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8

Edward had decided to wait for the colonel in his office. He knew he wasn't there yet and he figured that if he waited in his office, he would hear him walk in. He snuck in by manipulating the wood to make an entry for him and then laid on the couch to wait. He closed his eyes to get a little cat nap since he didn't get much sleep the night before. He had had the dream about his mother again but he didn't want to alarm Al with it. He knew Al would get overly annalistic about it and he didn't really want to deal with that.

Just as he was about to drift into deep sleep, he heard the door open in the office but the light didn't turn on.

"I'll need to find the file on the Fountain of Youth serum so you can look over it. I have it in a drawer somewhere." Someone said that sounded kind of like the colonel but not at the same time.

"Shouldn't we turn on the light, sir?" he heard Hawkeye ask.

The lights turned on and hit Edward with a piercing pain in the eyes. He sat up and made a noise as he stretched and turned saying, "Took you long enough, Colonel Bastard."

As he looked though, he saw Riza and a person who looked like the Colonel but not at the same time.

"Colonel?"

The two stared at him as he looked at the younger one with curiosity. He looked like the Colonel, even responded to it, but he couldn't be more than Al's age if Al had a body at the moment.

"Um... No, Edward, this is Chris, one of the colonel's step sibling's sons."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "He never mentioned any nephews or nieces..."

"My uncle doesn't talk with Dad too often..."

"What prompted you to want to come then?"

"I... wanted to see what military life was like. I've always wanted to join but Dad said it was a bad idea and said I should stay with Uncle Roy to get a sense of what really goes on."

Roy nodded to himself in his head. Yeah... this is too easy.

Edward just looked at him and then at Riza, who seemed to be uncharacteristically fidgety. This didn't seem right at all...

"I don't think that's true." The two of them looked at him with wide eyes as he stood up and crossed his arms. "I think you stole some of the experiment, Colonel, and used it on yourself because you were feeling like an old rag. Am I right, Colonel?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about-"

"Give it up, Colonel, he knows."

Roy sighed and deflated for a second.

"Alright..."

"What the hell did you think you were doing?!"

"It's not what it seems, Fullmetal."

"The hell it is!" He went up to him and pointed an automail finger in his face. "You were too set on becoming the Fuhrer so you got a little younger so that you could live past him, right? Are you that proud?"

Roy was pissed about the accusation and stood up straighter, still towering over his subordinate even at his age.

"Edward, I don't enjoy being accused of selfishness. Do I look like I decided one day I was going to grow younger? Huh? Does it truly look like I did this on purpose?!"

"Well what other explanation is there?!"

"How about the two of you just let me explain." Hawkeye said, separating the two with her hands. "Edward, sit on this side of the couch and Colonel on the other."