"Snapshot" By RavenAK.

Apparently unconnected moments in time, about everything, about nothing, about them. Soul/Maka/Crona, because ever since their roads connected they are undividable.

Disclaimer: Soul Eater belongs to Ohkubo Atsushi, Square Enix and Shônen GanGan. Not me. No, sir. The song "Song to Say Goodbye" belongs to Placebo.

Warning: Spoilers for the manga. They might get heavier as the story progresses.

Author's Note: Remember when I said it followed some sort of chronological order? Well, screw that. This chapter describes the same situation of the previous one, but from a different perspective. I hope it's acceptable at least.

Three: Song to Say Goodbye

Now I'm trying to wake you up,

To pull you from the liquid sky,

'cause if I don't we'll both end up

With just your song to say goodbye…

He doesn't know how it started, and he has no idea of how it will end. The only thing that's certain is that they have been assigned to kill Crona before she decides to kill them instead.

It would be reasonable, logical even, if it were any other foe; but it's Crona, Maka's best friend, the person she cares for the most, the one that they will never forget, the one that has caused her so much pain and yet made her so happy.

It's unfair no matter how you look at it.

It's even worse being in his position. His duty, his instinct, is to always protect his Meister from anything, from anyone, anytime. He's always ready for everything that may come her way, he would never let anything happen to her; and yet, her orders are completely different: Nobody shall hurt Crona critically, it's only allowed to slap her or punch her or kick her if it's necessary to make her snap out of it, but it's not allowed to hurt her with the intention of causing her damage.

Which puts him in a suicidal position.

He basically has to watch his Meister exchange words, philosophical arguments, punches and kicks with her best enemy-friend-enemy, while being attentive to block the latter's attacks so that the former doesn't get stabbed, sliced in half, beheaded or anything of the sort. He has to switch between weapon, human and flying scythe form depending on the need of the moment, and he has to keep his cool while resonating with her, so her frustration and rage won't eat him alive.

If that wasn't enough, he also has to keep calm and try not to come in direct contact with the Black Blood which is pouring out of Crona's swords, and come up with logical arguments to make the Little Demon just shut the fuck up, because this is not the time to talk about his envy, his insecurities and his mental unstability…

It seems easy enough…

So far, they have been fighting for around 10 minutes and no one has lost a limb yet, so he thinks they're doing a good job… that is, until Maka runs out of statements and her knuckles are bleeding and her breathing is ragged and unsteady.

"Crona! Listen to me, this is not you!" She screams. "This is not the Crona I know!"

Crona laughs and attempts to stab her, but fails. "This is not the Crona you know, this is me. I am myself and no one else".

"No! You're not like this, you're a sweet and caring person, you're a good person, underneath all that!" She kicks her in the chest and she falls on her back. "You're a good person who has been manipulated!"

Maka stands over her as Crona just stares at the sky. She sees the blonde girl offering her a hand to help her up, and she remembers that one time when she first offered her hand, that one time when they became friends.

Friends, was it?

Friends.

Something ignites on her veins and she grins widely. She takes the hand and gets up, seeing her face to face. Maka smiles, and Crona lifts one of her swords in the air.

She sees her face turn to panic as she backs away quickly, and then uses her scythe to fly above her. Crona stabs the air where she was a moment ago.

"Ah, how troublesome". Crona states as she keeps attempting to stab her. "I will have to try a different killing method".

Maka flies away until she's a few meters away from her, then jumps off to the ground wielding Soul in weapon form again, guarding herself with his blade. She tries one more time:

"Crona, wake up! I'm your friend, you don't want to kill me!"

"Friends, is it? A dark person like myself doesn't have something like a friend".

"You do! I am! I've always been! I still believe in you!"

"Medusa-sama took it away… Medusa-sama took my friend away… She took everything away… She took me away…"

"But just because she's evil, it doesn't mean that you are! You're only doing this because she told you to, right? You don't really want to do this! You have been killing all of these people because you're scared of her! Because you want to make her proud, so she won't punish you anymore!"

"No…"

"You want her to be pleased because she's your mother, you want her approval, you want to be accepted…"

"No…"

"I know it because… I, too… I wanted to be always better, I wanted to be accepted, I wanted to be approved of… But I don't need that anymore, because I have friends who accept me for who I am, friends who support me, friends who are willing to bring me back no matter how far I go! And you've got me! You don't have to listen to Medusa, you don't need to do what she tells you to!"

"No… There is no Medusa". Crona looks at her right in the eyes. "I took her away. Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab…"

She keeps repeating that damned word as her grin widens and she walks up to them very slowly, swinging around her swords.

Maka's face goes completely blank, her body numb and her soul unreadable, unreachable, as the words start to sink in.

Soul tries reaching out to her, to get her out of that trance, to shake her up, to get her to react and do something, but she's someplace far away.

Symbolically, it's like she's slowly letting go of his hand.

He calls for her more desperately, because Crona is walking up to them scarily and smugly, and she seems to be enjoying it, or at the very least, feeling way too comfortable with it, but Maka is not there; her body hasn't moved an inch, but her soul seems to be lost somewhere else.

He keeps trying to reach out to her, as Crona keeps approaching them, repeating the same word over and over.

"Maka!"

"Stab, stab…"

"Makaaaa!"

"Stab, stab…"

I can't write a fight scene to save my life, can you tell? –sighs- Thanks for reading, and please review with your opinions on the story!