Maka just stood still, after learning all of the information, tight-lipped, not saying a word. Thoughts raced through her mind. Of course. They wouldn't be from any country above the sea to have such advanced technology. The authors she saw, which she didn't recognize came from their country. Relief at the mysteries being solved soon set into panic. They weren't human. They weren't human. And Wesley's killer was still alive, hunting them and trying to kill Soul.
But a single thought was stronger than the rest. She didn't really know Soul at all. He said that he loved her, but he didn't trust her enough to tell her anything much at all. He was a prince, but Maka knew that he conveniently skipped over the detail, purposefully withholding it from her. And he had lied about Medusa, saying that she was locked up after Soul had died. He had lied to her.
"He lied to me. Soul… I don't really know Soul at all, do I?"
Tsubaki looks at her sympathetically, "You do know him. Very well. He even told of his brother's death. He must have felt a real connection with you to do that."
"Why did he lie about everything else?" She demanded, tears streaming down her face.
"Maka, he didn't want to burden you with all of this. But we need you to convince him."
"Maka," Kilik begs, "Do you remember talking about our parents. Your father is dead, but there's still a chance I could save my mother. Will you please help us?"
Their pleas fall on deaf ears, all Maka can hear is the sound of her own heart beating, and her lungs taking deep breaths. She shouldn't have fallen in love. She knew that it would lead to the same end her parent's relationship had. He was a liar, just like her father. Maka breath's are faster, and more shallow. Jacqueline is the first to notice her hyperventilating, "Maka, are you okay?" She moves to examine Maka, but before Jacqueline can reach her, she is already running out the door.
Maka rushes into the infirmary, desperate for someone to talk to, even if it was only the unconscious Ragnarok. Instead, she found Crona, sitting on the bed, looking up towards the light.
...
"Crona!" She firmly hugged him, and he coughed. She quickly moved her hands off of him, and saw his sickly pallor.
"Crona, what happened? Are you okay?"
"We need to get out of here." He reaches toward her face, and was shocked, when he felt the wetness on it. "Maka, what's wrong?"
Maka allows another wave of silent tears to rush across her face. "It's Soul. He withheld so much from me! He didn't… I don't know if I even know who he is. He's not even human!"
Crona removed his hand from her head and placed it against his mouth, looking green. His other hand drags the first from his mouth, and he spews a few words weakly.
"We need to get out of here." Despite his betrayal, she is still shocked at the possibility of her leaving the ship.
"Why? I don't know if I can trust him anymore, but you said he wouldn't harm me. Besides, according to Tsubaki and the others, there is a deranged killer hunting us. It was Wesley's killer. Medusa."
If Crona was shocked at the name, he doesn't show a single worry.
"He poisoned me."
"What? Who?"
"Soul. You weren't worried about me? I've barely talked in a couple of weeks."
"Kim told me you were recovering from the shock of the blood loss, and nearly dying. It seemed plausible. You were only semi-unconscious for a couple of weeks."
"Kim was the one who administered the poison."
"When? I'd be in your room everyday. No. She had me leave during your surgery, though it was a minor one. Injury to your arm shouldn't have knocked you out for a couple weeks."
"It's not safe here." He repeated. "We need to leave."
"But, Medusa."
"Maka, if Soul lied to you, why can't the rest. Do you think Medusa really exists?"
"Why wouldn't she exist? She killed Soul's brother."
"Medusa is a deterrent, to prevent your escape."
"But, why would they tell me all these lies? I… loved Soul. I was not going to leave."
"Maka, I told you, you couldn't trust him. We need to leave." He leaves the last question unanswered, and slowly pleads with her.
"Please, Maka. I don't feel safe here."
"Okay." Maka sighs.
"Hold on a second. I'll get my key."
"We need to stop the ship. To get out safely." Maka panics, her mouth curls into a frown.
"I can do it. Trust me."
"Okay. Meet me, in the armory, or the equipment room." Maka runs from the infirmary to grab her skeleton key, while Crona moves over to the doctor's shelf in the front of the room, and rummages through the shelves, opening drawers, and knocking over medicine, and tools, until he finds sedatives. Crona smiles, his face morphing a grin, highly reminiscent of Ragnarok's but Maka is not there to witness the change.
He moves surely out of the room, ever the picture of health, and crosses the hallway, selecting a specific locked door, and kicking it down to reveal a hidden stairway. He climbs the stairs, and Soul, who is on-duty in the control room, comes out to greet him.
"Kronos!"
"How did you get on the ship?!" Soul, the picture of panic runs back into the room, likely to retrieve his gun, but before he can reach it, Crona stabs a tranquilizer into his back. He motions towards the gun, ready to kill Soul. Tsubaki, having earlier heard the knocking down of the door, runs up the stairs, and screams when she sees Crona. She moves to fight him, he plunges another syringe into her led, and she tries to resist, clawing at him before she falls to the ground. He pulls a lever causing the ship to slowly descend to the surface, and runs to check the radar. He aligns the ship, to crash into a nearby iceberg, if it continues on its path.
"Tsubaki!" A voice screams, coming from the stairs, and Crona seizures, and reverts to Ragnarok's image. He groans, he had only picked up two tranquilizers. He searches for the gun to shoot Black Star, but he comes bursting in before Crona has picked it up.
"What the hell are you doing?" Undisguised anger tints Black Star voice. He sees Tsubaki nearly unconscious on the floor. He tenderly touches her hand, but turns his menacing eyes towards Ragnarok. Ragnarok similarly takes up a fighting stance, and starts by attack Black Star, who knocks him off his feet.
He roars, "What did you do to them?"
Ragnarok frowns, he will have to leave without killing Soul. He stands up, and evades Black's Star sloppy, anger-fueled punch, but Ragnarok's jaw gets hit by Black Star's other hand. He puts one arm up in defense, and reaches backwards for the gun with his other hand. Black Star hits his arm with his foot, and Ragnarock is pushed back from the force. He points his gun towards Black Star's chest and shoots, as soon as Black Star moves in for another strike. Black Star tries to dodge, but he is hit on the right side of his chest. Due to the force, he is blown back, and the bullet shoots through him, rather than getting lodged in his chest. Black Star is bleeding out, and he attempts to recover himself, and stand up, but he falls down again.
"You won't get away with this." Black Star screams at him, but Ragnarok chooses not to look back at him. He runs down the stairs to join Maka, in the equipment room, where she is suited up, and ready to leave. Ragnarok reverts his image to Crona's likeness, and adopts a smaller voice." Maka hands him his diving frowns. She has taken the time to calm down, and she is worried.
"I can't help but shake the feeling something is wrong, Crona. Maybe we should try to let Soul explain. And Kim. Maybe she administered the wrong medicine. She couldn't have poisoned you…"
"Maka!" Crona's face is sweaty and pale."Soul shot at me."
Maka gasps. "No. That can't be true. He couldn't have shooted. He's… afraid to shoot. He couldn't kill me."
"He shot at me and he missed purposefully." Crona shows her his chin, and her arm, where Black Star had attacked him. Bruises were starting to form."He couldn't shoot me, but he did try to beat me. I barely escaped."
Maka clenches her fist, and took out her skeleton key, opening the cabinet. She took a rifle, and tossed one to Crona. "I know you don't know how to use one, but hopefully the intimidation will be enough." She holds onto Crona's hand with her thick, gloved ones, and slightly smiles. "I'll get you out of here."
While Crona puts on his suit, Maka regrets. Were any of the interactions between the two of them genuine? Or was he just putting on an act? Why did he hide so much from her? He had left out a huge part of his heritage, his background. Even when, they were … together, was he purposefully hiding? Was it true when he told her that he loved her? Or was the look in his eyes fake? She didn't think it was possible for those eyes to be fake. She sighs, and rubs the top of her helmet. Nothing she had ever believed seemed to be true in this moment, and she blamed it on love.
"Why did I fall in love?" Crona finished putting on his suit, and the two headed towards the exit used for hunting, open toward the bottom side of the boat.
"What are you doing?" Kim's voice sounds from outside Maka's suit. She turns towards Kim, while Crona keeps running, towards the exit, waiting for the ship to crash into the iceburg.
"I'm leaving." Kim's mouth turns downward.
"You can't. Maka, he needs you."
"He kept so much from me. After lying, your relationship does not stay the same. Forgive me, if I cannot trust him." She answers simply.
"Why are you leaving? WE told you the truth." Kim shouts angrily, tearing towards her.
"Soul shot at him." She points towards Crona, who turns around, and Kim gasps.
"You cannot trust him. He…"
Just then, the ship crashes into the iceburg, causing the entire ship to recoil, and each of the three to be thrown to the ground. Maka, struggles to get up in her suit, but makes it, and picks up her weapon. She doesn't aim it at Kim, but the act of picking up the weapon is enough.
"I've known Crona a lot longer than I've known any of you."
Kim's eyes tear, but she looks angrily at Maka. "Go ahead! Leave! I knew we couldn't trust you. I know you would leave.I should have never let him become close to you!" She turns around and continues running toward. Maka reaches towards her; Kim's speech sounded anything but false. Maka felt like she was telling the truth. Crona pulls her hand, and moves towards the exit way.
"We need to leave."
"But…"
"She poisoned, sweetheart, kept me from waking up. She's also a liar." Maka gives up resisting and allows Crona to pull her along with surprising force towards the door. She opens it, and closes the door to the rest of the ship, allowing the exiting compartment to fill with water. Crona grabs her hand, and leaps out of the flooding compartment. She, and Crona enter the cold water in their suits. Not moving up or down, they are suspended near the top of the ocean. The air surrounding her is cold, reflecting the ocean outside, but she can breathe. She unconsciously drops the rifle, but doesn't reach to get it. She sighs in relief, but tenses up, when Crona roughly grabs her diving suit, and pushes her to the side, moving away from the ship, and the iceberg. She tries to wrestle her arm back, but he holds it in a vice-like grip.
"What are you doing, Crona?"
"It's not Crona anymore." The diving suit turns towards her and she sees Ragnarok's face in the helmet. Hi, sweetheart."
"Ragnarok!" His face, unlike Crona, is full colored and healthy. "You can't swim." She frowns, and moves on to a more important topic. What's happening?"
He refuses to answer, and Maka attempts wrenching her hand out of his grasp. "Let go of me! I don't trust you."
"Why? I'm the same person as Crona."
"You're nothing like him."
"Really, but you've been talking to me this whole time." Maka stares, at him shocked, before she tries moving back to the ship. She supposed, she knew in a way. Crona wasn't acting like he usually would, but anybody would be different after almost dying. She clenched her free hand. "I knew something was wrong with Crona, but I thought he was scared, not you. This was a mistake."
"One you will have to live with." After he finishes his sentence, he lets go of her hand, and puts both up. She attempts to swim away from him, but in the next second, a serpent swallows them whole.