completely sealed.” He gives Ed a very obvious pointed look, saying as if he knows Ed did something but he doesn't know what.

“There were cameras in the room where it happened, right?” Romanoff offers.

“Correct, but when I discovered him with Edward moments after Loki's escape, I figured Ed could fill us in on what happened.” Nick says, still looking at Ed.

Ed sighs and sets down the last wrap he was about to demolish. “Look,” he puts his hands up, “I arrived after Loki put a hole through Phil's chest and did what I could in the moment, which involved not letting your fellow bald man die.”

Nick's eye twitches at the bald comment but relents nonetheless.

“Is that another thing your alchemy can do?” Bruce asks in wonder.

Figuring a demonstration would best fit this situation, Ed grabs Thor's attention again, “Hey, Thor!” Thor looks up from whatever the hell he was doing, Ed has stopped caring at this point. “Come over here for a sec.”

Thor hesitantly rises himself from his seat and walks around the table to stand next to Ed, his qi feels extremely confused but not nervous which is a plus.

“Show me that wound on your stomach.” Ed orders. Shock is evident on Thor’s face but he pieces together what is happening, thankfully. He pulls up the portion of his shirt that was covering the wound, showing toned abs with a layer of blood smeared across them. The wound itself doesn't look all that bad, if the knife hit something important, Thor wouldn't be standing here right now and would be face planted on the streets.

Ed grabs a clean napkin from the middle of the table and gently places it on Thor's abdomen. He doesn't bother clapping his hands when drawing energy from the stone this time. It feels a little weird to do it in front of a bunch of people who will ask questions if he does, and he's tired of answering everybody's questions.

Thor flinches at the touch but ultimately relaxes at the pressure, that is, until Ed activates his alchemy.

He steps back from Ed, which is the last fucking thing he should do when Ed is literally growing his abdominal wall back together. Giving Thor a murderous glare, Ed grabs the waist of Thor's pants and pulls him back so he can finish the transmutation, ignoring the blush rising on Thor's face.

When Ed's done, he pulls the napkin from Thor's stomach. It's soaked with blood that he pulled from what was on Thor's skin and what was in his clothes, leaving Thor spotless except for a small line of a scar that is barely noticeable. It will mostly disappear with time, but currently it is still fresh and pink.

“Throw this away.” He holds out the napkin for Thor to take.

Thor does take the napkin with surprise and kid-like wonder in his eyes and walks toward the trash can without a word. His embarrassment is forgotten in the face of a new type of power that has the others at the table also looking as if Ed is some god. It's ironic that Thor is considered a god to others, but Ed has Truth to compare him to. Thor is not even a god in Ed's eyes because he's seen the universe when it's bored and takes from whoever tries to reach for what they can't touch.

Thor is just a goofball with a static hammer, he could never compare to Truth.

“Does this mean you could have healed your head wound without having to staple it shut?” Clint's question interrupts Ed's thoughts.

Ed clears his throat and picks up his abandoned wrap to preoccupy his mouth so he doesn't have to respond. Clint sighs from his spot next to him but doesn't press further.

“Can alchemy be taught, or do you need to be born with the ability to do it?” The question comes from Bruce, the greed for knowledge rolling off him in waves.

“I said it was a science didn't I? Are you born with the ability to do chemistry or physics? It's the same fucking thing.” Ed takes a huge bite of his wrap to shut himself up, he doesn't want to sound rude, but most of what he says comes out in an unfriendly way anyway.

“Are you willing to teach it?”

Sitting back in his chair, Ed regards Bruce with a thoughtful stare while he finishes his bite. Bruce doesn't so far seem the type to want to experiment on people or mess with the horrors of alchemy, but even so, Tony has taken an interest too. If he teaches Bruce, he will need to teach Tony too. But if he refuses Tony and teaches only Bruce, Bruce could go behind Ed's back and teach Tony himself.

Tony is unknown to Ed. He doesn't know the man very well, and so far, Ed wouldn't trust him with the knowledge of alchemy. From Ed's perspective, Tony is the type of person who gets so caught up in trying to help people and do the right thing that he forgets the risks his actions come with.

So no, Ed will not let Tony learn alchemy. This world doesn't need alchemy, it's doing just fine as is. Ed has seen too many horrible things be born from alchemy and he won't contribute to birth new horrors.

“No.” Ed says simply, going back to eating his wrap, nearly finishing it in three more bites.

Bruce backtracks at his response and his qi is somewhat hurt, “Why not? It seems so helpful, you fixed the city and healed people, why wouldn't you want to teach someone who can do good things with it?” He looks completely confused as to why Ed said no, oh this sweet summer child.

“I fixed the city, yes, but I could have just as easily collapsed every building to their foundations. I healed people, also yes, but I could have just as easily ripped out every one of Thor and Phil's organs and painted the floor with them. Just because I only showed you the good side of alchemy, don't think that is the only side that exists.”

The group goes quiet as they digest his words, even Bruce leans back in his seat with a dazed look in his eye, thinking of something. Good, at least he gave up asking. Ed wasn't sure that he's willing to tell some stories to scare him off. Even Ed doesn't touch those memories with a ten foot pole, they are like a bear when poked by a stick and consumes every part of you in retaliation.

“Do you not trust us?” Bruce asks.

“Of course I don't fucking trust you. I literally met you yesterday, dumbass.”

“As much as I would like to have something like your alchemy in my arsenal,” Nick chimes in, “I think it is wise to have only one of you.”

Ed regards him for a moment, “It's weird when you agree with me.”

“Don't get used to it.”

“I wasn't planning on it.”

Clint scoffs and leans over to mutter something to Romanoff. Ed suspects it goes somewhere along the lines of ‘this is the type of shit I have to deal with’. If only Clint saw what Ed was like back in his military days with Mustang. Ed hasn't even yelled at anyone here. Yet.

A flicker of someone's qi registers in the back of Ed's mind, about a block away and slowly heading towards them at a walking pace. Rogers starts up a conversation about how the search for Loki and his scepter are going, but Ed can shake the focus on that qi.

It feels familiar, full of hate and redemption. But the thing that makes Ed recognize the owner of the qi is the overwhelming jealousy oozing off of it.

Sometimes Ed wondered if he would meet someone who was like Envy. So obsessed with getting what other people had that they never realized what they already did. Only finding talent in destroying things and convincing themselves it is the only thing they're good at, and having no one by their side to convince them otherwise.

Ed quickly excuses himself to the restroom while the others chatter to each other. After doing his business, he resigns himself to wait.

The person enters the restaurant, gathering the attention of the others sitting out there. But the person doesn't attack them or express any aggression, instead, they head for the restroom and the others ignore them.

Weird.

When a relatively normal looking civilian enters the bathroom, Ed questions whether his qi sense is fucked up or something. But it's never malfunctioned before so Ed rolls with it.

“I thought you would be looking for a way out of here after your embarrassing defeat.” Ed starts, startling the person and making them swivel around to face him. “Didn't think you would come looking for another punch to the face.”

Ed is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed on his chest when the person changes their fake scared expression into that familiar evil grin. That seems to trigger the mask to fall away and reveal Loki in all his green and gold glory.

Just like another skin changing bastard Ed knows.

The gold horned helmet is kinda obnoxious for Ed's taste (and that's saying something considering he used to put spikes, bat wings, and skulls on everything he touched).

Loki takes a step towards him, the smile growing when Ed only raises an eyebrow at his change in appearance.

“I yearn for the last laugh, a taste of revenge before I disappear from your reach.”

Ed scoffs, “Good luck with that. I bet your brother's reach is far wider than mine, do you plan on running from him forever?”

“That idiotic oaf can't tell his right from his left.” At mention of his brother, Loki’s smile shifts into a grimace of disgust. Clearly Thor is the main topic of his jealousy. “Though, I wouldn't mind someone like you chasing me forever.” He takes another step towards Ed. “A great battle of the brains, now that would be worthy of my time.”

By now, Loki is crowding Ed against the wall and is close enough that Ed has to look up to meet his eyes. Ed isn't by all means short, unlike how he used to be, but he's confident in his height now. Loki towering over him doesn't make him boil with anger like it used to, it makes him smug knowing he could kick Loki’s ass even when the green bastard has a few inches on him.

He puts on his most flirtatious smile with heavy lidded eyes and tilts his head slightly. “I don't age like a god, sadly. I don't have forever to chase you.”

Loki scans every inch of his face as if he was searing it into his memory. He almost looks sad at Ed's comment. “Really?” Loki leans in a little closer, their noses inches apart. “I cannot fathom that your beauty is mortal.”

“Are you saying my looks are godly?” Ed whispers, slightly surprised.

“Yes,” Loki mutters, his eyes are so close Ed can see the wisps of unnatural blue swirling inside them. Loki lifts his hand and lightly brushes it across Ed's cheekbone, the touch feather light. Treating Ed like he was something precious that could be broken if handled roughly. “Such a shame it will go to waste.”

A knife jerks out from behind Loki’s back, aimed straight for Ed's abdomen. But, lucky for Ed, he knew what was going to happen when he saw the scepter's influence in Loki's eyes. He can't get through to Loki when the scepter is taking away his lack of reason.

Instead, Ed pivots out of the way to dodge the knife and slides his hand up Loki's back to push him into the wall Ed was leaning against, switching them places. He touches the other hand to the wall to transmute it to wrap around Loki, trapping him.

“I wish I knew how Romanoff got Clint to clear his head, but something in me thinks it won't be that simple when dealing with you.” Ed says idly while Loki struggles to get out of the wood wrapped around him.

Flicking his head back to get the hair out of his face, Loki's smile is evil and condescending, as if their former conversation never happened. Ed has to give it to the bastard, his acting skills are almost better than Mustang’s. Skills like that take decades of practice.

“There is nothing wrong with my head, fool.” Loki snarled.

“Oh really? I would think your brother would stop you from killing innocent people if he saw it coming. But he seemed surprised that you would do such a thing, angry even. Why would he think that way when he had nothing to base it off of? Why does everyone think you're a bad person and the one person who does know you thinks that you're at least somewhat decent?” Ed questions.

“My brother doesn't know me, no one does! They all act like they know, act like they care, but I can see it in their eyes. They think of me like the filth under their heels because I'm not one of them.”

That was a lot more honest than Ed was expecting him to be, but at least they were getting somewhere. “I can't talk for the rest of your family, but what I can say is that your brother acts like he cares because he does care. All you're doing is convincing yourself he doesn't.”

“How would you understand?” Loki bares his teeth in frustration, “You with your group of pathetic friends pretending to play hero. You don't know what it's like to be the villain everyone thought you would be, play into their hands as fate intended.”

Loki is right. Ed would never understand how it feels like to meet everyone's expectations by going down the wrong path. He had people to help him stay on the right path and a brother he needed to take care of. People expected great things from him because of his skills in alchemy and his intelligence. Not only did he meet their expectations, he exceeded them. He was one of the most powerful state alchemists and earned the title of Alchemist of the People.

But Loki never had any of that. The people around him thought he would never do good things or become a great man. He had no one to push him to be better so all he could do was become what they thought he would. Having a brother like Thor meant that Thor would always come first. First to the throne, first to speak, first for any affection their parents gave to them. Loki was never a priority, always in the corner waiting to be noticed.

“You're right, I don't understand. But I'm going to hold off on creating an opinion of you after I figure out if you're being used by someone right now.” Ed firmly states, earning a shocked look from Loki, “Can you give me anything that might help me try to fix it if you are?”

Loki is staring at him slightly wide eyed, then rapidly blinks and tilts his head up to think. It takes him a few seconds to think of anything but eventually he ends up giving Ed some good info.

“I haven't been able to sleep since the scepter was bestowed upon me.” Loki admits quietly, shame leaking into his qi.

Ed glances at him, brain whirling on what to do and deciding if he should do what he thinks he should. It wouldn't hurt Loki, hopefully, and if it didn't work, he could try something different.

“Okay, I can work with that.” Ed decides, “I'm going to force you to go to sleep, and see if that works.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Loki asks skeptically.

“Medically… sorta.”

Without any more waiting, Ed claps his hands and activates an anesthetic array that healers in Xing frequently put to use. He's not a big fan of using arrays that are used on the brain, it makes him feel anxious having someone's life in his hands and a small mistake can cost them their life, but this one is very easy and he's pretty confident in using it. Even if he's never actually used it before considering he got his alchemy back only recently.

He reaches out to put his palm against Loki’s forehead, and within seconds the man is asleep, leaning heavily on Ed's hand. He slowly lowers Loki’s head before pulling his hand away.

Pulling away the parts of the wall binding Loki, Ed catches him before he falls face first to the floor and throws him over his shoulder like a sack of flour. Ed strides out of the bathroom nonchalantly and goes back to the rest of the group who are up and ready to go. They must have been waiting for him by the looks of it.

“Y'all ready to go?” He asks the group.

They all turn to him and freeze, their gazes drifting to the god slung over his shoulder, who is passed out cold. “Whatcha got there, Ed?” Clint hesitantly asks.

Ed cocks his head in confusion because clearly it's Loki who he is holding, “Loki?” He answers with an equal amount of confusion.

Rogers is the one to speak up next, “Where did he come from?”

“He was the guy who just walked in here a minute ago, I met him in the bathroom.” Looks of realization appear on their faces at his words, “I don't know why he tried to come after me since I knocked him on his ass the last time, most likely thought it would be easier to take me on if i was alone.” Ed shrugs, “He said something about getting the last laugh before he ran, but I'm probably one of the worst people he could have wanted to go against if he intended on killing me.”

“You sayin’ you're stronger than some of us?” Stark teases.

“I'm at least stronger than Clint, I know that much.”

“Hey!” Clint offendedly proclaims.

Nick steps forward, “We don't have a holding cell to keep him in. The last one we had was destroyed.” He casts a scolding look at Thor who has the decency to look somewhat ashamed.

“That's fine, I don't predict him waking up anytime soon anyway. Just binding him and having someone keep watch is enough until I wake him back up.” Ed explains absently.

“What exactly did you do to him?” Thor interjects, half curious, half concerned for his brother.

“Just alchemically messed with his basal forebrain to trigger his body into unconsciousness, I also made sure his thalamus is less active so he won't REM sleep.” Ed explains as he slips Loki off of his shoulder and deposits him into the arms of his brother.

“English, please.” Rogers sighs.

Ed rolls his eyes and goes to respond but Bruce beats him to it, “Ed forcibly made Loki go to sleep and made it so his brain doesn't dream.” He turns back to Ed, “You said he won't wake up until you make him?”

“Yeah, unless there is a big shock to his system, I doubt he will wake up until we need to pull answers out of him.”

Things go smoothly after they get everything set up and taken care of. Nick and Thor deal with Loki while the rest of them head to Stark Tower to unwind. A SHIELD agent comes up to Ed to hand over his duffle bag of belongings and then Ed just has to figure out where to go from there.

Stark offers a room to him, but even though Ed is reluctant to accept the offer, the promise of a soft bed is too tempting to pass up.

“I never did get to finish that nap.” Ed comments to Stark on their way up the street.

His comment earns him snorts and Clint calling him an old man for taking naps in the middle of the day, but Ed doesn't mind, he's too honed in on the bed waiting for him and the opportunity to get off his feet.

Chapter Text

The morning post invasion, Ed wakes up and immediately wants to knock himself out just to get away from how sore his body is.

It's not the good kind of sore that comes after a good workout or spar, it's the kind of soreness that has him questioning if losing two limbs was a little overkill.

The familiar burn in his stumps tells him that it started to rain. He never got that feeling much at the former SHIELD base, mostly because it was in the desert, but it was very much a blessing when he needed all his focus on catching up. It also helped raise less questions. He couldn't just take a day off. Sure, he could make an excuse and play off being sick or something, but being unable to move due to his limbs deciding that they were going to feel as if he were losing them again wasn't the best symptom to play off as sickness.

But today is different, he doesn't have to go to a lab and be the genius who can solve everyone's problems that they can't figure out themselves. Today he can relax and go at his own pace for once in a long while.

So, he lays in bed trying to fight off the burn and ache. He regulates his breathing and tries to relax. He doesn't bother trying to go back to sleep, once he is awake there is almost nothing anyone or anything can do to make him fall back under the blanket of unconsciousness. Unless he is exhausted and is days behind on sleep, like what happened on the helicarrier when Tony lightly shook him awake to talk about Nick's sneaky activities.

The burn doesn't go away, Ed didn't assume it would, but he gets used to it the more time he lays there. It hurts like hell but he's felt worse and he can survive until he gets some painkillers and some coffee in his system.

Ed slowly maneuvers himself to the edge of the bed without jostling his stumps and the metal attached to them. He sits up and plants his feet on the floor, which is his first mistake.

He forgot about the broken shock pad.

The breath is knocked out of his lungs from the liquid fire traveling up his left leg and into the rest of his body. He's sweating, he knows he is, but it's hard to notice the sweat dripping down his brow over the sensation of a thousand needles stabbing his leg. It hurts so bad that his mind blanks out, he can't hear anything, he can't sense any qi of anyone or anything.

It's too quiet, and the only thing he can feel is pain.

[Are you alright?]

Ed jumps at the voice and subsequently tenses, making everything hurt so much more. He blinks rapidly looking around the room trying to find the source of the voice but finds no one. When that fails, he focuses enough to sense the qi of everything in the room and the rooms surrounding him, but he finds no one still.

“Hello?” He asks hesitantly.

[Hello, my name is JARVIS. I am an A.I. created by Tony Stark and I noticed that you seem to be in a lot of pain. Are you alright?]

Now that Ed is paying attention, the voice comes from the ceiling. A.I. stands for artificial intelligence so that means it's basically a robot? And it can see that he is in pain, meaning that there are cameras in here watching him.

The look on his face must have been concerning if even a robot was trying to figure out if he was dying or something. He didn't bother masking his pain because he thought nobody else was in the room with him.

So much for that.

This could be a good opportunity though. If JARVIS could tell Tony to come to Ed, that would mean that Ed wouldn't have to get up to go get him. And Tony could fix Ed's leg without other people snooping around.

“Yeah, I'm alright.” Go with the flow.

[That is good to hear Mr…?]

“You can just call me Ed.”

[Very well, Ed.]

“Hey JARVIS?” Ed starts, “Is Tony busy right now?”

[I wouldn't say so. He is chatting with the others from the Avengers Initiative in the lounge room.]

Ed takes a deep breath, “Can you tell Tony to come here and bring no one else with him other than Bruce, please?”

[Yes, sir.]

A grimace pulls Ed's features, being called sir never sit right with him even when he was in the military.

“You don't have to call me sir, just Ed is fine.”

[Very well.]

Ed figures that if he's really going to show people his leg, then he'd rather take his pants off now rather than in front of someone. He slides back into bed and pulls the covers over his legs and begins to slide off his leather pants that he regrets not changing out of before he fell asleep. He makes sure that no part of his leg peaks out from the blankets and it's properly covered from any cameras that lurk in the room.

It doesn't take long for Tony and Bruce to arrive. They thankfully don't bring anyone with them, but they enter his room with an air of concern. Tony is better at hiding it, of course, but it's hard not to sense when the feeling is so strong.

Tony is the first to say something after he closes the door. “Based on the state of your hair, I'm assuming you just woke up?”

Ed honestly couldn't give a fuck about what his hair looks like over the burning of his body and the anxiety clenching his gut. “Yeah…” He sighs.

“Did you need something?” Bruce asks, not bothering to hide his concern.

Gripping his metal wrist to calm himself, Ed readies himself to spill some secrets. “So… yesterday, during the invasion, after I got the tesseract, I kinda… jumped off the building and busted something in my leg.” He gets out his sentences as fast as he can without giving them a chance to interrupt. “It's not bad, but you two are the only ones I feel like you can keep your mouths shut to Nick and not spill something important that could make Nick go back on our deal and lock me up again. I completely understand if you don't want to be involved with anything that can be dangerous to have the knowledge of, but–”

“Ed.”

Bruce's voice stops his rambling, making him realize that he stopped looking at them when he started talking. Ed looks up to see twin faces of determination.

“We want to help you.” Bruce reassures, Tony nodding in agreement.

Ed inhales deeply, “You would have to turn off all the cameras and mics in the room.”

“I can do that right now.” Tony says easily, pulls out his phone and types away for a few seconds then slides it back into his back pocket. “JARVIS?” No response comes. “There, no peeping Tom.”

Ed looks between the two, looking and sensing for anything that might give away betrayal or anterior motives.

He finds none.

He's on the verge of twitching like a madman for how exposed he feels. Can he wait a little longer until he has to fix his leg? No. Can't he just fix it himself? He doesn't really want to for the fear of messing shit up. Fuck, he's really doing this.

He shifts his grip on the edge of the blanket, waiting for his arm to lift it and reveal his prosthetic leg. But he hesitates, of course he fucking does. Why wouldn't he hesitate? He met these people days ago for fucks sake.

The steel in his decision finally comes and he rips the blanket away in one swift motion, uncovering the hunk of metal that is supposed to be flesh.

Ed unconsciously curls into himself, he's never felt ashamed of having automail, but after leaving the military and having everyone's disdainful eyes boring into every inch of him, self consciousness hit him harder than any scar left on his body. He can't help it anymore, he feels Bruce and Tony's shock and horror. He can feel their stares. He can feel the burn.

Tony kneels at the edge of the bed to get a closer look and Ed has to physically restrain himself from pulling the leg closer to him. He tries to soothe himself by doing so with his right leg, pulling it to his chest and hugging it like a lifeline.

“What broke?” Tony asks excitedly, not taking his gaze away from the leg.

“The shock pad, near the port.” Ed says in a quiet voice, tapping the port with his finger.

“How does it work?”

“It's connected to my nerves at the cutoff and are transferred into electrical signals that are wired through the rest of the leg.”

“Are you able to take it off? It looks permanent unlike other prosthetics.”

A pause, “...yes.”

The quietness of the response breaks Tony out of his trance of fascination on the leg. He makes eye contact with Ed and sees the nervousness and stiffness of Ed's shoulders. But the gold eyes are shadowed by Ed's bangs, as he holds his flesh leg to his chest, he isn't aware that this position makes him resemble a scared animal backed into a corner.

Gilded eyes glow in the lack of light, a stark contrast against the silhouette and contours of Ed's face. The view lights an image in Tony's head to the similarity of a renaissance painting. The emotion in his eyes and body language is so raw and real, it consumes every part of Ed's being.

However, despite the terror clawing at Ed, Tony feels the threat of ‘if he makes a wrong move, his hands will no longer be attached to the rest of his body’.

Ed is not at all comfortable with this and he doesn't care enough to hide it from him.

Tony internally berates himself for getting distracted when this is clearly something that needs to be dealt with care and patience.

Ed sees Tony being brought back to himself and away from his distraction of the automail. He can sense no greed in Tony's qi anymore, despite not trusting the man, Ed relaxes a little when Tony leans back away from the bed.

“Do you have any tools I can use?” Tony asks gently, grasping the gentleness needed for this situation.

Amber eyes don't leave Tony even as he responds, “There's a kit in my bag.”

Bruce, seemingly frozen by the scene before him, is suddenly snapped into movement by the request. He strides across the room to grab the duffle off the floor and put it on the bed beside Ed.

Ed begrudgingly pulls his eyes off Tony, confident he won't do anything when his head is turned, and zips open the bag to dig to the corner where he keeps it.

The kit isn't anything too special, a couple small tools and oil to keep up maintenance and make adjustments as he grew in height. He rarely makes adjustments anymore but it's good to keep them on in case of emergencies. He hands the small pouch to Tony, who opens it and grabs the tool he will need to open the outer covers of metal.

Ed watches his every move, Tony hasn't touched the leg yet but it feels as though he already has. Ed's about to jump out of his skin already and his leg hasn't even been dug into. Checkups with Granny Pinako and Winry had never been this nerve-wracking.

Maybe he's just over-reacting and nothing will go wrong. Not everybody is like those people in that military base in those snowy mountains after all. Not everybody is out to get him or hurt him like they did. Alphonse always said that the worst case scenario that Ed makes up in his head will likely never happen. But that doesn't stop him from thinking about every single thing that could go wrong and have him relive the worst parts of his life.

His neck is starting to itch but he pushes the feeling away to focus on what Tony says next.

“Near the port, right?”

Ed nods, monitoring Tony's hands instead of his eyes as he reaches for the screws securing the panel in place.

Nothing bad happens as Tony removes the plate and starts digging out the broken pieces of the shock pad that are scattered around on the inside and sets them on the bed beside Ed's leg, but his eyes never leave Tony's hands.

Once he's done, Tony opens his mouth to say something but Ed reaches over and grabs the small handful of broken pieces and alchemicalizes them back together. He hands the pad to Tony for him to put back into the leg, ignoring his surprise and curiosity.

Tony does so without saying a word and screws the paneling back on. Wise choice.

Ed just about collapses on his flesh leg with relief. Tony could have easily broken or potentially ruined something inside the leg if he wanted to, but no such thing happened. His opinion of the sarcastic asshat has gotten a little better after this experience.

He looks up to both Tony and Bruce, they seem unsure what to do now and Bruce's eyes are straying a little too close to the scars on his legs.

“Thanks, I would have done it myself but my hands aren't as steady as they used to be.”

Bruce gives him a worried look, “Old injury?”

A sad smile spreads across his lips, “I guess you could say that.” He pulls down his right arm sleeve to show the gleaming metal beneath and expects the twin intakes of breath. “I'm right handed… or I was right handed. Kinda hard to do any delicate work when you can't feel how hard or loose you're holding something.”

“You can't feel anything from them?” Tony asks.

“Nah,” He shakes his head, “Technology wasn't advanced enough for that.” From Tony's dazed look and the hand coming up to scratch at his facial hair, Ed can tell that he's thinking of ways to improve Ed's automail. “But anyways, that's all I needed help with. Thanks.”

“Sure, no problem,” Bruce gives him a small reassuring smile, “We’ll be in the lounge when you're ready to join us.”

Ed says in bed as they shuffle out of the room a little too quickly for Ed's liking. Once the door seals shut, Ed hears a muffled whispered shout of ‘a double amputee!’ and a sad ‘did you see all those scars?’. His stomach sinks with regret and insecurity.

Right, losing a limb might not be super common like it is in Amestris. Most people would go ‘omg your limbs are metal!’ and then be over it a minute later because it's obviously automail. But along with most of his scarring and the loss of his limbs, he basically signed up to be a sight to be gawked at.

Fuck, he's such an idiot, he could have toughened it out for a little longer or risked fixing the damn leg himself. He just had to go and trust somebody to do it for him and let them oogle all his insecurities, just for them to turn around and talk about him behind his back like he's a damn museum piece.

What's done is done, he guesses. The only thing he can hope for is that they keep their mouths shut about it. Long enough for him to get somewhere safe and secure.

Because, obviously, this place (with its creepy talking ceiling) is not safe for him when everything is being recorded.

----------------------------------------

Clint is hanging out in the lounge when Tony and Bruce come back.

JARVIS said that Ed needed their assistance with something but specified that no one else could go with them. Not that Clint is insanely curious that he will go and find out himself regardless of Ed wanting him to, but he is wondering what that was about. Especially because of the closed off faces Tony and Bruce came back with and their clenched jaws, as if they won't say a word about it to anyone no matter what.

That's fine with Clint, if it needs to stay a secret, then he won't push unless Ed allows it. He has gotten used to that mentality pretty quickly after meeting Ed.

Ed is the type of person who will either: 1) tell the truth or 2) shut down the questions by bluntly saying he can't tell you. Ed isn't a man who likes lying, the closest thing he will do is tell you part of an answer but not the rest. He doesn't completely lie to people, he only tells them part of the truth because Clint suspects that the whole truth will put himself or others in danger. That is why Clint doesn't push, he knows secrets are for good reason when concerning Ed.

But clearly, he's the only one with that mindset.

“What did he want?”

The question comes from Captain Rogers because of course it does, the man is about as paranoid as Director Fury. But he's also about as gullible as a few month old puppy, which somehow makes sense. Now that Clint thinks about it, those two would make great drinking buddies in the ‘always professionally brooding’ kind of sense.

“Just need some help with something, no need for a peanut gallery crowding his room, y'know.” Tony answers nonchalantly, or it would be if he wasn't so tense.

“Help with what?” Captain presses, leaning against the wall and surveying Tony and Bruce as they try to act casual but failing miserably.

The question, to Clint's surprise, makes anger flash over Tony's face, “Nothing you need to know about.” He practically bites out. Looking at Bruce, Clint sees the same fury in his eyes as he stares the Captain down.

Either the two are being overly protective of Ed, or the Captain did something to anger them both before and it involved Ed. It's possible that both of those things could have happened because Tony is not one to be quick to anger and neither is Bruce. Tony is one to make jokes until the situation relaxes, and Bruce barely ever visibly gets angry because it makes people panic that he might turn green.

But there is one thing that Clint can gather from this conversation:

Captain Rogers doesn't know Ed as well as he thinks he does.

“It would be in our best interest to learn everything about him. Hiding information puts all of us at a disadvantage.” The Captain shoulders off the wall to face both the men head on. “You heard what he said, he could have destroyed the city just as easily as he fixed it. He's a walking liability.”

Tony and Bruce simultaneously decide to ignore him and plop down on the couch across from the one Clint is sitting on with Nat beside him. Thor is looking out the large wall of glass that rich people call windows, but Clint knows he's also listening to the conversation.

Nat decides to join in, which is surprising because she is usually the one to quietly observe in a situation like this, “You know him better than anyone here, Clint. Do you think he's trustworthy?”

Her tone is flat, indicating that she wants to show that she is neither siding with the Captain or Tony and Bruce. But Clint knows her, she barely trusts anybody, it took him forever to earn her trust and he can tell that she is asking because she believes Ed could possibly be a threat. Not that he blames her, Ed's powerful and skilled in many different ways and Nat doesn't throw around her trust that easily. So, in response to her question, he answers honestly.

“I would trust that man with the lives of my future children.”

He already has a child, but he'd rather keep that to himself for now. But Nat knows, knows what he's implying, and her eyes widen because of his statement. The others’ reactions are not too different, like they assumed he would say something in the middle ground – not distrusting Ed but not fully trusting him either. But Clint has spent months getting to know and learn about that beautiful, kind man that changed his outlook on life.

“Seriously? That much?” Captain asks incredulously.

“Yes.” He says with absolute certainty, “Ed is painfully blunt most of the time and that makes him rub a lot of people the wrong way, but–” he sighs, “there is this way about him that I've never seen in anybody else before.”

“How so?” Bruce asks, intrigued.

“Not only is he the most genius person I've ever met, he's also… wise. He gives the best advice and solves any problem you come to him with. Life advice, math, science, even hypothetical scenarios or philosophy, he comes up with solutions to every one of them like it's easy. Every word that comes out of his mouth makes sense and is backed up by real world experience. If I didn't know him, I would believe he's ever been wrong in his life, everything he does is just so right. It's like he's always in control, I don't know how to explain it.”

Thor hums at the window he's stating out of, “In my home of Asgard, the wisest are overall measured by age, but they are measured by hardships, as well. Those who have seen war and those who have only known peace have different views on life.” He turns to face the group, “That man has an old soul.”

Clint nods, “I agree. He grew up faster than most from what little I know about his life. But the more I learn, the more concerned I get. And he's not even 22 yet.”

“His age has nothing to do with anything.” Rogers amends, “Do you or do you not believe he is a danger to anybody?”

“Oh, definitely. But not the people you're thinking about.” Clint huffs out a laugh, if only Rogers knew what kinds of things Ed ranted about while learning about the world. When he found out women were only allowed into the military by 1948, Ed flipped his shit. “Ed doesn't live by society's laws, if he wants to fuck somebody up, it's going to happen.”

Tony snorts a laugh, “The more I hear about him, the more I like this guy.”

“Let me rephrase. In your opinion, is he a good person?” Captain asks, getting them back on the topic of trustworthiness.

Clint nods as he thinks about his reply. Ed has shown many good personal qualities throughout the time Clint got to know him, but one instance sticks out to him. “You know what? Let me tell you a story, then you might realize why I have such a high opinion of Ed.”

He leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees, “Around a month ago, there was some drama in the labs about some men who were harassing a woman who was falling behind on work.” He looks around the room to find everyone paying close attention to his story. “Ed, being Ed, wanted to find out everything about what was happening. He found out that the reason why the woman was falling behind was because she was being constantly given extremely difficult assignments that were way above her experience level.”

“Next thing I know, a week later, that same woman is being promoted into the most advanced section of scientists SHIELD has.” Everyone in the room gets confused at the change in his story. “I asked Ed about it after I heard. And do you know what he said?”

He doesn't even wait for an answer before he continues talking. “He said, ‘those guys were being assholes and she needed to get away from them.’ This man taught her years worth of advanced physics – in a week – in order to finish all the work she was behind on, and then told her to notify her supervisor about the mixup. Not only did he see someone being treated unfairly, he saw an opportunity for that woman to thrive in that unfortunate situation.”

“Ed helps people who he thinks deserve it.”

Rogers is silent after that story, looking away thoughtfully into the distance.

Bruce hums and fidgets with the glasses in his hands, “I need to know his study methods. Learning that much in a week is very difficult.”

“No kidding.” Tony says from next to Bruce. “And I'm assuming that woman has a regular intellect, not whatever hivemind of knowledge Goldie’s got in that brain of his.”

“I have no idea what his study methods are, you're going to have to ask Ed about that.” Clint supplies apologetically.

“You talkin’ about me?”

Ed's voice from behind makes him jump in his seat, and from what he can tell, everybody else is just as spooked.

He turns in his seat to see Ed pushing off a doorway that he was leaning on. His hair is down and spilling down his back like a molten golden waterfall, he's wearing cargo pants and his usual combat boots. Ed's top though, is something Clint hasn't seen Ed wear yet. There is obviously still the black thin turtleneck underneath (Clint has never seen Ed without it, or the gloves), but Ed's top is a soft sage green jacket. Ed doesn't wear green, he commonly sticks with either black or red, so green is definitely out of the ordinary (it looks great on him though, Clint can't deny that).

Ed stops at the arm of the couch, looking down at him. His bangs shadow his face and make his gold eyes reflect against the light coming from the nearby window. “Tellin’ all my secrets?” Ed asks.

“Maybe a few.” Clint answers, sheepish.

Feline eyes search his soul, reading the meaning of his statement and his intentions. Ed may not know it, but Clint is aware of his unnatural ability to read people, knowing when a lie is told, or even sensing someone's mood. Clint may not know how he does it, but Ed isn't all that great at hiding what he can sense or see.

Ed sighs, not seeing anything bad in Clint's expression, “Nothing too embarrassing, I hope.” A yawn pulls at Ed's face, sparing Clint the intensity of that golden gaze.

“Only the juiciest of your secrets.” Clint gives him a teasing look, which turns offended when Ed leans over to the coffee table, grabs Clint's cup, and downs all its contents. “Rude. I was defending you against your haters.”

Ed licks the coffee off his lips, “No point in doing that, really,” he sets back down the mug, “It's not like it makes any difference.”

“Haters gonna hate.” Tony agrees.

The Captain interjects, “It will make a difference when we could be enemies.”

Ed tilts his head in false consideration, “No, not really.”

Captain's face gets a shade more red and Clint decides that now is a good time to step in. As much as he loves Ed's teasing and nonchalant behavior, it clashes with Roger’s personality. “Please, at least try to not piss him off, Ed. He's most likely going to be the leader of our team.”

“I ain't part of this team.” Ed shugs, “I'm free now. I'm my own team.”

“And what is the goal of your team?” Rogers insists.

A mischievous smile spreads on Ed's face, he tries to cover the smile with his gloved hand but all of them see it anyway. That smile is just asking for trouble, Clint’s instincts are yelling at him. “I already got what I want.”

Clint wracks his brain for what that statement could possibly mean. Then it hits him like a ton of bricks, he feels so stupid because it was staring in his face the whole time. A laugh bubbles up from his throat without him willing it to. This man is so ridiculously sneaky but also not sneaky at all, and all Ed has managed to accomplish has Clint both exasperated and impressed. “Oh my God, you totally did, didnt you.” Clint manages to gasp out between laughs.

Bruce and Tony seem to figure it out too, judging by the proud looks on their faces aimed toward Ed.

“The tesseract.” Nat figured it out as well, apparently. Though, she mostly looks confused as to why Clint is laughing rather than being concerned.

“Yep!” Ed confirms with a smug smile, “It was my target the whole time since I got here. And Nick was so nice, he even put me on the research team for it.”

This sends Clint into another laughing fit, realizing just how bad Ed played them. Nick thought they were taking advantage of the fact that a possibly powerful being could be made into a trump card, but in reality, Ed had everything planned out. Ed was the puppeteer pulling the strings behind everything. Even when Loki got in the way, everything went just how Ed wanted it to. “Remind me to never underestimate you ever again.”

Ed sends him a wink along with the smug smile still plastered on his sun-kissed face. It's really refreshing to see Ed smiling so much, he should do it more often.

“How are none of you worried about this?” Rogers asks somewhat frantically.

Tony leans back on the sofa, “You're late to the party, Cap. Goldie here has been figuring out how to destroy the tesseract for months.” His proud smile turns smug. “JARVIS pull it up.”

A screen appears above the coffee table to show Ed's research that JARVIS saved. Hundreds of advanced physics and chemical equations fill the air that most of them had no idea what they mean. Fortunately and unfortunately, Tony and Bruce give everyone an explanation about how amazing it is.

Clint is still recovering from his laughing fit when Ed sets down a full cup of coffee in front of him. He didn't even realize Ed moved from his spot, let alone make him a new cup of coffee. “Any idea when Nick is getting here with Loki?” Ed asks quietly while everyone is paying attention to the two geeks geeking out.

Clint picks up the coffee and sips it. A perfect flavor, just how he likes it, settles on his taste buds. This was worth Ed downing the last bit of his last cup. Ed makes a mean cup of coffee. “He said he'll get here when he gets here.”

Ed sighs, “Just as non descriptive as usual, I'm not surprised.” He shifts his weight off one of his legs and sits down on the arm of a nearby chair, “Do you carry any painkillers on you?”

The question hits Clint out of nowhere, distracting him out of his coffee induced bliss. Now that he's paying attention, there is a tightness around Ed's eyes that Clint doesn't know the meaning of. “No, why? Do you have a headache or something?”

Ed deflates, almost looking defeated, “Something like that.”

That's the kind of answer Clint gets when his guess isn't right and Ed can't tell him the truth of what it is. Concern itches in the back of his head telling him that this is a bigger deal than Ed is letting on. That is a frequent feeling involving Ed, Clint is learning. “Tony might have some, this is his place after all.”

Ed looks over to where the man is enthusiastically boasting about his accomplishments to a group of people who are barely following along, Bruce by his side. An unsure – almost insecure – expression creeps on Ed's face. Clint doesn't like it. After Ed thinks for a second, he turns back to Clint, “Nah, I don't want him to put out for me more than he already has. I'll be fine.”

“Can you really not tell me what's bothering you?” Clint gently presses, hoping that Ed will be more willing to open up now that he isn't in SHIELD'S custody anymore.

Ed hesitates, reading Clint's eyes. Ed has never felt comfortable being vulnerable with anybody, he knows. Some moments here and there Ed has opened up about his family, friends, and home, but never too deep. Never anything other than surface level info. Clint trusts Ed, but he also wants Ed to trust him too.

The insecure look Ed had on his face earlier comes back and it makes Clint's heart break. Ed is almost as stiff as a rock by how tense he is, his legs bending from their previous stretched out position, curling towards himself. Just when Clint goes to take back his question, Ed responds quietly.

“It's the rain.”

The answer floors Clint, wondering why the weather is being brought up. “The rain?”

Ed nods his head, golden hair slipping off his shoulders at the action. “You know how when you get a bad injury and the doctors tell you that after it heals it might still hurt when it rains?”

Dread pools in Clint gut at what Ed is insinuating. “How bad?”

A shaky exhale leaves Ed's nose, “Five and a half out of ten, I guess.”

“Where?”

Gold eyes leave his to look down at his own leg. The same one that Ed was struggling not to limp on yesterday to and from the shawarma place. Is that what Ed needed Tony and Bruce's help with? What happened to Ed's leg?

Before he can offer a solution or ask any more questions, he hears the elevator ding. Director Fury and a few agents walk in with Loki tied to a wheelchair.

Clint draws his eyes back to Ed in time to see a blank cover wash over his face and straighten himself up, stretching his legs back out and relaxing his shoulders. The worry that settled in Clint's stomach doesn't go away even when Ed tries to send him a strained reassuring smile.

What did he say to Rogers again? The more he learns about Ed the more concerned he gets?

Clint has a feeling he has only seen the tip of the iceberg.