AN: Sorry, but the plot bunnies have been attacking lately. But this is it, I swear! I won't try to juggle more than 3 different stories at the same time. From Ed's perspective, this story is anime-based and follows CoS but with RoyEd goodness (of course). But the world he thinks he's returned to will have many unpleasant surprises for Ed.

Disclaimer: Hiromu Arakawa is the creator of FMA.

Roy Mustang sat next to Riza in the back seat of the military vehicle, a troubled frown creasing his forehead. His fingers drummed impatiently on the seat beneath him. "Can it really be true? Can he be alive after all these years?"

"There was never any body found, Roy. We both know his grave in the military cemetery is empty." She shrugged. "But I defer to your knowledge when it comes to what can be done with alchemy."

"Ed was a genius with alchemy…" Roy stated quietly, bringing his hands together in his lap. "Could it be some mistake -someone that just looks like him?"

Riza rifled through the paperwork in her lap, checking names and dates. "He's been examined by five separate physicians, three of whom had examined him back before the Liore incident. They are all fairly certain it is him."

"Fairly certain?"

"It's been ten years, Roy. Even under the best of circumstances, his body would have suffered some wear and tear. Ours certainly have."

Roy grimaced in acknowledgement. "What about the automail?"

"I contacted Winry and asked her to come back to Central."

Dark eyes looked up in surprise. "You told her?"

"Not over the phone." Riza sounded affronted that he would suggest such a thing. "I'll explain it in person when she gets here."

Roy wiped a hand wet with cold sweat across his brow. "Al… What about Al?"

"He's in Xing, at the imperial court. We sent word to have him come back to Central as soon as possible."

A large crowd of reporters surrounded the front entrance of the hospital, but Roy's vehicle slid around to the rear entrance while the decoy vehicles pulled up in front. Riza's hand patted down her gun holster under her coat even as the door on her side was opened by one of the military guards. Riza slid out quickly, stepping aside to make room for Roy.

Roy hesitated and took a steadying breath before sliding out after Riza. He paused to straighten his coat and brush back the unruly black bangs that always betrayed his state of mind. Even after all these years, he hadn't learned not to play with his hair when he was aggravated.

The hospital administrator met him at the door. "Welcome to Charity Hospital, Mr. President," the man said with a bow, opening the doors for Roy.

Roy paused to extend his hand to the kind-looking elderly man. "Thank you very much, Doctor –" Roy paused.

"Chandler," Riza supplied seamlessly.

"-Chandler. We appreciate your discretion in this matter." Roy shook the man's hand, trying not to betray his impatience with these niceties when he really just wanted to see for himself if the man in the hospital room was – could even possibly be – the missing and presumed dead Edward Elric.

The doctor seemed to understand Roy's motivation and directed them quickly to the nearest elevator. He consulted a clipboard during the ride up and gave them a quick breakdown of the patient's condition. "He was found yesterday morning by several MPs on patrol outside an abandoned church here in Central. His clothes were soaking wet and he appeared to have suffered near-drowning as he had aspirated water into his lungs. Our gravest concern right now is that he may develop pneumonia, so we are treating him with antibiotics. His automail limbs are attached but do not appear to be functioning correctly. He took a blow to the head, but does not appear to have a concussion. He has a number of contusions and lacerations, none of which are life-threatening. He appears to be physically exhausted and spent a significant portion of the last 24 hours just sleeping. But when he became conscious earlier today, he demanded to see you, Mr. President. We were forced to restrain him for his own safety."

"Tch," Roy responded, shaking his head. "Knowing Fullmetal and his reputation for wide-spread destruction, I'd assume your hospital was also at risk."

The doctor pursed his lips in disapproval. "He did manage several transmutations before we were able to restrain him. One of your State Alchemists came through earlier to correct the damage."

They finally exited the elevator. The doctor led them down a long white corridor. Two military guards were stationed outside the double doors leading to this wing of the hospital. They both saluted as Roy walked by, one moving to hold a door open for them.

Only a few nurses were on staff at the nurses' station. They must have been warned that he was coming, because Roy could feel their eyes on him, but they didn't seem surprised. A familiar face greeted them outside the patient's room. Roy gave the blond a relaxed smile. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Major Brosh."

Denny snapped a crisp salute, but his grin was still boyish and infective. "Thank you, Mr. President."

Roy paused outside the door, examining Brosh thoughtfully. "Major, you knew Colonel Elric from his time in Central, correct?"

"Yes, sir. That's why I was asked to come."

"What do you think? Is it really him?"

A frown creased the blond's face as his smile faded. "It's hard to say, sir. There are some things he's said that – well, I'm thinking it's from his fever or the blow to his head. But – he certainly looks and acts like Major Elric. Sorry, I mean, Colonel Elric."

Roy shrugged off the mistake with Ed's rank. He'd been promoted posthumously, like so many other heroes who died in the line of combat. "What has he been saying?"

Denny shrugged noncommittally, his gaze sliding away from Roy's. "Nothing I could clearly understand, sir. He seems - confused."

Roy's midnight blue eyes cut over to meet Riza's russet colored gaze. It was obvious the man was uncomfortable sharing the information with them, but maybe it was because of the mixed company. There were still so many unanswered questions from the dark days surrounding Ed's disappearance. "I'm going in alone," he decided.

"Roy –" Riza began to protest, but Roy held up a hand.

"As the doctor already mentioned, the patient is restrained –"

"And sedated," the doctor added.

"He's highly unlikely to be any sort of threat," Roy finished, trying to stare down the blond woman who represented the greatest challenge to his plan.

"I don't like it," Riza growled.

Roy sighed and his hand ruffled his bangs in irritation. "Do I have to make this an order?"

Her eyes widened with surprise and hurt, before she stood to attention and snapped off a crisp salute.

Roy felt a stab of guilt and anger. "At ease, Riza. You're not in the military anymore, remember?"

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but then seemed to change her mind. Instead she pulled the gun out of her jacket holster and handed it to him. "If you insist on proceeding alone, take this, just in case."

He locked stares with her for a moment, but knew if he didn't agree she wasn't letting him go through that door alone. He reluctantly took the weapon and slipped it inside his coat pocket. He shrugged his shoulders and looked around at everyone watching. He brushed his hair back nervously, took another steadying breath in through his nose and nodded to Riza. "Thank you."

Roy turned to the door and Denny opened it for him.

There was only one bed in the room which housed the patient in question. Roy stopped just inside the doorway to stare at him, as if afraid to get closer. At first glance he wanted to deny that this could be Edward Elric. It was a grown man in the bed, with a scruffy growth of beard on his face. The planes of that face were long and angular, and the body beneath the bed covers was much taller, perhaps just two or three inches shorter than Roy. But the long hair was the same color of gold Roy remembered, with those long bangs framing Ed's forehead and that ridiculous cowlick antenna. And between the hospital gown and the bed covers, Roy caught the distinctive silver gleam of the automail arm.

It felt to Roy as if all the organs in his body were attempting to change places. He could feel his heart race while his stomach seemed to leap and plunge. He stood rooted to the spot, holding his breath. He wanted this to be Edward. He thought he'd given up hope of ever seeing the boy again. He'd written the whole Elric saga off as some horrible morality play that ended in the tragic death of a boy turned hero.

The man on the bed groaned and opened his eyes, as if somehow sensing Roy's presence. And every doubt Roy had about the identity of this man was banished when the familiar golden eyes looked up at him. Roy crossed the remaining distance to the bed and swept the figure into a bone-crushing hug that would have made Alex Louis Armstrong proud. Roy blinked back tears and didn't trust his voice to speak, not even sure what he'd say.

Edward groaned and struggled a bit in Roy's grasp. Roy pulled back, remembering that the blond was still attached to restraints and an IV. Roy relaxed his hold to free his hands and set to work immediately, undoing the buckles and removing the restraints.

"Roy," the man croaked in a deeper pitch than the boy's voice ever reached.

Roy kept his gaze focused on the restraints until they were free. There was a trembling pause when the leather bands fell away as if both men were waiting for some signal. Then Edward sat up and wrapped his flesh arm around Roy, pressing them together fiercely. Roy brought his own arms up and hugged back with the same determination. The boy who had sacrificed everything to save those around him had finally been rewarded, returned to his friends and family. Roy closed his eyes and laid his dark head alongside Ed's, listening to the other man's breath hitch. He could feel the body in his arms tremble and felt hot tears soak the side of his neck above his jacket collar. Roy's eyes stung with unshed tears of his own.

"It's really true," Edward stuttered. "I'm finally home."

Roy nodded, unwilling to trust his voice.

They sat that way for several long moments, just trying to take it all in. Roy marveled that the man Edward was so much more comfortable with this physical closeness than the boy would ever have been. He wondered what other surprises Ed's maturity would reveal. He wondered where the boy had been and what had happened to him during those intervening years. And he reminded himself that the boy was no more and that this Edward was a young man.

Ed relaxed his hold, pulling back to look up into Roy's face. Roy had a surreal moment when he saw the look of overwhelming love on Ed's face. He started to shake his head in denial of what he was seeing, but Ed grabbed his lapel and pulled him down into a salty, tear-stained, passionate kiss.

Roy didn't know if they touched for a moment or an eternity before his brain kicked in and he jerked back from the blond, shoving him back with a push. "Fullmetal, what the hell are you doing?"

Ed looked around in confusion. "What? There's no one here to see us!" Ed pulled at Roy's lapel again. "It's been so long, Roy. Damn, I've missed you so much!" There was urgency and desperation in the man's whisper as he stared up at Roy, trying to drag him back down for another kiss.

Roy wrenched Ed's hand from his coat and stumbled back from the bed, staring over at the blond as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He tipped his head sideways as he examined the other alchemist, trying to make sense of all this in his head. Then an answer dawned on him and he shook his head ruefully. "Oh, very funny, Edward." He gave a short, strangled laugh. "You got me. Hah. What, did you and Brosh hatch up this little prank to trick me?"

"What are you talking about?" Ed asked, his face betraying hurt and confusion. The golden eyes were studying him intently now, searching for something. "You look different…" Ed whispered. Suddenly, those golden eyes widened in panic. "Where's – where's your eyepatch?"

Roy shook his head again. "Eyepatch?" Maybe the doctor had underestimated the effects of that blow to the head Edward had sustained. Brosh had said he seemed confused.

Ed's eyes narrowed in suspicion and an angry flush colored his cheeks. "Who are you?" the blond snarled accusingly. "Envy?"

Roy saw the hands come together in that all too familiar clap and was grateful that Ed's automail was only barely functional or he might not have been able to stop those hands from completing whatever transmutation Ed had intended. Roy grabbed the man's wrists and struggled to restrain him.

"Riza, Brosh!" Roy barked, his own strength only barely matched to Ed's adrenalin-pumped flesh arm. If that automail arm had been working, there was no chance Roy would have stopped him.

The others came running in through the door. Denny moved to assist in restraining Ed while Riza worked to replace the restraints.

"Get off of me! What are you doing?" Edward's struggles turned frantic. His voice wavered between angry accusations and pleading. "Hawkeye, look at him! That's not Roy!"

Roy was so close to the struggling blond, Ed's shouts rang in his ears. He looked into that familiar yet changed face and wondered if whatever had brought Edward back to them had somehow damaged his mind. Could fate be any crueler?

The doctor came alongside Ed's flesh arm after Riza had managed to get it back in the restraints. He checked the dosage of some clear fluid in a syringe, and then pushed the needle into the bunched muscles of Ed's shoulder. "Calm down, Mr. Elric. Everything will be all right," the doctor murmured soothingly, patting the patient's arm.

"Not Roy!" Ed gasped as he struggled against the numbing effects of the drug. "No…" The man's eyes rolled up in his head and the doctor checked his pulse.

"I hesitated to give him more tranquilizer, but, as you know, he can be extremely dangerous."

Riza was glaring daggers at Roy. "What happened? What did you do to him?"

Roy put his hands up defensively. "It's not my fault. He's the one who started acting strangely." Roy pointed at Ed like a naughty school kid would point out his accomplice to the teacher.

They all turned to stare at the blond now safely restrained and unconscious in the hospital bed.

"It's really him, isn't it?" Riza asked, a sense of wonder in her voice. She reached out and brushed the blond bangs back from his face before sliding her hand along his bearded chin.

"I believe it is, but…" Roy shook his head again, frowning in confusion. "There's definitely something wrong with him. What did he mean about me having an eyepatch?"

Riza looked back at Roy, speculatively. "Well, you do look more like Fuhrer Bradley now that you're older." Roy snorted in indignation. "Perhaps he just got confused…"

Roy almost mentioned the kiss. It was on the tip of his tongue to say something when the hospital room door swung open to admit his best friend, Brigadier General Maes Hughes, head of Investigations.

"Whoa! What's going on?" Hughes asked, looking around the room at all of them before his eyes settled on the man in the hospital bed. Maes' stared.

"Hughes…" Roy said quietly. He saw Riza's gaze flicker between them before she directed it back at Ed. Roy closed his eyes. "What did you find out?"

Hughes tore his gaze away from the blond alchemist. "Well, it looks like there was some kind of secret passage in that church they found Ed near, but the tunnel was completely collapsed. An alchemist who was with the team thinks Ed brought the whole thing down behind him. It will take some significant excavation to determine what is back there."

"And what about the homunculi?"

"Nothing. No reports of any activity." Maes grimaced. "Why? You don't think that's Envy, do you?"

Roy shook his head. "No. As far as we know only Wrath could perform alchemy and this man is a confirmed alchemist."

Maes moved up next to Riza at the side of the bed. "Then it really is him. After all this time." He was smiling fondly down at the sleeping face. "Elysia will be thrilled. Next week is her fourteenth birthday. That means Ed's going to be twenty-six."

"Let's hold off on the celebrations for right now, Maes. There's a mystery here that needs to be unraveled first. I have a very bad feeling about this."