Roy smiled a little at his subordinate as he went into headquarters. Riza didn't make any faces but stared down her superior before turning and giving Ed and Al a small smile.

"Hello, boys, how was the trip?" she asked as she turned to walk into the building behind her superior.

"It was a dud. Nothing there but some military guy who thinks he's going to be the next Fuhrer in his dreams but ruling like a tyrant over their assigned town. Nothing new." Ed said with a shrug.

They all made it to the Colonel's office and the Elrics said hello to the staff as Roy headed to his office. Hawkeye was right behind him and she wasn't going to let his laziness go for the day. She closed the door behind her and waited for him to turn to her.

"Do you have something you need to discuss with me, Lieutenant?" Roy asked, purposely looking away from her.

"Sir, you have told the staff many times to be on time and yet you don't try to do the same. I think it really doesn't show them how serious you are about the rules you in-place. It just makes it seem like you blow them out of your ass, sir."

Roy turned back to her with a smirk and sat at his desk.

"You're right, Hawkeye. Thank you for looking out for the morale of the crew."

"I also have a message from the Fuhrer that he wants you to go up to his office and be briefed on an assignment."

Roy lifted an eyebrow but got up and straightened his jacket out to go to the Fuhrer's office. He thought about all the things that were going on with some of the encampments and other offices but couldn't really think of anything that the Fuhrer himself would want him to work on.

When he got to the Fuhrer's office, he was surprised to find Edward sitting in one of the chairs in front of the man's desk.

"Ah, Mustang, come in and have a seat beside Mr. Elric, here." He said with a smile that was half hidden by his bushy mustache.

Roy made a face that Edward was there, though Edward didn't look too please about being there with him either.

"I have called you both in here to investigate a project that is going on in one of the labs. The project is called 'The Fountain of Youth'. I'm sure you may have seen the file yesterday, Colonel?" he asked, looking at Roy.

Roy nodded. "Yes, I saw it. Very interesting work there."

"That may be but it seems like our scientists are using a particular liquid so that the effects will be done correctly. Now from what I understand in the reports given to me by Edward Elric and yourself, there is this thing called a Philosopher's Stone going around?"

Ed and Roy looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yeah, we've been looking for the Philosopher's Stone." Ed piped up. "We thought that if we could get it, we might be able to use it. What's the problem?"

"We found out that these particular scientists might be using a form of it for their experiment. I need you two to investigate it."

"I thought I was sent in for my expertise..." Roy asked.

"That's true. First of all, you're the only superior officer who does not have massive amounts of duties, you're very good at persuading people to do things, and if anything goes awry, you can torch that lab to smolders." The Fuhrer said with a laugh.

"So I will be accompanied by Ed?" Roy said with a frown.

"Yes. He needs to be there as well to report for a fact if the liquid in question is indeed made with a Philosopher's Stone. If so we want to be able to put a stop to it. You two will leave at 0800 tomorrow morning."

They nodded and left, both trying to go out the door. They got wedged in the door and Edward struggled to get his cloak unhooked from Roy's buttons on his uniform.

"Mustang, you're too fat! Let me get through!"

Roy just stood and let the boy flounder before he got frustrated and gave up. Roy calmly picked Edward's jacket from his button and moved out of the way.

"If you would think, Fullmetal, you would be able to get a lot more things accomplished. I'll see you at 0800 tomorrow. Go home and sleep for a bit."

Fullmetal wanted to kill Mustang but just sighed and followed him down the hallway.

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

During lunch, Roy pulled out the flyer for the tonic again and began looking over it. He was really considering buying the tonic to help him gain a little more stamina. He drummed his fingers on the table for a second, weighing out telling his subordinates his plan or just doing it and seeing if they noticed a difference. He figured it would be safer to get it all out in the open just in case something happened they would be able to trace things back to the tonic. He got his lunch and then sat at the cafeteria table with his subordinates, since he really didn't care for the higher ups.

"So what do you say, Colonel?" Jean asked, elbowing his superior. "Do you think you'll be able to come this weekend?"

"Come where?"

"The festival." Fuery said, pushing up his glasses. "There is a traveling festival from Xing that has lots of performers and such and they are stopping in town."

"I don't really like festivals... I have a question for all of you; have any of you ever heard of this tonic here?" Roy asked, unfolding the paper and setting it on the table for everyone to see.

All of the men looked over it and started passing it amongst each other.

"Hey, that sounds pretty cool..." Jean said.

"Gimme that." Breda said, grabbing the flyer. "I've seen these on the poles outside headquarters."

"Are they any good?" Roy asked.

"Dunno... Fuery, do you know anyone who has used this?"

"I'm afraid not..."

"I was thinking about getting them since they are to help with revitalizing or something stupid like that but I think it's worth a shot." Roy said, looking back at the flyer.

"I don't think you should try it, sir." Riza said, though no one realized she was there.

"Why? Don't you want your commander to be just as energetic as I was when I first entered into the military?" he said, making a pose.

"That may be true, sir, but there are other ways of getting revitalized without taking that tonic. There's something about it that I don't really like." She said, as she picked at her lunch.

Roy frowned but stuck the flyer back in his pocket, deciding to take her advice or to go ahead with the tonic.

Later that day, as he yawned and looked at the pile of paperwork on his desk, he made his decision about the tonic and decided that he would get it. He hated that when he got out of bed he felt like he wanted to go right back in it and he hated feeling completely useless. Riza didn't have to know and if she asked why something was happening, all he had to say was that he had taken up running or something. He set to work on the pile of papers on his desk, signing off on them without really reading them as usual.

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

Roy's alarm clock went off most obnoxiously and he punched it off of the table. The thing was invincible so it just continued to ring, though muffled, and Roy groaned. He opened his eyes and felt like shit. He just felt heavy and unable to do anything for some reason. He threw back the covers and regretted the hasty decision, since for some reason it was freezing in his room. He shivered and threw his feet over the side of the bed and stepped right on the alarm clock. As he tried not to curse for stepping on the clock, he whacked his knee on the bedside table. This time he did curse and grumbled all the way to the bathroom. There, things began to go downhill even more, for he seemed to be out of toothpaste as well as two pulls away from no toilet paper.

He struggled to bleed the toothpaste onto his toothbrush and gingerly unrolled the toilet paper to use the bathroom. He then got in the shower and was halfway through when he forgot he didn't bring a towel with him. He sighed and continued washing, figuring he could just go get it afterward. When he got out of the tub, his foot slipped and he almost ended up killing himself in the tub but he caught himself and bruised himself up more than before.

"I'm over today already and I haven't even left the damn house yet." He growled, grabbing his towel and drying off.

He opened his closet and was met with empty hangers for all of his uniforms. He looked in the laundry basket and wanted the scream. He couldn't very well put on any of them because they stunk so bad from sweating or going outside and doing missions. His anger blazed and he wanted nothing more than to set the uniforms on fire for daring to not be clean. The only thing he had was his black pants and white tee. He'd have to make do with that...

"Hell, if Fullmetal can get away with wearing nothing but black and that bright red cloak, then what's the problem with this? I will set anyone ablaze who decides to be rulebook-correct today..." he snarled.

He wrapped his scarf around his neck and threw on his jacket.

As he entered headquarters about half past seven, he could tell people were giving him strange looks in regards to his clothing. He gave them looks to dare them to ask questions. He stopped by his office and Jean looked up.

"Um, sir, where's your-"

Roy whirled on him and glared at him with a menacing glare.

"Jean, I've had a real fucked up morning so if you don't mind, I don't want to hear your lip."

He nodded. "You got it, boss."

He went to his office, where Edward was lounging on the couch waiting for him.

Upon hearing the door open, Edward opened his eyes and sat up.

"Where have you been?" he asked.

"I've had a bad morning and all I did was come to work. I have a feeling this is going to be a bad day."

"You and me both... You're not in blue today."

"I know." Roy seethed.

Edward just rolled his eyes. "We should get downstairs to go in the car to that lab that they need us to go to."

Roy just sighed, giving up on the day.

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

The military car stopped in front of a lone lab and the two alchemists got out. Edward put his hands in his pockets and turned his head.

"This looks shady."

"No kidding. Let's go..."

They walked up to the door when two military officers walked out.

"This is a military facility, no visitors allowed."

"I'm Colonel Roy Mustang and this is State Alchemist Edward Elric."

"Yeah, and I'm Fuhrer Bradley." The other said. "Show some identification."

Since Roy didn't have his uniform on, he was glad that he remembered to bring his own State Alchemist watch and both he and Edward pulled them out. The two guards fumbled at their lack of attention to detail and saluted stiffly.

"Sir, we're sorry to think you were merely civilians, sir!"

"Not to worry. May we go in?" Roy said with a smirk.

The two guards nodded and opened the door for them. They walked in and headed down a long hallway that sloped down. The whole place was white, flawless until they reached a door that was in the middle and opened it. They found a bunch of people in lab coats walking around and Edward looked at Roy.

"Who are we looking for?"

"It's a scientist by the name of Lawson Striker." He said, looking around. "Ah, there he is."

Roy started walking toward a man who looked a little younger than Roy with black hair and was concentrating on something very carefully.

"Dr. Striker, I presume?" Roy said, startling the man.

"Oh! You scared me... Wait, who are you? Who allowed you access to this lab?"

"I'm Colonel Roy Mustang and this is Edward Elric."

The man's glasses covered green eyes lit up and he smiled wide.

"Ah! The Flame Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist..." He looked Edward up and down and then nodded. "Hmm, I can fix your height problem..."

Ed's eyes lit up. "Really?!"

"Don't get involved. Dr. Striker, I'm here under the order of the Fuhrer because we have cause to believe that the experiment that you're doing contains a liquid version of the Philosopher's Stone."

The doctor blinked in confusion. "Um, no..."

"Are you sure you're not using something like that to make the 'Fountain of Youth' formula work? Kind of like an activator?" Ed elaborated.

Dr. Striker shrugged. "I have no idea. I mean, we found an interesting substance that helps with the process but other than that I don't know anything about a Philosopher's Stone. Come, come, I'll show you!"

He got up and walked toward a counter top that was in the far corner and pulled out a tray of small vials.

"This is my Fountain of Youth serum. I'm sure you've read up on the file, Colonel?"

"Indeed."

"I haven't. What's it do?"

"Well, we can do many things with it but in essence it has to do with the aging process. We have the concentrated version here which causes immediate effects or you can dilute it to however you need it for slower effects and such. It can be used on prisoners of war, spying on the enemy, learning about some diseases, other things; you name it!"

"Interesting." Ed said, looking at the vials. "I'd like to see it in action."

"Certainly! I'll show you."

They followed the doctor to a room with a big dog in it. Dr. Striker pulled out a vial of the pink liquid and sucked it into a syringe. He then walked into the room and grabbed the dog. He looked at the glass to talk with the two.

"This is the immediate effect one so that you can see how it works."

He then stuck the dog and suppressed the plunger down halfway. They watched and waited when they noticed that the dog was shrinking. It started showing younger signs of itself and finally, it was a little puppy about a month old. Edward and Roy looked on in amazement as Dr. Striker left the room.

"Are you going to leave him like that?" Ed asked.

"This is the temporary batch. He'll grow back to normal soon. Now, we have a way to make the process slower as a torture or something by diluting it with regular water."

"Do you have to inject the person with it for it to work?"

"No. It can be done as a gas, liquid, spray, topical, injected, any way that it gets on the body."

"Ah! I'm sorry!" someone said as they stumbled and sent a big beaker full of what looked like diluted serum spilling across the table.

Roy moved out of the way, careful not to get any on him though it did spray him just a little. He wiped it off and glared at the woman who had tripped. She gave a shy smile and began to clean up the mess.

"Are you coming, Mustang? Dr. Striker is going to show us some more stuff."

He nodded, walking behind them.