New chapter yay! I was playing with the continuinty a little bit in these little couple chapter, so I really hope you guys didn't get confused. The story has officially picked up now since Rhea and Aidan are now officially partners so I thank all of you guys for sticking around long enough to get to this party. The support you guys have given me is just soo amazing, so thank you all so much! Okay, anyway, on with the story! Hope you like it and, as always, tell me what you think!

Chapter 11

WEAPON

When Rheanna finished her tale, the room was still, transfixed by her horrible story. Aidan had lived every moment of it and it still hit him hard – he and his father had failed. The bad guy had won. The black blood won out in the end, stealing away three people into the dead of the night, all relying on a man with an evil soul that needed to be purged. His hands clenched into fists.

Kid's eyes were deep and pitying. "Sounds like you've had a rough night, Rheanna."

Rheanna didn't look at him, didn't look at anyone. Her back was rigid and tough, but her eyes held fast to the ground. "You could say that," she said finally."

"I believe that's all the information I require at this point." Kid nodded to Liz and Patty who stood on the sidelines with two suitcases full of the stuff they'd snagged from Rhea's house. "If you'd like I can send you home, give you a place to stay, so you can rest for the night."

Rheanna finally looked up and the gratitude in her eyes sparkled like partially melted ice. "Thank you, yellow-eyes."

"Please." Kid's mouth tipped up in a neatly symmetrical smile. "Just call me Kid."

"Nah." Rhea shook her head, taking her suitcases from Liz and Patty. She was bold in her exhaustion, having relieved herself of a terrible weight and spreading her misery upon others stronger than her. "I'll stick with what I've got."

Kid's smile tipped higher.

"Where is she going to stay?" Maka rubbed her hands absently across her bulging bully.

The silence in the room dropped into nervous embarrassment. "Umm, err," the combined meisters and weapons scratched their heads. "Never really thought about that."

"She can stay in the DWMA dungeons," Kid announced proudly. "There's plenty of spare rooms down there."

Maka and Crona exchanged a despairing look.

They stepped forward, waving their hands back and forth in front of Kid. "Umm, I don't think that's such a good idea . . ." they said together.

Kid frowned. "Why not?"

Another weary look passed between Maka and her friend.

"She could stay with us." Aidan shrugged, slipping his hands into his pockets. He turned to face his father, sliding Rheanna a cautious look out of the corner of his eyes. "After all, you and mom lived together when you were weapon partners, right, dad?"

Soul rubbed the back of his neck, raising his gaze to his wife's eyes. "It's not a bad idea. And we've got plenty of room . . ." his voice trailed off. He looked toward his wife.

"No way." Rhea's dark hair swung forward into her eyes as she shook her head sharply. She set her suitcases down and cross her arms over her chest. "I'm not staying with him." She jerked her chin in Aidan's direction.

He sighed heavily. "I guess I deserve that."

She slid him a heavy look.

"Here we go again." Soul threw up his hands, rocking back on his heels as the rest of the room stared on in confusion.

"Look, you said your peace back at the house, alright? Now just let it drop," Aidan grumbled, slouching with a petulant tilt to his chin. "I'm sorry, okay? Now quit whining."

"You lied to me." Rhea glared at him with frostbitten blue eyes. "Don't think I'm letting you off the hook so easy."

"God, give it a rest." Aidan rubbed the back of his neck. "I've done a lot more than lot to you in the past couple of days. I've saved your ass numerous times and helped you get through the worst twelve hours of your life. Don't I get a gold star for that, at least?"

"No." Fear and pain swirled in Rhea's icy blue eyes along with a great deal of anger. "You arrogant jerk."

Aidan ground his teeth together.

"Living together is a good way to match soul wavelengths." Kid rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "It might help you two to spend some quality time with each other."

Rhea's jaw clenched. "I'm. Not. Staying. With. Him." Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I won't."

Aidan's lips curled up over sharply pointed teeth. "What's your deal?" he turned to Rhea with his hands clenched into fists in his pockets. "You've been mad ever since we got off the plane."

She didn't look at him. "I would've been mad on the plane too, but someone knocked me out before we boarded." Her words were a slap in Aidan's face.

He threw his hands up. "You said you were afraid to fly!"

"Oh, so you were listening during our last conversation?" Her shoulders were stiff under her sweatshirt. "Seemed to me all you cared about was lying through your teeth in order to get me to come to this stupid school.

"Look, Rhea, it couldn't be helped!" Aidan hated the words even as he said them; he was taking the cowardly way out and she knew it.

She turned to face him for the first time since they'd gotten off the plane. "Did you laugh at me when I talked to you? When I told you all about my mother and talked about my paintings?! Did you chuckle inside when I told you I didn't have any friends? When I told you about how I got kicked out of school? When I started crying because my mother was stabbed and my sisters taken away from!?"

Aidan's hands balled into fists at his side. "No, of course not! Why would you say something like that?"

"How much of that was real, Aidan?!" She stepped forward until they were eye-to-eye. She leaned upwards on her tiptoes to glare at him dead-on. "How much of that was you pretending to be my friend and how much was actually you? Or was it all just a stupid illusion?"

"Of course it was real!"

"Did you make sure Ben came for my mother? Did you call him up and let him track me down just so you could play the hero card and bring me to his god-awful place?" Angry tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. "Because if you did I swear to God –"

"NO! I DIDN'T DO ANY OF THAT! How can you say something like that!? I didn't have any reason to lie to you! I still don't! I didn't even want you to be my partner at first! I just wanted to be your friend!" He screamed into her face. "And if I really made sure Ben found your mother do you really think I would've let him take off with your sisters, too? His soul is a Kishin egg! I would've taken it if I could!"

"Bullshit!"

"You think I'm lying?"

"You're already so good at it!"

"I hated lying to you!" Aidan reached forward and shook her roughly by the shoulders. "Our first conversation, I almost told you right then who I was and what you were to me. I was ready to spill the big secret and I didn't even know you!" His hands clenched around the fabric of her sweatshirt. "The only reason I didn't is because I knew you'd think I was crazy. I mean, come on! You barely believed it when the evidence was right in front of you! Do you honestly think you'd have believed me if I told you over the phone?"

She reached up and grabbed his wrists, trying to pry them off her shoulders. "Let go."

"Aidan." His father rested a hand on his shoulder. Behind him, Maka stood with her hands folded over her belly. Tension rested in the lines of her face.

"Not until you listen to me, dammit!" Aidan bared his teeth at her, shaking off his father's cautioning hand. "Here's the truth: I'm a human weapon. A scythe. I'm your scythe. You wield me in the name of Lord Death and I keep you safe. You feed me Kishin eggs and I protect you from the evil forces who'd like to harm you, got it?"

Her eyes widened and her hands dropped from his wrists. "What?"

"This is what I was trying to tell you on the plane, dammit. You just didn't want to listen to me." His sharp teeth flashed angrily as he ground them together. "Well, you better start because we're together whether you like it or not. I am your weapon partner which means I'm always prepared to die for my meister."

Her mouth opened in a small O, but no sound was audible.

"Our soul wavelengths are compatible because we are alike. We're both broken," he said after a brief pause. Her face contorted, but Aidan plowed through her pain. "But that's good. It means we can help each other, okay?" He sighed and dropped his hands from her shoulders. "I lied to you. But only because I had to. And those phone conversations – all of it – that was real." He backed away and stood beside his father, slipping his hands into his pockets. "That was me. One-hundred percent. And Lord Death knows, I would have tried to save your mother. I did try to save your mother but I couldn't because I'm just a flawed weapon." He raised his gaze to hers. "And the only way I'm going to get better is with you."

Silence settled over the room as Aidan stepped back.

Aidan cleared his throat and looked down. "Now you know." He sighed. "I'm your friend first, Rheanna, then your weapon partner."

Her hands clasped together over her chest. Light tremors ran over her skin and small goose bumps sprouted on her bare legs. Guilt burned in Aidan's chest as he watched the emotional toll of his speech wreck the perfect calmness of her pretty face. She crumpled quickly, leaking a few crystal tears and sucking in two large breathes. But before anyone could console her, she wiped her eyes with a fist and clenched her fingers together to stop their shaking. She put herself back together in almost half the time it had taken her to fall apart – an old habit she'd picked up from years spent with an unemotional mother.

"She can stay with me."

The small voice at the back of the room belonged to a purple-haired meister with thin slender arms and a long black coat. Crona lowered his hand as everyone turned to look at him, and a pink blush spread over his cheeks.

"I-I've got plenty of room," Crona stuttered slightly, stepping forward to look at Rheanna. "Stein's old lab is proving to be way too much space for me."

"Yeah." A black fountain grew from his back, twisting and turning until Ragnarok's shape was complete. "It's a real dump," Ragnarok moaned, folding his arms over Crona's head.

Rheanna tilted her head to the side, staring past Aidan at the thin, spindly meister. "You're Crona, right?"

He nodded, jerking his purple head up and down in a quick motion. "Uh huh."

"I like your hair." The tears in Rheanna's froze as her eyes glazed with an expressionless kind of desire. Her fingers twitched beneath the long sleeves of the sweatshirt Aidan had bought her at the airport. "Do you mind if I painted it?"

Crona's blush deepened. "P-p-painted it?"

"On a canvas." Rhea folded her arms across her stomach. "I've got plenty in my suitcase . . ."

"Oh." Crona looked around, fiddling with his fingers and rolling his eyes. "Uh, yeah, sure."

Rhea cracked a small smile at him. "Cool."

"Why can't she stay with us?" Aidan folded his arms behind his head, glaring at his stubborn meister. "I think it would good for the two of us to bond, right?"

"She doesn't want to, Aidan." Maka rested her hand gently on her son's shoulder. "Give it a rest, sweetie."

"Mom!" Aidan shook off her grip.

"You can come and visit." Crona looked at a patch of skin above Aidan's eyebrow. "As long as Rhea's okay with it."

Aidan looked to his meister with both eyebrows raised. She met his glance somewhat unwillingly, flicking her icy gaze from side-to-side. "Ummmm . . ."

"I'll help you get settled in." Aidan reached down and lifted her two suitcases, staring at her covered wrists. "Then I'll stay out of your hair for a little while."

Their gazes connected solidly for what felt like the first time. "Oh. Uh . . . thanks."

"You two can tour the school whenever you'd like." A hint of a smile lingered around Lord Death's neutral frown. "There's no rush."

"Okay." Unease settled into the lines of Rhea's face as she and Crona turned towards the doors of the Death Room with Aidan a few steps behind.

She knows what I'm going to ask her. Aidan thought, watching her back stiffen and her shoulders quiver up and down. Good. At least now I won't catch her by surprise, and now I'll finally be able to speak my mind. And she'll hear me.

Whether she wants to or not.