I stepped off the plane I had been on for 7 hours. It smelled sweet here, and the mountains surrounding this place gave it a bowl-like affect. I was in a small town in Tennessee called Johnson City. I had landed in a small airport on the outskirts of town where I could get in and out of here without attracting that much attention.

In about 30 minutes I was pulling into the school on my grey and white motorcycle. Science Hill High School was one of the top high schools in East Tennessee. I was here for one reason and one reason only… to get back the only people who can save Death City; Essence Albarn, Psyche Evans, Hiro Nakatsukasa, Kaoru Star, James Death, Emily Gorgon, Alma Albarn, and all of their parents.

I carefully opened the door to the office. A young woman with long black hair looked up at me from her desk and smiled. "Hello, Can I help you?" She asked sweetly.

"Um, yeah, do you know where I can find these people?" I handed the woman a small piece of paper with a list of all the names on it.

All of the sudden a smile broke out on the woman's face. "Well, being as I'm one of them, I must say, yes I do know where you can find them," she replied. A shocked look shot across my face. "Aunt Tsubaki!?" I almost screamed.

"It's nice to see you again, Alphonse," she said while standing up to hug me. I ran into her arms, squeezing her as tight as could. "You've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you," she said with a smile. "And you're a secretary," I said back with a smirk. "Why don't we go find everyone else?" She asked.

As we walked, I thought of everyone. I thought of the first time I heard Essence play the piano (I'm at least 3 years older than everyone else, so I can remember things they can't). I thought of when Psyche called me "Bro". I thought of when Hiro asked what 'gay' was (I laughed so hard when he asked me that). I thought of when Kaoru started singing, and how beautiful it sounded. I thought of Emily learning how to wrestle. I thought of James trying to kiss Kaoru. I even thought of Alma kicking Uncle Soul in the crotch for taking his teddy bear.

And, out of the blue, I started laughing, and, you know what… I just couldn'tstop! "I-I'm… s-s-sor-sorry!" I got out between pants of laughter. "I just was thinking about everyone!... how is everyone anyway?" I asked. Her smile momentarily wavered, "Well, they're all fine… I guess…" She seemed sad about something. "I haven't had a real conversation with my daughter since she was 4. So I guess you coming here was a pretty good thing," her smile immediately reappeared.

A few minutes later she said, "Here we are. They're all in the same class, so we won't have to be running all around the school for the kids, but we might have to go a couple of other places for the adults."

I took a deep breath and made my first few steps into the classroom. As soon as my appearance in the classroom was noticed, I was being stared at by at least twenty-five 14 to 15 year olds. Aunt Tsubaki cleared her throat and asked, "May we please see Miss Albarn, Mister Albarn, Miss Star, Mister Evans, Mister Nakatsukasa, Mister Death, and Miss Thompson please?" I watched as the 8 individuals stood up.

I clenched the hem of my shirt (as I do when I get nervous) when the reality that those people, the children I grew up with, were right here in front of me again.

But my happiness was short lived as the words my father had said earlier filled my head. Don't let your emotions rule you, Alphonse. You need to be strong for the people that will be strong for you. I stood tall, but kept my eyes on the ground not looking any of them in the eye.

They all filed out behind me and Aunt Tsubaki. When we were away from prying ears, a young boy in the back with deep blue hair and raven eyes stepped forward and said, "Mom, what's going on?"

"Well, I think that's for Alphonse here to explain, Hiro," she said with a wave of her hand in my direction. I took a deep breath. Here goes nothing! I thought.

"You all moved here when you were three or four, correct?" I asked. Of course I already knew the answer, but I wanted them to feel like they had a say in this. I got various nods and a couple "yeah"s as my response. "Good. I know this is going to make me sound like a madman," Or my father for short, "but all of you have…special abilities. These abilities vary with whether you are a miester or a weapon. A weapon is a person with the ability to transform into just that, a weapon. They are used by miesters to collect 99 kishin souls, people who have strayed off the path of humanity and started harvesting human souls, and 1 evil witch's soul. Some witches are not evil and therefor are accepted into normal life among miesters and weapons. The miester's job is to turn his or her weapon into a Death Scythe, a weapon used as one of Lord Death's personal weapons. The weapons duty is to protect their miester at all costs… even death," I looked away from them, not able to look them in the eye.

"I know for a fact which of you are weapons and which are miesters. So on that note I would like Essence, Psyche, Hiro, and Emily to step forward, please," I said with a sense of power in my voice. I forced myself to look back at them. The ones I had called out where standing in front of me. "The 4 of you are weapons. Essence, you and your twin brother, yes brother, Psyche are twin ninja blades," I said looking at Essence. Her jaw was wide open and her eyes were the size of watermelons. "Psyche, Essence is your sister, and you two are twin ninja blades," I was looking at him now. I knew that I had pretty much just said the same thing twice, but I didn't want him to feel left out. "Hiro, you're a ball-and-chain. It's funny; you and your sister are nothing alike, because your sister's a miester." I smiled at him as that last part sunk in. "I have a sister!?" he asked. Well, it was more like a yell. "Yup," I said with a smirk that Uncle Soul would be proud of. I looked at Emily, "You, Emily, are a hatchet. I know that it doesn't sound that cool, but it's really awesome when you think about it." I smiled at her warmly.

Then I stood tall, accepting a stern look onto my face. "Kaoru, James, and Alma please come forward now." Almost immediately they were in front of me with expectant looks on their faces. "Obviously you all are miesters. Now, I'm not exactly sure what your special abilities are, but I can tell you some that it's possible to have. One is soul perception. This ability allows a miester to sense souls. Most miester have this ability, but some miesters, such as Hiro and Kaoru's father, aren't able to sense souls," I explained. Hiro and Kaoru were acting like blubbering idiots; going from looking at each other, to me, then back to each other. "Oh my god! The brainy-ack is my brother!" Kaoru almost yelled, "He's the kid who skipped a grade!" "Wow, Hiro, did you really skip a grade?" I asked in astonishment. "Uh, yeah…" he said nervously, "I skipped 6th grade." He wiggled his hips slightly from side to side.

"Well, anyway," I said, "another ability is Soul Force. This allows a miester to attach with their soul wavelength." I smiled kindly at Kaoru and Hiro again, "Again, your father has this ability, which is quite rare, and so I think that makes up for the soul perception thing."

"The last thing I'm going to tell you is who the people in your family are." They all looked at me with shocked eyes. "I know that some of have learned a little about your family but this is so there are no huge surprises. Ok, Hiro, your mother is Tsubaki and your father is Black Star. You also have a sister named Kaoru.

"Kaoru-" I was cut off by her saying, "Yeah, I got it…"

"Well then, Psyche and Essence, you are brother and sister. Your father is Soul Evans and your mother is Maka Albarn. You have a younger brother named Mind and an uncle named Alma," I pointed to the pink haired boy in the back, "Your brother is still in Death City; he did not move when you all did. Your grandfather is Spirit Albarn and your grandmother's name is Kami."

It took them a second to grasp everything that I was saying since I was talking so fast.

"Miss Emily, Mister James here is your cousin. James, your mother is Patricia Death and your father is Death the Kid. Emily, your mother Elizabeth Gorgon and your father is… or was, Crona Gorgon. He was hit by a car right before you were born," her eyes grew wide at this. I felt bad for her; finding out your father was dead just like that.

"Alma, your mother is Kami and your father is Spirit. You have a sister named Maka, a niece, and two nephews," he smiled at Essence.

"Ha!" he practically yelled, "Now you have to respect me!"

"Yeah right, dumbass! Like that's gonna happen!"

I smiled as they bantered back and forth. Hiro looked at me and whispered, "He's been trying to get her to respect him since she pulled a chair out from under him in 3rd grade. But if you ask me, he's just trying to get his dignity back." He smiled and laughed lightly under his breath.

Yeah, I could get used to this.