Risenfromash: Hi, everybody. The last chapter was short because I was going to break these story chunks up differently but figured why not post the part I had finished…so this part is extra long because it's like a chunk and a half.

Someone commented that in one of the citrusy chapters I had written it so that our hero and heroine would have to be like Mr. Fantastic to bend to do what I described…so, I think I need to take another look. The implication is that it's a 69, but I really try to avoid certain language I myself don't find sexy. I think you're a 'member' of a club, not that you use a 'member' to have sex… and I think that 'ballsack' and 'snatch' don't belong in lemons unless it's first person and that language fits the character. I just find it too jarring, so it's highly possible that in trying to describe without literally drawing a picture I screwed up…which is hilarious because I had the same concern with a story I read the other day. I'm cruising a long and all of a sudden I'm like, "Wait? What? Where is that penis going while the arms are doing what now?!" So, anyway I love the feedback as I'm sure one of these days I will tidy up a few errors…but for right now I am plunging forward…

Chapter 36: Strangers in the Night; Safe at Last?

It's been about six hours since I left the train station and from the info Lord Death gave me I'm guessing I'm getting close to the safe house, but not wanting to get my hopes up I keep telling myself I have at least another hour of hiking left…and, of course, another hour of hauling my comatose meister on my back.

At this point my brain is so fried by worry that I don't even feel self-conscious about talking to her as though she's talking back. I'm just rolling with it.

"You know, Maka this will be our first time going to one of the DWMA safe houses. We have definitely hit the big time this trip. I wonder how many Deathscythes have come through here over the years." I pause. Becoming a Deathscythe has been such a big deal to me for so long, but I have to admit the distinction has lost some of its appeal now that I'm thinking about how it might split me and Maka up. I guess I should be able to survive without her for a mission or two, but honestly I have no interest in being stationed at some remote outpost unless she's with me. That would suck…almost as much as the last six hours have sucked.

"I've been thinking about this whole Deathscythe thing. I'm super cool and everything, but I think you'd agree I'm not super competent at some things, hence my chronic academic probation, so I think you and I could make the case that I need a meister with me at all times…you know, a little additional supervision to keep me in line…and I'd nominate you." I smile devilishly. My ego is perfectly fine with highlighting my shortcomings if it means I get to have her as my companion on future adventures.

I try to remind myself that this is an adventure. Slogging through the snow with hardly any food in my belly, carrying an unconscious partner who may be dying, in the middle of nowhere in the high desert…this is all part of the DWMA experience and what I wanted when I said that as a Demon Weapon I would be happy

"For the record, Maka. I do not consider this romantic. I know you think the snow is pretty, but I think walking on a tropical beach with you would be way better than this winter wonderland shit." I create a fantasy in my head, white sand, aqua water, sea turtles, dolphins, and my meister in a bikini…it's a private beach. Just us…no creepers that I have to worry about. "We could sit and watch the sunset and have a campfire after dark. That would be romantic and if you weren't in a coma. That much the better."

I hear something…it sounds like water…I walk toward the sound and am thrilled to see a dilapidated bridge over a creek. This is a landmark I was given, which means that we are close! And that means that I didn't get us lost dooming us to eating dehydrated beef stew until we freeze to death. Hurrah! Now if I can just manage to make it the last leg of the journey I can have food, warmth. I can take my feet out of these wet, cold socks…

I carefully cross the bridge which is slippery from years of decay and ice. Then I turn to the northwest and count my paces as I walk and eventually I see something coming into view that is definitely not a pine tree or a shrub. It's the cabin! I'm so relieved to see it I almost drop my meister. Instinctively, I reach to grab her and yanking her by the leg so that only part of her hits the ground.

"Oh, shit!" I pick her up brushing the snow and dirt from her face and then I figure screw it. Let's just get in the cabin.

The cabin is a tiny one room structure with an outhouse behind it. There is a front door and a back door, presumably for making those midnight bathroom runs, and windows on the west and south side. I step up on the cabin's small porch and stamp the snow off my shoes and open the door. It's dark inside even though it's only mid-afternoon. When I open the door some critter goes skittering across the floor and I find myself reaching for a light switch out of habit and then remembering that Lord Death said there wasn't any electricity here.

But there is a bed. Thank God! I flop Maka down on the twin size bed and stand upright stretching my back for the hundredth time today. I feel like it's going to take one of those medieval torture devices to get my spine back in the proper order. I am beat. All I want to do is sleep…I unceremoniously shove my meister over so I can also lie down on the bed next to her. It's hard to believe that less than twenty-four house ago she and I were snoozing on a fancy pillow top mattress in a fancy hotel. I feel like I could sleep for the next week…that is if it weren't so cold in here. I've gotta get a fire going and get out of these wet socks before I start losing toes.

I walk over to the wood stove and look around. There is a wooden crate full of wood and kindling a little ways from the stove next to a chair and on the wall there is a shelf that has some matches and a couple small candles. I light the candle and go to work building a fire.

Once I've got the fire going, I sit down and pull off my sopping wet shoes and socks and set them near the fire and set to work investigating what there is in the little place that could be of use to us. I feel like a video game character as I open every cupboard, look in every drawer, and peer under the beds and the table and the chairs. There isn't much. I find some beat up silverware in a drawer a couple paperback novels- a trashy romance and some kind of pulp, western, and a pad of paper and a pencil, but Lord Death had said that the food and other useful items were stored under the floor so it doesn't worry me that I'm finding nothing good just laying around. He had said that I could access the cache of supplies by lifting a squeaky floorboard.

I walk across the floor several times and identify a distinct creak that is heard when I place my bare feet in a certain spot. After doing it a few more times I figure out which floorboard needs to come up. I reach into my pocket to grab my knife and realize that I left it in the leg of one of those damn birds that tried to fly off with Maka. Great, Lord Death is gonna make me write up how we managed to lose so much shit on this trip, I just know it. I stand up grumbling and walk over to a wooden piece of furniture that looks like a buffet and pull out a rusty butter knife and use it to pry up the floorboard.

Using the candle I illuminate what's below and I see a stack of canned food…food! I start grabbing cans and flinging them beside me. There's also some weapons: a crossbow, a gun, and a boomerang. A boomerang?! Really? What do they think we're doing here, hanging out for the weekend for fun? There's also some ponchos or tents or something and what looks like a med kit of some kind.

I grab a pot and can opener that are lying next to the pile of canned food and go to town opening the cans and dumping their contents into the pot. It looks like I will be feasting on beef stew/corn beef hash/corn tonight. I don't even care what it will taste like I just want some warm food in my belly.

I stick the pot with my concoction in the woodstove figuring that eventually it will get warm and if not I'll eat it cold.

Satisfied that I'm not going to die of hunger or dehydration or my feet falling off, I refocus my attention on my partner who is snoring and creating a nice little drool spot on one of the two pillows on the bed. I heave the tackle box with the distinctive white and red cross symbol on it up through the floor and open it up. It is a wonderland of supplies. There's gotta be something in here to help her! It even has stuff to set up an IV which is totally cool…but doesn't help us since I don't know how to place an IV catheter and I'm not sure if that would help in this situation. Then again I have no idea what will help and not help, but I figure I can't do too much damage with ointments and bandaging so I position Maka on the bed in such a way that I can attend to her arm while she lays there.

As soon as I adjust the wrap that has been covering the woodpecker holes I smell an awful odor. It smells like nothing I've ever smelt before…some kind of cross between rotten fish, bird poop, and maggots. I wretch. This is bad…no normal wound would go south this fast. I try to clean it and I start gagging again. The smell is so bad that I have to back away and dig around in the first aid kit till I find a surgical mask to put on. Even with the mask I can still smell the wound and it makes me decide that even though Maka and I have swapped body fluids I'm still gonna wear gloves for this.

"Oh, Maka, you are never allowed to complain about Black*Star and me stinking up the house on chili night after this. Wooooweee!" I take the used bandage, open the backdoor of the cabin and throw it out into the snow. There is no way I am keeping that thing in here with us.

Her skin around the holes has turned a sickly white and a purple cloud seems to be emitted from them. I'm pretty sure no one trained us on first aid for anything remotely like this.

The medical kit has a bunch of different ointments and crèmes. There's stuff made of silver, antifungals, antibiotic gels, steroid creams, and some goos that have long medical jargon printed on them, but unfortunately there is nothing labeled "Soul, put this one on Maka's arm" so I pretty much have to randomly pick one. I decide to start with an antifungal cream for no particular reason. I squeeze it in one of the holes and it fizzes and sizzles like bacon in a pan. I think maybe it's doing something helpful until it fades and the purple cloud is still there. OK, let's try the steroid cream. I think Professor Stein once said steroids could fix just about anything…I squeeze a glob into a different hole but it does much the same thing as the antifungal cream. I try a few more creams but they all just sizzle and fade away.

I curse and start to kick the med kit, but remember that I'm barefoot in time to stop myself. Taking a deep breath I start thinking about everything else our mentors have told us.

Let's see…when you get hit with a confusion spell a sharp blow snaps you out of it… "Maka, I'm sorry about this. I really am." I smack her in the face desperately hoping that she'll hop up and try to wring my neck, but she doesn't react. "Oh, meister..." I whine.

Massage can help with some stuff…I don't remember what…I grab the arm and massage it starting from her hand and working my way up hoping maybe I can squeeze the poison or badness out of it, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

Didn't I once hear that pissing on a rattlesnake bite makes it better? I look at her. I'm torn between the need to try everything I possibly can and the need to maintain what little dignity my meister has left. I decide I will wait to try the pee thing, because I really don't think she'd be happy about that.

I sit down in the chair and I'm about to cry when I realize I haven't contacted Lord Death yet. I walk over to the front window and draw the numbers, but to my surprise it's Sid that answers and not Lord Death himself.

"Oh, hey Sid."

"Hey. How's Maka?" He says in his deep baritone.

"She's the same, but the wound is worse."

"You made it to the cabin?"

I nod.

"I'll let Lord Death know. I'm sorry he can't talk to you himself. He's meeting with Tsubaki right now. She's pretty upset."

"What's wrong?"

Sid looks downward. "Black*Star and Harvar haven't checked in for the last three days."

"Shit."

"Yeah, we kept hoping that they were just being irresponsible," he rolls his eyes. "It is Black*Star…but it's been three days. I wish I had better news for you."

I shrug. Maybe it's better to get bad news when things are already bleak than when things are going great. I dunno.

"Tell Tsubaki me and Maka will do whatever we can to help find Black*Star…as soon as we can."

"Of course. Get some rest."

And then he's gone leaving me with yet another thing to add to the list of bad stuff…one of my best friends is missing…

I rewrap Maka's wound deciding that there isn't anything more I can do for it. Despite the cold I leave the back door open for a while so that the smell will hopefully waft out and I climb in bed beside her and have a little cry, but crying isn't the release I hope it will be. It actually makes me feel worse because what if she can hear me? What if she knows I'm giving up?

Eventually the smell of her nasty wound is replaced by the smell of my food which is turning into a charred mess in the cast iron pot. I get up and eat it right out of the pot and while I scarf it down I keep getting this creepy sensation that I'm being watched, but I write it off as paranoia from having one of the worst days of my life.

It starts getting dark so I figure I best prepare for the evening by choosing a weapon and resecuring the floorboard in its place. I look at my three weapon options and decide that given the circumstances the gun is the best because if someone from Avian Flu has followed us I'd rather they not get close enough to me or my meister to allow me the use of my scythe arm.

I load the gun with bullets and hope that there isn't more to it than that. It can't be too complicated, right? Stupid thugs use guns all the time so I should be able to figure out how to use one…at least I hope.

And then I pull the covers over Maka and join her in bed the gun resting by my right hand should I need to grab it in a hurry. I still have that sense of being watched, but I'm so tired I don't give a damn.

"Night, Maka," I say and I am asleep within moments.

It's dark when I hear the sound of footsteps approaching the cabin. I grab the gun and point it toward the door and realize for the first time that the DWMA doesn't have any code words or anything similar to help me to identify if this person is a friend or foe. Whoever it is has some kind of flashlight or lantern that is casting light all over the place in rather creepy ways and a rather large pack on their back. My hand is shaking. If this is one of those demons I can take it out, but if it's the first of many demons I might not be able to fight them all off by myself. I try to calm my soul, but I feel myself beginning to hyperventilate.

The door opens and I immediately hear, "Oh, good grief, Soul! Put that down before you hurt someone! You don't know the first thing about how to handle a guy!"

It's Kid! His scolding immediately makes me relax and he easily pulls the gun from my hand setting it on the table in the middle of the room.

"Hey!" I say as he pulls off his backpack and sets his lantern down on the table.

"How is she?" he asks without bothering to remove his hat or coat.

"Not good. She's been unconscious since about six this morning and the wound looks terrible." I shake my head. "I've done everything that I can think of."

"Tell me." I list off the ointments I've tried, the slap to the face, the massage, everything. "Kid, please tell me I'm being stupid and have forgotten something…"

Kid kneels beside her and glances at me for permission to unwrap the wound, but before I can equip him with gloves and a mask I hear a muffled voice coming from his pocket.

"Kid, I thought I heard Soul? Are we there yet?"

"Oh, my apologies." Kid reaches into the pocket on either side of his overcoat and with perfect symmetry pulls a gun from each one, placing the two firearms on the floor beside the bed and suddenly Liz and Patti appear in the cabin as well.

"Kid, wanted to save money so we rode in his pocket," Patti says running over and hugging me.

"All you were going to do on the train was sleep, anyway," he mumbles. "Besides, bullet train tickets are insanely expensive."

Patti and Liz walk over to the fire to warm themselves and he leans toward me and whispers, "Really, I just wanted some peace and quiet. They've been going on and on about some damn British pop star for days. The guy can't even lip sync well and his eyebrows are lopsided."

"Jealous?" I tease him, relieved to have my brain freed from the more serious topics it's been ruminating on all day.

"Course not. I'm just appalled that my ladies don't have better taste. I mean, just because the man has a British accent does not make him refined."

I smile. He's jealous. I'll make sure Black*Star and I give him a good ribbing about this when we're all back in DC. All of us, alive and well back in DC…a wave of panic shouts through me. Are we all going to make it back to DC?

"Kid, please don't take this the wrong way…but do you actually know stuff about magical ailments?" I ask trying not to sound like a total ass. "I kinda thought Mira'd be coming."

"Kid actually knows quite a bit. He's been looking for a cure for OCD for several years now." Liz says winking at her meister and leaving me uncertain as to whether I should take her words seriously or not.

"Besides, we were the closest people to you. We were fighting a bunch of demons on a ranch in Idaho when we got the word Maka'd been hurt. So we rushed right over," Patti offers. "Did ya get Falconer?"

I nod. "We did, but his asshole side kick did a pecker attack." Patti giggles and I realize that what I just said would sound really wrong out of context.

Kid appears deep in thought as he stuffs his hat in his pocket, unwraps his red scarf, and unbuttons his coat. The scarf is very long and lumpy and he's wrapped it around his neck more times than I can count. Liz takes it from him and throws it over the back of a chair in the opposite corner of the room.

"Kid," Patti says. "I'm gonna heat up some water. You want tea or cocoa?"

"Tea, please."

"Soul?"

"Do you have tea?" I ask thinking she may not realize that we have only the bare necessities here in the middle of nowhere.

"Of course. Can't leave home without lots of Kid's Earl Grey. He gets grouchy without it."

Kid ignores Patti's comments and says, "Let me see the wound."

"Ok, but you're going want these," I say handing him gloves and a mask and putting back on the mask I had on earlier.

I unwrap the wound as our friends gather to take a look, Patti and Liz pinching their noses all the while. When they see it they gasp, but I've decided to look at her face and not the grotesque wound.

Patti comes and takes my hand. "You've been awful scared haven't you, Soul?" I nod a little never taking my eyes off Maka's face. "Well, don't worry. Kid will have her back to smooching you in no time and I won't even let him watch. Sometimes, I have to stop him from being all pervy like that-"

"Patti!" Kid shouts glaring at the shorter of his two partners. "Could you please quit harassing Soul. I'm sure he has enough on his mind without you pestering him."

"Oh, you definitely need your Earl Grey. You're being a regular Captain Crabby Pants today."

"Would you please be quiet? I need to think," he complains as she begins to open cupboards presumably looking for something to put water in to heat up in the fire.

"Liz, grab the mediscope from my bag, please." Liz brings over a funky looking pair of glasses that resemble backwards telescopes. He puts them on and adjusts some gears at the side. "Looks like some kind of infection of mind control…the good news is she isn't dying."

"No?!" I practically shout it even though I didn't mean to.

"Even if she were we wouldn't let that happen," Kid says calmly and with an air of authority only a reaper can have.

"We need to make a poultice to stick in the holes. Ladies," he says extending his hand. "Your tampons, please."

They dash to the backpack and produce a handful of the feminine products as though having their meister ask for them is as normal as serving him tea.

"Excellent, now we need to mash up some anti-inflammatories and coat the tampons with the pills. That will hopefully slow the infection while we work on the antidote.…but we need some rare ingredients to make the antidote."

He hands the mediscope back to Liz who delicately folds it and wraps it in a cloth and puts it in the backpack with great care.

"For this we will require help," he says and I start to tell him that I'll do anything we need, but he puts up his hand indicating it isn't my turn to talk. Then he makes a fist and knocks on the wall with a very distinctive wrap and much to my surprise a mouse comes running out from under the bed.

"Is that you, Kid?" the mouse says.

"Yes."

"Why the last time I saw you, you couldn't abin morin five or six."

"Yes, something like that…Madame Morax is it?"

"Oh, you don't have to be so formal. You can call me Rax, same as you' father."

"Thank you, Rax. Soul, Liz, Patti, this is Rax, a witch. This is her home. Many years ago my father and she were dueling and she intended to change my father into a mouse, but the spell ricocheted back on her leaving her permanently transformed into this state. My father took pity on her and elected to allow her to continue to live here in her home rather than to claim her soul."

"I admire his wisdom, I do and I can tell you is on the same path of the smarty pants."

"That's kind of you, Rax, and I hope you will remember my father's kindness now as I require a favor of you," Kid places his hand on the floor and the witch climbs into his palm. He brings her alongside of the bed. "This is one of my classmates at the DWMA, our friend, Maka Albarn. She was attacked by members of Avian Flu and they appear to have hit her with a hemocontaminatetoxphylle."

I blink. Ok, that is not a word in the vocab lessons Maka gave me.

"Yeah, I's a seen her when the boy brought 'er in. That's a mighty powerful spell…what you wan' me to do about it?" Rax asks not unkindly, but guarded as though fearful she might get asked to pull off some great feat.

"My friends and I need to make an antidote to the poison that is spreading through her. We need to stop it before she is fully infected. We don't have a lot of time before the bone marrow starts making infected red blood cells. There are some things we will need for the antidote and I'm hoping you might have them squirrelled away somewhere or know where we could find them. We are going to need mugwort, Breathe of Halifrax, and angel scales."

"Ohhh, those are hard to come by these days…I might have some mugwort, but the Breathe of Halifax you won't find easily and only one person in these parts would have angel scales…"

"Please, Maka's life depends on it."

He doesn't appear to be bluffing her, so why the fuck did he tell me she wasn't dying? I put my hand on his shoulder making him turn toward me. I need him to look me in the eye. "I thought you said she wasn't dying. Kid, you need to play it straight with me."

"In a minute," Kid says putting his hand up to quiet me. His concentration is all on that tiny witch and the knowledge she has that he lacks. "Rax, where is the closest place we could get some?"

"There's a witch name is Gretel Gabtree she lives a hop skip and a jump from 'ere who I'm sure would have some, but she won't sell it to you if she knows who ya be. She ain't no fan of your father's."

"I imagine not," Kid says undaunted. "However, I happen to have some of the continent's most talented thieves with me." Patti and Liz step forward and bow their heads to the rodent.

"Oh, Kid! You found yourself such pretty companions. I knew you would. You always had an eye for beauty and so smart. You're so-"

"Thank you, Rax. Now do you think you could accompany them to Myrtle's so they can get what we need for the antidote?"

"Well…" The little mouse taps her hind foot as she thinks.

"What would you like in exchange? You have the resources of a reaper at your disposal," Kid offers.

"I would like to be human again."

"I'm not sure that even my father can grant that. You cast a very strong spell without an easy undo…"

"Hhhhmmmmm. Well then, there's only one only thing I want…a strawberry cheesecake and I want you to eat it with me."

"Alright. I'd be happy to, but I can't make one appear from thin air. You'll have to trust that I will return with it at a later date."

"That'd be fine. I can't get too far these days so anytime would be fine. You and me, we'll have ourselves a little date."

Kid offers his pinkie finger to the mouse and she runs onto it. "Consider that us shaking on it," he says and then he places the witch on the table.

Kid stands up and his partners huddle in near him. "I have no doubt that you will complete this mission successfully. But please remember to be speedy about it and that I expect you to return to me safe and sound. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Kid." They both answer.

"Rax, you can ride in the brim of my hat," Patti says. "Ok? You're gonna need to tell me and Liz where to go."

As they step out of the cabin Patti can be heard asking if Rax has a fetish for reapers and how far she will go on a first date.

Kid takes a deep breath and sets to work crushing pills to roll the tampons in.

"Kid, tell me the truth how long does she have?"

He shakes his head.

"Come on you're a reaper…you should know."

"I'm sorry, I don't"

"Please…"

"Hours, maybe a day or two- then I estimate she will be fully possessed by the demon. She'll be alive but not truly the Maka we know. Certain aspects of her personality may change and she may lose some of her memories."

"It's already happening. I'm not sure she remembers Death City."

"Yes, but I'm sure she remembers you," he says with a smile. "And that, Soul, is what is going to save her."