Disclaimer: I don't own any of FullMetal Alchemist's ideas, characters, and themes. I do, however, own Ocs, made-up characters, and my own ideas and plots.

Chapter 38

Night started to fall, and I thought it was a more appropriate time to infiltrate the fortress. Or wait... no, as if a fox could accomplish something like that. That would be way too extreme.

I didn't want to endanger the fox's life, but I was getting really anxious about the brothers. I tried hunting for the fox, but I found that it was more difficult than most people would think. We could smell rabbits, but their burrows were too deep for us to get to, and when we got there, they would be long gone... the fox's hunger gnawed at our stomach... we felt every moment of it. I had to fulfill my promise somehow. Our eyes turned to Briggs, thinking that if we possibly entered it, we could gain access to their rations... then we'd see if the brothers were okay as well. Two birds with one stone, if I do say so myself. Even though the fox felt no such feelings, her heart hurt with concern and worry each time it beat, because of me.

We trotted across the snow toward the large fortification, hopefully unseen in the upcoming dusk. The previous skirmish between the bear-man and the brothers remained, although snow had laid down a new blanket over. Our paws disturbed it once more, but no doubt more snow was on the way to cover it again in the night. Our nose touched the ground, finding the brothers' scents and leading us to the entrance at ground level. But of course... it would be locked tight, with no way for us to open it. There had to be a way in somewhere...

We heard a distant clap, and then sparks ran down the wall of Briggs, attracting our attention immediately. Admittedly, we had flinched away in alarm, but not of my own accord. I knew what it was, and it took me a moment to reassure the fox that it was nothing dangerous. We looked up and tried our best to see the figure at the railings. A very bulky figure stood at the corner, but we could tell from his contours that it was the armoured form of Alphonse. He had spotted us at just the right time, and he used alchemy to get our attention.

He lifted up a hand and waved down to us. We scampered around in a circle to show him our relief and excitement in seeing him, which we hoped he understood. We went up to the wall and climbed onto our hind legs, a futile attempt to bring ourselves closer. How many metres were there between us? I couldn't fathom the number.

He looked around, seemingly on patrol, then turned back to the edge of the railing. He clapped his hands together again and pressed them to the wall next to him. Blue electricity travelled down to us again, and I willed the fox to back away. After a moment, a flat hand came out of the wall where we previously stood. The transmutation died, but I knew it would only finish if we stepped up onto it. The fox was very persistent, continuously wary of this strange kind of black magic, but eventually she gave in to me and allowed us to get onto the hand. We waited, and soon the transmutation started up again. The ascent was unsettling, making us bring our belly close to the surface of the palm. Eventually however, we arrived at Alphonse's side. He was alone on the railing, which was lined with deadly pillars of ice above.

"Hi, Urami," Alphonse chirped. He opened his arms wide in welcome. "Sorry... you were down there all by yourself..."

We were trying our best to decide how to get off the hand, but there was a gap between that and the railing. Our legs trembled slightly from the aspect of tripping up and falling to our doom... Alphonse seemed to see this and reached over, hooking his hands under the pits of our front legs. He set us down with him, then dismissed the transmutation. It submerged itself back into the wall of Briggs, as if he never touched the material in the first place. He held a finger to the lips of his helmet.

"Edward's talking with Falman inside. He told me to come out and see if I could spot you, and luckily I did!" I had to take a moment to remember if I ever met a Falman before. I wasn't sure... one of Mustang's subordinates, maybe. Well, if Edward was just conversing, it meant that things were going fine. They weren't prisoners... In my pondering, Alphonse knelt down and started unlatching his armour plate.

"I don't know what they'll do to you if they found out you're in the fort... can you hide in here for a while?"

He removed the plate and set it aside. We looked inside his empty self and tried to approach it, but the fox grew restless. Such a tight, enclosed space... I convinced her that it would be cozy, and we would just have to see it like a burrow. Yes, a burrow sounded nice, compared to the constant cold we had to endure that day. We spotted the blood seal above, and once assured that we wouldn't be able to scratch it by accident, we hopped in. We twisted around and lay down on our belly, curling up our legs and tail. Alphonse's hand sought us out and we leaned our head into it. We let him fondle our ears gently.

"You must be very hungry, too. We'll find you some food somewhere, don't worry!"

Alphonse picked up his chest plate and very slowly put it on. We were shrouded in darkness, but there were openings in the edges of his armour that leaked in some light. We waited patiently as he completed his attachments, licking our paws clean of snow.

When we looked up, we caught a glimpse of something... something on the inside of his armour. Etchings. I knew they were words, but we couldn't read them. The dim light didn't help either. We wanted to scratch at Alphonse to get his attention, but he was already moving. We could hear human voices, some alien, some familiar. We heard Edward, and we were so engrossed with hearing him again that we forgot about the etched letters.

Yes, those would have to wait until later.

By the time Edward and Alphonse were in their own company, the fox had fallen asleep, despite hunger pains. I stayed within her body for a while to calm her, to stop her from acting out in fear. When Alphonse opened himself up, our head tilted sleepily, easing away from the light. Edward's hand reached inside and touched our fur lovingly.

"She must be exhausted..."

"And hungry. Her stomach was growling for me! Did you hear that?"

"Yeah." Edward's laughter was really soft. "She'll act as your stomach for a little while. She'll eat your meals and no one will suspect a thing."

The mention of food roused our consciousness more clearly. We lifted our head and stretched, yawning. Edward's face in the warm light made us very relaxed in awakening. We could also smell the food from where we were; they had received some dinner as it seemed. Our nose started twitching instinctively and we snuffled Edward's clothes where we could reach him, displaying our hunger more acutely. He laughed in response and picked us up with a heave.

"Alright... man, I'm beat. Miles had us working all day..."

"Well, that was the Major General's order, and I don't want to see what happens when you disobey an order..."

Edward gave a huff and set us down in a chair at the table. There were cold-cut sausages, bread, and two bowls of soup. Edward reached over to the sausages and began cutting them into small slices for us to consume. He offered us one and the fox leapt at the opportunity too eagerly. Luckily I managed to pull back a little, to stop us from snapping at Edward's fingers. He smiled at the vigor.

"Aw jeez, the Ice Queen, as they call her." He leaned forward toward us. "Urami, I guarantee she'll be the toughest woman you'll ever meet... even colder than Teacher."

Colder than Izumi Curtis? We gave him a look, and he seemed to understand it by the looks of his grin. "It's true! Alphonse will back me up on this... right, Alphonse...?"

The both of us turned to the younger brother when he didn't respond. He was still standing where he was previously, looking down at his chest plate. The inside of it. Edward called his name again, but Alphonse's reply was very delayed. He looked at his brother.

"Come look at this, Brother."

Edward paused for a moment before coming over. I remembered and knew what it was they were looking at, so I let the fox and I indulge in the food before us. Our tongue lapped the cooling soup up. I wasn't sure if this prepared meal was best for foxes, but sometimes anything would do. It was definitely tasty.

" 'Human hearts... never stop... beating'?"

We stopped eating. The brothers were looking at each other in confusion. I decided to postpone the meal —with a deep apology to the creature I possessed— and we jumped off the chair. We joined the brothers, shoving our snout in Edward's hand. He looked down at us, a look of puzzlement taking hold of his face.

"You didn't write this, did you?" he inquired. "You couldn't have..."

"It..." Alphonse shook his head. "It couldn't have been her, could it?"

"Of course not. If it were, we would see all of her claw marks. And you and I would've heard something—"

"I know it wasn't her. I was talking about..."

Edward and I waited for Alphonse to continue. It took him a long moment before he straightened up again.

"...Malice. It was her."

"What? Malice?" Edward's jaw dropped slightly. "When did this happen?"

"When she was with Greed, in Dublith. When they captured me... she opened my armour at some point to let Martel out..."

"But I don't understand. Why would she write that?"

"I remember..." Alphonse looked to the side thoughtfully. "I asked her if Urami was still around or not, if she was trapped in her... and she told me she already answered my question. I didn't know what she meant by it... but I think I do now. This message was her answer."

"But... that doesn't make sense," Edward looked down at the fox, into our eyes. We returned his gaze with a bewildered one of our own. "I mean, why? Denying Urami was something Malice always wanted to do. She stole Urami's body and wanted to eliminate her chance of ever getting it back! But this message... 'human hearts never stop beating'... what more can this mean?"

Before either of them could try to answer that, an alarm sounded in the fortress. The sound startled the fox and I, and we backed away from the door. Edward rushed into the hallway while Alphonse hastily put his chest plate back on. The eldest brother looked from side to side, then backed away a little as soldiers started running by. Alphonse stepped up to block me from their sight.

"What's going on?" Edward shouted to one of the passer-by's. Someone stopped at his inquiry and shouted back.

"There's an intruder down below. We think it's a Drachman invasion!"

The man was gone as fast as he had stopped. Edward looked back at Alphonse.

"We have to go and see if we can help. A little alchemy is always a plus to the defense!"

"What about Urami?" Alphonse turned around and looked down at us. Edward followed suit. "We can't take her with us. It'll be too dangerous for her."

Edward approached us and knelt down, looking into our eyes while setting a hand on our cheek. "Please stay here, Urami," he said. I didn't like the prospect of it, but I knew the fox would like to stay out of danger, too. "If you hear anyone coming, just try to hide the best you can, okay? We'll come back, I promise."

We leaned in and licked his hand. Stay safe, I wanted to tell him, but I guessed he already knew I would say that. He smiled gently, and with a look to Alphonse, the two of them left, shutting the door behind them.

For a long moment after, we just stared at the door, hearing the siren wailing through the fort. The fox wanted to return back to her meal, which I could only smile mentally at. I let her take control, because I knew that my anxiety would prevent her from enjoying her meal. I stayed by the door to stay close to her, in case someone did decide to enter. A part of me wished I went to follow the brothers, but the one thing about love was that you had to trust they would return. It was hard, and I've disregarded it on multiple occasions...

But Edward promised. and I trusted him. That hasn't changed.

Malice was accustomed to the silence in the tunnels, but something seemed out of place.

Truthfully, for something to be considered silent, there had to be an absence of sound. However, the type of quiet ambiance that Malice came to know in her time underground was Sloth's constant digging. Even if she went far into the other side of Amestris, in the back of her head... the crushing and tossing of rock always kept her company when Pride's hissing shadows did not. This was something that Malice linked with silence. When nothing at all happens, no loud noises or quick movements, just... digging. Digging. Digging.

Where was the digging? It had been some time since the digging stopped. Malice thought that maybe, finally, she was far enough to forget that stupid, annoying sound at last. But then she realized that she wasn't that far off from where Sloth was, and that she would've heard at least some sign of his movement. For whatever reason, he just stopped. Did he finally decide to take a nap, like his sin suggested? Or had he actually finished the circle? She sort of liked that last idea. Ever since she had to return into the earth after ditching that Korius brat, she hadn't seen the light of day.

She shivered, not at all relishing the fact she was back in the colder region of Amestris. She called out to Pride, but he didn't seem to be in the area at the moment. Malice's lip curled when her voice simply returned back to her. Who needed that slithery shadow anyway? She would have to go check on Sloth herself.

She followed the tunnel that would lead her to Sloth's progress. Nowadays, she always made sure to keep to one side of the tunnel rather than in the center, because of a certain experience... luckily no one was around to see that. She didn't know why, but as she was walking a tunnel one time, she had a lapse where all of her surroundings suddenly changed. The tunnel was still there... but there was water. Dark, murky water ran through the middle where Malice walked. Her legs were submerged... she could've sworn it was real. She was in a sewer of some kind. And that wasn't the freaky part... she had glimpsed a body up ahead, a shape that was very hard to discern in that brief moment. After returning back to her senses, the image became clearer. A body, pierced by several rapiers, or swords. For some very odd reason, it made her Stone act very aggressively. Angry. Desperate. Whatever it was she saw, she didn't want to see it again. She thought a maimed body like that would please her, but no. That's why she kept close to the wall, in case she flipped out again. Touching the rough, crude wall would remind her of where she was... maybe.

Malice could see Sloth's progress as she moved. Pride usually cleaned after him, so that the tunnels had nothing hindering them when the transmutation of Amestris was activated. It seemed he pulled back into Central for a little bit, most likely on his way back. This investigation would really have to fall onto Malice's shoulders. She walked around any large boulders that got into her way, swinging her lantern from side to side. Her footsteps echoed down the way eerily, the only sound.

But not for long.

She heard voices up ahead, many of them. She immediately reached for the lantern's key and turned, letting the flame die. However, it didn't banish the darkness. There was a light somewhere ahead, around the corner, giving her a weak ability of sight. Perplexity ate at her, and she moved away from the wall. After a few more moments of listening to those incoherent words, she whipped the lantern ahead of her to call whoever was down here with her. It crashed against the wall, bounced off and continued its noisy trip down the tunnel. Its destruction filled up the whole dark space, and the voices responded more loudly, startled. The sounds of horses accompanied them, confusing the homunculus even more. In the absence of Sloth, horses and their men appeared? Underground?

The light quickly approached, but Malice stood her ground to meet what came with it. When the first human came around the corner, she crossed her arms. The light of their electrical torches made her eyes contract painfully, and she narrowed them to accommodate. They were soldiers, armed with handheld guns at their sides, dressed in warm garments. Their breath swarmed in front of them as they let out gasps, and their horses' spittle could be seen as they snorted. They didn't like her, and their front hooves clashed down on the stone floor.

"What the hell?" the first solder exclaimed, pulling the reigns of his beast. "A girl? What are you doing down in these tunnels?"

"Don't let her fool you!" one of his colleagues warned. "Drachmans will send anyone to be their eyes, and the less suspected the person, the more fit for the job!"

Many of them drew their guns when they heard those words, and they aimed their barrels at Malice. She still stared at them through narrow eyes, but she unfolded her arms. When she let them fall to her sides, the soldiers tensed.

"Raise your hands over your head!" the first one yelled again. "Raise your hands and you won't get hurt. We promise you!"

"Be more concerned about your own lives," Malice returned. The Ore quickly crept across her flesh, sharpening her fingers into daggers. The horses shrilled in terror. "I only promise the exact opposite."

These men were trained well. When Malice leapt forward, one of the soldiers shot her immediately. However, by the time the bullet reached her, her Ore was morphed over her entire body. The shell ricocheted off her shoulder, the same shoulder she flexed for her attack. Her swipe cut through the first of the horse's muscles easily, making it squeal in agony. Malice had no lips to show her smile of contempt. The equine's legs buckled from beneath it and sent its rider flying off its back. The other men and horses alike started to show their fear, and the humans started to shoot in desperation.

Malice played with them until she heard more shouts somewhere, further ahead. The commotion she was causing here, along with the soldier's screams, was attracting more. She let the human in her hands slip from her fingers and she ran ahead, dismissing the Ore from her face. She could use her innocent guise for a second time. She saw the humans up ahead, and what seemed to be a gaping hole up above. Had Sloth once again grazed the world above? Now he'd done it. He was nowhere in sight, and now these beings were flooding down into the tunnels like pests, insects. And where was Pride when he was actually needed? Malice would rather have them all die quickly... none of them seemed to be candidates of being her sadistic toys at the moment. Once she got to the bottom of things, she would probably carry one of them off to entertain her.

The few humans who touched ground turned to her immediately, hearing the sound of her footbeats. They shouted words of exclamation and interrogation, but Malice ignored them all. She jumped through them, raking her claws across their chests if they got in her way. When she reached the hole, she jumped out of it with full might, landing in what looked like a gigantic boiler room... More humans flocked the place, and once they saw her, they started scrambling for their weapons. These ones seemed less stupid to be fooled by the face of a young girl. Malice let the Ore overtake her features again and looked around rapidly, searching for a large hunk of flesh, but no... Sloth was not here. Where could he be, if the tunnels were incomplete? He had to be deeper in this... building, whatever or wherever it was. Malice sought out a door to escape through, and she made her way to it. The soldiers unleashed their attacks, but the homunculus paid them no heed, their artillery having no effect.

She burst through the doors with intensive force, even if they were sealed shut or hingeless. She called out to the metal around her to do her bidding, to open, to topple, to twist and turn. The chaos she created in her wake caused much distraction and disorder. Her main objective was to get to a higher level, to see exactly where it was she wreaked havoc in... and who knew, she may even spot the larger, apathetic homunculus somewhere.

She tore open what she recognized to be an elevator shoot. The elevator was somewhere above, not at all in use yet. Malice entered the darker space and started her way up, using the still cables to climb. Soldiers behind her had followed, pushing the barrels of their guns through the crevice she created and shooting mercilessly. The bullets flared up when they glanced off her Ore, but they hardly phased her in her progress.

One of the soldiers below must have had a brilliant idea, because the cables suddenly jerked and started to churn. The fool was summoning the elevator down in a means to drive her back down and possibly crush her. No, she wouldn't have that. Her progression was harder now, like taking one step forward and two steps back. She kept climbing, faster, until she could see the bottom of the elevator approaching fast. She jumped off, grappled onto the wall, then with all her power, constricted her mind around the elevator. It kept with its descent, but she could hear its metal whispering, eager to follow her every whim. She smirked, and with a closing of her fist, she crushed the elevator like a tin can. Electricity flared in a chaotic storm, and the elevator stopped. The possibility of anyone being inside was secondary, useless... What was more important and helpful was the fact that her crushing gave her enough space to continue her ascent. She squeezed past the wreck and continued her way up. All the while, the soldiers below kept shooting even when she was out of sight.

When she reached a suitable level, she tore the elevator's doors slightly. She stopped when she heard soldiers running by, leaving the twin-doors with only a small gap. The humans paid no attention to that.

"What's going on?"

"They say there's another monster like... like that thing outside!"

"What?"

"But here's the weird part; it's just a little girl. A teenage girl's running around Briggs, and unlike the other monster, she's actually intent to kill!"

Malice brought her eye to the crack, chuckling softly, echoing. The amount of distress she was causing was quite amusing to her. She was about to make the doors burst open for a deadly surprise when she caught wind of something else as the men kept running.

"Should we go get the Fullmetal kid...?"

"I think the others are on their way to notify him and his brother right now..."

"Do you think he can help...?"

"Well, he helped take down the big guy!... I think this won't be too much different. Man... what ARE these people...?"

"If you could call them people..."

Even though they left, Malice found that she couldn't move for a few moments. She was thinking very deeply, absorbing what it was she just heard. Then her eyes crinkled spitfully. After a few moments, she ripped the doors open with a new, powerful vigor, and she landed on the floor, laughing hysterically.

Edward and Alphonse were in the building. What luck! She could kill them, but how could she resist the amount of torment she's yearned for? Unlike the soldiers, the Elric Brothers were the ones she sought to torture. The temptation was just too strong.

How could she resist? Really?

End of Chapter

A/N: This one came by much faster than the last chapter. Hopefully the next one will be the same :)

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas! And if you don't celebrate that, Happy Holidays! Please accept this chapter as a gift from me ;D

As for me, reviews will make a very lovely Christmas/Holiday gift! I hope you all can find it in your hearts to send me your thoughts and feelings~

~Vixen