"But sis, he told us not to go after him, or he'd kill us! Literally!"

"Patty, it's been a damn WEEK! Even if he isn't dead by now, something must have happened to him!"

Patty had latched onto her sister's arm and was desperately trying to slow her sister down as Liz marched stubbornly onwards.

"But if Kid comes back, we won't be able to eat ice cream on the couch anymore!" Patty whined.

Liz stopped, then looked at her sister in astonishment. "You think that matters WHATSOEVER?" she screamed in Patty's face. "For all we know, Kid has a broken ankle, or a snapped neck, or a severed leg! He NEEDS us, Patty, and its our duty to help him no matter what!"

"Umm… ok?" Patty replied, cowering. Her sister could be scary when she was mad.

Liz stomped down the stairs, Patty in tow, until eventually the duo reached the bottom. Once more, they saw the huge, white stone skull in the wall.

"Um… knock knock?" Liz said tentatively, rapping her fingers on the skull's forehead. Nothing.

"Allow me." Patty said, gently pushing her sister to the side. Then she leapt up, waving her arms, and yelled "open sesame!" at the skull.

No response.

"That's all I got." Patty said, shrugging to Liz.

"Hmm…" Liz said, tapping a finger against her chin. "How did Kid do it?"

"Um… didn't he put his hands on the sparkly eyes?" Patty questioned.

"Yeah…" Liz trailed off, staring at the skull. Then she stepped forward, and placed each of her hands on one of the diamond eyes of the skull.

Immidiately, she heard a voice in her head. A low, dull whisper.

"The ascended rise, the damned fall, yet both of their music shall open this wall."

"Um… what?" Liz questioned.

"You may not enter."

"Wait, that wasn't my… answer? Hey!" Liz cried, but the skull said nothing more. Frustrated, she took her hands off the eyes and looked to Patty. "It's a riddle." She explained.

"Phoo. Kid's the one who's good at riddles." Patty said, placing her own hands on the eyes so she could hear the music. After a couple seconds, she said, "funeral organs?" Then a second later, she muttered something and took her hands off the eyes.

"Think, Patty. What kind of music does a dead man listen to?"

The two thought for a minute. They tried every type of music they could think of; rock, jazz, blues, country (ick). None of them were the answer.

Then Patty perked up. "Liz, I think I've got it!" She cried.

"It's not the music a dead man LISTENS to, it's the music he MAKES!"

Liz looked at her sister. "But… dead guys don't make music at all. They don't make any kind of noise whatsoever." She said slowly.

"Exactly! Watch this!" Patty said, placing her hands on the eyes once more.

For a few seconds, the room was silent as a ghost. Then, just as Liz was about to ask what Patty was doing, walls of the chamber slowly began to twist.

"See?" Patty asked, smiling at Liz as the walls twisted and churned. "I didn't make a noise because that was the answer: silence!"

"dead man's music… silence…" Liz said slowly. Then she hugged her sister. "Patty, you're brilliant!"

Then they looked back at the skull, and saw their journey wasn't quite over yet.

The entire room had grown larger: whereas before it had been the size of a broom closet, it was now the size of a medium-sized room. The skull was the same size and in the same place, but with three signifigant changes.

The first was, the diamond eyes had vanished, replaced with plain eye sockets.

The second; in the center of the skull's forehead was a small purple amethyst, perfectly circular.

The third change: the skull's teeth were now razor-sharp, and were pointed and menacing.

"Great. There's more then one test." Liz groaned.

"But Kid just walked through the wall with ease…?" Patty said quietly.

"I'm guessing he got a little exception, being Death himself. These tests are for the weapons, not for the meister." Liz said. she made a little inference, and placed a manicured finger on the small, perfectly round amethyst in the skull's forehead. Again, she heard the voice in her head.

"Death is seen by none, yet dominates all. Blood from his servants shall open this wall."

Liz took her finger off the gem, and slowly turned to Patty. "Another riddle, but I think I've figured it out." Liz said quietly.

"Well, give it the answer!" Patty said, bouncing up and down with impatience.

"It's not a VERBAL answer this time." Liz said, turning back to the skull. She slowly raised a hand, and placed her palm on the skull's razor teeth.

Liz whimpered as she sharply pushed down, releasing a spurt of blood from her palm as the teeth punctured it. She let it flow for a second before snatching away her palm. Even as the walls began to twist again, she quickly took off one of her shoes, then the sock that had been under that shoe. Slipping her bare foot back into the shoe, she wrapped the sock around her hand in a makeshift bandage. It would at least slow the bleeding.

When she looked up again, the room had changed once more. Now it was the size of the DWMA ballroom (before the fire). The wall in front of the two, though, was what they noticed most. How could they not have noticed this before? It was as though scales had fallen from the girls' eyes, revealing the true room.

It was now a huge, ancient stone door. Images had been carved into the door of people undergoing unspeakable agony. Two huge black knockers hung on either of the double doors, and in the dead center of it all, mounted seamlessly on the crack between the doors, was a third skull. This one was closer akin to the first one then the second, but it didn't have diamond eyes. Also, there was a many-faceted ruby in its mouth, large as a exercise ball.

Then the voice sounded again, only this time out loud, and without prompting.

"you may stay here forevermore, but only Death can open his door."

Liz' blood ran cold. They weren't Death, so they couldn't enter. Simple as that.

"Let us in! Kid NEEDS us!" Patty cried, pounding her fists on the ancient door.

As Patty desperately tugged the huge knocker, Liz slowly stepped forwards, and placed her hands, one still with the sock wrapped around it, on the huge gem in the huge skull's mouth.

"Please…" Liz thought, trying to inject her thoughts into the door, "we're not Death… but Death's in danger, in the room beyond! We need to get in there, to help him! Please!"

The room was silent for another second, then the voice boomed again.

"It is true that death alone may enter this cold, stony home.

"But Death is trapped, inside this room. If you don't help him, he's surely doomed.

"And so I'll break the rules, and let you in. But you'll never be able to enter again."

"…thanks?" Liz said with a pinch of disbelief; that was easy!

And so, the door slowly creeeeeaked open. As the duo walked in, and the door slowly creeeeeaked shut behind them, Liz gasped.

Kid was in trouble.

Under a unseen spotlight, he was ensnared in some nightmarish trap. Black tendrils had enveloped parts him; a large mass was up to his waist, while separate tendrils engulfed his arms. When Liz looked closely, she could see that the tendrils were slowly creeping closer, enveloping what she could still see of him. He was naked; apparently the tendrils which were eating him or whatever didn't like clothes, and wanted their meal to be pure.

Liz and Patty ran over to Kid, who was unconscious. Liz desperately tried to tug the tendrils off of Kid, but the black, inky mass began to spout smaller tendrils and wrap around her fingers when she touched it, and she was forced to quickly draw back before it got a good grip. She glanced over, and saw the same had happened to Patty.

Liz held out her hand, and Patty transformed and leapt into it. Desperately, Liz sunk blast after blast into the tendrils, but to no avail.

"Girls…"

Liz dropped Patty, who transformed back, and they looked at Kid, who had woken up, and was staring at them with a weak, unfocused gaze. His eyes, his beautiful golden eyes, had turned a dull shade of dark yellow.

"Kid!" Liz cried, hugging him around his exposed abdomen.

"We'll get you outta here, Kid!" Patty cried, tugging Kid's arm, trying to get him out of the heaving black mass.

"I'm…" Kid said weakly.

"…I'm so proud of you…"

Then the tendrils suddenly retreated, and Kid fell to the floor, naked. Patty now also wrapped her arms around him.

"Where have you been? You were gone for a week! We were so worried!" Liz cried, hugging him tighter.

"Don't scare us like that, you big dummy!" Patty cried, smacking his back.

Kid coughed a shuddering cough. "I'll explain… when we get upstairs…" He said weakly as he managed to get to his feet and slowly walk to the door.

"Um… do you want to call down to us or something, so we aren't right behind you?" Liz asked, covering her mouth. When Kid looked around, confused, Liz added, "You're naked."

Kid glanced down, then he raised a hand, continuing to walk. As he walked, blackness from the shadows of the room slowly enveloped him, forming a long black robe, which covered him. The girls caught up to him, and felt his new robe; it felt almost liquidy.

"Oh, and before I leave…" Kid said, stopping at the doorway. He turned, and raised a hand again.

In the room, in the spotlight where he had been, appeared a black throne, in the same material as the tendrils and robe. All around the room, from the darkness, death insignias formed, all facing the chair.

"Just a little ambience for when I return here later." Kid mentioned, continuing up the stairs, the girls following.

Xxxxxxxx

"So Kid, spill. Why were you all wrapped up down there?" Liz asked, sipping her coffee.

"And you thought WE were into bondage!" Patty teased.

"It was part of the ritual." Kid said. "I had to step into the mass of black tendrils willingly. When I did that, I was tied up, and the things both sucked the life out of me and infused reaper energy into me. When the infusing process was complete, though, they didn't let me go: there was still YOUR part of the test."

"Our part?" Liz asked.

"Yes." Kid continued. "You see, a good death scythe has to know when to obey orders, but they also have to know when to DISOBEY, even if it means risking their lives."

"And we disobeyed you, because you told us not to enter after you." Patty added.

Kid nodded. "I'm proud of you girls. Even though I threatened you with death by my hands, you were still so worried about me, you came to rescue me."

"You're welcome." Liz said with just a twinge of sarcasm, taking another sip of coffee.