Chapter 37: Entrance into Meister Mind; Soul's Serenade?

Kid and I scramble around finding what we need to pulverize the pills into a fine powder that we can use to coat the tampons. While experimenting with the rudimentary supplies we have, I accidentally shoot a pill across the room almost pegging Kid right in one of his yellow eyes, but after a few tries we get the technique down and before long I am shoving tampons in the holes in her arms thinking that this is not something I could ever have imagined myself doing. I wrap the arm up again and afterward Kid and I take off our masks and gloves relieved to have that over with.

"Pardon me. I'm going to go outside for some fresh air for a moment," Kid tells me grabbing his coat and hat.

"I could use some air, too. Mind if I come with you?"

"No, as long as you don't tell my partners."

"Huh?"

While stepping out the back door he reaches into the inside breast pocket of his coat pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"You smoke?"

"Yes, but only when I'm stressed. The girls hate it. They lecture me to no end about it. But I'm a reaper- I can't get lung cancer. The worst it'll do to me is give me yellow teeth."

He lights one and leans against the building taking a big drag. "I haven't gotten to have one in several days because they've always been with me."

"That why you sent them off on their own?"

"No. You and I have more work to do, but I thought we could both use a break. It's been a hard day for everyone. However did you manage to carry her all the way here by yourself? That's one hell of a hike. I'm lucky I had the board."

"It totally sucked. I carried her on my back the entire way. But it sounded like the best thing for her was to get her here. I couldn't go into the normal ER and be like, 'Hey, my girlfriend got attacked by a giant woodpecker and is under the effects of some sleeping thingamagigger.'"

Kid laughs and little puffs of smoke come from his mouth. "Yes, I suppose that wouldn't work."

"We'd probably have both gotten thrown in the psych ward."

"You know, they tried to put me there once," Kid says sadly. "Actually, they did, but I busted out. We joke a lot about my OCD, but sometimes it can be rather disabling." He scratches his lip with the thumb of the hand holding the cigarette before taking another long drag. "I'm damn lucky that my ladies know how to take care of me when I'm especially bad."

We stand there in silence for a time and then Kid says more to himself than to me. "I don't know where I'd be without those two."

I decide the conversation has gotten too heavy so I change the topic. After all, we are supposed to be resting. "I guess Maka is right. The snow is pretty as it falls down."

Kid nods. "I think it's quite nice here. Other than having no electricity or running water. I would give anything to be able to sit down and play some Smash and Thrash right now. At home I don't need to smoke, I've got my video games."

"Oh, God, totally. You know we're going to miss the midnight release party of Damage Dimension."

"Dammit! I forgot all about that. Oh, well. I'll have one of the servants pick up my reserved copy for us. You can come over and play it at my place when this is over."

"That'd be awesome. It'll feel really great to be able to hit the restart button."

"I know what you mean. God, those bastards almost got Patti. For some reason they seem to want to annihilate her. Specifically her. They act differently towards Liz and I, but all they seem to want to do to Patti is blast her to bits by whatever means necessary."

"They tried to take Maka from me. You haven't seen the wounds on her shoulders yet but they picked her up by their talons and were gonna fly off with her and they were ordered to kill me."

"Well, it appears the two of you did a very good job of foiling their plans," he says smiling slyly at me as he blows some smoke from the corner of his mouth. "They always underestimate students. They think the full-fledged agents are the only ones they need to worry about but our class is one of the most skilled in decades from what I've heard."

His cigarette is now down to the butt. He pulls it from his mouth and holds it. "I'll throw it in the fire. I have no patience for smokers who leave their butts all over like ingrates."

I guiltily look at the lump of snow that marks where I threw Maka's bandage, but I don't say anything.

We walk back into the cabin and he tosses his cigarette butt into the wood stove and removes his hat and coat tossing them on the chair with his scarf.

"So, what now?" I ask. "Do we just wait till the girls are back?"

"No, to ensure that we don't lose her completely we'll need to take action before they're back."

I go to the bed and sit down beside her. "Ok, what do we need to do?"

Kid walks over to my meister and I and looming over her says darkly, "We are going to enter her."

"Excuse me?" Surely he can't mean what first pops into my mind at those words.

"Good Lord, Soul, is sex always the thing at the forefront of your mind? Even at a time like this?! You're as bad as Patti and Liz!"

"Sorry for not being some kind of mutant like you who can have hotties hanging all over him and not be affected by it."

He raises an eyebrow and looks me in the eye. "Oh, is that what you think? That it has no effect on me? I only wish that were the case."

"Dude?! Is there something goin' on between you and one of the Thompsons?" I shouldn't be this excited about that kind of news. I'm like a gossipy housewife…but I have had money riding on it for a while. I say it will be Liz who ends up taking Kid's virginity one of these days, but if he's messing around with Patti I won't bother to remind Black*Star about our bet.

"We'll talk about it later, but I assure you I am not a mutant...just a reaper. There is a difference."

"Now, my understanding is that after you got infected with the Black Blood Maka has been able to visit you in some kind of thought projection or mind palace or something."

"Yeah. It's where that asshole ogre took up residence after I got hit by Ragnarok."

"But, you can't enter Maka's mind."

"No, I'm assuming it's cause I don't have Soul Perception."

"But I do."

"So, you're going to try to enter her mind?"

"No, I think in her state it's going to take both of us. I'm going to try to maintain some kind of soul connection with both of you and you're going to enter my mind and find a pathway to hers."

I think about this for a moment. In theory it makes sense…

"You ever done anything like this before?" I ask him.

He shakes his head. "No and it won't be easy. I don't think it would be possible with just anyone, but you and Maka are much more than partners. I think your souls are closely enough linked you'll be able to find a way to her even without having Soul Perception."

"It doesn't hurt to try right?"

"It shouldn't, but it could be disturbing…I don't know what state she'll be in when you find her."

"It's ok. I'll figure it out. What do I do when I find her?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I think you'll just need to stay with her until the girls get back."

"But what happens when you prepare the antidote, won't you lose your connection to us?"

"I'm going to leave them notes on what to do. With Rax's assistance it shouldn't be a problem for them to make it so that I can remain connected to both of you. The only problem is I have no idea how long this is going to take. It may very well be the longest we've ever resonated with someone so let's make sure we're ready and comfortable before we start."

He reaches into his bag and tosses me a granola bar. "Eat this. I saw the remains of what you ate for dinner. Repulsive."

"I don't think I even tasted it," I grin ripping into the granola bar all too happy to have more food.

He pulls a chair over to Maka's bedside. "I think you should lay down beside her here. I'm going to hold your right hand while you hold Maka's with your left. The physical connection may help." And then unceremoniously he says, "I've got to make a trip to the outhouse. I'll be right back."

I take the moment alone with Maka to readjust her position so her head is facing where mine will be resting while we resonant. I wipe her lips, once again removing the drool from them, and lean down and kiss her. "Maka, I'm coming to find you, but you gotta help ok? Try and give me some kind of sign of where you are if you can. You know I can be pretty clueless sometimes."

Kid comes back into the cabin and gathers up his massively long scarf in his hand.

What's with that thing?" I ask him staring at the way he delicately arranges it.

"Oh, it was a gift from Patti. She made it for me a few years ago when she was in a knitting phase, but she got some of the measurements wrong. It's a bit long."

"A bit?"

He chuckles. "I've thought about cutting it into three parts so we could each have a matching one, but I don't want to hurt her feelings. It was a very thoughtful present."

"I've never seen it before."

"Yes, well there isn't much call for a winter scarf in DC, but I usually bring it with me on missions just in case. And right now it's going to make wonderful lumbar support. " He says sitting down in the chair.

"You ready?"

I nod. This shouldn't be too hard. Find Maka. I'm good at that and she's good at finding me. Even when people have sent doppelgangers she and I can see through the imposters quickly. We know each other; so as long as I trust my instincts I should be able to find her.

"And Soul…uh…I'd appreciate if you keep to yourself anything you might see in my mind."

"Course," I say and we take each other's hand and I take Maka's in mine.

"Soul Resonance!" Kid shouts and the wind tunnel feeling hits both of us.

Matching wavelengths with Kid isn't as second nature as it is with Maka…it feels like we are two gears with teeth that aren't quite the right size to fit with one another, but can still manage to make the necessary cogs turn. It is way easier than it was the first time I resonated with Kirikou, though. Maka and Kid have a similar technique and I use that to my advantage. Instead of focusing on my soul wavelength Kid focuses on his own, making it steady and unwavering thereby providing me with a rhythm to mimic and before long we are perfectly in sync.

"OK, now try to find some way to get from my mind into hers!"

"Right!"

"I don't think she's so far gone that her soul won't be seeking your companionship. Use that to your advantage."

"Will do."

I begin to feel a sensation of drifting. It's rather like what I imagine weightlessness in outer space would feel like or a soup bubble floating on a light afternoon breeze, but eventually I feel the pull of gravity giving me mass once again and my feet touch the ground in a place I've never been before. I'm dressed in sneakers, jeans, and my limited edition Skeletoxin t-shirt that I lost in the fire at the Wintermore. My hair is held out of my face with my black headband and I feel as normal in my skin as I do in the real world.

I look around and there is no doubt that I'm in Kid's head. The room is rectangular with roman pillars on either side of me and in the center of the room is a fountain with a statue of two handguns. The guns are crossed and point upward with a fountain of water cascading from the barrel of each one. Everything in the place is perfectly symmetrical including framed images on the wall including a picture of Patti in a heart shaped frame. I get kind of excited thinking this means he's into her but directly across the room from that picture is one of Liz in the matching frame. I would guess that all these 'photos' are projections of memories of Kid's. Most are of people from the DWMA, but there are also ones of cats and gothic buildings and trees.

At the end of this room there are some doors so I head in that direction, but after seeing a number of photos of my meister I think that perhaps I should check one of them out. I chose a picture with just her and stand in front of it calling her name, but nothing happens. I then find another photo this time of me and Maka sitting on Brunnie. I once again focus on the picture and call for my meister, but again nothing happens. Ok, this idea does not seem to be working, but there's plenty more to explore before getting frustrated.

I notice there are an awful lot of photos of Maka here. Were this not Kid's mind I'd be getting pissed, but I know Kid better than to fear he has some hidden agenda to steal my meister away from me. They're probably all from one of those meister only training retreats they go on once a year.

When I get closer to the end of the hall I find that there are a total of five doors, one in the middle facing me and two on either side. None have any kind of distinguishing markings so I open the one in front of me. It's a skate park. I could have guessed something like that would be here somewhere. He's as obsessed with skateboarding as I am…was with…poor Brunnie! Can't think about my motorcycle now! Must concentrate…

I step back in the main room and select another door. This room is bare other than some toy horses scattered on the floor and an end table with a beautiful bouquet of flowers sitting on top of it. Nothing in there 'speaks' to me of my meister so I exit and try the door next to it.

"Wow!" That's all I can say. This place is some kind of dungeon. The walls, ceiling, and floor are all made of stone. There's a barred window at the back high up on the wall and in the middle is what appears to be a medieval torture device like the rack I've seen in movies about the Middle Ages. There's also a wall of weapons. The place smells like sweat and blood. I'm actually relieved that Maka isn't here. I shut the door wondering if that is what Kid was embarrassed to have me see or if I should expect more little surprises as I wander around.

I cross the room and open the door directly opposite the horse and flower room. This room has bright yellow walls that have been doodled all over with colorful scribbles from floor to ceiling. It looks like a kid's nursery only with a bed much bigger than any a child would need. As my eyes get used to the brightness of the room I realize that most of the doodles are of stick figures, one is always in black and white, and the other two are in brown. Sometimes the black stick figure is holding two silver things one in each hand. I can't help but grin at the little hieroglyphics of Kid's team. I enter the room thinking this is a place Maka might like…but nothing makes me feel like she's been here so sadly I head out of this happiness-inducing space and back into the relative sterility of the main room.

Only one more door…I open it and it's some kind of storage room packed top to bottom with crap. It looks like my grandma's attic. Ugh! She isn't here either. I step back out and try to think. What can I do? I return to every door opening and closing them again to see if I missed anything.

Inside the scribble room I see a toy xylophone and I sit down and play a tune on it. Nothing happens, but I figure Maka knows I communicate through my music so maybe if I try somewhere else I might reach her. I carry the toy xylophone around dinging it every so often or playing simple songs like, Pop Goes the Weasel and I start calling her name.

"Maka? Where you at? Come on, I know you wanna see Kid's creepy dungeon room!"

"I asked you to exercise discretion, asshole." Says Kid.

"Oh, you can still hear me? Why haven't you said anything?"

"It takes too much extra energy. Quit talking to me."

"Ok, ok. It's not like I was gonna tell her that you have photos of Liz and Patti in heart shaped frames."

"Yes, please don't. That will only make my life worse. I told you we would talk about that stuff later. Now is not the time. You're letting yourself get distracted."

"You're the one who started it."

I hear a grumble and then the reaper goes back to being silent.

"Maka? Meister…come on," I whine. "Help me out here. I can't figure out where I'm going. I'm a weapon. This tromping around searching for souls stuff really isn't my department."

I walk to the other end of the main room, but there aren't any doors there. I look behind pictures and check out seams in the flooring, but I'm getting nowhere. Time for a desperate measure.

"Maka, I'm going to write you a song. It's a love song so you'll never get to hear it if you don't give me a hint of where you're at, because I'm going to play it this one time." I think in my head of a tune and then say. "Ok. Yah, ready?"

I ding a few notes out on the xylophone and then begin singing, "Oh, my dear…you needn't cry because I'll be with you tonight. Even though we've had a fight it doesn't mean we won't be together tonight. Because I love you and you love me. I even miss your bitchin' can't you see? So let's make up and get back to makin' out because it ain't right for us to be alone. Not tonight."

I sing it along with accompaniment on the xylophone feeling extremely conspicuous because I'm sure that Kid hears it, but thankfully he makes no comment. I try to come up with a second verse but then I swear I hear something from behind the wall too…

"Soul?"

It's her. To my left the wall opens toward me to reveal a hidden opening. Even the pictures hanging on the wall bend to accommodate the opening of a door that wasn't visible from my side.

"Soul!" she says happily and I toss the xylophone aside as I hop up and run over to her.

"Maka! You're ok!"

"Of course, I am. I was just reading. Come on in. My book is just getting to the good part! I can't believe you're here…how'd that happen?"

I shrug. I'd rather not get into all that right now. I need to access what I can do here to transform my sleeping beauty back into Meister Maka.

As I pass through the threshold she shuts it behind me and I see that from her side the door is heavy and wooden and ornately carved with images inspired by fairy tales. Even the doorknob is fancy, it's egg shaped instead of round and has an ornamental design on it.

I step into this room and smile because, of course, Maka's place is a gigantic library. I was born into a well to-do family so I've seen decadent rooms before, but this outdoes any and every library I've ever seen even in magazines. Two sets of stairs, one on either side of the room, lead to a mezzanine with a second level of bookcases and seating. Each floor sports stately windows and at the far end is a huge fireplace making a cozy spot for mid-winter reading.

Despite the fact it has that book store smell it isn't dark and dusty, but full of warm sunshine that streams in from the windows and it feels like a happy, joyous place to be.

"Have you read all these?" I ask gesturing around the room with a swing of my arm.

"Not all of them- some I've only flipped through, but all the ones in that section over there" she points to several bookcases to our left "I've read and really enjoyed…And that tiny pile over there are the ones I thought were super dumb" She points to one shelf that has a few stacks of books that instead of standing upright are sitting in a heap. "And those are biographies of people I admire…" She points to a spot on the right hand side of the mezzanine…and that big section over there are all the books I've studied on meistering and demon weapon mysticism." The meistering section appears to be one of the largest in the place taking up nearly a quarter of the main floor's bookcases.

My heart swells with pride seeing the shelves devoted to our craft. I'm really lucky to have a partner who works so hard. She's absolutely amazing how she can study so much and get such good grades and still read all those other books.

"And you wonder why I never get you books as presents. I would never know what to get you. You've already read so many."

"There's always more good books out there."

I follow her to the middle of the room where there is a maroon overstuffed chair that has a book sitting on it with a ribbon bookmark dangling from it. She picks up the book and pulls her legs up under her the way she so often does and is immediately absorbed by the contents of it.

I'm so focused on watching her for any signs of illness or possession that I trip over something next to her seat. Looking down I see a burgundy bean bag chair and sitting next to it is a white cardboard comics box labeled Skeletoxin on its side in black permanent marker. She may not have been expecting me, but she has been prepared for my arrival nevertheless.

I toss myself down on the beanbag chair more than happy to chill out for a while, though I don't take my eyes off her. She seems to be acting totally normal. No aggression. No collapsing or weakness. No slave owner mentality…but I know that demons and their influence can be dangerously subtle at times and I'm not ready to let my guard down yet, not completely anyway.

Sensing that I'm watching her she looks up from her book. "I'm sorry, Soul. I'm not being a good hostess am I?"

"It's ok. I don't mind," I say trying to act natural as I continue to scan her for any sign that she's as bad off as her physical self appears in the real world. "Nice place you got here, if you like books."

"There's music too," she points to a record player on one of the walls. The shelves beside it appear to be housing at least a hundred vinyl albums. She smiles at me sweetly. "And there's a piano upstairs." I can read in her eyes that she is looking for my approval. She wants to know if I'm ok with the fact her mind has morphed to accommodate my interests, too, meaning her mind has literally been changed by being a part of my life. After all this time does she still fear I might freak out? I care for her every bit as much as she cares for me. It's goofy she finds that so hard to believe sometimes.

I smile at her. "That's super cool."

"Would you like to play?" she asks pointing to the grand piano that I now notice on the mezzanine.

"Not right now, maybe a little later. Thanks, though. How ya feeling?" I ask casually.

"Fine, why? Is something wrong?"

"No." I lie. Maybe I should be honest, but she seems ok right now and I don't want to rock the boat. Maybe if I'm honest with myself I just want to have these moments with her be as close to normal as it can be in case this is our last time together.

Spying a pile of especially thick tomes sitting near her chair, I tease her. "Are those sitting there so you can have easy access to them when I piss you off?"

She laughs, but stops abruptly. Her body droops for a moment and then suddenly her laugh resumes and she pops back up as though she didn't notice the pause.

Something is not right.

"What's your book about?"

"Oh, it's really good. It's about this girl who lives on a space colony where every third child is made a slave while the first two reap the benefits of the labor of the third children and the first borns have control over everything. She's a third born, but her older sibling died at such a young age her mother is trying to pass her off as a…." Her head droops a little and then she raises her head drowsily and blinks. "That's weird. I forgot what I was saying. Oh, well," she says with a half-smile.

She goes back to her book and I continue to watch her and I finally manage to put my finger on what's wrong. In all this time she hasn't flipped the page. Either that book has the world's smallest print or she's rereading the same pages over and over again.

So, there is something wrong. I look around. I don't see anything else that seems weird. I open the box of comics and pull out my favorite issue, No. 34 the first appearance of Sir Commodore. I open the issue and find most of it is blank.

"You'll have to fill it in with your mind…'cause I can't since I haven't read it," Maka explains not looking up from her book.

"But the cover-"

"I've seen it a million times. You read it like every other week."

"I'm not that obsessed." Sir Commodore is this ship captain that travels through time. He isn't exactly a villain, but he's opportunistic and will side with whoever benefits him more at the moment. "He's an absolute awesome character, but I'm not like fangirl crazy over him or something."

"Yes, you are! You-"

Again her speech stops abruptly and her head droops. When she comes to this time she seems tired and yawns, but she finally turns a page in her book.

Maybe I was wrong about the page turning thing…maybe this book has just got a really elaborate plot and for that reason she is reading slower than usual. I'm used to comics and you can read those super-fast. Then her body suddenly sags, the book dropping from her hand.

I leap up from the beanbag chair. It's not unusual for my meister to fall asleep while reading, but I don't think that's what's happening.

"Maka, Maka, speak to me," I say crouching in front of her.

She says nothing, but lifts her head. I'm gonna feel really stupid if she did just fall asleep.

"Soul?" she asks seeming confused.

"Tired?" I ask.

She nods.

"How bout you come with me over by the fire?"

Time is strange in this place. When I got here there was sunlight streaming through the windows, but now it is quickly getting dark outside and a warm fire burns in the hearth. I sit down in a chair by the fire and she sits in my lap her legs hanging over the arm of the chair. I pull a blanket over her.

"Oh, Soul. I love you," she says kissing me.

"Love you, too."

"Sorry, I'm so sleepy."

"It's ok. How bout I read to you?"

She tips her head and narrows her eyes. "Who are you and what have you done with Soul?"

"Ha, ha. I'm not as illiterate as you make me out to be."

She giggles knowing full well that her teasing has not hurt my feelings.

Her eyes flutter shut and while it looks peaceful I do not want her to fall asleep. Something tells me that if she goes unconscious here I will have lost her. I reach over to the table to the right of the chair determined to read whatever it is in hopes it will hold her attention.

I look down at it, "Poems of Love Thru the Ages." I sigh. Poetry! It has to be poetry.

"Well, looks like you'll be having your own private poetry reading this evening."

I flip through the book to find something that seems interesting and then I feel her body going limp.

Oh, no. No! Come on, Maka. Don't do this to me here, too.

"Maka, we can fight this thing together," I whisper to her.

"Soul?" Her eyes meet mine and I can almost feel the fog her mind is clouded with right now.

I hear a crash. "What is that?" She says pointing to something behind me over my shoulder.

I stand up with her in my arms, the blanket and book falling onto the floor. I turn and see that her library is being stretched and morphed into a purplish blob headed our way. The enemy has broken through. I'm staring right at the infection and if it's here that means it's reached her brain.

I look down at her and see that she has fallen unconscious and I scream.

The infection has reached her mind.

One moment she is sitting up marveling at the breakthrough of my poetry appreciation and the next she is crashed out on the floor. The door gives way with a crash and I scoop her up over my shoulder and reach for the only weapon I can see- one of two swords crossed over the fireplace. I run as fast as I can toward the stairs as the purple blob monster sefuses into the library trying desperately to reach her. I run up the stairs and put her in a chair on the second floor and go to hold my ground on the stairs. I pull books off the shelves and throw them at the monster to slow it down but eventually it is lapping at the bottom three stairs and I am standing there stabbing and waving the sword.

"You want her you're going to have to take me down first. We are one in soul, body, and mind. Ha, you thought you had here, huh? Well, there's still plenty of life left in me asshole. Just you try."