The DSM?

Chapter 8: Payback?

The next day Dawn went to class an hour early. She put her hand to the door to find it unlocked as Lord Death told her it would be when he called her last night to check if she had gotten home safely and to tell her that, if she wished, Stein would be in class early today so she could train. Dawn pushed the door open slowly and soundlessly, just enough for her to squeeze through. Which actually wasn't much because she was so small. Once inside she turned around and carefully shut the door. The only sound heard was the quiet 'click' as the door shut fully.

"Paranoid or nervous?" a monotone voice spoke behind her.

"Ah!" Dawn's shriek caught in her throat as she whirled around to come face to face with Stein who was watching her in a bored fashion.

"A bit jumpy it seems." He muttered before turning and walking back to his desk.

Dawn watched as he sat himself back down in his wheeled desk chair that he almost never left. He opened up a book and started taking notes for the day's lesson plan. Stein waited a few minutes for Dawn to calm down. After she had relaxed she made her way to the front of his desk, her boots making echoing thuds through the near empty classroom.

"So," he said, looking up from his planner. "what brings you here so early?"

"Lord Death suggested I come early so I can train a little with my soul wavelength and fighting skills before class. Blackstar's challenge got him thinking of how I need to learn how to fight."

"And he wants me to train you?" Stein asked sounding unsure.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, you are kind of, his student I guess. I mean, other than Kid, you are the only one he teaches. Well in battle technique at least."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You two are like his prodigies or something like that. Either way, Lord Death can't take the time to give private lessons to each student. That is why the DWMA was formed. To teach a large number or meisters and weapons in a coordinated fashion. The only reason you and Kid get special treatment is because he is Lord Death's son and you, well you know why."

"Yeah."

"Anyway, I don't see the point in either of you coming to the academy. Most of the stuff we teach here you already know." He stated while absentmindedly turning the large screw in his head.

Dawn smiled and shrugged before clapping her hands in front of her and rubbing them together.

"So. We gonna do this or not?"

"I guess we shall."

As soon as Stein finished talking he jumped over his desk and lunged at Dawn. She quickly side stepped, continuing the momentum and aiming a kick at his back. Stein was faster though and he spun around to catch her foot just before it collided with his face. He smirked and shoved her backwards. Unable to stay balanced on one leg she fell backwards but managed to back roll at the last second and landed in a crouch. Dawn jumped up and stood in a fighting stance, her fists held in front of her and her feet spaced out with her legs bent slightly.

"Not bad but let's step it up a notch." Stein grinned, soul force sparks coming from his hand.

"This is payback isn't it?" Dawn asked miserably.

This confused the professor. "For what?"

"Wait. You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Nevermind." Dawn said, shaking her head and closing her eyes as she laughed quietly to herself.

Stein took advantage of her being distracted and ran quietly up to her. He stuck his hand, palm open and fingers down, into her stomach before he used soul force. Dawn barely had time to widen her eyes before she was sent flying across the room.

"Lesson one." Stein said coolly as she slumped to the floor after hitting the wall on the other side of the room. "Never let your guard down."

"Damn." Dawn groaned as she pulled herself up off of the ground.

She got up, stumbled over to the front row and unceremoniously fell down into one of the seats. Crossing her arms on the desk, she rested her head in them, turning it sideways to look at Stein.

"You know," she started with a smile growing on her face. "Besides hitting the wall, that tickled." She finished the sentence giggling.

"Tickled?" Stein asked astounded.

"Yeah. Was it supposed to hurt?"

"Well, yeah. That was kind of the point."

"You really are crazy aren't you?"

"So I've been told."

Dawn buried her head in her arms.

"Absolute nutcase." She muttered. Then added, "Damn that's creepy." When she heard him turning the screw in his head.

Stein walked back to his chair, sitting backwards and returning to his notes.

"But still Dawn, don't let down your guard in a fight."

"Lesson learnt teach!" she said, giving a quick mock salute before wincing and gently holding her arm.

"Now get out of here, I've got a lesson to plan."

"What about my soul wavelength?"

"What about it?"

"I was told to practice with it as well."

"Ok." Stein sighed and motioned for Dawn to come to him.

Dawn got up and walked over to the teacher's desk, once again her boots filling the silence of the unusually empty room. When she got to the desk, Stein turned himself around in his chair to face her.

"Hit me." He said bluntly.

"What? Why?"

"We have to test your wavelength right? The only proper way for that is to use it and see what happens." He stated like it was obvious while watching her from over his glasses.

"Okay…" Dawn said, reaching out and laying a hand cautiously on Stein's shoulder. "You sure?"

"Yes. Hit me. Let's see what you've got." He taunted.

Dawn simply nodded and allowed the purple light indicating a soul force attack to flow from her arm down to her hand and into Stein. The force pushed him back while still on his chair. Before Dawn could comprehend that he was in fact still on his chair, it hit a bump in the floor and he fell backwards, hitting his head off the ground with such speed and force that he was knocked out. Stein was left unconscious, legs up in the air, and still half on his chair. The wheels of which were still spinning wildly. Dawn looked at the clock, it was ten minutes until class and students would start coming in soon. She whistled innocently and walked up to her seat, sitting down to patiently await her new friends. Her whistling faltered then stopped completely as she watched blood start to pool around Stein's head.

"I seriously doubt he is waking up anytime soon." Dawn mused aloud.

The young meister skipped back down the steps, her whistle returning as she snatched a piece of paper off his desk then grabbed a pen and began scribbling a note. Once finished, she left the classroom, closing the door behind her and taping on the note that said,

"Class cancelled. Dissection is progress. Have a nice day off students. ~Stein."

"Nobody will be going in there." Dawn stated proudly, walking away down the hall to find her friends.

In the Death room…

Lord Death watched as Dawn taped the note to the door then walked away before turning off his mirror.

"Interesting." He drawled. "When Stein wakes up I will get him working on why his soul force attack failed to injure Dawn."

"Yes, because that is what we should be worrying about and not the three star professor passed out and bleeding on the ground." Spirit spoke up sarcastically from behind Lord Death, having just entered the room.

"Oh he'll be fine." Death said, waving it off with his giant hand. "So, what brings you here Spirit?"

"There have been some disturbances involving kishin eggs. The madness is waking up dormant ones and causing others to become overly active. Currently there are three areas being greatly impacted and multiple more are being reported to have increased activity."

"Hmm. Perhaps we should send some students to take care of these disturbances before they get out of control."

"Of course sir but…"

"But what Spirit?"

"One is an abnormally strong kishin egg. I was thinking it might be best if Stein and I go instead of any of the students."

"I appreciate your concern Spirit but I don't think it is necessary."

"So who will you send?"

"Well Kid obviously."

"But you can't send him alone. You know even better than I do how he can get if you know what comes up in a battle which is almost always does."

"Indeed I do, but I did not say I was sending him alone did I?"

Spirit looked completely confused.

"Then who will you send him with? That crazy assassin Blackstar?

"Nope."

"Maka?"

"Nope."

"Then who?"

"Well I was thinking I would send Dawn with him. Then Maka and Blackstar can go to the other two locations."

"The new girl? What can she do?" Spirit asked disbelievingly.

"Oh you'd be surprised." Death stated, a grin clearly audible in his voice.

"Surprise me then."

"Well she is not as weak as you suspect. Besides, she pulled Kid out of a symmetry breakdown yesterday. Granted she kicked him over and yelled at him but it worked none the less."

"She did what?"

"She managed to get Kid out of a symmetry…"

"No, no, no. I heard what you said." Spirit interrupted Lord Death, earning himself a glare from the reaper.

"Then why did you ask what she did?"

"I was just, uh Nevermind! I'm going to Chupakabra's. Do whatever you want." Spirit mumbled, throwing up his hands in defeat and walking away.

"Okay! You have fun now!" Lord Death called cheerfully.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Back in the hall outside class crescent moon…

Dawn walked down the hallway, expertly weaving through the hoard of slow moving students, searching for a familiar face. It didn't take long for Dawn to spot one of her friends waiting patiently, not far from the classroom, for class to begin.

"Hey Maka." Dawn grinned when the girl physically jumped at the sound of her voice.

"Oh hey Dawn." Maka laughed slightly. "I didn't see you there."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you."

"Nah, it's okay."

"Do you want to go hang out?"

Maka looked stunned and failed to answer Dawn's question for a few minutes as they watched each other silently. Maka was in complete shock, and Dawn was just plain confused.

"What's the matter Maka?"

"Are you planning on skipping class?"

Dawn sighed, "Maka maybe you should go look at what it says on the classroom door."

Maka looked towards the classroom only to see the door shut and a group of mumbling students gathered around the entrance. She walked around the weapon-less meister and made her way slowly over to the door, pushing through the group of studentsproving to be a difficult task for her. At one point another student stepped on Maka's coat, the material nearly ripping with the next step she took. Finally she made her way to the door to find the note on it that stated classes were cancelled. Sighing, the young scythe meister trudged back through the crowd. When she made it back to Dawn, she found the girl absentmindedly twirling a loose golden hair around her finger.

"Thanks but no thanks. I'm going to go and start studying early for tomorrow's quiz. Why don't you see if anyone else wants to hang out or something?"

"Sure. Go do this thing you call studying." Dawn said, waving it off.

"You don't study?"

"Nope."

"Not at all?" Maka sounded shocked.

"Nada."

"Aren't you afraid of failing?"

"Failing? I'm sorry, that word is not in my vocabulary." Dawn said jokingly.

Maka just smiled and laughed, waving her goodbye as she started walking home. Dawn waved back and once Maka was out of her eyesight, she left to go find someone else. Soon after, she saw the familiar sight of two nearly identically dressed yet not so similar twin weapons. Dawn practically skipped over to the Thompson sisters.

"Hey Liz, Patty." Dawn greeted them when she came up behind the two. "Guess what. I think I've got my soul wavelength control down finally."

"Oh. Hey Dawn. That's great." Liz said distractedly.

"What's going on?"

"Why don't you see for yourself." Liz pointed a few feet in front of her.

Dawn looked to where Liz was pointing to see Kid holding a piece of paper in his shaking hand, eye twitching and looking about ready to violently kill someone. She walked over to him and took a peek at what was on the paper only to groan, annoyed. It was covered in nothing but sevens. In the corner was a large recognizable signature.

"Blackstar." Dawn growled lowly.

She snatched the paper from the young reaper, crumpling and tearing it up in front of his face. The wrinkled pieces drifted slowly and silently to the floor. Then Dawn walked up to the assassin and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Blackstar." She managed to say cheerfully.

"Oh hey Dawn. What do you want?"

"Nothing."

A flash of purple sparks later, Blackstar was lying on the ground, a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth. He gave the occasional twitch but otherwise was entirely still.

"Oops my bad." Dawn said, faking innocence. "Sorry Blackstar. You know, my wavelength is just so difficult to control sometimes. Maybe that should be something you think about the next time you feel like pulling another stupid stunt."

"Didn't you just say you got it under control?" Patty asked curiously.

Dawn brought one finger up in front of her lips in a shushing motion before winking and walking away.

"She's something different alright." Kid mused aloud.

"You can say that again." Liz added, grinning beside her meister.

"Please don't." Blackstar mumbled from the ground. "The noise hurts my ears."

At this, everyone nearby started laughing.

"Ow." Blackstar moaned. "I hate being reduced to this."

Author's Note: Yay! Finally got this one done. So, if you missed it, Stein forgot him and Dawn's little "altercation" when she was younger cause he hit his head so hard. Maybe he will forget this one too. Yeah and only Justin, Lord Death, Stein, Sid, and the main groups of meister/weapon pairs know about Dawn being the DSM.

***Please review. They help me write better stories for you.***

Review Q: Any predictions as to why Stein's soul force didn't actually hurt Dawn. Or why it 'tickled' her.