Summary: "He is a killer! Don't you see what danger you put us in by inviting him?! He is the Soul Eater!"
"Why did you choose this life? Why in the world would you want to kill people?"
"Why?" He asked. "Because I have this ability to protect myself. I'm blessed with this power to strike those who rise against me dead. I can get back at those who anger me and I can do everything those people did to hurt me. I can get my revenge on everybody in this cursed world."
Armour of pure crystal and a sword made of compacted crystals. He's Soul Eater, the infamous killing machine. You come in his way, and he will take your life.
The Legend of the Crystal Kingdom Epilogue
Seven years later
Green eyes peered from behind the bush. The cat cleaned her pale grey fur. The girl giggles as she moved the branches of leaves out of the way.
"Kitty!" She exclaimed, holding out her short arms at the creature.
The cat's pale eyes widen and immediately took off.
"Kitty!" The young girl groaned, quickly following after the cat on her short legs. "Kitty!" She groaned angrier, wanting the cat to return. "KITTY!" She hollered.
Up from the earth came a colorless crystal and the sharp end went right through the cat's body. The cat stilled. It didn't try to run away. It didn't even make a sound.
The young girl looked at the cat with horror. Her small hands covering her pink mouth. "Kitty..?" She carefully questioned.
"What have you done?!" Soul exclaimed, had seen his daughter disappeared within the royal garden.
The daughter spun on her tiny feet and faced her father. "N-nothing!" She quivered. Her hands shook and he saw tears pour up in her eyes. "I-Is Kitty going to be o-okay?"
His heart skipped a beat and he could almost see himself and the poor little cat he had killed. He had to inhale to calm down his heart and opened his arms. The young girl fell a tear as she ran into her father's arms.
"The cat…" he gulped. "Will be gone for a while." He had to remind himself Juliet was nothing like himself. The moment might reflect his past, but she was nothing like him. She reflect her mother perfectly in her personality and her eyes. She wouldn't follow in his footsteps. He wouldn't allow it.
"W-When will she come back?" She sobbed, squeezing her tiny arms around her father's neck.
"I don't know." He rubbed her fragile back. "We will have to wait and see." He picked her up and walked away, leaving the dead cat behind. He would have to come back to take care of that later.
He had feared it since the moment she was born. He had feared she would inherited his crystal ability. He was terrified of her becoming him. He didn't want her to take such a difficult turn in her life. He knew from the moment the king's men witnessed her blue blood roll down her finger to then crystalize, he knew she wasn't as lucky as he wanted her to be.
After the dreaded day on the volcano Arachnophobia, he had cauterized Black*Star's wounds and escaped the mountain. They travelled back to the Albarn Kingdom with Maka's body in a carriage. He couldn't leave her body behind on the volcano. He wanted her to have a proper funeral, which she got.
When they returned, the kingdom's hearts broke for the deceased queen, but Soul hadn't let his feelings burden him. He knew he would have plenty of time to mourn later. He and Black*Star had stormed inside of the castle and into the throne room. There, he confronted Death the Kid and the kingdom's wisest men. He demanded the throne, he needed it. He needed it in order to fulfill his beloved's visions and thoughts about the perfect world. A world without violence.
He was the father of the queen's child. He proved it by drawing a drop of blood from Juliet's finger. The blue blood had shocked them to the core. She was the child of Maka Albarn, Black*Star had told the council of her pregnant belly and supported Soul throughout the whole thing. The only reason the council had agreed to give Soul the crown until Juliet turned eighteen was because he was the father. They wouldn't want the queen to look bad for having a baby with someone who wasn't her husband.
Death the Kid and Maka's marriage papers were destroyed and new marriage papers of Soul Eater and Maka Albarn's marriage was created. A new law was created and it was of never speak of Maka's infidelity.
Soul should've been happy. He got a marriage with the one he loved, but it was bittersweet. He was married to the love of his life, which was buried in the ground. He wished he could've shared the experience with her.
He did as well as she could. He knew he couldn't be loved by the people like they loved Maka, but damned he tried. The first thing he did was to fire all of the guards. No one guarded the castle or the village. Only one. Which was him. He enforced the walls around the kingdom with crystal walls to keep out sinister men and if the kingdom would be under attack. He would talk to them, and if he couldn't talk them out of attacking, he would kill in order to protect the kingdom.
He knew, once Juliet turned eighteen and she would take over the throne, she would be the protector of Albarn kingdom. She would be the one who enforced the walls and kept the villagers safe. He had to prepare her, seven years had already gone by and with her ability awaken, he would have to teach her to control her power and use it in a positive fashion, not used for evil.
It wasn't what Maka wanted entirely, but that was the best he could offer her.
He really did try to make friends with the citizens, but he did not have a good reputation. With his background and with the kidnapping-the-queen issue still raw, it didn't make it easier. He offered dinner inside of the castle, but no one wanted to take a step inside of the castle. They were afraid he would hurt them or kill them. He repaired their broken homes with his crystals, but instead of thanks, he got people screaming at him to get away from them and their homes.
He was hated, and he was fine with it. They could hate him as much as they wanted, but when someone turned that hatred on Juliet, he was livid. He screamed and cursed his throat raw and he wanted to hurt them, but he knew he couldn't.
Up to this day, he was hated, only a handful of people saw the new him and most of them lived inside of the castle. One of them was Tsubaki, Black*star's wife. She was horrified with the condition he was in when they returned, and she feared Soul at the beginning. After Tsubaki and Black*Star got married a week after their arrival, he doesn't know what Black*Star did, but he managed to convince her he wasn't a bad guy. At least not now. Tsubaki helped him care for Juliet and taught him how to parent since he had absolutely no experience or even a clue how to care for a child.
He carried his sobbing daughter inside of the castle. He knew she knew the cat wouldn't return and with her powers maturing and awakening, he had to tell her what she had done and teach her the burden and discipline of having them. He knew the day would come, and he did not want to do it, but he had to. For his beloved and for her.
"Juliet, do you have any idea what it was that came up from the ground?" He whispered into her ear as he caressed her colorless long hair.
"N-no." she sobbed, her tiny frame shook.
"You know the statue of your mother? The one in the town's square?"
She nodded into his neck.
"It is the same material as of the statue." After he was crowned as king, he couldn't live without seeing his queen. He walked to the town square and in the middle of it and rose a large statue of the woman he loved. From his balcony inside of the castle, he saw the statue, reminding him of his greatest loss.
She pulled away, crooked her head at him with tears smudged on her cheeks. "What?"
Soul kneeled down on the ground and put her down on his lap. "You know the Bunny?"
The sadness in her eyes was gone in a millisecond and a large bright smile spread on her lips. "The Bunny? Is she going to come out?"
He nodded and cleaned her cheeks. There was a puff and a crystal white rabbit was in her lap. She squealed in joy and hugged the rabbit close to her. "Bunny! Bunny!"
"Juliet." He softly spoke as he caressed her white hair. "You can make your own bunny."
Her emerald eyes fluttered up to his. "I can?"
"Yeah. You have the same power as me, and with powers come certain responsibilities."
She groaned loudly and fell against his chest with the crystal bunny in her arms. "Daaaaddyyyyy~"
He chuckled and wrapped his arms around the tiny girl in his arms. "Responsibilities aren't the greatest, but it is something you have to take care of. This is a special kind of responsibility, and with special responsibilities comes with special rewards."
Her eyes lit up brighter than the sun. Only that light in her eyes he had seen in one person before and it made his heart break at the reality of not being able to see her again. "What kind of reward? More bunnies!" She asked hopefully.
He smirked wide. "Bunnies and apples dipped in caramel."
She shrieked in glee and shook her small hands. "Yay! Special responsibilities! Where is it! Where is it!"
"Come with me and I will show tell you all about it." They exited the forest and entered the castle. They turned into hallways and nodded with respect toward the maidens and chefs in the castle which they respectfully curtsied or bowed. A large wooden door came into view with large steel rings as handles. The door shrieked loudly when Soul pushed it open for them to enter. Juliet clutch his hand and sucked her thumb.
"Daddyyyy~" She wined. "It's scary~"
"Don't be scared." He squeezed her fragile hand gently. "We are going to visit your mother."
"Mommy?" Her eyebrow shot up.
He nodded. "Yes."
They headed through the dark room toward the only source of light from the large window. It fell on a podium with a large crystal glass covering a beautiful woman in a green dress and golden details. The same dress she wore the day their hearts lashed on to each other's and their bodies bonded. They walked up the stays up on the podium where he lifted Juliet up next to the glass cover.
Juliet inhaled loudly and her eyes widen. "Mommy?" She whispered.
"It is a statue. Just like on the town's square."
He had laid many hours on making this one, explored his abilities to make his loved one seem as real as possible. In the end, after weeks of sleepless nights, he was finished. He captured her pale and soft skin, the rich rosy lips of her and the golden strings of hair. The only thing he changed was replaced the wedding ring of the former king with his own ring he had made to her. This room was his favorite of all the rooms of the castle, he felt a little closer to his love. He loved to sit by and talk to her about Juliet, her villagers she loved so dearly and the kingdom she had sacrificed her own happiness by marrying a man she did not love. He always ended up crying. The ache in his chest would never go away. The part of him that still wished to wake up from a nightmare and discover his pregnant love lying next to him, unharmed. He wanted her, needed her so badly, but he knew, when his time came, he would once again be together with the love of his life.
"Your mother and I had quite a history together." Soul started. "I wasn't exactly kind. I was naughty. A very naughty man." And he told her everything. About his past, about growing up with his ability and the hatred he felt. He told her everything about Maka and how she had been the one to save him, and he told her of the last moments of her life. Everything in a child appropriate fashion.
Juliet ended up crying. Crying for her mother she never got to know. She hugged the glass cover as tears stained it. Soul rubbed her back, forcing back his own tears. He wanted to cry but he knew he had to be strong for his daughter. "She loved you unconditionally. She would do everything for you and there is nothing more she would want than for you to grow up and love the kingdom she sacrificed so much for. And so do I. I want you to be happy and spread that joy and love you have and not sink in the water of hatred and anger like I did."
Juliet cried loudly, there seemed to be nothing to stop the pain that she felt. "MOMMY!" She cried out loudly as her tiny nails dug into the crystal.
"She will always be with you, she will always watch over you and love you from afar." Soul spoke softly, biting his lower lip. "Don't cry. It only upsets her seeing you so sad. It makes me sad too."
She slammed into his stomach, wrapping her tiny arms as well as she could around his stomach. "DADDY!" She cried loudly. "I miss mommy!"
He held her tightly. "I know Juliet." He lowered his head and pressed his lips onto her pale hair. "I miss her too."
And they sat there in the darkness of the room, in the light from the window, holding each other and being less lonely.
