Chapter 5: Lost & Found, Part 2
What could be said about Asura was that he had felt all kinds of fear. Horror, terror, insecurity, doom, etc. The Madness of Fear didn't affect him because he was all of those things as well as the one inflicting those fears. But never had someone else made him feel anything different. Except one. The day when Maaba relinquished her control of her equal, cold despair flooded into his veins. For once in his immortal life, he felt something that overwhelmed him so much that he went mad. The second the Wizard was released, Asura was paralyzed from madness. He was frozen with deep, deep despair and felt nothing at all. Crushed by its oppressing weight, he fell from the sky, from what used to be the Black Moon.
Meanwhile, the Wizard suddenly felt everything. After being shunned from the Coven, despair cultivated his heart. This caused him to never feel anything again for centuries. Asura's reappearance made his dormant heart to churn and spiral wildly out of control. Thus all of his fears surfaced and he too went mad. The witches barely controlled his manic powers from destroying the forest, while Shibusen went to find the fallen Asura.
Spartoi found him in the Amazon Forest, ironically in the same plain where Maka and Soul were found on their last mission. His body hung loosely on top of a spike and black blood healed over the spike rooting him to the very top of the monolith. Kid scoffed from disgust.
"Very asymmetrical," he commented, mouth turned downward. "Disgraceful."
"So now we're gonna cut him up, right?" Black Star asked.
"Yes. Symmetrically into eight pieces so we can scatter them in hidden locations around the world, which I will do personally," he said.
"Isn't this a bit grotesque, even for you Kid?" asked Jackie. "I don't know if I wanna stick around for this."
"You don't have to of course," he said kindly. "But this will be in the history books! Actually, maybe that's a bad idea."
"Yeah, some dumb fuck will be like, 'Whoa, what if I could release the Kishin again? I could have so much power!' Yeah, uh that's a no," said Black Star and played it out with his hands. "Let's just keep it between us besties."
"Ah, I think I'll just take the twins back to camp and not be around for this," Kilik said and shepherded his partners the way they came. "Anyone who wants in can come with!"
"Let's go, Kim," Jackie said, tugging on her sleeve.
"But—" she said, looking back regretfully.
"Seriously?"
"Okay, okay fine! I'll come! God," Kim relented and stomped away pouting. Jackie gave her worried looks but followed her anyway.
Ox was torn between going after Kim and staying for a scientific dissection of a Kishin. "You might as well stay to help. Kim will always be there later. This will not," Harvar reasoned for him.
"You're right! Thanks," he said and pushed up his glasses. Harvar gave him a thumbs up.
"Maka?" Kid asked.
Maka turned to him, confused. "Of course I'm staying. I got this far, right?"
"If you wanted to get back to Crona, we would of course understand—"
"Ms. Marie is taking care of them. I want to stay for this," she said and positioned Soul a clean cut.
Kid sighed and rolled up his sleeves. "Let's make this quick. I want to go home."
/
After Asura was skin-bagged into eight different pieces, Kid prepared them in specially sealed boxes with magic from the coven, a complicated security system designed by Stein himself, and something else that he is keeping secret only to himself. Asura will never see daylight and his Madness will never spread ever again. He spent two days flying around the globe to find special hiding places for them and when he returned to Death City, he finally could breathe and get some sleep.
The Witches took the Wizard into custody and they never revealed to Lord Death what they did to him. But from what he understood, it was permanent and he will not cause havoc again. That made Kid wary, not knowing what happened to him, but it was a working partnership in progress. There will be time later to divulge that information.
Having successfully rescued Crona, they went into full rehabilitation. There were talks of replacing what little Black Blood they had left with their original human (half-witch?) blood. Stein was looking into several replacements while a mission to search for Medusa's old notes proved to be quite the challenge. However, despite all this, Crona was back in Death City. For good.
Ragnarok was very weak and diluted to the point of no return. His consciousness was unstable and fleeting. As a result, Stein asked Crona what they would like to do with their partner, should they remove the Black Blood permanently. Their expression became sad.
"In the end, it turned out that he cared in his own way," they said, tearing up. "I think he's had enough. Maka is right. We should rest. At least Ragnarok should be able to have peace with Lord Death. Right?"
"Right," Stein said and rested a hand on their shoulder. Crona's shoulder shook as they mourned for their partner in the waning afternoon.
All the patients that were hospitalized were officially released the day after their return from Brazil. Nations all over the world celebrated for a week and new coverages talked about the promise of great leadership under the new, merciful Lord Death. Maka smiled as she turned off the TV. She stood up and arched her back before walking through the kitchen and into Soul's room. He was napping when it was his turn to make dinner. The distant yelps of alarm and "Why the heck do you wake me up like this?" was like music in Blair's ears. She groomed herself while taking in the moonlight that spilled through the window. She felt so proud of her kittens.
The grinning moon had a bloody smile tonight. No visitors did wonders for its teeth.