A/N: So remember how I blended the anime and manga to create a world where Mifune was still alive but everything else proceeded as normal? Well, I did it again, for plot purposes. What I did isn't going to become immediately apparent, but the careful reader might pick up on it in this chapter if they squint. Have fun! (Also it goes without saying, but I am once again playing fast and loose with Arthurian mythology.)
Review Responses:
OfAllTheShizz, I guess the nice thing about Spirit is that he gives all the other pervy characters something to point to, so that they can say "At least I'm not like him!". Poor guy, but he brought it on himself. Oh well, glad you enjoyed the chapter!
God of Crossover, Ayame is a fourteen-year-old girl. As someone who was once a fourteen-year-old girl, I assure you that it seems completely obvious to us what we're feeling at that age…but it might not be obvious to the rest of the world.
fanficlove2014, glad you like Ayame and the chapter! And I'm glad that part of her character seems to be coming through the way I wanted it to. Thanks for reviewing!
AmyNChan, I am so glad Ayame's motivation is clear to you despite the fact I haven't actually said what it was. It means I wrote it right, so yay! And yes, she doesn't quite understand that poor Rei needs it spelled out to him or he's not going to get it. Shibuko was the alternate name for the orphanage. I think I mentioned it earlier, but sorry for the confusion. Soul is definitely going to pay for it in some regard once Maka and Ox's rivalry kicks up again (my students must be the best students evah!...etc. Glad you liked it and thanks for the review!)
Guest, yeah, poor Rei. Don't worry, he'll get it eventually. From a writer's perspective though, I'm really glad that Rei's confusion seemed realistic to you. Means I'm doing a halfway decent job of writing from the male perspective, lol. Thanks for the review!
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
All in the Cards
Morgan sat on top of Cassie's open pages, her legs tucked neatly underneath her as they soared over the Atlantic at high speed. The grimoire had grown so that it was more than thrice its original size, allowing Morgan to sit just over the spine, with some room for movement on all sides.
The wind whipped at them, bitterly cold, and Morgan ducked into it, one hand braced on Cassie's pages to keep herself there and her eyes focused on the horizon as they fled away from the sun, twilight turning the sky ahead of them into a patchwork of blues and violets, the first stars already beginning to make their appearance in the dome of the sky.
They were getting close. She could feel it in her blood, could almost imagine Avalon calling her home. But it was only her imagination. She wasn't going there.
She had another destination in mind.
Rei. She didn't know the exact time her vision had specified, only that it had been nighttime and it was raining. For all she knew, it could be hours from now, or she could already be too late.
"We need to hurry," she said, leaning into the wind.
"I know, Morgan," Cassie said. "I'm going as fast as I can."
Morgan looked up and felt the wind across her face, saw the first fringes of land begin to appear over the horizon. She reached down, spreading out so that she was almost lying on her stomach, her fingers tight around the grimoire's pages to keep herself there.
Cassie looked up at her from within her soul space, frowning in confusion. "Morgan?" she asked.
"Ventus," Morgan intoned. "Ventus, ventum, venti."
Words glowed beneath her, the wind picking up around them. Morgan closed her eyes against it and grit her teeth as Cassie let out a small shriek, the wind propelling them forward towards the European coastline.
Rei's eyes widened as the world exploded, a concussive blast of fire and heat rushing towards him. The world spun as the blast knocked him off his feet, his chain-scythes flying out of his hands as Ayame regained her human form in a flash of light.
Before he was fully aware of what was happening, she had already grabbed him around the shoulder and pushed him to the ground, rolling them both off the platform. Rei's stomach lurched as the floor dropped away suddenly, the two of them tumbling off of the wooden plinth and plunging into the empty space beneath the bell. She hooked one arm under his as they fell, the other transforming into a weighted chain and looping around the bell's clapper. The chain went taut, the bell shuddering with their weight and momentum as they swung, letting out a booming ringing sound that echoed throughout the bell tower.
Rei came to his senses quickly, tapping the pattern for Cloak of Shadows out on Ayame's arm as they swung, a ball of fire snaking down from the top of the bell tower into the shaft they were hanging in. Ayame nodded, her eyes narrowing in concentration as she transformed in a flash of light. There was a brief moment, near the apex of their swing, when Ayame vanished and he was falling through the void again. Then the Cloak wrapped around him, its shadow kunai shooting out in two opposing directions and latching onto the walls, slowing Rei's fall.
He landed crouched on the ground, one hand pressed to the floor to catch himself, and managed to roll out of the way of the fireball as it crashed onto the floor, tumbling through the door that led into the tower and standing up in the church proper.
The inside of the cathedral was magnificent, stone pillars stretching upwards on either sides of the aisle towards vaulted ceilings that seemed impossibly high. It was empty at this time of night, and dark, shadows gathering in the pews and balconies and pooling beneath the fractured city lights that came in through the stained glass windows. But there wasn't any time to admire it.
Rei spun as he heard a thud from behind him, feeling out with his Soul Perception. His attacker had landed on the ground, his own cloak spread around him as he straightened up and extinguished the flames with a hand. Quickly, before the man could see him, Rei threw the Cloak's kunai up towards the pillars that flanked a darkened balcony, the cords that bound the Cloak to the kunai shortening enough for him to leap over the railing. He landed crouched on the ground on the other side, his back pressed against the stone wall behind him as he watched the man step out into the sanctuary, unscathed from both the blast and the fall. He walked down the aisle slowly, moving his head from left to right as if searching for Rei.
"Rei, what's wrong?" Ayame asked. "Why aren't we fighting?"
Rei shook his head, but didn't trust himself to speak just then. He didn't know how to tell Ayame about what he saw, about the size of the man's soul. Fear crept through him as he crouched there, his heart beating so loudly that he could hear it. It was a sort of fear he hadn't felt in a long time, the fear that came from facing someone much bigger and much stronger than him.
"You're just making things worse for yourself, you know," the man said, from the cathedral down below. "Just come out. I promise it will be quick."
He drew in a slow breath to calm himself, raising his hand slightly so that Ayame could see it and making a pair of quick gestures that together said: Retreat and report.
Ayame pursed her lips and frowned at him, but she didn't argue, saying nothing as Rei carefully pushed himself to his feet.
He was sure that he hadn't made a sound, but somehow the man's eyes turned towards him anyway. A smirk appeared on his face, his red eyes flashing. "Found you." he said, flicking his hand towards Rei.
A card flew through the air, embedding itself in the wall behind Rei. Shadows coalesced around it, settling into a form that vaguely looked like the emaciated figure of a man, hanging upside down by his feet. He reached out for Rei with long fingers and Rei quickly jumped back, landing precariously on the balcony railing. His eyes widened as he nearly lost his footing and tumbled backwards, but he quickly regained it, making the hand gesture for Katana Mode.
Ayame transformed in a flash and he gripped the sword with both hands, launching himself forward at the twisted creature. Rei ducked as the creature reached out for him, slipping just beneath its clawed hands.
He brought his sword up in a rising cut, shadows parting as he sliced right through it, Ayame's blade cutting through the card at the creature's heart. It fell to the ground in two parts as shadows dissipated—the Hanged Man. He barely spared it a glance as he launched himself through the window, gesturing for the Cloak of Shadows again.
Glass shattered around him as he crashed into it, his arms thrown up in front of his face to protect himself. The rain hammered into him immediately, shards of glass falling to the ground below as he turned and launched the Cloak's kunai back onto the rooftop.
He landed on the roof tiles again, breathing hard, water mixing with blood and gathering in rivulets around him. He glanced down at himself, heart pounding. A few cuts from leaping through a glass window, including one on his forehead that bled alarmingly, but nothing too serious. Yet.
Lightning crashed, and he spun as his Soul Perception made him aware of a figure standing on the roof with him, the rain crashing down around them both. The man was there, another card already in his hand. He looked at Rei dispassionately, not regretfully, not even with glee. Just indifferently, as though what he was doing here meant nothing to him at all.
"Who are you?" Rei asked, stalling for time as he tried to look for a way out. He could leap over the side of the building, try to lose the man in the streets, but that would only bring innocent people into this, and he wasn't sure it would work. If he could manage to make it to the DWMA's European branch, he would be fine, but he'd have to distract the man first, give himself enough time to get away. "Why are you doing this?"
The man's only response was to squint at Rei, frowning at him as if he were truly seeing him for the first time. "I…recognize you," he said, after a moment. "You're Maka-sensei's son…"
Rei's eyes widened. The words 'How do you know my mother?' were on the tip of his tongue, but the answer came to him before he could ask them. "You went to the DWMA!"
The man almost didn't seem to hear him. He studied Rei, frowning deeply as if he were considering something. "Yes, that would do nicely. A perfect message…"
"Message for what?!" Rei asked. "Answer me!"
The man's only response was to flick his hand, the card in it floating into the air in front of his face. It spun rapidly in the air, revealing its face for a few moments—the Justice card—before it began to glow, the light taking the form of the sword that had been in the picture, a straight, double-edged blade with a golden hilt. The man caught the sword by the hilt, swiping it through the air in two experimental flourishes before raising it and pointing the tip at Rei.
He charged forward, sword flashing.
Rei took a step back, momentarily surprised by the speed with which the man had moved forward, and gestured quickly with one hand. Ayame transformed instantly, the hilts of her kusarigama form settling into his hands again. He sliced downward with one scythe, attempting to knock the man's blade out of the way as he thrust the point of the other scythe at his opponent's neck.
He felt his scythe connect with the man's sword, metal clashing against metal as Rei pushed down on it, then suddenly nothing as the man withdrew his sword. Rei stumbled forward from the loss of support at the same moment as the man spun, rain pouring down around them as the man's cloak flared out around him. There was an instant where his opponent had turned his back towards him, where Rei could have struck if he could catch his balance, and then the man turned farther and steel filled up his vision, the sword's edge pointed straight at his neck.
Rei's eyes widened, and he managed to bring his second kusarigama up in time to protect his neck, forcing his weight back and stumbling away from the blade. The sword struck his scythe for the briefest instant and then skittered against it as his opponent changed his direction, the sword sweeping diagonally down across Rei's chest. Rei jumped back to avoid the blow and thought he had succeeded.
That was until he saw the blood.
The sword had cut a thin line across his chest. Rei pressed his hand to it as he backed up quickly, his eyes widening. The cut was shallow enough to not be life-threatening, but just deep enough to be concerning. It was only now starting to sting. The sword had been so sharp that he hadn't even felt it.
The man advanced, his sword flashing as he aimed it at Rei's head.
"Ayame!" Rei said.
There wasn't time to think. There was barely enough time to get away. Ayame transformed in a flash of light, becoming the Cloak of Shadows again, and the kunai shot outward from it, embedding themselves into the two bell towers that faced the street. The cords shortened, yanking him out of the way of the man's thrust and into the air, suspended between the towers and facing the man. He frowned up at Rei, the sword in one hand as he reached into his cloak with the other, drawing out another card.
The Devil.
He raised the card into the air, preparing to throw it down onto the ground. Rei tensed, getting ready to move as shadow swirled around the card.
"Soul Resonance!" cried a voice from the air.
His eyes widened and he looked up just in time to see Morgan descending from the clouds, the wind howling around her from where she sat on top of Cassie's grimoire form. The book beneath her began to glow, the words shimmering in bright gold as light surrounded her.
Morgan's soul expanded, swelling to fill the space around her. From within the grimoire, the space around Cassie expanded as well, a circle of bright white surrounding her and pushing back the pale pink void of her soul space. Cassie stood in the center of that circle, her eyes closed as power thrummed around her. Her hands stretched out to either side of her, moving through the air as though she was manipulating unseen controls, the outlines of words flickering into existence at her touch and then fading out again.
"Synchronizing indices…synchronization complete. Reality values calibrated…aligned. Stability acceptable. Initiating resonance."
Her eyes snapped open, flaring a bright blue in the white light that surrounded her, and then she reached for her ears, cupping her hands around them. Headphones crystallized out of the light surrounding her, a steady beat coursing through them and causing the space around Cassie to pulse, lines of light appearing around her in time to the music. As Rei watched, those same lines began to streak across the surface of Morgan's soul, her soul pulsing with the beat of whatever Cassie was listening to.
"Morgan!" she said. "Your wavelength is coming in loud and clear!"
From where she was seated on top of the glowing grimoire, Morgan spread her hands wide, the words beneath her coming straight off the page. They floated in the air in front of her, words glowing gold in a script that Rei couldn't read, and began to form concentric circles, extending forward towards the man on the ground and narrowing in scope so that it was like Morgan was looking down a funnel. The circles began to spin in opposite directions, picking up speed until individual words were no longer visible.
"Sagitta Solis!" she shouted.
Flames burst into existence from the circle closest to Morgan, shooting through the funnel of spinning circles in front of her. As they passed through the center of each circle, the flames moved faster, pressing closer and closer together until they became an arrow that seemed as bright as the sun. The man's eyes widened as the arrow shot towards him and he jumped back, moving out of the way just in time to allow the arrow to strike the rooftop, slamming into the tiles with an explosion of white-hot heat and fury. Rei squeezed his eyes shut, turning his head away from the glare as it passed over him.
When he opened his eyes, there were black spots on his vision, a scorch mark on the tiles where Morgan's arrow had struck. Steam rose up from the rain that had fallen in the blast radius, blanketing the area. The rain continued to fall, sizzling against the scorched tiles.
Morgan landed crouched on the ground, the light around her fading. She stretched out her hand, Cassie's grimoire shrinking back to its normal form as she caught it.
Rei looked away from her, towards the other side of the rooftop, and saw the man crouching there, his eyes wide from where he took cover behind a golden shield. The shield dissipated, steam rising from its surface, and a card floated to the ground at his feet: The Hierophant.
He looked from Morgan to Cassie in stunned disbelief, his sword still in his hand. "The Reality Grimoire?" he asked, seeming to speak to no one at all. "No…it can't be, unless…of course! The wife! Arachne, you goddamned genius!" He laughed suddenly, as if Morgan's arrival had been the funniest thing. Rei took the opportunity to swing forward from where he hung, landing on the ground beside Morgan, the Cloak's tassels snapping back into the mass of shadows that it was formed out of.
"What's with him?" Cassie asked, frowning. Her headphones hung around her neck now; they hadn't disappeared in the aftermath of that attack. "He's creepy."
"Don't let your guard down," Rei said, crouching down into a stance. "He's strong."
Morgan nodded. "I'll cover you," she said, opening the book.
The man turned towards them, finally seeming to get his laughter under control. His shoulders shook from the effort and he grinned, turning his head towards them. The effect was so at odds with the cool and composed attacker that Rei had fought earlier that he felt a trickle of fear in spite of himself, resisting the urge to take a step back.
"Oh, this is rich," the man said, his hands spread to either side of him. "The Reality Grimoire, Maka-sensei's son, the Nakatsukasa scion and, unless I'm very much mistaken, you." His eyes landed on Morgan and his grin widened, a flash of teeth. Out of the corner of his eye, Rei could have sworn he saw Morgan flinch. "This is fantastic. This is better than my message. I'll leave you to pass that on for me, Evans-kun. I suddenly find myself with bigger fish to fry."
"What?" Rei asked, taken aback. Within her soul space, Ayame's eyes narrowed.
"Hey, if you think we're just gonna let you walk away, you've got another thing coming!" she said.
The man they were facing seemed not to hear her. He turned around, still smiling, and dug another card from his cloak, throwing it to the ground. Light flared up, forming a chariot, and he stepped on it.
"Tell Maka-sensei I said 'hello'," he said. "And tell the DWMA I said 'be ready'."
Rei and Morgan moved forward to stop him, eyes wide. Before they could, he leaped onto the chariot. There was a flash of bright light, and then when it faded, the chariot was gone.
"What are you doing in France, anyway?" Rei asked Morgan in the aftermath, hissing in pain as Ayame pulled the bandages around him a little too tightly. "Weren't you supposed to be in Morocco?"
"I let Cassie drive," Morgan said, pulling a small, rectangular hand mirror out of her pocket. "Should have known we'd get lost."
"Wait," said Cassie, blinking in confusion and looking around her. "You mean this isn't Morocco?"
"No, Cassie," said Morgan. "It's France."
"Oh…" said Cassie, blinking. "Oui oui, hon hon, croissant baguette."
Morgan was not amused.
"At least she's in the right hemisphere," Ayame muttered. "Rei, stop wiggling!"
"I'm not wiggling; that just hurts!" said Rei.
"Be quiet for a moment," Morgan said, holding up a hand. "I'm about to report in." She fogged up the glass with her breath, tracing out the numbers. 42-42-564. The mirror began to glow, and she watched as the light resolved itself into the shape of Shinigami, seated behind his desk and looking up at them from over the piles of paperwork.
"Morgan," he said, then frowned as he took note of the background behind her. "Aren't you supposed to be in Morocco?"
"We got a little sidetracked," Morgan said, moving the mirror so that the shinigami could see Rei and Ayame from where Rei was seated shirtless on a couch, Ayame winding bandages tightly around his chest. The four of them had taken shelter in one of the safe houses set aside for use by the European branch of the DWMA. Outside, the rain had dwindled down to a drizzle, droplets of water occasionally striking the windows as the wind changed.
Shinigami's eyes narrowed as he saw Rei. "What happened?" he asked.
"Do you want to take this?" Morgan asked, raising her eyebrows at Rei as Ayame stepped away from him.
"Sure," Rei said, his head falling back to rest on the couch's backrest, his eyes focused on the ceiling. "Just give me a minute."
He inhaled deeply, gathering his strength, then pressed one hand against the bandages wrapped around him using the other to rearrange himself so that he was sitting up. Once he was done, he used that hand to motion for the mirror. Morgan handed it over to him, wordlessly arranging herself on a chair just within the mirror's view. She folded her skirt beneath her and sat down, waiting for Rei to start speaking.
"We arrived at Notre Dame as planned, to take on the Bellringer, but we ran into someone who got to him first," he said. "This person had a…very large amount of power. He didn't seem to be using a Demon Weapon, though. He fought with cards."
"Cards?" Shinigami's eyes narrowed dangerously from the other side of the mirror, and he leaned in closer. "You're sure?"
"I'm sure," Rei said. "He knew Mom too, recognized me as her son. He called her Maka-sensei. I think he used to go to the DWMA."
"This man," Shinigami said, frowning at Rei. "Did he have dark hair? Red eyes?"
Rei nodded, and Shinigami muttered something under his breath that none of them could catch. Morgan heard movement from somewhere off-screen, but the mirror had a limited view of the Death Room, and she couldn't see what was going on behind it. As she watched, Shinigami-sama leaned back in his seat, shuffling papers and setting them aside.
"The man you fought was likely named Micah Cole," he said to Rei in explanation. "A DWMA graduate and former three-star meister. He was one of your mother's first students. He went rogue two years ago and murdered his partner. We haven't heard much from him since then, but we've been steadily tracking him down. He seems to be associated with the isolated outbreaks of madness that the European branch has been dealing with."
"He wanted to 'send a message'," Rei said. "That's what he kept talking about before he got distracted and left. At first, he wanted to kill me to do it, but for some reason, he changed his mind. He said the message was that the DWMA should 'be ready'."
Shinigami's frown deepened. From this remove, Morgan couldn't tell what was going on around him, but it seemed serious enough. She exchanged a glance with Ayame, who was seated on the couch beside Rei, watching the screen with some concern.
"Be ready," Shinigami repeated. "Are you sure that's what he said?"
"I'm sure," said Rei. He hesitated, glancing away from the mirror. Morgan marked it, frowning at him. "There's…something else. I think he was in contact with Grayson, from before you expelled him."
Silence on the other end of the line. When Shinigami spoke, his tone was deathly serious. "Are you sure of that?" he asked.
"You can ask Richard, but I'm just passing on what he told me," Rei said. "Grayson got a card from someone he called the Thief. It was in the same style as the cards this man—Micah used to fight."
"Do you still have the card now?"
"It's in my apartment," Rei said, and Morgan caught the shiver that ran through him as he realized what that could mean. "In my room, in the top desk drawer."
"Permission to enter your apartment and retrieve it?"
"Yeah, sure, take whatever you need," said Rei. Shinigami made another gesture to someone off-screen, and Morgan heard the faint sound of footsteps before he turned back towards Rei. His expression softened somewhat, growing concerned. "Are you injured?"
"Not…not seriously," Rei said. "We'll head back to Death City as soon as we can."
"Get some rest," Shinigami said. "And then give me a full report when you're rested."
"Will do," Rei said.
The connection broke, the mirror becoming purely reflective again. Rei stared down at it for a moment, considering, then wordlessly handed it back to Morgan. She slipped it into her pocket, her mind still puzzling through Micah's last words as Rei stood up to go get some sleep.
Kid looked up as the connection faded, surveying the people that were still standing in the Death Room. Soul, who had left the Death Room to get Maka as soon as it became clear that something had happened to Rei, Maka herself, standing beside him and grim-faced, and Patty. Liz had just left with the master key to the students' apartments, to get the card that Rei had mentioned. He met all of their eyes in turn, taking a slow breath as he considered what to do.
"Well, I think it's clear we have a situation," he said. "I'd like to ask everyone who can to stay behind for a staff meeting."
Maka and Soul exchanged glances with each other, a wordless argument that Kid had witnessed many times since Rei was born, the question of who would stay and who would head home. This time, Soul relented, a scowl on his face as Maka shot him a glare that made him turn around and leave the room. It was Maka herself that broke the silence that followed.
"We'll need Sid, and Professor Stein, and Marie," she said. "Probably Ox and Naigus too. And…my dad, I guess. He's still in the building."
Kid nodded. "I'm already contacting them," he said, tapping out a pattern onto the surface of his mirror. A thought occurred to him and he frowned, looking over at Maka. "Where is Angela now?"
She closed her eyes for a moment, and Kid felt the wave of her Soul Perception pass over him as she searched the city. "Still here," she said when she opened her eyes. "She's in her apartment."
"Call her," Kid said. "She'll want to hear this."
"And Shelley?" Maka asked.
Kid frowned as he considered the question of Shelley Stein, considered how she would react to this news, and what she might be prompted to do. "Not…yet," he said. "Not until we know more."
Maka nodded, turning away. She fished her phone out of her pocket, moving to call Angela. Kid turned away from her as the first few members of DWMA's staff began to trickle in, losing himself in his own thoughts.
Maka came home to find the living room dark, Soul seated on the couch with one of the twins on either side as they watched something on the TV. Cori sat on his left side, leaning against his arm and watching the screen intently while Annie sat on his right, half-turned away from the screen as she wedged herself in between him and the arm rest. Soul had his arm draped over her almost absently, the arm tightening around her when she turned away and shivered as he kept his eyes on the screen.
She stopped at the foot of the stairs, the sight shaking her out of her thoughts long enough to turn towards them.
"What are you guys watching?" she asked.
Cori perked up from where she was sitting, turning her head and looking at Maka over the back of the couch. "Ghost story!"
"Soul…" said Maka, her eyes narrowing.
"What?" asked Soul, looking over at her. "The girls are okay with it, aren't you, Cori?" He nudged her with his arm, prompting a response.
"Yep!" said Cori cheerfully, swinging back around to face the screen. "It's not real anyways."
"Anima, sweetie, are you okay with this?" asked Maka, frowning in concern as Annie let out a little whimper, snuggling closer to Soul. She shot Soul a preemptive glare, turning back towards the little girl.
"I'm—I'm okay," said Annie, peeling herself away from Soul to look back at Maka. She squeaked as something scary happened on screen, turning back towards Soul. "It—It's not real. Papa will keep the monsters away anyway."
Maka smiled. And then the meeting came back to her and her face fell. Soul frowned at her, catching that, but she was already turning away, heading up the stairs.
She stepped into their room, taking a seat at the small round table that had been placed by the room's large window. She tried to read to distract herself, but as always when she was thinking thoughts like this, her eyes started drifting towards the moon. It hung over Death City as it always had, giving no sign at all as to what it contained, as to the battle that had been fought there over two decades ago.
She thought of Micah, not as the man that Rei had fought, but as the boy she had known once, the shy, bookish dark-haired boy who had been a member of the very first homeroom class she had ever taught at the DWMA, the one who had often followed her home to talk about Soul Perception, or resonance, or whatever topic was currently of interest to him at the moment. She thought about that and often wondered, as she had in the past two years since the incident, when it had gone wrong, if there was any way that she could have seen the darkness in him, any way that she could have prevented it.
She was supposed to be one of the best at Soul Perception. What good was that ability if she couldn't even stop one of her best students from falling into darkness?
And she thought of what Annie had said, about how they would protect them from the monsters. It was one thing to face monsters—she and Soul did that every day. But it was one thing to face monsters that they could see, monsters that they could fight, and another thing entirely to not know where the monsters were.
It was one thing to go out and fight monsters. It was another thing entirely to have the monsters come to them. She'd fight tooth and nail to protect her children from those monsters. That wasn't even a question. She'd fight until she died—she had never been afraid of that. But it wasn't that simple anymore. It wasn't just a matter of 'it doesn't matter what comes; we'll fight it even if it kills us'. Because there were other things to worry about now.
It hadn't been that simple in a while. Hadn't been that simple since the day, fourteen years ago, when Rei had been born. She couldn't believe it had taken her this long to realize it.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice Soul come in, didn't look up to face him until he was right in front of her, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Finished with the movie?" she asked.
"Kids are in bed," Soul said with a nod.
"If Annie gets nightmares, you're dealing with it." She sniped at him, but her heart wasn't in it, her eyes drifting back to the moon.
"Bad meeting?" Soul guessed.
She inhaled, exhaled, tried to find a way to put the weight in her heart into words, the weight she knew Soul had sensed in her the moment she stepped through the door. "Long…meeting," she finally said. "We, um, discussed contingencies. What it means that Micah wanted to 'send a message'. I…um…"
"Yeah?" Soul prompted.
"This could get big, Soul," Maka said, all in one breath. "Really big. And it's…not like we haven't handled anything like that before, but it's not just the two of us anymore, you know. Rei could have died—."
"But he didn't," Soul said.
"But he could have," said Maka.
"But he didn't. Worrying about what could have happened is more than pointless. Think of all the times we 'could have' died, when we were that age."
"That's exactly the point, Soul," said Maka, glancing at the moon. "What did we fight for up there, if our kids were just going to end up doing the exact same thing?"
"I think you're over-romanticizing what we did up there," said Soul, frowning at her. "We weren't fighting for 'the next generation' or anything like that. We were kids then. None of us were actually thinking of having kids. The only people involved in all that who were thinking of 'saving the next generation' or whatever were Mifune and probably Stein and Marie. And it's not like we got rid of all the danger in the world when we were up there. There will always be something dangerous—there were dangerous things before the Kishin and there sure as heck are going to be a lot of them after. We'll do what we always do. We'll fight it, and if Rei wants to join in, well that's his choice."
"But what if we lose?" Maka asked. "What happens to us? What happens to the kids?" She inclined her head in the direction of the twins' room. Soul's frown deepened.
"It's getting that bad?" he asked.
Maka drew in a deep breath, thinking back to the meeting. Thinking, not just about what had been said, but the implications of those words. To what her dad had told her on the way out of the Death Room, when he had pulled her aside in a rare moment of seriousness to tell her something that would have been cryptic, had she not been who she was, had she not spent entirely too much time reading the books she had read.
"There's something you should know…a little tip Mifune passed on. It hasn't reached Shinigami-sama, for obvious reasons, and we can't really discuss it, but it has something to do with the Morrigan."
She thought she understood what that had been all about. But if her dad was right, then she couldn't discuss it. Not really. So instead she exhaled slowly, her hands tightening into fists on top of the table as she worked through what she could say. "You remember what Rei said, about Micah trying to recruit Grayson."
"I remember," Soul said, nodding.
"We…discussed the possibility that there might be more plants in the DWMA. Possibly among the students. That…whoever Micah's involved with might be getting ready to make a move…"
Soul filled in the gaps almost instantly. She was glad of that, that after being partners for so long, he could hear what she didn't say almost as well as he could hear what she did. "So we have an enemy," he said. "So what? It's not like we haven't been in this situation before." He glanced meaningfully at the moon. "We're a lot stronger than we were then."
"I know," Maka said. "But we were also very, very lucky. If it wasn't for Crona and the Brew…" She trailed off. She didn't want to start talking about her own secret fear now, the fear that had been in the back of her mind ever since Micah had betrayed them, ever since outbreaks of madness started cropping up in places he had touched. It was an irrational fear, and she knew it, but things were looking very similar now to the way they had looked back then.
Asura wasn't dead. It was something that she still thought of sometimes, in the night when she couldn't sleep.
As long as something was alive, there was always, always the possibility that it could come back. It was a baseless fear, which was why she had never mentioned it to Soul. But she got the feeling that he knew.
"I'm just worried," she said, drawing in a breath and trying to pass it off as nothing. "It's probably nothing. What Annie said though…about us keeping the monsters away? I guess, it just got me thinking…what if we can't?"
"You mean what if we die," Soul said flatly, still watching her.
"Don't tell me you've never considered the possibility," said Maka, looking up at him.
"I have, but…you wanna have this conversation now?" Soul asked, frowning at her.
"Humor me," she said. "I'm just a little…scared. I'm not—I'm not scared for us, but when I think about Rei, and Annie and Cori…" She trailed off. She didn't know how to say it, that as horrible as it was, it would make her feel better, that she would gladly repeat the whole awful confrontation with Asura if she could be assured that the three of them would be okay.
Soul let out an impatient sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Well, your dad's not awful," he said. "At least not with the kids. He's nuts about the girls. He'd take them in."
In spite of herself, Maka couldn't help the small, grim smile that came to her face at the mental image. "And have Cori chew him out about his irresponsible life?"
"Exactly. It'll be just like having you again," said Soul. "And there's always Shibuko, I guess."
Maka shook her head. "No. Kid means well, but no. Not an orphanage. Not while they still have family in town. And before you say it, I know Rei would take them in, but he shouldn't have to. He's still a kid himself; he should—he should keep that, for as long as he can."
Soul scratched the back of his head, and Maka could tell that he wasn't liking having this conversation, but he was doing it for her anyway. She found herself immensely grateful for him, for him just being there. It didn't ease the ache in her heart. If anything, it just made it grow, but it was almost a good ache now.
"Well if your dad flakes for some reason, there's always Wes," Soul said. "I mean, he wouldn't know what to do with a couple of weapon brats and my parents would freak, but he'd take them. And after him, there's Tsubaki. Stein and Marie. Anyone at the DWMA." He looked up at her. "Someone would step in. You know that. It's not like they'd ever be alone."
Maka exhaled heavily, staring down at the table. "I know," she said, trying her hardest to make herself believe that. She hugged herself tightly as Soul stood up, walking over to her without a word.
When his arms wrapped around her, she sagged into his chest, her grip on herself relaxing just slightly. She turned her face towards him, breathing deep.
"I know," she repeated.
Soul held her tighter, and that time, she believed it.
The chariot materialized on the inside of a great library, and Micah jumped down from it eagerly, letting the chariot retreat back into the card and tucking the card back into its slot on the inside of his cloak. He landed on the tiles, scanning the cavernous room, until his eyes landed on the one person who was actually in the room with him.
"Mordred!" he said excitedly, running over to the man. "You'll never guess what I found!"
"You completed the mission satisfactorily?" Mordred asked, frowning at Micah from where he was seated at a table, reading a book. He was a tall, imposing man, dark-haired and dark-eyed, dressed in a somber looking suit.
"Better!" said Micah, causing Mordred's eyes to narrow.
"You didn't complete the mission," Mordred said.
"Oh, I passed on that message well enough," said Micah, waving his hand dismissively. "But back to what I've found—."
Mordred exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation and closing his eyes. "Micah," he said, speaking very slowly, as if he were speaking to a child. "The task my mother assigned to you was simple. Kill an agent of the DWMA to establish us as a threat and cause their hierarchy to destabilize as suspicion spreads."
"And I did establish us as a threat," said Micah. "I got the Bellringer's soul too. But you're not listening to—."
"I don't understand how someone as purportedly intelligent as yourself can fail to understand such simple instruct—."
"Mordred!" Micah said sharply, interrupting him. "I'm trying to tell you—."
"Be silent," said Mordred, his eyes narrowing as he turned towards Micah. His hand shot forward, grabbing Micah by the clasp of his cloak. "I am currently evaluating your usefulness to this operation. If you value your life at all, you will not make it worse for yourself. Am I clear?"
"Oh, crystal," said Micah. "But…" He looked down at Mordred, the corner of his lip quirking up in a smirk. "…if you kill me, I'm afraid you won't hear what I have to say about your niece."
Sometimes, Shelley still found herself staring at the mourning ribbon.
It had been a while since she'd picked it up, been a while since she'd remembered that it was sitting there, neatly folded up in the back of her bedside drawer. It had been almost four months since she had taken it out and stared at it, holding it in her hands while she tried to figure out where it had all gone wrong. She wasn't sure what had made her pull it out now and stare at it, running the length of black silk through her fingers as she sat at the edge of her bed.
Something in the air, perhaps.
A storm approaching.
She turned it over, studying the name that had been carefully inscribed on the inside of the ribbon: Luna.
An image came to mind. A smallish girl, childlike even into her twenties, long, long red hair and big gray eyes that, every time Shelley had seen them, had always been full of light. Curiosity. Wonder. She'd been radiant. Even her weapon form had been radiant—a sword, a slender rapier with a handguard that looked like strands of flowing silver, woven into intricate filigree patterns and inlaid with stars. No one had ever been scared of Luna's weapon form. No one had ever whispered about madness behind her back. Even Luna's sword form was like her, like something that had walked right out of a fairy tale.
She wondered, as she always found herself doing one way or another, if he had seen that. If he had recognized that about her. And if so, how could he have done it? How could he have looked into her eyes, seen her soul, and done that to her?
How could he have watched that light fade, and how could Shelley not have seen that darkness in him in the first place?
Her fingers tightened against the ribbon and she sucked in a breath. Old memories. Old pain.
The door opened downstairs, signaling her partner's arrival, and she fought back the urge to put the ribbon away, to lock it up as if she were guilty of something. She sat still as she heard Angela make her way into the house, the ribbon in her hands as she felt her partner's soul move cautiously up the stairs, heading for her room.
"Shell?" Angela asked, pausing in the doorway.
Her voice was soft. She looked worried. Concerned for her. That, Shelley decided, was a bad sign, especially considering where she had just come from. It meant only one thing, and Shelley, glancing back at the ribbon in her hand, realized that somehow, she had already known what that would be.
"It's Micah, isn't it?" she asked.
Angela bit her lip, not saying anything. She looked back down at the ground, and Shelley was surprised again at the contrast between them. Angela was, ostensibly, older than her. She seemed younger now, had been seeming younger for a while.
Maybe Shelley was just jaded, she thought, looking away from her partner and back to the ribbon. She'd certainly been a lot less cynical back then.
"Where is he?" she found herself asking.
"They don't know yet," Angela said. "He attacked Rei Evans, took the Bellringer's soul, and left. People are still searching for him."
She nodded, looking back down at the ribbon. Then, with complete and utter calm, she stood up, folding the ribbon back up and setting it in its place in her bedside table. She closed the drawer, nudged the books that had been left on top of the table back into order. Picked up her favorite scarf, the knitted one in a patchwork of colors that represented about five different failed scarves her mother had tried to knit for her that her father had sliced up and stitched together into one usable scarf, and slipped it around her neck. Put her glasses back on and combed her hair out with her fingers, smoothing it away from her face.
Perfectly calm, perfectly sane, perfectly boring.
She brushed past Angela, walking down the hallway towards the stairs. Angela blinked at her as she walked past, frowning in concern.
"Shelley?" she asked. "Where are you going?"
"I need a drink," Shelley said, heading for the door.
A/N: The song that Cassie listens to when resonating with Morgan doesn't technically exist, since it's whatever Morgan's wavelength sounds like, but what I used to write this chapter was DJ Sona Concussive from League of Legends, so you can listen to that if you want an idea for what I'd imagine it to sound like. That, or something very much like it. DJ Cassie is in the house~
As you might have gathered from this chapter, Annie is short for Anima, which is Latin for soul. Cori is short for Corpore, body. Together, the two of them form the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano which, despite being the motto for the shoe company Asics, also translates to 'a sound soul in a sound body'.
Omake
Elsewhere in the world, the sun shone through the windows of a tall three-story building, illuminating the dozen or so souls that hovered just a few inches off of the wooden floors. They bobbed back and forth as Clark adjusted his glasses, Vayne's pendulum form propped up on his shoulder with one hand. From within the orange void of his soul space, Vayne frowned pensively, looking out at the room.
"Do you ever get the feeling we're being…ignored?" Vayne asked. "Like we're missing out on something?"
"No," Clark said, frowning at the massive blade. "Why?"
Vayne shrugged. "Just a feeling," he said. "Anyway, what's the count now?"
"Well, there's at least eighteen souls here," said Clark, glancing around the room and mouthing the numbers to himself as he counted again. "I think we just beat Ayame!"
"Oh, no way," said Vayne. "Really?"
"Yep," said Clark, grinning. "Assuming she and Rei didn't just take down a whole gang."
"Score!"
