Chapter 8 : The Gate of Truth Isn't As Charming As The Rumor
"Why?! Why did you sacrifice your own Gate?!"
"Your Blood is not enough."
"I said I don't care if I die!"
"I want both of you to live, Wezen."
Liz didn't know if they were lucky or not.
They were certainly the last team to get to their assigned spot. They had been separated from Maka and Evans almost an hour ago, but none of them paid attention to the time because of the insane amount of chimeras they had to fight just to get Kid to his exact assigned point. Liz had grumbled rather awfully to her Colonel. Wasn't their assigned spot not supposed to be the hard one?
But then, their team's focus was shattered by the purple glow that suddenly engulfed everything. Pat shouted something anxiously into her communication device, but Liz couldn't hear her even though she had her earpiece on. She just barked at her dumb Colonel to get his ass to his assigned spot, which was just about a hundred meters forward from where he was standing.
The glow dimmed, but now a dreadful silence replaced it.
The whole place was filled by the chimeras' growls just five minutes before, but now everything was silent. Liz felt a sickening chill run down her spine.
"Kid, quick!" Liz shouted again.
Yet, before he could kick himself into action, Liz saw a big blur of black slamming itself to Kid through her sniper scope. Her shrill of surprise was unheard by her other two partners as Patty launched herself to attack the new enemy, giving Kid time to recover.
Pat proceeded to take on the big guy with her punches and kicks, but the enemy didn't even lose their calmness. That was a direful sign, because Pat was someone who could fistfight evenly with Black Star.
Seeing her sister gradually losing the fight, Liz was itching to help, but she couldn't risk hitting her own sister. Even though she was an expert sniper, she couldn't do a miracle of only hitting one person in a fast-paced fistfight.
"Kid, hurry up your ass, dammit!" Liz barked into her mic.
He didn't need to be told twice. Kid propelled himself back to the enemy right when Patty was thrown over his head into another building with a dangerous crumble.
"PATTY!" Liz's dread echoed in the tiny room for no one to hear.
No! Not her sister!
But out there, Kid didn't stop and flung himself to the enemy with a furious scream, both his alchemy circles sparked dangerously. Liz had to force herself out of her own panic if she had to assist her Colonel. Pat would be alright, Liz convinced herself. Her sister was insanely strong.
Kid tried to transmute their enemy, but they caught both of his hands easily, holding him still and lowering their arms to show Kid their lazy smirk. Through her scope, Liz finally could take a good look at their new enemy's face.
"Nice to meet you, Little Human. I am Free the Sloth!"
Oh, shit.
Kid kicked himself away from the Sloth's grasp and whispered into his mic, an audible tremble in his voice, "Liz…"
She gulped. She knew.
He was a burly man, with 'NO FUTURE' tattooed across his left eyebrow. And there… in his eye, right under that ridiculous tattoo, was a symbol she knew too well.
"His left eye… is the Ouroboros."
Ah fuck, they scored.
She was both excited and anxious to finally be able to shoot a homunculus. But she should wait. She was his hawk-eye. She had codes to hear and orders to carry out. Their enemy couldn't die; she would most likely have to shoot non-stop. She couldn't waste a bullet.
"Do you know who killed the former Führer?" came Kid's chilling question through Liz's earpiece.
Her eyes widened. No. No. No. What was he doing? It was not the time for that! They had to get past this guy! If she had guessed right, then that previous purple light was the giant human transmutation circle being activated and the citizens had been turned into alchemical energy—philosopher's stone—whatever crap it was! She had no idea why they were still alive, but it was a chance, dammit! It meant they could still fight!
They must activate the counter-circle before the night ended, but if there was one alchemist missing, they would be left in a sinking ship, and the lives of three hundred and twenty thousand people would be lost! Did he even think of that?!
But she couldn't do anything. She was over two hundred meters away from them, at the top of a building. Kid had switched his earpiece off, only leaving the mic to give her commands.
Shit. Where was Patty? Did she make it?
"The former Führer? Aaah… you mean that old geezer? Yeah, I'm the one who killed him. Best job I've ever had," the bastard said in a sleepy and bored voice, as if he was admitting something as mundane as eating the last cookie off the cookie jar. The finger on the rifle's trigger trembled as Liz gritted her teeth. "Wait… You're Kristopher Morton, right? Hey, you have the same name as that man!" the homunculus cackled. His dumb laugh ringed annoyingly in Liz's earpiece. What wouldn't she give to pull the trigger right then and there.
"I see," Kid spoke. There was something unnerving with the way he talked. Liz didn't like it. "Thanks for the information. Now you just have to kneel and beg for me to spare your life."
Liz shuddered. She heard her code, yes, but something was wrong with how he worded it.
"Feh! Why do I have to—!"
"Kneel!"
A gunshot was heard right after Kid said the word. The homunculus roared in pain when his right kneecap got crushed, his blood spurting like creepy fireworks. As expected from Northern-made firearms, truly a work of art. Liz cocked the rifle and was ready to take the next shot.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH—"
Again, Liz's .50 BMG bullet pierced the homunculus's forehead before he could even stand.
Aim. Shoot. Pull. Aim. Shoot. Pull. Aim. Shoot.
She didn't give the homunculus time to heal himself. She had to finish this now or Kid could really lose himself. Her autopilot movement stopped when the magazine ran out of bullets. She was just about to attach a new one when Kid's voice commanded, "Enough, Liz. I'll take care of it from here."
"No!" she shouted, but there was no way he could hear her.
No, no, no!
Liz's body shuddered as she pictured Kid radiating his cold wrath. Apart from the time limit of their current mission, she absolutely didn't want to see him like that; to lose himself into a rage, to revert back to that bitter child lusting for vengeance instead of the kind man who offered her and her sister a safe place to call home.
He had saved her from turning into a monster for protecting her sister, and damn it to hell and back if she couldn't save him from turning into a monster for demanding a justice he so painfully deserved.
"A sound soul dwells in a sound mind and a sound body," Kid started chanting those words.
Fuck!
"I have been told that you have hundreds of souls inside you," he drawled. Liz saw him tilting his head left and right through her sniper scope, blue light sparked from both of his alchemy gloves. There was no emotion left in his voice. With that kind of tone, he really did fit his title as the Reaper.
"I wonder; how would it feel if I rip those souls from you one by one?"
Feeling a cold sweat running down her face, Liz picked her shotgun, discarding the Northern sniper rifle in the building. That thing was gorgeous, but she would be crushed under its weight if she carried it while running. She scaled the building down as fast as she could. The transmutation sounds rang hauntingly loud from her earpiece.
Please let her make it!
"Kid!"
The homunculus was already screaming.
"Kid! Kristopher!"
She could already see him, but he was deaf to her cries. Even her warning shot seemed like a passing mosquito for him. Patty materialized on her side, reloading her Berretta and snapping the slide. She was bleeding from her head and her nose, scratch marks and bruises decorated her entire body.
A wave of relief washed through Liz. Despite her horrible look, her sister was safe. But she could not let herself be overjoyed; they still had a colonel to slap back into his senses.
Liz turned her gaze back to their superior, who was still enjoying ripping the homunculus's souls one by one. A slight chuckle from Kid's mouth sent goosebumps down her spine. He looked as calm as ever, but that slight grin was anything but sane.
"KID, GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"
Pissed, Liz pumped her shotgun and aimed. The falling empty shell echoed awfully loud in her ear. There was no clear line between her and the homunculus without her hitting Kid first, but Thompson Sisters wouldn't be called The Demon Gunslingers for nothing.
She shifted her aim at a metal railing and pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted and hit Sloth straight in the head.
"Patty, take care of the creep!" Liz shouted, met by a loud 'roger' from her sister. "I'm gonna punch some sense to our dear Colonel."
"Liz, I said I'll take over from here," Kid seethed, still with that horrifyingly cold aura. "Don't interfere."
Liz grinded her teeth, and, quite literally, punched some sense into him. The colonel hurled into the nearest wall, spluttering and wiping blood from his face.
"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, YOU ASYMMETRICAL GARBAGE!" Liz yanked his collar. "How many times do I have to tell you? They're not your enemies, they're our enemies!" She absolutely refused to let a tear roll down her cheek. "Did you forget your promise to me? How could you make a happy home for Patty if you're turning into a vengeful murderer?"
Kid's stupid golden eyes widened slightly, his previous anger dissipated as panic seeped into him at the sight of her nearly-spilled tears.
Liz Thompson didn't cry.
"Elizabeth, I—"
"Stop it." Liz let go of him and turned around, denying her tears and embarrassment by concentrating on pumping her shotgun to chamber the next round. "If you have the time to sit down and apologize, get your ass to your post. I have a little sister to save!"
She determinedly kept her gaze to the discarded shell beside her foot. She was absolutely not expecting him to silently approach her from behind and rest his forehead on her shoulder for one perfect second.
"Thank you…"
Liz neglected to reply as she sprinted towards her sister and the homunculus with a newly reloaded shotgun.
She didn't answer Patty when she asked why she was smiling.
She opened her eyes.
Everything was white.
There was a huge gate behind her.
A smooth black gate.
Without any carvings or decorations whatsoever.
Oooh, was this it?
The Gate?
The Gate.
Finally, finally, finally.
She was here. And there was a Gate.
Everything was white, but the Gate was black.
Ah, the Gate opened.
There was an eye in it.
Why was it staring at her like that?
Why?
No.
No! Don't stare at her like that!
What was happening?
There were hands. Black hands.
Ah, it was only her shadow.
But why were they surrounding her?
Why were they dragging her?
No.
No!
Everything went black.
The Gate was closing.
"Welcome, the embodiment of Pride."
"You think stealing something powerful makes you great?"
"You are nothing but a cunning thief."
"Who am I?"
"I am what humans call the world."
"Or the universe."
"Or God."
"Or Truth."
"Or all."
"Or one."
"And I am… you."
"I am the truth of your despair, the inescapable price of your arrogance."
"And now, I will bestow upon you the despair you deserve."
"This is the end you wished for."
Black Star was not someone to show his worry openly. Someone might even say that he could never feel something that ridiculous.
But now when purple light and creepy flows of black hands started to consume everything, the worry was visible on his face.
"Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit!" Kilik cursed harshly from somewhere behind him. "The circle is being activated!"
Black Star wanted to demand explanations, but Kilik was too busy barking into his communication device, checking on the other teams. Black Star didn't like it. He knew no fear, but the creepy purple light was… if he had to say... chilling.
The homunculus they'd been fighting suddenly let out a boisterous laugh, roping their attention back to the creature.
"It's starting! It's starting! Hahahah! She'd done it! She caught the Grigori girl!"
The chill in Black Star's soul rapidly shifted to dread as he processed the last bit of the homunculus's words.
Without warning, he propelled himself onto the immortal and pinned him down, crushing the guy's arms with his steel-soled boots.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?!" he demanded with rage bristling in his voice.
The homunculus just giggled as if what he had said was funny. And Black Star responded by punching the immortal's face so hard to cause an audible crack to be heard from the immortal's neck. He was never someone with patience.
"SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MAKA?!"
But the immortal didn't answer, instead cracking his neck back to place with a deranged grin, red sparks lit up as he healed.
Before Black Star could attack again, he was yanked back by someone. The nerve! He furiously turned around to see Kilik charging ahead, activating both of his alchemy circles to cage their enemy with lightning and fire.
"The fuck did you do, Rung?!" he snapped at Kilik, but the Major stared back with a serious look.
"Listen, Star, I already contacted the other guys, but can't hear anything from Maka's side. I know we're the farthest but you're also the fastest. And I can't go anywhere. You go to her. I have a bad feeling about this."
Black Star blinked several times, his rage replaced by perplexity and a bit of gratitude. "You sure?" he said, jerking his head a bit at the direction of the screaming homunculus.
"Are you doubting my skills?"
Black Star smirked. Maybe he would consider placing Kilik at the top of his best bro list. Both men did a quick fist bump before Black Star bolted to the direction of Maka's assigned point, yelling over his shoulder, "DON'T DIE ON ME!"
Behind him, Kilik smirked as he turned to face the still-on-flame homunculus, muttering, "As if!"
Oscar and Harv arrived at Albarn's assigned point short-windedly. Oscar glanced around, still panting, and felt cold ice sunk into his stomach.
There was no sign of Albarn and Evans.
"Where are they?"
Harv crouched somewhere behind him, calling his name as he held out a discarded communication device, which surely belonged to Albarn.
"Fuck!" Oscar cursed.
He always refrained himself from using vulgar languages, but presented with their situation, he couldn't help but yield. Because where did they go? They were inherently fucked if they were down an alchemist.
Loud crash was heard along with rapid footsteps, and when Oscar turned his head, Black Star was there, short-winded but seething.
"Where's Maka?!" the automail engineer shouted.
"Why are you here?!" Oscar shouted back.
"Why are YOU here?!" Black Star repeated. "And where the fuck is Maka?"
Harvar stared at the bristling man, a flat expression still fixed on his face while he lifted Albarn's discarded earpiece. "We don't know."
Black Star let out a thundering scream of fuming exasperation.
Oscar had wanted to do the same, honestly, but he forced his mind to stay sane, calculating hundreds scenarios on why Albarn wasn't here and where she might be. He had to stay calm and think thoroughly. He was the brain of the team.
"Do we have a clue besides the communication device?" he asked Harv.
Harv shook his head. But Star suddenly froze still, hands fisting tightly in his hair and eyes widening.
"Wait, the creepy immortal guy I and Kilik were fighting said something about a woman capturing her when the purple glow started!"
"You fought a hom—"
"Of course!" Oscar interrupted whatever sarcastic disbelief Harvar was gonna say. "She must be taken to the center of the circle! Probably under the building Major General Albarn was supposed to raid!"
It made sense why they hadn't considered that place. Their points were connected in a pentagram. Even Black Star wouldn't cross the area even though his original place was almost the opposite direction from here.
"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Black Star urged them, already running.
Oscar and Harv hurried behind the automail engineer, but damn, they really did forget who Black Star really was. Not long after, Star had already disappeared from Oscar's vision. His speed was just plain inhuman.
They were somehow lucky because there was no chimera alive when they flew through the city's water tunnel. They must've lost their souls too after the circle was activated.
While running, Oscar's mind ran ten miles a minute, recalling his conversation with Professor Stein about both the circles at the Barrett Gunshop. Meticulously, he searched for a way to fix this mess, and maybe to construct a Plan B or Plan C.
But soon, they were stepping into a weird underground place shaped like the inside of an egg, where everything was silent except for Black Star's yell to someone. Oscar looked at the ceiling and deduced that they must be under the East City Museum.
Someone Star'd been yelling at was Evans, apparently.
The Ishvalan man just sat there, with unfocused eyes and dry tears on his dirty cheeks, completely unresponsive even though Black Star was rocking his shoulders back and forth.
"SOUL! SOUL, GODDAMMIT, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! SOUL!"
But Evans was still silent.
Oscar approached them to help snapping sense to Evans, but Harv tapped his shoulder and said, "Hey, isn't that guy a homunculus Albarn had fought in Baschool? Pink hair and skinny, right?"
Turning his head to where Harvar was seeing, Oscar gulped. Yes. Not too far from where Evans sat like a hollow soul, there was a person lying unconscious. Oscar couldn't tell their gender, but they had pink hair and a sickly complexion.
Aside from those two, there was no one. No Albarn. No scientist Professor Stein had warned them about.
But something pulled Oscar at one specific point of the room; the center. He hurried there and crouched to find there were scratches and dark marks forming some kind of circle.
Dread washed through him as a conclusion formed in his mind: Albarn was taken as a sacrifice, possibly had vanished into the Gate.
Oh, shit, no! No, no, no!
Oscar had never thought of Albarn as someone he liked. Sometimes he even thought of her as someone to hate, the target of his jealousy and rivalry, and he enjoyed the thought of roasting her or to beat her academically. But to be dragged into the Gate was never something Oscar would wish for her. Or anyone, really.
So he thought hard, squeezing every brain cell he had, to find a way. He looked at his own hands for eternity before one idea slammed him like a wrecking ball.
He could replace Albarn's position as the fifth alchemist.
He and Evans could.
Evans had something similar to Philosopher's Stone to be used to trigger a transmutation, as well as an alkahestry circle to let him guide the alchemical flow, and Oscar had the theoretical knowledge to do the actual process.
With this, he hoped, they could open the Gate a second time, and maybe drag Albarn out.
So without wasting time, Oscar shouted his plan to everyone. Black Star opened his mouth to say something, but at the same time, three things happened.
One, someone busted through the room and charged at Black Star. For one chilling second, Oscar saw an Ouroboros tattoo on their lolling tongue.
Two, the homunculus who was unconscious started to twitch and groan.
And three, Kilik's slurred voice rang from the communication device, "I'm sorry guys, that creature knocked me out cold."
Oscar's brain cells collectively formed one word:
Shit.
Everything was dark.
Dark. Dark. Dark.
How could he breath again?
He didn't know what happened around him. He didn't even realize that the Wrath was knocked unconscious by the force of the circle, nor that the homunculus Pride had vanished along with Maka once the purple light died down.
All of that didn't matter. The most important thing in the world was to bring her back.
To bring Maka back.
But how?
Was that even possible?!
"EVANS! QUIT LAZING AROUND AND HELP US OVER HERE! DO YOU WANT TO SAVE ALBARN OR NOT?!"
Soul jolted upright.
Far on his left, where Maka was last seen screaming inside a cage of ghostly black hands, were Harvar and Ford.
Honestly, the only words he heard were 'Albarn' and 'save.' But that was enough to kick his self-loathing ass into action. Tiny spark of hope injected strength to his knees as he dashed towards the two Lieutenants and demanded to know how precisely he could help.
"Basically, we're gonna do the same thing that Homunculus did," Ford panted, rambling about his plan in rapid words, "Professor Stein had explained the theory and I understood the material's structure to do the process, but I don't have the gift to trigger the alchemical reaction. But if my idea works, I don't need it. We'll use you. You still have the alkahestry circle on your back to connect our key points into a circle. So I will draw the circle and do Albarn's part in the transmutation process while you trigger the transmutation using your Blood. It's like a heavily condensed philosopher's stone, right?"
Soul nodded, ignoring the disgust he felt at the comparison.
"Great, then we can use it as the toll to activate the transmutation, like the homunculi did with their Philosopher's Stone! Both of us can cover Albarn's role!"
Harvar shoved a communication device to Soul's trembling hands. "Here. We'll go back to Albarn's point. You'll need this to hear Ford's command."
"Black Star will cover you, don't worry about assaults when we do our plan," Ford nodded to their right, where Black Star was engaging the black homunculus Soul remembered to be Gluttony. Soul's eyes widened. He hadn't even heard them coming.
Ford pulled his attention back, pointing to a new circle drawn with chalk in place of Pride's. "You go to that circle I've drawn and put your Blood on it when I give you the command."
Overflowing with newfound strength, Soul walked over the circle Ford had drawn while the two soldiers dashed out of the egg-shaped place.
He waited for the device in his hands to announce Ford's command, still trembling with partial devastation and abundant hope.
Please, please give him a chance to bring her back!
He didn't even hear Gluttony and Black Star's fight around him. He just closed his eyes, intensely praying to all gods. To Ishvala, to Leto, to whoever cared to listen to his pleas.
After what felt like eternity, Ford's rough command rang from the speaker, "Now, Evans!"
Gulping, Soul forced his trembling to still and sliced his arm.
'Just once, be useful, you little bastard!'
'Is that the attitude to ask for help?'
But despite the Demon's words, Soul could feel it, that this once, his Blood had actually listened to him.
Blood dripped onto the transmutation circle, only that it was black.
"Done," he said to the mic as the little circle began to glow green.
"Okay, let's go!" Ford's bark came from the communication device.
Five pillars of blue lights beamed into East City's sky. Soul put both of his hands over the circle and closed his eyes, recalling the sensation of Maka's alchemy flowing through him. He let the energy flow, like a river, guiding them naturally until the five points became a circle. He went on, pairing the points one by one, until a star was formed over the circle of light.
For one long second, everything was blanketed in a soft green light.
Kamiko's ragged breathing halted when she felt an enormous alkahestry energy bursting somewhere above her.
Unknown by everyone, she was caged right under the egg-shaped room, serving as the second sacrifice when Pride forced Maka to do the transmutation.
She didn't have any energy left. Hadn't for a long time. But her smirk grew anyway, because she knew that Pride's plan was being reversed.
Her joy, however, was cut short by a chuckle.
"Oh, so this is where she confined you?" said a man's voice. "By using two different levels exactly under and over Father's Blood, huh. Clever. No wonder your daughter couldn't find you for years."
A gasp left Kamiko's mouth when the man lifted his left hand and stroked his chin in a faux impressed manner. Her eyes were locked on the Ouroboros tattoo on the back of the man's palm.
It was the Greed.
Kamiko gritted her teeth. Part of her was awfully scared, but the other, far bigger piece was seething in anger at the woman who had confined her.
She was the worst being, but at least Kamiko expected her plans to be decent! How could that vile woman be that stupid to let her other siblings to find this place?
"How did you know this place?" Kamiko hissed through her teeth.
Green's smirk didn't even dim.
"Oh, a little priest told me."
Everything was white.
She opened her eyes.
Everything was white.
And there was a Gate.
No, there were two Gates.
The further one creaked open, and she walked through it.
Everything was white.
A younger Soul was standing with another her.
But there were too many wrong things for them to be a younger Soul and another her.
His jaw was too sharp to be Soul. His chest too broad. His nose too long.
She was too much older to be her. Her hair was much longer. And her eyes were black.
No, they were definitely not a younger Soul and not another her.
"Take my Black Blood. Use it as the toll," not-a-younger-Soul said.
"Wezen, you're both dying! It's not gonna be enough!" not-another-her replied.
"Then save him first."
"But Wezen—"
"I don't care, save him first."
Not-another-her and not-a-younger-Soul turned towards a third person, who was laying on a transmutation circle.
Ah. That one was certainly a younger Soul.
Everything was white.
The circle produced a purple light and many black shadows she had seen in another lifetime.
Those shadows crawled like creepy-looking hands, and they were grabbing her.
No, the circle's shadow didn't grab her.
It was the shadow hands from the Gate.
The Gate.
The Gate?
And her head exploded.
Everything was black.
"Welcome, prideful human who doesn't know their place."
"For every human who dares to challenge the natural order, a fitting punishment is meted out to put them in their place."
"I am what humans call the world."
"Or the universe."
"Or God."
"Or Truth."
"Or all."
"Or one."
"And I am… you."
"I will show you the Truth, for the amount of toll you paid."
"It is an equivalent exchange, right? Alchemist?"
Soul blinked several times as his eyes adapted to the normal amount of light.
"…Soul?"
He froze.
He was afraid to turn around. He was terrified that it was only his wishful thinking. He would totally break if it really was his imagination.
"Soul?"
There was that voice again, and this time, he dared to turn around.
There she was, sitting confusedly and a little disheveled, as if just waking up from a nap.
Fuck. His heart was going to burst.
She was alive. She was back. She was okay. She was back. She was back!
"MAKA!" He scrambled madly, dashing to her side with both arms wide open, wishing for nothing but to crush her into his chest.
"Maka, are you alright?"
"Soul?"
His steps faltered, stopping a few meters before her. His heart flipped backwards.
Something was wrong.
"Maka…?"
She whipped her head towards his direction when hearing his hesitant call, but something was terribly wrong.
Her eyes were not on him.
"Soul?" Maka called again, frantically crawled her way to him helplessly and stumbled on her own foot like a lost child in the darkness. "Soul, where are you?"
"I'm… here…" he answered, but his voice was shaking, horrified by a very disturbing idea of what could possibly have happened to her.
"I can't see you! Why is it so dark in here?" Now fear was creeping into Maka's voice; the same fear that was slowly eating his heart.
It couldn't be…
The creepy Professor's face suddenly appeared in his mind, right eye a synthetic and the left another person's.
Mrs. Kamiko's words rang coldly inside his ears:
"There is always a price to pay when humans step into God's domain."
No…
No…
Not her…
Not her!
"Maka…" he whispered in horror, cupping her face and fearfully lifted it. "Your eyes…"
Both of those eyes widened. The realization that was stubbornly being denied by both of them was hitting her in full force. The beautiful green eyes that were once bright and sparkling with confidence were now shaded in milky fog. Dull, clouded, and dead like a dirty broken glass.
"Soul… What happened to me?"
Soul was afraid to give her an answer.
"My—Soul, I can't… I can't see…"
God really did enjoy torturing him, apparently.
If only the stupid deity could give all the casualties strictly to him.
"MAKA! SOUL!" Black Star's voice boomed from somewhere, while Crona's deranged cries of Medusa's name echoed from the other side.
Soul couldn't care less about what happened around them. The most important thing was to wrap the helpless blind girl in front of him in his arms and protect her from the world.
"Oi, Tiny-tits! What're you doing, braiding each other's hair?! Get your scrawny butt over here, we still have homunculi's asses to kick!" Black Star yelled, suddenly standing between them and the homunculi with a protective stance.
Neither Maka nor Soul could answer that. Soul could tell that their lack of response made Black Star instinctively turn around to actually see them—to see Maka and her lifeless eyes, because two seconds after that he sensed a silent fury radiating from the automail engineer. He was no alkahestrist like Maka, but even he could sense that something very wrong was bubbling in Black Star's soul.
It was trembling in wrath.
True to his thought, Black Star leapt forward with a bone-chilling berserker roar.
Maybe Liz had underestimated the immortal creature.
The blinding light of her friends' alchemy chain had divided her attention for a second. It would've been nothing if she was fighting normal enemies, but the one they fought against was a homunculus.
That was why she was currently crushed within the Homunculus's bear hug, her left arm useless after being dislocated by the Sloth. Now she could only sneer, being dragged around to be the bastard's human shield. Damn, even Patty couldn't aim if he kept flailing her around like this.
Liz glanced at her sister, who was standing rigidly with a Beretta aimed at them, silently waiting for a chance.
"I heard him say your name," Homunculus Sloth smirked. "Elizabeth, he said."
Liz held herself from kicking the homunculus in the family jewels. She could be crushed to death if the idiot doubled over in pain.
"Hey, Free, wanna bet?"
The Sloth paused to raise his tattooed eyebrow, clearly interested. "What bet?"
"You stand still 100 yards from my sister, and we can bet if she can shoot you right in the middle of your eyes or not. I bet she can, by the way."
"Whaaat? Why me? Why don't you?"
"Hey, if you win, I could be dead, and even if you lose, you won't be dead. That's already a mighty advantage for you! Or what, you're afraid you'd lose?"
He frowned, pursing his lips and humming as his brain cell worked. "If you put it like that, I really don't have anything to lose. Well, I can't die anyway. Go on!"
Ah, thank god he was stupid.
Liz exchanged one faint nod with Patty. She prayed for her glee to not leak out and eventually alerted the stupid immortal. There was no way Patty would fail, Liz thought with pride.
Patty's hand was steady, there were completely no tremors on the Beretta she aimed. Her face was utterly expressionless, eyes darkened, jaw set. So was her big sister's. There was no fear, no anger, no nothing as she watched her younger sister aim her handgun at her.
Or more precisely, at five centimeters to her right, where Free's head was.
Patty's Beretta went off so melodiously as Liz tilted her head a bit to avoid the blood that was splattering out of Free's head. With a precise motion, she wiggled herself free from the collapsing homunculus. One quick jump and she was already clutching her discarded shotgun with her good hand.
"You're a sly woman, Eliza—" The Sloth flew back to the nearest wall with a sickening splat, the shotgun in Liz's hand was smoking.
"There's only one person who's allowed to call me that name."
Liz continued to fire her shotgun, using her thigh as an anchor to pump it instead of her useless left hand. When she ran out of bullets, Patty strolled over without fear, poking the disfigured corpse with her Beretta.
"I think he's really dead." She tilted her head. "Whoa, Sissy, look!"
Liz bent over beside her sister, watching each splattered tissue of the Sloth slowly dissipated into dust. Well, even if Kid's berserk act earlier had certainly played a key part—he must have ripped out a ton of the homunculus's souls, but still.
"Sweet, we killed an immortal."
"Is that guy even human?" the newly arrived Ford blurted out, completely gobsmacked.
Well, Soul couldn't blame the Lieutenant for saying that.
Black Star was currently fighting two homunculi. And he wasn't losing.
The Black Blood within Soul giggled without a sign of stopping, its sound a notch shy from insane. It was only the knowledge of a blind girl within his arms that prevented him from flipping his switch as well.
'What's wrong with you, Soul? Look at that! Look at that! How glorious! Jump into that stage and unleash your blood!'
The Demon's giggle was getting louder. Maka's grip on his chest tightened, as if restraining him.
Shit. Was it him?
Soul gritted his teeth as Black Star launched Ragnarok like a missile in Crona's direction.
He knew that fighting style; the cold-blooded killing machine with no regards to anything except the enemy they were supposed to kill. He knew. He was one. After all, it was the Star Children the Black Blood project modeled after.
Still, an imitation was nothing compared to the real deal.
Who could say Crona was Wrath when Black Star existed?
"We have to do something!" Ford urged. "He won't last for long! He completely ignored his own injuries and his enemies are immortals!"
"Even if you say that…" Harvar retorted. "How can you keep up with that?"
Soul grimaced. Harvar was right. Even he couldn't guarantee that he could keep up with the Star Child after he flipped his switch.
"We have to think, then! There must be something about those immortals!"
"They aren't that immortal, apparently," came a voice from behind.
Soul turned to see the elder Thompson limping in, supported by her sister, both covered in cuts and bruises. The Reaper Colonel was right at their side. He instinctively buried Maka closer, sensing her reluctance to interact with anyone yet.
"We just killed one!" chirped the younger sister, raising a hand to do a V sign.
"What—how?!"
"Well, keep killing them until they stay dead, apparently."
Before anyone could answer the totally revolutionary solution, Black Star crashed hard a few meters before them.
"Crap! Star!" The Reaper Colonel jumped forward to engage the homunculi before they could launch a final attack at the engineer.
Soul cursed lowly. Harvar and Ford both had run out of ammunition, since reversing the circle and giving back the citizens' souls also meant bringing the remaining chimeras back as well. The Gunslinger Sisters were both injured, and there was no telling if Black Star could still fight. And he… he couldn't leave Maka there. He just couldn't!
"Soul…"
Soul immediately turned all of his attention to her, gently shifting her position so he could take a better look at her face. "Maka… Hey…"
"Soul… We can help…"
What?
"I can still fight, with your help…"
What the hell was she saying?!
"Maka, you can't—!"
"I can't." She squeezed his hand, her voice growing stronger by every syllable. "I can't, but we can! Soul, if we resonate, you can be my eyes!"
"What…" Surprise washed over him. It was mesmerizing, almost ethereal, to see a pair of dead eyes lighting up with a fire from within.
Soul was filled with exasperation. Every fiber of his being just screamed 'NO!' But he also couldn't help the silent amazement that seeped through his chest.
She really was amazing.
Anyone else in her place would think about nothing but despair and devastation. They would not want to do anything, least of all going back to the fight. But this girl… This girl just buried all of her misery and decided to be brave.
So of course he took her hand, and obediently turned into a scythe in her hands. For what felt like the first time, he became her light.
Together, they danced along the Dragon Path.
"It's like they're dancing," commented Patty, watching Maka swaying the giant scythe and sending alkahestry transmutations to the homunculi. She wasn't wrong.
Kid didn't realize his own exhaustion until after Maka and Evans took over the fight.
Crap, he wasted too much energy on that Free bastard. Why hadn't the others come anyway? They really could use some help. Especially Professor Stein.
He limped over to Black Star, half praying that he had snapped out of his berserker rage. "Black Star!"
The automail engineer didn't budge.
"Black Star! Come on, dammit! Maka needs us!"
Finally, he started to stir. "I fucking hear you, dipshit!" Black Star spat at him between his gritted teeth.
"Well, you're welcome. No need to thank me for saving your life."
Black Star growled. "Don't test my patience, Morton! There are gonna be children around me soon and I have to learn to keep a filter on my fucking mouth!" the automail engineer barked annoyedly before he stopped dead. "Oh, shit, I haven't done a good job of it today, have I?"
Shaking his head, Black Star swayed up, ready to charge once again.
"I'll assist them; you guys keep calling the rest!" Kid barked at his underlings.
"Yes, Sir!"
Kid leapt over with both circles ready, ripping eight souls from the Gluttony in one quick attack. He smirked for a second before he wobbled. Shit. He froze for a moment too long, missing the chance to guard against Gluttony.
In a flash, Maka was in front of him, blocking Gluttony with Evans' hilt and stabbing the giant blade into the homunculus's body. Light green angel wings sparked, sending with it an electrical shock. The Gluttony doubled over and floundered like a fish out of water, blood spurting from each of his holes.
"Holy crap, Maka, what did you do?" Kid couldn't stop himself from blurting.
She only shrugged, turning to him. "Just wrecking over his energy flow."
Kid gaped. That was just like his own alchemy, but done with alkahestry principles. There was amazement bubbling in him, but the chill that ran down his spine drowned the feeling.
Wow. When did she turn into a cold-blooded fighter?
Sometimes he forgot that she was the daughter of the Angel of Death.
But then her slight swaying caught Kid's attention. She was… she looked like she just bathed in blood. How could he not have realized that? Yet, before Kid could say anything, she already charged forward, because Gluttony was already standing.
Spirit was furious.
Well, not even the word furious could represent what he felt.
Had Marie not been there to stop him, he would've flipped over the entire city to search for Frank and killed him right then and there.
He had trusted the man! Even if they had so many different thoughts and beliefs, Spirit trusted him to keep Maka safe! And what did the insane alchemist do? He brought his beloved daughter right into the heart of the enemy's lair. He would not, absolutely would not forgive him.
But now, with this horrifying scene in front of him, he started to rethink his decision.
He really was stupid.
It was his fault, for not believing the mad alchemist in the first place, for not believing that there was a huge transmutation circle being made under East City. It was his fault for ignoring the alchemist's theory that what he'd been fighting against wasn't a mere rogue alchemist, wasn't a mere corrupted human with a wicked mind. They were really unthinkable creatures such as homunculi and human chimeras. A fault that nearly cost him three hundred and twenty thousand lives of innocent people.
It was his fault, for not believing what his beloved wife had been doing, for not really thinking about how deep a problem his wife had tried to fix was, for not helping her out of those cursed labs in Ishval. A fault that had cost him his wife's life.
And now it was his fault, for not believing his own daughter when she said that her Mama was alive, for locking her up and not letting her search for her beloved mother.
Because right now, Spirit saw with his own eyes that the woman he loved was alive, missing a left arm, and was in the hand of a homunculus.
Homunculus. An immortal creature, because he didn't die even after Spirit shot him right on his forehead.
"Spirit…"
It was her delirious whisper of his name that set his entire body on fire. He would've charged blindly at the bastard if Marie hadn't held his arm and the injured Frank didn't squeeze his shoulder.
He really was stupid.
"You're not bad, huh," the homunculus bellowed to Frank, flailing a hand with Ouroboros tattoo on it. "Fighting you is real fun! But alas, my work here's done, just hopped off to pick up something." He jerked the woman in his arms. Spirit's sneer turned into a feral growl.
The homunculus shifted his attention to him, his smirk widened, "Aaaah, yeah, yeah, Major General Albarn." He tossed Kamiko over his shoulder and taunted, "This thing's ours now, unfortunately. If you want it back, hunt us, we're always up for a little game of tag." Without warning, the wicked creature jumped, and within a second was already atop the buildings.
"M'not gonna hide either. Name's Giriko the Greed! Maybe next time we'll take that little daughter of yours as well!" Greed's maniacal laughter rang as the creature jumped out of sight.
Spirit's eyes were red.
He promised, he would skin those creatures alive, over and over, before he made them into a pool of blood.
"Spirit!" Frank shouted, shaking him urgently. "Fucking snap out of it! Maka still needs us!"
The name of his daughter was the only thing preventing him from breaking Frank's nose ten times over.
"Maka…?"
"I'm okay, Soul. Just one more time!"
Soul didn't know if he could grit his teeth or burst into tears when he was a scythe.
Respecting her fighting spirit, he kept his mouth shut. She leapt high and impaled the Gluttony right on its chest. With a cry of frustration, Soul unleashed Maka's alkahestry and amplified it a hundred times over, making numerous scythe blades extruded from Gluttony's body.
It was the final attack on the Gluttony. Not because the homunculus was going to die, but because her body couldn't hold it any longer.
But thank god, miracles tend to happen to those who least expect it.
Right after Maka pulled him out of Gluttony, Kilik and Jackie were there, frying the homunculus to death with their double fire alchemy. On the other side, the creepy professor was assisting Black Star. He would know that the others were starting to gather up around them, but Soul couldn't care less.
Irrelevant.
He transformed just in time to catch Maka's limp body. Every fight and emotion had left her, leaving only a battered girl who slumped in his arms like a broken doll.
She was so tiny.
"Why do I begin to miss your eyes now that I can't see you anymore?" she whispered deliriously without any emotion whatsoever, tears pouring silently from her lifeless eyes.
He was absolutely not crying.
"You have beautiful eyes, Soul." Her voice was so low that he almost failed to catch it.
Almost.
The first thing Black Star was really aware of was his wife's watery eyes.
He vaguely remembered his and Kilik's long drive back to Gallows Hill. He didn't remember the rest.
He didn't see anything. Just Tsubaki's eyes.
She didn't say anything. Neither did he.
Her arms were around him, and Black Star just stood there, frigid, unrelenting to her warmth, because he didn't deserve it.
"I failed you."
Tsubaki tightened her hug, her shoulders shaking from her effort to stop her tears.
"No, you didn't," she replied, her voice thick with suppressed emotion. Black Star always hated when she used that voice. "You promised me she would come back alive. You did it. She is home."
Gritting his teeth, Black Star snapped, "I promised to bring her back in one piece! I failed! I FUCKING FAILED! EVEN AFTER TURNING BACK INTO A MONSTER, I FAILED!"
Tsubaki's soft cries were now audible. The stubborn rigidness born from his effort to stay strong suddenly left his body, leaving him slumping into his wife's shoulder in defeat.
He couldn't even deny that there was a hot trail of tears running down his cheeks. Damn it. Black Star did not cry. No one had seen him cry besides Tsubaki, but dammit, BlackStar did not cry!
Yet, that was the first time he cried after the incident ten years ago.
"I failed you, Tsu. I failed both of you…"
"Your posture is terrible."
Soul paused his piano playing and turned at the voice with a little start, finding the Albarn patriarch standing behind him, his face unreadable.
"Well, s'not like I have a teacher," Soul replied, shrugging.
He was contemplating whether to continue playing or to retreat back to his room, because his conversations with Spirit Albarn always turned out to be a pain, but before he could choose neither, he felt big hands placed on his shoulders.
"Your back must be straight. Loosen your shoulders. And rise your elbows slightly above the keys," Spirit directed behind him, awkwardly correcting his posture.
Perplexed, Soul actually let him do what he wanted, allowing his body to be guided by the older man. Inwardly, he was wondering if Spirit had eaten the wrong food. Maka's father was never nice to him. He tended to treat him as if he was something akin to horse droppings.
"Now try again," Spirit commanded.
Still baffled, Soul played the piano again. He was slightly delighted to find his new posture easier to play with. He continued to play, missing the way Spirit's eyes swarmed by a mix of smile and regret. The piece Soul was playing was an old scribbling he discovered among Maka's library months ago, a sonatina[1] that he actually liked and found easy enough for a beginner.
"You're good," commented Spirit as the last note rang in the air.
"Uh, thanks…" Soul mumbled unsurely, still confused with the Major General's sudden change of behavior. "...Sir," he added after a second of hesitation.
Silence fell between them. Soul was never the best in starting a chat, and to be honest, he didn't think Spirit was that good either. Well, at least when the other party was of the same gender. So both of them just sat there, lost at how to break the ice.
"It was mine, you know," Spirit suddenly said, his voice a little weird, as if he was surprised he was willing to talk. Soul sent a questioning glance, and Spirit sighed, "That piece you just played."
Soul's eyebrow rose. "Oh…"
"Yeah."
"Uh… it's a good piece," Soul complimented lamely, partly annoyed with himself because 'good' was far from the astonishment he felt the first time he heard the piece.
Spirit nodded a little thanks, and silence took over them once more. Soul refrained from fidgeting, stealing a peek at the Albarn father every other second. He looked just as awkward, apparently.
Soul sighed inwardly. Wes would know what to say, for sure.
"Thank you…" finally Spirit's whisper sliced the silence.
Soul raised his head, voicing a nonverbal question.
"For staying at her side…"
Ah.
"And for… for bringing her back…"
If he was feeling awkward before, now Soul was completely lost at what to say or do. He didn't even think that he deserved gratitude, because he had failed Maka so horribly. So he just zipped his mouth into a thin line.
"I know how you feel," Spirit said, his tired chuckle took Soul's attention. "I had felt it too." He exhaled, smiling ruefully at Soul's inquiring eyes. "The guilt of failing the one we love is quite brutal."
A gasp escaped Soul's mouth at the implication. "I—uh—what are you—?"
"It's a hundred years too early to think that you could hide your feelings from me, kid."
Spirit was staring at him with knowing eyes and… dare he said, a hint of smugness, an expression that should've puzzled him considering Spirit's streak as a helicopter dad and the glum atmosphere between them. But the father had become so weird that day, so Soul just ducked his head and berated himself for carelessly displaying his emotion. He should start to hide it better.
Spirit ignored Soul's embarrassment as he continued, "When Kamiko first left me, I was devastated. But that feeling paled in comparison to what I felt when the news of her death reached my ears. It got so much worse when I realized I could have done something to prevent that."
Still silent, Soul cringed inwardly, forcing his face to stay calm as his heart did the leap from embarrassment to self-loathing. He had tried his best to suppress those feelings, dammit.
As if knowing what was brewing inside Soul's head, Spirit said under his breath, "I'm hardly in any position to blame you, kid. And I'm even less qualified to say you shouldn't blame yourself." He stepped forward and reached for Soul's head, lightly ruffling his hair. "But know this, boy: both of us still have a chance. And we'll fight together to make things right again."
Soul was still staring at his knuckles as the sound of the Albarn father's footsteps quietly left the room.
He touched his hair, and again, tried his best to keep his eyes dry.
"Can't you do something, Frank?" Marie said, staring at him with sadness filling her amber eye.
This was one of the moments when Frank hated that she always expressed her emotion so openly, because seeing that somber eye stirred something unpleasant in Frank's gut.
"I can't, Marie."
"But why?!" she protested. "Isn't it the same with—with what happened to you? You know it worked with us, so why not Maka too?"
Repressing a sigh, Frank lifted his hand to lightly touch Marie's cheek, thumb rubbing under her remaining right eye; the pair of his left one.
"I still haven't forgiven you for giving it to me, Marie."
Marie's face was swarmed with surprise and guilt, but then she thinned her lips and put on a stubborn face. "I had to!"
Frank tore himself away from her. As always, emotion wasn't his favorite thing to talk about, nor it was his expertise.
Instead, he told her the difference between his and Maka's predicaments, "The Truth took both our sights, yeah. But what Truth took from me was physical. Easily replaced. What Truth took from Maka was her latent ability to see. She lost the connection between her eyes and her brain. That kind of thing couldn't be fixed with my current medical knowledge, Marie. We need a miracle."
She was already crying before he finished talking. Both of them knew Frank N. Stein didn't believe in miracles, yet both of them knew he wished for it anyway.
"She's just a little girl, Frank! She's just a child!" she sobbed. "This is not her fault!"
Frank pulled her to his chest.
"I'm sorry, Marie…"
Everyone was silent.
Oscar had forgotten when was the last time their team had a meeting under the pressure of this much grimness.
Oscar couldn't even find it in him to be proud of his counter-plan. It had succeeded, but they had also lost.
Because Major General Albarn and Professor Stein had told them everything about their encounter with another homunculus the day before. That, and the fact that Mrs. Albarn really was alive.
Their fight wasn't over.
"Even though the bastard who killed my father had already died, we couldn't stop," started Colonel Morton. His voice was calm as always, but there was unmistakable fury brewing under it. "There is certainly a bigger, stronger threat that controls those homunculi. We have to defeat all of them to make sure Amestris is safe."
"Yes, Sir," all of them said at the same time, quieter and graver than their usual shout.
Because all of them had not forgotten about what happened to the Albarn daughter.
Their team had carried a lot of independent missions, with or without outsider's help, but this was the first time they experienced severe casualties.
It slapped them back to reality that they were not playing with humans. What they fought against were inhuman beings.
They were playing with death.
Yet, among all of those overwhelming things, there was a foreboding that poked behind Oscar's mind.
He would have to double check something later.
"Amusing how that Pride woman's objective was to attain the gift of alchemy, huh, Ford?" Harvar said in a low voice when Colonel Morton dismissed them.
As always, Harvar was so blunt. Maybe that was the reason why Oscar considered him his best friend, because he was also as blunt when he wanted to.
He heard the implication behind Harv's question.
He, too, had a brilliant mind, more than enough to be a better alchemist than most people with the State Certification. He, too, was someone who had deprecated God for not giving him the gift of alchemy. And he, too, would sacrifice everything he had if it could give him the gift.
But that was it. That was his difference with that homunculus.
If he was given the chance, he would sacrifice what was his. Not someone else's.
So Oscar just scoffed, seething, "I am not gonna lower myself like that. I want a gift that is inherently mine, not something stolen from other people. I have standards, you know?"
Yeah.
At least he had that dignity.
Maka rolled over to her side, minding her still tender ribs.
Blair meowed from somewhere around her ankles, her pumpkin bell chiming softly.
"I started to think that you've been cursing us every time we left you behind, Your Majesty," she chuckled to the meowing cat. "The missions I've gone on without you have always ended in disaster."
The cat yowled smugly, agreeing. Damn cat.
"Yes, yes, you're my lucky cat."
Blair let out a prideful purr.
After some time, the feline started to nudge her feet off of the bed, meowing softly and constantly pawing her to get up. Maka sighed. The cat was right. Her mood wouldn't get better if she continued to lock herself up.
In the first week, she had been halfway to the library before she realized that reading as a way to escape reality was now a luxury she couldn't afford.
In the third week, Black Star had cheerfully promised a spar when she was completely healed, only for them to realize that she was useless without Soul.
In the fourth week, she had started to meet other people. Friends and acquaintances visited her, trying to cheer her up, but she just felt like a sick child in a hospital room full of dolls. A thing that sounded enjoyable, except that she was a grown-ass woman with a Silver Pocket Watch, not an elementary school kid.
She was Maka Albarn, and Maka Albarn was nothing but independent. Unfortunately, many people had forgotten because of her current predicament.
Even Black Star, her brother, who had always treated her indiscriminately, was having difficulties speaking to her.
She had enough of everybody's hovering and their unspoken pity.
She had enough of her own misery.
Maka testily hopped onto the floor, her feet searching for her fluffy bunny slippers. The cat had waited for her, apparently, because she could sense the feline's soul by her feet, hovering with patience.
She smiled as she followed the sound of Blair's pumpkin bell, touching her way tentatively. The cat stopped every other step, waiting patiently for her.
Her pet led her through the house and out of the back door, to the back field.
"Blair? Where do you—"
Oh.
There was a very familiar double-soul at the far end of her perception range.
Blair had led her to Soul.
Smart cat.
Only him—only Soul could make her a bit better.
He didn't hover over her, didn't baby her, nor did he radiate any form of condolences. He didn't even try to talk about it, which she was greatly thankful about. He did what she had done for him. He waited, quiet and patient, believing that she would talk about it herself when she was ready.
With him, she never felt like Maka the Newly Blinded Girl. She was just Maka, perfectly herself with a thick sheet of black cloth tied gently around her eyes. His big hands that were once anchored by hers now were returning the favor.
She didn't feel a single stab of frustration or self-pity when it was him guiding her, and he never flinched away when it was her touching him.
He was her anomaly, just like she was his.
"Wanna go for a ride?" he said, entwining their fingers.
The corner of her mouth was rising.
"Sure."
Fifteen minutes later, she was latching herself behind him, with Blair's fluffy little head poking out between them. He drove slowly, calm and quiet, as if knowing that even if she couldn't see anything, she was enjoying the late winter air.
He took her to the ruins of Gallows Hill's old watchtower again, apparently.
"You really do love ruins, don't you?"
There was a snort, "Eh, makes me feel like home."
Maka chuckled with him, but a certain thought suddenly made her silent.
"Do you miss Death City?"
If she still had her sight, she would see the slight surprise that flashed his face. Alas, she could only hear his voice, which he worked hard to sound light and playful. "Maka, there's only rubble in there."
Except that it wasn't.
"Soul..."
He sighed, finally admitting his melancholy, "Yeah, I miss him."
Maka didn't know what to say. She felt like she would hurt him further if she said sorry. It was his decision to leave his brother and come to Amestris, after all. The last thing she could do was...
"We'll visit him together."
His wry smile went unnoticed by Maka, but he said lowly, "Yeah, we'll do that…"
He led her through the ruins and climbed the tower, now twice as careful to assist her. Maka smiled inwardly. He really had a talent to be helpful without being overbearing.
They sat at the same place they did the last time, when the world was still filled with colors and stars still scattered all over the sky. But even though her eyes now filled with nothing but darkness, being here with him overflowed her with contentment.
"Hey, Soul…"
"Hmm?"
"Can I ask you something stupid?"
She heard him snickering. "You totally could." And that earned him a mean jab to his ribs. "Oh, god, you're as violent as ever."
Maka scowled, feeling her face warming. "Shut up!"
"Okay, okay," Soul said, still chuckling, "What is it?"
Maka fiddled with her skirt, suddenly feeling shy. "How… How come you and your brother didn't have Ishvalan names?"
"Hmmm…" his low hum reached her ears. Somehow she could feel him staring at the starry sky. Not that she knew the sky was really full of stars or cloudy that night.
But Miss Marie's words suddenly hit her: For an Ishvalan, a name was something sacred that was given to them by their god. It was not something to be taken lightly.
Maka squeaked hastily, "I'm—I'm sorry, it's rude of me to suddenly ask that! You don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable!"
Soul snorted, whether with an amused or sarcastic look Maka would never know. "S'okay."
Silence filled the air again as they continued to bask on Gallows Hill's winter breeze. Ah. It would be spring soon.
She bowed her head down. Seemed like Soul didn't have the intention to answer her. It was okay, she told herself, she wouldn't push on anything that would make Soul uncomfortable. As always, she believed he would tell her. Someday, when he was ready.
Maka already gave up on hearing his answer when he surprised her with his voice, closer than ever, "Wes and I forgot our childhoods, our family, our village, pretty much everything we had before they took us to that place. Even our own names. The experiments were too… intense."
Even though she couldn't see him, she turned her face at his direction in shock, dead eyes widened with a mix of anger and overwhelming horror.
Soul's voice was strained and a little deeper than usual, but he went on. "It was Mrs. Kamiko who gave us our new names. She used to take us to the lab's watchtower to stargaze, saying that it reminded her of home. Of you."
Maka smiled wryly. Stargazing. How like Mama.
"She refused to call us with numbers like the other scientists did. She asked us our names too, but at that point I honestly couldn't remember anything besides my big brother anymore. I guess… she felt somehow responsible for that, I don't know. So then… she gave us new ones."
Maka's heart did a painful flip at the mention of both her Mama's kindness—could she even say it was kindness? —and the implication of how cruel her experiments were. How painful was it for Mama to do that? To steel her heart for the greater good?
Part of her was grateful for Soul and Wes, because they might be the cause why Mama's heart hadn't gotten frozen solid completely.
"She named Wes a star from Canis Major, Wezen. Because, well, Wes was very protective of me, almost like a guard dog," he chuckled in memory, then added below his breath, "Stupid Wes…"
Maka grimaced in irony. Wezen really was so protective of his little brother to the bitter end. She still couldn't tell Soul what she had seen in the Gate of Truth. She was afraid it would break him.
She just couldn't do that.
She vowed to take that secret with her to her grave.
"It fits, though," Soul added wistfully, interrupting her growing guilt. "I heard that it also means 'orphan'."
Even without sight, Maka could feel melancholy oozing from Soul's direction.
As a way to lighten both of their moods, she commented, "Why did Mama choose Wezen? Usually when people talk about Canis Major, they'd think of the brightest star Sirius, wouldn't they?"
Soul chuckled again, "Ah, well, you see, Wes wasn't the most serious person. Maybe she just could foresee the amount of jokes and puns Wes would make if she actually named him 'Sirius'."
"Oh…" Maka blinked a few times before laughing with him.
"And…" Soul inhaled before continuing rather hesitantly. "She didn't name me after a star, surprisingly. Uh, I guess it is a star? Or an astronomical phenomenon? But it's not something we see when we stargaze, so—" he gibbered to himself.
"What do you mean? 'Soul' isn't the name of any star—or planets—is it?"
"Well, yeah, I've never told you, but uhh… 'Soul' is actually just a nickname my brother gave to me, like how I call him 'Wes' instead of Wezen," he said a little sheepishly, making Maka squeak a 'what?!' in bafflement. She heard him shift and scratch something softly.
"It's from the sun."
"Oh?"
"Yeah…" he breathed, sounding a little anxious and shy. There was something hitting a surface in a soft rhythm, his feet, probably. "Wes forgot many things but somehow he remembered that I was born in mid-winter, somewhere between 21 and 22 December. Mrs. Kamiko had said that it is the day of death and rebirth of the sun, and considering I was probably dead at one point and was rebirthed as the first successful Human Weapon, she named me—"
"—Winter Solstice…" Maka completed his sentence, voice quieted with awe. It matched the nickname.
It was then when she fully understood the meaning behind his symbol. A halved sun, with the upper part shining and the bottom darkened; the dead and rebirth of the sun.
A new beginning. A new hope.
Mama had wished him a new hope.
Her dead eyes were gleaming in astonishment at the general direction of his face, completely losing the way Soul's own eyes widened and how his ears started gradating to red. The thought of his name somehow made Maka really happy, like finding the lost childhood memories inside of its treasure box. Apart from the obvious reason, she understood why Mama gave him that name, as images of snowy white hair and a set of vivid but a little surreal red eyes flooded her mind.
It was surprisingly fitting for him.
She heard Soul scratched something sheepishly, the back of his neck, maybe, like how he always did when he was embarrassed. "Just 'Solstice', actually."
"It's a beautiful name!" blurted Maka, raising her hands to search for his soft hair.
"Uh… Thanks…" Soul said, tone higher than what he usually used. "Wes often joked that Mrs. Kamiko had meant to say Celeste, that asshole. So not cool," he added a little grumble, making her giggle.
The chiming of Blair's pumpkin bell reminded them of the cat's presence. Maka sensed her pet's soul floating to where they sat, eventually plopped herself on Maka's lap, letting out a meow.
Maka petted Blair's head as the cat purred contentedly. But then she stopped dead, exclaiming, "Soul! Then that day was your birthday?!"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
She could hear the rolling of his eyes. "Maka, a lot of things were going on. It's not important anyway."
"How come it's not important? It's your birthday!"
He let out an exasperated 'mmmrgh…', and she could picture him making that disgruntled face he always made when he didn't want to deal with something. But Maka wouldn't have it. She knew a lot of things were happening. And the weeks that followed were filled with glumness and pity for her predicament. But she didn't like how it made him think that he was less important.
"You should've told me anyway. I could prepare a gift," she pouted.
"You already gave me a bike."
"That was not a birthday gift!" she yelled, deepening her scowl. "That was a 'thank you' gift!"
Soul just let out a groan, and Maka puffed her cheeks.
But beside her, unnoticed, Soul made his toothache grin again. "You came back…" came his soft words. "That was the only gift I needed."
Maka's breath hitched. Before she could stop herself, her lips formed a sardonic smile, saying, "I came back as a burden, though…"
When she processed what just came out of her own mouth, Soul was growling.
"This is why I always say that for someone so smart, you are so incredibly stupid!"
From her lap, Blair let out an agreeing meow.
Maka gaped, ignoring her cat. "What did you just say?!"
But he went on, ranting, "You. Are. Dumb. Seriously, in which universe that you coming back is considered a burden?! You've been willing to put up with my freak of a body! Why would I mind if you—Argh! After all those speeches you blabbed about me not being a burden, now you said you are one?! Bullshit! Now you listen! You are never a burden, got it?!"
Maka just gawked at him, perplexed. He almost never raised his voice, but in his exasperation, he was close to yelling.
"If only you could see how devastated I was when I saw you being dragged to that damn Gate! Or how I felt when I saw you back! I—"
He stopped.
Both of them were silent. Him with embarrassment and her with astonishment.
But then he started again with a calmer voice, "Uh, what I wanna say is..." He paused to breathe. Even Maka could hear his gulp. "You've… you've been a huge emotional support for me these past months, so I… I'm... okay with being your emotional support too, Maka."
Maka's mind was spiraling in a swirl of everything. Disbelief, embarrassment, happiness, disagreement, perplexity, fear, joy, awkwardness, guilt, and extreme bewilderment, all fused into one.
Her feelings for this kind boy beside her grew stronger and stronger until she caught the name of the feeling that overwhelmed her heart. All the weird things she had felt in these past months finally came clear.
The realization slammed her like a hammer, stupefying her.
It was love.
Oh.
She had fallen in love with him.
Maka Albarn had fallen in love with Solstice.
Maka was always afraid of love. She had seen firsthand what came out of her parents' relationship. Although she had also seen a healthy and strong love such as her brother and his wife, she was still afraid of love.
But this boy… Soul… he was different.
The first emotion she felt when she realized her feelings was astonishment. Not fear.
He was truly determined to be her anomaly. His existence, all of it, seemed eager to prove that she was capable of love.
But be that as it may, Maka could not let her feelings show.
He had gone through so much. He had enough burden and strains. He did not need another burden.
He was a person she wished to be the happiest.
He was extremely kind and selfless, despite his constant denial. If she told him her feelings, he would certainly accept it, and he would do his best to reciprocate even though it was impossible for him to feel the same thing.
She couldn't do that.
Despite their bond, he was never hers.
Maka ran her fingers through Blair's fluffy back. Yeah. She shouldn't add her feelings to the pile of things he should carry.
So Maka declared her second vow that night within her heart.
She would bury her feelings.
"Thank you, Soul..." Maka heard herself say, composed and calm, the exact opposite of the raging storm inside her heart.
He said nothing except a shy hum.
Feeling the cold winter wind on her face, Maka declared all of a sudden in a determined whisper, "I'm going to find Mama and kick the ass of the bastard who created Medusa and all of the homunculi."
She heard Soul humming again. A large and warm hand intertwined with hers.
Yeah. This was better.
She would dedicate her life to do that instead.
"Soul, would you come with me?"
She knew his answer before he even started to speak, but hearing it still made her unbelievably happy. There was something about his presence that never failed to fill her with confidence. Maybe that was also one of the reasons why she was so attracted to him.
"Do you even need to ask?" She felt the hand on hers tightening their hold, and a smile was thick in his voice, "I'll follow you to the ends of the earth."
She felt herself smile as she let her head slump to his shoulder. Soul released their linked fingers and pulled her body closer to him instead.
With a girl he loved in his arms, Soul should be happy.
Regrettably, that was not the case. Because his head was now filled with the dilemma of his recent realization.
He loved this girl, and he wanted to be with her forever.
But saying that in front of her was the last thing Soul would do. It was an absurd step to take when things were right. And with things as they were now, that was plain unconscionable.
Her existence, all of it, seemed eager to prove that he was capable of love.
Yet, he would die before he confessed his feelings. Because he wouldn't want her to carry this burden.
She had been through enough. She had lost enough. She just lost her fucking sight, for heaven's sake.
Furthermore, she was not an ordinary girl. She had things to do. She had wishes. She had ambitions. She had a future.
And most of all, she had done enough.
She had brought him back from the forlorn silence of Death City. She had given him a new name, a new life. She had been his emotional support, his shelter, his savior. She had been willing to be chained to him as his meister.
And he… he was not someone worthy to love someone or being loved, no matter what she said. He had too much baggage.
What right he had to greedily wish for her heart?
He absolutely wouldn't.
He just wasn't worthy.
So when she started to talk about the constellations she couldn't see, accompanied by Blair's meows, Soul vowed inside his heart:
He would just love her in silence.
Footnotes:
[1] Sonatina: the diminutive form of sonata, often used for a short or technically easy sonata.
whoooooo, after a whole fukkin year, I finally completed this thing /cries/
Big thanks to sis Bulan, Chloe, Kiz, Lils, and Tori who helped me completing the last half ily guys you're all godsends ToT
Anyway, thank you so much for all of you who patiently waited for this story, and no, their adventure is not gonna stop here, the sequel, Equinox, will come to you soon!