(a dream or a memory?)

the men scrambled down the hall pursued by a ball of fire that consumed the interior like a tidal wave, some tripped over themselves and in the split second they were reduced to the star dust that they had always been made of. The surviving men flung themselves through the heavy metal doors, their backs seared by the flames, they roiled on the ground as their nylon tac vests melted to their flesh, a pile of screaming and crying desperate souls. Machine gun fire sprayed the building, portable mount DshK's and their large caliber 12.7x108 bullets punched coconut sized holes through cinder blocks, the shells clinking like a kitchen in an earthquake.

"twelfth artillery, this is captain Borya of the third rifle company second platoon, respond, urgent." the man looked over the concrete barrier. "twelfth artillery, respond, we have tracked the target." "go ahead captain." came the crackling reply from the radio. The captain gave a final glance over his shoulder at the building, a lone figure passed by in the window brushing through the flames. "we need close artillery support, fire on building nineteen on the eastern wall." there was no response "now! We need it now! it's fucking coming for us!" he turned to his men who manned the heavy machine guns, they had stopped to change the glowing red hot barrels of the MG. "hurry! Put the lead out!" he said pointing to the devastated building. "affirmative captain, stand by." the artillery officer finally replied. The captain let out a sigh of relief, only seconds later high explosive shells rained from the sky onto the building and into the parking lot, the unseen enemy had to be torn apart by the bombardment, a machine gunner still spraying the building took a hot shard of shrapnel to his gut, slicing through his load baring belt and his coat. He stumbled back, his technician reaching for him in aid. The captain jumped the concrete barrier and tended to the wounded man, "find him a medic." he said pointing away from the current action. He looked at the completely demolished side of the building, there was no movement among the rubble. A T90 battle tank creaked into the parking lot, pointing its main gun at the building. The forward observer rose from the top hatch, his face drenched in sweat, his work fatigues smeared in what could only be assumed was blood. "we've chased it around this whole god damn place are you sure It's in there?" "in there and dead." "dead? What makes you so sure?" they both looked on at the flames that engulfed the once proud logistic building, a few stones tumbled out from the burning wreckage, a shiver of dread crept down their spines as a black mass rose from the inferno.

An agonized moan pierced the air. The captain didn't have to say a word, the tank operator ducked back down into his compartment and a second later the smooth bore 125mm main gun was pointed at the target. The figure stepped from twisted wreckage, its long charred robes still aflame. Its twitching steps burning through the thick ash stained snow. "fire!" the captain shouted. The shock wave of the deafening boom blew the peeked cap from his head, landing in the snow, he covered his ears and grimaced, the sound was murder on his already ringing ear drums. He looked up at the figure, still standing, a giant steaming whole right through its chest, it wasn't medically possible, all of the vital organs in the chest were gone now, the body alone should have collapsed in on itself, the spine was ether severed or missing. This monster tilted its head back and moaned again though it had no lungs, the cavity in the chest began to fill itself with thick black bile. The commander of the tank, in a panic pushed himself out from the port hole. "were out of shells!" he hollered in dismay. The captain was at a loss for words. "get out of my way! This is hopeless!' another from the tank crew tried to push past the forward observer. They calamitously struggled against one another, meanwhile the figure started again towards them. The captain, brave to the very end, pulled his side arm. Raised it...and shot himself in the head. The shot somehow seemed louder than the tanks own cannon. The two tank crew members watched with disbelief as his lifeless body collapsed into the snow. They cast their panicd stricken gaze at the figure, now standing in front of the tank, its' trembling hands raised, not in a sign of submission, but just raised in front of it like some sort of classic picturesque zombie. They stared at one another, two men at the realization of their doom, and one crisp black monstrosity sizzling like an over cooked stake. A noise like tearing fabric tore the air as the black creature unleashed hell from its hands, flying lead ripping from the inside of its palms. The men were cut to ribbons by the bullets of their own comrades. The large caliber rounds that had once pierced its body were now spit back throgh the thick armor of the tank in horrible vengeance. The fule of the tank was ignited from the hail of bullets, exploding in a massive fireball

"this is it! Merciful god make it quick!" men at the artillery battery watched from afar. "the air force!" one of the men pointed to the sky as a jet screamed over head. "we have air support!" "you idiot, you think that's going to change anything?" "that was a lead aircraft." a soldier said lowering his artillery binoculars from his face. "a lead for what?" the men turned to the northern sky as the sound of a million hornets filled the air, Tu-95 strategic bombers roared over the horizon in mass. " their just going to carpet bomb us?! We cant, w-we cant just give up, and they cant just kill us all!" "look around! Were all that's left, either she's going to kill us or they are!" he sat heavily against the cannon. "it's over. Were over. Done for." they were all silent as the bombers came closer. One of the men marched over to the sand bag barricade and leaned over it, shaking his fist. "you son of a bitch! You murderer! You burn in in hell you monster!" he shouted to the black figure in the distance. The only reply was the first bomb being dropped, fallowed by another and another. His legs collapsed under him as he resigned himself to the cold ground to spend his last fear filled conscience seconds, thinking of his mother, his broter, his sister and father, his home and his town, and that girl, that horrible girl with her piercing white eyes, and her soft pink hair.

(back to reality...)

Crona's eyes fluttered with an ease that she had not felt in quite a long time, the cool twilight air felt like an estranged friend, she had once in a life before all of this enjoyed this time most of all, she could see outside, the sky smeared with pink, like icing on a powder blue wall, the laughing sun above preparing for its slumber, shining through with wispy clouds casting a haunting gold glow that reminded her of something from a long time ago. She stood, steadying herself on the table at first felling the smooth stone under her hands, she realized that one of her gloves was not on its hand, but sitting on the table, she did not remember removing it herself. she winced and looked away when she realized that she was missing two fingernails, it didn't appear to be a recent development, it looked like it had been that way for quite a wile, she held her half clutched hand to her chest with a flat expression of disgust and terror on her face. she looked around the cavern but her mother was not around. She walked to a corridor in the cavern wall where torches and coal pits lit the path, it was the same as when she was young. As she walked down the hall she slid her hand against the smooth carved walls of the great stone corridor. The stone tiles of the floor were dilapidated and cracked, some displaced giving space for rotting subterranean weeds and mushrooms to over grow and in some places cobwebs had become thick, but that was normal for this place. She came to a section of the hall where the torches were not lit, she turned and walked back to where one still hung flickering on the wall, She grabbed it and continued on. She could see light a bit further down, there was a door now to her right, it was black, smooth, with gold paint on the trim, the door to her old room, she put her hand on the door nob but did not turn it for more than a minute. It rattled like it always had, the door hinge squeaked, a sound so familiar to her that it made the hair on the back of her neck raise ever so slightly. It was so nearly empty, just as it always had been, but not completely, her bed was still there though it was much too small for her now, a toy chest and a desk. There was something out of place, she looked down to the floor in the middle of the room, several of her old childhood drawing lay on the floor, in a circle around a single point where pillow and a blanket sat tangled on the floor, a few candles scattered around the collection of drawings. She knelt down to them looking over her old crayon scribals of her and her mother and Ragnarok, there were drawings of Eruka as well and the Grand Witch with an over exaggerated angry face and big nose. "I couldn't throw them away." came Medusa's voice from behind her in the darkness, Crona did not flinch. "this was all that was left when you went over to the reapers side." Crona didn't turn around, she didn't know why she felt guilt hanging over her like cobwebs, maybe because there were actual non metaphorical cobwebs hanging over head but that made the guilt none the less real. "I looked for you, when I heard that you were sold to that horrible place, but I couldn't find you anywhere. where they had taken you, your soul wavelength was masked. Until ,that is, last night.." "sold." Crona said lowly. "yes?" "you said I was sold." "yes, why else would you have been taken? Lord death never wanted you, he saw better to make a prophet off of you." "that's not true." Crona shook her head. She felt her mother embrace her from the side. "your not a pure meister, your the spawn of a witch and your blood is black. Death city was never your home, Lord Shinigami would have never allowed that." Crona trembled slightly, her brow twisting with disbelief and sorrow. "death city is a place for people like me.." Medusa laid her head on Crona's shoulder "that's a lie sweety...it was a lie they told you long enough to find the highest bidder...the DWMA kept you locked in a room as well, don't you remember?." Medusa took Crona's hand and held it up in front of them. "and then they do this to you..." there was a long silence. "I was so happy in death city." Medusa "and they betrayed you." Crona turned her head away "my friends, they fought for me. They didn't want me to go. Especially Maka, she tried so hard to keep me there." Medusa lifted her head with interest. "yes, I know all about her.." Crona looked back at her mother "you do?" "yes, I watched you two often." Crona looked down at the floor "you liked that one quite a bit didn't you?" Crona nodded "more than your comfortable talking about, am I right?" there was another long silence. "no.." Crona shook her head. "no, I-Id like to talk about her, actually.."

Medusa tipped a half empty bottle of wine, pouring the crimson spirit into a crystal clear glass. The parlor room elegantly carved out of the gray stone hollow needed only a moments cleaning by her snakes, they had roiled about scrubbing the dust from the wall with their scaled belly's, eating the spiders that did not seek refuge in the safety of their nets. Medusa sat the bottle of wine on the floor next to the couch, sinking deep into the seat. Crona clutched a normal glass of water in her hand, staring down through the bottom at the cracks in the floor. "when I came there I really thought that I was going to be healed. That they would take away the madness in my head and that I could go back to death city and be happy. I believed it for so long. I was never allowed to be around the other patents there..though now I guise I know they weren't patents. The nurses were nice to me for a while, but something changed. I wrote letters to Maka all the time and she would write back, I did it all for her. And the years went on, I watched the leaves change throng the barred window in my cell, they let me outside less and less. Then I started loosing time I would wake up missing hours, days and sometimes weeks. I would wake up and I would feel a deep aching in my bones, I would have fresh wounds, I could still feel bullets under my skin dissolving. The nurses hated or feared me. When I needed a bath they would order me to strip down and they would spray me with a hose pipe, the would get everything wet, my cloths and sheet on my bed and my papers on my desk that were so precious to my sanity, they destroyed the letters Maka would send me and would take my letters I wanted to send and throw them in the trash." Crona trembled, her eyes narrow with painful recollection. Medusa, cold as she was at times, could not help her heart with that of her child's. "i decided I wasn't going to eat anymore, but they forced me to. I one tried to his under my bed so that they couldn't spray me with the hose. They took my bed and my desk away after that. I killed a guard a week later, he came into my cell after the light had turned out and he tried to undress me...i screamed and told him to stop. He started beating me with a club." she looked at her mother, their facial expression almost matched, but Medusa was much angrier. "after I killed him I left my cell, I ran all the way out of the cell block and even through the reception office. But they stopped me just short of the gate, there were so many of them, and I was scared..." Medusa nodded but only once. "I was a fool, I forgot that I would have been better to die than stay there any more.." "i understand, Crona. You'll have your revenge, I promise." Crona pulled her arms tightly to herself. "i don't want revenge. I want- I want Maka, okay?" Medusa was silent, she took a sip of her wine. "kids today.." she said in a release of her breath. "pleas." Crona said looking up at her mother with beseeching eyes. "dont look at me like that." Medusa said, trying unsuccessfully to sound emotionally removed. "your not a kid any more, I cant tell you what to do. You make your decisions. But if it's all the same to you, I'm still going to find the people responsible for all of this and I'm going to murder them. Lord death will get his too, just keep that in mind. Your not going to find anything in death city but more trouble, and don't think that people arent looking for you." Crona shifted as if she were about to stand, but her mother motioned her with her hand to remain seated. "i want you to stay for a while. Until your back to full strength." Crona would have never disagreed with her mothers word when she was a child but she saw urgency in finding Maka. "mom, I have to." "well you shouldn't. I wont hear anything else about it, you must stay here.." they were both silent for a moment "so that I know for sure that your okay."