Chapter 2:

The detailed map of Central shook slightly with the hum of machinery as a figure paced in front of it.

The dank room, full of steaming pipes and flicking lights, held a gathering of about twenty people all focused on the man at the map.

He slapped the four locations outlined in red on the map with his pointer . "We'll release the chimeras here, here, here, and here!" He drove the series of declarations home with a final jab more violent than the preceding ones.

A loud crack filled the room as his pointer spilt down the middle, the tip clattering uselessly to the ground. The man ignored his newly shortened pointer as he continued in his speech. "The chimeras know his scent and will target anything with it in the area, and, as long as we time it correctly, the target will be out at the time of action."

"And if he's not?" One figure questioned, "What if we fail?" He looked at the map worriedly.

Another shouted, "We will rule a new Amestris under our true king! We have to make sure nothing will go wrong with this plan."

The figure tossed his broken pointer aside and grinned, his teeth glowing in the dark room. "I assure you, this plan is so simple, it's foolproof."


"Selim, pass the salt will you?" Mrs. Bradley asked kindly, slowly stirring the soup in front of her.

Selim grabbed the salt and passed it to his mother. He returned to peeling the potatoes, carefully avoiding the sharp edge of the knife.

Elysia flipped a dial on the shining new radio on their table, static ground out through the speakers. "What stations does this one get?"

"Oh, I'm not sure. Selim is better with it than I am." Mrs. Bradley responded.

Selim glanced up, mechanically peeling the potato as he frowned. "It should get all the-" He stopped with a yelp, grabbing at his injured finger.

Mrs. Bradley rushed over, "Did you hurt yourself?"

Selim shook his head, hiding the red sparks flashing across the cut on his finger and presenting the now flawless finger to her. "I thought I did, that was scary." He chuckled nervously, ignoring the two women's unconvinced gazes.

Elysia shrugged, spinning the dial on the radio as she searched for a station.

The buzz of static cut through the room as it refined down to comprehensible speech. "Central police report three sightings of large animals in the eastern quarter of Central. We advise residents in that area to remain indoors while the military works to neutralize the threat."

"We're in the eastern quarter." Mrs. Bradley said nervously, kneeling down and reaching into the space under the cabinets.

"Mother, what are you doing?"

Mrs. Bradley's hand closed around the objects she was looking for and she withdrew them from their hiding place. "Your father was never one for guns, but he was just as deadly as Amestris' finest sniper with these."

Two duel blades were in her hands, the sheaths glinting dully as she placed them on the table.

"Mother! What are we going to do with those?" Selim protested. "I can't use swords!"

Mrs. Bradley grinned wickedly, "I never said you needed to use them. King and I used to spar when he had some spare time." She withdrew one of the blades and twirled it expertly, "I may be a little rusty, but I can still put up a fight."

Selim looked at Elysia for help, but his friend was awestruck at his mother's actions.

"Mother! You could get hurt," Selim shifted his feet, preparing himself for his next statement. "I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you." The words almost burned his mouth.

(He wasn't weak! Caring for someone didn't make him weak!)

Mrs. Bradley smiled kindly at her son, "You don't need to worry about me."

The radio static cut through again, refining to speech. "Additional reports have come in and the military has confirmed that there are four of these creatures loose in the east Central area. Three deaths have already been attributed to these creatures and the military is working rapidly to neutralize this threat. Once again, we advise that..."

Elysia frowned, "Why is the military working on this? I could see the animal control or even the police, but why the military?"

Kage cawed in fear, flapping his wings rapidly. His perch rattled and shook from his rapid movements.

Selim stood up and consoled the bird, rubbing his back soothingly and whispering to him.

Kage still cawed and ruffled his feathers, refusing to settle down.

Mrs. Bradley frowned, "What has gotten into that bird?"

A low whine came from the front door.

Elysia looked at the door warily, "Please tell me that was just the wind."

"That was the wind..." Selim responded, peering out the glass window in the door.

Nothing was there; he looked out one more time, squinting his eyes at what looked like a dark shape...

A gleaming yellow eye blinked into existence and gazed back at him, its breath fogging the glass as it snarled at him.

Selim yelped and stumbled away, falling flat onto his back.

The door hinges buckled as the beast smashed into it.

Elysia had her hand over her mouth, a scream barely stifled in her throat.

Mrs. Bradley's face was creased in a frown as she quickly drew one of her husband's swords.

Selim was on his feet, still backing away with his face contorted in anger. "I shouldn't have to run from this." He growled, approaching the area where Elysia was standing in shock. "Pathetic chimera." He didn't even seem to be aware of his mumblings. He looked at his mother as she advanced towards the door, holding her sword. "She'll get hurt, she could die. She's only human..."

"Selim!" Elysia exclaimed in shock, "What are you talking about?"

Selim's purple eyes were unfocused as he shook his head, "I don't know... I just-"

He grabbed his head in pain, "I can't remember!" He screamed in fury as the door splintered and the monster entered.

The shadows seemed to stretch and contort around the creature as it entered. Its claws clacking noisily against the tiles as its three heads surveying the room with three sets of sickly yellow eyes. Its body resembled a lion, with permanently unsheathed claws and the tail of a scorpion. The goat head bleated rather pathetically as it spotted them, but when the reptilian and lion heads roared in unison, Elysia finally released the scream that she had been holding in.

Selim's clouded eyes cleared slightly as he pushed Elysia behind him, "Mother! Get back."

Mrs. Bradley turned, leaving her back open to the beast as it charged at her.

Selim roared as he ran towards the chimera, pushing his mother to the side, "You forget your place, beast!"

The chimera skidded to a halt as it viewed the man standing before it.

The room fell silent aside from Kage's panicked caws.

The goat head bleated, "You..."

Selim scoffed, "Since when could a basic chimera such as yourself speak?"

The lion head rumbled, "You..." The reptilian head hissed, "Are..."

Selim narrowed his eyes and waved a hand impatiently, "Out with it now."

Mrs. Bradley surveyed her son's attitude with worry, the Fuehrer's
warnings echoing in her head. The arrogant man currently staring down a chimera over six times his size was not her son.

"You..." The lion head growled.

"Are..." The goat head brayed.

"Not..." The reptilian head snarled.

The beast's heads snarled in unison, "Our master!" It stomped it's feet and whipped it's scorpion tail. "The artificials are dead!" They howled, "You cannot control us anymore!"

Elysia's mind raced as she desperately tried to piece together what she was witnessing.

(Artificials? What is that? Who is that? Was this part of the reason Selim had guards once?)

Selim sighed in disappointment at the beast's declaration, "It took you how many years to form that one sentence? Pathetic."

The beast roared as it lunged at Selim, electing a scream from Mrs. Bradley.

(She didn't care how he acted, he was still her son!)

Elysia hid her eyes, her best friend from grade school was about to be ripped apart and-

(He was laughing?)

"All of you are pathetic," he chuckled.

The chimera was dead on the ground before him.

The shadows began to draw back towards him and Selim stumbled backwards. "Too much energy, not enough souls..." He moaned, clutching his chest.

Mrs. Bradley rushed forward, but the shadows still helping Selim to remain standing caused her to pause.

He stumbled back to the wall as the shadows returned to his body. He slumped to the ground, "Not again..." He smashed his fist into the ground. He looked at Mrs. Bradley and Elysia, his eyes wide in frustration. "Every time!" He roared, the shadows flaring weakly around him. "I can't remember! And when I do-"

His head slumped forward and the shadows retracted immediately.

Elysia stood frozen in place, "What was that?"

Mrs. Bradley shook her head sadly, "I don't know."

(Memories of another day like this came to her mind. This wasn't the first time that his dark side had manifested.)

The chimera's body fizzled and began to dissolve, the blood evaporating from the floors.

"But what was that?" Elysia whispered, "He's never..."

(Did she have a right to know the truth?)

Mrs. Bradley sighed, "Elysia, do you remember when Selim had guards around him all the time?"

Elysia nodded slowly, "Yeah, but what does that have to do with..." She exhaled and breathed in deeply. "Those men weren't guarding him, were they?"

Mrs. Bradley shook her head. "If that," she gestured to Selim laying unconscious, "Had happened when he had a guard, he would be dead by now."

"But why?" Elysia whispered, kneeling down and, with only slight hesitation, brushed Selim's bangs out of his eyes.

His birthmark was almost gone, that little circle that had never made any sense to her. It wasn't a birthmark, but she could never figure out what it was. She always assumed it was a scar, but it suddenly seemed like she knew nothing about Selim.

Selim: the boy who used to sneak his bird into school, the boy who would protect her from the bullies in preschool, the boy who Roy always seemed so wary of, the boy who could control the shadows...

Mrs. Bradley sighed, "I never knew why. I just know he did terrible things once, and frankly, I don't want to know."

Elysia looked at Mrs. Bradley in confusion, "Why?"

Mrs. Bradley shrugged, "The past can't harm us. It's what you do with the past that shapes the future."

"Ignoring it won't help us though!"

Mrs. Bradley sighed, "I'd rather have my son live in ignorance than watch him die."

Elysia nodded slowly. Her reasoning, however harsh, made sense. "I won't tell anyone."

Mrs. Bradley nodded with a kind smile, "I know you won't, dear."


Author's Note: And there's chapter 2! Quick note on the chimera and how it knew where to go. I'll explain where it came from and how it can exist later, there's a reason for it. It had three heads because I really had some issues thinking of a good chimera to use here (a basic one, not human-chimera) so I used the classic chimera from Greek mythology because those are awesome. This chimera is a leftover from the ones that guarded the tunnels under Central, so that's how it could find Selim. The homunculi had to have something to distinguish them from unwanted guests like a different scent, and this chimera was retrained to kill him. As to how it could sort-of speak, if you put an animal around humans long enough, the animal will try to mimic human speech. Parrots are proof of that, and this chimera technically had three brains working on trying to mimic human speech, so it's possible that it could speak with some difficultly.

In response to Shocotate, I have to admit that I haven't read the manga. I have tried; I just can't get into manga, so I honestly didn't know that there was a cat. That explains why Selim always has a pet cat in most stories like this though. I took a bit of creative liberty changing the bird to a magpie though; I needed an intelligent bird for something later on. Also, this magpie is a European magpie, those live around 8-15 years and Kage is around 12, so he's getting pretty old, but the oldest recorded magpie was 23. I used Germany as a reference for Amestris and the only type of magpie it could be is a European one. I found myself spending about two hours reading on magpies because I'm just a nerd like that. And in response to how Selim would've met Elysia, I would think that Mrs. Bradley would have enrolled him in a regular school just so he could meet people and make friends. It seems like the best way to make him more human. I think Elysia may have been able to go to a higher class school as well, seeing as Maes was promoted to brigadier general after his death, and that rank makes quite a bit of money today, so I don't think the Hughes are that bad off. I woudln't worry too much about it going further than friends though, the events of later chapters will make that impossible. I'm glad that you're enjoying it though, and you caught the fact that Kage's name does mean shadow. :D I was worried that people wouldn't get that and just read the name as "cage" not Kage.

Also, I'm uploading one more chapter later today because I'll be gone starting tomorrow, I'll try to find time to update while I'm gone but no promises. I'd also like to thank everybody who's reviewed and I even have some favorites now! XD Until next time!