Al sat in the middle of the living room showing Wrath how the small interlocking gears inside the machine Winry had built worked. The array on the floor of his study had been drawn hours ago, and everything had been secured in case of any unexpected accidents. He kept Wrath close, trying to sense the activities at the gate through him. He pointed to a small flywheel used to control one of the machine's arms and brushed against Wrath's hand. It was warmer than usual. The boy's hair was beginning to stand on end, like he was suddenly charged with static electricity. Al looked up at Izumi and she nodded.

It was almost time.

---------

Seven o'clock. The time of the offensive had nearly come. Hughes' squad had been assigned at the outskirts of the compound. There was nothing left to do to wait until the people within made their move, or the signal was given. Havoc sat down and pulled a cigarette from his kunai pouch. Hughes stared down at him but said nothing. He couldn't begrudge the man a cigarette before going into battle. Roy even snapped his fingers offering him a light. There was no worry that his chakra would be detected using alchemy. It was one of the perks of maintaining the use of alchemy in this world, and he somewhat regretted never taking the time to teach Havoc how it worked now that he was here. Then again, he wasn't prepared to share the secrets of alchemy with everyone, and if they were indeed going to make it back home he didn't want to have another alchemist on his staff. Alchemists were troublesome.

Havoc was halfway through his cigarette when he suddenly coughed. Hughes and Roy looked down. Havoc did not have a smoker's cough. It was one of the bizarre miracles of his existence that he didn't have a smoker's cough despite a two pack a day habit. Since he'd cut back, there was especially no reason for him to have a cough. Havoc looked up at Hughes and motioned for him to sit down next to himself and Roy. He leaned forward and pulled a scroll out of the pouch at his waist and started writing something out on it as discretely as possible as the other two read over his shoulder.

Someone else is here, he wrote, watch.

He took another puff of his cigarette and blew the smoke towards the trees to his left. It travelled a few feet through the air and disappeared completely beyond a certain point, like it had suddenly been cut off. Roy and Hughes looked to Havoc for some sort of explanation, but he couldn't come up with anything. None of them had expected any sort of genjutsu in this area… there was no need for it. There were no entrances to the headquarters nearby, nor any known traps. As they were glancing around looking for clues, each with a hand on their weapons for fear that the ambush had been reversed, the genjutsu was dropped. A young ninja – he looked no older than 18 or 19 – stared down at them. His glasses sat at the perfect angle on his nose to reflect the image of the three back at themselves, obscuring his eyes. He grinned and pushed his glasses up.

"I see that birds of a feather really do flock together. I only wish they were better at flying, and wouldn't fall out of the sky in such inconvenient places."

The three of them stood together, hands on their weapons and keeping their back to the tree in case anyone else decided to appear. The man had a very annoyingly superior air about him, like he hated to have to bring himself down enough to talk to them. Hughes noted his forehead protector, a single musical note etched in the steel. So he was from the Sound. For the first time since Hayate's death, Hughes thought about revenge. He was almost certain this person had somehow been involved, he could sense it. Unfortunately, he could also sense that this person was holding a very dangerous and invisible weapon – some sort of knife made from chakra. Hughes unconsciously backed further into the tree, and Roy and Havoc exchanged glances debating what course of action to take. Every way of escape seemed to be a dead end, so Roy decided to confront the man head-on.

"What do you want?"

The young man adjusted his glasses again and took up a less-threatening stance.

"What do I want? I want you to make things more interesting. On the way here, the Sound ninjas were unfortunately ambushed by a bunch of Sand kids. They won't be here on time to protect the western side of the compound. Only three runners got away to report to Orochimaru." He held out three Sound forehead protectors. "There's someone in there you'll want to see. Only Orochimaru will know you aren't from Sound, but he'll be too busy to care. You'll have about five minutes to get in, when I give the warning."

There was no "Why should we trust you?" question. The boy was dangerous, but they could now see that that glint in his eye wasn't for them. He was merely enjoying playing both sides. He smiled at them again, and disappeared into the trees, leaving the three of them to decide what to do. Roy was afraid to admit to himself who he was afraid of finding within Akatsuki's hideout. It was a fear that he'd been suppressing since the first strange dream he'd had here, with the red-coated boy on the rocket. It hadn't connected until Havoc had told him he'd seen it to, on his trip through the gate. The only thing that could gather power from a world like this would be some perversion of alchemy… whoever it was had either discovered alchemy on his own, which was so unlikely Roy considered it impossible, or it was someone else who had been unfortunate enough to come through from Amestris. Roy refused to let himself think directly that it could be FullMetal, but the thought itched at the back of his mind.

Hughes absentmindedly picked up one of the Sound headbands and tied it around his head like a bandana. He grinned at the other two.

"So, are we going?"

"Hughes, you look like a pirate."

"Pirate…" he smirked, "or ninja?"

Havoc rolled his eyes at the reference to the game they'd used to play in the office on slow days. It was amusingly out of place here, where they were all playing ninja in the woods. Their mission here was to keep an eye on the western side, but if the mysterious boy had been telling the truth, they weren't likely to see any battle at all. No one would notice they were gone, and if they were walking into a trap, it would only start the battle sooner. Havoc reached over and grabbed the second headband, tying it around his head. This could be fun.

Hughes looked over at Roy who was apparently still lost in thought.

"Roy Mustang, you aren't going to sit there and let your subordinates have all the fun, are you?"

Roy stared at the headband tied around Havoc's head. He'd expected the indiscretion and unfounded enthusiasm from Hughes, but not from Havoc. Then again, Havoc was a veteran of this kind of mission, maybe he gravitated to them. Or Hughes was rubbing off on him. Roy picked up the last headband and put it on without a word. He only smiled. There was no way he'd let his subordinates outdo him. Together they watched for the signal. Just a few more minutes. Roy absentmindedly pulled the small stone out of his pocket. He had forgotten he was still carrying it with him. It was strange now. The red specks made up only a small fraction of the stone now, and had all gathered at one end, and no matter which way he turned it, they moved to point to Akatsuki's headquarters. The rest was faintly blue, and larger bits of yellow were beginning to peek through underneath. When he concentrated, he could feel his chakra slowly draining away into the caves. It was a good thing they wouldn't need genjutsu to get inside.