I still couldn't fully believe that the Selim Bradley was standing in front of me. Olivier told me stories about him and the things that he and his siblings did and what they were going to do if they weren't stopped. But the man standing in front of me seemed incapable of those horrible things. Then again I suppose he was just a kid, or appeared so, when he did them all those years ago.
"You're a little young for a State Alchemist, aren't you?" Selim Bradley asked.
"Older than Edward Elric was," I replied. "And age shouldn't matter if you're a good alchemist."
"Fair enough," he replied.
"Bradley," Miles said from a little ways away.
"Well I should be going, nice to meet you Frost Alchemist," Selim said.
"Likewise Mr. Bradley," I replied and he walked towards Miles.
"Hey Levy," Maes greeted.
"Hey," I replied.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"Spoke with Mr. Deen again and just saw Selim Bradley," I replied.
"The Selim Bradley?" he asked and I nodded. "Well this place just got more interesting because you're supposed to be dead father being here wasn't enough. You know we can move on if you want to Levy, you can ask for reassignment."
"Briggs people don't back down for anything and we sure as hell don't ask for reassignments. No I am going to make sure I complete my assignment to the best of my abilities and damn my personal feelings, that's what my mother taught me," I replied.
"Frost," a voice called and the Ishvalan was standing a couple hundred feet away from me.
"Well that doesn't sounds good," I said to Maes before walking over to him. "Yes?"
"Phone for you," he replied before leading the way to the phone.
"This is the Frost Alchemist," I said.
"Hey Levy," Edward greeted.
"Edward? You know this is a military line right?" I asked.
"Hey being the past annoyance of the fuhrer has it's perks. Anyway I need you to send the kids home," he said.
"Send them back? Why? What's wrong?" I asked.
"Winry's sick, really sick. We all kinda thought it'd be best for them to come home especially since May has to go back to Xing per the request of Ling," he explained.
"Yeah of course. I'd come too, but-"
"You have orders I know, Winry knows that too," he interrupted.
"Tell her I hope she feels better and that I'll come by as soon as I can," I said.
"Will do," he replied and then I hung up. Now time to find the Elrics. They were spread out through the camp, but I got them back to the tent.
"What's up Levy?" Sara asked.
"You guys are going back to Resembool," I announced which sent up a flurry or arguments, saying that I couldn't do that to them and all of that. After a couple minutes I cut them off.
"This wasn't my decision, it was both of your fathers'," I explained which set up whole new arguments, I cut them off quicker this time. "Winry is sick and May needs to go to Xing, so you all need to go home."
"Mom's sick?" Sara asked.
"Yes," I replied.
"But what about you?" Maes asked.
"I'll be here until I don't need to be. Once I'm released I'll stop in Resembool, if Winry is better you all can come with me again. If she's not, you need to stay," I decided and no one argued this time. "You'll all leave on the first train in the morning."
"Won't you be lonely Levy?" Trisha asked.
"I'll be okay, how can I be lonely with all of these people around?" I asked in return with a smile.
"Why did our dads' call you instead of me or one of us?" Maes questioned.
"Military line, no civilian use," I explained easily.
"Neither of our dad's are in the military," Trisha pointed out.
"Both of your fathers were instrumental into defeating the homunculi. And they are still good friends with people in the military, so they have perks," I explained. "Come on, you guys have a long day tomorrow, you better get some rest."
"Night girls," Maes said before he left. Sara and Trisha packed all of their things before climbing into bed.
"I'll be in a bit later, goodnight," I said before leaving, they both mumbled goodnight before I left. Where I ran into Colonel Ross. "Good evening Colonel."
"Evening Frost," she greeted.
"Sara and Trisha are trying to sleep," I explained.
"Oh?" she asked.
"Winry is sick, they're going home in the morning," I replied and she looked sad.
"Those poor kids. Elrics never really catch a break," she commented and I nodded. "Will you be sticking around still?"
"I want to be there for Winry, but I can't abandon my duties," I replied.
"Just like Olivier," she said.
"Yeah guess you can't say just say the Armstrongs, Alex is so emotional sometimes."
"Oh you don't need to tell me that. I worked under him for quite some time. He could make us confess to anything."
"Sounds like him. Have you heard that Selim Bradley is here?"
"Yeah every officer here knows, we're supposed to keep an eye on him."
"He hasn't done anything bad. He has no memory of his past," I argued.
"Better safe than sorry. Pride... Pride was a frightening force, arguably the worst of all homunculi, he couldn't even be destroyed, not completely."
"Selim isn't Pride, he hasn't been since that day. He has no memory of that life and none of his powers. He doesn't deserve to be exiled or watched just because of his past. We all have done things we're not proud of," I argued.
"He wanted to kill every person in this country," she countered.
"Because that's what his father wanted."
"Greed resisted his father."
"Greed resisted only because he wanted it for himself, he was greed. Pride had no reason to go against his father and neither did any of the others. They were made to carry out his orders. And if we're judging people based off of past actions what about every single state alchemist who fought in the war against Ishval? They murdered people, innocent people."
"They were under orders."
"Orders from Wrath. And the homunculi were under their own orders. Why does following orders justify the actions of some people and not the others? That isn't fair."
"Homunculi aren't people."
"They bleed. Have hearts. Emotions. Thoughts. A soul technically. What makes them so different from us? We were born and alchemy created them, that's it. Goodnight Colonel." I walked away then effectively ending the conversation.
"Frost wait up!" someone yelled and suddenly Selim was running up to me.
"You can call me Levy Mr. Bradley," I commented.
"Selim. I wanted to thank you," he said.
"For what?" I questioned not knowing what I could have done that would give him a reason to thank me.
"For sticking up for me. The people who remember me as Pride are always a little weird around me, and no one has said anything like that before," he explained.
"You..."
"Know? Yeah, Edward Elric told me a couple years back. And a lot of things made sense. I don't remember being that person but it doesn't seem like it matters to some people, like your mother."
"She's just wary, Briggs can't be put into danger. She doesn't like any outsiders."
"Yeah well I can't really blame her. After Edward told me what I was, I did research, found access to those files and read about my... siblings. We were terrible, we murdered so many for the sake of our father, even gave up one of my brothers. It made sense why so many people hated me."
"They're just scared you'll revert back to him."
"I haven't yet and I'd like to think that if I do end up remembering or getting those powers back that I'd still be me and I could help people, not kill them."
"Well that's a nice thought. Let's hope you never have to find out."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hello again! See not as long a wait as last time, right? Well here's to hoping I can actually keep writing. I finally have some legitimate ideas about where this story is going. About time right? So hopefully I'll be posting more consistently. I hope you all keep reading and enjoy it as much as possible. Until next time!