"Thank you for coming. Is something the matter?" Death smiles at the male on the other side of him, he scowls down at the mug before him. His clothes comprise of a simple white shirt, that has rolled up sleeves and is left open at the top, worn under a black waistcoat with black shorts. These shorts include a relatively plain grey belt, used to hold his Internal Affairs badge, which is simply a black patch embellished with the image of Death's mask. He also wears both black fingerless gloves and sandals.
"Uhh no. Getting down to business calling me here I suspect we have a mole in the academy." Joe says. Joe is both a relatively tall and rather well physically built man. His face features a light chin curtain beard and close-cut hair, which contains four signature darker stripes running from front to back, with one located directly on top of his head and the other three present on the right side.
"You're another hasty one. I haven't even said anything yet." Death remarks.
"Sorry I couldn't think of any other reason why'd you call me." Joe sighs.
"As you know Arachnophobia bested us during the recent battle for brew, this was due to a faculty member of ours having falling to madness we didn't think he had reached such a stage yet ad considering my wife having been poisoned we believed there to be a mole." Death informs Joe, his voice growling, snarling as it goes dark making Joe flinch from the voice of dip in tone.
"L-Lady Death was poisoned!? Is she alright?" Alarmed, Joe does a double take at the news noting the cup in lord Death's hand forming a crack.
"Oh yeah, she's fine, she's fine can't say for the mole though they'll wish they were never born." Intensely, Lord Death vows, seething at the memory of his wife helplessly screaming, shouting, spasming. He held her down, trying to help her through it until it passed…it hurt him to see her like that, to watch helplessly as she screamed to the high heavens as madness ate away at her…
"R-Right…." Joe nods his head, gulping nervously.
"We do have several of Eibon's tools in our possession however they pale in comparison to brew but still we fear this mole may try to steal them from us." Perkily, Death changes his voice, turning back to his cheery chirpy voice.
"So you want me to investigate the staff?" Joe's brow furrowed concluding Death's words.
"If you don't mind? I know it might be hard, but we could really use your help right now. We can't really hide this anymore you know?" Death sighs.
"I won't like it, but someone has to do it." Joe sighs.
"Exactly!" Death beams brightly.
"But only on one condition." Seriously, Joe snaps.
"What would that be?" Death asks him.
"The coffee…" Joe begins intensely taking the jar of ground coffee mix between them.
"The coffee?" Confused, Death quirks his head to the side.
"Switch all of DWMA's coffee from instant to beans! In particular I'd like it all switched to Mandheling obviously it should be roasted in far infrared ovens and the beans should be purchased from Uncle Bob's shop! This, I absolutely insist upon! I will buy a set of coffee mills like the one I've brought! I suppose we'll have to settle for the paper drips but I'd prefer them to be conical in shape!" Seriously, Joe snarls snapping at the god of death, steam spewing out of his nostrils as he explains going into a tangent before turning back to the god of death seeing him with a…
"Mandolin?" Death offers said instrument in his hands.
"Mandheling. Why do you have on you in the first place?" Perplexed, Joe's eyes narrow at the instrument swiftly slamming the jar down on the table between them both.
"Oh Ava's still mad at me so I thought if I played a little something for her that would calm her down though its sad that I had to buy a new one." Optimistically, Death strums his hand through the strings.
"What…what happened to the last one?" Meekly, Joe asks dreading the answer.
"She smashed it into two, stomped on it a few times then set it on fire." Casually, Death reveals.
"What!?" Joe gawks.
"Yeah all because I dumped some nobody in some water…wanna hear what I got so far?" Happily, Death offers unaware of the serious conversation happening elsewhere in a certain mad doctor's lab.
"Right now it doesn't matter what I want. I can't ignore something cause I don't want to see it." Seriously, Kid states the fact of the matter.
"You can't turn a blind eye not eve towards your own father." Smirking, Stein arches a brow.
"I can't make exceptions." Resolute, Kid states.
"What about your mother?" Stein counters making Kid grimace flinching from his words.
"…Anyone who strays from the right path must be stopped." Seriously, Kid vows his golds glaring to the side.
"Hmph but who decided which path is the right one and how do you recognise when someone has strayed from it?" Incensed, Stein sneers scowling.
"It's simple the truth is easy to see when you know right from wrong." Resolute, Kid states.
"Oh is it really? You're quite naïve aren't you?" Stein chuckles amused almost.
"About what?" Kid demands scowling.
"Let me ask you this, where does this knowledge of yours come from? This ability to know right from wrong? There is no inherent good nor evil in this world those labels are just artificial constructs heheh right and wrong are determined by people with positions of authority that's how its always been so how does anyone else know this truth you speak of!? Don't you see that the truth long ago became nothing more than a shadow of itself, it's a mere echo of the past now." Stein explains to Kid.
"You're wrong." Kid snaps scowling anger laced in his tone only then to gasp at the hand coiled around his throat.
"Idealistic boy the world is one big world of grey! It just makes you feel better that it can be categorized into good or bad. That's not actually how it works." Seething, Stein snarls slamming Kid into the wall.
"You're wrong!" Stubbornly, Kid winces, grimacing as he is pinned to the wall making him wince pained.
"Why are you so determined about this kid?" Stein questions him confused.
"Why are you still refusing to answer any of my questions!? What information are you so desperate to keep hidden!?" Unfazed, Kid barks back just as the door slams open and Kid's yellow hues dilate when seeing the black blur dart at Stein sparks spewing out of the mad doctor crying out in agony as Kid can't help but feel a sense of nostalgia at the sight, seeing the similarities of Blackstar first fighting Stein as said scientist cries out to the high heavens. His mother's hands strikes sparks at him as he comes crashing down to his knees, falling flat to the ground.
"You will NOT touch him." Unfazed, Ava sneers staring at the singed doctor, fumes of coal black resonating from him as Kid catches himself coughing, looking towards Marie asking if he's well as he cradles his throat, simply brushing her off staring stunned at the woman before him. He flinches when seeing briefly the same person from the field flicker before him as she simply stares down at him, his nose twitching at the faint stench of pork resonating in the air.
"Kid come." Coldly, Ava orders back turned to Stein.
"But…" Kid begins hoarsely as she looks over at him, feeling her fingertips gently brush against his throat looking attentively at him.
"NOW Kid." Sternly, she orders him as he flinches from her words. She heads to the door, her gold glaring into his own.
"Hehehehehe…" Cackling, Stein bursts into a fit of laughing, his body shaking, shivering, seizing up as Marie rushes over to his side trying to steady him, calling out to him. Coldly, Ava turns her back to Stein scowling, staring on ahead as she places her hand firmly on Kid's shoulder squeezing his shoulder. His gold glance over at his teacher, his brow furrowed clearly concerned for him only then to be pushed forward slightly by his mother making him sigh, following his lead, leaving the mad doctor to wallow in his madness…
"Are you alright?" Ava asks Kid seated upon the bench once the two had stormed off a fair distance form the lab now as Ava looks over Kid's neck, her brow furrowed, frowning at the blue bruises littered around his throat, clearly concerned for his son.
"I'm fine mom I am." Annoyed, Kid sighs scowling, he was a Shinigami he could take care of himself.
"What were you thinking going to Stein with his condition!? He could have hurt you or dissected you…!?" Angrily, Ava snaps scolding her son bowing his head, his hands planted firmly on his kneecaps, staring down at the ground guilty, ashamed almost.
"I would have regenerated besides I doubt he would have…" Huffing, Kid remarks trying to console her but sighs shaking his head.
"Doubt does not stop the possibility young man." Mad, Ava prods his chest, his gold looking up into her own.
"Mother I…" Kid begins brow furrowed pained, a look of guilt upon his facial features.
"You think I hadn't noticed your quietness in class nor your need to look up a four-star book using your familiar connection." Sternly, Ava places her hands on her hips as Kid flinches from her words bowing his head guilty.
"How did you…?" Shocked, Kid's eyes expand from the annoyed Ava.
"It's rare of you to use your father's influence so when the library staff told me alongside Sid's concerns for you I got concerned." Frankly, Ava tells her son scowling down at him.
"Mother I'm…I'm sorry but father…" Feebly, Kid tries to defend himself making Ava sigh seeing his fists fidgeting, his fingertips curling in on himself clearly frustrated.
"Don't…don't apologise." Ava sighs raising her hand swiftly silencing him.
"Huh?" Kid blinks baffled by his mother.
"I understand why you're doing this I do your father isnt easy when it comes to this sort of thing trust me I know." Honestly, Ava confesses taking a seat by her son's side.
"What Stein said…he said about my eyes being that of a witch." Grimly, Kid bows his head as Ava grimaces, closing her eyes solemnly.
"Kid…" Gently, Ava begins brow furrowed.
"What did he mean by that? By the blood of a witch flows through me? I thought I was a Shinigami." Seriously, Kid cuts his mother off begging for answers making Ava sigh.
"You are but you are also human do not forget that Kid." Sternly, she tells him.
"Mother I still don't…I mean what did he mean about the grey area, there is right and there is wrong it's as simple as that why does he not understand that?" Frustrated, Kid confesses to Ava.
"Kid." Ava sighs.
"Well?" Kid arches a brow not in the slightest amused.
"How about this then you can tell me if this person is good or bad, so this person grew up in a time where people like that person were hung, tortured, killed. This person grew up in that life and always had to keep a careful eye around the world all because of a god that saw witches as evil and had to be hunted. So what if I told you this person wanted to show the world did not need to follow the word of a god but of their own violation of having their own opinion, their own voice, their own view on the matter? And to do that they did some non-savoury things just to show that humanity could be independent, that humanity need no god to rely upon." Ava leans back against the bench looking up at the baby blue sky.
"What sort of things did they do?" Kid leans forward frowning.
"Well they made devices that were to help mankind when it came to farming, transportation, provides them the energy for certain machinery which then overtime led to experimentation." Ava sighs solemnly.
"Well that's wrong." Kid asserts.
"Now you see that's the thing this woman had lived in fear for her whole life, she had two children, there she saw their father who had been deemed the witches familiar be stoned so when the person fled how do you think they felt?" Gently, Ava asks her son making him go silent.
"Scared, angry, anxious for their children." Kid lists, his hues softening sadly.
"So imagine being on the run with two mouth to feed not including your own, with the witches having turned their back to the lost cause due to the eyes of that person on them, that person being the one who wanted people like them dead…." Ava tells Kid.
"I…"
"Who is this person you speak of?"
"Your grandmother."
"My…grandmother?"
"Morgana Lefay, she was a kind person at first, I remember all the people who thanked her for her machines. For her aid, many had promised her shelter for what she had done for humanity but over the years with being on the run, with being thrown into danger time and time again with the world chewing and spitting her out time and time again she became dark, the madness consumed her and she changed…"
"The creator of brew is…my grandmother?"
"Yes. Now tell me kid which box is she in?" Ava proposes smirking softly down at him waiting patiently for him to answer as after a while…
"I…she experimented on you so she isn't right." Kid begins brow furrowed pained.
"Now let me ask you something Kid, witches contain a madness within them, an innate drive desire for madness what if I told you that this woman had walked the earth with two mouths to feed had fallen into madness due to the stress of parentage." Ava says to Kid.
"It sounds like a pathetic excuse." Kid snaps scowling.
"Perhaps it does. I'm not condoning what she did not at all but I am simply trying to explain her actions, the world back then was a very different place to how it is Kid." Calmly, Ava elaborates.
"Do you…think she's a bad person?" Kid asks shuffling slightly to the side.
"What I think is this everyone has their reasons for doing what they do but that still doesn't excuse them for everything." Ava answers.
"So you think I'm wrong?" Gently, Kid asks her.
"I think the world is a complicated place and no one is right nor wrong you can disagree with me on that, you can make up your own view on your grandmother, it's your life not mine." Frankly, Ava explains to her son smiling sadly.
"I just…why did you never tell me?" Hurt, Kid asks her mother pain laced in his tone.
"You never asked besides it isn't exactly something I can just tell you over dinner you know?" Ava smiles strained.
"Is that the reason you were at the temple with Eibon?" Tentatively, Kid asks.
"That day…was the day your grandmother died." Deflated, Ava sighs.
"Mother…" Kid begins sighing sadly.
"Come on Kid let's get you home it's getting late." Ava sighs standing up from the bench offering her hand out to her son smiling softly at him.
"Alright…" Kid sighs bowing his head, sliding his hand into hers, mother and son smiling softly at one another as they head home…