The blonde dropped to her knees, pebbles digging into her already-bruised and battered skin as her hands searched frantically for a heartbeat among the blood. Crona stood impassively above the duo, eyes sad but cold and face as distant and unreachable as the moon. Ignoring the blood soaking through her clothes and staining her fingers, Maka stared at the young man's chest in complete and utter horror, wishing she had at the very least known his name, the ends of her hair grazing his skin and turning red. A weak hand gripped her wrist, shocking the girl out of her reverie for a second. The man's eyes, no longer disturbing and frightening, were wide with worry and fear.
"Run!" he gasped, pleaded, begged - the word clearly causing him unimaginable agony. Taking his hand, Maka squeezed it tightly for a second, thanking him as much as she could when her throat wouldn't allow a sound past it. Gently letting him go, the girl stood, eyes blazing with a passionate fury as she glared at Crona.
"How could you?" demanded Maka, voice hoarse and weak. Clearing her throat, the girl screamed, "How could you?" Her voice was raw and tender with pain and grief, sorrow for the loss of an old friend crushing her heart and slicing into her soul.
Leaping over the man's body, Maka drove her fist into Crona, stunning them enough that they didn't even have a chance to use their sword. The two landed on the ground, the girl pummeling the dark-eyed youth mercilessly, pain driving her forward. To her shock, strong, muscled arms pulled her back, causing her to strain and fight harder than she could've imagined. Twisting around to look, she was shocked into stillness by who it was. The man holding her was the blue-haired freak that kidnapped her the first time.
"Who are you? How? Why?" stammered out Maka, bewildered and confused and grieving and furious and a thousand other dark emotions that culminated in wretched sobs shaking her chest as the man went from restraining her to hugging her sympathetically, watching as his companion subdued the real monster while another comrade, this one a doctor, immediately set to work on the red-eyed man, disregarding that they were in the middle of a field on a dusty road.
"Stein's taking care Soul, he'll be alright," he whispered comfortingly, eyes sad and worried as the man glanced at his friend on the ground. The doctor picked up the wounded man, carrying him gently through the fields and leaving Maka to the blue-haired man. "My name's BlackStar, you're Maka right?" She nodded mutely, allowing him to lead the way back to the castle, BlackStar's familiarity with the forest and the castle making the trip much faster than when Maka escaped. Footstep after footstep, Maka stumbling from the tears in her eyes, they somehow made it back. He led her back to her room, telling her that the man, Soul, would be undergoing surgery right now.
Collapsing onto her bed, Maka felt hollow and and dried out, a husk containing the broken fragments of her sanity and happiness. There were no more tears left to shed, but just because the rain had ended did not mean that the sun had come out. A gnawing fear worried at the pit of her stomach, swallowing up everything it came across, ever growing. Things she thought she understood were completely wrong - her best friend was insane and bloodthirsty and one of her kidnappers... protected her with his life? It didn't make any sense!
Suddenly, her door flew open, Maka's body reacting instantly so that she was standing and facing BlackStar, the blue-haired guy. "He's gonna be alright Maka!" the man exclaimed, pulling the girl into a bone-crunching hug. A smile broke out across her face as the two grinned at each excitedly for a moment before BlackStar broke away and started running down the hall. "Gotta tell the others!" he tossed over his shoulder by way of explanation.
Seeing that nobody was stopping her, Maka went out of her room and started wandering the castle curiously, testing each door as she went. Most were locked, every couple or so were open, though those usually contained something like a latrine. Interestingly, they seemed to have plumbing, a luxury reserved for the rich, and especially strange in a ancient castle. The search didn't yield any rewards, but it was better than sitting in bed waiting and worrying.
As Maka was taking a break, leaning against one of the arched windows and gazing at the scenery, she sensed someone come up behind her. She turned around expectantly to face the woman she had seen before, the one with the strange skin and red antlers. Somehow, she looked different now, though it was undoubtedly the same person. Her antlers were gone, bizarrely enough, as well as the strange coloring of her eyes. The woman's skin remained lined with dark swirls, but the patterns complemented her features and were pretty on their own now. Her long hair was now sleek and beautiful, instead of the dry and shaggy mess Maka had first perceived it to be.
"Hello, my name is Tsubaki," the woman started kindly, her face gentle and sweet as she greeted Maka.
"Hi, I'm Maka. Um, do you mind explaining… everything?" the shorter girl asked, trying to figure out how not to be rude while still getting the answers she needed at the same time.
"I'm going to take you to Lord Death, and he will explain everything much better than I ever could," Tsubaki said instead, her eyes concerned as she led the way through a maze of hallways, glancing back every once in a while to check that Maka hadn't gotten lost somehow. When they finally stopped outside a door, the blonde wondered how Tsubaki knew where they were, as this particular door didn't look any different from the library's or even the one to her room. Regardless, Maka trusted the taller woman and stepped through it, Tsubaki's encouraging smile a brightness in the rather gloomy castle.
The room was a lot less ornate and ridiculous than Maka had expected, to be quite frank. It was a regularly sized study, with a large desk facing the door and bookshelves lining the walls to her left and right, all of the crammed with books of every size imaginable. The back wall was a row of windows, open to show the grounds and beginnings of the forest. At the desk sat a figure that she could assume was a man, considering how tall it was, but as the person was completely hidden behind a black cloak and a white mask, Maka had to guess. His black cloak seemed to suck in all the light around it, giving the person a rather foreboding look. However, something about the mask, a circle with three spikes coming out the bottom and three circular holes, gave the personage an air of silliness and friendliness.
"Hiya Maka!" he greeted cheerfully, standing up at her arrival, confirming the feeling the girl had had about his personality. "I am Lord Death, and this is my castle!"
"Er, hi," the blonde replied, not quite sure what to say or do when confronted by such a bizarre juxtaposition of mannerisms and appearance.
"Of course, you must be worried about Soul - Dr. Stein said he'll have a scar, but the boy will be alright," the man brightly informed her, somehow giving Maka the impression that he was smiling kindly at her. "I'm sure you're wondering why we brought you here," he began, waving her towards the chair in front of his desk as he sat. "You see, we know there's someone after you, due to something your father has done."
Groaning, Maka grumbled, "What did Papa do this time?"
"Apparently make a deal with someone very dangerous, though the idiot clearly didn't realize it at the time. As far as we can tell, the original promise was that Spirit would procure… recently deceased bodies, shall we say, for her experiments. After he reneged on the contract, since his partner had suddenly escalated it to live specimens, the witch decided to take revenge by attacking you. She waited until Spirit decided the danger had passed and left for work again. When we heard that her minions were reading an attack, I sent Tsubaki and BlackStar to protect you."
"What are you people? And why didn't you just tell me all of this instead of kidnapping me?" Maka demanded angrily. "It would've saved everyone a lot of trouble and Soul wouldn't have been injured!"
Lord Death sighed sadly clearly upset that things had gotten this far. "The reason we didn't tell you all of this at first was because, as you have obviously figured out for yourself by now, we're not human. Tsubaki, BlackStar, Soul, and many others you have yet to meet, are the Crowmen. They work under me, the Keeper of Death. We exist to maintain the boundary between life and death, while also fighting corruption in the magical community, an example of which would be the witch who tricked your father. Our particular flavor of magic twists other people's perception of us, changing it to match their mental and emotional state. For example, the first time you saw BlackStar, he was probably some sort of salivating monster that only faintly resembled a human, correct?"
Maka nodded embarrassedly, slightly frustrated that her question was remaining unanswered but sensing that this knowledge was important and not given out freely."
"However, now that you think of him more kindly, the boy looks more normal, doesn't he?" Again she nodded, wondering where this is all leading. "The townsfolk and farmers, as you must admit, are rather superstitious and wary of new people, and would probably be outrightly hostile to ones with our kinds of abilities. This leads us to hide in the forest, where we can protect them but they can't hurt us," Lord Death concluded sadly. "Don't worry, I'm getting there," he added fondly, noticing Maka's impatience. "You see how this big this is? We can't just give this information away to anyone, and we wanted you to be able to return to a normal life afterwards. The less you knew, the easier it would be to make you forget about it without causing damage to your mind."
"Are you still going to erase my memory?" Maka asked timidly, wondering how she could go back to her normal life when this other world existed just beneath the skin of her knowledge. "And what about the witch?"
"We don't know who she is, and can only guess at her movements. She is incredibly intelligent and tactical, from what we can tell. Most never manage to evade us for so long. As far as we can tell, her modus operandi is tricking or bargaining with people to bring her bodies, sometimes fresh, occasionally specific long-dead ones. She uses these to bring back the dead, generally using the souls of particularly cruel ones like killers, though her experiments so far have been lackluster and easy to defeat. From what we can tell, the witch uses awful people since their bodies are easier to obtain, not because of specific malicious intent."
There was a pause, during which he was clearly inviting Maka to say something. Rapidly going through the vast amount of information Lord Death had just bestowed upon her, the girl commented, "It seems odd that someone so smart can only create mediocre beings."
"Exactly. We're worried that she's trying to trick us into believing she's weaker than she is, therefore underestimating her and losing any battle in which we might find ourselves. Despite her being a scientist and therefore more inclined towards neutrality by design, the witch clearly isn't kind or good-hearted."
Maka squinted at the man suspiciously, her keen mind racing to put together the puzzle pieces. "You seem to know an awful lot about someone whose identity is a mystery, if you don't mind my saying so Lord Death. And what about Crona? Do they have anything to do with the witch?"
"We try to capture her experiments alive, for at least a little bit, during which we interrogate them before sending their soul back to where it belongs," he answered. "In a sense, Crona is one of her underlings, if not an experiment exactly. We have reason to believe that they are her child, not that she treats them as such," Lord Death commented sorrowfully. "I imagine we would have to keep them locked up, after learning as much as we could, to prevent Crona from causing further damage, and hopefully someday help them turn away from the witch's influence."
Nodding, Maka then asked, "And where do I fit into all of this? There seems to be too much information given if you're just going to let me go back to my old life."
"You can go back as soon as it's safe, we're not stopping you," the man hurriedly corrected. "However, the notion seems to be unappealing to you, and the Crowmen have reported your bravery and determination. We would like to have you become one of our own."
The girl stared at Lord Death in shock, bewildered by this turn of events and her willingness to say yes on the spot. However, her rationale won out, and she stammered out, "Can I have a bit of time to think about this, sir? Since this is obviously such a big decision…"
"Of course, Tsubaki will show you back to your room, or the library, which I've heard you quite like," the man agreed, standing up and opening the door for her, his tone giving Maka the impression that he was smiling brightly again. "It's not an endless offer though; we do need your decision to come sometime soon so we can start training you as fast as possible, if you agree of course, or start making arrangements to help you return to your daily life safely."
Tsubaki was waiting for her in the hall, leaning against a window and reading a book calmly, looking up when the door squeaked open and smiling at Maka cheerfully. "Where do you want to go?"
"Can I go to the library?" she asked, needed the quiet and familiar surroundings to calm her.
Their walk was silent, but the air wasn't charged with tension the way it was at home with her father. As they stopped outside the library, Tsubaki said gently, "You don't have to say yes."
Maka nodded mutely, stepping inside.
But can I say no?
The library was quiet and peaceful, private but not lonely. Sinking into an armchair, Maka found to her surprise that the book she had been reading last time was still there, bookmarked where she left off. Relieved for the familiar escape, she started reading, finally finishing the book when the sun had gone down. Her emotions somewhat settled by reading, the girl glanced around to see that it was dusk, the glass ceiling providing a gorgeous view of the purple-tinged, dark blue sky, the moon a rising silver crescent. Slipping out of the armchair, Maka wondered at the sense of peace that had enveloped her. She wandered through the halls, knowing that she was searching for Soul, despite having no idea where to look for him
To her surprise, she managed to bump into the boy by accident after not too much searching. "Hey," Maka greeted, smiling up at him. "How are you feeling? How did you heal so quickly?" The guilt gnawed away at her insides, but the relief at seeing him alive and walking was so much stronger.
Soul grinned back, "Never been better," he answered, a touch sarcastically. "We're pretty resilient, and Stein's got magic powers and stuff, which doesn't hurt." Together, they turned towards the castle exit, Maka following his lead as they walked outside, the cool fresh air a blessing after the slightly stuffy air of the castle.
"Lord Death said I could become a Crowman," she started, curious as to his reaction.
Soul's eyebrows rose with mild surprise before he asked, "Will you?"
She glanced back at him, the answer plain on her face and the reasons clear in her eyes. "Maybe." The two continued strolling in relaxed silence, every once in a while breaking it up with easy conversation and laughter. They were like old friends reunited after a long time apart, the separation having made their meeting all the happier. Old friends who knew each other, but yet didn't, needing time to feel out how the winds of change had treated the other, how some edges had been smoothed away while others were formed.
Long after the moon had slid off the sky and all children were asleep, Maka found her way back to Lord Death's office. Knocking on the door, she waited patiently to be admitted. It swung inwards on its own, the man still sitting behind his desk.
"I would like to accept your offer," Maka stated firmly as she stepped inside, her heart full to the brim.
"Oh?" he said cheerfully, eyes most likely twinkling behind their mask. "Well then, I can't say I'm not glad to hear that."
The words brought a grin to Maka's face, the smile determined and her eyes filled with anticipation.