The canyon was unerringly silent.

Edward looked down at the human forces with an ugly grimace upon his face. It was nearly high noon and the sun beat down heavily upon his back. A trickle of nervous sweat dripped down past his temple, one he couldn't attribute to the heat. Light here was slightly weaker than it would have been on Earth, but it still lit up the countryside and bathed the rocks red and gold, even at midday. Down below in the ravine bottom, a trail of humans stomped their way across a long dried-up riverbed. The humans were well prepared for an attack by airborne Avians, guns lined their front and flanks, and there was the occasional tank-like contraption amongst them. The humans were fully armed to the teeth.

Of course, this was the genius of the plan that the avians had hatched around a shady war table. They weren't going to attack by air, rendering the human's preparations virtually useless. The ambush was stationed all of 500 metres into the distance, hidden by the bend in the disgustingly narrow canyon that the ants below were making their way through. Edward sat about two thirds up the rock wall, wings rustling slightly in the wind whistling down it. His dull blue military issue clothes were already a slightly reddish-brown and his face stang slightly from where the sand the breeze had picked up had struck him. He shifted his weight and the gun holstered by his side smacked into his leg uncomfortably, something he considered as useless seeing as he couldn't use it at the best of times.

For the fifth time in less than a minute, Edward considered the merits of going down to the human's mobile unit and telling them of the siege just around the corner. A single beep omitted from his earpiece and he sighed, concentrating on his illusion, and bringing his gun up, aiming at a single chest in the army.

Patiently he waited for them to look up.

The first warning they got was the gasp and slump of one of the riflemen in the back line. The second was Ran's anxious screech and a cry of "Man down" from one of the superiors. Winry would have spun, if the commander of the military unit had not taken her arm and squeezed it painfully.

"We keep going." The tough, blonde woman said and in response, Winry nodded weakly, keeping pace with the other marchers. She heard Ran being dragged forcefully behind her, the girl screeching out Ling's name and the grunts of the men holding her back filling the whole camp with a sense of unease. Winry felt worry settle in the pit of her stomach. "Move faster." The woman pulling her along cried and the camp did just that, speeding their march through the ravine.

"WE CANNOT LEAVE HIM BEHIND!" Ran yelled, still struggling behind them. Winry strained against the urge to look back, the grip on her arm promised harsh consequences should she attempt it. "WE CANNOT..."

"Silence her." The commander said forcefully, and with a thud and a slump, everything behind them fell quiet again. Winry winced and stopped her head from turning with a high amount of willpower. She hoisted her gun higher on her shoulder, the commander finally letting go of her arm. It was scarlet where she had been gripped and starting to turn a faint purplish colour. It still stung.

One of the men from the back line asked carefully, "What should we do with the girl, sir?" The answer was obvious to everyone before the commander even spoke it.

"Leave her with him if she wants to be with him that much." The woman sneered. "We have no time for deadweight."

Winry gulped and kept walking, ignoring how weak her knees suddenly felt. She glanced up briefly, focusing ahead of her once more before doing a double take. "Commander!" She said urgently, stopping and pointing upwards, "Look!"

Fear wrenched her heart as about two thousand angels cleared the ridge of the canyon and dived over the side, flying towards them at a near impossible speed. Her heart clenched somewhere in her throat as she hoisted her gun with trembling hands and aimed for one of the angels charging right for her. Next to her, the commander barked out frantic orders which she barely heard as trembling she fired wildly. The shot went straight past the angel she aimed at, her aim way off. She fired again, this time with adrenaline beginning to pump through her veins. Her accuracy this time was exceptional and the laser passed straight through the angel.

It flapped, floundering, then straightened and continued its charge. Terrified now, she fired again and again, until someone held her back forcefully, wrenching her grip from the guns. The sounds that she had been deaf to a moment ago became audible. Gunfire surrounded her as she was forced backwards towards the farthest line, away from the fighting. Screams and confusion swamped her senses as around her humans started dropping like flies to the angel fire as again and again the blasts the humans fired just passed through them. An explosion licked just over their heads, flames spiralling down and through their ranks. She head screams of agony all around her as people were burnt alive. It stank like a mix of charred flesh and burnt hair as humans around her were dying. The flames licked dangerously close to her and she leapt back in fright, shooting at them blindly. "GET AWAY!" She screamed helplessly, firing at any of the angels that seemed to come close.

The automatic guns weren't firing, she discovered as she pressed her back against one in fear. A dead body fell to the ground near her, blood spurting from where there had once been a head. It was in rigor mortis; arms straight up and hands clenched around a gun butt as if about to fire. She screamed as the red sand by it became crimson even as the blood flow began to cease. The coppery smell of blood plagued her nostrils as she pressed herself even harder against the gun. The weapon she was holding slipped from her fingers as next to her another human fell. This time it was a girl, clutching in agony at her left arm, and then screaming as flames ripped up and around her, leaving her as a pile of burnt ash, facial features still slightly visible and wrenched into a tight scream. Winry felt bile rise in her throat as she looked around her, humans pressing in to fight against what appeared to be an invisible enemy. They fired, the lasers just sliding through the angels as if they weren't there...

"THAT'S NOT THEM!" She screamed, hoisting her gun and aiming it at ground level now, searching for the real angels. Bullets don't just pass though living, breathing beings. There was a loud rumble followed by a flare a little way out as a grenade went off. Smoke piled around, making visibility poor as Winry's senses slowly started coming back to her. She hoisted her gun off the ground, pressing forward through the sea of bodies and doing best to ignore the cries of those around her. A human nearby was shot through the heart, the resulting blood splatter falling over her face and uniform. She shot blindly in the direction that the bullet came from, the resulting grunt meaning she had hit something. She frowned, concentrating now on where the angel's shots were coming from.

Cloaking. She thought, but how? She didn't have much time to think of it as something stuck her in the back with a familiar pained yell, and a blast of flame shot past where she had just been standing. She landed on the ground with a thud, a heavy weight on top of her, and when she twisted she couldn't see what it was. Blood spurted from an unidentifiable source and was slowly covering her, dribbling from over the vicinity of her left leg.

There was a sudden scream of "WINRY!" from where Edward was located up the ravine, and all of the army's heads spun to watch him as he leapt into the air with a single sweep of his wings. Mustang looked at the last surviving human with malcontent, raising his fingers to her chest and snapping efficiently.

They had all seen Edward dive. They had all worked out that he had dived to save her. As expected, the humans had been decimated in a minimal time, with Roy's flame and the advanced weaponry, and of course, Edward and Alphonse's cloaking ability. However, Edward's unexpected change of heart had taken the whole force by surprise. He struck the girl, shoving her bodily out of the way of the fireball, and Mustang felt horror stab through his heart as Edward's left leg was engulfed in a powerful and concentrated fireball.

The battle had finished quickly after that, the avians found themselves infused with a new sense of haste to find and save their prince, and the battle turned quick and bloody. The last of the human forces put up little to no resistance as they were wiped out.

Mustang made his way through the piles of bodies, a handkerchief gently over his nose at the smell, to where the prince lay with one leg clean burnt off up to the knee. "He is loyal." He said softly to Hughes and Alphonse flanking him on either side. "Though to which side I am no longer sure. He must be watched."

Hughes nodded. "I'll put Cain onto that task." The man frowned. "It's a real pity, you know. If only he had been born into the avian family and kept with us from the start, he never would have been put in this position."

Edward was sprawled over the still conscious human's back almost protectively. The prince had been knocked unconscious by the blast and ugly burn marks ran up what remained of his leg. Luckily, the blast had been concentrated enough that his clothes hadn't caught alight, but the edges of his uniform were smouldering slightly. Roy looked at him, sadness clutching at his heart. He leant down, and gently brushed the boy's braid off of his shoulder so it lay elegantly down his back. "He will become loyal to us." He said softly, a small frown gracing his features. "He just has to understand that we are his people. Not them." He crinkled his nose.

"I'm going to let the girl up." He said, reaching down to scoop the unconscious boy into his arms. Edward clung to the girl's own military uniform desperately, even in unconsciousness and Roy let out a frustrated sigh. "I won't harm her, yet." He said and the grip loosened. He easily hefted the boy up after that, Edward made a small moan of discomfort and Roy shifted his grip to take the pressure off of the avian's leg wound. It was bleeding profusely from where the burnt skin had split, and was blistered terribly.

With Edward's weight removed the girl quickly scrambled to her feet. She was actually rather attractive, for a human, Roy reflected. Her eyes were a steel blue, and her figure was curved gently. Her arms appeared muscled, and there was intelligence in the way she stood and surveyed the surroundings, raising her firearm cautiously, and looking about with calculations in her eyes. Her face was covered with blood; her blue eyes were large and fearful as she turned the gun every which way looking for danger. She had long lashes, more akin to a model than a fighter. Roy nodded to Alphonse and the boy dropped the illusion over himself, Roy and Edward. The girl gasped and stood back, noticing them out of the corner of her eye and pointing the gun square at Roy's chest. Hughes stepped back and shrugged, taking in the scene, with his hand cautiously over his own gun in case she should think to shoot.

Mustang raised a single gloved hand into a snapping position, supporting Edward as best he could while doing so. "By all means, human, fire. My men will have shot you before you've even pulled the trigger." He said it calmly and focused on her easily, threatening to snap. She took in the gloves curiously, almost as if wondering what danger they presented her with, but eventually dropping the gun to her side. She glared at him, all forceful under pressure, but the gun slipped from her fingers. It landed in the sand with a dull thump and Roy smirked at her rather innocently in his opinion.

She said nothing, looking at him defiantly. She had a military stance, feet shoulder-width apart, and arms in just the right position to defend her if any punch were to be thrown. Though she must have known she was helpless she still looked him down. Then, she noticed the boy in his arms. She seemed to go into a momentary shock. "Ed?" her voice was gentle, not a fighter's voice at all. "What did you do to him?" She glared at Roy, her eyes snapping coldly to his face. He snorted. Not a fighter's voice, but a fighter's spirit most definitely.

"D...D...don't hurt... her, Roy."

Mustang blinked, taken by surprise, before looking down at the boy in his arms. His eyes were closed and his teeth grit in pain. His breath was coming in laboured pants. But he was awake. Mustang closed his eyes and glanced away, not being able to look at that pale face, usually so very golden, and that sweat caked brow. Hair stuck to the sides of his mouth and there was dust all over him. His voice was shaky and weak, and laced with pain. "I'll do any... anything you... want. Just don't... don't hurt her." His voice was fading. "She's... friend."

He looked at her, glanced quickly over her frame. "Is this true, human?" He spat the name, like it was some kind of disease, taking in the way she flinched back with some sick pleasure. She nodded; her voice appeared choked and stuck in her throat. He gave her a scimitar smile, before hoisting Edward into a more comfortable position in his arms, careful not to jar what was left of his leg.

Alphonse came to his side, fawning over his brother, and looking most anxious. Edward made a small sound of protest at being shifted, and Alphonse gave him a sceptical look. "Well if you didn't want your leg burnt off you shouldn't have jumped in the way." He said, softly mopping down the boy's brow. He then made a very crude bandage out of a piece of material ripped off his uniform and wrapped it tightly around the stump that remained of Edward's left shin. Mustang wasn't sure, but he thought he heard Edward give a very weak, breathy chuckle. One of Edward's hands was loosely tangled in his uniform. He made no effort to move it.

"Round up the survivors." He said calmly, looking at the girl who was still glaring at him. "We can use them in hostage negotiations."

He could have sworn the hand buried in his uniform clenched for a moment, and that he heard a near silent "Thank you."

A/n: SORRY! Okay, I won't swamp you with excuses; I'm just letting you know it was a real strain getting this chapter out this month. I got bunnied with something else (Which I'm working on and won't actually submit until it's near finished. I'm not sure how long it's gonna be though.) left school, my life went hectic with Christmas coming up, I got sick about three time... Wait, I thought I said I wasn't gonna give you the excuses. BAD me.

Oh, and I know I said it was a flat plain that the battle would take place on a few chapters or so ago. I KNOW. I had always planned it to be a ravine, I don't know WHY I said a plain. PLEASE don't point out this plot hole, I know it's there and I plan on fixing it once the fiction is finished.

I'm sorry about the length of this chapter. It WAS meant to be longer I swear! But my usual draft, then type method of lengthening things didn't work and...

-Shuts up with the excuses-

Okay. Okay. It's out. -sighs and grovels like the pathetic little writer that she is- Next chapter is gonna come out some time in late January, after I get back from New Zealand. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! (Well, season's greetings anyway. And I hope you have a nice holiday whatever celebration you have! )

-Rattles her little review tin- ne?