Samantha and Jack lifted Edward up by his arms and helped him back to his seat. "You doin' alright?" asked O'Neill.

Edward sat silently for a few moments just catching his breath. Then he looked up at Colonel O'Neill and said, "Yes, I'm fine now. Thanks."

Sam sat down next to Edward, and took the liberty of putting her arm around him. This boy brought her motherly instincts out of her, and she just wanted to protect him.

"Is everything alright here?" asked one of the train personnel.

"Everything's fine," said Samantha. While that wasn't totally true, she didn't want to get innocent people involved in this scuffle if she could avoid it.

"Very well, if you need any assistance, just contact us," the man said, and then left.

Jack turned to face Edward, who was still breathing pretty hard after the incident. "So, what were those things, anyway?" he said.

Edward cringed. Jack could tell that he wasn't sure if he wanted to explain or not. "It would help us to know how to protect ourselves and others if you told us about them," O'Neill explained.

Edward remained in an indecisive stance for a few more moments. Finally, he looked up at Colonel O'Neill, and said, "Do you really want to know who they are?"

"Of course I want to know, or I wouldn't have asked you, would I?" said Jack.

Edward hesitated for another moment, then said, "Those people are...homunculi."

"A homo-what?" asked Jack, obviously annoyed.

"A homunculus is an artificially created human," said Carter, "But I thought that they existed only in legends."

"I thought that until recently myself," said Edward, "But apparently, whenever an alchemist fails a human transmutation, a homunculus is created from that failed attempt."

"So why are they after you?" asked Daniel.

"Because...because," Edward sobbed, "Because I created one of them!"

A silent gasp was shared by all the members of SG1. No one spoke for several minutes. Even SG1, who had never been exposed to alchemy before, could understand the concept that human transmutation was the most forbidden taboo. Hearing that their new friend had tried to tap into it came as quite a shock.

Sam finally managed to break the silence with a single word, "Why?"

A few tears rolled down Edward's cheek, but he tried to wipe them away before anyone could see them. "Our mother grew very sick, and died suddenly," he said, "So we were trying to resurrect her."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Sam, as she gently rubbed his hair with the arm that wasn't wrapped around him. Edward unconsciously relaxed and leaned in closer to Sam as she did so.

There was another moment of silence. Everyone now understood the desperation their friend had felt which had driven him to tap into the forbidden. Only one thing remained unanswered, how did one dispose of these creatures, these homunculi?

"So...how does one fix the problem?" said Daniel, taking a chance at breaking the silent meditation everyone seemed to be in, "How can these homunculi be killed?"

Edward sighed. "They are quite difficult to kill, because after one is created, someone goes and collects them. This person raises them and gives them multiple lives. Pretty much the only way I know of to kill them is to seal them with an alchemy array, but that requires outwitting them, which is very difficult to do."

"Can they be killed without an alchemy whatever?" asked Colonel O'Neill.

"Probably, if you keep killing them until they run out of lives," said Edward, "Which they have hundreds, if not thousands, of lives inside them."

"Then, they're nearly immortal," said Daniel.

Ed nodded, then nestled back down into Carter's arm. He didn't say another word for the remainder of the trip.

The group managed to arrive in Central City without further incident. Except for Teal'c's injuries being a bit sore, and Edward being worn out, the group was in pretty good shape otherwise, considering what they'd had to deal with.

Edward stepped off the train after the others and let out a big yawn as he stretched his arms. The sleeve on his right arm slid down a few inches, once again exposing the mechanical arm.

"So where did you get that?" asked Jack, pointing to the mechanical arm.

"Equivalent trade," said Ed, "I lost my arm when I tried to..." his voice trailed off, but the group knew what he was referring to. It apparently took a huge sacrifice to resurrect someone, and he had only succeeded in creating a homunculus.

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Sam, "But this arm is incredible!" She grabbed his arm and ran her fingers over every screw, joint, and connection, talking all the while about all the scientific stuff behind it.

Edward chuckled. "I think you'd really like Winry," he said.

"Who's Winry?" asked Daniel.

"She's the one who created this auto-mail arm for me, and she's a total machine freak," said Edward.

"Do you think she'd like to talk with us?" asked Colonel O'Neill, "We could really use this kind of technology back on our planet."

"Sure, I think that she'd be willing to...PLANET?" Edward said in surprise.

"...Oops..." said Daniel, looking at O'Neill.

"It is as you say, Daniel, Oops," said Teal'c.

Carter cringed. She hadn't wanted to have to deal with this just yet, especially now that she was growing so fond of the boy. Why did this have to come out now?

"Aw, darn it," said O'Neill, "Look, a race of aliens a long long time ago built all these gates, Stargates, and set them up on different planets. It allows one to quickly travel from one planet to another. We are just harmless explorers from a planet called 'Earth'."

Edward coughed, and then said, "Well, Envy...the homunculus...did say that you had come through the gate. I'm not sure that I buy the bit about the planet though. After all, who would name a planet 'Earth'? Wouldn't you more likely call it 'Home' or something? I mean, who would name a planet after the dirt they walked on?"

"You've got a good point there," said O'Neill, "Too bad that you weren't present at the naming committee."

Everyone laughed at O'Neill's little joke, then Sam kneeled down next to Edward. "Listen," she said, "We were sent here because some of your people have managed to come to our world without coming through the Stargate, and we need to find out how they are doing it because there is a hostile alien race out there that is trying to conquer our planet, but they can't use the Stargate. Please, could you tell us what you know about this 'gate'?"

Edward shifted from one foot to the other. Yes, these people were weird, and maybe a little deluded, but they were definitely kind. He might as well humor them. At least they could quit worrying if he told them. "The gate isn't anything technological, so this other alien race would never be able to figure it out. It's more like a spiritual portal, though I've never gone through it, so I can't say where it leads. Very few of us even know the gate exists, let alone how to call it up. So, I wouldn't worry too much about those vicious aliens," Edward chuckled.

Sam looked up at the other three members of SG1. The gate was not technological? Was their trip here a waste of time? Would they even be able to find their way home?

Finally, O'Neill spoke, "Well...If we don't show up anytime soon, I'm sure that Hammond will just call up our friendly neighbors to come get us."

The other three members of the SG1 team relaxed. After all, O'Neill was right. Hammond wouldn't leave them stranded if there was anything that could be done about it.

"Hey, kid," said O'Neill. That probably wasn't the best thing to say, since it made Edward give a perturbed look, but he was controlling his anger this time.

"What?" asked Ed.

"You say you're in the military, right? Do your superiors have any qualms about your carrying alien technology around?" asked O'Neill.

"Well, the situation's never come up before," said Edward, "So I guess that I would just have to make up my own mind about that."

"I'd like you to carry this around for protection, then," said O'Neill, as he pulled out a zat gun from behind his back. "We didn't think about it back there on the train, but this might help protect you from those homo-things. One shot stuns, two shots kill, and three disintegrates."

"Colonel, he's just a child!" said Carter.

"All the more reason that he needs extra protection," said O'Neill, "If they're going to send him out to places where he can get killed, he should at least be allowed to protect himself."

"Uh..." Edward said uneasily, "Thanks, but, I'm not sure that those things would work. The homunculi have multiple lives, after all. They would come back to life before I even had a chance to fire a third shot, supposing that the third shot would even work. Some of them have the power to regenerate their bodies."

"Then keep it to protect yourself from beings that are less immortal than they are," said O'Neill, "It's just a hunch, but something tells me that you're going to need it."

Edward reluctantly gave in. If nothing else, it could at least be something to keep Winry occupied so that she wouldn't bother him about looking at his silver State Alchemist's watch anymore.

"I have a meeting to get to with Colonel Mustang," said Edward, "So I guess that I'll see you around. Oh, and, thanks for this." He motioned towards the zat gun.

"You're welcome, son," said O'Neill, "See you around."

With that, SG1 and the two brothers both went their separate ways.