A/N: Just thought I'd warn everyone, this chapter is slightly gorier than the other chapters. This is because we've arrived at the war part of this fic. Also, Ed is extremely OOC, even more than usual. Enjoy!

Chapter 22-

"Of course. There's more than one entrance to this place, you know," Hughes turned to Hawkeye. "While the one off to our right- the one that comes out in an abandoned building, the one that Edward uses- is considered the 'main' entrance, there are several other, smaller entrances scattered along the hallways."

"Are there any other exits near us?" Mustang demanded, still furious. "Wait… Edward knew about you? And he didn't tell me?"

Hughes looked sheepish. "To be fair, he wasn't allowed to tell you. By rights, you seven shouldn't even be here."

Falman spoke suddenly. "Can you continue your discussion outside, please? I feel uncomfortable staying here." While Falman knew that Mustang and Hughes dearly needed time to catch up, now was definitely not the time.

"Right, right," Hughes agreed, and turned, leading the way out of the tunnel with Mustang and the others close behind him. He was leading the way in what appeared to be a diagonal direction across the floor, heading straight for the opposite corner, when a familiar voice entered his thoughts.

:Hughes!: Ed shouted, sounding kind of panicked. His voice shook with the effort of holding something back.

:Ed? What's the problem?: Hughes wondered. It was strange for a vampire to lose his or her composure.

:The Colonel and his team are somewhere in the tunnels! Al's with them! There's something bad going on in there, right? You have to find them and help them out!: Edward sounded worried. Hughes smiled, the dim light reflecting off his glasses.

:Way ahead of you, buddy! They're safe and sound with me- I'm already taking them to the ninth exit. I'll look after them just as carefully as I look after my lovely girls!: Hughes beamed, thinking of Elysia and Gracia, and Havoc threw him an odd look.

:… You mean your ex-wife and kid? The ones you haven't seen in a couple of years?: Ed scowled on his end of the conversation, slicing through a soldier with ease and throwing another one into the ground, trying to keep his vampire side under control.

:Ex-wife? What?: Hughes' mouth dropped, and he received more weird looks from the humans following him.

:Marriage is ended once one person dies, right? Widows re-marry all the time and it's perfectly legal…: Ed didn't see what the problem was.

Hughes froze, and Mustang accidentally bumped into him. "Hughes? What's wrong?"

Hughes' only answer was dropping to his knees as a sense of despair washed over him. Ed's words made perfect sense… his baby girl wasn't his baby girl anymore! He began to shake as Mustang's team crowded around him worriedly, asking what was wrong. Hughes gave no answer.

:Hughes, stop being such a baby! Once all this is over, just go and see her like I've been telling you to for ages! If she says she's still married to you, then you're still married, and there's no problem! But you'll never know if you die in there!: Edward yelled, frustrated. He was beginning to lose his proper thoughts. They were losing, horribly, and the sun was weakening them all even further. This wasn't a time for personal breakdowns! Edward's words roused Hughes out of his senseless despair and returned some sliver of thought and composure back to the older man.

Hughes took a deep breath, and eventually replied. :A-alright.: He rose shakily to his feet, assuring the others he was okay, and practically sprinted in the direction of the exit. The humans had trouble keeping up, especially Havoc, who was still carrying the unresponsive Winry.

They reached the exit in no time, by going up two levels and taking a hidden side-tunnel, which led into stairs. At the top of the stairs the circular hatch had already been opened- someone had gone out of this hatch before them. The group of eight burst through the opening into bright sunlight, and Al cried out in joy at reaching a place of safety alive. Hughes also cried out, but for an entirely different reason. Pain struck his eyes and he covered them, hissing under his breath. The sunlight stung his very skin. He stumbled back, completely blinded, until he felt something cover him. It was still hot, but the sun's rays were longer hitting him. Hughes slowly opened his eyes and squinted.

Mustang had taken off his coat and covered his best friend with it. The thick, quality material effectively blocked the sun out.

"Thanks, Roy!" Hughes beamed. "I wish I could have recorded you doing that!"

Mustang scowled. "This is NOT the time, Hughes!" Havoc laughed under his breath.

"Ugh…" Fuery made a strangled noise, staring at something in the distance. They all turned around and froze, except for Hughes.

It was a sheer and utter bloodbath. Two warring armies extended for as far as the eye could see. Strange and horrifying soldiers pressed forward, slicing and shooting everything in sight, occasionally even one another. There was an extremely thin line of vampires holding the defensive, but they were aggressive- more than aggressive. They were maniac, filled with bloodlust and enjoyment at the killing. They howled and laughed crazily, biting and attacking any soldier within reach. It didn't seem to matter that they had no way of winning against the soldiers, or that they were losing, outnumbered eight to one. Behind this thin line, numerous vampires stumbled around blindly, trying any way possible to block the sun, but they didn't have Mustang's coat to shut out the sun and nothing else was working. They could, of course, smell the pool of blood forming along the defensive line, but couldn't join the battle. They were useless! Then came a sight which the team considered even more shocking and horrifying than the war. Edward came into view, covered with blood from head to toe, like every other vamp in the defensive line.

He'd completely lost control. The bloodlust of his vampire side had completely taken him over as he fought, and he laughed like a madman, screaming his joy into the air as he lunged and bit down on soldier after unfortunate soldier, crimson pouring from his mouth. His eyes were a full, glowing crimson, and he'd lost all parts of himself, of his human side. His skin glowed with an unnatural red tint- he looked like some sort of blood demon. A soldier managed to slice him as he disposed of several other creatures, but Edward just giggled crazily. He swung around to the soldier who'd injured him and, in full view of his friends and family, brutally ripped the creature in half.

Mustang and Hawkeye were too stunned to think, and Al slowly began crying. Fuery hurried to one side and threw up, horrified. Falman tried to comfort Al as best as he could, but the boy was traumatized. Havoc nearly dropped Winry in shock. Hughes noticed their reactions, and while the sight didn't bother him in the slightest he figured he should stop Ed.

:Edward?: Hughes sent, but all he received in return was static. :Edward!: His eyes widened in alarm. Usually, vampires with bloodlust had all their thoughts focused on one thing- killing. But Edward had no thoughts at all! How was that even possible? He needed to stop Ed, right now!

Mustang couldn't believe his eyes. The determined teenager who'd basically vowed never to kill anyone was ripping his opponents apart in some sort of mad glee. Suddenly he remembered all the times when he'd first met Edward again after he'd gone missing, when the teen would show up covered in blood with all sorts of wounds. Mustang gasped slightly in realization- he'd gotten that way by fighting these soldiers. He did say he was a defender of the Clan. Did that mean that Edward let himself become this killing machine on a regular basis? Mustang shuddered disbelievingly. Beside him, Fuery, Falman and Alphonse were trying to process the sight of the Homunculi soldier-creatures. After all, they'd never seen them before.

Hughes abruptly took off using his increased speed, heading in Edward's direction, intending to pull the teen out of the battle. But before he was anywhere near the war, a new group of people intervened.

"We, the Hunters of Amestris, have made it our goal to eliminate you, Homunculi soldiers! I declare war! Charge!" a female voice rang out faintly over the clamour and dying screams. Mustang's team looked to their left to see something astonishing. Several tanks were rolling forward, followed by a couple of hundred people, who looked like completely normal humans. They advanced on the horrible creatures, ploughing through their back lines until the soldiers were ironically trapped between the vampires and the hunters.

"What are they doing? Even combined with the Clan, they still have only half the numbers as those soldiers- they'll be killed easily!" Hawkeye frowned. Just after she spoke, a thundering boom rang through the air, and the ground momentarily shook slightly. An explosion rocked through the middle of the soldiers as a bomb exploded in their midst. Above the battle ground, several helicopters* flew over the scene, dropping bombs on the Homunculi soldiers whenever they got the chance. The vampires' screams of laughter increased in volume as the death toll increased, and Edward threw a couple of soldiers in the air in 'celebration', howling with merriment as he did so. The helicopters were flying very low, and Edward could throw pretty high; so a couple of unfortunate soldiers met their fate by meeting the helicopter blades. Mustang and his team winced and looked away, unwilling to watch Edward's madness.

Needless to say, the tide turned drastically, as it was now the soldiers' turn to be picked off easily like chickens in a pen. They were totally trapped, with no means of escape. The seven watching humans began to feel confident- the tide was now in their favour, and it looked like there was nothing the Homunculi could do about it.

They were wrong. Terribly, dreadfully wrong. Because the Homunculi had a weapon of the likes which no-one had ever seen before in all of history.

A/N: * I know there are no helicopters in FMA, but I've decided to still have them in this fic.