Kidd glanced over to the little demon. He held out his hand, fumbled around behind his back, and slid the bottle of cool, thick-looking liquid down into his arms.

"Soul is in that box."

The demon chuckled. "Oh, yes, and there is nothing he can do to escape."

Kidd glared at the box, which was covered in marks and ink, little stickers and notes. The heat intensified. "I should have never let him read the bane of his soul without protection."

The demon tossed the box from one hand to the other. Kidd could hear Soul screaming inside.

"You wouldn't do all this just to take over Soul's body."

"What makes you do that? I would very much so like a body of my own."

Kidd felt sweat slide down his back. The bottle of frost was sending up cool breaths up to his face, but the heat on his back was blistering. "This body can't hold out much long like this. Even if you stop, there may be long-term damage. You don't care for this body at all, do you?"

"Yes, yes." The Demon paused from his juggling trick with the box. His eyes narrowed in and saw straight through Kidd's soul. He grinned, his lips stretching to showcase a vast array of teeth.

"You're going to propose a trade."

"Oh, you are so much better than I have ever hoped." The demon was laughing. The box's metal should be melting by this point, but it wasn't- only Soul's shouts from inside proves that heat effects it.

"Continue." The bottle that Kidd was holding felt almost warm.

"You see..."

The heat was beyond bearing by now.

"I could do so much better in the body of a Shinigami's son."

Stop! Stop this madness- stop the barbed wire, don't let it touch your skin again! I forbid you! Goddamn! I want to it all to stop- I want you to stop!

JUST KILL ME NOW!

Twisted metal.

Curved blades, glittering silver. A maze of gleaming metal, of jagged wire, of blood. Your wrists are a mess of what are supposed to be under your skin.

KILL ME NOW!

Blood and rust.

Needles digging into your skin, slicing into your bones as you save someone you've only met for a month from a forty feet fall. You want them to hold on to you. Keep from falling.

I CAN'T TAKE THE GUILT!

THE GUILT!

THE GUILT!

THE GUILT!

Suicidal hanging.

You're killing him, you know.

Blood slides down her arms freely, like water. Her skirt is fine save for a few burn marks but her shirt is ripped and stained beyond recognition.

Your hair is being dyed red. I can't see your face. I can't any life you have left. You chest is moving slightly. Water is dripping down your face.

I can see your bones.

Your muscles.

Your tendons.

Your veins.

They're slowly stopping their pulse.

Scream.

"MAAAKA!"

Soul felt two hands grab his arms. One was Black*Star's, and he was cracking Soul's wrist bones. The other hand was Maka's, and she was gripping his hand tightly, her hands subconsciously signaling her stress.

He didn't mind.

At least, he minded less than the fact that Black*Star was going to make his handwriting even more unreadable. "Gah! Let me go!"

Kidd pressed a cold hand against Soul's head. "You've finally gotten out."

Maka glared at Soul, worry flashing over her face but it was quickly replaced by anger. "Yeah! Kidd got out an hour ago!"

Soul glanced outside, The moon was high and the sky was black. The night air was chilly. His fever was gone. He felt better than he had ever felt before. And yet he felt dry and empty. Powerless.

His brain was pounding.

His mouth was coppery.

And his senses were afire with the scent of blood.

"God, it's like someone just took out all the bad stuff in me. Kidd, what did you do? The last thing I knew was that I was in the box."

Kidd shrugged. "I just broke the box, that's all. And left."

Something in the back of Soul's mind lit up. "Really? That's all-"

"I have to go. See you tomorrow." Soul, Maka, and Black*Star watched as Kidd hurriedly exited until they got distracted again- by Black*Star's strangling of Soul's neck.

Kidd managed to walk out of there without collapsing. He leaned against the wall. The world was spinning. "Black blood... I didn't know it was so strong... How did Soul... He must have had a special resistance..."

Kidd coughed. He would have liked to see black blood on his hand, but he came up with nothing. His body could not eject the liquid.

Black*Star and Maka had been staring and inspecting him for an hour. It was all he could do to get them off his back.

"I had to do it... Or else Soul would have died... I can... Deal with it."

Kidd shakily stood up again and stumbled towards his room. His shadow trailed behind him.

Blood red.

Soul felt Maka's fingers lightly touch his neck. Her arm was on his chest, right over the scar. The scar wasn't itchy and hot like it was before.

Fine, because Maka's arm was over it, it was feeling a bit warm but that was all.

She had let him come back to their room after he convinced her he was perfectly fine with twenty push ups. Frankly, he was surprised that he could do them all with ease. Without the scar throbbing and stinging.

She called the top bunk because she was afraid that he'd thrash around and break it. And yet, he had been sleeping deeply and calmly when she had a nightmare that left her crying and frantic for proof that he was alive.

And so, she climbed down half-asleep and plopped down, muttering that she was there to make sure he didn't fall off the bed.

She dumped all the blankets over him although it was a chilly night and she wore next to nothing.

Soul shifted most of them over to her after she fell asleep. Maka's shivering ceased.

"Jeez, if you wanted to come down then don't take up all the space."

She was wearing his sports jersey and a pair of shorts. He didn't know what color the shorts was, but Soul knew his jersey was red.

Blood red.

His head suddenly throbbed. "If Kidd wanted me to heal from the burn... Then he would have to take the black blood... Is there a box or bottle to contain black blood? He could have given it to Crona, but he was in my soul, so... Then... He had to take it and..."

Something akin to lightning flashed in the back of his mind.

"I, Death the Kidd, take unto my body this black blood!"

"And give it another host."

Soul felt his heart plummet.

Ice ran up his arms and legs.

The door slammed open, splintering against the wall. Black*Star ran in.

Soul felt Maka get up behind him.

His heart was thumping too loud for him to hear Black*Star's words, but the look on Maka's face proved to him what he thought had happened.

"Kidd has gone mad!"

Wind blew across the open field. The moon was high. Blood dripped from its teeth. Something interesting was happening down there.

Kidd was standing in the middle of the field. Maka was holding Soul swung over her shoulder casually fifty meters away from him. But her face was worried and her hand was tense. Black*Star was standing next to Tsubaki, ready to activate Uncanny Sword form.

Liz and Patty were closest to Kidd. Liz looked as if she was about to break. Patty had her head down. Her hat was covering her eyes.

Farthest from Kidd, was Crona twenty meters from behind Maka. He had his head high up and lifted his nose into the air, and sniffed. "I smell the black blood..."

The last person of the loose circle around Kidd was Stein, sitting on his swivel chair next to Crona. He activated a loose ring around the crew, including himself. He lifted his head from back seat.

"Soul, the monster had transferred from you to Kidd."

Soul nodded.

"It was trap. It had been collecting power for months, only using a little at a time on you, so you didn't think it was that powerful, only something that made it painful to breathe once in a while."

Maka twitched. She had not been informed of this.

"So, Kidd didn't know its true power until it unleashed itself and took over."

Liz looked up. "How bad is it?"

Stein pointed to Kidd. "He is fighting. When he finally loses, the demon would be able to move without problem."

Tsubaki blinked. "And fight?"

"Yes. The demon would be able to use all of Kidd's abilities. He could even control Liz and Patty through Kidd's contract with them, like when Maka used black blood with Soul."

Black*Star tilted his head. "Hey, hey. When Maka went insane, she was mad scary... Does that mean...?"

They all looked back to Kidd, who had stopped twitching.

Kidd lifted his head. His eyes glowed red. His head tilted back, knees bent and shoulders cracking and he laughed softly to the moon.

And then he screamed.

Stein twisted around his swivel chair. Crona curled up in the corner of the Soul Perimeter. His head was shaking, his hands were frantically twitching on top of his head, trying to cover all of it. He knew the scream of the Black Blood intimately.

Stein intensified the Soul Perimeter. "This will keep him inside, and I can keep this up for a long time. One, please do not touch it. Two, I will not be able to help you because I'll be holding him in and this field up."

"Remember when Maka went insane? Well, she used the black blood and controlled it to an extent. But here, Kidd has completely lost it." Stein poured more power into into the barrier. Golden light crackled. Then, he stopped and looked at the kids again.

"In this, with Kidd's body... He might even be able to defeat-"

Black*Star cracked his knuckles. "Hey, hey. I'm still here. And I've been dying for a good fight. He can try and beat me, but I won't hold back! Ha! This will be fun!"

Tsubaki transformed and flipped into his hands. Silver shone. "Please, remember that it's still Kidd's body. You have to make sure to keep him in one piece."

Black*Star blinked. "Damn. The guy is powerful. I can't hold back, if I do-"

Maka stepped down from the rock she had been crouching on and swung Soul in front of her. "You don't have to. All you have to do is beat him up and hold him down."

The blade of Soul's Genie Hunter was a gleaming black from the night's reflection on its crystal surface.

Crona's hand morphed into a blade, dripping with blood that hardened as he walked towards Kidd.

Black*Star grinned and he tossed Tsubaki into the air.

She came back down as the Uncanny Sword.

"Time to take the Mini-Shinigami back."