"Falling in the black - Slipping through the cracks - Falling to the depths can I ever go back? Dreaming of the way it used to be. Can you hear me?"
~ Skillet (Falling Inside The Black)
Chapter Eight:
The Battle at Eagle's Pass
"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body."
"Humankind cannot gain without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange."
The train rattled and shook as it made its way to Eagle's Pass. Maka was reading a book, Soul was asleep, and FullMetal was just sitting there, looking out the window. He felt like he was missing something...No...no it was someone! But who?...
He wished that the train would go a little faster, or at least for time to pass by faster. He didn't want to fall asleep, he didn't want Maka or Soul to see him have the nightmare. He didn't want them to see him like that.
He decided that it would be a good time to look at his old pocket watch, he flipped it open and saw that he had only been on the train for about thirty minuets, he frowned and stuffed it back into his pocket only to end up feeling his old booklet. He grabbed it and looked at it's dusty brown cover and how it had several color coded book-markers sticking out of it. He flipped it open and looked at the first page... He bit his tongue then flipped through the whole thing... Everything written in it was in a strange language that he could some how understand, only to find that it too was coded like his notes from school. It was a Travel Journal and notes...notes on... Alchemy. The starting of the notes and journal was at a strange place called Resembool, Amestris...
"You're such a Alchemy nerd!"
"Oh yeah? Well, you're a gear head!"
He shook his head and closed the booklet and stuffed it into his pocket, feeling that it wasn't time yet... He would look at the booklet later... Maybe when he gets home... yeah that would be good, but the question was, which home? His home with his moms or his home at the dorms of the DWMA? Or maybe his birth home which he guessed was this Resembool, Amestris place that he saw in that dusty brown book. The name of that place resonated him on a whole other level, only beaten by the thought of having a little brother.
Suddenly his eyes grew heavy... No, he must stay awake... But sleep was calling him... His head leaned on the window and he began to drift off into a slumber... Yeah... Just for a short while... How long could he sleep in a day?
"FullMetal." Maka said.
His head shot up, in a way he was grateful that she had stopped him from falling asleep. He answered, "Yeah?"
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, why?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Its just... your soul,... its ...well... A bit... longing."
"It is?" he knew that some Meisters could see souls, but he never knew how his soul or its wavelength was as a whole. "Longing, how?"
She closed her book and drummed her fingers on it as she said, "Well...it's as if you... miss someone... Like if you felt that you wish they were here with you..."
He looked out the window for a moment before he glared at her with a sudden feeling of anger as he said, "Well if that's what you see, its not what I feel...remember? Because I certainly don't."
Maka blushed and looked away, "Oh...yeah...sorry."
FullMetal rolled his eyes and continued looking out the window, watching as the laughing sun slowly set as the grinning moon began to ascend... Now that he thought about it, strangely, he was never comfortable with the sun and the moon... He pushed his thoughts about them to the back of his mind, not wanting to dwell on them.
Lord Death stood in the Death Room staring into his mirror - he did this only when he was in a deep state of thought, which in fact he was in a deep state of thought. He had been thinking and thinking, but not sure that he should worry or if he shouldn't. He had once felt a similar Soul Wavelength to that of which FullMetal Alchemist would give off... But that's the thing... Why a child?...
"Lord Death..."
The Reaper looked to the side only to see that a woman was in the room with him. The woman was fairly young, looking to be in her mid twenties to early thirties. She had large caramel eyes, and almost golden hair. The woman wore her hair loosely with no bangs, and it formed a zigzag part on her head. She wore a black dress with a large, golden, zigzag pattern in the front from the waist down. Parts of the dress were made from different fabric, located on the long sleeves of the dress from the elbows down, and a part below the chest that resembles a grid-like shape. She wore a pair of white high-heel shoes that also appeared to have a zigzag patter on them. The most iconic piece of clothing on her was her large, black, left eye patch that was decorated with a thunderbolt insignia, which just so happens to appear on her when she is in weapon form. The woman's name was Marie Mjolnir .
"Yes?" he asked.
"You've been so silent since they left, are you okay?" she asked.
Death sighed, "I know what you're thinking, and I'm thinking it too... But then again, who wouldn't be concerned..."
She looked at him surprised, she then looked down to the floor, "The theory..."
He nodded, "Yes. When Stein came to me with that theory about FullMetal's soul, I couldn't help but tell him that I thought the same thing... After all I'm the one who had asked him to check the boy's soul in the first place... Right when he stepped into the DWMA I felt that wavelength of his and I knew that it wasn't normal... I'm just hoping that Stein and I are wrong..."
"But what if... What if you're right?" Marie asked, "What then?... You can't kill him! He's just a kid!"
"...There isn't much you can do in cases like this, Marie..." he said somberly, "...It all depends on how stubborn and willful he is, and I have a feeling that he'll do anything to make sure that it wont have to come to his end! He'll have to put up one heck of a fight - but we all have to remember that he is only the second case... and hopefully the last..."
There was knock on the door to the Death Room. He looked at the door as it opened and saw that it was none other than his son... Death the Kidd...
After almost half an hour before the train stopped and it was time for them to get off the train and begin looking for the Keishin Eggs. The town that was Eagle's Pass was a fairly small town, it had a few restaurants, a small library, and several farms, along with a market and several Butcher shops. Maka noticed that FullMetal would stare at the Butcher Shops as if he expected someone he knew to walk out of the shop. Maka wondered if maybe someone in the Gold-Scythe's past just so happened to be a butcher... Several times they had to bring him back to reality so they could get back on track... hoping to come across the Keishin Eggs soon.
The sky was getting darker and darker as time passed and the students began making their way to the cemetery until they heard a scream. Maka quickly activated her Soul Percept and said, "Soul!"
"On it!" Soul said, quickly transforming into his Weapon form, and Maka caught him expertly, spinning him a few times and rested him on her shoulder whilst holding him with one hand.
She looked around and stared into the distance to the west, "There!"
She began running and FullMetal tailed her, making sure not loose her. After running a good distance, and a few twists and turns, they were able to spot the Keishin Eggs.
Maka heard FullMetal gasp and mutter the word "Chimeras..." under a breath.
One of the Keishin Eggs was a large man-like creature which had a metal scorpion-like tail and several claws that reminded Maka and Soul of Jack the Ripper. The mask that the creature wore was like a black Venetian Mask. That Keishin Egg was known as the Zodiac Killer.
The second one had several blades sticking out of his back making a batwing-like pattern on his back, he also had a mask but it was just pure black. That was Vlad the Impaler.
The two were standing over a corpse of a fairly young woman. Zodiac grabbed the woman's soul and ate it hungrily.
"Those are Keishin Eggs," Maka explained, "you already know that they're evil humans who eat human souls, their souls are impure and are pure evil. What ever you do, make sure that you live, kill them, and eat their souls, and don't lose. Got it?" she looked at FullMetal with determined eyes.
"Got it." he nodded.
"Then lets go!" she smiled, before gaining a determined look and charged at the Keishin Eggs as she held Soul high to attack.
FullMetal transformed his finger tips like the way he did when he fought Black Star. He then charged at the monsters as well.
Maka swung Soul down at Zodiac but she missed because it dodged her attack, Vlad was about to attack her from behind but FullMetal tried to strike Vlad in the head but missed as well because it expertly dodged as well. Both of the Keishin Eggs began making a run for the graveyard, and the students persistently fallowed them, several times trying to attack them, but several times the students were thrown back and Keishin Eggs were able to continue running away. Soon they got to the bone-yard though, things became a bit annoying. There were so many tombstones there that there weren't many places to step without being confronted by a headstone.
FullMetal slyly jumped on one of the headstones to get some height so he could jump on to Vlad's back, pushing it on to the ground and making it get a face full of dirt. The "wings" that the Keishin Egg had pointed inward, trying to kill the Gold-Scythe but was blocked by the blades that were being used as claws that he summoned.
"Maka! Soul!" FullMetal called.
"We're one step ahead of you!" Soul said.
The Weapon Meister duo were resonating with each other. Soul's blade began glowing and gained an extra blade behind his original one, then the two blades grew to twice its original size, looking much like the moon above them. Maka ran and jumped upon a headstone and swung Soul as FullMetal dodged, jumping off of the target.
"WITCH HUNTER!" Maka shouted, as the attack made impact, a flash of light in it's wake. When the light dissipated, Vlad became pitch black and turned into a black ribbon which turned into a red orb... which was in fact a soul. Soul slightly turn into his human form, looking as though he was climbing out of the blade. He grabbed a hold of the soul and ate it as if it was candy.
"I think the Zodiac Killer made it to the cathedral." FullMetal said looking toward the distance where they could barely see the tip of the building.
"We better get moving..." Maka said, and Soul turned back to his full Weapon form.
They all made their way to the building, though when they barely made it to the front door several ropes caught them by their feet and pulled them to the top of the building. Only to find that there were twelve Keishin there, counting Zodiac...or as he should now be properly referred to as "Scorpio", the Zodiac Killer was actually a gang of Keishin Eggs that were representing all of the Zodiacs. This stunned the students, after a moment passed, all of the Keishin Eggs attacked, only to be met by several blades, mainly FullMetal's "claws", as Maka and Soul Preformed a second Witch Hunter, which was only able to kill two Keishin Eggs along with breaking a whole in the roof and several floors of the building, the hole led down to the first floor of the building.
Several times the Keishin nearly got the advantage, but thankfully FullMetal was good at using his enemy's attacks against them, he was able to make several them hit each other, even going as far as throwing one straight into Soul's blade, killing it on impact. When a Keishin that had a crab-like look had tried to stab Maka in the stomach FullMetal lopped it's head off, allowing Maka to be able to swiftly use a third Witch Hunter and was able to kill three more of the monsters. But then a lion-like Keishin Egg roared, causing a sound wave to nearly hit Maka, then another one of them, which looked like a mermaid, tried to use a giant fishhook to stab her, Maka was able to intercept it with Soul, but then the lion-like one roared a second time causing her to fly back and drop Soul down the hole that was cause by the second witch hunter.
"SOUL!" she cried as the Scythe fell. The Meister quickly got up as if she was about to jump down and get him, FullMetal tackled her to save her from being hit by Scorpio's "tail". Before she could even thank him, he transformed into his Weapon form, surprising her, but she still caught him. "I- I never used a Scythe like y-" before she was able to finish her sentence she felt a warm feeling coarse through her entire body and around her soul... she then blacked out...
But what she didn't know was that FullMetal had possessed her. He had took control of her... he acted as a shield for her soul, as if her soul was a caterpillar and his was the cocoon that the metamorphosis was taking place in... Maka's body gained several scarlet and gold tribal dragon markings around her, there were two wings that marked her on each eye. She glared at the Keishin Eggs around her.
Soul transformed back to his human form and got up from the thin, black, carpet that hid some of the cold hard marble floor that was under it. He looked up and cursed, he felt as though he failed his Meister again, but suddenly several chains came out of the hole and some even extended it, there were even some that made new ones. The chains moved so fast that they caused the air around them to move rapidly, creating their own wind that clashed against each other, it seemed as though the chain was endless and wasn't going to end anytime soon. Soul felt as though he knew who the chain belonged to, and he hated the thought of it, he didn't even like the thought of Tsubaki acting as Maka's temporary partner; but another scythe, he would beat the hell out of them just to make sure they didn't go near Maka ever again, she was his Meister, no one else's. The thought that Maka and FullMetal could do this much destruction was a terrifying thought. Black Star just might have a challenge when it comes to surpassing god...
Maka found herself in... what looked like Death City but everything looked to be a dark shade of purple... but when she looked to her right the city looked to be cut in half, she looked to the other side of the half which was another city, that she didn't recognize, cut in half and was a strange shade of indigo. Both the unknown city and Death city met in the middle and merged into one where they were cut. She looked around her surroundings only to find that she was alone.
"Soul?" she called, "FullMetal?" she was only answered by her echo. She frowned, she didn't know where she was. She looked up into the sky and was shocked. Above the unknown city was the moon she was so familiar with but it was a deep shade of purple and was drooling a black substance, but above Death City was just a large, indigo orb. Both the orb and the moon were still, as if they were frozen in time. She didn't know what to think of it.
"You know, your friends aren't coming here..." said a voice.
Maka looked behind her, only to find a little girl was the one who spoke. The little girl was very cute, with bright blue eyes and long brown hair pulled back into two braids which hung past her waist. She wore a pink collared long sleeved polo under a blue jumper with bright gold buttons.
"Are you lost?" the little girl asked.
"Uh... Yes..." Maka said, she looked at the little girl curiously, "How did you know?..."
"You looked so confused when you looked at Central City, but when you looked at Death City you were calm." the kid giggled, "Not to mention when you looked at our moon you looked as though it was unnatural, but when you saw that smiling one, you acted as if you've seen it all your life!"
Maka raised an eyebrow, "Well, you wouldn't happen to know where my partner, Soul Eater, would be? Or maybe FullMetal Alchemist, by chance?"
The little girl looked baffled when Maka mentioned Soul, but when she mentioned FullMetal, the child looked horrified. The child calmed her self and said, "I don't anyone with a name like Soul Eater, but I do know someone called FullMetal Alchemist... but you don't want to see him right now...He's been really mean for some reason, he doesn't think he is, but trust me, he's being a meanie for some reason."
Maka was now really confused, "Mean? Since when?... Well today he was being a little rude, but that's it. I've never seen him be mean before...". "What do you mean that he's acting mean?"
"I mean what I mean!" the girl said ,"He's being mean!"
"Mean, how?"
The little girl scratched the back of her head nervously as she thought about it, "He... he keeps saying... weird things... He hasn't always been this way, he actually used to be very nice, but then one day he just... started saying things and... he would talk to himself and he would break stuff like they were meant to be broken..."
"What would he say?" Maka pressed.
"Do you really want to know?" the girl looked up at Maka with her bright blue orbs.
"Yes." Maka answered.
The little girl frowned, "Well, if you say so... He keeps saying he wants to take control and that he wants to watch everything burn..."
Maka was shocked, "Th-...that isn't like the FullMetal I know."
The child looked up at her and asked, "What is your FullMetal like?"
"He's pretty nice, but today he was a bit rude, but not cruel like yours!" Maka said.
The little girl looked to the side then became uneasy, "You better go home, FullMetal is waking up... He's been waiting for a time like this to come when he woke up for the first time..."
She grabbed Maka's hand and began pulling her away from the Central half and into the Death City half. She began leading Maka through Death City, not bothering to let go of her hand. Maka was very curious about this little girl that was pulling her around, but not only that, she was curious about where she was at and how she got there.
"So... what's your name?" Maka asked.
"Nina."
"Well... its nice to meet you Nina, I'm Maka Albarn."
Nina smiled, "Its nice to meet you too."
"Nina, do you even know where we're going?" Maka asked. Right from the point when Nina had began leading Maka through Death City, they've been making random turns and several times Nina had missed several shortcuts to the DWMA Dormitories.
"Yes, but we don't want FullMetal to find us, he'll want to hurt us. I don't think being a broken toy would be fun, it must hurt them a lot when toys get broken, don't you think?" Nina said innocently.
"So you're basically saying that he'll kill us if he were to find us?" Maka asked.
"Yeah, but he thinks it's a game, so he'll just hurt us a lot before he does that..." Nina said somberly.
"That's impossible!" Maka thought, but then her eyes went wide, "Did-...Did FullMetal say anything about eating Human Souls?"
"Uh-huh." Nina nodded, "He said that he liked eating them... but he doesn't know that it's a bad thing. I tried to tell him, but he says that I'm too young to understand, and that I'm lucky that he finds my company enjoyable or else he would've eaten me... Some times he acts like he's actually going to eat to me! He's scary!"
"We'll if he try's to attack us, he'll get what's coming to him. I'm a Scythe Meister, he'll have one hell of a fight against me." Maka said casually.
"But don't you need Soul for that?..." Nina asked.
Maka looked down at her, "Uh... Yeah... How did you know?"
Nina's eyes went wide, "Know what?"
The two stopped walking, and Maka looked down at Nina, "How did you know that I needed Soul?"
"What do you mean you need a soul? Don't you have one?" Nina asked.
"Yes, I have a soul but I'm talking about my Weapon Partner: Soul!" Maka said annoyed, "How did you know I need him?"
Nina shrugged, let go of Maka's hand, and pointed in front of them, and said "Isn't that your home?"
Maka looked and saw that they made it to the Dormitories, she was surprised that they had made it there, "Uh... yeah,... you know you're pretty cre-..." when she looked down where the little girl was she was met by... nothing. Nina was gone. She looked side to side, and saw that Nina was nowhere to be found.
Then everything went white...
Soul watched as the chains swiftly retreated as fast as they had came, then without warning three Keishin Eggs fell to the floor along with a fourth which had Maka - with FullMetal in hand - on top, FullMetal's first blade against it's throat. When they landed, the Keishin Egg - that Maka was on top of - head got cut off and both the head and the body turned into ribbons and the soul was left there floating. Seeing as there weren't any more Keishin Eggs coming, the others were most likely dead, the only survivors being the three who also fell through the hole.
The Keishin Egg, that looked like it had goat horns, charged. Maka broke FullMetal's handle, revealing the chain that was concealed in it. She held a small piece of the handle and started spinning it and moved rapidly, causing the chain along with FullMetal's many blades to fly around wildly. Soul had to hide behind the staircase that was near by, to make sure that he was unlikely to be hit. The Keishin Egg that tried to attack her, was hit, and was hit hard. It was sent flying into a wall, leaving several cracks in the wall before the Keishin Egg dissipated, leaving it's soul behind. One of the other Keishin Eggs tried to escape but it too was hit, but by FullMetal's three blades, killing it.
Maka stopped moving and held FullMetal normally as the chain swiftly went back into the handle and the "broken" pieces of the handle reconnected becoming one-whole again. The last piece to reconnect was the head of the Scythe, being the triple blades. Maka stared at the last Keishin left. It was the first one they all started with... the one that was with Vlad the Impaler... Scorpio.
In a dazed and low voice Maka said, "Soul Resonance..."
Soul could feel the powerful resonance from where he was, which was a bit of a great distance from Maka and FullMetal and an even greater distance from the Keishin Egg. The Resonance was unbelievable, if a Weapon that couldn't see or even sense souls could feel a resonance occurring meant that the souls that were resonating were both extremely powerful. FullMetal had the familiar glow that Soul had seen on his own blades many times. The Gold-Scythe gained three extra blades behind the originals, then with a flash, the blades became one, but they looked nothing like what Soul's blades looked like when he and Maka would preformed the Super-Skill... The blades looked like angel wings...
"Witch Hunter!" Maka exclaimed as she ran toward the Keishin Egg.
And with a flash of light... it was all over the Keishin Egg was dead. Maka suddenly fell as FullMetal transformed back into his human form. Soul ran to Maka and picked her up off the ground.
"Maka!" Soul said as he tried to get her back on her feet, "Maka are you alright?"
"Soul..." Maka said as she got out of her daze, "What happened?"
"You were using FullMetal as your weapon." Soul answered, he didn't like the thought, but he had no choice, he couldn't lie to his Meister...
"I was?" Maka said. She was now out of the daze, and even if she still was, she shook it out of her.
She and Soul looked at FullMetal who looked like he was holding his head with one hand. He then began chuckling which ended up turning in maniacal laughter.
"Finally!" the Gold-Scythe said, "Finally, I'm the one in control!"
Maka's eyes went wide, her memories of the two cities rushing back to her, "Is this the FullMetal Alchemist that Nina was talking about?" she thought.
When FullMetal swiftly turned around, Maka and Soul were hit with a chain and were sent flying into a wall. FullMetal stayed where he had been standing, chuckling madly. The chain retreated to his arm as it turned back to normal. Maka activated her Soul Percept and looked into the Gold-Scythe's soul. Her eyes went wide it was different, much different, the soul was now making a very large and strong wavelength but after a good moment it began making three small and flexible wavelength, but that seemed to now be rare because the stronger waves were the dominant ones. Not to mention, FullMetal's eyes looked a lot like Crona's when he was in the Madness. This made her realize something... When she was possessed... she was in the Soul Realm... She was in FullMetal's Soul Realm like the time when she had been in Crona's, but this time she had been forced there when she was possessed by FullMetal. Nina must've been a manifestation of a memory like Crona's subconscious as his shadow. Which meant that the FullMetal that Nina was talking about was... the Keishin Egg, who was now representing his madness...
"Soul, transform." Maka said.
Soul stared at her for a moment then nodded, "On it." a blue light engulfed him, then he landed in her hands, as she got up off the ground.
Maka held Soul, ready to attack, she glared at FullMetal with her burning emerald eyes into his insane gold ones. "You're his madness, aren't you?"
He grinned, "Oh, so the birdy thinks it has a brain! No. I'm the original! That rodent is nothing more than a fraud!"
"What do you mean by 'birdy'?" she asked.
"You're not the only one who can see souls~." he said licking his lips, "And yours has a nice set of wings that are just begging to be bit off."
Maka grit her teeth, "Well then, I guess this crow will have to claw your eyes out."
They stood there glaring at each other, then Maka charged, Soul in her grasp, when she swung at her target, he blocked with his own blades being used as claws. He pushed Maka away and swiftly summoned his chain to attack her. She blocked with the handle of her scythe so she wouldn't be hit but she was still sent flying, to prevent herself from landing badly, she made Soul's blade dig into the marble flooring to slow them down, and soon stop, she used the handle as a landing base, basically standing on Soul. FullMetal calmly put his hands together as if he was praying, then he placed a hand on the floor, blue lightning began crackling around his hand, he slowly began lifting his hand off the floor and a pole began rising out of the marble which was seemingly caving in on itself. When he had raised his hand almost over his head, a full-length spear had came from the floor.
The spear was fairly normal like any other but it had many differences compared to them. For one thing it had three blades, one where normal spears had one, then there were ones that looked like the wings to the dragon design that was on it. It was like a duel-sided scythe combined with a spear. There was also a spike at the bottom of the handle, which could be used as a way of attacking someone behind the wielder. The blades were all invisibly sharp.
As curious as Maka was as to how FullMetal made a spear, she was equally worried. This meant that no matter how many time she could destroy the damn thing, he could make more. She got off of her Weapon and wielded him correctly, as FullMetal grabbed his weapon and wielded it. Maka charged again but this time when she swung Soul, FullMetal held the spear with one hand to block the attack as he used his free hand to grab the Meister by the foot and throw her all the way to the staircase that was in the room. She was lucky that she didn't let go of Soul.
As she used her scythe to support her weight as she got up, FullMetal swung his spear as he concentrated some of his soul wavelength into it - similar to how Sid did with his tombstone -, the blades glowing "Alchemic Slicer!"
A bright light headed toward Maka, adrenalin coursing through her veins, she dodged it expertly by jumping off of the side of the staircase and landing on her feet. She sent some of wavelength to her weapon. They began to amplify it.
"Lets go! Soul Resonance!" they said in sync.
Witch Hunter was expertly crafted, looking like the moon, the glow was epically there like always. Maka jumped on to the railing of the staircase, gaining some height, and she spun downward at the Weapon that she was fighting, creating a ring from the swift movement. But then...