Hello. I thought it was about time for an update, so here it is. Not much to say besides sorry for the wait (why is that all I'm saying lately?), so yeah.

"Pride speaking"

"Selim's mind link with Pride"

Disclaimer- Don't own Full Metal Alchemist

Chapter 16

Using the same technique as the first time, Selim slipped onto the train with ease. He hadn't been able to see where it was heading exactly, but any place but Central was a good one for him. He wondered how long before it became big news that he was missing. Maybe he should get a disguise or a make over or something.

"Don't you dare mess with my container," Pride growled in his head, and Selim just shrugged. If he needed to get one, he would, although he probably wouldn't get a hair cut or anything. "Fine, it doesn't matter anyway."

The train stopped maybe four boring and silent hours later. Peaking out of a small crack, he waited until the coast was clear before running out of the cart and then station. It looked like a small city. He still didn't know what the name was, but that didn't really concern him. After about an hour of wandering through the town, he finally found the building of his desired destination. The library.

"What are you planning to do in there?" Pride asked, sounding a bit bored. Selim couldn't figure out what side of the ancient voice was a act, the almost normal, impatient childlike side, or the insanely evil, angry and kind of scary side. Maybe both, maybe neither, they were both too realistic to tell.

"Just some research," the black haired boy responded, not planning to elaborate, even in his head. He still wasn't sure how he was able to tell that the voice was rolling his eyes, if he even had any of his own.

"You won't be able to find anything in a normal library like that," He said, annoyed. Selim decided not to listen to him, although he'd basically decided not to listen to anything the child in his head said anymore, and continued to walk up the steps.

"I can try." Once inside, he went straight for the section they had on alchemy. It wasn't very big, but it was a place to start. Grabbing as many books as he could fit in his small arms, he went over to the nearest table and began searching through for any mention he could possibly find of homunculus.

Skimming thoroughly through seven and a half books four hours later, he tried not to fall asleep on his current one. He hadn't eaten anything yet today, although he found that the longer he had been in this new body, the less he's been getting hungry. It had started to be that way with sleep too, but four hours of constant searching had certainly drained him. He hadn't even completely read any of the books, there was no way he could possibly go that fast, so there was a small chance that he had missed what he was looking for, especially the longer he kept up at it.

"What did I tell you? It's useless in a place like this," Selim shook his head though. He wasn't giving up, but he definitely needed a break. He'd end up needing glasses if he kept reading at this rate, and he could just feel the beginning of a headache. Placing the books back on the shelf where he got them, the black haired boy left the library. He had been so focused and now his eyes were so worn out, he didn't notice the librarian staring at him through most of his researching and watching him leave, before picking up the phone on her desk.

"Hello? Police, I'd like to report…"

Walking along the streets, Selim looked for a place to rest. He couldn't find any parks like he'd stayed in at the previous town, and wasn't sure where else to turn to. Abandoned buildings were hard to come by and probably weren't as abandoned as their name suggested, he wasn't going to rest in the streets, and he wasn't really sure what kind of public places he could rest in, except for maybe the library, and he had just left there.

After about an hour of wandering he finally found a small park. It wasn't as big as the previous one, only a tiny field, a playground and a few benches. Sitting on the bench farthest away from the main congestion of parents and kids, the black haired boy closed his eyes. Some of those books he'd been looking through were much too advanced for him. He hadn't been able to make heads or tails of anything, and it was even worse only getting glimpses of information like he had been.

So far Pride had been right, sadly enough. He'd only gone through seven and a half books though, there was still plenty more in that library, there wasn't any reason to get discouraged yet. The thing was though, he wasn't even really sure what he was looking for. Homunculus, yeah, but what was that? Well, if he knew, he probably wouldn't be looking it up in the first place.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there, an hour at least, and he was nearly asleep when he heard the footsteps behind him. He didn't fully acknowledge them at first, whoever it was wasn't bothering him.

"Selim Bradley?" that jolted him into action. Before he could even register what he was doing, he was on his feet, facing the three police men on the other side of the bench. Even then it took a few seconds to finally click. Someone had seen him. Someone had recognized him.

"What are you going to do now?" Pride's voice brought him back to reality just a bit. There was no way to deny it, not with how he acted. Not quite sure what else to do, he simply nodded. The men glanced at each other before turning back towards him, trying to look as non intimidating as possible. They could tell he was scared, well, shocked would have been a better word, but they didn't understand the severity of the situation. It was just a runaway child to them. The president's child yes, but still just a child.

"Don't worry, we're going to take you home now," the man in the middle, a middle aged guy with black hair flecked just a tiny bit with grey, said as the one on the left moved towards him. Selim knew, looking back, that remaining calm and looking for an opening like he'd done with the Elric brothers probably would have been the best plan of action, but stuck in the moment, he panicked.

"What the hell!" the man who'd been walking towards him rightfully screamed, a wall of black shadows shooting up between them. The other two men jumped back by instinct, and almost if not everybody in the park was staring in the four's direction. Selim could only stare, gapping, in shock. He had not meant to do that…

"You idiot! Make it go away now! Make it go away! No one can know about that! You're going to ruin everything!" Pride's voice screamed in his head, the panic very clear. Despite earlier decisions, Selim did as he was told the instant the nerve endings in his brain decided to start firing again.

"S-sorry!" the black haired boy stuttered, although he wasn't really sure who he was apologizing to, the police men or Pride. Running off in a random direction, he had no idea where he was going as he heard the three men begin to regain their composer and start to give chase.

He was about four blocks away from the park when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Gotcha!" It was the middle aged man. Trying to break out if his grip, the young boy found he couldn't. This man was stronger then he looked. The two other policemen had reached them now, and there was no possible way to escape inconspicuously. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes in fear. Pride was going to kill him.

The black haired policeman's arm was quickly covered in shadowy treadles, as well as the legs of the other two. The three almost instantly began to struggle as Selim took a few steps away, wincing from the screeching the voice in his head was making.

"What the hell is this? Alchemy?" this came from the third man, who'd previously hadn't said anything. Deciding that explanation was as good as any, the black haired boy decided to just take it and go.

"Kind of. Sorry about this, bye," He said, and started to run off again. He made several turns around corners before breaking the shadows holding the men. The trail of what looked like pure darkness he left in his wake had certainly scared a few people, but he didn't pay them much attention. He couldn't, not with the racket Pride was making in his head.

"I swear! Humans are the most… You are… I can't believe you'd… You have no right to use my powers as you please, jeopardizing our plans!" It continued on like that for some time, until Selim was at the outskirts of the town and Pride was still going at it. Sighing, Selim decided it might do some good to actually answer him.

"I'm sorry?" He wasn't really sure where to start. "The people probably thought it was alchemy anyway. Your plans will be fine, I guess. I couldn't get caught. I've already decided that," Selim said, getting a bit fed up with the angry voice. That was strange. All this was changing him, unsurprisingly, but he wasn't sure if he liked it.

"And I can't be the one to ruin father's plans. You don't understand…" Pride said, remaining silent after that. Walking away from the still unnamed town, the black haired boy realized for the first time how true that was. He really didn't understand.

Hurray, chapter 16 up. Ten days is better then a month, right? I swear, school takes up so much time, especially my AP art history class. I love it though, so I guess that makes up for the time input a tiny bit.

Well, please review and tell me what you think.