A/N - I don't have anything to say about this chapter right at this moment except that Writing Is Hard. This whole arc has kind of been a bit mentally exhausting (not un-fun, per se, just tiring), so I'm glad to see it wrapped up in this chapter. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!

Speaking of reviews, I would like to thank xXMisatoXx and Superhero17 for leaving reviews! To xXMisatoXx I would like to say thank you for the lovely comments! I admit, thinking up a good weapon design for the weapon that would eventually become Tempus was a bit of a challenge. Believe it or not, I originally wanted Alecto to wield a shotgun, but I scrapped that idea early on. I knew I didn't want to have Alecto duel wield weapons, because it's stated in canon that dual-wielding as a meister is actually pretty tough (thus why only Kid and Kilik can do it), plus it's sort of become a bit of a cliche in fanfiction at this point from what I can tell. Then at one point my brain was like "what if a spear that was shaped like a clock hand" and I was like "WHOA" and it all spiraled out of control from there.

To Superhero17 I say that I do agree that Stein, for all his creepiness, has his moments of absolute hilarity. The beginning of episode 5 is pretty noteworthy. As for Kid, well, he'll show his face soon (I say as we are nearly 50K words into the fic with the only sign of Kid is him being a conversation topic in chapters 5 and 6.)

I would also like to thank SandStromAlchemist for favoriting!

Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.

DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.


Chapter Twelve - Graveyard Shift? The Mad Meister's Crooked Gear, Part 2


Tempus had never taken an attack straight to the soul before, and certainly not in weapon form. In weapon form, pain wasn't quite as big of a deal. After all, clockwork buckler spears didn't exactly have nerve endings to stimulate or a hunk of gray matter to receive signals of pain from. He could feel a vague sense of discomfort and he still had all his senses, of course, but everything was different when he was a weapon.

So when Stein's soul attack ripped through his consciousness like a bullet, sending excruciating torment through his very being, Tempus's first emotion was confusion, then terror as he realized what exactly was happening. He wanted to stop time outright, to wrench him and his meister away from the pain coursing through their souls. But he couldn't concentrate his on his wavelength enough to use it to slow down their time frame, and even if he could, Stein was close enough where he'd get pulled into the desynchronization, too.

His meister… Alecto! Pushing his way through the pain, he turned his attention to his meister. She had to be okay, she had to be, what was a weapon without a meister to wield him…

Alecto was standing stock still a stunned expression on her face. She didn't even seem to be registering the attack. For the briefest of moment, Tempus hoped that the attack wasn't reaching her, that it was he who was getting to brunt of the pain. He reached out to try and get a sense of her wavelength, to see how she was.

He immediately regretted it. The energy from Stein's attack had let her off easily. The pain she was surely feeling was at least tenfold that of what he was going through. So why the hell wasn't she pulling away, or fighting back, or reacting, or something? "Ally?!"

Before Tempus had a chance to comprehend what was going on, Stein tossed Alecto against the wall, the look in his eyes as idle and amused as ever. Bastard!

As Alecto slid to the ground, the dazed expression still on her face, Tempus turned into his human form, still aching from the attack. Deliberately placing himself between Alecto and Stein, he knelt down and cupped his meister's face in his hands. "Ally? Ally, say something! Tell me to honk if I speak Latin, tell me to go screw myself in a dead language I don't speak, just talk to me!"

"D-dēbilis sum."

"O-okay, that's a start! Now if you could just tell me what that means, we'd be great."

"Ddēbilis sum, dēbilis sum…"

"Or you could do that. That's cool too!" Tempus cast a desperate glance over at Maka and Soul. Black Star was… dead (he had himself to think the word), his lifeless head cradled in Tsubaki's arms, and in this state Alecto wasn't hopping back into the fray anytime soon. At this rate, unless Sid had a sudden change of heart, Maka and Soul were their only hope.

Soul seemed eager enough to kick Stein's ass to the East Coast and back, certainly. "Damn you, Stein, you won't get away with this! I'll kill you! Let's go and get him, Maka!"

Maka didn't reply.

"Maka?"

Maka was standing as still as a statue, with a look of pure terror on her face as she stared at something only she could see. "No way," she said, quiet and disbelieving as she fell to her knees.

"What's wrong?" Soul asked.

Maka's awed and horrified gaze didn't waver. "This is impossible." Tempus followed her gaze to see that she was staring at Dr. Stein. But he didn't look any different from normal. Well, "normal" was probably not the word to describe the self-proclaimed scientist, but there still wasn't any noticeable change in him. So what was Maka staring at that scared her so?

"Hm," Stein said, smirking in a way that made Tempus want to punch the screw out of his head. "The little girl can see my soul, huh?"

Tempus remembered that Maka had the ability to see the souls of others, in a manner not too unlike Dr. Stein himself had before the battle started. It was the mad doctor's soul, then, that had caused fear to strike Maka's heart.

"I can't," Maka said, despair lacing her words. "The difference between us is too great."

"Hey, come on!" Soul shouted. "What's wrong with you, Maka?"

"I can't," Maka repeated in reply. "He'll defeat me."

Damn it! Clearly Maka and Soul were not going to be any help at this moment. Tempus returned his focus to Alecto, who had curled up and practically buried her hands into her hair, her ribbon having fallen to the side. She was still mumbling "Ddēbilis sum, dēbilis sum, dēbilis sum…"

"Alecto," Tempus said, trying to keep his voice even so that Alecto wouldn't hear how worried he was, "what does that mean?"

"I'm weak!" Alecto cried. "I'm weak, Tempus."

Tempus stared at his meister. How could she think that? "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," he stated.

"It's not!" Alecto snapped. "You heard what Stein said. He said I had the weakest soul of everyone here! Everything I've been doing, all the missions I've been taking on… I've just been trying to convince myself that I was a good meister, that I was strong enough to fulfill my duties and not be a disappointment. But I'm not strong. I'm not. I can't stand up to Stein, because he's right."

"Are you kidding?" Tempus exclaimed. "You're really going to trust that guy to give an accurate assessment of who you are as a person? Look at him; I wouldn't trust him to give an accurate review of a cheap burger, much less an analysis of someone's soul. And we don't even know if he's telling the truth about what he saw in your soul."

"Why would he lie, though?" Alecto mumbled. "He was right about everyone else's souls, and there's no reason for him to lie about mine."

"Sure there is! Maybe he knew that it would get to you like this and it would keep you from fighting him." Tempus could hear Soul shout something to Maka, but he didn't bother to focus on exactly what. "Maybe he's a sick sadistic son of a bitch who enjoys seeing people being emotionally tormented! Either way, you can't let it get to you like this! Quee owdet adipi-shee-ture!"

A pause. Then, "You're pronunciation is terrible, it's qui audet adipiscitur and it doesn't change anything. I'm still weak, and we're going to get expelled because of it."

Tempus took a deep breath. There was only one thing left that he could say if he had any chance of getting Alecto back on her feet, and while it was true it wasn't exactly very honest. He hoped she wouldn't be too mad at him for it.

"Alecto," he said, "going off on mission after mission without even giving yourself time to rest is not going to make you stronger or a better meister. All its going to do is put so much of your focus on the idea of getting stronger that it hampers you. If you want to get stronger, then you need to stand up and have some damn faith in yourself! You keep talking about how you won't ever stop fighting until you've won. Well, guess what, we haven't won yet, so dust yourself off and let's get going! Because the only thing keeping you down on the ground like that is yourself, and right now right now all you're doing is proving Stein right. All you're doing is giving up!"

That got through to her. Alecto's coal-black gaze hardened to black ice, and before Tempus had time to react, she had pulled the both of them to their feet and had slammed Tempus against the wall, glaring at him. The vitality had returned to her expression. "I. Am not. Giving up," she growled.

Tempus grinned. "'Course you aren't. That wouldn't be like you, Ally."

Nearby, it seemed that Maka had broke out of her own emotional ditch at the side of the road, and had stood up. "Sorry about that," she said. "I'm better now."

Tempus's grin grew wider. Stein was about to get what was coming to him.

"No problem," Soul said, and transformed into scythe form. Grabbing him, Maka spun the weapon over her head and swung him down, moving into a familiar stance. They're not really going to…?

"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"

They really were. After all that had happened, after a failed attempt earlier, they really were going to try and resonate their souls again. Tempus was almost impressed by their gusto as we watched the visible soul energy emanating from the weapon and meister grow brighter and stronger. The two were putting all they had into the own resonance. If they succeeded, Stein would be dust.

Stein, who had previously just been standing there patiently, suddenly looked incredibly interested. "You're putting everything into one hit?" he said. Then his entire demeanor changed, and there was some actual emotion in his voice. "Come on! Let's see exactly how much your souls can handle!"

"The legendary super skill of the scythe meister!" Maka shouted as she pulled Soul back, the latter's blade practically exploding with soul energy and expanding into the same massive, double-headed scythe from before. "Witch Hunter!"

She swung the scythe, the blade cleaving through the concrete ground like a hot knife through butter. For a second, Tempus thought that the same was going to happen to Stein, but to the shock of everyone there, he managed to block the blow, pinning the blade of energy between his hands and holding it in place inches from his face. No way! Tempus thought. Can he really do that?

From there, it seemed like a battle of well, with Maka pushing the blade towards Stein and Stein keeping it from hitting him. Tempus hoped that Maka would be the one to get the upper hand.

"You can control the Witch Hunter, too," Stein said, and he almost sounded a little bit awed. Then he continued, his next words making the blood drain from Tempus's face. "But I'm afraid your skills are too rough!"

Witch Hunter shattered.

Soul went flying, clattering to the ground rather unceremoniously. Maka fell as well, her breathing shallow and ragged. "Tempus!" Alecto hissed. Tempus nodded in agreement and switched into his weapon form, and he could feel Alecto tense up and prepare to leap into the fray.

Back to the unaffected self he was before, Dr. Stein ambled over to Maka's form,his footsteps splitting the silence that had erupted. "You managed to remain conscious," he remarked as he kneeled down beside the light-haired meister.

In a flash of light, Soul returned to his human form again, crouching protectively over Maka. "Back away," he snapped. "I won't let you touch my meister."

"In that case," Stein said, reaching his hand out, "I'll start with you."

Tick tock. "Ego te provoco," Alecto snarled, pointing the tip of Tempus's minute hand at the Stein's back, right between his shoulder blades like she had previously done. "You wouldn't even have time to blink, doctor. Remember that." There was no shaking in her voice, just barely-contained rage boiling beneath the surface.

"Hm." Tempus could practically hear the doctor's smirk. "So, you're still willing to fight."

"Aut vincere aut mori," Alecto replied. "Take your pick."

Stein simply continued reaching out for Soul. Alecto pulled her arm back, and Tempus readied himself for what would no doubt be the unpleasant experience of getting stabbed into the bony flesh of a madman. Alecto gritted her teeth, and…

And Stein patted Soul on the head.

"You've earned a passing grade. Good job."

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"Your extra lessons have been completed," Stein continued, a smile on his face. "You gave up your own body to protect your meister. And you," he said, giving Alecto a quick glance over his shoulder, "were forced to confront your weakness, and fought anyway. That's all you needed to earn a pass from me." Alecto stood there unresponsively, staring at Stein in a confusion that Tempus shared.

"Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear the first time," Soul said. "I'll say it again: huh?"

"This was all planned out by Lord Death," Dr. Stein explained. "He asked me to do him a favor. He wanted me to help you with these extra lessons."

"B-but if you were in on it, why did you kill Black Star?" Soul shouted, pointing to Black Star's lifeless body.

Only, to the surprise of everyone, it wasn't lifeless. In fact, Black Star was very much alive, his head still in Tsubaki's lap and his eyes focused on Stein with a glower. "I bet you think you're a funny guy, huh?" the blue-haired assassin shouted, his voice still strained from whatever Stein had did to his soul.

He's alive? "Oh, bull!" Tempus exclaimed as he changed back into human form. "You can't tell me that all the crap you just put us through was just part of a remedial lesson orchestrated by Lord Death!" Tempus knew that life as a DWMA student was dangerous, but there had to be lines in the sand, right?

"But what about Sid the zombie?!" Soul demanded.

Tempus had never thought that he would see a zombie look sheepish before, but sure enough, that was what he was looking at. Cross another thing off the ol' bucket list, he supposed. "Ah, yeah, sorry about all this," Sid said. "Back when I was alive, I was definitely a man who would never tell a lie. But a lot of things have changed since then."

"Oh, you don't say!" Soul said. "Then what the hell was the point of all this? To see if you could scare us to death?"

"This is messed up," Alecto moaned, falling back onto the floor. "This is seriously messed up, I can't even described how messed up this is…"

"It was just a test," Stein said, "but I confess that it was fun scaring you kids like that!" He grinned maniacally. "You just have seen your faces!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Tempus said.

Alecto ran her hands through her hair. "I speak two different languages and there aren't any words in either of them to describe just how messed up this is."

Stein sat back down in his chair and spun it, twirling about like a deranged top. "Okay, everyone! I'm sure you're all tired! Why don't you spend the night in my laboratory!"

"That's a big fat no!" the students shouted in unison

"I need some tea," Alecto mumbled.

"Yeah, I think we all could," Tempus replied, pulling his meister up off the floor. "Come on, let's go."


"That man was seriously sadistic."

"He was the literal worst and I pray that I never have to see him again," Tempus said as he dropped the tea bags into the teacups full of scalding hot water. He'd taken over making the tea for Alecto after she'd nearly dropped the teapot due to shaking fingers. They'd only gotten home half an hour ago, and the events of the night still weighed on their minds like a bag of wet sand.

"You know what the worst part about it all is, though? Lord Death actually thought it was a good idea. The Grim Reaper looked at Dr. Stein and thought 'yeah, let's throw a bunch of teenagers at this guy and let them get emotionally broken for the sake of remedial lessons.'" Tempus scoffed. "Remedial lessons. At least we passed."

"I'd have taken Vegas again over that," Alecto said, practically sprawling in the kitchen chair. "I'd have taken a hundred Vegases. Is 'Vegases' even a word?"

"I think so."

"Hm." Alecto was quiet for a few seconds. "Hey, Tempus? I think I'm going to take a break from taking on mission. Not a very long one, I just… you were right. I do need to rein it in a little."

"Yeah, you do. You've been stressing yourself out, Ally, it's not healthy."

"I realize that now. I don't think what Stein said about my soul would have gotten to me as much as I did if I hadn't been obsessing over my worth as a meister over the past month. What I need is to find something to take my mind off the whole mess."

"Well," Tempus said, grabbing the teacups in front of him and handing one to Alecto, "I can say with complete certainty that you are a great meister, even if you tend to go a little overboard, and I wouldn't trade you for anyone in the world. I promise."

Alecto smiled at him. "Thanks, Tempus." She took a small sip of the tea and grimaced. "Tempus?"

"Yeah?"

"You are my best friend and I love you dearly, but you make a terrible cup of tea."


A/N - Oh, Alecto, I'm sure you'll find something to distract you from your myriad of self-esteem issues soon enough. Maybe next chapter, even.

On a note that is absolutely not related to that last statement in any way whatsoever what are you even talking about, I would just like to remind you all that while all of this is going down, Kid is sprawled out in the middle of some hallway or another, contorting himself into ridiculous poses on the ground because of toilet paper. Oh, Kid. Never change.

I have to admit, this episode did make me raise an eyebrow at Lord Death's teaching methods. I mean, I get that DWMA is Not Your Average School, and that's all fine and dandy, but was that really his idea for remedial lessons? And why didn't he tell Kid what was really going on? It's not like Kid's knowledge of the true nature of the lesson would have affected the outcome in any way. What's up with that, Death?

Oh, well. If Kid had known the truth, I suppose he wouldn't have enrolled in DWMA, and everything would be turning out very, very differently. Yay plot convenience!

Do you know what else is yay? Latin. Latin is totally yay. Yay Latin!

Dēbilis sum: Means "I am weak."

Ego te provoco: Literally means "I provoke you." Is basically synonymous with "I dare you." Clearly Alecto doesn't know that a dare doesn't count unless it's a double dog dare!

Aut vincere aut mori: Means "Victory or death," and admittedly would have made a much better motto for Alecto than the phrase she does use. Ah, well. Hindsight is 20/20, after all.

Chapter thirteen will be up soon. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think!

- Diana "Nocte"