A/N: Man, remember when I could churn out entire chapters on a daily basis? Those were good times. Good times.

Okay, some trufax before we dive in. Lizzie Borden was not a young child at the time she was being tried for the murders of her parents. If my math is correct, she was in her early thirties. She was also acquitted for the murders and no one can prove without a doubt that she did do it. Therefore, the representation of Lizzie Borden in this arc is entirely based off of artistic licence and should in no way be taken as fact.

But you know what? Rasputin was neither evil nor a monk, and that didn't stop them from showing Evil Monk Rasputin in the opening of episode 4. So when I completely, knowingly, and deliberately butcher a historical event for artistic licence, I'm not being a total hack of a fanfiction writer. I'm just following the spirit of the original work! ….Ah, who am I kidding. I'm totally a hack. Oh well. :T

Lizzie Borden was born and raised in Fall River, though. That much I can say is accurate.

And because I know this is bound to come up: No, I haven't seen any of Soul Eater NOT. I do plan on getting around to watching it at some point, though. Everyone has become a total bishie and I'm totally okay with this.

One a tangentially related note, I'd like to thank Superhero17, Hiezen, Z0mbieMart, Katarina for reviewing! To Superhero17, I'm glad you liked the chapter, and I'm glad you've been looking forward to the mission, because so have I! This arc is actually pretty important, all things considered. Can't tell you why, though. Not yet. ;) To Hiezen, I say that you're the first person who has commented on my cover, and I'm so glad you like it! I made both it and my avatar in my sister's copy of Photoshop. I'm not a very good drawing-person, but I do like to consider myself design at photo-manipulation, so I'm glad that people enjoy the cover! (And yeah, Minecraft is really addictive. My sister keeps blowing up my houses, though. Gosh darn it, sis.)

To Z0mbieMart, I'm going to say this right now in a separate paragraph for maximum emphasis, because it's not a spoiler: ALecto and Crona are in no way related to each other. I didn't realize the similarities in hair and eye colors until you mentioned it, but yeah, they're not siblings or cousins or whatever. For reference: Crona (in the anime anyway, which this fic is basing its canon off of) has orchid-pink hair and completely flat black eyes, as well as a very pale complexion. Alecto has rose-pink hair and eyes that are more of a charcoal color, and she has an olive skintone.

To Katarina, I'm really happy you like my work, and I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out! ^_^"

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 Twenty-Five - Forty Whacks - A Collaboration Effort Between Two Meisters, Part 2

"You know, I still think this is a bad idea."

Tempus's tense voice echoed in Alecto's head, his nervous golden-eyed visage lingering in the back of her mind. As the wind whipped around them, drowning out all other sounds, she couldn't help but agree that perhaps the rocket skateboard was not the best idea she'd ever been presented with.

Not that she'd thought that at first. When Kid has summoned the skateboard, her first reaction had actually been confusion. Death City's airport wasn't too ungodly far a walk from the DWMA, and he hadn't used the skateboard on the trip to the mountain that Excalibur's grotto was in, which had been a much longer trip. It was only when Liz and Patti transformed into their weapon shapes and spun into kids hands and that the metaphorical puzzle pieces began to fall into place. "You know, I think a plane might be faster," she had said, taking a sip of her tea and staring at Kid pointedly over the lid of her thermos.

"Nope!" Patti had giggled in gun form. "It's super fast, so we'll be there in no time flat!"

"Patti's right," Kid had said. "Beelzebub is faster and safer than any airplane, even those in Death Airlines. Besides, I can't stand airports."

Alecto couldn't blame him on that front; getting accosted by the TSA on a regular basis because Tempus kept setting off the metal detectors wasn't exactly a thrilling experience. Before she could say something on that matter, however, Tempus had piped up from behind her. "Well, slap me with a convoluted plotline, because I am lost. Could someone please explain explain how a skateboard could get someone someplace faster than a passenger jet could without the subsequent force ripping the skin from your body?! I mean, that's got to be one hell of a tricked out board if it can completely ignore the blast pressure from going that fast."

"Volat, quoque," Alecto had added.

"It what?!" Tempus had stood there for a few moments with a stone-flat expression on his face before turning around and beginning to walk away. "Uh, well, you have fun with your magical flying death trap. I'm going to go catch a flight, or a Deathhound, or… something other than that."

Alecto reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket. "Did anyone tell you that you worry over things too much?" she had said. "I'm sure it's fine. Right, Kid?"

"It's perfectly safe," Kid had said. "I haven't fallen off a single time. Besides, you'll need to be in weapon form, so you'll be one of the safest here."

"Yeah, that really doesn't make the idea more appealing. See you lot in Fall River." Tempus tried to tug his sleeve out of Alecto's hand, but she kept him put in a near death grip.

"Are you really that scared of a skateboard, Tempus?" she had said. "It's not like it's going to eat us. "And besides," she said, "what if we go up against Lizzie Borden and I'm at a huge disadvantage because my partner's on a bus somewhere in Iowa?"

Tempus may have known how to press her buttons, but she knew how to press his just as hard. The corner of his eye had twitched at her jab, and he grumbled something unintelligible before speaking up. "Oh, all right. But if we both fall off and plummet to our death, I'm holding the two of you," his gaze flitted between Alecto and Kid, "personally responsible."

At the time, as Tempus reluctantly shifted into his weapon form (and made a show of it as he did so), Alecto had thought that he was just being his usual cautious self. But now that she was actually on the skateboard and in the air, practically clinging to Kid with her arms wrapped around his waist like a boa constrictor, she was beginning to have second thoughts.

All right, fine, she grumbled mentally, her thoughts reaching out to Tempus's soul. You were right. This was a completely terrible idea and we're never doing it again. Tu contentus?

"I'll be more 'contentus' when we land."

Me, too. Alecto closed her eyes and braced herself against the wind blustering around them and whipping through her hair. She willed herself to not look down under any circumstances; the last thing she needed was to see just how high they were. If she did, she might just faint from the resulting dizziness. Apparently I don't really like flying. Who knew?

"Well, considering that you get visibly nervous when we board a plane, I'd say that it's not really a secret."

What are you talking about. I don't get nervous about planes.

"Don't you?"

I… Alecto paused, trying to recall the emotions she felt when getting on planes. Anticipation, trepidation… oh. Tace.

After a few minutes of continued silence, Kid spoke. "Are you alright, Alecto? You've been very quiet."

"I'm fine," she said, her voice cracking slightly. "I just… I think I prefer planes, really." At least with planes, she could close her eyes and pretend she wasn't tens of thousands of feet in the air. It wasn't that she minded heights; hell, the Hudine mission had mostly consisted of climbing around on various rooftops and trying to track the chain-happy son of a bitch down. But there was a difference between a twenty-foot-high, stationary rooftop and a flying skateboard.

"Pfft. Amateurs," Liz said. Alecto could hear the smirk in her voice.

"We're almost there," Kid said. "Since you've been to Fall River before, is there anything you can tell us about the area?"

"Besides the navy exhibit?" Alecto tried to remember what she had seen during the road trip. "Well, compared to Death City, it's pretty small, so there won't be much ground to cover. As you can probably gather from the name of the place, there's a river. The Quequechan River, to be precise." She really hoped she was pronouncing that right. "I think that the most important thing to remember for this mission in particular is that there is a lot of textile mills. Big, abandoned old factories that no one ever goes into, with loads of dangerous old machinery. It's the perfect place for a Kishin Egg to hide out, so we should probably look into those first."

Kid nodded. "All right. If we can figure out where Borden used to live before turning evil, we might be able to narrow down her location."

"Also a very good idea," Alecto replied. "Kishin Eggs who were once kids tend to stay closer to their old homes, don't they?"

Truth be told, she couldn't say she was looking forward to actually coming to blows with Lizzie Borden. On a logical level, she knew that Borden was an evil killer who needed to be stopped, at any cost, and she would fulfill her role as a meister by doing so. On an emotional level, the mission placard had described Lizzie as a little girl. A child. She knew that there were children out there who would get corrupted by madness. They were rare, and tragic in a way, but they existed. But she'd never gone up against one before, always going up against monsters that had once been adults because she knew that it would be harder to face down a Kishin egg that looked like a nine-year old.

She just hoped that, when the time came, she'd be able to do what needed to be done.

Fall River was a small city geographically speaking, but when it came to population it was the tenth-largest city in the state, with over eighty thousand people. To a Kishin Egg, that was eighty thousand potential victims. To a meister, that was eighty thousand people that were in danger. As Alecto, Kid, and their partners soared over the old buildings of the residential neighborhoods of Fall River, Alecto allowed herself to look down, ignoring the height-induced disorientation and instead focusing on the people that lived there, the people who it was her mission as a meister to protect from evil. Having a good look around was always a good way to remind oneself what one was fighting for.

Eventually, after what felt like (and probably was) hours of flying, Kid moved the skateboard down for a surprisingly gentle landing on a relatively empty street. The minute wheels hit pavement, Alecto unwrapped her arms from around Kid's waist and fell back, landing on the sidewalk quite solidly. "Laudō di immortales!" she sighed. "I feel like every bone in my legs has turned to jelly."

Tempus shifted out of his weapon form alongside Liz and Patti, stretching languidly and adjusting the cuffs of his jacket. before settling himself right down on the ground beside her. "Well, I can't imagine it'll take to long for your tibias to re-solidify," he remarked, turning his gaze to the overcast dusky sky for emphasis.

Liz was a lot less subtle. "Geez," she said, rubbing at her arms in a desperate attempt to generate heat via friction. "I'd forgotten how cold it was up here. How can you two even stand it right now?" the tall blonde whined, her shivering growing more pronounced.

"We can't," Tempus deadpanned, smirking up at her. "That's why we're sitting."

Liz's only response was a scowl, while Patti giggled behind her. Alecto had to admit, it was one of Tempus's better one-liners. She also had to admit that Liz was right, and it did feel pretty cold. Which was odd; considering that this was mid-winter in New England, she should have been frozen to the sidewalk by now. This chilly-but-not-freezing climate would have been shorts-and-a-tank-top weather for her younger self. She'd been in Nevada too long, she supposed.

A few feet away, Kid had dismissed his skateboard (Alecto had to contain a sigh of relief at that thing being, for the time being, gone) and was now looking around. "Strange," he said. "Does anyone here know what time it is?"

Tempus spoke up, his unerringly canny sense for time once more proving itself to be of much use. "It's five forty-six. Why do you ask?"

"There should be more people around," Kid answered. "This is around the time that everyone starts to go home from work, isn't it? So why aren't there more people or cars in the streets? Where is everyone?"

Alecto looked around. To her surprise, she realized that he was right. She hadn't noticed it before, but the streets were remarkably desolate, with the five teenagers being the only sign of life. While Fall River wasn't anywhere near as big or as busy as Death City was, there still should have been someone around; this was a residential area, after all, and residential areas usually had residents.

"Maybe they're all hiding from Lizzie Borden?" Tempus suggested. "If I knew there was a crazy little girl out wandering the streets who chopped people up with an axe and ate their souls for breakfast, I'd be getting home faster and locking doors earlier too."

Like Essen, Alecto thought, and she could tell by the look on Tempus's face that the Nosferatu mission was what he was thinking of as well. Only with a lot less people at risk. She let out a sigh and got to her feet, looking around for any indication of their exact location. "So, should we start knocking on doors?" she asked. "It'd be nice to have some sort of sense for where we need to go, and there's got to be someone who'll answer the door."

Kid nodded, and the five began their search for information. It turned out, however, that they didn't need to search for long. Unlike in Essen, when the doors were kept closed and any attempts at talking to people were met with bitter silence, the first door they knocked on was met with the lively barking of a dog from inside and, after a few seconds, the door swinging open, revealing a young man in his late teens or early twenties, with an electric blue undercut and a tattoo of a tiger emblazoned across his upper arm. "Are you guys salesmen?" he asked immediately. "Because whatever you're selling that needs five of you to pitch, we don't want it.

Alecto and Kid exchanged a glance. "No," Kid said slowly. "We're with the Death Weapon Meister Academy. We're here about Lizzie Borden?"

The young man's face fell. "Ah," he said. "Mom said that someone from the Academy would be around to… take care of Lizzie." He sighed and ran a hair through his bright hair. "I hate saying it like that, like she's garbage that needs to be put out. She was a kid, damn it. She was such a nice kid, too; she used to play hide and seek with my little brother all the time. I don't know what could have happened to turn her into, well…" He trailed off, his expression downfallen.

"A crazy axe killer?" Liz supplied.

The young man grimaced. "...Yeah."

Tempus stepped forward a bit, his demeanor switching from his previous deadpan lightheartedness to a solemnity that Alecto rarely got to witness. Of course, it was a solemnity that she knew was at least partially fabricated for the cobalt-haired young man's sake. "I can't imagine how it must feel to watch a kid you know turn into a monster," he said. "For what it's worth, I am sorry. But we need to know where she is or where she's been seen."

The young man didn't speak for a few seconds, the only sound puncturing the silence being the brash barking of the dog inside. When he did, his voice was quiet. "She's… I think she might be at the nearby textile factory. No one goes in there anymore, and no one has for a long time... but recently, I've been hearing machines running. At least, I think they're the machines, I mean, I don't know what textile machinery sounds like… It's about a couple miles east of here."

"Thank you," Kid said.

The young man waved his words away, shaking his head firmly. "Don't mention it. And… make sure it's quick, okay? I know what she's done now, but… Lizzie's still a kid, okay? She deserves that much."

Kid nodded, and the young man closed the door, leaving a heaviness behind him that weighed down in Alecto's shoulders. The whole conversation had emphasized what she already knew: this was going to be a difficult mission. She pulled the thermos of tea out of the inside pocket of her jacket (where she had stored it during the flight) and gripping it tightly, her olive knuckles turning pale against its smooth steel surface. The feel of a familiar weight in her hands calmed her a bit, but the thought still sat on the threshold of her mind like a persistent salesman.

After a few more seconds of silence, Tempus cleared his throat. "Well," he said, attitude switching back to deadpan as he plastered a cheap and unsteady grin onto his face, "who's up for fighting an evil soul-eating axe murderer?"

"I am!" Patti declared.

Liz hesitated, he gaze sliding over to Patti. Alecto figured that she was equally apprehensive about fighting a child, albeit for different reasons. "Is it too late to say 'no?' the caramel-blonde girl quipped.

"Yup!" Patti replied cheerfully.

"Great."

"I'm ready," Kid said. "What about you, Alecto? You look a little pale."

Alecto thought that was pretty rich coming from a boy who made corpses look downright ruddy in complexion, but whatever. Taking a last sip of her now-cold tea, she nodded, steeling herself for what was to come. "Don't worry," she said. "I'm ready."

"...and then the pharaoh came out, and his left and right sides looked really different, so Kid got mad and blew up the pharaoh and the whole pyramid!"

"Wow. A whole pyramid?" Tempus asked, leaning against the the worn out old machinery and trying very hard not to focus on how dark it was inside the textile factory. "Can't imagine that went well with Lord Death."

Patti shook her head, her short blonde hair whipping across her pink cheeks. "Nope!" she said. "He confiscated all the souls we collected. But that's okay; it'll be really easy for us to get new ones!"

"I see." Tempus brushed his bangs away from his eyes to get a better look at the shorter, paler weapon. Given the choice, he wouldn't be wandering around an old abandoned factory with Patti Thompson. It wasn't that he disliked her, not by any means - in fact, he found her rampant bubbliness to be a refreshing change of pace, to be honest. It was just that he preferred to be close to Alecto on missions, in case something went wrong and they needed to quickly get ready to fight. And as he looked around the dark, dismal second floor of the building, with its expansive rooms and cobwebbed floors and walls and with the only light being from the leering face of the moon, peeking in through the boarded-up windows, he got the growing feeling that something going wrong was becoming a more likely possibility by the second.

It was Alecto's idea to have them split up in the way that they were. Her logic had been something along the lines of, "It'll be easier to find Lizzie, or something telling us where she might be, if we can cover more ground quicker. We'll be able to do that if we separate into two groups." She had then gone on to explain how, if one of the groups ran into trouble, it would be easier for the other group to reach them if there was a time meister to speed up the process, so one time meister should have gone with each group.

It did make a certain sort of sense, if Tempus thought about it hard enough. But he had objected very heavily at the time. "It won't do anyone any good if we're all split up, weapon and meister separated," he'd pointed out. But Alecto had stuck to her flawed reasoning, and to Tempus's surprise Kid had agreed with the rose-haired meister.

So Alecto, Liz and Kid stayed downstairs, and Tempus and Patti had gone up to the second floor to see if there was any sign of Lizzie up there. So far, he thought, all I see is a shitload of looms. This was starting to feel like a real waste of time in his mind.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't hear or even notice Patti speaking. His reflections were only interrupted by his temporary companion's voice suddenly very loud and very close to his right ear. "HEY!"

Tempus flinched and pulled away, raising a hand to his ringing ear and checking to make sure that he wasn't bleeding. "Yes?" he asked testily, taking a couple steps back to reclaim his personal space. "Do you need something?"

Patti nodded. "I found something over there!" she said, pointing to a particularly dusty corner of the vast room, partially obscured by rows of factory apparatuses. Without waiting for Tempus to respond or even acknowledge that he'd heard her this time, she darted off to the corner, crouching down next to something that he couldn't see.

With apprehension bubbling in his stomach, Tempus drew forward, fiddling with his tie as he did. It was only when he was a few feet away did he realize what exactly it was that had captured the younger Thompson sister's attention: a large, dark red stain, illuminated by the midnight moon. "Oh," he said, his voice hopping an octave as he knelt down. Tentatively, he reached out and touched the stain, his heart pounding.

His fingers came away red.

"It's relatively fresh," he said, and Patti nodded emphatically in agreement. "But… that means that…" For a second, he thought his heart had ceased beating completely. "Lizzie Borden is here."

A bloodcurdling scream split the air, followed by a tug at Tempus's wavelength and a muffled "Filius canis!"

Patti looked up, her already large eyes as wide as tea plates. "That was Liz!"

"And Ally," Tempus added in a hushed, strained tone. No, no, no, no no no no…I knew it was a bad idea to split up… please let her be okay, please please please...

His mind hazy with dread, he barely even noticed as Patti grabbed his wrist and began to drag him determinedly towards the stairwell. When he snapped himself out of his shock, he reached out with his wavelength and tore their time out of sync as far as he could, the world slowing to a near stop around them. Tick.

Tock. They reached the bottom, and Tempus's fears were confirmed as he looked at the scene in front of them. The rusted blade of an old woodcutter's axe was embedded in one of the machines, its metal head gleaming in the dim light. On one side of the axe's handle stood Liz, panic filling her expression as she shied away from the tool. On the other side stood a mercifully unharmed Alecto and Kid, the former with her arms around the later in a manner suggesting that she had pulled Kid out of the way from the blow.

And in the middle of it all stood a small girl in a bloodstained nightgown, no older than the age of eight, with wild black hair and a malicious and disturbingly unchildlike grin on her face.

Patti was the first to speak. "Liz!"

The little girl looked up, and so did Liz. "Patti!" the tall blonde cried out.

Alecto's gaze turned away from their attacker and turned to Tempus, and the relief in her eyes was palpable. "Tempus!" she exclaimed.

Tempus reached out for his meister, wishing now more than ever that the distance between them was less than it was.

"Ally!"

A/N: Cliffhangers make me powerful.

To make up for the very loose artistic liberties taken with Borden as detailed above, I'm about to drop some trivia on you that I've recently discovered and some trivia I've been keeping hold of since the start of this fanfiction. Trivia factoid number one: The one state of Nevada, at roughly 110,000 square miles, is larger than the entirety of New England, which clocks in at about 72,000 square miles combined. Either Nevada is really big, or New England is really tiny.

Trivia factoid number two: Alecto's name. It wasn't chosen because it sounds vaguely Latin, it has meaning. Alecto (a romanized form of the Greek "Alekto") is a name that means "ceaseless," and Bellatore is derived from "bellator," the Latin word for "warrior." So, Alecto's name together basically meanings "ceaseless warrior," which is very fitting considering her personality.

I love meaningful names. :3

Latin time!

Volat, quoque: "It flies, as well." As mentioned in the previous chapter, Tempus knows a little Latin, so he was able to recognize what "volat" means.

Tu contentus: "Are you satisfied?"

Laudō di immortales!: "Praise the gods!"

Filius canis!: "Son of a bitch!" Language, Alecto.

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

-Diana "Nocte"