Hey guys, I'm not dead! Ready for the final chapter? I know I wasn't when writing this. Before we start, I would like to say how terrible sorry I am for not updating. I let this story slip and I hate myself for that. The worst part is I have been writing buuuut just not this story. Which is wrong. And I apologise. Sincerely. Whole heartedly. So I made this longer than normal as a apology.

Well, I might put my thoughts at the bottom, writer's thoughts, ya know?

Anyways, let's go!

Fear.

It consumed Maka. She was trapped and the fear and madness sapped at her, drained her. The black depths pulled at mind and threatened to tear it apart. Her skin was crawling; it was like a hundred insects waging wars in her body. All her bad memories relived and amplified by a thousand, all her hate, fear and pain that she experienced in her life rose to the surface all at once.

It was like Maka entered a void which was empty of all feeling. In, fact she may actually have done. Her eyes were of no use to here where ever she was and her mind fought against her and denied her sense or knowledge.

After what felt like an eternity, Maka had a sudden thought of stopping. Just stopping. Stop being. Stop the pain, stop the embarrassment, the hate, the sadness, stop everything. But it was pain that Maka wanted to escape from, it just wouldn't stop. No matter how much she begged to the nothingness or how much she wished for peace, the pain just refused to stop.

But pain tells you you're alive.

The thought flashed through Maka's head and echoed throughout her body. Her mind was thrown back to an early mission with Soul, where Maka had gotten a badly injured leg. Soul had said the line to try and comfort her with a guilty look on his face. At the time Maka had brushed off the line as some half-assed apology and then responded with a barbed comment. Now the words had a whole new meaning. She gritted her teeth with frustration. How could she be so stupid to let this happen? She was the Meister; she had to save her weapon. Maka pulled back her clenched fist subconsciously and then sent it into the emptiness in front of her. Maka's fist made contact with something and the darkness around her withered away to reveal the same room where she had found Soul. Her eyes focused in the dim light to see that she'd hit Soul right in the jaw. No, that wasn't Soul right now, it was something else that looks like him and Maka had to find the real him. Soon.

Soul righted himself with a crack of his jaw and a sickening smile.

"Oooh, so the girl hits hard than we thought, huh?" A strange voice echoed from Soul's mouth.

Maka ignored the comment and ran at him. Soul's left arm turned into a large scythe blade and swung at her. Maka barely got away in time to dodge then got tackled and thrown against a wall. The rotten wood splintered as Maka impacted hard. Her head suddenly swam in unfocused thoughts and a throbbing pain spread from the back of her head. A cold hand grasped at her throat and lifted her up against the damaged wall. As the hand pushed her against the jagged wood, dark spots flicked in and out of her vision and her mind started into a mad panic. She realised she couldn't face up against a Weapon without her own. Her arms grappled and flailed at her attacker's arms and face but couldn't stop the rising blackness.

"Soul...! Snap out of it!" She managed to squeezed of out before the hand tightened even more than Maka could imagine.

She felt a dislodged plank of wood and without a moment's hesitation, Maka thrust it right into Soul's left shoulder. The fingers clasped around her neck fell away and air rushed into her empty lungs.

After a few horse breaths, she lifted her head to see the damage she'd done. Blood soaked Soul's shirt was partnered with face half way between pain and rage. As Soul came for another attack, Maka suddenly drove the bloodied wood shard deeper into Soul's body. Soul's body heaved and shook in agony at the increased pain and with a mad look in her eyes, Maka twisted the wood. A weak hand from Soul hit her in the jaw to try and repel her. But it wasn't nearly strong enough to stop Maka. She had now kicked in Soul's right shin and heard a satisfying wet crack. An unsuspecting madness had infected Maka's mind and was festering inside. Her blood coated hands tugged violently on the shard of rotten wood out of Soul's torn body and with an otherworldly strength, she plunged it into Soul's heart.

Glazed red eyes opened to see the same thing for, what felt like, the millionth time. This pale blue sheet of thick ice spreading above him, spreading as far as the eye could see. He was trapped under it and realistically speaking, he should have drowned a long time ago. But he felt no cold or what he thought was water that kept him suspended. It had of the properties of water, expect for the drowning part. There was no point in him moving because it was all the same. He tried to break the ice but you can guess how well that went. Plus the 'water' felt more like oil than water, thick and sluggish. He didn't remember how he got here or why. He felt so defeated by the situation; he just kept closing and opening his eyes wishing for the scenery to change but of course it never did.

Soul twitched from the sound to his side and looked for the source, but it was somehow shifting and moving faster than he could. He could tell it was a girl's voice, though it sounded older than just a girl's voice, somewhere in between Soul decided. It was jumbled and mix of emotions but the underling emotion was panic.

Then he felt a pang of distant pain in his jaw.

"What the-?" He put a hand to the pain and wondered what on earth that could have-

"Ahhh!" Soul doubled over at the screaming pain in his shoulder. His mind started to race with bewilderment. His eyes widened as he lost control of his senses. It was like white hot spikes digging into his body but there was nothing piecing his body. He couldn't make sense of what was happening to him. He could feel his nerves being severed and his muscles being torn apart. The bone in his right lower leg instantly fractured and the cracked into incredibly painful shards. Soul couldn't even scream as he wordlessly clutched his racing heart.

"But... pain tells... you..." The words struggled out of Soul's mouth without him realising, as if someone else made them come out. He was somehow now right under the ice that sealed him and then he realised he was trying break it. Soul felt like someone was controlling his actions as he kept on trying to break the ice. He just wanted to stop the pain, to leave this never ending place. The words kept repeating over and over again in head, as if the mind-bending pain was enough. But he found a strange strength in those words and as he repeated them himself, his memory flooded back and so his attempts to break the ice got stronger. When Soul reached the pinnacle point of understanding he gave one last effort to smash the ice.

When the mad Meister wondered why the Weapon hadn't fall over into a pool of his own blood yet, she could see that her crude spear hadn't found its target. Sure, it was embedded in his chest but not quite his heart. His hand had obviously moved the wooden spear at the last moment.

No bother Maka's twisted mind thought. When she pulled the blood soaked wood weapon, Soul suddenly launched his attack and thanks to his still-half-crazed-mind, he could ignore the damage that had been dealt. The struggle between the two last for longer than Soul wanted. Controlling his body was like trying to steer a horse which had been spooked and he could he feel what control he had slowly fade as the fight lengthened. He reasoned that help would have been sent to the two. Might be Kid, Black*Star or even Lord Death himself. He couldn't tell how much time had pass but he would have guessed a few hours. Then as a picture on a wall was torn off in the scuffle and Soul caught a glance at the person in the painting. Who seemed to watching with a sadistic smile.

Then Soul had an idea.

He pushed Maka to the other side of the room and retreated to stand before a cracked window which led to the outside. He waited for Maka to make a mad dash towards him and instead of stopping her, he let her ram him through the window, while he grab as hard as he could onto Maka.

When Soul opened his eyes again, he could hear voices in the distance. But he didn't care. He tried to sit up which only brought back all the pain in his body and him back lying face up. He turned his head to the right and saw only grass, trees and his own blood. When tried the left he saw her lying unconscious. Maka didn't look any better off than Soul. Soul soon found himself pressing an opening that was spilling Maka's blood onto the dry ground. Despite his efforts, warm redness leaked through the gaps in his fingers. Then he knew he was checking his chest for bleeding.

But he couldn't tell if it was his blood or Maka's.

As his vision dimed and he fell onto his side out of weakness, Soul could hear familiar voices but they sounded distant and quiet. He could he feel hands on his wounds but they didn't hurt anymore. He just focused on Maka, his Meister, who he should have protected better.

"Auggh..." Soul groaned as he stirred from slumber. His head hurt like hell and it was too bright to open his eyes.

"...you should let him rest." A gentle voice spoke. It was faint but Soul could hear the seriousness of the voice.

"What do you mean? He practically already is waking up." Another voice louder voice said in response to the first.

Soul stopped listening and tried to adjust his eyes to the room. It was mainly white and looked a lot like a hospital. He was in a small room with a window letting very bright sun light in. Okay, it was definitely a hospital room. Ruby eyes slowly revealed themselves as they scanned the room for the voices. A blue-haired teenager was leaning in watching Soul intently, while a tall teenage girl was behind him with a worry look about her.

"Hey buddie, bet ya' feeling better now that God has arrived, right?" Black*Star said with a large smile on his face.

"Black*Star," Tsubaki scolded the blue-haired Meister. She turned her attention to Soul."How are you feeling?"

Soul groaned the answer but she gathered he was okay. Then Soul's face flashed with realization.

"Is Maka alright?"

"She's fine Soul. But you and Maka need a long rest. Now that your awake, everyone will stop by as much as we can but you need to give your wounds time to heal."

Black*Star suddenly piped up, "Then you can tell us all about how you-"Tsubaki cut him off and shooed him out saying Soul need really need some sleep.

Soul smiled to himself knowing that Maka was safe and alive. He closed his eyes and followed Tsubaki's advice and had the best sleep since a while ago.

Well, there we are! Done! Well, I'll write a little epilogue after Soul and Maka get discharged.

Considering this was my first fanfic, I'd say I did alright. Not really sure what I'll do next but it will considerably better. I mean, I only really had plotted out the first two chapters before actually writing so could have done better there. If you have any ideas or something, feel free to tell me!

Oh, yes I did change my pen name a bit, but not too much. I decided to do that to mark my determination to never let a story of mine slip, like this one did.

Well, expect to see more stories in the future but in the mean time...

Thanks for reading! :3