He didn't want to admit how much the darkness still scared him; not nearly as much as before, but it still held an edge in his subconscious that refused to leave. At least he had some light—more or less a pin prick, but it was better than nothing—and he could use his shadows if he had to although they wouldn't be too strong until he got more light inside the dome, it was better than nothing.

He smiled to himself. It really hadn't been that difficult to trick the military dogs, and surprisingly enough, the Elrics as well.

As he'd suspected, as soon as they'd reached the old, yellow house that the Elrics (or at least Edward from what he could tell) lived in, Alphonse had used alchemy to create another dome and then they'd practically shoved him inside. All it had taken to undermine their efforts had been a little stalling by shooting glares and a few insults at people and then a subtle shadow manipulation to puncture the dome before all light had been cut off.

The hole didn't give much light, but he didn't want to make it bigger as it would be more noticeable from the outside. He'd considered making a few more such holes in the ceiling of the dome, but that would also be difficult to conceal when they came to feed him. He wasn't about to discourage that either. His recently returned memories held several instances when he'd held prisoners. If such a thought like feeding had occurred to him, he would ignore it in favor of exacting a bit more torture unless instructed otherwise. He was glad the Elrics weren't that exact in their revenge. After all, in this form, he still needed to eat to survive.

Once they'd sealed him in, he'd felt secure enough to force himself to relax somewhat. That had been two days ago as far as he could tell. The only person he'd seen since then had been Alphonse, who hadn't spoken a word. It seemed he was the only person they trusted to bring food and take the remaining dishes from the previous meal away.

It irked Selim that he could have escaped at any time and hadn't, but he really needed the time to heal. To get away, he would have to physically run, which wouldn't help him much. He knew what his body needed, and that had been part of the reason why he'd promised to not try and escape to begin with. If he stayed right under the Elric's noses, they wouldn't be tracking him down through some forest or mountainous region that they knew far better than he ever would as he pushed his body to escape. No, staying here would be prudent, especially when he could use the time that bought to try and speed his healing along.

Over three centuries of existence had given him the opportunity to explore many things. He knew how energy ran through all things (a part of what gave alchemists their power), and even if he could never perform alchemy like Father could, he could direct his own flow of energy somewhat and even dictate what that energy would do to a small extent.

The thing was, his original form had been more or less a sort of shell; a construct that housed his powers and shadows, which in turn protected his true form. When Edward had handed said true form over to Selim's mother, he'd no longer had that protection. His body now was what it would have been had he been fed and nurtured as a human being in his true infancy.

So many questions had arisen in his mind when he'd realized that, even as he directed the new flow of energy to encourage the skin to knit across his wounds. Would his directing his body to heal work? It had before, but not only had the very energy flow felt different, but it had also taken souls to heal and regenerate. All of his energy now was his own, and there wasn't a lot of it. Without a fully functioning philosopher's stone, the best he could do was marginally accelerate the process. He was grateful that the bullet had merely passed through his shoulder as he could have easily lost his arm (or his life). If he could manage to heal faster, he was sure it wouldn't go so far as regeneration.

One thing about his new, human-like status, though, was that it could answer other questions, like why he had been able to leave the country without perishing, why he hadn't remembered anything for the last fifteen years and why he was aging like a normal human.

It had to do with how he'd been created—with the specific purpose to serve his parent's designs.

Selim sighed at the thought. It just brought to mind how alone he was now. He wished that Father had lived somehow. Pride's very existence had revolved around him, after all. With his absence came a void in Selim's soul that he doubted would ever fill. Now that he looked back, he realized that that hole had been part of what had driven him to find the truth about his heritage and why he'd taken such offense in the name of his unknown parents.

On the other hand, his traitorous mind thought, now that Father had passed on, Selim did not have any tie to him. He couldn't help but wonder if that was why he no longer had a good deal of the weaknesses that had weighed him down before, such as the boundary limit. Truthfully, Pride had probably 'inherited' that particular trait from his father when the original homunculus had purged himself of that first sin to create his first born. How many other traits and problems had he and the other homunculi carried so Father could be free from them?

Now that Father was gone, he would never know for sure if those weaknesses (and a good deal of Pride's private thoughts) had been directly connected to and influenced by Father's very existence. He wouldn't be surprised, even if he didn't want it to be true.

Funny, his original self would have never admitted there could have been a flaw in his father. Part of him felt so much shame at the acknowledgement that it threatened to drive him into depression. The human part of him felt…well, proud of the fact that he'd been able to live and survive on his own for years when before it was a high possibility that he'd been dependant on his parent to simply survive.

In conclusion, he'd had a connection to Father, and had been proud of it. Actually, he was still proud of it to an extent. Now he didn't have that. Should he count that as positive or negative?

Strangely enough, he was leaning towards positive. He still wanted Father back, but he liked the idea of living and thinking on his own. It was the very basis of the feeling of pride to know that one could do something (especially something difficult) without help, and both sides of him thought that was indeed a positive trait. Wasn't it?

So he'd been able to live as a human for years without any support whatsoever. Good or bad, it was a fact. Now that he looked back, he was surprised he'd been able to do so as well as he had. A lot of it had to do with the fact that he could age now.

He'd concluded that his body grew because his original design had been based off of a human's to an extent. As a homunculus before the Promised Day, his Philosopher's Stone had been able maintain his age. Now that he didn't have a plethora of energy, his body had to compensate and it fell back on its original, human-like function.

No wonder he'd been able to pass himself off as a normal human: He'd practically become one. And he still could not decide whether to thank or kill Edward Elric for unwittingly doing all of this to him.

As for why he hadn't been able to remember anything, it all came down to the fact that his unsustained, fetus-like body that had been his true form simply hadn't had the capacity to consciously retain such information. Actually he'd been lucky those memories hadn't been completely erased.

Well, maybe not lucky; after all, if he'd been unable to access his past he wouldn't be in this situation at the moment. Of course, he could also be very dead if he hadn't subconsciously known about his power over shadows because Clemin probably would have killed him that evening so many months before.

Sighing, he reached up and gently felt at the wound in his shoulder. A large scab had already formed over the hole that had gone through his shoulder, sealing the wound rather nicely. He could even move it marginally without a great deal of pain. It had healed far more than a normal human's would have.

Well, that answered another question.

He smiled at that, the expression simultaneously holding both a sad wryness and a relieved smugness. It seemed his days as a human were over, one way or the other. An artificial being was still an artificial being no matter how close to human they acted.

His other shoulder hardly ached as well, although both of them still seemed rather stiff. He also felt drained; as if he'd used his shadows very subtly for hours on end. He could see how a sort of healing trance could do that. He estimated that it would be a little over a week before fully recovered. Sooner if he were lucky. He also truthfully felt he could fight and win against any but the very best opponents even now; well, once he had some rest in any case.

He'd settled down to do just that when a bright light broke through his thoughts. Snapping his eyes open, he watched with a completely neutral face as alchemy opened the previously non-existent door.

Squinting to protect his eyes against the sudden brightness, he could still make out Edward and Alphonse standing at the door with several officers behind them.

"Let's go, Pride," Alphonse said softly.

Selim didn't answer them with anything more than a glare. Then, sighing inwardly, he made to stand up. He took his time, getting to his feet in as dignified of a manner as he could without using his hands. He didn't want them to know he'd regained some use in them. Then, calmly, he walked outside, ignoring the guns pointed in his direction. Instead he took a deep breath of the fresh air as he reveled in the light again. Despite the tension in the atmosphere, he felt far more relaxed than he ever had inside the dome.

They walked down the worn dirt road in silence, the only sound consisting of the boots and shoes thumping along the packed earth. The few people they passed stopped and stared at them, many with accusing expressions. Pride didn't know whether those glares were directed towards him, or the military personnel escorting the obvious prisoner, and he also didn't care. He didn't bother to meet their eyes, although he could see out of the corner of his vision as they'd spot the Elrics and relax. It annoyed Selim for some reason and he felt his jaw clench at the sight, but he otherwise refused to change his expression. He wouldn't give his captors the satisfaction.

The train had obviously been at the station for quite a while by the time their little group reached it. They lead him to the back and he couldn't help but sigh inwardly; another baggage car. Of course. He was really getting sick of those. The next time he traveled anywhere he would insist on traveling by truck.

The box car had been covered by several tarps that he could see with the various colors peeking out unevenly by corners at the bottom. The topmost layer was black and had obviously been transmuted to be extra thick. He wouldn't doubt if they'd covered all of the larger cracks with planks of wood on the inside as well. He'd been right; there would be no light this trip.

Taking a deep breath and one last look around the open and lighted landscape, he walked up the ramp they'd set up and through the large door. No sooner had he stepped inside the darkened interior than he called on his shadow to do the same as he had before in the dome, piercing the side just opposite of the door as subtly as he could, and then leaving the shadow there so as to avoid notice. It would vanish when they closed and locked the door, but if he sat down in front of the hole before then, no one should be the wiser. Then he'd have something to work with if worst came to worst.

Sitting down in front of the hole, he leaned back against it and tried to relax, with only marginal success.

He glanced around the inside of the car, noticing that several pillows and a few blankets had been placed in the corners and along the edges, no doubt to make whoever stayed with him more comfortable.

He wasn't surprised when Edward and Alphonse both stood resolutely in front of him as the soldiers slid the door behind them shut.

"So you will be my company," he muttered wryly. "Don't trust anyone else?"

"When it comes to you, no," Edward grumbled as he found a place to sit down in the darkness.

Well, this promises to be a pleasant trip, Selim thought sarcastically.

xXx

It took all too long to actually leave the station, but Selim had no problem with that. He simply sat and focused his body's energy on healing as he couldn't relax enough to sleep just yet.

It wasn't until a good half-hour into the trip that Alphonse spoke, drawing Selim out of his trance.

"You could have escaped."

Selim cracked an eye open, despite the fact that he couldn't see anything.

"What?" Edward asked sounding utterly confused.

"When we were leaving the dome, I saw a light. He found a way to poke a hole in the wall." He paused and Selim couldn't help but smile knowingly as the younger brother continued. "He could have escaped."

"That's ridiculous," Edward replied. "If he could have, than he would have. How could he have gotten out anyway?"

Selim couldn't help but snicker at that. "You never change, do you?" he heard himself say. "Both of you are ridiculous and so easily fooled."

"Just like every other human out there?" Edward asked dryly, obviously unimpressed.

Selim shrugged. "I wasn't going to say it."

"Bull."

"At least your crude language has cleaned up."

"Stop changing the subject," Alphonse interjected firmly. "Why didn't you escape?"

Selim didn't answer for a few moments. He didn't want to tell them that he'd been healing, but he didn't have much of an excuse otherwise either. Finally he shrugged and settled on a half-truth.

"I didn't want to run in my condition. I knew I wouldn't get far."

"So you admit you're inferior to humans?" Edward asked smugly.

The homunculus bristled. "Of course not," he snapped. "I'm just not stupid and am in no condition to do much of anything at the moment."

The brothers remained silent for several seconds.

"Who were those people you were with when we caught you?" Alphonse asked, breaking the quiet again.

"You didn't catch me, I gave myself up," Pride shot with a growl. Then he took a breath and tried to calm down.

"Whatever." He heard Edward say smugly.

He refused to answer the blond. Instead he focused in the direction Alphonse's voice had come from. "To answer your question, they were bounty hunters originally working for the FFO. They were sent to capture me, but had a bit of a change of heart."

"In other words, you forced them to go with you," Edward snorted.

"Did they really strike you as people I'd forced into something?" Selim replied through clenched teeth. "If you must know, they warned me about a sniper set to kill me once they decided that Clemin," he spat the name, "and the FFO no longer had the country's best interests at heart."

"Wait," Edward spoke up slowly. "Ex-Brigadier General Clemin?"

"From the Coup?" Alphonse supplied.

Selim rolled his eyes. "Of course not. It was some other man named Clemin that knew my true origins."

"Sarcasm's a new thing for you," the older brother pointed out.

"Yes, well, I'm a very different person," Selim retorted. "Not that you'll believe me."

"I do," Alphonse said, voice still frustratingly soft, "but that doesn't make you less dangerous."

Well, Selim wasn't about to argue with that. He wasn't sure he could, even if he had wanted to.

"How are you different?"

Edward's question caught him off guard.

"What?" He asked at the same time Alphonse spoke up, sounding surprised.

"You couldn't tell, brother?"

He could tell Edward had shifted, probably looking towards his brother.

"Please," Selim muttered, rolling his eyes. "You caught the blaring differences."

"Yeah." Edward said after a pause.

The fact that he hadn't killed people when he could (should) have, or that he hadn't been as harsh and cruel as he really could have been, or that he'd displayed such weakness as his own indecision so obviously… For some reason, the alchemist wanted Selim to say it. Well, Edward could want him to openly confess his weaknesses all he wanted. That didn't mean it would happen.

"It won't change anything," he said instead. "Not to Mustang, and not to Armstrong."

This time, Edward sighed. "No."

"Can I ask you something?" Alphonse asked.

"Why should I care what you do?" Selim muttered.

"Right," the young man said softly, then spoke a little louder. "Mustang said you tried to kill him. Did you?"

Selim didn't answer for several seconds. Finally, he opened his mouth. "Yes."

"Why? You didn't kill anyone else…you didn't even try to kill us. Why did you try to kill him?"

Selim thought about that. He had more reason to kill Edward than he had to kill Mustang, but he hadn't even tried.

"I'd just gotten my memories back at the time," he answered finally. "It was a bit overwhelming."

"And he actually overpowered you?" Edward asked skeptically.

Pride bristled. "Of course not!" he snapped. "I chose not to kill him!"

Another pause. "Why?" Alphonse asked again. Selim was beginning to get very annoyed with him.

"Why what?"

"You said you tried to kill him. If you chose not to, then you had to change your mind. Why?"

It was a fair question, but not one that Selim himself could answer easily. He'd been ready and willing to kill the General and his stupid right-hand woman, and the grunts they'd brought along. For some reason, that didn't include Mandy. He had far more reason to kill her than he did to kill the soldiers Mustang had brought; she'd been the one lying to him and keeping secrets that could very well have killed him. But remembering back, the moment he'd seen her move in front of Mustang, he'd seemed to have woken up. The new pain in his shoulder probably had had something to do with that as well, but regardless, he hadn't wanted to kill her.

Why?

Somehow, he knew that if Johan or his mother had done the same thing, he wouldn't have been able to kill them either. Why not, though? What made them different? The fact that he'd gotten to know them perhaps? Gotten to…care for them?

He blinked. Was that what sentiment felt like? Before the Clemin incident, he would readily say that he'd been friends with Johan, and that he loved his mother. Friendship seemed like such a foreign concept to him now, and he'd never had an inkling of what love was. He shouldn't even have been able to feel anything like that. He was Pride, a homunculus and nothing more. So why had he felt, even before the Promised Day, other things? Anger, hatred, annoyance…none of those were Pride. He'd noticed before, but passed it off as in connection to his pride. But now? Yes he was proud of his mother, but he suspected he would feel the same about her even if he wasn't.

"Pride?"

"I…" he started, unsure of what to say. The last thing he wanted to do was expose such weak thoughts to the brothers. Finally he took a calming breath.

"Selim," he said.

"What?" Alphonse asked.

"Call me Selim." It hadn't been his name for more than two decades. Before that he'd been Pride. Even asking them to call him that felt…strange. Like he was turning his back on who he was. It wasn't an altogether pleasant or easy thing to do, but it didn't hurt his pride as much as he'd thought it would. Strange. Perhaps he was just getting used to the damage his ego had taken?

"Alright, Selim." That was Alphonse, of course.

"You don't know, do you," Edward said. It was a statement, not a question, and it obviously referred to his previous quesiton.

Selim didn't answer. He wasn't sure if he knew the answer to their question or not, but he didn't want to admit it.

"Why does it matter?" he asked finally. "It's because I couldn't do what I needed to do that I'm here."

"'Couldn't', or 'wouldn't'?" Alphonse asked.

"Why is this so important to you?" Selim growled. "I told you, it doesn't matter to those people who matter."

"Like your mother?"

Selim clenched his fists. "Why does she keep coming into it? She won't be able to prevent my execution any more than Bonnie and Marlin could prevent my capture!"

"I just want to know who I'm handing over to the military," Edward said, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

"To ease your conscience?" Selim ground out. "Well fine then: I am the homunculus Pride. I killed people on a regular basis for almost three centuries and tried to destroy an entire country. I was the one that sent Mustang to see the gate and I helped to manipulate both of you into doing and seeing most of the horrible events that happened to you. I remember doing it now. I am the person you want to 'hand over' to the military, as you say. Feel better?"

"I don't think you are," Alphonse said, his tone matching his brother's. "You said that part of you would do that again in a heartbeat, but if even the smallest part of you wouldn't, then you're different. You're not the Pride we knew."

Selim scowled. "And I will ask again: What difference does it make?"

"Maybe it won't make any difference," Edward said. "Maybe it will."

Selim blinked, and then scoffed. "Am I to believe that you two will take up my case and argue on my behalf? That you have taken pity on me again?"

"Pity?" the older brother asked.

"You didn't kill me. I classify that as pity, no matter what you say."

Selim smiled when they didn't answer. Well, at least he'd driven his point home.

"I actually just thought you owed your mother an apology," Edward muttered.

"Whatever the reason, you took pity on me then as you are now," Selim replied. And he wasn't sulking. He wasn't. "Are you both so weak that you cannot even allow someone else to finish what you have started?"

"Do you want to die?" Edward asked, and Selim practically hear the scowl in his voice.

"Well, letting you die now would undermine allowing you to live to begin with," Alphonse interjected placatingly.

Selim shook his head. "So you would have me live in captivity? Just as my ability to roam freely becomes apparent. Both of you are cruel indeed. I commend you." He didn't mean for it to sound that bitter or sarcastic.

"Look, we're doing what we can, alright?" Edward said hotly.

"Well don't. I don't need your or anybody else's help."

Alphonse snickered mirthlessly. "Still as proud as ever."

Selim glanced in his direction. "Even when I thought I was human I was naturally proud. That will never change."

"No. I guess not."

They sat in silence for a while before Edward spoke again, his voice cautious. "You know, pride is a human emotion."

Selim rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know. That is why Father wanted to purge himself of it."

"But if you're the embodiment of his pride—of his humanity—doesn't that make you human?"

Selim literally could not speak at that. Did he seriously mean that? Honestly, after everything that had happened?

"You know, you have a point, brother," Alphonse said thoughtfully.

"Of course I do, Al."

"I mean," the younger brother continued as if he hadn't heard the other, "sure you've lived for hundreds of years, but that was because you had a philosopher's stone. Just like our father, and he was completely human."

A seething anger began to build deep within him as the other two continued.

"Of course, then there's the shadow thing, but Wrath didn't have a power other than superior stamina and strength," Edward mused. "Besides, some humans have the ability to perform alchemy, which is similar."

"And homunculi are based off of human—"

"Don't. You . Dare," Selim cut in, seething inside. Pride knew what they were doing; trying to create even more of a conflict inside of him. The problem was, it was working. That side of him that would always be Selim devoured every syllable they'd spoken, growing more confident and less scared and worried. The other side of him, the side that would always be his father's first born, wanted to slowly tear them apart and savor their screams in his ears as he slowly tortured them for such blasphemy! Behind him, he'd begun to hack at the hole he'd made with what shadows he could. The angry side, it seemed, was winning this time. Unfortunately, with the little light that was allowed in, his shadows were weak at best and it was taking far too long to do anything to the side of the box car.

Edward must have heard the tone in Selim's voice because his next words held a triumphant smirk that did nothing to help his cause.

"Why don't you want to hear it?"

"It's true, you know" Alphonse agreed. He sounded closer…or was that just him starting to feel trapped and contained again. He'd been able to ignore it before, but he knew he wasn't exactly sane right now.

"Shut up! I'm not human!"

"What's so wrong with being human?" Alphonse asked.

"You're weak, pathetic creatures! Why would I want to be so weak?"

Edward scoffed, sounding like he was thoroughly enjoying this. "Don't look now, but those weak, pathetic creatures stopped your plan; you know, the one you'd been working on for centuries. Plus we defeated every single one of you—every single supposedly 'superior being'. If that doesn't put us on even ground, then it definitely is testament to which race is superior."

Pride grit his teeth. "No, you simply overwhelm by out-numbering. Obvious quantity over quality. It's disgusting."

"And isn't that exactly why you needed the country to begin with?" Alphonse asked. He was definitely closer. Selim didn't want to move or he would expose the light, but his first instinct was to shy away. Continually fighting his instincts to panic in the darkness and move away from the repugnant beings around him had begun to wear on him. He couldn't seem to think straight.

"Of course!" he agreed, well he still had some mental capacity it seemed. "The only thing you beings are good for is as a power source!"

"Do you honestly believe that?" Alphonse asked.

"Get away from me!"

"Why don't you just move?"

Selim stopped, looking incredulously in Alphonse's direction. He knew…about the hole. Or he'd deduced at least.

"Why should I be required to move?" he asked, trying desperately to keep the panic from his voice as he pushed the weak shadows to dig harder and faster. He was almost there…almost—

A bright, blue light illuminated the car, running along the wall behind him. It was gone in a flash, or he would have used the shadows that cast as well. Moments later, the train seemed that much darker.

"I was right, brother. He'd done it again."

"Nice job, Al."

Selim didn't say anything, staring ahead and trying not to panic again. At least Alphonse had moved away. He could hear him scooting across the floor of the car. Had he been that quiet to begin with?

"If I am so human," he started slowly, voice low, "then why are you so afraid of me?" Selim seemed to despair at that while Pride crowed silently with triumph.

Edward scoffed. "That's not fear, that's intelligence."

"It's fear," Selim responded. Why did he sound so depressed? He'd just turned their argument back on himself. He wasn't human, and that was a good thing, wasn't it?

"We predict your plans and stop them, and you call it fear?" the older man asked dryly. "Besides, you're not one to talk."

To say he was offended would be an understatement akin to calling the transmutation circle Sloth had dug 'small'. "You…" he started, but realized that getting angry wouldn't help at the moment, so he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. "What have I ever done that would make you believe I had any fear in me whatsoever?"

Alphonse answered him, making Selim wonder if they were somehow telepathic. "Ed and I have come to the conclusion that you hide your fear with pride. It's a defense mechanism."

"You're afraid that homunculi aren't better than human, so you defend yourself by believing they are. You're afraid your father didn't really care for you—"

"He did!" Selim insisted.

Edward scoffed again. "We've been over this. He left you to fend for yourself when he knew you'd been weakened—for his plan and agenda none the less—he absorbed Greed in a rather desperate attempt to—"

"Wait, he what?" Selim couldn't believe that. Why would Father take one of his imperfect, human sins back?

"His plan backfired," Alphonse explained. "You saw what happened. When he left us and went above ground to replenish his stone. We managed to wear him down, but as a last, desperate attempt to regain his power, he absorbed Greed out of Ling."

"But…he'd obtained his goal…he'd…no," Pride glanced up, glaring through the darkness towards Edward. "No! You're lying!"

The older blond snorted. "See what I mean? You're afraid you're right, so you're in denial. Your Pride covers your fear."

It felt as if his whole world had been torn down around him, upended and thrown into a gigantic blender. He could see the logic in the other's words…but he couldn't believe them. It just couldn't be possible that Father had been like that—had been that flawed. Was that where all of Pride's weakness came from as well? The concept seemed so wrong and foreign to him that he just couldn't accept it. He searched his mind, desperate for a rebuttal. Strangely enough, it was the Selim side of him that found the answer.

"That's…not completely true," he heard himself say. "I had pride in my life as a human…in my mother." That seemed to open a gate of sorts, and he suddenly had his answers. "I also had pride in my intelligence as a homunculus and as a human. I had pride in my abilities that were well earned both physical and mental, and I never once feared anything about them."

"Not even that you might lose them?"

"I knew I would only lose my abilities and my intelligence when I lost my life."

And ever infuriatingly perceptive, Alphonse asked, "And you never feared that your knowledge was wrong? Twisted or tainted to a point of not being real? Or that your abilities were being used in the wrong way?"

Selim didn't answer, mainly because he couldn't remember. He searched his memories as far back as he could, but his pride in Father and his plan had always been there. Had it been planted there?

The Elrics didn't pursue the subject, and the car fell into a thick, contemplative quiet. Selim was glad they didn't seem to want to break the silence as he found he just wanted to ignore the darkness and his company as best he could until they arrived. Maybe he could ignore the headache-inducing conflict inside of him as well.

He didn't know how long they rode like that and eventually he concluded that the brothers had decided to sleep the rest of the trip away. Well, perhaps Alphonse had. He doubted Edward would let his guard down around Selim. Even if both of them had fallen asleep, it wasn't like he could really do much. And if he could do something, even if he still had the little hole to work on, what could he do now? Escape? He still didn't trust his body enough to jump from a moving train again (as that had turned out so well the first time), and he doubted the Elrics would sleep through the stops that would give him an opportunity.

Also, something seemed to be drawing him back—drawing him home. He suspected it was some sort of after effect of his withdrawn area limit. He'd left his birth place, and now his body naturally wanted to return to it.

It most certainly wasn't because he wanted desperately to see his mother again. Nor was it because he thought a being such as himself could ever deserve a human punishment.

Finally deciding that his thoughts weren't worth entertaining, he shoved them aside and focused on directing his energy towards healing again. He had no possible way of telling exactly how long stayed like that before exhaustion crept up on him. Deciding it would be prudent to rest and regain some energy before he was forced to face Mustang and Armstrong again, he curled up on the floor of the car with a blanket that had been near him. Somehow he was able to ignore the bumping and jarring of the train enough to drift off to sleep.

Alright let me know what you think of it. :) Going to try and get up ch 17 by next week, but no promises. ^^;