Spoilers: after the Anime and sort of from Manga chapter 62/3. You have been warnied.

Warning(s): Possible swearing, mild/medium gore level potential, fluff.

Pairing(s): SoMa, possibly some TsuStar and/or KidxLizxPatty

Brief: With the Kishin defeated, what new threats will rise up to face the heroes from Shibusen? Will Kid's words of warning when the Kishin was killed come true sooner than they thought? And can the Madness be eliminated completely before it consumes the world?

Disclaimer: Atsushi Okubo owns Soul Eater, not me.

Chapter Four: Madness Transponder; The Mysterious New Foe

"Thank you all for coming so quickly," Lord Death announced as seriously as he could without using his normal voice, the small group that was Spartoi gathered before him in the Death Room. "I have recently received word about an outbreak of Madness in three separate and far apart locations. Since receiving the reports, a handful of Deathscythes have been dispatched to two of the sites; one in China, the other in Australia. The third site, however, is not in the vicinity of any Deathscythes positioned around the world."

"Where is this third location?" Kid asked.

"That is why you were called here," Lord Death informed his son. "The location is a fairly small village nearby, about a hundred miles or so due North of Death City. There is speculation that there may be someone coming our way, so I have decided to deploy the seven of you in Spartoi to investigate this outbreak and stop the one behind it. Understood?" The group nodded. "Good. Stein?"

"Due to the nature of this investigation, you will be required to stay alert," the man said, a half-burnt cigarette hanging in his right hand. "Maka, your Soul Perception ability will be particularly important for finding this person, and Black Star, your ability to use your Wavelength in melee combat could also be key.

"You will be dispatched by truck to the village, and from there you can locate the person responsible. However, you will be going alone to investigate, with Sid and Nygus on stand-by to offer support should the need arise. Is everything clear?" Again, the group nodded. "In that case, report to the main gate immediately; the truck is waiting for your arrival."

As the students left through the corridor of guillotines, Stein turned to Lord Death. As soon as the grey-haired man was sure that no one except Lord Death, Spirit, Marie and himself could hear his words, Stein spoke up.

"Lord Death," he said. "I realise that you made this group of students for this particular reason, but is it not dangerous to send them to a place like Aeron?"

"I understand your concern, Stein," Lord Death said, his voice masking his feelings. "But the fact is that they are more than capable of dealing with this problem. I know you do not doubt them, so have faith in their abilities." Stein turned and took a few steps away, heading for the exit, but stopping on the edge of the raised area in which the group had been gathered, taking one last drag on his cigarette before stubbing it out.

"There's just one more thing, sir," he said, his head turning to Lord Death as he spoke, his glasses reflecting the light and hiding his gaze. "Why did you not just send Justin to sort out this issue, or send him as back-up for them?"

A heavy silence fell over the trio of staff as they waited for the headmaster to speak again. The tension was palpable in the air as the seconds ticked by like minutes before Death spoke again.

"I did not want to bring this up in front of the children," he said grimly. "Nor did I want to inform the faculty in case this turned out to be nothing, but it appears that Justin Law has disappeared."

Spirit's eyes shot open at this.

"What did you say?" he asked, shocked. "When did that happen?"

"Two months ago, I sent Justin on a reconnaissance mission to investigate a group of disappearances and a suspected witch-controlled facility," Death recalled. "However, he did not report back, and after a couple of weeks I got worried.

"The team dispatched to assess what happened came back two weeks ago; there was only three of the eight of them left." Marie gasped at this, and even Stein had turned to the masked man, listening intently. "The reports were frantic and sketchy from two of them, but the team leader's was much clearer, although no more comforting. The report states that the facility is still operational, and he disappearances have reduced. On the way back, they encountered a creature described as disfigured beyond recognition and as twisted in mind and soul as its body. Such a being has never appeared before, and that worries me; there may be more to this than what we know."

The silence fell again, smothering the conversation effectively, leaving the unanswered questions frozen in their thinkers' throats.

Aeron Village Outskirts

"Make way for the god of gods!" Black Star proclaimed to the air, the open top of the truck allowing him to shout and holler without deafening any of Spartoi any further than they already had been.

Tsubaki attempted to calm him down while Kid rubbed his temples, feeling the impending migraine press dangerously against his temporal lobes, while Liz went about doing her nails now that they had reached a smoother section of road and Patty joined in the raucous uproar of Black Star with her own equally boisterous laughter. Over the other side of the truck, Maka sat and talked with Soul about nothing much in particular, occasionally sharing a laugh as they reminisced. Every so often, Maka's gaze would fall upon the dark corner where the eigth member of their team sat, knees huddled close to his chest and chin resting atop them. Crona had been asked to join them by Maka, as they had not been able to spend much time together since Death City had been repaired.

"You ok, Crona?" she asked casually, her voice airy from the recent bout of laughter caused by Soul. The pink-haired male looked up and smiled lightly, nodding.

"I'm fine," he replied with a sense of confidence lingering in his voice. Since rescuing Stein from Medusa, Crona had become more in-tune with his mastery of the Black Blood, and even the sudden outbursts from Ragnorok had died down, resulting in a better social confidence than he had had before. "It's just a little daunting, don't you think? I mean, no one knows what caused this Madness, so it could be anything or anyone, right?"

"Yeah, but it's cool," Soul shrugged, hands behind his head. "Who or whatever is behind it, we can take them. I mean, come on, we have the coolest Deathscythes and Meisters here, and Maka did defeat the Kishin, so it's not like we're going to go down easily."

"Oh, I know, I just thought..." Crona stumbled over the words, but Black Star shouted over him, breaking the conversation effectively.

"We're finally here! Yahoo!"

Maka ground her teeth at the flamboyant announcement, but said nothing as the group disembarked. The village sat in a valley beneath them, the fairly small buildings spreading out over the opening in the hills for miles. The red-brick buildings had twisted black, cast-iron chimneys protruding from the ebony sea of the roof-tiles which sat like ceramic hats upon the strange, non-uniform houses. As they entered the town, they came across a large building which was a deep orange hue and had a red-faced clock on the front. The building looked like it was marble, designed in Greek stylistics with six tall pillars holding up the triangular top-most segment. The group stopped in the middle of the blue cobbled square before the building and Maka attempted her Soul Perception, only for it to fail to read anything too useful. Ignoring the hustle and bustle of the people as they went about their business, Maka turned to the group and laid out the plan.

"Alright, this place is much larger than I thought it would be, so we'll have to split up to find our target," Maka announced, her serious, straight-to-business methodology taking hold. "Black Star, you and Tsubaki look around Western Aeron. Kid, you, Liz and Patty take the East. Crona, I need you to check the South while Soul and I check the North. Is everyone clear?" Everyone nodded. "Good. If you find the target or get into trouble, flare your Soul Wavelengths and everyone else will converge on your location. Let's go."

The group split up, heading in their different directions to search for the person behind the outbreak of Madness. Crona wandered the streets alone, left hand gripping his right upper arm as a sense of comfort to the young man.

Ragnorok, he thought-spoke to the liquefied Weapon within his veins. Can you feel anything unusual about the people around us?

Hm, the Weapon replied. Now that you mention it, something don't feel right about them. I thought it was the smell, but now I'm starting to wonder if it's something else.

Could it be the Madness that Stein-sensei mentioned? Crona's thoughts were full of anxiety.

Doubt it, Ragnorok huffed. Nothing really strong about it; it's probably residual from the outbreak or something, not the actual thing.

The boy nodded subconsciously, relieved, but as another person brushed by him, his skin prickled and turned icy cold. The feeling of anxiety intensified as the person continued passed him, ignoring his presence and going about their day as if all were normal, but something about their soul and the reaction Crona felt as they neared told the Meister otherwise. However, before he could stop the person or get a fix on them, they had vanished into the crowd which clogged the way back.

"What on earth was that?" he wondered, body shivering still.

In the Northern part of Aeron Village, Soul and Maka walked the streets, which were growing less-densely crowded as they progressed through it, Maka using her Soul Perception at all times while Soul wondered if it would have been easier if he had brought his motorcycle with him as he walked casually a few step behind Maka.

"I can't seem to find anything off," she said, a little crestfallen. "I wonder if it was all a hoax."

"Don't be ridiculous," Soul said. "Do you really think Lord Death would be fooled by a hoax? It's more likely whatever happened here happened too long ago and we've missed it."

"You have a point," Maka sighed, stopping and sighing, thinking with her left arm crossed over her chest, hand holding her right elbow, the hand of which supported her chin as she gazed into the darkening sky. "Come to think of it, did Lord Death even tell us when this happened?"

"Not that I remember," the scythe replied. "Could have been anywhere from a few days ago to a few hours ago, by my reckoning."

"That's about right, child," a sinister voice said from the tree line, making Maka aware that no one else was around wandering the streets, telling her something bad was about to happen. "More accurately, it was two days ago that my Wavelength touched this village. I didn't expect students from the academy so soon, if I'm honest, but no matter."

The sound of metal clanking steadily and regularly echoed through the trees as the shadows began to peel away from the emerging man. Instinctively, Soul transformed into his Weapon mode and took up his place in Maka's awaiting grip, the glow of his change subsiding as the newcomer began to emerge from the tree line and onto the cobblestones.

In the dimmed light of the approaching night, Maka could clearly see that the person was in a heavy suit of armour, which looked similar to that of a knights armour, but with significant differences. For one thing, the metal was a dark purple-black instead of the generic silver. Though this was not a real concern, it did raise the Meister's suspicions. The pauldrons were ordinary looking at first glance, but each was adorned with a trio of small, curved spikes on the apex, and they jutted out further than what was normal, making the man seem broader-shouldered than he was for intimidating effect. The stop-ribs were riveted on with a spiked tip jutting from each rivet, adding to the intimidatory factor. The vambraces were fully exposed to the outer world, bar the small couter which bore a solitary spine on it, revealing another triplet of spikes over the forearms. The arms ended in a pair of thick metal gauntlets but with the fingers separate from one another and claw-tipped for each, giving the figure a demonic look.

Going up the lower part of the body, a thick boot which went over the foot and half way up the shin on each leg, the pointed toe and flared, sharp end to the boots adding to the aggressive look. The greaves and cuisses, disappointingly, were plain, though a spiked poleyn sat between the two parts to make up for it. The tassets too were plain, but a dark red scabbard sat on the left hip, the broad, double-edged sword sleeping in it calmly.

The chest plate was most unusual; the abdomen was covered in a series of sharp teeth which were moulded into the metal and then painted silver with small flecks of red on them, and above that sat the Kishin's emblem in red over the chest, the three eyes staring sightlessly at the Meister and Weapon stood before them. Two more short spike reared up out of the chest plate, each short and one on either of the collar bones. Strapped to the back was a shield.

Lastly was the helmet, but that did not make it any less impressive; there were three spines which ran out of either side, each long and curved, tapering to a point, with one of each curve of the head and a final, shorter on on the top in the centre. This spike was painted with a gold join to the helmet itself and each one was red in colour. Also visible on the helmet was a large visor which covered all of the face-plate except a small bit about the chin, the lowered panel only broken up by the seven jagged slits in it, but only dark shadows could be seen within the openings.

"Who are you?" Maka demanded, taking up a defensive stance.

"I am the Madness Transponder of the Western European Sector," the man replied, his tone regal as if he were part of the nobility but with an edge of venom underlying it. "They call me the Black Knight."

"Well then, Black Knight," Maka's response was calm and well rehearsed; she had had to do this many times, and it no longer felt right to skip the formalities before a battle. "I am the Three-Star Meister Maka Albarn of Spartoi, and this is my Weapon, the Deathscythe Soul Eater. Are you responsible for the happenings here?"

"I suppose I am, yes," the knight visibly shrugged under the heavy armour. "What of it?"

"In that case," Maka punctuated her point by spinning Soul overhead and channelling their Wavelengths together. "In the name of Lord Death, I am here to take your soul."

"Pah," the Black Knight scoffed, drawing his sword. "Lord Death, huh? I've never heard of Spartoi, but let's see what you're made of, little girl!"

Without missing a beat, the man was on them before a second had passed, his swing barely missing Maka's left arm as she dashed right to dodge it. She flared up her Wavelength, calling to the others in the area, but the Black Knight kept coming. Soul's Wavelength touched her own and meshed with it, resonating and powering up a Witch Hunter, but the left, well-armoured palm raised to meet it in mid swing, cancelling the downward Figure Six Hunter and forcing them back without leaving even a scratch.

"I don't get it," Soul said, puzzled. "Why didn't Witch Hunter have any effect? And where the hell are Black Star, Kid and the others?"

"Your back-up not coming as you thought?" the knight yelled out, slashing at Maka's head, but she dodged backwards, vaulting over the swing using Soul. "That's probably because your signal never got out. I have been blessed with the divine Wavelength known as Ferrum Muro, the Iron Wall. No Wavelength appears to change within my field of effect as long as I want it to remain as it is. It also prevents me from being found by Soul Perception, as I'm sure you have by now realised."

"No way!" Maka gasped, rolling out of the way of another on-coming strike. "Soul, let's try Witch Hunter again!"

"Right!" Soul replied, matching his Wavelength to Maka's and powering them up as high as they could. The blue aura intensified, glowing ominously as they ran in for another attack. "Now Maka!"

"Hunter Fang!" the young Meister shouted, ripping Soul in an upward arc and releasing a powerful arch of energy which tore across the ground towards the knight, who raised his sword and blocked with one hand on the flat of the blade.

The blue fang of light ground slowly to a halt as the sword intercepted into and brought it to a standstill. The armoured man grunted as he held the arc, but let out a roar, raising his Wavelength drastically. A purple light flickered around the sword's blade as he twisted it and slashed to the right, tearing through the ranged attack but leaving him open to the unforeseen swing of the pick-axe-like blade of Witch Hunter, which embedded itself in between the two rows of teeth on the man's abdomen, a slight cracking noise emanating from it. Pleased with the effectiveness of the attack, Maka growled, channelling her and Soul's Wavelengths into the blade and increasing it's size in an attempt to shatter the breastplate and gain access to the weaker being within it. They had not expected what happened next.

The eyes lit up on the chest, and it was now that they were so close that Maka could see that it was not painted on but carved in the armour, the metal reddened around the etching and giving the initial which they had come across. However, as she thought of this, the teeth clenched, then parted into a deep roar, the shockwave of which took her by surprise. Shocked, their Wavelengths split, and the resulting explosion separated the Meister and Weapon, stunning both of them deeply. The Black Knight stood over Maka, chuckling darkly as he raised the sword at her throat, the purple hue fading fast.

"Is that all a member of Spartoi can do?" he questioned. "In that case, your group is a pathetic waste of space, and in doing this, I am doing Death a favour." He raised his arm high to strike her as she lay immobile, paralysed by fear. "Give my regards to Asura-sama."

The silver glinted evilly in the moonlight as it came tearing downward for Maka's throat, but the impact never came. Instead, the knight grunted as someone or something ran into him, knocking him over and sending him sprawling. Maka looked, expecting to see Soul or Black Star standing next to her, but saw it was another person entirely.

The newcomer had brown eyes, but the rest of his face and hair was shrouded in a black scarf like a ninja mask. The irises were dark, with a tint of silver glinting in them as they fell upon her form, which was still on the cold stone floor. Looking the person over, Maka could see that they wore a black travelling cloak with a pair of thick black boots and dark denim jeans, but she could not see their torso due to them having their back to her.

"You ok?" the person asked in a fairly deep voice, telling Maka they were in fact a man. She nodded meekly. "Good. Go to you Weapon and wait here."

Before she could argue, the man had run forwards, performing a roundhouse kick into the Black Knight's side. A spark of red flashed between the foot and the Knight, and the Ferrum Muro Wavelength's effect shuddered away, as if scared off by the impact. With it gone, the other members of Spartoi and Crona could sense the change in Wavelength to Maka and Soul, and quickly made haste to their friends. No sooner did he notice this, did the Black Knight straighten up, raise his weapon high and stab the ground, a purple pillar of light consuming him.

"You're lucky this time, peasants," he spat. "But next time won't be the same!"

And with that said, he vanished. The man stood where he was, Maka a few metres behind and about to ask who or what he was, when he suddenly dashed off, disappearing into the forest.

"Hey, wait!" she shouted after him, but the strange man was gone before she could even start running.

With their work done for the time being, the team rendezvoused with Sid and Nygus and headed back to Death City, Maka and Soul's minds plagued with questions of just who that man had been.

Next Day

Death Room

"Hm, that certainly is peculiar," Lord Death mused, thinking. "And you don't know who this person was or even his name?"

"No, sir," Maka replied sheepishly. She was stood in the Death Room with Lord Death, Soul and Spirit present, the others from Spartoi elsewhere in Shibusen. "It was really lucky how he turned up like that, but he didn't tell us his name."

"How odd," the Grim Reaper thought. "Oh, that reminds me, we have a new advisor coming in today."

"It's not another of those whack-jobs from Oceania, is it?" Soul asked with a huff. "The last one tried to burn the school down by fitting flamethrowers to the walls."

"No no, Soul, nothing like that," Death chuckled. "It's an old student from here. In fact, he should be here any minute."

"Cool," Soul sighed with relief.

"Where is Black Star? It's not like him to miss a new student's arrival," Maka wondered, looking around.

"On the contrary, Maka," Death said, a little ashamed in tone. "He's already at the front gates of the school."

Alright, I apologise for the wait, but I was away last week, so I couldn't write at all. I hope you can forgive me for that.

Now then, that is the first Madness Transponder revealed; thoughts on the Black Knight, anyone? I'd love to hear them.

Also, please review to let me know where I'm doing well or where I can improve, I appreciate the time put into any reviews I get.

Until next time!