Prologue: Almost Human

Mrs. Bradley knew that her son wasn't human.

When he was younger, the differences weren't so noticeable. Occasionally, he would show a rare maturity for his age or do something that she just wouldn't expect.

That was a granted though, after all, how human could an inhuman child act?

"Happy Birthday!" Mrs. Bradley exclaimed as she approached the table slowly, holding a heavy cake.

Selim smiled, his sixth birthday was a huge event for him and it was his first official birthday party. His two friends from school, Elysia and William, had come to help him celebrate and were seated on either side of him wearing neon party hats.

The guards in the far corner of the room went unnoticed as they watched Mrs. Bradley struggle under the cake.

Mrs. Bradley was not as young as she used to be, and that heavy cake was unlikely to make it to the table in one piece. She might have though, if it wasn't for the broken tile sticking up on the floor in their new house's kitchen. It was a far cry from the flawless kitchen of the Fuehrer's mansion, and it also happened to be the reason why she tripped.

Mrs. Bradley lurched forward, the cake flying through the air and landing right on Selim.

The boy, ignoring his friends' cries of horror, frowned and commented, "Well, that's a shame."

Mrs. Bradley was already apologizing profusely as she climbed back to her feet, expecting her son to be in tears along with the rest of his friends.

She wasn't quite sure how to react when the boy was simply wiping frosting off of his face with a napkin.

Completely ignorant of the tears welling up in William's eyes, Selim stood up and frowned again as more cake fell onto the floor. "I'm going to go clean myself up, this is unsightly. I'll come back and help clean up in a second."

Mrs. Bradley stared at her son in surprise as he carefully walked out to clean himself up.

As she began to console Selim's tearful friends, she couldn't help but wonder about her son's true age.

After the fiasco on his sixth birthday, the little things that made him different began to stand out more to her. Selim's vocabulary was so advanced; Mrs. Bradley would often find herself reading a dictionary in an attempt to expand her own vocabulary. Then, there was the issue with his eyes...

A shuffling noise in the hallway woke her up, and the aging mother slowly pulled herself out of bed with a sigh.

A bang resounded down the hall and Mrs. Bradley's reservations disappeared as she quickly drew her robe around her and grabbed a flashlight. A flash of fear shot through her for her now ten-year-old son sleeping soundly in his room.

She rushed out into the hall, shining the light to her left and then to her right.

She screamed and dropped the flashlight at the sight of two eyes glowing eerily in the light.

A scoff echoed through the hall, "Pathetic."

There was a rustle of fabric and Selim coughed raggedly, "Mother?"

Selim raced forward and hugged her, "Are you okay? Did something scare you? Are you hurt?"

His mother stared at him in horror for a few seconds before relaxing in his grip and releasing a sob of relief. "I heard a noise and I was worried..."

Selim's mauve eyes flickered across her face, reading her expression thoughtfully. "I had a nightmare..." He explained, almost sounding embarrassed. "I was just getting a glass of water."

Mrs. Bradley nodded, allowing her son to lead her back to her room. Her mind refusing to even consider the other inhuman attributes that her son may possess.

It didn't even occur to her that during the whole encounter, the Selim's ever-present guards never appeared.

It wasn't until her son was fourteen though that she truly grasped the fact that her son wasn't human.

She had always known from the day that Edward Elric handed her the remnants of son that he wasn't normal. That he was just a pawn in the hands of the forces that had killed her husband.

Deep down though, she had never truly accepted the difference.

The guards were on break that day, the Fuehrer had decided that they could begin to cut down surveillance in exchange for Selim's continuing "good behavior." Later on, Mrs. Bradley wished that they hadn't been.

The sun was slowly setting as Mrs. Bradley and Selim rushed through the empty streets of Central's shopping district. They had to get home before it got too dark, Selim needed to get his sleep for the first day of school tomorrow.

Her son was carrying tons of bags full of everything from new school uniforms to books on alchemy. The mountain of bags completely blocked his view as he staggered down the street.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry anything, dear?"

"I told you I got it, mother!" Selim responded, sounding wounded that his mother would even consider that he was unable of accomplishing such a menial task.

Mrs. Bradley frowned but knew that arguing with the young man was pointless. His pride simply wouldn't allow for him to give in.

"I wonder why the streets are so empty..." She mused, changing the topic.

"Are we going to right direction to go home?"

"Of course we are!" She exclaimed before frowning as she glanced around, "I think so anyways..." She wrung her hands worriedly as she observed the devoid road.

"Did we miss the turn again?" Selim groaned in annoyance.

The sun was almost completely down now, and the kerosene street lamps were slowly coming to life.

"At least there's still light." Selim commented in an attempt to lighten the mood, he had always felt most comfortable in the light. As long as there was a source of light, he was safe.

When his mother remained silent, Selim leaned out from behind the mountain of bags in an attempt to see her. "Mother?"

A cold feeling washed over him as he saw a man, face obscured by shadow, holding his mother at gunpoint.

The bags clattered to the floor as Selim felt a vicious rage well up inside of him. He crossed his arms casually, completely surprising his mother; he acted as if had to whole situation under control.

"I suggest that you leave now, sir." Selim said coldly, like he was viewing an ant that had the gall to bite him.

The man faltered at the unusual response, then scoffed, "What are you gonna do, sonny? Cry for help?"

Selim's smirk turned to a disappointed frown, "Why must we do this? It'd be so much easier if you just let her go."

The man jabbed his gun into Mrs. Bradley's temple, "How about you just hand over all of your money and valuables, eh?"

As his mother's eyes widened in terror, Selim felt his temper snap.

"You will release her unharmed right now." His voice was wrong, it was like a chorus speaking in disjointed unison.

(He didn't even sound human.)

Unbeknownst to him, the shadows swirled around his feet weakly. Some even rising slightly like a bubbling pool of pitch.

The mugger's eyes widened, "You're- you should be dead!"

Indignation rose up inside of him at the exclamation. "I'm not easy to kill." His voice still wasn't right. "Now, why don't you release my mother and I'll let you live."

(He shouldn't be showing this insect mercy. He should just devour them both. No, he couldn't kill Mother...)

Selim grabbed his head in pain, memories beginning to rise to the forefront of his mind.

"What's wrong, homunculus?" The man roared, "Can't kill two little humans?"

Selim's hands dropped to his side and he yelled in fury, "Shut up! Shut up, you insect!"

(Why was he saying that? Why was his mother looking at him that way?)

The shadows around his feet surged forward and a bead of sweat rolled down his face from the effort.

The man stumbled backwards and screamed, leaving the gun forgotten on the ground as he raced away.

"Can't let him..." Selim's voice was back to normal again, the shadows retreating. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Mrs. Bradley cautiously approached him, kneeling down beside him. She sighed and brushed his bangs out of his eyes with a sigh, "What does homunculus mean? And what exactly just happened?"

Her son remained silent as he slept on, never once remembering the events of that night.

Mrs. Bradley knew beyond a doubt that her son wasn't human. She knew that she had only scratched the surface of the mysteries her son was harboring. She did know one thing however - Selim, whether he was human or not, was her son - and she loved him as unconditionally as only a mother could.

Author's Note: Hello, readers! I'd like to take a quick moment to tell you that this story is complete, well, this one anyways. I've got another one planned to resolve some minor issues I found in this on one of my many revisions of it. The chapters vary in length and I plan to update every 3 days. As a side note, this is indeed a post-Promised Day story centered on Pride because I was almost shocked that they left him alive, so I'd like to explore the potential consequences of that. Also, this is not a duplicate of any stories currently published on this topic, there are quite a few amazing ones out there, but this one is entirely my own idea. This is probably be the only author's note in this story, so if you enjoyed this, tell me! If you saw any mistakes that I missed, I don't have a beta so I expect that to happen, tell me and I'll try to fix it. I feel like I'm leaving something out... I'm sure it'll come to me eventually.

Just for a heads up, any text in () is thoughts, I tried to make it blatantly obvious whose thoughts they are, but if it seems uncertain whose thoughts the comment could be, don't freak out. There's no major plot developments in the thoughts, so you won't loose anything. And one more thing before I go, this story's POV changes regularly from the view of an all-knowing narrator, it's not all told in Mrs. Bradley's POV, this is the only chapter like that.