Chapter One:

New Students to the Academy. Incomplete Soul Resonance? Part One

"Kayleigh! There it is!" Valkyrie said, pointing to a large black building not far ahead.

"Be careful, Valkyrie! Or you'll lose your balance!" Kayleigh warned. It's pretty obvious why they are partners. Other than being best friends, the meister-weapon pair were almost complete opposites. Valkyrie was an outgoing daredevil, always leaping into situations without thinking, even if it gets her in trouble. Kayleigh, on the other hand, never does anything without knowing the possible outcomes, and likes to take things slow. The two balance each other out.

"FINALLY! We're here," the red-head shouted, getting off her bike. The two girls locked their vehicles in the stand and walked over to the base of the building.

"It's so big," the brunette looked up at the large place where she would learn to keep evil in check.

"Yeah, you missed a lot when you delayed your move by a month," Valkyrie playfully punched her friend's arm. "Well, it doesn't matter now. Race you up the stairs!" Valkyrie took off up the steps. Kayleigh reacted quickly, passing her partner a third of the way up. Soon both reached the top, with the meister slightly ahead.

"C'mon! You always beat me!" Valkyrie pouted.

"Well that's why I'm the meister." They both started laughing.

"Hey, Valkyrie. So this is your new partner?" the girls both looked over to see a white haired boy walking away from the school.

"Hey Soul. Yeah, this is Kayleigh," Valkyrie nudged her friend.

"Well then, Black*Star and I are still waiting for our fight. After school sound good?" he came up and held out his hand. Valkyrie smirked and shook the boy's hand.

"I've been waiting for you to ask." Valkyrie responded. Soul turned walked into the building.

"What are you thinking?! A fight? C'mon, it that even allowed?" Kayleigh scolded her friend.

"Relax. It's fine as long as it's supervised. We do it all the time, well, partners do, anyway. I've battled a few times with the guys, one-on-one. But now that you're here, we can finally participate! We are even allowed to use Soul Resonance!" Valkyrie beamed. Kayleigh stood there, dumbfounded, but quickly regained her senses.

"Soul Resonance? Have Will and Sandra been fighting, too?" Kayleigh asked.

"They've tried, but they haven't won any. They haven't collected any souls either"

The purple haired weapon and the messy brown haired meister have never successfully completed a Soul Resonance. For whatever reason, they pair can't figure out how to make it work. This made Kayleigh worry to no end.

(Time Skip to after School)

"So you get to have a fight with Soul? Lucky." Kayleigh and Valkyrie had met up with Will, Sandra, Grey, and Skylar, who were all going to watch the fight.

"I'm still not sure if it's a good idea. I don't want you getting hurt," Kayleigh said.

"You worry too much. If anything I think you will get hurt." Valkyrie put her hand on her partner's shoulder. "Besides, whoever will be supervising will call it if things get out of control. So don't hold back!"

"Don't worry, we won't," Soul, Kayleigh's teacher, and a few other people walked out of the school building. "I got Professor Stein to oversee our fight."

"Alright! Before we start, Kayleigh, you need to meet some people. This is Maka, Black*Star, Tsubaki, Liz, Patty, and, Death the Kid, or just Kid," Valkyrie pointed to each person in turn. "And this," she glomped her meister. "is Kayleigh, my meister." Kayleigh was slightly uncomfortable with all the stares, and stared messing with her lavender and sliver bracelet.

"Can we just get this over with?" Kayleigh said nervously. "I'm supposed to talk to Lord Death about an entrance exam."

"Actually, this works out perfectly," said a goofy voice. We all turned to see Lord Death walking out of the building. "If you and Valkyrie can beat Maka and Soul, you're more than welcome to fully enroll." Kayleigh stared, dumbfounded. "Valkyrie and all of your friends always tell me how talented you are. I expect great things from you, Miss Monahan." The girl blushed and glanced at her friends.

"I accept."

"AWW! BUT I WANTED TO FIGHT, TOO!" shouted Black*Star.

"Me, too." Sandra slightly pouted

"Then why don't we do a little assessment for all of you" Professor Stein suggested. Everyone got excited. Nothing exciting had really happened since the new students had gotten there, so every student was itching for a fight

"Alright! C'mon Kayleigh! Let's do this!" Valkyrie shouted, then transformed into a katana. All the other weapons transformed and the meister took their places.

"Okay. This will be a 6-on-7 fight. Victory goes to the team who defeats all of the team's members first. I will call when a meister is unable to continue," Professor Stein announced. "Now, BEGIN!"

Both sides charged at each other. Will and Sandra flew at Black*Star, Tsubaki's chain catching Sandra's mace head. The two meisters took turns swinging and blocking each other's attacks. After a while, Sandra's reflection appeared on the handle.

"C'mon Will! We gotta win this!' Sandra shouted angrily.

"I'm trying, okay! Black*Star is tougher than he looks!"

"Let's just try a Soul Resonance."

"NO! I'm not going to hurt you again!" Will stopped pushing forward and blocked a side hit.

The problem with Will and Sandra's Soul Resonance is that, most of the time, Will is forced into it. Sandra forces her own soul wavelength as the source of the attack's power. This causes Will to lose control and Sandra to not be able to sustain her weapon form and take serious physical damage. Unfortunately, Sandra's pride drives her to keep going, while Will's fear causes him to not be able to complete the link. Therefore, not completing a stable resonance.

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME AND WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF FOR ONCE!" Sandra shouted. This caused Will to freeze up. Black*Star landed a direct hit to Will's side. Stein called them out of the fight.

Skylar was fighting Kid, and interesting match, to say the least. Grey was a claw-arm (Think Kid Icarus: Uprising), So Skylar always fought melee. Kid used twin pistols; ranged weapons. The pink-haired girl easily kept the space close, being careful of where the opponent was. Grey was always keeping an eye out for her, too.

"Skylar, Soul Resonance?" Grey asked. Everyone seemed to be going all out.

"Yes. Are you ready?" Skylar backed up slightly.

"Yeah…Let's Go! Soul Resonance!" by this time, Black*Star had run over boasting at his win.

"Resonance of the Beast, Tiger Claw!" Skylar's voice echoed as the claws grew to twice the original size. The movement was fast, as the claws swiped and a shockwave blasted out towards the two meisters. Stein quickly called both pairs out of the match. Skylar, with her weapon back to original size, went to help Kayleigh.

Kayleigh and Maka had been fighting move for move, heartbeat per heartbeat. Katana blocking scythe, and vise-versa. No mistakes were made between the two. The fast movements made it hard to see if one was pulling ahead. When Skylar came over, she lasted for a minute, but couldn't keep up, and was hit with the scythe. The two remaining meisters were still at it…and some people were getting impatient.

"C'mon! Kayleigh, you can do this!" Valkyrie shouted. "Let's do a Soul Resonance."

"Valkyrie has a good idea. Let's do this, Maka"

Both meisters nodded.

"Let's Go! SOUL RESONANCE!" all four voices could be heard all across the city. Maka and Soul built up power for Witch Hunter, the amplified wavelengths almost being visible. Kayleigh and Valkyrie built up the same, if not more energy being generated. The katana grew about 25% in size, and 10% in width.

"WITCH HUNTER/KOHANA THORN!"

The large scythe technique was blocked by the glowing blade, massive amounts of energy being exerted from both sides. The position was held until Kayleigh had a sharp pain in her chest, and the resonance was cut off, her blade turning back to its original state. The brunette dodged quickly as the scythe crashed down to the earth. Kayleigh fell to her knees holding her chest, and Valkyrie reverted back to her human state. The red-head knelt down next to her meister.

"You okay? You really need to figure out how to control you wavelength output." Valkyrie put her hand on her meister's shoulder.

Kayleigh looked up with a slight smile. "I'm sorry. I thought I had it under control this time."

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt her that badly." Maka rushed over to the meister weapon pair.

Kayleigh stood up with the help of Valkyrie, a hand still gripped on her chest.

"No, it's not your fault; I just overused my energy a bit. I'm still trying to figure out how to stop it. So, our resonance has been…incomplete."

"Kayleigh! Valkyrie! That was amazing!" Skylar shouted and ran over, followed by everyone else.

"Yeah. You both did much better than me and Sir Argues-A-Lot" Sandra glared at her partner.

"Well, I must say. That was quite impressive you two. I don't think I've seen Maka and Soul work that hard in a while."

"Thank you, sir," Kayleigh bowed slightly. "Oh! Before I forget, is the music room free tomorrow after school?"

"Hmm…I believe so," Death replied.

"Why do you need the music room?" Soul asked, curiosity brimming in his voice.

"We are all pretty big musicians. I brought all the pick-ups and mics I need to record, and was gonna test it out. You're welcome to come." She cast a smile towards the group. "Anyways, we should get going, Valkyrie. I have some work I have to finish up. See you all tomorrow!" Everyone shared goodbyes and went their separate ways.

Maka stayed back for a bit. A 'thinking' expression on her face.

"I take it you sensed it as well?" Stein approached her.

Maka nodded, watching the brunette leave. "Her soul was different than the others, but it wasn't stronger."

"Can you explain how?"

"That's the hard part. I can't describe it easily." She paused for a moment. "If I had to describe it, I would say it was…pure…no, that's not it…kind…yeah, kind. She was completely willing to go along with what her friends wanted, even though she didn't really want to. She cared about her loyalties…" Maka trailed off.

"Loyalty? You know, people say that loyalty is the heart's greatest strength and the soul's greatest weakness." Stein replied.

Maka thought about this for a second. "What does that mea-" she realized that she was talking to air. Stein had left.

'Loyalty is really that strong?...That sounds a lot like bravery…'

A/N: Yeah! Finally a new chapter! Sorry it took so long. School was in the way a bit…Anyhow, I'd like to shout out to my foreign readers. It really means a lot to me that this is reaching out so far. Speaking of, I'd like to make this a little more commutative. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for character relations ships or if you want something to happen in the plot. I'd really appreciate some feedback. Thanks a ton for reading, and hopefully I'll talk to you all soon! Midnite, out! 3