Disclaimer: I do not own SE. This fic is created purely for casual entertainment. Strictly not for sale. XP


Resonation Echoes (by DATsubasa)

Chapter Twelve: Sober

Maka

It was on the day of her departure. She had packed what she needed and was waiting aimlessly for the time to pass to hit the evening so that she could go off. However, her mind was full enough for her not to feel bored. The event which happened yesterday night haunted her. She remembered coughing an entire sink full of her blood and after that, a strange feeling of coldness seemed to linger around her soul since then. She had rushed to the schools Dispensary to look for Kim and Nygus for a checkup right after she recovered from the faint that had her lying in the bathroom for two hours or so. Nothing was wrong with her and she was perfectly fine, was what both told her. She knew something was wrong despite the results.

Standing by Soul's bed, she pressed a hand against her chest and shut her eyes. The cold wave was still there. She started to get worried. She tried doing a Soul Recalling but every time when she did so, the coldness which wrapped around her soul caused her to drown herself into coughing fits for more than an hour, along with an indescribable pain in her chest. Right away, she confirmed that the symptoms had something to do with Soul.

The more she brood about the matter, the more worried she became. Frantically using an index finger to word out the Shinigami's contact using Soul's wardrobe mirror, with furrowed brows she clenched a fist behind her. She needed to tell the Shinigami about that. She was way too worried about her condition to feel any anticipation towards her new mission.

"Shinigami-sama? Shinigami-sama? Are you there?"

"Ohaiyo, Maka-chan! What brings you to call me early in the morning?"

"Sorry about that, Shinigami-sama, I have an urgent matter to report."

Biting her fist, she told the Death God about the yesterday event, trembling with each word. The Death God was silent for a while, digesting what the young woman told him. The situation certaintly did not sound any good at all. The young woman's face was filled with nothing but worry and clearly she was panicking inside.

"Maka-chan, go ahead with the mission, but do not do any more Soul Recalling. I suspect that it has something to do with the Madness and what they found over there…"

"Over there? Soul's…"

"Ah yes, but it would be a long story if I go into details. Soul-kun managed to discover the Kishin replica's hideout due to his recklessness. His group is currently scouting that area, and from what is reported, the Madness waves in there are extremely intensified."

"But it is impossible for Soul to be infected with Madness, he is always strong!"

"You may never know, Maka-chan. Since Soul-kun is your partner initially, it is normal for you to worry since those Soul Resonances you two did has the possibility to leave an imprint within each other. Strength does not come from the physical and mental aspect only."

"But…"

"I will keep you posted, Maka-chan. Please do not worry, with me around, everything will be fine."

The Death God bade her a farewell after comforting her for a while, asking her to rest more. From his tone, he was equally worried.

The young woman knew that she could not do anything. Chrona's mission and Soul's case were both equally worrying. What's more, Ivanov was located somewhere in Russia while Heilnite was way further, in Canada. The distances of her worries were so much stretched out and she felt that she might collapse if more things started to pile up for her to worry. Even if she was done with one, the other one would be still far from her reach. The entire Spatori batch Maka was in were dispersed to missions all over the world. Except for Kim and Ox, being a school healer and a lecturer respectively.

She decided to disobey the Shinigami's instructions about the Soul Recalling part. No matter how dangerous it was to perform Soul Recall at this point of time along with her conditions, she still wanted to try doing so. Even if she had to cough her guts out and got herself totally drained of her blood, she knew she had to try. Only she was able to reach out for Soul like that despite the distance. Soul Recalling him until she got a positive response. She could care less about the consequences of what may happen to her. Soul's safety was at priority at this point of time. If anything happened to him, it would cause her to go berserk. At the same time, she was feeling ballistic as she could not do anything much.

She threw herself onto Soul's bed and buried her face into the pillow. She lay still for a while before walking back into the bathroom. There was still quite some time before she set off for the airport.

Everything was totally messed up. She picked up a clean towel from the rack and braced herself.

Soul

He did not know what happened. 'She' had broken the hug and was tugging at his hand, and seemed to lead him to somewhere. It felt so wonderful being with the woman he desired all along. He had to fight back the urge to tug 'her' into his arms again. No one at the Organization could ever understand what kind of agony he was suffering from. He hid those feelings and compressed them into his heart, while a fake mask was stretched across his face to cover his pain. Those feelings accumulated and grew into a time bomb across the years and a slight trigger would cause undesirable consequences. Which was pretty much happening now. He did not realize that he had totally lost it. The 'warmth' was overpowering and he refused to leave.

"She" pulled him further. He let 'her' drag him along. It is not as if he cared anymore where he will be going next. Anything other than her won't matter much.

Where are we going?...

We need to get rid of them…

Who…

Who else… silly…

Oh…

I can help you… will you help me too?...

Please don't hesitate anymore… if not, we will be separated even further… do you want that to happen?

NO!

Then… come with me… come with me…

Will you? Soul?

"She" looked at him with those pair of pretty emerald eyes, with a pleading look. There was a hint of glimmer in those eyes. The grip from her hand became tighter. "She" must have really missing him a lot too. He looked into her eyes while holding on to her hand. It felt warm. He had been feeling cold since he left her. Now that 'she' is here, everything will be different. He had to admit that all along, he needed 'her'. And to fulfill that eternal wish, he needed to do something. And exterminate all the hurdles in his path. And everything. Leaving just him and 'her', it will be just fine.

Soul?

Okay, you lead…

'She' never had been happier. The smile on 'her' face had never been wider either. But, what was with that smile? His senses got lost in 'her' gaze. And that smile.

General POV

The scythe had twin huge, long blades sprouting from the back of both his hands. He looked at the group with an eerily calm expression. The dark menacing aura around him intensified. The air around them got even more colder than before. Everyone really freaked out on spot upon his sudden change of behavior. One of their most powerful damage cannon got influenced by Madness, it certainly did not look good. But it was unlikely that he would be infected due to the kind of person he was. The deathly aura started to attract pre-Kishins to the area where the group was held at. The creatures hover around the group, anticipating for more of the Madness to gather so that they were able to suck in enough power for the kills. No matter what, the group had to get him out of the area. The mission could no longer be continued with him being infected.

"Get a grip, Soul Eater!" Stein was shouting at him while holding out the Demon Hammer in front of him. If the scythe attacked, he needed to bring him down. Marie had the ability to stun the opponent. Time is crucial now.

Pointing a hand towards Stein, the scythe's expression suddenly hardened into a hatred glare.

"If I am not tied by things like missions, then I will be able to reunite with her again! It's everyone's fault that I can't go back to her!" the scythe' burst out, eyes filled with intense hate.

"Her? As in Maka-chan?"

"How smart of you to actually remember that she exist!" he spat, "If killing every single thing in my path will free me, then I won't hesitate to kill."

"Soul, calm down…"

"I HAVE BEEN TOLERATING HER ABSENCE SINCE GOD KNOWS WHEN! CALM DOWN? HOW COULD I? I SWEAR THAT I AM GOING TO DESTROY EVERYTHING, EVERYONE UNTIL I AM ABLE TO REACH HER WITH EASE!"

From the brief conversation, Stein immediately knew what had triggered Soul's defenses causing it to weaken. Marie looked at him sadly through her weapon form, and he looked back, with a hint of understanding in his gaze.

Soul

He lost control of his senses, and did not realize that he was actually threatening his own team mates. There was a wonderful feeling growing within him and he yearned to release it. He knew that with that, he could do a lot of things. And the best thing has to be left to the last, which is, to see her in person again and to fulfill his unfinished promise of a lifetime to her. He could hardly wait. Now there is a chance, he is going to grab hold of it and make use of it to the full extent, to tear open the cage and be free once again. There was a weird feeling inside him, and he thought to hear someone calling his name, and the voice seemed to sound very distant yet familiar, but he decided to brush it off. Anything else did not really matter much anymore. Now, to execute the objectives which were snidely planted in his mind by 'her'.

'She' was smiling at him. He smiled back. Bloodstone red pierced into forest emerald with passion. 'She' closed 'her' eyes and gently placed her forehead against his. He closed his eyes as well, holding onto her.

You did well… Soul… now, we can be together again…

Yea…

I will be seeing you again…

I can hardly wait, Maka…

His eyes parted slightly and moved down to close in the distance between them. Before he could proceed, a pang hit him hard. He could not understand. 'She' looked up at him with a confused expression, silently asking him what was wrong. He could not describe the pain. He moved away from her and clutched his chest, wheezing uncontrollably. He should not be the one feeling the pain. What could have happened?

General POV

Stein and the others braced for an attack, but it never came. The scythe had raised a bladed hand in threat. However, he did not make any move to continue with what he was planning inside his head. Stein took the chance to attempt stunning him. It seemed that some barrier had formed around the scythe and he got thrown back by an unknown force. Recovering to his feet, he was astonished to see the dark aura around the Death Scythe was mingled with an angelic looking yellow aura which appeared from the void. The yellow aura was fighting off the dark aura which was initially erupted from him when Madness took over his senses. It was attempting to cover up the crimson and black aura. The scythe had collapsed to his knees and started screaming in pain while clutching his chest, his breaths were rapid.

Marie was screaming at Stein to do something to stop the entire frenzy. The entire team was too stunned to do anything. The scythe had hunched over and grabbed his head while coughing out scarlet.

Soul

What is with the pain?...

Soul, bear with this and eliminate them…

But… It felt so, painful…

Someone was calling out to him from far away. He remembered hearing the same voice when he was on the verge of bringing down the intruders. The voice was smoothing to his ears. In the space of absolute darkness he snapped his head about frantically, trying to locate the source of the voice which was calling out to him. 'She' did not look happy.

Soul, what are you doing…

He ignored 'her'. It was then he knew something was very wrong. Maka should be a woman, but it was a girl who appeared in front of him. She would never tempt him to be impulsive, despite being as such herself. He was always the one who managed to calm the flames in her whenever she started to go all disorientated. The signature strawberry caramel scent was absent. 'She' tried to tug his arm but he was busy trying to reach out for the angelic voice calling out to him. From a distance he saw a glow. He seemed to have forgotten about the 'person' who was determinedly trying to drag him into Madness.

The wavelength vibration was getting stronger. He reached out a hand.


Author's Notes:

Cliffhanger? Hehe~ Anyways, sorry for not updating for so long x.x Was busy with work. Still writing this fic of course, tho I am taking my own sweet time to upload, on the other hand, I am finishing the fic XD

Anyway, I guess its obvious who is calling out to Soul when he is at the point, almost being consumed by Madness. Tho the cause of Madness is Fear, in this case, the cause of Madness in Soul is the longing for his beloved. Desire. Poor couple. Let's hope they will get back together again q.q

Storyline is getting heavier isn't it? Bear with me, I am a sucker for these kind of stories

I promise I will upload the next one soon. To those who remembered this fic and are still waiting for my update, a big thank you to you guys! I won't disappoint you with the ending, I swear ^^

Have a great day :3