A/N: To make things clear, this is set after the ending of the Soul Eater manga and there will be new OC's. Thanks.
Chapter 2: Drops of Regret
Beep. Beep. Beep. It's a machine. Soul felt his eyelids heavy as lead. His arms and legs felt like someone had shattered the bones out of them. But, worst of all, was the waking up; reality hit home. Someone took Maka and he doesn't even know who or why. The sister who spoke apparently knew him. Nothing made sense.
"Soul? Soul Eater Evans?"
A clear voice spoke to him with a motherly tone.
Soul opened his eyes and instantly brought up his hands up to his face to shield his eyes from the abrupt ceiling lights. He grimaced and answered back softly, "Who's asking?"
"Good morning, Soul. Glad to see you're awake. I'm the new nurse, Salva in charge of DWMA infirmary and I'm in charge of your health until you've made a sound recovery." She flipped pages on her clipboard and added, "You have a few visitors. Would you like me to send them?"
Soul nodded slowly. The red-headed nurse turned mechanically and walked over to the door and greeted the visitors. Soul saw several blurry shadows approach him. As his eyes slowly adjusted to his environment, he realized it was Death the Kid, Patty and Liz, Blackstar, Tsubaki, and Professor Stein.
"How are you feeling, Soul?" Stein's voice broke through the silence. He pushed his chair closer to Soul's bed.
"I'm fine. I need to find Maka. Now." Soul attempted to sit up straighter but held his head in pain. Tsubaki placed her hand over his and said, "You need to rest. You won't be do anything if you're hurt. So heal first." She gave him a warm smile.
Kid then approached him and placed a chair next to Soul in an angle of ninety degrees.
"Tell us what happened. And what do you mean you have to find Maka? Did something happen?"
Soul cleared his throat with a loud grunt. He signaled for a glass of water.
"Maka wanted to have a talk so we went somewhere and, uh that's where it happened.
These two chicks came out of nowhere. And one of them ate HER..." Soul clutched his head in pain and groaned.
Professor Stein stayed silent for a moment. Finally done with his extensive pondering, Stein asked firmly, "Soul, did you notice a sign or symbol or something of that sort?"
A quiet realization crept up his shoulders and his eyes went wide.
"Wait... I think I saw something like that. It was like a reverse E with lines going through."
Stein started to rotate his screw and went immediately silent. His reaction was odd and soon piqued the others.
BlackStar made an irritated grunt and asked Stein, "Well, don't leave us hanging. What do you know?"
Stein growled softly, "Not here. In my lab."
After that, he whizzed out the door with wheels skidding after him.
The rest of the group excused themselves.
Soul was once again alone. With his mind. He rung the nurse. "DOUBLE THE MORPHINE, WILL YA?"
After a week and a half recovering, Soul was released. His mind was clouded. His eyes bleak and sunken. Yet he still felt his soul hopeful. As he was leaving the infirmary, a nurse came running after him. "Wait! Soul! I have something for you!" The nurse panted out with her hands on her knees. Soul waited for her to catch her breath. "Well, what is it?"
She took out a white note from her right breast pocket and gave it to Soul. His eyes bulged and he gripped the note tightly.
"Report to 292. We have information about your meister."
Soul gritted his teeth and started walking quickly towards the classroom. DWMA was going to sleep. Lights turned off in a organized manner. Door locks clicked. Students hurried down the steps back to their home, with the occasional stumble and trip. Soul approached the main hall with extreme caution. The hall lights flickered, finally leaving him in darkness. Soul noticed a sliver of light under one of doors at the end. It was room 292. He rotated the metal knob to the left and yanked the door open. Ms. Howler was sitting in her chair with a small candle in her desk. The classroom was empty. The only source of light and warmth in the room seemed to radiate from Ms. Howler.
She crossed her legs and asked, "Welcome, Soul. I promise that you've received my note?"
Soul wrenched the note from his pocket to the ground.
"Yeah, I got your fucking note. How the hell do you know about Maka? Because I'm sure as hell, I didn't tell you." His words blurred with bubbling fury and disgust.
"Soul, I'm trying to help you. Maka's one of my students too. I know because of Stein. And it's a bit more complicated now. We have to talk somewhere private," she said in a low tone, walking towards to a small brown dresser.
She grasped it firmly by the ends and pushed towards the left. Behind was a soft outline of a small door. Soul observed her push forward lightly on the frame and saw the board fall behind. It was a hidden passage.
"In here. I know you have a lot of questions and you don't trust me, I get it. But this time, please." Ms. Howler's features softened with desperation. Her eyes were wide open with worry.
Soul let out a huge sigh. He started crawling through the passage. Once his feet were in, Ms. Howler closed the door. His sympathy dissipated for a moment but decided to trudge on. It was black. The sides felt rough and his knees bruised from constant motion against the floor. Soul saw a light. It was small but something. As he got closer, he heard voices and before he knew it, he fell from the passage.
"Argh.. Where am I?" He grumbled with annoyance.
"Soul! You're finally here!" Spoke a feminine voice coming from the shadows. It was Tsubaki. She beamed with warmth and gave him a quick hug. He noticed other figures step out. Black Star, Death the Kid, Liz and Patty and Stein were here.
It was a small room with a wooden table with a burning candle in the middle. Soul pulled out a chair from the corner and sat himself down.
"Okay. Someone, explain to me what the hell is going on."
Ms. Howler answered back, "We're going to form a search team for Maka. She's been taken by AMA."
Soul was silent for a moment and proceeded to ask, "What is AMA?"
"AMA stands for Anti-Meister Association," chirped in Liz before she was cut off by a sudden glare from Death the Kid.
He cleared his throat and continued on from where Liz stopped, "It's an organization created by seven weapons whose goal is to make Meisters no longer needed for weapons. It's complicated. I'll explain on travel."
Soul raised a brow at him. Professor Stein shoved a hand in his pocket and took a long deep sigh from his cigarette. He then took out a poster Soul had seen around town. There were huge red words printed.
"Kill all Meisters…" Soul trailed off, words burning off his tongue like fire. His red eyes darted to Professor Stein's eyes for guidance. "I don't understand why someone would start this. I mean sure, Maka can get on my nerves at times but she's my Meister." His eyes widened for a bit. "My Meister… I'm such a stupid freaking dope for letting this happen." Tsubaki leaned over and squeezed his shoulder. Black Star stared at her gesture.
"AMA was active during the search for the kishin but wasn't deemed important to look into. They were a fairly small group. Until now." Professor Stein said while looking at the bare gray wall
. He spun around and looked at Soul with a grim line etched on his face. "This mission is extremely dangerous not only for you, but for others. I need to know that you're utterly committed to this."
Soul glared at him with a piercing gaze of determination and a hint of anger. "I am going to get my Meister back." He huffed out.
Professor Stein stayed silent for a moment and nodded. "Ms. Howler will spare you the details. I have to be somewhere." When Professor Stein passed by Ms. Howler, he whispered in her ear, something inaudible to the rest but said softly enough for only her to hear it.
Ms. Howler straightened and walked to the center of the room.
Black Star spoke, "So shark face, how can the mighty God be of service to you?" with arms crossed in his usual position on the floor.
Liz tuned in with a chuckle, "Yeah, what arrogant ass said."
Ms. Howler smiled roughly with a sick glint in her jade eyes. "Well, Black Star. We'll be forming a team of seven and the journey will take about 6 days, give or take we don't run into any trouble. You won't be causing trouble, will you?" She spat out the words, removing her oven mitt.
Her black nails were so glossy he could've sworned seeing his own sweat drop. She cupped his face, letting her nails caress him with gentle animosity.
"You can call me Fi since now we're traveling together, sweet cheeks. But if you disrespect me…" She paused, staring into him expressionless before grabbing his face. "We do understand each other, do we, Black Star?"
Black Star glared with a satisfied grin. "I don't submit to anyone but myself. Fight me, shark face." He taunted her with a smug smile.
Fi smirked, the tugs of her mouth stretching longer and longer. As she was about to open her mouth, Glarth spoke up, covering her mouth with himself.
"Fi… He's just a kid. Besides I don't want to start the day with messed up hearing. Let's get going. " Glarth growled, dropping himself down.
Fi rolled her eyes in irritation. "You don't even have ears."
She sighed with a fake face plastered with sadness. "Pity. Black Star, we don't have time for this. Another day. Do not forget why we're here." She ended on a hard note.
Black Star nodded in agreement. Soul stood up suddenly from impatience.
"All right, now that's over. Lead the way, Fi."
Fi opened the door, allowing light to invade the dim room. She gestured to the door.
"This way."
After the last of her students left, she walked over to the table and held the candle to her face.
"Just like the wax on the candle, life is limited as there is something always destroying us." She whispered softy to herself.
She stared at the flickering flame and inhaled the burning flame. Darkness sat in the chair, letting his nonexistent limbs relax in every crevice of the room.