Hi! Thank you for taking time out of your life to read/attempt to read this fic. I really appreciate it!

A warning I never got to mention in the summary: Rated T because I like blood, explicative language, and teenage angst. :D

Chapter 1

Perfect.

That's the only thought I could use to describe them.

I want to be perfect like them.

"They're far from perfect. You know that as well as I do," my dad would roll his eyes every time the subject was brought up. 'Not to me,' I wanted to say, but my father's not the kind of person you just argue with, so I always let it drop.

I watch them from my seat. The Albarn-Evans twins: third generation scythe meister and scythe.

…What exactly were they demonstrating again?

"Tess."

Some kind of technique, maybe?

"Tesla?"

Were we learning about Soul Resonance? Maybe they were demonstrating that.

"TESLA STIEN!"

My head snapped up from it's resting place on my hand. "Y-yes Mr. Ford?" I look at my teacher, who was now fuming. The two had stopped whatever they were demonstrating.

"Quit daydreaming," he snapped. "I was going to call on you and Volt to exhibit more advanced techniques in Soul Resonance, but obviously you're too busy in your own little world to do so. We need to move on, anyway." He thanked those two perfect students as they returned to their seats. The giggling of my classmates that found some kind of pleasure in my absentmindedness made me draw the hood of my sweatshirt over my head. I didn't even bother to acknowledge my weapon partner, Volt, who was undoubtedly giving me a permissive look of concern.

"I'm sorry about earlier," I muttered as I walked out of the Academy. The end of the school day had come once again, and nearly every member of the student body had begun their individual trek back home.

"Tesla," Volt laughed, "It's okay. Quit apologizing."

"But I embarrassed us, and we missed an opportunity for demonstration," I retaliated in my meek voice.

"Hey. If those jerk classmates of ours are giving you a hard time," He balled up his right hand and slammed his fist into the open palm of his left hand "I'll make them lay off."

I couldn't help but smile a bit at his gesture. For as long as I've been at the DWMA, Volt has been the only person who has ever wanted a partnership with me. Well, it's partly my fault that nobody wanted to be my weapon. I'm not the most social person in Death City. Quite the opposite, in fact. My shyness kept me from asking for partnerships. But one day, this tall, tanned boy just walked up to me and asked me to be his meister. The one brave soul that would approach the daughter of the psycho teacher. I had potential to snap, they must have thought. Volt saw through the superficial exoskeleton that my classmates had shrouded me in, and ever since that day, he had been defending me as a human being. I appreciated it more than anything. He's a strong weapon, no doubt, but I always feel as if I let him down every day by not being the strong meister he deserves. He always seems to shake this off, however. Maybe it's just him being caring, like the close friend he is.

"Stop right there!" A familiar voice called as we began our decent down the treacherous steps of the Academy. We turned around to see those two painfully, dare I say it again, perfect students walking towards us. Largo, the sister and the one who had called out, put her hands on her hips. A confident smile crossed her face. "You two don't have any plans right now do you?"

"We were on our way home, so, no, I guess," Volt answered, shrugging.

"Good. I have exciting news for every one," she beamed, turning to face her brother, Dmitri.

"She won't even tell me what it is," Dmitri stated, digging his hands into his pockets. His tone of voice told me it didn't matter that much. That was just like Dmitri: level headed and down-to-earth. His sister, on the other hand, had a thing for being more upbeat and energetic, although sometimes coming across as a snob.

"To Deathbucks, then!" Largo began to march down the stairs.

"Is Miki not coming?" I squeaked, wondering about our third meister friend.

"What do you think?" Dmitri gave me that made me feel oblivious as he passed me on his way to catch up to his sister.

I sighed, and followed the rest of our posse. Miki had definitely gotten herself another remedial lesson, most likely. It happened nearly every week. Miki didn't really care for becoming a meister, but attended the academy to please her parents in some way. However, her failing grades and horrible behavior spited them. Miki spent most of the school day flirting with boys and scoping out possible new weapon partners. That was another thing that changed often. She was like a siren, you would say, enticing the male weapons in our class to be her partner. Once she got bored of them, she'd terminate the partnership and move on to the next one. I theorized that she hasn't been kicked out because her mother, a Death Scythe, and her father are very close friends to Lord Kid himself (In fact, I'm almost certain of this). Still, her behavior continued to dishearten me. We were friends, after all. I decided to put it out of my mind. If Miki was going to miss out on Largo's big news, it was going to be her fault.

"So will you tell us, already?" Volt shot a questioning glance in Largo's direction.

The girl sniggered in glee "Okay, fine." The three of us subconsciously leaned in to hear what she had to say. "So," she began "I saw dad in between P.E. and lunch, right? And he was organizing extracurricular missions like he normally does." You could practically see the interest draining from Dmitri's face as she dragged out her story. His sister caught sight of this and took a more direct route to the point of the anecdote. "Long story short, I got to take a sneak peek at the missions, and I found a really juicy one that we should take on. The objective is to investigate the force behind some strange happenings in a village in Sweden."

"And they think it's a Kishin Egg or something?" Dmitri asked as he leaned back and picked up his coffee.

"Precisely. This is the perfect mission for us four. Both me and Tessie have above average Soul Perception abilities, so it'll be a piece of cake," Largo beamed.

I sunk into the armchair I had procured as a seat. I'm fairly confident in my Soul Perception ability, that's definitely not the issue here. No, it's the idea of an extracurricular mission that got to me. Somehow, some way, I always managed to slip up during missions. The last time I took a mission with Largo, I let a Kisin Egg escape, which ended in an extra two hour wild goose chase around Hong Kong. Lord Kid was irritated with my botched job, but agreed not to reprimand me, as he believed that anyone could have made the same mistake.

Volt and the others noticed my obvious discomfort with the idea. "You'll be fine, Tesla. The last time was just a stupid mishap," my partner confirmed.

"That I caused," I pointed out.

Largo rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Your attitude is really annoying sometimes, Tessie."

I quickly picked up the tea I ordered, and brought it to my mouth to keep me from saying anything more.

"Anyway," Largo's eudialite eyes shifted from me to the others "We'll need to get to school as early as possible to snap up that mission before anyone else gets to it. 6:30 tomorrow morning, bright and early."

Volt nodded in confirmation for the both of us, "Agreed."

I walked alongside Volt as we walked towards his house. I studied the cobblestone street that I sauntered on, as if it held the answers to my musings.

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you home?" he offered, trying to break the awkward silence that had grown between us.

"Uh, no, it's okay," I replied, not looking up.

"Stop worrying," Volt shook his head. I could tell the negative air that I had surrounded myself in was beginning to wear on his patience.

"Do you ever have that feeling that something is just going to go horribly, horribly wrong?" I asked.

"No, because I opt to have a positive outlook on everything," his voice went flat, indicating that I was indeed getting on his nerves.

"You know what," I began, but decided against it. "Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow." His house at the end of the block was now in sight. I pivoted on the ball of my left foot and turned towards the direction of my own home. I didn't get very far, however, because Volt grabbed my wrist. He twirled me around, forcing me to look into his inky black, solemn eyes. His expression quickly softened as he gave a dry laugh.

"You really do need to stop worrying," he said "Promise me?"

"I can't guarantee that, Volt," I glanced to the side to avoid his captivating gaze.

The next thing I knew, I felt something soft against my lips. It took me a second to figure out that it was his own. I froze out of shock, but before I could retaliate, he drew back and released his grip on my wrist.

"Promise," he smirked, turning back towards his house.

I stood in the middle of the street, dumbfounded. My face must have had the most ridiculous expression on it, because I certainly felt ridiculous. I also felt an unfamiliar heat grace my cheeks. Was I… blushing?

I mindlessly ate my dinner that evening. I wasn't even sure what I was eating.

"You seem off, Tess," my mother remarked, curiously looking at me with her one uncovered golden eye "Something wrong?"

"No, I'm… just not feeling well," I lied. My dad raised an apprehensive eyebrow.

"I have to be at school by 6:30 tomorrow. Largo found a really good mission, and she really wants Volt and I to go on it with her," I tried to change the subject.

"Don't screw it up," my dad retaliated.

"Dad…" I groaned. My mom shot him a dirty look.

As I drifted off to sleep that night, I remembered the kiss that Volt had given me. Did he really like me like that? Perhaps it was really just to shut me up, grab my attention. Something along those lines.

'If he does like me,' I mused 'That would explain why he's so apt to protect me. But isn't that a weapon's job anyway? To protect their meister?' I outwardly grumbled in frustration. Tomorrow wasn't going to be fun.

Long chapter is looooooooong.

Recap time for those who lack inductive reasoning skills:

Tesla- Daughter of Stien and Marie. Named after Nicola Tesla, an awesome inventor who did a lot of work with electricity. Tess' attacks are electric-based, so I thought it would be appropriate to name her after him.

Largo and Dmitri- Daughter and son of Soul and Maka. Largo is a musical term for a slow tempo or piece of music (usually around 40-60 beats per minute). I thought it sounded pretty. Dmitri is named after Dmitri Shostakovich, a Russian composer that wrote music during the time of the Communist Revolution. He had a really distorted style that challenged the traditional classical style and reflected the political upheaval of the time. I love his music. :)

Miki- Daughter of Tsubaki and Black Star. Nothing really fancy here.

As for the adults in the story… Obviously, Ox became a teacher. All of the Spartoi members became either Death Scythes or three-star meisters, except for Kim and Jacqueline. Kim said "Screw this!" and opened her own medical clinic. Jackie… uhh… not sure what she did with her life. Kid, as evidenced, took over the school and his father's position over all DWMA affairs. Maka works as the librarian. xD

Everything else will be explained in time, I just thought you'd want a little background info, ya know?