I apologize in advance with the content of this story. I've read up to the latest chapter of the manga. I'm just too damn impatient to wait for the American releases.

Also I do not own Soul Eater.

Subconscious Fear

It was supposed to be just another ordinary, run of the mill, easy reconnaissance mission. How on earth did it turn into this? Never in Maka's wildest dreams would she have imagined a nest of kishins this massive and to have gone undetected this long! Even with Soul being a Death Scythe, they were going to be lucky to make it through this battle alive. There are kishin everywhere. She should have been able to sense their soul wavelengths long before they could surround them like this. She can't even count them all there are so many.

Standing back to back with Soul, Maka grabs his hand. "Soul!"

No further instructions are needed with that one word. Without hesitation, Soul transforms into his weapon form and falls with a practiced ease into her waiting hand. The kishins have yet to attack them and just as Maka was pondering over this, a spine chilling cackle slices through the night. Descending down from the sky, a witch appears before them. She's dressed like a Gothic Lolita with a black and red theme. Long, straight black hair falls to her waist. Her hair hides all of her expressions except for the wide evil grin that seems to split the bottom half of her face. The only thing you can see of her eyes is an eerie red glow burning like coals from behind her hair.

"So that explains why I wasn't able to detect anything." Maka grumbles to herself.

"That witch is controlling all of these kishin? This doesn't look good, Maka. What the fuck are we gonna do?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Maka growls in frustration.

Taking in the sight of meister and weapon surrounded by all of her kishins, the witch giggles with sadistic glee. "Oh my, my! What have we here? Have you come to crash our little soirée?" Another face splitting grin appears on the witch's face.

Soul scoffs at her statement "Not cool."

Maka rolls her eyes. "Like we'd party with the likes of you. We're going to shut you down. Permanently."

"My, my! What brave words! You do realize that you are vastly out numbered by my kishins, don't you?"

In response, Maka tightens her grip on Soul. She twirls him around her body and takes up a fighting stance. "Soul!"

"SOUL RESONANCE!" They yell in unison.

"Witch hunter!" Maka commands.

Instantly Soul's blade morphs and the witch's eyes widen ever so slightly in surprise. "My, my..." She claps her hands together in excitement. "What a pleasant surprise! A powerful meister with a grigori soul and I am willing to bet that your weapon is a Death Scythe. Am I wrong?"

Soul and Maka is momentarily stunned by her proclamation.

Can she see soul wavelengths just like me? Maka wonders to herself.

"Has my little statement shocked you? Judging by the look on your face, I say I have hit the bulls eye. And how is it that I knew?" The witch giggles. "I will never tell!" She licks her lips in anticipation. "Mmmmm... I can not wait to devour your souls. They will greatly increase my power" The witch floats back up to better observe the battle and gestures the kishins to attack.

Oh shit! Here they come. There are too many for us to handle. He communicates with Maka directly through the resonance.

We have to kill that witch! She has way to much power to be able to control all of these kishins. I need wings! We'll fly above these stupid kishins and kill that witch. She was going to get them through this. There wasn't going to be a repeat of what happened with Crona.

Soul's blade shortens and sprouts giant beautiful wings. They take off heading straight for the witch.

I'm going to witch hunter her ass straight back to hell where she belongs! Maka was determined to at least kill the witch and report back to Lord Death about all these kishins.

The witch laughs her evil cackle for she has anticipated them trying to fly. The red glow of her eyes increases as she recites an incantation. A black lace umbrella with red ribbon and bows appears in her hand. Aiming for the duo, she shoots a barrage of red and black lace.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Maka shouts at the witch. "You're not getting away from me!"

Maka expertly dodges around the lace. All that practice flying she's done with Soul coming into good use. They fly within attacking range and Maka quickly flips Soul into her hands as he transforms back into witch hunter. Raising the huge scythe above her head, Maka is about to cut the evil witch in two when the witch's signature grin appears. In the witch's hand is a glowing red ball swirling with fire and electricity.

"No need to be in such a big hurry for your own demise!" The witch laughs as she throws the ball directly at Maka.

Maka is able to deflect the shot with Soul, but the momentary distraction left an opening for the witch to attack from behind. The lace slashes a deep wound across Maka's back and sends her plummeting into the waiting horde of kishin far below.

Soul is momentarily stunned from the impact of the fall, but is able to transform back to human form and stand quickly. His weapon form was able to protect him enough from becoming unconscious. "DAMNIT, MAKA!" He had no time to check on her for the kishins are swarming around them. He transforms his arms into blades and defends his fallen meister, fighting like a mad man. He's able to keep them at bay, but his strength is quickly waning. At last, he barely hears Maka emit a moan of pain as she tries to sit up. "MAKA! YOU'VE GOTTA GET UP! WE NEED TO GET OUTTA HERE!"

Soul... Maka can hardly breath through the massive pain she's in, but manages to sit up. How long have I been knocked out? Where's Soul? She looks to see Soul desperately fighting the kishins away from her. Blood is freely flowing from various cuts and slashes all over his body.

"MAKA, GET UP!"

Meanwhile, the witch is watching from her vantage point high in the sky.

Soul sees Maka struggling to get on her feet and runs to her. He is almost to her when a kishin attacks him from behind. Maka's eyes widen in horror as she witnesses Soul being cleaved in two right where he received his scar from Crona. NO! It can't be... "SOUL!" Maka wails in horror and anguish. His blood splatters like a macabre painting across her and the ground. Soul's expression is of pain and sadness as his body falls into two halves. His internal organs glisten gruesomely in the light of the full moon. "SOUL! SOULLLLLLL...!"

"...aka! MAKA!"

Soul is standing over Maka, trying to shake her awake. The blind in her window filters the light of the full moon across his bare upper body, his face holding a concerned expression. It's a welcome sight compared to the grisly images from her nightmare. She immediately notices his scar and quickly adverts her eyes.

"Soul...?" Maka croaks. Her throat is dry and hoarse from screaming. Her heart is still pounding from the sheer terror of thinking she had lost him for good. Then her stomach starts to protest the nightmare images still flashing through her memory. Bile is quickly climbing up her throat and she races to the toilet to throw up the leftover contents in her stomach.

Soul follows her into the bathroom and helps hold her hair out of the way. Once she's done, he hands her a damp wash cloth so she can wipe her mouth.

"Thanks." She half smiles while taking the wash cloth from him.

"You gonna be ok?"

Maka turns to the sink and starts to brush her teeth in an attempt to delay any questions.

"I'm worried about you, Maka. This is the third night in a row you've woken me up screaming. It's always such a raw anguished sound. I can tell you haven't been sleeping very well either. You were a zombie all day at school and barely paid attention in class. That's not like you at all. Everyone else is worried about you too."

Done brushing her teeth, Maka faces Soul. She can't put it off any longer. "It's just a nightmare I've been having. It's no big deal."

She smiles, but he can tell it's forced. "That's what you keep telling me, but I don't buy it. I've let it slide the last two times, but I want a straight answer this time. It's obviously not just a nightmare for it to be happening this frequently."

She sighs. "Really, I'm fine. You don't have to worry."

Anger quickly bleeds into the concern etched on his face, twisting his mouth into a disapproving frown. "No, it's not fine. What have you been having a nightmare about? Tell me the truth, Maka. I'm not going to back down til you tell me."

"I said there's nothing to worry about!" In a display of stubbornness, Maka crosses her arms across her chest and turns away from him.

"Really, Maka? Why do I have to pry everything out of you? Don't you trust me enough to tell me?"

Maka turns back to him with a gasp. She can see the sadness he's trying to hide in his eyes. "Of course I trust you! You're the only person in the world who I trust as much as you!"

"Well you're sure as hell not showing it!"

Maka's jaw drops at his exclamation. She is so tired from not sleeping and going through these grill sessions. They had gotten into a bad argument last night and he hadn't talked to her at school that day because of it. Is keeping my nightmare to myself really worth it? I don't want to worry him, but at the same time I don't want to push him away. She thinks to herself.

With a heavy sigh, Maka decides to tell Soul about her nightmare. "Fine. Let's go talk in the living room."

"About damn time." Soul mumbles under his breath. He follows her to the couch and flops down beside her.

A heavy silence fills the air as Maka tries to think of a way to start.

"Maka..."

"It's about you." Maka softly interrupts and turns away from him to hide the blush gracing her cheeks. "The nightmare I mean."

Another silence.

"Ok... Go on."

"I keep dreaming that we're ambushed by a witch who can control a crazy amount of kishin. In the end you're... you're killed right in from of me." Maka turns to look at Soul and she can see the worry in his eyes.

"Maka, I..."

"It gets worse." Something spurs her on. The flood gate has been opened and there's no stopping it. "The way you're killed. Y-you're cut in half..." Maka shyly reaches out and places her hand on Soul's chest right over his scar. "...right where Crona had cut you." Tears start to swell in her eyes. "I was powerless to stop it. I had been injured and couldn't do anything to save you. I was...weak." The tears begin to spill.

Soul places his hand on hers, trapping it against his chest. "Maka, why are you worrying about this again?"

Anger darkens her features. She snatches her hand from his and turns away once more. "You're a Death Scythe now and the missions have progressively been getting more dangerous. I'm not strong enough to protect you!"

"Bullshit! Maka, I'm the weapon. I'm the one that's supposed to protect you. We've been through this argument before. Besides, you're the best meister in our class. There's no reason to worry. I know that you're strong enough."

"I can't help it! The thought of loosing you...!"

Soul grabs her by the shoulders and forces her to turn back towards him, effectively cutting off her line of thought. "Maka, you over think things too much."

"And you don't think enough!"

Soul couldn't help but to laugh at the usual lines they throw at each other.

"What's so funny?" Maka yells with indignant anger tinting her voice.

By now Soul is doubled over with his laughter. Maka stews in her anger as she watches and reaches for a nearby book. Seeing her from the corner of his eye, he grabs her hand to prevent what he's sure to be the worst ever Maka Chop in history.

"Whoa, wait!" Soul finally sobers from his laughter.

Maka glares daggers and waits for an explanation. Her hand still twitching with the need to chop her weapon on the head.

"I'm sorry. It's just so funny when you think about it." He snickers a bit more. "We make one hell of a team."

She pauses for a second and smiles. "Yeah we do, don't we?"

"Damn straight we do. Which is why you shouldn't worry so much."

Her smile melts into a frown. "I don't think I can completely stop worrying." She looks down and starts biting her bottom lip.

Soul sighs. He reaches out to tilt her head up, forcing her to look at him. "Just don't worry yourself into having more nightmares and if you do, tell me about them right away. Ok?"

She nods in agreement.

Soul slowly runs his thumb across her bottom lip to make her stop biting it. The action becoming more intimate than he had first intended.

Maka is frozen like a deer caught in headlights. The unexpected intimate moment catching her off guard. Her heart beats triple time and she's sure he can hear. It thunders loudly in her ears. She's had a crush on him for so long, but had given up hope of anything happening between them long ago. This one moment has brought all those buried feelings crashing to the forefront.

Soul swallows thickly, both in fear and anticipation. His feelings for his meister have grown into something more over the years. He's held back confessing in fear of how she'd react. Her feelings for him have always come across wishy washy at best, frustrating him to no end. When he had straight out told her that he would die to protect her, he thought that maybe she'd start to get the picture. When things didn't change, he had started to lose hope. But now, as his crimson eyes stare deep into her emerald ones, he can finally tell how she truly feels.

Maka is breathless. She knows her heart is showing through her eyes. She fears how he will react when the unthinkable happens. The hand that was holding her chin up moves to cradle the back of her head. He slowly leans forward and captures her lips with his. Shock. That's the only thing she can feel, but it quickly fades and is replaced by need.

Soul is ecstatic as she starts to respond to him and he deepens the kiss. His senses are reeling at the sensation of her soft lips on his. He had thought that maybe he had misread her, but all doubt is erased when her lips start to move against his. Going a step further, he deepens the kiss a bit more. This earns him a faint moan, emboldening him further yet. He nips her bottom lip and pulls it slightly between his teeth. She gasps lightly in surprise, making her open her mouth. Seizing the moment, he takes the opportunity to explore the inside of her mouth.

Maka moans, wrapping her arms around his neck. She pulls herself closer and buries her fingers into his snow white hair. She can't think straight anymore. Her brain has somehow shutdown and can only focus on the way Soul's mouth feels on hers. Their first french kiss is a bit awkward at first, but they get the hang of it. The feelings he induces in her with his kiss is intoxicating.

All too soon the urgent need to breath takes over, forcing the kiss to end. They stare into each others eyes while catching their breath.

"Wow..." She breaths.

Soul chuckles and rests his forehead against hers.

Maka's blush intensifies. "I'd...like to do that again."

A large grin appears on his face. "As my meister commands."

A/N: This is my first fan fiction. Please review! Constructive and helpful criticisms are welcome.

The music that served as my constant muse while writing:

Rose Noire (I listen to their album Apocalypse on repeat 90% of the time)
GPKISM (Their album Reliquia)
The song Stop The Cycle by Charetta

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