A/N: So last chapter was a monster, and this chapter is a little shorter than usual. I'm pretty sure the last arc is going to have some longer-than-normal chapters though, so enjoy! (It already does, as the drafting for this story is actually further along than the reviewing at this point).
Review Responses:
cherrishish, Quoth's sacrifice was a last minute addition, when I realized that I had written Morgan into a corner and would have to do something drastic to get her out of it. Glad that you liked it, and thanks for reading!
Diana Raven, sorry for the wait! Here's the next chapter (and the last one before we start the finale).
karma88, don't worry, you'll get your chance. And belated happy birthday, by the way, thanks for reading!
pokelover01, I think that the previous chapter was the only time I mentioned it, although I could be wrong. It's been almost a year since I started writing this story, and I sometimes forget what I wrote in the earlier chapters. Ayame does have a sword form, but since Rei prefers the scythe, I wanted to show off her new kusarigama/scythe form for this fight. Her base form is actually the Cloak/wings, though. Yeah, Annie and Cori have never truly been separated, and it's not going to be fun for them. Thanks so much for the review, and apologies for the lateness (it's hard to coordinate between 3 time zones _ ).
Xenoprime1337, thank you very much! I'm glad that you enjoy the characters' progressions. Rei's in particular are things I've had in mind from the beginning, so it felt good to finally write them and put them into play (and yes, I'll be reading your story as soon as mine gets done, which hopefully won't be too long now). Vayne's new form is only his form when resonating with Morgan. Since Morgan has a witch's soul, resonating with her gives Vayne flexibility that he wouldn't otherwise have while resonating with anyone else (unless he became a Death Scythe, which is...problematic at this point). Glad you liked everything else, and hope you enjoy the final arc!
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Prelude to Lunacy
The moments immediately after the explosion were a whirl of sound and color.
First, a shockwave of force emanated from the castle beneath him, knocking him off of his feet and sending him tumbling through the air. He screamed, but the sound was lost in the whirlwind of noise, blasts of concentrated power buffeting him as he struggled to remain upright. The blasts slammed into his and Ayame's outstretched wings, flinging him back into the maelstrom and making it impossible to stay steady. His stomach lurched, his mind spun, all sense of direction vanished.
Up and down reasserted themselves as a hand closed around the collar of his shirt, dragging him out of the blast. Rei looked up, mouth dry and ears ringing, to see Ayame's father suspended in the air above him, holding onto him with one hand and tugging him in the direction of the airship. Inside her soul space, Ayame whirled to face him, black stripes painted across her skin and the outline of wings hovering in the air over each of her shoulders.
"Dad?!" she asked, sounding surprised.
Unlike the last few times Rei had seen him, Black Star wasn't grinning. His eyes were narrowed in a glare as he faced the airship, his mouth hidden behind the black, scarf-like shadow that was one of Tsubaki's weapon forms. The hand that held onto him had a grip like iron—he didn't bother trying to pull away. He opened his mouth to ask what had happened, saw Black Star's expression, and thought better of it. Rei turned to face the castle below them as he was hauled away.
His heart sank as he stared at it, mouth falling open. The castle's explosion had been contained so that nearly all of the force exited through the castle's ceiling, a pillar of fire and raw, concentrated power that stretched up as far as he could see. Some of the rooms and corridors on the fringe of the castle's perimeter seemed to have survived the initial explosion, bricks and stones washing off of them as the shockwaves continued to tear at them, but all the central portions of the castle were gone, lost in the blast. He could see the airship struggling to stay upright as it navigated the air currents, could see two misshapen silhouettes shooting towards it from the wreckage of the castle. He cast out his Soul Perception like a net, but the explosion was too strong, the waves from the blast tearing through the threads of his awareness.
Rei squinted instead, trying to identify the flyers the old fashioned way. The first group, closest to the airship, resolved itself into Angela seated astride Shelley's spear form, her head down against the wind and her hair whipping around her. A small figure was pressed up against her back, arms wrapped tightly around Angela's waist.
Cori.
Rei's eyes moved towards the second group and caught sight of his parents, his dad in his scythe form, wings extended as they battled their way out of the blast zone. His mom had a hand wrapped tight around someone's arm; it took Rei a minute to recognize that person as Shinigami.
His parents and Cori. The relief that Rei felt at seeing them safe was short-lived. His eyes moved back towards the wreckage of the castle, slowly widening as he realized one crucial fact, followed by another.
There was still no sign of Annie. Rei had lost her a little while ago, even before the blast, hadn't been able to find her in his Soul Perception. He hoped that meant she was far away; even if she was with the Morrigan, at least she was safe for now.
But where was Morgan?
Vayne watched as Maka opened her eyes, staggering back from the airship's window. Soul reached out with an arm to steady her as the ship swayed beneath them, his other arm wrapped tight around Cori as they circled the area around the ruins of the castle for what felt like the hundredth time. The other members of his team were gathered around him, watching Maka carefully, but Vayne couldn't wait any longer.
"Well?" he asked.
"She's not dead," Maka said, frowning in thought. "That's as far as I can tell right now. Her wavelength is really weak, but I don't think she's in danger."
"You have no idea where she is, sensei?" Cassie asked.
Maka shook her head, looking troubled. "I can't sense her through all of this," she said, gesturing with her hand at the bright flashes of light that still flared up around the castle wreckage, residual traces of magic.
"What about Annie?" Cori asked.
A pained look crossed Maka's expression as she shook her head a second time. "No," she said. "I'm sorry."
"She's probably with the Morrigan," Rei said, his expression grim. "Wherever she is."
"We know where she is," said Shinigami, his voice cutting through the conversation. Everyone paused, heads turning as they moved to look at him. He was standing on the bridge, his back towards them, his eyes on the distant horizon. "We know where she is," he repeated, his voice soft.
A shadow crossed in front of Maka's expression. A second later, the same shadow touched Soul's. Across from her, Black Star straightened up. Tsubaki's eyes narrowed. Vayne looked around, feeling lost, and could tell from the bewildered expressions on his friends' faces that he wasn't the only one.
"…What do you mean?" Rei ventured.
"There's only one place she could be," said Shinigami.
Slowly, deliberately, he stepped away from the window, his hands clasped behind his back. The horizon had gone dark, the day stretching into evening. An object hung in the eastern sky, dominating the view. It fixed them with a single gleaming eye, a grin on its face despite the blackness that covered it, and Vayne understood.
The Morrigan had gone to the moon.
Rei watched the silhouette of Death City grow larger on the horizon, one of his hands resting on the airship window as he half-listened to the conversation behind him. The ship banked, adjusting itself for its final approach towards the landing pad. Night hung heavy over the city below, the moon hanging high in the sky over the distinctive shape of the DWMA. Was it just his imagination, or was the moon watching them, its eye tracking them as they moved beneath it?
Was he just being paranoid?
"We'll dock for the night," Shinigami was saying, his voice soft as he addressed the people gathered around him. It was an informal meeting, just Shinigami and his weapons and the rest of Rei's parents' team and a handful of the others that had accompanied them, but it was a strategy meeting nonetheless. He didn't need to look behind him to see the solemn expressions on everyone's faces, the way that they seemed to stand around in clusters, each person drawing closer to their respective partners or teams on instinct. "Just long enough to get some rest and resupply. I'd like to be back in the air by noon. Anyone who's coming along should be at the airship field by then."
That was that. No mention of the threat that they would face, no need to go over what had happened in the past, in the years before Rei or Ayame or any of their generation had been born. No need to acknowledge the name that hung over their heads like a cloud, like darkness, the threat represented by the moon in the sky, the only moon he had ever known.
The Kishin Asura.
There was no need to, Rei supposed, his expression solemn. Not for them. Everyone standing around Shinigami had been there on that day, during that battle. They had seen the Kishin's power for themselves. They knew what they were fighting, and they were prepared to face it.
He looked up at the window, studying his own reflection in the darkened glass. Red eyes looked back at him, resolve and weariness mingling deep within them. He had changed his clothes and cleaned up since the fight, but if he closed his eyes, he could still see the last moments of their battle on the rooftop, could still see the blood on his face and on his hands.
"Why are you crying, Rei Evans…?"
Rei drew in a deep breath, his hands curling into fists at his side.
"Weren't you going to change the world?"
Ayame looked up from beside him. "…Rei?"
He exhaled, unclenching his fists as he looked up. Rei turned away from the window, facing the huddle of people gathered around Shinigami.
"What about us?" he asked.
People looked up, turning towards him in surprise, as if they had forgotten he was there. It wasn't just the people in Shinigami's inner circle. From across the airship's bridge, Vayne looked up from where he was standing with Clark, Clark looking up from where he was leaning tiredly against the wall. Cassie raised her head from her cross-legged position on the bridge's deck, weary blue eyes tracking him. Beside him, he saw Shelley glance his way from her position against the window, arms folded and expression guarded, saw Angela looking at him. He could see his parents' eyes, could see the mild surprise on both of their faces. His mother watched him with concern, and he saw fear flash across her eyes for an instant, saw his father turn towards him, saw his arms involuntarily tighten around a sleeping Cori.
He was the center of attention again.
Something shuddered inside of him, an impulse to hide, to step out of the spotlight and out of the way of their accusing gazes. He doubted it was an impulse that he would ever be rid of. But it was a mark of how much he had changed that it was so quiet, that it didn't define him.
It was a mark of how much he had changed that he could push it away.
"What about us?" he repeated, looking directly at Shinigami although the temptation to look at his parents when he was speaking was strong. "Where do we factor into this plan?"
Shinigami frowned in what might have been irritation, and for an instant Rei wondered whether it had been wise to speak up at that exact moment, but he was too tired to care. He watched Shinigami's brow crease, golden eyes narrowing slightly, and braced himself for the worst.
He wasn't expecting Shinigami to turn away.
"If you want to come with us, I won't stop you," he said. "Knowing all of you, you'll find a way to get to the battle regardless. But…" Here he paused, looking around at the others, at Vayne and Cassie and Clark, at Angela and Shelley. "I hope that you understand what we're facing. The Kishin Asura is a foe unlike any of the others that you've fought before. If he's allowed to awaken…"
He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. Rei might have never faced the Kishin before and wouldn't even pretend to be prepared for this sort of fight, but he understood the gist of it. Asura, the fragment that contained all of the previous Shinigami's fear. The Kishin that had consumed his own weapon and had terrorized the world before being sealed away in a bag of his own skin, who had been reborn again during his parents' time at the DWMA, plunging the world into madness before being sealed away a second time.
Sealed, but never defeated.
He felt a shiver of fear in spite of himself, because no matter how resolved he had become, he still wasn't that brave. But then Ayame's hand closed around his, quietly resolute, and he knew what his answer was going to be. It was the only answer he could have given, even though he knew as he gave it that it would break his parents' hearts.
"I'm going," he said. "She still has Annie." Ayame's hand tightened around his meaningfully, and he glanced over at her to see her frowning at him, eyes narrowed in what was almost a glare. "We're going," he amended.
"Us too," said Clark, with a nod towards Vayne.
"You're injured," Shinigami pointed out, inclining his head towards him.
Clark frowned, reaching up and tracing the bandages that peeked out from under his shirt. "This is nothing," he said. "My mother's going to be up there, with…with her. I have to go."
"You already know my reasons," Shelley said from her spot by the wall. "And besides, I'm no longer a student. I'm not likely to stay behind now."
"I—I'm going too." The voice was Cassie's, and so soft that Rei could barely hear it over the drone of the airship's engines. She raised her head, turning to face them, the fingers of one hand tracing the pale pink exterior of one of her earphones. "I have…reasons of my own."
She didn't say anything more, lowering her head again. Rei tore his eyes from her, looking back at Shinigami. He forced himself not to look at his parents, forced himself not to look at the one sister who had already been rescued, who was asleep in his father's arms, her arms and legs wrapped tight around him and her head resting on his shoulder. Shinigami held his gaze for a moment before nodding, looking away.
"We're about to land," he said. "Get some rest, all of you, and set your affairs in order. I'll see you tomorrow."
Tomorrow.
Rei nodded, tightening his grip on Ayame's hand.
One way or another, this would all be over tomorrow.
"Do you really think they'll listen?"
A woman's voice, hushed, uncertain. The next speaker was a man, tone solemn, words cloaked in an aura of command.
"They will. This time, they will."
Cassie listened as the voices drew closer, standing still and silent in the center of the Death Room. She could hear their footsteps as they walked down the guillotine-lined path, could hear the woman, Angela, say something to Shinigami that she couldn't quite catch. Shinigami said something else in reply, a soft word that had the edge of a dismissal, and then the footsteps started up again, one set making their way back along the path toward the main campus of the DWMA, the other set, steady and measured, continuing on towards the Death Room.
She waited.
The footsteps came to a stop at the end of the guillotine path. Cassie kept her head down, one hand resting on the earphones around her neck. The silence in the room stretched as he stopped, as he watched her.
"Cassie?" Shinigami's voice asked, a moment later. "What are you doing here?"
Cassie looked up, turning towards him. The leader of the DWMA was watching her from the outskirts of the Death Room, surprise in his gold eyes. He looked young, older than Cassie, but not by much, like Angela or Shelley. It was hard to remember that he was Maka-sensei's age, hard to remember that it had been over twenty years since they all had been students at the DWMA.
"Did you know what I was when you sent Mifune after me?" she asked, the words spilling out before she could lose her nerve.
Shinigami watched her for a long moment, dumbstruck, before he seemed to understand her question. He blinked, the confused expression vanishing from his face. His features turned grave again, the same solemn mask that he had been wearing since the airship.
He clasped his hands behind his back and stepped into the room, walking around the raised dais towards his desk. She watched him, waiting for his answer, feeling her breaths shorten, her pulse quickening. Feeling like she wanted to run.
She stayed in place. Shinigami reached his desk, nudging a penholder back into place, turning to look at her.
"If you're asking whether I knew everything about you, I didn't," he said. "I didn't know you were a Demon Weapon. I didn't know you were a child. I knew that a mafia group in Chicago had gotten their hands on a potent artifact. I sent Mifune to retrieve it. You know what happened next."
"You heard that they had an artifact," Cassie repeated, watching him carefully. "A Grimoire."
Silence. Shinigami didn't deny it. Cassie watched him, feeling cold prick its way across her skin, her fingers curling and uncurling at her sides.
Run, some deeper instinct told her, an instinct from deep in her gut, honed from her childhood, from her years getting passed from hand to hand, being made to do whatever she was told, to listen to whoever held her. To bring fever dreams to life, to call forth nightmares. Run. Run now.
She didn't.
Shinigami's eyes met hers. If he knew how hard she was struggling, he didn't show it.
"What's this really about, Cassie?" he asked.
Cassie.
The sound of her name calmed her. Not Index, not Grimoire. Not 'brat' or 'girl' or even just 'you'.
Cassie.
"You know what I am," Cassie said, holding his gaze.
"I suspected," Shinigami said. "I wasn't certain."
"But you're certain now?" Cassie asked.
"Yes." Shinigami frowned at her, searching her expression, it seemed, just as much as she was searching his. "You're the Grimoire of Reality."
She waited. If she was wrong about him, if the instincts screaming at her were right, her life was about to take a turn for the worse. But she wasn't wrong. He was different from the others.
He wouldn't use her that way, even if he did know the truth.
She felt the silence stretch between them, felt a string growing taut within her. It was coming to an end now, one way or another. The endless fear and denial, the endless secrecy, the endless waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Shinigami didn't take his eyes from her when he spoke, his voice seeming uncommonly loud in the stillness of the Death Room.
"The second Book of Eibon."
There it was.
The walk back from the DWMA headquarters was silent and tense, the moon hanging high in the sky above them lending the scene a sinister air. Maka, following Soul down the DWMA's seemingly endless steps, had almost forgotten what it was like to see the moon as an oppressive force, a malevolent presence. In the days and weeks since the initial battle with the Kishin, she hadn't been able to look up at the night sky without remembering Asura and Crona, without remembering how things used to be.
But time had passed. Things changed. She had Soul had grown up, had graduated, had gotten older. Gotten married, had children together.
The moon had started to feel almost normal. There had been a time before this when she could have almost forgotten that anything had happened there at all.
She couldn't do that now. Now, if it wasn't for the fact that she was older, that Soul was older, that they had three children—one asleep on Soul's back, one silently trailing along behind them, and one somewhere—she could have been walking in a dream. She could have been fifteen years old again, flying away from the darkness steadily encompassing the moon, screaming at Crona that she would come back for him.
She had always intended to keep that promise. Maybe tomorrow would be the day.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she missed when the stairs ended, when the path became level. Soul reached out a hand to steady her as she stumbled, looking at her with concern.
"Maka?" he asked.
She looked up into his eyes and knew, because she knew him, that he was saying 'Are you okay?' and 'Do you want to talk about it?' and 'I'm here for you', and 'You push yourself too hard' and 'I know' all at once, but there wasn't enough room to say all of that, so her name would have to do. She gave him a tight smile in return, shaking her head. 'I'm fine', and 'I'm worried' and 'We'll get through it like we always do,' and 'Let's not worry Rei,' in one gesture. But her son wasn't young enough to be excluded from the conversation so easily. It surprised her how often she forgot that now.
"Mom?" Rei asked, coming to a stop behind her. "Are you okay?"
She looked back at him slowly, at this young man who was her and Soul all at once, who had taken their two halves and made something entirely his own. It was startling to look at him, because in many ways she still expected to see the child that she knew, but Rei wasn't that child anymore. It seemed like every time she looked at him, he had grown up a little more, and it made her very proud to see what he was becoming.
Very proud, and very sad.
He and Ayame were holding hands.
Maka's eyes drifted up from their clasped hands to their concerned faces, giving Rei the same tired smile. He was looking at her uncertainly, and with a start Maka realized that somehow the tables had flipped. That somehow, in Rei's eyes she had gone from his protector to someone he needed to protect.
I'm not that old yet, she wanted to tell him. I still have a lot left in me.
It made her wonder if this was how her father had felt, the day he came out onto the DWMA balcony to give her her mother's ring. To say goodbye.
"I'm alright," she said. "Just distracted. You should get as much rest as you can, Rei. Tomorrow will be a long day."
She didn't ask him if he was sure he wanted to come with them. She didn't ask him to stay behind, because looking at him, looking at this boy of hers, she saw herself and she saw Soul at fifteen and she knew that when it had been someone important to her in danger, nothing would have been able to keep her away.
She knew that. Knowing it hurt. Knowing it made her wish, just a little, that Rei had been a little less like them.
And she wondered, as Rei looked away, avoiding her gaze, whether Rei knew what she was thinking too.
"Are you two going to be alright?" Rei asked when he lifted his head again. "With…" His eyes tracked meaningfully towards Cori.
Soul shifted, scooting her up so that she was resting more comfortably against his back. "We'll be fine," he said, giving Rei a lazy grin. "Worry about yourself."
Rei frowned, clearly not sure he believed them. Maka cut him off before he could open his mouth, before he could offer to spend the night with them. She had the feeling that if Rei set foot into their house right now, she would be hard pressed to let him leave it in the morning.
"Don't worry about your sister," Maka said. "We'll take care of her."
She realized as she said it that she could have been talking about either Cori or Annie. Maybe without thinking it, she had meant both of them.
Rei hesitated, but nodded. He turned his body in the direction of his and Ayame's apartment, then paused, wavering, it seemed, on the threshold between two lives, the life he had shared with the two of them, and the life that was wholly his own. He looked up at her, his expression momentarily helpless and for that instant he was a child again, her child. He would never stop being her child.
"Good night," Rei said, awkwardly raising a hand, and because she knew him, Maka knew that he meant 'Tell me to stay behind' and 'Don't tell me to stay', and 'I love you' and 'I'm scared' and 'I just want you to be proud of me.'
"Good night," she said. "Sleep well,"
In those words were 'I won't do that for you', and 'You have no idea how much I want to,' and 'We're all scared,' and 'I love you too, and no matter what happens tomorrow, I always will' and 'You have no idea how proud I am of you." She wondered, staring at her son as he walked away, if he could hear them. Wondered if he understood.
And wondered, in some detached part of her mind, how much of her father's words she had misunderstood, how much of his words she was still misunderstanding.
Wondered, deep down in the back of her mind, if it was ever truly possible for a child to understand their parents.
They left her in Rei's old room.
Cori knew that it was because her own room had been destroyed by the attack, even understood that, but it felt wrong now. She couldn't lie in Rei's old bed without thinking of how many times she had wished that she could move into Rei's room, that Annie wasn't so scared of being alone, that she could maybe have a little bit of her own space. It bothered her now, nagged at her that she had ever, if only for a minute, resented her sister.
Annie's absence was like a part of her being torn out, like a mortal wound that she didn't want to face. She hadn't faced it—couldn't face it—had been faking sleep ever since they left the airship, just so that she wouldn't have to deal with her parents asking her if she was okay.
How could she be okay? She was here, and Annie was gone, and tomorrow, her mother and her father and her brother were all going to find her. She had failed to protect her sister, so they were going to have to do it for her, and they were going to leave her behind. And if something happened, if the worst happened, then Cori would have to be alone.
And as she curled up on her side, as she drew her knees up tight to her chest in Rei's old bed and clutched at the blankets and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, as she tried to feel out the stone that had landed into the pit of her stomach, the ice that had flooded her veins, she realized something. A truly terrifying thought.
She had always stuck close to Annie. Her whole life, she had stayed by her sister, resenting her sometimes, telling the world and everyone who would listen that she had to do it because Annie was too scared to be alone. But now that she was by herself, now that Annie was gone and her parents were leaving and her brother was leaving and she was lying in a bed that wasn't hers, in a house that didn't feel like hers, in a world that didn't feel like she belonged in it anymore, she realized the truth. That whole time she had been bragging and complaining and going on about having to stay close to Annie and protect her, she had been lying.
She was only strong when she had Annie to be strong for.
She was the one who was afraid of being alone.
"Maka…"
The voice wove its way through the space around him, drawing him into awareness. He was walking alone in a black landscape, the ground beneath him scarred with pits and craters. An oily slickness spread over it, clinging to his feet as he walked. Rei looked around, feeling a wave of unease pass through him. Something wasn't right about this, but he couldn't tell what it was.
He couldn't remember how he had gotten here.
Was he dreaming?
"Maka…"
The voice moved through the air around him, making him look up. Above him, there was no sky, only an extension of the blackness. But the voice was there. It wasn't a voice that he had ever heard before, and though he tried to focus on it, tried to identify it, the details of it seemed to slip away from his mind as soon as he had heard it, making it hard to remember anything about the voice at all.
"Maka…" it called again.
"I'm not…"
His own voice echoed around him. He wasn't aware that he had spoken.
"Not…?" the voice replied. "Not what…?"
"Not Maka," said Rei.
"You feel like Maka…" said the voice, tinged now with something that sounded almost like confusion. "You feel…no. Soul? Maka…and Soul?"
"I'm their child," said Rei, not knowing why he was talking to this voice at all. "Maka is my mother."
"Mo…ther…"
"I'm Rei."
"Rei…" The voice paused, testing the name. "Rei…Rei, ray of light, Rei…"
"Who are you?" Rei asked, looking up at the sky. "What do you want?"
A cold wind rushed through the space, bringing a chill down his spine. Goosebumps prickled across his skin, and Rei spun around, looking for the source of the voice. There was no one around him, but he felt somehow as though he was being watched. It wasn't the intense regard of the stag, though. That, at least would have been familiar. This was something else, a presence that was as fragmented and confused as he was, so that he didn't know if he was dreaming or if he was somehow wandering in the speaker's dream.
"I'm…? Yes, I wonder…I know Maka…"
"Are you her friend?" Rei asked, feeling frustrated. "Are you friends with my mother?"
"Friends…?" The voice lingered on the word, as if it was unfamiliar somehow. "…Yes, that's right. Maka is my friend…We were friends, Maka and I…"
"So you know my mother," Rei said, frowning. "Did you want to…to talk to her?"
"Danger…" the voice said. It came in and out of focus, like from a badly-tuned radio, growing closer before getting farther away. "Yes…tell Maka…danger…"
"We know there's danger," said Rei, getting frustrated. "Of course there's danger! Who are you, anyway? Where are you?"
"Where am I…? Been so long…When am I…? Do you know, Maka…? Wait, you're not Maka. Who are you…?"
"I'm Maka's son," said Rei. "I was asking you who you are."
"Who am I…?" the voice repeated. "I'm…nobody…somebody? Maka…?"
"You're definitely not Maka," said Rei, empathically.
"You're not Maka," the voice said. "Not Soul. I was trying to talk to Maka…to tell her…"
"Danger," said Rei. "Yes, okay. I'll take a message. What kind of danger?"
"Danger…" the voice repeated. "Danger…death…danger…"
The voice whirled around him as if confused, seeming to come from different directions all at once, edging closer, growing farther away. "How long has it been…? Maka had a child…How many years…? Been too long…danger."
"Look," Rei said, whirling around as the voice whooshed right past his ear, bringing with it a torrent of cold air. He tried to turn to face the voice, but keeping track of it was making him dizzy. "I'm trying to help you. You need to focus. What do you want Maka to know?"
"My blood…"
The voice paused its motion, hovering in space as if it had discovered a crucial fact.
"Yes, that's right…"
There was another rush of air, another puff of cold wind. When the voice spoke again, it was behind Rei, speaking right into his ear. Rei froze as he felt a wave of power moved through him, a soul wavelength that turned his blood to ice.
"My blood is black, you know."
In front of him, a pair of gleaming red eyes opened, staring at him. A white light rearranged itself into a fang-toothed grin.
Rei screamed as he woke up, nearly falling out of bed.
