"So," Soul starts, slinging his backpack from his back and throwing it onto the floor of the cold, abandoned bus station building that they were apparently going to call home for at least the next few hours. It had been the first thing in sight after the 7/11, so when Soul had spied it, he'd turned in – signalling for Black Star, in his big black truck, to do the same.

Now that they were here, it was probably time to clear a few things up. "You mind telling me what the hell you're doing all the way out here?" he asks, kicking the ground in indignation.

"Dude," Black Star sends Soul a look, as if the answer is obvious.

Soul scowls. "If you're trying to convince me to come back to academy, it's not going to work-" he starts, but Black Star coolly cuts him off.

"Relax. I'm not."

Soul's brows furrow. "Then…?"

"I'm here… to help you." Black Star offers up, his voice uncharacteristically hesitant. "Kid somehow knew you were leaving, last night. He told me that you were going to try to bait out the witches. Stop what's coming… before it does." His eyes turn dark.

Soul shrugs. "So why come with me? It's not like I'm actually going to find anything… this is just Stein's way of getting rid of me, so I don't cause Kid any more trouble. You know that," he says quietly, turning away.

"No, dude, I think you're wrong." Black Star shakes his head. A second later, something seems to pop into his head and his face lights up. "Hold on a sec, I got something to show ya…" he declares. He sprints back to the van, where he rummages around in the front seat for a few seconds and eventually finding something which he picks up. He runs back to Soul, presenting him with the object proudly, like a cat presenting a dead mouse to it's owner.

Soul stares back at what looks like some kind of old-school compass, with a red light smack in the middle. "Uh…" he starts, unenthused. "What am I looking at?"

Black Star grins. "When I told Kid that I was going to follow you, he gave it to me. He had meant to give it to you, but you left in such a hurry…" Black Star pauses. "It detects magic signals. You can use it to follow where lots of magic is being used. I have no idea how it works, but…" he shrugs. "It's some sort of Shinigami thing, maybe?"

Soul snorts, peering at the thing a little closer. The tiny, intricate spine is pointing East and the gem in the middle glows very faintly. "Well, it seems to want us to go back to Nevada." He scratches his head. "It's not wrong. I guess," he narrows his eyes at it and then looks back up at Black Star. "Did Kid say how wide the range was?"

Black Star shakes his head. "Nope." He points at the middle of the compass. "But look… the light here is weak. Which means that we're far away, which makes sense, because we're miles away from the academy."

"Useful," Soul mutters sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "So basically, it's going to tell us to go back to Nevada until we get far enough from Nevada that it stops picking up the academy's magic." He folds his arms in discontentment.

Black Star shrugs. "I guess, man," he says, stuffing the thing back in his pocket. "I just thought… well, at least they're serious. About you finding the witches, and maybe stopping something…"

"Fine," Soul sighs, his gaze drawn back out towards the sun which beams brightly in through the window. "We can probably use it, but we'll have to mark where we've been… luckily, I picked up a map of the area earlier," he drawls.

"Sounds like a good start!" Black Star grins, flashing Soul a thumbs-up. "Let's get to making a plan!"

Soul shakes his head and leans his whole body up against the front of the bus station. "No, no. Hang on. I still have a gazillion questions," he explains, tiredly. "So… you just up and left the academy?" he asks, a little disbelieving. "How can you have just left?" He seems to remember something else, and his eyebrows twitch in surprise. "And what about Tsubaki?"

Black Star sighs, rubbing his head. "Well, it was hard to leave her, admittedly. But… I think… well, I was starting to think about some of the stuff you told me about the academy and…" he trails off, unsure how to continue. "I think you might be right."

Soul snorts derisively. "I've never heard you say that."

Black Star sends him a firm look. "I'm serious, dude. Kid runs a real tight ship around there, but… I'm not sure if it's the best thing, ya know? Like, even me and Tsubaki didn't really know the full extent of it, until…" he trails off. "Until you told me, honestly." His jaw sets, hard. "After we spoke, Tsubaki and I agreed. What Kid and Stein and the others are doing… it's wrong, man."

Soul's mouth hangs open, his jaw a little slack. "Uh, are you okay, Star?"

"Yeah, dude. I'm perfect," Black Star blows some of his long hair out of his face. "Just realising what an idiot I've been, I guess!" he pauses, a second longer than is natural. "When all this has blown over – we gotta go back and confront Kid. We could really change things, and I-"

Soul scowls, interrupting his hero tirade. "Forget it."

"Wha…?"

"I said forget it, man. Kid won't change anything. He's a stickler for routine. Stein, too. They're so…" Soul struggles for the word. "…mechanical in their planning, their thinking. Nothing we can do will change a thing. I already told him what I think of his little colony idea… he didn't seem to care, much. He was so intent on not letting it slip that they're under attack." Soul pauses briefly. "He's worried that everything will fall into chaos if people know how much danger there really is. How dangerous the academy itself is."

Black Star runs a hand through his hair, allowing the dark thought to sink in for a second. Then, he beams, effectively cracking a big hole through the tension and lets out a loud guffaw. "Guess it's just you and me forever then, buddy!"

Soul grimaces, but then a thought occurs. "Wait, but… you said earlier that you and Tsubaki agreed." He pauses. "So why isn't she here, too?" he wonders.

Black Star closes his eyes, pressing a finger to his temple. "She… chose to stay behind. To keep an eye on things there; keep us informed."

"Us?"

"Me and you," Black Star explains with a friendly beam. "And… well, there was another reason, too."

"Mm?" Soul's expression lifts up, curiously.

"She's going to protect Maka, too." Black Star explains. "The girl is… well, I don't know, I guess she's kinda powerful, dude," he pauses, as if to think about this. "I mean, there isn't many people who are directly descended from one of the strongest weapon-meister partnerships ever formed," he points out.

"Huh…" Soul replies, his brows furrowed.

"Tsubaki can't read souls as well as Stein can, but she told me… she told me that she sensed something in Maka. Something she couldn't really understand."

"What was it?"

"She has a special soul, she said." Black Star pauses. "Blah, blah. Special soul. 'Look at me, I've got a special soul, I'm Maka!'" he suddenly mocks, sounding more and more like his usual self. "I know, I know. It sounds hokey as hell. But Tsubaki's a pretty good judge of character and… well, we both know how much she means to you… and…"

Soul largely ignores him, frowning to himself. "Maka? Powerful?" he asks, frowning as his eyes glance down to the floor. "Maybe that's why she could resonate with me…" he stares down at his arm in thought. "I don't know what that has to do with anything, though."

Black Star shrugs. "I don't know. I mean, Spirit and Kami were awesome fighters. Maybe she's like, a super-meister, or something?" he shrugs. "Although, I doubt her skills would ever surpass mine!" he erupts in a fit of self-triumph. "For I AM THE GREAT BLACK STAR, AND I WILL SURPASS GOD!"

The self-righteous gloating comes out of nowhere, so Soul groans and good-naturedly shoves his friend away. "Let's just surpass dinner first, yeah?" he sighs. "Then we'll talk about God."

They decide to stay at the warehouse until the morning – Soul's had more than his fill of travelling for one day – and pretty soon, Black Star has a fire started.

They gather round it, mostly silent with a few small attempts at conversation. Soul stares intently at the map while Black Star warms his feet up by the fire.

"Look," Soul points out, spotting a little blue splodge on the map that he hadn't seen before. "I think this might be a lake?"

Black Star cranes his neck to look. "I think it's a well," he points out.

Soul looks closer. "Wanna check it out? I could probably do with a water refill."

The splodge happens to be only a few miles from where they're based, so in the next twenty minutes they find themselves driving Black Star's van up to it, hoping for some water. They're not disappointed, although the water itself is tinged green and smells of algae.

Not exactly drinkable, they conclude.

But definitely still good for getting clean and cooling off, at least. Soul has a lot of fun throwing the entire bucket of it at Black Star as they manage to kill time for around for an hour or so.

You had to stay sane, somehow, Soul rationalises. And having cool water on your skin was a godsend after hours and hours of relentlessly hot sun on your back.

By the time an hour has passed, they're both soaked through to their skin and their hair is plastered to their foreheads.

Black Star giggles childishly. "I bet you wish you were with Maka right now, dude," he sniggers as he lifts his t-shirt off over his head and wrings it out between his hands. "Sorry," he shrugs, flexing his muscles in the car window reflection, admiring himself.

Soul scowls. "Yeah, I do."

"I can't imagine what you two got up to, all alone for all that time!" he laughs, and then grimaces. "Well, I can, actually. I just don't want to."

Soul plasters his hair back from his forehead and thinks. "We weren't alone the whole time. We picked up Patty and Liz in Utah, remember?" he points out. "Besides, I didn't… I didn't see her like that. At least until a few weeks before we got to Nevada."

Black Star makes a face, kicking a pile of sand under his foot. "We don't have to talk about this, man, we're not chicks."

Soul rolls his eyes. "You brought it up, asshole," he notices that Black Star is still flexing admiringly at his own reflection. "Quit looking at yourself."

"If you had my muscles, you'd look too!" Black Star retorts.

Soul shakes his head in disappointment, removing his shirt and actually enjoying the hot Nevadan sun on his skin for a second. As he wrings the heavy fabric between his hands, water oozes out of it and splats rather satisfactorially on the ground.

After a few seconds, he notices that Black Star is staring at him intently. "What?" he asks, and then realises that Black Star's attention is trained onto his stomach. "Oh, my wound."

Black Star shakes his head. "No…" he pauses, his voice slow and suddenly in a whisper.

The way he's staring sets Soul's teeth on edge. "Star, what the hell is wrong with you?" he looks down at his stomach and frowns. "I don't get it…"

Black Star points, mouth agape. "What happened to your wound?!"

Soul frowns. His eyes widen as he realises that Black Star is, in fact, correct. Where there was only a few days ago a giant gaping bullet wound taking up a significant portion of his stomach – there is now nothing.

Nothing but a tiny, inconsequential, hardly-even-visible little scar where the bullet had entered him.

"What the fuck?" he says to himself, rushing up to the car window reflection to get a better view. The reflection confirms it – his bullet wound has healed.

In a matter of days.

He feels dizzy, so he sits down as Black Star shoots him a concerned look. "What the hell…?" He feels his stomach for the wound he knew had been there a few days prior. "No, no, this can't have just disappeared. Maka shot me! She even had to stitch it up!" he swears.

"Wait, so… it's just gone? Like that?" Black Star blurts, confused. "I gotta say, dude, I… I really don't understand why that would happen…"

"M-maybe it was something Stein gave me?" Soul wonders pathetically, feeling for the wound again and breaking into a second cold sweat when he can't find it with his fingers. "There's nothing. No bruise, no mark, nothing. Where are the suture marks?!" he wails, suddenly hysterical. "This doesn't happen. This doesn't just happen," he hisses.

Black Star looks just as stumped as he is. "I… this is so freaky, dude. I only saw that thing like, four days ago. And it was pretty freaking bad. How can it just have gone?"

Soul stands up, running a shaky hand through his hair. "I don't know, dude." He pauses. "Maybe Stein's nutrient drinks have some sort of wound-healing property in them?" he theorises, knowing as soon as it comes out of his mouth that it's a bullshit answer. "I… I…" he stammers, at a loss.

"No, dude, we'd know."

"You're right."

There's a silence in the air. "M-maybe it's magic…?" Soul wonders incredulously, scratching his head. "I guess it could be…"

Another silence, as their eyes meet in confusion and shock. Black Star takes a breath. "Okay. This is officially the weirdest thing that's ever happened," Black Star says, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy. "But… I think we should head back. Try… try to forget about it. For now. Until we figure out why the hell this would happen."

Soul nods, his brow furrowed. "Fine by me."

"Cool… then… let's go. And… put your shirt on, dude. It's kinda buggin' me out."

Soul hurriedly does so.

Neither boy speaks on the short trip home, both far too strung-out from all the weirdness to think of anything to say.

WEIRD!

...thanks for reading.