Black and Gold- Chapter 12

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Let the word go forth to all with means to hear from the lowest village to the highest parapet, that on October 27th, in this, year of our Lord, 2010, OriginalAlienSuperspy FINALLY UPDATED! WITH 7,000 WORDS, BITCHES!

I combined two chapters to make up for the hiatus. I hope you're wearing a sturdy hat for this one, 'cause it may blow your mind. Whether that's a good or bad thing isn't yet clear…

Oh, and I've been getting questions over whether L.J. has wings. The answer is no, not usually (does her soul count?). Her mother does, though.

Warning: YOU MAY GET MOOD WHIPLASH.

"Ah, Kid?"

Kid turned around, and saw Maka standing at the end of the hall.

"What is it, Maka?"

"I need to talk to you."

Kid nodded for Liz and Patti to go on without him as Maka awkwardly stood outside the infirmary.

"Is there something wrong?"

"I-I'm not sure…yes." Maka rubbed her neck. "I don't think that they're telling us everything in there."

"What do you mean?" Kid's eyes narrowed.

He personally never spent much time with other Godlings, so he didn't exactly have the sort of camaraderie they all seemed to share. But even so, their desperate loyalty to L.J. wasn't something they really had time for, given the circumstances.

"When I first met L.J… I didn't say anything, but… there's something wrong with her soul."

"…Wrong like how?"


"Why doesn't mom let me go anywhere?" I sighed, resting my head on the heel of my hand.

"Because you're her baby. You'll see the world in time." She shuffled the cards in her hands gracefully, as if the paper was moving on it's own.

"You get to go anywhere you want. She trusts you."

"Trust hasn't got anything to do with it. You've got a lot to learn before you're ready to go on missions."

"Other Godlings go on missions for their parents! Mary and the others' powers haven't even manifested yet, but they go on quests, with their parents not even in this dimension! It sucks."

We sat in the middle of the sepia-colored forest, fallen leaves skittering around. We were both perched atop a large, old coffin that had been in the woods for ages- they say it belonged to some ancient warrior. I guess playing cards on his grave was a little disrespectful, but it was probably the only company he'd had in a long time.

People say she looked like me. Except older, and stronger I guess. We had the same blue-green eyes with a pearly sheen, the same long hair and pale skin. But she was much more beautiful than me. And she had presence- so they called her The Phoenix. A symbol of knowledge, power, and life. I was the awkward little sister who'd never even left England despite being eleven years old.

"I know it seems that way. But she just wants to make sure you're ready. Stick to your studies and just do your best. You'll see."

I wrinkled my nose. Studies. That was another thing- I didn't want to study. Rachel was the star student; I was the runt who'd rather play in the tunnels with the street kids and the chavs. She must've sensed my attitude, because she laughed and dealt out the cards.

"Tell you what. I'll talk to mom. And someday, I promise I'll take you out to see the world with me."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Now, you still don't know how to play poker, right? I'll show you."


The darkness clung to the dank stone room as Kira sat beside her bed quietly, her legs drawn up to herself and mumbling under her breath.

"Do you know where she is? No, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Why can't I…Oh." Her whispers scratched against the silence as she spoke to the invisible beings within her head.

"Maybe I shouldn't have locked them in the closet." Kira murmured.

"You kidding? I loved that part!"

"Although it is a problem if we can't find her soon."

"I agree, the situation is mysterious."

"It doesn't have anything to do with us, though."

'Of course it does! L.J.'s our friend.' Kira reprimanded quietly.

"Pfft. She doesn't even know who you are."

"That's true…"

"I don't even know who I am." Kira sighed.

"That's because you don't want to know. Otherwise you would have asked them for help."

"I don't need help." Kira countered.

"We thought you'd have remembered by now. " One voice sighed.

"She's afraid of remembering. She doesn't want to know how she got in that village. Or why those creatures were looking for her."

"Shut up." Kira clutched her head. "I don't want to talk about that now."

"Of course you do. You think that it's got something to do with L.J. Because if it is, it'll be your fault if she gets hurt."

"Stop it. That's got nothing to do with this."

"Leave her alone. She'll remember in her own time."

"Not in time to save the fragment."


So this was how it ended. I felt betrayed. More than that, I felt stupid. By this time, the car we'd been watching approach had skirted to a stop, and I saw that behind the wheel, was a pale, skeleton al creature with only a thin, transparent layer of skin covering the bones- or rather, keeping it together, as the skin was rather transparent. And he looked familiar.

"This her?" He asked with a gravelly, echoing voice.

"Yup." Damian nodded, not even batting an eye at the undead abomination before him.

"Doesn't look like much."

"Thanks." I said dully, feeling pins and needles at the ejection site, and imagining how enjoyable it would be to punt his skull across the canyon.

"We'll be taking her to the workshop from here." The skeleton said, before turning to me.

He grinned horribly, showing all his sickeningly bright teeth.

"Don't worry. We will do nothing more to you than just what you did to our Phoenix. Although I assure you that this time, it will be an extremely slow and painful process."

Gee. Remind me to invite you to my next party, Mr. Giggles.


"If I remember…will I be able to find L.J.?" Kira asked the shadows. "Could you make me remember?"

"Hmm…could we?"

"It's her choice."

"Yes…but the more appropriate question is…would you save her?"

"What's that mean?" Kira's brow furrowed. "If I'll be able to, then, of course!"

"She asked!" "She did, didn't she!"

"We've been waiting ever so long…you might want to close your eyes."

"And it'll definitely hurt."

"What do you m- ah!" Kira's eyes grew wide as a sharp pain stabbed into her head, and the floor seemed to drop out from under her.

It was as if a dam in her mind had been ruptured, allowing a flood of memory to gush out and wash over her senses. Images began to flicker before her eyes at amazing speed.

She hissed in pain, and clutched her ears to keep the sound of screams out of her mind. All the memories she'd lost in that damn town- the house, her family, the book-

"The book." She repeated, the room swimming before her eyes.

It had started with the book. She'd wanted to make her mama proud, make up for…

"I started this."

She made the deal. And then she couldn't remember. She didn't know who she was. She got scared and she ran to that town. But then the creatures came, and the screaming started.

"It was my fault." Her voice was hollow and breaths shaky.

She hadn't even realized she was crying, but the tears dripped into the stone floor.

She'd been responsible for everything. But they'd created a scapegoat for her. An old enemy of her family that they'd set up. And L,J.-

L.J. They took her. And she remembered.


-Just over four years prior-

I sighed as I leaned back on the hill, overlooking the cemetery. It was kinda odd that all my hangouts tended to be places of death and filth. But I guess I needed a change of scenery. Everything on my side of the city was so bright, clean and full of life. It was all so loud and fast, and every once in a while I wanted to be still. It'd been a year since Rachel promised to take me out of England. It hadn't come true yet, but I had gotten really good at poker. I sighed again. Things had changed since last year. Mom and Rachel had actually been fighting a lot- something that had never happened before. They'd shout and make noise, but my friends and I couldn't make anything out, even with our ears pressed against the doors (but seriously, how close would you want to get to something like that?). Rachel had become distant, completely withdrawn into her work. Sometimes she would look at me like… I dunno. She just wasn't the same. And in turn, I'd started hanging out with the Elemental Godlings more. We'd known each other practically since birth, but without Rachel around, I was just starting to really spend time with them. Beep. Beep.

"Hn?" I reached into my pocket and flipped open my phone. "Yeah?"

"Ah…L.J?"

"Yes?" My eyes narrowed. "What's up, Mary?"

"Uh… we've got a bit of a problem."

CRASH!

"What the hell was that?" I winced, holding the phone a little farther from my ear.

"Okay, big problem! BIG PROBLE-Ack! L.J., FIND YOUR-"

I looked at the phone as the line went dead.

"Huh." I looked at the phone before flipping it shut and sliding it into my pocket.

I stood up and dusted off my jeans. "That didn't sound too good."


-Present day-

"What are you going on about?" Adam blinked, still lazing in the infirmary bed.

"I want to know what it is you're hiding from us." Kid said sternly as the two partook in some sort of extreme staring contest.

"I dunno what you're talking about." Adam held his gaze.

"Whatever secret you think you're protecting L.J. by keeping is only costing us time." Kid snapped back.

"Kid." Mary said calmly, stepping between the two of them. "We don't know anything. After the incident… L.J. was different. We never really said anything, and we all pretended we forgot about it, but… she's got a lot of conflict inside her. We can sense it when we exchange energies, but she won't talk to us about it. So I'm sorry, but we don't know."

Kid processed the information before taking a step back. "Then who does?"

"Ten pounds says they don't figure it out in time." Joey said, swinging his legs back and worth on the edge of the cliff.

"They'll figure it out. Your girlfriend ought to be remembering by now." Mike said solemnly.

"Will she risk the consequences by telling them what she knows?" Peter mused, a hint of cynicism in his voice. "It seems unlikely."

"You know, I never got her number…" Joey recalled, scratching his chin.

"I doubt she has a phone, Joey."

"Oh yeah. Maybe I should get her one."

Pete glanced at Mike in an 'are-you-sure-we're-related-to-him' sort of way before shrugging.

"She's not the same as she was before. She'll tell them." Mike rubbed the back of his neck.

"It'll be cutting it close. Should we interfere?"

"Hm. No." Mike shook his head. "That'll only solve the obvious problem. It'll work out better if we let them play it out themselves."

Peter nodded, although he obviously didn't have the same faith as his brother.

"Don't worry. I'm confident they'll put our cousin back in her box in time."

"Which box?"

Kira was leaning on the wall, chewing her thumbnail quietly. She didn't look up when she heard footsteps.

"Kira? You alright?"

"Hi Isaac. You make up with Mary yet?" She asked blankly.

"Hah? Oh. Not yet."

"I'm sorry."

"Forget it. We've got more important troubles now."

Kira nodded. "Isaac… we're friends, right?"

"Hm? Sure." Isaac shrugged. "What's wrong?"

"What if I told you… I did a bad thing."

"'A bad thing'?"

"A lot of bad things. But I… I didn't-"

"Hey." Isaac placed a hand on Kira's shoulder, making her look up. "Everyone does bad stuff sometimes. We screw up, it happens. But it doesn't mean we're bad people."

"But-"

"Trust me, Kira. You're a good person."

Kira looked away, but Isaac could tell she had some sort of new fire in her by the determined look in her eyes.

"I know where L.J. is."


-Flashback-

I parked my bike in front of the school, and looked around. Mary had called me from a school phone, so she had to be here somewhere. I stepped onto the sidewalk, and carefully made my way up the steps. The school was pitch dark and still as I reached the front door. It was unlocked and swung open easily. Hm. I didn't really mind the dark, letting my eyes adjust as I navigated through the halls based mostly on memory. The classrooms were sealed, instruments untouched as they leaned against the walls in their cases. And then I came to the steel elevator, standing at the end of the corridor. Rummaging through my pocket, I pulled out my school card. Sliding it into the slot, watching the green light flicker on. The elevator groaned to life, and I waited cautiously. Everything seemed innocent enough… what could be going on that the Jr. Elements couldn't handle?

Ding.

I looked up as the elevator doors slid open, and stepped inside. I scanned my thumbprint against a button-shaped circle of glass, and the elevator door glided shut. With a tug at my stomach, there was a strong pull downwards. It took about three minutes to reach descend the three miles beneath the art school, and I waited through them anxiously. When the elevator jerked to a stop, I watched the doors slid open, and my breath caught.

"What the hell?"

The lobby was trashed. Cracks in the tiles, light fixtures sparking as they dangled of the ceiling- and was that Mrs. Kent's phone on fire? I stepped carefully down the halls, suddenly becoming aware of all movement around me. The hall I walked down was cold marble, so my steps were even more strained to remain quiet. The walls were of glass, the right hand side giving me a view of "The Tank", a huge aquatic area, while the left side showed me the firing range.

We were British. We handled our Covert Operations in the awesomest of fashions. As I walked, I began to notice cracks in the glass. What had happened? Doubling my pace, but still trying to be silent, eventually I found myself going down the stairs. After a while, it began harder to maintain by sense of alertness. Everything was so quiet. But the deeper I went, the more chaotic things became- desks overturned, bulletin boards shattered, papers burning. The bathroom was flooded, a toilet spewing its own geyser. I wandered around a few more minutes, following the destruction and becoming more anxious as blood began to smear the walls. I was walking down another hall, much deeper in the Academy when I peered into the room beside me through the windows lining the walls. It was an indoor woodland biome, we used it for strategic practice, paintball and capture the flag. The fluorescent lights hanging to the ceiling were flickering, illuminating the various trees that had been snapped in two. A new surge of adrenaline surged through me as I rounded the corner and fumbled my way through the shattered doorway. A shard of glass nicked my knee, but I ignored it, beginning to sprint through the underground woodland. My shoes caught themselves on surfaced roots and my arms got scratched by branches so many times I had to strongly resist the urge to kick a tree.

CRACK.

I skidded to a stop and ducked behind a tree and trunk a few meters away shattered.

"ADAM!" Mary's voice screamed from somewhere ahead.

My heart turned cold and my breath caught. Peering out from behind the tree, I saw flickers of the conflict going on in the clearance some distance away, and my gaze moved to Adam, who was lying still in the grass. I crept closer, ducking low until I was at his side.

"Adam." I whispered. "Ugg…" He groaned, twitching. "Bitch."

I looked up, through the foliage. And just like that, my world shattered around me.

"L.J.-"

"No." I didn't dare blink, or close my eyes or move. "No."

"Yes!" Adam hissed, trying to stand up. "L.J. Please."

We both looked up in alarm as Leah's scream suddenly sliced through the air. I turned and looked into Adam's frantic, desperate eyes.

Please.

My lips twitched like they wanted to say something, but there were no words for this moment. So I offered Adam my hand.


A/N Oh, hey. Author here. Just letting you know, this is where chapter 11 would have ended, and chapter 12 would have begun. Congrats, you just read 3,000 words of my insanity. So uh, call this intermission. Use the bathroom, get a snack, whatever.

OAS out.


"Hey Kira."

Kira flinched as she glanced to the side of the balcony on the outdoor courtyard of DWMA. Overlooking the city sadly, she slumped down. She'd been crying.

"What do you want." It wasn't a question, but a dull statement, as if she didn't really care to know the answer.

"Rough day, huh?" Joey was sitting on the edge of the patio wall, his feet swinging leisurely over the dark abyss below.

"You know your cousin is missing, don't you?"

"Yeah, I know. She'll turn up."

Kira snorted.

"Now don't be like that. I know what you want."

"Doubt it."

"Answers, maybe?"

Kira fixed him with a stare. "You knew."

"Yeah. But enough of that. We got other worries, don't we?" Joey nodded in the direction of the rising moon.

"Huh?" Kira looked out over the dark desert, beyond Death City's walls, and struggled to focus on the faint glow in the distance. "What is that?"

"That would be the Uruk-Hai, fresh from Isengard."

"What?"

"Ah, the enemy. That would be the enemy."

Kira's eyes grew wide. "I remember. They're trying to keep us busy and away from L.J."

"Yup."

"But-"

"Kira. You wanna help L.J., right?"

Kira looked up, alarmed. "Of course I do!"

"Well, then I guess you'll just have to trust me." Joey held out his hand.

"She… drew us a map?" Mary looked at the paper laid out before them. "Seriously?"

"Her timing sucks ass." Adam said, looking it over. "Where's this go, anyway?"

"I dunno." Isaac shrugged. "Kira just drew it for me and then ran off, I can't find her. I'm a little worried."

Mary folded her arms and looked away as Leah inspected the map.

"It's the best option we have at the moment."

"Hey, guys? You might wanna take a look out the window." Liz pointed.

"What is that?" Mary rushed over to the sill.

"It looks like…"

"An army?"


-Flashback-

"I'll ask again." She said calmly, slamming Isaac into a tree. "Where's my sister?"

"Bite me." Isaac spat, drops of blood splattering onto the dirt.

"Let's try something else." Rachel slung the bow that was Mary off his shoulder. "Tell me where she is, or I'll destroy her."

"Hey!"

BAM. There was a blast of blue light, and Rachel dropped Mary to the ground.

I stepped out of the clearing, pointing Adam in his shotgun form at my older sister.

My mentor. My idol.

"You asked for me?" I tried my best to keep the quaking out of my voice.

Adam's soul didn't mesh perfectly with mine by any means, but we'd been friends for long enough to know how to work together. But I could sense his wavelength reaching out to an unconscious Leah, blood was dripping from her forehead. I slung him off my shoulder and tossed him in Leah's direction.

"Go to her, get her out as quick as you can!"

"Not so fast!" Rachel sent a ripple of dark energy, and smacked Adam full in the head, causing him to slump over, unmoving. "Ah. Nice of you to join us, L.J., I've been looking all over for you. Didn't fall asleep somewhere, did you?"

"Not this time." I gritted my teeth in an attempt to keep the tears of my panic at bay. "Rachel, what's gotten into you? You're not yourself! J-just calm down and we'll figure out what's-"

I was caught off as Rachel burst into the sickest, most twisted fits of laughter I'd ever heard.

"L.J., you shouldn't have come!" Mary hissed, her face pale as she clutched the slowly healing gash in her side.

"What are you talking about? You called me!"

"I told you to find your cousins or your mom!"

"You never said anything like that!" I turned from our bickering as Rachel's laughter died.

"I remember the day she brought you home. Everybody was so happy- 'Life Junior.' Even before I heard that name she gave you, I knew. Do have any idea what it meant for me! ? All that I had worked for! ? The shame and humiliation I endured, to have everyone see me be REPLACED! ?"

"What? Rachel, I-"

"There's only one reason a God creates a fragment, Life Junior!" Rachel raged. "To carry on the line of responsibility! Why else would she have made you! ? And now everybody knows that my mother saw me as unworthy to take her place! But look at you. Pathetic, sweet little L.J. Always running off, always having something else she'd rather be doing. You could do anything you wanted and you ran around the streets with a bunch of alley scum! You lazy, worthless, ungrateful little BRAT!"

"AGH!" I hadn't even registered her movement before being roundhouse kicked to the ground.

The earth cracked and split, dirt and grit scraping against my skin as my head spun.

"Rachel…" I inched into a sitting position. "What- we're sisters! I thought you-"

"Thought what? Who could love a thing like you, who's more trouble than it's worth?"

I began to shake violently, from my core outwards. Fear. I was terrified of my sister. The Phoenix. She was infinitely stronger than me, and now she was going to wipe me clean out of existence.

"Goodbye, sister. You were amusing for a time, but now I think it's time for you to leave." Rachel grabbed me by the collar and hurled me through the air, until I hit something much harder and more solid than a tree.

The cement wall- we'd reached the edge of the biodome. I skidded down it, somehow managing to stay standing with my back leaning on the wall, only to get kicked to the ground again. I felt her foot pressing painfully on the soft cavity that was my stomach, stars swimming before my eyes as my breath became more haggard.

"After all, who needs a worthless piece of trash like you when there's a Champion like me! ?"

"Rache-"

"Shut up, dammit, I'm talking now!" She screamed. "I'm the best, you hear me! ? The BEST! You're just some little punk. Everyone will see me surpass even our mother before the end."

"What! ?" I spluttered, squirming under the pressure of her boot. "Mom-"

"Mother made her choice! She chose you, and discarded me! So fine. I'll become the Guardian Angel all on my own."

She was crazy! I looked into her eyes, desperate to find, hope, but what I saw nearly broke me (or maybe that was her foot). Her eyes held a certain darkness I knew I'd seen before. But only in-

"A Kishin Egg." I choked out. "You've been feeding on innocent souls!"

Rachel growled low from the back of her throat. "I will be stronger. I will defeat our Mother. I'm not some piece of a puzzle that can be taken out and replaced."

Human souls. No Godling had ever become an egg before, and I couldn't beat Rachel anyway. But suddenly, this sort of burning sensation began to spread across my soul.

"Ah-!" Rachel's soul perception sensed it.

"Spheres? They won't do you much good now. I'll kill you, and the lines will go to me. And let's face it, little sister. You wouldn't have made a very good Guardian Angel anyway. You don't think I see you? I see everything. And you're dead inside."

My eyes went glassy. I… it wasn't true… if I wanted… I could… My body began to shake again, but not from fear- my soul was having the equivalent of a nervous breakdown. I was going to die by my idol's hand. My eyes flitted to my friends- Isaac, beaten to a bloody mess on the grass; Mary finally unconscious from blood loss; Adam with Leah, both unmoving. I was alone. Rachel seemed to read my thought pattern.

"You'll always be alone, silly girl. That's what Life is. Eternal loneliness. But don't worry, your soul will always exist in me. After I eat it, that is."

And even though a part of me despaired at her words, I couldn't look away from my friends. They'd been there for me. Accepted me. They didn't think I was dead, and they had been my family. They had confronted my sister in an un-winnable battle just to buy me some time. My fists clenched. My sister had forced me into a grave. But I wasn't going alone.

The burning in my core blazed even more intensely, and my thoughts began to slip away. My soul was piloting my body now, not my mind. I couldn't directly control my actions, but my soul could feel everything, and it knew just what to do. Rachel had stepped off me, had lifted me up by the collar again. She was speaking, but I didn't register her words. I just grabbed her wrists, and wrenched them off my shirt. The look on her face was priceless, but I didn't really notice it as I shoved her off me and stood up straight. I didn't look, but one of the sphere lines on my stomach had completely connected- a thin black stripe winding all around my waist.

Rachel was screaming at me now, but all I heard was the pounding of my own wavelength's rhythmic beat as it pulsated around me. I drew my hand back, and slammed my palm directly between her eyes. I didn't feel impact- just an odd resistance as my hand slipped past her skull and tore something bright and non-corporeal straight out of her.

Her body hit the floor. And above my palm hovered a twisted, horrific soul that had been bent from devouring innocents. It looked like it had once been bright purple, with six seraphim wings and a crown perched atop it. But now the wings were charred, the crown warped, and the color infected by red and black hexagonal plates spreading over its surface. The whole soul was engulfed in red flames.

A fallen angel's soul.

Something within me, a voice told me that no one could eat it- a Godling's corrupted soul could bring untold chaos and pain to the devourer, at best killing them. At worst…

I felt my other hand rise, and a swirl of black smoke began to spiral in the air before me. A portal? I drew back, and swung the soul like a Frisbee, my lips barely muttering the words,

"Angel's Judgment Alpha- Soul Banishment."

But before my sister's soul could get swallowed, it seemed to trigger a self- destruct, shattering itself. Most of the pieces were sucked into darkness nonetheless, but a single shard of black soul hurtled towards me. My soul was swelled around me in a huge violet orb- almost identical to how Rachel's once was, now with three black lines gracing it's right side. The shard hit and dissolved into my own wavelength, causing me to stumble back. The black smoke shrunk into nothing, eventually disappearing. My sphere receded, so that they were once again three half-complete streaks. I didn't feel my knees hit the ground, and before I knew it, I had collapsed beside my sister's body.

My mother was gone one week later, leaving only a note on my bedroom door.


-Present-

"So it's decided." Kid said, folding his arms. "I'll check out the map's location. This way there will still be people to defend the school from the attack, and I'll be mobile enough to return quickly if it's a dead end."

"Hold up there, Emo Boy." Adam said, and Kid visibly raised his eyebrow in response to L.J.'s old nickname of him, "L.J.'s our friend. Like we're gonna entrust her rescue to a guy who can be stopped by a lopsided door."

"In your current state, you'll only slow me down." Kid said hotly.

"'Current state?' I can kick your arse into the next time zone, pal!"

"Hey!" Mary shouted, waving her arms. "We don't have time for fighting. No offense Kid, but you're weakness isn't exactly a secret, and if L.J., John and Damian are in trouble… We may not have our powers, but we're still meister-weapon teams, and we still heal. Adam and Isaac are going with you. The rest of us will stay behind and hold the fort."

Isaac folded his arms- the fact that she'd separated herself from him had not gone unnoticed, but no one said anything. The Elementals were closely intertwined and could wield each other well enough during a short separation.

"Fine. But we're leaving now, and we'll need alternate means of transportation." Kid said.

"Alternate means of transportation? Like what?" Adam asked.

"Hm…" Maka hummed. "I think I have an idea."

-Five Minutes Later-

"You punks get one scratch on my car, and there'll be hell to pay!" Spirit waved his fist and shouted after the retreating vehicle as it sped away from the City, followed by a cloud of dust.

They skirted over the dunes, away from the approaching army and into the desert.

"O-kay." Isaac said, looking over the map as Adam drove. "A map drawn by a schizophrenic missile-launcher. How hard could it be?"

-Ten Minutes Later-

"You're reading it wrong!" Kid scolded, peering over his shoulder.

"What's to read! ? It's a drawing!"

-Fifteen Minutes Later-

"Are we there yet! ? The army must be at the school by now!"

"We'll get there when we get there!"

-Two Minutes Later-

"We're going the wrong way." Isaac said defiantly, as Adam skimmed the map with one hand on the wheel.

"Relax, with the map we'll be fi-"

Swish.

A catch of breeze swept the map from his hand, and into the night air.

They all stared blankly through the dark in the direction the paper had flown off, before Isaac and Kid fixed angry stares on their driver.

"Well, ahem… We'll just have to go on our instinct!"

"How are we gonna find our way home, exactly?"

"We'll figure it out as we go."


"What are these things! ?" Liz exclaimed, as the horde of mobile skeletons charged the school, only to be kept back by the various student teams.

She and Patti had been left behind, for their safety and to defend the school with the other distance weapons.

"I don't know, but they won't stay down for long!" Leah was standing at the city gates, firing arrows of soul wavelength with Mary.

Maka swiped through the skeletons with ease, only for them piece themselves together again, and Black Star was literally everywhere- flitting here and there, shouting "YAHOO" and leaving shattered bones in his wake. The skeletons weren't skilled fighters, but they healed so quickly and could reform as such monstrous creatures that it was fairly difficult to stay on top.

"I just hope the others are alright." Liz muttered, firing shots into the coming mass of enemies.


Night had fallen as I stared out the window and watched shrubs drift in the breeze. We were out in the country, near the ruined town where I found Kira. The Workshop, huh? It was an old stone tower, almost entirely lined with mirrors. I guess I could have slit my finger and used the blood to call Lord Death for help, but I didn't. This was my purpose now. To continue to protect my friends. I recalled what John and Damian had said in the car-

"She thinks eating human souls made her stronger, but Rachel lost the right to become Guardian Angel's chosen when she became a kishin egg. If she devours your soul, the Spheres will incinerate her. She'll be gone."

"We're sorry L.J. But you can't imagine what she's had us do. All we want is to be free from our contract. And the world'll be a safer place without her, you know it."

I did know it. So I would do this… Mom could make a new fragment. A better one. But this was my mess to clean up.

"L.J.?"

"Yeah?" I turned around, and saw Damian. "What is it?"

"Ah…. It's ready."

"Okay."

Damian looked puzzled for a moment, but wasn't sure what to say. "You… don't seem upset."

I shrugged.

"I'm not mad, Damian." He was silent, but I tried to reassure him with a smile. "I'll be right up."

Things like her and I… we're not supposed to exist.

He nodded in a disconcerted sort of way, but left. I stretched my arms and cracked my neck lightly, looking around. I never really noticed how beautiful the stars were out here. The city lights back home always seemed to outshine them. My heart ached a moment at the thought of home, but I steeled it and the feeling ebbed away. I missed mom. But she'd make a new fragment, one that would be everything Rachel and I weren't. I only wish I could see the look on Kid's face when he married someone fifteen years younger than him. I turned to one of the mirrors, and watched a shadow slip around behind me.

'Don't you see, little one? Things were always meant to turn out this way.'

"Yes." I agreed, feeling the shadow encircling me.

"…I think we'll be okay now."


CRASH!

"Ugh…" Adam cleared his head with a shake.

"Dude!" Isaac jumped out of the passenger seat. "Death Scythe told us not to scratch his car!"

"I couldn't help it! It just came out of nowhere!" Adam exclaimed, examining the crushed front-end of the car which had full on collided with a low brick wall.

"Be that as it may, it appears we've reached our destination." Kid nodded to the old, stone tower that stood up ahead.

"Huh. Alright then." Adam shifted into his shotgun form, and Isaac slung him over his shoulder.

"Let's check it out. You'll be alright without your partners?"

"Our enemy is a Godling turned Kishin Egg. I couldn't risk bringing them."

"Be that as it may-"

"I'll be fine."

"O-Kay. The place looks a bit empty, with that army being sent to the school, but someone must be guarding it…"

"I agree."


"Damian. You see that there?" John nodded out the window.

"Some idiot crashed their crappy car into our wall!" Damian exclaimed. "Let's go teach 'em a lesson!"

John stood up, shifting his full arm into a dagger, but Damian grabbed his shoulder.

"Hold on… Let them come."

"What?" John turned around. "What's this all of a sudden?"

"I think they call it character development. Just… forget about them."

"Damian, if Rachel's not killed, we'll never get out of our contract."

"I know."


"What's the plan?" I asked casually, walking beside my own reflection and up the stairs.

'You seem oddly compliant.'

"Like you said, you're the best. Me banishing you was only borrowed time. You connected yourself to me on purpose?"

'I needed a bond to this world to help me climb out of the in-between. But I'll be needing that shard I lent you, as well as the lines you stole from me.'

"Right."

'I had a friend modify the serum for me."

"You have a friend?"

'Hilarious.'

"So that's what neutralized my powers?"

'This one is different. Once we had the serum from the syringe, she was able to multiply it. See, the way it kills Forces, is that it separates their wavelength from their body. Kind of like what you did to me. Only permanent. And a bit more painful.'

"Your Witch friend sounds smart."

'Hm.'

"Too bad you had John and Damian kill her."

'I needed to cover my tracks, and the DWMA was looking for her. So I tricked a decoy witch into getting caught by the Academy.'

"A decoy?"

'That's right. The story's a bit longer than that thought. You see, I've started to become a little bit suspicious of your partners, L.J. It seems their no longer happy in my employment.'

"Yeah, I picked up on that too."

'My friend was only along for the ride to impress her family, prove that she was evil, or whatever. But I had other uses for her which she would not have agreed to.'

"Sounds like you."

'I don't think I'll be needing her anymore after this, though. You can keep her.'

I stopped in my tracks, and the ribbon of shadow that only showed up in the mirrors stopped too.

"Keep her?"


"Never do that again." Kira panted, grasping her head.

"Oh, come on." Joey said, looking around. "It wasn't that bad."

A faint sweet scent lingered in the air, as Joey transported them to a rocky cliff face out in the desert.

"Go on, take a look around."

Kira sighed, and rotated on the spot, before her gaze rested on the tower. Suddenly, there was an explosion of emotion, and all the voices inside her began to talk at once.

"We're back!'

"Don't make us go in!"

"Nonononono-"

"Let go of me!" Kira struggled against Joey's grasp as he stopped her from stepping back. "You can't make me go in! Get off!"

"L.J. is in there, and she needs your help! Are you just going to break down and leave her there! ?"

"You go in!"

"It has to be you, Kira!" Joey kept a firm hold on her. "And you're partly responsible for this!"

Kira stopped, her hands violently trembling.

"I don't want to…" Her eyes began to tear up, and her knees became weak. "Why, why…"

'She's not a witch.' Rachel said, swirling around the mirrors. 'But her family is. When she was born a weapon, you can imagine the confusion and anger that went around. Her family in particular was a group of renegades with a cult following, famous for their hatred of weapons- I think you heard of them from John and Damian…'

My teeth clenched.

'But she was still a smart girl. Tried so hard to please her family by studying different methods of black magic, and became rather skilled in the ways of potion-making. She heard of my plan to destroy Lady Life, and volunteered her services, in exchange for partial credit in the mayhem it would cause. She made the solutions which drove the boys at the school mad and made the students at the football field fall asleep, and she even suggested an enemy of her family to sacrificed as the decoy witch John and Damian killed. She modified the serum-'

"Kira's my friend!" I snapped out.

Echoing, detached laughter filled the hall.

'Naïve girl, you have no friends! Your partners have betrayed you, your new associate is a monster, and the Elemental brats have more important things to deal with than find you, if they aren't too terrified to leave the school without their powers. But I suppose Kira did have her uses, up to a point.'

"What d'you mean?"

'One advantage I have in this state: I can easily manipulate the minds of mortals. Kira, your 'friend' was a very disturbed girl, having grown up with that family of hers. With my doubts towards John and Damian, I needed a reliable spy who would still do my bidding. And from what I learned from your previous partners, the reliable spy is one who doesn't know she's a spy at all."

"A sleeper agent."

'That's right. I could turn her on and off, from intelligent witch to clueless weapon, and still have her under my control. But there were certain, unfortunate side affects.'

"The schizophrenia and personality disorders." My hands began to tremble. "And what now, now that she's no more use to you? You'll leave her be?"

'I said you could keep her, didn't I? She may be more twisted than even you are, but she's got a weapon's soul. She'll have a… relatively normal life. I say I did her a favor. She may not be sane, but she's away from her family and not setting everything in sight ablaze, I'd ask you for a thank-you if your weren't already being so cooperative.'

I hated her. Hated her with a blazing, fiery passion, matched only by how much I hated myself. But it didn't change much.

"Let's just go."

'Yes, yes, no time to waste.'

"L.J.!"

I froze. Oh shit.

Closing my eyes with an internal groan, I turned around.

Kid was here. Dammit.

He wasn't armed, but rather looking like he'd been in a car wreck and ran all the way up here without stopping.

'Who the hell is this idiot?' Rachel demanded.

"Don't worry." I spoke to the air. "He won't stop us."

Yeah… like I said, Mood Whiplash. I know this was supposed to be a shaking chapter(s), but I couldn't resist the urge to add some semblance of humor in here and there.