Chapter 10

They arrived in Loew district at noon, like the letter instructed, sitting in tense silence. When fifteen minutes had passed, Maka sat up, drumming her fingers nervously on the seat. "Where are they?"

"Are you that eager to trade yourself in?"

She gave a half-hearted laugh. "Well, there's no other way you're getting Wes back."

"Losing you would be like losing him, you know."

She couldn't look over at him. Unsticking her voice, she said, "I guess we'll have to see what happens." She added, "Whenever they turn up, that is."

"Which is now, I think." He pointed to a black car idling in the middle of the road. It flashed its lights once before beginning to move again.

They followed the car to a row of abandoned warehouses nearby and entered the garage, where an aging midsize airship sat.

"Do you think this is their headquarters?" Maka asked quietly.

"Looks like it."

Giriko and the man with the false eye emerged from the car first. Walking to the back of the car, the man opened the door and the veiled smuggler stepped out of the car.

Maka found her voice. "Here I am," she said. "And Steam Victor."

"So nice of you to make it, my dear Maka." Nora Featherstone removed the veil from her face, smiling sweetly. "Though I see you're not alone." She jerked her head to the man with the false eye.

All at once, everything became glaringly obvious.

"It was you." Maka ground her heel into the floor to keep herself from smashing her fist into Nora's smug expression. "It was always you."

"I should have thought it obvious. Did you really think that I would forgive your slights? The distance-" Her voice shook slightly. "That you put between Spirit and I?"

"That is why you're doing this?" Maka asked disbelievingly. "Because my father broke up with you?"

"Really, dear, your intelligence has been overstated." Nora's voice became steely. "I will never allow myself to be made the fool." She gave a soft titter from behind her fan. "Besides, do you think that my husband would have really given you a penny for your silly idea without some inducement on my part?"

Maka swallowed her anger. "Where is Wes?"

She nodded to Giriko, who opened the car door and revealed an unconscious but very much alive Wes. "Now I had only meant to steal your delivery that day but I do admit this worked out so much better."

Soul stiffened. "What did you do to him?"

Nora waved his words away. "Only a bit of chloroform, he'll be fine. I'd take your brother and get far away from here, boy." She sneered. "Ironic that one of the families my husband put out of business with our dealings had to double their bad luck by having their sons associate with you."

Soul took a step forward, jabbing a finger at Nora. "You're the reason our family went bankrupt?"

"It was only business," she said dismissively. "Now enough talk. Take your brother and go."

He glanced at Maka and then he shook his head. "No."

Nora narrowed her eyes. "Do not try my patience."

"Soul," Maka whispered. "Take Wes and go, it'll be fine."

"No," he repeated simply, glaring at Nora. "I'm staying with you."

"One hostage or two hostages, it means the same to me." She waved a hand imperiously. "Go tie them up and put them and that horrendous contraption in the hold and out of my sight. I have to meet my husband here and I intend to be out of this dreadful place before tea time."

Dust wafted down as Giriko opened up the cargo hold, one hand locked around Maka's arm while Free held onto Soul. She choked on the falling dust and let out an involuntary yelp as Giriko shoved her roughly. The ropes binding her arms together pushed her off-balance and she stumbled into Steam Victor, hip crashing painfully into the hard metal.

"Maka!" Soul's hands hooked awkwardly underneath her elbow.

She stood, glaring up at Giriko as the smuggler pulled the hold's double doors closed and kicked the door mockingly. "Enjoy your stay."

Biting down on a furious scream, Maka rushed forward and slammed the sole of her boot against the door in reply.

Giriko's glee ran unfiltered in his voice. "Feel free to make all the noise you want. The only people here are us and the bosses."

She sucked in short and shallow breaths as he and Free's footsteps faded away.

Soul was only a voice in the pitch black darkness of the hold. "Well, this isn't the most ideal situation."

Maka didn't answer.

A trickle of alarm threaded through Soul's voice. "Maka? Are you okay?"

"You shouldn't be asking me that," she said finally. "You should be angry at me."

"What?" The floor creaked as Soul inched forward, confusion replacing his worry.

"I'm sorry," Maka whispered, refusing to turn although she'd be unable to see his face anyways.

There was a pause. "I'm still not following."

"You and Wes would have never been involved in that idiot woman's plan for revenge if I had just cleared up that we weren't a couple when the rumour first started." The words stung her throat like needles as they left her mouth. "I was selfish."

"How were you selfish?" Soul was close enough that she could feel the warmth from his body. "I agreed to it, didn't I?"

She turned slowly. "Yes but-" A beat of silence followed before she gathered up her courage, spilling out in a rush, "I liked pretending that I was with you. That we were a couple."

At least she wouldn't have to see his face when Soul rejected her.

For several overlong moments, Maka waited. Then, she heard Soul open his mouth and braced herself.

"I liked pretending too, only, I also wasn't pretending."

Shock sliced neatly through the buffers surrounding her heart and Maka blinked rapidly. "I-what?"

"I thought that I had made it obvious enough." Soul was the one to speak quickly now. "In my letters and when I returned," he mumbled. "And after Featherstone's ball, I thought you knew for sure and were trying to spare my feelings."

A giddy laugh burst from her lips. "Did you even read my replies to you? I thought I was being the obvious one and you were the one trying to let me down gently."

Soul's bound hands found hers, his thumb brushing the top of her knuckles. "Ironic that it's here that we came out of the dark about this."

She bit back a reluctant laugh. "Don't."

Squinting at his face would be, she felt Soul doing the same and a tension change the space of the air between them. They moved at the same time; Maka brushed her lips against Soul's, leaning forward to press more firmly against him when she felt his mouth curve into a smile.

They pulled away at the same time, hands still interlocked with the other's.

Soul spoke first, voice not as steady as before. "Not exactly the way I pictured this, admittedly."

"The ropes are a bit of a damper," Maka agreed, lips still tingling. "But I think I can take care of that."

"How?"

"Well, you were right," she said, pulling her hands away to remove the chisel she'd tucked away in her sash. Her bonds came loose with a quick flick of her wrists and she slid the blade underneath his ties and rope and cut him free. "No one expects a chisel."

Soul was incredulous. "You could have freed us the whole time?"

Maka felt up and down the door for its lock.-it was a steel deadbolt that she had no hope of picking open with the chisel. She stepped back, thinking hard. "I got distracted."

A trace of smug amusement lined his words. "I guess I can't blame you."

"Hilarious," she said, glad for the dark hiding her blush, and moving to the back of the cargo hold. "Now help me out with positioning Steam Victor."

"Er, why?" he asked as he joined her.

"It's not quite what I envisioned using him for but he is the perfect battering ram-well, horse," Maka amended, running her hands down the steam horse's sides and finding the emergency switch on his flank. "And his engine makes for an effective propulsion system," she grunted, tugging on the horse. "Once we angle him just right, I'll turn him on and he'll do the rest."

Soul followed her movements in adjusting Victor. "You do know cronies one and two are going to come running when they hear that."

"Which is why we run faster." Maka put her hand back on the switch. "Ready?"

There was the sound of Soul moving closer and then his hand around hers. "Not much of a choice, is there?"

Maka squeezed his hand. "Nope." Then she flipped the switch and sprang back as Victor roared to life with a thunderous cacophony. The hold was illuminated by the lights of the mechanical horse as Victor lurched forward, crashing into the doors and sending another spray of dust from the ceiling.

Narrowing her eyes, she peered through the debris-Victor had deactivated with the collision and unlike she had hoped, the doors did not crash open but they did bend outwardly, forming a hole large enough to fit through.

"Let's go!"

Clambering atop of Victor, she reached back to help pull Soul up and scrambled through the hole, jumping down.

In the distance, she heard faint yelling. She turned to Soul, who was fumbling with his pant hem. "Hurry!"

"I'm stuck," he grunted.

"So pull yourself free!"

"I'm trying!" With a final yank, his pants leg came free and he landed on his back on the ground.

Maka jumped forward, grabbing his arm and pulling him up. "Come on."

Together, they ran, diving behind a wooden crate just as the door to the hull crashed open. Both Giriko and Free ran down the stairs, heading straight to the back of the hull.

Soul tugged on her hand once they had passed where they were hidden and they ran as silently as they could, reaching the steps to the rest of the ship before a cry sounded from behind them. "There they are!"

Shutting the door with a slam, Maka took the lead, Soul on her heels. As they passed a hallway, she caught the sound of Nora's panicked voice. Screeching to a halt, she whirled around. "Wait."

Soul looked at her perplexedly. "Wait for what? We need to go."

"New plan." She veered down the hallway, following the whiny tone of Nora's voice until she came to the room it was coming from.

In one fluid move, she pulled the door shut, catching a glimpse of Nora and Featherstone's stunned faces, and withdrew the chisel, jamming it in the lock.

"This way!" She yanked on Soul's sleeve, praying the schematic she was thinking of matched the airship's.

"Shouldn't we be heading for the exit?" Confusion clouded over his face but he didn't slow down, angry footfalls of Giriko and Free, escaped from the cargo hold growing closer.

"Just wait," she called between breaths, praying that her mental schematic of the ship was not wrong and praying even harder that the pilot's room was empty.

Both of her prayers were answered as they launched up a flight of stairs and rounded a short bend to find the pilot's cabin devoid of anyone.

They rushed in, Soul spinning around to slam the door shut.

"I thought we were going to the police?" he yelled as he scrambled for the lock. Immediately after he drew the deadbolt came the ear-splitting pounding of Giriko and Free colliding into the door. "Why did you take us here?"

"We are going to the police." Maka settled into the pilot's seat and began flicking on switches on the dashboard, adjusting the compass next to the steering wheel. "And we're taking the evidence with us."

"You know how to fly one of these things?"

"I studied the mechanics of piloting when I first got the idea for Steam Victor," she called over her shoulder, flicking switches on the dashboard.

"So you've actually flown an airship?" he asked, panting against the straining door. "Why did you never tell me?"

"Well..." Maka glanced over her shoulder, ship beginning to come alive. "In reality, it wasn't exactly an airship," she admitted. "More like an old airship simulator."

"A simulator?" Soul repeated flatly.

"That Stein stole from a junkyard and revamped himself." She pulled a lever and the ship rumbled underneath their feet as the propellers began to spin.

"That is-" A particularly heavy-hitting blow resounded from the smugglers attempting to batter down the door. "Just perfect," he finished. "Mind telling me exactly where we're landing this thing if we don't crash and burn first?"

"There's an airfield next to the police station," she replied, strapping herself in. "All we need to do is land there. And you should buckle in yourself now, it's going to get bumpy."

Soul raised his voice to be heard over the barrage on the door. "And when the door gives out?"

"It's just across town, we should make it in less than five minutes." Maka thrummed her hands against the steering wheel. "Besides I've got a plan to get those two off our backs and unless you're prepared for a world of pain, you don't want to be standing for that."

"Suffering was never a particularly favorite hobby of mine." He seated himself in the co-pilot's seat and buckled himself in. "Ready when you are."

Maka grinned. "Brace yourself." And with a violent jerk of the wheel, she drove the ship backwards.

Along with the high-pitched whine of the ship's wheels and bone-deep reverberations as the ship crashed into the back of the warehouse came the groans as Free and Giriko were knocked off their feet and consequent thuds as they fell down the stairs.

"Hang on." Pushing the wheel forward as hard as she could, the ship jumped forward in a single burst of speed, decimating the front of the warehouse easily.

The airship began to speed up as it rolled down the row of empty warehouses and towards the edge of Death City. Not yet.

Soul coughed awkwardly next to her. "Maka?"

"I know."

"Are you going to do something about it?"

"Wait for it." She zeroed on the distance between them and Death City's precipice. Not yet.

"I'm not sure if that's the wisest course of action-"

"Now!"

Pulling up on the wheel as hard and quick as she possibly could, Maka let out a whoop of victory as the airship took off into the sky. "See? Waiting paid off."

"I did see that," Soul replied stiffly, flattening himself against the back of the chair. "Most unfortunately."

Frowning, Maka arched an eyebrow. "Are you that afraid of heights?"

"Only slightly," he replied through gritted teeth and closed eyes. "Though all things considered, this is actually nice," he noted after a minute, edging a small peek out of the window. He blanched. "Think I'll avoid looking down though."

"If you're so scared, why did you return to a Sky City?"

"Family duty," he answered, hands clamped around the armrests. "Plus, you were here."

Maka pinked. "I-"

A high-pitched alarm sounded from the dashboard and she swore, willing the ship to fly faster.

"What is that?"

"We're running out of gas." She gritted her teeth as the airfield came into view, red lights from everywhere on the dashboard blinking at her. "We're going to have to crash land."

"What?"

"Grab onto to something now!"

Holding the steering wheel tight to keep the plane steady, the last thing Maka saw was the field as they touched down and a flash of white light as her head connected with the wheel.

She was floating in a sea of night.

Death was dark.

"Maka? Maka!"

Death was also loud, too loud. The noise pulled her out of the dark and she opened her eyes slowly, head pounding in time with her heart.

Soul's face was only inches from hers, gazing at her frantically. He let out a breath when their eyes met. "You had me worried, what hurts?"

Maka wet her lips. "You're not dead?"

The panic in his eyes dimmed, a small smile playing on his lips. "Not since the last time I checked."

She struggled against the fog clouding her mind. "Then that must mean I'm alive."

"Your powers of logic astonish me." He swept the hair out of her face, fingers gently probing her hairline for injuries and pulling away when she let out a hiss of pain.

The sound of protesting metal as it was shifted to the side interrupted her reply. Maka blinked against the light suddenly streaming in from the windshield and the half a dozen police officers peering at Soul and her in alarm.

Searching through the sea of faces, Maka easily found Inspector Nygus' eyes." She tried for the most clear-headed tone she could manage. "Inspector, I'd like to present to you the smuggler's hideout."