A/N: I feel like this took me forever! I hate slow updates, and I don't want to do that to (all three of) my darling readers!

Chapter 2

"Alright, everyone," Stein deadpanned, looking around the clearing in the woods at the team. "Focus today's training on getting used to and resonating with Eris."

Kid could not stop staring at the new meister, his eyes comically wide. Black*Star elbowed him in the ribs and he didn't even feel it.

"What's wrong, Kid?" he asked conspiratorially. "Checkin' out the new girl?"

Kid's eye twitched. "She's so…"

"Hot?" That she was, Kid agreed from an objective standpoint; her figure was somewhere between Tsubaki's and Patty's, and the alignment of her facial features left little to be desired. However…

"Asymmetrical!" Kid hissed through his teeth. Black*Star snorted. Eris glanced their way and gave them a shy, lopsided smile. Kid winced.

Black*Star stepped forward, getting in her face. "What kinda meister are you, anyway, huh?"

Stein grinned in cruel amusement and patted his daughter's slim shoulder. "You've got it from here." Then he wheeled away on his office chair.

Eris wiggled her fingers good-bye at his retreating back, then turned to Black*Star with a confident smirk. "You wanna find out?"

The ninja leaned back, grinning at her. "Oh, I like you." He jumped back a few yards in a single bound and took a fighting stance. "Let's do this."

"Black*Star—" Maka protested, but Eris put up a silencing hand.

"I've got this, Maka," she said, not taking her mismatched eyes off of her challenger.

"But—"

Soul took her hand and interlaced their fingers, surprising the talk out of her. "Don't go charging in," he murmured. "Let them do this."

"But, Soul…" Her protests died on her lips as she looked up into his grinning face. She followed his lead and turned her attention to the brewing battle.

"You ready, new girl?" Black*Star called.

"Waiting on you, bro," Eris answered.

He prepared to jump. "Okay," he said under his breath, knowing she would hear.

Black*Star threw himself into the air with a "Yahoo!" His opponent grinned up at him and launched herself to meet him.

He pulled back his arm, his flexed hand crackling with his soul wavelength. "I've got you now!" he crowed. The redhead smirked again; her hand shot out to press gently against the center of his chest. His eyes widened, as if he knew what was coming.

Her words were soft and flat, like an old, well-loved stuffed animal, yet they reverberated throughout the clearing: "Soul Force." Then Black*Star's eyes rolled back in his head.

He screamed like he had when they first battled Stein; the two seemed frozen in midair. Time resumed, and Black*Star's body rocketed into the sky another ten feet while Eris returned to the ground, landing lightly on her high-heeled feet, her eyes softly closed.

Black*Star landed on his back with a seemingly deafening thud. Eris's eyes opened to rest on his motionless form. Her golden eye had turned a cold grey, her usually silver one showing prominent green spokes and flecks. "Was that it?" she said in a bored tone, practically examining her nails. The ninja at her feet managed to cough in response.

"Black*Star!" Tsubaki cried, rushing to her meister's side.

Eris blinked, her eyes flickering back to their usual colors. She crouched next to the raven-haired weapon and laid a comforting, apologetic hand on her shoulder. "I went a little overboard; sorry. He should be fine in a few minutes."

Tsubaki looked up at her with teary, indigo eyes. "Really? He sounded like he was in so much pain…"

"Yeah, my bad. I didn't do any real damage though, just knocked the wind out of him—" She peered doubtfully down at him. "—I think."

Black*Star wheezed. "A-as if (hack) an attack like (cough) that could (hack) fell the great (choke, wheeze) Black*Starrrrrrr!" He weakly waved his arms in a way that was probably supposed to be triumphant, but just looked sad, given that he was on his back and only just breathing.

His partner gently lifted his head into her lap and considered the redhead crouching beside her. "You can attack with your soul wavelength?"

Eris nodded. "So I can fight with or without a weapon. Whatever's appropriate."

Kid stepped forward, gazing severely at her. "Can you see souls, as well?"

She grinned lopsidedly up at him. "I can, Reaper."

Kid scowled at her. "Maka, Tsubaki," he said sharply.

Maka's head jerked toward him; she had been completely absorbed in the goings-on, her face blank with mute amazement. "Yeah, Kid?"

"Get Black*Star out of here," he ordered, keeping his golden gaze trained on Eris. "I'm your next opponent," he informed her. She blinked at him, then smirked.

"Aren't I popular," she murmured.

Maka raised an eyebrow at Kid, who still wasn't looking at her, but helped Tsubaki move the now-unconscious ninja into the safe shade of the trees.

"Liz, Patty," Kid barked. The sister pistols exchanged looks, but transformed into their meister's waiting hands.

Eris slowly rose from her crouch, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking a hip, tilting her head to one side as she gazed calmly at Kid. "You're fighting with weapons?" she asked.

"Of course," he growled. "I can't fight with just my wavelength."

She mock-pouted. "But I don't have a weapon. No fair~"

"Don't fuck with me!" he burst out. She just smirked again. "Soul! Be her weapon for this."

"Hah?" Soul had been watching all this unfold with his hands in his pockets, as usual.

"Your soul is like Stein's, right?" Kid accused Eris. "Absurdly flexible; you can use any weapon."

She shrugged and said innocently, "Guilty as charged." She turned a winning smile on the scythe. "If you wouldn't mind too terribly, Soul."

He rolled his ruby eyes. "Ugh, fine." With that he transformed, twirling into the sky and landing in Eris's ready hands.

"Show-off," Maka muttered.

"You love it, Maka!" Soul shouted, his scythe-voice tinny.

It was Eris's turn to roll her eyes. She started twirling him around herself experimentally. "What's your damage, anyway, Reaper?" she asked, spinning Soul masterfully behind her back.

"You're asymmetrical," Kid spat, shifting his weight for battle. Listening to his tone, one might think she had slapped a baby.

"Oh, is that the problem?" She stopped twirling and took a stance herself.

"If I win, you change into something symmetrical," Kid declared.

His opponent chuckled. "Sure, darling."

"What if you win, Eris?" Patty called from her meister's hand.

The ginger grinned lopsidedly and said to Kid, "I don't need anything from you."

The reaper gasped. "Damn it! Now the stakes are asymmetrical!" He swung his pistols toward her and started shooting with a roar of OCD-fueled rage. Eris easily evaded his attacks, coming closer to him with every graceful leap.

"Damn it!" Kid fired another shot, almost point-blank, preparing to go hand-to-hand when Eris avoided the attack by letting go of Soul and spinning an inch out of the way, then catching the scythe again neatly in a crouch. Beautiful... he thought, momentarily distracted.

Then she had Soul's blade hooked around the back of his neck, the edge just scraping his skin, her face thisclose to his.

"I win," she chirped with another lopsided grin. Kid stared into her mismatched eyes, caught quite off guard.

Before he could do anything about it, Eris ducked in and kissed him on both cheeks, then skittered gracefully back a few steps, still grinning.

"Symmetrical enough for you?" she purred. He just stared at her some more, stunned, his golden eyes wide.

Soul made a metallic gagging noise.

His current meister giggled and tossed him into the air. "Much obliged, Soul."

He transformed in midair and landed lightly on his feet, surreptitiously checking to see if Maka had witnessed his coolness. "No problem," he said to Eris.

Kid fell over.

Eris cracked up while Soul leaned over the fallen reaper. "Oi, Kid, you alive?"

Liz and Patty transformed out of their meister's hands, crouching over him. "He's never been kissed before," Liz explained long-sufferingly. "Like that even counted."

"He's such a virgin!" Patty chortled.

"Right," Soul deadpanned, turning away. He had to step over Eris, who by this point was literally ROFL. He sauntered over to Maka and Tsubaki, crouching over Black*Star with them. "Is he alive?" he asked skeptically.

Black*Star cracked an eye open at him. "As if I'd die," he croaked.

Soul chuckled and fist-bumped him.

Maka was watching Eris, who was still laughing on the ground (now joined by Patty). "So her soul is like Stein's…" she said to herself.

Her partner followed her line of sight. "'S what it looks like," he confirmed, "only less crazy. I felt her soul while we fought; she's a lot like her 'dad.'" He almost made finger- quotes when he said "dad," but decided that was uncool.

Maka frowned thoughtfully, then met Soul's eyes. "But less crazy?"

He nodded. "Stein's absolutely off his office chair. Eris's madness is about average for our little group, pretty low-risk."

Maka nodded gravely and resumed watching her sister, worry etched into her face.

A/N: So the move that distracted Kid was something I saw Balsa the Spear Wielder do on Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. It was done with a spear (obvi) but I think it works with a scythe like Soul. Sorry I couldn't describe it better *sweatdrop* Also, sorry Black*Star fans! I've just been dying to take him down a peg or seven ^^ Updates soon!- Love, Maya