sorry it's so short. poignant things needed to be said and done with no elaboration i'm afraid...


"And then Mason flew out of the bushes and I dodged him, running all over the beach in fright. I eventually threw this rock at him and he left me alone for a little while. It was so hard to make fire all by myself when I can just snap my fingers and do it myself."

Edward choked on his drink and coughed, hitting his chest with his fist.

"Snap your fingers?"

"Yeah! Hey, Mom, can I show 'em now that I'm not on the island anymore?"

Izumi looked at Sig, who shrugged and she sighed.

"You can only do a little one here."

"Awesome! So watch this!"

Chris stood up in his chair and snapped his fingers. A flame came up where the snap was but he hissed and waved it off. Edward watched in confusion and fascination as Riza seemed undeterred from her meal.

"Isn't that cool, Uncle Ed?"

"Yes, that is cool."

"Can you do something like that?"

"I'm not good with flames but uh… no…" he faltered after Izumi glared him down.

"I wish I could just clap like Mom but she said I can't ever do that and that making and controlling fire was as close as I was gonna be to that. Still fire is only one thing, she can make lots of stuff."

"But having control over flames is very meticulous work," Riza said with a smile. "Flame alchemy is one of the hardest alchemies to perfect. The fact that you can perform it without your own array is remarkable."

"That's not true though. Mom says I have this odd thing on my back that could make it where I can do it, see?"

He lifted his shirt up and Edward frowned at what looked like a deep scar of a very intricate array etched into his back. Izumi looked a little sad but cleared her throat and grabbed Chris's shirt.

"Sit down, Chris, or your sausage will get cold."

He did as told and looked at Riza.

"Auntie Riza, if it weren't for you I wouldn't have survived Yock Island."

"Oh, is that so? Why do you say that?"

"Because I kept having this dream where you say to me, 'Don't go where I can't follow'. So I decided that I would make it off the island and make sure I was here so that that didn't happen. I also made up my mind with that in mind: I'm gonna marry you when I grow up, Auntie Riza."

Riza's tea immediately ended up all over the table as an explosion of it erupted from her cup when she had gone to drink it. Edward casually wiped off his sleeve as Mason sighed, since he had been the one in front of her. Izumi got up and grabbed some towels as Sig glared at Chris.

"Chris, there are things you say to a lady and that's not one of them…"

Chris blushed. "Sorry, Auntie Riza…"

"It- it's fine, Chris. It's an amusing goal at least. I'm really sorry Mason."

"It's alright. It was a bit surprising."

Chris was embarrassed and looked down and over at Edward's lap there he had his hands at the moment. He noticed how one of his hands was larger than the other under the gloves he had on. He turned his head at that and decided to ask about it later.

Despite the odd interruption, dinner went smoothly from there on.


"I'm glad you figured out the riddle, my little firefly." Izumi said as she tucked Chris in to bed.

"Me too. I was afraid you'd leave me on there again!" Izumi chuckled. "Mom?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"Is it wrong that I don't feel the same?"

"What do you mean?"

"I feel like… well… I don't feel like me. I mean, I do but I don't. It's confusing…"

Izumi nodded a little and kissed his forehead.

"I understand."

"And does Uncle Ed have automail?"

"Yes, he does."

"Cool! I never knew that! He always wears those gloves… Gloves…"

Chris went into a small daze and Izumi frowned, shaking him.

"Chris." He looked at her. "What happened? Why did you do that?"

"It happened on the island a lot. I'd say something or do something and then… then I'd just start remembering this stuff. Then I'd come out of it and remember nothing. I'm really confused."

Although worried, Izumi kissed his forehead and tucked him in.

"We'll worry about that another time. Get some well deserved sleep, Firefly."

Roy nodded. "Love you, Mom."

"I love you too."

She left the room in worry.


Edward looked at Riza with an angry expression and she looked away.

"You carved the alchemical array for fire into his back? Colonel, how could you do that?!"

"I had no choice!" she seethed. "The whole place was going down."

"How do you even know what it is? The Colonel- Chris is the only one I know who could use it."

"My father taught him the basic array but he didn't teach him the deeper things. Roy could only make flames with the ignition gloves he had but he could never do it from himself or control the flames because my father found out he was going into the military. He told him he wouldn't continue his teachings and then he died. I… I know the array because it's tattooed on my back as well. I studied that array ever since it was put there and knew it by heart, although I could never do anything with it. When we were in that lab, I knew that Roy had the knowledge of it, even though he was a baby. If I could just give him enough information to control the flames… It was the lesser of the evils."

"But how did you even do it that fast?"

"As I said, just as someone who is skilled in alchemy can easily remember transmutation circles for whatever purpose they need, I knew that one array to a fault. The one on Chris isn't even complete…"

"I see…"

The two looked over at Izumi walked onto the porch. She looked at Riza.

"Gloves… did your superior have gloves?"

"Yes. He had ignition gloves… why?"

"Because he's having flashbacks of things. He's starting to go into dazes of memories and now he's confused. I think it's time we tell him who he really is."

"Now? But he's so young…"

Izumi pulled out the bottle of serum that was half there.

"If I give this to him, he will be about eleven or twelve. I got around having to explain the growth before because he was a child. This will be different and we can explain then."

"No." The women looked at Edward. "We can't explain that to him… There is no way on this earth that we could explain that to him. In fact, now that I see him, it would be detrimental to try and do that."

"What are you saying?" Riza asked, wide eyed.

"You're asking that kid to realize that his life is a lie. The mother he loves is a woman who never knew him, the woman he looks up to was his subordinate as well as me. To take that away from him for the sake of us is… cruel. I thought we all agreed that trying to make him something he isn't was wrong. This is also wrong."

"Then… the memories…"

"Let him figure it out. If he asks questions, we answer them, but we do not put ideas in his head. He has a life here with a loving family and people who care about him. The memories will fix themselves up but they are jumbled because of the memory folds from remembering his adult life as a child and now it's coming back. We knew this but… telling him he is another person is kind of cruel. All it will do is make him doubt everything in his life."

Riza didn't like it but she understood what Edward was saying.

Izumi held the serum up.

"Do we still give him this?"

"That is up to you, Teacher. It's not our decision. All that does is make him grow up, not change his perception of life. I'm going for a walk."

He left as Riza and Izumi looked at each other in worry.


Chris yelled awake and looked around the room. He was in his room where he was supposed to be. Where was I? It felt so real… Who was that guy in the mirror? Was that me? Chris got up and use the bathroom and splash some water on his face. When he got there, he did his business and then splashed the water on his face and looked into the mirror. He jumped back into the door, looking at the person in the mirror. It was moving like him and acting like him but he looked a little older. He leaned forward and touched his face and reeled back again in shock.

It was him.

He couldn't let his mother see him like this. He began to panic. He had to run away… Yeah… He would run away. If his mother saw him that way she would think he was a freak and turn him out anyway so… He quickly gathered his belongings into a small duffel bag and headed outside toward the boat and set his bag in there. He grabbed the oars and pushed off, jumping in. He'd live on Yock Island… Yeah… That's a good idea.


Edward watched Chris from the window as he smoked a cigarette. He'd picked up the bad habit from Havoc but only did it when he was stressed. He usually grabbed on from the carton and took it, just in case but never brought the carton. It kept him in control. The stress of what to do with Roy- Chris-

"Jesus, why couldn't you just keep your name?" Edward growled to the figure who was pushing the boat off. "Well, at least I know where you're going…" he mumbled.

Edward had had a feeling this would happen, considering the first time the age changing occurred, but Riza and Izumi had assured him that Chris would be fine. Edward knew he wouldn't. One point for Elric. he thought to himself as he put out the cigarette and took down his ponytail to go to sleep.


so as papa-eddy suspected, chris would not take well to the age changing. if he didn't take to this, how could he comprehend and be alright with knowing he was a different person altogether? it is a bit cruel to just tell someone, oh by the way you're not really you but someone else and your life is a lie. so edward understands that. plus, he was there most of the times when roy changed so he empathized with him a lot

and the marriage thing was also a shout out to BACKWARDS when roy and riza went to get juice. it was something that kept him going. poor dear...