Hey everyone! I am so sorry for taking so long but I am very happy with the response to the second chapter of my story and would like to thank everyone for being so supportive. I am always my own hardest critic when it comes to my writing, so it is like a breath of fresh air when I read positive reviews about my writing. I would like to personally thank HeartlessRockstarXIII for their continued support in my writing and for being the one to finally get me to write a FanFic, I would also like to thank zombiekins5948, ViolinistOfTheNight and SernaJ for reviewing my work and well as Domo for reviewing both chapters, Thanks everyone! – Caitlin
I do not own Soul Eater or anything relating to the franchise.
[Infirmary]
Death City, Nevada – DWMA Infirmary (same day)
Shouting could be heard from inside the infirmary as the gang of teens waited in the hallway in front of the large wooden double doors to the small room that kept their precious friend from them.
Tsubaki looked up from her position of leaning on the far wall to take a good look at everybody; Kid, Liz and Patty were together sitting on the only bench in the hallway against the wall that faced the room, BlackStar was beside her leaning on the wall with one foot propped against it, Crona stood to one side of the double doors clutching his left arm with his right hand so hard she was sure he was cutting off circulation, and Soul was on the other side of the doors crouching on his feet with his hands in his hair.
Everyone had looks of pain and slight confusion on their faces, some trying to come to terms with what happened as others were trying to figure out what actually did happened.
After the attack Stein went to work immediately, he did what he could to stop the bleeding of the large wound to Maka's abdomen. After Stein was satisfied that it was safe to move her they set back for Death City, but this time Spirit was in his original form sitting behind Stein holding Maka, given the situation no one said anything about breaking the speed limit on their way back, though some thought that if Maka knew she would yell at them. After only twenty minutes they arrived back at Death City, with the utmost urgency Stein took Maka from Spirit when they arrived at the DWMA and ran through the school until he arrived at the infirmary, much to everyone's displeasure Stein refused to let anyone but Sid and Nygus in the room with him, and Spirit went to give a report to Lord Death on the mission and Maka's current condition.
"She'll be fine, she's tough." BlackStar said being the first to break the uncomfortable silence between the teens.
Everyone but Soul looked at the blunette as he crossed his arms in front of his chest
"Maka has always been strong, she will pull through this." he said as he got a confident look in his eyes.
"But there was so much blood." Liz says shakily looking beaten at the door of the infirmary.
"Stein managed to slow the bleeding before we came back." Kid pointed out looking at his hands that were fisted together.
"But she had lost so much and she was so pale, I have never seen someone look so pale, she was almost as white as Lord Death's mask." she said back.
Everyone went quiet for a moment after that comment; everyone was picturing Maka fighting and full of life just an hour ago, and then how it changed in just a second as the witch plunged her hand into Maka's stomach.
'She was so cold, I held her in my arms but it's like she was already gone, she was so still and pale' Soul thought as he tightened the grip on his hair.
Crona was shaking now his lip quivering as he tried not to think about the possibility that Maka could be dying in the next room, 'I should have protected her, it should have been me that got hurt not Maka, she has protected me so many time yet I can't do anything for her' Crona thought as tears started to stream down his cheeks.
Kid tightened his grip on his hands as he stared at the floor as he replayed everything in his head over and over, until he realized something, 'The witch, she told BlackStar that he wasn't the one she was looking for, and then when the witch charged us she wasn't after all of us just one, the whole time M kept her attention on Maka, when the witch hurt Maka she whispered something to her and before she left she said that this wasn't going to be the last time they see each other' Kids eyes widened and his body went rigid.
Liz and Patty look over at their meister and notice his expression had changed.
"Kid?" Liz said looking worriedly over at him.
Patty goes to touch his arm when he suddenly stands and looks around at everybody before walking away down the hall.
"HEY KID! Where are you going?!" Liz yells at him as she stands up.
Kid stops mid-step and looks back, "The library." he says in a calm voice.
Everyone looks at him with confusion on their faces as he turns back around and keeps walking.
Liz and Patty look at each other and then at their friends, "We'll go with him." Liz said as she and her sister got up and ran after Kid.
"What the hell is his problem?" BlackStar asks.
"Maybe he is having a hard time dealing with it." Tsubaki said unsure of her own answer.
Soon after Kid left shouting could be heard again from the infirmary room, the teens looked up at the doors as Sid quickly opened one door and looked at them for a second; he was wearing his white tank with a Z and number 23 on it and blue jeans with a chain.
As the group looked at him they could see his hands had blood on them and he was quickly trying to wipe it off on his already blood soaked shirt, he had an unreadable expression as he quickly made his way down the hall.
Not ten minutes later did he come back with a wheel cart that had machines on it that they assumed were going to be hooked up to Maka as well as quite a few blood packs.
Tsubaki stepped away from the wall and toward the teacher, "Mr. Sid, how is she?" she asked getting the undead teachers attention.
Sid looked back at her and then took a look at the three boys, he took his hand and rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.
"I will not lie to you because that is not the kind of man I was, Stein is working on her but she is not out of the woods yet." Sid said as he looked at the grim faces of his students.
When all he received was silence he wheeled the cart into the room and shut the door.
Tsubaki took her place back at the wall looking down at her feet unsure of whether she was happy that Sid told her the truth or if she wanted him to lie and tell her that her best friend was going to be ok.
BlackStar tensed and bore holes in the large double doors with his eyes as if he stared hard enough Maka would come walking out smiling like nothing was wrong.
Soul and Crona went back to staying in their places by the doors and not moving as they re-played the day over and over in their heads.
Everyone was worried and even though they appreciate that Sid told them the truth it did nothing to ease their worries about their dear friend.
Death City, Nevada – DWMA Halls (same day)
(With Kid after he left the group)
Kid made his way through the halls of Shibusen trying to get to the library as fast as he could.
"Kid! KID!" someone yelled from behind him.
Kid turned to see who was calling him when he saw Liz and Patty running down the hall towards him.
"Kid, where are you going?" Liz asks as she slows down to catch her breath.
"I told you I am going to the library." Kid says again.
He goes to turn around when Patty catches his arm.
"What are you not telling us?" she asks.
Kid looks at her surprised, "What do you mean?" he asks back.
Patty gives him a stern look, "We all care about her too Kid." she says keeping the stern look on her face
Kid sighs and looks at his two weapons, and friends, "I need to go to the library." he says looking pleadingly at them.
Liz and Patty look back and sigh as well.
"Fine, but we will go together." Liz said as she started walking ahead with her sister.
Kid looked after them a small smile playing on his lips.
After the three of them arrived in the library Kid told the twin pistols to look for books that contain information on different witches while he went through the books they brought him.
After a good two hours there were many stacks of books on the table Kid was sitting at.
"Nothing there is absolutely nothing in any of these books about a witch named Mave Zorida or anything under just M." Kid said aloud getting increasingly frustrated at the fact he has found nothing.
"Kid that's all the books we can find under both one and two star levels." Liz says walking over to the table and sitting across from her meister.
Patty sat next to her sister and looked at all the books, "Doesn't Lord Death know about all witches?" she said not really paying attention as she poked at one of the towers of books.
Both Kid and Liz look at the giraffe loving girl with surprise at the fact that she had made quite an intelligent comment.
"Y-yeah I guess he would." Liz said as she thought about it.
"Patty that's brilliant!" Kid said as he stood from his chair, "Liz give me your hand mirror." he says holding his hand out to Liz.
Liz takes out a hand mirror that she uses to check her makeup from her pocket and hands it to Kid.
Kid took it from her, blew hot breath against the glass and then wrote on the glass with his finger, '42-42-564 whenever you wanna knock on deaths door' Kid thought, 'That's what Maka says every time she calls father' a small smile played on his lips as he thought that.
After he was done ripples appeared on the surface in the glass as it was dialing, not long after Lord Death appeared in the mirror.
"Heya ho Kiddo, what's up~?" Lord Death asks his son in a childish voice.
"Honorable father I wish you would not call me that." Kid replied with a blank expression.
Lord Death just tilted his head to the side.
"Anyway, I called to ask you if you know anything about a witch named Mave Zorida?" Kid asks.
"Hmm, yes I do recall a witch by that name, she was quite a piece of work." Lord Death said.
Kid looked back at his father expectantly as he waited for him to continue.
"Well let's see~ She lived in a small town not far from here not overly long ago, I think it's the same town that you all went to today." he said thinking about the details of the mission.
"Yes Dr. Stein said something about a Kishin Egg outbreak there about fifty years ago." Kid replies trying to help the story along.
"Ah yes that's right, that was quite a nasty incident, but it was not just an outbreak." Lord Death replies.
"What do you mean father?" Kid asks looking back at his father with more interest now.
"Well you see, the witch that lived there was the cause of it, she used humans as experimental test subjects for her magic." Lord Death said back.
"Father, are you telling me that Mave Zorida was the one that created all those Kishin Eggs?" Kid asked.
"Yes~" Lord Death replied cheerily.
"And the test subjects for her experiment I'm guessing were the town's people?" Kid asks again.
"Yes~" Lord Death says again.
"And what was done after the incident?" Kid asks.
"Well~ we did send a few Death Scythes after her, but she just disappeared." Lord Death replies.
"It seems she has returned." Kid said.
Lord Death looks at Kid for a moment.
"If that is true then we will have to do something about it immediately, I received the report on your mission today from Spirit and I don't like the idea of her going after Maka." Lord Death says seriously.
"I agree, I am currently trying to find anything I can on this witch, but I cannot find anything in either the one or two star section on her." Kid tells him.
"Yes well you won't, I moved all information on Mave into Level 4 of the library. I didn't want a repeat of her little incident in Semon." Lord Death replies.
"Very well, thank you father" Kid says back.
"Hey no problem Kiddo~" Lord Death says in his childlike voice again.
Kid ignored his father's nickname for him, "I will contact you if I find anything important relating to the witch." Kid said.
"Alrighty~ I will have Spirit investigate on our end as well." Lord Death replied.
Kid nodded as Lord Death threw up a peace sign before ending the call.
"Well at least we know where to look now." Liz said looking at her nails as she sat back in her chair.
Patty just giggled and started drawing a giraffe on the table with crayons she got from somewhere.
Kid nodded as he made his way over to a librarian who was behind a counter looking at a few books.
As Kid arrived at the counter the librarian, whom he had not met before, looked up.
"How can I help you?" the man with short brown hair and brown eyes asked.
"I would like any books pertaining to a witch named Mave Zorida." Kid replied.
The librarian looked thoughtful for a moment before taking out a large book and flipping through its pages.
"Can I see your student I.D.?" the man asked.
Kid nodded before taking it out of his pocket and handing it to the librarian.
The man looked it over, "Hmm I am sorry but the books you want are in the level 4 section and I am afraid that your I.D. only shows you have access up to level 2." the man said.
Kid sighed, 'Do I have to go through this every time?' Kid asked himself, "Turn it over." he told the man.
The older man did as he said and his eyes widened at what he saw; on the back of Kid's student I.D. is a gold badge with Lord Deaths skull mask in the middle and the word DEATH written at the bottom, after seeing this the man started to sputter, "I am so sorry, I didn't realize you were Lord Deaths son, I will get those books for you right away." after giving back Kid's student I.D. he disappeared down a long dark corridor between large shelves of books.
Kid looked on not really looking at anything in particular, he was mainly thinking on how he was going to deal with the witch and what he would do with the information he was looking for.
After several minutes the librarian came back with three old books that looked quite weathered.
"This is all we have on the witch Mave Zorida." the librarian said handing Kid the books.
"Thank you." Kid said as he turned to walk back to the table his weapons were still occupying.
"Not a problem, do let me know if there is anything else you might need." the man said as he bowed to the young reaper.
When Kid arrived at the table he found Liz painting her nails and Patty making an origami giraffe, he sat down putting the new books down in front of him, he chose the top most book and opened it to find nothing but gibberish, Kid stared for a moment before putting it back down, 'Well that book is useless' he thought, he picked up the next one and opened it to the first page staring again for a moment before putting it down with the first, 'That it odd' he picked up the last book repeating what he had done with the first two before becoming extremely frustrated, 'Why!' he thought as he slammed the third book down with the other two, Liz and Patty look back at him a bit startled.
"What's wrong Kid?" Liz asks.
"These books are useless." Kid says back angrily.
"But aren't they about the witch we fought today?" Liz asks again.
"Yes, but they are written in a language I am unfamiliar with." Kid said as he looked at the books in annoyance.
"Why not ask Kim about it, she is a witch?" Liz says back trying to come up with a solution.
"I have no choice now." Kid says as he grabs the books and makes his way to the door.
Liz and Patty soon follow as they make their way out of the library and towards Kim and Jacqueline's place.
'Don't worry Maka, I will find out what that witch is planning, and when I do I will stop it' Kid thought as he made his way out of the school with the twin pistols in tow.
Death City, Nevada – DWMA Infirmary (same day)
It was now dark out and the teens were still waiting for any news regarding Maka's condition; BlackStar had passed out sitting against the wall and Tsubaki had her head leaning against him fast asleep as well, Crona had taken a seat on his knees occasionally looking over at Soul as he waited, Soul had finally just sat down and leaned against the wall, he had still said nothing the whole time but he had taken to staring at the wall across from him for quite a few hours now.
After a few more minutes the handle of the infirmary doors slowly turned, this caught the teen's attentions, even the two who were sleeping. They all shot up from where they were as they stared at the doors as they opened to reveal Stein who was still wearing his bloody clothes from earlier as well as his stitched up lab coat, Stein noticed the group looking at him with conflicted feelings waiting for him to speak.
"Well, I was able to stop the bleeding and fix the immediate damage; none of her internal organs were damaged, amazingly, but there was a lot of internal bleeding and we had to give quite a few transfusions to keep her from bleeding out, if she rests and doesn't exert herself she should recover just fine." Stein finally says.
The instant relief could be felt as all the teens visibly relaxed; Tsubaki began to cry tears of relief as BlackStar hugged her with one arm as he grinned happy that his little sister was going to be ok, both Soul and Crona tried looking past Stein into the room where the girl they loved was being cleaned up by Nygus.
"But" Stein started waiting for the teen's attention again.
"But what?" BlackStar asked looking at his teacher.
"The fact that she is ok now is not false, but there is a possibility that she can go into shock or not even wake up at all." Stein said back keeping his tone even.
The group looked at the man slightly shocked.
"But there is a possibility that those things won't happen, right?" Tsubaki asked pleadingly.
"Yes, it is also quite possible that she will be fine and heal with no problems, but I want to tell you all the facts and not sugar coat the truth, there is a possibility that she may not make it." Stein said back to them.
None of them trusted their voices so they all just nodded their heads letting Stein know that they understood.
Nygus and Sid came out moments later with blood stained gauze, tools and Maka's clothes and left.
"If you are quiet you can all go in and see her." Stein said looking at BlackStar.
BlackStar looked back, "What are you looking at just me for?!" he said looking offended.
Stein walked back into the room leaving the doors open for them to follow through; Tsubaki was the first to walk into the room followed by BlackStar and soon after by Crona, Soul stared at the doors that were open just enough so that he could see BlackStar and Tsubaki with their backs to him in front of Maka's bed and Crona on the other side with a slightly pained expression on his face.
He started to slowly walk towards the doors but stopped once he was a few feet from entering, he looked down at his feet, 'Why? I can't go any farther, move dammit move!' Soul shouted at himself.
Stein appeared in front of him slightly startling the white haired scythe.
"You should not blame yourself." Stein said now with a lit cigarette in his mouth.
"Why not, it's the truth." Soul said looking up at the professor.
"Hmm" Stein hummed looking back at Soul with a small smirk on his face.
"What?" Soul asked getting a little annoyed.
"Well this just seems quite familiar is all." Stein said taking the cigarette and blowing out smoke into the air.
Soul looked at the mad scientist and unconsciously clutched at his chest where a large scar lay just underneath his shirt.
"This is different, she had nothing to feel guilty about then, I was protecting her, this time I was unable to do that and she got hurt and almost died, hell she still could." Soul said looking back down at his feet trying not to lash out at the teacher.
"And this time she was protecting you." Stein said back taking another drag from his cigarette.
"What are you talking about? I should have blocked the attack from that witch, I could have but I didn't." Soul said clenching his fists at his sides.
"It's more like you couldn't." Stein said turning the screw in his head.
"What!" Soul snapped looking up again at the scientist.
The screw clicked into place as Stein looked back at his now furious student.
"I am saying even if you would have you would not have been able to stop the witches attack." Stein said back evenly.
"And how is that?!" Soul bit out.
"If you had blocked that attack you would have been seriously injured and could have possibly died again, Maka knew this and kept herself from swinging you down or using you to block and shield her from the attack. In fact she actually raised her arms higher so you would not be hit." Stein said looking into the shocked scythe's eyes.
Soul's fists relaxed at his sides as he realized the truth in his teacher's words.
"But why?" Soul asked.
"Because it would have hurt her more if you had been the one to get hurt trying to protect her again, I don't think she would have been able to deal with the guilt if it had happened." Stein told the teen.
Soul didn't respond, he just looked past the professor and into the room where his unconscious meister lay on an infirmary bed, Stein knew he needed to think about what he had just told him so he left him and started to walk down the hall to go tell Lord Death of Maka's condition and to get any information he could about the witch that hurt her.
Soul took a few minutes to compose himself before he finally entered the infirmary; he made his way to the same side as Crona, who was currently sitting in a chair right next to her, and stood there looking down at his unconscious meister, 'She looks peaceful' he thought as he looked at her face.
Maka was lying in the bed closest to the two windows in the back of the infirmary, she was dressed in a medical gown and her hair was down as the moon illuminated her skin.
'She is still so pale' Soul thought as he grabbed ahold of her hand.
"We should get going, it has gotten quite late and BlackStar is about to fall asleep." Tsubaki said as the teens looked at her.
"I am not!" BlackStar said straightening himself up from his slouched position.
Tsubaki just smiled back at him before nodding to Soul and Crona.
The two teens nodded back as she turned to leave the room.
"But I am fine!" BlackStar protested.
"It's alright Star, you can see her tomorrow, go get some sleep you look like shit." Soul said to his best friend giving him a small grin.
"Yeah well you don't look any better." BlackStar said back grinning widely.
Soul just smirked.
"Your Great God shall be back tomorrow to grace you with his presence." he said confidently and walked out of the infirmary where Tsubaki had been waiting for him.
Soul's smirk fell as the bluenette and his partner left, he looked down at his own meister and ran his free hand through his hair.
Crona looked up at him for a moment, "S-Soul, sh-shouldn't you c-change y-your clothes?" he asked the scythe.
Soul looked at the other teen, "Why?" he asked.
Ragnarok materialized from out of Crona's back and leaned onto his head, "Because you're covered in blood." he told him motioning up and down at him.
Soul looked down at himself and his eyes widened just now noticing how much blood he was covered in; his white shirt was a deep red from the blood that had settled into it, his blue jeans had red running down the front and his arms, face and hair were streaked with dried blood.
Soul started to shake from the shock.
Crona started to panic and got up from where he was sitting, "I-its ok, it can b-be washed." he tried to offer.
Soul fell to his knees as he looked down at himself; he still had a hold of Maka's hand as he tightened his grip, he clenched his eyes shut trying and failing from keeping tears from streaming down his face, he covered his eyes with his free arm as his body shook slightly.
S… I… Sor… I am… so… sorry… Ma… Maka" Soul said in between muffled sobs.
Crona looked down at Soul as he sobbed and repeated the same thing over and over, for once he was not the one crying, but he knew if he broke down as well nothing would get better.
Crona kneeled down next to the young Death Scythe and put his left hand on his shoulder.
Soul moved his arm down from his eyes as he looked over at Crona; he could not believe he was breaking down in front of him but he didn't care anymore, not while Maka was lying unconscious in front of them and could possibly die at any moment, it was too much he couldn't hold it any longer.
Crona smiled at him as more tears streamed down the teens face.
"She will pull through, Maka has never been one to give up." Crona said trying to ease Souls pain.
Soul looked back still shaking, "It's my fault I should have protected her." he said trying not to completely lose it.
"If that's true then it is also my fault, I should have stopped the witch before she got to her." Crona said back.
Soul stared at the demon swordsman as he took in his words.
"But Maka would tell us both that it was neither of our faults and that she was the one who caused her own injury." Crona said.
"Ya and then she would give you both Maka-Chops for blaming yourselves, so save us all some pain and stop blubbering over something that can't be taken back, what's done is done and she if going to be fine, so be happy you big sissies." Ragnarok said turning his head away and trying to look like he didn't care.
Both Soul and Crona were shocked that Ragnarok was trying to comfort them; they both had small smiles as they looked over at the girl on the infirmary bed.
"You right crying like this is so not cool." Soul said as he stood up looking over at Crona who had also stood back up.
"Ya and Maka would be upset if she knew we were sad." Crona added in.
"Well it's about time you both came to your senses." Ragnarok said pulling on his meisters hair.
"O-ow Ragnarok th-that hurts." Crona said trying to get his weapon to release his hair.
Soul looked at the exchange before a smile adorned his face as he looked over at Maka.
'Wake up soon Maka; we are all becoming so uncool without you' Soul thought.
Crona looked over at the other teen before he too looked at Maka a smile on his face as well.
Soul let go of Maka's hand before turning to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Crona asked him.
"To wash up some, can't go around with blood all over my face, that's so not cool." Soul replied before entering the bathroom that was inside the infirmary.
Crona nodded before moving back to his chair next to Maka, he looked at her before reaching out to hold her hand; when his hand clasped onto hers a shock went through him and his eyes widened as he looked at Maka's face.
"Wh-what? H-how?" Crona asked.
Ragnarok looked down at the girl from atop his meisters head before wrapping his small arms around his head.
"So what are we gonna do about this?" Ragnarok asked his meister.
Crona was quiet from shock as he still looked wide eyed at the girl that lay before him.
"I-I don't k-know, should we tell Professor Stein?" Crona asked back.
"If we do he may dissect her." Ragnarok said calmly.
"N-no he c-can't do th-that!" Crona rushed out.
Just then Soul walked back into the room from the bathroom; his face, arms and hair cleaned of blood.
"Who can't do what?" Soul asked as he walked back to the side of the bed.
"U-uh umm" Crona was at a loss for what to say.
"He was saying that if BlackStar were to come he would be obnoxiously loud and try shaking Maka to get her to wake up." Ragnarok intervened smoothly.
Soul looked at the two for a moment which made Crona nervous.
"Ya, that sounds like something that idiot would do, but don't worry Crona I won't let him touch my meister." Soul said grinning at the pinkette.
Crona relaxed as he nodded and looked back at Maka.
Soul pulled up a chair next to her and they sat in silence.
After a few hours Soul had fallen asleep in his chair, but Crona was still too worried about Maka to feel tired.
Stein had come by to check on Maka, he said the two could stay the night and that he would be staying in the teachers' lounge in case they needed him.
Crona was still holding Maka's hand and the feeling he had from the first time he touched her had not gone away, the new realization he had found was worrying him to no end, he had no idea what brought it about but he was very worried about how it happened, Ragnarok had given a few suggestions but they eventually came up with the most likely scenario quickly when nothing else could reasonably explain it.
'The witch' Crona thought, he looked down at Maka's peaceful face as she slept, 'Don't worry Maka, I won't let her hurt you anymore' Crona thought as his grip tightened on her hand.
While Soul slept he had no clue as to the troubling situation that Crona had uncovered about his meister and no one was prepared for what would happen when she woke.