A/N: Gah! I'm sorry, guys! I thought I'd already posted this chapter! *headdesk* Thank Shade40 who has helped me so much and who reminded me that no, I hadn't posted this. Anyway, onto the chapter!
xXx
Mandy tried to swallow past the lump in her throat as she ran up the stairs from the basement, pausing at the doorway to make sure that no one hostile was watching it. She'd managed to tie the unconscious guards up and stick something in their mouths so they couldn't call out if they woke up and was now hurrying to catch up to General Mustang. She had to tell him about Selim. What on Earth was he doing here?!
She saw one of the men General Mustang had come up with standing at attention in the corner where two hallways met with his gun in a ready position as he looked down the hall. She noted his rank from the insignia on his arm as she walked towards him.
"Lieutenant!" she said.
"Sir!" he said, saluting her.
"Where did General Mustang go?"
"He wanted to make sure no one would sneak up behind us and went to clear out the first floor and the lobby. If they can do that we can bring in the reinforcements from the current patrol."
She nodded absently and glanced around her. "What were his plans after that?"
"He would move up the floors."
"And did you find out how the hostages were brought down?"
The lieutenant nodded. "Yes, sir. The room just around the corner, number 132, has a hole cut into the ceiling. We believe that is where they came through."
"Impressive," she said with quiet approval. "If General Mustang comes by here let him know that I have reason to believe Selim Baker is here as well. He'll need to know."
The man apparently hadn't heard about Selim at all because he only looked confused, but he nodded nonetheless. "Yes, sir."
Just then, several very muffled but unimstakable bangs came from overhead, echoing eerily down the stairwells. Mandy and the lieutenant exchanged glances.
"Did that sound like gunshots to you?" she asked worriedly.
He nodded. "Yes, sir."
She returned the nod. Apparently General Mustang and his men had already gone up. She turned to rush towards the stairwell but the soft crying of a child had her pausing and looking toward the hallway and the room where the hostages had come from. They saw a woman's head peek around the corner fearfully and practically collapse in relief when she saw them.
"Oh, thank goodness," she almost wept.
Mandy blinked at her for a moment before she rushed forward. "Are you a hostage?" she asked.
The woman nodded. "I was. We were rescued."
"By whom?"
"I don't know," the woman shook her head. "A small group of people, two men and two women."
"What floor were you held on?"
"The fifth floor," the woman said, shifting ever so gently so that she had better support for a sleepy-looking toddler which she otherwise held tightly against her. A young girl clung to her dress. "There were two groups of hostages."
"I see," Mandy nodded, noting someone else sticking their head out of the doorway to room 132 over the woman's shoulder. "Alright, let's get you guys out. This way, quickly."
The woman nodded and followed her down to the basement Mandy had just left as the alchemist explained where to go. Another woman with a child, a boy just slightly older than the girl the first woman had had, came after them. Mandy ushered them into the tunnel and urged them to hurry down the hall, briefly worrying about how the first woman would carry her toddler. The mother assured her she would be able to manage and they set off down the tunnel.
Just as she was turning to go back, another woman and a man with another young boy came hurrying towards her, commenting quietly that the soldier in the hall above had sent them in this direction. She bit back her frustration. Yeah she may not have a whole lot of combat experience, but what if an alchemist was needed? What if she was needed? What if they came across Selim and he attacked them? She wasn't sure she could be of much help, but she could try. She hated just sitting around when she could be somewhere helping.
Still, these people needed some direction, so she stayed to help them and every hostage that came after. Once there were no more children, the people came in shorter intervals and she ended up having to have them form a short line. When they all stopped coming, she gave them instructions to just keep going in an orderly fashion and turned to hurry back up to the hallway.
That was when she caught sight of the entrance to the second hidden tunnel; the one the terrorists had entered through. Someone needed to take care of that. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a fairly basic circle and slapped it against the wall. Seconds later, a set of bars blocked the tunnel's entrance. She smiled grimly, satisfied that no one would be able to take them from behind.
Continuing up to the hallway, she was surprised to find the lieutenant arguing with another woman. She was tall and thin with platinum blond hair and sunglasses. Mandy frowned, noting that the woman looked familiar. She also seemed to be intimidating the lieutenant.
"I'm going back and there is nothing you can do to stop me," the woman growled, clutching the handgun in her fist angrily.
"You really need to evacuate," the lieutenant protested, shooting Mandy a pleading expression. Mandy walked towards them, opening her mouth to say something placating when the woman turned around and the alchemist recognized her.
They both froze and stared in shock before speaking aloud at the same time. "You!"
xXx
Johannes Browbeat had come to the conclusion that life officially sucked. And it had all started when that guy, Clemin, had attacked Selim. That had been months ago, and life hadn't gotten any better.
When Johan had seen Selim attack the former general with those shadows, he'd tried his hardest not to completely lose it. The whole ordeal had scared him…deeply. Then Selim had freaked out about his status as a human, and Johan had seen how much he'd needed to find out the truth. As a best friend, he'd almost felt obligated to help, even if he'd thought the idea ridiculous at the time.
Then he'd gone looking through the history books. He'd found Selim Bradley easily enough and had looked up information on him. He'd been an orphan and a distant relation from Fuehrer Bradly's side of the family…which was strange as Fuehrer Bradley didn't seem to have a lot of family. At least none that Johan could find.
Perplexed, he'd gone back further in history, and that was when things had started to get really strange. The Fuehrer who had reigned in office two terms before Bradley had also had a young, adopted son who had looked exactly like Selim Bradley. Puzzled and a bit worried, Johan had looked further.
He'd only gone back about a hundred and fifty or so years, but about every other president had had a similar situation and those that didn't would often have large families that would make hiding another child in the midst rather easy. Time and time again Johan found the same face staring out of the history books' pages. Even the paintings from before they'd begun to use cameras had seemed to capture his best friend's likeness hundreds of years before he was 'born'.
Feeling very uneasy, he'd skipped back to the foundation of Amestris. Surely enough, the second Fuehrer had adopted a son. That was when he started believing. He remembered not wanting to look at the creepy evidence anymore and so he'd slammed that book shut. Unfortunately, he hadn't been alone at the time.
Selim, startled by the sudden noise, had asked what was wrong, and Johan remembered wondering what he should tell his friend. Part of him had wanted to discuss what he'd found with Selim and see what he'd thought of the situation, but some part of him had known somehow that such knowledge was dangerous. He'd managed to throw Selim off, and had spent quite a while soul searching after that. He'd just learned that his best friend was some sort of immortal (or at least long-lived) being that had had a hand in the ruling government of Amestris since its conception nearly 400 years before. How exactly was he supposed to take that? Perhaps he really was a homunculus. But then, why didn't he remember it? Some sort of rebirthing cycle? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
But the more he'd been around Selim, the more he'd realized that it didn't matter. Selim was his friend and he'd never given Johan any reason to believe that that would change. Still, he'd felt it would be prudent to learn more about homunculi, so he'd suggested using his father's library to continue to do research. It was funny, because after that, he'd become just as dedicated to finding out more about his friend as Selim had been.
Of course, then his parents had found his notes when he'd been studying one night, and they'd forbidden Johan from seeing his best friend ever again. He doubted they knew any more than he did, but the idea that Selim wasn't even human had scared them.
Johan loved his parents, he really did, but that had been a blow he'd fought every step of the way. He hadn't even talked to them for weeks after that (even though doing so had landed him with more penalties and chores than ever before). When he finally did begin speaking to them again, they'd fought almost every night.
When Johan's parents had realized that he wasn't going to back down on the subject, they'd begun to cave. Of course, that was when Selim had disappeared. That had been two weeks ago, and Johan had been beside himself with worry. He'd also been rather angry at the universe. He'd finally made progress with his parents and then Selim had vanished. No one, it seemed, had heard anything about him since. Rumors had run rampant at school. Some said he'd run away (Johan had scoffed outright at that as he knew how much Selim loved his mother and visa versa). Others said he'd been kidnapped by the FFO. Still others claimed that he hadn't gone missing at all, but had gone into hiding. Johan hadn't known what to believe, and if his father had known anything, he certainly didn't seem to want to tell.
Then the threat to Central had come and the evacuation started. Johan and his mother had come to stay in New Optain while the situation was sorted out. He'd hated leaving when his life had already seemed so unsteady, but at least they'd be safe.
Well, they were supposed to be in any case. Apparently someone hadn't gotten the memo because now Johan sat next to his very pale mother as they quietly awaited their fate. Hostages. Really? The universe hated him. As if the last few months hadn't been horrible enough already.
He and his mother, along with several other families of higher-ranking officials, had been held in the foyer at the top floor of the hotel, at gun point, for almost an entire day now. The younger children were getting more than restless, but the general atmosphere of outright terror had kept their antics at bay, thankfully. Johan wasn't sure how long that would last.
The worst part about it, though, was the fact that they were being held by Clemin himself. He'd made several appearances and had even recognized Johan. 'Ah, I remember. You're the monster's little friend. How did that work out?'
Johan hadn't answered with anything other than a scowl that could melt paint off of walls, even when Clemin had just laughed and walked away. Then he'd glanced up at his mother and noted that she looked even more upset than she had before. He sighed. His parents had always been so over-protective. He doubted they'd let him do anything after this.
If they got out of this alive, that was.
Now all they could really do was wait for something to happen. Unfortunately. Johan hated waiting. Especially when he could only sit on the floor. His butt had gone numb hours ago, no matter which way he shifted. Thankfully, the terrorists had allowed some people to sit in chairs or on the couches. Johan's mom had been one of them. Situated in a wooden chair with padded, floral cushions on it, she was at least somewhat comfortable. He still worried about her. She didn't take stressful situations well and she hadn't regained color in her face for almost the entire hostage situation.
"You okay, mom?" he asked, noting her trembling. They hadn't had anything to eat for almost an entire day. His own stomach had growled rather loudly several times. He vaguely wondered if this was how Selim felt all the time. Johan thought he could certainly eat an entire cow or two at the moment
She turned and forced a watery smile at him. "Yes, I'm fine, honey," she said. He could tell she was lying. He doubted she'd be fine for a very long time after this, but he appreciated the thought.
He was about to say something else, hopefully something distracting, when movement on the ground caught his attention. He frowned and looked down. They were situated on the edge of the group and he could have sworn something in the shadow by his mother's chair had moved. He leaned in to take a closer look, when it moved. Shrieks and cries of fear rang all around the room as black walls suddenly grew out of the floor, all shooting straight up to the ceiling and essentially separating the hostages from their captors.
"What's going on?" one woman asked, clutching her youngest son to her and bending over her older daughter protectively. Confused murmurs met her question as no one seemed to know the answer.
No one but Johan, that was.
"Selim," he whispered. He knew this. The shadow-walls looked exactly the same as the one that had popped up when he and Selim had met the ex-general.
"What?" his mother asked, her head whipping towards him.
Before he could answer, though, a voice from below called up. "Hurry! Come through here!"
Johan, and everyone else, looked down at a hole that had somehow appeared in the floor.
"What's going on?" one of the men who had been taken hostage demanded over the sounds of muffled, surprised shouts that came from the guards outside the shadow-walls.
"We're here to rescue you," a woman's dry voice answered. "Unless you want to stay hostages, I suggest you all get out."
Johan didn't need to be told twice. "Come on, mom," he said, shooting to his feet and pulling her hand. She allowed him to do so and walked towards the hole in the floor. Their actions seemed to be a sort of cue as everyone else rushed forward.
They started lowering people through the floor, starting with the younger kids and their parents. A feeling of nervous anticipation had settled over the group of hostages, but they didn't crowd much. With their military background, they understood the necessity of doing things in an orderly manner.
"You're next, kid," one of the guys said, motioning for Johan to come forward. With a wary glance up at his mother, and after receiving a confirming nod, he hurried forward and sat on the edge of the hole. One man grabbed his arms and lowered him down. He looked below to see a large man ready to catch him if he fell. He couldn't help but feel reassured.
After a few moments, he was on the floor below standing next to the big man.
"Go that way, to the end of the hall. There's a woman standing there. She'll tell you what to do from here on, alright?"
Johan nodded, but his eyes were fixed on the person sitting in a lotus position on the couch. The big man noticed this and spoke up again.
"Don't worry about him, he's with—"
"Selim!" Johan cut him off, rushing forward.
"I'm concentrating," he ground out in a very un-Selim-like voice. It stopped Johan short.
"Johan?" He heard his mother say from behind him. Apparently she'd been lowered down too. "Johan, what…get away from him!"
The same old frustration he'd been feeling for the last several months rose in his chest and he spun around.
"He's the one who's saving our lives! How can you still think he's some sort of monster or—"
"I am."
Johan stopped short and turned to look back at his best friend. He'd opened his eyes, although he didn't seem to be concentrating any less. They'd changed, Johan realized. It wasn't the strange, purplish tint that was definitely present with the brown (although that did strike him as weird), but the expression on his face…the coldness.
Johan felt his brow furrow in confusion. "Selim?"
"I got my memories back," he said. "All three hundred years of them."
Johan balked and heard his mother gasp from behind him. "But—" he started, but his mother cut him off.
"Johan! Get over here! Now!"
"I have questions I need answered," Selim said, his voice unhurried but firm…almost threatening. His gaze transferred from Johan to his mother. "And they will be answered. You will wait quietly here. Please."
Johan's mother audibly gulped, but she didn't say anymore. After a moment, and several uneasy glances towards Selim, Johan went towards her and stood nervously by her side to wait for the next few minutes as the rest of the hostages were lowered or jumped down through the hole.
xXx
It only took a few more minutes to get everyone out.
"Alright, that's it," the big guy said finally. "We better get going pretty quick here if—"
"FREEZE!" a shout from down the hall caused Selim and Marlin to jump. The men above had gotten wise and apparently had come to the fourth level and had seen Bonnie at the end of the hallway. Up above several shouts came down through the hole as the shadows abruptly retreated. The sudden snap of exhaustion slammed into Selim and he actually slumped down on the couch.
"Selim?!" Marlin hissed and rushed over to the homunculus. Gunshots from both ends of the hall had him whipping his head around in the general direction just as someone from above yelled out to jump through the stupid hole.
Selim could only stare up in a dazed sort of blankness as Marlin swore rather colorfully and shrugged one of the several guns he'd liberated from the men they'd already taken out off of his shoulder.
"If anyone comes through that hole I'll shoot them!" he yelled out and rushed over to Johan and his mother. He shoved one of the weapons towards them. Johan looked shocked and jumped back, shaking his head frantically. Surprisingly, Mrs. Browbeat grabbed it with a grim expression, checked over the gun, prepped it to shoot and nodded to Marlin as she raised the semi-automatic weapon into its proper position like someone who knew their way around guns.
Johan blinked in shock and Selim wanted to burst into giggles (a rather disconcerting thought in and of itself). It made sense; she was a colonel's wife, after all. He knew of many military personnel who insisted that their families and loved ones learned to protect themselves.
Marlin nodded again, looking both relieved and appreciative. Then he turned to Selim as he prepped another one of the guns he had slung over his shoulder.
"Alright, so now what? It looks like we're a little trapped here." He nodded towards the hall where the gunshots had come from. "If we head towards the room we might get caught in a fire fight. If I know Bonnie, she's already gone, but we'd better get out of here or we'll probably be trapped from both sides."
"We need a more defendable position," Mrs. Browbeat said sharply. Marlin glanced at her and nodded, then turned to Selim.
"Can you open the door across the hallway?"
Selim blinked. He'd begun to recover from his sudden daze, but he still felt rather weak. Still, he wasn't about to let anyone else know that. Forcing himself to sit up, he nodded and concentrated on forcing one of his shadows under the door. A few seconds later it opened.
Marlin was still watching Selim, the worried expression from before back on his face. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Fine," Selim lied. He needed more energy…more food. He went to stand but stumbled forward (rather embarrassingly) when he did.
"Selim!" Johan and Marlin said at the same time, rushing forward. Johan was closer and got there just in time to stop his friend from face-planting into the carpet. A few shots from above had them all backing away from the hole.
Mrs. Browbeat's expression darkened and she turned her gun up and shot right back. Apparently it was enough to get the people above to back off because they didn't shoot again.
"Selim, what's wrong?" Johan asked worriedly.
"He doesn't have enough energy to keep using his powers," Marlin said, managing to sound both exasperated and concerned.
"Energy?"
"I need food," he managed to get out.
"Food?" Johan asked. "I wish I had something to give you, but I gave the apple I had to a little girl yesterday. That's all I had on me."
Selim waved him off, somehow managing to gain his feet again, if a bit unsteadily. "There's nothing you—"
"Does it have to be food?" Mrs. Browbeat interrupted suddenly.
The three males in the room turned and stared at her. She didn't look particularly formidable normally, being fairly plump, having her hair in the latest fashion and wearing somewhat expensive clothing. At the moment, however, with her short hair mussed and having kicked off her high-heels long ago, along with the weapon in her hand and her hard expression, she didn't look like someone any of them wanted to cross.
"Uh…no," Selim said slowly, not particularly wanting to tell the woman with the gun that he could also eat humans.
"Mom?"
"Can it just be organic?" Marlin asked, apparently catching Mrs. Browbeat's train of thought.
Selim blinked at him. "I…guess so. Organic material tends to work the best, but I haven't tried eating anything else."
"There are plants all over this hotel," Marlin said with a grin. "I know it's not meat or whatever you usually eat but—"
"No," Selim interrupted, "you're right. That's…why didn't I think of that?"
Marlin didn't answer and Selim realized that he figured the homunculus had been a bit fixated on eating humans. He scowled in his direction, but only for a moment. Then he sent his shadows out to devour the many plants hanging from the corners of the ceiling, decorating the tables or put against the walls. In minutes he had cleared away everything, vases, dirt and all. Surprisingly, it did help, a lot.
Of course, that didn't stop the horrified expressions on Mrs. Browbeat's and Johan's faces. The silence became rather awkward for a moment before Selim turned and nodded to Johan's mother.
"Thank you," he said. "I'm not sure I would have been able to go on for much longer without that."
"N-no problem," she said.
"We need to get going," Marlin cut in. "They're coming."
Heavy stomping had begun to echo down the hall. Encouraged by the lack of gunshots, the men had decided to try to clear the floor. Mrs. Browbeat raised her gun and shot at the hallway, causing the footsteps to stop abruptly.
"Now," Selim hissed, throwing up a shield of shadows as he jumped into the hall. Shouts of surprise and gunshots met his sudden appearance, but it was enough to get Marlin, Mrs. Browbeat and Johan into the room. Selim dove in after them, slamming the door shut and rushing into the room.
"Get behind the bed," Marlin was saying. "We don't have a whole lot of time before—"
He was cut off by gunshots at the door. The wood around the handle exploded again and again. All four of them dove behind the bed.
"What now?" Mrs. Browbeat snapped.
"Selim, cut a hole. We'll cover you."
Not a moment later the door burst open. Marlin and Mrs. Browbeat popped up and shot at the door a few times before ducking back down. They were gratified with shouts of pain and outrage.
"I only have a few shots left," Johan's mother said to Marlin before she saw what Selim was doing.
A hole fell away in front of Selim and he shot her a raised eyebrow. She blinked for a moment before seeming to accept it. Then she popped up to shoot at the door again. Selim swung his legs down through the hole, amazed again at how much energy a bunch of simple plants had given him. He dropped through and landed on the floor, then rushed towards the door as Johan dropped down behind him with a much heavier thump.
Selim opened the door and peeked out. No one was in the halls, a good sign. He could keep cutting through the floors again, but truthfully getting to the end room and escaping that way had a higher chance of success (mainly because they wouldn't give their pursuers another way down), if they could just get there.
Another heavy thump meant that Mrs. Browbeat had come down. She fell rather ungracefully onto her backside with an 'oof' that had Johan rushing over to help her.
"I'm fine," she assured him, scrambling out of the way so Marlin could come down after them.
"Good," Selim said. "We've previously cleared the third floor, and we already have an escape route through the room at the end of the hall that will give us better chances as it's closest to the basement door. There's a secret tunnel down there that we used to infiltrate the hotel. That's how we'll get you out."
Mrs. Browbeat nodded, her expression still grim but determined.
"Get going," Marlin said as he dropped to the floor and rushed towards them. "Hurry!"
Selim nodded, peeked out again to make sure the hallways were still empty before leading the way to the end of the hall. Behind him, he heard Marlin slam the door closed and they all ran down the hallway towards freedom.