Clint Barton walked along with them, speaking with Fury. Alphonse had stayed to look at the charts and scales across various screens. Edward could ask Alphonse about them later, but right now he was kind of trying to keep an eye and ear on Clint and Fury. They knew a lot about everything but didn't seem too open with them. That was understandable, but Edward was curious.

"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked the agent.

Edward held in a groan as Barton started a report. He blocked out the boring stuff, freezing and staring at the agent when he said something that caught Fury's attention too. It gave Edward an idea or a theory that he hoped he might be able to test. Or study more in depth.

"If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."

"At this end?" Fury questioned simultaneously as Edward.

"Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" Barton shrugged. "Doors open from both sides."

Edward beamed.

This was perfect. It might be a way back home. There could be a way home.

He had all but given up on the idea of going home but now they really might be able to get home. They just had to study the cube a little. It could be his key to getting them back for real.

He chuckled a little when he thought about how Clint was the one to think of that. He was in a room full of scientists who were probably all geniuses, and no one had thought of something so obvious like that.

"Is it possible that this doorway might be called 'The Gateway of Truth'? Because I got to this world through that and if this is anything like that then the other end might be my home. Whatever is 'coming through' could from my world!" Edward hadn't really intentionally said all that but, he wanted to know so asking was really how to go about that.

Clint looked a quite bit surprised at that, but that was only to be expected. He hadn't been there when Edward explained. He didn't ask though; he merely went on as if that was a normal thing that anyone would understand. "Don't know. It could be, but we can't know for sure."

Edward didn't reply. He was thinking deeply.

It was only a few minutes later that the tesseract fizzled and pulsed with a strong enough pulse that it shook the building. There were several shouts of alarm and distress from those around. That wasn't all that shocking.

Edward ducked down a bit himself, glancing over to where he saw Alphonse last, making sure he was perfectly fine.

Sparks of blue energy, similar to alchemy, flew out in all directions. A static ringing originated from the cube as energy swirled and shot out of the tesseract like a laser beam. It was amazing and terrifying. The pure energy fizzled and fried the surrounding air. From the beam of energy, a huge rift was opening up in the room. It held a forbidden beauty to it. One that stunned those who saw it. It was rippling and beautiful. It was like an open sky.

The energy charged as the room froze and everyone began to stare.

The cube stopped abruptly.

It went from pouring energy to strangely silent.

Blue energy exploded away from the hole like a wave. It was filling a void in Edward's soul. He flinched away like the others. A gentle burn tickled Edward's skin. It wasn't enough to really hurt.

A man was kneeling at the place the hole had been.

Men moved in around him as he burned in blue fire and stood. He didn't seem at all effected by the blaze.

The man had long black hair that fell around his shoulders. He held a glowing staff in hand. It was strange. The man looked so ill, yet he held a fierceness in his face.

Nothing happened. No one moved. All was still. It was like a standoff. Not one person dared to move for a long moment.

Edward slowly clapped his hands, feeling a familiar rush that he thought he would never again feel. It took him be surprise. He still did that automatically even after so many years. He should have worked it out of his reflexes but he hadn't. He really hadn't expected a reaction there, though.

Fury broke the tense silence. "Sir, please, put down the spear."

The man looked at the "spear", panting. Then he pointed it at Fury and shot a beam of explosive light.

Barton tackled Fury as Edward jumped out of the way, building up a wall with his alchemy.

Everything broke loose in that moment. Bullets went soaring through the air and bounced ineffectively off the man's chest. He quickly took down several men before Edward sent a series of spikes towards him. More bullets rained as the man turned and shot a blast at Edward, who leapt out of the way immediately, saving his own hide. He was very grateful for his alchemy. It felt amazing to be doing this again. Not being shot at but using alchemy again.

Another blast went out at one of the scientists near Alphonse. She fell to the ground and Edward ran to protect his little brother, who shouted in surprise and jumped away from the destruction at first. Edward couldn't allow Alphonse to get hurt here.

Guns sounded all around him,but Alphonse was his only focus. He needed to get to him.

Another blast from the staff shot out.

Edward tackled Alphonse to the ground as yet another blast shot at him.

It was seconds later that everything stopped, and the destruction around them was taken in.

From where he was over Alphonse, who was now unconscious after hitting his head on some debris on the way down, Edward could see Barton getting up. The strange man who had attacked them grabbed his arm before anything could be done against him. He spoke words that Edward could barely hear and not quite make out from nonsense.

He was worried about Alphonse, but he almost couldn't look away. His hands were gripping Alphonse's limp body.

Loki's spear went to Clint's chest. Edward knew that the man had no problem killing, and he didn't want to watch as the agent was killed, but he couldn't look away.

It came as a surprise when the staff. seemed to ooze out power into the agent.

Even from his distance, Edward saw The unsettling way Clint's eyes went black. It wasn't only the irises. It was the eye as a whole. Then they went from the pits of black to startling blue.

All Edward could do was watch dumbly as Barton replaced his gun in its holster. It was as if his mind wasn't his own.

The man moved on to his next victim of his strange power. Edward was getting to his feet when he heard the man's voice ring through the silence. "Please don't."

Everyone froze where they were, but Edward was solely focused on Loki and his little brother.

"I still need that."

"You don't need to kill anymore!" Edward hissed.

"But I do. I've come too far not to." The tension rang, and the man turned to Edward. "I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

The Doctor stood up near Edward. "Loki? Brother of Thor."

Edward had learned enough to know quite a bit about anything otherworldly that this world had to offer, but that was absurd. The Norse gods didn't exist. He would have stated so if the conversation didn't go on without him.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury said.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

That ticked Edward off. It was as if this "Loki of Asgard" was calling them puny. "Are you calling us tiny, insignificant ants that you can just step on?!" He was seething.

Loki chuckled with so little mirth behind it. "I come with glad tidings... of a world made free."

"Yeah, right, and what do you plan to free us from?!" Edward shouted, running at him as he clapped his hands and formed his automail into a blade.

"Freedom," The tip of the spear head on the staff caught Edward's chest, making him gasp. "It's this world's biggest lie."

Everything fell into darkness before the light returned without control.

A/N: Please don't hate me! I'm so sorry! I am the worst at working with a deadline or something like that. It was just really dry so I was trying to rewrite it more. I will not be staying to the script by the way. I just am trying to keep it together for now.

And I'm just saying that Ed And Al's presence sped up the process or something with the tesseract.

-UNAU/IME