"Annabeth!"

"Oh, shut up. You've been whining for almost an hour." I sighed, massaging the bridge of my nose. "Al, stop hiding her." I said auto-matically.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Al laughed nervously.

"Al…" Ed said warningly.

"You're hiding a panda." I told him, staring deadly at him.

"No! I-I'm not!"

"Just give it up. I know you are. She isn't a cat, and she can fend for herself." I growled, tiring of the game.

I could almost see Al pouting as he pulled Shao May out. She was frantic. Sighing, I leaned over and put a finger on her head. Pausing, she looked curiously at me. "Can you smell it? Can you smell how sick I am, the closing death? I couldn't hurt you if I tried, Shao May. I really couldn't. And anyway, I'm at the bottom of the food chain."

She looked at me. Her eyes were big and confused. I smiled warmly, removing my finger and shrugging. At that moment, I felt an attack coming. I turned aside, coughing and hacking, my breath wheezing and rattling in my chest. This was one of my worst attacks! I curled up on the seat, feeling the sticky red fluids splatter on me, the seat, and the window.

"Annabeth!" Ed cried again, but this time it wasn't a complaint.

"I… I'm fine…" I panted, coughing again.

"No you aren't! You're flooding the car with your blood!" he nearly shouted, scrabbling onto the seat next to mine. True, the floor of the car was starting to pool with my blood as I coughed it up again and again. "Annabeth, please, please, please, don't die!"

"Why… not?" I panted, clutching my chest, eyes closed, voice tight.

"Because… because… What you told me; way back when I yelled at you about what the Stone is made of, you told me your feelings… I feel the same for you, damnit!" he yelled angrily, grabbing my shoulders. He didn't even notice when I coughed blood up on him. He just held me close. Al put a hand on my shoulder as well. I felt a small warmth on my arm, and, looking down, saw Shao Mat on my arm, holding on tight and staring beseechingly up at me.

"Okay… I'll try not to…" I coughed, spilling more blood down Ed's back. Not like it'll show on the red fabric! I thought, smiling slightly.

I knew nothing good would come of having Gluttony around while the men fought. I changed my outfit again the second we got to the shack. I now wore red combat boots, a red bullet-proof jacket, and red cargo-pants. I stocked up on improvised spark-bombs and a few ninja-stars I'd fashioned out of steel. I took the purple dye out of my hair and removed the cute head-band. I didn't have time to be cute or eye-catching anymore.

I was just in time.

"Roy Mustang!" Gluttony roared.

"Everyone outside, now! No arguments, everyone go! Now!" I yelled, ushering them towards the door. I was just in time yet again.

There was a rush of wind and Gluttony opened his False Gate. He was truly horrorific like that. "Mustang?" I asked, although I knew it wouldn't work."

He stepped forth, smirking with the satisfaction that I'd asked him first. "How big?"

"Big as you can get it. He's a Homunculus. It's gonna take a lot t' kill him. Like Lust."

The fire-blast was enormous. It scorched, even though we were about ten feet behind Mustang. As expected… Not as expected… It was swallowed.

"He… swallowed it?" squeaked Ed.

"I thought something even bigger than what he used in the original would toast him." I said in a tight voice. "Never mind… Run for your lives!" I whooped.

"Well that worked great, you two!" Ed said snarkily to Mustang and me.

"If you have a better idea Fullmetal, now is the time to try it!" Mustang hollered back.

"We could just leave you behind, Colonel! You are the one he wants!" Al yelled.

"Over my dead body!" I snapped. "There! At the forest! Split up!"

I stayed close to Mustang, in case he got in a jam. Unfortunately, we bumped into each other. It took a second to recognize the other. We managed to get alive, though. The second I got Mustang out of the woods and with everyone else, I dove back into the forest. Ed, Al, and Ling weren't too far behind.

"Gosh, he's mad." I whispered.

"You're telling me!" hissed Ling.

There was movement behind us, and we whipped around. "A dog?" Al said softly.

"Gluttony, knock it off!" the canine snapped.

"Envy!" I realized, standing bolt upright.

There was a scuffle between Ed and Envy for a second. Envy and Gluttony started away, but we blocked them off. Envy told Gluttony to eat Ling, and that just pissed me off. I threw a spark bomb at Gluttony. It went off like a mini-firework, with red, blue and green sparkles. He recoiled, growling. "You think you can just ignore us because we're your little sacrifices? That just pisses me off! Who do you think you are?" I snapped.

"Jeeze, that's bold." Envy conceded.

"Oh, you shut the fuck up!" I yelled, making an earthen wall. "Ling, you get that thing, we got that other thing!"

Gluttony really didn't want to fight us. He was dodging and whining that he couldn't eat us, but that was about it. It just pissed me off further. We wound up slinging him through the wall.

"Excuse me! I'm busy here!" Ling yelled angrily.

"Shut up and kill it again already! It doesn't even deserve to live!" I snarled, scrambling through the wall.

I forgot that Envy assumed Lan Fan's form. "Now, Gluttony!"

"Ling!" I grabbed onto his legs.

"Annabeth!"

"No! Brother!"

The darkness closed around us. I passed out while we were falling.

I woke up as I hit the bottom. It was unpleasant, bathing in the sticky red stuff. "Damnit! That did not go as I'd planned!" I snarled, jumping to my feet. "Uh oh."

How far away did I land from Ed and Ling? I know Envy got thrown pretty damn far, but… Okay, there's Mustang's fire, so… I stopped panicking and took a deep breath.

"Oi! Edward! Ling! Hello!" I yelled.

"No need to shout."

"Envy? Or Ling? How do I know?" I challenged the seemingly prince.

"The first thing I ever did involving you was try to attack you while you looked blind. What about you, how do I know you aren't Envy?"

"We wonder are you ready to join us now, hands in the air we will show you how! Come and try. Caramell will be your guide." I sang clearly. He nodded.

It took us a little to find Ed. Probably because he'd been moving around from the second he'd woken up. He asked us how he knew we were who we were.

Ling asked if he should he recite the room-service bill. I sang a few lines of Moonlight Densetsu. And then I got to ask Ed how we knew it was him…

"If you really are Edward Elric, you'll know what these two things spell… C-H-I-B-I spells… C-H-I-B-I-C-O spells… they're both what you are…"

He flew at me.

We started searching for a way out. I knew there probably wasn't one, but better safe than sorry!

It was long and arduous, walking through the thick and sticky red blood. I was left chewing on Ed's shirt sleeve when they ate his boot. It really stank that I couldn't eat meat products. I wanted to, but it meant I'd be sick more often.

After we ate, Ling felt something.

"What is it?" Ed asked.

"Something's out there…"

I sat up as well. I thought it was Envy, but who knows what other live creatures Gluttony had swallowed?

"Oh, great. I shoulda known it was you." Envy grumbled, sloshing through the red sea towards us.

"And I shoulda known it was you! You are just sick! I mean, you're small enough without making yourself seem big, and then you have to go pissing me off time and time again!" I yelled, splashing a large amount of blood at him in my fury.

"You shut up! You're only a pathetic human!"

"You're small enough to fit in my palm!" I calmed down. "And why the hell did your 'Father' try to make a Gate of his own? I mean, isn't the real one strong enough?"

"You know too much, brat." Envy growled.

"A Gate?…" gasped Ed.

"Uh huh. Gluttony is a failed attempt to create one. But what I don't get is how Wrath is only third-in-command. Why do you guys need someone at the top-dog station in this country? You could pull all the strings wanted just by using your shape-shifting abilities."

"You mean the Fuhrer's a Homunculus?" Ed cried.

"Told you so." Ling said smugly.

"So does this mean… It was you guys behind Ishval, wasn't it?" Ed accused.

Envy proceeded to brag about it. I was just as pissed as Ed was. He and I advanced together.

"You… sicko…" I hissed, sliding on a pair of red gloves.

They were knux. When I balled up my hand into a fist, small spike protruded from my knuckles, so they packed an extra punch.

We hit him together. "Wh-what? He didn't even flinch!"

'I thought for sure with our combined power we'd at least rock him…" I growled.

"You guys wanna play it that way, huh? Then I'm gonna show you something really amazing before we all die here!" Envy snarled.

"Look out." I warned as we backed up.

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

"Remember in the woods? His foot-steps seemed very deep. So that suggests… He may be bigger than he seems…" Ling said quietly.

"Accurate observation." I nodded as Envy's transformation was completed. "Who says run, and who says fight? 'Cuz you can run if you want, but I want to try and kick his ass!"

"Who said anything about running?" smirked Ling.