A/N: HELLO ALL! Welcome to Track Eight which is probably going to be one of my favorite chapters. Why? No clue. But I love it.
Thanks to all who reviewed: Gentle Touch Ginger / dawnfire7 / charmedprincess101 / Undeadmonkey8
Next chapter should be up sometime in May.
Read, Review and Enjoy!
~Shard of Freedom
Track 8: Step Away (You Just Don't Got the Skills For That)
(Play)
" . . . Have you told her yet?"
"I haven't gotten around to it yet."
"You can't hide it from her forever, Black. Eventually, you two are going to get close and she's going to find out. Then what will you say to her? How will you explain all of the lies that you told her?"
"I've never lied to her! I just . . . haven't told her the truth!"
"I will admit, Black, that I haven't seen this much emotion from you in a long time. That girl must be something special to get you to react this much."
" . . . Don't touch her, Stein. She's mine."
"I wouldn't dream of doing anything to harm her. But you should probably tell her what you've been hiding. After all, she's going to find out—one way or another."
"And what if I do? What if I tell her who I am? What if someone else finds out? What if my secret is no longer a secret at all? Nygus always tells me that there are people out there who would like me for me even if they knew my identity. But I'm not that naïve. We're at war. And no one wants to fight side by side with someone who is by birth their enemy. I'd get stabbed by my own comrades."
"I will agree with that. But what of the girl? You trust her; that much is obvious. Otherwise you wouldn't have shown her the Star Clan techniques that you know. You need a confidant to watch your back during all situations—even those that you don't wish to show anyone else."
"I'll figure out on my own, Stein. And even if I needed help, I would go to Sid, not you."
"Maybe you need someone else to show you the way. And you may not have the time to figure it out on your own. You and Tsubaki are going out into the field in two weeks—along with the rest of the team. If you had the option, which would you save—your team or your identity?"
". . . Why do you insist on asking questions that I don't have the answers to?"
"Because you have to find them. It's not an option. You finally have a partner. You should treat her like one."
" . . . Don't you dare judge me, Stein."
"If you're not careful, I won't be the only one who is."
UoUoUoUoUoUoU
Tsubaki walked through the halls alone. As per the usual, Black was skipping. Although he usually slept in class, when Black actually wanted to do something, he didn't come to class. Black was probably still in the abandoned wing training, doing pushups or his katas. Tsubaki had gone up to the second of Black's four katas and she hoped that he would teach her the third soon.
Tsubaki hoped that Black wouldn't be late for their remedial lesson with Stein, but she wasn't holding her breath. She had already planned to go get him as soon as she could. It was okay if she missed a few periods. After all, she had already taken these classes twice back when she was a student.
People watched her as she walked down the hallways. Her old partners tended to talk about her as soon as their partnership was done, so most everyone knew about her abilities—especially the Uncanny Sword. The other students tended to stare at her for that reason alone. But today was different.
It wasn't being stared at . . . more like leered at.
Tsubaki crossed her arms across her chest protectively. She was suddenly aware of how little her pale dress covered. She had added a scarf and arm warmers on top of her striped gloves today, but she still felt exposed. She didn't truly consider herself that attractive, so she hadn't considered the thought that other people would.
She tried to avoid the other students in the hallway as she walked towards the abandoned wing in order to get Black.
"Hey, you're Tsubaki, right?"
Merely out of politeness, Tsubaki stopped and turned around. When she saw that it was a shady-looking guy with the same eyes that followed her down the hallway. He certainly didn't spend lots of time looking at her face. She thought that it might have been better if she ignored politeness and left the guy high and dry.
But her parents had raised her right, so she gave an uneasy smile and said, "Yes, I am Tsubaki. Can I help you with anything?"
The man gave her a smirk. "Name's Shiro. I had heard that you're looking for a partner."
"I . . . usually leave the choices of partner up to DWMA. I would rather not change that now. I'm sorry, but there are many others who could partner with you."
The smirk slipped off of Shiro's face. "You should at least give it a shot. I mean, I know that you need a partner."
"I'm very sorry, but I'm actually late to a lesson, so I really need to go—"
A strong hand wrapped itself around Tsubaki's wrist and dragged her towards him. "Classes don't start for another couple of minutes. Surely you could spare a little time for some harmless conversation, don't you think?"
"Listen, my class isn't the closest and I really need to go—"
"We both know that that's not true." The smirk had returned to Shiro's face.
As the hand on her wrist tightened, Tsubaki contemplated fighting her way out. But the guy was clearly a meister and was likely a lot stronger than her, even if he was just starting out. Tsubaki tried ripping her hand out of his grip but he wouldn't budge.
"Please, let go of—"
"Let her go. NOW."
Tsubaki spun around to see a figure approaching from the crowd. People parted as he walked through, in the traditional black clothes that he was known for. Most of his facial expression was covered by his scarf and the funnel neck of his shirt, but his eyes looked murderous.
"Black!" Tsubaki said excitedly.
Shiro turned to look at the new figure. "Who are you?"
"I'm her partner," Black said shortly as he ripped Tsubaki out of Shiro's grip with ease. "So you better back up."
"Who do you think you are?" Shiro growled.
"Like I said, I'm her partner. So stay away from her." Black glared at him and Shiro winced under his piercing gaze. "Or better yet, I'll make you."
Tsubaki only caught the movement because she was staring at Black. Black suddenly moved forward, his right first crackling with the blue color of his soul wavelength. He shoved his open palm into Shiro's gut. To his credit, Shiro only moved back a few feet, due to himself bracing himself. But then he flopped down unconscious, his head hitting the floor softly.
Black looked surprised, glancing down at his hand. Around them, a crowd had gathered, all looking at Black and Tsubaki, murmuring to each other softly.
"Black," Tsubaki chided softly. "Did you really have to use Soul Menace on him?"
He flexed his hand in front of his face, watching the bandages stretch. "I didn't think that I hit him that hard. I dropped my wavelength to the lowest setting. It shouldn't have knocked him out completely."
Tsubaki sighed. "You know that you have absolutely no control over your wavelength."
Black shrugged and placed his hands behind his head. "Oh, well. For a big guy like me, I don't really need that control."
"Keep telling yourself that, Black," Tsubaki teased lightly.
"Oh, come on, Tsubaki, we're going to be late!" Black said from the other side of the hallway.
"When have you ever cared to be on time?"
"Good point."
Tsubaki followed Black through the hallways, ignoring the stares that there were receiving and the crowd that had gathered, leaving Shiro behind, unconscious on the floor.
UoUoUoUoUoU
The seven of them sat on the floor of DWMA's equivalent of a basement. There were pipes and tubing that reached from the middle of the walls to the ceiling. Mechanical systems were shoved to the edge of the room against the walls. Weapons sat next to their meisters in a circle: Soul next to Maka, Tsubaki next to Black, Liz and Patty on either side of Kid. Around their makeshift circle, candles were spread, giving the room an eerie red glow.
Stein stood just outside the circle, and all of them had turned to look at him.
"You guys are going to have to become a battle team in less than two weeks. The first part of that, as unscientific as it is, is getting to know your partners, their strength and their weaknesses. So, for the next hour, you guys have to talk about yourselves."
Nearly everyone in the room flinched.
"Don't worry, not the personal stuff. Who you are as a person, what type of weapon or meister you are, your greatest asset in battle, that sort of thing. I'll be here to make sure that none of you hurt each other during this little exercise."
Stein was staring at Black when he said that comment.
"Now then," Stein said with a twisted smile on his face, "who wants to start?"
There was deep silence in the room, other than the sharp crack of one of the candle's flames. No one spoke. No one breathed.
Liz shrugged. "If no one's going to talk, I guess I will. I'm Liz Thompson, and that's my younger sister Patty. We're weapons and pistols. Kid's our meister. We don't really have any special powers other than the Death Cannon, which we can't do without Kid. Oh! And Patty and I can be each other's meister. So even if we don't have Kid, I can still use Patty to fight and Patty can use me. The three of us have been field agents for a long time. Kid goes by the codename Gold out in the field."
Kid nodded. "I'm Death the Kid. I'm the son of Death, so I'm a Grim Reaper. Because of that, I have increased endurance, speed and strength. I use two weapons because I believe that everything should be symmetrical. My greatest strength . . . probably my Death God Martial Art."
"Hi! I'm Patty! I like giraffes and balloons!" She began to chuckle, and everyone waited for her to continue, but she stopped laughing and looked around. "Well, who's next?"
Maka gave an awkward smile.
"Well, I'm Maka, and I'm the newest student among us. I'm a scythe meister. I have an Anti-Demon Wavelength which helps me suppress the power of madness. My best ability is probably my ability to see souls. I'm not very physical a fighter since I'm pretty weak without a weapon."
Soul gave a two-fingered wave. "I'm Soul. Most of you guys know me since I've been haunting the halls of DWMA for the past four years. I'm a scythe with the unique ability to fight on my own. I have the ability to use my Soul Hack and Noise Channeling to attack my opponents without a meister. My weakness . . . I have a corrosive wavelength. Maka's immune, but I can't be wielded by anyone other than her."
It was Black's turn, but after a few awkward moments of silence, Tsubaki simply took her turn, allowing Black to go last.
"As I mentioned a couple days ago, I'm Tsubaki and Black's new partner. It's not official yet because we haven't been in sync long enough for me to go on missions with him, so we haven't been registered yet. I'm a shadow weapon and have six different forms, including my Uncanny Sword. I guess that that's the best ability that I have, my ability to switch forms. My weaknesses . . . my Uncanny Sword ability completely drains the wavelength of whoever is wielding it. I . . . I've had five partners before Black, but he's the one who understands the Uncanny Sword and me, as well as the only person who I've actually chosen for myself."
Tsubaki had drug out her speech, and it was obvious to the others in the room that she was stalling in order to give Black more time. When Tsubaki ran out of things to say, all eyes in the room turned to Black, who was looking out of the circle at Stein. They were engaged in a heated staring contest. Stein eventually shook his head and Tsubaki touched the side of his bandaged arm gently.
For the first time, Soul saw Black accept Tsubaki's touch. She removed her hand softly as soon as Black started speaking.
"My name's Black. For reasons that I'm not about to explain to you all, I'm not permitted to tell you my real name but I really didn't want to anyway. I'm . . . well, I suppose that I'm now a shadow weapon meister. I have no specific specialties, which is probably why Tsubaki and her many different forms are perfect for me. My strength is my sheer physical prowess and my ability to resonate my wavelength on my own, enough that I can perform Soul Menace. My weakness . . . I don't have one."
Tsubaki elbowed him in the stomach all the while keeping her soft smile on her face. Soul was shocked at her audacity.
"Okay, that hurt, Tsubaki. Fine. My weakness is my complete lack of sixth sense."
Maka spoke up. "You can't sense souls? At all?"
Black shook his head. "Nope. I also can't control my own soul wavelength very well. I resonate fine enough, and I have a strong enough soul to perform Soul Menace . . . but holding back—just not my style."
"I didn't think that it was possible to have a meister without any sixth sense at all." Maka directed her question to Stein, who shrugged.
"Normally, you're completely right. Black is an exception, but only because he compensates with his other five senses to make up for his lack of ability to see souls or sense soul wavelengths. However, he will always be at a disadvantage in that area."
Black gave a smirk, which made Maka glare at him.
"You're awfully cocky," Liz cut in.
"There's nothing wrong with being confident," Tsubaki responded softly. "I admire Black for that trait."
"Well, I still think that he's cocky."
"Back up, Liz," Soul responded. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay? There's nothing wrong with who Black is as a person."
"He almost killed Tsubaki! And he didn't even apologize!"
Tsubaki bristled. "Black didn't need to apologize! Both he and I understood the actions that he took. Besides, Soul's the one who surprised him!"
Soul's eyes widened and he held a hand up in front of himself in a gesture of innocence. "Don't you dare bring me into all of this!"
"Guys, let's all just calm down," Kid interjected.
"Yeah, yeah! Calm down; calm down!" Patty inserted with a hysterical smile.
"Don't defend him, Soul! I don't take kindly to people who hurt my friends!"
"Soul, Liz does have a point—"
"For the last time, Liz, Black didn't hurt me!"
"Maka, why are you getting involved in this?"
"Liz, Patty, would you please calm down? I agree with you, but now's not the time to deal with them. Definitely not as public as this. We're all allies here, after all—"
"Not you too, Kid! You both need to get off his back! He's been the best partner I've ever had, and I've had a lot of them!"
The bickering went on for a while. Soul tried to stay out of the argument as much as he could, but he kept getting dragged into it anyway. Out of the corner of his eye, Soul could have sworn that he saw Stein smiling his sadistic smile out of the corner of his eye. Soul glared at his former teacher. Stein shrugged slightly and waved a hand towards the candle sitting on top of mechanical equipment Stein was leaning against.
Emotion-heightening candles.
Soul wondered what Stein was playing at. As a team, they were supposed to come together, not use emotions to tear them apart. What was Stein thinking?
But it wasn't Soul's place to break Stein's plan. Stein may have been completely crazy, but Soul had been Stein's assistant for long enough to know that he wasn't as foolish and he appeared. The insane scientist had something planned.
"Stop."
It was a quiet word, but it broke all of the arguing that went on around the circle. Tsubaki, who was normally a quiet and serene girl, looked practically murderous as she glared across the circle at Liz. Black placed a hand on her arm as he spoke, and she immediately relaxed.
"You're all talking about me like I'm not here."
Liz had the decency to look ashamed. Maka didn't back down from his glare, as if refuting in her eyes his statement—she hadn't been involved in the argument after all. Soul held up his hands in a gesture of innocence. Kid looked bored. Tsubaki's expression didn't change but she did place her hand over Black's that was already on her arm.
"Listen. I think that the easiest way to make this simple is for me to respond to your arguments. Apparently, the crux of the issue is the fact that I nearly killed Tsubaki at lunch the other day. Well, first off, I didn't try to kill Tsubaki. I'm a good enough assassin to know that if I had decided to kill Tsubaki, she would have been dead. But she's not, and that's because I recognized that she wasn't a threat. I don't think that it's right that you're blaming me for my instincts." Black paused. "Your meister's a field agent, right?"
Liz nodded, confused and a bit shell-shocked.
"How long have you been one?"
"I've been out in the field for two years," Kid answered hesitantly.
"Well, I've been out in the field for over seven, ever since I turned eleven. I was always a . . . special child, so they saw no issues in sending me out. After all, if I had died, I would have been doing a public service to DWMA. But I didn't. Eventually, I made sure that I wouldn't be disposed of. I made it so that I was one of the most powerful meisters that DWMA had so that they couldn't dispose of me. Unless they pulled out the big guns and sent out Stein here to get rid of me, I won't leave."
"Cocky," Maka murmured under her breath, but Black chose to ignore her.
"So don't rag on me because of my instincts. Because they are the only thing that keeps me alive out in the field. And when we finally go out on missions together, you'll be grateful for them."
An awkward silence followed after Black's speech.
Stein cleared his throat. "We've got less than two weeks before we have to go out and face this new weapon of the witches. For the first seven days, I'm going to be handling each meister and their weapons at individual times. After that, we'll work on combination techniques. When you're not with me, I want you in the gym, both meisters and weapons, training physical strength and soul resonance capabilities."
"What about classes?" Maka asked.
"Bookworm," Soul coughed under his breath, causing Maka to give him an ice-cold glare.
"You'll be exempt from them. I'm sending students into combat against a witch. None of you, not even Black and Kid, have won against a Rank Four enemy, which is what we're expected to face."
"Rank Four?" Maka asked curiously.
"It's battle jargon," Tsubaki explained. "Enemies that are considered above the skill level of one-star meisters are given a rank. Rank Four is the worst of all enemies. They're the only ones that are given the label 'Flee on Sight.' White Star in the most well-known Rank Four enemy."
"White Star . . ." Kid mused softly, and Liz glanced at him with worry in her eyes while Patty patted him on the back softly.
Maka glanced over at Kid. "You've met White Star?"
"I've fought him once."
"I've met White Star once as well," Tsubaki chimed in.
Black paused for a few moments before answering. "I've met White Star sixteen times."
Kid balked. "Sixteen?"
"Well, the other day, White Star did mention that you did always get in his way," Tsubaki mused. "And he did say that you two had met before."
"A lot of the times that we met, I was in disguise or he couldn't recognize me. I'm generally unknown among the enemy; until the other day, they weren't even aware that DWMA even had me. The time that he was talking about was the time that I had to reveal myself in order to save Kid."
"The day you saved us," Liz interjected before blushing slightly and looking down. "I never got a chance to thank you for that."
"It was no big deal. But that was the first time that White Star had 'met' Black." Black did little air quotes as he spoke.
"Regardless," Stein interrupted, "I need to have extensive training with all of you and you need to push yourselves. How hard you try in these next two weeks could mean the difference between success and failure, life and death."
Stein pushed his glasses back up his nose. "As just a warning to you all, you had best be prepared."
He blew out one of the candles quickly, darkening the entire room by just a fraction.
But a fraction was enough.
UoUoUoUoUoUoU
On the outskirts of the Forest of Nakatsukasa, a figure walked alone.
To one side, there were the shattered remains of a DWMA outpost. Only the very frame of the building stood. Corpses littered the ground and blood was smeared across toppled walls. Claw marks invaded the earth.
It was a nice spring day, but the figure shivered, as if there was a dark chill in the air.
The figure leaned down and placed a hand against the claw marks of the earth. They murmured softly, before straightening up once more, adjusting the cloak around their body.
There was a crack of the twig in the distance. The figure spiraled around, only to see the trees now filled with Star Clan agents and unknown, black figures completely covered with bandages. Striding towards the figure was a man with a sharp nose and a fine suit, his face mostly hidden by his large nose and top hat.
"I am Mosquito, one of Lady Arachne's servants. I have come on the behalf of Lady Medusa, who wishes to speak with you."
The figure didn't speak.
"I will warn you once. If you do not come quietly, we will take you by force."
Mosquito held up a hand to his soldiers and paused, giving the figure once last moment to respond before attacking. At the very last second, a soft melodious voice answered.
"An ambush?"
Mosquito smirked and nodded. "That's right. Now if you would come with me—"
"I'll warn you right now," the figure responded smoothly as a polished black and white blade suddenly came into existence. "I'm not sure if I know how to deal with an ambush." Despite the uncertain words, the tone was quite steady.
A red mouth suddenly appeared on the blade.
"Scream Resonance."
