He quickly followed the tiny drops of blood. Annabeth had been trying to conceal her tracks, but why? He was sure of one thing, and that was that she'd gone after Al.
The small red splatters led to a bar called the Devil's Nest. They went inside a side passage and down a hall. He heard yells and a furious scream. His pace quickened. The scream was Annabeth's!
He threw open the door that the trail led to. Everyone inside paused. From the middle of it all, Annabeth glared angrily at him. "I thought I'd hidden my tracks, but I guess I missed some." she grumbled, folding her arms.
"Annabeth, what's going on?" he demanded angrily.
"Nothin'. What's it look like to you?"
"And who's this? The older brother, come to rescue—"
"You say one thing about a fragile little girl, and carbon-based shield or not, I'm gonna kick your damn ass!" spat Annabeth, whirling to face one man.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Annabeth was stationary, but he could clearly see her furious eyes spinning around the room. Then, to everyone's surprise, she leapt at the man. She was screaming words in the weird language she liked singing in, and he realized she was going to be over-powered. He jumped in the fight as well.
Eventually, there was a loud crash. Annabeth ran in terror. When he saw who it was, he regretted not doing the same.
When the fight was over, Ed found Annabeth with Al. She was trying to soothe him, telling him not to worry. He saw why quickly enough—Al was covered in liquid red, and there was a white-covered figure lying not far away. "Al, it's okay. Don't worry." Annabeth said softly.
"Hey. What happened?" he asked quietly.
Annabeth looked up, her face smeared with tears and blood, but she was smiling. "Another character died. I used to think if I came here, I could prevent a lot of deaths, but it isn't so. I'm just another character now!" she smiled, a rasp tainting her voice.
"What do you mean?"
She shook her head. Then he saw something he hadn't noticed before. "Annabeth! Y-your eyes!"
They were dull and unseeing. One of them wept blood, and the other had a large scratch running down the skin around it. "Don't you worry. I've learned to see without my eyes. I use more senses than just that. I can hear things, feel vibrations, I can smell a few, and I've got a rare sixth sense that is active when my eyes aren't. I can read the flow of energy in the world. I know for a fact you're there, I'm holding Alphonse, the Chimera he was protecting is there, and the Fuhrer is coming now." she said with a smile.
"Very good, young lady. I understand you perform your Alchemy like young Fullmetal here, and you got that injury protecting some soldiers from worse wounds?" Ed spun around to see the Fuhrer.
"Yes sir. I don't want anyone to be hurt without reason. It's not how I learned, back home. I only fight with a reason. My eyes will heal in time. Just give it a week or two."
"A week or two? Annabeth, are you crazy?" Al asked.
"I went crazy a long time ago. Some say I was dropped on my head when I was born. But no, my eyes will heal. I've undergone worse, trust me. Once I couldn't see for a whole year." she rasped, licking her lips. Ed saw that using the blood from her eye, she'd traced small figures and symbols onto her arms. They weren't like anything he'd ever seen before. She smiled again. "Don't touch them, Ed. They're runes of healing. I find that when I write them in my own blood, I heal much faster than I would normally."
She stumbled over to him. "You, however, will need to see Winry!" she smiled, holding his arm up. She was right. And Winry was gonna kill him.
So, when they were ready, they boarded a train for Rush Valley. Annabeth wore a white blind-fold to decrease interference with her eyes healing. Despite not being able to see, she was just the same. The only difference was that she sang more cheerful songs instead of her normal depressing ones.
"You seem abnormally cheerful. Did that eye injury also affect your brain?" he asked crabbily.
She smiled with a girlish giggle. "No! Silly! When I can't see, I have to know you to judge you, or feel your energy-aura. I can't be bias off of your appearance. I also think of happier things when I can't see depressing things happening!"
"So what were your thoughts right now?" Al asked curiously.
"Coffee grinders, French bread, vegetable juice, leeks, caramel, and shaking my head back and forth. Mostly coffee grinders, vegetable juice and leeks!"
"I'm lost."
"Every Vocaloid has their own… representative, I guess. Teto's is French bread, Miku's is a leek, and Ruko's is coffee or a coffee grinder. Ruko is another of my top favorites, and as far as I know, she only has two or three songs of her own. I prefer even her versions of things over Teto's!"
"Ruko?" asked Ed, now interested.
"She looks a little like me. She has the same colors of eye that I do. Her hair is short, however. Only shoulder-length when she has her pony-tails up. She has a bright blue streak right about here. She has a more male voice, ten percent female and ninety percent male. There is argument over her age. Some say twelve, others say nineteen. I say twelve, because that makes her height even cooler!"
"How tall is she?"
"Almost six and a half feet tall!"
"She's nineteen." Ed said quickly and grouchily.
"You're just saying that because she's three years younger than you and is almost two and a half feet taller than you!" laughed Al.
"Whose side are you even on!"
"The one that doesn't hate on kitty-cats!" giggled Annabeth. She broke out singing again, in a broken, boyish voice.
"Now what're you singing?" Al asked curiously.
"Ruko's version of World is Mine. I like it a lot better than Miku, Len, Rin, Teto, Kaito, Haku, or even Rook's version."
"Whose Rook?"
"The sexiest Vocaloid ever!"
The arrived in Rush Valley not a moment too soon. He didn't particularly want to hear this Rook's version of the song.
Winry got him pretty good, but had to go for supplies, so they all went walking. They soon noticed Annabeth staring nervously at something in an alley and back-tracked. She was looking at a collapsed young man.