"What the hell is she doing here?" Tank broke the silence, kneeling down next to Richtofen.

"I..." Edward was at a loss for words, the last he had checked, in all of the universes he regularly visited, Samantha was in the Aether controlling the Zombies, at least in one manner or another. He though a moment before it dawned on him.

"When the other me teleported Dr. Maxis and Samantha, it must have caused the same error that the teleporter that brought us here suffered, though that doesn't seem to explain the age difference, or where Dr. Maxis is." Edward said, shaking Samantha's shoulder slightly to try and wake her, his other hand instinctively on the pistol in his holster.

Samantha let out a small groan as her eyes blinked open, as she sat up, the main crew all took a step back, with their hands on their weapons, ready to be drawn, while Chrom, Frederick and Lissa all look at them in confusion. Samantha's eyes widened as she began to realize her situation "Where… Where am I Eddy?" She asked, looking directly at Edward "And what's going on?"

Edward let out a sigh of relief as it seemed that Samantha had no remembrance of her recent actions in their own universe, he took his hand off his pistol grip and nodded to her. "We really don't know either, do you have any clue what happened to your father?" She shook her head no in response, Edward scowled inward, his assumption was true, Maxis must have landed somewhere else.

Chrom walked towards them "So, not to interrupt the moment here, but we should get moving, it'll be dark soon." Edward nodded in agreement, holding his hand out for Samantha to help her stand, as she stood up, the other members of the crew finally relaxed themselves a bit (just a little bit, Tank and Takeo were still very suspicious of her).

Frederick took the rear while Chrom and Lissa led the group from the front. Edward stood behind Chrom and finally observed the world around them. In terms of how the world looked, it was very similar to their own, but seemed to have more of a calm feeling, it had been quite a while since the Doctor had been able to relax, without the hordes of dead constantly chasing them, perhaps this world had been spared the zombie apocalypse, a world yet untainted by the Aether.

That calm was quickly shattered however, as the group was ambushed, arrows flew from the trees and everyone quickly sprang for cover. Chrom drew his sword while Lissa took cover behind him, Frederick quickly shielded the both of them as the zombies crew each took cover behind some rocks and trees. Edward drew his pistol and began aimed at the tree line.

"Bandits!" Frederick grunted gruffly, trying to eye their position, Edward took a peek around the tree and spotted one of the bandits as they were preparing to fire, and with a quick aim, Edward fired and spattered blood on the tree behind the bandit as the bullet travelled through his neck. The other members of the zombie crew quickly followed the Doctor's lead, with Dempsey coming out from the trees and firing his dual pistols, Takeo and Nikolai opted for close range options as they advanced towards the tree line with Katana and Shotgun in hand. Chrom was briefly stunned by their weapons, but recovered and moved from cover to fight off one of the bandits, his sword clashing against the enemies, until he saw Frederick's spear burst through the bandit's chest. It was only a few moments before the fighting was over, and the remaining bandits retreated.

Edward, regrouped with the rest of the band as they headed back towards the road. Frederick stared at them with suspicion "So you all were armed then… are those powered by some kind of magic?" He asked, specifically motioning to the pistol at Edward's side

Edward let out an awkward laugh "I… I guess you could say that." 'Magic' he thought and laughed to himself inwardly. Frederick however, was not at all amused.

"I'll need to ask you to hand them over then." Chrom went to object before sighing and agreeing with Frederick. "You have proven yourselves in battle here and we appreciate the help, but until we reach the Capital and can speak with my sister, I ask that you please hand those over for our safety."

Edward didn't like it one bit, but he had no desire to piss off whatever people ruled this area, so he agreed, handing Chrom his sidearm.

"Now wait just a second." Tank cut in, obviously upset "I'm not letting you-"

"Dempsey, please." Edward pleaded, looking over at him "It's just temporary."

Dempsey rolled his eyes before giving in. "Fine, but I still don't like it, and if we get locked up or killed, it's on you Doc."

Richtofen nodded and the remaining crew handed over their weapons, and they continued on the road in silence for a while.

"So..." Chrom was walking alongside Richtofen and decided to make conversation. "Why do they call you Doc?" He asked curiously, looking Richtofen up and down "I don't see any medical equipment on you."

Edward let out a small laugh "I'm not really that kind of doctor… though I am more than capable of performing things like that, I am more accurately a scientist, I did research for the German government." He paused a moment, remembering that Chrom had no idea what or where 'Germany' was. "And Germany is my home country, my-" Edward glanced around at the other Crew as he spoke "Friends here, all come from different countries, actually, which is why we speak in different accents." Chrom nodded understandingly, as that made more sense in his mind now.

"Germany? I don't think I've ever heard of it, you guys must have cast quite the spell to be so far from home." Chrom said with a chuckle

"Right… a spell." Edward said, deciding that for now, agreeing with these people's notion of magic was better than trying to explain modern science to them…

Well, that and a zombie apocalypse.