Hey, so this is my first fanfiction and it was a partner story made with my friend Kav.
Takes place from chapter 87 of the manga and onwards. :)
I DON'T OWN SE OR THE CHARACTERS. OTL
Hope you enjoy!
Snow was starting to fall in the cold Moscow air as Maka, Soul, Kim, Jackie and Professor Stein raced to the location where Crona was last sighted. When they arrived, the sight that they encountered was one they had not expected; Crona was bent over the mangled body of her mother, Medusa.
"Wh-what the hell happened here?" whispered a slightly disturbed Maka. The others just stared ahead, not too sure what to make of the situation.
"Did…did Crona do this?" asked Soul. The group stiffened at the question.
Suddenly, as if Crona could sense their presence, she stood up and slowly turned toward them. Her face was twisted into a horrifying smile and her eyes were just as wild. Without warning, she suddenly burst out into a fit of crazed laughter.
"The madness has consumed her," Stein whispered to the group. Crona's laughs quieted down some, but did not stop. She continued to giggle to herself.
"It was just a simple story….hehehe…really, a very simple story….hehehe…" giggled Crona.
"She's completely lost it..." Kim gripped Jackie's sleeve even harder. A silence suddenly went through the air.
"…A simple story indeed…hehe…A simple story…ABOUT KILLING PEOPLE… HAHAHAHA"
"Maka..." Soul looked at his partner. Maka was staring at Crona, the tears already welling in her eyes. Soul didn't like this. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that they weren't leaving here unscathed.
Maka's movements beside him broke his train of thought, as she took a step towards the still giggling Crona.
"MAKA!" Three pairs of hands reached out to hold her back. Maka stopped walking but was still staring at Crona, a cold fury in her eyes and tears running down her cheeks.
"C-Crona…what happened to you?" said Maka in as steady a voice as she could muster. Upon hearing her name, Crona turned her full attention to Maka, an evil, ungodly smile creeping its way onto her face.
"Oh. Hi, Maka…hehehe…isn't it amazing? I'm…hehehe…I'm…ahahaha…I'M FINALLY FREE FROM HER. HAHAHAHAHA" Crona screamed. Everyone else remained silent. Maka started to move again.
"Maka, don't! What if she attacks you? She's completely unstable right now!" Soul tried to warn. Maka wasn't listening, though. She continued to walk toward Crona. Soul tried to grab her to stop her, but she pushed his hand away.
"Stop it, Soul! She needs our help! I can't stand seeing her like this!" Maka snapped.
"Maka. we can't risk going near her right now. I know you want to help Crona, we all do, but if you get near her in the state she's in, she won't hesitate to kill you." Stein put a comforting hand on Maka's shoulder but she just shrugged it off, refusing to take her eyes off of Crona.
"Stay out of it, Professor. I don't want your opinion," Maka growled. SHe began to take more confident and determined steps. She was going to save Crona from the madness.
"Soul," Stein had come up beside him, watching Maka as she was approaching Crona, "go to Maka, stay by her side, be ready for anything. Kim, Jaqueline and I will back you two up." Soul nodded and rushed to walk behind Maka.
Crona had finally stopped her giggling and was watching as the two of them came towards her with a sort of interest.
"Maka, keep your guard up. I don't want anyone getting hurt," Soul warned. Maka looked at Soul and nodded in reply.
They looked back to where Crona was. She was no longer there. Alarmed, Soul immediately went to Maka and transformed into a scythe. Maka grabbed him and her eyes wildly searched around for any sign of Crona. She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and quickly whirled around and guarded just as Crona brought Ragnarok down with extreme force.
"You should know better, Maka! You should know that at any moment I could harm him!" Crona yelled with an insane grin on her face and Ragnarok began to vibrate.
Oh no, though Maka, I almost forgot what happens when I guard against Ragnarok! "Soul!" She yelled. However, she reacted too slowly, and blood began to spurt as she heard Soul cry out. "NO!" she cried.
Crona Raised the sword again for a second blow, when Maka kicked Crona away as hard as she possibly could. Crona fell from the force of the push and Maka jumped away from her quickly.
"Soul, are you alright?" she asked him without taking her eyes off the staggering Crona.
There was no response.
"Soul? Soul! ANSWER ME, SOUL!" she yelled in panic.
"…I…I'm fine…" Soul grunted. He coughed out more blood. "I'm fine, don't worry about me." He was panting heavily and blood kept dripping from the scythe. This is getting bad, He thought. That was a nasty hit and I'm losing too much blood. I don't know how much longer I can hold up…
Crona charged again, holding Ragnarok high into the air. Maka jumped out of the way just as she brought the demon sword down in the place where Maka was standing just a moment ago.
Crona straightened and started giggling again. She turned towards Maka slowly, Ragnarok hanging slackly in her hand.
"Ma...Ka... hehehehe oh Maaaakaaaaa... why won't you play with me Maka? Were FRIENDS aren't we? hehehe"
Maka's grip tightened on Soul as she ground her teeth together.
"Keep it together Maka. Your wavelengths are starting to go haywire, don't let the black blood go to your head!" Soul said as his mind swirled while he was straining to stay conscious.
"I'm fine. But, Soul, are you sure you can fight? I can sense you're started to waver…" Soul honestly didn't know. He knew he needed to stay strong and protect Maka no matter what, but he was getting dizzy. He had lost too much blood. "Soul, please stay with me, just a little longer! You can do it!" Maka begged.
"Makaaaaaaaa..." Maka's attention snapped back to the staggering Crona, "Makakakakakakakaa!" Crona's screech pierced Maka's ears as she watched her raise Ragnarok again and began to run toward where she was standing. Maka tried to jump out of the way again as Crona swung, missing her by just an inch, but whirled and her foot caught Maka on the side and set her flying. Soul was wrenched from her grip and he clattered on the ground a couple feet away from where she lay.
Maka sat up slowly just as Soul transformed out of his weapon form, and as he lay on his side, Maka could see the extent of the damage that was done. His entire left shoulder was covered in blood and the wound continued down his back all the way to his right hip. He appeared to have lost consciousness. She gritted her teeth as she looked at her partner's beaten and battered form. Soul's eyes slowly opened and they stared at each other and the space that separated them. Soul saw movement out of the corner of his eye and rolled onto his back and blocked with his blade just as Crona rushed at him.
"SOUL! MAKA!" Kim went to go rush to help them, Stein put his arm out in front of her to stop her from going to them.
"Wait Kim. Be patient. We'll help them if they really need it, but this...this is Maka's battle."
"But what about Soul? He's hurt!" Kim protested, but Stein held her back, and with a grumble, she stopped resisting and with great strain watched the rest of the fight.
The pain in Soul's shoulder was increasing the longer the fight went on. Crona raised her sword once more and slashed across Soul's left side. He cried out and he was sent rolling away.
Crona raised the sword to strike again but Stein had had enough. "Alright, Kim, Jaqueline, let's go."
The three began to sprint towards the demon sword and its wielder, Jackie automatically transforming into her lantern form and attaching herself to Kim's hand.
Soul had managed to struggle to his feet, but Crona had already prepared herself to deliver the final blow, and Stein knew he was going to be too late.
Time seemed to slow as Crona dragged the sword down toward Soul. Soul closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable amount of pain.
He heard the splat of metal meeting flesh…
…Strange…I don't feel any new pain…
Soul dared to crack an eye open, and immediately wished he hadn't.
In front of him, stood Maka, her arms spread wide in a protective manner her eyes closed, face twisted in pain with Ragnarok sticking out of her chest. A pool of blood had already begun to form around her feet. Stein and Kim had stopped running and were staring at the pair with horrified looks on their faces. Time stood still for Soul, all he could do was stare at his ash-blonde meister that had taken the blow for him. Crona had stopped too, her eyes wide as conflicting emotions ran across her face. It was then that Stein knew it, Maka had stopped the black blood.
"M-Ma…Maka…" a horrified Soul mumbled and he finally lost consciousness.
Crona stood staring at the pair; Maka still standing with the blade in her chest, Soul lying unconscious in the dirt. She let loose a terribly agonized scream. "WH-WHAT HAVE I DONE?" The tears freely poured down her face as Maka fell to her knees.
Stein immediately took action. He wouldn't lose any students today.
Crona was wailing by the time Stein got there, Maka had fallen onto her side and was panting heavily. He skidded through the dirt and went to her side.
"KIM! COME HERE NOW!" The frozen Kim finally jerked back into awareness and ran as fast as she could to where Maka was laying. It didn't look good, the blood pool kept growing larger and larger. "Kim, I need you to use your healing magic to close up the wound, Jackie, go tend to Soul." Kim nodded and Jackie transformed back to her human form and went to the unconscious boy. "Alright Kim, are you ready?" Stein gripped the sword still embedded in Maka's chest. "3, 2, 1 NOW!" He ripped the sword out with a squelching sound as Maka cried out and finally lost consciousness. Kim immediately went to work as Stein stood and walked over to the bawling Crona who was now curled up into a ball.
"Are you alright, Crona?" He asked her in a gentle tone, patting her on the head.
Crona sniffled and looked up at Stein through teary eyes, "what have I done? They're my friends…they trusted me…I turned my back on them…How could they ever forgive me? And what about Maka? I killed Maka!" She wailed.
"They don't blame you Crona, they blame the black blood. And you didn't kill Maka; Kim's healing her right now. Everything will be okay." Stein explained. He hoped to God that everything would be okay.
He glanced over at Kim and Maka, a light was coming from the wound in her chest and Kim's brow was furrowed with concentration. Jackie was examining the cuts on Soul's body and using her own small amount of power to heal those as well. Crona sniffed again and Stein's attention turned back to her.
"Crona," the girl looked up at him, tears still running down her face and her cheeks red from anger, "Listen, this is very important. Did Medusa ever mention to you the whereabouts of the kishin Asura?"
Crona frowned and closed her eyes as she thought about it very hard. "I-I don't think.. I can't...w-w-wait she did say something about...about Asura."
"Crona, I need you to tell me what you know." Stein said it gently, but still firmly.
"Well, sh-she s-aid soothing a-about the…" she stopped and looked at Stein.
"The what, Crona, this is very important." Stein asked urgently. He began to hear Soul moaning as he regained consciousness.
"The-the Lost Island."
That got Stein's attention. "Are you sure, Crona? Absolutely positive?"
She simply nodded.
"Thank you, Crona." Stein turned away and went to check on Soul and Maka.
Many of the wounds that Soul received had been completely healed, yet the one on his shoulder was not healing as well as Stein and Jackie would have hoped. "How deep was that one on his shoulder, Jackie?" Stein asked.
"Well, I'm surprised he was able to move his arm at all, the wound was so deep, his arm should have just fallen off." that brought a heavy silence onto the pair.
The silence was quickly shattered when Maka began to cough. Stein quickly rushed over to inspect and noticed that Maka was completely healed.
Her eyelids began to flutter as she started to regain consciousness again. Although her wounds were completely healed, she continued to cough up the rest of the blood that was left in her throat and lungs. Eventually, her green eyes opened all the way.
"Pro-Professor Stein!" she rasped and began to cough some more.
"Shhh.. Maka, you'll be fine now. But, you should know better, that was extremely reckless. You could have died."Stein scolded.
"I'm sorry Professor... I'm really sorry, but I knew that if I didn't do anything, Soul…he…he would've..." she couldn't bring herself to finish the rest of that sentence.
"MAKA!" Soul was struggling to his feet and soon made his way over to them, clutching his still wounded shoulder, his eyes wild with worry. "Don't ever do that to me again, Maka. I was so worried! I thought I los-" He stopped himself before he said too much, his face growing red. "Er…anyways…are you alright?"
"Soul…" She looked at him and was just happy he was alive.
"Um…M-Ma…ka…?" Everyone turned to see Crona, cowering in a ball, looking as though she were on the verge of tears again. "I…I'm so sorry…" she sobbed.
Maka stood and walked over to Crona, knelt down and hugged her. "Are you okay, Crona?"
Crona simply returned the hug and began to bawl out a series of apologies.
"Shh…it's okay. I forgive you. You couldn't help it…It's alright…"
A small smile of pure adoration appeared on Crona's face as she hugged Maka. "Thank you, Maka, for being so nice to me."
Maka smiled at Crona then looked up at the professor. "So, what do we do now?" she asked him.
"Well, now we know Asura's location, so I say we go after him. Soul and Maka, are you both recovered?"
"Somewhat." Maka replied, Soul just simply nodded.
"Alright. Kim, Jaqueline and I will take Crona back to the DWMA and tell Lord Death about where Asura is. Maka, Soul, I want the two of you to go on ahead of us to the Lost Island. You'll be meeting Black Star and Kidd there as they were both already assigned to that area. You think you two can handle that?
Soul made a tch noise and Maka smirked at Stein, "Oh, we can handle it."