An Author's Introduction – My first fan fic! (Huzzah!) I'm not entirely sure how many chapters this story shall be, but many shall it be! (Huzzah!) I'm not sure how often I'll get around to updating this story so please bear with me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater (sad face).

Chapter 1

"Maka! This is so stupid! Why do we have to go on an extra mission on a Saturday? A Saturday! Why not during the week so we can miss so school? But no! It had to be a Saturday! The one day of the week that I get to sleep in and you schedule us for a mission that leaves at five in the freaking morni-"

But Soul was cut off by a swift Maka chop before he could finish. He had been complaining constantly ever since she had woken him up and announced that they were heading out on a mission. "Come on Soul. We're already here," she announced as they reached the top of the stairs to the school. Not surprisingly, they were the first ones of their group to arrive. After a few minutes Kidd, Liz, and Patty arrived and they were followed soon after by Tsubaki and a very sleepy Blackstar. Finally Stein, the head of their expedition team, arrived and once he was sure he had their attention he started briefing them over the mission.

"I'm glad to see we have a tough team for today because this mission will most likely be dangerous and we may encounter some rough spots. Now we'll-"

"So where are we going anyway?" Blackstar interrupted sleepily.

"Yeah, a cool guy like me doesn't wake up early on the weekend for some half-assed mission," Soul added.

Stein sighed. "If you would listen and quit interrupting then I would tell you," he replied exasperatedly. "I will dissect the next person to interrupt me," he added in a level tone, causing the group to shrink back from his crazed smile. "Now as I was saying," he continued, "we'll be investigating a suspected witch's house today."

At the sound of a witch's house the teen's eyes lit up. Three of them still needed to collect witches' souls and with the possibility of a witch there was the possibility of one of them being a giant step closer to death scythe status.

*A/N: Based off of anime from after the Kishin and Maka and Soul have already received death scythe status.

"The house is hidden a little ways outside of the city in the forest so we'll be taking the closest gate on that side of the city to leave through," Stein continued in a rather bored voice. "We'll be gone for almost the rest of the day so I'm giving you an hour to go home and pack water and any other provisions you may need for the rest of the day. When your hour is up meet me at the far west gate to the city. Oh! And if anyone is late we'll be leaving without you and both you and your partner will receive a failing grade," the professor added nonchalantly before turning and walking slowly back down the tall stair case that led to the school.

"He's kidding right?" Maka asked nervously. She couldn't receive a failing grade, it would ruin her reputation as a top mark student!

"I don't think so…" Kidd added sulkily. "After all, a witch's soul is a big deal."

"Come on Soul!" Maka yelled as she grabbed her partner and started to drag him down the stairs, "We need to go pack!" The others started to walk down the stairs and watched until the sound of Soul and Maka's bickering couldn't be heard anymore.

"And I'm going to be the one to kill the witch so Tsubaki can become a death scythe and I'LL HAVE SURPASSED THE GODS!" Blackstar yelled, fully awake and attentive at once. "Don't worry Tsubaki," Blackstar said as he turned to his partner, "You can count on Blackstar to turn you into a death scythe in no time!" He grinned.

"I'm sure I can," Tsubaki said sweetly as she smiled back at her partner.

They were at the bottom of the stairs now and the two teams split their separate ways towards their houses.

"Hey big sis! Do you think we'll get to fight any monsters or ghosts at the witch's house?" Patty asked excitedly. "Maybe her house is a scary lab were she does al kinds of experiments!" Patty giggled.

Liz let out a small scream of fright before replying nervously. "I hope not Patty. Maybe it'll be one of those cute little cottages that you wouldn't think belonged to a witch. Or maybe it'll be one like out of that story where the house was made all out of candy!" Liz said more confidently.

"But big sis," Patty interrupted, "didn't the kids get eaten in that story?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Liz said, bowing her head in defeat.

"I doubt that it will be like any of those," Kidd butted in. "It probably won't be a tight fortress like Baba Yaga's castle either; that would be too noticeable. What we're looking for will probably be a small and inconspicuous. Anything else so close to Death City would have come up on our radar a long time ago. Now come on you two, we have to get home and pack."

***An hour later outside of the west gate***

Approximately 6:30

The teens were all awake now as they stood alone beneath the tall arched gateway. Patty was laughing at something that had caused Liz to shiver and Kidd was busy admiring the symmetry of the gate. They were the first ones there even though Maka, Soul, and Stein had left first because their house was the closest, but it wasn't long before the rest of the group joined them. Now they were just waiting on Stein. Most of them had only had time to pack a quick lunch and snack for later before making the long trek across the city to their appointed meeting place.

"Ironically, Stein is the one who warned us all not to be late and here he is, the last person we're waiting on. That's just not cool at all." Soul grumbled. "If he was intending to meet here until 6:30 all along then he could have told us to meet him here at 6:30 instead of at the DWMA at 5:00."

"Stop whining Soul. We're here now. I'm Professor Stein will be here any minute." Maka scolded.

"But you have to admit that Soul is right Maka," Blackstar said as he walked up. "The crazy professor could have saved a lot of time by just telling us to meet him here and by telling us yesterday that we would need to pack food and water for the day."

"Well…," Maka said unsurely. She had to admit that their argument made sense, but still…maybe the professor had a reason for waking them all up so early. Kidd and the sisters walked up to join the discussion. "We could ask him why when he gets here," she stated unsurely. It didn't sound like a very good idea.

"Ask who what?" A familiar voice came from behind the group.

They all jumped backwards in surprise to stare at Stein, who had walked up behind them while they were talking.

"Why you made us get up so damn early." Blackstar said bluntly, a bored expression on his face.

Oh well that's a simple one," Stein said evenly. "I just wanted to mess with you all." They all stared back at him and he smiled before adding, "also, I didn't want any of you to be half asleep when we get the witch's house. It's dangerous enough as it is walking onto a witch's territory while awake. I wasn't interested in finding out what would happen if I sent students who were asleep on their feet into such a situation; I already know what the outcome would be." They looked slightly less offended at this statement.

"Psh. I could beat a witch in my sleep!" Blackstar piped up.

"And that's exactly the type of thinking that will get you killed if you go charging into battle with a witch today." Stein retorted. "Now come on. If we get going now then we should reach the witch's house just before noon." And with that they set off.

***Noon, witch's house***

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Soul asked doubtingly. "It looks a bit off."

What they were standing in front of was something that none of them would consider a house in the slightest. It was a cave. No, even that seemed like too nice a label for it. It was a rough entrance into the side of the mountain that continued into darkness. From standing outside the mouth of the cave they could see tattered paper and broken bones covered the floor.

"Yep, this is the place." Stein said casually as he took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, quietly thinking to himself.

"It's so…unsymmetrical!" Kidd yelled.

"Kidd be quite or else the witch is going to hear us," Maka scolded.

"Let the witch come!" Blackstar yelled back. "I'll defeat her then take her Soul!"

"-Symmetry-"

"-Surpassing the gods-"

"Maka…chop!"

Soul looked at the two meisters now cowering on the ground holding their heads as if they might split into two if either removed their hands for a second. How uncool…

The sudden quite pulled Stein from his thoughts and back into the present. "Actually, I never said that we'd be fighting a witch to day. I said we would be inspecting what was thought to be a witch's house, possibly one of Medusa's secret hole's from when she was undercover at Shibusen, and that we would be traveling through potential witch territory. I never said that we'd actually be fighting a witch today." Stein clarified.

"You woke us up early for a high class mission so that you could look at some dusty papers?" Soul asked angrily. "Couldn't you have done that on your own, and I dunno maybe NOT BY WASTING OUR SATURDAY?"

Stein seemed to ignore Soul's questions and instead turned to Maka and Kid. "You two both have the ability of soul perception, even if Maka's is stronger than yours Kidd. If a witch lived here her strong soul would have left some kind of imprint or residue, even under soul protect it would have left a small imprint. Tell me, can you find any trace of a witch?"

The two turned and squinted at the cave before Maka replied, "Yeah. I can see wait traces of a witches soul in and around the cave." It took Kidd a few more moments before he slowly began to nod his head in agreement. "But it's not Medusa's." Maka added now. "The wavelength is very similar magic to hers, but is still different from Medusa's."

"Excellent perception." Stein said. "You're right in saying its not Medusa's wavelength. It was probably a witch sent by the witches' council to keep an eye on her though. Only the souls of very powerful witches will leak through soul protect when they stay in one place for too long, but judging by the spiritual pressure here I'd say that that witch is long gone."

"Damn. I guess today isn't the day I surpass the gods and turn Tsubaki into a death scythe." Blackstar said, slightly hurt.

"Well if we weren't going to fight a witch, which would make sense for Soul and Maka to be here because Soul is already a death scythe, then why did you bring us out here professor?" Tsubaki asked curiously.

Maka mental gave herself a face palm. 'Of course there wasn't a witch! Why would they need to come if there was?' she thought to herself.

'Uh-oh," Soul thought. 'Maka's got that face she gets when she's frustrated that she missed something. He had better start thinking of an excuse to tell her for when they got home for why she missed the obvious fact that they already had a witch's soul or else he wouldn't hear the end of it for the rest of the weekend. Think. Think. They were tired! Anyone who gets up at 4:30 in the morning can't be expected to be thinking straight. He was saved!' Soul smirked and closed his eyes, putting his hands behind his head as he stretched.

"The reason I brought you all here is because the situation is potentially very dangerous and retrieval mission such as this could only be completed by very high level weapons and meisters, which is why you were all 'offered' positions on this mission. Even if you had refused we would have forced to accept the mission."

"So then what are we looking for anyway?" Maka asked, turning to look back at the cave.

"Who cares?" Blackstar shrugged before Stein could answer. "They just dragged us out here for some stupid treasure hunt in an old cave. If it was dangerous we would have been attacked or hit a trap by now, but here we are safe and sound outside a witch's lair."

The group turned to look at Blackstar who had just made the most that they had ever heard him say as they recalled the many traps that had surrounded Baba Yaga Castle.

Stein took in a deep breath and breathed out a long puff of smoke before answering. "Blackstar is right when he said it's different situation from when we attacked Arachnophobia's base, but it's not the place we're hunting that's dangerous." He breathed another wisp of smoke before continuing. "It's the item."

Patty let out a loud laugh and they all turned to stare at her. She was chasing a butterfly. Liz was chasing after Patty yelling how it wasn't safe to be running off into the forest alone before she finally managed to tackle her sister and drag her back to the rest of the group as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It hadn't.

"Don't mind us." Liz smiled as she held a struggling Patty who was now desperately trying to break free to terrorize a bunny that had just hopped out from a bush before it ran away.

"As I was saying," Stein continued, "the weapon we're hunting for is rated very dangerous. We're not yet sure the nature of this weapon or what it is yet, but knowing that it was created by a witch with a wavelength similar to Medusa's is enough to the academy on alert. Proceed with caution and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING before you're sure what it does." Stein warned.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, the team turned and started to file through the mouth of the cave, Stein in the lead with a bright green flare held aloft in one hand so they could see. The weapons filed in next to their meisters by instinct, ready to transform at a moments notice.

From the outside the cave looked like a small shelter chiseled out of the rock face, but once inside they could see the mouth continued down a long tunnel that lead deep into the belly of the mountain. The darkness pressed in around them and if it had not been for the eerie light that the flair had been giving off then they would have been lost in the darkness. The air was cool and dank. Maka could feel the heat radiating from Soul, who was walking next to her. She noticed that the way he was walking was tensed and alert and alert towards the darkness surrounding them and that he was standing up straight in attention rather than his usual relaxed slouch.

After a few minutes of walking the skinny tunnel opened up into a wide cavern that left them speechless. The walls of the large room were lined with shelves that towered above them and contained a variety of peeling books and jars filled suspicious goops and creatures. Deep silver marking were etched all over the room causing Stein's single flair to light the entire room with ease. Even Professor Stein, she noticed, seemed a slight bit taken aback by the advanced study, which could have fit his classroom in it with room to spare.

"So what exactly did you say we were looking for again?" Blackstar asked as he eyed the daunting bookshelves.

"Could be anything," Stein said casually as he readjusted his glasses. "Assuming we can rule out all of the books for now, that narrows our search down to a couple hundred glasses jars, and vials. We'll have to send another recovery team to retrieve all of this stuff once we remove the weapon."

"But it'll take days to look through all this stuff," Maka wondered aloud. "Even by eliminating books it's still so…huge."

"Well yes, I think huge would accurately describe the mess we're in." Soul said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes and resumed his regular bad posture.

Maka scowled, but said nothing. She was fighting the urge to grab the nearest book, which was a thick and lethal-looking hardback, and to bring it swinging down on her partner's head.

"Well then I guess we had better get started searching." Kidd said in surrender as he started to walk towards the nearest bookcase with Liz and Patty, who was busy asking her older sister if a giraffe would fit in the giant room; it was very obvious that many giraffes could fit with ease in the large room. As he walked away everyone could hear Kidd muttering something about being "disgusted by the utter garbage" and how the entire place was "a mockery of symmetry" but his partners were too busy to really be listening to his rambling. The team quietly dispersed, but not before Stein had reminded them one more time not to go sticking their noses into anything that were unsure about. Blackstar scoffed and walked off towards the far side of the room with Tsubaki and Stein went to investigate a giant desk that sat off to one side off the room, leaving Soul and Maka alone at the entrance to the large library. Maka turned to the bookshelf on the opposite side from where Kidd and the sisters were and started striding towards it.

Soul grimaced. Knowing his careful meister, she would probably deem everything dangerous and have Stein review it. He sighed. Guess it couldn't be helped. He ran to catch up with Maka who was already examining a tall bookshelf.

It all happened to fast for him to react properly. He saw bottle shut tight with a fat cork resting on the edge of sitting shelve high above, Maka dislodging a stubborn book from the bookcase, sending a shiver up the shelves, the bottle tilt and plummet over the edge. He leapt forward and shoved Maka out of the way, his sudden movement drawing the attention of everyone else, as the bottle crashed down on his head and shattered.

He instantly regretted it.

He was now covered from head to foot in warm, sticky liquid that smelled strongly of what he felt safe assume was sulfur and cinnamon. The smell made him cringe his nose in disgust as it continued to drip down his saturated clothes.

"Soul!" Maka yelped as she got to her feet and the rest of their team ran over to see what had happened.

The smell was now giving him a headache and the liquid felt like it was burning itself into his skin, but when he looked down at his arms they looked fine. He had fallen when the bottle hit his head, but when Maka reached out a hand to help him up Stein quickly pulled her back.

"We don't know what that was yet," he said strictly. "No one else can be contaminated with it." Then he turned towards Soul. "How are felling?"

"The bottle shattered on impact so it didn't really scratch my head," he replied, "But I do have a splitting headache now from the swell and the liquid burns…no burns isn't the right worn, its more of it tingles and makes my skin feel kind of numb." He answered nervously.

"Then you lucky," Stein answered. "From what you told me it does sound like a corrosive or dangerous element, but we still need to get you checked out." He stood contemplating for a minute before coming to a conclusion. "Soul, I am going to give you this flair," he said as he pulled another from his pocket and handed the first flair to Soul carefully so that he didn't get any liquid on him. He lit the second flair and continued. "You are to stay here while the rest of us go to get water to rinse this off with from ours bags that we left out front. Because of how shallow the cave is, if you yell for anything than we should be able to hear you without any problem, even from outside. We'll be back in less than five minutes." And with that the professor stood up and motioned for everyone else to follow him.

"I'm staying here with Soul." Maka said, not moving.

"Maka we don't know anything about the effects or the fumes from whatever was in that bottle. It's not safe for you to stay here without us knowing those things." Stein reasoned.

"Go on Maka, I'll be fine." Soul said from his position on the floor.

She looked at him doubtingly, but finally gave in to the reassurance of her friends.

Soul watched as the group slowly disappeared down the hall, leaving him alone with the flair. Once he was sure they were gone he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, gritting his teeth. His skin now felt like there was fire crawling beneath it. He tried opening his eyes again, but the light from the flair burned and made them water. He closed his eyes and waited.

Outside the rest of the team regrouped.

"That idiot Soul," Maka growled. "He always has to be a hero and go and jump in the way of every single injury coming towards me that's worse than a paper cut."

"Soul's going to be fine Maka," Tsubaki said comfortingly.

"Besides, Soul would never just stand by and watch you get hurt," Liz added. "That's just not the kind of person he is. He'll pull through, he always has."

"Yeah!" Patty agreed.

Blackstar made a move to say something, but Kidd had his hand over the ninja's mouth before he could speak. Blackstar pulled away looking offended and stated, "I was just going to tell her that Soul has survived a lot worse than this," before walking away.

"PROFESSOR! THE FLAIR WENT OUT!" echoed Soul's voice from the cave. He didn't sound worried or nervous, but spoke in his usual 'cool' drawl that made him sound almost bored.

Soul felt like his entire inside were on fire as he curled up in the dark and he suppressed a groan of pain from were the cold stone floor was rubbing against his skin. His head felt like it was splitting open. The last thing he needed was for Maka to be upset that he had taken a hit for he again and that he was suffering for it.

They had all collected their water bottles and were gathered around the cave entrance. "Come on, we need to get going," Stein said as he started down the hall at a swift pace.

Maka could feel her heart racing nervously in her chest. She was the first one behind Stein and had to almost jog to keep up with his pace. They slowed as the came to a stop in the great library. It was dark and their eyes were still not very adjusted to the low light. Just as Kidd, the last one of their team, entered the room the flair fizzled and went out.

Stein swore and the only sound they could hear was Stein digging around in his many pockets for another flair.

"Soul?" Maka whispered nervously.

Nothing.

Liz spoke out in a sudden outburst that made them all jump, even though it had only been a whisper. "What's that across the room?" She asked in a terrified voice as she pointed to the opposite end of the hall.

Even though they couldn't see Liz point they all turned the heads in the direction in the far side of the room and froze. A pair of large red eyes were watching them a perch that was hidden somewhere on the opposite end of the room.

"Ah here we are!" Stein said as he finally managed to find another flair, unaware of what the teens were staring at. He lit the flair and the room was cast under the soft silver and green light once again. He turned to see what the students were staring at and stopped cold.

Perched high on top of a bookshelf at the end of the hall was a massive silver dragon. It sat frozen as it watched them.

"Where's Soul?" Maka interrupted suddenly as she looked over to where they had left her partner. Her heart was panicking now as her eyes searched the shadows for any place he could be hiding. Eventually her gaze was drawn back up to the silver dragon.

Stein broke eye contact for a second to glance over to where Soul had been waiting for them. He was gone; the only sign of him being there was a pool of the thick orange liquid that had fallen on him. His gaze flicked back to the dragon. He had seen dragons before, and even though it had only been a few, something felt strangely off about this one.

Finally Blackstar asked what everyone had been wondering. "Professor, did that thing e-eat Soul?"

Stein waited a few seconds before answering, though it felt like a millennia. "I don't know it's possible but-"

Before he could finish or anyone else could move he sprinted forward and lunged at the dragon.

"Blackstar, no!" Stein yelled as Blackstar sailed through the air. The dragon could easily burn the ninja to a crisp with of puff of fire while he was vulnerable in the air. But much to his surprise, it didn't. Instead it gave a roar of surprise and leapt to the ground a few feet away as Blackstar smashed into the rock behind where the dragon's head had just been.

Blackstar attacked again and again. The dragon seemed to becoming more and more irritated, but instead of attacking it kept running away from Blackstar until he trapped it in a corner.

"How dare you eat my friend you coward!" Blackstar yelled as he leapt forward with his wavelength focused into punch that would finish the dragon for good.

Maka caught the dragon looking at her as it cringed against the wall. She knew that look! "Blackstar STOP!"

He stopped in inch from the dragon. "WHAT? Can't you see I'm trying to kill the bastard that ATE your partner?"

Maka took another quick glance at the dragon's soul to make sure she wasn't mistaken. "You idiot. That IS my partner."

Cliff hanger! I'm sorry the first chapter was soooo long. I thought about splitting it up but I wanted to get all of the boring introduction out of the way in one swing. So, yay or nay? Review please?