Author's Note: Soul Eater Not!

I just started watching it, haven't read the manga. I learned a little bit already though.

1. Death City is supposedly in the Nevada area. I always assumed it was Middle eastern.

2. Death city isn't a secret, it's a place people might actually go on vacation. This in turn leads to the literal specter of Death to be a semi-public figure.

Yeah, it sounds weird to me. I had all these preconceptions, and now I'm finding that they're false. At least, if SEN! is considered Canon. I have no idea why it wouldn't be.

Cooper hangs his head. "I'm sorry."

Tsubaki squeezes him around the shoulders a little tighter. "It's not your fault."

Cooper rolls his eyes. "Yeah it is."

Patty scratches her head. "I'm confused. What just happened?"

Liz sighs. "Cooper is Kid's brother. Or whatever you call shards of Death's soul."

"But... I thought he was a werewolf."

"He's probably that too."

Cooper nods. "Being a werewolf is kind of like an outlet for it." His face screws up and his clamps his eyes shut. "All this information is giving me a headache."

Tsubaki squeezes his shoulders again.

Maka climbs up on one of the uprooted boulders and looks around. "We should probably get going. While we're in here, we have no idea what's going on outside." Cooper shakes his head back and forth violently once and stands up abruptly, dragging Tsubaki to her feet with him. "Alright. Just keep an eye on me."

BlackStar stretches. "Let's go. I'm getting tired of being stuck in a stupid book."

Maka points towards the left of their position. "There's the door!"

Everyone gets to their feet and marches over to the door.

Maka places her hand on the doorknob. There was only three sins left, greed, sloth and pride. She wasn't dreading any particular one, but each of the past four chapters had started to wear on them. She looks from one weary but determined face to the next and opens the door.

Inside... A completely white space.

"Are we back on Envy?" Liz asks.

Blair takes two steps forward and collapses into her cat form, curled up asleep. Cooper's eyes droop severely, but he struggles to remain awake. Triella collapses and lands face first. Maka rushes to her side and rolls her over to find a pool of blood coming from where her nose had made contact with the floor and the girl fast asleep.

Liz glances around at the almost entirely white space. Aside from the blood, there isn't anything in sight. It is all completely white. "What chapter is this?"

The index appears out of nowhere and dryly informs them, "Sloth."

Before it can disappear though, BlackStar leaps from his spot and tackles the index. It starts to fly away, but BlackStar has a death grip on it.

"I got it! I got it!" He yells.

"Let go of me, cretin!" the index says. It starts spinning around in an attempt to throw him off.

BlackStar looks downwards. "Tsubaki!"

She nods and transforms into the demon sword, throwing herself at the spinning pair.

BlackStar, having no free hands, catches the sword in his mouth. Black lines spread across his skin, and his pupils dilate. He deftly shifts his grip so one of his hands is able to wield the sword and his mouth now has a chunk of the papery being's "flesh."

"What are you doing, heathen?" the index growls.

BlackStar maneuvers his sword until it is at the thinnest section of the index.

Wisely, the index stops thrashing about. Maka steps back and cranes her neck to see it flying about twenty feet up in the air.

"So, index." Maka begins. "We want some answers."

(O.O)
VVV

Death smashes his giant fist into a wall, crumbling the aging stone to powder. Powder that, due to the wall being and exterior one, allowed the wind to blow through blinding everything inside that particular room. Stein barely pauses to wipe the grit out of his eyes and raise Spirit in scythe form before charging the flagging guards.

The trio had been battling their way through this maze of a prison for about ten minutes before Death had started smashing walls. Already, two whole sections had collapsed and a third, this one, was creaking dangerously. Stein takes two steps backwards and swings Spirit upwards. The impact jars a chunk of ceiling and stars a cascading effect. Death floats back over to Stein. "How are you two doing?"

Spirit pops half out of his scythe form. "Stein's fine, but I keep being used as sledgehammer."

Death ignores Spirit.

Stein pulls off his still dusty glasses and skillfully polishes them with the hand not holding Spirit. "Aside from my partner's complaining, We're both fine."

Death's mask bobs. "And the Book of Eibon?"

"Safe." Stein slips his glasses back on and gestures vaguely to his lab coat pocket.

Death turns his attention to the now broken wall in front of them. "Looks like we have a way out."

"Wait! What about the lock on the Book?" Spirit complains. "If we don't remove it, Maka and the others will be killed!"

Death peers out the hole in the wall. It's a good three hundred feet to the ground below. "That's true. If the book is forced to remain closed while they attempt to escape, they may be in for a nasty surprise. That's why we need to warn them." His mask adjust slightly to look at Stein. "We are a long ways up. Can you find a way to get us down?"

Stein pulls a cigarette out of his pocket and puts it in his mouth, unlit. He peers over the edge. "We need to go lower. You can fly out of here now though." He Pulls himself back to a safe distance from the hole. "Spirit and I need to find the key. I would recommend that Death takes the book with him and flies back to Death City, while we descend with as much caution as possible. We will deal with Spirit's old meister, get the key from her, and follow once we get to a place where it is feasible for us to exit."

Death remains silent for a minute or two. "I'm counting on you two. Don't let your students and daughter down."

He grabs the Book of Eibon and flies out the hole his shadowy form rapidly accelerating away.

Spirit has his mouth set into a line. "Wouldn't it be better for us to stick together so we have a better chance of not dying?"

Stein attempts to take a drag of his unlit cigarette. "This way Death and all the kids are out of immediate harm, and we still have a chance to get the key. Meanwhile, Death can see if he can open the lock some other way."

"He can't."

Stein and Spirit turn to find Violet standing in the doorway. She smiles nastily. "It's designed so he can't open it. It would defeat the point of the book if he was able to open it."

Spirit looks at his former wife and meister. "I can't believe you are willing to hurt Maka for your own ends."

Violet raises an eyebrow. "But it wasn't me, it was you! If you had just agreed to help, they'd be out and about right now, and you'd all be back on your way to Death city, or what remains of it."

"Not all of us." Spirit mutters. He transforms into a scythe and leaps into Stein's grip. "Let's get that key."

(O.O)
VVV

"So this is a prison designed for Death." Maka says flatly.

The index gives her a hateful stare and remains quiet.

BlackStar had "persuaded" the thing to fly low enough that Tsubaki was able to capture it with her braid transformed into a chain. Maka had then questioned it and found out a lot of things. Most of it was useless in their current predicament, but some of it...

"So the reason Cooper keeps getting the worst of it is because he used to be a part of Death." She pokes her lips thoughtfully.

Cooper walks up to the index and stares right where it's eyes look like they should be. "I'm not too patient right now. You might want to start talking."

The index grudgingly starts to speak. "Yes, that is correct. However, he only reacted violently to the Wrath chapter. I suppose that's because of his nature."

Cooper flexes an extended claw. "Look, I know you're the magical construct of a book." He leans in close. "But if find out you lied to us, I'm going to find someone to put me back into this book and I'm going to find you and rip you to shreds."

Maka gives the signal to Tsubaki, who lets her hair return to normal. The index huffs a bit and disappears into thin air like he had each time previously.

"So, we know know why I'm such a burden in here." Cooper grumbles.

Tsubaki sighs. "You're not a burden, it's just this prison was designed for someone like you."

Liz chimes in sarcastically. "It's like locking BlackStar in puzzle room. We could all get out easily, but he'd be in there for years."

BlackStar tosses a dirty look in her direction, but continues to prod at Triella, who had yet to wake up.

"This is the sloth chapter." Maka says. "I doubt she'll wake up until we get out of this chapter."

Patty makes a face. "We have to carry them?"

Liz shrugs. "We could also leave them all behind." after everyone glares at her, she continues. "I'm not saying we would or we should, just that we have that option."

Maka does a quick head count. "Tsubaki, Cooper, BlackStar, Patty, Liz and me. Okay, we have six people awake, and an unconscious cat and witch. We'll have to take turns carrying Triella, and one person has to keep hold of Blair."

Cooper scoops up Triella and looks expectantly at Maka. "So, where are we going?"

Maka spins around in a circle. "I don't know. We should have asked the index."

Patty scoops up Blair, who starts purring in her sleep. "I think we should head that way." She points to her left. Everyone follows her extended arm to find nothing particularly interesting about that direction.

"Um, why do you say that particular direction?" Maka asks.

Patty shrugs. "Why not?"

Liz sighs.

BlackStar starts walking in the direction indicated. "Let's get moving already."

The six awake members of Spartoi start walking down the path. At least, it feels like they're walking. Since the scenery is completely white, it's impossible to tell if they had yet to actually get anywhere or if they had been effectively standing in place as they walked.

That is, until they saw the bench.

As they walk, a bench slowly comes closer. Patty, who had ended up with Blair again, diverts her path to it, murmuring about being tired.

Maka, weary from her trek (and probably a good bit from the book's influence) is too slow to warn Patty off. She has her mouth open to shout when Patty sinks down onto the bench... And promptly falls into the same deep sleep as Triella and Blair.

Cooper sags to the ground and gives an exasperated sigh. "Oh, come on! Just carrying one person is wearing me out in this chapter. Carrying two is going to suck."

Maka hauls him to his feet. "No resting. If you go to sleep, I'm not dragging you along."

Cooper grunts and turns to BlackStar. "I think it's my turn to carry Triella, actually."

BlackStar swings the unconscious girl off of his shoulders and presents her to Cooper like one would a blanket. Cooper scoops her up and places her across his shoulders.

BlackStar grabs Patty and hoists her up into a carrying position. Maka grabs Blair, and they head off.

(O.O)
VVV

Violet drops her arm. From behind her, several guards pour into the room, filing along the edges to surround the duo of Stein and Spirit.

"Spirit, I'm disappointed in you." Violet taunts. "After everything I've done for you, for Maka, you still insist on fighting me?"

Spirit grits his mental teeth. Stein ignores both of them and concentrates on creating a plan.

Violet doesn't give him a chance to though. She snaps her fingers and her men lower their weapons to attack. Stein twists Spirit around into a defensive stance just in time to block several of the strikes. One gets through though, and Stein's side opens up.

The man holding the offending weapon is soon relieved of his head. A red, damaged soul pops out.

Violet quirks an eyebrow from her safe distance. "I'm impressed. I would've thought you to be too moral to kill humans."

Stein impassively looks up at the woman. "Don't you remember why Spirit left me the first time?"

Mentally, Spirit facepalms. "You don't have to make it sound like we were dating, you know."

Violet narrows her eyes, oblivious to Spirit's comments. "No, I don't. All I remember was a lot of whining coming from my ex's mouth."

Stein's lips start to curve upwards. Spirit suddenly realizes that his partner is about to slip into madness.

"Spirit left me because I wanted to see how he worked. I wanted to cut him open and watch the blood floor around the body, and the heart beat, and the lungs fill with air. I wanted him as my experiment."

Spirit starts frantically attempting to bring Stein back to reality through both mental and audible means, but it seems that Stein can't hear anyone anymore.

"So he left me, for you. And now I'm going to cut you open to see how you work."

Spirit notices that one of Stein's eyes is twitching and rolling in all different directions, unfocused and looking at nothing in particular. He looks back at his former wife and notices something around her neck.

A shiny golden key.

"Stein! The key! It's around her neck!"

Stein shows no sign of hearing his partner. Instead he charges, bent low.

Violet deftly draws a sword from a sheathe at her side. The two blades clash and ring.

Spirit looks between his two former meisters, both of them currently unreasonable.

"Why does this kind of thing happen to me?"

(O.O)
VVV

Inside the Book of Eibon, BlackStar drags two people. One of them is Maka. The other is Patty. On Patty's stomach, a cat is curled up. BlackStar is looking for the first time since Cooper had met him like he was tired at all.

Behind him, Cooper was struggling with Triella, Liz and Tsubaki. Cooper feels like he's going to collapse and end up like the rest of them, but he pinches himself to wake himself up a bit before stoping and taking a deep breath.

"I absolutely hate flowers." He grumbles.

BlackStar drops his burden and squats down. "I knew we shouldn't have taken that shortcut."

The shortcut in question was a patch of black flowers. After Patty had fallen asleep, there had been more benches and chairs and other things people like to rest on. After nobody succumbed to the benches, the book had started throwing couches at them, then beds. Maka had almost succumbed to one bed in particular, one that had a nice bookcase full of books to read and within easy reach of the bed. It had taken a tug from Liz to get her attention back on the task at hand.

Still, it had worn on them all heavily. Each and every one of them just wanted to take a short nap by this point.

That's when they spotted the field of flowers.

They had stopped to discuss going through or around it. Through it was definitely the better looking option, since the field seems to be miles long in all directions. Liz had argued that it was obviously a trap, but in the end, it came to a vote and walking through the field won.

After trudging through the flowers for yet another hard to determine length of time, Maka had decided to pick a flower and smell it. According to her, it smelled wonderful, and so each of the girls had smelled it. After about thirty seconds, each of them was unconscious on the ground.

Cooper and BlackStar had tied clothing around their faces to avoid the same fate and had dragged and carried everyone to this point.

BlackStar stands back up. "We're almost to the door. All we have to do is shove everyone through it and we'll be fine."

Cooper wheezes out what could possibly be construed as a confirmation.

BlackStar turns around and looks at the werewolf-Death shard. "You know, you're pretty strong."

Cooper shrugs. "Comes with being a werewolf."

"Man, I want to be a werewolf." BlackStar walks back to his burden and grabs their legs. "I guess I'll have to settle for beating a god."

Cooper quirks an eyebrow. "You mean the Kishin?"

BlackStar nods. "Yeah, it was awesome! Kid, Maka and me were all trapped in a dome, but not like the one over death city..."

BlackStar tells his version of the tale to Cooper, who notes that according to BlackStar, nobody else did too much. He gave special mention to Tsubaki though.

When they reached the door (neither cared to find out why they just so happened upon it) they had started to open it and throw their comrades in when-

"Cooper?"

Cooper looks up at the sky. "Hey, BlackStar. Did you hear that?"

BlackStar stops with his hand on the knob. "No. You're hearing things."

"Cooper, it's me, Death."

"He says he's Death." Cooper relays.

"Who cares? Let's just go. Only two more to go, right?"

Cooper nods and moves his pile of friends next to the door. BlackStar opens it up.

"Cooper, there's something you need to know. If you try to escape now, you will be crushed to death, since the book is locked shut. I will tell you when it is safe to leave."

Cooper looks up at the sky. "I don't care who you are, but stop it. We're leaving this chapter right now, so your tricks aren't going to work."

With that, Cooper grabs Tsubaki and goes through the door into the next chapter.