CHAPTER 7:

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

Of those present, it was Blair who had the clearest idea of what to do. "Hey, Crona? Your mother gave you a present: that Wolfman guy. He's your new pet."

"Yay!" Crona cheered in a childish, joyful voice. She then wrapped her arms around Free's neck in what should have been a loving embrace…but was basically her throttling the ever-loving crap out of the immortal Wolfman. She then sniffed. "Woo! You need a bath, Wolfie!"

"Piss off!" Free snarled, picking Crona off and flinging her away.

She landed, feet first, on the wall, and stayed there for a moment, as if standing on a wall was the most natural thing in the world. She then pouted. "Bad Wolfie! I'll have you neutered so that you aren't so naughty!" She then lunged at him.

Maka looked at Blair. "How do we stop her? She's gone insane!"

"It must be the Black Blood," Eruka said, watching as Crona and Free fought. "Medusa said that she had harvested it from Crona…but I think Crona's overdosed."

"Why isn't Harry doing anything?!" Soul demanded.

Maka blinked. Her ability to perceive souls was something useful here, and she concentrated on Crona and Harry's souls. After a moment, she said, "Who said he isn't?"

Within Crona's soul, there was once a desert, as dry and hot as a desert could be. Over time, Harry helped Crona turn this desert into a small garden. Not a particularly big or extravagant one, but one that was well-loved and tended.

Now, though, her soul was an ocean of darkness, whipped up by the fury of a storm. Giggling and chuckling was mixed in with the sound of thunder.

Struggling to stay above the water was a pink-haired girl, in danger of drowning beneath the obsidian tide. Rowing a boat into that tempest was a dark-haired boy. "Hang on, Crona, I'm coming for you!" he yelled.

Spirit was torn. He had chased after Medusa partly because of her looks, but partly because, well, any lady fleeing a party had probably been dumped. And it was a good chance to play the knight in shining armour, give her a shoulder to cry on, and hope that one thing led to another.

But now, after hearing her speak about her daughter in such contemptuous tones, not even calling Crona 'her' but 'it', well, it infuriated him, and despite his protective attitude and discouraging nature towards any potential suitors for Maka, he was actually quite slow to anger. He wanted to make Medusa pay for that attitude. He was nowhere near the perfect parent, he'd be the first to admit, but he tried to do as much as he could for Maka.

Suddenly, it hit him, Stein, and Medusa like a tsunami. A feeling of foreboding. Stein and Medusa knew what had happened. "Oh no…" Stein murmured.

"Meddlesome, useless little tool…" Medusa snarled. "Crona must have taken a massive overdose of the Black Blood."

"That madness…it's flooding her soul…" Stein whispered in horror. "She's in danger of becoming a Kishin if this goes on."

"So much the better. About time that ungrateful little tool was some use," Medusa sneered contemptuously. "You let the cuckoo into your nest, Stein. Now your other chicks are going bye-bye. Now, let's continue where we left off, shall we?"

With an undignified yelp, Free was sent rolling down the corridor back the way he came. "Heel, Wolfie!" Crona called. After a moment's pause, she repeated, "Heel!"

There was no answer. Eventually, Crona turned around, and then, froze upon seeing Eruka. "You," she growled in a very dangerous tone. Crona had never actually growled before. And everyone present were staring in horror at the venom in the girl's eyes…

The pink-haired girl was spluttering and gasping as she struggled to keep her head above the black tide. The boy in the boat reached down to try and pull her into the boat. Instead, he was inadvertently pulled overboard, into the black ocean…

"M-m-me?" Eruka asked, quaking.

"I smell Mother in you," Crona hissed. She readied the Soul Reaver blade. "I hate her. Hate, hate, hate her."

Crona! It's all right! I know it's scary. I know it's easy to just succumb to the madness. Everyone needs a bit of madness in their life!

With a banshee scream, Crona sped towards Eruka, who was frozen to the spot. Suddenly, she was thrown back by a Pumpkin Bomb summoned by Blair. Crona dodged the next fusillade of them, and began speeding towards Eruka again…

It's so easy to just give in, isn't it? But since when were we about doing things the easy way? Running away from Medusa? Following the path of a Meister and their Weapon, and not that of a Kishin? Helping out the Thompson Sisters, as well as Mifune and Angela? Or joining the DWMA?

Maka darted out in front of Crona, only to be shoved aside by the crazed girl. "SHE MUST DIE!" she screamed.

But we kept each other sane, didn't we? Me in my cupboard, and you in your cell. We survived those places with our sanity intact. You know how to deal with more things than you think, and you know how to deal with this madness! The Black Blood has been part of you since Medusa put Ragnarok into you! But you haven't devolved into madness yet! And you won't start now! I believe in you, Crona! Don't do anything that will drive you over the edge into further madness!

Trust me.

And stop.

And let me pull you out of the madness.

Crona halted, her blade a mere inch from Eruka's waist. They locked eyes, the Frog Witch and the Meister. Then, Crona began screaming in pain. Her eyes were squeezed shut in absolute agony.

When she opened them again, they were pale blue once more.

Eruka allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief, before suddenly, Crona slammed a hand onto her chest.

In a dead, too-calm tone, Crona said, "The Extreme: Shockwave Pulsar."

Eruka began convulsing, screaming in agony, reminding Maka and Soul of when Black Star was attacked by Franken Stein during their remedial lesson. A Soul Wavelength attack that appeared to kill the loud ninja, though it actually rendered him unconscious. "Crona, stop!" Maka screamed.

"I've got to kill her," Crona said in that dead tone. "I've got to kill Mother."

Suddenly, before Maka could stop Crona, the attack ceased. Eruka collapsed to her hands and knees, and vomited up something black and vile. For a moment, Maka, Soul, and Blair thought that Crona had done something terminal to Eruka. Free, who had recovered from his life as a bowling ball, moved up. "You pink-haired bitch, what did you do to her?!"

"Saved her life," Crona said quietly. "Shockwave Pulsar is like Soul Menace, but with a single difference. Soul Menace merely attacks the soul. When I match the Soul Wavelength, but send back an inversion of the enemy soul…"

Harry transformed back to normal, looking haggard after his struggles with pulling Crona out of her madness. "It annihilates the soul, destroys it completely. It's a technique of last resort for us, as Weapons need to consume souls, obviously. It's also very difficult to use, requiring power and precision. Especially like that. We removed what there was of Medusa in Eruka."

Eruka stopped vomiting, and stared at the black pool of liquid on the floor. "Was this…her snakes?"

"That's what was of her that was in you," Crona said, her voice becoming less dead-sounding.

"Oh God, she put those into me to make her do this and…I didn't want to attract the attention of the Academy, I just wanted to…" She whimpered in fear, pulling her frog-like hat over her head. Free pushed the others aside, and squatted down next to her, putting an arm around her shoulder protectively.

"Eruka, calm down," Free said. He then looked at the Meisters, Weapons, and Blair. "You know what? Screw this, I'm out." Grabbing hold of Eruka, he leapt from wall to wall, breaking through the ceiling.

"Should we go after them?" Blair asked.

Maka shook her head. "The Witch isn't a threat for the moment, and if she was only being coerced into helping Medusa, then we'll let her go for the moment." She looked over at Crona. "Are you guys all right?"

"Not really," Harry admitted. "I barely pulled Crona out of the madness. I needed to get her to help me do that. That huge dose of Black Blood nearly sent her completely insane. What's worse, it was bleeding through into me."

Crona nodded, emitting a shuddering breath. "I…I don't want to feel that way ever again."

Maka nodded, before she pointed back down the corridor. She then frowned. "That's weird. Instead of four Witches, I'm sensing only one, but a more powerful one. Kid and Black Star are fighting her."

"What about Stein and my mother?" Crona asked.

"They're still fighting, though it's harder to sense them at this distance."

"Well, let's go help Kid and Black Star out," Blair said.

Kid was getting frustrated. He knew where Maka and the others had ended up, as he could sense their souls. But these four Witches, the Mizune sisters, had taken it upon themselves to merge into a single form, becoming a tall, rather attractive woman, with the underside of her breasts exposed by the cut of her costume. And her symmetry was enticing. Unfortunately, the fused Mizune Witch was also rather skilled with her magic.

He had been distracted, briefly, when Crona's soul surged, and seemed to fill to the brink with madness. Only now was he realising that it had receded, much to his relief.

The Witch and the other soul (possibly the Wolfman Free, judging by Mizune's comments) had fled soon after Crona recovered. He did notice something being removed from the Witch. What, he didn't know.

Soon, though, Mizune was surprised when Blair, Maka, Soul, Harry and Crona arrived. "You're sorely outnumbered, Witch. Surrender or retreat. It's up to you," Kid said. "Unless you want us to take your soul. Or souls. However it works."

Mifune scowled, before saying, "I'm not loyal enough to Medusa to stick around." She then glared at Blair. "And why do you dress like a tart?" Before Blair could retort, Mizune flew away.

"…Like she can talk, going on about her underboobs," Blair muttered sullenly.

"That's almost all of them," Maka remarked. "Eruka and that Free guy's already gone."

"And the Black Blood?"

"Back where it belongs. In me," Crona said, pointing to her body. "It was…hard to deal with. I couldn't have done so without Harry. I nearly drowned in the madness."

"Aw, man, you upstaged me again!" Black Star complained.

Maka and Kid looked at each other. "Do you feel that?" Kid asked.

Maka nodded. "Stein and Medusa are in a stalemate."

Crona didn't say anything. Instead, Ragnarok's wings burst from her back, and she was soon flying back down the corridor, towards Stein and Medusa. "What the hell is she doing?!" Kid demanded.

"I think she wants closure," Maka whispered solemnly.

Crona, as she flew down the corridor, said to Harry, quietly, "Harry…does killing my mother make me a bad person? I…I don't know how to deal with things like this."

"Crona…normally, it would be. But Medusa…remember what she did to you. Remember that she wanted to unleash Asura. In the end, we need to stop her from hurting or killing anyone else. And unlike Eruka, she doesn't feel sorry for what she did. We did it once before, in a moment of blind panic. But she survived. Now, we are stronger. I am the Soul Reaver, and you are my wielder, and my friend. Let's finish this, and go home."

They soon found Stein and Medusa holding each other at bay, each one poised to launch an attack, but unable to do so without hurting the other. Crona cried out, as she stabbed Harry forward, "Ultimate Weapon Technique: The Soul Reaver!"

Medusa had just enough time to comprehend how badly her plan had failed, and that her death was upon her. She watched with an almost detached air as the serpentine sword reached her, aimed by Crona so that she would avoid hitting Stein, sheer momentum from Ragnarok's wings providing the thrusting power.

She was angry, of course, in the last conscious moments of her existence. Angry because there wasn't enough time to migrate her soul into one of her Snakes. Angry because her plans had been thwarted. Angry because she was about to die, again, and permanently at that, at the hands of her useless daughter and that Weapon of hers.

And while she had no time to utter that word, her last thought before her body was destroyed and her soul was absorbed was a single word, utterly appropriate to her situation.

Shit.

Stein watched, astonished, as Medusa burst into darkness, and her soul swiftly absorbed into Harry's Soul Reaver form. Crona skidded to a halt further along, the wings of Ragnarok unfolding back into her back. Harry transformed back, both of them looking dazed at where Medusa used to be. For a moment, there was stunned silence.

And then, Harry convulsed, blue light flaring from him. "What the…?!"

Stein blinked, and Spirit transformed back to normal. "I can't believe it," Spirit murmured. "Did he just…?"

Stein nodded, plucking out a cigarette and lighting it. "Kill Medusa, take her soul? Yep. And it seems young Harry is joining your little club, Spirit."

"What's happening to him?" Crona demanded.

"Calm down, Crona. He's becoming a Death Scythe, well, a Death Weapon anyway. 99 Kishin Egg souls, and a Witch's soul."

Harry convulsed again, crying out, suddenly stiffening, spreading his arms out and arching his head back. Blue light flared from him, increasingly brighter and brighter…

…Until it stopped, and he sagged to his knees, panting. "Oh God, oh God…I…that was bloody weird." He stared at his hands. "So…I'm a Death Scythe now?"

"Yep. Congratulations are in order, I guess. Let's get the others and head back. If we're lucky, the Independent Cube may have gone by now." Stein smiled at Harry and Crona. "And you two? Thanks."

Harry and Crona nodded, but Harry knew that Crona was still a little conflicted about killing her own mother. And not surprising. But at least they managed to halt her insane plans. Hopefully, that would be the last bit of excitement for a while…

CHAPTER 7 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Harry's now a Death Scythe. And with Medusa dead and the Black Blood back in Crona, the storyline of Soul Eater has effectively been derailed. Well, Arachne won't put herself back together, not with Asura not out and about. BTW, the brief thoughts Spirit had about his motives in chasing Medusa out of the party came out of a PM discussion with perfectshade.

The next chapter will be set after a timeskip of about a year, up to the events of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Fair warning.

Review-answering time! duskrider: Death may very well tell Kid about who Asura really is, but not yet.

No numbered annotations this time.