A/N - Holy crap, we're on the 10th chapter! That's a lot of chapters! This chapter was similarly difficult to last chapter, for similar reasons. Not only was I having the usual "action scene difficulties," I was having difficulty giving Alecto a significant part in the fight without her overshadowing Maka and Black Star. From what I gather, it's pretty bad form to have an OC completely overshadow canon protagonists. And with Alecto, well, what would even be the point of her whole "fear of losing" thing if she just breezed through and kicked all the ass? But on the same note, I didn't want to have her be completely sidelined, or else what would even be the point of her being there?
Maybe you could leave a review and tell me how well I did on that front? 0:)
Speaking of reviews, thank you muchly to KaseyKay10 for favoriting, and to Carolinefdq and KaseyKay10 for leaving those lovely reviews! To Caronlinefdq's review, I must say that I am incredibly flattered to know that I've got you checking for alerts regularly! I'm glad I could catch your interest in such a way! To KaseyKay10, I say that I'm glad you enjoy the story, and not to worry! Kid will be showing up in about 2-4 chapters if I'm estimating correctly, and as for Dr. Stein... heh heh heh.
Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.
DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.
Chapter Ten - Graveyard Shift? Extra Classes for the Meisters? Part 4
Tick.
"Ally, don't you dare clock out on me! Say something, damn it!"
"Tace," Alecto coughed, pushing herself to her knees. "Vae, that hurt like hell."
"Oh, thank goodness you're not dead." The relief in Tempus's voice was palpable.
"Don't you worry. I'm not going to die at the hands of some undead bastard who thinks its funny to try and kill people with his own gravestone." As she spoke, searing pain lanced through her side, causing her to gasp and clutch her ribcage. "I may need a minute, though." She wasn't quite as resilient as her comrades were, and her vision was still swimming before her eyes. She felt a warm trickle of liquid make its way down her chin, and prayed that it was just from a split lip and not severe internal damage.
"Take all the time you need. With your help, I could keep the desynchronization going long enough for you to get back on your feet."
Alecto hadn't notice that he'd desynchronized their time, which probably said a great deal about her physical state at the moment. None of it was good. "Tempus, right now I can't focus on my own hands, much less my soul wavelength. You can try if you want, but I'm not going to be able to help."
"Oh, okay. And Ally?"
"Yeah?"
"Why didn't you take the shot?"
Alecto froze. "What?"
"Don't 'what' me. I know for a fact you could have done more damage than that to him than you did. What gives?"
"It's Sid," Alecto replied. "Would you have taken the shot?"
Tempus was quiet for only a second, but it felt like an eternity. "No," he said finally. "No, I suppose I couldn't."
Tock. Time reasserted itself, and Alecto took the fact that she could barely tell as a sign to give herself a minute or two before she got back up again. She focused on the scene in front of her as best she could, digging her fingers into the cold, hard dirt to keep herself from falling over.
"Hey, Sid!" she could hear Soul shout. "If you keep swinging your tombstone around like that, you might bang it into your fat head and die again!"
"It's my tombstone," Sid pointed out. "I can use it however I want, can't I? Now then, kids," he said, his voice taking on a dangerous edge as he propped the tombstone up into the crook of his elbow, "it's time for second period. Ding dong dong ding! Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention," he added, "when this lesson is over, you're all gonna die!"
"Then I guess we'll be cutting class today," Maka replied, her voice full of just as much danger. "Think I'll go home and take a nice hot bath!"
What the hell happened to Sid? Alecto just couldn't reconcile this zombie fiend in front of them with her memories of their former teacher. If this is what happened to someone when they died, then Alecto definitely wanted to win. She staggered to her feet. "Got any ideas, Tempus?"
"Sort of. You remember what Lord Death said? We need to find another way of going about this, a way to hold our own against him with our talents."
Aleco nodded. "Go on the defensive. Got it."
While the two of them had been talking, Maka had charged forward, swinging Soul in a sharp overhead arc towards Sid. The zombie parried the blow with his tombstone with ease, shoving her back. "What's wrong?" Sid demanded. "Why aren't you working together? You have to establish a connection between the souls of weapon and meister!"
"You're giving advice to the enemy?!" Black Star exclaimed as he leapt down from the top of the tree he had climb, lunging toward Sid.
"You know me," Sid replied. "I've always been an enthusiastic educator!" He swung the tombstone towards Black Star, who managed to block the blow with the sole of his shoe. Unfortunately for him, the force of the swing sent him soaring back the way he came. "That's the kind of man I was," Sid continued, propelling himself off the ground and following Black Star through the air. "And now I'll teach you how to die!"
With the mightiest swing yet, Sid struck Black Star with his gravestone, the resulting force driving the both of them to the ground with a brilliant flash of light. The collision into the ground stirred up clouds of dirt and dust, obscuring the graveyard around them.
"Black Star!" Maka cried out.
"Vae!" Alecto exclaimed.
Sid was an incredibly formidable opponent, there was no doubt about that. He was a three-star meister, after all, and that was a rank only given to exceptional weapon meisters. While his weapon wasn't with him, it was clear that even without her Sid could take them all on in a straight fight without any difficulty.
But after already getting pummeled with a gravestone, Alecto wasn't exactly eager to fight him straight on again. "Hey, Sid!" she shouted as the dust cleared, revealing the undead meister. "You know the phrase 'mortui vivos docent' is a metaphor, right? It's not meant to be taken quite this literally!"
"Well," Sid said, "I always was the kind of man to do things unconventionally!" He charged at Alecto, his tombstone aimed straight for her head.
He really does mean to kill us! "Tempus!"
"Right!"
Tick. Alecto ran straight at Sid and leapt forward, using the seconds she had stolen to her advantage. She easily landed on Sid's gravestone, which was moving at a crawling, lethargic pace in her eyes. Tock. Sid was clearly a little taken aback by her choice in tactics, and that gave her the chance she needed to jump into the air, using the gravestone as a springboard. "You're pretty slow, Sid," she taunted, somersaulting through the air and landing on the ground a couple feet away. "Has rigor mortis set in that bad already?"
Barely missing a beat, Sid continued to swing the gravestone in a full circle. Tick. Alecto ducked her head and threw up her shield arm. Tock. The stone base of the gravestone struck Tempus square in the center of the buckler, and the sheer strength of the blow sent a dull, numbing agony shooting through Alecto's arm. Tick. Gritting her teeth and trying to focus on happy thoughts and not pain-filled thoughts, Alecto gave Sid's ankle a swift kick before scrambling out of range, diving behind the nearest stationary tombstone to catch her breath and let feeling return to her arm.
"You know, this sort of reminds me of Vegas," Tempus remarked. "Only with less entrails and more dead people."
"Let's hope this doesn't take as long as Vegas did," Alecto replied.
Tock.
Alecto's attack had staggered Sid, but only momentarily. He soon righted himself, propping the gravestone up on his shoulder and crouching into an offensive stance. "Ding dong, dong ding," he repeated menacingly. He was addressing Maka, who stood opposed to him, determination easily apparent in her green eyes. "Looks like class is over. Ready to die yet, girl?"
Maka didn't answer.
"Well, whaddya say?" Sid continued. "Aren't you afraid of dying? If you become a zombie, then you'll be free from that fear of death forever."
"Nnngh. My head is killing me." It was neither Alecto nor Maka that had spoken those words. Rather, it was Black Star, who had managed to shake off the damage of the blow he'd just been dealt fairly easily and sit up. Blood trickled down his forehead, and for a second Alecto thought that was what we was referring to. But then he continued speaking. "Your preaching is starting to give me a headache, you damn zombie." His expression dark, the blue-haired assassin pulled himself out of the crate that Sid's attack had left behind and stood up. "I'm not listening to any lesson of yours. It doesn't matter what you say. Who's going to pay attention to a rotting corpse like you…" A combat fury filled his teal green eyes. "...as long as there's a big star like me around!"
His attitude had completely changed. No longer was he the unfazable, self-concerned idiot that he had been. Now, just looking at his expression made Alecto believe that, for all his failure on missions, this boy could be a skilled meister.
Credit where credit was due, she supposed.
Black star slung on of Tsubaki's "dark arms" to Sid's left, the chain extending impossibly far to accommodate the throw. "Being a three-star meister doesn't matter!" He slung the other arm to Sid's right, essentially barricading any means the zombie had for dodging. "I am… BLACK STAR!"
With a shout that reached volumes that would make most jet engines envious, Black Star ran forward, jumping forward and driving the heel of his show straight into Sid's torso; right in the solar plexus, if Alecto were to guess. The force of the blow pushed Sid back a few feet, and Alecto swore that she could see blood coming out of his mouth. The zombie was forced to retreat, backing away from Black Star without hesitation.
She had to admit, she was starting to respect Black Star a little bit. Not like him, per se, but she knew a good hit when she saw it.
"Tsubaki, shuriken mode!" Black Star said.
"Right!" With a flash of yellow light, Tsubaki changed her form, going from a chain scythe to a large, five-pointed shuriken.
"You can't run away!" Black Star shouted at Sid, throwing the shuriken at the retreating undead.
"Hrmph," Sid said. "As if I'd even try!"
He jumped and landed on Tsubaki, using her as a springboard as he propelled himself upwards into the air. With a mighty cry, the blue-skinned zombie flipped in the air and brought the tombstone down… on Maka.
"Maka!" Alecto cried out. Another blinding flash of light and a cloud of dust obscured her vision, and she couldn't see what had happened. Vae, vae vae!
As the dust cleared, Alecto's heart skipped a beat with surprise. Maka had managed to just barely dodge the gravestone, and was completely unscathed. "People need fear to survive!" the light-haired meister shouted. "We experience it so that we can grow stronger!" Then she brought her feet forward and kicked Sid squarely in the jaw, the force of the blow driving Sid into the ground and allowing Maka to land on her feet and jump away, spinning to face Sid again with a distance of a few meters between them.
Alecto took the opportunity to leap away from her position behind the stationary gravestones. Tick. She ran up to Sid's gravestone and hooked Tempus's minute hand spear through the cross. Tock. "That's enough playing with this!" She exclaimed, using the extra leverage granted to her by the spear to heave the gravestone away. "You've had your fun, Sid."
"Hey, Ally. What are Maka and Soul doing?"
"Quid?" Alecto turned around to see Maka twirling Soul over her head a few times before swinging him in a downwards arc, moving into an offensive stance. "Eh?"
When Maka and Soul spoke in unison, though, Alecto's confusion was replaced by incredulity.
"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"
"Quid?!"
Alecto could sense the power that was rolling off of their soul wavelengths in droves, and she could see the sparks of green energy, but she still couldn't believe it. She'd never seen Soul and Maka perform a Soul Resonance before.
She couldn't help but be excited. The two of them were an incredibly effective team, and Maka was the top student in their class. Their Soul Resonance must be incredibly potent!
Soul's blade faded into an arc of blueish-white light, seemingly confirming Alecto's hopes. "The legendary super-skill of the scythe meister," Maka said, pulling the scythe back. Soul's blade became… huge, taking on an appearance more akin to the hybrid of a scythe and a halberd, if halberds were ten feet tall and glowing with soul energy. "Witch hunter!" Maka screamed, swinging.
Alecto was so excited that she didn't notice when Maka stumbled. It was only when the resulting blast of energy was carving through the dirt towards her and Black Star that she realized it'd probably be best to get out of the way now.
She dove to the side as the energy rushed past, and she couldn't help feeling confused and a little disappointed as she hit the ground. She'd hoped to see Maka and Soul perform a successful Soul Resonance that knocked Sid cold. She hadn't wanted to almost get bisected.
The light faded away, leaving a huge scar in the earth and a massive hole in the wrought iron fence that had surrounded the graveyard. "What the hell?" Tempus exclaimed. "Top of the class, my polished clockwork ass! How'd you clumsy fools even manage to get ninety-nine souls the first time around?"
Black Star was just as angry. "Are you trying to kill us? What the hell, Maka?!"
Maka's attention (and ire) were focused on Soul. "Oh, nice!" she shouted sarcastically. "This is all your fault! Do it right, idiot!"
"What?!" Soul retorted. "You've gotta be kidding me? Why is this my fault? You're the idiot here, getting mad at me for nothing! Die!"
"Die?! How can you say that? You die!"
The two of them dissolved into bickering for a few seconds, and Alecto couldn't help but be more than a little annoyed. Sid was still standing after all, they could save their bickering for after the fight.
"I wanted to do it without the super skill!" Maka yelled, finally remember that they were in the middle of combat and running towards Sid. "I just wanted to do things the simple way!" She jumped forward, swinging Soul at Sid.
But before the blade of the scythe had a chance to connect, Sid just suddenly wasn't there anymore. Where he stood, there was only a hole in the ground, leading dont to who-knows-where.
"Huh?" Maka exclaimed. "He's gone!" The scythe meister shot a look at Alecto, who gave a don't-look-at-me shrug. It made sense that Maka's first thought would have been Alecto; to the untrained and unaware eye, her temporal desynchronization could be misconstrued as short-distance teleportation, which was exactly what it seemed like Sid had done.
"No," Soul said. "Look. He's hiding underground." He was clearly referring to the hole that Sid left behind.
"He's down there?"
As if in answer, the ground behind Maka shifted and broke open, and Sid came bursting out into the open, bringing his fist down. He still had the sharpened stick; somehow, in all the commotion, Alecto had forgotten that he wasn't quite unarmed.
Without even glancing at each other, Black Star and Alecto moved at the exact same time. Alecto aimed at Sid's ankles again, bashing the shin of her old teacher with the flat of Tempus's shield. Black Star leaped between Maka and Sid, parrying the blow with Tsubaki's chain before striking.
The force of Alecto's blow had caused Sid to stagger, but instead of taking a chain scythe to the face like he should have, he merely sank into the dirt again, disappearing from sight.
"Damn! He dodged our attack again!" Soul said.
Alecto was starting to get a little annoyed. How long did they have to fight against this guy?
One of Tsubaki's scythes gleamed in the moonlight, Alecto could see the weapon's face and shoulders in the reflection of the metal, her dark blue eyes sharp with determination. "Now, Black Star."
"Yeah." Alecto had never seen Black Star this serious before. "I got it. What Sid's doing now is using the first of the assassin's rule."
"Dissolve in the darkness and erase your breath. Wait for an opening to attack your target."
"Tsubaki. Let's get a step ahead of this guy."
"Right."
To Alecto's shock, Tsubaki's chain began circling around the three of them in a wide loop, the chain extending again. Alecto took a step back, the three of them standing back-to-back as Tsubaki's chain began to move around the graveyard, crossing over itself and looping around gravestones.
She glanced over her shoulder at Black Star. The dark expression from before was back on his face, and he stood stone still. Was this the same boy who'd laughed at the mere mention of getting expelled, the same boy who boasted on a regular bases that he'd be able to surpass even the gods but somehow could never even get a single soul? If this was what he was like in a serious battle, why was he never able to complete any missions?
Alecto wished that she could hear the assassin's thoughts, because right now, the only thing she could hear was the sound of the faintest breeze rustling the bare branches of the trees around them. She realized that she was holding her breath in anticipation. She'd no idea what was going to happen. The ground beneath her feet was still, and for the briefest of moments, she thought that maybe Sid wasn't going to come out.
Then the ground tore open, and Sid broke through, the grimace on his face even more dour than before.
Sid was quick, but Black Star was quicker. "Trap star activate!" he shouted, giving the chain in his hand a firm yank. "I think that it's about time to send you back to the grave. You really stink!"
The chains drew closer, moving in to constrict Sid. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one the chains were closing in on.
Tick. Alecto jumped, hopping onto Sid's head and leaping clear of the chains. Tock.
Maka didn't have the power of temporal desynchronization on her side, however, and she and Soul had been trapped in the chains as well as Sid. As Black Star laughed triumphantly, she shouted, "What are you doing, tying me up along with this guy!"
"I wouldn't have to if you didn't get in my way!" Black Star replied, doubled over and laughing hysterically as Maka kicked futilely in his general direction.
Alecto landed quite solidly on Sid's head. "Wow. And to think, for a few seconds there you almost weren't terrible at your job," she said.
"When I'm done with you, Black Star, you are going to be so dead!" Maka snapped.
"Speaking of the dead," Tempus said, "Our assignment's only half over."
"Yeah, you're right." Alecto prodded Sid with Tempus's spear. "Hey, praeceptor. Who's the guy who shuffled you back onto the mortal coil?"
Sid let out a hrmph. "Don't think you'll get anything from me. I never was the kind of man who would snitch."
Alecto could think of at least one instance where that wasn't the case, but she decided to let it go. "All well and good, all well and good. But I think that you also weren't the kind of man to let a dangerous person just run around free." She tapped her foot. "So?"
There was a couple seconds pause. Then Sid spoke.
"His name is Dr. Franken Stein."
A/N - Not the chapter I'm most proud of, but I do really like how some of the scenes came out. Hopefully I'll like the next chapter more. Like I said, I've got a love-hate relationship with action scenes, and unfortunately for me, most of Soul Eater is nothing but action scenes.
Ah well. Beyond that, I don't really have much to say about this chapter that I haven't already said up above, except that really like episode 4. Episode 4 is a fun episode, and I had fun writing the events that took place it in. So with that out of the way, let's get to the Latin.
Tace: Means "shut up"
Vae: Means "Damn"
Mortui vivos docent: Literally means "the dead teach the living." Usually used as a reason behind performing disections and autopsies on corpses. Or, in this case, when your old teacher comes back to life and tries to kill you in an effort to teach you how to cast away your fear of death.
Man, Soul Eater is messed up when you take it out of context.
Rigor mortis: A commonly used phrase that refers to the body's tendency to stiffen after death.
Praeceptor: Means "teacher," "instructor," "master," etc.
Chapter 11 will be up shortly. In the meantime, please favorite and leave a review telling me what you think!
- Diana "Nocte"