Maka woke up around 10:00 a.m. feeling surprisingly refreshed. Less surprising was the fact that Soul remained sound asleep. She left their room, showered, got ready, and headed out to find some breakfast, all the while Soul remained in a deep sleep, filling their room with quiet snores. She hoped that she would find one of the others to ask about the whole dream-sharing thing. Preferably she'd find someone like Tsubaki or Kidd who could seriously field her questions.
After finding something quick and simple to eat in the kitchen she back-tracked to the common room where Liz and Tsubaki were watching the local weather channel.
"Morning! What are you two doing up?" Maka asked cheerfully as she settled into her favourite spot on the huge plush couch.
"I'm so used to getting up at 7:00 a.m. to train with Blackstar that sleeping until 9:00 a.m. felt like plenty of extra," Tsubaki said cheerfully.
"I figured everyone would be asleep so I could do some real business in the bathroom. You know what I mean?"
"I don't actually," Maka replied to Liz.
"Waxing, bleaching, et cetera. All the things you don't want people knowing you actually do," she said waving a well-manicured hand at her.
"What are you doing up Maka?" Tsubaki asked.
"Kind of the same as you. Woke up, felt okay getting up, so I did. Weather channel?"
"They show pictures of outside," Liz shrugged.
Maka nodded in understanding, she really was starting to miss outside.
"I do have a question for you guys…" she started timidly.
Both girls turned to look at her intently.
"Was it your first time?" Liz asked very seriously. "Was it okay?"
"What?...What! No! No. It was…wait, you think I'm a virgin?" Maka said.
Liz squinted at her, "Are you not?"
"No…why?"
"You give this very…innocent, borderline prudish vibe…"
"Anyways! What is your question Maka," Tsubaki said interrupting.
"Oh right well…have you guys ever gone into someone else's dream? Since coming here?"
"You were sucked into one of Soul's dreams then?" Liz said nonchalantly.
Maka nodded.
"Well you know how the professor described you and Soul as being connected from before you were even brought here? And that was how you both came here together and landed near each other? Well that connection goes deeper than we really understand, and at the very least we know that your consciousness is deeply connected with Soul's. So it would make sense that you would occasionally get pulled into different aspects of each other's minds, specifically dreams," Tsubaki responded.
"So it has happened before?" Maka asked.
"Frequently," Liz said with a shrug. "And it is not always pleasant. Given our histories most of our more intense dreams aren't good ones."
Tsubaki nodded along knowingly. All Maka could do was nod her understanding and collapse deeper into the couch.
"Was it really bad Maka?" Tsubaki asked quietly.
"Yeah. Apparently it's a recurring nightmare too. And apparently my previous appearances in this particular dream weren't very pleasant. This was the only time I actually was there though."
They both nodded and then Liz turned back to the TV. She picked up the remote and started flipping through.
"So Marie is calling a big meeting for tomorrow. We get to skip training again!" Tsubaki said cheerfully.
"Isn't a big meeting kind of a bad thing usually?" Liz said casually.
"No, it just means something big."
Maka looked on quietly as they bickered back and forth, about previous meetings and what it all means, and who said what when.
An hour and a half later she wandered back to her room to see if Soul was awake yet.
She knocked first just to be sure she wouldn't walk in on anything. When there was no response after a few seconds she walked in closing the door behind her. She had at this point gotten pretty good at locating the lamp on her bedside table in the dark. She flicked it on and found that Soul was still in bed.
"Ugggghhhh turn off the light," he grunted from under the blanket.
"I will not! It's practically lunch. You should get up now, or you won't be able to sleep tonight."
"Always have to be the voice of reason eh Maka?" he said as he sat up.
"If I said I only nag because I care would that make you feel better?" She said as she slumped onto the bed.
"Kind of actually…you okay?"
"Yes yes. I asked the girls if the dream thing happens to them too."
"Why did I think we would be able to just let that go?" He grunted falling back into his pillow.
"Soul…it was kinda scary, why wouldn't I see if it happens to other people here?"
"Yeah I guess. So it happens then? To other people?"
"Yeah, connected consciousness and whatnot, sometimes it means dream sharing."
"Right."
"Soul, I'm sorry you keep having that shitty nightmare. And I'm sorry I've turned up in that dream before…"
"You're letting that bother you? I know you would never intentionally hurt me. It's just a crappy nightmare."
"Yes. I believe that you believe that. But at some level in your mind you must have some fear or doubt or something about me."
He looked at her then. It was a look she could not really interpret.
"What?"
"Nothing Maka. Just don't worry about it. If I did have any doubts before even dream me has to get over it after you jumped into that pit with me," he said giving her a small smile.
She smiled back but still felt uneasy about the whole thing. "Alright. Well you still have to get up now."
"But why?"
"Because if you get bed sores on your ass I will not help you deal with them okay?"
He laughed as he rolled out of the bed and wandered to gather what he needed from the vanity.
"I will hit the showers, eat a healthy lunch, and whatever else you insist on coach," he said laughing as he closed the door behind him.
Soul had forgotten that everyone else would've slept in too and that he wouldn't necessarily get the showers to himself. He stepped into the men's facilities and was greeted by steam, the sound of the showers already running, and Blackstar singing obnoxiously loud from the depths of the steam.
"Star! Shut up! You're not the only one in here anymore."
"He never was to begin with," a surly looking Kidd said popping his head from around the corner of the showers.
Soul laughed as Blackstar continued to sing loudly. Not that Blackstar was a good singer, but he found the light-hearted atmosphere helpful after the rough night.
He dove into the cloud of steam and found his usual shower stall unoccupied. He tried to really take his time and unwind, normally he was in and out really quickly, but he wanted to savor the break from training. As he was enjoying the feel of the hot water Blackstar started singing along to some pop song with an aggressively repetitive chorus.
"This is not good music Star," Soul tried to yell over the music.
"Oh and how would you recognize good music nerrrrrd," Blackstar called back.
He sighed heavily in his steamy shower stall, "Plenty actually."
"So why do we get today off from training anyways? Does this happen often?" Soul asked as he lathered the shampoo in his hair.
"We don't generally get days off except for special occasions. Usually after a team completes a difficult mission or everyone is sick or something like that." Kidd replied from his own shower stall.
"Or, they're about to tell us big news," Blackstar added.
"Is that good or bad news usually?" Soul asked trying to keep the concern from his voice.
"Well that is a simple question that requires an intricate answer Soul. Unfortunately we can't be in the showers all day. Here's the thing, it is always just news. Good and bad? Very subjective. Besides, that's a very black and white question in a very grey world," Kidd replied cryptically as each of them turned their showers off.
Soul stepped out while wrapping himself in his towel in time to see Kidd's back exiting the showers. He looked over at Blackstar who was gathering his belongings.
"Dude, sometimes its good for us but bad for the other guys, and sometimes its bad for us and good for the other guys. In the end it usually involves a death count and some shitty political stuff that only makes sense to Tsubaki and Kidd." Blackstar slapped him on the back and left the room, leaving Soul alone to dry up and think about what might be happening above ground.
With another heavy sigh he continued his routine, brushing his teeth, hair, etc. He was about to trade the towel in for his clothes when he changed his mind. Looking at the stupid skinny jeans he normally wore and his still damp legs he decided the struggle wasn't worth it. He looked at the crumpled sweatpants he wore into the bathroom and decided to hold out for a fresh pair from his room. He slowly gathered his belongings into the shower caddy before shouldering his way out of the bathroom and trudging across the hall to his room.
"Alright Maks, I cleaned up and whatever, but I am not giving up the sweats today. And in my defense, before you get on my case, I had a long night last night and…" He trailed off as he turned around and realized that Maka was curled up and asleep on their shared bed.
"Well now who is being lazy," Soul mumbled as he put his shower caddy away.
He got dressed quickly into a new set of comfy clothes before going to wake Maka up.
She woke up to the sensation of being gently poked on the shoulder. She wasn't ready to open her eyes so she tried to ignore it and roll over. Then she was being gently shook.
"Makaaaaaaa," she heard Soul whining close to her ear.
"Ughhh what," she sat up feeling disoriented.
"I was only in the showers for like ten minutes and you fell asleep. Hypocrite."
"Right, sorry," she mumbled back. There were reasons she didn't like to nap. Waking up confused was one of them.
"You wanna come with me? I wanna find something to eat before the meeting with Stein."
She looked over at the clock to check the time. "It is almost lunch, I'm sure the others are already at the table actually."
He opened his mouth to respond when his stomach replied for him, with a loud extended grumble.
He smiled sheepishly, "Let's go then."
They were walking down the hallway away from the residential area when Soul's stomach growled loudly again.
"Just tell him to wait a few more minutes," Maka said, finally feeling awake.
"Tell who what?" Soul replied.
"Your stomach. Tell it to wait. We're on our way."
He looked down and prodded his stomach as she pushed open the door into the giant room containing the dining table.
"I don't think he'll …understand," he said laughing a little.
She shrugged, "It doesn't look like you'll have to wait long." Tsubaki was approaching the table with a giant tray of sandwiches as Soul and her joined the others already gathered there.
"Alright! Egg salad, ham and cheese, tuna salad. Man I love sandwiches, so much variety." Blackstar cheered diving into the sandwich platter with enthusiasm.
"Hey man, save some for the rest of us!" Soul said pouncing on the nearest sandwiches.
Everyone else started politely taking what was left on the platter. "So does the meeting start right after this?" Patti asked from around a mouthful of egg salad.
"I imagine once we clean up we'll have heard from Marie," Kidd replied holding a wedge of tuna salad sandwich daintily between two fingers.
"What do you think it will be about?" Maka asked reaching for another quarter of a sandwich. She was looking for a ham and cheese, her favourite.
"Not really. But we usually have some time of meeting every once in a while. You guys have been here for almost three months now, and we just had a team leave the compound, only to come back dragging a body, so I can see why they might want to talk to us," Liz replied.
"Fair," Maka replied as the others nodded along.
The crew chattered away as the pile of sandwiches steadily shrank. Maka looked on the group quietly, just enjoying the company of so many amazing people. It struck her as Liz said it, they really had been there a while now. Her and Soul managed to comfortably drop into the same routine as all their fellow time displaced roommates. They all trained, ate, played, and killed time together without knowing much more than the basics about each other. It only took two months but she had grown fond of everyone there, even Stein, in his own way, offered some sense of…belonging.
"Well, my stomach is done," Soul said standing up to rub his belly.
"Not so fast pal," Maka said, grabbing the end of his shirt. "We're on dish duty together, and I'm not doing it alone just because you stuffed yourself and need a nap. Not again anyways."
His bottom lip stuck out into a pout, but he started gathering dishes off the table anyways.
As she was stacking up the last of the dishes Maka looked up to find Marie striding into the room from one of the random doors along the walls.
"Oh good! You're all still here!" She said with a smile. "We're hoping to give you a little time to rest your stomachs and then have the meeting in about an hour?"
"Works for me," said Blackstar as he stood up. "I need to nap hard."
"We've only been up for a few hours," Tsubaki said quietly as she followed suit.
"You saw how much I ate, my stomach will need lots of time to come to terms with that," he replied as he turned his back to the group and headed for their room.
"Alright, see you soon Marie!" Tsubaki said waving as she disappeared through the door to the residential hallway.
Maka followed Soul down the hallways to the kitchen where they started filling up the large metal sink with dishes and soapy water.
"Whoa, that's a lot of soap Maks," Soul said as he watched her squeeze a solid amount of dish soap into the sink.
"Tuna and egg salad Soul. That's the smelly stuff. Besides we wanna make sure everything really is disinfected. What would we do if someone got sick?"
"I'm sure if the nutty professor can hijack time, curing food poisoning is just a joke."
"Let me put it this way then, do you want to go to the professor all vulnerable? Dehydrated, in pain, vomiting diarrhea…"
"You sound like an ad for pepto," he said laughing.
"Well you sound like a rich kid who never had to do his own dishes anyways," she said through a handful of suds at his face.
"Low blow Maka," he said, looking genuinely hurt.
"S-sorry…" she replied reaching into the suds to find the dishes.
"I don't know if I'll be able to recover from this one," he said as he started to fake crying into his hands. "I don't think I'll be able to help you with the rest of the dishes!" He added as he collapsed to the floor dramatically.
"Oh my god Soul, fine I will do the dishes, will you at least dry them?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" He said with a grin as he bounced back onto his feet.
"You aren't a very good actor you know," she said after a few moments of silent scrubbing.
"It worked on you didn't it?" He said with a shark-toothed grin and a wink.
She rolled her eyes in response. He did get to see the softer side of her, not a side she typically shared with others, but he had already seen her at her most vulnerable.
Not more than ten minutes later they were back in their room. Soul trying to nap and Maka doing some reading. She set an alarm to make sure they would leave on time. She was known to get lost in a book for hours and Soul…was good at napping.
After about forty-five minutes of getting lost in her adventure fantasy novel she was jarred back to reality by the alarm.
Soul managed to slam the alarm off as he grumbled about "just getting to the good part" of his dream.
"What was your dream about?" she asked, as she marked her place in the book and put it on her bedside table.
He flushed a little as he sat up to answer her. "Well…it was more like…more like reliving one of our memories from the past."
"Which one was it?" She asked, genuinely curious now.
"Oh just that first night we met," he said. It was like he was holding something back still.
"Anything else?"
"Nope." He replied quickly. Although she was still suspicious she had to let it go. It was time to meet the others.
She was a little anxious as she followed Soul out of their room to go to the meeting. This meeting was highly anticipated as she had never been to a full team meeting. Even Doctor Stein was taking time away from his research and experiments to tell them something important. She sighed heavily as the door clicked shut behind them.
"What's bothering you?" Soul asked her.
"Nothing."
"Sighhhhh," he said, mocking her. "I speak Maka, you can't expect me to believe nothing is bothering you."
She looked over at him briefly before responding. "Okay fine, I'm a little anxious about this meeting."
"Why? They have these all the time. Star told me."
"What if it's different this time? Or what if this changes everything? What if we all have to separate or something?"
"It seems unlikely that we'd be separated for any real length of time. And it's okay if things change. It doesn't mean it's going to be a change for the worse. Or that it's not something we can adapt to together anyways. And regardless of what anyone wants, even Stein, I'm not leaving you behind anywhere."
"Okay okay. You're right. And we've been training to get something done so I guess we've got to start somewhere."
"That's the spirit now let's go meet the others," he said tugging one of her pigtails.
She swatted at his hand as she followed him down the residence hallway.
Everyone was already gathered at the table as they sat down to join them.
Marie had brought out a carafe of tea and was pouring a few mugs for those who wanted some.
"Tea?" Marie asked her and Soul as they settled in.
"Oh yes please," Maka replied.
"Soul?" Marie asked holding up a mug.
"Sure, thanks," Soul answered accepting a steaming mug from Marie.
"Okay Professor, what's the deal?" Blackstar asked.
"Well, I know how you all enjoy living underground and you love your rigorous training schedule, but it's finally time to take action. I've come across a way to reverse all that Medusa and her followers have created for themselves."
"Ah yes the fall of a regime. I can only imagine this will be rather bothersome," Kidd said dryly as he pulled his mug closer, staring at the steam curling out.
"Not quite as difficult as you might imagine I have been working on a rather special device. However, travelling to the capital and infiltrating Medusa's headquarters will not be remotely easy. We will have to move mostly undercover and we will not be able to act without some force, particularly as we get closer and closer to Medusa."
"Wait, reverse everything? Even the time skips?" Soul asked, glaring at his own mug.
"Not entirely, the time that has passed will still exist. For us."
"So we'll remember everything? Do we return to the moment we left our prior timeline?" Maka asked. She wasn't sure whether that would be a good thing or not as she considered the circumstances of her departure in the first place.
"For the most part. Certainly your physical selves will remain as you are in this timeline. And it was with the intention of keeping your minds and memories intact that I designed this machine. But I have no way of really testing that out."
"So if we all go back, any of us affected by the time anyways, how will we keep Medusa from starting over in the original timeline?" Liz asked.
"That's obvious," Patti chimed in.
Everyone looked over at her in surprise. She wasn't exactly tactically inclined.
"We kill her in this timeline. No Medusa here, no Medusa to send back in time."
Everyone looked back to Stein for confirmation. His face had split into a grin. "Exactly."
"How do we plan to do all that?"
Soul grumbled.
"Well if everyone would save their questions I could finish telling you my plan," Stein responded, his typical apathy being replaced with irritation.
"Well get on with it then for fuck's sake," Blackstar said slapping his palm on the table.
"We travel by foot a majority of the way. If we make it as far as Idaho where I have a safe house we'll be able to use the specially designed, armoured vehicle I have there. From there we can drive almost entirely to Washington, as long as we go mostly unnoticed."
"Mostly?" Tsubkai said, interrupting Stein.
"Do you truly expect Medusa won't have people specifically dedicated to detection and destruction of her enemies?"
"I understand. Sorry for the interruption Professor."
"Using what I know of secret tunnels and entrances, and the skills you've been honing these past few months, we will have to infiltrate Medusa's headquarters using stealth and strength. Once inside we find her, end her, and detonate the time machine."
"Do we all still get to be friends?" Patti asked quietly.
"Of course!" Tsubaki exclaimed passionately.
"Well that's not necessarily true. We came from all over the place. All of us from different times and spaces. How would we find each other?" Kidd added.
"Couldn't we just write down the time and place we came from and maybe an address or something. Just simple ways to track each other down when the dust has settled?" Maka added.
"That would work!" Marie said.
"Actually," Stein started. "Even if we all just gave that information to Maka and Soul and they could help us reunite. They were the last to arrive so it would be logical to assume that they were the last to leave our timeline. Once they return we will know that everyone has returned. Is this appropriate Maka, Soul?"
"Yes! Definitely!" Maka exclaimed.
She looked over at Soul who was nodding along enthusiastically. Soul had really come out of his shell in their time at the underground compound. He used to recoil in the presence of the people in the room, now he was part of bringing them all back together. One day.
"Okay, so when do we leave?" Blackstar asked loudly.
"One week from now. The remainder of this week will involve half days of training and then using the rest of the day to close up the compound."
"It's gonna take a week to do that?" Soul asked incredulously.
"Hopefully that's all it takes. I'd like to leave on time," Stein replied.
She shared a worried glance with Soul. How big was this place?
"To simplify things we will split you into your pairings and give each group a specific portion of the compound to clean and prepare for lock up. Here are the maps with already highlighted specific areas for each group," Marie said as she handed out colour coded maps for each group.
Maka reached for her and Soul's map, unsure of what to expect.
"So starting tomorrow report for training at 9:00 am. Training will be concluded by noon and then you should be starting the compound shut down procedures by 1:00 pm. On the back of your maps is a list of duties to accomplish in each room and hallway. You will find a supply cart for each group here starting tomorrow. It will have everything you need to fulfill your duties appropriately. Don't cut corners or I'll cut you, understand?" Stein said, sounding almost as though he'd relish the opportunity to cut into a living human.
The group nodded, the discomfort visible in each of their faces.
And with that dark note the team of mismatched time travellers marched off to the residence hallway where they all opted to decompress in the lounge.
"We've never all had to leave before," Liz said.
"Nor have we ever had to shut down the compound. There's so much of it we never even saw in the first place. This will be a lengthy process," Kidd added.
"But also pretty fun," Maka felt the need to add. Seeing all the different rooms they'd be exploring over the next week.
"Who knew we even had all these resources," Soul said looking over at the map she had spread across her knees.
"Well I knew about some of it. But with training being as intensive as it was we never really made time to check out many areas," Tsubaki said from her corner of the couch next to Blackstar.
They all sat together in contemplative silence. After this week they'd all be thrown into a dangerous new situation. It would take days and days for them to hike to Stein's safe house in Idaho. It was almost halfway to the capital. And that's assuming they wouldn't encounter much resistance on the way.
"We've trained really hard for a while. I'm sure we'll be okay," Soul said from next to her. "Besides we'll have Stein with us and he's terrifying."
She looked over at Soul noting the unease in his face. She felt the laughter starting in her chest and didn't even try to hold it in. The giggles bubbled out of her and before she knew it he rest of their team was joining in.
"You don't even know the half of it dude," Blackstar added as the room quieted down again. "I wandered into a room off of the back of his lab upstairs. It was nightmare fuel."
"Alright, I'm going to my room before Blackstar says anything that will haunt me forever," Liz said as she got up from the couch.
"Might as well join you," Kidd said following her lead.
Everyone else got up too, opting to find anywhere else to be before Blackstar could say anything more. After Tsubaki got up Blackstar decided to follow her out of the room.
Soon it was just Maka and Soul again.
"Hey Maka, did you ever remember what happened after we shook hands that first night?" Soul asked.
"No…why? Have you?"
"Uh no don't worry about it."
"What! You can't do that Soul! Did you remember something important? I want to know."
"If I did, I wouldn't tell you anyways," he said trying to keep his tone neutral.
Why wasn't he letting her know what this was about? Did she do something embarrassing? Did he?
She was about to open her mouth to insist on the full truth when he stood up abruptly.
"I challenge you to a winner take all game of 21," he said racing for the door.
When she glared at him rather than follow him he added, "Last one to the basketball court has to ask Blackstar why he refers to himself as a god!"
"What! No!" She managed to reply. And with that the door was swinging shut behind him.
"Damn it Soul," she mumbled to herself as she jumped off the couch to try to catch up to him.