Hello people. Um, so, this chapter. I'm nervous. It's like, the big, pinnacle of a story almost two years in the making, so I really, really want it to be good. I've never finished a story before, but after this it's only a hop, skip and a jump until the ending. So yeah, I really hope that I'm able to keep up the same level of skill and realistic plot-ness that I've had for the majority of this story. I guess I should stop rambling now, and just let you all read and be the judge of it yourself.

Chapter 36

Selim no longer felt the pain from what had to have been a horrible gash in his neck when he managed to open his eyes. He wasn't surprised at that fact once he realized just where he was, the crystal whiteness of his surroundings giving it away before he even laid eyes on the featureless figure.

The black haired child frowned. It was this thing's fault he was in this whole mess to begin with, and he wasn't going to leave without an answer this time.

"Why'd you do this to me? I want to go home," he demanded, although he had absolutely no idea how the being would react to his declaration. The already large smile on its face only seemed to grow larger though, and Selim had to resist the urge to shrink away. He was really getting tired of hiding anyway.

"I didn't do anything. You were the one to take the deal," the truth said. Selim actually found himself glaring at the being, but nodded none the less. Now that it was mentioned, he did remember taking some form of a deal, but…

"But you never told me what the deal was! You just said to walk through the door and I'd live!" he yelled. The being didn't make any move to speak or contradict him, and Selim drew in a deep breath, not entirely sure if what he was about to do was a good idea or not. He did not want to die, let alone voluntarily, but this was just getting ridiculous. He wasn't Pride, he couldn't keep running around in the homunculus's body. He didn't even have anywhere left to run.

"I want to retract the deal. If I was supposed to die when father killed me then there's nothing I can do about that. I'm not supposed to be here," he managed, surprised that he hadn't stuttered or tripped over his words even once. The white figure started chuckling slightly. Watching him though, Selim had no idea if that meant he was going to listen to what the black haired boy had said, or just send him back into Pride's body to be tortured and killed over and over again until Father eventually figured out how to do it permanently.

"So, are you giving up?" the white being asked, and instantly Selim started to shake his head. That was the last thing he wanted to do. "Oh really? Then how else would you describe it?" he questioned, and the black haired boy had to think for a moment before finally answering.

"I don't want to die, but I'm not supposed to be here. You're like god right? Can't you give me another chance? Send me back home, I wont be stupid enough to let myself get killed a second time," he said. The mile long smile seemed to disappear from the truth's face for a moment as the creature thought. Even still, Selim highly doubted that he would actually take his offer.

He wasn't an alchemist; he hadn't thought about alchemy in any other way than a means to send him home in what felt like forever. There was one thing that he remembered from the simplified books he'd struggled through once upon a time ago. You could not bring the dead back to life, and he doubted that bargaining with this being, god or no god, was going to change that.

"You've certainly changed, haven't you?" truth asked, an almost joking sound to his voice. Selim didn't smile though, instead just shrugging as he stared at the being, an untrusting look in his eyes.

"I like to pretend that maybe that's the reason you did this whole thing in the first place," he said, watching as the smile once again appeared as truth's only feature. He couldn't help but wonder why it was a mouth, and not something more conventional like eyes instead. They were always thought to be symbolic and such, kind of like Pride's shadows, but he guessed that the only thing this being needed was a mouth so that it could talk anyway. Not that Selim doubted it could see him, just like he could hear him without any real ears. It probably just didn't use eyes to do it.

"Not far off, Selim Bradley," the truth said, and the child had to keep himself from showing his surprise too much. That actually sounded promising, but there was no way he was going to get his hopes up.

He'd yet to realize just how long he'd been here so far. Surely Pride body would have been healed by now, sucking his soul back inside with it.

"Well, what's the point of that change if I'm just going to die anyway? Send me back home," he repeated, wondering slightly if it was a smart idea to try to boss the metaphysical being around. Luckily, truth didn't seem offended, although Selim wasn't sure if he would be able to tell even if he was, since his features were so limited. He started chuckling again though, which the black haired child hoped might be a good sign.

"That does seem like it would be a waste, doesn't it?" he said. Selim stared at him, not even realizing he was holding his breath as he waited for the powerful being to continue. "If you want to retract the deal, that's your choice," he finished. The child nodded, slightly impressed with himself that he'd been able to keep his calm for so long. Truth was right though, he really had changed. He wasn't Pride, but he sure was a lot more like him than when he'd first started out.

"That's right, but I don't want to die either. Will you let me go home?" he asked, hoping to just get straight to the point. It was a yes or no question. Either he died now, or he was allowed to live. Well, there was always the option that the truth sent him back home only to die again immediately, but he wasn't considering that at the moment.

"Walk through the gate and find out. You seem to learn better through experience, anyway," the being said. Before Selim was able to say anything else, the white figure seemed to simply disappear, almost melting away into the scenery-less background.

Turning around, the black haired boy was faced with the same, levitating door like structure that had appeared every other time he'd been in this place. Whenever he had walked through it before though, he'd just ended up back in Pride's world, and wondered slightly if all of this was just a horrible joke. Getting his hopes up in order to bring them crashing back down again once he ended up back in that dark room, in Pride's container and facing his Father or Wrath or whoever else may be there now.

Watching it open to reveal the pitch blackness inside, so much like Pride's own unnatural shadow, he highly doubted that something so powerful would only be able to lead to a single destination.

It was the only exist he had from this limbo anyway, so it wasn't like he had any other options to begin with. Taking a deep breath, the child closed his eyes once the strange tendrils started towards him. They weren't really all that scary anymore, now that he'd controlled something so similar and had died a grand total of three times.

Who else could say that, really?

As he felt himself being rushed through the inside of the gate, he couldn't help but think how odd it felt to not have Pride there to answer him.

…

Wrath stared down at Pride's container, crackling with a red light as the wound he'd inflicted healed itself. It was taking much longer than was normal, but he figured that this anomaly was simply caused by the same factor as all the others. That strange, human boy who identified himself as Selim Bradley. He clearly wasn't an expert at controlling a homunculus's body yet, let alone was as… odd, as Pride's was, and healing seemed to take him longer than any true homunculus.

As the time ticked on, he wondered just how incompetent the human boy could really be.

Finally the light stopped, but Pride's container didn't spring back up or do anything yet. This wasn't what Father had said happened last time he'd been killed. It actually hadn't taken him very long to heal at all, and he'd been right back to his normal, interfering self once the wound was gone and he was once again alive.

Was the fool actually playing dead?

It had to have been another hour before the body finally started to show signs of life in the darkness. The chest began to rise and fall to show that it had continued to do the mock version of breathing that Pride had, and soon his arms started to twitch, before finally the child pushed the ancient homunculus' container into a sitting position. Watching him look around, it seemed as though he was completely stunned.

Running a hand through his stolen hair, Wrath was surprised to see the human soul turn straight towards him, a slightly perplexed but none the less relieved expression on his face. The fool had really thought he'd died then, hadn't he? It didn't surprise the youngest sin, with how long he had to have been stranded at the gate while Pride's container did the excruciatingly slow job of repairing his blow.

"Wrath, how did you get the human out of my container? Father already killed him once and it didn't take," the boy said, surprising him. Did he think that they would fall for this trick once again?

"Do you think we'd be foolish enough to fall for that trick again, child?" he asked. In the darkness, he could see the look of fury that overcame the container's face. Wrath had to admit that if it was still the human boy, he'd gotten much better at his acting than when they'd first met. Of course, the fact that he'd still managed to trick all of them, even Father the first time around, was quickly swept away in his mind.

"While I'm glad that you are being more cautious than you were the first time you allowed a mere human to deceive you, I am back in control. If you need proof, I'll gladly go over Father's plan, including the exact date of the Promised Day and current confirmed human sacrifices needed. Or maybe I'll explain the way that you were made a homunculus. It's your choice, Wrath," he said. The sin was not able to completely hide the way he kicked his legs back and forth as he sat on the edge of the table and fidgeted with his arms, trying to get used to the feeling of control being back after oh so long.

With a frown, Wrath nodded, although he didn't seem very pleased at being proven wrong.

"Forgive me for not believing you," he started off, although the tall man sounded anything but sincere, "but that human has been causing quite the… disturbance, since he's managed to overpower you," he finished. Pride glared at him in the darkness, but found himself unable to disagree with that statement. That foolish human had done a world of hurt on their plan that he would now have to start working to repair. And so close to the promised day too, he didn't have much time to waste.

"Yes, but I do wonder why he's suddenly gone," the ancient sin mused, a slight confusion tinting his voice as it cut through the darkness. Wrath nodded, although he didn't seem anywhere near as curious.

"Perhaps his soul had been used up to repair the wound on your container's neck. He was simply unlucky enough to be chosen instead of one of the other thousand souls," the tall man said, started to walk away from Pride, who nodded hesitantly.

"Perhaps," he agreed, although he slightly doubted that it was something like that. The human seemed to have much too good of a lucky streak for something like that to be his undoing. Before he was able to voice his objection to the idea, Wrath started speaking again as he walked farther and farther away from the other sin.

"I shall inform Father that you've finally returned to us immediately. We'll need to begin repairing the damage your parasite has caused without any more delay," he said, and Pride nodded, pushing himself off of the table and hurrying after the older appearing man. Of course, surely father would be glad to see that he'd finally gotten the control of the container he'd made for him back.

Any punishment he received for causing harm to their plan, no matter how indirectly, would be all too deserved. Father would never hurt any of them if it wasn't for their own good, after all, especially him. He was his favorite, after all, his first born.

The doubts that the foolish human soul Selim Bradley had were inconsequential now. They were wrong to begin with, and now he was gone. Thankfully, Pride would never had to deal with him or hear his annoying whiny voice or his endless questions or watch him use his own powers to fend off his brothers and wreak unknown havoc to his Father's plan ever again.

That was something he couldn't be happier about. The unanswered questions didn't matter anymore. He just had to focus on the future of their plans now.

Everything else didn't matter.

I… I don't know. Still so unsure. Did it seem too rushed? Not fast enough? This isn't the end, but like I said, a really, really crucial chapter. I really want to here your guy's opinions on it. You have no idea how much I just wanted to write 'and then, Selim- SUDDENLY GATES!' and just end it there.

Well, regardless, I hope you all liked the chapter, and as always, please review.