I don't particularly like this chapter, but it's set-up, so...

Well, the next chapter will be very... eventful... ;)

Maka fell forward, the gun clattering down on the cobbles. Her hair fell around her in a blonde halo. Her eyes flickered open and closed, fighting for the former. She knotted her brow and grit her teeth.

Soul...

Maka sat up shakily and coughed, a spatter of blood droplets spraying out from her mouth. The meister stared, bleary-eyed, at the red on the ground and herself. Emerald eyes closed, despairing, and then flickered open, resolute.

Soul...

Maka glanced over to where Soul and the dead vampire lay. The dark beast lay on its side, crushing her white-haired partner. A trickle of blood, both the beast's and Soul's, trickled from his lips, falling down to meet the two precise puncture wounds underneath Soul's jaw. The vampire's blood was much darker, Maka noted, seemingly black against the shockingly bright color of Soul's blood. Maka braced herself on the ground, and then rose, legs shaking like a newborn calf's.

Soul...

Maka gasped in a breath of air against the pain that licked at her with tongues of fire, threatening to pull her down. No, Maka thought, I will not fall. She took slow, trembling steps, every hesitation biting at her, knowing that every second was now crucial to her partner.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Four steps.

She'd done it, breached what seemed like a mile. Maka held her sides and coughed again, more blood coming out. She wiped her mouth with a gloved hand, inspecting the bright red of her blood against the pure white, virgin, fabric. Tearing her eyes from the sight of her own blood, she fell to her knees beside the barely breathing Soul and the dead vampire.

Grunting with the effort, Maka shoved the dark beast off of her partner's chest. Soul's eyes flickered open, his bright vermillion eyes adding to the macabre painting of red on and around him.

"Soul?" Maka whispered. Her partner groaned just slightly, but enough to let her know that he was there. Maka could feel her eyes burning, hot tears rising until a crystalline droplet fell down her face onto Soul's.

Soul coughed, and his eyes flickered open again. "Maka," he said, so lightly that if she hadn't seen his lips move, she would have thought it to be wind. "Maka," Soul whined. "It burns."

"What burns?" She choked out, gently lifting him to her lap. His yellow jacket was painted with streaks of his blood, Maka's blood, and the vampire's. Soul gasped in a breath.

"The bite."

Maka gently tilted his head, aware of Soul's own wounds. The deep punctures had stopped bleeding, but his veins and arteries were almost black, his circulatory system spiderwebbing with black paths. Maka watched as the black threads spread, and hesitantly reached out a hand to stroke Soul's head.

"H-how'd you kill him?" Soul asked

Maka glanced over to where the gun had fallen. "I shot him with..." she trailed off as she noticed that the gun was no longer there. Her green eyes, tinged red from tears, skimmed over the area. "I shot him with a gun, but I don't know where the gun went..." Maka gently stroked Soul's hair.

Soul gasped in a violent, ragged breath, and Maka snapped her attention down to him. "Soul!" she cried. Her partner didn't answer. Sweat began to bead on his forehead, and his breathing became shallow. HIs breaths were disturbingly light and Maka became increasingly aware that these could be his final moments. Hot tears resumed their trek down her face.

"I'll stay with you until the end," she wheezed, her abused ribs hurting even more from the tightness in her chest. "That's just the person I am." Maka smiled, and lowered her head down to meet Soul's.

Soul's breath became almost nonexistent, and then stopped.

Still, Maka remained with him. Somehow, she believed that if she stayed, he would come back. Her sarcastic, lazy, idiotic, cool, steadfast partner would come back to her.

Her Soul.

Maka hugged her weapon, and finally let those emotions out.

A wail of grief echoed in the alley, scaring filthy rodents and a stray cat, and sending them scurrying away. Maka clutched her partner, her face red, and tears soaking his still chest. Her small, damaged body shook with sobs and cries of agony and grief. Soul... She wailed her grief to the betraying heavens for what seemed like ages.

Maka slowed in her crying eventually, after her throat had become raw and eyes sore. She wiped her face and nose, and looked at the sky. The mocking moon sat high in its home, the bloody grin reminding Maka of all those late night missions.

Blair.

Crona.

She'd met them, with Soul, on nights such as these. Night that elsewhere, people were laughing. People that had not just lost their best friend.

Maka glared at the moon, and then lowered her head to Soul's chest.

She wished, oh how she wished, to hear a strong, heavy beat.

Da-dump. Da-dump. Da-dump.

Yeah, that's what she wanted to...

hear?

Maka snapped her head up and looked at her partner. HIs normally tan skin held all the paleness of death, but still, if she felt his chest...

Da-dump. Da-dump. Da-dump.

It was no lie, Soul's heart beat again.

Maka looked at her partner, observed as his flesh regained color, watched as her took a deep breath and opened beautiful, lazy, vermillion eyes.

"M-aka" Soul's voice broke, but it was him.

"Soul!" Maka reached out a hand and touched his face. Warmth, returning to a cold body. "You're alive!"

"Yeah, somehow," Soul sat up and winced, "and sore as hell."

Maka laughed. That was Soul alright. Suddenly, she glared at him, and Soul backed away warily, cautious of some kind of righteous fury.

"You baka! I don't believe you! We deal with these things on a daily basis, and you go and get yourself fucking killed! HOW IN HELL ARE YOU ALIVE!? I was so fucking worried! I thought you were dead! Do you have any shinigami-damned idea? No, of course not, because you were fucking dead, you motherfucking-"

Maka's rant was stopped midway by Soul clamping a hand over her mouth. "Shut up," he hissed, voice low and barely audible. Maka's eyes widened, and took on a steely look. "Before you kill me again, you might want to listen." Soul growled.

Maka glared at him, but did as he said. Quieting down, she listened.

And heard the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.

Frightened, she glanced at Soul. They were in no condition to fight if that was an enemy! Soul nodded at the unspoken message, and then got up with a grimace. Maka also stood shakily up, and grabbed an offered hand. Carefully, painfully, they made their way out of the alley. Every step was a mile, every stumble another death, but slowly, quietly, they turned into the street just as they heard a shriek behind them.

Maka looked at Soul, who was supporting more of her weight by the second, and opened her mouth, ready to say something. Soul looked funny, he was beginning to get blurry, and the red of his eyes, the whiteness of his hair... Maka squeaked before her vision became black.