Author's Note: Thanks for reading this chapter! If this work seems familiar in concept/name to you, it'sAuthor's Note: Thanks for reading this chapter! If this work seems familiar in concept/name to you, it's because this story will be based on (and continued) from a plot bunny that TogeruShadsd151wrote. I'd like to thank them for tossing this plot bunny out into the world and allowing me to expand on it!

This will also work as a partial re-write of Soul Eater and so a good chunk of this chapter WILL be familiar. The last half is where the new content really comes in, I just wanted to include this bit so that there was proper lead up.

That's it for now, thanks again! See you next chapter.

Chapter One: Unsettling Familiarity

Church of Santa Maria Novella. The tolling of bells echoed through the darkened streets of Florence, their deep and somber tone masked the horrors that lay just within her walls. Just above a witch sat comfortably on her broom, overlooking the building that her child- no, her project had tainted with their actions. The words of encouragement that she had offered the child had worked even better than she has expected they would. All of the hard work of finding the prey she had went without waste and even better- their actions seemed to have caught the attention of two unfortunate souls. A tight grin slithered its way across the woman's face as she watched the streets below.

Tonight was becoming easier by the second.

A familiar pair stand in the now quieted streets of Florence, their assignment completed with minimal fanfare. This particular kishin egg had been nothing special- they had collected 99 of them in the past and recently lost them...due to short-sighted actions. Maka still felt foolish over the simple mistake they had made. It was her job as a technician to be able to correctly identify their threats and she had managed to be fooled. Her partner gnawed on the soul they had just captured and she watched inquisitively.

He had done this dozens and dozens of times before in front of her but latent curiosity finally seemed to catch up.

"Hey, Soul? Do souls taste good?"

The white-haired boy continued to gnaw at the soul in his mouth and swallowed it down, a satisfied sigh leaving his lips. He'd be lying if he said the feeling didn't make him at least a little happy. They weren't doing this everyday, so they felt more like a treat than a proper meal.

"Yeah, they're good! It's not really the taste though, it's a texture thing. When it's in your throat…" He hummed happily, clearly enjoying what was left. "I love it."

Maka's mind wandered briefly to their friends who were out on their own assignment. The too were experiencing soul collecting troubles, though not in quite the same way Maka and Soul were. Their issues were...less complicated.

"I wonder how Black Star's collection is going?" She hadn't intended for it to come out verbally, but it did.

Soul's gaze turned up towards the moon as he gathered his thoughts. Black Star and Tsubaki were likely farther behind anyone else, through not much fault on the weapon's part. Though, it wouldn't hurt her to speak out every now and then against her technician. They might actually get more things done that way, if she did, he mused.

"They're nuts for that 10,000 years, no souls extra lesson," His head tilted slightly in Maka's direction so that he could more clearly see her out of his peripheral. "Won't it be pretty bad?"

A soft sigh escaped Maka as she nodded in agreement. "Poor Tsubaki-chan…"

There had been more that she wanted to say but a jolt ran through her entire system- something, wasn't right. Her eyes scanned the streets around them. Something she had felt before- souls that she had felt before earlier in the their trip. That gang and many more, they all were in one direction and seemed excited about something.

She has been so fixated on the sudden and stark disappearance of these souls that she hadn't even heard her partner tell her to wait, though, after a few moments of him talking with no reply Soul took note of the somewhat confused look on his partner's face. They had defeated the kishin egg that they were there to take care of and she had never really voiced a distaste for the work that they do before. It was unlikely that anything they had done in the past or had just done was just, finally catching up to the blonde.

"Hm.. is something up?"

Maka's gaze didn't leave the direction she was facing and his eyes slowly followed. She had been staring at a church. He fought the urge to roll his eyes. The entire trip she had been on him about sightseeing and currently, she was being hypocritical if she was about to tell him she wanted to go see it. Just about everything was closed anyway and they needed to return back as soon as they could.

He couldn't believe he was being the responsible one this time.

"Oi, if you're going sightseeing do it another day. We need to get back, you said so yourself." His hand reached out to touch Maka's shoulder but stopped when she finally was able to speak.

"That's not it…" Her eyes closed and Maka put all of her focus into perceiving the area again, just to try and get a better idea of what was happening. Though, it was loud and hard to concentrate on any specific soul. There were so many and…

"The reaction of a weapon and a technician are coming from that church.." She trailed off as she focused even harder on the area. "and roughly fifty human souls surrounding them."

Had someone else been sent out on an assignment out here before them? She hadn't recalled anyone else talking about an assignment all the way out in Florence. The pair in the church seemed in trouble.

"It feels like that Materazzi-" Maka finally replied again. Her weapon looked on, impressed that she could make out that much. "They're bad people but not bad enough to make the Shinigami's list...maybe they surrounded this other pair for something stupid, like they did with us earlier. I'm worried, Soul. It wouldn't take much from that pair to harm them-"

Soul shook his head and took his eyes away from the church. Whatever it was, it wasn't their problem. If there was a technician and a weapon in there, they could handle themselves. Surely they wouldn't be stupid enough to kill someone who wasn't on the list.

"You might as well leave it alone. They've got it handled and I doubt anyone from Shibusen would be dumb enough-"

"Idiot!" Maka cut him off before he could finish his thought. "Don't be so irresponsible, Soul! As Shibusen students, we can't just let it go! It gives me a bad feeling!"

"Maka-" Soul protested, but once again found himself being aggressively cut off by his technician.

"If something happens, it'll be too late! We should at the least go and check it out!"

Frustration was starting to build in the weapon's chest- if she wasn't going to let him speak, then he'd just have to humor her this time, no matter how tired he was.

"Alright! Fine!" The pair started to run for the bike that he had rented. "But if this is just Black Star gathering a bunch of people for some show, I'll cry." He wasn't entirely exaggerating with that notion either, Soul was exhausted after the day they had and couldn't understand where Maka was getting her energy from.

"Let's hope it's that.." Maka mumbled as her partner navigated the streets of Florence to the church they had seen, giving him small tips to turn as she kept her eyes on the building. They got there a lot quicker than they would have on foot, something that she remained grateful for. She had been somewhat against renting the bike in the first place but it was showing it's usefulness by the minute.

Soul, not entirely convinced by the concern held by his technician, took the time to look at the sign outside the church. "Church of Santa Maria Novella." He took a moment to properly appreciate the exterior, something they couldn't do earlier at the distance they were at. "I just looove this Gothic architecture. It's a cool building."

A shock to her system- similar to the one she had just minutes prior. This one felt more alarming than the first. Her feet took off at a sprint towards the cathedral doors, while her partner watched on in confusion. It was impossible- there was no way, no way, no way… Maka came to an abrupt halt no more than a foot away from the doors. It happened way too fast and if anyone was to leave in that large of a group, they should have seen them and she should have been able to feel them nearby.

"All gone…"

The people that were inside of Santa Maria Novella, they were gone. All that was left was the tolling of the cathedral bell in the otherwise silence streets. Except… there was still...

"I'm not really following, you just said there were over fifty people in there." Soul looked upwards as the sound of bell came to a stop, casting the entire street into an unsettling silence. "Ah! The bells stopped."

Maka wasn't following his words in the slightest, the fear was building too rapidly in her chest as she analyzed the situation in front of them. The human souls vanished all in an instant when they arrived.

"The technician and weapon are still in there."

For the first time in a few minutes, the alarm Maka had been feeling finally was starting to reach Soul as well. It wouldn't be hard for a technician and a weapon to deal with fifty regular people but for them to be gone as fast as she said they had. It didn't sit right. They needed to leave. For them this would be uncharted territory.

An area where technicians and weapons should never enter.

"I feel like I shouldn't open this door..but I have to see…"

Soul protested but it fell upon deaf ears.

The domain of the kishin surpasses human knowledge.

"As a Shibusen student, I have to see who did it."

Soul prepared himself, prepared to grab Maka and run at the first sight of danger, since she was clearly not going to do it herself. Maka pressed on the cathedral doors and as it creaked open she could feel her blood run cold as her suspicions were becoming validated. Only a lone person stood before them.

"Those doors open inward." The figure stated, they didn't seem to want to meet the eyes of Maka or Soul as they entered.

"Where's his partner.." Soul could feel his heart rate increase. "There's only one guy here." He wanted desperately to leave. This wasn't right. Whatever was happening here, they weren't prepared for and were in grave danger.

"There's definitely two souls… but not that we can see which means…" Maka's stance widened slightly into something more stable, her dominant hand reaching out the way it always did when she was preparing for a fight.

"The weapon is inside his body." Maka whispered to her partner.

"What?" He replied hurriedly. He didn't need the verbal cue to transform- her posture was all he needed.

Just up ahead, the figure spoke to themselves. With? Themselves. It was becoming harder and harder to discern the situation by the second.

"What's going on, Maka? Do you think there's actually a weapon inside that guy?"

The bells above the cathedral began to toll once more, the sound reverberating into their souls. The blonde stood there, a proud and proper representation of Shibusen. Her uniform, despite having been worn all day and through a battle not that long ago was clean and well pressed, her hair pulled back into pigtails as to not obscure her vision. The boots and gloves she possessed were well worn but sturdy- worthy of an active technician. Her partner, a large scythe surpassing her in height and decorated in a manner that would be considered odd for any normal weapon, remained in her hands. Although she was afraid, her face tried to display as hard. They needed to be taken care of and quickly for the sour deeds they had just done.

The weapon that resided within the figure's body burst out into a globby, humanoid form, it's technician..no, it's host, shrieked in a way she had never heard before. It morphed and another voice was added to the wail, creating a duet from hell. It made her heart stop and her breath catch in her throat. They needed to be taken care of. They were a threat. The horrible sludge that exited the body turned into something she couldn't describe- a being with a large frame and 'X's where it's pupils should have been.

Maka clutched at her weapon in silence, emerald eyes meeting the blank and unreadable X's of the...creature. Once the creature got it's- his? Their? Bearings, it spoke and harassed the host. The pink-haired figure cried out in pain again, though not to the degree they had earlier. This went on just long enough for Maka to catch a name. Crona. That must have been the technician. The opposing weapon and technician pair seemed focused on their own thing.

There was a chance here for them, Maka thought. This pair seemed uncoordinated enough for them to be able to take care of them themselves. They could always call for back up from Lord Death. These two just had to be stopped here, before they consumed more human souls.

She had conversed with them through her thoughts though the short conversation was already beginning to feel like a distant memory.

"We're going Crona." The figure that had been berating on it's technician suddenly turned to liquid around it's timid host. The sight of it forming into a sword caught Maka off guard, how was something like this possible at all? They were never taught about this sort of thing in the past.

"They're striking from below!" Soul's voice pierced through whatever thoughts Maka had and she moved accordingly, slamming the back of the scythe's blade into the blade of the sword, pinning it to the ground. While Crona was off put by the action, Maka removed her left hand from the snath and aimed a punch for their head. It connected with their cheek but they didn't seem interested in the blow they had just tanked.

"You can speak too…"

Maka didn't let them continue their thought, if there even was a continuation of it. She sliced at them once again and when they dodged, she spun the scythe around so that the tang rested at her heel. In one quick movement, Maka brought her body up with the leverage and dragged a kick down over Crona's head, knocking them to the ground.

"Maka, now!" The weapon cried out, the girl heeding the direction. Once her feet were planted back on the ground her scythe came up and connected with the technician's neck.

It...connected and it stopped.

"You can't decapitate me."

The same black liquid from before that made up the weapon that Crona was using, dripped from their neck. Maka could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Not wanting to give them a chance to recover and counter attack with her so close, the technician jumped back as quickly and as far away as she could.

"What's up with that?" Soul asked. He could see but there was a limit to all that he could gleam from his surroundings.

What was up with that? They should have been able to cut right through Crona's neck but with the introduction of this ability the sword technician possessed things grew more complicated.

"I think their blood is the weapon. Just like it solidified into the shape of a sword, I think is solidified in the veins and prevented us from doing any major damage."

Soul's growing concern was starting to reach a peak. If they couldn't land a meaningful hit then this person was out of their league entirely.

Maka kept her eyes and her brain on the situation at hand. If she hit them with her soul wavelength there was a chance that they could directly damage Crona's body.

"What's their deal? Who're they talking to?"

Maka missed part of what was said while she was formulating her plan but she managed to catch the last bit of information before the sword technician commanded their weapon to..scream? Just as quickly as she had processed the information did the ear-splitting shriek pierce her eardrums and Crona once again came rushing at her. Just as quickly as she had dodged their first move, Soul yelled for her to guard herself. He saw the attack coming far faster than she had.

Maka managed to swing the scythe around just in time to block the next slash from the sword, the blade connecting hard with the scythe- hard enough for Maka to hear a sound she had never heard before when they were fighting.

Soul cried out in pain.

"Soul!" Her eyes widened and she kicked Crona away from them, finding herself overtaken by the concern for her weapon partner.

"Don't worry about me! That blade is dangerous!" He grit his teeth and though she couldn't see him, she could hear it in the way he talked. He was injured and it wasn't looking good.

"The blade is like an electric saw," Soul continued on. "The vibrations from it's screaming is what's making it cause this much damage." That was what he was able to gather after the hit he took.

"Maka…" He hoped that she would catch on and agree with him. It was becoming difficult to focus on anything but the impact he had taken to the shoulder.

What could they do? Maka couldn't block- it would do more damage to Soul. They couldn't land anything on Crona that would slow them down. The frightening pair still needed to be taken care of.

But they didn't need to be taken care of by them. They were outmatched. They needed to run away.

Maka took a step backwards and gasped as her back hit something hard. The only way in or out of there, was through the reinforced door behind them. The closed door behind them. She banged her fists against the door, hoping for it to budge. Her efforts were in vain as the door stood proud and strong.

"You should listen when someone's talking to you." Crona muttered from behind her. Maka's eyes slowly widened. They had been muttering on and off the entire encounter- about things that didn't really matter as much to Maka as the time.

"The doors open inwards," Crona's face was shadowed by their bangs and the low lighting of the cathedral. To Maka, it made them look more intimidating than they already were. "Not outwards. I've told you this."

Every instinct in her body screamed at her to move, to run, leave, get out, every variation of the word that she knew was echoing loudly in her brain in an almost painful manner. They couldn't get away. The nearest window was too far away and by the time she even moved in the direction of one, she would be stopped by Crona. Killed by Crona. Her and Soul both. Her and… Maka's hands shook. They would both be done for, but maybe..

It took everything in Maka to summon forth the bravery she needed but she managed. She had to manage. Against his protests- protests that she couldn't register, the blonde through the scythe as far to the side as she could manage with her one hand.

"Maka!" The moment that the scythe hit the floor he transformed in an instant back to his human form. She had thrown him farther than either could have ever expected- farther away from her than he ever wanted to be. He scrambled to his feet, red eyes locked onto the sight of Maka and the rapidly approaching Crona, he watched as he tripped over his own feet as he ran towards them- as the demon sword Ragnarok slashed through the air, all the while still screeching as it had been commanded to by it's host.

Soul leapt forward in a final act of desperation to save his Meister, but he would never succeed. Not in this world or under these circumstances. In this world, he was the one being protected and everything that would have been became only what could have been.

The piercing scream of a young girl rung out through the cathedral- louder than screeching of Ragnarok and louder than the tolling of the bells. The blackened blade sunk into the soft flesh of her torso and was drug down across it- ripping into muscle and shredding her veins. Small flecks of the black blood slid across her body, seeping into her wounds.

No one knew if she would survive this and no one would know what would happen to her should she live.

Not until it was way too late.

- Soul -

She was hit, she was hit.

Maka, a model student of Shibusen with an image to uphold not only for herself but for the academy that she serves lay motionless on the floor of Santa Maria Novella Cathedral. Her blood stained the yellow cardigan and seeped into the black trench coat she wore above it, ruining the image of his meister.

He had failed as a weapon to protect his meister.

A lump formed in the boy's throat, he wanted desperately to scream out more but his body was letting him. He laid on the ground mere feet away from her, her blood creeping closer to him the longer her stayed there. The next few minutes would be a blur to Soul, as they suddenly found themselves saved by who he would later realize was their professor, and Maka's father.

It was hard for Soul to grapple with the words needed to describe how he felt. Numb? No.. his heart hurt too much for that to be a possibility. He had yet to overcome the feeling of heaviness that he had felt for the last...He couldn't actually recall how long it had been or what time it was. He sat outside of the infirmary for what felt like days. He wasn't sure how they got home. It had been quicker than normal- a lot quicker than normal.

Soul dropped his head back against the stone wall behind him. He couldn't fight the image of Maka's bloodied body from sneaking into his thoughts. He hoped against all odds that she made it out of this- that he'd be able to make this up to her.

That the image of her defeated in such a manner wouldn't be the last image he had of her.

He'd be the first to, albeit begrudgingly, agree that he could be difficult at times. That he was somewhat of an ass. That he stressed his partner out with his study habits- or, his lack thereof. His attitude. He knew that.

But Maka still worked with him. They still lived together and managed to make their different approaches to life work as a team. He messed up before but not like this, never like this. He should have made them leave the second she opened those doors or redirected her when they were still at the scene of their assignment. Was it cowardly? With the information he had now, yes. But it would have ensured their safety.

The sound of footsteps in the distance temporarily pulled Soul from his thoughts. He knew who they belonged to as the familiar dress shoes came into view, leaving gentle tapping sounds on the tile floors. Spirit Albarn. Maka's father.

He had been there just as long as Soul had- though he had left a few times to run errands. Probably busy work, to keep him from bursting into the infirmary that held his daughter. Spirit had never really liked him all that much- something that Soul was well aware of. It never really bothered him until now- Spirit had an actual reason to not like him now. Spirit was a weapon himself- a death scythe. He understood the importance of protecting the technician should things go wrong.

Spirit passed him without even looking and walked straight into the infirmary. He must have gotten a notification about her condition or… the white-haired boy shook his head ever so slightly. He needed to stop thinking about the alternative. Part of him wanted to ask but before he could even open his mouth to ask, the infirmary door closed behind the man.

He was just going to have to wait a little longer.

==== Closing Notice ====

From here on out, the chapters will start having major changes and plot points will eventually change as well, as I've got some...ideas I feel that would be fun to explore.

That's it for now, thanks again!

See you next chapter.