They somehow managed to get into the room 332 before their pursuers spilled out into the hall. That would buy them a few more minutes at least as they wouldn't know which room Selim and the others had disappeared into.
Of course, the moment he rushed into the room, Selim realized there was a slightly larger problem. So, apparently, did Mrs. Browbeat.
"Who are all these people?" she asked, noting the slumped forms of the FFO members throughout the room uneasily and clutching her gun tightly.
"Shh," Marlin said as he shut the door quietly and came up behind them. "They're people we took out to get to you," he said hurriedly. "Now can we get out of here?"
Selim had already reached the hole and sat on the edge. "I'll move the bed into place over this hole. If we are quiet, it will buy us a few more minutes at least."
"Can't you just knock them out or something?" Johan asked, eyeing the prone bodies of the men and women shoved into the corners of the room.
Selim shot him an unimpressed expression. "You do remember my state of being a few minutes ago? The more I use my shadows, the more tired I become."
"But I thought…"
"The plant matter helped, a lot, but it won't last long," he said as he dropped through the hole in the floor, swinging onto the bed below easily. "It never does," he added on in a mutter only he could hear and scrambled off of the bed just in time to miss Johan coming down after him.
They had situated the holes in each room at slightly different places in the floor, so that if they jumped through one, they wouldn't fall straight to the first floor. No matter how sturdy, a bed could only handle so much. Selim could just imagine a large group of people falling down three floors to land on a broken bed. Yes, that would have lessened their chances of escape quite a bit.
Mrs. Browbeat came next, looking rather like a flopping whale with how she flailed, but she kept ahold of her weapon and, while she did squeak rather pathetically, she didn't get hurt. Marlin came next and he hadn't even finished bouncing on the bed when Selim reached up with the shadows to pull the bed frame above them over the hole so as to hide it.
Then he turned to the next hole and almost jumped. Almost. A head of curly, black hair tied back in a short pony tail over a blue, military uniform was struggling to climb through said hole.
Selim blinked in her direction for several moments before he ran over to her. "What are you doing here?!" he hissed angrily. If she were here, then that meant that the military was here (with his luck Mustang was right behind her, dragging those blasted Elrics). They were about to blow the entire rescue!
Mandy started at his voice. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case may be), she'd already levered herself mostly onto the floor of the room and didn't fall back.
"Selim?" she asked, pausing in surprise. Then she saw Johan and Mrs. Browbeat standing in front of Marlin. "Did you get everyone?"
"Of course I did," Selim growled. Had she honestly thought he wouldn't be able to do it? He ruthlessly stamped on the voice in his head that pointed out how he would have gladly left all the hostages except for Johan if he'd thought it would have been a viable option. She held her hands up in surrender (which put her in a rather precarious position as she still only had one leg up on the floor).
"I was just curious."
"Get out of the way so I can get up there too," a voice from below said. Selim immediately recognized Bonnie and he realized that the two must have run into each other. Well, Mandy and whoever else from the military that had been with her.
"Who else is down there?" Selim asked as Mandy finished lifting herself into the hotel room.
"No one," the dark-haired girl said, a little confused at his unhappy tone. "Just Bonnie."
"Where's your precious General?" Selim couldn't help but sneer.
The fact that Mandy shot him an annoyed expression threw him off slightly. Very few people looked at him that way once they knew who he was. Of course, that would probably be because even fewer survived.
"General Mustang is working on clearing out the rest of the hotel. I oversaw the evacuation of the hostages. I was on my way to back him up when I ran into Bonnie here."
"A little help?" Bonnie asked from the first floor. Apparently she couldn't jump far enough to even get her hands onto the edge of the hole. Selim briefly wondered how she'd gotten back up before (or if she'd even gone down at all) but ultimately dismissed it as a pointless question. She had, end of story.
"No," he said down to her. "We're coming down. Move."
"That's everyone?" Bonnie asked, sounding slightly surprised.
Selim repressed a frustrated sigh. Alright, he knew he was a monster, but did they have to think that badly of him? Then again, why should he care? He shouldn't…right?
'Later,' he told himself mentally and gestured to Marlin and the Browbeats to get over there. They hadn't taken two steps when a loud banging came from above them, followed by several voices.
Selim gestured to everyone to be quiet, which included him peering over the edge of the hole near the bed at Bonnie. Fortunately, everyone seemed to get the hint.
"What the…?! Jesse! Get in here! Look at this!"
A pause as a few pairs of feet stomped above them.
A new voice cursed colorfully. "What are all our people doing here?!"
"This has to be it," a third voice growled angrily. "Their escape route or whatever has to be in here! Look around! Castow, check those soldiers!"
"Sir!" several voices sounded and more footsteps pounded above them.
Selim motioned for everyone to get to the side of the room (or at least out of the eyesight of anyone looking down and through the hole) and moved the bed so that it would take up the entire view, making sure it covered most of the hole on the second floor as well. Again, the humans in the room seemed to catch on. Marlin shuffled theBrowbeats down the small hallway leading to the door. Mandy moved to the open bathroom door and Selim slid back into the corner with the table in it. No one breathed.
"They're alive, sir, but all unconscious," a woman's voice (Castow?) said after a few moments.
No one answered her, but the sounds of stomping and ruffling didn't stop.
It took longer than Selim would have thought for them to move the bed on the floor above and he berated himself for not just getting out when they'd heard the door open earlier.
"Sir! Look at this!" that first voice, completely clear and right above the hole, spoke up loudly.
More swearing from the supposed commanding officer.
"Should we follow them, sir?"
A pause and everyone in the room tensed. Selim drew his shadows around him, pointed and poised to attack at any moment. Let the fool humans try to stop him from completely destroying the men following them this time. Mandy crouched to the floor, paper circles in hand and ready to use. Marlin and Mrs. Browbeat raised their guns while Johan shrank back.
"No. I just got orders from the commander. He needs us on the first and second floors. We've almost retaken them." Now that Selim thought about it, he could hear that a lot of the thumping and banging noises he'd attributed to the men in the room above hadn't stopped. They were coming from somewhere nearby. He mentally cursed. Had the FFO somehow cut off their escape route?
"They're probably out of the building by now anyway," the commanding officer growled angrily. "If we want to get back at 'em, we'd better get going now."
"This leads to the second floor," one man pointed out.
"Think soldier!" the commander barked. "If they have an alchemist with them and they didn't seal this thing up, do you honestly think it's not booby trapped? Come on, men."
"But sir," the woman spoke up. "What about the men in here?"
"They're safe enough for now," the commander said. "Now follow me. That's an order."
"Y-yes, sir," the woman said and the footfalls stomped out of the room. A quiet fell above them, broken only by the loud bangs that could only be bullets and shooting breaking the unnatural silence. Everyone held their breath for several seconds.
Then Mandy slumped against the door frame of the bathroom. Mrs. Browbeat lowered the gun to her side and Selim could see her hands trembling. One of her arms wrapped around Johan and pulled him into her. He didn't resist and actually put his arms around her in return, which in and of itself said a great deal for his mental state at the moment. Marlin looked grim but relieved.
"Is everything alright now?" Bonnie asked from below, her voice hesitant and a little muffled by the bed.
"Yeah," Marlin said. "Come on, let's get—"
"No," Selim spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him. "You heard them," he said, nodding to the hole in the ceiling. "The fighting has moved to the first and second floors. We don't know if our escape route's been cut off."
"Let me look," Bonnie said.
"No!" Selim almost growled. Just how stupid were these people? Apparently she didn't listen because he soon heard the bangs and shouts grow louder, then softer again. He opened and closed his fists, concentrating on willing himself to not kill them. He still needed them, if only for distractions. Of course, distractions would only work if they didn't lead the enemy right to them.
"It's a no go," the older woman said a few seconds later.
Selim wanted to give her a piece of his mind and let her know just how stupid she'd been for opening the door at all if shots had been heard anywhere near them. Still, he saw little point in drawing attention to her stupidity at the moment and decided to refrain.
"But we were just out there!" Mandy said worriedly.
"Guess we just missed it," Bonnie returned.
"So, what do we do now?" Johan asked, his voice a little shaky.
No one answered for a few moments. Finally Selim allowed his shadows to retreat and walked over to the bed where he plopped down, heedless of the multiple, pebble-sized pieces of debris from the broken ceiling that littered it.
"Now, we wait. There's nothing else we can do."
xXx
Marlin (unsurprisingly) decided to wait in the bottom room with Bonnie. They both had guns and could protect that door well enough. They wouldn't allow anyone else to wait on the first floor with them, though, as it would be far easier and faster for the majority of their little group to jump to the first floor if necessary than it would be for them to climb back up to the second in an emergency. As such, Selim and the Browbeats stayed on the second floor with Mandy. They all also figured that a homunculus, an alchemist and a mother with a gun could guard both entrances to that room well enough.
They didn't know how long they would have to wait, but Selim doubted it would be more than a half an hour before the military overwhelmed the dwindling rebellion, or whatever it was they called themselves. Selim, for himself, was just happy to lie down and rest for a little while.
Mandy sat at the table, going over her circles and drawing a few more with a pencil and some spare paper she'd stashed in her uniform somewhere. Mrs. Browbeat had taken the armchair facing the door and Johan had come to sit on the bed near Selim. No one had spoken for a while and the atmosphere had only gotten tenser as the shots from outside rose and fell in groups of loud, warning bangs.
Finally, Selim figured that this would be as good a time as any to ask his questions of Johan. It had taken him a while to decide for two reasons: First, he had an audience and second, for some reason, now that he'd gone through everything to get his friend (former friend?) to safety, he found it difficult to put his questions into words.
"Johan," he finally said, not opening his eyes but allowing a small shadow's eye to discretely appear and watch them. He wanted to witness the other boy's reactions. He saw his friend tense at the barest touch of anger and confusion Selim had allowed to lace his voice.
"Why did you give me that book?"
That must not have been what Johan expected because he blinked in confusion for a few seconds before answering. "Huh?"
If Selim's eyes had been open, he would have rolled them in annoyance. "The book, by the Elrics. The one that had all the answers. Why did you give that book to me when you somehow knew who I was?"
"You what?" Mrs. Browbeat rounded on Johan. For once he didn't shrink away from her temper, instead choosing to stare stonily back at her after shooting a mildly scathing look in Selim's direction. "Johannus Atriums Browbeat! After we strictly forbade you to—"
"Mom!" Johan said, just loudly enough to cut her off. "Stop it." He took a deep breath and visibly calmed down. "Just…stop."
She didn't look too happy, but she backed off, although her expression told everyone rather plainly that the conversation was not over. It took a few more seconds before Johan answered Selim, who had given up the pretense of resting his eyes and had allowed his shadow to fade again.
"Right. Well…one reason was because I wanted to let you know that you're still my friend," he shot an angry glare at his mother before returning his gaze to Selim. He opened his mouth as if to say something else, but then seemed to think better of it and closed it. The boy didn't say anything else and the minutes stretched. Selim knew his friend hadn't said everything and he wasn't going to let Johan get off that easily, but he was willing to have other questions answered in the meantime.
"And how did you find out when I didn't even know myself? Did you get the answers from that book?"
At that Johan snorted, all of his reluctance gone. "Are you kidding? It took me weeks to get to a point where dad would let me into his private office. I figured it all out way before that."
Selim felt his fists clench as he glared up at his friend. "How?" he growled.
Johan rolled his eyes. "It's all over the history books! I don't know why someone hasn't seen it before. There's been a kid who looks like…well, you, near the Fuehrer for generations, always tied to the ruling family, never younger than six or seven, and never older than thirteen or fourteen. That was when I started suspecting that there was something more to it all and that's when I started bugging my dad about seeing his high-level alchemy books."
"Which you can bet won't happen again any time soon," Mrs. Browbeat growled. Johan's mouth thinned in frustration although he didn't acknowledge that he'd heard his mother in any other way. Selim, on the other hand, couldn't help but stare, any anger in him suddenly replaced by incredulity.
"That's what you found? But...you thought I was fifteen! Even if we looked similar, there was no actual reason to suspect I was the same person—"
"That's why I wanted to get to dad's books and find out for sure if it was plausible. I didn't want to say anything 'cause I thought it sounded stupid, but it didn't sit right with me. I wrote it all down in my notes and had just gone through that book when dad caught me. He freaked and thought that I was onto something."
"Which you were," Mrs. Browbeat interjected pointedly.
"Which is when they told you to stop being my friend," Selim said, turning his own glare on Mrs. Browbeat. She didn't turn to look at them, eyes fixed on the door, but her jaw was set in determination and she didn't look like she was going to back down any time soon.
Johan grumbled. "I told them it was stupid."
Mrs. Browbeat snorted and Selim raised an eyebrow sardonically at his friend. "Apparently not," he said, gesturing to his shadows.
At that, the larger boy looked away, troubled. "I never actually knew, knew…I mean, that's part of why I gave you the book in the first place. I wanted to know too and I saw what not knowing was doing to you and I thought you deserved to know the truth, no matter what my parents said."
Selim glanced out of the corner of his eye at Johan's mother, but her expression didn't change. The homunculus wasn't sure what to make of that and, from the puzzled expression Johan shot his mother, he didn't either. Mandy hadn't stopped working on her circles, but Selim could tell she was listening rather intently. Bonnie and Marlin probably were too. Perhaps he should have timed this confrontation a little better?
Selim shook his head, feeling a headache beginning to build behind his eyes. "So you wanted me to get the answers I was searching for, despite the fact that it was a state secret that would (and has) put the entire country in danger?"
Johan frowned at Selim. "How was I supposed to know that?" he asked defensively. "Besides, you'd never hurt anyone."
The conviction in the other boy's voice took Selim back a moment. Then he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Johan hadn't had some underlying plot or plan to set in motion, and he wasn't working for anyone as Selim had begun to suspect. He was just sharp enough to put two and two together while being amazingly naïve. The homunculus ran a hand down his face and couldn't help the incredulous chuckle. Even the Elrics hadn't been that naïve at Johan's age. Truthfully Selim hadn't known anyone could be that innocent and sheltered. He wasn't sure as to whether he felt more relieved or annoyed.
"Johan, I am a homunculus," he said finally, annoyance melting into exasperation.
"But you said—"
"Look," Selim said, sitting up and bending his head down so that Johan could see the crown of his head. "See that? It's an oroborus; the mark of a homunculus." He straightened and gestured to the shadows scattered around the room again and caused one to rise beside him. "See this? It's a special power. Do you know why homunculi are difficult to kill? Their Philosophers' Stones have to run out of energy before they die. Yes, I have a philosopher's stone at my heart." He ignored a startled squeak from Mandy. "And to top it all of, for almost all of three centuries I lived to serve and help the person that created me no matter what the cost. Johan, I. Am. A. Homunculus."
At this Selim paused and deflated, slumping back onto the bed. "I always have been. I just didn't remember."
Silence met his words and he felt something curl up inside of him. He couldn't place why or how or even what, but he could not deny that he felt…something.
He chanced a glance up at his friend who seemed to be staring at Selim thoughtfully.
Then Johan sighed and turned to look at his mother. "Mom, my best friend is a Homunculus. Please get over it and stop being dumb."
Selim felt shocked right down to the tips of his shadows. "What?"
For the second time that day, Mrs. Browbeat rounded on her son (and looked rather intimidating with that semi-automatic in her hands). "Johannus Artimus Browbeat! You dare speak to me like that? When all I wanted was to keep you safe?!"
"He's not dangerous!" Johan said, gesturing towards Selim.
"I am dangerous!" Selim interjected.
"And if you think for an instant that I am going to—"
"But he hasn't even hurt anyone—"
"Oh, yes I have."
Mrs. Browbeat and Johan both stopped trying to interrupt each other and blinked several times before turning to look at Selim.
"You have?" Johan asked, his voice trembling only slightly. "When?"
Selim pushed down the urge he had to bite his lip and look away. He was not embarrassed! He had absolutely no reason to be. Right?
Shaking the thought from his head he squared himself and stared Johan in the eyes. "I used to kill and eat people all the time. You saw me almost lose it with Clemin."
"But you didn't," Johan insisted. "When was the last time you killed anyone?"
Selim expected Mrs. Browbeat to interject, but she didn't. Instead she only stared at him, obviously wanting an answer herself. The homunculus frowned and hesitated but decided there was little harm in answering, even if it did sting his pride a bit.
"Before I lost my memories."
"See?" Johan responded with triumph. "You're not dangerous! Not to your best friend. I mean c'mon, you'd never even hurt me or your mom or my parents, let alone kill us, right?"
Selim didn't speak for several seconds before he realized he couldn't say anything to that. It bothered him, but he couldn't answer that to the affirmative or the negative. Johan must have noticed his uneasy expression because his own appearance hardened.
"No, you wouldn't. I know you wouldn't," he said firmly.
"Johan," Mrs. Browbeat said, sounding suddenly weary.
"You don't know anything," Selim responded quietly.
"I know that you came in here and rescued everyone when you didn't have to. I know you could have killed people and had plenty of opportunity, but you didn't. I know that you've gone out of your way to keep everyone safe, even the people who don't care for you," he shot his mother another glare. She had the good grace to look slightly abashed.
Selim wanted to counter his friend, to insist that while those things were technically true, he had not been happy about it. He had not wanted to rescue everyone, hadn't cared at all about others' safety, hadn't even wanted to get involved in their conflicts anymore, and it was only that there had been very valid reasons to do so that he had acted like a pathetic, weakling human.
Oh yes, he wanted to deny Johan's words…but he couldn't.
No matter how he tried, he couldn't rationalize or appeal to his darker half this time. Not with the way Johan was looking at him—eyes full of absolute faith and trust that Selim most definitely did not deserve.
He did want to keep everyone safe. They were humans and awful and pathetic and despite all of that, he cared. A part of him wanted to curl up and die at the realization. Just how far had he fallen? But a part of him glowed with triumph and happiness and a peace he'd never felt before, as Pride.
He still couldn't bring himself to answer, but he had to admit, even if only to himself, that Johan was right.
The tentative silence fell back over the room, but it seemed more thoughtful this time. No one spoke for several minutes, each undoubtedly lost in their own thoughts. Selim, for himself, tried not to think. He didn't want to deal with his stupid conflict or how he shouldn't be feeling human emotions but actually liked that he did now, and he really just wanted to go to sleep for the rest of the week.
Not minutes later, he began to drop off, purposefully ignoring the fact that he felt comfortable and safe enough around these people—these humans—to do so.
xXx
Thanks so much to Shade40 for helping me out with this!
Sorry it's taken as long as it has, but my muse for this is still giving me issues. I have a bunch of the next chapter written though so it should be out earlier. I had a really hard time with this chapter for some reason and I feel like it was really choppy and rushed, but it's probably about as good as it's going to get at this point, so eh. Let me know what you think (or, more specifically, what you think could make it better...please!)