Chapter 21-

Ed reached his usual entrance to the Clan at about 12:30. Now, normally that would've been fine; except that it was 12:30 pm instead of am, and he was completely beyond irritated by the sun. He really felt like beating something to a pulp. Luckily for Ed, there were plenty of options for that.

For when Ed reached the entrance, he was immediately surrounded by chaos. Some of the Homunculi soldiers had surrounded the entrance, and when the crowds of vampires attempted to climb up and out, they would shoot them- or, if a vamp got close enough, the creatures would just rip out their throats entirely, stopping the wounds from healing. Ed didn't know why they wanted to get out of the tunnels so badly, but he guessed the Homunculi had something to do with it. This angered him even further. He sprinted towards them, taking out three in one inevitable attack. The soldiers quickly turned on him, but he was fast enough to avoid both their bullets and their sharp claw-like nails. While he distracted the creatures, the trapped vampires clambered to get out.

Looking down, Ed saw why his fellow vampires hadn't simply healed from the bullets- they were filled with acid. Once you'd been hit or even just grazed, acid entered your bloodstream and burned you from the inside out. He'd have to avoid those. His speed accompanied by his irritation meant he finished off the small group of soldiers hanging around the entrance, and soon there were crowds of vampires around him, crying out, hissing and covering their eyes from the hated sun. Ed looked over his shoulder and swiftly spotted the main group of soldiers; his eyes widened. There were thousands of them, possibly even more than the vampires! Luckily, vampires are immensely smarter than the soldiers, so defeating the enemy should still be fairly easy. That was when he realized it.

The vampires were completely blinded, stumbling around wildly- while Ed went to the surface periodically, they'd spent their entire lives underground, and to them the sun consumed their entire vision. Having lost their sight, they were attempting to rely on their other senses- however the creatures, having been made unnaturally, had no scent and made no sound other than the occasional moan of misery. With no way to sense the location of the enemy, they'd be picked off one by one like chickens in a pen!

The Homunculi soldiers were quickly approaching, and Edward made a fast decision. There was a way for some of them to sense where the enemy was.

:What the hell are you all doing? Don't just stumble around like prey! Don't you have dignity as predators? Don't you have any pride in being what you are? Use your sixth sense to locate the enemy so they can be destroyed! They have driven us from our comfortable tunnels. You would let them live after this atrocity?: Ed broadcasted his message to the entire crowd. His telepathic call-to-arms sent lances of pain through his brain from the strain of connecting so suddenly to so many minds, but he ignored it. Not every vampire had a sixth sense, but those that did could use it to 'see' much like normal vision. The more infuriated one was, the sharper their sixth sense got, and Edward was trying to make them angry- that way the vampires would be far more effective.

As he watched, about a quarter of the vampires suddenly stood more securely, with more purpose. They headed determinedly in the direction of the oncoming creatures, unintentionally forming a defense between the soldiers and their fellow vampires. Ed quickly compared the size of the Homunculi's army and the crowd of vampires. There were about four thousand soldiers, all armed, and all programed to kill. There were only two thousand vampires currently above ground, and of those only about five hundred were effectively using their sixth senses. There were about two thousand more vampires underground, but they were spread out along the length of Central and its surrounding areas- it could take a good couple of hours to get them assembled, and even then only a quarter of them would be able to defend properly. Things didn't look good at all. They only needed to hold out until night time, when the vampires could use their full force- till then, they were pretty much screwed. He scowled. They needed more numbers. But where could they possibly get reinforcements from?

"Sir!" the man cried, bursting through the double doors into the meeting area. Everyone looked around at him.

"What is it, soldier?" the new head of the Hunters inquired sharply. She had been elected merely minutes ago, after news of the last leader's death had reached the association.

"T-there's thousands of them, sir! All crowded in the far rural area of Central! I saw them from my post, sir!" the man panted, in slight shock.

"Thousands of who? The vampires? The zomb- uh, the Homunculi and their army? The demons? Speak up, soldier!" the authoritative woman frowned.

"The Clan and the zombies, sir," the man began to recover his breath, speaking more clearly now. "They appear to be fighting one another. It's a full blown war, sir!"

The leader of the Hunters frowned in consideration. "Alright. Take this news to the cover section and have them ensure no stray civilians head that way, lest they see those monsters- or even worse, are caught in the crossfire."

"Yes sir," the man bowed and sprinted off.

"A war? Between two of the most significant supernatural forces in Amestris?" one of the Hunters mused thoughtfully.

"It's like I told you all!" came a younger voice, and Kevin stood up from his seat. "The Homunculi and their army are the enemy here! If those vampires lose, the Homunculi will take over the entire nation and kill everyone in sight! Life as we know it will end. We need to aid them!"

"That's ridiculous, boy. We can't assist vampires, they're deadly killers. We should leave them to fight and kill each other off. Then we won't have a problem here anymore," an elderly woman spoke. She was Head Advisor, and was closest to the leader of their association; but if you looked carefully, you could see her usually clear green eyes had a cloudy amethyst tint.

"But the vampires are losing! The Homunculi will just kill all of them, and then they'll have no opposition themselves! We'll have an even bigger problem than before!" Kevin argued forcefully. He needed to make them understand!

"Quiet!" shouted the Head of the Hunters. She stood from her chair, and the loud chatter that had arisen died instantly.

"Our young soldier is right," she nodded at Kevin. "The zo- Homunculi have killed our previous leader… my father." Her eyes blazed in fury. "They are kidnapping and torturing civilians. They must be eliminated immediately!" Battle cheers arose at her words.

"But sir, have you forgotten all the vampires have done? Attacking and feeding on humans, practically torturing them-" the elderly advisor protested.

The leader cut her off. "I know, Jasmine. But today, we are facing the same enemy. We are not allies- we have simply been hurt by the same group of monsters. Today, we fight the Homunculi! Mobilize the troops- we head out in one hour!" Everyone sprang up from their chairs, rushing around to get ready to fight in a supernatural war. The Head Advisor scowled vulgarly and slipped off into a nearby deserted corridor, with a single phone hanging in one corner. She dialled a number and waited.

"What?" came Pride's voice from the other end.

"It's Envy. The mission failed," said the Advisor, her calm, rough voice changing to an entirely different, deadly tone. "The Hunters are with the vampires today."

"You failed?" Pride shouted into the phone. "You fool!"

"Don't worry so much, ya conceited idiot. We'll still win. After all," Envy grinned maliciously, "We still have our secret weapon."

Mustang froze in shock after seeing the grinning, bespectacled man in front of him.

"Roy! Long time, no see! You look absolutely terrible. Are you a general yet?" Hughes beamed. Roy couldn't speak; he actually felt a bit faint. He leant forward and, to everyone's surprise, slowly put out his right hand until it hovered close to Hughes' left shoulder. Mustang hesitated, before carefully placing his hand on Hughes' shoulder. It didn't pass through the man like mist, like he'd expected; Mustang could feel solid skin beneath his touch. So he wasn't hallucinating… His head hung low, bangs covering his eyes. Hughes was real… he was alive. Mustang couldn't help it- he pulled Hughes into a hug, oddly ignoring the unprofessionalism of his actions. His subordinates watched in silence, shocked by Hughes' appearance. After a moment, Mustang shoved Hughes away and punched him.

The others cried out in surprise as Hughes fell to the floor, too stunned to catch himself.

"You moron, how dare you die on me like that? You were supposed to help me to the top, but then you go and get yourself killed! On top of that, you were promoted to a rank above me! Then when I finally see you again, you go and say that? You thoughtless bastard!" Mustang fumed, his pent-up fury and sorrow over Hughes' death rushing out all at once and momentarily consuming his soaring feeling of joy at knowing his best friend was alive.

"Sorry, Roy. It was pretty stupid of me to get killed like that, I should have been more careful- wait, what? A rank above you?" Hughes blinked innocently. Mustang scowled, his friend was anything but innocent.

"You were promoted to Brigadier General after your… death…" Mustang suddenly fell silent, realizing how awkward what he'd said had sounded.

"General…? Sweet, Gracia would have been so proud! And Elysia would have been so happy for daddy! I wish I could have seen it, I would've taken a photo!" Hughes daydreamed momentarily. Mustang really wanted to hit him again- especially since his last one was already healing.

"It's good to have you back, Brigadier General Hughes. Thank you very much for saving us," Hawkeye said formally. "However, I feel we still have a more pressing problem on our hands. How are we going to escape from these tunnels before the acid fills them, if the main entrance is already blocked?"