Hughes leaned back on the couch, resting his feet on the coffee table. Roy sat at the other side of the couch, facing him with an expectant and slightly exasperated look on his face. Hughes looked down at his socks.

"I'll warn you now, there isn't a whole lot I know about how I got here. But I can tell you what I've learned about things here since then, so you don't have to go through the same things I did. Things here are constantly changing, but I think you can get the hang of it."

"How long have you been here?" Roy knew the answer, but he asked anyway. There was a chance, maybe, that the time flowed differently or, perhaps, that this was all a strange cosmic misunderstanding.

"It's hard to keep track of time here. My best guess would be that it's been several months. Four? Five? I'm not sure."

"So, you've been here since you…" Roy trailed off and let the sentence hang. 'Since you died' seemed like such an odd way to end the sentence, but it was true. He'd seen the body, been to the funeral.

Hughes' mood was suddenly more serious. He moved his feet down to the floor and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He'd given this a lot of thought since he'd dropped down through the trees in front of two ninjas.

"It was the weirdest feeling. The whole thing was just… surreal. I'd tried to stay one step ahead of them and I didn't think they knew about Sheska, but I underestimated them. The last thing I remember is being shot, and then the darkness closing in on me. It felt like little hands grabbing me and pulling me backwards. Then everything was white, but it wasn't actually over. I was sort of just existing, but not existing at the same time. Everything kept fading in and out. And there was a giant door or wall in front of me, wide open with all these little eyes staring out at me, surrounded by blackness. They were giggling or laughing or something. They pulled me in, and it was like I had the weirdest dream of my life: colours, images all flashing by. Then, next thing I knew, I fell down through the trees here in front of these two guys who happened to be out in the woods."

"Just like me."

"Almost exactly the same. You saw those little children, too? How did you…" for some reason, they both seemed to avoid the word 'die.' They were used to filling in each others' sentences, though.

"It took me way too long to put together what you were trying to tell me, that they had infiltrated the military into the highest ranks. I imagine they only let me figure it out when they were ready for me. I thought I was ready for them, too though. Hawkeye and I had planned it out perfectly. I fought the Fuhrer. I knew he was a homunculus, and I killed him." He laughed derisively. "He would have killed me, if his son hadn't come back. The poor boy brought Bradley his own skull. That's their weakness. So he killed the boy, and I used the skull he'd brought to kill him. Me and my ambition. I carried the little boy's body out of there. It was the least I could do. Then, as I was walking out the front door, Frank Archer came out and shot me."

"Roy, that doesn't even make sense."

"You have no idea. He should have died in Ishbar, when Scar made Al into the philosopher's stone. Somehow they turned him into a half-robot, and he went almost entirely insane trying to protect the Fuhrer…" he trailed off and watched as Hughes looked more and more confused. It wasn't often that you could confuse Hughes. "I'm sorry; there is no way to explain what happened since you left. None of it makes sense if you weren't there to see it for yourself. Heck, not much of it makes sense even if you did see it. Hughes he shot me in the head, right between the eyes. And that was it. It was immediately black and these little eyes glittered at me, laughing. Then the white room, just like you said. I stood there staring at that gate thing. I thought I saw Ed and Al for a moment. They faded out, and the gate pulled me in."

"Ed and Al were at the gate, too?"

"I could have imagined them, I suppose."

"Did they get their bodies back?"

"I hope so. If seeing them there means that they died anyway… Hughes was anything we did worth it?"

"You killed the Fuhrer, didn't you? If we're lucky, that means that at least the government will have to change."

"But I'm gone. If Ed and Al are too, there's no one to counter them anymore. Everything is theirs. Hawkeye is the only other one who knew most of what was happening, and I didn't even tell her everything because I was afraid of what they could do if she knew. For all I know they've killed her too."

"I'm sorry. I wish there was something we could still do about it." Hughes did his best to smile, watching the familiar defiant fire dance behind Roy's eyes. "Look, we're both still alive, aren't we? Where there's a will, there's a way. You're a brilliant alchemist, and here you've got all the time you want. Research it."

Roy seemed to think over the thought for no more than a few seconds. He'd always been quick on his decisions.

"To do that, I'm going to have to know how to get around here and gather information. You need to finish your story. What happened when those two guys found you?"

"Well, I was sworn to secrecy about this, but it won't make any sense if I don't tell you." Hughes gave Roy a wry smile, as he continued. "They were making out."

"They were just randomly making out in the woods? And you said my story of robotic Archer made no sense."

"You can't even compare those two things. Anyway, you don't even know them. They actually make a cute couple." Hughes smirked. "I caught them completely off-guard when I fell through the trees. They thought I was spying on them, and tried to bribe me. They didn't recognize my clothes as anything from any of the other hidden villages, so they knew that I wasn't a missing-nin or anyone threatening. Or at least they assumed. Luckily I was able to get my bearings quickly enough to play along. They took me to be someone from one of the normal cities, lost out in the woods. They offered to take me in and teach me to be a ninja if I swore I'd never tell anyone in the village what I'd seen, though now I don't know why they were bothering to keep it a big secret. Anyway, they took me back to the village, and introduced me to the head of the village – the 3rd Hokage, Sarutobi. It seems he owed Genma and Hayate a favour for something, and he gladly took me in to train me. I think he might have been lonely. The man could talk for hours, but he was one amazing ninja."

"You were trained by the head of the village?"

Hughes laughed and leaned back on the couch, gloating.

"Apparently I had a lot of potential. My accuracy with a shuriken was unheard-of, and for one reason or another I was able to understand the idea of chakra almost immediately."

"Chakra?"

"The best explanation I can come up with is that it's a type of mental energy. If you concentrate on it, you can mold it and use it for extra power or for creating illusions like we did to sneak you in here."

"Does it actually work?"

"Oh, right. You couldn't see the illusion from the inside. Would you like me to demonstrate?" Hughes looked far too pleased with himself. He thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he finally had one up on his friend. Without waiting for an answer – he knew what the reply would be anyway – he held his hands together to make a seal and said one word: "Henge!"

Roy stared at himself staring back at himself from under Hughes' glasses. He shuddered involuntarily as a perfect reflection of himself watched him, wearing Hughes' clothes and glasses. He'd only heard of the homunculus Envy's powers, never seen it for himself, but he imagined dealing with it would be a lot like this. This was new, nothing that could be done easily with alchemy, but clearly Hughes, who had previously had no talent for such things, had been able to pull it off. He wasn't sure if he should call this ability a science, it seemed to be more of a spiritual thing. 'Mental energy,' pah. It reminded him of one of his earliest alchemy teachers. She'd been heavily into spiritual things, and had almost convinced him that alchemy was dead as a science. He'd wanted to give it up after she told him to sit in a dark room for an hour, concentrating on his breathing and thinking the word "alchemy" over and over to see what images it brought to his mind. But here it was in front of him - something that actually worked on those concepts. Seeing was a powerful thing.

Hughes released the jutsu, returning to his true form. He gave Roy a concerned look, as all the colour seemed to have drained from his face.

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm sorry. Wow." Roy couldn't keep the amazement from showing, and his natural curiosity won over. "I wasn't expecting that at all. How does it work?"

"Basically, you gather the chakra and then mold it together by making a seal with your hands." He held his hands together again to demonstrate the seal. "You hold the idea of what you want to do in your mind and direct the chakra to it."

"Does it actually change who you are?"

"Well, not exactly."

"An illusion, then?"

"No, not entirely. It's more like… convincing the world that the image in your mind is who you really are, and asking it to move to allow it. It's really a weird feeling, to exist appearing outwardly as someone else, but you get used to the feeling."

"Do you think I could do it?" Roy looked innocently hopeful. He looked like a child ready to try out a new toy.

"I suppose so."

Roy immediately dove in with a theory. His ability to do this with almost anything had always astounded Hughes.

"It looks like it works a lot like alchemy. Making the seal is a lot like drawing an array; in fact it looks like it also makes a circle to focus the energy, and the different positions of the fingers probably indicate the type of work the seal is supposed to do, just like the different symbols in the arrays. Actually, when Ed claps, he uses the circle created by his hands to perform the reaction. It had always amazed me." Hughes was stunned, watching Roy's mind jump from connection to connection. Somehow, they all made sense. "Alchemy deals more directly with the elements, but the mental part seems to be the same, too, at least in practice. You have to have an idea of what you want to do, or else you won't be able to control the reaction."

"I feel like I should be writing this down."

Roy smiled and clapped his hands together to form the seal. His eyes closed as he concentrated on the image in his mind. A faint blue glow rose around his outline. Instead of a poof of chakra, the glow seemed to fold around him as his form slowly changed to match Hughes'. The man found rather quickly that he couldn't seem to catch his breath. He was panicking. This was exactly like the changes Envy was able to do, the way the changed flowed along one line as the entire body shifted to another form. Roy opened his eyes and smiled wryly at Hughes. He'd even duplicated the glasses. The smile didn't match the face at all; the mannerisms were completely Roy's. The effect was rather jarring. He stretched and looked down at his hands.

"You're right, it is sort of uncomfortable." He looked over, finally seeming to notice the expression on Hughes' face. "What is it? Now you look like the one who's just seen a ghost."

"You… you did that with alchemy."

"What?"

"That wasn't chakra at all. Chakra transformations are more sudden. That was just…"

"But…" The smile fell from his face, and Roy suddenly looked serious.

"Release the jutsu."

"Huh?"

"Just… just release the jutsu. Let the image in your mind go. If you used chakra, you'll automatically go back to normal."

Roy looked concerned. He concentrated on banishing the image of Hughes from his mind, and then tried thinking of his original form. Nothing changed.

"Nothing. It doesn't work."

This time Hughes looked concerned.

"Try using alchemy to undo it."

"But…"

"Look, there's no use denying it now. You've done it twice already."

"But I didn't mean to. I don't know how I've done it."

"Relax. We know it wasn't a fluke, now."

Roy closed his eyes again. He clapped his hands a bit more softly this time, and didn't bother curling his fingers into the seal. He took a breath, and touched the palms of his hands to his chest. The blue glow rose around him again, but this time the shimmering line moved across his body more quickly. Soon, he was himself again. He was a bit shaken, but the realization that he could now use alchemy without an array was pouring adrenaline into his system. Power seemed to tingle at his fingertips.

"I shouldn't have been able to do that," he breathed. Excitement shone in his eyes. "What on earth happened to us before we got here?"

Hughes looked deep in thought. "I don't know. But this does explain one thing to me. When the Third was training me, the first jutsu he tried to teach me was bushin no jutsu – a cloning technique. When I first tried it I passed out from the effort, but he said later when I woke up that the clones had been strange. That they'd risen out of the ground surrounded by this strange glow, and they seemed almost completely real. He accused me of secretly learning kage bushin for a long time. Now I think I know what happened. Your light wasn't always blue, was it?"

"It's blue now? You mean…"

"Is it possible?"

"Well, yes, if… Yes. I guess that makes sense if going through that gate did what I think it did." Roy picked up the notebook he'd used earlier, and drew another array on a sheet of paper and handed it to Hughes. "Here, it's easier to start with the array. Try something simple. It's the same idea, but you have to actually follow the change in your mind. The pencil is made of graphite and wood. Change it into something else."

Roy watched expectantly as Hughes placed the pencil in the middle of the array. "Try to use whatever part of your mind that you first used when you were learning ninjutsu. Whatever caused it to go wrong, try that."

Hughes looked vaguely apprehensive, but turned his attention to the sheet of paper anyway. If he hadn't indirectly suggested the idea himself, he wouldn't have even tried it. But he'd gotten Roy to try ninjutsu, so it was only fair, even though he wasn't ready to accept the possibility that he was, by some strange effect of travelling between his home and here, suddenly able to understand alchemy. Despite the resistance of his conscious mind, he closed his eyes and tried to reawaken the part of his mind that he'd tried to repress so many months ago. He'd taken what he needed and left it there. It still sat at the back of his mind, a buzzing jumble of thoughts and images that seemed to be gathered from all creation. It amazed him that it all fit in his head. He allowed his conscious mind to touch it again, feeling the memories that were not entirely his flow back into the forefront, bringing back that uncomfortable feeling of unsteadiness. Almost without thinking, he moved his fingertips to the edge of the array on the paper. Somehow the random images seemed to guide him. He didn't even consciously think about the elements in the pencil; instead, he followed the atoms in their decomposition, and willed them into place to match the image in his mind. It was an exhilarating process, and Roy couldn't help but share in the excitement as he watched the blue glow rise out of the lines on the paper. The pencil's shape shifted and moved. Hughes seemed to be relishing the feeling of the reaction, slowing it down and dragging it out as long as he could. Roy couldn't blame him though. The first time alchemy worked - actually worked – the feeling couldn't be compared to anything else. And to start out with that much power and understanding… he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Even he was drunk on the new feeling of understanding, and he'd been an alchemist for years before. How could Hughes' mind have even absorbed all that knowledge without some foundation to build it up from? Maybe he'd understood more of what he'd tried to teach him, after all. He looked down at the table. In the middle of the circle sat another fork. Its handle was made of wood, while the actual fork was made out of the graphite. Hughes lay back on the couch looking slightly flushed. His breathing was a bit heavier than usual, and he didn't even bother to look proud of himself.

"Wow Hughes. That is a good fork."

"Thanks.

"Are you all right?"

"Fine. Just a little dizzy, that's all."

"I think you enjoyed that a little too much."

"I might have. Wow. That was nothing like controlling chakra. It's like… just opening up a gate and trying your best to control the power that comes through. How do you deal with that?"

"You get used to it."

"No, really?"

"Really? Normally it isn't like that at all. You have to make a lot of effort to gather the power. I'm guessing that this is an after-effect of going through that gate," Roy shrugged. "All those images – they seem to change the way your mind controls the reaction. You were using that, weren't you?" Hughes gave a small nod, still half in shock, half retracing what he'd done in his mind. Roy added "And you're still going to have to teach me about this chakra stuff. And I'm not going to let you show me up on that fork. Remember that all I had to work with were chopsticks."

Hughes laughed and stood up, shaking himself out of his reverie.

"If you teach me how to control my alchemy more effectively, it's a deal. I can't go losing myself like that every time I do it." He stretched his arms, and instinctively checked that his knives were still in place. "That was an amazing way to get sidetracked, but you still don't know anything about living in this village."

"I know that people wear fishnet, that the head of the village is the Hokage, and that everyone here is a ninja. What more do I need to know?" Roy joked.

"How about the ranks, what we do here, how we do it, and how people around here think and go about their days? And what sort of favour the Hokage would owe two guys that were making out in the woods. Aren't you curious about what I've been doing since I got here?"

"I guess you'd better start from the beginning, then."