A/N: I re-wrote this after my months' Hiatus. So if you've read the old chapter 23, please forget all about it, as it made absolutely no sense and I was completely out of it when I wrote it. Enjoy!
Chapter 23-
Hughes reached Ed and grabbed the teen around the wrists, pulling both Ed's hands behind his back. Hughes used his right foot to knock the teen off his feet, and Edward stumbled, but Hughes caught him before he hit the ground and quickly dragged Ed away from the battle. Edward growled and struggled wildly, throwing himself from one side to the other in an attempt to break Hughes' grip, but to no avail- the older man didn't even budge. While in the mindless state he was in, Edward's strength and speed increased, but coherent thought was lost to him. He could do nothing more than thrash violently as Hughes pulled him away.
The Senior vampire then managed to hold him down with one hand, with extreme difficulty. He put his free right hand to his mouth and sliced a small cut into his palm using one of his fangs. The watching military team looked confused, but Mustang's eyes widened in remembrance. He had seen this being done before. Hughes placed his right hand on Edward's forehead, before quickly moving his left hand to cover his right. Edward froze, all movement unnaturally stopping in an instant, and his eyes closed.
This confirmed Mustang's suspicions- Hughes was doing to Fullmetal what Ed had done to Al, that day in the hospital after they'd rescued the younger teenager. Fullmetal had come into the room through the window, headed to Al's bed where the boy lay unconscious, and had proceeded to heal him using this exact procedure. Mustang remembered it very clearly. When Hughes lifted his hands from Edward's forehead, the remaining blood mysteriously glowed a light blue. Hughes held this hand straight out, palm down with his fist closed, and slowly opened his hand. Edward's eyes opened again at the same time, like he was being controlled and they glowed the same unearthly blue. The connection then broke, Ed's eyes returning to gold and the blood turned to dust and was carried away by the breeze. The teen sat up, blinking. He seemed confused, but no longer out of control.
"What happened…?" Ed put a hand to his head, wincing.
"You tell me, Edward," Hughes replied, looking unusually stern. "You lost it. Again." He looked… disappointed, somehow. Ed scowled. Hughes was beginning to make him feel guilty for doing something entirely acceptable by their shared society. He stood abruptly and crossed his arms.
"I'm just helping out. We're winning now, anyway," he muttered. Despite his words, he didn't re-join the battle- he turned and headed back to the awaiting humans. Hughes followed him. Behind them, the Hunters and the vampires were quickly eliminating the mindless soldiers.
:Be careful how you handle them. They're all pretty stunned at your little show back there- it might not take much of a push for one or more of them to break.: Hughes reminded Edward, but the younger man just rolled his eyes.
The two reached the horrified humans, and Edward opened his mouth to speak- but he never got the chance. A cacophony of noise bombarded the group's ears, despite their distance from the battle. The nine swung around in shock, wondering why the screams of hundreds of people were suddenly slicing through the air. If the military officers had been horrified before, then the sight before them now stopped their hearts from terror. Edward clenched his fists, feeling his bloodlust attempting to return, but he shoved the thought away. He refused to be controlled by his vampire side, and his stubborn strength paid off when the feeling settled- still present but no longer bothering him.
Beside him, Hughes pushed up his glasses.
"Well, that is problematic," he announced, unnaturally grave.
"Wh… wha… what is that thing?" Hawkeye's stunned voice spoke. Her injured voice sounded entirely composed, but her words betrayed her fear.
Edward frowned. "It's… I think it's familiar to me." The others stared at him, but then Al spoke.
"We both know it, brother. That's the Gate I told you about- and it's controlled by the Truth." Al whispered, stressed beyond belief. His world had been turned upside down- he'd been trying to deny to himself that Ed had lost his soul, but that had come crashing down when he saw his brother slaughter his enemies. He didn't know what to think. Ed's personality, determination and strength were what made him… him. Without a soul, was Brother still Brother? Al lingered in uncertainty.
"The Gate? How?" Mustang scowled, ignoring the pain in his head from his wounds. He received no response as the very earth beneath them shook, knocking over everyone involved in the war.
The sight which had everyone stopped in terror was floating above the very middle of the war zone. Indeed, it was the gate- somehow it had manifested in the real world! Beside the gate, there was some kind of white platform was connected to it- on this stood the Homunculi Pride and Sloth. Envy was also present, standing on top of the monstrous manifestation. Before the eyes of thousands of humans and supernatural creatures, the Gate opened a sliver, bright white shining through. Black hands shot through the tiny crack, swiftly forming a square around some of the blinded vampires. They looked around in confusion as an abrupt white light shone under their feet, and a gigantic purple eye opened beneath them. The eye split in two, suddenly forming doors, and the eye turned into a miniature Gate. The vampires screamed wildly, desperately. They knew something was wrong- they could feel an evil presence watching them, sending alarms throughout their very being. Then, the entire square of nearly a hundred vampires was sucked violently into the miniature Gate- they were swallowed. The Gate and the light vanished along with its prey, and the hands withdrew back to the actual Gate. The same thing happened on the other side, with nearly a hundred humans vanishing of the face of the Earth after being swallowed by the Gate.
"Hahaha!" Envy grinned, and nearly lost his balance from his perch on the Gate. "As if we would leave our victory in the hands of worthless, deformed soldiers. This is our real weapon!"
"The Gate…! The Homunculi have control of the Gate! How could that possibly be?" Al was on the verge of panic. What the hell had happened to Truth? This couldn't be happening!
"Hold on!" Havoc freed a hand from carrying Winry and put it to his head, confused. "Am I the only one who sees Fuhrer King Bradley standing on a freaky floating door that's killing people?"
The hunters' helicopters suddenly rounded on the Gate, flying above it and dropping three heavy bombs, hoping to eliminate this weird new weapon.
"Don't! You'll be killed!" Mustang shouted to the pilots, but the noise of constant screaming blocked out his warning. The first bomb whistled down to just above the Gate, making impact just three metres from Envy. A plume of smoke prevented anyone from seeing as the weapon exploded. The smoke then cleared.
The Gate was completely untouched- it didn't bear a single crack from the bold attack. Envy was also still whole, grinning mockingly at the helicopters in triumph. The second and third bombs also fell towards the Gate, but millions of black hands shot out and formed a ring around the weapons. Again, an eye opened, turned into a set of doors, and swallowed the two bombs before the Hunters' disbelieving eyes.
"There's no point to your weak counter-attack." Pride held his chin in the air arrogantly. "We are the masters of this weapon. It protects us."
The Gate opened again, attacking both the vampires and the humans. Hundreds of the Homunculi's enemies disappeared into the Gate, and there was nothing they could do about it. All the fighting had stopped the instant the Homunculi appeared with the Gate- people scattered wildly to try and avoid the Gate's wrath, but it picked them off with the ease of a crow eating worms.
"We need to stop the Gate! It's hurting our kinsmen!" Hughes turned to Edward.
The younger teen shrugged his shoulders. "What do you want me to do about it?"
Hughes grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake some sense into the frowning vampire. "You used to be an alchemist! Surely you've remembered something by now!"
"Nope," Edward replied coolly. "Don't touch me." Hughes backed off with a sigh.
"Everyone!" Mustang's voice surprised them all as he spoke to them sharply. "Make for the cover of that hill over there. It's still unsafe here, and there isn't anything we can do at the moment. Everyone get out of the hazard zone, now!"
"Sir yes sir!" The military officers replied. Hughes saluted and Al nodded, and they all sprinted for the relative safety of the hill in the distance. As they ran Al searched for his brother, but couldn't see him anywhere. Had he been swallowed by the Gate?