Risenfromash: This story now has over 100 followers! That's so exciting. Soul would say you are all very cool people with good taste

Chapter 51: Inappropriate Responses; Busy work for Betterment?

Kid runs to Robin as Maka and I charge at Geoffrey.

"Get back, everyone! Soul!" Maka shouts for me to transform as we charge at our adversary, our friend and classmate, Geoffrey Rosenbalm.

"Geoffrey, do you know who we are?" Maka asks while twirling me and assessing the situation.

"Yeah, of course, you're Maka and Soul," he says sadly.

"Why did you just stab your meister?"

"He's an enemy of Avian Flu same as you. It's what I must do," he watches as Kid applies pressure to Robin's stab wound which is somewhere on his back near the shoulder. Patti tears from Kid's side to get the med kit from the bike as Kid barks orders to his partners like a paramedic in a war zone, but we must focus our attention on Geoffrey.

"Can you see Geoffrey's soul?" I ask my meister.

"Yeah. It's not a kishin egg yet. He's like Black*Star…confused about who to trust and what's important. I think he's really scared."

"What are you gonna do? We can't kill him." I don't know why I bother to ask. I already know what she's going to do. She's gonna take a huge risk, like she did with Crona and while I don't think it's the wrong thing to do I can't say I'm thrilled about it.

Geoffrey's eyes keep shifting back and forth between my meister and his boyfriend laying on the pavement bleeding in Kid's arms. Robin looks pale, but Tsubaki has taken his hand and is talking to him trying to keep him from losing consciousness.

"I…I…had to…" stammers Geoffrey. "I didn't want to. Oh, God, I didn't want to…" He drops the knife from his hand and begins sobbing out his lament. "I love him, but I had to. I have to. I don't have a choice!" Geoffrey wails as he tugs at his hair as though trying to pull portions of his brain out through his hair follicle.

Maka drops me to the ground and goes to our friend's side. Immediately, I transform back into human form. I understand that she doesn't want to make Geoffrey feel threatened, but he did identify us as enemies of Avian Flu which is the reason he stabbed his own meister in the back, so I'm not feeling super confident that we are doing the right thing backing down on our offensive stance, but it's Maka's call; she's my meister. Therefore, I stay in human form right by her side ready to protect her in any and every way I can should she be attacked.

Geoffrey turns from us, his body quaking with sobs. "Maka, please kill me. I can't live with having hurt him like this. I can't-"

Maka puts her arm on his back. "It's not your fault. Things are very strange right now for all of us."

"You should get back," he warns. "I don't know what I might do. You can't trust me."

"Listen to him, meister," I say very quietly near her ear.

"You don't have any other weapons do you?" she asks Geoffrey.

He shakes his head. That's good news, if he isn't lying, but honestly Geoffrey is like a grizzly bear. Even unarmed he could be lethal with his fists or feet due to his strength.

"I'm…security," Geoffrey explains bitterly. "It's my job. I must protect the Generation of Enlightenment. All enemies must be-" His back straightens and his eyes assume a vacant look.

"Maaaakkkaaa," I shout grabbing my meister's arm and pulling her behind me as he starts to take a swing at her. Just in time, I manage to block his giant hand with both of mine. I try to stop the strike by meeting the force behind his fist with my own determination…and it isn't going real well.

"Geoff… rey," I grunt the words as I attempt to parry his blow. "I know… you don't mean to be doing… any of this. We aren't… mad at you. You gotta understand that. Like Maka said… this isn't your fault, but I will hurt you… if you try to hurt anyone else. That's how it's gotta be. Do you understand?"

"No one else needs to get hurt today," Maka says stepping from beside me to stand on my right.

Geoffrey's fist relaxes and the force behind it dissipates and I breathe a sigh of relief. The bulking youth alternates between looking homicidal and seeming truly remorseful for his actions.

Kid shouts, "I've got to get Robin to a doctor. I'm taking Patti with me for protection. Liz is in charge." I nod, but I don't take my eyes off Geoffrey. We can't let our guard down. We can't afford more mistakes. We have got to get these kids out of here. We've got to be well enough to defeat Avian Flu once and for all so that they can't take people's free will away ever again.

Geoffrey gazes at the wincing form of his meister in Kid's arms. With the last bit of strength the archer has he shouts, "I…still…love…you, Geoff…ree."

"I love you, too," Geoffrey says hanging his head as he watches Kid zoom away on his board with a gun in one hand and a very pale, willowy boy in the other.

We all stand there in shock at what has happened. The only violence between students at the DWMA is in the form of our duels. A student doing this to another student, especially his partner is unheard of. Avian Flu has successfully turned us against one another and I suspect that has been their plan all along. I can't decide what is more sad, the sight of Robin and Geoffrey still clearly in love and caring about one another, but not being able to hold each other or Black*Star's memory wipe leaving him with no apparent recollection of his relationship with his former partner.

"Geoffrey, don't take this personally, but we're gonna have to cuff you, big guy," Liz says walking up with a pair of manacles in her hands. "And you better understand that Maka and Soul aren't going to let you hurt anyone else so this is gonna happen whether you like it or not."

He shakes his head. "I won't fight you. Not the real me, anyway."

Liz cautiously walks up to Geoffrey and for once she is scared and not that phobic fear she gets every Halloween when we go through haunted houses together and she clings onto Kid for dear life. This is true fear. Geoffrey starts tremoring and muttering to himself.

"Liz, get out of there," my meister tells her reading the signals from Geoffrey's soul.

"No, I've gotta do this," she says with determination. "Kid left me in charge. It's my job."

Geoffrey begins to mutter the word 'job' over and over again and rock back and forth.

"Soul, transform. We're gonna go in with her. Liz, we're here beside you. You're not gonna get hurt," my meister tells her and Liz nods as she creeps toward Geoffrey.

"And, I'm not gonna hurt you, Geoffrey," Liz says compassionately.

"You should for what I've done…" Geoffrey continues to mumble to himself softly but every now and then I can make out a word like 'enemies' or 'flight' or 'enlightenment'. I never thought I'd be so terrified by another student. It's like Professor Stein all over again.

Liz gets close enough to grab one of his hands and he starts to get up and Maka swings me so that I'm pressed against his side, another millimeter and I will slice into him, but he holds still and Liz makes quick work of handcuffing him. Seeing the task completed we all breathe a collective sigh of relief as Liz pats Geoffrey on the arm. "I know it seems like a shit storm right now, but we're not gonna give up on you and neither will Robin. We'll figure out what to do to make things better, ok?" Geoffrey doesn't answer but Liz's confidence makes me feel better. It's nice to know that someone as jaded as her can still have faith that things will turn out ok in the end.

"You," Liz barks. "Yeah, you, Rainbow Brains, I need you to be on Geoffrey duty. Ok?"

"No, problem, but what exactly does that mean?"

"Keep an eye on him. Make sure he's being taken care of. Take him to pee if he needs. That kinds thing, kay?"

"Sure, and my name is-"

"Don't bother. I won't remember it," Liz says walking over to Tsubaki.

"Tsubaki, bring those wheelbarrows around from building 2. We'll put these documents in them."

"Everybody we need to be ready to ditch this place as soon as we can. Make sure you have everything you need. Maka, when's the last time you had your dressing changed?"

"Uhhh…" there has been so much going on that I remember us changing it but I have to think about it to figure out was that yesterday or the day before.

"Uhhh is not a good enough answer, Soul. Attend to your meister's wounds. And do something about your head. You're so pale you look especially gorey when you're bloody. We may be having to ride in a coach or something we don't want to freak too many people out."

"Sandra, you and Black*Star find us some food we can eat now and snacks for the road. A lot of us have had nothing to eat. We also need canteens or jugs of water. A bunch of us don't have our own canteens."

Liz continues ordering everyone around, but I tune her out as I dig through the med kit for the stuff we need to attend to Maka's wound.

Maka sits down in the shade of one of the buildings and starts taking off the previous wrap.

"There's over twenty of us now," Maka comments as I take a look at the deep punctures.

"Yeah, I know it's a shit ton of people to get back to DC. If there isn't a train I dunno what Kid's gonna do. He can't buy that many motorcycles. Or maybe he can…I guess the dude is loaded."

Maka nods, "I suspect his personal allowance is a tad bigger than ours, but I think everything now is on the DWMA's dime. Ouch!"

She lets out a yelp as I squeeze at a part of the wound. We've been so happy that the special Avian Flu enchantment or curse or whatever seems to have lifted that we've sort of been neglecting the physical wound and a pocket of pus has formed.

"We need to give you a shot of Penn," I say and she moans and tries to talk me out of it.

"Maka, it's just a shot. You've been through worse today, I guarantee you."

She grumbles. "It always makes my fucking arm hurt."

"I'm sorry; what was that?"

"It makes my arm hurt, Soul."

"That's not what you said. I heard another little something in there."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, yes I did. But I'll let it slide this time, but next time little missy you are going to get a talking to about your dirty, potty mouth."

She glares at me as I pop a nonstick pad with a bunch of goo on it on top of the wound and begin wrapping gauze around it.

I draw up an injection of antibiotic and she offers me the shoulder on her unaffected side and it occurs to me that it wouldn't bother her so much if I could give it to her somewhere else. I kneel next to her and whisper, "You know, now that we know each other a little better I could do it in your butt."

"Soul?!" her head whirls around to look at me as her eyes widen and her face turns beat red.

"What?" I'm clueless as to what is wrong… and then it hits me.

"Meister! The shot! The antibiotics!" I say lifting up the syringe. I can't believe her mind went there. What is going on in that head of hers? "And you say my mind is always on sex!"

"Oh! You meant the shot…of course," her eyes avoid mine as she gets even redder. Her embarrassment is adorable.

"But if that's something you're into I'm sure we could squeeze it in later," I whisper huskily in her ear.

"Soul!" she makes out like she's gonna hit me, but I dodge easily and laugh. "Soul, it's really inappropriate for you to be talking about such things with everything that's been happening."

"Yeah, I know. But you started it."

"I didn't say anything!" she protests so innocently.

"Really, meister, you gonna play innocent with me? When, I just caught you thinking about butt fucking before noon," I grin at her devilishly and she whacks me in the top of the head and I let out a yowl she hit me right on the laceration from the damn chain-link fence.

"Oh," she says hopping up. "Oh, Soul, I'm so sorry! I forgot about your head."

"I'm fine," I say still grimacing a little from the stinging.

"Here lay down with your head in my lap and I'll get it cleaned up."

I don't protest. It's probably nothing worth worrying about but, we both need things to do or we'll be worrying about why Kid and Patti aren't back yet and what that means for Robin and us getting home. Maka's hands feel nice playing with my hair until they find the hairs on the edge of the cut and I squirm.

"Soul, hold still," she says whacking me gently in the face.

"Well, don't yank on my damn hair."

"Quit being a baby, Soul. I'm not pulling on your hair; I'm just trying to get through it. It's like a jungle."

"You're the reason I've never cut it," I explain shifting the blame back to her.

"What do you mean?" she says continuing to part my hair along the cut.

"Years ago I thought about cutting it and you said you liked it this way… so I left it."

Maka smiles. "I see. So, your grimy, matted hair is my fault because of something I said years ago."

"Exactly. That and how much I love when you run your fingers through it. Ouch! Except for that. That really fucking hurts, Maka."

My meister laughs merrily at my misery. "If you don't stop it I'll just get a razor and shave it all off."

"No way. You cannot shave me bald. You do that and I'll look like some damn chemo patient."

"Well we may have to. Maybe we could just shave right where the laceration is and then-"

"You are not going to give me a damn comb over. Oh, no you don't! I don't trust you now." I say struggling to get up as Maka playfully holds me down. I spy Tsubaki walking by and I holler for her. "Help, Tsubaki! My meister wants to shave my head."

Tsubaki grins and walks over and sits across from Maka. "Is he being a bad patient?" she asks in a sing-songy voice as she smiles down at me.

"Always," Maka answers with a laugh. "He's impossible. He expects me to hold perfectly still while he's stuffing things in and out of my arm and giving me shots, but, Shinigami forbid, I be allowed to clean one of his cuts."

I grumble. The girls are ganging up on me.

"Well, you know how boys are," Tsubaki giggles. "Black*Star's the worst. I always have to sit on him to get him to hold still." Then she gets silent and sighs.

"Don't get discouraged. At least we have him back now," Maka tells our friend.

"I know, but I feel terrible. I'd almost rather he wasn't back then see him and that girl... ugh, I'm such a horrible person!" Tsubaki starts to cry and Maka lets go of my hair and I sit up.

"Hey, Tsubaki, you are not a horrible person. You weren't prepared for this. None of us were. He's not the same right now, but that doesn't mean he's gonna stay like this."

"Oh, Soul," Tsubaki reaches out to me. "How can you be so strong? Isn't it tearing you up to see him like this?"

"Well… I don't like it, that's for sure. But, I wasn't in love with the guy." Tsubaki avoids my eyes. "Tsubaki, it's ok. He likes you, too." She starts to argue with me, but I cut her off. "He's told me."

She smiles a little, even though she still has tears coming from her eyes. "That's nice to know, I guess. But it doesn't really matter now." Her sadness is palpable.

"Yes, it does matter," Maka says. "Because we're all determined to get Black*Star back to the way he was… God, that's something I never thought I'd say! But, it's the truth. Avian Flu did something to him, but if they could do it surely we can undo it. There has to be a reversal or an antidote or something and we'll figure it out."

I echo my meister's determination. "Don't give up hope, Tsubaki."

"What about Sandra?" she says turning to look across the way to where Black*Star and Sandra are serving some crackers on paper plates to some of the other students.

"We don't even know who she is. She's a Demon Weapon, but she doesn't go to our school, so I've got a lot of questions about her," Maka says.

"Me, too. Like whether she was born a bitch or if Avian Flu made her that way."

Tsubaki laughs. "So, it isn't just me?"

"Hell, no!" I laugh and Maka nods. "I forgot you missed Maka and her getting into a fist fight."

"You, what?!"

Just then we hear a shout from Liz. She sees her meister. She's been standing by the gate waiting for them for quite a while now. Everybody with the exception of Freddy and Geoffrey go running to the gate.

I see Kid on his hoverboard with Patti riding piggyback, but Robin isn't with them. Oh, Lord Death, I know I only talk to you when I'm in dire straits and that might kinda piss you off, but if Robin is dead… that can't happen. It just can't. I close my eyes and feel my meister squeeze my hand and we sync our wavelengths for a moment. Come on, Lord Death, hear our prayer!

I open my eyes and see Patti hold out her hand and give a thumb's up and I'm so relieved I feel like a balloon that's being deflated.

A few minutes later, Kid arrives and leans over allowing his shorter weapon partner to get off his back.

"Thanks for the ride," she says happily and she beams at everyone. "He's gonna be ok."

The assembled group of youth murmur and Kid puts up his hands to silence the crowd. "There was an arterial bleeder, that's why he was losing so much blood but they found it in time and he's not hemorrhaging anymore. They stitched him up and are letting him get some rest and I've made arrangements for us to get him before we head for home by train."

We all cheer none more so than the four little kids who seem to have warmed up to their buddies and are happily holding hands with or riding piggy back style on a number of the DWMA underclassman.

Kid indicates he wants to talk to us and pulls over his partners, Tsubaki, Maka and me.

"How's Geoffrey?" he asks nervously.

"He's subdued for the moment. Maka and Soul helped me get him cuffed and I assigned Freddy to keep an eye on him," Liz reports.

"Very good," Kid nods. "I knew you could handle it. Which is exactly what I wanted to talk to you guys about. You five are going to be my inner circle. It is very difficult at this juncture to know who to trust and even though only Geoffrey and Black*Star seem to have been indoctrinated by Avian Flu, we can't assume that all the other DWMA students have not been effected. They could be harboring wounds similar to Maka's or in some kind of sleeper phase, or who knows. We are dealing with a ton of unknowns here. Which leads me to my request. I am going to be leaning on all of you a lot from now on and I ask for your support and your discretion as we can't assume that we can trust anyone and we have a lot to accomplish in a very short amount of time. Is that ok with everyone?"

"Of course," Maka answers for both of us. "But what about Robin? Do you have some reason not to trust him?"

"No, nothing of the sort. Robin has asked that he be allowed to travel with Geoffrey even while Geoffrey is restrained. Robin wants to work on rehabilitating his partner right away. Apparently, Geoffrey is given to depression and he's very worried that if Robin seems to have abandoned him that Geoffrey will get in a downward emotional spiral that will be bad news for all of us. So, I told him that he can focus on learning as much as he can about what Geoffrey's experience has been and how best to undo the damage Avian Flu did to him and not worry about other stuff right now. I hope none of you have a problem with that."

"No," Liz says. "I think that makes perfect sense."

"The good news is that I've chartered our very own train so I doubt that Avian Flu will be able to track us down too easily as we aren't on any printed time table. This lets us focus on what we need to do and get some much needed rest."

"Here is what I propose. We continue to keep the little kids with the DWMA students, but we have Tsubaki or Patti or Liz always present to keep an eye on that group watching for any suspicious activity that would lead us to believe that any of them are spies or may become violent. We keep those we know have been indoctrinated together. That would be Geoffrey, Sandra and Black*Star in their own car with one of us as their escort at all times. Sometimes this will be Robin only, other times one of us may be there as well and, of course, Robin is going to need to take breaks."

"Are you sure that having all the Avian Flu affected students together is a good idea even with a chaperone? Couldn't they form a team to fight us?" Liz asks.

"There is certainly a risk of that happening, but I'm hoping that since there is a significant difference between what is going on with Geoffrey versus Black*Star that they won't find that kind of comraderie with one another." Kid ponders this. "Then again who knows? We're in uncharted territory so we'll have to keep our eyes and ears open to what is going on. The one I consider the greatest wild card is Sandra, because we don't know anything about her. We don't even know if she really is a Demon Weapon, none of us have seen her transform have we?" We all shake our heads.

"What about Brian?" I ask, shocking myself by actually being concerned about the little asshole.

"I think he can help out with the room the majority of the group is in. He's untrained, but he's smart. I think having him with everybody else will be useful because he looks at things from a different perspective than the rest of us."

"You might want to have him spend some time with Black*Star and Sandra. He looks up to Black*Star a lot and he was hitting on Sandra mercilessly a little bit ago and she actually seemed to like it. It made her less…"

"Hostile," Maka says finishing my thought. "I think he could sneak in there and gain their trust more than the rest of us."

"Good idea," Kid says. "We'll think about how to use that to our advantage. Right now our first goals will be to collect as much info from the little kids about where they live and how they were captured. They may have witnessed or heard information that is valuable to us and we need to make arrangements to get them back to their parents as soon as possible. Then we need to delve into all these files as they will cast a light on a lot of Avian Flu's philosophies." Kid smiles at his assembled team.

"Now to the train!" he shouts to everyone and we all start grabbing our stuff to follow the young reaper as he leads us away from the depressing Avian Flu compound toward the nearby town to pick up Robin on our way to the train station.

Risenfromash: I just had to tell you that I had actually written on the page Soul's statement about the antibiotic injection just as he says it with no innuendo intended and then I read it back to myself and totally cracked up because I realized it was such a perfect thing for him to innocently say and have Maka's mind go there for once.