Mirrors
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. Damn.
Summary: Roy had become used to facing the past every time he looked into a mirror. He hadn't yet accepted it, but he recognized it for what it was. The past. It was set in stone and unchangeable. But then, something inexplicable happens and he finds himself face to face with his past in a much less metaphorical sense.
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If he hadn't been seeing it for himself, hadn't already felt the brush of cloth against his hands while checking the man for breath, he might have thought he'd finally gone crazy. That spending all this time alone in the North had finally broken something important in his psyche. That maybe seeing Havoc and Breda—
But this was real. Had to be, because Rose had told him years ago that the shape shifting Homunculus called Envy had disappeared into the Gate.
Just like Ed had done.
The other man snorted in a very Ed-like way as they continued watching one another. "You look like Bradley, you know." A gloved hand stained by something vaguely red waved emphatically towards his own eye.
Roy didn't acknowledge the comment; couldn't, really, even if he'd wanted to. It was strange, hearing this other person say aloud what he himself thought nearly every time he saw his reflection. The fact that the observation had been made by a person who looked just like him, and using the same voice as his own only made the situation all the more bizarre.
Except that wasn't entirely true. This other man was clearly younger than him. His face was softer around the edges, eyes wider, and oddly enough, this other him was an inch and a half shorter. The decorations missing from the shoulders of the man's uniform put him at a Major's rank.
Roy hadn't been a Major—or this short—since he'd been twenty.
Not since Ishbal.
"I hear that a lot," Roy finally said, after clearing his throat. Moments had passed since his younger look-a-like had made his quip, long past the time Roy would have usually responded, making his current addition to their conversation fall flat. It was pathetic, but Roy couldn't muster up the energy to care. The strangeness of the situation had long since tapped him out.
This had not been what he'd been expecting when he'd come out into the woods to find something to eat. A rabbit? Maybe; hopefully. But not this. He saw visions of the past often enough with the remnants of the eye behind the patch. He'd never expected to see it with the eye of the present, too.
"Why are you here?" Roy asked his shorter self. Would Ed be this tall now? He'd be eighteen, now, if he hadn't—
Younger-Roy cocked his head slightly to the right in a mannerism Roy recognized as one he'd long since rid himself of. "You're the dream. You tell me."
Roy frowned. How was he supposed to respond to that? He settled for a shrug. "And what if I said that this isn't a dream?"
Younger-Roy smirked in a very self-depreciating manner. "Then it's a piss-poor excuse for a nightmare."
Roy shook his head ever so slightly. "Not a nightmare either. I assure you, I'm very real."
It was Younger-Roy's turn to look put out, this time, and Roy actually managed to muster up a bit of amusement as the other man's expression turned pensive. Had he really been so much like Edward back then?
Younger-Roy narrowed his eyes, looking down and staring hard at Roy's boots. The clearing was silent for a moment before Younger-Roy spoke. "Then, is this Hell? Is this what happens when you try the Forbidden?" He looked up at Roy, then. "Who are you, if it is?"
Roy remained still for a few seconds, musing over the younger man's questions. Obviously, there was something different about this other him. He couldn't remember having done anything expressly forbidden around that age, other than—
Which wasn't possible, because Maes had stopped him before he could go through with it.
Roy took a breath, drew himself up to his full height and replied, "You attempted Human Transmutation. You've seen the Gate." It wasn't a question.
The observation seemed to catch the younger man off guard and he took a step back in muted shock before an angry expression crossed his face. "I had no other choice!" his younger self exclaimed. "What I did in Ishbal—"
"Will be something you will never forget, trust me," Roy interrupted, his voice cold. Younger-Roy looked at him with frightened eyes, the same expression that Roy himself had worn for months after the events in Ishbal. His younger self was different, but the same in the ways that really mattered. Roy wasn't sure what was going on, but if his younger self continued down this path, without Maes to guide him back, then he would die.
In fact, it was a wonder he hadn't died already, if he'd really attempted human transmutation. Did the Gate have something to do with this younger Roy's appearance? And if that was so, what had the Gate taken as payment to get him here?
"Why didn't Maes stop you?" he asked, instead of dwelling on payment, or Gates, or E—
Younger-Roy looked confused again. "Who's Maes?"
"Maes Hughes," Roy clarified worriedly. Had the man not survived the rebellion in that reality? Maybe they hadn't met in the Academy? "He was a Captain in Ishbal. He—" A particularly strong wind blew past them, halting Roy in completing his sentence. Roy shuddered and looked over his shoulder at the setting sun. They needed to find shelter before the sun completely set. The already frigid temperatures were going to get even more dangerous after nightfall. He looked back at his younger self who seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
"Where are we?"
"Just south of Briggs," Roy told him and turned sideways. "Come on. We need to get inside."
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Notes: This is as complete as it ever will be. Short, huh? Sorry, for leaving it so open-ended. Thanks for reading.