A/N: Thank you so much Chabeli and The Animal Monster for the kind review especially because you've been reading the story up to the 34th chapter! Anyway, I'm sorry for the cliffhanger and the hiatus. I've been caught up dealing with enrollment requirements and… Kuroshitsuji, my current obsession. I recommend you to watch it if you like dark comedy, action, etc. It has death gods and demons like Soul Eater but its style and story is rather very different, it's kind of darker and its art style is splendid (to me, that is) but Soul Eater is still the best. ^^

Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.

Chapter 35: Painting Flowers

Dirty white sky hovered over Death the Kid who stared at a gray wall, awestruck at the symmetrical outline of a spider on it formed by stems of roses full of thorns. He gaped and his eyes widened in admiration at the unique formation. He felt his legs weak. And he trudged towards the figure on the wall and was about to hold it until he remembered something.

"Wait," he said. His open hands twitched, his eyes narrowed and his mouth closed. He bowed his head, closed his eyes and held his forehead with four of his fingers. "What am I doing? I'm getting distracted again. This is only a hindrance to my goal." He placed his hand on his hip, stepped his foot to the side a bit far from his other foot and he turned around. He opened his eyes. "If I can't use Beelzebub here, this journey will definitely take long," he calmly thought to himself as he dug his hands into his pockets. "There should at least be some clues as to where I should go." He gazed around the place. He was walking through blank walls that have some stems of roses. Their formation wasn't symmetrical at all, not like the one he saw just seconds ago. He felt like he just kept going around the same places he had been for the past half hour. Maybe it was the madness that was trying to overtake him or maybe, he thought, just maybe he was losing his good sense of direction. Suddenly he heard a light thud behind him. He quickly looked back and saw a tail of a rabbit at the end of another hallway. He arched an eyebrow. "What's a… rabbit doing here?" he whispered quietly to himself. He turned around and slowly walked towards the rabbit's tail. Suddenly, it disappeared. He gasped as his pupils reduced. He started running to follow the rabbit.

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The soldiers in black with Kazune pointed their snipers at Hei and Dominique as the large fluorescent lights above them turned on, revealing the trespassers, saviors rather, fully. Kazune raised one hand to cease the soldiers. He stepped forward from the group of soldiers with a smirk on his face.

"Don't shoot unless I tell you," he said to the soldiers without facing them though he looked back at them. He then shifted his gaze to the two boys at the center of the room. "Hei Mikami and Dominique Crest, what a surprise to see you both here," he said calmly.

Hei gave Kazune a shrewd glare as he stood firm while Dominique just grinned and folded his arms over his chest. "Surprise," he said.

Kazune frowned and his eyes became half-lidded. "I'm sorry to tell you this but we don't like unexpected visitors. If you're thinking you'll be able to leave this place alive, think again." He closed his eyes and placed his fist over his mouth. He chuckled.

"Tch," Dominique uttered. "Hei," he whispered. Hei nodded gently and quickly transformed into his weapon form. Dominique grabbed him from the air and prepared himself to battle with Kazune.

"So you want a fight, huh?" Kazune asked rhetorically. He took out his black pistol from his denims and held it tight with one hand. "Bring it on," he said and smiled as he chinned up.

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"Where the heck did that white rabbit went to?" Kid thought as he spun around the place. At his back, at his sides and in front of him were hallways leading to places he wasn't sure about except for the one at his back. He decided to move forward. As he ran through the wall, he came to a dead end. At the end of the hallway was just another wall like the one he saw before but this time there was no symmetrical figure anymore. But when he faced down he saw a large black hole, large enough for a person to fit inside. He carefully walked toward it and glared down. He couldn't see anything. "This might be some kind of well but why is there no bucket?" he thought. "And why would there be a well in a maze? First, a rabbit. Now a hole?" He sighed as he closed his eyes. "Don't tell me I'm in some kind of wonderland?" He turned around and saw the hallway. "Well, there must be another way but I did wish for a clue and maybe that rabbit was the clue. Rabbits live in a hole, right, Kid?" He asked himself then looked back at the hole. "But that hole is ridiculously large for a rabbit." He faced the hole again. "Oh, well." He stretched out his leg then let himself fall into the dark hole. He looked up and was seeing the sky and hole getting small every second. "Whoever made that maze is probably someone tragic," he thought, "someone who would escape from reality and build up a world of dark magic."

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"Oof," Kazune uttered as he got knocked to the ground causing a large thud. Dominique, with an evil grin on his face, drew his swords closer to Kazune's neck. He stared down at him with those merciless, seething eyes showing his hunger to rip Kazune in to pieces. Kazune could only stare back at him with his narrowed eyes, calming himself. He diverted his eyes and saw his gun far on the tiled floor far away from them. He then smirked at Dominique.

"I must say… I'm impressed," he told Dominique. "Even though I have my soldiers as back up, you didn't hesitate to fight with me. They could have all shot you and you could have been dead minutes ago. Lucky for you, I ordered them to not to shoot until I say so."

Dominique's grin just became wider. Finally, he opened his mouth. "That just shows you're incompetent without them. You can't beat us without back up. Just look at yourself now. You got knocked out in just 10 minutes and you don't even have your weapon in your hands anymore. You're nothing but a deus ex machine, Kazune. I'm also impressed by your knowledge of technology and research. You did a good job locking up my colleagues in glasses with great capacity that can suppress their powers but you know what? You're also such a git for making a button attractive and obvious to my eyes even when I couldn't understand the label above it."

Kazune glared. "What button?"

"Oh, you know… the button that can lose the great capacity of the glasses and make them fragile just like normal glasses. Of all the colors, why did you make it red?" His shoulders started twitched as he chuckled to himself. "If you were researching about me and Hei… you should have known I like red things… red cars… red shoes… red contact lenses… red buttons… and best of all…" he pushed the blade of one of his sword on Kauzne's neck and slightly cut it. Bulbous blood came out from the small wound and ran down his neck. Kazune's eyes widened as he gasped a little. "… Red blood." He grinned once again.

Kazune's arms were sprawled out on the floor. Dominique pushing him down on the floor made him slightly hard to breathe. He managed to raise his other hand. The black soldiers peered into the scopes of their snipers and were ready to shoot Dominique but suddenly they lowered their guns and raised their heads up when all glass cages broke. Debris of the glasses flew around the room. Kazune and Dominique closed their eyes as pieces of glasses fell on them. After the boisterous sound of breaking of glass es, Black Star and the others stood behind and at the sides of Dominique, holding their respective weapons, ready to fight the soldiers and Kazune.

Noah pushed aside the soldiers that were sitting and were assigned to look at the screens of the CCTVS. He gripped the table and looked at one screen. He saw Spartoi and the soldiers in the large room. He glared.

"Their ruining the plan!" he said angrily. He still watched as Spartoi fought against the soldiers.

"Sir, what should we do?" one soldier said behind him.

Noah looked back at him. "Make yourselves useful and help them fight those brats!"

The soldiers saluted and they disappeared from the dark room right away. Noah face palmed himself then looked at the Book of Eibon that was resting on the table. "Gopher, you better not fail," he said.

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Kid could perceive nothing but darkness but he then started to hear unusual wails and sounds of steel echoing. Suddenly, a hand gripped his arm and then another… and another on his other arm… on his legs neck. He gritted his teeth as he tried to push away the hands that had chains on their wrists. He figured out that even though he couldn't see them, the lower arms come from the walls of the hole. If Kid was a normal person, he could have screamed in fear already knowing that less than fifty unknown people that you couldn't see were trying to grab you. An arm actually held his hair and mouth but he quickly pushed them all away. He continued to fall into darkness, successfully surpassed that hellish part. He guessed that they were zombies especially when that hand held his mouth. It was so cold and he could tell there was no more blood in it.

He then reached the end of the hole. He roughly landed on the surface full of water –or so he thought it was. His head hit the wall and his ass hit the watery surface hard. He could have stand if he knew that he was already near to the surface. He scratched his aching head as he squeezed his eyes shut. He could hear the water splashing as he moved around. Luckily, it wasn't deep. When he was sitting, it only reached his waist but when he held onto the wall and stood up, the water reached half of his lower feet. When he opened his eyes, he saw skulls and other skeletal parts in the water but he was totally unfazed by this; he was a reaper, a death god. It would be stupid for him to be scared of something like that. He was able to see what's under water since there was actually a large tunnel with candle light on the walls. The tunnel was connected to the end of the hole. He wondered where the water came from. When he looked at the wall, there was a sign on a gold plate saying, "Tears of the Betrayed." The words reverberated in Kid's mine and he figured out that the water under him was actually tears of his beloved.

He looked at the tunnel that was slightly dark. He slowly stepped inside. There was still water, tears rather, inside. The walls were actually made of brown bricks that look like they're in ruins already. But what was really bothering him was the candles. He wondered who lit them. He shook his head to forget about the question. He just thought there might be some people who live at the end of the tunnel. But, he thought, if the people aren't actually friend, he won't get to turn back anymore. Hell, he didn't know how he'll able to climb up back to that dreadful maze if that was the safe place. He continued his way and he almost reached the end of the tunnel.

Outside the tunnel, he saw, was full of green and flower plants. He could see grasses and could hear birds chirping, making him feel less tensed. He was still a young boy; of course, he still had fear in him even just a little. He stepped out of the tunnel and gazed around. It was like he was in a new world. The place was sunny. There was a normal sun and some white fluffy clouds and he could hear someone playing music on a violin. At his left, he saw a narrow river where the tears in the well and tunnel came from. When he looked far to right, he saw a skirted white table surrounded by splendid kinds of colorful flowers then there were three people. First one he saw was a guy standing up, playing piano. Then second was a girl sitting on one of the chairs drinking tea with… "Gopher? !" Kid thought in surprise as his eyes widened. He recognized the style of Gopher's hair. "What is he doing here?" He tried to think why. Even though he didn't actually know that he was sent by Noah to kill him, he already guessed that he was. Something caught Kid's eyes. When he looked at the boy and girl in Victorian clothes, one of their legs had bandages. Then he saw two buckets of water on the ground not far from the table. "I guess they're Jack and Jill who fell of the hill," he thought as he hid behind some bushes. Later he saw the white rabbit. For some reasons, he felt hope and vigor return to him. He quickly sat up straight and made the leaves of the bushes rustle.

"Did you guys hear that?" Gopher asked as he put down his cup of tea.

"Nope," Jill replied. "But it must have been some kind of insect." She smiled at Gopher as she held a pot of tea and poured tea into Gopher's cup.

"I'm… an insect?" Kid thought. He sweatdropped. The white rabbit suddenly started running again and Kid screamed inside. He started crawling on the grass until he was far from Gopher and the two already. When he reached the woods where the rabbit went in, he stood up and went inside the dark woods. He tried looking around as he walked, searching for the rabbit again. "I have no time to play hide and seek, rabbit," he said a little louder. "Come out, come out wherever you are," he said in a sing sang matter yet there was annoyance in his tone. He looked behind a tree where he heard something rustling. His face flashed in disappointment when he only saw leaves, more grasses and more trees. Then there was a silhouette of someone on the ground. He quickly turned around. A knife nearly hit his face. Instead it was impaled into the trunk of the tree behind Kid. Kid rested his back and hands on the stem of the tree as he gazed at the piercing red eyes of a guy with shoulder-length lilac hair in a suite and a top hat. At first, they exchanged serious glances. "I knew it… I knew the people here won't be friendly," Kid thought frantically but he kept his face void of emotion.

The mysterious guy took out his knife from the tree and he smiled at Kid. "I guess you're not from around," he said then turned around. "If I were you, I wouldn't wander around here too much. This place is dangerous, little boy." He looked back and threw his knife at Kid but luckily Kid held its blade with just two of his fingers.

Kid smirked. "You could have thrown two knives to make it symmetrical. You know… I prefer things to be symmetrical."

"Well, you're a weird one." The lilac-haired boy faced him. He was taller than Kid for three inches. "So what bring you here?" He started walking and Kid decided to follow anyway.

"I'm here to save someone," Kid said as he walked and watched as he tapped the unharmful side of the knife's blade on the palm of his hands.

"Oh? Well then why is that it looked like you were just playing hide and seek with someone?" he didn't look back at Kid.

"I was, sort of." He looked away then looked at the lilac-hair boy in front of him again. "I was looking for a white rabbit that led me here. I thought if I followed it, I can find the person I want to save."

The mysterious guy smiled, though his bangs covered his eyes. He turned to face Kid. "You sound like a little kid, you know that?" Kid only glared at him. "But I'm glad you act childish and thought you should follow the rabbit. The rabbit is late for the queen's awakening and so am I." He closed his eyes and chuckled. "But it's not like I'll get in trouble. I'm nothing to the queen anyway." He turned around and started to walk again.

"For some reason, that sounded sad," Kid said gently as he followed the guy again.

"Actually… it's not. The queen has forgotten to think of worthy things after her long depression. I was just saying that I'm nothing to her since I don't really have a position. I'm just a mere town's boy who likes wondering around the forest while that rabbit was the queen's secretary."

Kid gave him a quizzical look. "Then why wasn't he wearing any clothes?"

The lilac-haired boy suddenly skidded and stood in front of Kid. He tapped Kid's head. "You're really expecting this to be like Wonderland, huh? Well, if that's so then you're Alice. And you're not actually a girl, right? So don't complain if the rabbit is not wearing any clothes. This is a different wonderful." He smiled and looked away. "In fact, this isn't even wonderland. It's just a place created by the imagination of the queen. I'm just one of the creations of the queen, young boy. But you…" He looked at Kid and held his shoulders. "You're actually a real person. So you should feel lucky."

Kid looked into the guy's eyes showing emotions mixed with sadness and joy. "Will… you, perchance, disappear if the queen imagines you to disappear?"

The guy laughed. "Of course I will. My life is according to her imagination and right now she's still dreaming since she's still sleeping. Once she wakes up this kind of place, me along with the others will disappear. I really should attend her awakening but you know what? People there are so stupid. It's pointless to attend it. We will all disappear when she wakes up anyway. Soon when she wakes up, things will go back to normal. This is the Book of Eibon after all. There's no happiness here. It's just full of grayness and spaces around here and thanks to the queen; she filled up some placed with her dreams and we got to live even just for a short time before she wakes up and become a whole different person who won't be having such dreams anymore." He smiled thankfully then let go of Kid.

Kid frowned at what he just heard. "So you were saying this place is dangerous just because your queen might imagine or dream of something dangerous?"

The guy nodded then he sat down behind a tree and looked up at Kid.

"And this queen you're saying… is she someone with a thin body, pink hair and pale skin?"

The guy smiled. "Yes," he simply said.

"Then that must be… Crona." His eyes narrowed. "Is there a way for me to see her?"

"Well, of course, but it wouldn't be easy for someone like you to enter the place where she's now since you're not part of her imagination."

"I'll do anything to get to her. Please tell me what to do."

The guy closed his eyes. "I only know one way."

"What is it?"

"Go to that place," he pointed to the north, "Paint flowers for the queen."

"Huh?" Kid uttered as he gave the guy another quizzical look. "You're… kidding me right? Are flowers supposed to be painted?"

"Yeah, well… since they're white, you can paint them."

Kid sighed. "Fine. So where's the materials?"

"You're holding it."

Kid stared at the knife he was holding. "This isn't even a paint brush."

"I know," he stood up. "You'll harm yourself, use your own blood and hands to paint atleast one flower." He grinned.

"That's… that's crazy!" Kid said as he looked up at the guy.

"You said you would do anything, young boy."

Kid facepalmed himself. "I have never heard of painting flowers using your own blood before but yes, I did say I would do anything." He took his hand from his face and smiled at the guy. "Thank you for your information. I'm Death the Kid, by the way. Sorry for the late introduction."

The guy smiled. "I'm Ferro," he said then he took out something from his bag. "Take this. I bet this will be useful to you." He gave him some sort of gray cape.

Kid glared at him. "Just because I'm going to save some one doesn't mean I'll be some kind of superhero with a cape you know."

The guy chuckled. "Come on. It's a nice touch."

Kid sighed. "And you called me weird." He dropped the knife on the ground and he wore the cape. "Hey, how does it look?" When he looked up, Ferro was gone already. He gazed around to look for him. Once again, he was alone. Then it hit him. "Since Ferro's gone already, then that must mean…" His eyes widened. "Crona's awake already!" He picked up the knife and started running to the north. He got out of the woods and saw a garden of white flowers. "Atleast one," Ferro's words reiterated in his mind. "These flowers will probably disappear as well," he thought as he ran towards one flower. He looked at his wrists and cut it a bit with his knife. He let the blood drop to the flower for eighth times it was almost painted in red already. Good thing it was just a little rose. Suddenly the sky gradually turned light gray and the roses got detached from their stems. The petals flew with the wind that passed. Kid dropped the bloody knife again and he decided to follow the flying white petals. He walked through stoned walls and reached a body of water that looked a small lake. He witnessed the petals fall to the water then from far away, he saw the other people Crona imagined turning into dusts already. Then he saw the most surprising this he has ever seen in his entire life. He saw Crona hanging against a tree.

"Crona!" he shouted. He looked down at the water and saw that it wasn't actually deep. He stepped on it. It looks like it was just ankle deep. He fought against the water's force until he got close to Crona. He stood in front of her and saw that she was surrounded by stems of roses but she doesn't get hurt by them. By the look of it, Kid thought the stems actually come from her. "Crona!" he shouted again. Crona was actually awake already. Her eyes were half-lidded and she just kept facing down. Kid didn't actually know what to say. He knew this wasn't the same Crona anymore but he hoped that her old self is still somewhere in her. But her old self was probably sad because of him… because of what happened that night. Kid didn't know if Crona will understand if he explained but he still wanted to try. When he was about to talk again, he noticed the white rabbit hanging below her and it surprised him to see it dead. It got killed by the spiky stems of roses that came from Crona's body… that's what Kid thought. Suddenly, Crona slowly fell from the tree but before she reached the ground, Kid caught her in his arms. "Crona," he whispered worriedly and looked at her. She was wearing her madness suite again. Kid forgot what he was about to say and he thought about the rabbit.

"Why… why did you kill the rabbit?" Kid said with a slightly trembling voice.

"It was late," Crona whispered. "And mother told me to kill it." Even though her voice was little, Kid loved it that he got to hear her voice again. He thought he'll never see, hear or hold her again.

The demised rabbit slowly turned to dusts like the others.

"Crona, please look at me," he cupped Crona's face and stared into her gray gloomy eyes. "You remember me, right?"

"No," Crona said gently. "I do not."

Kid looked down at the ground in disappointment. He smiled. "You really chose to forget me, huh? Just for the reason you saw me and Ren. Crona… I'd like you to know… that there's nothing between me and Ren… she only wanted my blood. It turns out that she was a human who turned into a vampire. And she wanted to be human again… and the only way to make that happen was to… drink my blood." He stared into Crona's eyes again. "So please… please don't think you got replaced… don't think that there's any other girl I love other than you… I love you for who you are… and for who I am when I am with you… I probably said this again… but you're the one who really made me realize that imperfection can be perfect too… you made me stop worrying so much about symmetry… if I continued to worry so much about it… I wouldn't know how to love you."

Crona saw Kid smiling as joy of tears ran down his face. "You are… Kid… right?"

Kid's eyes widened. "Yes," he quickly said. "Yes, I am. You finally remember."

"I'm sorry… Kid… but I'm not the same person you knew... I might even kill you now… I'm now the new kishin." She looked away from him.

Kid shook his head and held Crona's hands. Crona looked at him. "That's not true," he said, with a tone that forces her to believe what he just said. "You're still Crona… but with a new purpose and form… but you will always be the Crona that I loved."

Crona once again looked down. "I don't understand… why you still want to love someone… who chose to forget you and accepted to be someone who'll make the world miserable."

"My promise… remember? I promised to love you forever. I said I want to keep that promise and I never want to break it. I'm here… to stop you from being someone that you mentioned." He held the back of her head and combed her silky pink hair as he stared at her with a smile. "I'm here… to save a fallen angel," he repeated the words he said to her months ago.

"Kid…" she whispered and stared at him with misty eyes.

"It's okay… don't cry…" he wiped away her tears with the pad of his other thumb and he put his forehead against hers. "Like I said… I can never get mad at you after the kindness you've shown to me that was like no other." He smiled and pressed his lips against hers as he held both his hair and neck gently. Crona was at first, startled at the sudden action but later her eyes gently closed. She held onto Kid's chest and let Kid dominate her. No matter how much she tried to forget him, she couldn't really forget the days she spent him… the days when she only looked at him and knew she'll be safe… and a day like that happened again. Kid was there again with him, holding her like he'll never let go of her, making her feel wanted like he used to, showing his passion she always loved.

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A/N: I have got to say… this is the weirdest chapter I have ever made mainly because Kid was being in some sort of wonderland and I think I didn't narrate what I imagine the way I wanted. It was probably confusing but I hope you understood even just a bit. To make up for the days that I haven't been updating, I made this chapter long. XD Well, thanks for reading and I hope you stay tune for the next chap. _ I think the story will end at chapter 40.