My pace quickened. It was weird yet cool, having this vision. I could feel Ed fighting Lan Fan… I wanted to help… I broke into a run.

Something was coming up on my right! I spun, receiving it heel-first. There was a muted grunt as whoever or whatever it was collided with my foot. I quickly felt the energy. "Ling?"

"How do you know my name? I never told you!" he gasped. "And how are you seeing your way around? You're blind!"

"I know things. Bai bai!"

He grabbed my arm. "Dude, you mess up my healing runes, I will kick your Xingese ass!" I growled.

"Healing runes? Written in your own blood I presume? You must be a talented healer then…" he said in a silky voice.

"Nope. I'm just a dying teenager that knows a few simple healing runes… Let me… go… I'm gonna kick your ass. I can see just fine, even better now!" I snarled, whacking him in the gut again. He let out a heavy breath as he let me go. I started running again. "Edward!" I screamed, throwing myself at him. It got him out of the way.

There was the concussive bang, and the bomb went off. "Annabeth! What're you doing here?"

"Saving your butt! Again!" I panted—as my blind-fold fell off. I realized I could see with my right eye—the blue one. My red one was still inactive, but that was a minor annoyance. "I guess I can leave you alone and go back to fighting the guy who sicced her on ya!"

"What, no! Don't leave me!"

He chose to say that as I was getting up, and tugged on the sleeve of my white robe. I shrieked, falling over and into his arms. "I'm touched, but there's no time for love on the battle-field, Edward!" I growled, pushing myself back up as I replaced the blind-fold.

"So, the little healer is in love with the Alchemist?" came the silky voice I'd grown to hate in a matter of a minute.

"And are you in love with this warrior you conveniently have here?" I threw back, feeling like I need one of those weird little things that show when anime characters are ticked. "You should mind your own beeswax! I'm gonna kick your ass anyway now!"

Really shouldn't have said that with Lan Fan right there. She flew at me. I was able to counter her blow, just barely. "Yeah, someone's a little on the defensive side here! Do I have it mixed up? Are you in love with the guy brave enough to attack a seemingly blind girl? Huh?"

"Annabeth, why are you pushing so many buttons?" Ed growled.

"Because I feel like it! Shut up and help me!" The episode was running through my head. I knew Al would show up soon… "Gah! My presence is screwing the story up! I can't rely on the story, damnit!" I screeched.

"Annabeth, what're you talking about?"

At that moment, Ed and I were thrown back-to-back. "Ouch! What I mean is that Al shoulda shown up by now! But he hasn't! Crud, this isn't going as planned!" I growled, assessing the situation. Lan Fan on one side, Ling on the other. I came up with a quick strategy. I just had to hope it would work. "Borrowing this!" I yelled, frantically ripping off part of his sleeve.

"Hey!"

I quickly trans-muted the fabric to a different kind in the form of a glove. I slid it on and snapped.

The result was amazing.

"Uh… Oops?" I offered.

"'Oops?' That puts Mustang to shame!" Edward crowed.

"Yeah, but I didn't mean to blow up those buildings! I just trans-muted the oxygen into a big fire-ball!" I whined.

"Here they come!"

I snapped again, and a smaller fire-ball spun toward the two Xingese characters.

"Brother!"

"'Bout time you showed up, Al!" I sighed in relief.

"That's amazing power." marveled Ling. "How do you do it?"

"Not intentionally. I want fire-balls only the size of apples, but these are the size of houses! I already see why lots of training went into Colonel Mustang's Alchemy! This is also why I prefer using my hands to Alchemy!" I cried, stomping my foot in anger and frustration.

"You don't want to use your Alchemy?" cried Edward.

"Hell, no! I don't want to be too dependant on it in a time when I can't use it!" I told him. "Oi!" I snapped again, preventing Ling from attacking again. "Grr! Why don't you go back to where you came from?"

"Annabeth, loosen it up on the flames! We're gonna have to fix this all!" Ed whined.

"I—"

I doubled over, having an attack. I hate being so sick!

While I was under attack, the three foreigners got away. I knew where they'd gone, but I wanted to see Ed's face.

Unfortunately, I also wanted to kill Ling. He made a snarky comment about my runes, and Al had to hold me back from throttling him. I was that pissed. I'm okay with comments about my appearance or sickness, but my quirks or superstitions is just unacceptable.

We were soon Central-bound. I knew what they would find out, but didn't say anything. They'd discover it when they met up with Ross.

When they did, once again, Ed turned on me.

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare, Edward Elric!" I screamed. "I have to put up with your crap enough already! I have to put up with knowing what you'll discover! I have to put up with knowing almost everything here!"

"But you could've—"

"Clued you in? Told you? Tried to stop it? What is it this time, Fullmetal Alchemist? I cannot go against the laws of this game! I must try to stay to the story! I don't want to be responsible for killing you, Al, Winry, Mustang, Izumi, Ross, Mustang, goodness knows who else! I could tell you how this story ends, right here, right now! But I won't, and nothing you do will make me! Break every bone in my fucking body, but I won't tell you!"

"You—"

"Shut up!" I screamed, spinning on my heel and stalking away from him, fury just flowing freely off of me.

"Annabeth! Where are you going?" I heard Mustang call.

"Far away from Edward." I snarled.

"Why? What did he do?" asked Hawkeye.

"The little shrimp tries to blame me for everything that goes wrong. He just found out about Hughes, and tried to pin blame on me! The same thing happened right before Lab Five! He says everything is my fault, just because I know what's going to happen!"

Oops. Mustang's hand wrapped around my shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not from this world. I grew up watching the story of the Fullmetal Alchemist unfurl before bed-time. I know what's going to happen, when it will happen, and where. But as I told Ed, you'd have to kill me before you got me to talk! I don't want to stray from the story-line. I don't want anyone to be hurt who doesn't have to be hurt. Yowch!"

Mustang's fingers dug into my shoulder. His eyes were aflame, and Hawkeye wasn't looking too friendly any more either. "Hurt me all you want. I'm not talking." I hissed.

"You knew Hughes was going to die and you didn't try and save him?" Mustang asked harshly.

"He was my favorite character in this story, Mustang! But it was writ so, so I cannot stain this legend!" I told him. "I knew, yes! I know how much you two were friends! I know he has a wife and daughter!"

"Then why didn't you do something?"

"The legend was writ so, and I cannot rewrite history!" I spat.

"You couldn't have said something about it to anyone?" Hawkeye nailed.

"No! If I did, many more would've died! I could have killed this whole country, just by saving one man!" I snarled, squirming in discomfort. "Ouch! Lemme go!"

"I don't think so!"

"Let me go!"

He doubled over as I elbowed him in the stomach. Hawkeye had a gun trained on me before I could get away. My eyes flicked around, desperately searching for an escape. "Damnit!" I swore, sitting down cross-legged. "Damnit, damnit, damnit!"

"Swearing won't help you escape." she said bluntly.

"Tell that to my brother, sister, cousins, uncles, aunt, dad, and teacher. They swear to no end. I'm still wondering how the apocalypse hasn't happened, they swear so fucking much!" I growled, smacking the ground with my fist. "Would ya just shoot me already?"

"You have a family waiting, don't you?" Mustang asked suspiciously.

"Oh, come on! I'm dead already! Four more years and I'm six feet under! Just shoot me, damnit!" I snarled.

Her hesitation was all I needed. I was half-way down the hall when she finally started shooting. I took the first turn, knowing that they'd come after me. Swearing, I readjusted the blind-fold—and fell blind. I squealed, tripping.

Frantically, I felt for something, anything. I couldn't feel any energy, pick up any vibrations. I was really blind. It was dark. So dark. I curled up into the fetal position, trembling. I was really blind this time!

I hated not seeing or feeling anything. Especially when Mustang tripped over me. He and Hawkeye had apparently decided to chase me at last. "What's the matter with you?" he growled.

"I… I can't…"

"You can't what?" Hawkeye asked. I could picture the gun trained on me.

"I can't see!" I whispered hoarsely. "I can't see! I can't see!"

"Liar." Mustang said.

"I can't see!" I whimpered, feeling his hand on my shoulder again. I pictured my friend Joseph at that moment. He was blinded when he turned eleven. He soon after mentally deteriorated. Joseph was pretty much put to sleep. "Joseph… Joseph…" I whispered in my panic. "I can't see…"

"Annabeth! Uh… Colonel?" I heard Al's voice.

I opened my mouth and made a wounded kitten noise. I hoped Al would get the message.

"Colonel, what's going on here?" I heard Ed growl.

"Your friend hasn't been telling everyone her secret, has she?"

"You mean about where she's from?" Ed shot back.

"!" I squealed, scared.

"Annabeth, what's wrong?" Edward asked. I could feel his hand, reassuring, prying Mustang off of me.

"Edward… I can't see!" I wailed.

"Can't you just pick up vibrations or whatever?"

"No! I tried! I can't!" I shook my head, feeling tears flowing down my face.

"Mustang, what did you do?" Ed snarled.

"We didn't do anything to her." Hawkeye replied coolly.

I felt myself crying. The silent crying, where the tears burn even worse and are hotter, but you can't weep or bawl. I listened to their fighting. All at once, I let out a sob. "Don't… I tried so hard not to, but I find I'm already unwinding the tapestry…" I moaned.

"You keep quiet." Edward ordered, picking me up. I curled up, scared.

When we got to the hotel where we were staying, my vision came crashing back down. The light hurt. It was so sudden…

I laughed. "I don't know what's wrong. Am I mentally deteriorating?" I laughed.

I got no answer. There were summons to the lobby for me. There was a phone call for me. It was Mustang.

"Look, Annabeth, I'm sorry—"

"Oh, hush. I reacted worse when my mom told me that my friend Joseph had been put down. He was blind, and went crazy. Everyone who went within arms reach of him got hurt. But I was fine with it. He listened to singing like it was the only thing in the world. But he was put down anyways. I was upset, because my mom had been there and didn't stop them. It's only natural for you to be upset." I soothed.

"Thank you."

"But from now on, take it easy! My shoulder still hurts!"

I hung up and returned to the room. Ed had discovered something really amazing, apparently, because he and Al were hovering over it.

"Hey!"

I then saw what it was.