@Walpurgisnacht I think you may be interested in this dream I had that I briefly referenced during the VC.
The soul of someone from another world, perhaps another universe, enters the body of Edward Elric at the time of the Elric Brothers' attempt to bring back their mother through human transmutation, beginning with Edward's first encounter with Truth/God/The World. This person has full knowledge of the plot line of Brotherhood, along with the original 2003 animated rendition, but that does not come up. They both share the body but there are a few entities that can tell there is more than one soul residing in their vessel.
The Soul talks to Truth and explains pretty much everything that Truth explains to Edward in the series before They have any chance to say anything. The Soul, almost impatient for events to get a move on, rushes Truth to pull them through the Gate of Truth. As Edward and the soul are sent through the Gate of Truth, the Soul is completely without fear and Edward cannot be heard. Before long they are back to where they stood, standing off against Truth. The Soul then critically pre-empts several years of the story by telling Truth that they know exactly what Edward needs to exchange in order to bring his brother's body back; his personal Gate of Truth, sacrificing his ability to use alchemy. Truth is absolutely shocked by how Edward could possibly know all of this. They tell Elric he’s won, and rewards Elric with the full powers of God without hesitation in appreciation for his foreknowledge. Truth then says to
the Soul that resides within Edward something along the lines of
"You aren't from this world, are you?" Along with keeping his Door of Truth and gaining the powers of God (entirely, without equivocation like in the case of Father I believe) he also successfully brings his brother's body back immediately (and without qualification) following the attempt at human transmutation, thereby skipping the entire story of Brotherhood. Edward, possibly now in control of his body, in which case he is in control pretty much fully for the rest of the story, pumps his fist in celebration, but the sheer power of his alchemy given to him inadvertently makes him spawn a burst of enemy that destroys a nearby planet without any effort. Edward is shocked, and perhaps scared, by the new power he wields.
Apparently, the normal events of the anime transpire, or at least something close to it because the group end up at Amestris, Alphonse of course having his normal body. Alphonse looked like he did at the end of the anime, which means there must have been some kind of time skip. Perhaps they get involved in the military regardless of the change of events; there'd still be reason for Mustang and Hawkeye to visit as the human transmutation had still taken place. I feel like if this did happen, Edward would strongly repress his true powers, especially during the trials, only unleashing anything close to the full strength that he now wielded in times of danger.
Eventually at some point Alphonse stops Edward in his tracks, somewhere in the streets of Amestris, and for some reason has a heart to heart with
the Soul that resides within Edward, explaining that he’s always known that there was a soul in Edward's body, that periodically took control of said body, and that he held no malice towards it. He appears to have grown to care for the soul as he does his brother, though I'm not entirely sure why. There wasn't much interaction between the two except for occasional conversation. In fact, it was during these discussions on the streets of Amestris that I believe almost all, if not the entirety of the interactions took place. There might have been a few interactions just after the human transmutation but I'm very uncertain as to whether those happened.
Sometime later, Edward and Alphonse enter the office of Fuhrer King Bradley. I got the sense that this was the first time that the pair had met the Fuhrer. Once they sat down,
the Soul that resides within Edward takes over, and immediately tells Bradley that they know they are the Homunculus known as Wrath. It appears to not even phase the Homunculus, confusing the Soul, who also finds it strange that Wrath doesn’t even have his eyepatch on, therefore having his Ultimate Eye on display for everyone to see his Ouroboros tattoo. The Soul tries to get the advantage of the situation again, by explaining that they know all about their plan for 'The Promised Day' and all about Father. Wrath is methodical, almost uncaring in his reply. He simply says something along the lines of
"Oh, yes, Father is still there." It was in an almost conversational tone, almost as if he knew about the situation with the subtle dissonance between
the Soul that resides within Edward, and Edward himself, but I'm not sure. Perhaps another person who had been transplanted into the Soul of Bradley? Perhaps they were trying to turn Bradley good or perhaps destroy the Homunculus' plan from the inside, but again I cannot be certain as nothing was ever said towards that. The Soul remains confused, but Wrath talked almost as if they were old friends.
Later, I believe Edward is fighting with Envy. It may have been Lust, but I believe it was Envy. I don't remember much about a fight, but I distinctly remember Envy saying something along the lines of
"What/Who the hell are you?!" with a fearful, worried tone. A tone that evoked that they were completely unmatched in power and skill. Edward, of his own volition, then speaks. Not
the Soul that resides within Edward, but Edward. What he says invokes what Truth often said to those who asked Their identity.
"I am Truth… you could also call me God…" Indeed, their speech had the same effect that Truth's voice had. Edward continued speaking, and what he said next was perhaps the most fascinating part of the scenario.
"You could even call me Pride." THAT is a plot twist that I really liked. I'm not entirely sure, but Edward may have then exuded the black, multi-eyed shadows that the normal Pride had. I cannot remember for certain whether this was the case. Envy may have reacted in shock (if not to his possible shadows, then to the last line) but again I can't remember.
At some point later in the fight, Envy repeatedly changes forms and Edward tries to get them to change to their preferred state, laying the smack down on them. Eventually they acquiesce, transforming themselves into the form that we all recognise as Envy. It rather reminded me of the scene in the 2003 anime where Elric repeatedly punches Envy until they reveal their real form, which he eventually does to Edward's shock. At another point, I believe Envy (or again possibly Lust), tried to show Edward his Ouroboros tattoo... But then, in turn, Edward confirms my suspicions, as he shows that he has his
own Ouroboros tattoo, confirming that since he was bestowed with Truth's gift, he has been a Homunculus. This I believe leaves Envy in total shock. I like to think that both Edward's Pride and the Selim Bradley Pride exist at the same time with Selim likely having no knowledge of the other without intervention from Edward's Pride. Either in reply to Envy's expression of shock, or to the line where he first hints at his status as a Homunculus, Edward explains something to his opponent. It's one of my favourite lines from the dream.
“I may be a homunculus, but I have compassion in my heart, and a love for humans.” It was said with a tone of voice that was meant to strongly contrast with the feelings that the other homunculus had towards the humans, showing that he is capable of loving and caring unlike them. I think Edward may have spoken this line with his normal voice rather than with the Truth's vocal effect over it, as
the Soul that resides within Edward looked on in a form of satisfaction, or perhaps even
pride, fittingly enough, at what Edward had said.
That's all that I remember of the dream. It was a dream that I found fascinating and definitely the most interesting dream I've had in a long time. I haven't felt the compulsion to write down the contents of one of my dreams in quite a long time, perhaps several years, so it may have been that long since I have had such an interesting dream. You probably guessed already, but
the soul that resided in Edward was me; given I was the one having the dream and I believe usually we have some kind of role in our own dreams. It's funny. I remember having a conversation with Alphonse about Mei Chang for some reason. I can't remember exactly what about, but I think I may have been trying to ascertain how far along in the story I'd got up to. Whenever I spoke through Edward as the Soul, I spoke with my usual British accent. I think I said something along the lines of
"You're friends with that Mei Chang, 'innit?" I'm not sure of the exact wording there, but I'm pretty sure I said 'Innit' to Al at one point on the streets of Amestris during a conversation about her; I usually use that word when I'm not thinking about what I'm saying, it just comes naturally sometimes. It must be a bit odd for them to hear the voice of someone who sounds very different whenever the Soul took control of Edward. Thinking about it now, it rather reminds me of the differences in voice between Greedling and normal Ling.
It’s pretty clear that Edward entirely retained his moral compass, and he still loves his friends. That is the sense I got, particularly with the line about the compassion in his heart and his love for humans. I like to think that Edward's form as a Homunculus coming from Truth rather than Father, is what made him retain his purity of heart, or at the very least kept him as a mouldable clay which was shaped by his pure of heart friends, and of course his brother Alphonse. That being said I'm not entirely sure whether Winry showed up at one point. She
may have been there at Amestris, but as with a lot of this I can't be certain. I wish I actually came up with the line about his heart and his love for humans consciously; I've never written anything anywhere near as good as this with my actual, conscious brain! I had a varying amount of control over Edward, which generally decreased as time went on as my involvement did. For the most part towards the end I was merely a spectator, but Edward kept the powers. For the most part towards the end it was about as much control as Ling initially had over Greed. Edward had all the cool lines, while I just meandered through explaining exposition and the future plot of Brotherhood to characters who hadn't had the events happen to them yet. Thinking about it now... the whole soul in another body thing rather reminds me of UNDERTALE and DELTARUNE a bit, especially the latter except Edward goes along with it and their friends cared for the other soul. That might explain why the dream happened; DELTARUNE has very much been on my mind over the last month, to the point of obsession, frankly. Having created a kind of FMAB crossover with it, I think it must have been on my mind on a kind of subconscious level. I watched a few clips of Brotherhood in the aftermath and that might be part of it. All in all, I'm certainly glad I had it! I hope I have more like them!