Chapter 4
For a moment, Kid's mind stopped in horror. Something had gripped his stomach and tied it into a cold hard knot.
"No. I don't believe you." His voice came out much calmer than he felt. Medusa let out a snort.
"So? It's the truth."
"We should just believe you? Take your word?" Maka hissed, hands clenched at her sides.
"Why shouldn't you? You wandered into our boundaries," Crona shot back, looming over Maka. "Maybe you are another trick, come from Death, here to kill more children to feed your weapons! Maybe you're here to take our witches, to make stronger meisters! Maybe you're here to take-"
"Crona!" Arachne barked and Crona flinched back from where they had been in Maka's face. "They have already proven their innocence. They have nothing to do with our conflict with Death."
"Yeah, do you want to maybe, I dunno, elaborate on that?" Liz asked. Arachne gave her a passing glance. She sighed, looking every minute of her eight hundred years.
"I assume in your world weapons were created the same way, using humans and the transmutative abilities of witches?" the old witch asked.
"Yes. It was your experimenting that created them," Tsubaki said.
Arachne nodded, "Yes. I did. Using Eibon's notes." Her eyes trailed to the floor. "I went to Death with the results. At first he was pleased. He would supply the people with strong enough souls to wield the newly born weapons and together we would bring order to chaos. But even as we slowly refined and bred newer and more powerful weapons, Death slowly became obsessed with making them more powerful."
"And then you started killing witches?" Maka sneered.
"And then he murdered Morgana." Arachne said softly. "The first Grand Witch, and he took her soul with the rest of her sisters."
"The soul of a witch is a powerful thing." Medusa's soft voice seemed to slide along the shadows and walls of the room. Kid wanted to cover his ears, shout at her to stop. Maka's green eyes were huge in the candlelight, her face pale.
"He wouldn't." His voice came out as a whisper. Liz put a hand on his shoulder, her long manicured nails digging into his jacket.
"I was there." For the first time Arachne raised her voice. "He gutted her in the middle of Midnight Mass. Circe and I ran into the woods after him, and by the time we found Death he'd already fed her to the sword from the lake."
"Excalibur?" Black*Star's voice was horrified, though probably for an entirely different reason. "That annoying asshole was the first Death Scythe?"
"Not after Circe was finished with him." Medusa said darkly. "There wasn't much left." Kid felt Liz shudder.
"But Death told his newly made meisters that Circe had killed him unprovoked. He told them to start hunting witches."
"Malleus Maleficarum," Medusa added, seeing Maka about to open her mouth to dispute it. "It was sent to all of his meisters. Within a hundred years half of us were dead or running for our lives."
"This history lesson is boring," Black*Star snapped. "Tell us about what we're doing here and now." He stared at Arachne and then at Crona. "Tell us about the weapons," he demanded.
Soul shifted his weight, Patti stopped twisting her hands together and Liz moved closer to Kid. Tsubaki remained still as a statue, not even blinking as Arachne looked at her.
"It's been a long time since I've seen an unbranded weapon," the witch said. She touched the high collar of her dress, where the hollow of her throat was. "All weapons now wear that mark, Death's mark."
"All weapons must remain in their weapon form, for their own protection." Medusa's lip curled, distorting her scars even more. "Unless they are being fed, there is no reason for a weapon to look human."
Soul let out a quiet "Ugh." His red eyes were wide.
"W-we aren't allowed to be human?" Liz asked. They all jumped when there was a familiar crack and squish. Ragnarok forced his way out of Crona's back. He leaned over their head, keeping balance with one gloved hand on their shoulder.
"I was very young when Death's meisters came to our village. My parents kept me in my room all day and all night. But someone must have tipped them off." Ragnarok's face was perfectly immobile, and his voice seemed to echo from the center mass of his form. Kid had never before thought of how disturbing it was. Like some bizarre puppet, tilting his head back and forth, but never moving his jaw. "Someone broke in and started a fire while we slept. I was taken from my bed but my the last thing I ever saw of my home was it burning to the ground." His voice faltered and died.
Crona put their hand over Ragnarok's.
"Lady Arachne found Ragnarok after he ran from Death's meisters. He's been one of the only weapons we've managed to reclaim over the years. Others are taken in secret to Death City, or one of Death's other bases. Asia, Oceania, Europe, South America, Africa. He's spread through the whole world." Crona's other hand clenched at their side, and they never took their eyes off Kid, each word cutting into him.
"Lord Death would never do that. There's been a mistake. It must be Asura, or someone else." Kid replied, his voice keeping steady.
Arachne gave him a sad glance. "The kishin still roams free. What parts of the world that aren't controlled by Death are now uninhabitable because the Madness has spread too far. We abandoned our holdings in the Canadian Rockies because the humans were too susceptible to the wavelength."
"What happened?" Patti asked, leaning forward.
Arachne grimaced. "They- they started eating each other."
Liz gagged next to his ear and he even saw Soul shift uncomfortably. His stomach curled up, both in disgust and horror.
The kishin was free, terrorising whatever was left of humans.
His father hunted humans and witches, as a sport.
Liz and Patti, his friends, his partners, and they were-
"Slaves," Maka said. Her snappish tone had vanished and in its absence, it was a frighteningly empty voice. Her head was down, even her pigtails seemed to wilt. Soul went to wrap an arm around her then stopped, his hand halfway between them.
"Hey! Maka, Kid! Stop looking so damn depressed." Black*Star made them jump as he shouted. "So this world is full of assholes." He punched one fist into his palm. "They're running around and wearing out faces, why don't we do something about it? We should go and -"
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," Arachne interrupted. "We can't let you leave Baba Yaga. If Death were to find out you were here, the consequences could be terrible."
Black*Star scoffed. Crona whipped their head around, eyes narrowing. They stalked over to the ninja, face crumpling in anger.
"Do you think this is a joke? If Death realises you are here, and figures out where you are from, what do you think he'll do? Don't you think he'll realize there's another world out there to exploit?"
Black*Star squared his shoulders, eyes burning. "You know, for someone so powerful you sure are a-" Suddenly Crona had a spike of blood at his neck. They leaned in close, using their height as an advantage.
"Crona!" Arachne barked, her hoarse voice faltering. Medusa watched clinically, her head tilted.
"Powerful, am I? Strong? Is that what you want, assassin? Is that how you felt when you gutted Angela in front of us all? When you forced her soul down your weapon's throat and Mifune's soul after? Did it make you feel strong?" Crona snarled.
Black*Star stared at them for a moment, mouth still halfway open. Tsubaki stood behind her meister, close enough to transform if that spear of black blood came any closer.
"That's enough, Crona," Medusa said quietly. Slowly Crona drew the black blood back into their veins and stepped back. They were shaking, but it was different from the way Kid's Crona shook. Not in fear or from nervousness but from anger.
"I-I killed him?" Black*Star asked. Kid was alarmed to hear the stutter in his voice. "A-and Angela?"
Medusa sighed. "Yes. It was only a year ago." She put a hand on Crona's back, as a comfort. Kid could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It was simply wrong, to see Medusa acting so motherly.
"She was so young." Arachne added, sitting back down in her throne. "Witches do not have very many children. Angela was the only one in the past fifty years."
"Then what does that make you, Crona?" Maka asked. Her eyes flickered up to Medusa in suspicion.
"Crona is a half-witch, with low grade magical powers," Medusa answered.
"And the blood?" Maka pressed.
"Ragnarok and Crona volunteered to be merged. We used magic to remove Ragnarok's physical body and slowly replaced Crona's blood with Ragnarok via infusion," Medusa explained. "The meisters were getting stronger and we needed an answer."
Maka's lip curled, and her eyes sparked. "So you used your child?" she demanded.
"I volunteered. We knew I wasn't going to have much magic, and now even my soul is useless to Death." Crona held their head high. "They only eat the souls of humans and witches. Now, I'm neither." They sounded so proud of that, the fact they had mutated their own soul. Kid's heart both expanded and clenched at the thought. His Crona was forever apologising for what they were, what they had been forced to become.
"Wait, you said half-witch. Who's your fa-" Liz started. Medusa cut her off.
"A meister. A very powerful one."
Liz eyed the witch. "You slept with a meister? Even with the whole, you know, being hunted and slaughtered thing?"
Her gold eye was so cold that the room seemed to freeze. "I was undercover at the school. In order to keep up appearances, I did what I needed to."
"Is that why you're missing an eye? You got caught? We knew a guy in Jersey who used to cut off your thumb up to the first knuckle if he found out you stole from him," Patti asked. Liz nodded with her sister. Medusa's answering grin was unpleasant to look at.
"Yes. I was caught. I'd probably be dead or still in Death City if Blair hadn't-"
Soul looked startled. "Blair? The magic cat Blair?"
"Yes. She helped me escape from Death City."
Maka swallowed, swaying slightly on her feet. "W-what happen to her?"
Medusa gave her a pitying glance. "You won't like it."
"Just tell me!" Maka snapped at her, hands fisting in her skirt.
"Your double made her weapon eat Blair's souls. All nine of them." Medusa dropped the fact bluntly into Maka, who reeled back.
"B-blair's d-dead?" Soul stuttered out. "But she's a magic cat! Her soul won't work to make a death scythe, why would she need to be dead?"
"What's a death scythe?" Medusa cocked her head. "Many weapons have multiple witch souls, it simply make them more powerful. The shape and form don't matter, so long as it has magic in it. By eating all nine souls, your counterpart has become supremely powerful."
Maka put her face in her hands, leaning closer to Soul.
"The three of you are the most powerful meisters that Death lets out of the city right now." Crona told them tonelessly, turning away. "That's how I recognized you in the woods. I thought it might have been another raid coming for Baba Yaga."
"That's why we can't let you leave here. It's too dangerous for you to wander around and run the risk of running into your doubles from this world," Arachne said softly. "I'm sorry."
"Then how do you suggest we leave? We can't stay here, clearly." Kid stood up straighter and met the witch's eye. "Unless you plan to keep us forcibly."
Arachne smirked. "I wouldn't dream of it. I still have the Book of Eibon. It will take several powerful spellcasters to get you back to your world, but once Shaula gets back from her mission, we," she waved her hand between Medusa and herself, "will be able to send you back."
"Who the hell is Shaula?" Black*Star interrupted.
"Our little sister."
"You mean there's three of you?" Soul asked flatly. Medusa rolled her eye.
"Unfortunately."
Maka rubbed her cheeks roughly and looked back up at the spider witch. "Why do we have to wait for her? Isn't there another witch who can do it?"
Arachne shook her head, the long black braid swinging like a noose. "No. We're what remains of the great old witch families. If another witch did it, you would only end up being sent elsewhere. Medusa and I might be able to do it ourselves, but our magic is already fortifying Baba Yaga."
"What do you mean fortifying? Is that why there are no guards outside?" That sounded a bit like what Lord Death had done to Death City. Were witches capable of using their souls in a similar manner?
"Yes. As long as we remain in Baba Yaga, our magic ensures only people who have been given permission to enter can do so. Our magic is bound to it, in a way."
"Of course, the catch is that it take an enormous amount of magical energy to keep it protected. And with no other witches with enough power to do so the duty falls to us," Medusa drawled. She waved a hand around at the darken chambers. "What's left of witches and humans, being protected by a thin shield of Gorgon magic."
"Why don't you fight back? Why are you just sitting here in the dark being picked off one by one?" Maka blurted out.
Medusa laughed. "You think we haven't? Why do you think I was in Death City? For fun? Oh no, we've been trying for years to develop ways to undermine Death. It would be my greatest pleasure to tear apart his meisters."
"Medusa." Arachne glared. "We have a duty to protect what's left of the humans, and to try and survive. Not all of our witches are young enough to fight. And humans aren't any match for meisters, not unless they've already become kishin."
"So when is this Shaula suppose to be back?" Liz asked. "We want to get back to our world as much as you want us to leave." She shuddered and muttered, "This place gives me the creeps anyway."
"My sister has been out spying on Death City. It's been a week so she should be heading back, either today or tomorrow." Arachne inclined her head. "I can have Eruka give you a guest room and food, if you're hungry."
"Now you're talkin', lady." Black*Star grinned. "I'm done with all this alternate universe stuff anyway. Who cares about what's happening to a different world? Unless it's mine, that is," he added.
"Thank you, Lady Arachne." Tsubaki bowed her head politely. "That is very generous of you."
The witch nodded back and pulled one of the webs next to her throne. In the distance, Kid could hear a bell tinkle. Within a minute Eruka Frog reappeared. Her eyes widened, seeing them still standing in front of Arachne's throne.
"Eruka, please take them to the nearest empty rooms. Give them whatever cold we have in our pantries still. And let me know the moment Shaula crosses back into our territory."
"Yes, Lady Arachne." The frog witch nodded, then gestured for them to follow her.
"Crona. Stay here. I have more to discuss with you." Arachne leaned back in her throne. Crona cast one more look at the group from the DWMA and turned their blue eyes back to their aunt.
"Yes, Aunt Arachne."
Before Medusa could usher them out the door, however, the various bells that hung from Arachne's webs started ringing furiously. Crona whipped around, eyes large. Eruka's face was pale and Kid could see her hands shaking. From outside the throne room, Kid could also hear people starting to scream.
"What's that? What's wrong?" Maka demanded, running back up to the spider witch.
Arachne was getting back up with some difficulty. "It means we are being attacked. Right now. Crona, get outside. You too Eruka. Medusa, anyone who is capable of fighting should be getting ready to face Death's forces," she ordered. "We'll need to reinforce the spacial magic for the castle. Eruka, where is Free?"
"He's up in the eighth tower. If the alarms are still functioning, he will have heard them."
Arachne nodded and with Crona and Medusa flanking her, she started walking out. Almost like she had forgotten they were there, the witch looked at the DWMA kids.
"Stay inside the castle. The last thing we need is your doppelgangers to see you here," she snapped, then marched out the door with Crona and Medusa on her heels. Medusa shut the door and they heard the click echo in the cavernous room.