Envy took his favorite form and grinned gleefully. It had been sheer luck that he'd discovered the work of the Wanderer Alchemist, but it had been the best kind of luck.

The alchemist watched helplessly from the wall he was chained to, as the thing that had stolen his shape three days ago chalked runes into the transmutation circle on the floor. "You can't do this," he rasped.

"I beg to differ," Envy replied. "In fact, alchemist, I can do it without you." He crossed the room in two steps, and effortlessly stopped the man's heart. Then he returned to the circle, knelt, and laid hands on its edge, drawing power from the Philosopher's Stone that was his heart.

The Wanderer Alchemist had been on the verge of discovering a way to transmute space itself, to gain access to the worlds beyond this one. Envy had sped up the process, and was now taking advantage of the result. He had set the circle to take him to a good place for envy, someplace Envy could take control of. With the power of a whole world at his disposal, he would finally earn his brothers' respect.

A portal opened in the air above the circle, spilling white light and the smell of ripe fruit into the Wanderer Alchemist's workshop. Envy stepped through, leaving his world behind.


Welcome to Paris, the city that is better than you. It's true: everyone there, from members of Parliament to street sweepers, has an air that makes foreigners feel inferior and want to spend lots of money to correct the problem. But nobody did more for French superiority than Francis Bonnefoy, whose monthly parties made tabloid headlines across the country.

Of course, the articles were all speculation. Nobody knew what happened at those parties unless they went.

Sarah Armstrong knew very well what happened at Bonnefoy's parties. On one particular September evening, she dozed at the fringe of the action, in an upstairs bedroom next to a handsome young Frenchman.

Louis heard the phone ringing first, and leaned down to fish it out of the tangle of their clothes on the floor. It was Sarah's, and Bonnefoy's girlfriend was calling her.

He picked up, a symptom of his post-sex sense of humor. "Alo? Ah, bonsoir, Jeanne-Marie, ça va? Yes, of course she's here, but before I hand you over, how about—"

Sarah, who was more awake than she looked, snatched the phone and rolled onto her back. "The hell, J-M?" she said conversationally.

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?" Jeanne-Marie asked in English.

"No, no, we're done for now," Sarah said. "So, what's the problem? You don't call mid-shift unless there's an emergency."

"There's a new guy, got here twenty minutes ago, and now France won't talk to anyone else."

"Not even you?"

"Not even me. They're going upstairs now; I'll send you a picture I took of him. Meet me in the closet."

"Okay. Five minutes." Sarah hung up, got out of bed, and began dressing. Louis watched with interest, and eventually asked what happened.

"Some new kid's caught Bonnefoy's eye," Sarah said, putting on her sandals, "and J-M wants me to take a look at him." Her phone beeped, and she opened the picture Jeanne-Marie had texted her. It appeared to be of a Japanese boy in tight black clothing, with impossibly spiky hair. And Francis thinks he has taste, she thought.

"So she's jealous?" Louis winked at Sarah.

"I'll tell her you're free," Sarah smirked as she left the room.


"Remind me why we're here," Edward Elric kvetched as he trudged down the empty street.

"We're here because Colonel Mustang sent us to check up on Doctor Rhodes," said his brother Alphonse, who was less bothered by Central's gloomy weather. "Damon Rhodes, the Wanderer Alchemist, specializes in travel-related alchemy and has done a lot over the last few years to improve military transport. But no one has heard from him in weeks. Then, last night, a neighbor of his reported bright lights and strange noises coming from his house. It sounded to Colonel Mustang like an experiment gone wrong, so he sent us to find out what happened."

"It was a rhetorical question, Al," Edward grumbled.

"Sorry." Al deflated.

They had reached Dr. Rhodes's townhouse; Edward climbed the front stairs reluctantly and knocked on the door. No answer. He tried the knob; it opened. "That's not good," Alphonse commented.

The two boys went inside, unaware that they were being watched.


Colonel Roy Mustang loitered on the corner, gloved hands in his pockets. His lieutenant, Riza Hawkeye, waited less patiently as the Elrics disappeared into Rhodes's house.

Finally she spoke her mind. "Are you sure it's wise, sir, to come yourself? Anyone in your command would be more than happy to act as security for Fullmetal—"

"Yes, Lieutenant, they would," Mustang said, not meeting her eyes. "But there's more going on here than a simple alchemical accident. Damon Rhodes's work was too sensitive for it to be a coincidence. There may even be a homunculus involved. Catching a homunculus…" He glanced at Hawkeye and stopped, but she knew what he was going to say.

Capturing a homunculus would look very good on the Colonel's record.


The townhouse was deserted. There was no sign that it had been lived in for several days. The Elrics searched the house for Dr. Rhodes, eventually finding the stairs that ran down to the alchemist's basement laboratory.

The lab was dimly lit by a single window at ground level. Edward found a light switch and turned it on. The room was a mess, with papers everywhere and a large, complex transmutation circle drawn on the floor. Edward didn't recognize the pattern, so he began collecting the papers, hoping they could tell him something.

"Um…brother?" Alphonse said suddenly. "I think you should come look at this." Ed turned around.

A pair of heavy chains hung from the wall, in a place that could not be seen from the stairs. They looked like they had been transmuted from the cement to hold the man who hung limp from the wall.

He was Damon Rhodes, the Wanderer Alchemist, and he was dead.

Edward examined the body. There were no visible wounds; it looked like Dr. Rhodes's heart had simply stopped, and he'd died of a lack of oxygen. As far as Edward knew, there was only one way to for that to happen: alchemy. Dr. Rhodes had been murdered. He said as much to Alphonse, then went back to studying the papers. While he read, Alphonse walked around the transmutation circle, studying the runes and trying to figure out what they did.

They reached the same conclusion at about the same time: the circle was a portal to another universe. "There are other universes?" Alphonse wondered.

"Wouldn't that be something," Edward mused. "Well, now we know where the killer went."

"How do you know?" Alphonse asked.

"The portal's been used once already. Last night, when the neighbors reported bright lights and strange noises. Dr. Rhodes transmuted the portal for the first time, and the person who killed him escaped through it. Was there a destination written in the circle?"

"Um…there are coordinates. I don't think we should…"

"Look, Al. We're investigating a murder now; it's the least we can do to catch the killer. Now, according to Dr. Rhodes's notes, now that the portal's been used once, reopening it shouldn't take much more energy than transmuting a door." He knelt at the circle's edge and laid his white-gloved hands in the proper places. The circle glowed blue, and the air above it seemed to tear open, pouring out white light and the smell of strawberries.

Edward had leapt through the portal before Alphonse could say anything. He shook his head, and contented himself with writing a note to Colonel Mustang, in case he came. Then he followed his brother into another world.


A/N: Since I wrote this, I have seen all of the first anime. So I understand the irony of the portal.

Also, if you've read Lily Winterwood's International Academy of Hetalia Fanfiction, you know why the portal smells like strawberries. If not, go read it when you're done here.