SO SORRY for the wait for this chapter. I would give excuses, but I won't and just allow you to read the chapter without my pleads for forgiveness. *I disclaim* I don't own Angel Beats!, Soul Eater, the song "My Soul, Your Beats!", or any other song or band mentioned.

My Soul, Your Beats!

Chapter 4

My Immortal

"You used to captivate me,

By your resonating light.

Now I'm bound by the life you've left behind…"

My Immortal, Evanescence

The Next Life

Soul looked around the gymnasium at all the students gathered to play or merely spectate for the basketball tournament.

"So… Most of the students and all of the teachers aren't real? Like NPCs?" He asked Fujimaki, who was sitting next to him on the bleachers while waiting for Yuri to enter with their orders. The latter nodded.

"Yeah," He replied. "Most of us who had a life before belong to the battlefront. There might be some others, but we don't know yet."

Soul nodded absentmindedly. In truth, he had just asked that question to not seem too out of touch with the people around him at the moment. His past had been bugging him ever since the incident earlier when he had learned he could play the piano. Also eating at him was the fact that he had sat directly next to Angel and hadn't been instantly obliterated, like what the others seemed to say would happen. That, and he still hadn't figured out who this 'Maka' was, whose name continued to pop up in his mind without a source, ringing out the like the sound of a bell that he couldn't see. The red-eyed teen's head was swimming with facts; facts that he couldn't explain and were begging to be solved.

Ooyama looked concerned. "Hey, Soul. Are you all right? You look a little pale," He said quietly, to which the silver-haired boy nodded with a sigh.

"Yeah. I'm fine," He assured the brunette. "Just tired. After this game I'm going straight to bed," He smiled good-naturedly, to which Ooyama laughed.

"I hear you! I'm gonna go back to the dorm and take a nice long shower!" He grinned.

"Guys, we're ready!" Yuri whispered loudly, walking up behind the group so discreetly that Hinata jumped and fell off of his seat. The sea green-eyed leader continued to speak while ignoring the blue-haired teen. "Otonashi and Soul are first to monitor Angel, putting on these disguises," She held up a plastic bag, "Then you switch out after the first quarter. I'll give the next orders then. Everyone else needs to play basketball, and win as many games as possible so we stick around for as long as we can to watch Angel's actions. Any questions?"

"But I wanted to go home an' sleep…" Soul groaned quietly before Noda hit him in the back of the head with his halberd.

"Quit complaining and pay attention to our wise leader!" He snapped.

Soul glared at his comrade. "You didn't have to slice up my brains! I can't play basketball and watch Angel with a severed head!" He growled, glaring back at the weapon-wielding teen before sliding on the disguise for Yuri. It included a purple wig, dark sunglasses, and a bathrobe.

"Seriously? These don't look suspicious at all…" Otonashi muttered sarcastically.

"Everyone in your uniforms or your disguises?" Yuri asked.

"I can't see a thing in these sunglasses," Soul mumbled.

"All right everyone," The magenta-haired leader continued, "Operation Slam Dunk is now underway!"

"Sure is an original name," Soul continued to mumble complaints before he ran into the doorway while trying to find his way upstairs to watch Angel. Otonashi sighed, grabbing his hand and pulling his partner towards their destination. They soon slid in behind Angel, ready to monitor her. The silver-haired teen didn't know what they were supposed to see, but Angel did nothing that seemed out of the ordinary during their shift.

They switched out after the first quarter of the first game, as instructed. Handing their outfits to Matsushita and Fujimaki to reveal basketball uniforms underneath, Soul and Otonashi ran to join their teammates on the bleachers.

"See anything?" Ooyama asked the two. Otonashi shook his head.

Soul replied curtly as he sat down, "Not a dang thing. I don't see what's so terrible about Angel," He said. Otonashi sighed, sitting down beside his red-eyed comrade.

"I don't either," He agreed. "But I've seen what she's capable of, and the others have seen more of it. She can be dangerous, and it's best that the Battlefront avoid her unless we're tracking her," He murmured.

Suddenly Noda groaned as he came back from the court. "We're getting creamed out there! Does anyone in this group know how to play basketball?!"

"For the record, Noda, you don't know how to play either," Takeyama reminded him.

Shiina rolled her eyes. "This is all so stupid."

"Up and down," TK waved his arms around.

Soul sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I might know how to play basketball. I don't remember, but this all seems familiar," He said.

Yuri clapped a hand on his shoulder. "That's great. We need to stay in these games for as long as possible to keep the most surveillance on Angel," She told him. "If you're a good player, we can make it to the finals."

It was then that the referee's whistle blew, giving the signal to resume the game. Yuri pushed Soul forward.

"You're on offense. Get out there! For the Battlefront!" She let out a battle cry, to which the others responded, Soul included. It made him feel like part of the group.

Soul took the ball pretty quickly. He dribbled it towards the opposite basket, but he was getting blocked often.

"Soul! I'm open!" He heard Hinata shout, waving his arms some yards to the silver-haired teen's right. Soul nodded, ready to pass, but unexpectedly froze. Suddenly all the people around him appeared to function in slow motion. The entire court was seemingly fading away, leaving behind a quiet, much smaller court in a corner of a park.

The sun laughed at him as it shone, but he felt used to it somehow. Hinata had been replaced by a hyper-looking boy with spiked blue hair, jumping up and down.

"Soul! Soul! I'm open, I'm open!" He yelled. "Hey, are you listening? Patty's gonna get the ball!"

A blonde girl suddenly swiped the ball away from him, sticking out her tongue. "Ya snooze, ya lose!" She jeered childishly, throwing the ball in the hoop.

"Wrong goal, Patty!" A raven-haired teen with strange white stripes in his hair screamed at her. "You just gave them a point!"

"YAHOO!" Hollered the blue-haired kid.

"Does that mean you won?" Two tall girls asked, one with long dark hair pulled back in a high ponytail and the other with medium-length brown hair.

"Yay! We won, Soul!"

Soul felt arms around his shoulders and a soft kiss on his cheek. He turned to face his affectionate teammate, and his eyes widened.

It was the green-eyed girl.

Suddenly Soul felt a sharp blow to his head. The calm sunlight and friendly voices of his vision were quickly traded for the glaring lights and loud crowds of the school gymnasium. He collapsed to the floor, spots dancing across his vision. Otonashi knelt next to him.

"Oh no, I'm really sorry, Soul! I wasn't looking where I was going, and I ran into you… Did I hit your head?! Soul, can you hear me?" He yelled. His voice sounded far away, and it began to blend with all the other noises around him; the referee's whistle, the crowd's concerned voices, the sound produced by the shoes of his comrades on the court rushing to get him…

It all faded out as Soul's world was enveloped in darkness. However, it didn't stay dark for long. Someone was calling his name, cheering.

"We did it, Soul! That's our ninety-ninth soul!"

The red-eyed teen found himself gazing into deep green irises. Everything felt as if he was looking through someone else's eyes, unable to control his actions. But he knew all of what was going on. Firstly, he was a living scythe; a human with the ability to change his form into that of a deadly weapon. His partner and he had just collected one of their final souls on their mission to train him to be a Death Scythe; a special weapon to be wielded by the Grim Reaper himself. They just had to collect a witch's soul, and then Soul could join the ranks of the strongest Demon Weapons in the world.

"How do I know all this?" Soul wondered to himself, "Maybe this is a memory? My memories?"

The memory version of Soul smirked at the green-eyed girl, giving her a thumbs up. "We did, didn't we? Just one more to go, right Maka?"

"That's right," Soul thought. "Maka's her name. The green-eyed girl. My partner."

Maka nodded at him, cheerful. "Let's hope it goes better than last time!" She grinned, beginning to walk down the streets towards home. Soul could remember last time they had tried to get a witch's soul, and the twisted results.

"Stupid cat," He muttered, but couldn't stop grinning. They were finally going to do it; Soul was finally going to become a Death Scythe. He pulled a phone out of his pocket, dialing 888-888-8888. "Hey, Kid?" He smirked. "How fast can you and your partners whip up a party at the Gallows? Why? Whuddaya mean, why? We're going to get our witch's soul!" He jumped up, pumping the air with his fist. Nothing could break his energy, and Maka burst out laughing at his antics.

The blonde walked to the nearest window, breathing on it before wiping some numbers in the fog left behind by her breath to contact Lord Death. Soul pulled up next to her with his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, leaning over behind Maka and resting his head on her shoulder. She rolled her eyes jokingly, shoving him off. "Get serious. We're going to talk to Lord Death about our mission," She giggled.

Soul didn't remember much of the conversation, he was too excited. He didn't normally get this enthusiastic about things, he noted. It was uncool. However, this time he made an exception. This was their chance to redeem themselves; to finally retrieve that elusive witch's soul and promote him to a status of great power and honor. That'd be so cool. Not only that, he remembered.

He was going to confess his affections for Maka right after he consumed the witch's soul. Soul Evans loved Maka Albarn, and the day of their ultimate victory would be the perfect time to admit the feelings growing within his soul that had been aware of ever since the scythe discovered he was willing to die for his meister.

After the call ended, Maka turned around to smile at him. "We're going to go out Monday and collect it!" She beamed, hugging him with her own enthusiasm. The silver-haired teen hugged her back, letting her believe it was just excitement. But it was so much more.

"C'mon," He smiled at her when he broke away, however reluctantly. "Kid's setting up a party at Gallows Manor in celebration," He smirked. Much to his surprise, Maka smirked back.

"Race ya!" She exclaimed before she took off. Soul stood dumbfounded for a moment, before laughed and followed her.

"The party was amazing," Soul recollectedas he watched the memory continue to unfold. "There weren't many people there; just me, Maka, Black*Star, Tsubaki, Crona, Blair, Kid, Patty and Liz. But it was by no means a small party," He chuckled."Everyone laughed at my victory dance. Black*Star got high on gummy bears and started swinging from the chandelier, Blair hugged me and I about passed out from suffocation and blood loss, Crona didn't know how to deal with anything going on around him, and the girls tried to give Maka a makeover, with the results being her constantly dodging the lipstick and it getting smeared on Kid's couch instead. He threw a fit over that," He laughed. However, his joy was quickly halted when he remembered a crucial point. "But that was the last time I saw them. All my friends…" His face fell. "I never hung out with them again. I died the next day."

It was then that his eyes snapped open. It took Soul a moment to process where he was, but he quickly remembered what had happened at last night's basketball game and that he was in the nurse's office in the afterlife. Rays of morning sunshine filtered through the veiled window as he sat up. His head still throbbed from last night's events.

"But all those memories," He thought, "Are they real? Or just a dream?" He glanced down at his arm, resolve growing in his red eyes. "Only one way to find out." He closed his eyes, trying to remember what he had been in his dream.

"I was a living scythe. I AM a living scythe."

He took a deep breath.

"Try to remember the feeling of parts of my body being parts of a scythe."

Soul concentrated on that thought, processing it over and over in his mind. After a minute of this, he held his arm before his face and opened his eyes. The silver-haired teen froze, staring at what was formerly his lower arm, but was now a red-and-black scythe's blade.

This Life

All my friends decided that they were going to spend the night, and I didn't object. I felt hollow; like I had cried my soul out through my tears and there was nothing left within me.

I huddled up on the couch, pulling the blanket around me. My friends were silent; busying themselves with either cooking dinner, straightening the pictures on the walls, sulking, or in Patty's case, coloring. However, everywhere they went, they left little wet dots of their sorrow behind. Liz and Tsubaki left wet dots on the countertop. Kid left wet dots on the carpet beneath the photos he attempted to perfect. Black*Star left wet dots on his arm when he tried to wipe them away from his eyes, and the pages in Patty's coloring book got so many wet dots that they crinkled up when they dried. They all could still cry. I had nothing left.

I glanced out the window at the sunset. It was only yesterday, around this time, that my world begun to crumble as Soul started to slowly slip through my fingers. It felt like so long ago, but it also felt so recent that I had him in my hands as I sliced at the witch in vain attempts to save both of our lives.

The doorbell rang abruptly, breaking me from my thoughts. Tsubaki went to answer it, and I heard a panicked boy's voice reach my ears.

"Are Maka and Soul here?! They weren't at their apartment, and I asked all over and they said Maka was here, but they wouldn't tell me anything about Soul! What's going on?" Crona cried. He had gone on a mission yesterday morning, and it seemed that he had just recently returned home. We hadn't had any means to contact him, and I assumed that was the reason Papa hadn't called him with my other friends.

"Maka's in the living room," Tsubaki said quietly, "On the couch."

Crona rushed to my side, fear all over his face. "She's not telling me about Soul, either!" He exclaimed, coming to stand in front of me. "Maka, I don't know how to deal with this! Where's Soul?"

I stared into his pale eyes, sighing. The poor boy would be crushed if I told him what happened; he didn't need any more traumas in his life. But he had waited long enough, and it was better to tell him than continue to lie or stay silent and let him figure it out on his own.

"Crona," I said quietly, "Soul's and my mission failed. We didn't get the witch's soul."

The pink-haired boy's expression became one of sympathy, but I wasn't done.

"Soul didn't survive the fight," I continued, my voice emotionless. "The witch killed him."

Crona's eyes widened, staring at me. "No," He whispered after a while. "Soul… Soul couldn't have died!" He shouted, wrapping his arms around himself and squeezing his eyes shut. "He was my friend! Friends don't die! B-bad guys die!" He sobbed. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he shook violently. "W-we all said we'd be friends forever! B-but we can't be friends forever if we start dying! Was… Was it a l-lie? C-can we not be f-friends forever?"

I remained silent. I didn't know how to comfort him. And even if I knew how, I don't think I could have. I was hollow. I was a shell. I didn't know how to keep living, and poor Crona was facing the cruel reality that was the death of a loved one.

Kid put an arm around Crona's shoulder, pulling the sobbing boy away, possibly to try and comfort or explain things to him. He was sort of an expert on death, after all, being the son of the Grim Reaper. I didn't want comfort. A shell needs no comfort. A shell just needs a heart to live inside it, and my heart had died along with Soul.

Perhaps my soul felt so dead because there was no other soul pressing against it, I realized. I had never noticed it before, but now that I thought about it, it made sense. Soul's spirit was always against mine, warming and prodding me gently. It was comforting to always have his presence there, right next to mine. Even as we slept in our separate rooms, we still possessed that connection. If we got separated, I'd panic and want that soul next to mine again, and I'd chase it relentlessly until it was pressed comfortingly to mine again.

But now Soul was gone. Gone from my side, gone from this city, gone from this world. And no matter how long or how far I chased it, I could never bring his soul back.

That's chapter four, guys! See ya next chap! Please rate, review, follow, favorite, etc.