There had been an argument over when they should carry out their plan. Black*Star had opted for the night, where they could easily blend into the shadows. That would have easily won out had this been any other location, but it was Camellia's gun factory; all of the real business was done after hours. Security was twice as tight at night than in the day, when civilians came in to work and shipped out the baked goods.
Plus, Kid had later added, no one would be expecting an assault during daylight. Eventually they decided to go for late in the afternoon, during rush hour so that they could easily slip into the crowds if need be. There was no fear of them getting stuck in the streets. The only thing scarier than Liz in person, was Liz on wheels. She would be able to weave them out of traffic and in the clear faster than anyone else could. The time also meant there would be less workers, most of them on their way out.
Maka had slept for only an hour when Soul had climbed in next to her for a few hours of sleep himself. Both were too tired for their usual nighttime endeavors and instead slept soundly. When they woke up that morning, much earlier than usual thanks to Kid calling for a status report, they took the opportunity to release stress in a much more enjoyable way.
Hours later, they arrived to the factory and Soul actually had the gall to yawn, sulking at having been interrupted from their impromptu nap. It's not as if Maka could blame him. They had all stayed up to make sure every possibility was thought of and every 'what if' taken care of. Out of all of them, Soul had the worst sleeping habits. It was natural for him to be grouchy, even if it was already late in the afternoon.
"I can't believe we have to walk over, that's so uncool," Soul complained as they approached the factory, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"Soul it's three hundred feet from the car to the building, it's not going to kill you," Maka reprimanded him.
He only groaned in response, mumbling something that sounded a lot like 'stupid superhuman games.'
Meanwhile, Patti skipped happily ahead, all but laughing as she patted her bag which contained the 'totally-awesome-and-huge-but-totally-safe-and-yes-symmetrical-bomb.' Soul was wisely standing as far away as he could, painfully aware of Patti's reputation for having itchy fingers. Not for the first time, he questioned their sanity in letting Patti be in charge of the explosives.
When they finally reached the factory, Liz and Black*Star were already in position. They stayed out of sight behind the building while waiting for them to make the first move. They had to wait only a moment before Black*Star walked up to the nearest guard and sucker punched him, enthusiastic about taking out his rage on somebody. Soul winced, glad to be a safe distance from 'Star's wrath.' While Liz took care of the workers who had run to help the guard, Maka, Patti, and Soul ran from their position and into the factory.
"Quick! Help those men out there! They're being beaten to death!" Maka yelled to the nearest employee.
Patti let out an impressive scream, yelling help and someone call the police, there's a madman beating people up outside.
Soul had to hand it to her, the girl knew how to act. He almost believed her himself.
"I'll go get the manager. Make sure that guy doesn't kill anyone," he snarled when another employee looked at him questioningly.
Kid was right in choosing this time to strike; the factory was mostly empty by now, so there was almost no one to take care of. They continued running, following Maka since she was the only one who had been there before. As they made their way to Tsubaki's office, Maka slowed down, her instincts alerting her that something was wrong.
"What is it?" Soul asked, noticing her flicking eyes.
"We should have run into someone by now. There's usually more guards here," she said.
"We timed this so that we would hit right when they were switching," he reminded her.
"Even if, we should have run into at least a couple of them by now," she said, her eyes narrowing.
They had reached the loading bay, which was usually bustling with people running around and fulfilling orders but now stood empty. The various gates were all closed but one. There should have at least been a couple of trucks, waiting to deliver the last shipment of the day.
"Patti, go pass the bay and take a left when you get to the corridor. Tsubaki's office is the last door on the right. You have five minutes before Black*Star takes care of all the people in the front and comes over to see what's taking so long."
Patti went off without a word, practically skipping. Maka didn't need to turn to see that Soul was at her side, scanning for dangers. It seemed innocent enough, but Maka couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong. They approached the door, careful not to make a sound.
When she reached the mouth of the entrance, she gasped. Inside were various crates, boxes, and machines used for shipping and packaging, but no employees. Instead, at its center lay Tsubaki, unmoving and pale, her wrists tied together with rope. Her dark hair spread out around her, like a pool of black ink.
"Shit," Soul swore as Maka ran towards Tsubaki.
She was careful not to move Tsubaki, unaware of the extent of her injuries. Her face was starting to bruise and she was breathing shallowly. A small trickle of blood was making its way down Tsubaki's cheek, inky and so wrong on her usually smiling face. There was no exchange of words, no hesitation between them, as they each took one of her arms and lifted her. They were almost to the entrance when Soul heard the familiar click of a safety being switched off.
"Oomph," Maka said as Soul pushed both her and Tsubaki behind a stack of crates.
Before she could say anything, a cascade of gunfire rained from behind. The world was too loud for her to focus on one thing. Soul was keeping her head down and desperately trying to keep Tsubaki from falling into the range of the gun shots.
"We have to get out of here!" she shouted over the noise. She was being obvious but she was too busy looking at her unconscious best friend to say anything.
"Wait for them to run out of ammo!" he shouted back
It took all of Maka's will not to smack him.
"Run out of ammo?! It's a fucking GUN FACTORY, Soul!" she yelled.
"It's a gun factory," she repeated, eyes widening in realization.
Soul seem to come to the same conclusion because without another word, they both reached over for the nearest crate. He thanked everything that was good in the world that that this set of crates hadn't been sealed off yet.
Maka grabbed the first thing her hands touched, which happened to be another tommy gun. She hated using them, preferring her much quieter pistol which was currently hidden in the waist of her pants. But her revolver would do nothing against the rain of bullets that had yet to cease.
She waited a moment, then, when the bullets finally stopped, she looked over and aimed for the figures. Soul was there to cover her as she fired at anything that moved. She clipped one in the shoulder and another in the leg. It didn't take long for the other side to return fire. They settled into a pattern. Aim, fire, duck. Cover while the other reloaded, aim, fire, duck.
Through the smell of smoke, Soul found it in himself to crack a grin. His blood was singing in his ears and the thrumming of the gun did little to calm his pounding heart. He glanced at Maka and found her in a similar situation, high off the adrenaline. She looked crazy, her pigtails swinging in rhythm with the bullets and eyes burning green embers. Even now, with the enemy clearly out for blood, Soul noticed that Maka was aiming to wound, not kill. If they could capture one of them, they could get information. She was fearless and strong and unflinching among the chaos. Soul felt his heart constrict in his chest, and he promised himself he would do everything in his power to make sure Maka's light never burned out. Tsubaki's pained groan reminded them both of their time constraints.
The realization, however, did little to change the fact that all they could do for the moment was try not to get their brains blown out. They needed a way out. How long had it been since they let Patti go? She must have reached the office by now. Hopefully she would know to abort the plan at the sound of gunshots.
A second later, the ceiling rumbled and Soul knew he was wrong. The men on the other side stared up, as if the building was about to give. Using the distraction, Maka fired, managing to take one down, the bullet lodging itself into the man's stomach. That did little; they still had no idea how many people they were up against.
"We're fucked," Soul said.
"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Maka snapped, irritated.
Tsubaki wasn't moving, they had no idea how many opponents they were facing, and gun factory or not, they didn't have an unlimited supply of ammo.
"Why don't you give it up, Eater?" an oily voice called out. "One way or another, this is gonna end with you bleeding," it taunted.
Soul stiffened at the sound of it.
"That's kind of rude dontcha think?" Soul called out, "You know my name but I don't know yours"
"Why don't you ask your little friend? She recognizes my voice, don't you, Maka dear?"
Soul turned to look at Maka, whose eyes had turned murderous.
"Medusa," she snarled.
Of course Soul had heard of Medusa, whose gang, the Gorgons, controlled a small part of Death City before Grigori came along. No one ever knew how it was done, but 'he' had wiped the Gorgons off the map. It was that eradication that had thrust Spartoi into the spotlight, making Grigori a legend. Soon after, all the rival gangs fell, and those left pledged allegiance, or at the least a truce, with Spartoi. Medusa had gone into hiding, never showing her face again until now.
"It's so nice to be remembered. You've been keeping bad company, Maka, Giriko's told me all about your little friend. Seems the idiot has a personal grudge against him," Medusa laughed. "Tell me, dear, how's Joe?"
Maka let out an angry cry and started firing in rapid succession again. Her rage burned and she wondered why everyone called it seeing red. She wasn't seeing red, she was seeing Joe, her godfather and friend, who died wrongfully because of her. She was seeing Marie, crying at the funeral over a closed casket. She was seeing her father, saying in a sad tone, we live by the knife and gun, we die by the knife and gun. Medusa was laughing over the chaos, delighted at the reaction. Maka was panting in her barely contained range, but she seemed to realize it was futile, especially since they had no idea how many people they were up against. They needed to do something and fast; Tsubaki wasn't looking good and she needed to get to Stein fast.
Suddenly, there was a new type of shout, and Soul could see from his spot that someone had just doubled over, clutching at his stomach.
"What the-" Soul heard before the tell-tale sound of fist connecting to stomach.
"What's taking you so long?!" Liz yelled, disarming another one and quickly dodging behind a pillar.
"Kinda busy trying not to get our brains blown out!" Soul responded.
"Well hurry the fu–oh shit," Liz swore, catching sight of Tsubaki.
The distant sound of sirens put an end of to the firing.
"It seems we've run out of time," Medusa said, slightly annoyed. "Until next time, Maka. Be sure to say hello to Stein for me," she called.
Maka could do nothing but watch as Medusa went out the back door, followed by the remaining two goons who hadn't been injured.
Liz ran to them from the pillar as soon as she deemed it safe and carried Tsubaki through the gates. Soul and Maka went ahead, looking for any lingering torpedoes. The sirens could be heard closer now, so they ran to the car that Kid had secured for them.
"Where's Black*Star?" Maka asked worriedly.
"He and Patti took a car to lead the cops off," Liz explained, climbing into the driver's seat.
The sudden image of Black*Star and Patti driving erratically all over the city made Maka smile, even if she'd have to deal with Kid complaining about the damage to the city later.
"Get us to Stein's, Liz," Soul said, seeing Tsubaki's pale complexion. "And fast."
"As if you had to ask," Liz responded, gunning it.
The journey to Stein's was a quiet one, neither of them trying to make the situation seem better than it was. They had called Black*Star as soon as they got to Stein's and from there waited. Liz had gone back shortly after she saw the Tsubaki was safe, wanting to check on Patti. Not 20 minutes after their phone call, Black*Star came in a rage demanding to see Tsubaki, and threatening to destroy anyone who got in his way. Tsubaki was still with Stein and it took both Maka and Soul to restrain him from breaking down the door.
If Black*Star was in a rage when Killik was injured, then now he was murderous. The worst part was when Maka had to explain why Tsubaki was in such a bad state. 'Star said nothing as she told him about the warehouse, the ambush, and the retreat. Some of it he already knew from his position outside. Maka knew that they were left alive for a reason. Arachne had been sending a message to them and Tsubaki was simply the messenger. We know who you are, we know where you are, and we know how to hurt you. She didn't just want to destroy Spartoi, she wanted to make an example out of them.
She hadn't felt this helpless in a long time
Black*Star took most of the information in silence, his hands shaking in rage.
"I told you," he sneered when she finished. "I fucking told you she wouldn't do that to us. We should have been helping her and now she's lying in that hospital bed because of us."
He stormed off quickly after, leaving Maka with the stinging words. It only took a few moments before she heard the sound of glass breaking and something pounding into the wall. She didn't even have to turn her head before Soul got up to take care of it.
Maka sighed and went back to check on Tsubaki.
She was resting now, her arms bandaged and her face gaunt in the dim light. The room was nowhere close to a hospital but the last thing any of them were going to do was take Tsubaki someplace public. If one thing was made clear by Arachnophobia, it was that they had their eyes everywhere. While Stein's lab was far from ideal, it was well supplied and isolated.
The lab was by no means a fortress, but it was sturdy enough to survive Stein's experiments. The room Tsubaki was in was usually reserved for when the scientist was too tired to go home. Maka didn't know why he didn't just live there already, since he hardly ever left his lab. In the beginning, Stein's patients would simply stay on the couch until they felt well enough to move. Ever since becoming the unofficial physician of Spartoi though, he and Marie had taken to creating a makeshift infirmary out of one of the many previously unoccupied rooms. This infirmary was currently occupied by Killik, who was now well enough to stand, although not for long.
The lab that Stein used was in the basement, underground where no one could hear the dull sound of explosions in the middle of the night. In addition to housing all his experiments, Stein used the room for treating the more serious wounds. The basement was somewhere you went when the gauze and booze wasn't enough to patch you up.
Maka shuddered, remembering the last time that she had been down there; it was after the fight with some of Noah's lackeys. While generally subpar to Maka's skills, a bullet had ricocheted and hit Soul in the shoulder, which made defense more difficult. She remembered holding onto his hand as Stein dug into his shoulder, a little too enthusiastically, searching for the bullet. It had lodged itself deep into his flesh and had taken weeks to heal‒but at least it had healed. It was just a couple inches off from his back. What if she hadn't been there to take him to Stein? What if the bullet hadn't just been a couple inches off?
The smell of antiseptic was overwhelming and even now, nearly a year later, she still felt a pit in her stomach going down there. Seeing Tsubaki on that operating table was enough to remind Maka how in their line of work, happy endings were just a pipe dream.
"Please tell me you aren't thinking about that goddamn bullet again."
Maka jumped. Soul had calmed down Black*Star and left him with Stein, talking about Tsubaki's condition. Hopefully the scientist would be able to reassure him enough to avoid any more property damage.
"I'm not thinking about that goddamn bullet," she replied testily.
Soul walked over to her, hands in his pockets and shot her a look. Maka looked away. She had always hated reliving the past, but how could she not when it threatened to be her present circumstance every second of the day?
"You're lying, you know," he stated
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too. Look you're doing it again!" he scoffed
"You have no way of knowing that," she replied irritably
"Course I do." He was too smug for someone who had almost gotten killed.
"Look! There you go again see?" he continued. "Every time you lie, the right part of your lips quirks down."
Maka felt herself blush and decided to head to the kitchen before she did something stupid. The kitchen was in a somewhat cluttered state since Marie was busier than ever now with the store. She started to make herself a cup of coffee, Soul right behind her. In practiced movements, Soul took down two mugs and set them on the counter. Maka got out the sugar and Soul began the search for Stein's rustic coffee maker. They did this all in practiced silence.
Maka stared at the mug as Soul watched her, both ignorant to the fact that they were thinking the same thing.
"Worrying about it's not gonna do anything for anyone you know." He spoke quietly
She knew that, of course she knew that. But how could she not worry? Her best friend was almost beaten to death, her gang was in danger, and she had almost lost him only a few short hours ago. Soul knew there was no point in telling her not to worry, but he felt useless saying nothing.
She didn't respond but instead chose to intertwine her fingers with his. It was funny, there they were with a sword hanging over their heads and the possibility of death at every corner, and all Maka could think about was how nice it felt to have someone to hold her hand.
She thought about all she'd been doing the last few days, and how she refused to tell Soul about it under the pretense of secrecy. In reality, she was just worried about how he'd react. But, she argued with herself, they just got back from almost dying again. He had been willing to lay down his life for her, again. Soul at least deserved to know what was coming, she owed him that much. Bracing herself, Maka took a deep breath.
"I sent a message to the Witches,' she stated, trying to sound nonchalant.
"What?" he asked, eyes widening.
"I sent a message to the Witches, asking for support against Arachnophobia," she repeated.
"Why would you do that?" he seemed incredulous, "They trust us just as far as they can throw us and I trust them the same amount."
"We don't have much of choice here, Soul," she reminded him. "Somehow or another, they managed to get past Tsubaki, and now we have no idea of knowing how many of her guns Arachne took. We're going to need back up to get rid of her."
He hated when she was right.
"When were you planning on telling me this?" he questioned, looking annoyed and slightly hurt.
"I'm telling you now," Maka snapped.
Someone cleared their throat.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Stein said.
They both broke away; Maka with a blush at having been caught arguing and Soul with an angry slouch.
"How's Tsubaki?" Maka said quickly before Stein said something else.
"As I was just telling Black*Star, she'll live. She has bruises and a few cracked ribs but she should be up and about in a few weeks. She should wake up in a couple hours but she's going to have quite the headache when she wakes up."
Maka turned away from him so that neither of the men could see her grief-stricken face. She moved to get the boiling water.
"What about her wrists?" Soul asked. "She was bleeding from them when we got to her."
"It's blood from chaffing. She didn't say much when you brought her to me, but from the looks of it I would say that she was handcuffed at some point, long enough to make her wrists bleed," Stein said. "Whoever was doing the beating knew what they were doing. Some of her internal organs are bruised but nothing serious enough to kill her. They knew where to hit to make it hurt the most but did nothing fatal. Whoever did this was an experienced fighter judging from the amount of force."
There was only one person she knew who fit the description.
"Giriko," Maka breathed
"Please tell me I didn't hear you say what I think you said," Soul groaned, feeling sick. "Please tell me that this Medusa bitch was bluffing when she said that she was in touch with Giriko."
"He got out, Soul. Of course he would get back into the swing of things. And he's out looking for me. It's only natural that he would align himself with the person who has a personal vendetta against us."
Maka quickly averted her eyes. She hoped Soul didn't notice how she said that Giriko was after her and not Grigori.
"Wait what do you mean he's after you?" Soul asked.
Shit.
"There's no way that he's after you, right Maka? Because he doesn't know who Grigori is. He's just after me because he thinks I have some connection to who Grigori is." He was quickly noticing her slip up.
Maka said nothing and set about to clean the mess. She walked pass Stein and went to the back, where she knew that Marie kept the broom.
"Maka? Maka!" Soul followed her.
She reached the supply closet where Soul promptly followed her into and shut the door, confronting her.
"Soul cut it out, Stein's gonna come check on us in a second, you know he will," she said, reaching for the light switch. In the flickering light, he seemed a lot less strong and a lot more vulnerable, it killed her to see him like this.
"Tell me," he started. "Tell me, that he doesn't know that you're Grigori."
He looked into her eyes, searching for some hint that his worst fear wasn't being recognized. She felt her heart twist at the expression. Curse the stupid muscle and all its stupid emotions. Curse it for making her want do nothing but lie to him so that she didn't have to see that terrified expression on Soul's face. She tried to turn away from him but he made her face him.
"Maka!"
"I don't know!" she exclaimed. She was in his face now, eyes alive and scorching.
"I-I don't know," she repeated. "The last time he saw me was the night we got him arrested. There's no way he could identify me though, it was too dark. Papa says that when he got out he started asking around, trying to find out more about Grigori and then started looking into me. Everyone seems to think that the way to get to Grigori is you and the way to get to you is me. But no one knew anything about Grigori and the most anyone knows about me is that I sometimes hang around Shibusen. Medusa knows me but not that I'm Grigori, but she's been out of the loop for so long, I have no idea what she knows."
Soul let her go and stared blankly somewhere behind her. To anyone else, he would have seemed stoic and non-reacting, but Maka knew that he was seething on the inside. She just had no idea whether he was angry at her or at the situation in general.
"How long have you known?" he quietly asked
Maka refused to meet his eyes, uncomfortable with how she couldn't seem to lie to him.
"This is the first time I've seen Medusa in years Soul," she said, lip curling in disgust at her name.
"Papa told me about Giriko when I met with him. When I heard he got out, I sent out word for someone to follow him. They told me what he was looking for, but there wasn't much they could find besides that. He was too paranoid and suspected he was being followed. Anya said that he was grasping at straws and everyone he tried talking to was smart enough to keep their mouths shut," she finished.
Without a word Soul left the closet, there was no question who he was mad at now.
Maka was still angrily cursing her situation in the closet, when Stein came to see where she'd gone.
"I don't suppose you plan on actually paying for all these patients you've been bringing me lately, eh Maka?" he asked, almost petulant.
"Sorry, Stein," she said pinching her nose. "I'll have Marie bake you a cake when I get out of here."
Stein breathed out through his nose, which Maka decided was as close to a laugh as she was going to get.
They made their way to the kitchen again, where Maka continued making the coffee.
"Your coffee maker is possessed," Maka commented, hating the silence.
"So I've been told," he responded. "You're father asked me to get a message to you. Maaba's agreed to help you with Arachnophobia." he added, as if commenting on the weather.
"Really?" she was genuinely surprised at this not-horrible turn of events. "That's great, we'll have Kid set up the meeting place and-"
"And Noah said he wanted in on an alliance too," Stein interrupted boredly.
There went that the not-horrible feeling. Maka groaned into her hands.
"Why would that he want an alliance now? We've been giving him wide berth for a while, especially after that last stunt he pulled," she added, remembering Soul's shoulder.
It had taken a lot not to go back for revenge after that, but Kid had convinced her that it was pointless.
"Mmm well who knows what's going on in that idiot's mind," Stein said, looking as if he'd very much like to find out.
"Does Soul know?" Maka asked, already knowing the answer.
"I may have mentioned it before he stormed off," he said, rather noncommittally. "He seemed pretty sore about something. What's the matter Maka, did you tell him the bank's closed?" he added with a leer.
"None of your beeswax," she said, cheeks pinking despite her best efforts. "Drink your java and stop being nosy." With that, Maka went off to check on Tsubaki.
"She's awake," Stein called out. "Black*Star came back while you two were having your little lover's quarrel. He's with her right now so make sure he hasn't mauled her."
If Maka was blushing before now she her face was steaming. Black*Star's relationship with Tsubaki had always been something that she'd known, but she didn't want to know the specifics any more than Black*Star wanted to know what she did with Soul after hours. She made sure to knock before opening the door.
From the side of the bed, Black*Star scowled, unhappy with something Tsubaki said. He glanced up motioned for her to shut the door. Whatever they had been talking about, they seemed done with the conversation for now.
"Oi, Maka," he said. "Where's Soul?"
"He went to see how everyone else is doing after the raid," Maka answered, knowing Soul was most likely back in Shibusen.
"I'd better go," he said, standing. "You two have a lot to talk about."
Maka could see the thinly concealed rage coming from him.
"What's the matter with him?" Maka asked as soon as they were alone. "Did you tell him he couldn't drink for a week or something?"
"Mmm he's just mad at the way things are," Tsubaki told her. "To be honest, I think he's glad that you came in so that he could excuse himself to go punch something without me seeing it."
"He knows it would upset you," Maka said.
She took the empty seat next Tsubaki and stared at her hands, unsure of where to start.
"Tsu, I'm so sorr-I should've-" Maka started. Her knuckles were white with the amount of force she was clenching her knuckles.
"Maka," Tsubaki told her in a patient tone, "You didn't know."
"That—that doesn't make it okay," she managed to get out through the lump that had formed in her throat.
"No, it doesn't," Tsubaki agreed. "But there wasn't a lot you could do."
"I'm so sorry, Tsu," she whispered again, the guilt at what her friend had gone through making it difficult to say anything else.
"Black*Star's right, you know," she said. "We have a lot to talk about."
Tsubaki explained how she had returned to her office one evening to find that someone had tried break in. Security had arrived before she did but the crook had already left. The only thing damaged was the desk, put nothing was taken. She had suspected that they were after the log, though how they knew it existed she didn't know, and burned it the moment security left. She didn't know who had done it but it had seemed incredibly suspicious that the same day, Medusa had left a message with her secretary, for an invitation to visit her.
Tsubaki had gone alone to scope out the meeting place, a club called Snake Eyes. She met with Medusa, who had offered a handsome sum in exchange for information on Spartoi. Realizing her cover had been blown, she agreed, planning on feeding her false information. She needed Medusa to believe that she had betrayed them though, so she arranged for them to have a shipment of Tommies. Tsubaki had knowingly fed her false information, telling her that there was a warehouse off the coast where shipments came in from Canada. What she wasn't counting on was Medusa working with Arachnophobia. What she originally thought would take Medusa a week to find out, it took only a three days thanks to Arachne's resources.
For the last three days she had been kept prisoner in her office, beaten for her insolence and offered another chance to redeem herself, if she told them who was part of the inner circle of Spartoi. When she refused, they decided to use her as bait knowing that they'd come eventually.
At the end of her explanation, Maka understood Black*Star's murderous glare. She suddenly realized how lucky they were.
"How long were you waiting there?" she asked.
"About a day," Tsubaki said. "They kept usually seven guards around me, sometimes more. They would switch off every few hours."
"What about Medusa? Why was she there when we came?"
Even now, she could still hear Medusa's taunts.
"To gloat," Tsubaki said in a quiet fury. "At least that's what she told me. I think she was still hoping that I would give her some useful information before I was bumped off."
Maka could definitely understand why Black*Star needed to leave the room. She could barely keep herself from finding Medusa and making her pay. Suddenly, Maka came to the realization the Black*Star would be thinking the same thing.
"Don't worry," Tsubaki said, practically seeing the gears in Maka's head turn. "I made him promise to not go after her until we've regrouped. I want to get back at this bitch just as much as he does."
Maka smiled at that, promising revenge and so much more for Medusa.
"There's something else," Tsubaki added. "Arachnophobia and Gorgon are working together."
There was a beat a silence, then Maka indelicately swore, was there nothing that could go wrong?
"Horsefeathers." she repeated. "Are you sure?"
"When they kept me, I heard some of the guards talking about how Arachne and Medusa were connected. The whole reason why Medusa's back is because Arachne helped her get here."
Maka tried to process this information. Why would they team up together, when they had no ties, that she knew of, up until now?
"So what are we going to do?" Tsubaki asked.
In reality there was only one thing to do
"We're going to war" she said, mind already thinking of the plan.