A few minutes later, the four of them filed into Hughes' apartment. The presence of so many people made the space seem unusually cramped, but Hughes did his best to play the part of the host, offering everyone drinks and snacks. Though Kakashi was technically his superior, he liked to think that over the course of the few missions they'd done together they had a sort of understanding. Kakashi wouldn't treat this like the Spanish Inquisition, and Hughes could deal with one person in the village knowing their secret, especially if Havoc had some new information. And he did indeed seem to – he was far too comfortable here to have been killed before arriving. They must have found another way through. How had he gotten through the gate without being completely disoriented by it? This must've been why he was one of the few officers that were still sent out on actual combat missions when they weren't technically at war, his amount of composure was unimaginable. Maybe it was an effect of all the tobacco.

Kakashi sat down in a chair facing the couch where Havoc and Roy sat. Hughes pulled a chair away from the dining room table and sat down backwards in it, doing his best to face everyone at once. Surprisingly, Roy didn't look at all angry about this new situation. Perhaps he was more concerned about what had brought Havoc here, and wasn't even bothering to think about what Kakashi's interference could mean. Havoc could be an important link back, and he'd be the perfect excuse for Mustang to start researching the gate more in depth. It was hard enough for Hughes to keep himself from interviewing Havoc on the spot, but he kept himself in line. He'd always been good at keeping himself in line in front of his superiors. Roy looked straight over at Kakashi, who now sat resting his head in his hand looking vaguely bored. Both Roy and Hughes knew the bored look though… he knew he was on to something here.

"So," Hughes began amicably, hoping to get the upper hand in the conversation by starting out politely and forward. "What do you want to know about us?"

"Well, I'd really like to know where you've come from. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't lie this time. I know you're not from any of the other villages, or even the cities, because as far as I know there is no way to drop someone from the sky like that without any trace of chakra."

About a minute passed while Roy, Hughes, and Havoc tried to sort out what their response should be without speaking a word. There were limits to reading body language, though. Havoc shifted uncomfortably in his seat, deciding to leave the decision to Roy and Hughes, since they had been here longer and had probably given the issue some thought. Though he'd been somewhat prepared to end up somewhere strange after Hohenhime's odd unspecific allusions, he hadn't really been prepared for ninjas. What a strange place the world could be. Roy raised an eyebrow at Hughes and shrugged – what harm could the truth do now? He probably wouldn't believe all of it anyway, and it'll get us out of this mess, right? Hughes shrugged back, and started his attempt at an answer.

"Officially, we are all members of the Amestris military…" He got no farther before Kakashi interrupted with a somewhat shocked expression.

"An invasion?"

"You could say that…" Havoc grinned menacingly, but Roy's elbow in his side stopped him quickly. Now was not the time, and this was not the man to mess with. If they weren't careful, he could probably turn half the village against them over night, especially if they thought that the three of them were here to somehow invade.

"No. We're here as more of an… odd loophole. I speak only for myself and Roy, because I still have no idea how Havoc got here, but we both, for lack of a better phrase, fell through into this world after we were killed in ours. I guess that makes where we're from a sort of alternate universe or parallel reality. I think Roy could probably explain it better than I can. In our world, he was…. Hmmm." Hughes paused, trying to think of a good analogy. "He was kind of like a ninja scientist."

Roy rolled his eyes, and tried to salvage Hughes' explanation.

"I was a State Alchemist, which means I worked for the military while researching and practicing alchemy." Kakashi gave him an inquisitive look and urged him to go on. "Alchemy is… it's a lot like chakra, only it's used to manipulate more material things. They both use the same kind of energy, as far as I can tell. It really isn't the easiest thing to explain. Suffice it to say that it works."

"I knew there must be something like this." Kakashi grinned, latching onto the clue he'd been trying to verify. "So this alchemy of yours – it must be what you used to perform your last fire jutsu in the exams then?"

"What?"

"I know it wasn't a normal jutsu, because I couldn't copy it. It must've been alchemy."

"Oh," Roy smiled as Hughes sighed and shook his head. Hughes had warned him not to show off his alchemy at the exams because someone would become suspicious about it. But he'd gone ahead and made the gloves and everything. He prided himself on it. It was a good thing he didn't know about all the women that were now stalking him. Not only would it destroy his impression that everyone in the village was homosexual, it would make his head even bigger than it already was. "Yes, that was alchemy."

This time Kakashi smiled. Naturally any new jutsu that he couldn't copy at first he was eager to learn another way. "Could you tell me how it works?"

"I'd prefer for my fire alchemy to remain my own. Specializations like it in alchemy take years of study. Even general alchemy would take you years to learn, just like ninjutsu."

Kakashi shifted in his seat, giving Roy an incredulous look.

"And how long have you been here? How long did it take you to learn ninjutsu?"

Roy began an answer, then paused. He'd always assumed that their ability to pick up so quickly on ninjutsu had been because of the information the gate flooded into their minds. Hughes' sudden grasp of alchemy certainly backed that up. However, it would be interesting to see exactly how much the two arts overlapped, and teaching Kakashi would allow him to have a pure test subject… Then again, with Havoc around now, he planned on getting back. Leaving the science of alchemy behind here could probably cause all kinds of problems. He tried to weigh the options, but Kakashi began to look impatient at his hesitation.

"Okay. I've been here only a few months now, probably only three. But our situation is different, because of an effect our method of travel has on us."

"So… whatever it was that dropped you here gave you some kind of super understanding powers?" Kakashi asked sceptically.

"Well… yes. That's pretty much it."

There was a knock on the door, and suddenly Genma peeked his head into the room. He paused for a moment, looking at everyone, then finally smirking at Hughes.

"Is this a bad time?"

"Oh no, come on in. Kakashi, is there anything else you want to know?"

"I think that's all for now." Kakashi stood to leave. "Thank you very much for being honest." Neither Hughes, Roy, nor Havoc could tell if there wasn't a twinge of sarcasm in his voice. Everyone in the room watched in silence until he left, then breathed what would have been a sigh of relief if Genma hadn't been staring at Havoc so intently. Havoc gave him an incredulous look and stuck a cigarette in his mouth. For a moment the two seemed to mirror each other, each entertaining his own trademark oral fixation. Hughes gave the two of them a sideways look and turned to Genma to break the silence.

"What's up?"

"Oh…" Genma finally turned to face Hughes again. "I was just checking the mail. There's even more of those letters for Mustang here." He threw a rubber-banded pile onto the kitchen table.

"What letters?"

"Oh, I forgot I never let you see them. No worries though, I answered them for you," Hughes smirked.

"You what?"

Hughes continued in a singsong voice, imitating a flirty girl.

"Ooooh Mustang-sama! I want you to light my fire!"

"Hughes. If you don't stop whatever you're up to you're going to spend the next few months in the hospital. We both know neither of us wants that, because then we'll be stuck with another random partner." Roy rubbed his fingertips together threateningly. This time, the effect was not lost. He was, Havoc now noticed, the only one of them wearing gloves that covered his fingers. That meant he'd recreated the gloves here… so much for harassing him and not getting burned. Havoc resigned himself to more subdued conversation from now on, and vaguely wondered how Hughes had gotten away with so much earlier.

Genma tapped the letters then walked towards the door, giving one last glance and wink in Havoc's direction. Havoc stared at the door after he walked out.

"What was with that?"

Hughes just shrugged. Genma was the least of his worries. Now, with no one else around, Roy and Hughes turned to Havoc. There was a lot of work to be done if he was going to save their sanity from Sakura.

"Let's start with the simple stuff," Hughes began, leaning over a chair and looking like he wanted to start a sort of good-cop bad-cop style interview. "How did you get here?"

"That's simple?" Havoc scoffed. "I was visiting Alphonse…"

"He's OK?" Both Hughes and Roy gave a sigh of relief, then… "Wait, just Al?"

"Should I start with the not-so-simple stuff?" Roy and Hughes nodded. "I figure Mustang already told you about what happened since you disappeared," Havoc said to Hughes, and he nodded. "So then, I'll start from where Roy must have left off. I really don't know anything about what happened at the Fuhrer's mansion, but things were pretty insane in the north for a while. Oddly though, once things calmed down the people in Central elected a parliament amazingly quickly. I don't know how much of that was your influence, Mustang, but you certainly made a big difference. It's a shame nobody knows it was actually you… there are rumours even that you fled the country with the Fuhrer. Heh, you should have seen Hawkeye squash those." There was a rare note of admiration in Havoc's voice. Then again, it was also very rare that your superior officer overthrew your country's government. At the mention of the new government, Roy gave an almost audible sigh of relief – it had been worth something. He regretted that he wasn't there to enjoy it.

"I'm hoping all of you got promoted, then…" Mustang said. Havoc nodded, and he smiled. "So they promoted the revolutionaries. How many ranks, Havoc?"

Without thinking, Havoc replied proudly: "Two."

A moment passed as the two of them processed this, then Hughes started snickering.

"Not you guys, too."

"Oh, no one here cares about our ranks at home," Hughes said, stifling a sort of giggle.

"We're going to remember this though, if you don't behave yourself." Havoc's colour was enough to show Roy that his threat wouldn't go ignored. The jokes wouldn't be as much fun here with only Hughes to hear them though, which brought him back to his original questions. "So, back to the simple stuff: How did you get here?"

"Well, I was going to explain why Al was by himself, but I guess that's part of the reason I'm here. Ed disappeared around the same time that you did; he sacrificed himself to restore Al to his original body, but unfortunately the body he brought back is only eleven, and he can't remember anything of the last few years. Well, he's remembered some of it now… but anyway, he's been doing research on this Gate that links our worlds together trying to get Ed back. I was visiting, and through a really weird accident involving a baby, ended up here." Roy was ready to tell him to get real, but let the comment lie as Havoc continued. "It was apparently some crazy idea that someone named Dante came up with, and used to send Hohenhime to the other side of the gate. We saw him briefly while we were travelling through, then there was an explosion and I was thrown here."

"Did he tell you anything about the gate?" Roy's natural curiosity was piqued. Maybe this would be the lead he needed to finally get started on some serious research here. The lack of books in the apartment had been bad enough, but with nothing at all to study outside of ninjutsu Roy had slowly been going insane.

"Well, Hohenhime did say that he'd seen me before, with you. So, well, I know that you figured it out. And he says that the three worlds are linked like a triangle, and I think the world he's in swings back and forth. That's about all I remember. He made a big deal about the baby, though."

"Hmm…" Roy leaned over the coffee table and picked up the notebook again. Hughes rarely used it, and he'd adopted it for jotting down random thoughts and theories. Training had kept him busy though, so he'd only managed to fill up a quarter of the pages. He turned to a fresh page and started writing, sketching out arrays and drawing diagrams. Havoc tried to read over his shoulder, but despite the fact no one in Konoha would understand his research anyway, it was still written entirely in code. Havoc gave up and turned to Hughes, who was throwing their cups into the sink.

"What now?"

"Well, I'm not really sure. We're going to have to find something for you to do here. You'll definitely have to be trained if you're going to stay in the village with us, and hopefully we'll be allowed to keep you on our team. I imagine we scared our third away this afternoon. Actually, I almost hope we scared her away… she was far too young." Havoc nodded. "Anyway, I suppose I could at least find you some normal clothes and show you around the village. I don't think Roy will be doing anything else for at least a few more hours yet. And I can explain this place to you while we walk. Oh, first clothes though."

Hughes led Havoc into the bedroom, where the contents of his dresser were again emptied onto the bed. It was a rather silly cause. Everything was black anyway, so they could have easily just chosen something at random. But the ritual continued. Havoc adopted a tight-fitting black t-shirt and, in a rather symbolic affront to Roy's sense of style, the fishnet undershirt. He pulled on a pair of black gloves and a pair of black pants, then looked down at his tennis shoes. They looked, for lack of any better description, out of place and absolutely ridiculous. He looked at Hughes pathetically and Hughes shrugged and called out into the living room.

"Hey Roy! Do you still have your old shoes?"

"What?" Roy put his pen down and walked into the bedroom.

"Your old shoes, do you still have them?"

"Oh, yeah," Roy nodded and pulled the box down from the top shelf of the closet. Hughes' uniform still hung inside, and Roy smiled at the thought that maybe, just maybe, he'd finally get a chance to get them all home again. He opened the box and pulled the worn shoes out of the paper. Havoc looked at them sceptically… they were probably three sizes too small for him, but they had no toes so he decided he could probably wear them as far as the shoe store. "He should have to deal with the shoe lady too, though. It's only fair."

Havoc stared down at his feet.

"You think I could wear these for more than an hour?" He shook the box, and a small deep purple pill-like rock fell to the floor. Hughes knelt and picked it up, and held it to the light to examine it. In the light, its colour showed to be an uneven mix of several colours, red, blue, and a very small amount of glinting yellow.

"Roy, what's this?"

"I have no idea." Roy's expression was just as baffled as the others'. "Maybe that was the change the lady gave me. I wasn't really paying attention when we ran out of there."

"Huh," Hughes tossed the stone back to Roy. "Well, I imagine if anyone could figure out what it is, you could."

Roy held the little stone in his hands. It had a strange energy, a sort of odd pull, but it wasn't related to the philosopher's stone – that much he could tell. He remembered the feeling the red stone gave, and imagined the feel of the philosopher's stone was the same. This stone was special, but different. Perhaps it had to do with the power of this world, as opposed to alchemy. He slipped it into his pocket to examine more closely later. Hughes watched as he did so, and nodded.

"Well then, we're off. Good luck on the research, Roy." Hughes patted Roy on the back as he and Havoc walked out.

"Good luck with Mei," Roy called after them. "Havoc, you're lucky you'll only have to see her once."