"West hall secure, sir," a lieutenant Roy had only seen in passing before reported to him. The man had a shock of red hair, which helped the Major General to remember him and Roy made a mental note to learn the man's name. He seemed rather competent and Roy was always on the lookout for a good soldier that he could count on. He'd been finding more of those types of people around lately.

They'd managed to secure the fourth floor of the hotel and now it was only a matter of getting through Clemin's last defenses. He'd considered using his gloves, but had decided against it. He doubted it would help them take the hotel faster and Riza and her team seemed to have everything under control.

The gunshots had lessened in frequency and while they had a few more casualties, none of them had been fatal. Now if only they could get Parkins back…

Beside him, Hawkeye gave the hand signal that they would be moving on and everyone prepared to follow her lead. This was the last hallway that they needed to overtake. They moved slowly, unable to open the doors to the other rooms on the floor without doing serious damage (which they'd been asked to avoid), and so they advanced comparatively slowly, weapons raised and at the ready.

Fortunately, they met no further resistance. The FFO had to be on its last legs.

"Sir!" the red-headed communications officer said suddenly. "We have a situation on the fourth floor and they need reinforcements!"

"Redirect from the first and second floors," he ordered, keeping his eyes firmly on the door to the main suite. Not only was his subordinate behind that door, but Clemin and Pride too. He would be needed here, and so would the small entourage he'd brought with him.

"Yes, sir!" the man said and relayed the orders into the microphone that connected to the large bundle of equipment tied onto his back.

They all stood to the side of the door and Roy clapped his hands before setting them on the door handle. An alchemic shock of blue ran over it for a split second. The door lock would have to be replaced, but hopefully that would be the worst of the damage that would happen at this point.

Another lieutenant, a woman with a hard face and black hair tied back into a thin braid that fell down her back, reached over and opened the door before leaning to the side and out of the way of any gun shots that would come her way. Nothing happened. They got a scope to look around the side of the doorway and the woman, Lieutenant Jackson if Roy remembered correctly, nodded that she would be going ahead.

They entered the room, weapons at the ready, only to find a group of men restrained with what had to have been alchemy as the floor itself looked like it had grown up to wrap around them as a group. With how the men were sprawled and how they struggled and insulted each other, it couldn't be comfortable, but they were obviously not a threat at the moment.

The military group quickly scouted the rest of the suite, finding nothing in the bedroom and one other restrained and yelling man in the main bathroom before they moved on to the final room. They heard someone yelling from the kitchen area and that had to be Clemin laughing so loudly. Roy exchanged glances with Riza and they approached as quickly as they dared. Clearing the room had only taken thirty or so seconds and had felt rather anti-climactic, but something told Roy that this was only the calm before the storm.

Riza led the way into the last room, moving slowly and carefully, moving her hand and arm at the door in case anyone was prepared to shoot at them when they walked in. Nothing happened and so Roy gave the nod to go ahead.

She nodded in acknowledgment and swung her gun up and into the room. From the look on her face she did not like what she'd seen. She still managed to signal for Roy to follow and he rushed in just in time to see the last thing he'd been expecting. Pride's shadows had just released Clemin from where he'd been pinned to the wall on the other side of the room where the glass windows met the solid wall. The homunculus in question knelt over a prone form near where the ex-General fell.

It wasn't the positions of everyone in the room that really got to Roy but the circle of alchemy that lay on the floor around Parkins and Pride. He paled, recognizing it immediately, even from several yards away.

It was already glowing.

Roy made to leap forward. He had to stop it! He couldn't let anyone else go through that!

Before he could move, though, the homunculus opened his mouth. "No," he whispered, suddenly looking desperate.

"Sir," Riza said quietly and putting her arm out to stop her superior from advancing further into the room. He made to push her hand away but the look she shot him stopped him in his tracks. He noted her pale but determined face and any argument he had died on his lips. "I think there's a sniper."

He could only blink at her. "What makes you say that?"

"He has a shield up between him and the windows."

"NO!" Pride yelled angrily. The blue light of the transmutation circle had begun to fade.

"Don't move, Martov Clemin," Riza growled more loudly, her voice hard and directed at the man who had just regained his feet.

Roy glanced up just in time to see the ex-general grin madly at them and then rush towards the window. Riza shot, hitting him twice before he shattered the window and a third time afterwards, but none of the shots stopped the man from jumping through the pane and out into the early morning air. He disappeared from view and Roy closed his eyes, bringing a hand up to rub the bridge of his nose.

He'd lost Clemin. The only up side would be that they should be able to confirm his body and that he no longer posed a threat. Still, he could hear Olivier's angry dressing down already. Somehow he didn't think this headache that had come on would ever go away.

Tiredly, he put his hands together and skirted the room, making sure to keep out of view of the sniper, at least judging by the angle where Pride had raised his shield and where he still sat next to Parkins. Then he put his hands on the windows and focused on turning them opaque. It wasn't difficult. A minor molecule structure change and he had an easily reversible transmutation that should keep him and any men safe while he confronted Pride.

Well, safer.

Motioning for everyone else to stay back, he advanced towards the homunculus. Riza would make sure they fired if Pride decided to pull the same trick he had on the train, and he didn't feel that sending anyone else in was worth the safety risk. Pride was dangerous, but then so was Mustang.

"Parkins?" he asked when he had come within a few feet.

The memory of what happened next would stay with him for the rest of his life.

xXx

8 minutes earlier

There were a few major arteries that, if hit correctly or sliced through completely, could have the victim bleeding out in under two minutes—sometimes less. Apparently, Mandy's artery had been hit just right. She was slipping away. Selim could see it; knew what it looked like. He'd seen people pale and grow limp and stop struggling. As Pride, he'd actually timed a few similar cases out of sheer curiosity.

He pushed such thoughts from his mind as quickly as they popped up, though. He didn't have time for them. He doubted she could even answer anymore…and so he made his choice.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, and for, perhaps, the first time in his life, he truly meant it. He knew the sensation was unpleasant. He knew that it would leave her feeling open and violated on a deeply spiritual level. He knew she may not forgive him…but then she would be alive to be upset at him, and strangely, he could live with that.

His shadows finished the circle and he looked up at Clemin who was watching them with a puzzled expression. He didn't know what to do with the man and Selim couldn't just leave him there. Neither Mandy or he would be in any shape to handle the former general when this finished.

But he didn't have time to figure anything out at the moment either. He figured he'd have to leave the man and just take his chances, and had prepared to do just that when something moved at the door. It was now or never.

He hoped the person at the door wasn't one of Clemin's men. Still, he didn't have much of a choice if he wanted to save her. So with that, he retracted the shadows pinning Clemin to the wall and forced Mandy's gate open.

Her eyelids shot up, eyes widening in pain. He was almost relieved at the reaction. Apparently she still had enough presence of mind to recognize that discomfort.

The circle around them began to glow and Selim focused the energy on her neck, on fixing the wound there. He could repair the artery and then all they would have to do was get some blood into her system and she should make a full recovery.

There had been very few alchemists in history that could heal. There had been two reasons for that. Firstly, it strayed terribly close to the 'human transmutation' taboo, which most people did not want to deal with, and secondly, the human body was one of the most complex systems to ever evolve. Most people who did originally experiment with alchemy didn't know enough to pull off a medical transmutation successfully.

Many of those alchemists who did manage to learn to heal tended to be people who had little scruples with torturing and experimenting. Often they were people who didn't much care to save others, but had a goal of satisfying their own curiosity. At least, in Selim's experience. People like Doctor Trevor 'Gold-Tooth' Moranus*.

Still, there had been a few alchemic doctors who truly cared to help their patients and those around them. Doctor Marcoh had been one. He'd often used both complete and incomplete philosopher's stones to make up for any knowledge he lacked, but he'd been one of the few who had gone out of his way to help others after dedicating his life to understanding how the human body worked.

Selim, too had the knowledge of alchemic healing. After three hundred years and having to study humans simply because Father had commanded it of him, there was little he didn't know about the body. A lot of what he knew was from personal experience, even. It helped that he'd absorbed a lot of medical and scientific information from Moranus for the fifth sacrifice as well.

His plan had been simple: Force Mandy's gate open and have her heal herself before she bled out. As long as he could control the transmutation, he didn't see why it shouldn't work. No, Selim wasn't an alchemist, but that shouldn't make a difference as long as he knew how to direct the energy.

Not for the first time, he wondered what it would be like to be able to perform alchemy on his own. The last time he'd tried had been almost a decade before, about six-seven years after the promised day. After several unsuccessful attempts, he'd concluded that he didn't have the talent for it and had given up. He'd actually sulked around the house for almost a week before his mother had confronted him.

But as Pride, the first homunculus and the being closest to the Gate next to his father, he could force an alchemist's gate open—force a transmutation. He'd done it before (although rarely), and he never knew exactly what had been taken each time he'd tried, it had always been some sort of stabilizing factor and a great deal of energy.

He'd only seen Truth once before—when he'd sent Mustang to the gate, because Pride had only ever experimented with forcing a normal transmutation before that. He'd been successful and had never seen the being that guarded the gate during those instances, although he could still…well, he could almost sense the guardian of the gate there. His father had forbidden him from ever trying a human transmutation unless they had no other choice. After a regular transmutation it would take him anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to regain full strength. They had theorized that if he had tried a human transmutation, it would have irreparably changed him, and not for the better.

As he was now, he had no idea what the price of forcing Mandy's gate open would be. He wasn't the same being physically or mentally as he had been, and didn't know what he would have to give up. He was already low on energy, but somehow he desperately wanted to save the girl and was willing to sacrifice just about anything to do so. He didn't know why.

At that moment, he realized that the alchemic energy he'd been focused on directing had begun to peter off.

"No!" he growled, desperately pushing further. It didn't help. After a few more seconds, Mandy went limp in his arms, eyes open and blank. "NO!" he yelled again, grasping desperately at the power, but the gate was vanishing, not just closing. The more he pulled at it, the less energy there was.

He grit his teeth, focusing with all his might. He had fixed her body! The wound was whole! Why wasn't she recovering? Why…

And then, nothing.

The glowing of the circle faded and he sat there, staring at the body of the person who had been his constant companion for the last several weeks. The person he'd grown strangely close to—who he considered a friend, despite everything that had happened between them.

No, because of everything that had happened between them. She'd known about him and betrayed him and practically handed him over to the military, but she had never done so with the intent to harm him. She'd cared for him, despite discovering his true nature at some point along their journey, and she had died saving him.

Why?

He didn't understand.

Was that why he had to save her? For a similar reason as when he'd come to save Johan? Because he needed her to explain this to him and only she could?

That was part of it, but…not all of it.

He didn't know how long he sat there, trying to wrap his head around what had happened. It could have been seconds or days. He felt numb inside and knew he'd somehow gone into shock. He heard some noises in the background, a crash of what may have been glass, but he couldn't find the motivation to move and see what had happened.

Why? It was the only thought that he seemed capable of thinking as it ran through his head over and over again.

Why was he reacting like this? Did his time as Selim have such a hold on him? Had his being forced to live as a human actually caused him to somehow become more human? Was this how humans felt all the time?

"Parkins?" a voice broke through his thoughts and he looked up to see the visage of Major General Roy Mustang looking down at him and Mandy with a mixture of trepidation, worry and confusion.

"She's dead," Selim said simply. He didn't expect those words to hurt, so much more deeply than any physical injury he could remember receiving. The numbness began to fall away and he wanted it back. "She died saving me."

He choked on the words. The part of his mind that was still somewhat logical couldn't help the confusion that rose at his reaction. Was he…crying? Pride had never cried before. Not really. Selim had often enough, but not like this.

After a moment, he looked up at Mustang, not caring that he had tears running down his cheeks.

"Is this why you wanted to bring him back? Your friend Hughes? Because…it hurt like this?" And for the first time, he felt he could really understand Roy Mustang, and the Elric Brothers and Izumi Curtis and even (to his disgust) Hoenheim. For the first time, he realized just what becoming a sacrifice for his father had entailed, and that realization hurt even more. He had caused other beings to hurt like this. Yes, they were lesser beings, but somehow he still hated that idea. It must be his human side coming through because he had no other explanation. At least, none that he wanted to really consider.

"If this is what being human is like, then I don't blame Father for wanting to be rid of it!" he yelled suddenly, fists clenching in anger. It didn't stop the tears cascading down his cheeks. If anything his yelling made them flow even more freely and he couldn't seem to stop it. He wanted to. Desperately. Suddenly he wished for nothing more than to banish this feeling and everything associated with it—even the memory of it—into the depths of his mind and soul, never to be experienced or acknowledged again. "I'd rather be a homunculus! Because even living in slavery for three hundred years is better than this!"

Then something occurred to him that almost froze his blood in his veins. What if it had been someone he'd really cared about? Like his mother or Johan…. He choked again, trying to gasp for air and not succeeding.

"Why?" he managed to get out as he looked up at an ever more confused Mustang. "Why do I feel like this? I don't understand…"

And Mustang didn't either. Selim could see it in the man's milky eyes. The eyes that shouldn't ever have seen again.

The eyes that had seen the Gate.

He didn't know why, but the words he spoke next slipped out before he could really catch them.

"Y-you could bring her back."

Mustang was not expecting that because his eyes widened and his brow furrowed in incredulity.

"What?"

Her soul may not have gone through the gate yet. You could get her! You could save her!"

When he looked back later, he would count it as one of his greatest shames. The epitome of pride had been reduced to practically begging. But at that moment, hope had overruled both his pride and his logic.

He hadn't ever realized just how potent hope could be, only that his father had utilized the feeling in others. Now he could see why.

And then, for the first time, Mustang's expression towards him grew soft. It wasn't a pleasant look, pitying and nostalgic, so full of a grudging sadness that Selim almost thought he was looking at the body of his underling instead.

"You know I can't," he said softly.

"Yes, you can," Selim insisted. "When I forced you to transmute the doctor before, he was still alive afterwards. It was an aborted transmutation, so he didn't live long, but it is conceivable—"

"Wait, what?" Mustang asked. Part of him seemed angry, but another part of him also seemed curious. He must not have liked the memory, but was jumping at the chance to get some questions answered.

"I was trying to conserve energy at the time so I aborted the transmutation early. The point had been for you to go through the gate, not to keep the doctor alive. This would be different! You can save her!"

"No, I can't."

His tone was final and left no room for argument. With those words, Selim discovered what it was like to have his hope sucked away. For a moment the numbness returned. He'd said no… He wanted to save her too, and yet he'd said no. It wasn't that he couldn't, but that he wouldn't. Why?

As if to read his thoughts, Mustang went on. "I made a vow to someone a long time ago that I would never consciously perform a human transmutation, not to save her life, not to save Parkins, not to bring Hughes back, not even to save myself."

Selim just blinked at the man for a few moments as his mind absorbed this. Then the anger returned, more raw and wild this time. It was an anger born of pain, that little part of his rational mind that still functioned realized.

"But she's right here! She's your subordinate! Didn't you want to save her?!"

Mustang's expression hardened again. "Yes. But not at the cost of my vow."

Selim had moved before he'd even registered. He'd reached out and grabbed Mustang's shirt, yanking him down so they were at an eye level. And Selim had to wonder for a moment when he'd stood up to be able to reach the other man.

"Then I'll force you to! I did it once! I can do it again!"

The warning light in the man's narrowed eyes would have once made Pride laugh. It would have scared Selim. Now the homunculus simply disregarded it as unimportant.

"At what cost to you?" Mustang snapped. "You look like you're about to collapse and between what you just said and what I heard from the hostages I spoke with, you don't have the energy to spare."

He must have spoken with Johan and his mother. Which meant they were safe.

At least they were safe.

That thought caused him to deflate ever so slightly.

Mustang's next words didn't help. "I'm guessing you tried to force Parkin's gate open and her weakened body couldn't handle the strain. That's why she died, isn't it?"

"Yes," he whispered, because otherwise it made no sense. He'd managed to stop the bleeding, to mend her skin and artery. He knew he had. "I should have realized but…" And then the tears were back, stronger than before. "I hate this," he whispered tiredly. "I hate feeling like this. I don't want it. I…I never wanted to become more human. But I am. I don't even care that it might kill me to try and bring her back. I would give that up…because she gave her life for me. So few people have cared for me enough to do that." His mother had put her safety on the line a few times when he'd been Pride and when Selim had been younger. Johan had come back for him when Clemin had tried to kill him.

And that was it. In 300 years, none of the other homunculi had cared for him. His father hadn't even cared for him like that. No human had even come close.

Was that why it hurt so much? To lose Mandy?

He fell to his hands and knees, looking up at Mustang for the last time, pleading. "Please…do something. If I could do the transmutation myself, I would." He knew how to circulate the energy, he knew how to direct it; he had the mathematical knowledge, the theoretical knowledge, the biological knowledge, but not the capacity because he had no gate. He was an artificial being who…

He blinked in confusion as a blue light caught his eye. The circle was glowing. He stared hard at the lines that had changed to a bright blue under his hands, but it didn't fade. It wasn't his imagination.

Shocked, he turned back to Mustang, but the man's expression of extreme confusion and worry had returned. He was standing several inches outside of the circle and seemed to be rooted to the ground in shock. No, he hadn't started the transmutation. Then…who?

And then everything went white.

AN: *I figured if Selim/Pride had absorbed the Gold-Toothed Doctor's memories, then he would know the man's name, so I made one up.

You guys REALLY need to thank my AMAZING beta reader Shade40. No joke. I had something written for this chapter and then she pointed out just how many plotholes she has in it and I had to redo it. please, thank them!