"Maka…" Kid hissed to himself, fearing a louder call would only draw attention to the men they had just taken down. Satisfied that they weren't going to get back up, the reaper rushed over to his fallen companion. " Maka?" He called again as he rounded the side of the truck to see the aforementioned blonde on the ground, but smiling weakly up at him. She winced in pain, held up a bloodied blade and nodded to the man who had caused the shot.

"Payback's a bitch." She grunted, sitting up.

"Where are you hurt?" Kid gasped, kneeling down to examine her fully, but to his surprise; no blood.

"He didn't shoot me, I'm fine. They seem to know what 'aim' means; I mean really, I wouldn't have missed…" She grumbled, drawing back at any quick movement she tried to make.

"Well let's not complain about his senselessness that just saved your life. And you're not fine, you don't wince when you're fine." His voice was rushed, panicked almost. "Where are you hurt." He repeated.

"He just fell on me, that's all." She retorted, forcing her aching body to her feet, leaning heavily on her left leg.

"It's sprained, isn't it?"

"Stupid small ankles, get hurt over nothing…" The blonde griped, recalling a similar injury months ago. That all seemed so distant know… They really had come a long way.

Low growls sounded in the truck as it began to rock back and forth, the vehicle creaking on its lightly rusted axels. They had stirred the rotters. "I don't think these will hold for too long…" Kid commented, gesturing for Maka to lend some of her weight to him. The doors were only held shut by a hastily placed chain and a medium sized padlock. "We need to get out of here, and fast; we just might be able to catch up with the others before they leave if we hurry."

Starting into the forest, they already knew something was off. Nothing triggered this feeling other than the feeling itself. A gut feeling. Hoping to pass it off as indigestion from their last poorly scrapped together meal, Kid carried on, moving at a slower pace for Maka. Before too long, Kid's feeling was confirmed as a small, childish battle cry broke through the silence followed by a stream of insults from Blackstar.

"Dumbass! You really think you could take on a Star like me?" Making it through another layer of brambles, Maka and Kid fell upon a full out blood bath between the rest of the people from the cave and a hoard of men ranging from teenaged to middle-aged.

Blackstar was sparing with three other men, at least two of them familiar with knives, the other looking confused at which end he should hold it. The three of them lunged at once, which was their first mistake, leaving them all in the same place, the place Blackstar had been moments before. With one well planned jump, he ended up behind them, their confusion giving the seasoned assassin the perfect opening. These men weren't trained, they were nothing but foot-soldiers; either way, number still counted for something. The ninja dropped to all fours and swiped a leg under the trio, causing them to fall and stumble on top of each other and with a swift blow to the head, they were down for the count. Not dead, there was no need for them to be, simply unconscious.

Somewhere in the corner, Patty was protecting her older sister, an iron frying pan in hand; it seemed only the foolish dared to go near her. "Aww, c'mon! Is that all you got? You bastards!" She chirped, dodging blows and dishing out her own with ease, cataleptic men piling up at her feet. Tsubaki stood beside her, her brows furrowed, a machete in her hand, though she only appeared to be using the hilt as a mace.

It seemed Robin had take to the trees, strategically waiting for lone stragglers to wander off to the edges of the fight before he landed upon their shoulders, bashing in their head with something that suspiciously resembled a can of soup; which left Staz and Soul back to back in the heat of battle, men coming at them from every direction. Soul was armed with one of Kid's swords, slicing deep cuts as warning to anyone who decided to get to close and Staz swung a rather heavy looking baseball bat letting it connect to ribs, shoulders and stomachs with a deadly accuracy. Though the battle seemed to be in the teens favor for now, fatigue was obvious in each of their faces and the stream of men entering the clearing was steadily flowing.

Without hesitation, both Kid and Maka launched themselves into battle, Kid knew it was no use to coax Maka to rest; she wasn't one for standing by while her friends were in battle. Maka drew her knife and was instantly swarmed by men. Seeing a small girl without any protection other than a six inch blade seemed to attract the less daring fighters; they thought she was an easy target. They whistled low and coaxed her with cat-calls and sickening insults, but this only gave her time to strategize. Realizing her time was almost up, she made her first move. Quicker than any of them would have expected, she landed her blade deep in the shoulder of the man in front of her and shot her injured leg straight back, landing a heavy blow to a man's chest that thought it was wise to come up from behind. During their slight hesitation, the blonde was able to swing her foot around and disarm the men's outstretched hands. Easy enough now. One by one she felt her fist connect to jaws, ribs, noses anything close enough for her to reach, and soon enough the rest of her pursuers were on the ground.

Kid threw himself into the heart of the fight, though was careful not to stray too far from the blonde, his blows coming out sloppy from fury. Strategy, Kid. Think strategy. He coaxed, fruitlessly attempting to keep a cool head. Though his techniques were muddled and not working to their full potential, he was still able to carry on with little to no damage to himself. "Hmm… It seems I have the little reaper boy here now." A voice mused in a ho-hum tone mere inches from Kid's ear. Startled, he turned on his heels only to see the familiar red-headed man grinning at him maliciously from the sidelines. "Oh? You can hear me? Well that's good to know."

"What do you want from us?" Kid hissed, his voice not loud enough for someone right in front of him, let alone several yards away; yet he knew all to well the man could hear him.

"No, it's what I want from you; I could care less about these poor excuses of life." He hummed, a palpable grin in his voice. "Though I will say they put up a good fight. Much better than the useless slugs they're fighting." He paused for a moment, watching as Kid fought off two of his men with ease, he wanted to ensure a majority of the reaper's attention was directed towards what he was about to say. "You see, there's no law now; or, at least, you haven't established one yet. It's quite obvious your father's gone, taken his leave, went on vacation, whatever. I could care less. The point is, he's gone, and you're next in line, Kid, and you've done a pretty piss-poor job so far. I think maybe I should take the lead."

"How the hell do you expect to do that?" Kidd grunted, shoving another unconscious man off of himself. He tried not to put to much thought into it, but could his father truly be gone? Was this really his problem now? "You don't have the ability to rule. You don't have the power."

"And you don't have an heir." Kid was able to glance back at the man speaking to him through some sort of telepathy; he looked bored, he took to examining his nails as he spoke without care. "Is it or is it not stated in the Reaper Law that the throne of a fallen reaper is passed down to his heir, and if there is no such heir, the throne is given to whatever consumes the reaper's soul?" Katsuo paused for effect, watching as the young teen tensed in anger, his punches missing their mark, his blows even less effective. "Oh, but don't worry. Believe it or not, I'm a man of science; well, in a sense, anyways." He chuckled lightly. "Just killing you… Now where's the fun in that?" He tsked, shaking his head. "I'm curious to see what happens to your soul once it's infected with this new virus. Now that will be interesting; it's a win, win really. If your soul stays intact once you're infected, well, I'll consume it, of course and become the new reaper. But if it perishes… Well, there's no one to stop me from power anyways." Kid grit his teeth, but didn't say a word. He didn't want to give him any more satisfaction than he already had. Katsuo let his eyes lazily wander across the clearing once more before pulling up a small black box to his lips. "Release them."

"No!" Kid's attention was caught as he heard the white haired scythe yell. He turned just in time to see the limp body of a comrade hit the ground, brunette hair tangled with blood, face battered and bruised, but it was a deep cut that almost trailed the complete circumference of the neck that had been the case of death.

Someone had killed Staz.

In a flash, Soul's arm formed a familiar black and red scythe and began slashing at anyone in the vicinity of his reach. That was the snapping point. Kid heard Liz gasp and sob harder, beginning to get to her feet and help her sister fight. He saw Maka's hits become harder and without mercy. He heard Blackstar's familiar battle cry he gives just before a kill. He saw Tsubaki, sweet and innocent Tsubaki, flip her blade over and slash maliciously at any and every enemy with intent to kill. He hadn't even seen Robin for awhile, but he didn't want to think about that right now. Not Robin. Not him too…

Turning once more, Katsuo was gone, but his voice remained in Kid's head. "No harm done, just another simple human killed. But here's the interesting thing about my new army. They're already dead." As if on queue, dozens of rotters emerged from the trees, jaws gnashing furiously and hands brandishing simple weapons such as bats and metal pipes. "I'm sure you've figured out these guys can learn. Hell, I figured it out within a few days. It's a shame I couldn't teach them to shoot a gun or impale with a knife. I'd have to get up pretty close, you see…"

Kid stopped listening, at least a dozen rotters had their cloudy grey eyes set on him, and they were faster and smarter than any of the others he had to deal with. At least the were just as brittle. Kid, Soul, Liz, Patty, Tsubaki, Blackstar and Maka all met each other in the center of the clearing, the dead covering any way of escape they might have. The air around them chilled, causing their muscles to tense and open wounds to sting. "This isn't looking good, you guys…" Soul muttered, loud enough for them to hear. Liz sobbed in reply and Patty's eccentric attitude had long since turned stoic.

"It's me he wants. He wants to take my place as reaper. I'm sorry to have gotten you all into this mess."

"No one blames you, Kid." Maka reassured.

"If you mess with one of us, you mess with us all." Tsubaki agreed.

"Why so grim? You have a god in your presence! Are we just going to talk about our feelings or kill some zombies?!" Blackstar growled.

"He's right." Maka said, her feet kicking up clouds of dirt as she got into an appropriate battle stance. "Let's do this."

Replies~!

PyschopathicXangel- They shall… um…. Reveal themselves all in due time…

OkamiAmaterasLuver- oh… wow… Well, just to shed some light on that, This story up to chapter 36 is about as long as the first book of the Harry Potter Series as far as word count goes, so… That's freakin awesome! And I'm glad you like the story :D

GarGoyl- Hmm… I suppose only time (oh, well chapters…) will tell.

19th-of-the-12th- It is, but sometimes I really wonder if Kidd is actually immortal, because I do think I remember him saying that he didn't like immortals when he was fighting Free. So maybe he has the average life span of a human, but his powers are beyond that of a mortal, which is what they refer to as him being 'immortal' when they mention it in the anime/mange. Just a theory. But, of course, this theory is not the case of this particular story.

Courage- Haha… That made me giggle… *man screech* Kidd: "Maka! NO!" And there it goes. I have a new life long dream. I wish to hear a man screech before I die.

Animewriter808p- Well, I can't answer that question, because truly, there is no answer. And even if I did tell you why there's now answer… well, where's the fun in that?

Animelover881- Cheerful of Maka's pain, are we? Just kidding, but I do agree KidxMaka forever, indeed.

NorthernMage- Maka, technically speaking, can die, but the real question is, would I kill her? Now there's a question to ponder. With this story, as it's gone, be given it's poetic justice with her living to see the end? Maybe, maybe not. I guess we'll see.

Sajylover5- Again, so much happiness for the pain of Maka (a joke, of course)! Perhaps I should kill her…

Miss redfoxess- Oh, I can promise it won't be a bad ending. Though if it's a positive or negative ending, I refuse to share :)

Awesomex- Can you? Can you really?

Silver/ SilverAshes –Silver- Oh wow… These reviews…. THESE REVIEWS! I love them all! Please don't die, my friend! For I have updated! And no worries on the doubting myself; in fact I think I'm a bit full of myself, I was just wanting to let people know that some of this is honestly and truly not my best work, and I put it there as a reminder to myself that I do need to try harder next time, and that I should take that extra 30 minutes to proof-read. But thank you for the reassurance :D

Cyril-of-the-Ice- Oh, wow! It's always nice to hear from those who have been here since the beginning

Guest- Yes! And another one!

GeoDaGiraffe- It had to be done…

Umi- You know, I've had that fleeting thought once or twice; maybe I just might do so once this is finished.

Domo- I can't tell you if she did or didn't D: not right here anyways, but it tells you in the text above!

Rebecca- Well, I suppose that's better than squealing like an old man… or a man screech O.e… (see the reply I gave to Courage above and the review Courage left on chapter 36 for the insider…) But I know, I'm terrible, I tend to leave you on major cliff hangers.

Dawnbreeze12321- Unfortunately, like all good things, this too must come to an end eventually.