"Check and mate!" Roy yelled, throwing down piece down on the board.

Breda stared at the board in complete shock and looked up at Roy who was celebrating his victory with a victory dance of sorts.

"How in the hell..."

"I can't believe I beat you! I've been waiting years to do that!"

Breda turned his head. "Years?"

Roy stopped dancing and cleared his throat.

"Well, I've always wanted to play chess and beat someone at it. I mean, it's kind of a complicated game."

Havoc looked at him and he shrugged. The door opened and Riza and Edward walked in. Roy went up to them and smiled.

"So?"

"We need to talk in your uncle's office." Riza said.

Roy nodded and looked back at Havoc and Breda.

"Thanks for letting me play with you. Sorry I beat you, Mr. Breda."

He saluted them as he followed Riza and Edward into his office. He locked the door and watched them for a moment.

"So, what did he say?"

"He said that that pill had to do with what's happening as well as somehow getting in contact with the experiment."

"I see. Did he figure something out then?"

"He made this for you." Riza said, pulling out the vial and showing her superior. "But we have to put a little in water and have you drink it that way. We will increase the dosage each day until the bottle is gone so that we can monitor things and things will go gradually."

Roy made a face but nodded.

"Fine. Give me the first dosage." He said, going to the pitcher on his desk and pouring water in the cup. "I want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. This regression thing is ridiculous."

Riza took out the vial and opened it. She poured out a tiny amount into the cup and glanced at Edward, who gave an undetected nod that that was a good amount. After swishing it around, Riza sat next to Roy and handed him the cup. He drank it down in one gulp and then wiped his mouth of the excess water.

"We'll increase it tomorrow for the next dosage."

"Good, I'm ready to get back to my normal self, that's for damned sure. Having you two hovering over me is the most annoying thing I've had to endure since Hughes died."

Riza made a face but they all got up and headed home.

*****************

That night, Roy listened out for Riza to determine when she would go to sleep. He didn't know why, but he felt like Riza hadn't given him the right dosage of the stuff that the doctor had given her. He was going to just do it himself. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Riza's lights went out and Roy got up from the couch and went to the kitchen. He looked around the cabinets but didn't find the vial. He stood in the middle of the kitchen, thinking of where she could have hidden it and stomped his foot angrily. She most likely had it in her jacket pocket, which was upstairs in her bedroom. Knowing his subordinate, she was not sleeping and was upstairs reading a book. This meant that he would have to wait even later to get the vial and get his dosage. He sighed but had a bright idea. This would give him ample time to figure out how to change the color of water so that when he took the right dosage of his serum, he could replace the vial with colored water to make it look like there was still some in there.

Mustang grabbed a large bowl from the cupboard and filled it up with water. He found a lighter and lit a candle in order to see what he was doing. He walked around to find some paper to draw alchemy circles on. This was the one thing that Roy hated about Edward and his ability to just clap his hands and do whatever he wanted. Roy hadn't done any other alchemy but flame alchemy in years so it took some time to figure out what circle to us to make the water change colors.

After a good hour or so, he seemed figure it out and smiled at his prowess. Riza was asleep by now and Roy got up, heading quietly up the stairs. He opened the door and to his luck, Riza was indeed asleep. He tiptoed over to Riza's military jacket and looked through her pockets. He frowned when there was nothing in there. He scratched his head and looked around for a moment and then went to the bathroom. He opened the medicine cabinet and smiled, for there was the vial sitting there on the bottom shelf. Riza stirred for a second and Roy stood still. When all she did was turn over, Roy sighed and grabbed the vial.

He got back downstairs and looked at the bottle for a second. Looking at it, he figured he should probably put it in water to dilute it and was about to get a glass when he looked at the vial again. Why not just take the whole thing in concentrated form? he thought. Surely if the serum was going to make him get back to his regular age in a few weeks or whatever, then wouldn't drinking the concentrated version make it happen in a matter of days? The logic sounded good to Mustang and he uncorked the vial, knocking the contents back. It tasted horrible but he refilled it up with the water he had made and replaced it in Riza's cabinet.

*************

Riza woke up and yawned. She got up and went to the bathroom, brushing her teeth. She brushed her hair and got ready for work. Before she left, she opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the vial for Roy. She walked downstairs and reached over without looking to shake the Colonel awake.

"Wake up, Colonel. Time to drink your serum."

She heard him stir a little and went to the kitchen, grabbing a cup and running water into it. When she turned around though, she gasped and almost dropped both things she was holding.

"Colonel!"

"Huh?" he said, scratching his head.

"Y-you're back!"

He blinked a little and then looked down at himself. He smiled, touching his body in disbelief.

"Hey! I'm back!"

Riza smiled at him but was a little confused because from what Dr. Striker had told her, the serum he had given her was just something to keep him at the teen age until he could get the real serum to get him back to normal. Did he get them mixed up?

"This is great! Now I can finally get back to work!"

Riza nodded as Roy grabbed her blanket and wrapped it around himself.

"I'm going to drive home and change clothes. Can I use this for a bit? Fuery's clothes no longer fit me and it's cold outside."

"Uh... sure..."

He smiled and left her house as Riza looked at the vial in her hand. Something didn't seem right... She walked over to the phone and dialed Edward's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Hawkeye speaking."

"Oh, hey. What's wrong?"

"I went to give the Colonel his dosage for the day but he was back to normal."

"Really?"

"Yes... I'm a little concerned because this wasn't the serum that was supposed to do that. This was just to keep him level until that serum was done..."

"Hmm... Do you think he mixed them up?"

"No I don't think so."

"Do you want me to go and check on him?"

"If you don't mind. He said he was going home."

"Okay, I'll go see if he's alright."

**************

"Hey, Al, I need to go and check on the Colonel. Hawkeye said something happened that she's not sure of."

"Okay, Brother. Will you be long?"

"Nah, I shouldn't be. If I am I'll give you a call."

"Will you be able to make it for the festival tonight?"

"I should. See ya."

Edward walked out of his apartment and headed toward Roy's hoping that his thought about the serum weren't correct already. But even if they were, they wouldn't have shown any effects until a higher dosage was done...

It didn't take him long to get to Roy's apartment and he knocked on the door.

"Colonel, you in there?"

There was no answer and Edward looked around for a moment, seeing the car in front of Roy's apartment and the footprints in the snow that led up to the front door. He waited for a couple more minutes before knocking on the door with his automail arm, which usually gave a better knock that his other arm.

"Colonel! I know you're home! Open up!"

The doorknob finally turned and the door opened. Edward looked up but frowned when he saw Roy.

"You look sick."

"I was vomiting." He said in a husky voice to prove his point.

Edward pushed his way into the home and looked around for a moment as Roy turned a lamp on.

"Riza called to say that she was worried about your transformation."

"You mean that I'm back to normal? Nah, I'm fine. I think the swiftness of the transformation messed with my stomach."

"That's the thing though, Colonel, you shouldn't have even changed back into your real age until the other serum was made. This is really weird..."

"Don't worry about it, Fullmetal. You keep thinking about it too deep. Just learn to- Excuse me."

Roy quickly went to the bathroom and Edward could hear him vomiting. After a moment, Roy came out but he looked even worse than when he went in. His face a paler than white and covered in sweat and it looked like Roy would pass out any moment.

"Could you... could you help me get to the couch?"

Edward complied and helped his superior to his couch. Roy immediately laid down and curled into a ball. Edward knew that this was not the right behavior and that something was seriously wrong.

"I'm calling Hawkeye."

"No. Don't call her... It's just a side effect or something. I don't need her breathing down my neck all day long."

"Mustang, I don't know what to do. I can't just leave you like this! What if something bad happens?"

"I'll be fine."

"Yeah, I can see that. What will you tell her about work?"

"I'll tell her that I decided to use my sick leave to use my wiles again."

Edward made a face at that was Roy shivered on the couch. He went and grabbed a blanket that he had seen earlier and put it over Roy. Roy grabbed it and hugged tighter to it.

"You know that Hawkeye won't believe that, right?"

"You'd be surprised. I'm sure you have better things to do than worry about me. Isn't there a festival tonight? You should go to it."

Edward sighed, knowing that he would never get anywhere with the Colonel and just went to the door.

"Look, I'm coming back to check on you. I will count to ten in my head and if you don't answer, I will break your door down, understand?"

"I got it, Fullmetal."

Edward left, though he had a bad feeling about doing it.

***************

Alphonse and Edward were at Roy's house after the festival. Alphonse had bought a gift for Roy and so tagged along with Edward to check on him. Surprisingly, when Riza asked them where Roy was when they went to check on something at Central, she actually believed what Roy had said to say. That prompted Edward to wonder how many times he'd actually done that in the past... Edward knocked and waited, silently counting to ten.

"Do you think the Colonel will like what I got him?"

"I'm sure he'll find a use for it. Stand back a second..."

Edward lifted his automail leg and kicked the doorknob, it flying off and the door opening a little.

"Brother!"

"Something's wrong." He said, putting his leg down.

He opened the door more and looked around. The table was turned over and things looked as if the place may have been ransacked. Edward looked around for a moment when he heard a sound in the bathroom. He walked toward the bathroom as Alphonse straightened a couple of things when he opened the bathroom door. His eyes widened as he stared at Roy.

Roy looked up at him and gave a small smile.

"I... I think I... I n-n-need to... go... t-to the doctor..."

Alphonse wondered why Edward was just standing in the doorway when he saw the Roy on the floor.

"I'll go call an ambulance."

Edward was frozen as he stared at Roy, covered in blood that seemed to be coming from his mouth, his age looking no older than five.

+++++++++++++

this is what happens when people get too ambitious. though he is in a bad state someone should spank him good. anyhow, so obviously, the formula was a dud like ed thought. will roy survive to get scolded? - oh and roy seems the type to think simple things through. like they say, genius' have no common sense