Edward Elric spent years in the military so he could research a way to restore his brother to his body. However with the success of that one goal, something all so very unexpected happened as well – at the end of the transmutation both Edward and Alphonse had aged backwards to 11 and 10 years respectively. They had rewound themselves to the time when they'd tried to resurrect their mother.

Edward and Alphonse huddled in a hospital room waiting for something or someone. They'd no memory of the past 5 years, and hadn't been much informed of anything either. All they could do was wait.

"Brother?" Young Alphonse questioned upon turning away from the window and gazing upon his wheelchair-bound brother.

Edward looked up towards Al and smirked in a way to urge him to continue.

"I was thinking…" The younger Elric turned back to the window as he rung his hands together in a fit of nervousness.

"Yeah, Al?"

At that, Al spun around suddenly, shoulders tense, "Do you think we brought Mom back?" He blurted before balking a second and continuing in a low whisper like it was almost damning to speak of it aloud any further, "Do you think we did it?"

Ed gave pause. After the transmutation, Ed remembered looking for Mom, but then he'd gotten flashes of memories, and he hadn't focused on much of anything else since then. So now, upon being brought to the attention of his missing mother, he was stuck. Had we saved Mom? He had a suspicion things had gone wrong, but had actually they done it? Had they saved her?

Ed never got a chance to answer his brother. A stern voice had replied for him almost immediately, "No, you didn't." The voice was of a low baritone, and had emanated from the door in the back of the room, a place where both Al and Ed spun towards suddenly. They saw a tall man with black hair who was in a military uniform; behind him was a woman, blonde and also in uniform.

Al immediately squeaked and dashed towards his brother, hiding behind Ed as the brother spun his wheelchair around to face the two adults.

"Who are you?" The older of the brothers demanded harshly as he made sure the other was tucked safely behind him.

The man seemed surprised at their antics for a second before quickly regaining his composure and striding confidently into the room.

"I see the nurses weren't exaggerating when they explained your situation." The man sighed as he stopped a good three feet away from them, the woman was slightly off to the side of the man.

"You know us?" Al squeaked from behind his brother.

"Yes." The man gave a curt nod, "Colonel Roy Mustang, State Alchemist." Mustang sighed before gesturing to the woman, "This is Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye."

At end of the introductions, Roy was kneeling in front of Edward's wheelchair. Ed ignored the close proximity and chose to speak rather than act, "What do you want?" He demanded but less harshly than he had before, but Roy noted that the edge was still there.

"I'm your superior officer, Fullmetal. It's my job to get you back to Central in one piece."

Ed's brows shot up to his hair line.'Superior Officer? I'm in the military?'

"Brother's in the military?" Alphonse blurted from Ed's side, no longer hiding behind him. His eyes were wide, brows crunched together, and a soft glistening in his eyes was beginning to show, signaling that the boy was on the verge of crying; no doubt in frustration.

Mustang nodded again, "Yes. He's a State Alchemist, designation: Fullmetal. He joined the military to gain access to Central's Libraries." Mustang turned towards Edward, "You're in a unit with myself, Lieutenants Hawkeye and Vato Falman, Sergeant Kain Fuery, and 2nd Lieutenants Jean Havoc and Heymans Breda."

"What are you talking about?" Alphonse interceded, his hand gripping the arm rest of the wheelchair next to him so hard his knuckles began to whiten, "What do you mean? Brother's not a soldier! Tell him, Brother! Tell him!" Alphonse was frantic and quaking beside his brother.

Ed groaned and rubbed a side of his face with his arm before saying anything.

"Al, we don't know anything. We don't remember anything." Ed gave Mustang a sidelong glance as he continued to speak, "The only choice we got is to take their word for it. We can't stay in this hellhole of a city forever, ya know."

"Yeah, but- " Al was standing straighter now, "But if you're a soldier, Brother, doesn't that mean that you have to fight and kill and stuff? I don't want you to do that. I really really don't."

"Look, Al." Ed huffed as he placed his tiny hands on his tiny hips, "We need answers, and the old man (Roy visibly twitched) gots the answers. So we listen and get the answers. We have to know what's going on."

Al sighed, but gave his affirmative. Ed grinned in response before turning back towards the still-kneeling Colonel.

"So what next?"