Well… I took pity on you loyal readers, so I'm updating quickly. Thanks for NOT REVIEWING!! Anyway, enjoy!

XX

Maria looked like she was just slapped in the face. "What?" she gasped. I sighed and stared at the floor, deliberately avoiding her gaze.

"It's true," I told her guiltily. "I know for sure that something bad is going to happen this time." For the first time, Maria seemed at a loss for words.

"But… why…? How?" I felt tears form in my eyes as I spilled out the whole story.

"I… I'm not really from this time… I'm from fifty years in the future…"

"But… how?! That's not even possible!"

"It is…" I sighed. "I was… travelling…" There was no other way to put it, "…with Shadow in the future, and… we ran into this guy named Black Doom… actually, he's an alien, but… anyway, I really want to help Shadow, but I think Black Doom wanted to prevent that, so he sent me here… fifty years into the past." Maria stared at me with her mouth hanging open… not like she could help it, really. I looked up at her nervously. "Please don't be mad…"

"Mad?" she whispered. "I'm not mad… I'm furious!" Here comes the blow… "Keiko, how could you?!"

"Maria, I—"

"How could you lie to me?! I trusted you!!"

"You'd never believe me if I told you…"

"I haven't seen anything outside the ARK. I'll believe anything."

"I'm sorry…"

"Apology not accepted!" And with that, she stormed off, leaving me alone. I felt guilty for not telling her before, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

--

A few days passed, and Maria hadn't said a word to me since I told her. Right now, more than anything, I was afraid that she would tell someone my secret. My fears were almost confirmed at the dinner table one day. Maria did everything she could to avoid me, and Professor Gerald suspected something. "You two haven't been speaking to each other lately," he told us. "Is something wrong?" I tossed Maria a pleading look. Her eyes flickered towards me for an instant.

"Keiko said she wouldn't help me on biology," she lied. I sighed in relief. "And yesterday, my teacher gave me a quiz, and I failed it." She glanced over at me, an apologetic look in her eyes.

"So that's it…" he mused.

"But I'm not mad anymore," Maria said. "I forgive Keiko for not helping me on biology."

"Thanks…" I whispered. A smile flickered across her face. She forgave me, but we still ate in silence. After dinner, she followed me into a spare lab.

"All right, Keiko," she started. "I put some thought into this and… you were right."

"About what?" I asked, confused.

"About me not believing you. I knew you couldn't say anything before because we already thought you were suffering from amnesia, but it's different now. I can see you're… not suffering from amnesia." I couldn't help laughing, and Maria smiled.

"But that just gets rid of one problem. I still have two others…"

"What are they?"

"Getting back to my own time and saving you." I might as well tell her the whole truth.

"Why would you want to save me? I don't need saving."

"Because you're going to get shot!" Maria gasped, looking rather taken aback. I sighed. "Remember how I told you that GUN was going to try and shut down the ARK if your grandfather didn't reprogram Shadow?" She nodded. "It's true. They are going to try and shut down the ARK, and they'll succeed… It's going to be really bloody and violent."

"What happens?" In this case, I couldn't go with the typical, "I'll just let it unfold for you." If I had any chance at saving Maria, I had to let her in on everything now.

"They're mainly after Shadow, but they kill lots of other people too. You try to help him escape by sending him down to earth in a pod… but some GUN soldiers find you and try to shoot Shadow… but one of the…" I couldn't say anything else. It was only now that I realized that I was crying.

"Oh… they kill me… don't they?" I nodded, tears streaming down my face. "So that's what you meant by… saving me…" I nodded. To my surprise, Maria kept a straight face. "Anything else?"

"I told Black Doom everything that's happening—"

"Wait, isn't he the guy who sent you here?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Keiko, you idiot! Why did you tell him?!"

"He was going to find out anyway… I might as well speed up the process… anyway, he said he'd send me back in three weeks… well… now two weeks, but you get the idea."

"That's good… I guess…"

"Yeah, but GUN's coming in two weeks too…" Maria sighed. There was a long awkward silence before Maria spoke up again.

"Keiko?"

"Yeah?" She then said the last thing I expected her to say.

"Don't save me."

XX

So yeah… I'm going to end this thing pretty soon. There's probably going to be three or four more chapters, so review while you can! PLEASE REVIEW!!