I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU

set one month, 3 weeks, 6 days after Asura

Agnes was up early again. She had another nightmare, lost in the inky darkness beyond night. The cold was encroaching upon her, slowly but surely sapping the life from her. She woke, sweating and frantic, but a glance to her right gave her solace. Rudy was still slumbering away, sprawled out over the edges of her bed and snoring. A piece of hair was in her face, and every exhale blew it away from her mouth. Agnes ruffled her own hair before bringing her feet to the floor and heading out of their bedroom.

The hallway that was on her right was swirling and almost inviting, like the darkness in her dream. It was only the empty bedroom at the end of the hall, but the door was open and the moon wasn't shining tonight. Her entire apartment was pitch-black, unnerving her a bit more before she shook the thoughts, and her dream, away.

She didn't need to sleep. She rubbed her eyes in irritation, plopping down on the couch in the living room. She rubbed at her face, not wanting to start preparing for a day of school three hours before she even had to be awake. It was quiet at four in the morning, a familiar quiet. She began to get angry, all of these irritating things piling up on her all at once. She took a deep breath, and with practiced control, she summoned a flame in her left palm. It was warm, and ate away at the edges of the darkness.

Agnes began to let her thoughts drift back to their meeting with the death scythe and Mosquito, a sigh falling from her lips.

It was tedious work, having to rely on other people to lead the way. Maybe this was why Rudy was so adverse to other people. He had offered them a definite plan, and with the people he had backing him, it was hard to say no. Agnes smiled in spite of herself, recalling the confrontation. There was an unsure air to him, though Mosquito seemed a bit more skittish. Rudy had relayed to her that Justin Law had been shaking in his boots the whole time; Agnes considered the fact that they should be feared by normal weapons, but she also knew that Law was riddled with madness and struggled to remain in control. He wouldn't have left that alley if they decided it. Agnes was still in complete control of the plans that were taking place.

Rudy had been involved in the planning, though she wasn't as cooperative with them. Justin had told them that he would provide a soul to warp and the rest was up to them. He didn't have to explain how it would happen; they already knew. There was no telling when the transformation would happen, if it did. They were both ready for the connection to become clear between them and Maka; they had felt it the first time they met. It was clear that she was destined to become the next kishin. Maka was as good as anyone, she had tried to console her sister, but it fell on deaf ears and the betrayal in her eyes was something Agnes wouldn't soon forget.

As she began trying to work out the details of their plans, Rudy rose from her slumber and clambered to the bathroom across the hall. Another look at the clock confirmed that Agnes had been staring silently at the wall for three hours, mulling over her current predicament. She shook her head and stood up from the couch, returning to their room and looking for something to wear. The plan would have to wait until after school.

"... And as you can see, this creature is very unique - its lungs are twice as small as a human's..." Stein droned on, poking and prodding inside of an animal that no one cared to look at or pay attention to. It was common for him to disect in the middle of class, and while no one openly protested, it was typically ignored.

Maka had two books open and was taking notes for a meister-specific test that would be happening in a week, and Agnes was sitting beside her as they went over last-minute notes together. Tsubaki was sitting to Rudy's left, and Soul was on her right. They had all agreed to take extensive notes on specific chapters for their own weapons test, and they were swapping information while Tsubaki also filled out Black*Star's remedial tests and homework. Rudy couldn't believe he stuck her with all of that work, but then again, nothing could stop Black*Star when he decided to do something else.

Rudy was staring at the back of Crona's head, thinking hard about the question on Black*Star's homework that she had began helping Tsubaki with, when Ragnarok spilled out of their meister's back. She was so intent upon her thoughts that she failed to notice the demon blade resting on her desk, boredly drawing on her homework. She reached into her pocket and absently put a piece of candy in her mouth, still in thought.

Soul noticed the weapon and decided not to say anything to the girl, wondering what kind of interaction they would have. When she reached down, he then noticed three bags of assorted candies. He didn't know when she brought them in, or how he hadn't noticed them before, but he vaguely recalled Ragnarok having quite the sweet tooth. He continued watching the weapon struggle to steal the horded candy.

Ragnarok saw the sweet and tried desperately to reach into Rudy's pocket, but to no avail; their arms just weren't long enough anymore. Groaning in irritation, Ragnarok settled for pulling her hair roughly to get her attention. Surprised to feel that the tips of her hair were hard and a bit sharp, the weapon drew back their hand and Rudy's attention was on them immediately.

"Ragnarok? What do you need?"

"Give me candy!"

Rudy smiled widely and reached back into her pocket, pulling out a large handful of hard candies; the weapon greedily wrapped their tongue around it before swallowing all of them whole. She procured an entire bag of caramels from her desk and handed it over to Ragnarok.

"I love eating candy!"

"Well, Rudy, while we're all very happy for your affection for sweets, I fail to see how it helps you pass my class. Which you are failing, by the way." Rudy grimaced at Stein before Ragnarok stuck out their tongue and drained back into Crona's back, done causing trouble for the moment.

"Have you been listening to my lecture?"

"Uh, I've been going over some notes, actually. Your lecture isn't really captivating, Professor. Besides, it's not like anyone else is listening." Soul felt himself go numb, and Tsubaki had snapped her pencil. Stein quirked an eyebrow at her forward accusation. She was calling him boring, and even went so far as to claim that no one else was paying attention? His mouth twitched upwards in a smile and Rudy saw every other EAT class student blanch; it was never good when Stein smiled like that.

"Well, if you're not captivated by my speeches, maybe you should stay after class today and go over your notes with Crona, who is doing about as well as you are." Soul went to defend the meister, but Maka beat him to it.

"This isn't Science class, it's Especially Advanced Talent. They aren't doing well because you haven't been teaching." Maka went back to her studies and Stein instead turned his attention back to his half-dissected animal, ignoring the conversation completely. Crona let out a deep sigh, happy that they weren't the center of attention anymore. Shortly after, the students were released by the bell. Agnes left her sister in the classroom, instead meeting the Thompson sisters to go shopping for a few hours while Rudy did her time.

Stein glared at her and Crona as they tried to leave, prompting them to take his statement seriously before sitting back down. Maka spoke to Crona briefly, something about meeting them later for dinner, before she left with Soul. Rudy pulled out her notes and another bag of candy -where she got them from, Crona could only guess- while waiting patiently for them to pull out their notes. Crona didn't move from their spot.

"Sorry I got you both in trouble; I hope you don't mind too much." To her surprise, Crona shook their head before offering a small smile. Ragnarok formed again and their hands found their way into the candy bag.

"It's alright. I don't have any notes to help you, though. Maka lets me borrow hers after she re-writes them." Their voice was quiet, like everything else about them. Rudy knew next to nothing about the meister or weapon, only that they were relatively new to the school and that they were rather close to Maka. Rudy gave Crona some paper and one of her pencils, before putting her notes between them. She handed the now half-full bag of candy to Ragnarok so they would have more room to spread their papers.

Crona slowly scribbled the words onto their own paper, reading the material several times before asking short questions and jotting down her answers in the margins.

"Hey, Crona? Can I ask about where you're from?"

"I, uhm, don't really know. Sorry."

"Is there anything you would tell me about yourself? I'd like to get to know you better, and we have some time to kill." While Stein had left with the last student, Rudy wasn't about to let Crona out of her sight. She had been dying to get a moment alone with the meister and weapon duo, but had been thwarted constantly by their friends. The way they shifted, a bit uncomfortably, made Rudy reconsider her question - was she being too forward?

"Crona's always been a scaredy-cat! I'll tell you what you want, but it'll cost you!" Rudy offered the bag of unopened caramels to Ragnarok, who accepted gratefully. Crona was still quiet, though a short nod was given before Ragnarok began speaking.

"Crona's mom was a witch named Medusa - she was bad news! Anyway, we did a bunch of stuff for her before he gave up all of our power, then that idiot girl brought us here and we live in a smelly dungeon now." Rudy could make a lot of inferences off of these statement, but she tried to keep to what she knew; Medusa was an unknown to her, so she started with witch. The witch, Eruka. Perhaps she was still working with Medusa, if witches still worked together like they used to. But she realized quickly that Medusa would have been a much more prominent threat by now, and would have been mentioned to her at some point by Maka. Eruka was still running with an immortal werewolf, but was uninfluenced?

They ducked their head down and continued to scribble on a borrowed piece of paper. Rudy scooted back on the bench before propping her feet on the desk, leaning against the desk behind her. Her mind shifted to the next subject - an idiot who brought them to a dungeon? It was unlikely that Maka, who was the only one close enough with Crona for Ragnarok to even take note of, brought Crona back specifically for punishment. After a long moment, Rudy recalled that Ragnarok mentioned giving up power - which could mean that they had been on the wrong side in the beginning. There were a lot of words pouring through her head, texts about the side-effects of eating human souls.

So, that's what they had locked Crona up for? Eating human souls, only to give it up? She shook her head, finally making sense of the most problematic part of their statement.

"Wait, you live in a dungeon? What dungeon?"

"The one in the school." A frown marred her features, and Crona saw the depth to it - the anger, the surprise, the curiosity. She had been completely unaware of a dungeon within the school - what did they need one for? And why was Crona in the dungeon? Rudy assumed there was much more to this tale than she was being told, and she knew that her fascination with Crona and Ragnarok was well-founded.

They wondered why she had so many questions, and why she kept thinking they had answers. Crona dropped their pencil and began pressing the tips of their fingers together, a nervous habit that had yet to die off. Ragnarok began tugging on Crona's hair, whining loudly for Rudy to pay more attention to them. She blinked, coming back to reality.

"Are you allowed to move out of the... dungeon?" She didn't know what brought the question on, and it felt like she was taking things a bit too fast with someone she hardly knew. But as she looked at them, she felt relief; she saw herself in them. A coward who runs away, who depends on no one because who will stick around? Someone who didn't know what their future would be, someone who had made mistakes. But there were qualities to Crona that evened them out; a sense of loyalty, the ability to need protecting, but also the ability to protect others. She could admire the traits the demon swordsman had shown thus far.

Crona nodded at her, the pencil sitting untouched next to a full page of notes. Rudy had noticed their forming interest in her, Crona's attention shifting towards her, and unshrinking themselves. She had even noticed the waning eye contact as the time passed.

There was something very special about Crona and Ragnarok; Rudy needed to know more, she wanted to focus on this rather than her impending betrayal. Perhaps there was more to this mysterious duo than she had initially assumed, and she grinned widely when a solution formed in her mind.

"Well, why don't you come live with me and Agnes!"